Writing 101, Day Eighteen: Hone Your Point of View
The neighborhood has seen better days, but Mrs. Pauley has lived there since before anyone can remember. She raised a family of six boys, who’ve all grown up and moved away. Since Mr. Pauley died three months ago, she’d had no income. She’s fallen behind in the rent. The landlord, accompanied by the police, have come to evict Mrs. Pauley from the house she’s lived in for forty years.
Today’s prompt: write this story in first person, told by the twelve-year-old sitting on the stoop across the street.
house in Penghu
Mr. Mr., want a glass of lemonade? Only $5.
Too expensive? It’s for a good cause. You see… Wait. Why are you stopping at that house across the street? I hope you are not the new renter because the house is not for rent. Not yet!
Mrs. Pauley, the woman who lived in that house for 40 years, had lost her husband recently and couldn’t pay the rent. Yesterday, Mr. Jones, who owns the house, kicked Mrs. Pauley out. He even brought a policeman with him! I am not lying. I saw it! I swear.
Mom said if I could sell 100 glasses of lemonade, $5 each, we can help Mrs. Pauley pay for the rent.
Yes, I like Mrs. Pauley a lot. She used to babysit me when I was little. She played games with me and gave me cookies. I like Mr. Pauley too. He took me to a baseball game one time.
Another glass of lemonade? Boy, you must be thirsty.
Do I know what Alzheimer is? Of course, I do. People who have Alzheimer forget things.
Mrs. Pauley has Alzheimer? Wow.
It’s not safe for Mrs. Pauley to live alone. You mean Mr. Jones didn’t kick her out? Mrs. Pauley was moved to a nursing home. Really?
Who are you? It’s ok if you don’t tell me.
Two glass of lemonade is ten dollars, Mr.
HHC Blog 
Helen, this is excellent and what a great challenge.
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Pam, thank you. I struggled and finally got it done at 1 am ;-( Some assignments are harder than the other. Don’t you think so?
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Sure they are. I do a Tuesday challenge for Greg’s group, Writing Essentials. This challenge would be easy for you. It was submitted by KatInHat. http://writingessentialgroup.com/2014/06/24/wetue-62414-two-words/
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I’ve signed up (following) the group. It does seem interesting. Thanks.
Can’t wait to read your next story. 😉
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Wow, Helen, that a wonderful comment. Thanks! I’m not sure I’ll be posting a story unless it’s in the challenge on the WE site. I’ve started working on a series of posts to outline the muddling I’ve been going through in order to help a friend, Elsie, publish her book of poetry on Creatspace. I’m such a sucker for jumping in and doing things I have no clue how to do. Figure I could share my agony with you guys.
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Helen, you’ve made me very happy. So, if you do the two word challenge, be sure to let me know through a comment on the challenge post.
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Pam, I don’t see the “reply” button so I have to reply this way. You’ve made me very happy too! You’ve inspired me and encouraged me! The series of posts that you are going to write sound very good. I would be interested in reading them. I self-published my book, Jin-Ling’s Two Left Feet. I sort of understanding some of the problems you have gone through. I thought about writing my experience too, but it’s been too long and I forgot part of it already. Maybe your posts will bring back some of my memories 😉 Thanks.
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Great. When they do, please add them to a comment. This may be a great way to help others. I just tried to download her book and gee, golly, the ‘how to’ book I used for the formatting was wrong. So, I’m back to square one. That’s okay simply because it might help others avoid the headaches.
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are you helping her to make an ebook? I haven’t done mine yet. ;-(
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No, she wants the printed book. Now that Createspace offers a print on demand, the cost is minimal. The e-book will be easy if that’s what she wants. I think the only change would be the Table of Contents links.
Today, I finally did it my way and it was taken without exceptions, so we’re on our way. Elsie needs to check it thoroughly before we go to the next step.
So, why haven’t you done yours yet? Where are you going to do it?
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I have published mine. I should convert it to an eBook, which I haven’t done. I guess it’s not kind of the work that I like to do. I rather writing or photographing, instead of converting… ;-( I will someday, I guess.
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Helen, you really should publish an e-book. I rarely buy paper-backs. They take space and I love my Kindle.
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Pam, I agree with you. Publish an eBook is a good idea. Maybe I will take a look of that again. Would you recommend DIY or use Lulu… etc.? can you be hired? 😉
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I’m an amateur at publishing, but I think maybe I can help you. No, I can’t be hired—I don’t charge my friends. If you publish on CreateSpace (Amazon, I think), and if I remember right, you can’t charge $0.00 for an e-book. That’s why we published the Twisted Shorties series on Smashwords. It’s an anthology of a bunch of Gather members’ short stories and we wanted to offer it to the public at no charge. At this point, I rather like CreateSpace, but that’s just because I’m becoming familiar with it.
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Smashwords – that was what I was thinking of. I did some research before (on publishing ebook and ran across this one). How was your experience with Smashwords?
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I really like their site (so far). Elsie set up the account for herself, but I was able to get in with her consent, order the free ISBN number and add the interior—over and over again. Each time it would show me what it should look like in binded book form. Keep in mind this is for a paper-back, not a e-book.
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Thanks. I will read more about it. I know who to ask question if I have one 😉
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Helen, I misread. I’ve never published on Smashwords. One of the editors of Twisted Shorties published for me. It’s Createspace that I’m becoming familiar with.
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