Disaster Ahead - Take a Break

My life is a disaster.   Not on every level, just from a writing perspective.  My physical space is in turmoil.  In fact last weekend I didn't write at all.  A break - now that should be a refreshing change.  But there's something about living amidst a disaster that takes the refreshing right out of the break.

So what is said disaster? 

Renovations have caused an office disaster.

The basement is being renovated and that's where my office is.  So the refreshing break became a chance to haul nail pocked boards to the garage for future disposal, sweep sawdust, tear out nails and rip up carpet.

A contractor I'm not.  Agile - maybe.  At least so I thought as I dangled from two by fours and removed nails.  That was until I reached the two by four that was held up by only one nail.  Of course, I learned that after the fact.  It was a slow dance from ground to floor as I hung in mid-air before maneuvering around obstacles and safely jumping off before it hit the ground.  Not bad all things considered, no injuries or broken tools - and hey, I still had my hammer in hand. 

My basement is full of electric tools and I'm comfortable with none of them.  I'm sure some of them may have featured in a horror movie or two.   And my dislike of them all was justified when the nailer attempted to take off someone's thumbnail.  Apparently, a dab of crazy glue fixes that!  All I know is that it was a relief to see that there was no blood. 

Welcome to my nightmare
 
I think you're gonna like it,
I think you're gonna feel
Like you belong,
A nocturnal vacation,
Unnecessary sedation,
You want to feel at home
Cause you belong,
Welcome to my nightmare.

Alice Cooper

With an office hiding behind an old sheet, I've been away from the computer more this week than I've been sitting in front of it.  Definitely not the norm.  A friend actually had to phone me after there was no response to her e-mails.  Usually e-mail is a fairly efficient way to get my attention.  Not this week. 

An old flannel sheet becomes a dust break.

I learned something from being away from the computer.  The longing to write came back.  Not that I didn't want to write - but that sense of anticipation to get that line down got to be savoured more times than it was acted on.   I can no longer blithely charge to the computer especially when even getting into the basement is no longer a matter of just running down the stairs.  It's an obstacle course down there, complete with a wayward nail or two - shoes are a necessity.  So hours go by and I have to collect those fantastic lines and wonderful ideas (that's the great thing about the muse - each word screams that it's the best you ever wrote, until edits reveal otherwise) before I write anything down.  Yes, I know I have heard of pen and paper - but...give me my computer any day.  Besides, one idea always leads to a paragraph and then a page and then...  

So back to the urge to write and the break from writing.  A break is the best thing that ever happened.  It brought back the passion, the bite that makes me ache to write. 

You might ask why I didn't just move my computer upstairs.  But hey, behind the flannel sheet, my office is still intact and the place I want to be - for now.   So now with projects calling, it's time to get to work.  I miss my routine and me and the hammer, despite spending time together, will always be reluctant partners.

Anything different in your week?

Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com

Self Help Blogs

Novice Monks, Cambodia

Have blogs become the 21st centuries version of the self-help book?  No matter what the subject there's a blog ready to give advise.  I'm sure there's even a blog available to point out problems to those who may perceive that they have none.

Some blogs are just ones that are fun to follow or people who I enjoy their style of writing.  Light, easy blogs that are a break in a busy day.  There's the travel blogs I follow that give me a taste of the world through anothers eyes.  No self help there.  No - wait, didn't I read in a number of blogs that travel as opposed to tourism is the best self help of all?  And then there's the blogs who advocate leaving it all behind.  As in selling it all and carrying your possessions on your back and travelling the globe.  I love the concept but I can't get my head around leaving the beer fridge, never mind my electric piano, behind and I haven't even reached the bookshelf.  Hmmm, a topic for another blog. 

But onward, there's the zen blog, and the daily brainstorm which exactly like it says storms your brain with bits of motivational rah rah.  And of course there's the writing blogs.  Everything from industry news to the trials and tribulations of other authors.  Nothing like reading the trials of others followed by a story of success or two to make everything feel right with the world.  There's even yoga blogs where I mistakenly thought I'd learn meditation.  Apparently that is a physical art.  One where I actually have to get out of my writing chair and practice.  So I moved on.  There's only so much self-help a girl can take.  

Blogs - how do you look at them?  Fun or a little support along the way?


Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com
Ryshia on Twitter

A Good Host and Comments

Have you ever commented on a blog and gotten no response?  I wonder about that, the blog owner I mean.  Why are they blogging if not to interact with the people that read their blog.  Knowing first-hand how rare comments can be, why would you ignore them?  I know there is the occasional comment that doesn't warrant a comment be it a commercial inquiry or other.  And sometimes responses to comments are best made in a less public forum.  But for the vast majority,  I think the blog owner has a duty to respond unless their site is so crazy busy that it is impossible.  To me that is really the only excuse. 

The other day I commented on a blog, me and a few others.  Not that this was a heavily trafficked blog, there were many posts where there were no comments at all.  So when there was a comment, you would think you'd want to encourage comments by interacting with them.  Not this blogger - instead they carried on as if no one had knocked on their door.  That's what it is really, a guest has arrived, acknowledge them.  And this blogger didn't.   Maybe it's just me but it seems rather like hosting a party and then refusing to speak to the guests.  Isn't that just plain rude? 

