Rose Anderson's Blog, page 18

Fun Day Sunday & Weekend Happenings

If you’ve been here before then you know Sundays on my blog are all about wonder and smiles. In honor of mentally kicking back once in a while, Sundays are Fun Days! Each Sunday, visitors will find a fun, interesting, or unusual something here. I’m a nerd with a complex sense of humor and absurd wit. It could literally be anything.

We went to a dance party last night. Fun time. There was one tune played where shaker instruments came out and some people danced and some played. I played the zills. Zills are little hand cymbals (think belly dance). So I woke up this morning thinking about last night and feeling the urge to drum. Sadly, I haven’t drummed since I hurt my arm in August. I really miss it. If this is your first time to my blog, I am a world drummer– that is, I play percussion instruments from all over the world. 

Anyway…I wanted to share a few clips of percussion music unlike anything you’ve seen before. This digital animation is called Animusic. The people who crafted these clips have truly remarkable imagination and an amazing knowledge of instrumental cause and effect. I wouldn’t be surprised were the machines actually built, they’d play just so. Enjoy!

And I’ll add this drum-less one because it’s my favorite.

More~

http://animusic.com/previews/animusic1.php

Someone wrote them up on Wiki if you want to know more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Retro%28Animusic%29

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~My Other Weekend Happenings~

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday & Sexy Snippets

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Sunday Snippet

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

I blog the 4th of the month at Romance Books ‘4’ Us and my post is still up.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, this month the RB4U authors are writing to the theme Dinner for Two. I shared a deliciously sensual short story. Come see! http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2015/02/sensually-satisfying-by-rose-anderson.html

~❋~❋~❋~

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

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Today’s guest is Author Tricia Andersen. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~

Our January contest is on and we have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

❋❋❋❋❋

~Coming Soon~

In the Shadows

My son and I talk writing styles all the time, for he too is an author. When he was a boy, we studied Shakespeare hidden in movies together. He’s a grown man now, and his tastes have changed.  It took him five years to convince me to watch Breaking Bad. I hadn’t planned to watch this show. The topic of a meth-cooking, drug-riddled world of destroyed lives is hardly my choice for leisure entertainment. He says it’s worth my time because of the “writing genius” involved and because he wanted me to see the anti-hero in action. Of course I have the whole hero thing nailed down in my mind, all of my novels have them. But an anti-hero? I had no clear picture in my head to go by, none that I was aware of anyway. 

The World English Dictionary defines the anti-hero as a central character in a novel, play, etc, who lacks the traditional heroic virtues. 

Oh, I knew that. I just didn’t realize it had a name. It’s a character you find yourself rooting for regardless of their dubious qualities. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Long John Silver is one of these anti-heroes. So are Scarlett O’Hara, Severus Snape, and Captain Jack Sparrow. They’re sort of nebulous-personality persons. You can’t quite decide if they’re good or bad, but somehow they strike a chord and you mysteriously end up cheering for them. 

Okay, if heroes are on one side of the character spectrum, and anti-heroes in that vague gray area, what about those not so nebulous persons? What about villains?

My Exquisite Quills reader/writer’s group once had a discussion that peered into those dark cobwebby corners of our imagination where story villains linger. Very interesting.

I personally love crafting villains, especially sociopathic bad guys who create story conflict that must be overcome in the most interesting ways possible.  Sociopaths, by definition, are only interested in their personal needs and desires, without concern for the effects of their behavior on others. I can write that!

As a reader, I find such characters fascinating. Scarlett O’Hara is far more complex than her southern belle persona suggests. She’s obviously a sociopath as well as an anti-hero. That’s one of the things I love about writing these types of characters — their complexity. Super villain Professor Moriarty is an intellectual match for Sherlock Holmes, the greatest analytical mind in the Victorian world. Now combine that literary fact of Moriarty with the definition of sociopath and you can see how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created an unforgettable foe.

