Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Write Your Novel Step By Step (Part 1)

In the following weeks I will be giving each and everyone of you a step by step series on how to write your novel. I am going to break it up into a number of series with each series having about 5 steps in each one. This is entirely free to you. I could easily make it into an e-book but I won’t for a couple of reasons. Firstly my passion is writing. There is nothing more I like to do than write. Secondly in return I just ask that you have a look at my websites that will be listed at the bottom. Feel free to direct your friends and family to have a look at this as well. I am not promising you are going to write the all American novel but you have to love writing before you can make money at it. It took me a long time to make any money at my writing and I still don’t make enough to pay the bills but there is nothing I would rather be doing. Well enough with that and let’s get down to business.

1. Commitment

Firstly and most importantly in your endeavor to write your first novel it is all so important to make a commitment. This isn’t to your friends or family but rather to you. So what I want you to do is look in the mirror and tell yourself that no matter how rough this gets you are going to carry on and get this finished. Without this commitment you may as well stop reading and forget you ever found this. So the commitment I want you to make is that you are going to write. You’re writing your first novel and that makes you a writer and writers write so that gets you through step one.

2. Set A Schedule

This is probably where most writers fail. They procrastinate, get a good start, get bored and forget they even started. All writers have different schedules, but the one thing they do have in common is that they have a schedule. I personally don’t have a schedule written in stone because of the work I do on my other job. You can never plan your day. However this is what I do. I commit to getting up an hour early every morning and that is for writing. Before bed I commit to an hour of writing. So all I can commit to in a day is 2 hours. That time is only dedicated to my writing and you would be surprised at how much I get done if I can only utilize those two hours. But a lot of times my other job allows me time for writing and without a word of a lie some days I get 14 hours of writing time in. So be realistic in setting your schedule and understand that sometimes you may have to sway from it but also remember a lot of writers fail because they set their schedule and then they don’t follow through with it.

3. Decisions Decisions

Ok now the time has come for you to decide what you are going to write about. Now is the time to stop procrastinating and get to work. Of course you’re not going to know every detail and concept that you want to put into your book but at least you’re going to get the wheels rolling. The time has come to quit talking about writing a book. Now the time has come to plan it and write it.

4. What Are You Going To Write About?

Now you have to decide what you are going to write about. I suggest a topic that really gets you going. My utmost favorite author in the world is Stephen King. When I pick up one of his books I just can’t put the thing down. So of course you have probably figured out what my books are based on. Maybe you like science fiction or a good murder mystery. It doesn’t matter what you write about but it makes it easier if you can put passion into the story.

5. Don’t Be A Bore

I don’t care what you write about. Hell it could even be needle point but you have to make sure you are not boring to your reader. The only real hard fast rule is that your stories have to be interesting. You can have all the drama and excitement that you want but if you don’t make it interesting it’s going to flop.

Okay this is the end of my first lesson on my step by step series on how to write a novel. Remember not everyone is going to write the perfect novel but at the end of the day if you keep following these steps I guarantee no matter what you will have something that you are proud of.

Dale Mazurek


Dale is presently in the process of getting his first novel published. He has also started dabbling in short stories. You can find some of these on his blog at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ And lastly he deals a little in the affiliate marketing gig which can be checked out at http://www.7dayebook.com/?hop=stcajo orhttp://stcajo.profitlan.hop.clickbank.net You can also contact him at stcajo2011@yahoo for any info on his writing or products.

In writing my novel I learnt a lot of things the hard way so I just wanted to put this series out there for would be writers to help them on their path to writing their own book.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Don’t Let The Past Come Back To Haunt You

Jake was walking around his new house. It wasn’t actually a new house and it really wasn’t that new to him. This was the house that he grew up in for the first twenty years of his life before he moved out on his own. It was now twenty years later and about a month earlier his parents were killed in a horrible car accident that involved a drunk driver running into their car killing them instantly. Of course the drunk walked away with out barely a scratch but that’s a story for another time. So now Jake had acquired his parent’s house through their will.
So Jake was walking around the house wondering what he was going to do with it. He and his wife already had a house of their own about 300 kilometers away where their jobs were so moving into it really wasn’t an option they could even think about. Jake knew he had two options. One was to rent the place out and the second was to sell. One thing he knew for sure was that no matter which option he chose the house needed to be fixed up a little. He needed to modernize it a bit. The contractor that Jake wanted to hire was suppose to be over any second to go through with Jake what he wanted to do then the contractor could give him an estimate and they could get started. The sooner the work got done then that was when Jake could go ahead and start making some money off the property.
4 hours later Jake and the contractor had finished their walk through and the estimate came in at around 20000dollars. This was a number that Jake definitely thought to be fair considering the amount of work he wanted done. There were rooms that some walls were going to be torn out of, lots of paint and tiles were going to go in and of course the job required a lot of labor. The contractor agreed to get a start on the job the following morning. Jake told him that he would be around town for about three days so he would come by and see how things were going before he left town.
The following morning Jake was startled by his cell phone ringing. He was already uptown and wasn’t expecting any calls. When he answered the phone he knew there was a problem. It was the contractor and you could hear the terror in his voice as he was telling Jake that he should get to the house immediately. When Jake asked him what the problem was he refused to talk about it on the phone. Jake jumped in his jeep and hurried over to the house.
Once there he was barely in the door when his contractor grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him upstairs just like a kid would when trying to show his parents something that they would consider disturbing or scary. Jake had no clue as to what was going on but he was pretty sure it was dam important. Jake walked into the room and the contractor pointed at something that almost made Jake faint.
There in one of the walls that had been started to be ripped apart was a skeleton. The reason Jake almost fainted was because he knew exactly whose skeleton it was and he had forgot about it after all these years but now it was all coming back like it was yesterday. Jake had been 17 years old when he put the body inside the wall. Jake had a relationship with a girl 14 years old and her father found out. So one day the father came over looking for jakes parents. He was bound and determined to have Jake charged with rape. Well Jakes parents weren’t home and he was bound and determined to not be charged with rape. The man was yelling at Jake and throwing all kinds of insults at him when Jake felt himself just snap. He grabbed the first thing he could find which just happened to be a cowboy boot and he beat the man to death. It was only after he had done what he did that he realized it. Jake was so determined to not be charged with rape that he didn’t even think of murder.
Jake had no idea what he was going to do but he knew he didn’t want to go to jail. He came up with a very quick plan which turned out to be fool proof until now some 23 years later. Jake dragged the body upstairs to the spare room that he was working on for his dad. He wrapped the body in about 30 layers of poly, stuck it in the wall and put dry wall over it.
For the next six months everybody was looking for this man. Jake had been questioned 3 times but he stuck to his story each time. Then after about six months everything seemed to quiet down and no one was searching any more. After about two years Jake had blocked the whole thing out of his mind until this very moment when everything was brought back to the surface.
The contractor was absolutely freaked out but he put the fear in Jake when he told him he had to report this. Jake knew he had to be calm but he also knew that there was no way this was going to get reported. Jake looked around and saw the same boot that he used in the first murder laying beside the skeleton in the wall. He reached down and picked it up. His contractor started freaking out because he figured Jake shouldn’t be touching anything. He barely got his second sentence out when Jake leveled him with the same boot he used for murder 23 years ago.
Jake spent the next two days fixing up the wall with the skeleton and now with the new body behind it. This little turn of events also helped him make his decision on renting or selling. He wanted nothing to do with the place so as he was driving away he called a realtor in town and asker her to handle the sale. He asked her to just give him a call and they could do all the signing by fax. This time when Jake drove away he was pretty sure he would never be back.

