2013, 2014, and 2015 Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses!

I seemed to have run out of time and forgotten to blog about the last 3 Summer Regional Conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses which I attended in the summers of 2013, 2014, and 2015, well actually I go every year but I just wanted to blog about these as they are the most recent. I waited to blog after each so I wouldn’t spoil it for others who still hadn’t attended but then time went by and I forgot to blog about it. So I decided to blog here about the Theme of each and share pictures.

2013 Theme: God’s Word is Truth Location: Springfield, Missouri

2014 Theme: Keep Seeking First God’s Kingdom Location: St. Charles, Missouri, ours was in Kansas City, Missouri but we went to my sisters in St. Charles, Missouri

2015 Theme: Imitate Jesus! Location: Springfield, Missouri

They were wonderful conventions which lasted three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They were chock full of wonderful information. I greatly enjoyed them. I can’t say much about this year as some still haven’t attended and I don’t want them to stumble on this blog and it spoil it but this years convention had so many wonderful visuals and so many wonderful ways to Imitate Jesus and how that will impact for the good our lives.

EDIT Sept. 07, 2015: I just now realized I did post about the 2013 Convention and added the below pictures under that post back in July 2013, LOL, I can't believe I forgot I posted it! But since I already added the 2013 conventions pictures and theme already here I will just go ahead and leave it below and at the original post. If you wish you can go to the July 2013 posts to find the orginal post about that convention.

                                              2013 Convention Theme: God’s Word is Truth

2014 Convention Theme: Keep Seeking First God’s Kingdom

 

 

 < My Brother-in-law Karl is in the Picture, he worked on the Audio-Vidio-Information Technology Commitee at that Convention.

2015 Convention Theme: Imitate Jesus!

When it Rains it Pours, When it Pours the Roof Caves In

Man when it rains it pours, when it pours the roof caves in, when the roof caves in you get swept upstream without a paddle and boat. I am so tired of all the bad news that seems unending. When we think things are going well something comes and crashes down on us. 

I know there are people in worse shape in the world but when we get hit we feel like it can’t get any worse.

I know though that Jehovah God won’t let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. 1 Corinthians 10:13- 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to men. But God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

I pray that good news comes to my family soon!

Musings of a Lonely Writer! ----- My Characters Love Lives are Better than Mine

So this time in my Musings of a Lonely Writer segment I will be writing about my characters having way better love lives than I, I know I am probably going to regret admitting this, lol!

Okay so I write primarily Young Adult Novels and what is a Young Adult Novel without even just a hint of romance, even just a teeny tiny love sub-plot works. Romances are sub-plots in all my novels as the adventure, the goal of the characters or the dangerous intrigue are the main-plots.

So when I write about my characters often times a romantic element will pop up for said character, which some of those scenes are fun to write but often leave me mortified as I want no one I know to read them, lol, but I will leave this to my next Musings of a Lonely Writer segment entitled, Musings of a Lonely Writer! ----- Minimalist Intimate Scenes Between Characters Mortify Me.

Any how so some of my favorite characters have had some amazing romances, I mean the kind to make you swoon, even if a bit unrealistic, cause who wants a totally realistic relationship in fiction all the time. I love a far too perfect relationship than the ones that make it so real I hate the characters for it, lol, as you can see I am not only complicated but picky about what I like in a novel relationship.

Now we get to the real nitty-gritty center of things. So I have had some amazing characters fall in love and though I do throw in some troubles I tend to keep them perfectly in love and so maybe that has made me dysfunctional in my thoughts of real relationships and love.

As part of my religion we don’t date until we are ready for marriage. I always thought I would marry young and have kids young. As time went by I didn’t find a man I wanted to date, I’ve been asked out but I was young and wasn’t looking for anything serious and the guys were not of my religion so I said no. So I will admit I have never been on a date and I am 27 years old.

Now my thoughts and views have changed on real relationships and I am not sure I want one but at times I do, so way complicated I know, lol. I know if I get in a relationship the guy will be nothing like my male heroes in my novels and it sort of freaks me out. I mean I know guys in real life are real, not fictional so I know they will have faults, foibles, issues of all kinds but I mean who wouldn’t want to have a guy be like the kind of guy in a novel!

