Author: Lynn

My husband and I live in beautiful Nova Scotia, Canada, and now that we are empty nesting I again began pursuing my dream of writing for children. I am privileged to have met and/or corresponded with Canadian and US authors,; among those are internationally known Canadian author Budge Wilson who wrote many MG and other books, Laura Best, Darlene Foster; US author Drew Lamm (originally from Canada); US author/novelist Sue Harrison - all whose books I've reviewed on my blog, Amazon and other sites. It's my joy to be in contact with other writers and professionals of all stages of the process. Life brings change, and for me that meant the opportunity to pursue a decades old dream - to learn to paint. I now join other painters weekly and we paint and learn together. You can check out my paintings at https://www.instagram.com/lynn.a.davidson2019

Who was born on your birthday?

My writing update: the usual ‘nothing more’ for NaNo, but I got one more idea for PiBoIdMo today, making my total 23 ideas for day 17.

piboidmo2013-lightbulb-happy-200x254

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve still got the ‘warm fuzzies’ from the love that came my way on my special day, including e-cards, emails, phone calls, a parcel in the mail – some of them a little early which adds to the fun. Because I’m still on a bit of an emotional high from all the festivities Saturday, I would like to tell you about a link I found awhile ago.

It’s called:  Who was born on your birthday?

When you click on the link above and enter your birthday month and date it will bring up names of famous people born on your birthday. It also will show the year of their birth.

For mine, November 16, I learned of four famous people born on that date:

Who was born on your birthday?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

 

Birthday surprises!

Nothing to report regarding NaNo, but I have added one more idea to my PiBoIdMo list of ideas now totalling 22 on day 16.

Today when I got up I walked into the living-room and there were … um …  many…  pink balloons tied up by pink cord and strung in the living-room and dining-room. My husband got them put up as a birthday surprise for me.

My sister and I went to a wonderful craft fair this morning where I bought a few Christmas presents. Then later my family had a birthday supper for me at Dad’s … thirteen of us there … and lots of special birthday balloons, bouquets of flowers, cards and gifts. The one they all contributed to is an album full of pictures and memories. They had me crying from the start when I first opened the album. There were pictures of Mum and me; Mum passed away five days after Christmas of 1997. Each page was for a member of my family .. and me. So sweet and special. I love them all! Plus, we face-timed with my daughter who lives in Alberta, so she was part of it with us.

Today was a special birthday and a very special day. 🙂

Do you have special days like that?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!

 

Longhand or computer?

It is late. I will be “calling it a day” soon .. another day in which I got no writing done. I feel as if I have this dark cloud around me through which I get little glimmers of inspiration … but not enough to motivate me. blah! Some would call it writer’s block, but I call it oppressive tiredness. I hope tomorrow (my new year) is better!

NaNo novel — zilch for yesterday and today.

PiBoIdMo – one idea for yesterday and one for today = 21 ideas so far

Here is a better link than the one I posted a couple of days ago, and what I was wanting. Thanks, Jamie! The link I posted stopped working, anyway. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/  On this one you’ll find a new picture daily.

I have some questions for you writers.

  • When you are working on your story, do you write longhand or do you type?
  • If longhand, do you use pen or pencil?
  • If you type, do you strictly use a computer? did you ever use a typewriter?

I write longhand, usually using a pen. I have yet to type the very lengthy very rough draft of my novel over onto computer. That is going to take a long time to do!

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

 

‘Read More Books’ challenge: Week 6: 260-311 of the list of 623 of the best books ever!

Are you ready for week six of our Read More Books challenge? 

Read HERE to learn about it. It’s never too late to join in.

Check the ones you may have missed or want to review:

WEEK ONE   WEEK TWO   WEEK THREE  WEEK FOUR  WEEK FIVE   

How did you do with your reading? Even if you didn’t finish the book you selected, it counts if you select one for this week to add to your TBR pile.

