Time to Get Happy! : A Review of Talli Roland's Watching Willow Watts

Happy Blogoversary to Tossing It Out!!!
Two great years starting with the first blog post on September 19, 2009

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GET HAPPY!  GET WATCHING WILLOW WATTS!

The links are:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

       Recently I finished reading J.D. Salinger's Catcher In The Rye.  I found that book to be somewhat of a downer, and perhaps I'll talk more about that book at a later time.   After finishing Catcher I began reading Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale which I was finding to be very ponderous and depressing.  Then along came Talli Roland's Watching Willow Watts.   I decided to take a break from the bleak Atwood tale to read Roland's much cheerier story.  A delightful diversion it turned out to be.

       Willow Watts is a young woman whose life has seemed to have hit a wall.  After her mother's death she leaves London and the man she loves to return to the dreary village where her father lives in order to comfort him and help out with his antique business which is on the brink of financial ruin.  Dressed as Marilyn Monroe, she appears in a whimsical video that rapidly becomes a YouTube sensation drawing thousands of fans to the village.  Suddenly, she is the fixation of her adoring fans and under the guidance of an unscrupulous talent agent sees a way out of her financial troubles and a promise of new prosperity for the village.  Her decisions bring changes to her life and the lives of those around her--but is the change for the better?

        In this short novel Talli Roland tells a blithe tale about when ordinary people are confronted with big changes.  The storytelling is skillful and told with humor and heart.  The characters are portrayed realistically with no airbrushing or cosmetic cover ups--we see the good and the bad and love or detest them for who and what they are.  These are adults doing grown up things, but with an innocence that almost charmed the pants off of me.  Oh, don't worry, my pants stayed on all the while that I was reading since there is nothing overly steamy in this book.   The book for the most has little to offend most readers.

        The message in the book is a good one portrayed in an entertaining way.  The story deals with people with empty spaces in their lives that need filling.  Roland examines how people try to fill the empty places by living vicariously through the lives of others on YouTube and reality TV.   As the characters in this story begin to realize the importance of accepting self and pursuing ones dreams, they gain awareness of how the past can cast a shadow on the present and stand in the way of the future.   Some of the characters are sweet while a few not so much.  Synchronous circumstances bring an assortment of people together in a place where dreams are fulfilled in unexpected ways.

      

       The book is not without flaws.  There is an abruptness in the continuity of some of the events in the novel, but it allows for fast pacing.   This is an easy read that is uplifting and funny.  The story drives home the positive message of acceptance of self and living life instead of just watching others live theirs.   In the end we understand that just watching Willow Watts is not as meaningful as being Willow Watts.   An important message for all of us.

       I don't typically read anything that might be labeled "chick lit", but I really did enjoy this book. I'm not even sure that it is fair to put the limits of the "chick lit" label on the book. My recommendation is read WATCHING WILLOW WATTS and decide for yourself. For me it was darn good reading. 

     Now I guess I can go back to finish A Handmaid's Tale. 

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If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be...

     Today (9/14/2011)  is the e-book debut of Talli Roland's newest novel Watching Willow Watts.  To celebrate Talli has organized an online 'If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be...' party.   It's a virtual costume party where we are supposed to dress up like the person or character we'd most like to be.


      The reason for this particular theme is that in Talli's book, the character Willow Watts is mistaken for a sort of reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe and begins to take on the role in order to appease adoring fans and make some money in the process.  Willow becomes Marilyn, who would you like to be?







 'If I Could Be Anyone, I'd Be...'


           I always struggle with a question like this--even in playfulness.  I can never think of that perfect life that I would like to enter if I could.  We all have our problems, but at least I know what mine are.


            In thinking about this question my first reaction was King Solomon.  He was one of the richest and wisest men who ever lived.  He had just about anything a man could want.  And on top of that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.  Now what man doesn't dream of something like that?


            On the other hand, living with that many women would probably be a real challenge.  Maybe it would be fun for a while, but really!--That many women under one roof?   Besides old Solomon kind of pissed off God and that's something you don't want to be doing.  Maybe being Solomon wouldn't be all that great after all.


            So then I considered a famous writer.  Mark Twain wrote good material, traveled the world speaking to packed houses, and made some decent money.  He also lost a lot of money due to bad business investments.  If I were him I'd probably even make worse investments and lose more money.  


            Mark Twain had his triumphs, but he also had his share of tragedies in his seventy-five years of living.  It might be interesting to live in Twain's shoes, but maybe I'd rather read about him than actually be him.


            Even with the person with the sunniest facade you don't know all that they have felt.  Sometimes the great times a person seemed to have had may have been overshadowed by dark events that history told us about or that perhaps are kept in the secret places of that person.  So considering that factor of the unknown about the life of another, since I know what my life has been, where I am now, and whatever potential I see in my future, I guess I'll just come to the party as me.   I was never one for dressing up much anyway.
           

The links for Watching Willow Watts are:

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

         I plan to have my review of this book up on this site next Wednesday.  I've gotten a little behind on my reading.

