Analogies?

One writing technique that I enjoy and can fully appreciate is the use of analogies. I would prefer to be more fluent in this skill, and I understand that in order to become better at any aspiration, one must practice and use that trait, and often. Since I recently picked up a book by a new favorite author, Erica Bauermeister, and her words almost flow from one analogy to the next like bites out of a delicious chocolate bar, I've decided to approach different topics, food, personal descriptions and items using this manner.

Right now, I am as tired as a 50 year old palm tree, after being beaten by the winds and saltwater, season after season, with an aching trunk and withered leaves. I realize that I've already fallen in my weekly postings, not finding the time last week to post, and indeed, I am ready to go to bed now. My goal here is to write five analogies, taken from the items on my desk and around me.

The melted ice cubes in the drink looked like lava rocks, broken away from the side of a mountain, and sitting in a stream.

The flashing lights of the d-link cable system flickered as those on a police cruiser pulling over a speeding car.

The smells emanating from the nearby trashcan gave off the odors of a recently prepared soup - garlic, onion, chicken renderings and salt.

The coolness in the air of the office felt like the refrigerated section at the grocery store.

The pistachio nuts were perfectly crunchy and fresh, like a tortilla chip on the outside and firm butter on the inside.

My reference to analogies, however, may  be incorrect, and I am merely making similes. My 8th grade daughter informed me that analogies are word references and do not use the inference of "like." Analogy example for her:  green is to grass as blue is to the sky. Without much research, I can see her point, yet I will have to pursue it further to describe my word play completely and accurately.

I have a wariness of the teachers at her school who insist on placing the punctuation outside  the quotation marks, whereas I learned in journalism studies that it always goes inside the quotes. Regardless, I have titled my topic as Analogies until I find out otherwise.

The Rewards of Reading

Today I went to Barnes and Noble because for budgeting or other unlikely reason the Bee Cave library is closed on Mondays  (probably so they don't have to have many full time employees to offer benefits to). I had just connected to an author via email, Erica Bauermeister, who is having a new book signing party in Seattle next week. I will be in Seattle also, but alas, will be leaving two days before the event. I reserved one of her books, published in 2009, at the Marble Falls library for pick up on Tuesday when I go there for my job with Symphony (sounds like a more glamorous job than it really is).

Having already parked the very un-obvious choice of automobile for me, a huge white van - the white whale - with Aeroflor Coating Services and a logo that is an airplane prop with wings emblazoned on the side, I remembered the Monday library closing. I decided to walk across the street and browse B+N and view the book reserved in Marble Falls. I asked about the organization of books by author, not knowing if it is ordered as a library is, as I normally Never purchase books unless my child needs it for school reading. I do like to shop here for 50% off all pocket calendars each year though, and this location has a Starbucks that we like to visit when shopping, and my daughters use at least 25% of their B+N gift cards from their grandaddy there.

Back to the book I reviewed - it was awesome and spoke directly to my soul! If anyone else is a Bauermeister fan you will understand when I say that I ate it up! The School of Essential Ingredients is the title, and it details the life a restaurant owner who holds a once-a-month cooking lesson and her students' interactions. But what Erica brings to the table is an incredibly detailed description of food - at least in the first 20 pages or so. I could smell the garlic and chicken fat, and inhale the cinnamon-orange-chocolate coffee. I could taste her first batch of mashed potatoes and see Mexican tamales she tried for the first time. Her analogies were incredible and I can't wait to get the book at the library tomorrow! At the same time, I will recommend to that library and to the other two that I frequent that they order her new book and previous ones as well. If you are a sensory reader - feeling what the characters feel with their senses - you will truly enjoy this book.

Thank You Notes

I was raised to write thank you notes for all sorts of gifts and graciousness while growing up. A note to the grandparents, aunts and uncles for Christmas gifts, to friends and family for birthday, graduation and eventually wedding gifts; and in my professional life to those who offered money to my causes or acts of kindness that I was able to use in my professional career.

After writing these notes for probably over 40 years, I have grown tired of this task. It could be that I have so many creative ideas to encompass and then I have to consider that I don't have the time to implement them that it distresses me. I also have a handwriting disability and don't care to write without a keyboard very much. Also, maybe now that it costs almost 50 cents to mail a thank you, couldn't I just send a text or email thank you instead? Another inhibitor is just the general boring nature of the thank you note, "Dear family member, Thank you so much for the blah-blah. I've enjoyed it so much and can't wait to enjoy it again. I will treasure it forever. Thank you again. Love, Alecia." What else is there to say besides making up some far-out way that I will enjoy it? I try to intersperse a bit of personality/drama/lifestyle into the note to hopefully make it better reading, but "dull" is just the way I would describe it.

But then, there's the plus side to the thank you note. The receiving of it. Snail mail has become so passe in the past ten years or so that it has become much more exciting to receive a piece of personal mail than it was in the past. Just reading a hand-written note makes it all worthwhile to the recipient, and that's why I still begrudgingly write thank you note after every Christmas, birthday or other special gift is received, and encourage my children to do the same. The benefit is definitely worth the effort. Got to go write them for 2012 Christmas gifts right now.

Happy New Writing Year!

A new year means a chance to change the date at the end when writing a check or a letter, the end of the government's tracking of the dollars you earned that year and in reality, that's about it. But we make such a fuss of it, people making resolutions about what to change in the new year, with little change actually occurring. Go on a strict diet, exercise more, be a nicer person and clean out the garage are a few common items. I heard on the radio the other day (which may be as close to fiction as the internet) that 50% of new year's resolutions are broken by the first week according to a random survey. My solution to that problem is to not make any resolutions until after the first week.

