tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27175916996678162632024-03-19T05:29:44.885-04:00In The EtherWandering, Wondering and Writing the Journey
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.comBlogger363125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-91080545122270651622013-10-20T06:00:00.000-04:002013-10-20T06:00:02.115-04:00A Totally New DirectionThe most cursory glance at posts on this blog over the past few months will demonstrate that this has been a time of transition, change and growth for me. Some wonderful things are happening now, and I am doing what I need to do to lay the foundation for the future I want to build.
It saddens me to discover that one of the casualties of that process is to be this blog, at least for the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-41202234363737397482013-10-13T06:00:00.000-04:002013-10-13T06:00:07.661-04:00Two Inspiring Women (One Real, One Fictional)
Originally Posted - THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2009
Revised: September 2013
For some reason, today I sort of meandered down the road of recalling people who have most inspired me. The first two names that popped into my head were Erma Bombeck and Mary Richards.
My self-image as a kind of literary type would love to have those first two names be Germaine Greer and Lucy Maud Montgomery (the author Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-7253687237427027722013-10-06T05:59:00.000-04:002013-10-06T05:59:01.940-04:00Achieving a Lofty Goal (Or, the Bear Went Over The Mountain...)Since 2005, I've written more than a dozen novels, virtually every one of them dealing in one way or another with the issue of how a person puts their life back together after tragedy strikes. I think every one of those stories was essentially my mind rehearsing various scenarios for what I might do if (when) my life imploded. The first novel I wrote, Always Faithul, was really my Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-8559236742716632382013-09-29T14:01:00.000-04:002013-09-29T14:01:00.184-04:00"The Conflict: How Overzealous Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women" by Elisabeth BadinterThis book may be the new Feminine Mystique. It certainly has the potential to be as controversial. Badinter occasionally gives in to the temptation to make blanket statements that actually made me mad. However, I think if you eliminate the (intentionally?) polemical tone, and look at the content, the woman's got a real point. Over-parenting may ultimately be almost as bad for the kids as Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-25532393314698161562013-09-22T06:00:00.000-04:002013-09-22T06:00:06.547-04:00Navigating the Rapids of Change: Easy Does ItIn my late twenties, after years of working a grinding schedule, I had the opportunity to switch to working part-time, on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule. The first Tuesday I was off, I wandered from room to room thinking about all the projects I could undertake around the house, and day-dreaming about various creative things I wanted to do. At the end of the day, I had Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-68848650338498057342013-09-15T06:00:00.000-04:002013-09-15T10:55:55.104-04:00Is War Really the Best Way to Solve Political Disputes? As a general rule, I don't like books or movies about war. Recently, the book The Thin Red Line by James Jones came up on a Kindle Daily Deal, so I bought it thinking that it might be interesting to get some insight into what my dad might have experienced on Guadalcanal. (He never talked about the war with me.)
I think this book is probably as realistic a depiction of the jungle combat as Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-70667233405577046442013-09-08T06:00:00.000-04:002013-09-10T18:40:17.294-04:00Growing Old With AttitudeWhile I was in junior high, my mom and her three closest friends all turned 40. When the youngest of the group had her 40th birthday, they got together for lunch at the home of one of the ladies. It was summer, so I went with my mom. The birthday lady cried through the whole party. The other women tried to console her, but she couldn't stop crying. She said she felt that all she had ahead of her Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-34753224433592890702013-09-01T06:00:00.001-04:002015-05-25T16:00:56.151-04:00Moving Into A New HomeI used Grammarly to grammar check this post, because: (a) I can't afford to hire a human editor; (b) I can't spell; (c) I suck at typing; and, (d) (most importantly), the folks at Grammarly.com offered to give me a $20 gift certificate if I tried their product. I tried it and discovered that my fifth grade English teacher (mentor, guru and head writing muse) has been reincarnated as a website Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-70908017846011540142013-08-25T06:00:00.001-04:002013-08-25T06:00:01.795-04:00"Bread and Circuses" -- No, thanks.People tell me I need to get out more and socialize. The problem with that is I don't find much pleasure in the kinds of things that most people think of as fun.
Entertainment purely for the purpose of passing the time annoys me. When I see a large sporting event or concert on TV, I am reminded of the Colosseum where Rome used entertainment as a mechanism of social control. Sometimes it Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-25648510836726728372013-08-20T04:44:00.000-04:002013-08-20T04:44:59.068-04:00The Cycle of Motherhood - Moving OnI missed a couple of weeks here because I have been busy moving to a new apartment and helping my daughter move to her first apartment, approximately 1000 miles away from here. Not surprisingly, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on motherhood lately.
When I was young, I never wanted to have children. I didn't see myself as the nurturing type. That's because I'm not.
I hatedAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-13922633484284094332013-08-04T06:00:00.001-04:002013-08-04T06:00:01.347-04:00Course Correction and Moving On I have been watching my stats lately and discovered that my most popular posts are the ones that are the most personal. Somehow that doesn't surprise me. I think people like to read writers who speak from the heart. My initial purpose in setting up this blog was to sell my novels. I suck at that, because I really don't want to "do" marketing. Now they say that marketing books doesn't work Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-29351832962168265642013-07-28T06:00:00.000-04:002013-07-28T06:00:08.015-04:00"In My Own Little Corner"This post by Jurgen Wolff came into my email at the end of May. I have saved and savored it. At this time in my life I am contemplating the third act of my life. How shall I live? To what shall I devote my time? Where will I live?
