tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3776108150472339942024-03-14T01:15:07.836-05:00Purple Houseswriting, the creative journey and other colorful pieces of lifePurple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.comBlogger391125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-26409804777170370982014-12-28T11:33:00.000-06:002014-12-28T11:33:06.183-06:00Five great things I did for my writing this year<br /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I made it
a priority.</b> The biggest thing I did was negotiate a four-day workweek
so I could spend Fridays working on fiction. Was that easy? No. It took a few
months of discussion among the bosses and figuring out how and if they could
make that work. But I had established myself enough there that they were
willing to try it, and they knew that fiction writing was an important part of
my life. More and more employers are realizing that helping their workers
pursue their passions leads to greater engagement and happiness in the
workplace. And that’s good for everyone. You don’t have to change your work
schedule, but could you reserve Saturday morning or Sunday evening as your
writing time? A couple of hours in the early morning? </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I kept
myself accountable.</b> I knew that it would be easy to let an extra day “off”
become – well, a day off. So I treated fiction writing like a job, arranging a
workplace at a church downtown. They had lots of quiet space and
were happy to have someone use it. Some days I worked here, other days I went
to a coffee shop or a friend’s empty apartment. This friend left me a gift of
pens and a new notebook, which I used to track my progress and jot down
questions and problems with story and plot. I made excellent progress on
finishing and editing two novels.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pl0MSsfnM2E/VKA5vJgGkeI/AAAAAAAABSk/A5q9K1vQpCE/s1600/20140516_125453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pl0MSsfnM2E/VKA5vJgGkeI/AAAAAAAABSk/A5q9K1vQpCE/s1600/20140516_125453.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At my "office."</td></tr>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I submitted
my work to literary journals and entered contests.</b> It’s easy to get
discouraged by rejection. You can improve your odds of publication by A.)
Making sure your piece is really ready and B.) Finding literary journals that
are interested in the style and genre of stories that you write. The <a href="https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/overview">AWP Conference's book fair</a> is a great way to get to know more about hundreds of
literary journals and small presses and talk to the folks who edit them. Check
local and state writing and book festivals for contests. Having the goal of
submitting to a journal or a contest helps you hone your work and stick to a
deadline. This year, my short story “Geography Lesson” won the Mill Prize for
Fiction at the <a href="http://www.foxcitiesbookfestival.org/">Fox Cities Book Festival</a>.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VqTHbTrQz08/VKA5sx3vOJI/AAAAAAAABSc/z-r7GGddRJU/s1600/10171044_10203649983788768_4650033935176682232_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VqTHbTrQz08/VKA5sx3vOJI/AAAAAAAABSc/z-r7GGddRJU/s1600/10171044_10203649983788768_4650033935176682232_n.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A faraway picture of me reading my short story at the Mill Prize ceremony in April.</td></tr>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I spent
time with other writers.</b> The Mill Prize led to a job offer teaching fiction
at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheMillAPlaceForWriters">The Mill -- A Place for Writers</a>. I taught a fiction class during the summer
and fall, interacting with writers of various skill levels, interests and
experiences. Being an instructor challenges my own skills and forces me to
think about writing from different perspectives. You can get the same thing
from being a part of a writing group. Can you join or form a small group of
writers that meets regularly to discuss and critique your work? Sometimes it
helps just to have a circle of other writers for the camaraderie and support. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">I went on
a writing retreat.</b> Some <a href="http://www.goddard.edu/">Goddard College</a> classmates of mine developed a <a href="http://wideopenwriting.com/autumn-in-tuscany/">new writing retreat</a> in Tuscany, and it was amazing – not just because, you know, Italy –
but because of connecting with other writers, the powerful writing prompts and
being totally and completely out of my element. Plus, wine. But you don’t have
to go to all the way to Italy to benefit from a writing retreat – there
are plenty of <a href="http://www.retreatsforwriters.com/">retreats</a> in your own backyard, many of which offer subsidies and grants. Some
are self-directed, giving you the silent space that writers crave, and some are
led by instructors to help you create new work or improve what you’ve already
been working on.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BC-D6xVjwOg/VKA5lwzNsKI/AAAAAAAABSU/N3dTJ5wnEzk/s1600/10620350_10202621390588972_7405421889990461497_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BC-D6xVjwOg/VKA5lwzNsKI/AAAAAAAABSU/N3dTJ5wnEzk/s1600/10620350_10202621390588972_7405421889990461497_o.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tuscan adventure with Wide Open Writing. I'm in the back in the beige jacket.</td></tr>
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What are your plans for writing in the new
year? What resolutions do you have about your work in 2015?<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
