Pam Williams Book Tour / Battle of the Bands Results

         The recent release of A to Z Devotions for Writers by Pam Williams has been pleasing to me for a number of reasons.  Firstly Pam Williams has been a blogging friend of mine for a couple of years now. As one might expect, her blog 2 Encourage uplifts with its positive messages and helpful suggestions.

        What Pam has accomplished with her book should also excite any of you who have been participants in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.   The book was inspired after Pam's participation in the 2011 Challenge.   She realized that her April posts could be the basis of a book for writers.  She pursued the idea and the book is now a reality.

          Particularly pleasing to me is that Pam mentions me in the Acknowledgments and Foreword sections.  I also contributed a blurb for the bookcover.   I feel like a partner of sorts in her publishing venture and I hope she does well with the book.

          A to Z Devotions for Writers was written with Christian writers in mind, but I think the contents of this book have a far greater reach than just Christian writers.  Firstly, non-Christians who are open-minded enough to go along with the program presented here will get a lot out of the contents.

          Each chapter corresponds with a letter of the alphabet and a theme based on that letter.  A Bible verse leads each entry with a follow-up Bible passage to be read for study purposes.  Then Pam presents a brief anecdote or thought to go along with the passages read and the chapter theme.  She continues with helpful writing suggestions and prompts where the chapter theme can be practically applied to a writing exercise.

          In essence this is a work book concerning the craft of writing, telling stories, and communicating ideas.  Christian writers will find it useful, but all writers can find a value to what is contained within the covers of this short book.

         I think that the book could work wonderfully in a group session whether participants were writers honing their craft or just students of life or the Bible itself.  In other words it could actually serve as a supplement for writing education.   It would not be unthinkable to me to see a book of this nature used in a Christian classroom setting.  And whether completed with a group or on ones own, the book offers activities that are fun, useful, and highly rewarding.

          And so again another writer shows us that the Blogging from A to Z Challenge can be more than just a blogging diversion in April.   A book can actually result from those A to Z posts.  Be sure to check out A to Z Devotions for Writers by Pam Williams.  If you have a copy don't forget to leave reviews wherever you can.  Get the word out!

Available from:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Tower Books

 Follow the Tour!  

         Pam Williams has a blog book tour underway currently which includes stops at some blogs you may already know and visit.   You can support Pam in her tour by visiting the following stops:

9/1 1^st Writes

9/2 Dawn at The Write Soil

9/6 Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out

9/11 Me (LOL) Right Here for another sample chapter!

9/16 Denise at Warrior for Jesus

9/23 Janis at Heart-Filled Moments

9/26  Wanda at The Watered Soul

9/30 Brianna at Faith Laces

         Be sure to check out Pam's blog 2 Encourage for additional information on her book, the virtual tour, and general words of encouragement and inspiration.

Battle of the Bands (Round 3) results!


        Last Friday I joined in with Far Away Series and Ferret-Faced Fascist Friends in the 3rd installment of the Battle of the Bands.   If you missed my selections you can review the match-up here.

         To summarize, I pitted Neil Young's original version of "Down By The River" against the version by the group McKendree Spring.  The outcome as voted by readers was decidedly in Neil's favor 11 to 3.

         So what's my pick?

          This is a very tough one for me and since I can't just say it's a tie, I have to come up with a final call.  Neil Young is one of my all time favorite songwriters and musical performers.  I own a good many of his albums.   His version of "Down By The River" is a masterpiece of rock music.  With the backing of Crazy Horse the song is performed exactly as I think they should have done it.  The chunky ragged sound of the instruments and plaintive vocals gives this rendition a down home quality that evokes memory and sadness.  In all respects Neil Young's version is outstanding.

          However, from the standpoint of my personal listening pleasure and my judgement of technical superiority, I'm going to give this contest to McKendree Spring.  The vocal is purer and the instrumentals are masterful.   I'm in agreement with Robin's comment last week:

 I liked the arrangement better. McKendree Spring saved their instrumental section until the end and it had PURPOSE (aside from showing off the skill of whomever was rocking it out). I actually felt the tension of the song building to a crescendo as it raced toward the end.

        That's pretty much how I see it.  I'm a fan of orchestration and the Spring version has a very orchestrated sound with the synthesizers.  Instead of Neil's telegraphing guitar solo, Spring's Martin Slutsky's guitar soars with exquisite etherealness.  Then there's the violin.  As a violin player I tend to gravitate towards rock music that uses the violin and the playing by Michael Dreyfuss is superb.  If nothing else Spring's version wins me over with the violin.

         My first round in the BOTB competition goes to Neil Young according to your vote.  My choice is McKendree Spring.   Anybody care to rethink their vote in retrospect?    Do I make a good case for McKendree Spring?

Related articles

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• How Many Books Have Resulted from the A to Z Challenge?
• 'Who do you think you are, God?': Bible talk with Jim Jarmusch and Neil Young

#IWSG --Secrets

 


 First Wednesday of the month means another 

edition of Alex J Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers 

Support Group.   You can discover more

 participants here.

