Author Archive
Buon Compleanno Papà!
Tanti auguri a te…
Tanti auguri a te…
Tanti auguri a Babbo…
Tanti auguri a te!
Ti voglio tanto bene Papà!
Love Thursday: Love with Frost
Friend and faithful reader Lucy of On My Way 2 Work and Other Stuff sent in a this adorable photo:
with the note:
Here is the frosty heart inside my car window one Saturday morning. My windows frost over inside and outside if I don’t park it in the garage! But this was nice to see and reminded me of you!
So sweet! And, in turn, this photo reminded me of one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Somehow this poem always manages to give me a warm fuzzy despite the cold overtones. Frost was truly an amazing wordsmith.
What are your favorite poems?
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
Calabrese Proverbs by Month: March
I love proverbs in any language, but there’s nothing more pleasing to my ears than Calabrese proverbs…and man do they love to talk about the weather.
Here are three you’re likely to hear around Badolato throughout this month, the first two in dialect, the last in Italian:
Badolatese: ‘U friddu ‘i Marzu trapàna u cornu do voi.
Italiano: Il freddo di Marzo penetra nel corno del bue.
English literal: The cold of March pierces the ox’s horns.
English loose: When it’s cold in March, you’ll freeze your arse off.
One more basic and to the point:
- Badolatese: Marzu è pacchiu.
- Italiano: Marzo è pazzo.
- English: March is crazy.
And to elaborate on that point:
Italiano: Arriva marzo pazzerello; esce il sole e prendi l’ombrello!
English: Here comes crazy March; the sun comes out and you grab your umbrella!
It is true. March weather really does tend to be rather pazzo. It seemed to start in February this year with several days of both sunshine and rain, so we’ll see what this year brings. So far so good!
What are your favorite proverbs (in any language)?
One Year with Pasqualina
Today marks one year since our kid Pasqualina came to live with us. This was then:
And this is now:
And just for fun, another from about a year ago:
And today:
I guess I can’t really call her a kid any more now that she’s ready to have kids of her own. Yes, that pink you see up there on that second photo is our Pasqualina filling up with milk. We expect kids in mid-March or so, but we’re not quite sure of the date of spermination (the buck was in the pen for a month).
What a year it’s been…can’t wait to see what this next one brings!
E-Book Giveaway & Guest Post by Author Elisa Lorello
As part of the WOW blog tour, Elisa Lorello stops by Bleeding Espresso today to talk about something that has within the past few months become near and dear to my heart: e-books!
Since I treated myself to an iPod Touch two months ago, I’ve become a proud e-book convert after *swearing* I would never get used to the feel of a gadget in my hand instead of all those gorgeous pages. Of course I still love paper books, but getting used to e-books was *much* easier than I had imagined–and talk about instant gratification. I can pick out a book and have it literally in my hands in SECONDS.
Elisa is the author of Faking It and Ordinary World, and has offered up some free e-copies for lucky BE readers. Just leave a comment on this post by midnight on Sunday, February 28 (Italy time), and you’re eligible. You can get extra entries by tweeting or posting about the contest on your blog and/or Facebook (four possible entries total). Be sure to let me know about your extra entries via e-mail, Twitter, or FB.
Now, here’s Elisa!
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E-books Are My Friend
E-books and e-readers have been the target of some doomsday scenarios. “Watch out, they’ll destroy the publishing industry as we know it.” “Bookstores will be no more.” And while it’s true that the e-reader (namely, the Amazon Kindle) has rattled booksellers, I’m not ready to paint it as the Big Bad Wolf just yet.
Maybe because e-publishing has been good to me. Last month, my novels Faking It and Ordinary World hit the Kindle Store Bestseller list. Faking It even cracked the Top 10! The Kindle Store was able to provide me with the mass distribution that chain brick-and-mortar stores typically refuse an independent author. That, in turn, provided me with a readership and recognition.
But that doesn’t diminish my love for the tactile book, or bookstores. Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC, for example, is one of my favorite places to be and one of the first places I show off to my out-of-town visitors. Moreover, if I’m not at a coffeeshop to write, then I’ve snagged a comfy chair so I can read a book. And my home is cluttered with books on shelves, nightstands, coffeetables, you name it. It’s a comforting feeling to be surrounded by books.
So who said you had to love either one or the other? Since when did a pleasurable reading experience become an ultimatum, warranting the kind of loyalty you’d show for your favorite sports team? My bookworm friends who own e-readers say they haven’t stopped buying (or reading) tactile books. The e-reader is a tool of convenience, great for travel, for example.
I see no difference between the e-book as one more reading experience option just as audiobooks are an option. In fact, I often listen to an audiobook during my daily commute or road trips. People download audiobooks on their MP3 players as well.
I think e-books and print books can peacefully co-exist, and I hope they do. I even think my protagonist, a writing professor and published author, would own an e-reader and be spotted in Harvard Square, a latte in tow, reading her husband’s favorite books. You could count on it.
Ordinary World is currently available in print and e-book at Lulu.com, and in e-book at Amazon Kindle Store.
About the author:
Elisa Lorello was born and raised on Long Island, New York. In 1995, she moved to southeastern Massachusetts, where she attended University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Her career in rhetoric and composition studies began in 2000, and since then she has been teaching first-year writing at the university level. Currently, Elisa lives and teaches in North Carolina and is co-writing her third novel. She is happily single.
To learn more about Elisa and her other writing projects, please visit her blog I’ll Have What She’s Having: The Official Blog of Elisa Lorello, or her official webpage at ElisaLorello.com. You can also follow Elisa on Twitter @elisalorello.
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For more information on e-books in general, check out these great articles written by Sara (of Ms Adventures in Italy fame) at her tech blog, When I Have Time.
Remember to comment for your chance to win some e-books!
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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