Category: writing

what’s goin’ on…

~ Meg ~ 51 Comments

I’ve alluded to a big move in my future. It was the deciding factor in hanging up my chiropractic license earlier this year. I hesitated to let the news out until it was official but now it is, so…

I’m moving to Ireland in the spring!

My husband’s company has a facility in Galway and he goes over for work pretty regularly. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to tag along on most of those trips, for a total of 8 times over 10 years. Needless to say, I fell in love with the place, so when an opportunity arose for H to take a job in Galway, we began making plans.

I’m getting rid of everything except books, clothes and a few personal mementos. My house will go up for sale after the first of the year and I already sold my car. Today I leave for Galway with my mother to check out potential houses and apartments in areas outside the city. She is thinking about joining us, if she can find something suitable for seniors (she’s 86) and not far from where we plan to settle.

This will be only my second time driving on the left side of the road, since our car rentals thus far have been booked through the company so only H can drive. But I will have to get used to it eventually so might as well start right away. Am I nervous? Who me?

I’m not sure yet what kind of work I will do when we get here. I’ve got an odd situation: I’m not lacking education with a bachelor’s degree and my doctor’s degree, but I have such a limited set of skills (at least on paper) that I am concerned that I won’t qualify for anything more than an entry level position somewhere. Getting my chiropractic license and opening a practice over here is out of the question. I don’t have the zeal for starting from scratch at this stage of the game. On the other hand, chasing the brass ring of writing and maybe selling some of my art online or locally is a possibility. I keep (half) joking that I will paint and sketch scenes around Galway and sell them to the American tourists in the summer! I already get confused for a local till I open my mouth and between now and then I’ll be practicing my accent.

In the meantime, things are hectic and exciting (but stressful) so if I seen absent and don’t post or visit as regularly, you will know why!

Inhuman (7)

~ Meg ~ 19 Comments

To read from the beginning: parts one, two, three, four, five, six.

Dr. Leo Knight gave Nathan a nearly imperceptible nod, then smiled warmly at Amanda. “I imagine you probably have more questions for me than I have for you, my dear. What have they told you so far?”

Amanda took a deep breath and summarized the story she’d been told upon arriving at the facility. “Honestly, I am having trouble believing all of this. If I hadn’t seen Brian with my own eyes…”

“Of course, dear. I am so sorry this happened to you.” He turned to Nathan. “Do I have permission to speak freely?”

“It’s no secret how you feel about your creations, Leo. You can tell Amanda anything you like as long as you listen to her story, too.”

“Hmm, yes. Maybe Amanda would like to go first then?”

“All right,” she said. “Where should I start?”

“At the beginning, dear. How did you and Brian meet?”

Amanda blushed. “At a bar, actually… I guess about three years ago. I was out with friends and Brian there with a couple of guys from work. I don’t remember how we started talking but by the end of the night, he’d asked for my phone number and we had our first date the next weekend.”

“Do you remember what you talked about?”

“He told me about work, that kind of thing. He’d moved to the East Coast for college and stayed for the job. We talked a little about music, I think. A few things we have in common.”

“Nothing unusual? Anything that made you at all uncomfortable?”

“No, not at all. I am usually a really good judge of character.”

Dr. Knight laughed softly. “You still are, Amanda. Brian is a man of good character. I’ve endowed him with the best of human attributes.” He gestured for her to continue. “You dated for a while and then he proposed? Tell me about that.”

Amanda nodded. “Yes, we —well, I guess I should say I— fell in love fast. After that first date, we were together all the time.” She paused to compose herself. “Brian was adventurous. He loved trying new things, going places we’d never been. It was so much fun being with him.”

Dr. Knight reached over and touched her hand. “And you never had any idea…? Nothing made you suspicious?”

She wiped her eyes. “I don’t know. I can’t think. Maybe there were clues I just didn’t pick up on. Really who would ever suspect their husband isn’t human?”

“Quite right, Amanda. Especially when he believed himself to be fully human.”

“Why?” she cried. “Why would you do that? Not just to him but to the people that would grow to care about him? To love him?”

“To make him human was to save him.” He stared at her hard. “The world is not ready for a new life form —and believe me Amanda, that is what these beings are. No, they are not human, but they are alive. If they had remained here, they would have been essentially destroyed. Remade into mindless killing machines. All my work, all of their progress would have been for nothing. To show mercy… Amanda do you see what that means? That quality has been reserved for the greatest of all earth’s creatures —humans. And from it’s source: the divine.

To be continued…

Suspending Disbelief

~ Meg ~ 22 Comments

Writers sometimes ask a lot of their readers. No more so when we write action, fantasy, science fiction and horror. It is within those realms that we ask our readers to suspend disbelief. That is to ignore their critical faculties, to sacrifice reason, to set aside logic and to believe the surreal and the absurd for the sake of entertainment. Poet/philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge is credited with coining the term in 1817.

I’m always a fan of writing that makes sense, but sometimes the ‘makes sense’ part is subject to the fictional world in which it exists. In the far future, in another dimension, when the surreal world encroaches upon our own, the reader must let go of his preconceived notions and the things he knows to be true in order to enjoy the story he’s reading. Really, how much more fun is it to believe the impossible for the length of a novel than to constantly remind one’s self what is true?

Of course, there are are many shades of this particular grey and some ‘disbeliefs’ will more easily suspended than others. You might be able to get ‘aboard’ an alien starship because the existence of aliens has neither been proven nor disproven. Perhaps you don’t buy into the concept of alien life in our universe but you may be able to enjoy a story set in the distant future because we can only imagine the kinds of amazing technology humans will develop given enough time. Maybe you like a modern day conspiracy theory story with a shadowy government organization operating behind the scenes. In all of these examples there is that leap of imagination requiring the suspension of disbelief.

So if you find that suspending disbelief is not something you easily do, then realistic fiction will be your only cup of tea. I do hope you like tea in all its many flavors!