Inside the Brain of E.C. Henry

Treehouse

When I was a kid, I had a treehouse.  It was nothing fancy like the featured image at the beginning of this post, just a couple of platforms on a big oak tree with boards nailed as a ladder so you could climb up to it.  I used galzanized "spike" nails to affix some of the bigger supports and that eventually killed to oak tree, and kiss that S.O.B good-bye; it wasn't built right to begin with and I accidentally killed the tree. 

All evidence off my tree-house of my early-mid teen years is gone now.  All that remains in their place is blackberry bushes, which in Western Washington are part of the curse of neglect and unkept land.

Still, I've always wanted a cool treehouse of my own.  Obviously one a clod builder like me didn't build.  But an elaborate one up in the trees where I could do my writing in private, and find tune my masterpieces in a cool hide-out.  Batman had his "bat cave" so why can't ol' E.C. Henry have his writer's treehouse?  

My ultimate treehouse would have to have several different things...

E.C. Henry's ultimate treehouse:

1. AC power capacity. 
2. Two structures.  Main treehouse and a smaller lookout separated by a rope bridge.
3. A coffee machine
4. A cot for napping
5. Dangling ropes for quick departure from both structures.

I think a treehouse like that is doable.  Don't know if I'll ever get there, but it's a fun thought.

Back when my treehouse was in operation back in Western Washington, I didn't use it for much.  During my brief stint as a smoker I did have a couple cigarettes there.  I think I listened to rock music on my Walkman a couple times.  I think we had a water balloon fight there too one summer.  So treehouse kind of has a rebel undertone in my noggin.  

I could use a treehouse to finish The Legend of Thars novels and script adaptations.  Yes, I've been listening to and tweaking the 1st book in the novel series.  But I'm so locked on perfection that I'm not getting real far.  Kinda envious of writers like Steven King and so many others that the words just flow through them so freely.  Maybe that's a weakness of mine, or a lack of giftedness.  Years ago they said as much as the Pacific Northwest Writer's Writing Convention:

Do you wanna write one book or many?

Ahhh, what's the point of looking back.  There's only forward.  Treehouse or no treehouse, you forge ahead.  Just wish I had the help I needed a long time ago.  Nobody at any of the PNWA Writer's Conventions ever befriended me or bothered to help me in the least.  Instead all I ever got was vague and cryptic advice -- even from the pros who had "made it".  Meeting several novelists who had "made it", never inspired me.  Never made me feel as though I could someday belong to there abode.  Rather, meeting them always left a sour taste in my mouth, and made me secretly vow that I would never be like them if I ever became famous.    

It's been a lonely journey, that's for sure.  

But such is the experience of most writing, I believe.  I think most creative writing is done in solitary conditions.  

Back when I lived in Washington I did take a couple self-imposed writer's retreats to Long Beach, Washington.  I did that because before the two high school seniors start their adventure in Thars they're in Long Beach, Washington.  Not that Long Beach, Washington is that great a place; but it's where I chose the story to begin, and I will never change that.

If not for treehouse writing, my next writing place of choice is definitely a seaside beach hotel.  I love the ocean.  Something about it just brings peace to my being.  Walking on the beach it's like all you have to do is walk and enjoy God's creation.  There is no call to duty or work when you're on an ocean-side beach.  So a pertains to writing that always translated into doing your work with a sea-side view, then writing to breakpoints where you would revive yourself with walks on the beach, and a maybe a nice meal at a restaurant with beer and Scotch later in the night.  Can't fall victim to combining drinking and writing.  The two never mixxed well for me.  Sometimes I could get away with "cruise edits" where I'd be drinking beer at night listening to a script or the novel.  But as for adding pages, no alcohol.  And these days I haven't been drinking at all.  Haven't any alcohol in over a year and a half now, since I got real drunk one night, and my mom and my brother called the cops on me!  #yikes  Now, I have been lobbying my mom to relax that restriction, but so far no dice!  Do miss my Budweisers and Scotch.  Someday, I'll drink again, just not now.

