As many of my followers know despite having opened an account at Worpress way back in 2012 I’m fairly new here. I didn’t really start posting regularly until late 2020 and only kicked it into high gear last year. As such my stats are not exactly the type advertisers back the Brinks truck up for. Not that advertisers were ever the measure of success. I’ve stated it before, this site is meant to be a fun creative outlet for me
Still, I happened to look at my stats today and halfway through 2023, I am about to blow past my previous high for views. Last year the blog had 6156 views and as of this moment, 2023 has had 6155 views. Perhaps if you were one of the first to check out this post you might be part of Greg’s Blog history. The tying or record-setting visitor. Stop laughing all you giants of the industry. I know those are sad numbers but they are my numbers and in two more views 2023 will be the most viewed year on record. Beep Beep.
Greg Glazebrook @ GMGCreative
Thanks to everyone who stopped by, one-timers and regulars alike. I appreciate you taking a moment. Keep coming back and please tell everyone to come take a peek!
Welcome to another edition of T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday for July 5th, 2023. This hump day feature is exactly what it sounds like. Every other Wednesday (bi-weekly) I will post a graphic that is funny, poignant, witty, honest, crude, toothsome, with bite, or just plain old ridiculous. Some I’ll have plagiarized directly from a chest near you. Others may not have been spotted in the wild but they probably should be out there.
A sure way to fish for a hug from your better half guys…
A message from the agent for the designer/author’s wife: I’m Gina and I wholeheartedly approve this message!
Suggestions are always welcome. If you come across something you think is worthy of being pasted across someone’s chest and paraded around publicly jot it down and send me a message. If it makes the cut I will whip up a graphic design template and use it in a future post. Any suggestions used will include a shout-out and link to your blog on the week it posts.
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.
This week’s monochromatic image features a black bikini set against a sandy beach background. Although the top portion is slightly askew the bikini is configured as if it was being worn.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.
For years the S.O.B. told me I had no sense of direction, the worst navigator he’d ever seen. How was it my fault he’d go left when I said right?
“Where is my breakfast, what did you get lost?” The prick used to tell me he was amazed I could find the kitchen in the mornings.
Being berated for my navigation skills was the easy stuff. He’d get absolutely incensed and take every opportunity to make me feel like I was six inches tall, worthless. I can assure you I had no trouble finding the rat poison he kept in the cellar. Extra Warfarin in his scramble to go with his prescription.
That was then, but as I attempt to jump a train to freedom I’m left wondering if I will ever be able to decipher this bloody map.
“Come on, come on!” It’s only a matter of time before they find the body. As panic grips me and everything comes flooding back, I begin to wonder, “Was he right?”
This week marked the 156 anniversary of Canadian Confederation. The British North American Act took effect on July 1st, 1867 and Canada passed from being a British colony to a member country of the British Commonwealth.
I for one refuse to forget that past. There has been a huge push against colonialism in recent years. The British now looked upon in an unpleasant light. Once again the statue of Queen Victoria in Kitchener’s Victoria Park was vandalized, doused in red paint in an act that has played out four times in the last two years. What I find most intriguing is that these former colonies, the places where we now try to erase people like Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister and deny our history, are the very places where people want to immigrate. As much as we want to abhor the blue-eyed devils we flock the places they built.
All I can say to Canadians, members of the British Commonwealth and those countries who were founded on British and European ideals, do not be ashamed of your history, embrace it. Many of the places our people have built are a beacon of peace and civility for the rest of the world.
As Google and Meta get set to turn off links to Canadian news sites I ponder an interesting question. The Canadian government passed legislation that would force content giants like Google, Microsoft and Meta to pay for content they display or link to on their platforms. Up until this point they have presented content from independent sources free of charge. In the process, making billions of dollars in advertising revenue that those providers will never see. The Canadian government has become the first to protect homegrown content providers by forcing these giant tech companies to properly compensate creators.
We could argue whether that is fair or even feasible but that is not the crux of my question. You see, for years these entities have claimed they are not responsible for the content they present and as such can’t or shouldn’t be held liable for it. They don’t believe they have an obligation to monitor or regulate the content to which they provide access. They claim it is too large a financial burden to expect them to build the apparatus to police content. Interesting that moment they have to pay for the content they present all of the apparatus to block it, the apparatus they claimed was too expensive to build, suddenly isn’t that costly and even more alarming already exists. All they need to do to ensure they don’t have to pay for content is flip the switch to have it blocked.
