Just after the flood in the neighborhood, the A/C company came out to replace both my HVAC units. Now we have nice cool air throughout the whole house. Very nice. I mentioned a while ago the new creative practice Heather and I adopted. It’s working. I’ve been able to complete two more poems for my lectionary project and am now up to 20 out of 48 planed poems. If I can maintain this rate, I’ll complete the project before I die.
I haven’t made much progress on my novel. I’ve been using MS Word to write this novel and after using Scrivener for my poetry project, I’ve decided to make a switch. Converting from Word to Scrivener will take sometime, but I feel the effort will be worth it. I find Scrivener’s way of making notes and annotations really fit my writing process. The printing capabilities of Scrivener are a little lacking for me, but I’ll figure it out.
Last week I sent a friend an email update about the flooding we had, along with a long list of all my medical complaints like we old guys do. I opened the email with the phrase, “Here, the mud as turned to dust”. He replied that those words sounded like the opening line of a novel.
Well, I couldn’t resist the challenge so here are opening paragraphs of two possible novels starting with, those words:
The Historical Fiction Version:
Letter 1, May 11, 1935 (written as a collection of letters between family members):
Dear Uncle Wayne,
Here, the mud has turned to dust. We were drowning just last week, but now you can’t walk more than two steps without raising a dustbowl. I’m afraid we’ve lost the corn crop as the flood washed away half of the upper 40 near the river bend down to the cow pasture. The wife thinks we’ll have to sell them soon as we don’t have much feed for ‘em.
Virgil fixed up the tractor and got her running again. It was a mess, but he only had to drain the gas tank and dry out the carburetor. Nothing seemed to get into the pistons so he had her running good until the dust came up so bad. I’ve never seen it like this. It’s like that newsreel we done seen at the Fox last week when the wind blows and you can’t see your hand in front of your face. The carburetor keeps clogging up and that bucket of bolts just ain’t doing it’s job.
I’m afeared that we might have bitten off more than we can chew out here and I’m a reconsidering your offer to work at your new gas station, that is if the offer’s still open.
I’ll understand if’n you’ve already found a man for that.
Your Faithful Nephew,
Curtis
The SciFi Version
Chapter 1, Cultivation Base 6 (written as a series of messages, interspersed with dialogue)
“Here, the mud has turned to dust. It’s that fine almost like lunar regolith. It sticks to everything. There isn’t an effective mitigation measure that works to keep it out of the habitation domes. It’s just everywhere. The water filtration plant’s filters keep clogging up and the life support techs are having trouble keeping us in clean water. I’ve had to start a rationing system and there is a lot of grumbling about about the reduced shower and clothes washing schedule.
The flood damaged most of the ground cultivators and we’ve had to stop all planting operations. Our engineering team is overwhelmed and we’re short on spare parts. We estimate that with some imaginative parts swapping that we might get four back on-line, but that won’t be enough to achieve self-sufficiency this orbit.
Meteorology is doubting most of the pre-mission estimates on rain fall totals and frequencies. I’m being told that we can expect extended periods of drought, interspersed with periods of monsoons much more violent that first projected.
I’m am growing concerned about the viability of this mission. We’ll need to make major changes to our plan in order to succeed. We’ll also require more support than first estimated. Requisitions for new supplies and replacement parts is attached.
Respectfully submitted,
Commander Gupta, commanding Cultivation Base 6, Shiva Prime Colony Mission 4, Earth Expeditionary Force 15
Andrew's View of the Week 
Suuuuper creative, Andrew. Really well done. Great versatility! And, if not a novel, that could be a good opening line for a poem too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are many possibilities here. My first thought was a poem, but so far that poem hasn’t revealed itself to me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A shy poem. I get it. Maybe it will warm up to you once it gets to know you better.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the both of them!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love both versions -but as a lifelong Science Fiction fan, I have to go for the latter one! Hows the writing going?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Slow, it’s going slow. Summer isn’t the best time to write, but the fall weather will be here soon enough.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I konw what you mean about Summer and writing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
For me I’ll take the SciFi novel, my wife will take your historical thread.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think both have possibilities.
LikeLike
What a great novel-line! I like both your takes on it. (Hope the dust clears from your neighbourhood soon.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
The crews have been out all weekend with street sweeps and water tankers cleaning the last of the dirt off the road. It’s much better today. Until my friend pointed it out to me, I didn’t even think much about the line. Now, I’m liking it too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like both versions of this story! That’s a fun writing prompt, too–write a story in two different ways. I’ll have to try that this week. Cheers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually, I couldn’t decide which way to go, so I did both. It kind of worked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really enjoyed the SciFi version! Ready to read Commander Gupta’s next missives.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was fun to write. Might see what the fleet has to say to him about that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, I’d opt for whichever system presents the fewest obstacles to my creativity. I’m not familiar with Scrivener but I’m impressed if it’s better than Word.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like both. Scrivener is better for drafting, research and so on, but I prefer Word for formatting for printing.
LikeLike
HI Andrew, both story ideas and starts are really good. I enjoyed them and would certainly read more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, I might write more.
LikeLike
💚
LikeLiked by 1 person
Andrew, what a great couple of fiction pieces starting with the same words! I love them both, so different but capturing the times and era brilliantly! You do realise you have two future novels in the making here! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just might do more with them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spectacular! All of it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are great, Andrew. I like how your mind works.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I might actually write more on these. Kind of fun.
LikeLike
Writing is a fun adventure, isn’t it? Glad things are back on track. Have a great weekend!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s nice not to have to drive through mud this week.
LikeLike