Ravings of a Grimm

The hardest job in the world is being a collector. Someone who seeks out things with value, and captures them. Keeps them hidden. Keeps them safe. Who sniffs out what the world hides. Hidden treasures in rock and mud.

What if what you were collecting wasn’t treasure though? What if you weren’t looking for diamonds in the rough? For pearls in pig pens?

What if what you were collecting was just as bad?

What if it wasn’t bright or cheery at all?

What if what you were collecting was grim?

Tell me:

Would you still collect? Still search?

Even atrocities need to be filed away, you know.

That’s why I believe it to be the hardest job in the world.

Who wants to sit and collect something covered in rust? In muck?

In blood?

Storm Chaser

They say that, at the very center of any storm, is a calm spot.

A place for rest.

A place where the storm originates.

The eye of the storm.

Should you ever find yourself stuck in a storm, that would be the safest place.

However.

Getting to the eye?

Yeah…

That’s a different story entirely.

Across the War

Wars do not have happy endings.

I don’t care if your side won or lost. If your people got what they wanted or not. If you benefitted or not. It doesn’t matter.

For someone, even on the winning side, something was lost.

And that usually means a life.

Regardless of what you won from the war, there were losses. Losses of grand proportions. Losses of life.

And, for some, that’s too much to lose.

War is tragic. War is a divider. War is a killer.

Just because you survive doesn’t mean everything is good.

Yeah…

Things still aren’t good.

Unseen

The thing about people is:

They’re so preoccupied with their own worlds. With the things that are right before their eyes.

And only those things.

They forget other things exist.

If they can’t see it, it’s out of their mind.

Isn’t that how the saying goes?

Out of sight, out of mind.

They don’t give thought to the things they can’t see. To the worlds underneath the surface.

Through the cracks. Under the bark. If you can slide your fingers in, just a touch, they could see it. They could be there. They could know.

The world is not everything we see.

YEAH!!!! Book update

link is here 

Hey everybody! I haven’t done a book update in a few (time is irrelevant to me, so it feels like forever and somehow yesterday that I last updated, but I think its been longer, but I don’t know because, again, time seems irrelevant to me. Probably because the only thing breaking up my days is when I work at my other job, or my other other job, or my other other other job, as opposed to working my primary job, but, anyhow, I digress) and I’m REALLY stoked about this update because… well… I feel like I’m making headway.

*Knocks on wood*

War Paint

He tells me to hit, so I crush.

He tells me to run, so I sprint.

He tells me to jump, so I soar.

He is testing my limits. Seeing how far I can reach. For how long I can succeed.

How foolish.

My war paint runs deeper than this.

Discussions at Camp

I’ve heard it said that there are two types of stories to help us understand:

What is evil?

Everyone sits around the fireplace, surrounded by other young ones, and they watch and listen to the old man. The wise one. The guy with experience, with understanding. With battle scars. With knowledge. They sit and they listen.

And this is where the story diverges.

In the first version, the old man points into the forest. Into the wild. Into the dark night surrounding the campfire, encroaching on them. He points outward, toward nature. Toward the “other” in the world. Toward the unknowns that plague mankind through the dark.

Evil is out there.

That’s what he’ll tell the kids. He might talk of aliens, of demons, of monsters. He might talk about beasts or the paranormal. Either way, the story ends with them. With that thing. That creature. That entity.

The unknown.

That is what’s evil.

And the second type?

The second sort of story?

The other half of this tale of divergence?

All or Nothing

There is a beating drum somewhere. A resounding sound. It fills my blood with every beat. Dragging my heart along to its carnal rhythm.

A drum of rage.

A drum of determination.

A drum of war.

There is a beat that goes on, and on, and on.

And it won’t stop.

Not now.

Not ever.

Not even when I’m dead and gone. Not even when I’ve lost this fight. Lost this life.

Because this is it.

This is all or nothing.

There is no peace outside of this.

None.

Book reminder, because, y’know…

Anyhow, this is yet another reminder that I wrote a book.

This is the link here

So far, it’s gotten over 180 reads, which is really excellent. (At least, I, personally, think it is.) I’ve been giving this as the brief summary:

It’s a story about survival, big bad werewolves, and vampires you’d like to take to church (if you catch my drift).

Anyway, it’s filled with my childish humor and the werewolves are the good guys (I feel like this is a “duh” statement coming from me) and the vampires are psychotic.

If you wouldn’t mind boosting it, I would really appreciate it. Also, I’ve been working on my digital art skills, so if you click the blog post, you’ll actually get to see the “cover” design I did.

Thanks everyone for your support, it means a lot to me.

The Sunshine Blogger Award

Wow, in all honesty, I’m not sure what all this award is, but it’s really cool to be recognized as anything. Especially since I haven’t been doing this that long and especially since the one who nominated me (the britchy one) (which, I absolutely LOVE the blog’s name, btw) hasn’t been reading my stuff for all that long. It’s definitely an honor.

So, first of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

Doing a short story every day is a good writing habit. It gives me lots of practice, and it helps me condense or expand my world-building and character-building skills, and helps me understand how to do both with intent. But, as much as I do it for practice, and for myself, I really do love when people read my work and like it. There’s just a nice little special feeling that takes place in my chest cavity, and it’s just something you can’t get enough of. So being nominated (even though I’m not a hundred percent sure what the award is, the name infers it’s something very good, and I trust in that) for anything at all is really something special. It brings about that aforementioned feeling, but in waves. In droves. In floods.

I actually can’t say “thank you” enough times britchy one.

(And I’m not just thanking you because the instructions tell me to. I never do things I don’t feel like doing, even if it means breaking rules/going against directions.)

(Honestly, it’s a bit of a problem sometimes.)

