Lindsay Detwiler's Blog, page 41

Goodbye, Summer!

A look back at our summer of 2015! Kittens, Henry, Daniel Tosh, and a lot of zoos :)

Delicious, Low-Fat Dessert

It’s no secret: I have a massive sweet tooth. My desk drawer at school is filled with chocolates and candy. Our pantry on any given day has at least three to five dessert mixes in it and some loose chocolates. On a regular day, I will eat chocolate several times a day and not think twice.

I love chocolate, candy, cake, ice cream. I love it all.

But then this diet idea came along. Suddenly, I had to face the music. Grown ups don’t eat Hershey bars by the dozen. Grown ups don’t down an entire bag of M&Ms and pretend like it didn’t happen. Grown ups monitor their sugar.

I went through the week feeling depressed, missing dessert, and hating the diet. But then I remembered a recipe I pinned a while back for a low-fat pumpkin cake.

This cake is the easiest dessert you’ll ever make, has barely any fat and few calories. . . and is truly delicious!!! Thanks to keepitsweetdesserts.com, I can now make it through the dieting days with a bit of dessert to lighten my day!

Pumpkin Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix 1/2 cup of water, a spice cake mix, and 15 oz of pure canned pumpkin (not pie filling) in a large bowl. Pour into sprayed cake pan. Bake for twenty-five minutes.

The website suggests mixing milk, fat free cool whip, and fat free, sugar free pudding mix together to make a frosting. I did this and found it to be lumpy, so I just use fat free cool whip as a frosting. Garnish with sprinkles.

This cake is seriously super moist and amazing!! It tastes like a pumpkin roll minus the guilt.

Give it a try and check out the pin on my foods board at http://www.pinterest.com/ldetwiler

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

Exciting News :)

I am so excited to share that I have just signed a contract for my second novel!! This is a stand alone novel that also focuses on women and love. It will be in the New Adult genre; I am so excited to share these new characters with you!

Please stay tuned for more details coming soon!  And for all of you writers out there, never stop believing in your work. My wildest dreams have now come true twice this year!

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

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On the Way to School

Did you ever watch a show or documentary that changed the way you thought about life?

I’m a Netflix documentary junkie. I love that I can watch Netflix and feel like I am bettering myself by learning something (I mean, we have to balance out OITNB with something educational, right?). So the other night I started watching “On the Way to School.” This documentary made me think twice about what I take for granted.

As a teacher, I have devoted myself to lifelong learning. Even as a child, I always valued education thanks to my parents’ instillation of this view within me. School was always important, and my grades always came first. However, I’m human. I’ve complained and whined about how “hard” school was, especially in the upper grades. I’ve prayed for a snow day. Even now, as a teacher, I have my moments when I complain about how tough things are or about how much I need a day off.

But then I watched this documentary. It follows four different children from four different countries. The documentary is literally just about their walks to school. I was floored.

The children from Kenya walk about two hours every morning just to get to school. They were almost attacked by elephants on the way, spilled their water, and walked through blazing heat . . . all while smiling through it because they were grateful for the opportunity to get an education. Each child from each country walked at least 1.5 hours every day just to get to school. I was shocked. I started asking myself: would I do this to get an education? I also started thinking about how much we take for granted in this country.

I live literally four blocks from our school . . . and I drive to work every day. Can you imagine what these kids would think if they lived a few blocks from school? They would be so appreciative, but I complain about having to trudge outside to my car in the snow to clean off my car.

This show made me realize that even though I value education, I take it for granted sometimes. I take it for granted that we have easy, equal access to education in our country. I take it for granted that the journey to school for my students and I is nowhere near a two hour hike on foot. I take for granted the power of education, as many of us do.

Sometimes it takes Netflix to open up your eyes, as silly as that sounds. This year, when I am complaining about not finding an ideal parking space or about having to walk twenty feet to my car in the rain, I am pretty sure I will picture those kids walking in Kenya or riding for an hour and a half in Argentina.

