Dance Along the Way

Have you ever danced for no reason other than the music you were listening to was fun or the beat was irresistible? Danced by yourself, with whoever was available, your dog even counts - just danced?

If you've lost your muse, life's dragged you down - dance.

And if you're feeling great, feel a little better - dance.

Here's some songs that are uniquely fun and some that just make you want to - well you know - dance.

The B52's, Rock Lobster

The Fabulous Poodles, Think Pink

The Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian
Streets of Fire, Nowhere Fast
Smash Mouth, Walking on the Sun

Life's too short not to dance.

Ryshia

www.ryshiakennie.com

Run Away Trains

I haven't written for two days and I feel it. Writing is me. It's what I do. But sometimes that journey through life just broadsides everything else. This week was a train wreck.

It was a week where one problem followed another and today, at the end of the week, I can only hope that it has all wound up. That next week, will be not only a new month but a new start. At least I promise myself that as I look longingly at my laptop before rushing headlong into another crazy day.
When life broadsides me, writing is how I lower my keel and stabalize amidst chaos.
I feel better already.
What do you do when life broadsides you?
Ryshia
http://ryshiakennie.com
From the Dust

Flip Flops and Business

In my travels I have collected a few pet peeves. Here's one of them.

I cringe at the attire some women wear to work in an office. Some days it's hard to imagine what they may walk in the door with. But my pet peeve, aside from shorts, is flip flops.

I love flip flops. They are my favorite choice of footwear in the summer. But the office? Throughout the summer, flip flops complete with toenails enhanced with every garish array of nail polish color you could imagine, arrive in the office at 8:00 a.m. with frightening regularity. And it's just not flip flops. Exposed toes in the office is just, I think - wrong.And to make matters worse, I love toe rings - but the office?! Really - if you want to play in the field - get serious. That's all I have to say on the subject. I'm going back to my corner.

What's bugging you today?

Ryshia
www.ryshiakennie.com
From the Dust
Ryshia at MySpace

Romance Fights Back

Literature is a form of escapism. I get tired of hearing that romance is simplistic or written on a formula. Romance is literature. Fiction, literature. And there is no formula - people! True - there are lines that are more stringent than others. There are word counts. But there is no outline that says he places his lips on her, chapter 5, page 45!

Where do these myths come from? And as a result of these myths, romance takes a hit in the gut over and over again.

Every genre has some degree of formula attached to it and every genre has writing that explodes out of any rules attached to it. Talented writers are found in every genre. Talented writers create fiction that one day will be literature. Remember that Dickens wrote pulp fiction in his day. How many years after his death did it become literature?

You can't blow off romance any more than you can blow off sci-fi or horror or any genre as not being worth reading. Romance and love stories pervade through history and entwine within literature. I think the issue is women's roles in society. Romance and women's fiction empowers women and that can be a very threatening thing.

Look back through all the bestsellers and see if romance is not woven through almost every story. Just like murder, suspense and horror are written into
many a romance. Romance and love are a potent part of society and one I think many are afraid to acknowledge.

There, I feel better! What do you need to let out to make you feel better today?

Ryshia

A Journey into Imagination

When I researched beheading, I didn't realize there were so many people through history that had been beheaded. In fact, the list was quite frightening. Not nearly as frightening as the Regina Leader Post Newspaper trumpeting the recent beheading on a Greyhound Bus in Manitoba. Yes, now Canada is on the beheading map! Wikpedia lists us as a country where a beheading has occurred. Not exactly a thing to be famous for. That was too close to home and too sad.  A touch of reality is not always a good thing.

But back to the purpose of my post. Beheading. Yes, I am talking about beheading but it's a story people!  Last Man Standing, the story of Garrett and an expedition of entomologists into the Borneo Rain forest. And the story of one reluctant "Wild Man" aka Aidan, who helps them out.

But even in the land of the headhunters, in a story that is a trek into the unknown and unmapped journey of a romance, beheading was not expected. And although a dead man washing up on shore is not, by virtue of its setting, as shocking as a Greyhound bus in 2008, it's still horrifying.

Where did your imagination take you today?

Ryshia

Limits

With a story moving sweetly forward, I'm in the zone. But I've reached my limit. In the morning that limit is two hours, sometimes three depending on his mood. Who is that timer? Well, he's red and he's Irish and, although he thinks he's human, he's not. Rourke, that well documented, Irish Terrier is muttering and shifting continually from his place just behind me. I suspect if he could speak they would be words not said in polite company. I sense his patience has reached an end. The daily walk has been mandated.

I will return to the story but not for another hour. For now, it is time to go and enjoy a summer day. He might be pushy but Rourke reminds me that there is a whole world out there, and not just one I imagined.

What keeps you grounded in reality?

Ryshia