I don't want to restart the discussion or anything, but given our earlier talks of books we read when we were younger, I thought some of you might enjoy these excerpts from my sixth grade journal.

Oct. 16, 1992

My favorite thing about The Secret Garden is how the robin shows Mary where the key and the garden are because it seems so cool.

I was very eloquent back then.

Dec. 4, 1992

I really liked Dealing with Dragons because I love (Note: It’s actually underlined five times, with lines of decreasing length.) fantasy. I also liked Finders Keepers because it was funny and had riddles. The Magic Grandfather was good because I love (Note: Just one this time.) magic. I also enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia because it was so fascinating, those creature and things. The Phantom Tollbooth was really funny. I love (Note: Four lines.) anything such as fantasy or magic or humorous kinds of books. I also like mysteries.

My critical faculties extended all the way to underlining.

Feb. 3, 1993

In Escape from Warsaw, I would like to be Jan because he is fond of animals and so am I. I don’t eat my friends either. He gets all that food. Still, I wouldn’t like to be an orphan. He was a stubborn kid, and I guess I am too. I finished the book and he is pretty cool, like when he captures Bistro the chimp. He’s uncool when he goes to jail. I like it when he- whoops, that’s ahead of where we are in the book. You’ll have to find out what his idea of a teasing name is.

I...identified with characters?

Apr. 28, 1993

If I could collect something, I would collect horror/fantasy books like R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike novels. Those books are easy to order. They are usually $3.25. Those books keep you on the edge of your seat (or whatever you are on). I also said fantasy, because I love fantasy. You can get those at bookstores, buy them through book orders, or have them given to you as presents. You can get those horror books like that too. I’d need to be rich to get them all, but I would hopefully have time to read them all. I like a reading alot, so I’d want too.

Right. You may now return to your regularly scheduled drabbling.

Awaiting new topic from Teppy, who I believe is a) not feeling well, and b) entertaining SA.

She should take a sick day, and make SA come up with the topic, in lieu of rent.

ita, that would work.

Ooops! Something was nagging at the back of my brain all day, and I couldn't think of what it was that I needed to do. Ahem.

Challenge #42 (fire) is now closed.

Challenge #43 is a "scene" challenge, which I haven't done in a while, where I tell you who's in the scene and what they're doing, and you drabble it. Two people -- one sitting, one standing. Drabble your talented hearts out.

Huh.

I just made myself cry with my own writing. I can't remember if I've ever done that before.

Which probably means the bit that brought on the weeping is either the best or the suckiest thing I've ever written.

I'm thinking best, Susan. I'm always impressed when I go back and read something I wrote and even I laugh. I figure if my own jokes can take me by surprise, I did something right. So if you're making yourself cry, I think you're on the right track.

Maybe. But I've found that many scenes I thought were beautiful, artistic works of subtle foreshadowing and layered themes at the time I was writing them were actually too clever by half and had to be deleted the next day--or usually a month or two later when I was finally objective enough to judge. So it wouldn't surprise me if what strikes me as touching today will reveal itself to be maudlin once I've come down from the writer high.

Teppy, are we celebrating an anniversary? Two people, one standing, one sitting was the first-ever drabble we had, I think. Wasn't it?

I thought the first was one standing, one lying down.