The Adventures of Nancy – my friend Butch

Nancy - a portrait

Nancy - a portrait

Hi there readers.

This is Nancy again – the dog with attitude.

A few days ago I mentioned my good friend Butch. Let me tell you about him.

First – we are just good friends – nothing more. I like to visit his home and he comes to visit Grandpa Trevor’s home. When I go to visit Butch we play games in the garden. Sometimes he gets jealous if I play with his toys. He can be very possessive.

I must be careful to eat from my food bowl. He growls at me if I try to eat from his bowl. That’s a bit mean but I guess it is only fair. It might be more polite to share but that’s the way he is. Sometimes he has a visit from his cousin Charlie. Charlie is a strange dog. I don’t feel like telling you about him; he’s odd.

Here is a photo of Butch in his lovely comfortable bed. He won’t let me share his bed, but then I have my own bed.

Nancy's  friend Butch

Nancy's friend Butch

Sometime I will tell you more about Butch, my best friend.

Talk to you soon.

Nancy.

More Short Story Starters

Sometimes writers want to write but they just don’t know what to write about. Sometimes the brain goes into neutral and you just can’t think up a topic. Over the last year or so I’ve written a series of articles listing some short story starters. These are designed to help other writers get going again with their writing. Feel free to use these ideas in your own writing.

Short Story Starters:

  1. Mary stopped suddenly. On the path not five metres from he was a curled up snake. She stifled a scream. Her first impulse was to….
  2. Neville strode confidently on to the stage. He was ready for anything. Just as he was about to open his mouth, a…..
  3. Olivia never like James. His habit of….
  4. Peter came unexpectedly around the corner. Both Amy and Bob stared in disbelief. Where….
  5. Roberta knew she was going to be late for the meeting. She hurried from the lift, down the corridor and then paused at the door. She took a deep breath, composed her thoughts and opened the door. She…
  6. Sam was at it again. Steve never quite knew what to do but it annoyed him intensely. Sam’s habit of…
  7. Teresa felt fear creeping through her body. This could not be happening. She took a hesitant step towards…

Conditions of use:

  • Feel free to use any of the story starters listed above. Change anything to suit your needs.
  • Give it your best shot.
  • Edit your work carefully before sending it off to a publisher or posting it on your blog.
  • Let me know in the comments section how it went.
  • If you publish your story on your web site or on your blog let me know so I can make a link to it for others to read.

More story ideas:

There are many more ideas in my archives similar to these. Click here to read them.

The Adventures of Nancy – my mum the teacher

Nancy - a portrait

Nancy - a portrait

Hi there,

Nancy – the dog with attitude here again.

How are all of my readers going? I’d like to hear about you in the comments section.

Today I am going to tell you about my Mum. Her name is Rose. She is a high school teacher. She works very hard. When she goes away from home for a holiday she always takes a pile of books to read. This is so she can teach her students about books. You should see her library – she has heaps of books. Below is a photo of her reading while on a holiday earlier this year. Grandpa Trevor took the photo of her relaxing in the sunshine reading a book.

I feel a little sad looking at this photo. She didn’t take me with her. She went to a little town called Robe in South Australia. Grandpa Trevor wrote about that holiday on his travel blog. I suppose it was alright though. I had a holiday too. I stayed with my friend Butch.

Now before you start thinking sneaky thoughts, Butch and I are just good friends.

That’s all.

Period.

I will write about him in a few days time.

Talk to you then.

Nancy

Rose

Rose

Poem #37 Sacrifice

Sacrifice

Buzzing…
Buzzing…
Buzzing, frantic

Circular buzzing.
The sticky mesh hugs
The buzzing blow fly
In its web of death.

The spider dances,
Excitedly prances,
And wraps its victim
Into its security blanket.

Buzz…buzz…buzz…

Silent death comes
Like a tap dripping slower and slower,
Like a clock winding down to stop.

The life-giving moisture
Slowly sucks away until
Only a skeleton is left.

The web of death
Is a web of life.

One life dies.
Another life lives.

Sacrifice.

All rights reserved.

Copyright 2007 Trevor W. Hampel

Read more of my poetry here.

Computing changes

I am currently visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Sydney. My son is the computer expert in the family – he keeps this and my other blogs running smoothly (and you thought I did all that?)

He also helps to maintain our computers. While here in Sydney we’ve been able to use his super fast broadband connection. He has also set up a new 200Gb external hard drive for my computer and my wife’s computer (Yes we take our laptops travelling with us). Our laptops were in serious trouble of running out of disk space with all the photos we take, especially on trips like this one. You can read all about our holiday on my travel blog or my birding blog.

I have also been having neck and back problems always looking down at the monitor on my laptop. So the other day we went and bought a Samsung SyncMaster 205BW 20 inch wide screen monitor. WOW! What a difference that makes. Especially to my photos. And it is so much easier to read.

Bottom line: this is the first item I’ve bought with the proceeds of my blogging.

And I like it.

Thanks Sim’ for setting it all up for me.

To see a review of this monitor, together with a photo, click here.