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Bare and uncensored personal expression. Beware!!! |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "This is pretty much what journals are all about, at least to me. I knew as I wrote them that even though they provided an excellent place for brain (and heart, and psyche) dump, they were mainly a map of me." --- Colleen Wainwright "Writing gives you the illusion of control, and then you realize it's just an illusion, that people are going to bring their own stuff into it." --- David Sedaris "Please write again soon. Though my own life is filled with activity, letters encourage momentary escape into others lives and I come back to my own with greater contentment." --- Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey "In giving of myself onto these pages every day I allow myself to write regardless of the depth and meaning. I share myself with others without fear of recrimination for these are my thoughts, my feelings and my very being, and there are non who's opinion of me matters more than my own." --- Rebecca Laffar-Smith   The Writer's Round-About |
While working on "Invalid Item"  tonight I stumbled across a small snippet of extra interest:"The muses, the Greek inspirers of the creative arts, were the daughters of Memory, or Mnemosyne."1 Ok, so I'm sure some of you already knew that the translation of Mnemosyne was Memory but I didn't and so I found it intriguing to put two and two together to determine the truth that all inspiration comes from memory. If anyone knows, I'd love to know what the daughters names translate to. I've always believed that inspiration was self-empowered and that goes to show that it can never be lacking. Motivation may be but inspiration is everywhere, it's in the mind and in the eye. All we see and do and feel is stored in our memory and it is from our memory that inspiration, the muses, are born. Oh well. I thought it was an interesting insight and wanted to share. If it weren't already gone midnight I'd go look up the names of the daughters of Mnemosyne and discover if their literal name translations have deeper meanings also.  *** Of course, turn a page or two and it's right there. The names of the muses and a distinction of sorts: Calliope (epic poetry) Clio (history) Erato (love poetry) Euterpe (lyric poetry) Melpomene (tragedy) Polyhymnia (songs to the gods) Terpsichore (dance) Thalia (comedy) Urania (astronomy) Footnotes |
| Today is another day... It's my birthday but one of those things I've noticed as I've gotten older is it's still, just another day. I still get up in the morning and get my rug rats dressed and fed. I get the oldest off to school. It's just another day. I visit my mother, we chat and have coffee and cake for morning tea. Just another day. I go home and work for a few hours, just like any other day. Pick my daughter up from school, help with homework, cook dinner, do the dishes, get the kids bathed and to bed. Yes, it's just any other day except I guess I'm a day older. The only difference today was the text messages. I got one late last night from my sister who is currently touring Europe. One from Lupo, my friend in Italy *ponders* Hey! If I'd have thought about it I he could have met with my sister. lol One from my stepfather who always remembers, he's a great stepdad even if he and my mother are now divorced. And strangely enough, one from my local video store wishing me a Happy Birthday and giving me a free DVD rental. *chuckles* Oh, and my other sister called on the phone, but she's known to do that every couple of weeks anyway. Birthdays seem to go by without a great deal of fuss. Mine does at least and most of the time I prefer that. Because I'm not expecting anything to happen I'm not disappointed when it doesn't. I used to get excited about my birthday coming up but ultimately it was always a let down. That's ok, it really is just like any other day. I think my birthday probably means more to my mother than it does to me. I remember my daughter's birthday, and my sons. They were both recent, in April, so even my blonde roots can remember them fondly at the moment. I remembered the memories of their REAL birth day. Not, as Matt says, the Anniversary of the Birth Day. Yes, he even sang me, "Happy Anniversary of your Birthday To You..." He's sincerely cute in his lameness sometimes.  