Category Archives: History

Fulfill Your Need to Tell Your Story!

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“Knowledge is Power.” ~ Sir Francis Bacon 

Tomorrow, SHe Writes Steamboat will be hosting the Colorado Independent Publishers Association at the Bud Werner Library. www.steamboatlibrary.org.  What an opportunity this will be to find out more about writing your own story. Learn about the educational programs, vendor affiliations and services that are available from CIPA to help you through the process of independently publishing your story. 

We are so rich in individual narratives in this corner of Northwestern Colorado and the Elk River Valley. Retirees, career professionals, and interesting individuals who have unique stories to tell of their lives in other places seek out this part of the country so they can begin a new chapter of their lives – one that includes fulfilling dreams, passions and interests. 

If you have ever had the thought “I could write a book about that!” join us, tomorrow at 9:30 am at the Bud Werner Memorial Library in Library Hall. The morning informational session is free and open to the public. Stay for the afternoon, but do pre-register, please, through this link. (look for the September 9 Steamboat seminars) http://bit.ly/p9GbYG. 

Can’t come, but still interested? There is an 18 minute webinar now available on-line that will give you an overview of the independent publishing industry. It explains how a new generation of book publishing including e-commerce and e- marketing has evolved. The publishing universe in this new century now includes anyone willing to tell their story. That includes you!  http://bit.ly/oIkV2g. 

See you tomorrow at 9:30 am sharp!

Another day of  independent thoughts, words and a views from www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com

Architecture, Glassworks and History

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“In all things, let reason be your guide.” ~ Solon

On April 5th, I posted a blog entitled Glassworks Inspired by Nature. http://bit.ly/h0j9Uc. It continues to be one of the most frequently read blogs of all time on All Things Fulfilling. Obviously, it struck a cord with readers on this site.  

I will be writing another blog on this subject and am looking for help from our readers all over the world. If you have found in your travels or in your community, an architectural structure that is of great interest due to it’s history, architecture and the glassworks incorporated into the design of the building, come forth and post a reason why you think your suggestion fits what I am looking for. Remember – all three elements must be there – art (extraordinary glass installations), architecture and history. 

At a later date,  modern structures that wow will be featured. For now, I am searching for historical structures. This request could bring enlightenment and education for all readers. After all, there are buildings all over the world that are inspiring and carry stories of interest that the average person has had little to no exposure to. 

By the way, fulfilling things don’t come just in churches…… many public buildings, private  homes, college campuses, museums and community centers  could have the three elements that I am looking for, too. 

 Identify this structure or post in the comment section your favorite structure that fulfills the requirements of history, glass installations and architecture. I want to hear from you and the best of the best will be featured. 

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Just Sayin’……

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“Patience and fortitude conquer all things.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

My clients are located in different parts of the country, and I am forever trying to figure out what time it is in different time zones. My husband even printed out a map that outlines the State boundaries for Eastern Time zone, Central Time zone, Mountain Time and Pacific to help me figure it out. The problem is I don’t always have the “cheat sheet” at hand. Sometimes I am calling clients from out of the office on a remote phone. 

A few weeks ago, an author friend of mine taught me a new way of telling time. My husband has decided my friend’s way of telling time makes good common sense.

I contend that Mary’s way of tracking time is good for her, but maybe not for me. Suppose I am in a city like New York?  After all, New Yorkers are on a New York minute, smack dab in the heart of miles and miles of pavement. It just will not work! 

My husband said he doesn’t care what I think.   (How’s that for compassion?) He says ” I should just use Mary’s test of time. He’s gotten tired of sorting out for me what hour it is across mountains and plains and in places like Hawaii, Iowa, Florida, Minnesota, Texas or California.” Now when I ask him what time it is, all he says is “It’s time to make HAY!” What is that supposed to mean? That’s just forecasting. That’s not fulfilling my need to know the accurate time! 

Help me out here folks, we have a royal battle going – all over time telling. My husband thinks he’s clever. I think NOT. He’s  really trying  to lose track of  real time to escape from what takes doing some work!  Next time he asks ME what time it is, I’ll say it is “half past a freckle.”  How’s that?

I’m going to contact Mary! Perhaps she has some other kind of  forecasting cheat sheet http://bit.ly/q15kEt.

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Reaching Multi-Media Crazed Kids

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This generation of digitally obsessed students has challenged educators to find different ways of hooking kids into learning. How to teach lessons through multi-media, that will keep kids tuned in, is an on-going discussion among educators everywhere. 

There is a full service independent publishing and production company, Bluewater Productions, developing educational content by combining innovative storytelling through comic books with high quality art. 

