An open window

This is an image of one of my beautiful horses. If you look closely you can see the sky and trees! It was taken by a friend of mine and it inspired me to write. Horses have been a passion of mine since I was a child and I wish everyone respected them as much as I do. Enjoy!

An Open Window

 

When you look into my eyes tell me, what do you see?

Do you see what is only on the surface, or can you see deeper?

Can you see the sky and the clouds?

Can you see the trees?

I was born under that sky, like so many of us before me.

We once ran wild and free, until one day we became a part of you.

Do you see our history, do you see our paths?

We are courageous and brave, so we came when you asked.

We eased your burdens, and became your friends and yes sometimes your slaves.

We helped fight in your wars, costing many lives.

My heart breaks at what we lost on both our sides.

We were there when you rebuilt, and when you chose to leave.

We travelled with you across great seas to lands we had never seen.

We started over and helped you shape that too.

We pulled your buggies and carts, sped to doctors when your children were sick,

worked your fields even when you were too tired and needed to sit.

Many years passed and what we did seemed to fade,

our ultimate price seemed to have been paid.

We got to rest and some of us were forgotten,

we didn't understand but we knew you would return.

When you did, it was mostly for fun,

we were glad our fighting days were done.

I wish I could tell you how I feel, and show you what I have seen.

I wish you knew what flows through our souls.

Horses and humans have been together for a long time,

We began this journey together and that will be how it ends.

I am happy I am yours but understand you are mine as well.

We all chose to be with you, if your hearts are true.

So tell me is that what you see when you look into my eyes?

I know that it is, otherwise I wouldn't be here,

and you would just be looking out an open window.

 

 

 Cindy Lyle



The end.... just for a little while!

Hey everyone! I first of all wanted to thank everyone who voted for me during the public voting stage of the RONE awards. I didn't make it to the final round but it was still pretty awesome to be nominated! Thank you so much for your support, I wouldn't have made it this far without you! So with that being said I hope I don't disappoint some of you with what I am about to write.

I have been doing a lot of thinking and soul searching and I 've come to the conclusion that I'm going to take a break from the novel world for a little while. Please understand that I'm not quitting or giving up because I have worked too hard for that! I just have other things happening that I want to focus on more. I'm currently about 3/4 finished with the second book of the Creation chronicle but you will have to wait a little longer than I planned to read it. I know for some of you its been a long time coming but circumstances and just life in general are getting in my way. I'm finding it's causing me quite a bit of stress and it's time for me to walk away for a little while.

So I will make you all a promise. I am going to finish this series and I am going to publish it, its just going to take longer than I wanted. I'm not going to give you date because I honestly don't know, but it will get done, I promise! I wish you all luck with your current and future works in progress! Believe in yourself, work hard and stay positive. Have an amazing summer and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers

The Dragon Within is nominated for a RONE Award!!!!

Hi!! Look what The Dragon Within got! I'm so excited. Public voting for my category starts April 14th to the 20th at InD'Tale magazine. At the end of the six weeks, the books with the highest number of votes will become finalists and proceed to the professional judging round which will determine the RONÉ Award winner of “Best Indie or Small Published book of 2013.”  The awards will be presented at the gala RONÉ awards ceremony and event July 11th at the Golden Nugget Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.  in conjunction with the huge RNConvention. 
http://indtale.com/2014-rone-awards-week-six this is the link you can follow to cast your vote.

(The voting can also be found under the “Fun Stuff” tab on the homepage of the InD’tale website.)

 

I will post reminders closer to the date and I hope you will take the time and vote for me!

Talk to you all soon!!!

 

Cheers!

Happy Valentines Day and other news

Hey Everyone! I hope your day is going fantastic! If you celebrate Valentines day I hope you are spending time with the ones you love. You should be doing that everyday anyway but today for some reason gets special attention. I really love the idea of this day but I wish that everyone would devote more days to love and peace than just once a year. Love is one of the most important emotions we have and we don't nurture nearly enough.

Anyway on to other news! I will be part of daughters school Literacy night this coming Feb. 20TH, which is my b-day! I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm also nervous. This will be my first public speaking event as an author and it's giving me nightmares. If any of you are in the neighbourhood here is the link for the invite http://whoozin.com/W67-96W-XAPX . I would love to see you there.

Also this month I'm featured on Fantascize.com. Here are the links for my interview and their FB page.  http://bit.ly/1ehmioN https://www.facebook.com/fantasyscifi . I would love for you to check it out and give it share!

Finally I'm almost done the second instalment of The Creation Chronicles. I know it's taken me a long time and I'm sorry but republishing The Dragon Within took up a lot of my time. So don't worry I promise The Dragon Calls should be in your hands sometime in the summer.

So I guess that's it, short and sweet! Please stay tuned for more updates and enjoy this wonderful day filled with love and life. Enjoy it and never take it for granted.

Cheers!

Christmas, my favorite time of year!

