A writing update about new forms and old habits. In “Essays, Hell, and the Magic of Lists,” Greg Luti talks about adding essays to the site, progress on the short book The Servant, and why a simple list still helps the work move forward. Adding Essays I have expanded my portfolio to include a new type of piece, and that is the essay. The goal of that genre is to explore certain topics and present questions I have about them, more than going over a story and following characters through the dialogue or writing up a poem with a certain theme. There are many times when I have questions or thoughts about things, and I am stuck thinking of ways that I can get them into a story, but with the essay I don’t have to really worry all that much about the story, since there is none. I do recognize that the readers may not always be interested in the topics I explore, or even agree with my presentations on them, and I accept that as a possibility. When you go through as much writing as I do, you are bound to write a few pieces that may stir people the wrong way. I have learned to just continue on with the next piece. Not everyone likes what I write, for no other reason than they just don’t care about the topic. That won’t deter me from writing readable pieces, though. I always believe that I can write something a reader can enjoy, even if they don’t care for it, or even agree with the opinion I give. Forgetting the List I must admit that I made a little bit of a mistake with my current writing, and that is that I forgot a bit of advice I told the readers. Recently, in one of my writing updates, I told the readers to write up a list of things they wish to share with their audience so that when the time comes to write up an update, the transfer of information is easy. You shouldn’t have to remember every little detail you did that week. I got to writing up one of these updates last week, and then I went to find the Word document I made for the details I wanted to include in the piece, and it was nowhere to be found. I didn’t lose it to some hacker, and I didn’t accidentally delete it. I never had it. I then realized my mistake and opened up a new Word document and wrote down the first thing I would write about in the next writing update. This is technically the second thing I brought up in the update, but you get the point. The Servant I have the outline for a short book I am working on called The Servant. I shared the first few pages with the subscribers of the email. I wanted to finish it for Halloween, but I got busy. I am happy to say that I included a neat ending to the story as well. Yeah, so if you want to get a few pages of the book, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter. The story is basically about a guy who goes to hell and what he sees there. He meets a guide and then encounters various figures in the wasteland. I don’t normally do eerie, but I was in the mood to write up a creepy story like this one, and I will finish it through, since the outline is all but done. Wanting the Work Already Done That gets me to a problem I should address. I know that there are writers who feel they would rather have written than have to write. They want the words on the page, rather than in their head. They say this bit as encouragement for the average writer, like myself, who can use more than coffee to get through a session. I don’t know, though. There are times when I come up with a story idea, and I get a few pages in and think, “You know, it would be cool if I could not actually finish this and somehow have people read it and like it. Why not work only 2 hours and get paid for 8? That would be pretty cool.” Sure, I get that I have to write the story, but I would be lying if I didn’t think about the easy way out for some of the works I write on. October Went By Too Fast Talking about timing, can we all agree that October went by too fast? What the hell was that about? One day it is beginning, the next day it is Halloween, and then the month is over. Am I the only one who felt like October was only about 4 days long? Site Updates I do have some news regarding the site and what you can find on it now. I added a Where to Start page for those who are not sure where exactly they should begin with my books. I saw other indie authors have that on their site, so I included it on mine. I only wrote three books, so I can’t even act as though the reader has that hard of a choice, but it is still a good addition to the site. Then I told you a while back, in one of the earliest writing updates, that I was trying for a store on this site, something for the visitors to purchase merch. I am glad to say that is back in the front of the set of priorities, and I have reached out to an illustrator about some images for the store. I will keep you posted on this development, but eventually the site will get a store, I promise. Lists Do Wonders That is about all I have for this update. Lists, man… they do wonders.

An essay about hype that refuses to stop. In “What Annoys Me About GTA 6,” Greg Luti looks at the constant pre-launch marketing and wonders why no one inside the machine seems willing to push back against it. The Circus Around GTA 6 The biggest game of all time, GTA 6, is going to be released in a few weeks, and if you are like me, you don’t mind hearing the news, hearing the madness to it all. The entire circus is quite fun from the sidelines. People are upset at the prices. Many claim that the company Rockstar is practicing unlawful treatment of its workers. The game has potentially gone woke, freaking out every dude gamer out there. The amount of actual storage for the game itself is insane, as Rockstar tells gamers they have to delete other games to play this one. Yeah, this game will take up so much space on a person’s console that the gamer has to be warned about the download. The game had a freaking special on Netflix. Not a movie special, but an actual inside look at the game, which, of course, people then spent time dissecting each frame. And then there are those that are upset with the nature of the game, which is where a player can go around and basically shoot and steal from anyone. I even heard there are some women who are pissed that there are some men who are going to treat their virtual girlfriend in the game better than their actual girlfriend. I am not making any of this up, by the way. The game’s news is actually a story in itself. I won’t lie when I tell you I like to hear about what new madness is happening for the game before it comes out. Maybe there is another leaked clip that is somehow incomplete with its graphics but fills a curiosity fans have of the new release. Maybe someone new from Rockstar was interviewed. Perhaps the voice actors from the other game, GTA 5, have something I have not heard them say. And you know that the guys are going to go nuts about the playable woman character in the game, so that is something to avoid, or look into (depends on how you look at it). As I said, the gameplay, where you literally go around shooting people, is not the craziest part of it all. The Real Problem There is something that irritates me about GTA 6, and no, it is not any of what I mentioned already. But something else… Before I get to my point, can we all take a second to appreciate that the voice actor for one of the most insane video game characters of all time, the character who was introduced in the game by stomping on someone’s face, actually reads classic novels. Yeah, the voice actor, Steven Ogg, who voiced Trevor from GTA 5, mentioned Crime and Punishment in an interview and was surprised that the interviewer didn’t know about it. Apparently, the interviewer didn’t know that the novel is considered a classic because it kind of justified the murderer, in that it explained the thoughts and reasons for his crime, rather than painting him as a pure evil human being. Boy, if that whole setup is not cosmic irony in real life, then I don’t know what is. Anyway, back to my original point… The Marketing Has Gone Too Far The absurd amount of unfiltered, shameless marketing for GTA 6 disappoints me. It is downright pathetic to a certain point. I get you need marketing for a game, but I mean, having the Miami Heat not be the Heat for a game is something else. Or opening up actual venues that are in the video game in a real-life arena. Let’s just say it for what it is; the city of Miami is whoring itself out for the potential financial growth this video game can offer. I kick you not, there are some Miami politicians who think that people will flock to Florida because of the video game. Most people I know go to Florida to escape the New York winters, not because of the potential interaction with a popular video game franchise. The Irony of It All The game is featured everywhere. I mean everywhere. Commercials, YouTube videos, social media, buildings, airports, buses…. Name