A is for the "A" List

For the first day of the A to Z Challenge,

I thought I'd start things out 

by posting some of my favorite things 

that begin with the letter "A".

In no particular order

(and believe me, this is a very short, random list):

About a Boy

I love this movie. It's sad, funny, tragic, and real.

And you'll see Hugh Grant in a whole new way.

Highly recommend it.

It's no secret that I love YA/MG novels.

Artemis Fowl is one of my favorite characters.

I've read the whole series so far and I've enjoyed watching him mature.

August Rush blew me away.

It's a fairy tale. Musically.

Freddie Highmore is completely brilliant.

He breaks my heart, in the very best of ways.

Very highly recommended!!!!

This is probably my favorite Audio Adrenaline album.

There's even a fantastic cover 

of Pete Townshend's Let My Love Open The Door.

AA has a rock flavor that appeals 

and a message that encourages.

Check them out if you haven't before!

Funny Face

Breakfast at Tiffany's

My Fair Lady

War and Peace

Grace. Charm. Beauty. Talent.

That smile.....

Has there ever been anyone like Audrey Hepburn?

Anastasia

I absolutely adore this movie.

Ingrid Bergman is beautiful, fragile.....amazing.

And Yul Brenner just makes me swoon!

A real life fairy tale that almost could have been....

It's not for nothing that this is a true classic.

all images from google.com

So, what's on your A List?

The A To Z Challenge: My General Plan

Oh boy.

Friday is just hours away.

I read only moments ago that the Challenge has reached 800+. 

That's a staggering number!

Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, the creator of this massive blogfest,

posted his plan of action for the upcoming event here.

If you feel a bit overwhelmed, perhaps his plan will help you either

gain perspective, or come up with a plan of your own.

My Own Plan:

Like Lee, I will post a general response to comments unless a specific one is needed.

I will be visiting everyone who leaves a comment, especially those with whom I'm less familiar.

I will also try to visit other blogs from the blogroll that I haven't 'met' before.

I'm budgeting 2 hours per day to visit blogs, roughly.

My goal is to visit people completely new to me as much as possible.

A chunk of my visiting will be done on Fridays and Saturdays.

My posts are going to be short, light, simple, and, hopefully, entertaining.

If there is a link inside the post, it will be something that can be done very quickly.

I promise.

We're supposed to take Sundays off.

I may use that day to visit others who are not participating in the Challenge.

So, basically, I think that's it. 

Knowing me, I've forgotten something.

But I'm not going to worry about it.

I'm going to bed!

Get some rest. Loosen up your fingers. Take a deep breath...... 

I just wanted to get a quick update out here....

There may be a couple days in April when I'll be late visiting blogs. We have a staff meeting, a fund-raising yard sale, and a couple other work related things going on during the upcoming month. But I will still get around and visit. It just may be a bit faster and perhaps a couple less blogs....

As for this week, a couple things. I can't seem to kick this darned headache, so I didn't visit anyone Monday. Plus I had a few errands to run and that put me behind.

And, I've been busy scheduling posts. So far, I'm up through 'J'. I hope to have the awards post up by Wednesday, and I'll do most of my pre-A to Z visiting then. If I can't find time to do the awards post, I will save it until the end of the month, or perhaps for a Sunday.

Otherwise, it will be pretty light around here until Friday, when the blogfest kicks off.

How about you? Are you ready? I just read that it's now at 600+ bloggers participating. W. O. W. That's pretty awesome!


BTW, my posts are going to be pretty short and relate to things that are in some way favorites of mine. I hope you enjoy them :)

My Kinda-Sorta Sunday Plans........

Wow, yesterday was a very long, but fun day. The class, I'm happy to say, was really fun. And active. I was ready for bed as soon as I got home......but the day wasn't over yet.

Honey's knee acted up at the cookout, but he still 'whooped' Furby at ping pong.

And I.....I managed to actually get some writing done. On my favorite wip! Yay!!!

