In December, the challenge was to write a short story using the following first line: The temperature outside may have been falling, but inside...

Deena Trouten sent this winning entry.

The temperature may have been falling outside, but inside things were heating up. It was the same every Christmas. This year it started over black olives.

As Uncle Jimmy reached for the condiment tray, Uncle Joey said, "Hey, Denny," and nodded toward the last black olive.

"Now, boys..." Grandma interceded, and rushed to the cupboard.

Denny and Jimmy glared at each other. The dinner din faded. My mother pulled the ham aside as the cousins hid under the table. We looked from Jimmy to my dad. One had speed and agility, the other, the strength and tenacity of a china shop bull.

Jimmy snatched the olive. Dad leapt across the table with grace of a flying reindeer. Jimmy frantically shoved the olive into his mouth. After a violent struggle Dad pried the half-chewed morsel out of Jimmy’s mouth. "Ho, ho, ho," Dad muttered, and ate the olive. Mom replaced the ham and Jimmy picked himself up off the floor, rubbing his jaw.

"Here they are!" Grandma exclaimed, displaying a new can of olives.

Later, over green beers with plastic holly garnishes, the brothers laughed. "What’s Christmas without a little bloodshed?" Joey asked, and they raised a toast to tradition.

Deena Trouten lives in southern Idaho with her husband and three children. She has never had a green beer but is quite fond of black olives.

Writing to Preserve 2006 by Nomad Rick

Let’s face it, memory is a hazy thing. Before you know it, the years have passed and you have forgotten key things in your life. Writing out a year end summary is a way to preserve your life.

Writing to Preserve 2006

Perhaps it is just me, but is seems life is getting more and more hectic as the years pass. I have purchased no small amount of technological goodies to make my life easier, but the work just seems to pile up. Throw in the time intensive aspects of families and personal life issues and time just rolls by. Frankly, I can’t believe it is already the end of 2006. At this rate, it will be 2026 before I even notice it.

As time blows past us, it is easy to let your once sharp memories turn into hazy recollections. It seems only yesterday that I was 25. In February, I will turn 40. Sigh. As I have aged, and not necessarily gracefully, I have started to forget more things than I would like to admit. You probably have to. They tell me it is a natural turn of events, but it is certainly troubling.

One way to beat the problem of lost memories is to write down your impressions of the just passing year. In this case, we are talking about 2006, but it works for any year. During the holidays, there is often a lot of dead time when you can take some notes while the kids are playing Death Ray Beast 9 – Armageddon or whatever.

I try to sit down and write out all the significant things that happened to me during the year. The journal is just for me, so good and bad things are included to give a full perspective. I have been doing this for a few years. It is interesting to go back and read the 2006 entries. Memories flood back of the good times. With the bad things, it is interesting to realize that things that seemed so serious at the time, turned out not to be nearly as disastrous as I imagined.

I highly recommend that you consider preserving your experiences each year in a journal. You can do it on your computer, but I personally never can remember where I saved anything and occasionally lose my hard drive to viruses and odd little Microsoft errors. Because of this, I use a blank journal to hold all the years. It creates a nice little autobiography of life and makes for good reading. Obviously, you can use whatever you like, but I strongly recommend you gift it a try. It will beat any Stephen King book when it is time to do a bit of reading.

Rick Chapo is with NomadJournals.com - makers of blank journals to record your thoughts and preserve your experiences.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

You can edit your own writing with great success if you follow these 5 easy steps.

1. QUIT DOING WHAT YOU ALWAYS DO WRONG.

Make a list of the things you know you always have difficulty writing correctly. Use the list while you are writing and later as a checklist when editing. There is no excuse for always doing the same thing wrong. If you know you always mix up the usage for 'their' and 'there', pay particular attention to these words when you are writing.

Especially if your story is long, you should keep a running list of every character you have and the physical and psychological traits you have assigned them. Later when you come back to that character you will have the correct details right at your fingertips.

2. WALK THE DOG BEFORE DOING YOUR EDITS.

Your book, or paper, is now written, but you are not done. You must let some time go by after you have finished your writing, and what better way to do that than by taking Max out for his needed walk? Clear your mind. When you return, play with your kids. Do SOMETHING that allows you to clear all thoughts of your writing from your brain. Generally speaking, the more pages your writing is, the more time you should wait before starting to edit.

3. BECOME BEST FRIENDS WITH YOUR WORD PROCESSOR'S SEARCH FUNCTION.

Click 'edit' from the top menu, and then select 'find'. Fill in 'their' in the 'find what' box. Then search your document and make sure you used the word properly. 'Their' is used to show the possessive, such as, "Their house is beautiful." 'There' is used to show a location or state of being, such as, "There are three children in their family. They went there on their vacation." Use this search function to search for all of your problem words and punctuation. If your character has blue eyes in chapter one, then make sure he is still blue eyed in chapter five by searching for 'eyes' or 'eyed'.

4. USE DIFFERENT WAYS TO EDIT YOUR WRITING.

-If your article is fairly short, you should look at it critically and REARRANGE it. It is never perfect the first time you write it.

-Use the 'tools - word count' in your word processor and get a count of the words in you document. Then, tighten the writing by forcing yourself to reduce the word count by 5% or some number that you pick. If you can't remove some words, you haven't tried hard enough.

- Check some Internet databases on grammar if you are not sure of proper grammar usage. Just be careful which sources you consult.

