Jae's Rants

Reviews and thoughts on free books

2011-10-15T10:28:00.005-04:00

There are two things in life that I adore.

1. Free things

2. books

So free books should be an absolute no brainer. Well…not so much it seems. I looked back of this list of book reviews and the previous lists and led me to a realization that saddens me. When I first got my new Kindle I was pleased by the prospect of being able to download the free books to help me find new authors I enjoy reading. However of the twenty books I’ve read that were free reads, I’ve found two authors whose works I would be willing to pay for. Not exactly a good average. I will wade through a lot in the name of free, but I think the lesson here is you get what you pay for.

Side Jobs-Jim Butcher

This book is a collection of several of Butcher's short stories that have appeared in anthologies or have been published in other forms over the years. The stories span the entire series with the first story being before Storm Front and the last taking place just after Changes. Some of the stories are great and some are just okay. I had originally been excited that the novella from Thomas Raith's perspective was included since it isn't in print and sounded interesting. However, I was underwhelmed by it. The premise held promise, but there was something about it that just didn't ever gel.

The best story was "The Warrior". It takes place after Small Favors and deals with Michal and the Fists of God. It was a terrific story about how sometimes the things we do, that we think don't matter or are inconsequential, are the things that make the biggest impacts on those around us.

Giving Chase-Lauren Dane

I cannot figure out the 5 star reviews on this book. Are there two different books out there that are being confused? The premise had promise but the delivery was sloppy, redundant and irritating. The dialogue and character development was absolutely ridiculous and down-right insulting.

Firstly, the errors in grammar and word choice are unforgivable in a professionally published piece of work. I'm astounded that the writer, editor and final line editors all missed the incorrect tenses and missing words in sentences. Secondly the book was redundant. Characters repeated themselves and, worse, the scenes of intimacy repeated themselves. I realize that publishers of romance and erotica...and let me point out that this is true of smaller publishers and not so much the larger houses...have turned characters having unprotected sex into a crime and everyone better break out the protection. I understand the nod to political correctness; still, it is the responsibility of the author to handle that with finesse. This author failed miserably. The repetitive "tearing open" was so jarring and the actions in the intimate scenes were so redundant that it was dull. Fewer scenes described in depth, done better would have been preferable.

Finally, watching episodes of Designing Women is not a substitute for research. All of the characters were repeatedly addressing each other as honey, sugar, darling, etc. I live in Georgia where this book is set and no one here talks that way, especially the men. The men in this book sounded like women--or rather some stupid stereotype of southern women. No man in the south calls a woman in his own age group honey, sugar or darling unless she's his girl. And the women in this book were nothing more than a rehashing of the most simplistic and ridiculous stereotypes of southern women. To hear the author tell it, only the heroine, her closest friends and the mother of the hero are anything but cold-hearted B..'s or well, it starts with an sl- and I don't think I can use it in a review either. This book is downright insulting to the modern Southern woman.

Under the Persimmon Tree-Suzanne Fisher Staples

This is the story of a young girl, Najmah, caught in the middle of the war in Afghanistan. Her father and brother are taken by the Taliban and forced to fight. After her mother and infant brother are killed by American bombs, she is helped by the son of a neighbor who takes her with his family to a refugee camp on the Pakistani/Afghan border. Parallel to Najmah’s story is the story of a young American woman, Nusrat, who came to Pakistan with her Afghan husband so that he could open medical clinics across the border to help his people. As the story opens, that husband is missing. Eventually the two females' paths cross. And Nusrat finds herself frustrated in her attempts to save Najmah and the other children living in such horror.

This was just okay. It is a young adult book, written for the tween crowd, but still it seemed very rushed, as if the author was being held to a strict page limit. Many of the characters were undeveloped and their actions were therefore erratic. The lack of development made it hard to understand or to rationalize why the characters did what they did. Even in a children’s book, these basic elements of a story must be developed.

Ghost Story-Jim Butcher

Seriously? I kept expecting Bobby Ewing to step out of the shower. The story itself was really good. But the resolution to the bigger problem of Harry being dead was a cheat and not even worthy of a soap opera. No one expected Harry to stay dead but the solution to the mystery of his killer? Thank goodness it was really only a subplot in the grander scheme of what was happening in the book because if this was the grand finale, I probably would have chucked the book at the wall.

Laird of the Mist-Paula Quinn

If you're not big on historical accuracy and don't mind when an author forgets she's writing about the 17th century, you'll be fine. The author's characterization of the gender roles of this era are not spot on, and her over use of the Highland brogue reads less like authentic dialogue than as affected and difficult at times to read. In some places it is so badly done as to be incomprehensible. I do believe every fourth word of dialogue is "bonny", "braw", or "dinna".

Overall it is a predictable little read for those who don't want to think, which is fine. One of the best things about books is that they help us escape. Just don’t expect a great sweeping historical work of literature.

