Paddy's Wanderings

Paddy's Poetry Corner (Special Guest-Oct)

Greetings Wanderers and welcome to a very special edition of Paddy's Poetry Corner. As you all know, I post up some of my poems in the Corner from time to time. You also know that I am a great lover of poetry, but you may not know I am a contest freak. I love a contest and every once in a blue moon, I win a prize, sometimes, even a Major Award. This time around it's like peanut butter and chocolate. Not only did I win a contest but I get a poem as a prize!

The contest entailed sending in six words(those six words were surprise, love, carnation, autumn, parchment and rain) to use in a poem and if your name was drawn out of the hat, you win a Sestina written for you using those words you entered, pretty cool huh? So, as I always say I am one lucky.. well I won and its a big deal, 'cause I get to share it on the blog with you and an audio version. A Sestina is not easy to write, it is one of my White Whales, this is why, and why it is so cool.

Today I was doing a bit of house cleaning because it is a day of firsts. First time we entertain a guest and their art and a first with an audio file. So I swept out the corner, dusted off the seat, turned up the mic, turned on the spot light and dimmed the leg lamps. I cracked my knuckles and warmed up the bongos, so my Wanderers, lets give our guest a big round of snapping fingers...

Surprise Love by Jennifer Hudock

She yawns, stretches, doesn’t expect surprise,
but then that’s how it works, the ways of love.
Left on her pillow, a red carnation–
its fragrance nearly disguising autumn,
and a love note written there on parchment–
promises, goodbyes… outside, it rains.

There were days when she didn’t like the rain,
when she could only hope for the surprise
of a lover’s promise etched in parchment.
Forever, he writes, I’ll wait for your love
as summer fires burn into autumn
and the petals of this one carnation

tremble and break. I wait. This carnation
will not bleed into the puddles of rain
that tear the leaves from the trees in autumn.
It’s eternal. This love. Does that surprise
you? And so infernal, it is, this love,
its flames touch the edges of this parchment.

She traces fingers across the parchment
and reaches out to grasp the carnation.
Breathing in its scent, it smells of his love
and walking outside under the spring rain.
And she isn’t sure why she’s so surprised
he still loves her–even in the autumn.

Cold winter dampens the flames of autumn,
but embers of the heart trace parchment
with charcoal letters. Why is she surprised?
The unexpected gift of that carnation
has dried out the clouds and staved off the rain.
Sunlight glistens on the tears of her love.

And that’s just it. No one expects to love,
not near the fiery edge of autumn.
When winter’s ice overpowers the rain
and encases those words in the parchment
like a glass display. And the carnation
fades so slowly. What a happy surprise.

Awaken sweet sweet surprise, and embrace love!
Blooming carnations even in autumn,
and always keep this parchment for when it rains.

Download Surprise-Love

You can visit Jennifer's website here and see all the good stuff she has going on there. A big thanks go to her for allowing me to post Surprise Love. Music provided by Incompetech.

Happy Wanderings!

On the Launchpad

Okay, folks here we go. For the past month I have been digging around and prepping for NaNaWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. What a long, strange trip it's been. Seriously, I had no idea what I was getting into, and really, I still don't know.

Since way back in the day, I have hatched various ideas, even written a few thousand words, outlined and assorted other stuff on about six novels. Most are just sitting there, waiting to start and really put the effort into getting the words on to the page. I am intimately familiar with story lines, characters, the whole she-bang, but I just never went the distance. I have killed trees with the amount of story stuff since I was a wee lad. Oh sure, I have plenty of finished short stories, even published a slew of poems, but no novel.

So I need a kick in the pants to actually finish one to the end. Up pops NaNoWriMo and I am off down the garden path. That one story that wont go away is going to be put down on paper, er screen.  And that is what I am all about right now, putting finger to key and going the distance on this one. I signed up, I talked to a bunch of folks about it, went to the kick-off launch party last night and it is time.

