Elizabeth Maginnis Guest Blogger

I met Elizabeth in one of my favorite online rooms - Poetry Corner at writersdigest.com  Elizabeth is a very talented poet.  What I like best about her is she accepts everyone for who they are and never judges.  She has a great sense of humor and always has a kind word.    I admire her knowledge (esp in grammar and English structure), flexibility in dealing with people, and her pleasant personality.   Please take a look at Elizabeth's website:  http://desertgirlmedia.com/

Here are the 5 questions I asked and her blog:

1.     What is your favorite book?

That’s a hard one, I have so many. However, the first book I read that had a major impact on me is “The Return of the Native” by Thomas Hardy. I was enthralled with how Hardy described Egdon Heath as though it were one of the book’s human protagonists. It was a protagonist just the same, deeply affecting the lives of the people who called the Heath their home. Hardy’s stories of mystical Wessex transformed me.

2.     If you could live anywhere, where would you live?

 It’s a toss up between here (Rochester, NY) or Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. My western New York roots are deep, in fact, my roots extend to the opposite shore of Lake Ontario, in eastern Ontario province, to which I attribute my love for Canada. NOTL has a good, homey feel to it and is still near enough to western New York that I could live in Canada while remaining close to family. However, my husband does not share my enthusiasm! I expect we’ll remain in Rochester. (He’s also a native western New Yorker.)

3.Do you think the Lost Atlantis tales are real?

Absolutely. I firmly believe that the Earth has remade herself several times over since her creation. If any of you are big Battlestar Galactica fans, as I am, you will understand my credo “This has all happened before, it will all happen again.” Or words to that effect. I may be misquoting slightly.

4.What is your favorite insect?

Never thought about that one, since I am afraid of spiders! I would have to say that it’s the caterpillar/butterfly, for its ability to remake itself into something beautiful.

5.How do you feel about e-books and do you have an e-reader?

That’s an easy one. No, absolutely I do not have an e-reader, nor do I want one. There is nothing for me like the feel of a real book in my hands. My dream home would have (filled) bookshelves from ceiling to floor, like some of the upscale apartments featured on Law & Order, and I consider my favorite books to be old friends that I can pick up and reacquaint myself with whenever I want. You can’t have a personal experience with an e-book or an e-reader. Obviously, I’m ignoring the realities of publishing vis-à-vis my own work and those of other budding writers, and I acknowledge that. Still, my first paying job was in a library, and I can’t imagine a world without actual books.

Religion and Spirituality

Maybe I’m just too independent, but I just can’t confine myself to the hard and fast rules of organized religion, any organized religion. There’ll always be some regulation that I’ll find objectionable, it’s in my nature. I was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic schools for 12 years, but to my mother’s dismay, it still didn’t stick.

If I want to speak to God, I just look to Mother Nature. See how smoothly all her components function when they work in harmony? I’d like to think that God planned it that way. If creatures that supposedly do not possess the level of intelligence of a human can work things out by following a divine design, then why do people have to mess things up? The wonder of the Universe can been seen in the simplest pattern of the smallest sea shell. Who are we to disrupt or destroy Nature’s Plan because we can’t stop consuming oil?

Religion supposedly dictates that we were given dominion over the Earth. However, that doesn’t grant us a license for destruction. Regarding Nature with a spiritual eye and treating her with reverence and respect as God’s creation rather than imposing human control in God’s name will bring us back to our ancient roots as Earth’s stewards.

Website: http://desertgirlmedia.com

E-dress: desertgirlmedia@rochester.rr.com

Introducing Norma Beishir

Well, you've heard me talk about her many times.  Norma is a friend I met on Writers Digest.  She has published numerous books, and every one of them is a great read.  Now, you can get to know her.  She has chosen a topic that works for all of us hope-to-be-published-someday-authors.
Heeerrrreeee'ssssss Norma:

1.  If you could live with any super hero, who would it be?

I'd have to say Thor. He's not only hot, but nobody in the right mind (or otherwise) would mess with him.

2.  Is there any food you like to eat when the creative bug attacks?

Something that's not messy. I hate getting stuff on my keyboards or touchscreens.

3.  I've seen articles on your work.  Is there one compliment or positive review that still tickles you?

One reporter dubbed me a  Female Indiana Jones. To me, that's the highest form of a compliment!

4.  Which one of your books would you suggest readers read first and why?

That would be a toss-up. A Time for Legends, because of all the books I conventionally-published, it was far and away my best work. Chasing the Wind, because I spent so much time on it, I really bonded with the characters--so much so that I had to turn it into a series. And Final Hours, because it's my first attempt at writing in first person--and from the male point-of-view.