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<span id="goog_882600043"></span><span id="goog_882600044"></span><br />Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-88412391207466270542014-10-12T10:21:00.001-05:002014-10-12T10:33:38.712-05:00Stories to tell<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Earlier this month, my friend Colleen Sutherland died after a months-long struggle with cancer. I met Colleen in 2009 while I was a graduate
student at Goddard College, desperately seeking a teaching practicum, and this
experienced writer agreed to let me teach her and a small group of writers at a
coffee shop. Later, after my teaching sessions were completed, she invited me
to be a part of the group, enjoying connections with other writers and offering them a chance for connection, too. I was a sporadic member, but I enjoyed the camaraderie
of talking to others who “get it.” Sometimes our meetings were less about
critiquing each other’s work (in fact, on occasion we never actually got around
to it) and more about just getting together. My friend Wade says it best in
this </span><a href="http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com/2014/10/colleen-sutherland-storyteller.html?spref=fb"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">post</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">
about Colleen – you need other writers to understand what you’re going through,
and just the very act of gathering could help bolster your sense of confidence. Colleen knew that writers needed to generate their own light, espousing this principle to a nearly literal sense by hosting an annual gathering of artist-types
on the darkest day of the year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I used to express
frustration at the series of ‘almosts’ and ‘not quites’ that are common to the
to publishing game. Colleen told me if I reached sudden and massive success as a
writer then other writers would just hate me. This way, she said, I’ll have a great story to
tell about how hard it was to get published, and that would be more inspiring. She saw potential for stories everywhere, the bellwether of a true artist.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Colleen built her
individualistic life around the things she loved to do. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Her warm house displayed her passions, including bookshelves stuffed with photo albums and a cozy, enveloping writing nook. </span>She stayed a curious,
avid learner and entrepreneur. When I wanted to try out Skype, she was my first on-screen face. She took a one-night blogging class I offered at
Fox Valley Technical College, and that very night launched </span><a href="http://storytellingtrailsandtales.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Storytelling
Trails and Tales</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. She used the
site to help her to book storytelling gigs around the country, spending a
summer camping out and doing what she loved best at libraries around the country. She was in her late 60s at the time. She posted on her blog even when words started to
fail her. That’s the part about this loss that is so cruel – as Wade says, the
cancer took her words first. How frustrating for someone who loved to talk,
loved to tell stories, made her living with words. But I sense she tried to maintain
as much of a sense of humor about it as she could, because that’s how she
approached her life and her writing.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4qdVzsbCbaU/UKZEMk3YufI/AAAAAAAABCo/PT9QuRk9eI4/s1600/DSCF9837.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4qdVzsbCbaU/UKZEMk3YufI/AAAAAAAABCo/PT9QuRk9eI4/s1600/DSCF9837.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colleen Sutherland and Wade Peterson celebrating the arrival of their book of short stories in 2012.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">She left a body of
work, available through her </span><a href="http://astore.amazon.com/blaccofffict-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=2"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">blog</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">.
Her last post is entitled “Still here,” and she is and will be, through her
work and her influence and her example of honoring the passions that make us the special individuals that we are. Her friends will have a potluck in her honor at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 19 at the <a href="http://muehlpubliclibrary.org/">Muehl Public Library</a> in Seymour, Wisconsin.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-32895964192602403332014-03-11T07:53:00.000-05:002014-03-11T07:53:58.917-05:00Back on trackI just submitted an application for the new <a href="http://blog.amtrak.com/amtrakresidency/">Amtrak residency</a>. Thank you, <a href="http://blog.amtrak.com/2014/01/tweet-lands-writer-best-workspace/">Jessica Gross</a> and Alexander Chee, for getting the ball rolling on this exciting new writing opportunity. Spending two to five days riding on a train across country with nothing to do but write? Count me in. Amtrak is accepting applications on a rolling basis (get it, 'rolling'?) and will pick 24 writers through March 31. All aboard.<br />
<br />
<br />Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-80015945618367154272014-03-08T19:58:00.002-06:002014-03-08T19:58:41.786-06:00Map questMore editing today. Disappearing some characters and watching others grow and develop and shape the story. Sometimes they end up taking things in another direction, which is exciting and mildly irritating, like a favorite child that's just caused you more work, but at the same time you think what they just did was precocious and funny so you don't care all that much.<br />
<br />
Been scrabbling for pieces of time to work on edits, and it helps to have a playlist to help me get into the right frame of mind. Here's one from my list (The Pines).<br />
