Day: July 12, 2021

TMP — Invasion

Fandango17 Comments

Every Monday, Paula Light, with her The Monday Peeve prompt, gives us an opportunity to vent or rant about something that pisses us off. Well, my peeve today is about a home invasion that took place last week.

Yes, that’s right. My home was invaded by ants. Tiny, black ants.

My wife always wakes up a lot earlier than I do. She’s usually up between by around 5:30 and I roll out of bed closer to 7:00. Well, one morning last week she woke me up at 5:45 to tell me that a horde of ants had stormed our kitchen. They were all over the window over our kitchen sink and had formed a conga line all along the counter top where it meets the subway tile backsplash.

Hey, I have nothing against ants when they are in their natural habitat, which is outdoors. But I will not tolerate ants in my kitchen. That’s a bridge too far. And so I brought out my can of Raid and made quick work of getting rid of those intrusive ants.

Now I know that some of you might think that it was cruel of me to slaughter hundreds of defenseless ants. But just remember, those ants cost me one hour and 15 minutes of precious sleep that morning.

Share Your World — 7/12/21

Fandango12 Comments

Here we go with another episode of Melanie’s Share Your World. This week Melanie is giving us three rather silly questions and one philosophical one.

What would be much better if you could just change the color of it?

The color of an object is what it is and I don’t think changing the color of said object would, in and of itself, make it better or worse. That said, there’s a house in my neighborhood that is painted Day-Glo yellow…

Do you think cats have any regrets?

Do cats have regrets? Nope, not a chance. Well, at least not my cat.

Do you ever count your steps when you walk?

When I used to walk our dog I would occasionally count my steps. But our dog is now gone and the only steps I count these days are what steps I’m at in my 12-step program.

Is there a supreme power?

Yes. Me. I am the supreme power because without me, nothing would exist. I explained it all in this post, should you be interested in understanding what I mean.

Now I have a question for Melanie. Which are the silly questions and which is the philosophical one?

Blogging Insights — Edit, Edit, Edit

Fandango21 Comments

For this week’s edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya wants to know about our blog post editing habits. She asks…

Do you edit your work before posting it?

I edit the shit out of my posts. I draft them, I proofread them, I make changes, I make more edits, I proofread them with all the changes and edits, and I do that as many times as it takes to make my posts perfect. And yet, despite all of that editing and effort, I still find posts that I’ve published with typos, misspellings, grammatical, punctuation, and usage errors. If any of you who reads this post is interested in a job as a proofreader/editor, let me know. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to pay you. Sorry about that.

Apart from correcting typos and spellings, how much (if any) of a post do you change before you send it out in the world?

For my flash fiction posts, I don’t really do a lot of planning before I start drafting. I may have in my head a basic idea of what I want to write, but once I start writing, the posts seem to flow the way they want to, as if they have a life of their own and I’m just a vessel from which the words pour out. In fact, sometimes even I, the author of the post, am surprised by where it took me.

I try to read my drafts for clarity and for a logical or natural flow, and I often find myself moving around whole paragraphs, which I have to admit is easier to do using the block editor than it was using the classic editor (at least on the iPhone), in order to improve the flow. In some cases I’ll practically rewrite a whole post because, as I’m writing it, some other idea will occur to me that might result in taking what I was writing in a completely different direction.

So I guess my answer to Tanya’s question about how much I change of a post before finally publishing it is “a lot.”

Do you think that re-drafting a piece can “rob” it of its spontaneity?

Other than for Linda G. Hill’s weekly Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, I think, when it comes to blogging, spontaneity is far less important than a well-written, engaging, quality post. If you want spontaneity, go to your local improv venue.

Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge #126

Fandango21 Comments

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

The photo below is from MarcSimonetti at DeviantArt.com.For the visually challenged writer, the image is of small group of people marching in a desolate, wintry, mountainous area between two tall stone towers.

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 — Bridge

Fandango20 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 12, 2021 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 “bridge.”

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. Please 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.