To make resolutions on January 1st is not the greatest of ideas because you may have eaten and drank too much the night before and not have had enough sleep. Planning to change when you are feeling guilty for a particular activity is not wise, especially when you have a few leftover treats in the refrigerator and pantry, and you can get pounds of candy for half price or less at Target and Wal-Mart. To make resolutions in the month of December can be challenging as well, for you are preparing for the holidays and again, possibly eating and drinking too much, spending a lot of money, and not getting enough rest. Once Christmas is past and the decorations are put away, with not much on the calendar except for baking Valentine's Day cookies, that's a good time to look at the past year and resolve to improve in the new one.

I'm not going to share all of my New Year's Resolutions but will tell any reader the one resolution that I hope to fulfill, and that is to write at least 50 posts in 2013. The other items that I will write out and resolve to do (while watching the Cotton Bowl with the Aggies playing tonight) will include better communication, more efforts to support my community and a usual eat and live healthy mandate. Happy New Year!

Brainstorming and Writing

Every year, I say that I am going to write at least one post a week. This year has been a miserable attempt that I can always blame on - I'm too busy, or I'm not creative right now, or I have nothing to write about. No excuses this year, even though I was just interrupted from writing for about 10 minutes.

My plan for 2013 will be what I did for my two daughters when they were younger every night before they went to bed. After reading a story or two - sometimes a picture book and sometimes a chapter book, I would have them give me two things - a name, an idea, a thing, a place, an animal or any other topics - and I would make up a story. For my blog this year, I am going to make lists of places (worldwide, home and office bound), things (foods, accessories, toys, cars, gadgets, etc.) and people (male/female, old/young, daring/timid and other characteristics). Each week (because my goal is 50 blogs) I will choose two items and either incorporate it into current events, address the meaning of them or make up a fantasy story.

So - Look forward to some good writing in 2013 - and you may just see more than 50 blogs!

Merry Christmas!

I Love Beans

Bean soup, beans and rice, beans on nachos, beans with enchiladas, beans with sausage - I love beans! SO healthy and delicious, I could eat them every day. My family is not as fond of them, maybe because I don't usually add meat, although I usually prepare the beans with homemade chicken broth. I make the broth from a chicken that I've baked and then boiled the remaining bones, along with the drippings from the pan for good use of the entire chicken, fat skimmed off the top of course.

Enough about the real beans, what I'm getting at is that I have a book in my head and halfway in my computer that addresses a little girl who plants her mother's discarded beans and discovers a world of adventure with them. My pleasure writing is so limited these days with two teenagers and a very preoccupied husband, plus a couple of part time marketing gigs, school events, grocery shopping, house maintenance, laundry, and certainly cooking beans and baking more edible treats. As I close out another year without finishing my book started in 2008, I have to consider my goals for 2013.

Here it is, December 13, and I'm just posting my 6th blog of the year. So many aspirations to write away every day, week, and month, yet just a half dozen have been written. I didn't begin the blog to make money with advertisements, although I've heard that it's a good idea. For 2013, I will again have a goal to write at least one a week, then, one a month - with at least a dozen by the end of the year. I will keep the faith and write 50 articles in 2013! On top of that, I hope to at least soft publish my book about beans and get it distributed to family members, maybe obtain the input from a few writer friends, and who knows where it will go from there? Next on the list is my novel/cookbook ...

Cheers to December and a great writing year in 2013!

Writing in the Kitchen

How I wish that every time I had an awesome thought that I had a fast computer to jot it down upon. If I did, I would be writing fervently throughout the day, blogging to beat all the reading odds with advertisers flocking to post on my site. But alas, I have two teenage daughters and a husband to serve. That means encouraging them to rise in the morning, making coffee, breakfast and lunches, and transporting them across three counties (really) to get to school and events each day (Kevin does have his own car). By the time I've gone to my part time job, done the grocery shopping, prepared meals, paid the bills, completed the laundry, cleaned the house, volunteered at schools and church, worked on another part time job; that leaves me little time to exercise, read and do pleasure writing.

My original thought when I sat down was to address that if I would spend all my creativity on writing instead of cooking and baking, I might have that first book written. I have at least three in the works now, each in their own stage of gestation. One, a children's book, is three quarters written but I haven't had the courage to finish it and put it out there. My second has reached the analytical stage with characters, timeline and a plot idea developed all on virtual paper - on a file on my slow computer. The third book is merely fertilized and still floating around in the gray space of my brain, and is one of my favorites because it has to do with baking and cooking. By the time I do have time to finish these projects I do hope that the actual book exists and it doesn't have to become a mere payment of $9.99 online to pop on a portable screen.I don't disdain the eBooks and audiobooks, I will just admit that I enjoy the feeling of a good book in my hands, turning the pages in anticipation of a superb finale.

Today I've accomplished a lot outside of writing. I have prepared two tasty treats outside of the usual breakfast and coffee. The first is a newbie but not really if you consider that I made almost the exact same one two weeks ago with another vegetable. The recipe is for a yellow-orange soup - Butternut squash the first time and sweet potato today. Creamy and delicious, it's exactly what I'm thinking about when I see fancy soups at the grocery. Why would I ever buy that if I can make it myself? Therein lies my problem. I like my cooking better than anybody else's.

The second edible item that I conjured up today was Christmas tree sugar cookies., another item I would never buy. A wonderful recipe from a composite children's pre-school cookbook is my latest favorite sugar cookie formula. You can't go wrong with 1 cup sugar, 1 cup buter, 3 cups flour, cream, an egg, vanilla and baking powder. I've been through probably about five different sugar cookie concoctions, and while I love them all, some are easier than others, and some I may not have particular ingredients such as cream or parchment paper.

This Friday was a wonderful day for me, wherein I got to cook, bake and write - all quite successfully, I might add.