Turning Quotes Into Masterpieces

I woke up this Thursday Morning with a big surprise. I just saw someone posting a quote of mine via twitter, and that gave me such a pleasure I had tears in my eyes when I saw it:

Thanks @hermankasper for quoting my #ThursdayThoughts! #ThursdayGoals are about searching for the best places, which is always from inside! https://t.co/PJWZQZjXsx

— Ana Claudia Antunes(@AnaBowlova) October 13, 2016

Then I found out that there are lots of people who keep sharing my quotes. And they even make it better by sharing their own way of saying the same thing. For example, my saying

"Life keeps throwing the stones. And I keep finding the diamonds."

And Many Thanks @hilltreasures for quoting me in such endearing way. See, life keeps throwing some precious stones. AND I FIND THEM WELL! :) https://t.co/PdOJrTf1jF

— Ana Claudia Antunes(@AnaBowlova) October 13, 2016

“True love is like little roses, sweet, fragrant in small doses.”

― Ana Claudia Antunes #quote #Truelove #roses
for a thoughtful person... pic.twitter.com/A5TG5Pr5Nu

— aki † (@aki_official1) October 6, 2016

A portrait of me through my quote, Inspired by the words that I wrote:

💎Life keeps throwing me stones.
And I keep finding the diamonds...💎

~ Ana Claudia Antunespic.twitter.com/IQky2mnZl8

— Laura Mowry(@MowryLaura) October 25, 2016
It fills my heart with joy when I look at what people make of quotes from my books, they do some creative stuff with my own words, and through my thoughts. I'm glad that I can share that with you. Here I share some quotes of mine that people already displayed with some inspiring images.

If you do not want to be forgotten as soon as you are dead...be read, or...~Ana Claudia Antunes#amwriting #writer pic.twitter.com/M23hnpKdbO

— Susan McIntire ☆彡 (@susanjmcintire)

It's like Heaven on Earth!

“I'd rather be on the ground than under
To feel the heavy rain and the thunder.”
― Ana Claudia Antunespic.twitter.com/jRVvwEivOL

— PhoenixRising(@nicratwoman) April 8, 2015

Thanks @TrishaMalika for reminding me of that and sharing my quote. It gives me such a joy that I want to share it also. #sharingiscaring https://t.co/7xNy0mVTOX

— Ana Claudia Antunes(@AnaBowlova) October 13, 2016

Beautiful portraying of my feelings, Translating my words into images.

“True love is like little roses,
sweet, fragrant in small doses.”
Ana Claudia Antunes pic.twitter.com/0qFzdQzdWI

— Chris F. W. Anderson (@1_feather) February 14, 2016

Yet another beautifully expressed image inspired by the same feeling:

True love is like little roses, sweet, fragrant in small doses.” ― Ana Claudia Antunes #love #Quotestoliveby #quote pic.twitter.com/qRS5d5udqD

— Geoff Hudson-Searle (@GeoffHSearle) July 23, 2016

#Klimt #TheKiss #ART #quote #TrueLove I love to be quoted like this. It's such a pleasure to see art within the art. All imaginative souls creating together the divine within us! I also create pictures of my own thoughts, and I wrote a book of poetry with images that I call Photos of Thoughts:

The Tao of Physical & Spiritual http://www.lulu.com/shop/ana-claudia-antunes/the-tao-of-physical-and-spiritual/paperback/product-3533066.html https://www.amazon.com.br/Amazons-Ancient-Medieval-Memoirs-English-ebook/dp/B00QLFNUNW #amazon #memoirs #painting #quotes #book #quoteoftheday #tao #physical #spiritualgrowth #holistichealth #healthystyle #wellbeing #wellness #yogaeverywhere #dance #survival #heartofgold💛 #heart #happiness #quotestoliveby https://www.amazon.com.br/-Z-Happiness-Breaking-Through-Separates-ebook/dp/B00OBQT79 #bookgram #bookstagram #freeebooks on #kindleunlimited https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OBQT79Y

