Patricia Sands

Author

writing

Channeling Mr. Rogers …

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Photo credit – Wikipedia

It’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, a beautiful day for a neighbour, would you be mine, could you be mine … *channeling Mr. Rogers* … and there’s a lot of blog-hopping going on today, which always guarantees a great time!

For some reason, I’ve been humming the theme song from  the Mr. Rogers show all day. But … hey … his show was all about friendship and that’s what I’m talking about with my friend Jess today.  I must be having some sort of psychic connection with Fred … goodness knows I watched at least a zillion of his shows when our children were small!

I’m hanging out at the Happiness Project with the fabulous Jess Witkins, a young woman with the most brilliant smile and a sunny attitude to match. How could you not want to rush over to a blog with that handle?

As well as spreading happiness, Jess is working on her first novel and we are all following her progress with great anticipation. Write on, Jess!

She’s been telling me recently about her fabulous book club and we got talking about friendship and  … well … click right here and hop on over to join our chat. You know I’m all about friendship! We would love to hear from you AND THERE’S A GIVEAWAY INVOLVED. See you there!

To make the day even better, best-selling author and dear friend, Steena Holmes … (um, she’s a bit on the shy side … could her photo be any smaller? Steena, we have to talk!)

Anyway, the awesome and talented Steena is here to share her exciting news! Her latest novel, “Finding Emma” has just won the 2012 Indie Excellence Award in the Fiction category. It’s a gripping, emotional story which I was privileged to read and review just as it was published and it is most worthy of all the kudos being received.

Along with that, Steena is contributing a portion of the proceeds from sales to the Missing Children Society of Canada.

If you haven’t read it yet, here’s the Amazon link. BUT WE ARE ALSO GIVING AWAY AN E-COPY HERE! Woohoo!

Steena has an amazing blog tour in progress, hosted by Women On Writing, and you can find a list of all of her stops on her website as well as details about a Scavenger Hunt … seriously!  Honestly, this woman is creative!  She has written some terrific posts that truly hit home about parenting … and the subject of chocolate does come up from time to time as well!

Just leave a comment below this post and then click here to go to Steena’s blog to leave a comment after you read her excellent post about her thoughts on winning an award. We will employ our highly scientific method of putting all the names in a hat and having my DH pick out the winner!

Ahem, pardon me for nudging Steena just a little to the side of the spotlight for a second to share the news that The Bridge Club was a Finalist in the Women’s Issues category for the 2012 Indie Excellence Awards. It was fun to find both of us there when they sent out the list of Winners and Finalists. Yay, us!

I know you are going to enjoy getting to know these two fine friends of mine. In the author/blogger community we often pop around to each other’s sites. It’s the cyber equivalent of meeting up at the local coffee emporium, martini bar, or chocolateria. Where do you like to hang out with your friends? 

World Oceans Day … oops, I forgot to click publish!

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I was caught up in a wonderful graduation day yesterday (Friday) for the daughter of dear friends. She received combined MBA/Law degrees plus an award for top marks in both. It was indeed a day to celebrate! Beginning with a beautiful ceremony at Convocation Hall, in the magnificent grounds of the University of Toronto, we lunched while awards were presented, then rushed home to shower, change and drive back downtown to the terrace of The Fifth for dinner and party-time!

In fact I was having such a great time celebrating, I forgot to move this post out of draft by hitting “Publish”. So here we are … a day late. But, never mind, let’s celebrate World Oceans Day every day and do our part as best we can.

If it’s Friday, it must be France …

The Mediterranean is a sea. A beautiful, historical body of water that has a unique magical aura. In fact, connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Strait of Gibraltor, the Med (as it is affectionately known) is defined as a sea because it is mainly surrounded by land.

June 8th is World Oceans Day so please click this link take a minute to visit their website. I should have been talking about this weeks ago but, to be honest, in my state of *finish the MS total self-absorption*, I wasn’t aware of it.

