New Year's Resolution! Romantic Friday Writers' Challenge No. 29

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writers' fortnightly Writing Challenge, started and hosted by Denise Covey, L'Aussie, where participants share their own 300-400-word text - story or poem - on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 30th December, Challenge No. 28, is 'New Year's Resolution'. My text is written directly for this REW-challenge.

Here is my text :
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New Year's Resolution

Anita Karlsson found a moment to jot down her thoughts:

Dear Diary,
Today is Friday the thirteenth of January 2012 and after several weeks of neglect I have finally found a space of time to put pen to paper and visit with you my friend since I was twelve. Imagine that! I have been writing to you for 37 years!

I just recently had my forty-ninth birthday; next time I'll be fifty.

I feel that this past year has been a crossroads for me. So much as happened. My cat met a feline-tabby-Casanova one very cold afternoon in February last year and gave birth to kittens in April. (I am still looking for homes for them.) At about the same time, the divorce from Sverker became final. The most beautiful time of year - spring and summer - went to finding a new apartment, packing, moving and then unpacking. I'm not finished yet.

Yes, dear diary, I know. I should write a New Year's Resolution. What would that be? 'I resolve to never marry a man like my former husband again'? It seems unlikely that I'll even find someone to remarry. But I wish I could. Someone who really likes me. Someone who might learn to love me too. Someone I like, of course.

I could make a New Year's Resolution to stay cool and never to run after a man, even if I am infatuated in him. (I know. I scare the best ones off, like that cute guy Karl. He seemed interested at first and then cooled off.)

(Why is love so fragile?)

Now I know what I could promise! My New Year's Resolution is to take one day at a time. I read somewhere that 'how you spend your day, is how you fill your life*'.

'Til next time, Dear Diary!
Your friend,
Anita

[Text copyright 2012 Christina Wigren]

Word count according to WordCalc: 308; 'NCCO' - No Critque, Comments Only.

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Best wishes,
Anna

P.S.
This is a fictional text even if Anita Karlsson shares some of my experience. Before the internet and online blogging there was perhaps more writing in a diary or journal with a pen on paper. I have actually written (by hand) a diary since I was twelve years old. It is no literary gem, but it is a personal document that I am glad to have. Even if the texts in my diary tend to be boring, repetitive and not very deep, the act of writing every day has helped me write with ease, even if the quality of what I write needs proof-reading and editing. (I am such a bad speller!)
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*This quote is from Mrs. Jenny Matlock's site 'Off My Tangent'. I don't know if it is her own words or if she is quoting someone else.

Oh no! I remembered incorrectly! This is what Jenny Matlock actually wrote (here):

Every morning when I get up I remind myself that "how you live your days is how you live your life." I try to live each day to the fullest. Always. Whether it is a sad day or a happy day or a day filled with memories and loss it is a day that will never come again. Carpe Diem.

Sorry Jenny!

P.P.S.
Here are what the kittens looked like in April:




Text & Photographs Copyright 2012 Christina Wigren
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First Commenter:
Laura



of

The Daily Dodo

To read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 29, with the theme 'New Year's Resolution', please visit this site or click on the image below:

'Ties That Bind' - 'The House Call' - Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No 28 - Friday 30th December 2011

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writing Bi-Weekly Challenge, started and hosted by DeniseCovey_L'Aussie, where participants share their own 300-400-word text on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 30th December, Challenge No. 28, is 'Ties That Bind'. My text is written directly for this REW-challenge.

Here is my text :
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The House-Call

She was only fourteen in 1941,
And had just taken one step away from childhood,
When she fell ill with high fever and red spots.

It was late December,
And colder than ever remembered,
There was war everywhere else except here.

A very bad strain of an infectious disease spread throughout the town.
Several children had already died.
Although an unoccupied country,
It was still not a good place to become ill.

Water-pipes froze in apartment buildings,
So tenants had no drinking-water.
But their house was better built.

There were no heaters in motor vehicles,
Not even in ambulances,
Should she be taken to hospital?
She was better off at home.

