Head in my hands
I stare down at the green tiles
(In my childhood home, in my mind, I)
Cross my eyes, and see the rough squares shift
– further –
And merge
– further –
And then blur.
I can’t hold them there long.
As I fail,
They reform,
A rigid pattern of tessellated randomness,
Of little meaning,
Whole once more.
Category Archives: Personal
Purgatory
Alone, in a hotel room, the boom-crackle of ignited Australia Day firecrackers and the screams of low-flying military jets, the zinging taste of Solo-In-A-Can, of gunky pasta marinara exploding slowly in my stinging stomach.
Sydney, why so Sydney?
A glut of solipsistic co-workers, with headphones (Apple buds, Beats By Dre); with hunched frame, a descending skeletal de-evolution; with sniffles and burps, with no salutations, no how-dya-do, and with a lunch half-eaten at their desks. Dying while sitting, minute-minus-minute. A life tripped-and-flipped, sliding slowly into the time slip.
Editor-Author Love
Dear readers,
After fixing some issues processing CSS in Mac OSX Mountain Lion, I can see the pages of my blog once more. (Actually, I finally fixed my Windows 7 partition and I’m using that instead, but a win’s a win).
As some of you may know, I’ve recently been editing manuscripts for a certain large romance publisher. It’s been an excellent experience for me, and—on the whole—a great pleasure to work with a number of established and aspiring authors of the genre. Having previously had limited exposure to romance, I found myself genuinely impressed by the variety of ‘boy meets girl (insert sex scene), boy loses girl (insert angry sex scene), boy and girl reconcile (insert happy sex scene)’ narratives I’ve helped polish.
Update 16/06/13: Times, They Are A-changin’
A short update, dear readers. I’m changing the format of this blog; I’ll stilll be adding stories, but I’ll also be regularly throwing in a few interesting articles that focus on points of grammar, punctuation, and all things writerly. Darkmoon’s about to heat up (or, at the very least, get a little warmer).
Yrs,
SparkyGetsTheGirl
Update 27/04/13: Absence Makes the Nose Grow Longer
Crumbs! I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I last posted. Recently, I’ve been weighed down by romance novel edits, but they’re finally done, so my next piece should be up here soon …
In the meantime, aspiring authors should check out yWriter5, a word processor/story tracker application. yWriter5 streamlines the process of planning out a novel, allowing characters, plot arcs and chapter/scene breakdowns to be easily tracked and edited. It’s a little clunky—’Free writing software designed by an author, not a salesman’ says the website—but very flexible.
It’s also very free. Get amongst it,
MalarkyGetsTheGirl
Update 23/02/13: On Passing Out (And Passing On)
A more conversational Storylane piece, but one containing a Back to the Future reference. And circus ducks. So, fuggedaboutit.
On Passing Out (And Passing On)
‘Cause pen names are cool,
SparkyGetsTheGirl
Update 22/02/13: Storylane
Greetings, dear readers,
I’ve recently stumbled upon a new site called Storylane that I’d like to share with the aspiring authors in the audience. Much like a blogging platform, Storylane encourages you to write pieces based on your personal experiences, with a number of preset questions and topics on offer (I believe these can be customised and expanded, as you so desire). I’m finding it… fun. I feel like it encourages me to write on a regular basis, as others can request stories and topics from my own ‘storylane’, and that validates my sense of self-worth. Hoo-hum, a little too much of Sparky’s inner psychology for you there.
Anyway, enjoy the site, and my two latest bits of personalised narrative:
From my quill to your screen,
SparkyGetsTheGirl
Greetings
Dear readers,
I thought it was time to introduce myself: Sparky’s the name. My thanks to you for taking the time out to stumble around my humble piece of blogtopia, located in the blogosphere, a subset of the spectacular blogoverse (which I believe is located somewhere near the Horsehead Nebula, or thereabouts).
I’m currently uploading some older stories and non-fiction pieces, but a veritable flood of newness should be pouring forth to fill your computer screens to bursting in the near future. I’m also open to posting the writings of other aspiring prose-o-nauts, should ‘A Dark Moon in Orbit’ achieve either notoriety or fame.
I do hope you enjoy, and remember: Your feedback is valuable to us, so stay on the line.
From my quill to your screen,
SparkyGetsTheGirl
A Dark Moon In Orbit 
