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August 25th, 2013 Today my husband and I were going to attend a Cape Cod Writers Reception at a local bookstore. We came off the beach and readied ourselves to get there by three. It was at Books By The Sea in the lovely town of Osterville.
We walked into the store and it was empty. I felt so bad! Tom Phillips, owner and fellow board member, was alone behind the counter. I immediately introduced him to my husband and inquired how ticket sales were going for our gift basket fundraiser. We chatted and browsed the book store. I’m thinking to myself that we were supposed to have wine and cheese and the our local authors were supposed to come and sign books and I can’t imagine how NO ONE showed up to our event. I was so sad and disappointed.
It was time to leave and Tom said to me, “Oh by the way, our event yesterday was a big success. Fifteen authors showed up and it was a great time.”
Oh dear. It was yesterday and we missed it. Imagine my chagrin. Just then another fellow board member showed up looking for the reception. We both went to Tom and explained the mishap, dissolving in laughter. I was just so glad the event was a success and well-attended.
Small faux pas like this keep us humble. It proves we all make mistakes and just maybe we don’t always know as much as we think we do.
And so, as another day goes by, I think someone needs to make better use of her iPhone calendar, and…I have written.
If you would like a ticket to win this gift basket worth over $3000, Facebook or email me. Tickets are one for $10 and three for $20. (Checks and credit cards accepted)
Basket can be shipped to you. Thank you for supporting the Cape Cod Writers Center, a non-profit organization for furthering the arts on the Cape.
August 24th, 2013 Just a great day at the beach with my family. Book done, deadlines met, no pressing matters. Just complete peace and time with those closest to me. Come. Pull up a beach chair, and enjoy this with us.
And so, as another day goes by, take time to breath and appreciate that which is right in front of you, and…I have written.
August 23rd, 2013 Welcome to our new “Friday thing”. Today I’m joining in a “blog hop”, which is very much like a blog challenge because you get to meet awesome people and read some really great blogs. It’s different in that you don’t have to post everyday for 31 days. You only post on Friday using the alphabet as your guide. Today is letter E. (I missed A-D, but I can quickly catch you up!) But the really big difference is that you, my dear regular readers, also get to meet these awesome people and checkout these awesome blogs with me, because they will be listed on the bottom of each Fridays post. Click on a few – you never know where you may land or who you’ll meet that can change your life. With that thought in mind, let’s start hopping.
Catch Up:
A is for Actualization – 4 weeks ago illustrations for the book were complete – tweaked and ready for upload
B is for Brave – 3 weeks ago took an e-publishing course at Cape Cod Writer’s Center Conference, formatted book, and last week uploaded it to Amazon
C is for Couldn’t Wait – for the 12 hours it takes to publish – I had to do it 6 times and wait 12 hours to see it each time
D is for Done! – done and up for sale online!
Moving forward:
E is for Excited. I bet you can guess why I’m excited. Yes, it has to do with a goat named Ralph. My first piece of published anything became available on Amazon this week. The Trouble With Ralph, by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer, illustrated by yours truly, is the reason I chose to participate in this blog hop. You see, last January Diana and I met in The Ultimate Blog Challenge (the one where you post 31 times in 31 days). I was blogging about my new iPad and getting into digital painting. Diana found me and asked me to illustrate The Trouble With Ralph that had been taken out of print due to the fact that Amazon couldn’t locate the illustrator.
That’s not such an amazing story if I had been an illustrator, but I was not. I was playing with a new toy and illustrating any book, including one of my own, was never in my radar. I said I’d try, and Voila! Here we are today launching it on Amazon. How did this happen? Our good Lord brought us together in that challenge and completely changed my life through this project. So that is the reason I am excited today about hopping on the “blog hop”, but I’m even more excited because this time I can take you with me and give you the chance to venture into new territories.
The blogs below are from people from all walks of life, not just writers, so poke around in them. You never know what God has in store for you next. (He might show you in a blog, just like He showed me.)
And so, as another day goes by, until we reach Z sometime in January, we can have – to quote The Steve Laube Agency Blog – “Fun Fridays”, right here at Another Day Goes By, and…I have written.
Have fun!
August 22nd, 2013 Now that Ralph is once again alive on Amazon, it’s time for a creative break. (I can’t believe you haven’t downloaded your copy yet – or if you just did – thank you!) Yesterday I went to the craft store to gather supplies for a jewelry project my daughter is working on. While there, I picked up some cool beads to practice my wire wrapping I started before this book project became my life. I’m also going to do some wrapping with starfish and sea glass for my daughters wedding and I thought this would be a good way to get used to my tools again.
While still in my jammies this morning, I sat down to play with wire and beads. Noontime I was still there. The physical results were a bracelet and earrings. The mental result was extreme relaxation. Sometimes after completing a huge project that consumes you, you have to turn away and do something else. This was downright fun!
