Month: April 2016

The Importance of Story

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I consider myself a storyteller, first and foremost.

One of my earliest memories is of lying in bed, telling myself what the cowboys on the wallpaper were doing.

cowboy wallpaper

 

A year or so later, my dad took me into the local department store to choose wallpaper for my bedroom in the new house he was building for us. I chose this, because it had letters , and I knew I needed letters to write my stories, and there were toys about which I could make up stories.

childhood-wall-paper-576x1024

Even at aged 3 (yes, 3), I knew I was meant to tell stories.

For me, the story is  about which  books, movies, and even songs should be. One of my husband’s cousins is into film. He runs a couple of prestigious film festivals. For him, movies are about texture and other visual things. Story isn’t even secondary. What is the point?

One of the reasons I love baseball is because it is rich in the “feminine tradition of oral history,  story telling, and gossip.” (Breaking into Baseball by Jean Hastings Ardell) “Baseball loans [sic] itself to story telling.” (Jeff Gellenkirk)

Story pervades every aspect of our lives. From religion to the memes we read on social media, our business plans to our successes (and failures). Story is everywhere.

Today is National Tell a Story Day.

Don’t just tell a story today. Celebrate one.

 

 

Snarky Sunday: Eyebrow Threading

There’s a relatively new trend in cosmetic enhancement called eyebrow threading. I first heard about it from X-Chromo, who has actually had this done. I understand the concept: it’s like plucking with tweezers or using hot wax to extract eyebrow hairs. What I don’t understand is the mechanics.

A couple of weeks ago, X-Chromo and I went to The Maul (not a typo). One of the first things I noticed is how dark the interior of the place has become. I knew the “new” part of the sprawl was “green” and ill-lit, but when we ventured into the “old” part, I felt as if I’d wandered onto the set of a post-apocalyptic movie. Very dystopian feel to the place.

And there, in the middle of all this darkness, someone was having her eyebrows threaded. In a Maul kiosk, not a in a private space. And the technician had the threads in her mouth. As if they were dental floss. Using them. On some stranger’s face. In the dark.

I think I’ll pass.

Weird Collections

What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever collected?

My daughter made a rubber band ball.

Rubber Band Ball courtesy X-Chromo

Rubber Band Ball courtesy X-Chromo

At one point in my unexciting childhood, I collected the tags from Tetley Tea Bags. I believe the brand was Tetley. The tags were printed with clever sayings. The one I remember–and still quote–is “To make a long story short adds six words.”

Nowadays I collect and share the sayings from my Yogi tea bags.

How about you? What odd thing have you collected?

 

Purse Project (Reprise)

Purse project 01

Remember this purse? I really like this purse because of its outside pockets.  But it wasn’t quite big enough.

My portable keyboard didn’t fit.

portable keyboard (1)

I couldn’t carry a magazine.  Or a file folder.

mag and file

So for my birthday, I decided to buy another purse–if I could find what I wanted. I wanted the same purse, only bigger. Only by an inch or two.  Just enough to accommodate my portable keyboard or a file folder.

X-Chromo told me I should check out JC Penney. We went to the Maul together. She guided me through parts I’d never seen before (I am not a fan of the Maul). Nope,nope, nope. Then we went to JC Penney. She went directly to the purse I wanted.

purses 01 (3)

I am delighted. The new one (on the right) has a pocket on the back (although the keyboard also fits inside very nicely).

Purse with keyboard

Release Day!

Now available from Amazon.

Omega Moon Rising

Omega Moon Rising

Abigail Grant has a secret . . . and a plan to keep her younger sister from suffering the same fate. Her strategy would have worked if she hadn’t been seduced by sweet-talking musician Luke Omega. Suddenly she’s plucked from the life she wanted to escape, but her new circumstances only expose her to a different danger—or is it her salvation?

Luke has a secret, too. He believes he can change his destiny through willpower—and a little blue pill. When he inadvertently gets mixed up in the Grant sisters’ troubles and his pack alpha orders him to marry Abigail, his family insists he tell her he’s a werewolf. But Luke claims Abigail is not his life mate. She doesn’t need to know what happens to him on the full moon.

Until he accidentally stumbles across her secret. Then all bets are off.