The Sunday Roast

You'll be thoroughly Dazed When this lady Breezes in

(Hmm! One of The Kids from Twilight, eh! and with Edward too!)

This week's interview is with Carolyn Parsons (aka Breeze)
who writes the blog Breeze Daze.

Carolyn recently published her first poetry book,
Wind Rhymes; Poetry from the Breeze.

This is her first publication though she is working
on a novel that will be published in 2010.

Thank Carolyn for appearing on the show and
I extend a warm welcome to you and to your followers.

Thank you Eddie for giving me the opportunity to be roasted by you!
I'm flattered you asked me and honoured to say yes! I wonder if
I'm the first veggie you've roasted?

(Yes, the first veggie I have roasted, but not sure about David)

Eddie, I'm having so much fun with this roast . . . .
I'm getting a little crispy but that happens to roasted peppers . . LOL

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Now folks I am adding a new feature to the Sunday Roast - one I hope you'll like.
I'm conducting an extended interview with some brand new questions
tacked onto the end of the existing questions.

Roast victims can select all, some or even none of these extra questions but if they answer them all they get to ask me one just question on anything they like, to put me on the spot.
What am I letting myself in for I wonder?

Carolyn is particularly brave since she has elected to answer ALL my questions so I know I am in for a rough time, and boy what a question she asks me later on!!!

Here's the first of the standard questions. Why do you blog?

I started blogging when I decided to try to rejuvenate, restart a writing career that stalled over 20 years ago when I decided to go into the business world instead of following the dream of my heart to become a writer. I set up my first blog to practice my writing, which was entirely rusty and as a place of positivity and hope and inspiration for others who feel the undeniable need to follow their dreams. I have since started 3 other blogs that have varying purposes. Weighless and Weightless, Other Than Mother and The Stratford Poetry Society are all different manifestations of my attempts to follow the callings and purposes of my heart. My main focus though is BreezeDaze. Lately I've been posting mostly poetry and excerpts from my novel which is in second draft right now and will hopefully be published in 2010. I have a poetry book called Wind Rhymes due to be published very shortly and all of the poetry is from the BreezeDaze blog! Since putting it on paper I have nearly enough new poetry for a second poetry book!

What's the story behind your blog name?

The name was kind of a lucky accident. One of those strange coincidences that sort of show up right when you need it to. My 15 year old daughter has always called me Ocean Breeze and I've called her sunshine. My then 5 year old daughter, Sophia decided we should all have "Nature names" So Alyssa became Storm, Christina remained Sunshine, Sophia is Lady Bug and Martina is Rose Petal. She decided Daddy should be Ocean and me just plain Breeze. When I was setting up the blog I was looking for a name for it that sort of gave an impression of nature and inspiration and the security words for the blog that came up were "Breeze Daze" and I popped it in impulsively without a second thought. I see it as a gift, it works perfectly and I was pleasantly surprised when people started addressing me as "Breeze" on the blog! How ideal!

What is the best thing about being a blogger?

The friendships. It's amazing the wonderful people who fall into your little space on the blog. I read blogs daily and feel sort of a strange intimacy with the people that you don't get even in real life. I've got a strange mix of people that I read and I've learned so much about other people's challenges and triumphs! Also it's very giving. When I have a triumph everybody celebrates as though it were their own. It has spilled over into my own life because it's very important to walk the walk. I volunteered as a television news reporter for our local Cable news Stratford First Local (I've been recognised a few times even!), I have a poetry book due out soon, I've got a poem being published in a Michael Jackson Memorial Anthology that I submitted due to a blogger's suggestion, I've got other poetry coming out, two in anthologies and a third in a Canadian Poetry Journal! Exciting things have happened and it's all been directly related to blogging and my desire to make what I write true. How can I tell others to get out there and follow their dreams, make things happen if I'm not out there doing the same! My life has altered completely since the time I started this blog at the end of January, 2009! Now that I've just put it in writing I see the miracle in it all! I highly recommend everybody start blogging!

What key advice would you give to a newbie blogger?

To write about what you love. To put your dreams and your reality into it. To use it and allow it to serve you. Don't be concerned about the writing and the readers, they'll love you and come back if you are honest and real. And let it evolve. Let it become what it was meant to be. Don't compare it to others, your blog can only be your blog, not anyone else's. Many people told me I needed to take photos, that a blog wouldn't work without photos but I'm not a photographer, I'm a writer. I have 4 children and don't get outside much to leisurely photograph things I write about. So I skipped it. I snaffoo some off the internet occasionally but usually my poems are my pictures with words. I am a descriptive writer and it works for me. Be yourself and it'll work!

What is the most significant blog post you've ever read?

That is a difficult one but my friend Debbie writes the most heartfelt, significant posts you can imagine. She wrote this one recently that was so honest and true and left me with such admiration for the way she's raising her family, on her own, managing to practice forgiveness for those who have hurt her in life and putting her children's happiness above her own at every turn. Any post like that leaves me in awe and wonder at the beauty of humanity! It reaffirms my own personal opinion that humanity is full of good though the news media would have us believe otherwise.

What is the most significant blog post you've ever written?

I think I got the most feedback from this post that I wrote early on. I had people say that it inspired them to change the way they approached their life and change their whole attitudes. It also helped me reaffirm my own beliefs and attitudes about life. That life isn't about what happens but what you do with what happens. Stuff happens, bad and good. If you deal well and optimistically with the bad and humbly and gratefully with the good then you've got it pretty much figured out.

