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 ^{(it's beta!)}

So, today I was sitting at my computer wishing for something to occupy a few moments of my time. Up to that point, it had been one THOSE days, if you know what I mean. I had homework to do so my future could remain secure and I had an apartment with a living room which held the aftermath of six loads of laundry which needed folding. So, of course, I read online comics.

That's where I discovered this page, IndyFluency, which I must say I am very proud of finding. I've been looking for a place to post some of my writing, hopefully get feed back, you know. This place seems perfect. Right away I posted the first chapter to my new project, a novel made up of three novellas which relate by themes. If all goes to plan, the first story, the one I'm currently working on, will start and slowly raise the tension or whatever until it ends. The second story will pick up the tension where the first left off, slowly bringing the whole work to a sort of climax. The third story should start off where the second left off, but it will slowly bring the tension back down to the end. Anyway, that's the plan, we'll see how it goes.

So, you'll be seeing probably a chapter from that story every week or so. I think I'm up to chapter nine so that will help me keep ahead of the game.

After all of this, I went to Seattle to visit my Dad. He's been at Virgina Mason Hospital for a week now after getting a major surgery to remove some rare form of Molecular Bone Cancer. It's a sort of 'do or die' operation in that if they don't remove it all, chemo wont work, but the surgeons are confident that they got it all. I digress.

I talk to my Dad as he lays in bed, hopped up on Oxycotton and Oxycodon and he's telling everybody how much he loves them all, gives everybody a hug and a smile. Then he starts to tell me that I should write a children's book. A friend of his is there, a 'head hunter' us his unofficial job title, and he tell's me it would be a good move especially where I'm at in life.

I've been thinking about that since. I've written maybe two children's stories, one involved a gun and was written three or four years ago back in high school, and the other was about two boys trying to escape from the summer heat which they finally do by jumping into an ice chest outside of a gas station. The problem with that one was that everybody who read it was convinced the two boys died at the end, it didn't help that it was full of cynical undertones.

But now, here I am, seriously thinking about writing a children's book. Short and Illustrated or slightly longer, I don't know yet. I'm liking that illustrated idea so far. It would be fun to work with some college indie artist kid to put something together like that. The thing is, ideas for a kids book don't exactly flow easy from me. My stuff generally is geared to a mature audience, even the light stuff, but I think I can do it.

This has been a glimpse into the stream of consciousness that is me.

Snap Together

Cody Barrus

PS. Sorry about spelling and whatever else. I hope the checker got it all, but I seem to screw that stuff up somehow. I work with the right side of my brain (if thats the creative side, I dont remember)

So, I think I got that kids story sort of worked out in my head, maybe. What say you to this. A boy has a best friend who is his neighbors Garden Gnome. The problem is, his mother doesn't like it when he plays with the Gnome because it always gets him into trouble. But, the boy picks up the Gnome and walks around town with it under his arm anyway, every where he goes he talks to it and it tells him what to do. I think this would be hystarical, though I don't know how much a childrens book publishing company would like it.