The ‘Allergic to E’ Challenge

I’m not allergic to anything, except penicillin, and when I was a child I was allergic to wasp stings. So thanks – perhaps, not sure what I’m getting myself into here – to Lizzie at My Little Book Blog for nominating me for the ‘Allergic to E Challenge’. the allergic to e challenge - logo 25-6-15When I saw the incoming tweet I was a little perplexed, but once I read Lizzie’s post I realized what a clever little challenge this is.  The idea is to construct and write a paragraph that is between four and six sentences without using the letter E once.

Here is my attempt:-

Darya thought of Sasha, as boy and girl, at school, as companions in January snow and August rain, and thought of his ultimatum: to splash big, splash grand, splash wild, to splash again and again. Today, Darya is 80 not 8, but Sasha is not. Still, a thrill of holding hands with him, jumping from pond to pond, is as strong as now painful arthritic joints. 

[photo: www.fouragesofsand.com]

[photo: www.fouragesofsand.com]

[photo: healthline.com]

[photo: healthline.com]

This paragraph is based on a writing exercise about Darya, a Russian character in Connectedness, the follow-up novel to Ignoring Gravity. Darya has early dementia, and surrenders to her childhood memories of playing with her neighbour, Sasha. I cheated with the rules a little, using numbers for her age. When at last I had something I was satisfied with, I used Find/Replace to search for the letter ‘e’ and found loads I had missed. An interesting intellectual challenge!

I now nominate the following three bloggers to complete the ‘Allergic to E’ Challenge.
Andrea Stephenson
Ana Franco
Carol Byrne

CONNECTEDNESS Olive Cover

 

‘Connectedness’ by Sandra Danby, #2 Rose Haldane: Identity Detective [UK: Beulah Press, provisional publication 2016]

Comments

      • I can imagine! I wouldn’t even attempt it . . . (how’s my Yorkshire accent? – I might need you as the resident expert if I ever get to write the next book. I need Bradford speak though . . . and middle-class Victorian at that . . . )

        • sandradan1

          Bradford? Different accent to mine… I’m East Yorkshire, that’s West Yorkshire. A world apart 🙂 SD

          • I suspected as much. As I said to an English colleague who laughed at my Australian accent. What! You laughing at me? You guys live on a island the size of Tasmania – and you can’t even work out amongst yourselves how you want to speak the language!
            e.g. Can you imagine which question I asked to receive this reply? “Aye. Ah’ll have a lar’bita.”