Saturday, February 27, 2010

From time travelers to ghosts

I couldn't seem to work on my current WIP so I kept looking around on my hard drive until I found something totally different to work on. Ghosts are different from time travelers, aren't they? I did a little editing, and added about 200 words, but it still needs work, and direction.


The three figures stood near the rear gates of the cemetery, watching in silence as four men dug up one of the graves. The police car across the street had a uniformed officer watching from a distance. Grace hadn’t been here long and had yet to make any friends, but now with the disturbance of her final resting place she would have to start over again when she was re-interred or moved to a different cemetery.

Miranda glanced over she shoulder at the other two. Phillip was holding the young child’s hand as he leaned against him for support. Young Robbie had only been here for six months. A piano prodigy, he’d been hit by a vehicle while crossing the street. He was having trouble adapting because of his young age and the fact he knew no one buried here. Everyone he knew in his young life was still alive.

Phillip had been here the longest, since 1829. Before his death, he had been a butler in London and proud of his position. His sister had married an American and moved to Virginia. When he died, she’d had him brought over and buried near where she and her family were living. Miranda herself had arrived in 1933. She, too, had been murdered while on a cross country to promote her latest movie. Since she had no living relatives, the movie company executives had left her here. She had taken several months herself coming to terms with where she was and what she was. By then she had met Phillip and she thought he was the one who would pull the child through.

“Why do you think they’re digging her up?”

“I believe because of the reason behind her death. She said she had been murdered. Maybe the local authorities have new evidence to check her body for.” Phillip had been the first one to make contact with Grace and she hadn’t attempted to speak to any one else the short time she was here.

“Did she say who had killed her? Or why?” She would never admit to Phillip but she, too, liked watching the crime shows he did.

“No, she didn’t. I think she would have, in time. Maybe the police already know and they are gathering more evidence from her body.”

“I wish her well. No one wants to stay here longer than necessary. We’re stuck here since we died so long ago, but the others have a chance to go on. We need to find a way to help them.”

“Have you thought about contacting the caretaker again? She didn’t seem frightened the last time you tried. She kept asking who you were and where you were. I think you should try again. She can help us to help those who did not die a natural or accidental death.”

“I will when she visits again. She has helpers who aid her. She just happened to be working on a map of the graves when I saw her. She hasn’t been back since.”

“I’ll have others start watching for her. Surely one of us can communicate with her, since she seems so receptive.” The three of them turned away and headed back toward the mansion in the middle of the cemetery.

The caretaker lived inside on the upper floors while the main floor held the cemetery office and records of the individuals interred in the surrounding estate fields. Elizabeth Park Cemetery had been named for the daughter of the original owner. When she had died, her father didn’t want her buried across town. So he had her buried in a field out back, fenced in to keep people and animals out.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

My Name is Lincoln

I've never seen the movie The Island but I just downloaded this track from its soundtrack because I have been looking for this piece of music for 4 long years! Check out the piece below, especially the music at the mark 4:55 - that's the one I downloaded. Whew. I now know all the parts.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Snow snow and more snow

This picture above was taken on Sunday.
This picture was taken this morning.

I'm really tired of all this snow. I know, I know that when spring finally gets here, followed by summer, all this stuff will help with tto grow, but enough is enough. I'm glad I have a healthy balance of AL (annual leave = vacation time) to use for days like this. What you can't see is the ice on top of the white stuff. So I called in at work today. Driving 40 miles in this stuff is something I don't like to do anymore.

One good thing about being stuck at home is I can work on my NaNo '09 story. I'm turning it into a trilogy to expand the story line of a character who finally came out and told me he wasn't the bad guy I was making him out to be and that he wanted his own happy ending. So there. Time to rewrite part of what I had written last November. But I can deal with that. I was having trouble editing anyway, since I wasn't actually finished with the story. So now I'm planning three (had planned on a sequel, but not continuing the current plot) separate stories, all following one major plot line, with three separate plots for the individual stories.

This series all started because earlier in 2009 I came up with some teenage time travelers. There was one character in there who was there to help the teens and her background appealed to me and she was the one who won the coveted spot for NaNoWriMo 2009 for me. So I wrote about Contessa and Oliver, intending to follow it with Nor (Eleanor) and Robert and Marcus was the "bad guy" - until he wouldn't shut up about needing to go back to Hollywood, CA and right a wrong that might change him for the better.

So last night I was stayed on Wikipedia printing out page after page of details about Hollywood, then and now. I have several books on old Hollywood, like I do on New York City, but I will have to dig them out. They are packed away in a box in another room in the house. I'm wanting to get my hands on "The Story of Hollywoodland" by Gregory Williams.


This book has some awesome photographs of the homes in Beachwood Canyon, the Hollywood sign, and a model replica of the home that was supposed to have been built atop Mt. Lee, above where the Hollywood sign stands now.

So here's for another snow day tomorrow.