Not too long ago I heard from a dear friend that she was battling breast cancer and undergoing chemo. In response to this life threatening disease, she thumbed her nose at the cancer, shaved her head, and celebrated her new reality. She also began a blog to chronicle her journey. http://jodeenrevere.wordpress.com/ The blog is a beautiful combination of memories, loves, losses, family lost and regained, life threatening challenges, gratitude, the shining eyes of a child, of a dog, beautiful new human beings coming in and out of our lives.
This post is particularly for my Jodeen of the brave heart. The boiled down, scraped down, bone- raw condition of the human experience. All of it is why I will take every day (good or bad) and squeeze every bit of juice out of it.
She has come out the other side, a different woman in some ways, a new improved version of the other woman before.
A perfect time to celebrate our women who have survived and thrived!!!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!
DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!
In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Barbara Delinsky and Elizabeth Hoyt will be my October authors.
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TS. I have been reading Barbara Delinsky for decades! Good, rich stories about believable and appealing people. Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, what better time to promote her stellar book, UPLIFT!
Now for the Interview I have been waiting years for:
Q. Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? Or tell us about your ‘dream’ work space.
A. I have an office over our garage, with windows front and back and four skylights. This makes it bright and sets it apart from the rest of the house.
Q. Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? (a neat work space, sharpened #2 pencils, legal pad, cup of tea, glass of brandy, favorite pajamas, etc.)
A. I have no rituals. My desk may or may not be neat, depending on where I am in my book, and I may have tea or a soda or water nearby, depending on my mood. I actually like to vary things when it comes to my writing space and habits. Keeps me fresh.
Q. Could you tell us something about yourself that we might not already know?
A. Growing up, I was no reader. I much preferred playing outside to reading inside. Going through high school and college, I read few books that weren’t required for school. It was only when my children were young and I needed an escape from full-time motherhood that I began to really read.
Q. Do you have a set time each day to write or do you write only when you are feeling creative?
A. I am usually working at my computer by six in the morning, Monday through Friday. Creativity? Some days it’s there, some days not, but I work nonetheless. If what I produce one day is bad, I either edit it the next or ditch it. I do believe that inspiration is 90% perspiration.
Q. What’s your best advice to other writers for overcoming procrastination?
A. Limit your time at the computer. Two hours a day are better than none. Keep at those two hours, day after day, and you’ll eventually have something to show.
Q. Do you ‘get lost’ in your writing and for how long?
A. No. I don’t ‘get lost.’ I cut my teeth as a writer when I had three young sons at home. I stole writing time when they were napping and, eventually, at school. Given that they were my first priority, ‘getting lost’ was a luxury I couldn’t afford.
Q. Who or what is your “Muse” at the moment ?
A. Bloomingdale’s. I tell myself that if I produce something worthwhile at my computer in the morning, I can run to the mall that afternoon.
Q. When did you begin to write seriously?
A. I was thirty-four and starting to look for part-time work when I noticed a piece in the morning paper about women who wrote category novels. They made it sound easy and very do-able while raising a family, so I decided to give it a shot.
Q. How long after that were you published?
A. I spent two months reading the kind of novel I wanted to write, wrote my own in three weeks, sent it to various publishing houses, and got a bid for it six weeks later. I was lucky. I happened to deliver the right manuscript to the right editor at the right time. If I were to do it over again, I might not be as lucky.
Don’t Miss it! Part 2 of this fascinating writer’s life coming on October 9th.
DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS!
In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create! Barbara Delinsky and Elizabeth Hoyt will be my October authors.
To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
One of my favorite shows on a lazy Sunday morning is (appropriately) CBS Sunday Morning. One segment was about the invention of emoticons. (8>) In the interview Dr. Fahlman stated that in the early days of inter-office email (imagine that!) none of his colleagues got “my wicked sarcastic humor. So I made up this smiley face so that they would know when I was joking.” (:-D
Since the dawn of communication between man there have been many symbols, codes and punctuation used to communicate emotions and feelings difficult to represent through text. Early examples can be seen in Morse code abbreviations from the 1850’s and print publications in the early 1900’s.
There is no clear date as to when the first emoticon was used nor is it clear who really invented the first emoticon. It is however generally accepted that the common sideways smiley face in use today was invented by Scott Fahlman in 1982.
On the morning of September 19, 1982, the use of the first smiley face and frowning face emoticons was proposed by research professor Scott E. Fahlman, from the department of computer science at the Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. In 2002, this claim was verified after the original back-up tapes containing the postings were retrieved by Jeff Baird. (8>(Continue reading “The History of the ’emoticon’ (8>D”
I was watching an interview with Pharrell Williams (composer/rapper) and he said, “I’m a room without a roof.” That struck home with me. Some of my detractors say that I can’t stay with one thing, in my writing. That I jump around from prison stories to children’s books, to mysteries, and on to poetry.
