Kay Keppler's Blog, page 8
October 26, 2013
Okay, I lied
A while ago, I announced that I’d be dropping this blog to blog over at eightladieswriting, where I’ve joined seven other refugees — I mean, former classmates — from the romance writing program at McDaniel College. I guess obviously enough, we talk about writing over there. But it turns out, as infrequently as I post here, I don’t want to let go. So…look for me. Occasionally.
August 18, 2013
It’s really all about me…
My brilliant critique partner, Patricia Simpson, has cut another video, this one all about me. Next time I’ll work harder on the script. But see what a great job she did with my biopic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tWjLQoL3Ik
August 15, 2013
See how a story started
My critique group wrote an anthology about gargoyles, and now we’re trying to blame each other. I’m a little hard to understand on the video, but, hey, first time. Move over, Steven Spielberg!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAqdwP3kSm8
August 8, 2013
This blog is moving!
It’s premature, but I’ll be closing down this blog Sept. 2 to join a group of bloggers–my fellow classmates in the romance track of McDaniel College’s MFA program. You’ll be able to find eight of us who toughed it out and decided to group blog over at Eight Ladies Writing. The rich part is that I committed to weekly posts. How am I going to keep that up? Gack.
July 2, 2013
Don’t worry, be happy
I used to be a news junkie, and now I’m not. There’s just too much “news,” and most of it’s bad. Some days I feel like I’m hovering at the edge of a precipice, and if I read one more story about a genocide, homicide, suicide, kidnapping, molestation, torture, or war, I’ll just sink into a depression from which I will not be able to pull myself. And as I get older, the news of bad events reads strikingly the same. Politicians are corrupt? Murderers aren’t caught? These stories aren’t news, they’re business as usual. The only things that change are the names. Although I sometimes feel guilty about it, now I read headlines and sometimes a full story. I don’t read everything. I look for good news and kindness.
So I was pleased to run across this lifehacker post the other day: ”How Positive Thoughts Build Skills, Boost Health, and Improve Work.” Even the headline cheered me up. James Clear, the author, describes how fear, anger, and other negative emotions limit your range of choices: If you see the tiger leap at you, your only thought is to run away. One choice.
But he describes a new study in which subjects examined images that evoked a range of emotions. Afterwards, each participant was asked to fill in the sentence, “I would like to….” The participants who’d seen positive images had a significantly greater number of goals than those who’d seen negative images or even neutral images.
Even better, the study demonstrates how doing things that make you happy builds skillsets that–even when the happy stimulus goes away–stay with you. So being happy helps you down the road even in times when you are not conspicuously happy, because you have more resources. Negative emotions build only one skillset–the ability to run away from the tiger.
The post suggests three ways to get happy: meditate, play, and write three times a week about something that makes you happy. Seems simple enough. I’m going to try it. Because the news sure doesn’t look like it’s going to improve.
April 16, 2013
Edith Cavell remembered
Today, in the aftermath of the bombing at the Boston Marathon, I was thinking about “peacetime” first responders and the medical personnel who risk their lives every day during war. For some reason, I remembered reading one of those orange, cloth-covered hardback biographies that were published for children (at least, when I was a child) about Edith Cavell. Wasn’t she a nurse?
I looked her up. Indeed, born in 1865, Edith Cavell, a vicar’s daughter, trained to be a nurse at the age of 40 and went to work as the matron of a newly established nursing school in Brussels, where she launched the nursing journal L’infirmière. By 1911, she was a training nurse for three hospitals, 24 schools, and 13 kindergartens in Belgium.
In November 1914, after the Germans occupied Brussels, Cavell began helping wounded soldiers out of occupied Belgium to neutral Holland. Prince Reginald de Croy furnished the British, French, and Belgian soldiers with false papers and got them to Cavell (among others) in Brussels. Cavell treated them and, with her collaborators, gave them enough money to get to Holland.
These actions violated German military law. Apparently aware of the danger, she is quoted to have said, “I can’t stop while there are lives to be saved.” She was arrested in 1915 and charged with treason for harboring Allied soldiers. She admitted that she had been instrumental in conveying about 60 British and 15 French soldiers and about 100 French and Belgians of military age to the frontier and had sheltered most of them in her house.
As a combatant nation, the British government said they could do nothing to help her. The United States, however, applied diplomatic pressure and other nations joined a plea for clemency. Baron von der Lancken, the German civil governor, stated that Cavell should be pardoned because she had helped save so many lives, German as well as Allied.
Of the 27 collaborators who faced trial, five were condemned to death. Three were later reprieved and two were executed. One was Edith Cavell. The night before her execution, she told the Anglican chaplain who visited her, “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.”
Edith Cavell is remembered for her duty, skill, and courage, as are all first responders, medics, doctors, and nurses who comfort and care for the wounded, wherever they fall.
February 10, 2013
Snowstorm Nemo: Brrr
I’m originally from Wisconsin, so I know from snow. Sometimes no matter how many snowmen you can build, it just isn’t enough fun. My heartfelt shivers go out to those folks still shoveling out in the northeast. Stay warm, my friends.
December 4, 2012
Join the Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop!
