Writing Wings For You

Marie Lukasik Wallace ~ # I LIVE Poetry – I'm passionate about life and writing and all things creative and poetic!

Monthly Archives: July 2014


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Funny Story – My 77 Year Old Dad got his first “Twitter” Account

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My dad is a Doctor Dolittle. He certainly has a way with animals. He interacts with them like people, mostly because he is a man who lives out in the country, and animals are the closest things to talk to. He has regular people conversations with animals; and like Dr. Dolittle, it is not limited to cats or dogs. Currently, he has 2 cats and 3 dogs and a frog that comes and sits.

One day when I visited dad, he surprised me by telling me the conversation he was having with a bird outside. Rarely does my dad get excited about things. Most of our conversations consist of the weather and typical daily chores. But on this day, my dad carried on about his interaction with the bird.

Dad continues, “Marie, the bird would make a sound ‘tweet, tweet’ and then I would echo back, ‘tweet, tweet.’ Then dad would start it, giving a new pattern, ‘tweet, tweet, tweet,’ and the bird would reply back, ‘tweet, tweet, tweet.’   The bird copied the pattern!

My dad carried on about their conversation, and his eyes lit up, and he was very animated, excited about this forged relationship with yet another animal. My favorite part however, was that my dad said, “Hey, now I’ve tweeted!”   My mouth dropped open in utter surprise. I didn’t even know he KNEW what tweeting was!

This interaction with my daddy got me curious about the origins of Twitter and just had to look it up. And though Wikipedia isn’t a formal, technical way of finding things out, it most certainly has a line or two that suggests how it came about.

Dorsey has explained the origin of the “Twitter” title:

…we came across the word ‘twitter’, and it was just perfect. The definition was ‘a short burst of inconsequential information,’ and ‘chirps from birds’. And that’s exactly what the product was.[

It was quite an interesting article. You can read more about it HERE.

Later that day, I heard the “twitter” of the birds and just smiled a sweet smile just thinking that maybe a man like my dad could have been an originator of the first tweets.

Another glorious day with my daddy.  :0)

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images from free Google images

 


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For Writers – Writing Resources

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BELOW YOU WILL FIND Recommendations & Links for :

Writer’s Conferences, Great Writing books & helpful Writing Sites

 

BOOKS THAT ARE INSPIRING FOR WRITERS:

BIRD BY BIRD – Anne Lamott – What I love about this book is that it gives the writer a “buddy,” a pal that can relate to your writing woes:  when you write like crap, when you can’t write at all, when you stay staring at a computer screen…she helps you to feel normal.  And then she gives you some great tips on how to solve these problems.  It’s a quick read, and it’s stock-piled with HUMOR!  This book has been giving writers great advice for over twenty years.

ON WRITING – Stephen King – This book not only gives great tools from a writer who’s obviously been very successful, but it’s laced with humor and how writing and living are closely connected.  It’s been around for over 10 years and still well loved.  That says a lot about this book.

WRITING DOWN THE BONES: by Natalie Goldberg – Natalie applauds the age old adage that if you want to improve your craft, you need time to practice and experience. Good tips on how to get the stream of consciousness going and leaving the editor behind. Though it was first published 20 years ago, there is still sound writerly advice.  (quick read)  She has several other books that are helpful to writers as well.  Other books:  One on secrets of writing Memoir – Old Friend from Afar ; and one related to her writing workshops – The True Secret of Writing Connecting Life

The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron– – Great way to start a wrtierly life -Morning Pages allow you to use your stream of consciousness writing and get rid of the editor.  There is no focus or judgement just a commitment to writing a certain amount of time every day.  You’ll be surprised what happens!  You get real gold nuggets!  (and lots of ideas too.)  

Word Arts Collage by Peggy Heller – Though this book was intended for the use of Poetry Therapists, it also has some great tips and tricks for put imagery and words together.

Writer’s Market 2014 – Guide to getting Published – This book has been very helpful in finding publishers and agents, getting published in magazines and writing contests.  It also has going rates for Publishing costs, Advertising & Public Relations, Business, etc.  so you can get a better picture of how much it will cost to run the business side of things.

MY PINTEREST – BOARD FOR INSPIRATION, QUOTES, STRATEGIES

 

WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES:

Here are a few events that I have attended this year  or will be attending that I know you will love.

 Inspired Legacy –  next Workshop November 13th-16th – Bridget is a New York Times Best Seller – I have been to three of Bridget’s retreats, and they are worth every penny.

