Reblogged from Feisty Red Hair:

This is, hands down, the best granola recipe in the world!  I’ve tried quite a few recipes in an attempt to find the perfect one, but most of those ended up languishing in the cupboard till I guiltily threw them out.  This is the only one that satisfied my requirements for crunchiness, chunkiness, sweetness, and overall deliciousness!  My son and I eat it every morning for breakfast with yogurt and fruit.  Sometimes I sprinkle it on vanilla ice cream.  Whenever I make it, usually every couple of …

I’ll be listening to Neil Diamond’s CRUNCH GRANOLA SUITE when I make this!

Reblogged from Autumn in Bruges:

When I started writing this blog I didn’t think it would have been so difficult to tell people about my travels, because I lived them and I know about them, I know what made me laugh or being disappointed, I know that I found a beautiful café with delicious pastries or a cheap restaurant somewhere in that city rather than the other, I know that the park not indicated on the tourist map is one of the nicer just because there are no tourists in it but the problem about all these things is memory… If the …

Great tips for the traveler who is going to chronicle their journey!

riposte

1.  noun.  A spirited, incisive reply.

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Link Back To The Mothership

Reblogged from Feisty Red Hair:

“You’re not a writer,” a friend told me over drinks last week.  “I mean, what have you written other than what’s on this blog?”  I sat stunned, speechless.  My attempt at publicizing my new blog had obviously fallen flat on its face.  This guy was actually challenging my very right to have a blog, and that made me highly defensive. “Well,” I stammered around for an answer, “I did an English degree.  I’ve done a lot of speech writing.  I edited a small newspaper.  I’ve written for myself for many …

Anyone of sufficient intelligence can be an engineer. Writing requires something that can’t be taught in a classroom… not everyone can be a writer.

You are a writer… don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And remember… you don’t exist to be validated by others… only you have the right to do that.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(Author’s note – The best part of being a writer is becoming part of a community of extremely talented individuals who share the same passion as you do… writing, but more than just writing… telling a story.  ‘Writer’ may be what we tell people we are, but in reality… we are story-tellers; a profession as old and honourable as time itself.  One such person, whom it is my honor to call friend, is Rosalind Smith-Nazilli.  Rosalind recently published a collection of some of her brilliant flash fiction, and I had the opportunity to read it and offer a few remarks.  Thank you, Rosalind.  vmls)

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Gut punches… not a very lady-like expression, but that is exactly what I think of when I read FOURTEEN… Rosalind Smith-Nazilli’s brilliant collection of flash fiction… fourteen jabs to the mid-section.

FOURTEEN starts with a sad little tale of woe – The Collector – that ends on a much brighter note than it began.  Rosalind deftly shows that noir isn’t all dark… the occasional ray of hope can shine through.

Of course, for Sally, a bit of luck doesn’t hurt either!

~~**~~

Punch is a gritty little piece of flash with a ‘punch’ at the end that took my breath.  Nicely done, Rosalind… nicely done, indeed!

The last line in No Intervention chilled me to the core and raises the question… ‘What will we do the next time we encounter a similar situation?’

Problem Solved is a rather pragmatic look at problem solving… I quite enjoyed this one!

The ending in Overnighter gave me one of those ‘oh my god!’ moments.  Well written, Rosalind!

I love the beginning of The Five Year Plan… “It started with a kiss.  Didn’t it always?”  A bit cynical, but there is a note of truth to it.  Never underestimate a mother’s love.

I love the ‘voice’ in Dispatched… another of my favorites in this collection.

A former punter receives ‘correction’ in A Lesson For Freddie.

‘Not in my backyard’ is carried a bit far in Friends, when three young woman ‘mark their territory’.

The Girl With The Flame Coloured Hair is a taut little bit that left me wanting more.

In this little flash of noir, Sam is about to find out what real Retribution is!

Satisfaction reminds one of the dangers of short-changing a ‘working girl’.

Downloading Disaster… I love the double meaning in the title… is a collaboration between Rosalind and Graham Smith, a writer of some repute I am told.  This story is my first exposure to Graham’s writing… the lad shows promise. *wink*

Downloading Disaster gives a dystopian look at a future which bears an echo to the past… a dark part of man’s history on this fragile earth that one hopes will never be repeated.

It is also a cautionary tale against…. oh, but wait… that would be giving it away.  We can’t have that, can we?

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Rosalind does an excellent job here… bringing us several ‘cautionary tales’… warnings of the consequences when we succumb to our darker urges, and when we are made victims of another’s.  A sharp mind with a keen understanding of noir, it is my privilege to know Rosalind.   She has encouraged me much in my own writing.

Probably my favorite in this collection is Remember Yesterday.  A poignant, moving story of love, sacrifice, and loss; Remember Yesterday is written with the compassion of someone who has experienced both in their life.  Re-reading it now, I am brought to tears… again.  There is a line in the story, near the end…

“The not knowing is what gave us hope, and the will to carry on, believing.”

Thank you, Rosalind, for a more than satisfying serving of flash fiction.

“More, please!”

lustratory

1.  adjective.  Serving to purify of sin.

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Link back to Mother Ship

Reblogged from art-profiles.com:

A collection of some great artistic works on art nouveau!! See more in Art Nouveau on the net .

Reblogged from combustus:

Jonna Ivin, author of the ebook memoir, Will Love for Crumbs; Vancouver, Washington, USA: “I wanted people to forget they were reading a memoir, and instead feel themselves experiencing my life with me. It was important to me that my writing was accessible. It’s just me on those pages. I really feel that I’m just sort of the every woman. I’ve had no formal training in writing. In fact, I moved around so much growing up that I barely graduated from high school. I’ve just recently been studying …

This is too important not to bring to any many people as possible.

Reblogged from Self Professed Product Obsessed:

True Story… YUP, that’s me.  Wearing a hat to work 3 days in a row.  I have a band-aid on my head to cover the (still oozing) WOUND.  CLASSY.  Thankfully, I have a female boss that understands the dangers of applying ACID TO YOUR FACE;) On Sat I went in for a bikini wax.  I go to the same esthetician because she is awesome.  She’s great with conversation (which is fairly important while in those compromising positions) and the best waxer this side of the Mississippi. I also had a zit smack dab in …

Great PSA! Hydrochloric acid should never be used to removed facial blemishes… at least, not by someone who doesn’t know what they are doing!

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(Reviewer’s note – I am an independent writer.  I am also a freelance reviewer for Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.  What this basically means is that I am on an email list, and the publisher notifies me of new releases.  If I see a book that I like, they will send me a copy.  In other words, I choose the book that I wish to read and I write a review and post it on my websites.  My reviews are based solely on the merits of the book, and I receive no remuneration from the publisher or author, other than a copy of the book, in exchange for posting a review on my blogs.  I also post my reviews on GoodReads.  The following is my review of Nicole Baart’s Far From Here.  Thank you – vmls)

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Nicole Baart has written an inspiring story of hope and human frailty, weaving a rich tapestry with the finely crafted, beautiful prose we have come to expect from this immensely talented writer, and the all too realistically drawn characters that can only come from someone with the unique and compassionate understanding of the human condition that Nicole has.  If we at times are made to feel a bit uncomfortable at something one of her characters says or does, it is only a tribute to Nicole’s incredible skill as both writer and storyteller.

No spoilers here… I promise (well, maybe just a tiny bit).  Far From Here is more than just a book of roughly 340 pages… it is an experience one cannot fully appreciate through the eyes or words of another.  I do not use the phrase ‘must-read’ lightly, but never has it been more apt than with Far From Here.  Nicole Baart’s latest novel will take you on a journey of joy, pain, happiness and sorrow… a journey of discovery… of revelation… that will leave you healed and renewed… with new hope and promise.

Okay, maybe I will ‘spoil’ it a little… this story is going to make you cry, so grab a big box of Kleenex!

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What do you do when your whole world turns on one person, and one day that person is gone?

What do you do when your happy little, perfect world is tilted on its axis… and the life that you knew shatters into a thousand pieces… and you watch helplessly as all those pieces slide away.

Far From Here is a story of love and loss… the journey between the two and the journey through the aftermath… a search for truth… for redemption… a search for ‘self’, not the person we thought we were or the person [we let] someone else define us as.

Redemption is a journey for which the only roadmap is our heart.  It is not always an easy journey, navigating around and through the scars and fissures the life lost has left behind.  And as Danica will come to realize… you can’t find redemption in an ‘echo’ of the past.

But… I’m getting ahead of the story…

~~**~~

Danica Reese meets the ‘boy of her dreams’, the one who makes her soul take flight, when she is sixteen.  Etsell Greene is a young man with an imperfect, through no fault of his own, past… not unlike Danica’s in some respects.  But, broken families don’t always leave broken children… just imperfect children. Ell and Dani aren’t perfect, but in each other they come as close as two people can.  Or, so Danica comes to believe.

The two seem oddly suited for each other, given Ell’s deep love for flying and Dani’s almost pathological hatred of flying.  But… as some of us know all too well… the heart wants what the heart wants, and it won’t be denied.

Danica and Etsell are married three years later and for the next seven years build a life for themselves, settling into the ‘routine’ of married life.  It’s not a perfect life, but love smoothes over the little bumps and detours.

Love is also at times, painfully blind.

One of those ‘bumps’ the two must work through is Ell’s decision to go to Alaska for a period of weeks to help out a pilot friend.  The decision is a unilateral one, but not the first one in their relationship, and the two find a way to work through it.

Little do either realize that their little ‘Xanadu’ is about to be turned inside out.

Ell’s last flight turns into one of ‘no return’ and Danica’s life suddenly stalls, falling into a tailspin.

Over the next several weeks, Dani is forced to re-examine her marriage and try to come to terms with the almost unbearable questions her husband’s disappearance has raised.  And when she learns that Ell was not alone on that last flight, Dani’s carefully crafted life is revealed to be little more than a house of sand, and the ‘wind’ of Ell’s disappearance scatters it… possibly irrevocably.

Out of the wreckage and all the emotions that come with loss – the loss of trust, fidelity, companionship, self – Danica slowly begins to rebuild her life, and in doing so reconnects with her mother and sisters, gaining new insight into herself and her family.  Nicole narrates this in an incredibly profound and moving telling… the resilience of mother and daughters… sisters… the love that was always there and is now made stronger through their shared adversities.

One evening, with [almost] all of the women in Danica’s life gathered around her, a knock comes at the front door…

Who is at the door? Do they bring news… good or bad, it doesn’t matter… do they bring new hope, or only fresh pain?

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You’re going to hate me, but I am stopping here.  As I mentioned earlier, Far From Here is a ‘must-read’.  Go buy the book, borrow it from a friend… write me and I will loan you my copy…

But… read this book!

Far From Here is about more than just the relationship between two people… much, much more.

I will close with this…

I met my [now] wife, Christina, on my 21st birthday… five and a half years ago.  When we first met, my life was in tatters… I had no expectation of celebrating a 22nd birthday.  But Tina didn’t see it that way.  She was the gravity that pulled the torn pieces of my life back together and made me whole again.

Will Danica find her gravity?

Thank you.

View all my reviews