Tag: storyideas

Guilliean: thank you so much for your time. Betty: no, thank you. Guilliean: so tell me a little bit about yourself. Betty: My name is Betty Jones. I was born in San Jose, California, on April 15, 1922. I love reading, going dancing, and trying new recipes. [laughs] Guilliean: What else do you like to do? Betty: I love road trips. Don't you? It helps to live so near to the beach. We can come and go as we please. Guilliean: Road trips are my favorite thing ever. I don't have time to do many overnight trips which is fine…

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Asking a writer what their favorite quote is probably the hardest inquiry they'll ever receive in their life. Gif of Tim Allen as Captain Jason Nesmith saying, Never give up, never surrender. "Never give up, never surrender" from Galaxy Quest (affiliate link) is probably top ten for me. There's something so simplistic and catchy about it, yet it's layered as well. Gif of the cast of the 1994 version of Little Women. Little Women (1994) is definitely a comfort movie for me. I love having it on in the background. The cast was stacked and they were oozing chemistry. There…

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One of my favorite historical eras is the so-called Belle Époque era. The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (French: [bɛlepɔk]; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is the term often given to a period of French and European history, usually dated to between 1871–80 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era of the Third French Republic, it was a period characterised by optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, colonial expansion, and technological, scientific, and cultural innovations. In this era of France’s cultural and artistic climate (particularly within Paris), the arts markedly flourished, with numerous masterpieces of…

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Ooh, ooh, this is an easy one! Back when Hipstamatic first launched, I was thoroughly obsessed with using the films and lenses. The novelty of using a smartphone to take aged photos was appealing. It still is but it used to be too. I earned a beautiful 24 karat gold necklace from Disney Movie Rewards in 2012. That's when I was obsessed with collecting physical media and had an active subscription there. When it came in the mail, I was eager to play around with Hipstamatic. Thus my favorite photo that I've ever taken was born. My Cinderella necklace, engraved…

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The evening light affords you no secrecy. Your feet crunch against the pebbles and whisps of detritus from the trees and Mojave bushes around you. You sigh. Your hair is flat against your forehead. You smell the lust in the dust of the people who walked this path before you. Something catches in your throat as you draw another ragged breath. A muted phrase of comprehension, the dry air deprived of humidity, or cough due to your seasonal cold? You couldn't be certain. Sometimes you feel the weight of your lungs rising and falling beneath your clavicle. You stopped asking…

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According to Goodreads, I'm reading the following: Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale by Pamela HamiltonOK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind by Jill FilipovicThe Artist's Way Workbook by Julia CameronWild Seed by Octavia ButlerThe Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan Truthfully, I've had the Cameron, Butler, and de Pizan books on my list for a few years. I do want to finish them as they are great books for as far as I've gotten through them. It's not a reflection of them as writers but for me as…

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This is a hard one! I've always liked invisibility, being able to come and go as I please without having to trade pleasantries with strangers. I would have to say telekinesis though. I like the idea of being able to make things move around with a thought. I'm literally the laziest person in the world. The least amount of physical work that I have to do to get my desired outcome is the solution that I pursue relentlessly in my everyday life. One of my favorite mental health tricks growing up was moving the furniture around in my room. Something…

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Pets, specifically dogs. For as long as I can remember, dogs have been a part of my life in some way. The first memory I have of a dog is when my eldest brother's German Shepherd named Bones jumped on me after me and my little brother snuck out into the backyard. We screamed bloody murder and ran back inside! We ended up rehoming Bones because he absolutely refused to listen to anyone else in the house after my brother left for the Air Force. I hope whoever adopted him gave him a good life. Our next dogs were Kellie…

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I learned this early in life but one lesson I think everyone should learn is that no one knows what they're doing. We're all literally flying by the seat of our pants, hoping for a miracle. And sometimes not even that. Some people out here trying to survive. As a child in a working-class family, we examine the adults in our lives and we think, man, I can't wait to grow up because they've got it all figured out. But really, if we had the brain meats to comprehend, they'd tell us that they're scared shitless about damn near everything.…

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I'm my own worst enemy. I always think back to times in my life when questions like this come up and it's always me who has muted myself, dulled my own shine, and keep myself out of the conversation even when it was physically uncomfortable. That tightening of the jaw when the words won't come out of your mouth fast enough and you can't manage to spit it out without choking on the syllables. And you do everything in your power to hold back to save yourself the shame of being recognized as an actual person. I suppose in response…

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