I never really considered The Gecko Story as one of my better efforts, but from the comments and e-mails it seems to be fairly popular.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve slated that story for a pretty thorough re-write a couple of times in the past.
Huh.
Ah, well.
LawDog
The Gecko is a great story. One of the first ones I read here I think. . . It got me hooked. . .
Great story Lawdog. Keep ’em coming.
Linda in Miszippi
It’s a great story.
But I wouldn’t mind seeing how you’d rewrite it. 🙂
BTW, LawDog, have you met Sailor Jim Johnston? I think you’d like each other…
Here’s a good starting place:
http://sailorjim.net/wordpress/?cat=6
I loved the Gecko story, and beg you not to change a word! I laughed til I cried, I could see every moment, you painted such a vivid picture. So please, don’t rewrite that one, and keep them coming.
Well, get on it.
Great Story!
Great Gecko!
Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?
A great story is still good with mediocre writing, but no amount of word smithing can save a mediocre story. Not to say anything about YOUR writing (I am certainly not qualified to judge). But like hilinda said, it would be interesting to see how you’d rewrite it.
I would not mind you taking a shot at improving upon it, just don’t trash the original until we all know that the “improved” version truly is improved. No story is perfect, everything has room for improvement, but sometimes you need to know when “good enough” truly is good enough too. Many, many writers suffer from the uncontrollable compulsion to do rewrite after rewrite after rewrite. For them no story is ever truly finished. It makes it hard to actually publish anything.
I love gecko’s and I loved your story!
The gecko story is always the first one I think of, when I think of this blog or read of a reference to you.
It seems to perfectly capture the essence of who you are, what Africa was like, and who your parents were.
I re-read it fairly regularly!
Excellent story!! I nearly fell out of my chair and died.
It took me a careful re-read through to get the mental image of where the lamps were vs the bar and the light overhead, and I could see tightening that up a tad. But the story as a whole is superbly written and very, very funny. Karma is wonderful stuff.
“The Major” is my all time favorite! I retold it (with attribution) at a beach bar in Puerto Vallarta crawling with the little big lizards distant cousins. It was a hit there, too!
I loved the “Major” the first time and even more this time around.
And I just adore your mom, btw – ‘tactical applications of frying pans’ just make me snicker *giggle-snort* as you say!