Helen and Teacher

Helen and Teacher
The Story of my Life

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Ah Saturday, and miscellany!

New show: Curiosity Quest goes Green, host is Joel Greene!  Today's topic, how glass is 100% recyclable.

Yesterday was Green Day locally; there is more and more awareness of what can be recycled and reused.  I supposed I've always hated waste of any kind, hence all my interest.

It is also Holy Saturday; to those who celebrate Western Easter, a blessed Easter, and to those who celebrate Passover, a blessed Passover.  Our Pascha in my church, the Eastern Orthodox church, means Passover, as does the Hispanic Pascuas.  Our Easter is May 5th, so many days after Passover, as the Church requires.

Age has been on my mind lately, and time.  I feel as I did when I was 19, and yet, I am not.  Middle Age is a conundrum and a problem.  I told AARP to take  a big hike; yet I'm so tired, and judgmental of myself for not being able to do what I used to.  I suspect much of this is due to work, family, home, homework, and things that are part of other people's schedules, necessary, but draining.

I make things because of these feelings, and have my whole life.  I like making things from found objects, and I love writing.  Music is important, and I still play the piano.  I learned from my mom to needlepoint and embroider when I was nine; it still serves me well.

Find something to make, to create.  Inspite of it all, you have a little tiny bit of something to relieve the tension, and s Barbara Pym would have written, "something to love."

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: The Spirit of Collecting- The Vogels; Legends in t...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: The Spirit of Collecting- The Vogels; Legends in t...: I've loved this couple since the first time I saw them on 60 Minutes . Read on, and be inspired. Hoarders TV Show, Take That!!! The ...

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Monday, March 18, 2013

Her Kind; Excellent Epistolary Novel written as Memoir

918studio releases Throne fiction debut: Her Kind LECLAIRE, IOWA — March 18, 2013 — 918studio announced today the release of a debut novel from author, professor, and small press publisher, Robin Throne. Her Kind, a novel was inspired by Anne Sexton's famous poem of the same name, and is an epistolary novel of an unassuming matriarch who chronicles a family migration from England to the new England to Iowa, and the settlement of the lost river village of Parkhurst (now part of historic Le Claire). Throne was also named the recipient of the fourth David R. Collins' Literary Achievement Award March 16 at the Midwest Writing Center's Literary Banquet at the Outing Club in Davenport. Past recipients have included notable local authors, Sean Leary, Michael McCarty, and Connie Corcoran Wilson. Her Kind, a novel is available for purchase at the Midwest Writing Center, Artswork in Le Claire, The Book Rack in Davenport and Moline, Book World in Southpark Mall, and Prairie Lights in Iowa City. The Kindle version is available from Amazon.com. Past releases from 918studio have included Nancy Ann Schaefer's In Search of Lode (2012), The Legend of Tug Fest and other LeClaire Ghost Stories (2012), Jane VanVooren Rogers' How to avoid being and other paths to Triumph (2011), and Ellen Tsagaris' Sappho, I should have listened (2011). For more about 918studio, visit www.918studio.net

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Some Inspiration from Daily Work and Callings

How Deep See Fishing Prepares you for writing; a little something I found on Twitter: When publishers started courting swordfish boat captain Linda Greenlaw more than a decade ago, she wasn’t interested in writing a book. As captain of the commercial swordfishing vessel “The Hannah Boden,” Greenlaw was a major character in Sebastian Junger’s 1997 bestseller The Perfect Storm. Female deep sea captains are a rare species, and after publishers kept bombarding her with offers, Greenlaw realized that The Perfect Storm gave her an opportunity she’d be silly to reject. Her first book—The Hungry Ocean, published in 2000—was a runaway hit. Nine books later, she spends more time writing than she does deep sea fishing (though she still goes out on day-long fishing trips closer to her home on tiny Isle au Haut, off the coast of Maine). . . . . I’ve always had to be really disciplined. Ninety percent of my work experience is fishing. I’m used to saying, “Hey, see you later,” and being away from everyone for 30 to 90 days. Since I’m used to being cut off from the world, having to cut myself off for four to five hours [to write], it’s not like jumping on a boat and leaving for 90 days. . . . . My experience [as an author] is really unique. I never had any intentions or desires or aspirations to write. Because I was portrayed so generously by Sebastian Junger in The Perfect Storm, I was invited to write my first book. [Editors told me], “We were intrigued by this female fisherman thing you have going on.” At first I was absolutely not interested, but they were offering me money, and I had to understand the opportunity I had been handed. I was very fortunate to do this, and nobody was more surprised than I was when The Hungry Ocean became a best seller. Nobody was more surprised than I was when it led to book number two, and then to book number three, and now to number nine [Lifesaving Lessons], which will be released next month. It’s been a great opportunity and it has been a great deal of work. . . . . I’ve trained my family and friends to not disturb me while I’m writing. I talk to my mother and sister every day on the phone, but they know when I’m working on a book, they can’t call until the afternoon. I don’t enjoy writing at all, I’m really weird about it. I need no one to come knock on the door, because I’ll gladly take any distraction. If I’m working on a book I treat it like I would my fishing. I need to eat, breathe, and sleep the writing, or it just isn’t good. I need tunnel vision, really single focus. Even when I’m not sitting down and writing, the rest of the day I’m still working on it in my head. When I’m hauling lobster traps in the afternoon, it’s a very mindless activity for me. It’s just physical, and I spend that time thinking about what I’m working on the next morning. http://www.thepassivevoice.com/03/2013/how-deep-sea-fishing-prepares-you-for-writing/?utm_source=Todd+Rutherford&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ThePassiveVoice+%28The+Passive+Voice%29