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 |  Impromptu writing, whatever comes...on writing or whatever the question of the day is. |
    I've been blogging all through my days without knowing that it was blogging; although, this isn't necessarily the only thing I do without knowing what I'm doing. Since I write on anything that's available around me, my life has been full of pieces of scribbled paper flying about like confetti. I'm so happy to finally have a permanent place to chew the fat.  So far my chewing the fat is on and off.  Maybe, I lack teeth. Feel free to comment, if you wish.  Thank you very much, Cindy, for this honor and the beautiful graphic.  This Blog Continues in "Everyday Canvas "    |
Phew! Done! Actually done a few days ago, but Thanksgiving was another phew, so I now have some time to look back. I don't know if I'll use December for editing. Pros and Cons for December editing: Pros: the story is still fresh in my mind, and it is probably better to get it over with. I may also lose the instinct and desire to finish the thing if I don't do this in December. Cons: One can see the holes and what is missing better if a hiatus is allowed in between the writing time and the fixing time. On the other hand, December is a busy month. In the meanwhile, I took a look at the novel because its beginning has been bugging me all along. I had started it with a prologue since I hadn't decided who the main character would be. Now I got rid of the prologue and incorporated it into the first two chapters. I'm glad I did that since I hate prologues in novels of this kind. Prologues may be okay when they introduce an alien world or something like that, but not in the kind of novel I wrote. Did I say I wasn't sure about any editing in December? Well it seems the editing has already begun. I will probably go over the sections that I have left with a question mark in my mind, like the one that reads like a travelogue of Mexico's west coast. This is somewhere close to the middle. I wrote that because my mind had stopped as to where to take the story, for which I am now glad because that section became a bridge to the rest of the story. It is very possible I'll cut out the travelogue, however. Thanksgiving was great, especially the part where I saw my children -well, my adult children who have homes far away from where I live. All in all, November 2009 has been an experience. |
| 39,628 words. I am hurrying, and not only because I want to finish the novel, or the resemblance of a novel , before Thanksgiving. It is just that the story or the characters have taken over. Funny, how some things from my own life seeped in, plus the really weird stuff I came up with due to the quirky main character, even if she is a tragic one. It always works to choose a primary character with a personality disorder. People with personality disorders or those having borderline personalities always act, get into things, and stir muck. We went to BJ's yesterday. I bought a bunch of fine-point Sharpie pens. When we came home, I didn't like them. They make a sh-sh-sh- sh sound as I write and distract me. I am not writing the novel with pen and paper, but I write other things all the time or take notes on what I'll write later. So the Sharpie pens are in hubby's possession now, and I'll have to get a new set. I should have stuck to Pilot-G or Uni-ball Signo to start with. My husband laughs at me because I'm so picky with pens, and I don't give a hoot about other things. Last week sometime, a woman asked me what I was writing in the waiting room, while I waited for my husband. I first said grocery list, then noticing her looking at my paper, I said I was scribbling some notes for a letter to be written. I was actually writing some kind of a rough draft/outline for a newsletter.  Since nosy people find me all the time, I write a few lines, then start reading a book, or if the waiting room is large enough, I go sit away from everyone. I really like NaNo. I like the obsession and the intensified attention it forces the writer to give to the work. I could live like this forever, but I can't because of real life and because I do want to do other things, too; even if other things have suffered only a little at this time. *Edited to add: I love the photo in Short Shots for November. I'd write for it, if it weren't for Nano. It would've been fun. *sigh* |
