Day: June 29, 2020

Blogging Insights — Reading is Fundamental

Fandango11 Comments

Blogging insightsFor this edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya wants to know if reading is fundamental to being a blogger. She asks:

Do you think that reading is an important prerequisite for writing well? If so, what kind of reading material inspires or affects your writing?

Yes, I do. I can’t imagine being able to write well if you’re not also well read. Back in the day I used to be a voracious reader. I’d typically go through fifty to sixty books a year. I’d read books on the commuter trains I used to take to get to and from work. I’d read books on the many long airplane flights I had to take for my job. And I’d read for in bed about 30 to 60 minutes each night before going to sleep at night

But that was before the internet, before connected computers, before smartphones, before newsfeeds, before 24-hour cable news networks, before streaming services. Now I don’t read more than a half a dozen books a year, if that. Most of my reading these days is done on my iPhone. Specifically my newsfeed and the WordPress reader.

What kind of reading inspires my writing these days? Well, it’s mostly the articles that pop up on my newsfeed, those posts I come across in the WordPress reader, and things I see in my newspaper or in magazines.

So, bottom line, one way or another,DB368155-D086-431C-AE74-E8EC1FEE142A

Share Your World — Going Deep

Fandango10 Comments

Share Your WorldFor today’s Share Your World edition, Melanie said that she’s asking a few philosophical questions. While she’s going deep with her questions, I’m going to wade in the shallow end of the pool with my answers.

Must we have evidence to know the truth?

It helps, although the Republicans in Congress can’t seem to acknowledge the truth about their president despite all of the evidence about his misdeeds and incompetence.

How much control does a person have over their life?

You can control only your own actions and life, but you have little control over the actions and lives of others and how that might affect your own life. You can only do what you can to make the best of it.

What is gravity and how does it work?

According to Albert Einstein, gravity is “a consequence of the curvature of spacetime caused by the uneven distribution of mass.” I have no idea what those words actually mean, so don’t even ask me to explain how it works. All I know is that if you drop something, it falls, and that’s somehow due to gravity.

Can a person be happy if they have never experienced sadness? How about vice versa?

I don’t think experiencing happiness or sadness is dependent upon having experienced the opposite. As the old song goes, if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If your sad and you know, but you don’t want to show it, go take a nap and sleep it off.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #72

Fandango13 Comments

FFFCWelcome to “Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.” Each week I will be posting a photo I grab off the internet and challenge bloggers to write a flash fiction piece or a poem inspired by the photo. There are no style or word limits.

The image below is from Davidoasa at Pixabay.com.F3D75BFB-5037-4AFF-A897-E9EC9D1A82F9For the visually challenged writer, the photo shows an interior corner with light shining though columns.

If this week’s image inspires you and you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FFFC, and link back to this post. I hope it will generate some great posts.

Thanks to all of you who have participated in these challenges. Your posts have been very creative. Please take a few minutes to read the other responses to this photo challenge.

Please create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Arcane

Fandango21 Comments

FOWCWelcome to June 29, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “arcane.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.