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This week: It's All About the Mule Edited by: Legerdemain  
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It's All About the...Mule!
Stubborn as a..., dig your heels in like a...I think the mule has a bad reputation! If you don't raise cattle, or have critters in your pasture, you might not know that many ranchers have a mule or donkey grazing with their herd for well, basically a ranch car alarm. Donkey's are really protective. So what's the difference between a donkey and a mule? A mule is half horse, half donkey. A mule is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). A horse has 64 chromosomes, and a donkey has 62. The mule ends up with 63. Mules can be either male or female, but, because of the odd number of chromosomes, they can't reproduce. A jennet or jenny, the female mule and a "hinny," meanwhile, is produced when you breed a stallion, or male horse, to a female donkey.
Who knew you'd learn so much about a mule when you opened this newsletter? I didn't when I started researching for it. But I saw October 26 is National Mule Day and thought I'd do some digging. Who knows, maybe this will inspire someone to create a Halloween costume. My son was in a school talent show years ago, with his guy friends dressed as Santa, and another dressed as Dominick, and you guessed it...my son was the donkey. It's pretty hard for a mom to brag and point to her son, the ass, up on stage. 
So, you never know what will fall into your lap and bring a memory and a laugh while doing so. Sometimes its not about serious research when you're plonking around the internet, try to remember that when you're feeling a bit NaNoWriMo'd out.
And as always, Write On!
Oh, and the song I spoke of:
This month's question: Were you ever surprised while researching a topic?
How do you use that in your writing?
Answer below  Editors love feedback!  |
Excerpt: I write this as a hobby farmer and an expert equine trainer and I have the broken bones to show for it. Three ribs on the right side when my tractor rolled forty feet down a slope and crashed into a tree, a broken hip when a green broke horse reared, threw me and proceeded to sit on me, a concussion when I accidentally spurred a high spirited Morgan that raced off with me and stopped short on the black top, two ribs on the right side, a broken collar bone and a punctured lung when my newly trained horse was spooked by barn squirrels, bolted from under me and taught me the value of paying attention. But it is during a crisis that we excel at the things we are destined to do…and even as an expert, I, too, am subject to the unexpected.
Excerpt: Top Hat, a spotted mule foal, hit the ground running, on the Fourth of July, 1983. He was on his feet unlike the wobbly coordination of a horse foal. Being the hybrid of a horse mother and donkey father, somehow the mule’s nervous system is better developed.
Excerpt: It was with frazzled nerves that I drove my car slowly up to the wooden farm gate which was the entrance to my parent’s estate. My father had had it modernised so it could now be opened electronically, that was of course if someone was monitoring the CCTV camera which was angled down at the driver’s side window. I leant out of my window, the underused muscles in my short arms yelling in disapproval as I stretched over to the button on the intercom that was nestled amongst the tall hedge. I waited and was surprised when I heard a voice respond to my buzz, it was my sister, Lucinda.
“Who is it?”
“Lucy, its Matt,” was all I said, I heard her quick inhale that could have been a sob.
“Matty! I’m letting you in right now!”
| |  | Mule Feathers (E)
Grandma and Charlie share a memory of Grandma and Bill the Mule -3rd place Words w/ Wings
#1945402 by Amay  |
Excerpt: “Grandma, tell me a story,” Charlie snuggled down in my lap as I rocked on the front porch of the old farm house.
“What story do you want to hear, Buddy?”
He snuggled closer being tired after helping me in the garden. “Tell me about the Mule Feathers, Grandma.”
I closed my eyes, calling back the memories of long ago, of a hot summer day, and that precious Old Bill, the gentlest mule ever. “Alright, Charlie, Mule Feathers it is.”
| | | Lincoln Memorial (13+)
Ray and his mule survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Written for Writer's Cramp contest.
#1752829 by J. R.  |
Excerpt: Ray ducked from the giant ant mandibles. Moistened with poison, they tried to chew at him out through one of the holes in the wreckage of an overturned tractor trailer that Ray was hiding in with his mule.
Excerpt: Gosh it’s been awhile, so sorry but life for this super mom has been more than the average crazy and hectic. My life had been filled with tragedy and that not so good friend heartbreak. Seems in this busy time of my life I have not had much time to sit and write on the subject of super mom and the sometimes-insane chaotic life I live.
Excerpt: "Artroni, come dance for us!" they loved to say. One day, to their musical accompaniments, he raised his hands high, lifted one leg and then the other, and perfomed the most remarkable dance through the streets of the town. The sidewalks filled with onlookers, and soon became a cheering crowd. Young ladies applauded him from their balconies, and tossed down their undies. They poured him wine at each corner, and marveled at his ability to keep it up.
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This month's question: Were you ever surprised while researching a topic?
How do you use that in your writing?
Answer below Editors love feedback!
Last month's question: Have you researched your family background? Did it spark a story??
Quick-Quill  responded: "The War is Over" Here is a story based on a true event in my family's history. I traced the geneology of my mother's family. My novel is based on an event in someone else's family memoir. I couldn't get that event out of my mind and asked if I could rewrite the event in another story and setting. It was published and did very well.
BIG BAD WOLF is hopping  replied: Done some research - Irish on my mother's side, English n my fathers - funny enough, my great-aunt on my mother's side thought that she was of Irish Royalty (due to our last name among other things - Let's just say that McCarthy has an Irish Royal Branch out there in the tree). Well, she tried to prove it - she found out that our ancestors were kicked out of Ireland for rum-running. Needless to say, she burnt the research. That being said, I've been working on a Historical Fiction story about that ancestor.
blimprider sent: Oh, yes, ancestry is a fascinating field to pursue! My daughter has been on Ancestry.com working on family history for over a year now. Several of us have had DNA tests done, and she has discovered ancient English royalty, Irish immigrants, and viking raiders. One wouldn't need to stray too much further to create a whole world of stories!
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Action/Adventure: October 25, 2017 Issue [#8571]
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