Corresponding Lives

 

Here's Chris when we were in Stratford. It was about five years ago.  I believe it's Ann Hathaway's home in back of her.  This photo was taken in 1985 at my house in Bemidji, MN.
Here I am in the same tree trunk as Chris.  

Do you have a close friend? What do you enjoy doing together? Chris and I wrote each other for fifty-five years.  Your Soul on Paper. When you write down your feelings and thoughts, you bare your soul. Do you have a close friend that you’d like to see more frequently? How about sending them a letter? It’s good for the soul.

 You can read more about me on my website.  Barb's Books 

Corresponding Lives

Corresponding Lives

A PLAY

BY

Barbara Marie Lindquist Schlichting

Childhood Chums casting goodwill seeds across the ocean for fifty-five years.

                                                  Barb (myself) and Chris, the British woman

                                                        schlichtingbarb@gmail.com

Free Books! Excellent Fun!

 

                        Hello and Happy Wednesday!

           Are you interested in a few good reads? Want to figure out whodunnit? Now's a chance to read new authors!  My book, SPANGLED to DEATH is listed. If you choose mine and write a favorable review on Amazon, I would be more than happy to gift you another book of your choice from my mystery series or The Broken Circle.  The link is below.

                    https://books.bookfunnel.com/pka-murder-mystery-giveaway/x7fii2c4l8

     Enjoy yourself!  Please leave a review and feel free to share!

                                  Barb       

   

Characters. Where do they frequent?

 

   Do your characters like the same thing? Do they enjoy frequenting the same coffee shop, diner, liquor establishment? What about music? By not having the same tastes and interests, you are hereby opening scenes that will or can develop into conflicts between the protagonist and the secondary characters. If you are a mystery writer, the killer may have found another reason for murder.

Speaking of murder, does the killer versed in poison and completely dislikes coffee? Hmm...is the main character fussy? Will she only drink a certain brand of tea?

      I love my little corner of south Minneapolis because it's where I grew up, but also it has all that I need for my books. I have a coffee and wine bar plus a theater and the rest, I make up. It's always nice to have a fictional corner, but my old neighborhood suits me fine.  Here are the links to see pictures of Riverview Wine Bar and Coffee Shop  and the Riverview Theater.

     Please follow me on Amazon, Twitter, BookBub, Goodreads

To learn more about me, you can scroll through my website. 

Barb's Books or join me on Facebook

Favorite Christmas Sights and Sounds and Memories.

What to write about?  Does your character like the seasonal holiday time or does he/she dread it? Why? Do you want your character to feel the same emotions that you do once the time is upon us?  How about that cousin, aunt or uncle that makes you crazy?

Here is a description straight out of A CHILDS CHRISTMAS IN WALES by Dylan Thomas.  Copyright 1954

    

      For dinner we had turkey and blazing pudding, and after dinner the Uncles sat in front of the fire, loosened all buttons, put their large moist hands over their watch chains, groaned a little and slept. Mothers, aunts and sister scuttled to and fro, bearing tureens. Auntie Bessie, who had already been frightened, twice, by a clock-worked mouse, whimpered at the sideboard and had some elderberry. The dog was sick. Auntie Dosie had to have three aspirins, but Auntie Hannah, who liked port, stood in the middle of the snowbound back yard, singing like a big-bosomed thrush.

That paragraph evokes all sorts of sights, sounds, and emotions.  Take the time and count all the emotions and write down what they are.  Afterwards, the descriptive words.  Dylan Thomas sets the scene and puts you right there in the middle of it.

Go ahead and write your holiday scene with your character.  Are you dropping the reader right in the middle of it? I would hope to be like one of the latter aunts, Dosie or Hannah.  They seem to know how to have fun.

Have fun and happy holidays!  Please leave a comment and share!

Barb

    Twitter   Barb's Books   

Favorite Thanksgiving or turkey

I’m pretty sure that most of you haven’t written about the best Thanksgiving Day turkey that you’ve ever tasted, but here’s your chance.  Holidays evoke memories and emotions so let it all-hang-out!  I for one remember the final time that I had Thanksgiving with my mother.  I came home that night because one of the boys had a hockey tournament over the weekend. We had a great stuffed turkey and laughed and my brother’s and families were all together but on Friday when I returned from the hockey game there was a phone message from one of my brothers.  Our dad was found dead in the morning from an apparent heart attack. 

When I wrote about it, I had to distance myself from my emotions.

You go ahead and write about your favorite Thanksgiving or turkey. Was it good just because you and your loved one were together?  Or did the turkey turn out to be drier than beef jerky?  

Set your timer for 15 minutes and write about it.  Those of you who can’t stand the holiday, go ahead write about why you don’t.  Enjoy the exercise.

Are you done?  Sorry, I didn’t write about it.  I picture our family together and find it difficult to write.  I guess that I’m just not ready.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please comment and share!

Barb

Facebooks  Website  Goodreads

Which character? Fish out of water.

Is your setting set in nature? Do you walk in the woods or is it in town with noise? Let’s pretend that your primary character is walking in the woods and is unused to all the sights and sounds of the rustling and riffling of the leaves or crunching from smaller animals.  Has this person ever come straight up with a deer? What will they feel like? What are they seeing? Do they fear the sounds of cracking of the trees?  Let’s write about it, shall we?

Let’s begin by choosing a character that needs to be shaken up!  If you’re in the middle of a project and don’t quite know where to go—you know what I’m talking about.  Let’s take a fish out of water and see what this person will do.  They are people, right!

Once you’ve chosen your person or character, set the timer for 20 minutes and begin to write.  Here’s some of what I wrote:

                I woke early in the morning and looked out across the back yard and wondered where the devil I was. The early morning sun helped clear my head as I sat up and listened. I wasn’t used to living in town with traffic and voices. I found it interesting and bothersome. At home where there was silence and only a loud muffler once in a while is all the noise I heard.  How am I going to manage here, by myself, in search of my lost childhood friend?

Okay! Stop the timer if you haven’t already.  Above is a portion of what I wrote.  I started with a paragraph from one of my books and then changed the whole book in one sweep of a few words.  ‘where the devil I was’.  The whole perspective and story itself is completely different from the published book.  Wow! I could write a new book with that paragraph.

   Go ahead and write-write-write!  Enjoy the day!

Barb

Facebook     Barb's Books  Goodreads