something, and somehow the game was marketed there. Even South Park had a segment of the game in an episode. This is all before the game is even launched. No one has played this game yet. No guns have been fired. No missions have been completed. All of this is before that. A game that is about mocking the capitalism of America is using extreme marketing tactics as a promotional tool. You can’t help but laugh at it. I don’t know if it is wrong to say, but Rockstar and perhaps even the GTA franchise itself would be mocked by GTA in the game for how they are currently handling things. What gets me is not that the game does this, since I get it; the game is popular. Our culture has things that are like that. Movies, music, and other entertainment venues have moments that capture the masses, and that mean a lot to people. That is not changing anytime soon. But there was always someone who would speak back against the machine, and tell it the truth. The person would wink that the entire event is nonsense as they are apart from it. That person is all but gone now. The machine won, and we are all downloading their newest game. Where Is the Rebel? The two rebels against the machine I think of with this are two creatives who handled their unusual fame in different ways, but had the same contempt for the machine that built them. Both were built by the machine, yet they both saw that the machine had a level of fakeness that they didn’t want to be a part of. JD Salinger The first person is author JD Salinger. He wrote the book Catcher in the Rye, and was so upset by how the public and society made his words their own, and in his opinion, warped the meaning of the story, that he flat out stopped producing novels. The world asked for the sequel or for more books of that style, and he said, “No, you did too much to my first book. I would rather not publish ever again, than allow the machine to ruin my words.” Think about that. The guy would prefer not to publish a book that would make him a bunch of money, because of his paranoia towards the public and media’s use of his words. We are told that the man was a hermit in his life and was not easy to get an interview, but perhaps he was not wrong in seeing that the machine that built him could ultimately control him. Unless, of course, he didn’t give the machine anything new to work with. Kurt Cobain Then there is another example of someone I think recognized the absurdity of the machine that built him, and that is the musician Kurt Cobain. He knew that the band got popular because of the overplaying of their song, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and he saw how everyone all of a sudden loved them. Instead of completely backing out of the limelight, he switched gears, and the next time the band had to write something, he didn’t give the people what they wanted. Not another song MTV could play to death, which they did anyway. I know that he would openly sing the wrong lyrics to the song after a while, not allowing himself to be put up on stage as a puppet for the song. He may not be involved with the promotional part of it all, or how the reviews of the music went or what the media said of him, but at the end of the day, he was making the songs his own, and there was no one who would stop him. Sure, he was built by the machine, but he didn’t mind if the machine ripped him down either. It was his music, not theirs. The Machine Won Where is that person for GTA 6? Where is the person who is saying the marketing has gone too far? The voice actors are signed to an NDA, so you know that is not coming from them. Rockstar wants our money, so they are not going to say anything like that. None of the developers seem to have any voice, and if they do, it is quickly overshadowed. The politicians will be hypocrites if they try to address the truth one day, but the marketing plans the next day. The game has gotten so big that no one tries for the truth, since that may hurt the person’s wallet. So everyone goes along with it and pretends as though the absurdity is just something that should be accepted, not questioned. The video game world will celebrate the biggest game of all time when the latest GTA 6 game is released. I will be there following along to it, and I will eventually get to playing the game (I am waiting for the online edition to come out), but no one will say that the game is wrong, that the game has gone too far. And let’s be real, it can’t come from you and me. We are the consumers. We are not in the actual development process. We didn’t make the art. This can only come from someone on the inside. A guy like me saying this is only seen as an observation, and nothing more, since I was not a part of the process. It means more when the guy on stage speaks of the show than when the fan in the front row does. The machine won, it seemed. And what is worse, no one is even upset about it. We are all paying for the premium edition anyway.

A writing and editing advice post that explores one of the most important questions a writer can ask. In “What Does The Audience Know?,” Greg Luti discusses how deciding what readers know versus what characters know can shape tension, humor, and the overall effectiveness of a story. Superman and What the Audience Knows There is a question regarding one of pop culture’s iconic heroes that a writer can use in order to better understand their own story. The knowledge that Superman is, in essence, a disguise for the real man is not a surprise. The very idea is so well-known that many mock that one person can fool everyone by taking off his glasses. But there is a storytelling device that we can use. The Superman Situation First though, let’s discuss the situation. In the story of Superman, the audience knows his identity. That is, in fact, part of the charm to it all. He is helping people, but not really doing it in a way to draw attention to his real identity. We know that as we are following him, he is kind of also tricking people too. He is saving people; no one knows who he is. It creates a light-hearted dynamic. When Clark Kent becomes Superman, we as the audience are not expected to be taken aback. Why the Audience Needs to Know In other stories, you may see this tactic of split identities used as a way to tell the story, but in superhero stories, this tactic of the main character’s identity is never hidden from us. For example, imagine if you were not told that Superman was Clark Kent, and that only at the end of it all, you are told that reveal. Well, that kind of takes away from it all. Rather than being with the hero, we are following the story, not him. When you know the story from the perspective of Superman, his actions become the important part, not his identity, since we obviously already know it. What the Characters Don’t Know The other key part of the knowledge of the character is that the characters in the story, those that know Superman, don’t really know he is Clark Kent. They only see a man doing incredible feats of strength, not aware that the guy is nothing more than the average journalist in his spare time. That is deliberate, by the way. If the characters in Superman know that he is also Clark Kent, the story is kind of ruined. (Yes, I do know that some recognize him, but for the most part, the world he lives in does not) The characters become the audience, downplaying the very actions the character does, since they see him as not the Man of Steel, but as Clark Kent. The hero then has to answer an uncomfortable question: why even be Superman? This then shifts the light-hearted actions to something more serious. And why? Because the characters in his world figured out he is Clark Kent. The Two Rules of the Story The entire framework of Superman is built on two very important storytelling components. 1. The audience knows his real identity. 