1) My sister and I were in the living room of our apartment. She was typing away, preparing her essay, and I was lounging on the couch, reading a book and sipping on tea. Then I heard her say: “June…what…what is that?!” I slowly turned sideways to see her staring up at something on the curtain. Before I could get over to check it out, she screamed and shot back, and that was when a black thing with wings fluttered to the other curtain across the room. It looked like a beetle of some sort. Or a veryyy, veryyy big fly.
What do two young ladies who are terrified of bugs do?
I, the oldest sister, scrambled away to the far corner of the room while my sister jumped up and down, her face pale, telling ME to catch the thing. We bickered for a few seconds: “You catch it!” “Nooo you catch it” “YOU catch it!” It ended up being my sister; I agreed to be the assistant a.k.a The Side-kick. So she got this plastic milk jug, crept over to the curtain, and slammed it over the bug. She tried to slide the jug so that we could close the opening with a magazine. But in this attempt, the bug ended up flying out somehow, while another SAME ugly black bug flew in from the open balcony door. We screamed and huddled in the center of the living room, staring with terror and the two bugs clinging to the curtain. I threw a pencil at it. Other objects followed along. The startled bugs finally flew onto the table.
Extreme measures needed to be taken. I decided to take control of the situation. So I took a broom and smacked it over the bug on the glass table….a loud clang fractured the still night silence, dust clouded the air and the bug flew away to the edge of the table. I kept my eyes on this one while my sister looked for the other that had fluttered away somewhere. She found it on the wall above our TV. So she took the broom and smacked it. It fell behind the TV. Then she looked at me and said: “June, now it’s your turn. Get a magazine and squish that bug on the table.” And my reply was: “C-c-couldn’t you? I’ll clean it up.” So she got the magazine and, while screaming, threw it onto the bug. I said, “I…think…it’s dead…” while inching closer. I took the broom and–clang, clang!–I continued to hit it over the magazine, and then smoothed the broom over it as well. Then I looked beneath our glass dining table to see black bug juice smeared all over the magazine.
Now that that was done my sister told me to clean it up. I told her I couldn’t, for fear of the other bug attacking me, because it could still be alive, you know! So I pulled out the furniture bug#2 had fallen behind. And, lo and behold, it was NOT dead. So my sister got the broom and–bang! bang!–hit is over the bug. It died.
All this happened at 2 a.m. with much screaming and much banging and clanging and thumping and, finally, a burst of laughter over the possible scenerios that could have outcomed from this incident. Say a neighbour had heard the scream and thought we were being attacked and so called the police…? Because we were screaming pretty loudly. And I felt pretty bad for the neighbour living downstairs. It must have been pretty noisy. This got me thinking. Why are we (not all, but many) so scared of bugs? Why are we, creatures who are 10000000+ times bigger than the bugs, scared of them?
2) Now, on the writing front, I am about 15,000 words into my new book titled: Be Still My Heart. This story is actually not the troubled marriage story I mentioned a few weeks ago. I tried my hands on that but failed miserably. It seems I must wait until I get married, or at least wait until I’m in a relationship, before I can successfuly carry that story out. Be Still My Heart, however, has been a joy to plot and write. It is a love story, but it’s also focused on a broken father-son relationship. James, the Earl of Carlyle, is the hero whose life’s goal is to have revenge on his father. And the revenge is one that places a wedge between himself and the heroine, Henrietta Wilson, and threatens to tear them apart forever. Here’s a very small, UN-EDITED (meaning, I don’t know if I’ll keep it or not) snippet:
…For a moment, James looked back in shame at his life of hard gambling and drinking–a life driven by the sole purpose of ruining himself so that he might one day open his arms and look at his father, saying: “Look at me. Look at what you have done to me.”
My friend sent me a song that really inspired me as I wrote. It wasn’t so much the lyrics that inspired me, but the background music. It’s haunting. I let my sister listen to it and she said it was weird. But I LOVE it so much! Here it is below. And I would appreciate it so much if you guys could share some of your favorite songs that inspire you as you write.
June Hur 
snippet looks great!
talking about bugs… there was once this lizard that was spotted in my kitchen. my housemate sprayed it with so much bug spray that you couldn’t go anywhere in the kitchen or living room without smelling the pungent-ness. yes, it was THAT much bug spray. and it lasted for awhile…
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A LIZARD?!?!?!!?! But…aren’t lizards cute? Well, in the national geographics they looked cute. But I guess they’re ten times worse to catch. Because it might be dangerous/gross(?) to catch them and then you can’t smack them with a broom like bugs….eeek!
