I cannot remember the young actor I first saw who could also be him.

They were both Hispanic, fair with light eyes. The character could be any kid I see around here, but it’s nice to have some sort of a visual that jives with my idea of how he looks, his coloring, his height and build.

The author of the blog post has lived through the guilt of passing it on to her children, she’s probably suffered all sorts of stigma about how she got HIV. There are idiots whole left comments that continue the stereotype that it was somehow her fault she got it, or perhaps  her ex-fiance’ was a gay man living in the closet. It seems like people want to speculate how someone got HIV and if it’s a woman it’s because of x, y and z. The stigma hasn’t changed.

I took a lot of that into consideration when I started my story. It was still seen as a gay man’s disease and that’s how I approached the story. Sometimes I feel like a fraud for writing the story because I’m HIV negative, but I’m a writer who can imagine time and place and put myself in the shoes of my characters. Isn’t that the job of writers. When I started that story I did so much research about woman with HIV, pregnant women with HIV, which was the case of my character. I read about all the protocols, treatments and breakthroughs. I had always planned to find a medical expert to help walk me through more of the technical aspects of treating the disease, but life happened and I’ve never quite finished the story. Now, when I go back to work on at story set in the late 90′s/early 2000′s, I have to remember to put aside all the future advancements and try to write in that time period. Now, it’s manageable and fewer people are dying from complications of AIDS, but it hasn’t gone away and if I was looking at my character now, in 2012, she’d be alive and well and have given birth to her second child four years previous, who would have been HIV +. But I think the stigma of having the disease and the questions of how she got it would always come.

I still feel very attached to my character and story and would like to go back and finish the novel. I think I have some good bones, but it needs a good editing, a good clean up and finally a trip to find a health expert who can help me with some of the details.

Here are the rules:

1.Go to page 77 of your current MS.
2.Go to line 7.
3.Copy down the next 7 lines/sentences, and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
4.Tag 7 other authors

Ok, now which work to choose?
From Under the Milky Way (Working Title. I listen to music when I write and find story titles in songs.)

“I don’t see it as anything I’ve lost or have given up. Honestly, I made the choice freely, knowing I couldn’t be a good husband and a father and be a priest as well. My family would always suffer for the good of the Church,” he says. “It wouldn’t be fair.”

“For what it’s worth, I think it’s cool you’re a priest,” he says.

Andrew smiles and nods his head. “Clean up and come back with us to Isabel’s. Maybe we can stop for some ice cream or coffee,” Andrew suggests.

“Nah, you don’t want me tagging along.”’

“Why not? You’re right when you said I don’t know you very well. It’s my fault for that. What are you going to do here by yourself till Mom and Dad come home?”

Now, I’m going to read all of the other excerpts. Funny thing, I looked at my other story, which takes place in the same universe. The protagonists are different but are related and the excerpt on page 77 has a short scene also with Andrew, a year or so before he becomes a priest. And Debi knows that he resembles Jared Padalecki from “Supernatural”.  Oh, the shame.

A curious writer, media artist and co-founder of the online literary magazine “Joyland,” came up with the idea while reading crime novels. Brian Joseph Davis has created images for literary characters after using software that police use to try to identify criminals or victims of crimes. There is an interesting story at the BBC about his work and he has created a website where he’s posted images of beloved characters. I think it’s a fascinating idea and as a writer I’m curious to see how I could see my characters come to life in such a way.

Meanwhile, he’s playing his guitar, which I love to hear and I’m writing this blog entry. Writing for me lately has been harder but I have done a lot of writing. I’ve been journaling private thoughts and feelings as I’ve gone through a health scare but I’ve tapered off on that lately as I’ve pretty much gotten through the scary stuff.

I truly miss the days when I could sit in front of the computer and just write. I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words in my lifetime of writing but nothing has ever become a fully-fleshed out, fully-completed novel/manuscript. I have books on writing, hundreds of writing/writer’s links, several writing friends who are incredibly encouraging and a husband who tells me to write, but lately real life has just taken away so much of my writing time. Honestly, it’s not really even Real Life’s fault. It’s my own fault. I’ve been sidetracked, stressed and just not in the mood to write. I need to find the time to devote just to writing, then find some time to exercise. It all sounds so simple doesn’t it? Maybe one of these days I’ll work it out. But, I’m going to finish my glass of wine and do my best to write tonight.

Part one Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love. Why This GenXer is a Priest. Part two is here. I haven’t been writing or working on my fiction in a long time. I’ve lost touch with my characters but I’m still in love with them. I’d like to think I’ll finish their stories this year.

I could do something based on my vampire dream of a few months back. Yes, that is a genre that I think is getting so cliche and overdone, but I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, so I think I could write a decent story that fits within the norms of the genre and doesn’t try to recreate it. I haven’t read the Twilight books. I don’t intend to.  I am watching the Vampire Diaries (I am waiting for the True Blood DVD’s I’ve been promised) but I only watch VD because it comes on before Supernatural, which is the only show I really watch these days.

I’d also rather write about Vampries than Angels or Demons any day. Some of what bugs me about Supernatural these days is the Angel component of the storyline. Of course, I have pretty set beliefs about angels and I think that’s why I won’t write about them, but they are not touchy-feely, new agey beings like we’ve seen on TV.  I guess when I write about religion in my stories or have religious elements in them, I want them  to be real. Maybe that’s why writing about other supernatural beings is more appealing, because there is more leeway in the mythology. I also am not a Christian writer per se. I use religion as a backdrop or characteristic to my stories, but I’m definitely not trying to preach or convert anyone to Catholicism in my stories. I just happen to have a few characters who are exploring their faith right now but that is not the theme of the story. In fact, the character’s religion, is one of the biggest conflicts of the story.

So with that… I’m not sure what to write about. If only I had a thought hit me like now.

And it’s perfect for my story. I love it when things work out like that.

So, I have an idea for a couple of scenes to write. One that I’ve mentioned in Isabel’s story, but I thought I could write it in Andrew’s story. But it will only work if Corpus Christ fell anywhere near each other in 1997 and 2002.  Odds are pretty good that it did, but now I really have to pin down the day his grandfather was killed in the car accident, the day he was ordained as a Transitional Deacon and the week the Novena fell in Santa Fe. Hmmm, I wonder if I should aim to have all the planets line up and the moon and starts be in the right house of Aries or something.

So here I go.