The Discombobulated Duke

Today is the first day of the rest of your life and the first day of 8 weeks of daily writing for me. I just started a children's writing class. My teacher is Carolyn Crimi (heretofore known as CC) who has written (and published) several picture books including Boris and Bella, Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies, Don't Need Friends, Tessa's Tip-tapping Toes, Louds Move In!, Get Busy, Beaver! and Outside, Inside.

CC talked about where inspiration comes from for different people, for some it's while baking, other are inspired while marching to that swinging Sousa beat, still others get inspired while washing their hair in the shower. (I fall in to the latter category -- always thought of it as "watering the seeds of an idea"). Apparently I also get going when I am alone in the car, I say this because a lot of the inital words for the following story came on the drive home.

While she was talking I wondered what a lecture by Aunt P would be like. The only physical similarities I can see are they are both women but there was a quality, an essence almost, that reminded me Aunt P.

E will love one of my assignments, read 25 picture books a week. At the end of class we all wrote two words on a piece of paper and then threw them in a hat. We all then drew 2 words out and were encouraged (not assigned but encouraged) to write a story using those words. My first word was "discombobulated." The second word was not as easy to read, the first letter could have been a "P" or a "D". I will go with "D" as it makes for better alliteration.

So here is a rough off the top version of The Discombobulated Duke.

At 7 o'clock each morning the residents of Aquaint held valuables still on their shelves, readied themselves for a few minutes of picture straightening or covered the ears of sleeping babies. The villagers lived in the shadow of Wellborne Manor and each morning Duke Percival Wellborne would scream with frustration, "Argh!"

The Duke's hands were not built for butttons and he was unable to dress himself each morning. Servants stationed themselves outside his door awaiting the call for help. Percival didn't like being helped by servants especially for something as personal as getting dressed and he was always very vocal about his likes and dislikes.

The Duke's legs were rather short and his belly rather round and when he stood up, from a distance, he looked a bit like a tennis ball propped up on a pair of toothpicks. He tottered to the stables each morning after breakfast for his morning ride and grumbled quite loudly about the size of the horses and the difficulties mounting the beasts. "The horses have grown much too tall, what have you been feeding them?"

Percival liked to impress people with his large library containing vast amounts of knowledge on many subjects. He would invite visitors into the library and if they suggested he turn the book he was reading right-side-up he would reply, "Where's the challenge in that?"
___

OK I'm really tired. I'm still sick and need rest and the Duke is more disagreeable and disgruntled than discombobulated so I will try again tomorrow.