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Working With Miss Morgan

Here is a sample from my work in progress, The Magical Miss Morgan.

Canto Nineteen – The Ghost House after Dark

“Bobby couldn’t make it,” said Frosty Anderson.  “He says he had chores.”

“We all know he’s afraid of the dark,” said Mike Murphy, lighting another candle.

“We shouldn’t make fun of him all the time,” reminded Blueberry, sitting next to Mike.  “It’s hard to get out of the house after dark to come here to an abandoned cellar in the middle of a junk yard.”

“Okay, we already know what Miss Morgan says about that,” said Tim.  “We have more important business tonight.”

“Worth getting grounded for a month for?” asked Mike.

“Yes.”

The children all leaned toward Tim as he sat conspiratorially in the middle of the candlelit cellar of the ruined house.  Everyone wanted to know what the big reveal was going to be, and Tim was loving it.

“So what’s the big deal?” asked Frosty.

“You know the project about getting kids to believe in fairies?” said Tim.

“Yeah,” said Mike and Frosty as Blueberry nodded.

“There is a secret reason that Miss Morgan needs us to do that project.”

Tim picked up a shoebox and placed it on his knees in front of him.  He slowly lifted the lid.

“So?  An empty shoebox?” sneered Mike.

“Oh, my!”  Blueberry’s eyes got as big as Tim could ever remember seeing them.

“This is Garriss,” said Tim simply, “he’s an elemental fire fairy.”

“I’m a Wisp,” croaked the little naked fire man.

“Cool!” gasped Frosty.

“He looks more like hot,” noted Mike.

“Is he real?” asked Blueberry stupidly.

“Don’t you believe your own eyes?” asked Tim.

“Don’t be rude to the beautiful young lady,” warned Garriss.

“Can I hold him?” Blueberry asked timidly.

“You’ll burn your hands,” said Mike.

“No, you won’t,” said Garriss.  “I am more than willing to be held by you, Pretty Miss.  And I promise, you can’t be hurt by my magical fire.”

Blueberry put out her open palm, and the little man formed of fire stepped gingerly into it.  The girl lifted him up in front of her face.

“You’re made of fire…  And you’re naked,” said Blueberry.

“I am a magical being,” said Garriss, “and I need you to believe I am real, for I will not continue to exist otherwise.”

“So,” said Mike, “you are only real if we believe in you?”

“Yes,”

“If I say I don’t believe in fairies, will you die?”

“Can you see me standing in front of you and still say you don’t believe?” asked Garriss.

“Good point,” answered Mike.

“If we are going to help the fairy people of Tellosia,” said Tim, “I had to show you they are real.  We can’t risk showing the real fairies to everyone, though.  We have to come up with ways to make people believe without actually showing them.”

“Why can’t we just show everybody?” said Mike.  “We could take a picture and show everybody!”

“Please, don’t do that,” pleaded Garriss.  “Someone might disbelieve their own eyes, and then I, and maybe others, would actually die.”

“Oh, we can’t let that happen!” cooed Blueberry.  “Garriss?  Will you let me draw your picture with colored pencils?”

“I would be honored, my lady.”

“This is all just too wonderful to be real,” Blueberry said.

Tim nodded in silence.  They would generate the belief that was needed,  Blueberry’s drawings would do it, if anything could.  That girl could really whip pencils around and make good art.

“We have to swear a Pirate oath,” said Tim.  “We all swear to make people believe and keep the real fairies safe from discovery and death.  If we fail, then may our human hearts shrivel up and we all die an untimely death.”

“I swear it,” said Blueberry.

“If Blue does,” said Mike, “then so do I.”

“Me too,” said Frosty.

“And you have my word on it too,” said Garriss.

Tim grinned an evil grin.  This was gonna be great.

