My First Blogfest!

I've been wanting to join in on the blogfest activities for quite some time, but I just haven't had the moment to sit down and actually do it. Today, I am FINALLY going to do one!!


Sad Songs Blogfest

March 30, 2012

List the songs that move your spirit, cut deep into your soul, and threaten to break your heart.

No limit - top ten or less is fine. 

Diane has created a blogfest devoted to music and the emotion that it creates to help us writers write! Music is something that I am incredibly passionate about and most of the time I am listening to music as I am picking the wordy part of my brain. Here's a few that are my ultimate favorites -- some are not depressing, some are just moving. Do join in on the fun!!! :)

Five Sentence Fiction - Scorching

What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week I will post a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction.


This week: SCORCHING

The bright flickering stars that held onto the night sky was fading with each tick of the noisy clock that was inside of my brain. A light formed beneath the earth and began to rise with force - expanding each ray as if it were a bird stretching its wings. I knelt down on the grassy marsh and waited for the immense object to grow and splash its searing heat across my body. I embraced the blistering sun; waiting for it to melt the earth and transform the planet to gray ash. Earth had thrived once and was a sanctified home for plants and animals, but its death was nearing a countdown due to the destruction caused by mankind.

Five Sentence Fiction - Wicked

What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week I will post a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction.

This week: WICKED




His blue eyes gave way to a mischievous personality; a man with a crooked sense of humor. When we were teenagers, his motives were innocent enough, but eventually it progressed into something sinful. Somehow, I still felt drawn to him - like the atoms and molecules that make up me were automatically stitching my heart to his. My mind kept wandering off into another dimension - an alternate universe of playful lust, and then I heard the concrete words roll from his tongue and out his mouth. I repeated the unrecognizable vocabulary in my mind and sunk into a pool of reality; he was married.

Timeless

Within the last few months, I have managed to explore my computer editing skills and dig out the hopeless romantic nerd that lies within myself. Ha!
This is my last Battlestar Galatica video. I wanted to give the viewer the sense of intensity that lies within a person's journey - through life, with a lover, and with an illness that is ever expanding.

22 Things - Creative Change Challenge

How Does It Work? 22 Things is a Creative Change Challenge. By signing up, you are announcing to the world - and more importantly yourself - that you are breaking free of the long standing idea that in order to make changes in your life, you have to do BIG things. 22 Things is about making a list twenty-two small steps you can take - right now - to change your life. 

Big thanks to Angie - for she started this wonderful idea!


My 22 things are:

1. Work on buiding my self-confidence
2. Spend more time with friends
3. Read more than usual
4. Listen more carefully
5. Laugh
6. "Spring Clean" my ever expanding closet
7. Excercise
8. Write - even when I'm not in the mood
9. Eat fruit instead of a snickers bar
10. Judge less
11. Meditate
12. Join writer workshops
13. Blog about what makes up me
14. Take more pictures
15. Less internet time
16. More outside time
17. Study, study, study
18. Consume more than 1 glass of water a day
19. Journal more instead of a word document ( the computer world has ruined me!)
20. Learn to cook an authentic meal
21. Don't be so hard on myself for taking four years to get my Associate's Degree. (Ugh!)
22. LESS FEAR - MORE LIFE!

Zanny

Write on Wednesdays: ZanyZany, adj.
amusingly unconventional or idiosyncratic.

This week, try to find the zany in your life, or just create the zany in someone else's. Feel free to write a fictional quirky character, or take inspiration from your own life. Wherever the prompt takes you, a letter, poem, song, anything you feel like writing. Keep your post on the short side: up to 500 words OR a 5 minute stream of consciousness exercise. Link your finished piece to the list and begin popping by the other links to enjoy others writing. The linky will be open from Monday to Friday.



I went a different route with this prompt than usual. I tried my hand at a children's story - sort of! Ha ha! Thanks to Claire for taking over WoW this week!

The peas and mashed potatoes lay untouched as the old man examines his surroundings. Sunlight peeps through the cream colored sheer curtains and bounces off the silverware that fills the table. He sighs as the reflection of the light blinds him with uncertainty. He waits.

The sunlight diminishes as the peas grow colder and the mashed potatoes mold into a clay like formation. A drink is unnecessary for him; it takes the taste and the desire out of the particles in the food.

