Marian Allen's Blog, page 451
December 9, 2011
Snutt the What?
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I'm lucky enough to have grandchildren, so I've never had to outgrow my love for what we, when I took a Library Science class, called "Kiddie Lit". Oh, who am I kidding? I never did and never will outgrow my love for kids' books. I love 'em, from picture books to Young Adult. I even liked the first book in the Twilight series. What was the name of that book? Oh, yeah–TWILIGHT. Duh.
ANYWAY, one of the things I love about picture books is — guess what? — Yeah, the pictures. One of my favorite illustrators is Raymond Briggs, who did the earthy yet ethereal pictures for THE SNOWMAN. I recommend it to your attention.
Now comes Helen Ward, who studied under Briggs (among others), with an enchanting book called, in America, after the main character, SNUTT THE IFT. The original British publication was called WONDERFUL LIFE, but the American publisher may have been afraid that Americans are too stupid to know the difference between a watercolor painting of an imaginary creature on an alien planet and Jimmy Stewart.
Be that as it may, SNUTT THE IFT is purely beautiful, or as purely beautiful as anything can be which also contains little bits of mischievous humor. When you look at these illustrations, as Joanna Carey of The Guardian put it, "you think about where illustration stops and fine art begins."
Miss Ward reminds me, warranted or not, in her Guardian interview, of a certain Miss Potter in her retiring self-effacement and in her love of animals and the outdoors. In contrast to Miss Potter, she prefers her animals to look and dress — or, rather, fail to dress — like animals.
Miss Ward wrote WONDERFUL LIFE / SNUTT THE IFT as well as illustrating it. The subjects it addresses, directly and indirectly, are dear to my heart: the beauty of diversity, the importance of mindful presence, the necessity of connection and the transcendent joy of friendship.
But don't just take my word for it. Get a load of this:
This is a book to add to your library, whether you have a child in your life or only in your heart.
You can buy it at Little Pickle Press. Aaand, this just in from the promotional Pickle: "Be sure to enter the grand prize drawing for NINE Little Pickle Press books including the two foreign-language titles. What a great gift for some lucky child. Just sign up for the newsletter at http://www.littlepicklepress.com to automatically be entered. While you're there, look at all the award-winning books. Good luck!"
WRITING PROMPT: What was your main character's favorite picture book when he or she was a child? What was yours? Why?
MA
December 8, 2011
Packing
Not packing heat — at this temperature, I wish. I'm packing to go to Tybee Island, Georgia.
Mermaid Cottages on Tybee has sponsored the First Annual Mermaid Cottages Writers Retreat, and the Southern Indiana Writers Group is going. Well, four of us are going. It was short notice, but four of us decided to be wild and crazy and so here we go.
Thinking there would be more of us, we applied for a large cottage and were granted Inlet Breeze, which should be called Inland Breeze, because it's right about the middle of the island. Tybee isn't very large, though, so inland is still only a couple of blocks from the beach. Not that we'll be doing much sunbathing at this time of year, even in Georgia. We're also just a couple of blocks from downtown, which looks to be pretty awesome.
Here is where we'll be staying:
We're taking a bunch of food with us, and expect to suck the sea empty of fish and crustaceans while we're there.
In return, authors are to give Mermaid Cottages stories of at least 1500 words centered on Tybee Island, preferably using the cottage we stay in. Think I can do that? Think I can write a 1500+-word story? I think I can, I think I can.
I understand the internet connection off-shore is not the greatest, so I'm not sure what kind of posting I'll do while I'm there. I already set up Monday's post, and I'll set up Tuesday's Fatal Foodies post and Wednesday's Echelon Exploration post before I go. Oh, and the two Sample Sunday posts. So, if you don't hear from me, you know where I am!
WRITING PROMPT: Wherever you are, write a short story or sketch an idea for a short story based on where you are and where you're staying.
MA
December 7, 2011
Plan for Thursday
Thursday night is the Community Unity International Christmas party. After the meeting, we have a pitch-in late supper of international dishes. I've been thinking about what Imma take, and I've decided to take a French dish: white bean cassoulet.
