Keeper - Blog Tour

 

        I am pleased to be hosting my friend, Elizabeth Altenbach, for the release of her new book Keeper - view here.    To help celebrate, I'm giving away a little prize on my FB page. Come over!

Prizes

     Now without further ado, here's Elizabeth:

    Hey y’all! This is the sixth post of my blog tour journey, which started here:Link

    Today I’m talking about Pride and Prejudice.

    “But wait,” you say, “this is a Keeper blog tour.”'

   Well, I mentioned the movie a couple times in the book, so I thought I’d tell y’all a little bit about what it means to me. Here are a couple excerpts from Keeper:

 -

My mother kisses my forehead and asks if I need anything; I tell her no, thank you, but ten minutes later, my father comes up carrying the television that hasn't been hooked up in the living room yet.

“Dad, you really didn't have to,” I say.

“I wanted to. And you aren't going to want to climb up and down the stairs very often with that ankle and your head, so I thought this would make it a little less boring for you in here.” He sets it on my dresser and kneels by the wall to plug it in.

Twenty minutes later, the remote is on my nightstand, the family DVD collection is in a big plastic container by my dresser, and I have a convertor box and antenna hooked up, as well as a surround-sound speaker by my bed. All in my room. I've never had a television in my bedroom before, let alone one with a built-in DVD player, hooked up to a convertor box to receive a TV signal, with a sound bar right below the screen that projects excellent, crystal-clear audio through every inch of my bedroom.

I sound like an infomercial, don't I?

But I don't feel like taking advantage of any of these new additions to my bedroom's technological offerings, though I did let my dad put on a movie for me. Pride and Prejudice, from 2005 – mainly because it's familiar, the scenery is pretty, and the music is relaxing, and that's what I need right now. I saw it a hundred times with Livvy, and she liked it for the same reasons – scenery, music, and familiarity. It's one of those films that never gets old.

    And the second excerpt:

At last, after walking slowly for ten minutes, taking a break to sit on a U-shaped hanging vine and rest, and then trudging on for five more minutes, I come to where the trees abruptly stop and our property ends. There is a rusty chicken-wire fence separating me from the sheer drop beyond. I see fields and forestlands stretching out below for miles, and mountains on the other side of the valley. I didn't know I had this breathtaking a view right in my own backyard. A breeze blows, and I lift my chin, closing my eyes, and imagine I'm Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, in that beautiful scene where she stands on the edge of a cliff at dawn and the piano music that plays makes you feel like you can fly.

When I finally tear my eyes away from the view of the valley and turn around, I can't see the house at all. This is a lovely place to just . . . be. Where no one can see, and no one can judge you for laughing, crying, or punching a tree.

* *

    Pride and Prejudice 2005 is a film that I loved from the first time I saw it. I used to watch it to help me get to sleep on rough nights. It’s a beautiful film, with amazing scenery, gorgeous music, and of course, one of my favorite parts, the English accents. That’s why I chose to mention it (twice) in Keeper.

    And that’s all! Hope you liked the excerpts. 

    The next post will be on Faith Blum’s blog. See you there!

~Elizabeth Altenbach 

And Then We Write It Anyway

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       "Why, you may ask, would i share so much of this part of my story? Well, you are asking the same question i am asking. My natural tendencies are to keep my stories close to my chest, particularly the ones that are particularly painful. i don’t like talking about my grief, for fear that you will not know what to do with it and will end up hurting me more.

But i don’t believe He wrote this section of the story for nothing. i don’t know what to do with it so i do with it what i always do when i don’t know what else to do: i write. i put inadequate words and descriptions to this love-filled life i have been given, interwoven with intricate threads of pain, and one day, when the grief is not so close, when the cries of my heart are quieted, i can look back and point to this time, even this, and say, You were there then, too."

~Londa English

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To those who write honestly, painfully - with all your heart -

Thank you for being real, even when it hurts.

Thank you for telling your story.

Thank you for reminding us that we're not alone.

You write what you do, because you've been here too.

~Ophelia - Marie

Write Like The Sun - Shared Post

Photo From Flickr


My friend, J. Grace Pennington, wrote this great post on her blog. As writer, this idea was especially intruiging to me - I want to write like the sun too...

     Men say, practically, Begin where you are and such as you are, without aiming mainly to become of more worth, and with kindness aforethought go about doing good. If I were to preach at all in this strain, I should say rather, Set about being good.

~ Henry David Thoreau, Economy

         Mr. Thoreau and I would disagree on a great many things, but when I read this quote in his essay on Economy, I was struck by it, and by the illustration that follows. He uses the example of the sun, which he says does not rush around peeping in windows to light up each house and trying to do good, but rather makes its way through the sky, and just by virtue of being the sun and rising and setting, does good without really meaning to.

                                                                   Click to continue reading...

