Life to the Fullest

When you're in elementary school you think about becoming a doctor, a lawyer or a teacher, getting married and having two children (one boy and one girl), and thirty-five is old.

Then in your teens you're planning for college, wondering if you'll get married, can't wait to live on your own and you still think thirty-five is old.

In your mid-twenties you're thinking about having children, buying your first home and having a career. Forty starting to sounding old.

You turn around one day and you're fifty. You're playing with your grandchildren, planning for retirement, and starting to count how many funerals you've been to. Suddenly sixty-five doesn't sound so far away.

When you're young, you think you'll live forever but as you head over "the hill" you realize life really is short. You may not get to go on that dream vacation, see your grandchildren grow up, or find that one true love. You never know when life will throw you a curve ball and change your plans, permanently.

Look at the natural disasters happening all around us. How many of your friends or relatives have terminal illnesses? What if 12/21 really is the last day (I don't think so but...)?

Why do we hesitate to take chances? Why do our fears hold us back? Shouldn't we jump in with both feet and take a risk and enjoy the time we have to its fullest?

What is a Liebster Blog Award, you say? The Liebster Blog Award is an award given to blogs that have less that 200 followers. It's a way of generating some love and some traffic for smaller bloggers. 

Of course there are some other rules:

• Each person must post 11 facts about themselves
• Answer 11 questions the tagger has given you and give 11 questions for the people you've tagged
• Choose 11 people and link them in your post
• Tell them you've tagged them
• No tag backs

Facts about Linda:

1. I was adopted when I was 8 days old

2. I adopted my daughter when she was 11 years old

3. I started writing (seriously, not just for fun) 2 years ago

4. I found my biological mother, brothers and sisters (my sister, her 3 daughters and 2 other nieces are  my Facebook friends)

5. I have 4 girlfriends I have been very close to for over 30 years

6. I love to sing in the car (there's a YouTube video to prove it)

7. I'm a perpetual dieter! (the same 20 lbs over and over!)

8. I love trying new foods and interesting restaurants

9. I rarely act my age

10. I love to dance

11. I love my little apartment

Now the questions from Laci:

1. Favorite color?

         Purple!!! 

2. Tea or Coffee?

     If you see my Facebook - COFFEE!!!

3. What is your dream job?

     I have it - I work for a great boss full time and get to write when the muses strike me!

4. What time of day are you most creative?

     Early in the morning is my best time!

5. Last movie you've watched in the movie theater?

    Thor - But I'm going to see Magic Mike Friday!!!!

6. What pets do you have?

     2 cats but they don't live with me! I miss them :(

7. Winter or Summer?

     Winter - love to snuggle

8. My son says that I should ask if you like to wear socks?

      All winter and also with my sneakers!

9. Favorite vacation spot?

      I've been to Germany but dream of going to Scotland!

10. Favorite superhero?

       Batman - He's the only one without super powers but gets the job done!

11. Last book you read?

       Finished Hunger Games - Stuck in the middle of 50 Shades of Gray, which I will probably never finish!

Hope you'll play along! It gives a chance to get to know each other as well as folks to know us. Have fun!! 

Blogs I've tagged:

M. J. Kane

Ellie Mack

Kristina Jackson

Siggy Buckley

Regina Carlysle

Allison Bruning

Jane Carroll Cowart

Sarah Wallace

Alexx Miller

Sherry M. Palmer

Penelope Price

11 Questions for those I tagged:

1. Chocolate or Vanilla

2. Pajamas or birthday suit

3. Short reason you write

4. Favorite genre to read

5. Favorite all-time movie you can watch over and over

6. Dream vacation

7. Favorite actor

8. Are you a romantic?

9. Wine or Beer

10. Cowboys or Businessman

11. Pool or Ocean

All finished! It's a bit time consuming but fun! :)

This week my guest is Laci Paige and the topic this week is, "What are you reading?" Like so many out there, Laci is trying to decide if she should read Fifty Shades Of Gray.  There is so hype about it. Have you read it?  Help Laci decide if she should. 

