#Inktober2018, Visual Perspectives
Drool #Inktober #Inktober Day 6
Just a little something from a nightmare. The prompt was “drool.” I was briefly torn between cute babies and Gila Monsters. Dog drool is more common… And more disgusting. I thought back to a hilarious Tumblr post running around on Facebook about vampires dribbling blood – their food! – down their chins. How sloppy! Hardly […]
dreams, drool, ink, Inktober, Inktober2018, monster nightmare
#Inktober2018, Visual Perspectives
“Chicken” #Inktober #Inktober 2018
Cheeky chicken. Too tough to be called “chicken,” and probably too tough to be roasted. Truly, a chicken for our time. Reference image: https://goo.gl/images/HgBaSZ
#Inktober2018, Uncategorized, Visual Perspectives
Spell #Inktober #Inktober2018
For my son… He’ll know why.
featured, floccinaucinihilipilification, Inktober, Inktober2018, spell
Sunshowers!
The light changes. One minute, it’s gray and rainy. Dusk comes quickly, but for one brief moment, the air shimmers rose gold. Warm. There’s an odd glow. On one side, sunset. Above, a haze of slate blue clouds, faintly tinted pink. But there’s no rainbow… Because I’m standing in it.
rain, summer, sunset, sunshowers, trees
#Inktober2018, Visual Perspectives
Roasted #Inktober #Inktober2018
Sweet Olathe corn… Though the prompt calls for roasted, I usually just rub it with lightly salted butter, roll it in parchment, twist the ends, and nuke it on high for three minutes. A little sea salt, a shrine of pepper, and… Yum. That might explain why this specimen looks a little burnt. I learn […]
corn, corn on the cob, fresh, healthy, Inktober, Inktober2018, roasted
Auspicious Eggs
I really wasn’t planning to have three eggs for breakfast this morning, but as I widened the crack on the second egg, two yolks slipped into the pan. I’ve read that this is generally regarded as good luck. Unless you’re in the UK. There, it means imminent death. It could also mean someone in the […]
#Inktober2018, Visual Perspectives
Tranquil #Inktober #Inktober2018
I had an epiphany this past weekend: Inktober has given me a taste of what novice writers must feel when trying NaNoWriMo for the first or second time. The amazing artwork some people scribble in a matter of minutes is intimidating. I caught myself giving advice to young artists: “Stay AWAY from those ‘meh, this […]
Poisonous #Inktober #Inktober2018
Day 1 prompt: poisonous Reference images: http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/poisonous-fungi-death-cap/
#Inktober2018, Visual Perspectives
Create-ation, an Extended Sort of Stay-cation
When you’re fed up with the world, and with social media, but it’s still your “playground,” you have to do something. My “something” this month is #Inktober2018 (it is, to art, what NaNoWriMo is to writing). I don’t expect to rise, fully, to the 30 day challenge of #Inktober, nor do I expect too complete a NaNoWriMo […]
Celebrating Banned Books Week 2018
Books expose us to ideas that are not our own, not our friends’, not our neighbors’, not our teachers’ or our ministers’. We are free to see books as sympathetic friends or challenging adversaries. But let’s make sure we’re free to read them, and to make those choices for ourselves.
Get Your Flu Shot!
It’s important enough to public health that most of us can get one for free. It may inconvenience you, it may hurt a little, and it may even provoke a strong immune response that makes you feel like crap for a day. But it protects you, your loved ones, and your community from a deadly disease.
flu shot, health, influenza, injection, pandemic, vaccine, wellness
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Op-Ed
Repurposing Content or Self-Plagiarism?
You could call this post “mental compost,” wherein I throw the mental scraps about reusing content, self-plagiarism, and even propaganda into one post, shake it up, and hope it will fertilize new ideas.
content, copyright, featured, plagiarism, propaganda, repurpose, reuse
I Wasn’t Offended; You Were Being a Jerk
The same folks who decry “political correctness” and clamor for the right to be rude and aggressively offensive are the same ones who whine whenever someone finds them…offensive.
offensive, political correctness, politically correct, words mean things
I Love the Smell of Decomp in the Morning
She had a primrose path, a little wooded section, and far to the back, a compost heap that she turned regularly with a pitchfork. It smelled of earth and death and life, and it made rich soil for her wildflowers. She taught us not to waste things, but we were kids and we forgot.
black thumb, featured, gardening, green thumb, growing, outdoors, plants
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Technical & How-to
How to Review a Blog #BlogCheckup
Now and then, it’s a good idea to step back from the blog and take an objective look at its design and usability. Better yet, ask a few friends to do it!