Sorry for the silence lately, but I really suck at blogging! I think its mostly because I don't think anyone will find what I have to say is interesting and the fact that I don't want to bombard you with annoying promotion for my book.(The Creation Chronicles book one The Dragon Within) Hahaha.
So what better thing to talk about than my favorite holiday, Christmas!
     No matter what religion you are or what you believe, this time of year holds magic for everyone. It's a time of year when people give more freely, enjoy the wonder they see in their children's eyes, and experience the love that we all have in our hearts. I know this holiday season causes a lot of stress for people. The fear of not providing a happy Christmas for their families can be very overshadowing. But I think that if we all learned that age old saying that "its better to give than to receive" perhaps we would all be a little less worried. Sometimes the simplest of gestures is enough to make someone's Christmas magical.
     I remember when I was a kid my most fond and vivid memory had nothing to do with gifts, it was putting up the tree. My parents had these scented ornaments that had a unique smell that I loved. I can't remember what it was called but as soon as I smelled it I knew it was Christmas. I loved throwing that cheap tinsel all over the tree until it looked like a shaggy silver dog, and I remember when my mom made us pick it all back off to save it for next year! I remember all the times my bother and I would wake up insanely early and snuck out to get our stockings. We would always sit in my room or his and excitedly go through what Santa brought. When we were down we would quietly hang them back up and try and go back to sleep, but we never could quite fit everything back in the way it was, so we almost always got caught! You know I honestly don't remember any specific gift that I got a Christmas. All the things I do remember are the times I spent with my family. It's not what material thing you receive at Christmas that's important, it's the gift that someone gives your heart that you should cherish and hold on to.
    Now I know that when I was a kid hearing all of this would have went right over my head because lets face it when you are a kid life lessons don't apply to you yet. It is getting harder and harder these days to try and teach our children these things. There are so many distractions like, cell phones, tablets, video games, and computers. Our kids are always looking for the next best thing and we give it to them. I think we forget to stop and take a breath and realize that we are forgetting to teach our kids about what's most important about this time of year and that is to give. Not just the gift of toys or money, but the gift of love and perhaps even just their time. I know that spending time with my daughter is a priceless gift and I wouldn't trade that for anything.
     This Christmas while you are worrying about what to get everyone stop and listen to your heart. Your brain gets assaulted everyday and frankly needs a break sometimes. Do what your heart tells you and chances are the gift you give will be the best one of all.
Merry Christmas!!!

Books, Books, and More Books: Book Review of The Dragon Within

Books, Books, and More Books: Book Review of The Dragon Within: Book Review of The Dragon Within S ponsored by Enchanted Book Tours Welcome to Books, Books, and More Books.   I am pleased to...

One Crazy Thanksgiving!

So if you live in Canada like me, this past weekend was Thanksgiving. I have so many things to be thankful for especially my wonderful family, but this Thanksgiving will always be one I remember for all the wrong reasons. Its taken me a few days to get over it and being the writer I am I thought I would share it with you. What you are about to read is not fiction and please don't feel bad if you start laughing, I did... eventually.

It was a rainy, gloomy day when I woke up Sunday morning and I should have took that has a sign to stay in bed. Rainy days and I normally don't get along, but I knew I had a large number of people coming over and I had a turkey to prepare. My turkeys are slightly famous and I had a reputation to uphold. So I pulled myself out of my nice warm bed and started getting everything ready. I had already been through this once this weekend with my side of the family on the Friday night. It went great! The food was perfect, the company was amazing and I got to spend some time with my family. Today was my husbands side's turn which is considerably larger but I've handled it before. My husband and I did some last minute cleaning, set the table, made the apps, and finally prepared the turkey. I personally don't mind preparing a turkey, which can be attributed to my youth growing up with a poultry business, but my husband hates it and I think its hilarious watching him squirm!

So sparing the rest of the mundane details, in no time my house was filled with the delicious aromas that comes with thanksgiving dinners. It wasn't long before my family started to arrive and that's when my luck took a dramatic change. I love my sister in law and her husband but for some reason karma chose him to start off my roller-coaster of bad luck. As he bent in for a hug the rather large and full bottle of wine fell out of the bag he was carrying and landed on my big toe. I swear I had never wanted to kick a man so bad in my life! Thankfully he didn't break my toe, and my toe managed to save the bottle from breaking, but I couldn't stand on it for an hour.

Thinking that nothing else could happen I gingerly hobbled around my kitchen, trying to finish dinner. Everything was fine until I tried to flip the roast potatoes. I reached down, pulled out the rack, took my hand away for a second to grab the spatula, and in that second the baking sheet filled with hot oil and potatoes decided to slide out, hitting my one leg and splashing the scalding oil on the other. I was stunned, and it took me a second to realize what had happened and that I was in some serious pain. Someone got me up on to the counter and put my legs in the sink. Oh did I forget to mention that I was wearing a skirt so my legs were bare! After a few minutes of very cold water therapy I wanted nothing more than to crawl up to my room and disappear for the rest of the night, tending my burns. I felt so embarrassed and really I just wanted to hide before anything else bad happened.

You may think that nothing else could possibly go wrong but, surprise it did! I had told my husband to carry on with dinner with out me. My leg was in too much pain and I just wanted some time alone in my room to recover. Half an hour passed and my husband returned from downstairs. He had a horrible look on his face and my guts went south. I asked him."What's wrong and why wasn't everyone eating yet?" It was then that he informed me that the baked mashed potatoes I had made had been placed on the stove when I had my accident with the roast potatoes. They kind of got forgotten about. My husband carved the turkey ( which was perfect) and placed the plate beside the stove. Now this part is a mystery. I don't know why but the glass casserole dish that the mashed potatoes were in decided to shatter. It literally exploded showering my beautiful turkey with glass. This dish that I had used hundreds of times picked this special moment to almost destroy dinner.

At this point I really couldn't keep it together. All of my hard work ended up in the compost, but after awhile I calmed down enough to go downstairs and I was greeted with something I didn't expect. Everyone was happy and having a wonderful time! My bother in law had gone out and grabbed some pizza and they ate it with the stuffing, veggies and ham that didn't get ruined. It was not the perfect dinner that I had envisioned in my head, but it didn't matter. We were together and that was a beautiful lesson I learned that day. No matter what situation you find your self in, its your family that will always pull you through it.

So that's my Thanksgiving story for this year. I hope yours wasn't as eventful but I also hope that you got to spend it with your amazing families as well. After all that's what Thanksgiving is really about and I think we all need to be reminded of that sometimes.

Cheers!