I like how you end each chapter -not only in this challenge, but in WIF too - positively about the future.
I realize it can become predictable, ending with what one person who read my blog called "the Cathy Tea moment." But RobFam always ended with the RobFam moment--always ending with a little moral or lesson, and I loved that! I always looked forward to it. It's sort of how I approach life, so it feels good to me to do that in the writing. And I want readers to come away from the story feeling a little bit uplifted, not dragged down.
Hiya! I've posted a new conversation in my "Conversations with..." feature. This one is with NaterXander (Wilderwolf) who's putting together a literary journal of SimLit! I encourage you to read the conversation (which is inspiring!) and then to submit something to the journal. Submission deadline for the first edition is June 30.
Hey, fans of @Wasting_Night 's Simsacious magazine! The new "Conversations with..." features Wasting_Night! Hope you enjoy learning more about how he puts together that awesome magazine! Conversations with... Wasting_Night
I've got a new Aimless post, in which I consider Being in regards to our Sims. I hope you'll read it, and I really hope that you'll share your thoughts, arguments, considerations, and perspectives!
We had so much fun. I'd love to talk with you, too. If you'd like to have a conversation with me about anything Sim-related and SimLit-related, please let me know!
Before Sugar Maple Bough showed me the degree of self-determination that Sims are capable of, I drafted a story for the Short Story Challenge involving Nancy, Geoffrey, and Bella. Now that Sugar has convinced me not to interfere with the direction of Sims' lives, I won't be taking screenshots for this story. (That would be like me saying, "Hey, Geoffrey! Here, break up with Nancy and get married to this other woman so I can get a photo of you at the alter, ok? Thanks, doll!") But I still want to share the story.
So, here it is!
----
The Wedding of Nancy's Ex
The first time Nancy's first husband said no to her was at his second wedding.
"What are you going to wear?" Bella had asked her, a few weeks before the event.
"I thought I'd wear something red," replied Nancy. "You know. One of those Bella numbers."
They both laughed.
"Give the folks what they want: the complete picture of the adulterous first wife," continued Nancy.
"Now, Nan," said Bella, "you and I know there was nothing adulterous about your relationship with Peter. You both waited until your divorces were final before you started seeing each other."
"You know that, and I know that," said Nancy, "and Peter knows that. But the rest of them..."
Her voice trailed off.
It wasn't a reputation she minded, necessarily.
Nonetheless, she was dressed in something modest and tasteful when she and Peter showed up at Geoffrey and Clarissa's wedding. They arrived at just the right time--not too early, so as not to attract attention, nor too late, so as not to be seen to be making a statement of protest or resentment.
Generosity and graciousness, that was the foundation of Peter's reputation as physician and pillar of the community, and one he calculated would spread to them as a couple.
"You doing ok, honey?" Peter asked as the ceremony was concluding.
"Perfectly fine," replied Nancy. "Why?"
"You've just got a tension furrow," Peter said, "One of your migraines coming on?"
"I'm fine."
Geoffrey's bride looked amazingly fresh for a woman just past fifty. She and Geoffrey had met at yoga, of all things. Yoga! There was something about her, aside from the fact that she was marrying Nancy's first husband, that Nancy simply didn't trust. How does a woman get to be middle-aged without picking up an ounce of cynicism? What was she hiding beneath that wholesome New Age grin? What sins did her "body-by-yoga" cover?
But she could make Geoffrey happy. Nancy had never seen him smile so wholeheartedly, not even on their wedding day, when, if Nancy remembered correctly, it was Geoffrey who had suffered from migraine.
As they were seated for the reception tea, Peter got a call from the hospital. "Gotta go," he said. "Life of a surgeon!"
And Nancy faced an empty seat beside her.
Before she could make eye contact with Bella, two tables over, Geoffrey sauntered over and slid into the empty seat.
"Thanks for coming," he said. "Malcolm stayed home?"
"He's off with Cassandra," Nancy answered.
"You don't look well."
"I have one of my heads," said Nancy. "I don't think I can drive. And I certainly can't stay here, feeling like this. Can you take me home?"
She could see worry enter into Geoffrey's forehead, and she saw his lips begin to stretch to form the word "Yes," when, the next instant, his eyes sparkled and the corners crinkled upwards with his genuine smile. She followed his gaze. There stood Clarissa, smiling warmly at both of them. She actually waved.
"No," said Geoffrey, as he rose, "but I'll be happy to call you a cab."
"Don't bother," replied Nancy. "I have a cell phone myself."
