Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts

Monday, November 30, 2020

Incandescent Visions ~ Book Blog Tour Guest Post & Giveaway!


INCANDESCENT VISIONS
by Lee Hudspeth 

Genre: Adult fiction,18 yrs + 64 pages
Category: Poetry 
Publisher: George Lee Hudspeth, Jr.
Pages:  64 pages
Release date: December 2019 

Content Rating: PG-13. Curse words: Three total, of the “mild” variety (godd*mn, hell, sh*t... one use for each). No f-words. No violence, no sexual content, no drug use, no underage drinking.

 
Book Description:

Having written numerous works of nonfiction, this is Lee Hudspeth’s debut book of poetry. Incandescent Visions explores the meaning of the human experience, as the author encourages his readers to ponder the universe and their place within it, and to catalyze their own creative potential. From the sublime shores of the Mediterranean to the majestic expansiveness of deep space, this book contemplates nostalgia, perspective and the gift of love. Through five short yet powerful, thought-provoking chapters of contemporary poems—and a dash of elegant, evocative haiku—Hudspeth takes his readers on a journey across the inner landscape of struggle, triumph, self-realization, and imagination

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Guest Post 

Author Lee Hudspeth answers the question, "What tools do you use in your writing practice?"


The tools I use in my writing practice are simple yet powerful. 

I’ve been using Microsoft Word for a long time and over many versions, both on Windows and Mac operating systems. I’m so familiar with this application that I literally don’t have to think about activating a feature; my fingers know how to manipulate the keys and the mouse to accomplish what I want to do. Muscle memory! In other words, I have a strong bias for Word. That said, the one feature of Word that I highly recommend to any writer is Outlining. 

Not many people know about Outlining in Word, or if they do, they don’t realize how easy it is to use and how helpful it can be. You can easily turn it on and off, and I like the feature’s unobtrusiveness. By using some simple, built-in Heading styles you can instantly view a standard document in a hierarchical layout. These Heading styles are also helpful when you’re in standard (Print or Read) mode because they’re preformatted to make it obvious how your document is organized. 

Beyond changing views, you can easily drag and drop sections of a document to rearrange them, for example, put chapters into a completely different order, or promote and demote sections, all while preserving your formatting preferences. With one mouse-click you can show or hide a section’s underlying body text regardless of how much text is in that section. I like doing this because I can quickly get an uncluttered, organized view of my book, blog article or other document and then, if/as needed, drill down into the relevant section’s body text. You can also expand or compress the hierarchy of one “local” section or your entire document. I strongly recommend that you give Word’s Outlining feature a try. 

When it comes to journaling, use whatever medium works best for you: pen and paper, a voice memo on your smartphone, a typed note on your smartphone (I prefer my iPhone’s Notes app)... it’s up to you. Be ready at a moment’s notice to jot down ideas wherever you are. On more than one occasion I have had a story or poem idea but instead of writing it down, I told myself I would do it in a few minutes. Of course, I got distracted and an hour later remembered that I had forgotten to write down the idea. Sad. Whatever technique you choose, memorialize all your new ideas! 

I set a recurring reminder every week to look at my Notes and move the ones I want to work on to my laptop; plus I keep a copy on my home server so that no more ideas get lost. By the way, your journal doesn’t have to be in complete sentences; it’s definitely worthwhile keeping small fragments of ideas. I even keep a list of cool words, because a single word can blossom into a full-fledged poem or story.



Meet the Author:
Lee Hudspeth is a poet, writer, musician and fellow human being. Incandescent Visions is his first book of poetry. He is the co-author of ten nonfiction books in the field of Information Technology. He has written articles for professional journals like PC Computing and Office Computing. He is the author of over one hundred articles in the online magazine The Naked PC, which he co-founded and co-published. He lives in Southern California with his wife, two sons and their cat. Find out more about Lee, his books and his music at LeeHudspeth.com.

