 For Authors: May 08, 2013 Issue [#5655] |
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This week: Observations On a Sunny Sunday Afternoon Edited by: Fyn  
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I guess I'm just quite observant and I pay attention to a lot of things. Human behavior really fascinates me.~~Ellie Goulding
I was a very observant child. The boys in my books are based on boys in my neighborhood growing up.~~Beverly Cleary
Writers are socially observant. We find people endlessly fascinating, and real life is mysterious. Sometimes it's hard to stop staring at the strut and squawk of my fellow man. They can be quite inspiring. Sometimes it's hard to stop talking to them to see what in the world they're thinking.
~~Julianna Baggott
Opportunities? They are all around us. There is power lying latent everywhere waiting for the observant eye to discover it. ~~Orison Swett Marden
On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.~~Virginia Woolf |
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72 degrees, sunny, an endless blue cereal bowl of sky overhead: a glorious day. Winter, at long last, seems to have slunk off whimpering in defeat. It fought the good, long fight, but Spring finally tulip-ed in and our neighborhood has erupted with energetic people vacating the inside world and coming out of doors in droves. They are raking, mowing, tree-removing, meeting the new neighbors, chatting and me...Ah, I've been outside happily hanging wash on the line. It is a 'spring thing' for me. There is nothing on the planet like going to bed in fresh sheets dried on the line.
We finally met the new neighbors two doors down and they seem like they will fit into our tight neighborhood group just fine! What a relief! My hubby is forty foot up in a elm tree in the next door yard, chainsaw in hand and proceeding to take it down. Granted, it is mostly dead and a hazard, but the sight of him waaay up in those branches is what drove me inside to sidetrack myself with my newsletter. Sure, he knows what he's doing, but I'm not ashamed to admit it scares me silly. So I don't watch, and I don't lug logs...and I don't spazz. Works for me! *smile* The kid crew on the street is busy hauling wood, the ladies across the way are out with their stroller babies and lawn chairs watching the show and offering a running commentary to any who will listen. The guys are all in the neighbor's yard helping. Well, actually, they are all swapping war stories of near misses of other trees, offering 'constructive' advice and downing beer. Hubby, thank goodness, is sticking to water til the job is done!
One of the ladies, after slathering her sleeping child with sunscreen was complaining about 'how hot it is.' Really? On May 5th, you are complaining? Already? It is 72 degrees out. Remind me to hide in the back yard come August!
During a break, I was out looking at the three foot in diameter logs littering the yard. While the top branches, some previously 60 feet in the air, were dead, the lower part was oozing sap. Amber beads of it were catching the sun and looking golden and smelled of spring. Some of the boys were chasing each other around smearing sap on each other. They seemed to think it great fun. Going to be an interesting bath-time tonight I figure. But they are outside, running around and not plopped on a couch with their X-Box blaring sounds of doom and destruction! They can't wait for the bonfire tonight and have already canvassed the street to find out who has marshmallows. Thinking there will be s'mores sticky added to the sap tonight.
We have two brightly pink tulips under on of our spruce trees. I didn't plant them and they weren't there last spring. They are lovely and a nice surprise.
The lilacs are allllmost ready to pop and already smell amazing. I think everyone had the same idea yesterday as we all seem to have several hanging pots of flowers dangling from shepherd's hooks in our front yards. We all look so spring-y. Windows are all open, the heat's turned off and someone out there has started their grill. There is just something about that charcoal smell that screams 'cookout' and a moment ago, hubby popped up by the window to let me know we are having a mass barbeque on the street tonight.
Yeah. Made myself watch the last seventy-some-odd feet of tree come crashing down. The house shook. I'm shaking. He knows what he's doing...but still. So glad that's done! Those outside all clapped and cheered. *Wonders if it is just that it doesn't take much to amuse us.*
Thinking back on the date. I'm going to be fifty-nine years old on Thursday. That's almost sixty. I remember back when I was a kid thinking that sixty was old. REALLY old. Amazing how our perspective changes. Still, in the interests of warding off that possibility, I bought myself a birthday present: I've joined a gym and taken up walking. Did two miles this morning. Kinda proud of me. Doing the work I do requires many sedentary hours in front of the computer. The mental muscle's in fine shape...the rest of me? Not so much. So time for the gym and catching the body up with the brain!
