I mentioned that last night I was on a roll with my YA novel (which I’ve been working on for 5 years). One thing about the story that has eluded me these 5 long years is the name of my magical world. For five, friggin years I’ve been writing and stewing, desperately trying to figure out the name for my fantastic setting. This morning, in the car on the way to school, I took my problem to the kids. I gave them a summery of my story:

“So guys, there is a princess from another world. It’s a magical world. There is a war raging between the races. Blah, blah, blah…”

(I didn’t really say the “blah, blah, blah”, I’m just trying to cut to the chase.)

Then I said, “I can’t figure out the name of the magical world, though. CS Lewis has “Narnia”, Tolkien has “Middle Earth”, the kids from “Bridge to Tarabithia” had Tarabithia… I can’t figure out the name for mine. What should it be?”

There was a pause from the backseat for a few moments. Then Jachin spoke up.

“What about ‘Baghdad’?”

I tried not to laugh. “Baghdad is a real place.”

“I know,” he said.

“And it’s not very magical,” I added.

“But there’s a real war going on there, and you said your story has a war in it.”

“True. Good point.”

Then Zoe spoke up. “What about ‘West Coast’? Is there a real West Coast?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It’s California.”

“Oh.”

“What about ‘Art Class’?” Jachin threw in.

“Art class?” I asked.

“Art class is magical…”

Then we passed Cortland Ridge Condominiums.

“What about ‘Cortland’?” Jachin asked.

We passed the drugstore.

“What about ‘Walgreen’s'?”

So….. I’m still sitting here thinking about it. It’s already been 5 years. No rush.

Earlier today (it was a beautiful day) the kids played “pirate’s lair” in the backyard with a couple of the neighbor kids. I snapped a few pictures to illustrate what it looks like when kids play pirates in the ghetto, with no real toys when using their imaginations.

Zoe and fellow “good” pirate, Sean, used the deck for a lookout:

Items needed for pirate look-out:

*A barstool for makeshift eagle’s nest.

*Old viewmaster = pirate binoculars.

*The hammer (which they had just finished using during a rousing game of “break rocks on the sidewalk”…) was the pirate weapon of choice for their team. I stressed that the hammer was for display and intimidation only. No “bad” pirates were to be chased with the hammer.

*A flower, to spruce up the joint. Pirate lookouts can tend to be drab.

Next, the passageway to the pirate lookout must be riddled with booby traps, to throw off the opposing pirate crew:

Good items for booby traps: an old glove that was finally uncovered after months of being buried under snow, an old kitchen rug, a pink Barbie garden trowel, and an orange soccer cone. Gets the bad guys every time…

And for the main event, the “bad” team’s pirate ship!!

Because in the ghetto when using your imagination,

rusty wheelbarrow + soccer goal = kick ass pirate ship.

Arrr, mateys… that’s how we roll…

Bad Mom tagged me for this meme. The idea is to write something significant about yourself in six words. Or something. The rules aren’t super clear to me. But it reminds me of that sweet contest I did last year, when you guys had to submit a story containing only seven words. That was fun. I need to do another one of those, only with better prizes… but I digress. Back to the meme. Six words. Okey doke. Here we go:

 Hey face: stop breaking out, already!

Often write about having writer’s block.

Does that come in green, perchance?

Jason Statham doesn’t know I exist.

Neither does James McAvoy, the cutie.

Me, Bike, Car, equals love triangle.

Can you put cheese on that?

Wanna hit a movie? With nachos? 

I’m tired and a little punchy. I can probably do better, and I could probably keep going all night. But — mercifully — I won’t. As a side note: Yay for me, I wrote 1,800 words to my novel today. So needless to say, six more good words are just eluding me at the moment. I’ve had my allotment of good words today. And, sadly for you, you won’t find them here on my blog.

I’m tagging Leslie and Sam, if you guys want to play along!