Wisdom from the Great Masters (cont.)

One of my all time favorite thinkers is Joseph Campbell who said �We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.� One of the bravest things you can do is let go of something you thought was important to create room for something better. This is hard because at first you can�t clearly see the trade-off. You might have to give up the security of a job for the chance to start your own business. �You can�t steal second if you won�t take your foot off first� - attributed to so many people I don�t know who originally said it. You can�t know for certain what the outcome will be, but if you don�t take the chance, you may �lead a life of quiet desperation.� (Thank you for your eloquence, Thoreau.)

It may not just be job related, but relationship related. You may hang on to certain people (family, friends, customers, etc.) because they are there, not because they bring you anything of value. Letting go of the mediocre (or even the bad!) creates room for the extraordinary. Are you thinking, �Better the Devil you know, than the Devil you don�t know?� I say, �Quit hanging out with Devils, you blockhead!� I bet you already know what or who to let go of, you�re just afraid to do it. Joseph Campbell also said, �Follow your bliss.� Not your guilt. You have a year, you gonna spent it on first base with a bunch of Devils?

The most commonly made New Year�s resolution is to lose weight. If this was your last year, would you spend it worrying about your weight? Or would you get so absorbed in living that your weight didn�t matter? Many of the reasons for overeating - boredom, loneliness, stress - wouldn�t be problems if you were living an exciting, engaging, Devil-free life. The best way to lose weight is to get a life that�s more exciting than food. (Yeah, you can attribute that one to me too.) So instead of trying to find that new diet plan or that amazing new workout routine, know thyself and turn your attention to something that might actually work - alleviate your boredom, loneliness, and/or stress.

Ah - here�s a great one: �Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.� - An Wang. Think how successful we�d all be if we just used our common sense. Don�t spend money you don�t have. Treat other people the way you would like to be treated. Don�t make promises you can�t keep. Don�t text, drink, or go seatbeltless when you drive. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Someone who lied to you yesterday will probably lie to you today. But no, we cast common sense to the wind - spending money we don�t have, texting while we drive, and believing those who have repeatedly lied to us. Fire up your good old common sense - you might be amazed where it will take you.

All the years that have come before are over. There is a bright new year awaiting you. Are you going to live it or just get through it? Your year will be as exciting, as successful and as fun as you choose to make it. And if it�s the last one, let�s go out in a blaze of glory - running to second for all we�re worth, leaving the Devils behind!

Have a happy, happy 2012 everyone!!!! And thanks for reading!

Wisdom from the Great Masters for 2012

Another year ending - the older I get, I swear the faster they go by. According to interpretations of the Mayan calendar, 2012 could be it. We have until December 21st, but that might be the end. Let�s go for it and pretend this is our last year. I�ve brought in some of the best and brightest to advise you and have created a worksheet for you to put their advice into practice. http://www.firestarspeaking.com/ezine/winter2011insert.pdf

�We are always getting ready to live and never living.� - Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson is a God in my country and he�s spot on with this one. We all say things like, �We�ll do it when the kids are older; when we lose 10 lbs.; after the Recession�� we�ll do it someday. Do it now. There will never be a perfect time. Decide now what you really want to do in 2012- assume it�s now or never. (You good with never?)

�Know thyself� - said by Socrates, Plato, or some other wise Greek guy. If you are waiting for someone else to bring your life to you, you are in for a long wait. You have to get out there and live and figure out what works best for you. How can you know you love the mountains without having seen the vastness of the sea? How can you make the most of your talents if you don�t know what they are? Try one new thing a month for the next 12. I promise you will learn many things about yourself. Just because you�ve always done (or not done) something doesn�t mean that�s right for you. As another master, George Eliot, said, �It�s never too late to be what you might have been.� 2013 might be too late - bring it now!

While I�m a little wary of calling William S. Burroughs a great master, I do like his advice, �When you stop growing you start dying.� It�s easy to get so consumed by routine and our busy lives that we don�t keep learning. I get lazy and read too much nonfiction; I work instead of taking time to attend conferences and get better at what I do. Try things outside your field, you�ll be surprised how exciting life is and how vibrant you become when you�re growing.