My characters seem to not only be more out going they are better in the way they live, love, raise families, ect. It’s a bit infuriating but then again I do write about them so maybe I give them everything I don’t have. In some ways I don’t want what they have but in other ways I kind of do. I feel right now that I can’t handle dating a guy that is liable to be so real I can’t stand it, lol.

Plus no guy I know even makes me want to think of dating them and I gather they feel the same about me because it’s been ages since I was last asked out. I started to even question if something was wrong with my looks, personality ect. But who needs those worries in their life so I quickly put it out of my head, well maybe not completely, lol!

***

So anyway I thought I would share a bit about my Favorite Couple-

Princess Jadzia Elizabeth Van ton and Jedrek. These two are two of my youngest couples and they are in, “The Green Haven Series”. They I call my Romeo and Juliet couple without all the dying.

Though I have had many wonderful couples in my novels Jadzia and Jedrek take the top spot because of the time and way their relationship blooms. It is a tumultuous time where the kingdom they reside in is on the brink or war. Jadzia is a Princess of a race that Jedrek’s race hates with a passion.

So when Jadzia and Jedrek’s races try to band together it is a very tricky and dangerous thing. Jadzia is young and helps Jedrek who feels older than his young age to finally be able to be young and enjoy his youth. It starts as a friendship and then progresses to more.

Jadzia and Jedrek made me laugh and cry and feel as if I were really along with them on the dangerous trip as Star Crossed Lovers who get a better ending than the couple they copy, Romeo and Juliet. Jadzia and Jedrek get a seemingly content happily ever after.

***

I used to be a hopeless romantic *see definition below* but I’ve seen so many friends and family members relationships end so badly it makes me realize how real and hurtful it can be. Maybe that has damaged me or my view of relationships and love. They tell me don’t let what happened to them stop me but in a way it does because I don’t trust easily and I would hate to put trust where it doesn’t belong or with someone who shatters my trust in them. So maybe that is why my characters relationships are so good even when they lean a bit toward realistic, because I don’t want my characters to suffer bad romances.

Maybe I am just so confused about what I want and don’t want for myself but know fully what I want and don’t want for my characters because with them its not real so no damage done but in real life damage can be done.

** Here is the best definition of a Hopeless Romantic: This person is in love with love. They believe in fairy tales and love. They're not to be confused as stalkers or creepy because that's not what a hopeless romantic is. All hopeless romantics are idealists, the sentimental dreamers, the imaginative and the fanciful when you get to know them. They often live with rose colored glasses on. They make love look like an art form with all the romantic things they do for their special someone.

My View Years Ago about being a Hopeless Romantic is: I liked to believe and hear love stories, I loved to see people in love. I believed in fairy tales and hoped some day to have a love story of my own to tell. I hoped, I dreamed and I thought being a writer and avid reader led to me being more of a Hopeless Romantic.

My Views now: I still tend to believe in fairy tales and true love as I know these kinds of relationships are a gift from Jehovah God and should be viewed as a gift. I have just never really seen or experienced the kind of love that would make me view myself any longer as a Hopeless Romantic.

I don’t have rose colored glasses on, I view things the way they are and sometimes that takes a toll on my stories. When I was younger the sweet sentimental love played out in my novels and now my stories tend to go darker in all aspects and the love is portrayed differently now. I often times wish I could see the world and relationships as I did when I was 17 verses 27, and that I could bring that to my stories again. **

Maybe these quotes which I love can have more meaning for me and others.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. -- Oscar Wilde *Maybe for now being okay and loving myself and what I have should be where I start before I look for another to love me and for me to love them.*

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined. - Henry David Thoreau *Maybe I don’t want romance yet because there are still things or dreams  I want to accomplish on my own before I start a journey with another person. Things change and so maybe what I always imagined having changed when I didn’t realize it. Maybe what the future holds will be better then what I imagined at first.*

So maybe for now I am slightly alright flying solo until I find some who makes me see reality is better than fiction. A guy who makes me see how great real can be and who could make my male heroes feel like they can’t hold a candle to him, lol! Someone to start a journey with that will far outshine any journey my characters have taken.

