Friday Art & History Feature - Old Russian New Year's Greeting Cards

In the spirit of the holidays and because I'm a bit nostalgic about my childhood right now, here's a collection of old Russian and USSR New Year's Greeting cards. New Year was THE holiday that everyone celebrated for many years (since the government pretty much outlawed the celebration of religious holidays, like Christmas, during the Soviet years. Now people are back to celebrating those again, thankfully!)The Rusisan equivalent of Santa Clause is Old Man, orGrandfather, Frost (Ded Moroz), and he's often seeing with his granddaughter Snow Maiden (Snegurochka).

Note: All the cards say "Happy New Year" in Russian.

Enjoy!

 

 

A Writer's Christmas Wish List - Some Suggestions

 So what would a writer put on their wish list? Here are a few items that may be useful, interesting or just fun.

1. For those writers who don't find holding their laptops on their lap very comfortable or get burned by their overheated machines (as well as those whose cats insist on sitting on their lap while they are working), there's Lap Desks. There is a variety of these out there. The ones I think would work the best are from LapDawg:

Amazon has a number of a number of cool lapdesks as well, so check it out.

2. For those who like to keep track of the time they spend writing in one sitting, there are adorable timers that would look great on a writer's desk. How about this cute Kikkerland Owlet Kitchen timer that comes in a variety of colors?

Not into owls? You can't resist the penguins, I'm sure:

3. A subscription to a writer's magazine online, with multiple extra benefits and discounts with premium subscriptions might be just the thing for the writer in your family. Check out the Writer's Digest and Writer Magazine as just two of subscriptions to conciser.

4. Writer software, while not for everyone, might be a fun and useful addition to a writer's tool kit. There are actually a number of free ones - check out 10 of them in the article from TechRadar.Computing. Don't forget the Scrivener, a word-processing software to help writers to all kinds of important things, like outlining, storyboarding and organizing metadata. You can download a sample limited version to see if it is something you'd like.

(image copyrighted by Scrivener)

5. Writers love stationary - better believe it! Even if we mostly now enter our words onto a computer, we still love notebooks that we keep by our bedside or in our bag as we commute. And, of course, to write in notebooks we need cool pens. So don't forget about those little details that can bring a lot of happiness and joy to a writer. Check out these gorgeous notebook selections from Paperblanks.

6. And last, but not least, never forget that any writer is also an avid reader (I'm pretty confident making that generalization). So gift cards to book stores like Amazon, Barnes and Noble or any other book store would always be appreciated!

What are you putting on your writer wish list? What products would you find most useful or just fun?

Versatile Blogger Award and Happy Holidays

As I'm going on a trip and will, in all likelihood, not be able to post for the next few days, I just wanted to drop q quick note about a couple of things.

First of all, I wanted to thank Michael Hayes for awarding me with the Versatile Blogger award! You can find his post here. I will be more than happy to pass the award to other bloggers. Unfortunately, I do not have the time to write that post now, so I will do a thorough "Versatile Blogger award" as per rules after the holidays.
And I can't wait to do it!

Secondly, don't forget to check out Writing During the Holiday Madness and let me know how you're handling it.

At last, I would like to wish everyone very happy, joyful, relaxing and safe holidays! May the joy of the season be felt in your heart!

I will mostly likely do a post or two next week but until then - enjoy the holidays and happy writing!

Writing During the Holiday Madness

 Holidays are fun, full of good cheer, family warmth and hopefully rest. They can also be crazy, stressful, full of little annoyances and things to still be done. For some it's the time where they can find a few hours of solid uninterrupted writing time. For others (probably the majority) it's the time where writing just cannot fit into the equation, where there's too many other priorities to be taken care of and where "uninterrupted" is no longer in our vocabulary.
So how can we still fit in that precious writing time and feel like we can stay sane?

 Here are a few tips.

1) If you have any kind of vacation time from your day job (if you do have a day job), rejoice in the opportunity that you have and make sure that your family and friends know that you need time to write. You can even present it as having to work, if the demands get too much on your personal time. Who's going to blame you for having to do some work? Once you get those precious hours, make sure you put them to good use. Even if those hours are few, you can accomplish enough with a little prioritizing and by making sure there are no unnecessary distractions, such as hanging out on Twitter and answering emails.

2) If you're doing any sort of travel during the holiday season, you can either bring a laptop with you, or have a simple notepad and pen to keep you company while you're waiting for that plane or while you're on a bus. Your hubby can read a book or play games if they're waiting with you. If you  have kids traveling with you, doing your own stuff may not be as easy. But even if you don't have the opportunity to actually write, keep a notepad with you and jot down ideas about your characters, scenes, etc..


3) While you can tell your family and friends that you have to work, don't think of writing during this time as work in your mind. Think of the time you can sit down and write as a mini-getaway from the stress and demand of the holidays, a mini-retreat. If writing makes you happy and reaching a goal of a certain amount of words on paper brings feelings of satisfaction with it, chances are once you're get back to the holiday world, you'll feel recharged and ready to take on everything else. Writing can be meditative. If you think of it that way, your mind will follow.

4) If you decide to take a break from writing to concentrate fully on the holidays and the demands (and joys) they represent, don't feel guilty about it. Once you made the decision, go with it. Think of it as a way to immerse yourself into the holiday spirit and to recharge your batteries for the next year. But make plans for the year ahead and think about what you want to achieve with your writing. Then dive in once the holidays are over.

Whatever you do for the holidays, may they be full of joy, family, laughter and good times. And perhaps some wonderful writing time!