Dale Mazurek

Dale is aspiring to make a living totally on line. His passion is writing. You can find some of his stories at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ He also blogs about online fundamentals and you can find that at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
And lastly have a look at his program. http://stcajo.netsalaries.com
You can also email me at stcajo2009@yahoo.ca

DEAD BEAT PARENTS

Jake was sick of forever looking for food in his house. It’s not like there was no money. But it was also not the opposite meaning that his parents weren’t rich either. He decided that it was time to approach his parents about actually being better parents. It kind of sucked that tonight he was eating toast with peanut butter and jam and good old mommy and daddy just came home with new runners last night. Two pairs of running shoes cost them 400 dollars. Jake was no whiz but after all it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that they could have bought a lot cheaper shoes and then come home with some groceries. It wasn’t just groceries either. His clothes were all from value village while his dad had bought 13 new pairs of jeans in the last three weeks. He never bought a pair of jeans that was worth less than 50 dollars. Jake had seen enough and it was time to speak up and he decided he would do it as soon as they got home from work tonight.
At around five thirty his parents both walked in. “Can we talk?” Jake asked both of his parents.
“Sure son. What’s on your mind?” His dad answered.
Jake was hesitant but he knew that if he didn’t get this out now he probably never would. “You guys have to promise not to get all pissed at me when I bring this up.” Neither one of his parents said a word so he continued. “You know for supper tonight I had toast with peanut butter and jam on it.”
“Your point.” Jakes dad replied.
“Well it would be cool if maybe we could get some groceries in the house.” Jake knew the wrath of his parents were about to be imploded on him but he said what needed to be said.
“You have got to be kidding me. Your mom and I work our asses off and this is the thanks that we get. You ungrateful little puke. You should be happy you got that for supper. Do you realize how many kids there are out there that go without.” Jakes dad was fuming now while his mom just sat there not saying anything which usually wasn’t a good thing but Jake promised himself he wasn’t going to back down.
“What do you mean I have to be kidding? Where did you guys go for supper tonight?”
“That’s none of your business.” Jake could see the anger in his moms face when she answered him.
“What do you mean its none of my business? Do you guys realize I haven’t had a new article of clothing other than socks and underwear in probably five years? It’s been at least two years since I had a meal cooked by one of you guys. I never get to go out for supper with you. My school fees aren’t paid but yet you guys can have everything. I just want to know why we can’t have a little more groceries around here?” Jake could feel the anger building inside him. He didn’t like what he was feeling. It was scaring him but he decided that he had to do what he had to do.
Now it was time for his mom to lose her temper. “You are the sorriest thing for a kid that I have ever met. Do you have any clue how hard we work to get the things that we do. How much we spend on our stuff is none of your business and it never will be. You should be happy you have the clothes that you do have. And further more you don’t look like you’re starving. When you can pay your own way you can buy your own clothe and then maybe you can come out for supper with us but I doubt it. As for your school fees why don’t you get a job and pay for them. It’s not us going to school.”
Jake had heard enough and he was furious. He wasn’t going to talk anymore. The time had come. It was time to take action. First thing he did was walk over to the door and grab a baseball bat. He walked over to his dad and swung so hard that he was dead before he hit the floor. So of course his mother started screaming. Jake didn’t want to hear her voice any more. He saw her 200 dollar shoes sitting by the door so he grabbed one and shoved it down her throat until she couldn’t breathe. It was about two minutes total and both problems in his life were eliminated.
Jake just sat on the couch while he waited for the police to show up. He wasn’t going to try and explain anything. He wasn’t going to try and plead insanity. He was just glad that he was going to go to a place where he would get fed proper food, where newer clothes and there would be someone to watch over him all the time.

Dale is aspiring to make a living totally on line. His passion is writing. You can find some of his stories at http://stcajo-readshortstories.blogspot.com/ He also blogs about online fundamentals and you can find that at http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
And lastly have a look at his program. http://stcajo.netsalaries.com
You can also email me at stcajo2009@yahoo.ca

