Author: Joseph Carrabis

The Rabbit

It’s wondrous when The Wild wants your attention (notice the alliteration? I can do things like that. I being an author an’ all).

In this case, I caught a little hopping outside my window as I worked.

I looked up, saw nothing, continued being creative.

Another slight movement. Not a hop, more a wobbly walk.

What could it be?

Behold, a rabbit!

Quiet and shy (most of The Wild is), it took me a moment and then a slight movement and there he was.

This is a new rabbit to us. No idea of his name yet.

But we’re patient.

And so is he.

Enjoy.

 

Dorothea Brande’s “Becoming a Writer”

I read Dorothea Brande’s Becoming a Writer right after reading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. The two books share a theme of self-exploration. Becoming a Writer was originally written before meditation and Buddhism were established in the west, and Brande still makes her case for self-exploration through “meditation without calling it meditation” exercises. I’d offer that Becoming a Writer is a prelude to Writing Down the Bones.

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Twitter Locks and Suspends Accounts of People Tweeting in Danish!

I don’t know how many people’s accounts are locked and suspended because they tweeted in Danish.

Mine is.

And yes, because I tweeted in Danske (Danish).

Oh, the (lack of) humanity!

If you’re following me on Twitter, you may have noticed I upped my game over the past few weeks. After being off Twitter for much of Covid I got back on and began exchanging quips with folks in my stream.

Kys Kys
Then Twitter locked and suspended my account and blocked my access because I wrote “Kys Kys” to a friend in Denmark who’s teaching me Danish via Twitter. “Kys Kys” is Danish for “Kiss Kiss.”

 
I especially love the line “Please know that there are people out there who care about you, and that you are not alone.” Evidently none of these people are at Twitter.

And let’s not get into the poorly constructed sentence.

Evidently “Kys Kys” has meanings other than “Kiss Kiss.” Specifically, “Kys Kys” has something to do with encouraging suicide and self-harm. According to the Urban Dictionary kys

Stands for “Kill your self” a sarcastic term used amongst friends basically telling one another to shut the fuck up, when someone says something ignorant, embarrassing, or just plain stupid. *not intended for real suicide suggestions, please stay alive y’all…

Robots Go Where Humans Are Too Stupid to Tread
It’s obvious my KYS was caught by some robotic dolt and the issue should have been resolved quickly. I emailed Twitter explaining KYS is Kiss in Danish. I alerted them to their…error? stupidity? idiocy?…and suggested they review the exchange between my Danish friend and myself. A week’s gone by. Twitter claims they’re investigating:

 
I swear this is true. I’m a fiction author and I couldn’t make up something this inane (although it’ll show up in a future work, I promise you).

The Universe seems to be telling me “Thou shalt not twit!”

At this point, who am I to argue? I’ll start up again if Twitter unlocks my account. Maybe. I’ve never dealt well with stupid, and to me this is wildly stupid.

I will miss all the fine folks I knew there and hopefully they will find me if they wish. It would be nice to have my friends around me again.

Two Pieces for a Workshop

I mentioned back in Four pieces for a workshop that I’m taking an online writing course.

I’ve taken a few courses from this provider since then. It is a fascinating experience. A few of the students are worth the price of admission. I can’t stop thinking of them as characters – truthfully, more like caricatures – and wonder if their behavior is how they believe auteurs should behave or how they genuinely behave.

Some of the other students are also worth the price of admission, and differently; they’re witty, forthcoming, enjoy a good laugh, … I’ve engaged a few of them out of the class. Good folks, all.

Anyway, I’ll be sharing more of the exercises from the class in this and subsequent posts.

Here we have the same story told through Character and then via Description. Fair warning; I didn’t take this particular class too seriously.

Character
Bob sat calmly reading a story about a woman in a barn watching a neighbor drive a car by. It didn’t occur to Bob how amazing this was, nor did Bob’s owner, Frieda, seem to notice.

But Sylvester and Carmine, Bob’s two kits, were incensed.

“Yo! Momma!” they mewed. “Roll over! Give us those teats!”

Frieda looked down at the kits plaintive cries. “Oh, my. Bob. You’re starving your children.”

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Description
“Bob’s not feeding her kits.”

“You know this how?”

“I watched her. She sat curled on a magazine. Sylvester and Carmine practically knocked her over to get at her, poor things.”

“You watched our cat not feed her kits. How long did you watch our cat not feed her kits?”

“Must have been a half, three-quarters of an hour.”

“Were they quiet through all this?

“Wailing like tiny banshees, they were.”

“You sat and watched all this, listened to the kits crying, but did nothing?”

“What would you have me do?”

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The Return of Sarah and Gladstone

Over a year ago we encountered mated coyote, Sarah and Gladstone. We’ve seen coyote since and not often.

They are quiet and shy creatures.

Who annoy Boo by their presence.

We’re not sure why. Boo doesn’t like opossum and he will tolerate them to a certain degree. They must stay off the porch and otherwise, c’est la vie!

But coyote…

Is it because he recognizes an ancient ancestor in them?

Perhaps he fears they will usurp him in our hearts (never fear, Little Boo).

Could just be that we sometimes give him the dog food we leave for the coyote and raccoons and he thinks no, that’s his food, stay away.

Doesn’t act that way with the raccoons, though. Maybe because they also get peanuts?

Anyway, Sarah and Gladstone. Enjoy.