D.G. Kaye's Blog, page 168
June 13, 2015
Great Advice To Writers, From Writers | The Literacy Site Blog
The Literacy site is a great place to find various articles about writing. I chose this post to reblog to enlighten writers by reading what some well-known writers have to say about the craft.
“Be true to yourself and to the culture you were born into. Tell your story as only you can tell it.”
WILLIAM ZINSSER
Read more at http://blog.theliteracysite.com/great-advice-to-writers/#bhsjjTugoDICVQIE.99
“Great Advice To Writers, From Writers
The Literacy SiteThe writing process is something only other writers understand. For those days when the inspiration just isn’t coming, here are a few quotes that will inspire you to keep at it — from a few people who have been there.”
Read more at http://blog.theliteracysite.com
Great Advice To Writers, From Writers | The Literacy Site Blog.
June 10, 2015
The New “I Am” . . . Series
I’ve been thinking of a new series to post and occasionally when I have spare writing time, or, if I have the dreaded writer’s block, I turn to my favourite writing book by Natalie Goldberg, “Old Friend from Far Away.” This is a wonderful compilation of writing teachings, as well a great book of writing prompts given to stimulate our creativity. The prompts in this series relate to ” I am thinking of, I am remembering, etc. I think you get the drift.
These are exercises to get our creative juices flowing and prompt us to write about the first thing that comes to our mind in a five or ten minute writing allowance time. The idea is to keep the pen flowing, without stopping to second-guess your thoughts. We start out writing about something in particular, and we then let the thought carry on to wherever it may lead.
Some of you may remember I wrote a post about a year ago based on these writing prompts, titled The Pink Basket. If you’d like to read it, here is the link http://dgkayewriter.com/pink-basket/
I have a few pages of these writings that are waiting to be shared. It’s interesting to find that whatever happens to be hanging our around our subconscious at the time of writing, becomes a story.
Todays post is about, I am Thinking about a Suitcase
As I took stock of the state of my luggage, in preparation for my next vacation, I realized the ravaged condition of the zipper and the frayed corners of my suitcase from the numerous whippings it had taken through the careless attitudes of luggage handlers at numerous airports I had traveled through.
I remember the many trips now, my mother took without me as a child, and how I’d cry myself to sleep in her absence. She was barely ever home, as her life was an eternal mission to seek fun and adventure, and attention from others.
I had yet to realize these things about my mother, being that I was only about seven at the time. I had yet to grow resentful of her absence in my life, physically and emotionally. All that mattered to me at that age was that my mother was once again going away, and I wouldn’t have my mommy.
I wasn’t yet aware that I had never really had my mommy, but the implication that I had a mother still remained in my existence. And in case I may have needed her to kiss something better if I was to get hurt, or on the off-chance that she may have stayed home just one odd evening to perhaps watch a movie with me, I knew my hope would have to carry on much longer, until she returned once again, and hopefully would spend some time with me.
©D.G. Kaye May 2015
June 7, 2015
Neatly Real and Aspiring Awards
Once again, I am honoured to be nominated for another lovely blog award. This time it’s from the Smexy Historical Romance writer, Shehanne Moore and her hosts, ‘The Hamstas’. If you visit her always entertaining blog, you will understand better.
Thanks so much Shey and the Hammies for this lovely award. Below I have answered the 7 questions you posed.
At this time with the passing of my aunt, I’d just like to nominate all my fellow bloggers for this wonderful award to copy and paste it to your own pages, from me. And if you should feel inclined to carry on the protocol of naming others in particular that you would like to personally nominate, just link to this post, copy the award to that page, list 7 things about yourself, and offer up 7 questions for those nominees to respond to. Thank you so much.
1 If you could own a hamstah what would you name them.
Sparkly.
2 If you had one second left to grab a possession, what would it be?
My writing journal .
3 We know there’s no such thing as a fav but what painting means a lot to you
The Mona Lisa.
4 And why?
Because I saw it in Paris almost 2 decades ago and I could never decipher what her mysterious expression was denoting.
5 What is your earliest memory?
Nothing so pleasant that I’d like to elaborate on.