Um... Sidetracked... Anyway, what was I saying? Oh, yes, I remember the day of my kids birth on their birthdays now and see the years that have passed, the way they've grown and the little people they have become. Their births are more significant to me than my own. I suspect my birth was more significant to my mother than it was to me. When I think of the way my mind flashed through the years as my kids turned seven and three I wonder if hers does the same. People keep mentioning that I've just turned a quarter-century. You know, that makes me a quarter dead right? I'm getting old. But I know I'm not really. I still feel very young and out of depth in the world. I know there is so much I don't know, so much I haven't experienced yet. There is still so much more to come and I can see those experiences on the horizon. The REST that I want from my life, the goals I'm aspiring to and the years I have ahead of me. I feel young.Then again, I suspect when another quarter-century has passed me by I'll still feel young. I'll be older, but I'm that ever glass-half-full type girl when it comes to life. There are always new rainbows to explore. I wonder if I'll still dancing in the rain and jump in puddles, perhaps with the grandkids when I'm fifty. Now, after a hot shower and with the only noises around me the friendly buzzing of my computer and the bluster of winter winds outside I settle in beside the fire and actually want to work tonight. Still not FoT, but I'm in the mood to concentrate, to learn, to improve myself. Perhaps that's part of the whole birthday thing. The sense of time passing me by. Today was just another day, and I have all my tomorrows ahead of me. |
| For those of you who are interested here is a great article by Howard Fast called, "A Writers Real Worth Is Inside". http://www.beliefnet.com/nllp/ChickenSoupSoul.aspx?date=6-01-2007&WT.mc_id=NL49 |
| Ok so I've been gone, again... Not a great track record lately. *sighs* My excuse? Well... I've basically been on a rocky rollercoaster from hell mood wise. No promises which way up you'll find me today either and it doesn't help to get a strange illness as well. Not quite flu, not a cold, not really anything but pain and irritated glands. I put it down to the physical rottenness brought on by the stress of my chaotic emotions. Anyway, I was having one of those interesting deep and meaningful conversations I like to have. My trid and I were discussing the nature of friendships and what causes some to be lasting and others to be transient. In my life almost everyone has provent transient. Everyone is, ultimately, with death being the ultimate clutches into with friendships will fall. Sure, it's not an ending to the friendship, but it is... *sighs* Talking about friendships lead us to wonder about the nature of loyalty.  What is loyalty to you? How far should loyalty extend? Is there a point where being loyal just isn't enough to hold a friendship together? Do you believe you're a loyal friend? Any examples of loyalty or disloyalty at play?To me, loyalty is a sense of with you through thick and thin. It's that line from those viral emails that says, 'A true friend will be sitting beside saying, "we stuffed up, but boy it was fun."' Loyalty is knowing that no matter how bad it gets the friendship will last. It's knowing that even when the fights get so bad you don't talk for days the friendship remains and eventually the hugs and tears of forgiveness will reign. Being loyal requires patience and understanding and total acceptance. It means knowing all the bad that goes with the good and caring anyway. Loyalty is standing up against the bully who is twice your size and knows Karate just because he stole your friends lunch money. It's getting pounded by that same bully and having your friend smile a watery smile of gratitude with no words as he helps you walk home. Would you remain loyal to a friend who abused you, mentally or physically? One who did drugs? One who was committed to a mental institute? Does loyalty hold true in a coma? When they're interests no longer walk hand in hand with your own? Does loyalty come into play when they marry a person who dislikes you? What about if they stole your girlfriend? Where is that line in the sand that makes a friend no longer worthy of your loyalty? Does loyalty withstand rejection? Would a loyal friend hold on if the other attempts to end the friendship? Do they fight for it? I suspect I'm not a particularly loyal person. I have clearly set limits and when things aren't working for me or are likely to cause me a great deal of pain, loss, or damage I bail. I know I don't make enough effort to sustain a failing friendship. I test loyalties, I test truth by giving it space to flounder and more often than not just moving on when a friend falls from grace. I'm not proud to say that about myself. It's disheartening to know but I've got a very jaded sense of what loyalty is. Ultimately I think I'm right to do what I do even if it leaves me a lot lonely sometimes. Friendships ARE transient, we are in each others lives for a second, a season, or a life, but ultimately, the end comes. I'll take and give what a friendship is worth for as long as it