A taste of flash fiction

Writers are always writing something. I have another novel in the works, and my long-suffering critique partners have been reading through each chapter as it rolls out of my brain. First drafts aren’t fun to read, believe me, and mine can be especially brutal when I’ve been short on writing and preparation time.

Christmas is always one of those ‘too much to do, and not enough time in which to do it’ kind of seasons. As the date for our working lunch meeting approached earlier this week, I finally had to acknowledge I wasn’t going to have a chapter ready for my peers to critique. So I took pity on them and did a reading instead. It was pretty silly, short and sweet, and nothing like my usual writing…a bit of flash fiction entitled A RUINED RELATIONSHIP, originally written for k.c. dyer’s blog.

In her countdown to Christmas, author k.c. dyer undertook a writing project — twenty-five days of ‘festive flash fiction’. Each day on her blog she presents a short piece — something light and entertaining that usually contains an abundance of a single alphabet letter and doesn’t exceed 250 words. At her invitation to contribute, I chose the letter “R“.

~

A RUINED RELATIONSHIP

Rosslyn bent over, hands on knees, gasping for breath. Running regularly hadn’t rebuilt her stamina as her husband had suggested it would. She wanted to lose weight, to look better for Christmas, so each day she tried to run a few minutes longer, pushing her limits, but she hadn’t yet made it all the way ‘round the block. Half way there and her legs were rubbery…. [If you care to read the rest of my bit of whimsy, I’d be obliged if you’d hop on over to k.c.’s blog, HERE. Many thanks!] 

~  ~  ~

An Abundance of Hats

Sometimes it’s fun to let your hair down … and put on a hat. The ladies of our church did that last Saturday when they gathered for an annual Women’s Breakfast. Their ‘hat’ theme was evident everywhere.

There was nothing terribly significant about the hats — straw, felt, wool, flowered or be-ribboned — they ranged from simple sunhats to Sunday fedoras.

If you arrived without one and felt self-consciously bare-headed, there were extras available.

Every place setting was adorned with a miniature hat to take home, each backed by a magnet for displaying on our fridges as a delightful reminder of our special morning together.

A devotional time peeked at scripture’s reference to wearing or not wearing hats in church, and the cultural aspect of showing modesty and respect in our use of them.

(Always a difficult-to-interpret, controversial passage: “But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head—it is the same as having her head shaved. For if a woman does not cover her head, she might as well have her hair cut off; but if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should cover her head. A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.”) [1 Corinthians 11:5-7]

‘The History of Hats’ was explored, revealing interesting tidbits. I did a little extra research to unearth the following:

• primitive people pulled skins over their heads as protection from the weather;
• early Egyptians, Romans and Greeks wore headpieces as a indication of rank;
• in the late 14th and 15th centuries hats began to be worn as fashion statements;
• milliners appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries, and
• by the mid-1800s, millinery was well established on a level similar to haute couture;
• by 1960 the popularity of hats was declining.

The latter point probably explains why, despite being a pastor’s wife, I don’t own many hats. My daughter-in-law accompanied me to the breakfast, and I told her I still owned two — one is my wedding ‘hat’, a frothy band of white organza with a wispy veil, but I couldn’t remember the other.

Sunday evening, out of curiosity, I went hunting … and discovered I had lied. I own not two but three hats, plus my hubby and I have a collection of western hats I’d completely forgotten. I no longer have the one hat I best remember. It was turquoise with a wide-brim, and exactly matched a favourite maternity dress! Even on my ‘I-feel-so-fat’ days, that outfit always boosted my spirits.

Saturday’s hat theme was totally frivolous but it provided ‘a blast from the past’. Except for the straw sunhat I occasionally wear when gardening, and the hood of my jacket that I sometimes pull up to protect my hair from the rain during a dash to the car, I haven’t worn a hat for probably forty years. Now that I’ve located them, perhaps I shall startle our parishioners one Sunday by wearing one to church.