Why:

*  Wicked tools to organize your research and your writing

*  Tips and tricks of the writing trade

*  DOs and DON’Ts of getting an Agent & Getting Published

* Special one on one with Bridget – brilliant, intuitive, relevant feedback

* Collaboration with peers – give and get feedback

(She holds one every three months or so.  There are also opportunities for yearlong coaching workshops.  AMAZING!)

Sun Valley Writer’s Conference – intimate setting in a beautiful resort in Sun Valley.  You can make connection and meet with awesome writers all over.  Next conference is July 2015.  TBA

 Destiny  & Legacy Workshops with Frank White & Sheli G–

Destiny -This workshop is more for the business aspect of your writing/author business.   What you will like is that they “get real” and they have a lot of business savvy.  You will learn what’s working and not working.   – This version is for women only.   DESTINY will probably come back around in 2015.  I will keep you posted.

Legacy 2014 – the men’s version of the above Destiny workshop is due to come out around October.  As soon as I hear something, I will let you know!

Diane McKinnon – Live to Write – RETREAT in NH – I don’t know Diane, but I do know she is passionate about writing; and when someone is passionate and on fire, they usually have some juicy good things to impart!

 

LINKS TO HELPFUL WRITING SITES:

Writers’ Digest – This is a magazine full of writing tips and tricks and advice on everything from writing to publishing and how to get an agent.  They have contests too.  Don’t want a magazine coming to your door?  Go to their web-site!

 

National Novel Writing Month – This is a tool for writers who have a difficult time being on one project and staying on one project.  It offers you a chance to be with cabin mates who can cheer you along, and there’s a way to watch your progress through word count.  How it helped me was to accept my writing as not having to be perfect every day.  Get it down, edit, craft, beautify later.  Get the bones built; put the skin on later.  November is the big month for writing 50,000 words toward your novel, but the have smaller camps too.

Writer’s Reference Guide – This web-site goes along with the book version to getting published.  Has the same information as above.

PINTEREST – BOARD FOR INSPIRATION, QUOTES, STRATEGIES

BLOGS I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT WRITING ARE  HERE. (link is temporarily broken)

VIDEOS COMING SOON!


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Oatmeal-whole wheat pizza crust with different toppings

I can’t wait to try this! Healthy. And it looks soooo yummy!

Chitra Jagadish's avatarChitra's Healthy Kitchen

Oats Pizza with Mushroom

About:

Oatmeal, whole wheat, flax seed pizza is a wholesome recipe and you will have no guilt of having a pizza again. This is a multigrain crust pizza with tomato basil homemade pizza sauce and topped with greens, sun-dried tomatoes, jalapenos, mushrooms.

Using dill leaves as a topping gave a very mild and warm flavour similar to that of anise.

Health Benefits:

Sun dried tomatoes are rich in nutrients, low in calorie, low in fat but high in sugar so despite of health benefits of eating sun dried tomatoes just the one with diabetes should be careful to budget this into their daily sugar intake before adding tomatoes to their diet.

So top with any toppings of your choice and enjoy with this wholesome pizza.

Yields: 2 medium Pizza
Preparation time: 20mins
Baking time: 13-15mins

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Heart Melt Alert! – TTH

My grandson found this picture on my coffee table and said, “Who is this cute baby?”  I told him it was me.  He said, “Grammy, you were such a cute baby, no wonder you are so pretty now!”  My heart melted.

(But there’s so much more to this picture.)

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What?  Where did this come from?  Yes, that’s me, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen this picture, and it’s fifty years old!  I found it this summer when I was helping my dad do some cleaning at his house.  I was shocked.  I have two baby pictures.  Two.   And those two show a little waif during the summer time in her underwear…in one, I’m carefree in the sprinklers, cooling off from the boiling Texas heat.  Cool pictures, but I don’t look like I belong to anyone.  Once my friend took out her pile of baby pictures to show me, and I didn’t have one picture at the time to show her. The interesting part about that is that I’m the oldest!  (There should be a plethora of pictures!)

But this picture…this picture is special…it’s me..me and my daddy, and what he loved most, cars, especially his Oldsmobile.  He does look nervous holding me. 

Why is this picture important to me?  You see, I’ve been writing my dad’s story.  It’s a story of a “vaulted” man who hasn’t talked much more than about the weather and fishing, and occasionally on a good day about cars. When it comes to writing the book, it’s been a challenge because either he doesn’t remember  (he has Alzheimer’s) or because he doesn’t give me juicy details or emotion.  (There’s not even an essence of a story for me to write from.)  Last week, it was time for me to write the portion of my dad’s story of when he first became a dad.  This picture gave me the courage to go deeper, and it was a picture my dad could remember.

