Life in the fast lane--where's the on ramp?

By Pat_B - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Journal

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Don't Worry, Be Happy...

Got stalled on the Solitaire writing exercise. It suddenly dawned on me I hadn't used a single bit of dialog to move the story along, just a couple thousand words of narrative. I followed the formula for building a story: establish the status quo, (how life is for your characters before the stuff... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:15 AM | add or view comments (8) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, January 8, 2016

Solitaire - Ch. 2 Conflict builds

Sometimes the feminine influence can soften the hearts of even set-in-their-ways, willful men. But when his inner child is focused on playing in the big real-world sandbox where real money is at stake, the gentler hand is more easily brushed aside. The suggestion that there must be better places to... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 7:29 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Solitaire part 3

A plot was simmering. It seems Pugh & Co. along with T. Weezer at Ace-in-the Hole Realtors, certain County officials and the folks at the city’s planning and zoning commission, thought it was time the geezers on the Wigtown Council got with the program. Their master plan involved having the... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:03 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Back to The Center --

will continue the Solitaire story later... Tuesdays are my day at the Main Street Center, and I was so happy to be back at the reception desk. Bob, the mainstay van driver, had surgery on his right hand a week or so before Christmas - some serious and debilitating issue in the thumb. For most of us... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 4:51 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

A Writing Prompt / clue to our Solitaire story...

This is a writing exercise designed around a deck of cards. As any card player knows there is a hierarchy, plus legends around certain cards. The queen of hearts would be a sweet, nurturing, feminine woman, loyal and benign. But the queen of spades is not so nice, perhaps a bit witchy, conniving, a... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:10 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, January 4, 2016

Solitaire part 2

Now Hoyle Street was an older neighborhood, where folks had lived for decades, generations even. Many homes had been built by their owners, or the grandparents of the current residents. Almost everyone knew the history of their homes, how the grandparents had scrimped and traded work to add value to... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:45 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Solitaire, p. 1

When Marie Regent moved to Hoyle Street she chose a sunny little cottage on North end of the 1100 block. The shaded front porch was covered with climbing roses, there were delicate wind chimes hanging on one side of the front steps and a large pot of red geraniums on the other. The place was... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 9:13 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Saturday, January 2, 2016

FixMe Stick - instead of tech support -- anybody know about it?

Saw an ad on HSN last night for a computer repair gadget called a FixMe stick. Plugs into a computer, cleans off cookies, malware, viruses and the junk that makes the machine run slow. Sucks off all that stuff, stores it on the FixMe stick. The special deal price was about $80, good for up to 4... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 6:14 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, January 1, 2016

When

Perhaps the transition from tired old 2015 to hopeful new 2016 is the time to switch one vocabulary word. No more “if.” It's “when” from now on. If seems a little bit wishful, accepting the possibility something won't happen. If I get that raise I will … Seems to imply the well-deserved raise might... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 5:00 AM | add or view comments (6) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, December 31, 2015

What a splash-bang ending to the year 2015...

Weather for the last couple days included methane gas well leaks that caused hundreds to evacuate in California, forest fires, earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest, blizzards in the northern central mountains & plains, extremely heavy rainfalls from the Gulf coast through the Midwest, record heat... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Pat_B at 10:26 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

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Sometimes you have to write it down in order to learn what you really think about life, what it means, how to do what's best. Sometimes you need feedback from someone else to put things in perspective.

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