(But, anyhow…)

So here are the instructions:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog

• Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you

• Nominate 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions

• List the rules and display the sunshine blogger award logo on your post/or on your blog.

Here are the questions I had to answer. My nominees and the questions I asked are below that:

What’s the best advice anyone ever gave you? Easy. Line comes from an A Day To Remember song: “Keep your hopes up high and your head down low”. Essentially, I take it to mean you ought to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, just in case. And always work at it, don’t just expect it to happen. Luck (and the universe, and whoever else) tends to favor people who are mindful of those things. It’s always served me well.

If you could describe yourself in three words what would they be? Crazy. Steady. Intuitive.

What is your favorite animal? This cracks me up, but only because I was talking not too long ago about how not ALL my stories are about my favorite animal. There “just so happens” to be a lot of stories about my favorite animal on my site. And I wasn’t using the phrase “favorite animal” because I didn’t want to outright admit that I give them special attention/consideration/thought, and tons of stories about how great they really are.

But…

It’s wolves.

*sighs in defeat*

Do you believe in the paranormal or have you had an experience you can’t explain? Oh-ho buddy. This is a whole can of worms for me. My life has not been a linear thing, and it definitely hasn’t always taken place in the realm of “normal”. A big portion of what makes me tick is my survival instincts and my distrust of humanity (both things I’ve been working on for ages. I’m getting better, I swear, but slowly.) which stemmed from a bad run-in with the occult (but, really, are there any good kinds of run-ins with the occult?) and some other crazy stuff people don’t generally believe. And I mean that they don’t believe in The Thing I’m talking about, or they simply don’t believe me, which is why I generally keep my experiences to myself.

So, yeah.

Long story short: I’d be bonkers if I didn’t believe in the paranormal. Literally insane. I’d have someone lock me up for having seen the things I’ve seen, I swear I would.

What would be your last meal on earth? This is a reeeeeaaaallly tough one for me since I absolutely adore food. When I was in Haiti, they cooked me up some really killer chicken that I sometimes crave. There’s also this great burger joint in Nashville called The Pharmacy, and I sometimes get a real hankering for one of their beautiful creations. Though, in all honesty, I’d probably want some form of steak for my last meal. Steak is so great. And potatoes. I have to blame my Irish blood for my love of potatoes. I don’t think I could live without them.

If you were offered a trip to space by Richard Branson would you go? Why? I would have to heartily say NO to that one. Space seems pretty cool when I look at it from afar, but I think being out there would scare the pants off me.

Maybe I’ve seen too many sci-fi movies.

What’s your favorite comfort food? I don’t think I have a comfort food. If I do, it’d be anything potato-related. I do, however, have an insane amount of love for Dr Pepper. Like, seriously. I LOVE Dr Pepper. If the world were literally falling apart and I needed something to help calm my nerves, I’d pick up a bottle of Dr Pepper and it’d all be okay.

I need a good book to take on a seven hour plane journey–what do you recommend? Literally anything by Maggie Steifvater. I once picked her up on accident when my grandfather was going into the hospital for the last time. The cover of Shiver really appealed to me as I stood in our local trashy Walmart, and we didn’t have much time to be picky about what I was going to get, so I haphazardly picked up both Shiver and Linger with a devil-may-care sort of attitude and then ended up ABSOLUTELY LOVING everything about the books. And then I expanded into more of Maggie’s work and found I absolutely LOVED everything about how she writes, from story to characters to style.  So anything by her is a win. It’ll definitely leave you drooling for her next novel, even if it isn’t within the same series/world.

What’s your favorite soft drink? Whoops. Let the cat out of the bag a bit too early on that one.

Dr Pepper.

The Patriots suck. I know this isn’t a question but it doesn’t need to be–I KNOW it’s true!! Agreed. I posted a story a bit ago about working so hard for something, like athletes do, and then being let-down by that thing you worked hard for, and I feel the same way about cheating in sports. The other team is trying to win off their talent and hard work, and you’re going to disrespect that and dishonor them by cheating your way to the top? Hell no. Not about it.

And I don’t even care for sports that much.

If you were a witch, what spell would you cast and on who? What do you mean IF             ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Jk lol.

Probably I’d cast a spell to turn someone into a dragon. Maybe one of my bros? They’d probably be cool with that. It’d be a win-win: I get a dragon, one of my bros get to be a dragon, and no one presses charges on me for turning them into a different species. Plus, I get free rides everywhere, and I don’t have to pay for checked luggage.

 

NOMINATIONS:

I, unfortunately, do not do too much reading on this site (IM SO SORRY, IT’S TERRIBLE, I KNOW) but in my defense, I volunteer, run three different jobs (two part time, one full time), and have a plethora of animals to help care for, ranging from goats to dogs to the occasional wild beast (ex: squirrels, sparrows, etc.) though it is still DEFINITELY something I need to apologize for.

I’m sorry.

That said, I do read some blogs, and here are the ones I enjoy the most:

https://littlefears.co.uk

https://thesarahdoughty.wordpress.com

https://randomwalkthroughintelligentuniverse.wordpress.com

https://fictionspawn.com

And I know that’s not 11, but as I said, I unfortunately don’t do too much reading on this site.

I need to get better at that.

Anyhow, I’m still dishing out 11 questions because answering questions is fun! (At least, for me they are.)

#1: What is the last dream you remember having?

#2: What’s your favorite sport?

#3: Why did you start blogging?

#4: Who is your favorite band/artist?

#5: What is the last song you listened to?

#6: Do you have pets? What are their names?

#7: Who is your favorite villain? Why?

#8: Are you a theme parks person or a beach person?

#9: Do you like spooky things?

#10: What is the coolest thing you’ve ever heard someone say?

#11: If you were given the chance, would you want to meet your idol? Why/why not?

And thanks again to britchy one 🙂