3 Day 3 Quote Challenge: Day 2

I have been tagged by Janice who blogs at On the land to participate in the ‘3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge’. Many thanks to Janice for inviting me to participate in this challenge. Janice blogs about our world and how important it is to care and nourish it: Caring About Our World; Reflecting About Life. She hopes to encourage us to move towards a cleaner, more sustainable future and away from the worst consequences of climate change.

Here’s a link to her awesome blog: https://ontheland.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/3-days-3-quotes-challenge-thich-nhat-hanh-love-letter-to-the-earth-bewow-writers-quote-Wednesday/

The rules for the 3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge:

1. Thank the blogger, who nominated you.

2. Share one new quote on three consecutive days on your blog. They can be from anywhere, anyone, or anything that inspires you… Which means, it can be from yourself, too!

3. On each of the three days, nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this mission impossible endeavor (if they dare!).

So my quote today is about love. I decided to edit one of my photos of this pathway in a park and add this fabulous quote from Maya Angelou that caught my eye, its simple message is so humorous and true!!

Love is like a virus.

It can happen to anybody at any time.

Maya Angelou

Love is a bit of a pathway, a route you either choose to take or not, so that’s why I chose this particular photo to go with Maya Angelou’s quote.

I’ve added more photography on my Instagram account now, do pop by and see: https://instagram.com/kyrosmagica/

If I had to write a haiku about love it would go something like this:

Here are my nominees if you’d like to take part!

My nominees:

http://cindyknoke.com/

http://www.mybookishlife.com/

https://booksandbakes1.wordpress.com/

Hope you enjoyed today’s quote, and my buzzy bee haiku, try not to catch a nasty love virus unless you want to!!

Bye for now,

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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October 22, 2015 6

3 Days 3 Quotes Challenge, Writer’s Quote Wednesday and BeWoW

I have been tagged by Janice who blogs at On the land to participate in the ‘3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge’. Many thanks to Janice for inviting me to participate in this fun challenge. Janice blogs about our world and how important it is to care and nourish it: Caring About Our World; Reflecting About Life. She hopes to encourage us to move towards a cleaner, more sustainable future and away from the worst consequences of climate change.

Here’s a link to her blog, do pop over and support this wonderful world we live in by visiting her blog: https://ontheland.wordpress.com/

The rules for the 3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge:

1. Thank the blogger, who nominated you.

2. Share one new quote on three consecutive days on your blog. They can be from anywhere, anyone, or anything that inspires you… Which means, it can be from yourself, too!

3. On each of the three days, nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this mission impossible endeavor (if they dare!).

I’ve decided to join in three activities in one blog post this Wednesday:

Janice’s 3 day 3 quote challenge: https://ontheland.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/3-days-3-quotes-challenge-thich-nhat-hanh-love-letter-to-the-earth-bewow-writers-quote-wednesday/

Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday. An open invitation to join in some quote sharing fun: http://silverthreading.com/2015/10/21/writers-quote-wednesday-the-winds-of-change-rumi/

Ronovan’s BeWoW, in which he suggests we consider what brings cheer to our lives, his prompt is ” A Cheer Full Life, ” and he quotes Thomas Carlyle, so do take a look at his blog and see this wonderfully inspiring quote. What cheers me up is staying as young at heart for as long as possible, so that’s my BeWoW suggestion, whatever you do don’t turn into a grumpy old misery guts! Resist it! Do whatever it takes to keep yourself fit, happy and healthy. Be Wonderful This Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, keep it up for as long as you can! https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2015/10/20/bewow-writers-quote-wednesday-is-tomorrow/

so with all these challenges I had to come up with something new so what better way than to have a go at writing my own quote? So with autumn in mind I came up with us, words only:

I am in the autumn of my life, winter is still to come. In my final season I will resist approaching age. The shell of my body will crumple, but I will continue to live with a full heart. Wrinkles will be a snapshot of life’s colourful memories forever imprinted in the crisp reds, yellows and golds of the leaves of time.

