Thank You For The Signed Copy!!

This is a wonderful post on K.D. Dowdall’s book The Stone Arch Secret. Please visit Didi’s site, and read Karen’s book. You will enjoy both!

Didi Oviatt -Author

First off let me just say that K. D. Dowdallfrom the Pen and Paper blog is one of the most genuine people I’ve had the privileged of being in contact with through WordPress!  She’s caring, supportive, and insanely uplifting and insightful. That said, after I read her book Garrett’s Bones last year, I was blown away by the fact that she is equally as talented in writing as she is at her ability to project such a warm and powerfully humble online presence! Talk about rare, and worth the praise!

Karen’s writing style is BEAUTIFUL!! 

When I found out that she was coming out with her current new release The Stone Arch Secret, I was thrilled!  I bumped a few other reads out and jumped right on board on her blog tour with R&R Book Tours. Things got a little crazy in my life as well as…

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Einstein, and Why He is My Hero

This is another wonderful post from Jennie!

A Teacher's Reflections

Jim Trelease sent me Einstein’s quote, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”  Jim knew this would strike me, and it did.  All that I do in teaching is centered on creativity.  And of course fun is essential in order to make sure that it sticks.  So, does that mean I’m stimulating intelligence?  No, it means I’m striking the match- that lights the fuse- that stimulates intelligence.  Wow!

Thus began my love affair with Albert Einstein.

As a young child Einstein was a late talker, after the age of two.  And then, he had unnatural pauses in his speech.  The family maid said he was “a dope.”  School wasn’t much better.  Einstein said:

It’s almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry, for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom.

Yes.  YES!  Why do some teachers unknowingly…

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Let Us Celebrate Thomas Paine Day!

(https://commons.wikimedia.org)

January 29 is Thomas Paine Day, which is a time to remember one of the most important, but often forgotten, writers of the American Revolution. His pamphlet Common Sense was one of the main reasons that the majority of colonists came to support the revolution against England and for independence.

He was born and raised in Britain, and he became embroiled in legal problems for advocating the abolition of royalty. Afterwards, he would support the French Revolution, and he also ran into problems there, only to be imprisoned. He was later released because of influence by the American government.

(ahttps://en.wikisource.org)

He was a revolutionary thinker and a representative of the Romantic movement, in which individual rights and revolution in all aspects of life and society were encouraged.

Paine went on to write several other important works, including Rights Of Man and The Age of Reason. If you have not read these works, I recommend all of them!

Like many of the other intellectuals of this time, Paine was a Deist and let his ideas be known. As a result of his forthcoming, he suffered being ostracized by many of those whom he  had helped.

He should be remembered, however, for his contributions to the United States of America, to human rights, and to literature.

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Quotations on Teaching

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“Those who know, do. Those that understand, teach.”

                                                                             Aristotle

 

(https://en.wikipedia.org)

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”

                                                                            Malala Yousafzai

 

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“Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.”

                                                                            Dalai Lama XIV

THOUGHTS ON POETRY

This essay, by K.D. Dowdall is insightful and thought provoking!

Pen & Paper

What is poetry and its place in the human psyche? Poetry and prose, I believe, magically transports the reader to visualize vividly a very personal place in time, bringing to life every possible emotion seared into the psyche that the reader may have experienced in real life, wished for, dreamed of, or feared.

This is what makes poetry so emotionally beautiful and painfully true. We get it and it can be transforming. But, where does poetry fit in, in the whole scheme of our human experience. Poetry reflects our romantic inclinations, our troubled history, our social truths, politics, and the most beautiful of all philosophies – who and what are we anyway, in the scope of all there is under Heaven and Earth.

Poetry is romantic. The great writer and poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley said, “Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain…

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IF YOU ONLY DID 1 THING TODAY…

This is a lovely thought!

Something to empower you…
What would it be?
How about count your blessings?

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A Good Review is Hard to Find – Part 3

This post continues this excellent series for writers!

Liz Leighton Writing Adventures

I apologize for taking so long to get to part 3. Part 4 will be posted by Jan.30th or sooner.

In 1917 The Inland Press printed “Mark Twain’s 3 Rules For Writing.” The article said the first was write. The second was write and the third was write. One of the most well-known quotes on writing by Stephen King is this one. “If you want to be a good writer you must do two things above all else: read a lot and write a lot.”

This is good advice and a great foundation but it is practically impossible to become a great writer in a vacuum. At some point, we all need feedback on our writing because it’s difficult to look at our own work objectively.

Too many times I have read writers lamenting the difficulty of getting thorough, in-depth, thoughtful, and helpful reviews. Many of these writers send out…

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TO A MOUSE BY ROBERT BURNS 1785

This is a wonderful animation of the poem “To A Mouse” by Robert Burns!

Pen & Paper

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More Reviews of Maledicus: The Paranormal Investigative Society Book 1

I wanted to share this post of reviews again!

charles french words reading and writing

“I loved this book and could NOT put it down! Written by an English professor, it is an absorbing, addictive story that left me continually wondering what would happen next. (Even while I WAS reading, I had to keep myself from glancing ahead to find out!)
I was once told the earmark of a successful novel is that the author has created characters the reader really cares about, and this certainly was the case for me. I worried about them. Putting the book down made me feel I was abandoning them to their suffering and keeping them in limbo.

Maledicus is clearly a thriller filled with the stark and chilling reality of evil — but, in its delicate balance, I found that it also reassures us of the enduring power of love.”

                                                                                                          Vivien L. Steele

“This is a layered, entertaining tale. Opening the action in ancient Rome gives depth…

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Southern Giant Petrels~

Here are more beautiful photographs from Cindy Knoke!

Southern Giant Petrels (SGP’s) are the largest birds in the pelagic petrel family with wingspans of up to 6.7 feet.

They live in the southern hemisphere and are circumpolar, distributed in the sub-antarctic to Antarctica.

They are bigger than Northern Giant Petrels and are rated one of the ten oddest looking birds in the world due to their unusual stacked bi-valve nostrils joined together on the top of their beaks.

This bivalve, in combination with a saline eliminating gland, helps them eliminate salt from the large quantities of saltwater they consume.

Like pelagic Albatrosses, SGP’s spend the first two to three years of their lives entirely at sea. White phase SGP’s, like the one flying here, are rare, constituting less than 5% of the SGP population.

It is incredible to watch them mid-ocean taking off, catching wind drafts and soaring like kites.

They are aggressive predators and scavengers, and incredibly…

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