Getting ready for Christmas at my house
Some might think that it’s pushing the season, but I like to decorate for Christmas over Thanksgiving. Then I’m “done.” All that is left is the enjoying. The evenings start so early now. Sunset into the Pacific is before dinner. Jesper and I love to light the candles, put on the Gregorian Chants and sip port wine in front of the fire.
This year I’m starting out with white orchids. There has been much agitation in the world, and I suppose my soul is crying out for purity – and peace. The grapes are meant to remind me daily of the abundance that blesses my life. If you look carefully, you’ll spot a few angels hovering on my mantelpiece. Exist or not exist – it isn’t a question I’m asking this season. I’m relishing the simple joy they bring to my heart. And I hope yours. May this be a wonderful Christmas (or Hanukkah) season filled with love and good companionship for you all.
Early Christmas greetings from my house to yours!
A Shell Beach Fiery Sunset
The Universe treated us in Shell Beach on November 14, 2012 when the California Coastal Commission gave a unanimous thumbs-down to PG&E’s permit request for seismic testing that would have decimated marine life.
Summer means tomatoes and purple basil
Summer is the season of glorious fruit and veggies in California – and my favorite time because we love tomatoes most of all. Just a few miles down the freeway, back on a winding road at the foot of the Mesa, is a little wooden stand tucked away behind a gate. It’s kind of a secret place, so I won’t give you exact directions.
But there you can find paper bags of very ripe tomatoes for $3 and little square baskets of plump, firm, perfect ones for $4. I make my own tomato sauce these days. Just chop the super ripe tomatoes in chunks, throw them in a saucepan with some salt and boil until the consistency you want. Soup, sauce or paste. It all depends on the cooking time.
Wanna make a ratatouille? You’ll find everything you need – lavender, round eggplants the size of grapefruits, shiny green bell peppers, juicy white onions with their long bushy stalks. Did I mention ripe peaches with no bruises and sunflowers with four foot stems?
Do you need more to be impressed? You leave your money in a small box with a slat on top. The honor system. A little bit of heaven right here on our tumultuous earth.
This is a Caprese salad I made for lunch today. Tomatoes from the Mesa, fresh mozarella from DePalo & Sons and purple basil from Avila Beach Farmer’s Market. The flavor of the basil is super intense, so I chop and sprinkle rather than put whole leaves like I would with green basil. I know I’ve written about the purple basil and caprese salad before. But can good things be repeated too often?
Caprese Salad with purple basil and my friend Peg’s pink dahlias
An almost Greek symposium at the Malibu Getty
Malibu Getty Tasting of 4 wines created in clay amphorae in the ancient way. The wines came from Northern Italy, Sicily, Santorini (Greece) and Napa.
It wasn’t quite Mt. Olympus, but with very little imagination at the Malibu Getty on Jul 21, you could see yourself as a Greek aristocrat roaming the grounds of a lush villa, preparing for a wild drinking night at a classical Greek symposium (symposion).
At least, I had no problem projecting myself back 2500 years into Athena in Korinth, Greece with Hektor at Xenon’s pleasure villa by the sea.
Del Dotto 2009 Napa Valley Zinfandel ‘clay vessel fermented.’ LOVE this bottle.
We started out the evening at 5pm when the Getty Malibu Roman Villa Museum closed, and we gathered in the auditorium for a wonderful talk by historian Oswyn Murray of Oxford University. In the fine way that the Brits do so very well, Murray informed and entertained with his dry wit and rich display of images.
I felt great relief that the symposium I describe in Chapter 3 of Athena (The Egypt Trilogy) is right on target. There was a little dismay when Murray declared that food was served first and almost never during the Greek symposium (drinking party) itself. A conversation with him afterwards assured me that customs certainly varied, and that food could very well have been part of a symposium in Korinth in 200 BC Greece.
Whew! No need to rewrite Chapter 3 of Athena and remove all mention of “whole roast lamb appearing in an aromatic cloud of rosemary and garlic.”
Here’s a list of the wines served:
2001 Gravner Anfora Bianco Breg, Friuli-Venezia-Guilia, Italy
2009 Azienda Agricola COS Pithos, Sicily, Italy
2009 Del Dotto Clay Vessel Zinfandel, Napa Valley, California (see photo)
2010 Domaine Sigalas Asirtiko Athiri, Santorini, Greece
Unfortunately, our wine was not served in drinking cups such as this kylix on display at the Getty. Oh well…maybe in another life?
