As I mentioned, today starts Author Dianne Venetta’s Annual Authors in Bloom Blog Hop. It’s pretty simple and there’s lot to see and learn.
Spring has sprung (sorta) and being’s I’m a person with a disability, I wanted to share this great article I found about making gardening more accessible to people with limited mobility. This article and others like it, I’ve actually been researching more and more of late because I’m also working on my first story that features the main heroine who uses a wheelchair, like me but that’s where our stories quickly go separate ways. Let’s just say, it’s loosely based on me, and certain ideas have been embellished to protect the guilty (that would be me for sure) LOL.
I’m excited about the story but it touches on a lot of issues and for me, it’s been interesting (read: hard) to find a balance between romance and still doing my due diligence to educate the public and bring about awareness about the ABILITIES of people with disabilities. See where our focus should be on the latter part of that word. Still a hard sell just about every where I go.
I wanted to keep this blog short, lets face it, it’s all about the prizes (shh, see below). BUT I’m curious so I’m asking you to please, leave a comment about some of the issues YOU feel might be served well by depicting them (whatever those issues are) in a romance. Not only is romance entertaining, but they give people hope. That’s why I write them, to escape and to view life through a more hopeful lens. Tell me, by leaving a comment, what stories or types of characters should be depicted MORE in the romance industry.
My Gardening Tip:
If you just can’t garden much outdoors due to a myriad of reasons -mobility being one-, try container gardening. Smaller pots, many that you can keep in doors or on a small window sill are great and then, look for plants that do well in doors. Greenery in your life is an important thing that can make you happy and elevate your spirit in very subtle ways. There’s plenty of “hard to kill” plants out there that would love to live with you. Try it!
Check out these beautiful, Universally Designed Gardens on Pinterest and a couple of articles about how accessible gardening opportunities AND awareness is increasing especially throughout our world and making it more easier for people, especially those that are aging.
Gardens for Humanity
Gardening for All post
Gardening for All – photo on Flickr
Lastly, I’m not a huge cook, I don’t know why, I LOVE all kinds of cooking shows and seem to have Food Network, I love event planning so that explains most of the cooking stuff, what’s an event without pretty food involved and almost every Saturday I’m inside writing and watching my cooking shows. BUT, please check out my SUPER GOOD (and gooey) Chinese Noodle Cookies recipe that I wrote about earlier this year when I appeared on fellow Author Karen Doctor’s Blog, called Karen’s Killer Fixin’s. Enjoy.
All Right it’s PRIZE Time!
To enter and be eligible to win MY prize:
Just leave a comment about this post AND sign up for my newsletter. You can find the sign up link for my Constant Contact newsletter on my main page at www.Teegarner.com. Be sure to complete the information correctly so I can contact you if you’ve won.
Eligibility and Rules for entering to win Tracee’s giveaway – which, by the way, is a $ 10 gift card to spend at Amazon.com
- You can live just about anywhere, you’ll just want to make sure I can send you (via e-mail) the code for your PRIZE (via Amazon.com in the US), a $ 10 gift card.
- Be 18 years of age and older
- Sign up for my newsletter – see the link at www.Teegarner.com – upper right hand corner, little box
- Must leave a comment AND sign up for my author newsletter
To enter and be eligible to Win Dianne’s prize
The Grand Prize is a Kindle Fire OR Nook and a $ 25 Gift Card
Eligibility Rules for entering Dianne’s giveaway
- Leave a comment
- Visit each of the blog stops in the 10 day hop – you can see them ALL here:
- Only those that visit EACH and EVERY stop are eligible for the grand prize: the E-reader AND gift card.
- Your Eligibility will be verified at the end of the Blog Hop
- Don’t forget to leave your contact information / E-mail address in the comment section or we will have no way to contact you to let you know you’ve won
- Winners will be posted on both Dianne Venetta’s author page and the BloominThyme websites.
Book Photo Courtesy -Amazon.com from Author Janeen R. Adil – Accessible Gardening for People with Physical Disabilities, A Guide to Methods, Tools and Plants.