6 If you could choose a historical figure to be who would you choose?
Margaret Sanger
7 And why?
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex educator, and nurse. She fought for the rights of choice for women. I’m quite sure in another life I surely would have been an activist.
Now go forth and help yourselves to this lovely blog award.
June 4, 2015
Aunties Love us Unconditionally – #Grief #Loss
Aunties can see our point of views sometimes better than our moms. They can step outside of the box and see both sides when children are in conflict with their moms. They can nurse the wounds we sometimes feel inflicted on us by our moms. They know best about their sister’s character flaws. They do not judge nor condemn.
My Aunty Lee. A very clever woman; perhaps not with schooled education, but street-wise. She was a lover of life and her family, a woman who wore her battle scars bravely. She was the second youngest of six siblings. My aunt stood by and buried them all – all much too young to die, including herself. She also buried a husband at a young age and fended for herself and children and only a few short years ago, she buried her son who suffered terribly with Crohn’s disease, a dreaded bowel disease that four cousins, including myself inherited somewhere down the line from dysfunct genes.
I never heard her complain, nor question the griefs she had lived through. A true testament of a woman of strength. Never afraid to speak up when she found an injustice. That was my Aunty Lee. She never condemned, nor condoned me or my siblings for not talking to our mother, her sister, for she had tasted that wrath many times herself, yet never walked away.
The last brave thing I remember her doing was only a few months ago when we were sitting shiva for my mother after she passed, an old friend of my mother’s had come to pay her respects and when she snubbed her nose at me and my sister as though we didn’t exist for no longer being in our mother’s life, my aunt spoke up. She told her that we are all in mourning together, no matter what our differences were and not to make judgments on us, for nobody else has walked in our shoes. I was touched beyond belief. The woman left.
That was the last brave thing I remembered before my aunt hadn’t been feeling well with stomach problems. She went to the doctor who had ordered up a colonoscopy. That revealed a blockage she went a few weeks later to have rectified by laproscopic surgery. Only then when they looked inside, they decided to close her up when they found a multitude of stomach tumours plus ovarian cancer. The next day they sentenced her with a few weeks to live.
I’d been to visit her several times. To look at her one wouldn’t even know she was sick. Her spirit was good, we shared true laughter – and intermittently we shared tears. “I don’t want to die” she said. In her next breaths, she proceeded to tell me her plans to finalize things and prepare for the next world as though sharing a nonchalant story.
My Aunty Lee proudly wearing the St. Lucia T-Shirt I got her. 2/24/2015
Who does that? Who goes in for a test and a minor surgery and has the grim reaper give them a death sentence and yet carry on so stoicly in their moments of fear? My Aunty Lee does, and she did. She was brave through it all, while she kept us sane, always with a smile.
They sentenced her with three weeks to live in January, and she soldiered on until today, Thursday June 4th. The last female standing of the strong matriarchal lineage. Now the torch to keep the family binds are handed down to me, my sister and two female cousins.
God has rested your soul Aunty Lee. You are with your son and so much family we have lost through the years. We will miss you terribly, but we know you will watch over us from above.
June 2, 2015
#Taxi Wars, #Uber and the Cost of Living — My Two Cents
The battle of the taxis are going on in Toronto. The taxi companies want to get rid of Uber. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Uber, they are an alternative taxi service whereby, you download the app on your phone, fill out your info, insert a method of payment, and when you need a taxi you go to your app and order someone to pick you up, and pay a lot less than you would for a regular taxi. There are also bonus promo codes which can get you free rides. In fact, at the end of this post, I will advertise my coupon code if anybody would like to look into signing up for the service (available in many countries), and you can plug in my code and get $20.00 free added to your account.
I drive my own car, so I don’t find these Uber wars particularly bothersome, although Uber comes in handy for quick jaunts to the subway – cheaper than parking my car there. But I thought I’d offer my two cents about the situation.
Let’s face it my fellow Torontonians here, the cost of living here for everything from food to housing is getting out of control. The price of food, which I can justly speak out on, has gone up so much in just this past year alone. Some products (such as my favourite, almond butter) HAS DOUBLED! It makes me wonder, is there suddenly a shortage of almonds? I don’t think so! But people are learning about getting healthier and almond butter has been given a lot more publicity in the last few years, so of course, the greedmongers have to capitalize on it.
Contents of groceries have shrunk dramatically, yet the prices keep rising. Foreign investors have driven up the prices of real estate here so much that they aren’t even realistic. Starter homes are a thing of the past, or one would have to move to the far north outside the city to find something for under a half a million dollars! A new couple just starting out in life together, barely have a chance to get involved in the housing market. The banks have been very cautious, holding off from raising mortgage rates for an unprecedented amount of time, oddly, for a city with everything going up, up, to avoid a situation like what happened to the United States, not so long ago.
At a ridiculous rate of under 2%, mortgage rates fluctuate, depending on lock in term. That is the enticing feature for those who have managed to get into the market. People have stretched themselves to the max just to jump into the market and have a home at a half decent rate. The banks know very well, that many people are at their max budget currently, to enable them to keep their homes. If rates even double to 4% or less, which is still ridiculously low, for an average person paying $1000-2000 dollars a month, their payment will double! Many would have to sell their homes, which in turn would create the overdue bursting of the real estate bubble, and the banks would have to start owning many homes, all of which they are avoiding doing by leaving the rate alone. But seriously, it can’t go on much longer, and once again we will have a housing crash.
And so, now we have the taxi wars.
Taxis are ridiculously expensive, our streets are over-populated with cars, not enough highways to accommodate them, construction closings on a daily basis, which leaves an overflow of traffic scouring for alternate routes and therefore cluttering so many streets. These taxi meters click away at lightning speed as they endeavor to take us to our destinations at a snail’s pace. Enter Uber. In many cases, a fare will cost almost half of the price of a regular taxi. I say Uber is a smart commodity available to those drowning in expenses and have to get around.
Greed has taken over so largely in this city, it’s almost as though we may soon have to pay for the polluted air we breathe. If corporations don’t want to stop gauging consumers, we have every right to get the best bang for our buck and if I need a taxi, I too will be using Uber.
It’s not up to us struggling tax payers to worry about corporations making enough money. It’s up to our government to stop the greed. They need to stop taxing companies to the max, so they in turn can stop gauging the consumers.
Anyone like to add their two cents?
PS: My promotion code for Uber is debbyg44ue if anyone signs up to Uber and uses my code, they will get $20 added to their account. As well, once you sign up, you will get your own promotion code that you can share, and the people who use your code, you will in turn get $20 added to your own accounts for every person who joins and enters your code!
Now that’s what I call good business sense!
June 1, 2015
The Sunday Show – A Funny Thing Happened to Author D.G. Kaye
The Sunday Show – A funny thing happened to author D.G. Kaye
I’d like to thank Sally Cronin of the esteemed blog Smorgasbord – Variety is the Spice of Life for inviting me to and interviewing me for her series, The Sunday Show.
Once a week Sally interviews writers and artists for some in-depth interviews, and as part of the interview she leaves the interviewee with a question to elaborate on: A funny thing happened to “. . . ” for the artist to share a poignant, humorous, or in my case, a story about serendipity.
I have reposted the interview here from Sally’s page.
“My guest today is Canadian memoir and nonfiction author and blogger D.G. Kaye (D.G.). It is clear that D.G delights both the women she writes for and I suspect the men who sneak a peek with her down to earth and often humorous look at life. There is also a serious side that comes across in D.G’s books and in her blog posts that strips back the layers that are formed in relationships. Those that are good for us and those that are harmful. I will take a closer look at her writing later in the introduction.” . . .
READ MORE BELOW:
May 30, 2015
15 Things Every Woman Should do By 40. | elephant journal
This article caught my attention on the site Elephant Journal. It was written by Margaret Aguirre as she shared her thoughts on things every woman should do by the time they’re 40.
It’s a lovely read and I personally feel that the list pertains to us all, even beyond the age of 40. Have a look by clicking the link below.
