tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4110915442849017102024-03-13T04:07:30.642-07:00ALL YOU CAN WRITEpick and choose ideas for emerging writersLisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-51701819350229038182018-09-08T15:09:00.000-07:002018-09-08T15:09:01.290-07:00Elmore Leonard - on writing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-10062578534407149882018-08-28T13:33:00.000-07:002018-08-28T13:33:03.025-07:00Quote of the day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-TDxVbJj9eR6LtLC8IfNYq9vV6x2fpPUd23dluw0FtyFWsIgsj9EIrTxUmGzgYPBmnDtKLQDxVq-irXv4SwOYbWyacZdrYvuA2tPGNPMURB6YpCKzIuc6uE27aqigRu3cUeA9-aLTIU/s1600/2088766-Junot-D-az-Quote-The-only-way-out-is-in.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-TDxVbJj9eR6LtLC8IfNYq9vV6x2fpPUd23dluw0FtyFWsIgsj9EIrTxUmGzgYPBmnDtKLQDxVq-irXv4SwOYbWyacZdrYvuA2tPGNPMURB6YpCKzIuc6uE27aqigRu3cUeA9-aLTIU/s400/2088766-Junot-D-az-Quote-The-only-way-out-is-in.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-38255582181857592432016-09-26T09:04:00.003-07:002016-09-26T09:04:53.924-07:00Writer's truth #101<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<br />Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-28214101523351639532015-03-24T22:55:00.001-07:002015-03-24T22:55:08.183-07:00Inspiring music for a kickass writing session<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">TORAFUGU</span></b><span style="font-size: large;"> - </span><span style="color: #f1c232; font-size: x-large;"><b>DOWNTIME</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This tasty, artsy, yummy Italian band’s first full length album, somewhere between Four Tet’s dream state and Imogen Heap’s entrancing electronica, is a fusion of different music experience in an unique, innovative lethal mix of IDM, indietronica, synth pop & dupstep.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://torafuguproject.com/#" target="_blank">Torafugu</a> stand tall among internationally acclaimed acts that blew up in the last few years. They hit the ground running with 2009’s <i>Spot the Rain</i> and are still leading with their new project, <i>Downtime</i>, by <a href="https://m.facebook.com/yallarecords" target="_blank">Yalla Records</a>, a delirious, delusional statement on that marvellous damnation known as daily life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Downtime</i> is available for free download on <a href="http://torafuguproject.bandcamp.com/releases" target="_blank">Bandcamp</a> and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/torafuguproject" target="_blank">Soundcloud</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: x-large;"><i><b>“Either you spend your whole life running after improbable situations and sensations, or you choose to surf the marvellous waves of an ocean of daily wasted time” (A. Reverberi).</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Check out this rapturous studio performance of <i><span style="color: #741b47;">Sirens</span></i>: </span></div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D5dj-u3LEFA/0.jpg" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/D5dj-u3LEFA?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7S4EHcQIAJnRPiwekcV4DD8Yt3pNNlH3TERcrZHQ5dXSEIS_Iq0U9jKF5iREMyDTOcIVJLO9iCJ4mkqdkya5BAFU_yjn3vW7lq8i4dFDYT4tu5XcAdYAWf_uZSI9NJDLTG3k-eedLxgY/s1600/1017613_720181008005888_1797430083_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7S4EHcQIAJnRPiwekcV4DD8Yt3pNNlH3TERcrZHQ5dXSEIS_Iq0U9jKF5iREMyDTOcIVJLO9iCJ4mkqdkya5BAFU_yjn3vW7lq8i4dFDYT4tu5XcAdYAWf_uZSI9NJDLTG3k-eedLxgY/s1600/1017613_720181008005888_1797430083_n.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">For more information and downloads:</span></div>
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<a href="http://torafuguproject.com/#"><b>http://torafuguproject.com/#</b></a></div>
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/torafuguproject"><b>https://soundcloud.com/torafuguproject</b></a></div>
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<a href="http://torafuguproject.bandcamp.com/releases"><b>http://torafuguproject.bandcamp.com/releases</b></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/torafuguproject?ref=ts&fref=ts"><b>https://www.facebook.com/torafuguproject?ref=ts&fref=ts</b></a></div>
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<a href="https://m.facebook.com/yallarecords"><b>https://m.facebook.com/yallarecords</b></a></div>
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-45085336249215956802015-03-04T17:24:00.003-08:002015-03-04T17:25:33.089-08:00The year I met you - by Cecelia Ahern<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This is not the type of book you can read on a Kindle, this is the book you want to bring in bed with you, like a trusted, comfy pillow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">When I saw it, I picked it up, paid at the counter and left in a hurry.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I felt it at every step, heavy in my handbag, on the way home. I couldn't wait to open it and jump, right into the story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I didn't want to know anything about the plot or the characters or the readers' reviews. The name of its author was enough to conquer me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Enough to say... I wasn't disappointed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The author</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://uk.cecelia-ahern.com/" target="_blank">Cecelia Ahern</a> is my favorite Irish novelist. She is the daughter of the former Irish Prime Minister and she is a mother and a wife. I came across her name when she wrote her first novel, at the time she was only 21 years old and so was I. The book, <a href="http://uk.cecelia-ahern.com/ps-i-love-you-2/" target="_blank">PS: I LOVE YOU</a>, is now a bestseller sold in 47 countries and a beautiful movie, that will make you cry and laugh at the same time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Every single novel by Cecelia is a wonderful journey into the soul of a clever female protagonist who finds herself in the middle of an exciting adventure, with just a touch of magic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://uk.cecelia-ahern.com/the-year-i-met-you-2/" target="_blank">The year I met you</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Jasmine, a young independent woman with a difficult family situation, finds herself without a job and any career perspective. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Matt, an alcoholic radio star and father of three, lives just across the road and is about to lose all that he loves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One New Year's Eve, their paths collide in the suburbs, and an unlikely friendship slowly starts to blossom between them.</span><br />
<br />Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-86394789918160021732015-02-23T15:19:00.002-08:002015-02-23T15:20:05.306-08:00QUOTE OF THE DAY<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-14758767745398985402015-02-08T19:51:00.002-08:002015-02-08T19:51:12.703-08:00Why e-books will never defeat paper<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-62116360547537709512014-12-27T05:58:00.001-08:002014-12-27T06:00:39.328-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-38794555184265410752014-11-17T11:34:00.003-08:002014-11-17T11:34:50.305-08:00WRITING EXERCISES<div id="title" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; clear: both; color: #333333; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; overflow: visible; padding: 1em 0px; position: relative;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">One of the fastest way to improve your writing skills is by writing and then writing some more, not just when you are inspired, but even when you are not. The routine of writing every day helps to keep your mind sharp and ready to be creative. Sometimes it seems impossible to stay inspired, and the ideas seem to dry up. A great way to challenge yourself and expand on your writing skill is by the use of creative writing exercises and writing prompts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">1.<b> </b><span style="line-height: normal;"><b>Backwards storytelling</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Write a story from the end to the start, drag your audience from the present to the past as you explore the events leading up to the start of you story. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 19.40625px;">2. </span><span style="line-height: normal;"><b>Point of view</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 19.40625px;">Select a short piece of your writing </span><span style="line-height: 19.40625px;">and rewrite the entire thing, using a new point of view. For example if the piece is written in first person try to rewrite it in third person.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Select a short piece of your writing and rewrite it from a different character’s perspective. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Choose two fictional characters (new or familiar to you and your writing) then create a topic or event that would place these two characters into a verbal argument, where each feels that they are completely right. Write in a way that both you and your reader would be unsure who is right, using the verbal sparring as a platform to expose the motivations and emotions of both characters. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Writing from what we know and have experienced in our lives can add depth and a certain realism that can sometimes be hard to recreate when writing solely fiction. Think back to the first memory that you have, give yourself time to lose yourself in the moment that your mind recalls for you. Then pick up the pen and write with the voice of the child you were, keep your writing on that path, use a child’s language and understanding.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">6.<b> Using your own emotions</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Think of the thing that you are most afraid of, of a situation that could happen but hasn’t, then write about it the form of a short story.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">7. <b>Flash fiction</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Take one of your short stories and turn it into a piece of flash fiction (under 800 words) A simple way to do this by opening a new copy of your story in a word document and eliminating every word that is not 100% needed to propel the story forward. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Have a good novel!</span></div>