In order to keep the pedal to the metal, to keep pushing every day, I am going to post up a daily piece on what I have done and where I am going for the month of November. Then we'll take a look and see what the what is and go from there. I suspect that I will have reached the goal of 50k and be only a portion of the way to the end.

I anticipate this story going into the 100k range by the time it is told. That being the case, after November I will continue and pass along weekly updates. I just want to chronicle as I go for my own reasons, a push if you will. I have prepped and planned and settled in for the drive. Come along if you like, we'll see just where all this takes us. I don't know where this is headed, but I signed up for the ride, time to sit back and enjoy the show.

One last bit before I start(yeah I know I am a day early, but I wanna go!). People have asked me, okay Paddy, what is it(the..Project) all about, what's the story. Man if I could explain it in a few sentences, I would not need to write a 350 page novel is my off the cuff answer and may be a bit snarky, so let me say this.

It is a tale about friends. It has love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, and all the things that mark a person for who they are in the course of a life. They live in a tumultuous time, a time of change that effects them very deeply. Hell it has everything and then some. I am starting to sound pretentious. I'll keep you updated a long the way.

Until tomorrow...

Symbols - Postcard

I believe I have found all of the past notes and scribbles and what not associated with the..Project. This last bit is from a page I was doodling on many years ago. It seemed at the time I was trying my hand at the symbols associated with the story. In this story, symbols are very important in several different ways.

I have to admit that I had forgotten this bit of the original idea until I came across this legal pad filled with notes. There, at the bottom, I found this little square of pencil scribble. Bam! I had a flashback to where and what I was doing during that time. That moment is what makes this particular bit of seemingly random doodling so very important.

I will admit that one of my weaknesses, other then a lack of organization, is my inability to leave a paper trail. Over the years, I have had many, many ideas and half thought out stuff pass through my mind. I may or may not have written it down. From poems to epic books of fiction, those ideas have turned since the days of reading mysteries when I was a wee lad in elementary school. You could say I have a rather large collection of that stuff floating around in my head, and I don't always remember it all or even think about it unless something triggers that bit.

Since the beginning of the year, that has changed. I now have reams, er bites of those bits stored on the computer. Some days, it is just a matter of recording all of those bits that takes up all of my time. So this particular piece of doodle is priceless, because it opened a flood gate of story info. Now I am armed with even more notes in preparation of the..Project.

I am almost home. I think I used all of the postcards and I am out of stamps. The next five days are the sprint to the start. November is going to be grand.

Cement Plant

CementPlant5, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

In my photography quest, I have been clicking away at just about everything I see, much to the dismay of better 1/2. There is a real possibility you, oh intrepid wanderer, may never see a pic of her posted anywhere. This small set back has not deterred me at all from making buildings and such pose for me.

The old cement plant in my hometown has always been a fixture of my life. My grandfather and father both hauled cement from this plant as well as worked there back in the day. I will admit, that as a wee wanderer, I investigated every nook and cranny of this huge plant. It was always so quiet, and cool, even in the dog days of summer.

Now, many years later, I keep going back and taking pictures. I don't know why, it is not like there are any horror stories or some such mystery to the place. Well, I have never heard of any. It is just a very old cement plant that, over the years, made pretty much all of the cement that went into building the Great North Road in the Mitten and the Mighty Mac.

I have many more pics, most of which are so bad I deleted them, but I do have some up on my Flickr account. My quest with the digital camera continues. Maybe I will figure it out and I can capture some really cool photos. Either way, I am having fun wandering with the camera.

October Junk Drawer

This is the place where, in my infinite wisdom, I just pile all kinds of stuff I think I should save or comment on, or whatever. The junk drawer is bulging with lots of tidbits and half consumed stuff. It has been a whirlwind month for some strange reason.

