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Eye Spy

You might have noticed some changes to my side bar, and you might even remember that I have promised some changes to my blog. I am going to try and commit to at least three days a week, each with a theme. Mondays will be story day. Sometimes my posts will be on Norse mythology, Norwegian culture, fairytales or just gibberish, whatever strikes my fancy. Wednesdays are Eye Spy...Something or someone out there is worth spying on so I will let you know each Wednesday what or who that is. Fridays are all about food and family, so back from popular demand; I will let you into my kitchen and answer my childrens favorite question, "What's for dinner Mom?" Don't let this question fool you, my family has a huge appetite and often there is much more on the table than food. Minnie will still be playing gibberish on the last Friday of every month, with her finished story on the following Monday. Now like I said, I am going to give this a try and see how it goes. Maybe having more structure in my blogging will allow me more time to work on my book.

A couple of months ago my blog had its one year anniversary and to celebrate I had a blogfest. The prize I was giving away if I had reached my goal was a troll and some Norwegian chocolate. The troll is still here, but I ate the chocolate. Maybe someday I will try another blogfest, but the few times I have tried have not been very successful. It isn’t much fun to throw a party when hardly anyone bothers to come. Oh well, more chocolate for me.

Today I am turning my spying eye to Hart Johnson who has been writing in her bathtub again to bring us her first ever “Cozy Mystery” book which is being released on June 5^th.  The name of her book is The Azalea Attack, and she is celebrating together with her friend and mentor Elizabeth Spann Craig. Elisabeth is also releasing on the same day, her first book in a new series called, Quilt or Innocence ... Both books are “Cozy Mysteries”... Check out their CrazyCozy Blogfest and join the fun!

If you know of anyone or something worth spying on, let me know so I can put on my spy gear and sneak around. I do so love being a sneaky spy. So what do you think about my new blogging schedule and themes? Do you think it will help me to focus more on my book? Do you like to sneak around too? It drives my husband crazy but keeps him on his toes.

Key to the A-Z?

"Guess I have to change my dress now"

This is a reflections post for the a-z blogging challenge. I am a survivor of this challenge for the second year in a row. The trick to surviving the A-Z challenge is finding the key to your imagination and to stay committed. Once you have done that this key will open locks to doors that you might have never found before. You will discover new blogs, and make new friends, but most important, you will get the chance to party everyday (except Sundays) for an entire month with hundreds of other bloggers. You get to connect with others through the alphabet and learn about all sorts of interesting things.


Last year I tackled the challenge on a daily basis and really had no theme worked out. This year, I planned my posts in advance, decided on a theme and even had my own challenge mascot. For those of you that are doing the challenge next year, I recommend scheduling your posts in advance. This saved me so much time and if I needed to make changes it was easy to go find the scheduled post and edit it.


What I really loved were the little buttons that enabled me to easily check out each blog that was doing the challenge. I wish that it had been there from the beginning of the challenge because once I saw that I could get the buttons and downloaded them on to my blog it made traveling so much easier. Even though the challenge is over, I still want to use them so I hope that will be possible.


This year I was very happy to see that the advertising and inactive blogs were found and eliminated from the list. Who ever managed that, GOOD JOB! It was so irritating last year to run into those dead ends. It was also pleasant to see that most bloggers kept their posts short and easy to read. Most bloggers also removed Captcha -Word Verification, and made it easy to comment and follow their blogs. I think this is largely due to the great advice that was handed down through the A-Z blog which is something that I also loved this year. Having a point of reference for the challenge helped me out a lot.


On a final note I would like to thank all those wonderful people that worked so hard to make this challenge so great. I had a blast and now that I have found my imagination key, I plan on using it again next year. I hope to see all of you there on the other side of  the ABC door.

My Friend Stanley

Let me tell you about this guy I know. He is made out of paper and came to visit my home just before Easter. His name is Flat Stanley.

