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Author’s Fair

March 15, 2012 in Grab bag | 2 comments

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No, that isn’t a lukewarm book review. That’s where I’ll be on Saturday: at the Author’s Fair in Madison, Indiana, a shebang thrown by That Book Place.

That Book Place is a wonderful new-and-used independent book store. It’s all in one big room, so you don’t get lost in a rabbit warren of wonder, as you do in some book stores. Getting lost in a book store has its own charm, but the charms of That Book Place include knowing where the door is, being able to check out all your fellow shoppers at the same time, the seller on duty being able to direct you to the section you want by remote control (“Next section. Now turn to your left. Your other left. Top shelf. Got it? Good!) and the possibility of a big group conversation with everybody in the store pitching in.

So the Southern Indiana Writers, including Yours Truly, will be there on Saturday, St. Patrick’s Day. We’ll have our anthologies and I’ll have CDs of my novels and short story collections.

Here’s a link to the Author’s Fair page at That Book Place so you can see who-all will be there. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop by and say hello. And buy a buncha books! ;)

WRITING PROMPT: Do you prefer an open shop, or one with stairs and rooms-off-of-rooms and cubbyholes? A shop, now, now a private home.

MA

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A Sad Truth

March 8, 2012 in Grab bag | 4 comments

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There are some books I just can’t “read” in audio, not even if I’m the one doing the reading. And, apparently, there are some books I can’t read electronically. I’ve come across several since I got my eReader which have had many rave reviews, but I couldn’t finish them or, having finished them, had no idea what had happened in them.

I’ve tried to analyze what they have in common and how they differ from the many books I’ve loved when I read them by voice or by electron, but I can’t isolate either element.

Alas for me! Now I have to save my pennies to buy some physical books so I can share the joy. …Pay … money …. ~MomGoth faints~

WRITING PROMPT: A character fails to share an emotion felt by all around him or her and doesn’t understand why.

MA

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Still Here

March 3, 2012 in Grab bag | 6 comments

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It’s tornado season here in the USA. That’s the trouble with spring: It brings us tornadoes. There’s a wide swath of the continent that’s called Tornado Alley, because

Picture from Wikipedia

that’s the chunk of the country where tornadoes are most frequent.

We’re in it.

It’s so weird: We’ll hear about an earthquake in California or a hurricane on the coast, and we look at each other and say, “If I lived there, I’d move.” And then we turn on the weather channel to see how close the tornado is and if it’s time to head for shelter.

So yesterday, they said the storms would move in around 2:00 in the afternoon, just the time I told Mom I would come help her with some computer stuff. I went there and did that, and talked her into coming back to my house instead of our going into her basement. We have storm parties at our house.

It was chilly in our basement, so Charlie and I wrapped Mom up in jackets and blankets. We had water and graham crackers and the radio. I brought the book I was reading aloud and continued the story while the wind and rain whipped around like a couple of cats hopped up on catnip.

When it was past, I made supper and took Mom home for our regular evening visit.

The worst storms went north of us and south of us, leaving us horrified and heartbroken at the devastation suffered by so many. For us, it was just another spring day in Tornado Alley.

WRITING PROMPT: How does your main character deal with a potentially ruinous and fatal storm?

MA

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Miss Tiffany

February 28, 2012 in Grab bag | 14 comments

Tiffany
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I’m gearing up for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge (again: post every day for a month except for Sundays — do post the first Sunday, because it’s April 1, the first day of the challenge). I’m thinking of having a theme this year. Memories.

So that has me going through old photographs and thinking about the past. Here’s what I’m thinking about today. Tiffany, my late cat. I got Tiffany from a no-kill shelter a year or two before I met and married my husband. Our next-door son-in-law called her “The Styrofoam Kitty” because she didn’t weigh anything. Toward the end of her life, she lost her voice. She would open her mouth to meow and you could see the muscles moving, but nothing came out.

She was the most misanthropic cat on God’s green earth. (Jane, I don’t count Tootsie — she wasn’t misanthropic, she was pure ebil.) But Tiffany loved the baby. That child could do anything, and the cat would let it pass. Oh, she’d get away and hide, if she could, but she never bit or scratched, the way she would a grown-up.

Tiffany finally just got old. It happened literally overnight. One day, she was herself; a week later, she was dead. She died on the floor, next to the couch where I was sleeping so I could drape my hand over the side and be near her. She was 19.

WRITING PROMPT: Give a character an old pet.

MA
p.s. I’m posting at Fatal Foodies today on the subject of kale chips.

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Book Box Day!

February 25, 2012 in Grab bag | 2 comments

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Mom and I go work at The Book Box, the Friends of Harrison County Library book sale building today. Well, I tell a lie: SHE works and I slope off to the library and write. I do relieve her for a few minutes in the middle of her shift, so that counts, doesn’t it?

I usually spend a certain amount of time cruising the shelves — and, let’s face it, buying books. Yes, buying. It wouldn’t be volunteer work, if I took them for free, would it?

I’m usually just looking to see if anything jumps out at me, but Mr. Hyatt has got me jonesing for some David Eddings, so I’ll be looking for his stuff.

Meanwhile, deadlines are looming on a couple of stories, so I need to  finish those up.

See you tomorrow!

WRITING PROMPT: Write a character who haunts — alive or dead — a book sale room or a library.