Also, I don't have a problem, as some have, with the hero being too much of a nasty murdering fellow to be forgiven. At the time, life was brutal. The Campbells and the MacGregors have been just shy of all out war for generations and that means they’ve been hacking up members of each other’s families. Of course one of the leaders of the MacGregors has killed and murdered the girl’s family members. It is what it is. But you can't make him a hero just by making the bad guy even worse than he is, not letting him kill the heroine or her brother and having him say "I love you." This guy is too brutal for that and the author doesn't give the reader enough to overcome that.

Rose Quartz-Sandra Cox

Four ancient women received magical amulets endowing them with a special gift or power. Those amulets still exist and Bella Tremain is the keeper of one. Now mad man Victor Price is in prison for trying to steal the healing amulet, but he's not out of the game. With help from the outside, he's set his sights on Bella's amulet that brings beauty and, more importantly, creativity hoping it will help him find a way to escape.

Cox consistently delivers engaging and well developed characters. Her stories are strong and well written. I'm looking forward to the third installment of the series.

Never a Bride- Amelia Grey

Mirabella has given up hope that her fiancé, Viscount Stonehurst, will ever return to marry her. Their fathers fixed the match six years ago after which he left for the Americas declaring he'd only return and marry her when he was old and gray. Since she was destined to be a spinster what would it hurt if she let a few gentlemen steal a kiss in the garden? Especially if the kisses revealed the identity of the man who drove her best friend Sarah to suicide? When Viscount Stonehurst returns unexpectedly, it creates more than one embarrassing moment for Mirabella.

This is the author's first Regency and it does show. What was surprising is that this isn't this author's first novel, she writes under a different name as well. My biggest criticism of this book was the dialogue. Mirabella is no novice to the ton or to the rules of society. It is not quite believable that she would act if she had no social filter on what she says or that she would be so forthcoming and unguarded with her returned fiancé, especially at first. He is a member of the nobility and she is a merchant's daughter.

In addition, the author does not fully establish why some characters would act as they do in the story. The "bad guy" for example, (he's not the actual antagonist in this story) is not really established as someone who would act as he does. There are no flaws revealed in his character until the last handful of pages when he's "revealed". It wasn't a surprise he ends up being the baddie, but Grey does not establish his character in this vein. Finally, the characters are likable, but they don't work as a couple. The chemistry feels forced.

It's a nice little story, just don't have great expectations.

The Farmer Next Door-Patricia David

Let me start by saying I like this author. I enjoy her Amish stories but this book, while an enjoyable read, was a tad irritating. This was a nice story but I think the author needs to work on her research. This was a problem in a previous book as well. While I'm no expert in Ohio adoption law, I'm fairly certain it takes more than six weeks to finalize an adoption, especially when the child's state of residence isn't Ohio, but Texas. And add in that the adoptive parent moved into the state the same week the process begins?

This was a nice story but I think the author needs to work on her research. This was a problem in a previous book as well. Perhaps instead of spending her time researching alpacas, the author should have taken a few minutes to research other elements of her story. It takes more than six weeks to finalize an adoption, especially when the child's state of residence isn't the same as the adoptive parent. And add in that the adoptive parent moved into the state the same week the process begins?

Perhaps instead of spending her time researching alpacas, the author should have taken a few minutes to Google Ohio adoption laws. A quick search (five minutes on Google) revealed that it takes a minimum of six months after a child is placed in the home before adoptions are final. The boy doesn't arrive until halfway through the story.

Again it's a nice story, but sloppy research is a major flaw.

Frightening Literacy Statistics

2011-09-16T18:17:00.002-04:00

Over 50% of NASA employees are dyslexic. They are deliberately sought after because they have superb problem solving skills and excellent 3D and spatial awareness.

More than three out of four of those on welfare, 85% of unwed mothers and 68% of those arrested are illiterate. About three in five of America's prison inmates are illiterate.

44 million adults in the U.S. can't read well enough to read a simple story to a child.

U.S. adults ranked 12th among 20 high income countries in composite (document, prose, and quantitative) literacy.

60 percent of America's prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.

When the State of Arizona projects how many prison beds it will need, it factors in the number of kids who read well in fourth grade.

46% of American adults cannot understand the label on their prescription medicine.

There are almost half a million words in our English Language - the largest language on earth, incidentally - but a third of all our writing is made up of only twenty-two words.

In 1999, only 53 percent of children aged 3 to 5 were read to daily by a family member. Children in families with incomes below the poverty line are less likely to be read aloud to everyday than are children in families with incomes at or above the poverty line.

New In Print!

2011-08-30T00:22:00.002-04:00

My first novel is finally in print. It was originally published by Cerridwen Press, which has been absorbed by Ellora's Cave publishing in their new Blush line. It even has a shiny new cover. This book was incredibly special to me. It only saw the light of day because of the amazing friendships I had forged with a group of talented writers including the amazing Jennifer Hudock who was one of my personal cheerleaders during this process.

