Quotes

“TV’s sameness has destroyed … urge toward independent thought.”

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Here is the final of a Big Three I have been doing.
First it was:

Dorothy Kilgallen-Her Pen was Her Scalpel.

Groundbreaking journalist, TV legend, and hard as nails crime investigator, Kilgallen was generations and decades ahead of her time. If not for her, Harrison Ford wouldn’t have a hit in The Fugitive. (Click to Read More.)

The Second was:

Arlene Francis-The first lady of television and charm.

During the 1950s, Newsweek put her on the cover as the “first lady of television”. You need to remember something very important about this time; Lucille Ball was a big hit with ‘I Love Lucy’. (Click to Read More.)

The Final is the other mainstay panelist of the hit game show What’s My Line?. A show that you needed to be on when promoting any entertainment coming out or going on. Class, with ties, dresses, and manners. Witty patter, friendship, style, and credentials. Here is the anchor of the panel itself, the co-founder of Random House Publishing, Bennett Cerf.
A public school kid in New York, who graduated from Columbia University. he went to High School with Richard Simon of Simon and Schuster Publishing.
A list of few ofCerf’s Authors:
Ayn Rand
Theodore Seuss Geisel
Truman Capote
William Faulkner
James Michener
Sinclair Lewis

A good deal of Cerf’s time was spent playing nursemaid to some of his more temperamental authors. Among the writers in that category was Sinclair Lewis. Cerf later recalled an occasion when Lewis was spending the night at his apartment and William Faulkner called to announce that he was in town. “I told Lewis and asked him, could Bill come over? Lewis said, ‘Certainly not. This is my night!’ ” Later that night, according to Cerf, about an hour after Lewis had retired, the author called down for Cerf from upstairs. “I answered him, and he said, ‘I just wanted to see if you sneaked out to see Faulkner.”‘~http://biography.yourdictionary.com/bennett-cerf

Cerf has stayed relevant to this day through his son, Christopher Cerf, know for his over 300 songs for Sesame Street and being a force behind the PBS series Between the Lions, a series teaching and encouraging reading.
This more measured assessment of Cerf came from the Saturday Review shortly after his death: “He gave full measure to his profession. Everyone connected with the world of books is in his debt.”~http://biography.yourdictionary.com/bennett-cerf
“Good manners: The noise you don’t make when you’re eating soup.”
Bennet Cerf
Bennett Cerf Good Manners Quote
Coleridge was a drug addict. Poe was an alcoholic. Marlowe was killed by a man whom he was treacherously trying to stab. Pope took money to keep a woman’s name out of a satire, then wrote the piece so that she could still be recognized anyhow. Chatterton killed himself. Byron was accused of incest. Do you still want to be a writer? And if so, why?
Bennet Cerf on being a Writer Quote
Reading is a pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness count for something. The fun of reading is not that something is told to you, but that you stretch your mind. Your own imagination works along with the author’s, or even goes beyond his, yields the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.
 Bennett Cerf Reading is like a Sport Quote
TV’s sameness has destroyed many things, such as the American urge toward independent thought.
Bennett Cerf TV and Independent Thought Quote

Part of #BeWoW and Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Click HERE for more Quotes on SilverThreading.com hosted by Colleen Chesebro. See the comments here for any links to more #BeWoW articles and check out the hashtag on Twitter to ReTweet those positive posts that apply to the #BeWoW message of positivity sharing. Also check out #IWSG, or Insecure Writer’s Support Group brought to my attention by Author Rose B. Fischer at RoseBFischer.com.

Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling by PS Bartlett and Ronovan HesterRonovan Hester is an author, with a debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in February 14, 2016. He shares his life on his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of writing, authors and community through his online world has led to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge, Weekly Fiction Prompt Challenge, and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2016

“…bright and clear as the vast sky…” Finding your way to Writing.

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How do you become a creative and imaginative person? You free your mind. You wipe clean the day’s aggravations, disappointments, and responsibilities. During this time you’re mind will give you those moments of  Ah HA and Eureka.

“Always keep your mind as bright and clear as the vast sky, the great ocean, and the highest peak, empty of all thoughts. Always keep your body filled with light and heat. Fill yourself with the power of wisdom and enlightenment.”-Morihei Ueshiba

