On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
I discovered the following short clip during the first winter of my retirement. Each time I watch it, I feel a surge of positive energy.
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
The following Zen story always brings a smile.
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”
Source: 10 Short Zen Stories
Welcome to my Second Acts Series!
Today, we have Soul Mate author Carol Roddy sharing insights and advice from her multi-act life.
Here’s Carol!
By my count, I am now in my third—or perhaps fourth act. Let me talk about the move from one to two.
Like many folks, college involved some changes. I was happily majoring in East Asian Studies and dreaming of possible graduate work at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service when I met Beloved. My priorities shifted quickly and I launched into my first act as a stay at home Mom. Initially it was all consuming. Children—bright, interesting, creative little people—came quickly and took all my attention. Parenthood may be a lifetime commitment, but little ones are temporary; they insist on growing up.
Several factors pushed me into the next act.
• As much as I liked having children, I craved intellectual stimulation. I also craved conversation with adults. Graduate school helped with those two.
• Raising a family on one income is tough.
• My youngest started school. Keeping house bores me silly, especially one empty most of the day.
After finishing my Masters in Library Science, I went to work in a public library. I could have stayed there for thirty years. I didn’t. Many factors weren’t working for me including the fact that typical library hours (2 nights a week and every other Sunday) aren’t terribly family-friendly. Leaving a good professional job for a part time clerical position at a small technology company close to home was a huge risk.
However, that risk resulted in an explosion of knowledge. I had walked into a small, creative, innovative company, a place where if you could think it up, you could do it. It was the pre-Internet days, but within two years I had built a database of technology products for disabled children, mounted it on a dial-in platform for public access, and written my first tech manual.
Alas, after a few years, our funding disappeared and I moved on. Over the next thirty years I zigzagged through a time of upheaval in the technology industry, working for companies and divisions that were bought, sold, merged, and disbanded. I was laid off and in a position where I had to lay others off. I helped close a division; I built new organizations from scratch three times. I directed shared library technology at the state, county, and local level.
I learned:
• Risks pay off. Even when one doesn’t pay off, it moves you closer to your goal.
• To do nothing is a bigger risk than stepping out. You will never achieve a goal if you are afraid to make changes.
• Change forces growth. Sometimes something has to end for something new to take life. Embrace it.
That leads me to my third act. In the middle of work I loved, something in me kept longing to write fiction. I worked on my first novel for several years, but I never told anyone except Beloved. Approaching retirement, I knew I wanted writing to be what filled my need to be creative. I also knew it wouldn’t happen if I kept hiding it.
I took a risk. I sent that first book to a critique service. Was it great? No, but I learned a ton, and began the second book. I took another risk: I began pitching my books, swallowing rejecting and learning more. Why not just publish it myself? It wasn’t ready and wouldn’t earn back what an editor would cost. As luck—or God’s kind providence—would have it, Soul Mate Publishing accepted one of my books within months of my retirement. I’m not on the NY Times bestseller list, but I have awards, top pick reviews, and, above all, readers who like what I do. I’m a happy camper.
My advice? Don’t let fear of failure keep you paralyzed. You learn the most when things don’t go right. Nothing will happen unless you take a risk.
About the Author and Her Books
Caroline Warfield’s passions are faith, family, history and travel and all four drive her stories. She writes historical romance set in the Regency, Late Georgian, and Victorian eras. She is currently working on a Children of Empire, a series set in the 1830s, when the British Empire was approaching its zenith.
Three cousins, who grew up together in the English countryside, are driven apart by deceit and lies. (You may guess a woman is involved!) Though they all escape to the outposts of The British Empire, they all make their way home to England, facing their demons while finding love and the support of women of character and backbone. They are:
• Randolph Baldwin Wheatly who has become a recluse, and lives in isolation in frontier Canada intent on becoming a timber baron, until a desperate woman invades his peace. (Book 1: The Renegade Wife)
• Captain Frederick Arthur Wheatly, an officer in the Bengal army, who enjoys his comfortable life on the fringes until his mistress dies, and he’s forced to choose between honor and the army. (Book 2: The Reluctant Wife)
• Charles, Duke of Murnane, tied to a miserable marriage, throws himself into government work to escape bad memories. He accepts a commission from the Queen that takes him to Canton and Macau, only to face his past there. (Book 3: The Unexpected Wife)
Who are their ladies?
