A Living Nightmare

My writing group asked: Can you perhaps submit something for next week?

I know I had a short story on my computer that I thought was ready to be read by others. So I said yes. This morning I figured it might be wise to read it again before submitting it. The problem was, however, that I had no clue what name I had given the file. I had written it in a single session, and didn’t looked at it anymore.

Seed

After opening my Short Stories file, I had to conclude it wasn’t in there. How odd. Since the title was a mystery to me, I searched on the date it was last modified. I knew I wrote it after hearing some unfortunate news at the end of March. So any file older than March couldn’t be the one I was looking for. An eerie idea was slowly taking hold of me. What if I never saved the story?

Musical Inspiration

The first time I made a list of all the things that had to be organised for a wedding, my initial thought was ‘that’s it?’ I knew that this couldn’t be true. And joy, was I proven right. Luckily, I had two very helpful wedding MCs who helped me out. One of the last things I did was thinking about the opening dance. Now I don’t mind dancing, but it isn’t something you’ll find in my top 3 past-time activities.

Our Song
So here we were sitting opposite the dance teacher. And the first question he asked was about our song. Well we don’t really have a special song. We do have one that we both like, but we’re not going to use it. Meatloaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light is just not the most appropriate song for a wedding. (See the lyrics. I kind of liked the idea, but husband-to-be thought otherwise.) It soon became apparent that we were very difficult people music-wise. We like all kinds of music, from classical (he doesn’t) to death metal, but nothing really in particular.

Dublin Writers Museum

My partner and I decided it would be nice to go away for a couple of days after the wedding. While Rome is romantic just like Paris, my Italian is non-existant and I can hardly remember anything from French. And the idea of the next couple of days is that we can relax. So I really don’t want to be bothered with translating what the menu says or what the guy behind the reception is desperately trying to explain.

London is the next possible destination. I love London; it’s becoming a tradition to go there at least once a year. But I want to be somewhere I’ve never been before. (I’m not high-demanding or anything.) So we decided to go to Dublin. And while browsing through the must sees and must dos of Dublin, my significant other discovered there is going to be a Magic tournament the weekend we’ll arrive. So he’s been teasing me that he’ll spend the Sunday playing games.

Seconds later, we came across the writers museum and I figured that while he’s playing games, I’ll spend my day at the museum. I don’t think it’s the reaction he had in mind. It’s very unlikely he’ll be playing Magic; however, I’m pretty convinced we’ll visit the Dublin Writers Museum.

- Cecile

Bad Grammar or Natural Development

Last week, I was in the train, listing to music on my MP3 player while trying to read the title of the book of the guy next to me. The volume was low enough to hear the consistent buzz of the passengers talking and not loud enough to be able to listen into the conversations. We had just left another stop when a person’s voice started off loud and clearly in a passionate monologue, piercing through my music. Slightly annoyed by this, I turned my MP3 player off and listened in on the speech.

That’s So Cliché

I avoid clichés at all costs when writing. However, the chance that I find some clichés in a first is undisputed. After carefully rereading the text, I can track down and eliminate them. A trusted group of fellow writers will also help point out those that I’ve missed. Mission accomplished. No clichés in my text.

Predicable and Meaningless 

So here I am with my cliché free text – or so I’d like to hope –  and I think, are they really that awful? Those sentences have been around for a long time and have been used much too often. At a certain point in time, people must have liked them. Perhaps they liked them a bit too much, making them become both predictable and meaningless.

Rekindling the Lost Magic

As a child they put the fear of God in me and failing to meet one wouldn’t even cross my mind. As a student they were an obnoxious presence, but I warily kept an eye on them. They brought some ominous consequences along if I failed to meet them. Nowadays, they are dull and powerless. The magic of deadlines has slowly died over the years.

Once upon a Time

What gives deadlines their strength that they get me into the right gear to get my work done? As a child it was the fact of breaking a promise to the teacher – that was something I couldn’t dream of doing. I met the deadlines days before the imposed date. I usually did more than required.

Cecile’s Best Reads of 2012

I read a lot more books than I expected in 2012. What helped was losing my voice halfway through in April, which gave me some additional free time to read 1Q84 by Murakami. Also four weeks of vacation worked miracles for shrinking my to-read list. I usually read quite a lot of books during the Christmas holidays too, but this year I didn’t have enough vacation hours left to take off another day or two from work. Here are the books I’d like to recommend:

They Could Use a Shrink

There aren’t many books that I consider to be disappointing. Over the years I have been recommended books that turn out to be books I wouldn’t have necessarily chosen to read myself, yet they were never bad enough to stop reading. (Except one book that I had to read for my Dutch class.)

At the beginning of 2012, a few of my colleagues thought it would be nice to start a reading club. Every six weeks our group meets up to enjoy a lovely lunch and discuss the book. (Though it could be argued we use the book as an excuse to meet up and have lunch.) Each member chooses in turn one book that the whole group will read.