As a writer, I find complex bad guys allow for a deeper internal monologue, and I’ll leave this door open just a crack to show the reader a glimpse into my villain’s mind to see the whys. My goal is to inspire a smidge of sympathy. Here are three of my most complex villains. Readers occasionally tell me they almost feel sorry for them…almost.  

Loving Leonardo: Conte Acario Bruno is a man born to privilege and raised on the attitude that servants, and other “lesser” people around him,  were merely property on par with the horses in the stables. Through his thoughts, the reader gets to see how that life of imbalances made the obsessive man he became. He finds love, a fanatical one-sided love, but the reader can see it’s genuine on his part.

The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo saga: Eluwilussit, aka Eli, is one of the story’s ancient Native American shaman. As a true “I want what I want” sociopath, he just kept digging a deeper hole for himself with every evil deed and made himself the monster he came to be. The deeds meant nothing to him, and always, the end justified the means. Though there are far too many poor choices to possibly make amends for, his greatest desire is to return to the spirit world to say he’s sorry things happened the way they did. You can see his sociopath’s mind in this statement. He’s not sorry HE did something. He’s sorry things happened the way they did. His apology would sound like, “I’m sorry you made me do this.” 

In my 5-book, 500k, as yet unnamed magnum opus (or MO for short), I’ve written an evil genius named Adrian Doyle. I don’t know how it happened, but this guy ended up with such a depth of personality he surprised me. When the time comes, Adrian should meet his end in the MO’s own version of Reichenbach Falls the way Professor Moriarty did when he wrestled Sherlock Holmes and both went over the cataract. After emotionally investing in Adrian Doyle as a supreme villain, I’m sure my readers would expect nothing less.

Diana Gabaldon, one of my favorite authors, recently reached overwhelming success when her Outlander –a book written more than 20 years ago– was made into a TV series. She wrote such a sociopathic villain in Black Jack Randall. Each scene with the man is both repellant and fascinating. From A to Z, no matter what that man inflicts on the other characters, you just can’t look away. And believe me, some things are truly revolting. Oddly, after reading Outlander 20+ years ago, I came to see the point of this extreme.

Why? Because Diana’s Jamie Frasier is, in my opinion, an example of the perfect hero – self-sacrificing, loyal, courageous, noble, intelligent, wise etc. He’s the other side of the coin to Jamie…the dark side, the shadow. I believe these characters are necessary if one is writing true heroes. The truly good character needs the truly bad character to create a counterbalance. In other words, there is no light if the dark doesn’t exist to make a distinction.

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My Other Weekend Happenings

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday & Sexy Snippets

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Sunday Snippet

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

I blog the 4th of the month at Romance Books ‘4’ Us and my post will be up for a few more days. In honor of Valentine’s Day, this month the RB4U authors are writing to the theme Dinner for Two. I shared a deliciously sensual short story. Come see! http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2015/02/sensually-satisfying-by-rose-anderson.html

~❋~❋~❋~

Phraseology I often wonder where certain words and sayings come from. For the next few weeks this word collector will examine familiar phrases to get at their heart. I think you’ll be surprised.

The phrase for today is ~Speak of the Devil

This one references the person who appears unexpectedly while you’re talking about him.

Two versions of this show up in print in the 1600s: The English say, talk of the Devil, and see his horns, and Talk of the Devil, and he’s presently at your elbow. This thought comes from the superstition that it was dangerous to mention the devil by name because he’d show up. That’s why no one says Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. He becomes “he who must not be named”. Throughout history we find many names for the devil – Old Scratch, Old Nick, Old Harry, Old Horny, Prince of Darkness, the Horned One etc. Perhaps that’s what J.K. Rowling was going for.

~❋~❋~❋~

Today our guest is Author Berengaria Brown.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is on.

Two – $50 GIFT CARDS & MORE.

