Red Wolf's Room

Image source:  https://unsplash.com/photos/3y1zF4hIPCg  I have always been drawn to tragic heroes, conflicted characters, angsty characters and characters that appear to be bad, but have the potential to be good. Some characters spring to mind: Severus Snape , Henry Bolet from the game Nancy Drew #17: Legend of the Crystal Skull ,   Hamlet ,  Dr. Jonathan Willaway from The Fantastic Journey. Even my own creative writing was more often full of angst, anger and sadness. I always thought that it meant that I liked conflict. I know conflict is what drives a story, so I thought nothing more of it.  Until now. Is it chaos I've always been drawn to or both conflict and chaos? Conflict From a story stand-point, there are internal and external conflicts. As you probably know, an internal conflict is when a character struggles with opposing thoughts and emotions. As a Libra, I identify with this and love characters who have an internal struggle. According to Dave Snowden, the author of thi

  What Am I Supposed to Do?   I wanna talk, But the words won’t leave. I wanna cry, But the pain is too deep.   I wanna hear your voice, But I know what you’ll say. I wanna be your friend, But you’re too far away.   What am I supposed to do, By myself, behind the veil? What am I supposed to do, When no one knows I fail?   I don’t have the strength To say what I need. I don’t have the will To follow this life I lead.   The emotions bubble up From feelings ignored. No one can help me Find motivation when I’m bored.   The job is a fair one, So, shut up and do it. I choke on my words, Not wanting to quit.   What am I supposed to do? I don’t know where I am. I’ve lost the ability to rest. How can I get out of this jam?    

Writers are like anyone else; they don’t like rejection. People seek to avoid rejection, which means they will also avoid opportunities and people that could have made a lasting impact on them. Whether we like it or not, life is a balance and, in that balance, there is pleasure as well as pain. Image source:  https://www.pexels.com/photo/focus-photo-of-yellow-paper-near-trash-can-850216/ This blog post describes my own experience of how I dealt with rejection as a writer. There is no quick and easy way to deal with it. Everyone deals with rejection differently. It could be slower or it could be faster than another person. Just remember to not compare yourself to others. I am sharing my story to hopefully provide you with some insight should you ever find yourself in a similar position. You are not alone.  I’m also sharing to entertain you. After all, people love stories. The Beginning In the middle of the night, I sat among the shadows of my room with my lamp’s light focused on my

Image Source:  https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-persistence-of-memory-(1931)-by-Salvador-Dal%C3%AD-Salcman/623fb03024cf1aa3c40dbe5189b767c28ca63d08/figure/1 I t's been a long time since I've included my poetry here. I have been focusing my efforts instead on my novel series and to my blog. But there was an instance recently that had me composing poetry again, and I found that I had missed it. I missed the puzzle of working out how to lay it all out: How many lines? How stanzas? Which one is the perfect word? It felt like familiar territory, like visiting an old friend. Well, without further ado: The Woman of the World My shadow stretches beyond me As I walk through the sands; I can see the sun blaze Through tears and sweat, Feel the stinging, The blistering, The burning.   The nightmares haunt. Every day is Halloween; My Hound within hungers for blood, For flesh that has done wrong. We know where Evil lurks unseen.   “ To be or not to be ” Is not the question for me. M