Morihei Ueshiba Quote of Enlightenment.
Morihei Ueshiba created the martial art Aikido. For him, it was not only a form of defense, but a spiritual endeavor as well. In fact he gives credit to three moments of enlightenment for the creation of the martial art.
“I felt the universe suddenly quake, and that a golden spirit sprang up from the ground, veiled my body, and changed my body into a golden one. At the same time my body became light. I was able to understand the whispering of the birds, and was clearly aware of the mind of God, the creator of the universe.
At that moment I was enlightened: the source of budō [the martial way] is God’s love – the spirit of loving protection for all beings …
Budō is not the felling of an opponent by force; nor is it a tool to lead the world to destruction with arms. True Budō is to accept the spirit of the universe, keep the peace of the world, correctly produce, protect and cultivate all beings in nature.”
I don’t know about all of you, but it’s when I let my thoughts go that I end up with the best ideas. There have been times a point in a book I’m writing is giving me problems. I can’t continue until I get that problem fixed. When I finally decide it will come when it comes, that’s when it comes.
You can’t trick yourself into it. You must learn to relax and know when writing, that writing is a matter of time. Not your time, but its time. If you force a plot, it will read as forced. Through time, patience, and practice, you learn how to let go and move on.
Trust me on this, I’m working on letting go at this moment with a Historical Fiction piece I am working on, and part of it came in the middle of the night as I was drifting off to sleep.
Morihei Ueshibe; December 14, 1883 (Tanabe, Wakayame, Japan-April 26-1969 (Iwama, Ibaraki, Japan).
An Interesting Fact: In order to be enlisted in the Japanese military in the Russo-Japanese War, Ueshibe tied weights to his legs and stretched his spine a half inch in order to reach the 5’2″ minimum height requirement.
The reason I chose this quote today was because I searched for one to use with my challenge words on my Weekly Haiku Challenge. I searched for vast quotes and this is the one I found and enjoyed. The Haiku I created goes along with this somewhat. Tea Cups.

Part of #BeWoW and Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Click HERE for more Quotes on SilverThreading.com hosted by Colleen Chesebro. See the comments here for any links to more #BeWoW articles and check out the hashtag on Twitter to ReTweet those positive posts that apply to the #BeWoW message of positivity sharing.

Ronovan Hester is an author, with a debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in February 14, 2016. He shares his life on his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of writing, authors and community through his online world has led to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge, Weekly Fiction Prompt Challenge, and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2016

The compromise of your ideals is a result of pressure.

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“Pray thee, spare, thyself at times: for it becomes a wise man sometimes to relax the high pressure of his attention to work.” Thomas Aquinas
Pressure is a bad thing, and a good thing. It all depends on what you do with it and when it happens. With the release date of my debut novel closing in, pressure is building.
Last night it got to the point my blood pressure was elevated to the point of my being threatened with a trip to the hospital. So I shut everything down and let my mind drift.
Here’s the funny part; my mind drifted to writing. I began writing, in my mind, a companion piece for the debut novel. You see, I love to write and create. The problem is loving your work too much.
I am proud of what I’ve written. I’ve created characters people are enjoying as they beta read. So far everyone has loved it, even those who normally are not Historical Adventure readers or Pirate readers. Although my book is not exactly the normal pirate read.
After a little time, my blood pressure went down a little. Pressure can push you to create, but it can also bring about an end to creation. I’ve taken a step back from my pressure so I can focus on the key moments I need to be able to perform. Pressure can make you miss things.
I’ve learned over the past couple of years how to shut down when those pressure moments get bad. I think its helped me get this far and I suppose I’ll keep at it.
Ronovan Hester Quote about Pressure
“The compromise of your ideals is a result of pressure. The more experience one has with pressure, the harder their resolve becomes to resist that pressure.” Ronovan Hester

“There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.” Stephen Covey

Part of #BeWoW and Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Click HERE for more Quotes on SilverThreading.com hosted by Colleen Chesebro. See the comments here for any links to more #BeWoW articles and check out the hashtag on Twitter to ReTweet those positive posts that apply to the #BeWoW message of positivity sharing.

Ronovan Hester is an author, with a debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in February 14, 2016. He shares his life on his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of writing, authors and community through his online world has led to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge, Weekly Fiction Prompt Challenge, and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Arlene Francis-The first lady of television and charm.

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“Trouble is a sieve through which we sift our acquaintances. Those too big to pass through are our friends.”- Arlene Francis
Arlene Francis quote about friends.

In a recent article I noted Dorothy Kilgallen asked “Why can’t I be the adorable one?”; the adorable one in the situation was Arlene Francis, her co-panelist on the game show ‘What’s My Line?’. It wasn’t a competition or an intentional attempt by Francis to be the charming and personable one; that was how she was.

A great many women are seen as the groundbreakers of Television; the name Arlene Francis doesn’t appear among those names to current generations. Arlene Francis was:

  • Hosted ‘Blind Date’ from 1949-1952 on ABC and then NBC, after being the radio host of the same show since 1943.
  • A panelist on ‘What’s My Line?’ from 1950 until 1975 on CBS.
  • The editor-in-chief and host of ‘Home’ from 1954-57, a one hour morning show that was a show for NBC viewers to compliment the ‘Today’ and ‘Tonight’ shows. She also stepped in for ‘Today’ show hosts as well as guest hosted the Tonight Show.
  • In 1954 she hosted the reality show ‘The Comeback Story’ on ABC.