Naturally, I'm not going to make it like any of the recipes I've found for it. Here's the plan:
SORT OF FRENCH NOT EXACTLY WHITE BEAN KIND OF CASSOULET
garlic-infused olive oil
green onions (because I have some)
mushrooms (ditto)
carrots, cut into pieces
potatoes, ditto
canned beans, prolly navy, Great Northern and maybe garbanzo
herbs (bay leaves? marjoram? lemongrass?)
veggie bouillon/water about a cup
white wine
Heat oil in large skillet to medium heat. Cook onions until soft. Add veg and some bouillon. Cover and let simmer about 5 minutes. Put into slow cooker. Drain and rinse beans and add. Add herbs and a slurp of white wine. Cover and cook on low a couple of hours. If it's too sloppy, I might throw in a handful of quick barley.
WRITING PROMPT: Your main character is decorating for a winter holiday. What is the most important decoration and why?
MA
December 6, 2011
Enough Awreddy
I have my usual Tuesday post up at Fatal Foodies, today on the subject of an almost-instant treat for Christmas.
I'm also guest at Ellis Vidler's blog, The Unpredictable Muse, talking about Giving It Away, "It" being, in this case, fiction. Specifically, I'm talking about how much fun I had writing "By the Book", the sneakily named short story I'm giving away to promote the novel FORCE OF HABIT. Ellis has a wonderful blog; please stop in and see.
Yesterday, I made a 30-second spot advertising SPEC THE HALLS, an anthology of fantasy, horror and science fiction stories set during winter holidays. All proceeds go to Heifer International, one of my favorite charities. Please watch the trailer and consider buying.
And that's enough of me for one day.
WRITING PROMPT: What thing of some value would your main character give away and why?
MA
December 5, 2011
Guest Poster, Floyd Hyatt – Online Critique Group Part 2
Part one of this essay appeared in a previous post.
When setting up, consider:
Members do not need access to the membership roster, as this only invites spamming. Tick items that improve the privacy of your member information. Each member can easily decide on his own to share or not share whatever information he chooses. While Moderator rights need to be reserved for your Moderators, if any, just ensure members have rights to post, to manage their file spaces, and up/download ability.
Do write a mission statement to head your site. Be plain and direct in it about:
The rules of etiquette.
What activities your group will encompass.
What age group, Genre, and work lengths you will support.
Other Documentation.
Crit sites aren't all about rules, regulations and Policy. However, preformatting a few simple documents to keep in a maintenance folder right off will save you time and bother later. Consider a formatted (and polite) dismissal letter; a stock welcoming letter; perhaps a simple guide to creating personal sub-directories and getting around on your site, what file formats are best to put up work in, and so forth. Not all writers are computer hackers, ex-technicians, etc. nor should they need to be.
General Considerations:
Members should be encouraged to use the list, talk to each other, understand who their reviewers are, and their proclivities. Be prepared to exorcise members who do not understand the purpose of your group.
Groups are not Blogs, and the members must be able to work together and have a focus, or it will quickly go silent, or become a general chat site.
The Culture
Be sure members understand what polite means regarding critique etiquette, if not a particular format. Members need to understand that rewriting or ghostwriting others' work, or just panning / lauding it, does not constitute any kind of critique. Corrections or suggestions need to be neutrally presented and suggestions tagged as to type, whether opinion, grammar, spelling, formatting, style or preferences. (see the article previously posted on crit techniques here) Authors should not have to be affronted by another's attempt to change the individual growth of personal style, or be castigated for experimenting. It is OK to express an opinion, but mark opinions as such. Be sure your members thank every criticizer for each effort. It's sweat equity, just as if a neighbor decided to mow a lawn for someone, out of the goodness of their heart. A good Idea is to make tit-for-tat critique a firm policy in your mission statement and stick to it.
All groups will need a little janitorial work from time to time. Be sure to designate a moderator as soon as possible to help members out. Encourage members to place useful links up in the link library area, and check these from time to time to be sure they are correct and work.
