Book Club

Our book club meeting is on Tuesday. So if you have had a chance to read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and have something to say, write a blog post and I'll share it at the party.

 

We're having a 20s themed party. Martinis, fringe, and flapper style. I'll take pictures and blog about the party and what we all think of the book. Have a good labor day to all you American people, and have a good Monday to everyone else!

Absense of Light - Drabble Dienstag

Here is my drabble (100 word story) for this week. I'm kind of thinking this one is a cheat. It's not really a story, just a character sketch. No ending, just a description. What do you think?

My greatest fear seems to be the only essential thing in my existence. If I am to exist at all the light must play a part. Though I shy from it, and hide behind everything I can find, it is a necessity. Otherwise the contrast would not be there. My ability to attach to people and cling to inanimate objects has nothing to do with the one thing that allows me to thrive. In absence of light I disappear into darkness like the shadow that I am. I don’t want to touch the light, but I cannot survive without it.

Drabble Dienstag - The Skeleton Key

Here's the drabble (100 word story) for today. I love to hear feedback so I can improve.

That old skeleton key. It sat in a drawer, gathering dust and little strings of cobwebs. The metal had rusted a tiny bit so that it was more brown with red spots than black anymore. Its destiny had never been fulfilled, and now no one even knew what it opened. In fact, no one knew it existed. It sat in a drawer that was part of a desk that had been in the back of an antique store for years. Until a curious little girl came and dug around, she took the key in her fist and took it home.

Drabble Dienstag

I found this new thing to brighten up my writing. It's called drabbles. Stories written in exactly 100 words. So I thought I would do them every Tuesday and have 'Drabble Dienstag.' (Dienstag is Tuesday in German.)

If you want to join in leave a comment with a link.

Here's my first attempt. Feedback would be wonderful so I can get better!


There was nothing more important than acceptance. She had dealt with it in highschool. College had been a nightmare. But now she lived in a city she didn’t know, speaking a language at which she was only passable. It was fine in the post office when she could smile and nod.


Twirling her bracelet on her wrist, she couldn’t look up. It wasn’t the strobe lights; it was the cute guy asking her questions. She couldn’t smile and nod at him. What if that meant something she didn’t mean and it turned out horrible? She walked away.

Three Things Thursdays

Ok! Thanks for all the input guys. I have decided on Thursdays. Since this is the first week I'll leave the linky thing open until tomorrow night so if you don't get to it until tomorrow that's fine. And if you don't want to do a blog post, just tell us in the comments here. If you do a blog post add your link to the linky thing at the bottom of this post so everybody can go read about you.

Three things about...

your childhood that make you who you are.

1. I was in the same house since I was two and have a fascination with moving because of not ever moving.

2. I have a journal that I was given when I was 11 by my best friend. I still have it and still write in it. (That's how bad I am at journaling.)

3. I was obsessed with unicorns and fairies whenever I wrote stories. Maybe that's why my characters always love fantasy?

Feel free to do more than three, for now I'm sticking with three just to follow the rules. I can't wait to get to know you all through this. Have fun with it. And come back next Thursday!

Getting to Know You and My WiPs

First a question for all you readers. I'm going to host an internet meme, which is basically where I blog something, you all blog the same type of thing, and then you put your links on here so we can all share. I'll be doing it weekly for the next while, I don't know how long it will last. It will involve getting to know each other through saying things about ourselves pertaining to a particular topic. (Like what kind of pets have you owned?)

The question is...should it be 'Three Things Thursdays' or 'Five Things Fridays'? My dilemma is that three things are easier to come up with, but most people don't blog on Thursdays. (And I'm stuck on the alliteration so that can't change.) So state your opinion, and if that includes a different alliterative idea, go for it!

Ok, onto my works in progress. I've had this bar to the right ------> for a while now. It indicates that I'm 107% finished. I'm pretty proud of that. I told myself I would write five short stories in two months, and I did. And you know what? With each one I got better.

I really enjoy writing short stories. Because they are so small they give me a sense of accomplishment while I'm in the middle of writing a novel. Otherwise I feel bogged down by the fact that I'll never, ever finish. So I pull an idea out of my insanely busy head and type it up. A lot of my short stories come from inspiration around me. Like people I see on the train or in a coffee shop. They are always character driven. And they tend to run just one or two pages long.

Now I need to take this pile of short stories I have, really fix a few up, and start submitting to magazines. Anybody have any advice on that?