�Silence is not the enemy!� - Denise Ryan. Okay, so I�m no great master, but I know you need some silence to know who you are, to figure out what you want, to learn. And we have become terrified of silence. We get in our cars and immediately have to call someone or turn on music rather than be alone with our thoughts. We have to post things on Facebook rather than just sit and experience them. Silence lends itself to thinking, thinking makes you a person of depth - a person who knows who they are and what they want rather than someone who just does what everyone else is doing. (Only a complete loss of thinking can explain the popularity of the Kardashians.) Silence really is golden. Pay attention to how seldom you, and especially your children, experience it. Change that - turn off the TV or the computer or the music, silence the cell phone - have some quiet time.

More tomorrow!

Lord of the Tattered Realm

Ending 2011 with one final Ace tale, the magnificently illustrated "Lord of the Tattered Realm" from the Aug '54 issue of Hand of Fate #24. See you all in 2012, and as always, keep those comments and emails coming-- lots of big things in store for THOIA and precode horror fans in the coming year!

Dubrovnik in Croatia

Cruises are interesting because we can visit different countries or at least different cities in only some days. We can't explore those ports in-depth, but we can still visit the most special touristic objects. One of these ports is Dubrovnik in Croatia. I read somewhere that it's the most beautiful town in Europe. Sure is that many cruise ships visit the town.


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It's possible you don't know that Dubrovnik is a town of great artistic interest. I noticed that all the tourists that visited it do not write about it's artistic beauties. Neither about it's numerous feasts. If you don't like them, you can enjoy it's modernity, too: nightlife, shows, water sports, adventure vacation and beaches. What I like particularly, is the rich nature and wild animals that are not too afraid of humans.

Strange Gift from the Unknown

Of all the strange gifts you'll receive this year, none shall be as strange as today's gift, courtesy of your fiends here at THOIA... from the December 1953 issue of Hand of Fate #21. Have a merry, scary, happy horriday, creeps!

TWO BONUS QUICKIES!

Phantoms of the Forgotten

A con man resurrects a rip roarin' posse of old west poltergeists, in this weird 'n wild tale from the December 1953 issue of Hand of Fate #21 (art by Louis Zansky.)

Great Savings with Online Canadian Pharmacy

CanadaDrugCenter.com is a fully licensed online Canadian pharmacy selling prescription and non-prescription medications. You can save up to 90% on your meds thanks to the difference of the prices in countries like Canada and USA, for example. When you look for your medicine, you can choose from the list of brands and generic products. You have total control of the available drugs and their prices and can decide personally what medicine you want to order.

Let�s suppose you buy effexor, a medicine that cures depression with success. CanadaDrugCenter.com offers the list of equivalents with all the informations about the drug in the bottom of the page. You can find answers on your questions there, too. The most important are who and how can take this medicine. Don't forgetto study side effects when youdecide to buy it.

If you have high cholesterol levels, you probably buy lipitor to avoid deseases like heart attack and strokes. With CanadaDrugCenter.com you can save appreciably not only the lowest price is guaranteed by the company. Send a valid prescription written by your doctor with your order and request the drug you choose among the rich  list of generic products there.

And your savings do not finish here. Imagine, you buy fosamax and save so significantly with the change and great chooice of prices. Look at right of the list of the products where you can see a little green button "Earn $35". Don't overlook it! It's a really great possibility- Because for every person you refere, you receive $35 credit. And your friend, too! Is it not a great gift to your budget?

Happy Holidays!

Wishing all of you a joyous holiday season! I'm still on Cayman and two chapters away from being done with my Harlequin novella (title is AFTER MOONRISE and will be out in November 2012 in a duology with my good friend Gena Showalter). Then I'll take a little break and begin the next House of Night novel, HIDDEN, the first of the year.

Happy reading everyone!
PC

Winter Is Here. In Italy, too

Yesterday, the temperature was so nice. Yesterday, we had still autumn. Somebody could say it was similar to summer. Yesterday, the temperature was 18�C. It was yesterday.

Today, we have 8�C.
Probably, you will laugh. Is it cold winter? Well, maybe it is not cold if you look at it generally. But if we think that the temperature was 18�C till yesterday and it is 10 degrees lower today -this is the difference.
Yes, it's not like Siberia


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They said that Vesuvius is covered with snow today. I did not see it because I was not from that part of our hill today. I'll photograph it tomorrow, promise. But Vesuvius is 1281 meters high and the temperature is low over 1000 m.