If you read that closely, you see she was on all three networks at the same time.

And all of those were sidelines. She was also a Broadway star, movie actress, radio host, and author.

During the 1950s, Newsweek put her on the cover as the “first lady of television”. You need to remember something very important about this time; Lucille Ball was a big hit with ‘I Love Lucy’.

People naturally loved Arlene. She didn’t try or take herself too seriously to the point of not being able to have fun in front of the camera as herself. Then there was that strength you knew would come out when it needed to.

Her radio career predated television, and her The Arlene Francis Show ran from 1960 to 1984 where she interviewed people from her first guest in Rock Hudson through others such as Frank Sinatra.

Her husband wasn’t the tall, dark and handsome type, although a great Broadway actor. No, he was short, balding, slightly overweight, wore glasses, and an average sort looks wise, but highly intelligent. That was another part of her charm; she went for the real and what she liked, not image. She and Martin Gabel stayed married from 1946 until his death in 1986.

You don’t stay the love of the public for so long without charm. Dorothy Kilgallen was smart, tough, and personable enough, but you could see her trying hard to be something a bit more; she wanted acceptance in a way she wasn’t. On ‘What’s My Line?’, you would see Dorothy and Arlene alternate sitting next to Bennet Cerf, the founder and publisher of Random House. Dorothy would wear on Bennet’s nerves, and you can see him ignore her suggestions. Everyone wanted to sit next to Arlene. She was fun, and not intrusive.

I think Dorothy was never comfortable in her own skin, while Arlene was comfortable anywhere.

For a woman known for knowing so much, her life came to an end in 2001 from cancer and Alzheimer’s.

Arlene Francis quote about people interested in your interests.“…apathy is about as near to the undertaker as you can get.” – Arlene Francis

“People are much more fascinated by your interests than they are by your opinions.”

Part of #BeWoW and Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Click HERE for more Quotes on SilverThreading.com hosted by Colleen Chesebro. See the comments here for any links to more #BeWoW articles and check out the hashtag on Twitter to ReTweet those positive posts that apply to the #BeWoW message of positivity sharing.

Ronovan Hester is an author, with a debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in February 14, 2016. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of writing, authors and community through his online world has led to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge, Weekly Fiction Prompt Challenge, and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

James A. Michener: “I’m an excellent rewriter.”

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“I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.” – James A. Michener
James A. Michener Writing Career Quote

James A. Michener may just be my hero when it comes to beginning a career. Why? His first book came out when he was 40.

“Sitting there in the darkness, illuminated only by the flickering lamplight, I visualized the aviation scenes in which I had participated, the landing beaches I’d seen, the remote outposts, the exquisite islands with bending palms, and especially the valiant people I’d known: the French planters, the Australian coast watchers, the Navy nurses, the Tonkinese laborers, the ordinary sailors and soldiers who were doing the work, and the primitive natives to whose jungle fastnesses I had traveled.”

This was Michener while on assignment in the Pacific during WWII. These notes led to his first novel Tales of the South Pacific. It won the Pulitzer, became a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical as South Pacific, and was turned into a movie of the same name. Very nice for a first novel.James A. Michener I'm a ReWriter Quote

Michener and I are alike in a number of ways. He went to college for English and History. I went for History and Education. And then there is this  quote; “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.”

I haven’t researched exactly what he meant by that, but if he’s like me he gets the idea down then grows the piece into a behemoth through his research, and that is where Michener and I are a lot alike.

I’ve seen video of Michener and that is what led me to choose him for this article. Michener, in regards to writing, is similar to how I approach my writing. He did a ton of research and was into details. You learned from a Michener read.

Some people don’t like going for the realism, or they don’t want to go through the trouble of finding out what street a person would travel in a city. They might say, they took a left or make up a name. Details give credibility. Details give James A. Michener Love of Writing Quotepeople a way to become connected to a work. Details create fans who want to travel the path a favorite character traveled.

I doubt I will ever write books that are 800 or 1000 pages long. I’m not counting it out, but I have the attention problems of creativity and concussion combined. I’m working on two stories at the same time right now, with three others marinating until I get back to them to do the next drafts. Hopefully one is not far away from submission time.

Married three times, his third wife, in a way, helped inspire one of Michener’s big successes, Sayonara in 1954. His wife, Mari Yoriko Sabusawa was an American but she and her Japanese parents suffered the internment camps in America in WWII. The two married in 1955 and remained together until her death in 1994.

In 1997, Michener chose to stop his daily dialysis in fighting his terminal kidney disease. His wife was gone, and he had accomplished all he wanted to do. He left the copyrights to his works to his alma mater.

This final quote says something a great number of people should consider.

