In the spirit of Curie's mission to promote undiscovered but exceptional content, we wish to use this twice weekly section to provide an author showcase for some of the outstanding authors who received Curie upvotes in past week. Curie curators and reviewers nominate authors for inclusion in this showcase and author approval is sought and attained.
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Featured Author: 
CINEMATIC DRONE FILM | There's a Bluebird in my Heart | inspired by Charles Bukowski
Today's selection begins with a post so outstanding it got resteemed by Curie last week. In a perfect merge of imagery, literature, and music,
Tomas, or
All of us got Bluebird inside us. Sometimes you need to let it fly. —
Along with the sequence of drone shots, the cadence of Bukowski's words will surely get you immersed in the haunting beauty, not exempt from pain, of the human condition. Here's the poem, to read along with the short film.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I’m not going
to let anybody see
you.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he’s
in there.
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody’s asleep.
I say, I know that you’re there,
so don’t be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he’s singing a little
in there, I haven’t quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it’s nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don’t
weep, do
you?
Be inspired by @tomsmaid’s mesmerizing film, here.
Featured Author: 
Book Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora | Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards #1)
As he often does,
(…) Every so often, you come across a book that you could reasonably describe as so very well put together in its design that any flaws it may have can be easily ignored. (…) Here, it is because of flashbacks, taking us from where we are in the story to Locke's training under Father Chains. Through this, Lynch links together the past and the present, interweaving it all together. It is also because of its pacing. This book just flies by and I mean that in the very best of ways. It is, admittedly, a little slow in the beginning, but this is okay. Wit carries you through and so does the prose: he creates a mental image in my mind, of the city of Camo rr, better than any other writer has been able to. Once the plot begins to pick up, though, it becomes difficult to put down. (…) —
Another significant aspect of Lynch’s novel (that caught my attention on the book) is the great sense of humor shown by the author every other line, according to
What I do is compose music, writing in the whatever style peaks my fancy. But here, I am an assembler of words, crocheting a canvas to express my thoughts. I am something of a fan of media and history, and media's history. To narrow down the range, I enjoy televisual media. Film, television, anime, videogames, and their soundtracks. —
Let @terry93d masterfully present you a new writer, here.
Featured Author: 
Solstice Spiral Walk: A Winter Ritual)
To progressively shift to the Christmassy mood, the following post illustrates the performing of a ritual to welcome and celebrate the Winter Solstice. Belleamie, with beautiful photos and writing, walks us through the process. As she explains, there are no images of the ritual itself, since the moment was meant to be lived and not disturbed by cameras.
For the ritual, I've adapted a Waldorf Advent ritual that works beautifully and is full of richness and meaning for people of all (and no) faiths. The ritual itself is quite simple. People gather around the spiral in silence or singing quietly with unlit candles. We used beeswax candles in apples that had fallen from our tree. The spiral is made of evergreen boughs and has a lit candle in the center. One at a time, each person walks to the center flame in the spiral and lights their candle. They may place their lit apple candle anywhere along the path while walking back through the spiral. —
Belleamie Broadsword resides in Seattle in the Cascadia bioregion of the Pacific NW. She is a permaculture enthusiast, home herbalist, wildcrafter and mycophile. She is in the process of converting her urban homestead to a food forest and looks forward to future blogging on these and related topics as well as connecting with steemit community that share similar passions.
Marking the wheel of the year in ritual helps our family find deep rhythm, meaning and connection. We could all feel the energy of the day building as we made our preparations throughout the day. Right as the sun was setting over the hill to our west, a robin flew into our west window and broke its neck. We were all distressed and sad as we brought his warm body into our home to determine what to do. This was 30 minutes before guests were to arrive and we were in the thick of final cooking and cleanup for hosting a large gathering in our home. My child and partner's eyes were welling with tears, trying to make sense of the tragedy. That's when I remembered some old folklore that it is King Robin who rules summer, and at the Solstice is defeated by King Wren, who rules the winter until they exchange places again at summer Solstice. We thanked the Robin for his sacrifice on our window, making room for King Wren to come and preside over the winter. We kept the robin warm until all the life was drained from his beautiful body, then gave him a place of honor in the Solstice Cave overlooking the spiral. We feel honored he chose to spend solstice with us and wish his spirit well in its next journey. —
I think because of the deep symbolism and wisdom contained within the ceremony, it has a universal appeal to people of many faiths. I have co-created this ritual several times now among people of many different faiths with all positive feedback. —
Catch a glimpse of @belleamie’s winter celebration, here.
Featured Author: 
Anya and Dan's Gingerbread House for Christmas 2018)
When you're thinking of spending quality time with your family and enjoying the Christmassy vibe at the same time, what ideas cross your mind?
Overall it was a lot of time and effort, but the combination of Christmas spirit and the opportunity to build something cool with my niece made the whole thing feel worthwhile to me. We learned a lot in the process, things definitely would have gone more smoothly if I knew then what I know now (for example, trimming the gingerbread for the octagonal tower probably would have been just fine and made our lives easier). But I think the results are pretty good given that we were basically novices when we started. —
I grew up in New Jersey where I was a classic nerd: smart, introverted, socially awkward, and a lover of fantasy and sci-fi (which is basically still true, except now I'm in Oregon and some of the things I've always loved are inexplicably popular now). I went to college at Rutgers University where I studied Computer Engineering. (…) While computers had fascinated me since childhood it had mostly been because they could enable you to play games. (…) Since I got out of the video game field I've been trying to pursue some different creative pursuits: I've written an unpublished novel and I've tried my hand at designing tabletop roleplaying games. In addition to reading, writing, geek culture, games, and game design I'm also interested in philosophy and psychology. —
As appreciated on the 360° video that Dan included, the resulting gingerbread house looks beautiful, and delicious too!
Have both your appetite and creativity stimulated by @danmaruschak’s project, here.
Featured Author: 
"December and I", Some Words To End The Year
Diego José Ranuárez Vargas, or
Christmas, all around the World, is associated with White, because of snow, and because the all-powerful globalization, and it seems that the cold of snow contrasting with the warmth of family and friends is the perfect synonym for it. But in more southern countries like Venezuela, where snow doesn’t even exist, we just get some extra cold wind on nights and early morning, and instead of songs filling every space (which we still get), we have fireworks as if it was the 4th of July in the USA, or at least that’s how it used to be. Have I changed?, yes, but the country itself has changed in many ways, not all of them good. But here we are, in December, if not celebrating, remembering the times when we did or at least reflecting on why we even do it, and as such, here is a commented tour down memory lane about Christmas before, and Christmas today, in 3 parts, because that way it’s more fun. —
Diego divided the “self-therapy” writing into three sections: I. Childhood, II. Teenage Years, and III. Adulthood. Through an anecdotic, thoughtful style,
So, this has been December for me, these have been the festivities through the years. They may become better, they may turn worse, they may just change, but I’ll consider everything alright as long as the good people in my life are healthy and happy.
December was supposed to be a very active month for me in the writing department, but life and sour mood got in the way and I did almost nothing. I still struggle as an author, and my mind got busy with so many other things... but I had a debt to pay to the platform that reactivated my creative spark, and what a better way to end the year that by remembering the things that shaped my past? It brought me joy, it brought me tears; tears that washed away the fog in my soul and made me say "well, I'm ready for 2019". —
Relive some of your own Christmas memories from the hand of @dranuvar, here.
This Curie Author Showcase was written by Curie Curator 