Colors Like Memories by Meradeth Houston

Please put your hands together for Meradeth Houston author of Colors Like Memories, a YA Paranormal released from MuseItUp Publishing on May 11th.

Meradeth is having a giveaway for her blog tour. Anyone who comments on this or any other post from her tour will be entered into a drawing. Two lucky winners will receive a copy of Colors Like Memories and one winner will get a $25 gift card for Amazon or Barnes and Noble (full details on Meradeth's blog).

A bit about the Colors Like Memories:

Julia has a secret: she killed the guy she loved. It was an accident—sort of. 

Julia is a Sary, the soul of a child who died before taking her first breath. Without this 'breath of life' she and others like her must help those on the verge of suicide. It's a job Julia used to enjoy, until the accident that claimed her boyfriend’s life—an accident she knows was her fault. If living with the guilt weren't enough, she's now assigned to help a girl dealing with the loss of her mother, something Julia's not exactly the best role model for. If she can't figure out a way to help her, Julia's going to lose her position in the Sary, something she swore to her boyfriend would never happen.

Meradeth (being the good sport she is) agreed to take on the challenge of creating some original work based on the infamous magnetic poetry that graces my refrigerator. She said she channeled this ditty from her main character, Julia:

Some say, cliché,

It is better to loved, & lost,

Than to have never loved at all.

                                  

But to imagine life,

With-out light,

Heart, or warmth,

Makes this dream,

A night(mare).

Sleep,

Sweet essential release,

Would be a tremendous grace,

If this time

Is a dream.

Don't be jealous of her poetic prowess. She admits to having some experience in this area, "My roommates and I used to have several sets on our fridge in college and we were always playing with them, though there were times when we’d have to rush and take them all down before a boyfriend could enter the kitchen—they weren’t always, er, polite..."

She also offered this magnetic line from the writerly part of herself:

My manuscript is not a dictionary, or a dream, but a vacation from the present.

Meradeth’s never been a big fan of talking about herself, but if you really want to know, here are some random tidbits about her:

~She’s a Northern California girl. This generally means she talks too fast and use "like" a lot.

~When she’s not writing, she’s sequencing dead people’s DNA. For fun!

~She’s been writing since she was 11 years old. It's her hobby, her passion, and she’s so happy to get to share her work!

~If she could have a super-power, it would totally be flying. Which is a little strange, because she’s terrified of heights.

http://www.meradethhouston.com/

meradethhouston.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/#!/MeradethHouston

www.goodreads.com/book/show/13030422-colors-like-memories

http://www.facebook.com/ColorsLikeMemories

http://pinterest.com/merbear95695/

Thanks for stopping by the Observation Desk, Meradeth!

Magnificent Magnetic Poetry

The poetry has been building up on my fridge. And the poets have really outdone themselves with this round of magnetic verse. Here's the latest musings:

• squirrel breeze                                 
        dream freeze                      
                 conscious can                 
                         gray man  (nice rhyming scheme and use of spacing here...I have no idea what it all means, but I sometimes wonder if that's not the hallmark of good poetry...me not understanding it!)

• the devil relax ed with a cold drink after a long night of trick er y  (I wonder what the devil's drink of choice is...wouldn't it be funny if it was an appletini?)
• explore a prostitute s body with random electric fruit s  (yikes!)
• howl that beautiful morning torso noise  (this person must have had beans the night before)
• dream s create inspiration between cold shadow s and silent thought s  (I wish my dreams did this...mostly they leave me feeling a bit puzzled)
• live for more than a memory  (very deep, very wise)
• spark muse speak music green woman green woman  (the use of repetition here indicates the author has a great understanding of literary techniques...or an unhealthy obsession with the Green Giant's girlfriend!)
• imagine a friend and she will come a live  (kind of cool, but also kind of scary)
• emotion s bleed the heart     wrench the mind    expose our soul     and leave us naked  (my favorite of the bunch, no explanation needed!)

The Hubby came up with the idea of hiding some of the overused words. "Prostitute," "Pickle," "Explore," "Naked," "Skeleton" come to mind (and pretty much anything else that can be manipulated into a dirty phrase). Although as we can see from the above lines, those words still offer thought-provoking options. "Prostitute" still should go...not much you can do with that word that isn't dirty!

