A Bit Of Me

CMash June 18, 2011 6 Comments

Hosted by Danielle at There’s A Book

From Danielle’s blog:
We all leave our “footprint” on the world, in one way or another. We each, individually, do something or are someone that makes the world a little better just by being here. I created this weekly meme to get to know the blogging community I love just a bit better. To know what makes them tick, outside of books, that is. Each week I will post a question to be answered in the following week’s “A Bit of Me(Me)”. Check back each Saturday to get the info for next week’s post and link up with your current post right here.
This week’s question: What outdoor activities do you like to do?
Read more: http://www.theresabook.com/2011/06/a-bit-of-meme-a-wiggle-of-the-nose/#ixzz1OxiZSMwq

Because of all (5) the back operations, I am quite limited in what activities I am physically capable of doing. Before the last 2 operations I used to love to plant in both our front and back gardens. I enjoyed picking out different perennials that would bloom at different times and then adding annuals in between so there was always color. My hubby has now taken over that chore and plants annuals every year. Ant the other activity that I can do, and enjoy, is to sit in my, as I call it, reading float, and read and relax floating around in our pool. What outdoor activities do you enjoy? Do you do outdoor activities year round or only certain times of the year?

Winners

And the winners are…….

CMash June 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

………..for PROPHECY by S. J. Parris

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

24 17

Timestamp: 2011-06-17 22:08:39 UTC

MarthaE said… 24 I follow on GFC – MarthaE

Carol M said… 17 tweet http://twitter.com/CarolAnnM/status/78218762330976256

An email has been sent to the winners and they have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address or another winner will be chosen.

Winners

And the winners are…….

CMash June 17, 2011 2 Comments

………..for PROPHECY by S. J. Parris

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

24 17

Timestamp: 2011-06-17 22:08:39 UTC

MarthaE said… 24 I follow on GFC – MarthaE

Carol M said… 17 tweet http://twitter.com/CarolAnnM/status/78218762330976256

An email has been sent to the winners and they have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address or another winner will be chosen.

Friday Memes

CMash June 17, 2011 Leave a Comment

Before getting to today’s memes, I wanted to make you aware of two issues.

1. This morning I received multiple emails from multiple sites informing me that I had been hacked. The same thing happened yesterday to Lori from Dollycas’s Thoughts. So if you receive any vile and/or disgusting emails from my address, it is not me sending them, it is the person who got my password. Also if you see anything on the face of my blog, I usually work from my dashboard. Please notify me asap and forward me any emails if applicable.

2. In case you have noticed that I haven’t been blog hopping, it’s, unfortunately, due to the fact that my Mom was rushed back to the hospital and I have been back and forth to the hospital, Again I ask for a favor, if you believe in prayer, I would greatly appreciate a prayer for her as she is in a very weakened state. I’m not sure how long she will be in the hospital, but wanted to let you know in case I don’t respond to your emails, comments and/or visit your blog. There are definitely evil people in this world. My Mom is going to be 90 next month. When I went to visit her yesterday, I noticed 2 items missing, She is a very religious woman and always wore a gold necklace with a gold medallion with the Blessed Virgin that I had bought for her when I went to Italy in 1973. Gone!!! Her wedding band…Gone!!! How could a person do that to an elderly person that is so sick? I truly wish Karma will befall onto the person that did this.

Hosted by An Island Life

From An Island Life:
In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.
If you’d like to participate, visit An Island Life answer the question and then post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

MY QUESTION:

Since Sunday is Father’s Day, how would you describe your Dad?

MY ANSWER:

Unfortunately I lost my Dad when I was 16 years old but have so many

wonderful memories. He was a hard working, family oriented and a very generous man.

Hosted by Jennifer from CRAZY FOR BOOKS

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!
Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

This week’s question:

“How many books are currently in your To-Be-Read (TBR) Pile?”

