The Big One

Pretty catchy title, eh?

It is referring to the fact that it's my parent's wedding anniversary today. In fact it's their 50th wedding anniversary. Fay and Alan were married in Paisley, Scotland on this date in 1962 and celebrating 'The Big One' today in St. John's with family and friends. The wedding was a small affair and there aren't many around any more who were in attendance that day. It will be my 50th birthday later this year, so if my math is correct I may have been there in some fashion...

We would have liked to have bought them something golden as an anniversary gift but with the price of gold these days...I think that we'll settle on taking them somewhere nice for supper tonight. I sent a recent photo of my parents (shown below) to the local television station, NTV, and they showed it with all of the other wrinkly, toothless folks celebrating anniversaries of 50+ or birthdays of 90+ (personally, I dream of making it to 70...90 would take a miracle of modern science).



Note: photo cropped to delete bulging bellies and knobby knees


The weather has played an evil trick on us today with the return of high winds and heavy snow, but I doubt it will stop them from making the 1 1/2 drive into town.

My mother is pretty nosy and I'm sure that she pops by and visits the blog once in a while to see how my rash is progressing, so I'll send out a shout to her.

"Happy anniversary mum and dad"...I'd wish you a happy 50 more but I think we both know THAT'S not gonna happen!

Pretty sentimental stuff, eh?

*Sniffs, wipes away a tear*

Holiday Contest

The Victoria Day Weekend, Memorial Day in the USA, marks the first anniversary of this blog. Conversations From Land’s Edge was created to better connect me with other emerging writers. I have not taken a writing class in a while but those who attend this blog have proven to be wonderful teachers, entertainers and friends of the highest order.

I had intended to start naming off folks who encouraged me in those first days but the list would make this posting far too long. Thank you all (and you know who you are) for taking time to comment on my posts when, often, there was little substance or conversation. The circle of friends has grown wider and exposed me to a wider range of writers including the talented #Fridayflash contributors. Each of you have taught me, or advised me or made me laugh at your blog content or your comments here. I toast you all!

To help celebrate both this long weekend and my blog anniversary I am pleased to announce the first Land's Edge flash fiction contest. The contest starts today and deadline for submissions is Sunday, June 20th. Please send forth your best short stories or essays with a holiday theme. I leave the word 'holiday' wide open to your interpretation. Any holiday, festival, gala or fete will do. Some examples...New Year's Day, Labour Day, Anzac Day, Guy Fawkes Night or even the Running of the Chihuahuas in Sonora. Suffice it to say that it can be a holiday or celebration of historic or fictional proportions. The contest is open to anybody, anywhere (yes, even Scotland!) .Though the farther away the winners the cheaper the form of transportation for the prizes (read-fishing trawler on a slow return to Europe or Pony Express to the boonies of Tennessee...)

After consulting the Minister of Finance I have been permitted to dip into the residuals from last month's hockey pool winnings. There will be prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place contestants. The winners and five honourable mentions (more or less) will all be published on this blog after the winners are announced on Saturday, July 3 between the Canada Day and Independence Day holidays. The contest rules are as follows:

1. Stories of any genre, 750 words or less


2. Please...send only previously unpublished stories


3. Send entries to awdavidson.nl@gmail.com with Contest Submission and the title in the subject line of your email


4. Put your story in the body of the email...no attachments please


5. No spitting on the Land's Edge judges
   

The submissions will be judged by myself and 'blind judged' by Laurita Miller of Brain Droppings and one other Land's Edge staff member. No pandering to the judges, please, as we are impervious to such things unless it's a twenty in an unmarked envelope. This is a Newfoundland contest being judged by Islanders so the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries will have bragging rights and will each receive a gift of Newfoundland & Labrador Literature mailed to anywhere their heart desires. This post is getting a bit long, so I'll post the specifics on the novels on Monday. I hope all of that was clear (I am only now consuming my first coffee of the day). If not, email me with questions at the above address. Have a great weekend all...please tell others about the contest...and start writing.

Silence, Leading to Retro

Kind of an odd post title, don't you think?

That's because it's Tuesday and I haven't posted anything since last Friday. Even then, the post wasn't a conversational thing, but a #fridayflash story. I find myself at a loss for words. I know! Who would have thought that Al would have nothing to say...how bizarre is that?

Since there are no conversations happening here today I may have to change the name of the blog to just Land's Edge. Or perhaps Island of the Mute. Or maybe Lobsters and Silence in the North Atlantic...OK, now I'm rambling. Let me know if you've got ideas for a new blog title for me.

The 'one year' anniversary of my blog is fast approaching this weekend. I'm toying with a contest idea that I will announce at that time. Maybe. It must first be cleared by the Minister of Finance.

Wow! A year has passed already? I think retro is the way to go. I refer you to my third posting of May 2009 when I rambled on about urban legends that were discussed on the radio and how they could be fodder for stories. It's very short. I had nothing to say back then either. You can link to that here...got any urban legends from your part of the world? Tell me, please, because I've got nothing else to talk about!Please share them with the fine readers of this humble blog. I leave you with a photo of some disco guy from the '70's. No he is not me, nor anyone I know. Trying a bit too hard to be like Dan Ackroyd's character from SNL, methinks...

Treadin' water

Yep. Still here. The daunting world of blogging and subject matter of said blog hasn't scared me away yet. It's been a hectic few days, though. Went out-of-town to visit the parents for 2, they came here for 2, and the general workload has increased. Optimism is running rampant that the economic downturn is finally, well, turning down...I've been trying to make arrangements for an out-of-town visit to one of our buildings under construction, a mere 5 hour drive away. Knowing the weather here, there's a 50-50 chance I won't get rained on.

On the writing front, I've been picking away at a story I want to send to Necrotic Tissue. Breathing New Life is a 850 word story that started as a 300 word flash but sort of grew in scope with the hint of "naughtiness" injected into an additional scene. I'm at the point where I've edited at least 5 times and I'm about to say Shag It, and send it off as-is...

Ah, no real topic today. Let me throw out some random words and you can expand discuss at will:

swimming, quantum physics, garden fairies, pantaloons, anniversaries...oh, that reminds me, today is our 15th anniversary so I thought to celebrate the day I would toss a photo of myself into cyberspace. I'll leave the better half out to protect the innocent. The photo proves that A) I don't dress like a bum all of the time and B) That I did have dark hair at one point.



Wow, just goes to show what 15 years will do to a guy. I usually say the grey started that day and has since been on me like a maritime fog. On other occasions I blame it on the 'space cadet' who arrived on our doorstep about a year and a half after the picture was taken. Of course, that's just one guys opinion...anyway, I'm still here, just treadin' water. Bye for now.