HAPPY (CHINESE) NEW YEAR: Resolutions, 2017

Happy New Year, Everyone!
May you enjoy health and happiness and aloha in 2017
 

 

My year-end holiday wish list for 2016 ran almost parallel to Steve Martin's Christmas wish list. You can click on the link at the bottom of this post for the video, so I won't go into detail here. Because I am so late getting rolling in 2017, I consider this a Happy Chinese New Year's post!


Today I am ready to commit to my 2017 goals. This year, there will be fewer than previous years as

Looking to the Pacific.
Scene at Waikiki Beach:
maybe from your room with a view!

one goal is to add less pressure to my daily life! After five years as Sisters in Crime/Hawaii president (one-year temporary and four-years elected), I am eager to step back and offer assistance.

Future projects include a second anthology of mystery short stories set in Hawai'i, and participation in the Left Coast Crime 2017 convention, Honolulu Havoc, at Hilton Hawaiian Village.
(See the link below to sign up.)

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes, so it seems almost unfair to make it a goal or resolution. My Goodreads Challenge list will lean more toward non-fiction, with focus on fleshing out my genealogical novel. The chapters cover several areas of Europe, homelands of ancestors who immigrated to the United States in the middle 1800s. Research has always been one of my favorite parts of writing. With this novel, I can utilize much of the information collected over the decades via personal contact, internet research, and a few special trips.

It would be easy to add a goal to eat healthier this year.

But one of my goals is to be honest with myself, so scratch that.

Purging (clothes, DVDs and CDs, old correspondence and bills, and books) did make the list, though.

Something I want to do, but don't want to make it a "must" is to more fully enjoy living in Hawai'i. Yeah, I know - - duh!

Steve Martin's Christmas wish list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6w5vgYVVmA

Website for Honolulu Havoc, Left Coast Crime Convention 2017: http://www.leftcoastcrime.org/2017/index.html

WHAT'S ON YOUR LIST?



FIREWORKS IN HONOLULU
TO WELCOME THE NEW YEAR
 

B is for BREATHE DEEP #AtoZChallenge

For this year's challenge, my theme is The Fun in Writing. Each of my 26 posts for April is aimed at illustrating fun parts of an author's day. A writer doesn't only write. Creating a story or an essay requires research, revision, editing, and lots and lots of coffee and chocolate.


B is for BREATHE DEEP

 

If you've ever gotten into a bind with your story line and wondered why you ever chose to write novels in the first place, you are in good company. Most writers, at one time or other, walk away from the computer to take a few deep breaths to clear their mind.

 

A fun writing experience I encountered was totally unplanned until the idea popped full-blown into my head. If you need a change of pace from writing your latest story, why not breathe deep, and switch gears? I took a break from writing murder mysteries to create a series of poems. Once the poetry was written and edited (very lightly), I formatted the collection and published the little book as a birthday gift to myself.

How's that for discovering

The Fun in Writing?

 

With the project completed, I was eager to return to my mystery writing!

 

 

One of the more fun, and light-hearted poems in ANOTHER NEW BEGINNING is:

 

#27

Breathe Deep

 

Apple pie

baking in the oven;
 

Lilacs

in bloom;

It only takes a moment to breathe deep.
 

Ocean breezes;

L’air du Temps;

Fresh bread cooling on the rack;

Baby’s powdered skin.
 

Breathe even deeper.

Spring

after another hard winter.


*****  *****  *****
 

 

The following is the next entry in my series of Sunday posts

 

Beginning October 18, 2015, and each succeeding Sunday for 70 weeks, my internet blogsite will feature a poem from

ANOTHER NEW BEGINNING. A short observation, sometimes informative, other times humorous, will accompany the poem, along with a complementary photograph.

 

 

The sense of smell is a strong trigger for memories. Who doesn’t get a warm feeling when reminded of a special food cooking on the stove or apple pie baking in the oven as you walked in the door after school? But how did you feel about the guy in the next cubicle at the office who wore too much aftershave? Did you need an alarm clock to wake you when bacon was frying in the kitchen?

 

When someone says, “The nose knows,” everyone nods an acknowledgement. Not all “bad” odors are bad, evidenced by a newborn baby’s soiled diaper. You’re just glad the baby is so healthy! Bed wetting, on the other hand, may conjure up completely different emotions.

 

Fragrant flowers (such as: Lilacs in bloom) recall a wide variety of memories ranging from weddings and birthdays to funerals. There is the carnation fragrance of a wrist corsage from your favorite prom date; the Hawaiian plumeria lei tossed in the ocean at the end a fantastic second-honeymoon vacation; the flowers for your son’s bar mitzvah; the table bouquets at your daughter’s baby shower.

 

During the editing process of writing a story, the writer is urged to embellish scenes with greater use of the senses for description. When the reader is drawn into the scene with their senses, they become much more emotionally involved in the story rather than being a mere observer.

 

With food, smell and taste often go hand in hand. What non-food odors, aromas, or fragrances are readily recognized and generate an immediate emotional reaction in you?



 

ANOTHER NEW BEGINNING: #8 To Remain Still

8

To Remain Still

 

Imagine

sinking
into steaming water.
So relaxed you cannot move.

Egrets

turn the air white

with swirling feathers.

Ever moving, while you remain still.

Fearful

of sprouting roots,

you ask forgiveness

And vow to stop the madness.* 

*Does the madness represent society’s expectation that one must always be actively productive? (Or could it be your expectation of yourself?) 

 

In this world of perpetual motion, taking a break to relax and revitalize has become a forbidden fruit picked from the tree of technology. Wireless frequencies branch out to claim our attention and steal our time. Alarms awaken us to each frenetic new day. Beeping announces a caller on line-one while pulsing sounds alert us to a caller on line-two. Buzzers remind us of scheduled meetings and lunch teleconferences. Emails and text messages update our agenda by the minute. 

It is difficult to imagine taking time to sink into a soothing bath. Or even a few extra moments to allow a refreshing shower to relieve tension and wash away the ravages of our frenzied pace. Is the madness out of our hands? Do others dictate the use of our time? 

No. 

Knowing that goals and purpose are important, we’ve made our own decisions. The pace we set can be regulated according to needs. But there is danger in the conviction that activity itself is what makes the goal or purpose important. 

Balance career with spurts of relaxation and recreation. Allow the madness within your personal space to fade. Will that alleviate the madness around you? Not necessarily. 

But it could make it easier to accept or ignore those who thrive on chaos and drama. With your iPhone ringer turned off, your computer shut down, and your e-Reader charging in airplane mode, you might even come to pity those who can’t stop to appreciate the silence.