2. The people he is with, those in the story, do not. (for the most part) Every plot point, every scene, every interaction goes back to those two things. If the story deviates from this, then the very character created shifts. The Key Question for Writers That leads us to the important question every writer should ask themselves before they write a story: “What exactly does the audience know?” Whether it is a tragedy between two Italian lovers, a thriller about a patient on an island, or the actual identity of a superhero, the audience’s knowledge of the characters plays an important role in how you create them. How Other Stories Handle Audience Knowledge Once a writer answers that question, the writer can then decide on what they want to do with that information. Shakespeare tells us about the deaths of the two main characters, so we are following the story with that in mind. Shutter Island keeps it vague so you are unsure of the mental state of the main character, creating suspense throughout, and Superman wants you to go along for the ride with the hero as he saves the day, rather than having his character put on trial. And why can this happen? Because the writers clearly defined what information the audience would know in the story, making the story itself easy to navigate, because every plot point went back to that original idea. Practical Advice: Write It Down Early I would suggest that a writer write out a line or two when they outline their book of what the audience is aware of, so that the writer never gets too far from that. I can give two examples from stories I wrote. My Own Examples The first is when I wrote my first novel, Day in the Life. I decided the audience would only know what the narrator tells them. There is no other person jumping in to correct the narrator. That means there are times when the real story, or what is actually happening, is different than what is being told to the reader. Yes, the narrator can learn from his journey because he is the one the reader is with and naturally closely attached to it, but that also means he may miss a few things along the way too. I knew that I had to have the narrator believe his story more than anything else. The second is for a story in my short story collection, Everything Must Go. In it, I had a character meet some sort of mysterious vendor. Right away, I knew the vendor was meant to be an almost-ghost-like figure. The hero does not know if the person he is speaking to is real or not, and neither does the audience. That means that when the vendor character spoke, I knew I had him speak in a way that was realistic but could be seen as ominous too. I did both of these when I wrote my stories because I knew what the audience was going to know. To use another example from a flash fiction piece I wrote that will be in my latest collection, Little Fires, I had a joke in a flash piece that is for readers of my stuff. I noticed that I wrote a handful of flash pieces that had a quirky message at the end of them, so I decided to subvert that expectation in one of them by not having a message at all and having the narrator of the story almost disappointed by the absent trope. The audience, who are readers of my stories, should get the joke. They just read 5-6 stories in a row of people meeting in an everyday setting and learning something deep from a random encounter, so when a story doesn’t present that, the readers should recognize the pattern. Why could this happen? Because the answer to what the audience knows was answered early on. Don’t go back to what the audience knows in your story. Have an answer for that right away. Why Superman’s Glasses Actually Work Oh, and to answer the myth about how stupid it is that Superman is Clark Kent. I think that is an easy thing to say, and funny as a joke, but really fails to see the story being presented. Think about it like this: how many people in the Superman world see Superman up close? Maybe a handful? It is not like it happens all the time. Isn’t the guy mostly flying around or punching things? And when people are seeing Superman up close, what are they doing? Probably being saved, right? He is holding a building up, saving you from a fire, or doing something else where you are like, “What the hell is going on right now?” That means Superman is a guy who is rarely seen up close, and when he is seen by people, he is saving them from dangerous situations. Let’s be honest, most would probably remember the big S on his chest and his cape, and not even look at his face, because moments ago, they thought they were going to die. If you were ever saved from a fire, would you be able to tell the face of the firefighter who saved you? Probably not.

A Halloween flash fiction about the awkward end of childhood. In “An Unlikely Treat,” Greg Luti follows three teenagers on their final trick-or-treating round as they knock on a door and find an old woman who offers something other than candy. When I was a kid trick-or-treating, I performed an act that now, when I mention it, seems like childish fun more than anything else. When a few friends and I would go trick-or-treating, I took the most candy from the container left out. Of course, there would be a sign warning that I should only take one, but I realized that the consequences of my actions were limited, so I took whatever I could. I was at the age where costumes were more of a signal that I was still celebrating the holiday and had not outgrown the act of asking my neighbors for candy, and school seemed like a foolish idea. I spent hours every day learning about information I may never need and was being told that I not only needed that information but that without it, my life would be seen as a failure. Taking a few extra pieces of candy was not above my adolescent brain, although in the back of my mind, I did know it was wrong. The last time I went trick-or-treating is the story I am to tell you now. I was dressed as an athlete because I had on a jersey. My other buddy, Jack, wore an orange shirt that read, “This is my costume.” And the third person in the crew was Brett, who wore that Scream costume with the face. We performed our usual roundabouts like we have done in years past on the cool fall day. We would go to a house, ask for some candy, address the uncomfortable question of our age, and move on. As I said, we were at the age where we could walk around the entire town without any guidance, but also the age where trick-or-treating was becoming a bit strange. We don’t have any word for that in our language, but there must be something to describe the unusual dichotomy of the holiday. We were not there to be cute, or even say, “Happy Halloween,” but to get some candy. After a few blocks in, we reached a house on the corner of the block. We stopped because we had to decide whether to even bother with this house. If we didn’t go to it, we weren’t coming back to it, since that would mean our route would have to make us turn around. It was now or never with this one. “What about this house?” Jack asked. “Man, this house stinks. They don’t give any candy.” Brett answered immediately. “Do they leave any out?” The orange-costumed friend asked. “I don’t know,” Brett said. I didn’t listen to them as I read a sign on the door. “We don’t have candy. But we have prayers. Press to receive one.” I pressed the button without much thinking. “Prayers?!” Brett proclaimed. “I am going to another house.” He walked across the lawn towards the next house. Jack looked at me, uncertain of the situation. “I mean, maybe it is a test. Maybe they have candy.” We stood there for what seemed like forever. After waiting for the time, Jack turned to me, “Bro, there is no one home.” He walked away. “Isn’t it a sin to lie? They are lying that they are even home.” I watched him go to the next house. When I turned back around, there was an old woman, the age of my grandma, opening the door. I helped her open it completely, and then she asked, “I don’t have any candy this year. I do have something for you, if you will accept it. I have a prayer. Would you like to say a prayer with me, young man?” In reality, I didn’t want to hear a prayer. I didn’t even want to be on the stoop of the woman’s home, but I felt it would be rude to just get up and leave. I didn’t know much about prayers, but it felt mean to say no to being given one. Plus, it seemed wrong to say no to someone the age of my grandma. She reached out her wrinkly hands. “Here.” I didn’t know what she was doing. “Take my hands. We will say a prayer together. What is your name?” I put down my candy bag and told her my name. She began speaking, “Lord, I come to you for a favor for my little friend here, Pat. Now Pat needs your help, Lord. He, like so many, is on a path they don’t understand. Sometimes that path can be scary. Sometimes it can even be a bit confusing. Let him see your light on that path. Let him know that he always has you as a companion on his journey. And let him not forget, he is never really lost if he is going towards your light. Amen.” She unclasped my hands and tilted her head towards me. “There you go, son.” I reached into my bag and gave the senior a piece of candy. “I… I was only supposed to take one. But I took more than that.” She smirked at me. “I don’t want your candy, son. Just remember that when things get tough for you, the Lord still sees the good in you. Don’t give people candy. Give them something better.” I put the candy back in my bag and wished her a happy Halloween. It took me until the end of the block to catch up to the other two. When I finally got to them, Jack and Brett were sitting on the curb waiting for me. “Hey, how was that prayer house? Did she give you any candy?” Jack asked. “Nah, man. No one was there.” “Prayers on Halloween! Who does that? That is so freaking stupid!” Brett proclaimed, already eating one of his candy bars. “Yeah… yeah…” That was the last year I went trick-or-treating. I was too old to go after that.

