Where do God-given gifts go?

Seems as if I’ve not been doing any writing; most of my stuff is on the Trials and Tribulations blog or Facebook.

August of course was a month for loss. I’m not going to say anything about Ted Kennedy ‘cause my mom said if I can’t say something nice, don’t say anything. She also said “Don’t speak ill of the dead.” So to quote Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

I am more torn up about the loss of Dominick Dunne.

I’m not going to write a mini-bio of his life; Google it yourself. I admire Dominick for his gift with the written word, his ability to include his readers right into whatever event is was covering or commenting upon. His work was readable yet intelligent; opinionated but relatable by every man (and woman). Everyone knows what a passionate victims' rights advocate he became after the travesty of justice involved in the conviction of the crazy who murdered his beautiful daughter, Dominique.

With the loss of Dominick, I wondered what happens to those extraordinary abilities God gives to some people. Are those gifts simply lost? Do they float around waiting to be reincarnated into some child somewhere who may or may not ever nurture those abilities?

About a week after his death, I started having a very vivid dream about what happens to those abilities. Three days later, I started writing an outline and character profiles. I am leaning toward the story itself being a bit of a gothic horror story/cautionary tale, if you will. I also signed up for November’s National Novel Writing Month. I’m not sure if it’s cheating, working on the character profiles, or having an outline, or even having decided it’s a gothic horror story instead of chick lit, which also worked for the story.

Did Dominick hear me? Did God hear me? So many of my friends tell me I write well; when I was in elementary school my teachers encouraged me to write fiction. Did I have those abilities all along or did someone kick me in the butt?

I’m also working on a friend’s story, a children's story—the plot is 100% her idea but she has problems writing characters … or even a story for that matter. It’s tough to keep a story to someone else’s vision, even if you know that person’s vision may not be giving the story very good service or readability. This thing that is in my head—it’s so completely thought out, it could not have possibly come from me alone.

I plan to aggravate my bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome in November if I haven’t already done it.

P.S. To keep my thoughts a bit political, I would be keeping my kid home from school on Tuesday. I promise to take time on September 8 to share my feelings about that little bit of propaganda coming from Washington, D.C.