The Memory Lights by K.M. Weiland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The setting is Victorian London, and K. M. Weiland did it justice. She kept the whole story in the first person point of view. Mary, the protagonist, was experiencing a lost of memory. We experience her struggle as the story unfolds within Mary’s confused and frightened mind. She struggled with a lack of memory thicker than the fog that obscured the streetlights of London; the streets she wandered at night as Colin’s witless accomplice in common thievery and pickpocketing, along with a boy named Jack. I felt for Mary as she went through her traumatic jarring experience that revealed the truth, and brought the story to a satisfying end.

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WRITING FUN - Writing Prompt

Write a story about a paperclip. Limit your story to 150 words. Include the words 'London', 'desk', and 'archive'. And write it in 20 minutes.
(I got this prompt from following Tiffany Jenson's writer's blog.) She has a lot to teach to us who aspire to write.


     First I must disclose that I did not complete this little ditty within the twenty minute challenge. It took me fifty minutes, but I should be able to knock off a couple more minutes because I was eating a pot pie at the same time.

     I was amazed at how helpful it was to "attempt" to write within a short time limit. It jarred my mind out of the self conscious writers block mode, into a sense of whew, look at me I'm writing! So, thank you Tiffany for throwing this little exercise out there for us beginner's to sink our baby writer's teeth into.

     Here is my little ditty:

          Sarah stood wringing her handkerchief around her finger until circulation had stopped and her index finger turned blue. Finally the pain set in enough to cause her to let go of it. "So your telling me my records are lost because of a paperclip?" It was a large paperclip encased in pink plastic, heavy on the few papers it held together before she laid them on the consulates desk in the hotel she was staying at in London. Seems it fell off her vital records. The consulate held it out to her. "Yea, I'd want it back if I could teach it to talk. Then it could tell you where, when, and in what country I was born, and I could go back to America!" Sarah snatched the big pink paperclip out of the consulate's hand. "Because I used this big pretty pink paperclip my papers aren't in the archive!"
(150 words exactly)


So kids, join the writing fun.  What else are you going to do while you're waiting to open your presents?  Slap your 150 words in the comment area below this post. Then you can eat your pot pie!

A Non-Human Point of View / Writer's Digest writing prompt

Write an end-of-days story from a non-human point of view (animal, tree, insect, cloud, etc.).*Post your response (500 words or fewer).

What I wrote:

I haven't smelled vanilla or peppermint for weeks. No sweet treats, why live.  I've had my antennae out for fellow roaches to no avail. How far and fast did we all run when the colossal blast hit. No organic waste left to clean up. Not one hair. I feel dry, and worse yet there is mold close by. I feel it in my antennae. This is not good. Too bad my buddy roach lost his head in the colossal blast, but at least we made the most out of the remaining seven days without his head. The last sac of eggs from him are nymphs now. My little family would live more harmoniously in a larger group. Where are the throngs of roaches?! What’s wrong?! Poor little ones haven't even experienced what a sweet tastes like. What it’s like to crawl all over other little nymphs in a crowd large enough to feel the world is right. I feel so dry. So dry. I would die just to smell a sweet right now. Without the taste of peppermint the world might as well end. I’d give all three knees on all six legs just to smell a sweet. There hasn't been any organic waste for a month, and sweets, oh sweets! for longer than that. What I wouldn't give for the sweet smell of a peppermint candy smashed on the ground somewhere. The world is done if there are no sweets. 

There are no more sweets.

The Ultimate Mother is Nature

Jezebel: Haven't Had Your Soul Ripped Out Through Your Chest Today? Read This. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIw4c300w0

Virgin Passport User

San Ignacio, Sonora, Mexico

This is the first time in my life that my travels involved the use of a passport. I've never had one before, just got my first one ever, and I was anxious to use it. So imagine my excitement when I was invited to go to Ignacio, Sonora, Mexico. Well, excitement isn't a complete picture when it comes to me going to Old Mexico. Yep, I'm one of those people afraid to go to Mexico. The only news coming out of that country is about drug cartels, crooked 'policia', and kidnappers that take your families money then kill you anyway.