Firsts are so exciting. Sometimes nerve-wracking. Sometimes scary. Sometimes purely joyous.
When I think about life and all the firsts I've experienced, I realize that I have done a lot in my life. Does that mean I've mastered the angst and anxiety over any new first that will come my want in the future? Uh...nope. But I'm excited to be participating in the amazing Alex's First Loves Blogfest!! which is technically a first. ;D
There are four FIRST LOVES on the list to highlight.
1ST MOVIE ~ I've mentioned before that I was and forever will be a major movie buff. So this is a tough one. My movie-watching has evolved with age. I'll go with my youngest memory. Elementary school age tells me it was Benji, which was also my first drive-in experience.
1ST BAND ~ Being a dancer at such a young age gave me lots of Broadway favorites. But I'll mention my next phase of aging, junior high age. I believe it was Duran Duran. Something about tigers and running wild....
1ST BOOK ~ Staying on the aging road, high school age is next. Without a doubt, it would have to be Pride & Prejudice. The brilliance of the story, sub-plots, masterful characters, and the way my imagination was ignited is one of the greatest reasons I write novels now.
1ST PERSON ~ Some of you might think that it would be impossible for me to keep traveling on the road of aging that I've created within this post. But I can.
I had a crush in preschool and elementary school, which ended up being the same few boys in junior high. I was busy training for a dance career during high school--dated a little, even had a steady boyfriend during my senior year--but nothing that I would consider true love.
That leads me back to the same road and onto post-secondary school/college. I had two brief, although could-have-been-serious relationships during this time, but life got in the way and neither ever progressed. It wasn't until I traveled back home at age 19 and rekindled an old friendship with a guy who graduated a year before me from high school, that I discovered what love was all about.
So, yeah. My first official 1st person love would be my hubby of 20 years. Phew....
Thanks, Alex. This was fun! For more participants, click on the photo above!! I'm sure the posts are awesome!
Title: String Bridge Author: Jessica Bell Genre: Woman'sContemporary Publisher: Lucky Press, LLC Release Date: November 2011 Pages: 288
I would like to thank the author/publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to review.
Favorite Line/Passage: Imagine standing in the middle of a field. Imagine red dirt. Distance and more beyond it. Imagine searching for the end of this distance, where the stars join to it like pins to a tent in loam. Imagine looking up to a cluster of approving eyes. Lying naked beneath them with the man you want to spend the rest of your life with. Imagine a silence that echos the touch of your hand to his cheek. Imagine existence being loud and small, the way the Sun lights up the Earth. Imagine you are the Earth and he is the Sun, that silence is tangible, and the stars are the souls of your previous lives. Imagine distance is the place you'll find life and death, where soil is your skin, and the dry fields your bones. Imagine love is the desert.
Description: Greek cuisine, smog and domestic drudgery was not the life Australian musician, Melody, was expecting when she married a Greek music promoter and settled in Athens, Greece. Keen to play in her new shoes, though, Melody trades her guitar for a 'proper' career and her music for motherhood. That is, until she can bear it no longer and plots a return to the stage--and the person she used to be. However, the obstacles she faces along the way are nothing compared to the tragedy that awaits, and she realizes she's been seeking fulfilment in the wrong place.
COVETED. A MUST READ!
My Splats:A poignantly written tale of family, marriage, love, betrayal, and the inner strength of one woman's human spirit to find her true place in her world.
I primarily read young adult and middle grade fiction, because of my love for the raw innocence within that age group. Saying that, I found String Bridge to have a similar pureness I look for when reading children's literature. The characters are well developed with meaningful and realistic inner struggles that a reader can easily relate to.
Melody is a woman with a beautiful daughter and wonderful husband. She has a fantastic job doing something she loves to do--write and edit. But despite the coverall of a perfect, domestic life, she longs for the life she left behind--her music. Through reading Melody's thoughts and past experiences, the reader discovers that Melody left behind more than just her music when she decided to marry and start a family. She abandoned a part of her soul, the part that music freed up inside her.
The author's portrayal of Melody's search for inner self, purpose, and meaning, is at times gut-wrenching almost pithy, but always honest and true. The stormy pieces of her relationship with her mom add to the emotional depth and show how some childhood wounds simply never heal.
There's an elegance in Melody's pain over her mother's selfish ways. Melody's longing to find peace with her mother foreshadows her need for personal acceptance in who she is as a mom, wife, daughter, and musician. Along with this and trying to balance motherhood and work, tensions escalate within her marriage, making her question every decision she's ever made. And when tragedy strikes where she lest expects it, Melody realizes that life is a string of never-ending bridges in one's life and crossing each bridge is choosing to live.