Sunday, February 25, 2007

DANNY IS DEAD

Jake was out of his mind. It has been 3 months since his brother was killed in a car crash than involved a drunk driver in the other vehicle. Danny was not only Jakes brother but he was also his best friend. The two were less than a year apart in age with Danny being older. Jake looked up to Danny and always went to him for approval or to share secrets whether they were good or bad. Jake just couldn’t accept the fact that he could never see or talk to his brother again. He decided there was something he could do about it. Jake decided to stop being only Jake and decided he would be both himself and his dead brother. After all who knew Danny better than Jake?
So for everyone around Jake the next few weeks would turn out to be very freaky and very scary for some that were closely involved. It all started when Jake showed up in his brothers classes at school. He imitated Danny perfectly. Even though everyone around him knew this was some screwed up shit no one wanted to say anything fearing there would be retribution. After all if someone was capable of this lunacy then who knew what else he could do. However behind the scenes there was some action being taken to try and get Jake the help he needed.
One day as Jakes mom was walking past her son’s room she heard him having a conversation with somebody. To her this was odd because she knew no one had come home with Jake and she was pretty sure no one came after that. She listened in and was shocked at what she heard. Her son was having a conversation with him acting as both people in the conversation. She was so shocked that she couldn’t even remember what the conversation was about. Instead of interrupting her son she decided that she would wait and tell her husband about it. Her husband told her to just leave it alone. He was sure it was just Jakes way of dealing with the death of his brother.
A couple more weeks went by and things sure didn’t get any better in fact they got considerably worse. Jake as Danny was trying to go out with his dead brother’s girl friend. He was kicked out of school. The explanation his parents were getting was that they had to get this straightened out because Jake was starting to scare the hell out of people. In fact to most people it looked like Jake was slowly disappearing and Danny was taking over. So finally his parents decided to seek professional help. As the days went on some days were majority Jake others were mostly Danny and yet others were equally both. The help wasn’t working. Jakes parents were getting no sleep because they were worried about the mental state of their son.
Jakes father had an idea. You have to remember jakes dad was a carpenter so he had no experience in the human mind or how it worked but what he did have was a very strong love for his son. He decided that he and his wife would take Jake and they would go and visit Danny’s grave. Their hopes were that this would be very direct and hopefully Jake would snap out of his trance and maybe just maybe life could start getting back to normal. But little did they know was that this tactic would back fire so bad that it would forever change their lives.
The day came to go to Danny’s grave. Jakes parents were very nervous. They new there was a chance that things could go wrong today but in no way were they ever prepared for how things would spiral out of control. It took only a matter of seconds after Jake reading the grave for things to turn for the worst.
Almost immediately Jake was gone from his brain and it was 100 percent Danny. He started yelling. He was asking them what kind of cruel joke this was. He was yelling for Jake. He wanted to see Jake but of course there was no one else around. Jake took off running. No one knew it yet but he was about to start a bout of mass destruction on anything or anybody that got in his way. He had only one mission and that was to find his brother. Anybody that got in his way that day didn’t know how lucky they were because Jake at this point didn’t care. He was willing to kill anybody if he had to. He had one mission and that was to find out who was in that grave. He had a clue that it was his brother but fir the life of him he couldn’t figure out why his parents would bury his brother and then put his name on the tomb stone.
Later that night armed with the tools he figured he would need he headed towards the graveyard. Even for him being in the state of mind he was in it was still scary entering a grave yard in the middle of the night. Jake firstly did whatever it took to destroy the tombstone with the name Danny on it. By the time he finished with the sledge hammer the grave marker was unrecognizable. Now it was time to see who was in this grave and see what kind of cruel joke this was.
It took Jake about 2 hours to get all the dirt off the top of the cement tomb. Now he had to figure out how he would get inside that. Well all he had was a sledge hammer so he figured it would have to do. Well now it was three hours later and he was using the same sledge hammer to get into the coffin. Now the locks were broken and it was time for Jake to come face to face with who ever was in the coffin.
You have to remember that at this point Jake was convinced that he was his older dead brother so when he saw the body in the coffin it looked like he was looking at himself. At first glance it was shock and then Jake went crazy. He started knocking over headstones, ripping out flowers and wrecking pretty much anything that was in his way. After about 10 minutes of this something weird happened. Jake started coming back and pushing Danny out of his mind.
We of course would think that this would be a good thing but as it turned out it was a very bad situation. The next day jakes parents came out to the graveyard where their son was buried because they got an early morning call that there was a problem with the grave. Once there the police detective explained sympathetically that their son’s grave had been seriously vandalized. He explained to them that they were pretty sure that the culprit was Jake. Now the big news came. The officer broke the news to them that Jake was found in the grave dead laying with his older brother. He was pretty sure that Jakes death was a result of suicide but he couldn’t confirm that until the boy was sent for an autopsy. The last thing he showed them was a letter that had on it only 3 words NO MORE CONFUSION.

Dale Mazurek
Dale does various opportunities on line including affiliate marketing, blogging and writing short stories. Interested in any of these then have a look.
http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
http://stcajo.netsalaries.com

