%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |
Finding well-being through travel and books. |
|
Hello and welcome! I have two great passions in life. The first one is travel. After a series of life-changing events, my husband and I decided to spend the kids’ inheritance and see as much of the world as possible (I’m still bitter about Damascus). Our bible? A Thousand Places to See Before You Die. Please join us on our adventures seeing new places, meeting fascinating people and trying new, exciting, and sometimes just plain weird, food. My second great passion is books. Reading expands my interior world in the same way travel expands my external one. And, books are a great way to armchair travel - not only through distance but through time as well. My tastes are eclectic, so we’ll be looking at a wide range of writing in a possibly haphazard fashion. Come along for the ride! My best, Kirsten ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
There’s been a recent furor over how much Vogue Photo-shopped Lena Dunham for their February, 2014 cover. Huffington Post ran a video yesterday where a young singer was shown in her natural pretty state and then what the photo shop artist did to her over the course of the song  . If you cruise through the Photoshop Fail gallery below the video you’ll see some examples of how Photoshop can run amok. Apparently women aren’t the only victims of digital manipulation, one Ralph Lauren campaign even had the dog altered. Why, one is forced to ask.So, it’s tempting to blame Photoshop for eating disorders in women but according to the Psychology Today article apparently media influence does not have the reach to cause a documentable psychiatric problem such as anorexia or bulimia. What is does foster is disordered eating. A recent study revealed that 80% of ten year old girls surveyed say they are on a diet and another one found that 36% of normal weight teenage girls were on a diet.I am in full support of maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle. By no means am I suggesting we all loosen our belts and lunge for the Krispy Kremes. But it seems to me that we are spending so much of our time and energy focusing on our inability to achieve a completely artificial standard that we are missing out on finding real pleasure in our lives. I’m as guilty as the next person – spending inordinate amounts of time and energy on quick and not so quick comparisons to others. So what might be an answer, a way to seize a huge chunk of our time and energy back? I recently read about several women who have done “mirror fasts” . What would happen if we stopped obsessing about our thighs and instead turned our attention to things that make us laugh, fill us with awe or gratitude? Is a mirror fast a first step?Best ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Show up and do it!" |
| I’m sure many of you have been sitting where I am now. It’s done. My manuscript that I have slaved over for absolutely ever is done to the best of my ability. But, as soon as I wrote ‘The End’, I felt forced to decide whether or not to try to get it published the traditional route, or self-publish, or – as is my wont – to leave it sulking in my hard drive. After all, if you don’t put it out there, no one can reject it. It took some pretty spiky self-talk about manning-up (so to speak) to get me to contemplate pitching to an agent. I soon discovered it’s one thing to write a novel and quite another to write a query letter and synopsis. The best thing for me was to get help, lots of help and I did, from friends, my writing buddy and two professional editors. Still …. Not much happened. Then I decided that if I tried I might fail but if I didn’t, I already had failed. So, I took a deep breath. I had the hyper-caffeinated hundred metre stare as I checked and cross check the agents on Agent Query . And just to cover all my bases I checked Association of Canadian Publishers Now, I’m aerobically leaping for the little flashing envelope that indicates a new email has come in – and then, crushing disappointment either from a rejection or … it’s something completely unnecessary like a reminder of my dentist appointment. I still have a number of query’s outstanding, so the drumming of fingers with impatience continues, interspersed with nail biting. Perhaps the best antidote is to start a new project. If anyone has any other tips and tricks to deal with 'agent angst' please do share them! Onward. |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
