.

LOL OMW it's hot.

This is 12dotsandablot.

It's a writer's journal.

Fact and fiction co exist here.

If you don't know which is which?

Don't ASSume.

Ask.

Thanks.

Note


I don't read my Tweets.

I do answer my Tweets.

And I'm nice to bots.


It's the right thing to do.


Beep

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...Go here next > http://12dotsandablot.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_30.html


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Letters To the Editor by C Anne Ford 6-3-11


all rights reserved by the author



Once upon a time a very nice person received an extraordinary gift.






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Dear Pup,

I'm glad that somehow a miracle happened. You grew up to be nice AND you don't hate me.

You? I love. Don't sweat that big looming question, "What am I going to do with the rest of your life?" I'm finding that it's better to ask, "What makes me get out of the bed happy even on the "rainy" days? 

The answers are much more honest.


You're a good person, Pup. I know that. You'll make good decisions whatever you do. After years of "to do" lists, I never did them. I was afraid of that list. Afraid to fail. Then one day I woke up and tried something  different. No more "to do" lists. Instead I replaced it with another list, an "Already Done" list. It was amazing the difference it's made.

Worry about what you'll do in the future, especially in this day and time, it can just cause a person to sit paralyzed with fear. That's no good Pup.

So go do your day.

Remember to be kind.
Remember that the question "Is it legal and moral to do?" is a good compass, and then go see what you can see.






Got an "already done" list to write.



Love and hugs,


Mom

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And that, my darling boy,  is The Point.

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"....It's like rain on your wedding day."

Dear David,

After much time and much reflection on the past 10 years I finally know in my heart that it just wasn't my fault..

It really wasn't.

Dear SB,

You may seem like a nice guy but frankly you're the biggest baby I've ever seen in my life.

I don't even miss you.

The ONLY reason why I'm writing you is to say that I hope that you NEVER get married to anyone.

No one could be so horrid as to deserve a life time with you.


For the record?  You had nothing to do with my learning to sail. Nothing.

Dear folks,

You are so right. Being a mom has taught me alot.

It's taught me to hug people when they're hurt.

It's taught me to say the words, "I love you."

Alot.

It's taught me that your friends are your friends and the rest are not.

It's taught me that there are some things in life that are just too important to walk away from.

Pup taught me that.

You guys on the other hand taught me that being so "In love and involved with each other" to the point were it makes your kids feel like the odd person out.

Is stupid.

And yet I still worry that you guys are okay.

Being a mom taught me that.

Dear WB,

.WB, WB, WB.

I woke up this morning and you were already gone and perhaps even "gone".

I've been around you a long time WB. I've seen you in some pretty bad straights but even I didn't think you had this in you. It's taken along time for me to get what I should have seen that day when you showed up again. Guess it's just the optimist in me to believe that if I build my house on sand, God and the hurricanes will leave it be. It's taken me along time to see why I'm so facinated with the concept of "Irony".

Even though I could see it coming, I never really understoon why it took you so long. I guess that's the biggest of the Irony. You see, I thought that you loved me.  I thought that it was my fault.  "Just too much of a fuck up for anyone to love. WB is a saint. for living with you." Mom would say. Who knew that she was so bitter about her own life.  Who knew that for years I would actaully believe her.

Sitting here now I realize that you didn't really care. Turns out you are more like my mom than you thought. You both wear your "hairshirts" as a badge of honor. Like old angry people who've let the "just not my faults" of life make you bitter. You both sit and wait. Plot your revenge. Then when that moment of vulnerable comes your way, you try to squash it.  I can see staying for love but why stay for revenge when you could have just removed them and  then found love.

And what the hell are you getting revenge for anyway?

Sorry but it just isn't my fault.

Yep, "life has a funny way of helping you out..."



People the problem is that for all the times I've heard that I'm selfish and self absorbed?  It was from people who were more self absorbed than I could ever be. Sitting there waiting to make me hurt instead of walking out into the world and enjoying life isn't a good life plan.  There's a very old saying that I think is actually in The Bible.  Something about if you go into a town and they don't want you? Don't hang around trying to make them pay for it. Instead? Knock the dirt of that town off your feet and then leave.  Otherwise you'll miss some people who do.  WB didn't teach me this.  My folks didn't either. Nor did SB or David.  LOL Even my Dad of all people didn't teach me that.

But he did teach me one important thing. It took him years and near death to learn it himself.

It's very important to tell someone that you love them. 

And everyone can use a hug.


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I don't have to teach Pup. He taught me. 

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Laugh Out Loud,

Hugs,

Day 12's Zen moment?

Have the courage to be yourself.


Have the courage to not give up.

It's a big world. Someone out there is waiting for you. 

Enjoy the process.

Ann

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Still writing in the comments but  thought that I'd  work on a short story here.

Next post?

Short story fiction work in progress.

