Spring is for Marbles

(This is one of my older writings, polished up a bit to reflect what I am learning in writers' group and through ACFW.)

Will wriggled in his seat and glanced up at the clock. The second hand crawled around its face.

He put his hand inside his desk and felt the bulging bag loaded with a new supply of marbles. Shucks, it’s the first day of clear weather, and all the guys are ready to shoot marbles. When will 10:00 o’clock come? This morning is dragging!

B-rrrr-ing!  Mrs. Adams looked up from her desk. "Class is dismissed for recess."

Will grabbed his bag, shot out the door, and down the stairs. He took a deep breath of mild spring air, and headed for the dirt next to the tarred playground, where the girls played jumprope, and broke out the chalk for hopscotch. His friends, Davey and Joey, waited for him.

Davey called to Will. "We were wonderin’ what was taking you so long. I’ve got the circle drawn and we’re ready to go." He tossed the stick off to the side and knelt down at the edge of the circle.

Joey opened his drawstring bag and took out a handful of polished marbles in varying colors and knelt down across from Davey. "My dad took me to the hardware store, and they’ve got a bunch of new colors."

He put the marbles in his hands and held them out for the other two to look at. "I got some green and yellow opaques, and white and red ones, too. I saved my birthday money this year to buy them."

He dropped them on the ground next to the circle, then picked up a large, clear red one. "Dad bought me this popper that’s a whooper!"

Will laughed at the rhyme. He dropped to his knees at the edge of the circle and dug a fistful of marbles out of his bag. "Well, let’s go."

Each boy put three marbles in the center of the circle.Will picked up one of the marbles and took aim at a straight line drawn next to the circle. His marble rolled across the dirt coming within inches of the line.

Joey shot his marble, but it had too much momentum and rolled across the line.

 Davey looked at the other marbles. He lined up his shot and flicked it across the circle. His marble pushed Will’s across the line and came to rest just on this side of the line. "There you go!" he yelled.

Will looked at Davey. "Okay, you get to go first."

"Hey, can I play too?"

Will stood up and turned around. He saw Petey, Joey’s little brother, watching them.

"Nah," said Joey, with a wave of his hand. "Go play with your first grade friends."

Davey nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we’re fourth graders now, and serious marble players." He rolled his eyes at Will.

"Let’s let him play this one time, " Will said.

Joey stood up, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and looked at his friends. "If we let Petey play, we’ll have to give him his marbles back when the game was over, or he might cry."

Will walked over to Joey and put his hand on Joey’s shoulder. He leaned in and whispered, " If we let him play this one time, then for the rest of the school year, he can teach his own friends how to play."

Joey shrugged and turned to his brother. "Okay, but you gotta put three marbles in the circle first and you go last in shooting."

Petey’s face broke into a big grin, and he put his three marbles down.

  Davey placed his glassy popper on his index finger and took aim with his thumb. POP! Off went the marble, traveling into the circle, knocking one of Joey’s and one of Will’s marbles out of the ring.

"YAY!" yelled Davey, "my first captives." He picked up the two marbles and placed them in his pile.

 Joey stepped to the edge of the circle, knelt down, and took aim for Davey’s marbles. It went right straight out of the circle without hitting a single one. "Aw! What was that?"

His friends giggled, but they knew that was the risk they all took.

 Will knelt down. He preferred to knock his marble with a snap of his middle finger. Off it went, hitting two of Petey’s and one of Davey’s out of the circle. "Three for me!" he exclaimed.

Petey stepped up. His brother sighed, "He can’t play, he’s just going to lose all his marbles."

"I can so," Petey shot back. "I’ve watched ya’ play before." His lower lip pouted a little. Being smaller than the others, he stood and dropped his marble into the circle. It clicked off Davey’s and hit one of Joey’s, too, both of which rolled out of the circle in opposite directions.

"See, I can too play." and he proudly bent to pick up his two captives.

Joey sighed and crossed his arms. "Your turn, Davey."

Davey took aim at one of Will’s marbles, but the popper fell off his finger and only wobbled across the circle line.

