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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Something funny at the end of the year:-)


Believe it or not, these are pigs:-)
....the pig traditionally is a lucky charm here... so I baked some for New Year´s Day. I know, they look like Halloween-monsters, but they taste good;-)
I´ll celebrate the beginning of 2010 with my family tonight. We nearly prepared everything for dinner. We´ll eat fondue with different kinds of meat- and many vegetables:-) Then we´ll play some games, watch TV and wait untill midnight to watch the fire-work, to waltz (On the blue Danube) and "Bleigießen"- a New Year's Eve custom of telling fortunes by the shapes made by molten lead dropped into cold water. It´s funny! Then it´s time to sleep a bit to be ready for the great performance of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra- on January, 1. You have to find a way to see and listen to that concert- you´ll see beautiful sights of Austria, too. Now, to all of you a beautiful last day of the year 2009!
Music-Corner:
NEW YEAR´S CONCERT 2010 with the Vienna Philharmonic. Julie Andrews welcomes the New Year with TV audiences, with Georges Prêtre leading the Vienna Philharmonic in a selection of Strauss Family favorites. Worth watching and/or listening!!!
Highly recommended :-) !!

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Lights-reflections






I like the Christmas-illuminations in the city. I drove to V. today and took some pictures in the first district. Some friends came this evening, have to prepare dinner -so unfortunately no time to write more.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Celebrating Christmas


Christmastime without snow





Christmas Eve


Christmas-Eve at my parent´s house. It was a lovely night, the whole family celebrated Christmas there. We played and sang some songs,... the kids loved the lights and the sweets on the tree;-) The food was delicious, like on the next days...the only missing thing was snow.(Look at the picture! Like in springtime)
I like to celebrate with the whole family. On the next day we celebrated at my uncle house, then we drove to my sister, where we got a delicious meal, too. On the next day I celebrated X-mas with friends, and today I´m invited at a friend´s house in V. After all those celebrations I have time to think of a better beginning (and end) of my novel...I´ll see...
Time to hurry up, friends are waiting.
Luther Vandross- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJzm1_5pBXc

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry X-mas! Peace on Earth!


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away,
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

(Written by Norman W. Brooks)

Christmas songs
Stille Nacht, Holy Night the song written by an Austrian teacher, Franz Xaver Gruber-

O Tannenbaum (O Christmas tree)Domingo, Carreras, Pavarotti


Enjoy and happy holidays to all of you!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Aprilweather in December

The weather here is really crazy, had snow and -0,4° F and today no snow any longer, but 59°F, like in spring! That isn´t normal.... climate change...
Last night was exhausting. We celebrated Christmas with the kids. About 270 people were there and the whole celebration nearly took 2 hours. Too long for the kids (and me). But it was a great success. And today was the beginning of my holidays!
I went with my parents in a restaurant, bought the last present, cleaned the flat and listened to Christmassongs.
Here is one Austrian Christmas-song sung by the famous Vienna Boys Choir -- Maria durch ein Dornwald ging--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NA1b8TeMNI&feature=related
Want to write some Christmas-emails now. Like that:-)

Monday, December 21, 2009

X-mas present


My first X-mas present from my Goddaughter:-) She is 3 years old and a very vivid little person. She told me everything about her picture. Every little detail was named and I had to promise to hang up the picture in my flat. I had to take that picture and send it to her. By the way she was very giving after baking cookies, I got about 2o masterpieces from her work in kindergarten. She is a lovely child, like my nice and nephew;-)
I really look forward to celebrating Christmas with them at my parent´s house. Will be nice there, like every year.In 3 days we will sit in the livingroom, near the tiled stove, sing x-mas songs, read from the bible, my sister and I will play with some instruments-maybe flute and guitar.That reminds me of having to practice a little bit.
I won´t sing because I nearly have no voice and tomorrow we celebrate Christmas at work with all the people around. Sing songs, dance, act,...I will be glad when that is over.
Then it´s time to wrap the last presents, help to cook for all of us if necessary.(I know I won´t have a chance to cook , because my father and my mother want to cook, like always, yummie!!!)
Here comes a Last Christmas -guitar version
and another unusual version of a winter song "Let it snow"

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Snow


...it´s so cold at the moment, about 0,4° F!! But I visited my Goddaughter, we baked 4 ! different kinds of cookies, made a gingerbread house, so it was warm and cosy in the kitchen;-)
Then we played with her doll, I had to read some X-mas stories with her and after a while we drank a big mug of tea. Oh, how I like tea! Especially in the winter.
Just finished Dirie´s"Desert flower" I am thankful that I didn´t have to make the author´s horrible experiences. It´s eyeopening, and brought me to another culture. The author is now spokeswoman for the UN against female genitale mutilation.Really impressive woman, who has also lived in my country.
Have ordered some new books, 3 for the next course (at Easter time)...
Only 2 days , then holidays will beginn!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah! I do need them urgently!
Here´s another X-mas song this time from an Austrian group-enjoy!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

WAW-What A Week!!