I don't know if it was because it was so late, or because I was so tired, but when I read the last few pages I'd written (some time ago, mind you) I couldn't remember writing them. Strange.

It's chilly, wet, and gray outside. My favorite kind of day in the whole wide world. Gonna fly through a little housework, get a shower and do a few errands, arrange for some face time with Brother, Pooh, and Squirmy, then I'm gonna write. For a few hours I hope.

I will also be coming around to see what you all are up to. This will be the giant push before A to Z starts. Which reminds me. I've got some awards to pass around.....gotta get on that before the first!

Are you ready?

Happy Lazy Sunday!!!

No Caturday?!!! For Real?!!! *sigh*

Hello Friends!

I hope the week has been kind to you. The tree pollen has kicked my tushy. Big time. Ah, the joys of spring.....

Anyway, because of my wicked allergies, I've been feeling less than perky, to say the least. Thus, I've not been around as much as I'd like.

And to top off this loveliness, I have a class tomorrow. Each year, we're required to have a particular number of credit hours in addition to our certificates, diplomas, and degrees. Yay.

Am I looking forward to the class? Nope. Not at all. I am, however, looking forward to fun with my co-workers outside of work. We're a pretty tight bunch and we usually have a pretty great time together. Lunch is included with the cost of the class and my secret pal is buying my breakfast. Thank you, Secret Pal!!! *waving and blowing kisses*

So, I'm off to bed because we meet for breakfast at 7:15! AM!!!!!

Then, later in the evening, we're supposed to go to Furby's house for a cookout. More fun. More friends. And more food.

It's gonna be a very long day, but hopefully, a fun one.

Honey did pick up some stuff with real sudafed in it. It's about the only thing helping, though I'm not supposed to take it anymore. Oh well. One's gotta do what one's gotta do.

I will see you all this weekend. Either Saturday evening or Sunday. Till then, relax, be safe, and have a great weekend.

And enjoy some yummy noms!!!

Hmmmmm.......

Okay, I know that those of us who like to write can really get into our stories and/or become attached to our characters.

Part of my process is imagining scenes and dialogue, sometimes for weeks or months, before they gel or click together in just the right way. Then, I'll write it down. A slow process, I know, but for some parts, it's necessary.

Anyway, one character, upon meeting the MC for the first time, asks her a question in response to her plea for his help. The question at first seems simple enough....but it's actually quite profound. I've thought about her response for nearly two weeks now, and I think I've almost gotten it right....almost. Her answer is crucial because it will reflect her soul, who she is, what she believes, and why she follows the path and makes the choices she does. And, more than anything, I want to avoid trite, commonplace, been there-done that type answers. I want something....real. And bigger.

My question is this: have any of your characters ever asked a question of another character, or of life, that has affected you? Profoundly? Have you ever thought of your own response to the question....and found that you really had to contemplate before you could fully answer it? Has it ever made you go deep within yourself, causing you to stop and look - at yourself, your life, the world around you - and question it?

Want to share?

Just wonderin'.......

A to Z Challenge - A Couple Questions And Suggestions

Several bloggers have posted tips on how to make the A to Z challenge more efficient.

Some of those tips are:

• disable word verification
• use a pop up window for comments
• keep posts short
• preschedule posts as much as possible
• begin going through the list of participants now to see how many bloggers you can realistically visit in one day

And I'm sure there are many, many more that I've missed.

Myself, I turned off word verification a month or so ago. And on Saturday, I changed my comment box from embedded to pop up.

I've prescheduled a few posts - still need to work on that. And I've alloted about 2 to 2.5 hours an evening to visit blogs. It will be a sprint, I can tell you. I also need to work on visiting blogs unfamiliar to me that are on the list. 

Sounds like a lot of work, but hey, many of us did nano last November. It shouldn't be too bad!