       Some time ago when I was out gallivanting hither and yon, YVONNE LEWIS at The Written Word of Yvonne Lewis  nominated me for the Super Blogger Award. One stipulation is that I  have to reveal a secret about myself.  Gosh!  What secrets do I have left and are any of those things that I'd be revealing here?

      Many bloggers stay pretty mum about their private lives and histories.  Some go so far as to not even put up pictures of themselves.  I've never been that secretive on my blog.  Many revelations about Arlee Bird can be found in the pages of my blogs, including my real identity.  Is that a good thing?

        Typically a published book will have an author bio and promo photo on the cover.  Well known authors will answer many personal questions in interviews or reveal personal data in memoir pieces.  In this age a fairly quick computer search can turn up many details about a person's life if we plug in the correct basic information.

         But secrets?  What about secrets?  Some things perhaps are meant to stay secret and yet some celebrities (and even not so famous folk) seem to have no qualms with tell all exposés about themselves.  Even in my most personal blog posts I might have been going deeper into myself than I should have.

         Does anybody really care what I've done or what I think?  I'm curious about other people so I enjoy reading those sorts of things.   There's always the potential that some delicate bit of information might come back to haunt me.   I think of politicians who have had past histories revealed to create big problems for them.  Or there are things people have said that become less acceptable down the road when they are revealed in the public airwaves.

         I don't plan on running for politics and I doubt whether I would ever become famous enough to have my past become a deterring factor for whatever I might want to do.  It's not like I have horrible secrets to hide, but there are certainly things I've done or said that were mistakes or might be misunderstood.   And there are those things that I don't have a problem with that might be a hindrance for me in certain circumstances because of what others might think.  You just never really know sometimes do you.

        Secrets?  I guess it's good to be careful about blabbing too much.  One of my secrets is that even though I'm always revealing things about myself, I do have a fear (concern?) about telling too much.   How much is too much?  

         Thank you Yvonne for thinking of me for this award.   I guess I revealed a secret.

          How open are you about your life?   Have you ever revealed something that you wish you hadn't?  Has your past ever caught up with you to create an uncomfortable situation?  Do you have a secret you want to reveal here?

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Too Much Work on Labor Day

English: A McDonald's Big Mac hamburger, as bought in the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

   
     Since it's Labor Day I'm going to limit my work here and keep things short.  Seems unlikely for me since I often tend to ramble on and create more work for myself with long involved posts about big topics. And when I work to create long posts then my readers have to work more to read them.  Then if they are going to leave a decent comment they have work at thinking about the topic and writing the comment.  Yes--work, work, work!

          Wouldn't it seem more appropriate to call Labor Day "Laborers' Day"?   After all the day is in honor of the workers and not the work they do.  Actually Labor Day used to be mostly a union celebration with parades and speeches that touted unionism.   Now unions are less of a big deal to most of us.  Kind of a necessary evil if that's what is required in our workplace.  As long as the dues are taken out of our paychecks, the union doesn't care about individual workers that much and the workers would rather just have a day when they don't have to work and can go to the beach or do something fun.   Or maybe work around the house.  Oh, that's a load of fun isn't it.  Taking a day off from work in order to work.

         Perhaps unemployed and retired people like myself shouldn't be entitled to celebrate Labor Day.  Then again who's celebrating?  Not me.  On my current meager income I can't afford to do much celebrating.  I'll probably be here at home doing the same puttering about that I usually do.  Yippee!  That's my celebration.

         Now the fast food workers want $15 an hour.  Well, the unions want them to get it at least.  I'm sure the fast food workers would like $15 an hour, but I seriously doubt they organized themselves to demonstrate for a pay raise.  That was union shenanigans and union shills were mostly who was on the picket lines.  Fast food workers were mostly too busy just trying to make a buck so they could scrape by another day.

         I'd love to see them all make $15 an hour, but I don't want to pay $10 for a stupid Big Mac either.  There's economics at play here, but that's a topic for another day and another long post.  Or maybe even a series of posts.  Oh, those posts will probably come eventually, but not today.  That's too much work for a day that celebrates work.

         Besides, who's really reading many blog posts today.  Other than me of course.  Most people are probably having cook-outs, sitting in cool darkened movie theaters, or getting a cultural education at art museums.  Yeah, I'm sure those art museums are absolutely bustling.

         I'm going to cut this blog post short.  I know it's not really all that short, but it could have been a lot longer, believe me.  If you are a regular reader here I'm sure you do believe me.  But yes, I'm going to cut the post short because I'm tired and this is a lot of work.   Too much work on a day in honor of work.  Maybe I'll go take a nap because I'm tired.  First though maybe I'll go to McDonald's to get something to eat while Big Macs and fries are still relatively cheap enough for me to afford them.

          Then I'll go home and take a nap.  I'll dream about making $15 an hour at McDonald's.  I wonder if workers there get free food?  $15 an hour, free hamburgers, and Obamacare sounds almost like a Utopian socialistic dream.  Who could ask for more?  Well, the union of course, but I'm not going there today.

        What do you like to do on Labor Day?   Are you in a union?   Have you ever worked in a fast food establishment?   Would you pay $10 for a Big Mac?   Do you pay $5  for a coffee at Starbucks?

       

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