I recently signed up my small business with LinkedIn. I have a small dilemma though. There is one person I would love to contact and he does have a "get back in touch" option. My problem is I'm not a connection and my business has nothing to do with his. I feel like small potatoes compared to what he does...nearly unworthy of his time. I met him back in the Spring and was severely affected by him. Personality and all. I was severely affected to do something for some other people too. He is looking for "new ventures" but I don't think this would be a proper choice option as I'm not really looking to recruit him for anything. I just don't want him to think badly of me. The thought of that terrifies me. I know that people abuse the net often enough and I really am sincere about everything I've done. When I saw him, I had no idea what I was in for. It just happened that way. I'm still trying to sort out why it happened to me.

Anybody?

Advice?

Project Lotus is to bring the arts to a community who’s school is in desperate need of supplies, funding, and various other essential needs.

Jhamtse Gatsal is a remote town in the far reaches of the Himalayan Mountains. It’s in Arunachal Pradesh, India. “Jhamtse” is Tibetan for love and compassion. “Gatsal” means garden. Together they make, “The garden of love and compassion.” The school, started by a young monk, Ven. Lobsang Phuntsok comprises of children from villages, many orphans who are given the opportunity to learn and have a better chance at thriving and becoming productive in an otherwise bleak life in their own homeland of Tibet. They are sent to various schools so they won’t have to face what previous generations have gone through with fifty years of hostility by China. Children at the school are taught Tibetan, Hindi, and English. It is with this that Jhamtse International, a US-based 501 (c)3 charitable corporation founded in 2005 is the principle funding source for Jhamtse Gatsal. It is estimated that there will be 70 children enrolled in the 2009-2010 school year as it is a growing community.

While wandering around a festival hour after hour, one person started to find connections that culminated into an idea…Project Lotus: Art For The Exiled

Art is what fuels the imaginations of hungry minds. It opens up the doors to communication where words are not spoken. Where skills are put to use with the mind, thus creating endless works. It touches the soul and allows children the freedom to express. Express what they think which is detrimental in this case to the Tibetan children’s own homeland. It’s important to keep it alive.

The idea of Project Lotus is to donate new art supplies for the school. Crayons, magic markers, color pencils, construction paper, modeling clay, etc. There is a catch to it though…not to buy products made in China. On the back of every package, there is a mention of where the products are made in. Be it the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico. Products which are highly questionable include some children’s clay components and art brushes. You don’t want to buy products that put these children in exile in the first place.

To help out with Project Lotus, please go to the following:

http://www.jhamtseinternational.org

Be sure to contact the president of the organization, Mark Foley for further information.

Time to make a difference. Ever get inspired by something or someone and didn't know what to make of it? That's the story of my life! Hey! Okay. I'll start from the beginning.

Got inspired by a photographer who donated his proceeds to a very worthy cause. From there, things started to happen that was the springboard for what became the germ of an idea. Another very worthy cause. Went to an event in July that continued the idea and that's when it started to flourish. Like a lotus. Lotus flowers carry a lot of spiritual weight to them. They too inspire. Tall stalks that grow in the ponds with all that muck. They trek their way throughout brown murky waters to sprout into the most beautiful of flowers to grace our little planet.

The people of Tibet are like that. More like the children who are sent by their parents to escape the confines of a communist government/country (China) which has held them in exile for 50 years. Thankfully with the likes of His Holiness The Dalai Lama who knew the children of Tibet would suffer the most as they represented the future of Tibet. It was with this he established that the future needed an education. Dharamsala, India was the proposed town in which destitute children would find a place to call home. A school system was set up in 1960 and now over two thousand people (children and staff) inhabit the Tibetan Children's Village (TCV).

It's with people like His Holiness or even kind-hearted photographers efforts that inspire all of us to want to to just a little more.



...continue to Project Lotus: Art For The Exiled

THE END!!!!!

