Kreative Blog

Sorry, this is late -- busy weekend. So Vijaya gave me this award - Kreative Blogger, and I'm supposed to tell y'all 10 things I love. She narrowed it down to her ten favorite books but I don't know how to pick just ten. That would be impossible for me.

I'm listing 10 beautiful moments that I have loved.

1. The moment I met my husband. I knew the instant I saw him that I would spend the the rest of my life with him. This moment was a glimpse into the unknowable. I could feel the shape of the future.

2. The faces of my sleeping children. No matter how long the day has been I love to peek in on them and see their beauty. It's a miracle to be part of their lives.

3. The sunlight light in autumn. For a few weeks every fall in the fall I stop being a writer and turn into an artist. Autumn light seems almost alive to me. The light strikes the deepest cord within.

4. The moon in the daytime. I always feel the blessed when I see the moon embedded in a blue sky or shining out of a white fog. I don't know why.

5. Tulips, daisies, daylilies, and irises I love all flowers, but something about these flowers touch me -- their shapes, their textures, the curve of their stems.

6. The ocean -- I love the ocean. The tides tugged by the moon. The wind racing over the waves, the sound of crashing waters, the the tossed up treasures, the feel of sand on skin.

7. From when I was young, my mom rocking me in her rocking chair and her telling me fairy tales and stories about growing up in Oklahoma City.

8. Flying fish. I remember sitting on the bow of my Dad's fishing boat and watching silver flying fish jumping up and sailing back into the water in flashing arcs on my right and left.

9. Going to church -- my favorite moment was when I was fifteen years old and I was sitting at the front of the Baptist church and I knew that God accepted me, welcomed me into his house, even if I never quite fit the mold of American church. I was sure that God's house was one that no one would be turned away from.

10. I'd visit my grandmother in the summers, and it was her custom to nap from 2-3. I remember being bored not wanting to take a nap with her and feeling very frustrated about it. I remember her taking my hand and saying, "Sweetie, you are going to cry for these days." I did about twenty years later.

My doodle of week was sketched at the MOMA about a year ago. It's my take on Monet's Haystacks at Harvest. Click on it for a closer look. It's pretty tiny and didn't scan brilliantly.



Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permission!

The playlist hit is one of the most beautiful songs by U2 -- Yahweh.


Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. ~John Muir

Words

I'm going to messy this week with the words, just splat them out, and hope for the best.

Words inside me
speak, lurk, bless, hurt,
harsh words, shiny words,
ultimate words, globby words.
Pollock-like,
I splash, drip, puddle words
against paper,
my household, plain words, nothing fancy
not really caring if anyone sees the art.

Words speak, whisper, shout, sing,
the reason, the what, the why.
My words-- insecure, broken, aching, fearful.
there isn't always a why.
The word storm holds me.
I know everything will rush on
before I've had a chance to catch my breath.
I track the signs --
portents scratched in the sidewalks,
on the sides of rail cars,
in the stars.
And me--
hardly able to understand anything,
a small time crook, a tin star,
an untended pot, an up-ended tub,

Have I marred the universe so much with my
torrent river of messed up metaphor
that I'm a side-show no-name,
dead end street and backside of nowhere?
And yet, inside the rot of me grows
a bean seed, its curling leaves doing
whatever they can to find the light.

Tomorrow is coming furious too fast.
Words shape, form, change
the world, the hearts, the future.
Me, a'praying my words cast out demons,
wilt magic,toss mountains,
reflect everlasting,
shine starlight,
lift spirits.
Me first. Write on.


This week's doodle, "Hippos, Rhinos, Ephalumps, Friends." I do love a really messy watercolor.



Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permission!

My playlist hit this week --from President Obama's inauguration-- is John Williams' arrangement of "Air and Simple Gifts", Yo-yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and other playing. Enjoy.



The healing of the world is in its nameless saints. Each separate star seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars break up the night and make it beautiful. Bayard Taylor

Beyond

As writers and artists, we take journeys to unexplored worlds. We open ourselves up to new ideas, new expression. We are fearless, trying to find that shape, line, or word that will capture the intense connection we feel within. This week open yourself up to that centered inward connection that we find in the silence of creation. I get very still and quiet when I'm working. Time races forward. I feel that everything in the world disappears and I go beyond. Try stretching out and going beyond in your work this week. Enjoy the journey.

I'm including two doodles the is week. One has been posted before back in 2006, I call it "My Version of Starry Night" and the second is called, "Cougar at Dawn".





This week my playlist hit is Don McLean's Starry, Starry Night sung by the timeless Josh Groban. Starry, Starry Night is one my favorite pieces.



Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideals, not the negation of others. Dare to the level of your capability then go beyond to a higher level. Alexander Haig

[sic]

I am totally the grammar hopeless. Fate and the universe have great senses of humor because the spacetime continum has bent in such a way to have me promote grammar -- good clean grammar. I thought SPOOG (The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar ) would be proud to know that I'm doing what I can to stamp out grammar abuse, so I sent them an email letting them know that I'm doing my part. I wrote two titles about grammar that are making their way to school children everywhere.

I'm one of the [sic]-est writers in the universe, so I'm recommending a book from the uber-talented Martha Brockenbrough -- Things That Make Us [sic]. I'd list some of the [sic] things I've done, but then I could never show my face in public again. I will point on that one my [sic] deeds is on this page. Have pity, this handicap is really tough on a poor writing soul.

Here are the covers of my spring season books from Picture Window Books . First up are the covers to If you were a comma, If you were quotation marks, and next is my Character Ed. book Rocky Recess. (Character Ed. is no relation to Mr. Ed.) All three books are cuteola!







Oh, I feel like partying because my books are so nifty. This week's doodle is called Wild Jamboree.

Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permission!

My playlist hit is from Nickel Creek and is called "Jealous of the Moon." Let's not be too scared to try. OK.




Quote of the week:

I am the King of Rome, and above grammar. Emperor Sigismund

Resolution

There is nothing like reading a word's etymology to get the mind working.

resolution

1412, "a breaking into parts," from L. resolutionem (nom. resolutio) "process of reducing things into simpler forms," from pp. stem of resolvere "loosen" (see resolve). Originally sense of "solving" (as of mathematical problems) first recorded 1548, that of "holding firmly" (in resolute) 1533, and that of "decision or expression of a meeting" is from 1604. Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001.

My inbox has been flooded with folks sharing their new resolutions. There have also been quite a number of people sharing their forms and favorite books to help me plan and reach my own resolutions. I'm always open to new ideas.

I like simple. My goal making follows that philosophy. Here are some of my yearly top to-dos. Take paying gigs. Write a couple of articles. Finish one picture book. Write a draft of or majorly revise a novel. I make clear-cut goals. I try make sure my goals are reasonable. I don't write 12 books a year; I write one, or half of one if it's a huge project. It's all about keeping it real, folks.

Here are some sites with great advice for those who wish to set goals yearly year:

Try this site with tips to write SMART GOALS.

Setting Effective Writing Goals by Moira Allen

Here's a site with tons of 'put you in the right direction advice'. Time-Management-Guide.com

My last bit of advice, follow your star. Find that white hot place inside you, the stuff that stirs you up to distraction. This is where your going to find the power to get stuff done.

My doodle today is a little bit of Texas, I call it 'Some Texas Goose'.


Remember: ©Molly Blaisdell, all rights reserved. If you want to use my cool doodles, ask permission first. It is so wrong to take people's doodles without permission!


I wanted to add something from the ages for this week's playlist hit. Gosh, this piece is totally my theme song. Here is the wonderful George Winston playing Variations of the Kanon by Pachelbel.



Our ideals resemble the stars, which illuminate the night. No one will ever be able to touch them. But the men who, like the sailors on the ocean, take them for guides, will undoubtedly reach their goal. Carl Schurz