Finally, after months of waiting, we present the writer's forum. Each Forum consists of a message database with attached files. There are eight basic levels of user access: Zero, Read, Download, Write, Upload, Co-Op, Forum-Op, and Sysop. "Read" access means that you can read messages only; "Download" access means you can also download files; "Write" access allows you to write (or post) messages; "Upload" access means that you can also upload attachments, but that the Forum-Op must approve them for download; "Co-Op" uploads are "pre-approved". You have "Sysop" access to this Forum. Your Forum-Op is "Sysop". Please note: your account is charged 60 credits for each minute you spend in this Forum. In addition, you are given 300 credits each time you write a message, given 300 credits for each file uploaded, and not charged for each file downloaded. If a file you upload is approved for download, the Forum-Op might arrange for you to receive a bonus. All messages posted to this Forum are preserved indefinitely, until erased by the Forum-Op. Welcome, Sysop, to Inkwell: Writers' Forum R ... Read messages W ... Write a message F ... Find messages T ... Teleconference S ... Select a new Forum ? ... Description of this Forum M ... Modify a message E ... Erase a message A ... Approve files (0 waiting) O ... Operations menu Select a letter from this list, or X to exit: flfff Date: Monday, December 14, 1992 8:40pm Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 272632 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: some of my earlier and more embarassing drivel File: 272632.ATT (1 reply) It's attached. Don't laugh too hard. Date: Friday, December 18, 1992 1:01am Forum: Inkwell From: Aegis Msg#: 274277 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: BJDRAFT1.TXT File: BJDRAFT1.TXT (Fw by Lythande, Reply to #274186, Reply to #274181, Rep*) (2 replies) Well, here we go... BLACKJACK - the synopsis accompanied by a few intro pieces to set the tone of this future and a little draft 1 notes/ draft 2 plans. TEXT file, of course. (and forgive any misspelling, as when I touched it up in the ProTERM editor, there is no checker... :D) Have fun, spades! Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 1:48am Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 274506 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Lying.TXT A long time ago File: LYING.TXT (1 reply) This is the first of seven stories I am going to U/L here. This was written back in 1988, and some of it isn't very good. It gets an idea across and that is what I wanted it to do. Don't read this if you get easily depressed. BTW: All of these stories were converted over from my Apple // Goes Slow so I had to place at the end of each line. Sorry if it causes any problems. Quincy Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 1:51am Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 274508 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Nostra.Txt Humor File: NOSTRA.TXT This is story #2. This was written for my H.S. literary magazine, the Marquis back in 1988. It is a good bit of comedy based on an idea my father gave me. Quincy Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 1:55am Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 274510 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Thetree.txt One-hour story File: THETREE.TXT (1 reply) Number 3 to U/L. This story is an example of what a depressed mind can do with one hour and a word processor. Quincy Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 1:57am Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 274511 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: thenatur.txt Prologue to something longer File: THENATUR.TXT Number 4 of 7 This story is really the prologue to a novel I began work on in my senior year of high school. I scrapped the novel after a year or so and eight chapters. I'll go back to it and rework it someday. Quincy Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 2:02am Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 274512 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Madden.txt ENG216 File: MADDEN.TXT Number 5 This story was written for college creative writing class. Quincy Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 2:05am Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 274514 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: twelve.txt File: TWELVE.TXT number 6 I was trying to get an idea across with this story. It didn't do it well enough (as you will see if you read it) so I wrote the next story, Deathwhite. Quincy Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 2:09am Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 274516 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Deathwhi.txt File: DEATHWHI.TXT (1 reply) Number 7 I wrote this story to replace 'Twelve Minutes'. It get the idea across better. Hope you enjoyed these. I accept any and all criticism. I may not follow it, but I will listen to it. Thanx, Quincy Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 3:12am Forum: Inkwell From: Aegis Msg#: 274524 To: Lythande *EXEMPT* Re: BJTRTMNT.TXT File: BJTRTMNT.TXT (1 reply) Ok Debster... as per request... the Blackjack treatment with carriage returns! Amazing# And it only took two commands to add them all! (THUD) So if it works, don't forget to destroy the previous file! ciao for now AEGIS, SHIELD OF ZEUS Date: Saturday, December 19, 1992 8:22pm Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 274702 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Korkhov.txt File: KORKHOV.TXT (1 reply) Instead of sending up a few of my poems, one to each message, I just decided to jam-pack them all into one big file. Have fun. Kali's read some of them and likes a few, so you KNOW they must be good. =) Date: Saturday, June 13, 1992 10:13pm Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 276910 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: REBGODS.TXT File: REBGODS.TXT (Fw by Lythande) ASCII version of earlier ZIP. Enjoy. Date: Monday, July 27, 1992 12:28am Forum: Inkwell From: Corrosion Msg#: 276911 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Biomechanoid -- Draft One File: 276911.ATT (Fw by Lythande) (3 replies) HERE IT IS. The first (incomplete) draft of BIOMECHANOID, a story about the not-too-distant future. Read and enjoy, and COMMENT. I need to know things NOW. Thank you all. Date: Friday, August 7, 1992 5:32pm Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 276912 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Mechanized Saurian File: 276912.ATT (Fw by Lythande) I'm using this SIG as a temporary substitute for /InkWell. This is a kind of sequel(the final one) to the last story I had uploaded. Halfway into it, I'm not sure if it is actually good. Make your own decision. Date: Sunday, November 15, 1992 10:13am Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 276914 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: UANGA.LIT File: UANGA.LIT (Fw by Lythande, Reply to #255617, Reply to #239887, Rep*) (2 replies) Here's as much as has been written so far. It essentially represents part I of the outline of the story (there's about 4). Hope you like it, but tell me what you REALLY think. =) Date: Saturday, December 26, 1992 3:58pm Forum: Inkwell From: Indranie Msg#: 278002 To: Lythande *EXEMPT* Re: Reflection of Love (1 reply) Reflections on Love No one is immune to fear. But as with all emotions, it needs to be kept in balance with opposing voices that urge us to be more advenurous, to take risk. The first time we wobbled on a bicycle, we became actuely aware of the prospects of suffering physical pain. But the joy of learning to ride was stronger than the fear of danger, so we practiced the skills necessary until the fear was overcome by the smiling at someone, initiating a conversation, offering a compliment, expressing honest emotion are all things we fear only because we don't practice them enough. If by putting them into action we bruise our egos a little in the process, it's not really much different from the skinned knee we acquired while learning to ride the bicycle and which soon healed. Love requires that we overcome the irrational and self-defeating fears that place distance between ourselves and others. Date: Monday, December 28, 1992 2:05am Forum: Inkwell From: Synne Msg#: 279029 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Possession (Copy by Lythande, Copy by Synne) (2 replies) Oh mighty warrior, my God of Lust Embrace me with your satin wings Tear my flesh My blood is your gift I surrender my pure body unto you Ravage me, I'm yours Clean my crimson offering with your forked tongue Mmmmm Deep within me... I feel your pulse quicken with mine Allow me to service you, M'Lord So cold... your iced wand tickles my inner flesh My body detaches from my mind My one thought is your pleasure Use my body as your toy Mmmmmm Creamy white fire burns me from within My meal thoroughly devoured Your spawn within me Your claws mauling my skin I beseech you, M'Lord I am yours -=*SYNNE*=- Date: Friday, December 25, 1992 10:42pm Forum: Inkwell From: Synne Msg#: 279032 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: The Beast O'Lust (Copy by Lythande) (3 replies) She kneels before her prey Weights him down with her body Licking ruby lips in devourous presence, she smiles The demon Herself is within her Her hands gracefully paint his skin Tracing his lips, tickling his neck, flowing down his chest, Caressing her stiffening toy, kneading his inner thighs and trailing down his legs She feels him She knows his fear Mounting her new friend... under the crimson moon, she rides the immaculate flesh beneath her Drawing him into her as deeply as she could - then deeper His moans and cries feed her She radiates more with his every scream "Die for me" she purrs... "Diiiie" One final synchronous gasp escapes their lips swollen with the blood of the gods She continues her motions until the breath beneath her is no more She lifts herself off the still body, kneels before him once again Licks his lips, spits in him and walks away with a smile Here's to equal rights. -=*SYNNE*=- Date: Wednesday, December 30, 1992 2:42pm Forum: Inkwell From: Vibrantm Msg#: 279757 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Special New Magazine on RPG (2 replies) Is our new /INK forum a good place to post information concerning OUTLETS for writing, as well as to post the writing itself? Here is an example from Usenet - I know for a fact we have more than one RPG maven on this BBS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: smash@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Scott Mash) Subject: Newsletter Seeking Submissions Date: 28 Dec 92 14:56:43 GMT Organization: Smasher Land RPG BBS (614)593-8359 Issue #5 Of "Silver, Swords & Slaughter" is in need of articles. The forth issue was printed and mailed now it is time to move onto the fifth issue (issue 4 is still available!). The author's of used articles will receive a free copy of the issue in which it appears. I am not able to pay you for these articles as I am making no money from this newsletter. I am also in need of artwork, artwork should be done in black and white (or shades of grey) on standard paper. Your artwork should be of somehow related to RPG's. All articles should deal with any aspect of any rpg game. I am also in need of letters to the editor, the authors of letters that are used will also receive a free copy of SS&S. Any questions will be accepted, they can deal with the newsletter itself or any gaming aspect Submissions should be mailed to "sss@smashland.nelsonville.oh.us", uploaded to my bbs (Smasher Land RPG BBS (614) 592-4372, 2400 Baud), or mailed to me at the following address. Advertising space is available, send email for more info. Silver, Swords & Slaughter c/o Scott Mash 11685 SR 691 Nelsonville, Ohio 45764 -- | smash@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu | Scott A. Mash | | smash@bigbird.cs.ohiou.edu | Smasher Land RPG BBS | | system@smashland.nelsonville.oh.us | (614) 593-8359, 2400 Baud | | | RPG Textfiles And Utilities ! Date: Tuesday, January 5, 1993 7:13pm Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 282771 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: UANGA2.LIT File: UANGA2.LIT This is the second installment to UANGA. There were some superficial and trivial changes in some sentences in part I that I didn't upload, but they're not really important to the story. So here's part II. Date: Monday, January 11, 1993 11:09pm Forum: Inkwell From: Princess Msg#: 286880 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Electra (Copy by Lythande) (4 replies) (hate to bore u all but figured id post it.. incestual deal.. seemed the thing to do in this sig :) > Reflections of yesterday mirror from thine eyes Yet you think that you hide them 'neath a blinding disguise But blinded I'm not. I can see what is real, In your heart you have thoughts, I know you can feel. On your knees, beseech love, yet you have not a drop to give And while u search for answers youre forgetting how to live Come, reach for my hand! as I pull it away.. And laugh in the shadows where my childhood would play Into memories of terror and horror and fright And how did these memories vanish from sight I wonder if you see me as I laugh at your pain, And if you ever hear me as I scream out in vain, Or if you even realize your own wants and desires, And if you'll ever catch me as I trip through your wires, Or if you'll let me tumble, into the dungeon you call home, And repay me for my laughter by leaving me alone. Do you remember all those nights that you spent inside my head? Or were you really next to me, lying in my bed. You took me to the shadows and the castles in the night, And I screamed until I thought I'd never see the light. And here I am today, watching as you hover, ghost above, I'm wondering about our 'different kind of love'.. And do you really see me as I laugh at your pain, And did you see me then, as I danced into the rain.. And still you haunt me now in all my hopes and fears, As vivid as the memory of all those blurry years.. Of when you took my hand and held it Oh So Tight, And never heard me whisper, oh Daddy, say goodnight.. You stayed there till the end, or until my lips could form 'goodbye', A pity there was no answer, I guess you Had to Die. Date: Wednesday, January 13, 1993 1:03am Forum: Inkwell From: Silk Msg#: 287047 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: POEM GUY (3 replies) Here's a small poem, don't laugh too hard :) Death's Jester the Clown lives for eternity; at least until the end of man. He watches the follies of life, judging with an unlawful Hand. His beconing is hard to stop, all must come to His call. Although the wheel may slow His voice, nothing can stop its awful roll. after the call what is there left but an emptiness and a void? is it really all that dark there, a place that all should strive to avoid? but under all the Clown's makeup, could it be that there is some peace? a place in which the soul of man is saved from his unlawful hand. should we decide when to enter the clown's domain, or wait for HIS soft call. A Date: Sunday, January 24, 1993 11:14pm Forum: Inkwell From: Quincy Msg#: 295285 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: O4Part2.Txt File: O4PART2.TXT Here is the long awaited (at least by some of you) next installment in the stories from Orion Four. Orion Four: Tainted Weeds Enjoy! Quincy Date: Wednesday, January 27, 1993 12:54am Forum: Inkwell From: Slope Hope Msg#: 297181 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: I Flew In My Dreams Last Night (Copy by Lythande) (3 replies) (Lyrics to a song I wrote a few years ago - thought you might enjoy...) Over silent streets and lonely traffic lights I flew in my dreams last night The moon seemed alive I could not feel the cold Although I knew not why I drifted to your room, the air so still The curtains never moved, and then I felt the chill Though I could touch your hair You really were not there Maybe you were flying somewhere away from me, never felt so alone You would not wake from sleep In a dream of your own So I was off again Somehow knowing where to go Before the dream ends Suddenly I found myself in front of my home Toys scattered in the snow as though I'd never grown Over silent streets and lonely traffic lights I flew in my dreams last night And now the dawn was near Music I could barely hear Maybe you were singing somewhere Date: Friday, January 29, 1993 2:23am Forum: Inkwell From: Slope Hope Msg#: 298176 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: The Right To Remain Silent (Copy by Lythande) (1 reply) Since the last one went over so well, here comes another song lyric, written in 1987... Days passing by Like water splashing Over stones smooth with time The peace is lasting Still the need to know why Never stops asking Will it never feel right? Shall I always be fasting? I threw away the passion with the pain When I tried to maintain my island Yes I threw away the pain, but what did I gain? Only the right to remain silent I tried reaching out To ships passing by But I'm too damned proud To admit you were right The storms may be loud But always comes sunrise This is how I found out What you had in mind I threw away the passion with the pain When I tried to maintain my island Yes I threw away the pain, but what did I gain? Only the right to remain silent Date: Saturday, January 30, 1993 2:43am Forum: Inkwell From: Slope Hope Msg#: 298687 To: Princess *EXEMPT* Re: Just A Mirage (Copy by Lythande) (Since you've been so supportive, here's one of my personal favorites - a fairly slow ballad I wrote in '86....) In an emotional desert I am stranded Don't know why this is where I landed Reaching out to each sign of life Everybody's trying just