Sanna is writing a novel - Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus Week 52

Please find Mrs. Jenny Matlock's instructions for this week's Saturday Centus after my SC-text, which follows here:
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Although the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper, Alice Nilsson received a huge package of handmade watercolour-paper from her husband Staffan...

"Oh no!" thought Sanna Rumsten, who was writing a novel. "It should be 'Since the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper...'." Sanna continued:

"How did you know? This is exactly what I need right now! Thank you!" Alice said, kissing the six-foot-four-inch-accountant, whom she had wed one year ago. Staffan helped other businesses. The owner of the art supply store was one of his clients.

"Much better." said Sanna, pleased with herself.

WordCount according to WordCalc: 98
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Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Judie of
Rogue Artists

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Here are Mrs. Jenny Matlock's instructions:
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
This is week fifty-two of Saturday Centus. That's just crazy, isn't it? In honor of the date, I thought I'd tell you the story of where my idea for this meme came from. Okay? I hope you said 'YES', but I'm going to tell you anyway, regardless of your answer. So there! So... It was a dark and stormy night... Okay, it really wasn't. But it was a sad morning. About a year after one of my dear friends had passed away, I was talking to her daughter on the phone...a sweet, broken-hearted woman, who had previously found comfort in her life through her wonderful writing skills. The daughter's sorrow was profound, and I had been encouraging her to start writing again as a means of expressing her emotions. When I asked her if putting her feelings on paper helped, in a very small voice she had told me, "I don't know. I can't. I just can't write anymore. I open a notebook and the whole page just stares back at me. I am frozen by the emptiness of the paper." The next day I bought a pretty notebook and wrote a prompt on the top of 52 pages. Silly prompts. Serious prompts. Crazy prompts. And I wrapped the notebook up and sent it to her. After I mailed it, I realized that I would like to have a notebook like that, too. I would like to have a starting point for those days when words were difficult to transfer from brain to paper...a way to stretch myself in writing with different prompts and writing styles. And I decided to try the concept on my blog. In this meme. Cuz, yeah, it's always cool to go totally public with an idea you're not totally sure will work at all. Sigh... I was pretty sure that it was a dumb idea. That no-one would like to do it. And I would end up looking like a moron. But! You liked it! And you participated! And every single week I would come out here and laugh or cry, be astonished or amazed and always feel like I had just opened the most amazing gifts. Because you all just dived in with no looking back and no complaining (okay, that's a total lie, but I'm trying to be nice here!) And for some cheesy reason, it almost makes me cry. It's hard to believe it's been a year. I am honored to have gotten to know so many of you so well through the tremendous word crafting you share every week. Thank you. Thank you for not making me do this alone. Thank you for liking it! Thank you for participating. And... Happy Anniversary, Man! Let me raise a glass to each one of you!

And here's this weeks prompt.

"Although the traditional gift for a first anniversary is paper..."
And as a special gift to you...not only do you get your usual 100 words...YOU CAN ALSO USE A PICTURE THIS WEEK IF YOU WANT! I'm not kidding! Woo hoo! Let the partying begin! And the rest of the blah, blah, in case you've forgotten is: 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. Keep your post PG AND no more than 100 words. Feel free to link up anytime between now and next Saturday!

Birgitta's heart-bracelet is in an Etsy Treasury

Best wishes,
Anna



First Commenter:
xxx

Anna has curated two new Etsy treasuries!

Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
xxx

Birgitta has curated a new Etsy treasury!

Best wishes,
Anna


First Commenter:
xxx

Sanna takes a walk - Mrs.Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus Week 51

Here is my text for Saturday Centus Week 51, using the picture promt above.
(Mrs. Matlock's intstructions are to be found after my text.)

[Hey folks! I've written a "Part Two" to this story! Just keep scrolling after you read this first part until you come to PART TWO!

Sanna was working alone in the new apartment without the children to distract her. She had unpacked, rearranged furniture and even ran a load of clothes in the laundry-room downstairs.

Only recently had she stopped wearing her wedding rings. The divorce was finalized. She wasn't married anymore. And since the children were staying with their father until Monday, she actually could concievably have gone out on a date; that is, if she had known someone; but there was no one around.

Feeling tired after doing chores all morning, Sanna decided to rest before taking a walk. It was a beautiful spring day. It would be nice to look at some of the neighbours' gardens, she thought, as she lay on top of the bed and fell asleep as her head touched the pillow.