| I hope this wasn't a Friday the thirteen event, but I couldn't help myself. I went back and made the first chapter second, then added a first chapter as told by the main character. Yes, I know who my main character is now. The first chapter is not as attention grabbing as before, but this is the right way to do it. If I hadn't done this, I couldn't have gone ahead with the story. Now I have a main character and a story that is shaping up around her. Just keeping my fingers crossed. After the 50,000 or the finish, I have to make the first chapter more exciting or interesting in some way to draw better reader-attention. I finished reading Famous Writers School. Clever novel. Entertaining and about what we all like in this site. Even so, I wrote my daily portion of NaNo. I'm also doing other things in real life that I am responsible for; except the house cleaning has suffered a bit, but then, it is the first thing that suffers under any other emergency. I have to write faster after this, since my kids changed their minds and are coming down for Thanksgiving. They had originally said they had too much to do, so they wouldn't be coming. Although I had dared NaNo partly because of that, I am really happy they're coming. Then, I'm glad I doing the NaNo thing because, even if I will be busier after the 22nd, I will probably finish most of the novel. It is going faster than I gave me credit for. Just let's hope so! And another thing, I hadn't blogged this loyally before. |
| 26,099 words. Past midpoint. We'll see... In one of the pep-talk e-mails to my addy, a NaNo moderator talks about freewriting or what I call free flow. Looking at the other available NaNo novels in progress, however, I find none of us is freewriting, but we are writing fast using an idea or an outline with the goal of finishing the stuff by the end of the month. Actually, I am used to freewriting. Every day I write about ten minutes, longhand, with no idea or goal, but this won't do for a novel. Freeflow is only good opening up the passageways, like a nose spray when you have a cold. Then, you'll still have to breathe on your own. Fresher the air, the better. I guess some writers start anything new with stupid dreams about it. When I started my NaNo novel, I put it in the general fiction type, but when the psychological twisting and turning took hold, I changed it to literary fiction. Now, the action has taken over again, and I am wondering if I should go back to general fiction. I never thought I'd end up confused about the type, genre or whatever. On the plus side, I am even writing faster now, and truly with reckless abandon, since the story is following its own course. I may or may not like where it is going, but it is going. Albeit blindly. Then, I think, that is the idea behind NaNo. In any case, I started enjoying who the characters are as I am feeling their feelings. One thing to keep in mind. I must not worry about the finish line. It looks like there'll be a finish line, but the story may collapse dead when it reaches there, like an untrained marathon runner. But then, what is revision for? Chances are we writers will learn new ways while doing this, and we'll find out which ones will work best for us in different circumstances. So, I am taking this as an exercise in itself...even if it is taking so much of my time and mind-power. Not that my mind-power is in leaps and bounds either. |
| Remnants of Ida...tail winds and rain. Great! I love this wind. It cools the place and makes the AC obsolete. It seems the tougher my life gets, the harder I push. I'm sure I'll turn into jelly, soon. Between hubby's tiny operation, the taking out of a mole gone bad on his back, and my own adjustment to a blood-thinning medicine, I still wrote quite a bit for NaNo. To be fair, last few chapters were exciting to write, and I didn't have to brood over them. At this time, I'm at 21,084 words, and the good thing is, today I'm home. I am hoping to near the midpoint mark. Crossing my fingers... At this juncture, I discovered I have two novels in one. The real story is Rosie's, the mother. But Maya's, the daughter's, voice is so fresh and loud. I am thinking...thinking...although I'll leave things as they are and continue on. I hate to say, maybe later, because I know later will never come. Maybe I can rearrange the chapter order...That I'll do for sure, but I haven't figured out how to make Rosie rise over Maya... Btw, I don't like Rosie as a person all that much, but I really like Maya. Maybe I'll dream about this or something. While wrestling with NaNo and my real life, I wrote my next newsletter, which makes me happy. I also read Famous Writers School by Steven Carter to the halfway point while in the doctor's waiting room. A really good novel most of us may find close to our hearts. I'll probably finish it sometime by the end of the week, if I can steal time from NaNo. Before I write some more, I'll go bake a bread and a cake. It's amazing how uplifting food is. |
