Thursday Tales and Book Blurb Friday

I’m combining two mêmes today. Since the photo prompts seemed to compliment each other, I thought they belonged together in a story...

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Leo at Thursday Tales supplies us with a picture around which we might spin a yarn of between 55 and 777 words. On seeing this stark window, I knew I would write about it, although I've altered the photo’s original context.

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At Book Blurb Friday, Lisa shows us her book jacket, and invites us to pen a compelling blurb that will entice readers to buy the book. With only 150 words in which to do so, it can be quite a challenge. This week’s photo of the old typewriter  supplied by Lynn Obermoeller instantly captured my imagination.

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This is my contribution...

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The Heart's Last Home

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Jen looked around in despair. Fifteen years had passed since she’d set foot inside the family home...it was now unrecognizable with layers of grime sullying the once well-appointed parlor. When her eyes fell on the long-unused typewriter, the true gravity of the situation settled heavily into her gut.

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How had her mother let this happen?
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How had she let this happen?

Jennifer Brooks writes compellingly of the descent into senility of a once-brilliant woman whose many books inspired her daughter to pursue journalism.

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Settled overseas with work and a man she loved, Jen imagined all must be as she'd left it. She was wrong. Alarmed by phone calls that became increasingly strange, she returned to find her mother diminished in both mind and body.

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Though not an easy read, the story of how Jen became caregiver to the woman who had borne her will surely touch your heart…

(150 words)

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To view more Thursday Tales, check out Leo’s link below….

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http://talesthursday.blogspot.com/

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Be sure to visit Angela, who supplied us with this evocative window….

http://anne-frank.gemzies.com/show/entry_8510/Anne_Frank__039_s_Attic_window.html

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And to read more of Lisa’s Friday Book Blurbs, you’ll want to stop by this page…

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http://www.writinginthebuff.net/

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Don’t forget to visit Lynn while you’re at it…

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http://www.lynnobermoeller.blogspot.com/

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Thursday Tales: Words

Sly, elusive words… 

we seek to control them, even as we know their path is their own to forge.

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 We stretch…we strain…we struggle to grasp the perfect phrase that will say what’s in our hearts.

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 Putting pen to paper we must make each letter shine with a light of its own to illuminate imagined worlds.

 Within our mind’s dark corners, we are relentless in our search for inspiration and truth.

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We persist in this endless pursuit because every once in a while, words fall to our page like stars...every once in a while we are able to bring forth a moment in time that took root in our souls and begged for a life of its own. In this release, we become the writers we had hoped to be...

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I am linking to Thursday Tales where we build a tale around a photo prompt. For more stories check out the TT page...

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http://talesthursday.blogspot.com/

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Today's photo -The Writer- is courtesy of Daniel Hayman at the link below.

http://dhayman85.deviantart.com/art/the-writer-167322662

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Thursday Think Tank: Homage to Robb

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Quentin Tarantino has said, 

“You can’t write poetry on a computer.”

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I beg to differ…and I offer this homage to the founder of our online forum!

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Our brave friend Robb took on the job of being poets’ host,

And I can’t help but wonder what he likes about it most.

Is it the endless questions that we always seem to ask?

Or is his joy found in the role of keeping us on task?

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When night falls, does he tear his hair and wonder what he’s done?

Or is he like the rest of us, too busy having fun?

Who wouldn’t want to nudge along a group so keen to play,

That we’ll line up with haste for one brief chance to have our say!

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All jest aside, our gratitude we offer to our host.

This man of wisdom thought to carve out space for us to post.

He gave us room to grow and shine our light for all to see.

He helped us know we could become all we were meant to be.

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As writers, we’re prolific and our minds resound with rhymes,

We’re always jotting down new thoughts at quite peculiar times.

But it can feel quite lonely living in one’s muddled head…

And ideas left unshared can seem to be as good as dead.

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I used to write within a void; my words the weight of stone,

And now I am much heartened to know I am not alone!

So many clever people leave their gems upon this site,

And I can soak up wondrous words at any time of night.

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The poets I have come to know inspire me with their zest,

Though it’s the gift of sharing that I’ve come to love the best.

For kindred souls and seekers who explore the world in rhyme,

This is, without a doubt, our favourite way of spending time.

