Some links may be affiliate links. I may earn money if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these links on this site.
Rob Knowlan is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
National Glazed Spiral Ham Day 2023
Maybe you’ve got leftovers from Easter, or you might be popping one in the oven today. Glazed Spiral Hams are a holiday classic, but we can enjoy this conveniently pre-sliced treat whenever we want.
🌞Insta–Summer🔥
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. ~Albert Einstein
Forget the oven, the whole world has been hot as heck this week. Blech! 80s in mid-April? Who needs that?
On the other hand, sitting by a pretty girl is something I have the privilege to do every single evening, and it goes by entirely too fast.
Fortunately, it will be more 💐Spring–like🌷 next week. The 50s and 60s forecast for the coming week are at the top edge of my threshold of tolerance. It still beats what we had going on this week.
It will also be nice to be able to use the oven again next week. Given the hot weather, baking something is inadvisable.
The insulation that keeps our home snug and toasty during my favorite months also retains the heat in my least favorite months. Using the oven to make dinner simply amplifies the miserable heat index of a miserably hot day.
Again, I say: Blech!
Who Doesn’t Love Glazed Spiral Ham?
|
|
|
If the forecast holds, I’ll be able to enjoy some oven-cooked goodness today. I’ll also be able to enjoy some gloriously dreary weather.
I’ve got to attend my writer’s group meeting, pick up my prescription and hit the grocery store this morning. A busy Saturday for me.
If all goes to plan, I’ll grab a lovely spiral cut ham for us to enjoy this evening. Hmm, what to have for sides? Guess we’ll see.
|
|
|
Time And Changes
All fiction is about people, unless it’s about rabbits pretending to be people. It’s all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through time and changes taking place, and that’s what we call ‘the plot’. ~Margaret Atwood
Often discussed is the Character Arc. This is the most basic aspect of storytelling. Somebody wants something. Something happens. Somebody is changed by whatever happened. That’s a Character Arc in a nutshell.
Did they get what they wanted? How did the success or failure of their efforts impact their personalities or perspectives? Did that set up some sort of sequel or did they live happily ever after? These are the repercussions of the Character Arc.
Is what they do in the course of moving through time and the changes that take place interesting to follow along with? That’s plot, according to Margaret Atwood. In essence, that’s as succinct a definition as one might hope for.
So, you’ve got characters and plot. Simple, right? Not so quick.
If it was that simple, anybody could do it.
Well, actually, anybody can.
Storytelling is a human trait. Some people gossip. Some people lie. Some people struggle to understand themselves in the pages of a diary. Some people have stories bursting in their head and can’t live without sharing them with the world. This last group is known as writers.
We can’t refrain from putting pencil to paper or fingers to keys. We’re compelled to tell the imaginary tales that crowd our heads.
Some even manage to polish their tales to the point where they are, potentially, able to be shared with others. These people are called authors.
Certain snobs or gatekeepers might prefer to keep that title for the vaunted few who manage to get their work professionally published.
Not so, in my opinion. If you’ve finished the work, you’re an author. Writers write. Authors finish. Some of these do the extra work to get their stories published for mass consumption. Some of these share their work informally on their own websites or on reader-oriented sites.
Whether they are unlicensed works of fan fiction, suitable only for informal sharing among enthusiasts of some stringently protected IP or whether they are completely original works that are perfectly suitable for professional publication, the point is the work is done. These people are authors.
If you’re a person who has stories that you can’t keep under your hat, I encourage you to write. Put those stories out. Hone your craft and make something genuinely new and wonderful.
In a world of rehashed, rebooted, retconned or reenvisioned stories, dare to be different. Be original. Be unique. Make something that Hollywood can only dream of pulling off. Be you and bring your stories to the world. We’re pretty tired of leftovers with CGI sprinkles. We need you.
That’s it for this weekend. Have a lovely day, and don’t let your ham dry out.