JB's June Writing Challenge: Z is for ... Zen

Remember the whole "you learn something new every day" thing? I've heard the word Zen bandied about multiple times over my adult years, and I had a general idea of what it meant, but I never knew exactly what it was until today. The benefits of research.

JB's June Writing Challenge: Y is for ... Yankee

My bio says I'm a "bona fide Yankee transplanted to the South." In truth, I'm a bona fide Air Force brat who spent most of her youth in the North after Dad retired.

Years ago my old publisher invited its authors to contribute to a compilation of stories about our mothers (I think it was a Mother's Day tribute or something), so I wrote a piece about my Mom, the military wife, who organized and orchestrated 13 moves from the time I was born until I was about 9 years old.

JB's June Writing Challenge: X is for ... Xanax

There's a funny story behind the topic of tonight's post, but I'm not sure you'd get it if you don't work in health care. Suffice to say that after the week we had at the day job, all of us were seriously considering asking the nurse practitioners for a prescription.

JB's June Writing Challenge: X is ... waiting for tomorrow!

Sorry, folks - I have failed, and failed miserably, today. Due to some serious technical difficulties, I am just now at a point where I could sit down at my computer and come up with something intelligent to say about some topic that starts with "X", but it's 10:15 and I've already turned into a pumpkin.

So the "X" post is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

That having been said, I'm still on target for finishing the June Writing Challenge in ... well, June. So until tomorrow, when I might have a coherent thought in my head again, read a book.

JB's June Writing Challenge: W is for ... Weddings

I decided to go with the "wedding" suggestion (as opposed to the "waterslide") because as many of you may know, The Boy (our 23-year-old son) is getting married in October.

Weddings
The WGH and I have had to do very little in preparation for this wedding. The Boy and his fiancée have been planning and prepping since he proposed last May.

JB's June Writing Challenge: V is for ... Variety

Today has been nothing short of insane. But it has had one very bright spot, in that my request for "V" topic suggestions garnered the biggest response of all to date. I'm choosing to call this one variety because of the long list of varied topic suggestions, all of which I shall list and comment upon herewith.

Variety
Following is the list of topics, and my observations/comments:

JB's June Writing Challenge: U is for ... Unsmart

My friend Lisa and I are always commiserating about how we can't deal with stupidity. The other day, she said, "These people are just unsmart." I decided that was my new favorite word.

Unsmart
True, this is not really a word. Sometimes you just have to make up a word to fit the situation. (We writers do that a lot, actually.) Unsmart doesn't mean stupid, exactly. We think it means

JB's June Writing Challenge: T is for ... Tomatoes

I'm beginning to think that you, my sweet friends, are having more fun coming up with topics for me to write about than I am having writing about them. Evidence today's suggestion from my lovely friend Blake.

Tomatoes
The WGH suggested I talk about the difference between cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes.

JB's June Writing Challenge: S is for ... Sweetheart

Another Facebook friend suggested the topic for tonight ... which could very well have been a number of other things, like: storms (which knocked out our electricity for a good 3 hours while the CEMC crew repaired a pole on the main road by our subdivision); sabbatical (which I felt like taking because of the power outage); Saturday (which would have been way too easy); Sonic (where the WGH and I went for dinner because of the power outage); and Seuss (which is a very long story).

But the suggestion sparked something that I thought would be nice to share with you.

JB's June Writing Challenge: R is for ... Rooster

One of my Facebook friends suggested the topic for tonight's post, and I'm having more fun with these Google searches than I ever imagined I would. This one returned 13.7 million results ...

Rooster(s)
The first and most obvious rooster is an adult male chicken (did you know that a rooster less than a year old is called a cockerel?). By the way, the Wikipedia article on the rooster has more information than I would ever want to know about this particular bird. Not going any further with that one.

Check out some of these other interesting results:

JB's June Writing Challenge: Q is for ... Quotidian

Quotidian is not really what this post is about, but it's a fitting title because of its meaning:

quo·tid·i·an [kwoh-tid-ee-uhn] adj. 1. daily; 2. usual or customary; everyday; 3. ordinary; commonplace.*

No, the real reason I selected this word is that at first I thought I would be hard pressed to come up with words/topics that started with the letter Q, but the more I thought, the more words I came up with--

JB's June Writing Challenge: P is for ... Pickles

My funny friend Stephanie from the day job is getting really good at coming up with off-the-wall topics for me to write about for the June Writing Challenge. Today's suggestion made me laugh so hard I had to tell the boss about it, and he thought it was a great idea! All I can do is shake my head, crack my knuckles and start typing.

Pickles
I did a Google search for "pickles", hoping to find out how many different kinds of pickles there actually are. When your search engine returns 10.1 million results, you come to realize several things:

JB's June Writing Challenge: O is for ... Organization

Big thanks to my lovely newest writerly friend Blake, who suggested today's topic (she actually said 'organization skills', but I figure the organization part alone is sufficient).

