Write Anyway

No, I’m not talking about the television show. Though, from what I have seen, it’s a decently cool show.

Not everyone has a hero in their life, but those who do swear by the people they hold in such high esteem.

My husband had a childhood hero. He was someone my husband admired so much that he later wrote poetry about him. (Can you tell I can’t remember the man’s name at the moment? That’s so bad. I really should know.) I always liked the look in my husband’s eyes when he talked about the man. It was as if he finally had something he could truly believe in.

And that is what it is like for many people and their heroes. Your hero can be someone you don’t even know. Someone who passed on the street. Or your hero can be the person you see every day.

That’s the wonderful thing about heroes. They can be anyone and they can be a hero to you for anything. If it meant something to you, then s/he is your hero.

My hero is my husband, that’s for sure. He has literally saved me many times and many ways.

I’ve picked out a few videos for you this week that I hope you enjoy, all with the theme of heroes. (All with the same title, too, which amuses me for some reason.)

Enjoy!

Hero – Mariah Carey

Hero – Enrique Iglesias

Hero – Nickelback (This is my ‘must have’ song pick for this week. I love Nickelback and this song.)

Interested in reviewing books on your blog? Would you like to interview authors?

We are seeking qualified bloggers who would like to become tour hosts for our clients. If you are a blogger who would be interested in either interviewing our authors, letting them guest post on your blog or would be willing to review their book and posting their review on your blog (or any other type of promotion) on a certain day that both you and we set up together, we would be interested in talking to you.

We are only looking for blogs who receive substantial traffic and are updated frequently.

All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

We also spotlight our tour hosts at random in our monthly newsletter. All tour host spotlights will include blog information and an interview with the blog host as part of their feature in the newsletter. More added exposure! And…not only that…we will include your link on this page so that others can see what an outstanding blog you have.

If you are interested, you can visit Virtual Book Tours for Authors, look in the right hand sidebar for the list of authors touring, and let us know which author you would prefer to host.

Once you have decided which author you would like to host, copy and paste the below information into an email and send it to us at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “I Want to Be a Tour Host” in the subject line of your email.

Hello everyone!

It’s the Friday after the long weekend (in Oz, at least) and I hope you are all suitably recovered from Easter and all the chocolate eggs that came with it. I completely forgot it was Friday until I realized my husband went to work with a t-shirt on today (casual Friday).

I hope you all have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend.

On to the feast!

Appetizer - What does the color dark green make you think of?

Emeralds. Think Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz. That wasn’t that dark green all the time, but I reckon it qualifies.

Soup - How many cousins do you have?

Too many to count. Seriously. Everyone on my mother’s side of the family has been married and divorced at least once (minus the youngest sister who is getting married this year). On my father’s side, there was a widowing and remarriage, so there are a lot of cousins there, too.

Salad - On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how honest are you?

9. I’m honest most of the time. I indulge in the occasional white lie, but lies hurt too much, I reckon and almost always come out.

Main Course - Name something that is truly free.

Love, in the right circumstances. Real, true love is given and received with no price.

Dessert - Using the letters in the word SPRING, write a sentence.

Some People Rigorously Ignore New Generations.

Brought to you by Friday’s Feast

Hello and welcome to another Thursday Thirteen!

This week we have been talking all about royalty. This week’s Thursday Thirteen prompts are going to continue on with prompts, questions, first lines, and other inspiration to help you get writing.

If there is another prompt you think would be helpful, be sure to let me know in the comments or by using the ‘contact me’ button under the site description.

1. If I ruled the world…
2. Who do you believe the greatest figure of royalty from history is?
3. When I was younger, I used to pretend I was a ____ and ruled ____.
4. “I’m not who you think I am. I’m actually royalty.”
5. If you were to find out today that you’re actually descended from royalty, how would it change your life? Would it?
6. Do you have any children? If so, take some time to write about your little prince/princess.
7. “I’m a King in all ways…”
8. If you could have the opportunity to rule a place as its king/queen, would you? Why or why not?
9. What do you think of monarchy? Does it work? Can it ever?
10. Does royalty have a place in today’s world?
11. Who is your favourite fairytale royalty character?
12. You were royalty in a past life…
13. “Spoiled little prince/princess!”

