Friends

I've been spending the day cooking up a [Soup] storm!




Mushroom Beef Barley



Black Bean & Corn soup



Split green pea & ham




Writing plans for February -- A Picture Book Writing Storm -- thanks to :

http://site.picturebookmarathon.org/Picture

renaissance2010
Turning to photography as a creative outlet during a valiant fight with breast cancer at age 34, renaissance10 survived and set up a photo contest to help raise funds for the Lavender Trust, a nonprofit that provides information and support to younger women with breast cancer. In the first two years, the competition brought in over £65,000 (that's $107,260.73 U.S.!), with entries from 130 countries last year. Renaissance10 recently joined LiveJournal to meet other passionate photographers and find supportive friends.

curiouscupcakes
Holy buttercream frosting! If you have a sweet tooth for sugary goodness or a wandering eye for whimsical confection, this is pure ecstasy iced in deliciousness. Hailing the beloved cupcake as the artisinal canvas of choice, you'll enjoy recipes, photos, and bountiful tips to bake up a batch, whether your taste leans toward French classics or funky and flavorful.

mission101
With New Years in the offing, it's an ideal time to reflect on past accomplishments, make peace with disappointments, and refocus the lens on future goals. This community welcomes you to create a bucket list of 101 things you plan to accomplish in the next 1,001 days. Offering support, guidance, and inspiration, this is a great way to jumpstart those pesky resolutions.

I've changed the title of my LJ - mostly as a reflection of my reflecting on the writing process.

And - also inspired by the movie Julie & Julia.




Today I'm reading Cheryl Klein's talk about Picture Books--

Words, Wisdom, Art & Heart: Making A Picture-Book Cookie



AND I'm going to make Beef Bourguignon -- Ina Garten's version [ she's Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network.]

Beef Bourguignon

It's in this cookbook--





“Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.”
-- Julia Child

Here's a link to the NY Time's Magazine year-end remembrances

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/

Holiday debuggery

We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:

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Celebrate with holiday vGifts!

Stop by the Virtual Gift Shop and share some holiday magic with your LiveJournal friends.

Photos of the week

We're back with more dazzling pictures from around the world. Congrats to marlenemcc, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our fourth photo contest. We hope you'll click over to LJ_Photophile poll and tell us your picks in pics!

For more fantastic user content, we'll meet you under the cut. ( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!

Christmas, in fact most of the month of December, has been hard for me emotionally. Ever since my brother's funeral 12/12/95 - I have gone numb almost every December. I'd just go through the motions and mostly stay home and be sad.

Except this year!! *\0/*
I feel happier!
and I can listen to Christmas songs without crying and going into a mini-depression.

Last Christmas I realized that the Christmas songs 'struck a cord,' after I heard just one I would feel sad. I finally put my thoughts to trying to solve this and realized that The Spirit of Christmas that I was hanging on to was the little girl version of hoping Santa brings THE present I was wishing for & the older me version of knowing that when Christmas came - the one present I wanted [= my brother] wouldn't & couldn't be there. That's when I'd get sadder and mad that everyone else looked joyous about Jesus' birth and kids were excited about Santa.

Now -- this December, I have filled my home and heart with Christmas music. It's a GREAT feeling. Like a missing part of me is back.

When I listened to this song by Peter Paul and Mary = when I posted it to my blog for a Hannukah song - I could almost feel brother saying - "Ibby, Don't let YOUR light go out!" It dawned on me that I let my light go out every December.

Thanks for 'listening!'

Have you been watching The Sing Off??

http://www.nbc.com/sing-off/


The Beelzebubs Voices of Lee and Nota made it to the finale
















These ladies didn't make the finale -- but I love watching them do this song!

i_hope_that
For many of us, the holidays can be kind of rough. If you're searching for a network of understanding friends, this ultra-nurturing community encourages you to express your heartfelt wishes and offer other members encouragement and acceptance. Not for the terminally snarky or emotionally-challenged, this is a good-spirited place to lend comfort and support.

diygifts
Feeling crafty? If you've got a few last folks on your holiday gift list, this is a great place to seed your creativity and generosity. You'll also discover wonderful DIY tips to decorate your home and entertain guests. Offering a no-frills-no-skills attitude that welcomes the cash-challenged and arts-phobic, you're sure to get ideas and make friends in the process.

cooking_club
A fun and friendly community dedicated to those who love to cook, whether you're a meat-and-potatoes type, an aspiring gourmand, and/or a vegan. In search of a brilliant dish to use up those weekly leftovers? Post your ingredients and you'll be whipping up a feast by dinner. You can also share favorite recipes. For Type A chefs, you can spice up your culinary repertoire with exciting cooking challenges.

