Life in progress

Category Archives: Blogging


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One-Liner Wednesday – #writerslife

The definition of what it is to be a writer:

Needing to pee in the morning and running to the bathroom thinking “the pressure is intense,” and then wondering if you can write an entire novel about a woman who needs to pee all the time.

Nothing is without potential.

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 lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at https://dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/


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#SoCS – Playing with Matches

It has occurred to me that many board games, both electronic and oldies but goodies like finding the same two cards, actually encourage playing with matches.

Think about it.

Honestly, I had no idea how many words start with “ma” until I sat down to write this post. I was like, how do I choose?

So I enjoyed writing my NaNo novel so much that I’ve decided to write a sequel to it. I started it today. I’m hoping to get it finished, slowly but surely this time, by the end of January. If all goes well, I’ll be able to come up with a third book to make it a trilogy. My eventual goal is to publish at least three books per year. I know I have them in me. And I think I’ve found the trick to finding the time to write them. Every day at breakfast. Writing less than 900 words a day–that’s half an hour per day–I can write six novels per year.

Finding time to edit them, on the other hand, is a bit more of a challenge at this point.

What I really need is more exercise. I have to try to get out and walk. Fortunately, Christmas is coming. Lots of walking to be done at the mall.

I bought another colouring calendar. I’m a glutton for punishment.

Okay, it’s one in the morning. I’m a day late again for my own prompt. Not only that, but I just realized I didn’t even get my own bonus points.

I have management issues. Obviously.

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This totally random post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Sunday Saturday. Click the following link to find all the other posts in the comments, and join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/11/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-1-18/


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The Escapist Coloring Club Prompt – December 1, 2018

Welcome to The Escapist Coloring Club prompt!  If you’d like to join the club, all you have to do is post pictures of your own colouring, your kids’ colouring, or that of anyone you know and have permission to share. This is a month-long prompt, which means you have all of December to link back here.

Well, November was my biggest failure to date. But in my own defense, I did write a novel.

I planned to colour all the leaves in green and make the owl very colourful.

Here’s what it looked like before I started.

And here are bits of the finished product.

Different coloured eyes.
Can you find the owl?

And here’s the entire thing.

All month I’ve been looking at it hanging on my wall and rolling my eyes, knowing I should work on it but deciding to write instead. But last night when I made one last-ditch attempt to do some more, I realized why I enjoy it so much. How relaxing it is to colour.

In an unprecedented move, I’m going to show you December’s project, so you can see why, unless I don’t sleep, I won’t get it all coloured.

Click for ridiculous detail.

But you know what? I think I’ll give myself permission to just do the best I can. No pressure. That’s what relaxing is all about, right?

I look forward to seeing all of your wonderful projects in the coming month!

Please find the “rules” below.

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 try to 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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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Dec. 1/18

It’s Friday and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I can’t believe I’m writing “December” in the title of this post!! So sorry for the silence over the past few days. I’m writing a novel for NaNoWriMo–only 2,800 words left for the win! More later. Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “ma.” Use it as a word or find a word with “ma” in it. Bonus points if you start your post with that word. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 pretty 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!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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 all of them! 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 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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One-Liner Wednesday – Meeeoow! 🐱

Research mishaps: Looking up recovery times for anesthetized cats, one of Google’s suggestions was, “Is it dangerous to sedate a cat?”

I read, “Is it dangerous to seduce a cat?”

Answer: depends on its mood. 🤣

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 lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at https://dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/


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#SoCS – The Digest Version

What ever happened to those hardback digest versions of books, compiled by Reader’s Digest? You know, the ones with the dark brown covers. My mother had a bunch of them when I was little. I remember trying to read a story out of one of them when I was a kid … maybe 10 years old? I think it was Moby Dick or Treasure Island or one of the old classics. I got bored with it. And I also recall wondering if I was going to read the story, why not actually read the story rather than a glorified synopsis of one?

Maybe that’s why they stopped making them …?

Or do they still? I haven’t seen one of the Digest books in years, unless they were in a used book store.

