raven ambition's BLOG

Category: books

  • Updates to my website

    Updates to my website

    I’ve been working on updating my personal author/artist website all week. Do visit! Tell me what you think. And if you’ve got a link you think I should add to the links page, send it to me.  Here is the link.  Kim

  • Do you Name Your Couches Too? And other musings

    Do you Name Your Couches Too? And other musings

    I don’t make elves anymore. I make little fairy village houses instead  but I used to make elves. I used to snip pieces of fabric to sew into elf outfits. The elves I made myself and stuffed with batting – they were usually made of felt and clothed from things I found in my home,…

  • Finally reading 5 people you meet in heaven

    Finally reading 5 people you meet in heaven

    “My ideal teaching planet would have 8 to 10 rabid, maniacal, fanatic art majors… hungry for the zeal of artistic exploration (!) inspired by the mere hint or crick of the eye wrinkle of one my aging octogenarian professors (…yes Emeritus). When I was an art student, I immersed………

  • power of words

    power of words

    Oh the Power of Words, especially unspoken and feared ones, the ones we don’t ever want to hear, which lay coiled in wait for unguarded moments to strike. And when least expected. Unleashed, some words cut as if freshly sharpened from whetstones. And, of course, the opposite is also true:  words can be blankets. Soothing…

  • I Learned This from Gelsey

    I Learned This from Gelsey

    The man came to the edge of a cliff, and the tiger was almost upon him. Having no choice, he held on to a vine with both hands and climbed down.

  • Back Off Pigweed OR: Just Enough On The Plate

    Back Off Pigweed OR: Just Enough On The Plate

    Deserted houses, forgotten outbuildings, abandoned vehicles, long vacant parking lots, and sunken ships. They’ve all got something in common. Nature gobbles them up. Underground roots (rhizomes) undermine the integrity of foundations. Ivy creeps stealthily into cracks. Temperature extremes, dampness, insects and various wild animals- all play a role in reclaiming structures. In the sea, artificial reefs…

  • Having A Walmart Brain

    Having A Walmart Brain

    Above: This is an example of a 25 hundred dollar mirror with superb “psyche” tilt. That’s an actual term. Below: a French Budoir mirror (Etsy). And Below: WalMart mirror. Functional simplicity.  There are some grand sounding words associated with mirrors. For instance:  gadrooning (leaves, flowers, birds, etc. carved on the frame),  psyche (the mechanism that…

  • Books and Babble; a little wounded, a little dark

    Books and Babble; a little wounded, a little dark

    Because stuff needs tending. Heaps of unswept dog hair and dirty laundry piles, they’d loom like laughing spectres (we are overthrowing the household!); that’s why! My middle son and I were just discussing today how we share a love of learning. I recently learned that elephants (notably African and Asian) stay pregnant nearly two years! Why…

  • The Mustard Seed Story and also my latest Shenanigans

    The Mustard Seed Story and also my latest Shenanigans

      I found this in one of my little drawers: (not my grandson’s fingers; I mean I found this trinket) It’s a mustard seed. I’m a border/hoarder… My mother; she was a full out hoarder (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but I’m just borderline hoarder (thus the term border/hoarder.) As such, I often…

  • BETWEEN THE GREYS

    BETWEEN THE GREYS

    Somewhere on the planet as I type this; gurgling, burbling geothermic hotspots spurt predictably (like certain presidential candidates) and just like Old Faithful, Pixar presents us with another animated film. Inside Out is about feelings; so I was putting this one off. Eventually I did give it a watch. Turns out it’s literal, it runs…

  • Word Power

    Word Power

    Firstly, I want to state that this is what fiddlehead ferns and sidewalk purselane look like: They are both fun to say. Fiddlehead ferns. Purselane. That’s the beauty to be found in words. Anyone ever have a kit of these magnetic words that were/are available at Barnes and Noble; for the refrigerator? Interesting sentences can…

  • Tinsled Rhetoric

    Tinsled Rhetoric

    Here it comes. Some more neurons from yours truly, firing off like ping pong balls. When I’m not enjoying the promise of Autumn with short walks to visit old paths and stones in walls I had almost forgotten, I have been compiling thoughts like so many layers of onion. Here, I peel them. I share with…

  • Some things to smile about (or…having a rich varied thought life:)

    Some things to smile about (or…having a rich varied thought life:)

    Some things that make me smile in no particular order: Planning and partaking in art projects. Generating a love for the arts and for reading. Learning new things. Reading an engaging book. Receiving feedback about my book. I received a book of cows doing yoga for Christmas from my middle son and I was dreading…

  • You can’t go home again, can you?

    You can’t go home again, can you?

    It’s a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, or wistfulness for a home of the past.