"Sometimes your words just hypnotize me"*

The magnetic poetry writers were at it again. Some of the old favorites showed up (I'm looking at you "pleasure puppet"), but this was some of the best poetry ever to be displayed on my refrigerator.

• walk like a skeleton look like a gentle little girl (possibly good advice for a skeleton, but sounds a little threatening to little girls)
  


• squirrel play spark s emotion (as long as the squirrels aren't eating anything out of my veggie garden, their play is okay with me)
  


• please expose the fruit (that's what she said!)
  


• explore you r mind and dream sweet vision s as you drown in the puddle of my soul (I'd say that's one deep soul we're talking about here, but I've heard a person can drown in less than an inch of water, so maybe this soul isn't so deep after all)
  


• he ly no or (I'm not sure these magnets were put together with any specific purpose in mind, but any form of expression--intentional or not--gets included...for better or for worse)
  


• feel that hard monkey s pleasure puppet give tremendous naked sex (the monkey and the pleasure puppet are always up to no good)
  


• essential bosom compel always (the question here is what does the essential bosom compel one to do)
  


• make another memory to warm the cold night s of no moon and dark shadow s (nothing like anticipating the need to stave off a depressing night)
  


• dead experience (quite the intriguing oxymoron)
  


• take only truth make only love (I think I saved the best for last)

Once again, thanks to everyone who chose to expose the fruit of their creativity on my refrigerator. Your musing never fail to entertain me.

*Notorious B.I.G.

"You better listen to your mama"*

The ladies and I had a lovely brunch yesterday to celebrate Mother's Day. The weather was gorgeous and several of us kept the festivities going when we walked around the green and checked out a craft fair.

With my status as mother-to-be I got my first ever Mother's Day presents in the form of cards, flowers, and delicious homemade banana bread (thanks goes out to The Boy...yup, it's a boy!). The hubby decorated the refrigerator with ultrasound pictures of the little guy, but that wasn't the only thing that ended up on the refrigerator.

That's right! As with all the gatherings at my house, the guests were encouraged to express themselves with poetry. There was a whole new crop of words that had been added to the magnetic poetry kit since the last installment and the phrases were flowing. Here's what the guests had to say:

• spring morning garden leave s little want ing (there's nothing I can really add to this beautiful sentiment...but notice I still added something by pointing that out)


• imagine sweet dream s (if only it were as simply as imagining them and they came true)


• a spark ly puddle is an inspiration for play time (probably true for most children, not so much for most adults)


• easy trick bake good rain love (ummm...that's what she said? maybe not, but I couldn't go without saying it)


• always taste summer and fear not to drink the gentle breeze (I think the awesome weather really inspired the guests to new levels of poetic beauty)


• do squirrel s experience emotion (it's a burning question that I know so many of us have been wondering and I'm glad someone finally asked it)

As always, thanks to those who contributed. What kind of poetic inspiration have you been experiencing lately?

*Jason Mraz

"You've finally got something to say"*

The infamous magnetic poetry kit has been quiet of late (maybe because the winter has caused me to be something of a recluse and I haven't invited anyone over lately). I'm hoping a new crop of words (a gift from my cousin) will spark the creativity of any future guests.

In the meantime, here's a few lines of magnetic poetry that have been hanging out on my refrigerator:

• beneath a translucent desire is fear genius & beauty (umm...I think I need more time to think about this one...it's very deep)
  
  
• black monkey chicken naked in the night (you always have to look out for the black monkey chicken...especially when it's naked)

• whisper bosom talk s sweet idea s of mind & shadow (and you should talk back to the whisper bosom with your trumpet bottom)

• take me (like all good poetry this is short and to the point, but at the same time it has multiple layers...and it's also what she said!)

• spring is like the sweet flower that time leave s behind (a little too cliched for me, but I can appreciate the sentiment)

Thanks to all who contributed. And if you're ever at my house, please take a few minutes to create your own piece of poetry.

*Toad the Wet Sprocket

"Choppy words in a sloppy flow"*

We had a little cookout and backyard fire over Labor Day weekend. My refrigerator is now kind of famous at these little shindigs because of the magnetic poetry kit.

(So this picture isn't really from my backyard (you think!). That's way more fires and way more people than would fit on my .2 acres. It's from a recent trip to the WaterFire Providence.)

