Monday, November 19, 2012

We Gather at the Table for Some Thanksgiving Favorites

We Gather at the Table for Some Thanksgiving Favorites
Love this recipes! if I didn't feel so sick I would cook-up some, I love to cook, but I hate to continue feeling sick so priority one is: get well.

Monday, November 12, 2012

On reading: The Party Next Time


Was reading The Party Next Time, an excellent article on The New Yorker by Ryan Lizza, and have to say that no self-respecting Hispanic/Latin will vote for their own kind just because.
Most Hispanics/Latins immigrated from political cultures that didn't take into account the rights of the working class much less the poor, and without workers no one prospers and if the poor are not helped, more become poor.
Did anyone listen to Romney tell that his parents got welfare? President Obama's mom was a single parent and at times needed help.
I am lucky that, even though I came from a wealthy and politically influential family, my grandparents - self made people - never forgot were they came from and inculcated, at least in me, a respect for humanity beyond having or religious bias. They respected all religions even in their time and in a Catholic country.
It is appalling how so-called conservatives take ownership of God and that is very damming for God is not a thing. They fight against moral issues, such as abortion, but don't give a dam for those in need and will go as far as to say, "don't feed them, they'll just keep growing more". That mentality cripples and must be eradicated along with the belief that minorities are Democrats because they "want something for nothing".
MOST people who have made great strides have risen from down and out, and those who propagate a different view, and so much discrimination against those who need people, must shut-up; they are making millions form distorting truths and feeding discord. They have destroyed the Republican Party.
I am an Independent, because I will not vote or make decisions based on party politics, and yes, I voted for all Democrats because when the old does not work, it’s not my place to fix it. God doesn’t create junk…just saying.

On the hoof

Getting parents on the hoof is the kind of thing that would have become an epidemic if Republicans had won the election. With their "borrow from your parents" policy, the ads we are all aware off, by the lending industry, that make us feel 'guilty' if we don't mortgage our homes or 'save' - not for our retirement but for our kids education – would be like weeds on the landscape of our perdition.  It is very noble – if one is able, to save for kid’s education; even though most of us had to pay for own college. But isn’t is possible that those who don’t just get the college money from their parent's hide will work harder to get ‘good grade’ grants and will pay the consequences of loans that they incurred for the wrong reasons? Just saying...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Marta_Weeks/parents-student-loans_n_2116677_205381570.html

"Poet Jack Gilbert's time of triumph and loss"


Famous author Anne Rice posted on Facebook "Hello, People of the Page. Jack Gilbert is a great American poet I've mentioned here before. Here is an article about him from today's Los Angeles Times. His latest book is available on Amazon and at other vendors"
I immediately went to the page and read  "Poet Jack Gilbert's time of triumph and loss" I write poetry myself, and in one brief passage of Gilbert's prose: "What if the heart does not pale as the body wanes / but is like the sun that blazes hotter each day / on these immense, perishing fields? What then?" ...in just that bit of immense feeling, Gilbert took me into his world and heart.
Thank you Anne Rice for opening the way to those like myself who did not know Jack Gilbert. I am touched that Gilbert was a former steal worker, and that at Gilbert's readings crowd ordinary people "interested in serious literature and looking for the illumination of a heart they recognized as their own."
Written by John Penner the article about Gilbert, who is now in a nursing home, reminds me of a poem a carpenter, my late husband Victor, wrote: “I’ve torn heaven from the skies/ Made of hell a paradise/ Forgiven God, forgiven the devil/ Does anyone have a dime?”
As I continued to read I sob for my mom Carmen, who not long ago was vital and now is also in a nursing home after a sudden stroke: her days feel like petals falling from the garden of flowers she once tended.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren

WHOA: Tagg Romney Caught On Tape Saying He Wanted To Take A Swing At The President

...Tagg learned from the Mitts... to bully... disrespect... think of himself better than, and threaten with abuse... a Democrat.ticket will stop Congress and House gridlock by bullies...

