Writer Wednesdays: Fred's Beer Blog

Fred of Fred's Beer Page probably wouldn't count himself as a writer, but he is actually excellent with words, and he is persuasive, fun, and passionate. If you aren't a beer drinker, you will at least be willing to try one of the beers that Fred talks about, scratch that, raves about. And, it's not just his beer love. He loves travel, food, fun, and conversation--all which happen to be connected to beer, of course.

I am a beer lover, so maybe I am partial to Fred's blog. But he has a book inside of him, even if it is just a collection of his beer blogs.

Travel Tuesdays: Destination Wedding in Hilton Head, South Carolina

Destination Wedding in Hilton Head, South Carolina

Movie Mondays: The Social Network: Social Currency

You have to watch this movie more than once to appreciate it, and ANYONE (aka everyone) who is on Facebook should watch it because, well, it will make you appreciate it more.  It's sort of sad to think that while Facebook is a very important part of most of our lives, and keeps us connected to people we might not every be in contact with unless we had Facebook, many people don't know about its origin or creator. It makes me want to read about anyone who has ever invented anything that I have ever used as a small way to honor them (even though Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that the film is "fiction").

Obviously, the movie takes liberties with Zuckerberg's story and plays up the scorned boyfriend and loner aspect of the story; however, the gist of the story comes through. Great acting (it was fun to think about one guy, Armie Hammer (well, technically Armie's face) playing both twins). I also thought Jesse Eisenberg did an excellent portrayal of Zuckerberg as sort of representative of brilliant introverts.

Go watch the movie. Then throw up a thank you to the computer geniuses running this Social Network.

But first, for an even more in-depth understanding of how this giant was built, read Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich.

SUPER sharing Sundays: Best Links of the Week

10 Unexpected Costs of Owning Things: I love this post partially because my husband and I did the same thing this summer.

Fempire Fandom: Jeanne Bowerman, CS Expo finalist, @scriptmag columnist, screenwriter, #scriptchat co-founder, and all -around Twitter guru has a new column  

The Onion's Baratunde Thurston is hilarious and poignant and helps tear down boundaries that society sets up.

The Effortless Life: A Manual for Contentment, Mindfulness, & Flow by Zenhabits. We tend to make our lives MORE complicated instead of figuring out how to make them LESS complicated.

I have to give a shout-out to one of my places on the planet: Savannah gets love from Conde Nast.

Soul Saturdays: Celebrate Your Milestones

Wow. Today marks one year since what I count as my first "official" published piece. Sure, my thesis, Linking Genesis to Castaway Narratives, can be found online, and I had a poem published in high school that my mom submitted for me titled "The Blur," a reference to experiencing high school hallways that I thought was "so deep" at the time. But, these were done with completely different purposes than my first Yahoo! article, Thanks to my High School Volleyball Coach.

This article surfaced online a year ago because I decided I wanted to start writing on the side while maintaining my full-time job teaching high school English. I had always wanted to write--articles, a novel, reviews, teacher materials--anything really, and producing this small piece was the first step to what has been an insane year.

I got the bug after this piece. I began creating content madly for Yahoo, then started seeking other places that would publish my work and hopefully pay me more than the pennies I earned from the Yahoo pieces. So, I contributed to Suite 101, Demand Media, and then decided to contact our local newspaper, Savannah Morning News, to see if they had any freelance needs. Luckily, my editor took a chance on me and gave me a weekly music column to take over back in February. I still love interviewing the bands and shaping an article that reflects their personality and beliefs and encourages readers to go listen to their music live.

Then in June, I went to my very first creative conference filled with writers put on my skirt! magazine. Claire Cook, author of many books including the well-known Must Love Dogs, spoke about being an art teacher until realizing sixteen years later that she was meant to be a writer. I also met a college student who was full of optimism and drive to become a writer right out of college, and their stories combined with the excitement I felt during that weekend propelled me to take a huge risk: quit teaching and write full-time. I even have my own "ideas" box thanks to Cook's suggestion, and it is filled with book ideas that I can't wait to tackle.

These past few months have not been easy or financially lucrative--yet. But, I have written a screenplay, two nonfiction book outlines, the first draft of my first novel, and hundreds of articles since then. I have businesses interested in me as their social media manager, I went on assignment for Forbes Travel and stayed in a swanky five-star hotel, and I was invited on a press trip to New Orleans last month. I write restaurant, activity, and business descriptions for two well-known travel websites, and I am also now an editor for South Magazine. I have no doubt that I made the right decision and will be a writer for the rest of my life--even if I have to do other jobs to help pay the bills.

That little Yahoo article a year ago started me on a completely different path, although I didn't know it at the time. I have never felt more excited than I do now to learn, perfect my craft, connect with other writers and creatives, and for what the future may hold. I no longer see work as something I count down the days to retirement to get away from; instead, I wonder how on earth I am ever going to get all the books and articles I have ideas for written in one lifetime.

So, whatever it is you want to do, do it. Start small. Paint one watercolor, write one article, attend one class. Take one small step TODAY that will propel you towards a future you are excited about, and then take another step tomorrow, and another. Pretty soon, your side dream will become your full-time dream, and then there will be no stopping you.

Good luck, and if you need an accountability partner, click to read more about how I can help you reach your goals. And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME! ;)

Fiction Fridays: The Journal of Mortifying Moments by Robyn Harding

The Journal of Mortifying Moments by Robyn Harding is the book that all of us have inside of us. We have all had mortifying moments in our dating lives, friendships lives, family lives, walking down the street lives...we all have those funny moments that any of us could put down in written form that could create a pretty damn funny book.

Harding does that, weaving in journal entries written by her main character, the neurotic Kerry. This girl has low self-esteem thanks to too many nights downing icing and waiting for her former live-in boyfriend to contact her for not much more than a booty call. She hates her job, has a strained relationship with her mom, and has the necessary gay guy friend who she would probably love to be with if he was straight but instead has around to meddle constantly in her life.

Kerry is on the fast track to depression until she decides to stop seeing her ex, start volunteering, and start figuring out her next job where she doesn't spend all day avoiding her work. The transformation has some touching moments, but I wish we could have read more of Kerry's diary. Those brief sections were when I felt most connected to the character, and I found myself reminiscing about my own mortifying moments.

A fun, quick read, I will be checking out other Harding books when I want something light and entertaining. I'm thinking about picking up Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis next.

Tune Thursdays: Chuck Courtenay

Music Matters: Savannah Morning News for November 24, 2011:

Chuck Courtenay rocks Wild Wing Cafe on Tuesdays

Writer Wednesdays: Slush Pile Hell; Crack for Writers

Slush Pile Hell is a literary agent's anonymous, hilarious release from the pile of atrocious queries that he/she receives each week (by the way, literary agents HATE if you don't address query letters personally; the Dear Sir/Madame, Mr./Mrs., Miss/Mister heading makes them feel like a hermaphrodite).

My FAVORITE from the Slush Pile Hell portfolio (P.S., I am sad that this is only once a week):

Query: "This will end by this being the book that every house has in their living room on the coffee table, book shelf or half open on the couch. The book every pastor and synogogue will have on display across the world. I would be sadly dissapointed if this book didn’t sell 100 billion copies in the first 5 years."

His response: "Hmmm … 100 billion copies for a world population of 7 billion. So, each and every person in the world is going to buy 14 copies? Seems reasonable."

I laugh every time I think about this post, AND I like how this query makes me feel like every query I have ever sent is absolutely brilliant in comparison:)

If you are involved in the writing community in any way, shape, or form, you MUST follow this blog. You are guaranteed to laugh, AND you will learn what not to do when querying an agent (although I don't believe many of the people that actually write in are "real" writers--maybe they have written one thing, or think they will get rich quit, or have some other delusion).

Travel Tuesdays: One Day Itinerary Daytona

Yahoo! Domestic Travel Article: 

Daytona Beach One-Day Itinerary

Movie Mondays: Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

I have been doing this blog since January, and sometimes I forget that I have not reviewed some of my favorites--the most compelling, most awesome movies that I have ever seen--that deserve much more praise than just being recognized by my little ol' blog. BUT, they still deserve my praise so here it goes for Fight Club:

Chuck Palahniuk. Death. Life. Consumerism. Greed. Class Warfare. Schiezophrenia. Love. Envy. Rebellion. The Man.

If you haven't seen this movie, get off this computer and go watch it now. Seriously. Come back after you have been completely sucked in, hate the government and your life, and throw away all your name brand stuff.

I know that doesn't exactly sound like the greatest movie of all time, but it is probably top 10 in my book, maybe higher if someone was torturing me and really forcing me to choose. And I really don't life violence in movie (or life in general).

This movie will make you think, make you question your place in the world, and what role you are playing in our American Dream rat race. All you need to know is this brilliant speech, delivered by Brad Pitt at his absolute hottest hands down (total disclosure: I know this might sound like the reason I love this movie, but I would have loved this movie even if Brad Pitt's character was played by Meatloaf--who is also in the movie. Seriously. Although it may not have been quite as downright delicious.):

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."