| It looks as if we may get a whiff of Ida, hurricane cat.2 in the gulf now. Still, its early winds have cooled us up, thank God! We're in the seventies daytime, a bit cooler at night, and the wind feels really great. Only if it wouldn't act so negatively where my allergies are concerned... Well, you can't win them all. I still have the windows open. Hubby says we should have the AC on before asthma starts acting up on me, but I am really enjoying the cool, fresh air. So the windows are open, AC's off, and I am crossing my fingers for the rest. As to Nano, after starting each day with a thousand plus words every morning, then adding to it in smaller increments through the course of the day, this morning I felt I needed a break. So, after my usual Sunday morning routine in real life, I did some sewing/mending, some FB games, and baked bread. Still, my entrails didn't let me, and I wrote about 700 some words. I think I'll take a break in the late afternoon and write my next newsletter, since I have been dying to write something else. This NaNo novel got to me like I want to throw up over it. On the plus side, I am starting to identify and empathize with the characters, even with the villainous ones. I am curious how I'll wrap the ending up. My outline did not have any ending. Anyhow, I never know my endings while I write. As I come close to midpoint, so many different ideas for other novels or stories are popping up in my mind. This must the result of some fear mechanism or the escapist attitude that sometimes ails me, which accounts for the many half-finished pieces of fiction I have left inside my computer, this present one and the other computers I have killed. No worries (or should I worry) since I probably have them backed up on CD's, though I don't think I have enough lifetime left to finish them all; plus, not that I mean to. |
| Nano: 11,893 words at this time. Is this what happens when you cross the ten thousand line? I now want to write other things; things other than NaNo, an article, a poem, a book review, which I read several books in the last few months and meant to write reviews for them but did not. Anything but NaNo. What a paradox! "How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress." Niels Bohr Hahahaha! Look who's talking! In his case, the progress was the atomic bomb. No more bombs, please. I have bombed enough. We had lunch by the ocean today. The water was choppy and gorgeous. If there is such a thing, it was a hint of a storm but under the sun. The weatherman says it is like this today and tomorrow on the east coast from Jacksonville all the way to the FL tip. Now, I really want to write about the ocean. Maybe I need to put an ocean scene, or a cruise, or something to do with the ocean in the NaNo story. I think that's what I'll do next. I don't know how I'll do it without messing up the storyline, but it'll come. Worse comes to worst, I'll write it now and take it out during the revision, if there'll be a revision. The good thing is my characters are starting to get to me. |
No offense, but I think, in WdC, we are all anal-retentive. On the other hand, I think we rock.  While we worry about good ideas, viewpoints, story sequence, character drawing and the like, the other writers are just filling up the 50,000. I came to this conclusion after reading some of the NaNoisms, a few from earlier years, others from 2009: " As this thought came to him, he was violently attacked by an idea." "Even though they were the only two people in the world who could probably understand each other as nearly to completely" "I was quite happy with my happy." "“I know,” Benjamin said as if Allen was stating an obvious fact, which he was." "Finally recovering from his initial, stun the counselor stepped up to the man." See what I mean? Now you can tell your inner critic to shut up. After all this, my own Nanoisms aside, my word count at the moment is 7874. Maybe I'll finish the novel by the end of the month. This time, as a NaNo newbie, I put me in a difficult place by choosing to write on something that needed some research and twisted characters. I know now that I am going to enter NaNo again, but next time, I'll start without an idea and just wing it with all the Nanoisms I can muster. That will be more fun. |
| So far so good. I am writing something around 1000 words in the mornings and adding to it 400- 600 words, three or four times a day. So far I'm averaging about 2000 words a day, but this won't last long since, tomorrow and after, I'll have other things to do like assessing the 500-Words-a-Day group's books for October, and the stuff in my regular real life. As of this entry, my word count is 5,858 words. It is late morning, and I hope to add to it later. I am writing the book as simply as it comes. Before I post in the WdC item, I look it over and substitute a better word or two if they come to me. I read the whole thing once a day just to remind myself not to mix up the names, dates, or places. Most of it, I'm winging. Yet, even while winging it, I try to not waver too much from the research material I have, which I put together in a haste in just a few days. Maybe it is better not to suffer from the too-much-research syndrome, but in the case of this