Lindsay Detwiler's Blog, page 44

Win an Autographed Copy of Jeannine Colette’s Pure Abandon!

Hey everyone! As part of the #indie9giveaway, you can go to my Facebook Page and enter to win an autographed copy of Jeanine Colette’s Pure Abandon. I reviewed this on my blog a few weeks ago; it is a really good read! You also win an ebook to give to a friend!

Hurry and enter because you only have until Saturday! There are three entry methods!

Going Makeup Free

A few years ago, I saw a story on the news about a group of teenage girls who started makeup free Mondays at their high school. The idea was that girls were becoming too focused and obsessed with their looks, having to “fix” every problem with makeup. These girls decided to start the trend so that girls would take one day to appreciate their natural beauty.

I was always impressed by this story, and it has stuck with me. I love, love, love makeup. I have quite a collection of potions and products. I’m always watching videos and looking at Pinterest for new tips and tricks. But sometimes, I do take a step back and wonder if makeup obsession is the result of feeling unconfident about one’s looks.

When makeup goes from being a fun hobby and an expression of creativity to an absolute necessity, this can be unhealthy. When we start noticing the imperfections instead of the strengths, we can get stuck in an obsessive rut. We can be reminded of this by the Dove Real Beauty Experiments. Women were asked to describe their faces to an artist who couldn’t see them. He drew what he thought they looked like based on their own descriptions. Then, he would draw a picture of them based on another person’s description of them. The difference between the pictures was astounding. It shows you how we become obsessed with what see as “imperfections,” versus how others really see us (see the video below).

I think those high school girls had the right idea. I will never completely give up my makeup; it is what I love and what makes me feel confident. Makeup can help us define our best self, can help us enhance what we like, and can help us express ourselves. However, on weekends, I usually take one day where I’m makeup free. It gives my skin a break, it gives me a break from a high maintenance routine, and it gives me a chance to appreciate what’s good about face.

How about you? Do you ever go makeup free?

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

Diamond Candle Giveaway!

You could win this prize package! Yay! Tell all of your friends!

Don’t forget to enter to win a Diamond Candle and an autographed copy of Voice of Innocence! Visit my Facebook page for your chance to win; you just have to comment and share! The video below gives you more information :)

Stories Worth Reading

I’ve always been an avid novel reader, but short stories have never quite captured my attention. I always feel like they are too abstract or too obvious; there’s never a happy middle ground. As an English teacher, however, I have had to overcome my disdain at the short story. Over the past few years, I’ve found a collection of stories that I do like. With the Common Core’s push toward reading different mediums and incorporating shorter pieces, I thought this list might help out those high school English teachers out there. Even if you aren’t a teacher, though, these are all great reads!

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman: I teach this in conjunction with Taming of the Shrew and Midsummer Night’s Dream to talk about gender roles.

“The Ambitious Guest” by Hawthorne: I teach this with the Oedipus series

“The Masque of the Red Death” by Poe: taught with Oedipus series

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson: taught with The Outsiders to discuss human nature

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner: Taught with A Long Way Gone

“The Metamorphosis” by Kafka: Taught with The Last Lecture to discuss attitude

“Metamorphoses” by Ovid: selections taught with Midsummer Night’s Dream

These are my favorite selections. Do you have any suggestions?

Lindsay Detwiler, author of Voice of Innocence

Dare to Dream: Choosing a Career From the Heart

Number spinning in my head as my eyes watered from staring at the computer screen, I watched the clock mercilessly tick. As the next fifteen minutes crawled by, I found myself ready to burst at the thought of quitting time. I was tired of my career choice already, and I was only halfway through my internship. I was suddenly done fooling myself—accounting wasn’t the career choice for me.

All through elementary school, junior high, and senior high, I had one career in mind—teaching. As a child, I would line up my stuffed animals on the steps and “teach” them with my chalkboard set up at the bottom. I loved reading, loved learning, and never pictured myself doing anything else.

Senior year of high school, however, I abandoned my dream. Job prospects in our hometown were slim to none in the teaching field, and all of the statistics pointed to a career in accounting as being the most reliable. I pushed my passion aside, convincing myself that my aptitude in math would allow me to make accounting a perfect fit.

Deep down, I knew during my accounting studies that it wasn’t for me. I found myself looking forward to my English electives more and more while dreading my accounting classes. Although the promising salaries and job openings seemed like they would be enough, I always knew deep down that it wasn’t what I was meant to do. My internship my last semester just confirmed the truth—I wasn’t made to be an accountant. By my internship, though, I felt like it was too late. I was almost done with college, and the temptation of a steady paycheck instead of student loans called my name. Nonetheless, that day at my internship, I looked at the years and years in my career before me and saw only one thing: monotony. I felt like my career wasn’t doing anything for me, wasn’t igniting any sense of passion or motivation in me.

So, after graduating with my Bachelor’s in accounting, I did something a bit crazy; I enrolled for a second degree in English/Secondary Education. I stayed in school an extra year and a half to get my teaching certificate and degree, even taking a few summer courses to get the credits I needed. Although the statistics almost guaranteed that I would never find a job, I decided for once in my life to do something risky instead of rational.

Guess what? It paid off.

After a few years of subbing, I landed my dream job. Teaching high school English is stressful, exhausting, and sometimes demanding. Every day I walk into that classroom, however, I remind myself that I am living the dream I thought couldn’t happen. Every day I get to talk about books and writing, get to help students find who they are, get to prepare them for the “real” world, I remind myself of how fulfilling it is. It amazes me to think how different, how empty, my life would have been if I hadn’t gone after my dream.