Fifty Shades…Should I, or Shouldn’t I?

With all the hype over EL James’s, Fifty Shades of Grey, I wonder if I should read it. It’s on my “maybe” list. I keep going to read it, but then something else pulls me away from it, probably because I am so skeptical. 

I’m not currently reading anything, so again I am left wondering if I should read it or not. I don’t want to waste my time, or my money, because both are precious to me. My non-writing friends all say that I have to read it. My fellow authors have mixed reviews. Some say it’s okay, but most of them disliked it.

Looking at the Amazon reviews doesn’t help me either. It has 3,000 five-stars, and 2,100 one-stars, and not many two, three or four stars to speak about. So what it comes down to looking at Amazon is the same thing. Either you hate it or you love it.

I know one day I will give in, but I don’t think that day will be today. I have so much writing that I am working on that I don’t have time for a lengthy book anyway. If I do read, I will snatch up a novella or two. 

My non-writing friends love it so I have to ask myself why. Why do they enjoy it? First, I think that the erotic thing is something new for most, and that in itself is fun and exciting. Second, they’ve never been through the editing process. 

Those two things are why I think my author friends don’t seem to enjoy it as much. A lot of us have read erotic stories or we’ve been around romance writers during our daily promo work for our own stuff, so the erotic/adult thing isn’t new to us. It’s old hat. Then the editing bit of it, being that I haven’t read it I don’t know firsthand, but a lot of people are complaining about the story, the characters, and the dialog not being believable. “No one speaks like that.” - is one quote I’ve seen a lot of. Then there’s the complaint of over used words and actions (I’m guilty of that as a writer, but my editor always straightens me out on that front). Fifty Shades being put out by Random House means it should have been edited, right? Doesn’t sound like it.

From what I’ve gathered this trilogy is nothing more than glorified poorly written “fan-fiction”. So can you see my dilemma? To read or not to read? Let me hear your thoughts, see if you can persuade me either way. 

Laci Paige is a debut erotic romance writer of the novella, Let’s Keep On Truckin’. Laci’s also penned a young adult paranormal romance under a different pen name. When she isn’t reading, writing, or eating chocolate she is probably out playing with her camera somewhere trying to find the time to finish her online photography course. 

Laci loves to interact with her fans, you can find her at:

http://lacipaige.blogspot.com/

https://twitter.com/#!/laci_paige

https://www.facebook.com/lacipaige

https://www.facebook.com/authorlacipaige

Her debut novella is available on many fine eBook retailers’ websites as well as on publisher’s: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=540&osCsid=28h21vnldsgfgbo3feevilqdj3

Find out what my guest, author Catrina Taylor, like to read! Maybe its your favorite too! 

A voracious reader often finds it difficult to narrow down a single author that just drags you into the story time and again. There is great reason for that. There are thousands of authors available in print and through digital media today. Today’s book market is a treasure trove of incredible tales spun by authors from all walks of life. Like a child in a candy store, I can’t find just one author I love more than the others.

I nibble from the reading tables of many genre, but I lean heaviest to the science fiction and fantasy realms created by insatiable appetites of creative talents. Among the many names that come to mind in that genre are Sarah Barnard, Isobel Herring,  Wendy and Charles Siefken and so many others that I’m drawn to for their unique universes. Each reality, story, and conflict lingers in the imagination. Each character lives a life I’ve never seen or imagined myself and that makes me enjoy the world much more.

Since I don’t only satisfy my voracious reading appetite at the table of science fiction or fantasy, I know that narrowing down the authors I enjoy is a difficult task. Add to it the fact I’m horrible with names, and you have a match made in prolific forgetfulness. It is the book that lives in my mind, my heart and imagination. I’m grateful to know so many authors now. I am learning to recall names easier, but the list of books that I love is longer than the words available to keep your attention here.

