The Pen of a Ready Writer

Greetings, gang!  I stole another idea from Scattered Scribblings.  She played a game of 10 truths and 2 lies, where she posted 12 things about herself, 10 of which were true.  And all of her readers got to guess which ones were lies. Want to play? Okay, here are 12 things about me: 1. I am married. 2. I am 5 ft 3 3/4 inches tall. 3. My mother self-published a book when I was a child. 4. I have read Plenilune by Jenny Freitag. 5. I wear glasses. 6. I ran over a toad with a car. 7. I love the sound that crickets make. 8. Clear blue skies are my favorite. 9. I like dark green colors. 10. I am a midwife. 11. I used to live in Alaska. 12. I love to eat spinach. Leave your guesses in the comments below! Which are true and which are false?  I can't wait to see what you know about me! And, if you want to play this on your own blog, leave me a link in the comments below so I can come guess on your page!

Hi, guys!  I have been sitting at my computer, checking on some of the blogs that I follow.  This one was such a perfect post that I wanted to share it with you.  It's not long.  It's called: Stories are Remembered .  Go read it!

      I stopped by Savannah's blog yesterday and found that she is celebrating her 1-year anniversary of blogging.  Hurray for her!  It's a grand accomplishment, and I feel like she has done better in her first year of blogging than I have in almost 4 years.  If you haven't been to see Scattered Scribblings , it is worth checking out.  I enjoy it.      As part of her celebration, she is hosting a writing contest.  The rules are simple.  The wordcount must be between 500 and 2,000 words, the word "ink" must be somewhere in the story, and you must submit it by September 26th.      As most of you know, I have been working on a Snow White retelling for the Rooglewood writing contest.  In fact, I worked on it for a while yesterday.  And then, yesterday evening, I saw Savannah's short story writing contest.  And I decided that it would be refreshing to write something different for a little while. ...

     Last year, Rooglewood Press took a break from hosting the novella contest due to perfectly worthy reasons.  Shall  they resume it this year?  I don't know.      But what if they do?      January is the perfect time to start guessing what story they have lined up.  It can't be Cinderella or Beauty-and-the-Beast or Sleeping Beauty because those are already taken.  So what do you think?       My guesses are The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, or Snow White.  What are yours?

     You might not be proud of me.  I think I've always been the black sheep of the family, and I'm probably a little blacker now by your standards.  It's been eating at me a little more than I've been willing to admit.      I knew you were annoyed with me my last year back home.  You thought I was hanging out with the wrong friends.  To be honest, I was pretty irritated with the rules you were always trying to tie me down with.  Things just don't come as easy for me as they do for Harry or Frank or Thomas, and I hated that you wanted me to be exactly like them.      But that look in your eyes when I signed up with our nation's armed forces -- that's what got me.  There was hope in your eyes.  Not just a surface hope, but a deep, desperate hope.  That's when I realized how much pain I caused you every day.  And I vowed I was going to be a good boy from then on.  I could tell that you f...

Rules 1. Thank and follow the blog that nominated you. 2. Tell us eleven facts about yourself. 3. Answer the questions that were set for you to answer. 4. Nominate 11 bloggers and set questions for them. STEP ONE:  Dear Tracey Dyck at http://traceydyck.blogspot.com, thank you for nominating me. STEP TWO:       I am the tallest girl in my family.      My hair is probably the same color as Tracey's.      I love red hair.  Long, rich, wavy, red hair.  Yes.      Death doesn't scare me.      Thunderstorms make me feel safe.  And happy.      I've seen about 170 human babies be born, and I haven't even counted the little animal babies that I've seen.      I think math is fun.      I think school in general is fun.      Im a vairy gud speler.      I am an aunt.    ...

     "I hope you don't mind us taking advantage of y'all's fine hospitality."  Amelia Howards murmured, as she ducked through my front door.  She brushed her hands over her skirt -- it looked as tired and worn as she did.      "Not a bit -- we're glad to have you."  I waved her into the house and cast a wary eye toward the north road.  Then my gaze dropped to Amelia's children.  The two little girls looked frightened, but the boy stuck his tongue out at me.  I pursed my lips; the boy's manners had deteriorated since his father left to join the Confederate soldiers.        "Amelia! Darlin'!  Come on in and make yourself at home!"  Etta Rose rushed from my sitting room and greeted the newcomers.  It should have irritated me to see her welcoming people in as if this was her home, but today was not a day for squabbles.  Etta Rose took Amelia and her children to settle them in. ...