Organization
I'm perched on the bed at the moment, watching the end of the Reds game with the WGH, who would laugh himself stupid if he knew I claimed this publicly, but I do have excellent organizational skills.

JB's June Writing Challenge: N is for ... Nincompoops

Once again my darling sister has offered up a topic that holds both hilarity and potential insight in the palm of its hand.

Nincompoops
One of my favorite memories associated with this word is a Bugs Bunny cartoon: I can't remember (or find on YouTube) which one, but there's a segment where Bugs is making fun of whatever adversary happens to be sharing the stage with him, and he says something to the effect of "What a nincom--" (and here he gets hit over the head) "--poop!" and the last syllable is about two octaves higher and there are, of course, resultant stars spinning about his noggin. Funny as heck.

JB's June Writing Challenge: The Halfway Point

Well, here we are--halfway through the month and I have successfully kept up my end of the bargain and have written something every day this month so far. This is a big deal for me, really. And if you know me at all, you'll know why. So I appreciate your sticking with me through the A-M topics:

• Angels
• Baseball
• Curiosity
• Distractions
• Entertainment
• Fun
• Grace
• Happiness
• Imagination
• Jiggy
• Keepsakes
• Laughter
• Menagerie

Looking back, I see varying levels of insightfulness in these posts, from really thoughtful to downright silly. But my goal has been to write every day, and to this, the halfway point, I have accomplished my goal. We'll see what the rest of the month has in store. I'm very optimistic about being able to do this for another 15 days, especially given that I've found myself exceptionally antsy and wracked with guilt by 9:00 if I haven't done my post for the day. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, right? Fifteen down, six to go.

Wish me luck.

And read a book. It's good for you.

JB's June Writing Challenge: M is for ... Menagerie

Admittedly, I received some quality suggestions for "M" today--magnificent, mind games, murder mystery, mustache. I even considered migraine, because I've had one for three days now. But as a foot-square spot on our bed is currently being guarded carefully by our youngest pet, I decided menagerie would be the most appropriate subject for me to explore tonight. As in, since my bio includes the fact that the WGH and I share our home with a "small menagerie of cats and dogs", may I introduce you to ours? If you're not a pet person, you have my permission to stop reading. The rest of you will, I'm sure, understand a mummy's pride.

In order from oldest to youngest, our menagerie consists of:

JB's June Writing Challenge: L is for ... Laughter

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
-e.e. cummings, US poet (1894 - 1962)

Laughter
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard the phrase, "Laughter is the best medicine." This is another concept in which I believe with all my heart. Not only that, it's a scientific fact! Laughter produces endorphins, and endorphins make you feel better. A workplace without laughter is a dull, oppressive, gloomy place. We laugh a lot at the day job--and we're a doctor's office, so we're spreading healthy karma.

JB's June Writing Challenge: K is for ... Keepsakes

The plea for a "K" topic this morning brought quite a few intriguing suggestions, but I like this one from my lovely friend J.T.

Keepsakes
Dictionary.com defines keepsake as "anything kept, or given to be kept, as a token of friendship or affection; remembrance." Synonyms are listed as well: souvenir, memento, token. Also on the page is this alternate definition from the World English Dictionary: "A gift that evokes memories of a person or event with which it is associated."

JB's June Writing Challenge: J is for ... JIGGY?!?!?

When my friend Stephanie suggested I use "jiggy" for today's topic, I thought she had lost her mind. But the more I thought about it, the more the idea started to appeal to me. The whole point of a "writing challenge" is to make it challenging, right? I think using "jiggy" as a topic definitely qualifies in that respect. Intellectual and creative? Yes, I can be both of those things.

JB's June Writing Challenge: I is for ... Imagination

"You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
-- Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)

My darling friend, the beautiful and talented Paige Crutcher, suggested the "I" topic today. And this is a lady who knows what the word means.

Imagination
I've been told since I was a child that I have a fairly active imagination, and I think it's fortunate that I do, considering that my passion involves creating people and places and situations that don't really exist.

JB's June Writing Challenge: H is for ... Happiness

I contemplated quite a few topics for today's post ... health, hope, Heaven ... on all of which I could probably manage to come up with a few relevant sentences. But then I thought of the one thing that all of these concepts have in common.

Happiness
(Yes, it's late. Yes, I'm tired. So if I'm completely incoherent here, I apologize, but humor me and keep reading.)

I can say in all honesty that I am a happy person.

JB's June Writing Challenge: G is for ... Grace

"... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ..."
(Romans 3:23-24, New King James Version)

Grace
My sweet friend Lisa suggested today's topic, and it being Sunday I thought it was quite an excellent idea.

JB's June Writing Challenge: F is for ... Fun

Fun
Two of my illustrious coworkers at the day job decided that my topic today should be "fun". I'm not sure this isn't too broad a subject for a 200-300 word essay, but it's a concept with which I hope we are all acquainted. We seem to be keeping to a theme here in the Brooks on Books Library: distractions = entertainment = fun ...

JB's June Writing Challenge: E is for ... Entertainment

Today's topic suggestion came courtesy of my sister from another mister, the incomparable J.T. Ellison, thus proving yet again that she can read my mind.

Yesterday I was tickled by this wild hair to "organize" my Internet Favorites into some semblance of order. I have a lot of sites and pages "favorited," ones that I like to visit often, for research or relaxation or whatever. I created a few new folders in which to group my favorite sites so they would be easier for me to find without having to scroll down through the rather lengthy list--alphabetic or not, if I think categorically things are much simpler in my mind.

JB's June Writing Challenge: D is for ... Distractions

I started this post in the car, on my smartphone, as the WGH and I sat at Sonic waiting for our milkshakes, after having procrastinated making a decision about what we wanted for dinner. It's been that kind of a day. Which gives me the perfect topic for the 'D' post: Distractions.

I've been distracted all day. The storms that blasted through the area last night woke us at midnight with the genuine fear that the nearly 300-year-old oak tree in our front yard had been struck by lightning. It hadn't, fortunately, but the strike itself, wherever it landed, was loud enough to rouse the dead.

JB's June Writing Challenge: C is for ... Curiosity

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
-- Dorothy Parker (attributed), US author, humorist, poet, & wit (1893 - 1967)

Curiosity [according to Webster's]: n., 1. a desire to learn 2. inquisitiveness

I love this word. Aren't we, as writers, always asking, What if ...? This is the stuff our stories are made of. It is our curiosity that makes us ask the questions, and then go and find the answers.

JB's June Writing Challenge: B is for ... Baseball*

Baseball is like church. Many attend, few understand.
-- Leo Durocher, US baseball manager (1906 - 1991)

Baseball
I will be the first person to admit I know practically nothing about baseball. I have a pretty good grasp of the basics, and I have my favorite teams (the Reds, the Cubs and the Dodgers, in case you were wondering). But the WGH is my go-to guy for details, the intricacies of the game, what all the numbers mean. I love watching games with him, because he usually offers his own commentary seconds before the announcers on TV say the exact same thing he just did. I keep telling him he's in the wrong business.

JB's June Writing Challenge: A is for ... Angels

Character is what God and the angels know of us;
reputation is what men and women think of us.
-- Horace Mann, US educator (1796 - 1859)

How fitting that the first person to suggest a topic for my June writing challenge was none other than my original first reader, a dear friend to whom I affectionately refer as the WMVR. Thus beginneth the challenge ...

Angels
Yes, I believe in angels. I believe they exist in many forms, both spirit and human: "guardian angels", who protect us from harm; "guide angels", the voices in our heads that help us make decisions; and "gift angels", those special people whom God places in our lives simply for the purpose of enriching said lives. (The aforementioned WMVR was one of those, for me.)

If you believe, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, I'm not asking you to, but consider the following:

Seriously Serious Self-Challenges

For some reason, the thought that today is the first of June has niggled its way into my brain, taken root, and will not leave. It's bouncing around in there, wreaking havoc, causing all kinds of mayhem, interrupting the flow and function of my cerebral cortex, scaring the tour guides, and worst of all, eliciting delusions of grandeur and trying to make me ... well, think like a writer.

So, I'm giving in to it, and I'm challenging myself to several things this month.

Big Announcement #2

Coming up for air to let everyone know that my second ebook, Whisper of Darkness, is now available exclusively at Amazon. Here's the cover, as well as the link. My sweet and fabulous cover artist did another bang-up job, don't you think?

Buy Whisper of Darkness at Amazon

As if that weren't enough, here's an extra special deal: All day today, May 10th, you can go to Amazon and get a copy of No Evil Lost, absolutely FREE. Really. Free. It's a special promotion in honor of the release of Whisper of Darkness, in the hopes that if you like the first one, you'll give the second one a try. So please do.

Get No Evil Lost

(Note that this link will still take you to the Amazon page, but after tomorrow, it won't be free.)

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy.

SAD Like Me

Today I am sitting in my newly de-cluttered and reorganized study. I can actually see the tops of both desks (AND the carpet!). My laptop is in its proper place, center stage on the writing desk. I can actually walk from one wall to its opposite (a distance of about 12 feet) without tripping over something. The WGH actually complimented me on a bit of décor I've employed to hold some of the books that are overflowing from the two barrister bookcases (aren't they adorable?):

What inspired this sudden urge to get my little life back in order? Sunshine and a guilty conscience.