Free Your Mind Friday

Okay, I understand that technically, we are free everyday. But today I've decided to give my brain a break from all the stress and worries of everything around me, and give it the freedom to just CREATE.

And I think you should do it too.

Here is a little something to get you started:

What do you think is happening in that grove? (If you feel like sharing, I'd love to hear about it!)


Also, if you haven't noticed, I'm starting an author newsletter, and I'd love for you to sign up (see the sidebar to your right). Next week, I expect to be sharing epic news. Hope to see you back here!

WorldCON: Brilliant Creativity

Okay. I’ve been home almost a week and am starting to feel like I’m catching up on sleep. This is good news, people. I’ve been to a lot of conferences and conventions, and WorldCON was a whole different experience for a number of reasons.

For one thing, the variety of unique people was incredible and exhilarating. It was almost like this convention was the one place where people could be who they are, or who they want to be—including a Klingon or a Jedi or Harry Potter or any other number of fantastical characters—without worrying about being judged by others. Well, except the masquerade judges, but that’s totally voluntary.

The incredible creativity of the people in attendance was absolutely amazing. I loved it.

Not only that, the lets-dress-up-and-have fun mentality there is contagious. I offer exhibit A.

See those corsets? Courtesy of Damsel in this Dress. Can I just say that Michelle (the owner) is a fascinating, brilliant woman who creates her own designs and patterns and keeps her prices totally reasonable. If I ever need a specialized costume of this variety, I have her card. Will totally call her. Her work is A.Mazing.

With Halloween only a few weeks away, I’m looking forward to another opportunity to wear this awesome stuff again. You should check it out. I’m serious.

When’s the last time you had a great excuse to dress up? Do you do the Halloween thing?

The Zombie Apocalypse

On Halloween, my son threw out an interesting hypothetical, and I had to pass it on.

If you survived the zombie apocalypse and had to spend the rest of your life hiding out, where would you hide, what would you do, and who would you take with you? (Assuming they also survived the initial attack or whatever.)

My answer: I would take my family (whoever was left) and my bestest friends and hijack a cruise ship, which we would sail to a deserted island in the Caribbean (or near Tahiti—either way) and we’d live on fresh seafood, pineapples, coconuts and bananas and live a long and happy life. We’d live in houses like the Swiss Family Robinson and wear grass skirts and no shoes, except on special occasions when all the ladies would borrow evening gowns from Ginger and Mrs. Howell. We’d even have radios made of coconuts, thanks to the professor, and Mary Ann would make coconut cream pies every day.

Then I would write the story of the zombies on a book made of tree bark and pass it down to the remaining generations of survivors.

Yeah, that’s definitely what I’d do. Sounds like a great life to me.


Okay, your turn. Go!

Oh the Places You've Been!

Yeah, I copied and twisted that title from Dr. Seuss. I admit it. Had to be done after Wednesday’s post.

So question. When you go somewhere new, do you wander around considering it as a story setting? Or when you meet a particularly interesting person, do you study them for use with character traits, or accents or other things?

Wait, why am I asking? Of course you do. Even people who aren’t writers study places and people in this way. Maybe not in quite such an observant manner (which is too bad, if you ask me) but still. We pay attention to the things that interest us, right? Because, well, if we aren’t interested, we don’t notice. Yeah. Logic.

Which leads to another question. How much do your life experiences—the places you’ve been, things you’ve done, people you’ve met—color or inspire your creative endeavors? (Aka writing, painting, music, crafting, sewing, decorating—whatever.)

There is no right or wrong answer here. I’m just curious. Because, you know, I’m a writer and writers are perhaps the most curious bunch of people on the planet—including five-year-olds.

Given my recent experiences, does it stand to reason that someday I’ll write about an extended road trip? Yeah. Probably. Seems like a good idea for some far-off-distant day. Would you? Could you? Do you?

Would you eat green eggs and ham? Or would you hate them, Sam-I-Am?

A Beautiful Video About Creativity

A dear friend and fellow writer sent this to me yesterday, and of all the stupid things, I put off watching it until today because...well, I was busy. Today, I decided to take a minute and watch, and it's so beautiful, so inspiring that I'm very glad I did.