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Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-89378491520556672772014-03-06T07:52:00.001-06:002014-03-06T07:52:29.514-06:00Song writer?Love this project by author Alison Kent -- she created a writing desk out of a<a href="http://www.alisonkent.com/blog/2014/02/14/everything-old-is-new-again-2/"> refurbished piano</a> (top). My parents have a 100-year-old piano that nobody plays (below)....I see potential for reincarnation.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yk2nkEUFrFQ/Uxh7YsXdN6I/AAAAAAAABOA/2GJXo5oGcIs/s1600/pianoinshop-e1392405461939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yk2nkEUFrFQ/Uxh7YsXdN6I/AAAAAAAABOA/2GJXo5oGcIs/s1600/pianoinshop-e1392405461939.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qpiffuGR1jU/Uxh9H-6guqI/AAAAAAAABOM/4PsURTMy8Jg/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qpiffuGR1jU/Uxh9H-6guqI/AAAAAAAABOM/4PsURTMy8Jg/s1600/download.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-68484229673098916212014-01-01T17:00:00.005-06:002014-01-01T17:01:40.793-06:00And that's the end of youGoing through my post-apocalyptic YA one more time (Once More With Feeling!) and thinning out the unnecessary bits, including characters. Feels weirdly wrong to search and find and delete someone's existence, even if they only exist on the page. And it also seems right. If it's that easy to get rid of them, with only minor write-arounds, then that person wasn't where he/she needed to be. Maybe they'll show up someplace else, some other time, some other planet.Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-26169454830298606532013-12-30T22:19:00.003-06:002013-12-30T22:21:44.780-06:00Surviving the mosh pitSo I tried my luck and talent at the recent Twitter #PitchMas fest, which is kind of like standing on the trading floor of the literary stock exchange and screaming what your book is about while a couple hundred other writers do exactly the same thing. If your pitch gets a "favorite" star from an agent, you get to send your query and pages to the agent who favorited you.<br />
<br />
I kinda felt dirty. And I got sniped at by the Pitch Police for doing exactly nothing wrong. Still, I kept offering my manuscript up on a 140-character platter throughout the day. And then I thought, I have an MFA. I went through three cancer surgeries this year, and you know what? I don't have to put up with this kind of crap.<br />
<br />
But yeah... sour grapes and all. I wasn't anybody's favorite.<br />
<br />
Still, twitter pitching is a good exercise because it forces you to condense your novel into one very tiny sentence, and doing this helps you gain some interesting perspective on your story. When you're starting out, it's hard to get your query letter down to a one-page letter. It's even tougher to get your manuscript described within a paragraph. Try a sentence. Now try 140 characters. Can you do it? You should be able to. (Oh, and did you save room for the hashtag?) Having that focus on the most important elements of your novel will
force you to ask yourself if you're maintaining that focus throughout
your manuscript. <br />
<br />
Get help from someone who's done it already. (Thank you, awesome <span id="goog_670469336"></span><span id="goog_670469337"></span><a href="http://www.peaceandprojects.com/blog/about/">Melissa Gorzelanczyk</a>. I wish I'd listened to <i>everything </i>you'd said.) Having an unbiased pair of eyes on your pitch will force the important questions: Who is your character? What is most important about his/her journey or the plot? Why should we care? And yes, you can say it in 15 words or so.<br />
<br />
It's also a good thing to get to connect with other writers and see what sorts of things people are doing these days, as well as what's attracting interest. Trends come and go and come back again, and as long as you have a good story it doesn't matter if it's got zombies or talking dogs or whatever. But it's good to see how writers are choosing to think outside the usual literary genre boxes.<br />
<br />
And these pitch fests offer another venue for writers to connect with agents. Lots of people were getting requests for queries and
manuscript partials, and that's exciting. (Really.) <br />
<br />
Want to give it a shot? There's another Pitch fest coming up <a href="http://www.brenda-drake.com/pitmad/">Jan. 8</a>. Search #PitMad on Twitter to find out more. Dive into the pit, if you dare.Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-70262092394898051562013-12-19T00:00:00.000-06:002013-12-19T00:00:08.465-06:00The Mayan calendar ends<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Welcome to the Holiday Blog Tour ... Did you have a chance to read </span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">yesterday's short story "Sacrifices" by <a href="http://peaceandcenter.wordpress.com/">Natasha Oliver?</a></span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You should.</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Her </span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">story</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> beautifully captures the intricacies of family, motherhood and identity.</span></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tomorrow, please visit the blog of <a href="http://thepoetmendez.org/">Lupe Mendez</a>, a truly stunning poet.</span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A year ago, nearly to the day, I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. It's been a year of impossible decisions and recovery and reflection. Poetry is not my first language</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">. But capturing the heady, raw emotions of what I went through</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> seemed to call for the limitlessness that, paradoxically, only a compact form can provide.</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Here is my entry.</span></span></div>
