Become Your Life's Dream

Okay so I can be a romantic sap sometimes.  Not often perhaps, or often enough, being that I'm, ah, :::cough, cough::: older than, well, let's just say I'm not a teenager anymore though I sure seem to be spending an inordinateamount of time with teenage characters!  But I'm definitely not the dewy-eyed ingenue I once was. ;)   Not sure I'd refer to myself as a cynic, even though others not so lovingly minded might. ^ ^

But I am crazy about the Susan Boyle video clip.  And if you don't get that reference, scroll down the blog a couple of entries.  And then go check it out for yourself!  Seriously!  The 7 minute clip.  It's fantastic, heartwarming, and inspiring.   Altho' I have to admit while the music she sings to is Fabulous, as is her voice of course, but the lyrics..... yes, I think it probably fit where she was in her life but they are rather downers.   So with all due respect to the writers of Les Mis. et.al...I've decided to change the line that is continually roaming around in my head.  I don't want my life killing my dreams, thank you very much, I've had enough of that.  So along with positive thoughts, and dreams, etc...I decided my lyrics to roam in my head is going to be - my life's become the dream I dreamed.

Of course it hasn't really, yet anyway.   But I'm preparing.  ;-D    Along with the now successful dreamer Susan Boyle.

Here's to all successful dreamers.  I'll be meeting you soon. ;)

Tread Softly, Fulfill Your Dreams

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

W.B. Yeats

In honor of Poetry Month –

And with talking about dreams and fulfilling them.

And inspiring everyone to fulfill their dreams.

A reminder from W. B. Yeats –  Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

Tread softly lest you damage anyone’s dreams.

Including your own.

For we all come from a place within                                                                                                    That tags our hearts and calls them forth                                                                                          Into the brightness of tomorrow.                                                                                                        Even while we are sunk in the morass of yesterday                                                                         Our dreams are tugged at and whispered out                                                                                    Into the today we have now.                                                                                                           [sgchris 2009 ©]

She stunned and took the breath away of the world

By now most everyone that has watched a bit of tv, and with any kind of computer savvy and/or curiosity has heard of the 'unassuming' looking, unmarried [she says never even been kissed] unemployed 47-year-old Scottish woman that stunned not only Britain's Idol equiv. audience, but also Simon Cowell, and now the world, with her dream.

If you've not checked out her performance yet, do!  It's a stunner.

Not to mention worth it to see Simon's face. ;)

You can easily find it by googling Susan Boyle.

I'm stunned every time I watch it.  Watching someone's dreams walk across the stage in human form.  

You could see the looks on Everyone's faces of what they thought of her based on her appearance.

Then she opened her mouth and began to sing and took away everyone's breath.  

The judges, the audience, and all the people there.

And now thanks to the internet, everyone across the world.

Including mine.

Tearing up and having to wipe my eyes not only for the dreams being sung out in front of me but for the dreams living inside everyone.  And the witnessing of hope realized.  For someone somewhere.  And eventually for all of us.

Here's to dreams realized for us all.

Now I'm off to work on some dreams of my own - inspired by a 47-year-old, unemployed, unmarried, 'unassuming' looking woman a world away.

 How 'bout you?

So what dreams are you not giving up on?

And what are you willing to work on and take a chance on?

Like a woman named Susan Boyle did.

Good Book if you slap the main character?

Just wondering.

Is it a Good Book if you just really want to haul off and slap the main character?

I've read a couple like that recently.  No, I'm Not going to tell you!

[Makes it too awkward if you happen to run into them in person.  Which with the great writers the James River Writers Conferences pull in.....

So Nope, No Can Do!

But what do you think - can you deem a book a Good Book if you sort of like it but want to slap someone in it?  Like the main character?        And more than once?

I mean the book did have some interesting points.  Course it did have some convolutions that gave me a headache too.    And that wasn't even including the slap-worthy-main character. [Just her family relations.]

Okay, so tell me, what was the last book you read that made you want to slap a character?

Come on, you can tell me.

Writing and Spirituality

So said the title of James River Writers Writing Show the other night, or something along those lines anyway.  On a dreary rainy night in the new Writing Show digs of the Childrens Museum. 

The Show wasn't exactly what I expected but I did take a few notes.  Interestingly they were mostly along the lines of thoughts that popped into my head about what the panelists were saying, rather than what the panelists were actually saying.  So it was definitely different than the notes I am usually jotting down.