SUPER Sharing Sundays: Best Links of the Week

My Sunday format is changing again...I needed to find something that made me feel SUPER good and SUPER productive and SUPER share-y, so I figured, what inspires me more than words of wisdom that I find through research I do for articles, and even more, from links I find on Twitter that get me thinking? Here are the five that jumped out at me this week.

Enjoy--these are motivational tidbits of wisdom guaranteed to make you think--or at the very least smile :)

Shelli Johnson asks: Passion--Nicety or Neccessity? P.S. the answer is NECCESSITY!!!!

Just stumbled across this word I'd never heard and wish I'd come up with since I am a craft beer fanatic: Beercation

Promoting vs. Marketing: Tips for Writers about building communities vs. trying to brainwash

Yet another travel website, but I am obsessed with travel so I love'em all: Jetpac.com. (Hey JetPac, need someone to write about beautiful tourist hot spot Savannah, Georgia? I'm your gal!)
If you are on Twitter (and really, everyone should be, ESPECIALLY anyone in the creative and enterpreuner fields), you gotta read this: Ten Bad Twitter Practices (I USE TO do at least four of these; well, maybe I still do sometimes :/ )

Soul Saturdays: The Power of Love

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
Lao Tzu 



I was thinking about loss today as two of my close friends are dealing with difficult struggles, and I loved how this quote talks about the power of love. We crave love of any kind because it makes us feel strong, sometimes invincible. But this quote talks about how it's not good enough to just be loved; you have to have the courage to love back no matter the consequences and pain that it might lead to. This quote shows the beauty and brutality of love, and why it can feel so wonderful yet hurt so much in the next instant. My thoughts and prayers to anyone struggling with loss this week.

Fiction Fridays: Weisberger's Last Night at Chateau Maramont Puts Us in the Celebrity Hot Seat

For me, a good book is anything that I enjoy reading, period. It can be literary, "chick lit" (a term I hate more and more), romance, historical nonfiction, memoir, biography, self-help, financial--well, I have yet to read a "good" financial book in the narrative sense--classics, feminist, even teenage vampire stories (but that's another post).

I saw a comment the other day about Lauren Weisberger's novels having "the same characters, but in different situations." While I would disagree, for the sake of argument, let's just say that is true. Wouldn't that just say that she has a strong style and voice that comes through her characters? That's why we all loved Andy from The Devil Wears Prada?

Some actors only do one "character"; Hugh Grant comes to mind, or maybe Vince Vaughn. They stick with what they know, and they are damn good at it. That's how I see Weisberger; she has a strong female character who is trying to figure out love, career, family, and friendships like the rest of us, who is slightly less than perfect but completely lovable, and who is somehow associated with something glamorous (high-profile magazine, PR, famous husband) and never quite fits in because, doggone it, she has morals and standards and refuses to fall into the trappings of fame, fortune and the like.

There are differences between her leading ladies, but at the core, I like Weisberger's novels because the characters are likable and real, the situations slightly absurd, and she always gives a glimpse into worlds that fascinate me (see parentheses above).

Anyway, Last Night at Chateau Marmont, for anyone who has ever watched The Soup, E!, TMZ, that quietly moving Sofia Coppola movie Somewhere or the like, knows that this is where celebs hang out. Weisberger knows who her audience is, and she feeds us accordingly. The pace is quick, the fun balanced with quite a bit of scandal and tragedy usually caused by some horrible person like Leo, the manager of Brooke's newly famous singer husband who will do anything to get Julian, the husband, publicity.

I loved this book and found myself stealing even just five minutes to read a little bit more. It's fun without being fluffy, interesting without name dropping too much (Jon Bon Jovi does make an appearance!), and it has heart. At the center, like her other novels I have read, is the question: What kind of life do you want to live? She emphasizes the precious gift that each day is, and that we shouldn't waste it working for a horrible boss, or worrying about being mega-rich, or running around with no time to enjoy our real friends and family. I love her message and appreciate these deeper emotional elements that go beyond cool shoes or celebrity gossip. I want to hang out with Brooke, just like I wanted to hang out with Andy and Leigh and Bette from her other novels.

Looking forward to the next Weisberger treat! Here are links to all of her novels. Enjoy!