Connect with the author:






Enter the Giveaway:
THREE WINNERS! 
1ST: $50 Amazon Gift Card
2ND & 3RD: Autographed copies of INCANDESCENT VISIONS
(USA and Canada; ends December 11, 2020)


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tour Schedule:

Nov 16 – Splashes of Joy – book spotlight / author interview / giveaway
Nov 16 - Working Mommy Journal – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 17 – fundinmental – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 17 - Gina Rae Mitchell – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Nov 18 – Rajiv's Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 19 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Nov 20 – I'm Into Books – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 23 – My Reading Journeys – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 24 – Library of Clean Reads – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 25 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Nov 26 – Sadie's Spotlight – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 27 – Stephanie Jane – book spotlight / giveaway
Nov 28 - Books lattes & tiaras – book spotlight
Nov 30 – Hall Ways Blog – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Dec 1 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway
Dec 2 – Westveil Publishing – book spotlight / giveaway
Dec 3 – She Just Loves Books – book spotlight / giveaway
Dec 4 – Deborah Adams – book spotlight / guest post / giveaway




Sunday, December 11, 2016

Pink Panther Volume 1: The Cool Cat is Back

Check, S.A., Lash, B., Davidsen, K., Gallant, S.L., Robb, A. (artist), Galvan, B. (artist). (2016). Pink Panther Volume 1: The Cool Cat is Back. American Mythology Productions.

Graphic Novels / Comics / Humor
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Blurb (Edelweiss): The cool cat is back! Generations of kids grew up loving the Pink Panther’s unique style and wit on Saturday morning cartoons. And now today’s best writers and artists are delivering original comic book stories that bring the trademark Pink Panther flair for confounding The Inspector and The Little Man to legions of new families and fans! This graphic novel is packed full-a pink with new stories by Batton Lash, S.L. Gallant, and YA author S.A. Check with amazing art by Disney animator Adrian Ropp, Archie artist Bill Galvan, and G.I. Joe illustrator S.L. Gallant! We also include for the first time ever, the original Free Comic Book Day story “The Mighty Pan-Thor!” along with some classic tales, design sketches, and more! Get more pink for your green with American Mythology’s new Pink Panther series! Join the Pink Panther, The Ant and the Aardvark, The Inspector, and a host of other favorite cartoons for the all-ages event of the year! This volume collects Pink Panther #1-3, Trick or Pink Halloween Special, and the Pink Panther Free Comic Book Day issue. 
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Hall Ways Review: 
Just like the oldies! I had forgotten I was a Pink Panther fan. This graphic novel is so much fun to read and brings back fond memories of watching the Saturday morning cartoons in the 70s.  
With multiple artists, it is interesting to see the slight variations in the drawings of the familiar characters: Pink Panther, The Inspector, The Little Man, and the Ant and the Aardvark.  It is also interesting to see familiar artists (like Disney's Adrian Ropp and Archie's Bill Galvan) and their signature styles adapted to these stories. (Especially, readers will see an Archie-type character in the cavewoman in Jurassic Pink.) This volume includes a bunch of already published stories but also some new original stories that fit right in. As a bonus, there are pages of single images and artists' sketchbook images.

Old schooler that I am, my favorite stories are ones where Pink Panther doesn't actually have dialogue. On the stories where he had dialogue, he seemed like a gentlemanly (err, gentlepantherly) British fella, which just hadn't occurred to me before.  Of course, the Inspector will forever have an OUTRAGEOUS French accent in my head. No avoiding that. :-)

The book is well-written and well-edited (HOORAY!) with the only error I found to be on the back cover -- artist Bill Galvan's name is misspelled as "Gavlan." Unfortunately, the error seems to be on every promotional and sales blurb, too. Bummer. The recommended audience is readers ages 9-12, and they will enjoy the stories even if they're unfamiliar with the Pink Panther (or even the movies with Peter Sellers and then Steve Martin). It's good, clean, and clever humor and has special appeal for those of us nostalgic of that original Pink Panther era.

I was not solicited to read or review this book; I happily found it while browsing the Edelweiss catalog and couldn't resist!


Click to visit author S.A. Check's