5.  You are stranded on a desert island.  Which one would you do first?  Look for cover, look for food, start writing a story line on enormous leaves so you don't forget?  

This won't sound very writerly, but...I'm going to look for food. I'm no good at anything when I'm hungry.

When Donna graciously invited me to guest blog, I gave some thought to what I should write about. I wanted to choose a topic that fit the title of her blog: Believe in Yourself. I thought about it, and realized that believing in yourself is a double-edged sword. Like that fine line between genius and insanity, there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance...especially among writers. We need to be confident, to believe in ourselves as writers and in what we've created in order to survive the beatdown our egos will take at some point or other in our careers. Believing we're better than we really are is the kiss of death. Becoming so full of ourselves that we become users never ends well. Backstabbing does come back to haunt you.

When I got my start in publishing, one of the first things my agent urged me to do was to join a local writing group. She felt networking was invaluable--and she was right. I was fortunate in that I found a group of supportive writer friends, all of us at the beginning of our careers. We did everything together, including traveling to writers conferences. Often, we would chip in and reserve a suite so we could even room together. We were on the same plane coming and going. We'd get together for dinner once a month and talk shop.

When one of us had a book coming out, the others would all show up for the book signings, and we'd bring friends and family, too. We'd make sure the writer of the hour had a stellar turnout. If one of us did an interview, we'd recommend the media people interview the others as well. Once, a local publication came to one of our meetings to do a story. One friend couldn't be there, so we made sure his book got into one of the photos and was noted in the caption.

An author's strongest support comes from other authors. Make no mistake about that.

It's our fellow writers who can most easily convince their readers to read our books. A recommendation from a fellow author can make all the difference for a first novel. This is why conventional publishers ask established writers to endorse new authors. Again, I was fortunate to have been endorsed by the likes of Judith Gould, Sandra Brown and Susan Elizabeth Phillips, all super-talented, bestselling authors with huge fan bases. And I, in turn , endorsed writers who came after me: Lori Herter, who wrote vampire romances at a time before the market became flooded with them; Meryl Sawyer and Christianne Heggan...to name a few.

Sadly, the literary cadre with which I began my career no longer exists. Most have left the business, having found the stresses of the business too much to bear. One, Donna Julian, passed away a few years ago. I still miss her and still recommend her books. She was a talented writer and an ever more wonderful human being. The world was a better place, having had her in it. 

Now, in my second literary incarnation as a self-published author, I find myself with another, equally wonderful group of fellow authors: Donna Yates, William Kendall, Beth Muscat, Mike Saxton, Karla Telega, Shelly Arkon, Eve Gaal, Mark R. Hunter, Christina Ann Lucas, April Morone, and my own son, Collin Beishir. We buy each other's books. We post reviews. We recommend each other's books. We play cheerleader, give encouragement or offer a shoulder to cry on if needed.

We support each other. As it should be.

Norma, thank you so much for this topic and for guest blogging.  Isn't she an excellent writer, folks?  Here is your Parlay Parfait for guest blogging:

                        

LHR

What Luck!

Now, I am happy to inform everyone that I have been given a 2nd blogger award.  What are the chances?  This one comes from mia amica, Florence.  Since I've already listed 7 things about me, I will skip that part and pass the award on to 5 others:

When it comes to versatility, I think of my friend William.   http://williamkendallbooks.blogspot.com/ 

I also want to mention Norma who has written so many books.  http://beishirbooks.blogspot.com 

http://pk-hrezo.blogspot.com/    PK Hrezo has a wonderful blog mainly about writing.

http://scarlettjames69.blogspot.com/  James and Scarlett do some creative story telling.  This is adult content.

http://elenasolodow.blogspot.com/  This blog is so much fun to read.  She has a great sense of humor.

Whew.  Thank you again, Florence.

LHR

Blogger Awards

I just received the Irrisistibly Sweet Blogger Award from Sam, http://sambirdandme.blogspot.com  (thank you so much, Sam) I've recieved awards before, but just figured out how to add them to my blog.  Ok, sometimes I'm slow.

With this award, I am supposed to reveal 7 things about me and pass it on to 5 others.  Well, I've talked about myself so much I'm not sure what to say.   Let's see what I come up with.

1.  I traveled out West from the Midwest by train, by plane, by bus and by car.  The train ride was one I'll never forget.  It was my first trip to the west and I stood in awe of the majestic mountains.  I had never seen anything go up as high.

