Friends

This week's new members:

break_the_moon, lilyrin, amber0191, seiferre, j_strafford, katydid_it, erotickore, wolflahti, mu_333, plunderedheart, montanaro



Welcome to Creative Writer!

This is your official welcome mat, an introduction to the fun which is our

community and an entreaty for you to join in.



How does it work?

Creative Writer is an online version of a writers' group. While writing

itself is usually a solitary occupation, what all writers need is contact

with other people who can give feedback, answer questions and, as with all

professions, provide guidance and a learning environment. While all artists

create their work, they can't create in a vacuum.

A writers group provides that environment. Here you are able to post

excerpts from your work and receive feedback, here you can learn from other

writers, here you can contribute to others, here is a safe place to grow

your talent.

So welcome to Creative Writer! Jump in, have some fun, any questions, feel

free to ask at any time.



( A little history )



( Community calendar )



( Rules for this community )



( How to make an LJ-cut )



-o-o-o-

Have fun and here's to great writing!

Windcharmer & Ayoub

(your local Creative Writer facilitators)

stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

I've been doing a lot of reading recently and it's made me very anxious to try and start writing again. I really enjoy. and would be looking to write some thing mythology/fantasy based, but the more I research the more I feel like everything has been done. Or, at least that there's a definite pattern in what stories/characters get used. Vampires would be the best example.

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions or knew of any useful resources/places to look that might help me think and possibly widen my options? Grateful wouldn't even cover my response if so.

taste_buds
Holidays provide a built-in excuse for indulgent entertaining. This all-purpose foodie community covers everything from homemade hangover cures to dinner party menus. Need quick advice? Get five-minute snack suggestions, low-fat ingredient substitutes, and even measurement conversions. Delicious recipes garnished with humorous advice. Yum.

naturesbeauty
Always on the lookout for compelling images, we were delighted to discover this flourishing community of artists who share a love of nature. Honoring the subject with photographs, paintings, sketches, prose, poetry, and other creative works, you'll be simultaneously riveted to your monitor and inspired to run helter skelter towards the nearest wooded dale.

This week's new members:

ammonite7, messes, mikatastic, jesustortilla, audrey_falling, scattered_star, cutthroatmellie, suburbanbird, dandygrrrl, the_jennamarie, shootingbullets



Welcome to Creative Writer!

This is your official welcome mat, an introduction to the fun which is our

community and an entreaty for you to join in.



How does it work?

Creative Writer is an online version of a writers' group. While writing

itself is usually a solitary occupation, what all writers need is contact

with other people who can give feedback, answer questions and, as with all

professions, provide guidance and a learning environment. While all artists

create their work, they can't create in a vacuum.

A writers group provides that environment. Here you are able to post

excerpts from your work and receive feedback, here you can learn from other

writers, here you can contribute to others, here is a safe place to grow

your talent.

So welcome to Creative Writer! Jump in, have some fun, any questions, feel

free to ask at any time.



( A little history )



( Community calendar )



( Rules for this community )



( How to make an LJ-cut )



-o-o-o-

Have fun and here's to great writing!

Windcharmer & Ayoub

(your local Creative Writer facilitators)

backpacking
Want to embrace your wanderlust on the cheap? If you're tall on adventurous spirit, but short on funds, this community can help you plan a trip to anywhere. Offering plentiful tips on how to travel light, you can post about bargain hotels and hostels if you're into urban exploration or discuss camping gear and mosquito netting for the great outdoors. Hitch your backpack, pitch your tent, and carpe diem!

**FINAL EDIT Thu Dec 10 02:15:47 UTC 2009**

So there is the final update... Over the past day we have processed around 11 million jobs out of the 12 million that were in queue at that time. Please bear in mind that over this past day, more jobs for notifications are also created. So while the queue has been dropping, we are still not fully caught up at this point, due to backlog and new jobs. We have roughly 3 million jobs still pending that involve the notification system in some manner. We had hoped we could have fully cleared the queue in a day, but unfortunately we can't clear it too quickly, since we need the rest of the site to operate normally. From our current perspective on the amount of jobs that are left in queue, and how many it has processed thus far, we believe it will take around another 8 - 12 hours to process everything.

And finally some answers to some questions:

( Read More and Get Some Answers... )

freeskiers
While some of us long to escape the cold, dark stretch of winter for hot tropical beaches, for others, there's nothing quite like whoooooshing down those shimmering sugar alps. If you're fond of freestyle skiing, get ready to slide down the slippery slopes in good company. This passionate, international community shares travel/gear tips, anecdotes, photos, and videos for those who can't get enough of the sweet stuff.

seasonal_icons
Need some extra twinkle to decorate your place? Check out these dazzling holiday-themed icons. If you're an artist, you can post your own creations, provided you abide by the simple rules (which is to say, all cheer and no politicking). Be sure to comment and give credit if you wish to borrow a little spirit (no direct links, please). If you're feeling a touch of humbug this season, this is an instant shot of festivity.

handmade_gifts
High on creativity, but low on cash? You'll find tons of brilliant suggestions for do-it-yourself crafts sure to please everyone on your holiday gift list. Offering detailed instructions, photos, budgets, timelines, and active support, you'll soon turn spare remnants of fabric and time into cherished keepsakes. Be sure to search entries and read user guidelines before you post for help!