On the book front, I read Deception Point by Dan Brown and thought it was okay, not great but worth reading. I am just finishing Mars Crossing by Geoffrey Landis. I am always crazy for a anything Mars related and this is a good piece of fiction. I have not been reading at the torrid pace I am accustomed to because I have been spending free time elsewhere.

Other then doing some fun stuff for the blog and hanging with the Fam, I have not done a whole bunch of cool wandering this month. I have been prepping for the..Project. I have not done anything with short stories and just tinkered with some poetry. What I have been doing is digging out the notes and assorted stuff in anticipation of National Novel Writing Month.

I have toyed with the idea of NaNoWriMo for a couple of years but just never committed to doing it until this year. I have several half finished, half baked, tons of notes/outlines for several different novels, stuff I have worked on over the years. I was scanning the website and thought, hey do it this time. So I thought about it and decided I should pick one of the many projects started but never finished. The next day I picked the story idea and signed up. Now I have told everyone I am doing it, so now to avoid looking like a slacker, I have to shut up and just do it.

The past three weeks I have delved the mine of story holding and have been digging up and preparing for November, when the fireworks truly begins. I guess I really meant it when I said it was time to stop being a dilettante, and get to the business of not only writing, but submitting and doing the big projects I have always wanted to do. You know what? This has been a ton of fun for me so I have achieved success. I think I have finally turned that corner and there is no going back, just go Paddy go!

November in the blog is going to be a wee bit different. I plan on doing a daily update on word progress with a little blurb on what is going on in the story and how the whole project is doing. And that folks is going to be about it for the month. If I have planned it correctly, I will do a wee blog post and write like mad, work and sleep, and play with the family and that is going to be about all the time I am going to have in any given day. With that being said, I am off to do more prep work and tinker with some stuff over the next week.

Happy Wanderings!

The Vison - Postcard

The Darkness has indeed fallen, and I have had a vision. I don't know about the truth being revealed, or what kind of big answer I was supposed to find, but there it is. I have been truly amazed at what bits and bobs I have unearthed in my travels into the closet of holding. Way in the wayback, there is a mountain of scraps of stuff to sort through. I guess I should be more systematic in my filing system, a sad state of affairs that has face palmed me more then once the past month.

But fear not oh intrepid traveller, I have my miner's helmet firmly attached, plenty of battery left, and am going in for one more excavation through the last pile of..stuff. Funny thing is, I stop so often to transcribe onto the 'puter and then I get caught up in the adding and expanding and all of that stuff, then I am off again like a magpie after a shiny. But there has been progress of sorts and it is all good in the end. I am almost home, almost ready for the..Project.

Paddy's Poetry Corner (Early Nov Edition)

I like posting up in the Poetry Corner and I just could not wait until November to get this one rolled out. I got a few other plans for the upcoming month, as in the..Project, and I figured 'tis the season, and time is going to be short. So, for your perusal, a long poem I wrote many, many years ago.

The Hunt


An orange moon,
shrouded in mist,
slowly descends
into a lavender morning.

A horned owl,
blinking yellow eyes,
trains it's steely gaze
across the barren ground.

The maple tree,
dripping wet snow,
is hard and cold
against my stiff back.

My bare fingers,
aching with frost,
clutch the taut bow
with steady anticipation.

I exhale in the wind
a shallow breath,
the rich cedar
fills me with the earth.

Snow falls from a branch,
marking a secret passing;
signaling the soft approach
of a wild eyed buck.

He steps into the clearing
not thirty yards away;
sniffing the cold wind
for a trace of danger.

He senses a cautious safety,
and breathes easier;
I can feel my impatience
mix with adrenaline.


As I raise the bow,
a primal knowledge
expands from inside,
filling me with the hunt.

At the arrows release,
time slows like mercury;
everything becomes an instant
as my senses are heightened.

My heart beats in rhythm
with the deer's breath,
as the deadly arrow
slips toward our heart.

The buck hears the string
and slowly turns it's head;
eyes of recognition
stare into my soul.