FEATURED EVENT SPEAKER: OswynMurray.org
The Isis story embellished with my photos
I’m posting a few of my Egypt photos here in hopes that I can bring the Isis story even more to life for my readers. Click on the image to enlarge. Look for more Sandra Gore photos in upcoming posts 🙂
Some of the following pictures are from one of my visits to Egypt. Some of the shots are from the British Museum in London, while a few precious ones are from the wonderful Petrie Museum just a short walk away. What a reservoir of history is the Petrie, and not just the ancient artifacts of pre-dynastic times – of which there is an abundant and rich display. The Petrie is a step back in time to the first days of true Egyptology.
Isis might have seen this fisherman casting his net on the glassy Nile.
When Isis sees wings painted on the lintels above her head, they might have looked something like this.
Example of painted open Papyriform capitals. Imagine the jewels colors when they were new! Taken at Ramesseum outside Luxor, Egypt.
A piece of sedge rope that would have tied Isis barge to the quay in Sais. British Museum
Example of Aramaic writing. Aramaic was the lingua franca spoken by Eben, the Kabbalist and among the Persians soldiers. Isis spoke Aramaic with the General.
Here is the cow-eared goddess Hathor. The same face would have topped the pillars in the Hathor Temple. Known as the Queen’s Boat Hathor Head, British Museum.
Beaded “fishnet dress” similar to one Isis wore on her visit to the Temple of Min in Khent-min. Petrie Museum.
Glass vials like these might have held medicines, oils or the poisons designed to terminate Isis’ pregnancy – or even her life if captured. Petrie Museum.
The curled hair and beard of a Persian man. British Museum.
Example of how hieroglyphs were painted in colors. This was taken in the tomb of the sons of Ramses III in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor Egypt
Isis had a chest of precious papyri like this. British Museum.
Sit-hathor might have worn a wig like this when she summoned Isis to the temple to tell her of the mission. Cairo Museum
Egyptian swords and dagger from the Petrie Museum.
Heavy gold bracelets like these adorned Ankh-hor’s arms when he feted Isis and Qeb-ha at the feast in Hermopolis. British Museum.
These eyes are made with faience, the process somewhat between ceramic and glass, of which the amulets were made that Isis traded for goods in the market. British Museum
Palm-fiber sandals from 18th dynasty (more than 3000 years old). Petrie Museum.
Sacred Sistrum with head of Hathor that Isis might have used in the temple scene with the Crown Prince and Setne the Scribe. British Museum
Persian lion shield ornament. This would have adorned the leather vests of the Persian soldiers in the desert. British Museum.
A strand of polished Carnelian beads as might have been “strung on long ropes” in the marketplace of Khent-min. Petrie Museum.
Gold pieces from an Egyptian necklace. Most likely would have been strung with beads made from faience or semi-precious stone such as turquoise or carnelian. British Museum.
Egyptian “board game.” Not senet, but would have been played in similar fashion. British Museum
This could have been done in mosaics on the floor of Isis’ villa. British Museum.
Faience and gold amulets, cartouche, pendant. Any of these would have been commonplace in Isis’ world. Petrie Museum.
Egyptian glass fish showing millefiori glass technique. Isis would have stored her precious scented oil in vials made of this glass. British Museum.
Research for Athena – The Emerald Tablet at the Malibu Getty Roman Villa
photographs by yours truly. For those of you who are reading, or have read, Athena (now re-titled as The Emerald Tablet), I’m posting here a few photos I took at the Getty Museum in Malibu – photos which served as inspiration particularly with scene-setting.
Before you jump in with objections that the museum in Malibu is a ‘reconstructed’ Roman villa from Herculaneum, I want to point out that the Romans borrowed many elements of design from the Greeks, including interior decoration in addition to the ever-present columns.
There are also quite a few Greek works of art displayed at the Getty Roman Villa Museum, as well as a few, but exquisite, Egyptian pieces.