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Mayan calendar ends</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We stare at the images of my breast</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Here,” the doctor says, “And here.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He traces invisible circles </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">claiming territory</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and mine for my future</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somewhere a hunter stumbles upon</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">a lone rabbit’s foot left</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">clamped in metal jaws</span><br />
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Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-83214322012969292682013-12-16T07:37:00.001-06:002013-12-16T07:37:55.524-06:00Down the rabbit holeHow do you define yourself -- ethnically, culturally?<br />
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As my friend & fellow writer <a href="http://peaceandcenter.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/a-holiday-blog-tour/">Natasha Oliver</a> says in her post on the <a href="http://sententiavera.com/">Holiday Blog Tour</a>: We might believe we're different, but we're more alike than we realize.<br />
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As a Christmas gift I bought my parents each a 23andMe kit, the same test that's featured on the PBS program <i>Finding Your Roots</i> hosted by Professor Henry Louis Gates. It's also the same test that the FDA is trying to shut down because of the health information component. But we were mainly interested in our recent and ancient ancestry.<br />
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Oh, we thought we knew ourselves.<br />
<br />The boundaries of how I had defined myself culturally are an
illusion. That we are different is an illusion. My world got bigger and smaller at the same time. How amazing that our skin, our blood contains this crazy treasure map of history.<br />
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I feel the endless stories that brought me to my own. I am spinning in the vastness of possibility.<br />
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<br />Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-86939001003059250482013-12-15T16:17:00.004-06:002013-12-15T16:18:30.277-06:00Holiday blog tour starts tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrowIt's that time of year again: The Holiday Blog Tour, organized by the fantabulous<a href="http://icessfernandez.com/2013/12/01/get-ready-for-the-holiday-blog-tour-2014/"> Icess Fernandez</a>. It's a chance to visit the blogs of various and varied writers and get to know their work. Here's the line-up:<br />
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Dec. 16, Teresa Carbajal Ravet, <a href="http://sententiavera.com/">SententiaVera.com</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1f497d;"> </span><br />
Dec. 17 Nathasha Alvarez, <a href="http://www.audaciouslady.com/">AudaciousLady.com</a><br />
Dec. 18, Natasha Oliver, <a href="http://peaceandcenter.wordpress.com/">Peace and Center</a><br />
Dec. 19, Nikki Kallio, <a href="http://www.morepurplehouses.blogspot.com/">Purple Houses</a><br />
Dec. 20, Lupe Mendez, <a href="http://www.thepoetmendez.org/">The Poet Mendez</a><br />
Dec. 21, Anabel Lucio Morales, <a href="http://my-meandering-thoughts.blogspot.com/">My Meandering Thoughts</a><br />
Dec. 22, Icess Fernandez Rojas, <a href="http://icessfernandez.com/">IcessFernandez.com</a><br />
Dec. 23, Regina Tingle, <a href="http://reginatingle.com/">ReginaTingle.com</a><br />
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I'm up Thursday... gonna try something different ... wait for it... a poem! (gasp). It's outside of my comfort zone, but then, so was this past year. Way out of my zone. So, please stop back in on Thursday and have a look...<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JSgWzV0qjJw/Uq4peonp6FI/AAAAAAAABNk/KV4xRPt2NCg/s1600/DSCF5504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JSgWzV0qjJw/Uq4peonp6FI/AAAAAAAABNk/KV4xRPt2NCg/s320/DSCF5504.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-54443846985480404992013-09-06T07:19:00.001-05:002013-09-06T07:19:25.617-05:00Letting go & letting a four-year-old do her thing<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qep6_OWF24I/UinIB1CQPTI/AAAAAAAABM4/S31akOX8bFY/s1600/6078216_11347952_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Qep6_OWF24I/UinIB1CQPTI/AAAAAAAABM4/S31akOX8bFY/s200/6078216_11347952_b.jpg" width="153" /></a>Love this story about artist Mica Angela Hendricks<a href="http://gma.yahoo.com/photos/four-year-old-daughter-adds-incredible-imagination-to-artist-mom-s-portraits-slideshow/four-year-old-daughter-adds-incredible-imagination-to-artist-mom-s-portraits-photo-1378229156081.html"> collaborating with her daughter</a> on some pretty fantastic illustrations. Hendricks started with faces of old movie actors & actresses, and upon seeing her mother's beautiful new sketchbook, <a href="http://busymockingbird.com/2013/08/27/collaborating-with-a-4-year-old/">insisted that she get to draw in it, too.</a> So Hendricks' daughter drew dinosaur and bug bodies to go with the heads. The result is whimsical and astounding. Hendricks is selling prints & cards <a href="http://society6.com/micaangela">here.</a><br />
<br />Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-84062048782562463112013-09-02T09:00:00.000-05:002013-09-02T09:00:05.574-05:00Ghosts in the walls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zGbttfZ3x7Y/UiI0HN2CIjI/AAAAAAAABMQ/aW5Ay49dAPo/s1600/DSCF0107+-+Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zGbttfZ3x7Y/UiI0HN2CIjI/AAAAAAAABMQ/aW5Ay49dAPo/s320/DSCF0107+-+Copy.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
