Bring it on, Alice

As you know, I’m incapable of meeting my own deadlines. Like happens, ADD takes over, and my writing pays the price. I try to keep my goals simple. Sometimes listing them requires an act of God. However, when I do make lists, they’re epic novels on scraps of paper. Keeping track of them is hell on Earth and they always seem to end up in the damnest places.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to retrieve them from the slobbery maws of my giant beast.

The summer’s dragging on and I find myself checking the forecast with a sick glee. One should not have this giddiness about potential natural disasters.  I have no right to it. But, I prepare nonetheless. I have my neatly organized zombie and World War Three kits, not to mention my hurricane gear. Hurricane season continues until the fall, so it only seems wise have a stockpile.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caught millions of people off guard (even though there had been weather advisories and reports for days leading up to landfall.) In addition to basically the whole of the Gulf Coast, Katrina nearly wiped out the vampire Mecaa, New Orleans, LA.  At landfall, it was a category 5. It left roughly 1800 people dead. The governmental missteps were nothing short of astonishing and the recovery has been sluggish. 

Fast forward to 2008. My creative writing professor asked us to tell her a story based on a poem. I wish I could remember the name and poet, but the gist is the narrator talking about the beauty of the grain in a silo. And then there’s the hard left and the narrator begins talking about a boy drowning in the grain and then it was back to the beauty of the yellow grain. Leah told us to tell her a story like that. So I did.

The secrets in the telling, and I’m not.  Two years ago, I brought this piece to a meeting of the Proud Failures Group. They saw what I didn’t. They pointed out the allegory, that, after reading it again was glaringly obvious. I went chasing Walt down the rabbit hole and came out with Alice. This makes not a lick of sense to any of you reading this, but to the six Failures that were there, you know. 

Here’s the goal: Requiem for Alice will be done (SFD) by August 28^th, the day Katrina made landfall. I don’t know how the hell I’m going to do it. There’s an app downloaded onto the tablet so I can write while at work. I’ve found a few quiet places (which in a dental lab was no small fete, let me tell you.) The beginning and ending are solid, it’s that tricky middle part I’m fighting. Research to ensue. If I manage to reach this goal, there will be a party. A large one. 

So, kick me in the ass. Send me inspiring clips about New Orleans, Tom Waits and Alice in Wonderland. Seriously, anything will help. I guess we’ll see what happens.