In fever-dreams she heard the doctor say:
'She won't last the night'.
But she didn't care.
She was going to Heaven.

Her temperature was almost 40 degrees Celsius.*
Outside, it was almost minus 40 degrees Celsius.**

But she didn't care.
She had just taken one step away from childhood,
And now one step away from life.

The young doctor thought of a new drug that might help her.
He took it upon himself to fetch Sulfa at the army compound.
That was where the lastest medicines were first tried out.
But what dose should he use? Would the same dose for a tall soldier?
Be too strong for a fourteen-year-old girl?

The Sulfa worked.
The fever broke.
It seemed that she would survive.
But she went into a coma,
That lasted twenty-one days.

With no way to feed her or give her drink,
She nearly starved to death.

But after three weeks she woke up.
She looked like a prisoner of war,
Who just left a concentration camp.
The skirt she once wore fell off when she tried to stand;
And then she fell, because she could neither walk nor stand.

So much forgotten during three weeks' sleep.
She had forgotten what she had learned in school, too.
She had just taken one step from childhood,
But it seemed to be one step back into infancy.

Mother, Father and Nurse, all took turns walking with her,
So much to relearn,
If she were to return to life,
And everything exhausted her.

It was now she recalled what she heard the doctor say,
In her fever-dream,
Now she understood,
And cared,
And cried and cried;
She felt afraid,
And knew that she had almost died,
But was restored to life.

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Word count according to WordCalc: 400; 'FCA' (Full Critique Acceptable)

Footnotes:
*40 degrees Celsius = 104 degrees Fahrenheit
** minus 40 degrees Celsius = minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit

[Text copyright 2011 Christina Wigren]






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Best wishes,
Anna

P.S.
This poem/story is based on fact. The girl in the story is someone whom I know very well and who is still alive today as I write this text.

Sulfa was a new drug in 1941; it was later used to induce coma when needed; but they did not know that back then. This was before antibiotics (which would not have helped much because the Measles is a viral infection) and before the use of IV-bags/bottles to hydrate or medicate a patient.

Sorry about the lack of romance, folks! This is actually a real-life Cinderella-story. But this is only 'part one'; she meets her prince in 'part two'.
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If I were to write a purely fictional story, I could make the young doctor fall in love with the girl whose life he saved. But that is not what actually happened. I feel it is my duty to keep this story as true to the original facts as possible.

I am fascinated by the idea that one person's actions can help another person survive or let them die. In this case, I wish I knew more about the facts. I could kick myself for not asking the right questions at a time when I had access to a person who was there at the time. I am not sure that the doctor had this medicine with him when he visited the fever-ridden girl. Maybe he really did have to make a trip out in minus 40 degree weather in order to get the Sulfa. What possessed him to do that? Youthful curiosity? A sense of professional pride and duty? Or did the fact that his boss was a close friend of the girl's father make him try a little harder?

There are so many questions that I may never find a definite answer to. Did he suffer afterward, as a result of this outing in the bitter cold? Or maybe he was dressed well enough. Was the fact that other young patients had died of the Measles a factor in his decision? Maybe he decided that he would do all that was possible so that there would be no more deaths?

What I would like to do for this doctor, is to at least find out who he was. There is a hospital archive through which I may be able to identify him. I would like to honour the memory of the man who saved the life of this girl in 1941, seventy years ago.

First Commenter:
Denise Covey
of
L'Aussie Denise

To read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 28, with the theme 'Ties That Bind', please visit this site or click on the image below:

Sparkle! Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No.27 on Friday 16th December 2011

Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writing Challenge, started and hosted by L'Aussie Denise, where participants share their own 300-400-word text on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 16th December, Challenge No. 27, is 'Sparkle'. My text is written directly for this REW-challenge.

Here is my text :
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Sparkle

'Let's bow before we begin. Hold your violin under your right arm, and let the bow hang from your index finger. One - two - three.' Mrs Nichols and her pupil, Sara, bowed to each other.