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens on The Book Stacks and Fiction Scribe

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mid-week random word bank. I rather like random word banks. There is a challenge in them that not only gets your mind working, but you can also end up with a scene that you didn’t know you had it in you to write.

I hope you find these word banks useful. If there is a type of prompt you would prefer to see, please let me know.

Remember, with all the words, you can use any form, any tense of the word. Eg. Laugh can be laugh, laughter, laughs, laughed.

For the first word bank, I don’t want you to write a short story or anything actually. What I want you to do is word association. For every word there, I want you to write the word and then write the first word that comes to your mind after.

For the second word bank, I do want you to write a short story (or something longer if you like) that incorporates this week’s theme. This round goes as usual; just include all of the words in the bank.

For the third word bank, it is something different yet again. I would like you to try your hand at writing a poem incorporating the words provided. I don’t think I have asked you to write poetry before, so it should be something new and fun for you.

Enjoy!

(more…)

I am sorely tempted to make a bunch of bad jokes using some form of the word ‘royal’ and playing it until people are throwing cans at me…but I’ll be good and resist the temptation.

Lucky you, huh?

This week we are talking about the theme of royalty. Being royal, wanting to be royal, pretending to be when playing as a child…

As I said yesterday, I would really like to tap into the childhood imagining and dreams when it comes to royalty. Of course, you can feel free to write about anything related to royalty, but if you are stuck for ideas, you might want to try…

Did you dream of being a queen or king (prince or princess) when you were younger?

If you did, what were you king or queen of? Who did you rule? Where were you from? Did you pretend to be marooned on earth or did you make earth into your new kingdom? Did you have servants? (My brother played king once and the five others of us were his servants. Lovely, no?)

What age were you? What games did you play while you were acting royalty? Did you play with others or play alone?

Have fun with it and try to remember why it was so much fun for you when you were younger. As always, don’t worry about sounding silly when you write. No one has to see what you have written. Not even you, if you don’t want to.

It’s your private journal. Let loose, m’lady/m’lord.

Today is a royally lovely day…

Okay, I just had to get that out of my system. Welcome to another Musical Monday here on

I decided to try a theme of a slightly different type this week in picking ‘royalty’. But then again, it’s not so strange when you think of how many fairy tales are out there and how many little girls dream of being real princesses while little boys declare they are king of this or that.

There’s something magical about royalty and being royal. Perhaps it’s the power or perhaps it’s the thought that when you are a king, queen, prince, or princess, all your worries suddenly go away. You have enough money, you don’t have to worry about where your next meal comes.

In today’s world, that certainly is a widespread dream.

So this week I will try to touch on everything from the real royalty we still have in the world today to the childhood dreams almost all of us had about being a royal from a land far away. I especially hope to tap into that childhood dream.

There’s no better time for your imagination than childhood. If only we could carry that into adulthood.

Today I bring you only one song because it’s stunningly hard to find songs related to royalty, funnily enough. I thought there would be more. But the one I am putting up pretty much hits the button right on, so I hope you’ll forgive me.

I Just Can’t Wait to be King – Lion King

Interested in reviewing books on your blog? Would you like to interview authors?

We are seeking qualified bloggers who would like to become tour hosts for our clients. If you are a blogger who would be interested in either interviewing our authors, letting them guest post on your blog or would be willing to review their book and posting their review on your blog (or any other type of promotion) on a certain day that both you and we set up together, we would be interested in talking to you.

We are only looking for blogs who receive substantial traffic and are updated frequently.

All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

We also spotlight our tour hosts at random in our monthly newsletter. All tour host spotlights will include blog information and an interview with the blog host as part of their feature in the newsletter. More added exposure! And…not only that…we will include your link on this page so that others can see what an outstanding blog you have.

If you are interested, you can visit Virtual Book Tours for Authors, look in the right hand sidebar for the list of authors touring, and let us know which author you would prefer to host.

Once you have decided which author you would like to host, copy and paste the below information into an email and send it to us at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “I Want to Be a Tour Host” in the subject line of your email.

Happy Good Friday to everyone who celebrates it. Happy day off to everyone who doesn’t!

I’m a little late with today’s Friday Feast, but you’ll have to forgive me. (Please?) Things always get a little crazy when you’re going off on vacation.

On to the feast!

Appetizer - Given the choice, would you prefer to live in the country or in the city?

I was actually tested on that recently. I’ve been living in the city for the past year and a half now after having lived in the country for all my life. I love the country, but I have to say that for right now at least, I’m a city girl at heart.

Soup - Who is the cutest kid you know?

Oh, let’s see… That goes to Miss Zoot’s NikkiZ.

Salad - Fill in the blank: I couldn’t believe it when I heard ___________.

…when I heard that my husband wanted me to try sushi. Raw fish of all things. It’s a good thing I did try it, though, because it’s my favourite thing to eat these days.

Main Course - If you could star in a commercial for one of your favorite products, which one would you want to advertise?

Erm… Probably bubble baths. Or candles. Or candles during my bubble bath. Mmmm.

Dessert - What type(s) of vitamins and/or supplements do you take on a regular basis?

Ha! I have a whole list. I take Vitamin B, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Cranberry, Omega 3, Zinc, and a multivitamin. How’s that for you? Hehe.

Brought to you by Friday’s Feast

Hello and welcome to another Thursday Thirteen!

This week we have been talking about truth. There are so many things to write when it comes to the truth. This week’s Thursday Thirteen prompts are going to continue on with prompts, questions, first lines, and other inspiration to help you get writing.

If there is another prompt you think would be helpful, be sure to let me know in the comments or by using the ‘contact me’ button under the site description.

1. “I can’t take it anymore. I have to tell you the truth.”
2. Write about a time that you lied and then had to tell the truth.
3. When have you had a hard time admitting the truth to yourself?
4. Has anyone told you the truth and you wish they hadn’t?
5. Write about a time when it would be best to not tell the truth.
6. Has there ever been a time you needed to investigate to find the truth?
7. On a scale of one to ten, how important is the truth to you? Why? What is more important? What is less important?
8. Have you ever regretted telling the truth?
9. “Well, the truth really is…”
10. What is the most important piece of truth anyone has ever told you?
11. Is there anything you’re currently not telling the truth about that you wish you could tell the truth about?
12. Do you have any ‘life truths’?
13. “I have been telling the truth all along!”

Check out my other Thursday Thirteens on The Book Stacks and Fiction Scribe

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another mid-week random word bank. I rather like random word banks. There is a challenge in them that not only gets your mind working, but you can also end up with a scene that you didn’t know you had it in you to write.

I hope you find these word banks useful. If there is a type of prompt you would prefer to see, please let me know.

Remember, with all the words, you can use any form, any tense of the word. Eg. Laugh can be laugh, laughter, laughs, laughed.

For the first word bank, I don’t want you to write a short story or anything actually. What I want you to do is word association. For every word there, I want you to write the word and then write the first word that comes to your mind after.

For the second word bank, I do want you to write a short story (or something longer if you like) that incorporates this week’s theme. This round goes as usual; just include all of the words in the bank.

For the third word bank, it is something different yet again. I would like you to try your hand at writing a poem incorporating the words provided. I don’t think I have asked you to write poetry before, so it should be something new and fun for you.

Enjoy!

(more…)

The truth is not often an easy thing to tell. There are people’s feelings to consider. The damage to relationships. The damage to you and your reputation. The truth often makes you sit back and wonder about what’s really important in your life.

These sorts of contemplations often come after a lie has been told. After a lie has been told, the truth often weighs heavily on the liar as well as other people who might suspect there is a lie.

There is also truth and how we hold it above all else in some situations. But should we always hold it above all else?

Today I would like you to take the theme of truth in any of the many ways it can go. If you’re a bit stuck for ideas, here are a few prompts to get you started:

Write about a time in your life where you told the truth when it was hard to do. What was the situation? Why did you decide to tell the truth? Why was it hard? What were the consequences of you telling the truth? Do you regret telling the truth?

