WordPress won’t let me post any more pictures. Do I have to buy into a higher level? If I can’t afford it, and I somehow figure out how to delete early pictures, will early blogs be weirdly pictureless? How do you all WordPress?
Category: Uncategorized
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I better include the blurb for this one.
Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram,* “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop.
As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.
*pangram: a sentence or phrase that includes all the letters of the alphabet
~~~
Correspondence is the only way this story is told. Letters between friends and family tell the story.
So many creative writing ideas are presented in this book. As I mentioned, letter writing is one. Another emerges as bits of the alphabet are outlawed. Try writing without certain letters.
What I loved was how vocabulary improved with fewer letters. But towards the end, subletters are needed, ph is F, etc. Sometimes, it takes a moment to figure out the new word. So, how would you write if you couldn’t use certain letters?
At first, I tried to read the book through the Libby app. But I found I just couldn’t track properly to stay with it. So, I bought the Kindle version with Whispersync. That worked very well. There are several actors reading. That gave the story an even bigger boost. As the new words were formed, having Kindle set up with a larger font and spacing helped me understand the words presented. The readers were excellent at ensuring the reader/listener knew the word was spelled incorrectly, but the contents connected the communication.
I highly recommend this book for fun and creativity.
No Internet AND diverticulitis flare up. Ugh!😥
I was watching the Zoo Down Under our whatever it’s called. They had Quokkas enjoy my research:
https://www.boredpanda.com/cute-smiling-happy-quokkas/
And
Have a great day!
Per Linda:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “tune.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Something that has always fascinated me are the tunes we learned in toons.
I am in the middle of so many projects right now that I thought I’d dedicate this one to a want to make. A Fingerknit hat!
I’d also like to make a shawl, poncho, or cape for my witch costume.
I have two pairs of knitted socks nearly finished. And a Tunisian Crocheted afghan is in the works. But I will need a couple more pieces for my costume at my daughter’s costume wedding reception. So I am putting my ideas here so I won’t lose them.
Okay, I guess I should share the pics of what’s been done so far. All this needs to be done by the first week in October.
Remember the Hiya-Hiya Flyer pair of socks? I decided to put them on a long Chiaogoo Red Lace 60″ US 1 needle. I need to finish the foot and then the toe.
Here is one of the outer panels of the Tunisian Crochet Afghan. It is almost as long as I want it. It’s so long I can’t capture it in a close-up anymore.
I know I have a couple other projects but these are the ones I’m trying to concentrate on.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “envelope.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Early in the morning and late in the evening smoke envelopes our Valley. The visibility is about 2 miles. Two fires in Oregon are still blazing. Thankfully they aren’t near us. I feel sorry for those in the vicinity of the Bedrock fire, Eugene, I think, and the Flat fire in Brookings. I hope those citizens are feeling okay.
I wish for my friends there, to be enveloped in love, good health, and hugs.
I don’t think I did the arch 1 by 1 ribbing long enough. But I’ve learned my Continental knitting makes that stitch a lot easier than English (right-handed) ribbing. After much practice I can switch off so neither hand gets too tired.
My next pair of socks will be a stab at Fishlip socks. I bought the pattern. It seems complicated but folks seem to swear by it.
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “sap/spa/asp/pas/PSA.” Use one, use them all, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you use them all. Enjoy!
PSA: This day has been dedicated to the following hat. Though I ran out of the colorway of the bottom of the hat, I think the one with brown still worked out. If you want details check out yesterday’s blog.
Darswords 
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