I definitely used the peristyle gardens with portico on three sides as my mind’s vision of Athena and Eugenia sipping pomegranate juice while they watched the children play beside the sparkling fountains. Of course, Athena’s view through the unusual open side of the columned arcade was of a long walkway through palm trees to the Nile, rather than a slope to the Pacific Ocean. A Greek or Roman garden villa would typically be enclosed on all four sides. An open-ended garden configuration would be rare. In my mind’s eye, there is a larger grass plain surrounding the pool and many more trees, both palm and flowering – and all filled with singing birds.
Peristyle three-sided garden opening onto the Nile (in my mind’s eye.) Here Athena and Eugenia sip pomegranate juice and watch the children play. Malibu Getty.
The ceiling of Athena’s bedchamber in the Alexandrian villa by the sea with painted lyres and flying Eros might have looked something like this from the room at the Getty Villa that I call the ‘marble room.’ The details are different, but I think you might catch the mood.
Athena’s bedchamber ceiling in her villa in Alexandria might have looked something like this.
The fountain statue of Aphrodite in the small enclosed garden outside Athena’s bedchamber in Hector’s Naukratis villa was made of gold, but I imagine Aphrodite to be caught in surprise just as this marble Roman Venus.
Imagine this marble statue made in gold and you will see the fountain outside Athena’s bedchamber in Hektor’s Naukratis villa.
Remember the discussion between Isis and Tony at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about Polykleitos and his cannon of perfect art? This Roman copy of a Greek statue shows the ideal proportions of the human male according to the man who inspired Renaissance sculpture almost two thousand years later.
The perfect male body according to the canon of Polykleitos, Greek Sculptor. I wouldn’t argue with him.
From here I will let the photos and captions tell the story. I hope you see the Athena story come alive as it is for me. I hope you can smell the sweet fragrance of roses and hear the thousands of birds singing in the myrtle trees.
Alexander the Great
Epikouros (Epicurus) – Hektor’s favorite philosopher. “We are all atoms moving in space.” Our choice is to choose pleasure or pain.
Menander, the great Greek comic playwright who wrote ‘Double Deceiver,’ the play Hektor invites Athena to see in Korinth.
A mask of a Satyr, a common symbol in Greek and Roman times of all base desire. Sappho’s poem sings of the satyr and the lilac-tressed nymphs Iphis and Io.
A Greek artist memorialized a commonplace activity of a symposium.
The participants at a symposium would have drunk wine from a cup (kylix) like this.
This gold hair decoration is actually from Alexandria Egypt and might have held Athena’s chignon.
An example of the Korinthian (Corinthian) column. Of the basic three types of Greek columns (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian), the ornate Korinthian with acanthus leaf capitals was most popular with the Romans. As Ptolemy’s taste ran to the exuberant, I would imagine he would prefer them as well.
Ptolemy’s wild ‘Syracuse-style’ collection of marble in his presence chamber might have looked something like this.
A Greek vase showing Hercules battling the Hydra.
A Greek helmet, certainly used for ceremonial purposes such as Ptolemy’s birthday celebration at the Hippodrome.
Glass vials like these would have held the fragrant oils used in Athena’s bath.
These gold snake bracelets might have been gifts from Hektor.
The Muse of music Euterpe. O may my muses continue to whisper in my ear as I write Elektra!
Painting on wood from Egypt of the Alexandria hybrid god Sarapis created by Ptolemy I (Soter) to unify Egyptians and conquering Greeks.
The Getty’s modern day version of the Greek Theater
A Greek actor might have looked something like this.
And finally a plaque showing Hermes Trismegistus (right) debating Myth and Science with Ptolemy the astronomer and mathematician (left).
The Isis story in 3 versions: Original R-rated, X-rated Erotica and PG-13 Beach Read
The adventure of Isis begins. An edgy adult fable for the sensuous, intelligent reader. R-rated
The steamy, mystic tale of Isis and her men with links to the hottest love scenes. Erotica Rated X
A zippy romp through ancient Egypt following the adventures of Isis. Sanitized version. PG-13
The edgy Isis story of one woman and four men on a quest for power and love through time is told in three versions. I wrote each in their own style and with a tone intended for a different audience. Adult R-rated, sanitized PG-13 and X-rated erotica.
The mystic adventure of the Red Mirror Series begins with The Red Mirror, my original book. Detailed and intricate, historically accurate, the glossary offers a crash course in Egyptology. An adult adventure (R-rated) for the sensuous intelligent reader. 90,000 words – 290 pages
Isis Beach Read, written in a direct style that focuses on action, moves at a zippy pace. Beach Read tells the same Isis story while simplifying names and eliminating some characters and sub-plots. Sanitized sex (PG-13). 75,000 words – 234 pages
Isis Erotica, the most condensed version, is written in a style that oozes sensuality. The torrid love scenes are steamier still (X-rated). Bonus feature: direct links to the erotic scenes in eversion and special table of contents with relevant page numbers in print version. 60,000 words – 200 pages
The Isis Erotica eversion can also be downloaded in 3 separate ebooks, Part I The Red Mirror, Part II The Persian General and Part III The Emerald Tablet.
“Isis rules! Fifty Shades of Grey? Even better. Isis rules in 50 shades of full color.”
My talk on Creativity and the 7 C’s – Life Choices: The Event Mar 25
I’m putting together the final touches on my talk in Las Vegas this weekend at Life Choices: The Event. I’ve developed something I call the 7 C’s of filling the canvas of your life. Creativity is just one of the C’s, but as we writers and artists know, it’s critical to everything that we do.
It’s always a surprise to hear that people don’t believe they are creative – and even more startling, that they don’t believe they can BE creative. I just can’t accept that. Everyone MUST be able to fire up their creativity, even if they can’t be on first name basis with the Muses as some lucky souls are.
What are my 7 C’s?
1. Choice. The decision to act. 1st choice: That you choose to act. 2nd choice: What you choose to do. 3rd choice: How you choose to make it happen.
2. Creativity. Fill the canvas of your life in your own special, unique way that’s not like anyone else. Copying is NOT one of my 7 C’s.
3. Craft. Your individual talents and skills impact your ability to manifest the ideas that spring from your creative inspiration.
4. Color. How warm or cool is your personality palette? How bold or how nuanced? Will you be shades of monochrome or a rainbow?
5. Courage. You can’t play it safe. Mistakes are good. That’s how we learn. Conquer not only fear of failure, but also of being different.
6. Commitment. Any long time goal requires re-committing every day. If you fall off the wagon, you got to get back on again. As Heraclitus said many centuries ago, “The sun is new each day.”
7. Craziness. You just can’t be too sane. You have to fly a little. “Crazy and proud of it!”
Our lives are like the blank canvas of a painter. Or the blank page of a writer. We’re given some basic tools to start out; some have more than others. But our choice is to paint how we want to live – or to let others do it for us. We can copy what someone has already done. We can even be masters at it.
But the White Moments, the bliss and the Zen come we are creating. That’s when we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life. We feel good – good about the world and good about ourselves. We are full of hope.
The next part of my talk focuses on what you can do to be more creative. I’ll cover that in another post.
Launch date Mar 25, 2012
Sunday, March 25 is also the launch date of the fourth of the Life Choices Anthologies: It’s Never Too Late. My piece is called “Road to Vegas” where I talk about my journey to becoming a writer in the years when the peaks of my life might have been over. Instead, I’m having more fun, working harder and am more creative than I’ve ever been. Cheers to the Muses! May they sing forever in my ear.
It took a while for Sex and Zen of Shopping to get discovered
It took a while to for my shopping book to get discovered, but my spam folder is filling up fast! Lots of links to handbags and other shopping stuff – and of course sex. Should be no surprise there. That’s what you get when you title a book “Sex and the Zen of Shopping.”
Funny I’m not getting any links or offers or comments about Zen. Guess the more highly evolved spiritual creatures in our universe aren’t trolling the internet.
Maybe I should have stuck with “Shop Smart in a Dumb Economy” which was the original working title. But I had an agent tell me in quite a serious advice letter that I should drop that title because “this whole recession thing will be over in a year.” That was in…let me see now…2009?
It just goes to show how wrong agents can be. So cheer up authors. Those guys are not always right. What do they know anyway? Wonder if he’s still in business?
Life Choices: The Event in Las Vegas at the Hotel Tropicana
Once in while, not often, quite rarely in fact, a person comes into your life who shakes things up. Sometimes you don’t realize it at the time, but only when you look back from a new place, do you see the change. The shift might have been that subtle. But because of them, you made a life choice that set you on a new path.