 James A. Michener Culture Quote

Part of #BeWoW and Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Click HERE for more Quotes on SilverThreading.com hosted by Colleen Chesebro. See the comments here for any links to more #BeWoW articles and check out the hashtag on Twitter to ReTweet those positive posts that apply to the #BeWoW message of positivity sharing.

Ronovan Hester is an author, with a debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in December of 2015. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of writing, authors and community through his online world has led to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge, Weekly Fiction Prompt Challenge, and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Dorothy Kilgallen-Her Pen was Her Scalpel.

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“Why can’t I be the adorable one?” Dorothy Kilgallen

Dorothy Kilgallen-Adorable Quote

It’s doubtful many of you have heard the name Dorothy Kilgallen. The shame of it is you should have. Moreover, if born in the right generation, you couldn’t wait for Sunday nights at 10:30.

Groundbreaking journalist, TV legend, and hard as nails crime investigator, Kilgallen was generations and decades ahead of her time. If not for her, Harrison Ford wouldn’t have a hit in The Fugitive.

Kilgallen’s testimony is the reason Dr. Sam Sheppard received a new trial for the murder of his wife, and ended up released from prison. Forensic advancements years later proved Kilgallen was right in her deductions of Sheppard’s innocence.

She dissected crime reports and testimonies like a skilled surgeon. Her abilities amazed millions, yet she wanted more. She wanted to be the girl next-door people loved for being adorable, cute. However, her wit, her intelligence, and her honesty with a pen in her weekly column read by millions earned her powerful enemies that were cruel in their retaliation.

When Dorothy did a series on Frank Sinatra in the 1950s and spoke of his egocentric personality, he fought back by calling her a chinless wonder in his nightclub acts. He couldn’t argue the facts of her reporting, so he attacked her on a personal level.

In the 1960s she sunk her teeth into the JFK assassination. She ripped the Warren Report to shreds, had a rumored interview with Jack Ruby, and was about to publish her findings when she was found dead in her bed—the file with all her findings—missing. On the nightstand were two glasses, though her husband slept in another room. The sleeping pills in her stomach—Three different kinds. It was ruled an accident from the mixture of alcohol and pills.

The journalist surgeon with a pen was dead.

The lady who became famous by traveling around the world in 24 days back in 1936, when she was 23, for a contest amongst three reporters and newspapers, never understood the adulation she had. Maybe it was in part due to her philandering husband.

On the panel game show juggernaut of the time, What’s My Line?, Kilgallen wanted to be the adorable one, but couldn’t match the personality of Arlene Francis, the darling of Broadway who had a show on all three networks at the same time, and performed in Broadway shows. What she did instead was guess more professions of contestants than anyone else.

From beginning to end, Dorothy Kilgallen was an untypical woman in a world not ready for her. On the other hand, maybe she didn’t realize the world was happy with who she was, regardless of when it was.

She may not have been the perfect person, friend, or wife, but she was dedicated to her field. And she was unmatched.

This is one of my favorite quotes of hers.

“I think sometimes it is more important to be gracious than to win.” Dorothy Kilgallen

dorothy-kilgallen-gracious-quote

This is my contribution to Colleen Chesebro of SilverThreading.com’s#BeWoW and Writer's Quote Wednesday Writer’s Quote Wednesday. For those participating in the #BeWoW movement of positive posts, you may leave your links in the comments below, or do a ping back to this post if you wish. Use the hashtag #BeWoW on Twitter to help your posts receive RTs from others.

Ronovan Hester is an author, with a debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in December of 2015. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of writing, authors and community through his online world has led to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge, Weekly Fiction Prompt Challenge, and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Eddie Cantor-Slow down and enjoy life.

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Eddie Cantor Quote about Enjoying Life.“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” -Eddie Cantor (September 21, 1892-October 10, 1964)

During research for a book I’m writing, I ran across details of a man I knew of, but did not know about. A great many people don’t know the man I’m about to mention. But they know something he’s responsible for. Something I was surprised about.

Eddie Cantor was an entertainer in the first part of the 20th Century. A star above stars. With his own radio show, hit records, and was an actor, dancer, musician, and comedian. And don’t forget, author. His autobiography Take My Life went through multiple printings in the first six months of its release alone.

He was a member of everyone’s family back in during his days. He was that type of a man. Some of you will remember his hit songs.

  • Yes! We Have No Bananas
  • If You Knew Susie
  • How Ya’ Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm

But why I mention him today is something completely unrelated to entertainment. There used to be a newsreel program shown in movie theaters called The March of Time. Eddie Cantor decided to create a campaign to fight polio in America. He called it The March of Dimes. He asked people listening to his radio show to send President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a polio sufferer, dimes at the White House. 2,680,000 dimes later in 1939 the first March of Dimes was a success. $268,000 in 1939 would now be $4,370,112.22 today.

Eddie Cantor Quote about Success“It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.”

