Uncategorized | Blue Star Visions

Sep 07

Readings on Where Rivers Converge

By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Uncategorized | No Comments

COME IN AND LISTEN ON SATURDAY THE 10TH

If you live in the area, I think you’d enjoy hearing local authors reading their contributions to the newly published anthology Where Rivers Converge

Saturday, September 10 1:00-3:00pm Waconia Library (WC Magazine Reading Room) Live Read of Carver County area Library Writer’s Group will feature picks from their first anthology edition “Where Rivers Converge”. Come support your favorite authors.

Waconia Library 217 S. Vine St. 952-442-4714

Authors will also probably have some of their other books on display as well.

I’ll be reading my fiction piece, “Interrupted Honeymoon”.

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Nov 16

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Alex & Emma: A Movie Review
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Alex & Emma

Alex & Emma is an enchanting romantic comedy. The description on the back cover of the DVD says it well: “Publish or perish! Alex has just 30 days to finish his romance novel and collect his writing fee—money he owes to loan sharks threatening his life. So stressed-out Alex hires Emma to be his stenographer and discovers she’s opinionated, direct, a cause of exasperation . . . and a source of inspiration.”

The description leaves out that Alex (Luke Wilson) has writer’s block, hasn’t even started the novel and is living in a dumpy apartment. The loan sharks hang him outside his second-story window by his legs and burn his laptop on the gas stove to encourage him to get the money he owes them.

Without a laptop, Alex is forced to hire a stenographer, luring her in with a false ad that he works at a law office.

Emma (Kate Hudson) shows up at the door and immediately realizes this isn’t a law office and is about to leave when anxiety-ridden Alex faints. She drags him back into his apartment by his feet—what decent person would just leave him collapsed in the hallway? she reasons. When he awakens, Alex shows her his hardcover, published novel to convince her that he really is a writer in need of her services as a stenographer.

Emma picks up the book, looks at his photo on the back cover, then immediately turns to the last page to see if she likes the ending. Alex is dismayed that anyone would read the end first. Emma explains she doesn’t want to waste time reading a book if it doesn’t have a good ending—thus the fun begins.

The fun affair between Alex and Emma takes place both in the contemporary world and in the 1920s world of the novel Alex is writing with Emma’s not-always-wanted input.

As Alex writes, we learn about his past struggles to find happiness and love. In the end we wonder if Alex will make the same mistakes with Emma that he made in the past or if he is willing to move forward?

For a writer, the book is especially enjoyable. The movie gives an insight into Alex’s writing process and his struggles against his own insecurities that blocks his creative flow. The viewer sees how the world of the book is shaped, the changes made to the characters and plot, and the struggles an author goes through to find the best ending.

For a fun evening, see Alex & Emma. It’s full of wit, imagination and will make you laugh and feel good about the absurdities and complexities of life.

If you’re a writer, have you ever had writer’s block? If so, how did you get over it? Is Alex’s process of writing a novel similar to yours or different? In what ways? Do you work well under pressure and deadlines or does that make it worse?

By Heidi Skarie, author of Star Rider on the Razor’s Edge. Visit my website at www.heidiskaie.com and sign up for my newsletter and to receive a free short story.

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Apr 16

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Guided in Dreams
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Uncategorized, Writing | 70 Comments

Recently I was drawn to read Paulji A Memoir by Patti Simpson. I had read it in 1985 when it was first published, but felt the urge to read it again. I’m glad I did because in the thirty years since then my consciousness and experiences have changed me and how I relate to the book.

In the beginning of the book Patti describes her life as unremarkable. She was happily married, the mother of four, and a regular churchgoer.

One night while Patti seemed to be asleep the words of a book run through her head as if she were a tape recorder. “It had been a most exciting and well-written mystery story, and as it unfolded, word by word, it left me fascinated. I didn’t know where this mystery story was coming from: in a sense, it seemed to be from me. In the morning I couldn’t remember a word of it, but I had. . . a knowingness . . . that someday I would write a book.” p. 10. Paulji A Memoir might have been the book she knew she would write someday.

The experience Patti describes in this passage struck me as very similar to an experience I had in which I had a series of six dreams that was like watching a movie. Only, unlike Patti, I remembered the dreams and recorded them. I ended up with ninety pages in my dream journal. Like Patti at the time I wasn’t an author, but the series of dreams inspired me to write the story I saw in the dream and led to writing Star Rider on the Razor’s Edge.