My answer:

Too many to count. I have a large 5 shelf bookcase in my “reading room /library /office”. The top shelf is just for tbr requested reviews, plus what books I have in my Kindle and Sony Ereaders waiting to be read. The remaining 4 shelves of my bookcase are my personal tbr books along with what are the books that I have downloaded into both EReaders. That is why I have renamed my list to my “personal tbr bucket list” because at my age, I wonder if I will ever get to read all that are waiting their turn to be read.

Friday Memes

CMash June 17, 2011 19 Comments

Before getting to today’s memes, I wanted to make you aware of two issues.

1. This morning I received multiple emails from multiple sites informing me that I had been hacked. The same thing happened yesterday to Lori from Dollycas’s Thoughts. So if you receive any vile and/or disgusting emails from my address, it is not me sending them, it is the person who got my password. Also if you see anything on the face of my blog, I usually work from my dashboard. Please notify me asap and forward me any emails if applicable.

2. In case you have noticed that I haven’t been blog hopping, it’s, unfortunately, due to the fact that my Mom was rushed back to the hospital and I have been back and forth to the hospital, Again I ask for a favor, if you believe in prayer, I would greatly appreciate a prayer for her as she is in a very weakened state. I’m not sure how long she will be in the hospital, but wanted to let you know in case I don’t respond to your emails, comments and/or visit your blog. There are definitely evil people in this world. My Mom is going to be 90 next month. When I went to visit her yesterday, I noticed 2 items missing, She is a very religious woman and always wore a gold necklace with a gold medallion with the Blessed Virgin that I had bought for her when I went to Italy in 1973. Gone!!! Her wedding band…Gone!!! How could a person do that to an elderly person that is so sick? I truly wish Karma will befall onto the person that did this.

Hosted by An Island Life

From An Island Life:
In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.
If you’d like to participate, visit An Island Life answer the question and then post your own question on your blog and leave your link below. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

MY QUESTION:

Since Sunday is Father’s Day, how would you describe your Dad?

MY ANSWER:

Unfortunately I lost my Dad when I was 16 years old but have so many

wonderful memories. He was a hard working, family oriented and a very generous man.

Hosted by Jennifer from CRAZY FOR BOOKS

In the spirit of the Twitter Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new book-related blogs that we may be missing out on! This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books! It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed! So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky list below!!
Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

This week’s question:

“How many books are currently in your To-Be-Read (TBR) Pile?”

My answer:

Too many to count. I have a large 5 shelf bookcase in my “reading room /library /office”. The top shelf is just for tbr requested reviews, plus what books I have in my Kindle and Sony Ereaders waiting to be read. The remaining 4 shelves of my bookcase are my personal tbr books along with what are the books that I have downloaded into both EReaders. That is why I have renamed my list to my “personal tbr bucket list” because at my age, I wonder if I will ever get to read all that are waiting their turn to be read.

Winners

And the winner is………

CMash June 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

………for THE COLLECTIBLES by James Kaufman

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4

Timestamp: 2011-06-16 22:10:23 UTC

mverno said… 4 i follow as mverno via gfc

An email has been sent to the winner and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address or another winner will be chosen.

06/19/11 7:50pm
Due to no response from the above, after 2 email attempts, another winner has chosen via Random.org.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

28

Timestamp: 2011-06-19 23:48:14 UTC

CONGRATULATIONS TO!!!!!!:

Anonymous said… 28 i like you on facebook

Winners

And the winner is………

CMash June 16, 2011 1 Comment

………for THE COLLECTIBLES by James Kaufman

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

4

Timestamp: 2011-06-16 22:10:23 UTC

mverno said… 4 i follow as mverno via gfc

An email has been sent to the winner and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address or another winner will be chosen.

