Patricia Sands

Author

writing

Ready, set, go!

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Get out the fireworks, noisemakers, and pots and pans or just snuggle up on the couch with the tv tuned to the Rockin’ NYE show in Times Square … *a toast to Dick Clark’s memory* … . whatever works for you!

Celebrate all the good memories of 2012, move on from the not so good if you can, and welcome 2013 with hope and optimism.images-2

I’m excited! I love to welcome in each new year and am forever grateful I have much to celebrate, like good health/a thriving family/wonderful friends/exciting plans. I hope you do too.

We also have a dear friend who is dying and will not see much more time here, let alone another year. We have spent many good hours with him and his wife through the holidays appreciating our moments together. His spirits and attitude are inspiring.

My husband’s brother and his family live in war-torn Aleppo, Syria where life is unimaginable to us right now. Amazingly, we can still talk to them on the phone most of the time but can do nothing more to help them at the moment. Nothing can get through. Each day brings fear and hardship. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Other extended family and friends are dealing with illness or difficulties. Their spirits and attitudes are inspiring.

Everyone reading this can tell similar stories and of course we all share in the pain of Newtown, Hurricane Sandy and other disasters. We marvel at the response of those whose spirits and attitudes are inspiring through it all.

Life.

This post is not meant to be a downer. I hope it is a reminder to celebrate the human spirit and to support each other and proceed together to make life better in whatever way we are able.

No matter what is being handed to us, the human spirit has a way of staying strong, seeing the positive, and working in whatever way, big or small, to remove the negative. So let’s grab on to this new year and vow to do whatever we can to make the world a better place.

Merci mille fois – thank you a thousand times, for the thoughts, the photos, the wisdom, the humour and most of all the friendship that we share in this amazing blogosphere community. I can’t wait to see what 2013 brings to us all. Onward!

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Pinch me!

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If it’s Friday, it must be France ...

Ooops – I’m late again  – I know it’s Saturday, but we have company and I’m attempting to sneak this post in while still being a somewhat gracious hostess. Good thing we have understanding friends who realize writing and blogging are  consuming my life  somewhat distracting at times.

What I want to say today is this: if you have a dream, keep pursuing it.

You never know when unexpected opportunities will become a reality.

Taking a deep breath and publishing our writing, into which we put our hearts, minds, and bare our very souls a good chunk of our lives, sometimes opens doors we might never having imagined.

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Here are the best parts of writing for me (without getting into the satisfaction, frustration, challenge and all-around buzz of crafting stories): connecting with readers ~ becoming part of amazing communities of writers and bloggers all over the planet ~ receiving invitations to share thoughts, knowledge and experience ~ hearing the same from others ~ discovering ways to give back through what we do ~ listening, learning, laughing ~ feeling inspired to keep writing.

Yin-Yang – Image from Wikipedia

To be sure there’s another side: the search for the right words and ideas ~ the questioning and self-doubt that sneaks in ~ the hours of researching, editing, rewriting ~ the demands on time and money and presence that may be needed elsewhere in our lives ~ the inevitable struggle that is part of any creative process. And for many, that’s just the short list.

The yin and yang.

And then, out of the blue, may come something totally unexpected.

For example being invited to lead, along with my good friend, non-fiction author and speaking partner, Susan Sommers, a tour of 16 women (sorry, guys … this an all-girls’ party) to the south of France for 12 days in October, 2013.

It’s part of the innovative Broad Horizons program  of Uniglobe Instant Travel based in London, Ontario

Seriously.

It happened.

And you know how I love the south of France.

I’ve been guiding friends around that part of the world for years and love to do it.

Here’s the fabulous itinerary – South of France Itinerary 2013. We’ve worked hard to ensure it’s going to be a very good time – inspiring, energizing, providing memories for a lifetime.

There’s just the right combination of literary, art and laughter: enjoying café au lait or sipping pastis in the shadow of authors we have read, walking in the footsteps of great artists, touring, shopping, wining (including wine tasting at an ancient vineyard) and dining (including a cooking class in Provence), and relaxing. Call your bestie and  come if you can. It’s going to be superbe, magnifique, and fantastique … and if you can’t go with us, rest assured I’ll be writing about it  to share here with all of you.

We’ll be here …

EZE – PSandsPhotos

And here …

Nice,FR – PSandsPhotos

And here …

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And in the countryside of Provence strolling streets like these …

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Provence-PSandsPhotos

Visiting places like this …

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And taking endless photos of these

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Tempting? There’s more info on my website too. Click here if you would like to see it.

Keep dreaming. Keep believing. Keep writing. You just never know …

What are the lows and highs of the yin and yang in your creative process? How do you find the balance for which we all search? Share your dreams. What doors have opened for you?You know we care.

Villefranche-Sur-Mer – PSandsPhotos

The Promise Of Provence

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If it’s Friday, it must be France …

Alloooo, I’m still deep in my revisions and very excited about how things are going for my next novel! In fact, I believe I’ve finally settled on a title *HUGE sigh of relief*. Now I can go back to counting chocolates to fall asleep instead of having possible titles making me crazy  rolling through my head every night.

