Sunday, July 31, 2011

My Symphony

The note has been with me since conception. The best way to describe it would be my connection to God. The note is as pure and clear as an angel’s tear. Long ago the lone tone gave me boundless joy, infinite in its embrace. It was perfect. The first time I lost the note was when I was born but it wasn’t my fault. The turmoil and sudden cold light exploding around me came as a surprise. I suppose it was fear that made me cry and the loss of the note added confusion to the moment. But it returned quickly.

After that, only I could mute it, dampen its flow. And I could add notes to it. The first I added came while I was still an infant without me knowing where or why. The love for my mother formed a note from love and needs filled, yet that note, as beautiful as it was, paled in comparison to the first. I added other notes as I grew through childhood. I added notes of ownership, loud and heavy, notes formed from my feeling for my siblings, most, light and airy and some sharp and a bit jangling. I was building my song, my symphony of my life. In my teens, I added runs built from first loves and rearranged them from lost loves. I built notes from friendships and rivalries. In my late teens I constructed a note that would center the symphony for many years. I added the note of ego. At first it was just a note that filled in the gap of belonging. Soon, it became so loud that it rose over many of the others. Time passed and I began to question everything around me. I found my note, the original one, didn’t fit with all the others I formed, so I put it away, tuned it out, removed it from the center of the symphony.

Through the years, I added more as I continued to uncover truths and stripped away others that didn’t fit into what I tried to build into the greatest song of all time. Unwilling to be hurt, I silenced all the notes of compassion and forgiveness thinking it made my stanzas stronger. I paired the lovely notes of giving with the flats of receiving and the notes of humility faded behind arrogance. The older I got, the grander the symphony became to my ears but the notes I added began to be off key, deeper, unsynchronized, and lacked melody. I had built a cacophony, a jangle, a sour twist of the soul. 

From luck or providence, I don’t know, but the master conductor of all tapped his baton in the form of a life changing event, a devastating blow. The music stopped, the notes disappeared, and the beats fluttered to the ground. I was left with silence, dark, lonely, hopeless. I had a choice. I could rebuild my symphony using only notes of beauty and light. I could collect bars and stanzas from giving, caring, loving, humility. Or I could do what I was always meant to do. I could keep the one note, the tie to God; the sound that surpassed all of my making. It alone, giver of joy without end, simple single sound of purity and boundless love for me, could be mine alone. It would and it does. I realized that I wasn’t meant to build my own symphony. My song would be played by those whose lives I’ve touched. Together they make the music, create my symphony for all to hear. And until the time comes for me to follow my note back to its source, my job on this earth is to play my part in their songs, to play the melody of their lives for them and all to hear. When at last I lay down my instrument, I hope the music of my life rises to heaven before me.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Not every day is bad, not every day is good

But today runs close. It's one of them, the days I wish I could have started over after the first five minutes but even then, the bad resets and drags me down. I tried. I really did. Tried and failed. But here is the fact of it all. No matter what I do badly no matter how poor my reaction is to events around, there will be a time that other things will become more important and the dregs of today's failure will fade away. Another day will take its place, be it good or bad. Days aren't good or bad, they are marks of time and time won't be halted, either by wish or prayer or demand. My feeling, my reactions, either are good or bad so why burden the entire day with them. Better yet to call it as it really is. I had a bad moment, I had a good moment. When I honestly total the score at the end of the day, I find it neither good nor bad. So the days pass as days will, moments pass as moments will. A bad day, a bad month, a bad year is usually no more than a few bad moments that effect me more deeply than the other moments that pass by unnoticed yet these moments may have had a smile, a laugh, a compliment. I dismiss them and grip the the worse and expand the moment into an entire day. How sad. I pray that my addition improve and I put reality into the equation.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Trying to keep up.

What do you guys want on the blog? What are your interests? You want fresh writing, info on yours truly (boring), opinion? Commentary? Reviews? You name it and I'll try to give it. I won't start a new story until after August as my schedule is very tight and I don't want to short you by forcing the issue. I can do some reprints of old stories. Just let me know what you want and I'll deliver.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Update

Just want to keep everyone updated. I'll be returning to one of the locals I used in my novel Bled Out, Friendship, NY, where I spent much of my youth. For you that have read Bled Out, I'll be doing 'The Loop' and a book signing at Memorial Park July 30th noon - 3 p.m. If you are in the area, stop by and say hello.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

July 21, 2011

As I promised, below is a list of most of the things I have written but have yet published. Next we may vote on which I pursue for publication next.



Novels:

Bus Driver: Chief of Security at a nuclear weapons plant, John Barnes takes on terrorists in a personal way.

Script: Novelist Art Alivin is a victim of a brain tumor he doesn’t know he has. It splits his personality into good and bad. Is good ever strong enough to win against bad, even when the stakes are high and murder is on his hands?

The Ulasiga: The monster that can’t leave the dark uses brain power to manipulate poor Davy into bringing him a lifetime supply of food in the form of abused children. Will Davy’s affliction, Downs, doom him to committing a crime in which he’ll never forgive himself?  

Being Human: Life should be simple but it never is. Did you marry the wrong man? Will the right one come and take you away from it all, or will you slide into the depths of depression and live without living.

Escort: Phillip finds himself dead and following a path because what else is there to do in this strange place. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, he picks up companions as he travels, but this place is no Oz and as he passes through town after town the going gets worse.

Wizzers and Weirdos: Ripped into another world by a girl that is slightly different from any other girl he’s seen, Jerry is at least glad he escaped Renaldo and his buddies. The adventure he shared with this girl that could take them to different worlds wasn’t all fun. Some sought to kill her and him to hide her power.



