Saturday Seven ~ April 13th 2019

Happy Saturday, what have you been up to this week? Here is a rundown of highlights for the week. I hope you find them useful in your life! My goal as a person and a writer are to always Pay-It-Forward so please let me know how I can help you. YES, YOU!
Enjoy your weekend & this post! Amazing things to come!
~Amy

What am I Reading? - What if There Is Nothing Wrong With You: A Practice in Reinterpretation by Henkels Susan Munich ~ Susan Henkels has worked as a psychotherapist for more than 45 years. That means she’s spent decades smiling and nodding, decades handing over tissues at the appropriate moment — and decades hearing people tell her all the things about themselves that need to be fixed.

One day, as she was listening to a patient take her through the “whole list of what was wrong with her,” says Henkels, “I thought in the middle of this litany, ‘What? There’s actually nothing wrong with her.’”

From that moment, she realized there is a surprising power to be found in prompting people to ask themselves, “What if there’s nothing wrong with me?” Read More Here.

·       What am I Listening to? –  A lot of classic rock. I found a new radio station that plays it and it really is a good time. Even if I do not know the song I still enjoy it and I cannot say that about any other kind of music. The Eagles, Bob Segar, Fleetwood Mac, Three Dog Night, Elton John, Billy Joel, Carly Simon, James Taylor, America, Toto, etc.  FM 92.9 The Drive

       

·       What Quote am I pondering? –  Been an eventful week and the one that keeps swirling through my brain is “Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming” ~ Dory from Disney’s Finding Nemo. Sometimes that’s all you can do.

·       What am I Researching? – Kidney Stones – a friend of mine suffers from chronic kidney stones, he passes about one every six weeks. Another friend found out very abruptly via screaming pain that he has a 4 cm kidney stone.  There are two things I immediately think of, someone said once that kidney stones are the closest thing the male of our species can experience that is close to the pain of Childbirth. This leads me to the Friends episode when Phoebe is giving birth and Joey has to pass a kidney stone (hilarious all around). There are several types of kidney stones, they are created and caused by varying things happening in your body. #1 thing to do is, during A LOT of water, pass the stone and then have it examined to reveal its source to prevent them in the future. The other item I am learning more about is the Trapezius Muscle. This muscle is the current source of my personal pain – literally. No idea what I did to tick it off, but it is PISSED! Muscle relaxers and pain killers are my current friends.  

·       Yummy Meal of the Week – Salad, yes is my favorite item this week. Salad with lettuce, carrots, cheese, egg, croutons, and homemade buttermilk ranch dressing. I have no link to give you a recipe for the salad. I think you can handle it. Oh, and Bacon Cheddar Ranch dip with Ritz crackers is the BOMB!

·       What did I Learn? –   In my job I live in MS Excel and while Excel is a very handy application there are cheats I use to move things along when I am dealing with a large amount of data (which happens to be on a regular basis) I recently upgraded to MS Excel 64 byte to help move processes a little faster. Come to learn my utility cheat does not play well with this higher version.  My cheat of choice is ASAP Utilities. If you use Excel a lot, I would definitely recommend it. The answer to my current dilemma – if you are wondering -- is to use the free version of ASAP on my personal laptop and that way I can still utilize it when needed.

·       What am I Watching? –  Still watching Blindspot, we are in toward the end of Season two. I am also watching the Rookie.  Loving both! Also watched Big Hero 6 – just love that movie. I really love almost all Disney movies.  There are some I have not seen and some I will never watch again but overall Disney rocks.

Have any thoughts on my week’s activity or want to make a recommendation? Drop me a line, or a tweet. One lucky commenter will win a free Romine book of their choice! Never want to miss a blog post or a Saturday Seven? Join my mailing list and I will be happy to send it straight to your inbox!

Come Find Me!

Don't have a Kindle, no problem. I've got you covered! Read eBooks on your phone, tablet and computer no Kindle Needed!

Awesome Excerpt Thursday ~ Pygmalion Revisited by Devon Layne

The myth of Pygmalion, the artist who fell in love with a statue he carved, has been a theme for countless authors, singers, and artists over the years. In this volume, author Devon Layne compiles six stories, each with a different take on the ancient myth.

The first is a simple retelling of the myth with “a little meat on its bones” and told in contemporary language. The second, “Lost Wax”, tells the story of a sculptor working with bronze castings whose clay molds begin to shape the model he is working with. “Whittled Away” is the story of an old man who converses with his long-dead wife as he whittles at a block of wood in his cabin awaiting his time to join her. When two artists meet at a Renaissance Festival but have different media for their art, we are left to ask what durable art is and whether clay and iron can mix in “Iron Alchemy”. What if it were the other way around and the art fell in love with the artist? This is the question asked in “Mixed Media”. And finally, an advertising copywriter describes his ideal mate in “A Thousand Words”.

Each story presents a different aspect, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always with a touch of romance and erotica.

Kindle eBook and Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071DSBXGQ

Excerpt from “Whittled Away”:

THE MAN who chops his own wood warms himself twice.