to survive The thirst I am fighting comes from the steady heat The urge I am fighting pounds out a steady beat You could have been my oasis But it seems you're just a mirage We could have seen many places Memories to be now erases Disappearing with no traces You could have been my oasis But it seems you're just a mirage Just a mirage When you first appeared on the horizon I felt the kind of breeze the spirit flies on Too good to be true, my rescue here at last I had no idea you could fde away so fast The hurt I am fighting hit so suddenly Thw words I am writing do not come easily You could have been my oasis But it seems you're just a mirage We could have seen many places Memories to be now erases Disappearing with no traces You could have been my oasis But it seems you're just a mirage Just a mirage Date: Wednesday, February 3, 1993 12:03am Forum: Inkwell From: Slope Hope Msg#: 301250 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: The Mourning Man (2 replies) The Mourning Man A wind of caution blowing through my hair Blowing across my cheek A scent of trouble floating in the air Up and down my street Your warm breeze I knew so well Suddenly turning cold with no warning Your shining light which last night fell No longer rising this morning Oh I can read the signs, I can tell the time I won't hide my head in my hands Approaching from behind, echoes in my mind The song of the mourning man Our tree, our life, reaching straight and true Now twisting and bent Our horizon in sight, a sky bright and blue I don't know where it went Your loving ways becoming distant days Each night more chilling than the last Seems so strange, to shiver in your gaze Our summer now distant in the past A leaf, a life, once healthy to my touch Uncreased by time Smiling like a child Now brittle and brown and crumbling so much I can no longer hold Between my fingers it goes Like fine grains of sand Falling from my hand Oh I can read the signs, I can tell the time I won't hide my head in the sand Approaching from behind, echoes in my mind The song of the mourning man Growing louder every day, wish I could turn away On my shoulder I feel his hand In a whisper I hear him say, soon will come the day When I'll sing the song of the mourning man Date: Thursday, February 4, 1993 7:54pm Forum: Inkwell From: Aegis Msg#: 302555 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: BJBIOS2.TXT File: BJBIOS2.TXT (1 reply) Ok... Bios for characters involved in BLACKJACK... Kurt and Amanda now actually have something I can go on... anyway, check it out if yer interested... (and please... erase BJBIOS.TXT... that one has MISSING bits in it!!!) Date: Wednesday, February 3, 1993 7:54am Forum: Inkwell From: Gorby Msg#: 304990 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Original Shorts #1 (Copy by Lythande) (4 replies) Oh yeah, it's great being homeless. Having the city skylight as your ceiling and the pitted dirt-encrusted pavement as your rug and the skyscrapers as your wallpaper, the burning waste basket as your oil heater and yesterday's news as your toilet paper. Oh, it is better than drinking the nectar of the Gods in Nirvana and playing ring toss on Narcisscis and crossbow hunting the falling Icarus while Daedelus looks on in abject terror. Every morning is like waking up at the Ritz, each lunch a picnic and dinner is an a la carte smorgasbord, a plethora of feasting delicacies driving my olfactory into ecstasy, as my mouth waters in anticipation of each morsel. Fancy suits are literally around every corner, making me a man of means, replacing the old, worn, torn and haggard tweeds of yesteryear that lasted well beyond my wildest dreams. Oh, my wife and kids think we're doing fine in comparison to the Smths. At least none of us need a doctor and we're not dying of pneumonia. So why do I live under a bridge? Why, when my wife can't bare stand me anymore, I ride the subways and don't come home, or stay in the underground barracks for days on end in subliminal darkness. Why not crawl to a shelter and repair my life to the glorious past it once was? Or just get arrested for loitering and have a warm cell and three square meals a day? Jail life isn't what it once was way back in the good ol' 20's where it was considered a haven and not a free for all backstabbing shady guarded hell hole. I wouldn't last. Nor do I want to get into the system and let them find me ad have foster care cart my children away where I can't see them and they will see me as some piece of shit low life good for nothing which they should never lay eyes on again and feel pity and hatred for. I don't want my children turned against me, and then my wife will have nothing to live for and kick my unlucky ass and slit my throat in my sleep with a broken beer bottle. If anything, we are not alone, and even though we are desperate, we are a family and that makes us strong. Disrupt that one iota, and living, indeed, wouldn't be worth it. That's why I just don't end it all, nor go looking for trouble. As bad as I may be, I am a father. My kids look up and revere me, much less than I can say for those spoiled yuppie brat with golden spoons up their noses and flip lips. I pity them. I know what living is. I know how to survive, to hunt. I don't need no fukken bills over my head, people chasing me to get into my pockets and telling me lies to rip me off. No, no... not anymore, no siree. Can't be done. But there are advantages. You're not seen. It's great to be invisible and go up to some high fashion dickweed stock marketeer and blabber in his face and he won't even notice you. The cocksucker won't even make eye contact. It's like your not even part of the periphery and you don't exist as it's too much for his feeble money grubbing little mind to comprehend and register. Oh sure, all these liberal bastards with their nice speeches having pity for us. How d they help me? Lip service. And for that, I'll whip it out for them to suck. Only time you're not invisible is when you panhandle and beg. I gotta give some of the brethren a chuckle as to their modus operandi. Some tell stale jokes, some stink real bad and shuffle around with a black stained moth eaten woolen glove, some go pretend they are blind or deaf, some make a sign, some wheel around their newborn in a carriage.. all nice guilt emoting pictures to stab the unconscious pigs and warn them they ain't to far away from being in this position and to pay up so god forbid should the tables be reversed, some kind stranger gives up a buck or two and forgoes his next pepsi. One thing I'm really surprised is that there is no sweep for people like us and round us up like animals and cage us and make us disappear. I guess we are too big a problem just to sweep away. Yet, since we have no forwarding address, we can't get aid from them hypocritical city officials, all paid to toe the line to the mayor's fuzzy ass. Don't matter be he black or white or yellow or orange or purple for that matter. Shades of the same color protect their own ass and entrench the wells with their people and fuck everybody else. You see, I'm just a statistic to be talked about, while my family starves, freezes and gets mugged of whatever little we possess. You can't move your whole house on the street and I had hardly anytime to cash in what I could. The boom just fell and the next day was figuring what park bench to sleep on. I'm surprised no wacko just goes around whacking us homeless fukkers off to end our suffering. The human spirit is indomitable, but there are limits until the mind just contorts and the shit starts flowing from being put on a dad end road. I think I'll spit and gibber on some rich fat balding pitiful slob today. (@) 1993 Mitch Spinner Date: Wednesday, February 3, 1993 8:53am Forum: Inkwell From: Dti Msg#: 304994 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Concerning the Next: (Copy by Lythande) Be advised, this next one is as long as it can be, and in the open. You may at this point either decide to set up a screen cap to save time read later, or ignore it altogether. Everything in this one is true. There is no sexual content. Date: Wednesday, February 3, 1993 8:55am Forum: Inkwell From: Dti Msg#: 304995 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: George C. Place, Junior... (Copy by Lythande) (3 replies) Wonder how it was to live in the box he crawled out fron ten minutes before I got the call, came in at 2400 hours on the nipple as a man down with siezures, Central to Supervisor, read direct and replied leaping out into cold deep purple space grab my bag shout over shoulder to the other supervisor to back me up and bring the oxygen, this could be a bullshit call anything can be simple lies, fabrications to entertain, however the way Central asked me whether he should call 911 direct before I got to the scene made me wonder and quicken the foot on the accelerator: replied yes, call direct I will check and advise on arrival. They call in seizures for almost anything that moves erratically and in all the seizure calls I only had one who actually ran epileptic and all you do is wait until they quiet some then give oxygen and wait for the ambulance for an hour in the rain, by the time the cavalry gets there the patient is just perfectly fine and sees no reason to go to Lincoln to spend the next nine hours standing around the waiting room, it does not always work this way, he looked just like Horace Goyette father of Jimmy same last name from the projects of adolescence, running solo in a filthy gray International full of cabbage. My own jeep was warm and I got there with nothing but my orange bag mostly trauma lots of rags to staunch the flow, some tape and roller gauze, gloves, a respirator I got off the last city wagon that would let me restock anything off it. Jump the stairs up on the platform and still seventy feet away see a crowd and this time even koreans running skid jacks get out of my way instead of vice versa this is real not just someone fish out of water acting erratic radio Central onscene the last few part Moses red sea and he lays there on his side right lateral recumbent sixty y.o. male six foot two eighty mostly beerbelly white hair just like Horace from the projects although this is not Horace wearing bluejeans no shoes someone took them off already white dirty tee shirt blue lumberjack shirt medium mauve complexion agonal respirations no carotid pulse still warm to the touch someone says I know cpr. Radio Central cardiac arrest maximum rush on the bus not a siezure cardiac arrest log the times and Collins where are you on my back with the oxygen what the fuck this is not reasonable shift change curse it all happens within an hour of coming in or going out the middle of the tour you could build sandcastles overdose on thorazine make babies write classic odes and translate them into seven dead languages none more cyanotic than the man I logroll feels like tons of jelly in a faulty sausage casing he exhales five times a minute choking but the interested observer notes he refrains from inhalation in any way. The good bystander another portly gent though younger and of course still alive places his fingers on the dirtmarks teeshirt having torn the lumberjack away he has his place mapped I am listening feeling there really is no shit nothing going on here crowd gathers seagulls on the boardwalk at Orchard Beach august sunday the world contains simple things only two eyes flat and unresponsive rolled up open lids slack jaw that neck strange how it never leaps like everyone elses does, ruin the crashbag get the mask pop it back into shape from folded rest it comes apart in my hands I fuck around for maybe thirty seconds trying to get things to fit but nothing works today, signal the good blur next to me to begin compressions anyway what the fuck couldn't hurt. Me and my goddamn patch like it means shit in whirlpools. My hands are raccoon claws but there is no food garbage to be held just paw through find the pocket mask takes the feeling out of getting close it falls into two bits upon attempted use but at least this piece of worthy shit can be reassembled I even remember to fingertwist the Horace purpling mouth open jam in an airway he just lays there and looks past my head at the audience like I didn't have my hand in his mouth stuffing white polyurethane device if he had a gag reflex he would have done something then but all he has left is surface warmth. Run solo regular run from his fathers place in far green caverns of pennsylvania to the cabbage place in Dunkirk then to the Market three little piggies then there was two, '86 gray International filled with potato chip bags and lightly scented trash clothes, you could tell the offside seat was rarely used, the sleeper cot looked like my own bed at home but it was thinner. He did not protest my attention and he tolerated the mask, having already left he laughed thin vapours overhead before conferring with his fifty year dead grandfather in reference to the silliest place either man had ever woken up to find himself in. First few blows were too eager and my gift from god told me they were just inflating Horace's stomach, would make him puke if he was still around. Sometimes they do not come back they go home they say you cannot play with my football anymore I hear mother calling, we did this thing and I only stopped a couple times mainly to scream bloody taunted christs into the radio it talked to me a lot but did not understand I was too busy to chat right now except to yell CENTRAL GIMME A RUSH A RUSH RUSH THE BUS DAMMIT HE IS IN ARREST. Hear soft metal sounds and other radios it is the 41 precinct I even have a sergeant in attendance bet you thought they helped people in times like these eh? there are many false assumptions in this world of futile effort and the patrol sergeant stood there doing his best cigar store indian I heard his radio too, 8th division, it farted: twenny minnit e t a on the bus at the market, kay. Again howl into the mike for a rush stretch those killing neck muscles turn my head around like Linda Blair and implore the cop get on your radio jesus this fucking guy is in arrest i need a rush please and maybe he did maybe he didn't, swift glance over the audience reveals everyone I know all eyes they stand back something makes my backup supervisor act being as he forgot the oxygen, not like I could use it with the proper mask a shitpile in tomatoes discarded like hopes and dreams, he suddenly decides to direct traffic saying move back please give em room maybe he saw it in a movie sometime ago but even though it makes no difference to me and the present crusade, he is doing more than the entire combined heirarchies of NYPD and NYCEMS, and this counts when nothing works except the chest compressions my mystery partner provides a carotid pulse, too bad that stops when he does. Life is a bitch and then you die even if I am right there within two minutes, how does false Horace spell relief? S I X T Y Y E A R S O F F R I E D C H I C K E N A N D S P E E D A N D C O F F E E heart muscle smooth and featureless ocean blue. Sons of bitches dressed in green just like Dept of Sanitation arrive and they didn't even send ALS just plain basics like me although they did put the greasy paddles on Horace and listened to the defib whine it said in a detached pleasant male voice: stand back, stand back, and of course I did, figured they would make this one jump but they didn't bother shocking him just took over cpr I held his belt and jesus he weighed a ton when we put him on the scoop and slid him into the bus and they closed the door and he didn't even have a wallet anymore because someone rolled him retching agonal respirations no pulse ever pronounced at Lincoln 0052 hours 2/1/93 Date: Wednesday, February 10, 1993 10:42am Forum: Inkwell From: Gorby Msg#: 306970 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Original Shorts #2 (1 reply) White Man Glory to this great land of the free and the brave. Yeah, hallelujah, brothers and sisters. This is the land of hope and dreams, yet my people were denied that dream; those aspirations. We were the barbarians, the murderous and treacherous bastards, and they were the living gods of the earth. They could do as they pleased, while we were the inferior, paganistic, head scalping aborigines. At least Australia didn't make this mistake in its making. Hypocritical WASPs making declarations of freedom, while once they are in the king's chair, look at what they did. Civil rights, bah - bag of shit. No further from communism than they think they are fighting. We were the true communists, not Russia. We lived on their land, we protected their land, and instead they come and stampede worse than bison and destroy every way of life worthwhile, ignorant and uncaring.. just down right rude and arrogant as if all that matters in this world is their law. They growl at the Nazi's, yet hidden from everyone else in the world, they made concentration camps and just stamps out hundreds of tribes and brethren without a second's afterthought. They took what they could not dare to own and call theirs and defended it to the death. If they die, it is not theirs anymore, is it? The earth owns them. When my kind are gone, only then, they will start to realize what we barbarians have been trying to teach them all along. Yet they spit in our faces with sulphur and copper balls and wave this stupid flag all in the name of freedom. Oh, they're now not proud of their ancestors, but I am proud of mine, and my chest swells with admiration of those brave warriors who stood with more cause than these feared blanched toy soldiers. We were the best horse riders, the best scouts, the best trained and enduring creatures of the plains. Had all the branches of the tree grew together, Wall Street wouldn't be standing where it is today. They are crafty. Keeping us fenced