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A favorite way of mine to kill bugs has always been to first spray them with Windex or some other kind of chemical to “blind” them and then smash them. With a book or magazine, then jump up and down on the squishing object until I’m completely sure they’re dead. “Blinding” them ensures a proper sneak attack on my part, assuming they don’t run/fly/crawl away first, but at least I’m fairly certain if they do get away, they’re blind LOL. Everyone laughs at me when I say spray them with something, but it makes me feel better. And if it’s done with Windex or Lysol or even better, bleach, then they’re clean bugs too.
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So what WAS the bug? Do you have a Cicada outbreak or something? They’re the most amazing insects EVER. What was it? Do you know?
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Noo idea. The two bugs are smushed beyond recognition. But it was sort of rectangular-ish. And when they fly, they fly reallyyyy fast. But upon closer inspection it wasn’t a beatle. It just looked like…a rectangular fly. Or a flying cocoroach—however you spell that. But it wasn’t a cocoroach, to be sure. It flew in from outside attracted to the light I believe. Because it was night. And stupid me kept the balcony door open wideee
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UGH! I hate uninvited bugs. The worst in my neck of the woods are cave crickets. Do a google image search and prepare to be horrified. Seriously. Then imagine them in your basement, lurking in wait for you to go downstairs with a load of laundry.
BSMH sounds awesome!! Umm…needless to say, happy to read anytime! And…I like that you went with Henrietta 🙂
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You….must…hate doing the laundry then. I would hate doing the laundry if I had to face fighting the bugs each time!!!! Back when I used to live in another apt, I found this big bug in my room, and for SEVERAL weeks I could not sleep there anymore. Because I heard these “statistical truth” (or I just might be v guillible) that when you sleep you end up eating small spiders. And I didn’t want one of those bigs bugs crawling into me mouth….*shivers*
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I’m always – always the one who gets to kill bugs in my house when I go home to visit…even though there’s also an almost 13-year-old boy in residence. (My brother screams like a girl.)
Love the snippet. I think it captures a lot, even though it’s so short. You should keep it. =)
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WOW. Did you notice that you were the ONLY person here that is NOT terrified of bugs?!?! Very admireable. May I call for you when I see a bug the next time? Mind flying over?
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I don’t like bugs too and I use to spray that thing on them too much. But you know, bugs can be very dangerous if they are toxic or something like that.
I loved your book snippet! But I do hope you’ll write that other story someday I love that kind of thing! But this new one sounds sooooooooooooo good! I want to read more!
P.S. Great that you’re posting again!
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Eeek toxic bugs…..(makes me think of the spider in spiderman!!)
Ah yes. I liked that previous story idea as well. But I my imagination just would not work as my knowledge of marriage was so limited. Usually, for me to write well, I need to have SOME experience. I don’t need to have been married, but I need to have been in a serious relationship, to have some kind of emotional experience to base the story off of. So until then, that stories on hiatus! harhar. I will return to it though 🙂
P.S. I’m glad to be interacting with y’all again ❤
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Yay, yay, yay! June is back!!
First – my suitemate and I had a similar situation with bugs in our dorm at four in the morning. We screamed at each other for about an hour before I charged down the hall and dragged a boy into the room to kill it for us. And just today a bee swarmed into my car before I took off for work and I was unable to drive for fifteen minutes due to a battle with this thing. I ended up squashing it with the thing we use to scrape the windshield … but halfway through my trip I realized IT WAS STILL CRAWLING AROUND!! It’s still there in my car somewhere. I have no idea where it went.
Second – a new story!!! Fantastic!! The premise sounds very intriguing and the snippet is very well written. 🙂 Can’t wait for more of this!
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First – Bug on board. That is the scariest ever. Because your trapped with a bug in a smaller area. It must have been VERY distracting to have had a crawling bug while driving.
Second – I’m glad it’s intriguing!!!!!
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My younger sister and I were just talking in her bedroom and then we heard a ‘buzzing’ noise, and then a large, flying cockroach just happened to show up on her wall. We fell silent, and it was like in slow motion, but we both scrambled for the door yelling profanities and, when we had finally shut her door to trap it, we looked at each other and started to burst out laughing. It was the most random thing. Yes, I have a phobia of cockroaches, and will never, ever go near one. We get our dad to kill them 🙂
Anyway, the most romantic song atm for me is:
“Amazing” by Janelle
It reminds me of Tess OT D’Ubervilless because I had this song on replay when I read it.
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I LOVE TOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have you seen the 2008 adaptation? Thanks for the song! I’m off to download it as soon as I reply to these comments.
Flying roaches are THE worst. Hmmm so you locked your room to “trap” it… That’s one big trap! It could have escaped!!!!!