lasts but I don't expect any of them to last forever. I've had a lot of friendships come and go. I lost touch with all of my friends from primary school when my family moved away after I graduated. I miss them a lot actually and have been wanting to chase them up but don't know how to begin trying to get a reunion together. Highschool was a rocky friendship experience for me. By then I was truly sociaphobic. In primary school I knew everyone, it was a tightknit class who had gone from kindergarten to year seven together but in highschool I was the new kid on the block and it took me six months before I made a single friend. Of course, the friend I made was a cross-tangent friend. She was friends with the cool kids and with the geeks. I was probably more geek than cool kid but got into that cool kid crowd by association. We had fun together, we weren't the hip and posh cool kids like Cher in Clueless. We were the sneaking notes behind the teachers back kind. I was more delinquent than the others and eventually they got pretty nasty and booted me out of the group. One friend later proved she was one of those rare gifts, a loyal friend, but only after I'd left school for good. In adult life friends come and go with the turning of seasons and interests. I've made many friends, through gaming, hosting gaming websites, and playing computer games online, but they've faded. We still talk and when we do we're as close as ever but the occasions are infrequent. They are drifter friendships where the closeness we have created a bond that ties our transitions together but doesn't keep us close. I also have a few good friends on WDC. Many associates but some really good friends. We mightn't chat every day but we exchange these blogs and have gotten to know each other well. It's still likely to be a transient friendship but I hope these friendships will be more drifter than ended. We'll all move in our own fashions as interests change or hectic life intrudes and paths diverge but we've developed a bond that is strengthened every day. True friends are a rare gift that deserve to be treasured. Loyalty is something that's often forgotten about in this age where everything moves to fast and land bonding is forgotten. In the times when who you know is a status symbol rather than a survival instinct it's easy to forget how important our social circles are. I consider the stages of social circles. You stand in the middle, your own little circles. Then next would probably be your lover. In the circle beyond that your children. And beyond that your immediate family, mother, father, sisters, brothers. Beyond that the closest of friends. Beyond are more distant family then more distant friends and it spirals out those six degrees of separation where every life impacts on every other by six degrees. Within it all is that sense of loyalty we have to ourselves. I am my own best friend and I have to be because ultimately, that's the single friendship that truly CAN last forever. If you turn your back on yourself then there is no one left to stand by your side. I think that's why I'm less loyal as a friend to others, because my loyalty and friendship to myself demands I stand only for things that do not harm me as a person. I'm pretty fragile, don't break me, or you might break a friendship, and friendship is something you should never throw away lightly. |
| *cough, splutter, sleepy, pain* I know, I should blog, and I will, in the morning. Meanwhile here is a place holder to tide you over. *** I told you I'd be back. I know, you all doubted me didn't you? You thoughted I'd be knocked for six with this icky cold/flu/whatever and never return. I know, you secretly HOPED that would be the case. But, alas, I'm ALIVE!!! *plays doom music in the background* I don't like being sick. All of me aches and that's AFTER dosing up on cold and flu meds, asprin, vitamins and energy drink. My head is fuzzy which is another feeling I just don't like. And my back aches, but that could be related to having dug up my driveway yesterday. Oh, by the way, I dug up my driveway. *sighs* Remember my freshly paved driveway? Well I mean it's been a few months now but it's still reletively new. Anyway, now there is a gaping big hole in one side where I had to lift a whole bunch of pavers and dig a ditch to get to the leaking pipe. Thankfully the plumber fixed the pipe so I have water again but the hole is a problem he won't repair. I felt pretty proud of myself for getting in there and getting the pavers up and digging the ditch. Good muscle power and that's my exercise for the week. Now I have to fill in the rest of the hole and get some builders sand so I can flatten off and put pavers back. It's just not ever going to be the same as it was when it was freshly laid.  Meanwhile I'm not at home. I should be in bed I guess but I'd rather come have a chat with my mother so I'm sneaking in some blogging time while she's chatting up the lawn mower man. She's not really, she's just paying him and asking him how his knee surgery went because he's a happily married flirt but it's more interesting to pretend she's chatting him up then admit the truth.  Oh oh, she's back, RUN! HIDE! I better go be social. *waves* More blog tonight. |