Thank you again, Netflix, for reminding me of what a big world it is out there and about how little I really understand about it.

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

NightCrawler Review

I’ve always loved “The Yellow Wallpaper” because I like taking a deeper look into unstable narrators. Can we trust the narrator? Is she suffering from madness, or is she actually quite sane but living in a mad world?

Perhaps this fact is why I liked the movie Nightcrawler a whole lot more than I expected. Jake Gyllenhaal does an amazing job at portraying a mentally unstable man in a completely nonchalant, likable way. I found myself laughing at the character, Louie, because of his crazy sentiments, cunning ideas, and intellectual statements. If nothing else, you have to appreciate the guy’s work ethic.

Basically, the movie follows Louie as he tries to go from rags to riches. We have no idea why Louie is jobless and alone, and we never find out. Although this drove me crazy because I wanted to know his backstory, I think it also added to his mystique. Despite not knowing how he got to a point of mental instability, I still felt connected to him. Louie is driving around one night when he witness a film crew at an accident. Deciding he might be interested in this career, he becomes a “nightcrawler,” searching the streets for criminal events and accidents to record and sell to news stations. Throughout the movie, he climbs the ladder of “success” as he becomes bigger and bolder in his career.

I liked the statement the movie made about media and how far we will go to get a “good” story. I also enjoyed Louie’s character overall. He was very quirky and unreliable; I never quite knew if he was a good or bad guy throughout. Despite questionable choices, there was something about his portrayal that made him feel almost admirable in a weird sort of way. This certainly wears off near the end of the movie; even when he makes horribly immoral choices, though, I couldn’t bring myself to hate him. I still found myself rooting for him somewhat. At one point, he says, “What if my problem wasn’t that I don’t understand people but that I don’t like them?” I think this shows that Louie has a whole lot more going on underneath, good or bad. I just wish we got the chance to delve more into this concept.

I didn’t like the ending of the movie because there were so many loose ends. I think they left it open for a sequel, but I felt like I would have been more inclined to watch a sequel if they had tied the ending up better. I wanted to know more about him, more about his choices. I wanted there to be a big bombshell, a huge climactic moment in the movie’s plot. There wasn’t one, which I found disappointing. This character was one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in a movie in a while, one with potential to add to a crazy exciting plot line. I think the writers could have done more with the plot.

When my husband mentioned watching this movie, I expected to give it a one or two star rating. After watching it,  I would give it a three. It wasn’t my favorite movie, and there wasn’t enough to the overall story line to really grab me. However, I applaud the characterization in the movie and the acting. I also liked the overall concept because it was so unique.

Have you seen this movie? What did you think?

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

Win a Copy of Breathe In by Martha Sweeney

As part of the #indie9giveaway, I am giving away an ebook copy of Martha Sweeney’s Breathe In AND an ARC of Breathe Out!!! How exciting!!!! To enter, click the link below. There are several entry methods. Please note**** This is an adult read*****!!! Must be 18+ to win. If you are into racy reads, enter!!

http://gvwy.io/r24hfma

We’re the Lucky Ones

Early this morning, as the town was just waking up, Henry and I took a walk. We sauntered through the morning haze past the high school where I work, the same high school where I learned and grew into the person I am now as a teenager. We ambled past the empty stadium, the same stadium where I trumpeted away during countless football games. The same stadium where I played my first solo in eighth grade marching band, alone in the middle of the green field, facing a full set of bleachers. We walked past the junior high where I met my husband. We walked past the Blue & White Snack Bar where we used to go for snacks and soda during band camp back when we were thirteen. It’s funny to think that back then, I had no way of knowing that fourteen years later, I would pass by with my mastiff, married to the same boy I met at the art table.

We walked through the town, listening to church bells ring, saying hi to some lonely joggers. We saw kids on bikes, we saw some wispy clouds.

