Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December, 2010

Finding your Muse

As I constantly tell anyone who will listen, the beauty of being a writer is that you can do your work anytime, anywhere with very little restrictions…except for the ubiquitous procrastination or creative blocks that can follow you wherever you go.   As I sit in my childhood bedroom with the pale blue walls, white curtains and bedspread with the blue flowers and ruffles, I am reminded that inspiration comes from a variety of sources but I’m having a hard time focusing as I’m mentally transported back to when I was 12 and my purple room was transformed into a more sophisticated blue as I headed into my teen years.   But, I digress.   I am home in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the holidays and am missing my muse – a 15-pound, black and white feline named Zorro.   It’s dawned on me that his furry presence keeps my creative juices flowing or jump-starts them when they’ve ground to a halt.   Sometimes he’ll just lay quietly curled up on the carpet behind me as I’m tapping away and when I can’t

Book Review: Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment by Tim Brookes

Join me the 1st of every month as I review a new book.  I will focus on travel, expat adventures and various small business resources.  For my first review I have chosen Tim Brooke's Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment – A journey across India in search of the meaning of water , supported by the Champlain College Publishing initiative.   Thirty Percent Chance of Enlightenment is a behind the scenes look at author Tim Brookes’ adventure to India while on assignment for National Geographic to do a story on forecasting and preparing for monsoon season.   I read it while in Malaysia, just recently (so it was actually during monsoon season) so I really got into the mood and anticipation of it all.  I read most of it while on a bus making my way from Kuala Lumpur to Penang Island.  I know most people can’t put themselves into a place that matches the location of a story physically, so Brookes does a great job bringing you into the story with him. It’s a philosophical and comical