Happy Talk

A couple of days ago, Steph posted a meme on her blog that simply listed 10 things that made her happy, so I'm grabbing that meme and posting it on mine today. Feel free to grab it from me and use it for yourself if you're so inclined! My happy things are in no particular order.

1. Fresh, clean, bedsheets.
2. A basket-full of scented bath soaps.
3. Sitting at the piano and singing through my Twenty-four Italian Songs & Arias.
4. Listening to my CD of Mozart piano & violin sonatas.
5. Sitting in bed with Steph with both of us working on our laptops.
6. Waking up early in the morning to find Steph still awake and spending an hour with her cuddling, talking, and laughing before I have to get up and get dressed for the day.
7. When my kitty gets up in my face and kisses my nose.
8. When my daughter calls me all excited to tell me that she made a 100% on a really tough exam.
9. When I look in the mirror and realize that I don't look too bad for being almost 50.
10. Napping on the couch with my warm nothing (we call our soft micro-fiber blankets our "warm nothings").

I am a part of it all

I look all around me and I am always amazed at the things there are to learn. God reveals himself through his creation--through plants & animals, through people, through the cosmos, through the arts & sciences, and through reason & philosophy. To claim that truth can only be found in one source, in one belief, in one religion, in one philosophy is to deny the vastness and inconceivable nature of The Creator, and to me is the ultimate blasphemy. We cannot put God in a box. The more I know of the universe around me, the more I know myself, and the more I know God. What a comfort to know that I am not separate from creation, that I am a part of it, and because I am a part of it, no matter what religions tell me, I am not separated from God, nor have I ever been. No man-made doctrine will ever change that truth.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God. ~Albert Einstein

It's none of our business

Am I the only person out here who believes that Tiger Woods doesn't owe anyone a public apology? Since when did his fame make him accountable to me, to his fans, or to the rest of the world? This is about his personal life; HIS marriage, HIS family, and how it affects them. It doesn't affect me in the least. I'm not a golfer or a fan of golf but even if I was, it's none of my business. Why do we seem to have such a need to make gods out of our celebrities and then when they prove that they are only too human, we crucify them?

Perhaps the public owes Tiger Woods an apology for putting him on a pedistal that he never asked to be put on in the first place, robbing him of his humanity and of his right to make mistakes. Perhaps we all need to examine ourselves and ask if we were in the same position, with the same pressures and temptations, would we do any differently?

Nothing's going to harm you

Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around.

Nothing's gonna harm you, no sir, not while I'm around.

Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays,

I'll send 'em howling,

I don't care, I got ways.

No one's gonna hurt you,

No one's gonna dare.

Others can desert you,

Not to worry, whistle, I'll be there.

Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while,

But in time...

Nothing can harm you

Not while I'm around...

Not to worry, not to worry

I may not be smart but I ain't dumb

I can do it, put me to it

Show me something I can't overcome

Not to worry, Mum

Being close and being clever

Ain't like being true

I don't need to,

I would never hide a thing from you,

Like some...

No one's gonna hurt you, no one's gonna dare

Others can desert you,

Not to worry, whistle, I'll be there!

Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while

But in time...

Nothing can harm you

Not while I'm around...

My one and only love

 

Announcing a second edition

It has been nearly three months since I published the first edition of So Faithful a Heart and I have received nothing but glowing reviews. Since this is my first novel, I published it without a registered ISBN number (yes, there is an ISBN assigned to the title, but it isn't registered), so that there would be limited distribution in order that I might keep better tabs on the number of copies out there and get better feedback on it. As I said, thus far, the reviews have been fantastic--people love the story, the characters, the setting, everything. However I have gotten the valid criticism that my readers feel I rushed a bit through the ending and therefore the end didn't contain the emotional impact that the rest of the book had. And since Steph is now deep in the throes of writing her second novel, With a Bullet, she has been learning some tricks of the craft and passing them on to me. Since I published my book back in November, I have learned the writing editor's adage, "show, don't tell" and how to eliminate unnecessary words and phrases that only serve to slow the reader and bog the story down, and now I want to go back and apply them to this novel. So I am now in the process of re-editing and rewriting So Faithful a Heart, to be published as an expanded, second edition, hopefully in about a month. And unlike the first edition, after this one is published, it will be available internationally.

For those who have not yet purchased a copy and are interested in it, I encourage you to wait for the next edition, and for those of you who have already purchased it and read it, I will be happy to offer you the second edition, at cost (no royalties to me), once it is published.

A different drummer

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Life is Art

Salvation doesn't lie within four walls. I'm too

 serious to be a dilettante and too much a dabbler to be a professional. Even the most miserable life is better than a sheltered existence in an organized society where everything is calculated and perfected. (From La Dolce Vita)