YOU CAN'T GET SOMETHING FOR NOTHING...PEOPLE THINK!!!!

Another email came into my author account.
Big sigh...
A victim of this scam...AND IT IS A SCAM. It has nothing to do with my Spanish publisher or me or my novel Lottery.

Patricia Wood Award Program
Corporate Office Madrid, Spain.
Reference: ES/99/82/70
Batch: No: PW/23/51/AP
Lucky No: 36/64/19/11
Dear: Beneficiary.
On behalf of Spanish Patricia Wood Awards Staffs wishes to congratulate you on your success as one of our four lucky winner of the online Award held on 1th
july 2010 in Spain. This makes you the proud owner of a prize of 350,000.00 Euros (Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euro) in cash. All 4 winning addresses
were randomly selected from a batch of 50,000,000 international email addresses and your email was among the first Four (4) lucky winners. Therefore you do
not need to buy ticket to enter for it. Your winnings will be issued to you as soon as our Spanish claims department verifies your winning after you might
have filled this payment processing form that is below.
(Fill and Send To the Assigned Claims Agent Via Email)
Full Name:
Age:
Occupation:
Address:
COUNTRY:
Phone No:
Mobile No:
Fax If Any:
Winning Email Address:
Assigned Claims Agent: Dr.Eduardo Pablo
E-mail:claims_unit11@hotmail.com
For More Info Call Tel: +34-622-646-594
Yours Sincerely
Spinazzola, Karen.
{Online coordinator}



DON'T BE SUCKED IN!!! I have received several emails from people chastising me for being a part of this and trust me...I AM NOT A PART OF THIS!

I'm hoping this blog post will come up on google when people research this BEFORE they send money.

LESSON HERE? If it seems to good to be true?
It is...

BREAD LOAF BONFIRE AND THOU

You must imagine the fire. The shivering bodies. The mosquitos. The bears and ticks hidden just in the shadows.
What I have learned so far.
Optimism in critiquing.
Analyzing a story helps find the center or core and the themes that traverse your narrative.
Creative pieces are worth being created.
There is a humbleness here that I embrace.
more later.
much more later.

THIS IS MY BRAIN...THIS IS MY BRAIN ON BREAD LOAF...

RE-THINK


So I started walking every morning...picked up the CRUMB which is the Bread Loaf daily paper. I'm in the middle of a meadow on the edge of the woods when I read this sentence:

DO NOT PET THE BABY BEARS OR BABY MOOSE AS THEIR MOTHERS WILL PROBABLY (MOST LIKELY) WITH CERTAINTY ATTACK YOU.
Well it may have been worded not quite so strongly but that's what I thought I read.
I took off running back to the campus. Then I screeched to a stop.
Don't bears take running away as a sign of weakness? I started to tip toe away.
Then I heard a sound.
A moose sound.
Well a bird really, but it could have been a moose.
I decided to jog really REALLY fast.
When I reached safety I mentioned my fears to hardy and forest-smart Vermonters.
"Pooh!" they said. "We've not seen any bear or moose around here."
I breathed a sigh of relief.

"But you have to be on the look out for ticks," they said."Those pests will get into anything."

"TICKS???!!!" My voice got all squeaky and I started peeling up my pants leg and examining anything that looked tick-like.

It was hard as I haven't ever seen a tick. Most of what I picked off myself was fluff balls from my black socks. One can't be too careful...

I don't walk in the woods in the mornings anymore. Instead I'm walking along highway 125.
Large diesel spewing trucks I can handle.
Ticks I can't.

A CHAIR BY THE FIRE...

Exhausted after the dance in the barn. The halfway point. After lectures and craft classes and workshops we needed a break.
What happened exactly after I found myself dancing between Andrea Barrett and Margot Livesey?
I'll never tell.
What goes on at Bread Loaf...Stays in Bread Loaf...

HAPPYMAKING JOYOUS DAY

What I learned today:

Poets kick ass.

Solitude is critical for recharging.

And a quote provided from Jane Hirschfield:

"Insight is not achieved by domestication."

BREAD LOAF PASTORAL

So here's the thing.
Bread Loaf Writers Conference is magic.
I'm under its spell already and I've only been here a day. I'm meeting writers of all types, kinds, and sizes and getting inspired by their stories.
Today I heard readings by Linda Gregerson and Jim Shepard and was in awe.
I have my alarm set for 6:30 am and plan to wander the property and visualize what it was like to meet Robert Frost, Willa Cather and all the other authors who have strolled the grounds.
I will answer any questions that my blogging buddies may have...
Write on!

YIPPEE SKIPPEE ON MY WAY TO BREAD LOAF...

Back in May I found out I was accepted to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and then I immediately damaged myself to celebrate (not really but that's the way it appeared...)
So then I've now gotten my workshop assignment (Jim Shephard) and received my fellow workshopper manuscripts (what are we called anyway??? Not sure.)
AND
I have packed necessary items like my Kindle, ipod, notebooks, mosquito repellent, rain poncho and a few clothes, gotten my boarding pass and am counting down the minutes before leaving for the airport.
So...
I will try to sneak off and post plaintive bulletins, cries for help, or effusive rantings so my pain and joy can be felt vicariously.
Isn't that what writers do anyway?

Wish me luck!

SORRY BLOGGER I HAVE SINNED

Okay so the time got away from me being wounded and all...And I must admit that Blogger wasn't the first thing on my mind when I woke up each morning trying to get my knee or hand to work *insert violin music here*.
So...
I decided to make an effort to post regularly again. There is no better means of procrastination for a writer than Blogger. Anyway I also decided to do some short story writing and flash fiction just for giggles and snorts.
And...
Anything else that Tooloose the cat thinks would be useful.
Or...
Recent altercations with the non-writing world.
Such as...

Friday night I went for a walk down the quay (fancy name for a dock when you are writing a story and need to use the word "dock" a lot and find you used it like twenty times in one paragraph so you need to figure out all the different ways to say dock: like "finger pier" and "wharf" and... um... well dock...)
Anyway.
A boat owner down the way had been indulging in spirits (A fancy way to say "drunk" "blotto" "wasted" "inebriated")
He collapsed on my shoulder and said in my ear. "You're the author lady."
It was a statement I couldn't disagree with.
He continued.
"Boy do I have some ideas for you!"
(I won't put in the slurring, hiccups, or belches.)
I believe my response was something along the lines of the Church Lady's "Well isn't that special."
This didn't dissuade him. On the contrary. It seemed to encourage him.
"I got these dreams Yanno! Horrible things. Nightmares that would make really good stories if I could remember them. You want me to try?"
"No, that's okay. I wouldn't want you to go to any trouble."
"Oh it's no trouble."
"No, really."
"Honest I'll start now."
"No. Please."
Note: It's hard to get words of protest out of your mouth and breathe as you are running away from a drunk down a dock and trying not to fall in the water at the same time, but it can be done.
You see there is one phrase that chills the heart of any writer.
Somebody. Anybody saying:
"I got this idea for a book..."
Personally it gives me the heebie jeebies.
What are YOUR fearsome phrases?