Because Jack Asked For It

Jack had a great suggestion in his comment to the previous post. And since I'm so tired tonight that I'm punchy and my writing is verging on the melodramatic, I thought it'd be fun.

So... remember Mad Libs? (I'm dating myself probably.) The idea is this: I've taken the opening scene from As in Days of Old, and have removed key words and phrases. I'm now asking you - the blogging public - to fill in the blanks, so to speak, and we'll see what happens. I'll post the "modified" opening scenes with each blogger's suggestions in a future post. I can post the "original" too, if you want.

Clarification: I'm asking each reader to supply all 20 of the below-listed words/phrases. If three people participate, I'll post three separate and distinct modified opening scenes.

Here we go. I need, in the following order:

1. A name, first and last
2. noun, plural
3. noun, singular
4. city name (any city, any size)
5. architectural style of house
6. body part, plural (keep it clean, folks!)
7. month name
8. weather condition (temperature, precipitation or lack thereof, etc.)
9. room in a house
10. piece of furniture
11. noun, plural
12. noun, plural
13. noun, plural
14. noun, singular
15. verb, past tense
16. verb, past tense
17. noun, plural
18. adverb
19. noun, singular
20. room in a house

Please leave your suggestions in the comments. This should be fun and I look forward to your entries!

And stay tuned, because I'm hoping y'alls will help me out later this year with choosing a cover design and some other neat stuff. I may be asking for help naming a character, or I may have a contest to have a character named after you (the name of your choosing), with a free book as thanks once it's published.

In the Home Stretch

I really think the end of this book (As in Days of Old - the sequel to Destined to Choose) is in sight. Really, I do! Honest! I mean it!

So I'm going to press on and see if I might just be able to get this done Done DONE! next week. Not by the end of next week, and not necessarily by Monday, but sometime during the week next week.

Wish me luck, please! Maybe I should blog my word count, sort of like a countdown to launch but going up instead. Both of my readers should find that really interesting (yawn).

Okay, so as of this moment, not including the outlining I finally had to do for the final climactic scenes, I have...

dum dum dum!

Drumroll please....................

63,881 words written.

I'll update y'alls tomorrow before Shabbat (my time). I plan to spend ALL DAY writing!

You can start the chanting anytime now: you can do it you can do it you can do it you can do it!

ACK!

A good friend of mine offered to watch Youngest Son for a few hours while I ran some errands, and hopefully I would have some extra time to write, since I'm now behind schedule and I have to get this book written so I can get it to my editor and it's already almost halfway through January and it's still not done and now I've got dog obedience classes for Chaya and Talmud classes for me and Oldest Son's music teacher gave me a "special invitation" to join Israeli Folk Dancing again so I could remember the steps to Zodiak (which I did all by myself, thank you very much), but it was a gentle reminder that I really ought to go back, and Oldest Son is having a birthday party on Motzei Shabbat that I have to prepare for and now Jack wants everyone to link to him for Link to Jack Day and EVERYONE WANTS A PIECE OF ME!

Whuf.

Question Regarding Rebbetzins - Need Anonymous Help Please!

Slightly reworded so more people can answer. :-)

I need some help here, please!

No personal information requested...

I'm not sure if this is true in your shuls, but in ours, when there's a bar or bat mitzvah, or any other simcha for that matter, during whatever social time follows the davening, there is a group or line of well-wishers around the person/people celebrating the simcha.

If something similar to the above is true in your shul, does your rebbetzin (or do you - as the rebbetzin) wait in "line" to speak to said celebrant? Or do others graciously allow her/you to step in and bypass the line/group? Or does she/do you wait until there is no line/group? Or...?

Is there ever a time when her/your husband (the rabbi) wants to speak to someone surrounded by a similar line/group, and if so, what does he do?

And for rebbetzins themselves, do you take your cues about waiting/not waiting from him? If not, from where?

THANK YOU!!