"Oh no!" He grabbed his stomach and groaned.

Will pointed to Davey’s popper. "Yes! That one is mine. It’s the prize I’m aiming for." Will smiled at his buddies and rubbed his hands together. "It’s ripe for the picking." He knew Davey would be disappointed to lose his popper. After school, I’ll trade it back to him for four marbles, but I’m not tellin’ him that yet.

Will took direct aim at the popper. "Whoo! She’s a goner!" He scooped up the popper and held his fist up in the air.

B-rrrrr-ing! "Oh no!" the boys cried in one voice. Recess was over. They each picked up their marbles and headed back toward the school, calling out their farewells.

"Catch up with you guys later."

"Bye!"

"Good game!"

Will ran up the steps into the school. He smiled. It’s gonna be a good spring.

　         

(All photos courtesy of Corbisimages.com)

God gives us each of the seasons in their time-go forth and enjoy. 

　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Genesis Contest Update

                There's good news and bad news on the contest front.

First, the good news: there were a total of just under 700 entries for all nine genres. That averages 77 per genre. That's good! As mentioned previously, I expected there would be a thousand in my category alone, so that figure certainly increases my odds. I have a 1 in 26 chance in making it to the top three. That would be AWESOME! That's more doable than the 1 in 200 that I thought I might be.

The bad news is: they don't have enough judges in the contemporary fiction category, so none of them have started to be judged yet. That means that when the judges finally get the entries, they may be more rushed to get them ready for the review deadline. That may not be good. I don't know if I have enough meat in my first fifteen pages to hook a judge right away so that they want to read more of my story.

However, in the long run, it's out of my hands and I need to be PATIENT! (I'm yelling so I can hear me tell myself that...)

One Word that Leads to Another

What do lightning, scar, wound, bleeding, pain, heartbreak, rain, spatter, fry, fish, jelly and peanut butter all have in common? A story! My writers'/critique group, Androscoggin Writers' Group, did a word association activity and this is how the list formed as the paper went twice around the table. So far only one member has written something, but I am going to use those words in my novel. I did a slight revision at the end of my fourth chapter so the next chapter can incorporate all those words. What a neat way to have the next chapter unfold itself! If we hadn't done this exercise,  this chapter would never have been created.  Wow.  Life is like that sometimes, too. What if...or if only...

 

Righteousness shall go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway..

Genesis Contest

I just submitted the first chapter and a half of my novel  to the American Christian Fiction Writers annual Genesis Contest, for new, un-published authors. I will hear within a couple of weeks, hopefully sooner, whether or not it is in the correct format. If it is, it will be officially entered in the contest. Since this is an international organization, there will be thousands of entries, I suspect, spread over nine  different categories. My "genre" is contemporary fiction. Each entry is reviewed by three judges who score the writing up to 100 points, then the scores are averaged. The top 20% of each category move on to the second judging round. I figure if there are 1000 entries in my category, then I have to be in the top 200 to move on. That's do-able... The third round ends with the top three choices in each category. On May 28 those top three entries are notified and then given two days to polish up their work for the final judging. The best I expect out of my submission, and the accompanying entry fee, is that a published author will read my manuscript and critique it, then personally respond to me as to how my writing can be improved. If nothing else, I'm satisfied in paying $35 for a professional critique. The learning experience in preparing the manuscript and synopsis has, in itself, been enormously beneficial. The winners are announced at the annual convention in Dallas in September. Non-winners will receive a score sheet and their manuscripts the end of May/beginning of June. In the meantime, I will keep working on the novel.  Many thanks to my fellow writers in Androscoggin Writers' Group and to the critiquers on Scribes, the critique group for ACFW. If my writing ever gets recognized, much of it will be due to the detailed critiquing I have received from these two groups.

 http://www.acfw.com/

A Dress of Pink

In December, one of the Twelve Days of Writing prompts was to write a 20 line poem about a memorable event in your life. This was my daughter, Bre's, creation. I, on the other hand, did not attempt to write a poem, no, no, no. 

                              A Dress of Pink

               A dress of pink, a suit of black

Boston, a ballroom, a dinner, a dance

I was hosting, you were my date

        - we got lost, we were late.

