The Drama of it all...part II

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. ~Ray Bradbury
***

As if one drama post wasn’t enough...I had to go and write two? Well you know...I have a tendency to over dramatize. If they had a crown for drama queens I think I would win the crown hands down. But know that my dramatics are usually my truth in a situation as to the way *I* see it unfold.
 

I can not take anything lightly by no means. If I see a picture, I want to write. I dramatically unfold the scene for you, word by word. You yourself climb into the picture and become one with the world in which is presented to you. When I stop writing I jump into my reality, which is no picture postcard let me tell you. And you wake up out of the daydream saying, wow!
 

If I see a kitty, run across the road, I scream out, “Did you see that mountain lion?”My son will laugh and say, “Mom that was a very fat tabby cat.” “But it was huge!” I go on and then I come home and tell anyone within earshot that this huge fat cat almost made me swerve and hit a tree, so as to avoid splattering all his innards over the road. Again, over dramatizing a mere avoidance of hitting a cat.
 

I can take a molehill (I have them out in my backyard so I do know what they look like) and turn it into... have you ever seen a molehill? Well I ventured out in my backyard and the silky sand mound was splat right in my face, it had grown overnight. I put on my hiking shoes and as I started to climb, I slid all the way down because this molehill was made out of sand, not rock like I normally expect to see.
 

There it was...the molehill that turned into a mountain! Now do you see what I mean? I can make a mountain out of a molehill. This is what needs to come alive in your stories. You need to give your character that thorn that will prick her/his finger and draw blood.
When you have a character that is bland, your story that you’ve built around her/him will surely be bland. You have to set a mountain on fire and have your character strive to walk through the fire!
 

If he is blind, have him fight for his sight! If he was born with no arms, have him go for the Guinness Book of World Records for archery. If it is a fish with no fin, have a character create a prosthetic tail. The world is limitless. Don’t just sit there and see the world through one window, grab hold of it and build yourself a house with MANY windows. Windows that look out onto mountains, or fields or a lake or stream.
 

Remember YOU are the writer. You are the creator. Your power with words is what is going to make or break you. The ones who fall, are the ones who cling to the old. The ones who soar, are the ones who decide to move on and FLY....

On a personal note...

If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. ~~ Ps 139:9-10 (NLT)

***

Well I know you all are waiting for me to give a little update on me, on a personal note. Tell me you all look forward to it, please?

Well, here I go, dramatics and all! It was a quiet morning just like any other day, I go get myself showered and cleaned before I can get anything done for the day. I step out of the shower to hear voices, off in the distance. I always look skyward, because I think “Wow, God has gotten bold.”

I open the door and creep into the living room, to hear my beau on the phone, saying his thank you and goodbye. “Who was that?” I ask. “Eleanor, says there’s a cornea.” Mr. Smarty pants says as a matter-of -factly, as he goes to sit at the desk. A shock look washed over his face.

My eyes nearly bulged outta my head, thoughts crowded around and began spinning like a carousel on some kind of hyper drug. I felt like shaking my beau and screaming “Tell me more! Tell me more.” But instead I just said, “How do you feel about that?” With him being blind, I can read his facial expressions pretty well, and I could see that this was not the moment to get all aflutter and start babbling. He needed calm and that is what I gave him.

His face said, ‘I’m confused’ but his mouth said, “I don’t know how I feel.” Wow I can read him pretty well, eh? I was about to go dry my hair when a compulsion came over me. ‘We need prayer’. He was sending out emails to our pastors at church and his family, I was busying myself with sending out to my prayer warriors the call for prayer.

By the end of both of our tapping keys, we had reached hundreds of people all gathered to pray for us. The prayers were felt as my body tingled with delight.

Here’s the deal. She (Eleanor) called. Said they had a cornea, but it was in Colorado being tested to see if it was a good cornea. If so, surgery is on Monday. We’ll head to Omaha on Sunday, be at the hospital 5 a.m. Monday, have a follow-up visit Tuesday, and if everything looks good. We may come right home or stay and leave early Wednesday morning. Too early to tell.

But the prayers are strongly needed. Now the confusion begins, chaos ensues. Beau has been so patient throughout these two years. He’s has his bad days, as I think it is understandable if your sight is taken away and you never got a chance to see the very house that you’ve lived in for two years, or the town that you grew up in, or so many other things I can’t even begin to mention.

All I know is this, I’m driving to Omaha. Everything is already taken care of money-wise. The surgery: medicare/medicaid/Lions Club all paid for in advance!! I worry about nothing else because as the day draws near, our food, gas and lodgings will all be paid for too!

God is good...Great even! God bless you all and thank you for your continued prayer. It isn’t over by a long shot, so keep our family in your prayers. 

9:57 a.m.UPDATE NECESSARY: My friends, WE ARE GOING TO OMAHA!!!

Keep the prayers coming!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!

The Drama of it all...

“A true spiritual aspirant will never be frightened by any circumstances, hence, move on, angel, move on!” ~BJG

***

Oh the drama of it all. I think you’ve gathered by now that I, as a writer, can take a broken nail and spin it into a web of a story. I’m like that. I was at my m-i-l’s the other day, and all she did was ask, “How’s it going out on the farm?” I began my tale with my old treadle sewing machine, placed in some thread and began weaving a delightful tale.

Instead of the simple answer, “Great, life is great.” I began, “Well the potato harvesting began roaring onto the fields with machines I’ve never seen in my life. I loved the way they swept the field and one by one an army-full of semi trucks carried away the plump juicy potatoes. And we have an Elk, living in the woods, whom I named Eli thinking it was a male last year, but when I heard the baby by it’s side I realized, Eli, was Eliza, still named Eli for short.

I went on as I always do. “You wouldn’t believe the images out there, wild turkeys walking up the road, Black-eyed Susan’s galloping over every open space, and the turkeys being grown for their shipment into slaughter. Yes siree, life out there on that farm is pretty awesome.”

I add drama to every thing in my life and as my followers more than likely can tell, I speak truth, I just have a tendency to color my world. It is like my brain is a living thesaurus, and believe you me if I can’t think of the right word, I’ll dig to find it.

That is what writing is all about. You weave a colorful story, embellish the truth a bit, not too much so it is a very believable story, but paint it just so the reader becomes a part of the fabric. He/she becomes so engrossed in the flow of every word, the stroke of every key, a part of the very scene, that they jump into the fantasy that you’ve created for them.

Rose Madder by Stephen King was like that. It started off, an abused woman who lived in fear, and one day she just woke up and walked away, fearing for her life, but she did it! She made a new life for herself too, but wouldn’t you know it, her hubby found her, as all abusive husbands do and what happened is... you’ll have to read it and find out. 

She bought a picture and somehow Mr. King painted many levels of the canvas for us, the reader. A story in a story if you will. That is what I strive to do in my life. I try to paint a picture of myself, a portrait for you to glance at. Then I embellish it by wearing jeans, fixing my hair all nice and applying makeup, but never really hiding the true me underneath.

