Red Room | Where the Writers Are

The Daily Sam: Disneyworld

I should have known it was going to be bad day when the traffic reporter on KQED radio said there was still a problem on the N line after telling us about an as-yet undiagnosed problem on the L line. San Francisco’s mass transit system (MUNI) of buses, light rail, trolleys, cable cars, carrier pigeons, sleds, and roller blades always has its problems, but it usually doesn’t’ make the ...

THE ROLLER COASTER OF LIFE

by kasmik zenter

ENJOY THE RIDE!This past Halloween, I visited Six Flags and waited in line for almost two hours to get a ride on the 'Goliath', one of the larger roller coasters in North America. Even in the drizzle and cold weather, I felt warm and prickly inside, excited by the anticipation of the enormous 200 foot climb to the top. Finally, I boarded a car, seated next to a stranger, who was equally charged ...

TENTHS OF A SECOND

I’m happy to announce the release of my first audio story original. Sniplits.com bought the audio rights to TENTHS OF A SECOND and it’s now available for download—all for the price of an iTunes download. The story can be downloaded to computers, iPods and smart phones etc. TENTHS OF A SECOND is about a struggling young racecar driver who is given the chance to get an edge on the ...

books in the media

by Annette Julia Dunlea

Books in the Media List1. Lustrum by Robert Harrishttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/00918010012. Tricks of the Mind by Derren Brownhttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/19050263823. Flash Forward by Robert J Sawyerhttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/B000OTNVG24. Family Planning by Karen Mahajanhttp://astore.amazon.com/annduniriwri-20/detail/006153725X5. The ...

afternoon to write!

by James S Hoch

School was only a half day. The sub job I had was a piece of cake. Got to do some notes for chapters. This afternoon I will get to write. Yesterday, I wrote @1200 words. What a good day!!! Still dark and gray, but at least no rain. Another storm is on the agenda for tomorrow...more wind and rain. At least, it's not snow and I don't have to shovel!!!

When It Began With Me

When it began with me.I did my first bit to stop the war in the spring of 1968. However, my actions to end the conflict in Viet Nam were not altogether altruistic or free from self-interest. I had arrived on the campus of Oberlin College the previous September, two weeks shy of my 18th birthday, the benchmark at which all U.S. males of the day were required to register for Selective ...

Peace Be With … All Of Us

by Victor A Williams

After spending eight days in the heart of Thailand — the 10-million-soul city of Bangkok and tourist destinations of Pattaya and Hua Hin — on what was ostensibly a golf familiarization trip but turned into a quick-fire cultural education, I'm tempted to take that nation's long-standing path toward at least an idea of "peace." They know how to live the word, to breathe it, to embrace ...

Pax Aeterna

They are getting closer. I hear them, wave upon wave, mounted upon terrified steeds, poor abused beasts who have no Francis to calm them. I hear the clash of steel, the primal screams and cries, the whinnying, the shuddering clack of wood upon wood and stone. Francis raised these walls with his own bare hands until they were chafed sore and ...

A place to 'be'

by Ryoma A Collia-Suzuki

Gina and myself Nov '09

I’ve found it surprising to realise how ‘noisy’ and chaotic most of my life has been. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however it’s been interesting for me to look back at my life and see that even as a child I always sought ways to find a place just to ‘be’, no distractions, no chaos; just me, my thoughts and I. From around the age of nine or ten I used to spend a fair amount ...

Revolutions

by Virginia Moffatt

Yes, I know it was last week's blog but I forgot to post. So here is what I might have posted. One of a series of bicycle poems I had to submit for an assignment last year. I'm not a fan of my own poetry, but this is one that I quite like - the nearest I've ever got to a love poem.Revolutions. You were half a world away, planningpeaceful revolutions. You lunched atbreakfast, slept at tea, woke ...

Ignoring your baby

by Vanessa R Lillie

Rosemarys Baby.jpg

I’ve been working on my “Duchess” WIP for something like five years…probably more. I’m at over 400 pages and am at the half-way point (obviously, I’m an over writer). I’ve read lots of good advice about sticking with a project to the bitter end, but I also recognize that it’s my very first book. My baby. I've been learning how to write as I've been writing. As all those who have ...

Feel Good Story

by Linda Ballou

In search of traditional Hawaiian healing venues I circumnavigated the Big Island sampling lomi-lomi, and other forms of massage along the way. What better way to rejuvenate body and mind than in the knowing hands of masters and restorative waters of Hawai’i. If you follow in my footsteps, I promise you won’t be sorry. Healing Hawaiian Holiday featured article in Real Travel ...

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A TROJAN:...

by Steven Robert Travers

The SIXTIES BILL REDELL 1960 (Freshman Team) Quarterback I was very fortunate to go to USC when I did go there. It's part of my college experience and I consider myself a Trojan. I'm not bitter or feel I was treated unfairly just because I left. I loved the experience I had there. I was at the USC extension school from 1959-60 and played freshman football 1960. ...

Special Delivery: Part 3

I’ve discovered two new ways of offending the Japanese: 渡し箸 (watashibashi: resting one’s chopsticks across the top of one’s bowl) to cross over + chopsticks 渡り箸 (wataribashi: using one’s chopsticks to jump from side dish to side dish without pausing to eat rice in between) to cross over + chopsticks Both actions are considered breaches of etiquette. Just ...

Why Literature?...

by Claire Elizabeth Terry

For this week's Red Room blog on 'peace', I'd like to once again share a contribution from 'The Art of Living'*, this time by Mario Vargas Llosa, whose essay, "Why Literature?" brilliantly highlights how literature is "one of the common denominators of human existence" and how the "unvariable truth ... that men and women from across the world are equal" that ...