This week was(is) exhausting, 1.accident of my father- thank God he´s alive, 2. Friend of mine lost her baby 3. my job...
What a week, and then I read the latest news from Denmark´s climate conference.
I pinned my hope for saving climate on the climate summit in Copenhagen, what shall I say, it nearly failed.
According to the L.A. Times ´the Copenhagen Accord sets emission limits but isn't legally binding. It's vague on details and has infuriated smaller nations and environmentalists. The U.N. chief calls it 'an essential beginning.'
Well, the great problem is that the emission limits aren´t binding. So what? Every state can decide on his own whether to fulfill the contract or not. What a great deal! It´s a bit frustrating.
But now I have to remind myself of the positive aspects- well, met my nice and nephew, had lunch with a friend, met S.in the coffeeshop, celebrated b-day with C., finally found a x-mas present for D., find it relaxing to write( although the problems of revision hasn´t changed.
Why is it so difficult for me to reread all those 50.000+ words once more and revise it? Actually I had read them once...
What´s my problem with the beginning and the end of my novel?
Maybe I am a bit too tired to revise it. Maybe I´m a bit too busy at the moment.

X-mas song for today- We are the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne7fPpxAnuM&feature=related

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Revisions- a challenge. But what a challenge!

I´m not quite sure this to be true, because I have never written a novel before,but revisions seem to be the hardest part of writing. Actually they are the most challenging part for my writing. I was happy to find some time for my novel, but after a short time I had to start writing this post. So much easier for me now.
I had to stop revising because I got so angry about my own inability to find the fitting beginning..........xljfgkhjrigfnbadfghn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What´s the best way to find a good starting sentence??
Or how should a novel end?
My problem is not knowing how to revise a book. And by reading many online articles I even got more confused than before, so I decided to stop reading them. I miss my writing buddy, but in January writing will change to the better- hopefully.
Maybe tomorrow is a better day for revisions:-) Who knows?
Now it´s time to listen to X-mas songs to calm down:-) another x-mas show from Vienna-
Domingo, Carreras, Pavarotti---Feliz Navidad!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TeJi1olVHI&feature=related

Music of the week-David Garrett




Teatime!

It´s so cold outside, so I use the time to work at home. Have to make some tea:-)

And maybe I can think about my revisions during cleaning the flat. K. sent me some music from David Garrett- quite good. Crossover Classic+Pop.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAkS1Qk-Zv0&feature=related

So, now it´s time to do what I have to do:-)

Monday, December 14, 2009

Under pressure?!?!?

I wonder if I have to set a deadline for the revisions of the fírst draft. I had limited time to write a novel and it worked for me , maybe I need some pressure to become a more creative writer...lol
But actually I did set a deadline for the first draft- the end of the year.
I ´m afraid that I won´t have much time for the first revisions. But I feel my writing needs a lot of revisions- more than I can handle:-) But I´ll do my best!

I read that a good novel needs short sentences-fewer than 15 words- an award winning author wrote somewhere. Fewer than 15 words.....well, one opinion among many others. But I believe it´s true, ´cause too long sentences are a bit irritating sometimes

Today I visited my sister and her husband and my little nephew and my niece-they are so cute at the moment:-), tomorrow meeting M. and A. in the city and then on Saturday is C.´s birthday, on Sunday I have to bake cookies with my goddaughter, OMG, nearly no time to write on the weekend , too:-(

But I´ll find some time to write. It´s interesting how important writing can become .

Sunday, December 13, 2009

My first post- the beginning and the end

Well, that´s it. My first post here. So, let´s go ! Why I´m doing this? Because of fun and hope- I think it´s a funny and interesting possibility to write about whatever is going on in my mind and life, and hopefully I get new ideas for my own writing. So it´s again a new challenge.

What a year! One challenge follows the other one -block 1, block 2, NaNoWriMo, Flickr and now my Round Colored Corner. I like these challenges:-) Although sorting my pictures was quite easy in comparison with finding an end and a beginning for my writing. I have to mention that I have thousands of photos from all my journeys through all the continents and finding my 200 favorites was not that easy.

But now, how to find the fitting end for a story? Do I have an end or just the beginning of the end??
And what about the beginning? I believe, mine is too boring and obvious, too direct. I had a short conversation with M., she told me the highest art of writing is to develop a thrilling storyline where not everything is known from the beginning.

Well, sounds great but it´s so hard! Harder than writing 50.000+ words within a month. So I thought about my novel, was there enough tenseness? Yeah, some parts in the middle are quite ok, but .....beginning,.....end......

Today I spoke with P. about my beginning, he said it would be a very direct one, but he loves to know the characters right from the beginning, he doesn´t want to find out, who they are ...
...so won´t ask more people , because it´s for sure, I have to find my own way of writing the end and the beginning.

..but, all in all I´m really a little bit proud of my own writing. Although it´s not perfect, I do like some passages, some characters. My sister was asking me, when she would get the finished novel . I had to laugh because I´m not sure if I ever will come to an end with my writing:-)
But I try to get to a good second draft until January to send it to B., so I have to get new ideas to send not a bad one. Time to think about it now.

And to post my first X-mas song:-) (X-mas in Vienna with P. Domingo, D. Ross, J. Carreras http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTdpY1jtvEM

and a picture of a christmas-market (Belvedere). I like the reflections of the stars, well, only some days to Christmas eve, and I don´t have got all the presents yet.