Marje @ Kyrosmagica.

My autumnal quote on the theme of getting older has been inspired by the following Mark Twain quote:

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”

What a gem!

Mark Twain’s quote sums up how I feel. We should try to respond to the aging process by fighting against getting older, embracing each day with a happy heart and don’t spend too much time worrying, just be thankful that you are living, loving, and breathing in the beauty of each new day in this wonderful world that we live in. Not everyone is as fortunate, so enjoy those birthdays, even if they seem to be coming faster than they used to !! One day I hope to be one of those grannies who still thinks that everyone fancies her, who stands up on the swings, and lives life to the full. Yes I’m going to be an embarrassingly cheerful, unstoppable Grannie!!!

I hope so anyway…… Just like my mother in law, she’s always been full of life and I do admire that about her. She’s 89, and still going strong. Oh, and my Great Grandfather was still walking miles at the ripe old age of 90, and flirting with the ladies, and my dad is still pretty fit and he is in his eighties! So I’m modelling my future on these inspiring elderly characters. I have plans to be a glamorous Grannie! Just not anytime soon….

My nominees to take part in the 3 day 3 quote Challenge, if they would like to are:

http://dreambigdreamoften.co/

http://michelleclementsjames.com/

http://crazychinesefamily.com/

I hope you liked my quotes. Please do feel free to comment.

Bye for now,

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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October 21, 2015 6

Writer’s Quote Wednesday: Halloween

This week for Colleen’s Writer’s quote Wednesday I am celebrating Halloween quotes. Colleen is doing a flit, not by witch’s broom, I hasten to add, she’s packing up and going house hunting in Colorado. So here’s hoping all goes well for her and that her move is a big success. So let’s cast a spell for a successful trip. In the meantime, Ronovan, from his blog Ronovan Writes, and Mel, from her blog, Melissa Barker-Simpson are going to post occasionally for her while she is away. More details about that here: http://silverthreading.com/2015/10/03/inside-silvers-brain-the-great-move/

Here’s the link to her open invitation to join Writer’s Quote Wednesday: http://silverthreading.com/2015/10/07/writers-quote-wednesday-audrey-hepburn/

‘Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
~William Shakespeare

“Tis the night—the night
Of the grave’s delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without,
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they—it is they!”
― Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Halloween: A Romaunt

Nobody moved.

Everybody sat in the dark cellar, suspended in the suddenly frozen task of this October game; the wind blew outside, banging the house, the smell of pumpkins and apples filled the room with smell of the objects in their fingers while one boy cried, “I’ll go upstairs and look!” and he ran upstairs hopefully and out around the house, four times around the house, calling, “Marion, Marion, Marion!” over and over and at last coming slowly down the stairs into the waiting breathing cellar and saying to the darkness, “I can’t find her.”

Then… some idiot turned on the lights.
(“The October Game”)”
― Ray Bradbury, Long After Midnight

Hold on, man. We don’t go anywhere with “scary,” “spooky,” “haunted,” or “forbidden” in the title.

~From Scooby-Doo.

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.

-Arthur Conan Doyle,Sr.

Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

– Mark Twain
In Girl World, Halloween is the one day a year when a girl can dress up like a total slut and no other girls can say anything else about it.

-from “Mean Girls”

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.
~Author Unknown

From ghoulies and ghosties
And long-leggedy beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!
~Scottish Saying

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees, “Tonight is Halloween!”
~Dexter Kozen

Being in a band you can wear whatever you want — it’s like an excuse for Halloween everyday.

~Gwen Stefani

Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/halloween

http://www.quotegarden.com/halloween.html

http://www.e-junkie.info/2011/10/collection-of-funny-spooky-halloween.html#sthash.SpiEbduU.dpuf

Hope you liked my Halloween quotes. Have you any favourite Halloween quotes too?

Bye for now,

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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October 7, 2015 16

Writer’s Quote Wednesday and BeWow: Climb those Towers!

