Lit on Deadline will be taking a Winter Break starting on this shortest day. Stay tuned after the New Year for a selection of essays from the Fall IFN Writers, as well as other installments of The Caffeine Meth Chronicles.
Have a Happy Chrismahanukwanzaakah!
A few years ago we bought a Christmas lawn decoration labeled ‘Random Twinkle Snowman.’
Ever since, he’s been known as Random Twinkle. And the kids know the Season is here when we bring him down from the attic to join the light display in front of our house. After years of service, however, his thin plastic face is bashed in and taped back together after all the falls in the wind. His red scarf is often askew, and his plastic ear muffs unplugged.
“We need to fix his ear shovels!” my son said one year.
Alas, this year Random Twinkle lost his twinkle. First his body stopped lighting up, then his head. He’s currently out front for his last Christmas, a string of white lights draped around him like a necklace.
My kids, feeling a bit down, wanted to write a story to immortalize him somehow. Santa wanted to build a new Random Twinkle, my son began, and so he got his elves in Santa’s Workhouse to start building . . .
“Santa’s Workhouse?” my daughter said. “That sounds like Oliver Twist.”
These are the Christmas moments I want to immortalize.
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres — on the trouble with distraction in multitasking, perennial texting, etc:
“There are buttons for everything. Chances are, if you need both of your hands to do something, your brain should be in on it.”
Ever notice how the ‘Maritime Forecast’ on The Weather Channel nearly always lists a Small Craft Advisory—-be there rain, shine, wind, snow, ice, clouds, etc.
I guess it’s like a universal horoscope offering advice for those navigating rough waters. ‘Cause I nearly always feel like that small craft.
FLASH PUB (Noun) — Writers of all styles and genres publish something they’ve written somewhere online on the same day. Today, Dec. 5 is that day. — Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson
See stories, essays, observations, vignettes, memoirs and other works by the Hopkins Fall IFN Writers, updated throughout today, here at litdeadline.wordpress.com. Check out various gorgeous blogs just launched and other links listed below 
Enjoy!
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By writer Rochelle Dumm
This post is in response to the following words, spoken by the music director at my university’s orchestra rehearsal. “If we can’t play with everything we’ve got, then it becomes a moral issue.” – Jed Gaylin . . . .
For more see:
http://imagenescrita.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/
at-the-heart/
By writer Kareem Fakhoury
A girl walking by herself down the street, her hair bouncing in long blond waves. Along the street plain white walls are graced by yellow lights that read “Psychic Center: Open,” with a Ouija board resting on a table directly below. . . .
See the entire essay at
http://litexp.tumblr.com/
By writer Nathan McDonald
Nestled atop a hill of terraced housing lies a gentrified gem of Baltimore known as Hampden. Off-white houses, relics of a distant past, crowd the narrow streets that slope downward from the neighborhood’s center . . .
Check it out at
http://bmorethanpremed.blogspot.com/
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By writer Morgan Altinok
The water of Lake Irene inundated the canoe and my heart plummeted. Three foot swells breached the gunnels and it was all over . . .
Read more at
http://thoughtsfrommywritingclass.blogspot.com/
By writer Katherine Simeon
I like to look at the kitchen sink as a measuring stick because the condition of my sink has this quirky relationship to the condition of my social life . . .
Read more at
http://persnicketyobservations.tumblr.com/
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By writer Janelle Ho
I saw myself in front of the university gate a few days ago. I was walking by the North Gate of the Homewood campus one evening, and in front of the marble slab that our school’s name was engraved on was a family of three . . .
Check out the essay at the beautifully named
http://eggshellinbronze.blogspot.com
And more by writer Stephanie Hur
The smell of burning wood seeps through the dorm window. I stand on my roommate’s bed to pull the window down and stick my nose against the clawed screen. I close my eyes . . .
Click on the quirkily named blog stephfunnie at
http://stephfunnie.blogspot.com/
By writer Rohan Shah
It has been a long time since I visited Char Mar, Hopkins’ overpriced market, and it has been even longer since I last ate breakfast. A sophomore friend, richly endowed with dining dollars, has graciously agreed to buy me a bagel . . .
See what happens at
http://collegefragments.blogspot.com
By writer Allen Zhu
Post, slant, in, out, slout, go. Which one are we doing this time?
Find out at
http://thebasics-az.blogspot.com/
By writer Kiara Doss
I never realized how much the things I carry define me . . .
Carry on:
http://publichealth-doss-kiara.blogspot.com/
And writer Jenny Chiang, coming in before the midnight hour:
The swaying trees tilt back and forth at large angles. The wind is picking up speed . . .
http://thoughtswordswrite.blogspot.com/2011/12/simply-kids.html
Postscript from me: No longer tucked in drawers or binders, or stored and forgotten in computer files, the Word is now out . . . Keep writing and telling the stories all around us. Your stories. All best, JCS
The Fall IFN Writers will stage a FLASH PUB on Monday Dec. 5. (My Hopkins writing students are publishing some of their work from class online that day, in whatever form: blogs (some brand new), Tweets, Facebook (yes, Facebook!) etc.) I’ll feature and link. For a preview, check out the Nov. 21 story by Stephanie Hur at her wonderfully named blog Stephfunnie at
http://stephfunnie.blogspot.com/
Titled Someone, it begins ”There is no one amongst everyone . . . “
