Jun
6
2010
Death and Immortality–the Contest
Author: DiaMy books take place in Portero, TX, and in Portero, everyone carries these silver keys. Well I bought some silver keys to give away to readers, but they’re sitting here collecting dust. Mostly because I hadn’t found the right sort of creepy keychain for them. Until now.
I found some memento mori keychains that have a little vial inside that you’re supposed to fill with the ashes of the departed, and I thought, how morbidly perfect is this! It’s just the sort of thing Porterenes would carry because they often lose the people they love.
It’s such an old-fashioned thing to do, carrying the physical remains of a loved one on your person. People used to do that during the Victorian era–make a dead person’s hair into a ring and wear it or arrange dead people on couches and then photograph them. Strange little keepsakes. But you know me, I don’t judge.
I will, however, have a contest. Since I have to turn in my dedication and acknowledgments pages for Slice of Cherry pretty soon–like real soon–I figure I’ll give one of you lucky so and so’s the chance to not only win one of these memento mori keychains, but also the chance to see your name in print–at least on the acknowledgments page.
I kind of like putting these elements together. Slice of Cherry is about life and death, memento mori means “remember that you will die”, but getting your name in print is like becoming immortal. As long as the book exists, so do you. Your name, anyway. See, it all makes a weird kinda sense. ;p
So if you want a keychain and your name in my book, and all the glory and fame that comes with it ha ha, just leave a comment about life or death–any comment you want, as long as it isn’t lame. All lame comments will be disqualified. The winner will be chosen at random, but I will pick a personal favorite who will also get a keychain. Clear enough, right? This contest only lasts until a week from today so tempus fugit, children.
Tags: giveaway
June 6th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
First off, great contest…. it is deliciously morbid. And the fact that you are turning in your acks page makes the whole Slice of Cherry being a book thing even closer and more exciting. Still can’t wait to see the cover.
Okay.. comment. I could be stuck up and be like remember how we had that awesome chat? I should totally win for it. But, I won’t. Okay, I did, but not seriously. Really.
But life and death… I’m still young and thinking I’m invincible, except for when I’m in a car. I hate letting other people drive. I have no control. Usually, I grip tightly and am downright terrified. My dad’s driving especially. But whenever I’m behind the wheel, I always think of how easy it is to lose control and die. Then I think, what would happen? What would people think? How would things play out? Then I get to my destination and go back to being young and invincible. I’m convinced I’ll die in a car crash one day. It’s just too easy and too quick to happen. Also not as exciting, as say, a certain boy who took a moonlit swim and met his demise in a fashion I still find comical. Not profound, but I got back from a coffee run not long ago. Still invincible though!
June 6th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
In life, it isn’t that we don’t care enough to listen. It’s that we don’t listen enough to care. From this, we find evil and hatred in our world.
June 6th, 2010 at 7:13 pm
Hmm all I can think of is the Katherine Hepburn quote “Life is hard, after all it kills you.” But that’s kind of depressing to think about. I’ll come back when I think of something more original
Thanks a lot Dia, you’ve got me thinking about death, a teenager’s least favorite topic
June 6th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Hmmm…since death quotes seem to be the trend. My fav is “Dying is easy. Living is hard.” -House, M.D.
I think it’s only fair I get acknowledged because I was absolutely no help with title suggestions, BUT I did suggest a subtle cherry on the cover design. Or was that you & I just concurred? Either way–I helped in the least amount possible, but one of my online handles has been cherrybooks
Also, I need immortality in case my brain tumor wins….morbid enough?
June 6th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
I have recently had reason to consider these things….
http://blythewoolston.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-mothers-obituary.html
It’s not as gloomy as it sounds. I don’t think.
June 6th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Death is kind of my favorite topic. I’m morbid, masochistic, and quite sardonic all the time. I do have my sides where I can think life is amazing…blah frick’n blah! But honestly death fascinates me.
