"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is
felt rather than seen."
~ Leonardo da Vinci ~
Image by: JulieJordanScott
Showing posts with label Inspiration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspiration. Show all posts
Quote of the Week
Not exactly my usual "Quote of the Week" but spotted this HILARIOUS cartoon on my English-major daughter's Facebook status. It's a cartoon by Jacob Andrews (writer of forlackofabettercomic.com). originally published in the August 17, 2011 Huffington Post College. LOVE IT!!
Quote of the Week
"Tis easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows along like a song;
But the man worthwhile is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong."
~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox ~
Image by: Xanetia
Quote of the Week
"What would you attempt to do if you knew you would not fail?"
~ Robert H. Schuller ~
Image by: Geishaboy500
Quote of the Week
"When I hear somebody sigh that 'Life is hard,' I am always tempted to ask,
'Compared to what?'"
~ Sydney J. Harris ~
Image by: Ruifernandes
Quote of the Week
"I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another."
~ Brenda Ueland ~
Image by: Clarkston SCAMP
Kreativ Blogger Award
Now you will all know the truth about how unbalanced I am. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Awww, never mind. I guess it does.
Annnnnyway…
One of my favorite author friends, Heidi Willis, presented me with the Kreativ Blogger Award back in (cough) February. And I’m only just now getting around to officially thanking her for it and following the directions that go along with accepting it.
I’m supposed to write ten things about myself and then pass the award on to a few bloggers I enjoy. So, here goes!
Ten Random Things…
1. All my spices are alphabetized.
2. I tend to “speak” in movie quotes. A lot. (I do it often enough that my kids and hubby can usually complete the next line of dialogue when I start it. I know, that’s bad, right?)
3. I laugh really hard at my own jokes. Even if nobody else does.
4. I ALWAYS read the manual.
5. I’m a slow reader and try to make up for it by reading 2-3 books at the same time.
6. The minute I finish a book I really like, I immediately do an Internet search for every interview with the author I can find.
7. I’ve tricked my son into watching a variety of musicals as well as the first three Twilight episodes.
8. I never got to perform in a play in high school, but got the lead in the first college play I tried out for.
9. Um…I started running out of ideas here, so I just asked my daughter to give me a random fact about myself and she said, “You hold one-sided conversations with the dog.” Yeah. It’s true, I do. I say something. Then I make him say something. Then I respond. And so on. It’s sad really.
10. Okay, this last one is going to make me sound really mean, but I purposely park next to cars that are poorly parked (like on huge angles over the line and stuff.) I park right in the center of my space which typically makes it difficult for the bad parker to get back into their car. I feel like I’m performing a public service when I do this, though. I’m helping that driver become aware of the need to park more considerately in the future.
Now, let me send you on to some blogs I enjoy--beside’s Heidi's, of course!
Teresa is über talented and funny. A writer, homeschooling mom and unlike me, she grows stuff her family can actually eat!
Freelance journalist and author Kristine Meldrum Denholm shares interesting posts and encouragement for writers.
Annette Piper is a talented jewelry artist who blogs about her awesome creations and her life on a cattle farm in rural Australia.
Nancy blogs about her faith and life in the Midwest.
Ivy is a talented singer and writer. She blogs about her family, faith and living life to the fullest.
Quote of the Week
"I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that."
~ Lauren Bacall ~
Image by: Ftbester
Quote of the Week
"A terrace nine stories high
Rises from a handful of earth;
A journey of a thousand miles
Starts from beneath one’s feet."
~ Lao Tzu ~
Image by: Francisco Dietz
Quote of the Week
"We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
~ C.S. Lewis ~
Image by: Steve A. Johnson
Spring Break
Okay, okay, I’m just kidding. I swiped this awesome photograph from a website I know nothing about but stumbled across because of its beautiful tropical images. You know when you’re stressed out and people tell you to go to your “Happy Place”? Well, right now this is mine! On previous spring and summer breaks, I’ve taken you gallivanting with us to Rome, Paris, Hawaii and more on this blog. But this year we are enjoying a simple “stay-cation.” I’ll be back in a couple of weeks.
Happy Easter, everyone!
Quote of the Week
"The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine."
~ Abraham Lincoln ~
Image by: Alexander Gardner
Author Interview: Taylor Stevens
© Alyssa Skyes
Last week I posted my review of THE INNOCENT, the second novel by New York Times best selling author Taylor Stevens. And this week, as promised, here is my interview with this most intriguing author.
HB: In my first interview with you, you mentioned initially writing THE INFORMATIONIST as a way to bring the exotic worlds of Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon to life for readers. What was your impetus for writing THE INNOCENT?
TS: It was pretty much the same impetus, just a different exotic world. I am so often asked if I’d be willing to talk a little about my life growing up in the Children of God, but it was such a bizarre and often-changing environment that it’s impossible to accurately summarize in even a couple of paragraphs or even one article. So basically, in THE INNOCENT, my intent was to do what I did in THE INFORMATIONIST, which was to take the readers hand and say, come let me show you a world you’ll hopefully never experience, and I will try to do it in a way that is also thrilling and entertaining.