| You know it's not until we start to really look into this subject that you come to realise there are a great many markets for poetry around the world. That's what I did with my work hours today. I had a list of markets that I'd gathered from various bio's and from the "Invalid Item" . I'm no where near the end of that list and continue to gather more publication names as I go. Each publication I researched as well as I could in a first sitting. My first sitting researching involves browsing the submission guidelines and gathering the basic details to add to my Poetry Publishers database. Those innitial details include, Title, Postal, Email, Web Link, Contact, Renumeration, Rights, and Notes. These details are usually available from the submission guidelines which is the good news. The bad news is that there are LOTS of markets out there. Some of them just won't work for anything I write which helps cut down my lists. Most of the markets don't pay which cut down on how many I bother submitting to as well which helps. These days I submit to the paying markets first and use non-paying as a last resort. It was heavy but interesting work today. I also browsed a few of the archived publications and there is a great deal of variety being published these days. I think anyone who's interested in publishing their poetry has a chance with the broad range of levels I've seen on the web. Still, I feel like I'm getting more and more bogged down with all these names and it's still hard to know who to send what work too. Most of the time I just don't have much confidence in my own work to believe any of it is good enough to get published. The feedback I get from WDC isn't a whole lot of help either. The markets and readers don't always agree when it comes to deciding that they like best. What I'd reall love is my critical feedback on my poetry, real brutal comments that tear it to shreds. I'd love to be surrounded by experienced, published poets who can show me the ropes and help me push my poetry to the next level. I guess the best I can do is keep plodding away, writing poem after poem, studying the craft, sharing it with the "Invalid Item" and continuing to gather feedback from WDC members. That's really all we can do, keep at it, eventually things will move along, writer, submit, and write some more. |
| Ok, so I've gone and put Page After Page down someplace that isn't the place it's supposed to be which means of course that I can't find it and I have no idea what the next exercise is supposed to be. Never fear, I'll find it tomorrow when I'm not so tired and wanting to get off to bed. Instead tonight I figured I'd grab a snip from my snippet folder and regal you with some random but hopefully interesting fact of my life. I read tarot cards. There you go. See, interesting. Ok, I don't like to admit my primarily spiritualist heritage in mixed community because frankly it leans on the side of freaky with many people. There are so many sceptics in the world and while I'm not sceptic I maintain a firm degree of materialistic synicism that keeps me more grounded then I would otherwise be.But yes, I read tarot cards. I'm also what is 'almost' considered an indigo child. I represent all those characteristics of an indigo child but I was born earlier than most theorist predict the era of indigo children begins so perhaps I'm a pre-indigo child or something equally strange. For those of you who don't know, an Indigo Child is a child born from about the 1990's who show particular cosmic and spiritual insight and connection. Common representations of indigo children would involve, talking to people who 'don't exist', talking about seeing people who aren't there, drawing strange faces, sometime frightening faces, drawing and seeing bright colors around people, having a strange affinity with animals, knowing things before they happen, seeming to read thoughts, etc. Basically an Indigo Child is one who has incredible psychic tendancies. These children have been more and more common or perhaps their existence simply isn't as shunned and hidden and abhored as it used to be. I was fortunate to grow up in a family that was very accepting of spirituality. In later years my mother actually ran The Australian Institute for Past Life Studies. She encouraged all her children to seek their own spiritual and