I’m someone who doesn’t believe in a “God” nor the devil, heaven nor hell, but I do believe in spirits, ghosts, and even the afterlife. After my grandma passed away in 2005 I’ve been actually doing rituals and things–witch like–to try and get her to just say ‘hi’. It has yet to work. But dammit I’m persistent.
I also believe that dreams are a way to communicate with the dead. And not to be bragadocious or anything, but I have had dreams about Audrey Hepburn, Elvis, and James Dean.
Suicide, a bad thing in death…but I’m also fascinated with that. No I haven’t tried it, but I do research about it often.
If you ever saw me you would never think that I am completely into these things, but there it is.
I could literally go on forever, so I’m going to stop and say thanks for the book (just finished) and the contest!
June 7th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
My comment is a poem I wrote and I have gotten alot of good feedback from it. Its one of my best and I take a lot of pride in it. Its called My life and if you email me then I can tell you it. I would rather not put it out in the open, last time I did that my poems were stolen. But I will however give you a sneak peek…. heres the first stanza
My life is a horrid place
dark with fog
encrusted in the hate
I’ve alwyas owned
Hope that draws you in a little
June 7th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
I love this quote by Mel Brooks: “Hope for the Best. Expect the worst. Life is a play. We’re unrehearsed.” This is what living is all about. Life is all about opening doors without knowing what lies behind them.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Death has many different implications for all different people, some think we just move into another life, some believe that there is an afterlife, but whatever anyone believes we all know in the back of our minds that it is inevitable. Why do you think there are so many people searching for immortality? Because they really don’t know for sure what happens after death.
Cool Contest!
June 7th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Well I know I’ll already be in your ACK in big bold print, being such a huge influence on your writing and all…LOL. But actually, I just wanted to stop by and say how much I cannot wait for SLICE OF CHERRY. I’m hearing awesome things about it all over the place!
June 7th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Dia Reeves, Dia Reeves. Dia Reeves said: Contest alert: If you want your name (or blog) mentioned on the SLICE OF CHERRY acknowledgments page, enter to win! http://bit.ly/aEJtqT [...]
June 8th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I used to spend many hours thinking about suicide, in the abstract sense of, if I ever decided to try it, I would want a fool-proof way of making sure that it really happened. Because the act of committing suicide is just trying, not actually completing.
And I realized, there really is no fool-proof way. People survive gunshots. Too many pills can just leave you with a sore throat. Blood can be transfused. Even a hanging isn’t for sure, if the rope isn’t strong enough, or the lack of a lock on the door leads to discovery.
By the time that I reached 7th grade, I realized that all of these notes and ponderings and pseudo-poems that I filled my journals with about suicide was actually writing. And I decided to do that instead.
June 11th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Ooh, awesome contest and awesome keys! Now you’ve got me trying to think all philosophically before I’ve had enough coffee.
Okay, I don’t know if this is lame or not, but I’ve always liked the idea that death is not an end but just a walk through a doorway into the next part of our life. (I’m talking about this on a totally non-religion based level.) I’ve seen many terminally ill people approach death this way, like it’s just the next adventure and I hope that one day when it’s my time, I can look at it that way too, rather than being sad or scared.
June 11th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
I can cope with dying because when I am crimated my ashes will still be floating around as part of the world long after I’m forgotten. Never really gone. Life however I don’t understand. I hope I figure that out before I’m plant food. Would be nice to be better at life than death.
June 12th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, actually. I think it’s interesting that people seem to talk of how death brings people together or who it can be the one thing we all have in common. While that is true, it’s also completely not. If a family member or a member of a group of friends dies, then you have someone there going through things with you, but if you have a friend (or someone simila-but this is where I am, so…) that dies, then at first people will be comforting and sympathetic but then life goes on for everyone. Life goes on but there are still moments when you want to just announce to the world that you still miss that person. Or their birthday comes around for the first time and you’re lving somewhere that only you knew them so no one knows anything’s different about that day… So while death can bring people together, I suppose I’m trying to say, it can also be incredibly lonely, too.
And I have no idea if that made any sense or not but I have a friend who died last fall and it was just her birthday last Saturday and I spent the day thinking about her but also knowing that no one else around me knew that this beautiful person should have been having a birthday.