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Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (a book review)

This was a second reading of Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece. I have also read and loved The Return of the Native. Why should anyone in 2014 read a novel written in 1892? I’ll happily tell you why. The characters and the themes are timeless. And Hardy is a master of symbolism, description, and character development. He is able to weave together the story of a singular character, the artfully rendered fertility goddess, Tess Durbeyfield (revealed by an amateur genealogist to be descended from the noble Norman family the D’Urbervilles). She is a pure and lovely woman caught between the grinding gears of the old (symbolized by dances and music, superstition and blind religion, and ghost stories) and the new (symbolized by modern farming techniques, machines, and stodgy Victorian mores). She is raped by her first admirer, a profligate youth of new and unearned industrial revolution wealth. The man, Alec D’Urberville, is a pretender to the noble name, having adopted it for social-climbing. He is loose of morals, cruel, and thoughtless… perhaps capable of loving Tess, but spoiling it all with impatience, privilege, and lack of moral training. When true love later comes along for poor Tess, it is cursed to fail by the actions of the rapist as they put Tess in category of an adulteress, even though she had no choice in the matter and goes far beyond anything that is reasonable to atone for her error. Unforgivable acts trump an angelic character and tragedy crushes all on the alter of pagan Stonehenge. It is a tragedy and an indictment of a crumbling, corrupt culture. It is a singular book. And no matter how hard you might find it to read a 100-plus year old book, it is worth every ounce of effort you can put into it. tessdurbvilles_LRG

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The Whole Enchilada (Though it’s not an enchilada, it’s a Paffooney)

I finished it in black and white.  I know it doesn’t make sense as a whole, but it is surrealism, and it is supposed to be cut up into separate parts, as I will show you later.

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Pen and Ink Progress

Here is what the pen and ink background project looks like tonight before I start working on it.

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Walter Mitty

DSCN5331I am still recovering from a heart-attack scare, and as a part of my regimen of rest and fluids, I watched the DVD of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring and directed by Ben Stiller.  It is a brilliant piece of film art in my opinion.  The basic story is about a day-dreaming ne’er-do-well who is so much like I once was that it is practically an unauthorized biography.  Mitty daydreams and pines over a co-worker that he is afraid to introduce himself to.  He works at Life Magazine at a time when the printed periodical was going out of business.  His job is on the line.  Then, he loses a photograph from a famous photographer when he has never made such an error before.  To correct his mistake, he goes on a world-hopping quest to find the photographer, visiting Greenland, jumping into the ocean from a helicopter, fighting a shark, escaping from an erupting volcano in Iceland, climbing a mountain in the Himalayas, and finally, getting fired for not finding it, though he does find it, and proves he is more competent and brave and daring and heroic than even his daydreams told him that he was.  At the end he even gets the girl.  It made me cry to realize how much my life was like that.  It has been a comedy of errors compounded by the criticism and negativity of the world around me.  I fought hard to be a competent teacher.  I had to become an advocate for kids.  I fought for the good of the students against principals, parents, the State of Texas, three school administrations, politicians, and sometimes even the students themselves.  I rose to new heights during my darkest hours.  I made a difference.  A lot of kids came back to tell me I was their favorite teacher, that they learned things and remembered things from my class more than any of their other classes.  I know some of them were lying for sentimental reasons, but not all of them were.  So I was, in the end, a success.  I had my Walter Mitty moments.

So what is the point of all of this, and of the picture of my messy studio which is also my bedroom and sickroom?  If I had died from the heart attack rather than finding out it wasn’t really a heart attack, I would still be successful in the course of my life and career.  Three beautiful and intelligent children with my genetic stamp… more than 2,500 students educated and served… thirty-one years of faithful teachering… like Walter Mitty, I have been worth so much more than I have ever been given credit for.  And yet… and yet… I am not finished.  I am only now coming into my real magical powers over words and ideas.  I am only now reaching out and saying what treasures are truly in my heart for all to take away and enrich themselves with.  Some of it is in the books I have written.  Some of it is in the blog I am here making available to you.  I am not bragging.  I am old and in pain and very near the end… but I still have love to give… and laughter… and life.  Please, help yourself to it while you may.  I am not done yet.

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Broken Hearts

Last night I had an episode that may have been tachycardia, a scary enough thing, but that was followed by chest pain in the area of my heart.  I came very near to calling 911 and going to the emergency room at about 2:20 a.m.  I didn’t, or rather, I kinda passed out before I got to the phone.  But it turned out okay.  I have been to the cardiologist twice before for the same thing.  It turned out that the electrocardiogram was completely normal.  Before it was my COPD that fooled me into thinking I was having a heart attack.  This time was probably also that.  Lung pain and muscle spasms can disguise themselves in Halloween costumes of myocardial infarction.  But I am over the scare now.  I am not dead.  I am apparently not dying yet.  So I am still playing games with Paffooney backgrounds.

