Blog post #5 - It's the most dangerous time of the year...

Each character should have a brush with death.  Your character can have an accident; you can slip on ice, or get side-swiped by a car. If your character is on the edge, she/he could try to kill him/herself, but fail in that attempt.  (Perhaps in a comedic way to lighten-up the blog) If you have a theme-based brush with death(Christmas) even better.  It is the holiday season.  It is the 22nd of December.The snow started falling a few days ago.  6 inches have already fallen, and the snow continues to fall. The lake is frozen and people have been skating on it. All the local vendors attempt to decorate their business with some type of holiday stuff.  Soup kitchen has a holiday meal.  A few kids from the orphanage walk around the neighborhood and on some of the floors in the apartment singing and asking for money. The blind guy has donned a Salvation Army outfit, has the red tripod, bucket, ringing the bell and he is standing outside Isabella's cafe. His CD player is playing holiday tunes. Every time some puts money in the bucket, the blind man shouts a line from either "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas," "Charlie Brown Christmas," "A Christmas Carol" and/or "Elf." There are a few Santas spotted as well as a couple of Elvis impersonators.

Leon Van Damme needs for people to send in requests for his radio station time.  His character needs to interact with others through the radio station.  Call in holiday requests!!!! And although Devon Tresop hasn't posted, he also needs holiday requests.  If you read his second blog, you'll know he loves pop music, cheesy actually.

Ryan D. 's brush with death is that his ear gets brush by a random bullet, and he begins to bleed profusely.

Blog #4 - The world may be ending

The following people, any one or all, should be in your next blog as well as any or all of the following events
Lucas Shaffer, Devon Tresp, Spring Patterson, Vinny Johnson, Ethel Roberts, Violet. Those who are chosen should write their blog by Friday so that others can write you into their blog. Everyone else shold be done by the end of the weekend.

Things a happenin’...
1.Jehovah’s Witnesses – four groups of two going around the neighborhood
–two
women, six men
–women with skirts on, elevator shoes
2. OCCUPY
behind parking deck in the field – 12 tents,
only 11 people
-one of them has a megaphone
3.epidemic of flu – swine?
conflagaration –
clinic reused the needles in giving the flu shot - yikes
4.block party! sobshack & roller skating rink – started in roller
rink and came out to the street
(across from ray’s
liquor)
5. Fire in Forever 21 – 9 p.m. – ARSON

6. A play coming the the sawmill theater.

7. UFO siting in the woods, 10PM

8. strange metallic noises are coming from the building next to the apartments

9. Burglar(s) - stealing things, namely left shoes.

10. The foreclosed houses in the Prado are having several household sales(3) and one house has items on the curb.

11. Significant storms, lightening, thunder, skies are in turmoil. Caused by an offshore hurricane.

 

Blog post #3 - Very Nice, Very Nice

In the early morning fog, there is a small group of people waiting for the coffee shop to open.  Since it is a 24-hour coffee shop, the neighborhood is puzzled.  There are ten people milling around the outside of the shop.  They are: Lucas Shaffer, Otis Baumer, Syrius Hawkins, Xaiver Holland, The Detective, Spartacus Moore, Cleake, Abigail Watson, F. John Jeffery, and Evie Jakyl.  Evie and Lucas, and then Lucas with Otis. Otis and Abigail. The Detective and Spartacus should chat as well.

The temperature is around 55.

Bus #17 that rides down H St. attempts to turn right and go pass the coffee shop, but for some reason stalls as it is turning. It is blocking H St. and allows only one way traffic on popular.  Not much traffic is back-up since it is 7 AM.  As the morning progresses the traffic gets worse.  By 9 AM traffic is a problem.  The bus driver gets off the bus and is smoking a cigarette.  Shaniqua Washington walks-up to the driver, clearly irritated by something and they get into an argument.

Meanwhile, on the other end the the block, from 6 AM to 7:15AM customers can get a free waffle when he/she buys a cup of coffee. There is a line forming in the mist of the fog.

The radio station, WTF, is playing a morning mix: On Melancholy Hill by the Gorillaz, there there-Radiohead, Mr. Blue Sky (ELO), 4:33 (John Cage),  Wannabe - The Spice Girls The Wall by Pink Floyd.

Blog Post #2 - The blind man next to the clinic

On the side of the clinic that faces Poplar, there is a blind man sitting on a bundle of something and he is rather unkempt.  He wears a stocking cap even though it is late summer/early fall.  He has a small dented copper bowl that sits beside him.  His hope is that sighted people will toss-in a spare coin.  When he hears the sound of coins hitting the copper, he shouts some line from Oedipus Rex.  His favorite lines are:
"Riddles -- all you can say are riddles, murk and darkness."

"I have already.  The truth with all its power lies inside me."

"What will come will come.  Even if I shroud it all in silence."

"True, it is not your fate to fall at my hands."

When the afternoon sets-in, he can be found leaning back, and pressing his head against the wall, and tilting his face toward the murky sun amid the haze of the city.  He has a small portable cd player that repeats the same songs as he sits silently.  REM's "Everybody Hurts," Pearl Jam's "Daughter," Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate," Judy Garland's "Somewhere over the Rainbow," and Wilbert Harrison's "Kansas City," and a song from Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte.

At the end of the day, he shuffles to the back of the Waffle place to get a free waffle, proceeds to Ray's for a pint, then to the back of the church where he is allowed to sleep in the mud room.

In your next blog, you should state specifically where you live.  The apartment number, etc. Also, you should have your character choose one of the above lines, or pieces of several lines, or a piece of one line and let it/them linger in your character's mind somehow. Also your character should be part of the above scene in some way.

Blog Post #1 - A new day...

You first blog post should be the beginning of your novella/short story.  Everyone's opening sentence should start with "The day started with...." and finish with your first blog post. By the way, it is a hot late summer day.  It hasn't rained in a few weeks, there is a smell that permeates the block.  There is no real definite odor, just a general smell of something. Don't ask how long the post must be, or I'll give you an automatic F.  I am the master of the universe.


Make sure you mention where you live.  As a matter of fact, if you are struggling with this, start with the most immediate, or start in medias res, which is Latin for "in the middle of." Please don't start your blog with "Hi, my character's name is Eddy.  Eddy is 30 years old and overweight..." The idea is to show us your character, not tell us about him/her.  For example,  "Eddy grunted as he tried to get out of his lazy boy.  He was on his third attempt and sweat began to bead at his hairline..."



Leave room for someone else to interact.  It's kind of like improv, don't block other characters or even yourself.  Obviously you can't really interact with others yet.


The most important part of this endeavor is to be authentic to the setting, your character and other characters that are developing.


Logistics:
1) Your blog title should be your character's name and your url should be as close to that name as possible.  
2) Create a link back to Castle Apartments on your blog spot.
3) Make sure that your background and text contrast so that your aging and blind teacher can read it. 
4) Gratuitous violence and profanity don't serve much purpose.  Language should reflect character and situation. 
5) You are not allowed to main or kill off any character, including the ones you create.