It's a pleasure finding a straight-to-the-point and easy-to-follow article on writing flash fiction. It's an even greater pleasure when its author graciously allows CCF to post it to its site: 6 Steps to Writing Flash Fiction. In a simple and straight-to-the-point manner, Paul Alan Fahey walks us through the steps involved in writing flash fiction.
Fahey talks about the greats in literature who've written flash fiction. He tells us that flash fiction enriches writing routines. And he's right on that. Those who participate in the CCF Online Writing Contest tell us that the monthly themes of the contest often act as writing prompts for longer pieces for them. In defining flash fiction, he tells us that:
Whether they’re called blasters, postcard fiction, micro-fiction, sudden fiction, short shorts or flash fiction, the essence of the genre is the same. The writer quickly gets into the story, establishes setting and character, sets up the conflict, fills-in critical back-story, then heads faster than a speeding bullet toward the climax and resolution.
Then Fahey goes on to use a flash fiction piece he wrote to illustrate the 6 steps to follow when we're writing flash fiction of our own.
I couldn't keep from tapping my feet and clapping along as I watched these girls "do their stuff." Exhilirating to watch them perform. Reminded me of my daughter when she competed in the National Cheerleading Competition in Dallas, TX. :-)
They are The Firecrackers! On their website we read they're, "a performance jump rope team made up of talented 4th-8th graders from the Kings Local School District in Ohio. Coached by Lynn Kelley, they perform across the country. Some notable past performances have been at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a Presidential Inauguration and an appearance on The David Letterman Show."
Kids are awesome and coaches such as Lynn Kelley, that work alongside them to bring kids' awesomeness out are too. Share with me the awesomeness of kids you know. I'd love to hear about it. Read More......
I happened upon this video clip where First Lady Michelle Obama talks about health care reform from the point of view of women, mothers, and families. I connected with her words because that's the way I've been filtering the news on the subject. Every time I listen to a news report on the status of health care reform I always think of my children, my husband, myself, my sisters, i.e., my family.
The news is often about what Democrats or Republicans are or are not doing about reform, so I've kept from writing my thoughts on the subject. But Michelle's words touched me. She states that, "I want to focus my attention on where policy and people intersect." I connected with her words. That's where my heart is.
The video also has cancer survivor Roxi Griffin talking about her personal journey, from dealing with copays of $27,000 to now facing copays of over $100,000. In her case, the high copay keeps her from getting screenings. I think it would keep me from getting them as well. Griffin tells us that, "people need to realize this is not a political issue. To me it is a moral issue. And people need to stop and think about the ramifications it has on families when they are not able to take care of their medical needs." I agree.
Watching the video I was shocked to hear Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, say that, "insurance companies are allowed by law to charge women more than men. Sometimes significantly more." Sebelius goes on to say that, "too often insurance benefits don't cover the benefits that women need...at every point along the way, women are being discriminated upon by insurance companies."
What are your thoughts? How do you feel about what is going on? Do you agree with Griffin that this is a moral and not just a political issue? I'd love to hear from you.
Sometimes we just have to choose to enjoy life, don't we? In the midst of whatever it is you're going through, go ahead and dance, sing, embrace life with a hope-filled expectation that life will embrace you back. :-) Read More......
He spoke from Wakefield High School, Arlington, VA, as students tuned in from all across America, from kindergarten to 12th grade. I was moved as I listened to the speech, not by the inspiring stories nor the encouraging words but, rather, by the freedom his words embodied. He called students to set their own goals and go for them.
I cried when he said to the students that, "no one has written your destiny for you, because here in America you write your own destiny, you make your own future." I cried because I remember being in 6th grade in Cuba and looking around the classroom knowing what each of my classmates was going to be when they grew up not because they were writing their own destinies, but because the teacher had just finished telling them what they were going to do with the rest of their lives. They had no choice. It had been decided for them.
Here's the video and the transcript of the President's speech:
President Obama's words echoed what I believe to be true. There's no limit as to what each of us can do when we set our minds on it. Here are some of the highlights of his speech:
Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have the responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.
No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it.
You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to train for it, and work for it, and learn for it...The future of America depends on you.
If you quit on school, you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.
The circumstances of your life, what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home, none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school.
There's no excuse for not trying. Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one has written your destiny for you, because here in America you write your own destiny, you make your own future.
Today I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending some time each day reading a book...But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
The truth is, being successful is hard...And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try it.
Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. These people succeeded because they understood that you can't let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you...No one is born being good at all things. You become good at things through hard work.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness. It's a sign of strength.
