Check out these gifted poets and get an anthology for free!
Confessions of A Serial Reader
Is this one of your guilty pleasures? I know it’s one of mine!
Yes, my friends, I confess that I am a Serial Reader. I love books that take a character and make you like them so much that you want to read about them time after time.
I read the first Harry Potter book only because I wanted to see if it was appropriate to give to my granddaughter as a gift. After the first five chapters, I was hooked and became one of those fans waiting anxiously for the next adventure that Harry and his cohorts would embark upon.
Nora Robert’s (writing as J.D. Robb) hooked me with the first of her “In Death” series (I have a secret crush on that Irish scalawag, Rourke.) Stephen King’s Roland and crew gave me many years of great reading in the “Gunslinger” series. I could go on and on, but just suffice to say, I love books that make me shout “More!”
As…
View original post 224 more words
Bastet and Pixelventures: Just a Note.
Add your thoughts to making Bastet’s efforts a win for all of us!
Show It With A Look
Thought my readers on Grandma Says might find this one helpful!
How many of you writers out there have heard the expression “Show…don’t tell”…most of you, I bet. We writers often fall into the “She was angry…she was very happy…she was embarrassed” lines in which you try to tell what the characters feelings are at the time.
These sentences usually appear in my first draft of my story. I then have to go back and start “Showing” what my character does when he/she is angry, happy or embarrassed. Because I have learned that letting my readers see what my character is feeling and the effect it has on them physically makes my character more real…more alive.
Sometimes, when I’m trying to write about the “look” my character has for a specific emotion, I need a little help. Luckily, I found a great book titled “The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writers Guide to Character Expression” by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. This book…
View original post 194 more words
A Little Inspiration and A Lot of Silliness
I’m going to do something a little bit different today. I want to pay back all the wonderful people who inspire me with their great stories and awesome pictures. But, being who I am, I’m also going to include a little bit of fun in the mix. Why? Just because I can! 🙂 So, here goes!
Where would we be without the Dreamers and the Doers?
This one just made me laugh…and laugh…and laugh!
Story of my life!
I have days like this!
Out of the mouth of Babes!
Words to remember!
Betty Boop is my idol…always has been and always will be!
Now, the next one is a little…well…risque? If You are easily offended…run now. But, I had to put this one in since it made me laugh so hard I cried!
Hope you all have a great evening! Cheer up…tomorrow’s Friday!
Love,
Cranky
Can somebody please help me?
Hey, Debbie needs help with her site. Can anyone direct her to where she can get help?
The Wacky Walk
I decided to add a little excitement to my morning walk this A.M. Since it was Wordless Wednesday, I came up with the hair brained idea of taking a picture of the sun coming up over the lake at the end of our street! Wow, I thought, those pictures will be sure to knock my friend Bastet’s socks off!
I donned my walking shorts, a thin tee-shirt, my new, pristine white Dr. Scholl’s sneakers and jammed a baseball cap over the Wally World haircut I got the other day that now makes me look like Bozo the clown. Grabbing my water bottle and my cheap digital camera, I headed out the door. I had a plan!
The one and one-half mile walk I take each day consists of circling the same block three times (I fear getting lost among the streets in my development…they all look the same and one gets easily confused.) Each complete circle around the block takes fifteen minutes (the turtles make it in ten…but whatever!) and I wanted to capture the sunrise in stages so I felt that one shot each time I reached the lake would do the trick! Round one I walked to the mound that surrounds the lake and raised the camera to take the first shot.
I forgot about the heavy rainfall the evening before and wound up slipping down the wet, slimy mound and succeeded in getting my legs covered in lake slime. I did remember that there are snakes and gators in the lake so I crawled back up the mound on my hands and knees, took the picture and resumed walking with mud covered legs. I passed two neighbors who usually greet me with a “Good Morning” and became confused when they just waved a weak hello.
I reach the lake once again and prepare to take the second shot. I raise the camera and step up to take the perfect shot. My now not so pristine white Dr. Scholls disappear into a hole in the mound and I once again wind up flat on my butt. Wincing in pain from an ankle that doesn’t appreciate being turned in new directions, I pulled myself up again and took the second shot.
I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of straying from my normal path to take these damn pictures. But, I am a Warrior, I told myself! I limped off to finish my walk with mud crusted legs, a grass-covered behind and a hope that I would live to take the last shot. Two more residents of my neighborhood approached and turned their heads as they passed me…probably because I now resembled a manic clown returning from a mud wrestling competition. The last fifteen minutes of my walk to the lake was actually more of a walk..limp..walk regimen but I did make it to the lake.
This time, I scanned the terrain for possible traps that would cause me further bodily harm. I took the last shot and headed home, mission accomplished and only a bit worse for wear. Okay, I was scraped, dirty and crawled the last few feet up our driveway, but I did make it home alive!