Here’s fun for the whole family! Starting Dec. 14 and running for a week, you can join the Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop and win fabulous prizes all week long. More than 50 participants are giving stuff away! And for the grand prize, a Kindle Fire, pre-loaded with 17 books by the novelists listed at left.
What’s my prize, you might ask? There are two! A digital copy of Twitter for Authors by Beth Barany, which is about, well, you can probably guess. And the other half of the prize is a paper copy of Writing Romance, a collection of essays by many people, some of them well-known but all of them interesting. The winner of my prize, if s/he prefers a paper copy of Twitter for Authors and can stand to wait a bit, can get a paper copy as soon as the author gets it done, probably about the end of January.
So, what do you have to do to win? To win the prize from this stop on the blog hop, just leave a reply. That’s it. Click and say hi. I’ll toss all names in a hat and ask my lovely assistant to choose one on Dec. 22. I’ll notify you of your win. Prizes will not be shipped until after Dec. 28.
To win the prizes from the more than 50 participants in the blog hop, hop on over to here, where you’ll find a linked list to everybody holding mistletoe. To have your shot at the grand prize, the Kindle Fire, click on the Mistletoe Madness Blog Hop box (or, okay, here). That’ll take you to the site of the great PJ Schnyder, who is behind the whole show.
So have at it, my friends. You deserve a shot at something for yourself this time of year.
November 3, 2012
Book of the Month–Lord of Scoundrels
by Loretta Chase
I’d meant to do a book of the month post every month, highlighting underappreciated books, but then…I didn’t. Today I want to mention a book (and an author) that are not underappreciated, but I have to add my appreciation to those who already read and love her: Loretta Chase, author of Lord of Scoundrels among many other historical romances.
I’m ashamed to say that I was unfamiliar with Chase’s work before I started this MFA, and Lord of Scoundrels was part of the required reading. First published in 1995, it’s still in print and still delicious. For those with a bent toward historical romances, this one is a must-read. Try this for dialogue:
“I believe I’ve remarked before, Trent, that you might experience less aggravation if you did not upset the balance of your delicate constitution by attempting to count,” said Dain….”I particulary recommend,” he went on, his eyes upon the female, ”that you resist the temptation to count if you are contemplating a gift for your chere amie. Women deal in a higher mathematical realm than men, especially when it comes to gifts.”
“That, Bertie, is a consequence of the feminine brain having reached a more advanced state of development,” said the female without looking up. ”She recognizes that the selection of a gift requires the balancing of a profoundly complicated moral, psychological, aesthetic, and sentimental equation. I should not recommend that a mere male attempt to involve himself in the delicate process of balancing it, especially by the primitive method of counting.”
…
Bertie approached, and in his playing-field confidential whisper asked, “Any idea what she said, Dain?”
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“Men are ignorant brutes.”
“You sure?”
“Quite.”
Isn’t that wonderful? And all the dialogue is like that. I’ve now read a couple of other books by Chase, and they’re all good, but this one is still my favorite. You can find Lord of Scoundrels at fine booksellers everywhere. See if you don’t agree with me and the 296 4.5-star reviewers on Amazon that this one’s special.
P.S. Don’t be fooled by the cover. On the edition I have, the primary color is orange, and our smart and feisty heroine is dark and ravishing, as she should be–not pale and naked, as she is here. This is one good example of how you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Book of the Month–November
by Loretta Chase
I’d meant to do a book of the month post every month, highlighting underappreciated books, but then…I didn’t. Today I want to mention a book (and an author) that are not underappreciated, but I have to add my appreciation to those who already read and love her: Loretta Chase, author of Lord of Scoundrels among many other historical romances.
I’m ashamed to say that I was unfamiliar with Chase’s work before I started this MFA, and Lord of Scoundrels was part of the required reading. First published in 1995, it’s still in print and still delicious. For those with a bent toward historical romances, this one is a must-read. Try this for dialogue:
“I believe I’ve remarked before, Trent, that you might experience less aggravation if you did not upset the balance of your delicate constitution by attempting to count,” said Dain….”I particulary recommend,” he went on, his eyes upon the female, ”that you resist the temptation to count if you are contemplating a gift for your chere amie. Women deal in a higher mathematical realm than men, especially when it comes to gifts.”
“That, Bertie, is a consequence of the feminine brain having reached a more advanced state of development,” said the female without looking up. ”She recognizes that the selection of a gift requires the balancing of a profoundly complicated moral, psychological, aesthetic, and sentimental equation. I should not recommend that a mere male attempt to involve himself in the delicate process of balancing it, especially by the primitive method of counting.”
…
Bertie approached, and in his playing-field confidential whisper asked, “Any idea what she said, Dain?”
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“Men are ignorant brutes.”
“You sure?”
“Quite.”
Isn’t that wonderful? And all the dialogue is like that. I’ve now read a couple of other books by Chase, and they’re all good, but this one is still my favorite. You can find Lord of Scoundrels at fine booksellers everywhere. See if you don’t agree with me and the 296 4.5-star reviewers on Amazon that this one’s special.
P.S. Don’t be fooled by the cover. On the edition I have, the primary color is orange, and our smart and feisty heroine is dark and ravishing, as she should be–not pale and naked, as she is here. This is one good example of how you can’t judge a book by its cover.