My flash fiction story "When Flowers Bloom at Night" grew out of a collaborative challenge with another artist, my uncle Curt Schroeder, an abstract painter from Milwaukee, who along with my young cousin developed a list of 32 titles and challenged me to write short stories for each of them. I'm not quite at 32, but I've written a few including "Flowers," which was honorably mentioned at the Lakefly Literary Conference in Oshkosh. So I reversed the challenge. I came up with a list of titles for my uncle, challenging him to paint art to match the titles (any interpretation). The titles included "Food Fight," (cats scrapping over a bowl of food, top) "Gutter Ball," (a man has a one-man party to scoop out his gutters) "Ghosts in the Walls," (a swath of paint on drywall) and "Bus Stop Circa 1953" (bottom). My uncle flipped the challenge yet again -- I'm supposed to write a short story to go with one of the paintings. I'm leaning toward the moodiness of "Bus Stop." We'll see what kind of trip we go on...<br />
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Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-82439997476903571372013-09-01T09:30:00.000-05:002013-09-01T09:30:00.838-05:00BloomEarlier this summer I was honorably mentioned for my flash fiction story, "When Flowers Bloom at Night" as a part of the <a href="http://www.lakeflylit.org/contests">Lakefly Literary Conference contest</a>. Scroll down to the bottom to read this short shorty.Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-48902427082966346782013-08-31T13:02:00.000-05:002013-08-31T13:12:08.960-05:00Collision & collaboration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So my friend Ellen the poet and I have decided to have another <a href="http://morepurplehouses.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-we-can-and-cannot-do.html">collision</a>. Today I sent her what I imagine to be a challenging pre-apocalyptic genre chapter with the plan that she will respond with a poem, and I'll continue the story with another chapter, and so on. One of the positives about the proliferation of self-publishing options is that we won't have to worry about publishers not knowing what to do with this strange hybrid, should we carry it to completion. Takes a lot of pressure off, allowing us just to let it become its lovely mutant self.Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-71973706697920095642013-05-22T07:34:00.000-05:002013-05-22T07:34:36.994-05:00What we can and cannot do<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Inevitably when I talk about Goddard College, I talk about one of my favorite workshops ever.<br />
Port Townsend campus director Erin Fristad offered a session based on the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0354575/">The Five Obstructions.</a> In the documentary, filmmaker Lars Von Trier (<i>Melancholia, Dogville, Dancer in the Dark</i>) challenged his creative mentor Jorgen Leth to remake his 1967 avant garde short film <i>The Perfect Human</i> (video) five different ways. The catch was Von Trier chose the difficult parameters: the film had to be remade as a cartoon, for example. Another was Leth had to relinquish control over his creation: Von Trier remade one version himself and Leth had to put his name on it and do the voiceover for the film. For artists, relinquishing control is huge. Monstrous, scary.<br />
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Sometime scary is good.<br />
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For Fristad's workshop, we were to bring along a section of our work that was giving us trouble. I wasn't sure how much of a role my protagonist's mother should play throughout my post-apocalyptic novel -- I had killed off the mother but it felt like she should still be present somehow. We each discussed what we had brought and then Erin made her decisions.<br />
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I was to be paired with my friend Ellen, a poet, who was working on a long poem concerning the unnatural evolution of the world food supply and its impact on human rights. We were to trade our work. Ellen was to write a poem based on the section of novel I had brought with me. I was to write a short science fiction story about Ellen's section of poetry. We had twenty minutes to finish.<br />
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Ellen and I have a great respect for each other and our work, but were essentially coming from completely different directions on the literary road -- a poet and a genre fiction writer? We kind of smiled nervously and thought, well. Hmm.<br />
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Ellen wrote a poem in the voice of my protagonist's dead mother. I wrote a story from the perspective of a genetically engineered grain of rice.<br />
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What happened was a marvelous collision of art and inspiration.<br />
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She helped me to see what role my character's mother could play even though she was gone physically. Ellen said my story helped her to let her poem, <a href="http://mudlark.webdelsol.com/flashes/welcker.html">Rice</a>, evolve naturally. The exercise worked beautifully for us. <br />
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Art is perspective and the exercise helped us to see our work through the eyes of the other. Exploration is key to developing our own creativity -- we can be inspired and shaped by works in other genres. Ellen's poem and subsequent work, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Botanical-Garden-Ellen-Welcker/dp/0982225237/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369225434&sr=8-1&keywords=botanical+garden+ellen+welcker">The Botanical Garden</a>, undoubtedly freed me to try non-traditional forms in my own writing.<br />
