The big news? Well, I learned how to crochet a few months ago. There was a particular thing I wanted to learn how to make so two of my fiber friends muddled through and taught me how to do it. And the amazing thing is that it’s stuck. I’m making thing after thing after thing and actually enjoying it. So, go figure.

A few seconds ago, I was sitting here in the Comfy Chair ™ crocheting a project for a friend and I started thinking about a strange side-effect to crocheting. It’s helping me work things out with my writing in my head.

Spent most of this week working on sorting out thoughts for various reviews and instead of just sitting in front of an open Scrivener screen doing nothing, I pulled out one of my WIP projects and started going at it. That’s when the strange thing happened, I was focused on crocheting rows but my mind was actually rambling off good ideas and sentences. Every now and then I’d pause to jot the ideas down, then I’d go back to working on my row.

I’m a bit surprised at this discovery and look forward to seeing what other insights and effects crocheting has on my other lifetime passions.

It started out with our annual Fourth of July Blow Stuph Up party, which was a huge success. I firedanced, played Rockband and my inner pyro got to come out any blow off mortars. Then we had a weekend visit from our friend Drakino. We took him to the gorge and to St. Helens. I cohosted another class, Divination for the Curious, which was a lot of fun and attended a concert by Ayria and Project Pitchfork.

This weekend kicks off the “even crazier” period of July. We’re going camping this weekend. Then on Tuesday I head out to the Oregon coast to attend a Tarot Intensive hosted by my friend Katrina. I’m very much looking to both camping excursions. I drive home late Friday night only to turn around once more Saturday morning to tour Tillamook with Kender, and his parents. We’ll continue heading south along the coast till we hit Lincoln City where we’ll join my family who’s flying out Friday. Neither of our parents have ever met, so this is going to be a fun and wild ride.

We’ll spend the night, and our anniversary, at the coast and then head back Sunday with my family in tow. For the final days in July, I’ll be showing my family all the changes Portland’s done since their last visit.

I’m taking every little “free moment” to breathe and remember to enjoy this moment. If I didn’t enjoy being busy, then I wouldn’t be doing all this. Of course, I figure I’ll sleep when the end of this month comes. Or in August. *gryn* In any case, wish me lots of energy and fun!

The other one, Twisted Realities, was a fiction zine. I scoured the internets and my college for short (flash) fiction, poemtry, and essays with an edge. I was huge into postmodern fiction and wanted to create an outlet for my voice, and to publish others who had similar ideas about weird writing to mine. Twisted Realities had a two-issue run, mostly because it was hard to scrape up stories from others. But I was fortunate enough to have works by friends, as well as Lance Olsen, in the collections.

After I graduated college, I was asked back to WSU Vancouver to speak about my experiences of putting the zines together at one of my professor’s english classes. The class even used my zines as reading material.

Sanjay just emailed me the below photo of him holding pristine copies of Twisted Realities. Apparently, he thinks they’re worthy keepers and that one day they’ll be worth something. I’m amazed and happy that, in the two limited-run editions of 50 each, someone else, besides me, kept their copy. Thanks for the trip down memory lane S!

I’d like to present the first of our collaborations: Wine Inspired Writing. This course was inspired by Michael Gelb’s Wine Drinking for Inspired Thinking. We explore the idea that wine can help inspire your muse and have designed some fun exercises to explore this connection! Click the read more link to learn more about what this workshop offers.

Wine Inspired Writing Workshop
June 12, 2010 3:00 – 5:00pm

Cost: Free! Adults 21 and over. Space is limited.
Mantra Espresso & Wine Bar 2707 NE 114th Avenue, Suite C3 Vancouver, WA 98684

For more information and to sign up, email creativearts@shadesofmaybe.com

Is it true that the principles of drinking and enjoying wine can help you become more creative?

Find out in this special class where Anna and Jaymi teach you the basics of wine tasting and how moderate drinking can inspire your muse. In this class you’ll sample 2-3 wines, while learning how to engage your senses in your writing and develop characters using the TIPPSY method.

Images of my past scroll in my mind as they intertwine with the pictures dancing across the tv screen. Tears flow down my face as I wonder when my prose and the vivid worlds they create will touch the imaginations of others in this way.

In this review, I gave some tidbits about what makes this book so important and special. Click here to go read it online. Thanks Erin Donley for allowing me to lend my voice to the review.

In the process, my Twitter plugin died, so I just completed installing WP to Twitter and have tested that. It now works and here’s hoping I don’t have to make any more drastic mods for awhile. I have many other word-related and design projects that need my attention.

I’ve added pages that tell seekers about my reading rates, ethics, reading events, as well as a page of testimonials from past seekers. I’m also slowly and steadily moving the bulk of the tarot-related posts from this area to there. In the future, I hope to post reviews, essays, readings and tarot-related tidbits from my life to that site. Of course, I also hope the area attracts more seekers who’d like me to read for them and help them achieve their dreams.

However, they had about 1,700 submitted entries which is pretty impressive. I’m not bummed, I know that when the time is right TOUCHED will enter the scene with force. Which means, I need to get off my butt and work on revisions.

Congratulations to all the winners!