Deepak Chopra: Just "be"

We are coming to the end of a very eventful year that presented most of us with many challenges. Christmas will be here soon and after the end of the month, the new year will begin. Every once and a while I like to just sit, reflect and maybe do a bit of meditation.  In other words...just "be."  I thought today might be a good time to remind myself of that. I found this video on that very concept and thought maybe others might enjoy it too.




If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment

Top ten lessons I learned about writing good fiction

Guest post by author Judith Marshall

Judith Marshall is a third generation native Californian, born in St. Helena and raised in Concord. After leaving a successful career in corporate America as a human resources executive, her lifelong dream of writing fiction was realized with the completion of Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever, winner of the Jack London Prize awarded by the California Writers Club and recently optioned for the big screen.

She is currently working on her second novel, Staying Afloat, the story of a devoted stay-at-home wife and mother who morphs into a sex-starved adulteress. She lives in Northern California with her husband. For more information, go to http://www.judithmarshall.net/

Top Ten things to remember when writing fiction

• Always begin with your protagonist – readers need to know who to root for
• Start with action – lock in your readers upfront
• Be visual in your approach – let readers “see” your story (this helped get my novel optioned for the big screen!)
• Limit your descriptive words – make each one count
• Don’t forget the senses – smell, touch, sight, etc.
• Write only scenes that either enrich character, provide necessary information, or move the plot forward; or better yet, do all three
• Rely on dialogue - readers rarely skip dialogue
• Have your character do something while thinking – driving a car, washing dishes, combing a child’s hair
• Use similes for style
• When in doubt, leave it out!

Husbands May Come and Go but Friends are Forever, a first novel by Judith Marshall, is a winner of the Jack London Prize awarded by the California Writers Club and recently optioned for the big screen.

available at Amazon.com

Set in a small town in Northern California, in the spring of 2000 when the dot-com boom was at its peak, the story centers around Elizabeth Reilly-Hayden, a successful executive in her late fifties and a divorced mother of two. Emotionally armored and living alone, she wants only to maintain the status quo: her long-term significant other, her job and her trusted friends— five feisty women who first met in high school. Yet in a matter of days, the three anchors that have kept her moored are ripped away. The group of lifelong pals gathers at Lake Tahoe to attend to the funeral arrangements of their beloved friend, and tries to unravel the mystery of her death. Through their shared tragedy, Liz learns how disappointment and grief can bloom into healing and hope.___




________________











If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment

NaNoWriMo is here again

This month is NaNoWriMo month. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo is an acronym for: National Novel Writing Month. It's the month when thousands of writers attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Gulp! In one month?

I am not a fiction writer, and even if I were, I might not try this. On the other hand, I just might. I've gotten involved in these kinds of contests before that forced the writer to produce something every day for a period of time. And, actually, it was a good thing...not just for the end product but for the process. It's amazing how it pushes you into a "zone" and you just want to keep on writing.

Anyhow I've been curious as to how other writer's see this contest or approach it. I've collected several reactions from writers who are taking on the challenge. Here is the first one. Read and learn................Nancy

Guest post by Julianne McCullagh



View Julianne's Blog

"...the NaNoWriMo process ...[has] helped me recognize where I should be headed with my novel "Hey, Don't I Know You"

I’ve just had a revelation. No angels or skies opening up. (That would have been cool, though.) Just a regular ordinary revelation. A recognition. Yeah, I like that word– recognition. Like you’ve met somewhere before, and you realize, oh, that’s right. That’s what I’ve been waiting for.

This is the beginning of week 2 of NaNoWriMo– National Novel Writing Month. I started out amazingly well, for me. I am a slow writer. I dally. I dilly. I dilly-dally around words, around thoughts, around characters. That’s okay. All writers have their own style and pace.

All last week while I was trying to get my daily production of about 1700 words a day on-screen, I realized that no matter how I tried to steer the work, I kept coming back to the same themes and characters I’ve been working on in my novel-in-progress. I have about 23,000 words that I’m relatively pleased with (countless words of notes and trial and error and scenes that went nowhere), so, I thought, I’ll cheat.

