Shaking It Up

By Suzie Carr
@girl_novelist

Thank you to all who took part in this exercise contest. And thank you once again to @SMALLVILLE_NBD for giving me this great contest idea!

You all have inspired me to keep up the exercise and health focus, and I’m sure you will continue to inspire many others.

One quote I always keep in mind is “If you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?” A great friend of mine said that to me one day and I’ve never forgotten it. Unfortunately, this same friend passed away from liver cancer at 40 years old. He is my constant reminder to never take my health for granted. He inspired many to stay on the health and fitness trail.

I hope this contest has helped you all.  Keep up the great work!

The following winners will receive a free copy of one of my books:

Andrea Free @AndreaFree1
@girl_novelist I exercise for my health! It's important if you want to live a long and relatively pain-free life.

Jay E. Andrew @jayeandrew
@girl_novelist  Doing what keeps me fit - acting & performing. Why? Love it xxx

Manoa the II @NoaPouono@girl_novelist Just worked out @miyagiboxing gym, great feeling to be high on health!

Alicia White‏@Evichipi
@girl_novelist.. Jumping on elastic bed...shaking up my body!! (avoiding to break my neck as well ;-)

Brick Tracy‏@bricktracy
@girl_novelist  My mom died last year at 64 from diabetes/weight issues -I was on same path. Since 1/01 I'm down 40-lbs

A Contest - Shaking It Up

By Suzie Carr
@girl_novelist

A wonderful new twitter follower inspired me to host a book giveaway contest. Just like me, @smallville_nbd believes health and fitness is critical and would like to see more people enjoying the process of getting into shape so they can look and feel their best.

Here’s how to enter:

1. Follow me on Twitter (@girl_novelist)
2. Snap a picture of you exercising (walking, running, playing a sport, etc.) and attach it to a tweet
3. Included in this tweet, answer the question ‘why do you exercise’ in 140 characters
4. Mention me in the tweet (@girl_novelist)
5. Send to me by Monday, June 11 at midnight EST.

I will select the top 5 tweets that have inspired me the most and announce them in my blog. Those 5 winners will get a copy of one of my books—their choice— and in their choice of paperback or e-book.

Let’s inspire each other! Go snap some pictures… I’m waiting!

PS: @smallville_nbd is a very upbeat and positive person worth following!

Wishing you health and happiness!
Suzie


I feel it's critical to support the community, and so I've committed to donate a portion of my book sale proceeds to the NOH8 Campaign (www.noh8campaign.com).

Check out my series of LGBT fiction.

Here I enduring a grueling 5K Warrior Dash Race!

What's Your Fuel?

By Suzie Carr
@girl_novelist

As a novelist, I’m always interested to learn what motivates people to go beyond their comfort levels to that place where real growth happens. When creating characters, I enjoy learning lessons through them. What makes them act the way they do? Why do they care so deeply for certain things? How did they become so cynical, so happy or so fearful?

We’re all driven by different things. Our past experiences shape the way we view the world and the way we interact with others. We all come equipped with driving forces that dig deep and push us to or pull us away from defining moments.

I’m driven by the word CAN’T. When someone tells me I can’t do something, I do it double-time.  The reason for this motivation digs deep.

When I was in kindergarten and sitting in a circle for story time, a girl bullied me. Each time I’d raise my hand to answer a question, she’d hit me. After several grueling rounds of this, I stopped raising my hand and eventually lost all confidence to speak to anyone but my best friend, Todd, and my immediate family members. For two years, I spoke only to them.

Bribed with adventures and treats that would make any well-adjusted child leap for joy, I turned my back on any hope of being a ‘normal’ kid. Then one day, my best friend begged me to speak to his mother because that was the only way I could go to his baseball game. For three hours, I stood next to his mom as she watched soap operas and waited patiently for me to whisper something, anything, in her ear.

Todd begged and cried for me to brave up and say something. By the end of the third hour, my best friend knelt down exhausted and said to me, “I knew you couldn’t do it.” This little action switched something in me so powerful that I managed to whisper ‘yes’ into his mom’s ear.

I haven’t been able to stop talking since.

Fast forward to high school English class. To graduate, I needed to present my book report to the class. I refused, deathly afraid of public speaking. My English teacher allowed me to present it to him after school. When I finished, he told me, “You won’t succeed in a professional setting, so get used to working harder instead of smarter. That little insult sparked an inferno inside of me and I marched off to college shortly after and majored in public speaking, and graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Whenever someone tells me I can’t accomplish something, I accomplish the S*#T out of it!

That is my fuel.

What’s yours? What gets you out of your comfort zone?

All the Best,

Suzie

I feel it's critical to support the community, and so I've committed to donate a portion of my book sale proceeds to the NOH8 Campaign (www.noh8campaign.com).

Pet Peeves

By Suzie Carr
@girl_novelist

I have a pet peeve confession.

I dislike when people litter. When I see litter, my blood pressure spikes.

Case in point: I walk my dogs through my neighborhood every morning at 3 a.m., and I see the same things each time – empty soda cans, paper plates, candy bar wrappers, plastic cups, and so many more items it'd take me all day to type them. This trash litters the sides of the road, clinging to sewer gutters and spilling over onto my neighbors’ pretty green lawns.

This morning, faster than I could react, one of my dogs scooped up a chicken bone from underneath a crumbled up take-out bag. She smacked her lips, working quickly to swallow it. Thankfully, I’m fully alert at 3 a.m. and I was able to jump to her rescue and safely remove the bones before they could splinter and choke her. For the rest of the walk, I felt like screaming. My dog could’ve gotten seriously hurt because someone was too lazy to toss their garbage in a trashcan. Instead the person just opened his/her car window and tossed it out for someone else to deal with.