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-67898863701068649192014-11-03T22:19:00.000-08:002014-11-03T22:20:35.364-08:00DIES SLOWLY by MARTHA MEDEIROS<span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">I recently read a magnificent poem that I would like to share with you today. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">First I found it on one of the italian blogs I follow. I looked online for an English version and I found many. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;">Some websites claim the author is the Chilean wonderful poet Pablo Neruda. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;">The real author is</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 22px;"> the Brazilian author Martha Medeiros as confirmed by the <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/pablo-neruda" target="_blank">Pablo Neruda Foundation</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Martha Medeiros, Brazilian author</span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">He who becomes the slave of habit,</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who follows the same routes every day, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who never changes pace, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who does not risk and change the color of his clothes, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who does not speak and does not experience,</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">dies slowly.</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">He or she who shuns passion,</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who prefers black on white, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">dotting ones "it’s" rather than a bundle of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">that turn a yawn into a smile, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">dies slowly.</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who is unhappy at work, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who does not risk certainty for uncertainty, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">to thus follow a dream, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">die slowly.</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">He who does not travel, who does not read, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who does not listen to music, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who does not find grace in himself, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">she who does not find grace in herself, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">dies slowly.</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who does not allow himself to be helped, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">dies slowly.</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">He or she who abandon a project before starting it, who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know, he or she who don't reply when they are asked something they do know,</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">die slowly.</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Let's try and avoid death in small doses, </span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">Only a burning patience will lead</span><br style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;" /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">to the attainment of a splendid happiness.</span></span></h3>
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-83199532675142609442014-10-22T21:10:00.000-07:002014-10-22T21:10:20.480-07:00Inspiring words by Rebecca Solnit<h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">From "<a href="http://the%20faraway%20nearby/" target="_blank">The Faraway Nearby</a>" by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Solnit" target="_blank">Rebecca Solnit</a></span></span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Like many others who turned into writers, I disappeared into books when I was very young, disappeared into them like someone running into the woods. What surprised and still surprises me is that there was another side to the forest of stories and the solitude, that I came out that other side and met people there. Writers are solitaries by vocation and necessity. I sometimes think the test is not so much talent, which is not as rare as people think, but purpose or vocation, which manifests in part as the ability to endure a lot of solitude and keep working. Before writers are writers they are readers, living in books, through books, in the lives of others that are also the heads of others, in that act that is so intimate and yet so alone.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The object we call<b> a book is not the real book, but its potential, like a musical score or seed</b>. It exists fully only in the act of being read; and its real home is inside the head of the reader, where the symphony resounds, the seed germinates. <b>A book is a heart that only beats in the chest of another</b>. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">I had started out in silence, written as quietly as I had read, and then eventually people read some of what I had written, and some of the readers entered my world or drew me into theirs. I started out in silence and traveled until I arrived at a voice that was heard far away — first the silent voice that can only be read, and then I was asked to speak aloud and to read aloud. When I began to read aloud another voice, once I hardly recognized, emerged from my mouth. Maybe it was more relaxed, because writing is speaking to no one, and even when you’re reading to a crowd, you’re still in that conversation with the absent, the faraway, the not-yet-born, the unknown and the long-gone for whom writers write, the crowd of the absent who hover all around the desk.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have a good novel!</span></span>Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-45650676622615051642014-10-13T16:43:00.001-07:002014-10-13T16:43:08.506-07:00INSPIRING WORDS FOR WRITERS by ISAAC ASIMOV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I made up my mind long ago to follow one cardinal rule in all my writing—to be clear. I have given up all thought of writing poetically or symbolically or experimentally, or in any of the other modes that might (if I were good enough) get me a Pulitzer prize. I would write merely clearly and in this way establish a warm relationship between myself and my readers, and the professional critics—Well, they can do whatever they wish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From my close observation of writers… they fall into two groups: 1) those who bleed copiously and visibly at any bad review, and 2) those who bleed copiously and secretly at any bad review.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is the writer who might catch the imagination of young people, and plant a seed that will flower and come to fruition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Writing is a lonely job. Even if a writer socializes regularly, when he gets down to the real business of his life, it is he and his typewriter or word processor. No one else is or can be involved in the matter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's the writing that teaches you. It's the rotten stories that make it possible for you to write the good stories eventually. Do you think the story I wrote at the age of eleven was any good? Of course not. I had to keep writing after that, on and off, for ten years before I could write</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Nightfall.” Is that too long a time to struggle? Hell, it takes longer than that to learn to be a good surgeon, and being a good surgeon isn't nearly as exciting as being a good writer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thinking is the activity I love best, and writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers. I can write up to 18 hours a day. Typing 90 words a minute, I've done better than 50 pages a day. Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn't look up. Well, maybe once.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.</span><br />
