General

My final Christmas present arrived today. Monday I discovered Amazon UK sells some imported American foods. They had half a dozen Pepperidge Farm cookies. After much agonising I chose the soft dark chocolate chip cookies. The item page (with a picture) said “pack of four” and I sat here wracking my brain trying to remember how many cookies each small white bag contained. I was sure it was six or eight. Had the bags got smaller? It seemed an outrageous amount of money to spend on four cookies, but heck it’s my birthday week and I figured one bag of cookies was less bad than buying a box cake; making it…frosting it…and eating it all. My Goblin found the box when he came home. It was big. I have four bags! I think that frosted cake might have had less calories. Too late! I’ll have to eat them.

There was one other thing in the box…a thin Non-fat Non-caloric item… My heart beat faster as I picked up my new second hand copy of Carolyn Courtney’s “Duchess in Disguise” (first published in 1979). I had to search for one with the cover I knew as a teenager, but I found one…and it’s mine! Will it be as good as I remember? I read the back of the book…then carefully opened it to the synopsis page… Oh I think it will…and Renata, cross my heart, I will not read one page of it until I’ve finished Dancing the Maypole! The cookies won’t last that long though.

I did something really dumb tonight. I like to think of myself as relatively intelligent. It’s true my Logic professor (who kindly gave me a special final test because I hadn’t known I could bring my book to the final – corrected my test and then looked me in the eyes and said, “I hope you’re not planning on becoming a Logician?”.) I didn’t need a sarcastic Mensa candidate to tell me I wasn’t destined to hang out with Isaac Newton (though I do finally understand the law of gravity and I did have to figure that one out on my own (nothing falls…it’s pulled). I had to wrack my brains for weeks to get that one. I blame my high school science teacher who I clearly remember saying the objects ‘fell’ and hit the earth at the same time. But that’s not my story today. I didn’t climb onto my roof and fall and break my arm proving the law of gravity. No, I went into my kitchen and tried to cook myself some dinner. [Read more…] about I did something dumb…

As Cinderella sang on the original Disney film, ‘A dream is a wish…your heart makes…’ If you are a creative individual and you have an artistic dream…I get to play fairy Godmother today because here is a website for you (unless you’ve already heard of it in which case here it is again)… (I can’t remember the exact words a fairy Godmother is supposed to say while waving her wand so let’s try, “Do Re Me Fa So La Tiiiie” Kickstarter.com is the most amazing place where creative dreams can come true! Have a look and tell me what you think. The great thing is…even if you don’t have any artistic dreams, you can help make other people’s dreams come true…if you wish!

If you’re a self-published author, want to be a self-published author or just a writer in need of inspiration I found a great blog that may help you. It’s called The Book Designer. The man behind the site is a professional book designer and writer. He covers all sorts of topics including ways to become a better writer. He has an article on free-writing I highly recommend. If you’ve read The Artist Way, free-writing is similar to morning pages or stream of conscience journal writing. One commenter after the article mentioned that she does free-writing on the computer and turns off the monitor so there’s no visual interruption to the flow. I use the computer because my hand goes numb very quickly using a pen, but I’d never thought of blinding myself to the page. I had to try it. So I set the timer on my clock for fifteen minutes, closed my eyes and started typing whatever came into my head. It felt SO good! My brain feels like its been vacuumed, sucked free of mental dirt. Even if you don’t want to self publish, if you’re a writer or someone who wants a happier brain have a look at the article and give free-writing with your eyes closed a go. I know from experience that when I do my morning pages every day my creativity blossoms, but I found it a bit of a chore. Now that I found an enjoyable way to clean my brain I’ll be doing it every morning. Read the article and see what you think.

To promote her new regency romance (which I haven’t read yet, but sounds really funny), Teresa Bohannon is having a competition for an original near mint condition comic book Perfect Love No.3 from 1951. If you love Mad Men this is what secretaries would have been reading on their lunch break! The comic is worth between $120-200 USD! I want it just for the cover. I would put this under glass and hang it on my wall, but I freely admit to loving comic books and if I win…I will read it before I put it under glass! I love the love stories mentioned at the bottom of the comic. ‘Could Love Survive The Pharaoh’s Curse?’ and ‘I Risked My Happiness on The Wheel of Fate’. Is it just me or does the first one conjure up romantic gropings amid dust covered mummies? I see Agatha Christie (and her second husband younger by fifteen years – go Agatha!) digging in Egypt and finding herself caught in a curse that… Well let your imagination run wild! I hope I win, but if I don’t…maybe you will…but only if you enter! Last entry date is Jan 31st 2011.