writing

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

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Today is the feast day, celebrating the solemn belief by Catholics in the immaculate conception of Mary, mother of G-d and mother of the Church.

My home parish is one of many in the US whose patroness is the Blessed Mother, specifically honoring the immaculate conception by taking on the name. (*)

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Today is also the tenth anniversary of my own mother’s death.

She was 61 when she died. Despite her health problems, it was still a shock when I received the phone call. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her or miss her. I still pick up the phone to call her and it is awful to remember that she won’t be at the other end of the line.

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(*) I have no idea how churches choose their patrons or names.

If anyone is looking for a prompt today: Mothers

Prompt: Fan Fiction as Prompt

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Fan fiction sounds like a relatively new phenomenon, but the reality is that transformative fiction has been around as long as there have been stories to tell. Some examples include Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Bible stories, and Wicked. For some reason, we as a society don’t categorize these (and others) as fan works, fan fiction or transformative fiction.

Granted there’s a legality with copyright, but I’m confident that this will adapt with the times and the movement towards more mainstream idea/world/’verse sharing.

What is the true difference between fan fiction and literary adaptation? Money? Unions? Those of us who engage in this type of writing know it’s not love or respect of the original work.

This literary movement will continue moving forward and with online becoming so prevalent in most of our lives, this “trend” that’s not really a trend isn’t going away but developing and growing and authors should get used to it and join the ever expanding interpretative and interactionary world that encompasses their fan base, not as their equals but somewhat as their collaborators, seeing the big picture through a new set of eyes.

Keeping this in mind, today’s prompt has to do with transformative works. Three prompts to choose from:

If you could change the ending of any fictional book (that you loved), which one would it be and how would you change it?

Which loved character would you bring back from the dead and how?

Your favorite TV show was just cancelled. What plot line would you like them to follow when they bring it back because of all the fan clamoring?

Do you know what’s so awesome about Cracker Barrel?

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I had a little cash left over from my retreat week.
CB has a lunch special for less money than going to McDonald’s. (And the bathroom is way cleaner)
CB also has no WiFi.
I can stay there pretty much as long as I like
CB also has so much white noise that it gives you just enough distraction not to be distracted (I wrote two full pieces!)
And they will refill your soda an obscene amount of times plus give you a to-go cup for one more refill on your way out