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Friday, March 27, 2009

Postcard Friendship Friday!

For Postcard Friendship Friday
Thank you to Tim Hooker for a very interesting and complete interview about his writing. Thank you also to the people who left comments and/or questions for Tim. I will leave this open for more people to ask questions or comments if you missed doing that. Otherwise it's only four people who are in the drawing and the winner will be announced in the next post. I am disappointed that there weren't more people who left comments or questions.

One of my daughters told me that I had too many ideas and too much to read in my blogs. I have nothing to say except these are my mind's meanderings. If you read the description of my blog it says these are the thoughts of a writer. Unfortunately or fortunately for my ideas, these are the things I think about during the day. I want to share them with you, since some of them are rarely discussed and some are only my thoughts. I would like your opinion on whether I should shorten my blog or not. I'd be interested to know if it's too much to read and I should put it into shorter blocks. It seems that today everything needs to be in short spurts like Twitter responses. You can see I can't do that. It's one of the reasons I have to spend so much time on revising my work. In any piece of writing I can always go back and cut some of my words. I can probably do it here too, but most of the time I don't. It's more a stream of consciousness thing and more like I'm talking to you. I feel blogging is like having a conversation with a lot of people at the same time. Even though most of the time you don't get too many responses right away.:)

I used to carry around a journal and write down my thoughts whenever they occurred. But it's too heavy to carry it around in my bag, so I leave it home and come back and write about everything in my blog now. :)

So this has nothing to do with anything that I've written before, but today for some reason I started thinking about a middle grade fantasy novel that I wrote as my first serious novel. It came from a story I used to tell my brother when he was younger and that I recycled and told to my daughters before they went to sleep. By the time it had come to my daughters it was elaborate and I couldn't start the story where it was. So for a project for a Writing Workshop for my masters degree I used it and started from the beginning. It didn't matter that when I started the story I didn't start it at the beginning and that I never knew how it began. I went back and introduced the characters and wrote a fantasy story that is very unique.:) No, seriously, I have never read anything like it. Neither had my professor, though she never really commented about the story, but rather about whether I had fulfilled the assignment, which I had. Then I left it alone and picked it up again a few years later when I had plenty of time and thought I had it ready to be published after a few critique groups had commented on it. Now that I think back on it this wasn't ready at all. It received three rejections and I put it away and have never looked at it since then.

Then Virginia S. Grenier and Donna McDine from Stories for Children
Magazine announced a contest to write a dream story for children, Wacky Dream Contest and I thought, why not make this a dream! Of course, this is a dream. It's a fantasy and it's about a scary thing that some kids think about. This contest is for both adult and children writers who are interested in writing a story to be included. More about the story in my next post. I have to go back and reread it first.:) Don't forget to check the link for all the contest details. There are too many to list here.:)

The picture on the top is for Postcard Friendship Friday and it's one of my favorite things. I love Betty Boop and can't seem to get enough of her. I love the small dolls and the large ones. I even have a clock of her.:) So Marie of Cpaphil Vintage Postcards, here is my offering for Friday. Sorry it's a tiny bit late.:)

That's it for today. If you want to comment on yesterday's interview you may leave your comment until the end of the weekend. I'll give all of you who didn't get here that much time!!! Until the next time thank you to all of my readers and I hope you will post a comment when you visit.:)


12 comments:

  1. Hi Barbara! I love reading your posts and I know you put a lot of effort in it. As you know, today there is a "hurry,hurry" mentality. Not all people have the patience to just slow down.

    I still say write what's on your mind however long but you've got the right idea of maybe writing it into shorter blocks.

    Hope that helped you a bit.

    You take care and have a wonderful weekend.

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  2. HI Shey,
    Thanks for letting me know. I'm glad you enjoy reading my posts.:)

    Have a great weekend too. Did you leave a comment for the interview?

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  3. Good morning Barbara! You worry agout having posts that are too long and I worry a bit that mine are too short!I'll admit that I often glaze over when posts are too long. I kick myself in the bootie a bit and DO read your posts because I think that we have some nice things in common but I often click away from pages that have big blocks of text:) I always think that if I want to read something long I'll read a book and not a computer screen. It's much nicer to snuggle up with a book and a cup of tea. You can't really do that with a computer.

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  4. Happy PFF! My first time visit to you as well. Go BETTY!

    Not to worry as you'll find MANY writers in bloggyland who will enjoy their time here. Others have different styles... I tend to use blogger like a big refrigerator magnet for family and friends to visit us so my posts tend to be long but I do keep it focused to one event or topic. I can easily spend an hour or more a day just visiting my daily reads of blog friends and leaving comments on their posts that's why I get up at o-dark-thirty before the house wakes up to get it done without interruption. ha ha

    Look forward to visiting you again and have a great day!

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  5. Barbara...terrific post...it never bothers me if a post is long or short...as long as it is informative and fun to read. And yours are certainly both.

    Thanks for the plug for the SFC Wacky Dreams contest.

    Much appreciated.

    Best wishes,
    Donna

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  6. Marie,
    I should listen to you, because you have sooo many followers.:) Maybe I'll try and make shorter blocks. Post on a topic a post. I'll try for you, honey!:)

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  7. Janeen,
    Welcome!! So you love Betty too!!! I don't know why, but she makes me smile. I have a whole lens on her on

    http://www.squidoo.com/Betty-Boop-5

    Thank you for visiting and I'm glad you want to return.
    You didn't leave your blog address so I can't visit you.:) Please post it so we can all go and see your blog too!

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  8. Donna,
    Thank you so much for the compliment! I love Stories for Children Magazine and have thought about subbing something I wrote. I am also going to enter this contest.

    You're welcome about the plug.:) All of us are friends and what are friends for?:) Good luck with it and now I have to get to work to write that story.:)

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  9. Fun image of Betty Boop! She has so many different "looks"... In regards to your questions about your blog... I'm like Marie, in that I often find myself scanning over/through long posts... I'm more drawn to short blocks, larger text, light backgrounds, and graphics to help break the text blocks... I've always believed that we're very visual creatures. But, with that being said, I also feel that folks should do whatever pleases them on their blogs. If the goal is to gain a large following, then yes, perhaps find out what others desire and adjust things in that direction... otherwise, I vote for doing whatever makes you happy! I'm off to peek at some more of your posts... do enjoy the weekend...
    ~blessings~
    Pearl

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  10. Hello Barbara! I love Betty Boop and this is a particularly fun example of her cards. Keep writing.

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  11. Hi Pearl,
    Glad you stopped by and left me a comment.:) I'm going to take everyone's comments into account and think about them. Hope you enjoy the rest of the posts.:)

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  12. Hi Judith,
    I'm glad you like my writing. Do you have a blog? I'd love to read yours. Leave me the link and I'll go there.:)

    I've loved Betty Boop for so long. I found this at a Betty Boop picture site.

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