By this time, Bella had come to sit beside her friend.
"Let's pull over," said Nancy on the drive home, as they rolled past Rattlesnake Bar.
The two women, dressed with an elegance not often seen in the old joint, found a table near the window.
"Did you notice anything funny when we walked in?" asked Nancy.
Bella looked around. "Don's not here," she said. And they both laughed.
Nancy gestured toward the row of men sitting at the bar.
"When we walked in," said Nancy, "not a single one turned to look."
As she held the cold glass, she noticed for the first time age spots sprawling across the raised veins and stretched tendons along the back of her hands. I'm going to have to find a new currency, she thought.
When she got home, the house felt empty. Malcolm was still out, Peter still at the hospital. She wandered through the home, spotless after the maid's earlier visit. On the upstairs porch stood an easel that had belonged to Peter's niece. They still had a box of acrylics that they'd bought for her when she'd visited during spring break.
Why not? thought Nancy.
When Peter came home after midnight, she was still up there painting. He followed the porch light and stood in the doorway, smiling at the lock of her hair that had fallen out of the bun, enjoying the wild streaks of indigo and purple that covered the canvas.
"Where did this come from?" he asked with a chuckle.
"Call it a post-wedding revelation," she said, as she drew a bold red line across the blue field.
It wasn't settled within her, not by a long shot, but this time, when she saw the backs of her hands, rather than feel a shudder of doom, she felt, perhaps, a glimmer of something. There's more than one source of worth, after all.
Oh. My. Watcher. This is truly amazing. I am breathing it all in. You paint a picture with your words...
Okay...breathing.
So, I think the thing I liked the most about this was just how you were able to take me from a moment of tension to a moment of peace within a handful of words...it's such a gift.
I almost like it better without pictures because I can see the age in Nancy in a way that doesn't exist in the game. It's not at all ugly, in fact the way you describe it makes me feel like it's incredibly beautiful and becoming of her.
Thank you for this journey. It's so heart warming.
Oh. My. Watcher. This is truly amazing. I am breathing it all in. You paint a picture with your words...
Okay...breathing.
So, I think the thing I liked the most about this was just how you were able to take me from a moment of tension to a moment of peace within a handful of words...it's such a gift.
I almost like it better without pictures because I can see the age in Nancy in a way that doesn't exist in the game. It's not at all ugly, in fact the way you describe it makes me feel like it's incredibly beautiful and becoming of her.
Thank you for this journey. It's so heart warming.
Aw, thanks so much! I have a lot to say about it--but I'll hold off for a while in case anyone else reads it!
You already know how I feel about this. I just wanted to say that even though you didn't enter it I am glad you chose to share it with everyone. I will always see Nancy differently now.
You already know how I feel about this. I just wanted to say that even though you didn't enter it I am glad you chose to share it with everyone. I will always see Nancy differently now.
Thanks! I shared it with Marty today, too, and since he also enjoyed it, you and he inspired me to share it here! Thank you! Better than it sitting alone in drafts.... although I suppose I could post stories without pictures, couldn't I? Then I can write fanfic without having to go against my new personal prime directive... there's a thought!
Obv. it also touched me because of my grandmother. She used to draw all of the time and has some gorgeous drawing of flowers that she grew in her home or yard.
I know you weren't referring to Nancy as a terribly old woman, but when I was talking to my grandmother on Friday she was talking about how they're renting and if they don't like it they can move somewhere else. I said something like, "Or in 5 or so years you might want to move back here again depending on family situations." She responded, "Oh, 5 years! Who knows if I'll be around to move in 5 years."
So...I don't know. I know age happens and that it happens to people differently. I guess it just...I was just sitting with how it hits us. And how you were talking about Clarissa and how age has affected her in a way that makes her look a bit younger than perhaps Nancy looks/feels. We are always prone to judging ourselves against other instead of finding our own way to be at peace.
It was nice to see Nancy find a bit of that peace.
Obv. it also touched me because of my grandmother. She used to draw all of the time and has some gorgeous drawing of flowers that she grew in her home or yard.
I know you weren't referring to Nancy as a terribly old woman, but when I was talking to my grandmother on Friday she was talking about how they're renting and if they don't like it they can move somewhere else. I said something like, "Or in 5 or so years you might want to move back here again depending on family situations." She responded, "Oh, 5 years! Who knows if I'll be around to move in 5 years."
