Mythological Research: Devastating Dragons

It’s been a while since my last research post; I wanted to make those kind of posts a regular thing. But stuff happened, and long story short, I wasn’t able to. Well, this is me trying to amend for that, and I’m doing it explosively.

You read the title, and yup, that's right. This one is all about the big, the bad, and the awesome… dragons.

BOO

Smaug is all the rage these days, and you can’t argue his popularity. He’s big, he’s bad, he single claw-dedly (fang-dedly?) drove out every dwarf from their home in the mountain Erebor, and made their pile of gold his personal couch. What’s not to like?

The Hobbit was written almost 80 years ago, and Smaug certainly wasn’t by the last dragon to be written about since then… but neither was it the first. Dragon lore has existed since pretty much ancient times, and out of curiosity and boredom, I went off and researched what I could find online.

When Friends Fall and Ideals Change

Nothing can start a literary piece of art better than sitting down (or in my case, arranging pillows, stretching legs out, adjusting laptop and cracking knuckles, not necessarily in that order) to beginning to write.

And something else that’s more or less equal to that in the same aspect is the occasion when you have something specific in mind you want to write about.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of those rare times, in my case at least.

Today, I talk to you about… how my first ever job interview went.

On Nerves and Novices

Normally, I’d do a little ramble here and there, talk about some vague topic that somehow skews into whatever point that I’m about to try and make that particular day.

Yes, you don’t have to shout, I am aware that ‘try’ happens to be the keyword in above sentence.

Anyway, that’s how I’d normally go about it, if you’ve ever read my previous natterings. This time… well, this time I’m cutting right to the chase.

I’m having an interview tomorrow. There, I said it. 

Of Fireworks and Nostalgic Groans

I was enthusiastic, I was eager to start, and it was in a bout of adrenaline and probably a little more than just a bit of madness that I texted N and asked him how I would go about starting a blog.

It was that, and the internet just happened to be on right then, too. Facebook was boring, no one was on chat, and I couldn’t think of anything to watch on YouTube.

Basically, I had nothing else to do.

N replied, “Try Blogspot.”

I shrugged, “Why not?”

I clicked the mouse, typed, hit enter, and sat back as the tiny circle spun.

I sniffed, and clicked on the blue link: “create an account.”

I scratched my head, shrugged, tapped a beat on the table. This bit I hadn’t thought through.

I made my decision, roughly half a minute later. I leaned over and typed, “M… A… T…”

 Six months and two weeks later, and here I am.

The Iron Writer Challenge #73 Summer Tournament Final

You know me as an author. Mostly comical, sometimes serious, but always… an author.

I don’t dabble much in poetry for a few reasons. One, I have this strange feeling that poems should, somehow, someway, rhyme. I have no idea why I sometimes see a jumble of words that don’t rhyme being referred to as ‘poetry'. Just correct me if I’m wrong, thanks.

And the second reason… I’m no poet, fair and simple. Thank you very much.

Why bring poetry in all of a sudden? I’m getting there.

Thanks to the unexpected win I pulled over the heads of fellow Irons Dani J Caile, Jordan Bell and Suzann Smith in The Iron Writer Summer Tournament Preliminary, I was pulled into the Final. Ergo, I was given yet another Challenge to do, one that I never asked for. Sigh.

As always, the elements were four… but this time, it seemed a bit too easy. Judge for yourselves. They were:

A lost key

A travel brochure

A thermostat

Dessert topping

  

To Throw A Slacker on a Deadline

I’m a really lazy dude.

I’ve never tried hiding it. I talk about it all the time. I write blog posts on my laziness. You ask me, and I’ll tell you up straight; yes, I’m lazy.

What’s with the up-front honesty, you ask? I’ll tell you. It isn’t about being honest. Rather, it’s just a bit of me adhering to my principles.

See, I could protest otherwise. I could say, “No, I’m one of the most hardworking people you have ever met, blahdey blahdey blah.” The thing is, then I would require proof of my hard work, which would be more hard work in itself to find, (because there probably isn’t much. I’m too lazy to check)

I’d also have to protest and argue my point, and, well, it’s all really a load of unnecessary work. So, in the interests of being lazy… the right thing to do would be to admit it and get back to doing nothing.

So this is me, cutting to the chase. Hello, I’m lazy.

The Iron Writer Challenge #72

With a great amount of luck, I somehow pulled through and managed to win the preliminary round on the Iron Writer tournament. (this was my story…)

All you guys who voted for me, thank you ever so much. The popular vote helped save me back there, and I owe it all to you.

You would think I’d be happy on this victory. At first, oh yeah. Ego stoked and everything. But then, along came the news that I had qualified to the next and final round… and that would be against the other three winners of the same preliminary.

So, the prize for winning… was another challenge. Oh, great. The good news was that this second round would be held two weeks after the round I just completed; which gave me a week off while another unrelated challenge took place.

see?

Then came the call… and I remembered that I had signed up for that middle challenge, too.