This week my Writer’s Quote Wednesday post has been inspired by my visit to Portsmouth, on Saturday evening. Here’s the link to Colleen’s Blog if you want to join in with her weekly quote share: http://silverthreading.com/2015/09/23/writers-quote-wednesday-lewis-carroll/

I was attending my husband’s work party at the Spinnaker Tower on Portsmouth harbour. In fact I found it so wonderful that this week I’m also joining in with Ron’s Be Wonderful Wednesday #BeWowBlogShare: https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/bewow-blogshare/

The Spinnaker is an amazing venue to have a party, the views are absolutely fabulous. On the way up there were some tears in the lift, one of the party goers became overwhelmed with nerves, but needless to say later in the evening after a few calming glasses of wine she seemed just fine. I also suffer somewhat with a fear of heights so I know what that’s like. Anyway thank goodness we were enclosed in and not hanging off the side, or abseiling down! That’s a party trick I wouldn’t care to participate in. Later in the evening several of the party goers danced or walked across the Sky Walk, a large glass floor, which is 100 metres above sea level. One person even did a head stand on it, but I think that was the alcohol speaking. Needless to say no one was allowed to walk, skip, or tap dance across it wearing high heeled stilettos!

So my quote from P.G. Wodehouse and #bewow is inspired by the heights that writers have to travel to be:

Recognised.
Successful.

Success comes to a writer as a rule, so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realise the heights to which he has climbed. P. G. Wodehouse.

After being in that lift it certainly makes you realise how fast you can travel up, wouldn’t P. G. Wodehouse be amazed!

Here’s the view to give you an indication of what we are aiming for:

So my #BeWow statement would kind of go like this: Be all you can be, reach for the highest stars, let them twinkle in a blaze of glory, always remember to follow your dreams even if the path seems long and arduous, and maybe one day you might just wake up and realise you are living the dream that you have carried in your heart for a very long time.

Goodreads – About P G Wodehouse:

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 40 years after his death. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse’s main canvas remained that of prewar English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career.

An acknowledged master of English prose, Wodehouse has been admired both by contemporaries such as Hilaire Belloc, Evelyn Waugh and Rudyard Kipling and by modern writers such as Douglas Adams, Salman Rushdie and Terry Pratchett. Sean O’Casey famously called him “English literature’s performing flea”, a description that Wodehouse used as the title of a collection of his letters to a friend, Bill Townend.

Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of fifteen plays and of 250 lyrics for some thirty musical comedies. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes (1934) and frequently collaborated with Jerome Kern and Guy Bolton. He wrote the lyrics for the hit song “Bill” in Kern’s Show Boat (1927), wrote the lyrics for the Gershwin – Romberg musical Rosalie (1928), and collaborated with Rudolf Friml on a musical version of The Three Musketeers (1928).

Links:

http://www.spinnakertower.co.uk/

Hope you liked my Writer’s Quote Wednesday, and #BeWow. Just in case you suffer from vertigo, I’ll do my best to come to your rescue!! Only kidding I’ll need rescuing too, but it’s good to dream.

Kyrosmagica to the Rescue. Bye for now.

Marje@ Kyrosmagica xx

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September 23, 2015 9

Writer’s Quote Wednesday: Michael Morpurgo.

This week I’m thrilled to be joining in Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday.

Here’s the link to find out how to join in this open community of quote enthusiasts: http://silverthreading.com/2015/09/16/writers-quote-wednesday-george-carlin/

My contribution for Colleen’s Writer’s Quote Wednesday is this gem of pure wonderment from Michael Morpurgo.

Encouraging young people to believe in themselves and find their own voice, whether it is through drama, writing or art is so important in giving young people a sense of self-worth. Michael Morpurgo.

I absolutely believe this is true, and the photograph below, (which I’ve edited with Michael Morpugo’s quote,) is taken from my youngest daughter’s art work when she was still at primary school.

It is nice to keep a copy of these little artistic endeavours on my blog as they bring back memories of when the girls were little, that seems such a long time ago now! Both of my daughters are pretty arty, my eldest enjoys writing, art, and drama, and my youngest writing, dance and photography (which I would include too in the quote!) Being creative seems to run in our family! In fact my grandfather and my uncle had a photography business in Edinburgh.

Here’s a trio of Georgina’s artwork from primary school, the one on the left and right remind me of batik, The middle one is very colourful and exotic too! Batik is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth, or cloth made using this technique. It is found in various countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Nigeria. More about Batik on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik

The photo below is one of my eldest daughter’s artwork pieces that she did when she was studying GCSE Art.

Author’s Bio – Goodreads

Michael Morpurgo is the author of many books for children, five of which have been made into films. He also writes his own screenplays and libretti for opera. Born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, in 1943, he was evacuated to Cumberland during the last years of the war, then returned to London, moving later to Essex. After a brief and unsuccessful spell in the army, he took up teaching and started to write. He left teaching after ten years in order to set up ‘Farms for City Children’ with his wife. They have three farms in Devon, Wales and Gloucestershire, open to inner city school children who come to stay and work with the animals. In 1999 this work was publicly recognised when he and his wife were awarded an MBE for services to youth. He is also a father and grandfather, so children have always played a large part in his life. Every year he and his family spend time in the Scilly Isles, the setting for three of his books.

http://www.michaelmorpurgo.com

I hope you like the quote from Michael Morpurgo that I have featured for Writer’s Quote Wednesday this week, and the magical artwork too!

If you are artistic or creative and would like to be featured on this blog, I will be posting artistic, photographic, writing, poetry, creative, and dramatic pieces, (written accounts for the drama please!) by youngsters in the age group 11-18. So do get in touch if you are interested in featuring, leave a comment below.

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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September 16, 2015 25

Writer’s Quote Wednesday: Edinburgh First UNESCO City of Literature

I’m a bit late for Writer’s Quote Wednesday this week as I’ve been away in Edinburgh and trying to catch up on everything now that I’m home, but I suppose it’s better to be late than never!

Anyway if you’d like to participate in this wonderful community of quote enthusiasts here’s the link:

h ttp://silverthreading.com/2015/08/26/writers-quote-wednesday-pure-inspiration/

My quotes this week are inspired by my trip to Edinburgh, and in particular to the Edinburgh Book Festival.

There are many more wonderful quotes about Edinburgh, the world’s first UNESCO city of Literature. www.cityofliterature.com

Here are some more of my favourites:

“Stepping into Charlotte Square was like stepping onto the pages of a fantastic new story.”

“City of the mind. A writer’s city.” Ian Rankin.

“It’s impossible to live in Edinburgh without sensing its literary heritage.” J K Rowling.

‘Edinburgh is my favourite city.” Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate.

“This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.”
― Alexander McCall Smith

“Edinburgh is alive with words.”
― Sara Sheridan

“Edinburgh is a comfortable puddle for a novelist.”
― Sara Sheridan

“From this height the sleeping city seems like a child’s construction, a model which has refused to be constrained by imagination. The volcanic plug might be black Plasticine, the castle balanced solidly atop it a skewed rendition of crenellated building bricks. The orange street lamps are crumpled toffee-wrappers glued to lollipop sticks.”
― Ian Rankin

Edinburgh is a great big black bastard of a city where there are ghosts of all kinds.”
― Sara Sheridan, Ma Polinski’s Pockets

“The drinking dens are spilling out
There’s staggering in the square
There’s lads and lasses falling about
And a crackling in the air
Down around the dungeon doors
The shelters and the queues
Everybody’s looking for
Somebody’s arms to fall into
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

There’s frost on the graves and the monuments
But the taverns are warm in town
People curse the government
And shovel hot food down
The lights are out in the city hall
The castle and the keep
The moon shines down upon it all
The legless and asleep

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the wagons creeping through
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

The garrison sleeps in the citadel
With the ghosts and the ancient stones
High up on the parapet
A Scottish piper stands alone
And high on the wind
The highland drums begin to roll
And something from the past just comes
And stares into my soul

