Molly’s Weekly Kiss 14

11th July 2011

This week I bring you horses, dogs, atheism, religion, humour, entertainment, parenting, politics and sex. I know, I know all sounds a bit dodgy right? But trust me it really does work. Maybe I should point out that the dogs and horses are not included in the sex bits of this blog, well not so far anyway, and the parenting and politics also tend to be exclusively sex free, but somehow, as unlikely as it may sound it all sits rather well side by side, flowing from one thing to another in what feels like a well-timed plan but I suspect, knowing this blogger as I do, is in fact the random thoughts and fiction that flows from this writers fingertips onto the screen and into our reading worlds.

Stranded In Toronto is just that, stranded in a city (although he now lives about an hour northeast of the city) that is very far from his beloved rocky mountains and it’s been a fairly long ‘stranding’ as he has been in the area for 25 years now but as his tagline so aptly says “You can take the boy out of the Canadian Rocky Mountains…but you can’t put the cliché back in the bottle…” and that my dear readers probably just about sums up Stranded not because he is clichéd, far from it, but because he has a way with words.

At a recent writing workshop I attended the one thing that all we were told we needed to find was our voice and this is something that Stranded certainly has. It is unique, distinctive and constantly developing. Writing dialogue, convincing dialogue that works mind you, is something that many writers struggle with but Stranded fiction pieces are often heavy on the dialogue and he has mastered the ability to use that well to tell a whole story. His characters are full and believable even when they appear in stories that are a little far-fetched they still work. Add to this his writing about his thoughts and life in general and you have a fascinating blog that will never cease to surprise you. Some of his pieces on being a father and how he misses his children are heart wrenching yet much of his blog is peppered with his own distinct brand of humour and honesty. It is all these things working together that gives Stranded ‘his voice’.

The blog is well laid out, he recently underwent some blog changes and it seemed that every time I visited I was presented with a different background but things have settled down of late and this blog is well laid out and easy to navigate. Stranded loves to write series of erotic pieces all centred around one character. We have had Cliff, and his fertile naughty imagination, and Gray, an arrogant self-centred man who is full of his own importance, to name but a few and you will find these serial stories all nicely ordered in the tabs at the top of his main page but for me it is Stranded’s on off pieces of fiction that really shine. His two most recent contributions to Wank Wednesday are really great examples of what he can do with a short story. ‘What Do Stars Do?’ teases you along, hinting at what may or may not be going on until you get to the end and then it will make you laugh and ‘I Am Her Captain’ uses wonderful imaginary to create a beautifully sensuous and erotic piece.

Although this blog is predominantly dedicated to the written word I am delighted to have found that recently I have managed to lure him into my Sinful Sunday page and so you will now find some very interesting photography also starting to appear. The highlight so far has been his post titled ‘The Vanishing’ a very clever picture indeed. I hope that like his stories Stranded creates a tab for these posts as well making it easier for new visitors to find them amongst his fairly large and ever-growing catalogue of posts.

Stranded is an intelligent writer, with a great skill for writing that I am not sure he knows he has. He is prolific in his work and his blog is regularly updated, you will rarely visit there and not find he has posted, in fact quite the opposite, I usually find when I drop by that I have fair bit of reading to catch up on.  The blogging world has without doubt enriched my life and like DDD from last week I am delighted to say that Stranded is another of the wonderful friends I have made through my ventures into blogs and blogging and I am hopeful that one day I might actually get to meet the man behind the words.

Stranded In Toronto

Mollyxxx

Ps…Past recipiants of the Kiss Of The Week are listed HERE