In my words you may find the drama, but underneath it all, you will see the true me shining through. And know that deep down, the true me is a writer, through and through.

Growth is the only evidence of life. ~John Henry Newman, Apologia pro vita sua, 1864

This weeks lesson ~ Dialogue

We’re onto lesson five (whew, I made it) and lesson five is dialogue. In the quiet hallways I no longer roam and assist, my classroom is the only haven that I’ll stay and lend my hand to the student. They have done so good this session and I am proud of the writers that I will leave behind in two weeks. They have all come a long way in these past five weeks.

This week we move on to dialogue. Now dialogue is tricky in that new writers think that a tag of he said/ she said in a lulling poetic voice, is what is needed after every person speaks. I have seen writers add so many tags that you’re left looking at all the tags to see who was speaking or what the conversation was to begin with.

Is that what you want? People trying to decipher the ‘who’ is speaking, or looking at your words fly by and rolling eyes at your inept writing skills? No, of course not. We want our reader to embrace our words, hug them like a comfy blankie! We want the people who might actually pay money to read our words to be left with a feeling of ahhh...not a feeling of nahhhh.

Some tips on writing dialogue, portions from Jenny Wiehardt:

1. Always use a comma between the dialogue and the tag line.
ex: “Mark could you come here for a second,” she bellowed in the empty room.

2. Periods go inside the quotation marks. And since I am in America, I give you the American English rules. Other punctuation like the semicolons, dashes, question marks and exclamation points -- goes outside unless it directly pertains to the material within the quotes.
ex: “I don't want any stupid cake," says the guy who goes to Europe and the Middle East. "Where's the champagne?" he says, and laughs.
In the next example, the question mark goes outside the quotation marks because it is not part of the material being quoted:
Did he say, "We should all go to the movies"?
Also note that the sentence ends with only one mark of punctuation: the question mark. In general, don't use double punctuation marks, but go with the stronger punctuation.
(Question marks and exclamation points are stronger than commas and periods.)
 

3. When a tag line interrupts a sentence, it should be set off by commas. Note that the first letter of the second half of the sentence is in lower case.
ex: “I hear footsteps,” she said, “they’re coming down the hallway now.”
Notice also, the continued piece begins in lower case.
 

4. To signal a quotation within a quotation, use single quotes:
This one stumps me a lot of the times in my writing,
ex: "Have you read ‘The Lord of the Rings’ yet?" he asked her.
 

5. For interior dialogue, italics are appropriate, just be consistent.
That means when the person is speaking to themselves.
ex. Janie thought, here we go again.
 

6. If a quotation spills out over more than one paragraph, don't use end quotes at the close of the first paragraph. Use them only when a character is done speaking.
***
Sometimes punctuation is everything in dialogue. I’ve seen where the author punctuates the one person speaking in a conversation, but then the author forgoes it when the second character is speaking. It’s a matter of preference and when the novel/story is published, the editor will surely help you decide on which to use.
 

I hope you’ve enjoyed the tips of the day. Now get writing and most of all...Write Right!

Moving On...

Let go of those who bring you down and surround yourself with those who bring out the best in you.

author unknown
***

It’s not all about me, and it certainly isn’t all about you. Every time I write a post someone says, “I know you meant that for me.” or “That was targeted at me.” I say, “Please get over yourself, it is NOT about YOU!” I guess their arrogance gets the better of them. Watch this, I’m going to say, and YOU know who you are, and I’ll catch all kinds of backlash for that.

This is a writing blog. This is my experience with writers or those that wish they were writers, or those that pretend to be writers, or even for a good Christian friend, who might want to become a writer. This blog is for those who want to grow in the writing world. Not walk around in a psychopathic state and grab a bunch of demented others to drive on the insanity train with them.

I’ve decided to move on safely. After yesterday’s sermon about, “It’s not about ME, Lord, it’s all about YOU!” I have decided to move on in the writing world and join a few writing sites that cater to my type of writing. Maybe a poetry site, perhaps a Christian site but truly as far away from the idiotic, impractical, irrational, irresponsible, loony site that I have been associated with and is now trying to put me on the deranged train also? I don’t think so.
 
I call it a frenzied place, because even after an apology, I am continuously attacked, and taunted, all the while I watch as some people (supposed friends) stand by and support that type of evil. I honestly don’t need that in my life and I am glad that my Father has seen that I am important enough to save from the paranoid people who live in their own little fantasy world.
 
We’re writers, there is bound to be a little loony behavior, but when it borders on the unhealthy cusp of evil, vindictive, back stabbing behavior, I  move on, not a problem.  Does that mean that evil wins? No, surely not. I have forgiven them, I have prayed for them and the Light of God will wash over them and their skin will burn because of so much love encompassing them.
 
I don’t hold a grudge and I have no hard feelings to those who think that their life is full and complete if they taunt and torment. I hope they realize their life is empty, and I pray for them to wake up and act like they have some sense; or don’t, but you will have to torture someone else, because My Father has asked me to put this little fiasco, behind me.
 
And just think the next lesson up is Dialogue. I wonder what ‘they’ll’ think if I blog about ‘their’ Dialogue? Oh my. Remember, nothing is secret. My life is sacred!

***
 “If you can keep your wits about you while others are losing theirs and blaming you, the world will be yours.” -Rudyard Kipling

Poetry Sunday ~ Autumn Sings

How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.
~John Burroughs
***
Autumn Sings
***
Silently they turn
from hues
of lime and mint
they’ve paid their dues.

Brown and curled
they cried
leaves cling
and boldly died.

The gusty wind
softly sweeps
letting go
the wilted weeps.

Souls are lost
a leaf it clings
a new dawns rise
Autumn sings.

Ex. 18:22 And let them judge the people at all seasons: and it shall be, that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.
***
Ps. 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

Quotation Saturday

VANITY

The surest cure for vanity is loneliness. 

~Thomas Wolfe
 

Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt. 

~Benjamin Franklin

There is nothing so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity as the application of a rough truth. ~Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

Cure yourself of the affliction of caring how you appear to others. Concern yourself only with how you appear before God, concern yourself only with the idea that God may have of you. 

~Miguel De Unamuno

GOSSIP
 

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues. 

~Bertrand Arthur William Russell, On Education, 1926

The Puritan's idea of hell is a place where everybody has to mind his own business. ~Wendell Phillips, attributed

Gossip needn't be false to be evil - there's a lot of truth that shouldn't be passed around. ~Frank A. Clark

It isn't what they say about you, it's what they whisper. 

~Errol Flynn

BELIEF
 

What matters is not the idea a man holds, but the depth at which he holds it. ~Ezra Pound

This is how humans are: we question all our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe, and those we never think to question. 