It's definitely a missed opportunity.  I don't know about you but ignore me once maybe, twice and I won't stick around unless you're offering some pretty awesome material. 

What's your take on a blogger's response to comments?  Or are you a blog owner sans the comments?  And if so - you must have your reasons - care to share?

Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com

Did you know that summer is only 98 days away? Is is time to get out the ice and the blender?  Maybe save some of that winter surplus of ice before hallelujah, we hit the big melt!

On the Edge of Spring

Nothing but snow, snow, snow - no flowers

There's no visual sign of spring up here in the frozen North.  The snow hasn't budged a centimeter and the thermometer is determined to continue it's spate of record lows.  But something is changing.  Beneath the surface there's rumblings.  The trilling of birds, a variety of songs previously unheard since sometime in mid-fall are tentatively testing their voices and in the stripped and shivering trees...

Okay, enough already!  Let me just say that it's still flipping freezing up here.  And yes, there seem to have been a few birds crazy enough to arrive on the early flight. Other than that, it's cold - crazy cold!  So on a day when again, as I've posted before, I'm sick of winter, this time I mean it.  And I'm seeing the signs that everyone else is feeling the same way.  Change is in the air.   Hubbie is culling items we've stored for decades, things I'd either forgotten we owned or why we had kept it.   That is when he's not unnerving me and standing silently in my office and looking at my office walls.   He's moving into renovation mode and I'm not sure when to gather my laptop and run.  Meantime the dog also senses a change in the air and has hauled out every stuffed animal he owns.  And for a dog with a fetish for stuffed animals, that's a lot.  Forget vacuuming, it's a project to contain the wildlife.

Seriously, as the calendar says that it's almost time for winter to wind down, I'm beginning to panic.  I've finished one story and begun another and there's one waiting to be finished.  Never mind a slight matter of a grant application whose deadline is now only days away.   Not that winter is my only time to write.  It's just that after a long winter, the thought of a warm day seems that it should be savoured on the deck with a glass of your favourite drink in hand. 
 
And on a completely different topic.  I had a fantastic surprise this morning when I opened my mail and read that  this blog, Once Upon a Time... was named by Masters in Project Management in a post called The Tales of Tale-Tellers: The Top 50 Novelist Blogs as one of the top romance novelist blogs!  How wow is that?  Head on over and check it out.



Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com

Airline Travel With a Twist

Remember those days when riding a plane was fun?  When seats were wider and actually spaced with adequate leg room.  When the man reclining in front of you didn't land in your lap and when being assigned a middle seat didn't involve an intricate dance of dodging elbows. 

Airport - Seoul

I remember a time, not too long ago, when water was something you didn't purchase after being frisked in a security line up.  Although this is not such a bad procedure.  I mean from a writer of romantic suspense point of view, it gives me a sense of what frisking is all about.  An experience I might never previously have had.  Seriously, while I realize that the world has changed and we need a certain amount of security, some days I long for what was.  I think fondly back to days when I wasn't scrambling for plastic baggies for my midget size toothpaste and someone wasn't scowling over my mascara while I juggled my shoes and slipped on tile floors in sock feet.  Days when, should my luggage have been lost or the in flight meal insubstantial, no problem, my carry on had it all.

Hawaii

My second plane ride ever was to Hawaii.  Wardair was a Canadian airline that provided luxury even in economy.  An airline that like many things, is now history.  I remember a 747 with wide seats and excess legroom.  There was a circular staircase up to the lounge area that was open to all passengers.  There was a bar complete with bartender in the main passenger area in the forward section (economy) that served free drinks for the entire flight.  The drinks morphed into Mai Tais as we neared our destination. 

That journey included a tour of the cockpit for a few select passengers of who I ended up being one. I can still remember my first encounter with the concept of auto pilot.  I think shock registered at walking into the cockpit, being overwhelmed by complexity of it all and then realizing that both the pilot and co-pilot faced me with their back to the wide open sky.   "It's on auto-pilot," the captain assured me with a smile.  And really, his smile wasn't wide enough.  Auto-pilot had me uneasy for the duration of the trip.  Thank goodness for the Mai Tais.

A Staircase in a 747 - leading to lounge

It's amazing how quickly what was once reality slips into the realm of history.  It's hard to imagine a plane now where the cockpit would be that open, or where a lounge would be available to anyone other than first class or where there would even be a lounge at all.  For better or worse, it's another world. 

For a writer, nothing is really over.  Those times that fade into history can come alive again with a pen and a flight into imagination.   And you - any memories of times past?

Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com

Royal Romance + European Vacations = Meet Author Melissa McClone

Yep, you got it right today it's all about royalty, romance and European vacations.  Author, Melissa McClone has a little bit of each to talk about as she stops by on the last day of her virtual tour marking the release of her latest book, "Expecting Royal Twins".    Here's a chance to meet the author of that rather intriguing title and get a fun look at a few moments in her life.   Leave a comment and I'm sure Melissa will respond.  And, there's a double benefit to commenting,  Melissa will be making a random draw for a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate to one lucky commenter.  