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As captain of our crew, we tilt our caps to Robb with pride,

No phrase seems quite enough to say how much we love the ride!

Our work is launched, our writing ship sets sail with banners high,

The world is ours to conquer, and our limit is the sky!

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For more poems insired by the words of others, you should really stop by the link below and settle in to enjoy the offerings...

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http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/03/thursday-think-tank-38-quotes.html#more

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I am also linking to Theme Thursday, graciously hosted by Megan. Do stop by to see more words and pictures about books...
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http://themethursday.blogspot.com/
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To Cook Or Not To Cook

A curious thing happened recently. A friend phoned me excitedly to say she'd found a small volume of poetry and prose in a secondhand book store, and that a piece of mine was included in it.

I was perplexed!...I'd managed to have a few things published locally,

but knew nothing of the volume she mentioned. I was no less confused when presented with her find, a book I'd never seen before...yet there was my name, attached to a tongue-in-cheek article about how I love to write but hate to cook. I grinned as I read it, having forgotten it completely since committing it to paper in 1984, though I remember all too well my childrens' repeated claims of starvation! I'm still not sure how my work ended up in a slim anthology produced by a writing group that no longer exists - it would appear I entered a contest of theirs - but I thought I might share it with you.
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I admit to being more amused than chagrined that I have not come to like cooking any better in the quarter century that has passed, but am heartened to affirm that my love affair with words will never end...

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To Cook Or Not To Cook
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In our household, my cooking has become a life-and-death concern. I mean this in a figurative manner only. In spite of my ambivalence toward food, it has never been my intention to deliberately poison anyone. Indeed, if the mutters of discontent that float around the dinner table are to be believed, there is not even enough zest in my cooking to give a cockroach a tummy ache, let alone seriously harm anyone!
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Therein lies the problem. I am a dull cook; a bland cook – in short, a thoroughly disinterested cook. My children, on the other hand, are extremely interested eaters. While I work my days around finding time to write, they fit time around filling their stomachs.
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The dining room in our house resembles nothing more than a combat zone. My husband remains wisely neutral, but the children unabashedly pull out all their weapons.
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“You know”, begins the teenager, wise with knowledge gained from three home ec. classes, “I’m not altogether sure that eating macaroni and hot dogs three nights in a row wasn’t proven to be the leading cause of cancer in lab rats.”
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I maintain a dignified silence, proud of myself for declining to point out the obvious similarities between children and rats.
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Spurred on by the lack of response, middle child joins in the fray. “Can you believe it?” he exclaims with mock disbelief, “Some people have dessert every night, not just for Christmas and birthdays!”
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I don’t even try to hide my shudder. Such dissolute indulgence could only lead to fat children and an exhausted mother!
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Never one to stay in the background for long, baby son makes a sound between a retch and a burp. “Yuk!” he manages on a groan. “This macaroni isn’t even cooked right; it’s still crunchy in the middle!”
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They have finally gotten to me. “Mummy is a writer,” I proclaim loudly in defense, “Not a cook!”
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This heartfelt declaration is greeted with three pairs of rolling eyebrow. “Great, Mum” eldest child drawls with unconcealed boredom, “but you can’t live on words, you know. People need food.”
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I am stunned into silence. Can’t live on words? Has a child of my womb really uttered such obscenity? Why, I can more easily imagine living without food than without words. What is food, after all? A necessary fuel we ingest into our bodies, only to be forced to repeat the procedure mere hours later. The fulfillment it offers is meager at best, and absurdly short-lived. But a carefully constructed metaphor; an artful blend of words that captures a feeling and sharpens it to pinpoint clarity – that is the real sustenance in life. There is no poetry in pot roast, no poignancy in a stalk of asparagus. I have read words that charged me with the excitement of simply being alive.
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Food has never done that for me.
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I cannot, however, say the same for my children. The delirium with which they greet a chocolate cream cake must, in every way, match the entrancement an illiterate feels when the world of books is finally opened to him. The sense of contentment I glean from a favoured author is, for my sons, found in a pint of bubblegum ice cream. Voracious, earthbound creatures they are, and mine is the dubious fortune to have been appointed their keeper.
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Time and time again, I’m pulled away from my typewriter by anguished cries of, “I’m starrr…ving!”
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My patient response on the convenience factor of apples and dry crackers only leads to their second-favourite war cry, “What’s for dinner?”
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There are more of them than there are of me. Yet another day, gluttony wins over creativity. Like it or not, I’ve come to accept that food is equated with love; and I am as susceptible as anyone to cultural conditioning. Ask my children – guilt is one weapon they learned early to handle with skill.
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“Jason’s mum must like him better than you like me,” my youngest son will whine, hanging dejectedly over my desk. I wince, knowing from experience what comes next.
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“She has hot chocolate-chip cookies ready for him when he comes home from school”, the plaintive voice continues, not disappointing me.
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I sag in despair, only too aware that this is not a situation that responds to logic. No amount of reasoning will render me immune to those wide, clear eyes, or make me feel better about being caught at my desk at school’s end instead of keeping vigil by the back door.
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Baby son get his cookies.
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The battle is ongoing, and though I’m resigned to the fact that it is not a fight I can win, I refuse to surrender completely. Cook for my children I will, and there will be days I gorge their sturdy young bodies with so much food that even they will be glutted to satisfaction.
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But other days will be mine – days when lunch is forgotten as I feast on a lavish repast of words; days when dinner goes unprepared because cooking up a plot is the only kind of cooking that engrosses me.
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My writing career moves slowly, but I remain convinced there’s a book inside me waiting to be written. I don’t yet know what it is, but I do know it won’t be, “One Hundred and One Ways to Prepare Ground Beef”!