~Orson Scott Card
 

He does not believe who does not live according to his belief. 

~Thomas Fuller

Men never do evil so thoroughly and cheerfully as when they do it for conscience sake. ~Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670

REALITY
 

There is an objective reality out there, but we view it through the spectacles of our beliefs, attitudes, and values. 

~David G. Myers, Social Psychology

Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces. 

~Sigmund Freud

Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion. 

~Democritus

Few people have the imagination for reality. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe“Your arrogance ruined you. Your gossip deleted you. Your vanity and ego carried you. But you are ignorant to reality, blind to truth. Grow up, face life, and Praise God!” 

~Author Unknown

I'm Done...I Move on...

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. ~Booker T. Washington
***

Well I’m done with it all. I’m done being attacked, spit on on, trashed and made to feel like an incompetent piece of crap. I am, and I know it, a much better person than that, and I, like all of you, deserve respect. We live in such a hateful world, that I think moving on is best for all involved.

I was raised to sweep everything under the rug. Never confront an issue, keep it all hidden, be pleasant always, therefore pretending, supporting things that you just don’t believe in. Well, when I was sexually assaulted at a young age and my elders did nothing, (swept it under the rug like the good soldiers they themselves were raised to do) Joni developed something new at the ripe old age of fourteen. I gave my life to God and asked HIM to guide me.

Wouldn’t ya know it, He wanted me open and honest? Truthful and trustworthy? He had me forgive my assailant and I did, quickly moving on in life. I found joy in writing because it was a form of releasing all my pains and heartaches, it was my way of dealing with such a sad life that I had gotten myself into.

The recent events had me reliving past events where evil entered into my (or tried to) life and made me feel incompetent. When something is not from God, I have no other name for it. And when it attacks me, it is not from a good solid foundation based on the Lord, that’s for sure.

I confronted the issue while everyone else cowered and climbed in their shell and just wanted it to pass over like a toxic radiation cloud. Can toxic radiation really pass over, without causing any harm? Well I was not about to let it ‘pass over’ me and destroy me, instead I opened the door of ‘communication’ so the problem could be resolved.

Again I was attacked, again I was the bad guy, but all in all, I’m good because now I see this person(s) for who they really are. They play the pity card well, they have all their ducks in a row and are happy and content with that and I wish them nothing but godspeed.

I am not a bitter person, I don’t hold grudges and allow them to cling like leaves to wet pavement. My best bet is to move on, be done with it all and find a new place. I don’t like being judged, and won’t allow the torture that my psyche has had to endure. I am moving on to save myself.

I am an adult, I at least expect my elders to act like adults. When I find that they really can’t...then I move on.

Love and hugs to all who have supported me and comforted me. Those who KNEW what *I* went through and were there for me, I thank you. May you all have a blessed day.

Next up: Quotation Saturday.... godspeed...

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. ~Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice, 1968

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lesson 4: Conflict ~ Ironic

 "I am me...there is no other." ~joni

Wouldn’t you know it, this weeks lesson at f2k is Conflict. Recently there has been a lot of conflict at f2k, conflict that I may have to let The Creator of the Site, become aware of so he can put an end to it.

What I’ve been hearing a lot thrown around is the words, “Freedom of Speech.” That term is being abused as much as the poor smiley. I always thought that as you got older, you grew up and matured, respected one another and found a common ground to live.

We live in a country where there are more nationalities and different races than any other time in history. We (the U.S.) allow Freedom of Speech, to give adults (and some children) the voice to be heard. But do you realize, when words are abused, things get shifted out of place?

I don’t know exactly when it all began but my friends and I fool around on facebook, and someone came on my wall and basically attacked me saying I was bullying my way around f2k. A conflict arose. The clique gathered their resources, built their waging war of words against me, and I became the victim of unnecessary, unwarranted attacks, all because of what? Because I said people abuse a smiley face? I have no idea.

Rules and guidelines are set up all over the internet, in chatrooms, forums across the web. But when people start crying (babbling) "Freedom of Speech, I have rights", then you know, things will go down the drain. And at f2k, THEY DO HAVE RULES AND GUIDELINES too, but also, you have your rebels, without a cause!

I really believe it all started to begin when someone posted an erotic/x-rated story. The panel decided that this was not what f2k was about and it was removed. Then the words Freedom of Speech arose. It is not MY writing site and I do not make the decisions, but since I spread the Word of the Lord, on MY facebook wall and this blog, I became the person to attack.

It is quite obvious that those who sought to attack, befriend and support the attacker, know nothing about me, the site, or from whence they speak. Anger and bitterness, hate and threats are just easier, than to come to what they thought was the source of the problem, me.

The bashers, went to everyone around me by going into the chatroom, where they mounted their attacks and viciously spoke bad of me, all for what? I still do not know. Not one person was brave enough to contact ME, in the whole ordeal, which shows me that they are cowards and need to be removed from the site. Or they need to grow up and get a life in the real world. 

I was all set to quit and give up the course that I’ve worked at for eight years, throw in the towel, crawl under a rock, but then, wouldn’t that be letting the evil win? Aww, and they actually thought they had won?

Well, the once successful writing course has changed and it is because of these folks, not because of me. It has taken a dive, and they are to blame. And to think that a mentor stood and watched and did absolutely nothing, except participate? This is truly a sad sad day for this writing site.

We will overcome this. The Writing Site will rise out of the ashes. WE are there to WRITE and LEARN a little something of the craft; not play and breed hate. The conflict will be resolved and we’ll move on and hopefully, those people grow up somewhere along the line, or just think, I’ll have an entire novel of conflict!

Still Waiting...

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
Isaiah 40:31

***

Ahh, we’re here still waiting. Since I don’t give my perspective on this too much, today I think I’ll break away from all of the f2k bashing and just get down and talk about me.

They say I’m loved. Out here in the middle of a potato field, and I’m surrounded by love. I look to my left, to my right, and I’m alone. Where is everybody?

Here lately I’ve been doing a cleansing of sorts. Getting out of my system the things that are hindering me from growing, and I have to tell you, in about three weeks...I am going to be breathing free again.

May ninth was an eye doctors visit that gave me a whole lot of hope. I ran around here cleaning the house like a mad woman, I felt sucked into the vortex of happy and promise, and slowly the weeks began to pass. I put off doctor visits for Adam because I didn’t want to have to cancel them at the last minute when we got, ‘the call’.

The call? Yeah, the anticipated call to get to Omaha NOW, we’ve got a cornea! Yes, my fiancé is awaiting a cornea so he can see again. And awaiting is what we are doing. Day after day, we wait, the phone rings and we run to it, all summer long this has been the case. We’ve occupied ourselves with, for him audiobook reviews and myself, mowing and cleaning.

