750 Words. A Daily Brain Dump

August 3, 2011

“You should write your 750 words today,” the e-mail says. It is the first item to come into my inbox each morning from the website 750words.com. I signed up to receive it, so I have no one to blame but myself for this insidious little note. Although I don’t like anyone telling me what to [...]

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Expect The Unexpected

July 19, 2011

I woke up Monday morning, and I was feeling pumped! I was thrilled because I was getting back in the swing of writing for this blog. After a weekend filled with frolic, I had interesting subjects for my posts. Y’all, that hasn’t happened for awhile, because I have been busily making afghans for Share A [...]

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I’ve Been Everywhere, Man, I’ve Been Everywhere.

July 17, 2011

Facebook gets me giggling sometimes because I have some extremely hilarious friends. One of them is Catherine Crowley, a marvelous storyteller/educator who was born to be a comedian. She loves wordplay, which is my favorite kind of humor. Lately she posted a few lines that she stole from someone, so I stole them from her: [...]

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And Layd Him On The Green

June 30, 2011

A marquee on a local bar announced the names of the bands that would be playing there this week. One of them was named “Fair to Midland,” and it got me giggling. I’m sure the band means it as a play on words, but when I was a child it was how my ears actually [...]

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The Writing Doldrums

September 4, 2010

Have y’all ever had days when you can’t seem to write? Perhaps you want to do so, but you can’t “bring yourself to the page.” Some days when I sit in front of my computer screen, looking at the blank page titled “Add New Post,” I’m excited about the prospect of writing. My fingers fly [...]

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As A Writer, I Have Multiple Personality Disorder

July 22, 2010

Have y’all ever wondered about your “writing style?” Personally, I never had. I simply put words on the page that seem readable to me … and hope it works for you. Usually, I try to pack it full of puns … but they are obscure to anyone but me. “Style” after all, seems a bit [...]

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Are Encyclopedias Extinct In The Digital Age?

February 6, 2010

When I was about eleven or twelve years old, a group of us stopped our heated debate over which Beatle was the most adorable (my favorite was Ringo, of course) and moved on to the more cerebral topic of books. The question arose: “If you were stranded alone on a desert island and could only [...]

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Musing On The Question: For Whom Do You Write

January 26, 2010

“For whom do you write?” That’s the provocative question that Janie posed at Colloquium. I decided to ask that question of my Muse — that “inner child” of mine who is the inspiration for my creativity. Ask a silly question question of a silly person, and here is what you get. OK, Muse. For whom [...]

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Titillation Part Two

January 21, 2010

At my age, I’ve decided that life is too short to read books I don’t enjoy. A book has to titillate me in the first chapter, or I’ll close it and walk away. Now, I defined “titillate” in Part One, so stop tittering about it. I simply mean that a book has to excite my [...]

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Titillation: Part One

January 20, 2010

Hey, stop it! “Titillate” is a perfectly fine verb meaning “to excite another, especially in a superficial, pleasurable manner.” Though it can be used in an erotic sense, that isn’t the intent of the word. But, if you want to see a group of adults collapse into a paroxysm of nervous giggling … “tittering,” if [...]

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Leavening

December 18, 2009

Have you ever watched bread dough rising? I have. Trust me on this, it’s boring! When my Mamaw baked bread, she always told us kids to be quiet or the bread wouldn’t rise. I don’t know if that’s true … I think she was just making a feeble attempt to shut us up. My cousins [...]

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Segues

October 13, 2009

Those of us who use search engines on computers are familiar with segues. It means: “to make a transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption.” It happens to me every day. I start searching for something, for instance “warning signs of swine flu,” and when I find that I click on a [...]

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Amazing Visions Blog Carnival

March 22, 2009

[This is a guest post by my friend Damien Riley at Riley Central, who has a delightful writing prompt for you. I've asked him to tell you a bit about it, in the hopes that it will inspire you to join his blog carnival.] ******* Walt Disney had amazing vision, as did many special people [...]

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Giving Eudora Welty A Second Chance

February 26, 2009

When you were in High School, did you enjoy the reading that you did for your English classes? I find it strange that I consume reading matter like a starving man devours bread (not missing a single crumb) until you tell me I HAVE to read it. If you want me to analyze it, then [...]

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Catching Flies

February 22, 2009

Without internet service yesterday, I had to resort to reading a book. As I perused my David Sedaris short stories, my little gray tabby cat jumped on the bed beside me. She took one look at the title, then opened her mouth wide and emitted a huge yawn. She finds Sedaris boring, I guess … [...]

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Too Good To Be True, and The Power of Story

August 12, 2008

I read this story in a book this weekend: Many years ago, back when airlines had to offer promotions to get your money, United Airlines offered a deal called, “Fly Your Wife for Free.” Businessmen were encouraged to buy a ticket for a trip and they would receive a ticket to take their wives along [...]

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I Think There’s A Country Western Song In This

May 17, 2008

My momma told me not to talk with my mouth full. Sometimes it takes an object lesson to drive a point home. My ever delightful husband took me out to get pastries in the early hours of a Saturday morning. That right there is enough to make a gal fall in love with a man. [...]

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Words From The Wise—Mensa Definitions

May 5, 2008

I got an e-mail from a friend of mine. She sent me the results of the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. “Mensa.” Isn’t that an organization for really smart people? [...]

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A “Lady” Does Not Swear, Unless

October 5, 2007

Y’all, I try hard to be a nice person. At least in public. Even though it’s not really a secret that I can sling profanity well enough to embarrass a sailor, I don’t go around cussing people out at the stores or when I drive down the road. I try hard to live by that [...]

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Limericks Anyone?

June 8, 2007

My friend JennyMcB at J’s Thoughts and Musings is having a Limerick Contest! Click on the banner to take you to her site to read all about it. First prize is a necklace with matching earrings! I love limericks…but I don’t know if I can write one. At least, I’m not sure I can write [...]

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