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The Five Obstructions trailer says: <i>We want to see what he can and he cannot do.</i><br />
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What can you do? What can't you do? Are you sure? Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-83039188618758464372013-04-29T07:56:00.000-05:002013-04-29T07:56:11.919-05:00Moody Monday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Some moody Metric on a misty Monday.Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-11762050698954509412013-04-28T09:18:00.001-05:002013-05-14T06:43:35.562-05:00Meteor strikeSo, I had cancer. One of those things that shoots out of the sky, destroys your idea of what your life is and leaves you wondering what the hell just happened. Add to it a surprise reveal that I carry one of the Big Bad Genes, the patented ones. (Does this mean my DNA is infringing on a copyright?) <br />
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I'm still absorbing what this all means for me. How it will affect my writing. The important thing is the cancer is gone.<br />
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Getting cancer is definitely not a "gift," and I shudder when I hear that or some variation of it. Cancer is a menace, a killer, a red flag that something is going wrong in our world. Forget the gene -- the gene was always there; now it's getting triggered by something. But to the point -- I will say that this experience offered up some other surprise reveals: Stronger connections. A sharpening of focus. A brightening of senses and emotion. Would I change it if I could? Of course I would. I would choose to not get cancer, I would choose to not go through this hell. But I did go through it, and I'll take what I can from it.<br />
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One day, maybe I'll even make some kind of sense out of it. Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-80641929094126795012013-01-14T07:18:00.000-06:002013-01-14T07:18:00.024-06:00The new phone book is here!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Another bright idea. Last summer during the <a href="http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/iswfest/">Iowa Summer Writing Festival</a> I went to see author Carmela Ciuraru at the <a href="http://www.prairielights.com/">Prairie Lights Bookstore</a>. She wrote this great history of pseudonyms: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nom-Plume-History-Pseudonyms-ebook/dp/B004XVN892/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358096753&sr=8-1&keywords=nom+de+plume">Nom de Plume</a> Each chapter is a mini-biography of dead authors who used pseudonyms (the one on Patricia Highsmith is reason alone to read this book). Belgian author Georges Simenon, who had an affinity for lots of different pseudonyms (as well as multitudes of sexual partners) kept telephone directories from around the globe to help him name characters. Wow! Great idea! In fact I'd forgotten that I used our tiny rural Wisconsin book to find a character name in DAMAGE. So I've been asking my friends who live and travel afar to send me phone books. They're a disappearing commodity, however, and some countries are no longer printing them. But my awesome friend <a href="http://unsolicitedcertainties.wordpress.com/">Regina</a> sent me this one from New Zealand. Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-58655469139195561412013-01-13T10:44:00.000-06:002013-01-13T10:44:13.290-06:00ShadowMy short-short fiction piece Shadow is now available in the winter issue of <a href="http://minervarising.com/">Minerva Rising</a>. One of the extra-cool things about this lit journal is it donates ten percent of its proceeds to <a href="http://www.womenforwomen.org/">Women for Women International</a>, and organization that helps women rebuild their lives in areas torn by conflict. I had the chance to meet Women for Women founder Zainab Salbi when I was an editorial writer in Maine -- she has an amazing story. Here's her book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Between-Two-Worlds-Tyranny-Growing/dp/1592402445/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358095253&sr=1-1&keywords=zainab+salbi">Between Two Worlds: Escape From Tyranny: Growing up in the Shadow of Saddam</a>.Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-45591129656437977452012-12-30T09:56:00.001-06:002013-01-13T11:15:37.127-06:00More purple houses, Twin Cities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A couple of great purple houses from the Twin Cities, thanks to my superfriend <a href="http://sahvesays.blogspot.com/">Jill</a>. She tweets at @SahveSays. Love the goddess moon detail on the second house.<br />
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Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-91870235413575057892012-12-18T23:00:00.000-06:002012-12-19T07:59:59.587-06:00Traffic schoolIt's time for my stop on the spectacular <a href="http://www.writingtoinsanity.com/2012/12/holiday-blog-tour-starts-tomorrow.html">Holiday Blog Tour</a>. Thanks, <a href="http://www.kristyharding.com/">Kristy Harding</a>, for the great intro and <a href="http://www.kristyharding.com/search?updated-max=2012-12-17T22:00:00-08:00&max-results=1">Q & A</a>! I had intended a traditional short-short story but as often happens it took on another form while I was writing it. Here's Traffic School: <br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>his comprehensive test includes essay, short
answer, true and false, and multiple choice questions. Do not seek help from
your neighbor. Please pick up your pencils.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"> </span> 1. You
live in an average middle America town. You are driving to work in the morning.