Judi Moreo did that for me. Her belief in me and her words, You are more than enough, kept me going when I might have given up. Now you have a chance to meet Judi and hear her message in Las Vegas in March. And as a special little treat, you can hear me too! 🙂
Yes, I’ll be speaking on the same program as Judi Moreo. I can hardly believe it myself. So many dreams coming true! But I wouldn’t be sharing this great weekend with Judi and the other authors of “Life Choices: It’s Never Too Late” or with the keynote speakers Jeff Civillico, Anne Abernathy, Casey McNeal, Tim Goodenough and Aimmee Kodachian if I hadn’t made the choice to accept. I could have given in to my fears and doubts and said “no.”
The day I decided to speak at Life Choices: The Event, I had a nightmare. I dreamed I walked through the doors at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas and could think of nothing to say. My mind was a complete blank. Of course, I woke up in a sweat. Of course, it meant I have stage fright. I hope you won’t see that on March 25th. 🙂
If you are struggling with finding your life purpose – if you feel disappointed in what you’ve achieved – if you’ve always wanted to do something, but never dared – ACT NOW! Come to Las Vegas in March. Spend the weekend with people who have changed their lives, who have fulfilled their dreams – and with others who want the same thing, but aren’t quite sure how to go about it.
It costs a little money and effort. Most things of value do. But if you register before Jan 31, you’ll get a big discount and the chance to bring a friend at a fraction of the fee. You can pay a small deposit now and the remainder in installments. You’ll even get fed! There’s a welcome reception, a Saturday lunch and a Sunday brunch included. You can lunch with one of the Life Choices authors and have the chance to talk with them personally about the choices they made in their lives that got them where they are today.
Register Now! Get the Super Early Bird discount and bring a friend. Go to this link: Life Choices: The Event
Please use PYPSN in the speaker code box so I’ll be notified you signed up. 
note: The Hotel Tropicana has been recently renovated. It’s beautiful! All in white.
Ancient Egyptian novels in Red Mirror Series 4 Kindle & iPad
Isis cover for Kindle & iPad
Athena of Korinth cover for Kindle & iPad
Elektra cover for Kindle & iPad
After a several month hiatus from writing as I helped fight the Libyan Revolution through twitter, I’ve finally gotten back to editing my ancient Egyptian novels for the Red Mirror Series. Isis has been shortened and made tighter and more fast-paced. I changed some characters names to make it easier to follow in the past life and the present, dropped a character or two, and refer to Amasis, Psamtik and Setne as Pharaoh, Crown Prince and the Scribe.
I also shifted my focus from educating to entertaining. There will still plenty of meat for history buffs in the Red Mirror Series, but I’ve tried to avoid reader anxiety that there might be a test. 😉
I’ve got Isis ready for Kindle and iPad and have been working on the promotion copy, which I find more challenging than writing novels. Is it because we authors don’t have enough distance from our story? Or is it because it’s another style of writing that takes different skills? Probably a mix of both.
Next I tackle Athena of Korinth. I’ll be doing some simplifying in that novel as well, but I’ll especially be working on making it “stand alone.” My goal is for the reader to be able to pick up Athena – or any future novels in the Red Mirror Series – and enjoy reading the ancient Egyptian novels for themselves without having to have read Isis first.
Of course, I would love for the reader to want to go back to the beginning to understand fully the evolution of party girl to powerhouse that takes place over the three novels.
Don’t want to forget to mention that I redesigned the covers of the Red Mirror Series for better viewing on Kindle and iPad. You see those above. Also have to confess that Elektra is not written yet, but she is playing out scenes in my mind. My goal is to get Athena edited and then get to work on bringing Elektra to life!
The Red Mirror, Red Sofa and Antinous from the Red Mirror Series
E-books have the advantage of placing links for readers who want to jump to more in-depth information, so I’ve linked these photos of the Red Mirror, Red Sofa, red-shaded lamp and the glorious Antinous taken from my book Sex and the Zen of Shopping.
BTW – I have used the Roman spelling of Antinous instead of the ancient Greek Antinoos, as the former is the most familiar. If you’re wondering how to pronounce this real-life (or rather, now deceased) beauty, you can try the Greek way of ‘an TEE no os’ which is four syllables. My feeling is that even the Greeks sped it up by saying ‘an TEE noos’ – just 3 syllables.
The Red Mirror with Antinous
The Red Sofa that hurts Barb’s back
The red-shaded lamp that burns outside the bedroom
Antinous of Isis (The Red Mirror), Athena (The Emerald Tablet) and Elektra (The Black Scroll).
