Thursday, October 5, 2017
Chickens Teaching Kids by Erika M Szabo at #OurAut...
A Small Gang of Authors: Chickens Teaching Kids by Erika M Szabo at #OurAut...: Chickens Teaching Kids Well, let me tell you a true story about that Read preview: http://tinyurl.com/yatgkjhx Amazon print: ...
Chickens Teaching Kids by Erika M Szabo at #OurAuthorGang
Chickens Teaching Kids
Well, let me tell you a true story about that
Read preview: http://tinyurl.com/yatgkjhx
Amazon print: http://tinyurl.com/yb6a7qg3
Online stores eBook: https://books2read.com/u/4EW9KE
Signed print: http://tinyurl.com/yayjvrxn
A friend came over for a short visit with her two kids. The boy is six and his little sister is four. The kids fought over who will sit where at the dining table, and then argued about who got the bigger slice of cake and whose hot chocolate had more whip cream.
My friend looked at me apologetically and said, "You told me to be careful with painkillers, but now you can see why I have to take Advil all the time. These two are the reason for my frequent headaches."
I had a thought, "Let me read them a story," I said to my friend.
"Sure, go ahead! See if you can get their attention for more than two seconds..." she said with a sigh.
The kids clapped with delight, sat next to me on the couch and I started reading. By page six, the little boy turned to his sister and said angrily, "You're just like this chicken! You always want to do what I'm doing."
"Am not!" argued the little girl.
I waited... and waited... after a few minutes shouting, they settled down. I started reading the story from the beginning.
"You've read that already," said the boy, obviously annoyed.
"Well," I replied quietly. "If you too keep arguing and interrupting the reading, I'll lose the place in the book and I will start the story over."
"Okay, I'll be quiet," he said.
"Me, too," the little girl said and they both started laughing.
I continued reading and both kids were glued to every word looking at the pictures. When the eagle attacked the chickens, they both yelled, "Run Spike, run Penny! Hide in the bushes!"
The kids clapped with delight, sat next to me on the couch and I started reading. By page six, the little boy turned to his sister and said angrily, "You're just like this chicken! You always want to do what I'm doing."
"Am not!" argued the little girl.
I waited... and waited... after a few minutes shouting, they settled down. I started reading the story from the beginning.
"You've read that already," said the boy, obviously annoyed.
"Well," I replied quietly. "If you too keep arguing and interrupting the reading, I'll lose the place in the book and I will start the story over."
"Okay, I'll be quiet," he said.
"Me, too," the little girl said and they both started laughing.
I continued reading and both kids were glued to every word looking at the pictures. When the eagle attacked the chickens, they both yelled, "Run Spike, run Penny! Hide in the bushes!"
I continued reading with the only interruptions when the kids pointed out something they liked or found funny in the pictures. By the time we got to the last pages, my friend standing by the door mouthed to me without making a sound, "You're a child whisperer!"
When I said, "The End," the kids looked at each other and the little boy said, " I love you, Penny."
The little girl smiled at her brother and replied, "I love you too, Spike."
There was about five seconds silence as the kids got up and hugged each other. My friend and I sniffed back tears, and then the magic was broken. The kids couldn't contain their pent-up energy any longer and started chasing each other throughout the house.
"Wow!" my friend said laughing. "You managed to give me fifteen minutes peace and quiet, and they both seem to get the message of the story about the importance of family and loving each other. Amazing! Kids can learn more from chickens than from people."
Amazon eBook: http://tinyurl.com/yatgkjhx
Amazon print: http://tinyurl.com/yb6a7qg3
Online stores eBook: https://books2read.com/u/4EW9KE
Signed print: http://tinyurl.com/yayjvrxn
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Movies Playing In My Mind by Toi Thomas #OurAuthorGang
Hi there, Toi here. I’m new to this group and so excited to share a little bit of my creativity and knowledge with all of you. Aside from being an avid reader of books and comic books, I’m also a bit of a cinephile. To be honest, I appreciate a good story in any format, but that’s a topic for another day.
Since I was a kid, it always seemed like I had movies playing in my head. For a short time, what I saw on TV and the big screen was a filter for how I saw the world. Luckily it didn’t take too long for me to come to grips with reality and see the world for what it really is. Still, there were always movies and TV shows playing in my mind, until one day when a movie started to play in my mind that had no outside source material.
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| Pexels.com |
I remember clearly seeing myself as a Lost Boy in Neverland (yes, I know I’m a girl 😉), fighting pirates and playing games with Peter Pan. As I got older, other movies played out in my mind, and soon my head was filled with original characters I’d never met, but who all seemed so familiar. At that point, I wasn’t in these films at all, yet I felt so connected to them. It would be years before all of this made any sense to me, but when it did finally all come together, my life changed.
About ten years ago, I began to have a reoccurring dream. It was unlike any dream I’d had before. For one thing, I could actually remember parts of it. My sleeping dream, for once, played out like so many daydreams had in the past, like a movie. The story was vivid while I slept, but when I woke, I could only grasp bits and pieces. So, I decided to start writing down what I could remember.
After a few weeks, I had this amazing story, that once on paper, played out in my mind like a movie. The star was a gray-skinned solemn man living in isolation, waiting for the day when the light would come. The light of understanding is all this man wanted from life. He was different and knew he didn’t fit into this world and when the light finally came, he transformed into an angel and ascended into heaven as the sound of harps played in the background of a pink sky with yellow rays of light guiding his path.
It was a really great, but also really short film. Having caught the writing bug, I decided to use that story as inspiration for what ended up becoming my first novel, Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel. During the development of my first book, I realized that all the strange, good, and even evil characters I encountered in these cerebral films were, in some way, a part of me. All the stories and movies that played out in my mind were always, in some small way, a reflection of what was going on in my life.
I don’t know if any of my work will ever make it to the big or small screen, but I’m happy for now, just having them play out so perfectly in my mind.
Want to dive more into the inspiration that brought about the Eternal Curse Series? Try 40 Days and Nights of Eternal Curse (the companion guide): Amazon
Find out more about me, my work, and my inspiration at the following links:
#cursescanbebroken, #dreambig, #booklover, #film, #fan,
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