My Own Backyard

Even home is a travel destination.

My April A to Z Blog Challenge Reveal

March 21, 2013
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Texas cowboy with a lasso (photo by Tui Snider)

My 2013 A to Z blog challenge theme Each April, bloggers from all over the world participate in the A to Z blog challenge. Many of them choose a theme to blog about, although it’s not mandatory. All you have to do is make a blog post for each letter of the alphabet in April.…

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Book Spine Poetry & a Birthday Surprise

March 11, 2013
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Book spine poetry (photo by Tui Snider)

What is Book Spine Poetry? Book spine poems are created by stacking books, then reading their titles as though each were a line of verse. This poetic form is known as a cento. What is a cento? According to Wikipedia: A cento is a poetical work wholly composed of verses or passages taken from other…

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ROW80 & WANACon Online Writing Conference

March 4, 2013
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Oak tree at sunset in Texas (photo by Tui Snider)

What’s WANACON you say? Perhaps you’re wondering: First ROW80, now WANACON; what’s with all the weird acronyms on this chick’s blog? What can I say? *shrug* I just keep bumping into interesting writing-related things that – like me – have quirky names! The latest one is WANACon, which is short for the WANA Worldwide Writing…

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2013 Oscar Watching Party at The Modern in Fort Worth, Texas

February 26, 2013
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DFW.com Oscar Party 2013 at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX (photo by Tui Snider)

Better than sitting at home Last Sunday, DFW.com, the Modern Art Museum and Lone Star Film Society hosted their 5th annual Oscar Watching Party at the Modern in Fort Worth, Texas. (While I missed last year’s event, I blogged about the 3rd annual shindig here.) Walk the Red Carpet While I’ve rarely sat through an…

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Row80 check-in: Keeping it Short & Sweet for Valentine’s Day

February 13, 2013
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Heart completed by a shadow (photo by Tui Snider)

What is ROW80? ROW80 is an online writer support group created by the author, Kait Nolan. ROW80 is kinda like AA, except that we’re here to enable each other’s creative addictions! I find ROW80 to be an excellent tool for making and keeping track of creative projects. Plus, I enjoy following other people’s progress through…

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True Spooks 2012: True Ghost Stories

October 30, 2012
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Cemetery angel (photo by Tui Snider)

    Welcome to the 2012 True Spooks blog carnival No matter what you believe, ghost stories can be a lot of fun. Each year, I host a Blog Carnival with true ghost stories as its theme. Last year’s was chock full of paranormal goodness, so if you’re still in the mood for more spooky…

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OctPoWriMo – 3 Road Trip Haiku

October 10, 2012
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Water Splatters (photo by Tui Snider)

What is OctPoWriMo? My pals, Morgan Dragonwillow & Julie Jordan Scot joined forces to create a month-long poetry mix and mingle called OctPoWriMo. Full details can be found here: OctPoWriMo. You can also follow the #OctPoWriMo hashtag on Twitter. Feel free to join in! I don’t consider myself much of a poet. I’m more of…

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Row80 check-in: Blog Hopping vs. Smoking Breaks

August 1, 2012
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Steampunk still life (photo by Tui Snider)

What is ROW80? ROW80 is an online writer support group. It’s kinda like AA, except that we’re here to enable each other’s addition! For a serious explanantion, check out: the official ROW80 website. My ROW80 Round 3 Goals: Post a ROW80 Check-in each Wednesday: Yup, I did! Two blog posts per week: Yes, I managed…

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ROW80 Check-in: Pleasure Reading & Handwritten Journals

July 25, 2012
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Greenman door knocker at Chandor Gardens in Weatherford, TX (photo by Tui Snider)

What is ROW80? ROW80 is kinda like an online weight loss support group for writers, except that rather than losing anything, we’re here to support each other in gaining more and more words. For a more coherent explanation check out the official ROW80 website. My ROW80 Round 3 Goals: Post a ROW80 Check-in each Wednesday:…

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It’s Wednesday, so it must be Row80

July 11, 2012
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I can haz longhorn? (photo by Tui Snider)

My ROW80 Check in If it were Thursday, I’d say that it must be Belgium, but since it’s Wednesday, all of us folks afflicted with writerly obsessions know that it is, in fact, time for a #ROW80 check-in! I got sick and missed my day job yesterday. As a result, my recollections of yesterday are…