After showering off the mud and slime, I limped to my laptop and posted the pictures on my sister site “A Dream Come True” so if you want, you can click on Mrs. Gulch to the right of this post and take a peek or you can see them by clicking here. I hope that since I risked life and limb taking these pictures, that Bastet is happy and that you enjoy them. I do think that it’ll be awhile before I repeat this wacky walk!
I have to go now and put an ice pack on my ankle.
Love,
Cranky
Easy Assembly My Butt!
A few weeks ago, Danny noticed that our dining room table had disappeared. Stacks of paper, books on writing and a laptop were now weighing down the former place where we used to eat. He shook his head and said, “It’s time to get you a desk!”
So, off we trundled to Wally World. My eyes were instantly drawn to a cute little writing desk with adorable cubbyholes I could use to keep my in-progress stories neatly tucked away…Danny’s eyes were glued to the words “Easy Assembly” on the front of the box.
We hefted the six-foot high box onto a rolling cart and headed home, excited to have a small project to work on. We carried the box into the garage and I headed into the kitchen to get pick a good place to assemble this small desk in the comfort of our air-conditioned home. A minute later, I heard Danny call me back into the garage.
He had opened the box and taken out the thousands of pieces of wood and ten pounds of hardware that were needed to create this new piece of furniture.
“Honey, I think we’re going to have to build this out here in the garage.” he said. “There’s too many pieces to lay out for us to do it in the house.”
I sighed. In case I haven’t mentioned it, this has been a very hot, steamy and miserable summer here in Florida. So my enthusiasm dropped ten degrees at the thought of building this desk in a hot garage. But, I spoke not a discouraging word since the box said “Easy Assembly!” How long could it take us?
Hour One…Danny splits up the construction duties, he will do the building and I am assigned the daunting task of reading the instructions (Danny refers to these as “constructions.” I encounter the first problem on page one.
“Danny, these instructions are in Spanish!”
“Turn the book over, silly!”
Danny proceeds to lay out the pieces of wood according to the stickers applied by the manufacturer. “A” pieces are sorted in the front of the garage, and “B” pieces are set carefully in the back. This proved to be effective until we found that not all the pieces had stickers on them. So now we had to resort to the “it looks like this one” technique and keep our fingers crossed that we guess right.
Hour Two…I open up to the English version of the instructions and find that the schematics look like we will be building the next space shuttle. Bravely, I start reading out loud as Danny collects the hardware to slap the wooden slats together. As he inserts strange looking pieces of metal into pre-drilled holes, I try to make sense out of the manual.
Hour Three…We finally start assembling the legs into the bottom of the desktop. Trouble looms it’s ugly head right from the git go!
“It says to use a screwdriver” I advised my man.
“A drill works faster!”
“But, it says to use a screwdriver! Just thought you should know!” I now feel liberated. Should this project turn out wrong, I can blame it on Danny for using the damn drill!
Hour Four…Still working on putting the legs into the top of the desk. Although time consuming, this desk should be able to handle a Category Five Tornado and survive unscathed.
Hour Five…As I wipe the sweat off my brow, I wonder what happened to the “Easy Assembly?” We still have to put the center drawer together and build the cubbyhole sections. I am leaning towards delaying completion of this project from hell until the next day…but Danny was on a mission and shot down my dreams of escaping into the air-conditioning.
Hour Six…We have finally gotten down to the last pieces which will be the drawer that slides out of the middle of the desk. We practice with the metal brackets the drawer requires for a smooth open and close operation. Somehow, we wind up putting them in wrong. So, it’s back to the drawing board…after three tries and two heated arguments, we finally manage to get them in correctly.
Hour Seven…Soaked to the skin in sweat…we stand back and admire our new piece of furniture with pride. We left the garbage laying on the floor, moved the desk into it’s new home and headed off for showers and a bite to eat. We dragged our poor tired bodies off to bed and my last thought before dropping off to sleep was “Easy Assembly, my butt!”
The next morning, as I was raving about my new desk and the great teamwork we achieved during the construction phase, my daughter asked how long it took us.
“Why?” I asked, too embarrassed to tell her that we spent over seven hours putting a tiny little desk together.
“Because, Wally World will assemble furniture for ten bucks.” she said, laughing.
I hung up.
Below is the result of all our hard work and our injuries (Danny, a sore toe from dropping the damn drill on his foot and I got a paper cut from the stupid manual!”
My new Easy Assembly Pride and Joy!
We’ve Lost A Legend
Julie Harris
1925 – 2013
Julie Harris, renown star of Broadway, Movies and Television, passed away at the age of 87. Her roles were many and diverse during her long career. From playing a tomboy in “A Member of the Wedding” to Mrs. Lincoln, she handled all her acting roles with a quiet grace that mesmerized audiences throughout the decades.
The younger generation might remember her as the scheming southern belle in “Knots Landing” while others might reminisce about her role as Sally Bowles, in “I Am A Camera (Caberet was a adaptation)”
She won an unprecedented five Tony awards for her roles on stage and I’m sure the lights on Broadway will be dimmed now that she has left us.
Rest in Peace, Julie!
Grandma Says.. 