[Note: This is cross-posted on my personal diary/Mommy blog, CarolynBahm.com.]

Tomorrow is Read and Comment Day, as proclaimed by social media guru Chris Brogan. Go forth and drop a comment on some of the blogs you adore.

I’m as guilty as the rest of ya — I’m subscribed to more than 200 blogs and read them all regularly, but I only comment when something really tickles my fancy. Tomorrow, I’m going to work at getting my fancy tickled. (Gee, that sounds filthy.) And I’m going to try to make the comments more than just a litany of “Cool! Me too! LOL!” if possible … although even that is usually welcomed because it’s nice just to know that you’re not blogging in a void.

ANYWAY. As Chris suggests for your blog drive-bys, “Contribute to their conversations. Find some good stuff and add to it.” Then we’re to pop back to his post on this topic and report our good deeds. :o)

Technorati Tags: Read and Comment Day, blog comments

I only have a few random thoughts for you today:

• It’s a pitiful start, but at least it’s something: I got up this morning and scribbled 250 words on the short story I’ve had bouncing around in my head for the past few days. First fiction I’ve written in weeks. And I just got one of those fabulous mental clicks — figured out the perfect title for the story: “Wrong Turn.” You’d have to know the subject matter to understand why that’s such a good fit, but it’s making me bounce up and down in my chair. 
• Someday, I’m going to incorporate some of my daughters’ mannerisms, words, and activities in my fiction. At odd moments, I’m still struck by how utterly charming I find each of them, and I’d like to preserve some of my fleeting impressions of them as children.
• My dreams lately have been wild. I wonder what my sleeping mind is trying to tell the rest of me? At least I have some brain dribbles to amuse my husband with on the ride to work each morning.

Sorry to have been so absent from the blog lately, but my brick-and-mortar life’s been a lot busier than my cyberlife. And as my mother-in-law is known to say, “A poor excuse is better than none.” (Don’t you love her?)

What’s up in YOUR writer’s mind lately?

Very cool, very quick writing exercise over at Murderati.com. Go there for the details, but here’s the scoop:

1. Pick a tool, any tool.
2. Make sure it’s inanimate.
3. Write a small vignette (Less than 10 lines, please) from that tool’s POV.

My version:

I am so wasted here in the drawer with the “flatware.” I’m an all-purpose TOOL, damn it. See those little scratches along my tip? Got that tightening the screws on the cabinet door hinge under the kitchen sink. The little warp to my blade? Got that tearing into the new computer’s box at Christmas. I’ve gone digging with the kids in the back yard and helped Mom scrape off her windshield. Hell, I’ve even opened up a plastic clamshell holding a new pair of headphones, and you know what a bitch that can be.

I’m sleek and smooth where I need to be and full of teeth for the tough jobs. Oh hell yeah, I can handle WAY more than just butter!

~ Bobby “Bad Boy” Butterknife

Technorati Tags: writing exercise, Murderati