Yes, I know you are getting tired of this same background, but I’m still playing while I still am able.Drawn

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The Uses of Background

In fiction, a good background or setting can be home to more than one character.  In art, too, you can use the same background in more than one picture.

Billy and Gyro12 Brent n bball  Okay, so maybe it is really cheating, but cheating can be fun too.

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Background Work

You know that setting is a key to good fiction.  It must be as detailed and alive as the main characters.  It is necessary to good art as well.  I will be talking more about that as this Paffooney project unfolds.  I am concentrating on background art.  Here is step one… a tree on a hill.  This is the pen and ink on the original pencil drawing.  It is an extra-warty imaginary tree.

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Things You Probably Ought to Know about Mickey

As Mickey’s go, the one who is writing this is a moderately interesting example of the breed.  Still, there are things you probably ought to be made aware of.  A sort of precautionary thing…

First of all, this particular Mickey is an Iowegian.  That means he comes from Iowa, the State where the tall corn grows.  It is a prime reason why his jokes are corny and his ears have been popped (oh, and he does actually have two, unlike the picture Paffooney where only one is showing).  His fur is not actually purple.  If anything now, it is mostly silver-gray.  But the Paffooney is a magical portrait, and purple is the color of magic.  He has a goofy, and sometimes fatal grin.  You may not be able to prove that he has ever actually grinned someone to death, but it is likely he could always dig somebody up.

Another irrefutable fact about this Mickey, unlike many many Mickeys, is that he used to actually be a public school teacher.  He taught the little buggers for thirty-one years, plus two years as a substitute teacher.  He did twenty-four of those years in middle school… twenty-three of those in one school in South Texas.  His mostly Hispanic students managed to teach him every bad word in Spanglish… err, Texican… err, Tex-Mex… or is it Taco Bell?  Anyway, they taught him every bad word except for the word for cooties… you know, piojos.  He learned that word from an old girl friend.

A despicable thing about him… (you know despicable, right?  It’s that word that Sylvester the cat always uses) is that he actually likes kids.  That’s just not normal for someone who teaches them.  Teachers are supposed to hate kids, aren’t they?  But he never did.  It is true that he yelled at them sometimes, but he never did that because he hated them.  He did that only for fun.  And he actually apologized to kids sometimes when they got into behavioral trouble, because he said it was the teacher’s fault if kids are bad, and, besides, the kids are so surprised by that, that they forget all about the behavior and can be flammoozled into acting good.

The last and most wicked thing you need to know about Mickey is that he cartoons up a storm sometimes.  He loves to draw everything that is wacky and weird.  He has more goofball colored pencil tricks than a Charles Shultz and a Dr. Seuss rolled together in a sticky lump with a George Herriman stuck on top in place of a cherry.  He steals ideas and techniques from other artists and steals jokes from comedians, undertakers, and random juvenile delinquents.  He also puts together lists of wacky oddball details that don’t quite fit together and weaves it into purple paisley prose (somewhere in this whole messy blog thing he has also defined purple paisley prose and how to make it… in case you were curious.)

So there you have it.  The Truth about Mickey.  The sordid, simpering, solitary facts about Mickey.  The straight poop.  (wait a minnit!  How did poop get there?  Not again!  I thought I had cured that!)

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Cardinal Points

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The cardinal is a personal symbol of mine.  Cardinals, for those who only see them in the south where they live in relatively comfortable surroundings year around, are tough little birds of bright color.  When the winter comes, and the snow piles deep, the cardinal digs in and stays put.  I hope I am like that.  Six incurable diseases, financial problems, being forced to retire from a job I loved by poor health, are all winter things that have not driven me out yet.

And, of course, my favorite teams are Cardinals.  (Sure, you can argue that it’s a St. Louis thing, the Arizona Cardinals were once from St. Louis.)  The St. Louis baseball Cardinals just ended their season with a loss, but the loss was in the National League Championship Series.  They were in that series for the fourth straight year.  They have been doing well, a good sign for me.

The football Arizona Cardinals are at the head of their football division with a record of five wins and one loss.  They had a winning record last year, but were left out of the playoffs because they were in the same division as the Superbowl champion Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco Forty-Niners.  Things are getting better for cardinals everywhere.

So things are looking up.  I am happy, in spite of anything that stands in my way.

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