Quote I Liked

This is a quote I like from Harry Potter, Goblet of Fire

"...soon you will have to make the choice between what is right and what is easy..."

to me this quote says it all....


Slainte!

heidi

LEO

Halloween Horoscope for Leo

You simply have to have the most unique, elaborate, and amazing costume.You tend to hop from party to event, making sure everyone checks you out. Costume suggestions: A geisha, samurai, fairy, or pirate Signature Halloween candy: Skittles

What's" Your Halloween Horoscope?

Samhain and Panic...

First off, Panic has set in....my deadline for my book is almost here...2 weeks, so Ill write like hell to get it done. I have too..... panic with a capital P!!! I will do it....its all I have so Im determined to finish it.

Also, today is one of my favorite days..... HALLOWEEN or Samhain and of course I dress up! I love to dress up....can U guess what I dress up as???

here is some history on Halloween...
Samhain Lore (October 31st) Samhain, (pronounced SOW-in, SAH-vin, or SAM-hayne) means "End of Summer", and is the third and final Harvest. The dark winter half of the year commences on this Sabbat. It is generally celebrated on October 31st, but some traditions prefer November 1st. It is one of the two "spirit-nights" each year, the other being Beltane. It is a magical interval when the mundane laws of time and space are temporarily suspended, and the Thin Veil between the worlds is lifted. Communicating with ancestors and departed loved ones is easy at this time, for they journey through this world on their way to the Summerlands. It is a time to study the Dark Mysteries and honor the Dark Mother and the Dark Father, symbolized by the Crone and her aged Consort. Originally the "Feast of the Dead" was celebrated in Celtic countries by leaving food offerings on altars and doorsteps for the "wandering dead". Today a lot of practitioners still carry out that tradition. Single candles were lit and left in a window to help guide the spirits of ancestors and loved ones home. Extra chairs were set to the table and around the hearth for the unseen guest. Apples were buried along roadsides and paths for spirits who were lost or had no descendants to provide for them. Turnips were hollowed out and carved to look like protective spirits, for this was a night of magic and chaos. The Wee Folke became very active, pulling pranks on unsuspecting humans. Traveling after dark was was not advised. People dressed in white (like ghosts), wore disguises made of straw, or dressed as the opposite gender in order to fool the Nature spirits. This was the time that the cattle and other livestock were slaughtered for eating in the ensuing winter months. Any crops still in the field on Samhain were considered taboo, and left as offerings to the Nature spirits. Bonfires were built, (originally called bone-fires, for after feasting, the bones were thrown in the fire as offerings for healthy and plentiful livestock in the New Year) and stones were marked with peoples names. Then they were thrown into the fire, to be retrieved in the morning. The condition of the retrieved stone foretold of that person's fortune in the coming year. Hearth fires were also lit from the village bonfire to ensure unity, and the ashes were spread over the harvested fields to protect and bless the land. Various other names for this Greater Sabbat are Third Harvest, Samana, Day of the Dead, Old Hallowmas (Scottish/Celtic), Vigil of Saman, Shadowfest (Strega), and Samhuinn. Also known as All Hallow's Eve, (that day actually falls on November 7th), and Martinmas (that is celebrated November 11th), Samhain is now generally considered the Witch's New Year. Symbolism of Samhain:Third Harvest, the Dark Mysteries, Rebirth through Death. Symbols of Samhain:Gourds, Apples, Black Cats, Jack-O-Lanterns, Besoms. Herbs of Samhain:Mugwort, Allspice, Broom, Catnip, Deadly Nightshade, Mandrake, Oak leaves, Sage and Straw. Foods of Samhain:Turnips, Apples, Gourds, Nuts, Mulled Wines, Beef, Pork, Poultry. Incense of Samhain:Heliotrope, Mint, Nutmeg. Colors of Samhain:Black, Orange, White, Silver, Gold. Stones of Samhain:All Black Stones, preferably jet or obsidian.
Copyright © 1997-99 Akasha, Herne and The Celtic Connection wicca.com. All rights reserved.
Holidays Index Main Index
http://www.wicca.com/celtic/akasha/samhainlore.htm


Happy Halloween or Samhain!!!

Slainte Cairde!

heidi

Omaha

Well, I came out here hoping to finish the book, but instead I ended up getting REALLY sick, like go to the doctor kind of sick. I was able to do a little writing the other day, but with the girls here it's difficult to write when they are awake, they demand so much attention. I love my nieces, dont get me wrong and now I have FULL appreciation for those writers out there that are fulltime parents and writers.....I salute you. Holy Cow do I salute you!!!!!!!!!!!

