allan8d8

Yes, the title of the post is misleading, but it grabs your attention, does it not? Its a technique that should be used sparingly, but has the desired effect of grabbing the reader's eyes and sets them into wondering. However, you can grab their attention as much as you want at the beginning. If you don't have an enveloping story that keeps them in place, it won't matter. If you use the technique too often, people will come to expect it from you and will give less and less attention to the titles or first few opening sentences. So, like I said, it should be used sparingly. However, I'm diverging from my intention for this post.

This blog is my part for this group of writers so that I can post my stuff on writing. I really enjoy writing when I get to, but unfortunately, I haven't been keeping up as much as I'd like to lately. However, I will not allow this blog to completely die. It may be slower than a turtle dipped in molasses in mid-winter(gotta love country colloquialisms), but it won't die. So what is my point to all of this chatter? I figured I'd give those of you out there who read these blogs, an idea of who I am, my influences and maybe even post an old(very old) short story.

So first of all....my name is allan(if you haven't guessed already). I've been writing for years(basically since I found out at a young age that my drawing sucks XP). I'm from the great commonwealth of Virginia(Sic Semper Tyrannis) and love the peace and beauty of the area I grew up and live in but occassionally like traveling to some cities(which is why the trip to Atlanta the last two Septembers have been wonderful).

As far as influences, there is a wide variety that helps keep me fairly rounded(at least I think so). I love comedies, especially the screwball stuff....movies like "The Princess Bride", "Clue", "Army of Darkness", and "Spaceballs". I grew up on came to love the comedy of John Candy, Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Steve Martin, and Benny Hill. I've come to love comedy with the likes of "Monty Python", Chris Rock, Demitri Martin, The Amazing Jonathan, "The Daily Show", and "The Colbert Report".

I also like action and adventure. Shows like "Highlander", "Stargate SG-1", "Stargate Atlantis", "Doctor Who", and "X-files". I love some of the movies like "300", most of the comic book super hero movies, and so many that I can't even think of at the moment.

My music is a big influence as well and can often affect my feelings at the time and thus can often affect my writing or whatever I'm doing. I listen to almost everything. I listen to country, blues, hip hop, r and b, pop, rock, metal, classical, some jazz and even some gospel and christian(the order listed doesn't mean anything either). Here's a list or some of the stuff I like, not all because it would take forever to list them all. Foo Fighters, AC/DC, Wheatus, Shiny Toy Guns, Kill Miss Pretty, The Emeralds, Kill Hannah, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re, Voltaire, Beethoven, Mozart, David Bowie, Linkin Park, Pantera, Metallica, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr, Tupac, LL Cool J, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Ludacris, Run DMC, U2, Weird Al, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Bon Jovi, Amerie, Missy Elliot, Megadeth, Black Sabbath, Korn, My Chemical Romance, Led Zepplin, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Aerosmith, Xzibit, Dragonforce, Meatloaf, Queen, Johnny Cash, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Pink, Warren G, Nate Dogg, Lordi, Mercy Me, Sir MixaLot, Presidents of the United States, and Katy Perry. There are so many more, but it would take too long to list them all.

Lastly, but the most influential of any medium on me, is anime and manga and american comic books. I have shelves upon shelves of anime and manga. In fact, I actully need a few more shelves since they can't be completely held in what I have. It is my passion and obsession. Anime and manga hold wonderful stories, plots, characters, story twists and so much else. Please do not sit there and tell me its for kids because the majority of it is not. There are some series geared towards kids, but a great portion of anime and manga is for audiences in the older teens and early adults. You try to tell me anime and manga are for kids, I'll tell you to watch "Kite"(pronounced Kee tay) or "MD Geist" or read "Battle Angel Alita" or "Lone Wolf and Cub". Anime and Manga can be full of blood, gore, and fan service, but also has so much more. It can be about bounty hunters in space with unique pasts as in "Cowboy Bebop". It can be about two totally different people with more in common than they realize as in "Nana". It can be about everyday life situations that swirl around the trials and tribulations of love as in "Maison Ikkoku". It can be about knights, elves, sorcerors and dragons as in "Record of the Lodoss War". It can be about beautiful boys and their encounters with girls who aren't part of the popular and preppy crowd as in "Wallflower".

As a matter of fact, anime and manga is far ahead of what we would see in most movies or tv series with stories about love between two boys or love between two girls. While tv and movies still tiptoe around such relationships, anime and manga have no problem presenting them whatsoever. So, as far as anime and manga go, I love them both. I like manga(the book form) better, but I love them both. If you want to ask me about the subject or would just like to talk about it, feel free, I'd love to do so.

