Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
FAMILY PHOTO
What's harder than understanding credit default swap derivatives? Getting your extended relatives together for a family photo, that's what.
After 23 initial phone calls, 17 follow-up Emails, 15 subsequent texts and a blogpost, I finally gathered together 4 nephews and 9 nieces from colleges all across America, 6 daughters-in-law (of which I am one) 7 brothers, a matriarch, a patriarch and a partridge in a pear tree.
Family Photo, Number 27 on my Bucket List.
After 23 initial phone calls, 17 follow-up Emails, 15 subsequent texts and a blogpost, I finally gathered together 4 nephews and 9 nieces from colleges all across America, 6 daughters-in-law (of which I am one) 7 brothers, a matriarch, a patriarch and a partridge in a pear tree.
Family Photo, Number 27 on my Bucket List.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Bucket List, the Movie
Anything goes on FREE FALL FRIDAY here at Adventure Salon. Today, you can watch Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson star in Bucket List for free without downloading it here.
If you've never seen it, it's about a corporate billionaire (Nicholson) who ends up sharing a hospital room with a working class Joe (Freeman). They decide to forget that they are both terminally ill, and proceed to do everything they ever wanted to do, ever, before they kick the bucket.
If this doesn't inspire you to get your own bucket list, nothing will. Well worth a look-see!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
A Crab and a Lobster walk into a bar . . .
. . . but more about that later.
On the recommendation of a fellow writer who knows my work, I applied for the PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellowship. I filled out the application -- 60 pages, by the way, including a writing sample -- and sent it on its merry way. I waited on tenterhooks for two months and FINALLY, FINALLY I got the call. Out of hundreds of applicants, I'd made it to the fourteen finalists. After interviewing each of the fourteen, only five would be chosen for the EV Fellowship.
Some times, some things you dream about, pray for, and plan on just aren't meant to be; but then sometimes you get exactly what you need. Someone should write a song about that . . . The Rolling Stones, perhaps?
A week after my interview, I get another call: I didn't get the fellowship. And when you see the type of writers who won it, you'll understand that I was lucky and blessed to have made it to the finals. (A PhD, a BFA, a filmmaker and two internationals among them.)
I was, however, awarded the PEN Community Access Scholarship -- of which they only give out ONE per year -- and that is more than a consolation prize. That's like ordering King Crab, but getting Maine Lobster instead. They are both crustaceans.
A crab and a lobster walk into a bar . . . and I got a scholarship to the UCLA Writer's Program, Number 120 on my Bucket list.
On the recommendation of a fellow writer who knows my work, I applied for the PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellowship. I filled out the application -- 60 pages, by the way, including a writing sample -- and sent it on its merry way. I waited on tenterhooks for two months and FINALLY, FINALLY I got the call. Out of hundreds of applicants, I'd made it to the fourteen finalists. After interviewing each of the fourteen, only five would be chosen for the EV Fellowship.
Some times, some things you dream about, pray for, and plan on just aren't meant to be; but then sometimes you get exactly what you need. Someone should write a song about that . . . The Rolling Stones, perhaps?
A week after my interview, I get another call: I didn't get the fellowship. And when you see the type of writers who won it, you'll understand that I was lucky and blessed to have made it to the finals. (A PhD, a BFA, a filmmaker and two internationals among them.)
I was, however, awarded the PEN Community Access Scholarship -- of which they only give out ONE per year -- and that is more than a consolation prize. That's like ordering King Crab, but getting Maine Lobster instead. They are both crustaceans.
A crab and a lobster walk into a bar . . . and I got a scholarship to the UCLA Writer's Program, Number 120 on my Bucket list.
Friday, November 26, 2010
COMMENT CONTEST WINNER!
And the winner is...................................................
the $25 Amazon Gift Certificate goes to...............
Jayne Martin over at InJaynesWorld !!!!!!
(*winner randomly selected by entering all commenters' names into Random.org)
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
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