Hope you had a yummy holiday, whatever holiday you had! I celebrated Christmas. It was a lovely one!

 

 

I just connected with an amazing woman and author.  Her name is Kaia Hollan Van Zandt.  

She wrote Written In the Ashes and self-published it.  

(What was I just writing about on my blog about publishing your book, hmmmm....) 

How does an unknown novelist get her book published by an Academy Award Winning Producer? She tells you herself on her website.  Read this article. 

Poke around her website.  She's awesome. http://www.kaiavanzandt.com/

BOOK SIGNING

WRITTEN IN THE ASHES is an epic tale about the powerful women in the ancient world of Greece and Egypt. Wondering how the most famed library of all time burned?

There is a book signing tomorrow in Venice, CA!  Please go. I would be there with bells on but I am in New York at the moment.  If you have skype on your cell, skype me while you're there.  

Wednesday, October 5 ·  7:00pm - 9:00pm

Mystic Journey Bookstore

 

Please go to Mystic Journey Bookstore tomorrow night for wine and cheese and a reading with some Q&A with the author, Kaia.  

 

Here's her Facebook Page. 

Buy the book on Amazon if you can't make the signing.  I did! 

 

I can't wait.  I'm starting to read it tonight.  Yay Kaia!  

Have a laugh watching me making a Quinoa salad with my mom. You can watch it on YouTube too.

We both have had the habit in the past of supporting men and spending all our money on them. What a girl gotta do?  That's the reason for Will Date 4 Food!

 

 

We went on a road trip to a fair all day and I had to share pictures. This year I planted a garden, canned veggies for the first time and am coveting goats. Here are some pictures that sure give me the giggles.

REPLAN IT chronicles the efforts of Jock Brandis, MIT fellow, Popular Mechanics darling and CNN Hero. As one of the world’s leading authorities in the field of appropriate technology, Brandis inspires people worldwide to affect powerful social and economic change. He and his non-profit organization, the Full Belly Project (http://www.thefullbellyproject.org), accomplish this by introducing sustainable machinery and engineering techniques specific to the diverse regions of the world, from an impoverished village in Malawi to a family farm in rural Rutherford, North Carolina. Be it a gravity-powered water pump, portable solar power or a simple schoolhouse desk and chair, the technology involves low cost indigenous materials that are readily available. These devices are constructed, operated and maintained by the local communities with limited outside assistance. Read the full article - here

 

This is helping the planet without going further into debt. (Republicans and Dems should both like that)  
This is teaching people to fish instead of giving them fish.  This is something that works!  

 

I heart inventors.  Thank you Jock Brandis for sharing your genius brain! 

One of my twitter friends @Dingman posted about how he was sick of his Facebook feed being clogged by way too many posts by certain pages. I commented that I totally understood and also wished there was a "less" button instead of a "hide."  I asked him how much was too much.  He responded that "too much" in his mind meant posting 5 times within 10 minutes, because it flooed his feed.  That's when I just had to pick up the guitar and write a country song.  

 

 

It reminded me of the days I used to do Comedy Nation in LA with @JohnFugelsang.  I wrote a song about Facebook back then too.  One day I'll learn how to play that guitar.  Give me a break, I've been writing books and movies.  Enjoy! 

 

There was frantic splashing on the shore of the lake. We thought it was a fish. Maybe the crows had found a dead one. When we looked, we were surprised to find wet flapping wings. This chubby little baby bird was trying to survive a fall from the nest.

We rushed down to the edge and gently lifted him out and placed him on the lawn to dry. He was very appreciative and clingy. My dog Norma was very interested. She is also delightfully gentle and seemed more concerned that the little bird live instead of chomping him to bits. We stepped away from the lawn to let the little thing dry off and then hopefully fly away. It froze there. He was a scared little bird. Then out of nowhere a crow swooped down to grab him. I leapt to the lawn so fast that I scared the birdseed out of that crow. I became very protective of my little foster bird. I picked him up and held him. He shook and shivered. Then he relaxed and sat on my finger. I blew on his wings and he loved it. I tried to get him to sit on the bird feeder but he clung to me. Then he started opening his mouth baby bird style to be fed. Melt my heart why dontcha bird! So I sat with him while I looked for his nest or his mama. Nothing.

Finally he was dry and stretched his little wings. I was able to get him to sit on top of a tree stump so I could back away and give his mom a chance to find him while I watched for crows. He sat there staring at me. I was about ready to adopt him when his mom appeared on the grass hopping around the stump. She chirped at him and he chirped back. She hopped away, then came back and then hopped away again. It looked like she wanted him to follow her. And he did! He was wobbly at first and only flew a few feet before falling to the ground again. But he kept trying.

He flew up to sit on my hammock and stared at me. He sat there for a long time as his mom urged him to follow her. Then he finally took off. There went my little foster bird. I about had a heart attack when I heard splashing in the water later. But it was only a crow who had found a dead fish.

(photo from ElisenWonderland)

Sometimes, even if you are constantly creative, you still have to simply wait.  As a screenwriter you wait on notes from producers.  As an author you wait on your editor.  As an actor you want to hear if you got the job or not.  As a filmmaker you wait on the money to arrive.  As a producer you wait on the artist.  I've worn all of those hats and sometimes have on more than one at a time.  Most of the time while I wait, I simply start another project.  I was waiting on editor notes so I started writing another book for example.  I was waiting for one of my screenplays to be read after a certain TV season, so I just wrote another movie.  But sometimes the waiting can be frustrating and you literally have to figure out what to do with yourself.

Now, I have taken on dirt.  I'm going to play in the dirt.  Yep.  My mother and my grandmother always had impressive green thumbs.  After my grandmother passed away last month I was wondering what I could possibly do to continue her work in this world.  I decided that while I wait, I'll create something else I can wait on, a garden.  I announced I was going to try this before, but after her death there is something sweeter about trying to grow a green thumb.  Now, I'll wait until the rain stops so I can get back to the dirt.  While I wait on the rain, I'll go back to the book.