religious paths and I appreciated the wealth of knowledge she provided us with. She still seeks her own path, studying all religions in depth and following her own personal creeds from what she learns. I've learnt to do the same thing so I tend to have an ecclectic mixture of beliefs, some of which are not founded on any specific religion at all. Anyway, as a child I could 'see' things. I emphasis the word 'see' there because I never actually SEE anything, I sense things. I sense things as if they would be visual but it's not like an image on my retina. When I was very young I used to draw rainbows and colors around people. Even my mother had no idea what they were at the time but in the day of Aura Photography and Aura Cleansing and Aura Readings we look back and realise that's quite probably exactly what it was. *grimaces* I feel weird talking about this. There is still so much taboo in the world and I remember being seriously sensored in school and being judged by my 'friends'. They didn't like some of the things I said or did. One night, two of my sisters and I along with a friend were camping outside. It was a windy night. I remember the tent was well grounded but still sometimes felt like we'd be buffetted off into the darkness. The four of us sat in the tend, rugged up with blankets and sleeping bags and pillows. We chatted and giggled like young girls do. I felt relaxed and energised and just started letting myself be in that space when I saw him. He was a young boy. We were four teenage girls but this boy was more like 7 or 8 years old and he was sitting in the tent about a foot away from one of my sisters. I watched him a moment, tuned out to what my sisters were saying. When they called for my attention I shushed them and said, "There's a boy in the tent." They of course looked around and wondered what I was talking about so I clarified, "There is a ghost, he's a young boy who drowned in the swimming pool and he's sitting with us right over there." Ok, so that didn't go down so well. The friend was intrigued and wanted to know more but my sisters freaked out and packed up to go inside. That's one of the major reasons I just don't like talking about it these days. We later learned that yes, a boy had drowned in the swimming pool. Our home used to be the site of the local swimming pool. It had been closed for years and we had filled the pool in when we moved in. We had been camping pretty much right on top of where the pool used to be. Apparently seeing dead people doesn't go down too well with people. I supressed it then and still do to most degree's these days. I don't like 'seeing'. It's a very goosebumpy sensation and sometimes what I 'see' isn't very nice to feel. When I tune in I can sense all sorts of things. I often do it when my mother and I are watching a show like John Edwards because there is so much insight that they do clarify later in the show. Anyway, so I guess that means I'm a medium. I'm also a fully trained past life regressionist although I haven't done a regression in about a decade. I'm trained in Reiki 2 which is a healing technique. I also read tarot although not particularly well. I can use the insight to help translate the cards but I still reference the books to be certain I'm on the right track. Well, there you go, some completely weird facts I usually don't tell anyone about myself. Feel free to consider me a complete freak and never talk to me again or shock me by being curious instead. lol |
[Author's Note: Ok, so with her permission I thought I'd regal you all with a conversation I had with rain  last night via Yahoo/MSN. Obviously, it's only a snippet of our conversation, the part relating to my very good black cat, Phantom. Those with a queasy stomach should ensure they have a bucket nearby.]Rebecca: YAY! My cat just caught a mouse! Gosh this getting a cat idea was brilliant. *grins* Rain: omg! Seriously? Like... just? Rain: Is it all dead and bloody? Rebecca: Yep, it's munching on it only a foot away. Rain: EW! Well at least you don't have to pay for cat food now but still, ew. Rebecca: Better than having the rodents running around the house like they used to. Rain: lol true Rain: also ew Rebecca: Nah, not sure if Phantom will eat it. He didn't eat the last one. Rain: Dammit there's no getting away from ew, is there!? Rain: the last mouse? Rebecca: I'll have to pick up the dead mouse once he's abandoned it. Rain: Ohh okay. That's REALLY gross now. Rebecca: Although... He's certainly crunching it at the moment. Rain: ... Rain: And you're watching this? and not throwing up or feeling nauseaus? Rebecca: I love being able to gross you out with facts. *grins* Rebecca: Of course, and hearing the bone crunching too. Rebecca: Nah, I don't get grossed out by this sort of stuff. Rain: oh