But mostly, we just walked, the silence a kind retreat from the chaos of everyday life.

I’ve heard so many classmates say, “I can’t wait to ditch this stupid, boring town.” I’ve seen pity in the eyes of others who can’t believe my husband and I have decided to be “lifers” in Hollidaysburg.

But as Henry and I walked this morning, as we took in the sights of our sleepy, quiet town, I thought about how wrong those people are to pity us. We are the lucky ones. We get to call this charming town home. We get to keep making memories in the same place where it all started. We get to learn and grow and laugh in the town where both of us have roots.

We get to walk our lanky mastiff past the places that built us into the people we are, that set our journey toward where we are now on fire.

For that, I will always be grateful.

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

Publishing: Celebrating the Small Victories

When I started writing Voice of Innocence back in college, I kept telling myself one thing: you are wasting your time. Even though I felt a pull to finish the story, a need to tell Emma and Corbin’s tale, I couldn’t help but think that I was spending precious time on a pointless venture. I was convinced that no one would ever read my book, that Emma and Corbin would remain fictional characters tucked away on my computer.

Now, Voice of Innocence has been out for almost six months and . . .

Most people still don’t know Emma and Corbin’s story. I am not a world-famous author. In fact, I got carded at Barnes & Noble the other day when using my Educator’s Card even though I had a book signing there a few months ago. Talk about a humbling reality check.

Writing is, at best, a frustrating roller coaster of emotions. There is the initial joy at being published followed by melancholy at being unnoticed. There is the constant appreciation for seeing your words in print followed by a resounding sadness at being one in a million trying to fight to stay high in Amazon rankings. There are kind reviews followed by negative ones. There is a ceaseless current of joy and sorrow, of optimism and despair.

Nonetheless, I remind myself to enjoy the small victories every single day. I’ve had sweet reviews, I’ve had a video review of my book, I’ve had book signings. This past week, I’ve sent my book to England and now to Malaysia. My book has gone on vacations with family and friends. It’s been to Scotland. If you told that twenty-one-year-old writing in a green notebook that her book would be read by people in other countries and liked by them, she would have said you were crazy.

It’s easy to fall into a rut of comparing yourself to others in the writing world, just like anything else in life. However, you have to enjoy your own successes, big or small, and realize the beauty of the fact that others are reading your words. Whether it’s one million or one, the fact that another human being is wrapped up in words that started in your mind is a pretty powerful thing.

So keep writing, keep dreaming, and never stop celebrating the simple fact that you are a writer. No Amazon ranking or best selling list can take that away from you.

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

A Voice for the Innocent, A Plea for the Forgotten

Originally posted on Lindsay Detwiler , Author:

During the “off season” of “Walking Dead” last year, my husband and I were browsing for a new show to get hooked on for our Sunday night vegetation sessions. An advertisement for a show called “Salem” caught our eye, and we started watching. Although the content is somewhat odd at times, we found that it fulfilled our need—my husband enjoys the gore, while I like my eye candy a.k.a. Shane West (who also happens to be Landon in A Walk to Remember).

Besides drooling over the hunky protagonist, the show hooks me because of its sheer horror—not just from creepy side effects, but from the whole premise behind it. It’s hard to imagine that in our country, women and men were brutally tortured and murdered for their “witchcraft”…which was most likely nothing more than a few attention-seeking girls pointing false fingers.

The persecution of the innocence has always struck…

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There’s Still Time to Get Your Summer Reading In!

The summer passed with an ease that is typical of the sunny days of the season. Merriment was plentiful, especially on the days we spent with my mother, who was more often than not in her hot-pink string bikini in a lounge chair on the front lawn. “If you’ve got it, flaunt it!” she would say while a chocolate ice cream cone dripped down her chin. Poor Corbin saw more of my mother that summer than he had bargained for.

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

Summer’s not over yet! Get your copy of Voice of Innocence . . . a quick, emotional read that will remind you of your first love.