Horror/Scary: July 07, 2021 Issue [#10863]
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 This week: The Dust
  Edited by: W.D.Wilcox Author IconMail Icon
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Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter


I'm gonna hunker down like a jack rabbit in a dust storm
-Lyndon B. Johnson

Mama took me in her arms and held me tight. Her embrace was hot and she smelled like sweat, dust, and grease, but I wanted her. I wanted to crawl inside her mind to find that place that let her smile and sing through the worst dust storms. If I had to be crazy, I wanted my mama's kind of crazy, because she was never afraid.
-Sarah Zettel

These dust storms.... Poor farmer spent a lifetime fixin' his farm and everything, goes out and looks down at it, and it's up above him.
-Will Rogers




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Letter from the editor

The Dust


In June of 2020 a huge dust storm crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and then moved on to the Untied States. It was so large they called it, Godzilla.

This year there is another one coming out of Africa; clouds of dust, weighing millions of tons, wafting over parts of the Americas, tinting skies brown, creating shimmering sunsets, and suppressing hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. And more dust is on its way.

The Godzilla dust storm that shrouded cities like Houston, Miami, and New Orleans in a shadowy haze was one of the most intense on record. Satellite instruments showed that the cloud was far denser with dust particles than previous events.

Saharan dust clouds make this transcontinental trek all the time, and on the way, the dust falls and settles in the ocean, in rain forests, and, occasionally, on the windshields of unsheltered cars. But the gargantuan plume currently making its way across the sky, over the Caribbean and heading toward the United States, is unusual for a Saharan dust cloud, both in volume and density. “It’s definitely a very significant amount of dust,” says Hongbin Yu, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. A historic amount of dust, some say. “In terms of concentration and density and size, it is the most dust we’ve seen in 50 or 60 years, The giant dust cloud is part of a system that feeds the ocean, fertilizes the rainforest, and suppresses hurricanes.

But this is something else. This is kind of like the dust storms we see on Mars.

Each year, on average, a dizzying 182 million tons of dust departs from the western Sahara, enough to fill 689,290 semitrucks. These clouds of dust make up one of the greatest annual migrations on the planet—not animal, but mineral. It begins in the Sahara, where wind storms levitate enormous plumes of desert dust thousands of feet above the surface of the Earth. There, in camel-colored wisps thousands of miles long, the dust hitchhikes on trade winds traveling west.


Now that's a story worth telling!



A new sig from 'undocked'





Editor's Picks

Dusty Picks

 
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STATIC
The Dust-Born Open in new Window. (18+)
A reworking of possibly my first horror short. Originally titled, 'Dust and Sound'.
#2203428 by Laurie Razor Author IconMail Icon

 Monika's Smile Open in new Window. (18+)
A man moves into a dusty old house and history comes back to haunt him.
#1927363 by Stuckintime Author IconMail Icon

 Village in the Dust Open in new Window. (E)
An encounter unlike any other
#2005088 by Alan Thompson Author IconMail Icon

 The Curse Open in new Window. (13+)
The story of a town slowly deteriorating to dust under a curse.
#2139817 by Dankison Twirls Author IconMail Icon

 Attack of the Dust Bunnies Open in new Window. (13+)
Legions of rabbits become crazed flesh eating mobs during the dust bowl.
#1853818 by Warren Charles Author IconMail Icon

 Biting The Dust Open in new Window. (18+)
A short story, with murder, mystery, and a twist.
#1763758 by Antonio Van Author IconMail Icon

 
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The Dust Open in new Window. (18+)
There are things that live in the desert, beautiful things . . . dead things.
#2187538 by W.D.Wilcox Author IconMail Icon


 
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Ask & Answer

DEAD LETTERS


Do you find writing a novel a daunting experience?

Angelica Weatherby-Star on top Author Icon
Writing under pressure of 50k in a single month seems to work for me. I am busy worrying about word count when it comes to writing a novel. My highest achievement is 125k in 2 months.

Aneska Author Icon
I find people reading what I write a daunting experience. *Laugh*

ForeverDreamer Author Icon
I've never had the guts to try it.

Dragonfear Author Icon
Do you mean stories on this website? If you do, I’ll have to disagree. I have trouble not going over the character limit.

Bob Author Icon
I love the scenery where I live. I once wondered why more movies were not made around here. I started a story that would fit the general area and because I don't write film scripts I wrote in story form. Ended up with a novel called 'Fish camp on the river Road'. It was daunting because it was a labor instead of a joy. It was not my typical genre and though I finished the story I hated it. My beta readers it was some of my best work. Maybe so but I don't like daunting.

Arsuit Author Icon
I used to, until I decided to outline the entire novel in advance of starting to write it. That way, I know exactly where I'm going. Also, I can hop between chapters instead of having to write them in order.

elephantsealer Author Icon
It is a bit daunting indeed. Writing a novel is something I have not considered at all. It would take up all one's time, and then one cannot even finish a short story!!!

Santeven Quokklaus Author Icon
Do I find writing a novel a daunting experience? No.
I get an idea for a story and just write. If it ends up a 100-word drabble or 100k-word novel, it's the story and I just put it out into the open. I don't set out to write a novel or anything like that, so it isn't daunting at all. All I do is write the story. If you set yourself with the idea in mind I am going to write a 97,434 word novel with 22 chapters and an epilogue then you are going to be intimidated by what you've put in to your head, and so you set yourself up for greater pressure and a greater chance of failure. On the other hand if you just go in with I have an idea for a story about an elven kingdom under threat from the eagle-people and that is all you have (with an outline if you're a plotter), then how long it turns out to be doesn't matter because all you are doing is writing to the idea, not to the concept of length.
How many novels have I written? 37 novels (50k words-plus), 40 novellae (20k-50k words), 25 novelettes (10k-20k words), 1000+ stories of less than 10k words. Nothing is daunting. It is just writing. No writing is daunting... not even the 10k word essays I am currently expected to churn out for university.
It is only writing.

Professor0w0 Author Icon
I feel that writing a novel varies from person to person. For some, they need an entire planned-out plot in order to write effectively. For others, they can write as it comes into their heads. I like to write down tidbits that may seem interesting or relevant for my novel, which I piece together later on. This includes writing any type of bit, regardless of beginning, middle, or end. I'm sure for many, they have a particular process that has it's own levels of stress and/or planning.


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