Link to comments?

You have to scroll down a post or two.

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I'm not sure if this is my Zen moment or not.

There's a old Sunday School song about the folly of building your house upon the sand. I never entirely believed that song because I lived on the coast where folks not only built their houses upon the sand, they rebuilt their houses upon the sand after yet another hurricane washed them away. I'm sitting here thinking that building your house on the sand should much more faith in God. You had faith that THIS time surely God would honor your faith by just leaving you be to enjoy the view.
And then, even though you know deep in your heart that it's coming, he sends something like Hurricane Katina.

I am deep in my heart a optimistic person. Even now when I have a very good idea that next "hurricane" is due.  I'm not sure after all that's happened why I'm not a raging pessimist or at the very least a cynic. Maybe I'm alot like that herpetologist fella , Bryan. We know that some snakes bite. Yet we still study them and care about their lives.

And yes, post and this day is more than just about the study of snakes.



from


Snakes, "Snakes, and Trusting in Love

a work in progress by

c anne ford,  6-3-11

all rights reserved by the author

(sorry about that last part but well it's a legal thing.




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OMG I forgot.


On Monday (Memorial Day) we saw the biggest snake cross the road.

A rattlesnake.

PETA will not be happy about what happened to that snake.

WB ran over it.

Four times.

I think he even backed over it once.

The first time he skidded over it because, "Mr. ____ told me to skid over them otherwise you might just stun them."

I'm not kidding.

Then?

He came back home and bushhogged around the dog pens and the storage building.

Why?

Because last fall my neighbor killed a huge rattlesnake that was apparently living under the very small pile of logs next to the dog pen. I am talking VERY SMALL and RIGHT NEXT to my fur babies. As in within 2 feet of my fur babies. It was HUGE.

Anyway our neighbor said that maybe we should move the logs and keep the grass very short around the dog pen.

And then we saw this one on Monday.

So WB ran over it.

Again and again and again and again.

And he was sober.

According to him if someone from the sherriff's department had seen him do this? They'd probably said good job and then shot it.

And then run over it with the sherriff's car.

Again and again and again.

And then he and the sherriff's deputy would holler in unison, "The only good rattlesnake is a dead one so if you're a rattlesnake living in those woods you better get out or we'll run you over, shoot you, and then run over you again. And then we'll skin your ass and use you as a hatband."

I kid you not.
It was kind of funny but I'm pretty sure it was very politically incorrect and that PETA would hate it.

No we weren't drinking.

Yes this really did happen.

And yes we did say things like:

"Did I get it?" WB
"Dunno' back up and let's see." Me
"Aw heck no. It might be sitll alive. Those things can jump up and--" WB
"No they can't." Me
:"Yes they can." WB
"WB turn around in Mr.____ 's driveway. Stop it WB. You CAN NOT turn around in the road like that. Someone will think that we're drunk and call the sherriff's department." ME
"No they won't. Mr._____ would shoot it." WB
"Besides which Mr. ______ (another neighbor) told me to skid over it otherwise you might just stun it." WB

LOL WB may wear a suit and tie to work but way deep down in his heart he is such a RedNeck.

I kid you not.

Read the next post too. Other than this actually real story, I'm not posting just writing in the comments. Next post will explain.

Ann

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IMHere

http://12dotsandablot.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_22.html

but where RU?

Happy summer.

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For the record?

I have nothing against people who:

work at a pizza joint,
drive old Hyundais,
still live with their parents,
are 5'3",
overweight,
like scifi,
are asthmatic,
have never been to second base (literally or figuratively).
who like football (American or otherwise),


OR SNAKES, I DON"T HATE SNAKES.

(That's for Bryan in Arizona who I didn't even know existed on the planet before about 5 minutes ago and who thinks I'm a horrible, sanke hating, person. True I wasn't happy about the snake taking a nap on the threshold of my front door. Nor was a thrilled about the rattlesnake who took up residence two feet from my dog pen.

That said.  Thanks for reading my blog Bryan. No hard feelings. Peace and love. Hugs.
I am a writer. I write. Well keep reading and you'll get the idea.)


well you get the idea.




I don't, however, care for folks who deliberately try to deceive kind hearted people on the Internet for fun, profit, sympathy, or because they are having a crap day.

I don't want to be,  nor am I,  one of those people.

Which is the point of this blog post.


AND


Despite what WB (there really is a WB by the way) says,

I am a writer.


That's what I do.


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NB

Read the next post too. It has the doorway to where I'm writing on this blog.

It's an active blog.

I'm just writing in the comments.

Author Ann

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Sigh.
Here we go.

Was reading the Twitter when I came upon a group of folks talking about writing poetry in order to deal with ones feelings.  I think that's a great idea.

However

That's not the purpose of 12dotsandablot.

As a matter of fact?

