writer

Humility by Tomas Valenta 8552204935_b545b274bc_b 6SjbwA-6f5k1z-8omsjU-83WYCG-7CrssT-6a6xit

Of Mother, Writer, and The Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas …

THE FEAST OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

“O God, grant that whatever good things I have,
I may share generously with those who have not,
and that whatever good things I do not have,
I may request humbly from those who do.

Plant deep in me, Lord, all the virtues,
that I might be devout in divine matters,
discerning in human affairs,
and burdensome to no one in fulfilling my own bodily needs.

Order me inwardly through a good life that I might do what
is right and what will be meritorious for me and a good example for others.”

~~Saint Thomas Aquinas

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I received this in an e-mail from the seminary I briefly attended, The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (DSPT,) located at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.

Yes, I attended, did not graduate seminary, and yes this is a Catholic seminary, run and administrated by the Dominicans, no doubt, the Dominicans who ran the infamous Inquisition.

I learned much from the Dominican nun, Sister Barbara Greene, who taught all the classes in which the Hindu sacred texts, The Bhagavad Gita and Upanishads at The California Institute of Integral Studies where I earned my MA in Psychology.

The places where spiritual teachings converge, and reveal mutual agreement have always intrigued me.

An astrology teacher once said, when you hear the same thing from many unconnected

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Of Life, Revelations, and Our Differences That Bind …

Not a day has passed during the three weeks since posting my last blog that I have not felt guilty for failing to hold to my schedule of blogging.

It is a promise I give to myself, and a responsibility I maintain as a published writer.

The nagging feeling that has haunted me now abates as I write this post.

But what occurs when life happens and disrupts our goals and the tasks we have set our energies to?

What do we do when

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Of Elisabeth Badinter, Slavery, and The Choice to Work Full-time as a Wife and Mother …

Perhaps the eleven Secret Service Agents and nine military personnel who engaged in unbecoming behavior down in Cartagena, Colombia, that put themselves in danger, not to mention others under their care, felt exploited, and most unconsciously.

We’re often told of the great service these agents provide our Presidents.

We’re also led to believe that the tasks they carry out involve much bravado and that the work is exciting, nothing short of glamorous.

Their recent behaviors speak otherwise, actions I am certain

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Of Scott Pratt, The Writer’s Predicament and Hilary Rosen …

Fellow author, Pamela Samuels Young, recently forwarded, as she did to 30-40 others, the link to an genre author, Scott Pratt’s new blog, The Writer’s Predicament.

While I have not read any of Mr. Pratt’s five legal thrillers I will say that if his novel writing style holds any of the similarities he had exhibited in the few blog posts of The Writer’s Predicament, I will start touting his work. 

Needless to say I am a fan of his blog.

After opening the e-mail containing the link to his blog, I immediate clicked over and began reading his posts.

Scott’s warm, style combined with

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Of “Mausam,” Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Creating for the Ages…

I recently saw the movie, Mausam, written and directed by Pankaj Kapur, and starring the beautiful Sonam Kapoor opposite the wonderful and delightfully handsome, Shahid Kapoor.

Like most Bollywood movies of its genre, historical dramatic romance, the movie move along taking its time to tell what I experienced as a beautiful love story.

Critics on both sides of the ocean suggest that the pacing could be increased by eliminating various scenes that do not contribute to the overall plot of the story.

I disagree.

The director could have deleted certain scenes and decreased the run time and perhaps maintained the high level of enjoyment I experienced.

But why fix what is not broken?

As an American moviegoer that has grown tired of movies aiming to tell a story with what often appears an ultimate goal of relaying the narrative, in movie format, in the shortest amount of time possible,

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Of Supply, Demand, and The Woeful Truth About Publishing and Authors…

Author and publisher, Zetta Brown’s recent blog, “Authors! Can’t find your book in a bookstore? You may be luckier than you think!”, got me to thinking–no pun intended–about the old law of economics, that of supply and demand.

With bookstores and sellers tightly adhering to what seems to me, an outdated mode of purchasing books from publishers, and authors who choose to self-publish–that of retaining, if not demanding, the opportunity to return unsold books they have received from us–I wonder what would happen if publishers and authors began to print less books.

A blog post, “A Woeful Truth About Publishing,” at Champagne Books explains this paradoxical phenomenon in detail.

In short what I’m really saying is, “How would economic market respond if publishers did not make books so readily accessible?”

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Of Revelation, Illusions and the Parallel Processes of Writing and Discovery…

Revelation plays an important role in constructing and/or assembling the middle section of a novel.

Revelation also encompasses the uncovering of truth of what has always stood present, but remained hidden by strong held illusions and beliefs.

Stories and novels stand upon revelations, ones that sustain the cause-and-effect events that comprise, most particularly, the plot of a novel and that lead towards crisis and onto climax.

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