Translation for your convience

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Prompt # 2 diyMFA Book Club

How do you handle it when life throws you a curveball and you need to honor your reality? Tell us about a time when you had to honor your reality.

I fully intended to put this off until I found this:


Hello, this is Kate, Kathryn Rachel Smith. Ugh, I wanted to introduce myself, but did I have to use my full name? Now, all I hear is my mother calling me.

Kaaathryn Rachel Smith, where are you? What are you up to? Get your butt here, right now!

Kate shakes her head to clear the unpleasant scene from her mind and looks over her shoulder. She doesn't want to get caught.

Look at that. I'm writing. Maybe I should write my story and it'd get out sooner. Kate sits back, smug.

I should join this diyMFA book club and write my own stories. Kate clears her throat, smiles, cracks her knuckles, and begins:

Dennise Sleeper wrote my story. She started it about 8 years ago. EIGHT years ago. Yesterday, she was thinking of following Toddo Taylor's decision to “skip through this prompt, for now. My story is at the moment still real.” This was his response to January 10ths diyMFA prompt “Tell us about a time when you had to honor your reality.” 

My story is never going to be finished. Kate slumps and pouts. She's always in her reality. For instance, she's finally recovering from the flu. She and her mom have been fighting over who got the toilet. Before and during that, she was taking care of her million fish tanks since she was gone for a week and a half for Christmas. Before that, she was getting those tanks ready for her absence and preparing for her vacation. Before that, and still, she has a torn tendon in her shoulder. She can write one handed, I've seen her do it. Besides, it looks like surgery is in her future and I know what that means for my story.

Shall I go back more? She spent a lot of time after Hurricane Irma traveling back and forth to Florida to help with the clean-up. Before that, she was recovering from parathyroid surgery. See what I mean about knowing what surgery will involve. Before that she was helping her mom with her dying father. Before that she spent 18 days in the hospital with bilateral pneumonia, bilateral pulmonary embolisms, and a DVT.

Her reality doesn't look like it's going to go away any time soon. She needs to stop honoring her reality and write.


Wow, what a surprise to find this on my computer. Trying to get Kate to talk and answer some questions has been very difficult and here she is commenting on my writing. Or lack thereof.

It's true. My mother and I are recovering from the flu. Though we went our separate ways for Christmas, we both came home sick. She was worse. I'm assuming it's because I got the flu shot and, to date, we can't seem to find out if she got hers this year or not.

Yes, I went on vacation for Christmas. I have a small backyard business where I have a few, not a million, tanks. I have aquatic plants, fish, and supplies as well as an aquaponics system. I dabble in hydroponics as well. I also raise house plants. Mostly succulents. But, I made sure my finished... Finished, got that Kate?...manuscript was in the hands of my readers before I went on vacation. Kate seems to have forgotten that.

Yes, I'm looking at rotator cuff surgery. I'm seeing the surgeon next week. This has been going on since September. We tried resting it. Medicating it. Injecting it. Nothing worked, so we did an MRI and that's when they found out the tendon is torn and there are pieces of cartilage floating around in the joint. And, yes, I can plunk the keys one handed.

But, again, she forgets. In the last three years I managed to finish my edit of 102,000 words. I did this during the bits in between reality. My life is a lot of reality with very few bits.

My father had Alzheimer's and I moved in with my parents in 2014 to help mom. In May 2017, he went downhill very quickly and, other than the Alzheimer's, my perfectly healthy (the words the ER used 12 days before his death) father didn't give any indication the end was so close. And yet it was.

Yes, it's taken me 8 years to complete Kate's story. But had I finished it any earlier, I don't think it would have been worth the paper it will be printed on. Her story has a much better chance of publication now.

For some, writing comes naturally. For me it doesn't. Finding the right words, expressing my thoughts coherently, and writing with emotion all seem to elude me. I edit and edit and edit and, most often, I'm still not happy with the results. Writing takes me a long time. I'd probably do well with technical writing, but that's not what I want to do. I may be fighting destiny.

To answer the prompt. I honor my reality during the bits in between. Sure some reality is a molehill and that's why I'm starting the year with this book club. To flatten the molehills and keep the momentum going so it won't be a difficult climb when the mountains appear.

Toddo Taylor, Thank you for allowing me to quote you. Hope your realty lets you get back to writing. Until then, hang in there. It always gets better. Thank you for letting me know I'm not alone.


Want to join us 500+ authors on Facebook as we 'Word Nerds Unite' and participate in this challenge? Click here.

Don't forget to stop by "Ten Little Gator Eggs" and Botanical Aquaponics on your way.


diyMFA by Gabriela Pereira, Jacquelyn Mitchard
Dark Witch by Nora Roberts
Conquering Hope by Kionne L. McGhee
It Cannoli Be Murder by Karoline Barrett

Recently finished:

The Host by Stephanie Meyer
Prophecy of the Dragon by Mike Shelton (waiting for his next book)
Cordelia's Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold

Aquaculture update:
Tried to fix the burst pipe, but it was still a bit too cold. But not too cold for the koi. They were eager to eat. Will get a picture up at the Botanical Aquaponics site soon.

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