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<a href="http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More quotes by Isaac Asimov</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have a good novel!</span>Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-743942189758347062014-10-06T18:09:00.000-07:002014-10-06T18:09:10.040-07:00The Lascaux Prize in Short Fiction<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #4c4c4c; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 17px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<a href="http://lascauxreview.com/contests/" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;" target="_blank">The 2014 Lascaux Prize in Short Fiction contest</a><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> has just opened for submissions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Like every year, participants are invited to send their stories,</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> previously published or unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The winner this year will receive</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; color: #1c1c1c; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">$1,000</strong><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> prize </span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">and the winning story will be published in</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Lascaux Review</em><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">. The winner and all finalists will be published in</span><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> </span><em style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The 2015 Lascaux Prize Anthology</em><span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">. Two copies of the anthology will be supplied to every writer appearing in it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Entry fee is $10. Authors may enter more than once. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Length should not exceed 10,000 words. All genres and styles are welcome.</span></div>
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Deadline for entries is 31 December. </div>
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Here's the <a href="https://lascauxreview.submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">link to the online submissions form</a>.</div>
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Have a good novel!</div>
Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-40607488191514285332014-09-29T09:16:00.000-07:002014-09-29T09:16:23.168-07:00ALL YOU CAN BOOKS<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoLvD62mlZcnQJFrdPudDxoZqH2BJymPnVh0TrFI-XmGjF5nIY9W5kLqwKe_UhYoVeSQPUSmzgUGMJmRhEAcrDtcROlAAMwSI3uVlsjAfSAGmcVl2N-w5npAw3Ca8X2cDVvERozYhXqyA/s1600/logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoLvD62mlZcnQJFrdPudDxoZqH2BJymPnVh0TrFI-XmGjF5nIY9W5kLqwKe_UhYoVeSQPUSmzgUGMJmRhEAcrDtcROlAAMwSI3uVlsjAfSAGmcVl2N-w5npAw3Ca8X2cDVvERozYhXqyA/s1600/logo.gif" height="172" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last month I accidentally came across a website called </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.allyoucanbooks.com/?utm_expid=52613335-2.91DLNboKQx2BH2eHvjOJIw.0&utm_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2Faclk%3Fsa%3Dl%26ai%3DCnJIGA-woVLmCJ8XK-QPau4GoDJux5qgEs-SLhFObysqoqwEIABABUL_93OD5_____wFg_YCAgMwDoAHVwevZA8gBAaoEHk_QnapXMm1omVz6LXRxs4WWOsY_i9onhYXgJNRDc4AHk76UJpAHAagHpr4b%26sig%3DAOD64_2qsyZtc9du-LbPZGRyBEh7r8BI3Q%26rct%3Dj%26q%3D%26ved%3D0CB8Q0Qw%26adurl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.AllYouCanBooks.com" target="_blank">ALL YOU CAN BOOKS</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Its database contains more than<b> 30.000 Audiobooks and eBooks </b>available to download and read on your laptop, tablet or smartphone. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The registration process is simple and fast, just type in your email address, choose a password and confirm your identity by clicking on the link they send to your email address.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The virtual library is vaste, divided in subcategories such as </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Top 100</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Recommended</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Biography</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Self-help</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Memories</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Fiction</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Historical</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thriller</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and so on. There is also a search button if you have a book in mind, the results will include similar choices as well as what you are looking for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>The service is free for 30 days</b>, then it costs around 20 CAD a month and it allows you to download as many books as you want. If you decide to cancel the subscription, <b>you get to keep the books</b> you downloaded during the free trial period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am always weary of free subscription but I had a good experience with <a href="http://www.allyoucanbooks.com/" target="_blank">ALL YOU CAN BOOKS</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For a couple of weeks I tried to find books I was interested in and downloaded audiobooks and e-books from the recommended section. I finally decided that I wasn't interested in keeping the service active, as the books provided are not the kind I'm looking for (recently published chick-lit and biographies).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">With a short and simple phone call to the <a href="https://www.allyoucanbooks.com/contact" target="_blank">Customer Service</a> (no questions asked) I was able to cancel the subscription and keep the books I downloaded during the free trial period.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's definitely worth a try.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have a good novel!</span><br />
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-27227248406996503792014-09-23T08:58:00.001-07:002014-09-23T08:58:34.874-07:00THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS by GAVIN EXTENCE<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15984268-the-universe-versus-alex-woods" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="The Universe Versus Alex Woods" border="0" height="320" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352436020m/15984268.jpg" title="gavin extence" width="221" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15984268-the-universe-versus-alex-woods">The Universe Versus Alex Woods</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6518784.Gavin_Extence">Gavin Extence</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/942492841">5 of 5 stars</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">I picked this novel from a newsagent at the airport, I saw the cover, read the title, paid for it. I didn't know what the plot was, I had never heard of the author, I just had a gut feeling I would have loved it. And I sure did.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Chapeau to the publishing house for the presentation, and to Gavin Extence for a first novel that leaves you with the feeling of wanting more of the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The plot</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A meteorite struck a ten year old boy changing the course of his future. His puberty is punctuated with books, science, an unusual mother, and an elder grumpy neighbor who will soon become his best friend. In the face of life events, the boy and the war veteran will read Kurt Vonnegut, grow indoor marijuana plants, support each other and face one terminal trip to Switzerland, where they will say goodbye without tears, but knowing they will never forget each other.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObvvq-ZohCBqouM3X64Bp_Ta0DvPzMpyw6hlARtoYVR6ngU-lKXeKB7aTRAfaJran1xBYX-BgS2gyuaeFsApZ-QODcgHR3Ka2nPyaNfVSTxZyGPYW5WkQTO5ly77KlcLzvUCfL0ij_3A/s1600/gavin-extence.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="the universe versus alex woods" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhObvvq-ZohCBqouM3X64Bp_Ta0DvPzMpyw6hlARtoYVR6ngU-lKXeKB7aTRAfaJran1xBYX-BgS2gyuaeFsApZ-QODcgHR3Ka2nPyaNfVSTxZyGPYW5WkQTO5ly77KlcLzvUCfL0ij_3A/s1600/gavin-extence.jpg" title="gavin extence" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The author</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Gavin Extence is a British writer, husband, father and chess player. He has a PHD in Film Studies and he's hopefully already working on his next novel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Your comments are always appreciated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Have a good novel!</span><br />