His eyes began to widen with eagerness as the sun went to sleep. Rays of pink and bright orange filled the evening sky, but there was still something that was missing. The untouched food was beginning to fill the room with unwanted smells. Still, the elder man fixated on the tranquil scene in front of him.

Suddenly, he let out a gasp of air. Excitement ran through his veins and filled his heart with joy.
“Okay, it’s time! You can have your dinner!” The old man bellowed.

Out from behind his chair popped a grizzly looking creature. Maybe a bear? Maybe a wolf? It was something peculiar with hair growing out of its body and fingernails as long as the kitchen table.

The creature flopped in the chair beside his elder friend and ate everything but the kitchen itself. Even the fork and spoon was gone.
“Could you at least leave me the silverware?” The elder man said with a chuckle in his voice.

Tweet Me!

It's official! I joined Twitter! Ahh! I've been contemplating about getting one for quite some time and now I have one. :)
I have a button to my page on the right side of my blog. Add me if you would like. I am still learning the lingo of tweetville, so be patient with me. Ha ha!

Five Sentence Fiction - Tattered

What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week I will post a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction.

This week: TATTERED




The bitterness of the winter made its way to her bare feet. She sat in the soggy ground that carried a stench of dead animals and decaying wood - inhaling each smell as she fanaticized a room filled with exotic foods. Snowflakes began to fall and fill her ratted clothes with wetness and fury. Her teeth chattered with noise so piercing that ice-cycles broke repeatedly from the weak tree limbs. The wolves of the night circled around the fragile creature, helping her understand that they were offering their fur for warmth and security.

Song Pick - Happy Pills

I am sure many of us are guilty to have judged a book by its cover.....and title!! It can happen with songs as well. I first read about the song "Happy Pills" by Norah Jones and immediatly thought that was the end of her career. BUT, I am actually in love with this song at the moment. It's quirky and vibrant and it still shows her songwriting skills that I adore.
I'm going to spread the love to you all and share my happy pills!!! :)

Five Sentence Fiction - Enchanted

What it’s all about: Five Sentence Fiction is about packing a powerful punch in a tiny fist. Each week I will post a one word inspiration, then anyone wishing to participate will write a five sentence story based on the prompt word. The word does not have to appear in your five sentences, just use it for direction.


This week: ENCHANTED

It was mid-afternoon when I was captivated by a scene of exotic life. A family of deer was trotting along the side of the winding road - basking in the glow of the lethargic sunlight. Their tender ears twitched with confusion and disappointment; never meeting their famished needs. Nourishment seemed to be the original necessity for these creatures, but a delicate place of tranquility was their appetite. Muffler sounds of old trucks and motorcycles that blazed with anger kept them wanting a peaceful environment.

Field of Dreams

The Write on Wednesday Spark: Small expectationsAs I am thinking about education and learning, kindergarten and university, I have taken this week's writing exercise from one of my early childhood books. It is an activity I do with small children and one that always inspires so I thought it would be fun to see what the exercise inspires in adults. So, your prompt is: Imagine yourself as tiny as your thumb.Where would you live? What would you do?

I twisted the prompt a tiny bit and wrote a nonfiction piece about my life as a seven year old. I will admit ahead of time, nonfiction is NOT my best attribute, but I do love having a challenge. :)

I sat in a field of enchanting dreams; soaring grasses from Jack and the Beanstalk to lost buttons from a bear named Corduroy. The sunlight bounced off my skin, creating a blanket of everlasting warmth. I was seven; a child of nature’s imagination. Poetic stanzas grew tall within my mind as if it were Wordsworth himself whispering words of wisdom to me.

 I formed a devotion to nature, to life, and to imagination. Rocks were painted with colors of uncertainty and created with a personal canvas that told stories of Indian tribes. Leafs were also sacred in my world. I wanted to savor the veins that once seeped water pellets through the spine of the tree. I pressed each leaf into a journal and kept the memory alive.

Kickball was my sport of choice. Pushing each muscle that formed between my thigh and leg, I made sure the ball was nowhere in sight. The grasses of the field scratched the surface of my legs each time the ball rolled towards my position. I would come home with marks of love from the grasses embracing my legs.

The field of dreams also carried a night life of music. I waltzed with the sounds of crickets and katydids that were speaking a fresh language of affection. The stars of the night told stories of souls that found peace in another life.  I felt home; safe in the arms of the tall grasses and the faraway music of the night. I go there in my dreams, remembering each delicate detail that encouraged me to write and imagine.