apart to divide and conquer. Our own nature was a downfall. If we only could have seen that the greater enemy were not other chiefs, but the General-in-Chief, we wouldn't be the ones on the reservations. Oh, at first, there was peace. But they make rumors of how horrible we are and have these bounty hunters come looking for a little trouble. They bring their shiny metal shooters, but they don't have eagle eyes, so they're dead without making a bead on a target. We find out what those fire barrels are and we are not scared of such flash magic. Then they lay trails with settlers, destroying the wilderbeast chase, and corrupting the beauty of the prairie. They only bargained with force, when we could have lived in peace. Only when they tamed us and removed their fear of us, could they teach us and trade. How sad they are. And even when that was too good, and they revoked our pacts and agreements, they ripped the treaties u in our faces as a preude to more bloodshed and anger. What were we left with? Oh how pitiful they make flickering pictures to relieve their guilty conscience. It's too late to redo the mistakes and the evil they ave done. How their heart bleeds for us now. First they had metal horses, but now they have metal tepees that flame. In 400 years, how they have advanced with magic, where for thousands we didn't and were content. So how many pages of history is written down about us? What is taught to the sorry little innocent wide eyed prairie dogs generation after generation? Now then, let's look at the Amish. If they weren't white skinned, they'd be mowed over. I don't feel guilty for the corpses we have splinted in defense of our way of life. It was all needless; evil. And Americans looks no less pretty than the Fascists and Neo-Nazi purists they say are destroying the world. They are destroying themselves from within. So now when they have pity on us, they finally drafted up a resolution, not to make us citizens, but to make us a nation. We are a fashion statement at best nowadays. A few realie how much indians blood has been bred into citizens. If Alaska weren't so cold, the Eskimos would have been slaughtered too. And if Hawaii and Puerto Rico weren't islands, but on the mainland, they would have been churned through the military blood machine. And the biggest laugh I have gotten from this modern world is that only we can walk among the eagles without fear on tiny slender beams of metal, looking into the clouds, and white men can't. I wonder why, oh, I wonder why. Now I can do as I please on my land, without having any interference. My laws are mine, and I am a nation within a very confused nation. I will have my revenge, playing your game and getting rich and powerful off you greedy little fuckers. Who said we, white man? (C) 1993 Mitchell SPinner Date: Sunday, February 14, 1993 5:45pm Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 310227 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Market Listings (2 replies) Seems like lots of folks here are interested in writing, but seem to be a little lost as to where or how to get market information. I'll be periodically posting information as I get it (it being my field and all). I hope some of this stuff is helpful. For a monthly listing of markets both general and specific, try THE GILA QUEEN'S GUIDE TO MARKETS. This newsletter is published by author/editor Kathryn Ptacek and is more up-to-the-minute than most monthly listings in magazines. You can subscribe by sending $24.00/12 months to GILA QUEEN'S GUIDE TO MARKETS, P.O. Box 97, Newton, NJ 07860. Kathy does listings for every genre out there: SF & fantasy, romance, western, mainstream, the adult market, the children's market. Yu name it, she's got it. She's very reliable Yu can also get a sample newsletter from her at the same address for $4.00 to see what you're getting before you subscribe. For the SF/Fantasy markets, try LOCUS magazine or SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE. Both are trade magazines catering to this particular field and periodically run market listings. They're also good references to generally jeep up with what's happening out there. They're usually available at Forbidden Planet and The Science Fiction Shop in Manahattan. For general names and addresses of publishers, try THE LITERARY MARKET PLACE, which can generally be found in any library's reference section. It lists just abut every publisher in the business, and usually lists a few names and titles along with contact information. This is also a good reference guide for starting to query literary agencies about representation. If you have a specific genre in which you're interested, you might want to try to find out if said genre has a writers' association, guild or union, for example, Romance Writers of America or Science Fictin Writers of America. If you write to such groups, they may be able to supply you with a list of recommended, reputable agents that specialize in the genre in which you write. Date: Monday, February 22, 1993 1:54am Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 315397 To: Princess *EXEMPT* Re: The Untitled Poem (Reply to #313724, Reply to #313654, Reply to #313292, R*) (1 reply) I don't..I feel as alone as a cold ice cube..all by itself waiting to melt in some seering heat . And with what I've felt in the al:st few days..I felt the dagger of doom stabbing me over anad over again making me a mlifeless shell.. And that shell...the blood that I was born with seeps down to the sidewalks where I stood ...the love , nothing but a false sense of the feeling. The essence is gone out of my life. Date: Tuesday, February 23, 1993 7:56pm Forum: Inkwell From: Gorby Msg#: 316737 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Original Shorts #3 (1 reply) This is a copy from another post: Smoke in the Dugout It was one of those breezy summer days where the sun beat down and cooked you on lava rocks if you were dumb enough to be outside. It was too hot to play sandlot ball, too bright to look into the sun should someone pop up the ball. It was the kind of heat that sweated you out and made you lethargic after you just ran to first base with such stiff air that had no oxygen in it. We were content just to sit on a couple of small logs in the woods off the highway, completely undisturbed and unobserved. It seemed the central area was witness to a major brushfire, as nothing grew within the circle of logs. Branches stayed behind to serve as the chalk sticks for the central writing tablet on the ground. It didn't seem that many of the older kids knew about this hangout. Maybe they did, but they didn't come around. No beer bottles or strange crazy shit debris from some car or washed out and faded porno mags laid waste around the campsite. The mosquitos were out in force, however, as it seems they come to feast especially on these type of hot dry days. The buzzing intermixed with the roaring engines zipping along the highway just 20 meters behind us. Luckily there wasn't enough guys to make two sides for baseball, and one of the captains, or supposedly ringleader of this gang, wasn't in the mood to come out of his air conditioned room. I didn't think any of the other kids had an a/c in their bedroom, as they swore unbelievably at this kid's luck. This one guy, who rarely would hang with us, came back from using the woods as a latrine. He sat down on my left and slipped a cig from a pack in his rear pocket and lit it, flicking the match into the central area of dead dirt. He gave a few puffs and I tried to catch wind from another direction, eyes and nose itching from the cancerous residue. He was the same age as us all, except I was a year younger, and the only other kid that was my age sat the log on the right of me. The only reason I was here was because I knew him and he was my neighbor. But he and the rest of the bunch went to parochial school, where they were taught that my kind killed Jesus. So why was I here? The smoking boy, the only one who did, was an outcast from many circles. Even this fellowship for awhile when he was expelled from the catholic prep. He supposedly went to my public school, but he spent so much time cutting I doubt he'd was in my grade. He was a delinquent alright. Some reason that let him drink beer, carry a knife, smoke, curse and talk about fucking girls. Supposedly, he was living life to the fullest and we were too dumb and stupid and scared to even think of being anyway near as bad as he was. I guess some of us saw a future past eighteen and living somewhat like civilized human beings. Some of us admired him, some wanted to be like him. Some of us wanted no part of him, like me in particular. "Hey, you smoke doncha?" the delinquent asked of me. "No. Just my mom. I hide her cigarettes on her. Drives her crazy like a lunatic thinking she lost them and claws around the house to find them." "Hey, take a puff. Everyone else here smokes. Here," he said as he passed the burning nicotine stick to my neighbor. My friend puffed and suppressed a cough, knowing damn well that was his first attempt and it probably burned down his throat real good like swallowing the devil's balls. The kid passed it back to the delinquent. "Here, take a hit." At this point I was sure it was just a cigarette and not some homemade shit and I couldn't smell the difference between this and what my mother smoked. I doubted he could be so enterprising as to have slipped some wacky weed behind the filter. I still refused. I don't think anybody ever refused this delinquent's request, because his brow got all knotted and his nose flared as his lip twitched to show his fangs. Pressing the coal tip to my upper arm, the smell of burning flesh struck me with the slamming knowledge that this fucker enjoyed doing this. I didn't care who the fuck he was or how many girls he probably raped and how many other kids he stabbed in the gut. I pushed him off the log, onto his back, as he unceremoniously lost his ciggy to the underbrush. Then, the doe instinct hit me and told me to run like a niggerchaser because the delinquent wouldn't take that personal affront of his pride. Shocks of fiery splatters twinged my eyesight as I broke through the woods and into the sandlot field. The lungs were already bursting and the mind was threatening them not to shut down. Then the earth came up to meet me as my knees collapsed and crunched to the hard packed dirt. I tried to tuck and roll, but I felt something holding onto me. The delinquent tackled me and then got to his feet, standing over me and ready to land a killing blow. The only target I could see, since my glasses tumbled away off my face, was close enough to unravel my bag of tricks as well. Puma met groin, and his brother did the same and pushed him into the air and dropped him like a finished bull as the toreador pierces with the final deepest sword strike. Someone else grabbed the knife, while the delinquent grabbed his balls. After his coughing and weepy eyes ended, he laughed and didn't allow anyone to help him up and passed it off as an act. I take my life a bit more seriously. (C) M. Spinner 1993 Date: Wednesday, February 24, 1993 1:09pm Forum: Inkwell From: Brandie Msg#: 317200 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Beelzbub O'Raye (The Little Devilboy) (1 reply) This here one was requested by Lythande, and won my daughter first place in her school's creative writing contest. Beelzebub O'Raye (The little Devilboy) There was a little Devilboy,named Beelzebub O'Raye. This boy never wanted to help his mom around the house,all he did was eat sleep,and play. While all the other little Devilboys helped thier moms gather fire for the Hellpit, He would just sit and watch. His coven was filthy as if it hadn't been cleaned in eons! His homework was never done, and he wore filthy clothes, as he was too lazy to give his mom his laundry. Well this wouldn't do.. Beel never knew what was going to come from this. One day Satan called all the little Devilboys to his side for a game of win the horns,for without this game Beel wouldn't grow to be a full grown Devil. He ran over to the 'horn field' and when he got there the basic 'Hell training ' had begun. He didn't like what he saw the older Devilboys doing, they were running around like guys in basic training, and climbing walls , and bailing hay with thier pitchforks. Since B.O. didn't have his Pitchfork from not gathering fire, he was automatically knocked down 3 inches off his horns! He was off to a very bad start. Then he was so out of shape, he couldn't do any of the strategic moves the other boys were doing. Well SATAN didn't like this FAT Devilboys action, so he knocked off more inches from his new horns! The moment of truth finally came, and SATANasked all 127 Devilboys how they had gotten so agile. They said in chorus,'We help our moms, we cook and clean.. we love it so, we do anything'. And B.O. said 'I NEVER help my mom, you guys are saps!' Satan raised his hand individually, over each of the 127 Devilboys heads, and when he was done -- they had full grown rounded Devil's Horns. And they became full grown adult Devils instantly. Poor B.O. he stayed young, until he learned that helping his mom will help him to grow up Big and strong, and slim! He had a flubby body, and nothing but knubbs on his head where the horns should have been! Poor B.O.... The End.. **Moral** Help your mom clean , and whatever else she asks you to do..you get no healthy excercise, or anything important without it. End(c) 1991 Brandie Date: Sunday, March 21, 1993 10:17pm Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 331050 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: love is a many splendid... (Copy by Lythande, Reply to #330137, Reply to #329867, R*) (3 replies) The beauty I seek comes from within, the aura that outshines the rest of everyone. The beauty I seek is the girl that can unlock my doors in my dungeon where pain and misery is my captive.. The beauty I see shines brighter than a supernova...she even shines as bright as an angel...this is the beauty I seek...not the outside, the inside. Date: Friday, March 26, 1993 12:28pm Forum: Inkwell From: Anzac Msg#: 332606 To: Johndrake *EXEMPT* Re: Poetry (Fw by Lythande, Reply to #332300, Reply to #332017, Rep*) (2 replies) Yeah... I think I did exactly that... Wait a minute while I dig it up and reproduce it here. Please excuse the obtuseness and plainness of the language. No one has ever accused me of being anywhere near Shakespeare... After all, I didn't learn the language until I was 13! =) -Verse of Apology- In the dark, sitting there in tears, As bitter loneliness flow'd in my veins, Weeping, contemplating the deepest of fears, Of life without you, of somber strains. While many solely appraise your money, And still more lust only for your body, I resolved to show you none but respect, As is due thy intelligence to expect. In silence my feeble brain would ramble, But in thy presence I will always be humble, Just so that someday you will know, This servant is yours forever, I'd show. A comforting touch, to ease my pain, Just so my devotions aren't in vain. -- Anz the Peasant Poet -- March 22, 1993, T. "Anz" H. Date: Tuesday, April 6, 1993 5:52pm Forum: Inkwell From: Catwoman Msg#: 337744 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: b:roche File: 337744.ATT (2 replies) Attached to this message is the fourth article I wrote for my local newspaper (in provincial Allentown) that had the gay bar in it. It's partially a crusade to rattle up the narrow minded people around here. They didn't used to take advertising from gay bars in our newspaper, and now I'm writing about Drag Queen Pageants and this, a live campy soap opera at the bar, and live piano music. It's also that I love the entertainment. I love drag queens. I love gay people (well not all of them). I love people who have the courage to be themselves, even when it's not conventional. That said, I'll try to download it. (I sometimes have trouble) Date: Friday, April 16, 1993 4:29am Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 342333 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: The last Time... (1 reply) The last time I saw the circus I was only 12 years old. I was happy go lucky and cared about if the clowns saw my smiling happy face and my waves to them from my seat. . The last time I saw a concert it was sometime in March where the seats were as close as I could get, Gold Circle seats. The night, the magic in the air, the sound of music drifting through the hall, being with someone I care for. . The last time I remeber being happy was when...??? . The last time I remeber being sad was when the same friend finally decided that she had enough of me. She left without even facing me, left without even letting me defend myself. That night I cried so much that it hurt me , emotionally and left a little scar in my mind. The last time I felt this way was way back in 1991 when something similar happened. but at least I was able to go on after some time because things just would be different and they were. . The last timeI remeber being happy was when??? . When was the last time people...??? . Maybe this might be my last message so maybe people can say "The last time JD was around it was.... Who knows, sometimes the pain outweights the world, going on seems like a endless journey through thick tree branches and thorns from hidden gardens. -J.D. Date: Monday, April 26, 1993 10:15am Forum: Inkwell From: Shadowstalker Msg#: 347858 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: The Pattern (1 reply) Weaving Weaving The loom goes up. The loom goes down. The pattern, No one knows. The pattern of you, The pattern of me. The Mother she holds half. The Father he holds half. The pattern of you, The pattern of me. I see the body, Young and new. I feel the soul, Old and true. The pattern that makes you, The