Or maybe I find out a solo journey through life is all I will get and I should make the best of it. Maybe exploring the world alone and embracing singleness is what I am to do. I will just have to see where this life leads me. Being 27 years old is not the end. I have many wonderful years ahead of me, and hopefully many wonderful stories, characters, and characters journeys.

This has been Musings of a Lonely Writer and until next time if you feel as I do about feeling your characters have better love lives than you drop me a comment in the comment section of this post, or if you simply have anything to say leave a comment and I would be glad to read it. Remember to Keep Reading, Keep Writing, Keep Inspiring, and above all Love Yourself no matter your relationship status, love yourself the way you are now and don’t feel bad if your characters have way better love lives, or at least come to accept it as I have, lol!

Musings of a Lonely Writer! ----- Living Vicariously Through My Characters

I’ve wanted to write a section like this for a while but have put it off, until now!

So today I am going to talk about living vicariously through my characters. I admit as sad as it is that I do tend to live vicariously through my characters in many ways. They are everything that I am not. They tend to be extroverts, vocal, strong, sassy, bold, say it as it is kind of characters. They have many flaws but for the most part they are exciting, adventurous, fun people. I’ve seen the dangers though of living through a character full time so I obviously know the line between reality and my characters lives (I call- characteralities) but I always think theirs lives are so much more fun.

I am the total opposite of them. I am an introvert and people tend to call me shy. Sometimes I don’t like to talk and other times I do. I will talk a lot to people I know well but they also know sometimes I just want to listen but not put much into the conversation. Sometimes around people in large group settings I like to just be ignored, be a viewer but not a participator, but then I am sad when I am ignored, I know crazy right, lol!

I hate social situations, don’t get me wrong I have friends and always have but I hate social situations such as parties. At parties I don’t spend all my time with my friends, I usually wind up sitting alone bored out of my mind and just wanting to go home.

Also I am way better at talking to people online. I can put myself out there a bit more because I am not in front of them. When I am talking to people face to face I get nervous, my face reddens, I get sweaty a bit and am at a loss for what to say but afterwards I think of a ton of things I should have said and want to kick myself for not saying it and being more open and sassy as my comments I think of afterwards would be just as sassy as some of my characters can be.

I didn’t start this post out to make it sound depressing! I just want to make a point that as a writer we often tend to be lonesome people because writing is usually a lonesome task. I talk to my writer friends about my stories but for the most part it is a solitary endeavor, which often times that solitary part of writing goes into our day to day lives. However the majority of writers are extroverted, talkative people and don’t have the same problems as some writers do.

I think maybe my overactive imagination and writing has been an escape from problems and things going on in my life in the real world. Going into a fantastical setting or just simply somewhere else in a normal setting on earth has been a way to explore other ways to live, through those characters adventures. It has been a hindrance in a way though because I think of my characters and their stories far too much, even in social situations and it leaves me completely unaware when some guy shows an interest in me too, lol! My friends will tell me of some guy that was checking me out or clearly flirting and I am totally at a loss because I didn’t realize it.

I know it is sad but my characters are more real to me than real people sometimes. I know that is probably not healthy but like I’ve said I know where the line is to reality and I don’t live too much in a fantasy world. Though I’ll admit I love to daydream and regular dream about my characters sometimes. In my dreams I am my characters and I love it.

I don’t think it is all that bad to live a little in a characters shoes as long as you come back to reality in the end, lol!

 I think it would be fun too when ordering coffee or drinks or something to give a characters name instead of yours or introduce yourself to a total stranger you won’t ever meet again and give them your characters name, though if you do meet again and tell them the truth they may think your crazy or a liar. Then again it may be the start to a fun new friendship, who knows and I am not responsible for any outcome should you do so, lol! Though I will say never pretend to be a character when the stakes are high and you have to tell the truth, don’t pretend then!