The Devil Wears Prada

Everyone Worth Knowing

Chasing Harry Winston

Last Night at Chateau Maramont

Tune Thursdays: Johnson's Crossroad Winds Their Way to Sentient Bean in Savannah, Georgia

Music Matters column for Savannah Morning News Thursday, November 17, 2011:

Johnson's Crossroad

Writer Wednesdays: Time's 25 Best Blogs of 2011

As I hope and pray to be on this list one glorious day, I thought I'd share with you Time's Best 25 Blogs list to see how many of these you read. I look forward to blogging about the ones I enjoy in the coming Wednesdays.

Happy reading!

Travel Tuesdays: Charming Miamisburg, Ohio

Published for Yahoo! Travel: Small Town Charm: Miamisburg, Ohio

Picture courtesy  http://www.flickr.com/photos/53135611@N08/5873374523/

Movie Mondays: Horrible Bosses Hilarious Scene

John Francis Daley's script for Horrible Bosses had some zingers and Charlie Day of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia fame was excellent (every time he opens his mouth I can't help but giggle, and when Jamie Foxx calls him a hamster I totally cracked up).

But I want to focus on Daley and company's best scene: the car chase. The guys could have easily just been freaking out and the camera cutting to Kevin Spacey behaving manically. Instead, the camera switched to Jen Aniston prompting Charlie's character to talk dirty to her.

So, the entire smash 'em up car scene was peppered with ridiculous, unsexy phrases from Charlie that still somehow turned Aniston's character on as she laid in a bubble bath.

The mixture of fear, comedy, and dirty talk combine to create a well-written scene that steps up from a typical chase scene and let's Charlie (and Aniston) shine. The contrast between Aniston's joy and the boys' pain as they try to escape someone who wants to kill them is comedy gold, and the timing of the actors is excellent.

Looking forward to the next Daley script!

Soul Saturdays: Learning is FUN at the Geekend conference in Savannah, Georgia

"You gotta find something you are passionate about because the shitty days will exist"--Michel Kripalani, Oceanhouse Media

This quote, one of the many nuggets of wisdom that I have heard over the weekend, came from the head of Oceanhouse Media, which won the rights to create apps for Dr. Seuss books. The idea is so simply brilliant, and it made me have enormous hope for the future of reading. Just when I thought that people don't read anymore, the iPhone and iPad are revolutionizing our learning and reading habits. Children can "play" books like they are playing a video game with tons of interaction, added knowledge like clicking on a planet to learn all about it. This is brilliant on so many levels that I don't even have to go into it, the biggest being that LEARNING IS FUN.

I'll repeat: LEARNING IS FUN (for adults too!).

This brings me back to the quote above. I am at a conference in Savannah called Geekend, which is geared towards techies but has been great for me as a writer too. love going to conferences because everyone is here to learn, grow, and share with like-minded people. If you have never been to a conference related to the industry you work in (or want to work in), make the commitment to go to a conference in 2012. If you have been to a conference, I'm sure that you already are scouting out which one to invest in for 2012.

This quote emphasizes  even more why it is vital, absolutely vital, that you run screaming towards your dream job. Shitty days will exist in any field, but if you're doing something you love, the crappy days are easier to get over because you know that tomorrow can be a good day. If you are in a job you don't love, then you may start thinking that every day will be awful which will lead you down a shame spiral and basically hating your life in general.

I feel shaky with energy--my mind won't stop running, and I have had at least ten viable ideas that are going to help propel my career forward, and other markets I need to research and try to become a part of (book publishing, researching). I can't believe how excited I am to get back to work on Monday. It's going to be a great week thanks to an absolutely awesome, fun, interesting, and all-around mind-blowing conference called Geekend.

What great creative conferences have you been to? 

Which conference(s) will you go to in 2011?

 

Fiction Fridays: What Would Happen If What We Wanted Really Did Fall From the Sky?

This is a mini short story that I entered for a writing competition. The rules were for the piece to be exactly 78 words.

Today is Falling Day. Last week on Falling Day, money rained down; the result was a bloodbath. Punching, kicking, stabbing—all for paper to buy things.

The week before, bowling balls fell from the sky. Thousands died.

Cakes, crayons, and certificates for new cars have fallen (one time, actual cars fell—pointless since most were totaled).

Jonathan has stopped participating in Falling Day. People whisper how strange he is to miss out. He only wants to be happy.

Tune Thursdays: Derogatory, a band of engineers from Gulfstream

Music matters article for Savannah Morning News:

DEROGATORY:

Writer Wednesdays: Hope C. Clark, a Writer's Friend Indeed

If you are a writer, you have to sign up for C. Hope Clark's Funds for Writers newsletters (they are SHOCKINGLY free). The website is consistently named one of the best 101 websites for writers, and each week, I find either one contest I want to enter, one agent that sounds like a good fit for me, or one tip that is super useful.

