Z is for Zipping the A-Z Writing Challenge Closed

Z is for Zipped and Done in the 2012 A-Z Writing Challenge.

It seemed right that Zippers should be the final entry in this year's challenge.  Finished the project and zipping it closed until next year -- that's what I'm doing. Never thought I'd finish, with all the outside things to do begging for attention; but, apparently, there's little else to do between the hours of two and three in the morning, and, so, why not prepare the next post!

We all love zippers, whether worn hidden in high-fashion or used as a statement in high-fashion, they make keeping ourselves contained so much easier; don't you think?  Why is it that they are rarely referred to in novels? Just curious. Not sure how I'd do it but I know any one of you great authors out there can create the right scenario. I give you the 'go-to-it' sign!




Obviously, this is far too in-your-face for my tastes; unless, of course, it's attached to a very good-looking young man looking for some cougar moments... (I digress... 's'cuse)

Yet, we definitely want access to our many-pocketed gear holders and need them to be very obvious so that we know at a glance that they are closed and our contents safe, especially, when coming down the airline baggage chute!





The only ones that irritate me, no end, are the nylon zippers that pop open in the center(!) and then you spend so much time trying to get them closed, evenly. And, they do this at the most inappropriate moments; don't you think?

But, fellow Challengers, it's been a lovely April with so many interesting posts I've yet to visit (but, will, in the upcoming months) and hope that you've enjoyed the Challenge, too! Yes, it's time to close this year's event and tell you that I look forward to participating in next year's, as well. I even think I might get some posts scheduled, in advance. Ha, ha, ha. This last is not a real zipper but I loved the artist's conception and couldn't resist!












For those of you who have just happened upon this page, do yourself a favor and check out a group of fantastic bloggers. You're bound to find someone you might like to follow. Don't forget to leave some loving comments and spread the word. It could even inspire you to think about joining next year's Challenge, yourself!

Y is for Yellowback A-Z Writing Challenge

Y is for Yellowback in the 2012 A-Z Writing Challenge.

Okay. Admit it. Some of you writers here on the Challenge have, in fact, read a cheap, sensational, novel; right? Novelette? Never?!?  Mmmmmmm... I dunno.... I just dunno. If I told you that there's something to be said for a quick read that requires little, if any, thinking on your part, would you give it a try? C'mon, you can do it... it's just some cheap, sensational, yellowback, novel.


Yellow journalism is the lowest a writer can possibly go, in my opinion; but, writing a yellowback novel can be the start of a very lucrative career -- especially, under a catchy nom de plume. You're not tearing anyone down; you're just killing the King's English and taking the high road on prurient interest. You know people buy them. People just don't admit to buying them. "Someone" always gave it to them... or, they found it at the bus station. Right.
I think for a book to qualify as a Yellowback novel, it has to be, first of all, at least 200 pages long. Secondly, it must contain some form of sexy scene every nine pages, regardless of plot. The main character has to be enjoying erotic bliss in one form or another before discovering -- "Oh, oh, oh... that's it, Baby, that's perfect. You're the bes... -- Wait! What was I thinking? Of course!" -- the next clue. 

Yup, right in the short rows, all action stops and our hero says, "Love the moment, Babe, but just figured out why that key was in my sock! Gotta go. Will call, Babe. I promise. I'll bring donuts."

And, off we go for another eight pages, until the hero succumbs to a little dalliance or the left-behind lady remembers "... that moment, when his hands..."


The jacket design may or may not relate to the actual story between the covers. It's at the whim of Design and what is selling au courant. If red and white checked jackets are moving books off the shelves, you can bet your sweet bippy, there'll be red and white checks on your cover. But, that's not the point.

The point is, yellowback writing is such fun to read. It gives your mind a chance to just let go and enjoy the ride -- and, oftentimes, that release helps resolve some sticky issues you may be having, elsewhere. We all know that to distract the mind will often leave room for solutions, so wouldn't it make sense to use that distraction time to read some wonderful yellowback novel?

You'll never know, if you don't try. And, should you find that you just can't bring yourself to admit that you paid for it, you can tell family and friends that I loaned it to you. Yippee!



For those of you who have just happened upon this page, do yourself a favor and check out a group of fantastic bloggers. You're bound to find someone you might like to follow. Don't forget to leave some loving comments and spread the word. It could even inspire you to think about joining next year's Challenge, yourself!

X is for Xylophone A-Z Writing Challenge

X is for Xylophone in the 2012 A-Z Writing Challenge.