I'm afraid that all the water that fall on the earth in these 2 weeks becomes ice till tomorrow. Here, on the hills, it can happen. And I'm afraid to use the car in these conditions.  But now, when I write it, I hear that the rain continue.

So, what do you mean when you say "winter"?

Whom the Image Strikes

Keeping things Ace around here for a few more posts, and how about another one from the March 1952 issue of Hand of Fate #22. Never has a story exposed the petrifying pros and corny cons of dabblin' in demonlogy as today's foolishly freaky feature!

BONUS QUICKIE!
















***R.I.P. DON SHARP***

Hollywood Onboard

What do you think about cruises?

If you say, I begin to speak about it because I'm a travel agent of Cruise Brothers and want to promove my site, you are not right. At least in part. Because I ask this question surely impressed by a webinar I followed yesterday, and this webinar was about the best cruise lines. About one of them, to be precise. The webinar was hold by Royal Caribbean to tell us how many awards they won this year (many awards, it's true Why Royal Caribbean has the Best Cruise Line Awards?) and what they want to improve in the next 3 years to become much more better.

But I was impressed not by the ships and awards. I was impressed by the programs they have onboard.

It's incredible, but cruise lines want to collect all the best our consumist society dreams to have, fantasizing during the day and sleep hours. Broadway class shows, Hollywood actors, best selling films in their cinemas and best selling books in their libraries. Winter gardens and Palm Courts with the camera bands playing personally for you... And I don't tell you about the water tubes and climbing walls, golf courts and promenades where you can run or sit in a bar...



Itineraries that allow you to visit different countries and even overnights in the most important ports for in-depth explorations. World known lecturers and cooking classes.

So, what do you think about today cruises?

Well, probably, these are really the best vacation options. I counted the cost of the vacation on land and all these all-inclusive cruises. They cost even less than the "normal" vacations, you know. Specially we, women, understand that it's the vacation of our dreams: we can finally have the time when we can relax together with all the family. Without any other thought except relaxation and pleasure. Somebody will clean, cook etc.

:-))) You are right, after all I said here, I have to send you to my cruise search page... It's in the right sidebar here.

To Behold His Doom

The March 1952 issue of Hand of Fate #22 is a winner, containing not one, but TWO Lou Cameron tales. So behold today's doomed classic, and then hit the THOIA archive for "The Night of Friday 13" which I posted way back in June of 2008 right HERE. I'll have another one from this issue in our next post too!

A Particular Christmas Nativity Scene

One of the most important local traditions is to create Christmas Nativity scenes. They believe, it's a good omen to create and to visit them.

There are entire shops and even streets where they sell only Nativity scene's pieces. And different villages and associations organize alive Nativity scenes, too. It comes from the times of St. Francisc of Assisi who tryed to explain the Bible to the unalphabet persons this way.
I write about it every year so I'll not stop on it this time.

 The Feast of the Immaculate Conception I passed with a trekking association. We had an excellent walk from Sorrento to Massa Lubrense and back. Here you see the main square of Sorrento with the Christmas tree.

I like the new custom to place a syntetic Christmas tree in the towns. They do not use to kill the alive trees more. But what I wanted to tell you this time is an interesting Christmas Nativity scene that is organized as you see in a gorge where there were the mills in antiquity.
The scenes are real: the participants change their places every day and Gesus Christ appears in the crib only when He is just born. So, here you see only the beginning of the story.

The Last Hiding Place

How good was Lou Cameron you ask? Let these next few Ace Publication posts be the answer to that question. From the December 1954 issue of Hand of Fate #25b, aka #26 (apparently there was some kind of numbering error with this final issue of Hand of Fate.)

BONUS QUICKIE! 

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The new book from author and official RANKIN/BASS historian Rick Goldschmidt is out NOW, and covers everything you ever wanted to know about the spooky, kooky, 1967 Animagic classic-- MAD MONSTER PARTY!! 

 

A fantastic, highly recommended book, featuring 272 pages and over 300 images (many never before published) of photos and rare concept sketches and storyboard artwork, plus, the original shooting script in its entirety, sheet music for the wonderful songs, the complete Mad Monster Party Dell comic book, behind the scenes interviews and insight from the cast and crew (Jack Davis, Don Duga, Maury Laws, etc.) and much, MUCH MORE! Click HERE for all the details and to order your copy today!