12dotsandblot is real as this video.
Is there fact in it?  Yes.
Is there something to learn from it? Yes.
Do folks relate their actual life to the fictional story?
Yes.
Except for me walking down any run way in designer under pants, I really do relate to the "reality" of this video.  Real people really do get up and keep going. Even if they fall flat on the "runways of life" during fashion week.
And like the song, "...got to be real.."

Are the people in this video real?

Yes but they are actors playing roles.

It may have been based on the author's life but it was not an autobiography.

Carrie is a character based on the author's real life.

This blog?

It has elements of reality but it's also got fiction.

No not lying.

I am a writer that is what I do.

It's not a way to get in touch with my feelings but is is a way to experiment with "writer's voice" and character development.

I'm not sure why that's a difficult concept for some folks but it is. For instance, WB thinks that it's a waste of time. I think that he thinks that writers just sit down and write the great American novel.  I try to tell him that it's alot of work and believe it or not practice.  You have to sit down and write things because if you don't  how will you finally write the great American novel that people will not only read but actually pay to do so.

Now that is real. LOL.

And yes, a real live editor did agree that a  short story that I wrote was good enough to not only print in their magazine but  he also wanted to PAY ME FOR IT. 

A writer.




So.

Here it is again
Get used to it because this is real.


The 12dotsandablot disclaimer.

This is 12dotsandablot.

It's a writer's journal.
I'm a writer.
A writer and a poet.

Fact and fiction co exist here.

If you don't know which is which?

Don't ASSume.

Ask.



As for my real life?

LOL I'm just not that interesting in real life.

A long time ago, I had someone come on my blog and comment that they were worried about me because of what I was writing.

At that moment I realized three things.

One.

There were nice folks who cared about me. Thanks!

Two.

People whose names I didn't know were reading my blog.  (Ha Take that WB who said I wasn't a writer. That's exactly what writers do. Write things interesting enough for complete strangers to read.)

Three.

I needed to put a disclaimer on the blog to let folks know that the blog is about creating characters. Believable characters. If I do my job correctly the reader will think it is real but know it's not. 

While it is true that I was disinherited?
It is true that I own a boat? 
While the part about my dad being sick was true as was the tornadoes?
This blog isn't my personal diary. It's my writer's journal.  There is a big difference.

I'm not an Internet jerk trying to get views by writing things that aren't true.

I am not trying to get sympathy from people by trying to deceive them. 

There are people on the Internet who'll do that but I'm not. 

I'm a  writer. 
I may make things up but I don't do it to deceive.

Not a jerk.

If you want to know what's true, because there is true in this blog, (My dad was very sick.),  you can always ask me in comments.

But seriously? This blog is about writing.

I'm learning how to hear the world and then translate it into a good story.
I'm trying to find my writer's voice on the Internet.
I'm trying to write and edit.
I'm writing in public to see if the story I'm writing makes sense to the complete strangers who are reading it.

LOL I'm trying to learn to spell and stop using "alot" in a sentence.

I'm learning to write.

For real.

Gentle Readers,

You're going to have to either guess the parts that are true and those that aren't.

OR even better? You're welcome to say hello and ask what's real and what isn't. I'd be delighted to hear from you.

But be very very careful what you read here as true or not. You must NOT ASSume. You really must ask.

Got to be real.

Hugs,

Author Ann

PS True story.

Two true stories.

One. I wrote a story on my old blog about a fella who goes to Cuba. Someone who I'd chatted with was reading it. Got a comment that they liked it and then got a comment that made me smile. I was trying not to write as a man or woman. Even used a nick that was gender neutral. Apparently the person who'd been reading this had decided from my stories what my gender was before he'd read the story about Cuba. In that story, the main character didn't identify themselves as anything other than the child of the narrator. That is they didn't say gender until the very end when the narrator used the feminine pronoun and the word "...daughter..."  At that point I got a comment from the fella reading who was asking me if I were male or female. Apparently they'd assumed one and because of the story they were surprised and wondering if it was the other.

Don't ASSume. Ask.

Two

(and the reason for the disclaimer)

LOL I love stories about people and I love writing fiction. To practice I would try to write dialog and fictional stories that were believable as people. My goal is to write stories that you suspend disbelief and are so into the story that you forget that it's not real. We'll I was doing such a good job that I got a comment from someone saying that they thought I had multiple personalities. They were kidding but I got to thinking, "This is the Internet and folks lie in order to take advantage."

So after that comment just about every other post had the disclaimer, "This is 12..." I'm alot

Anyway. The way I'd look at this blog is that it's not the journal of someones life. It's the journal of writing. Like a photo album of fiction

.

Although I must say that the Give Your Stress A Rest idea is a good one real or not.

Happy holiday.

NB

Read the next post too. It has the doorway to where I'm writing on this blog.

It's an active blog.

I'm just writing in the comments.

For the summer.


