Hello everyone!
I have been quite short on Six Sentence Sunday offerings the past few weeks. May have to pick the bones of the stories I've already visited. In the interim, it may seem I've fallen back into my hermit ways but not so much really. I've spent the last few weekends out experiencing some amazing things. Last weekend I had the fantastic opportunity to pet a few sturgeons. Sturgeons are the largest fish living in the Idaho rivers reaching about 6 to 8 feet long, although outside of Idaho they can reach 13 feet and 2000 pounds and they can live for over 100 years. For a guy who doesn't get out much, petting such ancient creatures is absolutely amazing. They feel like silky neoprene. 
In other news, because I'm so short on SSS posts I'll offer a short excerpt from my short story On The Turning Away. Logan is a writer, of course, and he's been writing feverishly on a manuscript about a childhood friend who committed suicide when he was young. This event damaged his psyche dramatically. The following is actually the end of the story (spoiler alert), where Logan finally lets go of the pain he's been harboring for so many years.
All he ever wanted was to be somebody’s hero.Along the horizon, a grayish purple haze slowly overtook the sky, bringing with it a stronger northeastern wind. Golden-red maple leaves waltzed in and out among the base of the trees; several of them pausing to pay their regards as they passed, swirling through and around his legs.He’d become a hard, bitter man, though he had his reasons. His face has been eroded by the trials of his life; his course chiseled chin did nothing to compliment his tempest-laden eyes.A rugged tan trench coat flailed behind him, snapping and crackling as it licked at the wind like the flame of a campfire. As he took in another deep breath, the sweet smell of sandalwood and honeysuckle soothed him.“I’ve spent my whole life reaching…” he said, the words carried off into the shifting wind.“… The sum of who I am is how loosely I hold onto the past, and how tightly I grasp the future.”He took out the rolled stack of papers from inside his coat, holding them firmly. The wind excitedly and curiously took great interest in them, fiercely crinkling through them, desperately trying to rip them from his hands. Tears formed in his eyes as he held them above his head … He slowly opened his hand and allowed the wind to take them.
Hope you enjoy it. I do miss everyone. My goal is to catch up with as many of my favorite blogs as I can this week. I crave your inspiration and kindred spirits.
M.L.