• Meggy Campeau, the daughter of a French trapper and Ojibwe mother who has made mistakes, but is fierce in protecting her children. (Book 1: The Renegade Wife)
• Clare Armbruster, fiercely independent woman of means, who is determined to make her own way in life, but can’t resist helping a foolish captain sort out his responsibilities. (Book 2: The Reluctant Wife)
• Zambak Hayden, eldest child of the Duke of Sudbury, knows she’d make a better heir than her feckless younger brother, but can’t help protecting the boy to the point of following him to China. She may just try to sort out the Empire’s entangled tea trade–and its ugly underpinning, opium, while she’s there. (Book 3: The Unexpected Wife)
Book 3, The Unexpected Wife, will be released on July 25.
Charles Wheatly, Duke of Murnane, doesn’t expect to find his great love when he accepts an unofficial fact finding mission to Canton on behalf of the queen. He certainly doesn’t expect to confront his wreck of a marriage in such an exotic locale. Zambak Hayden follows her brother to China to escape pressure to make a suitable marriage. She finds the brother drawn into the world of greed, smuggling, drugs, and corruption and resolves to both sort out the truth and protect her brother from becoming prey to all of it—if only she could stop yearning for the one man she can’t have.
Here’s a short video about it.
It’s a good time to read Book 1 and begin the series!
For more about Children of Empire and all of Caroline’s books, look here.
A prequel to the series, A Dangerous Nativity, is always ***FREE*** at various retailers. Find out more here.
Stay in touch with Caroline in cyberspace in any of these places:
Website | Amazon Author Page | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Newsletter | BookBub | Email
Joanne here!
Carol, I’m in awe of all the risks you have taken. You are an inspiration! Best of luck with all your literary endeavors.
I’m happy to welcome Soul Mate author Michelle Jean Marie to the Power of 10 series. Today, Michelle shares the the invaluable life lessons she learned from Juno, a purebred Akita.
Here’s Michelle!
We’ve all had people in our lives who inspire us. It might have been a teacher in grade school, a supervisor at work, or a wise grandparent. We take the lessons they taught us and apply them to our behavior going forward.
As a writer, I’ve had many mentors. They’ve helped me in my craft, my relationships and my work. The names are too numerous to list here. However, I would like to acknowledge one family member in particular. Her name is Juno. She is a purebred Akita. We took her in on July 23, 2017 at 3 1/2 months of age. She is a rescue from The Midwest Akita Rescue Society. She’s only been with us a short while, but the lessons she’s taught me have been invaluable.
1. Enjoy the simple things – As advertisers invade our world, we begin to believe that in order to be happy, we have to buy whatever they are selling. So that’s what consumers do – go out and buy the biggest of the big of the next best thing. It comes home to use for a few months until the next best thing comes out. Then it gets put to the side with all those other outdated gadgets. Watching Juno, I see the utter joy she has in playing with her toys. Some we bought. But others, like an empty plastic bottle, bring GREAT joy as she bats it around the room. The more noise it makes skidding across the floor, the better! Something so simple…
2. Having fun doesn’t have to be costly – Another brainwash we’ve heard from advertising is that we can’t have fun unless we spend money at their theme park or on their luxurious cruise ship. Who says we can’t have fun right in our own back yards? Have you ever played fetch with a puppy? Have you ever had a puppy run helter-skelter toward you in the yard, only to veer away at the last minute? The bigger they get, the harder they run. Tell me the joy on their face isn’t more valuable than riding the fake waves on a cruise ship.
3. Don’t let intimidation/fear rule you – Many of Juno’s experiences are new to her. As a puppy, she’d never seen a leaf blower or a senior citizen with a walker or a child on a skateboard. Whenever she sees something different and new, she stops dead in her tracks. She doesn’t run away. She stands and faces the new experience, walks slowly toward it and inspects it closely. Once she realizes it isn’t something that will hurt her, she either walks away content, or begins to play. How wonderful would our lives be if we didn’t run from anything unfamiliar? If we faced the unknown with courage, then embraced it?
