And to my mother, I love you more than words can possibly express. For every time you didn’t say “I told you so”, I thank you for your unyielding patience.

                untied                                                                                                         

 my shoelaces…

caked with mud-

sweat and blood.

my cry for help

no one can hear-

burden I bear.

my stubbornness

against mother’s advice

my will despite.

my only regret

no hand to squeeze

left alone with a seed.

my labored heart

he is coming

death for life – sacrifice gone running.

my shoelaces

like my life

untied…

-Copyright 2012 C. Dominique Gibson

Luckily for me, I have a most impatient neighbor across the parking lot who’s not afraid to exercise his First Amendment Rights and shout STFU to the top of his lungs.  So to impatient neighbor dude, thank you for a good laugh and a good night’s sleep!

Every semester starts off the same for me.  I exercise regularly, I eat properly and I take my vitamins.  Yet, shortly after midterms, this trend ends.  Between crazy assignments, a short vacation which makes me more susceptible to procrastination.  I have to beat this trend.

2.To Write More

Being a grad student is hard enough, maintaining a pastime or other passion is ten times as difficult.  But I do hope to make time for my characters.

3. For My Neighbors to Throw Parties on the WEEKEND not WEDNESDAY

So, I live on the second floor of an apartment building with highly permeable walls and ceilings.  I can hear when someone sneezes next door to me. Yes Sasha, the neighbors all know Tom’s name.  But forget that.  Let’s talk about the pricks above me who river dance to “Party Rock Anthem” every Wednesday night.  If that isn’t enough to keep you awake, try the endless frenzy of foot traffic going back and forth through the hallway and the constant shouting in the parking lot till 3 am Thursday morning.  Would be just my luck they add  Monday night to their party schedule.

Today, we discuss a necessary component in a good story, the antagonist, also known as the enemy, nemesis, frenemy, etc.

Traditionally, an antagonist is usually an actual individual.  But the enemy can be the protagonist’s environment, their situation and sometimes an inanimate object. Tolkien does crap tons of this in LOTR. While Sauron is the ultimate enemy throughout the trilogy, Frodo is also tormented by his environment and the heavy burden of carrying the ring.  In fact, after reading LOTR for the eightieth time, I asked myself, is the ring itself the actual antagonist?  I mean Sour – Sauron, was as much under the spell of the ring as everybody else.  But we can argue this all day, point is, the antagonist is not always apparent or well defined.  The hero just needs some sort of antagonism. Hell, even the warm and fuzzy Care Bares had antagonists.  What was that annoying loud girls name? Shrieky? And the dude with the ugly hood, No Heart.

When you’re first starting out (writing), sometimes the best place to start when creating an antagonist is to recall those people who’ve antagonized you, or environments and situations you found difficult to function in and around.  To show you what I mean, I’d like to tell you a little story about my arch-nemesis.

After washing the dishes one afternoon, I sat down to start my homework. I can’t recall what subject but I do remember that it was the beginning of the school term because I had brand new school supplies.  I was most excited about using the “bright white, college ruled” leaf paper, mechanical pencils, highlighters and fine-tip ball point pens.  To prepare, I organized all my text books in the order I was to complete assignments then carefully opened the package of leaf paper, gingerly pulling out three sheets.  This part always required great focus, any distractions could result in me pulling too hard and ripping a sheet of paper.  After successfully retrieving the leafs, I opened the box of blue pens, took one out, uncapped it and began to write my name at the top right hand corner of the first sheet.  I was most pleased with the grip of the pen and the way it wrote.  But this was where my bliss ended.  The pen stopped working mid-stroke.

I got an old newspaper that was lying around and did what any secondary school student would.  I scribbled all over the paper to see if it would write again, and it did.  Relieved, I continued where I left off, only to have the pen stop working again!  I tried the scribble again, and after a while it began to write – except when I tried to continue my name.  Frustrated, I moved to the second step of pen troubleshooting.  I began flicking it in the air so that the ink would find it’s way to the tip again.  As usual, this worked but only long enough for me to cross the “t” in my first name.  I repeated step two again and again, barely getting through my middle name before my arm got tired.  I looked at the pen, the audacity of it to play games with me and my homework.  Who did it think it was to withhold ink from my pristine white, college-ruled leaf papers?

A bit pissed off now, I did what any self respecting student would do, I took the damn thing apart!  When I was down to the ball point and the ink cartridge, I carefully pulled the ball point off.  Nothing came out and it appeared dry.  So I got up, went to the bathroom sink and began tapping it like mad on the rim of the sink trying to force the ink down.  But the stubborn liquid still defied me! There was nothing left to do, but to force the ink down by suction action.  Finally, the ink began to move down, so I gave it all I had! Success!

Most elated, I smirked at the pen.  Nothing gets between me and my assignments.  However, my self satisfaction and smile were short lived when I looked in the mirror.  My teeth, gums and tongue were blue, how I hadn’t tasted the ink, I still do not know.  Needless to say I was completely mortified! Good thing we had some good old Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, for inquiring minds) under the sink.  I got it (ink) cleaned off but not before my big cuz P- money came barging in and alerting the household so they could laugh their backsides off at me.

What did I learn about my arch-nemesis? Nothing, except that  BIC Ball Point Pens can be just plain evil.

For those of you who don’t know, I entered the Small Axe Literary Competition, a contest for poets and writers who incorporate elements of Caribbean discourse in their work.  After waiting for a long time and at some point forgetting that I entered at all, I got an email informing me that I made the short list and though I didn’t win, this is a major accomplishment for me.  You see, this is only the second writing competition I’ve entered.  And as the judges have stated, the entries were all amazing.  That makes me feel good.

So in short (haha!) 2011, has been a pretty great year for me, especially since I got a 6’5″ early Christmas present delivered via US AIRWAYS. .

So to 2012 and all the doomsday conspiracy theorists (diminishing the threat with small caps), I say BRING IT ON!!!

5.)

Kim Jong-Il looking at pop. From "kim jong-il looking at things"

4.)

Kim Jong-Il looking at Jam. from "kim jong-il looking at things"

3.)

Kim Jong-Il looking at D - Medvedev. From "kim jong-il looking at things"

2.)

Kim Jong-Il looking at a computer mouse. From "kim jong-il looking at things"

1.)

Kim Jong-Il looking at a 32-C. From "kim jong-il looking at things"

This post is in no way, shape, or form meant to be offensive.

1.) The reading load triples. – Yeah, this may sound ok to you.  But have you opened up a scientific journal lately?  There’s no floral language, no main character and one should definitely have a translator because the time you spend converting tenured professor speak into plain language, you’ve wasted two hours you could have spent reading two more articles.

2.) Go experiment, but just not with anything that cosst $$$.  At this level, your advisors want you to start working/experimenting with cool stuff so that you can start your project and go on to make terrifc discoveries.  What they don’t tell you is that it will be four more semesters before they trust with said expensive cool stuff.  In the mean time, you have to find some cheap expletives to make these discoveries with.

3.) The END IS NO WHERE NEAR.  Don’t think about graduating, won’t happen till they think your ready.  That could be two years from now, could be ten. Point is, don’t think about the end, or family planning or anything that requires thinking about graduation, post docs, tenure track positions, or vacation time. NON – Existent.

Other than that, it’s been awesome so far.  So awesome, I got a damn good GPA, would have been a 4.0 had it not been for that one A-.  But I can’t complain. It could be worse.

Menu:

Stuffed Chicken

Ham

Cole Slaw

Potato Salad

Seafood Stuffing

String Beans

Beans and Rice

Sweet Potatoes

Salad

Bourbon Bread Pudding

That’s only what I can remember.  Countdown to Food Coma begins now.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good bite!

But never fear!  I have a solution to your problem!

My short story, “The Band’s All Here”, written under the pseudo-name Caitlin L. Pompeo, is available on most e-book retailers websites starting at an all time low of 99 cents!

Why should you purchase this?

Because it’s a lovely combination of naughty and nice for all those who are riding the fence on Santa’s famous list! Also, it’s gotten rave reviews on Amazon, Joyfully Reviewed, and Goodreads.  Did I also mention that you would be helping a starving PhD student/aspiring writer achieve their dream of purchasing a new cheap net book because their current cheap netbook is perishing quickly?  Ok, so that was a bit extreme but I’m sure you get what I’m trying to say here.  But, I should warn you that this novel is of the naughty variety so it’s not suitable for anyone under the age of 17.

You can find it at these fine retailers:

PS.  Don’t forget to write a review!!!! PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEYYYY!!!