The Evil Sisters Anosmia and Ageusia

~from Pixabay, PublicDomainPictures

So I caught the ugly fish, Covid 19, in early January. Like a huge catfish, it latched onto me with its sucker mouth and slathered me with all of its nasty symptoms. This includes losing my sense of  smell (Anosmia) and taste (Ageusia) for a week.

These are the twin sisters of senses as the loss of smell effects the sense of taste.

…and smell and taste are in fact but a single composite sense, whose laboratory is the mouth and its chimney the nose…

~ Anthelme Brilliant-Savarin (and see note below)
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Consulting an Expert

Image by mohamed Hassan, pixabay

Margaret Atwood upon writing “Oryx and Crake” found a young man with commitment issues to read a draft of her story.  She wanted to make sure that she got things right with her main character (who had commitment issues) and didn’t make any major errors.  Atwood explained about how important it is to find a reader similar to a character whenever you write a character who is not yourself.  Small details can make a difference between having a reader commit to your story or fall out of it.  

I had already heard that it can be helpful to have a reader review your work when you add in characters that have a different ethnic or racial background than you.  This is called a “sensitivity reader”. It’s important to ensure that you have the details correct and prevent yourself from falling into stereotypes with these characters  I had never thought I expanding that concept to all my main characters regardless of their ethnic background. Read more

Scary Stories

Halloween 1976

When I was a kid, I loved ghost stories.  I was the proud owner of an Alfred Hitchcock’s vinyl record, “Ghost Stories for Young People” featuring him introducing his own short stories. I played that record over and over again on my red and yellow toy player.  The lights would be turned off and I’d make a cave with my blankets and pillows. Armed with a flashlight, I’d place the needle on the record and listen to his stories. I always played it around Hallowe’en—one of my favourite holidays back then and not just for the candy, but because I believed in ghosts and witches and monsters. 

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Not Lucky

Do you remember the scene in Harry Potter when he won the tiny bottle of Felix Felicis or “liquid luck”? The magical potion guaranteed that the person would be successful at whatever they attempted for a short period of time. When Harry used the potion, it steered him to be in the right place at the right time and helped him say the right thing. Ironically, it didn’t allow him to have something “magical” happened for him—he just knew the right path to be on but he still had to walk along it. Don’t you wish you could have that precious jar of liquid luck to use?

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Almost Oz

My phone emits a blaring warning: A tornato has been spotted in your mobile area. Take immediate cover. 

I go outside to stare at the sky. It’s not windy, not even raining. I check the weather app and news feed: A tornado has touched down twenty kilometres away from our home and is heading toward us. 

Yes!  I’m going to Oz.

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Spring Storms and Nights for Writing

I secretly love it when the power flicks off during a storm. There’s a click and then a silence as the background hum of the electronics stop. The absence of the sounds makes me realize how much noise a house holds: the refrigerator hum, the rattle of the furnace, and dance of the water pump. The quiet reminds me of summer nights when the cicadas rhythmic strumming abruptly stops and the resulting silence seems conversely loud.   

It’s early spring and at 8:35 pm, my power is lost. The weather is predicting to drop to zero overnight but I’m not worried. I build a fire in the wood stove, cracking the door so that the initial wood burns hot and fast, clearing the chimney of the night’s dampness. Then I stack it tight and close the draft so it will simmer all night.  

Now I hear the sound of the wind as it bends tree branches and swirls across the windowpanes. It sounds like the rustling of dragon wings. I fumble through the darkness for a candle and match. As the wick catches, a circle of light is cast but unlike our electric bulbs, light from a candle creates spaces between the shadows rather than illuminating them. It’s a perfect time to write about magic, love, and dragons!  

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The New Social Writer

I registered for an online course this year. It started with a 2 day virtual retreat since no one is meeting in person with the pandemic. I was apprehensive about spending two entire days on zoom and with a group of strangers. Craving to learn something new, I signed up. Thanks to the organizers, it turned out to be excellent complete with a scavenger hunt and learning how to make a new cocktail (neither actually related to the content of the course, but side benefits). And I realized how much I missed meeting new people during this past pandemic year. 

I would describe myself as an introvert. I need time by myself and when I don’t get it, I get grumpy. And miserable. Most likely this is my subconscious attempt to make people go away so I can get my alone time. I’ve always liked the vision of the solitude author, hidden in a cabin and surrounded by trees and rocks, ideally near a lake, and no one in sight or hearing distance. Somedays, I hold onto that mirage like a thirty person in the desert. 

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Fall Harvest Sauce

I invented a new condiment. 

I know you’re probably thinking we don’t need a new condiment. After all, we’ve got ketchup, soy sauce, mustard, relish, plum sauce, salsa…is there space in the fridge and on the table for another one?

As a writer, I sometimes wonder if I have anything new to contribute to the book world. Occasionally when I enter a bookstore I have a moment of panic. There are so many books in there and how can I write another one to jostle for space on the shelves? Would anyone even pick up my book if I ever get published?

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