Posted in Challenges

Song Lyric Sunday – Outer Space

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This week’s theme for Song Lyric Sunday is “outer space.” So in the spirit of the moment, I chose Elton John’s song, “Rocket Man,” as this week’s contribution to Song Lyric Sunday.

Rocket Man

Elton John

Lyrics
She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine AM
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
‘Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
‘Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don’t understand
It’s…

 

 

 

 

Posted in #weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare 8/12/2017

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Good morning to everyone! If we were having coffee this morning, I’d ask you to meet me at our local coffee shop. It has a wonderful patio area and the owner sets up a wonderful buffet for the #weekendcoffeeshare people. Today’s offerings are the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever tasted and banana bread that I’m going to taste. He is also going to offer us bread pudding! Yes, bread pudding for breakfast which is very decadent!

There is a nice selection of tea, including a wonderful raspberry tea, along with a selection of green tea and two black teas including one called “Paris.” Coffee this morning is a regular coffee along with expresso and a nice cafe latte.

Let’s all sit down and talk! I would love to hear how each and every one of you are doing. It’s been sort of an odd weather week where I live here in Kentucky, U.S.A. It’s still rather hot during the day, but one can tell that fall is coming. The summer flowers are definitely fading. The nights are getting cool. We’ve had so much rain this summer. We’re way above our average. There is a feeling of fall in the air. September and October really dry out if it is a usual weather year. There is nothing about 2017 that has been normal about the weather here. Have you experienced the same where you live?

How has your blogging and writing been going this week? I haven’t been blogging as much as usual. That’s because I’ve been trying to finish one part of the novel I’m writing. I did finish it, but it just means I’ve now started on the next part that is the actual “meat” of the book. I hope to finish this part before I go to Florida for the winter. I’ll leave here for Florida in early November. The part of the novel I’m working on now requires about 60,000 – 70,000 words. That’s what I’m facing between now and early November! I won’t be blogging as much as usual!

The other really important thing I’m doing between now and when I leave for Florida is training my little dog, Hanna. When she came to me, she was a blank slate. No one had done anything with her. Hanna is now five months old and doesn’t even know how to walk on a leash. I’ve trained dogs before, but when they were much younger and amenable to training than Hanna. So I’m employing professional help! Hanna starts private obedience training classes on Tuesday with a very good dog trainer in my area. She will learn the basics like how to walk on a leash and socialization skills. She is so very shy. She was clearly not around people at all until she came to me. She will have as many private lessons as she needs. Then, she and I will join a puppy obedience class for more socialization and to learn the basic obedience commands. After that, if there is time, she will join an adult obedience class.

Hanna and I have work to do!

As you can see, I’m going to be busy between now and when I leave for Florida in early November.

Tell me what’s going on with all of you in the comments. You’re my friends and colleagues!

Posted in Flash Fiction

A Solitary Life

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Janice was glad to get out of the house. Her weekly trip to volunteer at the Red Cross was one of her only activities where she actually went somewhere. Not only did she feel useful there, but she had other people to talk to.

Janice had caught the city bus at the bus stop near her home. She lived alone. Janice’s husband passed away two years ago. She had little extended family and they didn’t have much interest in her. She had some friends, but she didn’t expect them to babysit her. She tried to fill her time the best she could. She didn’t even know her neighbors.

When she got to the Red Cross office, she sat down at her desk and started doing the administrative chores she was assigned. It was rewarding. As volunteers came in and out, she got to talk to her friends. One of her friends asked her to go to lunch later in the week. She happily accepted.

She took the bus back home at the end of the day and resumed her solitary existence. She was a reader, a writer, and she did beautiful needlework. She supposed it was enough.

Posted in Challenges, Writing

One Liner Wednesday

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Sixty years ago today, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing 70,000 people. A few days before, a nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States, killing around 150,000 people. The plane that dropped the bomb was the Enola Gay and the Commander was Robert Lewis.

Commander Lewis said he saw Nagasaki simply disappear. When he did, he wrote one line in his journal. That line is my contribution to One Liner Wednesday. Commander Lewis wrote:

My God, what have we done?

