Julia’s Writing

Today we have a special post – two stories for the price of one!  (Namely, that price is free, but hey, who’s counting, right?).

In honor of my wonderful father’s birthday, I am posting two stories. The first is called A Walk in the Park and it is by my dad, Grahame Scott-Douglas.  He wrote this story a couple of years ago and, upon reading it, I was inspired to write the next story in today’s post: A Walk in the Park – The Hunt.

Be warned that, like most stories posted to this blog, both of these stories are rated R for sexual content, violence, offensive language, and general strangeness.

So, without further ado, I bring you A Walk in the Park by Grahame Scott-Douglas AND A Walk in the Park – The Hunt by Julia Scott-Douglas.

Happy Birthday Dad!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Nobody has ever asked me where I get my ideas, so this is simply mental masturbation. But, I do think about where I get my ideas from, because sometimes they make me smile and sometimes they just freak me out.

Usually I like to say most of my ideas are inspired by authors I admire, which is totally true. I read A LOT, which is evidenced by my book review blog. But otherwise…

Well, here’s an example. This morning I was driving to work, happily contemplating the awesome 2010 Olympics T-shirt my aunt had kindly picked up for me. My mom picked up the tab. I have cool family. Anyway, I drove past a school I drive by every single day and I saw two fire trucks and an ambulance parked outside. There were no people in them and the wheels were blocked, so I figure it’s some kind of demonstration for the kids in the school. Then, I turn and there’s a police SUV parked right next to the driveway of my office, which happens to be next to a bank. We’ve had police come into our parking lot and stand behind the cement block wall which separates our lot from the bank with loaded rifles and shotguns trained on some bank robber before. So, I thought, Hope nothing’s up with the bank.

Now, here’s the last straw. I unlocked the door to my office and a horrible moldy/rotted smell hit me.

First thought, There was a leak. Twasn’t so.

Next thought, The coffee machine was left on. Again, nope.

Next thought, It smells like the mold is getting moldy. Kind of like that time a rat got trapped in the ceiling above my cube and rotted for a week before anyone could figure out where the smell was coming from.

Next thought, A zombie came in here and died for the second time.  Or it’s lying in wait.

Now I can’t help but weave a story and expect undead children to be attacking the firemen and EMTs at that school down the street.

See why my ideas freak me out sometimes?

Last week I had goals.  Did I make them? Haha, hehe, hoho. Er… short answer? No.

Long answer, here’s where I’m at (for anyone who cares to know):

Word count on my YA novel: 12,307.  I wrote a little over a thousand words on it this weekend.  Ouch.

I did, however, complete editing my picture book (which, I promise, is harder than it sounds).  I also made a dummy book and it seems like my story will fit in the right format.  I sent the manuscript along to my primary reader, who slashed it to ribbons last time.  This time she complained about the things I didn’t change, but liked it over all.  Win!  So, I’m going to go to the bookstore this weekend and browse picture books to make sure I have the right feel.  Then, it’s research time for publishers and agents for picture books.  Also, who will accept unsolicited submissions?  The game, as they say, shall be afoot.  Yay!

I didn’t go to the Chino Family Festival of Books.  I wanted to, but I got lazy and my friend wasn’t able to go and it’s a long drive and, and, and… I didn’t go. 

I am still working on touching base with my friend, la photographer, for my ebook.  We should get together soon I hope.  That’ll be awesome.

NOW!  I have a cool surprise coming up in the next post.  The post will be a little late.  In fact, it’s going up March 9th for my dad’s birthday.  Basically, it’s two stories.  Story numero uno will be the one by me dear old dad.  Story number two is by me.  My dad wrote the story first, which inspired me to write the second.  Pretty neat, huh?! 

Here’s a short poem I wrote a while back… it’s not about fantasy or sci fi, it’s just a short piece about things I sometimes have to remind myself.

Presenting… If My Heart Had a Mouth.

I did some writing over the weekend and tonight.  My word count on my YA novel is now at 11,137.  Not bad.  30,000-40,000 words to go.

My goals this week are to get the word count on the YA up to 15,000, to complete editing my picture book and send it to various readers (again), to go see Pseudonymous Bosch (or The Imposter)at the Chino Family Festival of Books, schedule a few poems into the story mix so you get some more content more often and (possibly) meet with a photographer about illustrations for the ebook that will eventually come of my collection of short stories and poems.  Busy busy.  That might not all get done this week, but I’m prepared for that eventuality.

