mathmission
02-20-2006, 10:42 PM
Per BakeDon's request, here is the working prologue of the novel that I am currently working on:
Prologue
During the summer of 2003, I wrote a short story about two sisters on a train. It was simply titled Train. It was my first attempt at a longer piece of fiction. I spent several hours each night writing and revising previously created scenes. The final product took me two months to finish.
In the fall of 2003, I took that short story to a publisher that worked for the University of Missouri. They called themselves Emus. It was an acronym for English at MU. Each year, they published a book that contained fiction, both poetry and prose, of students within the campus. I submitted my work. A few weeks later, I received a polite rejection letter.
I let a year pass. I worked on various other projects, and revised Train. When the time came, I resubmitted the story to the Emu people. Again, a few weeks later, I received an email letting me know that my submission was not going to be considered for the final publication. It was a generic e-mail, with no personal statements. I’m sure that Emu used it for all the authors they turned down.
Another year went by. I had reached the last year of my undergraduate work. Emu announced that they were again taking submissions. I sent in my work one last time, with some hope that it would be considered. A few weeks went by, yet I received no reply.
2 months passed, and nothing from Emu.
5 months passed, and nothing from Emu.
I graduated on May 15th, 2005. My student e-mail account with the University of Missouri was deactivated on August 5th, 2005. I never received another email from Emu.
With that in mind, I decided that it was time to work on something else. I needed something new to submit, and of course, a new place to submit it to. I began work on a story called Cross.
Cross was a story about 6 people: Jack, Rachel, Ray, Amanda, Bill and Matt. I wrote one of the six parts to this story, and decided that I needed some time away from it. I let several people read it, and they enjoyed it. Course, to the best of my knowledge, they were just saying such things because they are my friends. Who knows, right?
I decided that Cross was going to have to wait, just like Train had to wait. Both are now currently in my file cabinet, filed away with all the other pieces of work that I have created.
It makes me wonder what the Emu people would have thought of Cross, or if they would have even read it. To the best of my knowledge, Emu no longer exists on campus.
-----
On February 20, 2006 I decided that both Cross and Train needed to be succeeded by something worthy of their efforts. During my career of writing, I have only truly enjoyed those two pieces of writing. I remember deciding on that day that I wanted to create something new. The only problem was, I had no idea what to write.
Several authors will tell you of a thing called writer’s block. This is a condition that describes the frustration that people have when attempting to create a piece of work. To this, I call shenanigans. There is no such thing as writer’s block. Writer’s block is just an excuse for the author’s inability to come up with something they think people would enjoy.
On December 1st, 1969, the United States of America had writer’s block. They called it The Draft. Despite a country filled with creative writers, and poets, this was their best idea to combat the spread of communism. The problem was, much like many pieces of work created during the fictitious ailment called writer’s block, it was widely unpopular. Many citizens left the country, and found new homes in Canada.
I don’t want my piece of work to cause people to move to Canada. Though I have to say, I have visited Canada, and if I had to flee the country for any given reason, Canada would be a decent choice.
------
Back to February 20th, 2006: I was sitting in my room, fumbling around with random things that I had thrown on the floor; I’m not a very organized person. That’s the truth, despite the contradiction on my resume.
In 1973, the United States decided to dissolve the draft, and conform to an all-volunteer armed forces. This was their way of moving on. After careful consideration, the United States government formally addressed its nation, claiming that the concept of the draft was a result of writer’s block, and poor creativity on their part. Though, if you ever ask a representative of the government, they will deny any such actions.
I considered this set of events, and wondered how I could apply it to myself. The connection came rather fast. On June 6th, 2003 (the date coinciding with D-Day is merely a coincidence) I began my own draft. I called it Train. Cross was my exit strategy. It obviously didn’t work as well as I’d hoped.
My draft lasted for 3 years.
At 5:42pm, on February 20, 2006, I was able to exit the ‘writer’s block,’ and continue with my work. I had been fumbling around with things, as I’d said, and found a small envelope. Somehow I had forgotten about it when I opened the mail from earlier that day. I tore the left side of the envelope, and blew into it (my preferred way to open an envelope.) I tilted the envelope, and poured its contents into my hand. The only thing that fell into my hand was a small piece of orange paper.
It was a stick-it note. The back wasn’t sticky though. On the front, someone had taken white out, and painted a circle in the middle. With pen, someone had written this phrase:
You are ok now, Mr. Stone Jackson
I set down the piece of paper, and examined the front of the envelope. My name had been written in cursive in the middle of the envelope. In the top left-hand corner of the envelope was an address.
I set the envelope back down and again examined the stick-it note. On the back, in pencil, a name was written.
-Sgt. Paul Keatty
Thank you, Sgt. Paul Keatty. Despite what happened during our travels, and the great difficulty I had creating this tribute to said events, I can only hope that this is a sufficient retelling of what you called 'The Long Term-Temporary End of Civilization.'