Sonja Nichols and my son, Erik bow to each other before their lesson:

Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

Then the teacher took out a large toy dice and gave it to the pale blond seven-year-old: 'One, three or five, I choose; two, four or six, you choose'. Sara threw the dice and it turned up three. 'Let's play Twinkle. Shall I play the violin or the piano?'

Sonja Nichols is looking at how my son, Erik, is holding his violin and bow.

Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

'The violin, please,' replied Sara, holding her violin up on her left shoulder, ready to play.

'If you think about the words to the song, you will know when to play the long notes:
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star", long bow there.'

Sonja Nichols and my son, Erik are playing a melody together.

Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

Sara thought about words like twinkle, sparkle, glitter, and shiny; about the Christmas lights suspended from the trees by the library; they looked like giant snowflakes. Yes, they really sparkled against the the black evening sky!

My daughter, Elisabet, by the library where the giant snowflakes hang from trees.

Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

How I wonder what you are, Sara sang silently to herself as she successfully switched strings from D to A and back to D again and got her fingers to land in the right places. Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. The idea of twinkling, sparkling stars made her think of pretty jewellery; the rhinestones in the tiara that come with the Cinderella-costume dress that she had seen in the toy store.

'That was fine, Sara. Now let's repeat the first part: "Twinkle, twinkle, Little Star..."', explained Mrs Nichols.
It worked! Sara thought, I can play it!


Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

My daughter, Elisabet, is looking quite the opposite of 'Sparkle' in this photo. She did not want me to take any photographs of her during her last violin lesson, today, Friday, December 16th, so her older brother, Erik, is illustrating this story about the young violinist, Sara. But Elisabet looks the part, if she only could play the violin as well!

Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

When Sara slept that night she dreamed that she was Cinderella. But instead of loosing a glass slipper at a ball, her shoulder-support fell off her violin when she was to play for the Prince. She ran away from just before midnight, and the subsequent search was for a girl with a violin without a shoulder-support! When the Prince found her, she could finish her concert. And then the Prince and Sara were married, and lived happily ever after.

Sara awoke refreshed from her dream and was ready for the coming challenge that very evening: the end-of-term recital, at which Sara would play 'Twinkle, twinkle Little Star'.

Sonja Nichols, violin and viola teacher, Suzuki-method.

Photograph Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren

Mrs Nichol was very please with her pupil. Sara sparkled with delight and bowed before applauding parents and pupils. She had played well.

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[Text and Photo Copyright 2011 Christina Wigren]

Word count according to WordCalc: 400; NCCO; No Critique, Comments Only.

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Best wishes,
Anna

P.S.
This is a piece of fiction based upon real life.

I know that many of you will say that there is not enough romance in this text; but what kind of romance can a seven-year-old have? Fairy tales have a bit of romance in them; and 'sparkle' is what you make it to be.

What this text does show is the endless patience that my children's music teacher, Mrs Sonja Nichols, has. It is a romantic (=wishful-thinking) text in that the little girl plays so well and so willingly. In reality, I am constantly looking for ways to get my children to practice and to get them to their lessons on time. I am not above bribing. But if I wrote all that into this text, it would no longer be a romantic text.

Mrs Nichols, who is really their violin-teacher, told me about the alternative Cinderella-tale, that I have used in the fictitious child's, Sara's dream.

All About Suzuki:

The Suzuki-method could also be called "The Mother-Tongue-Method" because its founder, Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998), was inspired by the way all children learn their first language. Listening to music and repetition are also very important. Another keystone is playful, loving encouragement and respect for the child and teacher, rather than demands or punishment. When Elisabet said that she did not want me to take pictures of her during her lesson, both Sonja and I were in agreement that I should put the camera away, which I did.

To learn more in English about the Suzuki-method of teaching music to very young children, please go to this site for the International Suzuki Association, to find a Suzuki teacher in your region please go to this page; and go to this site for the American Suzuki Association. Here is Wikipedia's page about the Suzuki-teaching-method. To learn about the Suzuki-club in Norrköping and the rest of Sweden, please go to this site. To read about the Suzuki-method in Swedish, please go here.