Posted in Challenges

Song Lyric Sunday – Lyin’ Eyes

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When I saw the theme for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, there was just no question about the song I would choose. One of the songwriter’s, Glenn Frey of the Eagles, is gone but will never be forgotten. RIP Glenn Frey
THE EAGLES
Lyin’ Eyes Lyrics

City girls just seem to find out early
How to open doors with just a smile
A rich old man
And she won’t have to worry
She’ll dress up all in lace and go in style

Late at night a big old house gets lonely
I guess every form of refuge has its price
And it breaks her heart to think her love is only
Given to a man with hands as cold as ice

So she tells him she must go out for the evening
To comfort an old friend who’s feelin’ down
But he knows where she’s goin’ as she’s leavin’
She is headed for the cheatin’ side of town

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin eyes

On the other side of town a boy is waiting
With fiery eyes and dreams no one could steal
She drives on through the night anticipating
‘Cause he makes her feel the way she used to feel
She rushes to his arms; they fall together
She whispers that it’s only for awhile
She swears that soon she’ll be comin’ back forever
She pulls away and leaves him with a smile

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t now way to hide your lyin’ eyes

She gets up and pours herself a strong one,
And stares out at the stars up in the sky.
Another night, it’s gonna be a long one.
She draws the shade and hangs her head to cry.

She wonders how it ever got this crazy.
She thinks about a boy she knew in school.
Did she get tired or did she just get lazy?
She’s so far gone she feels just like a fool.

My oh my, you sure know how to arrange things.
You set it up so well, so carefully.
Ain’t it funny how your new life didn’t change things?
You’re still the same old girl you used to be.

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes
Honey, you can’t hide your lyin’ eyes

SONGWRITERS
DON HENLEY, GLENN FREY

PUBLISHED BY
Lyrics © Cass County Music / Wisteria Music / Privet Music, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group, Red Cloud Music

 

 

 

 

Posted in weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare – 08/05/2017

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I’m sitting in the coffee shop where we’ve been having our #weekendcoffeeshare, with my friend, Jenn, going over today’s menu with the owner. We’re early so we can get the menu worked out for our colleagues. I’m reflecting back on the week.

“Here they come,” Jenn said.

I could tell she was excited. So am I..

Our blogging friends, and friends of theirs, came in,

“Come on in,” I said. “The owner of the shop has prepared the best cinnamon rolls for us. There is hot tea – green, black, and herbal. The specialty coffee today is chicory. Have a seat anywhere.”

I’m so glad to see all of you today! I hope you’ve been well and that you’ve been prolific in your writing. This has been the busiest and most frustrating week for me. I guess we all have them.

The first order of business each day is training my new puppy, Hanna. She will be five months old in just a few days. She’s smart and trainable, but I don’t want to put too much on her all at once. Slowly, but surely, she is responding to her name, housebreaking, and a plethora of words and commands. She went through a period of trying to be the “alpha” around the house. I stopped that quickly! I bathed and groomed her for the first time this week. Hannah is having a lot of “firsts.”

I fear my writing has suffered this week. I haven’t written as much as usual. I love blogging here on WordPress, but I’ve had to work on my novel, which is not on this platform. I’ve gotten some done on my novel. I’m rewriting some material, which is hard. But, I think changing my style and doing some rewrites was definitely in order. However, I haven’t been very prolific. Some weeks are better than others, I guess.  How has your writing gone this week? Very well, I hope.

How many of you have made a career in freelance or staff writing? I have, but in the past. During my time teaching, for a time, I had too careers. Professor and freelance writer. I wrote for online and offline magazines and websites. I’m thinking of launching that career again. Freelance writing is different now with more competition, but that doesn’t bother me. The only thing that does bother me is that it would be a huge time commitment. I would enjoy the extra income at this point in my life. Living on a fixed income in retirement doesn’t really suit me. If I do this, I’ll be blogging here on WordPress, writing a novel, and freelancing. Even to me, that sounds exhausting, but fun! What say you? I’d love your comments.

I just got back from our local farmer’s market. This is the prime time of the year for good vegetables where I live in Kentucky, USA. People line up to buy them. My haul included green beans, more tomatoes than I can possibly eat, corn, and green peppers.

