As Independence Day approaches I can’t help but think about how much freedom I have. I come and go as I please. I have a hearty garden full of vegetables to cook or I can choose to dine out. Sometimes I listen to the radio, other times I flip through a couple of hundred different channels on the television. I can travel in a car, by plane, and train, ride a bike, or walk. I have the freedom to bear arms if I so choose and speak my mind. Or, I can pen about anything I want to in this blog. We…

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The She Writes Southern Writers 4th of July Countdown Blog Tour

I'm blogging about this for She Writes community:

They say....

"The Southern Writers of She Writes cordially invite you to The She Writes Southern Writers 4th of July Countdown Blog Tour.

The purpose of this tour was to give as many of the members in the…

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The Southern Writers of She Writes cordially invite you to The She Writes Southern Writers 4^th of July Countdown Blog Tour.

 

The purpose of this tour was to give as many of the members in the Southern Writers group a chance to…

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Sandy Steele's dog Susie Says

Who needs cars

A few months ago, Sandy and I went into town to see…

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After watching the 4th of July debauchery in California's South Bay, we decided to make a mocumentary. The budget was small -- just a green screen, two lattes, and a sweet and low.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJglFhRPU1w

I'm participating in today's One Shoot Sunday Picture Prompt Challenge. My contribution is a new poem titled "Red White and Blue":

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2011/07/red-white-and-blue-poem.html

The 4^th of July is drawing near, Independence Day. Not just a time for fun and fireworks, but also a day to remember those who serve so we may remain free. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have sacrificed their lives for our freedom. As I sit typing I am in a nice cool home. I have clean water to drink and plenty of food to eat. I’m not afraid to walk out my door in shorts or speak up in church. I can carry a weapon if I have the correct permit and no…

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So every now and then I get stuck.  There I am, pen and paper in hand or maybe I'm sitting before my laptop and the words just won't come. Ugh! If you're a writer or artist of any kind then you know exactly what I'm talking about.



There are lots of ways to overcome the creative block, but one of the most fun and unusual methods comes from the quirky duo… Continue

I am completing day 9 of a NaNoWriMo for July. I can definitely see the advantage of doing this in November when EVERYONE is doing it. As a first-time fiction writer, here is one thing I've learned so far doing this novel in 30 days project: don't write a plot that contains history that must be verified! I have part of my story happening in Russia during the Moscow Theatre hostage crisis. So that means I have to get certain dates and facts right because it is a fairly recent event (2002). Why… Continue

To mark July 4, I posted a beautiful poem by Alberto Rios, "Day of the Refugios".

http://writingwithoutpaper.blogspot.com/2010/07/alberto-rios-poem-for-july-4.html

One of my current projects that is giving me greater joy and satisfaction than I ever could have imagined is transcribing my great aunt’s diaries, which she kept daily from January 1, 1920 through the middle of 1957, the year before she died. For this holiday weekend, I thought you might enjoy these posts from July 4 from various years. All of them were written from her farm and ranch in Hidden Timber, South Dakota, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.



Harriet “Hattie”… Continue

I was very pleased to find out that there is a hashtag on twitter for #JulNoWriMo which means I'm not the ONLY person in the world trying to write a novel in 30 days during the month of July. Yay! Yesterday I bought a wrist support (am I a big baby or what?) and some of those warming pads in case my wrist hurts---usually just the right one. I also ate fairly healthy today, ate some carrots, ordered out dinner from a middle eastern restaurant and, of course had a candy bar and finished off a… Continue