Tell me, how do you satisfy your voracious reading appetite?

~About my guest~

Catrina Taylor is a single mom of two, and a science fiction author working on two series. The first is her debut series, Birth of an Empire, and the second is an Origins series related to the characters in her main series. This talkative author can be found on Facebook at http://facebook.com/xarrok and on twitter as TheLadyWrites. You can learn more about the series and visit her blog at http://Xarrok.com  

Introducing Scott Bury, my guest this week on the tour

This week our blogs are writing we would post on our own blogs. Scott describes our assignment below:

A normal blog post

This week’s assignment is to write a “normal” blog post as an introduction to my blog. 

Whenever I hear the word “normal,” I have to ask: what is “normal”? Who’s normal? Do you know anyone who is completely normal? I don’t.

Take writers. There cannot be a normal writer, because writing books and stories is not something people normally do. A minority of the population attempts to write a novel, and an even smaller minority of them actually finish one. Of those, a fraction publish it. What’s the word from high school? Oh, yah: infinitesimal.

My blog: Written Words

And that takes care of the first part of Tasha Turner’s instructions for Week 3: introducing the blog. My blog is called Written Words, and I try to focus every post on just that: words that have been written down.

My first intention was to draw attention to my former career as a freelance writer of all sorts of material. I thought I could lambaste examples of bad writing that I found, or misleading words from the news, advertising and entertainment. For a while I did that, but I did not blog very frequently. In fact, there were whole years without posts.

I started getting more serious about blogging last summer, when I was about to publish my first fiction. I blogged about my writing and publishing experience, and about using my new iPad to write and blog while travelling. I also started reviewing books.

If you take a look at Written Words now, you’ll find posts on a range of subjects. First, there are critiques of communication from other sources that I find objectionable in some way—such as John Edwards’ self-serving statement of responsibility.

I also post writing tips based on common errors I find—like misusing quotation marks, over-capitalizing and overloading sentences.

And there are book reviews. Now, I try to review only independent authors’ work. After all, the authors signed to big publishers have enough support.

I also try to do guest blog swaps with other bloggers—something similar to what Tasha has organized in this blog tour. I have asked writers from RS Guthrie to Alan McDermott to Roger Eschbacher (that’s quite a sweep of genres and styles) to tell my readers about the best thing they’ve ever done as writers or for their writing, and the worst thing. I give them the freedom to look at any part of writing, whether it’s content (no one has written about that, yet), the writing process, their publishing experience or promotion. The result is always interesting.

And then there are times when I write about something else. Hey, it’s my blog. I can write about whatever I want. They’re still “written words.”

Come on over. See for yourself, and leave a comment or two. I love getting comments.

Scott Bury is a journalist, editor and writer living in Ottawa. His articles have been published in newspapers and magazines in Canada, the US, UK and Australia.

The Bones of the Earth is his first novel to be published.

He has two sons, an orange cat and a loving wife who puts up with a lot. You can read more of Scott’s writing at Written Words and Scott’s Travel Blog, and on his website, The Written Word. Follow him on Twitter @ScottTheWriter.

Guest Blogger for the Week...Anjie Harrte

I'd like to introduce you to my guest blogger on the tour this week...Anjie Harrte!

The Symphonies in my head

I don’t write to music, or better yet, I can’t write to music. Truthfully I don’t listen to music a lot. Many people have this weird reaction to that when I tell them, but if you live where I do you would understand. I live in a third world country where there is little space between houses in my little street. My neighbors’ play music from around 7.30am all day long to around 8pm. The music is sometimes played so loud that you can’t have a telephone conversation or enjoy a movie on television unless it is close captioned. So, I believe I hear enough music to avoid listening to it.

As to listening to music when I write, it is not possible for me, because I would concentrate more on the lyrics of the song than on the words I am supposed to be typing on the screen. I have tried listening to instrumental, but I find that I get lost in that too. Besides, the voices in my head that tells me what to write, what they want to do, experience or create, cannot be heard when the music is on. This is why I don’t write at home.