I am suspicious that fall is coming early to my part of Kentucky. Even the fall flowers, like the black-eyed susans are just about finished blooming. The summer flowers are completely done. Things are starting to look fall-like. I’ve noticed the sharp shadows at the end of the day where the angle of the sun has changed.

It’s been great to be here this morning. I’d love to hear from all of you!

 

 

Posted in Challenges

#SoCS – 08/05/2017

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The #SoCS prompt this week is high/low:

If you’re a writer, you’re accustomed to experiencing the highs and lows of the profession. Think of the lows in the form of all those rejection slips from print publications and emails from online publications you may have received. If you’re a novelist, make that form letters from agents or publishers. You undoubtedly have a portfolio of unpublished material in the bottom drawer of your desk.

The highs. The obvious ones happen every time a publication accepts an article or a story you have worked so hard to write and source to appear on its pages. It’s exciting to have a story or an article to appear in a publication that is unpaid, particularly if you are a new writer. When you start getting paid for your work, receiving those checks, no matter how small, is truly exciting. If you work really hard, you may be able to make a living as a writer. Perhaps you can become a staff writer for a publication. I prefer to be a freelance writer.

If you write a book and an agent represents you so you can get it published through traditional publishing, it’s a real high. Finding an agent is just as difficult for a novelist or a writer of non-fiction books as finding a publication to accept a non-fiction article.

Self-publishing is becoming increasingly acceptable and if your work is marketed correctly, you can do very well selling your book, although there is no doubt that it is more difficult than traditional publishing.

All careers are full of highs and lows. I contend that a career as a writer, whether non-fiction or fiction, staff or freelance, is particularly so. With the ease of using email to query publications and agents, there is more competition in the marketplace. It takes hard work and long, hard hours and is not for the faint of heart.

Posted in Challenges

Compassion

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Ben said, “I’ve rounded up the last of the flowers. I just stuck them in these containers.”

The employees of the flower shop were resting in the back room at the end of a busy summer weekend. Every flower in the shop had sold except these two arrangements.

 

The door opened and a woman walked in, crying.

“My mother is so sick. She loves flowers. Do you have anything? The cases are empty.”

The employees all looked at each other and Ben walked to the back. He got the arrangements and handed them to her.

She left the shop, smiling.

 

Photo credit to Dale Rogerson

 

Posted in Challenges

#weeklysmile 83

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I was lucky enough to witness an event that gave me a huge #weeklysmile this week! I live in a cabin in the Daniel Boone National Forest, moving here almost 19 years ago now after some trauma in my life forced me to seek peace and tranquility. I didn’t take me long to realize my house was built right in the path that white-tail deer used in this particular part of the forest. We have a huge herd of deer in my state and they have a terrible time finding enough food. I started to feed them. That was in the winter.

By the time the winter was over, I had a herd of deer at the feeding trough. By the time July came, I had a wonderful surprise and that surprise has fascinated me year after year since. It’s my #weeklysmile this week. The does brought their fawns to my feeding trough to teach them to eat.

The fawns are no bigger than large dogs and have their spots. Many does have twin fawns, with the male being slightly larger than the female. It would make anyone smile to watch them try to eat cracked corn out of the feeding trough, corn flying from either side of their mouths while they struggle with it. These beautiful, special babies are true miracles of nature.

Posted in Challenges

Song Lyric Sunday – 7/30/2017

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The theme this week for  is “colors.” I thought of The Who’s song, Behind Blue Eyes, off their classic 1971 album.
WHO
Behind Blue Eyes Lyrics

No one knows what it’s like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes

No one knows what it’s like
To be hated
To be fated
To telling only lies

But my dreams
They aren’t as empty
As my conscience seems to be

I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That’s never free

No one knows what it’s like
To feel these feelings
Like I do
And I blame you
No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain and woe
Can show through

But my dreams
They aren’t as empty
As my conscience seems to be

I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That’s never free

When my fist clenches, crack it open
Before I use it and lose my cool
When I smile, tell me some bad news
Before I laugh and act like a fool

And if I swallow anything evil
Put you’re finger down my throat
And if I shiver, please give me a blanket
Keep me warm, let me wear you’re coat

No one knows what it’s like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes

SONGWRITERS
TOWNSHEND, PETE