A photo posted by Ana Claudia Antunes (@anabowlova) on Sep 5, 2016 at 2:16pm PDT

https://www.amazon.com.br/Amazons-Ancient-Medieval-Memoirs-English-ebook/dp/B00QLFNUNW #amazon #memoirs #painting. #recycledpaper #ecoline #watercolor #quotes #book #quoteoftheday #tao #physical #spiritualgrowth #holistichealth #healthystyle #wellbeing #wellness #yogaeverywhere #dance #survival #ridinghorse #horse #warriorprincess #heartofgold💛 #heart #happiness #quotestoliveby https://www.amazon.com.br/-Z-Happiness-Breaking-Through-Separates-ebook/dp/B00OBQT79 #bookgram #bookstagram #freeebooks on #kindleunlimited https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00OBQT79Y

A photo posted by Ana Claudia Antunes (@anabowlova) on Jul 8, 2016 at 11:01pm PDT

Which image comes to your mind when you read or hear my words?

TGIF

Today´s Friday Feeling

The Mysterious Murder of Marilyn Monroe

My most recent book that I just published on Amazon (now available on print at lulu and soon in Barnes & Noble and other major retailers) The Mysterious Murder of Marilyn Monroe has a very sensitive topic for it touches us even today, about the theory of conspiracies that remains until nowadays. I also talk about the assassination of JFK and many more issues that we inherited with the cold war. So I was afraid to let it out all open. At that time I had completely stopped writing and that had nothing to do with writer's block. I was simply denying the fact that I was too afraid of letting the matters being out in the light. My father then asked me why I stopped writing, and I gave him many excuses... but he knows me too well, then he said, " You are afraid of what people may think of it.' That answer touched me too deep. But I was still in denial. I couldn't figure out exactly why I had stopped with the book. So I started to write other books with much more "light" subjects, which was pretty fine since some sold right after I published them. It was after all these years that I felt comfortable to give the finishing strokes to that book and there it is, ready and in many people's lives now. I'm so glad I finally gave up and listened to my father's wise words. He knew it more than I did. I was afraid of what people might think of the things I wrote in that book. But now I'm ok with it, for now I know if I didn't put this book out there no one would ever do, and people wouldn't know about the things I say there. I never used a pseudonym, never felt like it, only made a pun such as "Ana Bowlova", for sometimes I feel like I love to bow (bow lover) to make reverence to life and also bowl over things... go figure. This book Iḿ talking about had many spins and turns until I felt ok to go push forward to let it breath and see the light, "The Mysterious Murder of Marilyn Monroe" that I have written in the end of 2011, it was a project that I was developing with another Mystery/Suspense writer in a writing workshop and we had to talk about the things that happened fifty years before the next year and that it would be the year 1962. So in my research I found out about so many things that happened then, and it was a revolution going on in my head. Many things that were not revealed or were never really being very investigated, that was all too fishy. So I divided the topics and decided to share ideas to write the book. But for some odd reason (that I can only conceive it now as a type of fear) a sensation of letting people read my own thoughts that froze me for about three years. I wrote many other books in the meantime, there was not actually a gap there, so I cannot even call this a writer´s block (I actually have no idea what it means, for me ideas pop up in my head all the time) so that was not even the problem of finishing the book. The thing was much deeper. It was that feeling of being rejected that I told you above, I was simply afraid of what people would think of my words, my work, the things that I was revealing there. But hey, it was just in the end of 2014 when I decided to give it the last strokes and finish it and voila:

A Nano Writer

I'm pleased to announce that I got two books (and another on the way) that you can read online and turn the pages like a real book. I got another book for children that will soon be featured on Amazon.



This year I decided to participate at the NANOWRIMO, for those not familiar with this nanostuff, that's a National Novel Writing Competition. If you are asking why would I enter in such a self-torture ordeal, I just have only one answer: It simply gives me the jest to know that we were so many doing the same insane thinking, and yet we keep writing on and on. It's interesting to see how many people got registered this year, numbers not always mean much, it is the old dilemma, quantity versus quality, but they don't lie either: there must mean something to have a lot to people feeling that they are up to something and that something must be finished in a month. Even if for that there would be any literal value. Just the fact to go and act, it's worth a million words. Hey, and if in the end you didn't write those crazy 50,000 words?? Who cares? You were the only one to blame for, and discipline is best learned by practicing it. Try it next year, or maybe you will never be a novelist of some never-to-be-a-novel deal, but I guarantee one hundred percent that if you at least wrote a page or two, and you can read that to yourself, you may find out things in you that are just priceless.