The party-goers were in rare form, and there was one line of poetry I'm not going to include in full...just to give you an idea of its flavor, the poet put the tiles "an" and "al" together and it also contained the tiles "long," "green," "pickle," and "spurt" (somehow it always turn dirty...that's what she said!).

• i am an old bald devil dog who has a free soul and love s to eat (nice to see the old bald devil dog is enjoying life)


• speak wrong mind but think from heart (ahhh...very wise, grasshopper)


• pour some wine and soon you must table dance as hot as a random spider genius (the "a" tile is actually "at" with the t covered...I have such clever--and demented/drunk--guests)


• if i vacuum a precious monkey chicken it will release a black bosom tremendous ly naked (well, you better not vacuum the precious monkey chicken then)


• sweet night whisper e d her light poet r y to my howl ing brain (I hope the night's poetry was better than the magnetic poetry...really, I kid because I do love it when people make poetry on my refrigerator)

Thanks to all who created a little fun on the fridge!

*Linkin Park

"Yes we're going to a party party"*

The party-goers have been at it once again! They were at my house celebrating a certain occasion (I'll never tell what, but there are some not-so-subtle clues in this post and the actual date of the cause of celebration is July 12th) when they decided to have some fun with the magnetic poetry kit.

Here's what the fearless poets came up with this time:

• manipulate explore and burn (possible instructions for covering up crime?...maybe my brain went there because The Godfather is on)
• puppet confess rhythm howl work too girl pour a s (my little nephew, who turned four earlier this month, came up with this one...it has a certain rhythm to it all right)
• silent voice time (we could all use a little of this)
• prostitute s love to create pleasure for naked obedient expose d chicken monkey s (it wouldn't be magnetic poetry without the good ol' prostitute and her crazy exploits with the exposed chicken monkey)
• investigate who vacuum es up beauty (grammar issues aside--it seems all the S's were already being used--i suspect this somehow involves the crimes committed by the first poet)
• suck sex (c'mon, you know what comes next...say it with me, "That's what she said!")
• why dance funny like the strange spider with the precious old pickle (why, indeed)
• imagine every dream be ing sweet (my personal favorite, probably because my dreams tend to be anything but sweet)

Thanks to all who participated in writing this wonderful poetry. I always enjoy sharing your creative creations.

*The Beatles

"Express Yourself"*

The party-goers have been expressing their creativity again with the magnetic poetry kit. This is how my guests showed their joy at celebrating my mom's birthday (as always imaginative use of tiles has been preserved as much as possible).

• imagine beauty which always sucks (the last "s" in sucks was actually part of the word "is," but this clever--and possibly depressed--person covered the "i" with the word "suck")
• my perfect genius monkey boy will make me drown in his sweet brain music (yeah, well my perfect genius monkey boy will kick your perfect genius monkey boy's butt...ha!)
• never investigate our skeleton in the attic (what, you keep yours in the closet?)
• spur cold tree old do nut this but we did an obedient whisper (doesn't make much sense, but good use of internal rhyme)
• they expose d my precious bald dictionary to release another inspiration spurt (it's just all too shocking!)
• give him the sex y ache ing ghost bosom (maybe this guy should hook up with the skeleton in the attic)
• use manacle s for transgress ion s by a mean electric spider puppet (that's sound advice if I've ever hear any)
• ity see lime free off as out right est er un & ness & and i work and mouth black do so ly at at (I think my four-year-old niece put this one up...at least I hope it wasn't written by someone who actually knows how to read all those words)
• a girl has the voice too break every man (too ;) true)
• must explore pleasure curse (I'll get on that right away)
• bleed translucent famous dog bone love (hopefully not all over my kitchen floor)
• drink down tremendous dead desire spark s then come holy silent night (I've heard that is the original title to "Silent Night" but over time the beginning got cut off)
• devil wine manipulate vision (oh, so that's why I was seeing double the whole night)
• her shadow soul howl e d as it was compel ed to pour from he r body like a naked chicken rhythm dance ing (I don't know about you, but my soul always howls when it pours from my body like a naked chicken rhythm dancing)
• experience elaborate prostitute between vacuum (the elaborate prostitute rears her ugly head again)
• e y r l fire of she I are why yes (maybe another one from my niece, but profound in its own way)

It was a record number of sayings on the refrigerator! Thanks to all participants. Feel free to take credit for your work in the comment section.