If you were to suggest two blogs for roasting who would you pick, and why?

Can I pick three? I would pick Debbie at Single Mom in a Complicated World because she's amazing and strong and wise, Lisa at Transcripts of a Significant Life for pretty much the same reason and Chuck at Half Moons and Maiden Names because everybody should read this blog from a very talented writer. He posts beautiful excerpts from his newest book on there, brilliant and poetic.

That concludes the formal aspect of the interview, Carolyn, but it would be nice to get to know you a little better while you are turning slowly on the roasting spit. So while you are screaming in agony above the open fire here are a few more questions for you.

Pick three things you can't live without (no you cannot have ice cubes to cool you down while I roast you!)

1. My hubby, of course I mean in the purest, most spiritual and emotional sense, so haul your minds out of the gutter folks (and btw he always lets me have ice cubes if I want! - you meanie, Eddie!)

2. Writing . . . . it's my life and how I spend every free moment, and

3. Reading

What, only three? Where do I list red wine, chocolate, and cat herding?

Don't be greedy - I said three and you have given me six!

If we were to make a movie about blogland, what would it be and who would you cast in the leading roles?

I'd call it "Blog with the Wind" and it would star the dashing and ever so exciting George Clooney as Eddie Bluelights with Sandra Bullock as Sassy Scribbles, the demure but feisty heroine. I'd probably get Cathy Bates to play me, the quirky but lovable mother figure.

OK mummy! (LOL) I know this movie! It was directed is Cecil B de Thrill. Eddie and Sassy have just had a huge row because, as well as burying two husbands, Sassy spends most of the movie chasing that drip Ashley Wilkes, thus cruelly rejecting all Eddie's advances. Eddie is about to storm out of her life for ever when she goes Scarlet and realises it is Eddie she loves after all. She pleads with him, begging him to stay, crying, "Fiddle-dee-dee, Eddie, how can I live without you, Eddie?" As he walks out of their large mansion front door he snarls at her saying, "Frankly dear, I don't give a damn!" She stamps her feet in a tantrum and decides to go back to Blogger just as the music cuts in with "Blogger's Theme". She is determined to get Eddie back, and makes her epic soliloquy performance, "Blogger, blogger, yes, Fiddle-dee-dee, I must go back to blogger - I always get my strength from blogger - yes I will go now and I will make sure I will never ever be hungry again! . . . . because after all, . . . . . . tomorrow is another day!"

Oh shut up, Eddie . . . . . you do go on . . . . . let me continue!
There is a disaster. Blogger goes down and Sassy and Eddie search facebook frantically, trying to find each other - searching over and over. They look everywhere with the help of me and the other bloggers, who love a good romance. Of course there is a happy ending when blogger comes back up, Eddie clicks the next blog and he knows everything is now alright again. Romantic music commences as he sees a post with a hand written title, neatly scribbled, 'Oh! Fiddle-dee-dee, Eddie!', and he knows he has found his true love again because he sees a photo and . . . . . . . . . . . it's Sassy!

Now that sounds a great ending to a romance story and I like your choice of heroine - did Sassy put you up to this? - Next question!

If you were an ice cream cone, which flavour would you prefer and who would you most want to lick you?

I'd be caramel and chocolate with pralines . . . . and some nuts . . . who would lick me? That guy who plays the teacher on Glee! Or either of the hotties of the Twilight movies . . . I'm down with the vampires and the wolves though I think I have to wait until the wolf boy turns 18 before I give him any, um, icecream!

I can almost hear him howling! Or is that Laughing wolf waiting to be roasted? Yes, folks, his turn will come soon when he gets round to writing it - hurry up, man!! - Next question

Describe in one sentence your perfect day.

My perfect day would be me with my healthy and happy family, outside, in the sunshine with me writing on a brand new laptop, hubby playing with the kids as I read blogs as I finish my first novel!

Ah! That's nice. I hope your perfect day comes soon.

If you were a fictional writer which one would you be and why?

I'd be Stephen King . . . because he's brilliant and I need cash! I would likely be afraid to sleep at night though, I'd scare the hell out of myself!

Then write it at night, woman, and get on with it! - and don't forget to cut me in on the royalties!

And finally I invite you to ask me one question - it's the least I can do after all this. OK fire away! I wonder what it will be - hope it's an easy one!

My question for you, Eddie, is: boxers, briefs or commando?

What kind of 'pants' question is that? The Y-ffrontery of it indeed! Oh! I suppose you want me to give you a short answer to this, don't you? You should have de-briefed me first about this before putting me on the spot and catching me with my trousers down!

OK - my answer is I wear what all ex ambulancemen wear! Oh dear we have run out of time! Hear come the commercials! Saved by the bell!

Thank you Carolyn - this has been great fun
and thanks for being such a good sport.

I was amazed how quickly Carolyn sent me her original roast draft.
I invited her by email on a Friday evening and by Saturday morning
I received the whole 'shebang' in my inbox - incredible service Carolyn,
no wonder you almost won my Grand National Horse Race LOL.
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Today's Sunday Roast with Carolyn Parsons is the 94th in a weekly
series of interviews with bloggers from around the world. ___________________________________________________

This interview will feature in The Roll of Honour
for all published Roasts. To view press HERE ___________________________________________________