Losing Track of Time

  I guess, since this is my blog, and it is free, and I am not under obligation to write, that I shouldn't have to apologize for not posting for about a month. So I won't. I still feel a bit bad about it, but hey, my routine has been interrupted, and I didn't react well to it. I spent a lot of May battling myself, trying to get the will to, well,  keep on keeping on. A depressed writer is a bad writer. Or not a writer at all.

   However, I am pulling myself up from my bootstraps, and jumping back on the bull. I am going to find some things to be positive about, because, in all actuality, there are a LOT of them. I guess May slipped away faster than I thought it would. I wish I had more to show for it, a whole 1/12 of 2013, but maybe on the end, letting it slip away, I learned something more. If I can prevent myself from letting that happen to the rest of my life, this past May will have been worth the waste.

 

Note: The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern was a fantastic read, well worth the second glance! With a little romance, a dash of mystery, and a whole lot of magic..I recommend it to any fantasy reader.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Circus

 

 

 

 

Daily Inspiration: Garlic Infused Olive Oil

   Sometimes the things that inspire you to live creatively are the ones that inspire you to write as well. Today, I was inspired by a bottle of Garlic Infused Olive Oil and before I knew it, I had an entire recipe mapped out in my head. Boy, my husband is going to be one lucky man tonight!

   Garlic Infused Olive Oil is a great way to get the gentle richness of garlic across in a recipe, without overwhelming any of the other ingredients in a dish. It can be used simply, as a dip for fresh baked focaccia, in an everyday way, as a drizzle in a salad on a home made pizza, or uniquely in any dish that could benefit from a lovely, smooth, hint of garlic.

   Tonight, I am using my Garlic Infused Olive Oil in a dish of roasted vegetables, sea scallops, and pesto chicken sausage. It is going to be delicious, fresh, and unique. I am inspired to cook today, and maybe a great dinner tonight will inspire me to write tomorrow. Who knows? At the very least, I'll keep the vampires away for a while.

Daily Inspiration: Keep on Reading…

 

   Sometimes, having a “grown up life” allows me less free time then I had as a teenager. I always enjoyed reading, and would often devour a book every day or two back then. Nowadays, I cannot keep up with that volume, of course, but I still try to read as often as my busy life allows me to.

   This week, I am reading a graphic novel, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v.1), as well as a novel, John Dies at the End. When I cannot get the words out to write, I resort to reading. It is a great way to find inspiration. By studying other author’s voices, one can help hone their own, and realize how they’d like to write (or, what they want to avoid sounding like).

   If it turns out that you haven’t read a book in a while, (whether “a little while” is a week, a month or a year), I hope that you are inspired to pick one up and start reading! You never know what you may find.

Daily Inspiration: Trying New Things

 

   Today, I did a few things that I had never done before. From the outside they may not seem like a lot. However, they made my day sparkle with a new and exciting glow, despite how “normal” and “blasé” they might seem.

   Firstly. I got contact lenses. After years of glasses, on a whim, at the eye doctors (where I was fully prepared to get new frames), I decided, why not? Previously, the idea of them had freaked me out a little bit, but there I was, in the chair, being fitted for contact lenses. Before I knew it, I was putting them in, and taking them out, and I’ve never seen so well in my life. I mean, my eyesight isn’t that bad, but still, crystal clear peripheral vision is something I never knew that I didn’t already have. I never knew how gorgeous my own eyes were, seeing them clearly for the first time since childhood was amazing.

   The second small thing was a new ice cream parlor. One that Christopher and I didn’t even know existed. We drove around a part of town (Kingston, NY) we never had before, again, on a whim. On his lunch break. We went inside, and just looked. We didn’t even get anything. Still, this small foray into a ice cream parlor bedecked with frogs and Yodas was an interesting, and refreshing, part of my day.

   The last new thing that I did today was go through a drive through totally alone. I realized that I had never done that. When I had gone through drive through restaurants before, it was always with at least one other person. As soon as I made that connection, I turned into the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts and got myself an iced tea. Man, that was the sweetest iced tea I’ve had in a long time, and it had no sugar in it! 

   My point is that it is important to take the time in our daily lives to try new things. Even if they are tiny new things, like trying a new food, or watching a new TV show, or really, really big things, like your first time at a rock concert or on a roller coaster, these are the things that define our days, years, and lives. These are the things that make life interesting. I mean, yes, there are plenty of things that I will do over, and over again. There are books that I will reread, trails I will hike again and again, and I will probably keep eating my favorite cereal (Blueberry Morning)at least once a month. Still, it is often the NEW experiences that make life sparkle a little more and shine a little brighter.

Daily Inspiration: A Dose of Color

   The winter is long over, and the spring is nearly summer. I am in the process of moving my winter wardrobe to the back of the attic closet, and bringing out summer things bit by bit. Doing this, I realized that the winter blah, though gone from nature, was very present in my black-and-grey wardrobe. The same chic clothes that were so perfect for wintertime are now depressing in the spring. Today, I inspired myself with a coat of tangerine nail polish for my fingers and toes, and a pretty peach sundress. Now. with a floppy sunhat and a ton of sunscreen, I feel like I can enjoy the beautiful, bright weather outside.

Daily Inspiration: Incredible Dreams

 

   Anyone who has ever had a dream that was long enough and good enough to actually be translated into a novel (or miniseries), understands how wonderful that experience can be. Seriously, having an overloaded imagination is a great thing. Today, the thing that inspired me most was the dream I had just before I woke up.

   In a dream, nothing is impossible. That is a great lesson for a writer to learn. When you write, anything is possible. The only limit is your own mind. Whether it is a flock of winged, bubblegum colored crocodiles, a flying VW Beetle, or an epic battle against Nazi-zombies,(yes, my dreams are nuts) you can accomplish anything that you can imagine.

Daily Inspiration: Stacks of Dusty Books

   Today we woke up earlier than we normally do, in order to attack the attic before the heat of the day casts us out with it's merciless and choking warmth. The objective: Organize the boxes of books that wouldn't fit in our tiny one bedroom apartment. My husband, Christopher, had recently toted all of my books that were in my parent's attic, and moved them into ours. Now, we had to go through them, organize them, and sadly, repack most of them until we move next year into a larger place.

   The result was a nostalgic trip through dusty volumes of all sizes, ranging from the first Fairy Tale Book of my childhood, to compendiums of plays that I treasured in high school and college. The smell of leather bindings, the familiar faces looking out from covers of paperback favorites, and bookmarks left exactly where I had left them tucked along familiar pages. From David Copperfield and the Arabian Nights, to the Nancy Drew books I so treasured in the third grade, to my beloved fantasy and science fiction collection, the volumes I had collected and treasured growing up were all there.

   Perhaps there is no better inspiration for a writer than remembering, and rereading, the books that first inspired them to write in the first place. Inside those cardboard boxes in my attic is enough inspiration to last a lifetime, and I plan on using it.