Now with Adam in school, we’re still waiting. Beau missed an August 11 appointment with the eye doc because back in May, they said it was a ‘follow up’ visit, after the surgery. Well she called us and let us know, that that visit was a mandatory visit to keep him on the waiting list. So back to the eye docs we went in the beginning of September, and tomorrow another physical at the primary doctor.

I sure wish they were more clear with their information. It seems like all a big secret until the day you’re under the knife letting them plunge into your eye. And one wonders why I’m stressed? Then there's the Lion's Club lady...

I wasn’t even going to do f2k this session because of the added stress I’m under but after a new laptop arrived, free to me, I agreed to do this session, and now I wish I would have just listened to my heart, instead of feeling pressured. I have to remember me, because no one else knows, or understands the pressure I’m under.

They say they care, but really? It is just part of their daily ritual to spew out of their mouth. “I care” then they’re on their way going about their happy-go-lucky life. But wait...it isn’t a happy go lucky life is it, I have to remember that. They wake to sit at the computer, they long to ‘see’ names, they yearn to be a part of something and eagerly in their own isolated way, they find it online. In their loneliness, the people online are all they have.

Me, I have more and am grateful and would do well to remember that my online friends love and care for me, I may be all they have in a stressful, lonely, longing day. Me, I have potatoes! :)

Words from The Clarion Call; Kay says: The world frowns on sitting and waiting when they can't see why we are waiting. We won't be popular if we say, "No," to something that seems to be the right thing. We must walk in the Spirit, listening for God's voice. We must be looking for His direction all the time. We must also NEVER make assumptions about what God wants us to do.
Waiting is often not easy. It takes practice to learn how to wait. The more we purposely wait on God before we act, the easier it gets.

Poetry Sunday ~ Sounds of Sorrow

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~Kahlil Gibran
***
Sounds of Sorrow

***
Like icy clouds that form in the sky,
drops of pain creep from my
Weightless they form a fluid stream;
life has forced a crescent seam.

Tears like capsules, of liquid release
hidden by lids they secretly cease.
The eye a doorway of repressed emotion
that drops a brew of poisoned potion.

Salty tears run evermore
silently sounds tap the floor.      
Dripping echoes of seated pain,
seeping slowly a fluid rain

The tear is weightless in its stand;
lapping forth like waves on sand.
Going alone down the wrinkled aisle,
seeking to ride the sorrowful mile.

What will stop this rippling river?
Depths of joy I must deliver.
I raise my eyes to the skies above,
My tears become His kiss of love.

Quotation Saturday

SILENCE
 
Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation... tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.
~Jean Arp

Nowadays most men lead lives of noisy desperation.
~James Thurber

True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
~William Penn

Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment.
~Henry David Thoreau

COMPUTERS
 
To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer. ~Bill Vaughan, 1969 (Thanks, Garson O'Toole!)

Computers have lots of memory but no imagination. 
~Author Unknown

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
~Suzie Wagner, 1998

It's not computer literacy that we should be working on, but sort of human-literacy. Computers have to become human-literate. 
~Nicholas P. Negroponte

CONFORMITY
 
Every society honors its live conformists, and its dead troublemakers. 
~Mignon McLaughlin
 
Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity. 
~Christopher Morley

The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain. 
~Colin Wilson

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary. 
~Albert Einstein

 
SOUL
 
One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever come to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on the way. 
~Vincent Van Gogh

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire. ~Ferdinand Foch

What is soul? It's like electricity - we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room. 
~Ray Charles
 
Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.
~Cicero

Smiley Abuse

Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go. ~Author Unknown
***

You know, the one thing I like about having my own blog, is not only being able to talk about what I want,  it is to be able to do so with no legal ramifications. I think I’ve used one pic on this blog in the many years that I’ve been writing it, that wasn’t mine. It didn’t have a name or I most certainly would have given that person full credit.

I use quotes, write my own poetry and most of all, give you a daily dose of realism. Listen up, I’m about to tell you something life altering here, life is not about the virtual world. Sure the social networks are fun, sure you meet people, wave and say good morning to them, but I’m telling you people, after that, it is time to get out into the real world.

I think I’ve badgered f2k enough this week and seriously, this hopefully (no promises) will be my last rant of disgust with the place.

Smiley abuse is something that us abuse victims despise. Why? Because, we were abused, so to see something slaughtered and tortured, plundered and spread like butter on a virtual wall/forum? To me, that is just wrong. Trust me, I take a lot of heat for this, “It’s just a smiley!” they say, or “It’s fun and everyone else likes it!” But, since this is MY blog, I can clearly state, I DON’T  LIKE SMILEY ABUSE!

When I was little, many many moons ago, I had a shirt with a smiley face on it, It was a blue sweatshirt and the smiley was yellow. It was in a time before smiley even had a complete circle around him, to complete him. It was before computers were the IN thing. That shirt was my comfort zone in a world of chaos. 

I grew attached to that emotion of a smile, always being on me because I was clearly sad most of the time, but that smile could make my day. You’d think I’d love seeing him abused wouldn’t you? Well, I’m sorry, when I see him 100 times in a forum post, there is something seriously dysfunctional about that. One or two, okay, five, I deal, ten, I might say whoa a little overboard, but come on, twenty? To just say, WHEEEEEEEEEE! WOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!

I’m telling you folks, I never thought that a simple gesture could cost me my sanity, because, “she was the one asking for an Angel smiley.” Yes I did, but NOT to abuse! Is there no other way to express excitement? I mean, you’re on a course with over 1200 writers and the best way to express excitement is woohoo and a smiley? Writers? Serious writers? PROFESSIONAL writers?

You can all stonewall me all you want, to be honest, I’ve been isolated for years because of my beliefs without a soul to really care for me. Just because I like order? I prefer normal to chaos? I don’t like insanity? Am not going to embrace it?

I have a life. It may not be much of one, but it is mine. And if everyone is so wrapped up in social networking, forums, chat rooms and the such, it tells me immeasurable amounts about you. Oh...and stop bullying smiley! You are bordering legality issues for sure.

Professionalism?

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. ~Samuel Butler, Erewhon
***

Where does one draw the line between professionalism and play time. Allow me to tell you this. If a publisher asks to see your manuscript, 12 pt font,1 inch margins; and to strictly adhere to the guidelines, she says; are you going to give her verdana and put little cute smiley faces at the end and say, “I thought this looked better?”

Who is the professional here? Who is the one going to publish your work? And YOU are going to tell HER how to do her job?

While there are numerous amounts of insane writers, there is not numerous markets for unprofessional writers. We’re in a recession and work needs to be done, rules and guidelines need to be adhered to. While we all need to let our hair down, peek out of our shell on occasion, we also need to know that we are going to be judged, yes judged, by our level of professional quality.

On facebook and the other social sites, there is no room for professionalism, although I am a witness to many acting in a civil nature, doing work professionally yet still maintaining an open wall that allows visitors to come and see. This is where your footprint, read yesterdays blog, is going to be seen by many if not all of the millions of FB fanatics.