You can support Jessica Bell by visiting herBlog, Website, Facebook, & Twitter. STRING BRIDGE can be found in e-book form at Amazon, Amazon (UK); Paperback - Barnes & Noble.Goodreads. A soundtrack is also being released with the book. How cool is that!! It's available at Amazon, Amazon UK, & iTunes. Read my INTERVIEW yesterday with her for even more links and details.
(1st: for those of you who journeyed over to the Alleyway to see my addendum to Christine's Next Line Blogfest, this isn't it. Blah...once again, I signed up for two blogfests. So I'll post the text on Wednesday. Hope you come back to see my personal Graffiti!!)
But please stay and check out the Muscial-orama I've got going on here, today.
My new blogger friend, Alex Cavanaugh, is celebrating Music and all it's influences. I am as huge a music fan as I am a movie buff. My musical gray matter just couldn't resist.
Many times I've written of the influence music has had on my life. First with my dancing, then raising my babies--especially while they were little, and ultimately with my writing. There is always a song that taps into my current mood or thought process, pointing me in the direction a scene could take or giving me the vibe one of my characters need.
For this blogfest, Alex asked each of us to simply list our top ten favorite songs by band and why they move us. I have a wide range of loves so my list may seem odd to you. Hope you enjoy it anyway!
"What a Feeling", by Irene Cara - as a dancer, there was no better movie to influence my soul than Flashdance, and no better song to motivate me to be me.
"Shook Me All Night Long", by AC/DC - just because, and yes, there just might be a high school memory attached to this one.... *grins and blushes*
"She's Some Kind of Wonderful", by Andrew Strong - this tune is upbeat and sweet, not to mention the song my hubs surprised me with on our wedding day when he dedicated it to me.
"Living on a Prayer", by Bonjovi - another great high school memory. It gave me freedom and the will to dream.
"Paradise By the Dashboard Light", by Meatloaf - a fun, upbeat tune about teenage youth and wildness at its best.
"You Raise Me Up", by Josh Grobin - classical it is and beautiful. When I need a pick-me-up in the confidence department I listen to this song. His voice is that of an angel and the lyrics are amazing.
"Fighter", by Christina Aguilera - because I am. I don't believe in giving up...ever. I hope you never do.
"I Hope You Dance", by Lee Ann Womack - if you ever want to know me better, listen to this song. This is me.
"She's Got the Looks That Kill", by Motley Crue - a hard tune, which always reminded me of a dark paranormal horror. Just love that stuff.
"Still Loving You", by the Scorpions - one of my favorite, favorite rock ballads. It says far more than the words sung.
I could go on FOREVER. But, our time is limited. Thank you, Alex, for suggesting this fest and for everyone who's visiting and reading.
I HEART U!!
Do you have a few favorite songs that influence you?
Newsflash!! Research of a Wannabe Writer at the Bon Jovi Concert
Friday afternoon, four hot mommies, aka flamin' hotties from an earlier era, gathered their umpteen bags, lush cooler filled with beer, wine, and um...purple stuff that was reeeallly good, and crackers after setting up their eleven kids between them with relatives, babysitters, and some strange guy who just offered, hauled @ss into a vehicle and soared over the roads of Maine, making their way to Foxboro, MA.
One, we'll call her 'The Princess', drove with her Coach shades shadowing her face and her blonde streaked hair flapping in the air conditioning. No open windows--it messes up the do. Her wing-girl--the maintenance-free, former-field-hockey-player-turned-coach--in the passenger seat read signs, guiding the foursomes' way.
The two ex-cheerleaders sat in the middle seats, one with her Droid permanently attached to her palm and the other--lost for words from leaving her laptop at home as instructed. Although her fingers were jittery and her stomach churning, she was able to overcome the urge to tackle her sidemate, rip her Droid from her hand, and start blogging. Proud moment.
Arrival at said destination didn't go as smoothly as planned. But once the girls found their hotel, they did what any 29-yr-old-forever pack of ladies would do: found food. Good gosh, you'd of thought they hadn't eaten since high school. (Well, seeing how most of them didn't eat much in high school, they were due.)
After ordering a bunch of yummy appetizers at the bar, the aim of their quest changed. Their 'adult thirst' needed quenching and what better then a stranger buying them a round of drinks. The four giggled like silly school girls again. Um, yeah, the alcohol had NOTHING to do with it, Mr.-nice-buying-them-drinks-guy.
