Archive for June, 2009

Good Morning Dear Readers,

Many tragedies have taken place this past week with celebrities. First was the death of Ed McMahon at the age of 86. I remember watching Star Search when I was a kid. It was one of the first talent show competitions that I remember watching avidly waiting to see if my pick got enough stars to win. Now we have shows like America’s Got Talent, American Idol and Who Wants to Be a Rock Star? Star Search was a combination of all of these and Ed McMahon was irreplaceable. I am sad that he is no longer with us but he had a long run and I hope he thought it was a good life.

Next on the list of celebrity tragedies was the death of Farrah Fawcett. Farrah is a legend and another star whom I grew up seeing on TV and in Movies. Everyone wore their hair like Farrah, in fact, I believe I even had the feathered hair do at one point. She was beautiful. So beautiful that she posed for Playboy at the age of 48 and 50. Her death at age 62 came after a long battle with cancer. If you are interested in more info about her life and about charities she supported you can read more about her inRemembering Farrah Fawcett.

Sadness over Farrah’s death was compounded by the death of yet another star on the same day. King of Pop, Michael Jackson, died on Thursday the 25th of June from cardiac arrest. The news was shocking and unexpected. He had just finished setting the dates for a 50 concert tour in Europe. I think my sadness over this event comes from growing up when Michael Jackson was at the top of the charts. I had a friend, Shannon, who was a fan of him and she introduced me to his music although I had heard some before. She even dressed as him for Halloween. I will never forget that she looked just like him with the perfect makeup and mannerisms. The big album at that time was Black or White and it spoke to us. Man in the Mirror was a song that reflected our own inner struggles with our identities.

I plan to write a celebrity charity profile for both Ed McMahon and Michael Jackson in the next few days. First, I need to get all the research together.

Let us hope that there are no more tragedies this week either in our homes or in the celebrity world.

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Good Afternoon Dear Readers,

If you are in the St. Louis, Missouri area on July 11th you should check out the free concert that is being sponsored by Major League Baseball and Pepsi-Cola. The concert headliner will be Sheryl Crow and the concert will benefit Stand Up to Cancer. The event will be an environmentally friendly one with recycling bins on hand and a special Major League Baseball Green Team who will be collecting recyclables during the show.

To find out more about where the concert is and other cool stuff happening during the event like MLB’s donation to Stand Up to Cancer read this article about Sheryl Crow headlining Stand Up to Cancer Benefit.

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Good Morning!

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend so far. I was pleased to get a newsletter from the writer forum that I frequent, Accentuate Writers Forum, about the anthology that has been in the works. After tons of paperwork and formal legalities which Michelle L. Devon worked hard to get through, the first ever Accentuate Writers Anthology is going to print! Elements of the Soul is available for pre-order by clicking this link. It is a beautifully bound book with a glossy cover available at the fantastic price of $13 which includes shipping, taxes and a custom designed bookmark based on the cover design.

This is very exciting for everyone involved in the book and the books to come after. The writers featured in the book are all authors who won in the short story contests and poetry contests run on the Accentuate Writers Forum.

The first writers to appear in the very first Accentuate Writers Anthology are:

Elements of the Soul

It should be noted too that 10% of the proceeds from the net profit of each book will be donated to literacy programs. You can read more about how money will be donated and when on the pre-order page for Elements of the Soul.

Purchase a copy today to read some amazing stories and to support the literary arts!

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Good Evening Dear Readers,

There are many women in this world that I admire and I thought today would be a good day to share with you who they are and why I admire them.

The first among the women I admire is my Mom and not just because she is my mom. She taught me how to work hard to succeed and what it meant to be an independent woman in a world where the independence of women was not always looked on in a bright light. She taught me everything I know and one wish of mine is that I would have listened to her words of wisdom at a younger age. If you are reading mom, I love you.

There are other women that I admire some are close friends and others are celebrities. The first ones I admire are my close friends. Lee, a genuinely amazing woman, who has five kids, runs her own business and has decided to go back to school while still doing all of the above is on my list of admirable women. Hopefully she won’t mind my saying so. My best friend Tracy is another woman who I admire. She is busy raising a family with a husband in the military and she has gone back to school to get a nursing degree. Almost every woman in my life that I have come across has shown me something about them that is genuine and admirable.

Some of the celebrity women I admire I have written about on the internet. Often I write about the women themselves or about the work that they are doing. Two of the articles which were published today are on two of the most fascinating women I have not had the honor of meeting, yet. I still hold out hope that one day I will.

The first article is on Danielle Steel the Queen of Romance and can be read her at Examiner where I talk about her publishing her 108th book and about the foundation she runs in memory of her son, Nick.

The other article is about Angelina Jolie. This is a woman I have admired for a long time, especially for her charity work. Today was no different. The article is about her speech for World Refugee Day and you can read it here.

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Good Afternoon Readers,

Today, several things have come to my attention. The first happened at the gas station this morning. I held the door open for a gentleman who was right behind me. He was older and it was polite. He thanked me and said “thanks, you’ve done your good deed for the day.”

This got me thinking. Was that going to be my only good deed for the day? I really had hoped that it wouldn’t. I then remembered that I had a pledge packet I needed to open when I went home.

After getting some work done I decided to pop into the writer’s forum that I frequent… Accentuate Writers Forum is a great place where I have learned amazing things from those striving to become published authors and those who are already published.

A fellow writer by the name of Opher Ganel had posted a link promoting an event. Clicking through I found that Opher and his son were going to be participating in the Seagull Century 100 mile bike ride as part of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. The bike ride will take place October 10, 2009 and Team Ganel’s goal before the ride is to raise $4,000. I made a donation to help out Team Ganel in meeting their goals.

My donation was a small $10 but I am hoping that you, my fellow readers, will be willing to match that donation and get Team Ganel to their goal way before the date of the bike ride.

Visit Team Ganel to make and match the donation I made today.

It’s not even 1pm here and I feel like I have done a few good things today. What kind of good things will you be doing today?

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Greetings Dear Readers,

I must apologize for my lack of blog posts this week. With the end of school nearing, everything in my world seems to grow a little frantic. Field Day events at the school take place, baseball comes to a close and new hobbies and interests arise in the minds of my sons.

Field Day was a blast. My son, Patrick, had a great time filling up water buckets by squeezing out sponges, running through an obstacle course and playing musical hula hoops.

Last night, Andrew, received awards for his participation in T-Ball for Pocono Mountain West Little League. He earned a trophy and a certificate. He was very proud to play a game afterward and he was pitched to by the coach. He hit each time which means no more T for him at baseball.

As you can tell, I’m very proud of my boys.

I am currently working on two short stories that I am looking forward to entering into a few contests and I have been busy sending out submissions to various print magazines. Wish me luck!

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr

Good Morning Dear Readers,

I hope today is bringing some sunshine your way. I have found the sunshine in celebrities and the charities they support recently and I thought I should share some of that sunshine with you.

Samuel L. Jackson will be hosting a Golf and Ball Benefit for Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity and for the Samuel L. Jackson Foundation. You can read more about that Look to the Stars and at Examiner.

Angelina Jolie turns 34 today and has made number one on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list which is a list of ultra-famous celebs. In honor of her birthday and the incredible charity work she has done she gets this weeks Celebrity Charity Profile on Examiner.com.

Please feel free to leave comments on any of the articles you like!
I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Eternally,
Linda St.Cyr