Hey I’ll tell ya, it’s never a dull moment around here. After choosing the topic this month about colorful characters, it seems like there’s one around every corner! And it kinda makes you think, too: maybe bein’ colorful is ‘waaay more interesting that you thought?

Anyhoo – a big ol’ Yeehaw! is in order for the participants in this month’s groupwrite project: What I Learned From Colorful Characters. In fact, we had 10 entries this time around! (sound of crowd cheering enthusiastically)

So take a look at the list below, in which all the entries are listed in the order in which I found ‘em. Do yourself a favor and drop by each writers’ site and start a conversation, why don’cha? You’ll be glad you did.

• Eccentrics With Allergies: My Aunt Lu, by Monique Attinger at BeAllergyWise
• What you see is not always what you get, by Deb Brown at Need A Little Advice?
• Colorful People Rock, by Todd Jordan at The Broad Brush
• Introduction to Creative Infrastructure 2.0, by Mark Dykeman at Broadcasting Brain
• My Mission in Life, by Becky McCray via Twitter
• What I Learned From a Colorful Character: Eliminate This Word, by Lillie Ammann at A Writer’s Words, an Editor’s Eye
• What I’ve Learned From… Colorful Characters, by Geoffrey Philp at Geoffrey Philp’s Blogspot
• Do you have to be bad to be noticed? by Jackie Cameron at Jackie Cameron
• Musing About Colorful Characters, by Brad Shorr at Word Sell Inc.

And of course, here’s a few more from yours truly:

• A Bubba Named Hollis , by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings

I’d like to thank all those who participated this month, and hope you enjoy some of the wild, weird, and sometimes even whacky stuff that goes on here at the Zone. Don’t forget to drop by next month for another exciting episode of As The World Turns What I Learned From….

And of course, a big ol’ tip o’ the hat to ya!

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Just to let you know, next Monday we kick off a new What I Learned From… groupwrite project and I forgot to announce the topic earlier!

This month’s topic: Colorful Characters

Got it? OK, grab the writing instrument of your choice and come back on Monday for all the details, won’t you?

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Wow, what a great topic, y’all! Who, I ask you, hasn’t learned something from the smaller-sized versions of ourselves? Even if you don’t have kids of your own, there’s plenty to learn from when we were kids ourselves, right?

Anyhoo – a big ol’ Yeehaw! is in order for the participants in this month’s groupwrite project: What I Learned From Children. In fact, we had [updated again] 19 entries this time around! (sound of crowd cheering enthusiastically)

So take a look at the list below, in which all the entries are listed in the order in which I found ‘em. Do yourself a favor and drop by each writers’ site and start a conversation, why don’cha? You’ll be glad you did.

• What I Learned From Children, by Stephen Smith at …words
• Join the Action! by Kevin Martineau at Shooting the Breeze
• Six Lessons Learned From Children, by Deb Brown at Need a Little Advice?
• What I learned from children, by Todd Jordan at The Broad Brush
• Why – the Most Valuable Word in Business, by Brad Shorr at Word Sell, Inc.
• The tale of the bird, the boy and the big brave steps, by Emma Newman at Post-Apocalyptic Publishing
• What I Learned from My Children: Simplicity, by Meryl at Meryl.net
• What I learned from children, by Paul Merrill at Shiny Bits of Life
• Write, Produce and Direct Your Own Destiny Program(ming), by Jeanne Male at Job Life Architect
• Living Here and Now, by Ulla Hennig at Ulla Hennig’s Weblog
• What I Learned From Children, by Geoffrey Philp at Geoffrey Philp’s Blogspot
• What I Learned From Children, by George Angus at Tumblemoose.com
• What I Learned From MY Children, by Karen Hanarahan at Best of Mother Earth
• What I Learned From… Children, by Stephen Smith at …words
• 5 Elastic Bands and a Shoebox, by Anthony Bibby at Through the Window

And of course, here’s a few more from yours truly:

• Getting the Wrong Impression, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings
• Christmas Day, 2009, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings
• Jump With Joy! by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings
• The Day I Went Flying, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings

I’d like to thank all those who participated this month, and hope you enjoy some of the wild, weird, and sometimes even whacky stuff that goes on here at the Zone. Don’t forget to drop by next month for another exciting episode of As The World Turns What I Learned From….

And of course, a big ol’ tip o’ the hat to ya!

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Howdy y’all, and welcome to the first Monday of February! As many of you know, the first Monday of the month always marks the official kick off of our monthly groupwrite project, “What I Learned From…”.

A Little History

Did you know the WILF project has been a (more-or-less) regular feature here at the Middle Zone for almost three years now? Yep; since May of 2007!

Since then there have been 29 editions with 805 entries, on every topic under the sun, including two of my favorites: WILF #11 (What I Learned From Odd Jobs – 43 entries) and WILF #23 (What I Learned From Adversity – 35 entries). Of course, the record for most entries still goes to Blogapalooza ’09 (What I Learned From 2008 – a whopping 128 entries).

Anyhoo – I’m inviting you to join hundreds of others who have participated in projects over the years. It’s really easy; all you have to do is write a post (or you can use an already-written one) that illustrates something you learned – and that has to do with the topic du jour.

This month, the topic is:

WHAT I LEARNED FROM CHILDREN

So the questions you have to ask yourself are this: Have you ever learned something from your children? From someone else’s children? When you were a child yourself? When a friend or acquaintance was a child? When you were standing next to a child? (Like I said, even related to the topic is good enough to qualify.)

