Miscellaneous Mondays: Meet Your Idol

by in Miscellaneous Mondays
Celebrities and Dictators
I recently attended an author event at the local library. The author, Terry Brooks, discussed his latest novels and how he became a writer. Without using the phrase, he talked about “the good old days.” I rather enjoyed his firsthand account of his early encounters with writing/publishing. I have read about 10 pages of his 35 novels. I personally met him and he wrote an encouraging note in my copy of the Sword of Shannara (which I am in the process of reading). I liked meeting a noted author, however I would not sell soul and self to shake his hand. 
Many people, when asked who are they dying to meet, answer with a big-name celebrity or a dictator with whom they would like to have a word or two. My response is, eh whatever. I’m not a fanatic but I wouldn’t mind a personal recounting of their life, how they went from no-name to big-deal. But then I figure, that’s what documentaries and memoirs are for! 
To me it’s the experience and the humanization of a celebrity rather than the bragging rights enabled that I like about meeting an idol/famous person. 

Foodie Fridays: Microsize Me

by in Foodie Fridays
Our eyes are no longer bigger than our stomachs in America

Taking this to heart, as well as the obesity epidemic in America and the fact that portion sizes are out of control whenever I eat out, I go with the micro-size me policy. Instead of super sizing portions, going Xlarge/Venti/Super etc I ask for the kid’s size or the smallest size. Ice cream? Small please. Coffee? Small/Tall please. Dinner size? I’ll split it with my companion please.

It seems like everybody these days is on a diet. My “diet” consists of trying to eat wholeful foods, such as veggies, sweet potatoes, fruits, brown rice, and fish instead of all the other food options out there. However, good luck trying to eat on the healthier side when you go out. I have found that the majority of restaurants will resort to the cheapest food option or the food option that will appeal to your taste buds. Did you know that when you take excessive sugars and salts out of your diet you appreciate the natural taste of food more? Then you don’t need sugar or salt added for ‘flavor’ because the dish has enough flavor for your taste buds. My new beef with eating out is 1. I can make it better in terms of healthy ingredients, 2. I can make it better in terms of what I like regarding taste about half the time, and 3. I can make it cheaper. That’s why my favorite restaurants are ethnic, I can’t make good Indian or Thai food.

My real issue is not what I eat but how I move, or rather don’t. I like to sit. All my daily activities seem to involve sitting; driving, working, writing, reading. I dislike traditional exercise. My favorite form of movement was dodge-ball but I have outgrown that sport. Sometime in the near-far future I would like to start playing volleyball but in the meantime I have picked up one of my favorite pastimes as a form of exercise: dancing. I enjoy dancing because it is a challenge for me. It is exciting and fun. So far I am currently doing zumba. I’d like to find some hip hop classes and perhaps some belly-dancing classes as well.

Author Thursdays: Write from the Middle

by in Author Thursdays


I read or heard from someone that when writing you don’t have to finish at a stopping point like at the end of the chapter. It is better to finish in the midst of an action so that when you start back up you have an immediate opening point and will be able to get right back into the action. If you have to start after a stopping point you may sit there twiddling your thumbs trying to think of where the story should go. 

Wildlife Wednesdays: City vs. Country

by in Cedar River, Wildlife Wednesdays

I have lived in many places. I have lived in Florida, Oregon and Washington. I have moved several times within those states. I have also stayed for bouts of time in New York (city) and Ohio. I would not want to live in a large city like New York, I felt like the air was toxic and the shops were crowded. I wouldn’t necessarily say I want to live in the “country” but I love where I live right now. I live on the river in a cozy cabin. Jealous? If you look closely at the picture from my back porch you can see the elk crossing the river. I am right in the midst of nature, green grass, a racing river, and a  small pebbled beach. A 1/2 mile walk gets me to the gas station, tiny convenience store, liquor store, breakfast place, auto mechanic, and produce stand. I am only several miles from shopping centers, including the local Walmart and Costco. I live in the wild but close to civilization. As my dad would put it, “I’m living the dream.”

Toiling Tuesdays: Business Cards

by in Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, Rachel Barnard, Toiling Tuesdays

Who was that gal?

I’ve really gotten into business cards. I started out making them myself when I was about 13. They advertised that I could crochet and babysit and they contained my phone number and name. Basically one step up from writing that information down on a napkin if I met someone who might want to use those services. In my last year of college I discovered Vistaprint and the online do-it-for you of business cards. Vistaprint is great and so far I’ve created three different business cards with them. Each time I make a better card. The first was very general, which is a bad idea and a good idea all wrapped into one that made it quite ineffective. This was a card that I could hand out at the library or on a bus but not during an interview for a position at an engineering company. I really should have left off the “For Hire” bit. The second business card I crafted was catered toward my author business, i.e. for my book. It was a free card and it is nicely simple but I have been told that the font is almost not readable. Perhaps if I had made the curlicues larger, the differences between letters would stand out more and it would work better overall. This card needs an explanation to go along with it though, which is why I developed the last card. It is a standalone card that if found on the street has all the information one would need to get the idea of who Rachel Barnard is.

Featured at the top of the blog post is the back of my current business card. The front contains an image of my first book’s cover and title as well as a short description.

In my writing group: Snovalleywrites, my second business card prompted one of the members to get his own. I really liked how his looked and have taken some of his ideas to incorporate them into my third business card (portrait vs. landscape and putting the cover of my book on one side).