Here’s a checklist of things to look at when reviewing your blog, or a friend’s.
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Technical & How-to
Time to Change Your Passwords!
Just a few little reminders and housekeeping tips for my cyberfriends.
Blogging & Social Media Tips, Op-Ed, Technical & How-to
Words Have Meaning: Marketing vs Promoting vs Endorsing
We needn’t contort every word, twisting bad to mean good, and sick to mean amazing. This is just obfuscation and lunacy.
advertising, american marketing association, definitions, dictionary, ftc, marketing, promotion, words
Mind Like an Oyster
I thought, not for the first time today, that I need a little sand and sun. It’s been too long since I went parasailing, upside down, while watching dolphins play ping-pong with a shark. Or since I floated, laughing, unable to sink, in the warm salty water near Miami, smooth as glass and clear enough to see my toes squishing in the sand. And as I re-read the question, I thought, How can I not write a descriptive paragraph about the beach? But what came out, like a tiny hermit crab from a tiny painted shell, wanted to be poetry, not paragraphs.
Geek Out Down the Rabbit Hole #MyOldNemesisAlexa
I am resisting the urge to “metablog” as my friend Dave M once put it. Blogging about blogging. Writing about writing (or writers). Neither of those things are very interesting to anyone but bloggers and writers. It’s like all the backstage action at a theater: fun for the theater geeks, but not so much for the audience.
Gerald, the Grumpy Garden Gnome
Gerald, the lawn gnome, had grown tired of being “cute.” He had looked it up, one night, in a dictionary Elizabeth had carelessly left lying on the front stoop. It did not mean handsome, or manly, or noble. No, “cute” was something whimsical and trivial and Gerald had been in a foul mood ever since he’d learned the […]
Blogging is Like Baton Twirling
What was that hackneyed advice someone always trotted out, eager to prove they knew nothing at all about the process of writing? Ahh, yes: “Write what you know.”
advice, bad advice, blogging tips, ccc, creative copy challenge, fiction, flash fiction, writing tips
On Writing, Visual Perspectives
Art & a Sense of Humor #WATWB
The biggest threat to creativity isn’t rejection from publishers, readers, or art critics.
creativity, graffiti, originality, street art, watwb, we are the world
A Little Bird
A mourning dove smashed against my living room window, the other day. I’d just been thinking about all the birds that had done the same, over and over again – they never seem to learn. It’s not as if the glass is so clean they can’t see it; by now, they have to know, too, […]
Feet in the Sand #WriteBravely #WTFOW2018
Ah, that Little Mermaid – what did she know? They say the sand is always more appealing on the other side of the water’s surface. I lay back on the little wind-surfer board and let my fingers trail in the water. There wasn’t even a hint of a breeze; I was just drifting with the […]
Things that Go Thump #WriteBravely #Fiction
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but this is the last car we have available.” The agent shook his head at the monitor and shrugged. It was a small, older car, and no one had a key to the trunk, it seemed. The family ahead of me would never get all their bags into it, clearly, and they […]
dysfunctional, family, featured, fiction, mystery, plane crash, writebravely, wtfow2018
A Lesson in Leadership #WriteBravely #WTFOW2018
One of the challenges of a blog challenge, blogfest, or writing prompt is to write about something that doesn’t immediately inspire you. This should be easy for someone who spent the largest part of their career, to date, as a technical writer, but that part of my career is in the past, and some part […]
featured, inspiration, leadership, loyalty, prompts, writebravely, wtfow2018
Little Weekend Adventures in the Face-Melting Sun
If the mere idea of death makes you queasy, just skip this post. There’s really nothing morbid about the National Museum of Funeral History, but I know people who shudder at the thought and refuse to go explore it, despite death being a natural, inevitable part of life. Before I tell you about that, then, […]
featured, national museum of funeral history, walking, weekend adventures
A Walk in the Park
Baby, It’s HOT Outside! I can’t believe it’s barely the end of May. Growing up in Ohio, that was the first of weather warm enough to hit the pool, and still far too chilly for 8:00 AM swim team practice. I remember the year it snowed on the last day of school, June 5th. I […]
anniversary, brixology, exercise, featured, flood, food, nature walk, restaurant review, szechuan button
