Weekend Coffee Share…Of Walter Dean Myers, bucket lists, baby goats, and writing goals.

Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share!  Please don’t hate me because I live in Florida, and it will be close to 80 degrees today.  At least my iced coffee is pumpkin spice flavor!  😉

First, I’d like to ask, which rings true for you?  Here are two alternate skits:

Child:  Grandpa, why are we here?

Grandfather:  To love one another and care for this great Earth.

Alternate:

Child:  Grandpa, why are we here?

Grandfather:  To compete with each other, destroy our enemies, and turn a profit.

I will not deny that this may seem a little political.  I have a hard time verbalizing such things.  I love people regardless of their political beliefs.  But I am having such a hard time lately dealing with recent policy changes, seeing the earth pilfered, people hurt, and families torn apart.  I may seem like a pipe dreamer, but I have long ago realized that was my place on this Earth.  If we all saw things in black and red (monetarily and us vs. them), it would be an ugly world indeed.  I’ve also accepted that, if I were alive in the Middle Ages, I would have been an artisan, poor indeed, but I would make people smile or cry, and they’d throw me enough crumbs to keep me alive.  I’d also be least likely to get beheaded.  I obviously would dress for comfort and not to impress some king into putting jewels on my head.  I’m perfectly fine with my place in life.  If I should ever make it big as an author, I’ll wear what the heck I want to book signings, just like Stephen King.

Now, off of my soapbox.  I have not participated in Weekend Coffee Share in a while!  Part of that is due to neglecting to blog more than once a week.  I’ve been doing the flash fiction entries since it’s tickles my fancy, but only once a week.  It’s good to be back, even if for once in a blue moon.  I love my writers’ community, and I’m glad you all are still here in this space!

Work has kept me busy, busy, while I try to promote my published books.  I’m not writing a book for NANOWRIMO, but I am fleshing out and revising the one I wrote last November.  It is a sequel to my time travel novel, Detours in Time .  This sequel has gone from 45,000 words to 56,000 when I last checked, so I am making progress.  Still, some nights, I get home from work and just want to read and relax.  It may not be completely revised at the end of November, and that’s okay.  I get achy in my hands and arms at times, either due to arthritis or the way I manage stress (internalizing).  So, I’m not pushing it.  All will happen in due time.  I don’t see myself quitting the job to just write until I most likely legitimately retire from teaching.

The workplace has given me more challenges than last year, I believe.  My family life is calmer, but I come home from work good and tired.  I won’t complain about the job; there are good days and bad days.  Sometimes, you can know just what to say to tell a student you’ve “got their number,” and it may work.  Other days, it’s quite overwhelming and you just wonder why they have to be manipulated or pleaded with to do the right thing?  Ah, the nature of middle-schoolers.  They don’t always know who they are.

At least I get to teach one of my favorite books again:  Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers.  Talk about a struggle for identity.  This book is about his life, and he sure went through some hard times regarding: poverty, race, identity, growing up in Harlem, family issues, and adolescence in general.  I know I mentioned this last week in my Stream of Consciousness post.  This book stays with me.  We are starting to study author’s point of view in a memoir.  I’m hoping I have enough artistic kids, because what I’d like to do is have posters of his head opening like a box with a hinge, and his thoughts on paper strips coming out.  Truly, isn’t that what a writer does?  We open it up for others to see what is inside.  Usually, there is an end goal.  He obviously wants to inspire kids of today to stop making excuses and go for their dreams.  I know Myers inspires me.

Well, Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday, is coming soon.  We’re going to NC to see my brother and sister-in-law.  The cooler weather will be nice.  I think I’ll gain weight.  I do yoga once or twice a week, but my cardio is faltering.  I blame it on weather fluctuations and writing goals.  I just have to do enough to make sure my clothes still fit.  Buying a whole new wardrobe doesn’t appeal to me like it used to.  I guess I’m getting more practical as I move toward fifty.  It’s gonna be awesome.  I will make it awesome.  I’ve added beer yoga, baby-goat yoga, trying helium beer with my high-school best friend, and still have sky-diving on my bucket list.  Wish me luck in these endeavors!      (Seriously, find a video of baby goat yoga.  They jump all over the place and look so light-weight.  It just seems like a joyful, laughter-filled experience I’d love to try.  Watch it and feel your blood pressure drop)!

-Pamela

#WeekendCoffeeShare is now hosted at https://eclecticali.wordpress.com/ Please visit the blog to view other weekend coffee shares and to enter your own.

How was your week?  What’s going on in your life and your artistic/ blogging endeavors?

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#flashfiction Friday Fictioneers, “The Road Less Taken.”

Photo credit: PHOTO PROMPT Shaktiki Sharma

Cassie stepped off the curb.  “Wait!  Wait!”  A male voice called.

She bristled.  Please, no, not when I’ve made it this far.

A young man approached another young woman next to her.  “I’m sorry,” he said, and embraced her.  Ah, true love.  Or not.

Close call, she thought.

Lord knows, it took enough nerve to get her this far.  She couldn’t stay any longer.  Something in her would die if she did.

The bus, a $50 fare, would get her on her way fast.  Back home.

“Merry Christmas to me,” she whispered, boarding the Greyhound bus, backpack in hand.

~99 words.

Each week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple hosts Friday Fictioneers where we’re challenged to write a piece of flash fiction in 100 words, more or less, based on the picture above.  It is awesome, in this blogging community, to see the many different responses that are generated from one prompt or photo.  I encourage you to create your own and click the InLinkz button to add it to the Friday Fictioneers responses!  While you’re at it, go to Rochelle’s link above and check out some of the other Friday Fictioneers’ responses!

An InLinkz Link-up

#weekendcoffeeshare Merry Christmas/Hannukah!