4. Kindness goes farther than correction – When training a puppy, frustration sometimes overrides common sense. But the best trainers will tell you that puppies learn best with positive reinforcement. Treats and hugs go much further than yelling. Removing them from a situation, or better yet, preventing their access to a situation, is more effective than trying to correct them every time they do something wrong. Think about this the next time you are in your workplace and a co-worker or employee makes a mistake.
5. Sleep is overrated – Who needs eight hours of sleep a night when you can be up at 6am to start playing? And after napping all day, why not stay up until midnight, full of energy and ready to take on the world? Sure, we can’t nap all day like our dogs do, but if you had to lose 30 minutes of sleep to spend time playing with your kids or dogs, isn’t it worth losing that sleep?
6. Time is irrelevant – Dogs have no sense of time. You can be gone five minutes or five hours and they don’t know the difference. They are just as happy to see you when you come home from an 8-hour work day, as they are when you come back inside from picking up the mail at the end of the driveway. Think how happy your family would be if you greeted them with the same enthusiasm every time they came home.
7. It’s all in the journey – Have you ever been driving alongside a car where a dog has his head sticking out the window? They don’t care where they’re going. They’re living in the moment, enjoying the wind in their face, the sun in the sky and the wonderful smells of the world outside their home. When was the last time you took in the scenery as you drove, rather than getting annoyed at the way others drive? When have you noticed the fog hugging low to the ground? The sun rising pink on the horizon? The snow-covered earth turning the world white and silent?
8. Be loyal and dependable – Dogs trust us to take care of them. In return, they protect us, provide comfort and watch out for our safety. They alert us to intruders, stay by our side when strangers approach the door, and bark insistently when the doorbell rings. They will defend us against other humans and dogs. And they will stay close when we’re feeling blue. That’s exactly how they want to be treated, too. How do you treat the humans in your life?
9. Be Yourself – Dogs love just being themselves. They know what toys make them happy, when it’s time for a good scratch, and which animals need to be chased out of the yard. They don’t care what others think. They just go ahead and DO, even if it gets them into trouble because it’s so much fun! Pretending to be something you’re not will never make you happy. Be true to yourself and be who you are.
10. Love is unconditional – We’ve all been hurt in relationships at some point in our lives. It may have been in grade school – that first crush! It may have been a failed marriage. But relationships you’ll never be let down on, are those with your dogs. You can work all day, correct their bad manners, and board them when you go on vacation. And yet, they still love you. Nothing you do will make them stop loving you. How wonderful to know that there is someone who will love you, no matter what.
Unconditional love is the basis for my upcoming release, TEMPTING PASSION. Having been hurt in the past, Marcus Clayton, Earl of Norbourne, is reluctant to allow passion into his life again. It will take a special woman to love him unconditionally. That woman is Miss Christel Fitzwilliam. But in loving him, will she sacrifice her heart? Meet Marcus, Christel, and special guest Zeno, an English springer spaniel who teaches them about true love. TEMPTING PASSION will be released in 2018. Meanwhile, meet Marcus in TEMPTING FATE.
Blurb
A Woman Ruined
Scorned by society for past indiscretions, Lady Alanna Clayton instead dedicates her time to improving the lives of orphans at the workhouse. When Alanna realizes their futures are in danger, she vows to protect them, no matter the means.
A Man Wounded
Lieutenant-Colonel Kellen Harrington, Marquess of Aldwich and future Duke of Wilkesbury, abandoned his responsibility for a career in the cavalry. He fled a life of abuse for a life of war. A dire summons brings him back to London and the estate he swore to never set foot on again.
A Secret Shared
Childhood friends, Alanna and Kellen are bonded by an old secret and fate reunites them to keep another. But in trying to save others’ lives, have they put their own in danger? Deceit, blackmail, and revenge challenge their every step as they navigate the dark alleys of London. And traverse the corners of their hearts.
