It all takes work

I recently read a little tidbit of trivia Facebook’s algorithm thought I’d be interested in. And guess what? It was correct in this instance. Before I proceed, being familiar with The Princess Bride (1987) and certainly its list of memorable quotes will not be necessary to appreciate the overall gist of the message. In other words, keep reading and don’t be turned off just because I named a cult classic movie.

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Story behind the Post: Family Thanksgiving Dinner

First off, I was a little excited to see the 5-Saturday month fell in November. Which meant I finally was able to do a Thanksgiving story and didn’t have to come up with another Christmas story. I think – without fact checking – I’ve done a Halloween story (back when I was doing 4-part short stories) and at least a couple of Christmas stories. But this year I can now add a Thanksgiving story to my little collection.

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Story behind the Post – The Hitman’s Retirement

It all started when I found a phone in the gutter. I wondered what the story could be. So, I put something together. As always happens to me, my eyes were bigger than my stomach or in this case, my writing aptitude. I thought I could easily make this a 10-chapter story. Turns out though, I just needed some better editing. But it was too late. I already committed to writing a 10-chapter story not just a normal 5-chapter story. So, I set about stretching it for two months. The story started in July and finished in September with a break in August.

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Practice makes…more practice

I enjoy public speaking. But I don’t get to do it enough so I have set about creating ways to practice. My hope is to one day find a way to make a living using the skill. Until then, I keep thinking of ways to develop the skill. One way I have started this summer is by doing live video chats and other video spots on social media. I don’t expect anyone to notice the videos but when they do I’m not sure how to follow-up.

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Just missing one little thing

When I was a young girl, I watched Bill Cosby’s Himself comedy special. Maybe that was not the sentence I should have started with considering his fall from grace (which still hurts just a little bit that he turned out to be America’s favorite dad…with psychopathic tendencies. I digress. This isn’t really about him but about his job. He looked like he had so much fun on that stage telling stories that I wanted to do it as well. I wanted to stand on a stage and tell stories that made people laugh. Just to be clear, I only wanted to emulate the comedy part, not his secret double life thing. Except I wanted to do it better because he laughed at his own jokes. I would not. I would play it straight. I wanted to stand on a stage, tell jokes, make people laugh. That would be the perfect job.

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