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the Caledonian Blues
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
What it is
It’s what it is now

There’s a chink of light, there’s a burning wick
There’s a lantern in the tower
Wee Willie Winkie with a candlestick
Still writing songs in the wee wee hours
On Charlotte Street I take
A walking stick from my hotel
The ghost of Dirty Dick
Is still in search of Little Nell
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
Oh what it is
What it is now”
― Mark Knopfler, Sailing to Philadelphia

You can see I’m missing Edinburgh already! My old home town! Still it’s always nice to be home, especially as I know that I can go back to Edinburgh again.

There are so many Literary activities you can take part in here are some links that I’d like to share with you:

Edinburgh Book Festival, Charlotte Square: www.edbookfest.co.uk

Scottish Story Telling Centre: www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk

Edinburgh Literary Pub Tour: www.edinburghliterarypubtour.co.uk

Edinburgh Writers’ Museum: www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk

Edinburgh World Heritage Trinity Apse Storytelling Garden: www.ewht.org.uk

The Edinburgh Book Lovers’ Tour www.edinburghbooktour.com

Edinburgh Book Sculptures via : www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk

Hope you enjoyed my thoughts on Edinburgh for Writer’s Quote Wednesday.

Bye for now…

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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August 27, 2015 12

The 3 Day Quote Challenge – Day 3 – Ingrid Bergman

“A kiss is a lovely trick

designed by nature

to stop speech

when words

become superfluous.”

Ingrid Bergman

Of course I had to end the 3 day 3 quote challenge on a farewell kiss! It would have been so remiss of me not to. Absolutely believe Ingrid Bergman’s quote one hundred and ten percent.

There is nothing like a kiss especially if that certain somebody is kissing you. A kiss is the honey elixir of the soul, it speaks volumes when words carry very little or no weight. The kiss can be tentative, or tender, it can be a peck or a passionate full on don’t come up for breath number, all of which are worthy of our utmost attention, especially the last one! A, sigh, been there, done that! It could be your first kiss, or a kiss with your granny with her false teeth out! Sorry for that gummy image but it’s one that comes to mind! It could be a smooch with your dog, even soldiers kiss dogs. Dogs get kisses too!

Who could resist kissing this little kitten? I couldn’t. Cats seem to love me though, they follow me everywhere I go….. A bit of an exaggeration – but there is a little fellow that always follows me to the bus stop, he’s so cute. I always stop, pat him, and have a little chit chat on the way to the bus, time permitting!

All sorts of kisses can be memorable for so many reasons. I remember before I went under the surgeon’s knife way back in October my husband kissing me, that kiss meant a great deal, it calmed and reassured me. It worked a treat, I didn’t panic, it was just what the doctor ordered, the perfect prescription, no words could have been as effective!

Thank you so much to Swagata Mukherjee from Kolkata, India for nominating me to take part in this 3 day Quote challenge, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed taking part. Swagata is a PhD student in Physics. She loves to travel and is passionate about photography.

Here’s a link to her blog, do check it out: https://physicsswagata.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/3-day-quote-challenge-day-33/

Rules for Three-Day Quote Challenge

Thank the blogger, who nominated you.
Publish 3 quotes on 3 consecutive days in your blog. It can be your own, or from a book, movie or from anyone who inspires you.
Nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this endeavour.

As before I will be nominating three of my fellow #BlogBattle Writing Bloggers, they are:

https://rawlse.wordpress.com/

https://blondewritemore.wordpress.com/

http://hehasplans.com/

Any other #BlogBattlers that I haven’t mentioned (I could only nominate a certain number of bloggers) please do join in too if you’d like, the more the merrier…….

Thanks for joining me in this 3 Day Quote Challenge.

What are your favourite quotes, and kissing tales? Oh, I can’t wait to hear them, don’t be shy!

Alright I admit it I’m a curious so and so……!

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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August 15, 2015 0

The Three Day Quote Challenge – Day 2 – Thomas Aquinas

The things that we love tell us what we are.

