Day: August 25, 2021

MLMM Photo Challenge — A Story Behind Each Door

Fandango22 Comments

“I’m so excited,” Sally exclaimed. “I finally figured out how to move forward with my new novel.”

“Great news,” her agent Brenda said. “What’s your plan?”

“I saw this photo on the internet,” Sally said, showing the photo to Brenda. “The photo shows six doors to six different buildings. I thought I would start the book with six chapters, each one dedicated to people who live behind each of those doors. Then the rest of the book will be about how the lives of these people intersect, even though they each come from different backgrounds and have little in common.”

“So it’s going to be a story of kismet, of chance meetings between your six characters and what ensues,” Brenda said.

“Exactly,” Sally said. “I will paint a complex canvas of unlikely personal, societal, and political interactions and how each character’s life is impacted by their chance encounters with the others.”

“That sounds amazing,” Brenda said. “How long do you think it will take you?”

Sally thought for a moment and then said, “Maybe a year. A month for each of the first six foundational chapters and then another six months for the stories about how the six lives intertwine. And that’s pretty much working full time.”

“Let me see if I can get you a six month advance from the publisher,” Brenda said.

“That’s insufficient,” Sally said. “I need a full year. The publisher did okay on my first book, right?”

“That’s just it, Sally,” Brenda said. “They did okay, but it wasn’t exactly an international best seller.”

“I’m betting the farm on this book, Brenda. You’re my agent, so make it happen,” Sally said.

“You know how cutthroat these publishers can be,” Brenda said. “They’re not known to be very altruistic. That said, I’ll do my best, Sweetie. We’re both going to betting the farm on this new book of yours.”

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge prompt. Photo credit: Pobble365. Also for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (forward), My Vivid Blog (chapters), Ragtag Daily Prompt (canvas), Word of the Day Challenge (insufficient), The Daily Spur (farm), and Your Daily Word Prompt (altruistic).

Fandango’s Provocative Question #132

Fandango32 Comments
FPQ

Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I recently read that the actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, is among a small but growing group of celebrities who say they rarely take daily showers or baths. “More and more,” Gyllenhaal says, “I find bathing to be less necessary.” He believes that daily bathing strips the body of its natural, healthy oils and changes the biome of the skin. Other actors, like Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Cameron Diaz, Matthew McConaughey, and Brad Pitt, have apparently shunned daily bathing or using deodorant.

This piqued my curiosity, so I Googled daily hygiene and saw that some well respected dermatologists suggest that if you don’t have a personal, essential need, like getting dust, grime, or germs cleared off, daily bathing can actually be detrimental to your skin.

One article I came across noted that when you shower daily, you dry out your skin, especially if you are scrubbing with an abrasive material or soap. Further, you can deplete the essential oils, lipids, and bacteria that help your skin fight off inflammation, maintain a smooth look, and reinforce its protective barrier.

I’ve always showered daily, but after I told my wife what I read, she suggested, given the severe drought and water shortages we are experiencing in northern California, that it might be prudent for us consider cutting back to every other day, or even every third day to shower.

So with this in mind, my provocative question this week is this…

Do you regularly shower or bathe daily? If not, how often do you shower or bathe? If you do shower or bathe daily, is there anything that might persuade you to do so less often?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ 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. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Forward

Fandango15 Comments

FOWCWelcome to August 25, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “forward.”

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.