CREDIT, CREDIT EVERYWHERE

Jake was in his kitchen with his credit cards out on the table. He had them split up into different piles with different names. Jake had been pulling this scam for a couple of years now and in all honesty he was quite sure that he had made a serious profit but now it was time to make all of these aliases disappear. It felt like he was starting to get greedy so his decision was to make all the made up names disappear for a few years and make sure there was no heat on him.
This all started about three years ago. It actually all happened by mistake. Jake was filling out a credit card application. While doing it he was thinking about his best friend for some reason and on the application he put his first name and his buddy’s last name with out even realizing it. About 6 weeks later a credit card came in the mail. When Jake opened it up he was surprised to see the name on the card. Jake was quick to call the card company and let them know what had happened. They were quick to ask him to send it back and they thanked him for his honesty.
Later that afternoon Jake was lying on the couch thinking about the credit card. He was also thinking about he was always struggling to make ends meet. Then like a light bulb in his head he had what he thought to be a brilliant idea. Jake immediately went downtown and rented a mailbox anonymously. He then headed to the library to use the internet to apply for a credit card under someone else’s name. He used the library computer so nothing could be traced back to his computer. After that all he could do was wait.
About five and a half weeks later he went to the rented mailbox and finally there was a piece of mail inside. Jake quickly opened it and inside was a credit card with a limit of 10000 dollars that couldn’t be traced back to him. The name on the front of the card was Brian Sonpe. Jake didn’t even know if there was really someone out there with that name but one thing he knew was that he was excited to go out and start spending and to make sure the card was going to work. Once uptown he was able to find out very quickly that he would have no problem with the card. Jake headed back to the library.
When he left the library this time he had applied for ten credit cards under ten different names. He then went out and continued spending on his new credit card. About 5 weeks later his card limit was met so he wanted some new credit cards. Within a week of running out of money on his card he had replies to all 10 of the applications that he had sent. Out of 10 he had 3 rejections and 7 new cards valued at 85000 dollars. Holy shit Jake was excited now.
Well the years went on and this seemed so easy. Jake was living the good life. He had probably wrecked a lot of people’s credit scores but he didn’t care. However lately he had started to have some weird feelings. So he decided that it was time to destroy his aliases, destroy all the cards, get back to his normal life and go on with his life with his normal name. He had lived a good life and was able to put money away so that he figured he could lay low for a couple of years and then he could start over again.
It was about three months later. Jake very rarely thought about his illegal doings. When he did think about it he thought about how he figured he was scott free but little did he know there was a lot of bad men closing in and catching up to him very quickly.
It was a Saturday afternoon when it all started. Jake was driving around down town in his charger when all of a sudden out of no where some guy in a black jacket walked out in front of his car, held a gun up. In a split second all of jakes credit card dealings came back to him in a split second. He had to make a quick decision and that was whether he should stop or keep driving , run this guy down and get the hell out of here because there was no doubt in his mind that they were on to him. The only thing confusing was the gun. He wasn’t sure how credit card companies dealt with delinquency but he felt like if he didn’t hurry up and get out of here he was going to find out really quick. So the decision was made and Jake hit the accelerator watched the gun man pull off one shot that just barely missed Jakes head. The body flew over the car and landed very hard on the pavement behind him. Jake couldn’t tell if he killed the guy. He could see him lying on the road and he could see that the guy wasn’t moving but he knew he want sticking around to find out.
The rest happened very fast. Jake looked up and there were 3 Cadillac escalades blocking the road. Jake had no choice but to stop because he knew he wouldn’t be able to muscle his way through this barricade. When he did stop he was quickly met by several men holding guns. They hurried him out of his car and into one of the escalades. Jake had no idea where he was been taken but he knew that wherever it was there was no way it could be good.
Finally they stopped at what looked like an old gas station. The gun men escorted him into the back door where there were a couple of other guys waiting. Jake was pushed into a chair and then he heard the explanation.
The man was a short balding guy. He looked like he was about 50 years old and he definitely didn’t look like he belonged in this crowd. Jake, however was about to find out that looks can very easily be deceiving. The man explained to Jake that he was representing the credit card companies and they weren’t very happy about losing about 2 million dollars. He was also told that he had 15 minutes to come up with the money. Jake and his captor both knew that pay back wasn’t an option so Jake was about to find out what option B was.
An hour later Jake found himself on a plane. He didn’t know where he was been taken but he was about to find out. The bald man was on the plane with them. After a couple of minutes the guy began explaining to Jake what was going to happen. First he threw him a bottle of water and advised him to drink as much as he could. He explained that they wouldn’t be killing Jake but rather they would be dropping him off in the dessert outside of Iraq. He explained to Jake that there would be no civilization for 500 miles any way he went. He would only have the parachute. He would have no clothes, no water and no food. Then the man continued to explain to him that by some streak of luck he was to make it to refuge somewhere that his face was posted all over the country for the rape and murders of ten little girls all under the age of ten.
Jake wasn’t a dummy. He knew he was done for. These guys had put a lot of thought into this. He knew there was no sense arguing or pleading. Finally about 15 hours later Jake was ordered to undress, put on the parachute and then he was quickly pushed out of the plane and just like that it was all over.
Once on the ground Jake had no idea what was going to happen but what he was sure of was that he was walking dead. He decided to take the parachute with him if not for anything else but to cover him up and keep a little of his dignity before he dies. Jake headed in the direction that the sun was setting. In his mind all he could think about was how his greed got him here. Only for a brief second he wished for a second chance but decided to suck it up and keep walking until his punishment over took him.

Dale Mazurek

Dale does various opportunities on line including affiliate marketing, blogging and writing short stories. Interested in any of these then have a look.
http://affiliatemarketingfornewbies.blogspot.com/
http://stcajo.netsalaries.com

Saturday, February 24, 2007

CAUGHT IN THE ACT

Jake couldn’t pack fast enough. He knew he had to get out of town and he knew he had to get out fast. Being the town treasurer was good if not great for a few years but now they were on to him and he knew if he didn’t get on the road he would be spending a lot of time in jail. Through the years having control of all the money in the town was all too tempting. It went from just a few dollars to now having a few million dollars in an off shore account. He knew that if he didn’t get out of here it would be a very long time before he ever got to spend any of that cash.
Jake had already made up his mind that there was no way he was going to jail. So if things went well there would be no problems. He didn’t want to think how things would go if he was pushed into a corner. With that thought he checked the clip on his 9 mm and put his hunting knife in his boot. He slipped the gun into the back of his pants Hollywood style
Jake walked out of his apartment door with everything he needed to get out of the country. He had his laptop, passport and the papers needed to get access to the money he had. It sucked having to look over his shoulder all the time but soon that would be all over. He just had to make it through the next couple of hours until he could get to the airport and get on to his freedom flight.
As soon as he walked into the airport he knew there was going to be problems. It wasn’t his imagination. They were all over the airport and they were there for only one reason. They were there to get him. In his mind he reinforced the fact that there was no way he was going to jail. There was also no doubt in his mind that things were about to get really bad. Jake hadn’t put any thought into what he would do in this scenario so he was just going to fly by the seat of his pants and see what happened. Jake continued walking towards the boarding ramp. He was sure there was no way they were going to let him get on the plain so he was very surprised when he was let through to walk the aisle to the plane.
Once on the plane Jake started to feel a little better. Even though it looked like everyone on the plane was looking at him he couldn’t understand why they weren’t doing anything. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Maybe he was ahead of them. He became convinced of this once the plane started taxing down the run way because there was no way they would let him take off if they were really here and onto him. Once they were in the air Jake felt like about 2 tons were lifted off his shoulders. He was sure he was home free.
A couple hours later Jake woke up to 3 machine guns in his face. He was pretty sure he was dreaming so he closed his eyes and opened them again but nothing changed and he quickly realized it wasn’t a dream. Instinctly he tried to fight for a second but quickly realized that fighting was a waste of time. How, why, what was going on? Why were they doing this now? Then he noticed something else. He wasn’t the only one with a gun in his face. Many of the passengers had guns in their faces. He quickly realized that this had nothing to do with his fraudulent behavior over the years but rather the plane was being hijacked. He couldn’t believe his luck.
Jake decided he wanted to live so he asked to talk to someone in charge. Once he was given that opportunity he was quick to try and buy his freedom. Off shore Jake had three accounts totaling 3.5 million dollars. He decided to keep quiet about the half million and offer the other 3 million to try and buy his freedom. The man that was supposedly the leader listened intently as Jake explained to him how to get the 3 million dollars. To Jake it looked like his negotiations were going very well. He opened the briefcase and proceeded to write instructions to get the money out. Finally what seemed to be the last piece of the puzzle was to hand over the brief case.
Everything looked like it was going well. His captors had moved him to the front of the plane. The kidnapper had assured Jake that he would get his freedom. Jake sat their in silence for half an hour thinking about all the irony in this situation. He was at least going to be free. He wouldn’t have as much money but he was sure that everything would be fine.
Jake was wakened from his day dream with two men grabbing him by the arms and taking him towards the front of the plane. They stopped at a door with his face facing a sign that said emergency exit. Jake wasn’t sure what was going on but he had an idea that he was about to be thrown off the plane. He quickly began to struggle and yell. He was questioning there agreement. The leader came back and assured Jake that they were keeping their word and he would get his freedom. Then all at once the emergency door was opened and he had no time to think about it before he realized he was falling to the ground. It seemed like he had forever to think. He couldn’t figure out why these guys went back on their promise but just before he hit the ground he realized they didn’t break their promise. They gave him his freedom and the last thing he said before he hit the ground was thanks.

