Just For Fun | Cathy C. Hall Writes

And the Finding Something Friday answer is…a cool website that will increase your vocabulary while decreasing world hunger, AND a fun contest at a website I’ve recently discovered.

Like my smiling rice face? She’s happy because I visit FreeRice.com every chance I get. This website is simple and addictive, plus you’ll feel good about yourself for doing something positive to counter the world hunger problem.

Everytime you answer a vocabulary question correctly, you add 20 grains of rice to your pile. The longer you play, the more rice you earn. And if you’re a word lover like me, you’re bound to learn some new vocabulary in the process. Check it out here and see how much rice you can pile up (and how many vocabulary levels you can pile up, too!).

Then check out The Muse Marquee, a website I found from a fellow PG’er. I think the site was just named one of the Top Ten Most Useful sites by the Preditor and Editor folks for 2008 (and that’s a nice bit of Fame in the writing business). Go see why The Muse Marquee won that honor. And while you’re there, take a look at the current contest, BLURB IT! I’m all about writing fast and furious, so I know I’ll be coming up with some crazy blurb before the May 31st deadline.

Last question: “What scathingly witty writer achieved an awesome vocabulary level on the FreeRice.com site (thus causing a certain beneficent someone to sulk and turn off the computer)?” Modesty prevents me from saying. But the answer may show up in a future blurb.

Here’s a Finding Something Friday mystery for you: What does this lovely basket of fruit have to do with Cathy C. Hall?

And please don’t say that I’m a melonhead. Instead, sit back and I’ll explain how these delicious melons, grapes and strawberries connect to the Road to Publication (and Cathy C. Hall).

Think of these fruits as your wonderful pieces of writing…essays, short stories, poems. Perhaps you’ve placed these documents in a safe place, like a file on your computer. Maybe you’ve made a hard copy, too. Or zapped them onto a flash card. The point is, you’ve saved them and you think they’re safe.

But wait! Here comes a tornado! (Or some other natural disaster; I’m not that picky) Are you going to scramble around, looking for your flashcard? Laptop? The plastic crate filled to the top with your notes and manuscript? I don’t think so. My guess is that you will run for your life and lament your lost words later.

Unless you’ve already set up another email account and sent copies of all your files to said account which you use primarily as storage. Then you could access every single word you’d ever written. All those wonderful strawberries, melons and grapes will be just as fresh as ever and waiting for you.

I found that little storage tidbit in this month’s Writer’s Digest. And I found the basket of fruit in my kitchen today. It was delivered to yours truly and Mr. Hall for our anniversary.

Granted, it was a bit of a stretch connecting that basket of fruit to my tip for the day. But hey, us melonheads are smarter than we look!