Here's a chance to show off your writing! 
Send us an excerpt of which you are especially proud. If it's chosen, we'll publish it here in a future issue. Approximately 500 words.  Any genre. You, of course, retain all rights. It will remain in The VERB archives until you ask us to remove it.

Subject: CHALKBOARD submission
(Feel free to include a bio.)

   I CAN FEEL THE RAIN
by
Lyryn Cate 

She awoke, gagging on the taste of metal. An object. Turning to her side, she spat. The coin tumbled from her mouth to land on the ground beside her. The ground ... it was sharp, as if tiny pieces of obsidian had been chipped away and sprinkled about. Her skin was seared by a thousand pinpricks, each needle grinding further into her flesh as she moved.

Isabella, for she instinctively knew that she couldn’t be Bella in this place, stood, wincing in pain as the rock cut her flesh like so many rows of tiny teeth. She wore no shoes. Looking down, she realised she wore no clothing either. But she wasn’t cold. The air was too thick to be cold. It was almost a dull pressure, driving itself into her skin by sheer force of will. It nearly vibrated with the silence. Blank, hazy, red and black.

She knew where she was. The broad river was flowing only meters away from her. Tar. It seemed as if were made of tar. Isabella leaned forward for a closer look, not minding the biting rocks any longer. Curious and oddly numb.

"Wouldn’t get too close if I were you," Micah said to her.

She wrinkled her nose as the stench suddenly hit her. She turned and vomited, spittle spraying over the shiny, black ground, spattering against her naked toes. The river rolled and churned with the waste of worlds long past. A skull broke the surface, momentarily winking at her before being caught up again on its journey.

"I told you not to get too close."

She could hear the smile in his voice.

"Why are you here?" she whispered hoarsely, bile stinging the back of her throat.

"The Gravedigger made my grave shallow, Isabella. I can feel the rain."

It made no sense but somehow it didn’t matter.

"I have to go over there, don’t I? To the other side?" She never did turn her head to look at him. She was afraid of what she’d find.

"That’s the way it works. Pay him."

It was so odd that she knew where he was pointing without looking.

She watched the ferryman slowly push his craft through the sludge. It was silent.

"I don’t wanna go."

[Excerpt taken from a short story involving a very surreal dream sequence after Isabella had been beaten into unconsciousness. Concept of "Gravedigger" inspired by the song from Dave Matthew's Band.]

© 2005 Lyryn Cate

 Lyryn is an avid writer for play by email simulations, typically set in the Star Trek universe. She considers herself more of an editor than a writer and is currently attending school in order to hone her editing skills. Writing is just her past time fancy.

I don't have the Internet at home. What are my options, the pros and cons, and the cost?

The percentage of home Internet subscribers has risen sharply in the last couple years--to 75% in the US. It used to be that most people only had access at work. They are giving credit to women for the recent growth in home and personal accounts. I don't study statistics, nor gather data, but it seems to me that Internet access via PCs is largely an adult thing. Kids seem to like tiny slices of the Internet via their cell phones or a PDA. Kids are far more interested in the realm of personal communications and music downloads than the latest weather or buying gifts online. It's a very unscientific observation of mine.

The number of choices you have for getting on the Internet at home is a big list. I'm wondering if I'm up to mentioning them all.

First, is in the realm of not having a PC. Web TV is still around, as are other non-PC options. You'll buy some sort of hardware referred to as a Netpliance (Internet Appliance). This is an attractive solution for those that don't want the expense and hassle of owning a PC. You just plug them into the power and the phone line or cable converter and you're online. No software, and no setup options. No virus worries. It doesn't get any more simple. Ask about your options to save files.

As I indicated above, cell phones and PDAs have the ability to go online. Check with your cell phone's service to see what that costs. They'll tell you however much for some number of mega bytes per month. Keep in mind that your phone won't need all the graphics from most sites so your usage on a cell is very minimal. Web sites on a phone usually includes a small number of menu options, and some text is associated with a menu option. You'll use a cell phone browser to spontaneously find and go to the movies or a concert. Some verify airline departures before leaving for the airport or change their airline reservations. The Interface on a cell phone is a dream come true for a minimalist, and they can be effective tools for some. If you think this is your answer, but aren't sure, talk to several people who do use phone browsers. Then spend some time with yours to learn how to make it work for you. Internet service for your cell phone starts at around $10 a month.

PDAs may yet hit the big time in regards to becoming part cell phone, part personal organizer, part music mate, part camera. They certainly are everything but a phone today, and that's changing. Slowly, it seems to me. I don't see putting that big thing up to my face and talking into it, but I do see uncoiling an ear bud and using it as a phone in that way. Some are already doing that. Check with your local consumer electronics store to see if this kind of service is available in your town.

Laptops commonly have wireless networking. Which means you roam around the office with your laptop and compute wherever your team is working (if they have transmitters spread around--they're called access points). This same concept works at restaurants, motels, airports, libraries and anywhere civilization happens. Amazingly, some towns and entire parts of cities have set up access points so you can go online as if it were a human right of some kind. Some restaurants charge for this, many don't. I know of neighborhoods that have set up wireless access, and split the bill for the Internet service they share. This isn't a bad way to go, but you may need a little advice on securing your laptop.

