Monday, June 21, 2010

For the love of trees and my fellow bloggers


You can stare up into a monkey-puzzle tree forever and never figure out where all the limbs go. It's a lattice-work of complexity and grandeur.
I'm going to get back to trees in this post because there is a tree-licious event coming, but first I want to shout-out a huge thank you to Lydia Kang at The Word is My Oyster, who helped me sort out a puzzle of a different stripe.
Lydia is a writer and a physician who offers the unique Medical Mondays, in which she helps you diagnose your characters' maladies. No free med advice for you, please--just your stories.
Today, she brought out the virtual IV and ultrasound and tackled my questions about broken ribs. Have you ever heard of flail chest? Yikes. There's a term to set your imagination running. I'm so grateful for the informative and useful post.
In former Medical Mondays posts, Lydia has filled us in on memory loss, blood types, heart problems, phantom pain and more. Oh, and an added tree-connection bonus--Lydia posted on the properties of willow bark! Do yourself a favor and go get a checkup.
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The Festival of Trees is coming! Well, it does come every month, but this time our blogging buddy Yvonne Osborne is hosting. All you do is notify her that you have posted some arboreal love by June 28. So from today you have a week to put up your post and send your link to Yvonne. The links of all participants are posted July 1 so readers can blog-hop through a carnival of trees. It may be a photo of a favorite tree, a short story, a poem or an artwork. I'm in. Hope you are, too.
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A big thank you to Julie Dao who gave me the Pertinent Posts Award, saying what she looks for in blogs are ones with strong voice. I kinda needed that boost, so woo-hoo!
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I've decided to pass that award on the two bloggers above who are so wonderfully pertinent to me right now: Lydia Kang and Yvonne Osborne.
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Julie also passed along the Fantasy & Sci-fi award from Aubrie at Flutey Words. I had to snag that since that's my world!

28 comments:

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Those are two very cool awards, Tricia! Congratulations!

And I LOVE the tree picture. :-)

Yvonne Osborne said...

Yea! A shout-out for trees! And I LOVE your monkey tree. Tricia, you never disappoint, and nobody posts more pertinent info. day in, day out than you. Congratulations on your awards and thank you for passing the one to little ol' me. And just when I was feeling all punky too. I'll check out Lydia Kang's blog though I'll probably develop the first symptoms I read, cause I'm wierd like that....
Thanks again for the mention and the award. You rock! I can't wait to put all the links together for the Festival. I want it to be the best ever!

sarahjayne smythe said...

Congrats on the awards and thanks for the link and the gorgeous picture. I'll have to go check out that blog. :)

Julie Dao said...

I LOVE that tree. What great inspiration for a story! There's so much mystery and puzzlement within it. It's hypnotizing :)

Nicole said...

Yay for awards! So much fun and I too am a big fan of Lydia's site - always something new to read *grin*

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Thanks, Shannon!

Yvonne: I'm so glad I figured out I wasn't supposed to wait until the first to post! I'm going to put mine up in a couple of days. Yay, tree festival!

Thanks, Sarahjayne. I think you'll love Lydia's blog.

Julie: Isn't it mesmerizing? I stood under it the longest time. It does have all kinds of story potential.

Hi Nicole! Thanks for stopping in and, yes, Lydia comes up with lots of pertinent and intriguing posts.:)

Stephanie Thornton said...

Congrats on your awards, Tricia- you have an amazing blog!

And that tree picture is stupendous!

Stina said...

I love you for asking that medical question. It was along the same lines as what I needed to know. :D

Anonymous said...

I'll have to check out the medical blog. Sounds fascinating!!

And thanks for telling me about the blogging tree event. I might have a photo or a story to share

VR Barkowski said...

Congrats, Trisha. Well deserved!

And what a beautiful photograph. I'm a treeaholic, so I'm off to visit Yvonne's blog. Thank you for the fabulous links.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Ah, shucks, Thank You, Stephanie!

Stina: Yay, for the two-in-one! Lydia's answer was awesome.

Paul: I think you'll be pleased to visit both blogs. Really, if you have medical situations in your stories, Lydia is wonderful in answering questions. And I hope you join the tree fest--that would be great!

VR: Oh, I hope you do a tree post, too! I'd love to have a lot of us linked.

Catherine Denton said...

How cool that Lydia helps writers with medical "advice" for novels. What a creative, but needed idea. And that tree is entrancing.

Liza said...

Great awards and thank you for the link to Lydia. That could be very helful and I'm heading on over.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Catherine: Lydia is made of cool. And thanks for being entranced. ;)

Liza: She is mega-helpful. I'm glad you're paying her a visit.

Corey Schwartz said...

Oh, congrats on the awards And great photo!

Talli Roland said...

I love the name of this tree - how cool!

Congrats on the awards and to those who received them!

storyqueen said...

I would read a book called The Monkey Puzzle Tree. (I wouldn't even care what it was about!)

Great picture.

Shelley

Jackee said...

Your awards are very well deserved, Pat, congrats!

And I love that picture. Though I admit it made me cry a little, as it made me think of all my lovely local haunts burning up here in Flagstaff. Old, tall trees like this one nothing but charred remains now. :o(

Thanks for sharing the link about the Festival. I'm off to check it out!

Phoenix said...

Congratulations on your well-deserved awards! And I miss my tree-climbing days as a precocious little kid who somehow defied gravity... do you think it's okay that when I own my own house I want to have a tree-house in the back? :)

Sherrie Petersen said...

That photo is awesome! And congrats on the awards :)

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Thanks, Corey!

Talli: I was fascinated by the name and had to look it up. I've been meaning to post more about it, so perhaps I will in my Tree Festival post.

Shelley: You're right! It would be an awesome title.

Jackee: I'm so bummed about your forests. It always breaks my heart. Maybe you could post in the festival about that?

Phoenix: You absolutely MUST have a treehouse. Wouldn't it be perfect to have a writing room that was a treehouse???

Sherrie: Isn't it a grand tree? Thank you. :)

Suzanne Casamento said...

I love that photo!

You and Yvonne are inspiring me to hug a tree. Well, maybe in poetic form.

Congratulations on your awards!

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Oh, Suzanne, I hope you put up a poem on trees and send Yvonne the link. I think it's going to be inspiring.

Unknown said...

Awesome tree! Going over to check out Yvonne's page now. Thanks for the info and nice to meet you!

Lydia Kang said...

That tree pict is cool!

Thanks for the kind words about my blog! And congrats on your lovely awards!

Robyn Campbell said...

Awesome pic. Hmmm, yep, I feel a picture book story coming on with that tree as the MC.

Congrats on the awards. You definitely deserve them, Pat. You have been my ROCK, girl. Thanks for everything. I love you and think you are one of the MOST Awesome bloggers anywhere. You, Davin, and Shannon O'Donnell. My picks to win Bloggers of the Year. Y'all are made of awesome.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

Ariel: Welcome. It's a pleasure to meet you, too. Hope you join in the tree fest!

Lydia: Glad you like and thank you!!!

Robyn: I'm so glad you're back, my friend. Guess what? I'm working two short flash fics for the tree fest and one is about that tree. :D
And, oh, my, I'm speechless with such praise. Thank you.

Suzi Smith said...

well tricia... these are great posts for the festival of trees, i've thoroughly enjoyed them. So pleased to find your blog too! May I 'borrow' some of your haiku to write out calligraphically sometime?