~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~Coming Soon~

Chatter & Chopsticks

Have you ever experience a mind cascade? I get them all the time and always have, even as a child. My mind is never quiet. Some nights it takes me forever to fall asleep for all the thought noise cascading through my head like so much water over a cataract. Some mornings I wake up to a brain chatting up a blue streak.  (That’s not as bad as a chatterbox brain at night.) If I’m lucky, sprinkled in the babble are  story threads needed for my writing. Sometimes it’s a roaring thought cascade. I had one of those this morning.

I’m sure one day my brain will be in a jar for scientific study.

So this morning the ol’ brain is blah blah blahhing and another thought falls over the cataract — should I heat up the fried rice we had for dinner and have it for breakfast? This was followed by a thought of chopsticks! That was followed by something I read last week — this week had a national holiday devoted to chopsticks.  Wouldn’t you know, that’s today! (all true, I swear)

:D

Chopsticks are ancient things. If you think about it, it’s a short hop from fingers to sticks for guiding food into the mouth. As population grew across China and forests fell to accommodate human needs, they soon figured out cooking haunches of meat wasted firewood. Smaller bite-sized meats not only cooked faster, the cooking process used less wood.

Meat was generally bit into and a knife employed to sever the piece you held in your mouth from the larger hunk. But small bits couldn’t be eaten the same way so a different tool was conceived — chopsticks.  Like I said, a short hop from fingers to sticks. These were originally referred to as quick little bamboo fellows in ancient Chinese. The name we know the bamboo fellows by came about when notable Scottish adventurer William Dampier described these eating sticks in his 1699 travelogue Voyages and Descriptions. The sticks picked up chopped meat, therefore they were chopsticks.

Chopstick were made of wood and bamboo, but also of polished bone and ivory, jade, coral, brass, agate, and silver. Of the latter it was believed the silver would turn black if it came into contact with poisoned food.

It’s said their use spread all across Asia because Confucius the philosopher was a peace-loving vegetarian. He believed knives at the dinner table evoked images of violence and thoughts like those killed the pleasure and contentment one found in eating. He also said sharp utensils at the dinner table reminded one of the slaughterhouse. Again, going against a happy dining experience.

More~

How-to on chopsticks.

http://on.aol.com/video/the-chopsticks-museum-in-china-465101362

:) Nothing to do with eating utensils but just for fun. It made me smile when I found it so I’m passing it on. It’s the very first song I learned to play on the piano. Two of my sisters were much better at it than I was. Piano just wasn’t my musical interest.

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I blog the 4th of the month at Romance Books ‘4’ Us and my post will be up for a few more days. In honor of Valentine’s Day, this month the RB4U authors are writing to the theme Dinner for Two. I shared a deliciously sensual short story. Come see! http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2015/02/sensually-satisfying-by-rose-anderson.html

~❋~❋~❋~

Phraseology I often wonder where certain words and sayings come from. For the next few weeks this word collector will examine familiar phrases to get at their heart. I think you’ll be surprised.

The phrase for today is ~Put on your thinking cap



Who hasn’t heard this one before? As we use it today, it means to consider your answer. The original version is put on your considering cap and the wording shows up in print in 1605.  The thinking cap version turns up in a Wisconsin newspaper in the mid-1850s. I have a theory…in Tudor England judges wore the Black Cap when passing the death sentence (not a cap at all, but a black square of cloth). Passing a death sentence would certainly be something to consider.

~❋~❋~❋~

Today is Author Tina Donahue’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is on. Two – $50 GIFT CARDS & MORE

~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~Coming Soon~

 

Elusive Zzzzzzzzs

February’s moon is known by a few names: Snow Moon, Storm Moon, and Hunger Moon. I’ll add to that one of my own –Sleepless Moon. That spotlight moon with its false dawn has been stealing my sleep these past two nights. I won’t even tell you what time it is as I sit here writing this. Let’s just say it’s barely yesterday. That full, bright, sleep-disrupting moon is exaggerated by the snow kicking moonlight everywhere.  I admit it’s breathtaking outside.