I won't be posting anymore weird things on my journal. At least for now. So, it's safe for those viewing and not having to wonder if I feel like a nut. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Depends. From now on though, I will be more about business. Boo! I know. I know. Hey, that's life.

When I think about it, there was that time I saw a bowling ball rolling down the highway and...

Never mind.

Let's just say that it was in the wrong lane and leave it at that.

Back to the books!

Yes, it's true!

While looking through a blog on self-publishing of all things, I came across this.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4927224/Pink-dolphin-appears-in-US-lake.html

Enjoy!

If anybody's looking for more of my weird, quirky, rantings and ravings from one psycho writing rock chick, be sure to find http://rocklynn.wordpress.com/ The compelling obsessiveness of a tenacious writer who wants to get published and willing to spill her guts for all to see.

Hey! Watch me make an ass out of myself!

::hides out at WordPress basement::

I've heard it so many times before. People become blubbering puddles when meeting somebody famous. Maybe not famous but well-known. Somebody in the entertainment industry. I'm not affected by fame. I don't know how to act fake or be a stuttering fool to the point of slapping myself silly to say, "I should have never said that." Nope. I am a people person. I don't judge folks by their bank account or how many times I've seen them on TV. It's called acting for a reason. Maybe my attitude is because I know a lot of musicians. So much so that half of my e-mail address book is filled with musicians. Not local cover band types either. Folks who have been a round the world ten times over. Some are great people. Especially this guitar player who I have a back and forth conversation with. Very sarcastic though extremely funny. Hell of a musician too! Very passionate about playing. I was friends with another guitar player but that proved to be a major bust because he had issues which made it very uncomfortable to be around.

Of course there were these two guys I was acquaintances with at a restaurant. One an actor, the other a screenplay writer. I was introduced by the restaurant owner one night. I never went crazy. He just sat at my table when I was alone and asked if I wanted to meet Mr. N. From then on, he showed up frequently. So did I. I never bothered him. I would only go up to him if something was on my mind and it was appropriate. Sometimes though he could be a wicked flirt, even when I wasn't paying attention to him and talking with his buddy, the screenplay writer. It was fun to watch their antics. Yes, his acting was far different than how he projected himself to be in public. A ham! It was fun then. Only problem was that he liked to dismiss fans. Particularly those on the net and he couldn't understand why he was so popular at the time. I can understand a little bit as a few proved to be a bit overzealous whom I had the unfortunate luck of being targeted on the net by. It was fun at the time but the reluctant actor has since grown more bitter. A New Yorker by heart, he's since moved to LA. He had issues with NYC but his bitterness seems contradicting. He wanted his space. His privacy even though he picked up a role that proved him even more popular than the previous. I'm sure he's enjoying LA now with his young family. Good luck to him trying to stay away from the pervasive paparazzi. He'll need it!

I was invited to the huge music trade show called "NAMM" in '03 over in Anaheim. The first time I had ever been to California. What a thrill. I met so many musicians. I got to watch first hand how some acted as though they were part of a brotherhood. From 9-6 I walked in awe with my buddy who relegated me with fantastic stories. It was all so incredible. To see these musical heroes and know they had no ego. I would love to do it again!

There are others though that have judged me. Like the time in was in Albuquerque for an awards show. I really wanted to meet this particular music producer. I went to the after-party and saw all of these people there. Well, I saw the guy I wanted to. Happily I put my hand out and said, "I think your production work is great." He just looked at me coldly behind sunglasses. It's not that I overreacted in any way. I was the wrong ethnicity to acknowledge him as I witnessed him warm up to people of his kind. I never listened to another CD produced by him since. That was ten years ago. To think, I passed up a chance to meet John Densmore (The Doors) and Rita Coolidge. Damn.

At the same restaurant where I met those two guys was another actor. Lesser known but he was all ego. I even watched him put his nose up when a bar regular went to sit at the same table as him because he knew the screenplay writer. My mom was with me and she acknowledged this particular D-list actor for a film and a couple of comedy shows he was in. He couldn't even bother saying 'Thank you.'

