A Class Bake-Off and Back-of-the-Book Blurb # 48

Did you know you can melt Tootsie Rolls? Did you know you can incorporate a homemade applesauce into brownies, along with cayenne pepper and lemons, in a tasty way? Did you know that seven kids + 1 blender + 1 food processor + a lot of weird ingredients = a great deal of fun?

This week during homeroom, our middle-schoolers had their first bake-off. They decided on making mug brownies (brownies made in coffee mugs in the microwave) and decided on the strange additions (cayenne pepper, apples and citrus fruit) along with Tootsie Rolls, Twix bars, chocolate chip cookies and pretzels. It was a blast to see them working together in two groups, and at end, watching the flurry of activity as their time ran out. Honestly, I thought apples would taste horrible with brownies but one of the groups made a homemade applesauce and the flavors melded well with the brownies.

Teamwork. Creativity. Problem-solving. Risk-taking. We had it all on Wednesday... And now onto book blurb stuff.

Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book. You choose the genre. A time travel tale, where a fun-loving group of hooligans try to reenact Thelma and Louise's trip? A how-to book explaining how to refold travel maps?  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 brain behind this project. She's got her own editing business. She's gotten a multi-novel publishing deal... and now that those three books are out, she's working on more. Check out her site. You'll enjoy her posts and you'll learn something.

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 and the blurb:

photo by pixabay

The Re-Education of Harold

“Honey, you’re built like a ‘57 Chevy. Solid. Dependable. Big in all the right spots.”

“Sweetie, you’ve been up and down the block a bunch of times. I like that.”

“Madge, you’re like a fine wine. If I wait any longer, you’re gonna turn to vinegar, so it’s time to pop the cork and enjoy life right now.”

Harold and Madge were neighbors. Harold was 78 and never married. When he moved a year ago, he started taking walks every morning. The first time he passed up Madge, swinging in her front yard, he simply nodded a greeting. Soon, he got brazen enough to walk across Madge’s yard for daily chats.

Harold thinks he’s a smooth talker. He thinks he’s romancing Madge. But a man who’s been single for that many years… well, surely he’s set in his ways. Right? Can Harold ever be taught how to treat a woman? (150 words)

And for Val and anyone else who wants the next week's photo ahead of time, here it is:

photo by pixabay

Brevity is Next to Godliness

According to the internet (and we all know that the internet never peddles alternative facts to people and calls them the truth), Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote a lengthy letter to a friend. He finished it with a PS: "I am very sorry for sending you such a long letter but I did not find enough time to write a shorter one."

Writing succinctly does take more time than meandering all around the story as we beat around the bush, develop diarrhea of the keyboard and beat dead horses. Sometimes, writing even requires--shudder--that we delete some of our work.

Yep. That's right. Sometimes as writers we have to deconstruct. We find ourselves deleting words, lines or (horror!) pages... and it's frustrating.

Now, when I do NaNoWriMo, I try to delete as little as possible. All I'm focused on with NaNo is getting to the 50,000-word finish line.  I know my WIP's a pile of steaming poop, this first draft, and since I already know it's going to need loads of revision, I keep most of the word count intact.

There are times we have to cut a part we find particularly clever:  it doesn't mesh with the rest of the tone.  We have to slash a word here and a few words there, since we're over the word limit. We're gonna have to trash a whole page because the dialogue is deadly dull... and we put our heads in our hands and moan, since that means we're going to have to rewrite it... and it might be the third or fourth crack at that particular scene.

photo by pixabay

I love this construction sign because it makes me think of shoveling "stuff." There are times when I'm writing... and I feel like I have a shovel in my hand instead of a pen. 

What kind of revision tricks do you have up your sleeve?  Shoveling minds want to know...

Radar's Got a Brand New Bed, The Luck of the Irish and Back-of-the-Book Blurb # 47

Radar is getting used to sleeping on a dog bed instead of a crate that takes up half our familyroom is ginormous. Don't worry about the change of bedding. He's still the king. (And speaking of his royal highness, if you live in the St. Louis area and go to Half Price Books in U City, they're having a pet photo contest. Radar is # 19 and voting goes on until Feb. 13.)

It's not St. Patrick's Day yet, but leprechauns have been working their magic. We just got word yesterday that St. James the Greater School will be open next year. (That doesn't necessarily mean I will have a job last year, as registration packets will have to be returned, enrollment numbers will have to be studied, etc. However, it is 100% marvelous news for the students.)


And now... book blurb business.

Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book. You choose the genre. A time travel tale, where a fun-loving group of hooligans try to reenact Thelma and Louise's trip? A how-to book explaining how to refold travel maps?  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 project. She's a dog and cat lover. She's a pro editor. She's gotten a multi-novel publishing deal... and now that those three books are out, she's working on more. Check out her site. You won't regret becoming a follower.

Include your blurb in a blog post. Include a link to this post. Also, ink 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 and the blurb:

Maggie Mortensen?

Maggie knew he was there. Close. Somewhere.

Viggo was hiding from her, holed up in Jefferson City. In past years, she’d stalked him when he filmed movies. Deep in her heart, she knew he’d fall for her… if only they ran into each other. But each time she got close, he slipped away. Wily. Elusive.

Viggo was on the brink of getting a restraining order on Maggie.

Or was he simply playing hard to get?

Now he was living an ordinary life smack dab in the middle of the Midwest. Viggo was just a couple of hours away… just a short roadtrip away.

Her husband, tired of seeing Hidalgo and Northern Promises and Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, helps Maggie plan her trip.

