Day: July 19, 2022

Ahead of Her Time

Fandango8 Comments

My grandmother always liked to put fancy ribbons in the hair of her grandchildren. Boys, girls, it didn’t make no never mind to her. My mother and father strenuously objected, of course, when it came to me. “Egad!” my father would exclaim. “Are you trying to turn my son into a fag? No son of mine is going to go around with ribbons in his hair.”

“Oh posh,” Granny would say. “Why make your children live within the confines of what so-called proper society dictates?” Granny would ask. “Forcing a gender identity on a child is not conducive to growing up to become a well-rounded, empathetic adult. Besides,” she’d add, “children — even boys — look adorable with ribbons in their hair.”

Granny was way ahead of her time.

Written for these daily prompts: E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (grandmother), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (fancy), The Daily Spur (ribbon), Ragtag Daily Prompt (children), Word of the Day Challenge (gad), Your Daily Word Prompt (confines), and My Vivid Blog (conducive).

#WDYS — Shame On Me

Fandango14 Comments

My old college roommate, Kevin, considered himself to be a song writer. Well, at least the music part of it. I was the poet who had a way with words and the two of us co-wrote a handful of popular songs back in the seventies, with Kevin handling the music and me taking on the lyrics.

But, after a serious falling out over writing credit and royalties, we ended our collaboration. I decided to go to France to focus on my writing. There I met and married the woman of my dreams, who happened to be my editor, and with her help, I published a few moderately successful poetry books.

Kevin continued to write music, but was unable to find a lyricist he could work with. He tried his hand at writing his own lyrics, but the words fell flat. Eventually he gave up writing music and got himself a “real” job at an accounting firm.

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, I received a letter from Kevin. He wrote that he had retired from the accounting firm and started to write music again. It was his passion and he had written the music for some really great new songs. In his letter he said that he hoped we could let bygones be bygones and partner up once again. He asked me to take a look at his music and would consider crafting some lyrics.

Kevin had enclosed with his letter the sheet music to several of the songs he’d composed. I shared them with my wife, who was a good piano player, and she was impressed by Kevin’s musical compositions. She encouraged me to once again collaborate with Kevin. So I sat down with the sheet music he’d sent and scratched out lyrics for the songs.

I wrote a note to Kevin included with my lyrics. I told him his music was beautiful and that I hoped my lyrics did it justice. But when several months went by and I didn’t hear back from him, I just figured he wasn’t all that impressed and gave up on our teaming up once again.

One day my wife said that she heard a song on the radio and the lyrics sounded familiar. She downloaded the song and played it for me, and sure enough, those were my lyrics that I wrote for Kevin’s music. I looked into it and saw that Kevin had claimed to have written the music and lyrics. He had, once again, taken credit for my work.

My wife wanted me to seek legal counsel and sue for compensation for my lyrics, but I refused. “It’s my own fault,” I told her. “What do they say? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Well, shame on me,” I told her. “Let’s just move on.”

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: Free images Google.

Truthful Tuesday — I Forgive Me!

Fandango3 Comments

Melanie, of Sparks from a Combustible Mind, is still filling in for Frank, aka PCGuy, who is taking a temporary (?) hiatus from his Truthful Tuesday prompt. This week Melanie asks…

How easily are you able to forgive yourself?

I believe that we are each our own worst critic; that we are much more harsh on ourselves than others are on us. Except for those with Narcissistic Personality Disorders, in which those so afflicted have an inflated sense of self-importance. Such as Donald Trump, but I digress.

While I can be, and often am, hypercritical of myself — my thoughts, my words, my deeds, my desires — I don’t believe I’ve ever deliberately done anything so heinous or inappropriate that it would be unforgivable. Therefore, since my “sins” are, in the grand scheme of things, relatively minor offenses, I’m willing to give myself the benefit of the doubt and, as they say, forgive me my trespasses.

Fandango’s Story Starter #55

Fandango9 Comments

It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you an incomplete “teaser” sentence and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that partial sentence. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.

This week’s Story Starter teaser is:

People trust me with their secrets, but if they really knew me…

If you care to write and post a story built from this teaser, be sure to link back to this post and to tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.

And most of all, have fun.

FOWC with Fandango — Fancy

Fandango21 Comments
FOWC

It’s July 19, 2022. Welcome 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 “fancy.”

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. Show them some love.