The xylophone is often confused with the vibraphone but they are two very distinctly different percussion instruments. For an in-depth clarification, here's a nice start.  With the xylophone being the oldest, dating back to 3500 B.C., it's an easy one to construct yourself, or, so they say. The toys we see are based on the xylophone, having a distinct tone for each rib. Can you remember these?







But, my love of this percussion instrument came with listening to Benny Goodman's Band
and hearing Lionel Hampton, an all-round percussionist, make the angels cry with his vibraphone virtuosity. Here he is, introduced by none other than the Rage, Miss Patti Page, playing Flying Home on national television in 1957. Enjoy.





 

For those of you who have just happened upon this page, do yourself a favor and check out a group of fantastic bloggers. You're bound to find someone you might like to follow. Don't forget to leave some loving comments and spread the word. It could even inspire you to think about joining next year's Challenge, yourself!

W is for Winning! Wrong! WTF! - A-Z Writing Challenge

W is for Winning! Wrong! WTF! in the 2012 A-Z Writing Challenge.

We all enjoy winning, don't we? Well, I do. Not every time there's a competition or drawing, but, at least, winning my share over a lifetime.  (Okay. That's a lie. I do want to win ALL the time.) But, when you don't even realize you're in the running, winning is an even sweeter surprise. A feeling shared by my Gentleman Caller.




Apparently, it's a wonderful thing to win the shirt off a hockey player's back at the end of the season. My guess is, you really have to be a fan to want this, er, ah, honor. An honor, it appears, my Gentleman Caller aspires to and was beside himself with joy when he saw his name emblazoned on the big screen during the final period! Wow! He wasted no time scurrying down to the winner's circle.

What were the odds? His excitement knew no bounds. But, wait! Imagine his shock when he was told, after showing his Driver's License for identification, that he didn't win. Nope, seems somebody else with the same name won.  WTF?   When introduced to each other (that must have been a head-snapping moment), they shake hands and begin to exchange personal information. OG (Other Gentleman) and my Gentleman Caller (GC) are almost the same age. And, he is, in fact, the winner because the prize shirt is given to a seat number. wtf...

OG and GC begin talking and discover they live in the same town, attended the same college (OG entered college in the fall of the year GC graduated), followed the same careers, have season tickets that are in side-by-side sections of the same row. Will definitely get together, again. Winning!



For those of you who have just happened upon this page, do yourself a favor and check out a group of fantastic bloggers. You're bound to find someone you might like to follow. Don't forget to leave some loving comments and spread the word. It could even inspire you to think about joining next year's Challenge, yourself!

V is for Vegetables and Visions A-Z Writing Challenge

V is for Vegetables and Visions in the 2012 A-Z Writing Challenge.

Most of you know that I like to garden -- edible vegetables!  Oh, yeah, and, last night was my first meal from this year's garden, luscious fresh spinach with a variety of lettuces, green onions, and fresh herbs for my dressing. The broccoli heads were at different stages, but enough for a side dish.

It was during the selection of the best leaves and broccoli, plucking unwanted weeds, and watching my garden toad check for bugs, that it slowly dawned on me that my mind had retreated to that creative place so often visited in my studio when listening to classical music. It was like a holy place.

I know. I know. That could be an extreme example but, yet, gardening is a very spiritual experience. You're trowel-in-handing the very life process that has sustained mankind since mankind discovered what seeds could do, how to keep them over winter, plant in the spring, and feed his family the following year. You've joined a long line of ancestors, performing the same simple tasks, leaving the mind free to wonder, wander, and -- oh, you know where I'm going -- and, write. Yes, write. The visions and thoughts you have while gardening is mental note-taking at its finest -- at least, for me.

This is this year's crop of mixed greens, butter crunch lettuce, spinach, and the Roma tomatoes in the back of my waist-high garden.  Can you see the stand of green onions behind them? I love this garden. And, yes, I munch on fresh spinach as I check for weeds. It's all totally mindless and, when the church bells ring the hour, I'm often overwhelmed with the joy and beauty of keeping a garden.

Now, mind you, the garden and orchard I keep in my retirement is nothing compared to the gardens I kept when I was younger. But, it more than feeds my smaller circle with plenty to put up for winter and spring use. And, it feeds my soul. So many half-finished ideas are firmed up whilst in the garden. Solutions to problems are revealed.  And, new ideas sink deeper roots than when I'm anywhere else. I don't have my phone with me. No, this is my communion time with nature. No question, there's plenty of thoughts of food; but, the simplicity of it generates food for thought. At least, for me.

