How NOT to start a novel

“It was a glorious day.”

 

Here’s what the sentence gives the readers …

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and makes us …

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An opening line must make our readers feel …

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How are we doing with our opening lines?

 

 

 

Daily Word Prompt: Glorious

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This Moment is for You

I just want to take a moment to thank you, all my blogging buds, for the time you have spent looking at my posts and for following me. For a writer, there is no greater compliment. (I know I ramble about all kinds of things)

I also thank you for your postings. They make me laugh, cry, think, learn, and fill me with inspiration. Looking forward to more!

—Carolyn D-W

IMG_2460                         —also known as Me-Maw cropped-resized-granny

 

Will You Come?

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Will you row beside me on a lake layered blue

To glide past the mountains in calm solitude

Through ripples of water, a quiet bouquet

just thoughts, without words in a silent buffet

Where worry dissolves with each stroke of the oar

And Nature brings peace, and the soul it restores

— by C. Dennis-Willingham

 

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Hannah and Roman

They stood inside an ancient oak tree, steady on limbs thick, strong, and unbreakable.

“What are we doing? Is this the right thing?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. I’ve never done this either.” He showed her the ring. Simple, unique, creative just like she was.

She read him the poem she had written. The last line – “So, I promise you the sun.”

“And I promise you the moon,” he said to her.

“What if we break our promises? Even if we don’t mean to?”

“Then,” he said, “together, we will hold up our world.”

 

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painting by C. Dennis-Willingham

Breaking routines to find treasures

Funny how, when a friend comes to town, you experience your home city with new eyes. So, when my friend Derick came to town, I broke my routine and did something I hadn’t done in a long while.

We hiked up Mount Bonnell, and viewed the Austin skyline.

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Then off to Contemporary Austin Laguna Gloria to visit nature and sculptures. And nature through sculptures.

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We followed the paths …

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And discovered a beautiful mermaid …

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solitude,

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and a renewed passion for nature.

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Oh, and as a friend once told me in Florence, NEVER FORGET TO LOOK UP!

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What do YOU see? Can you see FARTHER?

 

Is this a puppy asleep on a couch, OR

 

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a moon through an open curtain?

 

Version 3

The same photo from a different perspective

The same “fact” with opposing views

 

No wonder it’s difficult to convince others of what WE believe is true.

 

It is rumored that Native Americans never “saw” the “invisible” European ships coming toward them, that it was too “alien” to their experiences for their minds to grasp the concept.

However:

There’s a more obvious answer for the odd times when Cook’s ship didn’t spur a reaction from people on the shore. While we can’t disprove the extraordinary notion that the ships were indeed invisible, I think the more prosaic solution is that the natives were living on the edge of survival, and that anything that wasn’t a threat or didn’t contribute to their well-being could be safely ignored.

And as panhandlers and wheelchair users can tell you, just because you’re ignored doesn’t mean you’re invisible.

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Our eyes only see what our mind wants to tell us. Let’s tell our mind to see things anew.

Nothing is invisible.

The Emigrant’s Legacy

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Strong hands once built a structure

in 1889

Ancestors who worked endlessly

in an old, unsettled time.

 

And now, tis I who benefits

a creation made of stone

this house, a loving bounty

and a place I call “my own”.

 

Author’s note: The “homestead” was built by my great-great grandparents after they immigrated from Germany in the 1840’s. This house is shared with the appreciating many.