Sunflowers make me happy
I took this photo on my living room in the morning about 9 am.
Don’t know why I was so drawn to the sunflowers at Trader Joe’s – maybe it was the price (cheap -$4.99) that gave the most drama for the buck. Or maybe I just needed the yellow power.
The Chinese vase I bought at Marshalls for nothing, probably $10-20 – I can’t remember now; it was years ago. The brass candlesticks I bought in a second hand store in Copenhagen for about $20.
Caprese Salad with Purple Basil
Avila Beach CA has a trendy little Farmer’s Market on Friday afternoons with a handful of produce booths selling only top quality. A real find for me was purple basil which is incredibly rare.
I wish I had adequate words to describe the rich, heady aroma with almost a hint of licorice or anise.
Sensing the potency of the taste would match the scent, I chopped it fine on a caprese salad instead of using whole leaves as I would with standard “green” basil.
Result? WONDERFUL.
Cari and Craig Clark at Chaparral Gardens in Atascadero CA grow the basil to use in their artisan vinegars. Check out their website at CGVinegar.com
The tomatoes came from a local farmer and the mozzarella cheese from DePalo and Sons Deli in Shell Beach CA. The cheese is hand-crafted daily from grandfather Dr. Tedone’s recipe. The good doctor, retired now, starting making the cheese to work out his grief after his wife passed. DePalo’s is a family affair with an excellent Italian-California style deli, tremendous wine collection and shelves stuffed with every imaginable delicacy.
Twitter with Purpose
Like all writers, I love words. I like to play with them and caress them, putting just the right ones in the right combinations to tease the senses or trick the mind. My fiction is sprinkled with phrases that linger between poetry and prose. I also like to write pithy, straight forward facts and opinions expressed directly, with no frills, no icing on the cake. That’s the style of my magazine blog sandraoffthestrip. com.
But it’s on Twitter where I’m supercharged. Tweeting your point can be challenging; it requires new skills. You have to get creative. 140 characters isn’t much. No space or time to babble on. Get in. Make your point. Get out.
It’s not as hard as it might seem; think of it as techno-Haiku. Need some examples?
“Seems like one long blur with spikes of joy. Can’t imagine what it’s like for ppl of Libya.” Still 50 left.
“The right chemistry needs a movement w/ a leader. A leader can make a movement. But can a movement succeed w/out a leader?” 18 spaces short of 140.
Or here’s a tweet not directed to everyone, but to a dear follower in Holland.
“@hilliewelp Here’s a pic of the strawberry meringue tarte from last night.http://twitpic.com/4iwujz.”
Still 40 spaces left and Hillie can link to a photo of the pie I uploaded to twitpic.
Some people tweet about their dogs, their next seminars, their thoughts for the day. But for me, the power of Twitter is my chance to help shape the world, one tweet at a time. Twitter with purpose.
I touch the world and the world touches me. Twitter connects me to news articles, websites, blogs, maps, poems, songs, Facebook pages, YouTube, Livestream, Audioboo – all the tools that get the message out, whatever that message is. Weight loss, daily prayer, marketing ideas, or nuclear disaster in Japan? Earthquake and Tsunami? I didn’t wait for American TV, but went straight to the source and followed English Japanese TV HNK through a tweeted link with live feed.
Because of a tweet, I watched a young man named Mo start a pirate TV station in Benghazi on his laptop. He moved every couple of hours those first days to elude capture. When TV Libya Alhurra linked to satellite hookup, I was there in the international chat room. And I got the heartbreaking tweet the night Mo was assassinated by Gaddafi snipers one month to the day from his first broadcast. A future leader, a courageous young voice silenced forever.
My Mo story was the first on the net. That’s how my blog and Twitter work together. Material for my posts comes from Twitter. Google gives my blog high ranking for original content and I also drive traffic to my site by tweeting links to my blog.
I didn’t write Mo’s story for web stats, but because I cared for him and what he stood for. I had watched him every day and followed his bravery. I had watched him grow. His loss was deeply personal. Many of my twitter connections are closer in an odd way than to the people I see in the real world. We share the same interests. We have the same passion.
I’m just one of thousands of “citizen journalists” who tweet. My followers come from every continent – all ages and all professions. Some of them are most unlikely, but they follow me because they like what I say, learn from my connections and trust me as a reliable source. Trust is always a huge factor in human relationships, virtual or real.