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Welcome to my #weekendcoffeeshare, hosted by parttimemonsterblog.com!  If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you that the fact that today is both Christmas and Hanukkah is an astounding, symbolic uniting factor for our world, something we so desperately need right now!  Instead of focusing on differences, we should focus on what unites.  And because the coffee is so good and the coffee shop music so enlightening, I would truly feel this.  I am, at heart, a true optimist.  Sure, I fight negative feelings at times, but I always believe it is a battle worth fighting.

I’d also tell you that I’m still writing, though I told a friend the other day I felt very unfocused right now.  (I did, but that was a work issue.  My job challenges me so much right now).  Yesterday, I added 500-600 words to my latest full manuscript.  That’s a big deal, because it tipped me to over 48,000 words and I’m closing in on 49,000.  I won’t accept any less than 50K.  I allowed myself to extend beyond November, but I won’t allow stopping short.  (Get the Seinfield reference?):)  I did another flash fiction story; you can read it at https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/flashfiction-this-time-shortstory-fffawchallenge/  I also discovered some new uses for the Author’s Den website.  I have never felt successful there, but they are showcasing Christmas poems and stories right now.  What’s a girl to do?  Write a Christmas poem and tag it as such!  So I did, and people have been responding to it! (This is after I figured out the Author’s Den password).  I also got all Christmas gifts wrapped yesterday, slacked around a bit, read a little, watched the IT Crowd, begrudgingly renewed auto insurance, and crashed, fatigued by 10 p.m.  Anyhow, here is the Christmas poem, as it reflects on my feelings of this season:

Christmas is in the Heart

copyright 2016

Gifts are wrapped,
hair is done
I’m ready for the arrival
of the chosen one.

To celebrate,
I’ll wear my best dress,
but it doesn’t really matter,
I must confess.

I’ve gotten all caught up
and I’ve lost sight
of the things most important
on this Christmas night.

Did I open my heart gladly
to someone in need?
It matters more
than the glitter on my tree.

And if I decided
that I could take time
to chat with a friend,
perhaps the joy is mine.

So if I am haphazard
with the wrapping of gifts,
decorating the tree,
or fulfilling each wish

Please understand
I, in my own way, take part
Christmas isn’t in the wallet,
but in my heart.

Friends, I wish you all the joy this holiday season can bring, whether from your family,  a loved one, a fuzzy dog or cat, or the joy you may bring to another unexpectedly.  Thank you for stopping by!  Please also visit http://parttimemonsterblog.com to see the other #weekendcoffeeshares and to submit your own as well!

#weekendcoffeeshare Full Speed Ahead and Ready for a Breather!

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.

Why do the holidays come and go so fast when we get older?  Seriously, they’re almost here, and I’m nowhere near ready!  Okay, we’ll make this a brief stop.  Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by parttimemonsterblog.com!  Do you need a huge Mad Hatter’s cup or a regular size?  (I could take either one).  If we were having coffee today, I’d tell you:

I’ve kept myself a little too busy lately.  Was I just putting things on hold in November?   I feel sometimes that I am not very sociable when I have a writing project, and since those are dying down, I’ve caught up with a few people this week.  One of them is my sweet little aunt who left me a message last week, and I feel bad that it took me so long to reply.  She didn’t guilt me, though!  I was still writing this week, though; I entered a flash fiction contest here on WordPress for the first time.  I’ve looked at them before, but this time, the image struck me and a thought grew into a brief 150-word story.  I’m the kind who “writes what I want to write,” but I love the idea of this community of bloggers and the fact that no two people think the exact same way.  The variety of responses is fun to see!  Check mine out here:   https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2016/12/13/a-turning-point-flashfiction-amwriting-fffaw-challenge/  It seems a little dark, but it is called “A Turning Point.”  I also prepared a presentation for an assembly of high-schoolers that I will chat with about writing, my own books, and my journey during Literacy week in January.  Yikes!  Jitters.  I’m sort of excited, though, and I should focus on that.  I’ll get there!  This is all in addition to my usual work schedule.

Holidays are upon us!  Christmas is here in a week, and I’m nowhere near done with Christmas shopping.  Amazon will save the day, but I suppose one trip to the mall will also be necessary.  Working there for 15 years of my earlier life kind of killed the joy I used to feel as a mallrat.  I guess I save much more money now, right?  Somehow I have turned anti-mall.  To be honest, you won’t find the TRUE spirit of Christmas there anyway.  A church dinner Wednesday helped get me into the spirit, and a fellow member has been needing rides to church so it’s getting me out of my temporary anti-social bubble.  After church dinner, there was a children’s play that was cute, funny, and inspiring all at once!  Well, the lady that rode with me had her granddaughter with her too, and they told me about a home with a beautiful Christmas light display, so we stopped there on the way home.  It was a beautiful departure from my usual rush-to-get-somewhere and rush-to-get-home habit.  I think that may be what will help me get into the spirit of Christmas, more things like that.  I’m going to try it!  I’ll let you know how it goes!

In going through the holidays this year, I am realizing the many people who suffer through this season with addiction/alcoholism, loneliness,  depression, etc.  We experienced a dark cloud in my family last year, but this year is so much better.  I am thankful for that, and I plan to be grateful for the love that is shared this season, rather than looking back at the sadness of last year.  I encourage you to reach out to someone who may not have that light of Christmas in their eyes. You never know what kind of difference you might make.  On that note, why don’t you take some more coffee for the road?

How was your week?  What fuels you and warms your coffee mug?  I’d love to hear from you!  Please also visit the Weekend Coffee Share host at parttimemonsterblog.com to enjoy some of the other Weekend Coffee Shares by our fellow bloggers and add the link for your own coffee share!