Looking out the second floor window I can see the shadows are long on the undisturbed snow. I mentioned earlier this week how the snow-covered view in the daytime is comprised of blues of all kinds. At night it’s a different story. The world becomes a sketch in charcoal. Or maybe it’s still blue, just darker shades. I can’t tell. I have night blindness. Because I’m generally unable to see in the dark, I very much appreciate a moonlit view, when I’m not trying to sleep, that is. If it wasn’t -5º I’d go outside to take it all in. Being able to actually see at night is a rare treat for me. Alas, too cold.

Living smack in the middle of a wild environment like I do, my circadian rhythm is fairly tuned. It’s endogenous, meaning it comes from within. I’m one of those people who wakes five minutes before the alarm clock goes off. Because of that, we haven’t had a clock in our bedroom for perhaps 30 years. Just no need. If circadian rhythm is a new concept to you, it’s basically your body clock. We humans are diurnal creatures. Our desire and ability to fall asleep is directly influenced by the regular rhythm of daylight that comes in a 24-hour cycle.

A while back I read that studies were done on people in a closed environment. Without external stimuli, they had no idea of external time, no clues or windows from which to see the passing hours of a day. After a while that didn’t matter. Their internal clocks kicked in around a 25-hour cycle. I’ve wondered since reading about the study just what that extra hour is about. Why 25 hours and not 24?

Being in sync with circadian rhythm is essential to life. For us, we need that darkness. Disrupting the sleep cycle has negative consequences on the blood vessels in our body, negative affects on fetal development and reproductive cycles too. It even slows the healing of wounds and contributes to heart attacks, depression, strokes, and cancer.

I think I’ll get a sleep mask.

More~

This is a very interesting link about working that night shift and what it does to us.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070801091343.htm

That fantastic moon image above does not belong to me. It was created by amazing concept artist Leonid Tishkov. Discover more of his surreal moon work and other projects here: http://leonid-tishkov.blogspot.com/search/label/private%20moon

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I blog the 4th of the month at Romance Books ‘4’ Us and my post will be up for a few more days. In honor of Valentine’s Day, this month the RB4U authors are writing to the theme Dinner for Two. I shared a deliciously sensual short story. Come see! http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2015/02/sensually-satisfying-by-rose-anderson.html

~❋~❋~❋~

Phraseology I often wonder where certain words and sayings come from. For the next few weeks this word collector will examine some familiar phrases to get at their heart. I think you’ll be surprised.

The phrase for today is ~Night owl

We’re all familiar with this phrase used to reference someone who stays up late, but originally it was just a synonym for owl because owls are nocturnal. Night owl in reference to owls shows up in print in 1581. It was Shakespeare who used it as a reference to people in several of his plays. It stuck.

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Today is Author Paris Brandon’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is on. Two – $50 GIFT CARDS & MORE

~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~Coming Soon~

 

My Blog Day on #RB4U & Hump Day Happenings

It’s the 4th of the month and that means it’s my blog day at Romance Books ‘4’ Us. In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m sharing a deliciously sensual short story. Come see! http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/2015/02/sensually-satisfying-by-rose-anderson.html

Just a short post of things happening elsewhere today. I’m busy writing and when the muse speaks, writers listen!

Other Wednesday Happenings

Books Hooks

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

Paranormal Love Wednesday *NEW*

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Hump Day Blurb Share

(Open promo opportunity for authors. Readers find great reads!)

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~❋~

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is on.

Two – $50 GIFT CARDS & MORE

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A new year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~Coming Soon~

 

Spellbound

It’s cold and still and the sky is gray. Every once in a while, a new snowflake spins past my window and promises more will follow. Deep cold is on the way, and all of nature knows it. No birds, no squirrels, no blue shadows on the snow. Only quiet introspection. Stirred by winter’s majesty this morning, I was compelled to put words to it.