In Paulji a Memoir, Patti had another nocturnal experience several years later in 1968. This time she went to bed but instead of falling asleep, she remained in full awareness. In the morning she felt fully refreshed. She was aware that what she’d heard in this state was crystal clear, but she couldn’t remember what she’d learned when she awoke. This went on for many nights. Patti knew she was hearing the explanation of life, of existence and the truth of being.

On the twenty-first day Patti awoke knowing there was a book she needed to find. She went to a corner market and as she looked at a rack her hand shot out and she grabbed a book. It was In My Soul I am Free about Paul Twitchell written by Brad Steiger. This book turned out to be the beginning of an amazing spiritual journey she had as a student of Paul Twitchell that continued over the next three years until his passing in 1971. Patti grew to be a dedicated student and worked closely with Paul Twitchell, helping him bring the works of Eckankar to the world. During this time she came to know the private side of Paul Twitchell and his wife Gail.

The book is a wonderful story of Patti’s memories of this remarkable spiritual leader. The stories she tells are inspiring, humorous at times and uplifting. It’s well worth the read.

One of the stories was that a couple of years after Patti was taught on the inner for twenty-one nights, Paul Twitchell wrote and published the first chapter of the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad. When Patti read it, she recognized it as the words of wisdom she’d heard during those nights.

I read the Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad in 1971 and for me it was the same experience of recognizing the truth that Patti had, though I read it in the outer form.

How many of us are guided inwardly in some way? We might have an amazing dream, be directed to buy a book, call a phone number, or have a lucid dream. Others of us might be given a book by a friend or be inwardly nudged to go to an event.

The more I hear people’s stories, the more I realize we are all guided in our search for truth.

Have you had a remarkable experience on your journey to find the greater meaning of life? If so write your experience in the comment section of this blog post. I always love hearing about people’s experiences.

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Jan 30

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Interview with Iva Kenaz, author of The Witch Within
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

I just finished reading The Witch Within and greatly enjoyed the main character’s journey both physically and spiritually. The following is an interview with the author.

Iva Kenaz author.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve been fascinated with storytelling since childhood. I wrote many simple hand-written books and in my teenage years I wrote a three-part novel about past lives. I often had repetitive dreams and visions in which I experienced stories from another person’s point of view and felt compelled to note them down. I keep returning to these dreams for inspiration. Writing is something very magical and sacred to me. I believe that it’s a divine communication between the author and the worlds beyond.

What is The Witch Within about and what is the major theme?

The Witch Within is set in 16th century Bohemia and is about a sixteen-year-old gifted healer, Talitha who has been charged with witchcraft.

Talitha escapes to the abandoned Cursed Lands and seeks the ancient cave of her ancestors where her grandmother lived. In the mystical woods, she starts to remember her ancestral lore of healing and magical symbolism and receives guidance on how to survive from the local spirits. But then she is captured by two men who were sent to bring her back to the local justice. One is a brute, but the other one is fatally attracted to her.

After Talitha manages to escape them, she finds her ancestral cave, but also another one at the highest peak of the forest where a group of refugee women have established a camp. By facing both the dark and bright side of her kin, Talitha learns that what she thought was her curse, may yet become her gift.

The major theme is survival, both in physical, emotional and spiritual sense. It’s about overcoming one’s fears and limitations and becoming empowered using primordial inner wisdom.

The Witch Within

What kind of research did you do for the book? What made you pick the 16th century in South Bohemia?

The story is inspired by repetitive dreams and visions I used to have and partly by a book called The Secret History of Czech Lands (by A.Cesal,O.Dvorak and V.Matl) that focuses on the long-gone mysteries of my home country.

During the 16^th century the witch-hunts became more serious all over Europe but I decided on that period mainly symbolically, as the story is made up and thus remains a fantasy.

I was also inspired by the beautiful magnetic countryside of South Bohemia, particularly mountain Kleť, which could translate to Cursed or Mountain of Curses. In the middle ages many landscapes of South Bohemia were feared and some of them even drowned under lakes and ponds. People considered them cursed and haunted, however, those places had rich pagan history and concealed the wisdom of Celtic, Slavic and Germanic tribes.

How does Talitha, the main character, grow and change in your book from her experiences?

Talitha starts off as a gifted healer but she has a very low-self esteem and feels guilty about the death of her brother. She believes that her choice of herbs caused his death. It’s only once she manages to heal one of her captors that she realizes she is truly able to save lives.

Eventually, she also becomes initiated in the magical and healing power of runes and a part of her soul that used to be conscious of such ancestral mysteries begins to re-unite with her present self.