Can Alanna tempt fate and save Kellen from his biggest danger – himself?
Bio
After years of working in the Health Information Management field, Michelle became a stay-at-home mom to raise two adorable daughters and took advantage of her time at home to pursue a life-long passion—writing.
While attending a romance writing workshop at a local library, Michelle was hooked. She cracked open the research books, turned on the computer, and started cranking out historical romances. In her early efforts, she was an RWA Golden Heart finalist and winner/finalist in many RWA sponsored contests.
After ending one marriage, seeing her daughters through college, opening her own business, and finally happily marrying her soul mate, she opened those old computer files and did some serious editing. She signed her first publishing contract with Soul Mate Publishing more than twenty years after writing it. Perseverance does pay off!
Michelle lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Steve, and their three insane pups. Their two-legged children have all moved on to their own homes and careers. By day, she runs a professional organizing business, a virtual assistant business, and a research web site. Her favorite clients are authors!
By night, she writes. She self-published Researching the British Historical: The Victorian Era, 101 Organizing Tips for Writers, I’m Moving!! Now What? and Nine Journeys: Stories of Women Who Found Their Own Paths to Success.
Where to find Michelle Jean Marie…
Website | Amazon | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads | BookBub
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
This month, I’m sharing my favorite poems by Mary Oliver. I discovered today’s poem in Devotions, a collection spanning more than five decades of Mary Oliver’s literary career.
Praying
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
This month, I’m sharing my favorite poems by Mary Oliver. I was first introduced to her poetry when a friend shared the last two lines of the following poem.
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Earlier this evening, Barbara Bush passed away at the age of ninety-two. An extraordinary woman of great faith and strength, she served as the 37th First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993.
She was one of only two First Ladies who was also the mother of a president, a distinction she shared with John Adams’ wife Abigail, the mother of John Quincy Adams.
Mrs. Bush devoted her life—during and beyond the White House years—to the cause of universal literacy. She authored two children’s books, C. Fred’s Story and the best-selling Millie’s Book, both of which have benefited literacy through proceeds from sales.
My Favorite Quotations from Barbara Bush…
Cherish your human connections – your relationships with friends and family.
You have to love your children unselfishly. That is hard. But it is the only way.
You just don’t luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities.
Believe in something larger than yourself… get involved in the big ideas of your time.
Your success as a family… our success as a nation… depends not on what happens inside the White House, but on what happens inside your house.
Some people give time, some money, some their skills and connections, some literally give their life’s blood. But everyone has something to give.
At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a child, a friend, or a parent.
When you come to a roadblock, take a detour.
Giving frees us from the familiar territory of our own needs by opening our mind to the unexplained worlds occupied by the needs of others.
And who knows? Somewhere out there in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president’s spouse. I wish him well!
I have enjoyed reading her books and listening to her interviews. An inspiring and entertaining speaker, Mrs. Bush delivered the Wellesley commencement address in 1990. It was listed as #45 in American Rhetoric’s Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century.
Welcome to my Second Acts Series!
Today, we have Soul Mate author Iuliana Foos sharing her extraordinary journey across the ocean to North America and her debut novel, Bloodline Origins.
Here’s Iuliana!
Thank you so much for hosting me today.
Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, I had a childhood and upbringing different from what most people outside the country are accustomed to. Since an early age, I loved to read. Growing up in a communist country, where all information was closely supervised, I soon ran out of books to read.
I had to start, of course, with the literature mandatory in school, all Romanian authors, but soon, I started to borrow books from my parents’ collection. When most people hear ‘Black Market’ they think of illegal merchandise. For us, it was also books. Coming across translated international authors, wasn’t easy, but not impossible either.
It was when I fell in love with ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Alexander Dumas, the first romance book I ever read. I was only in my early teens, so extremely impressionable. Until today I still believe everyone should have at least one sword, even if only for decorative purposes.
