I actually had a pretty good Memorial Day Weekend as compared to this sad recollection two years ago. O-kay, so I missed my normal Sunday post cycle, but at least I'm getting around to it now.
Highlight of the Memorial Day 2015 for me? Probably watching the movie "Patton" (1970: staring George C. Scott, written by Francis Ford Coppola, directed by Franklin J. Shaffner). So why was watching this movie the highlight for me? Well-p, you would have had to have been there. First, for starters, you have to understand my dad. He's a die-hard republican. He can't stand the democrats or the liberal mind. At. All. He's very Stallinistic when it comes to what should be done with criminals and "bad people" in general--bullet to the head! Thus, my dad EASILY gravitates towards hard-nose, take-no-prisoners, tough guy types such as General Patton was.
So who was George Patton? Well, I'm FAR from a war buff, but George Patton was an American hero of World War II. He lead the American army in North Aftrica and was a guiding force in turning back the Nazi advance. Patton also lead the army in the re-taking of the island of Sicali, and then later got in the ground assault as the Nazis were pushed back into Germany in 1944.
My dad LOVES these John Wayne types. And I wonder if real-life people like George Patton inspired John Wayne? Now, John Wayne's era of movies was before my time. But I know for a fact that he had A LOT of people who loved him. And why? He was the iconic hero who always stood for what was good and right, and was willing and always came out triumphant over whatever evil was present in his world surroundings. People like that. They like to know there is a hero in a white hat who is good and strong and can save them. John Wayne was a hero in the movies. George Patton, however, was a hero in real life.
Anyway, I tuned this movie on as a lark, and when my dad saw it was on he dropped what he was doing and came over and watched it with me. Overall I thought "Patton" (1970) was an excellent movie. It had a lot of aircraft and tank battles. Deffinatley a movie worth watching at least once if you've never seen it before.
The Sunday before Memorial Day, me and my family went to the Woodland Park Zoo. I had a lot of fun with my brother's two year old son, Riley. I made it my mission to "guide" Riley into being more adventerous. I had Riley climing on EVERY rock surface or animal statue I could find. And guess what, Riley was willing! That little two year old boy was fearless. Way more adventeruous than his seven year old brother, Brycen, who I affectionatle re-named "Obo" on account of him saying this once in private when the grown-ups were in one room and Brycen was in another alone trying to form words on his own.
After the zoo, I took the family out for pizza on my treat on account of the last $50 bond I had to cash from my grandfather Louie: my mother's father. I loved grandpa Louie. That guy had a kind of Europenan style and swagger that was unique. He was first generation from Slovoika in Europe, and he skole Slovak. For years my grandfather used to give me U.S. bond for my birthday or as Christmas presents. A long time ago I used a collection of matured bonds to help me pay for my first car. Yeah! I thought I had cashed them all, then about 6 months ago, my mother gave me one last bond from my grandfather Louie. I spent a lot of time thinking about what was the right and just thing to do with this lone surviving, uncashed bond. Finnally, I decided that I wanted to do something with my family and talk about what impact my grandpa Louie had on my growing up and life. This ended up being going out for pizza courtesy of grandpa Louie.
So what was my fondest memory of grandpa Louie? Easy. I think it was 1978 on the Forth of July, my grandpa Louie took me, my brother, and my two other cousins: Jamie and Jeff; out on the Chicago waterfront to watch the fireworks afterwhich time he took us to McDonalds where we all had french fries together and had a great time stealling each other's fries. That was back when a trip to McDonalds was special, before they really cheapened everything up. Back in the days of Grimace, the Hamburgler and of cource the clown, Ronald McDonlad.
Anwho, Iove my grandfather Louie dearly. To this day a lot of the stuff I do can be traced back to him and his influence on me, as I strive to carve out a style nitch of my own that would compare favorably to how I saw my grandfatther Louie conduct his daily business.