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Bug stories? We’re sharing bug stories! I have some would make Hitchcock shiver. My two fondest memories come from living in a huge, old farmhouse when I was younger and from living in Mexico (I could have put a leash on some of those cucarachas). You and your sister needed some serious RAID action.
Inspiring Songs! You shouldn’t have asked…I will keep it a short list though. 😉 I did the first two that came to mind. And I won’t include ES Posthumus since you know I’m obsessed with anything by them.
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Thanks for the rec! So THIS is Johnny Cash! ….Can you believe that I never knew how he looked, even though I heard his name so many times? tee hee. What a very moving song, btw. Sister is saying: Oh, very good, very meaningful.
I always said I wanted to live on a farm. Now I’m reconsidering that dream. I will not survive living among roaches that can be leashed!!
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OMG! As I read this I could actually think back to one of those moments when my sister and I raised a ruckus over a bug.
Lizards are better because they just crawl along the walls and most of them are scared away by humans. I wouldn’t kill one because they definitely have more goo! Good thing about them is, they keep away the bugs…or rather eat off the bugs.
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Ugh, I don’t even want to think of how much goo would be smeared on the wall if a lizard is squished. Yuck!
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I just looked up the cave cricket and that thing is pretty nasty. We have scorpions here, though. I think I could win the worst-bug-story-ever award. Scorpions falling off the ceiling, under the sheets, in my shoes, coming up the bathtub drain . . .
Can’t think of an inspiring song off the top of my head. It’s the silence that gets me moving. 🙂
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Holy Canoly. You win. Any kind of bug FALLING off a ceiling is scary. Because it might fall without you even knowing it was there in the first place. Aren’t scorpions deadly?
“It’s the silence that gets me moving” Beautiful!!
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Haha the bug story made me laugh, somehow I could picture you guys 2 in the morning screaming and running around trying to kill the bugs and the bugs are attacking back for revenge! 🙂
The new story sounds great- I love the whole complex relationship between father and son!
Hmm, some of my inspirational songs? Well, I listed to a LOT of Conor Oberst (surprise!) while I was writing my first draft 🙂
Some of my favorites were, “Oh you are the roots”, “We are nowhere and it’s now,” and “First day of my life”…
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*Off to YouTube Conor Oberst*
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June, you proved that you are a writer in the mind and the heart by transforming a bug infestation into a suspenseful story! Loved it! 🙂 I really like the name “Be Still My Heart” — so many possibilities! Your snippet has intrigued me and I look forward to knowing more about this venture of yours. Good luck!
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Aw, thanks Hema! Thanks for the encouragement. I’m glad that my entry about bugs was suspenseful!!!
I’m glad you like the title–it took me so long to come up with it!
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I really enjoyed both that song and this post! Bugs often send me into hysterics as well. My friend and I were driving in the car, when we noticed a HUGE spider on the front mirror. We managed to not scream until we had pulled into a parking spot, jumped out of the car, and thrown our shoes at it. Then the squeals and jittery dancing started, haha.
I like this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EgKiVP4oo&feature=related Secret Garden’s music is great.
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I loooooove Secret Garden’s music! It makes me picture a green valley and mist 😀
Like I told Miss Rosemary, bugs in the car are THE worst, because you can’t run away from it. When one is in the car, and is in the middle of driving, one must face their fears…. I think if I were in your situation I’d have gotten into a car accident–because i’m TERRIFIED of bugs. So it’s wise that I have no driver’s lisence
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My wife bought a bug zapper at a place called Harbor Freight. It is an electronic battery powered gadget that looks like a little yellow tennis racket. You push a red button on the handle with your thumb, swat at ’em, and it fries ’em in mid air. I don’t like bugs either.
Dr. B
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WOA! Bug zappers! That sounds so awesome! I need one of those. That’s so much better than squishing ’em
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That bug story is pretty epic. That’s generally the scene when my sister and I encounter a spider. (Imagine that only with one of us in the shower and one of us applying make up in the bathroom mirror.) I do feel bad for your neighbors. XD I hope you don’t mind if I follow your blog. =P
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Oh deary, you guys must have had a fit seeing that spider! Of course I don’t mind if you follow my blog! I’m very honored 😀
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Oh I hate bugs as well, nasty horrible little things and I will also scream and hide and peek into the room, devastated when it’s still there. I’ve got this aerosol spray thing that kills them nicely for me. I wish I didn’t have to but I can’t stand having them in my living space.
And I love that snippet of yours 🙂
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I don’t even have bug spray! Need to get a good one. Ahk, but they sure to stink up a plaeE!
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