  • Delphinapterus Leucas in a Small Town

    Delphinapterus Leucas in a Small Town

     “A tree is best measured when it is down—and so it is with people.”                   —from a documentary on creative process, Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars, which was released in 1987. Lincoln: The War Years… Bob Wilson is right. It is true of people too. When society…

  • Crows To Roses

    Crows To Roses

    “The power of morality is not something that is talked about much these days, especially among contemporary people. But when we look at it from the point of view of commitments as a form of morality, and when we SEE how the Buddhists treat making and keeping commitments as a form of morality, then we…

  • Visual Thinking…I love imagery.

    Visual Thinking…I love imagery.

    Holy Dust Motes I wrote a poem in 1999 about dust and how it danced in beams of colored light from my church’s stained glass windows. For years I perseverated about anything dust related. Painting The Chameleon Every Day What does that phrase even mean? Well, chameleons change to suit their environment. For people who…

  • Survivors’ Hope

    In 1999, an editor named Robert took a chance on me and published a nonfiction essay of mine in his literary magazine at March Street Press. Then he published my fiction story in the following issue. (No pay of course.) But seeing your writing in print those first few times is a thrill.  Little did…

  • CAN WE TALK? (about pet peeves)

    CAN WE TALK? (about pet peeves)

    You know that book: “Eats Shoots and Leaves” (by Lynne Truss)? I used to think it was about some kind of mammal, maybe a panda, that eats shoots and leaves. Then I put on my glasses and noticed the comma: “Eats, Shoots and Leaves.” Now that implies that someone eats, then shoots, then leaves… Entirely…

  • Interpretting White Roses

    Interpretting White Roses

    salus in ardunis sancte et sapienter Alice In Wonderland Syndrome…(or as it’s also called: Todd’s Syndrome or Lillipution Hallucinations) sounds made-up but it’s a very real condition.  People seem fine optically, but they have weird visual perceptions. They have what’s termed a “rare form of migraine” (migrainous ischemia?). All of their senses are strangely distorted. The…

  • Reflections On a Life, Ghoti equals FISH, ALS challenge

    “Poopsy. Come back,” It was my father’s voice on the CB radio. “Come back” meant something like “Do you copy me? Do you here me? Please reply.” My husband was driving. We were on the way to New Hampshire for a vacation; my only child at the time was 5 or 6 and asleep in…

  • A more interesting word without “U”

    A more interesting word without “U”

    Obscure: the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, or unimportant.                 I forgot the library’s closed on Mondays and it was there on my shelf so I picked up my memoir. For some obscure reason, (imagine ME obscure? Right, I know) I decided to reread my book “Under the Banana Moon.” Well actually it can be…

  • Rantings of a logophile

    Rantings of a logophile

      I’m into obscure things. If you’ve read this blog you already know that. This forum, for me, is kind of an information purge of sorts. It’s like a safe place where I can say things like moon pigeons and alphabet juice and electric ketchup. Oddball conundrums keep my brain cells happy. Let me explain the…

  • It Rains Diamonds on Uranus; Happy Mother’s Day Carol

    …I was thinking that sometimes inspiration isn’t so bold that it’s wearing a velour jumpsuit. Sometimes it’s as simple as a cartwheeling spider or a rainbow tree. Noticing (and seeking out) beautiful eccentricities enhance my life. But I’m getting ahead of myself… So, picture this: A young black man is scheduled as keynote speaker to…

  • Passions Pursued, HONY, Pandora and Unicorns

    “They were expecting it to be nothing but unicorns shitting rainbows…” Ever browse Humans Of New York (HONY)? Think this: a photographer named Brandon who admits to, at some point being obsessed with things like aquariums, piano, baritone, New York City, etc. His current passion brings us pictures of New Yorkers, taken in a purposely…

  • Work ethic, Dr. Suess and if I was a Tree

            I ‘met’ someone recently who used to work in retail and I did my share of that too so I was reminiscing about my years ‘working with the public.’ I told him that I did my best. That’s all anyone can do. I found lots of expired merchandise in my “Health…

  • Interview With a Fellow Aspergian

                 This blog is in honor of both “National Library Week” (April 13th to 19th) and “Asperger Awareness Month” (April); although designated weeks and months are hardly reasons to blog about e-mails received quite “out of the blue” from interesting people who’ve actually read ALL of my blogs. I assure you readers,…

  • it’s that month again, here’s what I’ve been up to, in part

    the infamous puzzle piece? Yeah I know, it’s very cliche   Here’s what I’ve been up to: (Keep in mind there are several links on this blog. Don’t forget to come back and read the rest…Or click them when you finish reading…) http://barkingsycamores.wordpress.com/current-issue/ The above link is from a “neurodivergent” sister site on wordpress who…

  • Queen Anne’s Lace and violent outbursts of energy

    Queen Anne’s Lace and violent outbursts of energy

    I love this so-called weed. Don’t go there. This blog is not about that kind of weed. I mean an actual weed. It’s roots smell like carrots. It’s leaves smell like parsley. When seeds form, the flower is a balled up nest. Its white cluster of flowers  form an umbrella. It’s the white Queen Anne’s…

  • J. Moore’s Book, Memory, and Tattooed Pigs

                   JJ has this theory that memory is still there; like in a computer; in the recesses of your brain. Like you never really forget things; not even in regard to Alzheimers. He feels that you never really delete anything from your hard drive per se. As in with…

  • Some of Crows’ and Ravens’ Roles in Fairy Tales and myth and Literature

    Some of Crows’ and Ravens’ Roles in Fairy Tales and myth and Literature

    I think of ravens and crows interchangeably. I can’t help it; I just do. Ravens are bigger in size although there are other differences too; like their voices. Supposedly the crow can say ‘uh-huh’, ‘caw’, ‘eh-aw’, ‘kow’, ‘aww’, and sound real nasal, whereas the raven is harsher and says things like ‘kraa’, or it makes…

  • Augusten Burroughs and me and also Egyptians and Stuff

    “Guess I have to kill you now”, I joked during our ‘bathroom time’. He rolled his eyes and had this stern face which was his mask, the ‘mask of ALS’ (Lou Gehirgs) as it was called in the newsletter we got delivered to the house. His facial muscles were so weak that he had a…

  • Digging In Boxes

    Digging In Boxes

    Digging In Boxes                 There are ‘noun friendly’ languages like English and then there are ‘verb friendly’ languages like Korean, Hindi, and Japanese. In the latter languages, nouns are frequently dropped and names for activities are emphasized in the earliest years of life when parents are teaching children to speak. On the other hand, parents…

  • Neologism, weight loss, rebuilding Lost Identity

    I’ve become a shack again. My body is no longer my temple. Time to rebuild. I’ve done it before. I’ve done it many times in the course of this life. Redesigned my self… There’s a lot that goes into that: rational belief, toughness, emotional strength, endurance, resilience and the jump starter: desire. Example: I’ve been…

  • Comparing Luigi to the Voynich find, a look at two of the weirdest outsider art books ever!

    Comparing Luigi to the Voynich find, a look at two of the weirdest outsider art books ever!

    Imagine writing and illustrating a book so bizarre (but intriguing) that decades later people are still drawn to it and NO ONE has been able to decode the secret language you made up, nor are they able to understand what your mind boggling illustrations mean?! Hey that’s a feat, eh? Look at one of the…

  • Fascinating modern architecture to 1700 manor houses…it’s all good

    Fascinating modern architecture to 1700 manor houses…it’s all good

      Recently I’ve been reflecting about architecture. I’m reading a historical book called The Manor: Three centuries at a slave plantation on Long Island by Mac Griswold. This 70 year old woman, Mac, is a cultural landscape historian, a fascinating job. When she was a little girl in the 1950s growing up in New Jersey,…

  • Under the banana moon finally has an official website

    http://mercurygirl49.wix.com/underthebananamoon-1 Finally my book has an official website. After days of working on this site for my book, I can get back to blogging! Kim

  • Feeling around in a flowery diction

    Have you ever felt you resided inside that place in a harmonica where moist breath and music meet? Have you ever felt like one of those perfectly imperfect pine trees that grow sideways on golf courses? Ok well have you ever felt like a collection of soft blue, pink, white grey lint, like the kind…

  • LOST ART of Dr. Suess, Books, Mosaics and Pleasure in Broken Pieces

    LOST ART of Dr. Suess, Books, Mosaics and Pleasure in Broken Pieces

         Why mosaics? I like the shiny full color allure of “coffee table” books. The large exotic collection of pictures I never tire of. There are three such books I am finding myself picking up over and over. I’ve owned them for years. I share them with visiting children, I open them for peaceful…

  • Contemplation on Dead Greyhounds and Women’s Rights; Ultimately Life Lessons

    Some people are surely meant to be in our lives, but not necessarily to be in them for a lifetime. I think of course of those people in my own life who came and went on in death before I would’ve liked. My spouse left three children whose ages were 23, 14 and 9. I…

  • My Personal Yellow Journey, from Plastic Cups to Coldplay

    My mother and I spent a few weeks each summer, and sometimes on school vacations, with her mother; a fragile sprite of a woman who was deaf and lived in a huge white house in Vermont sprawling with cats and houseplants. At bedtime I would take ‘my’ yellow plastic cup from the ‘cupboard’, which was…

  • The Elephant Keeper, a quick overview of a stunning book

    The Elephant Keeper, a quick overview of a stunning book

    I rarely write a book review but The Elephant Keeper screams to be understood, and to be read. If you do read it, you may come away from it stuck in your head but not able to really understand what just happened. Doesn’t that have the makings of a good read? One that makes you…

  • Despair and quoting from my favorite book of meditations

    Despair and quoting from my favorite book of meditations

    There’s a word for the sound of wind blowing through the trees, which incidentally happens to be one of my pet sounds: “psithurism.” (That’s the word.) I can’t however, attain any psithurism presently because I’m in the house. I hope to be outside later, even if it’s just to eat at my picnic table…That said,…