A to Z Challenge: Envelopes

I confess a fondness for envelopes.

Whenever we get post, I'll carefully slit open the envelope at the left end (never the top!) and slide out the post. Most of the time it's something like a bill or school communication or even well-dressed junk mail. Whatever. That gets filed (cabinet, folder or round) depending on its significance, but the envelope is what I truly wanted.

On my desk, under my keyboard, is where the empty envelopes go.

This is my collection of scratch paper. I will sketch out my lists and notes on the backs of these envelopes (that's why they must be opened carefully, so to preserve their neatness and integrity).

I tried a regular notepad, but it simply didn't do. I don't know what it is about the envelopes, but they have an appealing charm. Maybe they are the right size and heft, to give my lists a substantiability.

The envelopes have to be used. I cannot use a pristine, unposted envelope. I feel I'm ruining its potential when I use it thus. But the posted ones, the ones that most people would simply throw away?

To me, they are gold.

___________________________________
Her Grace is a listmaker. Also, for brainstorming, she prefers the sturdiness of an old envelope, as napkins, the traditional brainstormer's stationery, are too flimsy for her taste.

A to Z Challenge: Double-spacing after every sentence

I learned to type about thirty-something years ago on a real typewriter. Loud clackety thing it was. I was about ten or so, and took a summer class. I loved to type, even though I wasn't very quick at it.

A couple of years later I took a typing class at junior high. Alas, I was the slowest kid in class, clocking in at a very slow thirty words a minute. I barely passed that class because of my (lack of) speed.

Yet I continued to keep typing. I loved typing because it make me feel like a real writer. So I typed lots and lots.

Pretty soon, I got up to a decent speed. Then someone introduced me to computers. I was hooked.

With the ability to make on-the-go corrections, I was able to get my speed up to a respectable 100 wpm, a speed I can still maintain to this day when I'm in the Zone.

One of the earliest skills I learned was to double-space between sentences. This was a practice left over from the early typesetting days and is called English-spacing. In typesetting, the em-space was often used between sentences to make it easier to read the text. On a proportionately-spaced typewriter, this was indicated by two spaces.

Since I practiced typing for years and year, you can bet that practice of double-spacing after every sentence was well-ingrained. Single-spacing was used after typesetting for stylistic purposes. It was called French spacing. After all, anything odd or out-of-the-ordinary must be French, right?

Computer really changed the art of typing (or 'keyboarding' as it was later called). Suddenly one did not need to have to know how to set tabs on a machine, and carriage returns at the end of every line became a thing of the past. Word processors enabled formatting of all sorts, and one did not have to apply formatting as one went.  Finished typing a document? You could go back and make changes of all kinds. Including replacing all those double-spaces with singles.

Mignon Fogarty, the Grammar Girl offers this easy suggestion: "On a typewriter, double-space. On a computer, single-space." So, what happens when you have one of these?

I have seen editors who insist that double-spacing is a No-No. (Fortunately, a search'n'replace can get rid of them.) But as much as I would love to please them, I can't seem to get rid of this double-spacing habit.

______________________
Her Grace is grateful for Ctrl-H.

A to Z Challenge: C is for Cookie!

...is for Cookie.

I love Sesame Street and I especially love Cookie Monster.

I therefore present a plethora of C is for Cookie videos for your entertainment.

I can't be bothered with the usual history and background today. So sit back and have some fun watching YouTube.

Enjoy!

The original:

A clever remake:

Featuring Pentatonix:

(more Pentatonix on Sesame Street)

Featuring Marilyn Horne in an operatic version:

In reverse (subliminal messages optional):

________________________________
Her Grace just wants to chill out sometimes.

A to Z Challenge: Backstage at BREC

A few weeks ago I performed at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre.

My most favourite place in the world is a backstage, standing in the wings, just before going onstage. Naturally, I took a few moments to enjoy the ambience before I went onstage.

Backstage at BREC, they have a fish tank.

A fish tank! Backstage! Cool!

I've seen lots of things backstage of many a theatre, but this was the first time I saw a fish tank.

Had a chat with one of the stage hands. This fish tank was their little corner of Zen, a bit of peace in what is normally a fraught zone of impatience and nerves. "It has a calming effect," the stage hand explained. Sure, it was a bit of hard work, and sometimes it took up real estate that could have been put to better use, but nobody wanted to get rid of it. Also, unlike the theatre cat, fish didn't go wandering across the stage during a performance.

I'm glad it was there. I took a moment of peace from it.

I don't know when I'll ever get back to BREC, as we usually perform at ManPAC. But if I do, I'm looking forward to seeing those fish again. Friendly little fellows who enjoyed coming out to say hello.

_____________________________
Her Grace loves the mystery and history of a backstage.

A to Z Challenge: April-is National Poetry Month

I enjoy poetry.

I love that April-is (Inter)National Poetry Month.

To celebrate, I am subscribed to the April-Is... mailing list. This list mails out a poem for every single day of April. There's an April-Is Tumblr with every poem they've done for the past ten-plus years. I think I've been a member of that list ever since it got started.

Of course I wrote poetry as an angty teen. Here's a stanza from something I've written:

"Gather your blossoms and kiss them goodbye.
They fall away in splendour blown.
Say gone, gone, we are dead.
Wake me nevermore."

And another one:

"Take care, for they may get loose,
The unleashing of a thousand dreams
To teach those wise and baffle the ignorant into insanity.
The blind leading the blind. They are lost in their own reality.
So take care, for they believe not in what is not,
Oh, but lives! in our hopes and thoughts."

Yep. I was one of those teens. I confess, I'm much better at being a novelist.

___________________________
Her Grace is participating in the Blogging from A to Z challenge. She'll post at least one post a day (excluding Sundays, her days of rest) featuring the themed letter of the day. Today's letter is A.

I'm on Facebook!

Because all the cool kids are on Tumblr.

Have you liked my Heidi Kneale, Author facebook page? It's got this really cool graphic:

It's worth liking for this quote alone.

Question of the Day:

When you want to escape reality, what's your Go-To book?

The comments await your escape plan.

_______________________________
Her Grace loves the escapist nature of fiction most of all.

A to Z Challenge: Theme? What Theme?

For the A to Z Blogging Challenge, I have chosen not to go with a particular theme, but indulge in my usual TASE Day randomness.

TASE stands for Talk About Something Else. Back when this blog had more of a structured theme, TASE Day was a day when we posted off-theme.

TASE Day is the anti-theme.

So for the Month of April, I shall be rambling on about whatever tickles my fancy, including some posts that fit in to the usual theme of this blog: Romance and the readers & writers who love it. After all, if I stuck purely with TASE Day, that would make it a theme, wouldn't it?

____________________________________
Her Grace is Random like that.