Besides these great resources, the newsletter also features a success story from one of the newsletter subscribers and a motivational piece by Clark herself. I look forward to getting it every week, and I always feel thankful that there is someone out there genuinely helping out writers (instead of someone else that just wants more money or to provide useless information that I figured out a long time ago!).

Do yourself a favor and go check out the website at http://www.fundsforwriters.com/hope.htm. While you are at it, check out Clark's blog: http://www.hopeclark.blogspot.com/. A wealth of knowledge from someone that's not only successful, but motivational and uplifting. She won't surgarcoat what it takes to be successful, but she will push you to achieve your dreams if you let her.

And if you ever get to a place where you can help out fellow writers, take a cue from Clark and give back. I promise, good things will happen for you too :)

Travel Tuesdays: Charleston, South Carolina: Beauty and Class

I may have mentioned this before, but I was recently promoted from a regular Yahoo! Contributor to a Featured Contributor. What does that mean exactly? Instead of just getting paid for the number of page views an article gets (which is pennies per click), I now get an upfront payment plus pay per view click payments. It also means I have to write three articles a month for Yahoo in order to keep this paid gig.

Now, I will never get rich off of these articles (three total less than $50 per month), but it is great practice for me and it helps me accrue more clips so that I can eventually do a lot more travel writing. Ideally, I would love to travel once a month to somewhere new--actually it doesn't have to even be a new place, just somewhere different--and write about it. I like it all--descriptions, narratives, itineraries, opinion pieces, all of it.

I think this partially comes from my constant hunt for knowledge. But I also just love trying new things, seeing new things, doing new things.

Anyway, on Tuesdays, I will start sharing links to my travel articles, like this one:

A Frequent Visitor's Guide to Charleston, South Carolina

Let me know where your favorite travel locations have been, and if I have been there, I will write about it (or put it on my "to go to" list!).

Movie Mondays: Twelve Monkeys

We re-watched Twelve Monkeys last night, and again I am struck how Brad Pitt didn't win lots of awards for his stellar performance as a fake crazy person in Twelve Monkeys. Seriously, how outstanding is he in that movie? Kind of the groundwork for his role in Fight Club--the tangents, jerkiness yet self-assured-ness--totally stellar.

I also can't help but torture myself with these movies that have no clear ending and leaves you with lots of questions. Inception comes to mind, and The Matrix.

You could try to figure out exactly what these movies mean, but the truth is, we aren't supposed to figure them out completely, and they are works of arts, which means that every individual can have their own interpretation of the themes and lessons we are supposed to learn from these movies.

Anyway, back to Twelve Monkeys. Writers Chris Marker (film La Jetée) and David Webb Peoples
create dystopian worlds that showcase the worst parts of humanity--ignorance, stubbornness and evil.

This show emphasizes that anything we have fear of, we dismiss as untrue, and anything that doesn't fit with our boxed in sense of reality, we immediately assume that it can't possibly be true.

Deep, heavy stuff, and makes you question everything and want to squeeze every moment out of life.

Starving Arist (or not!) Sundays: Wayne Gonzales' Light to Dark NOMA Exhibit

Wayne Gonzales' Light to Dark/Dark to Light exhibit is currently on display at the New Orleans Museum of Art. I was lucky enough to see a sneak peek when I was in town for a press trip last month, and these large pieces, often done in a grayscale or two-toned style, dissolve upon close inspection. You have to stand several yards away to see the overall image clearly.

His work is not beautiful in the typical sense, but the beauty is in the messages and themes. He often depicts crowds, like the image below called Seated Crowd currently on the NOMA website, to showcase humanity at its best--united and diverse. The pieces are thought-provoking, political and question our culture and media.

Soul Saturdays: BIG Goals, and Other Reasons I Love November

November is shaping up to be an absolutely fabulous month. I am taking part in the National Novel Writing Month, and this commitment has been exactly what I need to get the novel that has been building inside me down on paper (well, digital paper).

Yes, it feels great when I get those 3,000 words done each day (and I mean REALLY great), but it also is wonderful working towards a big goal again. I miss the feeling of being a student and working towards the end of a paper, semester and even (gasp!) my graduate thesis. Having this looming goal of finishing a novel in one month doesn't feel scary or overwhelming or undoable; instead, it feels like exactly what I am supposed to be doing. And that's a pretty great feeling.

