Kathleen Rowland's Blog, page 47
August 27, 2012
Wordsmith– I also write books
Tomorrow, Tuesday August 28, authors M Catherine Berg, Tina Gayle, and I will be on the author panel at Storytellers Soiree. We’ll meet at Chili’s located at 1371 East Gladstone Street, Glendora, CA. In the old days, it would be a book signing. Now that we’re eBookin, we have a whole lot more fun discussing our books and works-in-progress. New faces are welcome.
If you plan on coming, please email me at kathleenrowland10@gmail.com so that I can find and welcome you to our cozy get-together.
August 26, 2012
Exercise– for Body and Spirit
Friends, I have lots to say on this topic. Runners, swimmers, and all those engaging in aerobic activity enjoy that elusive endorphin high. You can get it when gardening hard or sailing small boats. On Friday my husband, our daughter Janice and I sailed on Newport Harbor. Every time we tacked which is often when dodging other boats in the harbor, we climb to the port or starboard. We pull in the sails and let them out. Exercise is a fact of life. We need to move around to stay fit. Getting outside to exercise is satisfying emotionally, and maybe being out in nature stops us from being superficial.
Something I appreciate about living in California is the accessibility to rental equipment. After taking classes and passing written and practical exams, we’re able to rent sailboats at Orange County College of Sailing and Navigation for seventy-five dollars for four hours! Believe me, that’s long enough.
The basic sailing exercise for legs is the classic squat. Steady weight bearing exercise is the best way to build bone density.Our grandchildren are here now, and I’m bringing them to the lagoon for swimming. Roxanne and Dmitri like the water slide. I will be there at all times to catch them.
If you are on the GOLD STANDARD OF THIN plan, you know about Chapters 5, 6, and 7: Exercise for a Body with Sparkling Spirit, Nuggets for your Inner Self, and Making Your World Golden.
August 25, 2012
Eat– for Good Health
Our grandchildren are coming soon for a sleepover, and I’m making Stuffed Peppers. So easy! Saute’ lean ground beef or turkey and veggies (chopped celery, onion, zucchini) with a scant amount of olive oil. Stir in cooked brown rice and fill a (seeded) pepper shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes. Serve with a salad. Photo is courtesy of Gina at Skinny-Taste. I serve sugar-free tomato sauce on the side,
August 23, 2012
Places– of Charm
I’m more relaxed when the office is neat. With various projects going on in here, shelves get junked up fast. It isn’t “that hard” to have a drawer with organizers for pencils, pens, paper clips and clamps, stationary, stamps, and files for works-in-progress. Today I cleared the decks and the shelves. And then I put some objects back. Since this project brought some joy, I’m off to do some garden pruning– trimming miniature boxwood hedges and pruning roses.
August 16, 2012
Wordsmith– I also write books
What characteristics do you like in a heroine? If you are inclined, give us an example from one of your books or one you’ve read.
Few readers (even when reading comics) like cardboard characters. Flesh-and-blood reality means they need at least one flaw. Mixed-race Kitrina Piermont in Windward Whisperings doesn’t want to take risks, particularly a risk of the heart. She’s had setbacks with the loss of her parents and their tanked sail-making fortune. Scraping by as a sailboat designer, she lives in the cottage of her family’s former estate. The hero (in this reunion story) admires her high-energy presence. Kitsy’s bubbly enthusiasm and interest-in-everything makes her a star. Incidentally I made up the nickname, Kitsy. It has a happier sound than Kit. In the book I use kitten-like descriptions such as “arm strength of a kitten.” As a designer-builder of sailboats, she methodically takes projects from start to finish. Her stability makes others trust her. But her flaw, fear of risk, takes her out of her comfort zone. Something terrible happens to tweak her neural pathways and let romance grow and thrive.
Places– of Charm
From an artistic perspective, many of us enjoy cemeteries. I’ve even done gravestone rubbings. My dad’s side of the family is at rest in an old-for-the-US picturesque cemetery overlooking East Lake Okoboji in Iowa, and my parent’s fifteen-foot black marble Celtic cross faces their past lake home. “Room for all if you want to be cremated,” my dad had said, ha ha.
