Doing Chores

Doing Chores

by: Cassie M. Shiels

Like any child I hated doing chores. I grumbled or groaned, but sluggishly got up and did them. I was very quick to get my jobs done however, when there was a book I wanted to read and I was told I could not read it until my chores were done. :D
As an adult, a mom, I end up doing a lot of things that I use to hate doing. Cleaning the bathroom, washing dishes, laundry etc. I could hate it but I don't. Its different when you are doing these things to take care of your family as a mom.
When I was a child doing chores at home, I did not like it but I found a way to make the time pass better. I would create a story while working. When scrubbing the shower, I was cinderella, and I would create a whole story around what I was doing. It was my start of talking to characters. As I grew I continued to do it. Occasionally I would have a story that I only told myself for weeks when I worked on tasks that didn't need much of my mind. I would hold conversations between characters in the shower, cleaning, mopping, ironing and things like that.
I remember being a janitor in collage and boy did I come up with some fun stories when I had to ride down the scary elevator, or vacuums a rug while being starred at by passerby's, while mopping under tables with music coming from the dance rooms near by.
Tasks where your mind can wander are awesome times to create stories. However its is hard when in the shower and you need paper right now before that awesome dialogue gets lost forever!!
If you are having a hard time figuring out a scene or figuring out how two characters would talk to each other maybe choose to do a chore. Choose for example to hand wash all the dishes instead of put them in the dishwasher and give your characters a chance to show you how they will act or what they may say. Its a good way to get over a bout of writers block. Its also a good way to get somethings around the house done. Two for one! :D

Rainy Day Blessings

by Kari Diane Pike

I love rainy days. Rainy days slow my world down and give me time to think. I spent my elementary school years in northwestern Montana where we would get rain twenty one days out of thirty in the month of June. I have no idea why I remember that statistic. I do remember whining about the rain back then and asking, "Isn't it ever going to stop raining? Are we ever going to have a day without rain?" It's funny how, after moving to Phoenix as a teenager, it didn't take long before I started asking, "Isn't it ever going to rain?" Go figure.

We've had a long dry spell in Arizona. Flatlanders and Rim people alike would like to see this year's predicted El Nino (how do you add that ~ over the n again?) replenish our depleted reservoirs. I may have flinched before I headed out into the rain at six a.m. today, but you won't find me complaining about three days in a row of glorious, precious, wet stuff falling from the sky. What a blessing! Besides, what better excuse to cozy up in a quilt with a hot cup of herbal tea or hot cocoa and a good book? I might find time to get the rest of my overdue holiday thank you notes written; or even (ahem) the Christmas, errrrr...New Year's...ummm..Valentine's letters out. Because rain makes me think a lot about friends. 

Friends. Mortal angels who act as God's hands and bless my life. Sometimes it comes in the form of a smiley face in my text messages, a phone call to share a happy song, a loaf of fresh bread, a bouquet of flowers, or a hug. And always, always, in the very moment I most need that little bit of extra strength. Friends teach me how to listen more, pay closer attention, and about unconditional love. Thank you for being my friends.

Of course, my very best friend is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Pondering on friends and goals for 2016, I think my number one goal is to become more Christlike and be a better friend. Thank you Rainy Day for giving me time to think. 

Life is magnificent! 

Space Bars - Use Only Once, Please!

by Marsha Ward

Did you know...

that when mankind used typewriters, we were taught to space twice after each sentence?

There was a good reason for that.

Each letter took the same amount of space, that is, each "M" occupied the same amount of space on the typed page as each "I".  We had to use two spaces after each period so other folks could more easily find the beginnings and ends.

But you know, we don't use those "mono-space" typefaces much anymore. Sure, you might use it for a manuscript, if you like the look of Courier, or obsess about the number of words on a page, but few modern writers are that nit-picky about the look of their manuscripts, and Word provides a nifty tool called "word count" that was missing from typewriters. Everything will be changed, anyway, once the manuscript becomes a book. The typesetter will take your edited electronic file and make it look all pretty for the printed page. They probably will use a different typeface entirely.

What does all that have to do with whether or not your thumb hits the space bar once or twice after a sentence? It doesn't even matter, right?

Wrong.

If you put in two spaces after a period at the end of the sentence (or, horrors, a space after a period at the end of a paragraph), someone has to massage your file to take out all those extra spaces. Someone at the publishing company. Someone who has to be paid for their time to do that.

I've been told on good authority that some publishers will pass up a perfectly good story/novel if the manuscript has two spaces after a period, because of the cost and hassle involved with removing the extra spaces!

Yikes!

!!!!!

Don't be that obnoxious writer. Keep your chances of being accepted as high as possible. Make things easy for your editor/typesetter. Restrain your thumb from hitting the space bar twice. It's not really that hard to quell the desire/habit.

Just do it!

The New Year Equals a New Chance

by Cindy R. Williams

The New Year equals a new chance. Everyone knows that. In fact most people make new goals for the new year. You know a chance to start over. According to many lists on Google, the most common goal we make is to lose weight. Okay, been there, done that, gained it back.

I like the idea that a new chance gives me a fresh year to accomplish my writing goals.

How about you? What does the New Year mean to you?