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See? I knew Brian wouldn’t be able to handle roman numerals. I ain’t even gonna comment on the number selection he made. 

I do, however, think ol’ Brian done baited himself pretty well with that last post.  Ya need some extra loose bullets, Brian? I can fire a few your way–

Whups. I mean, aim some in your direction–

Ahh…nevermind.

Feeding the muse! Well, I certainly got enough muses around this joint that the ol’ grocery bill is getting expensive. Especially the coffee and donuts. I’ll tell ya, feeding the cops and Feds around here is a full time job.  And oh yeah, they’re all willing to volunteer to deliver those loose bullets to Brian in the story if need be. Brian even knows me well enough to have the spin I’d put on it already figured out. Bleeding on the page, cousin, it’s what it’s all about.

Of course, I realize that’s not supposed to be literal but even some of the boys in blue around here might argue that I might take it literally. Considerin’ what some of them all have been through. Ah, ahem…

Anyway, if I were to make up a muse-box for Brian in an attempt to entice him over here, I wonder what I’d put in it? Hmmm lessee…black wrapping paper to start with, yep, and some packets of sugar for his coffee. Some tapes of Cheap Trick, AC/DC and Areosmith. A harmonica. A few beer nuts and pretzels. A gold plated pen. A bottle of Miller beer. A pack of cigarettes and a lighter. (Hmm…Maxwell cigarettes perhaps? Khee!). A swatch of leather. A key chain with a Chevy emblem on it. And ya know, for the heck of it, I think I’ll toss some fried chicken in too.

Gee. No bullets.

But I could toss in this boxing glove to represent my right cross.

Enticing ain’t it? Khee!

Brian’s number for his post technically shoulda been V. His next post should use VII. Knowing him, he’ll use X just because he knows he can annoy me with it. Heh!

Ah well, at this rate it seems we’re going from Inside Joke to The Cousins Coltrane School of Writing. Still, Brian did manage something of a pot shot in his last post, to which I’ll respond to in a minute.

First tho’, I wanted to add a comment about those quotes about voice, particularly the last one that talks about how some of what you write will be lousy. This is true. However, one should not be discouraged by this. I have long believed in the following writing maxim: “The first draft is always shit.” Once you’re comfortable with that, the rest of it isn’t as difficult.

I have times when I’ll write a scene and it’ll come out pretty good on the first go around. Then I have times when I write a scene and the wording is just sucky and awkward, but I at least got the thing down. And that’s the important part, and the core of what was said in that last quote. You gotta write it down! Otherwise, whatever it is you’re looking to say or express isn’t going to come out at all if you’re worried about it coming out pretty or perfect the first time through. You can shore up the scene afterward, revising it and such. But it’s getting the thing down that’s the first big step.

Aside from that, have I found my voice? I believe I have. (At least, I’ve bled on the page so that must qualify me for something!) And I know my voice certainly has a lot more it wants to say about my personal observations, my beliefs, my desires and my passions.

Which brings me to answering Brian’s question about the naked experience…

…in that ah ree-fuse to answer that question. 

Now, I wonder if it would be plausible for him to get shot in the story at this point…muhahahahaha…

While working on my previous post about Stephen Colbert and his “On Notice” list, I had to do a Google search of images to find that pic of him with the list board. I knew it was out there, as I had seen it, but it wasn’t an image that I had saved personally. While looking for that image, however, I came across this one of Stephen…

Remind you of anybody?

I learned something new the other day. As we know there’s all kinds of social networking sites out there, there’s actually an anti-social networking site out there. It’s called Snubster. There’s another one called iSolatr, which is just a mock up site. You can’t actually join up. But at Snubster, you can and you basically can mouth off and bitch about anything and everything that’s ever pissed you off. (What the hell do I need a anti-social network for? I got my blog.)

Anyway, I took a peek at it and found something about it strangely familiar. Familiar in that they make use of two lists for the mouthing off and bitching portion: “On Notice” and “Dead to Me.”

Gee, where have I’ve seen these lists before…

Yeah. Stephen Colbert with his “On Notice” and “Dead to Me” lists. Now I dunno if Stephen originated the concept of “On Notice” and “Dead to Me” himself or if he got the idea somewhere else but since becoming familiar with Mr. Colbert and his show two years ago I’ve noticed the two lists are used a lot in various other places by other people.  They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but I think Stephen would just figure people are trying to rip ‘em off.

Or, as the case may be here, snubbed.

Khee! Yeah, many of y’all out there know that the story known pretty much as K5 (or as I call it, K5 Through Infinity) has been in progress now for well over two years. It’s been quite an experience on both sides of the blue and black line. As Brian explained, there’s no pre-planning, no conferencing, no outlining. We just let the characters out and chaos reins supreme. For myself it’s been a rewarding challenge and a great opportunity to watch some new “blue” characters grow.

Speaking of “blue” characters, y’all may recognize that Atlanta skyline photo in Brian’s blog as the same that was used in a wallpaper design I made that was influenced by Jack.

I say K5 Through Infinity because I think we can easily make it K5, K6 and probably even K7. Maybe even a K8. Yeah, the thing is that freakin’ huge.  Even with writing around jobs and various responsibilities, we’ve churned out a respectable length of manuscript. And y’all would probably appreciate the story broken up into manageable pieces!

Of course, part of the reason for the length is because I got all these cops, Feds, cops, district attorneys, cops, gangsters, cops, assassins, cops, Feds and cops runnin’ around in this thing that the ratio of good guys to bad guys has gotta be, I dunno, three to one? And the story threads just keep going and going and going. Where Brian is at a rare moment of indecision, I’m amazed by the fact that I’ve been able to keep things straight this far into the game and tie a lot of this stuff together. He says I have skill. I appreciate the praise, tho’ I’m more apt to call it dumb luck. Heh!

Meantime, since I managed to cause Brian to vapor lock on what he should do next in the story (and no, we’re not exactly near the end quite yet - maybe in a couple more years. Khee!), I expect the potshots on the blogs here will continue. C’mon, cousin, hit me with yer best shot…

Max…well?