You stop at the end of your driveway. Do you:</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">A.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Turn
left and go directly to work as planned</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">B.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Hesitate</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">C.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Turn
right and abandon your life as you know it</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">D.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Turn
on the radio and listen to NPR, proceeding to work as planned</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">E.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Turn
on the radio and listen to Rush, proceeding to work as planned</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 2. Who
made your smart phone? No, I mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 3. If
you drive through the fast-food restaurant for bad coffee and an instantly
gratifying yet calorie-laden and greasy breakfast, how much closer are you to a
hardened artery, really?</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
4. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
if you don’t get the hashbrowns?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: HISTORY</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At
what point in time did it become acceptable to eat food from restaurants that
are attached to gas stations? At what point did it become acceptable to eat
food made from the same product that makes gas? Did anyone object?</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There
are no petroleum products in the hashbrowns.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l8 level2 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">True</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1.25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l8 level2 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">b.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">False</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: MATH</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How
many needles are on the Christmas trees in the discount store parking lot?
(Hint: The number declines hourly.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: DEMOGRAPHICS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l11 level1 lfo11; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 1. What
percentage of Christmas trees will be decorated with white lights? Non-white?
Other?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: GEOGRAPHY</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l13 level1 lfo12; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l13 level1 lfo12; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What
road are you on? How do you know? If the strip mall to your right is identical
to the strip mall in Canton, Ohio, and the fast food restaurant to your left is
identical to the one in Marshfield, Wisconsin, then how do you know you’re
really where you are?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now I ask you again:
What road are you on?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: ECONOMICS</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 1. If
someone takes several days off of work to stand in line for a Black Friday sale
that will save them less money than they would have made at their jobs during
the time they stand in line, does that make sense?</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 2. Do
you have enough stuff?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: FORENSIC SCIENCE</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 1. As
you’re driving down your unknown road, view the house and property to your
left. If you dug up the backyard, what are the chances you would find human
remains? (Hint: Try under the garden shed.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: PHYSICS</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo7; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 1. The
county sees fit to spend millions of dollars to install a roundabout where
previously there had been a problematic intersection. Over time they see a
reduction in accidents, yet the number of curse words and flipped birds has
increased exponentially. What is the difference in psychic negativity? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: POLITICS</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l9 level1 lfo8; text-indent: -.25in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l9 level1 lfo8; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> 1. It
has been said that Midwesterners are nice. Yet once inside the insulated
anonymity of their cars, they leave the Midwest and enter the embassy of
Fuckudonia. Please explain how vehicles become hostile nation-states.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: MATH</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1. If
a man driving a Ford F-150 tailgates you for twelve minutes, passes you and
cuts you off, what are the chances he will fail to see the utility truck
installing city Christmas decorations over the road? If he hits the truck, what
are the chances that the utility worker will be thrown to safety in a snowbank,
yet one of the glitter angels will plunge through the driver’s windshield and
impale his cold, cold heart? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">NEW SECTION: ETHICS</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l10 level1 lfo10; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1. Would
it be justice, tragedy or irony for a fallen angel to kill the driver? Explain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
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if you found a body in his backyard?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If
a three-mile-wide asteroid passes by Earth mostly unnoticed, does it make an
impact?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Do
you know where you’re going?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Are
