Day: April 23, 2018

Listening To Your Heart

Human truths aren’t about facts.  The workings of an inner voice depend on our knowing that we do not know. Listening to the heart is a real thing. It is dependent on intuition and subconscious knowledge. Here is a great article on the subject.

The author of the article suggests ten ways to learn to listen to your heart:

  1. Quiet your rational mind
  2. Practice meditation
  3. Go with the flow
  4. Notice the messages from your heart
  5. Trust in your intuition
  6. Don’t disregard the intellect
  7. Get creative
  8. Listen to your body signals
  9. Follow spontaneous and intuitive thoughts
  10. Ask yourself a question and see who answers

There’s some great insight here.

 

Super Heroes and Why We Need Them

Super hero movies, based on comics, have dominated the motion picture landscape for several years. What is our fascination with these characters? I don’t think it goes back to comic books, where most of the characters originated. I think the movies are more pervasive in than the comics are in this generation.

So why do we flock to movies about super heroes?

Movies (and romance novels) are about escapism. They’re about the fantasy. The “good guy” always wins. Some days it feels as if there aren’t enough good guys out there in our real lives. Super heroes, defeating larger-than-life villains give us hope.

Hope is always a good thing.

Book Reading Bingo: Time Travel Romance

Last month I wrote about how my local RWA chapter is running a year-long book reading bingo challenge.

I focused on the book LEGEND by Jude Deveraux. One of the many categories into which this book could be used is Time Travel.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I love a good Time Travel romance. I recently read a newer one to mark the square off on my bingo card, but I was sorely disappointed in the book.  It’s not that the book was poorly written: it wasn’t. The mechanics were fine. But this award-winning novel didn’t have a plot twist I hadn’t met before.  And I tend to believe the conflict between the hero and heroine needs to be more than “I/You don’t belong in your/my time.”

One other thing: I listen to old RWA national conference workshops all the time. I have a dedicated mp3 play that holds nothing but. I consider my money well-spent when I purchase these workshops (even though I resent having to pay more for them because I can’t afford to attend the conference and conference attendees get a price break).

But I digress. One year an editor lamented that she’s never seen a Time Travel romance in which the time traveler chose to make the trip. The trigger is always an accident.  At the time the workshop was recorded, I was a aware of at least two published Time Travel romance out there in which the heroine made more than a conscious effort to go back in time. And since then, I’ve read at least one other.

So without further adieu, here is my list of favorite Time Travel Romances:

  • WINGS OF THE STORM by Susan Sizemore (1992) (accidental time travel)***
  • AFTER THE STORM by Susan Sizemore (1996) (intentional time travel)
  • LEGEND by Jude Deveraux (1996) (accidental time travel)
  • TWICE A HERO by Susan Krinard (1997) (accidental time travel)
  • SON OF THE MORNING by Linda Howard (1997) (intentional time travel)
  • KILLING TIME by Linda Howard (2006) (intentional time travel)

***This book was a Golden Heart winner…and the reason RWA now requires proof of a completed manuscript for all Golden Heart entries.

Talk (Or Sing) Like Shakespeare Day

‘Tis the Bard’s birthday. In his honor, folks are supposed to talk like him.

Thee and thou-ing everyone could be a lot of fun, especially if you’re around people who have no idea what you’re up to (and unfortunately there are far too many of that kind of folks in my universe).

Me, I’m going to be singing this all day.

Ten Musical Genres, Ten Songs

Music is very important to me, and I’m thankful I have it in my life.  I like some songs in just about every genre. Here are some of my favorites:

  1. Rock – Nights in White Satin (Moody Blues)

2. Folk – Love Over and Over (Kate & Anna McGarrigle)

3. Opera – Addio (La Traviatta)

4. Classical –  Vivaldi’s Flute Concerto

5. Rap – Hear Me Now (Hollywood Undead)

6. Country – Dreamwalking (Toby Keith)

7. New Age –  Hymne (Vangelis)

8. Show Tune – It’s Hard to Be the Bard (Something Rotten)

9. Latin – Energia (Fido & Alexis)

10. Reggae –  Redemption Song (Bob Marley)

What are some of your favorite songs?