I decided to get creative last night and turn my website/blog from dismal to delightful. I’m quite pleased with the result! Photo collage is one of my favorite things in the world, so I smile every time I see my new header, which is filled with things I love. I also adore the colored lights at Golden West Cafe, which were twinkling overhead when Steve and I visited last week to celebrate a day filled with good news. There may have been garlic fries and wine involved…
I’ve continued to note things that I am grateful for with my iPhone Happytapper.com app this week. It’s amazing how uplifting it is to pause, observe and give thanks, and then continue with your day. You can’t help but smile a little more. A trend that I’ve found in my handy journal of thanks is lots and lots of books and bookstores. Baltimore is packed with bookstores:) Recently, I’ve visited Normal’s, Ukazoo, Atomic, breathe (don’t miss their $6.99 per pound book sale!), and Barnes & Noble. I can’t help but peek at the shelves in each store and see where my book will (hopefully!) sit one day…
I just joined Laini Taylor’s mini-NaNo group for March. I’ve been moving along quite well with my second novel, but this added inspiration can’t hurt! How do you stay motivated while working on a long-term project? Although twitter and blogs can be distracting, I am often inspired by reading about the triumphs, challenges and lessons learned by fellow bloggers and tweeters:)
One of the biggest challenges of being a writer (for me) is patience. Sometimes impatience can be poisonous to my creativity and excitement because I’m focused on the little things rather than the big picture. Here is a list of some tools and strategies I use to stay positive and keep the muse happy…
1. I just found two iPhone Apps that I adore! Check out Happytapper’s Vision Board and Gratitude Journal. They’ve already helped me focus more on my major goals and remember the simple and daily parts of life that bring me joy.
2. Every few months, I visit breathe books for a 1/2 hour session with Aurora. Aurora is a psychic. Some people may not be open to doing this, but it always puts my mind at ease and fills me with enthusiasm for the future. I’ve been fascinated by psychics since I was very young. My friends and I used to spend nights huddled around a Ouija board. We would seek out psychics, learn about Tarot cards, and try to perform Past Life Regressions. These experiences have found their way into my writing and I still believe that there is more to life that what our five senses tell us.
3. This American Life is packed with characters just waiting to be brought to the page (check out the iPhone App!). As I listen more to this program, I realize the power of radio. I’ve listened to episode #199: “House on Loon Lake” twice (once with the hubs). The story is creepy, poignant, and mysterious- all things that I work to bring to my novels.
The great thing about this world is that these resources are endless if you want to find them. What’s inspiring you right now?
For a couple weeks I’ve been meaning to blog, but failed each time I sat down to write. Tonight, I’ve decided to just see what happens, building on the inspiration I found in Kris Carr’s news(love)letter and Allie Larkin’s blog. They have one powerful thing in common — lists. There’s nothing like a good old list to get your head straight. Especially when you’ve been stitching together sentences and paragraphs to create a story and your brain has turned to mush. Here’s what has injected inspiration and motivation into my life over the past couple weeks (in no particular order):
1. This may just be a coincidence, but I’d like to think it’s something else…While combing my brain for blog ideas, e.e. cummings popped into my mind and I started to reminisce about my love for his poetry, remembering when Steve and I had just met. We own e.e.’s 100 Selected Poems and I decided to search our many bookshelves for it. I didn’t find it in the office, so I trekked downstairs and pulled it from the bookshelf. Note: While walking downstairs I thought, “Hm, it might be in the basement. Maybe my wonderful husband will go into that cold damp room and find it.” As I pulled it from the shelf, Steve told me he had seen it downstairs this morning and decided it needed to be placed in our brand new bookshelf in the living room. He also remarked that he had been thinking about a certain poem throughout the day. A poem that just happened to be the one I was looking at…
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
Each time I read one of e.e.’s poems, I am baffled by his ability to describe the human experience in a way that is both accessible and genius, while using so few words.
2. Magical things happen when I find clarity, which is why I completed three lists (with pen and paper!) today. I answered three questions: What do you love about life today? What lights your board? Where will you be a year from now? No doubts, negativity, or nay-saying allowed.
3. I started working on Book 2 again. Just reading the first three chapters filled me with excitement for this new project.
4. I watched a bunch of Vlog Brothers videos. John and Hank Green are two of the most innovative, funny, and smart people I’ve ever encountered.
5. Thank you Stephanie Perkins for recommending this film! So beautiful! Watch the trailer for Bright Star…chills, right?
While walking to the post office last week, I listened to Stephen King’s On Writing. My favorite part of the book describes the days just before King sold Carrie, his first published novel. So I’m listening to King’s reflections on this difficult yet inspiring time, when my iPhone sounds its Pavlovian bell, letting me know I have a new email. I check the message (with Stephen still reading in the background) and find a treasure.
Recently, my husband has become a huge fan of Ray Bradbury. As always, he dove head first into researching the author’s life. Steve had found a video (see above), which led him to write me a simple and perfect email. In it, he shared Bradbury’s quote: “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.”