And even when you struggle, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you, don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country. The story of America...is about people...who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
So today I want to ask all of you, what's your contribution gonna be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make?
I expect all of you to get serious this year...I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down. Don't let your family down or your country down and most of all, don't let yourself down. Make us all proud.
In America students get to write their own destiny. In Cuba the communist government gets to write it for them. In the USA not only are we what we learn, we each get to choose what we learn in order to be who we want to be. As I listened to President Obama's speech I thanked God for the privilege of living in the good old U.S. of A.Read More......
November 2009 is my self-imposed deadline to finish the middle grade novel I'm writing. I keep a copy of the manuscript in my Kindle and love to browse through the various chapters before I go to bed at night. The memories are crisp, clear, and the years separating me from when the events in the story took place vanish as I relive them in the stillness of the night.
Now that I'm settled into our new home in Virginia it's time for me to finish the manuscript and submit it to the editors and agents who have asked for it after hearing my pitch. The plan is to finish writing it by November 1st and then have the months of November and December as a time where the manuscript is read by pre-selected readers, including members of my critique group. During these two months I would work on rewrites and edits prior to submitting the manuscript to various agents and editors come January 1, 2010. At present my critical path is BIC HOK TAM (butt-in-chair; hands-on-keyboard; typing-away-madly)! It's the motto of the Book-in-a-week group I belong to and it really is the best way to get writing done.
Island of my heart / Isla de mi corazón is the working title of my forthcoming middle grade novel. It's also the sentiment many Cubans have about their homeland. Andy Garcia encapsulated this feeling in his movie, "The Lost City." [Final scene of the movie shown below.]
I'll keep you posted on my progress as the days go by and give all my blog visitors permission to hound me so that I keep to my deadline and finish writing the manuscript by November 1st. I've set up an Island of my heart group at myspace and would love to have you visit with me there as well.Read More......
On August 16, 2009, Fareed Zakaria showcased Cuba's toilet paper crisis during his "What in the world?" segment on his Fareed Zakaria GPS Sunday program. Before I left Cuba I well remember when toilet paper stopped being the soft paper we were used to and became something closer to that of a paper bag consistency. Not pleasant to use. Now, years later, we hear that even low quality toilet paper may join the list of scarce items on the island.
In the following video clip, Zakaria tells us that, "the government has warned its citizens in recent days that they are facing a toilet paper shortage...that may last until the end of the year."
It's not as if Cuba had an abundance of toilet paper to begin with. Our family friends, when they travel to Cuba, take their own toilet paper with them...and often have it taken away by Cuban custom officers once they land on the island. For the government to make an announcement that there is going to be shortage of toilet paper just means there will be little or no toilet paper to be had.
Cubans, as Zakaria mentions in the video clip above, are saying this shortage has to do with the global economic crisis. But have you heard of toilet paper shortages in other countries of the world, all of which are also going through hard economic crisis? I agree with Zakaria when he says this latest in a long list of items in short supply in Cuba has to do with Cuba's penchant for hanging on to communism as its form of government. I've transcribed below the 2nd part of Zakaria's comments:
"Just two weeks ago, Raul Castro vowed yet again to keep communism alive in Cuba, to make sure capitalism doesn't return. In a world of flux, I suppose it is comforting to know that some things stay the same. Cuba's disastrous economy would be a joke were it not for the poverty it has perpetuated among millions of Cubans. The whole country is stagnating. Fifty percent of its arable fields are going unfarmed. First and second year college students now work one month out of the year in agriculture. Its insane farm policies lead to frequent shortages of fruit, vegetables and other basic food needs, shortages even more serious than toilet paper. And all those programs that held up for years as successes of the communist revolution, free education for all through college, universal health care, well Raul Castro just announced they're going to have to make cuts in all of these. Meawhile the average Cuban still earns the equivalent of less than $20 per month. Now, capitalism has its problems as we have all seen, but at least we are not running out of toilet paper."
Hasta cuando, Dios mio, how much longer, Dear God, until Cuba once more not only has enough toilet paper, and food, and medicine but also for its citizens to have freedoms we take for granted here in the USA... freedom to be and to think and to dream and to follow our hearts into a future of our own choosing.Read More......
A book I consider to be a "must read" for young and old alike is coming out as a movie this December. The book is The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, and the trailer promises us a movie that will be a good depiction of this Young Adult title. http://ping.fm/2w1HT
In The Lovely Bones, Sebold gives us a story of a young girl's life, terminated much too early, at the age of 14, at the hands of a murderer.