Thomas Aquinas

So true, I’ve always had a deep fondness for the sea, and sandy beaches. So if Thomas Aquinas is right I must be a mermaid! Being near the sea, makes me feel alive, and very happy. One day I hope to move to a pretty bay somewhere, read, write and blog! It’s a recurring dream of mine, hope it comes true!

What about you? Do you love the sea too? Or are the mountains your favourite place to be? My husband loves the snow capped mountains, and the sea too, so we’re at least half compatible on that!

Thank you to Swagata Mukherjee from Kolkata, India, for nominating me to take part in this 3 day Quote challenge. Swagata is a PhD student in Physics. She loves to travel and is passionate about photography. Here’s the link to her blog: https://physicsswagata.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/3-day-quote-challenge-day-33/

Rules for Three-Day Quote Challenge

Thank the blogger, who nominated you.
Publish 3 quotes on 3 consecutive days in your blog. It can be your own, or from a book, movie or from anyone who inspires you.
Nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this endeavour.

My nominations will continue on in the same vein as before I will be nominating fellow #BlogBattlers from Rachael Ritchey’s weekly #BlogBattle writing challenge.

My nominees:

https://solveigwerner.wordpress.com/

http://icameforthesoup.com/

https://anniehow.wordpress.com/

Do take part in the challenge if you’d like.

Thanks for stopping by, do drop by again soon.

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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August 14, 2015 14

The 3 Day Quote Challenge – Day 1 – Jeannette Winterson

Thank you to Swagata Mukherjee from Kolkata, India who nominated me to take part in the 3 day Quote challenge.

Swagata is a PhD student in Physics who loves to travel and is passionate about photography.

Here’s a link to her blog: https://physicsswagata.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/3-day-quote-challenge-day-33/

I’ve been a bit slow in taking up this particular challenge what with one thing and another. I do hope to finish the challenge on Saturday but if I’m a day or two late I’m sure you’ll forgive me.

Thereafter I’m taking a bit of a blogging break, partly for a holiday, and also to help my mum out (she’s in hospital at the moment undergoing an operation.) So I’ll be donning my Florence Nightingale gloves and doing my daughterly best. I’ve just heard that she’s out of the operating theatre, so my anxiety levels are now back on an even keel. Goodness I’ve been stressed today, my leg was shaking earlier on in the day when I was driving. Somehow this is a million times more stressful than when I went in myself for an operation, that was nothing compared to this, this is my mum, so it’s not surprising that I’ve been worried. I tell you it’s been a strange day, I could write a massive blog post about it but I might be better to save that for later………..

The 3 Day Quote Challenge has been a great diversion for me as I needed something to take my mind off my mum’s operation.

I’m going to kick start this challenge by celebrating books, where would we be without them? Yes they work wonders, especially on stressful days.

This quote from Jeannette Winterson says it so succinctly, books are a home, a warm inviting home, a special place that only you the reader can imagine. Each reader has their own individual experience when they open up a book, and that is what makes books so brilliant and magical.

“Books, for me, are a home. Books don’t make a home – they are one, in the sense that just as you do with a door, you open a book, and you go inside. Inside there is a different kind of time and space. there is warmth there too – a hearth. I sit down with a book and I am warm.”

Jeannette Winterson.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Courtesy of Goodreads:

Jeanette Winterson’s bold and revelatory novels have earned her widespread acclaim, establishing her as a major figure in world literature. She has written some of the most admired books of the past few decades, including her internationally best-selling first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents that is now often required reading in contemporary fiction classes.

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a memoir about a life’s work to find happiness. It’s a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in a north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the universe as a cosmic dustbin. It is the story of how a painful past, which Winterson thought she had written over and repainted, rose to haunt her later in life, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother. It’s also a book about other people’s literature, one that shows how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life raft that supports us when we are sinking.

Witty, acute, fierce, and celebratory, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a tough-minded search for belonging–for love, identity, home, and a mother.

