It’s Time to Wrap it Up

The deadline for NaNoWriMo is fast approaching and Christmas is around the corner — tick-tock… tick-tock…tick-tock… tick-tock Wrap it up

It’s time to wrap it up.

How’s your ending coming along? Are you going to leave us with a cliff hanger and chomping at the bit? Is there a wild twist/turn of events that makes us say Wow!

Will it be a happy ever after (HEA)? Does a character need to die? Will good triumph over evil? Maybe all of the above?

It’s your story, you get to decide how it ends and how you present it to the world.

And just think when you’ve typed The End you can get busy hitting the thrift stores in search of the perfect hideous sweater for your grumpy old aunt you secretly despise.

Write on!!

Write Your Own II (A Poem & A Picture)

Write Your Own A Poem & A Picture

This post was intended as part of Wordless Wednesday but I have to say this. I do not/did not expect a public response but in last weeks Write Your Own (A Poem & A Picture) Sarah replied with a beautiful piece blending the poem and the picture. I must say it was a very pleasant surprise. I understand many of us are timid about publicizing our words/thoughts; potentially exposing ourselves to ridicule but if any of you would like to make your take of the photo in the reply section I would love to read it.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

Illumination

This week’s photo challenge is titled Illumination. While looking around for a shot that aligned with the challenge (defined as light, brightness, radiance, brilliance, clarification or enlightenment etc…) I came across a souvenir from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It’s a softball sized globe that sits atop a stick and reminds me of the Reunion Tower in Dallas, except the souvenir spins a lot faster. Maybe that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be; heck I don’t know I stole it from a grandchild just found it lying around. Anyway, you press a button and this gadget puts on a fascinating little light show which by the way reminds me of an enlightening story my grandmother once told me about her trip to the circus.

First allow me to shed some light on my grandmother. She was a tad peculiar by some standards. Correction she was outright odd, offbeat and utterly deranged at times. I loved her dearly but come on, who in their right mind tries to gnaw the head off of a screaming gray squirrel? In her defense I must say the rodent did bite first – she merely wanted to teach him a lesson. She was a tough cookie who didn’t take guff from any creature and as hard as she was there beat a tender childlike heart within her bosom.

I wish I had been there under the big top when my uncle took her along with his family to see the circus when it came to town. I know she was mesmerized by all of the excitement; the delight was still in her voice as she recounted the day’s events.  She laughed about the trained elephants and giggled at the silly clowns, held her breath when reminiscing about the trapeze artists and shook her head and shuddered in disbelief when it came to the high line exhibition. “It was the darndest thing you ever did see Jennavenay.” That’s what she called me. Not because she couldn’t enunciate Janna René, she preferred Jennavenay and that is all she ever called me. I asked her once if she knew my name, she pronounced it plainly and just as plainly added, “I don’t like it. I call you Jennavenay and you answer to it-that’s good enough.” And I suppose it was.

It took a moment or a few chuckles before it occurred to me she had a tooth missing from her upper denture. “What happened to your tooth Grandma?” I asked. “Spot light did it.” She said matter of factly.

“Oh my goodness, someone hit you with a spotlight?”

“No silly girl” she says, “They had beams of light like magic shooting all over the place and one come right across my face and knocked my tooth out.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.” I replied with all due respect but my doubt alone ruffled her feathers. I should have heeded uncles warning when I saw him shaking his head in the background but it was too late and Granny was on a tear. She’d heard they had “lasers that could burn holes plum through metal and doctors were usin’ `em to cut folks open for surgery. It shouldn’t surprise anybody that if one hit you just right it could knock a tooth out by golly!” I seceded with a modest “I suppose stranger things have happened.” Besides, how could one argue with such clarifying logic especially with a woman who would go tooth to tooth with a wild squirrel?

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved

My New Year’s resolution for the last 40 years has been NOT to make resolutions. What I was doing ten years prior to that I have no idea; I had to be in bed by 9 PM. I do however seem to recall a span of about three decades where my resolve was to be drunk at midnight and to kiss every good-looking male within lips reach. Now THAT was a  resolution I could keep! It’s also probably the reason for my chronic mononucleosis.

I was looking back through some old photographs and you know what? Not all of the men were that good-looking. Those were probably the safe ones. It is a scientifically proven fact that handsome men carry diseases and ugly men make good husbands. Okay maybe it’s not scientifically proven but don’t burst my bubble. To have caught mono from an ugly dude might be more than my fragile psyche can stand.

On a more serious note I suppose I did make a resolution in 2012 when I decided to become an independent author. I just didn’t think of it in terms as a ‘resolution’ at the time. I opened an official website, started blogging, face booking and tweeting. Not really into the tweeting but by golly I have a twitter account.

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to make a 2013 resolution in regards to photography. I would like to become more adept at taking decent great pictures but I’m not sure how it is going to work out. Would you believe this morning I caught my Nikon snapping at the keyboard and strangling the mouse? Yeah, that that sounds crazy but it really happened! I think my resolution will be to make them best friends.

Things fight when you're not looking.

Things fight when you’re not looking. I resolve to make them allies.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

The winter solstice is due to hit Texas on December 21st and the last of the golden Hickory leafs are falling. Another season will soon have passed leaving only the evergreens to stand watch while nature sleeps.

As the days are shortened it seems patience is lengthened (if only for a short time) and hearts give way to kinder notions. Colorful festivities dot the dulling landscape and religious traditions are celebrated all over the world. What a sight that must be to behold from the heavens.

The garden tools are stored away and replaced with the red, gold and greens of Christmas. These things [along with a good bonfire] make the change much more bearable.