First Friday Wordfest gets down and back up again

I have been neglecting the wordfeasting of late, I have realised.  So I thought I’d come back with a bang, so to speak.  (Pun will become clear later.  I hope. Otherwise you’ll just stay confused!)

It all started when I was reading some pages from a draft of a friend’s novel.  It was a very dramatic scene, in which the protagonist was holding his lover in his arms, unconscious and bleeding and looking near to death.  (In case you’re wondering, it was his lover who was unconscious and bleeding.  It’s very hard to hold anything when you’re unconscious. And I, at any rate, tend to lose my grip on things while bleeding.  It’s the sewer’s and cook’s instinct not to bleed on the product. But I digress…)

Dog, Supine

Anyway, it was very moving, until I came to the bit where the writer had inadvertently said (it was a draft, remember) that the unconscious and bleeding one was lying prone in his arms.

Now, many people might not have thought anything of it, as prone is often used to mean ‘lying down’.  But it actually means lying on one’s stomach.  So suddenly, this terribly moving scene was invaded, in my head by a mental image of the hero holding his love face down as she bled out.

The tender-hearted of you will be glad to know that I pointed this out to the writer.  I couldn’t in all conscience let her proceed, only to have every doctor (say) who ever read her book, burst out in inappropriate giggles in the middle of her death scene.  (I say doctor because I have found they tend to be both familiar with words with Latin roots and particular about distinguishing between fronts and backs of people.)

On Life as a Work in Progress

For what is I think the third week in a row (no, not looking it up, it will only depress me and waste time I don’t have) I am getting my Monday on Writing post up on Tuesday.

Sigh.

You know, all my life, I have been looking for the perfect system, the perfect plan.  I love a plan, me.  I love making a list and feeling like I know what is going on.  (Which, incidentally makes it a little weird that I started writing as a full-on pantser, but that’s a topic for another time.)

The problem is that my life resolutely refuses to co-operate with my careful plans.  On the day I plan to get five thousand words done on my WIP, my child comes down with some foul lurgy and I have to run around to the doctor and suchlike.  On the day I plan to start my brand new, healthy life plan, I wake up really not in the mood for the bircher muesli I so carefully soaked the night before.

So I have decided – not for the first time, it seems to be a lesson I need to learn over and over –

A picture is worth a thousand words…

Ooh, look at me and my bad self, titling a post with a cliché… 😉  Bear with me.  There is some sense in this reckless word-usage – I hope!

I’m fairly certain that the original coiner of that phrase didn’t have a patch of frosty grass in mind when he or she said it.  But nonetheless, the phrase, or rather a twisting of it, came to my mind as I looked out over this patch this morning.

What I thought at first, as I opened the curtains, if I may quote my early-morning thoughts, was, ‘ooh, frost. Pretty. How would I describe that?’

Then, as I made tea, I began thinking about it and realised that there are probably at least one thousand words that even something as ordinary as frosty grass could give me.

It’s Kindness Project Day!

It’s the second Wednesday of the month, which means that it’s Kindness Project day.

I blogged about the Kindness Project here, but in short, it’s an initiative by a group of bloggers to try to make kindness not a random act, but a daily reality for themselves and those around them.

I had plans for this project, but I must admit, they have fallen somewhat behind. But I have been re-energised today by reading this story in the Harvard Business Review.

It’s a story about a some guys in Boston, which is apparently renowned for being unfriendly, who are going to set up a social media tool to give people a public, lasting way to thank people who have gone out of their way to be nice.

I think it’s a wonderful idea and hope they get it off the ground.

And, since I believe in spreading good ideas, as well as kindness, I am going to honour their ambition by including in my daily tweeting, at least one tweet thanking someone for their kindness to me and mine.

It may never reach the kindness-doer, but I hope that it will help me make me (and maybe some of the people who read the tweets) mindful of others’ kindness and grateful for the goodness in people.

I will start here and now (and go and put in on Twitter in a minute) by thanking the bus driver of my girl’s school bus, who, no matter what the weather or hour, always seems to have a smile for the kids heading off to school.  It warms me, on these cold dark mornings to see it, and I am grateful.

What about you? What are you grateful for, this Wednesday?

Imelda needs…

It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for Whatever takes my fancy.  (And no, the picture is not what takes my fancy: it’s my reaction to what’s below…)

Today it is one from the vault.  A few years ago, among my mates, anyway, there was a craze for Googling your first name, followed by the word ‘needs’ and seeing what came up.

