A Few Good Words

The past several weeks have been a bit crazy. I was sick with bronchitis then my husband came down with it.  Now he has heart trouble which we're dealing with.  C'est la vie. 

 I'm  a true believer in positive thinking and that dwelling on the negative only makes the problems and life itself worse. It can totally bring down your whole outlook on things.

So here are a few quotes I like.  Hope they help you along your way.  If you have a favorite quote,  share it with me.  I'd love to hear it.



Tough times never last, but tough people do.

What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail? - Robert H. Schuller 

When deeds speak, words are nothing. 
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon 

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind. -Author Unknown

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.” 
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou 

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” 
- Winston Churchill

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” - George Eliot

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

The Great Pacific What?

I know this is going to sound more like an Earth Day post but to me some things should be remembered more than one day out of the year.

Did you know  out in the Pacific Ocean there is a huge area, by some accounts twice the size of Texas, of floating garbage? It consists of plastic bottles, bags, toys, fishing lines and nets, and more. There is also a smaller one in the Atlantic Ocean. The plastic from these items break down into tiny pieces; some of which make their way to shore mixing with that same sand you like to wiggle your toes in.
Check out Charles Moore,  first to discover The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, talking about how wide spread this pollution is and what it consists of.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrAShtolieg

Sea turtles think plastic bags are jellyfish and ingest them. This can cause a blockage in their digestive system, resulting in death. Sea birds, such as the albatross,also eat the floating garbage. This junk cannot pass through their system and makes the bird think its belly is full and won’t eat. Eventually the bird will 
die of starvation.

If you’re not concerned about what we dump into our oceans consider this: there has been enough mercury leaked into the ocean that the FDA advises children, pregnant women or women who might become pregnant not to eat shark, king mackerel, swordfish and tilefish. They should limit their intake of albacore tuna or tuna steaks to six ounces a week, smaller amounts for children.

And if you're not concerned about that, consider the financial burdens.  California spends approximately $52.2 million per year trying to keep it's beaches clean.  That's  just one state.  Think of how many states have a coastline.  Hell it's not just the oceans but the waterways that are polluted with this same garbage and how many streams, lakes, and rivers does America have?   Got the picture?

So what can you do?  Well besides becoming informed and passing the word, reduce the amount of plastic bottles and bags you use by bringing reusable bags with you and by using metal water bottles.  Recycle, though it doesn't take of everything every little bit helps.  Don't litter.  Join groups that clean up beaches and streams.

Remember it's our only home.

Some other sites:
The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10patch.html?_r=1&-

Mother Nature Network - http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch

The Natural Resources Defense Council -  http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/plastic-ocean/

Or just google it. : )

Cherry Adair With LIRW

All this past week I've stayed home from work trying to rid myself of damn bronchitis.  Why?  Well for one thing no one likes being sick and two, this weekend is the LIRW workshop with Cherry Adair.  I've been  registered for this since October 2012  and then Hurricane Sandy decided it had other plans for us.  It was rescheduled.

 I have a room  reserved for me and two other LIRW members, Lisa Jo and Dawn. I'm excited about going but yet nervous.  I don't know why.  Maybe it's because I'm not a fast note taker or I'm afraid I'm not going to "get" what she's talking about, especially the plotting, since I'm a "panster",(one who doesn't really plot out stories but goes by the seat of her pants).


On Saturday Cherry presented a workshop on Layering and Texturing Your Novel.

Though a lot of this was sort of like a review, I enjoyed going over it all.  It's amazing what you forget until someone reminds you. Cherry also had some very good tips that she shared.   I took a decent amount of notes because it helps me to remember and yes, I was slow.  Every once in awhile I had to look over the shoulder of the woman in front of me, to see what she had typed so I could catch up.  Thank goodness she had a laptop so I could read it.

 Sunday's  Plotting workshop was an extra day for LIRW members only.

                                                        Cherry is the Post-it queen.

                                                                Our group hard at work

As Cherry said this technique won't work for everyone.  A few of the others and I had trouble doing what she said to do but others loved the procedure.  One of the other LIRW members, Michelle, also a pantser, suggested that I write my story and then I could plot it out on the board,using Cherry's technique, to see what areas were weak.   It's a good idea.

I'm glad I went. Learned some new things.   Got to spend some time with friends. Instead of going out to eat with the big group and Cherry, I hung out with three other members and brainstormed while eating pizza in our room.  It was a nice change of pace.

What workshops have you been too?  Did you find them helpful?  

Sorry

  Sorry but this week's posting has been cancelled due to bronchitis.  Hope you come by next week.  Thanks.

Grant, an author?

You've heard about Ulysses S. Grant the general and president but did you know he also wrote a two volume memoir?  Neither did I.

