Ah, fuck me. It's way to early for me to be writing this shit, and I'm way too fucking rusty to convince myself otherwise. Even after my first cup of coffee I'm still half-asleep, and much like a magpie I'm attracted to SHINY THINGS. I'm getting distracted by the sunrise just over my shoulder (DAMN YOU SUN!).
So that's summer; wild orgies, wanton substance abuse, high octane car chases, and fugitive killing sprees while wearing SPF 15 (fuck your 30, I'm getting cancer the natural way!). At least two of the above apply to me (more accurately, one and then half of another), the rest were/are story ideas I should've worked on instead of fucking about for nearly several months. I'm undisciplined, have no work ethic, and in the infamous words of the great Cyndi Lauper I 'just want to have fun'.
I did actually intend to return to work SOONER; however, a project that was supposed to take less than a week (i.e., gutting and remodelling the kitchen) took almost a month. I bet you think eating take-out for the majority of the time, washing your dishes in the bathtub, not having a washing machine or dish washer or oven or stove and only being able to cook with a toaster and microwave would be THE TIME OF YOUR FUCKING LIFE, but you'd be wrong (naturally!).
Just under a week into eating various Chinese dishes off of inappropriate plates (which, incidentally, were impossible to find since the house was a motherfucking labyrinth of displaced food, utensils, and dishes) and 'chipper' meals deep fried to heartattack-inducing perfection (I live in a country whose national dish is Haggis and battered Mars bars) I already began to feel the stirrings of Jack Torrance.
Just writing this shit is giving me heartburn and beginning to make me feel anxious (take 'HEALTHY DIET' and 'REGULAR EXERCISE' from me and I WILL turn into raving lunatic with an axe). The kitchen isn't DONE, but it's usable, and sufficient room has been made for me to begin exercising again (as this new bruise on my forearm with attest - now with more 'accidentally punching self!' action). In conclusion, I could've thought of better ways to spend my 'vacation', but I didn't really have a choice.
So, I'm back, which is kind've sort've rushed, but if you've been around Benway Bunnies long enough you know that I make October (and Christmas) a big deal. Even though I (usually) love summer and all it entails, the second the end of August slips by I'm at the edge of my seat for October. I love Halloween. I mean, I REALLY FUCKING LOVE HALLOWEEN (but I'm not one of those scary women who dresses up like a 'sexy' cat and burns candy corn scented candles and hangs up those awful 'cutesy' scarecrow and corn husk ornamentation around the house).
And so for the past few years I've dedicated the entire month to everything creepy, spooky, and supernatural. October is the time that EVERY update will somehow have an otherworldly element, and, hopefully, cover topics I love to write about but rarely feel confident enough to address (something genuinely scary, something explicitly sexual, et cetera). It's taxing, but rewarding, and seeing how the month has FIVE weekends this year I'll have my work cut out for me.
This particular update and my return to work does have a rushed element because I'm desperate to have interest in Benway Bunnies revoked BEFORE the first October story appears. I'm a realist (or I pretend to be for paragraph-extending purposes), my presence has been non-existent for nearly three months so readers and visitors have begun slacking off (it's okay for ME, not for YOU.)
I now have something like a week to convince everyone that I'm back for GOOD, they should return to sitting on the site and refreshing the index page every three seconds, and everyone should do whatever it takes to PUBLICISE on their sites, journals, diaries, forums, projects, collectives, WHATEVER, that all of THEIR visitors MUST, MUST, MUST check out Benway Bunnies and the 2005 Halloween collection (there'll be sex! There'll be gore! There'll be heart-stopping suspense!).
Now that I've gotten all of my Benway Bunnies vs. Halloween propaganda out of the way (at least until next week!) I can focus on this week's story, the FIRST story to get the site in motion after an inexcusably long hiatus. A story that probably deserves a little more love than I'm giving it, since I'm late in updating, rushing the update itself, and more or less focusing on next month.
Charlie! I really love some of my characters, and then I REALLY love some of my characters. Charlie's just one, huge, sentimental lovefest. I know I mention this almost EVERY TIME I update with her, but...she was the FIRST recurring character story I wrote (which is still popular today with readers, and whenever I mention removing it I'm always met with vocal opposition.)
This week's story isn't entirely different from the last one (Short Fuse), although I think it's an improvement stylistically. I'm still not satisfied with her narrative, but I'm aware that it's something that should fix itself the more I work with her (practice, practice, practice children). When you have so many 'angry' characters (i.e., Kir & Valda, to name a few) it's easy to slip into a default voice, so my focus for the remaining year is to find that spark in the character that individualizes the 'angry' element.
So, anyway, Charlie's in a bad mood and Melanie's attempting to make it better; business as usual. I meant to introduce another character - via dialogue - but never got around to it. It just means I have a foundation for another story, one that will probably revolve around similar circumstances since she's only ever in a GOOD mood when she's sleeping (that's probably a lie, but I'm not entirely sure.)
To read Charlie's new story, That Bad, click HERE. Or you can meander about the site like you've just been punched in the face and find it under the 2005 header of Benway Bunnies within the Fiction section. Enjoy, and don't forget to plug Benway Bunnies any chance you get - it's good karma!
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