A writing and editing advice post that speaks directly to a common fear. In “When No One Reads You,” Greg Luti shares practical ways to stay professional and keep growing even when the audience is small — or not there yet. I was given the site of the month (for July 2026) by Midwest Book Review, which is pretty cool. I try to write practical pieces of advice for other writers on here. I am in the trenches, writing my own stories, and crafting my own plots, so whenever I do give advice, I try to make it something that I would find useful too. Thanks to Jim Cox at Midwest Book Review. I appreciate the shoutout. When No One Shows Up Recently I noticed that a handful of writers mentioned they know all too well about not being read, or by going to a place and not having anyone there read their work. First off, that stinks. I know the feeling too. You put all this time into a story, one you think is worth being read, and then the most you get is nothing more than a few people who modestly care about it. The Upside of Not Being Read But I don’t want to dwell on the bad part of that situation. Anyone can be in that room and let it get them down, but I don’t think we should. We know the empty room, where the manager even decided to leave since they were embarrassed for you, or the lone vendor table where even the people at the fair are looking at you like, “Why is this person here? I guess they ran out of food vendors.” The feeling is bad, but also fleeting. I think there is a good part to not being read, at least for a while. Hey, you don’t have to worry about all those annoying critics and know-it-alls who like to act as though they know your words better than you. That sounds like a win. You also don’t have to worry about bad reviews for your book. That is mostly because you won’t get any, but hey, you can’t say anyone hated your book. I relate that last point to a moment I was talking to a buddy of mine. He said, “Power and money corrupt people.” I joked, “Well, it is a good thing I don’t have either.” Act Professional When No One Shows Up My advice when the event doesn’t go as planned is two-fold. The first is to act professional. Don’t bitch and complain or pretend as though the world owes you anything. They really don’t. Those people who ignore you today may be your fans tomorrow, so show some professionalism in the handling of your event. What does that actually look like? If you are at a book reading, and nobody is there, but you promised the store owner you would read for a certain amount of time, then damnit, read for that time. Or if you go to a fair, and planned on being there for a certain amount of time, and nobody is there, then stay there. Learn From the Failure Now, I have to mention a realistic part to that advice. It is easy for me to say this now. Away from the reading nobody attended, and not at the empty fair. If you say no to reading or decide to leave early, will the world end? No. No, it will not. But that gets me to my second point on why you should treat the event with respect. You want to learn from this. Hey, we all fall down. Everyone makes mistakes and fails. That is life. You are best to learn from this moment and note ways you can make it better. Perhaps you can speak to the store owner about a better time for a reading, or you can see if there are certain things you can market for the next time you are there. You can note that the fair you attended was not a success, but the sign you made for it and the organization you had for your layout were useful. Take that with you. If you are going to lose and not learn from your losses, then you should never expect any change. But if you take the losses as a learning experience, then the odds of success go up. A Reality Check Here is another reality check: That doesn’t mean success is automatic. I am not saying that one change will make everyone in town go to your next book reading, but I also don’t want you to get into your car and say, “Well shucks, that didn’t go as planned. I will get them next time.” How will you get them next time? What is your strategy for next time? When is even next time? My Own Stories of Not Being Read I have a few funny stories about people reading (or not reading me). My first novel was read by all of nobody. I wrote it under a pen name, and now there are no reviews for it, because Goodreads is a pain like that…. Anyway, nobody read it. A cashier looked at the cover of the book when I dropped it off at a local bookstore and said she would read it. I think the store was out of business within a year. (For some reason, all writers think that one store is the beginning of something special. Like the one placement will lead to being a bestseller. I know I was naïve enough to think that.) My family, to my surprise, set up a little get-together where they would celebrate me finishing my first novel. My dad had to trick me into wanting to go to a certain restaurant. I was relaxing and not in the mood to deal with anyone. It was a weekend when I felt more like playing Call of Duty than actually celebrating the book being published. When we got to the restaurant, my family was there to congratulate me on the accomplishment. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the book would sell all of three copies, all of which I bought, but that is not the point. I learned that I have people who support me, even when I don’t always know if the writing is worth it, honestly. You may not know it, but when you are in the empty room, reading to no one, there are a few people who are happy you are up there and would gladly cheer you on. They aren’t there, but when they learn about you going to a book reading, they would say, “Damn, I wish I was there.” Don’t forget those people. They can help you when you are down, and the words don’t do anything for you. Then there is a second story about me not being read. I used to write on a literary blog, and one of the articles was not well received by a reader. In fact, I was so surprised that anyone read the piece that I was more honored by the insult than anything. I was like Jack Sparrow in that movie. The guy said he would never read the blog again. I thought, “Well, he did read it though.” Not everyone will like your work. It is best to not take it to heart and move on. Anything else is time wasted. How You Handle It Matters Like most obstacles in life, it is not really the obstacle itself, but how you handle it that matters. Failure in writing, in our case, reader reception, is no different. Keep going if you fail. Do your best to make that failure a future success. And heck, consider the experience a free story idea too.