NaNoWriMo is supposed to be 50,000 new words churned out with the internal editor away on vacation, too far away to interfere with the writer who’s hiding behind the censor. My editor/censor doesn’t take vacations. My censor like to work. What a pain.

But, that’s where I am. So be it. I can still try to shake up my censor and get one over on her once in a while. Like, this morning. I was so sure I had my first chapter written and the novel would proceed from the themes I set up in that chapter. But, I was stuck. Which is one of the reasons I started the NaNo process. I want to become unstuck. Free those words and ideas that the censor has cowering in the corner with the threat of being sent to the principal’s office if they squawk.

They squawked. The principal was kinder than the censor. HaHa!

Here’s how the revelation/recognition happened. Gene transferred my NANo words to Scrivener. Scrivener is this fairly new tool for writers that is supposed to be easier and more intuitive. This morning I was looking at this new creature and I could not find the last chapter I had written. So I summoned it from my Word files. I re-read it. I liked it. And then, (drum roll, please) I recognized that this chapter should be the first chapter because it introduces themes and characters that play out in the rest of the work.

So, thank you NaNoWriMo, for jiggling loose some thoughts that might have stayed in the wrong place if I hadn’t taken your challenge, and then modified your challenge to my own purposes. It’s good to recognize a friend you’ve met for the first time.

Rules of contest

• Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.
• Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people's works).
• Write a novel. We define a novel as a lengthy work of fiction. If you consider the book you're writing a novel, we consider it a novel too!
• Be the sole author of your novel. Apart from those citations mentioned two bullet-points up.
• Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times.
• Upload your novel for word-count validation to our site between November 25 and November 30.

Sponsers: Amazon, Createspace, Scrivener, Storyist, Scribendi, ThinkGeek and thousands of individual donors.

If you enjoyed this post, feel free to leave a comment

A work in progress: Operatic Divas and Naked Irishmen: An Innkeeper's Tale by Nancy Hinchliff

Exerpt from my new memoir:

Demanding operatic divas, naked Irishmen walking in their sleep, and honeymooners leaving remnants of an unforgettable wedding night are all part of the flamboyant and interesting guests who came in and out of my life as an Innkeeper; each bringing his or her own unique personality and quirkiness to the table. Although the percentage of high-maintenance, demanding guests we had was pretty low, there were several who really stood out in my memory.

One of the most memorable was an eccentric opera singer who wore the more flamboyant and outlanddish costumes I have ever seen. She must have thought she was still on stage because, in addition to her colorful costumes, her daily entrances into the dining room were breath taking.

I remember the day she arrived to stay for an entire week. I opened the door to a barrage of people, having no idea who they could be, since I had only one more check-in that evening, a single lady.

"I am Madame Rosalina Capriani!" the woman announced "and these are my suitcases".

 I scanned the four men accompanying her and, sure enough, each one was carrying a suitcase. She stood still while one of the men walked around her, through the front door, and planted a suitcase at the foot of the stairs. He turned toward Madame Caprini and beckoned her inside. She reached out a long, well rounded arm, covered in a silky, flowing, red, purple and green cape encircled in Majenta fringe. I stood there, in awe, as she flamboyantly glided through the doorway.

"Excuse me a moment" , I said. "Let me get my housekeeper to help you to your room"

I hurried to the kitchen, anxiety reeking havoc in my stomach. I knew I couldn't handle this on my own. I thanked God that Eric, my house-keeper, was there  that day to help me. I had a suspicion that this was going to be a "high maintenance" situation, as we say in the business. Eric had been working for me for several years. He was great with the guests and, if it looked like they were going to be "high maintenance', I would turn them over to him.

Madam Capriani's four henchmen left her over-sized suitcases for Eric to carry up to the guestroom and retreated. I never found out who they were, nor did I ever see them again. As she and Eric climbed the long staircase together, she was giving him a litany of instructions concerning what she would need during her stay at my Inn. The requests were so over the top that I decided to let Eric be the one to break the news to her that this was indeed not the New York Hilton hotel. This was a simple little bed and breakfast in Kentucky with no room service and no concierge.

