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Being Time Conscientious In Fiction

Posted: December 9, 2013 in Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
Tags: authors, editing, entertainment, ideas, Laura Horn, novel, reflections, science fiction, writing

One thing I struggled with early on in my attempts to become a professional writer was time, or more accurately, keeping tack of it. In my earliest stories, whether it be about lycanthropic pirates or a Harry Potter-esque story of witches, keeping track of how much time has passed was not high on my to-do list. I was more concerned with making a novel that would sell millions of copies, win me legions of adoring fans, and regularly get adapted into blockbuster hits. Why should I pay attention to how quickly a year can pass or how it’s noon on one page and then sunset on the next when I have to decide who I want to play my female protagonist and if she’s going to be my girlfriend?

But I got older, and around the time I started writing my earliest vampire stories, I started to become more aware of the passage of time in those stories. I think it first occurred to me that it seemed weird that my characters were still in school around late June. From then on I tried to keep the passage of time consistent in the stories I wrote, and as I got much older and realized there were too many vampire novels out there at the moment for me to make a name for myself with those sorts of stories, I started to put dates and even the passage of hours in my outlines, which would later end up in the early drafts of the stories I wrote.

And no one else is more aware of time than the guys and gals who write the Doctor’s adventures.

If you examine other authors who are extemely popular, you’ll notice how they try to keep the reader as well as themselves aware of the passage of time without annoying the reader with it. For example, JK Rowling structured her entire Harry Potter series around the school year in Britain. Stephen King’s It switches between 1958 and 1985 and King makes sure to note how June passes on into July and July into August during the 1958 sections. And Jean Auel’s famous Children of Earth series is very particular of marking the passing of seasons and years.

All in all, I think keeping tack of the passage of time in my stories has very much improved them, and in some of these stories I need to be cognizant of how much time has passed in order to tell the story correctly. For example, my WIP Laura Horn takes place during the week leading up to the 2017 Presidential Inauguration. I went online to find advance calendar dates for that January, and only then did I write out the plot in my outline for the story. In addition, I have several ideas for stories that need to be very time conscientious while writing them. One takes place during World War II, meaning I’ll have to be very careful of the dates of certain events in order to tell the story correctly. And I have a science-fantasy story involving time travel that will require me to be very careful about the dates I use, should I ever get around to writing it.

The only thing I wish I was better at was keeping track of dates by making a timeline. However, doing a timeline at the outline stage isn’t always helpful because so much can change between the outline stage and in the actual writing of the story. Perhaps I can find some sort of middle ground in future stories. I might ask my writing group on Facebook if they have any tips on doing timelines.

And speaking of Facebook, I just want to remind people that I have a Facbook page and a Twitter feed, where I post on stuff that I don’t always post about on my blog. If you’re interested in checking either out, please do so.

How important is marking the passage of time in your stories? What do you do to keep track of time?

Why Again Did We Let Zimmerman Go?

Posted: November 26, 2013 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Reflections, Social Activism
Tags: government, gun control, horror, living and life, politics and leadership, proper decisions, reflections

Remember George Zimmerman? The guy who shot Trayvon Martin? Guess what he’s done now: he’s threatened his girlfriend with a shotgun and threw her out of the house when she tried to dial 911. When the police searched his car, they found an AR-15, a shotgun, and three handguns. He’s been let free on a $9,000 bond, and he’s entered a plea of not guilty. And this isn’t his first brush with the law since he was let off this summer: he’s been pulled over three times for speeding and assaulted his wife (yeah, he’s still married). The only reason he wasn’t arrested with the last one was because of lack of evidence.

Now, back during the Trayvon Martin trial, those who supported Zimmerman were saying that he was defending himself, that Trayvon was high and unstable and dangerous. They ignored that he had a history of violence before the Martin incident, and they might just try to ignore this situation altogether. But I’m going to repeat what I said back then: that George Zimmerman attacked an unarmed teen and killed him, and got away with it because of lack of witnesses, including the victim who understandably couldn’t speak, and because of a law that makes no sense to me. Yeah, I don’t support Stand Your Ground laws. They basically say I can go into a public setting with a gun, start a fight with any random passerby, and shoot them if I feel threatened.

But the point is, Zimmerman’s proven that he’s more likely to instigate an incident than defend himself. This is his second assault since his acquittal. It’s only the first with enough evidence to actually go to trial. So I’m just going to be the first to say this: Zimmerman should’ve been convicted back in July, because he assaulted Trayvon and killed him. But he didn’t, and then he attacked his wife and girlfriend. Either of those assaults could’ve been avoided, just like Trayvon’s death could’ve easily been avoided, but we allowed them to happen.