Facebook has gone and changed again, once again thinking for people instead of allowing them to think for themselves. Did they ASK the people what they wanted? Of course not, their ego’s got in the way, and they barged in and placed changes on people that apparently, only they like. I think that was an unprofessional move on their part, as they vie for people who are fleeing FB in record numbers, and heading to Twitter, and places like, Google+.

To me, Twitter and Google+ doesn’t have the professional feel of facebook, (denote sarcasm here) with the LIKE buttons, the huge pics, the SHARE this button, and all of the new toys and games that are going to slow ones computer down. Facebook may be ascending but oh wait, their professionalism comes in, via ADS! Yup good ol ads that bring the folks at facebook, you guessed it, money! Hopefully many of you have admuncher to eat those ads and they never see the light of day.

I can do what I want, write and have fun on my wall, but yesterday, I was basically assaulted and badgered by a ‘supposed’ friend and professional writer? All because we were having fun? Then they went into the professional place we work and said that we were basically “bullying and bordering illegality”??? Excuse me? Real professional, STUDENT!

Well of course I wiped my wall off and with facebooks new RESTRICT policy I can now restrict people, make a list of people who can see my wall, and now I may just be able to limit the stalker(s), that watch me and read me!

I think I’m going to put f2k behind me. It is no longer a place to write, to be professional, it is a place where lay-PEOPLE want to make the decisions for the PROFESSIONALS. Call out freedom of this and freedom of that, it is a madhouse, simply made up of smileys. My point solely being, if you came to write, then write, if you came to play? Go to facebook!!!

Thank you, to those who took MY joy away. I hope you all feel real good about yourselves.

Footprints...

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away. ~Raymond Hull
***

“Everybody who is in business with you, in a personal, professional, romantic, transactional relationship with you, is looking up information about you.. and then.. making decisions about what they find about you on the Internet. That’s why everybody has a need and obligation to themselves, to their family members to their shareholders, to manage their footprint on the Internet.” This is part of Bloomberg news www.bloomberg.com

***

This made me think of all the footprints I’ve left around the net, all the hand-print's I’ve left on peoples heart, and the smudged up mirrors I’ve left behind for people to see. Then I remembered...I am an open book, I have nothing to hide and anything I want hidden, I keep in my mind, brain, thoughts.

I am a person who is honest to a fault. I say a fault because being truthful can get you slapped across the face, maybe not literally, but emotionally. People don’t want to hear or read the truth, that is why it is so easy for people to lie.

Most of all, people lie to themselves in a fit of what I call either denial, self-flattery, or justification. In Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Mike said that it is one way, or no way. We can’t do a rewrite and make the Word fit into our lives, we have to change and make ourselves fit into what the Word says.

Not many people are left in the world that are willing to suffer pain, grovel for food and water, practically beg for help in their time of need but we’re in a whole different place us Americans. We’ve had a recession, Earthquakes in unlikely places, hurricanes flood streets that haven’t seen rain in months, wildfires eating homes and the devastation goes on and on. 

We’ve had people honored for going against orders in the military, and we’ve seen total strangers and hero’s pull a young man from under a burning car, by lifting it?

The footprint that I leave behind better be a print that is too big to fill. When anyone looks at my intricate web of work on the net, they won’t find insanity, sleaze and smut exuding from my past, present OR future. If they want my life story, they can read my memoirs. All the juicy tidbits of my darkly lit past will be in there not on some social wall where the robots of the world can pick and choose the bad, highlight it and never show the good wholesome woman in me.

As writers we create characters. Characters that sometimes are pieces of ourselves. When we write a story we weave little tiny particles of our beings in these characters, whether protagonist or antagonist. If you like a character, more than likely you will like the person who wrote the book. If you are really pulling for the damsel, you more than likely are glad to see her win in the end, just like maybe you in reality were never able to do? Possibly? If you relate to the ‘bad guy’ in some way, perhaps a portion of you has not dealt with that dark side of you yet?

What I’m trying to say here is this. Get a Grip! Take a look at who you really are and make sure that that is who the world sees. I’m tired of all the masked people who hide behind levels of themselves that they think no one can see. I’m here to tell you, I SEE YOU!

Get it all out in the open, if not, the many social networks will.

It's all about writing...

Those who are quite satisfied sit still and do nothing; those who are not quite satisfied are the sole benefactors of the world. ~Walter Savage Landor
***

When you come here, you expect to read about the writing craft, something, anything that my mind can produce about the craft. And usually that is what you get unless there is something really important that I need to tell you about my life.

They are far and few between which I’m sure you’re glad of; don’t need a woman ranting and raving now do you? Of course not, so I try to deliver tips and tricks of the trade, that maybe you can use in your journey to help you with your writing.

I often get sidetracked when diversity hits. Yesterday’s rant is a perfect example. I love f2k, that is a FREE Creative Writing course, that I have been an online mentor on, along with many other mentors, over the years. The diversity hit when things of the unexpected pop up in my face. We have eight classrooms, we had over 600 people register for the course, about 400 showed up, and in the first frantic week, well over 200 posted a lesson one.

Keep in mind, we mentors are all volunteer, taking our time out of our lives to lead writers in a new direction. So you can see my dismay when I am giving of my time, and some people ruin the learning experience, with taunts of food and smiley's.

I’d like to ask, when you were in school, did you have rules that you had to follow? Were you allowed to throw food around and whoop and holler when your friend went potty? The mentality has shifted.

I am all for a successful writing course, I’m all for leading and teaching newcomers and some really good writers, new stuff. But I am not a facebook fan, a social network person, or a child who has time to run around and play. I’m sure we’ll get the great learning experience back within our grasp, but right now, the Social aspect and chat chat chat, like like like, is what people want.

Out of respect to Bob Hembree, and all that he has done for me and more than likely will continue to do for me, I will continue on with this course that I started. I will remain in my room and balance the fruity and whimsical, like Carmen Miranda, all on top of my head, and just hope that the mounting fruit don’t topple.

Allow me to say, f2k has brought many writers into the PUBLISHED world and it is still a great course. I’m just a stiff shirt, who likes the academic side of learning and not the insane.

Poetry Sunday ~ I Walk Alone

Jer.15:17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.

***

I Walk Alone
***

I walk alone this path I’m on
the people all look gray
why have they all melted
and changed to look that way.

Their faces look like lemon peel
the wrinkled up old rind
fingers hang like willow trees
they seek but never find.

I walk alone this path I’m on
the hypocrite tries to join.
He smiles, laughs, barks and bites
with tricks he flips a coin.

Up ahead I see the light
that these others dare to tread
only in the gloomy hedge
they’ll touch when they are dead.

I walk alone this path I’m on
does no one care to follow?
They choose to sit and do their thing
in lust and greed they wallow.

