Life in progress

Tag Archives: writing


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS July 25/15

It’s the last Friday in July – where has the first half of summer gone? Is it just me or is time flying? Anyway, it is time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! I sometimes ask that you use a letter, or a prefix, or a suffix but not often (have I ever?) to use letters within a word. That’s what I’m going to do with this week’s SoCS prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “vis.”  Use a word, or tie your post’s theme around a word, that contains the letters VIS, in that order. Enjoy!

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

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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!


by 25 Comments

The Plan

As many of you know, my epic work-in-progress (my novel The Great Dagmaru) is a paranormal romance about a magician and his assistant. As many of you also know, I have great fun doing research in the interest of making the book as believable as possible. This research has in the past included staying in the haunted mansion in Kingston that inspired the setting, and traveling to Ottawa to spend an afternoon backstage at the National Arts Centre, where one of the performances in my novel takes place. (Check out the links. There are pictures.)

Now I have a new and exciting opportunity ahead of me. This time it’s a little more nerve-wracking. Last weekend when I was again visiting Kingston, I met a magician. And he’s agreed to let me interview him! A real live magician! *ahem* Once the interview is complete I plan to make an article out of it and sell it to a publication. Depending on the slant I put on it, I may pitch it to an online magazine for kids, a parenting magazine, or even as a general interest piece for the Huffington Post. At the moment I’m still coming up with questions. I have quite a few already, but I don’t want to miss anything important. Some of them will pertain to background information that might not even make it into the novel, but they’re things that are necessary for me to understand. Most of the interview will, I hope, shed some light on what makes a magic show fun to watch and what makes a magician want to perform. Not too much light though… it’s the mystery that makes watching worthwhile.

An awful lot is going into the making of my novel. With this article, not only will I have the benefit of the knowledge of someone in the business (a real live magician! *ahem*), but I’ll have something extra to add to my resumé. One way or another, I’m having a blast. It’s all adding up to an experience that not a lot of people get.

Go me!


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SoCS – Guilt

Ah, guilt is such a wonderful thing, isn’t it? It’s not often I feel guilty for anything – I’m rarely bad. But now…

I want to go back to Japan. This year. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: but you just went! But there’s a reason. Another concert is coming up that I want to go to. Such a flip excuse, isn’t it? Yet here I am again. Wanting to fly off and leave my kids with someone else. Just take off. So selfish. So extravagant.

It comes, for me, under the heading “you only live once.” I may just have the funds and I have a plan to get more, which I’ll write about later. My plan, if I can actually pull this off without guilting myself into not doing it, is to work my hopefully-fit-by-then ass off to save as much money as I can and do good things for other people so I feel worthy of a trip. Deserving.

I’m not writing this for praise, nor am I hoping for permission from anyone. But I’m sure many people can relate to what I’m going through at the moment. Poor me… yeah. Pthththhth. It’s a conundrum. And this has been a hard post to write and will be even harder to publish.

Meantime, my fruit fly problem doesn’t seem to be improving much. I’ve caught more in my homemade trap (a jar with a piece of tomato in the bottom and plastic wrap on top with two small holes punched in it) than the store-bought one. But there are still clouds of the little buggers in my kitchen. It’s a plague, I tell you! But at least they’re not mosquitoes. Now THAT would suck. Like a mosquito.

Time to stop. 😛

This random post has been brought to you by SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2015/07/17/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-1815/ Click the link and get in while the gettin’s good!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions


by 35 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS July 18/15

It’s Friday and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! Well, it’s fruit fly season again. I have no idea where they come from – I don’t even have any fruit in the house! I do have traps now though, so hopefully they’ll be under control soon. Which brings me to this week’s SoCS prompt:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “fly/flies/flew/flu/flue.”  Choose one, use ’em all, it’s up to you. 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 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

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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!


by 30 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS July 11/15

Today is Friday (ain’t that wonderful?) and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! I’m out of town for a couple of days, off treasure hunting… and you know, treasure for me is nothing less than inspiration! I’ll be back with many a story, I’m sure. In the meantime, here is your SoCS prompt for this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “ring.”  Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

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

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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!


by 29 Comments

SoCS is…

Is that really the time? I’ve been trying to sit down at the computer all day. But with the kids going away for two weeks to their dad’s – yes, two whole weeks kidless – I’ve been running around like a headless horseman… where did that come from?… trying to take care of everyone. No, that doesn’t mean I’ve packed a damned thing. But Alex wanted to spend time with my mother and Chris needed his chicken McNuggets and Alex wanted to play Life (dad doesn’t have Life… the game that is. He has a life) and do a puzzle and later we have to build Lego… Maybe I can convince him to help me pack.

