Life in progress


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The Friday Reminder and Prompt for SoCS May 17/14

Friday is here once again and time for your Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt! Taking pictures with colour in them (finally, no snow and ice!) has made me contemplate vision for the past few days. And so I thought about making vision this week’s prompt. But then I thought, why stop there?

This week your Prompt will be the 5 senses. Pick one, or include them all, but somehow get them into your Stream of Consciousness post. Or heck, put none of them in there! Now there’s a real challenge!

After you’ve written your Saturday post tomorrow, please link it here at the prompt page in the comments so others can find it and see your awesome Stream of Consciousness post. Let’s have lots of participants again this week. Try it, it’s fun!

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” or “Begin with the word ‘The’.”

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people will come and read your post! The way to ping back, is to just copy and paste the URL of my post somewhere on your post. Then your URL will show up in my comments, for everyone to see. For example, in your post you can copy and paste the following: This post is part of SoCS: https://lindaghill.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-1714/  The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read everyone’s! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later, or go to the previous week, by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find right below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. Have fun!

Captain America Waits for the School Bus

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Captain America waits


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Connections

My best friend John was talking to me today about a man he works with named Mike. Last night Mike didn’t show up for work; apparently he just found out he has cancer.

Mike is 32 years old, just got married, his wife just had a baby and they just bought a house. The cancer spread from his testicles and is now in his stomach. Nine weeks of chemo await him.

Yesterday, I took a picture of a tree.

in bloom

I feel lucky to have what I believe is a bunch of open-minded people following my blog. So I ask you, please try to see the connection.

In life, there is so much beauty. While I’m sure Mike is worried as hell for himself and his new family, and it might be impossible at the moment for him to see what he has gained in light of what he has potentially lost, this is what I would advise him, if I knew him: focus on the beauty in every single day.

It’s so much easier for we who are not suffering to see the positive in things. The very last thing I mean to do is be glib. But each and every one of us is dying. Every thing that lives, will die. This is what connects us.

Please, send some positive thoughts out for Mike, and for all who suffer. And don’t forget to look for beauty, everywhere you go.


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I’m Following How Many Blogs?

Ah, I just love WordPress’s random glitches.

I have a request for my fellow bloggers. Please go into your reader, and click on the edit button for “Blogs I Follow.” (It’s at the top right corner of the page.) Then report back here and tell me if you follow the same number of blogs I do. According to mine, it’s 1.

Yes, one.

That’s wrong, by the way.

I’d like to see if it’s just me WordPress likes to mess with.


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Catskinner’s Book by Misha Burnett – a Review

Catskinner's Book (The Book Of Lost Doors)Catskinner’s Book by Misha Burnett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Full of non-stop action, I loved the twists and turns as the story of James and Catskinner unfolds. This well written sci-fi novel by Misha Burnett is set in a realistic world into which a reader can escape. Alive with imaginative creatures, Catskinner’s Book is an original that I had a hard time putting down.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great sci-fi story, and I couldn’t wait to start into Book Two – Cannibal Hearts.

View all my reviews


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One-Liner Wednesday – …If It Wasn’t Screwed On

My mother, talking to me on her cellphone: I’ll make sure I keep my phone with me tomorrow, in case you call – I just have to find where I put the bloody thing now.


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Everybody’s Different

Diversity is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Well, not always.

If you’re at all sociable: whether you go out of the house, or stay in and spend your days on the internet, you’re bound to meet someone who gets on your nerves. I remember when my ex and I started dating. Everything was flowers and wine and laughter… and then I found out he was a morning person. I, on the other hand, am not one for more than a grunt if you’re lucky before my first coffee, so the singing coming from the direction of the shower was enough to set my teeth on edge.

While that wasn’t actually painful, I do now at times feel physical discomfort when I come across someone whose nature is completely different to mine. Take, for instance, people who live in a constant state of drama. I have enough real life problems to even consider worrying about who has pissed off whom and how they’re going to badmouth them until everyone else hates them. And it happens everywhere! Social media, high schools, offices and even old-age homes.

What I don’t understand is, why do people do this to themselves? Why can’t people just live and let live? So what if so-and-so is pissing you off? Ignore them. Don’t let them pull you into their world of misery. I certainly didn’t let my ex get the best of me with his early morning glee, and since he was still serenading the shower head when we broke up, I sure didn’t do anything to stifle him. Then again, maybe by that time he was doing it just to get on my nerves.

I know I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: life is too short. I think if we can all accept that not everyone is the same as us, that we all have our quirks, our opinions, and our preferences in life, we could all be so much happier.

Stop trying to change people. Embrace their differences. Just not necessarily in the shower.


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A Sure Sign the Ice Is Gone

may 13 14

It was so nice to find these this morning, whilst walking around the block on my paper route.

I do love this time of year.


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Don’t Let It End!

You know that feeling you get when you’re reading a book that’s so good–you’re enjoying the world and love the characters so much–that you don’t want it to end? You approach the last few chapters and you’re divided – do you hurry up and read it because it’s so exciting? Or do you savour it slowly like a fine glass of Chardonnay? It’s a dilemma I think we all deal with at least once or, if we’re lucky, many times.

I’m currently reading a book like that. The book is catskinner’s book by Misha Burnett. If you’re not already following his blog and/or haven’t started reading his novels, you should. You can find them here: http://www.amazon.com/Misha-Burnett/e/B008MQ8W4K I’ll be writing a review as soon as I’m finished.

But this is only half the reason for this post.

When I finished writing my novel, The Great Dagmaru, I was miserable. Like that feeling when I’ve finished reading a novel I enjoyed, times ten. It was like my children had left home and didn’t need me anymore. I walked around with a dark cloud over my head for a week. It was so dark, in fact, I think I heard thunder. I wonder if this is part of the reason it’s taking me so long to edit it… I don’t want it to end.

So in my own insane way of undertaking more than I can really handle, I’m seriously entertaining the notion of beginning the sequel. I was going to write one anyway; I wasn’t going to start it until NaNoWriMo in November. In some convoluted way, maybe adding more to my workload will increase my productivity.

I need a way to get past this psychological block, however I do it.

Do you have a book you never wanted to put down? Recommend it in the comments. And don’t forget to check out Misha’s blog and his novels!


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The Book Fairy Waved Her Magic Wand: “The Mirror” For Sale At Barnes & Noble!

An awesome, awesome book just came available at Barnes & Noble yesterday! Buy it now!

navigator1965's avatarThe Mirror

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

The last that I had heard (middle of this week), my book information was being uploaded to distribution channels, and I should expect to see it hit the major online sellers in a few weeks, probably by the end of June.

Imagine my surprise to find that The Mirror is now for sale at Barnes & Noble as an e-book. ***UPDATE: Changed to all formats as I was typing!*** It’s really happening, perhaps a bit faster than I had expected. I’m still working with my FriesenPress.com marketing guru to get things like my marketing plan and formal press release done. I don’t even have an “official” launch date or event planned yet.

May I ask a favour from those who’ve already read the manuscript or galley proof? It would be helpful if you’d leave comments and rank the book at both…

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