The Eight Sentences:

I looked forward to another treatment of the plight of the Indians in North America with the same lack of enthusiasm.

A factor that made this different was that my wife and I had combined our creative talents (mostly hers) to create a group she named, “The League of Old Men.” The title sounded familiar so I looked it up and found this book with a similar but not exactly the same title. Turned out to be a short story of only twenty-three pages. I read it aloud to her today.

London addressed a terrible loss of life amongst both Indian and the White man with a casual, unemotional review of the numbers and few specific incidents.

At the same time, readers are drawn into the profoundly emotional story of the old man who created his own holocaust as he and his comrades delivered death to the invaders without remorse or prejudice.

In the end, the judge carries out his own duties as proscribed by law and his broken heart represents the conflicted emotions of the conquerors of the new world.

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The Back Story:

The reference in the first sentence was to my disinterest in Schindler’s List when it first came out. I didn’t see it for several years after its theatrical run.

The “League of Old Men” came from the back of several chairs I’d purchased at a church garage sale. Bob took one look at the lettering, “L.O.O.M.” and thought up the name. Then I asked, “Who are they?” Then she told me.

[NOTE: I read her this story and wrote the above article about it on April 7. She died on April 27.]

======================

You got eight sentences?

Join us here at Weekend Writing Warriors.The  same link will take you to the work of dozens of talented writers. For a treat, please check out their work, too.

Many of the contributors to Weekend Writing Warriors also

participate in the Snippet Sunday group on Facebook.

The Eight Sentences:

Walkers(with the green awning)=Mayberry Soda Shoppe. Notice the open space awaits our guys from LOOM.

White had listened to the conversation and at the same time, looked up Mt. Airy on his Smartphone, “Tripadvisor has a bunch of good ratings for the Mayberry Soda Fountain. It’s on Main Street so it should be easy enough to locate–it’s also known as Walkers.”

Barger smiled at Dryden and said, “Maybe we’ll run into Barney Fife and he can tell us all about the Hummer that did a flip into the New River near Austinville.”

Dryden winked and said, “Yeah, and maybe you can use some of that two hundred bucks you won to buy us lunch.”

Scully executed a perfect parallel park and the four men walked into the restaurant. As they walked in, Barger asked, “How did you get lucky enough to find a space right in front of the restaurant?”

Scully smiled, patted his obese friend on the back as he waddled through the door and answered, “They saved it for me.”

The Set Up:

In this clip, readers learn the result of Hawk’s bet with Mr. White along with my choice of how to handle the scene. I chose this route rather than a detailed description of the shot, the bullet crashing through the windshield, and the explosion of the driver’s head. I think my readers can figure out what happened without a review of the blood, the guts, and the gore. Writing a scene like this is, for me, analogous to writing a sex scene. Everyone knows what happens between the sheets. It’s more fun if it happens in the readers’ imagination anyway. Feedback, please.

You got eight sentences?

Join us here at Weekend Writing Warriors.The  same link will take you to the work of dozens of talented writers. For a treat, please check out their work, too.

Many of the contributors to Weekend Writing Warriors also

participate in the Snippet Sunday group on Facebook.

The Eight Sentences:

Image credit: specialize.co.nz

Jackson White spoke up and said with the confidence of a university professor in defense of his thesis, “In addition to social media, email, and driving directions, the internet is a powerful venue for human interaction. By  connecting with others, we discover that we aren’t alone, we aren’t broken or isolated. There is hope.”

“Well fuck you, too,” Barger said.

Scully was a bit more tolerant, but not much, “That sounds like something right outta the Reader’s Digest Journal of Popular Science.”

White replied, “It is, in fact, from an article I read in Reader’s Digest. I of course paraphrased it. Far be it from me to be guilty of plagiarism.”

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The Back Story:

Several members of the League of Old Men are traveling together to their next mission.

They are discussing one aspect of the mission.

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Open call for writers:

The Eight Sentences:

__________________                                                                                         

Dahl returned his crystal tumbler to its coaster on the drop leaf table.

His hand moved with the precision of an artist painting eyebrows one hair at a time.

He leaned into the light and his guest could see that Dahl’s expression had changed — his eyebrows had lowered. The lips were pursed and thin. The corners of his mouth were pulled back into his cheeks but he wasn’t smiling.

Unnerving seconds seemed to take minutes to pass. Remington’s palms became soaked with sweat. Dahl spoke, “You have always given me the impression that control of this man was unquestionable.”

The Back Story:

______________

This week’s snippet in a continuation of the meeting in last week’s, between the mysterious Mr. Dahl and his guest, a fellow member of the secret organization who controls the world’s leaders, Mr. Remington.