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Project Genesis 11

Be Your Own Entertainment!
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Seen above are just a few of my antique books.

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I find myself overloaded with electronic input: televisions that are left on all day, piped-in music everywhere from the elevator to the mall, and phones that ring at inappropriate times. And, contradictory though it seems as I sit here blogging, I believe even computers need to be turned off frequently, both for our own sake and for the sake of the planet. Here are five ways to entertain oneself without turning anything on, (except the imagination)!
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1) Read More: The whole world is yours in books, and uses no fuel to explore. As well as providing entertainment, reading about the ideas and solutions presented by others to shared problems will jumpstart your own innate brilliance. Of course, buying used books and passing them on to friends is the kindest way to read.

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2) Make art: We all have an artist in us waiting to be unleashed. Think back to childhood…did you love to draw or sculpt people out of clay? Become a child again and explore possibilities. Try creating with found objects only, and reuse what you have on hand. Even a cereal box can be the base for a work of art.

In this piece, 'Art is Life', everything I used is reclaimed material, even the canvas it's mounted on..

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3) Exercise more: This does not have to mean joining a fitness club or buying a new bike. A brisk, daily walk through your neighbourhood will freshen both body and soul. Be sure to carry a re-useable bag with you and pick up litter along the way. Once home, recycle what you can and take the rest to the appropriate discard site. Don’t forget to view everything as potential art material!
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4) Volunteer: This benefits both giver and receiver: it is a simple truth that helping others makes one feel good. Seniors’ homes are a good place to start. Read to someone whose sight is going. Take along the books you’re finished with and stock up their shelves. Refresh them frequently.
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5) Write letters: Writing is becoming a lost art in this era of electronic messaging. But remember the thrill you felt in the past upon receiving an envelope covered with bright stamps and the beautifully cursive flow of an address? Put your thoughts down on paper: tell someone what you love about them, or offer a schedule of visits to a shut-in. You can use recycled paper, or save your scraps and make your own. A library book will teach you how easy papermaking is.


I think I have kept every letter that was ever written to me!
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The possibilities are endless! Unplug yourself for a while. Embrace stillness. Find a quiet spot, and think about what stirred your youthful passion. What are you passionate about now, and how can that passion be used to benefit those around you, as well as yourself?
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I’m certain both you and the world will be richer for this contemplation....
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Many thanks to Suzan at Old Grey Mare for hosting this project! It is more important than ever that we work together to reduce, reuse and recycle. To see more ideas you can readily put into use, please visit

Project Genesis at the link below...


http://oldgreymareprimitives.blogspot.com/2010/06/project-genesis-7110.html