pfft. You're making this up right? I mean exxegerating? With an a not an e Rebecca: I might feel a bit icky picking up bits later but the cat's doing good. I'm proud. Proves that I got the right cat. Not all cats are good mousers but this ones great. Rain: lol! Good for you. That's two mice right? Rebecca: *wrinkles nose* Ok, ICK. Rain: mousers or micers? Rebecca: NOW I'm feeling sick. Rain: What happened? Rebecca: He's abandoned it, and it's only half a mouse. The guts hanging out and everything. Now THAT is gross. Rebecca: Two down, two dozen to go. It would have been three but one got away after he'd caught it before. He had its head in it's mouth but hadn't managed to death grip it yet and it got free. Rain: Rebecca, you're not touching that are you? Because that's just disgustingly... yuck! I really really feel sick. You probably shouldn't tell me anymore mice stories. Rebecca: Not with my fingers, eww. Got to get a plastic bag to put it in so I can take it outside to the garbage. Rain: *groans* Rebecca: I can't exactly LEAVE it there. Rain: Where is it? Rebecca: I mean sure the dog would eat it if I let it but the kids might too. It's about a foot away on the living room floor in front of the fire. Rain: The kids?? Rebecca: Both in bed. But no idea what they'd do if they found half a mouse on the floor. Rain: Scream I hope? Rebecca: Baby boy was very interested in the whole one this morning. I didn't let him touch it but he probably would have if I hadn't found it first. My daughter would scream the house down. Rebecca: Aww, abandoned dead mousey and is on the prowl again. good kitty. Rain: He likes the taste of mouse? That's just... weird! lol Rebecca: He's a CAT, it's not weird for a cat to like catching mice. Rain: I know, I know. But still, I'm imagining the taste of dead mouse and somehow it makes me wince. Rebecca: It was weird when my dog did it though. Rain: lol! Your dog catches mice too? Rebecca: Yes, I don't think I'm brave enough to roast one up although I'm sure they do in some countries. He has done. He's not good at it like the cat is. The mice pretty much have to be injured or dying for him to succeed. But yes, he's caught a couple. He's a terrier so it's not unheard of. lol Rain: Ohh lol He will eat them though? Rebecca: Yes, and he'll eat them completely, not just half of them ICK. Rain: Good for him. Rebecca: I don't want his kisses though. He can keep his mouse eating tongue away from me. Rain: ewwww mice flavoured licks. You should be calling for him now. Instant clean up job. Rebecca: NOOOO just because he WILL eat them doesn't mean I want him to. That's gross. Rain: lol okay. Saves you the trouble of picking up those guts though! Rebecca: That's why mice have tails. Good thing it's the head that got eaten. Rain: so you mean there's really a bloody guts-spilling-out-of-its-tummy dead mouse lying in front of your fireplace? and you're not afraid the floor will stain? It's like a totally different culture. Rebecca: Want a photo? Rain: NO! NOOOOO! Rebecca: It won't stain. But will have to be cleaned up. Better do it now. BYE! [Author's Note: Just to clarify, none of this was made up. Yes, the events actually occurred and even better, Phantom caught another mouse this morning and left it intact for me to clean up. I am hoping the entrails and eyeballs problems will be rare occurrences.] |
| O: On The Book Club tonight we're very lucky to have with us an acclaimed author known best for her fantasy series, "Torque". she has been awarded for her fiction, non-fiction and yes, even poetry. Please put your hands together for the lovely, Rebecca Laffar-Smith. [Audience goes wild as the famous author walks on stage and embraces Oprah then quiets as the two women sit and make themselves comfortable.] Rebecca, it's wonderful to have you with us. I understanding your promoting your new series which has been getting rave reviews. I've read it myself, finished it just last night in fact and I have to say, I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. It's really incredible. Tell me, what's it like to write another best seller after the success of your last series? R: [smiles shyly] Wow, thank you Oprah, it's really wonderful to be here again. Actually I love this new series and I'm so excited the first book has finally reached readers. I've been getting so many letters from readers who loved the first series and wanted to know what I was working on next. I have to admit I was a little worried this new direction might alienate a few of my readers but it actually seems like more and more of the books are selling. I understand HarperColins have had to go into their third run, the demand has been just amazing. O: [nodding] Yes, the last time you were here you we had only just discovered you after the release