Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! Vivian K. Perry here, filling in for Jennifer today because she is in town celebrating the holidays in the bosom of her family.
Maisie and I are hanging out at home with our early Christmas presents, two new cat beds! We are thrilled with how cozy they are, and Jennifer was thrilled because they were only ten bucks a pop from Sears catalogue.
In keeping with the spirit of the season, please have a look at Maisie’s Christmas photo shoot below.
Happy holidays!
Why does an individual like me keep a blog? I have been asked this on a few occasions, and at times it makes me stop and think, and even reassess what my intention is.
As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts and on my About Me page, the origin of this journal came to me as a way to create consistently, in the form of a poem, a musing, or a small gallery of my personal photography. Usually the subject of these posts focused on something or someone I love, a topic I feel strongly about, or a place I have visited and wanted to share through pictures.
I also reported from time to time on my work in progress, a coming of age novel, Calmer Girls. (This is my working title and may or may not be the ultimate one.) My hope was by mentioning it in my blog and simply putting it out there, I would become more accountable and motivated to see it through to its completion.
I can say, without a doubt, my plan has been effective. This is not to say my blog is wonderful or the novel is going to be commercially successful. But what I can say, is that I took on a challenge, didn’t quit, and tried my best. Yes, due to the very nature of life and all it entails, there have been some weeks where I have found it difficult to produce anything, but thankfully those weeks have been in the minority. To a large extent I am pleased with my efforts, and the direction my blog and my new novel have taken.
I am expecting the novel will be ready for its first critique by the end of January. And I have no intentions of ending my blogging life any time soon! This is due in large part to the pleasure I derive from keeping it going each week, and connecting with so many other bloggers and readers all over the world. A number of my followers have been a Godsend, checking in and commenting regularly on my posts and encouraging me all along the way. You know who you are. 🙂 In the very near future I am planning to highlight my most faithful and prolific commenters and give their wonderful blogs the shout-outs they deserve. They are the ones that help make blogging for me so rewarding.
This joy of discovery is real, and it is one of our rewards. So too is the approval of our work by our peers. ~ Henry Taube
What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. ~ Bob Dylan
Keep on being good to one another!
Ailsa’s photo challenge this week is the Sky.
Here are a few of my personal favourites taken by our home here in Newfoundland.
Husband must have stood on a small hill because he isn’t that much taller than the rest of us. 🙂
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Happy Friday, everyone!
The Daily Post here at WordPress presents a challenge this week to exhibit the Unexpected in our photo collections. Here’s my take. 🙂
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Reblogging my post from a year ago. This is the first anniversary of our mother’s passing, and a difficult year it was. You are always in my heart, Mom x
In a recent telephone conversation with my aunt in the U.S., we got to talking about my dad (her brother), in his early years. Long before he fell in love with and married my mother, my father was an interesting fellow in his own right, excelling in his school studies and discovering his deep passion for all things musical.
Most likely because of the popularity of the big bands and swing music back in the day, his first musical instrument of choice was the saxophone.
Later, when icons like Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, and Glen Campbell, to name a few, came on the scene, Dad took up the guitar. When Beatlemania exploded, he joyously took part by buying their albums and learning to play many of their songs. As many can attest, he stayed devoted to guitar music the rest of his life.
As you can see from the above photo, my father was very thin when he was young. But after he married Mom, he began the quest of bodybuilding, transforming himself into the strong, well-muscled dad his children grew up with.
Pondering these things about my father made me think about the power of reinventing oneself. Sometimes the reinvention is necessary for survival, for instance a health issue demanding change. Other times it is a choice we make in the belief it will make us happier and more fulfilled.
I have had some reinventions of my own throughout my life. A few examples:
1. stay-at-home mom
2. customer representative in a bank
3. writer and blogger
Number three became possible when my husband and I did what my parents had done later in their lives: made the big move out of the city and into the country. Doing so gave me new insight into why they made such a change, and the benefits of this lifestyle which happen to better suit our personalities too.
People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out. ~ Warren G. Bennis
Have you done anything in your life to reinvent yourself? I’d love to hear from you if you have your own tale of reinvention to share. Don’t be shy. 🙂
~~Special thanks to Auntie who sent me these precious photos XOXO~~
During our stay in Bonavista last month, we took a drive to nearby Elliston. The claim to fame of this charming little community is its reputation as the
“Root Cellar Capital of the World.”
