Who’s Talking? #MondayMusings #OpenBookBlogHop #WritingPrompts

Welcome to another Open Book Blog Hop. Here’s this week’s prompt.

***

When you are writing scenes with more than two characters, how do you help the readers keep track of who is speaking?

***

Since I prefer to show and not tell when possible, here’s a scene from Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me. Natalie and her mother and sister are visiting her grandmother, suffering from dementia and living in a nursing home. You can see how I use dialog tags and other techniques to show who’s speaking.

***

When we walked into the room, Grandma’s head was hanging down, but she raised it and gave us a blank look. My mother, as she did every Sunday when we came to visit, went up to her with a smile, kissed her cheek, took her hand, and said, “Hi, Mom.” Then she said, “Oh, I see you’re wearing that lovely blouse I got you for your birthday. It looks nice on you.”

Mom always complimented Grandma on the clothes she wore, most of which she had bought for her. It made me want to throw up.

She sat on the bed next to Grandma’s wheelchair and smiled as she said, “I’ve brought Natalie and Sarah to see you today.”

My younger sister walked up to Grandma without hesitating and took her other hand, as she always did when we visited her. “Hi, Grandma,” she said with a smile.

Grandma’s face broke into a big grin. “Sarah, how lovely you look today. How old are you now?”

“I’m ten,” answered Sarah with a grin of her own. “And my sister, Natalie, is here, too.” She turned to me, but I stood where I was. I knew what would happen.

Grandma gave me one of her blank looks. “Who?”

“Mom, you remember Natalie,” my mother said. “She just turned sixteen last week. Natalie, don’t just stand there staring. Come say hello to your grandma.”

***

If you’re an author, when writing scenes with more than two people, how do you indicate who’s speaking? Please share in the comments or click below to join the conversation and see what others say. Thank you for reading.

 

InLinkz – Linkups & Link Parties for Bloggers

 


Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  [email protected] .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!

A Is for Apples #SundaySunshine #Gratitude #Inspiration

Note: thanks to Yvette Prior’s anthology, This Is How We Eat, which I reviewed here, for about the next month, every Sunday, I’ll share my memories of and gratitude for foods beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet. You may not want to read these posts on an empty stomach. Here’s the first installment. Happy eating!

***

My first memory of eating an apple was of my sadistic fifth grade teacher at the Arizona State School for the Deaf & Blind forcing me to do so. She got this idea in her head that I should try new foods. She only singled me out for this treatment, and I’ll probably never know why.

I hated the apple’s bitter taste. But I had to stay in the classroom and eat it one day after everyone else left for gym class. I couldn’t do anything else until I did. I managed to get it down, but it all came back up. I’d love to say that it ended up all over the teacher’s  front. But being a well-mannered child, I no doubt aimed for the wastebasket.

Soon after that, my father and I tried making homemade applesauce. I don’t know what inspired us to do this. I remember buying apples from a local grocer, but the rest of our process details are sketchy. I believe we peeled the apples, boiled them, sliced them into small pieces, added sugar, and let them simmer on the stove awhile. I don’t think the finished product was as good as the store-bought variety but at least we tried.

Though I’ve never enjoyed the taste of apples, I’ve always loved apple juice, applesauce, apple pie, etc. As an adult trying to limit my sugar consumption in an attempt to prevent diabetes, which runs in my family, I only eat unsweetened applesauce. I indulge in other apple treats once in a while, thankful for my apple memories.

***

What have you been thankful for this past week? It doesn’t have to be food. Please share in the comments or on your blog with a link to this post. Thank you for reading. Always be grateful!

 


Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  [email protected] .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!

A Duty To Not DNF #FantasticFridayFinds #Reblogs #Inspiration

I echo Helen’s sentiment here. With so many books out there, why waste time finishing one you don’t like? At least you tried it, right? What do you think?