A poem about monsters who have lost their audience. In “Monster Therapy,” Greg Luti places Dracula, Frankenstein, and the others in a session where they keep asking the same question: where have all the scared children gone? There is a special therapy session for those who need to be taught a lesson. The class is of monsters, you know, From the Boogeyman to that guy in the show. All monsters go to ask the question they need to know. Where are the scared kids? Where did they go? Dracula in his black cape and fangs. Was the first speaker to stand up in the gang. My teeth don’t work. My garlic is rotten. It seems the kids have just forgotten. Do I not suck blood and make them scream? Have I become nothing but a dream? So I just have to know. Where are the scared kids? Where did they go? Frankenstein, bolts and all Stood up next in the middle hall I rise from the dead. Is that not enough? Do they think it was just a silly bluff? My walk should send shivers down their knees So I ask you all pretty please If you just so happen to know Where are the scared kids? Where did they go? Next up was the Werewolf with all his fur. He just growled, leaving others to infer. A high growl here. A high growl there. He growled until he shook the chairs. The room stood silent without a peep. For the whole room hung onto their seats. Clearly he just had to know. Where are the scared kids? Where did they go? The ghost floated up for all to see. He talked loud for a transparency. I could be as scary as you all. But now I am about to fall. Floating no longer does the trick. I need to learn something new and learn it quick. The kids laugh at me and wear my cloths. Maybe I have gotten soft. I just have to know. Where are the scared kids? Where did they go? The monsters left the session full of coffee and cocoa. But still no one seemed to know. So I will ask you. Where are the scared kids? Where did they go?

A writing and editing advice post that focuses on one of the most overlooked parts of a story. In “Don’t Underestimate the Beginning,” Greg Luti explains why the opening of a piece is often what decides whether a reader stays or leaves. The Beginning Can Make or Break a Story The beginning of a story can really make or break the entire thing. Is that hyperbolic? Eh… not really. The first part is, in my opinion, the most important part of any piece you write. It is the part that gets the reader in. It tells them that whatever the heck you are talking about is worth their time. “Hey, you. Yeah, you! Random stranger, who just so happened to stumble upon these words. They are worth your time. I mean, did you read that first paragraph? Am I right?” Without a captivating beginning, the other parts of the piece don’t really matter, since the reader never really gets that far. Why First Impressions Matter Think about the first part of a story, and then compare it to every other part. We talk about the first part as much as we do the other parts combined. When you query an agent, they want the first part of the book, not the last. When a reader starts a new story, they are obviously starting at the beginning. The header for a piece like this can even determine if you read it at all. And this isn’t just for books, too. How many of us have turned off a song because we didn’t like the first 10 seconds of it? Or how about not finishing a movie because the first scene is dreadful? People judge their interest in an entire piece based upon the quality of the first impression they receive. My Own Beginnings I know that whenever I sit to write something, I make a point to have the beginning be pretty good. At least I try to have it be something a reader may like. I do this for my stories too, where I have the first part be something a reader can get pulled into. My first book, Day in the Life, had no actual action in the first part of the book, but the character’s voice shines through, and the reader is intrigued by what the narrator is talking about. I knew the voice was the grab. In a recent story I am working on, I have two scenes playing simultaneously, so that the readers can get an idea of the two men involved. The two scenes lay out the entire story, and set the tone for what is about to unfold. (I have not announced the title to this story yet) I must admit that the beginning of my current novel, Hit of Henry, is okay, not even that great. Perhaps that is why I am stuck on it right now, since I know that without a good opening, the rest of the piece is playing catch-up. There are a few questions I think people ask when they hear a story: how does it start? How does it end? And what happens? If you don’t know that first part, then you have to ask yourself what it is you are writing. Two Things to Think About There are two things about the beginning to think about for improving it. The first is that the actual writing can be great and get the reader hooked. At that point, the reader may not really bring up the beginning when discussing the book to someone, only that it was very well written. The second thing is what the reader says the start of the story is about. That is the elevator talk. That is the comments at the table that friends have about the book. “Well, what is it about?” That… that question is something you should be able to answer when you are writing your own book. I say this advice about beginning parts, for stories and online pieces like this one. The same idea applies. Yes, there is no story here, but without something to draw the reader in, there are no readers at all. I compare this to fishing…. You can talk all you want about the size of the boat, the quality of the engine, the lines you are using, but if you don’t know where you are going to find those fish, and get them to come to that area, then you are in trouble. You need to get the fish by the boat before you worry about cooking them. Famous Openings I can think of one start to a story that is so well known that we use the line as a separate statement. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” The beginning of the Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Cities, where the opening has become so iconic you will see people in videos and in other forms of media say it as though the line has no story connected to it, as though it is a separate entity entirely. Now, the line is so poetic that it can stand by itself, but it also draws you in and makes you want to read more of the tale. I also remember reading the book Catcher in the Rye as an adolescent and thinking that the first 15-20 pages of the book read smoothly. The writer really knocked that part out of the park, so much so that someone read it and thought, “You gotta make this an entire book.” There is a flow to the first part of that book that is timeless, more than anything that happens in it. And yes, that is the part of the book where the narrator introduces the term phony (or fake person) to the audience. How to Improve Your Beginning So what are some things you can do when you are writing next time, to improve your beginning? Get something you can point to that you know the readers will like. It can be the setup. It can be the style. It can be the mystery. Whatever it is, make sure that there is something that a reader can grab on to. If you can, save some good lines for the opening. You know what I am talking about here. Poetic lines that can be by themselves on a post, or a poster. These lines have a life of their own. They give truths about life to the reader that are not necessarily related to the story. That is good. Keep a few of them for the opening. You want as many good lines as possible in the first part of the tale. Dickens had the lines for his book. Salinger had the term for his. Good execution of a good beginning in a good story can go a long way. Once you know the grab, see if you can insert the beginning into the elevator pitch of the story, the thing you tell people the story is about in a short amount of time. How does the beginning sound then? Does it sound like something someone would want to read? Would you want to read that book? If the answer is yes, then the opening is doing its job. Keep something from the opening for later. Don’t just write a cool beginning, and have a clever elevator pitch and then leave it alone. Remember a part of the beginning that you are going to refer to later in the story. That is a smart way of making the beginning not only readable but functional in the story you are telling. Don’t Treat It Like Just Another Part I can’t stress to you how important the beginning is to whatever you write. Don’t treat it as just another part of the story. Just another thing to put together. Know that those words matter more than the other words, and take the proper steps to help yourself improve them where you can.