Write about a time when someone told you the truth and you wished s/he hadn’t. What was the situation? Who told you the truth? Why do you wish s/he hadn’t? Looking back on it, do you still wish that person hadn’t told you the truth?

What is truth to you? Truth above all? When is truth necessary? When are lies necessary?

There are many, many ways to take this week’s theme. Explore and write on whatever you wish.

Hello and welcome to another Musical Monday here on Write Anyway.

Weeks ago I used the theme of lying. Lying has such a spectrum of levels that it’s quite interesting. From the little white lie to lying through omission to the continued outright lie.

This week I am going to touch on something that is related and equally as powerful: truth
Like lies have destroyed many relationships, so has truth. Truth that eventually comes out, truth that is recognized from the outset, truth in all its forms.

Like lies, truth is often not always quite as simple as it seems. There are many levels.

I hope you enjoy the music to go along with this week’s theme. It takes a little explaining, though…

When I first thought of truth as a theme, one song came to mind as my ‘must have’ song for Musical Monday.

Aida is the story of a love triangle set in the ancient times of Egypt (originally appearing as an opera and then later as a Broadway musical). Aida, Radames, and Amneris are caught in a love triangle that affects the highest levels of Egyptian society and their Nubian slaves.

This mournful song, sung by Amneris, is about realizing not only the truth about the love of her love but also about the life she has been leading up to this point. (Her life up to now has been about fashion, luxury, hiding her intelligence, and being the grand hostess.)

It’s very powerful and one of my favourite songs. I hope you enjoy it.

I Know the Truth - Aida

Interested in reviewing books on your blog? Would you like to interview authors?

We are seeking qualified bloggers who would like to become tour hosts for our clients. If you are a blogger who would be interested in either interviewing our authors, letting them guest post on your blog or would be willing to review their book and posting their review on your blog (or any other type of promotion) on a certain day that both you and we set up together, we would be interested in talking to you.

We are only looking for blogs who receive substantial traffic and are updated frequently.

All our tour hosts receive a link on our sponsors’ page (if you prefer hosting your banner, that’s fine, too), links on our in house blogs, and will receive copies of books where applicable for their time and effort in hosting our authors. You will also receive substantial traffic on your blog while the author is touring as we highly publicize each and every one of our tour stops.

We also spotlight our tour hosts at random in our monthly newsletter. All tour host spotlights will include blog information and an interview with the blog host as part of their feature in the newsletter. More added exposure! And…not only that…we will include your link on this page so that others can see what an outstanding blog you have.

If you are interested, you can visit Virtual Book Tours for Authors, look in the right hand sidebar for the list of authors touring, and let us know which author you would prefer to host.

Once you have decided which author you would like to host, copy and paste the below information into an email and send it to us at thewriterslife(at)yahoo.com. Please put “I Want to Be a Tour Host” in the subject line of your email.

Hello and welcome to another Friday Feast.

I’m a bit ill at the moment, so if my answers ramble a bit or don’t quite make sense, then blame it on that, okay? Hee.

On to the feast!

Appetizer - On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 as highest), how much do you like your own handwriting?

I can’t really rate mine because it changes all the time. When I concentrate on keeping it the same way, I suppose I’d put it at an eight. But really, my handwriting can range so many different ways, it’s really not black and white to rate it.

Soup - Do you prefer baths or showers?

It depends. If I just want to get clean, then showers. If I want to relax, clean up, etc, then baths. Sometimes a quick shower can really hit things, but other times a long soak in the bath with a book can calm me down and elevate my mood.

Salad - What was the last bad movie you watched?

I couldn’t tell you. I don’t watch movies very much, and the past times I’ve watched them, they have been good.

Main Course - Name something you are addicted to and describe how it affects your life.

I’m addicted to spending time with my husband. Heheh. It annoys him sometimes, but in the end I think it’s mostly good for both of us because of our backgrounds.

Dessert - Which instrument is your favorite to listen to?

That would have to be a toss up between the piano and tenor saxophone. The piano is so utterly versatile when it comes to playing different things, but the saxophone is so smooth and rich; it’s like musical chocolate.

Brought to you by Friday’s Feast