Active followers “retweet” my tweets to their own web of followers, sometimes adding comments. Passive connections are readers who just want to be in the know. But active or passive, there’s a place for everyone in the Twittersphere. What are you passionate about? Get a handle. Change the world a little. Start tweeting with purpose.
Follow me at my handle @LVview. Note: Although Twitter was designed for cell phone use, hence the 140 character restrictions of texting, you don’t need a Blackberry or iPhone. I tweet on my laptop.
To read some of the hundreds of tweets from all over the world the day after Mo’s death go to: Twitter Tribute to Mohammed Mo Nabbous | Off the Strip for free thinkers and adventurers.
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Here’s link to the original article “Twitter with a Purpose” published in As the Pages Turn.
Papaya Tilapia for lunch
I love to cook and my favorite approach is to make something out of whatever ingredients I have in the fridge.
Today I prepared some Tilapia fillets which were on special in the fish department of the local supermarket.
After sauteeing slim rondelles of white onions and small, whole garlic wedges in olive oil, I tossed in the last of my yellow baby bell peppers, sliced also in rondelles.
Next came sprigs of fresh thyme from my herb garden.
I scraped the veggies to the side and put the tilapia in the pan, turning gently after one minute. Remember, these are fillets and very thin and delicate.
Of course, I salt & pepper to taste before adding a generous amount of dry white wine to cover. A Charles Shaw Chardonnay is just fine for cooking this dish. Why spend more? Let simmer very gently to boil off the alcohol from wine and reduce sauce. DO NOT overcook fish.
At the last minute, I sprinkled with cubed papaya which warmed slightly by the time I got the pan to the table and served. This really turned out delicious and was so fast, simple and cheap.
I served the tilapia with steamed green beans and a romaine salad with a vinaigrette and chunks of fresh parsley. The parsley also comes from my herb garden. We’re trying to watch calorie intake, so I didn’t serve any bread or rice. Obviously both would be great with this.
The white wine is Panilonco, a Chardonnay from Chile – crisp, dry and very reasonable at $4-5 a bottle.
Bon appetit! Velbekomme! Guten Appetit! Buon appetito! Smacznego! Bom apetite! Dobru chut! Smaklig maltid! Buen provecho! Bonum appetitionem!
Sex and Zen of Shopping radio interview Monday July 18
I’ll be doing a fun radio interview on Sex and the Zen of Shopping with Michelle Phillips, radio hostess, celebrity make-up artist, life coach and author. Woo Hoo. We should have a ball talking about the mysteries of the Universe and how they relate to shopping and self-esteem.
Michelle’s radio show is “The Beauty Blueprint”
LIVE at www.hayhouseradio.com
Time and Date: Next Monday, July 18 at 12:35 EDT, 9:35 am PDT
If you miss it, you can listen any time during the week after at this link: http://www.hayhouseradio.com/show_details.php?show_id=216&episode_type=0.
I’d love for you to tune in “live,” but there’s always the archive if you can’t. The show will only be available from July 18th thru the 25th, so if you want to listen, tune in during that week.
HAYHOUSE Radio is billed as “radio for your soul.” Denise Linn, spiritual coach and Feng Shui master, is one of the many turned on and high-level consciousness radio hosts. HAYHOUSE Radio also has outlets in the UK, Australia and India.
Michelle Phillips, radio show hostess, celebrity make-up artist, life coach, author, speaker, wife and mother
Michelle Phillips is just another multi-talented, dynamic, beautiful wife, mother and superstar! Sigh. Are you green with envy yet? OK – Here’s the whammy: Her new book “The Beauty Blueprint” is due out soon. Go girls! We are good!
Check her out at: www.michellephillips.com and Michele Phillips Fan Page.
And don’t forget to tune in to our interview: Sex and the Zen of Shopping. Woo Hoo!
Book launch! Life Choices: Pursuing Your Passion
I haven’t been here in a while, but I haven’t been idle. Libya, women’s issues and nuclear have been occupying my time on twitter and on my other blog, www.sandraoffthestrip.com.
Now it’s time to announce the book launch in Las Vegas of the newest in the Life Choices anthologies, Life Choices: Pursuing Your Passion. Twenty-six great authors and speakers got together to produce a collection of amazing life stories of sacrifice, dedication and hard work to achieve personal goals.