One thing’s for certain: I’m going to find a reason for my protagonist to wear a hat in my current manuscript. Just because I don’t write historical fiction, doesn’t mean her wardrobe can’t have some significance. (Although at the moment I haven’t a clue what it will be!)

Do you wear hats? Do your characters? Why? (Or why not?)

~  ~  ~

A Green Moment in Time (Again)

“Way back in the olden days…” well, back in 2009, anyway, I admitted to being Irish and I shared a bit of the Irish legend and the shenanigans our family occasionally pursues to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. The latter involve things like green-tinted milk and green cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches in school lunch boxes, green oatmeal porridge in the morning and perhaps even green mashed potatoes with green beans at dinner time. I’ve about outgrown that silliness, although on second thought, I made green cupcakes last year.

In honour of the day, I’ve brought back that blog post. I hope you enjoy it. No writing application today, just a Happy St. Patrick’s Day wish for everyone.

~

‘Tis St. Patrick’s Day and I admit to wearing green. I could just as appropriately have chosen blue, mind you, as blue was the colour associated with Ireland until the mid-1700s. And non-Catholics might well choose orange. So why does green appear everywhere today?

Legend has it that St. Patrick chose a shamrock to help explain the concept of the Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people. As the habit of tucking a shamrock into one’s hatband became a common sign of either Irish nationalism or loyalty to the Roman Catholic faith, references to “the wearin’ o’ the green” began popping up. Trust the rest of the world to go overboard with turning all things green on March 17^th. Even  the Chicago River is green today.

We do get carried away, in both sacred and secular circles, as we celebrate the feast day of St. Patrick. But it’s a wonderful excuse to share a bit o’ Blarney with friends. However I draw the line at hoisting a pint of green beer or stout. Just thinking about it makes me feel a little green around the gills!

Go n-eírí an bóthar leat.

(May the road rise with you.)

~  ~  ~

 

 

Used with permission from Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com

Going Green?

Leafy greens

Ecologically green

Greenhorn cowboy

Greenstick fracture

Green apples

~

No matter what version you favour, come mid-March there’s really no other green except an Irish one. It was St. Patrick’s Day yesterday. I wasn’t particularly innovative, but I wore green, and my visiting daughter baked a batch of green cupcakes for her girls.

There was a time — my children will vouch for it — when there was green porridge in the morning, green milk and green cream cheese sandwiches in the lunch kits, and probably green mashed potatoes at the dinner table. What can I say? I’m Irish, but in a ridiculously Canadian kind of way.

~

Shamrocks

Blarney Stones

Irish Cream Creme Brulee 

An Irish Wolfhound if you like big dogs

or a Soft-coated Irish Wheaten Terrier if you don’t

Maybe a little Irish Step-dancing

Rainbows and Pots of Gold

A pint of Guinness

Leprechauns

Oh, it wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without leprechauns, mischief and a bit of music! However you spent it, I hope you had a great day.

. .

~  ~  ~

A Doggy Dilemma

Not many dogs own forty toys. That’s right, forty! Our dogs have always liked a stuffie or two, a nylabone to chew and the occasional tug toy (to gnaw on; we don’t encourage tugging). But in his half dozen years our Labrador Retriever has managed to accumulate quite the assortment. He adores getting a new toy and never destroys anything, so the numbers keep building.

It was laundry day recently and there weren’t quite enough dog towels to make a full load, so my hubby decided to toss in the dog’s Christmas toys before packing them away with our decorations. (Yes, he has special Christmas ones. Don’t look so surprised.) It was while extricating them from among the others spilling out of the toy box (of course he has his own toy box) that the quantity prompted us to count them. Forty! That’s an embarrassing number, especially since we have only one dog at present. It was time to do some culling.

Have you ever tried to clean out your closets or basement in preparation for a rummage or garage sale, only to have family members snatch items from your grasp because you apparently didn’t realize they were still treasured possessions? Uh-huh, you get the picture. One by one he grabbed them from the pile and raced through the house, dropping them in other rooms. We only managed to sneak out one white panda bear that was so grimy I don’t think he recognized it.

He still has thirty-nine toys. He needs a bigger toy box.