For more Writer’s Quote Wednesday posts, visit Colleen Chesebro’s bewow-network-badgeSilverThreading  post for this week by clicking HERE. This is also for my #BeWoW campaign of Writers writing positive and encouraging articles each Wednesday. Links of a #BeWoW nature can be shared in the comments below and tweeted with the obvious hashtag.

Ronovan Hester is an author, with his debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in December of 2015. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by Ronovan Hester 2015

THE BIG RED CUP-A #BeWoW post. Kind of.

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I felt a need to share today. #BeWoW, Writer’s Quote Wednesday #LinkYourLife? Whatever you choose. This really has nothing to do with those link shares I’m involved with that normally go out today. But it can apply.

Today I want to talk about the most idiotic thing ever. THE BIG RED CUP.

There are some vocal people out there who like to get their voices heard either through social media or actual media. So what do they do? Go after anything they can to be heard. Some even think this is doing some good. They are proud of themselves.

What does that do?

Makes them look, I’m trying not to say idiotic, they look like some ill informed fanatic and makes those loosely associated with them by a word be hated and ridiculed. When the truth is, the behavior of said people is about as stupid as it gets and does nothing to represent those who do truly live and act according to what is being spoken about.

I’m a Christian. Full blown, full force, faith believing, Bible thumpin’, Christian. But I could care less what a stimulant addict pusher does with their cups to push more of their product during the upcoming various holiday seasons. Christmas season in particular.

Don’t like the red cup with no pretty snowflakes and snowmen that have nothing to do with Christmas, then don’t buy Starbucks. But if you really care about your faith, your belief in Jesus that much then you may want to examine where you are spending your money in every way. Where is your money going? Who and what are you supporting by spending that money wherever you spend it?

But back to my rant. I hope that those reading my blog get a good idea of how a true Christian should act, or at least MY opinion of what one should be.

  • I share my faith at times.
  • I share my faith through all I say and do by not crossing certain lines I have set.
  • I try to maintain who I am at all times and what I believe.
  • I treat everyone the same, regardless of their beliefs. It’s your beliefs, not necessarily mine, so it isn’t bothering me.
  • I am honest in all I do here on my blog and other communications. It makes things so much easier in life. You ask, I tell. If you don’t want the truth, don’t ask. But I do answer in a nice way.
  • I respect everyone that shows up here.
  • I don’t force anything I believe on anyone.

Those of you out there who do more yelling about Red Cups and not even whispering about God and Jesus, I think you lost your priorities.

  • What are you representing?
  • Who are you representing? Support who supports you and your beliefs.
  • Do you know how much money Christians have? Do you know how much they should act what they preach
  • Do you think Christians shouldn’t support pornography? Do you purchase anything at a business that sells it behind the counter? Do you got to movies that have nudity and awkward scenes in it?

So which is worse?

Your yelling about a Red Cup and disgracing the teachings of Jesus Christ?

OR

Your disgracing the teachings of Jesus Christ by supporting other business endeavors that are blatantly against those teachings?

Or is it both?

My Writer’s Quote Wednesday this week on Colleen Chesebro’s blog SilverThreading.com is about Character. I had no idea I would be doing this particular post here today. But I’m going to share that quote here as well. If you would like to read what I originally said about the quote, click the link above.

Mark Twain on Character

To all of you that have seen the negativity about how Christians are reacting to the Starbucks issue, ignore it. The way a true Christian handles something like this is to simply not buy the coffee, if they even consider this a true attack on Christmas. Which I don’t believe it is. Personally, I think it’s cheaper to use a plain red cup than to put all those designs on it. And you can always use any leftover after the holidays. To me it’s economical. And if you know me, you know I wouldn’t say something like that about something that I truly believe was wrong in some way. I would have just left it at the don’t buy it part.

So please, any non-Christian readers, any on the fence about becoming a Christian readers, don’t let squeaky wheels sway you away from what Jesus says about how to treat things that are not willing to listen to his teachings.

“If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.“-Jesus Christ, Matthew 10:14 NIV

Much Respect and Much Love,

Ronovan

Ronovan Hester is an author, with his debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in December of 2015. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Love is an Anesthetic.

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Yes, this is true.

Cesare Pavese Quote

Sometimes you don’t want to go on, go forward. Pain can be an all consuming beast. It can control you. And it will at times. The important part is to know all of that and not get discouraged, and if you’re very lucky, you have that anesthetic with you that helps take the edge off things when the going gets tough.

Part of the #BeWoW movement hosted by me.

And part of the Writer’s Quote Wednesday, normally hosted by Colleen of SilverThreading.com, but I’m covering over on her blog for today.

Ronovan HesterRonovan Hester is an author, with his debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out in December of 2015. He shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

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Comfort food? Maybe not.