Now, in closing, I apologize if I sound like I rambled and if there is any mispellings or grammatical errors since I've been up for almost twenty hours now. I will now post an old short story I wrote a few years back that I had planned to be part of a series of short stories following the main character and his paranormal exploits. This one is about his close encounter with the Fouke monster in Arkansas. Enjoy!!

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I had been doing some traveling across the U.S. after graduating from high school, just to kinda...see the world if you know what I mean. Growing up in a small town in the rural mountains of Virginia, there wasn't a whole lot to do, so travel seemed like a great idea. So I took the old car I'd bought with my own money and took to traveling cross-country.

On an empty road near the Tex-Arkana border, I stopped at a small convenience store as the sun started to sink. I needed to fill up on gas at it's pumps and grab something to drink as well. I put the pump in the vehicle and stepped in the store as the car filled up. I wandered around the coolers looking at the meager selection, trying to decide what I wanted to drink. I looked over my shoulder to the cashier's counter and noticed the cashier giving me an anxious look, like he wanted me to hurry up. I grabbed a bottle of water and headed over to check out.

"Is this all?" the cashier asked with an agitated sigh.

I pointed back to my vehicle at the pump, indicating I got gas. "How much?"

He glanced at the gas meter showing the sale and then rang it's price and the water into the register. "32.96" he replied.

I fumbled through my pocket for the right amount of money. As I searched for the right amount, the cashier seem to get irritated and eventually snapped at me.

"Hurry up, will you!? I've got to close and soon!"

I pulled a fifty out to speed the process and handed it to him. I looked at him inquistively, but a little irritated as well. "Why are you in such a hurry to get out of here? Got plans to party or what?" I asked, grinning a little.

He gave me a wicked stare as he handed back my change. "No, I just don't want to get caught in the dark when it comes out to hunt."

His comment caught me off guard and questions ran through my mind. "It?" I asked inquistively. His nerves seemed to get even more frayed as my curiosity became evident.

"It.....IT....it,it, it!!! The Fouke Monster!" he growled, pulling a small pamphlet out from under the counter and slamming it down. "Take it and go!!! I really need to lock up!"

I took the pamphlet and my water and walked out the door. By now twilight was over but the first star had yet to show in the sky. I closed the car door and sat there for a moment, watching the man speedily turning the lights off and locking the doors. He glanced at my vehicle and then sprinted to his truck. He cranked it and sped off into the night, leaving nothing but a rapidly disappearing blur of taillights.

I sighed and turned the overhead lights on and opened the pamphlet and looked over it with interest. As I read on, the description of the Fouke Monster became very familiar. The pages spoke of "a large, upright, bipedal creature that resembled an ape-like man....over seven foot tall standing up.......exhibiting great strength and elusiveness". The memory fired up, bringing the stories of Bigfoot to mind. I chuckled a little and shrugged. I tossed the pamphlet into the passenger side seat and started up the car.

I headed further down the road, not planning on stopping to rest for the night. By now the stars were out and the moon shined down on the wood and swampland. Being on unfamiliar roads, I drove slowly and took in the tree line. To me they seemed to travel on forever into a darkening quiet. I smiled at the thoughts of the never-ending treeline bringing thoughts of the woods of home to mind.

I turned my focus back to the road and saw something trot out of the treeline onto the road 20 feet ahead of me. I slammed on my brakes and looked at this thing that had now stopped in the road to turn and look at me. It stared at me for what seemed like several minutes, but in reality was only about 15 seconds. Then just as quickly, it covered the rest of the road in three steps and disappeared into the swampy woods on the other side of the road.

My heart was beating at a manic pace as I tried to piece together an explanation as to what had happened. I looked down at the passenger seat and there was the pamphlet. Everything just slid into place, as much as I didn't want to believe it would. I closed my eyeas and took a breath to calm down.

I opened my eyes and put the parking brake on. My hand shaking, I opened the car door and got out. I listened, but could only hear the hum of the engine, crickets chirping, and the occasional frog croaking. I slowly scanned my surroundings, but nothing stuck out. I got back in my car and closed the door.

I had seen something that I had only heard about. I had always considered myself very logical, but very open as well. This was something that had pushed my thought down a road that I had never dreamed of. The doors of thought that I had stood by as part of society's suggestion were now flung open and what was behind them was not what I expected. This would be the first of many times that I would discover the conventional idea was not always the solid one it was displayed to be.