More News

This week's news:
My guest post at Arlee Bird's www.wrotebyrote.blogspot.com is still up.

Interview on www.TheAuthorsShow.com will be rebroacast on May 31.  Hope you'll tune in.

Look for Stumbling Through the Dark on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  (And if you read it, please post a review).

Blue Lyra Review, which recently published an essay of mine titled An Apple for Life is expanding.  Check them out online at wwwbluelyrareview.com 

Thanks, Thelma

PR News: Stumbling Through the Dark and On Our Own: Widowhood for Smarties

Here are some ways I've been publicizing my memoir and the anthology I co-edited.  If you'd like to check out the sites with a view to get the word out about your own publications, please do.  And of course, I hope you'll take this opportunity to learn more about mine:

Thursday, May 16 starting at midnight and available for 24 hours:  Interview on www.TheAuthorsShow.com in the non-fiction area.  All about Stumbling Through the Dark, how it came to be, what I hope readers will get from it, etc. 

Saturday, May 18:  Guest post on Arlee Bird's blog:  www.wrotebyrote.blogspot.com What I've learned about memoir.

Currently:  Interview and essay on Sheila Bender's www.writingitreal.com
in the current newsletter.  About On Our Own:  Widowhood for Smarties with an essay called Parking Garage 2.

Currently:  Review of On Our Own:  Widowhood for Smarties at www.storycircle.org  or on Amazon.

I'd love some comments.  Thanks

What I Learned in Holland

Just returned from a Tulip Time cruise to Holland and Belgium.  Here are some of the things I learned:

There are over 7500 varieties of tulips.

In the early 1600's, Holland experienced "tulipmania," when people invested everything in tulips and later lost everything when the tulip market crashed.  (Sounds like 2008, doesn't it?)

In Amsterdam's red light district, women sit in the windows displaying their "wares" but they don't want you to take their pictures.

Near the end of his life, Vincent Van Gogh was painting a picture every day.  He only sold one picture during his lifetime.

In Belgium, every other store is a chocolate shop (a no-no if, like me, you get migraines from chocolate.)  Everything you can think of made of chocolate is for sale, even chocolate boobs.

Windmills served as living quarters (very crowded ones) for the miller and his family.  Most windmills today are powered by turbines.

The Belgian Atomium in Brussels, built for the 1958 World Expo, is an enormous structure with huge globes.  Schools sometimes reserve a globe and the children can spend the night there.

Bicycles have the right-of-way in Holland and if you don't pay attention, they'll run you down.

Z is for my 26 favorite blogs from the Challenge, then Zzzzz...

Each year at the end of the A to Z Challenge list 26 blogs that have intrigued me, made me laugh, or taught me something.  So here they are for 2013:
     Spunk on a Stick   www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
     Corinne O'Flynn, Writer www.odetoblogging.blogspot.com
     Rhonda--Laugh Quotes www.laugh-quotes.com
     Scattergun Scribblings www.nickwilford.blogspot.com
     Katka Travels www.katkatravels.com
     Daily Dish Reciptes www.dailydishrecipes.com
     A Faraway View A Blog about Dreams 
              www.afarawayview.blogspot.com
     Living, Loving and Learning www.wifeandteacher.blogspot.com
     Nickers and Ink  www.nickersandinkblog.blogspot.com
     Delightfully Amiss www.delightfullyamiss.blogspot.com
     Practially At Home www.practicallyathome.blogspot.com
     Dark Thoughts. www.scarymarythehamsterlady.blogspot.com
     Patty. Published  www.kenandpatty.blogspot.com
     The Desert Rocks www.thedesertrocks.blogspot.com
     Tales of the Reborn Crafter www.talesofthereborncrafter.blogspot.com
     Shaiha  www.shaihasramblings.blogspot.com
     Haiku Corner www.haiku-corner.blogspot.com
     Scribblegirl's Adventures in Writerland www.helenjameson.wordpress.com
     Tui Snider's Texas www.mentalmosaic.com/blog
     Faye North Destination:  Fiction www.destinationfiction.blogspot.com
     Spark My Creativity www.sparkmycreativity.blogspot.com
     Praise, Prayers and Observations www.jessyferguson.blogspot.com
     Elizabeth Seckman, Author www.eseckman.blogspot.com
     Mother of Brothers www.mothersofbrothersblog.blogspot.com
     New Day Rising www.fantasywriterguy.blogspot.com
     MM's Fundamental of English  www.queenofenglish.wordpress.com

And now, fellow A to Zers, I'm off for a well-deserved nap.

Y is for my favorite Yiddish proverb

Not long into my widowhood I discovered a Yiddish proverb that translates to "When one must, one can."  I resolved to make that my motto as I trudged through life alone.  Know what?  It's a wise and somehow comforting saying and I've done my best to live by it because...what choice does one have?

If you have a favorite proverb, list it in the Comments section.

X is for Roman Numeral for Twelve XII

 

 

 

 

 

The number 12 or XII appears throughout the world, in religion, mythology, literature, sports.  Here are some twelves:

 

12 apostles

12 tribes of Israel

12 sons of Jacob

12 jobs of Hercules

12 major gods of Greece

12 sons of Odin in Norse mythology

12 months of the year

12 signs of the Zodiac

12 animals in the Chinese horoscope

12 inches in a foot

12 astonauts who have walked on the moon

12 members of a jury

12 days of Christmas

12 basic hues in a color wheel

12 numbers on a clock

 

      And that's just the beginning.....



W is for Word of the Year, Decade, Century

Every year the American Dialect Society selects The Word of the Year
The word or phrase chosen is meant to be one that best reflects the language and preoccupations of the year gone by.

Here are the words of the past ten years:
     2012 hashtag
     2011 occupy
     2010 app
     2009 tweet
     2008 bailout
     2007 subprime
     2006  Plutoed
     2005 truthiness
     2004 red state, blue state, purple state

     Word of the decade  google
     Word of the 20th century jazz
     Word of the millennium she (See below)
Yes, she, the feminine pronoun. Before the year 1000, there was no she in English; just heo, which singular females had to share with plurals of all genders because it meant they as well. In the twelfth century, however, she appeared, and she has been with us ever since. She may derive from the Old English feminine demonstrative pronoun seo or sio, or from Viking invasions.

Have a suggestion for the word of 2013?