Mia Castile's Blog, page 7
September 10, 2011
I will never forget
September 11, 2001
I remember. . .
that I was eight months pregnant with my beautiful daughter, and on bed rest. nothing fit me, I waddled when I walked, was in my first year of marriage, and saving to purchase a home. I woke up that Tuesday morning preparing for a day of soap operas and day time talk shows, but only found I was coming into the Today show just after the first plane had crashed into the the tower. (I usually caught the last hour of the today show.) I watched the second crash and frantically tried to reach my husband, or my sister, my dad, or my grandmother. No one answered the phone and I was panicked. I lived thirty minutes away from my family and I wasn't allowed to drive, so instead of driving over to their house, I blew up their phones. I cried, I freaked out, I questioned what kind of world was I bringing my daughter into? What kind of world did I live in? I prayed, for all the souls lost, and the souls left behind in shambles.
that the silence in the sky that followed was like nothing I had ever seen before or since. It was surreal, almost as if we lived in a parallel universe where America really had enemies. Before the attacks it was just a story on the news. After the attacks it was real, the victims had faces, names, stories, and then we heard about the people, who were stuck in traffic, overslept, missed their flight, and the expressions on their face of disbelief, that "that could have been me."
that it was a different world, we had a different outlook, and it changed us. We grew up fast, and learned that the world can change in an instance. I'm proud to be an american, and will honor those who have passed on.
I will never forget...
I remember. . .
that I was eight months pregnant with my beautiful daughter, and on bed rest. nothing fit me, I waddled when I walked, was in my first year of marriage, and saving to purchase a home. I woke up that Tuesday morning preparing for a day of soap operas and day time talk shows, but only found I was coming into the Today show just after the first plane had crashed into the the tower. (I usually caught the last hour of the today show.) I watched the second crash and frantically tried to reach my husband, or my sister, my dad, or my grandmother. No one answered the phone and I was panicked. I lived thirty minutes away from my family and I wasn't allowed to drive, so instead of driving over to their house, I blew up their phones. I cried, I freaked out, I questioned what kind of world was I bringing my daughter into? What kind of world did I live in? I prayed, for all the souls lost, and the souls left behind in shambles.
that the silence in the sky that followed was like nothing I had ever seen before or since. It was surreal, almost as if we lived in a parallel universe where America really had enemies. Before the attacks it was just a story on the news. After the attacks it was real, the victims had faces, names, stories, and then we heard about the people, who were stuck in traffic, overslept, missed their flight, and the expressions on their face of disbelief, that "that could have been me."
that it was a different world, we had a different outlook, and it changed us. We grew up fast, and learned that the world can change in an instance. I'm proud to be an american, and will honor those who have passed on.
I will never forget...
August 25, 2011
Generations I: Book of Enlightenment
The Official Generations I Book Trailer is here.
Ellie Solomon has always been sort of a loner. Between her brother (who is the only family she has left) and a few friends (that are more his friends than hers) she lives a boring life. The one person she confides in is her Guardian Angel who visits her dreams. He is her best friend, too bad he's not real. When strange wolves with red eyes begin chasing her one evening, a mysterious boy and his dog saves her, catapulting her into the secret of her parents fate and who she really is. Together, with her new friends she embarks on a journey that leads her to the destiny of her Generation.
Ellie Solomon has always been sort of a loner. Between her brother (who is the only family she has left) and a few friends (that are more his friends than hers) she lives a boring life. The one person she confides in is her Guardian Angel who visits her dreams. He is her best friend, too bad he's not real. When strange wolves with red eyes begin chasing her one evening, a mysterious boy and his dog saves her, catapulting her into the secret of her parents fate and who she really is. Together, with her new friends she embarks on a journey that leads her to the destiny of her Generation.
August 10, 2011
Pebbles
Walking down this road,I dropped pebbles by the side,Every time I thought about you.Sometimes, a smile across my face,Sometimes, embarrassed by my mistakes,Sometimes, it just seemed like the right time.
This road it twists and turns,There are peaks so very high, Valleys that dip deep and very low,Sometimes, I wonder how far I have to go.Sometimes, I stray from the path,Sometimes, I realize, I can't read the map.
Walking down this road,I look back to where I've been,I see milestones all along the way,Sometimes, pebbles seem so small,Sometimes, they were life changing, after all,Sometimes, stones have a life all of their own.
This road twisted and turned,And the lessons I have learned,Have given me memories I can't replace,Sometimes, a smile on my face,Sometimes, embarrassed by my mistakes,But it all just seems to happen at the right time.
