Archive for December, 2013
This is the time when we have an opportunity to mold our lives for the coming year, to repair all the wrongs of our lives. To make promises we usually don’t keep. For years I’ve promised to stop drinking and lose weight – both now accomplished and one the result of the other.
Therefore, I’m going to use this opportunity to outline what I want to accomplish in my writing career, have a record of my goals and see how I do. I’ve got a great deal of work I want to complete, hence the multiple volumes. I also want to keep each short so I don’t lose your attention or bore you.
This section will deal with two novels already written, The Beast Awaits and Sweet Depression, both in need extensive editing. Any agents or publishers that may stumble upon this missive, I’m all yours.
The Beast Awaits deals with hot-button issues, stem cell research, corporate greed and global warming. Creatures are developed accidentally using stem cell research in the course to gain increasing profits. They rapidly multiply and swarm the planet causing mass destruction leading to an increase in global warming. There is no firm resolution at the end of the story only a chance for a lesson to be learned, hence the title of the novel.
Sweet Depression also concerns corporate greed, to some extent, but the driving force is the troubled youth of the CEO and his need for power and control in his adulthood. The story is a cross between the work of James Patterson and Robin Cook. The CEO uses science to increase the company’s profits; however, the product has disastrous side effects. A detective, his own family a victim, sets out to discover what is behind a sudden increase in murder and mayhem.
Happy New Year to all my readers.
May this coming year find you healthy and happy.
December 31, 2013 at 6:47 pm
In keeping with the holidays I thought I would share with you the only Christmas story I have written thus far, published by Bewildering Stories in 2007.
Picture a really sick Grinch story without a happy ending.
Read on.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
by Walt Trizna
W** was known for his stories of murder and mayhem. Tales of ghosts and monsters were his claim to meager fame. A member of a writers’ group, he enjoyed sharing his twisted stories with the group and the support they provided. But how could they know, imagine, they were not all stories. W** carried demons of his own. Even his wife did not know the visions, the “truths” that journeyed through his muddled brain.
It was during the November writers’ meeting that the group leader, S**, announced, “In place of our December meeting, I suggest we meet for a holiday dinner. It will be a chance to relax and prepare for the year’s writing ahead.” The approval of the group was unanimous.
Reservations were made and the day of the dinner arrived. It was a rainy evening when W** set out for the restaurant. The back and forth motion of the windshield wipers gave him a slight headache. He was one of the last to arrive, greeted his fellow writers and took his seat next to S**.
The room was large with a single circular table at its center. A curious aspect was the room’s ceiling. It was domed with a most unsettling feature. From one side of the room conversations, even in the softest whisper, were conveyed to the opposite side of this domed affair.
As the meal was served, W** looked across the table to C** and G**, deep in conversation, discussing light matters. Suddenly, the conversation changed. To his disbelief, W** heard them plotting his murder. He clearly heard their voices discussing every detail. W** sat in disbelief while those about him laughed and shared stories. His friends asked if there was anything wrong, for he was visibly shaken. “I’m fine,” he replied and left the restaurant to make plans of his own.
January arrived and it was time for another meeting. S** was the last to arrive. “I have terrible news. C** and G** have met with horrible accidents. They are both dead.”
The group sat there in shock. Disbelief was soon followed by sounds of sorrow and grief.
The year swiftly went by. It was a good year with many of the members being published. Once again, at the November meeting, S** announced the plans for a Christmas dinner. The site would be the same as last year.
W** once again made his way to the restaurant, this time during a light and peaceful snow. He greeted his friends and took his place. Once again, he could hear the whispered conversations from across the room. And once again he heard his murder being plotted: this time it was T** and B** who made the fiendish plot. Once again two members of the group were visited with horrible and fatal accidents.
January found the group deep in sorrow once more. That was five years ago. And for each of those years, a Christmas dinner was held and shortly after, two more members met their demise.
Christmas neared once again, but there would be no Christmas dinner, for the only member remaining was W**. A creature of tradition, W** reserved the domed room for his private dinner. There he sat, alone with no whispering conversations to fill his head.
He gazed around at the empty seats, and his ears perked up. There were voices plotting his murder. Looking out at the overflowing restaurant, he saw a young family that he was sure was plotting his end. A fiendish smile crossed his lips. His work was not yet done.