2.  I love rodeos.  You don't want to sit next to me because I holler and scream a lot.  I am particularly fond of barrel racing.  I had a roommate once that was Utah's Rodeo Queen one year and a champion Barrel Racer.  She told me the horses love it when we cheer them on.  Believe me, I do.

3.  I was attacked by a firecracker one year on 4th of July in a park.  The firecracker went haywire and came right towards me.  I ran, zigzagging, changing directions.  It kept following.  Finally, I got away from it.  It was like running from a wizard shooting spells at me as it fizzled and sparkled in different colors.

4.  I make the thickest softest tastiest gingerbread men.  I take great care in their baking, except for the time I pulled the cookie sheet out at an angle and several slid off.  I watched their puffy heads go up in flames.  My daughter-in-law and son were there at the time frosting the cooled ones,  and the three of us laughed so hard we couldn't rescue them.   Poof!!! Couldn't catch them.

5.  I fell in love with poetry when my mother bought me 'A Child's Garden of Verses' by Robert Lewis Stevenson.  My all-time favorite poem remains 'The Swing.'  I started writing poetry because of Mr. Sevenson's book.  It was one of the 1st e-books I purchased.  Take a look at some of my poetry under the tab 'Poetry'.  The last poem I wrote follows 'The Swing' below.

6.  I love touching souls with my spiritual brothers and sisters.  It gives me great joy to meet and greet so many people on our planet.  I am often approached by total strangers who say they are sure they know me from somewhere.  I always tell them in a past life I was either famous or infamous.  Knowing me, it was infamous.

7.  I have a new goal in life.  I am committed to helping all - that's right - all us unknown authors become known, especially the really good authors - and there are many.  I believe we need to support each other.  Instead of just buying famous author books, take a chance and by from an Independent, self-published, e-published or small publishing company.  I have had soooooooooooo much fun reading books from unknowns.  What stories we have to tell!

Ok.  Now I choose 5 blogs.  Since I have been giving out awards this past month, I have looked for some new faces.

melindamcguirewrites.wordpress.com  Melinda is quite the author and her blogs are enjoyable.

http://threehoodies.blogspot.com/  I really enjoy Roger's writing.  Take a look at his blog.  He writes about the most interesting things.

http://wotpast.wordpress.com/  A.D. is just sweet and her blogs show this.  She is a talented writer.

http://whisperingwiththewinds.blogspot.com/  and  http://thebookbashreviews.blogspot.com/  These are J. Lee's blogs.  The second blog - she reviews books and she does it with style.  I'm not fond of book reviews, but I have enjoyed hers.

allkiddingaside-beth.blogspot.com  This is my friend Beth's humorous blog.  I love these!  She talks about a variety of subjects.

There are so many others, that I want to mention just two more:

http://thefalconscrag.blogspot.com/  Rodney is extremely talented.  His blog has some drawings that are excellent.  However, I should tell you they are 'adult content'

http://desertgirlmedia.com/tag/elizabeth-maginnis-freelance-writer/  I just want to mention Elizabeth.  She is a freelance writer.  She has some pretty interesting blogs.

I love blogging and I love getting to know new people.  My next guest blogger will be Norma Beishir, a woman I greatly respect.  She has quite an impressive writing career.  Take a look at this:
http://windchasersjourney.blogspot.com/2011/06/romancing-reader.html  I read her book 'Chasing the Wind' and it is a story I won't forget.

How do you like to go up in a swing,
     Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
     Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
     Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
     Over the countryside--

Till I look down on the garden green,
     Down on the roof so brown--
Up in the air I go flying again,
     Up in the air and down!

Upon the Clouds

Come with me upon the clouds,

We’ll desert this world of crowds.

Balmy blown billowing beds,

 full of fluff for fleecy spreads.

Having fun in floating fog,

drifting, dreaming, plopped in bog.

On gelled expanse, our feet both bare,

let’s dance and prance without a care.

What a day I’ve planned for us,

without a rush, plus no fuss.

We’ll waft whilst on whiffled whites,

hovering in the highest heights.

On ballooned blankets we’ll collapse,

piles of puffed air, not burlaps.

Next to sweet angels of soft hue,

buoying, breezing thru sky’s blue.

As bulging blimps softly soar,

we’ll skim on past Heaven’s shore.

Dallying forth on dewy dough,

in no hurry off we go.

Up to the clouds, follow me,

and glide and gambol gleefully.

When dusk descends down below,

that’s when we to home must go.

   

LHR