B is for . . . BUSYBODY

Welcome to The Blogging from A-Z Challenge April 2014! This year, I’m offering up a story – each one 100 words or fewer - for each letter of the alphabet.

Some are heartfelt, poignant, sweet. Others are…not. 

I hope you enjoy them.

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BUSYBODY

Mary straightens her housecoat, grabs her cigarettes, and goes out into the summer evening.

She stomps around the neighborhood, stopping at every stoop, interrupting every conversation with unsolicited opinion, complaint, gossip. Her voice, loud and rough like a car’s worn-out muffler, rumbles over everything.

She’s seen the eye rolls, heard the snickers. The neighbors call her names – busybody, buttinsky, snoop. Her favorite, Mary the Mayor, makes her sound official, important.

She could be more polite but the older she gets, the more invisible she becomes. This is the only way she knows to keep from disappearing altogether. 

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King's Speech: B is for BOREDOM

Regular readers of The Shellshank Redemption know how much I enjoy a good quote (see Motivational Mondays) and that I’m a huge fan of Stephen King (see the King of All Days Part I and Part II.) So, for the 2013 A-Z Challenge, I decided to combine the two, using some of my favorite King quotes about reading, writing and life in general. Enjoy!

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In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it ‘got boring,’ 

the BOREDOM arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.

(Stephen King)

I admit it – I overdo the similes and metaphors in my writing. I put in as many as I want in the first draft, then try to weed out as many as I can after that. That’s when my great beta readers and critique partners come in and point out all the similes etc. that add no value to the scene, and they champion the ones that do, the ones that enhance and strengthen the story in that particular moment.  

Give Me a B! BED

Welcome to The Blogging A-Z Challenge April 2012! Some of the most popular posts here at The Shellshank Redemption are the Motivational Mondays. So, after consulting the tortoises, we decided to make April our Motivational Month! Please join us for this (almost!) daily dose of alphabetical inspiration. We hope you enjoy it!   

* YOU’VE GOT TO GET UP EVERY MORNING WITH DETERMINATION IF YOU’RE GOING TO GO TO BED WITH SATISFACTION. (George Lorimer) *

I find that if I don’t direct my thoughts in a positive way first thing when I wake up, I will most likely spend the rest of the day feeling either unfocused or cranky. It can be something as simple as just being thankful for a new day, looking forward to a simple pleasure later on, cheering myself on before a new writing project or when sunk into the mire of novel revisions. I don’t think I can say that it always works but I definitely can say that it doesn’t hurt anything.