June 13th, 2010 at 11:19 am
I hope I’m not too late to comment! I think it’s been exactly one week…
Life seems like a really fragile thing–if you think about it, we could die at any moment. I’m sure everyone, at least once in there life, has thought about what would happen if they died–who would come to my funeral? Who would cry? Who would care? How would it affect people’s lives? Then that leads to thinking about, have I lived my life to to fullest? If I were to die, today, then look back on my life, would I be happy with what I saw?
Death happens. It might be a depressing way to think about it but we do know it’s going to happen eventually, we just don’t want it to. Sometimes it’s expected, sometimes it comes like a smack in the face. But life goes on–we just have to live not thinking about the end, but the now.
June 13th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
I honestly don’t have anything profound to say about life and death, even though they’re pretty much the most important aspects of human experience (probably along with love?). All I can say is that for a few years, because something tragic happened in the family, I was really afraid of death, terrified, and because of that I wasn’t really living my life. I guess only after accepting death as a universal inevitability can you really appreciate life. I’m still getting there though.
June 13th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
Death is something that no one wants to think about becuase you don’t know what’s going to happen next and people always have to be in control. If I think about death for too long, I completely freak out. Like full out panic attack. So I don’t like this question because I don’t think about death, I can’t process it. Clearly I need to come to terms with that so everyone dies
Something I’ve noticed: Celebrities die close to each other. One dies and then another one dies a few days later. Odd.
Anyway, I love the idea and name of Slices of Cherry (especially the double meaning
June 14th, 2010 at 1:21 am
Okay, so after much considered deliberation. ( 6 days ) I’ve decided to write this post. Trying to leave the lameness that characterized me aside, figuring out Why in god’s green earth, I should be in your acknowledgments page of Slice of cherry.
Bellow the reasons I wrote in my crappy piece of yellow paper.
1-I’m an obsessive compulsive reader seeking for subjects like death, nearly dead subjects, after life, ways to reach the afterlife and let’s not forget my fave, ways to bring back peeps from the after life…
2-I’ve proven to be crazed enough to have the pleasure to meet you and disappoint you with my not so matching personality work attire. By the way you missed my neon green chucks, band t-shirt and fro hair on thursday.
3- I have a book you want in ransom (j/k It ships tomorrow morning, but can you send it back when you are done?)
4- I’ve posted and punish your blog frequently enough for people to wonder who the hell is your stalker.
Still after all reasons above, I didn’t think I deserved any of it. Having your name immortalized that way, in a person’s book you rant about all the time? Serious… to a crazy Dia groupie like me, that’s insane…I would need a Valium the day the book releases right?
Anyway… after 4 more days of thinking I figure that the best way to prove immortality… Is to give that honor, to someone that has been gone.
Someone that can’t push for themselves for their name to be there. Someone that loved literature and would get a kick out of your writing if she would have known it.
Luisa Zorrila. My grandmother. I really believe her name should be in your acknowledgments page. Why? Not only the fact that she would make an amazing looking, hot zombie. (grandma it’s okay, that was a j/k don’t be mad at me…I know you’ll get me up there for my dark humor, sorry)
But because she made so many contributions to this world… Far beyond me of course. She came out of nothing, build a family, had an awful husband. She always said “Ojos que no ven corazon que no siente” to get over his madness. (sounds familiar?) Raised my mom and aunt without a cent, after he left them, she undid her clothes to make them theirs, as a good daughter of a seamstress.
Most of all, Luisa Zorrilla, convinced my mother that having me without a man, at age 19 wouldn’t be a mistake. She is the reason I’m here. I exist. Because of her, and the way she looked at the world always trying to make it better than it really is. Pushing forward no matter the circumstances. Always a champion for woman kind.
Dia she is been gone for so long, I would give anything to give her a slice of immortality. Another chance to shine, to be alive, to walk among the living through the pages of your book. I think that would be the greatest honor of all, her name written on your pages, reaching immortality forever.
K