A 13 Part Tour of the ShapeShifter World
Have you been over to the Meet and Greet, Susan Helene Gottfried’s blog? If so, then you know she posts these great little stories about her imaginary band, ShapeShifter. Here are 13 snippets I like from her blog and her first compilation book; The Demo Tapes Year 1.
1. It was sort of a bummer that Amy’s new dude wasn’t going to show up at the house. She’d been chasing around some pretty interesting guys lately.
– The Demo Tapes Year 1
By George! The King Drifts Along
Having lost one handler and gone on to another, King George IV lived… much as he had before.
Things certainly did not improve after Canning took office. The King took great pleasure in slighting Canning at every opportunity. Not to be wondered at, really, since Canning was opposed to nearly everything His Majesty wanted to do. The King’s foreign policy was, in essence, simple. The crowned heads of Europe should be united in their opposition to anything and everything democratic.
When The Times wrote that such an attitude was to be wondered at from a former disciple of Charles James Fox, His Majesty replied that he was now a royalist by trade. But the winds of change were blowing and Canning sought to take advantage of this. Not only for Whig policies at home, but trade advantages that were opening in Central and South America in those countries that were throwing off the Spanish yoke.
51/364 Fire Season
We are no where near as bad as they have it in Utah. (What part did you say you were in, Kaye?) But it is Fire Season here too.
Pandora
A while back I discovered the internet radio station site called Pandora. They let you build your own station by selecting songs or artists that have the qualities you want in your music. This is a great idea, but I’m finding it a bit frustrating.
They way they work is to give labels to various characteristics of each song. For instance, Blackbird by The Beatles has these elements:
Susan Helene Gottfried
It is my pleasure to introduce those of you who haven’t already followed her back to her blog from here to Susan Helene Gottfried. I first met Susan on the T13 circuit, but it was her Roadie Poet, and her ShapeShifter posts have keep me going back. Thank you for being my guest, Susan.
So I’m finally grabbing a booth at Alice’s Restaurant. It took me and Alice an awfully long time to coordinate my being here, so not only do I need to thank Alice for wanting me here, I need to thank her for hanging in while we figured out the right time. Two women with busy lives… it’s not nearly as easy as you’d think.
One of the things that draws me and Alice together is our love of posting fiction to our blogs.
I started doing it as a way to build my audience for what will be my debut novel, Trevor’s Song. I was more comfortable letting the band and my characters speak for themselves. At the time, I didn’t know of anyone taking this approach. Surely, I thought, I’ll gain lots of attention for being different!
Well, I didn’t gain lots of attention. What I did get instead is lots of readers who fell in love with my band. This love runs so deep that when they asked, I answered: my second anthology of blog-published material will be coming out in print (and digital) form on September 12.
None of this would have happened without the phenomena of blog fiction. In short snippets designed to suck you in, or designed for you to sit down and curl up with a cup of coffee and an excuse to linger, blog fiction is the new soap opera.
Alice’s Suzy’s House is a great example of this. She does what I don’t do: she’s telling a story in a linear way. Start to finish, twists and turns. This takes a massive sort of planning I can’t even begin to comprehend.
Me, I fly by the seat of my pants. I get inspired by something big, small, suggested, or found and I sit down and write. My fiction is self-contained; you don’t need to know what’s happened in the past to be able to follow what’s going on. (I hope.) Some may call it the lazy way; they’re probably right.
The glorious thing about blogging is that there really isn’t a right way or a wrong way. Yeah, there are ways that’ll raise you in Google searches or page rank or whatnot. But is that what a writer should be focused on? Isn’t all about the story, the characters, and all that other goodness that lies at the structure of good fiction?
Of course it is. You only need to look at the comment trail at Suzy’s House to see it. If you haven’t joined in, it’s not too late, you know…
Wow. Thank’s, Susan. I wasn’t expecting a plug from you, but I like it. To anyone reading this, head on over to The Meet and Greet where Susan posts fiction as well as regular blog stuff. She shows Rock and Roll from the inside and outside in a way that will really capture you. It did me.
Update: Susan is giving away a book! The winner will be drawn from those commenting on this post. More details in a little while.
Update again: I’m doing the drawing tonight. If you want to be in on it, leave a comment here.
50/364 Shakespeare in the Park
Looky what I got to watch a few days ago. They did The Tempest. When I walked away they had all the money from my wallet.
Pistachio and Cookie Parfait
This is a quick and easy one, but better for kids because it tends to be too sweet.
1 small package Pistachio instant pudding
6 medium cookies.
Mix ups the pudding, following directions. Immediately spoon into parfait glasses, alternating with crumbled cookies. Takes approximately one cookie per glass. Makes six small glasses.
Code for the blog
Click the picture to go to the hub:
If you posted a recipe, or a food-oriented picture today, leave your link in the comments and I’ll link to you here.
nuts of embrace life with a picture of a meal
Perfectly Blended with a picture of pizza
Tamy with Rocky Road Fluff Cake
angie with a Taco Casserole recipe
Kristen with Kings Ranch Chicken
Martha with Mini Beef Wellingtons
Skulking
Jill: Oh no you don’t, Tonic. I can see your feet. I know what you’re up to. So just forget it. I’m not going to fall for that again.
Gin: Weow???
Gin: Meow!!
Today’s theme is orange
Previously in Jack and Jill Mud Bath
Saturday photo scavenger hunt
The rules for Photohunt can be found here.
Be sure to visit the home page.
Suzie’s House 129: Caught Empty Handed
“I don’t have to go!” Lisa stood on the front porch a beamed. “I don’t have to leave town after all. So, um… about the tickets…”
Ben just about swallowed his tongue. He even choked a little. “Tickets?” he said in a tight voice, thinking about how happy Miranda looked when he gave them to her.
“You don’t have to give them back,” Lisa said real quick. She held her hands up and waved them like to say she wouldn’t take them even if he tried to give them to her. “But if I could see them again I’ll know what seat to buy so I can sit next to you.”
In Concert
Click on picture to go to hub.
It isn’t just the music. It isn’t merely glamor. It’s more than flicking a Bic, screaming, or dancing in the aisles. It’s the community of souls connecting over a common feeling; a blood-pumping plunge into being a part, yet also apart, as if the audience and band could trade places with the strum of a cord.