A reflective poem about the moment something familiar loses its place. In “What Happened?,” Greg Luti turns toward a once-beloved thing that has quietly faded, and asks how people notice the change only after they have already begun to move on. They’ll all ask what happened. What changed? Why is it not like how it was? The question won’t come from hate or even love, but curiosity. As though the question came up to them out of nowhere, like a salesman pitching a new product. “Hey buddy.” The salesman says charmingly. “See this. I got this for you.” “Wait. Why do I need that?” You ask. “Why don’t you?” The salesman winks. You then wonder about an item that up until that point had no place in your mind. You were thinking about your work schedule, and if you could get off on Monday. You were wondering about dinner and if you wanted tacos again. You were worrying about picking up your daughter from school, and if the traffic would be as bad as the last time. You weren’t thinking about the item of the salesman, just like you were not thinking about the question of what happened. Sure, there are many who will give opinions. The people moved on. What was new is now old, and the audience wished for new. What happened, I ask, I say. What happened to this thing today? Did it get old, washed up and sore? Is that why no one wants to see it anymore? They asked for new, and that is what they got. What about the thing? They simply forgot. The quality dipped. What was great is now not even good. What happened? Why does this suck? Is it because no one gives a duck? It got so bad. How can this be? Perhaps my eyes are deceiving me. No. It's bad. I’m not confused. I guess I’ll go watch the news. Or perhaps it was something else. No. No. No. I’m not rhyming for this part. The rhymes above were enough. Seriously, why does it now suck? Yes. Yes. Yes. I know I cheated there. It looks like the quality dipped in two places, to be fair. No matter the answer, things change after the question is posed. Nobody talks about it like they used to. It is a question workers bring up at an office party, before they get back to invoices. “That is still a thing?” “Apparently…” Family members ask the question in the middle of a dinner, before Grandpa’s rant, and the aunt’s joke no one gets. “That thing ended years ago,” Grandma says. “No. It is still going.” The one youth in the room who still knows about it says. “No! It is over with!” One side of the table says. “Wait, is it still on?” The other side asks. “I don’t even know what it is.” One family member quietly mutters. The question is posed. The room finds an answer, and then moves on. No one fights for it. No one is upset about it. It just is. The workers go back to work fine with the new way. Family members all forget about their interest in the topic by the time dessert comes out. It is accepted. Just as you know that asking off for Monday on a Saturday is too late. Or three days of taco dinners is not good for your stomach. Or you will be late getting back from picking up your daughter, since there is always traffic. It is accepted. As the sky is blue, or the fact that you need air to breathe. The next time you go outside and look up at the sky and take a long deep breath of the cool fall air, you may even convince yourself that life without that thing is better. The people moved on. The quality dipped. Or perhaps there is another reason you can’t think of at that moment. Either way, you are fine with it. At that point, what is there to do for that thing? Something died, something real and noticeable, and yet no one mourned for it. A thing rose, changed lives. But then those whose lives were changed left that thing. Until that thing, that which the world loved at one point, is gone. “What happened?” They’ll ask. And once that happens, it is already too late.

A writing update full of small wins. In “Bunch of Good News,” Greg Luti talks about new pages for books and editing, plans for more essays, sharing posts on Medium and Flipboard, and a Halloween story set to go up by the holiday. Site Updates I have some good news for my writing update this week. I will get right to the chase with them. The first good piece of news is that the site is now up to date regarding the books and services pages. That may not seem like a big deal to you, but I didn’t have any actual editing pages on the site for some time. I finally have a page where you can click around and see what I am offering for the editing. I would always say I was an editor, and yet had nowhere for someone to see what I can actually do for them. For the books, you can actually go to a page for each individual book. That was something I have been meaning to get to for some time also, and I took the afternoon and finally did it. I may add more to the pages later on, but I can safely say that each book I have has a nice page on the site. Now, I get that from your angle, you are not too concerned about any of it. You are thinking, “So where is the book update?” “Or what about the next story?” That is fair. The technical things only matter to the creator, but I thought I would tell you that it is a part of the journey of it all. And yes, I am going to answer both of those questions. A Reader Caught a Mistake By the way, one of the readers pointed out a mistake in a recent post I wrote. I misspelled “smell” as “spell,” and the reader messaged me about it later. What is funny is that I did notice the mistake in editing, but I guess I just forgot about it and left it in. Thanks for the correction. More Essays on the Site That gets me to another thing I am doing. You know I write poems and short stories here, but I am also going to put up some essays here too. I have a few reasons for this, and that is because I do have a history of writing up articles without any characters. When I was in school, that is mostly what I did, not really character-driven stories. I also find that writing gives the reader a different tone and take on a topic. I like the back-and-forth between characters as much as the next guy, but I also know there is a place for a message or point in the writing that doesn’t always need characters. Don’t be surprised if you see some more essays on this site going forward, since every so often I do like to write them up. When I write a story, I have to take a second and develop the characters. I have to think about the setting and the theme involved, and whether there are even other scenes they will be in. I can’t just write a story without any of those questions. When I write an essay, I can choose a topic and then really explore parts of it that a story wouldn’t allow. Stories are limited by the lens of the character, because if I go too far away from them, I am losing the story. Essays can go where I want them to as long as I stay in the lanes of the original point, which I like. Getting the Posts on Medium and Flipboard That gets me to another good piece of news this week. (I'll tell you what, this was a good week for me overall.) I am now putting my posts on my site to other sites so other readers can get to see them. The sites are Medium and Flipboard. I learned about them after sitting at work and reading articles I saw on my feed. I wondered how I could get my site on a page like that. In short, my author site is unlikely to ever be on a major site that hosts feeds from large companies, but I can be on smaller sites for writers, which is what I did. The posts are the same, but for people aside from the five who read this site. Yes, that is right; the number went up to five people reading this. It used to be four. We now have five people reading this, and I am only counting myself as one reader this time, and not two. All jokes aside, I think getting the posts in front of a new potential audience is always a good thing. The Halloween Story The last bit of news is not really something I should be telling you, but I will. I know. I know. I am always excited about a new book I am working on, and then I get to the writing updates and give you technical updates… But seriously…. Hear me out. I have been working on an eerie Halloween story, and the outline is basically set. I am trying to finish it before the holiday comes. It is not a long read. I will tell you that much, but I am working on getting you something for it by the end of the week. I don’t know if I can make it, but I know what I want the story to be about. Now I just have to do it. Wish me luck here. I will need it. Hit of Henry Update No news on the current novel, Hit of Henry. This Halloween story is taking the lead for the next week. Once the holiday is over, Henry will get back to the plate. (That is a reference to the fact that Hit of Henry is a baseball story)