How To Participate

All you have to do is send me the link to a post that fits the topic. It can be either new or an existing post, but it has to be from your own blog. I’m accepting entries from now thru Sunday, February 7^th.

So just to review…

1. Write a post (or send me the link to an existing post) on your blog with a link to THIS POST (uh, the one you’re reading now). By the way, feel free to be as eloquent (or concise) as you like.
2. Send me an email (rhruzek@sbcglobal.net) containing your name, the title of your post, and the permalink of the post. (To make sure I don’t miss it.)

That’s all there is to it! Then on Monday, February 8^th, I will post the entire list of entries right here at the Middle Zone; be sure and drop by to check ‘em all out.

As always, we have just two simple rules around here:

• For the sake of the general blogging audience, please keep it G-Rated. (Also please note: this is a request, not a demand, since after all it’s your blog and you can do what you want. Fair warning: I can choose to link to you or not.)
• Be nice.

All right, ladies and gentlemen; you know what to do! Grab the writing instrument of your choice, dig into your archives, and get to it!

[Note from the Proprietor - I realize it takes a little time to write your entries, but would you mind too terribly not waiting until midnight on Sunday night, February 7th to notify me? Sometimes it can be difficult to get them all compiled by Monday's 6 am post time! I surely thank you, and as a token of my appreciation - have yourself a cookie!]

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Have you ever wondered what the future holds?Hey, join the club, Bubba; sooner or later we all do. It’s sorta like wondering what’s behind this big blue door.

Well, wonder no more! For those of you who may have been wondering what happened to our monthly What I Learned From… groupwrite projects, I’m pleased to announce I’m kicking off the first one for 2010 on next Monday, February 1! (sound of crowd cheering enthusiastically)

The topic will be (sound of drum roll) … What I Learned From Children

Now, for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the deal:

If you’d like to participate, all you have to do is write a post (or link to an existing post) that addresses the topic. Something you learned from, because of, or with the topic du jour (which in this case is, of course, children). Post it on your blog by the project close on Sunday night at midnight, CST (-6 GMT), Feb. 7. Then send me an email with the link (so I don’t miss it). I’ll collect them all and post them right here at the Zone on Monday, Feb. 8.

It’s a great way to have some fun, gain a few links, discover other writers both new and old (hey, who you callin’ old?), and maybe even learn a thing or two. Plus, you get to join the hundreds of entries already submitted for past WILF projects!

Please give some serious thought to joining us, won’t you?

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Howdy, y’all!

Hey, in case you dropped by for the kickoff to this month’s “What I Learned From…” groupwrite project, well, you came to the right place! I just, er, plumb forgot today was a holiday! (It’s Labor Day in the U.S.)

So I’ve moved the kickoff to tomorrow. Be sure to drop by tomorrow, same time, same place, ‘K?

Thanks, and a tip o’ the hat to ya for bein’ so understandin’, y’all! Have a great holiday!

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Photo: Oops! by ktpupp

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Yeehaw! Waahoo! And what the heck; a big ol’ tip o’ the topper, too, for all the fine entries in this month’s What I Learned From the World of Plants groupwrite project! And what an interesting topic it turned out to be, wasn’t it?

There were 16 entries this month! (sound of crowd cheering enthusiastically) And I’ll tell ya, we covered the gamut of content here, folks: funny, serious, ironic… you name it – there’s a post that fits. (In fact, one enterprising participant changed the meaning of the word, “plants”, and wrote about something completely different. Way to think outside the box, there, Bubba!)

Anyhoo; take a gander at the list of entries below, won’t you? In fact, why not do them the honor of leaving a comment – or even starting a conversation? You’ll be glad ya did! They’re in no particular order except it’s how I found ‘em.

• Talking Dirty, by Steve Woodruff at Steve’s Leaves
• What I Learned From the Plant World, by Patrizia at VOIP
• Two Important Lessons From Plants, by Deb Brown at Deb Works
• What I Learned From the Death of My Bosai, by Ulla Hennig at Ulla Hennig’s Weblog
• It May Look Easy, by Paul Merrill at Shiny Bits of Life
• What I Learned From the Plant World, by Nancy Kourmoulis at Treasures of Darkness
• 8 Things I Learned About Sales From the Plant World, by Brad Shorr at Word Sell, Inc.
• The Art of Paying Attention, by Joanna Young at Confident Writing
• What I Learned From the Plant World, by Lillie Ammann at A Writer’s Words, and Editor’s Eye
• What I Learned From a Bunch of Spinach, by Luke Gedeon at Luke Gedeon
• What I Learned From the Plant World – Restoration, by Elizabeth Spitter at Made for Something Greater
• Cold Comfort, by Sam at Future Nostalgic
• What I Learned From the Plant World, by Meryl Evans, at meryl.net
• And the Day Came When… by Amy Palko at Less Ordinary

And last, but hopefully not in the least, er, least, here’s a couple of entries from yours truly:

• Bloom Where You Can, by Robert Hruzek at Confident Writing (published as a guest post over at Joanna Young’s place, Confident Writing, while coincidentally fitting into her own theme this month: Possibilities. What can I say? I’m such an efficient fellah!)
• Constrictor, by Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings

Y’all give yourselves a big hand, my friends; once again you’ve outdone yourselves! And as always, a big ol’ tip o’ the hat to ya! Plan to join us next month for the next What I Learned From… project.

What’s the topic going to be, you ask? Well, now… that would be tellin’!

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