You Tube Tuesday: Taylor Davis

 

(*YouTube Tuesday idea originally came from the Martians Attack blog)

 

One of my fave musicians is a violinist, Taylor Davis.  I love, LOVE her music and have already included them in several of the videos I’ve created for my written work.  She performed many music for well-known TV shows, featured movies, popular games as well as anime.  The Game of Thrones’ theme is her music as shown above.

She also has released a number of her own original works which are beautiful!  “Morning Star” below is one of my favorites:

 

If you’d like to participate in YouTube Tuesday, post something from YouTube that you enjoyed and tell us a bit about it.  Don’t forget to include the link to this post in yours so I can check it out.  Also, if you’re on Twitter, Tweet about it using the hashtag #YouTubeTuesday.

Story Sunday: Shark! (Poem)

Photo Credit: Perth Now

 

The ocean water

oh so blue and clear…but

when she peers down into

the salty sea

the last thing she’d see

are those black, doll eyes

Your Life in Six Words Contest Winner

 

Over a month ago, I ran a contest at WritersCafe.org called, Your Life In Six Words.  Here is the winning item by Akshatha Kamath:

 

A real satire,
but humorously serious!

 

What about you?  If you could describe your life in six words, what would they be?

One-Liner Story Sunday: Shadowy Mountains

Photo Credit: Compass Points Media

 

It isn’t the mountains that need to be feared; but the shadows that accompany the daunting peaks as they tend to claim all who enter within.

 

 

*Inspired in part by article, Does Vermont Have Its Own Version of the Bermuda Triangle?

Wordless Friday (Reading will take you on journeys so always be ready)

Click on image for its’ original source (Pinterest)

Writing: The Power Behind Words

Click on the image to access this group’s official page

This month’s question: What is one valuable lesson you’ve learned since you started writing?

 

This was a difficult question.  I couldn’t think of any one thing specifically but just the knowing that writing in of itself has been incredibly valuable for me.  Without it, I don’t think I’d be as “put-together” emotionally and mentally as I am.

Even though I’ve been writing for a number of years now, and have several of my short works published,  I’m not famous or rich.

In fact, most people have no clue who I am.

I suppose that’s okay.

What matters to me is that the words I write impact people in some way.

So, yeah, I write for myself first but I also write to give voice (or try to) to those who cannot speak.

For me, writing is therapeutic.

Which means words matter.

And I want it to matter to the reader as well.

In the end, I can think of a particular lesson that writing has taught me.

Compassion for others.

And empathy.

Writing offers a way to let others know that they are not alone in feeling the way they’re feeling.

And for that one reader, the writer’s words can make all the difference in the world.

One-Liner Story Saturday: BBQ

 

The patties sizzled in the flames as the crowd eagerly waits; he wonders if they’ll notice his missing wife.

 

Writing Contests (Poll)

Do you have any favorite contests to recommend?

 

Story Sunday: The Bench

 

He stood

before the bench where he last saw her

Shadows from nearby trees nearly engulfing it

as the sun lowered in the smoke-glazed sky

She had on her gray pantsuit with a silky blouse

its’ color matched her sea-blue eyes

He set the ash-covered helmet on the wood

and as if pressed down with a heavy weight, he dropped

to one knee and bowed his head, tears trickling down his grime-stained face

Fires he could fight, but not the monstrosity he witnessed on that fateful day

One by one, his brothers fell as with the towers

Did she too?

Perhaps she’ll suddenly appear like an angel he knew her to be-

or, was she lost somewhere in the rubbles of mangled steel and crushed cement?

Time’s no man’s friend

For he was a fool to think he had plenty

and now she’s gone

 

*I created a video for this story.  It can be accessed here: The Bench

 

Favorite Friday: Ray Bradbury (on leaving behind a legacy)

 

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

You Tube Tuesday: The Bench

 

(*YouTube Tuesday idea originally came from the Martians Attack blog)

 

A secret dream of mine is wanting to see one of my works produced into a feature film.   I just love the thought of seeing my story come to life with visuals and music.  Well, I decided not to wait any longer and began creating my own “films” by using the movie-making software, Kizoa.  Yeah, it’s not quite the same as having actors acting out parts of the stories I’ve written, but it’s close enough and not to mention, fun!

Here’s the most recent one I created for a microfiction I wrote, The Bench.

If you’d like to participate in YouTube Tuesday, post something from YouTube that you enjoyed and tell us a bit about it.  Don’t forget to include the link to this post in yours so I can check it out.  Also, if you’re on Twitter, Tweet about it using the hashtag #YouTubeTuesday.

Story Sunday: Fire and Ash

 

 

As she stood in the entryway

staring at the black mass in the fiery sky

she wondered

what good did technology do for them

now on the brink of extinction?

Gusts of heated air whipped around her body

as the only thoughts of comfort

were of all the written journals

she’d buried in the deep caverns nearby

in the hope that those pieces of her would survive

while the rest be reduced to nothing

but hot ashes

“Fan”tastical Friday: Helen Keller

 

I’ve never really gave much notice to the term “fandom” until I looked up the meaning of the word in a dictionary:

-“the state or condition of being a fan of someone or something.”

This definition made me chuckle as it sounds like something out of a psychology textbook.  So, I looked at what Wikipedia had to say:

-“a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest.”

Meaning, you can be a “fan” of not just individuals or movies or a particular kind of music; but, also of an ideal, an interest, motive, etc..  I think you get the idea.

I suppose now that I’m thinking (oh, so dangerous) I am a fan of multiple things.

For today, I will focus on one of them.

Women with great inner strength.

Helen Keller.  Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. Mother Teresa. Anne Frank. Maya Angelou.

There are just too many to list here but the one who has been the greatest inspiration to me was Helen Keller.

Although I am legally blind and deaf, I still have enough of both to manage.  But Helen had none of both and she still got around!  There are days when I get frustrated at my shortcomings and limitations to the point I just want to quit and throw in the towel (and I’ve done this before which brought only misery for me),  but I have to remind myself that there are (and have been) others who persevered and thrived despite their disabilities.

Which gives me hope.

And some days, that is all I need to continue on.

 

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”

-Helen Keller

 

 

You Tube Tuesday: Stephen King

 

(*YouTube Tuesday idea originally came from the Martians Attack blog)

 

I came across this video recently and loved how he presented some of the tips as well as how he came up with the story idea for Cujo.

Have you read any of his books?  Which one is your favorite?

If you’d like to participate in YouTube Tuesday, post something from YouTube that you enjoyed and tell us a bit about it.  Don’t forget to include the link to this post in yours so I can check it out.  Also, if you’re on Twitter, Tweet about it using the hashtag #YouTubeTuesday.

Writing: Getting Too Attached? (Poll)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I care more about the people in books than the people I see every day.”-Jo Walton, Among Others

One-Liner Story Saturday: This Thing Called Life

 

 

A young woman who lost her parents, one to infidelity and the other to a war in some foreign land, must choose between a childhood dream and her familial responsibility…real life sucks.

Wordless Friday (Untitled)

Photo Credit: tjdrysdale.com

What Happens When A Writer Stops Writing?

Click on the image to access this group’s official page

This month’s question: Did you ever say “I quit”? If so, what happened to make you come back to writing?

 

I wrote an essay on this last year, and today I took and created a video from it.

 

 

 

 

Does Extra Free-Time Equals More Writing Time For You? (Poll)

One-Liner Story Sunday: Evil Dentist

 

Whimsical images flash through my mind as I wait for sleep to overtake me only to be interrupted by the deafening crunches of  the bones in my mouth.