Life in progress

Category Archives: Prompt


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Just Jot It January 12th – Skulls

Skulls, for me of late, have been all about inspiration. It began a few months ago with the release of a solo project, a band called The Mortal, by my favourite singer Sakurai Atsushi. The music of The Mortal with Sakurai’s Shakespearean inspired lyrics, and the Gothic look they created with their tophats and props spoke to me from the start.

skull sakurai

But today, with the news of the death of David Bowie the co-incidences and the very meaning of how deeply music can inspire us was driven home and has been revolving in my head faster than I can process it.

I fell in love with “A Space Oddity” the first time I heard it. I was in my parent’s best friends’ basement with their niece, Beverly. She was a teenager – a mythical creature to me at my tender age of about six years. On this particular afternoon she was listening to the song over and over. I’ve never tired of it.

At my first glimpse of the man himself I was totally fascinated. His slightly feminine features which seemed to blur but not hide his masculinity, his style (which was his Ziggy persona at the time), and his lyrics made my mind whirl at the possibilities of what even my life could be like: wild, bohemian, and perhaps out-of-this-world exciting. Bowie made me dream. Ultimately he sparked my imagination and guided me to the worlds my characters live in.

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As a young man this “cat from Japan” was also inspired by David Bowie.

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1987 bt

Sakurai Atsushi with Buck-Tick, 1987

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During Sakurai’s first solo outing in 2004, before I knew he existed, he covered “A Space Oddity.”

And so we fast-forward to my discovery of Mr. Sakurai. Eleven years after this video was recorded I had the privilege to see Sakurai perform for the second time. He described The Mortal as an opportunity to be himself; to do what he wanted on stage, with the dark, Goth-inspired atmosphere that moves him.

I suppose you could say that I’ve been influenced twice by the same man. First directly, when I was very young, and now again indirectly by the influence he had over Sakurai Atsushi.

David Bowie, the hero that blew the spark that lit the flame of our imaginations has flown. May his influence live forever.

The “Skulls” prompt is brought to you by Dean Kealy at Dean’z Doodlez. Please check out his amazing doodles, and tell him I said hi while you’re there!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 12th post here!


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Just Jot It January 11th – Effortless

I think about all the things I used to do effortlessly when I was younger and I wonder that I can’t anymore. I know you young ‘uns out there are saying, “We don’t want to hear about all your aches and pains, ya old coot!” I know. I remember thinking it myself. I also thought I’d never get to this stage. But here I am.

Gone are the days when I didn’t have to struggle to get up off a hardwood floor after sitting on it for ten minutes. Gone is the ability to sleep through the night without waking up with a sore hip; the ability to read things on the tv without glasses, and the ability to do the splits…

There’s a message in some of this for you kids out there. The message is, don’t stop. If you can do the splits now, or touch your toes without bending your knees, or run half a mile, or multiply large numbers in your head, keep it up! It’s when we stop because we no longer need to do it that we lose it. Age has little to do with some of the things I find difficult.

But you know what? It’s not all that bad. There are things I CAN do now that I couldn’t do before. Like write a story or a blog post, or even a novel and put it out there for the world to see without caring what anyone thinks. Or like effortlessly sing all the low notes that used to hurt my throat to even try. Hell, I can even sing in front of people now. It used to be that I wouldn’t sing in a house when I was on my own, unless I was singing to something playing on the stereo.

It’s not all bad, getting older. Then again. I’m not THAT old.

This “Effortless” prompt is brought to you by Dan Antion at No Facilities. If you don’t already follow him, please check out his blog!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 11th post here!


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Just Jot It January 10th – Sane

What does it mean to be sane? According to Google’s dictionary it refers to a) a person who is “of sound mind; not mad or mentally ill,” or b) an undertaking or manner which is “reasonable; sensible.” That’s all fine and good, but who gets to judge?

The obvious answer is a doctor. But before that can happen, someone has to take, encourage, or direct said insane person to the doctor in the first place. Because chances are that the truly insane person doesn’t know he or she is insane at all. Not, of course, to put down anyone with mental illness. But for example, I had to be the one to decide to take my Autistic son to the doctor to get checked out. I was the judge in that case.