novel, certain locations, actions, and historical dates are important. As to diction, yesterday, I laughed out loud while writing, Instead of the word boyfriend, I used beau, which sounded so odd, but it fit the diction of the time in which the incident occurred. I don't know how that word came to me either. I am so surprised at my husband and in the most positive sense possible. Usually, he's the kind who wants what he wants and when, but he seems to back me up with this. He even seems excited about it, asking me my word count and all. He isn't even a novel reader. He'll read books relating to his work or to real life. Nothing fictional. Just the same, it is nice to know that he is there for me and not messing, in a negative way, with my writing. Gotta go and do my real life things now. Happy writing, NaNoer pals! |
| I woke up this morning and thought it was November 1. Talk about being overzealous... I guess I'm raring to go for NaNo. I rhymed that, didn't I? Oh oh! When I start using rhymes, it is not a good omen. I'm all set for Halloween and my avatar, the witch, is hung on the front door. All candy is in bags on an armchair near the front door. All I need to do is take a small pair of scissors for opening the boxes. After I put my computer to sleep, hoping it is not an eternal sleep, I'll go to the library for some last minute research and to return and borrow new material, then to the farmstand, and I'll wait for the little ones in costumes. When my kids were home, we made a big deal out of Halloween with a party and a lot more decorations. Now that they've flown the coop, we have minimized the festivities. Still, I look forward to the trick and treating by the little ones, some or most I won't know to which family they belong. Yay for all kids! They make us oldies feel alive.    |
| I'll go get candy late this afternoon. I waited until now, because of a car problem. I hope we'll get the car back in a couple of hours. I buy the same things every year, Hershey's dark chocolate bars, six in a box, and a few boxes of KitKats . Kids seem to like them as do their parents who come to the door. If anything's left over, it is for our consumption.  It used to be my kids would have a fit if I accompanied them on their trick-or-treating. I still did but stayed way back, out of sight. Parents, rarely -if ever, accompanied the children, then. I am so happy to see so many parents coming around with their children during the later years. I feel like treating the parents, too, but that would be funny and odd. The Irish and the Scotch brought Halloween to US. Christian and Celtic rites combined (Sam'hain), the holiday originally was a day/night of feasting and mischief. Jack-o'-Lanterns are probably a couple of centuries older. It belonged to the night watchmen holding a simple lantern. Somehow, it became associated with Halloween. This year's Halloween is a bit more special for me, because the next day, I start NaNoing for the first time. After having prided myself in acting cool in most situations, NaNo did away with my so-called cool. Drama, drama, drama! I've turned into a drama queen.Even though I know it is no big deal, I am curious about me: how I'll do; how much I'll complain; will the arthritis in my legs jump to my fingers; how will my family react to my new obsession, and so on and so forth. Still, I am really looking forward to it. Weird? Yeah, that's what I am. Happy Halloween! |
| Finally! I am gaining my calm back. Good thing is I am not scared of Nano anymore, now that the plot and the characters have formed -somewhat- inside my head. I have done all the research I thought I might need. What is left is to write 1167 words a day, according to the book by Chris Baty, No Plot? No Problem, which I found in the library.  I don't think I'll have difficulty, sticking to a schedule. I may not do the amount of words exactly like what is on that schedule, but I may write less or more. I hope I have the discipline acquired over the two and half years of writing or rather trying to write 500 words or more each day. Plus, I went through Wannabe's challenges and found out I could write even 2500 words a day, although not every day. For Nano, I plan to come up with the 50,000 a few days before the end of the month. You never know what can go wrong if you leave it to the end. So, I'll try to write 1800 words a day or more, even though I may have days that I won't be able to write anything. Having said that, I decided not to rush me, but to take each problem and each day as it comes, and even look through the day's work for outstanding mistakes. The holes in the plot or whatever I may need to add will have to come later. I think this plot will probably take 30,000 words more. This plot came out of a character sketch for a short story contest. Although the character in that short story will be a secondary one in the