The Pyrenees---Southern France

The Pyrenees---Southern France

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Funkytown... and Back-of-the-Book Blurb # 95

I wish I could figure out why my blogging has dwindled down to not-even-a-trickle.

In the past, I posted twice a week. It was fun most of the time. Certainly I didn't consider it a chore. This is a busy time of the year--work-wise--so I can use that excuse, but some of that "work" is a joy. For example:


  • I shared my "Listen to Your Mother" story to a group of 400 women at a "girls night out" in a local church. Then, I shared a memory map the audience members could use to unearth their stories. That was a blast.
  • I'm facilitating a writing retreat for the Gateway Writing Project in early March. That's involved creating a flyer, sending out loads of emails, keeping my fingers crossed, and keeping track of replies. That hasn't taken up much time or energy at all.
  • Beginning this month, I'm launching an accountability writing group. That already involved actual sweat, because I had to build a google site. For most people, it would take a few minutes but since I'm technologically such a nincompoop, I had to drive to Festus so a friend could walk me through it, step by step, over and over, because I couldn't remember the steps to insert a page and make it all linked and embed the doc and make each one able to be edited and so on. That was not fun. However, it's done.
  • Then there's the normal stuff. Grading papers and lesson plans and board meetings and an open house (at my school). I could continue to whine, but I'm already tired of it, so I know you are.
If I knew why I've been in such a funk when it comes to my blog, perhaps I could do something to fix it. Or maybe I'm just pushing the limits when it comes to Val, to see if she can craft a funny blurb and some hilarious reviews in just a day's time?

Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your bookYou choose the genre. Is it a coffee table book of fashion trends? Is it a photo collection of mentally-ill patients and their clothing choices? 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. She moved to Florida, and is too busy to host a weekly book blurb. If you'd like to read my review of The Write Man, Lisa's most recent novel, you read it here.  It's a great read (and that's saying a lot, since I don't read romance novels).
     
          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:



Fashion Forward... All the Way to the Insane Asylum

Wearing bras as a top. Clothing made of meat. Jeans that are bought new from the store... and they're already patched or sliced up. Jimmy's tired of the crazy clothing fads.

"Jimmy doesn't go for nutty stuff. Jimmy likes tried and true clothing. Those man skirts? Don't even think about it. Jimmy don't like those."

But eventually, Jimmy needed to fight back. He wanted to make a statement. And he did.

Jimmy started wearing a noose as a tie whenever he went to a fancy restaurant like Taco Bell. He didn't have enough hair to achieve a man bun, so he took the cat hair off his couch, wadded it up, and made a bun that he bobby-pinned onto his head.

Will Jimmy end up changing the fashion scene? Or will he end up a classic character in some sitcom about nothing? (142 words)



And Val--I know you can work magic with this photo. It's the next one.