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“There is no more useful and rewarding exercise than to spend time in your own kitchen preparing your own meals.”-Ronovan
Last week I got to thinking about comfort foods. I’m not certain if that was because I’m on a no or at least very little processed foods nutrition lifestyle right now or not.
This past weekend I did an indulgence day and ate something, I can’t remember what, I know bread was involved and some sort of sweet.
Oh, I’ve stayed off sweets as well with this new lifestyle.
I’m glad I indulged.
I ate those foods Saturday and had a Diet Rite drink and very shortly afterwards my body was complaining. It didn’t like the chemically formulated drink, or the run to Google to research ingredient meanings processed foods.
The entire week I’d been on my new nutrition lifestyle I had no problems at all with anything. Well, except for maybe being a little hungry at times because my body was growing accustomed to a little less food and no bad foods it seemed to like before. Yep, IT was craving, and oddly, I was not. I was perfectly happy with my foods.
Of course I began to think about those comfort foods and how they are called ‘comfort’ foods. Yeah, they feel good going down and taste great. They give you emotional well being. And then, Boom!
“Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.”-Mark Twain
I think that quote from old Sam somewhat says it like it is. Especially the last part. Our foods are fighting it out inside of us, but usually it is with us, not with each other.
Maya Angelou was pretty close with her thoughts on comfort food, especially for those of us in the South.
“The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.”-Maya Angelou
I can still taste my Maw Maw’s fried chicken, you know the kind where you have the big cast iron skillet, a lid and she stands there making sure it all turns out just right. Taking each piece off at the right time, ’cause she knows not every part needs to cook the same amount of time.  And for a treat, the bacon grease from that morning was used instead of Crisco. If you’ve ever had that above combination, then you know at some point, not long afterwards, Mark Twain’s quote will inevitably come true.
If there is one celebrity in the world that could influence me to do anything it would have been Audrey Hepburn. Goddess of everything amazing. Well, she was that first classy, innocent but not woman I guess a lot of knew of, and actually believed from the movies. She wasn’t a sex kitten, or obvious, or even had the killer body of some of the time, and I think she proves what I consider about what sexy is. It’s what the woman has going on between the ears, that shows through her eyes and connects through your eyes and into your brain.
I do believe what Goddess Audrey says will be appreciated by a lot of people.
“Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me.”-Audrey Hepburn
But again, Mark Twain wills out. Minor exceptions can be okay but beware. I think perhaps women don’t have as much problem with chocolate than men do for a reason. God gave the earth chocolate for women to enjoy, because God made the mistake of giving the earth man in the first place. Yes, it’s the one thing God may have gotten wrong the first time around and had to perfect the second time. The gloriousness that is woman was God’s do-over.
“There is no sincerer love than the love of food.”-George Bernard Shaw
This is perhaps my favorite quote here today. Notice the use of the word ‘food’. When you look at what you’re eating, is it food, or a science experiment prepackaged for ease of use? Did the person or team creating it where white lab coats or white aprons?
Don’t get me wrong, the stuff tastes good at times, but then you eat real, homemade food and you discover what Food is. When you eat a burger made at home and compare it to one made at McDonald’s you can see what I mean.
“But I need my salt because it’s a flavor enhancer.” If you need the food you are eating to be enhanced, then eat something else.
I know, there are times and situations that necessitate the eating of whatever is available, I’ve been there and I am not a food snob, Nazi. But if you can choose good, healthy, home cooked meals, then why not do it? If you can teach your kids now what food is, then why not do it?
“Get people back into the kitchen and combat the trend toward processed food and fast food.”-Andrew Weil
Check the comments for other #BeWoW posts and SilverThreading.com for more Writer’s Quote Wednesday offerings.
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Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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@RonovanWrites

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Silence is a Writer’s Friend.

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Mother Teresa Silence quote
My quote today may seem somewhat one-sided when take at face value and purely at the word God. My being a Christian might even make you think of reasons I chose this verse today, but no.
 
I enjoy silence. Silence is one of my best friends. With the often times chattering mind of a person who has suffered a Grade 3 Concussion, by which I mean my brain does not stop for days at a time and keeps thinking and thinking without sleep, when I can find silence, I embrace it.

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.”-Mother Teresa

You may look at this quote as Mother Teresa apparently intended it or you may take it a step further, as you may with a great many spiritual sayings and scripture. I’m taking it a step further for writers today.

Take a look at that last line. “We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

 

There are times when you are writing and chaos is around you. That chaos might end up in your writing of a scene that requires a delicate touch. In silence I am able to quietly and calmly sink myself into a character, become a character, and bring out the inner heart, the soul of that character.

 

I close my eyes and type. Errors in spelling don’t bother me at this point. I type what my mind sees and what my heart feels during this silence. Those moments where I am successful at this I have found to be the ones beta readers connect with most. Or readers of certain poems connect with.

 

We see a great deal of advice about listening to music while writing, and at times I do like to create a mood with a play list. But my most successful moments are when I listen to the silence in my heart and mind and simply type. Silence is my friend, and one of the best I have.

