WeWriWa – the animal within

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image. 

 

 

Continuing a scene from The Long Dark in Mikey’s point of view. Mikey is trying to make sense of the adults’ conversation over dinner after the loss of a crawler and one of its crew. They are discussing the difficulty getting replacements. 

 

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“What they don’t tell you,” Nick continued bleakly, “is the cost of shipping new units out here.” 

Anna stared at him. “Then why not simply ship the parts we need to keep things running? I know nothing about costs, but even I can see that a few crates of spares is smaller and lighter than a whole car or yoop.” 

Nick grinned. Mikel had trouble working out expressions, their range and subtlety confused him, but some screamed loud and clear out of the background clutter. Nick’s grin held no amusement, it was pure animal ferocity. Mikel winced. Neither Anna nor Georgina seemed to have noticed the feral threat Nick suddenly seemed to pose.

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So what's got Nick mad? More next week.

Is it over yet?

Pause for breath as we near the end of a manic year.

 

As I looked out at grey drizzle this afternoon, the neighborhood feels like it’s been damp and chilly for ages. It’s hard to believe it was only a couple of weeks ago that Ali and I took the dogs out for a drive and a walk to a beach where this photo was taken. Thankfully we have a good stock of firewood ready for the winter.

If anyone thought that November would finally bring an end to four years of relentless US election campaigning they were in for a sad awakening. The election has come and gone with a clear winner but no resolution. And don’t expect the shenanigans to end next month with the Electoral College, or even in January. Trump has been laying the groundwork all year to undermine the foundations of American democracy and will continue to do so long after he’s left the White House. Anything to avoid conceding a loss. It’s been saddening to see how deep the misinformation has taken root.

Closer to home, up to now BC has been touched only lightly by COVID. Most of the outbreaks have been in care homes with relatively little in the community, and we’ve got away with fewer restrictions than many parts of the world. The picture has evolved through the course of the year, but for the most part life has continued. That picture has changed this month, with cases spiking alarmingly and new measures in place in the last few days. Limits on social gatherings, and for the first time a mask mandate in indoor spaces. At work, a directive last month to start bringing people back into the office instead of working from home has been reversed, for now. Whether it will be enough to bring things back under control remains to be seen.

Progress on the writing front, The Long Dark text and cover art is in the hands of the book designer, and I’ve been busy proof-reading the interior layout. Getting very close to publication before Christmas.

WeWriWa – Insurance woes

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image. 

 

 

Continuing a scene from The Long Dark in Mikey’s point of view. Mikey is trying to make sense of the adults’ conversation over dinner after the loss of a crawler and one of its crew. He’s puzzling over Georgina’s last words: “It’s hell trying to get even a handful of spares to keep things running, but they always seem happy to replace whole units when they finally fall apart.”

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“Sure,” Nick snorted. “Once we’ve completed a meter-thick wad of loss claims paperwork.” 

“At least that’ll be easy this time,” Georgina added. “It may be hard proving a unit sitting in the garage can’t be patched up any more, but one that’s lost below the surface must be a bit of a no-brainer.” 

“Actually,” Anna seemed hesitant. More strangeness. “It was still on the surface when we left it. Kinda. Will that be a problem?”  

That’s ten sentences. The scene continues ...  

Nick closed his eyes briefly. “We’ll be careful what we state in the reports. It’s lost to us for the coming season. Leave it at that. Once we’ve done the paperwork right, they’re happy to send a replacement. I think the loss claim allows them to set it off against tax or something.” 

Mikel filed the strange words away for future reference. Here was a whole world of connections, causes and effects, that seemed to hover on the edge of understanding.

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WeWriWa – replacement parts

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly blog hop where participants post eight to ten sentences of their writing. You can find out more about it by clicking on the image. 

 

 

Continuing a scene from The Long Dark in Mikey’s point of view. Mikey is trying to make sense of the adults’ conversation over dinner after the loss of a crawler and one of its crew. 

 

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The conversation around him seemed to have moved away from Ambrose, away from things that made his mother cry. Back to the trek. The terrifying unknown reached out to engulf Mikel, but he needed to listen, to learn how to deal with this impossible threat to his stable life. 

“The Company will send new equipment.” 

That was Georgina. She always seemed to know a lot of things Mikel didn’t, but then she was so slow at seeing the connections between the things she knew. Once he had the facts, Mikel was always faster at solving problems and drawing conclusions than Georgina. That troubled him, too. Teenagers weren’t supposed to be better than grown ups.  

That’s ten sentences. The scene continues ...  

“It’s hell trying to get even a handful of spares to keep things running, but they always seem happy to replace whole units when they finally fall apart.” 

Another anomaly. Somehow this one seemed important, but Mikel couldn’t see where it fit into the pattern of life, home, and safety. Why is it easier to replace a whole rather than a part?

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