Free Book Today

Today, the Kindle version of my short story collection, MIRROR IMAGES, is free on Amazon. Check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Mirror-Images-ebook/dp/B0045EOO2M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326303005&sr=1-1

Go pick up your copy while it’s still free. Enjoy!

New Website

I’m so excited to announce, I have a new website! I had my old one redesigned, and I just adore how it looks.

Check it out here:

http://www.elizabethdelisi.com

I’d love to hear what you think, if there’s anything else you’d like to see, if you have trouble navigating any of the links.

It was done by Tirgearr Design. You can contact them at http://www.tirgearr.com if you want to have your website redesigned, too.

It’s Not Nice to Insult Mother Nature

Okay, I guess my last post must have made Mother Nature angry. She dumped two feet of snow on us, and since it was a heavy, wet snow, there were trees down everywhere, taking out lots of power lines. We had two days with no power, trying to stay warm in a 47-degree house. Brrr! But we’re lucky as many people are STILL powerless, three-plus days after the storm.

I heard it was the third worst storm, considering how many people lost power, in New Hampshire history. The first and second worst storms were also within the past few years. Global warming, anyone?

It’s amazing how much we depend on electricity for heat, hot water, lights, clocks, computers and the internet, hot food, keeping food cold or frozen, washing clothes, coffee, not to mention charging up all our electronic equipment. You sure don’t realize how much you need it till it’s gone!

It’s also amazing how many hours of darkness there are when you have no electric lights. Candles take the edge off, but really don’t provide much usable light. Flashlights are good when you need to go from one room to another without breaking a toe, but if you run them steadily, they eat up batteries. I suppose before electricity, people slept longer?!?

I am SO thankful to have the power back. I just hope this storm wasn’t a warning shot across the bow, letting us know Mother Nature has a doozy of a winter in storm for us. Fingers crossed.

Surely You Can’t Be Serious?

October 27-28.

Srsly?!?

Along Came A Spider

Last summer, a very…um…interesting spider appeared in our garden. At first, it terrified me. I mean, it was an inch and a half or two inches long, black and  yellow, and evil-looking. I did some research on the Internet, though, and found out it’s harmless—to humans, anyway.

I intended to take a picture of it, but somehow I never got around to doing so, and before I knew it, it was fall and she was gone.

This year I’ve been looking for it in the same spot every day since spring, to no avail. Then, the other day, I was looking at a flower in a different part of the garden and there was that distinctive spider with the unique web. So you better believe I ran for the camera, and here it is:

Creepy, eh?

It’s a Black and Yellow Argiope, or Black and Yellow Garden Spider. You can read more about it here: http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_and_yellow_argiope.htm

Fun facts to know and tell: the Black and Yellow Garden Spider builds her web in a spiral out from the center. The zigzag portion is built by the smaller, drabber male spider. Also, she eats (yes, eats) her web every night and builds a new one in the morning. Talk about a fanatical housekeeper!

She dies after laying her eggs…sad. The baby spiders (up to a thousand—no wonder she dies) spend the fall and winter in the egg sack, then hatch in the spring and head out to find their own bit of garden. You better believe I’ll be looking for them next spring, and I’ll tell them all how much they look like their mom.

Saying For The Day

Here’s an optimistic view on life that we’d all do well to adopt!

“I plan to live forever. So far, it’s working.”

It’s Not Easy Being Green

I received this in my e-mail. Not sure of the author—if anyone knows, let me know so I can give credit where credit is due.

Enjoy!

Sentimental Journey – The Green Thing

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn’t have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts of electricity — wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Hope for Soaps

My dear husband, bless him, brought home an article from the Wall Street Journal, as he knew I’d be interested.

You bet I am! It says the two soaps ABC is cancelling, “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” have been licensed to Prospect Park, a company that produces original scripted shows shown strictly online. Prospect Park says they expect to pick up the story lines and continue from where they leave off.

Now, there are a lot of questions about an online show: will we have to watch it at a set time or can we view it any time of day? Can we copy/download it to view later? Can we get it through a game system, perhaps, to show on our big-screen televisions?

There is a suggestion that the “production budget” will be lower. I assume that means cheaper sets, budget wardrobe, fewer exotic locales, etc. Frankly, I don’t care. It’s the stories and characters that count. Erika Kane can wear a burlap bag and live in a cave, and I’d still watch every day.

So, I’m cautiously optimistic that the soaps I’ve watched for 30+ years will continue. And I’ll be right there watching for the next 30!

Sign Up Now For Accelerated Fundamentals of Fiction

Summer is the perfect time to take a writing course. And what better course to take than an accelerated one, that lets you finish in record time?

I’ll be teaching “Accelerated Fundamentals of Fiction” starting Thursday, July 7, and it runs for six weeks. Here’s the info:

In this course you will:

• Develop effective creative writing techniques that can be applied to any long or short fiction form
• Develop believable characters and let them speak—and act—for themselves
• Learn how to set the stage, and make readers feel as if they are right there with your characters
• Discover the basics of plot—enough to prepare you to tackle any kind of fiction project.

Who should take this course:

• Beginning writers who want to start writing now
• Writers interested in Fiction (any genre)
• Writers who want to learn numerous time-tested techniques and the key components of successful fiction writing

To check it out, or sign up, go here: http://fwmedia.gosignmeup.com/dev_students.asp?action=coursedetail&id=3058&main=Online+Workshops&sub1=Show+All+Workshops&misc=448&courseinternalaccesscode=&coursetype=0?utm_source=wdukrsite063011Workshop-widget

Let’s write!

Still Time to Sign Up

My section of “Write Great Fiction: Description & Setting” at Writer’s Digest University has been pushed back to start on May 26, so if you hurry, you can sign up for it!

It’s a great course for both beginner and experienced writers, with something for everyone. If you’ve never tried a Writer’s Digest University course, this is a great one to start with as it’s not too long and at a level that works for everyone.

Workshop Length: 8 weeks

You will learn:

• How to attune your writer’s radar to interesting details and story ideas from real life
• How to balance showing and telling in constructing a convincing narrative voice
• How to build your fictional world and descriptions so they serve and illuminate character, motivation, tone, and theme
• How to engage the senses—and even allow them to cross and overlap—in order to form compelling, potent descriptions, and
• How to balance the familiar and the unfamiliar in description and setting in order to show the everyday in clear, and surprising, new ways

Who should take this course:

• Beginning writers who want to strengthen their description and setting skills
• Novel writers of any genre
• Short Story writers
• Creative Nonfiction writers

For more information, or to sign up for the course, go here: http://fwmedia.gosignmeup.com/dev_students.asp?action=browse&main=Online+Workshops&sub1=WGF%3A+Description+%26+Setting&misc=143

Hope to see you there!