The little alarmclock in her cellphone announced that it was time to get up. Literally. It was a recorded voice! Refreshed, Sanna took a light jacket, a shoulder-bag and went out. But instead of walking towards the residential gardens, she went in the opposite direction beyond the tatoo-parlour and discovered a door that she she had not seen before. There was a sign with a symbol of a rabbit on it .

"Harvey's Place. Ladies welcome after eight o'clock P.M." it said. Sanna looked at her watch. It was eight o'clock now. She pushed the door gently and stepped into a large dark room with only small lamps on tables. A youngish man with a dark mustache greeted her and seated her at a table. He was dressed in a royal blue bunny-costume that was open in the front and bared his hairy chest. He had long rabbit ears and wore a silver medalon in the shape of the same rabbit that was on the sign. He handed her a menu and waited for her order.

"Some sparkling water would be fine," she replied trying to sound as if all of this was as natural as any trip to the grocery store. She looked around her and saw other ladies being seated at the other tables. They were all sitting alone. "What is this place?" she asked the blue-velvet-clad bunny-waiter as he was turning to leave her.

"Welcome to Harvey's" He said smiling while he disappeared behind a curtain.

Wordcount according to WordCalc: 382

Sorry folks. I just can cut into this story. I am usually very good about getting it down to 98 or 99 words, but I justcan't do it this time. I'm not perfect!

Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Jeff Campbell
of
Tennessee Mudbug


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Welcome to week fifty-one of Saturday Centus.

After the stress I caused you for week 50, I decided to be gentle and sweet this week...in honor of Springtime and just because I'm afraid you have forgotten I have a softer, gentler side.

This week we are going to write from a lovely picture prompt.

As usual, 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. Keep your post PG AND no more than 100 words.

With no further ado, here is your picture prompt.

Now, here is PART TWO of this story:

"Harvey's Place?" Sanna remembered the carrot-sign for the green-grocer in the animated film for children The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which was a nod to the invisible giant rabbit in the 1940's film with James Stewart. But the waiter (or waiters, as there were several bunny-clad men here) was very visible indeed. Are they pookas? And why are there so many women here? So many women that are alone?

It was the frustrated writer or journalist in her that made Sanna rise and go over to the nearest table. "Why are you here?" she inquired.

"My husband died in the war,"replied the woman a with long blond hair with bangs, trying to smile and not dampen the party-mood.

Sanna went over to yet another woman with short dark hair, big brown eyes and Christmas red lipstick on her lips. "And why are you here? Did your husband also did in the war?"

"Oh no, it was my brother who died in the war. My husband went fishing and drowned in a boating accident," was her reply.

"No it was my son who was killed in the war. Then my husband had a heart attack, " replied yet another woman.

"My husband left me for a younger woman and then drove his car off a cliff into a lake," was yet another explanation.

Not only the frustrated journalist, but even the amateur-sleuth in Sanna had been stirred. She asked several more of the ladies why they were at this strange bunny-club. They all seemed to be widows or were left behind by their sons, husbands or lovers. But why so many war-widows? This is Sweden; like Switzerland, it had been a neutral country while the rest of the world was at war. For years and years!

It dawned on her that she should have asked which war they had died in. Now Sanna became the frustrated school-teacher and let the ladies answer her short questions by raising a hand first. "Yes, you there. Which war was it? Afganistan? Irak?"
"No, he pershed in the jungles of Vietnam," was the reply. "But how can that be? Sanna thought, "She looks so young." Pointing to different uppraised hands she heard increasingly more amazing replies: The Korean Conflict, the Second World War, the Great War to End All Wars, the War Between the States, the Civil War (which civil war?), the Winter War, the Russian Revolution, the Crimean war, the Thirty-Years War and the Hundred-Years-War. She peeled her eyes in the gloom to really get a good look at the women who claimed that their husbands had fallen in wars that had taken place so long ago. They all looked to be about her age; sort of "youngish".

It was then that the blue velvet bunny-men started moving about the room. "What if they have a show and start dancing? Or even worse, start singing?" Sanna decided that it was time to leave Harvey's before the stage-curtains parted.

