Marian Allen's Blog, page 435

Mandriva 2011, I Shall Have You Yet!

Okay, so I downloaded the iso and burned it to a disk. Then I burned it a different way, because I don’t know how to install from an iso so I had to unpack it.

If that makes no sense to you, you do NOT want to have been me for the past month. If I had gone to my grave without knowing what “run urpmi from root” means, I would have died happy.

I began this post thinking I would catalog the whole messy scenario, but then I realized that Broots was a character on a television show — a canceled one, at that — so who was I trying to impress?

Anyway, if you’re the praying kind, pray for me. I’m about ready to do some of what my writer pal T. Lee Harris calls “45 caliber programming”.

And yet, I remain composed, with an almost Zen-like calm. My mother is amazed. The meds must be working.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character deals with frustration in an unexpected way.

MA

The Sadness of Gregor Samsa

Or: Kafka meets Marquis

Franz Kafka, for those who don’t know, wrote, among other pieces, “Metamorphosis”, which opens with these words: “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bead into a giant insect.” Some translations say dung beetle, some say cockroach. A classic

Don Marquis, for those who don’t know, was a newspaper columnist (a profession rapidly becoming one with buggy whip calibrator in historical placement) who, stuck for an idea for a column one day, invented Archy, a free-verse poet transmigrated into the body of a cockroach. Archy used the pre-electric typewriter by throwing himself headfirst onto the keys. Naturally, he couldn’t manage the shift key to make capitals, and punctuation was too much for him, so his pieces and poems were always a delightful challenge to read.

Thus, stuck for an idea today, and having met one of Archy and Gregor’s tribe, and having brutally yet regretfully sent him to Jesus, I give you this:

he was only a little brown cockroach

crawling about on the floor

trying to make a living

but now he will crawl no more

he lived in the house of a monster

and one day crawled into her view

and she though he never had harmed her

dispatched him at once with a shoe

oh pity the poor little cockroach

who never did anyone hurt

his body smashed flat as a tissue

swept up and discarded like dirt

I always feel bad about squishing bugs, but not bad enough not to do it.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write a story from the point of view of something small and insignificant to the human world.

MA

Do You DARE Take On The Summer Reading Trail???

Pretty exciting, eh? Dramatic music, quick camera cuts, hand-held wobbliness, maybe a couple of seconds of silence and stillness before the dramatic music throbs once more. No, I haven’t been watching promos for television shows, why do you ask?

This will be the second year I’ve participated in The Summer Reading Trail, wherein writers pledge links to free stories. They don’t have to be new, but plan and hope to write three. I already have the first one done.

In case you want to participate, here is what Voirey Linger, the head of the project, has to say:

**PERMISSION TO FORWARD**

The 2012 Summer Reading Trail is now accepting free reads for may, June and July, 2012.

This promotional opportunity is free to both authors and readers.

To participate, an author must have a free read on his or her own website and blog, and provide a link on his or her site back to the Summer Reading Trail website. Free reads available on a third party site, such as Amazon or All Romance Ebooks may be used, however the author must link to the third party site from their own page and still include the reciprocal link back to the Summer Reading Trail.

Reads are currently being accepted in the following categories, however if there is sufficient interest in adding a category or genre, the list can be expanded.

Junior Explorers – Middle Grade, PG

Promise Trail – Inspirational Fiction and Romance – PG

Teen Scene – YA, PG-13

Main Pathway – General Fiction, adult PG-13

Lover’s Lane – Adult Sweet Romance, PG-13

Cozy Retreat – Cozy Mystery – PG-13

Dragon Cave Path – Fantasy – R

Flirtatious Footpath – Adult Mainstream Romance – R

Dangerous Ways – Adult Adventure and Suspense – R

Adult Trails – Adult and Graphic General Fiction – NC-17

Hedonist Hike – Erotic Romance and Erotica – NC-17

Terror Trail – Horror – NC-17

Rainbow Bridge – GLTB – all levels

To learn more about the Summer Reading Trail, or to add your promotional free read to this website, please visit http://summertreadingtrail.weebly.com/index.html

**END FORWARDED MESSAGE**

So take a chance,

Do the deed,

Give ‘em something free to read.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU:  That picture is your prompt. In case you can’t see the picture, it’s an empty boat on a muddy shore, with the sun either rising or setting.

MA

World! Wide! Recipes!

Devilishly handsome -- and he cooks!

Have you met my pal, Joe Barkson? He’s the chef formerly known as … The Chef. He’s the Emperor of Recitopia, and the publisher of World Wide Recipes, the best darned recipezine in the whole darned universe. If you’ve read my short story collection LONNIE, ME AND THE HOUND OF HELL or the Southern Indiana Writers Group’s anthology NOVEL INGREDIENTS, you’ve read my short story “Dog Star”, which is a tribute to The Chef and his Power For Niceness.

Many long years ago, I wrote the Culinary Chronicles column for WWR, a job which is now handled much better by the international foodie Karlis Streips. Every so often, I plagiarize my own columns for Fatal Foodies or this blog’s food Wednesday. I ain’t proud.

World Wide Recipes is also on Facebook, so if you’re a FaceCracker, go Like the WorldWideRecipes page and get a free recipe every day. Or subscribe to the email free edition of the recipezine and get bunches of recipes every day. Or subscribe to the paid Plus edition and get even MOAR stuhf!!1! You’ll be glad you did.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character leaves a job and becomes a fan of his or her replacement. I, of course, am moderate and appropriate, as I always am in every circumstance — to hell with anything unrefined — but feel free to take yours as far as you like.

