GOSSIP FROM THE GIRLFRIEND GATHERINGS

Learning from YOU to empower ME !

NaBloPoMo #3– The Place Where I Create…..My Writing Space

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NaBloPoMo November 2013Women Having Coffee
I have a nice large writing space in my home.   It is actually a home office that is open and bright.  The walls of my office are a beige color and I have dark mahogany wood blinds on the window to block the evening sunset.   The floor is mahogany hardwood with a large blue multi-colored Persian rug.   On one wall is a large white built-in bookcase and it is home to hard copies of my favorite books and some of my writing books that pre-date Kindle.   Also, on my bookcase is a television with cable/DVR hookup (which I really need to remove) and an IHOME to dock my IPOD to listen to Native American flute music or smooth jazz while I am writing.

In one corner of the office, I have a medium-sized computer stand with a desktop computer/printer setup and pullout keyboard.   This computer is used for all of my non-writing life needs.   My office desk is glass-topped on a wrought-iron base with a wrought iron/leather chair.   I love this desk and purchased it before I started on my writer’s journey but now I realize it is no longer functional.  I desperately need storage and my beautiful desk does not have drawers.    Also, the desk is too high ergonomically for me to use my designated writing laptop so I have to use it on a plastic tablemate stand which I keep near my desk.    I know at some point I will need to replace this desk as the only purpose it serves now is to hold all of my notebooks and writing class notes.

Overall, I am content with my writing space but it is in need of some mission organization and a makeover.   Sometimes when I take a short break from my writing sessions I jot down ideas so I do have the start of plans for a makeover.   However, at the moment, I am productive in my writing space and working to a self-imposed deadline to finish my novel.    Perhaps when that is done I will take a break and enhance my writing space.

I would love to share a picture of my writing space but today it is just a little too cluttered to show.

NaBloPoMo #2 – My Favorite Character of All Time Is………

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NaBloPoMo November 2013Women Having Coffee

I must admit that I do not have a favorite character of all time because I have many favorite characters from different times in my life.   I have been an avid reader since I was a child, I am the daughter of an avid reader/movie-goer, and I go to the movies almost every weekend.    So, I love everyone from Achilles to Captain Jean Luc Picard.  However,  since I must choose one I will refer back to my middle-school reading days when I was enraptured with Greek mythology.   While my friends were grooving to R&B, I was engrossed with the Greek tragedies – especially the love stories.   They did not always end in “happily ever after”.   One such story is the one about Orpheus and Eurydice.

Orpheus was the son of Apollo (god of the sun, music, medicine, poetry, and the fine arts) and Calliope (the superior of the nine Muses).   Therefore, he was gifted musically and poetically.    Orpheus met, loved, and wooed Eurydice for her hand in marriage.   During the days of their wedding celebration, Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died.  Orpheus was so grief stricken that he beseeched permission from Zeus to pursue the restoration of Eurydice’s life from Hades, god of the Underworld.    Zeus was so moved by the songs of the grief stricken Orpheus that he granted permission.   Orpheus traveled to Hades and conquered all barriers with his beautiful music and songs even bringing Hades and Persephone to tears with his songs.   They released Eurydice but with the stipulation that Orpheus not look upon her face until they had departed the Underworld.   Eurydice walked behind Orpheus as they traveled away from the Underworld but in his longing to see his wife, Orpheus turned too soon and only glimpsed her face before she returned to the Underworld.

Orpheus became one of my favorite characters because he sparked my imagination about the beauty of his music and songs that moved Hades, with the hardened heart, to tears.  The courage Orpheus demonstrated to descend to the depths of Hades for his true love was only diminished by the longing he felt to see Eurydice and hold her again.    Orpheus became one of my compass characters to set expectations for a mate – a man who can experience AND express deep emotions.

Thus, he is one of my all-time memorable characters.

NaBloPoMo #1 – How I Would Spend $1 Million in 1 Day

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NaBloPoMo November 2013Women Having Coffee

If I found one million dollars in the morning and was mandated to spend it by nightfall, I would spend the first 10 minutes shedding a few tears for the fact that I cannot runaway to an oceanfront island writing retreat but then I would get busy donating it for causes that are near and dear to my heart.

My first donee would be the National Museum of African American History and Culture which is the newest addition to the Smithsonian Institute slated to open in 2015.    As an American, who chooses to honor her unknown African descendant by being called an African-American, this museum will present to our country and the world the contributions of a people who endured much but never wavered from their pursuit of equality and the impact that pursuit had on American history and culture.   Since I am a charter member, my first inclination is to donate the entire one million dollars but after consideration I will only donate $500,000.

My second donee would be the Houston Food Bank.    This is my primary charity and I donate to it because it really bothers me to know there are people who are hungry in our country and in my city.   The Houston Food Bank has partnerships in the food industry that allow them to purchase $6 of food for every $1 donated and they have been recently designated as the largest food bank in the United States that distribute to their agencies.   Now that the SNAP cuts will start on November 1st, the food banks will need even more donations to assist the hungry.    I will donate $250,000 to the Houston Food Bank which will allow them to purchase $1,500,000 of food.