pattern that makes me. It is true, I must know, For the pattern is eons old. The flow, the ebb, The warf, the web, The pattern to you, The pattern to me, The pattern is much the same, For you and me. A chage right here, An alter right there To make the pattern, That makes you you. That makes me me. Date: Monday, April 26, 1993 10:21am Forum: Inkwell From: Shadowstalker Msg#: 347862 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: The river The River Winds, Falls and twines, Starting high, Ending low. In the Mountains, to the Sea. The river runs right by me. The winter comes, and I can see. I can see the river flowing, Like a vein through me. Absent of life, Absent of Breath, Full of waste, Flowing. Never plusing. The spring then comes and in it I see. I can see the river rushing, Like an artery through me. Full of life, Full of breath. Full of nourishment Pulsing. Rushing. Straight through me. The river changes The bed dry and dusty. I still can see. The river in my heart, Flowing from the mountain, Down to the sea. Flowing down, Straight past me. Date: Monday, April 26, 1993 10:52am Forum: Inkwell From: Shadowstalker Msg#: 347884 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Who is Mother? (2 replies) Love pours through the night. As she turns they hold on tight. Never leaving, never staying, Always turning, never stopping. Like a heartbeat her core it pulses. giving life, bringing death. Mother! They call to her. Standing tall. Standing round. Mother! They sing to her. Always trusting, always loving. Truly known, Yet no one knows. Just who the mother is, Is she love, Birth, Death, Earth, Wate?, Moon, Is she me? Date: Tuesday, April 27, 1993 9:31am Forum: Inkwell From: Shadowstalker Msg#: 348535 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Nothing in the Dark (1 reply) How can we a race of peoples, Learn to love not hate? When so many of us are hurting, From what others do and say. If we knew better, of this I'm sure, We'd all join together, and defeat All racism and scorn. We'd call to every nation, Across the ocean blue and wide, "We ar of Love! Not Hate! Come don't run and Hide!" If this love could shine Straight through the dark, Like a candle's in a line. We all would love not hate, And be afraid. Cause if the light went out, It would leave nothing in it's wake. (This is bad really bad, but I like it!! a little.) Date: Sunday, May 2, 1993 6:44pm Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 351727 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: The Morning After (3 replies) This morning my mind was filled with colors.. Flashing colors, bright, cool, calm colors flooded my mind.. Was it a dream or were those hours spent holding onto each other a reality. I could have sworn I saw red and purple when we embraced. The morning after we said goodbye my mind was full of visions of colors And now I can still see the colors dancing in my head... It feels like heaven... Date: Wednesday, May 5, 1993 7:00pm Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 352999 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Where Have I Gone? Just pray tell where have I gone in this lifetime? Has my past life had a better life than I now in the present state? Is this some unseen force punishing me , telling me I cannot be happy? Is there a light in this dark and morbid passage God I hope so becausee I'm beginning to realize that if there isn't, my tunnel might as well collaspeonto of me. . Lay me down the ocean, towards the sea. Heaven's if your listening...shine a light upon me. Date: Saturday, May 8, 1993 12:11pm Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 354802 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Untitled I thought I could see the candles that lit my way out. My eyes cried in joy. Then the candles lit no more. I am lost without the warmth in this cold cruel world. Is there any light at the end of this tunnel? Am I to be deemed to be eternally encased in darkness? Could this be my fate? Someone show me the universal light Ever shining , like a star so bright. Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1993 7:11pm Forum: Inkwell From: Lane Msg#: 358896 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Xandra's work (1 reply) A dear friend of mine in AZ wrote this..at my request because I've always thought she was a wonderful writer and she doesn't believe me and doesn't do anything with it. It pleased her to hear that I loved this and I wanted to share it with you. Life goes as the wind blows...sweeping, motion, life. Picking up with it the pieces left behind. The cluttered earth of debris from years gone past, walked on, trampled on, without a second glance. So is the life that others deem to pass, keep walking, keep talking, there is no second chance. But as you walk by without noticing the face, just remember that you, too, could've easily been in my place. So don't just pass without noticing the life, for life goes as the wind blows, picking up the pieces left behind. Date: Tuesday, May 18, 1993 7:19pm Forum: Inkwell From: Lane Msg#: 358899 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Another Xandra piece. (1 reply) This is something else my good friend in AZ wrote when I begged her to write me something. The months and years have passed, the days of innocence gone... I held you in the highest regard, longer than I should've let it go on. But I was a child then, full of zest and also naive... I loved and admired you, more than you could conceive. In later years you loved me, you showed it in your own way... untill those words you spoke, that really blew me away. I was shocked, I was crushed, I looked into myself to find the answers within... when it came clear...to make love is not a sin. I gave it freely, you took it willingly...the nights of passion will remain. But you cannot love me, to you it was just a game. Well, I am a woman now, those days of innocence are gone... but I will love again as the months and years go on. Date: Wednesday, May 19, 1993 11:59am Forum: Inkwell From: Lane Msg#: 359154 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: My feeble attempt #1!! (3 replies) Taking a step back to look at myself and finally liking what I find wondering why I wasted all this precious time playing games with my own mind. Is there a point, a meaning of life? If so, what can it be? The purpose I've found in living my life has finally come clear to me. There's nobody to pacify, nobody toplease other than one sole being...that being is me. Oh yes, it's important to have special friends to whom you give your consideration and there are some, too, who deserve a little respect particularly if they're a relation. Loves are important and special to have, but death and departure can change that The dominant love, the one we should treasure, is the love that we carry inside us. For when we're alone, and nobody's beside us to walk with, or shelter or hide us the love of ourselves and our peace and contentment will surely be that which will guide us. Date: Wednesday, May 19, 1993 12:17pm Forum: Inkwell From: Lane Msg#: 359158 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Feeble attempt #2!! (5 replies) The eyes of one who betrays you can be thoughtful, innocent and kind yet pain and anguish tear at your heart The words of one who betrays you can stab and sometimes blind these are the feelings that rip life apart Trust is a virtue, a medal and prize disappointment and bitterness stem from trust given in vain One can destroy trust by deceit and lies hurt and agony appear when one crosses that plain How easy to hurt one, and not see the pain it's not right to injure or cause one remorse Pain inflicted by your hand is never sane yet these are lessons in life which must run their course How can we love and embrace, and show tenderness we are all human and entitled to comfort This world is discouraging and all a big mess we need love and understanding...not bitterness and hurt. Date: Tuesday, May 25, 1993 12:35pm Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 361746 To: Lane *EXEMPT* Re: Rudaol's journeys (Reply to #361740, Reply to #361704, Reply to #361408, R*) (4 replies) LA>Heheehe. I'm sitting here...cackling...trying to think of something to LA>write in response to this...but it's just not coming....LOL!! Keep trying, you'll... I mean... it'll come! ;) Rudaol stood on-line behind a menacing-looking troll of a cyborg, while a drooling insectoid brought up his rear, constantly buzzing in his short ears like some meddlesome Threkalian gnat. What am I doing here, he thought. I'm getting too old for this. Just then a man (or it looked like one, considering his symmetrically placed appendage) approached him off the line, wearing what looked like a military uniform of the Usarat's guard. "What's your name," he asked, with a mouth that resembled something between a Julathan avian and the infamous chameleonic Hulyth. "Rudaol." "Come with me," beckoned the guard, waving a hand-like limb to a direction only in his mind. "Why do you wish to join the Polythian Force," he began to inquire, as he lead him. "It pays well," Rudaol answered. Something told him, by the expression on the guard's face (and no handsome sight indeed), that it was not what the man (or thing, if it even possessed oeciousness) wanted to hear. (Tune in next time...) Date: Wednesday, May 26, 1993 5:49pm Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 362232 To: Enchanter *EXEMPT* Re: Rudaol's journeys (Reply to #361746, Reply to #361740, Reply to #361704, R*) (1 reply) "How's your --" Pzzz---fff---dang! went the laser bolt as the insectoid's rightmost antenna was sizzled off. "-- aim." The shock froze him in his place, while various augmented guards were halted by a signal from Rudaol's escort. "How was that," smirked Rudaol. "Not bad," answered the guard, "but I was only trying to determine if you had any psychic abilities." "How did I do?" "Could've faked it." An awkward pause, while Rudaol reholstered his Banli-582 Intesifier. The guard wasn't about to rush him this time. They had stopped near a window at the edge of the hall, overlooking a pleasant scene of the planet Polythia as its sun set. Psionics was common enough that you knew of someone who had it, but not common enough that you could pick out anyone off the nearest orbital station and find one. "Good aim is like two nickel pieces for a dozen. We want aim, we have computers to do it for us. The true Polythian elite must have an especially great skill to warrant our attention." "You wouldn't have picked me out of the line if I wasn't good to you for something." "This is true," answered the guard with some hesitation. "However, you may have wisdom which may be of use to us. Come with me." And with that, the thin Weranli from the Rekolini system would have his day with the man himself. Date: Tuesday, June 8, 1993 9:31pm Forum: Inkwell From: Blackjack Msg#: 368854 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: A Queens Story (Fw by Lythande) (1 reply) This world is cold and lonely. I have begun to see only pain - there is too much pain here. It flows as the stuff of Earth from all its facets. Let me show you my pain of coldth and lonliness. Let me tell you of my friend, Alice... one of my few, true, friends, my bond with which has thrived through six months of intimacy and four years of comradadry. It was just last night, so I think. Perhaps this morning... my nerves still jumble from loss of sleep and chaotic actions and an overabundace of sugar, which have left my senses dancing, wondering if any of what I've experienced has truly happened. Last I had laid eyes on her was six months earlier - I found it wildly ironic - for only a fleeting day, and then was followed by a long silence. She was still as beautiful as ever. I still had that sliver of her stored away in a niche of my soul, the one I had cut from her when I had dated her - she had been my first in numerous categories. And because of that, she was one of the only people I could feel. I don't usually feel - tactile sensations withstanding. You understand the sense of being alone, but you know that you ARE loved, right? Somewhere in whatever pit that has been dug within you there is the light of those you know. My light had always been dim, worn down by too many who had turned out to be less than I'd imagined, those who would not let me share with them. On my hand I can count those who know me fully. Things headed downhill after our peak of loading up on raw fish and japanese dumplings. I had been having the best time I'd had in two years, and the realization of this and the course of this pathetic lonely life I had led made me do what I had now grown accustomed to - I broke down. If only she had been someone I could touch, could hold and caress. My happiness had only forced out the sadness of not being able to fully share it with someone, and I desperately began wanting her, needing her more than I'd ever needed her before. She responded to my pain, she was worried about me... it seemed so alien now, my emotions had lost their knowledge of how to deal with it. She told jokes, stories about her at college - she tried her hardest to cheer me up, and as she succeeded in making me feel cared about, it only made my sadness stronger. I couldn't stand to see such caring given only in friendship - I'd forgotten it could ever been so strong between people... we hugged... It was the first time I had held someone in over a year, and I felt my need grow stronger - it could no longer be satisfied with just her embrace. It needed her lips... her sweat... her cries... and it began scheming, knowing if it played its cards right it might have her again. And I realized what I had been building up, and I'd hated myself for it... for wanting to use her that way. I flung myself at her feet and asked for forgiveness. She had little idea what was going on. It took me twenty minues just to force out what I'd been thinking. What I wanted. She understood, and wasn't surprised, saying it was natural, feeling what I'd been feeling. I still could not look at her, even as she asked me what she could do to make me feel better. At that moment, every part of my mind screamed to try to say, "I need you. To feel again, to live again, to touch your life and body, to know that I am _not_ alone. Would you do _that_ for me???" And knowing her, I knew she would. And I knew what I knew for years - that I could never ask that of her, to give herself to me only to make me happy. Our friendship ran too deeply, too closely. I never said it. As I left the house that morning, wired from the hours of exhausted crying I'd done that evening, I saw the dawn sky... rich and red, light wrapping around clouds, envelloping in its orange hue... and all I could think was about how beautiful it all was. Everything had become beautiful, and though the pit in my soul was still empty, I felt like there was something there in it for me. Somehow, the moon was still visible, making its way out of the sky, and I wondered if the Goddess had been watching over me, making sure I knew she had been there for me, as well. For all my urges, I'd remained what I've always believed myself to be - a good person. Yes, a good person, with good friends, as good as they come. And with that, I let my pain inspire me, as it usually does. But the pain always remains, and the world is cold and lonely. Date: Friday, June 18, 1993 8:05am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 369373 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: So, what's new... (2 replies) So, what =are= we all writing about, and what are we =really= doing to get it published? For myself, I've got a UFO abduction story on submission to a small press anthology called MOTHER. I'm working on a couple of other stories (one about spousal abuse and one about Vietnam) in my writing workshop in Manhattan. Out of curiosity, did anyone ever write away for a subscription to THE GILA QUEEN'S GUIDE TO MARKETS? She's just published her 57th issue, which featured something like 150 markets for SF, fantasy and horror. A one-year subscription is $24 for 12 issues. Send check or money order payable to Kathryn Ptacek, GILA QUEEN HEADQUARTERS, P.O. Box 97, Newton, NJ 07860-0097. Date: Friday, June 18, 1993 8:07am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 369378 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: A new market! Dell Magazines just announced the start-up oif a new digest magazine. These are the folks who publish ASIMOV'S and ANALOG. the new mag is LOUIS L'AMOUR'S WESTERN MAGAZINE, edited by Elana Lore. Write to LOUIS L'AMOUR'S WESTERN MAGAZINE at 1540 Broadway, Ny, Ny 10036 for guidelines. Don't forget to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope so you can get those guidelines back! Date: Sunday, June 20, 1993 11:07pm Forum: Inkwell From: Blackjack Msg#: 370364 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: BJSCRIPT.TXT File: BJSCRIPT.TXT (2 replies) Okay... here we go... pretty much all of Act I of BLACKJACK... er... runs about 15 pages with formatting... none here tho' - you'll have to do it off line. Tell me what you think. Date: Thursday, July 15, 1993 10:04am Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 378686 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: SELF What's to tell? A summary of it all. The lives not won, but contested for. A tale of folly, Seeking truths to questions without an answer Of the suffering of humanity, And in all those moments questioning one's very own competency, But with flexibilities of donkeys, striving on, Only to discover that the burdens of humans are part self and part other, With but one to be aided by external endeavors. On waning doubts, to strive boldly forward despite earlier stumbles, In the realization that the meager worries of the past were but figments of the