When talking about the traditional home Internet service one thinks of a PC at home connected to something that brings in the Internet. The oldest and most common way to get online is with a computer modem and an online service subscription. Most any computer you buy today will have a modem. And getting a copy of a CD for AOL, MSN, Earthlink or whatever is free and easy. They're going to charge you about $20 a month. It's slow. And you can waste a lot of time doing next to nothing except waiting.

There are discount Internet providers. Netscape just came out with a discount service that looks pretty good. I'm thinking of hooking dad up with that. He's got People PC for $10 a month, and I can't recommend that service. They've made the Internet a hardship for dad by hanging up on him and then not letting him go back online easily. Rookies.

Other services at home are DSL or your cable company. DSL is a low cost service via your phone company or other DSL provider. Go over to DSLReports and look up your phone number to see if you qualify for a DSL provider in your area. If you qualify, you'll have to purchase a DSL modem, and they'll mail you a self-installation kit. DSL is a nice alternative to a phone line modem because it's much faster (50 times faster or more). And yes, you can get a router and provide the DSL service to multiple users in your home. You can still use a fax or a phone modem with your DSL. Starter packages are available for about $30, and the more speed you want the more you'll pay.

Your cable company may offer an Internet service. Whether it is called Pipeline or Roadrunner cable Internet is fast. Like DSL once you try the cable Internet service you'll be too spoiled to go back to dial-up. They call cable and DSL "broadband" to denote the higher speed. Starter packages are available for about $30, and they go up to $100.

What you won't get for your home are the big pipe services like T1 or T3, or OC3. You wouldn't use a fraction of their capability, much less would you want to pay the bills.

Tending words is no different from tending gardens. Both require time, thought, space and, occasionally, a good weeding. What's a writing weed? A word that adds absolutely nothing to the sentence. 

Test your editing skills by reviewing the paragraphs below. How many weeds can you yank out of them?

1.  The trip was endless in the bad weather. Heavy rains fell like buckets soon after the battle that was fought along the Chickamauga; mules that were pulling the supply wagons had to struggle straight up the Sequatchie Valley through stretches of belly-deep mud and such. On the steep mountain trail, as many as 16 of the animals had to be stopped and harnessed to each wagon; a soldier bearing a whip was assigned to each mule, and lots more soldiers were put to work pushing. 

2.  Young Portsmith thinks that he knows everything about everything, little snot, and spends the majority of his awake time trying to get everybody else in the round world to think the exact same thing. I don't care what he thinks, or says, but he is not taking the lady Martina to the dance. 

3.  A man that was in a maroon-coloured flannel shirt, a shirt which had been purchased for purposes of decoration, and made principally by some Jewish women on the East Side of New York City, rounded a corner of the building and walked into the middle of the Main Street. In either of his hands, the man held a long heavy blue-black revolver.

4.  My nightly curfew was 10:30. If I came into the house later than that, Daddy would make sure to ground me for a whole month, just like he did my sister Ellie when she was fifteen years old.  And this grounding wasn't even worth a grounding. I'd only been dating for a few weeks and I was about to mess it all up forever because of a beer-drinking redneck?

5.  The beginning of your brand new day should be a natural peaceful process, and if you have any lingering doubts about that, watch the sun rise in the morning. We weren't meant to leap out of the bed and into a shower stall, scrubbing, shaving and shouting above the steamy roar of the running water. We weren't meant to be outside in our robes at five o'clock in the morning, talking on the cell phone while dragging this week's garbage to the curb. 

(The weeds are in red.)

1.  The trip was endless in the bad weather. Heavy rains fell like buckets soon after the battle that was fought along the Chickamauga; mules that were pulling the supply wagons had to struggle straight up the Sequatchie Valley through stretches of belly-deep mud and such. On the steep mountain trail, as many as 16 of the animals had to be stopped and harnessed to each wagon; a soldier bearing a whip was assigned to each mule, and lots more soldiers were put to work pushing. 

2.  Young Portsmith thinks that he knows everything about everything, little snot, and spends the majority of his awake time trying to get everybody else in the round world to think the exact same thing. I don't care what he thinks, or says, but he is not taking the lady Martina to the dance. 

3.  A man that was in a maroon-coloured flannel shirt, a shirt which had been purchased for purposes of decoration, and made principally by some Jewish women on the East Side of New York City, rounded a corner of the building and walked into the middle of the Main Street. In either of his hands, the man held a long heavy blue-black revolver.

4.  My nightly curfew was 10:30. If I came into the house later than that, Daddy would make sure to ground me for a whole month, just like he did my sister Ellie when she was fifteen years old.  And this grounding wasn't even worth a grounding. I'd only been dating for a few weeks and I was about to mess it all up forever because of a beer-drinking redneck?

5.  The beginning of your brand new day should be a natural peaceful process, and if you have any lingering doubts about that, watch the sun rise in the morning. We weren't meant to leap out of the bed and into a shower stall, scrubbing, shaving and shouting above the steamy roar of the running water. We weren't meant to be outside in our robes at five o'clock in the morning, talking on the cell phone while dragging this week's garbage to the curb.