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...A Little Help From Our Friends: Helpful Bloggers to the Rescue

          As I have been teasing all week, today I have a special announcement.  And I guess it would be of little surprise to anyone that this announcement has something to do with the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.  If this is your guess, then you are correct.

          The Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is climbing toward 300 participants with a probability that we may go over this amount before the arrival of the start date.  Last year I was nearly overwhelmed by the almost 100 bloggers who participated in A to Z.  I knew that this year would be even bigger since we had a much earlier start to get the word out to the blogging community.

            Fortunately, popular bloggers Alex J Cavanaugh, Jennifer Daiker, and Talli Roland came to my rescue to make the Challenge easier to administer and be a greater success.  However we came to the conclusion that even we might not be able to satisfactorily pull this off to a point that would make the Challenge as great as it could be.  For this reason we are expanding the A to Z Team.

Here are the four added members of the A to Z Team:

Jeffrey Beesler from World of the Scribe....

Candace Ganger from The Misadventures in Candyland

Karen Jones Gowen from Coming Down the Mountain: From Reclusive Writer to Published Author....

Stephen Tremp from Breakthrough Blogs..

           Some of you may already be familiar with all or some of these bloggers.  I'll let you visit each of their blogs so you can say hello and get to know them better.  They each have their own unique strengths and talents which should help make the challenge more fun and more rewarding for all of us. 

           In the weeks to come, we will be offering our special Challenge posts to make your April a more successful race to the finish line.  Be sure to watch the posts of the A to Z Team as we present tips from our experiences in blogging, writing, and life in general.  It won't always be A to Z of course, but we hope the special posts we give you will be something you will find useful and enjoyable. 

          The A to Z Team will be here to answer your questions as best we can and provide support to your blogging efforts.  Let us know if you feel like you need some attention or any suggestions.  Don't forget though, we are also participating in the Challenge and even with the added members our capabilities are limited.  That's why there is one more team member who is the most important one of all.

           Who is that most important team member?   It's YOU!  Without the participation, interaction, and mutual support that only each one of you can give to the Challenge community as a whole, this run through the alphabet is going to be less than the best we can make it.  We're counting on you--every one of you--to see us to the end of April with a grand sense of accomplishment.

            I'll have more to say about all of this in the next few weeks.  I'm sure that our A to Z Team members will likewise have their own words of encouragement.  We're all friends here and never underestimate the power of friends.  We can do this challenge together--so let's do it! 

            There is one more request.  Over the next few days if there are any other bloggers that you think would benefit from this Challenge or who are still on the fence trying to decide if they should do it, please try to get them to sign up this weekend.  We can make it to our goal of 300 by Monday if we try.  Please do what you can.

            Now enough from me.  Head on over to the above links and visit the blogs of our A to Z Team members, say hello, and if you're not following them yet, do so now.  And don't forget to continue going through the Linky list and visit, comment, and follow.  In other words:  network, network, network. April will be here soon. 



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A Very Special and Exciting Announcement!

            Are you ready for the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge?

            I know that some of you are ready because you've told me.   Others of you may be thinking about it and I'm hoping that today's post will get you to thinking a bit harder about it.   And then some of you may be thinking, "What's a Blogging From A to Z Challenge anyway?"

             This challenge started last year to celebrate my reaching the 200 follower mark.  I had no idea that it would take off as well as it did in the short lead time I had in 2010.  Nearly 100 bloggers participated last year with many more keeping up with the progress.  In the end most of the participants were very satisfied with having been a part of the challenge.

How does the Challenge work?

             The premise of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge is to post something on your blog every day in April except for Sundays.  In doing this you will have 26 blog posts--one for each letter of the alphabet.   Each day you will theme your post according to a letter of the alphabet.

              You will only be limited by your own imagination in this challenge.  There is an unlimited universe of possibilities.  You can post essays, short pieces of fiction, poetry, recipes, travel sketches, or anything else you would like to write about.  You don't have to be a writer to do this.  You can post photos, including samples of your own art or craftwork.    Everyone who blogs can post from A to Z.

How can this Challenge help you?

             Ask someone who did it last year.   I invite any of you who Blogged From A to Z in April 2010 to leave a comment below telling how the challenge helped you as a blogger and otherwise.   Some of the benefits that I have seen mentioned and personally experienced were improvement as a blogger and a writer, greater self-discipline,  finding new blog friends, and increasing followers to each of our own blogs.  

             This year the Challenge is being announced two months ahead of time which gives everyone plenty of time to prepare.   Taking this in into consideration I anticipate having at least 300 bloggers joining in with us and I hope you are one of them.  


And here's the best news of all!

            Last year was nearly overwhelming for me to administrate the ongoing challenge by myself.  There is no way I can expand this Challenge to 300 or more participants and expect to do it alone.  That is why I've joined up with three of the most successful bloggers and blog event organizers that I know. 
            Just in case you don't know these great bloggers and writers, let me introduce them to you:

Star blogger Alex J. Cavanaugh, author of the popular science fiction novel CassaStar.  We met in last year's A to Z and he'll swear by the Challenge.  He's already organized events such as the Movie Dirty Dozen, The Top Ten TV Shows Blogfest, and the current Top Ten Music Countdown-- each one of these an unqualified success.    Alex is determined to see A to Z go to 500 participants and with him on board I think we can do it. 

Power-blogger  Jen Daiker from Unedited  jumped right into blogging last April by joining up in the A to Z Challenge.   In her short span of blogging she has amazingly passed the 1000 follower mark--I still am flabbergasted by that feat.  Blog events she has hosted or co-hosted are the Guess That Character Fest, The Great Blogging Experiment (with Alex Cavanaugh and Elana Johnson), and The Be Jolly By Golly Blogfest.   If only all 1059 of her followers blogged from A to Z with us!

Talli Roland from her self-named blog and the author of The Hating Game , her recent novel which is still doing hot business.  When Talli did her Web Splash to coincide with the release of The Hating Game, there were hundreds of fans who helped kick off the campaign with their own blogs.   She'll be in charge of our international affairs since she currently lives in London, England.   And Jen is already building her army of followers while Alex is taking control of CassaStar and the universe--it's a busy crew here.

           And if you're a regular reader of my blog then you probably know something about me, Arlee Bird--there's plenty written about me in my blog pages.    I encourage you to click on the above links to three blogs and give your greeting and, if not one already, become a follower of each of their blogs.

          Whenever you are ready to join up with us, sign up on the Linky list or if you're not sure how to do that let one of us know and we'll  add your blog to our list.  

          
Linky list is no longer accessible on this page.



          Below is a badge you can add to your blog to help advertise to your readers. If you give us a plug on your own blogs now and then we wouldn't mind that either.  This lovely badge was created by Jennifer Daiker.

          Now let's hear about your A to Z experiences, opinions, or questions.    Help us make this a big success and you become a better blogger.

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Do You Think Creative Visualization Works?

              Recently, as I was working on my novel for NaNo, I began to take special note of how much I was visualizing the story in my mind. This is not a new approach for me by any means--it's my normal modus operandi.  However, I started paying closer attention to the process of visualization as it applies to writing.  I discussed this in my blog entry for yesterday.

              Then, this past weekend as I was working on finishing my novel Time Light, I began visualizing the novel having already been published and achieving success.  I could see myself at hugely attended book signings and author events.  And there was my book in the top ten of the New York Times bestseller list.  It was all there vividly in my imagination.  What if I were to apply the principles of creative visualization?  Would it all happen as I saw it in my mind?

               To clarify what creative visualization is, let me summarize it for those of you who may not be familiar with it.   Creative visualization is a discipline which involves seeing in your mind's eye that which you want to attain in your life.  The visualizer focuses on the goal, imagines every detail about what it would be like to attain that goal, and meditates or even prays about attaining the goal until eventually the efforts of the mind make it happen.  This type of visualization is often associated with spiritual or mystical powers that help bring the attainment of the goal to fruition.  This is the dime store version of creative visualization as I understand it.  It is undoubtedly more complex than that but this gives us a place to start.

               Creative visualization is a vital component to several religions, New Age movements, and prosperity success programs.  Many self-help books promote this technique to help achieve goals.  It is a practice that does make sense to me, but not in any spiritual or mystical sense.  If goals are achieved I think it is more attributed to the logical outcome of applying the creative visualization techniques rather than the intercession by some higher power. 

               This discipline of visualization is something that is more related to putting us "in the zone" rather than some higher realm controlling our destiny.  In other words, I see creative discipline as more of a mental rehearsal of something you want to do or a detailed internalized examination of where you want to be. 

            A good example was pointed out yesterday in a comment by Talli Roland.  She related how an athlete will use creative visualization to "practice" a skill without physically doing it.   The athlete will imagine whatever skill they are interested in perfecting, analyzing it and repeating it in their mind so that when they actually physically perform the act there should be a mental sense that improves the physical act.  The visualization in this case is totally functional and for the most part irrelated to anything of a spiritual nature.

          This example can likewise apply to getting a job or promotion, finding a romantic partner, or acquiring something that one wants.  A salesperson may mentally practice a sales pitch before meeting with a customer, imagining what barriers may be encountered and picturing closing the sale.  You may begin a process of visualizing finding a romantic partner and meditating and fixating on this until it happens--but it is highly unlikely that anything will happen unless you take action.   The visualization exercise does not cause the success, it merely prods the dreamer and facilitates the potential of success.

           The way I see it is that you can creatively visualize with the greatest intensity that you can muster, and nothing is likely to ever happen until you actually step forward and start taking action.  The visualization is a first step towards action, which may or may not lead to success.  Creative visualization is not a magic spell.

Do you think that creative visualization works?

             Do you ever consciously use creative visualization to attain goals?   Do you believe that creative visualization is connected to an element of spirituality or mystical power?    Have you visualized your success as an author (or whatever your field of interest is) and what have you seen?


           Stop by tomorrow when I will have a special post with a scheduled stop on Tamara Hart Heiner's book tour appearing on Tossing It Out.


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