Speaking of books (and not to make this a sales post … I don’t want everything on my blog to be a sales post, but lately it seems to be all I do. More on that in a minute …) did you know Amazon has a coupon for $5 off, if you spend more than $20 on two paperbacks, until tomorrow? The coupon code is NOVBOOK18. I would be grateful if you bought one of mine, but it’s good for whatever you choose.

Which now brings me to what I’m loath to digest, and that’s that I can’t keep this up. I’ve spent more time writing and trying to sell my books than I used to, and the evidence is here on my blog. Or, I should say, the evidence is the lack of my presence here. Something has to give, and when it comes down to it, I have to follow the money. I need to spend more time doing things that will earn me money, or I’m not going to have the Internet to be here at all. Or food. I could give up food.

But it’s tough, you know? I feel like y’all are family here. And I don’t want to let you down. Nor do I want to give up the pleasure I get from contributing to this community I’ve built around me.

I won’t give up SoCS as long as I have a computer to host it on. Nor One-Liner Wednesday. But I may need help … no, scratch that … if I’m going to do Just Jot It January 2019, I’m GOING to need help. But I’m not sure how to do that anymore either, since WordPress has changed the guest blogging rules.

Suggestions are welcome.

I do know that I’ll be working a full time job (editing) in January, so my time will be very limited. I may drop the coloring club not because I don’t have time to post, but because I never have time to color. If anyone wants to take that one over, let me know via email at bacamjoly@gmail.com.

So that didn’t end up being a very uplifting post, did it?

Maybe next week …

I hope everyone has finished digesting their Thanksgiving dinner by now. For us in the rest of the world, it’s business as usual.

And no, I didn’t mean THAT kind of business.

Or maybe I did.

Damn not being able to edit!

heehee

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday! Click the following link to find all the other participating blogs in the comments, and join in! It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/11/23/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-24-18/


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 24/18

Hello there! It’s Friday and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “digest.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 pretty 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!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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 all of them! 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 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!


by 33 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – It’s Time

You know it’s time to take the air conditioner out of the kitchen window when you walk in and the oven is giving the fridge tips on how to keep the food warm.

IMG_20181120_203209

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 lovely badge to your post for extra exposure!

5. Have fun!

#1linerWeds badge by Cheryl, at https://dreamingreality646941880.wordpress.com/


by 33 Comments

#SoCS – Crunchy roll

You might be wondering to yourself, what is it with that woman? She posts prompts and half the time, she can’t even make it on time to her own party. (That woman would, of course, be me.) Not that I think you think of me much. I probably think of me, much more than you think of me, in fact.  My commas are all over the place tonight. Oops.

But I think what’s really wrong with me, other than my recent comma disability (it’s late, that’s my excuse), is that I have too many roles. Let’s see …

I’m a mother.

And a father, kinda, because it’s a one-parent household.

I’m an author.

I’m an editor.

I’m a housekeeper.

I’m a picker.

And a grinner.

I’m a lover.

And I’m a sinner.

… wait. Those last four might have been an earworm.

What it comes down to is I’ve got too much to do on the weekends. Silly of me, I suppose, to think I could keep this blogging stuff up indefinitely, what with everything else. The more I take on, the more I fail, it seems. (Ignore the commas.)

So, I try to roll with it all. But it’s a crunchy kind of roll, with far too many bumps along the way to make it even seem like a smooth roll.

It’s more of a rutted roll. Slimy in spots …

Okay, now I want sushi. I tried to get away from it, but the craving is there.

A nice crunchy roll would go down so nice as a midnight snack.

Oh, and I’ve also got a head cold.

I’m blaming this post on that.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

This rather late, rather munchy (no, I’m not a midnight toker!) post, is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the other fabulous posts and join in. It’s fun! https://lindaghill.com/2018/11/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-17-18/


by 43 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Nov. 17/18

Hey there! It’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. I’m getting ahead of myself for once and scheduling this Thursday night because I fully expect Friday to be a snow day, which means certain chaos in my house. Therefore, I’m on time for a change! Here’s your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “roll/role.” Use one, use both, it’s entirely up to you. Enjoy!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here to 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 pretty 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!!

SoCS badge by Pamela, at https://achronicalofhope.com/

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. I will post the prompt here on my blog every 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 will simply be a single word to get you 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 all of them! 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 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!