Now I love opera. I had been a vocal music student myself in college. But Madam Capriani was little too much drama even for me. Every negative thing I knew or had ever heard about artistic personalities and divas applied in her case. First of all, she was almost totally helpless. She couldn't figure how to work the TV, the DVD, the VCR, the telephone or the spigot in the shower.

She demanded a hot pot of tea be delivered to her room every few hours or so, and she wanted breakfast in bed. I tried to tell her we didn't offer room service. But she would have no part of it. Eric stepped in and offered to take care of her needs. Mind you, Eric is gay, so she would have to go elsewhere if she expected more from him than help with complicated electronics and bathroom fixtures.

As the days went by, I retreated further into my own little world and let Eric take care of the diva. He brought her tea, fixed her TV and cleaned her room every day. A couple of times I heard her practicing Musetta's Waltz from La Traviata, but for the most part, she was pretty quiet. As it turned out, I came more and more to depend on Eric whenever there was a guest who was a little difficult for me to handle.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment

Romeo Must Not Die– Why Barack Obama Is Still the Man for the Job

Guest post by jenne andrews

Please click here to go to Jenne's blog

I would go back to bed to try to deal with my wearying insomnia and grab an hour or two before dawn, but we are at an ungodly hour in this country. With the pernicious abandonment of a prairie fire, the Obstructionists and disillusionists we once knew as the GOP are criss-crossing the country making things up, aided and abetted by Sarah Palin and the cluster Fox. They want everyone to believe that we made a huge and irremediable mistake in electing Barack Obama in '08.

I'm asking myself what I know, at this hour, without looking anything up or organizing this post into a series of links to Wikipedia et al.

When he became the Dem nominee, Obama went abroad to connect with those who had come to mistrust us-- as a matter of principle and vision. For that he was later to receive the Nobel Prize.

Faced with the near collapse of the economy, he commandeered the bail out and the stimulus packages. It's my impression that there were few alternatives and that this was the only way to keep the country from falling apart.

Then came health care reform. Obama aggressively reached across the aisle, including last winter's breakfasts on Capitol Hill where his efforts at dialogue were repudiated by snide posturing GOP boors framing questions as accusations and blame. He stood in front of the country and alluded to numerous concessons to Republicans written into the Bill, and yet on every network is the word "Obamacare", cast as everything scarey and wrong and nothing good and right to the American people. Right wing pundits would have you believe that he didn't listen to them or try to work with them-- but remember when they called him a liar to his face?

After that, he came back and rallied the Democrats to pass an immensely important and historic measure--something like Health Care Reform-- most assuredly a boon and a victory that no one else has been able to effect.

He was wrestled to the ground by his Joint Chiefs and would not otherwise have sent more troops to Afghanistan. This was surely far more than an olive branch to the conservatives. Bob Woodward's book Obama's Wars reveals a troubled President left high and dry by the Joint Chiefs, who refused to give him alternative scenarios or give him a staged withdrawal plan. He drew it up himself sweating bullets.

In the wake of the Deep Water Horizon crisis he sat BP execs down and wrested a commitment of 2 billion from them-- as real money deposited in real banks then and there, to help the beleagured.

Most recently Obama reinstituted peace talks between the Israelies and the Palestinians-- a huge accomplishment.

He has conducted himself like a true statesman, traveling to and holding summits on pressing issues. He has responded to the bashing he has taken including the absurd claims made about his religion and his citizenship with far more equanimity and dignity than most of us can even fathom.

In short, Barack Obama hit the ground running and he hasn't stopped even though, time and perspective will demonstrate, the price of being the first African American president is to be the victim of racism as it routinely spews forth from the mouths of the Right. We would not have done to Hillary Clinton what we have done to this man, crucifying him daily.

Presidents don't become presidents without politics and becoming politicians themselves. We didn't elect God to the presidency; we elected a mere mortal, with feet of clay. But many of us demand perfection, and are immensely unforgiving-- especially white middle-aged men who project their own self-hate and moral failings on Obama.

