Life in progress

Monthly Archives: April 2017


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Zone – #AtoZChallenge & Song-Lyric Sunday

When you see me staring blankly into space and it takes several seconds for me to answer a simple question, I’m in the zone.

For the final post of this year’s A to Z Challenge, I chose from my thesaurus the word “zone.” The first thing the word always brings to my mind is the zone I need to be in, in order to create. Free from most outside distractions, particularly ones that require concentration on things I’m worried about.  I’m able to do mindless things and stay in the zone: I can get up and make a grilled-cheese sandwich for my son, but not answer any questions; I can let the dog out, but God forbid the phone rings. Having said that, sometimes I burn the sandwich and the dog will scratch at the door to come back in for half an hour.

Getting into my little bubble of creativeness is often difficult. I can’t do it when I know I’ll be distracted in the near future–I’m okay if Alex is due home from school in an hour, but not if I expect him in forty-five minutes. But there is one thing that always helps: my inspiration, my muse. Buck-Tick.

This week’s prompt for the lovely Helen Espinosa’s Song-Lyric Sunday is “consequences, good or bad.” (Click here.) Claiming that my favourite Japanese band’s music is the consequence of being able to write is a bit of a stretch, but I’m going with it because it fits.

This song inspired my upcoming novel, The Great Dagmaru. The lyrics tell the basis of the story. I can’t not disappear into the world of my creation when I listen to this song and watch this video. The English captions are available when you watch it (please do–it’s a fantastic performance), but I’ve copied them out below.

Enjoy.

 
Megami (Goddess)
Lyrics: Sakurai Atsushi (vocals)
Music: Hoshino Hidehiko (acoustic guitar)

Within the heat wave,
a goddess alights
Now no longer lonely,
grant my wish

I’m going mad in this overwhelming emotion
consoled many times
I sin and wait anxiously for punishment
just getting corrupted

I’m in an agony of immorality,
shivering with a premonition
She smiles at me
and grants my wish

Screaming out, I explode
It’s maddening, precious
Even that profile distorted by fear
is beautiful, precious
Turn into chaos before my eyes
Hold me… I can’t see anything

It’s a quiet night, isn’t it?
Such a beautiful night
She smiles at me
–my wish did not come true.

Screaming out, I explode
It’s maddening, precious
Even that profile distorted by fear
is beautiful, precious
Turn into chaos before my eyes
Hold me… I can’t see anything

Only you are kind to me
Only you


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Yowling in the Yard – #AtoZChallenge

I always hated it when my neighbours (where ever I lived) let their dogs yap and yowl all day in their back yards. Now I have a dog who does it. Not that I let him do it all day mind you. If he starts barking, I call him to come in. I still worry that I’m disturbing people though.

I would never have got a dog if I wasn’t home all day. Having said that, I’ve had dogs before that I’ve left home alone while I’ve gone to work. I wonder if they were lonely.

My last dog was a Saint Bernard named George. I got him when I was first married to my first husband. He came from the Humane Society and he was very well trained. But, as I found out after I got him, he hated kids. Luckily, we didn’t have any. I wish I could find a picture of him. If I do someday, I’ll scan it and post it.

Other than dogs, I’ve had budgies and fish. My last two budgies died when I bought a new set of Teflon cookware. Had I opened the window–had I known new Teflon kills birds–they might have been with me many more years than they were. The last bunch of fish I owned were guppies. I brought them in a small container with me in the car when I moved. The guy at the pet store told me not to keep them in the small tank for more than a couple of weeks, or they’d die. They lasted in it for two years. Then again, I didn’t buy any new Teflon in that time, either… Maybe I should have kept the birds in water. … Nah.

This silly post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link and see how you, too, can join in the fun! https://lindaghill.com/2017/04/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-apr-2917/


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eXpedition – #AtoZChallenge

I like to think of myself as a world traveller, but there are only two places I regularly go – around my own province of Ontario, and Japan.

Yes, I know “expedition” doesn’t start with “X.” I cheat on this letter almost every year. It’s just the way I roll. Apparently also the way I roll is to post when I’m falling asleep, and this entry is no exception. So, tonight, I’m just going to post something really neat about my last trip to Tokyo.

If you were around for my 2014 trip, you might remember a video I posted: the traffic camera at the Shibuya intersection, made famous in the movies Lost in Translation and Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift among others.

Since I stayed a five-minute walk from the intersection last time I visited, I set up a “meeting” with my family at home. I emailed them early one morning, just before I left my hotel room, and had them watch the traffic camera. Although I walked around the intersection in almost every direction, only one screenshot was captured. This was me just before the lights changed–I walked directly across, towards the camera. Apparently it’s surprising that I didn’t hear Alex scream with excitement when Mom waved to him from across the other side of the globe.