Where do you find your moments for ideas? Do you have a special corner for your retreat and reflection? I used to think I needed a specially-designed corner (and, I do love them!) but, rarely do I get my best ideas when enjoying their privacy. Nope, it's the vegetable garden... I'm pretty sure I was a peasant in my previous lives. Have a great day. I'm gonna have a great salad!



For those of you who have just happened upon this page, do yourself a favor and check out a group of fantastic bloggers. You're bound to find someone you might like to follow. Don't forget to leave some loving comments and spread the word. It could even inspire you to think about joining next year's Challenge, yourself!

U is for Unctuous Undercurrents- A-Z Writing Challenge

U is for Unctuous in the 2012 A-Z Writing Challenge.

Okay. I have to apologize. I hit the wrong date for publishing and this was supposed to be online, first thing PDT.... (I hang my head in shame.)
Definition of UNCTUOUS

1 a: fatty, oily b: smooth and greasy in texture or appearance; 2: plastic <fine unctuous clay> and,

3: full of unction; especially: revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality

We've all known them, not because we sought them out but because they were brought to us by others equally smitten by their charms. You know who I mean, that suave (slick suave, not classy suave) individual who looks at you with all the innocence of an angel. They say all the right things, appear to do all the right things and, yet, something inside tells us they are being unctuous to a fault -- at our expense. Think Eddie Haskell of Leave It To Beaver.  (I wonder: did the writer even suggest 'unctuous' as a character aid?)


Isn't that the sweetest face, on earth? But, that's because he knows how to set his features into what pleases the one he's conning. That mind has a whole different set of plans working. As it is with most con men/women.

More than most of us, these fellow humans have figured out how to read us. They know exactly how to say what we want to hear before moving in for the kill -- whether it's your pocketbook or your sense of security. The charlatans don't wear signs. Sadly, most of us don't see what they were until after the damage has been done.

Would you buy a used car from this smarmy gentleman? Wouldn't you rather he be called unctuous?




Unctuous is such a great word, really; don't you think? Yet, I've rarely seen it used in novels to describe characters. Oh, you get descriptions of backhanded, mealy-mouthed, double-dealing, fake, hypocritical, two-faced, insincere... and others you can think of, but, why won't fiction writers use "unctuous" when describing a jerk/jerkette? Is it because it's so complete in its own definition that writers would be left with nothing else to say?

Just askin'... I'm not a fiction writer, as anyone can readily see from my (at this moment) very empty fiction blog! (Sigh... ) Would I stop reading, once you told me that new guy was unctuous, because I know how it all ends? What do you think?



For those of you who have just happened upon this page, do yourself a favor and check out a group of fantastic bloggers. You're bound to find someone you might like to follow. Don't forget to leave some loving comments and spread the word. It could even inspire you to think about joining next year's Challenge, yourself!

T is for Time A-Z Writing Challenge

T is for Time in the 2012 A-Z Writing Challenge.

Time is one of my favorite play-pretties, and it seems to be the same with my friends. It's exacting, elastic, exasperating, and unforgiving (I wish I would've thought of those three "E" words at the beginning of this challenge.).

Those who view time at its most elastic, invariably, end up with those who prefer it to be exacting. Much like couples who are forever fighting over the thermostat. When viewed in its best light, having parents with opposite dedication to time would seem to create a more peaceful household. Bear in mind, I said "would seem." There really is no way to rush someone who habitually arrives 10 to 15 minutes after an event starts. They, on the other hand,  have long since learned the trick of setting the clock back so that doesn't work, anymore.

On the other, other, hand, I'm not sure what this says about their respect for the moment or for the people that they are meeting. We have chosen to live in a world that uses a clock to determine when and where events occur. It wouldn't surprise me to find a rebel within the heart of people who choose to not pay attention to the time. Is it because they're jealous? Is it because they're still carrying childhood anger? Or, is it because they are so self-absorbed, they just don't care about anyone else because nothing really happens until they arrive on the scene...

In my early years, when I told time by my dinosaur's shadow, it was easy to be late on a rainy day. Living in a day when one merely has to look at one's cell phone for the time, just how many times do you have to 'understand' why someone is always late.

When, as the legal profession says, "one's estate matures," your time is up. I don't imagine I'll be late for that event. How about you? Are you an on-time individual? Do you arrive ten minutes early? A half hour early? Or, are you the one who always shows up at the theater fifteen minutes late but still expects to be seated during the first act -- which seat, by the way, is invariably in the center of the row, down front...  

For those of you who have just happened upon this page, do yourself a favor and check out a group of fantastic bloggers. You're bound to find someone you might like to follow. Don't forget to leave some loving comments and spread the word. It could even inspire you to think about joining next year's Challenge, yourself!