2013 Summer Author Blitz - Author Melissa Studdard + Giveaway...

Today, I'm participating in the 2013 Summer Author Blitz! I'm interviewing the fabulous Melissa Studdard, and she's giving away a couple of gems. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom to enter the giveaway!

Also, there are several other giveaways going on. Visit Books & Broomsticks for more information.

  

Introducing Melissa Studdard

Melissa Stud­dard is the author of the best­selling novel Six Weeks to Yehi­dah, and its companion journal, My Yehidah (both on All Things That Matter Press). Since its August 2011 release, Six Weeks to Yehidah has been the recipient of many accolades, including the Forward National Literature Award, the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, the International Book Award, and January Magazine's best children's books of 2011. It was also named a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Awards and the Readers Favorite Awards. Melissa is also the author of The Tiferet Talk Interviews and the forthcoming poetry collection, “I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast.” Along with Scott Lutz, Melissa is co-author of For the Love of All (Trestle Press), which is the fifth story in the Mark Miller’s One series and debuted in the number one spot for Hot New Releases in Literary Criticism and Theory in the Amazon Kindle store. As well, her poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and arti­cles have appeared in numer­ous magazines, jour­nals, and antholo­gies.                                                     

Melissa cur­rently serves as a Reviewer-at-Large for The National Poetry Review, an editorial advisor for The Criterion, and an edi­tor for Tiferet Journal, where she hosts the journal's radio interview program, Tiferet Talk. Melissa received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a professor for the Lone Star College System and a teaching artist for The Rooster Moans Poetry Cooperative. She loves anything related to writing and reading, whether it's sitting alone with a book and a cup of hot tea, or attending a large poetry reading or literary festival. She also loves travelling, meditating, going for walks, bicycling, practicing yoga, and spending time with family. She currently resides in Texas with her wonderful daughter and their four sweet but mischievous cats. To learn more, please visit www.melissastuddard.com.

 

Interview

 

1) What are you working on now?

I’m currently trying to pull a poetry collection called I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast from my literary hat. A friend of mine, Ron Starbuck, recently started a press (Saint Julian Press) that publishes spiritual writings. He knew my poetry was a perfect fit for Saint Julian, so he asked me for a manuscript. It’s a frightening and exciting process to re-examine poems I’ve written over many, many years—to try to see how they fit together and how they should be arranged. So many stages of my life and my ideas and feelings and beliefs are represented. It’s almost like reading through old diaries. It’s really making me think about who I am and have been as a person and a writer and who I want to continue to become.

 Here’s a poem from the collection. It was originally published in Open Road Review.

Subterranean

I’m not talking about the underside of a kitten’s

belly, or the layers of dress on a modest woman’s

 

corpse. I don’t mean that beneath the skin there’s

a world of vein, meat and bone. No, I’m talking about

mantle and core – the viscous, shifting substrata

beneath the camel’s hoof, beneath the sand,

 

beneath the crust beneath the sand. I think there are

birds in there, flying around inside the earth’s body,

 

birds flying over oceans, streams and lakes, children

laughing beside rivers, mothers calling them home

 

to supper by beating wooden spoons on the sides

of aluminum pots. It doesn’t matter that we can’t see

them, or even that my theory has been disproven.

I go where the laughter is, pure and simple, and I say

 

this ball of clay is really an onion, a snake coiled

around a bouncing ball, a swirl of petals exploding

 

from bud. It’s simple, really: love is the pack on a

hitchhiker’s back, everything he owns, everywhere

 

he goes, the only article that can’t be left behind.

And we’ve all got our thumbs out, pointed towards

 

that other realm, the one beneath the skin, beneath

the bone and marrow and veiny streams of blood, where gods

 

await us like lovers, like dense smoke, like cracked

 

and forgotten mirrors, reflecting the singular route home

 

2) What process in writing is hardest for you?

 Without question, not writing. When I’m between projects or ideas, I’m in agony. It’s like being in a long distance relationship and not knowing when you’ll get to see your lover again.

 3) What process in writing is the most enjoyable for you?

I like that part when I’m just starting to realize that what I’m working on is viable.  At that point I’m still charged with beginner’s energy, but I can see the finish line through the fog.

 

4) Are you pantser or a plotter?      

I’m so intuitive and spontaneous I don’t even wear pants.  Most everything that happens on my page is a delightful, mysterious, wondrous surprise to me. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

5) What inspired you to write Six Weeks to Yehidah?

 After reading volumes and volumes of non-fiction books about spirituality and benefitting from them immensely, I wanted to share wisdom traditions with younger people—to share some things I wish I’d been introduced to at an earlier age. However, I also knew that kids wouldn’t want to sit down and read the same kinds of books I was reading as an adult, so I decided to do it in a fun, entertaining way, through narrative, vivid description, and humor.

 6) When is your favorite time to write?

I’m obsessed with writing the way teenage girls are obsessed with make-up and teenage boys are obsessed with teenage girls. I always want to write.

 

7) What is your favorite snack while writing?

