Everybody Loves a Good Story

And a good story is good for everybody.

People like to read stories, listen to stories (audio books and stand up comedians), watch stories (on TV, at the movies, on the stage) and even present stories.

While visiting Baton Rouge, my son-in-law created a puppet show as part of productive play with my grandson. Who knew a box and a pair of socks could be so much fun?

.Back Stage Action .....Main Stage Show .......... Taking a Bow

So keep creating and consuming stories. It will keep your brain alert and your vocabulary prodigious.

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Fiction Writers on Writing

My favorite kind of non-fiction writing is memoirs, especially when written by fiction authors where the focus is their lives as writers.

Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is my favorite of the two that I've read. His life is an amazing combination of turmoil, poverty, a mother's love, a wife's strength and persistance, and so much God given talent that he could create in a drunken stupor or a cocaine frenzy or even stone sober.

I read this following bit on Amazon.com. I wished I had written it, then decided to just quote Tim Appelo, author of the Amazon article.

Stephen King "gives you a whole writer's tool kit: a reading list, writing assignments, a corrected story, and nuts-and-bolts advice on dollars and cents, plot and character, the basic building block of the paragraph, and literary models. He shows what you can learn from H.P. Lovecraft's arcane vocabulary, Hemingway's leanness, Grisham's authenticity, Richard Dooling's artful obscenity, Jonathan Kellerman's sentence fragments."

The other book I read in this "genre" is Janet Evanovich's How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author. If you like Stephanie Plum, you'll enjoy this book too. It's got the same kind of humor with advice on how to get published as a fiction writer.

What are some other great titles about authors and their lives as writers written by the authors themselves?

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The Writing Class

Surely I can write every day this month about fiction.

I've never wanted to write fiction but it is what I love to read.

I am currently reading The Writing Class by Jincy Willett. It's a mystery, my genre, filled with information about writing fiction.

The story takes place primarily in an evening adult education "fiction writing" classroom, a perfect setting for a diverse group of people with nothing in common but the desire to write. The class is taught by a critically acclaimed published but not popular author, Amy Gallup.

The stories the students write, the classroom critiques and Amy's comments contain nuggets of gold for honing fiction writing skills. It is also very entertaining reading.

What's the mystery? One of the students is a sicko, writing an extra critique, both vulgar and threatening, for each student's short story.

What are you reading right now?

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Maybe I'm a Spoiled Brat

Sunday I bought myself an iphone and an OtterBox.

Monday I spent three and half hours getting my hair washed, cut, colored and styled.

Tuesday I spent another three hours having a pedicure and getting solar nails.

How will I pamper myself tomorrow?

I Should Have Known

When I spilled coffee on my white pants en route to work this morning, work that is 25 miles from my house without time to turn around for a wardrobe change, I should have seen the warning signs alerting me to the kind of day I was about to encounter.

60/40 in 30

I joined a gym. At 61 I joined a gym for the first time.

My goal is to do 60 reps on each machine with 40 aerobic stair steps between each machine done in 30 minutes.

The trainer said a person burns over 800 calories when sustaining the circuit workout at 60/40 in 30 minutes. A vigorous 30 minutes on an elliptical machine burns just over 300 calories, according to the Internet.

I've started at 20/15 in 30. When I reach the goal performance, we'll just add more weight to each machine. Is there no end?

I'd love to hear your stories, advice or tips on getting the most out of a gym membership.

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Maybe May, Wordle

I made this Wordle for a Lawton Public Library display. I thought maybe it would make a good blog post too.