Tiffany Sunday

Best-Selling Author | Poet | TEDx Presenter

Writing

A World Without the Creative Arts Is Dark and Grey

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About this time, fourteen years ago, I bumped into Mark Cuban at Tony & Guy, we chatted for a few minutes, and then later, I asked for a word of advice. Mark said, “always searching for the silver lining,” the advice was in reference to a business I was started. However, his advice can be applied to life and business.   

Since the beginning of 2020, I have kept his advice close. In the mists of the going chaos that swirls around us each day, I take time to appreciate the silver linings that I find. These silver linings can be small blessings, a kind gesture from a neighbor or stranger, or the simple pleasure of listening to music or watching a movie, or looking at beautiful art on Instagram or watching a dance company perform on YouTube.

Giving Light to Darkness

Art fills in the grey areas of our day, giving light to the darkness. Art is expressed in many forms, from dance, music, writing, art, and the creative design of products.

Creative Commons

I could not imagine a day without art, a day without music, a day without a book, a day without a movie, a day without watching a dance performance.

If art disappears, the void would be tremendous.

Our world would feel lifeless, a world without joy or laughter, the sense of awe, or energy we receive from engaging with music, movies, books, and the performing arts.  

November is a month of gratitude and blessings. At Thanksgiving, we slow down enough to acknowledge our gifts, our silver linings, regardless of how small these blessings maybe.

The creative community needs help and support as members have experienced significant career shock due to the pandemic. Each day we consume hours of art from listening to music on Spotify or binge-watching TV shows on Hulu or Netflix. Creatives, like myself, produced the content we all consume.

Today, similar to a TEDx Talk – I challenge you to purchase a song from a new band, a book from an unknown author, a painting from a local artist, offer support to a local performing arts group. Be sure to include local libraries and food banks.  

Unsure of how to help?

Here is a list of apps where creatives promote their work. Donate a few dollars. Your support becomes the silver lining for others. 

Esty, Buy Me a Coffee, Patreon, Sound Cloud, Bandcamp, and Ko-Fi, to name a few.

Creatives 

Share your work, create app accounts, so others can help support you and your work. I’ve included a link to my Buy Me a Coffee in the comments section as an example. 

We need to help support each other to ensure we always have art to consume.  

Anything created by machine learning is not the same. Human art feeds the heart, fills the soul, and gives us a sense of purpose, something a machine can never do.

Holding Out for November and Thanksgiving

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For the past couple of days, the weather has been perfect—crystal clear skies without a single cloud.  During my run this morning, I was mesmerized by the blue sky radiating from above.

At times, the beauty of the sky was almost unimaginable. I felt an instant feeling of clarity without distraction as I completed my first mile. A sense of peacefulness washed over me as I watched leaves of yellow, auburn, red and gold, gently floated down like snowflakes.  

The morning was accented by birds chattering mixed with children’s laughter from a nearby elementary school. I savored the moment, honoring the beauty of November and its gift of gratitude. Mixed within nature’s bounty was the simple pleasure of being, of not being in a hurry to be somewhere or to be somebody.

I wondered, when does a leaf know when to fall? I’m sure I could Google to find the answer, yet I did not. Instead, I thought about the randomness of the falling leaves outside of any predicted order.

The Importance of November

Throughout our neighborhood, Christmas and holiday decorations share space with turkeys and Halloween pumpkins.  In our rush to rid ourselves of 2020, are we missing the grandeur of November? 

I cannot explain why I am holding out for November and Thanksgiving. Decorative turkeys rest on the dining table, singular in their representation of the Thanksgiving holiday. As each day passes, I continue to delay putting up holiday decorations and pulling my Christmas coffee mugs from storage. 

Neighbors and strangers mention in passing how we’re all sprinting to the end of the year while at the same time, feel as if we’re missing something as we race towards 2021. I’m ready for the new year as much as everyone else.  However, my intuition reminds me that each minute of every day is a precious gift.

As I watch the leaves fall and the wind whisper through the trees, I think about the year, the important lessons learned, and how I’ve changed. We must pause and take time to honor November and Thanksgiving for the many blessings we’ve received this year and also the help we’ve given to others.

Although, we’re at home, and appear to be in a constant state of pause, are we taking time to appreciate nature’s beauty that surrounds us? November is a month for reflection and for recognizing even the tiniest moment of gratitude, wonder, and appreciation we encounter, give, and receive every day.

In a week or so, I’ll slowly start pulling out my Christmas decorations.  Until then, I am taking my time to appreciate autumn’s beauty, the fall harvest, and November’s gratitude.

Calling Your Spirit Back

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Two weeks ago, as I was completing Proper Grey Areas, I felt something was missing for the editors. I was frustrated that I didn’t feel whole as a writer, poet, and author. The burden of doing what others thought I should be doing weighted heavy. Each morning during my runs, I mentally wrestled with the problem.