WHOA: Tagg Romney Caught On Tape Saying He Wanted To Take A Swing At The President

Lilly Ledbetter Broke The Glass Ceiling Whether Mitt Romney Respects That Or Not

...not ready to throw away "equal rights" like, wages, voting, education, and reproductive choices? .... don't want sweatshop wages and working conditions?... vote Democratic to stop Congress and House gridlock.... grow America and with America made... Republicans say anything... but truth is profit before people... firing not hiring... corporations rule... workers are "those 47%"...don't elect big-daddy-bullyboys... little women get pushed under...

Lilly Ledbetter Broke The Glass Ceiling Whether Mitt Romney Respects That Or Not

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Tip-toe my tulips when I'm six feet under.


For those questioning my: Catholicism, Independent political affiliation, support of President Obama, aghast against continued Republican oppressions of Constitutional Rights, and why I am so politically opinionated (it might hurt my publishing and my life etc.,) read on.

To tiptoe through tulips about what makes life great in this United States and why so many want to live here - democracy and human rights - is not why I do FITS etc., (social media).  I am who I am and to me POLITICS matters.  I do not  “diss” others because I’m “out-there” and they are not. In my childhood I saw: people’s rights violated; the absence of human rights for all other than for those that had the race card, money, power and prestige; a street full of students, in the middle of the night, killed for protesting. Prayed for the courageous families of friends incarcerated for opposing oppression, grandparents that cared for others raised me and I certainly don’t want to die holding a “feel-good” or “life is great with head under sand” sign.

Still a Catholic raised a Catholic, but also a Jew as some of my ancestors were, and for that matter a multi-racial person. I am a registered Independent because I am willing to listen to truth, values and principles, but will not vote for personalities, bigotry, condescension and suppression.  Politically opinionated because politics has the power to do and undo. Learned from those that did right, and those that didn’t, and decided that right is worth trumpeting about.

If I never am published because of my “runeth at the mouth” oh well, I will not die as a best seller without a cause.

Right To Assemble (Informational Paper)

Right To Assemble (Informational Paper)


To call demonstrators "INSURGENTS" and gatherings an "INSURGENCY” is the new Republican label to violate - another constitutional right - the FIRST AMENDMENT. Demonstrators against President Obama were encouraged to carry violent signs and carry weapons  - even incited into violence acts, told to "re-load" by Republicans; yet, authorities and the press did nothing. Who are the REAL suppressors? 

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Bob Ross Remixed | Happy Little Clouds | PBS Digital Studios

Promote Your Book with Power-Bites

Promote Your Book with Power-Bites

Take Your Author Website to the Next Level

Take Your Author Website to the Next Level

16 Blogging Tips For Writing Fresh Content & Attracting Readers

16 Blogging Tips For Writing Fresh Content & Attracting Readers

The 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups

The 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups

Do Agents Represent Freelancers?

Do Agents Represent Freelancers?

How to Revise Your Writing (& Awesome Editing Symbols You Should Know)

How to Revise Your Writing (& Awesome Editing Symbols You Should Know)

How Do I Resubmit a Revised Manuscript?

How Do I Resubmit a Revised Manuscript?

Which vs. That

Which vs. That

Thursday, July 19, 2012

The homeowner’s bill of rights is a half fair measure.


The Calif. Legislature OKs homeowners' bill of rights  yet, another homeowner - half measure - rip-off.

Reposed homes - on the average - sell for half of what homeowners owe. So why is that cut in equity not passed on to homeowners? As lenders continue to profit in the trillions, the government keeps encouraging repossession instead of helping homeowners stay in their homes with reduced loans, and payments that reflect what would be paid by buyers that buy the reprocessed home.

Some might say: What the heck, the government should help people stay in their homes? Yes, THAT IS THE BILL homeowners need! A to stay in their homes: a forgiven equity bill due to loss because of lending institutions rip-offs.

Homeless people cant’s work or pay taxes. Homeless families cannot forge ahead. Tax revenues should not be used to support white crime. People need jobs to pay their mortgage. Mortgages and payments need to be reduced to reflect the job market. Taking homes and jobs from people cannot be rewarded. Job loss is due to corporate greed outsourcing and insourcing.

The financial industry made like bandits on the backs of homeowners, and now the government keeps rewarding them! People are thrown in jail for stealing, but corporations go scot-free for ripping people-off?