The jagged metal tears
through a momentary peace;
shattering the union
of hunter and prey.

Sheeple Camping in Cherrytown

TCCampJuly99, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

During the last summer of the Roaring Nineties, we made a Sheeple run to Cherrytown. We loaded that old Sheeple Escort with the big bros, a grammie sheeple and enough tent and assorted camping gear that the poor car barely made it. I am here to tell ya, on those hills between Kalkaska and Cherrytown I thought we were going to have to push.

One of our all time fave campgrounds out on Old Sheeple Peninsula had closed, so we were setting up camp at the state park. That was just fine, as the park is very nice and much closer to the Sheeple Bait Piles downtown. We were close to the potty, under lots of trees and it was not too damp.

That seems to be a theme on our Sheeple Camping Adventures, we encounter dampness on a regular basis. I do believe we could camp in a dessert and find rain. But this time around, it was not too bad and we could do all the fun camping things, like a nice fire, roasting doggers and marshmallows.

They walked my poor sheeple feet right to the bone from bait pile to bait pile, but I did get to stop in my favorite bookstore. Downtown next to ye olde movie theater is an awesome, independent bookstore that has pretty much anything you could want, and then some. I always make a pit stop, buy a book or three and that makes me a happy camper.

It was a good trip without too much crazy stuff going on, very relaxing as we prepared for the craziness that was the Ought Years. But that folks, is another set of stories and adventures. This time was fun, and after all, that is why we camp.

Raspberry Death

A long time ago, back in the Roaring Nineties, my friend The Tim started a band of paintball players. It seems so long ago that we must have been using paint rocks to play out side of the cave, dodging dino dung. Be that as it may, the group has been playing a long time and having fun every step of the way. So much has changed over the years is my point.

I used to be very proud of my pump gun. Seriously, how many shots do you need to hit the target? Then again, we do play in heavy woods with all kinds of self made barricades. Many a tire has found its way onto the field as well as a few processed trees. A couple of hill forts and a very cool tower has been built over the years. So naturally, I had to get new gear this year. Funny how fifteen years later I paid the same amount of money for a far superior paint gun and mask.

This small bit was a capture the flag scenario and not a whole lot can be seen as I was standing(hiding) behind a barrel. Forgive my crappy video skills in this bit of this year's game play. I am such a noob using the camera, and don't even go down that path when it comes to editing and sprucing up on ye olde 'puter. Eventually I will get it down, until then I will foist my attempts upon you, the reader.

The cool thing is we have a lot of fun playing a game. And after all of these years of getting bugged by the two big boyos to go play, Middle-Sheeple got the chance to go this year. I had a blast painting the trees and the occasional barricade. I may even have actually hit an intended target or two. I did eat a couple hotter doggers and break out the video camera and had a good day all around.

I have no doubt that we will be giving the old raspberry to Death at some point again in the near future. And I am fairly certain I'll wander along with camera in hand to try to record some better video. Hey man, it is all about having fun running around the woods and being goofy kids. Happy Paintball Wanderings!

The Answer - Postcard

I have to tell ya, it is a strange, strange place that I have discovered. I have delved into the notes and I believe I have found all that are relevant to the..Project. I keep saying this day after day, and yet I find more somewhere in the back of an old notebook or some such out of the way place. It is a mystery I am here to tell ya.

Once again, the found piece is a mystery to me as well. I have no idea where this is leading, which I believe is a good thing. If I knew what or where, then I think I would be missing some of the fun. That, my friends, would be a real drag. Because why else do it? After all, if there was no joy in pursuing this crazy quest of mine, I am positive I would look elsewhere for enjoyment.

So I wander on in search of more clues and gather bits and bobs along the way. I scribble and scrabble along on the..Project and on a few unrelated things as well. Today is blog Monday, just to keep the old ink flowing. But the desire to just do it grows stronger every day, which is a good thing because I have about two weeks of prep time left before the show starts. Then we'll see just where this all will lead.