 I often think too it would be fun for one day to dress, talk, and act like one of my characters as a sort of experiment into how others view me and how I feel afterwards about that character. Though I’m afraid I will end up viewed as crazy or eccentric, I have been called eccentric before. I wonder if pretending to be one of my characters would give me the courage to be bolder when I am just me, hmm, I might try it and I will definitely fill you all in about it and may show a few pictures of what I will look like as one of my character, lol! :~)

I am hoping what I have written maybe helps others who feel similar in even a small way. I hope what I wrote makes since as I was kind of all over the place, lol. I hope too that I don’t regret writing this but I try not to regret any posts I blog about.

If anyone has any similar experiences with living vicariously through your characters or have times where you are lonely and think it is because of being a writer or an introvert or simply want to just tell me anything leave a comment in the comment section of this post. I would love to hear from anyone!

This has been Musings of a Lonely Writer and until next time I send my best regards and say Keep Writing, Keep Inspiring and don’t forget I don’t think it’s all that bad to live in your characters shoes for just a little while as long as you come back to reality in the end, lol!

Edit: June 14, 2015

I think in a way that readers get to explore and sometimes get drawn into and live vicariously through a fictitious character as well but they have the advantage of talking to others about the wonderful or scary or fun or adventurous characters they read about. Since writers are privy to worlds, realities and characters that others haven’t gotten to really explore yet is what also makes us writers feel different, lonely, and often a little odd for living in that reality too much. Others don’t want to hear often about characters that the rest of the world hasn’t gotten to read about yet. 

 

But being privy to worlds others haven’t explored yet is what I think makes writers lives even more special. We get more than a readers glimpse into these characters realities. They tell us their tale and we tell others what they have to say. I know they are not real but when I tell others about them I often say they tell me their story and I get a weird reaction but I laugh because it does feel as if the characters are letting me tell others about them. I don’t think that is unhealthy because doing it that way allows us to go at a story in a unique way.

Dark and Light Blue Flower Ribbon Head Band

I had wanted to make a headband to go with my new blue and white maxi dress so when I was looking at Michaels I saw a pack of light and dark blue felt flowers with little blue gems in the center of the flowers. The colors of the flowers match the colors of my dress so I bought them. A while later I bought the ribbon as I realized white would look better than the other color ribbons I have at home.

It took some thinking to decide on the design I chose but any design will work. I attached the flowers to each other and the ribbon with hot glue. I attached each center flower to the ribbon first and then I attached the edges of the other flowers carefully to each center flower. Then I quickly hot glued the attached flowers that needed to be glued to the ribbon.

I really liked the out come and have already worn it. I am still a tad nervous the flowers will pop off as it was a bit difficult to hot glue them without making a mess to the top of the flowers. Felt flowers are hard to work with, easy to hot glue but hard to get excess glue off when you mess up.

Oh and by the way the picture of how I put the pony tales at the end to make it more maneuverable is the way I did on the other ribbon head bands as well.

 

Michaels- One Pack of Light and Dark Blue Felt Flowers- $1.50

Dollar Tree- White Sheer Ribbon- $1.00

 

Jergens Natural Glow Turned Me Orange and Streaky

I bought a small trial size bottle of Jergens Natural Glow sunless tanner moisturizing lotion just to see if it would work on me. I tried it on my arms, neck, and by mistake my face, it was a doh! stupid moment for me, lol! The second day after streaking and becoming orange on day one I tried it on my belly to see what it did there. On both days it turned certain areas orange and streaky and others nothing happened.

On my face around the forehead and by the eyes it looks like foundation that isn’t smoothed out. Between the eyes it looks like an orange dot that makes me look like I have a uni-brow, lol. My neck got really orange and streaky. I didn’t take a picture of my stomach but it made really dirty orange spots like I had dirt on me but I obviously didn’t as I put the Jergens Natural Glow lotion on after a shower. Oh yeah I applied it just like a lotion as it said to do but it had a weird reaction on me, obviously.