Science fiction, greek mythology as well as biographical stories of authors, super heroes, politicians, notable women and Hollywood legends are all incorporated into the comic book publications of Bluewater Productions. The company aims to publish a fresh generation of educationally fulfilling comic books that will stimulate young minds. For more information on the library and literary initiatives that Bluewater Productions have been involved with, please visit http://bit.ly/oovpvC. 

The company has full service art and design studios and employs over 200 freelance artists and writers from around the world from a mix of media specialty fields. Their client list includes big name film studios such as Dreamworks, Lionsgate, Sony and New Line Cinema. 

How to motivate students to be active learners is a subject of great debate among parents and teachers, everywhere. John Lubbock once said “The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should be given the wish to learn.”  In this 21st century, teaching goes far, far beyond textbook learning. Reaching children and inspiring them to learn in new creative ways is a difficult and challenging task.

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Film Buzz on Film Friday

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Yesterday’s blog about creating buzz before the official launch of books, film or music has brought to mind a film that is doing just that – and doing a fine job of it, too!  

ALPFD A Cold War spy thriller, and independent film, directed and produced by Justin Eugene Evans, is expected to hit cinemas after January 1, 2012. Part 1 of the film is available and has already been downloaded more than 780,000 times through VODO http://vodo.net/alpfd. 

A Lonely Place for Dying just won 4 more awards at the VanWert Film Festival, one of the 40 film festivals where it has been screened. Awards have come for everything from best screenplay to visual effects awards to best acting to best song track. It is fulfilling news, for a $200,000 budget film. To read more about A Lonely Place for Dying, please visit http://on.fb.me/jjsOLX. It is hitting foreign film screens too! 

Looking for More Information on the Summer Film Scene? Here are a few films that are about to come to theatres, and they are adaptations from blockbuster books. 

Sarah’s Key – Limited Release July 22

The Help – In Theatres August 12th

 One Day – In Theatres August 19th

 Have a good weekend everyone. For those who are suffering from the heat wave, take in a movie this weekend in the cool comfort of a movie theatre!

 

 

 

Looking Out for Others

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“In my life, I had two Mothers, Macedonia who gave me birth and America who adopted me.”  ~ Stoyan Christowe 

Have you ever made friends with someone who is a stranger from a strange land, yet they reverse the role and make you, the American, feel more at home? 

Two and a half years ago, I moved from my 35 year Vermont residence to the West. I came to this town, Steamboat Springs, Colorado, site unseen and had no idea what to expect. Within a few months time, I met a woman, about my age from Macedonia. Heretofore I had never known a soul from Macedonia, and was not even sure where the on the map the country lies. 

Two years into our friendship, my friend told me a story of an immigrant orphan from Macedonia, Stoyan Christowe, who arrived in 1897 in my “adopted home” state of Vermont. He started a new life and eventually became a Vermont State Senator, journalist and author. http://bit.ly/n94kTO . He lived out the rest of his life in America and during that time, he six published books including “This is My Country.” 

A film is currently being produced about the life of Stoyan Christowe by the Macedonian Arts Council. http://bit.ly/pPj1SC. I look forward to seeing this film and I hope it well captures the feeling that Mr. Christowe expressed about his native land and his adopted country. 

Today, I celebrate my Macedonian friend’s birthday. She made such a positive difference in my life. She helped me to assimilate into a new community nearly effortlessly. I can think of no better way to say Happy Birthday to her than to tell her how deeply grateful I am for her kindness and her help. 

After many years of living in the U.S., she and her family have returned to her Motherland. Although the distance between us is now great, I can not help but feel our two countries of the United States and Macedonia, have grown just a little bit closer by the fulfilling friendship and bond my friend and I have formed. We hope to continue our friendship for many years to come. 

Happy Birthday, Vesna!

Finding Community

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“If you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?” ~ Jiminy Cricket

Finding fulfillment in our lives has varied meanings for different people. City life is an ideal existence for large populations of people but for some, urban living would be enough to make a person go crazy and drink…literally, in every watering hole across town. Others enjoy living in tiny little hamlets, such as the town we mentioned yesterday, Moscow, Vermont. Adaptability to environment is far easier for some than others. Creating a satisfying life for oneself in any environment means embracing where you are and becoming involved in the lifestyle and opportunities that the area has to offer. 

There is a book, hot off the press that speaks to this issue of finding personal fulfillment in the places where we live. Mary B. Kurtz’s book, At Home in the Elk River Valley: Reflections of Family, Place and the West is a personal story about living in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, an interesting mix of resort and ranching community. http://bit.ly/iDBj3N. 

Mary’s book addresses the topic of living in places by choice and by chance as well as her children’s struggle as teens and as young adults to find their own identities in the world after having grown up in a community of such diversity. The book also touches upon another subject that young people and even adults are concerned with in this day and age – the necessity of sometimes having to leave the borders of one’s own native state in order to find viable work. 

Through this book, readers may discover something about themselves and their own communities. It is a book about values, balance and perspective in life. Mary’s insight into the ranching lifestyle and how communities change has relevancy to the lives of each and every one of us, no matter where we live. 

For more information on this easy to read, poetic memoir, please visit http://bit.ly/ji9KtU

or http://bit.ly/msK6Ez.

Wings and Roots

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“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence. “ ~  Denis Waitley

 

 

Last week’s blog entitled “A String of Summer Memories” elicited a response from one of our most loyal readers, Marie. She voiced her concern about the over-scheduled lives of children in this day and age and the effects it has on children’s ability to know how to entertain themselves and to discover and create themselves. I would concur.

Marie’s remark about creative play led me to remember a scene that I witnessed in a parade years ago, in the tiny hamlet of Moscow, Vermont on the 4th of July.

My happy memory involves not a group of children creatively playing, but a group of over-the-hill women who truly understood the concept of finding their own fun. Dubbed the Women’s Lawn Chair Marching Drill Team, they joined in the parade toting their lawn chairs, in celebration of Independence Day. Just as their own self-created, wild and crazy fun got a little out of hand, they’d tire and stop with precision, perform some drill team exercises, and take to their seats. Their movements were orchestrated by the live audio-broadcast of radio station WDEV. It was a fun spectacle to watch, and it made me remember how important and fulfilling it is for aging people  to have fun, too ! 

For more information on Vermont’s shortest 4th of July parade, please visit http://bit.ly/iKGIUF.  Moscow, Vermont, with a “downtown” of  less than a city block,  located in the heart of the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont, has grown in population more than 14% since 2000, please visit http://www.bestplaces.net/zip-code/vermont/moscow/05662.

 I send my Best Wishes to All of you on this 4th of July. I am proud to live in a country that was born out of the independent spirit. Right now, it is ever more important to keep that kind of energy and attitude alive! It begins with me and it begins with you!

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Show Me! Tell Me!

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“Wherever men have lived there is a story to be told.” ~ Henry David Thoreau  

That’s it – I have had enough. I am finished, out of here, done, fini! The television is going off.  DYJHITW all you hear about is people suspected of killing their children, political posturing and positioning, people in cars running from the law! 

What ever happened to the Land of I CAN, I WILL, I DO! I want to hear positive stories to lift my spirit, tales to help me believe in the good of mankind, news that inspires me to follow in the footsteps of people who have overcome because their heart and souls are working hard to make this a better world. Despite what the media would have us believe, fulfilling stories like that can be found! 

How about sensationalism of a different kind? 

I am turning off that squawk box, right here, right now. 

 I may have to take a sneak peak at the TV every once in a while though. There is a story I want to see on PBS’s “Directors Cut” that is near and dear to my heart. I think it will  be shown sometime in July. It is all about an independent film called “ALPFD.” http://bit.ly/mEF3FN.  The film has undone stereo typical thinking in the filmmaking industry that in order to produce quality films you need a big budget, big production crew and big bucks. If you hear when the movie ALPFD will be featured on PBS “Directors Cut” , let me know. I do not want to miss it. IMHO it will be a good show! 

As I end this blog, I have just gotten more exciting news about ALPFD and it’s U.S.  theatrical release. There is also an arrangement in the works that will increase the visibility of this film,  not just in theatres but in households across America, too! For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/mAvP5d.

 TLK2UL8R.

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Transient Society is Rich with Stories

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“All things are subject to change, and we change with them.” ~ Anonymous 

With each passing decade, we have become a more transient society.  People are much more willing to go where work takes them and staying settled in the town where one was born has become less common. College grads seeking work, realize that finding work often depends upon looking outside the boundaries of their native state. Michigan is just one state grappling with this issue. http://bit.ly/iXIuQS. 

 If you take a look at person’s Facebook page, you can often see their birthplace and along with their current state of residence,  begging the questions –Why did they move? How did they get there? What opportunities led them to their new place of residence? Is their life fulfilling in their new “home?” 

Because we have become a transient society, it is ever more important to write our family histories and leave “love letters for future generations.”  Independent publishing has provided a way for ordinary people to share stories that are meaningful to their families and to others. People who are considering independent publishing often make the mistake of thinking only their family and friends will be interested in their publication. Not so, the world-wide web allows us to connect with individuals who have walked the same walk, shared the same interests throughout time and in place, and are looking for connection through hobbies, life experiences, occupations and through relationships in the six degrees of separation in a very transient world. 

Next week, on All Things Fulfilling, we will be sharing a book that is hot off the press. It addresses an issue of concern that many families share in this day and age – finding a way so the next generation can continue to live in the same environs that they were raised in, and still be able to make a viable living and a fulfilling life. Travel with us next week as we review a book about family, place and the West. 

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