On the phone, my daddy said, “You want to know about when you were born?”  His voice was high pitched and had an excited tone.  “Why yes, dad, that would be awesome!”  I NEVER heard my dad with this much  fervor telling me about something.  So, for about ten minutes with full on expression (and I imagine lots of hand gestures) my dad weaved the most elaborate story I’ve EVER heard him tell. 

Daddy proceed with  giving me descriptive details of his trauma of being a new dad.  No one told him how long it would take for mom to deliver me, several days, or most importantly, how ugly I would look with all goo still on me when they plopped me in his hands.

“What happened to my baby?” he asked the nurses.  They hadn’t prepared him to see all the blood and ick on me, let alone what the forceps would do in giving a baby an exceptionally elongated alien head.  He was sure that baby was not his.  I looked nothing like those beautifully cleaned up babies he had seen on television.

Daddy painted the picture of how nervous he was when the nurse handed me to him (with all the goo).  “I was so afraid I would drop you because you were so tiny, and I had never held anything so tiny before.  I didn’t want to break you.”

To many, this brief telephone interaction may not be much, but I remember smiling ear to ear and being so proud that I got a chance to hear my dad tell a story from his heart all animated.  When the call was over, I was terribly disappointed, because of all the calls I’ve recorded, this would be the one I would cherish forever…but alas, on this day, that beautiful conversation would only be between me and daddy, and it will remain near and dear to my heart.


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Writing Prompt – Get to Know your Characters – Reedeming Qualities & Fatal Flaws

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When my daughters were growing up, we had Friday Night Pizza, and they always, always, always put on a dance or a play.  Oftentimes, these kids (6 or 7 pre-teen girls)  would put on Fractured Fairy Tales.  We video taped them because they were incredibly creative, and it validated the girls to keep on writing and creating, and it kept them out of trouble.

Here’s how it works:  You take one of your favorite fairy tale characters, and you write the story from their point of view, much like the book, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.  If it’s an evil character, you plead their innocence.  If it’s a sweet character, you show their shadowy side…all in the name of fun.  This exercise reminds us that EVERY CHARACTER HAS REDEEMING QUALITIES and FATAL FLAWS.  It’s good for novel writing too!

THE PLUS ONE!   – Do this same exercise with CHARACTERS FROM YOUR book.  It’s a fun, safe way to explore and also a chance to really get to know your characters.

Plus Two – Get your kids in on writing with you – You could write these fractured fairy tales together.  I’ve done this with four year olds because their imaginations are free to roam!


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Wordless Wednesdays – Because the Pictures Say it all! (I’m blessed)

sunflowers up close

Bulbous Sunflowers

spider web in grass

Spidey visit in my grass   

fountain

A most beautiful fountain in Meridian

perserverance

With perseverance, this too shall pass.

I am blessed…and yes, I remember.    :0)


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Heart Ruins

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My heart was darkened today

I let evil invade

and have a battle there

The walls crumbled

Its swords sliced

The searing pain

the bleeding

the destruction

could not be stopped

My mangled mass

Left crumpled

On the floor.

Ruins

 

Photo from Photo bucket:


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I Live Poetry – Change of Perspective

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I LIVE POETRY 

Changing my perspective

By looking through  my windows

in a 5 in frame?

I can choose to focus on the distortion

Or the texture

Or the randomness

Or the order of lines

or the scarcity

Or the lush greenness all around 

Choosing to see beauty in a land

Of chaos

Whether it’s inside or outside

My viewpoint and my attitude

is always a choice.

***This was a combination of challenges…whipped up some artistry here.   The top photograph was for Texture Tuesdays  w/Narami ( I love the shadows & light you can see).   You should try it out.  It’s fun looking for different textures. The other photographs were from Cee’s Lookin’ Through Windows.   Then I added my own poetic twist for  I LIVE POETRY. 

 As always, tell me how you LIVE POETRY!

Nemaste, Marie  :0)

#Ilivepoetry  #livepoetry

 


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“The Earth is a…

wanting to “become masters of a fraction of a dot.” Take it several steps further. We are fighting on our playgrounds and in our homes over a fractions of a fraction of a dot. Not only “preserve and cherish the blue dot” but the fractions of fractions of the blue dots in our homes. Peace begins with me. ~Marie

radiatingblossom's avatarRadiating Blossom ~ Flowers & Words

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known…

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