George W. Bush sat around in the Oval Office for eight years doing nothing, because he didn't know how. We elected an oilman puppet to lead us, whose puppeteers were Karl Rove and Dick Cheney-- the two hidden presidents and master blacksmiths of their era with their ability to turn the hot metal of the truth into horseshoes. Running the country was their game.

If the GOP gets Congress back, they say they'll repeal "Obamacare," and the right to health care, those things like doing away with preexisting conditions clauses and kids being on their parents' policies until they're twenty-six and other measures in the bill to insure the uninsured, when the insurance companies underpinning the capitalist system, in collusion with Wall Street, refused to step up.

If you see an ad contending that "Obamacare" entitles convicted rapists to free Viagra, research that. See if it's really true.

Before anyone buys into the spew of rhetoric coming out of the mouths of the Republicans and their first cousins the Tea Party, he should do exactly what I've done here-- see if he can come up with anything Barack Obama has done for America.

You might have to put up a blog, get up at three a.m. foaming at the mouth, a silly headline dancing in your head.


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment

Some Men Who Loved Nature: Part 3

Guest post by Jerilee Wei
(click here to view Parts 1, 2, and 4)

Great naturalists are also great spokesmen and great conservationists, long after their time on this earth. Three of those naturalists that contributed the most to the American public are John Macoun, John Muir, and John Burroughs. They are naturalists who are still making a difference today.

Let's Take A Look At Their Lives And Contributions

John Macoun

John McCoun and son

The distinguished Canadian explorer and naturalist, John Macoun (183201920) was born in Ireland, but migrated to Canada when he was eighteen. After a few years of farming he became a school teacher, at a salary of fourteen dollars a month. In his spare time, he studied the different sciences, but his special love was studying plants.

When an expedition was sent across the prairies and the Rocky Mountains to find a route for the Canadian Pacific Railway, Macoun went along as a botanist. In the following years he made journeys of scientific exploration all over Canada from the Yukon to Nova Scotia.

His two sons, William and James, were often his companions and scientific co-workers. Macoun's collection of animals and plants were the foundation for the Victoria Memoral Museum in Ottawa. Other scientists honored Macoun by naming species of plants, insects, and fish after him.


John Muir
One of the policies of which both the United States and Canada are most proud is the establishment of national parks to save some of the marvelous beauties of nature for the people of all time to come. A great fighter in this cause was John Muir, born at Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838.

When he was eleven years old, the family came to America and settled on a backwoods farm in Wisconsin. John plowed, chopped down trees, and did all the other kinds of farm work, and enjoyed it. However, even while plowing he was also enjoying the beauty of wild flowers and trees, and the antics of wild creatures. John was the best plowman in the neighborhood. Once he dug a ninety-foot well without assistance.

John Muir

John's father had very different notions about reading from those of other Scotsmen, like the father of William Dawson. Muir's father objected to his boy's sitting up late at night to read. However, he finally told John that he might get up as early as he pleased and read then. So John would get up at one o'clock in the morning and read, or work on mechanical inventions until time for the day's work to begin.

When John entered the University of Wisconsin, he had to provide his own living expenses. He often lived on fifty cents a week. An accident nearly blinded him after leaving the university. This determined him to travel and see as much of "God's beauty" as he could before what was left of his sight was completely gone. Fortunately, he did not lose his sight.

In his travels Muir wandered through thousands of miles of prairie, mountain, and forest. He tramped the Sierra Nevada Mountains until they were as familiar to him as the farm where he was raised. Muir's journeys were made for his own pleasure, not to get material for books.

After his marriage to Louise Wanda Strentzel, the daughter of a Polish revolutionist, he took up fruit farming. Near the end of his life he began to write books that make all nature lovers want to repeat Muir's wanderings.

Muir Woods, a forest of gigantic redwoods across the bay from San Francisco and Muir Glacier in Alaska are named for John Muir. It was largely due to Muir that the Yosemite Valley became a national park.

