The Mongrelization of the Races

The title speaks to nothing this post is actually about - I just thought it was catchy.

But wait, as I think about it, I am an active proponent of, and with my soon-to-be-born child, practitioner of mongrelization. As you all know, I am white and my wife is Asian. While in the past the scariest forms of mongrelization were between black and white people and (for some odd reason) white and Jewish people, I'm sure the union and procreation of whites and Asians was not far down the list. Aren't we all happy we now live in a world where we don't have to worry about such prejudices!?

Oh wait, that's right...Um, awkward.

The title actually came to me from the film Field of Dreams of all places. With spring training in session, I guess I have baseball on the brain. But not even the greatest sport of baseball is the focus of this post.

No, the reason I have entered the fray once again is to announce my latest fiction writing exercise. I know I have promised such endeavors in the past and have failed to deliver. This one will be different. It is different because it is a bit narrower in scope and still interesting enough to hold my interest.

I am still discovering myself a writer. Unfortunately, I never stuck with it enough after school to really give myself a good idea of my strengths and weaknesses. I have found recently I seem to be better at writing scenes. This may be because it eliminates the pressure of coming up with a beginning or ending, or really a story arc of any kind. I have not forgotten the importance of beginnings, endings, and arcs, but I want to try and focus on what I can do well, and maybe from there those other elements will develop and manifest themselves.

The rules of the exercise? Like Thunderdome, there aren't any. That's not exactly true.

It builds upon my extremely short-lived exercise of using randomly generated letters to come up with a first sentence. The difference is, with this exercise, there will be 26 installments, each beginning with a different letter of the english alphabet. I am pretty sure each first sentence will be six words, but they may vary. I am hoping to complete a couple installments per week, but I will guarantee, with Gozer as my witness, I will complete at least one every week, beginning with this one. Get ready.

Here's to a light brown world.