Packing isn’t a big deal for me. I regularly pack the night before I go on a plane trip, to stay somewhere for a couple of weeks. If I’m gone for a weekend I pack a few minutes before I walk out the door. I remember making long long lists once upon a time. Especially when I went camping. Ah, I used to love camping. Now I don’t think my body could take it.

Speaking of my body, I have a mosquito bite on the bottom of my foot. On the ball of my foot. Feels great just to stand up. My shoulder is almost back to normal, and with only one visit to the physiotherapist. He gave me a bunch of exercises to do, but it seems like it was going to get better no matter what. I think the steroid injection did most of the work.

Speaking of work, I think I’m just about finished my edits on my novel. I need a few people to read the first couple of chapters though, to tell me if it makes any sense. I’m too involved in it to tell. I read it and I think it’s okay, but I’m not sure if it sounds pretentious. I dunno. Any volunteers?

So now I’m trying to decide what the title of this post alludes to. SoCS is good for some things, like getting everything out of the mind that’s been sitting there for a while. Like clearing the cobwebs away from the back of the china cabinet that no one has moved in six years because they don’t want to take all the china out.

SoCS is bad for keeping on track on a subject. So let’s see… SoCS is…

 

Here: https://lindaghill.com/2015/07/03/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-july-415/  Click on the link to join in!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

P.S. Happy 4th of July to all my American friends!!


by 50 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS July 4/15

Friday, Friday comes around, and when it does, let SoCS abound! That’s right – it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! I was thinking it might be cool to get a hashtag going for SoCS. #SoCS seems to make the most sense. As with One-Liner Wednesday, (#1lineWed) hopefully it will generate a few more views for everyone. So tag away! I’ll add it to the rules (suggestions) below. So I guess you’re waiting for your prompt, eh? Here it is:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “is”  Use the word “is” to begin your post – bonus points for using it (as a word on its own or at the end of your final word, i.e. “metamorphosis”) at the end of your post as well. 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 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

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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!


by 53 Comments

One-Liner Wednesday – Really Texas?

Sometimes you have to travel to discover cultural differences in faraway places; sometimes you can learn right in your own kitchen ~

hot dog

(click on the image to read the label)

~ then there are those things you really have to question…

_________________________________________________________________________________________

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.”

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.

Have fun!


by 64 Comments

SoCS – Some Respect, WordPress?

I haven’t been online much in the last 12 hours so this might be the dozenth post you’ve read about the subject of the banner pasted at the top of your stats page here on WordPress. If you’re already sick of hearing about it, by all means skip this. I just feel like saying something.

When Canada passed the same law to allow same-sex marriage nationwide ten years ago I was both happy for gay couples and proud of my country. That lasted about five minutes – it’s not a decision that affects me personally. And yet today I’m stuck with a reminder of something that still doesn’t matter to me on a personal level. Yes, it may seem petty to complain but it’s such a non-issue. Fantastic – people who are deserved of rights are given it. Yay! But why should I be forced to be reminded of it? And what about the hundreds of thousands of people who don’t agree?? I can easily see bloggers dropping WordPress like flies over this – where’s the sense, WordPress?

Let’s put it in a bit of perspective, shall we? What if they decided once and for all to abolish abortion nationwide in the U.S.? Would we be forced to look between the legs of women giving birth for the sake of those it desperately matters to? Or if Quebec chose finally to separate from Canada – how would Americans feel about having the Fleur de Lis plastered atop their stats page? It would be, after all, a huge deal to a certain percentage of North America.

To be honest, I go through the same sort of feeling during election time in the U.S., having to scroll past news of who said what about whom on my Facebook page – but at least I can scroll past it. At least the very site I belong to (Facebook) isn’t putting it there themselves. What’s more, I don’t pay to have a site on Facebook as I DO on WordPress.

Get rid of the rainbow, WordPress!

This rant is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.com/2015/06/26/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-2715/ Please join in and write whatever comes to mind!

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions

Badge by: Doobster at Mindful Digressions


by 35 Comments

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS June 27/15

Friday’s here! And that means it’s time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! It’s also summer holiday time for the kiddies – wasn’t it just Christmas? How time flies. Anyhoo, here’s your prompt for this week. Drumroll please:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “some/sum.”  Use either or both words, or choose a word in which either are used as a prefix or suffix. Have an awesome time with it!

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

Badge by: Doobster @ Mindful Digressions

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,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

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. Have fun!