Treehouse writing remains the fun side when writing meets a quasi vacation.  I haven't found any writer's retreats or conferences to go to out here.  Been meaning to check out the Chesterfield International Inn of Storytelling that's about 20 miles from where I live, but have yet to go there.  Apart from that a guy a work mentioned a conference he went to, but he's kind of a depressing soul from Philedelfia.  Thought he was serious about writing when I first talked to him.  But he's "blocked" and frustrated so he and I don't talk anymore.  I'm willing to help him, but he doesn't want that.  You find that a lot in life; people who sorta like writing, but aren't really into it.  

Lot's of novel oriented goals these days.  If I can snap out of perfection mode.  I'd like to have a polished draft of the first novel done by the end of April.  

Right now I just need to reemerce myself in Thars.  Can't leave that undone.  Treehouse, writer's retreat or conference, gotta bring that series to completion.  

God of the Springtime

Oh to walk with Lord, and be of the mind of a creative, much like Father God, who created ALL we see and experience.

I love the Lord.  Been ALL OVER THE PLACE lately.  Lotta stuff happening in my life right now. 

1. Applied for membership at the local church I'm attending, Calvary Church in Boone's Creek, TN.  
2. Finished work on Night of the Otterroid, and got a paid critique back from a guy I've been using for over 10 years now.
3. Downloaded MS Word and began the Thars books transition from Word Perfect to MS Word.

Those are the big three.  I've also got some home projects to keep an eye on: helping my mom get solar panels working (BIG project there), assisting with getting the washing machine working again (we had a plug up, and had water all over the floor a couple days ago, with the machine under warranty my services were put on the self in favor of a tech. coming in).  I also need to look at fixing some retaining walls we have, and getting rid of some trash (an old lawn mower, siding left behind after our garage got built a year ago.

Life and problems never stop.  Nor does my my walk of faith.  Which brings me to the crux of this post, what God means to you personally.  

There is a lot we can intellectually learn about God through the bible and attending church.  But a walk of faith is supposed to be a personal one.  Even key characters of the bible had personal interactions with God that were noteworthy and left an impact on their life.  Jacob wrestled with an angel and got his NAME changed to Israel on account of that.  Jacob was on the run at the time from his brother who as out to kill him.  Yet in the midst of his fleeing he had an encounter with God that changed his trajectory and that of the world's forever.  

To me, God is God of the Springtime.  To me ever spring in a magical event.  It's where that which was dead comes back to life again.  And not only that, but it comes to life VIBRANTLY!  Right now in NE Tennessee we have white blossom on tree and daffodils in bloom.  This brings joy to my heart and reminds of God.  To me, spring has always been a display of the mighty power of God: the ability to bring the Earth back to life after a period of death, which I see winter as.  Heck even snow serves to cover death with whiteness so you can't see the evidence of death.

May the Lord always the creative councilor of E.C. Henry

I love the Lord.  To me springtime is a prime display of His divine power.  And because I link the two so strongly, my God is the God of the Springtime.  He is God of living, not God of the dead.  Someday I will die, but the God I serve will bring my spirit back to life because that's what He is, God of the Springtime.

So what comes next for me?  Well, I JUST got MS Word working on my computer.  So I'm going to have to learn that word processing software to complete my Legend of Thars book series and bring them to novelitization in paperback form, which is my goal.  I finally decided to give up on Word Perfect because of it's lack of a text-to-speech feature.  For years I attempted to get around that by using Dragon Naturally Speaking, but as version of WP changed that feature stopped working right.  Most recently I tried using the Narrator feature of Windows 10, but that never worked right in the version of Word Perfect I had.  This lead me to reach to Word Perfect technical support, but that never connected either.  So finally I said FUCK 'EM, I'm pulling the plug on them and going with MS Word.  It's so frustrating to be this far into the novels have to switch word processing formats, but because of how far Word Perfect has fallen, I really  don't have a choice.  Sorry for swearing when describing my frustration with Word Perfect.  It's a beautiful program that I've used for 20+ years, but they never incorporated a text to speech function into the platform, and that's what this author demands.  Thankfully MS word has really easy to use text to speech feature. 

Sigh. 