Muir did not dislike city life, in fact, he had considerable inventive genius and liked the turmoil of factories. It was simply that he loved nature more. Several universities invited Muir to accept professorships, but his reply was always that there were already too many men teaching things that they had learned out of books. He died in 1914.



John Burroughs

When President Theodore Roosevelt took a trip through Yellowstone National Park, he chose as a companion, one of America's best loved students of nature. This was John Burroughs, called "John o'Birds" by his friends.

Burroughs was born near Roxbury, New York, in 1837. In his youth he tried farming, fruit raising, teaching, journalism, and then for nine years was a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington, D.C. During all these years he spent his spare time in studying nature and in writing about it.

In Washington, he became friends with Walt Whitman, and his first book was Note on Walt Whitman As Poet and Person.

John Burroughs and Teddy Roosevelt

Beginning with Wake Robin in 1871, Burroughs published a series of books on flowers, birds, and other wildlife that have caused him to be regarded as the successor of Thoreau as a writer on nature.

Later in life, Burroughs engaged in fruit farming at West Park, New York, where he worked in a cabin built on a hill near his house. This cabin, Slabsides, became a center for visitors from all over the world. Burroughs died in 1921.
If You'd Like To Know More!


* Best American National Parks
Are you one of millions who enjoys the natural wonders and pristine beauty of nature? Plan a trip to a National park near you today. There are more than 300 parks nationwide here in the United States;. many...
* Best Hiking in California
California is not only a gorgeous state but also a state which offers the hiking fan a terrific range of different scenic opportunities. Hiking along the coast offers fabulous vistas of the Pacific Ocean...
* Best Yosemite National Park Sightseeing
Yosemite National Park contains some of the greatest sightseeing opportunities available in the United States. Yosemite was a centerpiece and main arguing point for bringing about the National Park Service,...
* Hiking Rae Lakes Loop - Sequoia & Kings Canyon Natio...
The Rae Lakes Loop is one of the most popular backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California in Kings Canyon National Park. This loop hike is 46 miles long, and climbs from 5035' (1535m) at the...
* The 5 Best California Weekend Getaways
Looking to get away for the weekend in California? Here are my five best recommendations for California weekend getaways: Tahoe, San Diego, Hwy 1, Yosemite and Northern California hot springs.
* Winter Driving Tips in Yosemite National Park
Yes, Yosemite National Park is open in the winter! The road conditions can change hourly, and chains are often required, so read this article for information on how to be prepared for your winter trip into Yosemite.
* Yosemite National Park in California with Pictures o...
Several years ago a friend and I spent several days hiking and exploring in Yosemite National Park in California. Many pictures were taken and a good share of them will be shown in this hub about our...
* Yosemite National Park Travel
Yosemite National Park is a national park in east California, United States. The park is spread over almost 800 000 acres of land. In 1984, it was designated as a World Heritage Site. The park is globally...


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment

Stars without makeup

.....but are they really?

Guest post by Frieda Babbley

A couple of weeks ago, there was a big to do about celebs going without makeup. It all started with Jessica Simpson who did an au naturale photo shoot for Marie Claire, saying, basically, that she was confident in her own self and didn't care what other people thought. Personally, I think she is soooooo much better looking without her makeup.

The Today Show decided that they would go bare-faced for a day. And of course other celebrities have been sporting the natural look as well. Now, sure, this is not really a new thing, the going without makeup, but those who just simply wouldn't (because of their television status) did. Kudos. Awesome. They handled it well. It was wonderful to see. And they got more and more comfortable as the show went along. And they also talked about other female celebrities that were and had been, doing the same and why.

Now, unfortunately, it seems to me that they didn't exactly follow the rules all the way. The eyes and the lips told a different story to me; and in some cases I questioned skin tone. Now it could have been that they've been wearing makeup for so long that their eyelids and lashes and lips were stained. Or maybe their lips, lids, and/or lashes were tattooed (can you tattoo lashes?). Doesn't really matter, and it was sort of sad to me that some of these women (one in particular) couldn't seem to show her all the way bare true self, even for a morning.

What do you think? Am I just seeing things?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment