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Patricia Sands

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Patricia Sands

Bonjour mes amis!

June 13, 2011 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

Please join me in the south of France for the summer! My husband and I have rented an apartment in Antibes between Nice and Cannes. We have visited this area on several vacations and fell in love with the beauty, the history, the culture, the people, the weather … I could go on but you will see what I mean … and besides that, I LOVE to speak French! I think I must have been born here in another life!

The two most important criteria we wanted for our accommodation were location and view and we have both to perfection. In fact, there really is no need for a car as we can get to so many places all along the Riviera and even into Italy from the train station just down the street. The town of Antibes is more like a village and one walks everywhere. There’s a car rental agency around the corner from us if we want to go further afield from time to time.

As you know, photography is a passion of mine so my beloved Canon Rebel XT has been steaming. I’ll get some photos organized and share them here in the next week or so. We’ve spent the past few weeks getting settled here and also having visits from some good friends, which we’ve spent exploring and discovering. I’ll share some of those discoveries as well – beautiful perched villages, switchback roads that open onto stunning vistas, talented artists and traditional artisans, fabulous coastal towns and beaches, architecture that takes your breath away from the very simple to the sumptuous, and restaurants … oo la la, the restaurants.

What does this have to do with my writing? Well I’ve been working on my next novel and when I knew we were coming to this part of the world for an extended time, my storyline moved over here too. I’m busy making notes and plotting and hopefully will have something close to a finished product by the time we leave. It’s easy to be motivated here as the ghosts of  artists come to you in the narrow streets lined with shuttered houses, many hundreds of years old. Writers as early back as 1500 BC left their work in caves in the area. In the last few centuries a long list of  influential writers found inspiration here including Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, DeMaupassant, Edith Wharton, Somerset Maugham, Graham Green, James Joyce, Nabakov, Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Pound, Sylvia Plath and the list goes on. Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Renoir, Chagall, Picasso, Bracque, Miro  are just a few of another equally long list of painters and sculptors who found the special light and air of the south of France irresistible.

The musical history of the area, particularly during the Jazz Age, is also impressive and we are excited to be here for the Jazz Festival of Nice in early July, followed by the 51st anniversary of Jazz A Juan in next-door Juan-Les-Pins. More on those later.

If spending an extended time in a different part of the world is something that appeals to you, talk to me about it. We are experienced home exchangers and renters and I have lots of good tips. I’m happy to say we have never had a bad experience.

There’s a small fish market on the pier at the end of our street so I’m off to consider our dinner menu and shoot some more photos of the local fishermen cleaning their nets.

A bientot! (Now I’ll have to figure out how to add the french accents to my text!)

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Filed Under: Blog, France, If it is France... Tagged With: 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, Antibes, Cote D'Azur, facing problems, follow your dreams, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, French Riviera, lifelong friendship, living in the south of France, Patricia Sands, The Bridge Club, the power of friendship, the value of laughter, Women

Further to my last post …

May 31, 2011 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

Continuing with the subject of finding the balance between social media and writing, I wanted to give this next website it’s own separate post. First I want to thank my friend and fellow author Patricia Caviglia for forwarding the link to me in the first place.
At the risk of repeating myself, the online writing/publishing community provides an astonishing number of excellent blogs and websites. Kristen Lamb’s is a standout! She is a an author, a blogger, and a woman who offers inspiration and encouragement to all writers. She is talented, articulate, candid and very funny – unless she has me and many others completely fooled! As well as frequently laughing out loud, which I love to do, I’ve learned a lot from every one of her posts since I began following her a few months ago. What I like best about her is that she keeps things real. This particular post about the concept of T.E.A.M. as it applies to the effective use of social media is a fine example. If you are still attempting to find the balance, as I am, do read it. I’m betting you will subscribe to her blog as quickly as I did!
For your added enjoyment, guaranteed laughs, and in further praise of Kristen, check this site out Educlaytion by Clay Morgan.

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog Tagged With: #MyWana, 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, Clay Morgan, Educlaytion, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, Kristen Lamb, Patricia Caviglia, Patricia Sands, The Bridge Club, the power of friendship, the value of laughter, writing

Finding the balance between writing and building an author platform

May 28, 2011 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

Time is a precious commodity of which there never seems to be enough. There are seldom nights I fall into bed (the best feeling !) that I don’t wish there had been a few more hours in my day. I always see this as a positive though, that my day was so good I want more of it, even if I didn’t have time to accomplish everything. I feed off the challenges and opportunities each daybreak presents.
Since serious writing became a part of my life five years ago, the distribution of time in my day has changed dramatically. Never in my wildest imagination had I any idea of the demands as one steps, tentatively or boldly, into the world of writing and publishing. When I think of it now I always envision a Pandora’s jar (often mistranslated, apparently, as a box) kind of scenario, opened out of curiosity with a seemingly never-ending release of everything I didn’t know about what I now need to do. In Pandora’s case it was evil spilling out. In mine it’s all the rest of the “stuff” that becomes part of a writers’ world if I so choose. I’m not a good enough blogger, nor do I have the t i m e to list it all here. Read Patricia Caviglia’s fabulous blog to learn in detail about everything that came tumbling out. She gets it. She doesn’t miss a detail and in the series of her posts offers truly helpful information to writers beginning their journey who have yet to open that jar. In the end when Pandora put the lid on it, so to speak, Hope was left in the bottom. I believe Hope remains in mine too. It is an important aspect to life and drives much of what I do.
What sparked my thoughts on this today was a post I happened upon on one of my favourite websites, The Creative Penn. I have subscribed to Joanna Penn’s all-encompassing and informative site since I discovered it in my early days of writing. The content is incredibly helpful. This particular post engages its readers in offering really thoughtful feedback about the pros and cons of how a writer’s time is best spent. It’s a question that certainly occupies my mind a lot and the post and responses are well worth reading. I hope it offers you the same food for thought.
Time’s up! At least for this part of my day. Now I’ve got to find a few hours to write before I … and then … oh yes, and then … oops, I almost forgot about … but first I have to … I know you get the picture. Onward!

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Filed Under: Author Promotion, Blog Tagged With: 2011 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, author platform, follow your dreams, ForeWord 2010 Book Of The Year Finalist, Joanna Penn, Masks, Masks: A Novella, Pandora's Box, Patricia Caviglia, Patricia Caviglia's blog, Patricia Sands, The Bridge Club, The Creative Penn, the power of friendship, women's support group, writing

My guest blog on Girlfriendology

May 1, 2011 by Patricia Sands Leave a Comment

You can never have too much to say about the special girlfriends in your life. Click here to read my guest blog on Girlfriendology’s website in honour of the great ladies in my Bridge Club!

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Filed Under: Blog, Writing Tagged With: facing problems, follow your dreams, friendship, Girlfriendology, honesty between friends, lifelong friendship, Patricia Sands, The Bridge Club, women's support group

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