Christmas

Shopping, cooking, baking, tree trimming, wrapping, decorating, shopping, wrapping, shopping again, more wrapping, shining silver, washing china, table setting, forgot the cream, back to store, cooking, picture taking.

Sleeping? HA!
Writing? HAHA.

Church.


PHEW!
Breathe.
Done!

Best part,
watching others
open their gifts.
Okay . . . okay,
I liked
opening too.

China back in cabinet, silver in the box, wrapping in the garbage, presents played, put on, read.

Smiles, memories, laughter, hugs, family, together . . . treasured.
Anyone who knows me, knows my newest love is verse. My writing instructor recommended I read verse to study line breaks and use of "white space," and now I can't get enough. One of my favorite verse novels is Lisa Schroeder's I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME. I cried, I skipped ahead because the suspense drove me mad, then went back to enjoy each word. I can't wait to read FAR FROM YOU.

http://http://lisa-schroeder.livejournal.com/240649.html

FAR FROM YOU release celebration and contest!

Dec. 15th, 2008 at 6:34 AM

Lisa Schroeder, author of I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME, (One of my most favorite books ever!! Can't wait to read her next book!) is celebrating the release of her upcoming YA novel, FAR FROM YOU, and hosting a contest with LOTS of great prizes!

For three days leading up to the book’s release date of December 23rd, you can watch VLOGs and hear some excerpts read from the book. The VLOG schedule is as follows:

Sunday, December 21st – Liv’s Book Reviews - http://livsbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 22nd – What Vanessa Reads - http://whatvanessareads.wordpress.com/

Tuesday, December 23rd – Lisa Schroeder, author - http://lisa-schroeder.livejournal.com/ AND http://myspace.com/writerlisa

Help spread the word, and you might win a fabulous prize!

Copy and paste THIS entire blog entry into your blog between now and December 21st, then come back to Lisa’s blog at either Livejournal OR Myspace and leave a comment with the link to your blog and you will get TWO enteries to win a number of prizes.

Wondering what you might win? Here is the list (there will be multiple winners):

~ An Advanced Review Copy of THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH, by Carrie Ryan
~ An Advanced Review Copy of SOMETHING, MAYBE, by Elizabeth Scott
~ Young adult novel GIRL, HERO by Carrie Jones
~ Young adult novel, THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Freitas
~ Young adult novel, UGLIES by Scott Westerfield
~ Pair of YA fairy tale retellings by Cameron Dokey (BELLE and BEFORE MIDNIGHT)
~ TWILIGHT movie soundtrack
~ $15.00 Barnes and Noble gift card along with some Harry & David’s chocolate moose munch
~ And of course, a signed copy of FAR FROM YOU

For more chances to win, watch one or all of the VLOGs and leave a comment on that vlogger’s page, and you get another entry. That means if you post the schedule on your blog AND comment on all three VLOGs, you can have FIVE entries for the contest!
A live drawing with winners announced will be done by Lisa Thursday morning, December 24th, in a special holiday VLOG.
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Same Sunday

At a recent writer's workshop we took five minutes to write something about one of the magazine pages placed before us. Another writer also chose to write about this same picture but wrote about the woman and saw the image in a more positive way. It was interesting to see how differently we both viewed this same image. Thought I'd share what I wrote. Feel free to share your thoughts as well. What would you've written? (Sorry for the poor picture quality.)


Same Sunday:

Every Sunday is the same.
Same diner,
same booth,
same silent black and white pages staring back at me.

Egg whites on dry toast,
Coffee,
no sugar, no cream.

The smell of sausage, and bacon and hash
pass me by
as the waitress serves the party behind me.

As I gaze at the familiar
picture beside me,
big sky, green pasture, I wish
I was there.

But I’m here,
fingering the creamer I’d like to pour into my coffee,
just this once
to soften the bitterness.

Annie Laurie Williams



I was going through some papers today and came across this article from Collier's magazine, from the January 4, 1941 issue written by Ruth Seinfel.

The picture shown is my great-aunt, Annie Laurie Williams. In 1929 Annie Laurie founded her firm in NYC and began her career as a Literary Representative.

I'm still in awe of the tenacious business woman she was and the level of success she achieved in a time when woman weren't common entities in the work force. In the article the writer describes Annie Laurie as "not very tall, pleasingly plump, golden-haired and blue-eyed."

And in regards to her business savvy the author writes, "In a knock-down and drag-out business conference with contracts on the table, she is that thorn in a producer's side, the agent who knows more about the author's rights than the author does." Ruth Seinfel goes on to say, "She has a weakness for the hard ones, and she is the only one who is not surprised when they turn out well, which they do a remarkable number of times."

Annie Laurie sold many classics to the film industry. Some titles were, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, but her most memorable sale (although not her most lucritive one, as Selznick was the only bidder) was the sale of Gone With the Wind. The story sold for half of the original asking price but is one she believed in and wouldn't take no for an answer. I, for one, am glad she didn't.

But the Annie Laurie Williams I remember, as I was only ten when she passed away, was a very different one. She was my grandmother's fun, crazy sister who read my palm, told my fortune, drank lots of tea, and loved to dance. She was a vegetarian and I enjoyed watching the servers puzzled expression at restaurants when she'd order a cheeseburger without the meat. She was the one who bought the house in Connecticut where my cousins and I spent our summers together. I can still see her at the Stone House in her pink-checked dress, which she always wore when she stayed for the weekends, standing in the doorway dancing to a song someone played on the piano.

So I guess Annie Laurie was a lot of things to a lot of people. She was the big sister who brought her three younger sisters up to New York from Texas. She was the one who introduced my grandparents to one another. She gave her two sisters a job in her firm. But for me, because of her generous spirit and her love for her family, she was the reason our family was as close as we were and still are, because she gave us all the Stone House where we could spend time together.