Monday, July 16, 2012

Traveling, alone or not.


Found a listing for Ms. Adventures in Travel on Carol Luce Davis website Night Writer. The book’s description reminded me of articles I wrote years ago for Margaret Manning’s webzine Ex In The City, now the Ex Files Weblog. I was going through a single and lonely time; my first article was on getting out of my funk, the others were on fun and free in Monterey and Sacramento. I look forward to reading Ms. Adventures in Travel. I appreciate Carol’s blog and Facebook page, read Night Stalker before taking one of Carol’s classes years ago - Carol’s class was time and money well spent and that Carol gives her all when she teaches.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

"This Land is Your Land”


Read the Woody Guthrie’s music story on Big Think  soon after watching the movie “Iraq For Sale” (free on YouTube) - the true story of what our taxes pay for and that every one should watch before going to the polls.
Woody Guthrie traveled during the Great Depression singing about migrants and the hardships of the people. Famous for "This Land is Your Land” Guthrie’s lyrics - the hillbilly that made people think - today speaks to the Occupy Wall Street movements.
On Big Think I watched Tom Morello, “formerly the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine” and an Occupy activist, remind us that this land is our land. 
Ironic that the working class, largest payer of taxes, from their barely to make it day-by-day wages, has nothing to say -  on what their land (government) with the sweat of their labor supports, pays for and buys - and will God, in the name of ignorance, absolve? 

Friday, July 13, 2012

PHTHALATES in products can cause diabetes and obesity.



PHTHALATES is a hidden chemical used in products such as  “perfumes, scented lotions, food packaging and even synthetic leathers” has been found, that exposure to Phthalates Correlates with Obesity and Diabetes in Men and in Women. Some studies also report effects of phthalates on fertility, and sexual development.

The universe and humanity evolved in a milieu of earthly chaos, therefore, this follow-up on the study reported today on CNN is not to scandalize and prove that the good-old-days were better - they were not. It is intended to find how today’s consumers can prevent PHTHALATES contamination given the increased threat that if the government regulates industries jobs will be lost and the economy will suffer. The website Coming Clean has several links that can help reduce contamination and exposure.

As per Our Stolen Future. Org “for several decades phthalates use is widespread worldwide in softeners of plastics, oily substances in perfumes, additives to hairsprays, lubricants and wood finishers. That new car smell, which becomes especially pungent after the car has been sitting in the sun for a few hours, is partly the pungent odor of phthalates volatilizing from a hot plastic dashboard. In the evening's cool they then condense out of the inside air of the car to form an oily coating on the inside of the windshield.”


Organizations:

Phthalates in building products: Healthy Contact: Bill Walsh, 202-232-4108, bill@healthybuilding.net

Phthalates in cosmetics: Coming, 
Contact: Bryony Schwan, 406-543-3747, swan@womenandenvironment.org



Phthalates in medical devices:Health Care Without Harm, 
Contact: Stacy Malkan, 202-234-0091, ext. 14, smalkan@hcwh.org



Phthalates in nail polish:Environmental Working Group, 
Contact: Mike Casey, 202-667-6982, mcasey@ewg.org


Phthalates in toys:
Greenpeace
Contact: Lisa Finaldi, lisa.finaldi@dialb.greenpeace.org


Websites:

The Our Stolen Future 
 
and 
 Health Care Without Harm  and
 The 2001 Centers for Disease Control report on body burden monitoring.




Lee Child Debunks the Biggest Writing Myths

Lee Child Debunks the Biggest Writing Myths

This article motivated me not to postpone what I posted on Facebook: "As our home fills with boxes that, along with furnishings, wait for movers; mixed with sadness I seek new hope in going back and forth to check on the remodeling of our next house. Each time it feels farther and the distance from decks overlooking mountains higher. My nights and mind race in urgency to stop or accelerate time, to write about him; the being without a soul that over twenty years ago, soon after life totally changed, filled me with visions and feelings as I lay in the dark terrified. How unreal that must sound. The marks he left on my body to make sure I had no doubts. Should I own a past with what moved me to write over 600 pages?"