necessary care. Determined by newfound success, and spurned by a born-again zeal Comes a new voice with the crash of thunder in its pride -- A Rhodian Colossus standing on the surface upon which it shines, Feverish to proofread the stammer of an eons-old speech. Sorrow, never again to reappear, flees with tears. Doubt makes a final retreat from Conviction. No more anguish in the dead of the soul's heart. A self-reliance of the mind like no other, unhindered by the inapt counsel of the lesser-wise. Soon, in fact, to be thrown forward into the midsts of an unaware and unawakened order. And once done, A superior spirit, loosened of both parts burden, Neither flowing of blood nor tearshed; Not for anyone. And the screams and the silences? Oh, no more! -- Vadim Korkhov Date: Friday, July 23, 1993 9:37am Forum: Inkwell From: Enchanter Msg#: 381207 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: You write poetry? (Copy by Sysop, Reply to #381148, Reply to #380833, Repl*) (1 reply) RL>You write poetry? I used to, in my depressing days when I had plenty of negative emotion to write about. Nowadays, it's slowed down considerably. The last one I wrote was sort of a conclusion to that era, saying that it's in the past and that now is a new present. It goes something like...well... What's to tell? A summary of it all. The lives not won, but contested for. A tale of folly, Seeking truths to questions without an answer Of the suffering of humanity, And in all those moments questioning one's very own competency, But with flexibilities of donkeys, striving on, Only to discover that the burdens of humans are part self and part other, With but one to be aided by external endeavors. On waning doubts, to strive boldly forward despite earlier stumbles, In the realization that the meager worries of the past were but figments of the necessary care. Determined by newfound success, and spurned by a born-again zeal Comes a new voice with the crash of thunder in its pride -- A Rhodian Colossus standing on the surface upon which it shines, Feverish to proofread the stammer of an eons-old speech. Sorrow, never again to reappear, flees with tears. Doubt makes a final retreat from Conviction. No more anguish in the dead of the soul's heart. A self-reliance of the mind like no other, unhindered by the inapt counsel of the lesser-wise. Soon, in fact, to be thrown forward into the midsts of an unaware and unawakened order. And once done, A superior spirit, loosened of both parts burden, Neither flowing of blood nor tearshed; Not for anyone. And the screams and the silences? Oh, no more! -- Vadim Korkhov Date: Thursday, August 5, 1993 1:37am Forum: Inkwell From: Nightblades Msg#: 384656 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Once. File: ONCE. (1 reply) This is a poem that I wrote. It's kind of dreary. But I think I've ironed out the snags. Date: Monday, August 16, 1993 3:20am Forum: Inkwell From: Nightblades Msg#: 388029 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Once. (1 reply) Okay. I'm putting this in again.... (well cause nobody got to read it and I noticed that people don't like to download and It's a pain in the butt.) We start at the center and work our way out. Laying the tiles of our lives. One tile we lay for all the rest. One f*ck up and we can forget. Forget the times we ever knew. Forget the times both gay and blue. Forget the knowledge we learnt in school. A drink, A ride, the end. Date: Saturday, September 11, 1993 1:36am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 390296 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER Here's the address and information for the SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER which is a newsletter aimed at writers . It carries articles on writing and carries market listings regularly.: Write to: Janet Fox 519 Ellinwood Osage City, Kansas 66523-1329 By Bulk Mail, the subscription rate is $14 per year for 12 issues. By first class, a twelve-month subscription is $18. ONe sample copy is $2.00. The text on the newsletter says: SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER is the monthly market letter for SF/fantasy/horror/mystery writers and artists with an interest in the small press. Newsletter deadlines are the 13th of each month. Though the newsletter claims to be only for those interested in small press publication, it did list FULL SPECTRUM 5 as a market, one of the highest paying markets for speculative fiction in the industry--a pro publication. This is a good source of information for those breaking into writing because small presses tend to be more open to new writers than almost any other markets. They give new writers a feel for the publication process. Date: Saturday, September 11, 1993 1:43am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 390297 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: THE REPORT THE REPORT calls itself "The Fiction Writer's Magazine." Printed on newsprint in the size of a tabloid, THE REPORT publishes articles on writing by pros generally in genre fields (SF, Fantasy, Mystery, Horror) and also runs market listings that range from small press to the best of the professional markets. It also runs contest listings. THE REPORT Pulphouse Publishing, Inc. Box 1227 Eugene, OR 97440 6 issue subscription = $15.00 Send a check or money order to the above address. Date: Saturday, September 11, 1993 1:46am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 390298 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Writer's Chapbook Series Pulphouse Publishing advertises the following: WRITER'S CHAPBOOK SERIES This is a series of chapbooks designed to help writers master the craft of writing fiction. Novelists, short story writer, and editor of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, Kristine Kathryn Rusch will write the first sixteen. Five new chapbooks will be added to the series every two months. There are currently 25 volumes available so far. For information, write to: Pulphouse Publishing, Inc. Box 1227 Eugene, OR 97440 Date: Saturday, September 11, 1993 1:48am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 390299 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: TOMORROW Magazine series A.J. Budrys has been running a series of articles on the art of the short story in TOMORROW Magazine, a relatively new SF magazine. Keep an eye out for it at SF specialty stores in case you're interested. the articles have been pretty good so far, and the rules A.J. sets up for story writing apply to =any= form of story writing, not just SF. Recommended. Date: Wednesday, September 22, 1993 9:00am Forum: Inkwell From: Merlin Msg#: 394126 To: Dragon *EXEMPT* Re: where do I send it?? (Reply to #391941, Reply to #391829, Reply to #390651, R*) (1 reply) For short stories, try a publication called BORDERLANDS. Date: Thursday, September 23, 1993 10:41am Forum: Inkwell From: Merlin Msg#: 394638 To: Dragon *EXEMPT* Re: where do I send it?? (Reply to #394220, Reply to #394126, Reply to #391941, R*) (1 reply) I've got one around here, somewhere; I recommend buying an issue of LOCUS or Science Fiction Chronicle. They often have market reports. Date: Monday, September 20, 1993 7:16pm Forum: Inkwell From: Balder -- The Dead God Msg#: 394861 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: read it and weep... File: 394861.ATT (Fw by Sysop) A soft poem of sensuality... written in ASCII for easy viewing and downloading... enjoy.! Date: Saturday, September 25, 1993 6:02pm Forum: Inkwell From: Balder -- The Dead God Msg#: 395625 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: poems for those who like it... File: 395625.ATT (Fw by Sysop) (1 reply) I started writing some years ago, about life and love, about how time flows. And all the while I feel inside, a sensuality I can not hide. A romantic I am, straight and pure... With one ideal that still endures... Without this feel for achient honor... I am not what I was before... Read the attached text and see what you think. Let me know your opinions... Thank you all... Balder -- The Dead God.. Date: Thursday, September 30, 1993 4:43am Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 396978 To: Dragon *EXEMPT* Re: poems for those who like it... (Reply to #396742, Reply to #395625, Fw by Sysop) (1 reply) Of course one does wonder if lonely and at times depressing poems are just a composite of people the poet has met that has hurt them or burned them, emotionally more than physically..or a combination of both. I look back at the stuff I wrote on here anad I just wonder...could that be the reason why I wrote that line or that verse... Sometimes I look back so far to the point where it kind of stings me hard if mygirlfriend says something which someone else had said.... Like for example , I was over at her place watching tv and I was bored silly, and I was thinking back to something that occured in grade school, ..anyway to make the story short, this girl had said this phrase like "your a chink that don't know how to think.." and that really hit hard on me..Me ,at the time I was smart and getting A's, ..ugh...anyway my girlfriend said to me , as I sat therewith a dazed look, "Hey don't think too hard there." and the msecond she said that I just yelled a bit..I then quickly realized that it wasn't that girl from grade school , anad that I wasn't back in the schoolyard... It's hard to express anger and pain and emotional distress but as writers/poets/prose/singers/etc...we've come close. Date: Sunday, October 3, 1993 3:07pm Forum: Inkwell From: Balder -- The Dead God Msg#: 398137 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: bits.pom File: BITS.POM (Fw by Sysop) (1 reply) A poem I wrote about a realtionship developing though Online means... and its problems... Date: Sunday, October 3, 1993 3:09pm Forum: Inkwell From: Balder -- The Dead God Msg#: 398138 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: morning.pom File: MORNING.POM (Fw by Sysop) (1 reply) This poem looks at the fragility of love as it relates to a moment of time... Enjoy... Balder -- The Dead God... Date: Thursday, October 14, 1993 5:53pm Forum: Inkwell From: Balder -- The Dead God Msg#: 401851 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: A new piece.... (Fw by Sysop) (1 reply) Hope this uploads ok.... we'll see. The Ceiling Above... Unchanged, unmoving - lying awae in bed, how long have I stared at your surface looking for imperfections and seeing only Shapesin the darkness. Permeating my subconsciousness, I do not dream but rather lie in a distant existence. Thoughts randomly drift on my pool of cognizance like dancing spirits on a midnight lake, or a ship sailing to some unknown destination; a place whose origin is equally a mystery. Images dart and drift, swirling and coalesce into a phantasmagoric play - the actors both strangers to me and known. And there, again, I glimpse your face suspended in a moment of time before the ipples in the pool erase your reflection. Once again you haunt me. Oh, shall I ever sleep, to pass beyond this fringe barrier and sink blissfully towards restful slumber. Will I find you there too - gazing back at me - fulfilling some role in the play.. Will I know you.. Will I recall what we might have shared behind the nocturnal curtains of my mind? Only the ceiling wil reveal to me what lies at the forefront of my thoughts And so I look again and see the shades of darkness enfold me once more... EPL June 1, 1993. ction. Once again you haunt me... Date: Tuesday, March 29, 1994 11:54am Forum: Inkwell From: Morgenes Msg#: 463656 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: In the world of Uanga (Copy by Sysop) (2 replies) I'm new here and I've read the suggestions (back in '92) of Enchanters. I like the idea and would like to submit the beginnings of a short. Lemme know what you guys/gals think! --- Edlar drew his hunting dagger and scanned the area carefully. He every little detail. The amount of trees, the height of the branches on those trees, the insects and the direction they are moving, and the unsuspecting prey. Stealthily, Edlar moved from his place of hiding closer to the deer. The deer's head shot up suddenly at the sound of a breaking twig. Edlar leapt out, dagger in hand, at it. Landing face down onto the ground, Edlar just missed the fleeing deer. Edlar let out a string of growling curses and spun around towards the sound of the breaking twig. Standing with one foot still in the air, Iklin blushed sheepishly. "Iklin! I should have known!" Edlar glared. "I's sorry, Edlar. I dinna mean it!" Edlar continued to glare at Iklin. Edlar couldn't really blame Iklin. Iklin is half Gnome and half Punliki. The Punliki are best describe as hedge hog lik e people. Neither Gnome or Punliki are known for their stealth or dexterity. But where Iklin lacked in dexterity and agility, he more than make up for in strength and endurance. Edlar stared at Iklin and realized that isn't the only advantage of Iklin. For some reason, Iklin as an amazing ability to "soften" any agressive feelings towards him. Edlar assumed it's one of those natural things that are developed the many beings on this planet. "Edlar? Waz wrong?" [B Edlar blinked and shook his head. He sheathed his dagger and moved back to his hiding place to gather his bag. Quickly and agily, Edlar lightly leaped over several branches. Edlar is half Eleion, quarter Elvish and quarter Human. Eleion is a cat like people endowed with agility, night sight and a heightened sense alerting them to danger. While the Elvish in his blood endowed him with dexterity, speed and infravision. Edlar, to this day, is still confused as to what his human ancestors has endowed him with. Edlar turned to Iklin's tapping of his shoulders. "Edlar? We's goin back to da village now?" Iklin asked with his largish brown eyes. "Yes.." Edlar sighed, "...back to the village." Iklin's nose twitched and his nearly invisible whiskers bobbed up and down. He turned towards the village and started to pump his short and stubby legs. "Race ya, Edlar!" Edlar shook his head and shouldered his pack. Edlar moved towards the village, walking. *** Peji quickly sheathed her shortsword and moved to the packs. Grabbing the scrolls and several small items she quickly glanced over her shoulder. The creatures moved closer. Peji ran as she stuffed the newly claimed items into her pack. Cold claws cut through her leather armor raking coldly through her back. Penji gasped and fell. Catching the worst of the fall on her hands, Penji stared into the lifeless eyes of Morik, the mage. His amulet glowed slightly in the night. Noticing a swift shadow approach her through the corner of her eye, she quickly rolled and stood crouched. A rasp of scratching metal cut the air as she drew her shortsword. Slowly the creatures surrounded her. Their eyes glowed red and their stenched wafted through the air. Penji bent lower and moved her free hand towards Morik's amulet. Keeping her eyes on the creatures, her hands stiffly moved across Morik's chest to the amulet. Grabbing hold onto the amulet, Penji started to chant the phrases that would activate it's magic. A wave of disorientation falls over Penji as the magic takes her hundreds of miles away. *** (to be continued) Date: Monday, April 4, 1994 2:46pm Forum: Inkwell From: Morgenes Msg#: 465832 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: In the world of Uanga (Copy by Sysop, Reply to #463515) (2 replies) "Edlar! Waits for me!" Edlar sighed. Why do I put up with him, thought Edlar. He turned towards Iklin. Looking up at Edlar, Iklin was smiling his innocent smile. That's why, Edlar thought. Iklin quickly packed the rest of his favorite pastries in his pack and walked quickly up to Edlar. Edlar sighed again and turned towards the door. "Thankee, Pazik!" Edlar heard Iklin yell over to the baker. "Iklin, just how many of those do you buy a day from Pazik?" Edlar asked glancing at Iklin. "Depends, Edlar. On fresh day, I's get lots 'n lots. On not so fresh day, I dinna knows. Whys?" Iklin curiously looked up. Edlar shrugged, "Because you seem to be finished with them before midday meal." Iklin grinned at Edlar, "Theys good, Edlar!" He held out his little hand to Edlar. "Wants one, Edlar?" Edlar shook his head, "No, thanks." They stopped at the village well and Edlar began filling their water flasks. Iklin flopped down besides the fountain and pulled out another pastry. Wonder if Iklin misses the others, Edlar thought. I wonder if... Edlar suddenly dropped the flask and spun around. Hunting dagger in hand in a flash and eyes scanning the area. Edlar noticed several other Eleions alerted. Iklin had, by now, his cudgel in his little hands and standing besides Edlar. "What's happenin, Edlar?" Edlar opened his mouth to answer just as a huge glow appeared a few feet away from him. Edlar heard Iklin gasp. Looking at the glow, Edlar could make out three figures. Apparently, it was some sort of teleport. Edlar wondered what would have made him jump as if alerted to some danger. Still, Edlar kept his hunting dagger out. By now, most of the villagers have left the streets looking for some sort of shelter. The glow began to fade as the three figures took on a more solid form. Iklin started to run towards the figures, but Edlar held him back. "That's Penji, Edlar!" Edlar didn't even notice Penji, he was too busy staring at the figure towering over her and the other figure. *** Penji hoped to the High Gods above that she did not miscast the spell. The world had begun to spin. Poison, Penji thought. The creature must have poisoned her when it clawed her. A tingling sensation touched her. Thinking that it was the poison taking it's terribly quick effects on her, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. *** Edlar crouched down and drew his longsword. It hummed slightly as he said, "Iklin, go to Penji and see if she's