I was the senior class vice president

We'd been planning this for months

You'd been planning something, too

        - a big surprise, I never knew.

A buzz of excitement, a flurry of people

Over three hundred college seniors

One final night of grand celebration

        - good-bye friends, soon graduation.

We ate quickly then joined the dance mob

You pushed us through to the middle

I wondered why we had to squeeze in on this song

         - the crowd parted, you were gone.

A song, a voice from across the room

You were singing to me, I was flabbergasted

You got down on one knee, pulled out a ring

        - I said YES! Oh, what a memorable thing!

Dan popping the big question to Bre, April 22, 2005

What's Up in 2012?

New Year's resolutions? Nah. The only resolution I ever make is to make no New Year's resolutions! I keep 'em every year! Goals are another thing entirely.

This year I hope to have my first novel manuscript completed and ready to submit, along with my synopsis, to an agent. I am going to enter the first chapter of the novel to the Genesis Contest through American Christian Fiction Writers. I can't mention the name of it until May, but the premise is: Can a man love three women at the same time? Ben will have to do some deep soul-searching to find out the answer, hopefully before it is too late.

After that I want to get going on a second novel, Summer on the Summit,

and a novella, Never Too Late. 

AND all that squeezed in with two new grandchildren on the way as well as each of their sibling brothers!  WHOO-EE!! Oh, yeah, and I work full-time, direct our 7-person church choir, run the Wed. kids' program and circus, and lead ladies' Sunday School and am the church clerk.  But you know what, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Oh, and don't forget the husband. He deserves some time in there, too.

All in all, don't call me bored or tell me to get a life-I have one and it's abundantly blessed.  I hope all of you have an equally "cup-runneth-over" year.

Beauty to Behold

     I have traveled to many places in the USA and around the world. I’ve seen the soft heather-covered highlands of Scotland, and the splendid golden Palace of Versailles; the immense structure of the Eiffel Tower, and the lights of Piccadilly Circus. I’ve seen the tranquil turquoise water of Cancun on the Caribbean Sea, and the startling beauty of a sunset over vast open spaces in south Texas. I’ve experienced the bustling city of Brussels in Belgium, and meandered along the peaceful St. John River in New Brunswick. I’ve dug my toes into white sand on the south shore of Prince Edward Island and into red sand on the north shore. I’ve traveled to or through twenty-two different states, but the most beautiful place on earth to me is a certain paint-worn camp in a cove on Messalonskee Lake in Oakland, Maine.

     Built by my great-grandfather about 1927 it is surrounded by ancient pines that tower 70’ over the camp buildings.  The beauty of this place is found in the charming drape of memories of years past: Mom sitting outside at the picnic table tole painting a wastebasket or a lamp shade, two pre-teen friends sitting on a rock on the point that juts out from one side of the cove, singing their lungs out to the music pulsing from the public beach juke box across the pond, siblings racing each other down the packed dirt camp road to the train tracks at the first sound of a train whistle to wave to the man in the caboose, the whole family in PJ’s curled up in various rattan or wooden rocking chairs listening to Mom read Around the World in 80 Days, a 4” thick carpet of rusty colored pine needles, wild blueberries, early morning dips while the mist rose off the surface of the crystal-smooth lake.

     New memories add richness and texture to the drape: a grandson playing in the water with blue and green foam noodles, solitary loon calls echoing off the rocky shores, showing old movies on a sheet tacked up to a beam on the porch, laughing over my son-in-law’s fall from grace as he collapses in an old pink chaise lounge chair onto the dock, catching 3” sunfish and 12” pickerel, a large family of ducks skirting the edge of the pond looking for the best place to stop and bob for a snack, voices traveling across the lake by the light of a full moon, a lone bald eagle perched high up on the tip of a pine scouting for his next meal.

     You can have the world, but give me Cozy Cove Camp; it’s the most beautiful place in the world.

Day 3 of the Twelve Days of Writing prompt: Describe the most beautiful place in the world.

12/14/11                                                                                                                                                   
446 words