Kurt Brindley's Blog, page 102
March 23, 2015
We Don’t Need No Education…
Reporting live from the University of Maryland campus
#uhmyeswesurelydo
Filed under: Photography Tagged: Alma mater, education, higher learning, knowledge, photography, University of Maryland
Want a Free Book? How About a Free Amazon FIRE HD Tablet?
.As for the free tablet, you need to head on over to my website to get the details on that. You can find them right here.
I would truly appreciate it if you would share this with your networks. :)
Write on and Good luck!
Kurt
I Would Like To Give You An Amazon FIRE HD Tablet… No, Really!
Ever since this blog started taking off last year I have been constantly trying to think of new and clever ways to show my appreciation for all the support and encouragement you all have given me. Nothing is more rewarding to me as a blogger than when I get to interact with one of you, which is the main reason why I set up the various features on this site. These features – Relating to Humans, the Residency Program, the IABS&R, and the Newsletter Love – provide me with the opportunity to meet and learn about many more of you than I would just through my blogging alone. I especially enjoy working with you for Guest Author posts.
Simply put – you all are awesome.
And to show my sincere appreciation for this awesomeness of yours, I am going to give away to one of you an Amazon FIRE HD Tablet, just like the one pictured.
Sound cool?
Oh yeah…
Unfortunately, my current financial profile does not allow me to give away a tablet to each and every one of you…though I sure wish it did.
However, it does allow me to give away one tablet to one of you.
Better than none of you, right?
In order to determine to whom the tablet shall be given, I guess the best way is to host a contest, of sort.
So here is what we’re gonna do…
I will have a random drawing – you know, pick a lucky winner’s name out of a hat kind of thing. More than likely it will be my favorite hat; the one you see me wearing in my profile picture.
But regardless which hat we use, there are, of course, some things you must do to qualify to be a valid contestant to get your name entered into the hat.
Additionally, there is a threshold that must be met before the drawing for the tablet can be held.
First, here are the things you must do in order to qualify to be a valid contestant to get your name entered into the drawing:
1. Purchase my book THE SEA TRIALS OF AN UNFORTUNATE SAILOR (don’t worry – I’m gonna give that away for free, too!)
2. Write an Amazon Review of THE SEA TRIALS OF AN UNFORTUNATE SAILOR. The review must be identified as a “Verified Purchase.”
3. Subscribe to our newsletter full of love.
4. Send me an email through my Contact page to let me know that you would like to have your name entered into the drawing and that all above prerequisites have been met.
That’s it. That’s all you have to do to qualify for the drawing.
Now, here is the threshold that must be met in order for the drawing for tablet to take place:
~ There must be fifty (50) valid contestants entered into the drawing by 11:59PM (EDST), Saturday, April 4, 2015.
If there are not fifty (50) valid contestants entered into the drawing by 11:59PM (EDST), Saturday, April 4, 2015, I will not give away a FIRE HD Tablet. We will still have a drawing regardless the number of valid contestants; however, the winner will receive a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card instead a FIRE HD Tablet.
The good news is, I am going to help ensure we meet that threshold because beginning midnight (PDST) tonight you can get THE SEA TRIALS OF AN UNFORTUNATE SAILOR for free until 11:59PM (PDST) Wednesday, March 25, 2015.
And the even better news is, I am going to give you an opportunity to increase your odds of winning the tablet. Provided you have already written a “Verified Purchase” review of THE SEA TRIALS OF AN UNFORTUNATE SAILOR, I will enter your name into the hat for each additional “Verified Purchase” review you write for my other three offerings I have available at Amazon. These three are:
POEMS FROM THE RIVER
HERCULES GONE MAD: PART ONE
LEAVE: A SHORT STORY
In other words, the more “Verified Purchase” reviews of my Amazon offerings you write, the greater your chance of winning will be. You must send me an email for each valid review that you write, as the names for the drawing will be collected from the emails that I receive.
But remember, for your name to be entered for the other three offerings, you must first write an Amazon Review of THE SEA TRIALS OF AN UNFORTUNATE SAILOR and the review must be identified as a “Verified Purchase.”
It doesn’t matter where in the world you live. As long as you meet all requirements, which means you must first have an authorized Amazon account, I will ship the tablet to you wherever you are if you were to win.
To announce the winner, I will record a video of me drawing the winning name out of my lucky (and somewhat yucky) favorite hat and send it out via our Newsletter Love. I will make this announcement Monday evening, April 6, 2015.
I sure hope you win because I really do appreciate your support of my efforts here and I would just love to give you a tablet to prove it.
But hey, even if I am not able to give you a tablet as a show of my appreciation, at least I am able to give you a free copy of my novel.
Better than nothing, right?
Right?
Amazon United States
Amazon WorldWide
Please help me give you or someone else a free FIRE HD Tablet by sharing this contest (of sort) announcement via Twitter, Facebook, and all the other social networks you and your friends hang out at.