-Eliminate run-on sentences. "I ran to the store, I bought my groceries." is just plain wrong! If you have a subject and a verb, it's a sentence. Two sentences must always be separated by a semicolon, period, question mark, or exclamation mark, NOT A COMMA. Yes, there are a few acceptable exceptions, but don't use them until you are very clear on when they may be used.

-Read your book, and look carefully for any grammar and punctuation errors. Then walk the dog. Come back and READ IT AGAIN, this time looking for good story flow, consistent story details, and good content to your story. If your character is wearing a blue shirt in chapter one and there was no way he could have changed clothes, make sure he is still wearing a blue shirt in chapter three. Make sure your facts are correct if they are presented as fact and not fiction.

-You may need to read the book several times before you are confident that you have found all errors, or, at least, all errors that matter. And your dog should have been getting plenty of exercise because all this editing will take place over several weeks, possibly even months.

-When you are finally done editing, you aren't. Read the book one more time, BACKWARDS. Yes, backwards. Start at the last paragraph and read it. Then read the next to last, etc. until you arrive at the beginning. Fix your errors.

5. HAVE SOMEONE ELSE READ YOUR WRITING.

If you can't hire a professional editor, draft your husband to read it. If he complains, ask him to read just chapter one. Ask Suzie to read chapter two, and ask Jerry to read chapter three. Promise a friend a free copy of your book if he will read and mark part of it. Print part of your book, pass it around at work, and offer a free lunch to anyone who marks ten or more errors. (This is not a run-on sentence because it is a series of sentences separated by commas.) Email portions to people you know and ask them to flag errors.

Finally, you can hire the professional editor and take satisfaction in the fact that she will find very little to fix in your work. Donna Jaske www.forhonor.com ©2006 All rights reserved.

About the Author

Donna Jaske is the editor for her daughter's book, "For Honor," which received five-star reviews. You can find out more information about all the books and read writing articles by Donna and Kat Jaske at http://www.forhonor.com

Debra Mullins is happy to announce the February 2007 release of her new book, Two Weeks with a Stranger. Two Weeks with a Stranger is Debra's ninth book with Avon. To read an excerpt and check out Debra's newly designed web site, please go to Debra Mullins

Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan, the writing team of Lang Buchanan are excited to announce that Micah's Child has been chosen as the fiction book club choice for several Barnes & Noble stores around the south. Brandon, Florida and Snellville, Georgia for now and others are considering it. A Montgomery TV show is reading it for their April selection and Diane and Michael will appear on the book club TV talk show. For more information, please visit Lang Buchanan at Micah's Child

Whitney Moore is pleased to announce that Second Psalm, a new web site opening soon, is looking for contributors for a variety of topics ranging from Adoption to Writing to Music and Reading. For more information on how to get involved, send an e-mail to Whitney Moore at info.psalm2@yahoo.com with the word "Contribute" in the subject line.

Creativity Workshop - 2007 Women Writers Fellowships in Italy

Two Creativity Workshop Fellowships for Women Writers will be given to fiction writers, poets, or playwrights for attendance at the Creativity Workshop in Florence, Italy, July 13 - 22, 2007.

The two fellowships will be given on the basis of a 500 word proposal to develop a new piece of writing in the applicant's field. The proposal should include a statement of how being in Florence and attending a workshop that includes creative writing, drawing, storytelling and memoir would help develop the project.

The chosen writers will spend 10 days in the city of Florence, Italy and attend the Creativity Workshop.

1st PRIZE: Free tuition and 9 nights accommodations in Florence, Italy to attend a Creativity Workshop July 13 - 22, 2007. (Airfare is not included). 2nd PRIZE: Free tuition to attend a Creativity Workshop July 13 - 22, 2007 in Florence, Italy. (Airfare and accommodations are not included).

There is no application fee.

Requirements:

A 500-word proposal.

Full Guidelines: Full Guidelines

Deadline: Friday, February 1, 2007

Email submissions only.

Fellowship open to U.S. residents only.

The Creativity Workshop was established in 1993 by internationally known artists and educators, Shelley Berc and Alejandro Fogel. The workshop is designed to help participants: find new sources of inspiration, break through creative blocks, discover images from the unconscious, give themselves the time, and encouragement to do creative work, and develop a daily practice to accomplish these goals.

Bobbie Christmas is the "Book Doctor" and Author of Write In Style, a triple-award-winning textbook for writers of fiction and nonfiction, available wherever books are sold.

Bobbie loves to receive questions from writers and offer her expert advice. If you have any questions you need answered, please e-mail her at: Bobbie@zebraeditor.com.

For the latest Q&A with Bobbie, go to AskTheBookDoctor on the CS4W site.

The next two links are just for fun. The first one is a link to quirky landmarks for the 50 States. The landmark for my state of New Jersey is Lucy the Elephant - a six-story, ninety-ton metal elephant. Too funny. I've lived here for forty years and have never heard of Lucy, but the other day, I was stopped at a light and lo and behold, the car in front of me had a "Lucy the Elephant" bumper sticker. Go figure :)

So if you want to check out your state's quirky landmark and see the other funny ones, go to: Quirky Landmarks

The next link is about Feng Shui Fiascos. I don't practice Feng Shui (although with the luck I've been having, I'm considering it) - and I thought these were interesting tidbits on how to keep positive vibes flowing through your house. You can check it out at: Feng Shui

If you have an announcement you would like to share, please e-mail it to me at sandy@coolstuff4writers.com

I love to hear from you, so drop me a line anytime!

Peace,

Sandy

email: sandy@coolstuff4writers.com

phone: 732-364-3993

web: http://www.coolstuff4writers.com