I’m beside the lamp post in front of the yellow store front.

The only picture anyone took of me while I was in Japan was taken from 6,447 miles away. That’s one hell of a zoom lens. HA!

Here’s the traffic camera. It’s fun to watch:

***
With just the click of a button, you can have my A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette “All Good Stories” expedited to you! It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.

“A delightful read!!” ~ Cheryl Lynn Roberts, 4 stars, Amazon Canada review

“A short funny tale of two friends” ~ Ritu, 4 stars, Amazon UK review

“Quirky and charming.” ~ Bobby Underwood, #11 top reviewers on Goodreads – 5 stars

Click the picture to find it on Kindle, or get it on Kobo here: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/all-good-stories


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Apr. 29/17

Friday is here, so that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. The month of April, as you might have heard, is time for many of us to participate in the A to Z Challenge. With this taken into consideration, I’ll start the prompt with the letter of the day, just to potentially help people along. Here’s your prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “yard.” Use it any way you’d like. You can even add letters to it to make a whole new word! Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at this week’s prompt page and check to make sure it’s here in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Anyone can join in!

To make your post more visible, use our SoCS badge! Just paste it in your Saturday post so people browsing the reader will immediately know your post is stream of consciousness and/or pin it as a widget to your site to show you’re a participant. Wear it with pride!!

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The’,” or simply a single word to get your started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours.  Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!


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Worldwide – #AtoZChallenge

Though we may be divided by seas, by cultures, and by religion, the language of music is universal.

You may read the above sentence and wonder why I put “religion” in there. There’s a method to my madness.

When I looked up the A to Z Challenge word of the day in my thesaurus, I got “worldwide.” My initial thought was the Internet, naturally. But then I glanced at the synonyms and got a bit of a shock. The first one is “catholic.” How in the *ahem* heck, I thought, is “catholic” a synonym in the same list as “pandemic”? I immediately looked it up in the dictionary.

According to the English Oxford, it originates from the following:

“Late Middle English: from Old French catholique or late Latin catholicus, from Greek katholikos ‘universal’, from kata ‘in respect of’ + holos ‘whole’.”

It’s an adjective, defined as:

“Including a wide variety of things; all-embracing.”

For example, “‘her tastes are pretty catholic’”

Back to my original sentence. So by rights, I could get away with writing, “Though we may be divided by seas, by cultures, and by religion, the language of music is catholic.”

What do you think?

***
Hey, guess what? My A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette, “All Good Stories” is available internationally! It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.

“A delightful read!!” ~ Cheryl Lynn Roberts, 4 stars, Amazon Canada review

“A short funny tale of two friends” ~ Ritu, 4 stars, Amazon UK review

“Quirky and charming.” ~ Bobby Underwood, #11 top reviewers on Goodreads – 5 stars

Click the picture to find it on Kindle, or get it on Kobo here: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/all-good-stories


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Veil – #AtoZChallenge

There are days when I wish I could go out in public with a veil over my head: mostly Tuesday through Monday.

We conceal ourselves in so many different ways. From wearing makeup and masks, to hiding behind a computer screen. We pretend–to be more important, smart, beautiful, rich, compassionate–but to what result? In the end, our real nature always shines through.

So I’ve decided to come clean. Right here, right now. Are you ready?

Almost every night for the past three weeks I’ve been too tired to write interesting blog posts. There. I said it. I’m stubborn (because I HAVE to live up to this challenge) to the extent that I’d rather keep myself up at night and blather through my exhaustion than give up.

Tomorrow I’ll try to post earlier. Ugh.

Okay, here’s the real confession:

I’m trying to put you to sleep too.

I’m a terrible person.

***
You know what’s not terrible? My A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette, “All Good Stories”! It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.

“A delightful read!!” ~ Cheryl Lynn Roberts, 4 stars, Amazon Canada review

“A short funny tale of two friends” ~ Ritu, 4 stars, Amazon UK review

“Quirky and charming.” ~ Bobby Underwood, #11 top reviewers on Goodreads – 5 stars

Click the picture to find it on Kindle, or get it on Kobo here: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/all-good-stories


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One-Liner Wednesday – Best Friends

I’m not sure when life became too short, but I know why.

____________________________________________________________________________

If you would like to participate, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do,
you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a ping back, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that the One-Liner Wednesday you’re pinging back to is this week’s! Otherwise, no one will likely see it but me.

NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, like Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

As with Stream of Consciousness Saturday (SoCS), if you see a ping back from someone else in my comment section, click and have a read. It’s bound to be short and sweet.

Unlike SoCS, this is not a prompt so there’s no need to stick to the same “theme.”

The rules that I’ve made for myself (but don’t always follow) for “One-Liner Wednesday” are:

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com

#1linerWeds badge by nearlywes.com


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Urban – #AtoZChallenge

The word “urban” is making me want to cheat and find another word.

