In a World Where Don LaFontaine Is Alive To Do The Voiceover For The Movie Trailer

My last post featured some pictures that included some small plastic figures,  and that prompted some questions and comments.  Those particular figures were from a company called Accoutrements, and they manufacture many weird and unusual toys for the child in all of us.

When I discovered their play sets I bought all the sets they had available.  Unfortunately the one set I wanted the most -- "The Angry Mob"  featuring villagers with pitchforks and torches - is no longer made.  So, why do I need little plastic people?  Simple - I was losing characters.

When I was editing my first book, I noticed that I was losing track of people.  In my mind I was having characters continue to move from one scene to another,  but I was forgetting to write it down so the reader would know what was going on.  This type of disconnect is why big time writers have people who check for a book's continuity.  Anyway,  since I can't afford a big time Continuist, even though I can afford to invent words like Continuist, I took the cheap way out and bought a couple of bags of small green plastic Army men and since my story took place primarily in a HMMWV - I got one of those and a plastic Jeep too.  I then went back through my tale moving the little plastic guys around as the story played out.  When I was done,  I put the little guys in a baggie in the closet, while the HMMWV Desert Knight 7 wound up on my desk as a trophy for completing that tale - Desert Knight 6 was destroyed toward the end of the book.

Now, I am writing a very different story - it has humor, romance, action, twists and turns and is set in exotic Kuwait - to add to the mayhem it also deals with cultural and historical reality.  Sounds good, doesn't it?  Anyway,  this time I have 12 main characters and another 20 or so named characters (so far), multiple locations - that will be used several times -, horses, plus four  major story lines -- with three other minor ones, and of course flash backs and vivid dream sequences.  Sounding like a soon to begin filming major motion picture yet?  Maybe.  Antonio Bandaras has played an Arab before.  In short with all that stuff going on and all those people milling about, I knew I was going to need to keep track of a lot of things so the right people and things were in the right places when I needed them there.  But, I needed more than just green plastic Army men.  So, I started my search.

As I mentioned, I came across the Accoutrements Play Sets and ordered those.  I needed Arabs,  but the only ones I could find were fighting figures - so I will make those work.  I am still waiting on an assortment of train set play figures to arrive from Hong Kong that will give me some female figures and children.  It is amazing how many little plastic people you can get for $50.  Because I still have a some Cold War issues, I pulled the green plastic Army men out and I am using a few of those for retired KGB Russians who are the main villains.  Now I can visually see the story in my mind play out on my dining room table.

Falkor does get peeved because he can't see what I am doing on the table.  He is fairly sure it is either something good to eat or something of which he wants to be a part.

 

Of course,  if I can't figure any other way to end the book,  I can always go for the total Zombie Apocalypse!

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..and It's Also International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Three years ago on this day,  I launched this Blog.  I was turning 50 and I thought it was time to capture some of what I was feeling, thinking, and I was starting to ride a motorcycle again.   Now, this blog has been quoted by other blogs, linked to other things on the internet and read by folks far beyond whatever audience I thought I might reach when I first took keyboard in hand.  I now own my dream bike, a Valkyrie Interstate,  and my writing has matured into publishing my first novel.  There was no way I could have predicted it was going to end up here.

 

As I thumb through all the pictures and entries, I recall where I was mentally when I wrote them.  Other details that I left out and probably should have added come to mind as well.  Maybe another time, today I am looking forward.

I look forward down the road into the next year of my life and feel good, optimistic, and realize my brief profile remains true:  World traveler and part-time philosopher.

 Many thanks to NASA who timed the final "flight" of the space shuttle Endeavor to start on my birthday.  Said it before and I will say it again NASA ROCKS!

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