***

Do you ever start something and then realize it isn’t working for you for whatever reason, but you feel a duty to continue? I’m sure we all have many things in our life that fall into this category. The one I’m thinking about, though, is finishing a book. I never used to stop reading a book, even if I low-key hated it. I would read until the bitter end, and then hate myself a little inside because it didn’t get any better.

 

FOWC with Fandango – A Duty To Not DNF | This Thing Called Life One Word at a Time

 


Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  [email protected] .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!

Singing for Supper and Getting Dessert #SixSentenceStoryThursdayLinkUp #Inspiration #WritingPrompts

I love ice cream, my favorite being chocolate. I enjoy a variety of treats including shakes and sundaes. But I never developed a taste for root beer floats until a few years ago.

When I started entertaining during a nursing home’s monthly birthday social, they were serving them. When I was offered one after I finished playing my guitar and singing, I tried it and loved it, and I have one every month when I entertain there. Sing for your supper, and you get dessert.

Thanks to GirlieOnTheEdge for inspiring the above with this week’s six-sentence story prompt, in which the given the word is “float.” If you’d like to write something in exactly six sentences, using this word at least once, you can share in the comments or click below to join the fun and read other six-sentence creations. Thank you for stopping by.

 

InLinkz – Linkups & Link Parties for Bloggers

 


Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  [email protected] .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!

Share and Share Alike #MondayMusings #OpenBookBlogHop #WritingPrompts

Welcome to another Open Book Blog Hop. Here’s this week’s prompt.

***

How much of yourself do you share with your readers? How much do you hide?

***

I don’t intentionally hide anything. I mostly give readers information about myself that applies to my writing. When I share a poem or novel or story excerpt, I talk about what inspired it, telling something about myself in the process.

Recently, I finished reading This Is How We Eat, an anthology of prose and poetry about food. You can read my review of this book here. One of the pieces inspired me to write an A-to-Z series about foods I like or don’t like and remember. This will start here next Sunday. So, please stay tuned.

***

If you’re an author, how much do you share with and/or hide from your readers? Please answer in the comments or click below to join the conversation and read other responses. Thank you for stopping by.

 

InLinkz – Linkups & Link Parties for Bloggers

 


Abbie wears a blue and white V-neck top with different shades of blue from sky to navy that swirl together with the white. She has short, brown hair and rosy cheeks and smiles at the camera against a black background.

Photo Courtesy of Tess Anderson Photography

Photo Resize and Description

by Two Pentacles Publishing

New! Living Vicariously in Wyoming: Stories

Copyright 2025 by Abbie Johnson Taylor

Published independently with the help of DLD Books.

The scene shows an isolated barn off to the right in a snowy field, probably shortly after sunset. The foreground is a mixture of white, blue, and brown shades. Behind the barn is a line of dense, dark trees, many of them evergreens. The sky is the pink one sometimes sees at sunset, and a full moon hangs above the treetops to the left. The title is in plain black letters against the sky with a white glow behind them. The author’s name is in white letters near the bottom of the cover.

Image Description written by Leonore Dvorkin of DLD Books.

 

As defined in the first story, living vicariously means living your life through someone else’s. You’re invited to live vicariously through the lives of the people in these stories. There’s the lawyer who catches his wife in the act with a nun. A college student identifies with a character in a play. A young woman loses her mother and finds her father. And a high school student’s prudish English teacher strenuously objects to a single word in her paper.

In Wyoming, as in any other state, people fall in love, and sometimes relationships are shattered. Accidents, domestic violence, prejudice, and crimes all occur. Lives are torn apart, and people are reunited. Ordinary people deal with everyday and not–so–everyday situations.

The 25 stories in this collection, most of which are set in Wyoming, are about how the various characters resolve their conflicts—or not.

 

Click here for more information and ordering links.

 

About My Monthly Newsletter

 

If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to News from My Corner by sending a blank email to:  [email protected] .  You’ll receive a confirmation email. Reply to that with another blank message, and you should be good to go. Happy reading!