I was able to plot a wee bit and know where A and B meet up and how to add C and G. LOL....*sigh*
I did finish a major scene and now I have the option of writing the ending or writing the scene second to the last before the ending those are the two scenes that are left. Choices, choices.

Today, I was able to meet up with my cousin Steve. He moved out to Omaha a few months back and is a DJ and I think a manager at a local radio station, sorry if I'm wrong Steve. I do want to say that it was great to see him becasue I havent seen him since I was like 20 and he and I are the same age.....oh wow.....ions ago....crap. Makes me feel old. Im joking.

Happy Halloween to everyone and have a fun time...be safe!!!!!!!!!! Trick or Treat!

Slainte!

Heidi

From Omaha

Im posting from Omaha, for those of you worried, my mom's surgery went well. She came home from the hospital yesterday and will be nursed by my sis and I. That will be fun. I love my mom to death. We were all grateful that the surgery went well and that it wasn't cancer. Hopefully she will quit smoking and keep from smoking in the future. Im so worried she will smoke and that she really develop cancer then. Please pray for her....


Slainte!

Heidi


PS...page count for today was 4 pages.....not good but a start.

New Orleans and Hurrican Affected Areas

Well, on the way back from Texas we went through Texas, Lousiana, and Mississippi, all areas affected by hurricane katrina. It was total devistation... I was surprised at what I say. I mean the best way to describe the WHOLE area is this..imagine a nuclear bomb going off and ruining an area and then the city is like a ghost town.

Upon driving through the areas, I felt as if I should say a prayer. Ive seen devistaed places before, but this was beyond my imaginination. On Intertsate 10, which runs from the east to west coasts, matteress lined the interstate. People had been sleeping up there...on the interstate to avoid the rising waters. Water was hard to find, the area was composed of huge mountains of debris, and people were sleeping in tents.

In search of a restroom, I saw people sleeping on the sidewalk, homeless, it made me feel so lost, I wanted to help those poor people. I think ya'll need to understand that the devistation started just outside of Houston, Texas and went across all of Lousiana, and through Mississippi. That is a huge area of devistation, the majority of the gulf coast. What we see on Television is nothing when you see it firsthand. I was shocked.

We as humans, need to help each other, we ned to help those who are less fortunate and vulenerable.

Slainte!

Heidi

A Few pages

Wrote a few pages today, finally...it can be difficult to write when on travel. Tommorrow morning I leave to head back to Virginia...another 2 day drive.


Watched The Kingdon of Heaven tonight... a great movie, or so I thought. Lots of action and history, great acting and great costumes.

Slainte!

Heidi

THe Alamo and Riverwalk

Today I went down to the Alamo...and to the riverwalk. The alamo seeps history and so many people lost their lives fighting for Texas's freedom. We kinda had a problem with someone who tried to rip us off with the parking.....I hate being taken advantage of...but all worked out well. The riverwalk was BEAUTIFUL. It is a beautiful river that runs throughout San Antonio and they have nice restauurants and upper level shops to shop at and of course the Hard Rock Cafe is there....for those of you who dont know, I collect Hard Rock Cafe teeshirts. Ive always been so fascinated by the unique designs they have and look forward to wearing them after work, dont get me worng, I do have other clothes besides hard rock cafe teeshirts...LOL.

Ill sign off for now, Im running low on sleep and I have a page count to do tonight....I havent managed to do it yet this week and Im feeling kinda bummed about it. Im so close to the end.....I want it finished so I can start book two. Im excited about this first book and wait until U read the plot twists Ive developed. How do I come up with them? The just kinda pop into my head....creativity can be a beautiful thing, especially when it flows freely. My problem is that it materalizes at night when Im trying to sleep and I cant sleep until I write the ideas down. Is that a bad thing? Well not really it just means that I need to keep a notebook with me at all times and a digital recorder to record my thoughts. Interesting. Well, Im off to do my pages, finish my major scene, I love the twist Ive created and so will you....no spoilers, youll just have to wait.

Slainte!

heidi

Texas

Im writing from Texas, Im here to help my grandmother and I feel so bad becasue I havent been writing. Today, I have a goal, I will write, this afternoon, Ill sit down and write. The trip was long....2 days of driving and we got here Sunday Morning at around 7am central time, Im in eastern time normally. It feels very strange to be here and not to be writing, but like I said today I will write. I dont care if it takes me 5 hours, I have a deadline to meet, and by God, Ill meet it. I wont compromise on the story, i know what I need and where I need to be.


