Enough cash to do whatever I want to, whenever I want to do it. NAh. That's greedy - I'll settle for enough cash to fill the empty propane tank for the stove, and the empty oil tank for the furnace.
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DLizze
Over 90 days ago
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Here are three of my favorites:
Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" responded the Chesire Cat. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't really matter."
-Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland
"The boy who assays to carry a cat home by the tail stands to gain a world of knowledge he isn't likely to get any other way. He isn't likely to try it again soon, either. But I say, if he wants to, LET him." Mark Twain
Nothing is so important
As a red wheel barrow
Glazed with rain water
Beside the white chickens.
William Carlos Williams
Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" responded the Chesire Cat. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't really matter."
-Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland
"The boy who assays to carry a cat home by the tail stands to gain a world of knowledge he isn't likely to get any other way. He isn't likely to try it again soon, either. But I say, if he wants to, LET him." Mark Twain
Nothing is so important
As a red wheel barrow
Glazed with rain water
Beside the white chickens.
William Carlos Williams
Active Ink Slinger
Quote by magnificent1rascalQuote by DLizzeQuote by magnificent1rascal
Anyone who thinks I probably say those phrases incorrectly has got another think coming.
Isn't got superfluous in this sentence?
LOL – Yes, I guess it is, but that's the colloquialism I was raised with.
(I sincerely hope no one suffers bodily harm because of a violent reaction to seeing that I ended the preceding sentence with a preposition.)
I believe it was Bernard Shaw who on said, "A preposition is a fine thing to end a sentence with."
But I may be mistaken - or he may have simply been quoting Dr. Johnson (or his biographer, James Boswell).
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I have never made any of those errors. I also know the correct usage of all other commonly misused words and phrases. My parents and both sets of grandparents were sticklers for correct usage. Being the eldest grandchild by four years, and an only child for the first five years of my life, I was under their influence and tutelage more than might otherwise have been the case.
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I agree with that assessment of the requirement for drawings. I am in the middle of a long novel on the adult site, in which I have three people sharing a house on The Magothy River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. In order to make both the indoor and outdoor activity realistic, i had to draw floor plans to scale for the two story house; a large scale (1"-50') plan of the lot on which it is sited, complete with North arrow and landscaping; and a vicinity map of the surrounding roads. I also have an Official Maryland State Highway Administration road map folded inside the back cover of the spiral notebook in which I have the drawings. But the only one of those things I would consider a "reference" is the state highway map; all the rest are figments of my over-active imagination. And, since I don't keep it handy, except when I am working on that particular piece, I didn't mention it.
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I'll go first: Sitting on a shelf near my computer, I have Dictionary of American Slang, Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (11th Ed.), Goode's World Atlas (1970 Edition), and a heavily worn copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style, which I bought for English 101 back in 1967.
What references do you keep handy while writing?
What references do you keep handy while writing?
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I am on the adult site (which shall remain shame....um....NAMEless), and I have an account on FB under my real full name.
If you want to find me in other sources, (either online or in print) I am in Who's Who in America; the Hagerstown, MD Musician's Union member list; the American Society of Civil Engineers; the Maryland Society of Professional Engineers; and the Maryland Department of Licensing and Regulation Civil Engineer list; and the Alimni Book for Franklin High School. Of course, as with FB, if you want to find me in any of those, you need to know my real full name.
By the way, m1r - I LOVE the drawing you stole from the lovely and talented Miss LauraLee.
If you want to find me in other sources, (either online or in print) I am in Who's Who in America; the Hagerstown, MD Musician's Union member list; the American Society of Civil Engineers; the Maryland Society of Professional Engineers; and the Maryland Department of Licensing and Regulation Civil Engineer list; and the Alimni Book for Franklin High School. Of course, as with FB, if you want to find me in any of those, you need to know my real full name.
By the way, m1r - I LOVE the drawing you stole from the lovely and talented Miss LauraLee.
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Knickerbocker Holiday
(for those doubting Thomas youngsters among you, yes, this was a real movie. It's star later married Dorothy Kllgallen, the Hearst Broadway show reporter, and game show panelist. I can't remember his name, and don't feel like bothering to look it up.)
(for those doubting Thomas youngsters among you, yes, this was a real movie. It's star later married Dorothy Kllgallen, the Hearst Broadway show reporter, and game show panelist. I can't remember his name, and don't feel like bothering to look it up.)
Active Ink Slinger
"You asked me about writing--how I did it. There is no trick to it. If you like to write and want to write, you write, no matter where you are or what else you are doing or whether anyone pays any heed. I must have written half a million words (mostly in my journal) before I had anything published, save for a couple of short items in St. Nicholas. If you want to write about feelings, about the end of summer, about growing, write about it. A great deal of writing is not "plotted"--most of my essays have no plot structure, they are a ramble in the woods, or a ramble in the basement of my mind. You ask, "Who cares?" Everybody cares. You say, "It's been written before." Everything has been written before." E. B. White, Letter to "Miss R..."
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I find it interesting that the overwhelming majority of pieces on this site seem to be poetry. Has anyone else noticed this? And, more to the point, has anyone else besides me wondered why? Are writers in general under the impression that it is easier to write poetry than prose? Are some writers on here afraid to try writing dialogue? These are just some thoughts I have had, and wondered what other members here think.
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I tried three different segments from the first chapter of a story I have up on another writing site which shall remain nameless, though it is well-known by many members here. Each segment was at least three paragraphs long (more, if it included dialogue).
I got the following results: Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, and Margaret Mitchell.
