For those of you not familiar with the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest it ask contestants to compose a bad opening to a story involving "it was a dark and stormy night." As always I forgot to submit my entry since I don't think about it until around Halloween. I've always found it a little odd that the deadline is April 15th. Since I don't have an official entry to show you I offer you this short story that begins with this oh so trite phrase instead. Click on through to read this horrifying (as in bad) story.

The night before last I had some sort of fever dream/hallucination that Optimus Prime was next to my bed. I'm not really sure what he said, but I do know that once I shook my head, and re-focused my eyes all that was left was an odd silhouette of his head in the adjoining bathroom made from, a cabinet, a light, and some standard toiletry items. This got me to thinking about many of the odd dreams I have had in my life. Most recently was one I had over the weekend. It has the makings of a great sci-fi novel. I would divulge the details, but I haven't decided if I am going to write the story or even if I am going to give the idea to one of friends whom I consider to be one greatest sci-fiction writers I have ever read.

Yesterday I was reading an article about Beowulf on Cinematical regarding the adaptation of the story to a blockbuster movie, and it got me thinking about an essay I had posted on the original version of my site. This essay was written for my British Writers to 1800 course. There may still be a few things that need to be polished up, but I am very proud of this essay. Beowulf is one of my favorite stories. To me Beowulf is the predecessor to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you have not read Beowulf I recommend taking the time to do so. It is an excellent story for those young and old. The full text of my essay can be ready after the break.

A couple years ago I finished the first draft of my first novel. The inspiration came from a short story I wrote in High School. About four years later I "rediscovered" this story when I found it on an old floppy disk (yes that was still the primary way to save portable media at the time). I was showing the story to some of my co-workers at the Johnson County Community College Writing Center, and they commented that they liked it and felt it could be expanded to a longer format. About a year after that I started writing what would become my novel. I wrote the first couple of chapters in a few weeks and then set it down for a long time. Back then I was lucky if I could type 20 words a minute and I was writing with pen and paper.