MA

Weirded Out

Last night, I dreamed my mother wasn’t feeling well. I gave her a red necklace and some chicken soup and put her to bed.

This morning, Mom called me. She had swallowed a pill wrong the night before and coughed until her throat was sore. She was canceling our plans for the day and going back to bed. With a sore throat. Like red around the inside of her neck rather than the outside.

I’m used to having that kind of connection with #4 daughter, but this is the first time it’s happened with Mom.

Okay, that’s officially Weird.

Speaking of weird, I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies about my Cousin and Cheerios.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character experiences an extra-sensory connection with a relative he or she hasn’t seen for a long time.

MA

Writing Prompts And How To Use Them

Every day, I post a writing prompt based on my post. Why? Because everything is about writing.

Everybody you meet has a back-story, and innumerable possible back-stories. You know the bag-boy at the grocery belongs to your best friend at church, but he could come from a dysfunctional home and be struggling with how to be “normal” without a childhood model of what “normal” means.

Everything that’s said has many possible meanings; you usually know what’s meant from context, but take away the context and the meaning could change. You know that “I could kill her” means “I’m aggravated”, but in a different context it might be a seriously contemplated option.

Event A has nothing to do with Object B, but what if they were part of the same thing?

Go to my sidebar and hit the archives at random to pick a prompt. Or use the one on this post. Then grab a random book or periodical or cereal box and pick three words at random. Write or outline a story, using those as inspiration. If you lose all of them in the process, that’s okay. A prompt is a prompt because it … you know … prompts you to do something.

Have fun!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: From a book or periodical, take a sentence. Look around and outside and pick an object. Put them together.

MA

#SampleSunday – My Mother Has Snakes For Hair

In honor of the day, here’s a link to a story called “Per5ona1 355ay – My M0th34″, which I have to misspell here. I also had to change the address to Not Your Homework, because I was getting so many hits on it from people looking to scrape it for a class assignment. As you can see from the title of this post, they were either disappointed or flunked.

The story is in my latest collection, TURTLE FEATHERS, 99 cents and cheap at the price, available at Amazon. As soon as the 90-day exclusive is over, I’ll also have it for other formats. Meanwhile, please follow the link in the paragraph above and enjoy. The story, perhaps I need not say, was prompted by the sight of myself in the morning mirror.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Take a mythological person or creature and put him, her, or it into an everyday modern situation.

MA

What Day Is It?

Day before yesterday, I wrote a post and scheduled it — I thought — to post yesterday morning, but it posted that night, instead. So I had two posts on one day and no posts yesterday, which is Monking me out. That’s Adrian Monk, not the Monkey King.

But, as they say, life is ever thus.

Today, if this is Saturday, I begin by meeting our dealer at the Farmers’ Market at 8:00 to pick up our stuff. Vegetables and fruit, that is. He promised us kale, lettuce, and strawberries. Then I rush home and pick up Mom and take her to The Book Box, the Friends of the Library’s book sale room. Then we rush home for a visit from #4 daughter, who got STRAIGHT A-PLUSSES in all her freshman college classes!!1!

In other “news”, I installed a new 512mg memory stick in my desktop and backed up all my files (again), so I’m ready to install the new OS. I guess I’ll give the Linux Mint another try, with the Mandriva 2011 as a second choice.

Your eyes are glazing over. Wake up! This is NOT boring! It is NOT!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character is talking about something he or she finds fascinating and realizes that the person to whom he or she is talking is bored stiff.

MA

No Eels Need Apply

Okay, so I still need a new title for The Book Formerly Known As EEL’S REVERENCE. People are telling me they zip past it because they don’t want anything to do with anything with eels in the title.

When corrupt priests, greedy merchants, and local revolutionaries try to use Aunt Libby to enflame one side against another, they all learn that an old woman and a young mermayd make a serious stumbling block to their plans. Libby and Loach race against time, before the sea of the Eel runs red with blood.

Here are some suggestions I’ve gotten elsewhere. If you like any of them, please say in the comments. Feel free to add your own suggestions.

The Priest Who Preyed
Bound In Shallows
The Mermayd War
Faithful Tide
Death in Priest’s Clothing
Anointed in Blood
The Price of a Mermayd’s Soul
A Holocaust of Mermayds

Helllllllllp meeeeeeeee!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Help me name my book!!

No Eels Involved

Okay, so I still need a new title for The Book Formerly Known As EEL’S REVERENCE. People are telling me they zip past it because they don’t want anything to do with anything with eels in the title.

When corrupt priests, greedy merchants, and local revolutionaries try to use Aunt Libby to enflame one side against another, they all learn that an old woman and a young mermayd make a serious stumbling block to their plans. Libby and Loach race against time, before the sea of the Eel runs red with blood.

Here are some suggestions I’ve gotten elsewhere. If you like any of them, please say in the comments. Feel free to add your own suggestions.

The Priest Who Preyed
Bound In Shallows
The Mermayd War
Faithful Tide
Death in Priest’s Clothing
Anointed in Blood
The Price of a Mermayd’s Soul
A Holocaust of Mermayds

Helllllllllp meeeeeeeee!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Help me name my book!!