The Big Reveal

Back when I was in fourth grade, one of the most exciting things to happen at school was a magic show performed during assembly by a visiting magician. By now, you probably have in mind the image of a cheesy stage magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat like the one in the image here (which is why I posted it). Rabbits were pulled out of a hat, yes. But the magician also had a cabinet into which his assistant went.

The cabinet door closed. The magician waved his hand and said a magic word that of course you know:

Abracadabra!

The excitement in the room was palpable. (Yes, I know that is a cliché, but it fits the mood.)

The magician waved his hands and said another magic word. Say it with me:

The lights briefly dimmed, then brightened. When the cabinet door opened, the assistant had vanished!

We laughed. We shrieked. We were delighted.

The magician waved his hands again and said, “Abracadabra!” The lights dimmed. When he said,

the lights turned fully on, the door opened, and we could see that the assistant was there!

Okay, I get it. You’re not surprised by that reveal. Well, maybe this will surprise you. Remember the post about an Amazon card giveaway? Click here for that if you don’t. Instead of one winner, two were chosen to receive the $25 Amazon card. Abracadabra! I will now make the two winners appear! I can’t dim the lights where you are, but imagine them dimming. I will say the magic word:

The lights return to reveal . . .

Mark

and

Nicki

You are the winners! Please comment below to confirm.

Thank you to all who commented.

Magician image from https://en.ac-illust.com/ First Presto from clipart101.com. Second Presto by L. Marie. Dimming lightbulb by Giphy.

Just Coasting Along

This kind of goes with what I last posted.

Back in the 90s, I took up inline skating because I thought it looked cool. One day, I up and decided to take a class and—voilà —I learned to skate and loved it!

I really needed these pads though.

I also learned to write a screenplay, because I wanted to learn.

In 2010, I decided to return to a graduate program, having quit one (journalism) many years before that. This time, I switched to writing for children and young adults (fiction/nonfiction) and finished the program two years later.

My hood

In 2018, I wanted more of a career challenge. So, I took on the challenge of developmental editing. Didn’t take a class. I learned by being thrown into the deep end through a freelance assignement given to me by a publisher to work with an author on a manuscript for eight months.

In 2019, I . . .

In 2020, I . . .

In 2021, I . . .

You might wonder how I would finish those statements. I was trying to think of a way to say, “I rested on my laurels” in a way that didn’t make me look like the poster child for the subject of a sermon I recently listened to—complacency. Before you run for the door, thinking I plan to tell you point by point what I heard, I brought that up because of the subject matter (complacency, if that previous sentence was too convoluted). And yes, I know we were in the mniddle of a pandemic. But I had a computer and a wifi connection. What was to stop me from learning anything?

Not that you need this, but let me give you the definition of complacency given in that sermon:

Complacency is a feeling of quiet pleasure or security often while unaware of some potential danger, defect, or the like; self-satisfaction or smug satisfaction with an existing situation, condition, etc.

I can finally admit that I have been complacent about where I am and what I’ve learned so far. I didn’t think I needed to learn a new skill or improve an old one. Just telling you the state of things. Scold away if you want. But I want that to change. Maybe you feel that way too.

With that in mind, for my annual birthday giveaway—if you are a regular follower of this blog, perhaps you thought I forgot all about that this year—I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card (or whatever equivalent it has in the UK). Why? To stir you to learn something new or make some other change. That’s only if you want to. No judgment here. Maybe life is A-OK for you. If so, great!

Maybe you want to use it to buy a craft book (writing, gardening, needlecraft, art—whatever). Or maybe, because you’re stressed and want to change that, maybe you want to buy spa items or something else to help you relax. Maybe you’ll buy art pencils (which aren’t cheap) to start sketching again. Twenty-five dollars may not be a king’s ransom. But if it helps inspire you to take the next step to where you want to be, I’d call that money well spent. Winner to be announced sometime next week, hopefully. (I had a deadline last week, so I didn’t post.)

Photos by L. Marie.