THE PROMISE OF PROVENCE   

What do you think? Here are a few photos to help put you in the mood. See you next week!

La Cadière en Azur – PatriciaSandsPhotos
L’Abbaye de Sénanque-PatriciaSandsPhotos

 

Provence – Moustiers-Sainte-Marie – PatriciaSandsPhotos
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Provence -PatriciaSandsPhotos
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Provence – PatriciaSandsPhotos

 

Provence – PatriciaSandsPhotos

Christopher Plummer – still hot at 82!

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On Saturday we drove to Stratford, Ontario, home of the renowned Stratford Shakespeare Festival.  A quick hour and a half from Toronto through rolling farmland, once you leave the craziness of Highway 401,  the summer schedule offered each year never fails to please. There is always something for everyone and on many occasions a production has carried on to Broadway.

Stage and screen actor (and academy award winner!) Christopher Plummer has performed in Stratford most seasons since his first big role as Henry V in 1956. When we know he is confirmed for a play there, we dash to get tickets before they sell out.

This year he is appearing for a limited number of dates in a fantastic one-man performance, “A Word Or Two”, which he describes as a celebration of language and the words that have influenced him from childhood throughout his life. Plummer worries that language  is “fast vanishing from our midst”.

In an interview Plummer said, “Each decade there are poets and prose writers who have influenced me.”

As he takes us on a fascinating literary journey through his 82 years, his superb theatrical talents carry us along on a magical ride. I couldn’t begin to write about it as well as the well-known (and my favourite) Toronto theatre critic, Richard Ouzounian and I repost below his review from The Toronto Star.

Theatre Review: Bow gratefully to Christopher Plummer in A Word or Two

Published on Thursday August 02, 2012

DAVID HOU PHOTO/DAVID HOU PHOTOChristopher Plummer loves to entertain and there is charm and laughter a-plenty in A Word or Two.
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By Ouzounian, RichardTheatre Critic

A WORD OR TWO

 (out of 4)

Written, arranged and performed by Christopher Plummer. Directed by Des McAnuff. Until Aug. 26 at the Avon Theatre. 1-800-567-1600

STRATFORD, ONT.—You don’t review a show like Christopher Plummer’s A Word or Two, which opened Thursday night at the Stratford Festival. You simply bow gratefully, say “Thank you, Mr. Plummer,” and urge everyone reading this to buy tickets as rapidly as possible.

Have you ever wanted to know what it would be like to spend 90 minutes in the company of the finest actor of his time, hearing a dazzling store of literary gems while gaining an insight into the man? Well, that is what’s in store for you in this silky smooth, yet deceptively moving piece.

The premise is simple. Plummer will tell us about his life through the books, plays and poems he has loved and performed during his life.

Against a gravity-defying stack of books, courtesy of Robert Brill, lit with care by Michael Walton and accompanied by wonderfully subtle music by Michael Roth, this 82-year-old national treasure starts as Louis Carroll’s “Aged, Aged Man” and proceeds to take us on a whirlwind tour of his fascinating existence and the authors who have accompanied it.

The miracle is watching the dexterity with which Plummer shifts accents, postures, aged and moods in the flickering of an eye.

W.H. Auden’s Herod, presented here as the epicene brother of Truman Capote? Check. The “Song of Solomon,” rendered with the full-blooded passion of a Renaissance lover? Got it.

But then there’s his more subtle, almost invisible transformations. He’s well into Robert Frost’s amazing “Birches,” before you realize that he’s truly turned into a New England farmer, crusty yet friendly all at once.

He gives us a simple selection from Shakespeare, but makes sure it’s memorable. A Hamlet blazing with the need to act, but frustrated his inability to commit and an Othello who suddenly sees the dazzling downward spiral his jealousy has taken him on.

Plummer loves to entertain and there is charm and laughter a-plenty in this piece, but there’s an interesting thing to note near the top.

He performs speeches by both the devil and Don Juan from Shaw’s epic Man and Superman. While the “good” Don Juan is persuasive, Plummer is even more convincing as the devil. You come to realize, in fact, that he’s most comfortable on the dark side.

And I wouldn’t trade a single moment of the final sequences where Plummer looks at death with curiosity, apprehension and — finally — acceptance.

All of this is in the final speech from Cyrano de Bergerac, where Plummer dances with the devil, fences with the dark master, defies Lucifer and stands up for the graces he believes in, doing all of this with elegance, grace and a joyous bilingual delivery of the lines.

You owe it to yourself to see A Word or Two, just for the experience of that speech, a great artist with great material still at the height of his powers.

“When comes such another?” asks Marc Antony of Caesar. I would say the same about Christopher Plummer. This only runs until Aug. 26. See it while you can.

What live theatre have you attended lately? Or maybe you have performed in something yourself … like our talented  friend, writer and blogger, Amy Shojai! Have you ever seen any live performances by Christopher Plummer? If you have the opportunity, grab it!