I just hope that this time around, Zimmerman gets convicted, because honestly if he keeps getting off like this, his head’s only going to get bigger and he’ll think he’s invincible to prosecution and punishment. And I really don’t want to see the carnage a man like that can leave behind when he believes he’s unstoppable.

Let the trial begin!

I’m Writing Again!!!

Posted: November 21, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: authors, celebrities, college life, editing, entertainment, living and life, novel, Video Rage, writing

Good evening, Followers of Fear. How are you this evening? I don’t know about you, but I’m doing great! I just finished Chapter 20 of Video Rage, after working on it on-and-off for the past six or so days. This officially puts an end to my hiatus that kept me from doing any major writing, and puts me back on track to possibly finishing this novel by the end of this year or the end of January (one or the other, most likely).

It’s been over a month since I had to stop writing because of how busy I was with school and work. I just had way too much on my plate to devote any time to actually writing, but now that my schedule’s eased up a little, thanks to the semester ending soon and Thanksgiving coming even sooner, I can actually afford to sit down for hours at a time and just churn out stories. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Actually, the truth is not being able to write might’ve actually contributed to my stress levels getting worse rather than better. But being able to write these past couple of days has been just wonderful. I feel freer than I have since I began my hiatus, and now that I’ve gotten another chapter under my belt, I’m on a little bit of a writing high. In fact, the writing high made me write a longer chapter than I normally would’ve. Not that I mind though. I think the chapter the way it is right now is pretty awesome. It was a huge fight sequence, which I’m not normally good at writing. But I managed to extend it from what might’ve been a six-page chapter to a ten-page chapter, and it looks better than what I had originally planned, so it’s kind of a win-win situation.

I’ve also decided that working on two novels at once is not the best idea for me. One moment I’m yearning to work on one project but I have to work on the other, next moment I’m working on project number two but I want to work on the first project. It’s a little bit annoying. So for now I think I’ll stick to finished Video Rage, which has only seventeen chapters left in the first draft, and then I’ll get back to working on my other work-in-progress, Laura Horn. After that’s all done…well, who knows? Maybe some short stories, a new novel, some editing work. All depends on what’s on my schedule and what I feel like doing at the moment.

But to sum it all up, I’m really happy at the moment, and I look forward to finishing the first draft of Video Rage.

And while I have your attention, I also want to extend a hearty congratulations to fellow author, colleague, and good friend Angela Misri, whose Portia Adams novel Jewel of the Thames has just been accepted for publication by Fierce Ink Press. Mazel tov Angela, I’m so excited for you and I cannot wait to read all of Portia’s amazing adventures this coming spring. Keep me posted on the news, okay? Also, if your books get made into movies, who do you want to play Portia? Because from what I know of the character, I think Natalie Portman or Eve Myles would be a great early call.

All for now, everybody. Good night!

The 7 Beauties of Science Fiction

Posted: November 20, 2013 in ideas, Living and Life, Reflections, Writing
Tags: authors, college life, editing, entertainment, films, living and life, Ohio State University, reflections, science fiction, writing

In his book The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction, Istvan Csicery-Ronay Jr. explains some of the most common themes of science fiction. He did this in order to examine how these themes could apply and impact our lives as we navigate a world that relies increasingly on technology and information. However, they also make great guidelines for examining science fiction and for writing your own stories that take place somewhere far off in time and space.

We went over these seven beauties early in the semester in my SF/Fantasy literature course, but today we went over them again. It was an optional class today that focused more on fantasy than science-fiction, and we came up with our own seven beauties of fantasy because the two genres overlap and are entwined in so many way. After class, I came up with my own list the horror, but could only come up with five beauties. Oh well.

Anyway, I thought I’d do a trilogy of posts that focused on the different beauties for each genre, because they are related genres and because they overlap in so many ways, so it’s interesting to examine some of the mores and common themes of these three genres. First, I’d like to start with the seven beauties of science fiction, because that’s what I learned first and it’s from these that my class created the seven beauties of fantasy, and I created the five beauties of horror.

With each beauty, I give a definition and an example, some from books and movies I’ve read/watched, some from my own work, and some that I’ve just heard about. If you have any examples, please let me know. I may just add them into the list.