The quoted paragraph below is one of my favourites on the list that I happen to be a firm believer of. If anyone has read my book Words We Carry, you will know I write about conquering low self-esteem, as told through my own experiences. We don’t have to throw in the towel on looking and feeling good. There is an appropriate attire for any age for us all to feel beautiful. Looking beautiful shouldn’t have to mean we’re trying to look twenty years younger, but making the most of our attributes we’ve earned through the years.
“Be glamorous.
Just because we aren’t 23 anymore doesn’t mean we aren’t beautiful, vivacious and amazing. Glamor changes slightly as we get older. We don’t need to wear the tight spandex mini dress to go out dancing. A sleek, elegant LBD is far sexier and mysterious. With the right amount of makeup and attitude, we can all be glamorous.”
May 26, 2015
D.G. Kaye speaks! #Womens #Empowering #Summit Live!
A few weeks ago I wrote a post here promoting The Womens Empowering Summit. This summit is hosted by divorce coach Heather Debreceni. In the summit, Heather interviewed 23 certified experts who spoke about the topic of women going through divorce and how to handle the children who tend to get caught in the crossfire. I was ecstatic when Heather chose me, an author, to add to her esteemed panel of interviewees.
Heather found me while doing a search on the subject and she came across my book Conflicted Hearts, my memoir on growing up in an emotionally unstable home and living with guilt from a narcissistic mother.
I am posting the link here because my live interview with Heather starts today, Tuesday May 26th. http://www.empowereddivorcesummit.com/day-nine/
In our interview I discuss the turmoil a child can have to endure while growing up in a broken home when parents tend to get so wrapped up in their own conflicts and forget to tend to their children’s emotional needs.
Please feel free to listen to the interview and come back here and comment, or perhaps leave me a question. This is my first public interview, and I have to admit, I still have my stage fright even though I wasn’t on camera. It was a great experience, both emotionally fulfilling, and a step into speaking publicly.
*Please note: The link to the interview will be valid until Sunday May 31st. But I will be changing it to a new permanent link on Sunday if any of you find that you couldn’t connect with this original link.
May 24, 2015
10 Things Money Can’t Buy
A good reminder for all, there are many things in life that money cannot buy.
I remember my father used to make up little sayings, and one of them was “Rich or poor, it’s good to have money.” Now it sounds almost like an oxymoron to me, but there is still much truth to it.
I find that as I get older, the importance of money is for healthcare and security. And if I had an abundance of it, all I would do with it is travel.
I found a good list of 10 things money can’t buy at The Power of Positivity
May 20, 2015
WordPress Blogger Family Award
I’d like to thank Ellie of Newcreationsministries for including me in her chosen family of bloggers and nominating me for this lovely award.
I connected with Ellie a few months ago on wordpress when I came across her enlightening posts on how the body, mind and spirit connects with health.
Ellie is an author, nutritional counselor, and blogger about nutrition and life lessons. She is a beautiful soul and you will find her face around the blogosphere sporting her beautiful cowboy hat. Ironically Ellie is from Arizona (my passion), and has recently moved to Ohio with her Pastor husband whose work beckoned him there. Trading in the beautiful desert for a more diverse climate, I questioned her about how she could do that. If you want to read more about Ellie, check out her About Me page.
Now you all know how I feel about sharing awards, I always want to share them with everyone here in my blogging world, and you are all welcome to snatch a copy of this award off my page and put it up on yours to share with others. But as the rules state, I am to mention a few bloggers who I have a close knit bond with in this writing world, so I will mention them now.
5. www.plainandfancy.wordpress.com
6. www.dianereedwiter.wordpress.com
7. www.talesfromthefamilycrypt.wordpress.com
8. www.letscutthecrap.wordpress.com
9. www.smorgasbordinvitation.com
13. www.suedreamwalker.wordpress.com
15. www.perceptionofannie.wordpress.com
Simple rules for the Award:
1. Copy and display the award logo on your blog.
2. Link back to the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate 10-15 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience.
4. Let your “fellow blogging family members” know you have awarded them.
5. Just please pick 10-15 people that have taken you as a friend, and spread the love.
