Life in progress


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#SoCS – Hoping it’ll be fine

My eldest son, who lives in the basement, is my constant source of support when his brother acts up. Which is a wonderful thing, or will be until–as he pointed out yesterday–it isn’t. I can’t and don’t expect him to live here forever.  Yesterday as I was battling with Alex over one of his regular behavioral issues, my son said point blank that if I don’t stop giving in to Alex, he’s going to walk all over me when my support moves out.

So this morning I decided to battle it out alone. I got yelled at and punched (he’s seventeen, but only the size of a ten year old; his little knuckles are bony, damn it!), but I managed to get him to calm down and behave himself. I have to do this. Otherwise, I won’t be fine.

This short and far from sweet post is brought to you by a frazzled Linda, in conjunction with Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Join in the fun and read all the other posts! You can find everything you need here: https://lindaghill.com/2018/03/02/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-3-18/


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183. Scenes from the Second Seat on the Right

Note: Strong language

Friday, March 2nd, 7:00pm
Ethyl (and Jade)

 

Ethyl sits at the window. Jade takes the seat beside her.

Ethyl: (under her breath) Pfft.

Jade turns and smiles tentatively.

Ethyl: (under her breath) Slut.

Jade: I beg your pardon?

Ethyl: (under her breath) Tart.

Jade: If you’ve got something to say, say it.

Ethyl: You look like a whore.

Jade: How … dare you!

Ethyl: You’re off to get paid for a man’s pleasure, aren’t you? Look at the way you’re dressed.

Jade: It’s a skirt and blouse! I’m going to visit my mom.

Ethyl: Liar!

Jade: (stands) Lady, you need to keep your thoughts to yourself.

Ethyl: (smiles sweetly) Just kidding.

Jade: (sits and crosses her arms) Hmph.

Ethyl: (under her breath) Cocksucker.

 

Next stop: Saturday, March 3rd, 6:00pm

Click here to learn all about this series, how it works, and where to find your favourite characters.


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS March 3/18

Hi there! Today is Friday, and that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I had to force Alex to get on his school bus without his glasses today; the bus was waiting outside, lights flashing, the garbage truck idling behind it, and the glasses were nowhere to be found. Talk about stress! Of course, I found them before the bus got more than two hundred feet down the road … So, I just got back from dropping them off at school. Anyhoo, here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “fine.” Use it any way you’d like, bonus points if you use it as the last word of your post. 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 new 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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182. Scenes from the Second Seat on the Right

Thursday, March 1st, 4:00pm 6:00pm
Maurice and Stuart

 

Maurice sits at the window. Stuart takes the seat beside him.

Maurice: Hey there, buddy. You know, this being late thing is going to get you in trouble.

Stuart: Yeah, I know. But I’ve got a good excuse this time.

Maurice: Oh yeah?

Stuart: Yep. The apartment got flooded.

Maurice: Oh no. Did you lose a lot of stuff?

Stuart: Not only that, the old lady I live with almost drowned, trying to save the dog.

Maurice: Can’t the dog swim?

Stuart: Yeah, but the dog was trying to save the cat.

Maurice: That was decent of him.

Stuart: You’d think so. But it was the damned cat’s fault that the flood happened in the first place. It somehow managed to get under the sink and it chewed right through one of those flexible pipes.

Maurice: Oh man. So how is everyone now?

Stuart: Old lady’s at the hospital, dog’s at the vet, and the cat … (Stuart opens is jacket and a bald head pokes out)

Maurice: Oh my God, that thing is ugly! You can’t take that to work.

Stuart: I’m not. I’m taking it to the pound.

Maurice: Probably for the best.

 

Next stop: Friday, March 2nd, 7:00pm

Click here to learn all about this series, how it works, and where to find your favourite characters.


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The Escapist Coloring Club Prompt – March 1, 2018

Welcome to the third edition of the Escapist Coloring Club prompt! For this prompt, I encourage you to post pictures of your own colouring, your kids’ colouring, or that of anyone you know and have permission to share. That’s all there is to joining the club.

My reaction when I first saw the February page of my calendar was an overwhelmed “that’s a lot of leaves.” But I knew I was in for a challenge with most of the months when I bought the thing, so I sat down and started. I coloured the leaves first, to get them out of the way.

Here are a few more bits I’m happy to have managed, despite how tiny they were. The entire thing is done in marker, apart from the trunk. They really need to make a lighter brown marker!

The camera shows everything I missed, but I think that’s what puts the beauty in something done by hand.

That’s it for me this month. Let’s see what you’ve got!

Here are the “rules.”

1. This prompt is designed for relaxation. As such, I encourage you to take your time to link your own post here, BUT, when you comment, please click the “Notify me of new comments via email” button. That way you’ll receive a notification when someone else links their project and you won’t miss anything. As with all the prompts, the more you visit others, the more your community of like-minded people grows.

2. Ping back! It’s important so that I and other people can come and read your post. To execute a pingback, just copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into the body of your post. 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.

