Musical Memory Lane...and Back-of-the-Book Blurb # 66

At writing critique night this week, Lynn shared an early concert memory. (I think it was her first concert.) Her vignette was more about an awful prospective boyfriend than the Ozark Mountain Daredevils concert... but it brought back a flood of memories.

On the way back home, Kim and I talked about our first concert. Kim's first was Crosby, Stills and Nash. (That made me extremely jealous. CS & N was one of my favorite groups. They still are.) I'm not sure if my first one was a Richie Havens-John Sebastian combo (there was a third singer, but I don't remember who it was) in Wash U's quadrangle, or whether Cat Stevens was my first.

I do know who ruined me for concerts. Harry Chapin.

Harry Chapin's concerts were intimate, poignant and hilarious. A true storyteller, he could weave human suffering into a few verses and a chorus better than everybody else. He didn't have much of a voice, but what a songwriter he was. He'd alternate a song about a dry-cleaner who aspired to be an opera singer... only to have his dreams dashed to the ground by critics... with a song about a truckload of bananas that meets a horrible end. And he could do it with an incredible wryness.

In-between songs, he'd make jokes about the other musicians on stage. It was good-natured back-and-forth banter. They gave as well as they took.

                             This is a song that hardly ever made it on
                             the radio waves. Be patient--watch the
                             whole thing. Chapin shares four different
                             endings... and they're amusing...

What was your first concert? Leave a comment and share a memory. I'd love to hear about it.

And now onto the business of the book blurb.

Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book. You choose the genre. Is it a nonfiction piece? Is it a romance between a fellow primate and his selfie stick? You decide.

Write an enticing blurb--150 words or less. (The title doesn't count in the word count.) Blurbs are those enticing bits that prod you into buying the book. Sometimes they're on the back cover of the book. Sometimes they're on the inside front cover. What they always try to do is lure you into purchasing the book. 

Lisa Ricard Claro was the original creator of this writing challenge. We don't know what she's doing these days. She moved to Florida and with the piles of money she's made from her novels. She's probably hired a couple of cute cabana boys. Perhaps that is what's keeping her busy... (If one of them looks anything like Viggo Mortensen or Benecio del Toro, I hope Lisa at least lets me visit so I can gape and drool a bit.)

Include your blurb in a blog post. Include a link to this post. Also, link your post to Mr. Linky. Mr. Linky is easy. If you've never done it, you'll be impressed with how simple he is. And then, check out the other blurb(s). It's interesting to see the different directions writers take, given the same photo.

Here's the book cover, along with my blurb:

                                                         photo by Pixabay

Manny’s Revenge

Manny was tired of being stared at. Manny was especially weary of people who’d think they were clever by looking at him through the glass and making weird noises while they scratched their armpits and jumped around.

Enough. Manny the gorilla was mad as heck, and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. When the next group of idiots gathered to gape, Manny swung from his rope onto the top edge of the wall. Reaching out, he grabbed one of their cameras and gracefully swung back to the floor of his enclosure.

Looking into the glass, he saw himself—certainly a more handsome primate than that idiot in the spandex bike shorts and the fanny pack who’d just waddled past.

Is that what people were doing with these things—admiring themselves?

Manny decided to turn the tables on the foolish spectators… and he already knew what he was going to do first. (150 words)




For those writers who'd like to work ahead, here is the photo for next week's blurb:

photo by pixabay

A Movie in My Head

      I probably look a bit weird when I write. Most likely, many people would say I look odd all the time... If I'm writing and I have to include a gesture or some physical movement, usually I'll either squinch my eyes up as I imagine it or I'll actually act out the movement.

     For me, it helps.

     This evening Radar went out and played in the sprinkler. Oh, we weren't watering our lawn. This was just for the dog's entertainment. He went out once, came in a muddy, stinky mess but he enjoyed it so much, I let him out again, and this time I videotaped him.

                                         
                       Here is a video of Radar having fun in the water.

     
        Certainly, if I was writing about much Radar enjoys water, taking a video of him would help my description. I could watch the clip several times so as to not miss a single bit of his antics. 

         As we watched him play, my husband said, "We really can't stop him from going crazy about water, can we? I mean, isn't it in his genetics to love water?"

        That made me think. What comes naturally for the main character in my WIP? What kind of gestures do they do and how do they carry themselves without even thinking about it? Making movies in our head, and watching people helps us writers make each character distinctive.  

        What crazy stuff does your pet cat/dog/albino python do?