Thanks so much and good luck!
Contest rules are subject to change at any time. Contest may be cancelled at any time without cause or notice and comes without any promises, guarantees, or warranties of any sort, either written or implied. Contestants may be disqualified from the contest without cause or notice. Kurt Brindley’s family members and close friends are not eligible to win.
Filed under: Reviews Tagged: #iamthatiam, abundance, Amazon, Amazon Fire HD Tablet, authors, books reviews, contests, giveaways, Indie Authors, novels, poetry, reviews, short stories, writing
March 22, 2015
The Horse Apocalypse
March 21, 2015
Moments Eternal
the fleeting moment
it comes, alack, then ’tis gone
’tis gone forever
~
but then comes the moment next
to make the last eternal
Filed under: Photography Tagged: eternity, landscapes, memories, metaphors, nature, nature photography, photography, poetry, spirituality, sunrise, tanka, time, writing
Let’s give it a go, shall we…
I wasn’t planning on committing myself to another IABS&R round just yet; however, I made the mistake of picking up Indie Author J. Hardy Carroll’s novel HAWSER to casually leaf through it during a rare fit of nothing-to-do-ness. Well, you know how it goes – one thing page led to another and before I knew it I was hooked. Carroll gives us a very strong opening that pulled me right into the vibe of the story.
So, since there’s not much chance that I am not going to read Carroll’s book, we might as well go ahead and make it all official-like and call this the official IABS&R VOLUME 3 KICK-OFF post and away we go…
Any books that mysteriously appear in my post office box henceforth will be shelved until we complete this round and move on to IABS&R Volume 4.
I know, I know…I still have essays to write from my first commitment to Emerson. But, as I am not going to do any further Emerson reading until I feel I’ve said all I have to say about Nature, I am in need of something to read (other than the gore and bore of the daily news) so Carroll’s apparently interesting novel fills that void nicely.
If anyone else has reviewed or intends to review HAWSER, please let me know. I’d like to check it out and maybe reblog it here.
Righto, then. Off I go…
Wish me luck!
(It better be good, JHC…)
IABS&R Volume 3 Announcement
hawesescapes.com>
Amazon
Filed under: Books Tagged: authors, book reviews, books, Hawser, IABS&R, IABS&R Volume 3, Indie Author Book Selection & Review, Indie Authors, John Hardy Carroll, novels, pilots, reviews, war, World War II
March 20, 2015
Every Season’s End
every season’s end
draws veil over dreams of old
to reveal the new
Filed under: Photography Tagged: beginnings, endings, haiku, landscapes, metaphors, nature photography, photography, poetry, seasons, Senryū, spring, winter, writing, 俳句
March 19, 2015
Lean On Me
Zeno (The Watcher) & Aurelius (The Pillow)
Filed under: Photography Tagged: abundance, Aurelius, brothers, dogs, family, pets, photography, puppies, puppy photography, Zeno
March 18, 2015
MAD ABOUT THE VERSE – A Guest Author Post by Rose Red
This blog rewards me in so many wonderful ways. The most wonderful way is when, through it, I get to meet new and different and interesting and motivating authors and poets and artists of all sorts who inspire me through their artistry and temperament to want to not just continue on here, but to continue on here with bigger and better and more inclusive endeavors.
Through her kind and encouraging feedback to the work I’ve published here and in book format, and, more importantly, through her own poetic example, Rose Red of geletilari.wordpress.com has had such a powerful suasion on me, and I am happy to be able to thank her publicly for her support and her artistic example.
And I am just as happy, and honored, to be able to present to you Rose Red’s highly interesting and inspiring guest post. I ask that you please take the time to visit with her at her site and enjoy her artistry and insight as I have.
Mad about the Verse
by Rose Red
I am passionate about poetry. When did this begin? I wonder if it ever wasn’t. I think about the books I read when I first started reading at 4 years old. They were lyrical. There was rhyme. There was imagery. I recall great allegories, analogies, rhymes and fancies, with Dr. Seuss at the forefront. My mother would sign up for book promotions at the grocery store or through the mail. The first book was free, or inexpensive, then she would buy them one by one until we had the entire set. But, I was going to talk about being a poet, about writing poems. Yes, but reading is first, at the heart of it all. That is the passion we follow, reading and seeing words assembled in a way that makes us feel something. I have no words to express this as well as my old companion and favourite poet from my youth, Emily Dickinson. I was enamoured and mystified by her poetry. It broke every rule, and told so much.
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold
no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically
as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.
These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?
Emily Dickinson
This is what she said about poetry, that great love of my life. Good poems, right? No, she did not define in terms of good and bad. Her definition was at its heart. Feeling. When you have passion, the words delight. They incite action. They make you smile, laugh, grin, guffaw. Like being in love, you can also be in hate, you can be angry, disappointed, elated, surprised, engulfed. In Noël Coward’s play, “The Astonished Heart”, that subsequently became a film, Christian Faber, at a particularly low point, describes himself as being ‘submerged’. Have words ever made you feel submerged?