As we celebrate this Canada Day I have been listening to Canada’s greatest songwriter who passed away earlier this year. It was once said that the offices of SOCAN have one storage room (this was before computers) for all the songs written by Canadian artists and a second room for all the works of Gordon Lightfoot. I have previously featured The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Here are some other faves, Canadian Railroad Trilogy, Sundown and Carefree Highway.
The week in review…
Who Knew Proof from Fandango at This, That and the Other that Seniors love heavy metal too.
Five Word Weekly and Four Line Fiction and another installment of T-Shirt Wisdom. Don’t forget to get your entry in for July’s Creative Writing Monthly, July 31st is almost here. Have a great week everyone,
Welcome to Five Word Weekly. Five random words will drop on Sunday evenings at 5:00pm (17:00h) Eastern Standard Time (Canada/United States). Your task is to craft prose or poetry using any or all of the prompt words. How you participate is entirely up to you. Your work(s) can be a single piece using some or all of the words, a series of stand-alone projects incorporating at least one of the words in each, or an epic serial linking the words over several entries. Let the words be the inspiration that takes you wherever your imagination leads.
Note the release time adjustment from Monday morning to Sunday evening. This move is designed to provide the writer with a headstart and to facilitate future developments at Greg’s Blog. Everything else about the challenge will remain the same, including the weekly wrap-up that will continue to appear in the following week’s Sunday Digest.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading what each of you conjures up. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their responses.
Clicks and likes were not my main objective when I created Greg’s Blog. In its current incarnation, it was meant to be a creative outlet. I didn’t expect awards or accolades; quite frankly, I’m no Hemingway, Dickens or Shakespeare. Hell, I’m not sure I’d have qualified to write the Sears Catalogue back in the day. That said there is always a tiny rush when someone likes what you’ve published and I love reading the posts everyone publishes in response to my prompts and challenges.
So why the rant? Well, I find myself standing on the brink and contemplating throwing myself into the abyss when I browse other WordPress blogs. Yes, I have a group of people I follow and their content is excellent. It is when I explore beyond those I follow and find content that is unreadable. Then I look and see hundreds of likes or volumes of comments attached to these posts and I have to wonder – How shite is my site?
I think I have a decent handle on the English language. It is my mother tongue, and I always excelled spelling and had a good grasp of structure and punctuation throughout my school years. Even in my working life, managers and colleagues ask me to proofread their work. I have an uncanny ability to remove noise and focus on the key points of a paper or presentation without making the message threatening or unprofessional.
So what is the problem then?
many of the sights in question seem too bee completely devoid ov structure format or punctuation as they ramble on un-relent-ingly incoherent id be kind calling the writing a raw ruff stream of consciousness brain storming pile of dung sometimes i think that if i were to read a single rambling paragraph or sentence as it was written id asphyxiate myself long before reaching the last word because commas periods question marks and quotations are not only optional they dont exist except for the ellipses… they litter everything… in fairness… i may be guilty of that last one two (three? four?)… but at least I’m cognizant of it…
So, How Shite Is My Site? When I compare my WordPress stats to some other sites I think the answer is clear.
Welcome to the inaugural Creative Writing Monthly. Think of the challenge as an opportunity to write something a little longer than the short flash fiction prompts we all love to participate in daily. Each month Greg’s Blog will prompt the writer with a concept, topic, and/or genre to help jumpstart the creative process. All you have to do is write. The length of your work should end up somewhere between 750 and 1500 words. That falls right on the boundary between a longer work of flash fiction and a short short story. Thus, giving you the opportunity to develop characters and build more elaborate plotlines. Something that is difficult to attain when responding to word prompts, sentence limits and 100-word maximum stories.
I understand longer stories take longer to write, edit, consternate over, rework, stew about, and/or rewrite… As such the inaugural edition of CWM will run for two months, until July 31st and will include a glimpse of August’s prompt. Subsequent challenge posts will consist of the current challenge plus a glimpse of upcoming prompts for the next two challenges. In essence, three full months for those who prefer a headstart. For the rest of us who like to procrastinate, just follow my lead and keep telling yourself you work better under pressure!