When I attempted to read ‘War and Peace’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, I failed miserably, falling asleep before finishing a whole page. I still didn’t get the courage to go back and try to read what, at that time, for me, was the most boring book, so I never made it past the first chapter. It served as a good paperweight, and many times I used it to hide underneath another book, usually something frowned upon, like ‘Gone with the Wind’ by Margaret Mitchell.
Around the same time, I managed to put my greedy hands on translated adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, whose themes are still successfully rehashed today.
One of my best finds has to be Greek Mythology Adaptations. Those gods are still inspiring.
By the time I was sixteen, I ran out of books to devour, and started to make up my own stories. In school and at home, I was busy creating worlds and characters in my head. The visit at Dracula’s Castle uncovered infinite possibilities. Our ordinary world had become that day less important than my fantasy one. You can only imagine the new level of commotion in my mind. It was the first time I knew what I wanted to do in my life: be an author.
With my first job, life started to interfere with my dreams of writing. Living though the revolution that ended the communism in Romania, brought hope. Unfortunately, the bitter taste of disappointment with the new life, convinced me to leave behind everything I knew. Only months before my twenty-ninth birthday, I emigrated to Canada, in a search of a better life.
As an immigrant, I had an allowance of two large travel bags, each no heavier than forty kilograms (or eighty pounds), so I packed my life in those and started anew. I still have my fifteen large notebooks, handwritten in Romanian with my first stories. They took up half of one of my allowed bags, my most precious possessions.
Year after year, I drifted further and further from my dreams. With bills to pay and life in general happening every minute of the day, I had to stay focused on my sales/marketing career.
When I thought life couldn’t surprise me anymore, it did. I divorced and years later, remarried. Following my husband meant yet another big move, this time to the United States of America, my new home. He encouraged me to revisit my dream, give writing a second chance, and so I did.
New challenges rose, but I was determined not to let anything stand between me and my dream this time. Not even writing in a language that is not my native tongue couldn’t stop me. It took me seventeen years to even dare consider it. English is not even my second language, but my fourth. I was fluent in Spanish at nineteen, and in French at thirty. With time I lost the ability to speak any of the two, but I still can understand some.
If you ever look for a challenge to test your courage and drive, try it. Pick the best language you speak, other than your first, and write a novel. Let me know how that works out. No, really, let me know. If you think having an accent is bad, wait until you have to figure out grammar. Thank God, the accent doesn’t come through in writing.
Many people start new chapters at some point in their lives. For some, the change is major, for others not so much. For me, it was monumental. All three times.
So here I stand today, humbled and grateful for everything I went through. I carry the scars of my battles and the sweet memories of my victories. Every adventure and step I took brought me where I am today.
I’ve learned to never lose hope. It took me over thirty years to live the dream I had as a teenager. It is never too late to reach that dream you have. Hold on to it. Foster its growth, and above all else, never give up. Second chances happen when you least expect it.
Blurb
Determined to turn her fantasy into reality, Ana starts her journey to become a vampire. Along the way, she learns the truth about their secret society, discovers her prestigious bloodline, and falls in love.
Not all vampires are accepting of humans and war looms in the shadows. An ancient tome reveals the vampires’ alien descent and sparks war.
An army bent on eradicating her coven’s existence threatens her new world. Survival or annihilation will be in Ana’s hands.
Where to find Iuliana…
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon
Joanne here!
Iuliana, I’m in awe of your achievements. Writing in a first language is challenging enough. How impressive that you are able to write so beautifully using a fourth language. Best of luck with Bloodline Origins. It sounds intriguing.
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
This month, I’m sharing my favorite poems by Mary Oliver. Her creativity is stirred by nature, and her poems are filled with imagery from her daily walks near her home. In an interview, she commented. “I go off to my woods, my ponds, my sun-filled harbor, no more than a blue comma on the map of the world but, to me, the emblem of everything.”
The Swan
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?
On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.
April is National Poetry Month, a month set aside to celebrate poetry and its vital place in our society. Today, and for the next three Wednesdays, I will be sharing my favorite poems by Mary Oliver. The winner of numerous awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize, she has been described as “far and away, this country’s best-selling poet.”(New York Times).
The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
Joanne Guidoccio 