Will Maggie’s husband ever have to set eyes on Aragorn again? Will Maggie and Viggo finally get together? Or will Maggie’s plan prove tragic? (150 words)

And if you want to work on your blurb for next week, here's next week's photo:

photo by pixabay.com

First Jobs

       I've had many jobs. For the past 27 years I've been a teacher. But before that, I've done a variety of things... some fun and some not-so-fun.

      For example, I worked at a pill factory. I was responsible for using a machine to make capsules filled with medicine. I lasted less than a week. Too many of my capsules got dented and had to be thrown away (that fact I succeeded in keeping hidden) and at the end of my employment, I cut the tip of my finger off in the machine (that I could not hide).

     I've been a waitress in several different restaurants. I was so talented at it, I could (accidentally) spill a Bloody Mary onto a businessman with a lot of style.

     I've begged door-to-door for ACORN, a community activist organization.

     Speaking of door-to-door, I've sold pre-arranged funeral plans. I think I lasted two weeks on that job, since I sold not a single, solitary plan.

     My first job, however... I still remember it with fondness. It was a blast in many ways, but unfortunately, worsened an addiction problem I had (and still have). 

     Go here to read about my first job. And tell us all about your first job. We're all curious.

      

A Poetic Memoir, A Prize and Back-of-the-Book Blurb # 46

I agreed to review Wave Rider:  A Poetic Journey from Abuse to Wholeness by Rebecca Pott Fitton. It's poetry. It's memoir. Two of my favorite things to read.

A copy of the book came to me, with a note surrounding the torn-up package. Apparently, the postal service had damaged the book. Some of the pages looked like they had been wrenched away from the spine, the glue no longer holding them tightly together. The note said something like "We are sorry for the damage done. It is our intent to provide the best service blah blah blah."  I don't recall anything even hinting at "This was our fault. We did this. We will make it right."

After reading Wave Rider, I think the damaged--yet still quite whole--book came in the perfect form for this review. It was the ideal way to be introduced to Rebecca... a woman who was damaged by family who (I assume) have never taken ownership of the heinous things they did, and I'm also assuming they never tried to make reparations.

So a belated thanks to the USPS...

Rebecca Pott Fitton was sexually abused by her uncle beginning when she was two. The journey she takes the reader on made me devour the book in one sitting, because I wanted it to be one trip. I wanted to walk along with her as she was in the darkness, when she was between the darkness and healing and finally, to where she is now:  riding the waves.

I can't imagine having a mother who didn't love me, but Rebecca writes of her mother, "She and I composed our own karmic dance for the rest of her life...

Together we did a karmic dance
one foot forward, three feet backward.
The floor was uneven and our steps collided."

Later in the same poem was the gem of a line:

"The baggage nearly buried me." 

In a later poem she speaks of karma, of the "lessons" she needed to learn but poignantly writes, "Next time, I need to select my family for my heart
             rather than from my my need for lessons."

As she healed, she wrote, "Healing was about the courage to walk through the fire of my being to understand who I was and was not."

In her poem "Body Talk," was the powerful line, "My body is a historian." With my students yesterday, I watched an interview of a 90-year old holocaust survivor. She spoke of getting a deep muscle massage, which loosened some of the atrocious things her body and muscles had buried. She ended up sobbing uncontrollably. With the elderly woman's words and Rebecca's lines it hit me:  our body does store all of our emotional pain and the stress. It's up to us to let it vent... to heal... and to speak up. Or as Rebecca Pott Fitton says,

"It is time to speak softly
so that the world hears."    

For anyone who has been sexually abused, I would recommend this book. For writers who are considering writing a memoir, and are thinking of ways to organize it, I would recommend this book. And if you'd like to read an interview with Rebecca, along with entering your name for a drawing, go here.

As far as the prize, on my last post I offered a giveaway of a memoir anthology... and after putting slips of paper into a mixing bowl and stirring them around (I'm not just old, I'm old-school), the winner is 

                      Pat Wahler

Pat--if you send me your address, I will send you the copy of A Cup of Comfort for Women.  Send it to sroslawski(at)yahoo.com

And now onto back-of-the-book blurb fun:

Look at the photo below. That is the cover of your book. You choose the genre. An edge-of-your-seat thriller? A study of how a crazy rich man can reach the pinnacle of power? 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 project. She's a novelist as well as a professional editor.  Check out her site. You won't regret becoming a follower.

Include your blurb in a blog post. Include a link to this post. Also, ink 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 and the blurb:

photo by pexels.com

Take Me Down… To Shackytown

Sal's a retired teacher, rollin’ in the big bucks after decades of avoiding having to spend her own salary on kleenex and hand sanitizer and dry erase markers.

She has two pampered pooches who clamored for casino action. They were tired of being stuck at home whenever Sal hit the road during her casino trips. One canine is way too big but the younger, shorter pup could be disguised… if only clever camouflage could be purchased.

So Sal and her husband Rick the Hick decide to build a tourist attraction:  Shackytown. There will be a Pepsi Shack, with all sorts of Pepsi memorabilia. There will be a Potty Shack, full of statues depicting people on potties… and much more.

With the proceeds from the Shackytown tours, will Sal be able to make the money she needs? Or will she have to start peddling her Chex Mix on street corners? 149 words)

And for the one or two people who play along every Friday, here is next week's photo:

photo by pexels.com

THIS is Why I Love Golden Retrievers

       This is an extra short post because Friday's post will be extra long. On Friday I'm reviewing a poetic memoir, Wave Rider:  A Poetic Journey from Abuse to Wholeness, along with announcing a winner and the normal back-of-the-book blurb fun.

        So, in the unlikely chance you have not seen this video, it clearly illustrates what I love about golden retrievers.

       Come back on Friday. You might be a winner. And if you live life anything like a golden retriever lives life... well, you're already a winner.