Now, back to that first paragraph and how I mentioned about being a blubbering puddle. I can't say I was exactly a blubbering puddle. My calm, cool, collectiveness normally includes saying the right thing. There was this one time everything was very awkward. The whole thing. It wasn't my scene. I had rehearsed what I wanted to say to him for about three weeks. I don't know what it was but strange things kept happening to me there. He was so different. Unlike everybody else in that one room. So much personality. Yes, I am very attracted to personality. (I'm a Leo. What more do you want?) For whatever reason, our paths kept in a very small vicinity of each other. I talked with somebody else who was there and I got a really weird feeling. I don't even know how to fully explain it. I couldn't. He did get an idea of how my own personality was when he sort of eavesdropped when I met one of his buddies who I did not expect to ever meet in those circumstances. Certainly not there of all places. When it came time to meet this individual, I felt very awkward. As if I wanted to turn tail and run. Something stopped me though. I knew I had my chance and I was ready to take it. The girl I was talking with wanted to get his attention but I told her it was okay and I could do it myself. Still, the whole thing was odd. I have no problem meeting people but then I felt something. Numbness. I felt as though my insides had frozen up. Right when he turned to me.

Something

was

definitely

different.


He had me at 'Hello.'

What I'm referring to is cattiness.

Why is it that women judge other women on everything?

I have never been the catty type. Sure, I might get nervous but I don't act like I have a sense of entitlement to anybody. That's why I can't figure out why some women feel threatened by the likes of me. I do nothing but just be myself. Is it insecurity on their part? Is there really something I posses that stands up to their beauty? I'm not an ugly duckling but I surely am no model or genetically the best. I don't take myself seriously. I only know how to be myself. If I find somebody to chat with, then that's the way it is. Other women though. Woo! Sometimes I feel like I'm being judged for everything. What I wear. How I act. What I might say. Those mascara made eyes turn my way. The little whispers. Oh, don't think I don't know. In those situations I feel like I'm entering another lionesses den. It doesn't matter where. It could be something as innocuous as a retail store. ::rolls eyes:: Yes, I was involved in some high stakes drama. It was one big soap opera. Unneeded drama at that. The department manager's girlfriend did not like me. I was only a customer. He actually confronted me and asked why I didn't like her. I was stunned and hurt. This guy claimed to be my friend, yet he had to question me even if I never did anything. Turned out it was all her problem. She was young and very insecure. They later got married but that didn't last long. Happened with another musician. This time a guitarist. I guess he laughed too hard and his girlfriend sniffed it out and whisked him away before we could finish our conversation. I was at an event recently in which I was waiting to talk with somebody. A girl walked up to me and asked me how I knew the host. I told her and she tried to take it upon herself to introduce me to him. There goes that sense of entitlement!

Even at writers meetings, it's the same. I feel I'm judged straight away from other women. Especially by the ones around my age group or younger. If I want to talk about my upcoming book, like them, they listen but then again they don't. With the guys? It's a whole lot different...and comforting!

Be it writers conference, gallery, club, store, or restaurant...it’s all the same.

Does everything have to be a competition?

Okay, I'll try!

S/W/F/33 - Enjoys moonlit walks in the city with Pablo Cruise music softly playing in her head. Is a sound junkie. Loves to write (be careful you might wind up as one of my characters! Mwhoohahahahahah!) Likes to subtly flirt. Not insecure. No jealousy issues. Unaffected by fame. Appreciates people to be themselves. Doesn't like creepy older men with cheap pick-up lines. In search of Mr. Right. MUST have an odd sense of humor. Age appropriate demographic ranging between 30-45. No boy toys please. Don't want to be called a cougar either! Love the openness of scenery. Sweep me off my feet to Tuscany!