July 10, 2011
Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award
I was honored to be nominated for The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award by D.F. Matthews of Reesloveofwriting.blogspot.com.
http://reesloveofwriting.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-sweet-is-this.html
Part of the nomination is sharing 7 facts about myself and nominating some other blogs that I enjoy. so here goes.
1. I am addicted to peanut butter. more than chocolate, more than cake, peanut butter is my weakness.
2. I sometimes talk my kids into watching cartoons downstairs so I have an excuse to watch them too. I think they might be onto me though.
3. I like to write either late at night when the house is quiet, or when I first get up and my mind is well rested.
4. I sing to my kids as if our life were a musical. I sing to them when they are in a bad mood too, until they laugh because it's the only way I know to cheer them up.
5. My favorite fruit used to be strawberries, but now it is cherries.
6. I love dogs, especially tiny ones and huge ones that could knock you over.
7. Now Playing on my Ipod: Nicki Minaj Dear Old Nicki
And now I will nominate some great blogs for this award
1. www.klearsreviews.blogspot.com
2. www.wovenstrands.wordpress.com
3. www.wordluster.blogspot.com
4. www.reading2alba.tumbler.com
5. www.leahplozano.blogspot.com
6. www.jmann32.blogspot.com
7. www.allieburke.blogspot.com
8. www.tymothylongoria.blogspot.com
With this nomination come duties. 1st, share some facts about yourself, and 2nd, nominate some great blogs too.
July 5, 2011
I had them in stitches.
I firmly believe that every experience can be a learning experience. Just today I had a minor surgery that required anesthesia. Don't ask me what I had done please, just know it wasn't cosmetic and was medically vital. J Anesthesiologist and the narcotic concoctions they mix up can be a lot of fun. So here are today's lessons, that I will share with you free of charge.
1. Do not insist that the book is called Water for Elements. When under drugs assume the other person is correct.2. Do not attempt to blog. I repeat, do not attempt to blog.3. When texting friends realize and appreciate that you will gush of how much you love them. Accept it.4. Forgive yourself for telling the nurse and the other nurses how pretty her eyes are, especially when "She" is a large man in his fifties. This coincides with #3.5. Have someone there to help you sort out your medicine once you get home. You CAN NOT do math heavily sedated.6. Do not insist to a friend you have a "gross but funny" story to tell them. You will realize later it was very much gross, and nowhere near funny.7. Telling time is next to impossible, so instead of trying to be smart, just ask someone what time it is.8. Understand that you may not feel the pain now, but you will when the I.V. meds wear off, don't be a hero, take the prescribed dose.9. It might not be best to tell those checking up on you how you really feel in descriptors. Use expressions like "rough" "extremely sore" or "a lot of pain but hanging in there" and stay away from dog excrement analogies.10. Did I mention you probably shouldn't blog?
Life lessons are always good to have around. Hope you learned from mine, class dismissed.
1. Do not insist that the book is called Water for Elements. When under drugs assume the other person is correct.2. Do not attempt to blog. I repeat, do not attempt to blog.3. When texting friends realize and appreciate that you will gush of how much you love them. Accept it.4. Forgive yourself for telling the nurse and the other nurses how pretty her eyes are, especially when "She" is a large man in his fifties. This coincides with #3.5. Have someone there to help you sort out your medicine once you get home. You CAN NOT do math heavily sedated.6. Do not insist to a friend you have a "gross but funny" story to tell them. You will realize later it was very much gross, and nowhere near funny.7. Telling time is next to impossible, so instead of trying to be smart, just ask someone what time it is.8. Understand that you may not feel the pain now, but you will when the I.V. meds wear off, don't be a hero, take the prescribed dose.9. It might not be best to tell those checking up on you how you really feel in descriptors. Use expressions like "rough" "extremely sore" or "a lot of pain but hanging in there" and stay away from dog excrement analogies.10. Did I mention you probably shouldn't blog?
Life lessons are always good to have around. Hope you learned from mine, class dismissed.
June 27, 2011
An excerpt from Analogy of My Heart Volume 1
My Retrospect
I smiled when you told me you loved me,I cried when you said there was no way,I was content when you held me,I was demanding when you said you couldn't stay.
I sighed when you spoke of forever,I laughed when you tried to be serious,I was sad when you said "Goodbye forever",I was alone when my tears came delirious.
I spoke softly when you came back to me,I broke my will that said not to let you stay,I was broken hearted when I realized you couldn't be,I was alone when my dream went away.
My life moves on as the sands fall through the glass,And my most joyous times you were not there.Yet I still remember those nights that should have lasted,Those are the days that I hold dear.
June 22, 2011
The Abandoned Letter
La fin. El Final. The end.
