Oscar coughed and shifted in his recliner. Felix checked his watch then stared out the window, dying to open it and let air into the dark room. Silence the whole two hours he’d been there. He hoped that by remaining where he was, he might do some good, even there.
(50 words)
I haven’t done one of these for a while but I’ve missed them. It’s a great writing warm-up to pare down my writing before I get some words in for Camp NaNoWriMo. I failed at Camp in April because I was M.I.A.: Lost in the Garden so I’ve lowered my word count goal in the hopes of getting my writing moving again.
So far so good, but fingers crossed…
❤️ Amanda
Kristian from Tales from the Mind of Kristian is hosting this week.
The Rules:
• Find the muse within the photo or line provided and follow where it leads. It can be a story, anecdote, poem. Anything!
• The Story must be between 50 and 250 words, in 50 word increments. (so 50, 100, 150, 200 or 250 words)
• Link back to this post with the tag 50WordThurs so that everyone can find it, or post your response in the comments on his site.
The mechanic wouldn’t listen. Something was wrong with Norman, but he refused to hear that it might be the battery. My university stuff was crammed in the back seat, on top of the battery. My dad drove 7 hours through the Rockies the next day, we emptied the back seat, and Norman started right up. What would I know, though? I’m just a woman!
Characters: 280
This is the first time I’ve participated in Twittering Tales and it was really fun. The picture immediately brought to mind this memory and after some tweaking, I was thrilled to get it to 280 characters exactly. Oh, and thanks, Dad! 😊
“About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a photo prompt. Your mission, if you choose to accept the challenge, is to tell a story in 280 characters or less. When you write your tale, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale. This is important as I have noticed that some of the ping backs have not been working. If you would prefer to post your tale in the comments (some people have very specific blog themes but still want to participate), I am happy to post a link to your site when I post your tale in the Round Up.
A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.
I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. And if for some reason I missed your entry in the Roundup, as I have occasionally done, please let me know. I want to be sure to include your tale.
As an aspiring author, I’m always on the lookout for new authors that inspire me. This book appeared in my Bookbub offerings in February, and I was immediately interested, for obvious reasons. The title and the cover speak volumes. (see pic below)
It’s disturbing to hear so many stories about disabled people being further victimized by the attitudes and prejudices of the healthy. When the government jumps on board to legislate discrimination in the guise of rooting out the lazy, lying abusers of the system, the results are truly frightening.
Are there people that abuse the welfare system? Absolutely. Should all people who are already dealing with the challenges of chronic disability live in fear that they will be accused of ‘milking the system’? I won’t answer that, but we know that it happens all too often.
When I first had to give up teaching and go on disability, one person said how lucky I was and that I should go surfing. Um…okay? It’s ignorance, a blissful ignorance of not knowing what it feels like when your body betrays you and all the things you have taken for granted, are taken away. I wish everyone such ignorance.
For those living that reality, further victimization through government policies is very much part of the whole journey. I am fortunate in Canada to have been supported through the process but I hear horror stories from people in the States and the UK about fighting for benefits and not having enough money or proper insurance to afford medication or adequate healthcare.
We know the effects of stress on the human body, and on chronic illness in particular. I can’t imagine living in that kind of fear day in and day out. Tanvir Bush has taken this situation, and in a brilliant satire, given the power back to ‘the crips’. Her protagonist is blind, as is she, and she has the most amazing guide dog, Chris.
Her writing is exceptional, the way she describes the world from the dog’s point of view is brilliant, and overall this book highlights so many important facets of a world that is disturbingly similar to ours. You want to read this book! Amazon links below.
I’ve started a new project and I’m fighting the seat of my pants that wants to take off and just get on with writing, and am madly prepping and outlining in anticipation of Camp NaNoWriMo in April.
Last July and November, I was working on a project about chronic, invisible illness for the writing challenge. Well, that project now needs to percolate so I can gain perspective on it again.
When my husband and I were in our West Coast paradise, I finally screwed up the courage to ask him to read the first chapter of the first ‘book‘ (I use this term loosely) I wrote back in 2015. Two reasons for this: 1) he’s an English professor, so – pressure, and 2) it’s a rough (ahem, creative) interpretation of the story of how we met.
So – pressure.
Well. What the hell did I wait so long for? His response was so motivating, I jumped into that project, determined to mold the existing 20 chapters into some kind of proper story structure. As I tried to tweak it though, I realized that I was resistant to change anything. Not because I don’t think it could be better, but because those were stories I needed to tell.
But they’re not necessarily stories I need other people to read, not my personal stories anyway. What I ultimately realized was there is definitely a story that needs to be told, outside of my own personal experience, about that era and what it was like growing up as a girl in the Wild West (haha) in the 1980s. Particularly as an introvert at a time when that was not only unrecognized as a legitimate personality characteristic, but frowned upon as a social defect.
Besides writing any and every thought about the story on index cards, I’m also rereading Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell and using K.M. Weiland‘s excellent outlining resources to help get this whole puzzle sorted out in the next few weeks so I’m ready to crank out 50,000 words in April.
And maybe, just maybe, I’ll end up with an actual novel.🤞🏻
❤️Amanda
Anyone else tackling Camp Nano next month?
Here’s my writing space. The pair of hummingbirds that live in our yard have built their nest in the tree to the right so they flit in and out all day. I used to hate that tree! This is the eating area in our kitchen, too small for a table and five chairs, so I ‘built’ a window seat out of Ikea refrigerator cabinets. Storage, seating and a lovely view of our backyard. Gotta love Pinterest! My other writing space (below) is weather dependent but it’s gorgeous right now so out I go. Thanks for reading! ❤️
Window seat writing space
Late winter garden on a warm sunny day. Perfect writing space.
Walk a Myelin* My Shoes 