*Charles Wright

"It's all about the wordplay"*

Girls' Christmas (my "sisters" and I get together every year for a girls-and-kids-only Christmas party) was relocated to my house at the last minute, so I requested that my guests create a sentence with the magnetic poetry kit on my refrigerator. Here's what we came up with (as usual, I put a space in between each magnet to show the creative combinations):

• love people like they a r e obedient prostitute s (I would think any obedient prostitute is easy to love, so this could be a new logo for world peace or something!)
• experience perfect pleasure through bald chicken rhythm dance ing (I'd like to see bald chicken rhythm dancing...or on second thought, maybe I wouldn't.)
• spark random inspiration speak every thought investigate precious emotion (lather, rinse, repeat)
• electric transgress ion s will burn holy fire (That's what she said!)
• the devil s skeleton is suck ing seed y sweet & sour soup (Nice alliteration...who knew the devil's skeleton liked Chinese food?)

In other word news, my sister, niece, and nephews are trying to get the word "poink" into mainstream vocabulary. This started when my three-year-0ld nephew told my sister he didn't want to sit in one of the dining-room chairs because it had a "pionk." My sister asked, "What's a poink?" So he showed her a broken chair rung that was sticking into his back. They now use the word regularly.

Poink has actually turned out to be very versatile. It can be a noun, as in the original sense: That needle has a sharp poink. It can be a verb, literally: Ouch! That needle just poinked me. It can be a verb, figuratively: Oh, you just got poinked. It can be an adjective: That needle is very poinky.

I checked out the urban dictionary and found some interesting definitions for poink and poinky. I recommend everyone tries to use poink in a sentence today.

*Jason Mraz (Yup, I'm kind of obsessed with his music lately!)

"Put all your so-called problems, better put them in quotations"*

My friends like to share their own unique brand of problems by writing them on my refrigerator. You may remember the last time I shared their magnetic poetry. I have to say, I found their thoughts a bit disturbing.

I'm glad my friends consider my home (or at least my fridge) as safe place for expressing themselves. Here's the latest entries:

• This old dog said you like vacuum prostitutes. (Do I want to know what else you like? Probably not!)
• Suck my obedient bosom fire. (That's what she said!)
• Sour pickle mouth takes head. (Ummm...no comment)
• Always imagine pleasure and beauty fighting devil spurts. (My personal favorite because it really makes you think.)

Last post I discussed some very small (in the literal sense) things that might actually turn out to be very big (metaphorically). Next post I'll take a look at something very big indeed!

*John Mayer

"Talk Dirty to Me"*

The magnetic poetry kit was a big hit at the party I hosted this weekend. Apparently the lack of punctuation didn't bother my intoxicated friends. Alas there was no "pleasure pickle," but both words did make an appearance. Just a quick disclaimer: These quotes get a bit graphic, so anyone with a sensitive stomach--or with any sensibilities at all--may want to refrain from reading further! I kept the space between magnets even when they made one word because some of the combinations are particularly creative.

If you are brave enough to persevere:

"bleed that perfect thought puppet" (ummm...eww, I think?)

"manipulate a precious chicken beneath old skeleton" (double eww)

"sweet steam y fire y sex" (sounds good to me--as long as it's in the figurative sense)

"dance with green angel" (oddly sweet, although it did kind of remind of me Slimer from Ghostbusters)

"my love life is curse d" (so sad, but given the other phrases not terribly surprising)

"obedient famous people suck money" (what about those disobedient famous people?)

"play & drink but never sleep" (an apt description of my party!)

"imagine me between random girl s spurt ing" (hopefully the random girls are of age)

"I desire a hot naked good bald woman to come on" (who doesn't?)

"she always eat s my pleasure monkey then howl s" (that's just like her, isn't it?)

"expose tremendous bosom & ache ing pickle" (oh, if only I had a tremendous bosom)

"explore another man bone in he r mouth" (really, no thanks...I'm all set)

I did leave out one that used the word "prostitute" because I felt it might be too offensive (I know, it must've been pretty bad given what I did include!). Oh, and I swear I didn't make any of these up myself...this is really what is on my refrigerator right now. I'll have to remember to rearrange the magnets before my nine-year-old nephew comes over!

*Poison