06/19/11 7:50pm
Due to no response from the above, after 2 email attempts, another winner has chosen via Random.org.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

28

Timestamp: 2011-06-19 23:48:14 UTC

CONGRATULATIONS TO!!!!!!:

Anonymous said… 28 i like you on facebook

Guest Author

Guest Author Madeline Sharples

CMash June 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

What a day today is!!! I am beyond thrilled!!! I even checked my Thesaurus and couldn’t find a word to express what I am feeling. I am now a tour host for WOW-Women On Writing and what a way to start! Please help me give a very big and warm welcome to today’s guest, Madeline Sharples, as she stops by while on virtual tour, to talk about her inspirational memoir.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Although Madeline Sharples loved poetry and creative writing as a young girl, she took a more practical career path by studying journalism and working as a grant writing, editor and technical writer. She co-authored a book about women in nontraditional professions called Blue-Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take on Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press, 1994) and co-edited the poetry anthology, The Great American Poetry Show, Volumes 1 (Muse Media, 2004) and 2 (August 2010). Her poetry has been published by many publications including two photography books, The Emerging Goddess and Intimacy (Paul Blieden, photographer).

Madeline turned to another type of writing, memoir, as she grappled with her older son’s bipolar disorder and subsequent suicide. She and her husband of 40 years live in Manhattan Beach, California, a small beach community south of Los Angeles. Her younger son Ben lives in Santa Monica, California with his bride Marissa.
Just Thought You Should Know:
More than 30,000 Americans commit suicide each year, most leaving behind grieving families. Teenagers make up 5,000 of this group.

You can visit Madeline Sharples at her websites:
http://madeline40.blogspot.com/
www.madelinesharples.com

GUEST POST
Using Memoir Writing to Deal with Grief

I signed up for a writing class three months after my son Paul’s death. We sat in the instructor’s living room on couches and big easy chairs in a comfortable and forgiving atmosphere. Each week the instructor told us to write a journal entry. He didn’t specify a subject. This was a beginner’s class. All he wanted us to do was learn to “write like you talk,” and to write in a voice that came from deep within our bellies. And then we’d come back the next week and read to the group what we had written.

At first I was afraid to put my grief out there in my writing. When I apologized for writing about the same subject matter in my assigned journal entries over and over, my instructor, Jack, said, “It took Dostoyevsky five hundred pages to write Crime and Punishment, you have a long way to go.”

With that I felt empowered me to write about Paul and how I felt about his death and the pain of losing him. And I still feel empowered to do it.

After several years of patiently listening to my material, Jack and the rest of the class encouraged me to put my story into a book. They felt certain there were people who needed to know it.

And then a goal to put my material into a memoir started to formulate: I thought if I could tell my story in the most truthful and realistic terms possible, I could help other parents with children with bipolar disorder that in many cases results in their suicide. Otherwise I felt it wouldn’t be useful to anyone – including me.

And so I kept writing my journal entries – not only for class, not only to comfort myself, but also to emerge into a memoir. I also wrote poems. Poetry just seemed to come spontaneously. Poetry seemed to be the only way I could really express my emotions. And when the time came for me to put my material into a book I organized it in the order of the poems in my poetry manuscript.

Writing was my therapy. I was turned off by traditional therapy after my first meeting with someone who hadn’t experienced the death of a child. I couldn’t imagine how that person could help me. And I didn’t turn to self-help books either. Along with working and working out, I found my way by writing every day. It became a habit and a huge help in getting myself out of the mire after my son’s death and the tragedy that had hit my family.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Leaving the Hall Light On is about living after loss. It’s about finding peace and balance and various ways the author, Madeline Sharples, finds to bring herself together after feeling so helpless and out of control during her son Paul’s 7-year struggle with bipolar disease and after his suicide in September 1999.

Sharples explains: “I write about the steps I took in living with the loss of my son, including making use of diversions to help me forget. Leaving the Hall Light On is also about the milestones I met toward living a full life without him: packing and giving away his clothes, demolishing and redoing the scene of his death, cataloging and packing away all his records and books, copying all of his original music compositions onto CDs, digitizing all of our family photos, and gutting his room and turning it into my office and sanctuary with a bay window that looks out toward a lush garden and a bubbling water fountain.”

THANKS TO ROBYN FROM WOW, I HAVE ONE (1)

EBOOK EDITION OF THIS MEMOIR TO GIVE AWAY.

CLICK HERE TO BRING YOU TO

THE GIVEAWAY ENTRY PAGE.