of "The Flight of Torque". That was the first of the series. Did you ever think the books would be so popular? R: [chuckles] Oh gosh, no. I remember when I was writing Flight of Torque I had so many doubts. It was a rough year and I went in so many wrong directions I often wondered if I'd ever finish the book. Even then the thought of its success was just a spark amongst the tinder of my imagination. It hadn't taken off. I mean I joked about Jessica Alba staring in the movie but when it actually happened, wow, it was just incredible. Now with this second series I wanted to delve a little deeper with the character aspects of my new cast. I wanted to get a little more 'real' with my characters and show normal people being called to do extraordinary things. I have to admit that Tori, well, we could hardly call her 'normal'. [chuckles as audience chuckles] I know, she's practically a super-heroine but I wanted to branch away from having characters that weren't completely relateable in modern day. I also wanted to explore the celtic/pagan branches of my own heritage and take a step backwards into medieval times. I think those who loved Torque will find a whole new way of seeing the world with the new series. O: Well, I read your book and our audience tonight have ALL been given a copy. Yes, yes, check your little bags under your chairs, you all have a copy of Rebecca's book and I'm sure you'll all love it as much as I did. [Audience shuffles to dig up their goodies with oh's and ah's. I'm smiling.] But tell me, what can we expect from the rest of this series? R: Oh, I couldn't really go into that Oprah, it would be telling... [winks] But what I can say is that one of our favorite characters has a revelation no one could possibly guess. In fact, [appears to ponder] I'll give five-hundred dollars if one of my fans can email me [email address appears on screen] with what you suspect is going to happen and guess correctly. [emails start going wild before the show even finishes] These new characters are so embedded in their world and each is sparked with their unique brand of humanity that it is going to be interesting reading as they come up through the conflicts, some of the past, some of the present. They're going to be facing inner demons but ultimately they'll grow into remarkable people. They have their own story to tell and even I'm continuing to learn from them day after day as I write. O: I know you have the next few books of this series but are there any plans for beyond that? And what else are you working on outside of the novels? R: I'm glad you asked actually. Yes there are plans beyond this latest series. I wanted to work on a book that's focused more on spirituality and the connection within ourselves. We are coming into an age where people are more in tune with their higher power and their importance in the reality of the universe and I wanted to capture that. In a way all of my books connect with the power of people, particularly the self power that every person possesses but I wanted to portray that on a grander scale. I've also been publishing more of my poetry and non-fiction articles. I have my colomn as you all know and I'm delighted to announce that it's finally reached international syndication which means readers all over the world will be able to share in the topics I cover every month. I have a new book coming off the presses as we speak. It's another poetry anthology, this one focusing on the suffering involved with terminal illness. Part of the proceeds of that book go to the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Society who do amazing things for the sufferers of XP and their family. O: That's is a wonderful cause and I understand it's important to you for personal reasons. Your brother was diagnosed with the terminal condition and died at a young age. [I'm nodding] All of your books sound like they are very close to you. Do you draw from your own experiences? R: [smiles] Well I've certainly never turned into a snake but I suppose in a way I try to use myself and my own experiences to deepen the qualities of my characters. In a way I also wanted the opportunity to express my beliefs and to reach out to anyone who's ever suffered in life. Each of my books focuses strongly on a deep truth that I wanted to share with my readers. In The Flight of Torque it was all about the importance of having faith in yourself. Without that Tori and Lucas could never have been the amazing people they were. I've been learning, along with my characters I suppose, and it's wonderful to be able to share that experience with my writing. It's such a vital element of who I am and how my world is shaped. O: [nodding, audience enthralled] Thank you so much for talking with us tonight, Rebecca. R: [smiling] Thank you