Author: Marcia Meara

Bluebird (of Happiness): A Poem about Names

/ Marcia Meara / 4 Comments

I always love Caitlin’s poetry, and thought I’d share this with you today.

Caitlin Stern's avatarcaitlinsternwrites

Inspired by the Silver Birch Press’ Same Name poetry, but tangential to the prompt of someone famous with the same first or last name. This other Caitlin isn’t a celebrity, but she’s still cool.

This is an Eastern Bluebird, but close enough. Image from WikiMedia by Ken Thomas. This is an Eastern Bluebird, technically.
Image from WikiMedia by Ken Thomas.

Bluebird (of Happiness)

There’s a Caitlin Stern who spells her name

the same

as I

(Or perhaps the reverse is true)

Her thoughts take wing

on the flight

of (western) bluebirds

She studied relationships and data

while I studied plot and synecdoche

Both of us fixed our eyes on the sky

(though hers sometimes disclosed

dive-bombing streaks of  territorial blue)

asked the endless why

wondered

learned

And if her bluebirds beat with flesh and bone

Legs tagged

tracked wherever they roam

and mine brim with metaphor and simile

fletched with symbolism

wandering free

They both (I think) bring

happiness

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#MidWeekPOV #wwwblogs To Swag or Not to Swag ? That Is the Question.

/ Marcia Meara / 14 Comments

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Side One of My Current Bookmark

You’ve written your book. It’s published and selling. Hopefully well. As part of your marketing strategy, do you have printed materials and other goodies with your name and book title on them? Do you offer any of them as give-aways on your blog or website? Do you have freebies to hand out at author events or book fairs? And on the other side of the coin, are you the kind of event attendee who picks up material from various vendors–in this case, authors?

I confess, I do both. I like having little gifts to share with people, and if they have my books listed on them, all the better. I can’t afford to do anything huge, but I do have bookmarks, postcards, and my favorite, custom tea blends in little keepsake tins with the book cover and my name on them. (Perfect for stashing paper clips or stamps, on a desk, or for use as travel tins for things like aspirin. They can even be refilled with tea. Imagine!)

I am doing an average of two presentations a month these days, and I enjoy setting up my table with things for folks to browse through afterward. While I’m signing books, it gives those waiting in line something to do, and if they leave with a handful of bookmarks, I hope they’ll share them. Maybe I’ll gain a new reader that way.

So, what’s your opinion on swag of this sort? Do you give any away? Do you pick up things at other tables? All of the above? None of the above? Why or why not? As always, inquiring minds wanna know! 🙂

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Side Two of the Same Bookmark

 

#InspirationBoardSunday #SundayBlogShare #Florida

/ Marcia Meara / 7 Comments

To make up for being gone so long, I’m taking you on a short photo tour today. Enjoy!!
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Inspiration can come from anywhere or anyone.
I’m inspired by lush habitat and scenery. 

Wekiwa_IMG_6363-EditWekiva River – Dark and Mysterious

I’m equally inspired by wildlife and birds.

800px-Prothonotary_Warbler_Prothonotary Warbler

IMG_3001Little Blue Heron and White Ibis

0003-72-800-750-80-wm-right_bottom-20-DougLittle-255-255-255-20Purple Gallinule

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Baby alligators, last year’s and newer hatchlings.

0013-82-800-750-80-wm-right_bottom-20-DougLittle-255-255-255-20Not such a baby, this time.

Sometimes I’m inspired by things I’ll probably never see in the wild.

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Albino alligator. Wanna dance?

new-orleans-22-e1345389323223Blue-eyed Leucistic Alligator (My inspiration for Big Blue, in Swamp Ghosts)

Inspiration! It’s all around us!
All we have to do is open our eyes and unstop our ears.
😀

"Kelly Park, Apopka, Florida"

Emeralds and Silver by Hunter Painter #FindingHunter #Romance

/ Marcia Meara / 5 Comments

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In lieu of a #FabulousFridayGuestBlogger this week, I’m inviting one of my favorite characters from Finding Hunter—Hunter Painter, himself–to share something with you. Hunter’s a very quiet man, and doesn’t do well around large groups of people, so he won’t be chatting with you today. But with much arm-twisting, I got him to agree to let you read one of the poems he wrote years ago about the love of his life, Willow Greene.

Hunter fell in love with Willow in high school, but as a quiet, introspective sort of guy, he committed all his thoughts to paper, instead of voicing them aloud. It’s a shame, really. Unbeknownst to him, Willow loved Hunter right back. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that. For the rest of the story, you’ll have to check out the book, I’m afraid. 🙂

In the meantime, here are the thoughts of a young man who was given to observing everything and everyone, then writing down all he’d seen and heard. And maybe next week, we’ll have a post from a REAL LIVE guest blogger.  🙂

Emeralds and Silver
  By Hunter Painter, Grade 11

No emerald pulled from
  darkest earth holds
    light so warm, so
      full of life, as the
        green in those eyes.

No precious metal
  curled or curved in
    filigrees of man’s design
      offers half the sheen of
        that spun-silver hair.

Who would trade her
  incandescent glow for
    emeralds and silver
      lonely and cold?
        Joyless, both, next to her
          bright sparkle.

#MidWeekPOV #wwwblogs Recharging Creativity

/ Marcia Meara / 10 Comments

 dupontfalls9Mountains, Every Chance I Get

I’m coming to you today from Charleston, South Carolina, and my MidWeek POV looks very different. Usually, I’m at my home in central Florida, specifically, at my computer, where I spend the majority of my life. But today, I’m having fun visiting with my daughter’s family, and playing with my two-year-old grandson, Kaelen, while my husband takes a look at some electrical issues in the fixer-upper my daughter and SIL just bought.

One thought led to another, and I decided my POV today should  focus on changes of pace.  Vacations. Or, if you’re living on the other side of the pond, holidays. Do you take them? If so, where? How long? Are you a beach person or a mountain person? Do you like little weekend get-aways, or month-long escapes? And most of all, do you come home feeling recharged and reinspired, ready to write the next chapter in your WIP? (You do have a WIP, don’t you?)

Normally, we are short trip folks. With six animals, it’s hard (and expensive) to take longer vacations. We tend to go for daytrips in our area. Museums, historical sites, a hike in the woods. A canoe trip on a local river. That type of thing. But once in a while, we decide to go farther afield. We bite the bullet, board the animals, and hit the highway. I’m longing to go to the mountains again, before too long, but this trip to Charleston was our first priority. And I know I’ll come home tired, happy, and ready to write again.

I’d love to hear what recharges YOUR batteries, and restores your creativity, when you realize you are running low. As always, inquiring minds wanna know.

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Beaches Can Be Nice, Too

 

 

#MondayMeme – Dorothy Parker #MondayBlogs

/ Marcia Meara / 6 Comments

And now for something completely different. A quote from the incomparable Dorothy Parker.

dorothyparker2

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”
― Dorothy Parker

#InspirationBoardSunday – Inspiration Comes in Many Forms

/ Marcia Meara / 11 Comments

Sometimes, it’s the staggeringly beautiful view from a North Carolina
 mountaintop that inspires me . . .

cumberlandgap

. . . and sometimes, it’s a trip to my past, via a still-standing old-fashioned Florida Cracker style farmhouse. This one was pretty much on target for how I imagined the Painter house looking. I had the photo on my inspiration board the whole time I was working on
Finding Hunter.

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