For Haris ….
Exactly one year ago today I was on a mad hunt for more decorations to squeeze around the streamers and Elmo balloons already attached to every possible spot in our living room for Haris’ first birthday party. I grabbed a bag of blue-wrapped “1st birthday” candy, a few extra balloons and an adorable Elmo candle for the table.
Today we are preparing for a different kind of celebration. We’ve got candles and flowers – but no cake and only one balloon.
This is how madness begins …
When the writing gets tough, my mind tends to wander. (Well, my mind tends to wander no matter what … but especially when the writing hits a snag. But, I digress ….) I long ago formed the habit of having the television on in the background because, well, my mind begins to wander if it’s too quiet. Of course I subsequently discovered that if I have on the news or TNT or HBO, I end up watching the television. Yes, dear readers, my mind wanders a lot.
My solution? Put a movie I love but have seen 100s of times in the DVD player and put it on a loop. Today, as I do quite often, I put in Resident Evil.
Somewhere around the third time through the zombie-with-the-axe-limping-towards-our-heroes scene I wondered exactly how many times I’ve seen the darned thing. Like any good #twitteraddict I promptly tweeted the thought out. And, yes, my mind started to wander …. #lesigh
#specialteams Chat Transcript for April 1, 2010 featuring @heathersebi98
Continue reading Special Teams chat 4/1 featuring @heathersebi98
#TeamVamp Chat Transcript – March 28, 2010 with guest author Gabrielle Faust @VampireFaust
Continue reading Team Vamp chat transcript 3/29 – guest author Gabrielle Faust
Earlier today I was happily tweeting away about Metallica when things took a sharp right turn into a parallel dimension. The result? My muse and one other, that of Wendy (a.k.a Sparrowbug), are locked into a cage match. Two muses enter … one leaves …
The challenge? Post around 500 words of our current works in progress (WIP) written within the last week.
Wendy’s entry – a YA that might end up being horror – can be found here.
(…. and as a last minute challenge, Pauline a.k.a. @aspiringmama is going to enter the fray ….)
My WIP is a narrative nonfiction survival guide for parents, caregivers and supporters of ill or special needs kids currently titled Born into Battle: Surviving and Thriving Amidst a Child’s Complex Medical Situation.
Continue reading Muse Cage Match: Born into Battle (excerpt)
Several times over the last couple months I’ve commented here about the power of social media to bring people together around campaigns – raising awareness for Rare Disease Day, help for Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake, saving a favorite television show with #Heroes100. It’s a fun, easy, almost magical way to take action on the causes that matter most to you. In a few short seconds you can reach out to thousands of individuals – something that even ten years ago was almost unthinkable.
But what happens when that cause is your very survival? What happens when social media is something more than just fun — a means for isolated individuals to reach out to the world beyond their sickbed, wheelchair or hospital room?
SpecialTeams chat – March 26, 2010 featuring @kadiera
Continue reading SpecialTeams transcript – March 26, 2010 featuring @kadiera
Team Vamp Chat – March 22, 2010 (with guest Sarah Jane Stratford, author of The Midnight Guardian)
Continue reading TeamVamp Transcript 3/22 – Guest Sarah Jane Stratford, author
With a black man holding the highest office in the land you would think America is past the race-bashing hate-mongering crap that has crippled us from within for the last 200 years or so. Sadly two recent very public events provide more evidence than I really wanted of the cancer that continues to infect our society.
This past weekend protesters associated with the “Tea Party” camped out in front of the U.S. Congress to express their dismay with proposed health care reform – exercising a constitutional right to activism and turning it into a sad public display of small-minded foolishness.
They spat at Congressmen. They hurled racial-slurs at the gay and black communities.
Continue reading Systematic Failure: Wal-Mart gets it right?!? Whodda thunk?!?
For a moment there, I forgot what planet we are on. Last time I checked I was living on planet earth – but former Marine general John Sheehan seems to be stuck in a parallel dimension where demeaning gay-bashing comments are socially acceptable.
I am not a member of the LGBT community, but I was Outraged (yes – that’s Outraged with a capital “O”) to see reports of Sheehan giving testimony before the U.S. Congress that pegged Dutch troops failures to prevent the Srebrenica massacre to The Netherland’s acceptance of openly-gay individuals in the military.
Continue reading Systematic Failure: Gays unworthy? Says who?