Kind of like a summer break. LOL Alot.


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(Because I like the song and since when do you look at the photos on the vids anyway. Sheesh.)

Brothers and Sisters.

While there are some folks who'll disagree?

Let us dig deep into our closets.

Find those flip flops.

Fire up the grills,

It's Summertime!!!!


Now go forth.

Find yer self a shadey spot.

And beeeee


Happy.



I'll be writing here


http://12dotsandablot.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_22.html



This summer.




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Note.

This is an active blog. I'm current writing in the comment section of this post:

http://12dotsandablot.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_22.html

If you haven't already, you can start with the next post and then read them sequentially until you get to the post above OR you can click the link above and it will take you to were I'm writing at the moment.

Why? Well I'm taking a Zen break for the summer.  Will be concentrating on finding something in each day to be thankful for or for a moment of peace. LOL, already there's been times when this looked like it would be difficult. On those days (yesterday for example) I've had to make a real effort to find or to make those moments. After all the terrible weather, the fussing with family, my dad nearly dying, the things that have intruded on my time with Pup or working on the boat,  I had to make a conscious decision to say, "NO!"  You're welcome to read.  I know that I'm reading too. 

I'm making a conscious decision to find peace and happy in my life and then teach Pup how to do this too.

People have been taking advantage of our good nature.

LOL Like Barney says,





Don't know about you but life is too short to be lived as a drama.


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The Circle Game

A glib love story in the Age of Twitter.

Story and poetry by C Anne Ford

PS. This is still an active blog. I'm still writing here daily.  Read comment section for this post. Thanks.

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Was talking to WB.

Actually I'd called him just to say hello.

We've known each -


Sorry was just talking to Pup. Was asking him how it was (and this isn't a slam against Lady GaGa) -  anyway -  was asking him how it was that people could be all gaga over Lady Gaga and then dump on Madonna.

I mean - duh - 

He started out by saying that each age had to claim the new of their own (even it it wasn't)


Then I started to think about Madonna and Gaga. Compare. Then it came. While Madonna was serious about her transformations?

Gaga is ironic.

We'd come into the Age of Irony.

Super saturated with a culture where even reality isn't.

After the Age of Greed?

After the Age of Self Absorption and then Self Loathing.

After the Age of Unfullfilled Expectations.?

It's the natural progression some would say.



After all these years of thinking that the current generation was comformist to the max?



I find that they've been in rebellion all along.


But now I'm thinking that it's time to put the cynisim away.

The new age, The Age of the Big Storms, may be upon us.



We're going to need hope.

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Good night irony.
It's time for you to go.
You've made us cynical.
Old before our time.
What havock you are wrecking
On the gentle art if "kindness"
Turning reality into farce,
Now that's not kind.
You've had your fun.
But now it's time you're leaving.
There's no place in the future that you've made.
Now it's time,
Past time that you were leaving.
Time for Hope

And time for change.






c anne ford
5-25-11


What havock the "ironic" lifestyle is wreckimg on the gentle kindness of "hope". It makes a mockery of the word "real". I'm thinking that, while irony is always welcome and a great way to puncture the balloons of hot air that fly through life, in the age of the great storms I'd rather have hope and heart.



Yeah, I know. MORE irony.

LOL



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Bored, I typed the words, "bouncy bouncy", into the Youtube and viola.



Okay, been in the country too long. Time to go to town for a bit.

bouncy bouncy !



(Honesty note: I'm actually heading out to clean the dog kennels, feed the dogs, hammer and saw things, take a shower, get lunch, read a bit to cool off, and THEN (maybe) go to town. Bouncy Bouncy)


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Was looking for another Shelby Lynne song. A duet with, I think, Lucinda Williams. Found this one. Liked it. No other reason for it to be there.



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,

On a personal note? Some folks can be self absorbed --








Let's just say that I dodged a bullet from a self centered jerk


And I lived to tell the tale.


"... Are you calling me darllin?..."


I hope not.



,
A little poetry for the road...



The Ballad of the Last Dodo version 4.5

(a redo, again)


Happy
Sunshine
Like a child
Flying through the atmosphere
I look back
To see the the sea
And the ocean of the sky


Riding through the atmosphere.
She asks me,
"Is it time to fly?"
"And leave behind this gravity?"
"That's kept me grounded my whole life?"


Ah no.

I don't think so.

You
Won't keep me down.

Take off.

c anne ford
5-24-11

all rights reserved by the author.

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From Alabama to Joplin Mo ...

Help is on the way.



Folks in areas hit by the April storms have already begun to collect things to send to the tornado victims in Joplin Mo.


I imagine they'll send items to the folks in Oklahoma.


As on lady put it?  So many people from all over had helped the folks in her home town of Tuscaloosa.  Sending help to the folks in Joplin was the right thing to do.


Looks like the folks in Oklahoma are gonna need help too.


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