What’re we going to do today, Brain?

As you may be able to tell from the posts on my book review blog, I’m a tad obsessed with zombies. I think it’s because they scare me more than pretty much anything else. They actually give me nightmares.

So, here’s a very short zombie story for ya: Dead People are Supposed to Stay Dead by yours truly. Let me know what you think!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

I feel better!  Yay and Hallelujah!  I’m gonna get some writing done tonight.  Enjoy the story tomorrow!

After two days of half swine flu, half intense migraines, I am just about ready to go to bed and get another eight hour or so night of sleep.  In fact, the only reason I can type right now (albeit for only a short time) is due to the wonder drug Tylenol, which I have, surprisingly, never had before now.  I was raised by very holistic parents.

Anyway, I just watched the wonderful chick flick Julie and Julia on this very computer screen, propped up by pillows, petting my dog and snacking on rice dream ice cream sandwiches.  In that lovely movie, a young woman becomes famous from her blog after she cooks all of the recipe’s in Julia Childs’ book in one year. 

*Sigh*

How many of us wanted to become famous by writing in our blogs?  In fact, just before watching this movie, I completed Personal Effects, Dark Art by JC Hutchins and Jordan Weisman, which is an amazing book.  I pushed myself through this book whilst sick and in pain specifically so I could blog about it.  I could have tried writing, but I need a new laptop so that would have consisted of sitting up and staring at a glowing screen, not conducive to headache comfort.

Anyway, I guess the reason I’m typing all of this up is because the movie made me consider why I blog. 

Is it narcissism? Very possibly. 

Is it wanting others to like me? Probably not.  The last couple of days I’ve been hoping everyone in the world would disappeer so I don’t have to hear cars or see their headlights when I walk my dog.  Maybe that’s just the illness talking. 

Is it just a place for me to keep myself honest?? In a way it is. I mean, why am I paying for this domain if I’m not posting anything about writing here? WTF mate? (BTW, I AM working on three projects, one is a picture book, one is YA and one is a collection of short stories that I will make available all in one download online eventually)

Is it a need to connect with like-minded individuals?  Absolutely.

The other day, someone told me on Facebook that she liked After the Bombs and wanted to know more. It made me think, “Hell, I’d like to know more”. So, maybe one day I’ll revisit it and there will be more.   But the real thing there is that I didn’t even really know that person.  Now that she’s told me this, I’m a) excited to meet her and b) happy about the story.

So, I’ve gotta go in a minute, my head is telling me to lay down.  But, if you find this blog and enjoy the stories, “send me a note, drop me a line, stating point of view”, as The Beatles put it.

There’s another story coming out in the next couple days.  It’s an uber short about zombies.  Hope you enjoy.

A long, long time ago on a blog not very far away, I said I was getting my first short story – After the Bombs published.   The company who was going to publish this fabled story tragically folded and I was left with a story that my publisher and I had worked on for many, many hours.

I’ve tried to find the right place for it but:
a) it’s too long
b) it’s too violent and
c) it’s too weird
for any traditional sci fi publishers. So, I’m presenting this story here, on my blog.

Now, just to forewarn you, this story is not for the faint of heart. There is cannibalism, death and allusions to rape in this story.  I might be making it sound worse than it is, but I want to stress that this story is for adult eyes only.

It is also very feminist and was inspired in part by The Shore of Women by Pamela Sargent.

So, for those of you who have read all the warnings, but still wish to dip in and find out what this story is all about, I give you After the Bombs.  Let me know what you think.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Hey, so I’m trying something new. I’m going to start putting up short stories as Google Docs and will stick a link to the story on this blog. Eventually, when GoDaddy decides to help me out with my Wordpress upgrades, I’ll also provide a PDF for download and a Mobi doc.

So, here’s the first short. It’s called The Game, a story of an unexpected RPG Player.

Check it out and comment here to let me know what you think.  I also am having trouble with Akismet (that’s on my side), so I’m requiring that anyone who wants to make comments subscribe.  Sorry about that, but believe me, I don’t pay attention to your email addresses and will never ever use them or sell them.  Ever.  Seriously guys.

Last but not least, I’ve finally gotten my act together enough to check out Creative Commons. I’m providing this and any other short stories under a Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives License. This means that while I hold the copyright of my work and you can’t change it or sell it, you can copy it (as long as you attribute the work to me) and send it along to your friends. All the neat Creative Commons info is right here:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.