The Death of the Oprah Dream

by Karen Berner

I don’t know about most of you, but today’s announcement by Oprah Winfrey to end her syndicated television show left me empty, morose and wanting to crawl back into bed, never to surface again. This reaction, however, is not due to the impending absence of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in my life, although I have been a viewer on and off for most of her years on TV. No, it goes far deeper than ...

Quote by Michael Pokocky

by Michael W Pokocky

"Books are like wines. You develop a taste for them, and everyone has, a unique palette." __Michael Pokocky 2009

Celebrity

by David Moolten

Marilyn Monroe rules the world, at least The part visible in a photograph, standing Above the troops she’s about to bless With a song in her porous sequin dress, her arms Durably outstretched. She hasn’t aged a day In fifty years. The men too appear impossibly Young, mooning boys clotted around a woman Who just might show them something they’ve never seen. Picture the millions ...

Scala Contarini del Bovolo

by Angela K Nickerson

Medieval and Renaissance Venetians often built exterior staircases on their homes to save precious living space. But the architects of the Scala Contarini del Bovolo -- or staircase of the snail shell -- took the art of floor-to-floor mobility to a new artistic level. Peter Contarini added the staircase and series of loggias to his palazzo near the end of the 1400’s. The staircase and ...

Oprah and Adaptability

The news of the moment is that Oprah Winfrey is to end her daytime show.Oprah is coming off the air.Michael jackson's passing ,to me, was far more dramatic and shocking.Oprah coming off the air is a straight case of collateral damage and changing cultures.Of course I empathise with her, but let's get serious.I have been writing all along about how America is in deep trouble and all that and ...

Make $150,000 from Your Book Before It's...

Many professionals choose to write books to help them achieve expert status, bring in more clients and, ultimately, build their businesses. This offers a viable strategy for many business people, especially those whose companies have a client base, such as consultants and coaches. With the ease and affordability of print-on-demand (POD) publishing, almost anyone wanting to utilize a book to ...

At Peace

by Jennifer Jean

I’ve been thinking a lot about “peace” lately. I’m publishing my first poetry chapbook called In the War about how my father’s war related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder affected his life and our family—and I’m supposed to start lining up readings, getting reviews and stuff. But, the title worries me. What if someone asks me about it? I guess I can refer to my pitch, fall ...

Peace in Three Parts: Two Children's and...

by J. Ruth Gendler

Peace in Three Parts Part I: A Third grader Personifies Peace Peace is a child, small, invisible, yet powerless over Anger and Ruthlessness, who seem to control war, the very enemy of Peace. But Peace would not go to war with Anger nor Ruthlessness, for she is Peace, after all. She would not go to war. Even though, of course, Peace is very busy, with lots of war going on. Alex Trux, ...

Pilgrims, Peace, and Purpose

by Kelly Tweeddale

This time of year usually brings to mind pictures of pumpkins, horns of plenty, and pilgrims. We are asked to be grateful, to give thanks, and to invest large amounts of time and effort to create savory foods we may only eat once a year. There can be great comfort in the predictability of the ritual. Some might call it downright peaceful. But I’ve never been able to get the image of an ...

My Convictions

I feel O.K because I have written what I felt were my convictions.I have tried to be a good citizen of the world.I have said my two cents worth.I can't do more.I am the unrecognized writer/poet.My university has ignored my work and I have tried to ignore them myself.But somehow ,I feel good.Probably because of freedom of expression and the redroom.I have tried to get the attention of President ...

Peace is imaginary

by Dennis K. Biby

Peace is something most of us claim to want yet thinking about it I realized the difficulty in defining peace. My thoughts roamed across the “lack of” spectrum – lack of anxiety, of war, danger, strife, and fear. If I assume humans want peace, then their quest for danger (smoke jumpers, NASCAR drivers), anxiety (query letters, lotteries), fear (roller coasters, horror movies), and ...

A Thanksgiving Tail

by Shelley L Hussey

Thanksgiving on Guam

To the tune of "Over the River and Through the Woods." Over the ocean and through the skies,To the island of Guam I fly,The plane knows the way,To land near the bay,While islanders shout "Hafa Adai!" ("Welcome," in Chamorro, the native tongue.) I was welcomed to the island of guam by Aunt Vicki, Uncle Bill, and my two cousins Velma and Woody, who I lived ...

BREAD AND CIRCUSES

I luv bread - circuses not so much. I got to partake of a circus the other day. A national circus which is happening right across the whole country of Canada. The Olympic Torch parade. I presume it is still a parade of sorts, even though it is piecemeal and hodge podge as it wends its weary and much-promoted way from one coast to the other. It wended such a way through Halifax, and though when I ...

New book deal: not a rookie anymore

by Kristina Riggle

I'm so happy to announce a new book deal! I'm thrilled and grateful and yes, proud. It's a two-book deal, which means Books Three and Four (since Book Two, THE LIFE YOU'VE IMAGINED, is completed and scheduled for August 2010).What does this change for me? I'm tremendously fortunate to have this security and expression of HarperCollins' faith in my work. It means I no longer feel like a rookie and ...

FIFA rejects another playoff between Ireland and...

by Balthazar Rodrigue Nzomono-Balenda

FIFA has rejected the possibility of a replay between Republic of Ireland and France. France's Thierry Henry's controversial handed ball led to an equalizer. The reason why FIFA declined another playoff between Ireland and France for the World Cup 2010, in South Africa, it's because they believe that the result cannot be changed. This outrageous for as a football fan who also ...