Here is the link to my soon-to-be novel at the NANOWRIMO site: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/562469

My Trilogies

My Memoirs:
"Flat Feet: Autobiography of a Cosmic Dancer"


http://www.lulu.com/content/40542

From the trilogy "Memoirs of an Amazon":
"As Bruxas de Avignon"

Past: History

"L'Amante de Victor Hugo"
Present: Literature

"Sweet Secrets-A Voyage to Jupiter"
Future: Science

it comes the Synthesis:
"Geometry Of Designs by Ana Bowlova"

Trilogy of Present "Diaries":

"The Diary"
Past: History

"The Royal Diary"

Present: Literature

"Many Lives To Love... And The Eternity To Live"

Future: Science

Trilogy of Puzzles:

"The 'Da Vinte Koans'- Books of Poems"

Past: History

"Dive-in-Action"

Present: Literature

"Dancing On Worlds"
Future: Science


Trilogy of Fate:

Past: Supernatural
"Cheat Chart"


Present: Natural/Normal

"One Hundred One World Accounts in One Hundred One World Count"


Future: Paranormal
"Tune the Twine/Twit the Twist"


Trilogy of My Books with Rhymes and Watercolors:

"The Four Sea Sons"
and in Portuguese as "As Quatro Fadas"
"Fables of Milk Shake's Peer"
in Portuguese as "Contos de Milk Shake Spirro"
"The Kindred Garden"
Far away on the ocean,
And deep deep down,
The water of blue in motion
Adorns all round and around.

....(a far away sound).......

But she 's so profound
That not even an anchor
Can reach her and rebound
Or touch her into the core.
Ana C.

Trilogia en Español:

"Dance and Music/Cuento de la Danza y Musica" "Dao Workbook Ilustrado" "Riñas de una Niña Teñida"

Boiling the Odds

Being a writer and living in another country is not an easy task (see my essay about immigration that I once shared on my first message that I posted on this blog) and being a foreigner is never a piece of cake, yet it has so many compensations that it's quite worth the working process. When we first arrive to another place that's outside our spectrum we may feel quite vulnerable and alienated, but once we share more similarities than odds it changes the perspective, thus giving us the liberty to have a brand new start. I don't know though how one may come to terms while speaking other languages and blending into other cultures, we all have our particularities and our ways as to find strenght and faith in our own limitations and extreme situations we may face on the way when dealing with what's different, distant and exotic for us. The most recent cases of a Vietnamese immigrant who killed thriteen people in a citizenship class because he got frustrated for losing his job, and the discrimination one may suffer for being an immigrant can be examplified by that man who killed Chilean immigrants inside their own homes in Pensacola. Society always failed into introducing an odd character, the ugly duckling, rather mocking about its lack of skills (which is probably because he didn't learn what the others know since they were born, or it was not in his system, but yes, one day he may even surpass that and surprise us!) Now it's Susan Boyle (the singer who astonished everyone by her lack of attractiveness and her beautiful voice) that is in the news, showing how much it costs to be different. Examples, there are plenty!! But for me being an outsider and different from others has always blessed me with bliss in many levels. Writing in another country gives me even more insightful moments. And I can always have that eye that sees from the outside, from another point of view, and yet being able to belong to the places I live at the same time... it's quite an adventure that makes me move and be moved in a constant exchange of experiences. But for that to happen one must be strong inside and humble enough to let go of some matters of the ego and simply think: "What can I offer to others??" And then what one takes is much more than one may expect. All in all it is always Paradise (and no parasite) to just get up and dance.

It's a God's Life!

With the recession and the global financial turmoil, it's time to roll up our sleeves and help people get in touch with what truly matters in our world by spreading the words of equality and fairness, and putting our fingers in the economic problems to solve some issues that have been like a plague, and giving solutions to the mess we all are. People are so concerned about their loosing money that they got lost amidst the deepest despair when so many live in hunger and are getting hungrier by the minute. In our rushing times it's just so easy to disconnect from what is really important in our lives. The basic needs are indeed what truly matters in all languages, all nations and all colors: to have a home, food in our plate, a good health, piece of mind and someone to share all that. So in five days I will be joining the world with words at the blog action day to getting verbal about poverty around the world. Would you join me too?