novel, I plan to improve on her even more. My problem is with the main character. I think, at this point, I'm wavering between two main characters, something I didn't intend to come up with, but having two main characters has been done before by better writers than me, so I'll just let the story take its course, and possibly, the main character problem will resolve itself through the evolution of the plot or I'll handle it afterwards. If anyone is interested, here is the number of words for each day from No Plot? No Problem. Day 1 -- 1667 Day 2 -- 3334 Day 3 -- 5001 Day 4 -- 6668 Day 5 -- 8335 Day 6 -- 10,002 Day 7 -- 11,669 Day 8 -- 13,336 Day 9 -- 15,003 Day10 -- 16,670 Day11 -- 18,337 Day12 -- 20,004 Day13 -- 21,671 Day14 -- 23,338 Day15 -- 25,005 Day16 -- 26,672 Day17 -- 28,339 Day18 -- 30,006 Day19 -- 31,673 Day20 -- 33,340 Day21 -- 35,007 Day22 -- 36,674 Day23 -- 38,341 Day24 -- 40,008 Day25 -- 41,675 Day26 -- 43,342 Day27 -- 45,009 Day28 -- 48,343 Day29 -- 48,343 Day30 -- 50,000 |
| Weird News I can't explain some of the recent events, but I have to suspect that the UFO's are taking aim at our brains. I wonder what they are using. I think something laser-like but you don't see the rays hitting your head? I don't know where to begin. Let's take the balloon boy. The mother told authorities today that the giant helium balloon was specifically created for a hoax to draw media attention while the boy hid in the attic. To tell the truth, they fooled me, as anyone can fool me. Having raised two rambunctious boys, I can believe anything that a little boy would do. But what this little boy couldn't do was to lie well. What a thing to teach one's children! Then came the pilots-who-overflew-their destination story. It seems these pilots missed Twin Cities by 150 miles with all the modern equipment in the cockpit. The passengers were told they were circling over the airport, waiting for permission to land. We used to fly very often; and in various flights we were told the same thing. Now I am suspicious. What were our pilots really doing? Next time we're told that, I'm going to panic. Also, there's the teenager in New York City who lost her memory and cannot remember her name or where her home is since September 9? Why doesn't anybody claim her? And while most homeowners failed to take advantage of government refinance plan, a four-year old was given a tax credit as a first-time home-buyer. Any four-year olds you know? They might be eligible. Then in LA, in an apartment complex, a lifeless body slumped on a patio was thought to be a Halloween decoration. The man was shot to death. Now, that is real horror. Not to mention the Civil War memorabilia collector who accidentally fired a cannonball through his neighbor's home. I think, from now on, I'll check what my neighbors are collecting. To top it all, even I suddenly registered for Na-No. The only explanation for all these weird events has to be the UFO intervention. Any lawyers out there? Just how can we sue the UFOs for the alienation of our brains? |
| NaNo? Okay, so it is a newbie obsession, but I am obsessed with NaNo now. The way the things are evolving, I'll probably write about NaNo more than my Nano novel itself. Earlier, I had told myself that NaNo wasn't for me for it was impossible and I should never attempt it; however, my subconscious must have taken over, and suddenly, I decided to do it. This decision happened only a few days ago, encouraged by the daring of other friends with toddlers like Diane  . Not that I have a toddler as that would be a medical miracle...but...As to the novel, I have a few ideas and I still don't know which one to choose. One option is to try to write in a genre I am not that experienced with like Horror and Sci-Fi. If horror, the idea is some tiny creatures invading a house and traumatizing its residents. If Sci-Fi, I like the WdC prompt of suddenly finding oneself on a planet. If I choose either of the two, I'll have to wing it as I write because I can't do any research on these. My last and favorite option is about the culture clashes and family relationships. I'll base the characters on people I know, so that will be out of the way. Also the novel will have a psychological aspect to it, which could make it easier to write since I have a few credits -from a very long time ago- in psychology, and I have worked as an assistant to someone very close to me in the area of mental health. In other words, I can do some bs'ing. Then I plan to put the main action in a time slightly before our time, around World War II and a little after that with the novel ending -in an epilogue, possibly- in the nineties. I did some research work on this, and I am enthusiastic but also afraid that I'll be going over my head in a rush job. The word count doesn't scare me, but the crap factor does, as always. Doing the 500-words-a-day with my