So...I don't know. I know age happens and that it happens to people differently. I guess it just...I was just sitting with how it hits us. And how you were talking about Clarissa and how age has affected her in a way that makes her look a bit younger than perhaps Nancy looks/feels. We are always prone to judging ourselves against other instead of finding our own way to be at peace.
It was nice to see Nancy find a bit of that peace.
It's around the age I'm at now when women start looking at the back of their hands and think, "Oh, my! This looks like my grandma's hands!" For me, I love that. But many of my friends have become very depressed because they feel they have "old" hands.
And it can be about five to ten years younger than I am now when some women (of course not all--Trish mentioned that men would still turn to look at Bella!) begin to notice that men don't turn to look at them.
I can imagine that for women who have used that as their currency, that must be very hard.
(Personal, I find it extremely liberating!)
I can understand what your grandma is saying--my mom is at that point where five years seems like an unknowable quantity, and it's heartbreaking, for all of us.
Here's a new entry in Dr. Jasmine's Casebook! This one is for the August Short Story Challenge, and the theme is "firsts." This story is dedicated to everyone who has had to move past a major failure in life (in other words, to all of us!):
Two new chapters in FanFic, which is my non-illustrated Simmie novel or novella, whichever it turns out to be! This series is pretty much for grown-ups, I'm discovering.
Note: I just created a new blog for this series, since it's tending to be more adult in nature. It includes brief scenes of nudity and adult themes.
Comments
I realize it can become predictable, ending with what one person who read my blog called "the Cathy Tea moment." But RobFam always ended with the RobFam moment--always ending with a little moral or lesson, and I loved that! I always looked forward to it. It's sort of how I approach life, so it feels good to me to do that in the writing. And I want readers to come away from the story feeling a little bit uplifted, not dragged down.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Skill U: 1.7
Skill U: 2.1
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
https://cathytea.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/conversations-with-naterxander/
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
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It was a good salad! We were talking so much we forgot to eat--and then we both ate it all in about 1 bite!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Part one here: https://cathytea.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/conversations-with-shannon-simsfan/
Part two here: http://www.simdalevalleypost.com/special-edition-a-conversation-with-cathytea/
We had so much fun. I'd love to talk with you, too. If you'd like to have a conversation with me about anything Sim-related and SimLit-related, please let me know!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
So, here it is!
----
The Wedding of Nancy's Ex
The first time Nancy's first husband said no to her was at his second wedding.
"What are you going to wear?" Bella had asked her, a few weeks before the event.
"I thought I'd wear something red," replied Nancy. "You know. One of those Bella numbers."
They both laughed.
"Give the folks what they want: the complete picture of the adulterous first wife," continued Nancy.
"Now, Nan," said Bella, "you and I know there was nothing adulterous about your relationship with Peter. You both waited until your divorces were final before you started seeing each other."
"You know that, and I know that," said Nancy, "and Peter knows that. But the rest of them..."
Her voice trailed off.
It wasn't a reputation she minded, necessarily.
Nonetheless, she was dressed in something modest and tasteful when she and Peter showed up at Geoffrey and Clarissa's wedding. They arrived at just the right time--not too early, so as not to attract attention, nor too late, so as not to be seen to be making a statement of protest or resentment.
Generosity and graciousness, that was the foundation of Peter's reputation as physician and pillar of the community, and one he calculated would spread to them as a couple.
"You doing ok, honey?" Peter asked as the ceremony was concluding.
"Perfectly fine," replied Nancy. "Why?"
"You've just got a tension furrow," Peter said, "One of your migraines coming on?"
"I'm fine."
Geoffrey's bride looked amazingly fresh for a woman just past fifty. She and Geoffrey had met at yoga, of all things. Yoga! There was something about her, aside from the fact that she was marrying Nancy's first husband, that Nancy simply didn't trust. How does a woman get to be middle-aged without picking up an ounce of cynicism? What was she hiding beneath that wholesome New Age grin? What sins did her "body-by-yoga" cover?
But she could make Geoffrey happy. Nancy had never seen him smile so wholeheartedly, not even on their wedding day, when, if Nancy remembered correctly, it was Geoffrey who had suffered from migraine.
As they were seated for the reception tea, Peter got a call from the hospital. "Gotta go," he said. "Life of a surgeon!"
And Nancy faced an empty seat beside her.
Before she could make eye contact with Bella, two tables over, Geoffrey sauntered over and slid into the empty seat.
"Thanks for coming," he said. "Malcolm stayed home?"
"He's off with Cassandra," Nancy answered.
"You don't look well."