Galatea Resurrects #18 (A Poetry Engagement): THE WAY WE LIVE by BURT KIMMELMAN

Galatea Resurrects #18 (A Poetry Engagement): THE WAY WE LIVE by BURT KIMMELMAN: GERALD SCHWARTZ Reviews The Way We Live by Burt Kimmelman (Dos Madres Press, Loveland, OH, 2011) The author of numerous collecti...

Thursday, July 05, 2012

How to Pitch Agents at a Writers’ Conference

How to Pitch Agents at a Writers’ Conference

Harder than it sounds: "And don’t ramble!  Be prepared with a few well-practiced, succinct sentences that sum up your book.  Envision this summary as a taste test.  Give her one bite of filet, a single morsel of chocolate, one small sip of wine.  Make her want more. Tantalize.  Tempt.  Tease.  Be excited.  Let your enthusiasm and passion for your work show." How exactly does one arrive at this? How does one prepare the "succinct sentence"; how long should it be, how much should it say, is it a summary of the book in a nutshell?

What a Novel Can Do That Film and TV Can’t (Plus, Win a Free Copy of Office Girl!)

What a Novel Can Do That Film and TV Can’t (Plus, Win a Free Copy of Office Girl!)


"Unlike film, unlike television, unlike the dramatic play, a novel can focus on the narrow confines of a particular relationship, it can create an intimacy between reader and characters in a way almost no other narrative medium can. Maybe it’s because a novel is not actually finished until the reader the words and actively imagines their meanings, "

Should You Ever (ever) Pay to Have Your Work Read?

Should You Ever (ever) Pay to Have Your Work Read?

I agree however, I am submitting work to carefully researched poetry and screenplay contests as well as looking for an agent. Will it come to anything?

Academic Services - Penguin Group (USA)

Academic Services - Penguin Group (USA)

Videos, Author Interviews and Book Trailers - Multimedia - Penguin Group (USA)

Videos, Author Interviews and Book Trailers - Multimedia - Penguin Group (USA)

Community Home - Penguin Group (USA)

Community Home - Penguin Group (USA)

Book Clubs - Penguin Group (USA)

Book Clubs - Penguin Group (USA)

Browse - Authors- Penguin Group (USA)

Browse - Authors- Penguin Group (USA)

Publishers - Penguin Group (USA)

Publishers - Penguin Group (USA)

Remembering Nora Ephron: Before all the Hollywood Success

Remembering Nora Ephron: Before all the Hollywood Success


“Well, it’s just that my point of view happens to be faintly cynical or humorous—and just the way I see things and that’s how it comes out when I write it.
“You better make them care about what you think. It had better be quirky or perverse or thoughtful enough so that you hit some chord in them. Otherwise it doesn’t work. I mean we’ve all read pieces where we thought, Oh, who gives a damn.”

The 8 Essential Elements of a Nonfiction Book Proposal

The 8 Essential Elements of a Nonfiction Book Proposal

The 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups

The 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Wednesday, June 20, 2012


Years ago we bought a home, supposedly to retire in but because of the economy John, my husband, insisted we must let it go, I was on the fence about it. 

When without pressing,  the lender, low and behold, gave us a great deal I said to John, just before he left to do some food shopping,  “Think about all the possibilities open to us”. John came back and said, “We are moving to Hummingbird." That is the name of the street the house we were walking away from is on. I wondered what had John shopped for.



In less than a month, Hummingbird is the house we are going to live in, maybe for the rest of our lives, and that is a hard move. The place is farther away from our families; it already feels lonely. However, it is a community with so much to do that we hope our family and friends will love to visit.


What I loved about it when we first bought it still inspires me: the abundance of nature and trees and wonderful views. There I hope to write a lot and maybe even learn to paint and one day play an instrument. Is that too much to ask for in my golden years: I think not. 

Thinking about colors schemes and décor I said to the contractor that will do some renovating, and the painter, "I wanted a sort of Spanish/Moroccan/Asian style" (well it goes with my eclectic collection from years of finds and gifts).

Tonight, I could not sleep. Should be writing an article to submit - I was warned with termination for not submitting copy for over a month - nevertheless, here I am thinking about the home we are letting go. Looking around, packed boxes that soon will be taken with everything by a moving company meld in the darkness. In the darkness, it looks so empty of things but so full of the memories of events that flowed in and out in years: family gatherings, graduations, weddings, births and funerals.