fantastic group has given me some discipline, and I know I can write very easily 500- 1000 words a day. Even though I am a slow typist, in the group, during some my very busy days, I have written free-flow in fifteen minutes or so after 11:30 PM and have posted it by 11:59 PM. But unlike everyday free-flow, a novel, even a crappy one, has to make some sense. And that scares me. Still, I think, what if I don't finish it? Or if it turns out terrible, but then, I do have some terrible short stories, don't I! Lol! As I do this, some things may have to go or become less frequent, like reading, baking bread, Facebook games, etc. In addition, I have my family. November is the worst month for me to do something like this in. My older son's b'day, my younger son's wedding anniversary celebration, and Thanksgiving are all in this month, not to mention the stuff with friends and extended family members. And my recently retired hubby demands my attention and friendship non-stop. Then the house, the cooking, and all the work...but then, everyone has some things to handle, right? On the other hand, I can always hide in the bathroom with a notebook and pen or sneak into a closet with my net-book, as I sometimes do. I just need to try Nano even if I never attempt it again.As I said earlier, all these words are the results of a newbie's obsession, and I needed to write this entry to get the nervousness off my chest. . Still....Eeeeeeek! |
| So many writers have influenced the flow of events through their writings and imagination. Many writers, mostly novelists, have changed things concerning public opinion or they have evoked feelings of compassion and empathy. There are many examples to this, like Grapes of Wrath revealing the decrepit life-styles of the migrant workers, I have been thinking about the public option of medical insurance lately, and it dawned on me that Citadel incited the establishment of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. National Health Service began on July 5, 1948. The Citadel was published in 1937. "Cronin served as a Royal Navy surgeon during World War I before graduating from medical school. After the war, he trained at various hospitals including Bellahouston and Lightburn Hospitals in Glasgow and Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, before taking up his first practice in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. In 1924, he was appointed Medical Inspector of Mines for Great Britain, and over the next few years, his survey of medical regulations in collieries and his reports on the correlation between coal dust inhalation and pulmonary disease were published. Cronin drew on his experiences researching the occupational hazards of the mining industry for his later novels The Citadel, set in Wales, and The Stars Look Down, set in Northumberland." From Wikipedia In my earlier years, I was an A. J. Cronin fan so much so that I thought, as a teenager, one had to be in the medical profession to write well. In addition, a relative who has influenced my life the most was an MD who was in the profession only for the sake of healing people. Luckily, I have enlarged my vista since. I now think any good writer with a good idea and good intentions can make an impression on the way we live. There are tons of opinion pieces out there, but I think none of them can succeed as well as what literature accomplishes in its roundabout way. And as my warped mind brings me to our day and to things that matter to me the most, I am hoping (praying, expecting) that many of the WdC writers will address our present-day issues through their poetry and fiction. Haven't I said this umpteen times, before? |
Just yesterday, I wrote about the 2009 Nobel winner in literature. Today came another shocker surprise. Well, Congratulations to our President. I voted for him, and I couldn’t be happier that someone from my country was awarded such an honor. Plus, I know he didn’t petition for this unlike the Chicago-for-the-Olympics thing. The question of integrity here is directed totally to the distributors of the Nobel prizes. Then, I have the feeling that this action could be some sort of a prepayment or should I dare say bribe for influencing the future events? Have the Nobel Prizes turned into a sort of lobbying force? Or was this just another anti-Bush gesture? So many other questions, too, I dare not ask. On the other hand, bold moves are the modus operandi of the Nobel Prizes. I feel even the scientific and culturally oriented Nobel prizes, sometimes, reek of political intent, and as history indicates, the Nobel Peace Prize is usually, if not always, political. Let’s hope this political intent of the Nobel Prizes turns out to be positive, brings forth hope for the future, and unites us in a humanitarian world. Let's at least hope. |
