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Taking a Fiction Break


The memoir is cooling. I won’t go back and begin the first serious revision until month’s end. So I decided to work on some neglected short fiction. Kumari for sure will be finished before the month is over and I have a Stephen King inspired monster story that is about a third of the way done which I want to finish as well.

As fate would have it, however, I was driving home from town after BabyD’s ballet class and was struck by a great first line. First lines in stories has been a preoccupation of mine for the past few weeks as memoir stuff rolls about in my head. A first line can make or break you because it influences the paragraph that follows. Sometimes, that’s all a writer gets to hook a reader.

So what was the line?

We killed the first one with a Chevy Avalanche.

The road home at night is a secondary highway through farmland. It’s narrow and has no shoulders to speak of with a gaping ditch on either side for any sort of wildlife to hide before making a run for the other side. This includes deer, of course, but also coyote and fox as well as dogs and cats. Even in the winter, you have to be aware of the possibility that something will dart out in front of you.

So while I was watching the road and scanning for potential roadkill and thinking about first lines … one came to me. Unfortunately, an entire story followed close on its heels and loathe to lose it, I started writing it Tuesday afternoon. By Thursday evening, I had 6000 words, and I expect to finish it today although I don’t know where the word count will fall out. I am think at about 8 grand, but that’s just a guess based on the fact that I am averaging about 2000 words a day on it.

And I really like it. It includes French dialogue and only slightly suspect scientific factoids.*

February is a fiction month for me. I had decided that back in January actually. 50 something Moms only requires two pieces from me a month and they have been published already. Blogging here is not really an effort as I do some of it ahead, but I will be leaving less of a footprint on the blogosphere this month. Not so much Facebook. No networking among the blogo-mom’s. Just fiction.

And so far, I am enjoying this fiction break. I have been away from it a bit and am surprised at how much I really like immersing myself in worlds of my own creation. It has made me rethink a few things, but I am not ready to discuss that today.

I will still be blogging here. Never fear. And I will let you know how the fiction goes as it goes.

*Rob is going to fact check my science. It’s good to be married to a grammarian with a chemistry degree.

Another Slice of Canada


I have visions of speaking French one day as opposed to simply reading it on the packaging at the grocery, but most Anglo-Canadians are not as warmly disposed to the idea bi-lingualism as I am.

It’s (semi)Official: Only the Middle Class Pays Their Taxes


Because poor people get most of their tax dollars back (and some even get more thanks to the magic that is the earned income credit*), I have come to the conclusion as yet another Obama nominee goes down in IRS flames that only we schmucks in the middle remember to file with Uncle Sam in the spring, declaring all to the best of our mathematical ability**.

I so want to be able to find some shocked bone in my body about the trouble our new POTUS is having finding qualified help that understands the finer nuances of paying taxes like hired help isn’t exempt from withholdings even if they are illegals and/or just the babysitter you sometimes ask to spray tan your naked body. Or, my favorite, living outside the U.S. is not a tax holiday for its citizens***.

And what really puzzles me is how all this dodging goes unnoticed by the IRS. Since my first husband died (sorry to go all dead husband, you-need-therapy on you but it’s my frame of reference so bear with me), I receive yearly missives from the government where I am asked to account for the survivor’s insurance my daughter receives or verify my marital status and sometimes they just want to remind me that I personally still don’t qualify for widow’s benefits****.

Yesterday, as a matter of fact, the IRS sent me a letter informing me that at some point I received $26.74 more in refunds over the past couple of years than I was entitled to and that I should remember to declare this as income when I file this year. So while the IRS apparently notices peanuts and the peasants, it fails to notice when people like Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner have a two year gap in their returns. Does that seem credible to you?

Me neither.

And what’s worse is there is no backlash outside a few weeks worth of right-wing pundits (who probably have a Mexican nannygate like scandal of their own in the closet) gnashing their teeth and screaming like hypocrites about injustice. Oh the humanity.

It’s a rigged world, people. Rigged.

 

*BabySis used to get refunds  to the tune of thousands every year despite the fact that she made almost nothing in terms of income. The EIC is voodoo economics at its finest.

**My math gene sent me running to H&R Block once I graduated from the 1040EZ form.

***It can be for Canadians though. They can have themselves declared non-resident for tax purposes while living/working outside the country. The U.S. won’t allow that. In fact, if you were to become a citizen of another country and renounce your citizenship, you would still be obligated to pay U.S. taxes for up to a decade afterwards. Resistance is futile.

****In the U.S. you basically can’t be employed and receive your late spouse’s SS and if you remarry, bye-bye benefits. Not so in Canada where Rob receives Shelley’s benefits regardless of income, age or marital status. She paid and he is entitled to receive. But their social insurance program is not quite the ponzi scheme that ours is.