December Floating In To Carry Us Out...IWSG

 

IWSG

This month I'd like to share a movie preview with you. This film has touched my heart and makes me feel love for the best in humans. We are not a "black & white" race upon this earth. We are such a mix that I don't like to use "gray" to describe us; I prefer mixed. We are a mixed race. Full of wonder and impossible dreams, and, hate and intolerance. I like to think that over the last one hundred years we've made more gains than losses in the proverbial "two steps forward, one step back." So, I will share this clip and you can decide for yourself if you'd like to see the entire movie, which of course, I recommend. It's a super one to see during this season, whatever you practice. This story is from a book, "Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump. Also, this was filmed in New Zealand and has beautiful photography. Neill is an actor that I tend to try and see anything he's in, particularly if I've never heard of it. Like this film. I'll share another "unknown" film of his in another post...

(For some reason I couldn't get the video to work on my post, so have to put the link instead. Sorry!) 

https://youtu.be/dPaU4Gymt3E?si=Hx0lGtWAAH9UhDMO The Hunt For The Wilderpeople

Please go and visit our super IWSG co-hosts this month!

C. Lee McKenzie, JQ Rose  Jennifer Lane  Jacqui Murray!

The (optional) question for December is: 

Book reviews are for the readers. When you review a book, do you review for the reader or the author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?

For me, I leave a review about my reading experience. I try NOT to critique the author, no matter I like it or don't. There, to me, is no reason to "attack" someone who has put themselves out there to be read, to comment on someone who was brave enough to write a whole piece-start to finish. To comment on how I enjoyed or didn't, the read is all I need to put out there. I am not a Troll. I myself prefer to have someone's honest opinion on the read, not their opinion of me as a person.

I wish you all a wonderful December and beginning to the new year. I hope you all have wonderful days and evenings filled with love and being with the ones you hold dear. Blessings to us all...

Hello December 2021! Hello IWSG!

 

Good morning Everyone! The beginning of the end of this year is today and what a way for this year to go out. At least we had (well, my family did) a more or less "normal" Thanksgiving, especially compared to last year. A new variant on the horizon is putting to bed the idea we can look forward to a new year without Covid, but, oh well. If this doesn't prove how "global" our world/economy/society is, I don't know what else can!

I am going into December with the mindset that I can finish this year with the love that I went into it with. For my family. For my friends. For my little lovey dog, and those in this world who make it such a bright place to be, even in the midst of chaos. I wish for all of you to have this brightness in your lives and outlooks on our world as well. May kindness, generosity, love and peaceful happiness be yours in these last days of 2021. May they overflow into the new year coming and continue on as long as possible.

I am grateful also to this community of writers who keep coming back, and keep supporting each other. I love being a part of IWSG even if I don't blog as much as I want. I am looking at next year as one of change and my writing will be a part of that change. More on that next year! I just wanted to acknowledge Alex, and all the wonderful folks/writers who make this blog hop possible for us to participate in. You all rock the writing world! 

Please visit our co-hosts this month and thank them for being such a wonderful part of our community:

PJ Colando, Diane Burton, Louise – Fundy Blue, Natalie Aguirre, and Jacqui Murray!

Question of the month is: What about writing stresses you, and what delights?

Thinking I have to make money with my writing stresses me. 

Not being able to put into words on paper what is in my head stresses me. 

Not being "good enough" stresses me.

Finding the mind link with the protagonist (s) in the story delights me! 

Writing a sentence and it comes out exactly as I hoped it would delights me! 

Finishing a novel delights me! 

Working with my graphic artist, formatter and editor delights me! 

So in the end, it's all good!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EACH AND ALL OF YOU

December 2020 Finally! & IWSG

 

IWSG WEBSITE

I am so darn happy December is here! (and not only for the snow!) I'm sorry I missed last month's post, and almost missed this one, but in November I was depressed, and, today is my son's birthday!

I feel a lot better this month. Last month I think because of Thanksgiving, I felt the absence of my family too keenly and couldn't write about it. We all made it through and for that I am more than grateful. I still miss the you-know-what out of my parents though. This is a looooong time to go without hugging/touching/seeing them. But I won't jeopardize them just because I miss them.

My son has been living with us all year because of a medical issue. He can't work and is not only in constant pain, but also depressed because of it. Finally, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It will take more time and more physical therapy for him to get back to his former self, but it IS working! I/we have much to be grateful for. So, December has not come too soon for me. 

The young lad with his snowman "Churchill!"

The other wonderful piece of news is that my book cover should be finished soon. The edits are finished. The formatting is happening as I write, and hopefully my next novel, "Rain" will be out before Christmas! (Hint, it would make a great present!) Shameless I am. But not about being happy! For the first time in a while, I do genuinely feel happy and hopeful for not only my future, but for our nation's future as well. The Covid vaccine should (hopefully) go a long way toward helping us all heal.

So I am not feeling too insecure today, even if I'm late to post. I feel optimistic and full of love for the world, and especially my son. He is a light in my life and has been since the day he was born 34 years ago. Though I'm sorry for the reason he is with us, I am not sorry he's here! I wish you all the best of the holidays, a Merry Christmas, whatever it is that you celebrate. I also wish us all the best in the new year to come. May we all be able to move on to a life that even though Covid will still be here, hopefully the new year will give us a chance to learn to live with it without fear. Blessings to you.

And before you stop reading, please stop by our wonderful co-hosts this month and thank them for being there for us! 

Pat Garcia, Sylvia Ney,Liesbet @ Roaming About Cathrina Constantine, and Natalie Aguirre!

IWSG December - Baby It's Cold Outside!

IWSG

This Christmas we are staying in Ohio. It will be a "small" Christmas, one without the large, loving, boisterous family we usually spend it with. I am sad about that, but also happy to think of having a "small" Christmas. One with my husband and I, and perhaps our daughter (who lives close by, but might be busy); one where we share time with each other and maybe dream about the time to come next year when our life will change again. School for my husband will be over, and we will move on to wherever it is we are to be next. We have options! This is good! So this Christmas will be a quiet reflective and cosy gentle time before the big push through the last semester. I hope and wish all of you whatever you wish for this season and that next year will bring good things to you. Merry Everything!

December 4th (optional) question is:
Let's play a game. Imagine. Role-play. How would you describe your future writer self, your life and what it looks and feels like if you were living the dream? Or if you are already there, what does it look and feel like? Tell the rest of us. What would you change or improve?

Okay, first, I would add to the question by asking: Is living the dream what you thought it would be?

Now, imagining if I were living the dream...
My life is moving faster than I thought possible, and I am providing not only so my husband doesn't HAVE to work, but I've paid my children's student debt off and they are free! My daughter now works for me marketing me full time and is happy to schedule her life as she needs to. My husband teaches because he loves it, which is a bonus for us. My son is moving up the ladder in his chosen field and writing/singing when he wants, selling his songs and making his living doing what he loves. Enabling all this, I am busy writing, giving my stories wings and loving having a full life.  

Our wonderful co-hosts for December 4th are:

   Tonja Drecker,

Beverly Stowe McClure,

 Nicki Elson,
Fundy Blue,
Tyrean Martinson! 

Please go by their blogs and thank them!

Please visit these websites below for more information on helping our planet, and therefore helping ourselves to not self destruct..

Images from:

https://evoke.ie/2019/01/01/life-style/these-are-the-5-most-significant-ways-you-can-save-the-planet-in-2019

https://www.kafetero.com/post/fun-ways-to-save-the-planet

https://pngtree.com/freepng/save-the-world-globe-and-hands-doodle-earth-icon-hand-drawn-on-white-background_5009285.html