So call me a dreamer, an idealist, or even a fool, but I believe that some decisions, especially the big ones in life, have to come from the heart and not the head. I am rational to the core, a planner, a detail person, but I am so glad that for this choice, I didn’t listen to the facts. I listened to my gut, and it made all of the difference in the world.

I think that deep down, we all know what we are supposed to be doing in this world and who we are meant to be. I think the challenge isn’t figuring out what to do with your life; it’s being brave enough to pursue it, no matter how crazy it might seem. At the end of the day, we can’t let statistics, salaries, or society dictate what our happiness looks like. We have to dare to dream of our own version of happiness. Then, more importantly, we must choose to go after it, no matter what.

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

First day of Kindergarten, aka my stuffed animal classroom teaching days. Sometimes our Boston Terrier Chelsey would be held captive in my “classroom,” too :)

The Sunshine Blogger Award

I am so excited to be nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! Thank you so much to Tasha at The Bookie Monsters. Be sure to check out her blog; she always has amazing things for bookworms! I love her posts :)

Here are the answers to the eleven questions, followed by my own questions for the eleven blogs I nominated.

1. What song can you not get enough of at the moment?

I always have Pitbull’s “Fun” featuring Chris Brown stuck in my head. I was just coming home from the grocery store right now with my husband and was dancing like a maniac to it! He was actually embarrassed, but I just can’t help myself when it comes on the radio! :)

2. If you could go back in time and meet anybody, who would it be and why?

I’ve said it before, I have a bit of an obsession with Edgar Allan Poe. I just think he had a fascinating life and his writing is so far ahead of his time. I think he would be an interesting person to chat with (although perhaps also creepy).

3. Where is the one place in the world you would love to travel?

I really want to see Hawaii someday, if I ever get up the nerve to get on an airplane.

4. You’ve won the lottery! What’s the first thing you do with your winnings?

Well, the boring side of me knows I would probably pay off bills and our mortgage. However, I also know that right behind that, I would probably start a crazy huge cat rescue where I would sit around with kittens all day and be a true crazy cat lady.

5. What’s your biggest comfort?

Netflix, my best PJS, and some coffee. This is pretty much my snow day schedule of activities.

6. There’s a zombie apocalypse happening right outside your house and you can only grab three things from the room you’re in right now to protect yourself! What things do you grab?

I have a baseball bat under my bed, so I would grab that. I also have a really heavy flashlight, so that would come in handy. Knowing me, I would probably also grab something completely impractical, like my favorite shirt or a perfume :) I wouldn’t last very long in The Walking Dead, that’s for sure.

7. Favourite movie of all time?

The Notebook

8. What’s your favourite thing to do apart from blogging?

Netflix or shopping. I am quite the shopaholic, and my closet shows it.

9. Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall?

Summer (I’m a teacher, so that’s an easy one!). I do enjoy my pumpkin stuff in the fall, however.

10. Your go-to book recommendation?

I have so many that this is probably the hardest question. I love, love, love The Road by Cormac McCarthy just because I think it speaks to so many different types of readers and it is wonderful for teaching you about writing style. Of course, I also recommend a lot of Nicholas Sparks.

(I’m going to steal my final question off Callum because I’m genuinely curious!)

11. What got you into blogging?

I started blogging about a month before my first book, Voice of Innocence, was released. I realized that I needed to start building an author platform, so I decided to give it a try. Now, I love it! I have a place to just chat about things happening with me and random thoughts. I also love that I connected with some truly wonderful people through my blog. I never thought that you could actually create relationships through social media and such, but my blog has taught me otherwise!

Thanks for the wonderful questions Tasha!

Now, here are my questions:

1. What book most changed the way you think about life and why?

2. What is your favorite picnic food?

3. What is your favorite place in your hometown?

4. What was your favorite food as a child?

5. Which celebrity would you be most likely to be friends with?

6. What song summarizes your life motto?

7. What was the best class you ever took?

8. Who has inspired you the most in your life?

9. Tell us something that has made you laugh in the past week.

10. What is your favorite thing about summer?

11. What would be your six word memoir? (In other words, you must summarize yourself in only six words).

The bloggers I nominate are:

1. CosmeticChaos

2. KasimsKorner

3. Jax Jillian

4. Beginner Beaute

5. Book Club Mom

6. Jeannine Colette

7. Veena

8. Claire Elsley

9. breybrey44

10. Find Me at the Library

11. Jackie G Mills

I can’t wait to see your answers :)

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

Patience: The Writing Virtue

Check out my latest author update video about why patience is so important in writing.

Lindsay Detwiler, author of Voice of Innocence

Voice of Innocence

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence

Celebrate first loves! Only $4.99 for ebook version!

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Giveaway!

Originally posted on Charlotte F Wood:

I hope everyone has had a lovely weekend! Last week I found out I had reached 100 followers, which I was so excited about! 

I know it’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things but for someone who started a blog just to ramble about her favourite products, it’s amazing to me that 100 people would also be interested! 

As a small token of gratitude I compiled a little box filled with some of my favourite products:

Honey Bee bath ballistic

What beauty blogger giveaway is complete without a lush product? I mentioned in one of my earliest posts how obsessed I am with bees, and so of course I had to include something bee related! This is a very light honey scent, which isn’t sickly at all!

(random font size change and I don’t really know why… apologies!)

Organic Snail Gel Moisture Mask

It’s not as scary/gross…

View original 241 more words

Jax Jillian’s Larkin’s Letters: Video Review

My video review of Larkin’s Letters is now on youtube! Check it out :)

Lindsay Detwiler, Voice of Innocence