Nothing compares to the ancient Greeks who developed the earliest commemorative funerary architecture in Europe and the Middle East. As in ancient Rome, the dead were buried outside city walls, along roadways entering the city, in highly visible funerary monuments to preserve an individual’s fame, family honor, and standing in society. The Grave Stele of Hegeso, Athens, c. 410 – 400 BCE is marble, 5’2″ high and is now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Hegeso was wealthy enough in life to have one of her servants hold her jewelry box for her to select something, and in death for someone to pay for this touching, and rewarding relief or stele. Isn’t this a beautiful piece? The tomb was a meeting place for the living and the departed, and families would hold feasts at the tomb, putting out food and drink for the dead to enjoy.
In Buddhist cultures today, families celebrate loved ones on their death day, with food.
August 15, 2012
Exercise– for Good Health
Some of you may know I had foot surgery two months ago. Yesterday my doctor gave me the okay for swimming. After doing twenty laps, I’m a new woman with such a positive attitude, I can’t believe it’s me. Without daily laps, I was getting the blues. Endorphin-happiness is very real. Swimming works practically all of the muscles in the body (if you do a variety of strokes). Swimming develops general strength, cardiovascular fitness and endurance. It does not help with bone density, and I do weight bearing exercise for this. Aerobic exercise gives us a high.
August 13, 2012
Wordsmith– I also write books
As an author of romantic suspense, I have studied killers and what motivates them. In Eternal Press’ thriller DEEDS OF DECEIT evil manipulator Hilary heads up the violent branch of a cult. The front organization, Get Megawatts, appears to be a “green” wind turbine organization. The cult must keep members in line as they sell overpriced miniature windmills on the street. Another task is strong-arming donations. Hilary wants the heroine Bayliss Jones to donate her estate. Isolated Bayliss lives alone on Jones Mountain, and recently broke it off with Todd, a set designer. Hilary takes up with the set designer who builds a realistic ghost contraption to scare Bayliss into submission. (What fun I had building this last Halloween!) As the story moves forward, Hilary exhibits her killer profile: She tortures cult members and enjoys this more than execution. She kills for power and money. Unless on an evil mission, she’s isolate, has a habit of lying, and usually sleeps alone to hide her bed-wetting habit. Here’s a peek at the story with my book trailer for Deeds of Deceit.
My work-in-progress is Where Malice Hides, Book Two of my Welcome to the Lake Series, and my antagonist is going to be a huge surprise!
August 12, 2012
People Appreciation
As a writer I enjoy art that records inner emotion. Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s PRISONS from 1745 focused on a mental state of turmoil. The dungeon where there is no way in and no way out is a metaphor for the dark twisted side of a human mind. What could be more gloomy than a mind stuck? These are architectural fantasies, “capricious inventions” as they are described on the title page. Their monumental size, grand design and defiance of architectural realities are a far cry from the shabby dungeons that were the actual prisons of the day.
Loosely based on stage set designs, they show Piranesi indulging in his fascination with monumental Roman architecture; creating a fanciful series of structures and interiors in which he gets to play with perspective, geometry, scale, lighting and shadow effects.
August 10, 2012
Wordsmith– I also write books
Coming soon, Book Two of my WELCOME TO THE LAKE thriller series, WHERE MALICE HIDES follows Alexa Bonetti, who becomes a friend of heroine Bayliss from DEEDS OF DECEIT. Their California mountain-lake community is a beautiful place to visit. Or live. Or die.
WHERE MALICE HIDES: Hero Fin Donahue is forced to hire Alexa as his bookkeeper, certain she’s privy to knowledge of a scam. His late partner was her boyfriend up until he was shot in a drive-by. Fin is far too cynical to trust a woman, particularly one with a dubious reputation. Attracted to his complexity and magnetic power, she’s soon in terrible danger and finds herself at his mercy.
Halfway done, I’m thinking about the book cover. I’ve picked cover models, an African American woman and white man, since this is an interracial romantic suspense. Backgrounds can be added by a cover artist, and I want dark water that depicts an evil undercurrent.