ok." Iklin nodded as Edlar pushed him towards Penji. Quickly leaping up towards the creature, Edlar threw his hunting dagger it. The creature, quite faster than it's bulk led on, ducked the dagger easily. It rumbled and Edlar thought that it may be it laughed. Edlar frowned as he landed in front of the creature. It looked familiar but he could not place it. Several horns protruded from the creatures head and jaw line. Sharp red eyes, numbering in three, line its front head. Sharp and dark claws end its thickly muscled arms. It swung it's left clawed hand at Edlar. Edlar ducked and leapt forward, sword leading. The creature stepped to the side as it lifted it's up and began to bring it down. Edlar, slightly overbalanced by his forward lunge, sighed. He quickly spun, but instead of spinning out and away from the creature, he spun towards it. The creature's fist came crashing down and bits of dirt and rock flew out of it's path. Edlar stopped underneath the creature and thrusted his sword up. A loud roar rang forth from the creature. Edlar quickly got to his feet. Suddenly, Edlar saw a shadow fly by him and hit the creature squarely on one leg toppling it. Seeing the creature toppled, Edlar leapt onto it's torso and brought his sword up. Quickly, he brought his sword down piercing one of it's eye half way down the longsword's blade. The creature spasmed a few times and stopped moving with a hiss. Edlar looked towards the creature's leg and saw Iklin grinning at him. (to be continued) Date: Monday, April 11, 1994 10:00pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sandman-93 Msg#: 467906 To: Lane *EXEMPT* Re: Writing Screenplays (Reply to #467480, Reply to #453192, Reply to #452836, R*) (4 replies) LA>Yeah, where the hell are all the stories and poetry? I wanted to read LA>some, and everyone's just chattering in here. e... Isolation Damnation Black roses wilted on the ground Blood red tears, the face of a circus clown The things that remind me of you. Ringfinger's on the radio Pain wherever I choose to go... The things that remind me of you... A kiss in the clod rain Conversations, aggrivations I'm going insane! New Year's Resolution, of emotional revolution I gave all that I had yet there's no substitution. Love equalls Death; cold and alone... Bards cry in the shadows... searching for Philosopher's stones. Life's an illusion with a bloodied nose, Alchoholic delusions, and frost bitten toes... Cleopatra'sghost, my sacremental host... Questions left unanswered; The thing that remind me of you. That was for my ex-fiancee, after we splitup Date: Monday, April 11, 1994 10:14pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sandman-93 Msg#: 467912 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: some more poetry... this is the R-rated version... Heaven's Fool I opened the Gates of Paradise Only to find a laughing clown Pointing at me in wonder... Walking away, leaving the lost for found. Keeping a distance from the Fool I followed onto the cliffs And heard Him say "The White cliffs of Dover We must jump over, jump over!" Diving-flying headlong for the edge I landed upon an angel on the ledge Surprised he slid away from me But not before punching me in the nose. So I bled and fed and wet my bed of straw Rubbing the wounds of my pride (and jaw) Kicking the angel in the ribs, I demanded the reason for the Fool's bliss. Looking me the angel stood and said, "You ass you're dead! Yet you still believe in me... I'm not real, But a dream" And he disappeared! And once again I heard the Fool laugh; And finally realised that he was Me Date: Saturday, April 16, 1994 8:44pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sandman-93 Msg#: 469018 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: not sugary sweet.... (1 reply) here's something i wrote a long time ago but only just found it going thru some stuff in my garage.... it may be a bit ruff but here it is anyway... See the hypocrites standing outside my window, Carrying their signs...JESUS SAVES. Running around the abortion clinic, While protesting "murder" they shoot the doctor in the back! Drunk on Jesus's blood turned back into wine, They fatten themselves on bread paid by The sale of Heaven... Denouncing people for beliefs and ideals on prime time... "We the people, as long as you're like us!" The fires are ablaze again, Smell the flesh falling from my bones, A sardonic smile forms upon my bubbling lips, As the rops burn away... I blow my executioner A Kiss. Date: Thursday, April 21, 1994 9:54pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sandman-93 Msg#: 470709 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: exile...a poem EXILE There's noescape, No entry. Locked up in the spires of Castle Perilous, Screaming for Rapunzel To lt UP Her hair! (But she became a skin-head long ago.) Maybe Jim was right But what if he wasn't, And we can get out of here ALIVE,Where would we go? Traveling-winding down peyote road To where a fork in a wavelength of light splits off Between indigo and violet Becoming orange? So now I don't want to escape, Because there isn't anywhere left to escape to. Sleeping Beauty was raped by a necrophile, Thinking her dead. (But sh screamed awake as he came!) Maybe I'm crazy...alone? You all don't exist, Unless I agree you do. You're not here in this Castle, Behind my doors, Perceiving what I see... Well I'll be fucked! Now I see, That you don't see. And Rapunzel' hair lies on the floor, Braided nto a hangman's noose Around Prince fucking Charming's neck. Well he asked for it didn't he? And I'm still trapped here in Castle Perilous, But feeling much safer now Date: Thursday, April 21, 1994 9:56pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sandman-93 Msg#: 470716 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: ppsychbable...poem (3 replies) PSYCHO BABBLE Watching TV thinking; Oxymoron in motion. Spinning through my living room, Dysfunctional family in discussion. Excuses for killing her on... Post-Partem Depression (Or daddy didn't hug her enough). Lies for crimes, they walk free. Psychology's become a defense lawyer; Everyone's got a disorder. (If not, hold on, we'll invent one...) No one is responsible! (O.K., so you killed everyone at the carnival Because when you were twelve you didn't win a goldfish In one of those ping-pong ball games...) Responsibility's a thing of te past. (Oh good, the Jury bought it? Here's my bill...) Date: Thursday, April 21, 1994 9:58pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sandman-93 Msg#: 470720 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: strange blooms a poem (1 reply) STRANGE BLOOMS The altar rises up from the floor, We victims cry out in Alkhemical ecstasy. Carry us off to your next door world. Fingers entwined in a mockery of prayer. Laughing triumphant we walk into the flames Singing our second skin, as the eye that weeps Sheds dew upon our naked souls Anointing our wounds with the stone -- The Prayer Begins. The elixir is fixed in our subtle sacrifice. In purple veiled splendor we awake the snake Lying in wait for attack. Our heads swim In the forbidden act of -- Agape. Our souls melt away in the Ciy of Pyramids, As the Thebian Princess acceptsour blood In her cup, pouring it over the Earth... Springing up strange blooms. The altar falls back to the floor, And we gasp in orgasm As we awake from trance Bodies entwined in blasphemous prayer. Date: Sunday, April 24, 1994 11:44am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 471789 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Writing From Pain & All That Sh*t (6 replies) I have a real problem with this "the best writing comes from pain" stuff. The best writing comes from sweat and thought and effort. No amout of pain in the world will make you a good writer if you don't apply butt to chair and fingers to keyboard. The best advice on writing I ever heard--or gave--is "Write what you know;" in other words, write about what you've experienced--and that doesn't =only= include pain. It include passion, desire, laughter, love, frustration, envy. It includes walking down the street and smelling car exhaust; sitting in the park ad watching a kid on a swing; standig at the edge of a rooftop and wondering what it would be like to splatter on the pavement below. If all you're going to write about is pain, then you're limiting yourself to a millionth of the human experience and you won't have much to say that's valuable to the rest of humanity; that being the case, the chances are high that you won't get published much of anywhere except perhaps this BB. This isn't to say that writing from pain is value-less, but that in doing it, you do yourself as a writer a great injustice. Life is more than just one's emotions; it's every minute, every second you're alive. Writing is about more than emotions as well. It's about word choice as expression; choose your words carefully and the better you will be able to convey the images, sensations and emotions you're trying to express. Writing is often about telling a story. It's about understanding how to unfold a plot that will keep your reader engaged. Writing is often about explaining how the world works: do it in an orderly, entertaining fashion and you've rendered humanity a real service--you've taught other humans about that which you know best. Writing is about understanding the structure of your own language: no matter how important you feel what you have to say is, if you can't sayit with proper grammar, then few people will take you seriously. Writing is about thinking: planning what you have to say in an intelligent manner; recognizing that if you're bored with what you're writing, then chances are your reader will be, too; considering who are and aren't interesting people to write about and why. Writing is work--creative, exciting, and meaningful work, but work nevertheless. You've got to be willing to do the work if you're serious about it. Date: Sunday, April 24, 1994 11:51am Forum: Inkwell From: Scarlett Msg#: 471797 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: An Exercise (2 replies) You want to hone your writing skills? Okay, here's an exercise that I use on a semi-daily basis. It's not about plot structure. It's about observation and consideration, about applying butt to chair and writing, even if what you write means nothing more than practicing putting words together. (As one great author said, your first million written words are nothig but practice anyway.) Sit yourself down at your keyboard and set a timer of some sort for five minutes. Once the timer begins, you begin to write anything that comes into your mind: stream of consciousness, a description of what's around you--anything at all. Don't stop typing for any reason, even if what you're writing is "I can't think of anything to write I can't think of anything to write<" and so on. Stop when the timer stops, even if you're in the middle of a word. Then go back and see what you did. You may find that you've told a story without meaning to. You may find that you haven't written much that makes sense--except for the one sentece that give syou a story idea. You may find a couple of really well-crafted sentences. You may be surprised to discover that you can simply write for five minutes without stopping. No matter what, I've found this extremely helpful. Just so folks don't feel uncomfortable about posting their exercises, I'll post one of mine in the next post. I hope other folks will, too. Date: Friday, May 20, 1994 9:58am Forum: Inkwell From: Alphabet City Msg#: 480926 To: Hargett *EXEMPT* Re: Writing Screenplays (Reply to #438910) (1 reply) Hi, I know this is a well-fermented message by now, but maybe I can tell you something that the others haven't. I graduated NYU Film School back in '85 and spent two years working for a major producer (John Heyman: A Passage to India, The Dresser, Darryl) first as his screenplay reader, then as his Director of Creative Affairs (fancy title, shit pay). Anyway, I've read thousands of screenplays and written a couple so I can give you some solid suggestions. (Well, as solid as my head, so there may be a debate, here.) Books: The New Screenwriter Looks at the New Screenwriter, by William Froug. -- Invaluable anecdotal info from Hollywoods most recent batch! Froug teaches at USC and has most of them in his class at one point or another. Writing Great SCreenplays for Film and TV, Dona Cooper. The basics. Technical. Great. Software: If you have Microsoft Word, you can buy a book (that has a floppy in it) called Taking Microsoft Word For Windows To The Edge. Among tons of advanced macros/tips etc. Is something called SCRIPT and an even more advanced version called GSCRIPT. Very very powerful screenplay writing/formatting software! AVOID: Any of the Syd Field books. I found them confusing and very formula driven. And the word of mouth rep around NYU says worse things. Good Luck! Date: Friday, September 30, 1994 7:16pm Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 517417 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: A Thought (4 replies) A thought, a query, a question about something Is it not written in stone that life shall be good or bad? Has there been a set of rules given out before one is born? Or is LOve the devil's evil twisted plot to ruin people's lives? Date: Thursday, November 3, 1994 12:24pm Forum: Inkwell From: SpongeHead Msg#: 526633 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Days of Dissassociation I had been sitting for a few minutes reading Sartre's _Nausea_ - another "great work" in Existentialism-, when I realized all the more that I didnt wanna be here. Sitting in this room with puke colored chairs from some reject High School, while sunlight poured in too brightly from drab brown windowsills, I got up. I hadnt any change to make the inevitable phone call to father to pick me up early. On the way to class, a car nearly hit, I proceeded to scream at the driver, and decided voicing my anger wasnt as important as lighting up another cigarette. In light of my near clash with death, I felt I was deserving of some ice cream, so I stopped by Baskin Robbins and picked some up. I need change since I didnt receive enough to make the phone call, so I headed back to school for the change machine. I started jogging up the stairs, but a certain sensation washed over me - it wasnt like a wave, more like a mug of beer being spilled over your head - and I proceeded to walk with this feeling of dismay. I got to the 10th floor cafeteria, whipped out a single and got change from the machine. The dismay turned into an unsettling feeling in my stomach, or rather my intestines. All I could think about as I left the cafeterias was how pathetic and untouching Harriet Beecher Stowe's _Tom's Cabin_ made me feel. It nearly, no it did bring me to tears from boredom. I know it wasnt that I didnt see her purpose in writing it. Perhaps I was to have another one of those days where I felt disassociated from the world, from my very body. I'm sure You've felt it, like the bright orange sign that was only a good 6 feet ahead of you seems 20 feet away. Like you're walking in a machine, seeing through its optic sensors, and all the world around you means nothing. So you take anopther drag of your cigarette and hope the feeling will pass, all the while getting pissed at yourself because it wont. Then you get pissed at world because its so far away, like you couldnt even reach YOURSELF, and you're right there. Anyways, I picked up the Existentialist book again, and turned to page 18, hoping to find this guy's life getting somewhere instead of hearing him whine. Putting down the book, I went for a cigarette in the hallway with some Brooklynite chick. She'd now been told about my aversion to being with large crowds of people at any social gathering. I just can't go running around trying to speak to all the people. I prefer to get to know someone, on a personal, intimate level, rather than hear 16 lines of bullshit from a dozen people. But I saw no point in explaining the latter part to her at the moment, as she was too busy poking fun at me. No doubt it was intended to raise a smile, but I was in no mood for humor, not of that sort in any case. I described to her what my social life entailed after she freely blabbered about getting drunk with her friends. I began with a simply sketchy (sketchy was apparently a term alien to her vocabulary, but it is understandable considering I showed little interest). Before I go further, that brings me to another question: Why is it that when I find someone's tale quite uninteresting and make it known in body langugae, that people expand their current story?! Will rambling on change my state of mind, or make the story any more interesting? But I digress, as was saying, I explained my last drunken state. About 4 weeks ago or so, I had somewhat begrudgingly been invited to attend a party. My sole purpose was of course to get drunk. After 5 beers, 6 jello-shots, and 3 mixed drinks I hit the maximum toleration point. Of course, seeing my friend throwing up 6 times or so, the smell assaulted my nose, and teh disgust of the scene set my stomach aquiver. I was able to keep down most of the liquor and brownies, and threw up only once. So what do I do on weekends?, she pressed. I would have felt quite at ease to sat masturbate and fuck-off, but she would no doubt have been shocked enough to leave. And as I found the conversation passed the time I gave a half-hearted rep,ly. I told her I read, play role playing games, get an occasional cup coffee, and the like. She questioned why I didnt go out. The response was simple enough: I don't like clubs 'cause I dont like club music, and hey, Im white, jewish and male, and therefore cant dance; and I dont do bars unless I ful;ly intend to get drunk, so whats left? She asked me what kind of music I