Then I went to 4:30 Bikram yoga. You might say so what? You always go to yoga. But today WAS a big deal. I haven’t been to Bikram since July 23. One month. I must say I had help getting back there. My dear friend rearranged her schedule to go with me. I was scared and needed some hand-holding and good friends just somehow know that. The results? Like riding a bike. Meg was the teacher and I never had a stronger class. Didn’t miss a pose. Didn’t miss a breath. Didn’t feel the least bit winded or tired. Of course, during the month I did keep up fit club with a diligence and I think my last strength gain of 32% on August first made me stronger in yoga. It was an effortless class and tonight I feel wonderful.
This is the first weekday where I was alone and I didn’t do any writing or drawing, I created in different ways. When you need a break from your craft, you can still create – venture out and try something new and totally unrelated to your project.
Have you taken a creative break lately? Maybe now is the time. Have fun!
And so, as another day goes by, I’m liking the edge of the comfort zone, in fact, I’m deriving energy from the very place I feared, and …I have written.
Not perfect…but the nice part? It didn’t have to be!
August 22nd, 2013 …for my friend Stacey who is dropping her first born off at college today. My “Mommy Heart” is with you, dear friend.
First Day of School – Through Mom’s Eyes
August 21st, 2013  The Trouble With Ralph, by Diana Lesire Brandmeyer, illustrated by Linda Bartosik, is now available for your reading pleasure as an e-book on Amazon.
If anyone had ever told me that someday I’d have a book I illustrated on Amazon, I never would have believed it. After 8 months of not only artwork, but taking courses on e-publishing, learning to use photoshop, connecting with and learning from other illustrators, and battling the “I don’t think I can do this fear”, it’s done. Really done. Back about March I had my doubts I’d ever see this day. I had no art training beyond high school and didn’t even know the first thing about illustrating a book, much less formatting and publishing one. I never even considered it. It wasn’t anywhere on my radar until Diana asked me to do it for her. And just like that I accepted. And here I sit with a whole new set of computer and art skills, in awe that the book is out.
For two years I was banging furiously on a door that wouldn’t open. I got so tired I just sat down on the step and waited. Then, without any effort at all a new, completely unrelated, door opened. If you’re up against something that just won’t happen, stop. Sit down on the step and wait. Relax and surrender. You can’t force your way down a road you were never meant to travel. Sometimes, with blinders on, we pursue until we wear ourselves out. This past two and half years I have learned a great deal about silence and stillness. Having this project so outside of my comfort zone taught me to be still and let God lead. Every time I froze in doubt and had to leave the art table, I just returned to stillness. God opened the door and beckoned me to enter. He was teaching me to give Him the fear – He wanted me to get out of the boat and walk on water. I’ve learned that people who follow their passions don’t sit in the boat. People who accomplish great things spend a great deal of time outside their comfort zone. That’s where the best part of life is lived.
Almost to the the minute this project was done, I was approached by two more authors to illustrate two more books. If I do these jobs, I will certainly be entering them with not only a whole new skill set and confidence level, but with a new respect for listening when God is speaking.
And so, as my author Diana says, “Ralph lives again”, who knew a goat could teach me so much, and…today I have not only written, but published.
PS – Hurry to Amazon and for the bargain price of $2.99, and grab a copy of The Trouble With Ralph to read to your favorite child today!
August 20th, 2013 Today I’m sharing my post that will appear tomorrow in the Cape Cod Mommies Blog because it touches the hearts of moms everywhere – especially in August!
 This post first appeared in my blog Another Day Goes By on January 5, 2011. It’s a post I keep close at hand for when it’s time to send my children out into the world, without me. September is near and whether its kindergarten or college your sending them off to, take comfort in knowing you’re not alone. You’re just being a mom. Enjoy.
Today I miss teaching more than ever. I walked into yoga and my instructor was really anxious about her first child starting school. I told her (as a kindergarten teacher of 35 years) that both she and her son would be okay. I said I’ve known you and your child for over thirty years and there wasn’t a one of you that wasn’t okay.
The first day of school is a most painful experience for moms. You hand them their lunchbox, put them on the bus, go in the house and your heart is in pieces all over the livingroom. As you pick up the pieces you cry and tell yourself this is right and necessary. They’ve got to go out there and do it on their own. You’re confident you’ve given them all you had and they can now deal with life beyond your backyard. All you can do all day until that bus pulls back up at three o’clock is pray and ask that an angel be on their shoulder.
The next “first day” that rips your heart out is leaving them at college. Now you’ve had 18 years to give them all you’ve got to survive in the adult world, and you have to believe you emptied the attic, the basement, and every closet. This time they’re not coming home at 3 o’clock and you’ve got a lot of nights to sit up and pray that that same angel lives in that dorm room with them. Once again, when you get home, your heart is in pieces, not only all over the livingroom, but down the hall and into their bedroom, and in the diningroom where their pictures are hung, and in the bathroom where you find the wet towel on the floor that they used that morning. No one but a mother understands an empty house with pieces of her children all over it mixed with the pieces of her heart.
And just when we think they are sinking out there in the world, being tossed about on an angry sea and you want to rush to save them, you look up and there they are, flying steady and strong on their own.
Only a mom’s heart knows the hardest part of love is letting go……
If you are a mom reading this, please go download The Hardest Part of Love by Jane Olivor, grab a box of tissues and sit down and cry with me. We will all be okay.