 I don’t like to eat while writing. It’s distracting. When I feel like taking a break, I usually dance. Dancing energizes my fingertips and feeds my imagination more than food ever could. And my cats love it because they like to play fetch, and they know when I turn up the music and step away from the computer they can bring their toys to me to throw. It’s a big writing break party.

 

Website:    www.melissastuddard.com
Purchase:  http://www.amazon.com/Six-Weeks-Yehidah-Melissa-Studdard/dp/0984651705
Twitter:      https://twitter.com/MelissaStuddard
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Melissa-Studdard/148177095246272

  


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Cedar Hill Nature Preserve & Creativity...

I switch up exercises quit a bit :) The beginning of July, I went back to a favorite exercise--Power Walking!

I enjoy power walking and previously wrote a blog about it, which can be found here.

But I've taken it up notch. Through the week, I still power walk on a bike trail that weaves through several neighborhoods near my house. But on the weekends, I meet up with a wonderful group of ladies and hike through the Cedar Hill Nature Preserve. 

It's a very wild place and there are signs everywhere reminding you that you are in nature and may see everything that goes along with it. ie snakes....Ack!!!

The funny thing is I've not yet seen a snake while out at the nature preserve, BUT I did see one while walking through the neighborhood trail. I'm usually up and out on the bike trail around 6:15am, and I see pretty much the same group of folks walking or jogging.

This particular morning, one of my morning jogging buddies came towards me in the opposite direction & stopped. When he noticed me he waved for me to stop, I did and asked what was going on. He pointed ahead of me about 15'. There was a snake, about 3 foot long?!?!? OMG!!! It was slithering across the path, minding his own little business.  Needless to say I ran the rest of the way LOL!


Now, back to the nature preserve. What an experience! First, it's a GREAT workout. These trails go up and down some crazy hills. My lower body screamed during some of the climbs.

But, it's also very serene. A great place to go to clear your mind.
Which brings me to my next point.

My creativity has been off the charts! I think it from the power walking, which relieves stress and really gets the oxygen flowing through your body.

Also, being out at the nature preserve, it's just very calming. I've met some great women out there, had great conversation, and some good laughs!


My writing is going very well, no complaints! I've had lots of blocked moments with this book and now I'm finally on the final chapters. Yay!

My goal is to have it completed by the end of July.

 Blessings!

 

What Would You Do?

 

 What Would You Do?

 

By Beth Bowland

 

What would you do if you saw a crying child

sitting on the curb, as if all alone in the wild.

 

What would you do if you were approached by someone in need

would you ignore them like others, glare at them, leave them be.

 

What would you do if you saw a stranger crying

the pain so great, say to yourself what's the use of trying.

 

What would you do if there was no sun

how would you relate to the days to come.

 

What would you do if you only had a week to live

would you learn to love more, learn to give?

 

If love is giving and love is kind

why are so many ignorant and blind.

 

If life is but a whisper

we have a big task at hand

to give love unconditionally

to our fellow man.

 

 

 

 

 



Paperback - Seven Shades of Luminosity

Seven Shades of Luminosity 

Now available in paperback format!

When 13-year-old Ralph and his two friends enter a magical world called Norwaeja, they find themselves on an unexpected quest for seven keys, each of which leads them closer to a dark and dangerous kingdom.

Ralph thought he was an ordinary kid, just trying to become the junior fencing champion in his state. Shortly after being chased into Norwaeja he learns of the prophecy declaring him the warrior that will lead the Great Army into battle against Apep, the evil one.

Epic battles against Trolls, dangerous treks through kingdoms, and one pesky, egotistical meerkat will pit friend against friend while Ralph discovers just who he really is and what he is capable of achieving in a world that he is not a part of. Or is he?

Available now on:
eTreasures Publishing - Paperback     ebook

Amazon 

BN 

Smashwords

www.bethbowland.com

Memories of Grandma...

I stumbled across an old family video while cleaning out one of the closets. On it were old family moments from between 1979 & 1980. (I think) I'd forgotten the gems captured on it.

One gem in particular was my grandmother, my dads mother. I remember being with my father on the day we filmed. It was a Sunday and we were visiting her after church. He'd brought his video camera with him  and we'd spent the day filming random family moments.

My grandmother was the coolest woman. Ellen was her name. If I remember correctly from my 7th grade essay I wrote about her, she was born somewhere around 1896? (give or take a couple of years)  Spunky, sassy, and independent. I enjoyed spending time with her because she always made me laugh. She was also one of the hardest working women. She was up in age and still working her gardens. Anything and everything could be found in her backyard. A lot of her personality showed up in my character Aunt Abbey in my book GRAPE BUBBLEGUM

On a few occasions she'd have me out in her yard helping. That was some hard work! We're not talking this modern day gardening with the powered equipment. I'm talking loosening up dirt with a garden hoe. People still use those things? I'd stop halfway through a row crazy tired and she'd still be going. You'd think it would've been the other way around, a young kid should have more energy than their grandma, nope, not the case. She could work circles around me.

