Spring

There is something indescribably beautiful about New York in the spring. After months of dreary winter, with nary a snow shower to blanket the gray, lifeless landscape, it is a relief to see the trees suddenly burst into a riot of color. And it's not just the trees. New Yorkers also shed their winter blahs and suddenly appear in color where they had once looked like they'd stepped out of a Tim Burton film. There are vibrant blues, shocking pinks, and yellows that are nothing to sniff at. It's a bit like how Dorothy must have felt when she reached the other side of the rainbow.

Okay, the thing about horseshoes...I did promise to explain, so here it is.
The story I'm working on (you know the one, right?) stalled again for a while. It happens. In fact, it is probably why I may never finish any piece of writing longer than a blog entry. For a few weeks, I thought it was really over. I had absolutely no inspiration or desire to write. You'll notice that my blogging dropped off as well. But then, out of the blue, I was at work standing around, waiting for a customer to come in the shop (we are a very successful boutique, but even the most successful stores have downtime) when I was struck with inspiration.

I grabbed a piece of scrap paper and began writing. The writing consisted primarily of horseshoes, hence the title of my last post. And, to give you a brief glimpse, I will copy it down here.

Horseshoes made popular talismans, and were just as likely to carry a powerful curse as a benevolent charm. Horses, in general, were perfect targets for some of the worst curses. After all, an opponent on horseback was at least twice as dangerous as one on foot. In the war, horseshoe cursing was so problematic, it became common practice for armies to keep several low-level magic practitioners whose sole job it was to sift through every last horseshoe made by the smiths. Many fifth and sixth level practitioners were killed this way, for while almost any level can identify a curse, only the higher ones can protect themselves from the really bad ones. Curses, once detected, have a tendency to lash out at whoever has discovered them, often to devastating effects. With typical government bureaucracy, neither side could find enough funding to get a higher level to check the horseshoes, and so they simply kept throwing more and more "expendable resources" at the problem.

As you can probably tell from this paragraph, it is a fantasy that I'm writing. Fantasy is what I understand, and I think if I tried to say the things I wanted to say in a realistic setting, I would be lost.

With this small burst of creativity, came other inspirations. I made another video (my best so far, if I'm to go by the comments I've gotten on it), and bought a coloring book. Yeah, yeah: "a coloring book? At your age?!" But I find it rather soothing, and tend to make up stories about the My Little Pony I'm coloring. And, of course, I've started blogging again.

I leave you today with my new video. Enjoy.