A couple things I'm suggesting/asking:

1. Let me know if my page is easier to comment on/load. Really!                                                              
2. Go to settings and enable mobile viewing. I can visit at least 3 or 4 blogs on my Blackberry during my lunch break (it takes a bit to load, my phone is old). However, some blogs I try to visit won't let me comment....I'm not sure why.....? If you know the answer to this, please let me know.
3. You may also want to see who you're allowing to comment. Mine is Registered Users. If there is a better solution, let me know. Do any of you allow anonymous users to comment?
4. If you would like to use your cell phone and have a limited plan, such as 2 G's per month or so, William turned me on to this: www.google.com/gwt/n. This will load a blog (or any website)....without the pictures! All you have to do is put in the address you wish to visit. Just be sure to click Hide Images. This should greatly cut down on your monthly allowance usage while also allowing you to visit a few blogs on your phone. Having no pictures to load greatly speeds up the loading process, too.
5. If you do decide to use your phone and for some reason, you aren't allowed to comment, don't forget email. If the link is available, use it to leave your response/comment. ****Bloggers: Make sure your email address is available!!!****

Well, there you have it. A couple simple suggestions and a couple questions. Let me know if this works for you, feedback is always welcome here!

Now, I'm off to schedule a few more posts and this evening, I want to begin going through that giant list :)

Dr. Who? LOL!!!

Okay, yes, I love Dr. Who.

Ever since the first time I saw the show on PBS.

Way back in the early 1980's.

Here's a few random LOL's 

about The Doctor.....

Hope you like 'em!

(If you've never seen the show, watch the trailer!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I Fought The Ides...And I Won!!!

Monday was crazy. I mentioned that, right? It was also Brother's birthday. Happy birthday, Brother!!!

Tuesday was the Ides of March. That would explain a lot. 

Have you ever had something happen so fast that you didn't have time to be angry about it? And it turned out to be a good thing, because you'd have done something stupid? On the way to work this morning, a car was apparently so close on my rear that I couldn't even see the glow of his headlights! DANG!!!! I didn't know he was there till he tried to go around me. Dummy. The car I was following wasn't going anywhere, so neither could he. *smirk*

Normally, I would have brake-checked him. Good thing I didn't see him. He was so close, it would have been a wreck for sure! And I never want that to happen!!!

Then, I get to work and one of my little babies threw up. From our classroom, to the bathroom, and then some (a lot) more. And, wonder of wonders, I didn't get sick! I've never been able to do throw-up, but it didn't bother me this time. Hmmm....

I also left my wallet at home. *sigh* Yeah...a wreck would have been all kinds of awful. I had to drive all the way home this evening, pick up my wallet, drive all the way across town to get the kitties some food, then come back home and cook dinner. Sheesh!

I cooked. I cleaned. I put away laundry. I washed dishes. I put dishes away. I cleaned the kitty feeder. I mixed food and filled up the feeder. I de-cluttered. I (spot) mopped. I emptied the little trash cans. This evening, I rocked!!!

The Ides of March may have struck the first few blows, but I finished the day on top, so there!

Gonna go pass out now. Wait! I gotta make salad for tomorrow! Waaaaaa!!!!! Yay!!!!

So, how did you fare on this fateful day?


****Edit**** Before anyone 'yells' at me about safety, know this: a. I never, EVER tailgate. Ever. b. I tap the brakes enough to make the light come on. c. I always stay out of people's way. Always. and d. Amazingly, the majority of people doing the tailgating that I see are moms. With mini vans. With kids in the car! Cutting people off and pulling out right in front of people and running red lights!!!!! Thank God for car seats, dang!

*yawning* G'night!

Got Some Duct Tape?

I need some to hold my eyelids open!!!

Monday was crazy busy.

I'll be back to normal on Tuesday.

Er, well....as close to normal as I get!

See ya then :)

About Hope....

I'm cheating today. 

Thing is, I've read a few posts this morning that have really touched me in some way. People voicing their personal doubts, their concerns for friends, the world at large....and I was reminded of this thing I wrote nearly 10 years ago when I was thinking about my sister....

I originally posted this in May of last year...

…of Hope

Isn’t it strange, sad, to see how fear can cost, cause us to give up or even destroy the very blessings we so desperately want? We get so beaten and broken down by life, circumstances and the choices we make that we sometimes feel as if we’ve been fighting the Hundred Year War all by ourselves. 


