Novum Vicinos

(This is a short story I wrote a while back and I've just about finished with sprucing it up, plan on including this version in Continuum which is coming soon.)

Tap! Tap!

The noise awakened him from a deep sleep and that wonderful dream he was having. What a nice one it was too with that brunette who was so damned hot! The two of them had been making love on the deck of the boat while they were sailing along. The sun, the waves, the wind all seemed so real and perfect. I wish that would have really happened! He smiled to himself as his reverie still captivated his thoughts. Even better, in the dream he didn’t have any gray hair!

Tap! Tap!

Hearing the sound again caused him to sit up on the queen sized bed and look around the room. Everything in the bedroom looked just like they did earlier in the day except for the shadows. Even the hallway looked the same that was visible through the glass panels in the French doors. I really need to get some curtains for those soon. That was something he now remembered the realtor had mentioned as he became sentient. During the weeks of waiting for the closing it was one of those things that didn’t seem all that important. Somehow, they went from looking charming to something that was now rather disturbing with that appliqué spider web he decorated one of them with.

Getting up Josh went to the window and put his hands on the sill so could look out. There wasn’t much to see, the driveway between the two houses. The late fall chill was very noticeable as it transferred through the glass into his fingertips. This is the first night in the new place. I'm sure I'll get used to this house. Now what in the hell is making the noises that’s woken me tonight? Heading back to bed he heard the noises behind him again.

Tap! Tap!

The hair on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end and his skin felt prickly. This is definitely getting on my nerves. Rousing himself from the bed he made his way over to the window once again. An eerie feeling came over him and caused his stomach to churn. Just before he reached the window he heard the sound once again.

Tap! Tap!

Pulling the curtain back he peered out of the window. Observing the branch blowing back and forth and hitting the casement eased his concerns. Relief flooded in as he breathed a heavy sigh while he stood there watching it move. Letting the curtain fall back down he headed back to bed once more. Sitting down on the edge of the bed the tension he felt twisted within. His stomach wasn’t calming down and trying to will it to ease just wasn’t working.

Tap! Tap!

His ears located where the sound was coming from this time. Groaning, he rose to his feet and stepped over to the window to look out again. Man, this is really getting tedious!

Pulling back the curtain this time he was seeing some kind of glowing ball that was floating along. It faintly lit the concrete of the driveway and the light fog. His attention was riveted as he watched it floating by. He wanted to go out to touch it but yet was frozen in amazement. Slowly, it moved along to the garage door and then disappeared over the six foot high privacy fence.

Josh stood there gazing out a few minutes to see if anything else would happen but nothing did. It seemed to him the mystery was now solved as he headed back to bed. Lying down, he pulled the covers over himself and fell into a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

Waking to a bright shining morning the events of the evening were still fresh in his mind. Dressing quickly he went out to the driveway past the plastic molded pumpkin by the door. He ran to where the glowing orb went over the fence last night. Peering over it to the other side he now could see something that he hadn't noticed when he looked at the house. Why didn't I see those before? Row upon peaceful row of head stones greeted his vision. The cemetery was beautifully accented by the fall colors of the trees edging it. The unpleasant realization hit him that he might get a few more rather unwelcome visitors if he continued to live here.

Why did I have to move in just before Halloween? Is it too late now to get out of that damned contract I signed the other day?!

The End

Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day.

Take some time to send your thoughts to those that have fallen in various wars. They served your country and it doesn't matter what country you're talking about. This doesn't mean you have to agree with the war they served in as that's a separate issue entirely. Personally, most wars shouldn't have ever been fought but the leaders for whatever reason felt that war was necessary. There's better ways of solving conflicts in my opinion. Think you actually have to serve in conflict to see it that way which most of our leaders don't. This time of year the ghosts come out and I do talk to them.

I myself am a veteran of the US Army, served in Iraq in 1991. Mostly did vehicle recovery, helped pull them out when they were stuck which was often. This especially was the deuce  and a half and five ton cargo trucks. While many times I don't feel it was an important contribution to Desert Storm apparently it was necessary at least.

My Grandfather served in North Africa during WWII. He wouldn't talk much about what happened while he was over there except for a very few things and it wasn't often. His job was to repair the fiber glass on some of the aircraft used while the Army was chasing after Rommel's forces.

While we both made it home we both knew many who didn't. My Grandfather more than me I'll admit. Take time to thank a Veteran today even if its just in your thoughts.

Elections

I don't really want to talk much about the elections that we had recently other than you need to be aware of what goes into campaign promises. They are ALL saying what they think you want to hear. It may even be the truth but it probably isn't. It's kind of funny, I get away with less made up stuff in my fiction than most politician's does and I'm writing fiction of all things. If I put some of that same drivel in what I write it would be bashed.

What I will recommend you do for the next election cycle is get yourself informed. What have they really done previously? Are they guilty of what they say their opponent did? In many cases they are and you need to be aware. Remember, all of those ads are created to sell that candidate to you and in particular negativity sells. This especially holds true in the political arena. You don't like what's happening in YOUR government? Do something about it. Get informed. It IS your government after all. At least that's what I read in the Constitution.

An additional viewpoint on freedom to choose:
http://daneladwig.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/post-election-results-to-friend-or-defriend/#comment-498

Opening a book

Have a friend of mine in Switzerland and he wanted to check the formatting on one of his books that's listed on Barnes & Noble. He found out he couldn't download the Nook app or his book. I decided to help him out a little bit. Might run into a similar situation with one of mine at some point, who knows. I downloaded the app to my computer, installed it and proceeded to get a copy of his book from B&N. I then forwarded a copy of his book to him.

Well, the Nook copy of his book wouldn't open in Calibre since the Nook app wasn't a viable option. For those of you that don't know Calibre is an e-reader app that opens most e-books. Apparently in Switzerland that may not happen though with some books. He put the book on his iPad and it opened right up and he started looking through it. I just really thought that was quite convoluted and probably shouldn't have been necessary.

I'm wondering why it even matters where you are at on whether you get a book or not. It doesn't make any sense to me. You should be able to read one of my books anywhere in the world, it shouldn't matter where you are. That's my opinion any way.

A Spiritus Renascentis

This piece will be published in an anthology in the Spring produced by Perseid Press. It was quite an interesting project also. The Spiritus Sancti pieces have to do with I finally ended up writing. Now that it's complete I'll be going back to work on the Witchery Afoot rewrite. I love the three dimensional world's that I live in at times. It's a blast. It's cool to get inside of a characters head and see everything your character does. What's a little weird is when your character is the opposite sex. We'll leave it at that. Have a great night.

Busy week

As of yesterday we got most of the office set up and it looks pretty good. It's even pretty comfortable to work in and should allow me to be even more productive. Probably need to organize my paperbacks on the shelves though, just didn't feel like doing that last night. Other than that I've been really busy with rewrites and the two I'm working on both are starting to look really good. Even have been getting some other story ideas, I think really good ones. Unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time for much else and there is a long list of books to be read right now.

Spiritus Sancti

That is the name of a little short story that I wrote recently. The title doesn't entirely have anything to do with the story. I just liked it and it comes from I believe one of the Catholic masses but I could be wrong. Hopefully it will be selected for the anthology I attempted to write it for. Earlier today I submitted the mostly cleaned up manuscript. Like the rest of what I've written it is a little different than the usual. 

Back in the 1880's or so it was common to make a death portrait of someone. This portrait would be included in a kind of macabre shrine to the dead person. One thing led to another and my thoughts were directed towards what would happen if one of the subjects came back to life. The idea really interested me and I found it fascinating to the point I got the kernel of an idea for a short story.