Dancing Distraction

So I was just checking comments over on Shira's post about Israeli folk dancing and was doing some research on probably my most favorite of Israeli folk dances - Jama'a BaMidbar. It all got me very nostalgic because I haven't been able to attend our weekly local (and baruch HaShem we HAVE it!) Israeli folk dance class since I was pregnant with Oldest Son, who just turned six.

That means it's been close to seven years (!) since I was a regular participant.

Sniff.

I dug out my tape of my favorite dance songs and listened to it, trying with only limited success to remember all the dance steps. As much as I absolutely LOVE Jama'a, I can only remember a few of the steps, which is not good because the dance has some twelve different parts plus a recurring "chorus."

And I am so sadly out of shape that by the end of the tape, I was wheezing. Of course, I do have a head/chest cold, so maybe this wasn't the most intelligent choice I could have made.

I do think I'm overdue for a return to dance class. We'll see if I can work it out.

But I thought I'd share with you the favorite songs I have on this custom tape:

1. Zodiak (Zodiac)
2. Jama'a BaMidbar
3. Od Yavo (Shalom Aleinu) / Od Yavo'u
4. Kol Ma Shekadam
5. Halevay
6. Neshikat Turkit
7. Shir
8. Tzadik Katamar
9. Zemer Atik

If I can just remember the steps to them all...

Obligatory Post

Just thought I'd update all five of my readers that all's well but busy here.

1. Oldest Son just turned six.
   
2. Oldest Son goes back to school in 107 hours, 55 minutes.
   
3. Husby (computer network engineer) is trying to anecdotally and statistically prove that 9 times out of 10, when he gets a trouble call, it's actually not the network. Though tonight was apparently that 1 out of 10.
   
4. Youngest Son (3-1/2) today built a "trumpet" out of various household objects, the sum total of which is longer than our sofa.
   
5. Chaya the dog starts obedience school a week from tomorrow. It is not too soon. She's a sweet 2-year-old Lab/Chow mix, but she barks at air particles and eats used tissues.
   
6. I have a bad cold so there are a lot of used tissues around.
   
7. My next novel currently stands at just over 60,000 words, though it will be closer to 80,000 when it's completed.
   
8. If I can write 238 words an hour (that's about four words per minute), for twelve hours a day (not including Shabbat), I can be done in a week.
   
9. My last official typing test clocked me at 94 accurate words per minute. But I didn't have to make them up as I was typing them.
   
10. I am currently reading Earlene Fowler's "Benni Harper Mystery" series and really enjoying them. Enough so that I often would rather be reading than writing.
    
11. I have actually learned quite a bit about writing description from studying Earlene Fowler's writing as I read.
    
12. My current "sticking" scenes (the ones giving me the most problems) involve Sara's sometimes painful attempts to change her role from "the rabbi's wife" to "the rebbetzin."

Guess I'd better get back to it.

Sigh.

Vanity, thy Name is Blog

Many of you already know about Haveil Havalim - the carnival of Jewish/Israeli blogs. But for everyone else, this is a weekly roundup of Jewish and Israeli blogs started by SoccerDad just over two years ago. Each week is hosted by a different blogger. This week's marks the 100th roundup, and is hosted by BagelBlogger at Haveil Havalim 100.

What, exactly, is "Haveil Havalim" some might be asking?

The term comes from Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) 1:2 - "Haveil havalim amar Kohelet, haveil havalim; hakol haveil." Vanity of vanities says Kohelet, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. (Translation courtesy of The Jerusalem Bible [Koren Publishers, 1992.])

Kohelet is one of the names for King Solomon, son of King David, builder of the Temple in Jerusalem.

The weekly Haveil Havalim is a wonderful way to see what other Jewish and Israeli bloggers are writing about, and from this week's edition, it spans the spectrum from the very personal and intimate to the very public and political.

Thanks to SoccerDad for starting the whole thing, to all the bloggers who have hosted, and to BagelBlogger for this week's edition!