writing exercise 12

We had spent the afternoon in a cafe on the Rue Saint-Jacques, a spring afternoon just like any other…

The spring weather was just like any other day, however our moods were not. We couldn’t be happier celebrating the success of our first officially published book. We toasted champagne and ate our fill of food. Clinging out glasses together we both cheered, “To Us!” We couldn’t believe we finally did it. All our hard work was finally paying off. We recounted the steps it took to get to where we were at that moment. Some days it was an uphill struggle. There were times we didn’t think it was good enough or creative enough. There were times when  we felt like we didn’t know what we were doing or where the story was going. Some times we flat out got writers block and didn’t write for weeks at a time. Then finally we got back on track. We took a trip to clear our heads and to bring us back to why we started writing this story in the first place. We got so wrapped up in all our new found ideas that we continued to write day after day, hour after hour. Until finally one day we sat back and said, this is it. It’s perfect just the way it is. Now you would think that’s where it ends and we were toasting two days later… but no there was much more. When we finally found we were finished, we realized, it was only the first step. We had to find a publisher who would even acknowledge us. We had to submit the book, we had to jump through this hoop, through that hoop. It took months and months to finally get the green light. And here we sit, celebrating our first book written together, with a contract sitting between us to write another book. We’re so happy our dreams are finally coming true that we don’t want to acknowledge this haunting feeling coming over us… what are we going to write about next???

writing exercise 11

use all 8 symbols in a story from the “gypsy card”

It seems almost impossible for me to go back to that split second when…

I grew into an adult from my teenage years. Maybe because it happens over time, but you think I would know the when it was, right? Thinking back at my childhood I can remember when I didn’t have a care in the world. Arts and Crafts were the best time in school, I always loved art. But I had a hard time cutting a straight line with scissors, I still do for that matter! Then getting a little older, the biggest worry was who I was going to share my “best friends necklaces” with. I had many “best friends” growing up. But the one who has the longest time and still running is the one I shared the yinyang necklace with. I think I was the white yin and she was the black yang, if I’m not mistaken. Speaking of necklaces, when I received my first necklace with a cross on it I felt grown up. It was real gold, I was trusted with real jewelry and felt special. I took CPR classes and learned how to teach kids about the poison symbol and not to touch whatever it was on. If I could be trusted with savings someones life that has to mean I’m grown up. Then I waved my hand to my parents in the stand on graduation day. I had to be grown up then, I was done with high school! Then in college, playing capture the flag (of course the drinking version) it hit me… I was living on my own, playing this game at 3 in the morning and I don’t have to try to sneak back in the house, I’m living on my own. Now, I’m grown up. Then I graduate college and get a job. I have to be sure I get up at least an hour earlier than I normally would in the winter just to scrape last nights snowfall off my car and make it into work on the icy roads and still get there on time. I have the responsibility of not being late to work. Wow now I feel really grown up. Then I realize… I’ve been growing up this whole time. Each day I am more of an adult then I was the day before. This will never end until the day I die…

Whenever I wear anything new, I don’t get to do anything fun. I have come to the conclusion that I must do a test run with new outfits as to not be disappointed when I’m looking forward to doing something.  The first example I can think of was last month. It was a work bbq on the beach on a Saturday. I wore this shirt i’ve had for a while but never wore, and this was the perfect time to wear it. It was a tube top type shirt which is why i never wore it yet, i lived in MI, there are not many chances to wear it. Now that I’m in FL it’s nicer a lot more often. I didn’t want to wear a bathing suit to the work thing, so a tube top seemed the perfect choice to get some sun… long story short I got ready and all dressed up and then we never made it…I just happen to have a picture however, because I was doing a “self portrait challenge” that month and had to take a pic every day for the month. So I have a pic from before i left…I’ll share it now so i can share my outfit I missed out on, even though its only part of the shirt and not the full effect but you can see how my necklace perfectly ties in, and of course the new shades I had bought… not the mention the fact it was perfect I took a pic With the glasses on because I dont have any pictures of me posted on here, so it kinda works out perfect to still “camouflage” my identity. haha.

Which brings me to my second event…Yesterday, I decided to wear this shirt, again never wore before but had for a while. Not as long as the other shirt, but I’ve had it since March. I decided I didn’t need a “special occasion” to wear this shirt, I would just wear it when I was meeting my friend for lunch and to hang out for the day. Again, got all dressed up and ready to go and then she cancels on me last minute! So I “wasted” another good outfit. Here is that one…isn’t it a cute shirt??? lol