Public or Private?
Private. Period. Work held within a non-public group is not accessible by Googling, so forth, and is therefore not at risk of exposing work to copyright or sale problems, sex advertisers, trolls, fly-bys, so forth. Besides, 'Public' groups tend become fright-mares within days, and unsuitable for any serious purpose. Having only ten participating and motivated members is preferable to having a thousand trolls, advertisers and lurkers, so you do not need to "Go Public" to attract a good mix of active, mutually useful, participants. If your site is online to advertise, then of course, the opposite may be the better option, but you will not get much work done there, and everything posted will need watching.
Tick the maintenance Item that places New members on temporary moderation. This will allow you to preview what they wish to post, until you are happy they will be a good community member. You, or your moderator can rescind this feature for the member at any time.
Otherwise, dictate nothing, and be happy to have helped provide a stable and useful tool for your community.
Thanks again, Floyd! More of Floyd's posts can be found by hovering over the ~Writing tab on the page list just below the banner picture at the top of the page, and clicking on the Floyd Hyatt link that drops down.
WRITING PROMPT: Rewrite the story of Jack and Jill in your own style.
MA
December 4, 2011
#SundaySample – Dark, With a Trace of Orange
This flash piece was the result of a free-writing exercise in a Quills and Quibbles meeting. A member held up a box and said, "You're on the bus and somebody gets on with this box in her hand. What's in the box?" This is what came out of my pen.
DARK, WITH A TRACE OF ORANGE
by Marian Allen
Who is she trying to kid? Am I supposed to think that's — what? — a bomb or a priceless necklace or something, the way she's holding it?
She has it in both hands, hands resting on her lap, thumbs on the lid, like the brown tape might not hold the lid on tight.
Everybody's trying to move away from her to get clear of whatever it is. People don't bring precious stuff onto a bus. If they do, they're nuts, and who wants to tangle with crazy?
I can smell it, though. Does she think nobody can smell it?
Chocolate. Chocolate — dark, with a trace of orange. My mouth is watering, here.
She catches my eye and smiles. A devil smile.
When she gets off the bus, I'll follow her. Follow that scent, that chocolate, that orange. Follow it anywhere, to an empty street, to the dark, to an abandoned building, anywhere.
The bus is stopping. She's getting up. Here we go.
Okay, yes, there's something seriously wrong with me, but I know good chocolate when I smell it. After I read this, everybody was like, "Ooo! Dark chocolate with orange? Ooo, yum!" Never mind the woman with the devil smile or the narrator following her or what might happen to whom in that abandoned building. I like people who have their priorities straight, right?
WRITING PROMPT: What do YOU think was in the box?
MA
December 3, 2011
Words I Have Always Spelt Worng
It's embarrassing to admit that there are words I've used, written, heard and read all my life and have gotten wrong until this year. But they say that confession is good for the soul so, just in case I have one, here are the two words I learned, this year, I've been consistently spelling and saying wrong my whole life. Thank you, spell-check! And thank you, Online Etymology Dictionary, for 'splaining where these words came from.
RAIMENT
Worng: My whole life, up to this year, I've thought this word was "rainment". What made me so certain of that? I grew up on that wheeze about the lilies of the field, and how "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
Right: Raiment is the modern version of the shortened form of "arrayment", as in Solomon's glory (see above).
PARAPHERNALIA
Worng: I have always spelled and said this as "paraphenalia". Everybody I know says "paraphenalia". I've seen it written many times, probably correctly, but I've always misread it.
Right: Paraphernalia's original meaning was "a woman's property besides her dowry" from para = beside + pherna = dowry. That's what I get for not knowing Greek.
BONUS:
Etymology is the study of word origins.
Entomology is the study of insects.
You're welcome.
WRITING PROMPT: How would your main character react to learning that he or she had always and publicly used a word wrong?
MA
December 2, 2011
Friday Recommends – Food, Writing, Marriage
Not a list of things I love, in order from most to least. You tryna get me in trouble, or what?
