A Little Cross-Pollination

And Some Invitations

Hi Everyone,

Look! I painted Ethan the Baby Goat. I sure love painting*. At the end of this post please find a photo in which Ethan demonstrates how she keeps her feet warm and dry during ice storms. Brilliant really. (*As you can see, I sign my paintings Pencil. It is my Nom de Brush.)

Today I am doing something I do every now and again—I’m cross-pollinating here with my other substack, which is for writers. If you like this post, you might want to subscribe (for free) over there. I’m continue to mostly neglect this substack but I still like to keep in touch. And I do have some invites y’all might be interested in.

I hope this note finds you well, or at least well enough. And I hope you will come join me for some real life events. I’m telling you, these real life meetups really do help lower one’s anxiety re: fascist government takeover. At least for an hour or two.

And so, with that, here you go, my most recent post from Write With Spike.

Hi Y’all,

I LOVE MAKING BUSINESS CARDS. I do have some professional cards I hand out to potential wedding and funeral clients. But I also am a fan of goofy cards. The one pictured above I had made maybe a decade or so ago. A friend of mine said to me, “You know what I love about you? You’re not afraid to be an asshole.” I knew in that moment I would be putting her words on a card to hand out.

Which brings me to this episodes writing prompts:

#83 Write a REAL resume (& business card). Not the kind that you send out in hopes of getting a job. But a document that highlights the ten million things you know how to do. This piece of writing needn’t follow traditional resume format—although it can. The idea is to inventory, in a fun way, your skill sets. You can also write up a business card that captures your TRUE self, not your work self. (Although I do hope that all of us have work where we can be our true selves.)

#84 Write Your Own Obituary. Another opportunity to create a document that describes positive details about you, you, you. Be serious. Be silly. Be both. Whatever you wish. (The next time you need a break from the Reign of Fascist Terror dominating the news, I urge you to google “Funny Obituaries” and enjoy the results. This link will take you to but one of these funny obits.)

#85 The Moment I Knew. As noted above, I knew, the moment my friend uttered her wonderful words about me, that I would be using those words to describe myself on a business card. (Come to think of it, Not Afraid to Be an Asshole would look great on a headstone!) For this prompt, write about the moment you knew something. That you were in love. That you fell out of love. That you were going to move far away, quit a job, adopt a puppy—whatever! Write about that.

As ever, feel free to share your writing or links to your writing in the comments.

NOTES:

Thanks for being here y’all. This substack is free and will remain that way. However, if you are getting value from it and if you can afford a paid subscription, please consider it. Really helps.

The next Ranch Writing Day is Saturday Feb 7th. You can sign up for FREE at Eventbrite. THIS IS THE LINK. We write for 90 minutes, share for 90 minutes, and I bake fresh delicious pastry and serve it up with Wild Gift Coffee. Please do register so I know how much to bake. The event is DONATION BASED with a suggested donation of $20.

The next Public Reading at Hyde Park Theatre is Wednesday February 25th from 7 till 9 pm. A dozen readers will each share short pieces. All readers are attendees of one or more of my various and sundry writing meetups. Come take a break from your screens and your anxiety and settle into an evening of wonderful storytelling. Tickets are $10. To reserve seats you can email me: spikegillespie@gmail.com and let me know how many seats to hold.