Blog Talkers :

What is your most important goal in life? Why? (Please elaborate) How do you propose to get there? (Or how did you accomplish it). What sort of sacrifices will (or did) you have to make in order to achieve this goal? Once you've accomplished this goal, how will this change your life?

Hard to keep thinking of goals when so much of what I try seems to end up a total wipe out. Most of it my own fault, I guess. Not always sure when other people find it so easily to blame me for just about anything and everything.

Anyway, a goal, maybe not the most important goal, is to finish writing a book and get it published. I've been in denial of this goal a long time. But, reading some of the books out there, I think I really should press on and get on with it. At least I can check my own typos. How will it change my life... well, I'd have a job I would actually like and couldn't be fired from. Unless I fired myself.

I've sacrificed so much of myself for half assed reasons and self doubt. I can't afford too many more sacrifices before I just disappear all together.

Also, Blog Talkers from last week, which I missed:

If you could go back in time and witness one event from your family's history, what would it be? (Be specific). How would this change impact your life? How would this change impact the lives of those close to you?

I would like to see my Grandparents as children. Nothing fancy, just a family dinner together out on the Prairies in the old sod house. I'd like to see them laugh about something little and do all the regular family things including nit pick at each other. I don't know how it would change anything. I'd just like to see who they were before they were old or too long ago dead for me to ever meet my Grandparents and Great Grandparents. Wouldn't you like to see your family when they were still young and at the beginning stage of their life?

Submitted this story idea to a website/ ezine. It might be fun to write a continuing serial/ soap opera.

Prunella's Misadventures in Time and Space Science Fiction - genre

Synopsis:

Prunella is a young woman who just falls into misadventure. Not even wearing a lucky rabbit's foot helped Prunella. She did try it. As a child she was raised in an isolated, majestic family mansion. Her scientist parents had disappeared, leaving her an orphan, with a tyrannical old Aunt as her guardian. Prunella learned to manage on her own and entertain herself. She would get lost in the same book for hours and even days at a time.

Just when it seems her luck has finally changed (she inherits the dregs of the family fortunes and the derelict mansion for herself) the world changes around her. "The Bomb" is dropped and nothing will ever be the same again. As civilization dies Prunella (who has just won the lottery and been hit by a car just outside the bank) finds herself in a bomb shelter with a possible killer as one of the guests.

She finds her way out of that to... well... the next misadventure. As her narrator and confidant I've heard them all. I don't chat about myself much, I'm just along for my typing skills. Haunted houses, aliens from space, mad scientists, dragons, time machines, genies in bottles, amazing treks through time and space all seem to come along for Prunella. Through it all, she is upbeat, wildly creative and intelligent (some would say eccentric). In short, she is Prunella. All of it could only happen to Prunella, if anyone else tried to tell me a story like this I wouldn't believe a word they said.

First Episode:

Prunella's adventures started before she was ever born. Her parents were a pair of mysterious (some have said mad) scientists who eventually disappeared on a scientific exploration of the Amazon jungles. They were supposed to be searching for a long lost plant which could possibly be a cure for cancer. They may have been mad but they were also great humanitarians. The last thing anyone ever heard from them was a request for more supplies of duct tape and chocolate bunnies.

Prunella grew up with a persnickety old Aunt in a huge, shabby mansion. The mansion was isolated, set on the edge of a sharp cliff overlooking the sea. People were afraid to go there. No one ever visited Prunella. She learned to manage on her own and entertain herself. She made sure she went to bed in good time for school days, she reminded herself to brush her teeth, comb her hair and wash behind her ears. School was her outlet and her passion. She loved homework. It gave her something to do, a goal to attain. She would get lost in the same book for hours and even days at a time. She was reading the newspapers by the time she was four. School was also a place to see and be seen, at least enough that she didn't always wonder if she was invisible.

At one point the family had been massively rich but fortunes dwindled: spent on scientific gear, travel costs. The fortunes were pretty small by the time Prunella legally inherited the house and her freedom from the tyranny of her old Aunt. Of course, it was just Prunella's luck that on the very day her luck changed the whole of civilization fell apart. That was the day I met her. I won't waste your time telling you about myself, I'm no one in particular. But, Prunella... she's something special, quite different.

She actually won the lottery, millions of dollars in cash. The dream of so many and there she was, owner of the winning ticket! She could fix up the family mansion, have them finally install modern heating which would spare her from shivering through another winter. But, as I have said, that was a day of great change for the world at large. The bomb was dropped you see. Children from the 70's grew up with the theology of the wicked Russians who would begin World War III at some point, dropping "the bomb" and thus wiping out civilization as we know it. Well, they were right about wiping out civilization, as we knew it then. However, it wasn't the Russians, they were just as surprised as everyone else.