Although, according to Merriam-Webster online, urban means “of, relating to, characteristic of, or constituting a city,” the word always conjures houses on the outskirts of a city. The city is where the businesses and apartment buildings are, and the residential areas are urban. No?

Or maybe I’m thinking of the suburbs. Which I suppose means sub (below) the urbs (the city).

I’ve only once lived outside of the urbs. On a farm where I shoveled horse poop for a living. Such a glamorous job, and yet so rewarding. I know some people just can’t stand to reside in the city, and some wouldn’t live in the country unless they were dragged there kicking and screaming. Me? I’m comfortable anywhere. I love the quiet and I enjoy the constant noise–mostly because after a while I don’t hear it anymore.

Then again, crickets are everywhere in the summer.

***
Want something to drown out the crickets? Then buy my A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette, “All Good Stories”! You won’t hear them over the sound of your own giggling.

It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.

“A delightful read!!” ~ Cheryl Lynn Roberts, 4 stars, Amazon Canada review

“A short funny tale of two friends” ~ Ritu, 4 stars, Amazon UK review

“Quirky and charming.” ~ Bobby Underwood, #11 top reviewers on Goodreads – 5 stars

Click the picture to find it on Kindle, or get it on Kobo here: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/all-good-stories


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Tinge – #AtoZChallenge

My dog adds a smattering of love to my life, and a sprinkling of privy to my back yard.

It’s no surprise that I love words. They are why writing, to me, is such a glorious challenge. Finding just the right one is like discovering a hidden treasure. It’s like fitting in that piece of a thousand-piece puzzle that I’ve been looking for for hours. And what makes it such a challenge? It’s the tinge a word can put on a feeling. The morsel that’s as small as a speck. The discomfort that’s really a vexation. The gladness that turns to euphoria. And the exhaustion that leads to zonking out.

Zzzzz…

No, seriously. I’m going to bed. Winston’s making me jealous.

***
Would you like a dash of amusement in your day? A pinch of jollification, perhaps? Then buy my A to Z Challenge-inspired novelette, “All Good Stories”! It’s a romantic comedy about two best friends who belong together – Xavier knows it, but Jupiter has her eye on another guy: a shady character named Bob.

“A delightful read!!” ~ Cheryl Lynn Roberts, 4 stars, Amazon Canada review

“A short funny tale of two friends” ~ Ritu, 4 stars, Amazon UK review

“Quirky and charming.” ~ Bobby Underwood, #11 top reviewers on Goodreads – 5 stars

Click the picture to find it on Kindle, or get it on Kobo here: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/all-good-stories

 


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#SoCS – Spirited – #AtoZChallenge

I just looked up my thesaurus word for the A to Z Challenge and I have no idea how, off the top of my head, to use it with the word “spell,” which is the prompt for SoCS.

Now I have that out of the way (did I cheat?), I’ll say that when I hear the word “spirited,” my mind immediately goes to horses. I’ve known some spirited horses in my day. And I’ve known some lazy ones.

Through my 20s, I worked on a dude ranch, taking trails out. Some of the animals we used for the trails always had kids on them–they were the horses that were easy to handle, meaning they did nothing out of the ordinary, never moved any faster than they absolutely had to, and never strayed from following the bum of the horse in front of them. Until we got to the apple orchard. It was fine most of the year, but when the apples started growing, we’d constantly have a paying customer scraped off their horse by the low-hanging branches.

So why didn’t we put kids on smaller horses? Most of them were too rowdy. Or too easily spooked. And apparently people enjoyed being dragged under a tree better than they liked falling off.

I worked at that place for years. I loved it. I was paid $20 for an eight- or nine-hour day, which doesn’t sound like much, but as I often said to people — I was getting paid to do something I loved.

Me ‘n’ my pony
Riding bareback with a halter and lead rope
Shadow after a nice roll in the dirt

I never thought I’d give up riding, but I have. I don’t have the time or the money for it any more. I’ve been on a few trails, but after leading them myself, I can’t stand being told what to do. The last time I took a trail, I took my feet out of the stirrups to stretch my legs only to be told by the trail guide that I HAD to put them back in. I told her where to stick it (in so many words) but the trail wasn’t very pleasant after that.

I hope one day I’ll be able to start going again. My dream was to own a farm, but that’s never going to happen. Even if I could afford it, it would be necessarily too far away from the nearest hospital for Alex’s sake. But maybe, someday, I’ll take out trails again. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll come across the trail guide who told me to put my feet in the stirrups and I can get her back.

This post is part of Stream of Consciousness Saturday. To find out how to join in, click the link: https://lindaghill.com/2017/04/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-apr-2217/ It’s fun!