I don’t know how this worked for other people, but on the day I did it, it was as if the interwebs were trying to tell me something.  Regard:

Imelda needs an army and an elderly husband behind her to get anything done.
Apparently I am the origin of the question, ‘you and who’s army?’

Imelda needs a loan of US $225
Well, natch – who doesn’t?

Imelda needs a loan for $8000 MXN
This is getting silly now.  What’s with all the money-grubbing, all of a sudden?

Imelda needs to develop discipline and patience in order to achieve her aspirations
Okay, now it’s a little creepy.  Do you actually know me, Google?

And following that one, this one immediately after it made me completely lose it…

Imelda needs to write soft porn bodice ripper novels
Google has spoken! nuff said!

Imelda needs to be disciplined
Put this together with the previous two and one beverage alert is just not enough…

Imelda needs financial support
Until she starts selling the soft porn, anyway…

Imelda needs new shoes
Again, with the ‘doesn’t everybody?’

“But Imelda needs those shoes
Alright, already, I get it!  New shoes!

Miss Imelda needs to come a-knockin’ on Scotland’s door.
And now, for something completely different…

It’s silly!  It’s pointless!  But amusing… at least to me.

Do yours! Go on, you know you want to…

Tell me what you find! 🙂

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

Imagine, if you will, a young girl, growing up poor.

Imagine that she has a chronic, undiagnosed anxiety disorder, a taxidermist father with a yen for roadkill and some very curious ideas about what makes a good puppet (and the time of night at which is appropriate to share said puppet).

Imagine she has a series of pets which… well, let’s just say that the pet experience is not entirely usual.

And all she wants is to fit in.

In the hands of Steven King, it would be a towering, terrifying horror story.  (At least, I imagine it would.  Growing up has not made me any more able to read Steven King’s novels than I was when I first encountered them as a squealy 11-year-old.  Loved ‘On Writing‘ though.)

What makes a man sexy? Part II

So, after last week’s post on man sexiness, I was thinking about the topic some more as I was watching Doctor Who (colour me geeky, I can handle it!) and I decided that this week would be all about Rory.

For those who don’t know Doctor Who, Rory is an average bloke, who gets caught up in the time-travelling, trouble-seeking shenanigans of the Doctor, because he is in love with (and later, married to) the Doctor’s friend and companion, Amy Pond.

Rory’s normal-ness is important here, because last week, although I was talking about smiles and focus and such, I did illustrate the post with pics of David Tennant and John Barrowman, which some might have thought was cheating (I’m looking at you, Kez), as they are easy on the eye.  Arthur Darvill (who plays Rory) isn’t bad-looking, but nor is he stunningly handsome (sorry, Arthur, but the whole point of Rory is that he is normal).

But enough of the ordinary: onto the sexiness!

Monday on Writing Talks Poetry

I will out myself now: I am a lousy poet.  In all the years of my life, I have written about four works that I think qualify as actual poetry (I have written them carefully in a notebook that I hope to have half-full before I die).  But I love to read it.  So I was excited to discover that April is (in America, anyway) National Poetry Month.

And in the grand, go-getting tradition of the US of A, home of NaNoWriMo, this has inspired the creation of NaPoWriMo.  For those who haven’t heard, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, held in November each year, which is a challenge to writers to write 50 thousand words of their novel in a month.  NaPoWriMo is the poetry equivalent, where challengees set themselves to write 30 poems in 30 days.

At my current output rate, I would need to live to approximately 330 to produce 30 poems, but in keeping with the spirit of the thing, I have dusted off The Notebook and found this.  It’s untitled.

Sunday Salon is Serious Women’s Business

I haven’t been out here in the blogsphere long, but I have already ‘met’ many lovely fellow bloggers.  Recently, I came across Stella Marr (pictured, left), who has a blog called My Body the City: The Secret Life of a Call Girl.

I’m sure anyone who has read my blog will guess that this isn’t a salacious tell-all.  It’s a story about survival.  It’s a story that moved me and I wanted to share it.  With her permission, I am reprinting here the letter she posted on her blog that she wishes she could have sent to her younger self.

Today’s Musical Friday Favourite = OK Go

I love, love, love, OK Go.

What other modern band would illustrate their song with a multi-coloured tango?

Or work so well with the Muppets?

Or go to this much trouble for the sheer, gleeful, musical madness of it? (Listen to the end to get the ironic, [in view of the song subject] spoken last line of the video.)

A true Friday favourite!  Do you have any OK Go favourites?  Or Muppet favourites, for that matter?  Or any video silliness to share?

Hope your weekend is looking good…

Imelda