In Press to Impress: Two Hundred Years of Journalism in Brazil

The first Brazilian newspaper, the Gazeta of Rio de Janeiro, was printed in Brazil on September 10th, 1808. Three months before that the Correo Braziliense was considered the first press, although published oversea, in London, and entered in Brazil in a clandestine way, even though it was made for the elite and the monarchic (tres chic) regimen.

I once wanted to be a journalist just to have my dream gone on my first attempt to enter the most important University in Sao Paulo. But anyway, who told me I needed to become a journalist in order to be a writer, if I were already a storyteller since childhood? The day of my inscription for the exam (which for me meant almost to reach the same score as if I was to enter to the University of Medicine, almost like applying to be a doctor) a man who took care of the contenders, once he saw my choice for studies, said out loud, "One more liar in the world!" So much for an incentive to just leave it all behind. If I were to write I would write about the thruth, even if it was a fiction, it would be a fiction about the truth. I never stopped with my dream of being a writer, actually I never stopped being one, and what other people would say about to get me out of track, on the contrary, that would be enough reason for me to keep typing. That's how the introduction from this book by Paulo Coelho (see below) ressonates deep into my soul, when he says that when he thought he had given up his dream, life would sweep off the rug under his foot and get him back to what he most deeply wanted in his life: To be a writer. Don't you just hate when fate plays out its part and just press you against all the odds until you finally give up and see that it was all right?

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

"A Terminal Episode"

I know at least one famous comedian who is not laughing today. At least, not today. One who I consider a great comedian must be mourning the death of another one with all his ingeniousness, George Carlin. What I really enjoyed of Carlin was his linguistic detours, being myself a tongue twister. I love acrostic too and to quote his own saying of if he died on a hospital he would have "A Terminal Episode" the acrostic "ATE" is a farewell word in Brazil which in Portuguese means, "See You"!! So see you, George. You know I hate farewell so much that I actually "ATE" them all... And as a ballerina I've got "two-too" to show respect to Carlin's memory:

"If your name was a footnote in American legal history, what would be the photo on your ID: A toe-nail?"

"If you "died" your hair, would that make your hair drop? And would you bury it in a hair style?" I know they were lame (I just in-vented them in a "Minute Made"), but I hope I can make you laugh the heck out of it.

So to stir and spur us to forget the tears, and cheer up a little bit (at least myself;) here below I leave what some of my other fellow writers have been saying about my writing (for instead of deleting I kept them to share to the world:)

"I've taken a look at your web sites and it seems that you are incredibly talented."
David Cole from Launceston, Tasmania

"I have taken some time to read your postings. You are an amazing writer! I will post some comments on your writing, but I just thought I would e-mail you and let you know I am now officially a fan. Do you have any writing available for purchase? Bookstores....Amazon.com...? Anyway, I'll stop now to avoid sounding like I am just blowing sunshine up your arse. I look forward to reading more of your writing. Dustin."

"Working on anything new? You can't keep a mind like yours all to yourself...Its just not fair to the rest of us here on earth."
Dustin Doornbos from Grand Rapids in Michigan

"In a fit of self-destructive pique I've recently decimated my collection with the "delete" command, but there's still a little left. And now I can explore your writing, since I truly enjoyed the small part of it I've seen."
Bill Kowalski from St. Louis, Missouri

"Keep that pen moving. Rock on..."
-Metal Mark from Tucson, Arizona

Soon I will have some very good news about my books (and more messages coming on my way:)

"I happened across your website, and I am awe-struck. I just want to say that you are one of the most talented and multi-faceted people I have seen.

Your choice of words is exhilarating, your book's preview is captivating, and on top of all that are you behind Lulu (and soon on Amazon and other major retailers!:)

I will have to look into it more, but from what I see already, compliments to you and the many roles you fill.

Happy Holidays.

Sincerely,

Shad Nunemaker"


"I am writing to you because I tell you, I was really impressed with your

diverse experiences. You have done some interesting stuff, plus you have

used the time you spent on this planet to include some of your life in your poetic works!

I am looking forward to reading more of them. (I only read the samples.)

You seem to me to be a wonderful,

substantial writer who has done so many enriching things with her life.

I am so proud of you. I mean this from my heart: I hope

more people can find out about you through

the promotion of this anthology. You are really inspiring!

Good luck to you!