And then to top it off… twice in one weekend i get disappointed! Sunday rolls around. My hubby and I were going to go play tennis, but we couldn’t get moving early enough because we were too tired. So then it got too hot to play tennis. So we decided to go play mini golf. Oh, I should have mentioned, since I didn’t get to hang out with my friend yesterday I went shopping by myself just to get out and do something. I bought a few articles of clothing. What I decided to wear today was a whole new outfit! Nothing fancy, but I got these cute shorts, I believe the style is called Bermuda. They’re really long, like to the knee. I’m into the capris now, which i never thought would happen because I’m so short they look kinda funny on me, like long pants. But its FL and I don’t like short shorts anymore, getting too old to show off the legs HAHA. So these seemed kind of appealing. I remember when I realized I should get shorts like that. I saw a girl walking down the street, a younger girl, with her family. She looked so cute in the shorts, I think they were pretty similar to the ones i found actually. And they just jumped right out at me at the store so I went ahead of bought them! They fit great. And then I got a plain black tank but its a scoop neck that gathers you know… its kinds of hard to explain and you can’t really see it in the picture, so I hope you know what I mean…but anyway… mini golfing… we start driving along and we’re about half way there when it starts to rain! well it’s Florida, it could stop in two minutes, or maybe its not even raining over there. So we keep going. We get off the expressway (yeah the closest one we could find is like 25 mins away) and it starts Pouring and lightning… yeah, guess we can cancel those plans. So we turn around… and there goes another outfit!

I kinda feel like I look like an old lady LOL but I like them, so shut up! haha.

So thanks for letting me finally share my outfits I so dearly missed going “out on the town” with.

Writing exercise 10: use 15 specific words italicized… however the forms of the word are changed in some cases making plural or past tense…  (all formed from 4 or more letters from the word CRAVEN) starting with…

I was craving…

some adventure. I had been in the same routine day in and day out for the past year. Nothing changed ever, nothing was exciting anymore. I was in a rut. Then I remembered how much my cousin raved about this hiking trip he took. He was a little vane about the trip so I didn’t get many details, but he did seem so much more laid back when he got back from the trip. So I decided to fly to Tennessee and go hiking in my Grandfathers backyard. It wasn’t, however, just any back yard. He lived on an acre or so of land, the huge field led right to the Smokey Mountains. As soon as I neared his house, I could see him rocking on the porch carving a hunk of wood into a bird of sorts. “What are you making?” I asked him. “Well, it’s a raven,” he replied. “I’ll have it finished by the time you get back.” He picked up his cane and walked into the house with me and made us some supper.

The next morning, feeling not a care in the world, I raced towards the mountains. However I was startled by a loud noise to my right. The neighbors were building and a crane just dropped the load it was carrying. Everyone was scrambling towards the crane. Not such a peaceful start to the morning, I thought. Hopefully once I get away from the houses the adventure will really begin. As soon as I come upon the base of the mountain I am absorbed by nature. The sight is spectacular, the sounds, the smell- I just tried to take it all in. There was so much to see. I snapped pictures of everything: birds, small animals, flowers, even the rocks and dirt. As I continued on my hike and taking pictures of the mountain I noticed a small cave. I was hesitant to check it out, fearing an animal might be inside. I turned on my flash light and carefully poked my head inside the cavern. I didn’t see anything but I heard something, so I booked it out of there. I couldn’t have averred that it was a bear, because I wasn’t certain, but I did not want to find out either. But I say that I earned the bragging rights of successfully climbing the Smokey Mountains and closely averting danger.

Writing exercise 9 Building Blocks

(using 2 mens names, 1last name, age, setting and body of water, write a story)

The Last Time I… was in a canoe I was probably 18 years old. We canoed down the Au Sable River one nice and sunny day. We canoed with brothers Tyler and Wyatt and one of Wyatt’s friends. Neither myself or my friend Roberta had canoed in a long time. She mostly sat in the middle while Tyler and I paddled the one canoe. The funniest part of the trip was when Wyatt and his friend flipped their canoe over. The scariest part was when Wyatt decided to jump from a railroad track going over the water. He climbed up the beams of the bridge and I thought he was going to break his neck! He wasn’t scared of anything. And the most entertaining of the trip was when we got stuck on a sand bar and Tyler had to jump out and push us, he acted like it was a motor boat and even when we were free he kept on pushing. But then the sun started to go down and we knew Tyler had to get home or he’d be in trouble with his mom. But it was the age where you had to try to act tough and “cool” and he pretended that he didn’t care, “I’m Tyler-fucking-Perry I can do whatever I want, I don’t answer to No-body.” Ok Mr. Perry, we know you don’t care, but you won’t be able to hang out with us anymore if you don’t go  now, so we should get you home, pronto. Who knew that canoing would take so long and that you couldn’t just go back when you were tired. You actually had to make the whole journey down the river because, there is no turning back with the current and no pulling over until you reach the destination.  Who knew taking the 5 hr canoe ride would be so tiring, yet so fun at the same time.

