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Recipe Choices

4/19/2023

Today I made my way to the kitchen, knowing exactly what cookies I was going to make. They are the ones I have made for years, and the ingredients needed are etched into my memory bank. After turning on the oven to preheat, I started to gather up the flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs and milk. This time, though, I discovered the one thing that hooked me on these sweet treats back in the day, the pièce de résistance…chocolate and dried cranberries…is MIA. Okay, that’s two things. I chastise myself for not refilling the jars, stuff happens.

The realization surfaces that I need to make a choice, either put all of the other ingredients back, or look in the pantry for a substitute and change these babies. Today I welcome the odd couple from the larder, toffee crumbles and coconut.

Regardless of what you are doing, if all the ingredients aren’t available, the results will definitely be different from what you were expecting. It doesn’t mean you'll be left with disappointment and a bad taste in your mouth. It means you have to adapt and dig into your creative cupboard to make it happen. Simply put, finding the right recipe is all that is needed.

Like baking cookies, writers use a recipe to create characters, story lines, plots and endings all in a teasing effort to have you wanting more. Sometimes changing the persona of the character, or throwing a twist into the storyline are needed to carry the plot forward. Yes, it may change the ending; but if it’s done right, like the cookies, your readers will want more.

To my writing friends and aspiring writers, the next time you have an idea to pen some prose, consider the following recipe. 

Idea: Bake cookies
Character: The cookie
Outline: The recipe
Scene: The steps of the recipe
Plot: Bring all of the needed ingredients together
Hook: Eating the first one
Storyline: Sharing the recipe
Ending: Eating the last one and wanting more

Alternately, if you are looking to bake cookies, try one of our family favourites found in From Our Home To Yours: Cookies.

Ann Edall-Robson
Author, Photographer, Lover of Life
"Capturing moments others may never get to experience.”

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2 Comments

Arguing With the Storm

4/11/2023

4 Comments

All he ever wanted to do stared up at him. The acceptance letter was like a thunderous storm ravaging his chest. Shards of anxiety like lightening bolts.

The Writer in Residence contract stated “MUST teach two adult learning classes at community centre. MUST mentor at high school. MUST speak at local library”.

He would reach out to the Literary Club he met with. They knew how shy and reserved he was. Speaking in front of people was his nemesis. They would help him.

Determined to live his dream, the chest pains subsided. The horizon’s light dissolving the inner storm.

This is not a story based on last week's prompt. I originally wrote a 99 Word Story in April of 2016 entitled Storm Within. That’s right, I have been writing and submitting these condensed stories since then. Actually, it was 2015 when I stepped outside my comfort zone to send off my first story.

I haven’t made any changes to the original other than give it a new title, Arguing With the Storm. Oh, and a new pictures. This title seems to be more fitting since, in general, we tend to debate with ourselves over things that broil and boil in our brain until we are either comfortable with what is needed or wanted of us; or, we have decided there is no need to proceed based on the nauseous feeling in the pit of our stomach when we consider doing it.

It’s been a journey, and I have come a long way. Well, I think I have. In the beginning, after I had written Moon Rising: An Eclectic Collection of Words, if someone said to me, “So, you have written a book.” My reply was, “Yes,” and I would move the subject away from the book and mostly away from me.

Talking one on one or in front of a room full of people is still not my first choice for promotion because I am a shy person. There are those who might disagree, yet, they will also be the ones who have known me for a long while. Being comfortable around them is all it takes, it would seem.

Fast forward a decade, and talking about the books I have published—ten, and there will be at least one more in 2023, and possibly two, to make twelve, I find myself talking about my books and enjoy doing so. I’m sure this comes from being comfortable with them and the process I travel taking them from conception to finish.

I now realize, that by hitting the send button all those years ago, when I first got involved with the CRLC, I was actually conquering some of the head butting I was having with my nemesis—promoting myself and, ultimately, the books I write. I had found a comfort zone in sharing my flash fiction writing with like-minded people that helped. It’s only fitting that I thank them for the gentle push they gave me to quit arguing with the (shy person) storm within.

Ann Edall-Robson
Author, Photographer, Lover of Life
"Capturing moments others may never get to experience.”

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Impossible Blue

4/1/2023

8 Comments

Butterflies stormed her stomach, making her feel queasy. Like the day, as a kid, when her besties lured her to the rock outcrop above the lake. “Jump! Do it!” they encouraged, laughing and nudging her closer. Experiencing an adrenalin rush when her feet pierced the water. Their adult relationship was much the same, only this time they encouraged her to take the chance, live on the edge, go for it. Today, their words filled her with trepidation. He walked toward her, holding her attention, his impossible blue eyes never left her face. Tingling with an adrenalin rush, she blushed

My first instinct was to write something that mimicked blue water or blue sky on a winter day. Then I thought there had to be more. There is always more when you are a writer! The only problem is getting more to fit into 99 words and choosing a topic that will fit.

A member of our family has impossible blue eyes. They are not blue/black or blue/grey, they are a blue that is hard to describe. Yes, an impossible blue when I think about it. I have always called them ice blue. Yet, ice reminds me of cold and his eyes are warm but the colour of clear, unimpeded ice, I guess would be the best way to describe them fully.

Other impossible blue colours come to me from nature. How is it that the sky takes on an impossible blue as it seems to shimmer as a backdrop to the trees covered in hoar frost? What about the impossible blue that a frozen waterfall or lake makes? Then there is the array of impossible blue, wild flowers, glorious in bloom. How is it that birds fall into an impossible blue category because their feathers take on an iridescent blue in the sunlight or are a blue that changes to indescribable hues as it takes flight?

When I am out wandering the trails or taking a gravel travel outing, I am in awe of what nature gifts us. Her palette dazzles us with an amazing selection of every colour of blue imaginable. If it’s a cloudy day, the colours that I thought were bright and vibrant under a sunny blue sky have now become pale, dull, or even drab. That impossible blue in the shade of a tree takes on a new life in the sun. It doesn’t make them less gorgeous, it makes them like us, or perhaps it would be better said that we are like them, ever changing with the elements, the lighting, and our environment.

It has long been said that how we see and envision things in our life is up to us, the eye of the beholder.

March 27 2023, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about something impossibly blue. You can go with sky or any other object. What impact does the color have on the setting or characters? Does it lead to action or create a pause? Go where the prompt leads!

Ann Edall-Robson
Author, Photographer, Lover of Life
"Capturing moments others may never get to experience.”

Be the first to get all our latest news and updates. Join our mailing list.

AnnEdallRobson #FromWhereICome #99WordStories #FlashFiction #playgroundisgone #ranchtradition #naturesplayground #tworoomschool #makeyourownfun #schoolhistory #memoriesinthemaking #playgroundghosts #MoonRisingAnEclecticCollectionOfWorks #makingmemories #familytime #carryingontradition #playtillitgetsdark #ConnectWithThePast #storiesofthepast #CapturingMomentsOthersMayNeverGetToExperience #CozyMysteries #cookbooks #PromptWriting #WesternHeritage #TheOldWays #RanchCulture #BeginningToEnd #RuralLiving #WhoaBackUpStop #AnnEdallRobsonPhotography #thestoriestheycouldtell

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Recipe Choices

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