I am also taking part in the skirt! challenge via Facebook to post one thing you are thankful for each day. I only am doing it on my Facebook writer page so far where I am keeping my thankfulness work focused, but I have just decided that I am going to post on my personal page too. Why not share the love and share my heart? I am feeling happy, content, and deeply thankful. November, you couldn't have came at a better time!

What are YOU thankful for? Share it in a comment and on Facebook. You will feel good and help get others in the thankful mood too!

Fiction Fridays: I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts About Being a Woman by Nora Ephron

Nora Ephron is one of my literary heroes, the obvious reason being she wrote When Harry Met Sally, but I also love her books and essays, notably I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts About Being a Woman. Just from the title, you know this book is going to be hilarious, and it delivers. It is divided into a lot of short stories bemusing the plight of being a woman, like having to carry a purse, throwing dinner parties, and of course, dealing with a saggy neck.

At one point, she explains that she asked a plastic surgeon about getting a neck tuck, and said doctor informed her she would have to get a face lift. Since she is a "bird-like" person, face-lifts are out of the question in her opinion because her face would get all tight and weird, whereas she notes a chubby person may be able to get away with a facelift to fix their neck and she was oh-so-jealous of their good fortune. These and other thoughts usually reserved for our inner monologues make their way onto Ephron's pages.

Even though her target audience is ladies 50+, this book is perfect for any woman who worries about aging, relationships, and  social faux pas. Her wit, charm, and my desire to have a glass of wine (or four) with her increase with every short story, and her other books are now on my to-read list.

Perfect bedside or bathroom side because you can read each short chapter in a short amount of time, you will feel like you are part of a girls' night, bemoaning your lives. Enjoy!

Tune Thursdays: Bucky and Barry, Savannah Favorites

MUSIC MATTERS for Savannah Morning News Thursday, November 3:

BUCKY AND BARRY

Writers Wednesdays: Liebster Award Nominees!

Today's post is dedicated to blogs that I have nominated for a Liebster Award, which aims to recognize excellent up-and-coming blogs that continue to grow and offer great insight. Here are my nominees:

Ruth at Freelance Writing shares her wisdom about freelance writing in an informative, to-the-point blog at http://freelancewritingblog.com/. (Thanks for thinking of me, Ruth! Keep up the great work!)

Bethany of She Writes and Rights delivers a wonderful blog about her experiences as a writer, friend, wife and artist. She has an optimistic view of the world, and I have enjoyed her uplifting posts and fun guest posts (and you will too!). Check her out at http://shewritesandrights.blogspot.com/

I have just started visiting Elizabeth's cleverly titled Scriptorium blog, focusing on what the life of a writer is really like (she also motivates me by example.) http://ecreith.com/

Lastly, have a little cooking fun with Brooke over at Baking with Basil. Brooke is an old college friend who I once went on spring break with (remember those slashed tires?) and intertwines what's going on with her life, giveaways, and of course, great recipes into a beautiful foodie blog at http://bakingwithbasil.com/

Please check out each of these quality blogs, all of which I follow and am thankful to have found among thousands (millions? billions?) of not-all-quality blogs out there.

Travel Tuesdays: Cruisin' Through the Everglades

This weekend, we went down to stay with friends who live near Miami. We all decided to rent a small boat and cruise around the Everglades, leaving from Holiday Park. With a six-pack in tow, sunscreen and sunny skies, we departed for our little adventure which the staff assured us when only be about two hours roundtrip.

With no marked signs and a cartoonish map, we promptly got lost as gator eyes gazed at us above the eerily still black water. Calling the main office in a panic, we asked if we had passed our turn (yes, cell phone service worked out there amazingly!) and were assured that we had a little farther to go. We continued on about another 40 minutes only to encounter a sign that said, "No boating beyond this point."

Manuevering through a tiny canal to turn around, we headed directly into a huge rain storm. From the beginning of our boat trip to this turning point, the temperature had dropped about twenty degrees, our hunger was getting to us, and we all were straining to keep smiles on our faces. We also had to start apologizing profusely to our captain-for-the-day because he had wanted to turn around and go back the way we came, while the rest of us urged him onward so we could go see new "stuff." Sorry again, Ben.

We finally made it back of course and spent the rest of the night thankful that we were in fact alive instead of lost in the Everglades overnight or a magnet for a lightning bolt since our boat was made of metal. The views and surroundings were gorgeous and peaceful, but we sure gained an appreciation of life, warm clothes and the restorative powers of red meat that evening.