And it seems like every time we are about to give up, Hope glimmers over the horizon. We pull together our ragged emotions and run, summoning all the joy and strength we can muster, only to crash full speed into an enemy, in any shape or form - many would say “fate”. 


He stands, laughing, mocking our puny efforts, hurling words of defeat and failure (and many others) until we could no more be as thoroughly pulverized than if a sledgehammer had been used. We manage to crawl away and lick our wounds, and then the cycle renews: war, hope, mockery and pain. Each time, we become weaker, healing less, moving slower toward anything that looks like Hope. 


Hope is expensive. The price it demands is nothing less than all you have, seemingly with little in return. So it is with little surprise that it seems surreal when Hope does come and stand before us. 


There we are, dying from wounds unseen to the naked eye, lifeblood pouring from our souls, our breathing labored and raspy as it rattles through our spirit. We look upon this thing shimmering like a mirage and quite often, we lay our heads down in a pool of dying dreams and tell this thing, this “Hope” to go away. 


Little in this world can hurt like hope unrealized.

Sometimes, though, just sometimes, a few of us reach down into the hidden depths of ourselves, into the very essence of who we are, our hopes, dreams, regrets, past, present - we take that fragile part of us and do the unthinkable, because at last, whether we are conscious of it or not, we understand. 


We summon every drop of love, hate, pain, joy, shame, regret, sorrow, want, desire, rage, anger, bitterness, frustration, fear-and with a determination bordering on mania and a cry that echoes throughout the heavens, we rend ourselves asunder, hurling ourselves at Hope’s feet, naked and bloody, unprotected and raw, all our shells, masks and expectations lying, like so much discarded skin, in a rotting heap behind us. 


And there, barely a recognizable, roiling, writhing mass, we cling to Hope with a tenacity born of the need to believe in something bigger than ourselves; the belief that, even to those who feel most lowly, Good will and must come, that they matter, even in the grand scheme of things. And from this need, Faith is born.


And of course, that is only the beginning…


***Edit*** I hope no one thinks that by this I'm saying hope is useless or meaningless. Hope is often the only thing that keeps us going. When I wrote this, my sister was in a place where she was giving up. I've been there. Sometimes hope seems too difficult to cling to; we can't see the help coming to us and we want to give up, give in, stop believing.


I truly believe that if you're able to cling to hope, in the face of seemingly absolute despair, that's where faith is born. Some people say, "I hope...." and then forget about it. Real hope is expensive. It requires effort. Those people in Japan who may be clinging to something to keep from being swept away aren't just casually clinging and hoping. They're doing it with all their might. Their muscles may be cramping, their hands bloody, and they may not hear or see anyone around at all. But they hope with all their might that someone is on the way.


Does that make better sense?

Some Quick Catching Up!

Yay!!! We made it to Caturday!!!

It's been an interesting week.

And a hard one.

Prayers for everyone affected by the catastrophic quake/tsunami in Japan.

Also, don't forget about all the people here at home who are experiencing flooding....

Honey fixed my technical problems. 

Thinking I had a terrible virus, we installed a protection program.

Then we learned, er, Honey learned, that our router was bad.

It was 8 years old and on it's last spark.

He got a new one and things should have been great.

The problems worsened. Turned out, the program became the problem!

Uninstalled and working fine, now. Whew!

I want to thank everyone who stopped by for Roland's tour.

Today, he and Hibbs are in Aussie-Land, visiting Denise.

Stop by and check out her interview.

It's like a trip into another world!

And remember, there's a contest for some awesome books, 

signed by the authors!

This is what I hope to be doing later.

Cat-napping.

Have a wonderful and safe Caturday!

Blog Tour: The Bear With Two Shadows - Part 2

Welcome back, everyone. Today, we will continue our interview with the fabulous Roland Yeomans, author of the new book, The Bear With Two Shadows.