Who wants that job? I've tried, believe me. I've toted a trashbag along on many walks, plucking up litter only to find even more in the same spots the very next day. Let’s face it, picking up litter is about as satisfying a job as is laundry or dishes because as soon as you turn your back, more piles up.

Okay, enough venting. I'm about solutions.

Did I have a right to be angry? I think so. Would it help the litter problem? Absolutely not!

I can’t control the actions of others. I can only control how I react to their actions. So, I needed to shift the focus or suffer the consequences.

On my drive into work, still stewing over the chicken bone fiasco, a thought sunk in that if I gave in to the anger, I wouldn’t be giving justice to anyone who does respect common decency. So, I chose to smile at the grounds keeper on my way into the building and strike up a conversation with him about planting flowers. The result, by the time I logged onto my work computer my anger was gone and replaced with a good vibe.

It all comes down to focusing on the good things people are doing.

Do you have a pet peeve that rattles your nerves? How do you deal with it?

Here’s to working together in keeping our world a beautiful place,

Suzie

I feel it's critical to support the community, and so I've committed to donate a portion of my book sale proceeds to the NOH8 Campaign (www.noh8campaign.com).

Make it Pink - April 27th!

I'll be wearing pink tomorrow! Will you?!

Together We're Stronger

@girl_novelist

A public service announcement via Until There’s A Cure®.

I’m dedicating today’s blog to an important topic that needs attention. 

Did you know that nearly thirty years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there is still no simple solution to breaking the cycle of HIV? Many have been infected with HIV, more than 2.7 million each year to be exact. 

Until There’s A Cure® is a national organization dedicated to eradicating HIV/AIDS by raising awareness and funds to combat this pandemic.

With the help of celebrities, partner corporations, volunteers, and passionate supporters, this organization serves to fund prevention education, care services, and vaccine development, and to increase public awareness of AIDS, using The Bracelet as the tool. The Bracelet serves as a bridge to unite people to fight HIV/AIDS, and helps to increase consciousness, compassion, understanding, and responsibility.

Until There’s A Cure is committed to:

• Funding innovative programs that promote AIDS awareness and prevention education.
• Providing financial support for care and services for those living with AIDS.
• Supporting and advocating for AIDS vaccine development that offers the best hope for reducing the spread of HIV.

A Public Service Team United

Celebrities from the entertainment industry and the sports world wear The Bracelet. Major magazines, including Voque, Maxim, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, Us Weekly, ESPN Magazine, and many others generously donate space for the PSAs.

Over the past 19 years , UNTIL has reinvested over $22 million dollars in programs and grants, providing money to African villages ravaged by HIV infection, community clinics supporting care and comprehensive testing programs, and vaccine advocacy groups dedicated to research and medical development.

90% OF ALL PROCEEDS GO BACK TO THE CAUSE! 

Their jewelry line has grown from The Bracelet, our original cuff-style bracelet, to include over 25 styles. Many pieces are handmade in Africa by HIV-positive women. The projects we support in Africa not only employ but EMPOWER the women, enabling them to better care for their families and give back to their communities. 

They also donate a portion of the proceeds to help build hospitals, train nurses, and provide medical devices and other care services.  

Learn about The Bracelet.

The Big Takeaway

Today is April 19th, and as I have done for the past two years, I will plant flowers in my front garden to honor my late friend, Patrick. I feel the best way to honor special people is to keep their memory alive by doing something life-fulfilling, life-evoking, life-enhancing. Whenever I’m in the presence of plants and flowers, I feel I’m in the presence of light, love, and God. So, it is through nature, that I keep my friend’s memory alive. As spring turns to summer and his flowers continue to bloom, I am reminded of his lively spirit.

With Patrick, I never knew what kind of craziness he’d toss in my path.  He treated life like it was an ongoing festival filled with clowns, balloons, candy apples, cotton candy, cold and crisp beer, sunny skies, and gigantic roller coasters.  He lived more life in his forty years than most eighty year olds did. If he wanted to travel, he traveled. If he wanted to run a business, he ran a business. If he wanted to get married and have a child, he got married and had a child. If he wanted to careen down a roller coaster with his hands up in the air, then he did so. If he wanted to sing karaoke to a restless crowd, then he sang his heart out. No wasn’t a part of his vocabulary. When he wanted something, he went after it with everything he had.

The big takeaway he left me with was to not take life so seriously. “It’s only life,” he’d say. “What’s the worst that could happen?” I keep trying to take on this spirit. I’m not quite there, yet. I still have reservations and hang-ups about frivolous things that are out of my control and really shouldn’t be allowed to weigh in on the grand scheme of my actions. Nonetheless, I keep trying to live my life each day to the fullest, reminding myself that for each breath I take, I’ve been given a gift.

I look for opportunities to live fuller, to express better, to give more freely. 

Has someone left an indelible mark on your life the way Patrick has on mine? Do you stop to reflect when you’re taking life too seriously, maybe even move past that mode and onto something more fruitful and energizing?

When I plant those flowers today, I will do so with the spirit of a child in awe so that each time I view them, I can harness that energy and live a slice of my day in Patrick’s sunny spirit.



Wishing you ultimate success in all that's important to you,
Suzie

I feel it's critical to support the community, and so I've committed to donate a portion of my book sale proceeds to the NOH8 Campaign (www.noh8campaign.com).