HB: I know you were able to rely somewhat on memory and personal experience while writing THE INNOCENT. But when research is required, how do you handle it?
TS: Much of what I write involves foreign locations and although I can get a general idea of what I’m working with by utilizing the Internet, mostly what I get is anxiety while I wonder how much I’m getting wrong. My solution so far has been to visit the places in question and to interview and talk to people who are experts in subjects with which I’m unfamiliar, but considering the ideas that I have for Munroe number four, I may soon have to cross my fingers and settle for the anxiety.
HB: It’s totally awesome the way Munroe kicks butt! How do you go about crafting those page-turning action scenes? Are you trained in martial arts or fighting techniques?
TS: One day I’d like to learn Krav Maga (which is the closest to the way Munroe fights) but I’m still very much a scaredy-cat in real life. Many readers do comment on the vividness and intensity of the action sequences, but I think the credit is theirs, not mine. I try to avoid over-explaining every single move that each character makes, instead focusing on what they are thinking/ feeling while the action is occurring, and I believe this allows the readers’ own imagination to fill in the blanks and create the intensity and visual sharpness.
HB: How big a factor do you feel social media has played in your success?
TS: I spend a lot of time on Facebook and a little bit on Twitter, but I do it for the purpose of interacting with my readers and fans, not necessarily to promote my books. I’ve never really put a lot of effort into social media for the purpose of promotion as that feels so much like screaming into the wind. I do think that social media has played a role, but more as a byproduct of how people communicate in this day and age—one person to the next in a word-of-mouth sort of way. I’m very grateful that my readers have felt this series is worth talking about!
HB: I understand you're in the process of editing your third Vanessa Michael Munroe novel, THE DOLL. Can you give us any hints as to what it’s about?
TS: In THE DOLL, Vanessa Michael Munroe is thrust into a world of human trafficking and sexual slavery, forced to deliver a missing Hollywood starlet to a client in order to protect the ones she loves. If she succeeds, she'll guarantee the young girl's demise, and if she fails, seal the fate of others. Win or lose, Munroe will pay her dues in the only currency she values: innocent life, and so must choose who lives, who dies, or find a way to outthink and outsmart a man who holds all the cards.
HB: Is there a question which no interviewer ever asks that you wish they did?
TS: Only once have I ever been asked by an interviewer how much of what’s already in print about me is accurate. I wish people would ask that more because I have rarely read an article or interview about me or my work that is 100% factual. I have been lied to, and about, and deliberately misquoted, but most of the time the errors aren’t malicious—just mistakes and/or misunderstandings on the part of the interviewer. But the thing is, when people read stuff in print they assume that a quote is something I really said, in context, word for word. Half the time, it’s not.
Thanks so very much, Taylor! (Uh…hopefully, I didn’t get any quotes wrong, but please let me know if I did!)
Quote of the Week
“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.”
~ Rudyard Kipling ~
Image Credit
Quote of the Week
"One of the greatest things about being a writer
is that I can get paid for getting
answers to my own questions!"
~ Jenna Glatzer ~
Quote of the Week
"It’s not the hours you put in your work that count, it’s the work you put in the hours."
~ Sam Ewing ~
Image by: meddygarnet
Quote of the Week
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."
~ Henry David Thoreau ~
Image by: Mindfulness
Quote of the Week
"Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill."
~ Edmund Morrison ~
Image by: DartmoorGiant
I’m In Love!
Well, it’s Valentine’s Day week, and I’m in LOVE…
With my iPhone!
My hubby went out a couple of months ago and switched our entire family from regular “old-fashioned” cell phones to iPhones. Initially, I was dismayed. First of all, I did not have time to learn how to use an entirely new phone. Second, I saw no reason to complicate my life by carrying around a phone with which I could access the Internet, read e-mails, etc.
Added stress and confusion, I thought. Who needs it?
Well, fast forward a few months and can I just say this phone is the COOLEST! Total nerd that I am, I’ve read the entire manual. I didn’t allow myself to add any “apps” to the phone until I’d finished. My son, however, is the App King. He’s got loads of them! One app he particularly enjoys is called ROFL (Rolling On Floor Laughing). He recently had me laughing over a ROFL list titled: Truths for Mature Humans. He was reading them out loud to me as I was preparing dinner and I found many of them SO true, I finally insisted he send me the list. I won’t put all 32 items on here, but I figured I’d share what I considered ten of the most profound “truths”:
1. There is a great need for a sarcasm font.
2. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
4. Was learning cursive really necessary?
5. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
6. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
7. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.
8. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I honestly believe I did not make any changes to.
9. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
10. I would rather carry 10 overloaded bags in each hand than take two trips to bring my groceries in.
Awww, what the hey! Let’s make it 11 truths…
11. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey--but I bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from three feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!
Happy Valentine’s Day Week!
Quote of the Week
“Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”
~ George S. Patton ~
Official U.S. Navy Imagery
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