 

And that silence isn’t just for writing, it’s for life. We need that time to give our minds, our emotions, and our bodies an chance to rest and heal.
For more#BeWoW articles, check the comments possible links and ping backs or Twitter for the hashtag. For more Writer’s Quote Wednesday articles, visit Colleen Chesebro at SilverThreading.com for her post sometime today.
Much Respect, Much Admiration, and Much Love
Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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@RonovanWrites

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#BeWoW & Writer’s Quote Wednesday are Tomorrow. Get Ready!

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Tomorrow is #BeWoW and Writer’s Quote Wednesday. The first hosted by Me and that other thing hosted by Colleen over at SilverThreading.com.

I combine the two in my #BeWoW post each Wednesday and tweet under #BeWoW.

Normally the hashtag has been for positive posts, motivating posts and things of that nature and stood for Be Wonderful on Wednesday, but I’m going to also make it stand for Be Writing on Wednesday. As long as it’s not negative or derogatory share your post, either on my #BeWoW post on Wednesday, the only post that will go out that day, and/or tweet it with the hashtag #BeWoW so all of us with Twitter accounts can share those posts. Also a ping back to my Wednesday post, which goes out at 00:05 New York City time on Wednesday’s for your convenience, will show in my comments for us to visit, and also tell your readers about what we’re doing.

For the Writer’s Quote Wednesday, go to SilverThreading.com on Wednesday and leave your link in her comments on her post, Tag your post with Writer’s Quote Wednesday, and even do a link back/ping back.

Get ’em ready. It’s time to build up the #BeWoW hashtag to be a force. Be A Writer on Wednesday, #BeWoW.

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Reputations crumble with but one lie. #BeWoW & #WritersQuoteWednesday

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Having memory problems one needs to consider many things. For one, it is impossible to keep things straight in your mind. That being said, tell the truth. Telling a lie creates more lies to be told to cover the first. We’ve all heard that before, but it is true. At some point you will be asked something about that lie, and you will need to mBaltasar Gracian Reputation Quote Imageake a decision to continue with it or to be honest.

Writing is a practice in honesty. That sounds unusual for a storytelling art form. What I mean by honesty is honesty to the story, characters and the readers. I’ve written novels where I intended for one character to be one of the likable ones. But for some reason she didn’t want to let me make her that way. I tried, failed, and decided to go with her being one of those annoying types that you want to like but can’t find it in your heart to do it.

But honesty goes with life as well. I teach my boy “B” that as well. Either speak the truth or don’t speak. It’s amazing how many times a person speaks when they don’t need to. I’m not certain he is learning this little bit of advice yet, but I keep working on it. He is only 11. But he does speak the truth. Almost to a fault. Sometimes when your dad makes you Cookie Crisp cereal with Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies instead of the cereal itself, since we don’t buy sugary cereal, he somehow thinks he has to confess this fact to everyone.

This has been written in response to the #BeWoW (Be Wonderful on Wednesday share hosted by me, and the Writer’s Quote Wednesday hosted by Colleen Chesebro of SilverThreading.com. You can find Colleen’s post at the link above, click on her post for 9/23 and either ping back to it or copy and paste your link in the comments of the post to share with others participating and reading.

Much Respect

Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by LitWorldInterviews.wordpress.com 2015

Impressions-Like Sand or Cement.

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I’ve been working on my Romance novel and thoughts as I lay in bed last night, attempting to go to sleep, led me to impressions. Just so all of you are aware, my brain works in odd ways and chases what some in the world call rabbits. Rabbits are something you want to see, perhaps catch, even just for a photo, but will take you far away from where you once were.

For me, rabbit chasing has always been a philosophical adventure.

As I lay there thinking about one of my characters the idea of that person’s impression on others rattled around in my head. Then I began wondering about the kinds of impressions are made.

Where I ended up next is beyond me.

Some impressions are like the impressions you see as you walk along the beach in the evening. The footsteps you travel along beside with the deep heel, shallow toes and slightly kicked up bit of packed bits of all the things that make up that sand. You think about how interesting they look, wonder who made them, how lonely they look alone in their single file. Come the next morning you return to the beach and find that after a night of sleep the impressions are gone. They have been washed away by time and by nature.

Some people are like that. They pass through your life without leaving but a momentary impression. There was nothing in the impression to stay with you. A single file of footprints in an evening beach will be seen again, and not made by the same person, on a beach far away.

Then there are the impressions in your backyard. A frame was set up—the right mixture of materials of dry to wet—smoothening of the cement—patience for the cement to set up just right—then you are brought out as a child and your feet and hands are pressed into the wet but firm cement. You are now set.

Time was taken to make that impression. Time was taken to set it firmly in place. Julius Charles Hare ImpressionsCare was taken to make certain everything was just right in order you would be a part of that world for as long as possible. There would be no overnight washing away of these prints.