Title: Bill's, A Neighborhood Bar

Author: Louisiana-Lady1937
Genre: General
Rating: PG
Warnings: Characters smoke, drink and occasionally use coarse language.
Critique: quick look

Summary: An open-ended effort to relieve myself of the need to write
Authors note: Pulled this out of my blog, it did not really belong there. I still need to continue the pleasure of creating new chapters for “Bill’s a neighborhood bar” from time to time so this is an open-ended continuing work in progress. I am more in touch with reality than to assume for even a moment any of this could be construed as writings deserving of being published, or an effort deserving the adding of ‘author’ to my bin of adjectives I browse through, dust off and present to the moment. I did not do any cleanup on these chapters, all the flaws, loose ends and examples of miserable writing skills are as they came when retrieved from my blog. I did assign chapter numbers where they were missing from the blog entry and deleted tags and repeats of titles.
(Intentions of mine when I started this writing adventure)
Here is the answer I came up with as how to write about places, people, and events taking place over the span of my life that if left to stand-alone did not satisfy my need to be verbose in my writing. Here I combine facts, real people, places, and events with fiction and “knockoff” versions of reality.
Note: 12/04/09 as it is turning out this is almost pure fiction, fed with only vague shadows of any realities I may have passed through during the course of my life. I wanted to be someone else in this effort. I am all women, yet chose a man as the key player, as men seem to move about more freely in the world, as I see it anyway. I chose the neighborhood bar as a base and springboard for developing “JJ.”
I have no idea how long this series will be.

<*lj-cut text="Bill's, A Neighborhood Bar"*>
Chapter 1

Bill:
It did not take me long after I moved into town to find a good bar and a good bartender that ran it. Bill was his name; I never did find out his last name, nor did he find out mine, as the years past and we became friends.

The first time I ever walked into the bar and before I even knew he was both the owner and bartender, I saw him at the jukebox having a quiet but hard toned conversation with another man. One guy was holding a 45- rpm record and the other guy was pointing back and forth from the record to the jukebox with one hand while rubbing one side of his face with the other. I walked on by and as I moved, further into the place, my eyes adjusted to the dark. Straight ahead of me at the back was a sign that said Gents and I headed towards it. I made room for a drink or two and while I was rinsing my hands off made an assumption that he kept a clean place as the restroom was immaculate, a hard task to accomplish in a small neighborhood bar; the rest of the place was really too dark to tell for sure. I sat down at the end of the bar facing the door and quietly waited. Finally, the guy holding the record put it in an empty slot in the jukebox, shrugged his shoulders, closed the jukebox door, picked up a clipboard, and shoved it at the other man to sign. Once this task was completed, he cast the other man a dirty look and left. I was about to leave as well when the finger pointing, face rubbing man went behind the bar and approached me with a sheepish grin. “Sorry I had to make him understand if that record leaves this place so does the jukebox that held it.” “Must be a special record “I said. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a quarter with a red stripe painted on it and held out his hand for me to take it. “Find out for yourself, it # 23 and what will you have? As I took the quarter and got up from the barstool, I said “Always Crown Royal with tall water back.” Song # 23 turned out to be Jo Stafford singing ‘You Belong to me’. Down the line, I learned why Bill loved that song. In the upcoming years, I came to know every word of the song as well as I knew my own name.
I slide the quarter into the slot on the front of the jukebox and watched as the lights came on. As I found #23, I realized the plastic buttons were more worn than the others were. A dead give away it got a lot of play. I started back and got a better look at Bill as he finished my drink and placed it on the counter. Black rubber soled shoes, light brown wrinkled pants, a black belt, and a loose fitting powder blue shirt over his thick heavy bull like upper frame made up his outfit. A bar towel slung over one shoulder was as close to a bar keeps uniform as he ever got. He had a full head of silver hair and silver eyebrows over brown deep-set eyes. A prominent nose and full lips fit well with a large full chinned face. As he turned back towards me the left side of his face became fully visible. A long deep saber shaped scar ran from the corner of his ear almost to the edge of chin; that was what he had been rubbing while he was at the jukebox earlier. My curiosity could wait I knew I would learn about the scar sometime later. About 20 minutes later I finished my drink, said see you later, and left. I was setting down roots in a new neighborhood

<*/lj-cut*>