     They have four of us.  We stand in a line under their scrutinizing eyes like four ordinary citizens...except we aren't.  All four of us are secretly members of the French Resistance.      You see the oldest on the right.  His name is Reymundo.  A more pious man you will not meet, and as stubborn as a French mule.  Once he believes himself to be right, there is no shaking him.  It makes him a difficult man in an argument at the dinner table, and sometimes he gets on my nerves.  But I owe him more than a little respect for the strength in which he stands against the German Nazis.       The man to his left is Barrie.  He's been with us for 6 months...sort of.  His wife and two little girls do not know that he has joined our ranks.  At first, I thought he was not as committed to our cause as the rest of us.  He is quiet.  He comes, prints our newspaper, and goes home.  The...

Hello, lovely people!      Emily at Taking Dictation nominated me for the 7-7-7 Challenge.  It involves me turning to page 7 in one of my stories, sharing the first seven lines in a blog post, and then tagging 7 other people to do the same.      I accept the challenge.      I will be sharing the first seven lines from page 7 in AAM.  Here it goes:       “Rather a disturbing story for the heroine, isn’t it?” Detlef’s voice broke into her imagination, and Ilona blinked her eyes open to see the stone in-laid path and the overhanging branches once more.       “Not really.  Cordula always ends with my papa’s decree that no one with a spindle be allowed near the castle, and the fact that I lived happily ever after.  I was never overly frightened.  My papa has always been big and strong in my eyes.”  She smiled childishly.  “He could protect me.” ...

Hi, guys!  I just wanted to let you know that tonight on Facebook is the 5ER release party.  This is the second book resulting from Rooglewood's fairy tale contests.  The first was Five Glass Slippers, and it was released last year.  The third will be Five Magic Spindles, and it will be released next year (the stories are being written as we speak). There is a giveaway as well.  You can read more about it on Anne Elisabeth Stengl's blog, here .

So I tagged The Aspiring Bard with my questions.  And she answered them!!  Her answers were fabulous and made me laugh.  :D  And then she posted questions for the next group to answer. Typically, you wouldn't immediately jump back into the rotation of questions, but she left it open to the public and I have nothing better to do.  So here are MY answers to HER questions: 1. What's one thing that you're good at? I can bend backwards and touch my forehead with my toes. 2. What color would you choose to describe your personality? Why?  This is a hard question.  I don't think of people in colors.  And don't colors change with mood?  Hmmm.  Let's say a dark, deep red color.  It's not flashy or in your face.  It's kind of warm and soothing.  It's the richer part of pink.  It blends in well with things and yet adds a bit of color.  It deepens frivolous colors and brightens dark colors.  How's that? 3. Dream jo...

I read a post today by K.M.Weiland about compounding conflict in your story, and it was brilliant.  (If you want to read it yourself, check out this link: http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/compounding-conflict/ ).  She used the Jurassic Park movie to illustrate her point.      As a disclaimer, you should know that I have not seen this movie myself.  As a warning, you should know there are semi-spoilers written below.      We have all probably guessed that at some point in this movie, dinasaurs are on the loose trying to eat people.  But you probably also know that at the beginning of the movie, the dinasaurs are safely contained.  And we can surmise that something happens to set the dinos free.      The point that K.M.Weiland made in her post is that it is not ONE thing that sets the ball in motion.  There are multiple conflicts that coincide to make a big impact.  And we can create that i...

Fullness of Joy is celebrating their 4-year anniversary with a literary tag.  Below are my answers but I also encourage you to take a peek at Joy's blog .  She has a giveaway there, if you are interested.  :D "Fullness of Joy Literary Celebration Tag" 1. What is your favourite "happy" sort of book? (a book that either has joy/happiness as a major theme, or a book that gives you a happy, cozy feeling inside).      Pollyanna is a "glad" book! 2. Did you ever have, in your childhood/youth, a certain book that launched you into a serious love of reading which made it something bigger than a mere hobby in your life?      No, I don't remember NOT reading. 3. What is one overhyped novel that people nowadays term as a "classic" that you really didn't like as much as everyone else? What made you dislike it so much?      The funny thing about my brain is that I will "humph" at it for a week and then promptly strive...