Open call for writers:

__________________

Join us here at Weekend Writing Warriors. 

Cindy A invited me to participate in a “Meet Your Character” blog hop. Cindy is the author ofThe Milk Carton Murders due out next spring. Meet Cindy and view her blog, HERE.

FCEtier at Blue Ridge Books for a book signing in Waynesville, NC.

Now, Meet My Character:

1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

Claudia Barry – fictional

2) When and where is the story set?                                          

Current times, eastern seaboard USA

3) What should we know about him/her?

Readers meet Claudia in my first book, The Tourist Killer. She’s sixty-two years old and has successfully negotiated a career of over thirty years. Now she’s contemplating retirement and examining her life. What’s next for a professional assassin? Who do you retire? Her assigner convinces her to take a year sabbatical rather than retire outright. A Year Without Killing is the sequel and chronicles her time off.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Is retirement from this career any easier than retiring from the CIA or the mafia? How do you break away and stay alive? Claudia must now find a way to be at peace with herself so she can enjoy the rest of her life. AsThe Tourist Killer ends, she and her lover are in separate parts of the country and neither knows the fate of the other.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?

 Claudia wants to settle down with John Hixon and pursue life without the burden of being the harbinger of death to others.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

A Year Without Killing, my current work in progress is the third book in the Barry-Hixon series and is the sequel to my first book, The Tourist Killer. I participate most weekends in a blog hop, titled, “Weekend Writing Warriors” and most of the excerpts I publish for the next few months will be from AYWK. Catch up with Claudia and her exploits HERE.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?

    E-book and trade paperback versions should be available in the spring of 2015. A Year Without Killing will debut in serialized form, with two chapters per week in either late fall of 2014 or winter of 2015 on the publisher’s site, Venture Galleries.

To keep the meetings going, I’ll tag:

Caleb Pirtle , Stephen Woodfin , and David Stokes.

As far as I was concerned, it had always been an urban legend.
The League Of Old Men was as real to me as a twenty-first century Illuminati.
You may have heard the legends, rumors, and stories yourself.
Events that at first seem unrelated and overnight are connected by wingnut conspiracy theorists.
Deals, deaths, and deniable dilemmas that mark the repetition of history through the decades.
The romantic stories of great loyalty, unshakeable devotion, and a will that would make that of G. Gordon Liddy pale by comparison.
Former Hell’s Angels with a desire to preserve their culture.
Viet Nam veterans obsessed with a sense of justice usually reserved for vigilantes.
Maverick cops and detectives determined to execute appropriate sentences — with or without a judge and jury.
Were the rumors of disbarred lawyers true? Was there the connection between LOOM and congress?
Many of their deeds have attracted worldwide attention while others are known only to their victims.
Membership is estimated in the thousands, but none will claim to be card-carriers.
Their financial acumen rivals that of the Templar Knights (inventors of banking, loans, and interest).
My lack of regard for their existence was shaken recently when I walked into what appeared to be an abandoned National Guard Armory. The sidewalk leading up to the street was broken and uneven. Grass and tall weeds made homes of the cracks. Poison ivy grew up the side of an exterior wall, rooted somewhere between a window and the brick veneer wall.
But the interior was another story.
The floors were worn but clean. It was clear that the kitchen and dining area had been used recently and frequently. A mahogany bar hosted a row of bar stools from another era. The back counter was stocked with bourbon and scotch.
The American flag stood proudly with an eagle decoration atop the wooden staff.
Was it an American Legion Hall or a VFW meeting place?
Could have been.
But it wasn’t.
A short hallway lined with newspaper clippings of several wars connected the bar with a large meeting room.
A step into the room is a step into another dimension, another time zone.
There was a “presence” in that room. Was it the ghosts of long forgotten soldiers?
My skin was already alive with goosebumps when I noticed the chairs.
Dozens of wooden chairs. Straight back. Curved slat seats. The kind we had in Sunday school class in the sixties.
The chairs remained in their natural wood tones and shined with repeated layers of varnish and polish. The initials were not hidden.
Before the first coat of varnish, each chair had been labeled with stencil and black paint, “L.O.O.M.”
Now every story, every rumour, and every denial must be investigated.
Who makes up the League Of Old Men, and what are they up too in the twenty-first century?

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Article Copyright ©2014 by FCEtier. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and link backs to this story may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Violators will be prosecuted to the extent that the law allows. The League Of Old Men is a fictional organization and any resemblance of the organization or it’s members to anyone living or dead is entirely coincidental.