BURN BABY BURN

Jake was sick and tired of hearing about everyone else in his family. Oh it was always he did this or she did this but it seemed like no matter how hard Jake tried it just didn’t matter. His parents would never acknowledge him. He had been going through this his entire life for some reason. He was the middle child but in his eyes he was the invisible child.
As the months went by Jake never quit trying. He figured that one of these days he would do something so good that someone would have to recognize him for it. Things seemed to be going backwards though. It seemed the harder he tried the more trouble he would get into. He cut the grass, cleaned the yard, picked all the leaves and trimmed the hedges. He got thirsty so he left the garbage bag out that was full of leaves. It had only been out for about 5 minutes while he got a drink but that just happened to be the time his old man drove up. His dad came totally unglued on him for leaving the bag out side. There wasn’t a word said about all the work he had got done in the yard. Jake learnt a long time ago that it was a waste of time to try and argue with his dad because there was no way he could win. He just put his drink down and went back to the yard to finish cleaning.
Another example was one that really hurt Jake. His brother and sister are both c students and for the most part Jake himself is a b student. Jake got an A on a very long essay that he wrote. The mark was actually 96 out of 100. He was so proud of this mark and was quite sure that his parents would finally be proud of him. But it really wasn’t a surprise when his dad asked him why he didn’t get 100 instead of 96. He was quick to tell Jake that the mistakes he made were really dumb. Jake just walked out of the front room. He couldn’t help but think that all this shit wasn’t just hurting him any more but instead it was really starting to piss him off. He was going to get through to his parents one way or another.
So as the weeks and months passed nothing changed. Whenever anything went right it was because of Jakes brother and sister but if anything went wrong it was somehow always his fault. He didn’t even have to be around when something happened. His parents would always find a way to blame it on him. How ever there was a bigger thing bothering Jake. He was worried about some of the thoughts that were going through his mind lately. They were not only scary thoughts but they were very evil thoughts about how he wanted to get back at the family
Any way as time went on things didn’t really get any better but they also didn’t get worse. Then the day came that would change Jakes life forever as well as his families. Jake was gone to his aunties and uncles for the weekend. He was actually having a lot of fun because they treated him more like a son then his parents ever did. He was out motor biking most of the afternoon. When he came in for supper his uncle told him he was supposed to call his dad. Jake didn’t want to make that call because he knew it could only mean one thing and that was that he was in shit for something. However he bit the bullet and made the call and of course it was what he expected.
His brother and sister were playing pool and one of the cues broke. So jakes dad called and asked him what he did to the cue before he left. Jake was sick of keeping his mouth shut. He was very respectable to his father when he told him he hadn’t played pool for at least 6 months so there was no possible way the cue breaking could have had anything to do with him. Well of course sticking up for himself proved very quickly to be the wrong thing to do. Jake should have known better but he just couldn’t take it any more. At the moment he hung up the phone he decided that things were going to change. If he was going to get blamed for things and he was innocent of doing them then why not start doing things. Something just cracked in his head because in an instant he went from a trying, caring boy to an evil down right messed up kid and it would be evident as soon as he got home. If the only way he could get attention was bad attention then so be it he was going to get the worst attention possible.
Sunday night when he got home he knew his dad was going to be all over him about the pool cue and sure as hell he was right. Jake was barely through the door and his dad was in his face. Jake took it for about 10 seconds before he looked at his dad and told him to shut up. Jake knew that his dad saw the evil in his eyes because for a moment you could see the terror on his face and it actually made Jake feel good as he pushed his way past his dad and headed up to his room. Jake knew it was too good to be true and sure as hell about 30 seconds later his dad came storming into his room. He didn’t even give Jake a chance this time but instead just started yelling. Jake kept his cool for as long as he could before all hell broke loose. The first thing he saw was a baseball trophy on his dresser. A trophy that only he cared about. Hell he was pretty sure that his family didn’t even know that he played baseball. Jake grabbed the trophy and swung as hard and fast as he could. There was silence. His dad lay on the floor in a pool of blood that was slowly getting bigger. Jake didn’t know if he was alive or not and he really didn’t care. He left his room and closed the door behind himself so nobody would discover his dad’s body anytime soon.
The rest of jakes family was down in the rumpus room watching movies and he wanted to keep it that way. Jake took about 30 seconds to find what he was looking for in the garage. 2 five gallon jerry cans full of fuel that was usually used for the boat but would be used for different purposes tonight. He walked around the house pouring the gas on the side of the house paying close attention to the doors and windows to make sure there would be lots of flames at any exit points. About ten minutes later Jake lit the match. Even he was surprised at how fast the house burst into flames. He remembers thinking about how cool it looked. He had to move back because the heat was getting to extreme.
Jake felt absolutely no remorse when he heard the members of his family inside screaming for their lives and felt even better once the yelling stopped. Now he knew it was finally over. He would never be wrongly blamed for anything any more. Now he just stood on the curb and waited for the fire truck and the police to arrive. While waiting Jake was absolutely sure of two things. He wouldn’t be wrongly accused for this because he did it and there was no denying it and secondly getting attention wouldn’t be a problem for a long time.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Bargain Price Murder

