CRITTER! Part One.

Are you one of the many millions who has been wondering, "Where the heck is Critter?" For those of you who may not know, Critter was created by Ian Sands. With the help of Christy Evers at Christy's Creative Space, Critter has traveled to such far flung places as Texas, Montana and South Korea (just to name a few.) When he is finished with his travels he will be auctioned off and the proceeds will go to a worthy charity.

Well, you need not wonder where he is any more.

Now he’s in the Virgin Islands!

He arrived a couple of weeks ago and we have been so busy seeing the sights that I’m only just now getting it together enough to post some pictures.

I have to say he is a most agreeable and adventurous guest.

The minute he came through the door he made friends with Daisy Dog.

Then he checked out our rocking chair.

But he decided he liked the chez on the porch the best.

For our first foray we went to Magens Bay for a swim. He was impressed that it is a mile long beach.

I tell you, Critter is a hoot.

He wants to ride an iguana but I told him not to get his hopes up.

Stay tuned for further adventures when Critter tours fabulous Charlotte Amalie

Writing Prompts - Free Writing

Today is my birthday.

Free Writing: or stream of conscious writing or first thoughts or timed writing.

Free writing is simply putting pen/pencil to paper and writing without thinking about what you’re writing. This is not writing that you analyze or comment on. You can write about anything. To get started, it might help if you time yourself, starting by making yourself write, non-stop for five minutes. If you go past that time, great, but don’t quit before the time is up.

Write for 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes every day.

Free Writing subjects

1. Describe the light coming through a window
2. Begin with “I remember.” Write down lot of small memories. If you fall into writing about a large one, great. Doesn’t matter if the memory is resent (5 minutes ago) or from the distant past.
3. Write about something for which you feel strongly, either positive or negative. Write about it as though you love it. Then flip and write about it as though you hate it. Then flip again and write about it perfectly neutral.
4. Pick a color, any color. Take a 15 minute walk and notice all the things that are that color. Write about what you’ve seen.
5. Write in different places. A Laundromat, the mall, the park, a doctor’s office, a parking lot…pick up the rhythm of the place and write about what’s going on around you.
6. Write about your morning, afternoon or evening. Be specific and detailed, write about everything you did.
7. Visualize a place you really love, a corner in a room, sitting under a tree, waiting in the doctor’s office, be there, give details; sights, smells, sounds, colors, tastes, use all your senses.
8. Write about “leaving.” Approach it anyway you want. Write about leaving home in the morning to go to work/school, leaving to go on a trip, leaving someplace for good, leaving home for the first time, running away, the death of a friend/loved one.
9. What is your first memory?
10. Who are the people you love?
11. Write about the streets of where you live.
12. Describe a grand-parent.
13. Write about:
swimming
the stars
green places
the most frightened you’ve ever been
how you learned about sex
your first sexual experience
the closest you ever felt to God or Nature
reading and books that changed your life
physical endurance
a teacher you liked/didn't like
a fear, or fears, you have overcome or may still have
Be honest, be detailed
14. Open a poetry book at random, grab a line, write it down and continue from the point where it ends.
15. What kind of animal are you?

Writing Prompts - Five Senses

Most of us are good about writing what we see. But there are four other senses we need to incorporate into our writing to give it more life. Touch, sound, smell and taste. This simple exercise is designed to help develop the use of all five sense.

Pick one item, subject, word, or idea and write about it for five minutes using all five senses to describe it.

Sunset

The sky was a golden yellow. The color permiated everything; the leaves, the rocks at my feet. When I breathed I breathed in a golden yellow that smelled and tasted of peach. The air carressed my skin, a warm glow of silken golden gause draped around me. And, when I closed my eyes and held my breath I heard the music of the spheres.

Here's something visual you can do when you are revising. Get yourself five different colored highlighters, one for each sense. As you read, highlight the sense described. You will soon "see" if you are heavy in one sense or light another.

Writing Prompts - Favorite Things

Make a list of favorite things. List things that you are curious about, that interest or inspire you.
The items can be listed as a single word, a sentence or a whole paragraph.

Pick an item, take 5 to 10 minutes and write about it. The object of this exercise is not to think about what you're writing. Let it go and let it flow. One thing can lead to another.

Nana

My father's mother, Sarah Eliza Miller, was born on this day in 1894, in Victoria, BC. Nana was the last of nine children. She's the baby in this family portrait. Her older sisters were totally embarrassed that their mother, pushing 50, was pregnant.

They are, standing l to r: Eugene, Tom, parents Eliza and James Miller. Sitting, l to r: Mabel, Sarah Eliza, Laura, Eva, Leland, Frank and James.

This is Nana at about 10 with her older sisters who were all grown up with families of their own. Some of her nieces and nephews were older than her.

Here she is at 18.

She was named after her grandmother, Sarah Haught Miller and her mother Eliza Vincent Miller. But she hated the name and eventually changed it to Vivian.

Nana was a talented musician, a concert pianist. What made her talent even more special is that she had very small hands. She couldn't span the scale on the key board between thumb and pinkie. Yet with lightening fast speed she hit notes an octave apart and you couldn't hear that they were actually being played separately. I think all the musical talent among the Denham cousins comes from her. And at least one of us, Vince Denham, has made it a profession.