1. Neologisms–new words or phrases that are exclusive to the world of the story. Every term that refers to something that only exists in that world, that’s a neologism. Consider the term twanking from the short story Mr. Boy, or warp in Star Trek. Those terms are a part of the story, and outside the story don’t have any relevance (unless, for the latter term, you’re a theoretical physicist trying to figure out how to warp something from one end of the room to the other).

2. Novums–technology or inventions that exist only in the story of the world. Take the ansible from Ender’s Game, or the lightsaber, or the TARDIS. These are technologies years ahead of us, only existing in stories and as imitations we see sometimes at comic book conventions. One can consider the flying saucer a novum, because as far as we know, real flying saucers don’t exist.

3. Historical extrapolation–referring to events that happened in the past in order to explain the world as it is now. You know how in Episode IV of Star Wars Obi-Wan explains how the Empire rose and the Jedi Order was destroyed thanks to Darth Vader? That’s historical extrapolation. It’s referring to events not always seen in the actual story to explain how the world we are in came to be. Other examples include how the first invasion of the Buggers in Ender’s Game creates Ender’s world and the aliens coming to Japan during the Meiji era in GinTama.

4. Oxymoron–implausibility or absurdities that only work in the story. An example of this would be crossing a human with a housefly to get a man-fly or radiation causing the dead to rise, like in the original Night of the Living Dead. Another way to look at this would be the idea that the human species develops in other regions of the universe at the same time, and when all the species come together, they find out they are all similar. It’s not likely, is it? Yet we see it in science-fiction and we don’t question it.

5. Scientific Impertinence–when laws that are deemed “unbreakable” by science are broken. Travelling at light-speed without expanding your mass to incredible sizes or traveling through time and space all in the course of a second without any aftershocks or side-effects might count as this. Scientifically, they can’t happen, but they do in these stories.

6. Sublime chronotopes– the space/time of the story. A science-fiction story is our world with added elements of scientific nature. Therefore, Star Trek and everything in its franchise are technically taking place in this world, but in the future and on other planets or in the void of space. Therefore, defining the sublime chronotopes of a story is defining its time and space relative to yours.

7. Parable–what’s the story about? Most sci-fi stories, we will find, is a parable that explores a certain issue. District 9 is about apartheid and racism. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? explores what it means to be human. 2001: A Space Odyssey is about mankind’s dependence on technology. And A.I. Artificial Intelligence explores what could happen if robots and humans learned to bond with each other.

Whether you agree or disagree with these 7 Beauties of Science Fiction, they are useful in exploring the genre. And sometimes you can even use them as a tool in the endless debates that seem to come from popular franchises and stories.

Thanks for reading. I hope to have the 7 Beauties of Fantasy and the 5 Beauties of Horror up soon.

What do you think of the 7 Beauties listed here? Do you agree or disagree? Why? Do you have any examples?

An Update to My Article On Hypnosis

Posted: November 16, 2013 in Living and Life
Tags: celebrities, entertainment, hypnosis, living and life, television shows, writing

A little bit back I wrote an article about the truths and myths of hypnosis. In that article I mentioned that you can’t use hypnosis to kill someone, because you can’t force someone to do something they wouldn’t normally do, such as murder someone.

Turns out I was wrong. Apparently it is technically possible to make people commit crimes, including kill someone, through hypnosis.

I found this out through a special by Derren Brown, a British entertainer who regularly uses hypnosis in his acts. His shows are usually devoted to testing the limits of the abilities and techniques he uses in his acts, including hypnosis. This special, along with the rest in The Experiments series, aimed to look at the limitations of hypnosis and tried to see what you could or couldn’t really do with hypnosis. The special in question, which I embedded below, was devoted to seeing if it was possible to brainwash someone to become a killer, like it’s said often in the chat rooms of conspiracy theorists.

If you don’t have the time to sit down and watch a fifty-minute video, I’ll summarize the video below.

Okay, for those of you who didn’t watch it, the video detailed how basic hypnosis works, followed by searching for the perfect subject to be a hypnotized assassin, and then trained him to assassinate a certain celebrity (who agreed to be part of the production as the target), and then watched to see if the subject would assassinate the target, who had a bulletproof vest on. The subject did fire the gun.

So I was wrong. As much as I hate to admit it, hypnosis can be used to get someone to kill, even if they don’t realize what they are doing. However, it is extremely difficult to pull off, requiring months of training with the perfect subject and with the right hypnosis techniques. And even if you can pull this off, I wouldn’t recommend doing this sort of thing if you have any morals at all. Murder is murder, no matter what.

