You’re Invited: BW PARTY

Party Date: 23 October

2 days to go!

All invited whether or not ever having been active members of this forum – bring all your “friends and relations”, business associates and the lonely old lady who lives next door! The more, the merrier!

Come and introduce your blogs, get to know others and have fun!

@ishitarc1908, @niciacruz, @wordsfromarifa, @21timetraveler, @thelink19, @adriennea3, @infobloomer, @raniamanda, @amommasview, @anandartist, @andysmerdon, @angieskitchenshenanigans, @annfishervirtualworld, @agord2015, @anushababbar, @arpitastravelblog, @thecajkovic, @bennabdycollins, @bethanyaharvey, @bobbyshabangu, @brendablagdon, @cathylynnbrooks, @niyati16, @colettebates, @darshith0000, @audreydcunningham, @camelliasentry, @wynstep, @princeramsey, @clockworkindigo, @visionofdestinyuganda, @continuingwithme, @crawcraftsbeasties, @dawnmarie823, @derekjlee, @devilrockz, @divorcinganarc, @donnainthesouth, @dj120, @drmegsorick, @dhyanmukta, @createtoenchant, @laikassuvaikais, @languorouspages, @megselizabeth86, @thestayengagedexperiment, @esk11, @feelings161, @fictionalkevin, @avenscent, @funsimplicity, @getyourlenson, @lizarebeca, @foodeezjunction, @agord2015, @garthmr, @garyloggins, @thegeneviever, @mumbletymuse, @gritsandpineconescom, @gritsandpineconescom, @myusername432, @robertmgoldstein, @bethanyaharvey, @haripriyakm, @hlindschinger, @hjsportsed, @contenttocapture, @hst4haiku, @kristinavanhoos, @lulaharp, @maddy1953, @onetarhayes, @iaminaplace, @iamabloggertoo, @indira2412, @irenecorl4u2013, @ivanproust, @insomniacbee, @janimey, @mkjackie99, @jahnavichintakunta, @aventuraroxy, @jessmcombs, @jeanburkespraker, @jsackmom, @jennierawling, @ashishvision, @jadekeahi, @justdreadfull, @kayeraye, @kelliblogs @k, @koolitzable @k, @dalees107, @laikassuvaikais, @laduchessederat, @lifeobserverwrites, @loriastratton, @confusionandknitting, @mylittlespaceinthesun, @kmmyrman, @maidsdayoff, @alongthesideoftheroad, @nandininautiyal, @neildsilva, @nicolaauckland, @worthinessambassador, @noorainsobiya, @santoshnc, @notionlux, @alongthesideoftheroad, @offshoreausterity, @ohmyglai, @sarahsatticoftreasures @o, @teiyaoloilolesoipei, @teiyaoloilolesoipei, @donnamcmillen300, @princeramsey, @iaminaplace, @lyndapoysor, @pamkirst2014, @preciousvalencia1, @piyushavir, @whitneyparchman, @raniamanda, @middleagedrager, @ramida78, @ranu802, @rdmaxwell55, @robertmgoldstein, @lilacsky22, @raforbeginners, @camelliasentry, @funsimplicity, @loriastratton, @beckyaluoch, @sumitagrawal01, @sashay909, @natashart, @sasmiths1112, @btarmstrong, @anandartist, @sirtonix, @bennabdycollins @iamdonovan, @vellissima, @vikrambishla, @wordsfromarifa, @suekwoodward, @wanderlusteternal, @welshshortbread, @whitneyparchman, @xaranahara, @yentll02, @justdreadfull, @revrumblefish

Apologies to anyone who accidentally got left out, whose @ call sign didn’t work, those who got pinged twice (three times?), &c., &c.! I repeat: All are invited whether listed above or not! Hope to see you all on the 23rd!

Time traveler

I wanted to go back and change things, there was nothing to change.
#13wordstory

Distractive generation, anyone?

Hi all, it’s good to see new members interested in our blogging community forum as well as some faithful returners (as always it would be nice to see more of you 😉 ) – best wishes to you all and hope you’re having a good weekend 🙂

TIP: struggling to find the dashboard for your members back-end access via the dashboard? I found it again by hitting STATS in the ‘improved editor’ screen. That way you can find your lingering drafts as such things like that missing from the ease-of-use common function screen that they call ‘improved editor’. Doh! (@admin, I’ll tidy up asap if it’s ever really necessary but not much to do there really anyway, I think).

#authorstory, #blogging101, #bloggingfundamentals, #bloggingtools, #bloggiversary, #freewrite, #ideas

I’m so glad to see…

I’m so glad to see how well Blogger’s World is doing! I have suffered from a data diet for too long! Since we still travel full time, we pay for our GB data on a monthly basis. From time to time, we have some extended time with reliable free wifi. With all that said, I hope to pop in more. I did want to comment on a post, a question by @cathylynnbrooks, but discovered I can’t comment anymore.
She wrote a book review, but said she deleted the photo and asked why aren’t photos allowed? I liked her book review, but I didn’t see the name of the book nor the author – probably were in the photo. I know at one time we didn’t post photos because some members (like me) have limited wifi and not enough data to download pictures. But yet, on the other book reviews, I saw the cover photos. I’m most interested as I have a book I would like to review!
Great job you are doing my Wandering Soul friend @piyushavir!
Blessings to all!