Theresa McGriff "

World Book and Copyright Day

Today is dedicated worldwide for reading and reflecting upon the services and the labour of the writers all around the globe. It was on an April, twenty-third, in the same year of 1616, that Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (a Peruvian writer who lived in Spain and whose writings were also very much appreciated by Cervantes) died. Being a writer myself since I was a child when I would start to tell stories with my drawings and tales to myself, first, and when I had the courage to show them to people (and they wouldn't believe I invented and wrote my own poems) then I realized how hard a task that is, to prove the stories one owes to oneself are the ones one's written and owns right on! They are the stories one saw, viewed or observed, experienced or was told about. Then we cannot be sure they were really one's own stories if they belong to all of us. So today is about copyright day too. Although I believe we cannot dimension which story was the original one, if you see that all stories came from somewhere else, I know how much it hurts when people just steal one's ideas. That happened to me right when I was on fifth grade and I wrote sonnets to my colleagues in class, which were later copied by other girls who, by the way, never mentioned my name on them. That's where copyright cannot reach. For how can you prove you had the idea first? Ok, right, I wrote my name right after the title, but someone else wrote the same thing. What better example than seeing all those poems being circulated on the internet when people give credits to Shakespeare, or Borges, the latter very much influenced by Cervantes, with texts varying from "live if there is no tomorrow" to "If I Had My Life to Live Over" and all that they could say if they were still alive and read those poems would probably be that they would die if they wrote that. When it is to give respect to the author's ownership of their works I am on! It is that simple to just mention the RIGHT name on the copy (when you do know the authorship, and if you don't just go find out who did it!:) And that's what COPYRIGHT is all about.

Create Your Own
"Have a Good!" (Sorry, don't know who invented that greeting, but probably was someone in such a hurry who didn't even want to be known for that;)

Why We Write

There are just many, many hidden (ridden and read on) reasons why do writers do the write thing. Isn't that so? Click on Why We Write (with a comment of mine:) and read a piece of Danny Rubin, writer of “Groundhog Day” at whywewriteseries.wordpress.com to view how many successful writers may cope with when they are not allowed to write. (Well, even when they cannot, they write). I remember each and every phrase of a good conversation, and if I do not have a pen and paper, at least I count on my own memory to Words Wide Wrap. I remember having read in some newspaper that if the educational system continued as it was, as people were reading books less and less, the world would be full of idiots who cannot even write their names. I recently read (not in the same news, but still a paper) that there is a Sci-Fi book written by a famous author (that I never read/heard) where only ignorant people would inhabit the planet, for the real intelligent ones wouldn't have children. Thank God neither one of those predictions seem exactly right. At least, the majority of people in this planet can read or write. And with the upcoming of the internet, more and more people are writing and reading. But prior to that all, quality and intention must be at the upfront. If there are poor information, most clearly they will generate poor educated people. If families, as a support system, didn't exist at all, more and more children would be left in their own devices, which in turn would be a shame for humanity. So, what really matters here? Is it just to write, or to write well, or what we write to our children? The same goes with television, cinema, theatre and all the media which make accessible information (including, especially, the internet): Good choices lead to better results. And by having a clear vision to make those choices we must share information, we must write our ideals, our experiences, our lives. I'm not a Imdb name holder, or am I on any internet "move" database nor am I a journalist (I gave up that dream when a man to whom I entered my inscription to the University told me I would add in the already big list of liars in the media) to discuss and make opinions (as I do not have any 'pinions neither am I-care(^l^)ess a peanut to think I can win one). But I recently heard (now at a TV News station) two journalists complaining about "opinionating blogs made by amateurs with no comments added" to their sharing. And I got to the conclusion, with a Confucian confusion in my head saying that Yes/No, we should write to be read, but most importantly with guts to read and hear our own selves (and now is my Socratic stomach speaking). And yes, this is a narcissistic activity, but what is not? Even when we are helping someone else, as much as it seems so altruistic, we are actually helping and thinking of ourselves, for that action comes from solely, only and lonely our own hearts, making it beneficial to our own personal growth, and if we are lucky enough may benefit others in our way to our epiphanies. And that's why I write.

A Good Review

I got a very nice critique over another piece of mine which was published on August at the Aphelion Webzine (and I do not even know this chick Junior Critic, I swear!!:)


How cool is that?!

Memorable Mention on my poem "Outsider"



What a Shakin' experience!!