Every day things seemed to be getting a lot weirder around Jakes house. His parents seemed to be spending all their free time down in the basement and any time he tried to go down they would yell at him to stay up stairs. When they were upstairs all they did was sit in front of the television with a blank stare on their faces. Now his sister that was a different story in a same kind of way. She too was acting weird but her weirdness was totally different from his parents. In the last month she had gone from a sweet 14 year old to what he was looking at now. A girl all dressed in black with white make up all over her face. She had three rings in her lip about ten in each ear, two in each eye brow and three in her nose. She was also listening to music which contained death in every lyric. He had no idea what was going on but it was scaring him and he was bound and determined to find out.
That night while lying in bed he heard his mom and dad coming down the hallway so he pretended to be sleeping when they walked into his room and looked over him. He had to be careful when he took a look at them because he didn’t want them to know that he was awake. The look in their eyes almost got Jake up and running for his life. They were looking at him like they were deciding to let him live or not. About two minutes later the couple both looked up at one another, nodded their heads, turned around and walked out. To him it looked like they had just made a decision about something and he was pretty sure that something had something to do with him. Jake knew that sleep at this point wasn’t going to happen until he figured what the hell was going on and he decided that tomorrow would be the day that he tried.
Jake made his way to school the next morning but it was all a diversion. He didn’t want anyone to get suspicious on what he was doing. After the first period bell rang Jake snuck out of school and headed home. He wasn’t 100 percent sure but what he did know was that his parents should both be at work. Would they be? He was about to find out. When he got home the cars were gone and the door was locked but that wasn’t enough to let Jake let his guard down. He entered the house very quietly just hoping no one would be inside. As far as he could tell the house was empty. Jake headed straight to the basement door.
He had to make a decision once at the door. He had no clue how to pick a lock so the only way in would be to break the lock. He had no clue how much trouble he was going to get into and another thing he didn’t know was what was waiting on the other side for him. He knew he had to take some chances because he was pretty sure that his parents were planning on making some sort of move on him pretty soon. He decided to break the lock and suffer the consequences later.
Just as he was about to nail the lock with the hammer he had found in the garage he saw that he could just remove the screws from the hasp. This way he would be able to put them back and maybe there would be a better chance that no one would figure out that he was down there if indeed there was something being hid down there. Ten minutes later he was making his way down the stairs.
At first glance everything downstairs looked normal but then he saw something that threw terror into his soul. The table in the corner was covered in blood. There were trays underneath that had chunks of meat or something lying in pools of blood. Jakes head began to spin he knew that if he didn’t gather himself rather quickly he was going to faint down here. He took about a minute to gather some senses. He still didn’t have a clue what was going on but now he wanted to find out. He snooped around for a couple more minutes not finding anything else until he noticed the potato storage room door. He didn’t want to open the door but something inside him was telling him that a lot of the answers were inside there.
Jake got to the door, hesitated for a moment and then pulled it open. He was shocked at what he saw. It wasn’t what he expected but definitely weird. There was a hallway that led under ground. It was a creepy looking hall way. Maybe something you would see in a Harry Potter movie. There were torches hanging on the walls that were dirt. There was no architecture here but just a crude hallway. Jakes senses were telling him not to go down that hallway but at this point his curiosity was stronger then his senses.
Jake just kept walking until he got to a door on his right hand side. He was still curious but now his senses took over and they ordered him to get the hell out of there. He wanted so badly to open that door but instead he turned around and started running. He ran back to the basement, closed the cellar door and ran up the stairs. He took about 3 minutes to screw the hasp back on and then he left the house. He knew he had to find out what was behind that door but he didn’t want to go in with out some insurance. He decided that he needed to get a gun.
Jake was underage and didn’t have a lot of money. He was in three pawnshops before some one finally decided to give him the time of day. Actually in this store Jake had a gun in 10 minutes. There was no paper trail and Jake walked out as if nothing happened. He had no idea how to even use a gun but somehow he felt better now that he had it. His first reaction was to wait until the following morning to go back to the basement but then he remembered the look on his parent’s faces and he wasn’t even sure he would be around in the morning. He headed back to the house.
Jake didn’t have to think about it this time. He wasted no time with the screws. He took the hammer and pulled the hasp right off the wall. He was pretty sure that as of right now it didn’t matter anymore. This time there was nothing slow about his actions. He was at the door in the hallway in less then two minutes. However before opening the door he decided to put his ear up against it to see if he could hear anything. All was silent. He didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. But he had no time to wait. It was now or never. Jake pushed the door open.
Once inside he needed a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light but once they did he wished they hadn’t. What he saw was something you should only ever have to see in a horror movie. There were about 200 tables set up with bodies on everyone of them. The bodies looked like monsters. There was no doubt that these were once human and there was no doubt that there was both male and female but other than that they could only be described as monsters. He didn’t even know if these hideous creatures were dead or alive and he all of a sudden decided that he didn’t want to be here any more. He didn’t want to know if these creatures were alive so he turned to leave. Just then he was pretty sure he would never leave. At the doorway standing there was two dark figures. He couldn’t see them very well but he knew it was his parents and somehow he knew he wasn’t going to escape this room alive.
In a couple seconds his suspicions were confirmed. His dad started talking. He proceeded to tell Jake that he shouldn’t have come down here. If only he would have minded his own business then all would have been good for Jake. His dad told him that he could have done anything he wanted in exchange for silence. He was told that all was too late now. He had seen too much and there was no way he could take a chance on Jake leading someone here ho shouldn’t be here.
Jake was terrified. He had no clue as to what was going on but now he didn’t want to find out. But what he wanted and what he was going to get were two different things.
He just sat back and listened in horror as his dad begun explaining what was going on down here. He told Jake that what he was seeing in here was a colony of mutants. They were being raised to take over the country. He explained that it looked small now but each one of these mutants equaled twenty grown men in strength and intelligence and at rate it wouldn’t take long. He explained to his son that they would start small and get bigger as they took on more recruits which led into his father’s next question. He asked Jake to be a recruit. He had no idea how he would become a recruit be he knew he had no interest either. He just shook his head.
At that very moment Jake knew it was all over. He watched his parents emotionless faces disappear behind the closing door. A couple seconds later the lights turned on inside the room. He was able to see that he was standing in the middle of the room and also that there was a lot more than 200 of these mutants but rather about 2000. He wasn’t at all surprised when these things started waking up. He knew it was time to use the gun he bought. Oh Jake wasn’t dumb enough to think that he was going to take these things on but rather when he bought the gun he had only two shells put in it. One was to blow his brains out if something like this happened and the second was in case the first didn’t work.
Jake had a few seconds to think about his childhood. He remembered a fun loving family. There was never anything out of the ordinary. There was no doubt in his mind that his parents loved him. They never gave him a reason to doubt this. He couldn’t figure out what happened but he was running out of time. The mutants were only seconds away from him now. He had no final words. He just put the gun to his temple, pulled the trigger and for Jake the horror was over.

