This very short story was devised from a writing prompt selected by my local writers club. I’m also posting an impromptu video I made to see how long it takes to read the story. Four minutes. There’s sound distortion in the video and I didn’t intend it, nor do I know how to fix it. However – it seems to work well with the story!
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Archives for January 2012
The Alyssa Project – A Challenging Re-Vision
Right now I’m in writing hiatus mode while editing. I’m revising The Alyssa Project – a novel I started way back in 2000 or 2001. I’ve rewritten it completely at least once and now am embellishing, dealing with name changes, and giving the characters more background and depth.
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Writing Practice Exercises with “Take Ten For Writers”
Our writing club members got tired of writing about our small town. For the last year or so we wrote articles on every Happy Camp topic we could think of. After a while it got repetitive because our experiences and opinions stayed the same. So I got the bright idea to buy a writing practice book for the club, for Christmas. As it turns out, everyone enjoys doing the exercises in the book and we’re going to stick with that for a while. The book is Take Ten for Writers: 1000 writing exercises to build momentum in just 10 minutes a day
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Winter Solstice Speech, a Poem & Imperfect Art
Will 12/12/12 be a special day? I don’t know. Maybe we can call it the “Last Party” before 12/21/12… which will be the end of the epoch, or era… and hopefully the beginning of something happier. The 12th of December will be a Wednesday – and the 21st will be a Friday. I expect there will be a lot of partying going on that night, Winter Solstice, and probably we’ll have the same kind of party here in tiny Happy Camp that we did in 2011 – a bonfire, yule log burning, speeches, and music – under the Giant Dreamcatcher.
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Missing Kittens – They pull on my heartstrings
The kittens are not missing, but I’m missing the kittens. Last week we finally got the call to take them to the Mt. Shasta Humane Society, a no-kill shelter. They were on the waiting list there since last November when they turned 6 weeks old, and now they’re nearly 4 months old… and in that time I managed to get very attached!
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Peony – A Mixed Media Art Creation
Inspired by mixed media artists of the internet, I created Peony yesterday and finished her today. [Read more…]
Focused Practice Creates Success – Mixed Media Art and Writing
Didn’t blog yesterday! A lost opportunity! However I did some watercolor and pen sketching. Good start… on getting back into it. [Read more…]
Are You Goal-Driven?
I believe in setting goals because they motivate me to get things done. If I don’t have a goal in mind, my mind wanders – a lot. I’m interested in so many things it is easy to get distracted into one thing, then another, until I can’t remember what it was I wanted to do with my time.
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Creativity Recordings
In Mt. Shasta I picked up a Hemi-Sync CD – this one has a modern rendition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons added to it. It is called Seasons at Roberts Mountain. I live with a Robert and he loves mountains, but that’s not why I got this CD. The CD is supposed to have the vibrations for enhanced learning and creativity. Creativity is the core of my spiritual practice, so anything that encourages my creativity is greatly appreciated. So far I’m enjoying the CD. It took me a few minutes to get used to the new age rendition of the Four Seasons. That’s one of my favorite classical pieces, and I’ve never heard it quite like this before. Modernistic, but pleasant. Relaxing. Happy-making. Serene and peaceful. Joyful… and endearing.
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Alternate Explanations
Things happen that seem inexplicable, then our imaginations kick into gear to try to understand what’s happening. Sometimes we come to the wrong conclusions and need to explore alternate explanations. I find that many people are quick to blame others or think the worst.
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Be Thankful For Every Day You Have
I have to be thankful. I’m still alive, still relatively healthy, and still enjoying life. So many people can’t say this, and my heart goes out to all who suffer. I believe this world isn’t the only place, that we’ll have another world to go to after we leave here. What we do here is very important and will have an effect on whatever happens next.
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Bad Laws Are Changed, Eventually
There are a lot of bad laws in the USA that need to be done away with. I think everyone knows that, though we may not all agree on which ones are most harmful to humanity. Today I was reminded that eventually bad laws do get repealed. Prohibition and slavery are two of them.
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Insight on Peace and Stability
Where do peace and stability come from? That is the question.
On Sunday I met with some local writers for what I call writing practice. We do this every week. Lots of fun! This week we did the first exercise from Take Ten for Writers: 1000 writing exercises to build momentum in just 10 minutes a day, a book I gave to the group for Christmas. Great investment – so far we’re loving it. The assignment stretched my normal writing abilities by taking me out of my comfort zone, and soon I reached an insight about peace and stability – something I needed to understand, for my personal life.
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