Now if you’ll need me, I’ll be writing and possibly thinking up some way to incorporate this terrible information into my views of hypnosis. With any luck I’ll be able to put this into a story I’ll write someday, which will most likely mean that I’ve accepted this new fact, and I’m not going to try to shut it out.

Until next time, Followers of Fear.

The End of My Writing Hiatus Is Nigh

Posted: November 15, 2013 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: college life, entertainment, Laura Horn, living and life, novel, Ohio State University, progress report, self-pub authors, Video Rage, weekly exercises, writing

Today there’s more good news to celebrate. Since October 22 I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from writing because of how busy I was with school and work. However, things have eased up a bit since then. For the first time in a while, my homework load this weekend is a bit lighter than it’s been, and I don’t have that many books-for-pleasure piled up waiting for me to read them like I did when my hiatus started.

So guess what? That means pretty soon I’ll be able to actually sit down and do some writing! And thank God, because I’ve been itching to do some fiction writing, rather than the writing of numerous essays and papers tht have been my the bulk of my fare lately. And writing Weekly Exercises once a week–a thousand words at most every week–is definitely not enough to scratch that itch.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to start writing–might be today after classes, might be Sunday after homework and before dinner, might even be after I turn in my second-to-last essay next week–but it should be soon. And when I start writing, you can expect some very odd weather around central Ohio, because I’ll be writing up a storm! I plan to finish the first draft of Video Rage and get several more chapters of Laura Horn under my belt. Plus an article or two for Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors, and my usual Weekly Exercises, and I’ll feel as close to normal as I can get again.

So watch your weather bulletins, people. Until then, I wish you all a wonderful weekend. Good luck to the Ohio State Buckeyes as they take on Illinois tomorrow, and I hope we all get the chance to sleep in and rest a little.

Blog on you later!

Race Is An Illusion

Posted: November 12, 2013 in Journalism, Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Social Activism, Writing
Tags: college life, entertainment, human rights, journalism, living and life, novel, proper decisions, race, Reborn City, reflections, writing

Today I logged onto the Huffington Post to check the latest in the news, and I saw a story where a white supremacist found out on a talk show that he’s only 86% white. The rest is 14% sub-Saharan African, which is apparently home to some of the darkest-skinned people on the planet. If I’ve done this correctly, I’ve embedded a video from NewsBreaker onto this post. If not, here’s a link to the article itself.

Shocking, right? And kind of funny, too. According to Cobb, even one drop of black clood makes you black. So sadly, he wouldn’t be allowed in his own “enclave”, were it to actually be set up.

But as much as this Cobb guy and other people who proclaim the (insert race here) race is superior, I’ve got news for them. I’ve learned something recently in my sociology class that I thought was mind-blowing. Apparently “race” as we understand it is a social construction, not a biological thing. It’s something we create in our minds to help us humans categorize, because apparently we love categorizing things.

In biology though, there’s actually little difference between humans of different races. There’s more differences between two penguins of the same species than there are between a black guy and a white guy. And the more scientists look for a biological basis about race, the more they find evidence to the contrary. Even things like melanin content, which determines skin color, and differences in susceptibility to certain diseases, something documented in the various races we’ve created, are determined by a number of traits that all humans share and could occur in people around the world at any time.

Even more mind-boggling is that definitions of race aren’t static: in Brazil, there are around 500 different races, while in the US there are about four or five. And races can changed. Someone from Mexico could be Spanish or Native American, and nobody could see the difference. President Obama could consider himself white if he wanted to, considering his parentage, but he’s black by choice. And not only are the races we define ourselves by subject to change where you go, the traits associated with races can change too:

He not only broke records, he broke down erroneous beliefs.

Before the 1936 Olympics, Americans assumed that because blacks, Native Americans, and Chinese mostly lived in poverty, they were degenerate and inferior in both mind and body (these beliefs never took into account socioeconomic situation, lack of education, or discrimination, even when statisticians published “findings” supporting these beliefs). However, after Jesse Owens took home the gold, race enthusiasts changed their beliefs in order to jibe with Owens’ success at the Olympics. They changed their attitudes to say that because African-Americans had been physically honed for strength and speed while in slavery, their physical abilities were superior, while their brains were inferior to the white man’s brain. I don’t know if Neil deGrasse Tyson plays sports, but that last part is definitely false, and it just shows how fluid beliefs about race are. And just as not all whites are smart or athletically superior, neither are all blacks, Asians, or Native Americans either of those or anything else. Everybody’s different, even as we’re all the same.