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-42698599171653195652014-09-16T09:46:00.003-07:002014-09-16T09:51:02.321-07:00New Voices at the Festival of the Written Arts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc9K3dBysXnYzKL81SWJ54_8OUycYEO97oQe5zZ8mRCkzPiPSd6d8ZlDRV__afXhKNQZendt6_CdLy0ACsT9raqbWItDVspnSv4Ip6Wz9srkMRFlk6kqcHRWpSj-whkJ6U-GPgtRY_f1c/s1600/9372426.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="festival of the written arts" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc9K3dBysXnYzKL81SWJ54_8OUycYEO97oQe5zZ8mRCkzPiPSd6d8ZlDRV__afXhKNQZendt6_CdLy0ACsT9raqbWItDVspnSv4Ip6Wz9srkMRFlk6kqcHRWpSj-whkJ6U-GPgtRY_f1c/s1600/9372426.jpg" height="205" title="kathryn para" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> <i>Kathryn Para </i>is the author of the novel <i>Lucky</i>, a story about a journalist in the Middle East.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAg39VXe5SDQ3bekOAO-P8XkKadWJldn-u3LjSUMv4P8E6soKSRn8R_BWHWE-qIDG58Q0Sj-cux3XyhC6fWoXDOeS8JJ4_sG_rIr7dY_S8ex7GfeLcGBvHK2b94KZSy4BdCOZEpqvTPtI/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="festival of the written arts" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAg39VXe5SDQ3bekOAO-P8XkKadWJldn-u3LjSUMv4P8E6soKSRn8R_BWHWE-qIDG58Q0Sj-cux3XyhC6fWoXDOeS8JJ4_sG_rIr7dY_S8ex7GfeLcGBvHK2b94KZSy4BdCOZEpqvTPtI/s1600/images.jpg" height="320" title="andrea routley" width="240" /></span></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Andrea Routley </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">is the author of </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jane and the Whales</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, a collection of dark short stories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">The Festival of the Written Arts</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today is the last appointment with the authors who participated to the Festival of the Written Arts in Sechelt, BC, on 14-17th August 2014. <span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">First I posted about the reading by </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/08/aislinn-hunter-speaks-at-festival-of.html" style="background-color: white; color: #4d469c; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Aislinn Hunter</a>,<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"> </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.it/2014/08/bill-gaston-speaks-at-festival-of.html" style="background-color: white; color: #4d469c; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bill Gaston</a> and<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"> <a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.it/2014/09/audrey-thomas-speaks-at-festival-of.html" style="color: #4d469c; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Audrey Thomas</a>. Last week we met the charismatic and enchanting<a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/09/dianne-whelan-speaks-at-festival-of.html" target="_blank"> </a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/09/dianne-whelan-speaks-at-festival-of.html" target="_blank">Dianne Whelan</a>. Finally, today I would like to introduce you two new voices of the Canadian writing scene, two different styles for two different personalities, interviewed by CBC radio host <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/nxnw/" target="_blank">Sheryl MacKay</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-size: large; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><a href="http://kpara.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Kathryn Para</a></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">She speaks in a silky, fluent voice, her hands move in slow and precise gestures. It seems she is been doing this all her life, instead she is introducing her first novel, "Lucky", winner of the second Search for the Great BC Novel. The story is about a female journalist from Vancouver who comes back after a reportage in the Middle East and suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. What really caught my attention about this author is that reviews of her book glorify her ability to put into words war scenes and crude realities but during the Q&A session Para candidly admits she's never even visited the Middle East. Her research was done sitting comfortably at home, watching movies and reading online. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I was left wondering if I would ever write a novel about a country I've never been to. Traveling is my biggest passion and I am lucky enough to have seen 32 countries up to now. I hope I will see many more before I die, it's kind of my goal for the future. This explains my interest in the matter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">"Can you write a proper description of a country you have never been to?"</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Before moving to Canada I had very little information about the geography and the history of the Country. I found all the information I needed online. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I also knew a few Canadians and I had the sense that people were kind and considerate, open to other cultures, lovers of sport and party. After two years living in BC I can say these stereotypes turned out to be true for the most part.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are also hundreds of habits and beliefs I wouldn't have never grasped if I hadn't come to see for myself. Just for fun, I will list some examples:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- Canadians drive slowly and respect the safety distance from the car in front of them (that does NOT happen in Italy!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- Canadians have a great knowledge of nutrition, health foods and diets (that is NOT what appears in the American movies)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">- Canadians live in harmony with nature and know how to respect the environment (I could have found this information online, but it's not the same as meeting a bear face to face).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In my opinion, it is advisable to write about what you know about, therefore write about a country you have been to, or use your novel as an excuse to pack and go traveling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://caitlin-press.com/our-authors/routley-andrea/" target="_blank">Andrea Routley</a></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Young and energetic, constantly looking for an active interaction with her audience, Andrea Routley appears different from the dark description of her collection of short stories, "Jane and the Whales". She reads two extracts from two different stories, the first sounds like a provocative, sexual, disturbing encounter, the second is more sad, dark, the smell of death is all around it. Sheryl MacKay asks about her passion for writing and Andrea explains how she has always been filling journals with ideas, songs, poems. Now she is trying to turn her passion into a career. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many of you reading this page share Andrea's dream... I sure do! Congratulations to Andrea for being published, and good luck to all of us who still haven't!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have a good novel!</span></div>
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-25686514083699985692014-09-09T10:31:00.001-07:002014-09-09T10:31:38.135-07:00Dianne Whelan speaks at the Festival of the Written Arts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrvdRjk_D-FKSYJF_6vd6z5EBwD7wFPqnfbxb-G88P07PrlXZt7Mbeg6eSz0YoNR-yBjH1_5obJDUryGyAeyiY7263P93aXAq-Dbl-4d35gh0T9jdIj6j58YJg6yhvLpqW6eKLdFbcBo/s1600/Dianne-Whelan-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="festival of the written arts" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrrvdRjk_D-FKSYJF_6vd6z5EBwD7wFPqnfbxb-G88P07PrlXZt7Mbeg6eSz0YoNR-yBjH1_5obJDUryGyAeyiY7263P93aXAq-Dbl-4d35gh0T9jdIj6j58YJg6yhvLpqW6eKLdFbcBo/s1600/Dianne-Whelan-web.jpg" height="257" title="dianne whelan" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.diannewhelan.com/" target="_blank">Dianne Whelan</a> </i>is the author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Base-Camp-40-Days-Everest/dp/1927575435" target="_blank">40 days at Base Camp</a></i><br />
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The festival of the Written Arts</h3>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">For the past three weeks I've been telling you about the </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/07/32nd-festival-of-written-arts.html" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Festival of the Written Arts</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"> that took place in </span><a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/Maps/?id=82" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Sechelt</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">, BC, on 14-17 August 2014. I have been participating to five of the twenty-one events of the weekend, it has been such a rewarding and inspiring experience that I decided I would like to share it with you. First I posted about the reading by </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/08/aislinn-hunter-speaks-at-festival-of.html" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Aislinn Hunter</a> and<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"> </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.it/2014/08/bill-gaston-speaks-at-festival-of.html" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bill Gaston</a><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">. Last week I introduced you to <a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.it/2014/09/audrey-thomas-speaks-at-festival-of.html" target="_blank">Audrey Thomas</a>. Today we will meet an incredible artist and fantastic woman.</span> Fasten your seat belts, and get ready for fireworks: say hi to Dianne Whelan.</div>