Her spirit is also greatly tested by the shadow side of magic but in the end Talitha learns to understand that the witch within her might not be a curse but an actual virtue.

What writing project are you working on now?

I’ve been working on a stand-alone sequel to The Witch Within that focuses on Talitha’s granddaughter, Berkana, and delves deeper into the mysteries of the natural spirit, runes and sacred geometry.

Iva Kenaz’s Bio.

I’m an indie author and a devoted student and practitioner of Sacred Geometry, Astrology, Tarot, Runes and Channeling. My novels are mainly visionary/metaphysical and are greatly influenced by spirituality, symbolism and philosophy.
In June 2014 I published my first novel The Witch Within and later that year also a personal confession titled My Melancholic Diary. I studied screenwriting at a film university in Prague, FAMU and MA Creative Writing at London South Bank University. Currently, I’ve been working on a stand-alone sequel to The Witch Within as well as doing a research for my non-fiction book about archetypes in storytelling.

Here is Iva Kenzaz’s website.

http://www.ivakenaz.com/
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Aug 24

0

Samurai Garden by Gail Tsukiyama
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Uncategorized | One Comment

The Seine River

While in Paris my husband and I stayed in a small but delightful apartment in the center of the city near the Seine River, so we could watch the boats and browse the souvenirs and artwork sold by street vendors. A short walk brought us to Île de la Cité where historical Notre Dame Cathedral is located. I was happy to be in the magical City of Light that I’d heard about since I was young.

At the apartment I saw Samurai Garden by Gail Tsukiyama on the bookshelf. I’d read one of Tsukiyama’s other books and enjoyed it, so I decided to read this one.

Samurai Garden

The story is about Stephen Chan, a young Chinese man, who contracted tuberculosis while in college. His parents send him to recover and live at their beach house on the ocean in Tarumi, Japan. The caretaker, Matsu, shows the inner strength of a samurai as he takes care of Stephen, the house and lovingly tends the beautiful garden.

The story is set in 1937, the turbulent time period when the Japanese Imperial Army invades China. The quiet world of Tarumi, where Stephen paints and swims as he regains his health, seems removed from the terrible events in China. Yet the war hangs over Stephen as the armies head south to his family home in Hong Kong, reflecting problems within his own family.

Over time Stephen befriends Matsu who eventually takes him to visit his beloved Sachi, who is a leper.

Many years earlier when Sachi first became ill, to be a leper was considered a disease that brought shame on your family. In those days, it was considered more honorable to commit suicide than to live with leprosy. Sachi was unable to kill herself like the other lepers of her village. Matsu found her in the woods and helped her build a home in the newly formed leper colony. Over the years he continued to visit and help her.

As the story unfolds, Stephen learns Sachi’s story. Before she became ill, she was a beautiful, vain young woman. The tragedy of the disease taught her that beauty comes from within. She also learned that sometimes it is harder to live with adversity than to die.

Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon

While reading the story, I wondered what it would be like to have a serious illness. For both Sachi and Stephen, it was isolating; they had live apart from their families so the disease wouldn’t spread to them. I also thought of Sachi’s fate. What would it be like to be a beautiful young woman who contracted a disease that eats away your face? How would it feel to be shunned by your family and fiancé, who are afraid of contracting the disease?

The story has a quiet beauty to it as it moves slowly and gracefully, sweeping us into its tale and revealing the characters’ mysteries. It was well worth the read.

Japanese Garden

Everything we go through in life, especially the challenges, teaches us something. Have you ever had a serious illness or felt isolated? What did you learn from the experience?

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May 02

0

Tour of International Space Station
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

I write science fiction and am always interested in what it would be like to be in space. While researching for my Star Rider series I came across this youtube video. It’s a cool film showing the inside of the international space station. I especially enjoyed seeing what it was like to be in a place without gravity.

For example, they don’t have chairs because they never need to sit down. The video shows all the station’s modules and tells how they work, eat, sleep and go the bathroom. They also show what earth looks like from the station. This is a cool video worth seeing if you like space.

Here is the Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA who recorded an extensive tour of the orbital laboratory.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/doN4t5NKW-k

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Mar 22

0

Lessons Learned While Knitting a Pair of Socks
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Uncategorized, Writing | 3 Comments

Heidi shoe showing.

Today I am at my husband, Jim, and my cabin in Detroit Lakes. It’s March, so winter is on the way out, but up here in the North Country there is still a thick covering of snow, so we had to buy snowshoes and hike in a quarter of a mile to get to the cabin. It took several trips back and forth to bring in our food and clothes. Jim built a fire to heat the cabin. I took off my wet shoes and socks and put on a new, dry pair of wool socks.

