Sense, Intuit, Act

Eat, Pray, Love is an example of a simple and effective way to create something so much larger than three one-syllable words. The concept launched a whole spell of wannabes with less support than a feature film starring Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem, but impressive efforts, nonetheless. As I step into this fray more firmly, I'm intent on making sense of the infinite opportunities to seek, find, and perhaps in the process create an extensive audience for my writing. Perhaps, with the necessity of disintegrating any box to think outside of, the whole idea of applying logic to such a thing is a waste of precious time--if you happen to believe in that construct despite Paulo Coelho's philosophy offered in Aleph. Intuition is always at our service--paying attention and connecting inner dots with outer ones to draw a solid line to meaningful results. It is all an act.

I'm paying attention to Allison Bliss Consulting, Seth Godin (The Domino Project), Kathleen Gage, D'vorah Lansky (Virtual Book Tours), and self-publishing experts, Andrea Constantine and Lisa Shultz (Friday Author Interview Series). Promoting my three self-published books is my goal, getting the fourth one out there, and launching into number five. Details are on my website, tannerblue.com.

Seeking

I'm reading Aleph by Paulo Coelho and appreciate the quote about how what we seek is also seeking us. I believe that.

hands, in and out of my

I index books for a living and slipped into that mode to enter this post. Last week, my third work of fiction, Painted Deserts, became a Finalist for an annual USA Book News International Books Award. My two previous books—Music for the Dream: Seven Short Stories and Tanner Blue—have both won awards as well. It’s thrilling to receive this recognition, which has me thinking about the partnership of discipline and faith. While writing, the work is in the hands of the creator. When that work is completed and released, how does one get a grip on certain expectations?

The Way Things Should Be

Yeah, there's that, then there's the way things are.
I took a Buddhism class as a freshman at Cornell and remember a key aspect of that particular world view:
See things as they really are.
Cool. Then, what?

I Know What's Best for You

That's a lie. How could I? I only know what's best for me.
Why can the tendency to tell others how to live their lives be so strong?
Because, ideally, we want optimal outcomes for each other.
Any other questions?

Seadrift

According to Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Edition, seadrift is nowhere to be found. Yet, here it is, swept up onto the shore of this week's blog entry. Perhaps the concept is inspired by a recent trip that my husband and I took to Fort Bragg on the North Coast of California. Maybe it's reinforced by a picture that my brother sent from a family trip to Rockley Beach in Barbados, our mother's homeland. I was trying to think of a word to describe things that bodies of water rake up onto shore. Probably, a "real" term exists that welcomes this brand-new synonym.

This morning at the pool, I swam beneath the natural condensation that drifted above the surface of the water. The sky was clear and the sun smiled through green meshes of sequoias. The sensation was one of flying through a thin cloud. Sometimes, it can feel that way when we cast our nets far and wide, waiting and wading, until all that seadrift forms some welcome thing that is easy to recognize.

I Am Not Sidney Poitier by Percival Everett

This consummately original tale sets out to answer the question, "Then, Who am I?" The journey brilliantly parodies Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and Lilies of the Field with great subtlety. Also, The Defiant Ones and Buck and the Preacher. In addition, it's quite amazing to witness the license that Everett takes in including the personas of Ted Turner and Jane Fonda in his wacky cast of characters as well as inserting himself as an eccentric philosophy instructor. That's all I have to say except that this is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable and incisive pieces of fiction that I have read in a very long time.