Moving on…

I often wonder about my own sanity. Considering some of the things that come out of me in my fiction, I think anyone in their right mind would. The thing is, I have no idea where my darker, twisted imagination stems from. I had no significant trauma (that I can remember) in my childhood. I was loved by my parents until my father passed away at the tender age of 49, when I was fourteen. So where’s the psychology in it? Okay yes, I’ve been reading Stephen King since I was fourteen, but can he have influenced me that greatly? No, in fact I don’t think he did.

I’ve had the imagination of a writer since I was very young. I’m talking four or five years old. I remember coming up with stories that, not having the skill to spell, revolved over and over in my head. Some of them even then involved a certain level of torture and sex. So how? Could I have been remembering another life? You may be thinking what I poor child I must have been to have such imaginings, but I grew up with a healthy sense of right and wrong, with empathy, without anxiety or nervousness, and with an understanding of humankind that has prevented me from hating a single soul on the planet. It’s an understanding that has enabled me to write relatable characters. It’s an understanding of everyone else but me.

But then, does anyone really understand themselves? Or does everyone but me?

 

This questionably “Sane” prompt is brought to you by John W. Howell at Fiction Favorites. Please click on the link to visit his blog, and follow him if you aren’t already!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 10th post here!


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Just Jot It January 9th – Title #SoCS

To cheat or not to cheat? (I’d say, “that is the question,” but I’ve already gone the Shakespeare route this week, so I won’t. But it’s stuck in your head now, isn’t it? Ah ha!)

I was going to write about how hard it would be for me not to cheat on this prompt, since I have no idea what movie title popped into my head when I decided to make that the prompt. I was doomed to fail from the start. I missed out on the element of surprise because it’s hard to surprise yourself. BOO! Nope. Didn’t work. See? Try it at home. It’s safe.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. An earworm. Have any of you ended up with one due to this prompt? Because an earworm doesn’t have to just be a song played over and over in your head after hearing it once. It can be a line. A line that becomes a mantra. And then you get stuck on it and it’s like there’s a broken record playing in your head. You hear the line and then the little “blp” that means the needle has jumped the grove and then there’s that line again. I really love vinyl (I know I’ve mentioned it before – I even wrote a post on it) but it can be very fragile and can become unreliable. Not that CDs can’t. I remember being told when CDs first came out that even if you broke them, they’d still play. What a load of crap. My son ran a CD over with his lion (it was a little four-wheeler toddler scooter type thing that he sat on) and it completely destroyed my disc.

Where were we? Oh yeah. The Lion King. “It’s the circle of liiiife…”

You’re welcome.

 

The “title” prompt is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click here to join in, and leave your link for everyone to see!

SoCS badge 2015

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here. Join in today! It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 9th post here at this post.

Note: If you combine SoCS and JusJoJan in one post, make sure you ping back to both this post and the Friday Reminder post.


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS Jan. 9/16

It’s Friday, and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. Today’s SoCS prompt will be tomorrow’s Just Jot It January prompt word, so if you want to use it for your JusJoJan post, go right ahead, and if you want to combine the two challenges you can do that too!  Now, since we’ve had one-word prompts all month so far, I’ve decided to do something slightly different with SoCS this week. Pay close attention; here is your prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “title.”  Think of the title of a movie. Remember or jot down the first one that comes to mind. Now what I’d like you do for SoCS is, use that title as the inspiration for your post. It can be the story of the movie, the title of the movie, or you can simply quote the title of the movie somewhere in your post. It’s up to you! Enjoy!

P.S. If your chosen movie is largely unrecognizable, please let us know at the end of your post what you’re referring to. Thanks!

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 the 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 2015

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.

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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Just Jot It January 8th – Honorable

I’ve been procrastinating long and hard on this post. It’s not that I don’t want to write it, it’s more that I want to get it right. But I want to get some sleep at some point tonight (I haven’t had a night off without kids since my last one in Japan, on November 29th) so here I am just writing it.

Honesty, honour (I managed to eke out one American spelling for the title; sorry Tasha, that’s the best I can do), and ethics, to me, are the most important qualities in a person. I’m no harder on anyone else on these points than I am on myself. I demand them of myself constantly. I come by it honestly enough.

