Writing Starter #3

Carl Strandberg:

1. The greatest thing to happen, or so he thought at the time, was to be chosen as the running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mick Richards.  However, he soon realized how much of an incompetent doof Richards truly is, and how much trouble the country will be in if he starts calling the shots.

2. Strandberg is slowly falling for the president's Chief of Staff/Campaign Manager Margaret Stephens.  She is a very aggressive politician, committed to covering up the idiocy of Richards and using him as her puppet.

3. Obviously, Strandberg is a conservative, and a strong member of the Republican party.

4. Strandberg has always dreamed of becoming the President of the United States, and at first saw spending 4 or 8 years under a wise political expert that he believed to be Richards as a huge stepping stone towards this goal.  However, he now realizes that in order to save the country from the madness that is the Richards charade, he may need to attempt stepping into this position sooner rather than later.

Short Story Characters

Neil Hollman: men's room attendant at a nice restaurant
-gets accused of making racist comments towards an important business executive
-can't afford both Netflix and heating, has to make a choice

Darren Bowsher: runs a laundromat that has been in his family for decades
-business is slow, he is being blamed by his father
-while trying to stop a fight between two guys fighting over detergent, gets hit in the face

Lance Wachtel: suave French art thief
-no one in the black market cares enough about art for him to make a living
-his detective mom vows to find whoever is stealing all of the art

Carl Strandberg: Vice President of the U.S.
-beats the president in a game of risk and thinks he should be put in charge of the war in Afghanistan but no one listens to him
-his dad wants to kill the president so that his son will finally be important

Erika Merrit: sister of a slave owner in Georgia/secret abolitionist
-her brother Ricky (slave owner) kills their father because he believes that he is the one who is helping the slaves escape
-one of the slaves threatens to tell Ricky about her secret life if he isn't the next to be freed

Writing Starter #2

I feel a light vibration travel up my shovel.  There's not much there, but it's certainly something.  Not a rock, not a coin, no, something much more significant.  The dirt is compact and sturdy, as if it was never meant to be found.  I take my right foot onto the side of the shovel and take another stab at the surface and a faint orange glow shines onto my shovel, through the gap that I have created.  I wedge the shovel under the dirt, and fold the pile up out of the ground.  It is glowing steadily, getting brighter and dimmer and a consistent pace from beneath the dirt.  I dig in, aggressively clawing tough debris that stands in my way.  My hand freezes when I touch the soft, warm surface.  I peel away the dirt to reveal it and release the glowing orange egg into my clutch.  Gradually, it began to grow brighter, and warmer.  Not warmer, hotter.

EE Cummings writing starter

The book Ender's Game along with its sequel Speaker for the Dead which I have read and Xenocide which I am in the middle of, all by Orson Scott Card, speak to me in a way no other book has.  These books take place in another world with other forms of life.   Because of the specific and unique situations presented by this universe, different philosophical questions are asked, questions that no one has to or tries to answer in our world.  Ender's Game deals with how the human race could possibly deal with another form of intelligent life that we are completely unable to communicate with or understand, and how the inevitable fate must be for one to be destroyed.  Speaker for the Dead asks how two very different intelligent forms of life could interact when they are capable of communication, but one is much more technologically advanced, and the life cycle and values of these two species are so different.  About five chapters into Xenocide I am beginning to see the central themes that are building, one of which seems to be the validity of a species, and how it is defined.  When I think I about these different perspectives to very complicated questions, it makes me feel very differently about questions that I have to ask everyday, and allows me to ask new questions that I would have never thought of before.

3 word writing starter

Radagast the Brown may be best known for his skill with plants and animals, bringing hedgehogs back to life, that kind of stuff.  But there is one very important aspect to his livelihood that often goes untold. Yes, this screwy little mossy wizard is often every woman's first stop on their way to a failed marriage.