3. There will be a prompt on the first of every month. I will post the prompt here on my blog at 9:30am -5 GMT. The prompt will simply be photos of my own colouring project. If you would like to host this prompt on your blog on another week during the month, either once, occasionally, or on a regular basis, please e-mail me at hilllindagmaru at gmail dot com and we’ll get you set up. All I ask is that you have an active blog and that you regularly reply to comments and visit other blogs.

4. Feel free to use the Escapist Coloring Club badge in your post.

5. Have fun!

 


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181. Scenes from the Second Seat on the Right

Wednesday, February 28th, 8:00pm
Drommen (and Hillary)

 

Drommen sits at the window. Hillary takes the seat beside him.

Hillary: Hey Jake!

Drommen: Hey, Jessica, how are you?

Hillary: Great! Tomorrow’s my nineteenth birthday.

Drommen: Wow. Well, happy birthday!

Hillary: (pulls a baggie part-way out of her pocket) Wanna celebrate?

Drommen: (frowns) I have to get home. My sister needs me.

Hillary: (puts baggie away) Oh.

Drommen: But thanks for the offer.

Hillary: Yeah, no problem.

Drommen: Do you have anything special planned for your birthday?

Hillary: Nah.

Drommen: That’s too bad.

Hillary: You gonna be around tomorrow?

Drommen: I don’t know. But if I am …

Hillary: (smiles) I’ll save you some just in case.

Drommen: I have to warn you, that stuff … does things to me.

Hillary: Like what?

Drommen: I’m afraid you’re about four hours too young for an answer to that question.

Hillary grins.

 

Next stop: Thursday, March 1st, 4:00pm

Click here to learn all about this series, how it works, and where to find your favourite characters.


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One-Liner Wednesday – How I Roll

Once in a while I get a brilliant idea for a story–something that’s so mind-boggling, that I just KNOW it’s best-selling-novel material. I’ll be so excited that there’s NO WAY I’m going to forget this idea, but I write myself a little note, just to make sure.

Here’s one example, that’s been on my phone for almost a year:

I have no freakin’ clue what the story was going to be about.


If you would like to participate in this prompt, 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 pingback, 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 pingback 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 Dan Antion

 


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180. Scenes from the Second Seat on the Right

Tuesday, February 27th, 4:00pm
Blade and Mumsy

 

Mumsy: You have everything you need?

Blade: Yes, Mumsy. I have everything I need.

Mumsy: And you’re wearing clean undergarments?

Blade: Of course, Mumsy.

Mumsy: And you won’t be too frightened?

Blade: No, Mumsy. I’ll be fine.

Mumsy: Because I can come with you.

Blade: (sighs) We’ve been through this before, Mumsy. You can’t come to college with me. It’s something I have to do myself.

Mumsy: As long as you’re sure.

Blade: I am, Mumsy.

Mumsy: (pats his hand) All right then.

Blade: (freezes and gasps) Wait. Did you pack my grey poupon?

Mumsy: No, I thought you did.

Blade: We must go back! I can’t go to school without my grey poupon!

Mumsy: (stands up) Driver! My son forgot his grey poupon! Turn this vehicle around immediately! We need to go back! (sits)

Blade: (a minute later) Why is he not turning around?

Mumsy: I have no idea. (stands) Driver! I said turn this vehicle around immediately!

Blade: Perhaps I should go and speak to him privately.

Mumsy: (stands) No, you just sit. I’ll take care of this.

Mumsy walks to the front of the bus and returns a moment later.

Blade: What did he say?

Mumsy: (indignantly) He told me we’ll have to disembark and catch something or other going in the opposite direction!

Blade: Of all the nerve!

Mumsy: That’s the last time I hire this limo company!

Blade: (shakes his head) I knew this was a bad idea when he refused to get out and open the door for us.

 

Next stop: Wednesday, February 28th, 8:00pm

Click here to learn all about this series, how it works, and where to find your favourite characters.


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The Magician’s Curse – Award-Winning Novel

I WON!!

The Paranormal Romance Guild has announced the winners of their Reviewer’s Choice Awards, and my novel, The Magician’s Curse, came in first place! It’s a bit surreal to be able to call myself an award-winning author. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet.

Linda Tonis, senior reviewer for the Paranormal Romance Guild wrote:

I literally read this book in a few hours since I found it hard to put down. This is a story filled with magic, curses, sex, romance, secrets and surprises so how could I not love it.

To read the full review, click here.

Thanks so much to the Guild for nominating me, and thanks to everyone who voted for me!

If you haven’t read The Magician’s Curse yet, here are the links.

On Kindle:
Amazon US
Amazon Canada
Amazon UK
Amazon Australia
and Amazon where ever else you are in the world, as well as
Kobo worldwide.
or get the paperback on Amazon.


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179. Scenes from the Second Seat on the Right

Monday, February 26th, 4:00pm
Miles (and Andrea)

 

Miles sits at the window. Andrea takes the seat beside him.

Andrea: (under her breath) Man, this weather sucks ass.

Miles: Yes it does. Do you have any toilet paper?

Andrea: Ewww! Eww! Eww! Eww!

Andrea changes seats.

 

Next stop: Tuesday, February 27th, 4:00pm

Click here to learn all about this series, how it works, and where to find your favourite characters.