Ill write more later.....


Slainte

Heidi

Trip to Texas

Im off bright and early tommorrow morning for Texas. I need to go dow there and help my grandma with her surgery. Im hoping to go to the Alamo prior to her surgery, its been years since Ive been there. Wish me luck with the long trip!!!

See ya'll in a week!!!


Slainte!

heidi =)

Fighting for Every Last Word

Ok, I have the vision in my head....

I know what I want the scene to do, I'm back in history, in the 1800's, trying to tell a tragic story, after all doesnt every good ghost story have a tragic past? Mine is tragic allright and I'm fueled up and ready to write it, after all I've been having dreams of murders. So my dreams, were my indicator that I was now ready to work on this scene. Murder or murders? Singular or plural? well you will just have to wait and see what happens with my characters. I'm excited but I am having to fight for every last word.

Why?

Well, lets try this for starts...Grandma is having surgery on the 13th and Mom is having cancer surgery on the 19th, you could say my mind is a little preoccupied. Im trying, I really am, so far in the past hour, Ive done 4 pages, I've read through those 4 pages like a lawyer searching for a civil code to break a case. I know those 4 pages inside and out....but I search, I stretch becasue my mind is other places. I try and focus and I can visualize the scene, I see the characters, I hear them ( and NOOOOOOO I'm NOT hearing voices, get real I'm a writer!), they tell me what the story is as well as my dreams. Tragic....

Slainte (Cheers for those of you who dont know!)

Heidi =)

Music: Rammstein: Du Hast -------->means I hate you in deutsche...go figure but I love the song, good thing I remember some german from college!

Back in the Saddle Again....Artistic

I have been thinking about how I want to begin my new scene. This is a MAJOR scene in the book and I have 2 scenes left and I may add a third smaller scene. This scene, the big one of the book, I was having a difficult time on figuring out how to start it. It's the main removal scene and will be quite long. It will have alot of detailed information, but I dont want to give to much away. I'm already at 85,000 words which is an average novel length book. So, I'm back in the saddle once more, working on the BIG scene of the book....wish me luck.

For my first book, I dont want it to be too terribly long. How long will it be? To be truthfull, I can't determine that, becasue it will be as long as it needs to be to fully tell the story. The story has changed over the period of me writing it. I was thinking about it and I can plot all I want, but I have to leave space becasue the characters pick their own ways and characteristics and I can't control them. Half of the book has been written that way. I have already planned books 2 and 3 and I know the arc of the story lines. Basically, you could think of it as one big story that has been broken down into smaller scenes which equal one book. I'm really excited about the theme of book 3. It will be quite different.

I have always been artisitc. I used to draw quite a bit and from the day I drew my first horse through college I drew alot. I used to paint with acrylics, and I'm not bad with them. I even won an art contest for a horse I drew. Watercolors are not my thing though, but I can draw horses and paint them and sunsets really well. For those of you who dont know, I also had 4 years of architectural design in high school. I used to love architecture class in high school I got really good at it and orginally I wanted to be an architect, but the math killed me. Granted they use computers now aways but we had to know all the math. My desgins, I thought were good and I was always getting A's on them in class. The only problem was that I tended to make my designs a little big, in fact I had to downsize them so they would fit on the blueprints. I loved architectural design and art. I love design. I love creating something with my mind in any format, verbal or drawn. I love to know that what is on that paper is my work, from my mind and I love to share it with other people.

Slainte Cairde!!!!


heidi =)

music: Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb (tis what I am listening to as I write this)

A weekend free

I deceided that I needed a break this weekend from writing. Im at 85, 000 words and I have decieded that taking 2 days off will help me out a wee bit. But just becasue Im not writing doesnt mean Im not plotting or outlining. The break feels ok, but I feel guilty for not writing.


Heidi =)

My Favorite month...

Ahhhh, finally October, I love this month! I love the cool fall air, the fall decorations, Halloween, and apple orchards. I love so many things about October that I cant count them all. Today Is decoration day, Ill put up Halloween decorations in the yard, granted Ill be gone for 3 weeks in the month and wont get to see them, but I like to celebrate. If there is any way I can find a way to celebrate something, Im all for it...thats the LEO in me. LOL


Slainte!

Heidi =)