In fact, it was my friend Tele Aadsen’s blog that gave me the reminder. As well as a writer, she fishes commercially in Alaska and no one in my world  is in a better  position to speak on this topic than Tele. She also has a video in this post that she shot as five whales accompanied them on one of their outings. If you haven’t already visited her blog, do it now. You’ll be very glad you did.

Tele also introduces us to Roz Savage whose memoir, Rowing The Atlantic, describes her 500 days at sea in a 23-foot rowboat. CAN YOU IMAGINE? I am always fascinated by individuals who take up such challenges and can’t wait to read about it.

Fellow writer/blogger Nancy J. Nicholson and her husband live on their sailboat and are cruising the Caribbean at the moment. Needless to say, they have a strong commitment to doing all they can to support the ongoing work of preserving our oceans. You can find her here.

In Toronto, we live on Lake Ontario and last weekend saw the annual lakeside clean-up by everyone who cares to give a day and help take care of the lake shore. An annual event, the turnout is always impressive – rain or shine!

Late afternoon view from our balcony in Toronto

Last summer we lived in Antibes on the shore of the Mediterranean for almost five months. Living with that awesome view of the Med and the hills and mountains beyond was a very special experience, we’ll never forget.

The view from our terrace in Antibes.

We never tired of the view or of spending as much time as we possibly could hiking the coastal trails, enjoying the catch of the day, or doing beach-time. Here are a few of my favourite Med shots.

Hiking the Cap D’Antibes
Secluded cove – hiking Cap D’Antibes
Overlooking St.-Jean-Cap-Ferrat from Eze Village
Sailing class in Antibes
The Med – driving through the hills of Corsica
Breathtaking Corsican landscape
Corsica – Marine Preserve – can it get any more blue than this?
Plage Beau Rivage – our favourite beach in Nice
A calanque near Marseille
Calanques – between Marseille and Cassis
Overlooking Cassis from La Route Des Cretes
Sanary-Sur-Mer
Sanary-Sur-Mer – fishing boats
Plage Des Graniers – St. Tropez
A gem – Plage Mala, Cap D’Ail

Okay, okay … I’ll stop. I had a great time sorting through my photos for those and could go on and on …

How far do you live from the sea or an ocean or any body of water? Let’s make a commitment to do all we can to conserve and protect our rivers, lakes and oceans today and every day.

Getting back on track …

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Full disclosure: I have to admit taking a week to breathe, away from writing and social media, was truly a gift. I’m so glad I gave it to myself.

Having finally written the ending to my next novel … even though we all know novels are never really *finished* … it was time to re-focus on all those other parts of my life that I felt had been just a tad neglected recently.

I spent a lot of time having leisurely chats and lunches with friends and family, golfing, hosting a dinner party, catching up on blogs, watching fabulous tennis from the ATP tour (the French Open, from Paris, is on right now, OF COURSE, I’m watching!!!) taking in the spring concert and amazing art exhibit at the school our 11 and 13-year-old granddaughters attend, and spending the weekend with The Adorables (our two youngest grandchildren, ages 3 and 4) while their parents had a wee break. My “Huh … ???” moment on the weekend was when Kate, only recently turned 3, asked, “Nana, am I your BFF?”  I didn’t think Dora The Explorer talked about stuff like that!

I also went to see “Cavalia’s ODYSSEO” with my DH, one of our wonderful daughters and her equally wonderful husband and our granddaughters mentioned above. It was spectacular! Cirque Du Soleil with horses and remarkable special effects! Take a look at the video in this link. If the show comes to your area, be sure to catch it.

AND I READ! Talk about joy and bliss! Books, magazines, newspapers, words written by other people. It was wonderful to read without feeling pressed to get back to my writing. In the past six months, it has become increasingly difficult to focus on anything but my own words … self-absorbed would be an apt description. *hanging head at the memory*

Writers do what they do for the love of it, there is no simpler explanation. Unfortunately, along with meeting our writing goals come challenges, research, deadlines and before long the task takes over our life. The additional demands of social media … well, let’s not even get into that here … Kate MacNicol recently shared a fabulous post about that issue.