MA

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Soothing the Cat

February 23, 2012 in Grab bag | 9 comments

cat remedy
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My crazy cat, Katya, has embaldend herself. Spell-check tells me that embaldend is not a word. Apparently, embaldenated isn’t, either. What she’s done is over-groomed herself until she has bald spots. I don’t know if she’s allergic to something or just neurotic. My guess is neurotic.

I was going to take a picture of the damage for the viewing pleasure of all the zombie fans out there, but she’s hiding at the moment. Oh — there she is. Well, never mind.

ANYWAY, I went on-line and found some advice for soothing nervous irritation and skin irritation and combined them.

I boiled up some chamomile herbal tea and some aloe plant, let it steep until it was just warm, held the cat in the dry bathtub and sponged the doctored water over her, especially the bald bits. It really seems to have calmed her down a bit. I’m going to go to the natural stuff store and get some dried chamomile flowers to use instead of the tea (tisane, really, since there’s no tea in it).

This is a real adventure for me, since chamomile (related to ragweed) can trigger an anaphylactic reaction in people who’ve already had one, which I have. But I think that would only be if I drank it, and I’m not likely to drink cat-water, not even if you put Chianti in it.

WRITING PROMPT: How much a risk would your main character take for an animal in relatively minor distress? Great distress? Potentially fatal distress?

MA

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Busy Day, Happy Day

February 21, 2012 in Grab bag | 4 comments

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When I first started writing, I wrote a story, sent it out, and camped by the mailbox while I waited to hear back. Now, I send a story out, record where and when I sent it, and work on more stories. One of the consequences is the occasional happy surprise, like the one I got yesterday.

My story, “Short Dark Future” has been accepted into an anthology, TRUST AND TREACHERY: TALES OF POWER, INTRIGUE, AND VIOLENCE. Doin’ the Asseptinss Dance!

I’m also posting today at Fatal Foodies on a product that works as it claims to work, and at The Write Type on 5 best Pinterest practices for writers — or anyone.

WRITING PROMPT: A character has an unexpectedly busy and successful day. Is he or she happy, or is he or she waiting to get hit in the back of the head with a metaphorical brick to counterbalance all the goodness?

MA

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Jolea Harrison Has My Number

February 18, 2012 in Grab bag | 6 comments

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I had a happy surprise this morning: Author Jolea Harrison is spotlighting me today, under the post title, Marian Allen Has Stories Everywhere! True that. I submitted one this month to the Blog Book Tour Cafe’s anthology-in-the-works which I think has been accepted. This is the one about Bud. Maybe he’ll pipe down and stop trying to horn in on other people’s stories for a while.

There’s another Holly (as in “By the Book”) story in the works, this one for my Race to the Hugo Award.

Meanwhile, my husband wants to know if I’ll be drinking that whole pot of coffee today. I’m like, “At least that one.” Whenever I get an owie — and I get them often, being one of the clumsiest people still alive — I’m always surprised to see blood come out. I expect it to be either ink or coffee.

WRITING PROMPT: A character who hates even the smell of coffee finds himself or herself in inescapable company with a group of coffee fiends.

MA

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The Sadness of Polyvore

February 16, 2012 in FORCE OF HABIT, Grab bag | 2 comments

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I am lovin’ on Polyvore, spending a little time every day indulging myself by putting together Pretty Lady Outfits. Shoes that would break my ankles. Dresses that would make me look like a cow in the all-barnyard production of Auntie Mame. It is most enjoyable.

One of my sisters-in-law mentioned ‘ten’ like, which I had forgotten. I remembered play like, but ‘ten’ like is what we called it most of the time, short for pretend like, meaning let’s pretend. ‘Ten’ like you’re a bandit and I’m the Lone Ranger. ‘Ten’ like we’re lost in the jungle and Tarzan jumps out of the tree — ‘ten’ like the swing set is the tree.

Real life

That’s why I like Polyvore: I can ‘ten’ like. I mean, here is how I dress in real life: Jeans from Goodwill, shirt a gift, jacket a gift, shoes (not shown) ten years old and a gift. Total cost of outfit: $0.00.

'Ten' like

And here is how I ‘ten’ like I dress on Polyvore. Total cost of outfit: over $2,000.00. Total cost to me: $0.00.

So what is the sadness? I was hoping to use Polyvore to show what my characters are wearing. That would work for some characters, but I wanted to show the dress Freldt was wearing and swapped to Bel, so that Bel was kidnapped in Freldt’s place. (FORCE OF HABIT) Maybe I’d better dress my characters before I write them. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a lilac double-breasted jumpsuit with a plaid peplum? Even on the internet?

On the plus side, doing a Google search for lilac double-breasted jumpsuit plaid peplum totally brings up my book, so….

WRITING PROMPT: A character knows exactly what he or she wants to buy, but can’t find it.

MA

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Goodbye To All Ants

February 14, 2012 in Grab bag | 10 comments

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Sounds like the title of a P. G. Wodehouse story, doesn’t it? But it isn’t; it’s a Handy Household Tip. Shut up — YES, from ME.

Anyway, so far, this is working. Talcum powder. Scented talcum powder. Apparently, it messes up the ants’ scent-trail superpower and makes them go, “Ewww! Run away! Run away!”

So, even though talcum powder strewn all over the chimney looks really really stupid, we’re doing it, because it looks a lot better than armies of ants coming out of the cracks between the bricks like the DT scene in The Lost Weekend. If only Leiningen had known about this.

I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies with a product review that is … shall we say, “not positive”?

WRITING PROMPT: A character has a running battle with something in nature.

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