Frivolous Friday

The start of it all!

 

Goals and time management…

While I am enjoying participating in the postaday challenge, I can only wonder how long I would have lasted if I started in January.  Do you think quantity is better than quality?  Is it the exercise of doing it daily that is important, or the quality of the posts?  Last weekend I was out of town, so I had my posts “timed” to appear when they did.  Is that cheating?

I’ve decided to read that novel I finished a year ago and decide if I want to bother to revise it and resubmit.  I figure three chapters a day of reading and making notes.  First three chapters tonight.

This isn’t much of a post, so I will add a pretty picture.

Train Smoke - Munch

 

Where Were You Last Night?

I found this prompt from the book “What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers” by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter.

The exercise:

Begin a story with this line: Where were you last night?

The objective:

The objective is to once more start the story in medias res– in the middle of things. Notice how this questions begins in the middle of a situation. For example, “last night” the subject of the question, has already happened.  If one character asks another this question there are already two people “on stage.”  And the question will probably produce a conflict. But don’t get hung up on making it a line of dialogue– it can be used in many different ways.

My attempt:

“Where were you last night?”  Susan donned her sunglasses. “We missed you at the launch.”

“At home. I wrote a song.”  They sat outside at Café Dupont, an early Sunday morning ritual they’d shared for years, drinking coffee and sharing stories. Candy could see Susan’s eyebrows rise behind her Chanel glasses.  Despite all the Botox she could still move her brows.

“Since when do you write songs?” Susan smiled. Candy knew that smile. It was the indulgent but superior smile that told you what she thought while being too polite to say it aloud. The smile her sister had acquired after she stole Candy’s boyfriend.  The same smile she had perfected after dumping him for a man with money.   Twenty years she’d endured that smile every Sunday over the two-egg special.

“Since last night.  It’s a blues tune.”

“Oh, dear.”  Candy watched her sister delicately pat her lips with her napkin.  “Is something the matter?”

“Daddy died two days ago.”

“Oh.” Susan pursed her lips.  She had been estranged from the rest of the family since she had betrayed Candy all those years ago.

Candy squeezed her sister’s hand and smiled at her. In a moment Susan would be ordering mimosas and toasting their father, and it would ring as hollow as Candy’s heart.   Pity to be her.

 

A Simple Tomato Sauce

I received a couple of emails about a tomato sauce I mentioned on Twitter.  I find it much better than your typical jarred variety.  A friend shared it with me, but I have altered it slightly.  The original is from Jo Pratt’s In The Mood For Food.

Simple Tomato Sauce

Serves 4 – takes about 30 mins to make

Put 2 x 400g tinned tomatoes in a saucepan with 1-2 tsp of dried chilli flakes, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of caster sugar and a good pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bring to a simmer and cook over a low heat for 20-30 minutes until the sauce is rich and thick.

Modifications:

I use less dried chilli flakes, maybe half a teaspoon.  I also use regular sugar and add Italian seasonings (like you get from McCormick) and rosemary.

Very cheap and very good.

 

Those Meddling Kids!

As a young girl, I used to love Scoby Doo!  In fact, I fancied myself a cross between Velma and Daphne.  I just loved to play with my colorforms.  Remember these?

Basically, you could create your own scenarios for Scooby, Shaggy and the Gang in a haunted mansion.  Good times.

That being said, the best cartoon ever (made by the same peeps)?  Josie and the Pussycats!  What could be cooler than a mystery-solving redhead in a band dressed in a cat suit?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Well, except  perhaps a mystery-solving redhead in a band dressed in a cat suit who went into outer space.  Ah, the good old days.

What were your favorite early childhood toys?  Which cartoons did you watch?  Do you think they helped or stifled your creativity?  Do you cringe at the memories or do you feel nostalgia?

ETA:  I seriously thought Josie came on later than 1970.   Hmm.  Reruns?

 

Tragic

Can you tell I’m out of town?  Will resume tomorrow.