 "This is what he looked like when he got here, I forgot to take a picture of him before I sent him home all dressed up in his bunad...I know, my bad!"

"Flat Stanley" lives flat on a page and can fly around the world in an envelope. He is part of a project for teaching children about reading, writing, and learning about new places in the world. My Flat Stanley came to visit me from Ohio, USA and this is what he wrote in the travel journal in took back to his class:

 

When I first arrived in Larvik, Norway-- running into the Trolls scared me the most. Lucky for me Larvik is by the sea and Trolls live up in the mountains.  From Ohio to Norway, (as the crow flies) there are over 4000 miles of land and sea. Larvik is a small town in Norway known for having been the home to a great explorer named Thor Heyerdahl and a ship builder whose name was Colin Archer. Colin Archer built a famous ship called Fram that explored the North Pole. Not sure if he ever saw Santa there or not, but I bet he saw a lot of reindeer. If you go far enough North in Norway you do go over the polar circle. There are Polar bears there but I did not get to see any here in Larvik. What I did get to see are Viking graves and those are pretty cool. There are huge mounds all over Larvik and in these mounds are Vikings that have been buried with everything they owned, even their ships!

Easter here is very strange. It lasts a whole week and most Norwegians go up into the mountains to stay in a cabin and go skiing. There are no Easter baskets, but there are lots of Easter eggs and the kids here get big ones filled with chocolate. I did not understand the language because it is very strange but luckily the family I stayed with has an American mother and her whole family speaks English very well. They gave me this outfit that I am wearing. It is called a Bunad, which is their national costume. The 17^th of May is their National day and almost everyone wears one of these costumes on that day and they all go in big parades and eat lots of ice cream. These costumes are different depending on where in Norway you come from. I am wearing the one from Larvik, so what do you think? I wish I could have stayed longer so I could have gone in a parade and eaten lots of ice cream too. Maybe someday I will come back and see some Polar Bears and Reindeer. Maybe even some Trolls.

To learn more about the "Flat Stanley Project" check out their website.

Have you heard of the Flat Stanley Project? One of my blogging friends gave my name to a teacher in Ohio, after I agreed to participate, and I am so glad that I did. If you happen to see him somewhere around your home, make sure to say hi from me!

Have a great week-end everyone. I will back on Monday with a reflection post on the A-Z challenge, hope to see you then.

The Last Chocolate

Time once again for the Insecure Writers Support Group. Today I have a huge confession to make, I am a scatterbrain.  Easily distracted and just as easily bored, I find myself moving from one project to another. Nothing seems to hold my attention for very long, part of me might even be afraid of being consumed if I commit to one thing. Does this sound familiar? Most creative people, I believe, have indulgent personalities. When something does catch my attention, it is hard to pull away from it, and when it ceases to be interesting I have no problem putting it away and moving on to something else. In one sitting I can watch a whole TV series, read an entire book, finish a painting, eat a whole bag of chocolates, finish a bottle of wine, or drink a pot of coffee. Not all of these things at once, mind you, but doing things half way is not my style. This can be both good and bad, depending on what kind of results you are after.


When it comes to writing, I am as far removed from this world as possible. I live the words, I breath the words and I dream them at night. Everything else is annoying and irritating, much to the dismay of my family, daily chores and food fall in that category. Locking myself away in a remote cabin with my writing tools sounds like heaven to me. Since that is not possible, and the business of living outside of obsessions is necessary,  I need to focus. As a writer it is easy to get distracted and to lose focus on the story you are trying to tell. A pretty new idea might temp you in a different direction and get you lost. Focus on the road you set off on, because if you take too many detours you will never get to where you were going in the first place. Then again, you might get someplace even better. See my problem? I need focus, but somehow it eludes me. Does it do the same thing to you? Do you have some secret "Focus" formula? If so, please share. 

Now that I have finished the last chocolate from the bag, it's time to get back to work. Have a great hump day and try to stay focused.