Winter Word Games

So if anyone has a hankering for some word games, head over to Sacred Dirt where the games have just begun.

Sacred Dirt happens to be a nearly brand new blog started by my very own sister/newly-agented writer/artist/mystery-nut/musician/Leonardo Da Vinci of modern women who I call Faithy, but who you can call Faith or numerous other names.

More to come on her later but for now, head over for the Winter Word Olympics, aka The Writer Games, with prizes too apparently.

In which I nearly sacrifice a kidney to the blogosphere

Melodramatic. Who, me? What's the going rate for a kidney nowadays?

Hi-ya. How are things going? I've missed my blogging buddies a lot. But here I am and, hopefully, there you are too. What's new? What'd I miss? Really. Lay it on me.

I received a blog award yesterday which I'm sure will make some of you chuckle, perhaps even snort. CKHB at Heim Binas Fiction gave me and seven others the coveted "Over the Top Award". Well perhaps coveted is in the eye of the beholder. However, CKHB has an awesome writing blog as good as any out there. I highly recommend you check it out and have been planning on gushing much more about that particular blog and it's creator for quite a while. Stay tuned on that.

Well, in my acceptance speech (read: short-ish comment), I assured Carrie that I would blog today or forfeit a kidney. Which got me thinking. I know. Uh, oh.

Everyone knows it takes sacrifice to pursue your dreams or, in our case, to finish a story. Giving up one's social butterfly status. A regular paycheck. An easy answer when people ask what you do.

So I started wondering, how much would I give up to finish my long-suffering novel? Internet time, tv time, Sid Meir's Civilization time? Hmm. Then I started wondering, what about body parts? Would I give up one kidney? Don't really like messing with internal stuff so much. But still, I think I could survive on one kidney.

What's your answer? What body part would you give up to finish your novel.

I've decided my answer is my left middle finger, any fingernail or toenail except for my right thumb, my left fourth toe (that I don't remember if it went to the market, stayed home or what) and/or either ear. It's a no for now on the kidney but that's not to say it's off the table. I'm a reasonable guy, usually.

Now I can already hear my mom's voice telling me, like she has so many times. "The journey IS the destination." And that's true. If we're just given something, no matter how important, it's not really ours. We haven't experienced it, earned it. Allegedly. And maybe that is especially true in writing.

The process is everything. The struggle is the joy. And all that.

But if anyone sees or talks to my muse. See if he/she is in the market for a left middle finger. I can still flip people off just fine with my right.

PS Good to be back.

PPS This kidney sculpture pic was swiped from here and the photographer is Ken Ilio.