A Writer’s Pursuit…
March 12, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as A Writer's PursuitOf The Paranormal
I love to hear stories of the supernatural, especially when I’m sitting with a group of friends and we’re trading tales. Can’t get enough of them. And the chill that scurries across my shoulders and down my back? I just draw in a shaky breath and scoot closer to the storyteller.
Did you think I’d look behind me? No way! 😉
And you know what? Almost everyone I’ve asked, even a skeptic or two, has a story in which they can’t explain the appearance of the misty figure in their bedroom…or a premonition they had…or even a dream where a loved one, who has already passed on, visits them in order to tell them something (or to comfort them).
This may be why I’m drawn to reading and writing about the supernatural. Because on some level, we do tend to relate to the stories, even if that connection is when you’ve walked into a room and spun around because you swore someone else was in there with you.
I do have so many personal stories, but I’d like to share one today. And then, if you care to share your experiences, I’d love to read some of your tales. 🙂
In July 2006, we traveled to York, England for the night, as we were to leave for Edinburgh, Scotland the next morning. (I bet most of my friends thought I was going to write York, Maine, huh? Ha! It’s the OTHER York. The older one. LOL)
Anyway, we’d arrived in York from London on Saturday around 6:30 p.m., which meant everything was pretty much closed, except for restaurants and pubs. So, we wandered the nearly empty streets and explored at our leisure, as darkness wouldn’t fall for a few more hours and the rain had lessened to a drizzle.
As I gathered information for a historical I was writing at the time, I stopped in the middle of the cobblestone road to admire a sign hanging outside one of the shops.
“Michele,†a voice whispered in my ear.
I glanced over my shoulder, expecting my husband to be there, waiting for me to move on. But I was alone. Huh. It wasn’t until looked in the opposite direction that I realized my DH was already 20 yards ahead of me and clearly occupied taking pictures.
Okay, I just thought I heard someone whisper my name.
So, I continued studying the buildings and did some window-shopping for a few more minutes. Then I turned in the direction of my husband, who waited for me down at the end of the street, and headed that way, ready to find a place to eat.
“Michele,†the voice whispered again.
I froze, but not from fear. Just curious as heck. What did the voice want? Should I answer?
Why would it get my attention, but not say anything else? Or even appear to me?
At that very moment, a ghost tour made its way down the street toward my DH. As the guide and his group passed me, he pointed to the buildings and spoke about the numerous reports of supernatural occurrences on this particular street.
Uh, ya think? All I could do was grin.
This is the street and the group gathered at the end of it is the ghost tour.
So, that’s one of my stories. I wish I knew what the voice wanted. (Or maybe there’s a connection between that York and my obsession with York, ME. Hmmm. LOL)
Anyone want to share your story? A premonition? A dream? A ghost story?
Take Care,
Michele
Michele Cwiertny writes dark paranormal romance set in a fictional town based on her favorite place in the country…York, Maine (not, York, England this time). For more info about her writing, please visit www.michelecwiertny.com and her blog, Michele’s Writing Corner.
12 0 Read moreIs your Podcast Alive with the Sound of Music?
March 11, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Confessions of a Podcast Goddessby Jina Bacarr
Jingles. Theme music. iTunes. Music is to podcasting what a pair of high heels is to that little black dress. It sets the mood. Slip on a pair of stilettos, you get sexy. Pull on a pair of cowboy boots, you get country. And that’s exactly what I wanted for the background music for my “Jina does Dallas RWA” video blog series. I chose “Honey Rose” from B&H Gold Music to “sweeten” my video podcasts about the RWA Dallas conference, including the video podcast included in this month’s blog with bestselling author, Lisa Jackson.
Sounds easy, right? Download your fave country tune…and then what? How do you add music to your audio and video podcasts? Let’s take a look at the Dos and Don’ts of Podcast Music:
DO have an idea of your theme, tempo, and rhythm before you go looking for music. Most music sites allow you to search by genre, instrument, tempo, etc. Listen to previews on several sites [links included at the end of this blog] and bookmark the links of the music you like so you can find them again.
DO use only Royalty Free podcast safe music. Wikipedia does a good job of explaining what Royalty Free music is. Prices vary for use of the music. You can buy individual music tracks for a median price of $10-30 or CDs with several tracks for $79-$199 average.
DO buy editing software to help you edit the music, then learn how to use it in your movie-making program. Muvee is a great program for editing video podcasts, adding photos and music. It allows you to drop in a piece of music and it adjusts the length of the piece to fit your video and/or photos.
DON’T let the music overpower your video or voiceover. Adjust the volume accordingly if you edit the music yourself.
DON”T use any music you’ve downloaded or taken off a CD without checking with the artist/band/recording company for permission. Use only Podsafe music.
DON’T be afraid to experiment with unusual music for your podcast to create an eclectic piece.