Anyway, Prunella was just leaving the bank, her massive lottery winnings deposited, her smile stretching at least one whole city block and her mind just spinning with wonderful ideas, dreams and plans. She wasn't watching where she was going, not very well at least. The traffic light had changed, the cars were geared up to go and Prunella stepped into the street at the wrong moment. She wasn't hurt much, just shaken. But the driver was upset. Even more upset when people began sharing the news and the horror of the coming disaster from the sky. Instead of taking Prunella to a hospital to get checked over for injuries the driver of the car more or less pushed her into the passenger seat and took off. He had his own bomb shelter, quite an elaborate thing from everything Prunella described.

There were over twenty people in the shelter when the doors were pulled closed. Sealing them from the terror and destruction run amok in the world outside. At first they were able to gather around a radio and hear reports from announcers around the globe. But, as the disaster spread the voices were silenced, until there was only radio static and then nothing at all. Pure silence but for the sound of breathing in the dimly lit shelter. Prunella felt the heat of all those bodies pushed up close against each other, absorbing the shock. She felt uncomfortable being so crowded, so she went off on her own to explore the other rooms in the shelter. It was quite well stocked. Each room had it's purpose. Three were for storage of food and water. There were facilities for the basic functions: bathroom, laundry and kitchen area. There was one room with bunk beds lining the walls. Lastly, a common room which had the radio, games and all those people still standing exactly where she had left them. It seemed to Prunella that they could all stand forever, as if they had been frozen into place like a stone statue in an art gallery.

For herself it wasn't quite so traumatic. She'd grown up isolated, depending on herself. So Prunella excused herself politely and went to have the first shower. Her muscles were beginning to tense up after the whole being hit by a car thing. A hot shower would be just the thing.

If you met a Mad Scientist and became friends, what would you ask her to invent for you?

A time machine was my first thought. There would be endless great ideas you and your Mad Scientist friend could work on. How about traveling in space, or deep under the ocean? Figure out the age old quest of turning ordinary metal (lead) into gold. They call that alchemy. Or you could learn how to fly with wings made for people or some kind of jet backpack, not so different from those in cartoons.

So many great ideas. How about putting together your own specialized super computer. A computer that hooks up directly to the Internet and has a connection the speed of lightening. You could play online games with your friends, get all the information you need for your homework and projects in just minutes.

Of course, you and the Mad Scientist could just build your own robot. Give your robot human features, skin and etc. and send him or her out to do all the boring stuff like walking the dog, cleaning the yard and going to school with all your friends. Or, maybe not. Would you really want to miss your friends at school, jumping in the pile of leaves when you clean the yard or spending time running around with your dog? Some things are work and fun at the same time.

I'd still like to try that time machine. First, I'd have to decide whether I want to go backwards or forwards into time. I guess, with our own time machine I could do both, take as many trips as I wanted.

So, where to you meet a Mad Scientist these days?

A time machine would be like keeping time in a bottle. There is an old song about that. Would you keep time in a bottle? Then uncork it when you have some free time to explore. The past would be interesting. You could see castles when they were new or just being built. Famous people long just dust in the wind would be alive and busy doing what ever made them famous.

You might go back in time to the days of dinosaurs. Just be careful not to get stepped on. How fun it would be to see a real dinosaur. Some would be dinosaur families, Moms and babies, or just new born hatchlings. Would you keep a baby tyrannosaurus rex in your pocket? I'd go to Loch Ness and see what's there before all the rumours about Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.

What else would you do in the past? Cavemen would be scouting for food, painting on cave walls or maybe learning how to make fire. Knights would be jousting, designing castles and rescuing fair maidens from dragons. The druids would be busy with deep thinking, honouring nature and avoiding the Romans. Alchemists and herbalists would be discovering things we are only just beginning to rediscover now. Kings would be counting their treasure, making laws and fighting wars. Pirates would be sailing the seven seas, taking over other ships and burying their treasure.

Women would be busy too. We've always been there. Some of us were famous but most of us were looking after families, sewing, cooking and keeping things going. There weren't many women pirates or knights but some were.

Once you've explored the past look ahead to the future. If you just go a week ahead you can see your family and friends, see what they are all up to. But, the real adventure would be going far ahead to see what the world is up to. What clothes are people wearing? What cars are they driving? Do kids still go to school? There are so many things coming in the future, so many different ways things can grow and develop. Do kids still play the same games? Are families still going to the zoo, parks and circus together? Are there still roller coasters? Are there still family pets? Do kids still have to go to bed early?

So much to see and find out about in the future, it would take several trips just to see one time period. Keeping time in a bottle would be a real adventure. Where would you go first?