Anyway, here are some things I ran across this week that I thought I'd share. In fact, I didn't just think it — Imma do it.
First, I had the second-best meal I ever ate at The Green Door in Corydon. The only meal I ever had that was better was in The English Grill in the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. And the only reason that one was better was that it was salmon. If there is reincarnation, I hope I come back as a salmon so I can be a cannibal and eat my own kind. What bliss!
ANYWAY, Mom and I and a group from my church, Corydon Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — don't you just love a church with a parenthetical phrase in its name? — ate at The Kintner House Inn in Corydon, and there we met Joyce Oglesby. Joyce is a writer, radio show host and a minister in her own way (she's married to an ordained minister), helping men, women and families navigate relationship and economic problems from a Biblical perspective. As I always say, whatever works. (No, Joyce would say, NOT "whatever works"!) She's a charming person, and her website has recipes on it! Hurrah!
~~THIS JUST IN! My fabulous-abulous friend Jane sent me this link to an article that says: Mission Could Seek Out Spock's Home Planet! Who else is geeking out about this? Coincidentally, one of my fellow G-plussians posted this link to a Christmas Spaceman video which I totally LOVE! Watch it and see if you agree. We now return to our regularly scheduled nonsense.~~
I was going to buy myself Scrivener writing project organizing software, but I decided to try freeware first. I found yWriter5 and downloaded it. I haven't used it yet, but it looks MOST useful.
See you tomorrow!
WRITING PROMPT: If your main character found — and believed — that the literal factuality of his or her faith had some serious gaps, would that weaken the faith?
MA
December 1, 2011
December Update and NaNo Congrats
It's the first of the month, so I've added a new Hot Flash to the Hot Flashes page. Hot Flashes, in case you're new here, are micro-mini stories of maybe 50 words. Ish.
NaNoWriMo is over, and I didn't complete the challenge, for the first time out of four. MURDER WITH WHITE SAUCE is still a project that's going to happen, just not this past November.
–Oh, before I forget, my mother and I ate at a new restaurant in Corydon, Indiana, yesterday: The Green Door. It was AWESOME! After I had inhaled the mushroom bisque, I asked the owner what those sweet and delicious round bits were, and she said, "Garlic." They were slices of roasted garlic, and they were so mild and delicious! I was worried about radiating garlic and driving away all the hot sparkly vampires, but the clerk at the store where I bought a truckload of Tic-Tacs told me I didn't smell of garlic at all. Then she bit my neck.
No, seriously, this is a destination restaurant, I'm telling you. Okay, back to my post.–
Imma buy a copy of Scrivener, which folks tell me is a dynamite program for organizing material. Since I don't seem to be very good at organizing on my own, I'm hoping throwing money at it will help. Not much money. This is me, after all.
Hope your December is full of joy. To those who have suffered, will suffer or are suffering the loss of loved ones this season, I hope that good memories outweigh the bad ones, and that the season becomes one that's dear because it brings the lost one close again. As a Christian, I can't help but remember that this is the season when we repeatedly celebrate the coming of a Dear One who, as the song says, "did come but to die". As do we all. And that loss is meant to soften us to the sufferings of others around us and to make us see and love our lost ones in the faces and lives of other people.
I'm not always a goof-ball, apparently.
WRITING PROMPT: Has your main character lost someone or something that hurt? Sara Deurell, a different character than the two I know about.
MA
November 30, 2011
Ravioli con Espinichio
That's a term I just made up because it's 9:00 am already and I haven't posted my post and I don't feel like looking up the real Italian for these words. "Ravioli" is right, anyway.
RAVIOLI CON ESPINICHIO
ravioli (this is cheese)
spinach (this is frozen)
olive oil infused with garlic (or with garlic toasted in it then removed)
capers
good cheese, grated
Cook the ravioli and spinach together. Drain. Toss gently with olive oil. Put on plates. Sprinkle with capers and cheese.
Yum!
WRITING PROMPT: Does your main character speak/understand more than one language or heavy dialect?
MA