A reflective essay about what endures when everything else fades. In “The Song That Wasn’t a Song,” Greg Luti wonders how future people might remember our laws and buildings, yet overlook the ordinary act of singing “Happy Birthday.” What the Future Will Remember I wonder sometimes about the future of the country that I am in, and whether future civilizations and cultures will even care about what mattered once to me. Now, I admit this is not from some random Sunday scroll where deep thought experiments are a topic, but this originates from a video I see that is of the nature of the future. I see someone talk about the future, most likely in a way that the world is doomed, and I then see myself pondering questions of our own world. After viewing another video about the destruction of my world, I reasoned that the America I live in will most likely be gone one day, for even Rome had to fall, and as much as others in my contemporary world wish to view our modern state as timeless and everlasting, that is not the case. I then wonder what exactly the future would say of us? My first reaction is of law and architecture. They would copy our laws and our buildings, just as we did with the Romans. Perhaps not word for word, but for the general concept that we were going towards for our way of life. I don’t know if they would like our music. I don’t see anyone really interested in music from ancient times. I skip the deeper meaning that all my musical tastes will be lost to time, and I end the thought experiment, and I go on with my day, for no man should spend too much time with himself thinking, since it eliminates the living. The Birthday Song At work today, it was a friend of mine’s birthday, and his girlfriend got him a cake. A few of the workers got together to sing my buddy the most famous song around. We all stalled before we started, since none of us can sing. We are not on a stage. We are in the middle of the office lobby, where the parents wait to pick up their children. We are all centered facing the cake, which is on the lobby desk, but that is about as much as we do regarding the arrangement. Once we got to the beginning, the words came naturally to us all, and we sang to the thirty-year-old on his birthday. When we were done singing, someone made a joke about counting to his age, and the room laughed. We then cut the cake, and everyone enjoyed a slice. What the Song Actually Does For a brief moment, a song that sounded more like a nursery rhyme united strangers to recognize the significant moment of another person’s life. There was no performance involved or anything or recognition, but we did it to say to him, “We know that time is going by you. It is going by us all. We appreciate that you are here with us as we live.” We can’t turn back the clocks, so when the alarm goes off, we like to show it some love. What the Future Won’t Understand When my current culture collapses, and there is nothing left to speak of my world, the future will not remember a moment that may be one of the defining traits of my time: singing happy birthday to someone. They will take inspiration from our laws, and they will see remnants of our buildings and wish to see their own in that very style. But they will never understand how we as a society understood the song was not a song. It was a time to reflect on time itself. Because no one who sings the song can actually sing, no one performs it with style. Heck, even the very basic lyrics are not profound. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to (individual’s name). Happy birthday to you. That is it. Those are the lyrics that unite people of our time. It is not a song of peace or a massive pop hit, but a little melody about someone’s birthday. The individual in the song doesn’t get much from the song either. They don’t participate. They only sit there as they have to suffer through bad singers attempting to give a chorus to the repetitive words. Sure, there may be candles at the end of the song the person is supposed to blow out. But that is about as flashy as the ceremony gets. The Variations, Candles, and Silly Lines My biggest regret from the lost information is that the future won’t know the funny variations we had of this song, some that are childish and silly and sung by children, not by adults. I remember one from the playground as a kid. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. You look like a monkey. And you smell like one too. Childish nonsense that kids would say to each other, even when it was not their birthday. The future will miss out on the candles and how there was a certain wish you had to make when you blow them out, and how no one really questioned the nature of the blow. I never once heard someone say, “Hey, wait a minute… how does blowing out fire help with a wish?” We all know the answer when we stand in the room done with the song. It doesn’t. But does that stop anyone from doing it? No. No. It does not. I am pretty certain that kids know their counterparts do not look like monkeys and do not smell like one either. Did that stop my friends and me from saying the funny line to whoever's birthday it was? No. No. It did not. What Historians Will Miss The future will try to analyze our time just as we do of the past. There will be men and women who stand in front of rooms explaining our time to people of their times. “You see this is why they were a democratic republic. They knew a democracy was too much on the people side, and a republic was too much on the law side, so they found a happy medium.” If they are like our historians, they will find a person in our time and find a few fun quotes he said about our time, and then apply them to a lesson. “The Holy Roman Empire was not holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” – A guy who didn’t live in the Holy Roman Empire. Yeah, that is probably going to be what happens after all. Some dude from a few hundred years after my civilization dies will make a note about my time, and then the entire history of my people will be told in that one line. “America was not a democracy, nor a republic, and Amerigo never actually lived there.” – A guy who did live in America. After all those lectures, all those speeches and all those misquotes, I can tell you one thing the future won’t talk about: how our society was held together by a simple melody we sang on someone’s birthday. That is something no history book can really replicate.

A writing and editing advice post about a cleaner way to revise on paper. In “Letter Mark Editing,” Greg Luti shows how marking additions at the end of a draft keeps the original text intact while still letting you improve the piece. The Problem with Editing on Paper Writers love to write up a story and put it down on paper, and then they have to edit it. They have to cross out a few things, then they have to add a few new lines, and by the fifth time of editing, the entire paper is not even readable, but the writer knows there are more edits to be done. What started as a way of helping the story turned into a major headache. We all know this feeling, and I have come up with a way to efficiently write on paper while also editing the piece. Why I Started Using Letter Marks The reason I came up with this method is from an experience I had with writing a book. It was years ago, and I kid you not, I was writing every page again with the edits, and it got to the point where I was just frustrated with the entire process. I was not getting as much progress as I wanted because I was not able to actually edit it as much as I could. I couldn't read the pages, so I had to spend nights typing up what I'd already edited, which was just a pain. It was not working. I gave up on the book, and in that failure, I decided to annotate the edits rather than just edit them as I normally would. The first poem I remember doing this with was one from my poetry book, Collected Poems, called "The Year 1318," which I wrote during my lunch break, and I could do so because of this method. For this example, I am using my poem, What Happened, since I wrote that piece on paper first using this method. (I don't write all my pieces on paper; some are put on the laptop right away) The Two Steps There are two basic steps to completing the piece on paper. First draft Editing it with letters The first step is simple: the first draft. I didn't really have any outline or anything for this piece, so this is what I had for the first draft. First Draft Example What Happened? They'll ask what happened. What changed? Why is it not like how it was? Sure, there are many who will give opinions. The people moved on. What was new is now