for having me, Oprah. O: I'm sure we'll see more of you in the future. [turns to camera/audience] If you want to get a copy of any of Rebecca's books they're on sale now at all major bookstores or you can order them online. You can also order copies of, "Born To Say Goodbye", which is set for release later this week, remember part proceeds go to the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Society and you can make donations to support their cause directly to their website, via this number or through Rebecca's website. [web address flashes on screen] I hope you'll all read her books and come to see the wonderful insight this lovely young woman brings into the world. She conveys the depth of human emotion and spiritual connection in enchanting stories that delight the mind and are sure to reach out to all readers. Thank you for joining us with another book club. *chuckles* That was pretty fun. I challenge you all to go interview yourself on Oprah. That was Exercise 15 from Page After Page by Heather Sellers. Interview yourself as if you're an already famous writer and discuss your future projects and what you would like to write about.Have fun and keep writing, Yours truly, Rebecca Laffar-Smith ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I'm strangely tired tonight. It's only 9:30 and I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. It could be in part to having this new cat around. That's right, I got a cat. *chuckles* Some of you might remember that I have a mouse problem? They've grown too clever for the mousetraps and baits so I adopted a beautiful black cat dubbed, Phantom. He's a real sweety too. I can't understand why anyone would dump him. He's 2 years old, sterilised, housetrained, even settles in on my lap, he's there right now actually. Anyway, I'm allergic to cats so I'm living on antihistimine at the moment. It's working for the most part too and I'm hoping but having the cat around all the time my immunity will build up so I don't keep reacting to the fur. Of course, that mightn't even be why I'm tired. I just am. It doesn't help that I've had broken sleep two nights running. Baby Boy was sick through the night last night. I'm probably owing some serious sleep debt. Onward to Exercise 14: What situations from your own life have others suggested would make a good story/book? In my life? All the depressing things. Being a BiPolar teen who almost killed herself and dropped out of school is one. Living with a terminally ill brother who was allergic to sunlight is another. Both of them are experiences that have taught me a lot about life and my right to live it. They would make some interesting inclusions in books and perhaps, someday I'll write about them. In fact when I think on it I consider these sorts of things could flesh out characters. No matter what genre I wouldn't necessarily need to write biography style to write about the things that have effected my life like those two have. I don't like the idea of writing biographically. I don't much WANT to rehash my life and I don't find it particularly awe-inspiring or sensational. I'm just a woman who's had the kind of knocks in life that we each have in our own degree's and our own ways. Perhaps that IS what would make it interesting. We all want to live vicariously through others sometimes and feel that sense of community and union that living paralelle lives gives us. Exercise 14 is all about why you don't write. Which is kind of depressing. I have to admit that it is a topic to look at seriously for any of us who go day in and out without getting the words down. Why have I had the opportunity to write full-time for 7 years and still not marked my place in the world or developed a routine that I can maintain consistently. Of course since I'm already attempting to recover from a low I don't much want to wallow in why I don't write enough. Yes, there are lots of topics I could write. I'm always shocked at people who says they have nothing to write about. There is HEAPS to write about and more often then not it's being overwhelmed by ideas that causes me more problems. I think a great deal of my chaos at the moment has to do with being uncertain and overwhelmed. There is so much I want to get done that it's hard to focus on a single task at a time and accomplish that. I look over my day today and wonder what I got finished. It's a struggle. I did get a whole bunch more games listed on eBay... It feels like an unproductive day. But in a way it's better than the last few days because I can feel the mood lifting, coming up, even in this tiredness. There is so much I want to do with every day but I never seem to do any of it... At least I can sleep... |
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I'll let you know when I get it done.