Z- Zen Habits

by Shelly Brown

On of my favorite blogs on the internet is Zen Habits run by Leo Babauta.

It is simple and beautiful and encourages me to live a simple and beautiful life. It is an empowering blog and I am a grateful follower now for a couple of years. He (and guest experts) cover topics related to:

-Simplify
-Exercise/ Eat Right
-Declutter
-Take control of your life
-Meditation/ Living in the now
-Creating good habits
-Write/Blog (he has two other blogs that focus more on these)
-Even parenting

In fact I read one of his posts on parenting that I needed so badly that day and I encourage all those that deal with children to give it a once over, get a feeling for his writing, the style of the blog, and be uplifted by the message.

The Way of the Peaceful Parent by Leo Babauta

W- William Shakespeare

by Shelly Brown

Many of you don't know about my slight obsession with William Shakespeare

A couple of years ago I went to Washington D.C. and the FIRST place I went to was the Folder's Shakespeare Library. (After which I beelined it to the Library of Congress-- even history nerds need their fixes)

Then when I went to London I HAD to go to the Globe Theatre. (Followed by several history museums).

I worked with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival for several years, taught/teach children's Shakespeare classes, and don't miss a chance to take a Shakespeare class myself, or see a Shakespeare play. I've performed such parts as Juliet, Helena, and Beatrice. I named my children after Shakespearian side characters. (Just kidding, my kids are named after one of my other goofy obsessions) BUT...

If you want to be as dorky as me, this is the post for you!!!

Here are FOUR Shakespeare facts that will have you sounding like a Shakespearian in no time.

1. Nobody knows Shakespeare's actual birthday. Scholars think he was born on April 23, 1564, three days before his baptism was recorded at a church in Stratford, England. Strangely enough, his death in 1616 also occurred on April 23.


2. Shakespeare married his wife, Anne Hathaway (the actress from Princess Diaries j/k), when he was 18 and she was 26. They had three children: Susanna and twins Judith and Hamnet. The twins were named after neighbors who named their son William. Although Hamnet died at age 11, his name lives on: It was sometimes written as Hamlet, the title of one of his father's greatest characters and plays. Shakespeare's last descendant, a granddaughter, died in 1670.

3. Shakespeare was not only a playwright he was paid for his poems, a paid actor, and a paid theater manager/partner. But don't over exert yourself to keep up, he died at 52 ;)

4. While most people regularly use about 2,000 words, Shakespeare used more than 25,000 in his writing.


What do you know about Shakespeare? Can you name a Shakespeare play? Maybe even one that nobody's mentioned yet?

T- Thoreau

by Shelly Brown

Henry David Thoreau is one of my favorite thinkers of all time. Though I find Walden Pond to be a bit verbose I find it to be absolutely soul feeding at the same time. I will never look at things the same way as I did before I read Civil Disobedience.

The other day I was walking through a book store and there was a clock with this quote on it

I thought about how great it would be to see that quote (by Thoreau) every time I wondered what time it was. To read that several times a day. Would it change what I am doing with my time?

I always see Thoreau as a man who did just that. If he wanted to do something, he did it. He was considered an author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He was whatever he wanted to be.

May we all go confidently in the direction of our dreams.

S- Scary Places

by Shelly Brown

I must confess that sometimes I like to write creepy things and creepy location are just icing on the cake.

I ran across an articles describing REAL LIFE creepy locations that are totally inspirational (if you get inspired by such things)

You can see the whole articles HERE and HERE and HERE but below are some of the pictures to whet your appetite.

Q- Queen

by Shelly Brown

Me & Queen Victoria in London. (Its not the really Queen Victoria, it's just a picture. The real one goes by the name Elizabeth)

N- Narcissist

by Shelly Brown

You know what this blog needs? Another picture of me.

I'm not narcissistic. How do I know? I probably look in the mirror no more than once a day because I figure, 'what's the point?'. I'm not particularly fond of getting my picture taken and I probably only put on make-up 3x a week. It's all rather unnarcissistic of me.

But I do have a great little experience that I will most definitely be writing into a book somewhere about how I even learned what narcissism was.

In college we recorded all of our film acting assignments and then we were forced to watch them again and again, trying to evaluate our own work. After the first couple assignments I started wearing make-up to class everyday (it made watching it more tolerable- sad but true) and I started practicing my pieces in front of the mirror to note subtle things that I did with my face and make sure that my expression was conveying what I was meaning for it to convey. It worked and my acting improved.

One day I was at an audition for a film and was working on my audition piece in one of the 'dance mirrors' on the wall. I always felt sheepish talking to myself in a mirror but I knew that my work improved leaps and bounds when I did so I just kept it up, quietly saying my lines to myself in the mirror.

As I was whispering and emoting my lines into the mirror a young man walked up beside me and made eye contact with me in the mirror. I smiled and shyly stopped saying my monologue.

"Are you narcissistic?" he asked.

I must have looked confused because he continued, "Do you like to look at yourself in mirrors?" I could tell that he did and I didn't want to make him think I was judging him so I just smiled and shook my head a little. He then went on to tell me the story of Narcissus from mythology. "I can understand how it is." He looked at himself in the mirror. "It's a condition where you just can't stop looking at your own reflection." He smiled a knowing smile at me.

I knew nothing. I was quite befuddled.

"Sometimes I catch myself looking in the mirror for like a whole hour." He was still looking at himself and then occasionally looking at my reflection. "You're really pretty. Pretty people are the ones who get narcissism. Because we can't help notice how good we look. It's just good to know that I'm not the only one who has it." He was very good looking in the symmetrical-nice jaw-twinkling eyes sort of way.

I didn't have a clue how to respond. I think I tried to explain that I was just working on my monologue but he seemed to have just laughed that idea away. 

For the rest of the time as we waited for our audition times I couldn't shake the idea that someone it that room thought I was full of myself. And as far as I could tell someone in that room WAS full of himself.

It was textbook.

It was epic.

So if you are looking for a character quirk consider narcissism. It is much more complex than his explanation and gives some people a reason to do things completely selfish. And those people really make conflict EASY! 

Have fun writing!

(Article on Narcissism)

M- Mystery Box

I must admit in novels, film, television, or any other form of storytelling I get sucked in by a good mystery. I watched X-files FOREVER. What did we learn from that show. Almost nothing. Nothing except that I'm a sucker for a good mystery. Watched LOST, too. I actually stopped mid-season 4 because I was pretty sure that I was going to get the same 'answer' I got from X-Files, nothing. But if I wasn't so ding-dong busy I'm sure I would have finished it anyways because I love a good mystery that much. In fact I don't let people talk about LOST in front of me because I'm sure that I will finish it one day.

I watched a TED recently where JJ Abrams, the writer of LOST, told about what he calls the Mystery Box. I thought that you readers might be interested in what he had to say about mystery in all genres of storytelling (and life).

H is for Hale

Hysterical story from Shannon Hale involving a sharpie, regency gown, and underwear.

G- Gale vs. Peeta (A completely uninformed and biased opinion)

By Chad Morris

G is for Gale, as in . . . Gale vs. Peeta.

So, this is the debate.

Now, I might not be a romantic, and I may not have actually read all of the Hunger Games books, but I’ve read the first book and watched the movie. And I’m not afraid to give my completely uninformed and biased opinion.

Peeta

Peeta has a few things going for him. He’s sincere, giving, selfless, confident in front of a crowd, and he can launch a 100 lb. bag of flour over his head (which is always a bit hit with the ladies). Plus, he journeyed to the center of the earth and beat Zathura.  

He has a few strikes against him as well. First off, his name is Peeta and he makes bread. (Peeta bread. Ha! He must get really tired of that joke.) And he’s a little short. Katniss will need to have no problem being the taller one.

Gale

At first, I thought no way, Gale is a girl’s name.

Then I realized . . .

Gale is Thor’s little brother.(It's true)

He wins.

(Oh yeah, and he’s an extremely good guy, competent, loving . . . and I think Katniss really loves him.)

E is for English . . . and Errors

Shelly informed me that we were doing this crazy A to Z blogfest.

And E is for English. . . and errors. I love the language, but have definitely fallen into its traps.

Here's a site to help you out:

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

What's your favorite entry?

D- diet

by Shelly Brown

Chad and I got a matching set of these babies to get rid of writer's butt.
They make you sit a little higher in your chair, and you bump your knees on the desk, but you can wear them AND write at the same time.

B- Beauty and the Beast

by Shelly Brown

Jenni James is writing a faerie tale series and this is the cover for the Beauty and the Beast book.

B is for Beautiful Book!

She is also sharing parts of the book HERE if you want to get a sneak peek at what kind twist she throws on the story.

I'm kind of really excited.