To read a short biography in English of the founder of the Suzuki-method, Shinichi Suzuki (1898-1998), please click on his name. His life is interesting enough to read about even if you don't have children who want to learn how to play a musical instrument!

First Commenter:
Heaven
of
Sweet Lust: Christmas star


Photo Copyright: Heaven, Sweet Lust: Christmas star


Photo Copyright: Heaven

To read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 27, with the theme 'Sparkle', please visit this site or click on the image below:

Picture-Prompt -Romantic Friday Writers Monthly Challenge 26, December 2nd, 2011

Welcome to the Romantic Friday Writing Challenge, started and hosted by L'Aussie Denise, where participants share their own 400-600-word text on a given theme. This week's theme for Friday, 2nd December, Challenge No. 26, is the image of the snowy, wintery, vaguely Christmas-like, cottage-in-the-forest-landscape 'Blue Christmas' at the head of this post. My text is written directly for this REW-challenge.

Here are L'Aussie Denise' instructions:

From now on I'll be running RFWer alone. It's a huge task, yet lots of fun. However, looking at the long-term, I feel weekly posts are too much for me to sustain if I want to achieve other writing goals. I want RFWer to continue, so this is what I've come up with:

• For a trial period, at least until the end of this year, Romantic Friday Writers will become a monthly, rather than weekly blogfest. There may be special themes from time to time as well.
• There will usually be guest posts on Wednesday each week during November, so check in. I'm asking guests to give us tips on writing flash fiction and romance.
• Because we only have to write one story or poem monthly, the word limit can be upped to make it 400-600 words temporarily. You can of course submit 200 words if you so choose!
• The challenges will be broadened - to include response to a photo, an image, or you might be given phrases to begin your story with. There may or may not always be a theme.

OUR FIRST MONTHLY CHALLENGE:

Here's our first challenge - responding to an image. Christmas is big at our house, but I know not everyone celebrates, or celebrates this holiday in different ways. So rather than making a Christmas blogfest, I'm giving you the opportunity to respond to this image in whatever way you wish - it reeks of a ghostly romantic tale to me, or we could have a 'lost in the woods' poem or story, or it could be a Christmas story (obviously not an Aussie Christmas!) Over to you! Stun us with your masterpiece. You have a whole month to write your piece, and you have extra words to play with. Don't forget we are Romantic Friday Writers. How about posting the challenge on your blog? All the more fun to read. I'll be looking forward to reading your December stories. Let's get writing people!
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That was Denise' instructions. Now, here is my text :

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No, wait. I thought I'd write a little about Christmas in Sweden first:


Picture Source

Christmas in Sweden is full of traditional food and fun things to do if you don't catch a cold. Winter is usually very cold and dark, so I think Christmas is a time for working against the elements: Lighting lights at the darkest time of the year; giving presents, cooking, cleaning house and inviting friends, when you'd rather go hibernate. It is also a religious holiday, as it should be. You go to church early, early Christmas morning. Christmas presents are opened on Christmas Eve. Christmas is a wonderful mix of the pagan and the Christian, of darkness and light, of dispair and hope.

After lighting the first candle for the first of Advent, the real 'kick-off' for Christmas is partly the banquet for the Noble Prize held on December 10th, in Stockholm's beautiful Town Hall. (The ceremony, banquet and dance are shown on tv each year. Lots of pretty evening gowns and jewellery to look at!)

Picture Source

But also Lucia or Saint Lucia-day on the thirteenth of December marks the beginning of Christmas festivities, when small troupes of singers dressed in white gowns and glitter,

Picture Source

holding candles, follow a preferably blond girl, who is chosen to be Saint Lucia (a martyr who lived in Syracuse, Sicily in AD 310). Lucia is also dressed in a long white gown, but with a red sash a crown of candles on her head. She carrys a tray with special saffron-buns

Picture Source

called 'Lussekatter' and gingersnaps (pepparkakor) be given to everyone they meet at this very early hour of the morning, when it is still dark at offices, hospitals, schools. They go anywhere and everywhere people are gathered in their everyday lives. Lucia is the bringer of light at this the darkest time of year. She is a comfort at the winter solstice.

