What’s more spring-y than butterflies and flowers?
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Puzzler Friday: Heceta Head Lighthouse
This week I’m turning my attention to puzzles a bit closer to home. Here’s an Oregon Coast landmark: Heceta Head. Enjoy!
Craft Minutes with Steven Barnes – 3
Human Adulthood: Part 3
The third step of our seventeen-part view of the adult human being is the step of Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” referred to as “Acceptance of the Challenge.” If one has become aware of the need to mature, and dealt with the fears and conflicting emotions involved, then the journey begins.
And this step is critical in becoming the mature men and women who can actually bring their dreams and realities into healthful alignment. Acceptance of responsibility is the dividing line between childhood and adulthood. We acknowledge our circumstances and upbringing, but no longer allow ourselves to be limited by them. We are sufficiently introspective to examine our programming, and decide how much of said programming is actually the sort of life lessons we would have chosen for ourselves, or those we love.
We are not our actions. We are not our histories. Nor are we our feelings, or the voices in our heads. But all of these things help to define us, and must be dealt with if we are to find fulfillment in life.
Children constantly blame others for what they feel and do. Adults must take another road. “You make me feel X” is a common comment, whether X is positive or negative. While in intimate friendships or even more casual relationships we agree to take some responsibility for how our actions impact others, we also know that these words are often a manipulation, are attempts to induce guilt, blame, or shame. And autonomous adult human beings must move beyond giving others the power to pull our heartstrings or the responsibility to save us from our own lives. Must rise all the way to independence and clarity, to saying “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” and decide that we will bring our dreams into focus and then into reality, whatever the cost might be.
As children, we wait for others to bring us comfort, support, nourishment. As adults, we have to realize that there is no White Knight is coming to rescue us, and even more importantly that life is not a dress rehearsal.
The minute you realize these things, the minute you grasp that the adult aspect of your personality must step up, must “put away childish things” or you will be forever denied your hopes and full potential…the minute you decide that you have simply had enough of the old you, the old way of being, and are prepared to stake your existence on becoming a fully realized adult human being…
At that moment your journey begins, really begins. And not before.
©2010 STEVEN BARNES
NY Times bestselling novelist, lecturer, martial artist and success coach Steven Barnes has over three million published words, as well as writing for television’s The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, and Stargate SG-1. He has created Lifewriting™, the holistic success system for writers and readers. Also the breakthrough 101 program and the new HERO’S JOURNEY program for 21st Century men. Get FREE information at: DIAMONDHOUR
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Visual Tuesday: Seven Sisters Reflected
Today we’re off to a part of the world I’d love to visit, the famed White Cliffs of Dover.
Be sure to click through and enjoy the photographer’s other shots. Very cool visuals.
Happy Tuesday, one and all!
Excerpt Monday: Star Stepping – The Tie That Binds
Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You don’t have to be published to participate–just a writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site, or click on the banner above.
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Again this month I venture into the land of Science Fiction with an excerpt from one of my STAR STEPPING anthology stories. STAR STEPPING is a book of science fiction and fantasy tales published by Wild Child Publishing, and three of the twelve stories are mine. “The Tie That Binds” is the last of my stories.
Star Stepping: An Anthology of Fantasy and Sci-Fi Tales
by Various
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Book Length: Novel
Price: $5.95
Book Length: Novel
Price: $5.95
I hope you enjoy this excerpt from my paranormal tale of identical twins, The Tie That Binds:
Blurb:
The Tie That Binds takes us inside the unique relationship of identical twins. Twin brothers Cameron and Kyle McClellan have always share a psychic bond. Though the adult men lead very different lives, when career military officer Kyle is wounded in Iraq, Cameron’s ability to decipher their special link may mean the difference between his brother’s life or death.
Excerpt:
Cameron McClellan dropped to his knees, instinctively shielding himself from the aftermath of a bomb blast in Iraq—half a world away from his Denver boardroom. A red haze of pain paralyzed his senses. The dry erase marker he’d been wielding at the white board dropped from nerveless fingers. His skull ached with the intensity of Kyle’s anguished screams.
Shock and concern from startled colleagues registered in a diminishing corner of his mind, but the searing agony of Kyle’s wound prevented Cameron from responding to their questions. Cameron’s breathing mirrored Kyle’s panting gasps. His arms and legs echoed Kyle’s desperate attempt to drag his shattered body away from the fiery remains of the humvee, to shelter beneath the inadequate branches of a roadside shrub. Cameron’s eyes closed with Kyle’s, but he didn’t see concern on friendly faces; blood-soaked dirt, hellfire, and mindnumbing pain filled his brain as he followed his twin into oblivion.
Cameron woke to the smell of antiseptic and the feel of crisp sheets tucked securely around his body. A blinding headache made him reluctant to open his eyes, but soft breathing and warm fingers stroking his arm encouraged him. With a fortifying inhalation, and moving his head as little as possible, he peered at his surroundings. Institutional white walls, curtained room divider, narrow, railed bed, and Sophie. His wife’s warm brown eyes studied him with concern, their lids swollen and puffy. Her heart-shaped face, reddened and blotchy from crying, testified mutely to an overwhelming grief.
“Oh, Cameron,” she whispered, her voice thick with yet more tears, “I’m so sorry.”
“No,” he said. The word emerged with more force than he’d imagined he could produce.
“The rear detachment officer called.” She glanced away from him, bit her trembling lip, and continued, “Kyle died in a roadside bombing. Probably about the time you collapsed at the office.”
Her gaze slid back to his face before dropping to the hand now clutching his arm. “You felt him die, didn’t you? That’s what caused your collapse. He contacted you when he died.”
“Yes…no.” Cameron closed his eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. He opened his eyes and caught Sophie’s gaze. “Yes, Kyle opened the link and dragged me into his pain, but he’s not dead.” He turned his arm under her hand and grasped her trembling fingers. “Sophie, I’d know if he were dead. Kyle is alive.”
Tears spilled from her eyes and followed well-established tracks across her cheeks to drip from her chin. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated.
He opened his mouth to protest, but she laid a quelling finger against his lips.
“Hush, my love. Don’t…don’t think about it now. Just rest. Once you’re home, you can talk to the Rear D, yourself. Hear his account directly.”
Cameron closed his eyes and touched the psychic link he’d shared with Kyle their whole lives. Nothing. The link lay dormant in the back of his mind, a frighteningly blank place that should have been vibrant with Kyle’s zest for life.
He wasn’t dead. Cameron would know if Kyle…. He wasn’t dead.
For the first time in his life, Cameron McClellan experienced separation anxiety.
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Title: Star Stepping
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Book Length: Novel
Price: $5.95
Links to other Excerpt Monday writers can be found by clicking on the banner.
Note: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.