"Are you leaving so soon?" the first blue bunny-man with the dark mustache asked as Sanna pushed the exit door open and walked out onto the twilight-lit street. It was a beautiful Spring evening. Maybe she should take that walk in the other direction and look at the gardens. But just then her alarmclock "rang "or rather "talked" or "squawked" in a parrot-like robot-voice: "It's four o'clock. It's time to get up. It's four o'clock."

"Four o'clock? Only four o'clock?" Sanna awoke, still lying on top of her bed. She had not been out at all. It was only four in the afternoon. There was still time to look at the gardens!

Outside on the street she walked past the tatoo-parlour to see if the door and the sign were still there. But no, the "Harvey's Place"-sign was gone. The door was not even there. Now it was real life and no longer a dream. She walked the other way toward the residential area with the small gardens where she used to live. Passing a small tobacco and newspaper-shop called "Pomona", she turned went in, and bought a lottery-ticket. The drawing would be next week.

Then Sanna really did look at the progress of scilla, tulips, daffodils and the tiny white bells of the lillies-of-the valley. The birches had tiny pale green leaves, the size of a fingernail. And there were buds on the apple trees.

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Please forgive me for not keeping to the 100-word-limit. I promise to not write more that 100 words next time. Thank you for reading this extra text!

Best wishes & hugs,
Anna

[The author of this text is Christina Wigren and she owns the copyright.]

To read other SC-posts for week 51, please visit this site or click on the image below:

Tina/parltradet has curated a new treasury!

Best wishes,
Anna



First Commenter:
xxx

SC # 48, 49 & 50 - Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus

Welcome to Saturday Centus for Week 50 (which will include texts for weeks 48 & 49)!

For several reasons I have not been able to participate in Mrs. Jenny Matlock's Saturday Centus for weeks 48 and 49. Since the text we are to write for Week 50 is a review of a text written for Week 49, I have decided to post three texts for week 50. This means that I am presenting these texts in this reading-order: first week 48, then week 49 and then lastly, week 50. Please read my texts in this order. (Mrs. Matlock's instructions for each week's assignment follows each text.)
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Here is my text for SC week 48:

"How d'ya do it?" asked Judie, sitting beside Sanna in the rented airport-car, barrelling down a road through the Arizona desert.
"It's been tough. [Please look at the map. We're getting close.] But I got lucky."
"'Lucky', how?" Judie looked at the road-map and signs along the highway. "How d'ya get enough for airfare from Sweden?"
"I won! It sounds crazy. But I bought a lottery ticket and won!"
"Wait a minute." Judie spied a sign: " Exit 181, 1/2 mile ahead. The turn-off to Jenny!"
"Hooray!" squeeled Sanna. After a difficult divorce and down-sizing, Sanna Rumsten decided to re-invent herself and have some fun.

Word count according to WordCalc: 100

Disclaimer:The lottery ticket in this story is a Deus ex machina, an unexpected and arbitrary event in the plot to temporarily move my protagonist from Norrkoping, Sweden to Tusan, Arizona. In reality, I have not won any money on any kind of a lottery. I never gamble or even buy lottery tickets, so the likelihood of me ever winning is very slim. This is a piece of fiction. A fun piece of fiction, but fiction none-the-less! I thought this way: Imagine how nice it would be if I could just take off and visit some of the interesting people whom I've met through blogging and memes like Saturday Centus! My character, Sanna Rumsten, does this for me here! I hope that Judie McEwen of Rogue Artists and Jenny Matlock of Off My Tangent don't mind me borrowing their names for these Arizona-characters.

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This is Mrs. Jenny Matlock's instructions or Week 48:

Hi! Last night I realized I hadn't written a prompt for today.

We were driving home from Tucson and I asked Mr. Jenny to write one and he said, "Here you go..."
Exit 181, 1/2 mile ahead...
So that's what I'm going with. Technically you can't get annoyed at me...it is Mr. Jenny's prompt AND being an incredibly obedient wife how could I possibly question what he told me?
Cough. Gag. Sputter.
Seriously.
So there ya go!
Use this prompt and UP TO 100 additional words to write in any style you choose...so long as it's not risque.
You know, I'm all about the PG here at Jenny Matlock...Off on my Tangent.
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.
Feel free to link up anytime between now and next Saturday!