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<a href="http://www.diannewhelan.com/" target="_blank">Dianne Whelan</a></h3>
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Happy, energetic, inspiring, charming. These are only few of the Dianne's virtues, Her voice is strong, her posture is determined, new ideas are concocting in her brain faster than she can tell them. I had the fortune of meeting Dianne in person, and when I told her I wanted to be a writer she just looked at me and said: "Do it! Do it now! Go do it!"<br />
Her presentation of a difficult and dangerous journey was charming, honest, proactive, the best event of the Festival. While she was explaining about her trip she also talked us through a slide show of pictures she took during her experience in Nepal and also the trailer of the <a href="http://www.40daysatbasecamp.com/dianne-whelan/" target="_blank">movie</a> that was made about it. Dianne Whelan is a 360 degrees artist, she is a talented photographer, director, writer and dreamer. </div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">Each spring, over eight hundred climbers attempt to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. The conditions are challenging, and without warning can become life-threatening. Some make it to the top of what is considered the world's most majestic mountain, but others are not so lucky, and in the attempt to reach the elusive summit, many more have tragically lost their lives. Not all are recovered, their bodies left to the mountain.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">In the spring of 2010, 18,000 feet above sea level, documentary filmmaker Dianne Whelan immersed herself in the challenging and captivating world of base camp on Mt. Everest.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">In this personal and eye-opening exposé, BASE CAMP: 40 DAYS ON EVEREST, Whelan shares gripping stories of Maoist rebels, avalanches and dead bodies surfacing out of a dying glacier. From her perspective at base camp Whelan interviews climbers, doctors and Sherpas all living for months on end in the belly of the mountain as they wait for a weather window to summit the top of the world. Woven into the personal stories of these climbers is the devastating truth of the human impact on the mountain and the eerie and unforeseen effects of climate change. Experts believe there are over 250 bodies buried on the path from base camp to the peak of Mt. Everest. With the glacier melting and moving at over four inches a day, the toll of the human desire to conquer the mountain is slowly and irreversibly surfacing at base camp. (source:<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Base-Camp-40-Days-Everest/dp/1927575435" target="_blank"> Goodreads</a>)</span></div>
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Dianne Whelan's dreams</h3>
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During the Q&A session, when asked what she plans to do next, Dianne left the audience speechless by saying she intends to face a two year trip across the North of Canada, known as the Great Northern Trail, through inhospitable and wild land. Well, good luck Dianne, we look forward to hear of your new adventures!<br />
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What do you think of this author? Would you face danger and harsh living conditions for such a long period of time? Are you aware of the devastating human impact on the Everest Mountain? Your comments are always welcome.<br />
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Have a good novel!</div>
Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-35835948343983127152014-09-03T10:01:00.003-07:002014-09-03T10:01:48.430-07:00Audrey Thomas speaks at the Festival of the Written Arts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAxC6EOAQxoZRGe9CMDRiA9DvQ9XG7eoh3Bg1-PK_9w9YRK9tGj0voFjOV4HJV6nyd6nN-5aZBSIvREKkw6Oz-Ist0FktJ5NqGzBHjK4LdSxCHdTu3Eteuh3PTmJ08qvY3nfmbmRKtLYM/s1600/AudreyThomas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="festival of the written arts" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAxC6EOAQxoZRGe9CMDRiA9DvQ9XG7eoh3Bg1-PK_9w9YRK9tGj0voFjOV4HJV6nyd6nN-5aZBSIvREKkw6Oz-Ist0FktJ5NqGzBHjK4LdSxCHdTu3Eteuh3PTmJ08qvY3nfmbmRKtLYM/s1600/AudreyThomas.jpg" height="320" title="audrey thomas" width="241" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>In the '60s, <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/audrey-grace-thomas/" target="_blank">Audrey Thomas</a></i> has lived in Ghana on the Gold Coast of Africa, and that's where her new novel is based: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15027836-local-customs" target="_blank"><i>Local Customs</i></a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For the past two weeks we spoke about the </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/07/32nd-festival-of-written-arts.html" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Festival of the Written Arts</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> that took place in </span><a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/Maps/?id=82" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Sechelt</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, BC, on 14-17 August 2014. I have been participating to five of the twenty-one events of the weekend, it has been such a rewarding and inspiring experience that I decided I would like to share it with you. First I posted about the reading by </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/08/aislinn-hunter-speaks-at-festival-of.html" style="color: #4d469c; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Aislinn Hunter</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Last week I introduced to you the second guest: </span><a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.it/2014/08/bill-gaston-speaks-at-festival-of.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Bill Gaston</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Today we are speaking of a peculiar and extremely interesting woman: </span><a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/audrey-grace-thomas/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Audrey Thomas</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A peculiar encounter</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Audrey Thomas is not your classic author reading extracts from her book behind a black polished podium. She is sitting at a coffee table, introducing her story in a slow and silky voice, as if she had just come over for tea at an old friend's house. The first half of her allotted hour is dedicated to random stories about her private life and some newspaper cutting containing unusual advertisements, that she reads out loud all excited. She tells the captivated audience how she got run over by a trolley last week and her left foot toes looked like eggplants. She shares the memory of a Labrador puppy she trained for a while years ago and how she felt the need to do some volunteering back then. In passing, we come to know she has lived in Ghana for a short period in the sixties and that she has the habit of marking the new pens with a tip of nail polish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My natural reaction is to look around at the audience, every one is listening silently and nodding politely to this unexpected book presentation. I wonder how Audrey would react in front of an Italian audience, usually loud and full of sarcasm if the speaker doesn't keep up with the expectations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">18 books since 1965</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Audrey Thomas has started publishing in 1965 and since then she has written 18 books. This information is hardly believable if you consider the woman has spent half an hour to get started on what we have gathered here today for (I drove 40 minutes just for this one hour event, and up to this moment I only heard of pens and puppies). Her 18th book, Local Customs, is set in Ghana, it's about a woman who dies for unknown reasons, and it's been written by hand, just like every other book or poem Audrey Thomas has published in the last 50 years. The audience gasps. When asked why, Audrey explains that she has sheets of paper lying everywhere in her house and she enjoys browsing them at random, finding old poems and groceries list among her novels. She also likes to write in bed when she wakes up, and writing by hand allows some peace before her kids figure out she's awake. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Local Customs</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #181818; font-style: italic; line-height: 15.455999374389648px;">In this historical novel based on real events, Letitia Landon and George Maclean marry in June 1838 and sail off to West Africa. Eight weeks later she is dead from what appears to be an overdose of prussic acid. Her doctor and a chemist swear they never prescribed or made up such a solution.</span><br style="color: #181818; line-height: 15.455999374389648px;" /><br style="color: #181818; line-height: 15.455999374389648px;" /><span style="color: #181818; font-style: italic; line-height: 15.455999374389648px;">The mystery is never resolved. The ship that brought Letitia's cheerful letters to London was the same one that announced her death. All sorts of rumours fly around. Complicating matters is the presence of Thomas Birch Freeman, a Wesleyan missionary. A letter he writes after Letitia's demise causes trouble for George Maclean. Brodie Cruickshank, in charge of the fort at Anamaboe, a few miles away, also seems to have fallen in love with Letitia.</span><br style="color: #181818; line-height: 15.455999374389648px;" /><br style="color: #181818; line-height: 15.455999374389648px;" /><span style="color: #181818; line-height: 15.455999374389648px;"><i>But what really happened to Letitia in this exotic and dangerous place so far away from her home? </i>(source: Goodreads)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Audrey Thomas was born in America and came to Canada in 1959, she lives on Galiano Island, BC. Her work draws extensively on her experience and observations of the places she has lived. themes include loss of children, loss of love, art and the artist, reality and illusion and the minutiae of women's lives. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I didn't feel the need to know more about this author, or to get an autographed copy of her book, and meeting her has not sparked my enthusiasm. Luckily, the next week event will be... fireworks!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have a good novel!</span></div>
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Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-83120619613567764462014-08-26T09:33:00.000-07:002014-08-26T09:33:07.409-07:00Bill Gaston speaks at the Festival of the Written Arts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gaston" target="_blank">Bill Gaston</a> is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/The-World-Bill-Gaston/dp/0670065838" target="_blank"><i>The World</i></a> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Juliet-Was-Surprise-Bill-Gaston/dp/0670065846" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank"><i>Juliet was a surprise</i></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />Last week I wrote about the <a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/07/32nd-festival-of-written-arts.html" target="_blank">Festival of the Written Arts</a> that took place in <a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/Maps/?id=82" target="_blank">Sechelt</a>, BC, just a short ferry ride from Vancouver. I have been participating to five of the twenty-one events of the weekend, it has been such a rewarding and inspiring experience that I decided I would like to share it with you. Last Monday I posted about the first event: <a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/08/aislinn-hunter-speaks-at-festival-of.html" target="_blank">Aislinn Hunter</a>. Today I would like to introduce you the second guest I met at the Festival, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gaston" target="_blank">Bill Gaston</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic;">Imagine this: A recently divorced guy, just a regular guy, is about ready to burn his mortgage but instead accidentally burns his house down, only to discover that for the first time in his life he’s forgotten to pay a bill: his insurance premium. An old friend of his, a middle-aged musician, prepares for her suicide to end the pain of eight years of throat cancer. Her father, who left his family to study Buddhism in Nepal, ends his days in a Toronto facility for Alzheimer’s patients. The three are tied together not only by their bonds of affection, but by a book called The World, written by the old man in his youth. The book, possibly biographical, tells the story of a historian who unearths a cache of letters, written in Chinese, in an abandoned leper colony off the coast of Victoria. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Questions and Answers with </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gaston" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Bill Gaston</a></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The title of Bill Gaston's book is quite bold, it comes natural enquiring about the choice. The question makes him laugh and it seems obvious he's been asked the same many times lately. He quickly explains how one of the characters of the book, suffering from Alzheimer's, has written a book called 'The World' about an abandoned leper colony near Victoria, BC. In that book it's mentioned another book called 'The World'. Sort of a story in the story in the story. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The next question then is: has he really written the story about the leper colony living off the coast of Victoria, where Bill Gaston is presently living and teaching a creative writing course? No, he says he hasn't written that story in full, he didn't feel like it was his thing. He then laughs thinking that it would have probably been a bestseller!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Funny and easygoing, Bill Gaston has a head of thick, white-as-snow hair but he reminds me of a teenager, his expression is Peter-Pan-ish. He doesn't lose his smile during the event, not even when he explains that the research for his book comes from his personal experience. Sadly, both his parents suffered from Alzheimer's, his brother is not well either and the idea of the guy burning down his house comes from something that happened to him in first person. His book is a good example of how we can turn bad luck into something good! When asked how can he speaks so lightly of such deep sad matters, he says that is exactly what is trying to do. These words were inspiring to me, that is exactly what I would like to achieve in my writing and in my life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><u>My journal reads: Put a smile on your face, you might convince yourself you are happy.</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Towards the end of the event, Bill Gaston read an extract from a short story collection recently published, <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Juliet-Was-Surprise-Bill-Gaston/dp/0670065846" target="_blank">Juliet was a surprise</a>. He decided to read the title and the first paragraph of each story, a risky choice that paid off when the audience sat laughing and clapping repeatedly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I was impressed by the rhythm and energy of this event, it made me think of how being a writer doesn't mean to just sit down and fill the white screen but also implies learning to read in a compelling way, being able to hold an audience for an hour, advertise your work and your person in front of 450 people. Scary, but exciting!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How do you feel about writing of serious matters such as disease and disasters? Is it possible to do so while still enjoying your day-to-day life?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Please share your impressions in the comments below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Have a good novel! </span>Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-61119934471055384122014-08-18T21:05:00.002-07:002014-08-18T21:05:46.103-07:00Aislinn Hunter speaks at the Festival of the Written Arts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.aislinnhunter.com/biography/" target="_blank">Aislinn Hunter</a> </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">is the author of <i><a href="http://www.aislinnhunter.com/the-world-before-us-3/" target="_blank">The World Before Us</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">The past few days have been the coronation of a year long dream. Participating to the <i><a href="http://www.writersfestival.ca/" target="_blank">Festival of the Written Arts</a></i> in <a href="http://www.britishcolumbia.com/Maps/?id=82" target="_blank">Sechelt</a>, BC, a sunny town on the ocean just a short ferry ride from Vancouver, has been a rewarding and inspiring experience that I would like to share with you for the next five weeks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">I attended five of the twenty-one events available and I will introduce you each one of the writers I listened to, talking about their novels and what impressions I took home from the encounter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">Choosing five out of twenty-one events was no easy task, I eventually picked writers whose books were significant for my writing career, at this moment focusing on women empowerment and mainstream novels, not belonging to any specific literary genre.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">Aislinn Hunter</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">Today I would like to speak about the first writer I picked: her name is <a href="http://www.aislinnhunter.com/biography/" target="_blank">Aislinn Hunter</a> and she's a well known Canadian writer who is hopefully about to be worldwide famous. Aislinn is a charming woman with interesting experiences to share, a deep sensitive soul and a remarkable writing style. Pretty much everything she has written in the last 15 years has been nominated for, or won, a significant literary award. Her first novel, <i><a href="http://www.aislinnhunter.com/stay-the-book/" target="_blank">Stay</a></i> (2002) has been chosen to become a feature film. During her lecture Aislinn read an extract from her new novel, <i><a href="http://www.aislinnhunter.com/the-world-before-us-3/" target="_blank">The World Before Us</a></i>, inspired by the wonder of how we react to tragedies that don't belong to us in the first person but happen in our peripheral world. </span></div>
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The World Before Us</h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Baskerville, 'Playfair Display', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;"><i>When she was just fifteen, smart, sensitive Jane Standen lived through a nightmare: she lost the sweet five-year-old girl she was minding during a walk in the woods. The little girl was never found, leaving her family, and Jane, devastated. Now the grown-up Jane is an archivist at a small London museum that is about to close for lack of funding. As her one last project, she is searching the archives for scraps of information related to another missing person–a woman who disappeared some 125 years ago from a Victorian asylum. As the novel moves back and forth between the museum in contemporary London, the Victorian asylum, and a dilapidated country house that seems to connect both missing people, it unforgettably explores the repercussions of small acts, the power of affection, and the irrepressible vitality of everyday objects and events.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">There are different types of grieving and everyone grieves in their own way. </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">When we lose someone we love we feel a present absence of the person, their presence is still lingering around us, it is a palpable presence. On the other hand, we could feel their absent presence, the void they left in our life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">Struck by an acquaintance's tragedy, Aislinn asked herself how she could somehow help the world, and she decided to do so by writing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">I was attracted by some weird reading that Aislinn mentioned, she said to get ideas for her book she read a collection of journal entries from in-patients of a psychiatric asylum. It made me want to try some random reading myself to see if I get the idea for my next novel plot.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 16.516515731811523px;">The name of the characters in Aislinn's book are famous poets she loves: Blake, Elliott and so on. That's quite a risky choice, I feel in my novels I would rather invent specific names myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'; font-size: 12pt;">Aislinn mentioned butterflies in a museum: perfectly beautiful but stuck to the wall with a pin in the stomach. It made me think of how I want to live and let my body show the signs of a life lived to the full. My journal reads: Love yourself but don't become a slave of beauty.</span></div>
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<u>A note to my Italian followers</u>:</div>
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In a few weeks I will publish my Italian blog on Creative Writing with book reviews of Italian authors and my future novels (hopefully). The decision of switching from English to Italian when I write comes from the awareness that the mother tongue is and will always be more linked to my feelings and memories, both basics necessity of writing good books.</div>
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Have a good novel!</div>
Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-62550877569287249922014-07-27T01:10:00.000-07:002014-07-27T01:10:06.597-07:0032nd Festival of the Written Arts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">32nd Festival of the Written Arts</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">14-17 August 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Summer is here and so is the Festival of the Written Arts in Sechelt, BC, just a couple of hours away from the Vancouver on the Sunshine Coast.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Dozens of Canadian authors will gather to talk about their published books and emerging writers will have a wonderful opportunity to share and learn from their experiences.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">You can find the Festival Planner here:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">http://www.writersfestival.ca/pdf/festivalplanner.pdf</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Tickets are on sale by telephone: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">call the Festival Office: 604.885.9631 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">or toll free: 1.800.565.9631</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">or book the tickets in person at </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">the </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Festival Office </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">5511 Shorncliffe Avenue, Sechelt., BC </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">(9 am to 4:30 pm) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Every event has a cost of 15$ or you can purchase day passes (75-85$) or even a full pass (250$). For changes and refund please see instructions of the Festival Planner:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">http://www.writersfestival.ca/pdf/festivalplanner.pdf</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">See you all there!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Please share your comments and questions here:</span>Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-28916109454074723852014-07-07T14:02:00.000-07:002014-07-07T14:10:59.702-07:00LET THE GAMES BEGIN by NICCOLO' AMMANITI<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143206-let-the-games-begin" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Let the Games Begin" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372705823m/18143206.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18143206-let-the-games-begin">Let the Games Begin</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/243571.Niccol_Ammaniti">Niccolò Ammaniti</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/986531715">5 of 5 stars</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">"<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Let-Games-Begin-Niccolo-Ammaniti-ebook/dp/B00CD49LK6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404766518&sr=8-2&keywords=let+the+games+begin" target="_blank">Let the games begin</a>" (Italian edition published in 2009; English edition published in 2013) is a novel by Italian author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Ammaniti" target="_blank">Niccolò Ammaniti</a>, a member of the '90s literary group known as the "Cannibals".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The tale is hunting, somewhat blaspheme, captivating; it is the perfect balance between realism and fiction. A millionaire party is organized in a historical Villa in Rome and all Italian famous VIPs are invited to join an absurdly rich and weird hunting party that will end in disaster. The resulting image is a truthful and disgusting snapshot of an old Italy that is exploited, tired, exhausted. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Saverio, a frustrated father and husband, finds himself head of a satanist group of four, his adepts being weirdos and unlikely dark souls. Fabrizio, a famous writer with a narcissistic soul, is stuck between the fear of losing his privileged status and the paranoid delusion of being the best of them all. Their lives will run parallel in a climax building until they will clash in an explosion of bitterness and injustice. The reader will be left with a sense of vengeance for a beautiful country suffering of a prolonged carelessness.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Ammaniti" target="_blank">Niccolò Ammaniti</a> (1966) was born in Rome and he became famous in 2001 with his best seller "<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Im-Not-Scared-Niccol%C2%B2-Ammaniti/dp/184195442X/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1404766669&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=i%27m+not+scared" target="_blank">I'm not scared</a>" that is a major movie picture now. Ammaniti's voice speaks for his generation, including myself and everyone belonging to the so called "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X" target="_blank">Generation X</a>". As an emerging writer I wish one day I will be able to express myself just like him, with a fluidity and a sarcasm that hits the target and lingers in the heart. "<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Let-Games-Begin-Niccolo-Ammaniti-ebook/dp/B00CD49LK6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404766518&sr=8-2&keywords=let+the+games+begin" target="_blank">Let the games begin</a>" is a good reading exercise for emerging writers as there can be found all the basic rules of novel construction. Two parallel narrative lines grow separately, a crucible forces the characters together and gives credibility to their coexistence even if they have to face harder and nastier obstacles. The resolution comes when the climax reaches its top and the reader is left with lots to think about.</span><br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/17303375-lisa-agosti"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">View all my reviews</span></a>
Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-40720956273291362572014-07-02T00:59:00.000-07:002014-07-02T07:09:46.270-07:00ANNA KARENINA by LEO TOLSTOY<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15823480-anna-karenina" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Anna Karenina" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352422904m/15823480.jpg" title="leo tolstoy" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15823480-anna-karenina">Anna Karenina</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/128382.Leo_Tolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/776651999">3 of 5 stars</a><br />
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A must read for every emerging writer, "<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Anna-Karenina-Leo-Tolstoy-ebook/dp/B008476UXW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404310085&sr=8-1&keywords=anna+karenina" target="_blank">Anna Karenina</a>" (1878) is one of the most famous classics of all times. Together with "<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/War-Peace-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/1400079985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404310137&sr=8-1&keywords=war+and+peace" target="_blank">War and Peace</a>" is considered the masterpiece by Russian author <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/128382.Leo_Tolstoy" target="_blank">Leo Tolstoy</a> (1828-1910). First appeared as a series of installments in a local periodical, "<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Anna-Karenina-Leo-Tolstoy-ebook/dp/B008476UXW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404310085&sr=8-1&keywords=anna+karenina" target="_blank">Anna Karenina</a><span id="goog_809015434"></span><span id="goog_809015435"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>" is an accurate snapshot of the Russian society of the time, it's been labelled as <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_realism" target="_blank">realist fiction</a>.</em><br />
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The love story between married aristocrat Anna Karenina and a young affluent bachelor, Count Vronsky, unravels in a slow tale packed with female feelings and male rational thinking. Two more love stories run parallel to the main one: Levin, a country land owner who despises the city life, is desperately in love with naive Kitty, the little sister of Dolly, who is in turn the mother of three and betrayed wife of Anna's brother, Stephan.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Anna-Karenina-Leo-Tolstoy-ebook/dp/B008476UXW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404310085&sr=8-1&keywords=anna+karenina" target="_blank">"Anna Karenina</a>" is the perfect book for the summer, when there's time and space enough to focus on the many characters and intrigues created by Tolstoy's imagination. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/128382.Leo_Tolstoy" target="_blank">Leo Tolstoy </a>used his novels to express his ideas on various subjects like politics, war, religion, economy. His characters speak the author's mind and doubts, discussing between themselves different point of views and solutions. In the 1870s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/128382.Leo_Tolstoy" target="_blank">Leo Tolstoy</a> went through a moral crisis and spiritual awakening and his novels reflect this inner turmoil.<br />
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I personally had trouble identifying with the character of Anna as a woman, and maybe for this reason I didn't feel the same attachment for this novel as I felt for "<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/War-Peace-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/1400079985/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404310137&sr=8-1&keywords=war+and+peace" target="_blank">War and Peace</a>". Still, I'm glad I read this masterpiece and I can add it to my classics library.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/17303375-lisa-agosti">View all my reviews</a>
Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-54768320968026323772014-06-02T19:48:00.004-07:002014-06-02T19:48:50.579-07:00LONG WALK TO FREEDOM by NELSON MANDELA<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318431.Long_Walk_to_Freedom" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Long Walk to Freedom" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327997342m/318431.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318431.Long_Walk_to_Freedom">Long Walk to Freedom</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/367338.Nelson_Mandela">Nelson Mandela</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/531128674">5 of 5 stars</a><br />
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"It always seems impossible until it's done" - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela" target="_blank">Nelson Mandela</a><br />
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Growing up in the 80's I remember hearingthe name <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela" target="_blank">Nelson Mandela</a> every now and the then in the news, in association with the terms Apartheid and Fight against Racism.<br />
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One day in the mid 90's that name became a symbol of victory and hope for freedom and justice. Released after 27 years in prison, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela" target="_blank">Nelson Mandela</a> talked to his people and published his biography specifying that the battle was not over, there was still a long walk to freedom. <br />
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From 1994 to 1999 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela" target="_blank">Nelson Mandela</a> was President of South Africa and he remained involved in the World's politics until his death in 2013. <br />
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When I approached "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/531128674?book_show_action=false" target="_blank">Long Walk to Freedom</a>" I feared the dates and facts would be overwhelming for a person like me who is not into politics and know pretty much nothing about South Africa. I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself reading a humble, felt tale of a down-to-earth man, admitting how he never actually decided to be a hero and how he regrets not having being present for his family as he wished. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela" target="_blank">Nelson Mandela </a>speaks of hope and beliefs that never faltered, not even when denied to receive visits from his family or attend his own son's funeral. <br />
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I recommend this significant and moving biography of a man who believed freedom is a natural right for everyone.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/17303375-lisa-agosti">View all my reviews</a>
Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-411091544284901710.post-86679107278926879882014-05-05T11:06:00.000-07:002014-05-05T11:06:07.496-07:00THE WENDY DILEMMA by DAN KILEY<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39138.The_Wendy_Dilemma" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="The Wendy Dilemma: When Women Stop Mothering Their Men" border="0" src="https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347443496m/39138.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39138.The_Wendy_Dilemma">The Wendy Dilemma: When Women Stop Mothering Their Men</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21783.Dan_Kiley">Dan Kiley</a><br />
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/873119309">3 of 5 stars</a><br />
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Bestselling author of <a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/03/the-peter-pan-syndrome-by-dan-kiley.html" target="_blank">"The Peter Pan Syndrome"</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21783.Dan_Kiley" target="_blank">Dan Kiley</a> wrote a second self-help book in 1984 called <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39138.The_Wendy_Dilemma?ac=1" target="_blank">"The Wendy Dilemma"</a> addressed to women who want to stop mothering their men.<br />
Thirty years later, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21783.Dan_Kiley" target="_blank">Dan Kiley</a> theory is still actual and compelling, as women's role in society changed but feelings of inferiority and low self-confidence persist.<br />
I started reading <a href="http://lisafobia.blogspot.ca/2014/03/the-peter-pan-syndrome-by-dan-kiley.html" target="_blank">"The Peter Pan Syndrome</a>" and "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39138.The_Wendy_Dilemma?ac=1" target="_blank">The Wendy Dilemma</a>" as part of external research for a non-fiction book I meant to write before realizing someone else had already published my very same idea in 2011. Luckily I chose not to interrupt the reading and found myself clearly depicted in some of the examples offered from the author of women struggling to find themselves and express their feelings in appropriate ways.<br />
The first part of the book explains who Wendy is, her characteristics and the reasons for them. There is a simple test to help the readers understand how much of a Wendy is hidden in each one of us. <br />
The second half of the book helps Wendy to become a Tinker, by accepting oneself, overcoming through right behaviors an old sense of inferiority, and eventually set free from wrong relationships.<br />
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21783.Dan_Kiley" target="_blank">Dan Kiley</a> has a simple, down-to-earth style with lots of examples taken from his daily practice with patients.<br />
The book also offers a list of helpful readings for further support.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/17303375-lisa-agosti">View all my reviews</a>
Lisa Agostihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00099517732724595700noreply@blogger.com0