listen to. I felt it of no importance to divulge the information, and I did so rather quickly. I had grown tired of the trivial nature of the conversation, so I got up and we walked back to the classroom. I sat down for a few minutes, waiting for class to start. I took the quiz and got up to leave. The professor made some cute comment about leaving LAST week. I shrugged and said I couldnt stay. She raised her arms and stretched them out. I thought+ she wanted me to hug her. She looked like some twisted Elf out of Tolkien's books, old and sagging, something like a grandma in a nursing home where they never feed her. The thought wasnt quite appealing, so I moved on. She said: "Ok, you're free. Go." I already knew I was free, I didn't need her to tell me that. Date: Friday, February 24, 1995 7:38pm Forum: Inkwell From: Marien Msg#: 565854 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: go home I wrote this one while out in Flagstaff, AZ. A lot of the kids there thought, upon first impression that I was nothing short of a freak, and thus treated me accordingly, so I wrote this one: Brain dead town, brain dead people city kid, whatcha doin' here, go home. You don't belong, not here, not nowhere you go, not home. Not even home do you fit in, you may think you do, but you don't, it's just there's enough people for you to fade into, enough people to smother your dreamy head, your loving heart. City kid, get out while you can, go home. Date: Friday, February 24, 1995 7:44pm Forum: Inkwell From: Marien Msg#: 565858 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Little Angel This one's about this 12 year old boy that wanted me badly, but he was a virgin and underage and all of that, and we were really close friends, so I was really upset by it all. Just one of the few things that happened to me while in flagstaff. PS-I did him anyway. Little angel, so innocent, so sweet, whatever do you have in mind to do with me? Don't you know that I'm the devil in disguise? And if you don't, then why do I see a devil in *your* eyes. I'm being drawn in, taken for a fool, mesmerized by your eyes, though I know I should look into them no more, lest I fall prey to my own instincts, my ever present lust. Little angel, so pure, so young, why must you seem so old, so wise, everything that you're not? Date: Thursday, February 16, 1995 9:17am Forum: Inkwell From: Brandie Msg#: 572406 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Small Children (Copy by Sysop) You said write so here it is. . . Flame Burning bright is not for you more a roar in the wind than a guiding light. Flicker,sputter roar back to life fighting constantly for survival source the strength don't determine the battle the size and relentlessness of the wind does. in fighting the wind you over compensate burn your source now you're gone Would that it were so easy for me.... PsychoKitty Date: Friday, March 3, 1995 5:42pm Forum: Inkwell From: Dti Msg#: 572463 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: what the fuck never tried verse before (Copy by Sysop) (1 reply) eyes like living eggs you can feel them from behind ten solid years out past the exit door bar never really sleep each nerve a pariah singing on live coals and the air filled with invisible waves radiation you cannot see it sometimes only hear it with the proper equipment eighteen cans of beer and a pack anna half of shorts burned and it still breathes although it has no idea why sometimes they play music you know and remember in the worst possible way remember ben the snakeman he cried when he played that song in 1983 and the world was round look out the window see the gestapo terrorist girl before she even existed it was like future windowpanes walking by out the workplace window at lunch and you were drunk then too but it still might have worked then it didnt but what the hell gestapo terrorist girl on Queens Boulevard noon springtime the bike leaking oil inside the shop quietly a beer in hand lunch in the cabinet shop look out the window say I am gonna fuck her in the real world and even did and again even and her idiot boyfriend even got you drunk later 4th of July on the roof at a turning point day remember he was so bombed he almost fell off onto the expressway but you roped him in stupid then too there is an immutable pattern but it all went to shit anyway quit the job with the window for a road got more jobs spent time the telephone rings and they have this technology allows you to know who calls before you pick it up helps when you hate to talk on the phone keeps it to the real people who actually are worth the vox sometimes it rings and the box says PRIVATE or OUT OF AREA and that could still mean a good call so you pick it up say hello and there is no one there Hello Three times Three times is the charm three times already resigned to prior knowledge it has all been pissed on to quote Crazy John who punched out wired glass trans it windows while we were loaded on acid in the snow when everyone was still ali ve a long time ago and even then it had all been pissed on One red scar left antecubital fossa delivered by commando dagger and consent last time consent was given a dream with the sky running pink at 5am local time 5pm to humans in this timezone late friday another gone day shot in the ass carriage returns substituted for nonexistent punctuation seven million beers and still cant sleep after 2 days soon enough to mark another day time runs fast no matter what happens Date: Friday, March 3, 1995 6:10pm Forum: Inkwell From: Dti Msg#: 572464 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Always Too Drunk To Fuck (Copy by Sysop) (1 reply) she was benediction just like heroin enough junkies to know they have an idea about the pure desire that cannot be wholly ignored no matter the desire not like love compares with junk like i said I know enough junkies to know they know purity of intent worse than anyone alive by any definition implied or actual two beers left and seven cigarets and my boots are off so this will have to be short hit five times already today something made me do it this was after a double tour on the job but lately an impelling desire to leave words i write on the keys on my left hand even on paper and i swore i would ne ver ever write on paper again it is too easy to find and read i would fuck up leave written paper around thinking i lived somewhere i could b e easy and leave words around like simple words just certain desires or antidesires most likely usually rather not over want to in the scheme of choices people found those words and it was a nightmare in 3D after so i learned how to hide intent and desire and words the most important thing got along but nothing mattered really people died in my arms and what the fuck you are not god although they taught you how to keep them alive no matter what happened they di d not dont fuck with me stay away far its not good just disappear bad mind dried in a pattern grooved forever got one beer left three smokes now time is short tomorrow the slow death house again after all its the fucking weekend free time yeh big fucking deal 48 hours away from nothing going on and sleep days thinking about sealing the cracks in the bedroo m windows more efficiently to seal out that which radiates from the World and m akes it diff to sleep or pretend to sleep for awhile the time I got to pretend to sleep one beer and three smokes with no way out to the beerstore time to go diff to sleep but what isnt? looking in the maw of 48 blank hours with nothing to do but remember something else that also did not exist with one beer now just ripped open and 3 smokes co unting the one burning to measure time in cigarets death slightly postponed and socially acceptable its not murder and its not suicide and I cant say yes and i cant say no Date: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 2:17am Forum: Inkwell From: Tito Puentes Msg#: 576227 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: A Return to Poetry (2 replies) A RETURN TO POETRY - YRETTOP Why would one living as fast as we do want to return to Poetry? Well, poetry is slow, calculated construction deliberate in its points true in its intent Pottery is hand-made an art and a science it is intentional and premeditated Why return to pottery when our machines turn-out zillions of product per hour? when hand-made is imperfect not uniform ... unique? Do you remember the COMPUTER REVOLUTION ... and the PROMISES? ... yup, they said computers would simplify things and in a way they did. They said computers would do things faster, leaving us more time for ourselves and our families... ... and finally be able to LIVE ! And the computer beautiful machine incredible intricacy fulfilled its promise and did things faster... leaving us more time for fewer people to work more. It was never the initial intention, but then, neither was it Mr. Ford's aim to have fewer people working but to produce more; nor was it Atom's daddies to put the world in mortal terror and danger of atomic winter and annihilation. But intention and result are two different things seldom end up being twins The fathers of Sci-fi dreamed-up horrendous concoctions of a twisted kind of robots taking over of invasions from Mars of androids reproducing themselves of almost every imaginable danger deriving from the computer revolution all but one factor was taken into account the Human factor the real one GREED. No one foresaw a greedy system shunning almost everyone from the self respect of a job well done! Don't get me wrong... I love computers and their accomplishments and their potential Why do we misuse Date: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 2:22am Forum: Inkwell From: Tito Puentes Msg#: 576231 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Cobblestones Cobblestones On the cobblestones of memory we leave our traces in time never mind History. On the cobblestones of memory we leave our traces in History never mind time. On the cobblestones of time we leave our traces in memory never mind History. On the cobblestones of time we leave our traces in History never mind time. On the cobblestones of History we leave our traces in time never mind Memory. On the cobblestones of History we leave our traces in Memory never mind time. never mind madness never mind fear only mind NOW. (c) 1993 Roberto Isaza Btk. Date: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 2:23am Forum: Inkwell From: Tito Puentes Msg#: 576232 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Death (1 reply) DEATH 7/25/93 01:44am You've got to love the moment `cause then the moment's gone you've got to let it all out `cause the chance will walk along. Confronted with death I miss you do you miss me? Our chances of sharing are going, going ... GONE! We've got to share the moment `cause this is all we've got and done we've got to share with all our hearts `cause in the end we ARE alone. (c) 1994 Roberto Isaza Btk. Date: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 2:24am Forum: Inkwell From: Tito Puentes Msg#: 576233 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Loss LOSS Some of us have had the misfortune of growing up without knowing the meaning of loss But those fortunate enough to have lost a loved one could teach you... of the immediacy of sharing the moment and how precious the instants are you ARE fortunate if you haven't lost but you really don't know HOW If your mother lives: love thy mother : If your mother doesn't live if your father lives: love thy father : if your father doesn't live if your sister lives: love thy sister : if your sister doesn't live if your brother lives:love thy brother:if your brother doesn't live if we loved one another wouldn't this be a better world wouldn't we feel more at ease if we shared while we could and cherished what we had we wouldn't have to suffer our losses so much because the time shared together would ALWAYS be our gain ...and the time departed... well, we ALL have to Move on someday and never know where we're going only that we all end-up There. (c) 1994 Roberto Isaza Btk. Date: Saturday, June 17, 1995 9:40am Forum: Inkwell From: Merlin Msg#: 606835 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: A Death in the Family (2 replies) For those who might not be aware of the following news, I am posting, in toto, a message which George R.R. Martin posted on the GEnie service a few days ago: I have been asked to post the sad news that Roger Zelazny died in St. Vincent's Hospital in Santa Fe early this afternoon, of liver failure brought on by colon/rectal cancer. Jane Lindskold, his beloved friend and companion of this past year, was with him when he died, along with his son Trent, and several of Roger's friends from the SF community. His other children, his son Devon and his daughter Shannon, had sat with him for much of the night. Roger had been fighting the disease with chemotherapy since it was first diagnosed, and the tumor had been in remission for a year, but a few months ago his condition worsened. Roger was an intensely private man, and told only family and a few close friends of his illness. He remained hopeful and optimistic until the last, and was writing right up until a few days ago, and gaming with Jane and his friends from Santa Fe and Albuquerque. He had recently completed an unfinished novel based on a fragment left by Alfred Bester, had done a CD/ROM game with Jane, and was hard at work on a major new science fiction novel, DONNERJACK, which he was extremely excited about. Many of us who knew Roger for a long time -- myself included -- had never seen him happier or more full of life than he had been during this past year. Roger had expressed the wish that his friends remember him with a party rather than a religious service, and that is indeed what we plan to do. Fred and Joan Saberhagen have kindly donated their home, and a get-together will be held there in the near future. A date and time have not yet been fixed, but I will post details when I have them for those in the New Mexico area. For all the rest of the people who loved Roger and his work, we have been talking about organizing a memorial service/reading/party at one of the major upcoming conventions, most likely the World Fantasy Con in Baltimore. Again, I will post further details when I have them. Roger was a giant, not only one of the finest writers that the genre has ever seen, but the kindlest, gentlest, sweetest man I have ever been fortunate enough to know. We have lost a good one. ------------ Date: Tuesday, June 20, 1995 9:06pm Forum: Inkwell From: Merlin Msg#: 607772 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: TAPESTRIES This is an announcement that the book MAGIC: THE GATHERING - TAPESTRIES, an anthology of stories based on the game Magic: The Gathering, is now in the bookstores. It contains a story by yours truly, entitled "Dochyel's Ride." Shamless plug now over. Date: Tuesday, June 13, 1995 1:52pm Forum: Inkwell From: Merlin Msg#: 611989 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Stoker Awards (Fw by Lythande) In ceremonies held this past Saturday night, June 10, the following Stoker awards were handed out at the annual Horror Writers of America Banquet: Short Story: A tie between "Cafe Endless: Spring Rain" by Nancy Holder (LOVE IN VEIN and "The Box" by Jack Ketchum (_Cemetary Dance_) Long Fiction: "The Scent of Vinegar" by Robert Bloch (DARK DESTINY) Collection: THE EARLY FEARS by Robert Bloch (Fedogan & Bremmer) First Novel: GRAVE MARKINGS by Michael Arnzen (Dell/Abyss) Novel: DEAD IN THE WATER by Nancy Holder (Dell/Abyss) Lifetime Achievement Award: Christopher Lee Date: Sunday, August 13, 1995 7:25am Forum: Inkwell From: Chelsea Msg#: 624656 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Words Worth Remembering . . . Some interesting quotes about WRITING: ON MOTIVATION ------------- Why do writers write? Because it isn't there. -- Thomas Berger We write to taste life twice: in the moment, and in retrospection. -- Anais Nin Writing is putting one's obsessions in order. -- Jean Grenier Great writers leave us not just their works, but a way of looking at things. -- Elizabeth Janeway ON GETTING STARTED ------------------ I always write a good first line, but I have trouble in writing the others. -- Moliere When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. Then gradually I write one page and then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to contemplate. -- John Steinbeck (Writing a novel) is like driving a car at night. You never see farther than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. -- E.L. Doctorow Take a few sheets of paper and for three days in succession write down, without falsification or hypocrisy, everything that comes into your head. Write what you think...and when the three days are over, you will be amazed at what novel and startling thoughts have welled up in you. -- Ludwig Boerne I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork. -- Peter De Vries ON THE RIGHT APPROACH --------------------- If you would like to write better than everybody else, you have to want to write better than everybody else. You must take an obsessive pride in the smallest details of your craft. -- William Zinsser Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is the genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. -- Kurt Vonnegut The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time. -- George Bernard Shaw If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the best that you can do; and it's the fact that it's the best that kills you! -- Dorothy Parker There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. -- Red Smith There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. -- W. Somerset Maugham ON SURVIVAL ----------- The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and, lastly, the solid cash. -- Nathaniel Hawthorne Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, then for a few friends, and finally for money. -- Moliere The two most beautiful words in the English language are "Check enclosed." -- Dorothy Parker If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that's read by persons who move their lips when they're reading to themselves. -- Don Marquis When in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns. -- Raymond Chandler Marry money. -- Max Schulman, providing advice to aspiring writers ON BEING PUBLISHED ------------------ Writing is a lonely business not just because you have to sit alone in a room with your machinery for hours and hours every day, month after month, year after year; but because after all the blood, sweat, toil, and tears, you still have to find somebody who respects what you have written enough to leave it alone and print it. -- Joseph Hansen My dear fellow, I may perhaps be dead from the neck up, but rack my brains as I may I can't see why a chap should need 30 pages to describe how he turns over in bed before going to sleep. -- Editor rejecting Marcel Proust's "Swann's Way" The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the "curiosity" level. -- Editor rejecting "The Diary of Anne Frank" I am only one, only one, only. Only one being, one at the same time. Not two, not three, only one. Only one life to live, only sixty minutes in one hour. Only one pair of eyes. Only one brain. Only one being. Being only one, having only one pair of eyes, having only one time, having only one life, I cannot read your manuscript three or four times. Not even one time. Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one. Hardly one. -- Editor rejecting Gertrude Stein's "Ida: A Novel" Very nice, but there are dull stretches. -- Comte De Rivarol, on a two-line poem I am sitting in the smallest room in the house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me. -- Max Reger I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper. -- Steve Martin And it does no harm to repeat, as often as you can, "Without me the literary industry would not exist; the publishers, the agents, the sub-agents, the sub-sub-agents, the accountants, the libel lawyers, the departments of literature, the professors, the theses, the books of criticism, the reviewers, the book pages -- all this vast and proliferating edifice is because of this small, patronized, put-down, and underpaid person." -- Doris Lessing Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did. Chelsea Date: Thursday, November 9, 1995 1:06pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sheena Msg#: 650691 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: To All Parents... (1 reply) ...In loving memory of J.R.M. 1-15-89 to 10-17-89 I'll lend you, for a little while, a child of mine, He said. For you to Love while she lives and mourn when she is dead. It may be six or seven years, or twenty-two or three But will you, till I call her back, take care of her for me? She'll bring her charms to gladden you, and shall her stay be brief, You'll have her lovely memories as solace for your grief. I cannot promise you she will stay, as all from Earth return, But there are lessons down there I want this child to learn. I've looked the wide world over in my search for teachers true, And from the throng that crowd Life(s lanes, I have selected you. Now will you give her all your Love- think not the Labor vain Nor hate me when I come to call to take her back again. I fancied that I heard them say,'Dear Lord, thy will be done' For all the joy this child shall bring, the risk of grief we'll run. We'll shower her with tenderness and Love her while we may, And for the happiness we've known, forever grateful stay. And should the Angels call for her much sooner thn we planned, We'll brave the bitter grief that comes, and try to understand. Date: Monday, November 13, 1995 11:49pm Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 652176 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Here Comes The Night... (1 reply) It's been a few weeks since I last recalled anything worthwhile. The fact that the circle had come full , the place of origin would be the place of ending. A look in the face, a glimmer of a smile was not in the cards.. It's only been a few weeks...a few weeks which I felt somewhat numb to the world... A few weeks which has driven me to forget about the current state of condition.. Tonight, I toss and turn in my bed...a cold sweat covers my body like a blanket.. I remeber the past all of a sudden...memories flood my mind of the times when I was happy. Here comes the night, and here I go out of my mind again...wish you could be here besides me.. But it's been a few weeks since I last spoke to you..till tonight.. again the blanket hits me...a candle is lit for you in hopes of your safety and return...hoping one day you might be back. Date: Friday, January 19, 1996 9:14pm Forum: Inkwell From: Erica Msg#: 668453 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Imagine (1 reply) Imagine I'm running trying to escape. It gets closer each step I take. My heart races, I start shaking and sweating. Then all of a sudden everything stops. I look around and everything is okay. -Erica ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR] Date: Friday, January 19, 1996 9:14pm Forum: Inkwell From: Erica Msg#: 668454 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Poem Do you know me? Do you know me? I am what you are afraid of. I am what you've been running from. I am a person. I have feelings just like you, but you don't seem to care. You could help me. You could be my friend, if you would give me a chance. -Erica ___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR] Date: Friday, January 19, 1996 9:14pm Forum: Inkwell From: Erica Msg#: 668455 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Poem (1 reply) The Dream One moonlit night I closed my eyes and went to sleep. Visions of red and black appeared. I heard a shot and saw my soul and a woman with a black robe on. She shot me and it pierced my skin it ran into my heart and she shot again. She shot again and it hit my shoulder and once more, and soon I fell. And yet I was not dead. -Erica Date: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 5:26pm Forum: Inkwell From: Erica Msg#: 689001 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: November (1 reply) November It was bitterly cold day in mid November. The snow had just began to fall for its first time of the year. It was also the beginning of deer hunting season so Father was gone. Mother was at her Mother's house and I sat home alone. Most of the time I liked being alone for awhile but not today. Today was different. I sat there staring at the cold winter snow falling slowly to the ground, The time seemed to drag by very slowly. I sat there and became bewildered by my thoughts. My thoughts were the only things I had at the time. My imagination was running wild and was making me feel more and more alone. Father brought the dog with him and the cat was somewhere outside. i looked around at the still emptiness of the room. I thought if I got up and moved around it might help. Nothing seemed to help. I was so alone. I tried to call a friend but no one was home. I was though. I tried to write some poetry. Nothing seemed to help. I played the stereo and the songs were filled with lyrics that were haunting me. I was so alone. So I tried to read a book but I couldn't concentrate on it either. So I sat for awhile. I sat and thought about how I felt. I decided to try and call my Mother. No one was there. I called my Grandmother and she was gone also. It had only been a couple of hours of being alone so far and no one was expected back for another three to four hours. The time ticked by really slow. I began to wonder what I was doing. I wasn't doing anything. I had nothing to do, no where to go and no one to be with. I tried to watch some television but it didn't interest me. At this time nothing interested me more than to be with someone. To feel loved and wanted. I didn't feel anything but anxiety and the longing to be with someone. My body felt like an empty pit. The more I thought the more my body ached. I tried toeat but wasn't hungry. I wanted to give up. It was pressing in my mind. I wasnted to go away and never come back. All I know is that I didn't want to be there. I was so alone I felt my body become very cold. I couldn't stand it anymore. The coldness and the stillness and the silence. I had to get away. I couldn't stay there. I knew I couldn't go anywhere because I had no where to go and I couldn't bear to wait any londer so I went into Father's room and grabbed one of his guns and a box of bullets. I loaded the gun quickly and placed it ever so carefully on the floor in between my legs. At this moment I began to cry but it didn't matter. But it didn't matter. No one heard me. So I pulled the trigger. Written January 23, 1990 Erica Date: Wednesday, April 10, 1996 1:59pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 694293 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Poem (Fw by Sysop) (1 reply) Whistling past my window.. Singing songs of woe. I hear your screams so loudly.. That..my heart goes out to you. No means of excapes from.. Doomsday echoes.. Sounds from far away. You beat against the pane.. So hard. As though you're here to stay. Some stumble and fall against.. Your resistance.. You're stronger than we .. Ever imagined. We realize the danger of.. Fighting you..now. So,it's best that we stand.. By and Wait for you. Just wait; just wait and see. ok Date: Sunday, April 14, 1996 6:56pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 694444 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: untitled (1 reply) The aloneness of my life..as I now.. Know it.. Has caused the depth of agony to pierce.. The depth of me. I've lost the hope, the glow..oh.. And the will to breath. To rise up at the light of day, or.. Recognize the need to fuel..my temple. That has to me, always been ugly.. In it's way. If only I had the days gone by.. to come.. Again. Instead of dwelling on the past.. Which does no good for me.. I dare say. The aloneness that I suffer, now.. I hope would be a thing of yesterday.. Again to never be. Then I would sleep contentedly.. on my own. And look to no one else for peace..for me. Aloneness to me, is the devil standing by.. To keep good feelings stored away.. So, not to cause the agony of wrenching... Pain to stray. Date: Monday, April 15, 1996 6:03pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 694623 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: All those born before 1945 YOU ARE SURVIVORS!!!! Consider the changes you've witnessed. You were born before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, before pantyhose, dishwashers, clothes dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners, before drip-dry clothes-and before man walked on the moon. You got married first and then lived together. Hou quaint can you be? In your time closets were for clothes not for "coming out of". Bunnies small rabbits and rabbits were not Volkwagons. Disigner Jeans were scheming girls named Jean or Jeanne, and having a meaningful relationship meant getting along well with your cousins. You thought fast food was what you ate during Lent, and Outer Space was the back of the Riviera Theatre. You were before hous-husbands, gay rights, computer dating, dual careers, and commuter marriages. You were before day-care centers, group therapy and nursing homes. You never heard of FM radio, tape decks, electric typewriters, artificial hearts, word processors, yogurt, and guys wearing earrings. For you, time-sharing meant togetherness-not computers or condominiums: a "chip" meant a piece of wood: hardware meant hardware and software wasn't even a word! In 1940 "made in Japan" meant junk and the term "making out" referred to how you did on your exam. Pizzas, "MacDonalds" and instant coffee were unheard of You hit the scene when there were 5 and 10 cent stores, where you bought things for five and ten cents. Sanders or Wilsons sold ice cream cones for a nickel or a dime. For one nickel you could ride a street car, make a phone call, buy a pepsi or enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600, but who could afford one; a pity too because gas was 11 cents a gal! In your day, cigarette smoking was fashionable. GRASS was mowed. COKE was a cold drink and POT was something you cooked in. ROCK MUSIC was a GRandma's lullaby and AIDS were were helpers in the Principal's office. You were certainly not before the difference between the sexes was discovered, but we were surely before the sex change: we made do with what we had. And we were the last generation that so dumb as tothink you needed a husband to have a baby! No wonder you are so confused and there is such a generation gap today! BUT YOU SURVIVED!!!! What better reason to celebrate. ok Date: Saturday, April 27, 1996 10:22pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 699058 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: It's Possible If you want it badly enough It`s possible If you dream it often enough It`s possible If you can imagine it vividly enough It's possible If you work at it hard enough It`s possible If you can perceive it objectively enough It's possible If you pledge never to allow adversity To deter you from your desires, your Perceptions, your dreams, your hard work Or your imagination IT'S YOURS OK Date: Saturday, April 27, 1996 10:28pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 699060 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: FREEDOM Emerging from the safety of your cacoon Into a space where freedom lies Reaching, grabbing, holding on to a vision Of hope that has not been imagined by Mere mortals Led by instinct to envelope the unclear Non-imagined conceptof things to be Waiting to be discovered, developed, Molded And shared, eventually by all.. The comfort found in the state of serenity Created by the soft caress of clouds up high Leading quietly, to an overwhelming need to Search for, to discover, to create a state Of being, not yet known, not yet seen Not yet conceived..without me. ok Date: Saturday, May 4, 1996 10:01pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 700793 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Success (1 reply) Take alloted hope for the day. Blend with desire. Mix in interests. Beat swiftly with abilities. Sprinkle with goals. Multiply be creativity. Lock in energy. Wrap tightly with skills. Watch closely for success. ok Date: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 5:49pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 703128 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: MYSELF (1 reply) I have to live with myself,and so I want to be fit for myself to know. I want to be able, as days go by, Always to look myself straight in the Eye. I don't want to stand, with the setting Sun. And hate myself for the things I've done. I want to go with my head erect, I want to deserve all men's respect. For here in the struggle for fame and self I want to be able to like myself. I don't want to look at myself and know I'm bluster, a bluff and an empty show. I never can hide myself from ME; I see what others may never see. I know what others may never know, I never can fool myself, and so, Whatever happens, I want to be Self respecting and conscience free. ok Date: Saturday, June 15, 1996 2:13pm Forum: Inkwell From: Sugah Msg#: 708790 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: THE END OF THE ROAD IS BUT A BEND (2 replies) Sometimes we come to life's crossroads And view what we think is the end. But God has a much wider vision And he knows that it's only a bend. The road will go on and get smoother And after we've stopped for a rest, The path thatlies hidden beyond us Is aften the part thatis best, So rest and relax and grow stronger, Let go and let God share your load, And have faith in a brighter tomorrow.... You came to a bend in the road. ok Date: Wednesday, October 16, 1996 8:14pm Forum: Inkwell From: Johndrake Msg#: 720839 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: freewrite lifeless and bloated she lies in wait never again a laugh or sigh will escape her blue lips a girl of the night no one will come claim but where can you place the blame upbringing or lack thereof? environment? or purely circumstance? Whatever the case maybe she lies in wait never to lagh or sigh again. Date: Friday, February 14, 1997 9:10pm Forum: Inkwell From: AahzDeva Msg#: 729852 To: ** ALL ** *EXEMPT* Re: Lend me your mind, I'll give words to read........ Hi All, I'm new here, and finally decided to break out of Hello Forum... I'm a writer I guess mostly poetry and lyrics.. Lend me your eyes for a few and enjoy my writing. "DAYS GONE BY" @1993 Don't know where I'm going to. There's nothing left for me to do. I've done my time, been drinking wine To pass my days on thru. I think back to days gone by, the dreams I've had of you. Just thinking of it, makes me cry. Cause I didn't know what to do. Now I'm older, much matured. But where are you? "Oh my Lord!" Please help me make my dreams come true. It's been so many years, Since I've felt this way for you. I've counted the tears, hoping to reach your heart. But still I was afraid, That's why we're apart. I've got to know if you felt the same, cause loves not blind it's a silly game. Date: Thursday, June 19, 1997 4:32am Forum: Inkwell From: Morgaine Msg#: 737680 To: ** ALL ** Re: Hey...where is everybody? Well, I'm not a model citizen, especially after being guilty of not being on AH for a while (Oh, some grammar there, eh??) but I was wondering where all of the activity went... End of list! Select a Sysop option (R,W,F,T,S,M,E,A,O,X to exit or ? for menu):