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter…. In winter the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity.

~John Burroughs

There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you…. In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.

~Ruth Stout

Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.

~Plutarch

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village, though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

~Robert Frost 

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

~Robert Frost

Spellbound

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow.

And the storm is fast descending,

And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,

Wastes beyond wastes below;

But nothing drear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.

~Emily Brontë

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Phraseology I often wonder where certain words and sayings come from. For the next few weeks this word collector will examine some familiar phrases to get at their heart. I think you’ll be surprised.

The phrase for today is ~ Break the ice

We’ve all heard this one before. It means to break down formality and stiffness in social situations. But did you know the phrase has maritime origins?

It shows up in print when Sir Thomas North translated Plutarch’s Lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes in  1579. The earlier meaning according to Plutarch is to forge a path for others to follow.  He was referring to breaking ice on waters so ships could pass.

In the late 1600s the phrase was noted by Samuel Butler when he wrote of a social event: “The Orator – At last broke silence, and the Ice.” Was he using a maritime phrase here or speaking of a frosty reception? Hard to say.

After the invention of specialized ice-breaking ships in the 1800s, we see the phrase reverting to its original meaning. Ice becomes a metaphor for something that must be broken through before things can get underway. A sailor of sorts, Mark Twain ties it all together when he wrote: “They closed up the inundation with a few words – having used it, evidently, as a mere ice-breaker and acquaintanceship-breeder – then they dropped into business.”

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Today’s guest is Author Kat Martin

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is on. Two – $50 GIFT CARDS & MORE

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

~❋~

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A new year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~Coming Soon~

As pure as the driven snow

Boy oh boy did we get snow yesterday. Snow covered the ground when I woke at 5 a.m. and continued all day long. By the time I went to bed last night, the forecast was calling for a blizzard and possibly 18 inches of snow in some places when all was said and done. This morning the sun is so bright it makes my eyes water to be outside.

The little dog was up to her neck trying to see to business. She loves snow as much as I do..but not for the same reasons. She’s more interested in the mice and other small creatures tunneling through it than aesthetics. She’ll walk the yard with her ears cocked and her little body tight in anticipation. If there’s a dent or hole in the snow, she’ll shove her face in it, just in case. She’s part terrier. Murder is who she is.

I have a lot of oaks and hickories in my yard. The top half of every branch and twig is white. Equally gorgeous, the cedars are straining under the weight. I’ll say it again. I love how beautiful this place is when it’s blanketed in snow. It’s magical when the sun rises and sets and lengthens the shadows. And tucked in the shadows and snowdrifts, I can find every shade of blue ever dreamed of. What is it about shadows this time of year? Oh yeah, Groundhog Day.

On February 2, 1887, a group of Punxsutawney Pennsylvania businessmen and groundhog hunters met…yes, businessmen and groundhog hunters. Were they business men who also hunted groundhogs, or groundhog hunters who joined the businessmen? We may never know. ;) Anyway…they called themselves the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club and met on Gobbler’s Knob with publicity in mind.

Their stunt was based upon an old country German observation regarding animals leaving their dens early. So these men woke up a hibernating groundhog just to determine if he saw his shadow, but more importantly, whether or not the shadow frightened him. If he hurried back to his burrow, it wasn’t because his sleep cycle was disturbed and humans were standing about, it was because “winter was still upon him”. That meant winter would last as long as winter generally lasts at that point on the calendar — another six weeks. But, if the groundhog wanted to sniff around and eat, then his hibernation period was ending anyway and winter was officially over. Oh what people do with time on their hands. lol

~❋~❋~❋~

Phraseology I often wonder where certain words and sayings come from. For the next few weeks this word collector will be examining some familiar phrases to get at their heart. I think you’ll be surprised.

The phrase for today is ~ As pure as the driven snow. Also phrased As white as the driven snow.