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Thank you for reading. Tomorrow, please visit the awesome blog of <a href="http://lovesujeiry.com/blogs/love-and-relationships/">Sujeiry Gonzales</a>, who has been called the <a href="http://lovesujeiry.com/blogs/love-and-relationships/">"Latina Carrie Bradshaw"</a>. She plans on sharing a list of her favorite lessons learned from relationships featured in her book, <a href="http://lovesujeiry.com/buy-love-trips-book/">Love Trips: A Collection of Relationship Stumbles</a>. Also be sure to check out her relationship advice on her blog <a href="http://lovesujeiry.com/blogs/singles/ask-sujeiry-advice/">Ask Sujeiry</a> and on the site <a href="http://www.beinglatino.us/">Being Latino</a>.Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-81220774413985397912012-12-18T07:32:00.001-06:002012-12-18T07:35:44.798-06:00A day for writing (i.e. Every Day!)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/gBtJpVY7NkE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
Music to awaken the writing day. What are you working on?Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-19423005819685280002012-12-07T06:17:00.002-06:002012-12-07T06:19:05.413-06:00Holiday Blog Tour starts today!<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Hey, the </span>great Holiday Blog Tour starts today! Some changes in the lineup from my earlier announcement (and we have a man now!) Check out these great artists, poets and writers as they post new work:<br />
<br />
December 7:<a href="http://jasmineclementetheartist.blogspot.com/"> </a><span style="color: purple;"><a href="http://www.elpoetamendez.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Lupe Mendez </span></a></span><br />
December 8: <a href="http://silenceandhoneysuckle.wordpress.com/">Gwendolyn Jerris</a><br />
December 9: <a href="http://natashaoliver.com/Natasha_Oliver/2_cents/2_cents.html">Natasha Oliver</a><br />
December 10: <a href="http://unsolicitedcertainties.wordpress.com/">Regina Tingle</a><br />
December 11: <a href="http://www.caridad.com/blog">Caridad Pineiro</a><br />
December 12: <a href="http://www.sententiavera.com/">Teresa Carbajal Ravet</a><br />
December 13: <a href="http://www.audaciouslady.com/">Nathasha Alvarez</a><br />
December 14: <a href="http://www.howmanyfrogs.com/">Stephanie Dorman</a><br />
December 15: <a href="http://www.klabeau.blogspot.com/">Karen La Beau</a><br />
December 16: <a href="http://themongaconfesses.blogspot.com/">Annette Santos</a><br />
December 17: <a href="http://www.zoraidawrites.com/">Zoraida Cordova</a><br />
December 18: <a href="http://kristyharding.com/">Kristy Harding</a><br />
December 19: <a href="http://morepurplehouses.blogspot.com/">Nikki Kallio</a> (Purple Houses, woot!)<br />
December 20:<a href="http://lovesujeiry.com/"> Sujeiry Gonzalez</a><br />
December 21: <a href="http://sam-poet.blogspot.com/">Samantha Kolber</a><br />
December 22: <a href="http://www.theliteraryself.blogspot.com/">Thelma T. Reyna</a><br />
December 23: <a href="http://juliaamante.blogspot.com/">Julia Amante</a><br />
December 24: <a href="http://www.writingtoinsanity.com/">Icess Fernandez</a>Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-28472876954892176882012-12-05T07:42:00.002-06:002012-12-05T07:42:59.450-06:00Done-o-wrimo, day (minus) fiveHere's my <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">Nanowrimo</a> wrap-up: Word count, 82,808 on my existing manuscript, lots of editing/rewrites done. This was a great month to keep on track, and I've broken through the place that was hanging me up a bit. A stuck place often means you want the novel to go in a certain direction but the novel wants to go in another. You have to listen to the novel. The novel is in charge.<br />
<br />
The total word count for all Nanowrimo participants was 3,288,976,325.<br />
<br />
Next year -- gonna try a genuine Nano & write 50K from scratch. How about you? Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377610815047233994.post-60815845259581828802012-12-02T19:59:00.001-06:002012-12-02T20:03:12.332-06:00Float<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Just tweeted this story </span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">as my contribution to the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-twitter-fiction-festival-making-the-most-of-140-characters-20121129,0,7328468.story">Twitter Fiction Festival. </a> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">See @NikkiKallio.</span></span></span><br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">There was a woman who filled her apartment
with water. But no one noticed, and she kept trying to
save everyone from drowning. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">One day the landlord came by for her rent and while he was explaining what a problem
it was that her rent was late, his lungs filled up with water.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">She grabbed him under the arms and swam to
the ceiling, where she’d cut a trapdoor to the apartment upstairs. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Somehow she managed to pull him up onto her
neighbor’s living room carpet and squeeze the water out of his lungs, and when she did, he kept telling her why she must
pay her rent on time, and that if she was late again, he’d evict her. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Then there was the time the maintenance man came in
to change the batteries in her smoke alarm. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">She found him floating unconscious in the hallway,
the hammers and screwdrivers on his belt flaring out around him like a hardware
tutu. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He spun gently in a kind of janitorial water ballet. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It was too hard to pull him up to the trapdoor so she dragged him out the front door and dumped him
on the concrete walkway. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">This time it
took a passerby’s help to get him breathing again. The maintenance man thanked
her and said he had seen angels. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">From then on she put up warning signs because she
couldn’t always be home to stop people from drowning.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">But when her friends came to visit, they asked her
what the signs were for. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">When they started to gag she suggested they go
outside and sit on the patio instead. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
Purple Houseshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17150360169372346989noreply@blogger.com0