Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Beautiful youth

Thank you everyone for another wonderful collection of writings! I admit part of the reason for this topic was curiosity to read about the childhoods of all these amazing folks I've been meeting through blogs, to get a glimpse into your lives, what first put you on the path to being you. Also, to see what was common to us all in our different states and countries, and what might be very different. As with the previous prompts, the variety was tremendous and exciting. There were long summer nights, games after dark, and rowdy siblings, but there was also loneliness and fear, abandonment and illness and tragedy.There was apartment life, and there were big houses on school campuses, or houses without plumbing, or even growing up at a summer camp! There were wonderful grandparents, adventures, boredom, and even one wartime childhood. A few writers imagined how their own children will one day describe their childhoods, which seems to me a beautiful exercise! So again, thank you all, and please, keep submitting throughout the week. The new prompt will go up on friday. (also, if you don't mind, do your best to return the word "wee" to common usage. It's so fun to say.)

Friday, April 14, 2006

#3 - When We Were Wee


Here's our third writing prompt: When we were wee...

Reading the collection of writings thus far has been such an amazing experience. I admit that starting this site, my own primary interest was in getting my hand moving, doing simple, non-precious writing exercises. But already it's so much more than that. The way the previous two prompts shaped up, we learned first about our fellow writers' hopes and dreams, and next about their "real lives," and I felt, reading them collectively, that there's no better way of getting to know each other than this! So, inspired by my own recent reach into my childhood, I thought it would be neat to read about YOUR childhoods, too. Of course, you may interpret the prompt any way you choose. I hope you have fun, both writing it and reading all the others!

Also, to answer the concerns of some non-blogger-users about the difficulty of leaving comments on some blogger sites, the simplest thing to do would be to start a blogger account. You don't have to post a blog, just a basic profile page. You don't even need to fill out the profile page. See this example (note that you can put a link to your real blog under the contact section). It's free and should only take a minute or two to set up and then you'll be good to go.

Remember, just post a comment here with your permalink and we'll add you to the list. Have fun!

1. greenish lady
2. meg
3. jennifer (life's snapshots)
4. paris parfait
5. maggie
6. cate
7. gogo
8. deirdre
9. annieelf
10. alexandra
11. jennifer (she said)
12. kerstin
13. nichole
14. chest of drawers
15. journey through life
16. tongue-in-cheek antiques
17. cee
18. hundred and one things
19. beansprout
20. marilyn
21. ascender rises above
22. bella
23. laini
24. jessie
25. john tran
26. kara
27. ink on my fingers
28. shannon (sentimental)
29. gk girl
30. harmony in line
31. c delia scarpitti
32. in otter space
33. la vie en rose
34. notes from the laundromat
35. cookie
36. susan lavonne
37. melba
38. hobess
39. di
40. mardougrrl
41. kim g
42. starshyne productions
43. liz elayne
44. we is
45. lunar musings
46. M
47. rebecca
48. Jana's Journeys
49. aithbhreac
50. caroline
51. eliza

Monday, April 10, 2006

amazing.

I am currently about half way through the list of Sunday Scribblings posts for this week. I think that I can speak for both Laini and I here when I ask your forgiveness if we can't read or respond to everyone's post as quickly as we'd like. When we started this we wondered if anyone would want to do it, and instead the response has been overwhelming.

I felt compelled to write this tonight because I am only half way through your posts. I have been alternatively shaking my head, gasping, giggling, sniffling, and sighing as I read your words. I find that I am unable to continue tonight. I am full. I have been filled up by your honest, real, brave, creative words. I am humbled to know that you have taken our prompt so deeply into your hearts. You have mulled over it, thought about it, taken it out for coffee, and asked other people about it. You answered it in stories and poetry and fiction and fact. You have shared yourselves so deeply. I said it already, but I am going to say it again. I am humbled.

We are both wowed and amazed by the response to this week's Sunday Scribblings. We're working on deciding on the next post now & it should be up and ready early in the weekend. Thank you again for this week, and we'll see you on Sunday!

Saturday, April 8, 2006

#2 - Real Life

Well, even though it is Saturday, the scribblings are already coming in. YAY!!! (Don't forget to read the previous post for this week's instructions.)

P.S. Don't worry about posting your answers on Saturday. Sunday is the ideal day but if you are inspired early, that's okay!! xo

1. Bella
2. Journey Through Life
3. Megg
4. Cate
5. chest of drawers
6. spirit doll
7. gogo
8. tinker
9. maggie
10. greenishlady
11. life's snapshots
12. marilyn
13. rebekah
14. gkgirl
15. Jamie
16. chest of drawers
17. soozphotoz
18. Laini
19. Jim
20. in otter space
21. poetic justice
22. nichole
23. harmony in line
24. earth monkey
25. my boredom rebellion
26. marvelous madness
27. shannon (sentimental)
28. la vie en rose
29. melba
30. gipsy life
31. jessie
32. bohemian girl
33. laura
34. alyssa
35. notes from the laundromat
36. mardougrrl
37. tongue in cheek antiques
38. stunt mother
39. jennifer
40. cookie
41. hobess
42. embroider the silence
43. moments, musings
44. paris parfait
45. spot on creations
46. creative stumblings
47. deirdre
48. ascender rises above
49. lunar musings
50. aithbhreac
51. rampian
52. caroline
53. john tran
54. eliza
55. caroline

Friday, April 7, 2006

Week Two

Welcome back to another week of Sunday Scribblings!! This week's prompt is:

"Real Life"

There are just a few things that came up last week that we wanted to make sure that everyone knew:

1) ANYONE can participate in Sunday Scribblings! (You don't even have to tell us that you did the scribblings if you don't want to.) All we ask is that you try to respond to the prompt - even the ones that don't appeal or feel tricky - to see what happens!

2) We quickly realized that publishing people's writing on the Sunday Scribblings site was going to create posts of massive proportions. So the way it works changed from publishing the writing to publishing the links. So again, if you post a Sunday Scribbling on your blog, please leave a comment on this post and we will link you up!

3) It got a bit complicated in the who is posting and who wants to be on the participants side bar so if you are not on the participants sidebar and you WANT to be, please leave a comment on the very first Sunday Scribblings post and you will be added to the sidebar.

As we said before, we were thrilled by the response and the feedback for Sunday Scribblings. We both really enjoyed doing it & we hope that you did too. We're looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this week! Happy Scribbling!

Monday, April 3, 2006

Leap and the net will appear... maybe

Hi writers! I was looking for a lovely parachuting photo to accompany this post and I found this instead, captioned: "Training the first paratroopers, 1940" and I thought, dang, how scary to be the FIRST paratroopers! How's that for having no guarantee you won't fail? I thought it was a pretty appropriate image for our theme. Of course we have no guarantee, but the point is, those things you really really would do, fantasies aside, what you REALLY would make of your life if you had that guarantee... they're just as vital and important with all the real risks and fears of failure. I loved reading everyone's responses (if you haven't posted yours yet, please leave us a comment throughout the week and we'll grab it). There were serious, soul-searching answers and mighty silly ones, and everything in between. From religion, fear of flying and singing out loud, to inventing a pizza topping that will bring about world peace! Running for office, baking a 14-layer cake, time traveling, working from home. falling in love, writing a novel, joining the Peace Corps, carpentry, art school, travel, learning languages, helping people, adopting babies, being lazy, being loud, being heard... Wonderful, wonderful, the ways dreams spilled out for all to see. We're thrilled with this first scribble, and hope you'll all be back next week! Thank you all!