And finally, even on the genetic level there’s little to differentiate us from people of different races. If I were to get my blood typed and compare it to others in a worldwide database (and I’m actually looking into doing that, by the way), statistically speaking I’d be just as genetically similar to a Yoruban man as I would be to a Japanese woman or a child in the Amazonian rainforests. So on almost every level, race is not actually biological, but really just a product of our minds.

So why am I writing all this, besides to make fun of the Cobbs guy’s beliefs and possibly blow a few minds? Because all this relates in a strange way to my novel Reborn City. When I wrote the novel back in high school, I still thought there was at least a small basis to differences to races, and that reflects in the novel, where most of the gangs are divided up by race. I didn’t even factor in that there are different subgroups in races, like instead of just all Hispanic/Latino, there are Mexican, Cuban, Dominican, Nicaraguan, etc. I just knew I wanted to include a racially-diverse cast of characters and at the same time show how races work together would always win out over races fighting against each other.

Too bad I find out all this mind-boggling information after the book comes out, right? But now that I’m better armed, I’ll try to be a little smarter about it all. I’ll still include a racially diverse cast, but I won’t write it with the belief that races are homogenous or static or anything. I’ll just have people with very diverse backgrounds and that won’t even be a huge factor in the works I write, but instead just something interesting about my writing style.

However, that doesn’t mean one should ignore race because it doesn’t to exist, or because race shouldn’t matter. The fact is, people still see race as an actual, biological thing, and the belief is the basis of a lot of problems, controversies and discussions in the United States and the greater world. Ignoring it would be like ignoring your health in the hope you won’t get sick; it just won’t work. Instead, one should acknowledge race as a social construction, try to see through it, and if possible help others see through it.

That’s my opinion, anyway. You can agree or disagree as you like.

I’ll try and write a post tomorrow if I can. Until then, good night everybody!

Weekly Exercise #13 (11/10/13)

Posted: November 10, 2013 in Living and Life, Scary Stuff, Weekly Exercises, Writing
Tags: college life, horror, living and life, scary stuff, weekly exercises, writing

Time for my Weekly Exercises (and a day earlier than promised). These flash fiction pieces are a chance to practice my craft, as well as get feedback from readers, and to possibly get them interested in my published work. Remember, the Weekly Exercises are for the readers, so if you like what you read, let me know.

This week’s Exercise is a special one, and not just because it’s the thirteenth. I’ve included a little section after the Exercise to explain why this one’s special. I’d suggest for you to wait until after you’ve read the Exercise to read that explanation, but scroll down if you want to. Just recognize it’s a much more impactful story if you read the additional stuff afterwards.

For more Weekly Exercises, please follow the link here. And if you have an idea for a Weekly Exercise, let me know. You may see your name and idea in a future Weekly Exercise.

~~~

Mark pulled the Toyota Sequoia into his usual parking spot and got out, sweaty and close to puking. Still he managed to keep his stomach down and went to inspect the front of the car. When he saw the blood, he actually did throw up.

He couldn’t believe it had happened. He’d been driving home from a party at his friend’s frat house after a few hours of boozing and a comfortable three-quarter hour with a lovely coed. He was slightly buzzed, but not enough that he thought it’d be a problem to drive. Besides, what did he care? He was doing well in his classes, he’d probably ace his exams, and he was graduating a semester early with a 3.7 GPA. What could go wrong with his life?

He’d been a block away from the intersection at Fifteenth and High, and the light turned green. He’d stepped on it, not even bothering to slow his speed or put on his turn signal as he went into the turn. It was then he’d first seen the pedestrian, a guy in a navy-blue coat and a wool hat crossing High Street. Mark saw him, but didn’t react. Neither did the pedestrian, who had just seemed to notice that a big white car was heading for him at nearly forty miles an hour.

There was a sickening crunching noise as the car’s nose hit the pedestrian head-on. He flipped -over onto the hood, rolled up to the windshield, bounced off the glass, and then off the car and onto the street. Mark hit his brakes, skidding to a stop in the left-hand lane. He looked behind him, seeing a crowd of people gathering from the nearest bar and from the street corners to see what had happened. The pedestrian lay on the ground unmoving, while people took photos with their phones and pointed. Still the pedestrian didn’t move.

Mark didn’t know how long he looked out the back of his car, but then he noticed people pointing at his car and he’d snapped back to life. He’d pressed down the gas pedal and bolted before anyone could stop him or call the cops. Mark didn’t stop driving until he was far from Fifteenth and High, and only then did he slow down enough to make it home in the narrow streets in his neighborhood without hitting anyone or anything else.

He’d killed that guy. He was sure of it. The amount of blood his car had brought with them, the poor bastard couldn’t have survived. Perhaps Mark should turn himself in—no, he couldn’t. He was going to graduate in a few weeks, and he had an interview with Safe Auto tomorrow afternoon. If he was even charged with killing someone, he could kiss his chances of graduating and employment away.

He’d have to get rid of the evidence. The window wasn’t cracked and the hood was only a little bent out of shape. If he could get the blood off his white car, nobody would know the difference. Mark turned to get a bucket and a sponge from his apartment, but standing in his way was a person. Except the person was covered in blood, his jaw nearly torn off, and his arm was bent at a weird angle. He couldn’t be a real person, could he?

Mark stepped back as the monstrous man limped towards him. It was then that Mark noticed the guy was wearing a navy-blue coat and a wool hat. It was the pedestrian he’d hit. “Hey dude.” said the pedestrian, looking at him through broken glasses. “You know, that was kind of dickish back there. I mean, you just left me in the street so that people could take photographs of me and post them to Facebook! What was up with that?”

“Stay away from me!” shouted Mark, but the ghostly vision came closer. Then it extended his good arm and pushed Mark into the front of his car. Mark felt the blood against his back, and he screamed.

“You didn’t care, did you?” shouted the spirit. “You just ran off to preserve your perfect life! My life’s gone now, it’s all over the ground and your car and your back.” Mark stared in horror as the spirit started to fade in front of his eyes. “Well, guess what? Karma’s a bitch.”

The spirit disappeared. For a second, Mark thought he’d imagined the whole thing, but then his car roared to life behind him. He turned around and saw the pedestrian’s ghost in the front seat of his car. “Hey, I never got my license.” shouted the spirit, leaning his head out the window. Do you think I can still drive this and kill you?”

Mark screamed and ran. The car followed, its demonic driver laughing maniacally. He ran, dodging the car every time the engine gunned and it tried to hit him. At some point Mark realized that the ghost in the front seat was pushing him back towards High Street. But why? Did he want him to die like he’d died, on the very same street as he did?

Finally he broke onto the open lane of High Street, not seven blocks from where Mark had hit the pedestrian. The car chased him towards Fifteenth, a chase in the middle of the busy street. People watched as Mark ran, chased by his own car. Finally between Fourteenth and Fifteenth, the car’s engine died and the car rolled to a stop in front of a closed bookstore. Mark stopped running, unable to believe he was still alive.

“Excuse me sir?” said a voice. Mark turned and saw two cops coming his way from a sea of police cars surrounding the crosswalk where Mark had hit the pedestrian. And there, unnoticed by anyone, was the pedestrian’s ghost, sitting on top of one car. He waved as the police inspected him and his car.

Now Mark’s life was over too. The spirit disappeared.

~~~

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this on this blog, but back in February of this year I was hit by a car on the way to class. Luckily I got off with only a few bruised ribs and a scrape or two, but I was pissed, especially when the driver only waited for me to get up and start swearing before she tried to drive off. She didn’t get very far though, because the street we were on was not only full of cars and pedestrian traffic, but a construction site was nearby. She was arrested twenty feet from where she’d hit me!

Ever since that day though, I’ve been weary of getting hit again, and every time I cross a street, I’m watching twice as hard for anything that might hit me. Good thing I’ve been so vigilant, because last night as I was walking back from seeing the new Thor movie, I was crossing the street and a car nearly ran me over. And yes, it was a white Toyota Sequoia. If I’d taken a second longer to react, I might be a pancake in the road. And the way the driver reacted–actually, how he didn’t react at all to nearly hitting a pedestrian while driving too fast in a turn.–let me know that he would’ve just driven away as well if he’d hit me.

So as part therapy, part fun of writing, part warning to anyone who reads this blog and drives, and part imagining what might happen if he’d actually hit me and I could come back as a ghost, I dedicated a whole Weekly Exercise to what’d nearly happened to me. And now that I’ve written this out, I can say I can continue on with my life with just as much enjoyment and energy as usual.

Well, maybe with a bit more confidence and pride that my hyper-vigilance around traffic isn’t out of just paranoia and it’s actual useful. Good night everybody!

Rami Ungar The Writer

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