More than 130 root cellars have been documented in the Elliston area, dating back as far as 1839, and some of them are still in use today. The people who settled here grew their own vegetables, which were stored in the root cellars. A well-built cellar stayed dry and kept a constant, cool temperature year round.
But by now, you are probably asking, what does any of this have to do with where babies come from?
Well, according to Elliston folklore, the older folks told the children that babies came from root cellars. In the words of a Mrs. Ella Pearce,
They said they used to dig the babies out with a silver shovel. We used to go to the cellars and listen for babies. We never questioned our parents. We thought everything they said was true. They had midwives in them days, and we thought they used to dig them out.”
So folks, I’ve learned about yet another way babies come into the world, to add to the well-known tales of the Cabbage Patch and the Stork.
Are there any other explanations for how babies got here, that parents may have told their children? (besides the TRUTH, of course!)
Please share with me below if you have knowledge of more fascinating folklore!
For more info on Elliston, click here.
A couple of weekends ago, my husband and I visited friends who had relocated to the town of Bonavista last year. It was a three and a half hour drive away, the weather was lovely and it was our first time seeing the beautiful and historic town, so of course I had my camera ready. It was extremely difficult to narrow down the photos to only these!
Both of my cats enjoy grabbing opportunities,
wherever they may find them,
to cozy up and have a luxurious cat nap.
A carelessly dropped bathrobe has become
this morning’s perfect chance location for a purry snooze.
In this case, as in most,
Maisie is the one who finds the sudden bed,
and no sooner does she get nice and comfortable,
but Vivian happens along and surreptitiously joins her sister.
♥
This has been my contribution to Ailsa’s Weekly Photo Challenge – Relaxing.
Two weeks ago today, I had a fabulous evening.
Late on that Friday afternoon, I typed the last word of the last sentence of the last chapter of my Work In Progress. It felt wonderful! What a sense of satisfaction filled me as I raised my glass of Cabernet and toasted to my awesomeness. What an accomplishment! I spent the rest of the evening, and well into the night, celebrating, mentally patting myself on the back and grinning like an idiot.
My euphoria lasted about as long as the hangover. Over the next couple of days as planned, I reviewed a few of the writing tips and tricks I had bookmarked for my upcoming revision and editing process, and I crashed back to sober reality. I realized there was still plenty of work ahead, and instinctively I know certain areas have to be improved, rearranged, and completely rewritten, and then there’s my iPad with an app full of collected notes, jockeying to make it into the finished product as well.
But that’s okay. Every writer knows the first rough draft is exactly that: a first run, a rough copy, and yes, some of it is just plain shit. But in among the steaming heaps that stank, I knew there were jewels just waiting to be polished, the little jewels that make it all worthwhile.
Here are three chief concepts I believe every writer, who truly wants to be a writer, needs to remember.
1. No one wants to read about a Goody Two Shoes. If I expect readers to keep turning the pages, my characters have to be flawed. Whether that makes you like them, or love to hate them, depends on the types of flaws they embody – and maybe it depends on the sort of person you are, and what types of characters you are drawn to and like to read about. As important as plot may be, really, it’s all about the characters.
2. If you aren’t having any fun while you write, I don’t know how you will ever make it as a writer. A writer writes because she wants to, she has to, regardless of recognition or book sales. The fulfilment is in the process. And it’s a hard process. The best piece of advice I read about writer’s block was to put the manuscript aside and try penning a poem, or exploring another creative endeavor.
3. You have to want to write another book as soon as you’re finished the one you are now writing, The sweet possibility of a sequel keeps whispering in my ear, and that excites me. If I do write a sequel, however, it doesn’t mean the first one will depend on it. The novel I’m writing now will be able to stand alone in its own right. Then there are the flashes of inspiration for other book ideas that come during my writing, to which I can refer and develop when needed.
I’m waiting another couple of weeks to give myself more objectivity, before I start revisions. In the meantime there are plenty of good books and other reading material that beg for my attention.
Then on to the Second Draft!
Please share your thoughts with me about your Work in Progress. 🙂
The Creation of a Novel: a Progress Report
Jennifer's Journal 