Maisy-Jane, Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus - Week 42

Welcome to week forty-two of Saturday Centus.

Please scroll down past my text to read Mrs. Matlock's instructions!
Here is my SC-text for week 42:
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Johnny Thompson, with his finely tuned guitar, waited for his name to be called. A middle-aged woman took his application pointing to a chair.
'We represent writers and performers. So you want to be a singer-songwriter? Play one of your songs.'
'Now?' His throat felt parched.
'Yes. Now.'
Johnny strummed some chords:

Maisy-Jane, my daisy-chain, I love ya', yes I do!
Maisy-Jane, my daisy-chain, Without ya', I'm so blue!
Maisy-Jane, my daisy-chain, I'd catch a granade for ya' too!

'Stop there,' said the agent flatly, 'Thank you, Mr Thompson,'
pointing toward the exist.
Johnny took his guitar and left.

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Wordcount: 98

Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Cherie



of Bakow Babble



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Mrs. Jenny Matlock's instructions:
I've had a minor obsession this week with a Bruno Mars song. I've tried to make Mr. Jenny dance with me to it (not successfully), I've sang it over and over to the point that my daughter told me if I sang it one more time she was going to scream (she didn't) and I know every single lyric by heart! If you don't know this song scroll wayyy down to the bottom of my blog, pick song 116, hit the play button and get your groove on for inspiration!

And after you've listened to the song a few times you'll be all ready to write a rockin' Saturday Centus around this word prompt:

I'd catch a grenade for ya...

So after you're finished chair dancin' you can continue writing UP TO 100 words (not including the six word prompt) in any style of writing you prefer...fiction, sci-fi, romantic, western...

Just keep it PG and try to visit as many of the other links as you can!

Please display link button or just a hyper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.

Please e-mail me directly with ???'s or ask your question in a comment and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

My playlist is always sitting down there on pause, so any time you want to try to make someone dance with you to this song feel free to hit play! Link anytime between now and next Saturday morning.

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To visit other SC-posts for week 42, please click here or on the image below:

S is for Swedish Summer in Books - Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday - S

Photo Copyright Christina Wigren 2010

S is for Swedish Summer

The obvious choice for me for S-week would seem to be Sweden, but it is such an enormous subject! I just have to narrow it down to the Swedish Summer* as depicted in literary texts.

I've been reading mystery/crime/detective stories. The latest one is the Swedish journalist turned mystery-writer, Mari Jungstedt's, I denna ljuva sommartid (2007) [Approximately: In Sweet Summer Time] in which a summer vacation-camper is murdered on his early morning jogging round, near a beach and thrown into the Baltic Sea. Another summer murder is commited in an earlier novel, Den inre kretsen [approximately: The Inner Circle], where a twenty-one year old female student of archeology becomes the first victim of a serial killer who is obsessed by the rites of the Norse gods - human sacrifice.

Mari Jungstedt is not the only Swedish mystery-writer who lets her characters meet a violent end in the short and sweet Swedish Summer. Anna Jansson is another Swedish queen of mysteries who lets bad things happen in the loveliest summer season in her novel Silverkronan (2003) [Approximately: The Silver Crown], set in the height of the summer medieval festival on the same Baltic island, Gotland, as Junstedt's murders.

The Internationally very well known Swedish author, Henning Mankell, also makes very, very bad things happen in a beautiful wooded area in Southern Sweden on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice in his crime novel, Steget efter (1997) [One Step Behind, English translation 2002].

Could it be that this is a way to publish all of those wonderful descriptions of wild flowers and the quality of light when then sun hardly sets that every writer and wannabe-writer jots down on their summer holiday/vacation?? There are often some good pieces of nature-prose stuck in between cold bodies being discovered behind bushes or found by little children playing on a beach or people out walking their dog. (These dog-walkers in mystery-stories deserve a post of their own!)

There are many, many more example of summer-literary-murders. (I'm not sure if this corresponds to real murders.) I've mention a few contemporary mystery novels, but I am sure that there are more to be found if you go back in time. Maybe what these authors secretly wish they could do is to write real poems about nature the way, for example, Harry Martinson did in this poem about a night in June. Read first the original text, if you can (it rhymes, the English version does not). My translation follows the original poem:

Juninatten

Nu går solen knappast ner,
bländar bara av sitt sken.
Skymningsbård blir gryningstimme
varken tidig eller sen.

Insjön håller kvällens ljus
glidande på vattenspegeln
eller vacklande på vågor
som långt innan de ha mörknat
spegla morgonsolens lågor.

Juni natt blir aldrig av,
liknar mest en daggig dag.
Slöjlikt lyfter sig dess skymning
och bärs bort på ljusa hav.

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"Night in June"
by Harry Martinson
translated by Christina Wigren

In June, the sun just barely sets,
only slightly dimming its glow,
Twilight-line turns quickly into dawn,
being neither early or late.

The pond holds the evening light,
letting it glide upon a watery mirror,
or riding on a rimple,
that lasts long before they darken,
and reflects the flames of the morning sun.

Night in June never really falls,
resembles more a misty morn.
In veils it lifts away the twilight,
upon shimmering seas.
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Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Donnie
of
New Blessing Everyday



To visit more posts about the letter S, please go to Mrs. Jenny Matlock's site Off My Tangent here or click on the image below:

*My apologises to all of you folks living in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland as well as the other islands in the North Atlantic, Finland, the Baltic states and the other northern parts of the former Soviet Union; as you people all know what a long dark winter is. A northern summer is to be found in other places than Sweden!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Get yourself a sweetheart!

And give her some hearts...





These are very late Valentine-heart stretch-bracelets.



But hearts never go out of style.

Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Donnie
of
New Blessing Everyday


I'm linking up with The Work of the Poet for Ruby Tuesday.
To visit other posts with the colour red in them, please click here.