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| James Owen and I (Cindy Scott) |
There are times when you should ask the universe to grant you a request. There are also times when the universe will grant that request.
I wanted to be able to meet a man who changed my life. A man who is a phenomenal artist, an amazing writer, and an awesome person to know. It all started with the decision to buy a ticket to FaerieCon in Hunt Valley, MD, where this man was going to be signing books and changing lives.
James Owen is probably the most nicest and kindest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet.
I was first introduced to his work,
"Drawing on the Dragons", a mediation of art, destiny, and the power of choice on suggestion from a Dear Friend. I did. I read the book, and my outlook changed. I started to re-evaluate my life. what had I been doing? Honestly, not as much I could. I have always want to be a writer, to put to word what my heart spoke deeply of. As an avid writing of poetry and found words comforting and healing. There were many a time when I wrote to understand the feelings I had; the angry, the frustration, the love, the beauty of this world. I majored in English while in college at SUNY Fredonia. Here, I wrote poetry, stories, and a crap ton of essays (which I sometimes miss writing still). But I wanted more, I tried, but like many I was easily distracted and the personal writing got pushed aside. I tried all through college and even for a bit after college when I put down the pen (I still wrote poetry occasionally).
I graduated college (May 2001) and tried to find my part in the world, not an easy task. I had moved to Corning to be with David (then only a boyfriend). A new start, a new chance, I fell flat and only a short time after graduating from college, I was coming back to Corning from visiting my parents, when I hydroplaned on a rainy highway. I hit a pine tree broke my ankle in two places and fractured a vertaebrae in my neck (makes my sonnet on vertabrae more poignant.) I spent three months confided to ours room within David's family's house. Thankfully my future in-laws (at that time were very kind souls, Thank you!), I was alone and struggling to find my place in a world that I was locked up of for three months. I did very little in the wall of writing. Finally, I was cleared to remove the neck brace and use crutches to get around. I got hired at the newly built Wal-Mart, as a people greeter (once the story open, prior to it opening I sat the front desk, which was where I was 9-1-2001, BTW). I was glad to have a job, but aside from that I had only a few friends in Corning through David. Once I was back on my feet, I thought this a new beginning.
Then came Dallas, TX in April 2002. It was a chance to start new, start over, maybe get a real job. I was trying to be a journalist at that time, but I had very little experience and no one to speak on my behalf. Not to say that didn't love living there. I proved a number of things to myself, that I could live on my own (with David of course) and be successful. I probsably could have stayed in Dallas, but David wasn't. He got a job at a local FOx Affiliate back in Corning doing video production and flew home in September 2004, I followed in October. This whole time I had tried to re-vivtalize some stories, but got back into poetry.
Back in Corning I found myself in several jobs of various sorts, nothing that made me happy. I even tried to getting into journalism again. In was 2006 when I got involved in theatre. I met some folks that David had started working with. February of 2006, I was the light/sound tech for a dinner theatre called, "The Pirates of Pink Pants and the Murder of Jolly Roger," a fun little show thay was a cross between Gilbert and Sullivan and Monty Python. After that I audition for my first show later that year, another dinner theatre and then my first musical, Beauty and the Beast. I had found a niche that made me happy and I found some friends to share my life with.
I still wrote poetry and occasionally a piece of prose. I finally got hired at Schweizer Aircraft in June 2006 (they made Helicopters and Sail Planes) as a temp, in the shipping department, entering pick tickets in the computer. Then lead to a new position in Production Control as a Admin Support Clerk, which became permanent in April 2007. David and I married in March of 2007. I worked there until August 2011, when I was laid off. During that time I did a lot of theatre, auditioning for shows and learning new skills both onstage and off. It was during 2011, when my friend Vickie had told me of James' work and suggested I read
"Drawing out the Dragons" I knew that Schweizer was changing, the work wasn't there anymore, as they had been laying off a few people here and few people there over the last year or so.
I chatted a lot with Vickie around this time and still do (she my cheerleader, along with Sara Love). I was trying to write again. I had the beginning of a fantasy novel and she listen as I talked about my dreams. It was she who told me about James and his book,
"Drawing out the Dragons." There was a free version of the PDF being offered on his site
Coppervale International;. I downloaded it, and when I did finally get to reading it I was floored.
I was so taken away by this man who had struggled and fought to doing what he loved and to come out on top. His words and my favourite quote, "If you really want to do something; no one can stop you; you you really don't want to do something; no one can help you," these are what awoken in me the fire that had been so dormant before. That was when I realized I had been getting in my own way. I was stopping me from being the amazing people I am destiny to be. I started writing, really writing again. A friend from college had pointed me to Toasted Cheese Literary Journal (online) where daily prompts were posted. Also, the fall of 2011 I started my first NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where you write a novel, 50,000 words in a month. I wrote a story 'Cryin' Mascara' during this time. I was out of work and need something to keep me going. Even after I got hired by my current employers, I still wrote. And I started reading more of James' stories, "The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica", "The Barbizon Diaries" (sequel to DotD).