"I have one of my heads," said Nancy. "I don't think I can drive. And I certainly can't stay here, feeling like this. Can you take me home?"
She could see worry enter into Geoffrey's forehead, and she saw his lips begin to stretch to form the word "Yes," when, the next instant, his eyes sparkled and the corners crinkled upwards with his genuine smile. She followed his gaze. There stood Clarissa, smiling warmly at both of them. She actually waved.
"No," said Geoffrey, as he rose, "but I'll be happy to call you a cab."
"Don't bother," replied Nancy. "I have a cell phone myself."
By this time, Bella had come to sit beside her friend.
"Let's pull over," said Nancy on the drive home, as they rolled past Rattlesnake Bar.
The two women, dressed with an elegance not often seen in the old joint, found a table near the window.
"Did you notice anything funny when we walked in?" asked Nancy.
Bella looked around. "Don's not here," she said. And they both laughed.
Nancy gestured toward the row of men sitting at the bar.
"When we walked in," said Nancy, "not a single one turned to look."
As she held the cold glass, she noticed for the first time age spots sprawling across the raised veins and stretched tendons along the back of her hands. I'm going to have to find a new currency, she thought.
When she got home, the house felt empty. Malcolm was still out, Peter still at the hospital. She wandered through the home, spotless after the maid's earlier visit. On the upstairs porch stood an easel that had belonged to Peter's niece. They still had a box of acrylics that they'd bought for her when she'd visited during spring break.
Why not? thought Nancy.
When Peter came home after midnight, she was still up there painting. He followed the porch light and stood in the doorway, smiling at the lock of her hair that had fallen out of the bun, enjoying the wild streaks of indigo and purple that covered the canvas.
"Where did this come from?" he asked with a chuckle.
"Call it a post-wedding revelation," she said, as she drew a bold red line across the blue field.
It wasn't settled within her, not by a long shot, but this time, when she saw the backs of her hands, rather than feel a shudder of doom, she felt, perhaps, a glimmer of something. There's more than one source of worth, after all.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Okay...breathing.
So, I think the thing I liked the most about this was just how you were able to take me from a moment of tension to a moment of peace within a handful of words...it's such a gift.
I almost like it better without pictures because I can see the age in Nancy in a way that doesn't exist in the game. It's not at all ugly, in fact the way you describe it makes me feel like it's incredibly beautiful and becoming of her.
Thank you for this journey. It's so heart warming.
Discord: #5153
Aw, thanks so much! I have a lot to say about it--but I'll hold off for a while in case anyone else reads it!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Thanks! I shared it with Marty today, too, and since he also enjoyed it, you and he inspired me to share it here! Thank you! Better than it sitting alone in drafts.... although I suppose I could post stories without pictures, couldn't I? Then I can write fanfic without having to go against my new personal prime directive... there's a thought!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Obv. it also touched me because of my grandmother. She used to draw all of the time and has some gorgeous drawing of flowers that she grew in her home or yard.
I know you weren't referring to Nancy as a terribly old woman, but when I was talking to my grandmother on Friday she was talking about how they're renting and if they don't like it they can move somewhere else. I said something like, "Or in 5 or so years you might want to move back here again depending on family situations." She responded, "Oh, 5 years! Who knows if I'll be around to move in 5 years."
So...I don't know. I know age happens and that it happens to people differently. I guess it just...I was just sitting with how it hits us. And how you were talking about Clarissa and how age has affected her in a way that makes her look a bit younger than perhaps Nancy looks/feels. We are always prone to judging ourselves against other instead of finding our own way to be at peace.
It was nice to see Nancy find a bit of that peace.
Discord: #5153
It's around the age I'm at now when women start looking at the back of their hands and think, "Oh, my! This looks like my grandma's hands!" For me, I love that. But many of my friends have become very depressed because they feel they have "old" hands.
And it can be about five to ten years younger than I am now when some women (of course not all--Trish mentioned that men would still turn to look at Bella!) begin to notice that men don't turn to look at them.
I can imagine that for women who have used that as their currency, that must be very hard.
(Personal, I find it extremely liberating!)
I can understand what your grandma is saying--my mom is at that point where five years seems like an unknowable quantity, and it's heartbreaking, for all of us.
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
The First Fail Tea Party
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Note: I just created a new blog for this series, since it's tending to be more adult in nature. It includes brief scenes of nudity and adult themes.
Across the Canyon
The Connoisseur of Boredom
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!
Do you also play The Elder Scrolls Online? You can find me there as CathyTea, too!