A: April, Fool Me

I'm doing the A to Z Blog Challenge. It's appropriate that April begins with an A. Every April God rewrites the Book of Genesis - Austin O'Malley. Indeed - with Easter in a week, it's a time of rebirth, tulips, chocolate bunnies, and jellybeans. In Texas, it's sunshine and crazy rainstorms. It's Rangers baseball opener on Good Friday. April is tricky - it embraces spring, harkens to a final winter blast, or hurries into heat.

April is the cruelest month - T.S. Eliot

Characters named April seem jovial with a delicate prettiness. However, look deeper and there's a darkness lurking. The month of April sheds dead live oak tree leaves, it blasts us with pollen, and can lash us with pelting cold raindrops. A girl named April could be sweet, or maybe she's planning a murder. That's the fun of being a writer - you can play with names, fill an April with opposite expected tendencies, and trick your reader.

April the month, or April a girl - fool us all

Fool for Easter

April Fool's seems appropriate this year to begin the Easter weekend. It's Thursday and the first quarter of the year proved wacky weather-wise. Now sunshine and heat prevail. We jump from winter to summer in a flash. If you don't find the hidden Easter eggs, your nose will find the rotten eggs soon enough.

I've always loved the timing of Easter - both religious and frivolous. Renewal. Hope. Chicks and bunnies and jelly beans. Forsythia's in bloom at my father's house - the waving yellow tendrils contrasted with clear blue sky. Time to stretch, kick off the winter blahs, and go for a walk.

Happy Easter Weekend!

April Fool

April Fool's Day, 2005. I embarked on my new career as a writer. I deemed it an appropriate date to begin this adventure. Was I crazy for attempting to fulfill a dream? Was my husband absolutely nuts for suggesting I quit a perfectly good full-time job with matching 401k? He was weary from my job complaints ( he knew the guys I worked for were slightly berserk and they added a third musketeer to their team), but it took me a year to get the nerve. Since then we've still been able to eat, travel some, and enjoy life. I'm happier. Ray's happier because I'm happier. And since I do like money - I have an excellent part-time job in documentation for a lab. I type up a storm.

It's good I do live in the age of computers. See this lefthanded smeary mess. Back in Jane Austen's day, my manuscript would have been rejected as illegible. Go further back in time, and I would have failed if I had to chisel my words in stone. I'm generally not allowed to use tools. So, here in 2009, with the click, click, click of keyboard keys, I pursue my dream. I am a published writer - see links on the side. I'm even a paid writer - thank you Chicken Soup (that check's long been spent). Thank you, Ray, for pushing me and supporting me and cheering for me and consoling me...and...for putting up with your April Fool.

Joanne