Prologue
During the summer of 2003, I wrote a short story about two sisters on a train. It was simply titled Train. It was my first attempt at a longer piece of fiction. I spent several hours each night writing and revising previously created scenes. The final product took me two months to finish.
In the fall of 2003, I took that short story to a publisher that worked for the University of Missouri. They called themselves Emus. It was an acronym for English at MU. Each year, they published a book that contained fiction, both poetry and prose, of students within the campus. I submitted my work. A few weeks later, I received a polite rejection letter.
I let a year pass. I worked on various other projects, and revised Train. When the time came, I resubmitted the story to the Emu people. Again, a few weeks later, I received an email letting me know that my submission was not going to be considered for the final publication. It was a generic e-mail, with no personal statements. I’m sure that Emu used it for all the authors they turned down.
Another year went by. I had reached the last year of my undergraduate work. Emu announced that they were again taking submissions. I sent in my work one last time, with some hope that it would be considered. A few weeks went by, yet I received no reply.
2 months passed, and nothing from Emu.
5 months passed, and nothing from Emu.
I graduated on May 15th, 2005. My student e-mail account with the University of Missouri was deactivated on August 5th, 2005. I never received another email from Emu.
With that in mind, I decided that it was time to work on something else. I needed something new to submit, and of course, a new place to submit it to. I began work on a story called Cross.
Cross was a story about 6 people: Jack, Rachel, Ray, Amanda, Bill and Matt. I wrote one of the six parts to this story, and decided that I needed some time away from it. I let several people read it, and they enjoyed it. Course, to the best of my knowledge, they were just saying such things because they are my friends. Who knows, right?
I decided that Cross was going to have to wait, just like Train had to wait. Both are now currently in my file cabinet, filed away with all the other pieces of work that I have created.
It makes me wonder what the Emu people would have thought of Cross, or if they would have even read it. To the best of my knowledge, Emu no longer exists on campus.
-----
On February 20, 2006 I decided that both Cross and Train needed to be succeeded by something worthy of their efforts. During my career of writing, I have only truly enjoyed those two pieces of writing. I remember deciding on that day that I wanted to create something new. The only problem was, I had no idea what to write.
Several authors will tell you of a thing called writer’s block. This is a condition that describes the frustration that people have when attempting to create a piece of work. To this, I call shenanigans. There is no such thing as writer’s block. Writer’s block is just an excuse for the author’s inability to come up with something they think people would enjoy.
On December 1st, 1969, the United States of America had writer’s block. They called it The Draft. Despite a country filled with creative writers, and poets, this was their best idea to combat the spread of communism. The problem was, much like many pieces of work created during the fictitious ailment called writer’s block, it was widely unpopular. Many citizens left the country, and found new homes in Canada.
I don’t want my piece of work to cause people to move to Canada. Though I have to say, I have visited Canada, and if I had to flee the country for any given reason, Canada would be a decent choice.
------
Back to February 20th, 2006: I was sitting in my room, fumbling around with random things that I had thrown on the floor; I’m not a very organized person. That’s the truth, despite the contradiction on my resume.
In 1973, the United States decided to dissolve the draft, and conform to an all-volunteer armed forces. This was their way of moving on. After careful consideration, the United States government formally addressed its nation, claiming that the concept of the draft was a result of writer’s block, and poor creativity on their part. Though, if you ever ask a representative of the government, they will deny any such actions.
I considered this set of events, and wondered how I could apply it to myself. The connection came rather fast. On June 6th, 2003 (the date coinciding with D-Day is merely a coincidence) I began my own draft. I called it Train. Cross was my exit strategy. It obviously didn’t work as well as I’d hoped.
My draft lasted for 3 years.
At 5:42pm, on February 20, 2006, I was able to exit the ‘writer’s block,’ and continue with my work. I had been fumbling around with things, as I’d said, and found a small envelope. Somehow I had forgotten about it when I opened the mail from earlier that day. I tore the left side of the envelope, and blew into it (my preferred way to open an envelope.) I tilted the envelope, and poured its contents into my hand. The only thing that fell into my hand was a small piece of orange paper.
It was a stick-it note. The back wasn’t sticky though. On the front, someone had taken white out, and painted a circle in the middle. With pen, someone had written this phrase:
You are ok now, Mr. Stone Jackson
I set down the piece of paper, and examined the front of the envelope. My name had been written in cursive in the middle of the envelope. In the top left-hand corner of the envelope was an address.
I set the envelope back down and again examined the stick-it note. On the back, in pencil, a name was written.
-Sgt. Paul Keatty
Thank you, Sgt. Paul Keatty. Despite what happened during our travels, and the great difficulty I had creating this tribute to said events, I can only hope that this is a sufficient retelling of what you called 'The Long Term-Temporary End of Civilization.'