Sordid Friday, Two Days Late: Neighbors!
Have you been arrested yet because your neighbor called the police on you? Then you don’t have the kind of neighbors I heard about last week.
Chris Brewer, author and owner of The Book Garden
I was in Chris Brewer’s Framing Shop in upscale downtown Exeter, and I had to wait in line to talk to him. While I waited, I heard the remains of some sordid neighbor tales, and I told the victim I would…
Sordid Friday - Tales of Clementina Rind
I meant to publish an article about Clementina Rind yesterday for July 4th, but got carried away by the new dictates of my self-imposed schedule – and FORGOT!
Marsha stands in front of Clementina Rind’s house in Colonial Williamsburg.
Maybe you don’t think of Clementina as being particularly sordid – certainly not in the ways that Catherine the Great portrayed sordidity! But in her own way,…
Sordid Friday Tales: Catherine II, the Great
One of my friends, a world history teacher, told me that he adored Catherine II, the Great. I wondered if there was more to her than the sordid rumors I had heard. I downloaded the Memoirs of Catherine the Great from Amazon and found a complex young woman.
Catherine the Great
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Russian nobility accounted for a very small share of the population. Nobility…
Sordid Past - Mine Again
Sordid is a dirty word involving ignoble actions and motives, arousing moral distaste and contempt. I think I may have mentioned burning down my mom’s house in one of my recent posts. That was pretty dirty. The motive arousing moral distaste and contempt is that I procrastinate. Just like tonight. But I did have fun! 🙂 Tonight, not burning down the house. …
My friend Wyla was getting…
Friday: Sordid Tales: Claretta and Benito
Sitting in a tree, kis… Well, actually, in one of the first pictures I saw of them, they were hanging upside down from the rafters, surrounded by thousands of onlookers.
Benito Mussolini claimed no fame for having great relationships with women. One biographer reported that he stabbed a girlfriend in the arm. In 1914, at the age of 31, he began his marriage tour. His two wives were Ida…
How Should a Story End? 3 Endings Readers Love Most
How should a story end? It’s one of the most common questions writers ask. After discussing dozens of short stories with readers and writers in Story Chat Digest, three types of endings emerged repeatedly.
“If I’m reading a book, I like a happy ending, but in a short story, I like a surprise/twist ending – something clever that I’m not expecting. I’m really not a fan of open endings, especially…