Striving To Write Honestly

 

September 30, 2012

    "Honestly, writing can be scary. It's frightening that someone can know glimpses of my heartstrings- to casually touch the fears that I don't often speak aloud.

    So I drop what I have and let it go, the wonder of knowing, and not letting it show. " -Excerpt from my free-writing doc.

 

    Once upon a time I didn't share my poetry. I could capture my thoughts and feelings through writing but the idea of sharing it... Uh, no. Sharing part of me was scary. . . Did anyone really need to see that me? The me who was wondering about the future, fighting the jealousy of sharing friends, struggling with pride, and losing my temper? The me that questioned what God was doing, that broke for friends' pain, that felt lonely and afraid? What if people read them and... rejected what I had to say?

 

    It took me awhile to be willing to share my writing, and even longer for me to start signing my name to what I shared. Thankfully God placed people in my life who were able to encourage me. Slowly I  began to lose the fear of letting others read my poems, even the ones that clearly showed the real me.

 

    God has taught me that He can use what I write, no matter how small it is. My poetry may at times not have the correct meter and my free verse may be strangely broken up (Kind people use the word “unique” and at times “unusual” ;) ) and the whole thing can be over-all rough, but God can use it to bless others. If I pour out my heart and don't worry about who is going to see it, or how it will be taken, I can write honestly.

 

    Poetry is something I write from my heart... I draw upon what I know from God's Word, as well as my experiences, conversations with others, and lessons learned. Often times that results in highly personal poems that clearly lay out how I'm feeling... or, at least what I'm thinking about. That can be scary – scary because if you read it you can see me.... Yet, there are very few poems I won't share publicly. I can list less than ten that I've shown only to a select few, and out of the over 300 I've written, there are none (besides random bits in my free writing doc I ended up not turning into full poems) that I have kept totally to myself.

 

    Why? Why do I share my poetry with people, often in its roughest forms?

 

 Because they mean something to me... and I hope that they mean something to others. It's always surprising to me when the poems that have the most of /me/ in them, are the ones others relate to the best. In other ways, it's not surprising at all. I'm not the only one who has felt far from God. I'm not the only one who sometimes feels alone and out of place. I'm not the only one who has struggled in friendships. I'm not the only one who worries. I'm not the only one who at times lies awake at night thinking about the past and future. I'm not the only one who wonders about pain, death, legacies, our Christian walk, or what love means... and because I'm not the only one, sometimes the things I say strike the hearts of others.

 

 I want to write honestly to share the lessons I've learned.

 I want to write honestly to be an encouragement.

 I want to write honestly to remind others they are not alone.
And for that, and other reasons, I strive to write with honesty.


To God be the glory.

 

 

~Ophelia - Marie

 

 

How to Write A Book Review - Shared Post

 

 

Original picture from Flickr

 

 

    Do you write book reviews? I don't currently, but it's something I want to try in the future. In this post Rachelle Rea gives some good thoughts on how to write a good book review. Her blog, Inspiring Daring, is full of great posts, book reviews, helpful tips, and things she has learned; I encourage you to go check it out.

 

   First off, I should say that there is no correct way to structure your book review. You don't even have to have a consistent structure if you don't want one! Some reviewers prefer to just write about the book they read. I applaud them, but I'm a list-maker, organizer, and plotter, so I split my book review into sections.

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Why I Like Free Writing

Picture From Flickr

  

     I think every writer should have a notebook, or a document on their computer that is for the sole purpose of free writing.

   'What is free writing', you ask? Free writing is writing down anything that pops into your head. ;)

   A random scene that doesn't fit anywhere in your current story? Put it there.

   A sentence that keeps tumbling about in your head? Put it there.

   A few half-baked ideas you don't know what to do with? Put them there.

   One of the rules that I've made for myself when I free write is that I don't erase anything there. It doesn't matter how stupid or half thought out the idea may seem - it doesn't need to be good, or be seen by anyone but me. It's there for me to write just for the enjoyment of getting stuff out and organizing my thoughts. Nothing gets deleted - it doesn't need to. It's for me.

   I've found through practicing free writing that it helps keep me from the thoughts of, 'I'm wasting my time.' or, 'What could I even use this nonsense for?'. It gets my creative thought-process going as I often jump from idea to idea in one chaotic stream of thought. Multiple poems, my first short story, and even some letters have ended up being written in my free writing doc.

   Random free writing sample - (and an example of something I don't have a place for):

In the midst of it all, I wonder, is it worth it? Where am I going? Why does it all fall down into swirls or friendly colors that then catch in tangling webs?

Golden sunsets, the bright and beautiful before the inky night drags it away.

 

   What are your thoughts on free writing? Have you ever tried it before?

   *Grins* I challenge you to go write for ten minutes on an empty sheet of paper or blank word document and let me know how it goes.

~Ophelia - Marie