Writing Challenges 2021

One Day

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RDP Thursday: POCKET

Lowell Harrison “A Wintry Walk”

” If you are going to walk in that cold, you really should wear gloves ” Tally’s Mother told her from her easy chair. Her Mother’s eyes were locked on the tv screen and there was a cigarette clenched between her teeth.

Tally was 12 years old the Winter it got so cold Hall’s Lake froze over for the very first time. The day after the deep freeze, all of the neighborhood kids headed down the hill to the man made lake with sleds and skates and plastic bags over their shoes.

” I don’t have any gloves. Do you? ” Tally asked.

” Don’t be stupid. Your hands are bigger then mine. They wouldn’t fit you. You need to lose weight. ”

Tally was used to her Mother’s string of seemingly random word spew that always managed to take shape long enough to kick Tally in the teeth.

” Yeah. Well. ” Tally zipped her jacket up. ” I’ll be fine. ”

Tally opened the front door and her Mother asked her from the living room, ” why don’t you buy some gloves? ”

” Because I don’t have any money, can I borrow some? ”

Tally only answered her Mother because she was curious what form this wad of words would take.

Her Mother got up and went to her purse and took out a few crumpled bills. She threw them at Tally and they fluttered to the floor between them. ” Good for nothing stupid kid. All you do is take, take take. ”

Tally left the money on the floor. She walked out the door, with her head down and closed it quietly behind her.

When she got outside into the cold, she jammed her hands down into her pockets- which is where they always were no matter how cold or warm it was because Tally thought it was better that nobody saw her perpetually clenched fists and the half moon circles in the palms of her hands where her nails had dug into her flesh so often that they had left permanent scars.

One day though, Tally thought she might not jam her fists into her pockets anymore.

One day.

The Accidental Blogger

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I believe it was in the late 90’s that I was on line looking for an address when I ran across a now archieved  website called The Soul Food Cafe . 

It turns out  this Soul Food Cafe wasn’t a restaurant, it was a website for creatives and writers.

I started to click around and I found prompt after prompt for stories, for artwork even recipes. I was blown away.  It was as if I had wandered into a library and every single book I saw was one I wanted to read.

I was sold. I wanted in.

I found the contact info and discovered it was based out of Australia and run by a woman named Heather ( who is still my friend and mentor ) and in order to participate ( for free, can you believe it? )  you had to set up a blog and from there Heather would link your work to the website ( we called them ‘rooms’) and there was also a blog that served as our ‘ salon’ where we talked about our projects and posted our links.

Initially  were based on Blogger.Com and then shifted over to WordPress ( oh the growing pains we had with that move-lol)  I  landed  here sometime around 2006.

If you go to the site you’ll see that we had projects and areas we worked in- the goal was to write daily.  I was good for that. There were a few odd years where I did not post daily, sometimes I managed weekly. At my worst a post or two a month. But I picked up a lot of good writing habits and I had support from a great group so I am proud to say I’ve been writing and growing as a writer since the day I wandered into the Cafe over 20 years ago.

So this is the rub.

I started to blog because I belonged to an international writers group- and back then we didn’t have Zoom or Facebook. We didn’t really ‘chat’ on our blogs and I can’t say I paid any attention to my stats. Producing our work was the goal, not driving up our stats on our individual blogs.

Besides, I had closed my blog so you could only view it if I invited you on. But one day I was changing something or another and I took my blog from private to letting it go public.

This happened  around Halloween and I had a boat load of work up and Heather gave me a shout out on the webpage which took a ton of traffic and my stats went through the roof.

Funny thing is, I had kept telling her I was going to let my blog go public instead of private and I chickened out. I started to put my work out into the Universe strictly by accident and Heather just assumed I was going to do what I said I was going to do.

I guess that old habits die hard because I still look at my blog as a place to be creative and I haven’t made the biggest effort in the world to grow it stat wise. I figure that if people like what they read my job is done and if they don’t that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

I love reading blogs where people are engaged and talk about the post and sometimes I join in. But the reality is, I really do work hard at my writing and I don’t always have the time to chat. I probably should because there is a community spirit to WordPress that Writers are a part of and it wouldn’t hurt for me to ‘get out’ more.

If you are writer you have to go somewhere to fill the well- I used to go to museums and I traveled a lot but in the last couple of years that’s changed. Participating on line with groups of writers is probably the smart thing to do.

So to answer the question for December 7th’s Truthful Tuesday “how important are likes to you on your blog, and how do you determine if you are going to click like on other bloggers’ posts?”

Likes and engagments aren’t why I started to blog,  and they’re not  the reason I work on  and plan posts to put up everyday. However, when I read posts that I like on other blogs I always hit that button and if I’m on my laptop I’ll leave a note ( it’s a hassle to do that from my phone ). I figure my blog won’t ever be a hub or a place where a lot of people go, but that’s okay because I know exactly why I’m doing what I do- but that’s not necessarily why other people blog.

So that like  is me saying I read your work, I liked your work and I hope you keep at it and hopefully we will run into each other on WP now and then.

anita

 

 

Chekhov Was Right

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In keeping with my winter theme, I find this quote by Chekhov reflects a sense of joy about the season and how we look upon it ( e mentions Summer, but I hate Summer so I’m ignoring that part ). I also think that the artwork I’ve chosen to go along with it illustrates that on a few levels.

anita

“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.”
–Anton Chekhov

The Chestnut Vendor by Vida Gábor

For Linda G Hill’s One Liner Wednesday

Random Change

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RDP Tuesday: CHANGE

GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE

 

Do you see that sign? The one with the name of the city that nobody can pronounce?

I didn’t want to live there, I shouldn’t have moved there but here I am.

 

Do you see that couple, the one with the white dog?

My dog doesn’t like either one of them, but he likes their dog.

In the last few weeks I’ve noticed their  dog isn’t around anymore, his place in their

window is empty and  they keep their eyes down when they walk by me and my dog in

the evening.  My dog watches them with his head down and his ears laying flat against

his  head. I think he’d growl at them  if he was the kind of dog that growled.

 

Do you see that clock at the train station?

I’ve watched the minutes crawl away from me

one by one every single day on it’s face

sometimes I wonder where they have gone

but most of the time I don’t.

 

I’m just glad that I will never have to see some of them

ever again.

 

Maybe I should spend less time watching clocks

maybe I should spend less time wondering what makes people

do the horrible things they do

maybe the next time I move

it will be to a city with a name that people can pronounce correctly

and I don’t spell it’s name wrong on purpose

because I hate it so.

 

I think it’s time for a change.

I think it’s time to find a new clock

and wind it up but good.