As far as similes go, this one is evocative, isn’t it?. But what does driven snow mean? Snow being blown by the wind is driven — the wind is driving it in the direction the wind is blowing. Snow blown into drifts stays off the beaten path remains untouched and clean. This exact phrase doesn’t make its way in print until the early 1800s. Despite this fact, the phrase is attributed to Shakespeare some 200 years before.  The Bard often used the white color of snow as a symbol of purity. Here’s an example from two of his works, the likely sources of today’s phrase: In The Winter’s Tale, Autolycus says: Lawn as white as driven snow. In Macbeth, Malcolm: Black Macbeth will seem as pure as snow.

So all clues say someone mixed a few of Shakespeare’s lines and gave us a recognizable phrase still in use today.

~❋~❋~❋~

Today is Author Polly McCrillis/Isabel Mere’s blog day. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is coming up. http://www.romancebooks4us.com

~❋~ If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A new year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~❋~ ~Coming Soon~

Fun Day Sunday & Weekend Happenings

If you’ve been here before then you know Sundays on my blog are all about wonder and smiles. In honor of mentally kicking back once in a while, Sundays are Fun Days! Each Sunday, visitors will find a fun, interesting, or unusual something here. I’m a nerd with a complex sense of humor and absurd wit. It could literally be anything.

Today I’m sharing a rather hypnotic clip of a potter and his potter’s wheel. I don’t know if the art in motion is the only point or the creations actually become fired plates/platters at the end. Either way, it’s compelling to watch. The artist’s name is Krugovorot.

❋❋❋
My Other Weekend Happenings

Weekend Writing Warriors

http://theancillarymuse.blogspot.com/

My Sexy Saturday & Sexy Snippets

http://calliopesotherwritingtablet.blogspot.com/

Sunday Snippet

**A promo op for you too!**

http://exquisitequills.blogspot.com/

❋❋❋

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

❋❋❋

Today is Author Nicole Morgan’s blog day. http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~

Our January contest is on and we have prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

❋❋❋❋❋

Hi-yo

Here’s a memory from yesteryear…

It all begins when the narrator cuts in smoothly: In the early days of the Western United States, a masked man and an Indian rode the plains, searching for truth and justice. Then the William Tell Overture comes on followed the rhythmic clomping of coconut-shell hoof beats. Finally we hear Hi-yo, Silver! Away!

Have enough clues?

:D

Today is the anniversary of an American icon. On this day in 1933, The Lone Ranger was broadcasted over radio for the very first time. An immediate success, the cowboy series ran approximately 3,000 episodes. It lasted more than 20 years, ending in 1951. The TV series with Jay Silverheels as Tonto and Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger, ran from 1949 to 1957. 

Though I have heard old radio broadcasts, a TV-less world was a little before my time. I remember the first TV episode where he cut his mask from his murdered brother’s leather vest and took his Texas Ranger star as his own. My memory is foggy on where Tonto comes in. I’m thinking either one or the other saved the other man’s life and they became companions after that. 

For my snowbound neighbors, here’s a winter radio episode from back in the day. Enjoy.



More~

Just for fun. How many sidekicks can you name?

http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/famoussidekicks

The Lone Ranger at the Smithsonian

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hi-yo-silver-away-51426976/

What the heck does Kemo Sabe mean?

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Phraseology

I often wonder where certain words and sayings come from. For the next few weeks this word collector will be examining some familiar phrases to get at their heart. I think you’ll be surprised.



The phrase for today is ~ Cliff-hanger

We understand cliff-hanger as a story or situation of dangling suspense.  In the early days of Hollywood, a lot of short melodramatic serials were done to encourage theater patrons to return each week to follow a story. That’s a lot of nickels. Serials such as the 1914 weekly installments of The Perils of Pauline drew returning fans because heroines were often left facing certain death — dangling from a fraying rope over crocodiles, hanging on the edge of a precipice, or tied to the railroad tracks as a train is seen or heard chugging in the background. (think Snidely Whiplash tying up Nell Fenwick) This suspenseful point in the serial was almost always at the end of the film and was always resolved in the next film in the series. The actual phrase shows up in 1936 in reference to one of these “cliff-hanger” serials.