For me, personally, this year, November (and now dipping into December) has been an uncertain and hectic time. I have tried to do too many things and failed at most of them. It has been unusally warm, so we have no snow yet, which may have contributed to my lack of planning. In my mind, it is not yet winter; Christmas is still far off. But in reality, it is very soon, and I feel so utterly unprepared.

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Now, here's my little f i c t i o n a l story:

Jenny looked at the picture of a snow-covered house in a wintry forest with yellow light glowing from every window. This looks inviting. Should I buy these?

'Can I help you?' said a man who looked like a young James Stewart, as George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life. Jenny, who was lonely after a divorce, absorbed every syllable.

'I'm still thinking,' Jenny said laughing to herself, as she found herself using tha exact same words that the character Mary Hatch used in the film.

Jimmy Stewart continued unpacking packages and stacking books on a shelf. He had white cotton gloves on, so she could not see a wedding ring.

Why buy Christmas cards at all? She used to send lots of cards every year, but postage costs so much and writing takes time.

'Are you new here?' Jenny asked as she put the box of cards on the counter and opened her purse to retrieve her wallet, 'I usually stop here once a week. Haven’t seen you before.'

‘I'm just extra for the Christmas rush. The name's Jakob!' he said and smiled as he pulled off his right glove and shook her hand.

'Nice to meet you. I'm Jenny!' He kept his glove on his left hand so she still could not see his if he had a wedding ring. Jenny paid for the cards, took the bag and left.

'Happy Christmas!' said Jakob, putting his white glove back on.

Jenny walked toward the bridge. It was getting dark and beginning to snow. Silly me, I should go back and return these. I can't afford them. I won't have time to write them and I don't have the money for postage to send them.

Jenny walked across the bridge over the river and stopped to look at the trickle of water running through the frozen masses of ice. She thought about Clarence, the angel from the film. Wouldn't it be nice to have a guardian angel?

Suddenly she saw a tall, lanky Jimmy Stewart/Jakob walking across the bridge toward her. He looked directly at her and smiled.

'Hi Jenny! You haven't gotten very far! Let's have some coffee over there,' he said pointing to the café across the bridge.

They found an empty table near a window overlooking the river, and sat in silence a moment until finally Jakob spoke: 'What would you like to do the rest of your life?'

'To be happy,' said Jenny.

'That was a tall order!'

'Is it? Isn't that basically what most people want, Jakob?'

'Maybe. But most people fetter away their lives doing things that they really don't want to do.' He took out his wallet, opened it and counted out the price of the Christmas cards. 'Here. I'll take them back to the store if you give me the receipt.'

Being a penny-pincher, she saved all of her receipts, and could return both the cards and the receipt to Jakob.

'Who are you, Jakob? Are you a mind-reader?'

'No, nothing like that. Here, let me treat you to more coffee and another piece of cake.'

'Thanks Jakob, you're an angel.'

'Yep, that's exactly what I am', he said as he rose to fetch more coffee and cake.

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Wordcount according to WordCalc: 555 (MPA - Minor Points Acceptable)

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[Text copyright 2011 Chrstina Wigren]





Take a look at these critiquing pointers from Madeleine:



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Best wishes,
Anna

P.S.
This story is inspired by Frank Capra's beautiful film from 1946, It's A Wonderful Life. I wish Karolyn Grimes, who played the part of Zuzu, all the very best! Please visit her official site here. Here's Karolyn Grimes with Donna Reed and James Stewart:

First Commenter:

Donna Hole

To read other texts for Romantic Friday Writers Challenge No. 26, for December 2nd 2011, using the image at the heading as a prompt, please visit this site or click on the image below:

This story about Jenny and Jacob has received an honourable mention from Denise L'Aussie of Romantic Friday Writers:



Denise has also given me a special Australian award called 'Fair Dinkum':



Isn't is pretty? She called me a 'fair dinkum Swede'!