In May of 1884, Grant found out, as did other investors, that monies they had invested were taken by Ferdinand Ward in a ponzi type scam. This wiped out Grant's finances.  The editors from Century Magazine  had approached him, in the past, about writing articles about the different battles he participated in. Now needing  a source of income, he finally agreed and  wrote about the battle at Shiloh. 

After the success of his article and finding out he had throat cancer, Grant needed to make sure his family would be provided for.   He  decided he could write a book of all the battles and presented the idea to Century (editor's note: some sources say it was Grant's idea, others say it was Century Magazine's).   The editors offered Grant ten percent royalties on a suspected sale of twenty five thousand sets.  He almost signed the contract until his friend, Mark Twain, offered him a better deal,  seventy-five percent royalties or net profit, depending on who you read.

In the beginning, Grant dictated most of the words for his memoirs.  It is reported that he could dictate up to ten thousand words at one sitting.  As a writer, I can only dream of doing so well. As time went on the cancer spread to his tongue and mouth making it hard for him to talk, breath and eat.  And yet, despite the pain,  he continued.

 In June of 1885, the Grant family moved to Mount McGregor, New York, in the Adirondacks, to get away from a terrible heat spell that had gripped New York City , hoping Grant would be more comfortable.   There Grant finished volume two.  On July 23, 1885, a couple of days after completion, Grant passed away.  If that's not dedication to complete something, I don't know what is.  Sadly, he never saw his work published.  Julia, Grant's wife, eventually received  approximately $450,000 from sales.  The  Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant went on to be acclaimed as one of the best military histories ever written,


Did you know about the memoirs?  Did you know he also drew and painted mostly in his younger years?  Have you ever visited Grant's Tomb in New York City?   

Thanks for joining me today.



Sources: granthomepage.com, wikipedia,      
http://faculty.css.edu/mkelsey/usgrant/lastyears.html,   
 http://faculty.css.edu/mkelsey/usgrant/lastyears.html,
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50141210n - reccomend watching
http://clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com/articles/biography/grant_lion.htm

It's no wonderland

Well as most of you know the the northeast was hit pretty hard with a blizzard.  Stores were crowded and lines formed at gas stations the day before as memories of hurricane Sandy screamed in their brains.  I live on the south shore of Long Island and luckily we only got about 11" of the white stuff.  Others I know, who live further north, received about 30".  

Since this is what's been preoccupying me, for the last couple of days, I figured I'd share it with you.  It has nothing to do with the fact I am out of shape and have been tired after shoveling that I hadn't gotten to the blog. No that's not it at all.  

                     Route 25 in Suffolk County.             Photo via Kim Maliadis

                  

                      I'm guessing the green light is a moot point right now. 

                      They just had to go out and get that bag of munchies.

My daughter and I tried to make a snowman but the snow was too powdery.  We opted for a symbol of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Hey, you have to be flexible and work with what you have, right?

   This is really a two story building.  Okay, only kidding, it's a ranch.  I know.  I didn't fool you. : )

   Yeah, my daughter and I had some shoveling to do.  That's three cars side by side.

  I shot this through my backdoor because the screen door was frozen closed.  I couldn't get out.

                 I happen to like this tree, so you get to view it too.

Tell me how you fared with this storm.  If you weren't affected, have you ever been in a blizzard and what did you do to pass the time while it snowed.  Did you get to make a snowman when it was done?

Plug Me In

Today, when I tried to write a scene, after letting my mind wander around a concept and having ideas form and connect, my brain magically turned into a sieve - again.   As soon as I tried to jot them down, sections slipped off to who knows where, possibly a far off secret land where they laugh at my attempts to capture them.   I can still hear their muffled tittering.

Then I thought wouldn't it be great if I could plug something into the side of my head that would record all those thoughts.  Okay, so it might be a bit jumbled but I could sort it out.  It wouldn't be any worse than what I write on paper. Yes, I do everything in long hand first.   Maybe Apple could invent it and call it the I-Brain.   No longer would you have to strain your fingers.   Then they could release an I-Brain ll, three months later, which would also digitally record those scenes you picture in your head like a movie and project them on a screen. This little gem would be smaller and have more color choices.  And three months after that, they would come out with the I-Brain lll.  It could send these images to handheld devices that have a hook up to transfer it to another person's brain.  Brain to brain communication!

Wow.  Just think of the possibilities.  Imagine what ad agencies could do with this. Teachers could teach from their homes and know who is listening.  Authors could pitch without getting tongue tied.  They just project their story into the Brainpad lll to any agent or editor.

Yes!  OMG  We could start a movement. If we get enough people sending out good thoughts to everyone we could change the world.    World peace.  A better, healthier environment.  Better protection for wildlife.  A great tasting non-fattening chocolate.  The possibilities are endless.