NaNoWriMo Prep Workshop Offered

Get ready writers, it’s that time of year again – National Novel Writing Month is nearly upon us! Every November, writers around the globe set off on a month long challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days; that means 1,666 words per day.

Genre or project aside, the idea behind this difficult dare is to jump start your creativity and create a routine for your writing practice. Griffin Free Library will be a participating NaNoWriMo location this year, offering veteran and budding writers alike a safe and quiet space to work, research or just clear your head for the task.

To that end, on Wednesday, October 16 from 6-7:30 pm,  author and speaker Dan Szczesny will conduct a NaNoWriMo Prep Workshop at the library to help you build a strategy toward accomplishing the November challenge. This workshop is free, and there will be plenty of coffee on hand!

A successful NaNoWriMo requires plenty of prep work, and Szczesny, himself a two time NaNoWriMo winner, will cover a selection of strategies designed to inspire writers to make that month long commitment. And even though the month is dedicated to novel writers, this workshop will include ways that non-fictions writers can benefit as well.

So whether you’re writing the next great American novel or just want to improve your writing practice, bring a notebook and a handful of ideas to this workshop and get prepped to win at NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo 2019 Prep Workshop, Wed. Oct. 16 from 6:7:30pm. Free. For more info on Dan, check out www.danszczesny.com. Feel free to call the library at 603-483-5374 with questions. See you then writers!

Help us win a trip to Montana!

Friends, while The Adventures of Buffalo and Tough Cookie have taken up a lot of our time recently, EKP is still finding new ways to explore and get a kick out of life. The latest is this: A photo we took in Nepal has been selected as a finalist in a EMS sponsored contest of adventure photos. If we get the most votes on Facebook by Dec. 31, we could win a trip to Montana.

We need your help! Just click on the following link and vote for our photo, which is called “Yak Train on the Trail to Everest Base Camp”

Here’s the link: Yak Train on Trail to Everest Base Camp

Thank you so much for your support, and look for more EKP Adventures soon!

Dan and Meena

Dangerous Playground Rides: Teamster Union special!

Janelle performs the delicate Teamster Twister Dance on Gorham’s amazing playground sandbox Shovel Scooper.

What child does not want to drive a shovel loader truck? No, seriously, kids desperately, deeply wish to drive giant construction vehicles. Girls and boys. Gender makes no difference when it comes to huge-wheeled, loud, smoke-belching behemoths scooping, plowing, carrying and hopefully, demolishing.

So, we were thrilled and little shocked to find a playground “ride” in the form of a shovel truck. I’m not sure what Teamster Union was owed what favor by what politician, but Gorham has taken playground rides to a level previously unencountered with this metal, sandbox scooper.

The rest of the playground is filled with boring, plastic lawsuit-proof rides. So, Janelle and I had no clue how this throw back managed to survive, but we were giddy with joy that it did.

First, the child must grasp the shovel levers, all the while maintaining balance on the uncomfortably sharp and hot (depending on the weather) bucket seat that looks like something you’d find on a John Deere Tractor.

At the same time, the seat swivels on what appears to be a ball-bearing post, so your little construction worker has the added challenge of not flying off the thing while scooping the sand. Finally, if little Davey Dirt Devil or Mary Mud Slinger manages to get a scoopful of sand, they must coordinate both their feet and hands to swivel the ride into a position to release the previously mentioned load.

If this ride is designed to illustrate just how hard it is to actually drive a shovel loader then is has wildly succeeded!

Did I mention how rickety the whole contraption is? At some point, it appears, the whole jalopy is going to come apart in a kid’s hands and ride and child will collapse in a heap of twisted metal and red paint chips! Until then, ride on Gorham Shovel Scooper! And please, support your local union!

This is Part 3 of our ongoing series on Dangerous Playground Rides of New Hampshire. For more of the deadly fun, follow these links:

Flesh burning, ankle busting crown slide

Whili-gig of terror

Wordless Wednesday: Eat cake!

“This poop tastes good!” – Quote heard at birthday party for Shanti Cat. Yes, that’s right, Meena made a kitty litter cake for the cat and we fed it to children!

Dangerous Playground Rides: Flesh burning, ankle busting, crown slide!

Janelle illustrates the Pittsburg Crown Slide’s most alluring and dangerous feature, the “Suspended Bar of Broken Ankle Injuries.”

Thank you, Pittsburg!

New Hampshire’s northernmost town comes through with a Dangerous Playground Ride favorite; the Crown Slide. This deadly beauty was sometimes called the Platform Slide, or Fort Slide, named for the caged-in area at the top where children can sit, play and inevitably gets their heads stuck in the rusting bars.

Dan and Janelle tempt fate in the “crown” of the slide.

This slide has all the standard features: loose-fitting bolts ready to pop at any moment and send a child crashing to the ground, rusty hinges just looking for tetanus shot victims and the classic steel slide base that has burned many a young behind over the years.

But the Pittsburg slide is special. As Janelle immediately displayed, this masterpiece has an extra roll bar at the top of the stairs. It’s designed, one supposes, to give kids some needed balance when climbing up. But in reality, it’s easily and mostly used for hanging out over the steps and swinging in a potentially risky move I like to call the “Suspended Bar of Broken Ankle Injuries.”

Janelle illustrates the move in the picture above.

In the soft, plastic world that is playground slides today with their blunted edges and wood chip platforms, this slide is a true classic. It’s a lost relic of an era not too long removed when the playground truly was the final frontier.

For more Dangerous Playground Rides here’s a link to the Whirli-Gig of Terror

Do you know of any Dangerous Playground Rides in NH, or anywhere? Please let us know if your local park has an old school ride. We’ll come out there, give it a whirl, and when our bones knit, we’ll write about it!