The Light alone embellishes me
I’ll lead you there it’s true.
I can not make you stay for long
it all depends on you!!

Quotation Saturday

PERPLEXED
 
Night and morning are making promises to each other which neither will be able to keep. ~Richard Shelton

I imagine that yes is the only living thing. ~e.e. cummings


Ink smears, as thoughts sometimes do. ~Terri Guillemets

If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud. Oh, if only I could! ~Antonio Porchia

BREATHE
 
When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath. ~Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika

If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You have another chance. ~Andrea Boydston

Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God. ~Krishnamacharya

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor. ~Thich Nhat Hanh

SELF
 
Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul. ~Henry Van Dyke, The Prison and the Angel

The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

To wash one's hair, make one's toilet, and put on scented robes; even if not a soul sees one, these preparations still produce an inner pleasure. 
~Sei Shonagon
 
Man is never alone. Acknowledged or unacknowledged, that which dreams through him is always there to support him from within. 
~Laurence van der Post

E.S.P of Writing: Part II

The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin
***

Have you ever heard of E.S.P.? It is short for Extra Sensory Perception. That’s not telling us a whole lot now is it? To me, I perceive it as an Extra sense. What? we have an extra sense?

Have you ever heard your mother say, “Don’t you have the sense God gave you?” Well maybe your mother didn’t but I’ve heard it a few times in my lifetime, and I always looked back and whispered, “Yes, my sixth one,” and as she would turn her back I know I had a tongue sticking out at her. I was just an ornery child like that.

We at f2k (the FREE Creative Writing Course) have a lesson that deals with the senses. We have the normal five senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste, but we have also added three more to add to the effect of your writing; time, space, and the unknown.

Eerie isn’t it, the unknown? Not really: As the sky opens up and unleashes a torrential downpour this late afternoon, I wonder if the newly born kittens are dry. Look at that sentence! The sky would be SPACE, late afternoon would be TIME, and a moment of wonder would be the UNKNOWN. It is THAT simple.

And to top it off the sentence is showing not telling. You get the idea here, right? Now try this on for size.

As I walked down the street in the afternoon sun, I wondered where the aroma of coffee was coming from. I grabbed the pole to catch my balance, as my mouth watered in anticipation of finding the noisy outdoor bistro on the corner.

As I walked down the street (space) in the afternoon (time) sun, I wondered (unknown) where the aroma(smell) of coffee was coming from. I grabbed the pole (touch) to catch my balance, as my mouth watered in anticipation (taste) of finding the noisy (sound)outdoor bistro on the corner. (sight)

Notice how those two sentences, a small paragraph, used all eight senses? In our f2k lesson we ask for you to write a paragraph (READ my words, a PARAGRAPH) using the eight senses. Would you believe, it could take four and five paragraphs to use eight senses?
Keep in mind, many in the class are novice writers, but seriously?

Over six hundred people signed up for this free course, and many quit after the first lesson because they found that either, there are too many restrictions (thanks, we don’t allow porn), there are too many guidelines, (yes, when we say 500 words, we don’t mean 648)and this is my favorite, “I am a stiff shirt.” *loud laughter here*

I like kidding around with the rest of them, but really, this is a business I take quite seriously and in all of my eight senses, it tells me that this “stiff shirt” is going places, while the rest of the people continue to try and balance a ball on their nose and ride a tricycle at the same time.

E.S.P of Writing

Hebews 5:14 says: But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
***

Are we being asked to exercise our senses? Darned tootin! For when our senses diminish, like the morning mist, we will also.

When we walk through the pages of life it is our senses that bring us from one place to the other. Without the senses, life would be an empty abyss shaped as a bowl full of nothing. A senseless bowl that sits there with nothing in it. Even if it was full of mashed potatoes and gravy smothered on top, if you didn’t have your senses, it would just be a bowl.

How would you know it was a bowl if you didn’t touch it to feel the shape? How would you know the bowl held mashed potatoes with gravy, nudging its way in a steamy mist toward you, without the aroma carrying the fragrance to your nostrils? 

Even without sight, you can tell that it is mashed potatoes. The texture, the taste, the scented aroma, even the sound of the plopping into the bowl would give you an idea that you are about to dive into a delicious something. Molecules of cooked potatoes are leaping at your nose!

You see what I’m getting at? Our senses will spell out a world of imagination and vibrant life. When one sense is lost, the others stand at attention waiting for direction, but really they need no direction because they are there just quietly activating without you even knowing it.

This is what we need to do when writing. We need to allow our senses to guide us through the words and world of imagery. Don’t think about what you’re going to write, allow your senses to lead the way into a tale of glory.

Your writing with the senses is a lot like faith. You either trust in it fully or you have doubts in your thoughts. There is no room for doubts where faith is concerned. Faith is diving off a bridge, arms flung wide open, and out of nowhere you are caught by a feather that places you in the water. A boat might come by to save you but faith is trusting that a boat will come by. Some might die, but faith will keep you alive.

You have senses to carry you through life. Taste, touch, sight, smell, sound, and in our f2k, we liberally added: the unknown, space and time. These are the senses that you will write with. These are the senses that will propel your writing to new heights.Be sure you have faith in your writing as the senses haul you from one place to the other and your reader will thank you for taking the extra time to touch them in ways no other has ever reached.

Come alive with your senses, they’re there for a reason, so use them to the very best of your writing ability. Our writing is a sixth sense of sorts. We need more than five senses if we’re going to carry our story to the heights that we see envision.

Write Right...

Chess anyone?

It is impossible to win gracefully at chess. No man has yet said "Mate!" in a voice which failed to sound to his opponent bitter, boastful and malicious. ~A.A. Milne
***

So you were anticipating a blog post about the correlation between writing and chess? Well let me tell you, I can give a really good analogy of a chess/life scenario but I’ve really got to work on the writing/chess scenario.

Okay where do I begin? I’ll start with the white side. This is the team I always go for in playing chess. It reminds me of purity and all that that entails. Strength,wisdom, knowledge,etc.

In writing, the white team can be visualized as the protagonist, or the good guy. The dudley-do-right, the main character of the story. Then we have the black team and they are the antagonist, the bad guys, the dark force, the one or ones that will be causing all kinds of trouble in the story.

We have pawns on both sides, correct? The same powerful pieces standing behind the pawns on both sides too. The pawns can be seen as the disposable characters, if you will. Now you have all of these characters standing behind you vying for a place so lets give them a place.

The rook will be the homestead or the solid foundation of your story, the dark side has an ominous looking castle which probably houses Count Dracula or some other dark figure.

The knight will be the character in your story that does all the fighting for you. They don’t call it the Knight in shining armor for no reason at all. He just might save, your damsel in distress. The dark fights for the light, the light normally wins IN THE END, hopefully, with fingers crossed, the Light will win. (emphasis on WILL win)

Then we have the bishops. They can be your moral compass. The bishop can stand for our values, beliefs, hope, faith and promise. The good seed buried in all of us that sometimes we call a conscious. Now the dark bishop is who in your story? Well it’s the dark force or the bad seed that will not and can not take root because you’ve given him/it no fertile soil in which to grow. He is going to be the turmoil around every corner in your story.

Ah, now we have the king and queen. This will be the strong lead characters in your story who eventually are left standing with the dark side (king and queen) all alone on that big checkered board, or white paged palette we call a storyboard.

What do we do in this position? We do what any good writer would do and that is knock the pants off of the Dark Force and we have our main characters all full of light left standing in a triumphant glow of completion. Check Mate!

Does any of this make sense? Well to my demented writers brain it does. Look out Stephen King, I figured you out! Now lets see if I can see what gardening and writing have in common. Okay, I’m kidding! (not really)

Now we know what makes a story so what are you waiting for? Why are you sitting here reading, shouldn’t you be writing? 

***

'Tis all a chequer board of nights and days,
Where destiny with men for pieces plays;
Hither and thither, and mates, and slays.
~Edward Fitzgerald

Poetry Sunday ~ September 11 ~

Psalms 85:2  Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

September 11

***

I cradled my morning coffee,
my eyes they struggled to see;
a horrific terrible tragedy,
unfolding in front of me.

Today’s background clutter,
seemed to take a second stance,
scrambling cameras everywhere,
gave rise to a deeper glance.

A plane had hit a building,
I couldn't believe my eyes.
The horror of a gaping wound,
of such an enormous size.

By now I'm jolted wide awake,
something was just not right.
I witnessed the impact yet again,
on the twin without a fight.

Billowing smoke and fragments,
scattered all around.
People frozen in a spot,
as objects fall to the ground.

Reports of other targets,
were coming into view;
my tear-filled eyes were wondering
what this world was coming to.

In merely a matter of moments,
my blurry eyes did see;
heroes rushing into the scene,
as workers fought to flee.

The crumbling of a building,
number two not far behind;
the crashing of plane three and four,
had mentally boggled my mind.

I couldn't feel my fingersmy fingers.
a wounded numbness arose;
I sat in total disbelief
as my body stood there froze.

Longing to be shaken,
from this nightmare that is real.
My body shrouded in emptiness,
as I buckled to a kneel.

I prayed for lovetorn strangers,
whose faces cringed with fear.
I longed for welcome solace,
through the shedding of a tear.

The aroma of terror lingers,
as I'm trembling to the core.
I long for the taste of freedom,
which I sense will be no more.

A sleeping nation awakened,
by the trumpets sounding in heaven.
Altering our lives forever,
On the day of September eleven.

Copyright © Joni Zipp

Quotation Saturday

PEACE
 

We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace. 

~William Ewart Gladstone

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war. 

~Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit

The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists. 

~William J. Clinton, 1997

WAR

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud. I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.

~Charles Sumner
 

War does not determine who is right - only who is left. 

~Bertrand Russell

The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking... the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. 

~Albert Einstein

All the arms we need are for hugging. 

~Author Unknown

FREEDOM
 

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. 

~Thomas Paine

History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads. 

~Charles de Gaulle

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Here is my advice as we begin the century that will lead to 2081. First, guard the freedom of ideas at all costs. Be alert that dictators have always played on the natural human tendency to blame others and to oversimplify. And don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with to free, public, unhampered expression. 

~Gerard K. O'Neill, 2081

LOVE
 

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. It is God's finger on man's shoulder. 

~Charles Morgan

Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. 

~Eric Fromm

Love has no desire but to fulfill itself. To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. 

~Kahlil Gibran

Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. 

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Do we Remember?

Matt. 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies.
***

Today is September 9...we’re building up to the tenth anniversary of a devastating time in the history of our American lives. We can all remember the day of September 11, like it just happened yesterday, but I see so many have moved on into a breeding ground of immorality and took none of the message in the shrapnel to heart.
 

We’ve moved on, and took giant leaps back. We didn’t understand the message, we instead became angry and full of hate and in a sense allowed that hatred to fester and bloom into what we have today, a world full of hate.
 

I watch as Christians, or the ‘so-called’ Christians, stand up in what is supposedly God’s name and place judgment on men and mankind. Who has the right to judge another mans faith and religion? I, personally, don’t feel I am in any position to sling mud at anyone, just because they don’t believe in the same things I do.
 

The news is this year the first responders and clergy are not going to be allowed at the 10th Anniversary of where all the devastation took place.The Mayor says there is no room. Can you imagine the firefighters saying, “We don’t have time to go in and save people?” What a messed up world we live in.
 

I’m not asking Atheist to believe in God, they’ve never encountered the power so why should they? I don’t expect the Islamic community to accept my bible, they’ve never encountered the affection of my God, so why should they? What I do expect is for my religious so-called leaders of this country to stand UP for my God, and preach true Christianity, if they even have the slightest idea of what that is. Love thy neighbor as thyself...turn the other cheek, and all the LOVE that Jesus taught us to carry with us on a daily, not weekly, basis.
 

If you believe in Jesus, or have even heard of Him, you know, He was NOT a man of hate, anger and bitterness. His mission was to bring LOVE into the light of the world, and it is a sad day, when politicians have their own agenda in memorializing one of the most devastating days in American history.
 

September 11, 2001 changed my life forever. The cruel men that committed this act, are either dead or are facing a harsh sentence, or are being sought after to face their final end. The war in Iraq continues. The word terrorism is on the lips of everyone. To hold onto anger, bitterness and the need to retaliate is not what my Christianity is all about. Mine is all about FAITH, LOVE, and HOPE. Have a blessed weekend!

Build-a-Character

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. ~Oscar Wilde
***

Okay, we’re off to a great start at f2k. The students have all met one another, they have been rolling through the halls like snowplows on a blizzardy day. They’ve sat at the cafe, posted some work, talked a little about themselves and just basically did everything the orientation week calls for and that is “Get to know your peers.”

We have a lively bunch too, with a sense of humor, intelligence that would make Gates sit in awe, friendliness that Mother Teresa would be proud of, and then there is the camaraderie. It can  possibly be found nowhere else on the web except through writers.

We have a tendency to be accepting and friendly and it rubs off on even the most scared of the bunch, that would be the newbs. Newbies means new folk to the forum for those of you, not in the know.

We’re learning already about each others likes and dislikes, style and originality, we’re getting to know one person at a time and this is always a highlight of my year when I can share with others a part of myself, while growing and learning at the same time. 

Which reminds me this week we learn about our characters. Nice segue by the way, right? From living breathing characters to our fictional characters?  Yeah, that’s what we’re doing this week. We’re getting to know our characters intimately. I mean all the way down to a well produced pimple! If a character has one, write about it, we need to know our characters right down to the hairs spurting out on their heads.

