Humor | Cathy C. Hall Writes

I’ll bet you’re thinking of love love. That’s a strange expression, isn’t it? But words (and connecting them to each other) lead to the love I’m thinking about–the love of writing.

You see, last month, after I sent my column to Modern Senior Living, my editor friend emailed and asked if I had a picture of myself in a hat. That’s because a hat comes up in the column.

Now, I write a humor column, folks. And with humor, writers play fast and loose with the truth. At least, this writer does. I’m not saying I make everything up. I mean, the part about the coyotes is one hundred per cent true. But the part about the hat may have been a slight exaggeration.

Still, I did have a hat that would go along quite nicely with the column. So, after 42 minutes of throwing things around the basement (and a couple closets), I found the hat. Then, after 13 minutes of badgering the Beneficent Mr. Hall to take a picture, combined with the 17 minutes he spent taking 8 different pictures trying to get the perfect one of Cathy C. Hall in a hat, I had a photo of me in a hat. (Whew.)

You can see the photo on page 8 of this month’s issue of Modern Senior Living Magazine. Not only did I send the photo to my editor, but here I am, promoting the look.

Oh, the things we do for love.

Sometimes, I like to throw a word like “Yeti” into a blog title just for the fun of it. But today, I actually have a reason for including “Yeti.”

I had a dream about a Yeti a few nights ago. And the night after that, I dreamed about a Zombie Teenager, chasing me all over town. Honestly, I didn’t know zombies could run like that. Anyway, I seriously wished I’d written down those dreams. I mean, the plot lines wouldn’t win any prizes, but the feelings engendered during the dream stories were so intense! Haven’t you ever wished you could capture intensity like that on the written page?

So, now I’m going back to keeping a journal by my bed. I want to write down how I feel when I wake up from those Yeti/Zombie Teenager dreams. And maybe I can use those journal jottings to inspire some emotional zing into my stories.

Which brings me to the contest I found this fine Friday: The Writer’s Journal Write to Win Contest using the starter phrase “Standing under the…”

Now, generally speaking, I’m not overly keen on starter phrases (which the Write to Win contests use). But, this phrase is so…well, easy to work around that I could probably take a few of my stories and just slap it on the beginning. Not that I would, mind you.

Um, maybe I would. The deadline’s February 20th, after all. But I’m leaning more towards “Standing under the streetlight, the Yeti flashed a toothy grin at the Zombie Teenager.”

(P.S. Isn’t that a swell Yeti costume? Kinda reminds me of the Beneficent Mr. Hall before he shaves in the morning.)