Christa Allan

As a writer, I sometimes live disconnected from the world my body actually inhabits.  I watch people,  notice their gestures, analyze how they sit or perch on a chair, assess how they dress, listen to their conversations.  I’ve learned to dig into the belly of my purse for my notebook and write these observations because, [...]

WINNER OF THE 2008 BULWER-LYTTON FICTION CONTEST.……
Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped “Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.”
Garrison Spik
Washington, D.C.
From their [...]

“Questions About Angels”
by Billy Collins
Of all the questions you might want to ask
about angels, the only one you ever hear
is how many can dance on the head of a pin.
No curiosity about how they pass the eternal time
besides circling the Throne chanting in Latin
or delivering a crust of bread to a hermit on earth
or guiding [...]

I’m a visual learner; this learning style inventory verified it. In fact, if you’ve not ever taken one of these, click on the link and find your learning style. I actually have my own microwave version: When you need directions (let’s pretend you don’t have a navigation system in your car), do you want them [...]

Oxford Word Challenge
Hidden Word Squares: Answers
1. Marianne stood on the train,
Wringing her hands with glee:
Soon she would arrive in town,
A go-go dancer she would be.

A
R
I
A

R
I
N
G

I
N
T
O

A
G
O
G

2. The moon shone on the village inn,
But no pal could Nellie see.
She climbed upon a nag so fair:
A novel setting for a love story.

H
O
N
E

O
P
A
L

N
A
G
S

E
L
S
E

3. Getting rid of [...]

The Oxford Word Challenge

A Fiendishly Difficult Word Game
Hidden Word Squares

The origins of many word games are hidden in the mists of history: nobody can tell who invented them. However, we know that the game of Hidden Word [...]

Whatever invaded my body for the past 48 hours took leave sometime overnight. I woke up this morning feeling almost human, which is how I feel most mornings, so that would mean that we’re back to business as usual.
Just for the record, I have NINE days before school starts. NINE. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. That’s counting today, so [...]

KATY MC KENNA RAYMOND WON THE DR. GARY CHAPMAN BOOK, LOVE AS A WAY OF LIFE, WHICH IS FEATURED ON MY BLOG FICTIONARY.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I’ve decided that my blogging life, especially with two of them (blogs, not lives…but a clone might be nice) needs to be organized. Lord knows, something in my life needs to be organized. [...]

An amusing site…you’ll flip over it…

Yanks Thump Sox
Prime rate to remain stable, Bernanke says

By Gene Weingarten

Sunday, June 22, 2008; Page W32
“This is a true fact: I’m writing this column the very week after dozens of copy editors left my newspaper through an early retirement buyout, and I have noticed no difference at all whatsoever in the quality, accuracy”
“How good a [...]

With thanks to KRISTEN BILLERBECK for the heads up on this!
Baby Got Book (OFFICIAL)

I’m at Writer…Interrupted today.  Click and visit!

“Breakage” by Mary Oliver

I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the [...]

from 2008 Erma Bombeck Workshop

Garrison Keillor: Writing humor when life isn’t funny (2008 from Erma Bombeck Workshop)

Since I renamed my blog Fictionary after Natalie Jost designed this site, almost all of my blog tours, author interviews, and book reviews can be found there. A few exceptions-like yesterday’s My Beautiful Mommy (my subtitle: after she’s had her nose fixed, tummy tucked, and boobs lifted) which I presented here as social commentary.
Today, however, [...]

Wait, Christa, isn’t your other blog, FICTIONARY, for book reviews (a bit of shameless self-promotion)?
Yes.
Surely My Beautiful Mommy is a sweet children’s book that you’ll be promoting there, right?
Wrong.
I discovered this book when Tanya Dennis wrote about it on her blog, which I read on High Calling Blogs. I bookmarked this site weeks ago, fully [...]

This offer expires at 8:00 pm Eastern time TODAY. 
Go HERE for the link to find the free download of Suze Orman’s new book: Women & Money.

Musing
Last year, the College Board and ETS surveyed Readers asking general questions about the reading experience. Hats off to them for listening because this year they provided a hospitality room in the hotel that provided soft drinks, coffee, water, and assorted munchies like chips, cookies, fruit,  and hot pretzels. Then, Saturday night, we had [...]