On Memorial Day, Obo came over and he wanted to spend the day "messing around" with me. Though I wanted to spend the day working on the novel, I succumbed to this little boy's desire and I took him on a long hike down to the river to revisit some of my old stomping grounds; places I kicked up my heels as an off-road motorcycle riding enthusiast.
Did you know that coyotees can howl in the middle of the day?
I didn't--untill Memorial Day 2015 at about 12:30 p.m. Me and Obo are walking through a trail in the woods, and there across the hill from us a coyotee started howling. In broad daylight! At first this freaked Obo out, and even our dog, Sam (an adult/mature golden lab) started wimpering. But after I explained who and what was making this sound, Obo's fear relented and he starting howling back at the coyote. My guess for the mid-day howling was Sam got a little to close to its lair and the coyote was staking its claim and trying to ward us off.
Later on our trek down the Carbon River, Obo and I discovered a place that we called "stick island". It was place in the river bed where a collection of truely sun-baked driftwood had collected. All over the dry riverbed was rocks. This made the going hobbly-wobbly for little Obo. Before we went home I made an impromptu campfire out of some of the sticks from stick island and Obo and I ate hotdog and marshmellows. Poor Obo had marshmellow all over his lips and chin. I had to dunk him the river to clean him off properly.
That hike lasted for about five hours and by the end of it I was exhausted. Still, all-in-all it was a pretty good Memorial Day Weekend for me. Probably the best one I've ever had. The only drawback...
This quote from the movie "Birdman" sticks in my craw. It's the scene where Riggan Thompson confronts Tabitha Dickinson: a high falutin NY art scene, thearte critic; and lashes out against her for threatening to write a bad review of his play--even before she's even seen it! So how can this be re-directed so as to be apply to a one, E.C. Henry. Well-p, my progress on editing the novel hasn't been as fast I'd like it to be. Being honest, I drink too much and find myself just listening to sections of the novel using Dragon Natural Speaking and making line-edits. This method of edting is... Very... Slooowww... And not very efficient.
So okay Riggan, blast away. I probably deserver it, as I'm probably more of a lazy motherfucker than Tabitha Dickinson ever was--and I have no excuse!
But at least in my fucked-up ineptitude I see my errors, and I know how to correct them. They key for me (as it's always been) is DISCIPLINE. I need to make adjustments and do more.
Besides the line-editing on the prolog (the initial, epic dragon fight) I have been reading ahead. Actually printed out and re-read all of chapter 14. All told I have like 24 chapters, two of which are an epilog and a prolog, btw. Anywho, I raeally like chapter 14, and that's a very encouraging thing. In chapter 14 I really fleshout and explose the inner-working, thought process and motivation of this story's main villian.
Know the vilain, know the story
(Another E.C. Henry writing mantra that I wholeheartedly subscribe to)
Anyway, I don't know why this is but writing vilains come much more easily to me than writing heros. I have no problem whatsoever slipping into the skin and into the head of the vilian and exposing why he does what he does. And the cool thing is, that on a certain level, my vilains rationale is understandable; he's doing what he's doing for the benefit of someone else. But when that someone else is taken away from him, what then? Ah ha! A greater vilain emerges...
And so on the Friday as I FINALLY complete this post I enter a new weekend. A weekend filled with vast possibilites. Writing wise I hope to get some serious work in on chapters 13 and 14 this weekend: finish the red-line edits of chapter 13 and make and type in red-line edits for chapter 14.
I'm going to try to shed this "lazy fucker" feeling I have and make some serious progress towards finishing this novel. And the cool thing is, that with the screenwriting I've done for 10 + years, I see things in images. So who knows maybe with all the work I've done on the prolog I'll revisit the 1st of 3 movie screenplay adaptations and really make the intitial eye-catching scene sing.
Mush! Mush! Enough of camping on Memorial Day and past writing failures. It's on to a beter more productive day. Hope to tell you more about in a couple days. Till then, stay well.
Sincerly,