No. You get no picture of me in a little bikini staring at myself in a mirror. I save that for MySpace. ::kiss:: Maybe you might get a surprise of some extra goodies.

What's that? Oh. I've insulted some 13 year old posing as an 18 year old on Spring Break? Oops!

Am I bored? Seriously, take this with a grain of salt and spot of gin. I can't be bored. I'm writing a query letter. No. This is what I do to relax. Writing weird blogs. Not taking myself seriously. Or the net for that matter. Like I'm really going to post a picture of myself wearing a bikini. I don't even wear one. ::slaps forehead:: No. No. Not the right wording. I mean I like the one piece. Get your filthy mind out of the gutter!

Okay. Back to that query letter I have to work on.

I do like Pablo Cruise music though. I don't know if it's during moonlit walks in the city. I think that's best left to Barry Manilow and Barry White. ;)

I've been very restless lately. I'm at the end process of writing my book, "The Freedom To Rock." Naturally that final step is editing. Then there is the next obstacle. Ohhhhh, and it's a doozy! Query, agent, publisher. Ah, so I decided to bother a small press publisher that doesn't require much for submission. Maybe I shouldn't say bother but I had asked them questions before because it sounded too good to be true. I really thought it would be perfect for my rare niche subject of music related fiction. Not so.

If there is one thing I've learned about becoming an author is that a proper cover is needed. It is the main selling point. It's what gets eyeballs to roll in that particular direction and find interest. Enough to be curious in picking it up, turning it over and reading the synopsis on the back.

It's bait.
It's bait for the consumer. (Not to say books are like fish. They are easier to catch!)

Okay, so you've got the synopsis. "Hmmm." Then comes that all important part of checking out the first few pages. Bought! You've just made an author happy!

This leads back to my own scenario. Maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on cover content but dammit, I want those eyeballs on my book! I have always heard to keep it simple. I set forth in doing this with a brilliant cover. It would make for fabulous merchandise on T-shirts, bags, mugs, stationary, bumper stickers, etc. Oh wait. The publisher comes up with the cover. So, why emphasize the cover if the author has no control? I don't know. Anyway, with this company that I thought I wanted to get published by, I wasn't thrilled at all with the cover art from their other published books. If I want my main demographic to be adults, I want the cover to reflect that. Apparently, this small press was not what I needed. Scholastic style covers fit for thirteen year olds, not adults. Can't be taken seriously that way. I'm afraid what their depiction would be like. Instead of clean and simple, there would probably be an American flag depicting "freedom" and a guitar thrown in. Perhaps even what some might think the characters look like. But, isn't that for the reader to figure out? I'm no snob but I want what's best for my baby. I'm the one that worked for four years on it. I don't want to be taken as a joke. That's why it's always best to do your homework boys and girls. Research what that publisher offers and visually see what kind of covers they place before giving your thoughts full plastic surgery or render it unrecognizable.

I'm moving on to explore my options. Carrying on in the book world...

My warm fuzzies are all gone.
Replaced once again is fear, anxiety, depression, frustration.

I live in publishing Hell.

Why oh why can't this be simple?

Is it possible to feel a spark before formally meeting someone? Maybe I analyze things too much or maybe it’s just a need to dream after all of the writing anxiety I’ve been going through. I started thinking of an incident that happened not too long ago where I met somebody else and started talking with them rather animatedly since I did not want to disturb “spark starter” talking with others. This went on for a few minutes and the “spark starter” stayed back but did listen to his buddy’s conversation with me. Sort of eavesdropping. The place was noisey and he could have easily walked away. That’s when it started to make me wonder. That started it all. Maybe it was because of my personality which is a little more of a free spirit even in those times I feel completely uncertain of my surroundings. I mean, I know how to act accordingly in public. I try to watch what I say in all instances, so I won’t feel like an idiot. Strangely though, the spark starter showed more personality than the hordes of other people. There were other things that made me wonder, but perhaps my mind is working in overtime.

