Meet Our Writers Week 1-Broken Sparkles

Beginning this week, we will post interviews on Writers in our community, writers who are officials doing book reviews, writers doing biweekly short story slam challenges are targets of honors for this feature, 

Welcome and if you love poetry or stories, 

you can still submit to our short story slam week 7 via the link below:

http://bluebellbooks.blogspot.com/2011/08/thursday-short-story-slam-week-7.html

Let's meet talented, dedicated, and beautiful poet/writer Blaga/Broken Sparkle Today, you will never disappoint to learn and read about her!

Tell us about yourself

I am Blaga and I am just a normal girl who enjoys simple things of the day. I'm in love with the blue of the sea, the green of the eyes and the purple of the rainbow. I love traveling, I collect post cards and poetry is my new passion.

Tell me about your blog(s), name(s), what does it mean to you? 

My blog is called Broken Sparkles - http://brokensparkles.wordpress.com/, originally the name of the blog was Scent of my heart, but few months after I started it, I had to deal with technical problems and I had to change the url of the blog. I was so frustrated that my poems posted at "Scent of my heart", even though not perfect, had to suffer, that I decided to change the blog name and give to the sparkles of my muse a bitter-sweet taste, so that's why Broken Sparkles.

When have you started blogging?

My first post was on 3rd of October 2010, so there isn't even an year yet to celebrate with my blog, but I'm very happy that I have it!

What's the theme(s) of your blog(s)? What do you write most? poetry, book review or cooking recopies  short stories?

I find it easier to express myself through poetry, but lately I've been into writing short stories, some of which I find pretty good myself.

What are the inspirations of your writing?

Well, you can find inspirations anywhere, as long as you let them show you the way. Music is a major inspirational source for me, some personal feelings and happenings, but sometimes it might be just a single word from a newspaper and a poem comes.

Do you have a favorite book or author?

I am a book lover, I'm afraid if I have to make a list of all books that I like, it will take some time to finish the list. But there are few books that had a great imprint on me:

"A place called freedom" by Ken Follett

"Gone with the wind" by Margaret Mitchell 

"The Kite runner" by Khaled Hosdseini

And when it comes to poetry, I'm really fond of Robert Frost, Charles Bukowski, Pablo Neruda and Oscar Wilde.

Do you have a favorite quote?

Yes, many favorite quotes, but right now what comes to my mind is 

"These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder
Which, as they kiss, consume"
— William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

Any tips for those who started blogging?

Just enjoy whatever you do, express yourself without fears and welcome the world of the Muses with a smile.

What's your writing plans?

I'm currently working on a story that takes place in India, because I've never been to India, it takes time to do a research and get a glimpse of how life is over there, but the idea is strongly attached with me and I plan on writing it to the end, no matter how much time will consume.

Thank you to BlueBell Books!



Broken Sparkles - http://brokensparkles.wordpress.com/

Saturday Biography: Maya Angelou--"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"

Title: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

Author: Maya Angelou

About the Author:

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has to; it sings because it has a song.”

Maya Angelou.

http://mayaangelou.com/

I find it a humbling affair to attempt to present the work of poet, educator, historian, educator, playwright, director, producer, actress Maya Angelou. An African American, Dr. Angelou was born in 1928 in Missouri and raised there and in Stamps, Arkansas. She studied dance and drama in San Francisco and became a significant force in the civil rights movement in the United States. Her participation in so many aspects of the artistic life earned her the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000. She wrote and presented a poem for the occasion of President Bill Clinton’s Inauguration in 1993.

You can listen to her recitation of “On the Pulse of the Morning” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDtw62Ah2zY

Publisher: Random House, 1969

Story Summary: The author’s rich life lent itself, not to a single autobiography, but to a series, of which this book is the first installation, covering her childhood and early teenage years. The victims of a failed marriage, Angelou and her brother, Bailey, were foisted upon her paternal grandmother at ages 3 and 4 respectively. Raised primarily in Stamps, Arkansas she experienced the significant hardships of being raised Negro in the American deep south in the years prior to the Civil Right’s Movement. For a short period of time, she was reunited with her mother in Saint Louis where she experienced the guilt that accompanies sexual molestation and the death of her abuser shortly after his trial. After this horror, she was returned to the care of her grandmother until age thirteen when she and Bailey once again joined their mother (a prostitute) in San Francisco. The story is one of survival…no, excellence, in the face of the utmost adversity.

Comments: Reading this memoir was a feast of words, descriptions, story, metaphor. A poet writing prose, Angelou has spoiled my taste for the banal. (The lyrical quality of her work makes me want to incinerate my own manuscripts!) This book has had and will have appeal for people all over the globe, especially those facing discrimination of any type. The characters are living, breathing, strong, flawed human beings.

Read more about this remarkable woman on her blog, referenced above and at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou