Happy Birthday Farrokh Bulsara! If life wasn't so cruel you would be 66 years old! Farrokh was a Parsi born in Zanzibar and lived in India until he was 17 when his family decided it would be safer to live elsewhere after the Zanzibar Revolution claimed thousands of lives. They moved to Middlesex, England and changed the course of history.

    Freddie met Brian May and Roger Taylor in 1970 and John Deacon in 1971 to create the band known as Queen. Their first big hit was "Killer Queen", written by Freddie Mercury. He wrote 10/17 songs on their Greatest Hits album including: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Somebody to Love", "We Are the Champions", "Bicycle Race" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love".

    Freddie Mercury truly was a treasure to the world. He had the masterful ability to sing over a range of four octaves! As a performer he was flamboyant and extroverted but as an individual off stage he was introverted and humble. It's truly unfortunate that such a talented and wonderful person was diagnosed with AIDS. His final scenes in front of a camera were in the music video "There Are the Days of Our Lives" filmed in early 1991. Freddie Mercury died later that year, November 24, 1991 at the age of 45.

    To this day Freddie Mercury remains a popular icon even to the extent that he represents an everlasting symbol of success.

    Thank you Freddie Mercury, the world misses you.

    Merry Frankenstein Day! In other words, Happy Birthday Mary Shelley! She was born August 30, 1797 so that would make her 215 years old!

    Mary Shelley gave birth to a timeless story about a lonely doctor who managed to bring remnants of a person back to life! Frankenstein's monster has become a recognizable icon, inspiring countless works of art. This includes an almost infinite list of films featuring the monster, such as Frankenstein (1931), The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Young Frankenstein (1974) and other less known films like The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein (1972) or Blackenstein (1972).

    The first adaptation of Frankenstein was for the theater in 1823. She attended one of the performances! In 1831 she actually altered her story due to the story's influence. While the myth gathered a lot of attention during her time, it gained even more popularity after her demise. To this day we celebrate Frankenstein as a permanent fixture in horror fiction.

    I've been driving a motorcycle for 2 years now and there's only one thing you really need to know: it's fun! My motorcycle is a 2006 Suzuki Bandit 650S (right). It performs like a dream. It handles smoothly and accelerates quickly. It's very nimble!

    The second most important thing you need to know (if you're still reading past the "fun" comment): it's dangerous. Well I suppose anyone could have told you  that. I'm sure if you told your mother you were buying a motorcycle (or have), their reaction would be to tell you how dangerous it is. She's right. It is dangerous. If you're not cautious and don't play it safe, you're opening yourself up to all sorts of pain.

    I remember my very first time getting on it. I just received my learner's license and was with my father, who also drives one. Let's just say he gave me very simple instructions. I sat on it, started it then put it in to first. I stalled it. More than once. Then I finally put it in first and got it to go! Suffice to say, I wasn't sure how to go straight or steer at all, so I kind of drove in a diagonal line before falling altogether. Luckily, I was going relatively slow, so the only real damage was to my ego.

    I tried again and again, on different outings, before I was able to finally steer and switch gears properly. When I got a handle on it my dad and I drove on our bikes together. That was something I had never experienced before. I think what's funny about all of that is we were prepping for my motorcycle course. So when I finally went to the course I was already driving and everyone else had never driven before! I was light years ahead! Unfortunately, if I had waited to go to the course, I might not have fallen. Maybe fathers aren't always the best teachers. You know what though, falling made me realize I never wanted to do that again. It built character!

    Like I said, driving a motorcycle is fun, so long as you're careful. If you're not the careful type, I would probably suggest not driving a motorcycle. I was sitting at a red light once when it turned green. In my attempt to accelerate I accidentally popped a wheelie! I heard a few cheers, I guess from people who thought I was doing it on purpose, but my heart was in my throat as I racked my brain trying to figure out how to land without falling. Luckily I was able to land it but I was shaken for awhile. That's not really something you want to happen by accident.

    As you've probably figured out, I'm a writer. I've been writing my whole life but it wasn't until recently that I realized that's what I want to be, an author. Now I'm taking charge and being a woman of action!

    Except, right now, I feel like I'm waiting. Why am I waiting? What am I waiting for? Well, I just submitted a short story to a literary magazine and I'm waiting to hear back. It's a little bit nerve wracking when I think about it. So most of the time I work on my other short stories, poems or my novel to keep my mind occupied. Then it hits me, I submitted something I wrote to someone I don't know.

    I haven't shown my writing to a lot of people. Unless of course you insist on counting all of the essays I've written. Essays with long, complicated titles and pages and pages of pedantic nonsense. That's how they made me feel anyway. When I write fiction or poetry, I feel...I feel content. It's exactly what I want to be doing. It feels good.

    Then I think about it again and I think, y'know, they probably won't like it. Don't you hate the little nay-sayer in your head? "No, you can't do that," it hisses cruelly. Then the rational part of me says, even if they don't like it, that's okay. They don't have to like it. What's important to me right now is the fact I put myself out there and tried. You know what else? I'm going to keep trying.

    I think failure is just as important as success. In fact, I know it is. Failure teaches you what not to do so you change it for next time. Although who doesn't enjoy success?

    Here's to crossing my fingers for good news!