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Row80: Focused, not Fuzzy for Round 3

July 5, 2012
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Interesting fortune cookie for a writer. (photo by Tui Snider)

ROW80 Round 2: Fun, but Fuzzy As some of you may recall, I ended round 2 of ROW80 realizing that I need clarity. Don’t get me wrong, round 2 was inspiring, but that inspiration sent my creative self spinning off into many different directions. My creativity got fuzzy and frayed. I ended ROW80 Round 2…

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Top Tips for Chatting on Twitter

June 12, 2012
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Antique doll for sale in Decatur, TX (photo by Tui Snider)

Chatting on Twitter = Fun! Even though I’ve been on Twitter since 2008 – a fact I double-checked by going to TW Birthday – it wasn’t until the fall of 2011 that I began participating in Twitter chats. Up until then, I was really resistant to the idea of using Twitter for chat. I don’t…

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Texas Graveyards: Smoke Rise Farm Pet Cemetery in Azle

June 11, 2012
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Smoke Rise Farm Pet Cemetery in Azle, Texas (photo by Tui Snider)

Texas is full of historic graveyards and I love exploring them. I rarely visit modern cemeteries, unless there is someone famous buried there or a particularly unique headstone to check out. For the most part, newer graveyards lack the history, the beautiful old trees, and the finely crafted headstones and monuments of the older ones.…

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Meet the Beetle & My Row80 Check In

June 1, 2012
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Accidental art at the boat shop (photo by Tui Snider)

Meet the Beetle A couple days ago, a large beetle wandered into the boat shop where I work here in Texas. One of the mechanics caught it and – knowing that I’m enamored with critters – brought it into the office. A little Googling later, we determined it to be a type of rhinocerous beetle…

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DFWCON: DFW Writers Conference in Hurst, Texas

May 23, 2012
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DFWCON (Dallas Fort Worth Writers Conference) at the Hurst Conference Center in Texas (photo by Tui Snider)

DFWCON I recently attended my first-ever writers conference, the Dallas – Fort Worth Writers Conference, a.k.a. DFWCON in Hurst, Texas. I had such a great time! As you can see, I snapped a few photos with my iPhone, which I then posted on Twitter, Facebook & Instagr.am, because that’s the way I roll. I stayed…

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Row80 & a Ren Fair Redux

May 7, 2012
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Screech owl at the Scarborough Renaissance Fair (photo by Tui Snider)

Ren Fair Redux As I mentioned in My Big Fat Ren Fair Wedding I got married last year at a Renaissance festival down in Waxahachie, Texas. This made planning this year’s anniversary celebration pretty easy; the festival gives us a built-in party to attend each year. I also thawed out the top of our wedding…

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ROW80 – Messy as Hell, but Beautiful, too

April 27, 2012
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X marks the spot at the boat shop (photo by Tui Snider)

My Rambling Row80 Check-in: A Familiar Squeeze Lately, it seems like all I do is scramble from work, to home, to bed, to work, to home, to bed, to work, to home, to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat – that’s it. Meanwhile, I’m trying to squeeze my own creative life into any spare cracks I can…

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UBP12 & My Big, Fat Ren Fair Wedding in Waxahachie, Texas

April 19, 2012
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Scarborough Renaissance Festival wedding in Waxahachie, Texas

My UBP12 Party Post I just found out about the Ultimate Blot Party 2012 (a.k.a. UBP12) and it’s nearly over! Even so, I thought I’d make a party post and join in. Better late than never, right? For my UBP12 party post, I figure I’d share a few photos from my wedding last year. Here…

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ROW80 – Captain Obvious & My Sleepy Inner Critic

April 18, 2012
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Sometimes ya gotta point out the obvious. (photo by Tui Snider)

Getting up at 4 a.m. to write comes with an unexpected benefit: In my groggy-yet-focused writing state, I simply don't have the energy to criticize my words. That's right, folks, my dreaded Inner Critic likes to sleep in!

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Circular Contrail near Fort Worth, Texas

April 12, 2012
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Circular contrail near Fort Worth, Texas (photo by Tui Snider)

It looked like someone was playing celestial tic-tac-toe last week here in north Texas. The first lines I saw in the sky on the morning of April 6, 2012 were some really big X’s. That was around 9:00 a.m. I meant to take a photo of them, but got distracted. (I was at work, so…

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