~  ~  ~

‘The Next Big Thing’ Meme

There’s this Meme going around, called The Next Big Thing. Folks have been sharing details of their current writing and up-and-coming projects. My DD, Shari Green, was tagged and I was happily reading her post when, wham! I came across my name. So I’ve been tagged now, too.

The idea is to answer the questions and then pass them along to another writer. It’s a great way to learn about each other’s work and to do a little self-promotion. Here are my answers:

 ~

What is the working title of your book?

Since I don’t have a working title for my current w.i.p. yet, I’ll use the previous manuscript, and its title is UNLIKELY SHOWDOWN.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I’ve been involved with the world of purebred dogs and dog shows for more than thirty years, and have seen some bizarre situations and behaviour. I heard of dogs being killed by obsessive competitors and that got me thinking about what might drive a competitor to murder someone.

What genre does your book fall under?

It’s fallen all over the place, from cosy mystery to romance to inspirational romantic suspense! The revision I’m currently querying is simply a romantic suspense.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

If it wouldn’t be considered too arrogant I would love to see Meryl Streep as the MC and David Strathairn as her husband. On stage they both display the strong, independent personalities that cause so much conflict in this story.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

UNLIKELY SHOWDOWN is the story of what happens when one woman’s addiction to purebred dogs and the competitive world of dog shows speeds out of control and turns deadly.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I have friends who have very successfully self-published so I know it’s possible, but it’s not for me. I can’t imagine myself venturing into today’s tough publishing scene without the guidance of a knowledgeable agent and the help of an experienced editorial team. Does that make me a wuss?

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

If I said ‘forever’, I’ll bet other writers would understand. Much of it was written during last year’s NaNoWriMo month, but I continued to work on it right through the spring. I guess that means about nine months for the first draft, but I was still rewriting  parts of it earlier this fall, and am continually tweaking it now… especially since attending a recent workshop by Donald Maass on the topic of Writing Twenty-first Century Fiction.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I left this question until last, but even now I can’t really pinpoint perfect titles. I’d like to say a movie match-up would be combining the quirkiness of BEST IN SHOW with the out-of-control adventure of THE RIVER WILD, but that’s not exactly right either. Let’s just move on, shall we?

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I think my earlier answer covers this. The plot reveals an aspect of the dog show world few people know about, and should. Once the idea germinated, the story pretty much blossomed on its own.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Everyone loves a dog story, but this one is more about the people who love dogs. There are many wonderful people involved in the dog show world, but also many eccentric ones. I was the official consultant for the filming of ‘Best In Show’ and if you’ve seen it, you’ll remember how passionate some people are about winning at any cost. There might be “eight million stories in the Naked City”, but there are a whole lot of them lurking behind the scenes at dog shows, too.

There! Now you have it. And now that I’ve done my share, I’m to tag others and invite them to participate. So, in alphabetical order…

~

First victim:  Laura Best

Laura’s first novel was an historical YA story, although I think I recall hearing her hint that there’s a non-fiction project somewhere in the works, too. She can be a little kooky at times (yes, you have to read her claim to the Booker Award) but when she talks about her little Miss Charlotte, you know she has her priorities straight.

Second victim:  Keli Gwyn

Keli writes inspirational historical romance. Long before she was published herself, she interviewed me on her Romance Writers on the Journey blog. There is nobody with a heart like Keli’s when it comes to supporting and encouraging her fellow writers.

.

 Third victim:  Ruth Logan Herne.

Ruthy is a multi-published inspirational romance author, a dog breeder, and an out-of-this-world cook, plus she has an outrageous sense of humour. I met her on Seekerville, but she has multiple websites for her books and a couple personal sites as well.

Fourth victim:   Katherine Wagner

Katherine writes Gothic horror, but I like her anyway. Anyone who has attended the Surrey International Writers’ Conference more times than I have has to be on the right track. She’s the co-facilitator of my writing critique group, Golden Ears Writers, so I have to be nice to her and her red pen.

~

If you’re tagged and don’t have time to take part, or would prefer not to, it’s okay to decline… although since I’m dying to hear more about your “next big thing”, I’m going to be very curious about your answers to this meme, so I hope everyone will choose to participate. 🙂

~  ~  ~

All Hallows’ Eve

Some say All Hallows’ Eve has Christian roots, while others suggest they are Pagan. Either way, it would be hard to convince our little ones that there is anything but carved pumpkins, candy and costumes associated with their Hallowe’en traditions. As they traipse from door to door I doubt many of them  even know about the feast of All Saints.

But the children do feast… on candied apples and carmel popcorn, and a great assortment of calorie-laden goodies. (My scale will vouch for just how calorie-laden they are, too, after I indulge in the annual consumption of the leftovers!) We rarely have many youngsters find their way to our door, but that never deters me from buying a good supply (always of my favourite sweets) to have on hand “just in case” this year is the exception. I mean, it would never do not to have an adequate supply if more than the usual six arrived on my doorstep, now would it?

Tonight at midnight will mark the kick-off of the annual NaNoWriMo writing endeavour — November’s “thirty days and nights of literary abandon” in which I will once again join hundreds of thousands of other equally-crazy participants around the world as we scribble our way to the first draft of a 50,000 word novel.

It will also mark the start of another blogging hiatus for me, as I concentrate not only on my NaNo commitment but also on readying another manuscript for submission. I’ll return to posting here on November 12th. The scale will no doubt tattle about what I ate during my absence to keep my writing muse cooperative, but I don’t aim to discuss the numbers at all! Especially if trick-or-treaters are scarce around here tonight.

Happy Hallowe’en!

~  ~  ~

Slipping and sliding through a novel’s first draft

They aren’t sure yet. The new slide has a curve and its unfamiliarity  overrides the exciting prospect of a breath-stealing rush down its slippery surface.

 

I feel a little of that uncertainty as I contemplate a shiny new story idea. It hasn’t quite gelled yet and I hesitate to take off into unknown territory. What if the urgent words pull me off track? First drafts can be like that – a headlong dash that sometimes aborts with a whimper.

A little experimentation is called for – a few different approaches explored. Not plotting, but maybe a bit of pre-planning, trying out the options.

And then impatience lends confidence and the ride begins! The first draft is a time to let go of inhibitions and let faith take over. For a writer there is nothing quite like the exhilaration of getting a first draft down on paper.

 

I suspect my granddaughters know a little of that same feeling.

~

 What does starting a first draft feel like to you? Does it involve dread or anticipation?

~  ~  ~

Word Games and the Writer’s Brain

That smile said he knew he was winning.

After more games than I’ll embarrass him by counting, my hubby finally won a round of Blokus. It’s a game of strategy using game pieces of varying shapes that must be fit together with only their corners touching. The player with the least number of pieces leftover at the end wins. There’s also a classic version for up to four players.

The product description says, “Blokus encourages creative thinking and has received a Mensa award for promoting healthy brain activity.” I’m not sure I’d want my brain analyzed before, during or after a game, but I’m for anything that may improve its health.

As a gamer, I don’t always plan many moves in advance, but as a novelist, I strategize while I’m working my way through scenes and plots. Thinking ahead. Figuring out moves that will thwart or mislead. Planning twists, turns and where to add conflict or drop red herrings. My brain can use all the help it can get!

Word games of various types are recommended as brain stimuli, and may even help slow down the advance of dementia.* I’ll sometimes fiddle with magnetic words to get creative thoughts moving. I play the occasional game of Scrabble, too, but my 90-year-old neighbour puts me to shame. Not only does she regularly play Scrabble on her computer, but she works on Sudoku puzzles and six to eight crossword puzzles every day. I don’t know what my mind will be like at ninety, but as the cliché goes, hers is sharp as a tack.

My hubby may not be eager for a re-match, resting on his laurels and all, but I’m ready for another round of Blokus anytime. My novels will thank me for playing.

How about you? Do you enjoy word games? Share your secrets for keeping your mind sharp.

~

* Alzheimer’s Reading Room

~  ~  ~