| Herta Müller, a German/Romanian writer won the Nobel prize for literature today. I haven't read anything of hers except for a short story in Granta, a long time ago. They say her fiction is akin to prose-poems. Not many of her works are translated to English...yet. To tell the truth, I was sort of ticked off when I read about this. Nobel prizes tend to go more to Europe, and also, this stirred up a prejudice of mine against Müller, since one of her parents was with the German SS. On the other hand, this writer is said to be the voice of the oppressed inside Romania while that country was ruled by one of its worst dictators. Also, I thought, I should not hold children responsible for their parents' sins. What I could find inside the Amazon's site are these works by Herta Müller, if still available. Nothing of hers has been translated of late. If one can read and understand German, there are a few more. Nadirs - stories, 1982 (Niederungen, translated by Sieglinde Lug (1999); University of Nebraska publicity page;Amazon: US, UK, Deutschland) Drückender Tango - stories, 1984 The Passport - novel, 1986 (Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt, translated by Martin Chalmers (1989); Hanser publicity page; Amazon: US, UK, Deutschland) Traveling on One Leg - novel, 1989 (Reisende auf einem Bein, translated by Valentina Glajar and Andre Lefevere (1998); Northwestern University Press publicity page; Amazon: US, UK) The Land of Green Plums - novel, 1994 (Herztier, translated by Michael Hofmann (1996); International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award (1998); Northwestern University Press publicity page, Metropolitan Books publicity page, Hanser publicity page; Amazon: US, UK, Deutschland) The Appointment - novel, 1997 (Heute wär ich mir lieber nicht begegnet, translated by Michael Hulse and Philip Boehm (2001); Metropolitan publicity page; Amazon: US, UK, Deutschland) Will be an interesting read, I think, when I can get hold of a book of hers. |
| When I had a garden that I could call a garden, I used to put green tomatoes on the kitchen windowsill. Now that we are living in a deed-restricted area, I have no garden where I can raise whatever I wish. We do have something that has some resemblance to a garden, but the names of plants we can put in it come in a handbook. Thus my gardening has dwindled down to a few small pots of herbs on the kitchen windowsill over the sink. Not only the lack of a garden but the lack of autumn colors are among the things I miss of my earlier decades, Anyhow, to add a dash of color, I bought a small pumpkin today. The pumpkin alone, however, was not enough. I needed to add something I truly loved among the herbs on the windowsill. What else but WdC of course, on my mug. Thus my cup runneth over with love.   |
| Today I received a newsletter from a journal writer. She starts as: "Autumn truly is an amazing time of year. The changing leaves, the shorter days, and the chilly weather are all felt keenly." That made me chuckle. I bet she doesn't live in South Florida. We're hot here again 89 degrees, which feels like 96 if you're under the sun. I miss the lingering autumn drizzles of Northeast, the changing of the colors, putting away the summer wear from the closets to make place for the winter things. One thing I don't miss is the allergies, the ones that come from weeds, and specifically ragweed. Because ragweed allergy, combined with other allergies, gave me such terrible attacks of asthma, we moved to Florida, since mainland USA has it all over each state to some degree, but not California and Florida. People are afraid of sharks, alligators, snakes, and hurricanes of Florida, but I am afraid of ragweed, even if some of its pollen is a component of honey. Go figure! Because ragweed scares me so much, I might put it in a horror story. Ragweed or ambrosia --as the ancient Greeks called it-- has the most widespread and dangerous weed pollen to those who are allergic to it, even if this weed only grows one to four feet tall. Ambrosia, what a name! It means divine dish. Some dish! Come to think of it, it would be like those gods to enjoy such a dish. Just look at what we humans have to put up with here on earth. Our pains and sorrows must be their feast, too. Crazy gods!  |
| There is no place on this earth where clouds won't visit. Even on some very clear days, I expect them to show up, pause straight on top of the sky, hide among the treetops or congregate together, white lost on white, as if expecting me to look up and imagine extraordinary things from their lighthearted shapes. Hurrying forward, they parade, sometimes letting a tiny patch of sky play peek-a-boo. Sometimes, for not having escaped from the grips of day-to-day life, I airily dismiss them. This evening though, I caught the colors of sunset reflecting through them at the back of my house.      |
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