*sigh*

So I’ve pulled out of the 11/2006 Storyball. Which bugs me to no end, but … too … many … other things. And no cooperation from the Muse, which was annoying. I’m really irked at myself over this, but not enough to make it happen.

*sigh*

My brain has just been shying away from the current Storyball stuff, for reasons I can’t quite grasp. I have a story for the … well, previous round, and I really need to write it, but it just isn’t happening. Nobody to blame but myself.

Frustrating.

The second story, this one, again, diverged from the original thought. I was imagining various childhood toys fighting across the apartment toward the dreamcatcher in the bedroom, until suddenly seized upon by toy dinosaurs or something (but why?).

Instead — a poker game. Classic setting.

I never thought of Mister Bear (here “Mr. B,” to keep up at least some brief mystery/ambiguity) as an assassin or even a body guard, but conceptually it makes sense. Even managed to work in his one bad arm (due to my holding him by one arm hanging off of the bed and twisting him back and forth).

Also managed to work in another favorite toy of mine, Major Matt Mason, he of the realistic and non-violent accessories. I inherited a bunch of these from Andrew Shapiro, and would spend long weekend afternoons building a mountainous terrain from a blanket, and exploring it.

Always ended in a big laser gun fight, but what can I say?

Raggedy Ann was not stolen from my sister, nor from my (actual) brother. I just wanted a girl at the table.

I did in fact have a collection of plastic figurines, about two inches tall, of the presidents, complete with a stepped styrofoam amphitheater for them to stand in, Hall of Presidents-like. It went up to either LBJ or Nixon — the latter, I think. I played a lot with those guys, which did indeed turn out to be very educational.

And … oh my God, I love the Internet … here are the Presidents. Wow. Does that bring back memories. And there’s Jefferson with his arm extended. Truman is in the back right, his hands raised to either side.

Wow.

First story on this season’s Storyball — and an immediate struggle. I originally was going to have three scenes with the narrator growing up, surrounding the chess knight and his feelings about it, but I couldn’t actually figure out anything that was going to work. So … I just turned it into a single scene, at Age 8, and left it at that. Not happy with it, but it got done.

(I’ll eventually link to these one they’re open to the public.)

Alas, things are off to a rocky start — only 4 of the 7 first round tales are in place, and those were all due on Friday. The next turn is due Wednesday, and only I have staked out a title (again, I have a scene in mind, but no “story” around it).

Not sure if there are too many conflicts, the subject selection isn’t working, or what, but …

Sounds like we’re doing another Storyball this month (those of us not instead, or additionally, doing a NaNoWriMo). Cool … now if only we could decide on a topic.
UPDATE: Topic selected. Object Lessons — an object passed around in some fashion between each writer each round, bound together by … what? We shall see.
I’ve had an image of a wooden chess knight in my head for the past week. So I’m doing something with that (heaven knows what, though).