BAD CREDIT

After a lot of bad years Jakes life was finally going in the right direction. At least that’s what he thought until an unforeseen turn of events erupted his comfortable life. What should have been a deal breaker meeting turned out to be an afternoon that Jake would never forget.
Jake is a salesman in the oil patch. He was entertaining some big clients. He had treated them to lunch and drinks and was just about to sign the deal that would be a career maker for him. All at once this was about to all change. The manager of the restaurant came to jakes table and asked him to accompany him for a moment. When Jake asked him what this was about all the manager would tell him was that there was a slight problem with his credit card. Jake was pretty sure it was all a mistake because he carried a corporate card with a 25000 dollar limit. So after excusing him self he followed the manager into a back room.
This is where everything went to hell in a hand basket in a hurry. He had only a split second to have a look before he realized he was fighting for air. It took him longer to realize that he had just been punched in the gut and the reason he was fighting for air was because the hit was so hard that it knocked the wind out of him. Before he could straighten out and find out what the hell was going on he was hit again this time it was harder and it was in the face. He didn’t know what was going on and he didn’t know how he was going to find out if these guys didn’t stop hitting him. All he could think of doing at that very moment was to fall. Just fall to the floor and see what happens.
It seems that this tactic would work for the mean time. He was able to ask what was going on before the kick to the ribs came. When it came there was pain that Jake thought impossible to feel. He was seeing stars and grasping for breath. It did however look like he was going to get a bit of a reprieve when a beautiful lady walked into the room. Jake immediately recognized her as his boss’s wife. He had absolutely no clue as to what was going on but he was sure he was about to find out. Jake decided that at this point it was probably best if he kept his mouth shut and waited for someone to tell him something.
It didn’t take long for the lady that he knew as Judy to start talking. The creepy thing was that her talk started with a laugh that he had only ever heard in horror movies. At this point Jake didn’t know why but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out what was going on but he was also pretty sure that finding out wasn’t his choice. Judy began screaming in a horrid voice. She was screaming things that made no sense to Jake. Things like “enough is enough, its not going to happen any more, your done”, and many other comments that now had Jake scared for his life. He still had no clue what was going on. The only thing that he was sure of was that he was dealing with a mad woman. He knew he had to do something and he had to do it quickly so he tried asking a question. Well he didn’t even have three words out before the foot came flying into his ribs for the second time. This time how ever he heard the cracking of his ribs and felt the pain that followed it. Now all he could wonder was when this was going to end. He was in too much pain to wonder any more why it was happening.
By now the pain had pretty much taken over his thoughts. All he could think of was getting it to stop. All of a sudden he heard the crazed woman talking again. She was yelling at her guys to finish him, kill him, i'm sick of looking at him. Jake couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She was giving her goons orders to kill him. Almost immediately Jake started thinking about his time with his company. He tried to remember what he had done so awful that it would warrant his execution. He had been with the company for just over ten years now and all he had ever done was make a shit load of money for them. There was nothing that he could remember. He had little time to think before the beating became even more brutal. Jake knew it was only a matter of seconds before he became a statistic but he didn’t want to die without knowing why this was happening. He had nothing left and even surprised him self when one lonely loud word came out of his mouth. That word was “why?”
Both his eyes were bloody and anything he did see was just a blur. How ever he did recognize the last blur as the woman. She bent down beside his ear to whisper something into it. “Because I can.” Those were the last words he heard before the laughter started all over again. Jake only had a few seconds to think about her answer. It really made no sense to him but that didn’t matter because he felt on more swift pain in the side of his head. He didn’t know why but his last thought before his eyes closed for ever was him wondering if he got his credit card back or not. The room went dark.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