Interesting. I have never even heard of Chuck whatsisname, let alone ever read anything he (or she - it could be a pen name, for all I know) has written. So, just now, in the middle of writing this post, I did a copy/paste of his name, and followed it with the word "excerpt" and took the time to read the beginning of chapter one of Lullaby. It is incredibly disjointed. With a gazillion sentence fragments. All tossed in, in little bits and pieces. The thoughts jump around. That don't seem to fit.
I was just about to give it up as a lost cause, and shake my head wondering how some people get to be on best seller lists, when I suddenly realized I was geting interested in the story. Go figure.
Now I have to admit, I am passingly familiar with both Stephen King and Margaret Mitchell. Dr. Rabbitfoot scared me simple (Ghost Story is the only thing I've ever read that gave me nightmares) and I can quote lines from GWTW ("I don't know nuthin' 'bout berthin' no babies, Miss Scarlet" and "Oh fiddle de dee. I'll think about that tomorrow." and the line everyone knows, "Frankly, my dear...") but I am not concious of particularly liking either of their writing styles.
So this all comes as a bit of a shock, and makes me ask two questions: 1) How many authors are in the possible list of results; and, 2) What would happen if one copied and pasted the first page of James Joyce's Ulysses, or John Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus into the little box?
By the way, I don't know who started this thread, but the first word in the title should be the objective form, "whom".
I got the following results: Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, and Margaret Mitchell.
Interesting. I have never even heard of Chuck whatsisname, let alone ever read anything he (or she - it could be a pen name, for all I know) has written. So, just now, in the middle of writing this post, I did a copy/paste of his name, and followed it with the word "excerpt" and took the time to read the beginning of chapter one of Lullaby. It is incredibly disjointed. With a gazillion sentence fragments. All tossed in, in little bits and pieces. The thoughts jump around. That don't seem to fit.
I was just about to give it up as a lost cause, and shake my head wondering how some people get to be on best seller lists, when I suddenly realized I was geting interested in the story. Go figure.
Now I have to admit, I am passingly familiar with both Stephen King and Margaret Mitchell. Dr. Rabbitfoot scared me simple (Ghost Story is the only thing I've ever read that gave me nightmares) and I can quote lines from GWTW ("I don't know nuthin' 'bout berthin' no babies, Miss Scarlet" and "Oh fiddle de dee. I'll think about that tomorrow." and the line everyone knows, "Frankly, my dear...") but I am not concious of particularly liking either of their writing styles.
So this all comes as a bit of a shock, and makes me ask two questions: 1) How many authors are in the possible list of results; and, 2) What would happen if one copied and pasted the first page of James Joyce's Ulysses, or John Steinbeck's The Wayward Bus into the little box?
By the way, I don't know who started this thread, but the first word in the title should be the objective form, "whom".
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Quote by gypsymoth
Thank you for posting those tips, Ms. Rascal. They're very helpful.
As for the cockroach question, as long as one of them went by the name of archie, it wouldn't be a problem, I don't think.
archie, as I recall, was good at avoiding hooptedoodle.
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I like many different types. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I want a good story, like The Cremation of Sam Magee. Other tmes, I want food for thought - that could be something as simple as William Carlos WIlliams' Red Wheel Barrow, or something s complex as Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Sometimes I just like a little light humor, like A A Milne's The Matter With Mary Jane, and sometimes I want a story told in nonsense words, like Jabberwocky. Sometimes I want to consider history, like the Illiad, or Sandburg's Chicago, and sometimes I want a good play, like something by Shakespeare. The only poetry I never want is poetry set to a sound track, like rap.
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Oh, come now - there aren't any that are worse than the short, ugly inmate.
I have to give credit, though. about twenty years ago, the blueprint (remember those?) companies used to give out free calendars. One year, each month had a few of those puns, with dimensioned illustrations, as if they had been drawn by architects or engineers.
I have to give credit, though. about twenty years ago, the blueprint (remember those?) companies used to give out free calendars. One year, each month had a few of those puns, with dimensioned illustrations, as if they had been drawn by architects or engineers.
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KATE’S SUPER FUDGE BROWNIES
(copied from Ladies Home Journal interview with Kate Hepburn)
First, melt two squares of unsweetened chocolate and ¼ pound sweet butter (1 stick) in a heavy saucepan.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup sugar. Add two eggs along with ½ teaspoon vanilla and beat like mad.
Stir in ¼ cup flour, ¼ teaspoon salt and a cup of chopped walnuts –not smashed up, you know, just chopped into fairly good-size pieces.
Now mix all that up. Then you butter a square pan (8X8 inches) and dump the whole thing quickly into the pan.
Stuff this pan into a preheated 325 degree F. oven for 40 minutes.
After that, take out the pan and let it cool for a while. Then cut into 1 ½ inch squares and dive right in.
(copied from Ladies Home Journal interview with Kate Hepburn)
First, melt two squares of unsweetened chocolate and ¼ pound sweet butter (1 stick) in a heavy saucepan.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup sugar. Add two eggs along with ½ teaspoon vanilla and beat like mad.
Stir in ¼ cup flour, ¼ teaspoon salt and a cup of chopped walnuts –not smashed up, you know, just chopped into fairly good-size pieces.
Now mix all that up. Then you butter a square pan (8X8 inches) and dump the whole thing quickly into the pan.
Stuff this pan into a preheated 325 degree F. oven for 40 minutes.
After that, take out the pan and let it cool for a while. Then cut into 1 ½ inch squares and dive right in.