It sounds good doesn’t it? Haven’t read this yet…..

Oops forgot to add the rules, hastily adding this in now!

Rules for Three-Day Quote Challenge

Thank the blogger, who nominated you.
Publish 3 quotes on 3 consecutive days in your blog. It can be your own, or from a book, movie or from anyone who inspires you.
Nominate 3 more bloggers to carry on this endeavour.

I’ve decided to nominate some bloggers from #BlogBattle Rachael Ritchey’s Weekly writing battle.

My nominations:

http://rachaelritchey.com/

https://darrenscanlon.wordpress.com/

https://phoenixgrey85.wordpress.com/

Feel free to take part in the challenge or not the choice is yours.

Thanks for stopping by today, do leave a comment.

I’d love to hear your opinion on Jeannette Winterson’s quote. Oh and if you’ve read the memoir do say, I’d love to hear your thoughts….

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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August 13, 2015 13

Writer’s Quote Wednesday: Sara Raasch Snow Like Ashes

Yes, it’s another Writer’s Quote Wednesday, via my blogging pal Colleen over at SilverThreading. If you’d like to join in the fun here’s the link: http://silverthreading.com/2015/08/12/writers-quote-wednesday-roald-dahl/

The quote I’m going to feature this week is about the shivers, yes, wicked cold, a freezing dose of torture that gets right into your unsuspecting bones and just settles there. I hate the cold, my body just doesn’t like it, not one bit. My skin does this weird puckering thing, it squeezes itself into defensive mode and starts to resemble an orange, (without the bright colour I hasten to add,) yes crinkly peel skin that’s what I have when it’s cold. It’s not a look I’d recommend! On top of that I get chilblains on my feet, oh, and joy of joys last year I even managed to find a few of these beauties appearing on my hands. UGH…!!!!

So when I read this particular passage in Snow Like Ashes, I shivered a lot, can you imagine an orb of eternal winter? Eek,well if that’s on the cards, I’d wish for no long for some of that Winterian blood flowing in my veins! Yes a Winterian blood transfusion that’s what I’d be needing!

“It’s so cold that foreigners have to wrap in layers of fur to walk from building to building, while our natural Winterian blood keeps us warm even in the worst conditions. And snow is everywhere, always, so much that the grass beneath it is white from lack of sun. An entire kingdom wrapped in an orb of eternal winter.”
― Sara Raasch, Snow Like Ashes

Here’s the Goodreads synopsis:

A heartbroken girl. A fierce warrior. A hero in the making.

Sixteen years ago the Kingdom of Winter was conquered and its citizens enslaved, leaving them without magic or a monarch. Now, the Winterians’ only hope for freedom is the eight survivors who managed to escape, and who have been waiting for the opportunity to steal back Winter’s magic and rebuild the kingdom ever since.

Orphaned as an infant during Winter’s defeat, Meira has lived her whole life as a refugee, raised by the Winterians’ general, Sir. Training to be a warrior—and desperately in love with her best friend, and future king, Mather — she would do anything to help her kingdom rise to power again.

So when scouts discover the location of the ancient locket that can restore Winter’s magic, Meira decides to go after it herself. Finally, she’s scaling towers, fighting enemy soldiers, and serving her kingdom just as she’s always dreamed she would. But the mission doesn’t go as planned, and Meira soon finds herself thrust into a world of evil magic and dangerous politics – and ultimately comes to realize that her destiny is not, never has been, her own.

To follow Sara Raasch on Tumblr: http://sararaasch.tumblr.com/

My review of Snow Like Ashes: https://mjmallon.com/2014/12/30/my-kyrosmagica-review-of-snow-like-ashes-by-sara-raasch/

Thanks for stopping by for Writer’s Quote Wednesday. Hope you liked the quote, and my whingeing about the cold. Sometimes it’s good to have a good old moan, gets it out of your system! Now I feel all hot and toasty!

Do you love or hate the cold? Do leave a comment and let me know.

Marje @ Kyrosmagica xx

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August 12, 2015 16