The plan is to drop each monthly challenge on the last Thursday of the preceding month. So if you want to try something with more meat on the bones, check back for a new challenge monthly.
I know I published the preview post at the beginning of June but today is the official launch of Creative Writing Monthly. For all of those who posted to the preview, I will ensure your stories are included in the inaugural wrap-up on the first Greg’s Blog Sunday Digest of August. Feel free to repost your link here if you want but know it is not necessary. Thank you for participating.
July 2023 Challenge Prompt:
Write a story about a new beginning, fresh start or new challenge.
Does the protagonist face the new situation head-on, crumble under pressure, or revert to old habits? How does the journey change them and affect those around them? Let the prompt be your guide.
I look forward to reading what you conjure up. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their responses.
Upcoming Challenges
Month
Topic
August
Write a story about summer camp, a wilderness vacation or a day in the great outdoors.
September
Write a fictional story based on a real life moment, event or memory from your days in grade school memory.
When Ida discovered that she could hear the voices of the dead speaking to her when she tuned into a certain radio station, she decided to change the station.
Well maybe not right away but as she sat in the courtroom listening to the Crown Attorney describe the trail of death and destruction she’d left in her wake it became evident.
“Forty-one injured and 17 dead in all Your Honour. Several were shot where they stood, and others were stabbed waiting for the bus or standing in line at the gas bar convenience. Three more were taken when the accused set that same gas bar alight. All blown to bits in the ensuing explosion including one poor soul whose legs were found sheared off just below the knees, still standing in front of the toilet where he’d been peacefully relieving himself.”
Was this ever going to end she thought but the anger in his voice kept rising as he continued, “Still more, run down in the street by the rust-coloured pickup truck she’d stolen from her ex, a.k.a. victim one. Mostly unaware of their fate as they went about their daily business and she’d have us all believe it was voices…” he paused momentarily before speaking again with greater emphasis. “VOICES OF THE DEAD – that made her do it.”
“Do you have anything to say to this court Ida?” the Judge asked.
Her own barrister counselled her to remain silent but how could she not say something. The families needed an explanation, closure.
“Well, your honour, maybe –” a quiver present in her voice. “Maybe I should have changed the station sooner.”
“…and on the left is Berg Eltz,” the guide delivers the canned script from rote. His German-accented English spills from the tour bus speakers as he navigates the narrow Elzbach River valley road. “The castle has been owned by the same family for over eight hundred yea…”
Elise’s mind wanders until the even temperament of his voice only fills the background spaces in her head.
Why did she want to see castles, Prince Charming was never coming. Hell at this point the evil Prince would do. She imagined being locked in the highest turret. A plaything to be ravished beneath the full moon, her hungry bones left to wait for the next time. Her mother insisted girls like them were destined for more mundane fates with men who were far less interesting. Men like her Dad who worked his fingers to the bone, sweating blood and tears just to survive.
Unknown
The bus stopped at the end of the long stone walkway leading to the entrance of Eltz. For the next two hours, the historic castle would be her playground. Her travel companions opted for the guided tour while Elise chose to walk the halls and grounds alone. ‘Bleiben Sie hinter der Linie’, ignoring the signs she sat on the edge of the Prince’s bed. A moment later she swung her feet up and lay back. The room was much smaller than she expected but it didn’t matter. She watched the door, expecting him to walk through at any moment, no one came.
As the stopover came to an end she thought of her own smaller castle back in Omaha. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. The thought of removing her glass slippers felt liberating. Pulling them from her feet she set them on the stone wall and walked barefoot onto the bus.
At the next stop Elise sat for a moment, not sure if this was scheduled or if the bus had broken down. As she looked out over the scenic countryside, she caught movement in her periphery. Turning her head and setting her eyes on a tall, dark and extremely handsome man. He was heading right toward her while he motioned with his hands.
Unknown
“Excuse me, excuse me… I think you left these at Berg Eltz.”
She nodded.
“I need to be certain,” he said as he dropped to one knee.
She raised her leg to meet his hand and he slid the slipper onto her foot…
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