I have this overwhelming desire (need?) to figure out what I feel and put it out there. Some call it narcissism. Perhaps it is at its core. But, as time goes on, I find myself wanting to share it, just give it away. I want the kudos at times, yes. Let’s get that out of the way now. I don’t think about that while writing though. Like that lover we spoke of, I am true to her. I write what is inside, making that attempt to bring to the surface what is lurking beneath. If someone else can relate to it, the gratification is immense. I am not alone. If I was alone on that proverbial desert island, I still believe that I would tell my story. I would be sitting by a palm tree, telling it my life and loves.
So, is this passion no more than a great need to analyze myself on that great shrink couch of life, then unleash my psychoses on the world? Do I just want to hear others agree with me? My husband does not get a vote here. But I do think that at its center there is a desire to be heard and understood that is innate to all of us. Not everyone wants to pick it apart and describe it, comparing it to a fig leaf, a dog, or a cloudy day. So what makes me, and other poets different?
If you are passionate about these words, you scribble on anything that can be scribbled on. I heard that John Cougar Mellencamp wrote the first lyrics of “Hurts So Good” on the shower door with a bar of soap. I’ve written on envelopes, menus, pages of a crossword puzzle book, the margin of the crossword page in the newspaper, my hand, and a program from a music recital, among other things. Often the music will inspire words and I am afraid I will forget them.
I am yet to be paid for anything I have written. So what good is it? I will tell you what poetry has done for me. It has saved my life, more than once. It has allowed me to connect with strangers, more times than I can count. It has allowed me a new connection with my children, to tell them how I feel in a special way that is a gift only for them. It gives me a media to use in prayer to God, when I feel afraid and like I can’t pray, and words fail me aloud. I start writing and it just flows out of me, all the pain, the worry, the questions, and the doubts.
I started writing poetry at 9 years old. It is hard to say if it first came from a joyful place or a dark place. I was living in a dark place at home, but I think the poems were joyful because I loved school and Sunday School. There were teachers that were kind to me. I got a respect I did not get at home and I liked it. I have in my cedar chest the first poems I wrote, or at least the first ones preserved, from 4th grade. They are mostly about God or my dog. As time went on, they became clouded. I was confused about my folks taking me to church and then showing indifference, unkindness, and neglect at home. I couldn’t reconcile it all. I can’t say why I wrote them. Maybe they were for school at first? I have always written from that point on. In 5th grade I had a teacher that encouraged my creative side. She showed me poems of her own and gave me a part in the school play. In high school that darkness reached a dangerous place and nearly a deadly place. But I had a few adults in my life and a couple of friends moving in and out of my sphere that would help me not to give up. My senior year I wrote poems for the fledgling school paper and for the church bulletin. The little bits of praise I received were immeasurable in terms of self worth. But it was more. What touched me was when someone would say it made them feel something. Wow. What a rush.
About that time, my mother brought me a typewriter. I look back at that act of love in a time that we were very poor and I know it showed that she loved me. I wrote this in her memory last year.
Sometimes the words flow like water
From my finger tips and from my mind
I don’t even try because to try is to alter
Genuine heart-felt stone cold feelings.
But this morning at four a.m. my mind
Is on you Mom and I open up my typewriter
You bought for me 33 years ago at Sears
Because I need a little something to make me go.
I needed a boost, though you weren’t always so good at that-
But there was this time when you noticed me, my poetry
And that was what drove me on and you bought it for me
Said I’d need it, and it meant everything, you know.
Did you know that? Me, the beggar girl
And you gave it to me and I did not have to ask.
Mom our life memories are full of scars and I am
Starting to forgive you when I remember
We went through triage together.
As I have moved through various stages of adulthood and parenthood, I discovered that my words were something that could grow with me, and give me a voice. I often felt crossed off and invisible. I can live without fame or money. Just don’t take away my words. Don’t take the one thing intrinsically mine. It is a means of communication. When you are out of options, you are not out of options. Write. Talk about it. Show it to someone. Read their words. Listen. Share. It is something that will change your life.
I don’t get hung up on format as I think there are as many ways to express a thought as there are people. I enjoy paying attention to meter and form, and I like working over the words and making my thoughts fit into a frame without losing their meaning. But if by doing so I will lose the feeling and deeper meaning, I just keep the words flowing in free verse. I am allowed. I have a poetic license.
Filed under: Writing Tagged: authors, Guest Authors, Indie Authors, inspiration, memoirs, music, Poetic License, poetry, poets, Rose Red, storytelling, writing
March 17, 2015
Rejoice The Way
rejoice the clouds dark
rejoice the pathways shadowed
rejoice, yea rejoice
Filed under: Photography, 俳句 Tagged: clouds, haiku, metaphors, nature, photography, poetry, spiritually, writing