I fell in love with his characters in his novel; the best and most favouritest part of the Imaginarium series was how I never knew what was coming, but was always wonderfully surprised by the turns that his stories took. I think I read "The Indigo King" in only a few days. The illustrations are amazing, the stories are stellar, and I couldn't wait to get more. By fall of 2012, I was directing my first BIG musical, "Charlotte's Web", which had a lot of kids and needed patience and love. Suddenly, I now was really responsible for a cast of 30 people from ages 4 to 50+ and creating a living breathing show. Directing a show is a lot like having a baby (something I personally know, but I can really empathize with all the Mommas and Papas out there). I took James's words-very powerful words-and I used them on my cast. I believed in my cast, hence the reason I cast them in the show. But now I told them. I told them I believed in them. And guess what, they worked magic! As did my crew. We put on one of the best show ever (maybe I am biased, but the audience loved the show and I felt proud that this cast worked together to make something awesome). Recommendation: start with the first book of the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica "Here, there be Dragons".
After the curtains closed, I (having missed NaNo that year), set about starting a blog. i needed to put a closure on Charlotte and I wanted to write. So write I did. I vowed to write a blog entry at least once a week on something, anything. I have held that promise to myself for over a year now. Because of James -through his postings on Facebook and his website and in his books-I now had a strong belief in my self and some awesome self-confidence too. Starting experimenting with my writing and what I blogged about. I interview friends with new projects and business ventures. I watched and read books to compare books to movies. The English major in me was thrilled for the challenges. I also started a month long project to write a sonnet a day for a month, asking friends for topics to stretch the old grey matter. I just finished my first theme month, a book vs. movie adaptations of YA fiction that I grew up reading.
I have had such fun with the blog and I am really positive that for the first time in my life, that I am making the
"Choices are cumulative, but the results are not always apparent or immediate". This is very true. I don't know what will happen, but I am really for the challenge and the ride of a lifetime. To date I have written I full novel (still in edit mode, that will change; 4 one acts, 3 of which have been performed; working on 2nd novel; 1 screenplay, also to be edited; a working blog, and can write a kick ass sonnet in IAMBIC PENTAMETER too (because that's how Awesomemists work). I have used James words to inspire others not only in theatre, but life in general, because he has inspired me.
"Live deliberately. Decide are you the kind of person that things happen to, or are the person who makes things happen." I choose to make things happen.
right choices,
I asked for a chance to meet my mentor, James Owen. I got my chance. I got to tell him honestly how much is meant to me, how much he has change my life, how much I aim to help change the lives of others, and that I can call him a friend. Thank you, James for being awesome in everything you do. It was an honour to meet you and talk with you this weekend. I love your stories, and your words from your books and your life.
"Purpose is the reason; Will is the means; and Will guided by Purpose leads to Aréte: the fulfillment of one’s potential for excellence." \
~James A. Owen
The new book is out, "The First Dragon". I got me a copy and got a Dragon drawn in it too! How's that for awesome!!
I want to share a few pieces of writing that mean a lot to me:
Sonnet #8: Vertebrae Love Story (or Built Like Children’s
Blocks)
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| Magic of Story Panel |
Built Like Children’s Blocks
Built like children’s blocks to form a support.
They are so stacked one upon each other
A towering form that has a rapport
With the spine, as a child to a mother.
Together they are made strong as a whole,
But separate they know are wavering.
Married by right in a love of the soul
That only they are now both savouring.
There is one course that could rip asunder
A love true and so bodily in realm.
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| White Rabbit drummer with young butterfly fairy dancing |
A storm that has come and brought the thunder
And a bolt of lightening that broke their helm.
A divorce that neither would they have sought
When those, the careless could have brought it nought.
2/18/2013
Sonnet #31 Meditations on James Owen
(or Bringer of the Awesome)
Bringer of the Awesome
Bringer of the awesome universes
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| Dragon Army of Baltimore |
With mere words, you colour skies dazzling blue,
The sea, a turquoise green, which she disperses
Reflections of the sun’s auroral hue.
Creation of life with your pen and ink--
Marking the pages with its own heartbeat,
And inspire others that they may think
In a world you realize to be replete.
With your words, you are a guide to sunshine
That is outside the cave we, mankind, sit
Staring at walls of shadows that define
What we grasp and still to dark we submit.
From my sight, I have turned into the light
To a truth that beckons me to true sight.
3/13/2013
2. The Frances Books (Bread and Jam/Best Friends for Frances) by Russell and Lillian Hoban: The writer's of the popular story Emmet Otter's Jug Band. The stories of a young badger and her love of jam defies all logic!
