writer at play
Posted in friday fun on Feb 26th, 2010
My brain is fried. Today I: schooled a kid, managed a battle campaign against the playdough crumbs all over the floor of the kids’ bedroom, helped lead an art program at the library in which over a dozen kids did this awesome space and rocket collage, drove a lot, went to my church’s small group. [...]
Posted in friday fun on Feb 19th, 2010
Eep! I’m cutting it really close with the timing of this post. Only 3 hours left of Friday!
Nobility have them: baronets, barons, earls, dukes. So does the military: privates, corporals, sergeants, lieutenants and so on. All institutions have hierarchies. We grade gemstones and hurricanes, ski slopes and rockfaces, stars and planetary bodies. Part of being [...]
Posted in friday fun on Feb 12th, 2010
With Valentine’s Day coming up (and the Chinese New Year falling on the same day), I’ve been thinking about all the different celebrations I know of and sorting them into different categories.
There are beginning-of-life celebrations, such as birthdays, naming days and baptisms. There are rite of passage celebrations, like graduation, wedding showers, housewarmings and baby [...]
Posted in friday fun on Feb 5th, 2010
Bread and cheese. Dried beef and hardtack. The ubiquitous stew. Food in fantasy can be remarkably dull. I always appreciate unusual cuisine in the books I read. I love a well-written dinner party or tea. I love attention paid to food in stories, the preparing and eating of it, even if it does make me [...]
Posted in friday fun on Jan 29th, 2010
Snow is…
feather-flakes spiraling through the air
mashed, broken, crumpled, crushed, miraculously whole flakes on my black gloves
a soft silent assault on the sleeping world
wet clumps falling–plop!–on my windshield as I drive under trees
a white coverlet under which roofs slumber
windblown powder on cheeks and in eyes
scrunch-squish-scrunch under my boots
crusty, ugly, dirty piles around the driveway
I love the [...]
Posted in friday fun on Jan 22nd, 2010
Ideas come to me at the oddest moments. I was passing a truck on the highway about a week ago, did the quick sidelong glance at the monster beside me, and my brain flashed “turtle!”.
Maybe it was something about the angle, the curve of the headlights, the positioning of all the parts you find on [...]