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Today is Author Suzanne Rock’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is coming up. http://www.romancebooks4us.com

~❋~

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A new year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~❋~

~Coming Soon~

Deconstructing The Raven

One hundred and seventy years ago today, a moody writer published an iconic work. That writer was Edgar Allan Poe and the famous bit he crafted was The Raven. What I like about Edgar Allan Poe is his use of symbolism and metaphor. If you’ve been to my blog before, you know I just love that stuff.

It’s interesting to note that Poe was pretty much rejected by the literary circles of his time. Even critics who object to his subject matter admit he was a master of wordcraft. As a literary critic himself, he explained of his writing something he called the “unity of effect”, meaning every element of a story should help create a single emotional impact. Poe once explained the melancholy mood he imbued in The Raven. He designed it to “invariably excite the sensitive soul to tears.” It’s curious just how he did that. 

First off, he used the saddest subject in the world — the death of a love one. And who might be deeply affected by this death? A lover whose heart was broken by the loss. Every description he uses conveys this dark and sad lost love. For example, there are a lot of references to endings — midnight, December, and dying embers all refer to something coming to an end — one day to the next, the end of a year, the extinguishing fire. In one stanza he says a “…sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain…” Aside from the fact purple is a color of mourning, he intends for us to know the rustling curtains share the misery of the mourner. In other words, the sadness is so great, even the non-living things around him feel it. This is also conveyed in the storm howling outside.

An even more curious thing about his writing is the odd associations he makes. For example he once explained how he felt the “o” sound in nevermore was an extremely sad sound. So with exciting souls to tears as his goal, he repeated that “o” sound at the end of each stanza to drive home the sadness. Even nothing more and Lenore share that “o”.

On the creepier side of things, he put a single word into the mouth of a creature who doesn’t know the meaning of it. Quote the raven, “Nevermore”.  Creepy. But then he adds this touch– he puts the raven on top of the bust of Pallus — a goddess associated with wisdom.  The instant implication: that the repeated nevermore was actually spoken from wisdom. So all the while we read this poem and assume the raven knows something. In the end we discover the raven was just a mimicking bird.

It wasn’t until 1845 when The Raven was published that Edgar Allan Poe became a household name. In addition to writing some dark and macabre things, he championed the cause of higher wages for writers and pushed for an international copyright law. Way to go, Poe!

What a marvelous voice James Earl Jones has. I went to youtube to find someone reading The Raven to post here. (I was hoping to find Tom Hiddleston. I love that man’s voice.) I listened to Vincent Price, Christopher Walken, and Christopher Lee. All creepy in their own right. The Raven narrated in those iconic voices adds a whole other layer to Poe.

More~

This version of The Raven is generally accepted as the final version authorized by the author. And here’s a surprising number of variations to compare it with.

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Phraseology

I often wonder where certain words and sayings come from. For the next few weeks this word collector will be examining some familiar phrases to get at their heart. I think you’ll be surprised.



The phrase for today is ~A little bird told me

We recognize this phrase today as meaning I was told by a secret source. Shakespeare and various writers through the centuries have referenced birds as messengers. The origin is most likely Biblical. In Ecclesiastes 10-20 of the King James Bible, there’s a passage that says, Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

I don’t know…Carrier pigeons deliver messages too.

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Today is Author Sandra K. Marshall’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Our February contest is coming up. http://www.romancebooks4us.com

~❋~

If you enjoy my daily musings, subscribe to get them sent to your inbox, or if your inbox is as packed as mine is, check out the Networked Blogs tab on the right and get all the blogs you follow in one daily notice. A new year full of curious and compelling posts awaits!

Sample my scorching love stories for free!

~❋~

~Coming Soon~