Today, instead of an interview, I asked Melissa to write a post about a trip that changed her.  On the last day of an exhausting tour, I thought she'd more than likely had enough interviews and in my world, after books, there's nothing better than travel, virtual or otherwise. So here's Melissa's take on the statement, life hasn't been quite the same since...

Welcome Melissa!

Life Hasn't Been Quite the Same Since... I Backpacked Through Europe 

 I was twenty-one.  It was nine days after my college graduation.  I was off to spend six weeks backpacking through Europe with my passport, a Eurail Pass, a camera, a Let's Go travel guide and an American Express card to be used only in case of emergency.

My parents wouldn't allow me to go alone so I teamed up with a friend I knew from marching band.  We decided on what countries to visit.  Our goal was to see as much as we could in the time we had.  We had a checklist to make sure we didn't miss a thing.

England amazed me, both London and side trips to Bath, Oxford, Stonehenge and Leeds Castle.  More than once, I felt as if I'd stepped back in time.  I'll never forget the Beefeater who guided us through the Tower of London.  History came alive.

I had so many things to check off my list, but when I page through my travel journal, it's not those incredible places I've written the most about.  It's the people.  A former roommate who was competing at Wimbledon.  The family we stayed with in Kensington Garden.  And Gerry.  A friend of a friend who took us under his wings and showed us around London.

Gerry had been a tour guide.  He gave us the names of places to go on our journey.  He was a few years older, light years wiser (not to mention really handsome) and knew what two twenty-one year olds didn't.  This wasn't just a checklist kind of trip.  Meeting people on our travels was so much fun.

He suggested we modify our ambitious itinerary, spend more time at each place and not wear ourselves out with a non-stop rush of blink-and-you-miss-it-experiences.  We were young, but not stupid.  We crossed out Capri before we left England.

We headed across the English Channel to Paris.  We traveled to Cannes.  Wherever we went, we met people.  In Nice, we hung out with a guy who not only gave me money when I didn't have enough francs to buy lunch, but also handed us little Canadian flags to pin on our backpacks.

Rome came next--the Vatican, the Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain.  When I set off on my own to attend Mass, a group of gypsies accosted me.  Talk about frightening.  Until a  man ran across the street and rescued me.  I have lasting images of the grandeur and significance of the historic places we saw in Rome, yet the actions  of a kind stranger really made an impression on me.

In Italy, we bumped into more people we knew from school or recognized from our travels.  I never expected that to happen so far away from home.  I was there to see stuff--old, grand buildings, museums, things I'd read about in my history books--not meet people and build friendships.

A train ride took us to Florence with its spectacular art and architecture.  Side trips included Sienna, the perfect setting for a historical movie, and Pisa, where the leaning tower was smaller than I expected.  I also fell in love...with Festiva Gelato.

In Switzerland, we followed Gerry's advice and slowed down even more.  We made Interlaken our home base as we explored Switzerland and waited for the weather to clear so we could go up the Jungfrau.  That was a checklist item, but an important one.

Since we were no longer on an if-this-is-Tuesday-it-must-be-Rome itinerary, we had time to hang out.  Friendships blossomed.  Plans to travel together or meet up in another country were made.  Tips on where to stay and eat, what to do and where we should avoid were exchanged.

When the weather cleared, we realized our wait had provided us with more than a perfect bluebird day for the Jungfrau.  Gerry had been right.  Seeing the major attractions each place had to offer was great, but slowing down in our travels allowed us to get to know a town and make connections...friends.

In my journal, I wrote about the many places we visited, the numerous stairs we climbed and the delicious food we ate.  But in London, I wrote about the people, too.  I'm amazed by the detail I gathered about those people, and my joy at unexpectedly bumping into them again.  Nothing beats the burst of warmth seeing a familiar smiling face brings when you're far away from home, even if you've only seen that face once while ordering the chocolate mousse gelato in Florence.

It took me traveling halfway across the globe to realize how small the world truly was.  And how important a casual exchange with a stranger could turn out to be.

Melissa

 
Suddenly a Princess...


It's not every day that a tall, dark, handsome prince strides into your workshop and announces he's your husband!  Mechanic Izzy nearly drops her wrench.  Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that she'd become a princess!


Independent Izzy struggles with exchanging her oil-stained overalls for silken gowns, let alone becoming responsible for an entire country!  Yet her attraction to Prince Niko tempts her further into the fairy tale.  And then two small surprises change all the rules of the game...

Read an excerpt from Melissa's new book "Expecting Royal Twins" by clicking here.

You can read more about Melissa by checking out her website at:  MelissaMcClone.com

Don't forget, Melissa is giving away a prize to one lucky commenter who will win a $20 gift certificate from Amazon.com. 

Thanks Melissa for taking us along on your European trek and for a peek at what looks like a great read! 

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com