Catching up....

So I have a piece over at the Register, The World is Starving for Love.  It's been a busy week, with county Cross Country, Homecoming, preparing for Halloween, dealing with the ordinary business of life, and so writing took it on the chin this week.   I will try to get back in the saddle.  Here's last week's SST if you missed it.  Small Success Thursday: The Grace of Ordinariness. Thanks as always for sharing my work, and I hope to write more soon. 

Ella's Ashes .

Exercise on using tenses...from the workshop...

It would have been a lovely evening if all she had hoped had happened. The dress would have been beautiful and full. The shoes would not have ached or slipped off. The band would have played beautiful music. He would have been gallant, handsome and made her laugh. The crowds would have whispered, “Who is she?” and the King might have looked on and wondered if she might be the one his son would have chosen for a bride. Everyone would have fallen in love with the loveliness of it all; the perfect story of a perfect love. Discovering one another in a gradual fashion, after much suffering and many trials, would have revealed her worthiness to be rewarded with such grand happiness. If only she had been willing to put up with any of their crap in the first place, all of this might have then happened. Would she have been the belle of the ball, the queen of his heart? Would she have been gifted with rare and beautiful magic from a godmother she’d never yet been introduced to in her life? Yes, she knew what would have been, might have been lovely as she sat stroking her beautiful white cat and sipping perfectly hot lemon tea in a china cup in a house all her own. However, she reasoned, if she had been what all that story would have required, she would have been reduced to a sap and a slave and a puppet of fate, and the moral of that story would have been a terrible lesson for anyone else to take away from her life that wasn't.

So, I've been part of a writing group...

and we're doing these exercises.  Since I've been sort of shy on time and writing, I figure, I'll share the results of those lessons here. 

This past week, we tackled humor.  We were to write an ad for one of several undesirable animals, and I chose the badger.  Here is is with some tweaks...

Wild Badger Free to a good home, or even a bad one if they're willing.

You might be wondering, why would I want a wild badger, and even if I give you good reasons for treasuring such a feral vicious beast in your home, why if they're so awesome, I'd be willing to part with mine. So here are my ten reasons YOU should own my badger.

10) Did you go to Wisconsin? This is all the reason you need.

9) My wild badger willingly maims cyclists, pedestrians and automobiles traveling at ten miles lower than the posted speed limit. Handy if you're in a rush to get somewhere, like say the hospital from attempting to pet said badger.

8) They are excellent excavators, so if you have some trees you want uprooted, they're perfect for the job. Warning: Make sure no electrical, water or cable lines are proximate, as the utilities and cable companies will hold you liable for damages.

7) Badger chow is cheap, but wild badgers will eat earthworms, insects, grubs, and eggs. They also eat small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds, as well as roots and fruit. Good bye annoying yappy dogs next door.

6) They make a sound like a rattle snake which is useful. Just post a sign saying, "Warning, Pet Rattle Snake" and have the phone video ready to capture the fun when someone knocks anyway.   

5) Nothing gives the sense of being an environmental warrior, friend of nature and at the same time, daring like a badger on your dating website. It gets you a second look even if your profile wouldn't.. (Lock up the badger and whatever you do, don't let her talk you into letting her pet it). See reason #10

4)Will create both permanent memories and scars, and scarred memories.

3) Bad badgers make for good fences. No visits from the in-laws, outlaws or the law since I got her.

2) On the bucket list somewhere in your adventure starved heart is "own an exotic pet," and this one fits the bill.

1). I'm getting rid of the badger because I saw this terrific ad for a pet rattle snake and thought, it's time to be truthful about the matter.  

Small Success Thursday

We survived the great internet famine of 2018, two days sans cable, phone or wi-fi.   Here's yesterday's posting over at Catholicmom.com.   Kids are busy catching up on all the binge screen watching they didn't get for 48 hours.    Reclaiming Sunday.

On a side note, I loved it.  Thinking, there may be trees that fall in the future for another 24-48 hours. 

At the Register

with a story about the Fellowship of the Prayers We See.  It segways with another story I'm working on, which reminds me, we can bear almost anything when we do not shoulder it alone.  Go check it out, and please share via twitter, facebook, email, etc.