Tag: #Gifts

The Best Writer’s Gift #IWSG

  By IWSG

 

 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the December 3 posting of the IWSG are Tara Tyler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, Liza, and Natalie Aguirre!

Every month, we announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG post. These questions may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Include your answer to the question in your IWSG post or let it inspire your post if you are struggling with something to say.

December 3 question – As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?

Easy – the best gift I’ve ever received was a lifetime membership to ProWritingAid. I’d used the free version of the program for grammar and spell checking for several years, but it had its limitations. (I couldn’t check an entire chapter at the same time.) So, when I spotted an offer for a lifetime membership at a reduced price, I jumped on the offer.

Well, not personally. I pointed out the offer to my daughter when she asked what I wanted for Christmas. Like the great daughter she is, she followed through. They’ve made many changes since then, but the basic functions are still a major step in my editing process. (Yes, I used it on this post. And yes, they have ventured into AI functionalities, but I’ve ignored that.) I expect to use as long as I keep writing.

And I give the company props for having a feature to support writers in a replacement for NaNoWriMo. I didn’t participate, but it warmed my heart to see the possibility.

I wonder what gifts my fellow authors have received. The links below will lead me to the answers.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

 

 

 

Shopping by the Book #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

Dec 19, 2022

What did you want for birthday/Christmas that you never got and might be bitter about? Have you bought it for yourself?

Back in the days of yore, companies like Sears and Montgomery Ward would send out “Christmas catalogs’ with toys, clothing, and gift items not available in their normal catalogs. Yes, those were the days before Amazon, when people shopped by flipping through massive paper catalogs to find clothes and other items they needed that couldn’t be found in the local stores. The Christmas books were smaller, but still held a world of dreams for us kids.

We’d spend hours flipping through the pages, picking out items for our lists for Santa. We knew he had a limited budget and many kids to take presents too, but we always put extra items on our lists in case he ran out of something.

One year, an item on my list was a Carrom board. This was a wooden toy that had a checkerboard, a backgammon board on the other side, and pockets in the corner for a miniature-type pool game. Well, Christmas came, and the board was under the tree – with my brother’s name on the gift tag. Turned out, he’d requested the same thing.

 

I was disappointed, of course, but he shared—sometimes. I won’t say I was bitter about it, but it hurt for a little while. When I became an adult and got married, our first Christmas together, my husband and I bought our own copy. We had it for many years.

By the way, I find it amusing that Amazon sends out paper catalogs. Yes, on-line ordering is convenient, but there’s a lot to be said for flipping through a small book you can hold in your hands.

Did any of our other authors not get a gift they really wanted? Find out by following the links below. 

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Dec 19, 2022

What did you want for birthday/Christmas that you never got and might be bitter about? Have you bought it for yourself?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

Gift Giving – The Bad and the Ugly #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

 

November 23
The holiday season is just around the corner. What’s the worst gift you’ve ever received? What’s the worst one you have ever given?

Sure, I know all about the languages of love. I’m an acts of service type of person when it comes to giving, and the gift of words when I’m receiving. (Does that surprise anyone? An author wanting to hear affirmations?) But physical gifts are good too, except I’m terrible at coming up with ideas for other people to give me. Jewelry used to be my fallback, but I’ve got so much now I can’t wear it all. With the pandemic, I’m not wearing any. I have to remember to put in earrings once in a while so the holes in my ears don’t close.

Now that I think about it, I was probably the same as a kid. I valued kind words and was hard to buy for. It wasn’t that I got bad gifts; it was more that I didn’t get the gifts on the top of my wish list.

There was the year I asked for a Bible for Christmas. I might have been in ninth grade at the time, but I’m not sure. You’d think that wouldn’t be a strange request in a religious family, right? But come Christmas, a Bible wasn’t one of the presents under the tree. I can’t tell you what I did receive, but I never understood why I didn’t get the Bible. I bought myself one when I got my first job.

Or there was the year I asked for a game board that was a combination checkers/chess/billiards set. I didn’t get one, but my older brother did. (Can you imagine my parents scratching their heads about that dilemma?) I ended up getting one from my husband the first year we were married. (And they still make them!)

My hubby is pretty good at giving gifts. But I made a rule early in our marriage that he wasn’t allowed to give me appliances as gifts unless I specifically requested them. He’s been really good at sticking to it.

Now, what’s the worst gift I’ve ever given?

You can probably guess that I’m bad at giving physical gifts, but not for the lack of trying. I need a list. Don’t tell me ‘whatever.’ I may get the right band but the wrong album. Or the wrong genre of music altogether. The wrong color or size of shirt. Or one that shrinks the first time it’s washed!

What’s the worst gift I’ve ever given? I don’t know. I’ve learned from it (I hope!) and wiped it from my memory. 

Do you want to tell us about the worst gift you ever got? Head down to the comments and share. That way I can add them to my list of things never to buy. 

Don’t forget to check out all the other authors on this hop by following the links below.

Until next time, stay safe out there!

November 23
The holiday season is just around the corner. What’s the worst gift you’ve ever received? What’s the worst one you have ever given?

Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter