Writing Prompts 1

Prompt 1:

I'm going to do this very methodically, because I'm kind of tired.

1 - I like to read novels mostly. Mystery is one of my favorite genres. Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express, the movie is fantastic too) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Hound of the Baskervilles, etc.) are probably my favorite writers. I also like the Magic Realism theme in books. I think the best authors that work with this are world writers. Garcia Lorca, Gabriel Marquez (I wish I could live in Macondo), Salman Rushdie are some of my favorite authors from this genre.

2 -I have written a few scripts so I'd probably say that is my favorite, but I write a lot of short stories and poems and novels. I have yet to finish my first novel although I have probably started hundreds. I am currently working on four novels and five scripts. It is fun yet difficult to do all of these at the same time, but because I get so little time with schoolwork, I am able to keep it together. I have written many short stories. The problem I have with short stories is how short is short? It's difficult to get a complex theme into three or four pages, but I can do it too.

3 - I write a lot outside of school. I mean A LOT. I've written for as long as I can remember. I wrote my first book when I was five or six, called "Spot the Dog." I even illustrated it myself. I wonder if I still have it. I get random spasms of inspiration a lot so I can't precisely say what topics interest me. I have recently resurected my fanaticism with 24. So a lot of my stories revolve around government offices and terrorism and national security. I also have this ongoing passion for Hindi films so many of my stories involve films in India and/or my favorite actor, Shah Rukh Khan. It might be a lesson that I just learned, some part of history we learned in school, or a line from a film or tv show that intrigues me to write. But it does. So I write.

Part 3:

Ode to Carlos: Thank you for Tony

Carlos,

October 12
1962
Evanston, Illinois
Carlos Bernard Papierski
You dropped the last name
It is a mouthful
Half-Spanish, Half-Polish
(Carlos) (Bernard)
It makes sense

You were in other TV shows
In films
In theater productions
But those are just a part of your credentials

Because to us you'll always be Tony
as we've seen you through the years
of 24
You were supposed to be called Tonio, and wear cargo pants a large baggy shirt
But Kiefer couldn't say Tonio, and you looked goofy in those cargo pants and baggy shirt
And you became Tony Almeida
Soulpatch
Jack's friend, Jack's brethren
Our support our humor, our hero

We watched you mature through the seasons
As did we, as did the show
On Day One you were just another expendable CTU Agent
But you soon became second only to Jack
On Day Two
We saw your Quick Feet and your ability to Govern CTU
We also saw your infatuation with the one and only Michelle Dessler
By Day Three
You were married and sacrificed a life in prison for hers
You managed to save the country from a Biomedical threat somewhere in between there too
On Day Four
You were a Rougue, but you came alive, and we healed those wounds
(Did I mention that you were bound, tazered, and held hostage today, too?)
Day Five Came
The impossible occurred, you and Michelle were gone,
Dead
We missed you on Day Six
You could have helped Jack so much during this time,
You would have gotten him out of that Chinese prison
But you were gone

But, in the end,
Tony Almeida is
GOD
So they are resurrecting you
Yes, that's right, Tony's back for Day Seven
The anticipation is disheartening

But why are we talking about Tony so,
You are not Tony, you are Carlos'
You are married to Sharisse Baker, not Michelle Dessler
(Did you know you were born in the same hospital as Reiko?)
How about that?
You have a daughter named Natalie, in real life, that is,
She must be four now

What life you live without 24
is unfathomable, unreal to us
You play your character so believably
We can't see you as anyone but Tony Almeida
Thank you, Carlos
for making us root for just another CTU agent
for letting us question our own judgment in impossible situations
for breaking protocol and going off-book
for creating a persona to live up to

Thank you, Carlos
Thank you for Tony