I usually do a lot of my writing at work, or in the evenings at home. I am easily distracted from my train of thought and thus I require some solitude and silence.

However, sometimes when I am writing certain scenes I can imagine the background music playing, like in a movie. For example during the sad moments, or when someone is about to be killed, or the romantic moments, I can hear the music playing in the background as I write. I imagine my characters are in a movie and I am watching the action being revealed as the music trumpets on, leading me through every scene. Since I am not familiar with music it is not possible for me to tell you exactly what I hear. I can just tell you that even though I write in silence, there is often some symphony playing in my head through certain dramatic scenes.

Do you listen to music when you write? Here is a scene for you from one of my WIP, read it and suggest a tune you think would go well with the piece…

Sherry turned from the kitchen sink and came face to face with him. He stood there only fifteen years old with hatred on his face. Before she could react; before she could plead with him; before the mother in her could reach out to him; his hand rose in the air and came down again plunging a knife into her chest. He looked her in the eye; his eyes red with anger and hatred, hers filled with water, pleading. She felt the life slipping from her body, the crunching of his chest cavity was heard over her muffled breath. The knife broke and he instinctively reached for another and brought it down into her chest too. Her life slipped away and she fell to the floor. He turned and ran from her kitchen, never noticing the four year old child standing with the teddy bear clutched to her chest. 

It is a small excerpt, but it is one of those scenes where I can hear the music playing in my head and can never put my finger on what song it is. So what song would you put to that scene?

Leave a comment and include what sort of music you listen to when you write? Or what is your favourite music to read to?

*  * * * ** 

Anjie Harrte: Romance with some Caribbean flavour

Anjie Harrte is a twenty nine year old mother of one who resides in sunny Guyana, South America. Sometime between running a small business, having a full time job and being a mother and partner she finds time to pursue her passion for creating stories. Anjie dreams up stories of contemporary fiction splashed with some romance, a little dose of murder or an ounce of suspense and sometimes when no one is looking she dashes in a little twist. When she isn’t doing any of that, she is decorating a cake, knitting a chair back or sewing her latest design. Anjie even finds time to lurk around and stalk people and pages on facebook and you too can stalk her if you like at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anjie-Harrte/  or you can follow her on twitter @anjieharrte or keep updated with her writing at http://authoranjieharrte.blogspot.com/

Baggage

One of the greatest challenges I have found in dating over forty is the baggage everyone carries with them. How does your baggage affect your life and choices?

You might be thinking to yourself, "I don't have any baggage" or "My baggage isn't affecting my dating life". Are you lying to yourself? Of course you are! We all have baggage. It directly reflects the choices we make in our relationships. Think about it...How many times do you compare someone to your past relationships? How many times does a response you make to a situation remind you of 'old times'? Is your baggage holding you back? Is fear of repeating the past keeping you from going forward? How do we get out of this rut?

I know I have been asked many times what do I want...out of life, in a relationship, for my future. I always look back and compare it to my past. This is what I don't want, this is what I'd like to have, etc. How particular am I? Do I honestly know what I want? Are my decisions based on my baggage?

I have a dear friend who loves telling allegories:

You're standing on a river bank. The water is rushing past you. A bear is coming to eat you. You can't swim, but there's a floatie on the bank. Its not a new floatie. It has a few patches but looks sturdy. Which do you choose? The bear (fear of the future) or the raging river (life and a future) with a slightly used floatie (a friend) to assist you?

You may think the answer is obvious but if you have very heavy baggage from your past the choice may be difficult to make. Do you trust the floatie to get you through? Have you ever had a floatie you can depend on? Or do yo let the bear eat you to avoid a possibility of drowning? What if the floatie is exactly what you needed and the ride down the river ends up being fun? Which do you choose? The choice is yours.