To curtail my sadness I decide to give our Hummingbird home a name, connect with it. I love hummingbirds and started to look at pictures and files online. In doing a search I came upon a hummingbird from my native Nicaragua, the beautiful Guardabarranco Colibri. Our house is on a steep hill and Guardabarranco translates thus: “guarda” guard, save, or keep safe, and “barranco” is ravine. What a coincidence, the one thing that makes me nervous about the hummingbird house is that it is perched on a steep hill, that could be considered a ravine, and I find a name of a hummingbird that means keep the ravine safe. 

I don't even remember that hummingbird! We will name our new home "Casa del Guardabarranco Colibri". Of course, most will not be able to pronounce it and many will make fun of it... until they learn to love it. The Guardabarranco Colibri is Nicaragua's National bird and is plumed in colors I love.

Here is a photo of the Guradabarranco Colibri:









Curtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_birds_of_Nicaragua

Dame tu luz Nicaragua | By Nicaragua Channel

Dame tu luz Nicaragua | By Nicaragua Channel

Ser canción en el viento: Guardabarranco - Colibrí (Nicaragua)

Ser canción en el viento: Guardabarranco - Colibrí (Nicaragua): COLIBRÍ En el jardín de Dios creció una flor que un colibrí sintió voló sobre la tierra campos de paz y guerra pero no encontró su ...

Saturday, May 26, 2012


About learning screenwriting.

The article on Killing Creativity: Why Kids Draw Pictures of Monsters & Adults Don't meld in my mind with two interviews, one with Robert McKee and the other with Sid Kali and a saying by Einstein.

Just finished listening to 10 video interviews with Robert McKee - sure worth listening to, and learning from. McKee discusses the different methodologies and misguidance on what to do or not to do when writing a screenplay.

Does tons of how-to-and-not out there leave the creative mind paralyzed with not doing?

An interview with Sid Kali, on Movie Biz Coach, has the same warnings on movie making that can translate to writing or publishing-paralysis.

Creativity is the residue of time wasted. ~ Albert Einstein

The bottom line: so many contracting theories, techniques and methodologies make for a hugely lucrative market and one can get ideas, but they can become a maze with no way out, or a writer can spend so much time trying to find the right mace never braking free.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012


THE HUNGER WALL

Prague,1968
After walking to the bridge at Karlova,
we found the river where at dusk the swans
dipped their beaks into the falls for sanctuary.
The trees closed in for shade. We gazed
through willows to the opposite hill, a single
light from a room growing thick with sadness.
Solemn smoke now cooked the evening meal.
We were just about to treat our hunger well
when, out of sunlight, undeclared,
a shaded mass of stone began to stretch
its neck along the slope.
It would scan the water for a quarter hour
before the foliage rubbed its throat,
some internal hunger now assuaged
for only moments, then again, the impulse
thumbed like whalebone on a drum.
The poplars began to rustle. A hawk
spiraling, like an aspen deep in chatter,
betrayed its nest to block the sun.
The dam below rose up to boulder water
as if to show how easily wars are won.
They feed the hunger wall, the waitress points,
the fingers in her skirt rubbing coins
her hands are shoring up to feed the past.
I don’t want the poor to endure me, she says
King Charles said to those he paid, as he watched
their faces, building borders, hunger for a wall,
as she faced the smoldering Vltava, watching hunger well.
(from THE HUNGER WALL, Grove/Atlantic)


Could not sleep so I researched some contests sites and found that MOST are not reliable... surprise, surprise... not really. On Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America I found this article, CONTESTS AND AWARDS that is worth looking at: http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/contests/

Tuesday, May 15, 2012


HOW TO SELL YOUR MANUSCRIPT WITHOUT AN AGENT


In this article one of the ways the writer suggest for getting published is to enter contests where agents and editors are the judges. She also talks about revising work given the feedback and recommendations received from the contest. I used tthink that entering contests was a waste of time and what if they stole my work, that is all out of my mind but I make sure the contest is valuable in that the judges are reputable and part of the contest prize is that they offer feedback, most do not.