Sarah Eliza married John J (no period) Denham and had three sons. My father John Stanford, was the oldest. A mere eleven months later the twins Emerson and Monroe were born. Those twins were, you won't believe it, nine pounds each! With three infants on her hands she told uu how she'd set them on the floor, cover their hands with molasses and give them a feather. They'd spend hours trying to get the feather off and licking their fingers.

When my father was about 10, John J abandoned his family and Nana was left to fend for herself. The boys hunted for food with a 22 rifle and she played in honky-tonks. Somehow they survived the Depression and she managed to raise three wonderfully intelligent, strong boys.

In 1942, she gave this picture to my father to carry with him while he was in the Navy.

There was a brief second marriage before she married the man I always thought of as my grandfather, August Braendlin. He was Swiss and so loved by us that my sister Erva Augusta is named after him.

Nana and Pa.

She cussed and smoked, was smart, tough, and independent. I didn't know her as well as I would have liked because we were in the islands and she was in California. Just the same I have some fond memories of her.

One time when we visited in 1970 I was looking for saltines in her kitchen. From the living room she was giving me very detailed instructions on where to find them.

"I found them somewhere else, Nana," I told her.

"I don't care where you found them," she replied. "I'm telling you where they are!"

A second or two later she started to snort and laugh. And we laughed with her.

Nana died in her sleep in 1976. She was 82 years old.

Writing Prompts - Dreams

One way to get the juices flowing is to write down your dreams.

Think about a dream you’ve had and where it ends, continue writing and see where it goes.

OR:

Retell a dream in second person present tense (you are.)

OR:

Spend five minutes writing about the dreams (hopes) you have for yourself, your family, your life, the world. Be detailed and specific

Writing Prompts - Drabbles and other short stories

Well, we learned about drabbles a while ago when I had my contest. But I will explain again. Drabbles are stories of exactly 100 words. They are an excellent exercise for learning brevity.

Here's an example of one I wrote.

The Dream

In his dream he saw a man chained to a wall in a room. The man was being bricked into the room. He could hear the slap of mortar and brick. He felt he knew the man and tried to speak to him, but his mouth was a desert and his words were silent dust.

With each brick the light grew dimmer until, as the last brick was put into place, he awoke gasping for air.

He awoke into a well of darkness, his wrists chained to a wall, his mouth a desert, his scream a silent falling of dust.

Mini-sags are shorts stories of 50 to 60 words.
Or you can write a story in one to three sentences.

Harder still, write a story in 6 words. "I came, I saw, I conquered."

(Please note the only example I give is not an original. LOL)

Writing Prompts - Dialogue

Write a dialogue with:

A male voice speaking to a female voice – vice-versa
An angry voice talking to a calm voice – vice-versa
A child talking to an adult – vice-versa
An old woman/man talking to a young woman/man – vice-versa
A dog talking to a cat - vice-versa
A car talking to a tree - vice-versa

The possibilities are just about endless.

"Ouch! Why can't you cars look where you're going!"
"Well why can't you be growing somewhere else besides right here on this curve?"
"Hey I had no control over where that squirrel planted me. I'm...like rooted to this spot. You, on the other hand have lots of control. You can go anywhere you like. But what do you do? You slam right into me."
"Wow, I'm like so sorry."
"Yeah right. Man does my bark hurt."
"Well, you know, you're not the only one that like got hurt here. Look at my fender! It's all dented in, the paint is scraped off and my headlight is busted."
"I could care less about your fender, you can get it fixed. Look at me! This is the worst case of road rash that I've seen. I'm going to be scarred for life."

Writing Prompts - Connecting Words

Make lists of random words under the following headings:

Profession: doctor, teacher, cook, brick layer
Verbs: run, write, ride, chopped
Colorful things: sunset, red rose, pinata, lavender
Adjectives: three, perfect, sweet, hot
Animals: dog, mouse, cat, horse
Any subject: love, pencil, knife, party

At random choose any number of words you would like from each category. Write a sentence or a paragraph. The words you pick must show up somewhere in the writing.

Example: How sweet, the brick layer gave his kid a horse pinata for her birthday which she promptly chopped to pieces with an axe.

Writing Prompts - Communal Poetry

Here's a fun one.

Where two or more are gathered together a poem can emerge. Write down a list of subjects, like dog, cat, tree, ocean, slug, flower, worm. One person picks the subject matter and writes it at the bottom of the page, then writes a line usually between 10 and 15 beats (but feel free to use as many as you want) folds the paper over so what is written can’t be seen and passes it to the next person, who writes a line, folds the paper and passes it on. Each person writes a line on the chosen subject. When everyone has written a line, miraculously a poem will emerge.

My best friend and I wrote this one, passing the paper back and forth between ourselves.

Ocean

Soft rolling waves
The waves of cleansing waters fill me with belonging
Aquamarine, emerald, and lapis lazuli
You know, the mighty Ocean was here way before you and I
Silver moonlight scattered on wave tips
Riding the tides down memory lane to the depths of the sunless floor
Womb mother of all life
All the fish and birds of the sea shall rise up in celebration of change