Let's give a warm welcome to our wonderful guest!

*applause*

Roland, so glad you could join us again today! Now, some of our newest audience members may not be familiar with your current occupation. 

Ladies and gentlemen, Roland is a blood currier. He transports the vital cargo to almost anyplace, works 32 hours a day and is on call 9 days a week. *winks at audience*

Which brings me to my next question.

What is your writing schedule like? Seriously, you do work some crazy hours and are on call an awful lot of the time.....

Well, the ghost of Marlene Dietrich persuades the ghosts of Raymond Chandler, Roger Zelazny, Mark Twain, and William Faulkner to "ghost" write for me.  LOL.  If only!

I carry a pad with me at all times.  If I find a slack time while waiting for a blood hand-off in a rural area, then I use that.  I stay up too late, get up too early, but the writing gets done.

If something is important to you, then you find a way to do it, right?

You're absolutely right, Roland. You've definitely got your priorities in order and it always shows in your stories. 

I'm curious. You blend mythologies from different cultures, seemingly with little effort. Do you have to do research or are you able to just pull all of your mother's stories from memory?

Many of the tales of Hibbs are from my mother.  Mostly, it is a distillation of my years of reading mythologies, legends, and dreaming them together into one rich tapestry.

When I first started writing, I thought how grand it would be if all my novels would happen in one connected universe.  I shaped it carefully, tailoring the world different mythologies into something that might have actually happened ... in Rod Serling's and Stephen King's imaginations!

That's an interesting combination, for sure! Adding reality to mythology makes a story seem so much more relatable and real. 

You know, I grew up listening to stories told by my mom and my grandmother.  Even as a child, I cherished those stories and would sit forever, listening to them, and always beg for more.

Today, we live in a very mobile, disconnected society with families scattered all across the country and even the world.

As a result, the art/tradition of oral history and story telling is fading away and children are growing up without a foundational sense of their history and their heritage.

What impact do you think this is having (or will have) on our society?

A famous city girl of the 1930's, Anita Loos, the author of GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, strangely believed as you do.  She wrote :

     "Today there are no fairy tales for us to believe in,
and this is possibly a reason for the universal prevalence of mental crack-up.
     Yes, if we were childish in the past, I wish we could be children once again." 

That was in the 1930's how much more starved for spiritual magic are we? 

That's actually a great quote and your question, and the answer, has the potential to be downright scary. Do you see your book, and other books like it, as having a role, a purpose other than being 'just' a great story for children?

Yes, I do.  In fact, I wrote it for a reader to come to love at one age, then to re-read it from one life stage to another, gaining new insight as the reader matures and thinks in new ways.

JK Rowling appeals to adults because she wrote a good story, rich with hidden meaning if you only but look.  Rudyard Kipling in KIM wrote a tale that every reader could enjoy no matter his or her age.  Classics are meant for all ages to enjoy on differing levels.

I set out purposedly to write a classic.  I set the moon as my target.  Why not?

I wanted to tell a tale that would speak to the questions we all ask ourselves in the dark of the night and in the dark of the soul.

I had once been asked by a mother of a dying girl to write a fantasy that would speak to her daughter's fears of pain and death, while telling a rip-roaring fantasy.

I ended up writing four novels for that young girl as I operated my bookstore.  They were tailored for the girl's dreams and fears.  But they got to thinking I could do that for a wider audience. 

When a dream murmured to me about Hibbs in my exile caused by Katrina, I decided to take aim at writing a classic, based on my mother's tales told to calm her fears as well as mine.

If you're wondering about that young girl I mentioned ... some sleeping beauties never awaken.

Wow. It would seem that the tapestry of your life rivals the tales you tell. How wonderful that you're able to take from all the light and the dark and weave together tales of such beauty and that we can now have one of them for our very own.

Don't forget, ladies and gentlemen, that The Bear With Two Shadows is for sale on amazon. Remember that you don't have to have an actual Kindle to purchase it. Amazon offers a free kindle for pc download. 