I stand on the steps of the monument and just stare up at the black night, my breath a red fog in the frigid air. What is an end but simply another beginning? I know by releasing her from my heart, I will be free and able to live with a clear conscious. I close my eyes and envision stars above the smog that has canopied the city. I can almost see them, clear and shining. I wish I could go there, far away, and watch the human ants scurry about their busy days. But that is not my fate, not tonight. I grip the letter in my hand. The envelope yellowed, from all the days that I fingered it, and held it; willing myself to open it just to be sure those were the words I wrote that cool afternoon. I wondered if she would still remember that day. My mother and I had that huge fight, and both said things we didn't mean. Dishes broke, doors slammed, and footsteps creaked up the stairs. I cried in the kitchen; I cried while wrote her this letter. I sealed and stuffed it in a drawer to hide it from her. It's fitting that today is New Year's Eve, the epitome of all the clichés of starting over. I don't think I could do this if it wasn't a resolution though. So I place the letter on the monument and turn to walk back to my car, providing myself the finality I need.
I'd spent days crying, I couldn't believe that she'd left. She never left me alone for this long. I felt lost, empty; I was abandoned, regardless of the reason. Then, like it was any other day, she silently appeared in the great room and smiled at me. It wasn't a memory or my imagination; she was there. "What are we going to fix for dinner?" she asked like she hadn't been gone for months. "I already ate," I stammered as my heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. My mom sat down on the couch beside me and didn't say anything at all. We sat like that for hours. I watched the sun cast shadows from one side of the wall to the other. Then finally I felt her arms around me, cold. My body reacted with shivers, goosebumps and all the tiny hairs standing on ends. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't return the embrace. "I'm sorry," she said as she tried to hold me close to her, much like she did when I was a child. After that, things seemed to return to a new normal. We spoke in passing, not about anything too deep. I'd mumble under my breath, but she always seemed to hear me answering with a distant voice from another room. I wondered if she were reading my mind; answering me before I spoke. She came back different with anger that became unbearable. I felt as if I was a child again, and making all the mistakes I did as a little girl, hiding my dirty hands under my skirt; so she wouldn't make me go wash them before dinner. That was when I decided to try to talk to her about letting me go; I'd told her goodbye once already. Then we had our fight, and she did the worse thing she could ever do to me, she ignored me.
I thought the worse day of my life was when I rushed her to the hospital. She had been in bed for days coughing and wheezing as I gave her medicine much like she were the child and I was the mother. The doctor told me that if the symptoms worsened to go to the emergency room. They worsened and I rushed her to the hospital. She winced in agonizing pain every time she coughed terrifying me. They took her right in giving us a room immediately. Pneumonia, not just pneumonia, but double pneumonia; and the infection had spread to the blood. Within hours she was on a ventilator. Suddenly, the days slowed down, with minutes ticking to a crawl, giving us a brief reprieve from the inevitable. I shared my fears, hopes and wishes in those final hours. She never woke up; and I buried her in the cemetery on the wooded hill we rode by so many times during our life together.
I feel a stirring as I now stand outside my car. It's like she knows that I have to move on, just as she will, too. I don't know if heaven is as beautiful as they say; once she lets go of me she will be able to finally rest. I hope that one day I will get to see her again and I'll tell her of my adventures, and she will tell me of hers.
I stand on the steps of the monument and just stare up at the black night, my breath a red fog in the frigid air. What is an end but simply another beginning? I know by releasing her from my heart, I will be free and able to live with a clear conscious. I close my eyes and envision stars above the smog that has canopied the city. I can almost see them, clear and shining. I wish I could go there, far away, and watch the human ants scurry about their busy days. But that is not my fate, not tonight. I grip the letter in my hand. The envelope yellowed, from all the days that I fingered it, and held it; willing myself to open it just to be sure those were the words I wrote that cool afternoon. I wondered if she would still remember that day. My mother and I had that huge fight, and both said things we didn't mean. Dishes broke, doors slammed, and footsteps creaked up the stairs. I cried in the kitchen; I cried while wrote her this letter. I sealed and stuffed it in a drawer to hide it from her. It's fitting that today is New Year's Eve, the epitome of all the clichés of starting over. I don't think I could do this if it wasn't a resolution though. So I place the letter on the monument and turn to walk back to my car, providing myself the finality I need.