My Christmas present to my LJ Friends --

a collection of Christmas tunes
- by the a cappella group - Straight No Chaser

stepstomarrow
When granddaughter, Jada, was born with leukemia, a donor-match was located and Jada made a miraculous recovery. In honor of her grandaughter's health, Jeanna has decided to walk across the country (in the dead of winter) to raise awareness and build support for the bone marrow registry (all that's required is a cheek swab). Follow Jeanna's remarkable journey as she travels the United States by foot.

For 12 weeks 10 of us = wonderful writers = shared our stories and writiing concerns and worked on middle grade and young adult novels.

Erica Sussman - editor at Harper Collins was the instructor

http://www.mediabistro.com/courses/cache/crs5012.asp

[Heads up - she's giving the class again starting in February ]

Tonight is the last chat and they are workshopping my novel for part of it.

I didn't get as far in the novel as I wanted to but I learned tons from Erica and her critiques and from all of the other talented writers in the class!!!


Quote of the day --

"When you get a form rejection, remember that this is a sign that you should lift your shoulders and then drop them again in what is known as a 'shrug.' Then move on."
-- Editorial Anonymous at her blog
http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.com/

x-posted a little, for obvious reasons
Spec the Halls, my contest for winter holiday-themed science fiction, fantasy, or horror (stories, poetry, art, or other creative works), closes to submissions Friday, December 18th. So far we have only a dozen or so submissions, so if you submit a good piece, the odds of winning are relatively high! Or go there to enjoy the entries. http://www.aswiebe.com/specthehalls.html Spec the Halls: A Winter Celebration of the Weird and the Fantastic http://www.aswiebe.com/specthehalls.html

Get to know My Guests. Want to know who's checking you out? You can now view the 100 most recent, logged-in users who visited your journal during the past 30-day period with My Guests. For those who prefer to fly under the radar, you can update your My Guests privacy setting here.

Introducing My Stats. If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can now see detailed reports on how many people are visiting your journal, friends pages, and entries (wherever they're posted on LiveJournal). You can also view data on comments and RSS requests. My Stats is only available to Paid and Permanent account holders, but you can upgrade anytime. (FYI, an annual subscription costs less than a large pizza with everything on it, PLUS it's rumored to make you lose weight in your sleep!) For additional details on this feature, read this article in paidmembers.

Get ready to check your vital statistics!. To begin, mouse over Journal in the upper nav bar and select My Stats from the dropdown menu (Horizon) or select My Stats under Journal in the side bar (Vertigo). If you're using another design scheme, you can visit My Stats directly. You'll find My Guests on the My Stats tool bar.

Happy holiday promotion!

We're delighted to tell you about our holiday coupons, which will help you share the love with your LiveJournal friends! If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send up to 10 LiveJournal Basic/Plus users a $10 coupon for an annual paid subscription now through January 15th, 2010. Recipients can upgrade for $9.95 (instead of $19.95) for one year by enrolling in our automatic payment plan or make a manual payment of $15 (instead of $25). Please note that these coupons are not transferable and cannot be used to renew existing paid accounts. If you're a Paid/Permanent user, you can send out your holiday coupons now!

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3. TMI, dude: We've added some fun FREE sponsored vgifts! You can send up to 50 TMI vgifts to mutual friends (btw, you cannot send free vgifts to communities). If you're a Paid/Permanent user and you want to view sponsored gifts, click Show sponsored gifts on your homepage or visit the sponsored gift page. These vgifts will only be available through Wednesday, December 23rd.

You can view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Until next time, stay snug!

The Highlights Workshop I went to last month - It's All About Character- really opened my eyes, mind, and heart to getting to know the characters in published picture books.

Today I used some of what I learned there and "envisioned again" the main character of a picture book I've worked on over the years and had comments on from editors in the rejection letters for it - comments about not being able to visualize the characters. And I took comments from other pb critiques - especially "you have to decide -who is this story about?"

I realized that what they were saying wasn't so much about description [because that's part of the illustrator's job ] as it was about showing the character of the character.
AND SO- I took the story apart went deeper got to know the nature of the main character and watched his journey - helping him help me.

All that's left from the original is the next to last scene and the MC and the basic goal he had before. But the Why and how he gets there are very different.

All in all it was a great writing day! =)

That's what I'm calling this = the massive Fall cleaning and clearing /throwing things away.

And I bought myself some cook's tools as a reward. I LOVE watching Ina Garten's [ Barefoot Contessa ] show on the Food Network and using her cookbooks.

Soooo it was time for me to get some 'professional' cook's cookware and tools.

What does all that have to do with writing...

I've been neglecting the house and rarely cooking anything while I spent much of the Fall writing, researching and taking courses and going to the Highlights workshop/writing retreat.

AND when things look less 'busy' I feel more creative =)