Writing Exercise #8

Finish this story…

She Adjusted his bow tie…

making it extra straight for this extra special occasion. She kissed him on the cheek leaving lipstick residue behind which he wiped away with the back of his hand, and wiggled out of her tight squeeze. She couldn’t help but squeeze him tight, she didn’t want to let him go. He walked away quickly, but remembered to turn and wave before he got too far out of sight. He took his spot in line just before the group marched up onto the stage. They sat in unison on the folding chairs aligned in straight rows. An older man approached the microphone on the stage and his loud voice boomed over the loud speakers. A high pitched squeal made everyone cover their ears and cringe. He continued with his speech without so much as a pause. He then began reading name after name as they filed by shaking his hand and grabbing their diplomas. Pictures snapped, proof shown with flashing lights. The crowd cheered and clapped in groups periodically after each name was read.  Then it was Connor’s turn, his name was read and a big smile plastered across his face. He waved back to the teary eyed woman who had recently spread red lipstick all over his cheek. As soon as the the hats flew up into the air, little Connor raced over to her screaming, “I did it, Mom, I did it!” “You sure did son, you’re such a big boy now, going into first grade.”  She was very proud of him, even if he was only graduating from Kindergarten. He had been though so much the past year she didn’t think she could make it, let alone him make it though his first year of school. “Do you think he was watching mom?” He asked innocently, looking up waiting for her answer. Choking back the tears for the hundredth time that night she knew she had to stay strong for him. She replied, “Yes honey, I think he was watching you from heaven.”

writing exercise 7

“I don’t usually hit the ground running…

And yesterday was no exception.” Madalyn stated matter-of-factly to her friend Makenzie, while eating lunch at a little outside bistro. She took a huge drink of her lemonade and continued, “You see, yesterday my boss gave me this huge project and said it was due by the end of the day. But I had to get all these facts and details from all my co-workers before I could begin. I tried to be proactive about it and started a mass email to the entire office. But I got side tracked answering phone calls and emails. When I finally noticed I hadn’t sent the email yet it yet it was just before lunch, so no one got back to me. I started getting a few emails back after lunch but had to remind a few people to give me their information…”

“uh-huh” Makenzie added, “I know how you feel, I hate that you have to harass people for them to answer your questions”

“I know, it’s horrible. Just give me the damn information the first time I ask,” Madalyn continued on her rampage.

“Well, did you get it done?” Makenzie interrupted when there was a pause, as Madalyn took the last bite of her sandwich and licked her fingers clean.

“Yes, but I had to work overtime. I didn’t get to leave until after 6pm.”

“Well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.” Makenzie snickered.

“Ooh speaking of cookies, lets get dessert!”

Writing exercise 6…

IF YOU MUST KNOW,

what I would love to do every weekend was sit on a beach. But it would have to be a private beach with private access. I hate crowds and I hate parking, hence the reason I don’t go to the beach every weekend. But when I do go, I love just sitting and staring out into the water. The water calms me. No matter the mood, everything just disappears when I look out into the water. If I lived on a beach, that would be the dream for me. Oh, and then my giraffe has somewhere to play too…

writing exercise 5

(4 textures of a slinky and of a scarf, use the 8 words in this story starting with…)

Late Night City Streets Were The Perfect Backdrop For…

smooth talking men on a first date. The couple walks down the bendy road staring up at the bright stars. With his Rough exterior she is surprised at his soft spoken words as she leads him to the door of her house.  The smooth talking male leans in for a hard passionate kiss at the end of the date. He lays his hand on the small of the thin womans back. He feels the fluffy sweater between the ridges of his fingers. And they finally kiss for the first time. She walks through the door and closes it quickly as she leaves him standing there, wanting more.

Writing exercise #4 (using 7 specific condiments in the story- in italics)

His Taste In Women was…

…like no other. He didn’t care for the model type. He thought woman who were thin looked sick. He liked them plump, not even normal size woman were good enough. And forget the blond hair and blue eyes. They had to have brown hair just like he did. Brown eyes, just like he did. He wanted them to look alike as much as possible. He sounds very narcissistic, but he wanted a perfect family and wanted his kids to look just like him and his wife. The most important part of the woman was that she had to love food just as much as he did. He was, after all, a chef so he cared about food almost as much as he cared about the perfect type of woman for him. Finally, Chef Roy found his perfect woman. She matched everything he asked for in a woman and he asked her to marry him. When he proposed she couldn’t help but notice a piece of relish stuck between his teeth so she laughed. He assumed she was mocking him so he went back into the kitchen and went on a rampage throwing things everywhere. She ran after him but it was too late for the kitchen. Mustard and Ketchup and Mayonnaise were all over the floor and walls. She slipped on the condiments on the floor. Chef Roy tried catching her but they both toppled to the floor laughing. She accepted his proposal on the floor and then explained why she laughed. He was so relieved and said, “oh Hot Pepper,” her pet name, “you just made me the happiest chef in all the restaurants of the world.” She replied, “Oh Chef Soy Sauce, I love you.” They were married only a month later. The colors were green and yellow and their centerpieces consisted of Celery stalks, mustard seed plants and Pickles. And they lived happily ever after.

The End