My Cardboard Balcony

No Justice by Belinda Roddie He walks without chains while the boy is dead. He sees freedom while the family sees red. May he languish in guilt while his victims all cope. Michael Brown has no trial: There's no justice, no hope.

"Hello?" "Yes, this is Doctor Andrews from Saint Joan's Hospital. Is this Dani Howard?" I could feel the lump beginning to swell in my throat. I tried to stop my hands from shaking as I held the phone. "Speaking." "We have some news regarding your wife, Claire. It seems that the operation went smoothly." "Oh." That was a relief, but it didn't answer all of my concerns.

"Why won't you tell me anything?" "It's complicated, okay?" Emma threw her hands up in exasperation as Lindsay rubbed the reddening skin between her eyebrows. At this rate, I wasn't expecting either of them breach their erected brick walls. Emma wanted to know who Lindsay was dating, and Lindsay was trying desperately to dissuade Emma from asking for details.

Third update ahoy! As of November 22nd, I have: - Written 37,120 words. This puts me almost five hundred words above the word requirement by this date. I've definitely slowed down a bit since my initial spurt, but I always hit that second act slump in any story. The fact that I'm keeping up despite work, school, friends' visits, and other shenanigans is definitely a good sign. - Still have not thought of a title. This is starting to sound familiar, isn't it? - Carved out a primitive rising action curve, climax, and denouement to the novel. Like I said last week, this novel will be far longer than 50,000 words. It'll be nice to bring in more dimension to the characters' relationships while not allowing the plot to get too convoluted. The people, in my opinion, should be driving the story, not hackneyed plot devices. Until next Saturday, my friends. Cheers, Belinda

They kept us in the embassy and wouldn't let us go home. We sat together in the cell, holding hands, doing our best to pray. But my thoughts were clouded, and I couldn't get any words across to any sort of deity. I just wanted to go home. Finally, after a week, we were allowed to leave.

Stressful first part of the week and great second part of the week. While I was swamped with schoolwork from Monday to Wednesday, my good friend José - who will be the best man at my wedding - finally got to take a break from his hectic job and stay at my apartment for a couple of days. It was a lot of fun to catch up, as well as give my friend his first opportunity to visit San Francisco. We even got to tour LucasFilm, thanks to another college friend of mine who works at the company. Most of my closest friends are those I bonded with during my university years, and sometimes I feel as if I take the relationships for granted. Last night, I got to catch up with my friend Chris, and when I had both José and Chris present - keep in mind, they were also my fellow musicians when we formed a band called the Castle Town Convicts back in college - I was able to compose music more easily. That's saying a lot because, since 2012, the amount of songwriting I've committed to, for many r...

The Hunter Who Went Mad With Power by Belinda Roddie Sometimes, you just have to find and strangle a bear.