Building a character is as much fun as the ‘Build-a-bear’ workshop. But as adults, we get more out of it than the eager child. We are like the eager child as we build our characters to form a part of a story that we writer’s are writing. It builds and builds until we have a an outline, a story, then either a novel or a short story.

This is the week our characters sit at the keyboard and talk about US! Kinda like Stephen Kings The Dark Half. We’re letting our characters have full reign of the keyboard for a change!

A lot of folks will pay no mind to the rules and guidelines, their characters will stay on the paper while they themselves talk about their characters. Gee, there’s a spin, do what you want! lol I’ll learn a whole lot about everyone’s characters and their character as a person as a matter of fact.

Don’t post your links, and they post them, don’t be in a hurry, and they rush and post the lesson, editing twenty times before weeks end. Yup...its a dog eat dog kinda world. We just gotta live with it. Now...
 
Go be an eager beaver today and start building a Character!

Write Right friends!

Flutter of Keys

Can you hear it? The sound of keys tapping crazily, people writing, posting, scrambling, (no pushing and shoving) all trying to get into the Free Writing course that I’ve decided to mentor once again this session. I had put it off last session to take a break from the insanity, but with it now in full swing since last Tuesday, I realized, the insanity has begun again.

I only say insanity, because have you ever seen over 500 writers all trying to get into one hallway, looking around for rooms, names and lessons all that will carry them on the journey of writing that they’ve decided to embark on?

They’ll come in, demanding to be given a lesson, tired of looking around at all the links, they’ll want to begin like yesterday on this writing journey. Some will not like the fact that they need to adhere to rules, post links of their websites and be out the door. We have over six hundred registered and I’m always amazed how so many people begin the journey but few stay the course to see the journey through.

As volunteer mentors, we take quite a battering. As students get frustrated, sling harsh brutal words at you, slit your throat while you’re off helping someone else, these people need to realize that we are humans behind the screen, who have taken many hours out of our lives to guide you, the new writer on a path that just may lead you to the published world.

Even if you don’t get published; as one person has asked us NOT to  publish his/her writing in our EZine. Can you imagine that? Someone hails your work as good enough to be publishable and because you’re not getting MONEY, you say you will decline having your work published? And I’m telling you, they put up a good argument as to why they DON’T want their work published. I just hope that seven years down the line as they are still struggling to get something published, has forced them into giving up writing entirely, that they remember that the one score on their resume where it says PUBLISHED, is missing.

You still are being taught the basics in writing. Some really good lessons on Dialogue, Characterization, and  quite a few other tricks of the trade. All of which you will carry with you on the leg of your writing journey, where you feel as if you’re in the least, a competent writer.

As you sail off on this writing journey, respect the ones who are there giving of their time to see you through this leg of your writing career. We’re here to assist, it is your job to learn, not butt heads with one another because guess what, every market that you submit to, will have guidelines and rules.

Enjoy the path that you’ve chosen. You’ve chosen wisely. Stay the course my new friends.

Poetry Sunday ~ Gods Whisper

Gen. 27: 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.
***
God’s Whisper
***
He booms right in with words to say
“I will show you all the way!”
He lifts me up into the sky
“I give you this, don’t ask me why.”

“But I am lowly, humble and meek
why attack me when I am weak?”
Teeth they ooze with blood not clean,
his gripping claws are not unseen.

“I give you more, a powerful soul
you’re my child, I’ve made you whole.”
It’s in the pool of my heart His stir,
the words of God, softly whisper.

A thunderous roar screams out to me
“I can not just allow you to be.
I own you now with all your lies
I feed your walk of innate disguise.”

“Eternal life of light and beauty
I call upon you, your earthly duty.
All I gave you shall not blister
with me you’ll soar,” I heard Him whisper.

I give my life, to the one whose call,
makes me bow; I begin to fall.
It only takes a quiet sound
of God’s own voice to bring me ‘round!

Quotation Saturday

POETRY ~

Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air. Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable. Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away.
~Carl Sandburg, Poetry Considered

Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.
~Percy Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, 1821

The distinction between historian and poet is not in the one writing prose and the other verse... the one describes the thing that has been, and the other a kind of thing that might be. Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are of the nature rather of universals, whereas those of history are singulars. ~Aristotle, On Poetics
 

Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.
~John Keats

PHILOSOPHY ~

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.
~Voltaire
 

My definition [of a philosopher] is of a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to earth and trying to haul him down.
~Louisa May Alcott
 

Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to our selves. That we have first raised a dust, and then complain, we cannot see.
~George Berkeley

Being a philosopher, I have a problem for every solution.
~Robert Zend

HAPPINESS ~
 

Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.
~Robertson Davies

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.
~James Openheim

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
~Margaret Young

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Writing Community

The wings of hope carry us, soaring high above the driving winds of life. ~Ana Jacob

***

It’s been one of those years where if it was not for the writing community holding my hand as I walked through some difficult days, I wonder if I would ever have been able to get through them. Well that’s silly, I know I would have made it through. I’m a strong woman and have certainly been through worse in my life.

From yesterday’s post (if you read it) you may have gathered that it is a lonely life out here in the middle of the good ol U.S of A. but maybe you didn’t notice the angst, or maybe you did. Here lately anything I do is usually so misunderstood that people either shun me, apologize for their behavior or back away from me completely. I don’t blame them I just don’t want anyone to ever feel intimidated by me. I have problems and sins just like you! This is NOT a pity party, this is a Happy-To-Be-Me Party!

It’s okay. I’m so used to being alone in this world that when I have God over for a chat, we usually talk like giddy school kids. Okay, seriously, I do all the talking and He does a whole lot of listening.

It’s ironic, I have this one friend that understands my mind completely. We’ve never met, we’ve been virtual friends for about two-three years and every word that comes out of his mouth has substance to it. Every post on his facebook wall is of intelligent, thought-provoking posting. He told me that change is inevitable (like it or not) and to be patient, and that is what I will wait for, the inevitable face of change.

As much as I depend on books to inform me, friends to support me, I also frolic in the world of change. You’d think I would have gotten the steps down by now, but with each day that I begin to dance, there is a new step to learn, a silent whisper of change that we all have to get used to as we go through our lives.

By my New Year (which I celebrate, as always, on Easter) in 2012, my world will have taken on the shape of a piece of clay. It may be molded into something spectacular, or it may remain shapeless (which I doubt very much.) I will walk with my head held high and will have either carried you all with me on the journey or by then, you will have all run for the hills screaming, “This woman is insane!” 

You tolerate me at my darkest, cheer me at my nearest, pray for me at my weakest, and you’re all still here. I hope and pray that you come along on this journey because truly, without you, my virtual friends, I may not even have made it into a ball of clay! I would definitely be a shapeless form! To the Writing/Arts World, I give three cheers! To God...I give my all!