One thing that was very interesting was a 'question' posed by an audience member [that's never really a question].  The person seemed to be very upset that people that had critiqued the book written by this person weren't seeing the same things in it that were part of this person's experience and what they intended/meant when they wrote it.  That they just didn't get it!

One of the panelists said they thought that everyone should be able to get what they need to out of our writing.

So what do you think?   

Do we write of our own experiences to only say what needs to be said, or is it more encompassing than that, and that as our lives and experiences are different so will be our reading preferences and experiences, and we interpret accordingly?

Good books?

So I've been working on writing a couple of Young Adult (YA) books for a few years now.  Struggling along with writing them, probably because, frankly, who in their right minds want to go through all that angst again?

Not that as an adult you are home free or anything.  But teenage angst and worry..... yikes.

So anyway, rather than spend copious amounts of time reliving my own teenage angst I've preferred to check out YA books and read about others teenage angst.

At least from a perspective of an adult viewing it anyway, since even the most popular YA books are obviously not written by YA ages or anything.

At least that's the story, and I'm sticking to it. ;)

Hey, I just happen to Really like to read.

And there just so happens to be a Lot of Really good YA books around now!

Seriously!  Check them out!

The Harry Potter craze seems to have passed by, to be taken over by the Twilight book series of vampires versus werewolves.

Okay so I read all the Potter books, and for the most part enjoyed them all.  

But I'm not sure I'll ever gather quite the enthusiasm that a Lot of people seem to have for the Twilight books series.  [And yes, I Know only the First book is Twilight but it's so much easier to just write that rather than each book name.  Most will have heard and know about them.  And if you haven't, well, you seriously need to check out my blog more often.  Let me know and we'll 'talk.' ;-D  Espec. since I obviously need to check it out more often too. ;-}  ]

And now don't anybody shoot me flaming words or anything, but I read the last book in the series first.  Hey, it was the Only book I could actually check out from the library!  All the rest were checked out and had like 100 people waiting lists!  And actually even a few years after publications, that's still the case.  Impressive, if nothing else!

I finally bought the first two books in paperback since obviously it was going to be Forever to check them out from library.

I can sortta understand the appeal.  A bit.  I'm still not enamoured by them though.

Definitely not enough to pay the money for the 3rd one that's still in hardcover, not in paperback yet.

I think there are some good to better options out there for good story telling and reading.

Like Maggie Stiefvater's books, if you like the fantasy element, altho' singular book at present, soon to be joined by 2 new books coming out this year - And she's scheduled to be at the James River Writers Conference in Richmond, VA in October this year too!!!!!   has neat blog too - http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com

My favorite book I've read in a Loooong time, YA or not!, has to be Melina Marchetta's book Saving Francesca.

[next to Maggie's of course, in case you're reading this Maggie. ;) ;)]

Marchetta has a new book out that Maggie and a lot of people are raving about - Jellicoe Road.

I thought it was good.  But had to stick with it and wade through a lot of confusing parts.  Although it did have some good things going for it to make you want to finish it.

But it still doesn't topple Francesca.

John Green's books are good - I think his first book Looking for Alaska probably the best, but if you've skimmed this blog at all you'll see things I took away from his other books also.

I also read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and think Every high school student Should read it!!!

Makes you wonder if peoples' lives would be different if more people, YA or adult, read it.

But that's enough of my reading talk for now.

I need to go read! ;)  

Oh, and after you read your great, not-so-great, or so-so books, get on here and let me know what you are reading!!!  And what you think about it.  And why!

Read Any Good Books Lately?

As with most writers working on their own books, reading books by other authors can feel like a dirty little secret luxury.  But as we've heard said several times at the James River Writers Conference, how can you be a good writer if you aren't a good reader?  

[That is true b-t-w, not just because I'd really rather read than write. ;)

Most of the time.

I learn from the books I like, I learn more from the books I don't.  

When books are well-written I get caught up in the story and it channels me along until it dumps me out at the end, the reader becoming the bemused writer trying to analyze how the writer did that so well.   

If it isn't so well written I notice the mechanics of it more than getting all caught up in the characters and their story.  

Both learning experiences, one just a bit more enjoyable for my reading pleasure. ;)

So what books are you reading?

Are they helping you with your writing?

Or they just helping you with your reading? ;)

Either or both can help you.  So what are you learning?