I'd spent days crying, I couldn't believe that she'd left. She never left me alone for this long. I felt lost, empty; I was abandoned, regardless of the reason. Then, like it was any other day, she silently appeared in the great room and smiled at me. It wasn't a memory or my imagination; she was there. "What are we going to fix for dinner?" she asked like she hadn't been gone for months. "I already ate," I stammered as my heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. My mom sat down on the couch beside me and didn't say anything at all. We sat like that for hours. I watched the sun cast shadows from one side of the wall to the other. Then finally I felt her arms around me, cold. My body reacted with shivers, goosebumps and all the tiny hairs standing on ends. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't return the embrace. "I'm sorry," she said as she tried to hold me close to her, much like she did when I was a child. After that, things seemed to return to a new normal. We spoke in passing, not about anything too deep. I'd mumble under my breath, but she always seemed to hear me answering with a distant voice from another room. I wondered if she were reading my mind; answering me before I spoke. She came back different with anger that became unbearable. I felt as if I was a child again, and making all the mistakes I did as a little girl, hiding my dirty hands under my skirt; so she wouldn't make me go wash them before dinner. That was when I decided to try to talk to her about letting me go; I'd told her goodbye once already. Then we had our fight, and she did the worse thing she could ever do to me, she ignored me.
I thought the worse day of my life was when I rushed her to the hospital. She had been in bed for days coughing and wheezing as I gave her medicine much like she were the child and I was the mother. The doctor told me that if the symptoms worsened to go to the emergency room. They worsened and I rushed her to the hospital. She winced in agonizing pain every time she coughed terrifying me. They took her right in giving us a room immediately. Pneumonia, not just pneumonia, but double pneumonia; and the infection had spread to the blood. Within hours she was on a ventilator. Suddenly, the days slowed down, with minutes ticking to a crawl, giving us a brief reprieve from the inevitable. I shared my fears, hopes and wishes in those final hours. She never woke up; and I buried her in the cemetery on the wooded hill we rode by so many times during our life together.
I feel a stirring as I now stand outside my car. It's like she knows that I have to move on, just as she will, too. I don't know if heaven is as beautiful as they say; once she lets go of me she will be able to finally rest. I hope that one day I will get to see her again and I'll tell her of my adventures, and she will tell me of hers.
June 20, 2011
Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books than Print Books
Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.
"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly - we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com. Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
*from KDP Newsletter
Confidence
Confident, they think I'm confident.Have I got news for them!I changed my dress 5 times and still don't like it;I fuss over my hair and try to hide it.I hold my head high so I won't get lost,And tell others to be strong inspite--"Learn from my mistakes"
If I could do that I'd be rich.Confidence is a state of mind.If you think I'm confident tell me whenSo I can continue to act like that.I can learn from your mistakesAnd lead the way to confidence.Confident. they think I'm confident.
June 17, 2011
The Ocean Blog Tour
Thank you to everyone who participated in the blog tour this week, Emma for organizing it and reviewing The Ocean; Kayleigh for interviewing me and reviewing my novel; and Phanee and Lesley for providing parts of an excerpt. This was my first blog tour and it was a great success. It was a pleasure working with you wonderful ladies. If you missed any of the stops the blogs are listed below, follow them and comment on the posts to show your support.
Kay @ K-Books: http://kayleigh-m-books.blogspot.com/ (Interview)
Phanee @ Funny Wool: http://funny-wool.blogspot.com/ (Book Excerpt) Emma @ BelleBooks: http://bellebooksx.blogspot.com/ (Review) Lesley @ My Keeper Shelf http://mykeepershelf.blogspot.com/ (Book Excerpt)
We are running a scavenger hunt for the tour. the first three people who leave a comment with the code phrase will win an e-book of The Ocean. the final part of the code is the following:
"helping me."
Good Luck :)
I will be promoting a couple new projects over the next few months.
Analogy of My Heart Volume 1 was released Tuesday for only .99. It is a mixture of poetry that I have written over the years, and I hope those who read it enjoy it.
Generations, my debut paranormal series will be release this coming October. I will be sharing more information about it in the coming months.
Thank you for being a part of my journey.
Love, Mia
Kay @ K-Books: http://kayleigh-m-books.blogspot.com/ (Interview)
Phanee @ Funny Wool: http://funny-wool.blogspot.com/ (Book Excerpt) Emma @ BelleBooks: http://bellebooksx.blogspot.com/ (Review) Lesley @ My Keeper Shelf http://mykeepershelf.blogspot.com/ (Book Excerpt)
We are running a scavenger hunt for the tour. the first three people who leave a comment with the code phrase will win an e-book of The Ocean. the final part of the code is the following:
"helping me."
Good Luck :)
I will be promoting a couple new projects over the next few months.
Analogy of My Heart Volume 1 was released Tuesday for only .99. It is a mixture of poetry that I have written over the years, and I hope those who read it enjoy it.
Generations, my debut paranormal series will be release this coming October. I will be sharing more information about it in the coming months.
Thank you for being a part of my journey.
Love, Mia