I thought about impressions this morning during a conversation. The impressions we leave with our children. Those impressions are like an artist with a chisel. With each strike we leave our mark—our impression—on their minds, hearts, lives. Do we leave the impression of always being there and loving them and doing what it takes to get it ‘right’ or instead do we reinforce the impression of not caring, not being bothered to do something, thinking of ourselves first?

“The mind is like a sheet of white paper in this, that the impressions it receives the oftenest, and retains the longest, are black ones.” Julius Charles Hare

With each strike of our hammer into the chisel we set our impressions in place with our children and with those we interact with. What impression do you want to leave? Do you care what impression you leave? Have you sat back and thought about the impression you have made, are making, will leave?

This was written for my #BeWoW (Be Wonderful on Wednesday share) and for the Writer’s Quote Wednesday hosted by Colleen Chesebro of SilverThreading.Com. Click her site link if the Writer’s Quote Wednesday does not have a link in it directly to her post for the day yet. You simply ping back to her post or copy and paste your link there. You do the same with your #BeWoW posts to here if you have one. Not familiar with a ping back? Click here to find out how.

Much Respect-Much Love

Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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@RonovanWrites

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Writing while young. (And any other time as well.)

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I have recently begun encouraging young people to write. They should write about their now in order to later be able to write about what it was like then.

“Always write your ideas down however silly or trivial they might seem. Keep a notebook with you at all times.”

We try to recapture the feelings we had when we were a certain age or in a certain place, but we so often rarely achieve that goal. Staring at the sentences we don’t feel them. They describe everything but relay nothing of what they speak of. I believe this is the one thing that keeps writers from submitting their work and becoming published authors.

Great masterpieces have been set aside in spiral bound notebooks to collect yellowed pages and dust. All for the simple fact the writer did not feel what they wrote.

Oddly, they may have conveyed more than they realized. Even if not capturing the moment for themselves fully, to others the paint on the canvas is three dimensional with smells of the ocean and heat on their skin from the setting sun.

The problem is they have no confidence in what they have done.

“Encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find their own voice whether it’s through writing, drama or art is so important in giving young people a sense of self-worth.”

Starting early in a person’s creative life helps build a creative confidence. And I believe there is no such thing as failure in creativity. You have created something, even if not what you set out to create. How many times has what any of us begun ended up exactly as we had planned?

“It is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting doesn’t inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years.”

Today’s education doesn’t encourage so much creativity as much as it does scores to be nations. “Our nation beat your nation.” It doesn’t matter what it is, each nation is in competition. Even our children have been drawn into it, and not for the better.

But I believe we should rid our children of a great deal of the restraints early on and give them the freedom to create. Show them how to trust who they are and what they are. Give them free rein to explore and express.

“Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about – something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.”

Michael Morpurgo quote image

Today’s quotes are from Michael Morpurgo, English author, poet, playwright, and librettist.

This has been part of Colleen’s, of SilverThreading, Writers’ Quote Wednesday blog share. Click the link to visit her quote for today, and join in.

Much Respect-Much Love

Ronovan

 

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

 

Writer’s #Quote Wednesday #Friendship

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In response to the weekly Writer’s Quote Wednesday community event by Colleen Chesebro of SilverThreading.com. Colleen is my fellow LitWorldInterviews team member and a loyal Haiku Challenge participant.

“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.” ~Hubert H. Humphrey (American Vice President and Author.)

I discovered I have written specifically about friendship over two dozen times here and I guest blogs. Perhaps it’s a favorite subject of mine.

Use your life to make a friend.

Ronovan Inspiration & Motivation, Quotes , , , , , , , , ,

A short message today, for obvious reasons to the usual suspect of reader friends.

Doing without is an experience we all say we wouldn’t wish on anyone. I was thinking about doing without my laptop, not in a drastic or tragic sort of way, but with how my mind works it rambled to other places.

Going hungry, sleeping in a car, going without the love of a parent. Sometimes those experiences allow you to understand others better. Those moments in your life humble you and ground you. No, I don’t wish anyone to go through those moments either.

But for those who have?

Embrace whatever the experience, no matter how difficult and use it to help others, even if that help is simply doing the hardest thing there is…being a friend.

“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.”~Bernard Meltzer

Much Love & Respect

Ronovan

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Our life, our story

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Very wise.

FlorenceT's avatarMEANINGS AND MUSINGS

Recreate the story of our life

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Wednesday Words: #Enjoy #Life #Quotes

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“I realize that humor isn’t for everyone. It’s only for people who want to have fun, enjoy life, and feel alive.” ~Anne Wilson Schaef For Colleen Chesebro’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday

“The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.”~Voltaire

“I’ve never really taken anything very seriously. I enjoy life because I enjoy making other people enjoy it.” ~Tim Conway