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 Day to day stuff....a memoir without order. |
 Imagination is described by Webster as...The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses in reality. Albert Einstein said "Logic will get you from A to B, but imagination will take you everywhere."  I never realized it until I read it somewhere but there are ways to boost one's imagination: Create a visual journal Draw whatever you see for 15 minutes a day. You don't need to be an artist. Think like an artist Cut out pictures from magazines & piece them together to create an original image. Listen to Bach Close your eyes while playing your favorite music. Or listen to the sounds of nature on a CD or in the great outdoors. Play word games Try thinking of as many words as you can that begin with MAR...or you pick. Daydream Let your mind wander, or focus on a single object & study its characteristics.     Everyone has a story....here's mine.....c ** Image ID #1701066 Unavailable **  |
| Winter is returning to Florida. By Thursday we will be in the freezing zone again and I can feel it in the air this morning. When I went to Publix yesterday, out front they had the most huge tomato plants in pots that I have ever seen. There were little green tomatoes everywhere, but the price, whew, a whopping $14.00. That buys a lot of nice ripe tomatoes, especially for one person. I'll buy a small seedling or two a few days after Thursday when it warms up again. And a couple pepper plants...and maybe an eggplant. I went to our monthly writers' meeting yesterday. The speaker was Rebecca Heflin  , a writer of romance novels living right here in Gainesville. She gave a great presentation and a complete handout of her talk, helpful for a writer of any genre. Romance writing is not my thing, makes me uncomfortable, but I still enjoyed the event.until next time...c |
| March 12th and 13th have special meaning for me. They were the birthdays of my grandmom and pop-pop, not that anyone attached that warning to their days, just that later in school I learned about it and always connected the two forever after. I can't remember which was which and I only remember celebrating my grandmom's 80th with one of the money trees popular then, around 1976. Eighty one-dollar bills clipped with clothespins to a three-foot fake green Christmas tree. She had the biggest smile and her little dog went crazy over it, one of those Jack Russells. My pop-pop died in 1960 much earlier than grandmom and I don't remember a whole lot about him except that I get that warm cozy feeling whenever I think about him so I know he was one of the "good guys".Little kids always know the good guys. I remember him letting me comb his hair, somehow I thought that was fun and a big deal. I'm getting the urge to try drawing a portrait of pop-pop though I don't have a really good photo, maybe a memory portrait. The ides of March in Florida are usually windy and stormy, but that's normal for March here. This morning it is very quiet, everyone is recovering from the clock advance. I would be too if it were not for Mopsy. She wakes me at 6:15 regardless of dst or est. She has her own clock. A cardinal is drinking and chirping just outside my window and tiny sparrows are gathered on the feeder. Everything is waking up. It's overcast and looks like rain as I drain the last of my coffee. until next time...c |
| Our book club met yesterday to discuss Untamed (see previous post). We had a great talk as everyone had their opinion of Carol...ever known anyone who ate roadkill? Several members had visited Cumberland Island, some many years ago, one just after the Kennedy's wedding. She had purchased some earrings from Gogo (a rich island celebrity and naturalist jewelry maker) and she even modeled them for us...made of rattlesnake bones, actually very pretty. In the mail today I received a juror qualification questionnaire (U.S. District Court). I may ask to be excused because I'm over 70 but it is no guarantee. The last time I served was during the 911 tragedy. until next time...c |
| I went to an "author talk" today at the library and only two people showed up, the librarian who set it up and yours truly. I felt so horrible for the author, Nancy Nau Sullivan, a memoirist, which is the reason I went. Turns out, it was great. I asked all kinds of questions I never would have asked had there been a crowd, and shared things I would not have shared. Each of us was very chatty, including the librarian. Of course, I bought her new book, The Last Cadillac, how could I not? She gave me some good tips about transitioning stories and even some advice on what might be the message of my memoir. Little light bulbs were going off in my brain like fireworks. I am so glad I went and got to meet her. It was such a shame there was no crowd, but their loss, my gain. I haven't started her book yet since I am still slogging through Untamed by Will Harlan, our book club selection for next month's meeting. Basically, it's a "save the wilderness of Cumberland Island" book and a biography of Carol Ruckdeschel, its biggest defender. There is a little bit of story which seems repetitive to me, but I'm not finished yet so maybe things will improve. I read about her online and she continues to live there (until her death by will of the Park Service), doing her thing with sea turtles, etc. I have to admire her since she is three years older than I am, tough lady. until next time...c |
| I've had a Createspace account for a long time, doodling with my memoir, but a couple days ago, I discovered KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) will publish your ebook and then, publish a paperback if you so desire with a free ISBN. So...what's the difference between the two now? Nothing that I can see other than which do you want to publish first, an ebook or a paperback? I've added an account in KDP and the publishing directions seem so much simpler to me. Now all I have to do is get that memoir finished! until next time...c |