I just wish things were going easier for me, as pertains to word processing.  Had a chosen MS Word over Word Perfect some 30 + years ago I wouldn't be where I am now: learning a new word processing format. 

Hopefully my membership at Calvary Church in Boone's Creek will go well.  Their membership class on Monday was exhausting.  NOT user friendly at all.  So I'm not sure how connected I'll end up getting with that church.  Maybe I need to accept the reality that I'll never fit in anywhere.  Welcome to being 54, single, and engrossed in writing creative stories.  Maybe the best I can do is just stand off to the side and pray.  I did shot 'em an e-mail to be part of their 9:30-10:30 prayer meeting on Monday mornings.  Hopefully that'll work out.  

As for the critique I got on my latest story, Night of the Ottterroid, my critiquer really went off insisting that I scale the story down.  He wanted a story that just featured monster attacks, when the story I wrote is oh, so much more than that.  It's really tough writing in an era of lesser movies, and lesser expectations.  The entertainment industry is in reverse right now.  And I fear what we'll be subject to in the future that is to come.

But I serve the God of the Springtime where the future in ever advancing under the loving care of a God who is always making thing anew, fresh, and exciting.  The ultimate source of what's in my head and heart comes from God, may He always have free access to me to do His good pleasure.  I love the God of the Sringtime.

 

Spring has Sprung!

Shamrock shakes available McDonalds.

Daffodils seen to be blooming!

Croaking heard coming from the ponds

Oscars this upcoming, Sunday night!

St. Patrick's Day and all of its foolery a week after the Oscars

All sure signs that spring has sprung in 2024.  So rejoice, maybe "officially" winter isn't over yet, but we're in the midst of turning the page to the best time of year.  And that would be spring! 

Spring is EASILY my favorite time of year, as I marvel at the glory of God and how He causes new life to emerge from that which appears dead.  There is nothing that compares to that.  Life.  Springtime, to me, is a celebration of the ultimate power of God: the ability to bring life out of what was early a place of death. 

So be of good spirit in whatever station of life you're in, because you made it to another season of spring.  Fall in love with life.  Fall in love with God.  It's time. 

As for me, lotta yard work and home-improvements on the horizon for me.  My brother is recovering from neck surgery, and my mom is now 75 years old so like it not the mantle for home maintience and improvement falls more heavily on my shoulders.  

Did recently finish Night of the Otterroid: a creature horror spec. script I've been laboring on for 6 months.  Real proud of how it turned out.  Originally got the kernal idea for it from someone over at Scriptshadow.  But my relationship to that person has soured to the point that I can no longer accept commumicaes from that individual based on their constant sour and negative conduct.   It amazes me that anyone would purposely choose that track when engaging with those in the arts community.  But such is life.  You can't control the conduct of others, but you can control whether or not you lend your ear to those SOBs!!  Still, the initial kernal idea did come from such a source, so regardless of how poorly they've behaved at least something positive came of interacting with someone who choose to be the most difficult of the difficult.  

Out here in NE Tennessee the grass is starting to grow and daffodils are blooming!  The clock may not have officially changed to "spring" yet, but the evidence of the season is becoming more apparent day by day, and that makes my heart glad.  

Creatively I'll be focusing more on The Legend of Thars.  My "plan" is to reread it, and start drawing at breaks at work to get preliminaries for chapter beginnings and book covers.  Not a good drawer, but I do have a vivid imagination.  So so we press onward!

Not really feeling the Oscars this year.  Only movie I thought was worthy was Ridley Scott's Napoleon, and for reasons unknown it's not even up for best picture of the year, or best actor or actress which clearly Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby should have been up for.  It's a travesty.  Especially when you consider how bad The Barbie movie was.  #godawful

Hopefully, one day the arts will return to their former glory.  Right now I think were in an era of the arts in retreat.  Hopefully that doesn't spell the end of movies, but it might.  You can only alienate people so much before things start dying.  Though Hollywood is clearly in a season of dark winter, I choose not to be.  I am a child of the springtime.  I love life.  And I love the Lord.  

May the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ be with you all as we enjoy this spring season of 2024 together!