I don’t know if my skin is too light or I applied it wrong or it just doesn’t work for everyone. My sister who is as light skinned as I am had the same reaction before. She didn’t tell me about her reaction to it until I had bought the small trial size and tried it on myself. I am glad I didn’t buy a huge bottle or I would have gotten in contact with Jergen’s for a refund because it didn’t work on me but fortunately I only paid $1.97 for a trial size. I still feel it was a waste because I don’t know what to do with the trial size bottle now; I don’t want to just throw it away.

The orange spots have gone away now after a few face washes and showers. My mom keeps pointing out she can see orange around my neck but I don’t see it.

So I don’t know how well it works on some other people but I warn anyone who tries it to try it on their stomach or a place on their body that is covered by clothing just in case it turns them orange or streaks. Don’t put it on your face like I did, I am just glad it didn’t turn my whole face orange or streaky.

Oh and by the way the pictures don’t look half as bad as they did in person! Oh and enjoy the picture that shows the bags under my eyes, lol! And the popped eyes look, lol!

 

 

 

 

 

Edit to the post Celebrities Pretending to be Writers!

**This below is what I put on the edit to the June 10, 2014 post titled, Celebrities Pretending to be Writers! If you want to see the entire original post about the following book go to this link-

http://tabularasacoker.blogspot.com/2014/06/celebrities-pretending-to-be-writers.html

**

Okay so I had read comments about this book where people said they thought maybe people were being harsh and exaggerating the badness of this book so they read it only to prove it wasn’t very good indeed.

Well I vowed after writing the original post that I would pick the book up and read the first few pages which I usually do to see if a book interests me. I thought too maybe people were just you know exaggerating or hating and to be honest on my post I said I didn’t read it and never would but curiosity got the best of me, lol!

So a few days ago while at the local Books-A-Million with my mom I decided to try and find the book while I was in the Teen Books section. Since I write Young Adult Novels I like to see what is new and fresh and occasionally love to read some.

Usually when I see a book I read the first page to get a view of if it will draw me in. Since I am dead broke right now books are a luxury so I don’t buy even the ones I love, instead I put them on my To Read in the Future list, which I will admit is growing longer by the Day, Week, Month and Year, lol!

Okay so I assumed when looking for the book that there would be more than one and it would be easy to find even it has been out for a year now. I looked and looked and finally found it, they had only one copy there on the self.

So I picked it up and while standing there I flipped to the Prologue and began to read. I honestly expected it to surprise me and be good and make me want to read more. About one paragraph in I didn’t care why the character was digging to the surface of earth that they didn’t think people survived, or I think so as I kind of skimmed. So I thought maybe it is one of those Prologues that are kind of boring, though I admit I love a Prologue in books and heck I write seriously long Prologues for my novels but some Prologues can be boring so I skipped to the first chapter.

So the first page annoyed me. The writing was flat and just boring. Some words didn’t make sense or were spelled wrong and a few paragraphs should have been two paragraphs instead of one, they were way too long. Plus there was an area that had way too many and’s repeated. I can’t remember the words used but it was like this:

First part of sentence then Word and Word and Word and Word. – Didn’t look right to me, there should have been commas instead of ands. I just put in Word in place of the actual words I can’t remember, lol! Sorry it’s been a few days and I forgot!

I would have written something like this though much more polished lol! This is just my example not taken from novel- The heart of the dwindling fire mesmerized her senses as she watched enthralled by the smoke, ashes, embers, and the crackling logs.

Okay so I skimmed to the next page and couldn’t be bothered to care as the feel of the words didn’t feel right. You would think with the publishing house, editors, and ghostwriters they had that the book would be engaging, well written, and well edited but it didn’t feel that way. So I skipped to the end page and was like oh great there probably will be a sequel as others said.

I put the book down and went onto other books as I wanted to browse more engaging novels before my mom finished and was sure to ask if I was finished as I can be a lengthy browser at book stores. I can literarily spend hours browsing and occasionally buying, lol!

The cover wasn’t impressive, the story theme is over done, the wording was mediocre, there were grammatical errors, and it just wasn’t something that made me want to read more.

I really did go into it wanting to give it a chance but I didn’t care for what I read at all. I am sure maybe someone else may like it but I didn’t care enough to read more or put it on my To Be Read in the Future list.