Cheryl Snell's Blog, page 51
November 14, 2010
Whale Sound
... in which I give Nic Sebastian a little feedback on her audio project, Whale Sound. Look for her new project, an audio chapbook series, coming soon.
November 12, 2010
November 10, 2010
Author Spotlight
I'm in the Spotlight at Reviewers Roundup today. Lucky I'm not the shy type...
Two Versions of the Same Folktale
HOW THE CHIPMUNK GOT THE STRIPES ON ITS BACK.
DO you all know the little striped chipmunk which lives in our woods? He has a cousin in far off India called the geloori.It is said the stripes came on the back of the geloori in a wonderful way.
One day the great Shiva saw a little gray chipmunk on the seashore.He was dipping his bushy tail into the sea, and shaking out the water on the shore.Twenty times a minute he dipped it into the ocean.
In wonder, Shiva said, "What are you doing, little foolish, gray, geloori? Why do you tire yourself with such hard labor?"
The geloori answered, "I cannot stop, great Shiva.The storm blew down the palm tree, where I built my nest. See! the tree has fallen seaward, and the nest lies in the water; my wife and pretty children are in it; I fear that it will float away. Therefore all day and all night I must dip the water from the sea. I hope soon to bale it dry.I must save my darlings even if I spoil my tail."
Shiva stooped and with his great hand stroked the little squirrel.
On the geloori's soft fur from his nose to the end of his tail, there came four green stripes! They were the marks of Shiva's fingers, placed there as signs of love.
Shiva raised his hand, and the water rolled back from the shore. Safe among the rocks and seaweeds, the palm tree lay on dry land.
The little squirrel hastened to it; his tail was now high in the air. He found his wife and children dry and well in their house of woven grass-blades.As they sang their welcomes to him, the geloori noticed with delight that each smooth little back was striped with marks of Shiva's fingers.
This sign of love is still to be seen upon the back of chipmunks.That is the reason why in India, good men never kill them.
A man who loves both children and chipmunks says, when he tells this story, "Perhaps our squirrels, though Shiva never stroked them, would be grateful if we left them, unharmed, to play in the maples in our woods." (from Project Gutenberg)
DO you all know the little striped chipmunk which lives in our woods? He has a cousin in far off India called the geloori.It is said the stripes came on the back of the geloori in a wonderful way.
One day the great Shiva saw a little gray chipmunk on the seashore.He was dipping his bushy tail into the sea, and shaking out the water on the shore.Twenty times a minute he dipped it into the ocean.
In wonder, Shiva said, "What are you doing, little foolish, gray, geloori? Why do you tire yourself with such hard labor?"
The geloori answered, "I cannot stop, great Shiva.The storm blew down the palm tree, where I built my nest. See! the tree has fallen seaward, and the nest lies in the water; my wife and pretty children are in it; I fear that it will float away. Therefore all day and all night I must dip the water from the sea. I hope soon to bale it dry.I must save my darlings even if I spoil my tail."
Shiva stooped and with his great hand stroked the little squirrel.
On the geloori's soft fur from his nose to the end of his tail, there came four green stripes! They were the marks of Shiva's fingers, placed there as signs of love.
Shiva raised his hand, and the water rolled back from the shore. Safe among the rocks and seaweeds, the palm tree lay on dry land.
The little squirrel hastened to it; his tail was now high in the air. He found his wife and children dry and well in their house of woven grass-blades.As they sang their welcomes to him, the geloori noticed with delight that each smooth little back was striped with marks of Shiva's fingers.
This sign of love is still to be seen upon the back of chipmunks.That is the reason why in India, good men never kill them.
A man who loves both children and chipmunks says, when he tells this story, "Perhaps our squirrels, though Shiva never stroked them, would be grateful if we left them, unharmed, to play in the maples in our woods." (from Project Gutenberg)
November 7, 2010
Biberman Reviews Shiva's Arms
Thanks to Matthew Biberman for this wonderful review.
Currently a professor of English at the University of Louisville, Dr. Biberman teaches and publishes on a wide range of literature, most often British Literature from Shakespeare to the Romantics along with contemporary Theory. He also works as a motorcycle mechanic, doing restoration work, most often on British motorcycles, especially Vincents. He is the author of Big Sid's Vincati: The story of a father, a son and the bike of a lifetime (Hudson St. Press, 2009).
Currently a professor of English at the University of Louisville, Dr. Biberman teaches and publishes on a wide range of literature, most often British Literature from Shakespeare to the Romantics along with contemporary Theory. He also works as a motorcycle mechanic, doing restoration work, most often on British motorcycles, especially Vincents. He is the author of Big Sid's Vincati: The story of a father, a son and the bike of a lifetime (Hudson St. Press, 2009).
November 6, 2010
Rescuing Ranu is now on Kindle
My second novel, Rescuing Ranu, is now available on Kindle. I'm still not sure about the logic of selling a book it took three years to write for $3.99 in the Amazon Kindle Store, but all the kids are doing it, and maybe you want to, also. To edit your word doc source file for electronic readers, here are the basic steps I followed:
• Click on the pilcrow (it looks like a backward "P") on the Home: paragraph section of the toolbar. This activates the Show/Hide function and lets you see all the formatting marks in your manuscript.
• Delete headers and footers and page numbers. Those carefully chose page borders must go, too.
• Eliminate page and section breaks, as well as text boxes. The idea is to create continuous reflowable text from the title page to the three asterisks that signal the end of the book.
• Turn off Auto Format. Choose Normal (in Styles) and use a plain font like Times New Roman.
• Do not use tabs or spaces for indents. Click on Paragraph and set your Indentation at less than .5 inch, with 0 pt. for your Before and After in the Spacing section.
• Save file as HTML or Web Page
• Sign in to the Digital Text Platform with your Amazon account, and upload away!