Beautiful morning for a walk and my daughter and I passed or were passed by by multiple runners, joggers, bicyclists and walkers. Everyone smiled, said, grunted or huffed 'good morning.' Everyone smiled. The birds were singing, we saw a deer and noticed some flowered patches in the woods. Saw a humongous tree back in the forest with a great branch for a swing. Heard church bells ringing off in the distance through the trees and stepped to the side as three horses cantered by. All in all, a pretty wonderful day.
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Having time to write is a treat of late...so I'm including something of mine...seriously thinking I need to make this a reality (as much as is humanly possible at any rate) a few years in the future!
A newbie who writes awesome fantasy and horror!
Great thing to read after I've just been for a two mile walk in the woods...
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Somewhere is Time is one of my all time favorite movies!
Have you ever had your fortune told?
I just absolutely love this poem!
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A haibun poem...kind of an interesting form. Very different!
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Interesting read!
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I found my May 14th 1957 journal page used as a book mark in a book of Kahlil Gibran.
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I love the song with the same name and this is special too!
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A follow-up to my last newsletter...the meeting went just fine, I learned a lot and acquitted myself well! Got to love the 'jump out of the comfort zone' boogie!
chopstixd wrote:The Role of Fear. Despite great cycling weather in Los Angeles, most Angelino's, when asked, cite fear as their primary reason against riding a bicycle to work. I ride to work. It is just a smarter way to commute. Before every ride, I pause, review my routes most dangerous points, plan actions and suppress fear. Long ago, a martial arts instructor taught me the role of fear. It alerts potential harm. Acknowledge the alarm, observe your situation, plan responses and proceed. Asserting a modicum of control allows pathways away from fearful reactions. Often, counter intuitive actions are needed. Boxers learn to step into punches lessening their force. Commuter cyclists learn to move left, grab a lane, to lower collision probabilities (It is better to seen and endure honks than to hide to the right and suffer collisions with aggressive motorists).
Always good to be prepared and it does help to assuage the fear of the unknown a bit!
monty31802 said: Another better than fine Newsletter Fyn.
Thanking you!
DRSmith  offers:Another terrific item, Fyn... and if I may add just a little something to the quotes above: if one never finds the courage to take that first step from beyond one's comfort zone, the distant embers of ambition will most certainly diminish to ashen ghosts of a vision lost to the future. Have faith in those who have faith in you; like a parent, they'll help you take those first steps on wobbly legs.
And they most certainly did!
Quick-Quill  commented: Years ago I joined a local club. The members were well established authors in the Romance line. Names you'd all recognize. I was intimidated and almost walked out. What I found there were women who were like me. They stepped out of the box and started submit what they wrote. Bad at first then better with critique and guidance. They were mothers, grandmothers, sisters. They had taken the step I am afraid to do. Write the query, cover letter and pay for postage. The only difference!
Absolutely! One of the folks at the meeting was one of those 'highly recognizable' names...and he was friendly, down-to-earth and amazing!
Creeper Of The Realm  says: Very inspiring newsletter, Fyn! Love the poem! In fact I loved it so much that I had to print it out myself so I can read it when I need that extra push throughout my day.
One of my 'go-to' poems, for sure!
ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy  comments: Such a big message in the newsletter today. Now 75, I learned it when I entered a speech contest under the title "Less than my best won't do"; I didn't win the contest, but at the age of sixteen, I learned to practice something powerful. I learned to do my very best at whatever I did and many life successes came my way. Finding WDC at 69 when I started writing was just one of those "do my best" moments. I'm so glad you're preaching the same message to young writers, I don't mean in 'age' but in terms of belief about oneself at any moment in life. Thanks. ANN
THANK YOU!!! *smile*
Marci Missing Everyone writes: Thank you for this awesome newsletter. I was scared, since I was a fairly new writer, that I shouldn't give reviews. However, after only being here a day, someone encouraged me to try it anyway. I've only just been here a week now, but I find that I really enjoy it. Just another example of getting out of your comfort zone. Marci.P
Getting out there, trying. What it is all about! |
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