Languid Thoughts

Sometimes I see something beautiful in my life, like this evening sky from my backyard. How wonderful it was to capture the moment with the camera! The colors in the sky were amazing and I wrote a little poem to go along with it.

Our thoughts can reach many heights, and when we capture them by writing them down, anything is possible. Poetry is one avenue of capturing thoughts.

Dare to dream, and you open the door to life.
Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated our Thanksgiving by beginning the day with a prayer of thanks. There are so many things to be thankful for, our health, our loved ones, the roof over our heads, etc. It's not only on this day we should be thankful, but every day of our lives. I consider each day to be a blessing. Having gone through so many losses in my life, particularly through the departure of loved ones, I do not take anything for granted.

After our morning breakfast, the family went and played tennis at the nearby tennis courts. The weather was in the mid-50s, sunny and lovely. It was fun running around hitting and catching the little balls. Afterwards, I prepared the meal while everyone watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on TV. It was a joyful occasion with nice music and dancing. There were several public schools involved and I enjoyed watching all that young talent on the screen. I particularly liked the elves.

In the evening, after the Thanksgiving meal, we played a board game followed by watching a favorite movie, "Sense and Sensibility." I chose this 1995 movie because it has influenced me in so many ways when I was writing "The Greek Maiden and the English Lord." Emma Thompson did a wonderful job in weaving drama, humor, and music into this wonderful, wonderful story by Jane Austen. One of the humorous  parts of the movie, were  the "F Major" theme. In addition, there were several  dramatic parts, or highlights of the story: when Elena realized her sister was dying, when Marianne walked in the rain the second time and stood looking at the mansion of Willoughby, when Elena realized Edward was not married, and so on.  The acting was fabulous and my favorite actors were Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson. How did all this influence my story? Read my story to find out! It is available FREE until January 2013 at the following site:

The Greek Maiden and the English Lord

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop Coming November 21!

Greetings!

I recently joined what's called The Next Big Thing Blog Hop! I have never done one, and was excited to have been tagged by Maria F. Karamitsos, associate editor of the GreekStar newspaper in Chicago and author at https://fromthemommyfiles.wordpress.com/
and I look forward to participating in it on November 21!

The way it works is like a chain letter, one author answers several questions about themselves and about their writing, and at the end of that session, list five other authors who will be answering their own questions and "tag" five other authors, and so on.

It is a great way for an author to gain exposure, as readers move from one blog to another, reading about their favorite authors as well as learning about new authors....isn't that great?

I hope you return next week to read more about me and get a chance to see what other wonderful authors have to say about themselves and their writing!

See you then!!

Tips for Authors

 Tips for Authors: 

This is what I learned from the book "Stand Out Social Marketing" by Mike Lewis -
 
Social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, push content away from the viewer very quickly. In the first hour after you post something on these sites, only 34% engagement was observed in 10 days, as compared to other sites like Flickr, which earned 82% engagement in 10 days. Also, Youtube, Flickr and WordPress

experienced upticks for the first 24 hours, while Facebook and Twitter, dropped dramatically in the first hour of publication.

The best way to get your work out there is to build a landing page (website, blog) and drive traffic to it to maximize exposure. You can sign up for a free blog through Blogger. Directories such as Digg, Reddit, and Stumbleupon help drive additional views to your content.

Also, use Video (Youtube) and Photos to share with your readers.