She Decided What She Wanted; Then She Got It

Image of Laura Z Hobson taken from www.goodreads.com

I have been an appeaser at times in my life (although some of my closest peeps might right now frown in disbelief): declining to proceed; acceding to the louder, maybe more threatening, voice; trying to keep the ground stable and preserve the party’s peace. But even as I was trying gracefully to forgo my deepest wishes, I fiercely admired those who determined just exactly what they wanted and plunged ahead in pursuit.

That’s one of the things–and that’s in addition to her lyrical writing–that I admire about Laura Z Hobson; that’s why I was so excited to read her memoir, Laura Z.

Imagine: the well-heeled late 1930’s and early 1940’s in the USA—with people so well-behaved, on the surface, anyway. A glamorous woman with a lucrative career in advertising and a couple of failed relationships, Hobson decides she doesn’t want to give up her dream of parenting just because she isn’t married. She does her research, and she finds an adoption agency in the Midwest that looks like it might extend some hope to a single woman wishing to adopt.

She goes there, and she charms them. Her first child, Mike, is adopted.

I suspect that Laura Z’s charm was formidable. She got away with a lot, and she gathered firm supporters along the way.

Her second son, Christopher, was also adopted,–adopted AND biological. When Hobson realized that she was finally, miraculously, pregnant as a result of a brief affair that ran its course, she made fast, firm plans. She spent the last three months of her pregnancy in a tiny apartment, hidden in New York City, leaving for her doctor’s appointments early in the mornings (her doctor’s doorman, even, was in on the secret, and he would guard her car from patrolling police officers should she have to double park to run in for her checkup) before other patients would arrive. She shopped behind dark glasses. She left her son Mike with his devoted nanny, Rose, to celebrate his birthday and Christmas by themselves.

Then she delivered her baby son under an assumed name, gave him into the care of an agency for several weeks, and went to court to adopt him.

“Committing fraud on the legal system???” says my shocked attorney husband, but the judges and the lawyer seemed to know the real skinny and collude in circumventing their society’s rules about birth and wedlock.

What a story; what a plot! Holy cow.

Laura Z went on to write Gentlemen’s Agreement; the conception and creation of the novel, the buried anti-Antisemitism she encountered in its ‘birthing,’ and her ultimate triumph, shape the last part of her autobiography. Before that, she walks us through her unconventional childhood with socialist– but NOT communist, she notes firmly–Russian emigrant parents, a twin sister who was very, very different than she, a house built backwards to save on architect’s fees, and brothers so far ahead in age they almost seemed part of a different family. She lived many of the events I delighted in reading about in First Papers, taking nine Regents in the span of four days to earn a college scholarship, and bucking the family tide, which wanted to put her in a teacher’s ed program. (First Papers, a novel I discovered as a teen and have re-visited many times since, is one of the best books I’ve ever read.)

She DID go to college. She DID become wealthy. She DID achieve a glamorous lifestyle in a surprising, unorthodox way.

Some of that unorthodox behavior shocks my middle class heart. Hobson writes about leaving little Mike, and later, little Mike and little Chris, for long, long stretches. They were in the care of a loving and competent person, but it still hurts my maternal middle class sense of propriety to picture her putting the boys on a train to the East Coast and then spinning around to pursue a Hollywood script-writing career.

She made it all work, though, she reports, as she brings us, in Laura Z, to the surprise triumph of Gentleman’s Agreement–well, she assures us that she made it work, and she is a wonderful teller of tales. I have to research and see if she ever wrote the second half of her history, wrote about the years during which she fictionalized Chris’s secret birth and then wrote also about her realization, as he aged, that her son was a homosexual in a world not too terribly friendly to gay folks.That story became a novel, too.

Laura Z never denied her Jewish, agnostic, Socialist roots; she never let her roots or society’s bias against them–or anything else–deter her from what she pursued: motherhood, a compelling story, a lifestyle that defied convention. Sometimes I’m a little shocked, sometimes a little puzzled, and sometimes I want to cheer along with her, but always, in reading Laura Z, I am compelled and entertained.

(First posted on my book blog: https://wordpress.com/post/pamkirst2014.wordpress.com/101)

#authorstory

#weekly

Authors who made history – any takers?

Calling for volunteers for the #authorstory posts during March, if anyone’s interested? Available dates are:
Wednesdays (tick the box or please leave comment):

• 1st March (@piyushavir)
• 8th March
• 15th March
• 22nd March
• 29th March

I wasn’t sure if anyone might pop along with something for today and as I posted last week, I decided to leave that space here. I finally got around to tidying up one of my posts from January, in continuation of my intended series to practise introducing and exploring contemporary writers. This post, at my blog, is a brief introduction to John Berger ; he’s perhaps best-known for his book, ‘Ways of Seeing’ and for its inclusion as compulsory reading on almost all art and design study reading lists in the UK.

