Kim Iverson - Archive site

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

That freedom-loving Frenchy, Voltaire, once famously remarked “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”. This quote was later adapted by Oscar Wilde, who declared “I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself’. Of course, neither gentleman could possibly have envisaged a future where EVERYONE was given a platform to speak their mind. Because on the World Wide Web, various applications require nothing more than basic literacy (sometimes not even that) and an internet connection in order to make public pronouncements. Social media applications like Twitter. Initially used as a networking tool and informal news gathering resource, it was quickly embraced by corporations eager to advertise their wares. Of course, a medium where off-the-cuff personal remarks and philosophic reflection is combined with capitalistic greed can lead to awkward situations. Especially since companies have lea...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

“Sometimes you can learn the best lessons in life wearing a low cut black dress, some high heels, and an awesome beehive wig.” – Tracie Dee My favorite holiday is Halloween. Ever since childhood, there has just always been an attraction for me to have one day a year where you can dress up and transform yourself into anyone or anything you wanted to be….for just a day…. yet have the ability to safely to return to your usual self the day after. I think of it as the safety net of holidays where you can let your freak flag fly free for awhile, yet roll it back up safely and tuck it away when your done. Oh the possibilities!!!! I always dressed up for Halloween as a child, and revisited this tradition again as an adult about 10 years ago, to hand out candy to the trick or treaters. (Hey, why should kids have all the fun!)  I usually start to think of Halloween and my costume ideas around August (I guess seeing jack ‘o lanterns and scarecrows mixed in among sunscreen and f...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

I am seeking beta readers for Hope of the Future. Layla and Margaret, no need to contact me, I still have you on my list, as well as Renee. I will contact you separately. :) If you signed up previously and never got back to me, I will save us both the trouble and ask that you not bother to sign up. You won't be chosen. This book is a Science Fiction Fantasy genre, or it can be classified as a Post-Apocalyptic Thriller. I ended up combining two books that I'd written, into this one, so I'm going to need people who can catch plot issues, character issues (example: in the beginning she looks and acts one way, but toward the end she is different, yet not because of growth), and anything else that doesn't make sense. I can only catch so much. You don't  have to catch the grammar edits. Commas, misspelled words, etc. You will receive the book at the same time as my editor , so those will be caught by her and I. But if you do spot something and want to let me...

All my books are currently discounted, and the discount will last until the end of September. September 30th, they will go back up in price.  Every book except for  Dark Illusions: The Beginning  since it's already free. Rather than load you up with links, I'll send you to the Smashwords profile, as well as the Amazon one. Grab any of the books that you haven't read yet. Smashwords -  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/arianabrowning Amazon -  http://www.amazon.com/author/arianabrowning Word-of-mouth is crucial to any author's success so if you have any friend that you think would like any of my books, feel free to pass this offer around. <3 Ariana

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

A recent discovery in Gibraltar adds to the growing body of evidence which portrays our Neanderthal cousins as smart, thoughtful people capable of abstract thought and an appreciation for art. Though the graffito found in a cave overlooking the Mediterranean may not look like much - perhaps like a grid for a game of noughts and crosses – the 39,000 year old engraving suggests that these prehistoric people engaged in abstract artwork – something akin to a Stone Age Jackson Pollock. Since this is a very significant discovery, I thought it would provide a welcome footnote to my novel Ancestor (given the almost guaranteed nature of further discoveries, I’ll probably be tempted to release a 2 nd edition – with updated info – at a later stage). For now, I’ve decided to revisit the current ‘rehabilitation’ of Neanderthal Man – if not in popular literature, then at least in scientific circles – as portrayed via a character from my book.     Later, sitting on his porch with a wel...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

“Make your life spectacular. I know I did."                                          – Robin Williams, from the movie “Jack” When I was a kid, I was never a big fan of going back to school (I doubt most kids are). I always relished the freedom that my summer vacation gave to me to play all day, watch TV whenever I wanted, and not have a care in the world. I always dreaded getting back to the old grindstone of studying and doing homework. It sure cut into my valuable time of playing under my blanket forts and watching The Brady Bunch, I tell ya! But there was one assignment that we were always given on the first day of school that I actually enjoyed. It was to write a composition about what we did on our summer vacations. Oh, how I wished ALL of our assignments were that easy! F...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

For my birthday, I made my own cake. I wasn't going to, but then I saw an old double chocolate mix that we had and figured I would. I have been craving S'mores like nobody's bidness. So when I saw the chocolate cake mix I thought . . . well, why not make a S'mores cake! Mmm . . . right? Well, I didn't have marshmallow creme and I thought the only way to make homemade marsh creme was by using cream of tarter. That was the only recipe I continued to come across. Then I found the one I'm going to write below. I altered it (as usual) and added more powdered sugar because I wanted a thicker creme. I'm not sure if the recipe that uses cream of tarter will make a stiffer creme since I have never made that version. If you have, let me know. Either way, here is a picture of my cake, and then the recipe for the creme is below. You can see the yummy goodness that happens when it's hot in the kitchen. The way that I made my cake was with a Double Chocolat...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They e...

Today I post an extract from the first chapter of my new novel, THE FOSSIL KING, the follow-up to ANCESTOR.   *********** I’m not dead. Although the observation is clinical, made with the kind of emotional detachment I used to reserve for patients, it also betrays an element of surprise. This isn’t how things should have panned out. I paid my dues. Settled my Karmic debt. At long last my spiritual balance sheet was in harmony. All things being equal, it should have been the perfect time to cash in my last cheque. But I did not. Why? Was there some malevolent force that wanted to extend the rope of life, hoping to ensnare my soul this time? Or was it simply a conspiracy of chance; an apathetic universe too impotent to recognize a moment of poetic justice even when serendipity’s throbbing pelvis was thrust into its face? I force a mental shrug. Oh fuck it then. I never believed in that destiny crap anyway. Better to analyze more practical matters. Like how the hell I e...

Find us on Twitter @ArianasCafe I am @arianahbrowning What is Ariana's Cafe? Simply put: a place for the creative thinker. How do I use the prompt? However you like. Use it as inspiration for a discussion, use it to challenge yourself to blog on the prompt as a subject. Use it to help you with a scene that you're struggling with. Use it as inspiration for a piece of artwork. Bottom line: use your creative mind to come up with something amazing from this prompt. Are there any rules? No captcha. If you want to have comment approval, leave a note near the comments area. Too many people have been losing comments, and if their comment disappears, they should know that it didn't go into never land. No private blogs. If you share, make sure your blog is public. (You can always use my forum arianabrowning.proboards.com to blog publicly for a post, then share that link here.) No Grammar Police.  A lot of the people who join in are not professional writers. They enjo...

You go to bed exhausted and have no problem falling asleep. Only then to be woke an hour later. You’re exhausted and you want to do anything but get up. Your body pleads with you to go back to sleep. The warm covers beckon you, calling your name, but you can’t. You can’t ignore that sound. The one that says, “I need you.” You can’t go back to sleep. So you get up. Because there is a little face there counting on you, begging you to get up. Feeling anxious and worried, they are miserable. Their stomach hurts and they hope that you can do something about it. Crawling out of bed, you attempt the rolling out of bed so that you don’t wake the others. If, that is, there are others there. Then you waddle out to the hallway, tired, and attempting to fully wake up in the middle of the night so that you don’t fall asleep on your feet. Once that one is taken care of, an hour after you fall back to sleep, and an hour after that last one, another is crying in your face. Once more you debate w...