Ready to meet New York Times bestselling author, Lisa Jackson? She was one of the afternoon speakers at our March 8th meeting. I had the opportunity to interview her at the RWA Conference in Dallas. Here is LISA JACKSON
Best,
Jina
Royalty Free music sites:
Partners in Rhyme with sound effects
Jina Bacarr is the author of The Blonde Geisha , Naughty Paris, Tokyo Rendezvous, a Spice Brief, and my new erotic spy thriller, Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs. Check out my MySpace page and meet Breezy Malone, the heroine in Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs.
“Get Caught in the Act!”
2 0 Read moreIt’s Worth It
March 9, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as It's Worth ItMANNA TIME
By Kitty Bucholtz
Whenever I hear or see the same thing three or more times in a short period of time, I have a tendency to stop and say, “God, are you talking to me?†I always joke with him that I can be stubborn and hard of hearing but if I see something repeated, I promise to stop and at least ask if he’s trying to get my attention. I had this experience last month.
I’d been reading about the Israelites and how God provided manna for them to eat in the desert. The same topic came up in a sermon and in bible study within two weeks. I started thinking about it, wondering if there was a reason I was hearing about it so many times in a short period. I’d been praying for help in keeping my writing schedule as my first priority without losing control of everything else. What did the Israelites have to do with that?
Writing in my journal, I figured out the answer. The Israelites had to get up early every morning before the dew dried up and gather the manna from the ground. No sleeping in or being lazy. If you didn’t feel like getting it on Tuesday, you didn’t eat on Tuesday. The manna was going to be provided every day, but it wasn’t going to just show up on their plates. The Israelites knew in a general sense that God had promised to take care of them, but now they had to form that into a daily, practical trust and obedience.
My general goal of putting my writing first so that I can create a writing career is a good and noble one. But the fact is I wasn’t making it happen. The day I figured that out in my journal was the beginning of a change in my writing. I began starting each day writing “morning pages†(from The Artist’s Way) and pushing myself to “verbalize†all my hopes and fears about life in general and that day in particular.
I wrote about the guilt I felt putting my writing in front of getting my taxes done, and in front of other commitments. I wrote down the hundred things I thought I had to do, and realized that many of them could be put off one more day, reminding myself that I only needed to get that day’s writing done. I found that – just like Julia Cameron promises – getting everything else out of my head, recognizing it and moving on, opened up my writing!
Not only was I suddenly writing for four and five hour stretches, but the writing was far more productive, efficient, fun, and just good! I am amazed at how quickly the writing improved and the joy returned. And strangely, the other items on my to do list were surviving the wait. Some got done in the nooks and crannies of time my writing used to occupy. Some got picked up by friends and family. Some are still waiting.
I’m always amazed and sometimes embarrassed when God shows me he cares about the things that are important to me. But I’m extremely grateful! Now I start each day with the morning pages, and move right into the novel writing. My head is fresh and clear of “trash†and it shows in the writing. I laughingly tell God I’m now living in “Manna Time†– every day focusing just on what needs to be done that day, or if I’m particularly stressed, what needs to be done in that hour. Sometimes I hear MC Hammer’s theme song “Hammer Time†in my head. That’s when I know I got my quirky sense of humor from my Maker. In any case, I’ve found a successful new way to write – and it’s worth it!
Kitty Bucholtz writes romantic comedies because, well, she lives one! She wrote her first book in the NBC cafeteria, the second snowed in at a Reno hotel, and the third from a tiny apartment in Sydney. Even though she loves talking about, writing about, and teaching about writing, she’s pretty sure she knows at least three people who aren’t writers.
Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh!
March 7, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category Archives tagged as Things That Make Me Go Mmmruh
Everyday Hero
by Geralyn Ruane
Far and away, my favorite Oscar moment this year (only because Viggo didn’t win) was this: after a commercial break, Jon Stewart invites Marketa Irglova back on stage to say the thank you she didn’t get to voice because the orchestra cut her off after she and Glen Hansard won for best song for Once, the little movie that could. My goodness, the woman helped make internationally beloved film music with little more than a magnifying glass and a kazoo. She deserved her moment at the mike. So good for you, Jon Stewart, for making sure she got it! Mmmruh!
I love it when that happens – when someone decides they do not like what is happening, so they do something about it. Mmmruh!
After Wilma Melville retired from teaching gym, she decided that 15 FEMA-certified Search and Rescue dogs in the U.S. were not enough. She has since trained 85 more FEMA-certified Search and Rescue dogs and teamed them with trained fire fighters. Canadian high school students David Shepherd, Chris Spencer, Travis Price, Nick Sullivan and John Kennealy got sick of bullies terrorizing kids at their school, so they started wearing pink shirts to encourage solidarity against bullies. Pink Power is now spreading across the land. Judie Mancuso and her husband decided to live on half their income so Judie could quit her job and fight 24/7 for animal rights and righteous animal legislation in California. Mmmruh, mmmruh, mmmruh!
I know, I know. We all don’t have an Oscar stage and an audience of millions at our disposal. And some of us have no affinity for dogs, no Gatsby-like posse, no passionate crusade. That’s okay, though. We get to be everyday heroes, and those are the very best kind. The kind that change lives for a moment, make a day better, make an hour sweeter. And what is life, if not a double helix of tangled moments, days and hours?
I met Zam freshman year in college: I had an abysmal wardrobe and a perpetual wallflower complex, while he had the aplomb of Cary Grant and the biting sass of Bea Arthur. But do you know what I remember most about Zam? One day we were standing in the Student Union at the top of a steep staircase when a woman started bumping her way down with a baby carriage. Zam dropped everything to help the pair get safely to the first floor. I stood at the top of the staircase looking down at Steve (Zam’s real name is Steve Zambriski), wishing I were in love with him – he was just so magnificently compassionate. Mmmruh! Good thing I wasn’t in love with him, though, since he turned out to be gayer than a box of birds. You’d think the nickname “Zam,†and the Cher karaoke would have tipped me off, but at least I didn’t fall for him and get my heart pulverized by the naked truth. But as naïve as I was, I could recognize the heroic – even through the buzz and bustle of the Student Union.
So hang up the cell phone and listen to your kid talk about how stupid his math teacher is. Give up your seat to the guy who looks really tired. Put your shopping cart back and make someone work a little less hard for minimum wage. Be an everyday hero.
Try it.
Every day.
Geralyn Ruane’s new favorite numbers are 18 and 1. She co-hosts the radio show Better Times After 50 on AdviceRadio.com when she’s not drinking chocolate milk straight from the spoon or writing humorous women’s fiction. Her short story “Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants†is published in the New York Times Bestselling anthology The Right Words at the Right Time Volume 2.
My Mother
March 5, 2008 by A Slice of Orange in category ArchivesBy Diane Pershing
Two and a half weeks ago, my mother was dying. We were together in her hospital room, where she was coughing and feverish, a ninety-year-old with severe pneumonia and a high temperature. We all know what happens to someone with that set of problems, right? We both had tears in our eyes. Hands shaking, she removed a beautiful square cut diamond ring from her hand and gave it to me. “It was my mother’s ring,” she said, her voice croaking with inflammation and exhaustion. “I want you to have it.”
I didn’t argue-first of all, it was a dying woman’s wish. Secondly, it’s beautiful and I’ve never had a diamond ring in my life. I took it, put it on the ring finger of my right hand (so no one would think that Ken had finally popped the question), and it was done. Together, we looked at how it sparkled and shared a moment that both of us sensed was one of the last.
Cut to: A week later. While the pneumonia was still pretty bad, her fever was down, her white blood cell count was down, and it seemed she wasn’t going to die after all. I looked at the ring, looked at her and said with mock distress, “Ma, do I have to give it back now?”
She tilted her head to one side, enjoying the face I made, and said, “Nah. It’s yours anyway. Keep it.”
And I have. It’s here, sparkling still on my hand.
At present, Mom is out of the hospital and in a convalescent facility. She is still ninety and is weak and frail, but she coughs less, sits up more, walks a little with the aid of her walker. She is oh-so-slowly getting better.
As for me, I am a wreck. Caring for an elderly woman one loves unconditionally is not for weaklings. There is the necessity to be with her for hours and hours, because she needs reassurance and love and comfort, not to mention attention she does not get from nurses who are overworked and overstressed. There is her mail, her phone, her home, her bills. Running around getting the bedside table, contacting doctors and getting her meds right, and buying books light enough for her to hold but with large enough and dark enough print to read, Depends, looking for her favorite chocolate because she eats practically nothing at meals, making phone calls to be sure her care is attended to. This is not me whining, this is me stating a fact: I am past middle age and caring for an elderly parent and I am not an uncommon statistic. With the help of modern medicine, they’re living longer and we’re in charge. Fact, indisputable fact.
What does this have to with the blog offered by a writer of romances? A lot. Ask me where I am on the book I was deeply involved with two and a half weeks ago. The answer is: not any further along. I cannot write, I cannot concentrate, I cannot sit still and stare off into space and find the right phrase, the right image, for the scene I am creating. I CANNOT WRITE.
I think about the perfect writer I have in my head—the one who can compartmentalize, who creates to escape, who, in face, finds solace and peace by writing . . . and it’s not me. Mom is in my head, not my book. The next chore to take care of for mom is all I can really think about. Plus getting enough sleep, eating properly, avoiding getting sick myself. Exercise? Fuggedaboudit. Life is about mom. For now. For the near future.
Because there will be a future without her in it. I want to enjoy the time the two of us have left, lap it up like a cat with a saucer of milk. She gave me life and loved me until I could exist apart from her. I salute my mother, and the book will have to wait.
********************
Diane Pershing wears many hats. She is a multi-published award-winning romance novelist, voice-over actress for commercials and animation, and the President-Elect of Romance Writers of America. Her latest Silhouette Romantic Suspense, ONE TOUGH AVENGER, third in a trilogy, was released January 2008.
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