My third donee would be UNICEF K.I.N.D (Kids in Need of Desks).   This is another charity that is dear to my heart because it impacts the lives of children.  I learned about it from watching “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” on MSNBC.   The thought of African children sitting on the floor in their schools trying to read/write was very uncomfortable to me and to know that only $65 would buy a desk for 2 students made it easy to pull out my checkbook.   Also, the purchase of the desks would also help their parents by enhancing the economy of the villages since they make the desks locally.   I will donate $125,000 to K.I.N.D which will purchase approximately 2,000 desks and provide seats for 4,000 students.

The remaining $125,000 I will use to help poor students here in my home city of Houston that need computers in their schools.    Last week, I learned of a situation from a friend who is a bilingual first grade teacher.   Most of her students are the children of illegal immigrants but the children are Americans and in their school they are not provided the same computer equipment as students in the other classes.   My friend was polling her friends/acquaintances asking for any old computers that we could donate to her class because of her concerns for her students.   As a child of the 1960s, I find this appalling and I am sure there are similar situations in other schools.

So, this is how I would spend the one million dollars and it probably would not take me more than 2-3 hours to do so because these are organizations that I already donate to now (but only a miniscule fraction of one million dollars!).

Creative Coolness

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Women Having CoffeeWe are all creative beings.   We are each endowed with creative gifts.   Normally, we explore our creativity as children because we are unburdened but as we enter adulthood we put our creative spirit aside and embrace the reality standard of the status quo.   However, some resist and dare to continue on the creative path to become great artists like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Ron Howard,  and Elizabeth Taylor –  just to quickly name a few.   The rest of us admire them because we can relate to their creativity.  So, we flock to their concerts and their movies to witness that which they dare to do.

Now, there are some of us who eventually return to exploring our creative gifts.  In my own personal experience, I have a good life but there was a huge dissatisfaction in it until I rediscovered the one thing I truly love – writing.   It was the one thing I did well when I was young and it always energize me.   So, now I am pursuing it as another career.

Due to my own personal experience, I have developed radar for those “everyday” persons like me that are exploring their creativity and putting it out there in the world.  I call it searching for “creative coolness”.  Recently, I was out-and-about doing errands and grabbing a coffee at Starbucks when I had a truly rare WOW moment.    Right there in front of Starbucks was parked a Batmobile ………..and it was drivable!

I literally stopped in my tracks and was thankful for my Smartphone.   I whipped it out and started taking pictures of this amazing car.    As I headed into Starbucks, a very relaxed and smiling guy sitting at one of the tables in front of Starbucks beckoned to me.  I approached him and my instinct told me the car belonged to him.   I asked him and he confirmed it.   He told me that he created it from an early model corvette actually doing all of the work himself.   All I could say was “Wow”.   This amazed him because he said he thought my reply would be “Really?’’ in disbelief which was the usual reaction from people.   I told him that I believed him because I knew there were “everyday” persons with these type of creative/artistic gifts.   I snapped a picture of him with his car and told him I was going to blog about his beautiful work of art.     So, here is a big round of applause and a shout out to John Salazar, his “ZBatCar”, and the creative coolness of his soul.

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Questions:

What are your creative gifts?

If you don’t think you have any, try to remember that thing you loved to do as a child.  Tell us about it.

If you know your creative gifts, tell us about them.   Are you using them?   If so, how?   If not, why not?

Girlfriends on the Road – Meeting A Legend

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Woman with travel cases.Last weekend, I volunteered at and attended the 7th Annual Austin African-American Book Festival at the Carver Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. At this event I had the opportunity and great pleasure to meet/greet one of my all-time favorite authors – Terry McMillan. I also discovered two new authors – Anita Richmond Bunkley (“A Thousand Steps”) and Dr. Michael Collins (“Understanding Ethridge Knight”) – who were also guest authors at the festival.
During the opening of the festival, each participating local author gave a brief introduction about their work to the audience. The two authors that really impressed me were Kaneisha Grayson (“Be Your Own Boyfriend”) and Sherry Ransom (“Three Paths, Three Choices” and “The Art of Growing Older Gratefully”). Ms. McMillan was the opening keynote speaker in which she frankly imparted her words of wisdom and support about the writing life to the local authors at the festival.
After the opening event, each guest author gave a speech, read excerpts from their latest book, and answered questions from the audience. Ms. McMillan read excerpts from her upcoming book “Who Asked You?” which will debut in September 2013. Listening to her read from her work was very exciting and it was amazing to see her characters come to life in that reading. I fell in love with them and I am sure others in the audience did, too. As usual, with her words she evoked emotions from all of us with her mesmerizing story. I have already pre-ordered my Kindle version of her new book. There were many aspiring authors in the audience (like me!) and she encouraged us to pursue our art.
After she spoke, a book signing was held in the grand foyer of the library. Ms. McMillan was very gracious and accommodating to all of her fans in attendance with book signings/photos. She has a great sense of humor and made us all laugh when she talked about her discovery of one of our treasures here in Texas — TexMex food!
It is a good feeling to meet someone you admire and find they are just as you imagined.

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Terry McMillan and Me
QUESTION:
Have you read any of Terry McMillan’s books? If so, which was your favorite?
Have you ready any of Anita Bunkley’s books? If so, which ones?
Have you ever met someone you admired? If so, who? Please share your experience.