I am still enjoying grapefruit juice from the free overhanging fruit in my backyard. I hope there is no "evil" connotation to that  . The temp was 50° at 8 o'clock this morning but my heater continues to click on and off since it remains cool in the house for some time.Strawberries from Plant City, around a hundred miles south of me, are appearing in my local grocery store. The cheaper they get, the better they taste, literally and figuratively, now replacing frozen blueberries in my morning cereal and so tasty in smoothies with a little sliced banana, yogurt, and almond milk. I have been watching a series on "Acorn" titled Where the Heart Is...addicted, that's me. I think there were ten seasons and I am on season 6. And now I know why I love all the British series. I received my DNA info from Ancestry.com and I have 77% Great Britain in my genes. I think I knew that all along with a name like Biddle but it is nice to be verified. I saw a beautiful yellow bird at the feeder this morning, too big to be a finch, I think. It was brilliant and almost as big as a cardinal. It didn't stay long enough for me to get a very good description. I continue to drudge on with my memoir. The novel writing class has not been very much help yet. In fact, homework is requiring me to reveal things that I am not sure I want to reveal to strangers, making me think I do not want to publish at all. This week we are asked to write an elevator pitch, that 1-2 minute blast of what your book is about in the hopes of getting an agent interested. My first instinct to not sign up for this one was probably right. until next time...c |
| The first meeting of my latest writing class is under my belt. And I think I may be the only one who considers a memoir a novel...it is a novel-writing class and I have read on the web that novels can be fiction or non-fiction. Think In Cold Blood. I think the question should be...is a novel a memoir when you list the genre. Memoir promises truth so if you "niggle", you cannot truthfully call your novel a memoir. There, settled. Maybe. Now I need to decide what I am writing. until next time...c |
| Today we're having winter and summer in one day...48° this morning, projected 78° this afternoon. Okay, I'll take it. I signed up for that class I talked about a couple blogs back, nine other people have done the same so far. It starts Thursday evening 6-9 and lasts six weeks. I didn't realize but I have a Word Press Meet-up in February on one of those Thursdays. I'll go to whichever seems more interesting. Here's the description of the class... "Do you want to write a novel? This course will teach you how to/whether you should outline your book, how to define your audience, follow classic story structure and get started. The course will also address the best ways to find inspiration and how to confront the blank page. Youll get solid tips on how to carve out time for your work and how to overcome the dreaded writers block." If only! The time part I don't need. I only need to get my butt in the chair as someone said, well, not quite. My butt is in the chair but I'm not working on what I should be. My writing group met yesterday and I read my latest entry, "The Tunnel" , to my Memoirs. It was a good conversation starter since just about everyone in my group either knew about or had been in the tunnel. Lots of other good stories from the others in the group.Oh, and this looks interesting, short stories .until next time...c |
| I learned something yesterday that I have to share. Probably everyone knows it but me but anyway...here goes. Did you know that you can send a Word doc to your Kindle? I didn't. You send it as an attachment in an email to your Kindle's email address. I hadn't known my Kindle had an email address. You can find yours if your look in your Amazon account under Manage Your Devices > Kindle > Settings. Scroll down and it will be there. I've been writing my memoir (for forever it seems) and seeing it on my Kindle has sort of jump-started me to get back to it. I've been in a slump for around two months now. And by seeing it in another format, I have found several errors (typos and punctuation and grammar) that I hadn't noticed before with my many readings in Word. Plus, it's almost like reading someone else's writing. I'm so excited. I guess you can tell  .If you have your manuscript in a Word doc and have a Kindle, try it. You will be pleasantly surprised. You can compare it to how your other Kindle ebooks look, how they're set up, how much white space is best, and lots of other things. It's amazing if you've never published a book. until next time...c |
| I may have overdone it a little yesterday. We are having such beautiful weather that I decided to clean out a bed of ivy for a flower/vegetable planting area in the spring. It looks very nice and ready, but this morning I am sore, stiff and achy. And I'm on a Prednisone decreasing regimen as well. I'm hoping it will pass with movement as the day goes on. Ah, but it's so wonderful working outdoors in the yard and there's so much to do. I have been working on a memoir for over four years and I'm having such a time about where to go with it. I'm at 32,000 words and it seems like I could be almost finished but in comparison to others, it is short. Plus, I'm thinking of deleting some parts that do not move the story forward. A fellow writer is teaching a class at the community college near me (Writing a Novel: Start to Finish) which I am tempted to sign up for. Is a memoir considered a novel? Or are all novels fiction? The first class is on the 26th so I have a little time to ponder. I went to a Word Press meetup last Thursday evening because I am assisting in updating our writers' site. I learned some things and had free pizza, can't beat that. The attendees (around 30 of us) ranged from "know nothing" to "site developers" so being somewhere in the low end I didn't feel at all out of place. It's held at a center for innovation and economic development (part of that community college) and has a scheduled meeting every month. I signed up for next month, too. Grapefruit are prolifically hanging over my backyard fence. They are sour and full of seeds but they make great juice...one a day to keep the colds away. My neighbor never picks any of them. I'm thankful for the ones hanging over. until next time...c |
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