Copyright © 2007 by Walt Trizna
December 23, 2013 at 11:38 pm
I just completed reading In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson. He is a superb writer of creative nonfiction. His books are fact made to read as novels resulting in a page-turner of history.
This work covers the rise of Nazi Germany with Hitler and his henchmen gaining control of the government. The events are viewed through the eyes of William E. Dodd, in 1933, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to Germany stationed in Berlin.
The story is a chilling recounting of the slow increase in terror and insanity of the Nazis toward the German population and especially the Jews. Reflected is how the horror slowly escalates until it is impossible to halt progress towards world conflict.
December 19, 2013 at 12:49 am
I thought I’d revisit a poem I wrote and shared on my blog some three years ago.
Our last two winters were nearly nonexistent, but now we are paying. We had three snowfalls in less than a week and another inch is predicted for tomorrow. They have all been small amounts but they do add up, as does the love of snow in this poem.
This poem was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s, The Bells.
THE SNOW
See the delicate snowflakes fall,
Falling, falling, falling.
Whitening the earth, awaiting below,
Falling, falling, falling.
See the mounds of glittering white,
Building, building, building.
As they hide the ground from sight,
Building, building, building.
See the ceaseless falling snow,
Falling, falling, falling.
Will it stop, no one quite knows,
Falling, falling, falling.
See the drifts accumulate,
Building, building, building.
My longing for spring will no longer wait,
Building, building, building.
SEE THE DAMNED WHITE BLANKET GROW,
HIDING, HIDING, HIDING.
MY CAR, MY LAWN, ALL I KNOW,
HIDING, HIDING, HIDING.
SEE MY MADNESS, MY URGE TO KILL,
GROWING, GROWING, GROWING,
CROSS MY PATH, AND I’LL DO YOU ILL,
SMILING, SMILING, SMILING.
December 16, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Separate Worlds is going to publish my short story, Second Chance. The story has already been published by Books To Go Now but is no longer available. For the opportunity to read my story as an eBook from BTGN, you had to pay. Separate Worlds is offering the privilege to enjoy the story for free.
If you still don’t show interest in the story, I guess the next step is to pay you to read it. JUST KIDDING!!
Second Chance is a science fiction story with a twist I hope you do not see coming. I’ll provide a link when it is available.
December 14, 2013 at 10:07 pm
It’s time for a confession.
In a past posting I ranted and raved about how I hated the way news was being presented in this day and age and vowed to never watch it again. Well, it seems that ‘never’ can be a short interval. I admit I am a flawed individual with addictions to bear, and the news is one of them. For instance, when on vacation I agonize that some major event will occur and I will be left out of the loop. Who know, Congress may agree on something, nuclear war and or the end of the world would happen and I wouldn’t know about it. All this is rationalizing to soften my failing: I’m watching the news again.
Not only am I watching the news, but I am watching the news given by multiple sources. This may explain what led to this piece.
With the advent of cable news there are a host of news outlets to provide fodder for whatever persuasion you may be, be it liberal or conservative. The middle is more or less left for the networks to serve. So yes, I have even begun watching a cable news station that rhymes with ‘sox’.
As I watch some of these news presentations, I find it difficult to determine what news is and what is editorial. Then it dawned on me. Today you can watch the news and hear the slant that you want to hear, according to your beliefs.
The above insight brings me to the topic of this discussion, the definition of spin as I see it.
I can be rather slow in the thinking process at times. Okay, most of the time. I always thought that spin was delivering half-truths to support your opinion, incorporating falsehoods, to some extent. However, after listening to various outlets delivering the news on the identical topic, I’ve come to change my opinion. There is no falsehood involved. Cable news chooses to report the facts, but only the facts that they know will support the views that their viewers will be comfortable with, that support the agenda of both the station and those who hold what the station presents as gospel. At times I find it amusing to listen to the various outlets reporting on the same topic, selecting only the facts that they find relevant.
Bottom-line; listen to as much news as you can even if you don’t agree with the philosophy of the outlet. Then, use your brain to decide what the truth is by assembling all the facts. That’s what it’s all about.
December 2, 2013 at 8:43 pm
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