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Tag: 2012 A to Z Challenge

G is for Grammar #atozchallenge

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Day 7 of the Blogging from A to Z April challenge. Today’s topic: grammar.

I love grammar.  I could happily diagram sentences for hours.  I love the rules, the order, the patterns. The exceptions, the similarities between English and other languages.

So imagine my elation at the grocery store the other night when my five-year-old kid said to me, “Mommy, I know what a verb is.  It’s an action word.”

A big chunk of me wanted to explain about linking verbs, but instead I swallowed that down and said, “That’s right!  Where did you learn that?”

“Martha Speaks.”  Of course.  He idolizes that show.

Tonight, when he was finishing his bath, he again brought up verbs.  Then he said the words every mother longs to hear: 

“Mommy, what are other parts of speech?”

Gleefully I told him about adverbs (“Inverbs,” he calls them).  Adjectives.  Nouns.  Interjections.  Conjunctions.

If he keeps this up, he’ll know all about gerunds by the time he’s in kindergarten.

As a grammar geek, I couldn’t be prouder.

F is for Flash Fiction #atozchallenge

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Day 6 of the Blogging from A to Z April challenge. Today’s topic: flash fiction.

I’ve been submitting flash pieces and short stories for just over a year now.  I’ve had nine pieces accepted for publication, which averages one every six weeks or so.

I’ve also broken into the double digits with earnings.  Averaged out (and including tax), with each story I’ve made enough to buy myself a large unsweetened iced tea at McDonald’s.

Back on today’s topic, you can read some of my flash stories here.

E is for ED Martin #atozchallenge

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Day 5 of the Blogging from A to Z April challenge. Today’s topic: me! (yeah, kind of a copout, but you try writing a blog post a day on each letter of the alphabet)

A good friend of mine from high school has her own photography business – Mary Efflandt Photography – and I asked her to take some professional shots of me.  Here’s my favorite from the shoot:

If you’re in Iowa or Illinois and want pictures taken, definitely check Mary out!

D is for Decisions #atozchallenge

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Day 4 of the Blogging from A to Z April challenge. Today’s topic: decisions.

I work fulltime.  I have a kid to chase after half the week.  I try to exercise several evenings a week.  I have various hobbies: writing, reading, crocheting, looking up family genealogy stuff.  I love wandering around on random car trips, taking pictures of scenery.  I need time to sit and relax after chasing students all day.  I love to bake.  And then there’s sleeping.

As Chuck Wendig so eloquently put it, “I am afforded the same 24 hours that you are. I don’t get 30 hours. Stephen King doesn’t have a magical stopwatch that allows him to operate on Secret Creepy Writer Time. You have a full-time job? So do a lot of writers. Kids? So do a lot of writers. Rampant video-game-playing habit? Sadly, so do a lot of writers. You want time, snatch it from the beast’s mouth. And then use it.”

But how to use that time?  I don’t have a TV. I rarely watch shows or movies on the computer, and if I do I’m multitasking and crocheting while I watch. (I seriously advise everyone to get rid of your TV.  It really does make you more productive.)  Baking is usually done with my kid, so that’s getting two birds with one stone as well.  And I’ve found I can get by on six hours of sleep a night, as long as once or twice a week I can get a full seven-to-eight hours.

Having so much to do means I have to multitask when it comes to writing too.  I kick around story ideas for months sometimes, waiting until I have them all worked out in my head, before writing them down, so that every moment counts.

And sometimes I just say “screw it” and do what I want, regardless of what I should be doing.  I’ve found over the years that this approach works best for me; I’m most productive and creative when I want to be doing something, not when I feel obligated to do it.

What about you?  How do you allocate your day, and how do you find extra time to do what you want instead of just what you have to?

C is for Characters #atozchallenge

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Day 3 (Day C?) of the Blogging from A to Z April challenge. Today’s topic: characters.

Last night I was working on a story and noticed that a character from a previous story wanted to make an appearance.  That got me thinking about character types, and I noticed that I have basically four different characters I write:

  • The strong protector – someone who’s trying to save everyone while needing protection himself due to emotional vulnerability.
  • The loyal friend – naive and goodhearted, and will do what he can to help a friend.
  • The unstable protagonist – ranging from not quite in touch with reality, to ape scat crazy, and usually just trying to survive.
  • The malevolent troublemaker – sometimes thoughts distracting the character, and sometimes evil personified.

What about you?  Do you have any recurring characters in what you write?  Or, on the other hand, are you drawn to books with similar characters?

B is for Books #atozchallenge

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Day 2 (Day B?) of the Blogging from A to Z April challenge. Today’s topic: books.  Specifically, how many I don’t have anymore.

Three years ago, I had thousands of books.  Yes, thousands (sadly, I couldn’t find a picture of my bookshelves from back then).  I worked in a bookstore in college and took advantage of my employee discount.  I shopped clearance racks.  I loaded up at library book sales.

And this is my bookshelf about a month ago (the bottom shelf is cookbooks):

I still love to read – and I’ve been reading a lot more voraciously this year than the past couple years – but after moving over a dozen times in a dozen years, all those books get heavy. So I’ve started relying more on the local library.  I’ve lucked out because my town’s library is part of a system of probably 40 different ones in the area, and it’s super easy to go online and request any book I want, because chances are they’ll have it somewhere so that I can not only borrow it, but pick it up from whichever branch I choose.

What about you?  Are you moving to ebooks?  Use the library?  Or trying to build your own library at home?

A is for Absurdity #atozchallenge

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I’ve signed up for the Blogging from A to Z April challenge.  Every day except Sundays (well, except for today) I write a blog post, going through the letters of the alphabet.

Today’s topic: absurdity, by way of ants.  Particularly the ant in the book “I can’t,” said the ant, by Polly Cameron.

My mom was the youngest of seven kids, the oldest being nineteen years older than her, so she ended up with a lot of books, meaning I ended up with a lot of old books.  I loved to read as a kid and quickly devoured everything I checked out from the library.  When I didn’t have anything new to read, I reread all the stuff we had in the house – mostly several boxes of the books my aunts and uncles had passed to my mom.  And one of those books was this gem from 1956.

For those of you not familiar with the story, Miss Teapot has fallen and broken her spout.  Who will help put her back on the shelf?

“I can’t,” said the ant.

“You can,” said the pan.

“You must,” said the crust.

“Please try,” said the pie.

It’s such a fun story, full of silly rhymes of dialogue and random kitchen objects.  I think this is a great stepping stone book – kids need exposure to silly-yet-serious stuff like this, if they’re to appreciate absurd texts like Gogol’s The Nose or Dead Souls (okay, anything by Gogol), Catch-22, Monty Python….  And what’s a world without Monty Python?

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Have you ever read this book?  Any books you recommend for developing an appreciation of the absurd in young readers?

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