Musings

It’s interesting you should bring up Star Trek. I’m getting ready to donate my papers to the Williamson Collection at ENMU so I was looking back through old drafts of novels, and scripts I wrote. I found myself sitting down and rereading a couple of Star Trek scripts. One was Measure of a Man, and I’m still proud of it though I would do things better now. There are some baby script writer mistakes in it. Too many points where people enter a room rather than starting the scene with the action already in progress, but it was a pretty good script. It helps when you have history and Dread Scott providing the action.

Another script I reread was Ensigns of Command. You didn’t see this script. You saw something that had the same title, but there was the usual cluster F*&#@ that happens on a tv show, and it got rewritten. As I reread my script I realized this sucker was _good_ I”m thinking about scanning it and publishing it on the website so folks can have a chance to read it. Again, there are points where I would do things differently, but I’m proud of it.

I’ll probably do some musing and discussions about plot, structure and screenwriting and how screenwriting can make you a better novelist. Right now though I’ve got to get down some notes about the plot of my third EDGE book to submit to writers group next week, and push a couple of writers to get me their character sketches for a mosaic novel project that I’m going to try to sell.

Oh, and I’ve got to go ride Pi.

Later.

So, it’s _already_ 10:00 am, and I feel like I missed a nights sleep. I love the whole “fall back” thing. When the New Mexico mafia was gaming all the time we used to cheer on the night we went off daylight saving. A whole extra hour to play!

I want to thank folks for their kind words about my Isis. I’ve lost a lot of animals recently. Isis was bad but the worst — the aboslute worst was losing my Grand Prix horse Widestep (Steppi or The Stepmeister). He was a black/bay Hanovarian with a Hungarian Arabian grandfather, and he could do _everything_. He was even trained to do the levade.

For those of you who aren’t Dressage nuts the levade is where the horse freezes, and then rears to a 45% angle. It was designed to protect the rider against a pikeman on the ground. The spear would go into the horse’s chest and not through the rider.) I would get Steppi into it by putting him in a really tight piaff, and the tap him on the shoulder with my whip. It was an amazing feeling.

But Steppi had a bad colic back in July. I brought him from Germany when he was 11, and there’s an odd thing about horse care in Germany — they don’t worm their horses very often, and internal parasites are what kill most horses. I did a massive panicure treatment when I got him to the states, but the autopsy revealed scarring all through his gut. So anyway, Steppi colicked and he ended up with a twisted gut. I tried surgery to save him, but he could never regain his feet, and I had to put him down. It’s still killing me when I think about it. I’ve got a lump in my throat right now. I’m not sentimental about animals, but the loss of this horse touched me so deeply. I couldn’t figure out why and then I realized that Steppi wasn’t a pet — he was my partner. We had to work together to achieve anything. Also, Dressage is as close as you can get to telepathy with another living creature.

One other little aside. When I was looking at a model of the horse’s stomach at the vets it struck me that intelligent design is a total crock. There is nothing intelligent about a huge stomach that only attaches to the body cavity in two places and can _flip over_. Sorry, back now from the rant.

Thanks all, for the welcome. I’m still a little insecure and feeling my way here. I’m just back from the barn where I rode my big Hanovarian Pi. I’m starting to get my leg and seat back after three months off because of an annoying surgery. God you lose your strength _fast_ in this sport.

I put him back in the double bridle today, and he has such a long, big head I couldn’t keep my hand under the bits, and get my thumb into the corner of his mouth to get him to open his big yap. I had to have a friend stick her hand in his mouth while I slipped in the bits. Now when it’s a snaffle bit he just drops his head, and takes it pretty as you please. He knows the double means he’s going to have to work hard.

I’ve got to get into town. I’ll babble at folks later.

Melinda

Well, after much hesitation I decided to jump into the phosphor pool. A tough day for it, but this might take my mind off losing my big Newfoundland, Isis. She was the proverbial “free dog”, and for the five years I had her she was a total joy. You can see a picture of her at my website. She was a gentle giant with a huge heart, and a voracious appetite. While we were building our house she climbed into the closet guy’s van, and ate their lunchs. She did leave the banana and the yogurt. She wasn’t a complete pig. Oh, wait, she probably wouldn’t have liked banana or yogurt.

She had never been around horses until she came to live with me, and she decided that chasing Pi on the lunge line looked like a fine game. Until Pi kicked her. I then had to struggle past 155 pounds of dog for the next week. She had decided that horses were dangerous, and she was by God, not going to let me go near them. She would block my way to the barn, and try to shove me back to the house. Smart and loving and very protective. I’ll miss her very much.

So, that’s been my day — the first day of my website launch. On better days I hope we can talk about writing, and movies and television, and what makes a great movie or tv series, politics, cool science, horses, travel, music, cooking. Lots of things.

Welcome to whoever might stop by.

Melinda