Books and More

I stopped at a couple of thrift stores today. After buying an old ivory colored USA cereal bowl, a Mirro aluminum fluted mold and an old plastic three sectioned bill and letter holder that you hang on the wall, I headed for the book section.

I love Garfield. And, I love Little Golden Books. With all the Little Golden Books I have, this is my first Garfield one.  The other book is a 1950 book filled with 15 short stories.


I'm not very good at writing short stories, so I thought this might be a good book to buy. Maybe reading these famous authors' short stories will help me learn how to write a good one. There are short stories by Thomas Hardy, Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, Anton Chekhov, William Sansom, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Joyce, Guy De Maupassant, Kay Boyle, Sarah Orne Jewett, Alun Lewis, D.  H. Lawrence and Eudora Welty.

We picked up the May Two-Lane Livin' magazines in Mineral Wells while we were running around. Aren't those baby birds on the front cover just the cutest?

My article is on page 16.

 And, I was surprised to see on the reader's page a poem sent in by my neighbor. I told his wife that she was living with a poet and didn't know it. (Sorry, but I just had to say that).

And, I am happy to say that my online PB critique group is up and running. There are 7 of us and I am enjoying critiquing and getting critiqued! It is a very learning experience.

Have you bought any good books lately? Or been critiquing any manuscripts?

 Posted by Janet Smart at Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch.

©Janet F. Smart

Writing and Cold Weather

It is so cold. It is so snowy.

We were going to have our first writer's meeting last night in over a month and had to cancel because of the bad weather, and I was so looking forward to it.

I didn't have anything to share with the group until the last minute. I woke up yesterday morning with a story on my mind. I laid there for a while, not wanting to get up, but gave in and reached into the drawer of my end table and drug out my writing tablet and pencil.

I kept writing until I had a very rough draft of a short story.

It's called The Unlocked Door and it needs a lot of work. Maybe by next Monday it will be ready for my writing group to critique.

What's your weather like? I think Global Warming has decided to take the back burner for a while. We've got snow in the forecast for the entire week with temperatures dropping every day.

I guess it's a good time to stay inside and write. . . or read, whichever you prefer.

It's also a good time to feed the birds and watch our feathered friends brave the cold.