The Golden Rule was drummed into me as a child to the extent that I’ve developed a love/hate relationship with it. Yes, it should be followed always, but it seems a no-brainer. While many people consider it a purely ethical teaching, I can see an equal amount of logic in it. Like Newton’s third law (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” simply makes sense. I’ve begun to see it in action on a daily basis, now that I have a puppy in the house.

Alex is on a feeding pump at home for at least a few hours every day. The pump (which is like an IV pump) has a tube running through it which attaches to a valve in his stomach; it delivers his formula directly. There is about three feet of tubing between his belly and the machine, so if he walks away from the device, the tube sits on the floor. Alex is deathly afraid of the dog grabbing and pulling on the tube, so every time the pup comes near, he screams and pushes him away. The puppy, being a puppy, thinks this means he wants to wrestle. Which makes the situation so much worse than if he quietly held the dog at arm’s length until it got bored and walked away.

Golden Rule or Newton’s Law? Or both?

While my example doesn’t really have a lot to do with behaving ethically, honourably, or honestly, it’s a prime example of why we must react to and treat all humans and creatures as kindly as we can, with as much understanding as we are able to muster. Wouldn’t the world be so much better if puppies weren’t pushed away from enteral feeding devices? And we all just got along quietly and calmly?

The “Honorable” prompt is brought to you by Tasha at Corner Of Confessions. Please click on the link to visit her blog, and follow her if you aren’t already!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 8th post here!


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Just Jot It January 7th – Robust

Robust isn’t a word I use often. If I did I would perhaps say that I enjoy a robust wine, or blend of coffee. By that I would mean extremely flavourful. But. (There’s always a “but” in there, right?)

I looked up “robust” in my trusty Thesaurus and came up with some very interesting synonyms. Among them are: athletic, hard-headed, lusty, realistic, rollicking, straightforward, and unsubtle.

… How…? I mean how do you describe, say, a person as having all these qualities?

“The athlete rollicked straightforwardly into a lusty yet realistic dance, with an unsubtle hard-headedness. Because that’s who he was.”

Or even worse:

“The wine rollicks over the tongue with an athletic, lusty twist before heading straightforwardly to the belly warming your insides in an unsubtle, hard-headed… really… I don’t even.”

Who knew the word “robust” could mean so many things? For a six-letter word, it’s got to be the most confusing one in the English language.

This “Robust” prompt is brought to you by Michael at Morpethroad. Click on the link and have a read, and tell him I said hi! And thank him for the crazy prompt!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 7th post here!


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One-Liner Wednesday – Enough Said

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“no coffee no workee”

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Anyone who would like to try it out, 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.

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.” However, if you’d like to combine One-Liner Wednesday with Just Jot It January, go right ahead!

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

1. Make it one sentence.

2. Make it either funny or inspirational.

3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.

4. Have fun!


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Just Jot It January 6th – Cloud

I love looking at clouds, yet I’ve never been very good at seeing things in them unless the shape made it really apparent. Like this for instance:

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Click on it. Do you see it?

The cloud low on the horizon, right behind the cruise ship looks like a giant head of a dragon, facing left. Tell me you see it. Go on. Please.

Sometimes the clouds balance things out:

Sometimes they’re the focus:

sunset

Never mind the Boston Pizza

 
Don’t you love clouds too?
 

The “Cloud” prompt is brought to you by Geoff Lepard at TanGental. If you don’t already know him, check out his blog!

JJJ 2016

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 6th post here!


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Just Jot It January Prompt for Wednesday Jan. 6th

I’ve been thinking all day about what I’m going to do for tomorrow’s JusJoJan prompt. I didn’t think I’d have a problem with it – I was just going to make my “jot” my usual One-Liner Wednesday. However, far more people are using the prompts than I’d anticipated, and I don’t want to let you all down.

So it is my great joy to announce that someone will have the opportunity to create a prompt for tomorrow. The rules for getting your prompt in are as before: one word in the comments below. If your comment includes more than one word, your suggestion will be eliminated. Also, if you’ve already contributed to the existing prompts for the rest of the month, you are disqualified. The first one to write their word below, wins. Hurry up!

P.S. This post is also part of Tuesday Use It In A Sentence. Today’s word is “joy” and this week it’s being hosted by Kelli at Forty, c’est Fantastique!. Click on the link and join in!