Judi Moreo of Turning Point International edited and published the Life Choices series: Navigating Difficult Paths, Putting the Pieces Together and Pursuing Your Passion.
“The Muses Whisper” is my own personal journey from ordinary (well, kind of) person to writer, author and novelist. It’s also a statement of my hope that the muses continue to sing in my ear.
Look for my story in the first Life Choices book, Navigating Difficult Paths. “A True Love Story” is a wild tale of chasing my man across continents and how that odyssey turned into a fairy tale. Knights in shining armor do exist!
The launch is at the Tropicana Hotel, Saturday June 11 in the Monte Cristo Room from 10am – 4pm.
Authors will be speaking throughout the day and available for book signings. They’ll also have their other books, tapes and courses on hand for sale.
Red Mirror furlough turns into rebirth of SandraOfftheStrip
I had decided to take a month off between the printing of Athena of the Red Mirror Trilogy and the start of Elektra, the third book. I planned to catch up on reading, seeing friends, painting my bedroom and doing lots of research and daydreaming in preparation for the Roman Egypt novel.
But first Egypt, then Libya happened and I was caught up in the birth of new nations. It’s irresistible for me. I love this part of the world. North Africa was my home for a few years. There’s not much about it that I don’t find fascinating.
I had kept http://www.sandraoffthestrip.com barely alive for a couple of years. But I had good standing with Google cause the site has been up since 2007. In my heyday, I had thousands of unique visitors a day from all over the world. I had lost most, of course, but surprisingly still had 600 a day – mostly search engines and spam.
It took Egypt for me to use Facebook. It took Egypt for me to tweet. I’m still not into the phone thing with Twitter, but read hundreds a day online. I’m right on the ground in Libya, following all the news – trying to sort fact from rumor. There are some great tweeters from all over the Middle East.
At the moment, I am concentrating on Libya, while still following events in Egypt closely. Yemen and Bahrain are not far from my thoughts, but I am only one person!
The exciting thing for me personally is that I’ve written over 100 articles since Feb 2. So much for a furlough from writing! What’s immensely gratifying is that my last dozen or so articles are on page 1 of Google. I have two or three that are #1 on page 1. My piece on the Gaddafi sons and their interview with Cristiane Amanpour comes right after ABC news and before Huffington Post.
Of course, it’s all about keywords. But “Saif Gaddafi Amanpour” brings me right up as does “Saadi Gaddafi safari” and “Gaddafi drug jokes.” I’m right at the top with “Safiya Gaddafi wife” and “Gaddafi Amazon Guard.” I could go on, but we all know the internet and Google is fleeting fame, so here today – gone tomorrow.
I didn’t start out reactivating the blog to get high Google rankings. It’s just a pleasant and surprising outcome of a labor of love.
FREE LIBYA!!!
You can follow me on Twitter @LVworldview.
S. L. Gore 
raiannon rages and paces for Elektra
Draft cover for Elektra
At the risk of being too personal and exposing to the world how pathetically needy I am, I want to share a really delectable moment. Quite out of the blue – or should I say cyberspace? – came an email alert of a comment to this site.
“Do we have any sort of ETA on Elektra?” – raiannon
My first reaction was “Wow. Somebody cares!”
I gave a gushy response asking if she/he would like to be a First Reader for Elektra and ending with “I guess it depends on why you are asking, doesn’t it?”
What I got back was a “review” for which I would gladly have paid. Yes, I’ve heard lots of rumors about that sort of thing…
“I’m asking because I loved the first two whole books, with their unique twist on a typical time travel novel. I was absolutely thrilled with the tie-ins between the past life found in the mirror and the current one. But the worst part of reading a series is always waiting for the next book! A good series novel has something that leaves you wanting at the end…wanting the next book. A great series novel (for a series in progress) leaves you pacing your apartment, raging at the author for not writing faster! I would be greatly honored to be a First Reader for you.”
Now I don’t know who raiannon is – at least, I don’t think I do. I actually asked my husband, “Do you think this is one of my friends trying to cheer me up?”
Thank you, raianoon, whoever you are. Rage on! I’ll do my best to make Elektra worth the pacing.
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September 26, 2012 at 4:27 pm 6 comments