A spark?

I chalk it up to static.

I think.



Anyhow, I don’t think I’ll ever see this individual again.

Why? Oh why don't they make one? Does anybody know how stressful it is to write a book? The steps? The torment? It's not just about a nice story and pretty cover. It's a lot of WORK! Consider the details if you will for a moment. Writing.

( Read more... )

I am FINISHED writing "The Freedom To Rock!"
What? How many years did that take? Ten years since I had the germ of an idea. Another four years for starting to write. A little bit of writer's block in '06 to '07 when things weren't quite right. Don't forget all the self-editing. But....
Hey! Who wants to do a happy dance with me?

Wooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

  461 pages!!!!!!!!!

 Oh, yeah. Then there's that pesky little thing called editing.

That is at least to this journal. Can somebody please explain to me what makes British guys...er, actors so irresistible? Is it really the accents or the charm that they possess? Extreme wittiness (sometimes very dry)? Are they just grown attractive out in Great Britain? Truly I am intrigued, bewitched, and puzzled by these beguiling British beauties. There has to be a deep rooted meaning why I can't get enough of these men. Why they entice me to watch some shows I would never dream of just to see them act. I mean really display their talents for what they are as actors. Not just pretty boys on the cover of some glossy magazine. Is it because they do take what they do so seriously? Is it because they are master craft's men in the art of facial expressions (quite likely coming from theatre?) I have to admit, I'm quite taken by them even when not acquainted with their normal accent. For me, it's simply what they bring on screen. They could speak jibberish for all I care.

Please help with this deep dark angst I am suffering with as I pull out a bib and go in search of Grade A Prime Beef from Britain.

I've been working on this for the past two weeks. A little time consuming but not too bad.

Needed for Puzzlerama:

8 chip colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown
72 chips 9 of each (one set for bonus round)
16 question necklaces for participants
Set of 9 questions







Release YOUR secrets!

Okay, so our little show has been yanked by the stodgy Tiffany Network. That doesn’t mean we stop fighting. Along the way a fan (hippygrl) came up with an idea. How about a “Swingtown” convention? Not at all to be confused with a swingers party. This would be our way of paying homage to the show we know and love. 70’s theme of course! Maybe even Pigs In A Pickle or some Rosey Perfection Salad. A game of Puzzlerama if you’re up for it? Lots and lots of classic tunes spinning and yes, to cap off the night we can even have a sing-along to “Take It To The Limit.” So far we’ve looked at some options. Banquets seem to be tough for any kind of theme unless you’re willing to fork over a lot of dough.

One of the places that might be decent is a new hotel in Chicago called aLoft. It’s directly linked to O’Hare Airport and rooms are under $200. The decor is IKEA chic meets 1976 modern that could rival Fontaine Beauchamp’s lovely touches on the gorgeous Decker home.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/alofthotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3124

If absolutely anybody wants to join in or suggest anything, (venues, possible sponsors, any connections, etc.) or say if it’s worth it or not then please go ahead. Love to get your feedback. This IS for the fans. If anything else should come along with it, then that’s a bonus. Nobody is saying exactly if there would be any special guests. It all depends on how far we can take this and make it a reality.

Grab a Tab and hop on over to:

http://saveswingtown.myfreeforum.org/about72.html

Check out to see what kind of ideas we’ve been toying with!

Now, please before you get all excited remember this is only a consensus. Nothing for sure...yet. No matter how vocal of a fan I am of this show, I am no way the one responsible for this idea. I'm only the messenger.


Thanks,

Dnique
(not ready to give it up for love)

This community keeps on growing and growing.
Do check it out. There had been some 5,087 people who were members when CBS pulled the shag rug on it. Since then, 338 more people have joined. Pretty good company too. Both Lana Parrilla and Alan Poul hang around there.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Swingtown/19525956665?ref=mf

(you must be a member to view it)


dnique
(not ready to give it up for love)