“You always have something clever to say when it’s me who’s suffering.” Nonetheless, David set another log on the chopping block and swung his axe. It was a well-practiced swing of the blade and split the log smoothly. He picked up the pieces and tossed them in his wagon. He picked up the next log, almost too small to split. He’d spent the past week cutting the wood to the right lengths with his chainsaw. He’d hauled it out of the woodlot, but the larger pieces still needed to be split or they wouldn’t burn thoroughly. Some wouldn’t even fit in the fireplace.

He stood with the stick of wood in his hand and let the axe idle against his thigh. A limb had broken away from this trunk many years ago, leaving a protruding knob, long-since healed over with bark. The shape of the knot filled his hand with memories.

I was never as firm as that. And never a wooden lover.

“No, my love, but the shape is about right. I held those precious breasts enough times to remember.”

I went to sleep at night with your hands supporting them. I felt so secure.

“I think I’ll stop for now and go sit a spell.”

Don’t forget to drink something. And I mean water, not any of that cider that’s gone hard.

“I don’t drink that stuff.”

Don’t lie to me. I know better.

“I suppose you are spying on me from the grave. I’ll have water first.”

David dragged the two-wheel cart up to the house and stacked the load of firewood, keeping the breast-shaped log aside. He’d just keep that by his chair on the porch for a while. He pumped water and washed his head to cool off. The water was cold. October was already brisk and he was headed for a hard winter. As long as he kept a fire in the firebox, the pump shouldn’t freeze. But he needed to finish splitting that fourth cord of wood and if he was smart, he’d put in another. He drank his fill of the cold water and toweled himself off. There’d been no hard frost yet, so he figured he could do without a fire tonight.

Instead he fixed a simple dinner of rice and beans, cut a sausage into the mess, and sat on the porch with his plate.

Those cans of vegetables you put in won’t do your body any good unless you eat them.

“Always complaining about the way I eat,” he groused.

Just always want you to be healthy, my love. Was I really such a nag?

“I’d give my life to have you here nagging me now.”

I don’t think that was an answer. What are you going to do now?

“Hmm. Sit here.” He rocked in his chair and picked up the log. Maybe he’d whittle a little. He pulled out his Buck knife and carefully began stripping the bark from the block of wood.

Ooh. Like the first time you undressed me.

ISBN-13: 978-1939275622


Come Find Me!

Don't have a Kindle, no problem. I've got you covered! Read eBooks on your phone, tablet and computer no Kindle Needed!

Writing Warrior Wednesday ~ How to Train Your Writing Dragon

When this movie first came out in the theater I was less than excited. It didn’t interest me. My husband, as a treat to our five-year-old son, took him to see it. 

Taking the kids to see animated movies, with the exception of Pixar, is usually a crap shoot, but we suffer through. In this case, when my husband and son returned that afternoon, our son was bouncing off the walls babbling about how awesome the movie was. This is not unusual. My husband, though, was also very complimentary and kept talking about not only the animation but the main character, Toothless, the dragon. 

Years have gone by and “How to Train your Dragon” is now on Netflix. We recently sat down one night as a family to watch it. 
I loved it, no I will preface this. I loved Toothless. 

Toothless has joined the ranks of my favorite silent characters. These include Wall-E, Silent Bob, R2D2, Sam (Benny & Joon), Pixar’s Lamp, Teller (Penn & Teller), The Red Balloon (from French movie of the same title), Wilson (Castaway) & The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin).

Chaplin, the master of the silent movie, was, and still is considered the master of conveying emotion, or character, without the use of dialog. One of the challenges every author faces is the ability to convey emotion through words. This can be done via dialog or description. An exercise most writers are tasked with in the very beginning of their pros is to write a scene completely devoid of description. The only venue you have to convey your theme is dialog. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, what if you had no dialog as a venue, only description?  As ours is not visual art, this poses quite a challenge. 

Visual expression, as brilliantly shown in the character Toothless, is astounding in the ability to have such an impact. The emotions attached to a silent character run a different, deeper, path than those who have a voice.  Another impressive modern example of this is Kurt Russell in the movie “Soldier” released in 1998. While this film was released with little attention from the populace, it is a touching and powerful example of expression without words. 

But how do we as writers describe the emotional expression of a character and exactly the same results? How do we describe anger, love, hate, frustration without words?

This, of course, leads us back to the #1 rule of fiction writing, show, don’t tell. 

One of the things I have started to do is to watch these characters and then describe their facial movements, their stance, and their eyes, trying to dissect what emotion is coming across, and how. 

So here is an exercise for all those who are interested in exploring this facet of our world. Here is a picture of Toothless. Use words to describe the scene and what is happening, the emotion involved in the scene.  Basically, recreate the picture in words. When finished you should be able to read the description and form the same image without the picture. 


Share it with us! I am excited to see what you come up with!

Come Find Me!

Don't have a Kindle, no problem. I've got you covered! Read eBooks on your phone, tablet and computer no Kindle Needed!