Friday’s Odds and Ends

Before getting into the usual topics on my Friday blog, I wanted to share some exciting news.

logo-short-help-copy-600x480S&H Publishing is a small publisher with a big heart that releases quality books. I first did business with them when they accepted my story, “To Love Again” for their International collection of short stories –Short & Happy (or not)

Now they have branched out to a new enterprise and are launching a webinar series beginning tomorrow, October 1. Each month a new workshop will be available, covering all aspects of the craft of writing. The first workshop, which I was able to preview, is on Premise and Structure, presented by Catherine Jordan and it is amazing. I was taking notes as I watched, and I will be buying the workbook that comes with it.

Even after all these years of writing, I learned something new!

My contribution to the series is a webinar on editing in June, and you can find a full list of the workshop topics and presenters at  www.sandhbooks.com/online-writer-workshops/

Something cute for Feline Friday:

kitten-1
This is Shadow, a kitty we rescued years ago.

 

On the political scene:

I tried. I really did. In an effort to be an informed voter I watched a good bit of the debate last Monday between Trump and Clinton. What a joke.

Trump supporters who are drawn to his rude, obnoxious behavior and hate speech, probably thought it was just fine for him to interrupt the moderator at one point to say, “Shut up, Lester. I’m not finished.”

Really?? If, heaven forbid, he should be elected, is that going to be a response to Xi Jinping during a diplomatic visit by the Chinese leader to the White House should Jinping or one of his aides say something Trump does not like?

Instead of answering the questions, which seems to be part of the political play book the past twenty years or so, both candidates spent too much time baiting each other and then rising to the bait, which put them both in a poor light at times.

Still, I think Clinton had an edge over Trump and three things stood out for me. First his response when she accused him of rooting for the housing crisis of 2008 that brought hardship for so many people in this country. He had the nerve to say, “That’s called business.”

Then he defended his position when she brought up the fact of him not paying an architect who had designed a clubhouse for him, Trump replied, “Maybe he didn’t do a good job and I was unsatisfied with his work.”

When Clinton brought up the fact of tax returns that show Trump hadn’t paid any federal income taxes, he said, “That makes me smart.”

Poor Lester Holt came across as a substitute teacher handling a study hall with 8th graders who won’t sit still or be quiet. One person on Twitter suggested that, in the future, microphones at debates be programmed to automatically shut off when the candidate reaches the end of his or her 2 minutes. Maybe technology would have a better chance of gaining control than human moderators.

I remember when I participated in debates in school, the moderator was king, or queen, and debaters ignored them, or the rules of debate, at their own peril.

Jill Lawrence, the commentary editor at USA Today  had a lot more to say on the subject in a post on Tuesday, and her analysis of the debate is worth a read.

FRIDAY FUNNIES

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, “What is politics?”

The dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I’m the breadwinner of the family, so let’s call me capitalism. Your mother, she’s the administrator of the money, so we’ll call her the government. We’re here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the people. The nanny, we’ll consider her the working class. And your baby brother, we’ll call him the future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense.”

The little boy goes off to bed thinking about what dad had said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has soiled his diaper.

The little boy goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, the little boy says to his father, “Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.”

The father says, “Good son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.”

The little boy replies, “Well, while capitalism is screwing the working class, the government is sound asleep, the people are being ignored and the future is in deep shit.” – More Jokes at Laugh Factory.com 

WRITING WISDOM

If you peruse the writing how-to shelves, you will find book after book after book of guides. If there was a single way of doing this thing called writing, there would only be one text and we would all have it.

That quote is from an article at Writer Unboxed written by L.J. Cohen, 5 Years, 6 Books, 7 Lessons. While reading the post, I was nodding in agreement. I always start my editing workshops with the caveat that what I will say is not etched in stone and is certainly not the last word in writing or editing.

This is only one of the lessons L.J. offers on the blog, so I hope you can hop over and see what she says about luck and perseverance.

That’s all for me folks. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I will be at a concert Saturday night with Adler & Hearne for the release party for their new CD “Simpatico”, which is awesome, by the way. Then on Sunday I will be helping my son celebrate his birthday with lots of other family. Nothing better in life than good music and family gatherings.

What are your plans? Do you remember the old S&H greenstamps? Please tell me I am not the only one. Did you spot the resemblance in the publisher’s logo?

2 thoughts on “Friday’s Odds and Ends”

    1. I hope the coffee didn’t hurt your tablet, Maria. Glad you liked the joke. I thought it was so appropriate for this current messy political scene.

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