Also, Roland is having a contest. There are four amazing books up for grabs and they're each signed by the author. How cool is that?

For one entry in the drawing, leave a comment. For two, link his book to facebook or twitter. Be sure to email Roland at rxena77@yahoo.com.  For three entries, write a legitimate review on Amazon. 


Now, tomorrow, March 12, Roland will continue his book tour in beautiful, exotic Australia. Sort of. Denise of L'Aussie Writing will be hostess and you won't want to miss it!

The Bear With Two Shadows Blog Tour with Roland Yeomans Part 1

Hey, guess what? The fabulous Roland is doing a blog tour to promote his new e-book, The Bear With Two Shadows - and I get to play hostess! Cool!

So, put your hands together and let's welcome our good friend, ROLAND! Woohoo!!!

*much clapping and whistling as Roland joins us*

Hey, Roland! I'm glad you could squeeze me into your crazy schedule. When I was considering what questions to ask, I decided to simply ask the ones I really wanted to know for myself.

Are you ready? Okay, first question:

So, how does it feel to see your book on Amazon's website and know that people are buying it?

It is quite a pleasure to look at my cover with my name at the bottom.  It is a sight I have worked towards for a very long time.  And to think that people care enough to pay to read my work means more than simple words can say.

Well, we've all enjoyed reading your tales over the past year. You've created characters we've come to care about and it's wonderful to finally see something of yours in cyber print. What brought about your decision to go the e-book route with your novel?

THE BEAR WITH 2 SHADOWS doesn't fall easily into any niche.  In today's publishing market, purchasing agents are reluctant to invest in any novel without a seemingly sure-fire return guaranteed.

That means more of what has been selling. 

In other words, the odds were that Hibbs would never see print.  Still, the legend created by my mother had contributed in saving my life in that frozen-in Detroit basement apartment.

I determined that Hibbs and his world would somehow be laid out for the world to accept or reject.  Kindle Direct Publishing seemed a way to do just that.

LORD OF THE RINGS, THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, HARRY POTTER, even TWILIGHT were not was selling briskly when they were bought.  And because of that, they impacted the industry, creating new genres with their publication.  And THE BEAR WITH 2 SHADOWS could very well do that as well.

If I do not believe in my dream, how can I expect anyone else to?

You bring up a great point, Roland. So many of us dream of being a published writer, yet it seems to be getting more and more difficult to get an agent to want to go forward with a manuscript. Do you think that this may be the future course for aspiring writers? Get an e-book out there that becomes moderately successful so an agent will be more likely to take notice?

Funny you should ask that.  I've discovered that agents have recently been tweeting about author Amanda Hocking.

I haven't read any of her kindle only books, but apparently she is nearly a millionaire just from her KINDLE only books.  So obviously an outstanding number of people have read her books ... and gone back for more. 

Amazing, since she is but 26 years old with no publishing contract and selling over 100,000 books a year on amazon. Her rank on amazon is #1.

here is a link to a blog post on her if you are curious about her. 

http://blog.buckeyepayroll.com/?p=6886

Her staggering accomplishments suggest that there is hope for the self published authors.  She does however have an agent.  But I wonder if the agent came to her after her tremendous sales record. 

Still if Amanda Hocking has accomplished this staggering achievement, I believe each of us can find some small measure of success in the Kindle-only market as well.

Okay readers, we're stopping with that hopeful  and encouraging thought for now. Roland works some grueling hours and needs some shut-eye. I could use a cat-nap myself. So be sure to tune in tomorrow for the rest of the interview!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Before you leave, you may want to take a moment and check out these books:

A pretty cool collection, don't you think? Well, they're more than that. They're signed. Ummm-hmmmm. By the authors. 

Roland is offering these up in a contest. All you have to do for one entry is leave a comment. For two entries, link his book to facebook or twitter. Be sure to email Roland at rxena77@yahoo.com. If you post a legitimate review on Amazon by March 31st, you get three entries into the drawing for these fantastic books.

The drawing will be on April 1. 

Don't forget to tune in tomorrow!