Category: musings

The Great American Read – Do You Agree with the Results???

Book events / musings / Voting

The Great American Read – Do You Agree with the Results???

For those of you who voted day after day and watch the series programs, are you excited about the final results? Personally I am. Here are a few facts shared during the final program that caught my interest: 4 million people cast votes across the search 50,000 joined the Great American Book Club 350,000 of the top 100 books will be distributed through the nation’s PBS stations to students several books took control of their final ranking within the last few days of the event several books were within 24-103 votes of nearby competitors throughout the event 9 high school...

Halloween Word Search

an activity / musings

Halloween Word Search

I love words games. How many listed words can you find hidden on this word search? Each one comes from using some of the letters in Happy Halloween. So far, I’ve found over 90 words using just those letters.   Halloween Word Search F V Y R D H V K N R G U P Y A F T X K Y L S E R N L W E C I G S U D O I P R D P Z E U C H I P O A U C P W O B X A...

Writing Update

musings

Writing Update

People ask me what’s next on my journey as a writer. Right now I’m into research for a possible novel that would be about 2 years out. Up to now, I’ve written what I knew or what I’ve experienced; now I’m stepping into an unknown world that interests me, a world where I have only limited knowledge so I’ve become a library book hound. Luckily I have a friend who’s an expert so I’ll be picking her brain a lot! When I take a break from that research I’m reading for my book club, looking back at a bedtime story...

Conversation with a Peach

Book events / musings

Conversation with a Peach

This time of year fruit is abundant. Fresh fruit brightens the grocery stores, nearby fields, and our backyards.Their scents fill the air with a faint lusciousness. My husband recently harvested peaches. One of the joys of eating those peaches is stopping to admire how lovely they are: the color, their shape, the way the attached leaves bend to show-off the beauty of the fruit. Next comes the smell: sweet, warm like sunshine, almost fuzzy like the first touch. I do talk to them. How can I not when I know the first bit through the skin will make me sigh...

Fun Writing Tools

musings / random drawing / writing

Fun Writing Tools

I love to window shop for writing tools, booklets, folders, pens, etc. This is the best time of year since the major stores have big back-to-school sales that will be ending soon. Even if you don’t have students who need materials, I suggest you think of these ‘new’ tools as a way to encourage your entire family to write. Plan ahead. Use the sales to buy birthday or holidays writing tools now and tuck them away for later. Here are a few of the ‘new’ colorful items I’ve seen for 2018. * folders with current movie scenes as covers *...

Quotes Worth a Look

details in writing / musings / quotes / random drawing

Quotes Worth a Look

When I read, I often find author’s have exquisite sentences. I save them in a special notebook. Here are a few I’ve sincerely appreciated. She maneuvered through the cranky traffic…tempers caught fire as easily as backyards. Kristin Hannah in Magic Hour Perhaps there is a secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society  bby Mary Ann Shaffer & Anne Barrows As they crossed the street, the moon, at half-phase, spread creamy light over the world, trannsforming the sidewalk to pale ribbons and putting thick shadows beneath the trees… LaVyrle...

Unpublished Snippets from 84 Ribbons – The Pouch of Stones

84 Ribbons / musings / random drawing

Unpublished Snippets from 84 Ribbons – The Pouch of Stones

When I cleaned out my files, I found several unused story ideas from 84 Ribbons, book one in my ballet trilogy. Here’s one more offering.  The Pouch of Stones Walks by the bay at the end of our long street were always a chance for my dad and me to connect. We’d talk about school, my dancing, his day, our up-coming vacation plans or whatever a young child and her dad had to share. But that ended abruptly when my dad died suddenly from a fall where he worked in the shipyard. After that, the bay became a gray place...

It’s All in Your (My) Head

character development / musings

It’s All in Your (My) Head

Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head.   Gore Vidal That feels true to me.  My stories build up in my mind, crowding out everyday thoughts. I think of the mass of characters I’ve invented as real beings. They must be real; they have names, personalities, quirks, and boyfriends as well as moments of joy and disappointment. I talk with friends, including my imaginary characters and come close to sending them birthday cards each year. Then I remember they don’t age; they are perpetually the age I leave them when my books end. Sometimes I wonder what...

Unpublished Snippets from 84 Ribbons -Spam and An Empty Garage

84 Ribbons / character development / musings / random drawing

Unpublished Snippets from 84 Ribbons -Spam and An Empty Garage

When I cleaned out my files, I found several unused story ideas from 84 Ribbons, book one in my ballet trilogy. Here’s one of them. More to follow this month. Spam and An Empty Garage One of the greatest opportunities in my life came when I was four. I learned to dance. My family didn’t have money for extras, but they found a way to scrape enough together for me to take dance lessons. I think those savings came in the shape of canned Spam which we ate once or twice a week. I hated the clear gooey fat that...

Social Media Adventures

musings / random drawing

Social Media Adventures

Remember Win a $20 VISA card. Write a review of Tasman- An Innocent Convict’s Struggle for Freedom. Post it on Amazon, Goodreads, and Facebook and be entered for a random drawing held quarterly in 2018 with the next drawing NEXT week. Details on the door hangers and on www.tasman/paddyeger.com