Authors who made History – call for posts (from temp volunteer!)

Dates available (Wednesdays) as follows (tick the box to ‘book’ or leave comment):

• February 8th

thank you @sandeept252 for your beautifully written post for #authorstory (apologies if I somehow missed adding you on schedule & @piyushavir / @admin if anyone’s volunteered for scheduling and I maybe missed that too

• February 15th (@colettebates)
• February 22rd

Any takers?

Apologies all for errors due to apparent dyscalculia during current health phase!

#Authorstory call

Just over a year ago, on 6th January 2016, @sashay909 got the ball rolling with the first in a series of feature posts called ‘Authors who made History’. That wonderful post featured the legendary William Shakespeare.

Thank you @piyushavir for confirming you’re ok for us to try and take your challenge forward, if anyone wishes to join in and maybe add to ideas or issue new small challenges within the theme. So I’m also sharing this extract (from my latest blogpost taking part in coolbeans’ MonthlyLookAhead…)

#400yearsofshakespeare, #authorstory, #blogging101, #inspiration, #shakespeare, #writing101

The Way Forward for this Forum?

Some of the comments of @beckybwinch in reply to my Merry Christmas post I think made a lot of sense both about how this forum started and why it might be struggling.

If you all remember we started out after various Blogging Uni courses and it was nice to stay in touch – but obviously some of us got very busy with our own blogs and didn’t want to post here instead and others simply gave up blogging altogether.

If we want to rejuvenate this forum as a meeting place perhaps we need to rethink some of our approaches.

What do you think about the following?

• Instead of the lots of different features that required people to post here, only keep a few going in the form of challenges to which people should reply on their own blogs, leaving a link in the comments or a ping back (as it’s done with the Daily Post and many other challenges in wp.com already) – while:
• Still offer people the opportunity to do a full guest post – once a week or month (or whatever) with people being able to sign up in advance for the slot so that they could advertise their blogs.
• Keep this area of Bloggers’ World like a chat zone for people just to socialise and discuss blogging problems and triumphs, ask for advice, etc.
• Perhaps collate some blogging resources available to members

What are your thoughts?

I’m making this post sticky for a week so that you can all see it (instead of repeatedly tagging people).

#idea

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all – and since we’re not meant to publish loads of pictures here in order not to slow the site down, here’s a link to my Christmas photo post:

Christmas Lights on the Cutty Sark

This forum seems a bit dead recently…

…so in addition to wishing you all a merry Christmas, this is a wake-up call – in case any of you would like to continue here, it might be a good new year’s resolution to return here to post and chat again.

So I hope you will forgive me for tagging you all (I will not keep doing this):

@21timetraveler @adriennea3 @anandartist @ananyabha @anushababbar @anwyn84 @arpitastravelblog @avenscent @aventuraroxy @beckyaluoch @beckybwinch @bethanyaharvey @bharath10291 @brendablagdon @camelliasentry @cathylynnbrooks @colettebates @continuingwithme @createtoenchant @cthisnthat @dalees107 @darshith0000 @devilrockz @dawnmarie823 @divorcinganarc @drmegsorick @feelings161 @fictionalkevin @foodeezjunction @fjjjuneau @francescabergamasco @freakreborn @garthmr @garyloggins @getyourlenson @graceanneoscar @gutsy4 @haripriyakm @himadas @iamabloggertoo @hlindschinger @iamdonovan @icerene01 @insomniacbee @indira2412 @ishitarc1908 @ivanproust @jahnavichintakunta @jaipurthrumylens @jdjung @jenmotivates12 @jennifernicholewells @jessmcombs @joseelavallee @jsackmom @justdreadfull @koolitzable @kristinavanhoos @laduchessederat @laikassuvaikais @lilacsky22 @lulaharp @lyndapoysor @maddy1953 @maidsdayoff @meloheart @missams35 @mkjackie99 @mumbletymuse @myesteriousgirlneerja @myusername432 @nandininautiyal @niciacruz @niyati16 @notionlux @ohmyglai @oliveole @onetarhayes @pamkirst2014 @piyushavir @raforbeginners @ranu802 @revrumblefish @robertmgoldstein @rugwed @sadhanacs @sandeept252 @santoshnc @sashay909 @sasmiths1112 @sheridanj2015 @shinepositivepower @sirtonix @srinathtk86 @stanito @startingtheclimb @sumitagrawal01 @surbhisachdeva89 @suzannebowditch @theanonymoustalker @thedesivagabond @thegeneviever @thepreciouslifeofprecious @vellissima @vikrambishla @vnajac @wanderlaur @wanderlusteternal @welshshortbread @whatsandrathinks @wordsfromarifa @worthinessambassador @wynstep @xaranahara

If I missed anybody out, my apologies, you all were meant to be included!