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Here is my SC-text for week 49:

Several months before the trip to Arizona, Sanna Rumsten was sitting on her tiny balcony at ground-level thinking about the garden she left behind, at the luxury townhouse that disappeared in the divorce settlement. "I was never that good of a gardener", she thought. But that was just sour grapes. In her mind's eye (as well as nose) she recollected how the snow drops and crocuses sprang out of the earth as soon as the snow had melted; followed by scilla, daffodils, tulips and lilies-of-the-valley. With a watering-can she let it rain over her potted plants, singing out loud: "April showers bring May flowers".

Wordcount according to WordCalc: 99

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Mrs. Matlock's instructions for week 49:

I have to say I just finished reading the 'chicken' posts and I was blown away. You are all so wickedly creative. I just posted my Exit 181 story last night and looking forward to reading your entries. Today I thought we could just continue on a pretty 'normal' SC. No tricks, no gimmicks. Just 100 words in whatever genre you like (not including the five words of the prompt). And the prompt this week is: April showers bring May flowers... 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. Feel free to link up anytime between now and next Saturday!

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This is my SC-text for week 50:

I am reviewing RINKLY RIMES-Brenda Bryant's text for week 49:

APRIL SHOWERS

I remember the tide of optimism; Summer was on its way.

Winter was receding; April heralded May.

As a girl I felt the sap rising higher, ever higher

As though everything in Nature was working to conspire

Against greyness, cold and lethargy, against discipline and school!

Then, every year it seemed the same, I became an April Fool;

While my heart was singing Summer songs down came the April Showers,

Battering the brave young leaves, decapitating flowers!

'Not yet!' the showers seemed to say; 'You still have a way to go.

Don't you feel a little chilly? We may even turn to snow!'

Was it good for my soul, maybe, to cope with disappointment,

When Summer made a date with me and then missed the appointment?

June, July and August still waved a beckoning finger,

But Winter kept a strangle-hold, determined it must linger.

And yet, that very fickleness was part of the Springtime joy.

Yes, April could be tantalising, teasing us, being coy.

But here, in another country, where Springtime just strolls in,

Where hardly anything marks the time when the warmer months begin,

I remember April Showers with a rush of real affection

And my heart is on a journey in a Northerly direction.

This is my review:

Brenda Bryant's "April Showers" is a whistful poem about the happy fickleness of Spring. Born 1931, she looks back with sparkling clarity on the Springtime of her life. With the closing lines, "I remember April Showers with a rush of real affection, And my heart is on a journey in a Northerly direction", she reminds us that she resides in Australia, which lacks four distinctly different seasons as there is in Northern Europe. "April Showers" is a perfect jewel as to form, with the exception of its 208-word length; a fault easily forgiven for the fine qualities of this text.

Wordcount according to WordCalc:100
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This is Mrs. Jenny Matlock's instructions for Week 50:

Welcome to week fifty of Saturday Centus. I think that makes this something like our golden anniversary or something. So, in honor of that momentuous milestone, I can't just let your minds go unchallenged. That would be just wrong, on so many levels. Right? So...

The April Showers bring May flowers prompt last week was quite interesting and I thought it would be a different writing exercise if we all played 'literary critics' this week.

Pick any of the links from week 49 (you can review them by simply clicking here) and then write a 100 word or less 'review' of it.
It can be your own link or anyone elses!
Please cut and paste the April showers SC you are 'reviewing' at the top of your entry, and then have fun !
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at: jennymatlock at cox dot net with the words "Are you losing your marbles on this SC prompt" as the subject line, and I will get back to you as soon as I can sometime between soccer and basketball games!

As usual, please display link button or just a hy News, Viewsper-link back to Saturday Centus. Be careful to link your SC URL to the Linky and not just link to your main blog.
Keep your post PG AND no more than 100 words.
Feel free to link up anytime between now and next Saturday!

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Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Sue of
Sue's News, Views 'n Muse


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To read other SC-texts for Week 48, please click here.
To read other SC-texts for Week 49, please click here.
To read other SC-texts for Week 50, please click here.

Anna's Pink Heart Earrings are in an Etsy treasury!

Best wishes,
Anna



First Commenter:
xxx

Birgitta has curated a new Etsy treasury - Pink Pyjamas!

Best wishes,
Anna



First Commenter:
Grace of
Dragon's Alley

Tina / parltradet has curated a new Etsy Treasury

This apple is from our garden and simply illustrates the subject of this treasury.



Best wishes,
Anna

First Commenter:
Ann

of
Ann's Snap, Edit & Scrap