Register Now for my sping class: Emotions through Art.

Emotions Into Art (online)
How do writers make you laugh and cry? Designed for beginners and for those who would like to spike up their writing and gain mastery, this course begins by exploring emotion-packed fiction, short prose, and poems, to discover tips, tricks, and strategies for making the reader ache, cheer characters on, reach for the Kleenex, or hold their sides with laughter. You’ll learn about tone, hyperbole, understatement, pacing, implication, and more. Through stimulating writing exercises and short reading assignments, you are encouraged to find your own voice to create short writing (prose or poems) about yourself /and or fictional characters that grab the attention of both readers and editors.

Here's what Pat Murray Panek had to say about it:
"I took this class the last time Rochelle offered it and it really did help me to knock down the obstacles that were keeping me from expressing myself completely. Two Thumbs Up!"

Please help me pick one new publicity photo out of this group.

Some are obvious no's, but there are, luckily, quite a number of yesses. All opinions appreciated.

http://www.thaddeusrombauer.com/client/Rochelle_Shapiro

Diet Plan

Someone sold me one. T.G. I only bought a week of it to try out. Crunch bars, shakes, salty chips, soups and cocoa every 2-3 hours and a regular low carb dinner at night. I can't wait until dinner. These diet foods are burning my stomach. "Weight loss by Ulcer" is the true plan, I think. But what it made me realize is that working at home, I eat all day: a teaspoon of peanut butter here, matzoh and butter there, a handful of almonds. Maybe when this week is over--I paid for it so I'll stay on or I'll feel like a complete "loser," I'll just try to eat at 3 hour intervals. I'm already hungry just thinking of that. Every two hours then. Or maybe back to constantly.

Topsy and Rochelle

I have longed for a picture of Topsy and me together, but there wasn't even one. It's hard to remember that before the days of digital photos, people had to spend money on film and money on getting it developed. My parents took pictures on "special occoasions" where Topsy usually wasn't invited. Now, thanks to photoshop, Topsy and and I are reunited. Maybe a shadow is off, maybe she's a bit stiff, but we're together and that's all the counts.

At times we need feel-good images

My son-in-law taking my grandchildren sledding.

Giving

I was in a mall today and saw four teenage boys with falling-down hip hop pants and sideways baseball caps stopping other teens to encourage them to give a ten dollar donation to Haiti by texting, and showing them how. I asked them if they were with a school group, and they said they weren't. They had just discovered that they could send donations like that and decided the idea took hold. They looked urgent, on a mission, and so happy. I was moved.

Some interesting places to send your work, expecially the opportunity to publish with Mary Oliver!

Deadline: 02/20/10. Submit to: Align with Global Harmony: Rainmaker’s Prayers. E-mail (via attachment or pasted-in text) to hazelheron.press@gmail.com. To be published by Hazel Heron Press. Contributors receive a free complimentary copy, a 50 word bio with contact info both in print and on web site and the opportunity of being in print with such notables as Mary Oliver, Barbara Kingsolver, Jose Stevens, etc.Theme: Co-creation of Spirit, Nature & Humankind.Type: Short personal essays, 500-1000 words. Environmental topics: Ban the Plastic Bag; Green Teens, Restore a River; Sustainability; The Heart as Sacred Space; Dance as Prayer; Personal Responsibility; Bios of Environmentalists; Sustainable Towns; Living in Harmony with Mother Earth; Indigenous Wisdom & Climate Change; etc.URL: http://shinanbarclay.vox.com

Deadline: 02/28/10.Submit to: Quest for Atlantis: Legends of a Lost Continent. E-mail submissions to: atlantis@pillhillpress.com. Please put SUBMISSION - Title of Story in the subject line.Theme: Stories that celebrate the legend of The Lost Continent of Atlantis. Type: Short stories (10,000 words MAX).URL: http://www.pillhillpress.com/atlantis.htmlDeadline: 03/01/10.Submit to: Bombay Gin. Naropa University, Writing and Poetics Department, 2130 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, CO 80302.Theme: Translations. Must include work in original language and translation.Type: Poetry and prose (8 pages MAX).URL:

Deadline: 04/01/10.Submit to: Witness. Submit via online form: http://witness.blackmountaininstitute.org/submit/login.php.Theme: Blurring Borders.Type: Poetry (5 poems MAX), short stories, and essays.URL: http://witness.blackmountaininstitute.org/submitDeadline: 04/15/10.Submit to: A Whodunit

Halloween. E-mail submissions to: whodunit@pillhillpress.com. Please put SUBMISSION - Title of Story in the subject line.Theme: Halloween mysteries.Type: Short stories (15,000 words MAX).URL: http://www.pillhillpress.com/atlantis.htmlDeadline: 04/20/10.Submit to: A Cup of Comfort. Submit via online form: http://www.cupofcomfort.com/memberlogin.Theme: For Couples.Type: Personal essays (2,000 words

The Angel of Cyberspace has visited me

Ah, my techie friend, Kathy, just arighted my childhood dog, Topsy, for me and made her clearer. Notice how Topsy chewed up the carpet? And her haircut, ahem, I did it myself..

Cock your head to the side and you'll see my childhood dog, Topsy, whom I adored. She's one of my spirit guides and comes in to help other dogs. If only I knew how to post this properly, I would be thrilled. I'm sure someone will take pity and tell me. Please let me know. I rotated it on the original, but it saves the wrong way.

Creativity and Genius

Pat Panek, one of my former students, a wonderful writer herself, alerted me to this fascinating video site on creativity by Elizabeth Gilbert. We all need inspiration. Enjoy!

About this talk
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.
About Elizabeth Gilbert
The author of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert has thought long and hard about some large topics. Her next fascination: genius, and how we ruin it. Full bio and more links

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

Happy new year to all

I spent New Year's Eve watching Avatar with friends. Anyone else see it? I didn't get to a 3D theater, but it blew me away anyway. And then we came back to my place, ate some pasta and played, yes, believe it or not, Tiddly Winks and Tinker Toys. My grandkids were here and I bought old time-y toys for them, which they could care less about. But us boomers, hey!