There is a small part of me that loves the idea of going adventuring. I love to visit beautiful places. A little corner of my heart would love to Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-42987010324775564162013-07-21T06:00:00.001-04:002013-07-21T06:00:06.415-04:00On the 50th Anniversary of "The Feminine Mystique"This article on the 50th Anniversary of the publication of The Feminine Mystique got my attention because it's a worthy anniversary to celebrate. The article annoyed me. I got part way down the comments before I lost my temper altogether.
Like so much of contemporary journalism, the article is oversimplified to the point of being downright inaccurate. Friedan's book ignited flames, on both Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-90334953704024539492013-07-14T06:00:00.001-04:002013-07-14T06:00:00.758-04:00Does an e-reader change the way we read? This post made me think. [Which is the whole idea of Big Think. Duh]
The author blames e-readers for causing people to race through a book rather than lingering and savoring the experience of reading. She's right about the fact that's evidently how most people read these days. I'm not sure that I agree that e-readers are at fault, however. I think the "scanning" phenomenonAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-86732141131786676212013-07-07T06:00:00.001-04:002013-07-07T06:00:04.353-04:00Book Review: "The Monuments Men" by Robert M. EdselI seem to have a knack for stumbling upon books about historical events that are more like something out of a movie. The Monuments Men* features a collection of American GI's leading French slave-laborers in the process of rescuing priceless works of art from mines that are wired with explosives. Electricity going out. Russians racing forward on the Eastern Front. The war is Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-16147998797137235852013-07-04T11:51:00.004-04:002013-07-04T11:51:36.363-04:00Smashwords Summer Sale!During the month of July all my e-books are available for FREE on Smashwords. Use the coupon code for each book to get them for free from now through July 31.
My Smashwords Author Page is here.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-25642234219350015822013-06-30T06:00:00.000-04:002013-06-30T06:00:02.500-04:00Putting Humpty Together Again ... and Again ... and AgainBig Think - David Arenson - Butterfly, Fly Again! This article is kind of preachy, but it struck a couple of deep chords for me.
First, it describes my writing process. I work through the bumps in my life by writing stories about how my characters navigate life's transitions. As I mentioned in a previous post, I write about what worries me. I give my burdens to my characters and I watch howAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-7655675323828523772013-06-23T06:00:00.000-04:002013-06-23T06:00:06.710-04:00Book Review: "The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel" by Diane Setterfield
Life is compost. ... The writer's life needs time to rot away before it can be used to nourish a work of fiction. It must be allowed to decay." Vida Winter in The Thirteenth Tale
This is a book* for writers and readers and anyone else who reveres the power of Story. It is a beautifully written modern Gothic novel. (I love British prose.)
The narrator, Margaret, works in her father's Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-30761654597972650012013-06-16T08:06:00.000-04:002013-06-16T08:06:37.268-04:00Creative Anxiety?Check out this post from Writer Unboxed on Anxiety and the Creative Process
Some people are more and some are less prone to anxiety, but at one time or another everyone feels anxious. Anxiety at some level seems to be built into our DNA. The author of of the post cited above, points out that it's actually a protection mechanism, getting the body ready to run or to fight.
There are a lot ofAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-64553404273633757712013-06-12T06:00:00.000-04:002013-06-12T06:00:08.784-04:00"The Science of Happiness" -- Stuff we all should have learned in KindergartenWatch this extraordinary talk on the subject of happiness by Stanford professor, Fred Luskin.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-81554541712669350492013-06-09T06:00:00.000-04:002013-06-09T06:00:02.907-04:00Book Review: "The Replacement Wife" by Eileen GoudgeI almost gave up on this book* at first because I thought it was going to be too tragic, and I didn't feel strong enough for it right now. I'm glad I stuck with it.
The story involves a woman whose cancer has returned after being in remission. Her doctor holds out little hope, but offers to try an experimental treatment. At the insistence of her family, the woman submits to the treatment, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-29605275396808219572013-06-02T12:24:00.001-04:002013-06-02T12:24:10.662-04:00This is what I'm talking about! This is potentially a step in the direction out of the morass I referred to in my last post! Led by Beyonce and sponsored by Gucci, the Chime for Change initiative was launched last night in London. It advertises itself as: "a community of people working to promote education, health and justice for every girl, every woman, everywhere."
I am not celebrity-watcher or a follower of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-83659835948965866012013-06-02T06:00:00.000-04:002013-06-02T06:00:02.866-04:00"Open Season on Women"A while back, in my post about Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In, I wrote that it sometimes seems to me these days it is "open season on women." I took that phrase out and put it back into the post several times before I convinced myself that it wasn't hyperbole.
Since then, that phrase and the reports of brutal rapes (some of them done in public) in India, Afghanistan, California and Canada Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-74145945386523630312013-05-26T06:00:00.000-04:002013-05-27T13:34:48.319-04:00Book Review: "Finding Florida" by T. D. AllmanI started reading this book* on a rainy Friday evening. I finished it about 4:30 PM on Sunday. As much as I love reading fiction, I think I love history more. This book had the advantage of being history well-written, with passion -- about a place I love. I couldn't put it down.
Anybody who thinks they might want to move to Florida should read this; hopefully it will dissuade you from making Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2717591699667816263.post-42071821432243422092013-05-19T06:00:00.000-04:002013-05-25T15:54:36.234-04:00A Renaissance Soul in a neo-medieval world. This guest post on Later Bloomer caught my eye and caused me to stop and think about what I really want to do with the next phase of my life. And then this post by Debra Eve herself provided a counterpoint, and sort of an answer.
My primal desire since the fourth grade was to be a writer. While doing a whole lot of other things along the way, I fooled around with writing on and off from that Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10192716036013528670noreply@blogger.com2