And so, as another day goes by, September is creeping closer, my thoughts are turning to all things fall, and…I have written.
PS – Photo: Eliza’s Kindergarten Surprise, by Alice B. McGinty is a is a heart warming story to share with your future kindergartener – and a great going away gift, with a batch of cookies, for your future college freshman! 🙂
August 19th, 2013 There are some artists and writers that walk close to the edge in their work and come close to falling off. Lady Gaga and E.L. James (50 Shades) are two of them. I always try to look past the obvious with artists of this caliber. My view on 50 Shades is in my earlier post Christian Grey – Today’s The Day .
Today I watched Lady G’s comeback on Good Morning America. She arrived in a convertible with a gorgeous short blonde haircut, very little make-up, simple white rockstarish outfit – a very understated look compared to the “meat dress”. She gave her interview sitting on a space-age chair she crafted to always show her fans she’s ever evolving and changing, which is the theme of the new video. The song Applause and the painted face stand for the “court jester” who is always after the applause. She, like him, is always after the applause, but “not for the attention”, she states in her interview, but the applause mean her fans like her work and she’s making them happy – and that’s her goal – to please her fans.
Lady G has been laid up and out of the limelight for months due to a broken hip and extensive, rigorous rehab. It was during that time that she wrote new music and crafted the video that launches her comeback. The video is very much what you would expect from this artist. It moves quickly, showcasing her own brand of pop-art. There are parts that cause us to pause – she constantly finds new ways to cover the significant body parts, and the Applause video is no exception. It is here I part ways with the naysayers over her excessive ways.
Through her boldness she communicates an energy that just says “go out there and create your life”. Over the last four years her music has helped jump-start me when I turned down the “maybe I can’t do this” road. The edginess of her videos remind me that, I, too, have an edge and they encourage me to go hang out there. Many times I’ve used the quote “Life begins on the edge of your comfort zone”. To me, Lady Gaga represents that. She dares us to dip our toe outside of the boxes we live in, into that vast unknown. For her, it’s covering body parts with hands and flowers and putting her head on a bird body. In some way that inspires me to write and illustrate those books, travel and teach those young author classes, go to Bikram yoga and embrace difficult things – go out there and not only experience things I never have before, but take that extra step and create them.
If she inspires me – clearly NOT a little monster – she must inspire our young people to be themselves and turn their dreams into a reality. Should we be afraid of our children imitating her? No, I don’t think so. She clearly communicates she’s about individuality, not imitation. She encourages all of us, little monsters or big, to look around find what moves and inspires us.
Yes, the video is edgy and pushes lots of limits, but wouldn’t life be boring if we never ventured to our own edge and pushed a limit or two? My husband went to The Cape Cod Art Bar and painted a bridge. It’s his equivalent to a “meat dress”. We all own a “meat dress” and Lady G just encourages us to drag it out and get our asses to the ball.
And so, as another day goes by, kudos to Lady G for a great comeback, I’m looking forward to all the new music yet to come, and…I have written.
August 18th, 2013 …profound.
Need I say more?
And so, as another day goes by, I’m picking wisely, and…I have written.
August 17th, 2013 …but maybe you would. I’m sitting in my kitchen sipping a yummy chocolate martini. I have four girls drinking Mojitos, singing karaoke and dancing. My younger daughter is having one of her famous girls’ weekends here at the Cape. We spent the day with them on the beach – they gave me something in a tiny can called Limaritas. It was good. Too good. It was a long walk home. Then my husband made fabulous food and now, at 10 pm they are ready for another dinner. He is firing up the grill for turkey burgers and portobello burgers. It’s been a long, but fun, day.
My daughter brings these same sets of girls here year after year. I love watching how the friendships survive over the years. They have their fights and disagreements, yet they remain the best of friends. They grow closer as they mature year after year. I love watching the antics and hearing the friendly banter as they dance and sing. This strikes me tonight especially because I’m in that meditation challenge with Oprah and Deepak on miraculous relationships, so I’m examining relationships that are all around me.
What makes this one work? I think it’s the energy all four of them put forth. They are all genuinely good people and it flows among them. Deepak mentioned a great study done with the measuring of water molecules. When love and respect and genuine joy were experienced around the water, the energy would take one form. When fear and depression and negative feelings were experienced around the water, the energy formation would change. It’s a very real, physical thing when we say we feel good or bad vibes emanating from someone – without a word spoken. The “vibes” are the energy being passed from one person to another without even speaking. Tonight, right in font of me, vibes are being tossed around while singing song lyrics. Then energy is good. It speaks of friendships that will be around a long time.
Do you have this type of girl or guy friendship? One that passes nothing but good between you and can survive aging and moving through the eras of life? These girls do. I have no doubt they will be returning to this beach house with husband and kids in tow – or maybe not – maybe they’ll just return for the traditional girls’ weekend when they’re late into their forties. Either way, it’s beautiful, this story of friendship, that’s unfolding in front of me.
And so, as another day goes by, we should all be so lucky to have these friendships that last through the ages, and…I have written.
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