260. Les Misérables — by Victor Hugo
261. Tristes Tropiques — by Claude Lévi-Strauss
262. Dream of the Red Chamber — by Tsao Hsueh-Chin
263. Slouching Towards Bethlehem — by Joan Didion
264. Old Goriot — by Honoré de Balzac
265. Oscar and Lucinda — by Peter Carey
266. The Interrogation — by J. M. G. Le Clezio
267.  Appointment in Samarra — by John O’Hara
268. A House for Mr. Biswas — by V. S. Naipaul
269. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer — by Patrick Suskind
270. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — by J. K. Rowling
271. The Secret Garden — by Frances Hodgson Burnett
272. Asterix the Gaul — by René Goscinny
273. The Wasp Factory — by Iain Banks
274. The Fountainhead — by Ayn Rand
275. Four Plays — by Eugene Ionesco
276. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — by J. K. Rowling
277. Germinal — by Émile Zola
278. The Moonstone — by Wilkie Collins
279. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha — by Roddy Doyle
280. Sixty Stories — by Donald Barthelme
281. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality — by Sigmund Freud
282. Waiting for the Barbarians — by J. M. Coetzee
283. Angela’s Ashes — by Frank McCourt
284. The Abyss — by Marguerite Yourcenar
285. The Way We Live Now — by Anthony Trollope
286. The Rifles — by William Vollmann
287. Democracy in America; and Two essays on America — by Alexis de Tocqueville
288. Cranford — by Elizabeth Gaskell
289. A Christmas Carol — by Charles Dickens
290. Fahrenheit 451 — by Ray Bradbury
291. The Rocognitions — by William Gaddis
292. On the Origins of Species — by Charles Darwin
293. Sula — by Toni Morrison
294. Daniel Deronda — by George Eliot
295. The Tartar Steppe — by Dino Buzzati
296. Young Lonigan — by James T. Farrell
297. On the Social Contract — by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
298. Sea of Poppies — by Amitav Ghosh
299. Portnoy’s Complaint — by Philip Roth
300. Shadow of the Torturer — by Gene Wolfe
301. Das Kapital — by Karl Marx
302. Cider with Rosie — by Laurie Lee
303. The Prince — by Niccolò Machiavelli
304. The Horseman on the Roof — by Jean Giono
305. The Executioner’s Song — by Norman Mailer
306. Atlas Shrugged — by Ayn Rand
307. Suite Française — by Irene Nemirovsky
308. Mountains Beyond Mountains — by Tracy Kidder
309. Cold Comfort Farm — by Stella Gibbons
310. The Story of Tracy Beaker — by Jacqueline Wilson
311. Angle of Repose — by Wallace Stegner
 
 
I love to hear from you!  From the above list:
  • Which books have you read?
  • Which books do you want to read?
  • Which books are you going to obtain this week?(Even if you are not officially taking the Read More Books challenge I would love to hear about your reading.)

Note: I got permission to share this list on my blog. (Thank you, Stuart!) You could go HERE for the list of “623 of the best books ever written” and see them all at once for yourself, and/or you can follow the list here a few at a time.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

Alzheimer’s caregivers support group & pre-birthday party

First, I apologize! It seems the link I posted yesterday for NASA (space photos) no longer works. Perhaps I can find a better one later, or do you know of any?

For today’s PiBoIdMo I wrote down an idea for a picture book. Idea #19 on day 13. Still nothing more on my NaNo novel. I may have made a mistake by trying to do that this year, half way through the month already!

Tonight I went to a meeting of the Alzheimer Caregivers Support Group. It is something I don’t like to miss. We’re a small group that meets once a month and are free to ask questions, talk about our concerns, worries, problems, also sharing what good things have happened and what works for us. Our group moderators provide us with information and sometimes we have guest speakers. This time, since Saturday is my (rather important) birthday, I took cupcakes and Ambrosia (a fruit dessert) I’d made for us to share, for a sort of little pre-birthday party.  🙂 

From what we (my sister and I) are going through with our experience with Alzheimer’s Disease, I’m gathering ideas for a book – ideas based on anecdotes from which come chapter titles, such as The Fire Extinguisher, The Hedge, The Car. Who knows whether this book will become a reality. It’s one thing to have the experience, quite another to write it out in an interesting and captivating way that someone else would like to read about.

Tomorrow I may not post about my PiBoIdMo and NaNoWriMo progress since it is Book Reading Challenge day here on my blog, but I will update on Friday.

If you are taking part in any challenges this month, how are you doing? How’s your writing coming along, and are you participating in my book reading challenge?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

 

Fun stuff to do on the Internet, aka Procrastination activities

Writers. 

Writers write.

But writers don’t always only write. Writers often procrastinate.

I wanted something different – but brief – for my NaBloPoMo post today, and in my search I found some things on the Net that would be great for those times of procrastinating. Call it character or theme research. 🙂  I will add them to my Writers’ Helps page later.

Check these out:

http://www.nasa.gov/  <—- This may be slow loading for you (it is photos)

http://www.howtofoldashirt.net/  <—-  This is a great thing, but I have tried it and although it looks very simple I haven’t fully mastered it yet. I think my brain can’t or won’t think that way, but I will keep working on it. This set of instructions seems a little better than the one I was using.

http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/  <—- This one looks like great fun for when you are writing dialect for your characters, without going overboard with it, of course.

Today I was so tired, didn’t get any writing done on my NaNo novel. I did get one fun story idea drafted out for PiBoIdMo, though. That makes idea #18 for day 12.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings!  🙂

 

Free online gluten-free summit; challenge updates

Just a quick post tonight:

It was a busy day for me and by evening I was/am tired and didn’t add anything to  my NaNo novel. For PiBoIdMo I came up with a cute character name so that makes idea #17 for day 11.

Now I’m all mixed up because today was a day off work for my husband, and we were at the Remembrance Day service followed by the Veterans dinner. It doesn’t feel like Monday to me.

I just learned of a free online Gluten-free summit which started today (Nov 11) and ends November 17. You can still register — go here to do so — and each day’s interview runs for 24 hours! That means I can catch today’s tomorrow (Tuesday) and so can you. 🙂

Here ends today’s NaBloPoMo post. Now I must sign off, get some sleep, and tackle my writing tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