Novellas

Walk in the Woods: On his final journey, the old man followed a familiar path that had many years ago only brought him happiness. This nostalgic journey can only lead to one place.

Love and Laughter: Think long, think wrong. Will this crossed up trio be able to act on their feelings or out think themselves into lonliness?

Great Northern Ontario Fishing Contest: We fished, we fought, we lied. Humor.



Essays

Ye Are Gods: The Bible tell us so. Why struggle with God? How I resolved my conflict.



Non-Fiction



Unsung Heroes Unseen Places: 50 states in 52 weeks. A journey across America to volunteer at every sort of place while traveling in an RV. A search for empathy.

The Elk: He was close, real close.



Short Stories



Be My Valentine 2 – sappy lack of love story

Be My Valentine – sappy loss of love story

Depravity – Horror – sickness warps the mind but death can cure the depravity inside. But can he die quick enough?

God’s Meeting: Humor - What is God up to today?

I Always Wanted to be a Part of You: Science Fiction – Travel through time to change the past to cure the future.

Suicide: Horror - Will the bullet work?

The Spot – Science Fiction – Are aliens betting against us?

The Lob – Flash Fiction – How does a tennis match end?

The Artist: Humor – How hard can it be to write?

Pain 101 – One sided love affair.

Oak – Horror – Can plants move? Can trees seek revenge?

Caress – Fiction Thriller – The long past of poets return but at what cost?

Ghost of a Chance – Supernatural Thriller (a favorite) Can you fall in love with a ghost? How far will you go to keep them from crossing over? And who is forcing them on?

Ghost Stories – Horror – still in writing.

Halloween Special – Horror Humor – Revenge! A dish best served with a cold beer.

Locked In – Horror – Unbelief becomes belief what this reporter gets locked in the haunted house.

Money for Nothing – Thriller – Stealing illegal cash is one way to make a living. Taking it from the wrong guy is as bad as falling in love.

Prise – Horror Thriller – How were they dying? Who was the killer? This detective had to change his beliefs about the afterlife to find the killer.

Split the Veil – Supernatural – The veil between this world and beyond can be thin so what happens when you slip across.

Star pirates – Science fiction – Captured by aliens deep beneath the sea. Escape? Not in this lifetime.

Sucking Lemons – Some ghosts must die. Who is gonna kill them before they take the living?

Thanksgiving Again -  Horror – You can’t go home again. Or can you?



Hunting and Outdoor Humor

Love Hurts

Boys will be Boys

ReSupply

Guided Tour

Bomb

Ouch

Spinning

Bar-bee-que

Fishin’ Lesson

Slippery Rides Again

Revenge

Be Prepared

Duck

Flying Fish

Ice Fishin’

Camouflage

Tree



Short Humor

An Ill Wind Blows

Cattle Call

Chartreuse

I Fought the Law

Klutz

May I help You

No Country for Old Men and Terrorize, Traumatize, and Tenderize

Reality TV

Self Portrait

Slipping Into old Age

Snacking

Stairs

The Artist

The Fart

Thirty Thousand Feet

Toilet Paper

Trick or Treat

Ultimate Diet

Up and Down the Newcommers Curse

Utah Weather

Utah Winters



Vacation

Vegas Baby

What happened to Yesterday

Writing Gone Awry

Yelling Fire in a Crowed Theater



Plays

Death Sweeps the Streets



Poetry

Phurst1

Phaith and Phantisy

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Glenn Oliver parkhurst Library

I thought as a way to introduce myself, I would list all my writings, published or not and links where you can read or get the published ones. We'll start at the top.

Bled Out from All Things That Matter Press http://www.amazon.com/Bled-Out-Glenn-Oliver-Parkhurst/dp/0984639225/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311191038&sr=8-1

Charlie's Christmas and A Simple Christmas in Christmas Collectibles by Midnight Showcase http://www.melange-books.com/authors/anthologies/christmascollectibles.html

Barbecue contained in Anthology Laugh Your Shorts Off http://www.amazon.com/Laugh-your-Shorts-Off-award-winning/dp/1449901174/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311191451&sr=8-1

Short Humor


Cremation Diet - http://www.short-humour.org.uk/2writersshowcase/cremationdiet.htm

Exorcising - http://www.cynicmag.com/feature.aspx?articleid=3459

Stealing the Spotlight (one of my favorites) http://www.nightsandweekends.com/search/?auth=Glenn+Parkhurst

What's In A Name http://www.transcriptbulletin.com/view/full_story/280657/article-What%E2%80%99s-in-a-meaning--Everything-when-it-comes-to-names?instance=secondary_stories_left_column

Multiple Short Humor published in the Tooele Transcript - http://www.transcriptbulletin.com/view/full_story/280657/article-What%E2%80%99s-in-a-meaning--Everything-when-it-comes-to-names?instance=secondary_stories_left_column  (Shopping for a Horse is another of my favorites)

Those are all the published ones I can find links to. I also published 'The Only Thing I Shot Was My Reputation' Outdoor Life September 2001 and reprinted in 2006 I believe. Love Hurts was also published by an on line magazine that has apparently dissolved.

Tomorrow I'll try to list all the unpublished ones. Then I'll solicit help in deciding which to publish next.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The first entry

Well, welcome to the world of blogs. My publisher and all other wise marketeers suggest a blog so here it is. Although writing is the most important part of my world, it doesn't do much good if I have no audience. I also think this will be easier for Graytale to post stories here. I will also be able to keep all the interested people apprised of the next novel's progress toward completion. You can also comment and ask questions about the stories and writing.. I am also going to write reviews of books I read in case you are looking for something that I find entertaining. So welcome to Graytale's Blog, I hope you find it worth your time. Come visit me at laughathorror.com.