I've learned so much from her. Watching her pray before bed and she could pray for what seemed like hours!  She didn't pray those microwave prayers, she called out everyone's name during prayer, Lord, bless them, keep them, protect them! Then she would read her bible out loud, slowwwllly.

She taught me how to sew. I'd help her cut out pieces for her quilts. And we didn't take trips to JoAnne's fabrics for the fabric either. Whatever pieces of old clothing, bedding, etc ended up in the quilts. She taught me how to pin the pieces together before sewing. It was tedious work, but oh how I wish I would've kept one of them. She also taught me how to knit and crochet. I have a blanket that I named the 'never ending project' because it's been in progress for years, and I mean YEARS.

What great & precious memories I have of this talkative, loving, funny, joke cracking, tall, thin, proud, praying grandmother!

Blessings!

I've lost my Mojo!!

Have you ever just sat and watched waves? They flow out and a few moments later they flow back in. Perfectly in rhythm and if you continue to watch it has an almost hypnotic effect on you.

I guess that's why they sell mp3/CDs of the sound. Because it's very relaxing to listen to the sound of waves.

It's this ebb and flow that I want to talk about today, because the ebb and flow can also be applied to life circumstances. That back and forth movement. Good news one moment, then bad news. Happy days, then sad days.

Currently, for me it's the ebb and flow of writing. The past few months, I've been really struggling to write. I have plenty to write about or at least in 'my mind' I have lots to write about. But sitting down and actually typing the words, there seemed to be a disconnect or a short.  

I could spend hours writing, the words just poured out and I couldn't type fast enough to keep up with the flowing words. Then *poof* it stopped. I'd sit down to write and my mind was flowing, but I couldn't type, write, doodle anything.  I'm talking about not one itty bitty sentence. The tide has ebbed.

My "Artistic Muse" decided to pack her little raggedy bags, and sneak out the house while I was asleep. Not sure where she went on this impromptu vacation, but I'm sure it was to some island, and no, she didn't invite me to go with her, AND had the nerve to turn her phone off. No word on when she would be returning, no post cards, nothing. Just gone!

I'VE LOST MY MOJO!!

I felt like Austin Powers when he'd lost his Mojo (okay, well, I know that the 'mojo' he was referring to was not writing LOL) but that's how I felt.  I'd sit down to write and nothing would happen.

I panicked, tried all the tricks to try to get it going again....nothing, notta, zilch! It was depressing and so frustrating...but yet I persevered. I'd sit down to write and wait, try to write something, which was actually, blah, blah, blah, blah, and BLAH!

Then, suddenly, one day I had a spark, a tiny spark, but it was a spark of inspiration. I wrote a couple of paragraphs, I was thrilled!! I danced around the room as my feet splashed around in a small trickle of water that began to flow in.

The next day, the water flowed in around my ankles and I splashed around some more and wrote a full page...Off in the distance I can see a wave coming in...the flow is returning and my "Artistic Muse" is riding it in on a surfboard. It's not a tsunami sized wave, but a wave nonetheless, and she is back and I couldn't be happier!

Yeah, Baby, Yeah!

 

Perseverance & The Count of Monte Cristo

Perseverance: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : steadfastness

This morning I woke up thinking in order to reach any goal you must have perseverance. No way around it, no ifs ands or buts. And speaking of buts or butts, you must put yours in a chair if you expect to reach your writing goals. More on that a little later.

While I was thinking about perseverance, I also thought about the character Edmond Dantè in the movie, The Count of Monte Cristo based on the book by author Alexandre Dumas. I have to say movie because the book version is much different. This guy was the king of perseverance. Wrongly accused of treason and thrown into that garbage of a prison, Château d’If for years.

While stuck in prison, he meets--Abbé Faria, his mentor. Though, Abbé Faria was not happy to see Edmond at first, because he thought the tunnel he meticulously dug out with something equivalent to a spoon and his bare hands was his escape to freedom. Abbé Faria takes Edmond under his wing and teaches him everything he knows.

The short movie version of the story is...Under the mentorship of Abbé Faria, Edmond is transformed into a genius. He escapes, finds the treasure, returns to civilization as the debonair Count of Monte Cristo, gets revenge on his accusers, reconnects with the love of his life and lives happily ever after.

Lately, I've been having difficulty writing. It's not because I have writer's block or no story. It's the whole 'butt-in-chair' part. I just don't 'feel' like doing it. I'd rather surf the net or watch TV. Bad, bad...very bad.

This is where perseverance comes in, you've got to push forward when you don't feel like it and when everything and all the odds are against you and you're feeling stuck.  Much like our friend Edmond found himself, stuck. But he used his time in prison or his 'stuck time' wisely. He learned new things, taught to him by his mentor Abbé Fari. Though he was fueled by the thought of revenge, as a writer, use that fuel to push yourself to finish your manuscript. Probably much like the author Alexandre Dumas felt as he wrote what seems like a million paged manuscript. (Note to all the literary scholars--I didn't say the manuscript was a million pages long, but seemed like a million pages. So, no hate comments, please LOL)

Blessings!

Beth