It’s often difficult to find the balance between your writing/professional/day-job life, whatever it is you do,  and everything else. The good news is that most of us recognize this and do take steps to make amends at some point. If you feel your life has been unbalanced lately, take a tip from me and give yourself the same gift I did. Take a week to breathe … you’ll be glad you did.

Before I dive back into editing, revising, getting published and also working on a new exciting project with fellow author Susan Sommers (more on that coming soon…), I also have a couple of overdue *thank you* words to mention.

Thank you to Indie Reader Discovery Awards 2012 for making The Bridge Club a Finalist in the General Fiction category and to the National Indie Excellence Awards for 2012 where The Bridge Club was a Finalist in the Women’s Issues category.

Several weeks ago, writer/blogger Emmie Mears very kindly bestowed upon me The Beautiful Blogger award and I kept putting off acknowledging this honour because I was waiting until I had enough time to fill out the requirements. I’m supposed to tell you seven things you don’t already know about me … and I will … just not now. I do want to thank Emmie and encourage you to read her always thought-provoking, informative and entertaining blog. She is young, talented, hard-working, and full of hopes and dreams which I know she is going to make come true. I have a lot of time for Emmie.

I’m also sending a belated thank you to writer/blogger Lesann Berry  who awarded me the Smart Cookie Biscuit designation. I’m not sure how she knew but I suspect this award has something to do with the number of cookies I’d been eating while I was writing! So thanks, Lesann, and I want you to know I have now cut sugar out of my diet. Honest! Don’t miss her posts. Check out this poster from her blog. This will tell you precisely the type of person she is. Awesome.

The list I could give you of amazing bloggers simply boggles my mind and I’m determined to make more of an effort to share those names each week. Watch for them and feel free to share your own links. Many of them are on my Blog Roll in the left column here, just a click away!

Do you ever give yourself the gift of a break from your job, routines, and demands? What works for you? You know we all want to hear about it and you might just encourage someone else to do the same.

Taking a week to breathe …

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I’ve been taking a bit of a break this week to celebrate typing the words “The End” on the last page of the manuscript of my next novel. Wooohoooo! Yippeeeee!  … ahem … sorry for the momentary loss of control …

For those writers in the crowd, you know what I mean. There’s a bittersweet feeling when we begin to cut our ties with the characters and settings that have possessed and taken over  been a big part of our lives since the first word of the story was written. If you aren’t a writer, there have no doubt been similar projects that occupied your time and mind until you finally dragged your sorry a**across crossed that finish line.

This week I have a lot of catching up to do. First of all I have to show my ever-supportive husband I remember how to have a long, focused conversation with him. We even went to a movie this afternoon and I made it all the way through without being distracted 50% of the time. I need to have a few GNOs and answer a backlog of voicemail messages. I have a lot of blogs to read and support to return to my superfantabulous peers in the online writing community. There’s a long list of social stuff to plan and enjoy. I may even start cooking again! Most of all, it’s time to celebrate … for at least a week or two … before the editing and revisions begin.

Ahhhhh – the joys of being a writer! I’ll get back to my normal blogging next week. Thanks for understanding!

How do you recognize the completion of a project? Do you take time off before diving into the next challenge? What’s your favourite way to celebrate? Do you quietly put your head down and sleep for a few days or do you kick up your heels?

And now for your viewing pleasure, check these out:

Amber West’s hilarious post that reminds us we can all be awesome and that there is never a day when someone somewhere doesn’t understand us. Even it’s our couch!

Jenny Hansen shares important health reminders for every woman.

Jane Friedman and the pros and cons of an author platform

Tele Aadsen provides a fascinating look into the joys and challenges of living the fishing/writing life in Alaska.

Sexy, smart Marcia Richards writes from the heart and shares 12 rules of writing from famous authors.