Body Language - Eyes

Looking Sideways
People who look to the sides a lot are nervous, lying, or distracted. However, if a person looks away from the speaker, it could display a level of comfort or indicate submissiveness. Looking askance generally means the person is distrustful or unconvinced.

Looking Downwards
If someone looks down at the floor a lot, they are probably shy or timid. People also tend to look down when they are upset, or trying to hide something emotional. People are often thinking and feeling unpleasant emotions when they are in the process of staring at the ground.
However, some cultures believe that looking at someone in the eyes is a sign of disrespect, or is only done with intimate friends or family, so this could explain why someone is avoiding eye contact with you.

Wide or Dilated Pupils
Dilated pupils mean that the person is interested. Keep in mind, however, that many substances cause pupils to dilate, including alcohol, cocaine, and LSD others. Don’t mistake having a few drinks for attraction.
If their eyes seem focused far away, that usually indicates that a person is in deep thought or not listening.

Twinkle in the Eyes
When you talk to a person about something that interests them a lot then you will notice a twinkle in their eyes.

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(Source: writerswrite.co.za)

Literary Birthday - 23 May

Happy Birthday, Margaret Wise Brown, born 23 May 1910, died 13 November 1952

Quotes

1. In this modern world where activity is stressed almost to the point of mania, quietness as a childhood need is too often overlooked. Yet a child’s need for quietness is the same today as it has always been—it may even be greater—for quietness is an essential part of all awareness. In quiet times and sleepy times a child can dwell in thoughts of his own, and in songs and stories of his own.
2. I don’t think I’m essentially interested in children’s books. I’m interested in writing, and in pictures. I’m interested in people and in children because they are people.
3. Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere.

Brown was a prolific American author of children’s literature, including the books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

Literary Birthday - 23 May

Happy Birthday, Mitch Albom, born 23 May 1958

12 Quotes

1. In a newspaper, you only have so much room. It teaches you the value of getting to the point, of not pampering yourself with your glorious writing. I’ve always been much more interested in one powerful sentence that stays with you. That’s my style.
2. I believe the biggest themes of life are put into the best focus when held up against the very sharp light of mortality.
3. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
4. You have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.
5. Anyone who tries to write a memoir needs to keep in mind that what’s interesting to you isn’t necessarily interesting to a reader.
6. Critics have a problem with sentimentality. Readers do not. I write for readers.
7. A memoir should have some uplifting quality, inspiring or illuminating, and that’s what separates a life story that can influence other people.
8. For years I wrote in my basement. More recently I graduated to one floor above, an office with all my books and music and - ta da! - a window.
9. Most people just want to read a book. If you have a good story, people want to turn the pages whether it’s a memoir or a novel.
10. I’ve always said I have one skill. That skill - if I have it at all - is storytelling.
11. I find interesting characters or lessons that resonate with people and sometimes I write about them in the sports pages, sometimes I write them in a column, sometimes in a novel, sometimes a play or sometimes in nonfiction. But at the core I always say to myself, ‘Is there a story here? Is this something people want to read?’
12. Writing a novel for the first time was the biggest challenge. Until The Five People You Meet in Heaven, I had always dealt with the truth and the facts. 

Albom is an American best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, dramatist, and radio and television broadcaster. His books have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. He is best known for Tuesdays With Morrie.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

How to write a synopsis

Most writers dread writing query letters and synopses. We hope this infographic makes it easier for you.

From Writers Write

Literary Birthday - 22 May

Happy Birthday, Arthur Conan Doyle, born 22 May 1859, died 7 July 1930

10 Quotes

1. It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
2. Anything is better than stagnation.
3. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
4. My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation.
5. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
6. I have frequently gained my first real insight into the character of parents by studying their children.
7. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
8. As a rule, said Holmes, the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify.
9. Where there is no imagination there is no horror.
10. The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish physician and author who is best known for his Sherlock Holmes novels. He was a prolific writer who wrote fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels.

by Amanda Patterson for Writers Write

IRELAND’S NEWEST STAMP features an entire short story written by a talented Dublin teenager.

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