old, and the audience wished for something new. The quality dipped. What was great is not even good. Or perhaps it was something else. No matter the answer, things change after the question is posed. Nobody talks about it like they used to. It is a question workers bring up at an office party before they get back to invoices. Family members ask the question in the middle of dinner, before grandpa's rants and the aunt's joke no one gets. The question is posed. The room finds an answer and then moves on. No one fights for it. No one is upset about it. It just is. Accepted as the sky is blue or you need air to breathe. The world keeps going, and in that movement they leave things behind. At that point, what is there to do? Something died, something real and noticeable, and yet no one mourned for it. A thing rose, changed lives, but then those whose lives were changed left that thing. Until that thing, that which the world loved at one point, is gone. What happened? They'll ask. And once that happens, it is already too late. Now that was the first draft, or what I wrote the first time I was putting down stuff. Obviously there were a lot of areas to grow with and areas that needed improvement, which is where the second step comes in. Marking Edits with Letters The next step is to add new lines to the work and mark them in the piece. Here are the two lines I had for the first edit. What is it not like how it was? A. Sure, there are many who will give opinions. I am now adding words in between those two lines. I don't put them between the lines, though; I put them at the end of the piece, marked A. "Hey buddy," the salesman asks charmingly. "See this. I got this for you." "Wait, why do I need that?" you ask. "Why don't you need it?" the salesman winks. Now I am done with this edited part, and I go back to the line I left off on. Sure, there are many who will give opinions. I read on until I find another part that needs editing. Why This Method Works By using this method, I am not only keeping the editing clean but also able to focus on one area of the piece and get the most out of those words. The process repeats itself until I am satisfied with the result. I use new letters for each new edit. I am not adding words in the middle of the piece, but at the end. I only add the letter marks so I know where the added words go. With this structure, you can slowly build a piece in a way that is helpful for editing, rather than having the words go all over the place. I have adopted this as my go-to editing technique for physically writing a piece. A Few Things to Keep in Mind Here are a few notes to remember: Conversion will alter things - Converting the line structure to the Word document is a bit tricky. I know I sometimes struggled with it, since when I write in a notebook I have a sentence per line, with some space. But when I put the poem on the computer, that separation looks a bit different. Keep an eye on that change. Not really done - If you are like me, you will probably add more to the piece once you add it to the computer, which is actually what I did do for this one. What you put on the paper is not the finished product Note your handwriting - There are times when I read through what I wrote and swear it takes me a few reads to know what the line was actually about. Extra notes to remind yourself – If you have something you want to remember the next time you work on this piece, it would be smart to write a few notes for yourself so you can pick up right where you left off. Give It a Try Next time you are writing up a piece, don't think you are in trouble if you have to edit it a few times; you can use this approach to make the whole thing a bit easier. I hope this helps.

A poem about the minor chaos of a shared space. In “The Parking Lot,” Greg Luti watches a workplace absorb a renovation, from early warnings to the steady rise of complaints about parking, timing, and who decided this was necessary. I was the first to get into work. Before my co-workers Before the hassle of the day. I walked along the dirt grass outside of the emergency tape to avoid the road. Two projects: One for the parking lot, one for a building. Neither of which I knew much about. Before I enter the office, I stare at the structure in the distance, only seeing a familiar framework of a building and the name of the plaza. “I wonder what they are making that building.” I alert all the co-workers of the project that none will be happy about: the parking lot. So you know, they are working on the parking lot, and it may be hard for you to get a spot today. A few answer the group chat with appreciation towards the tip. One makes a joke of it all, which caught me off guard, since this co-worker is normally quite serious. I spend the rest of the morning moving meetings and answering messages. The parking lot had slipped out of my head. I answer back a parent who wishes to have the meeting at 3 PM tomorrow, a time she suggested. The boss brings up the parking lot as he eats lunch from his desk. “Didn’t they do it already?” I ask him. “Yeah, but I guess they thought it would be best not to have the entire parking lot shut down.” “Probably best.” “Plus, there are spots in the back, so it should be fine.” Three doesn’t work for her. She asks for another time. I suggest five tomorrow. I went to put a folder back, and a co-worker spoke to me as I walked back to my desk. “They are redoing the parking lot.” The chill co-worker told me. (He never really gets too high or low about anything that happens here.) “Yeah, I noticed.” “They have been doing a lot recently.” “Yeah, didn’t they just do the parking lot?” “Yeah, that was only half of it, though.” “Right…” “I think they did the fences too, after the storm.” “Damn, the parking lot twice, a new building, and the fences. Someone is working hard.” I checked my messages. Five doesn’t work tomorrow either. Then the circus showed. “I can’t! I can’t! That parking lot is out of control! I couldn’t even park!” The oldest co-worker said as soon as she came in, accidentally knocking down the sign-in sheet by the front desk. Oh, sorry about that! I am just…. It is so frustrating. I had to take the stairs because I couldn’t get to the elevator because of the parking lot now. I don’t know how I am going to get to my car now! “This is nonsense! They should do this at night! Why do they have to do this during the day!” The funny co-worker said as others agreed, turning an observation into a speech on the state of building projects. What is stopping them from doing this at night? Huh? Can you tell me that? They have the equipment for it. They know that the parking lot will be very busy during the day. What is stopping them from doing it at night? “It is just a hassle… There are no parking spots. No places to park.” The hardest-working co-worker commented to me, in an exhausted tone. Some sense to it would be nice. Finding a spot is so much harder now than it normally is, and normally it is bad enough. I had to drive around ten extra minutes to find a spot, and that spot is so far it might as well be in the other parking lot. It is just…. It is a lot. “I think they are making the building into a food place. I am not sure. It could be one of those new types of food places.” The chill co-worker said to me, in the same monotone voice he always has. For an English major, he knows nothing about inflection. “I don’t know. I can’t complain that they never fill the potholes, and when they do, also complain.” I said. I think of a 21 Pilots song that had lines about the lack of responsibility the government has to fill holes with more cement. I haven’t heard the song since college, so I forgot the actual lyrics. A random song I heard on the radio where the singer speaks of potholes is the most I know about construction. “It is out of control!” I heard the old co-worker talking to others in another room, louder than when she arrived. “There are no places to park!” A familiar voice stated to me. “They should be doing it at night!” A voice from another room hollered. I let the Pilots be and headed back to my desk. I called two other co-workers who had not given their opinion. “How about that parking lot? Didn’t they just do it?” They shrugged their shoulders, not in the mood to elaborate. I checked my messages. It turns out that 3 tomorrow is fine for the parent. I was the last to leave the office that night. After the complaining co-workers, After the parking lot workers. I walked outside the emergency tape, most of which was on the ground, on the new wet grass towards my car. I looked at the building in the distance, seeing nothing more than a framework. “I wonder what they are making that building.”