Each morning, I searched for answers in the highlighted passages in two of my favorite books, Sacred Contracts, and the Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss. 

Reaching into the dark corner of my soul, I was blocked by my ego, which served as a gatekeeper, as I, once again encountered fear.  I kept thinking about what would I have done differently in the past if fear had not been part of the equation.  Fear of what others think, fear of the results, fear of not receiving approval, or fear of success of fully using my creativity. 

As the weeks passed, my soul, heart, and mind joined together on the same path as my intuition continued to push me. I reached a point where I could no longer accept negative inherited family habits and beliefs.  At a crossroads, I had to make a choice. I could continue to allow fear to hold me captive or call my spirit back.

As Myss writes in Anatomy of the Spirit, “What drains your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body. The power that fuels our bodies, our minds, and our hearts does not originate in our DNA. Rather, it has roots in Divinity itself.”

Working to call my spirit back, my intuition and soul were screaming – write books that fully utilize creativity. My creativity, the core of my soul, needed to be set free, released from my imagined fear.  My intuition whispered let go, write what you want to write. With the suddenness of a Texas blue northern my creative energy return.

With a recharged creative battery, I join the National Novel Writing Month contest this month with the goal of writing a holiday fun romance book.  My soul wore a party hat for a couple of days while I prepared to write a Christmas novel I want to write.

Last week, I read 12 Days of Christmas, by Debbie Macomber, in preparation of writing a holiday novel. The book’s main character, Julia Padden blogs about her kindness experiment. I liked Macomber’s idea of blogging about the process. Along with writing a holiday / Christmas novel, I will be writing about the book, the food cooked by the characters and other holiday goodies.

In September, I hired a new website company and we’re working to add a newsletter signup form. In January, I am launching a monthly newsletter.

For now, use the email info at dillon 5 dot com to sign up for my newsletter and book updates.

With gratitude,

Tiffany

Spotify Playlists for Books, Writing, and Creative Inspiration from Tiffany Sunday

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Today, I created six playlists on Spotify playlists for readers, fellow writers, creative inspiration, and one for fun – a driving playlist. My best thinking occurs when I am driving or taking road trips.

For the books, I created one for Dyslexia’s Competitive Edge and one for the upcoming holiday novel I am writing for National Novel Writing Month.

Music has always been part of my life. I can remember when I was around 5 years old, singing and dancing to the radio. Most days, at least one if not two “radios” is playing in the house for 16 hours or more.

Occasionally, when life becomes too stressful or I am editing a book, I turn off the music, otherwise, music is playing softly in the background.

I binge-listen to songs while I am writing, my soul will lock on a melody or rhythm. For several songs, the play times exceeded 500 times. I believe part of my brain and soul’s insatiable hunger for the song is related to my dyslexia. My brain is hunting for something.

The music becomes part of my writing, songs influence the poetry and fictional characters. Last year, I created several musicians in my book, as their songs the fibers that built Insatiable Consumption of Being. The playlists will be fluid as I edit the songs from time to time.

Enjoy!

Fall is a Writer’s Best Friend

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Today is a perfect day for writing, chilly temperatures, drizzle with a cloudy sky.

Watching the leaves gently fall to the ground, the peacefulness of my surroundings turbocharges my creativity. From October to January, I find myself wishing for more time, more hours in the day to savory everything fall has to offer.

Every year, I long to bottle how I feel on perfect fall days when I am out running through our neighborhood. I seek to capture the calmness and the aroma of my neighbors’ fireplaces. My soul feels alive as I quietly move through the neighborhood.

Since I started writing full time three years ago, I always enjoyed fall, now as a writer, I long for these months to write, think, stretch my creativity, to dream. If Fall was well, I would drink it dry. If Fall was a mountain, I would climb and then write about the experience.

Each day, my soul screams more, more, unplug, discover, create, and then repeat the next day. Embrace and honor the gift and beauty of the season provides by picking up a pen and sharing the feeling and encouraging others to do the same.

National Poetry Day 2020

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In 2019, I transitioned my writing career to poetry and contemporary nonfiction. This past month, I have resumed writing song lyrics.

My mother, who was an Honors AP English teacher, taught from the heart. She believed in the authors and poets that she assigned her students. She encouraged her students to think and explore. One of her favorite movies was Dead Poets Society which seems appropriate.

In the movie, Robin Williams says in a scene, “we read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. The human race is filled with passion. Poetry, beauty, romance, and love is what we stay alive for.”

For many individuals, poetry is viewed as something you had to read in high school or college English class. During these classes, often students were instructed to break apart the poem measure it against some mathematical program to determine its value.

Passion, beauty, and love should never be measured with an app, digital program, or calculator. Poetry is our lighthouse to guide our way, to give perspective, to give us a home, and most importantly reassure us we’re not alone.

For National Poetry Day – I encourage you to purchase a poetry book and support the art of words.