Jim in his snowshoes

As I sat in a chair reading, I looked down at my socks and thought of the story behind their creation. I knitted them several years ago. The cuffs were a complicated lace pattern, and I started knitting the socks as I sat on a train on the way from where I live in Minneapolis to Milwaukee, about a seven-hour trip.

Here is the cabin.

I started on the first sock and knitted for several inches, then saw that the pattern didn’t look right. I ripped it out and started over. Again, it didn’t turn out right. This went on and on for many hours. It was an unfamiliar pattern, and each row was different. Moreover, I wasn’t sure how it was supposed to look, and to complicate the situation the yarn was variegated, which made it hard to tell if the pattern was right or not until you knitted many rows.

I wasn’t particularly upset by having to rip out my knitting One thing you learn as a knitter is that sometimes you are going to make mistakes. Knitting is forgiving in that you can usually rip something out quite easily. I saw the pattern as a challenge like a puzzle I was trying to solve. I’m a good knitter and had learned to knit many years ago from my grandmother, so I wasn’t expecting to have this kind of difficulty. I had anticipated having at least one if not both socks done by the time I got to Milwaukee. Instead, I had nothing to show for my time.

As I was knitting, a man came up to me and said, “I’ve never seen someone with so much patience. You’ve been working for hours and keep starting over without getting upset.” I found his remark interesting in that it showed me that even when we think no one notices us, in fact, other people might be observing us. What kind of example are we to others? Are we demonstrating love, tolerance or perhaps the opposite?

My son-in-law Nick was telling me just yesterday that he was impressed by how good Jim was with our grandson Asher. Nick said he was learning to be a better father just watching him. Again, this was happening while my husband was being an example without realizing it.

But back to my sock story. When I arrived in Milwaukee, still without figuring out the pattern, I went to the yarn shop with my sister. I bought knitting markers, and I drew a diagram of the pattern. With the markers and the diagram, I was able to do the pattern and successfully make the lace pattern socks.

When I finished, my sister said, “You should keep those socks for yourself instead of giving them away. No one else will ever appreciate the work you put into them.” She was right. Whenever I wear the socks, I remember the lessons I learned while knitting them. One is that with persistence, patience, a little creativity, and a willingness to try things a different way; we can accomplish our goals even when at first they seem almost impossible. Sometimes we have to rip out and keep trying over and over again, but eventually we’ll figure it out.

What I learned from knitting those socks applies to other areas of my life like my writing. I’m working on the third book in my Star Rider science fiction series. I’ve been writing for years and even teach writing, and yet sometimes I have to write a scene over and over again trying to make it flow smoothly. Sometimes I struggle to make the characters come alive and to have their dialogue sound real. While doing all that I also have to make sure the scene has tension, excitement and a good beginning, middle and end.

I’ve found that most things that are worthwhile in life take hard work, perseverance and patience. Have you ever had an experience like mine where you had to work on something over and over again before you finally got it right? I’d love to hear from you.

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Feb 16

0

Amazing child basket ball player
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Photo from Hollywood Life article by Bonnie Fuller

Yesterday I shared a youtube of Amira Willinghagen who is a nine-year-old, self- taught opera singer. Today I want to share a child prodigy of another kind. This two-year-old boy, Titus Asby, plays basketball and you’ll have trouble believing what he can do. He is amazing. In this youtube he plays against Bradley Cooper and Channing Tatum and wins!!! Enjoy!

http://blog.petflow.com/ive-never-seen-a-kid-do-this-what-a-talented-little-boy/

Both of these children are doing what they love. They sing or throw the basket ball because they love it. I love to write, especially to tell stories about people who lived in the past and the challenges they face and people who live in others worlds in the future. I can spend all day writing the way this little boy throws the basket ball over and over again.

What do you love to do? What is it that you can’t wait to do in your free time?
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Feb 15

0

St. Paul Como Park Zoo and Conservatory
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Uncategorized | No Comments

A tropical fish tank.

We went to the St. Paul Como Park Zoo and Conservatory with our grandson on Valentine’s Day. I wanted to share some of the photos and wish you a happy Valentine’s Day.

The sea lion came over to see us.

The tiger didn’t seem to mind the snow.

A snow leopard with a long tail.

The conservatory with spring flowers.

Red flowers for Valentine’s Day

My husband with my grandson Asher in the children’s area.

The Penguins.
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Feb 15

0

Pink Sunset
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Uncategorized | 3 Comments

A beautiful photo of the west coast.
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