Yes! ‘I’m a room without a roof.’ There is no ceiling (boundaries) I can fly! I stay open to the universe and to ideas and inspiration. Watching that interview, Pharrell inspired me to write about my room with no roof.
Don’t let anyone lock your creative self in a room and slam the ‘roof’ shut. Family, friends, spouses, all want what they think is best for you. They love you right? If I had listened to one friend, I would never have stepped on a stage. When I told one of my oldest friends that I was going to an acting conservatory, she was frightened. When we talked it out, she was actually afraid that she would lose me. I went on to have a 30+ year career on stage, acting and directing. Continue reading “Are You a Room Without a Roof?”
It’s Charles Bukowski month!!! No secret. I am in love with the guy’s raw, tell it like it is, writing. So here’s a work of his and a work of mine. I’m fully aware that my scribbles should not be on the same page or in the same room as this great writer…….(so please don’t write me) I am just sharing a frame of mind. I believe that if you lay down with dogs you get fleas. If you read great writers, just maybe some of their brilliance will rub off or teach you something.
Try your hand; there are no fast and hard rules to poetry anymore…at least none that I pay attention to. (and I’m in good company with this sentiment) It’s far more important that you write your thoughts down. Bukowski believed that too. He couldn’t have cared less what his critics thought….no pentameter? no rhyme? So What!!??
This spirited journal is designed to help women open their hearts and minds to
their own creative possibilities, while honing their writing craft. Whether you are a
beginner or a more experienced writer, the shelter within these pages will empower you to
write more. You will find this journal will quickly become your constant companion.
Much more than a journal for writing down your secrets, your thoughts and dreams, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’. Over 275 of blank lined pages for your creative writing that includes tips and insightful quotes from famous authors, playwrights, poets and celebrities.
Congratulations, this is to let you know that your poem The Ash Can is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup home page this week. Poems are rotated each day in groups of 14-16 to give each poem an equal opportunity to be displayed.
I got the call on Sunday night. I was traveling on business. When I looked at the caller ID
I wondered why my husband’s boss would be calling me. I was unprepared for what
he told me and my legs turned to water when he said that my husband was dead.
‘A heart attack? An accident?’ I asked. ‘No’, he said, ‘John committed suicide.
They found him in your garage this morning.’ I heard someone screaming and
wished that they would stop so I could hear the rest. His voice was very far away
and the woman just kept screaming. ‘Shut up! Shut up!’ I need to hear. I clapped my
hand over my mouth when I suddenly realized it was me who was screaming.
I don’t remember hanging up or getting on the plane. Yes, John and I were having
problems and we had been separated for about three months but nothing was official.
Actor, director, playwright, author, Trisha Sugarek has created 305 pages of ‘How To’, Tips, Quotes, and 275 blank, lined pages for your writing. ‘I have created this journal for writers of all genres. Taken from my personal experience in the writing process, I hope it kick starts new writers to begin and more experience writers to continue.’
~~This spirited journal is designed to help writers open their hearts and minds. Much more than a journal for your creative writing, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’ of writing. Tips, instructions and prompts to help you to hone your writing skill. Each blank, lined page has writing tips and quotes from other famous authors.~~
NOW ON SALE!!! This new, innovative Journal and Handbook.
This spirited journal is designed to help writers open their hearts and minds to their own creative possibilities, while honing their craft. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced writer, you will find this journal will quickly become your constant companion.
Much more than a journal for your creative writing, this handbook provides the writer with the ‘how to’s’ of writing. Over 275 of blank, lined pages for your creative writing that includes more tips and insightful quotes from famous authors.
What’s Inside: “How Do I Begin?”
“How to Develop Exciting Characters”
“How to Write Fiction”
“How to Write a Stage Play”
“How to Write Poetry”
“How to Write Haiku Poetry”
Teachers and Students: Go to Facebook and ‘Like’ this page if you think this is something you would like to own. Future special offers to educators and students.
In response to this life threatening disease, she thumbed her nose at the cancer, shaved her head, and celebrated her new reality. She also began a blog to chronicle her journey. http://jodeenrevere.wordpress.com/ The blog is a beautiful combination of memories, loves, losses, family lost and regained, life threatening challenges, gratitude, the shining eyes of a child, of a dog, beautiful new human beings coming in and out of our lives.
On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