BAD BAD BABYSITTER

In the evil, evil world of back door devils what do you do when you get home from a night out with your wife and you walk in the house at midnight and your 5 and 6 year old kids are running around eating sugar donuts and drinking pop. The babysitter is on the sofa with her boyfriend, the house is a disaster, ice cream is spilt on the floor and everything else is in turmoil.
Well the first thing you do is lock the key dead bolt and put the key in your pocket. Now it is time for the Underground Parent Society to kick in. This society is an underground organization that deals with children that knowingly make wrong decisions. It has to be an underground thing because of the way these children are dealt with.
Now that the house is locked down you can get your kids upstairs, settled down and put to bed with out worrying about the baby sitter leaving. By the time you get back down the stairs the sitter knows something weird is going on and to no avail her and the boyfriend are trying to escape from the house. What you have to remember is that this is a parent society and more likely than not the parents of both these kids are probably a part of it.
With out hesitation you convince the kids to head down stairs with you bringing up the rear. At the bottom of the stairs your wife is waiting. When she sees you she opens a door that looks like it should go into a closet or something. But once opened there wasn’t a closet behind it but rather a series of tunnels. At this point you could see that the kids were horrified as they were being pushed down one of the hall ways. To the kids it felt like they had been walking an hour but in actuality it was only about 2 minutes before they came to another door. This door was marked DECISION ROOM. They went through the door.
Once through this door they walked past a room with about 15 people sitting inside. These people were watching hundreds and hundreds of cameras. The kids quickly realized that these people were pretty much watching every room in every house in this little town. Finally they got to the room they were headed to. The wife opened the door while the husband pushed the kids through.
Once inside, the door slammed behind the kids but they barely even noticed this because they were amazed at what they saw. There was a small arena in the middle of the room full of thousands of people in the stands. None of the people were recognizable because they were all wearing hooded robes. What was astonishing to the kids was that with the amount of people in here it was so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. Before they could think of anything there was a long line up of hooded people walking towards them with assorted weapons in their hands. They had canes, lashes, belts and many other various weapons. The kids tried running but quickly realized there was no where to go. Suddenly the pain started coming. It was excruciating and it wasn’t long before the pain was too much and both kids finally succumbed to the pain. The last thing they remembered before passing out was all the blood and the never ending line waiting to use their respective weapons.
They didn’t know how long they had been out but what they did know when they woke up was that they were in a hospital and they were feeling pain that they thought would never go away. As the day went on nurses and doctors were in and out. The kids tried to talk to these adults about what happened but no one seemed to be listening. Finally sometimes towards the end of the day their parents came into the room. The kids were relieved because finally some one would listen. At least that’s what they thought. They quickly realized that everything they were trying to tell there parents were falling on deaf ears, but something happened. Both fathers stood up and unbuttoned their shirts and let them fall to the floor. Almost immediately the kids knew what was going on and they knew where their lives would go from here.
Their father’s backs were covered with scars. They immediately knew why the crime rate was so low in their town. They always wondered why no one left and no one new ever came to the town but now they understood. Their fathers put their shirts back on and nothing else had to be said. The kids knew 2 thing for sure whether they liked it or not. One was that they would never do anything wrong again and secondly they knew that someday they would probably have to inflict this pain on their own kids or someone else’s.

Age Doesn’t Matter

This is fiction but it is my rendition of your unclassic love story.

Jake was 30 when he met 60 year old Mary. Little did he know at that moment that in a short while these two would love each other more than most people the same age do.
Jake is a contractor and Mary is a lady that wanted new cupboards built in her house. Mary was retired so she was home almost all the time while Jake was working on her cupboards. She didn’t mind paying the extra hours that the two spent talking. Some days Jake would be lucky if he got an hours work done. The two chatted about complete different lifestyles but somehow they kept each other laughing
Jake hadn’t showed up at Mary’s for a few days and this was unusual and Mary knew it so on the third day when Jake did finally show up she knew something was wrong. First of all Jake looked like hell warmed over, like he hadn’t slept or showered in three days. When Mary asked him what was the matter he just shrugged her off and went to work. That first day back there wasn’t 5 words exchanged between the two of them.
The next morning Jakes appearance did look better but his mood still sucked. Mary was determined to find out what was going on because by this point she considered Jake a friend and she didn’t like to see friends hurting. So finally after enough pushing Jake broke down and told her everything.
He explained that 4 days ago when he went home there was a note on the table from his wife telling Jake that she was gone. In the letter she explained that she had been seeing somebody else for over a year. Jake told Mary that the words in the letter were so cold. There was no sorry or anything just a bye. By this time Jake was bawling his eyes out. He felt silly doing it but he couldn’t stop. This woman had broken his heart.
As time went on his heart healed, he finished Mary’s cupboards but still stayed friends with her and he would even visit her a few times a week. One day when he was over he asked Mary to go out for supper with him. He didn’t know why he was doing this seeing that she was 30 years older but there was something that attracted him to her. Mary accepted and that night they went out for a very romantic supper. When they got back to Mary’s house that evening she invited him in and one thing led to another and that night they made love for the first time of many to come.
As time went on the two knew they had an unorthodox relationship but they also knew that they were in love and they didn’t care about what anyone said. 4 months into the relationship the couple moved in together and a year later the couple was married. Every day was a new love story for the couple. They made love until Mary was 73 and after that Jake was just happy to spend time with his soul mate. Other than the love making the couple never stopped being romantic. Mary was 85 on their 25th wedding anniversary. The couple had a huge party and Jake at 55 gave his bride a diamond ring that most women would have killed for.
Jake had just turned 60 and was getting ready to retire when everything came tumbling down. He got home to find his bride on the bed and she wasn’t waking up. So many emotions went through his head at that point. He just lay there remembering his life with his sweet Mary. He remembered the day they met. He remembered how many friends he lost and so did she because they thought the entire situation was a weird one. He and Mary showed all of the neigh sayers. The couple acted like teenagers right until the day Mary died.
Jake was asked after about the secrets to his unique marriage to Mary. He told everyone that he never looked at how old she was but rather how young. The couple never went to bed mad. They told each other that they loved one another everyday. And finally every morning started with a kiss and every evening ended with a kiss. There was no secret just old fashioned true love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hey every one. My name is Dale Mazurek and I am the one writing a bunch of the stories that are coming from TRIOND. I thought I would write a little tale to tell you about me.
I was born in Vegreville, Alberta, Canada on May 6th 1967. I married a beautiful woman by the name of Jackie in 1988. I have three wonderful boys. Steven is 20, Cameron is 17 and Joshua is 15. We now live in Red Deer Alberta. I have been working in the oil patch in Alberta for about 16 years. I have a few passions in life. They are family, fishing and writing. My dream would to be a professional fisherman or a professional writer.
I am in a position now in my career where I can dedicate more time to my writing. My goal is to be living off my writing in 10 years. My passion is fiction. Stephen King, John Saul, Dean Koonts and John Grisham are the writers I read most with Stephen king being my favorite.
So far the stories I have wrote have mostly been fiction with the exception of a few. I haven’t absolutely let loose on my style because I’m scared it won't get published here but I may have to try and find out.
Anyways i’m going to end this now but I would like to ask the assistance of anybody that can help. I am always looking at places to write and make money. I’m not scared to write other stuff than fiction so if anyone has some good sites they can suggest I would definitely have a look at them.

Thanks Dale Mazurek