We learn this from the very first pages of the story. The trailer shows us that as well. But this is just the beginning of what turns out to be a heartbreaking and compelling read. We feel we must stay with Susie Salmon, the 14-year old protagonist. Her voice and life, even after death, carries us forward. We feel her bliss as she first goes to heaven, and find ourselves urging her on to bring her murderer to justice when she decides this is what she must do.
In order to accomplish her goal, Susie will leave her perfect world in the heaven she finds herself in after she's killed. She'll also have to get her loved ones involved. How and why she does it will keep the reader turning page after page until the very end of the novel. Dreamworks is bringing out the movie version of this novel on December 2009, with Academy Award Winning Director Peter Jackson at the helm. I hope movie goers will be rewarded with the same powerful emotions that the book elicited for its countless readers. Come back and let me know how you like the movie once it comes and. And also tell me if you ead the book and what you thought about it.Read More......
In order to have our voices heard, there is a difference between energizing citizens to get involved and inciting mobs to riot. Obama and his team did the former during this past presidential campaign. GOP members, to their shame, are doing the latter at health care reform town hall meetings. Even worse, they're relishing their actions.
Shame on GOP members for cheering and applauding Congressman Todd Akin of Missouri when he said that, "Different people from Washington, D.C. have come back to their districts and had town hall meetings and they almost got lynched." [from the transcript of the Rachel Maddow show on 8/6/09]. Does this Republican congressman and his audience understand what it is they're saying and applauding? How can Republicans be for disrupting the democratic process of a town hall meeting? Senator John McCain, to his credit, has come out against this type of behavior.
Rachel Maddow said on her August 6th show that, "Public figures have two options when political circumstances reach a point that's somewhere between extreme rhetoric and physical violence. You can condone the threats and then risk being seen as complicit to whatever comes next, or you can step up and be an adult, try to do something to restore civility."
My hope is that Republicans will do just that. That they'll energize GOP members not just to be active participants in the national health care reform conversation but to encourage them to do it constructively. We are better than what's being shown of us on national TV these days. We can and should be coherent in our ideas, our questions, our concerns.
Perhaps the problem lies in the reality that everyday Republicans are not necessarily the ones showing up and disrupting the town hall meetings. In the following clip, Rachel Maddow talks with Chris Hayes, of The Nation, and they comment on the disruptive behavior being shown by Republicans at these meetings. As the clips log-line states, in this clip you'll see Maddow reviewing the history of fake conservative protests.
According to this clip, the current rabble-rousers do not represent the best and highest the Republican party has to offer. It might be good for everyday Republicans to join the national conversation and bring their thoughts, ideas, questions, and concerns to the meetings, rather than allow counter-productive self-serving parties to send their hand-picked representatives to speak on their behalf.Read More......
Today is President Obama's birthday. Our 44th president turns 48 today. I find myself singing "Happy Birthday, Prez Obama" and silently wishing him many more birthdays to come. At the same time I have to wonder about the folks Eugene Robinson talks about in his article on The Washington Post, "The Berserk 'Birthers'." The article is about people who still believe that President Obama was not born in the USA and, therefore, is not elegible to be President.
It's easy to want to dismiss the Birthers as some lunatic fringe. The problem with doing this is that, in his article, Robinson tells us that according to Research 2000, "28 percent of Republicans actually think that Obama was not born in the United States and a separate 30 percent are 'not sure'." That's 58% of GOP members. Wow. I've been a GOP member all my life. Lately I've been calling myself "a thinking Republican," in an effort to distance myself from what is surely becoming a lunatic segment in the GOP. How in the world could 58% of Republicans not be sure of Obama's birthplace?
On the Morning Joe video clip above, Robinson says that, "Trying to analyze the "birther" phenomenon would mean taking it seriously, and taking it seriously would be like arguing about the color of unicorns. About all that can be said is that a bunch of lost, confused and frightened people have decided to seek refuge in conspiratorial make-believe. I hope they're harmless. And I hope they seek help."
I agree with Robinson. In Spanish we have a saying that summarizes things and declares the subject is closed, in the same way a period at the end of a sentence closes that thought, that sentence. "Punto y aparte," is what we say, "Period. End of discussion." And after listening to Robinson on Morning Joe, and reading his Washington Post article, punto y aparte is what I say to the whole birthers phenomenon.
On a separate note...and not to take anything away from the seriousness of Robinson's writing...we all know unicorns are white. Don't we? :-)