Then of course the next feasible thing for them to do was pester the front desk, the bartender, the manager, and their waitress to see where the hot spots in town were. To their utter amazement--shock and horror, peeps--the local bowling alley, KING'S, turned into a bar after 10:30 p.m. With a disco ball.
With a disco ball. Yup...Nuf said.
As you can imagine this fed their happy-go-lucky-mommy-moods. I asked one of the ladies her opinion.
"Dang it! Are you kidding? How do you think we felt? No husbands. No kids. And we're in a town that doesn't have a decent bar!!"the Droid owner threw up her hands, lavender-manicured fingernails matching nothing she wore.
Blondie aka 'Princess' gingerly tapped the manicured hand of the irate mommy. "I told you we should have stayed right in Boston. But no, you had to book our room here, in Dedham." She rolled her blue eyes like the eight ball missing the corner pocket.
After receiving a few seductive glares from the group of junior hockey players at the bar, the ladies trudged back to their room to make the most of the night.
And what did they do?
They took strange photos of their body parts and posted them on Facebook, luring their jealous friends back home into a guessing game. Whose toes are whose? They then used the same idea the next day while gathering at Cheers--the famous bar in Boston.
Whose drinks are whose? They had a bunch of old high school chums and townspeople duking it out on FB to declare a winner. The winner was awarded a cyber kiss which he ordered just the way he wanted it. To quote the hubs of the girl without her laptop, "Great I won. Now you all can kiss my cyber@ss!"
Reports flooded in about these luscious mommies and ran the gamut from sightings of them wandering the parking lot tailgating and singing karaoke, to meeting people from a nearby town in Maine in the potty line and swigging icy-cold pina coladas. But the most important bit of news is where they viewed the show. FROM THE BLESSED PIT, readers. Second row in the pit! Here's a few photos to prove it.
Yup, that's Kid Rock singing with Jon!
What a cutie...still.
#30
And to top it off, the band gave the first two rows in the PIT their chairs. These lovely, normally frustrated and overworked mommies were given Bon Jovi chairs to take home.
Yeah, I think the girls had a hell of a time.
This photo was captured by the athletic
mom as the ladies took yet another rest.
Oh, one minor detail I left out. Look at all the people that were left when the girls exited Foxboro Stadium.
I guess concerts are for the young at heart, not the aging body.
To this, the Droid addict mommy commented, "Reporter dude, those chairs were heavy!"
Though the band will never read this, major Hotheads go out to them for putting on an awesome show, and for giving these moms a much-deserved weekend and their new CHAIRS!! But rocker dudes, you really gave these lovelies something even more valuable.
Through the over-active use of the ex-cheerleaders Droid, these four were able to lead, include, and keep the most important people in their lives with them: the reason they do what they do each day--their families. These four ladies are thankful for the weekend, their friendship, and the people who shared their days with them.
Here's a bit of Kid Rock, if you're interested. But pwwease, you must SCROLL down to see something even better.
LISTEN to this som'n extrah...just for a bit. Here's a little video from the second row of the pit!! Try to ignore the girls' horrendous singing and listen to Jon Jon. But honestly, I think these ladies ROCKED Gillette Stadium just fine.
So I'm having a morning. Feeling blah. Nothing in particular...just been so stinking HOT here over the past two days. 90+ degrees in Maine in May is not the norm. Hell, 90+ anything here is like unheard of. Unless you count the cows in the fields as you zoom down a backroad. Plenty of those suckers.
I've got a ton to do today--continue word cutting in my ms, attempt to clean the house (nose scrunching), catchup on emails, and get that synopsis sent off for the fabulous Paula B. to work on with me for the critique I won. (THANKS, Jess.) Major blitz, So this is going to be short. And to annoy you more, I'm asking a stupid question: Ever get a song stuck in your head that you can't even sleep? It haunts you in your dreams, wakes you up going WT???
I had a dream last night that Mem (an old woman) was tight fisting a microphone on stage. Ugh...the horror of her in skimpy, leather pants and a cut-off top. *Shiver*
Yeah. Made you picture it, huh? Have NO idea where it came from...other than the '80s way back when. Never a huge fan either. HELP! I figure, telling you will either erase it from the folds of my brain or...infect you. B'cawk!
I'm passing on the Deadly Kiss. Oh, stop. Grin and bare it. Isn't that what friends are for?
Have one of your characters ever wanted that 'deadly kiss'? (Dream or otherwise??) How did they get it?