In Sanctuary the Committee controls everything, food, health care, housing, information and even love. The Committee's life guides match the single residents for three-month compatibility assignments. Everyone gets ten chances to find true love or at least an acceptable partnership.

There is something special about Leah Bradley. She has the unique ability to reach out and really connect with the people in her life, but if she's so special why is she facing her seventh assignment? From the moment she meets James he makes it clear he grants no one access to his life or, especially, his heart. Brooding and sad, he carries a darkness inside him that swallows another part of him every day. What's worse, he seems to want it this way. Leah slowly loses her hope and her heart. But just when James begins to see Leah the way she truly is, he's forced to ask himself one question: Does the Committee really have happily-ever-after in mind?

Access Denied was originally released in ebook form and is still available in that format. It received some wonderful reviews:

Coffee Time Romance: 4 Cups
Night Owl Romance: 4.5, Reviewer's Top Pick
Romance Junkies: 4.5 Ribbons
Emuse: 5 plumes
Fallen Angel Reviews: 3 angels

Excerpt:

The transport staff left the silver trunk, black bag and the long narrow plastic box in the second bedroom as he directed. He stood in the door way and looked at the evidence that he would soon have an intruder on his peace. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the scratching sound coming from the plastic container. Moving closer he saw the grating along the sides and the movement inside.

His innate curiosity won out. James moved around the bed and crouched down to peer into the wire door on the front. A black nose sniffed out at him and two light brown eyes gazed back. A rhythmic thumping could be heard as a tail thudded against the sides of the crate. A pitiful, exited whine urged him forward. A dog! He was stunned. He hadn’t believed anyone outside of Committee members had the luxury of owning a pet. The mounds and miles of red-tape one would have had to have traversed to get permission for such a thing were staggering. The expense made this possibility almost non-existent for most. The expense of the actual animal aside, the Committee required a sizable bond be filed against the cost of feeding and caring for the animal.

I shouldn’t, he thought as he reached toward the cage. It had been so long since he’d even seen a dog, let alone touched one. He reached his long fingers through the holes in the grating and scratched at the animal’s ears. A happy rumbling sound came from the pooch. So What’s Her Name had a dog. He made a mental note to look up her name before she arrived. He straightened to do so when the dog whined again. I shouldn’t, he thought again but ignored it a second time and pressed open the lock on the door. It swung open and the long red body stretched and walked out onto the surface of the bed.

A playful yip made him smile. He reached down and picked up the dog, it lunged its body forward and aimed for his nose, nipping it playfully and licking his face. He laughed, “Hey old boy, wait a minute. That is not the way to impress the new guy.” But it had been. Scratches and pets were given as he stood there in her room holding her dog. “I wonder what your name is, little guy.”

“Charlie,” came a soft voice from the door way.

James froze. That voice meant two things. One, that What’s Her Name was here, complicated by the fact that he still didn’t know her name and secondly he had been caught having in effect, “gone through her things”. He turned slowly and saw the same plain face he had seen the previous night, now before him in the flesh. He stared at her for what seemed like forever. He honestly couldn’t think of a single thing to say. An introduction? An apology?

“His name is Charlie,” she said again with a gentle smile on her face. “I’m so happy you let him out. He hates being confined and I always feel guilty about it. Besides, I’m guessing this means you aren’t too unhappy about his coming along.”

“No,” James found his voice. “No, it’s fine. In fact it’s more than fine, it’s great. I used to have a dog. We always had dogs. Well, up until my last wife, she didn’t like…” He stopped. He was babbling and he was talking about his ex-wife. Those were two things he never did, particularly not with strangers.

“I’m glad you’re pleased. It could have been horribly awkward otherwise,” the smile was still in place. She stepped forward a pace and extended her hand. “Leah Bradley, Mr. Edwards.”

Thank God, he gave an inward sigh of relief. Leah Bradley. At least now he didn’t have to embarrass himself by admitting he hadn’t even looked at her name. “James, please,” he shifted Charlie and extended his hand as well. He stood there for a moment looking down at that hand, maintaining his grip. Something was odd about her hand, about the way it felt in his. His fingers were closed around it and he noticed it was neither cool nor warm. Her hand was small but square, with soft skin covering the palm and back. What was more was that there was almost a sense of comfort, of reassurance radiating from her hand to his. It sounded foolish even in the silence of his own mind. He dropped her hand and pulled his away abruptly. Whatever was happening, he didn’t like it.

He heard her sigh softly. Looking up he noticed an odd look on her face. The smile had transformed. “James, we need to talk. Before we do, though, I’d love to have a cup of coffee and a minute to get Charlie settled. The sooner we get down to the basics with him, such as where his bed is and where his… ah… bathroom facilities are, the better.”

James realized he was still holding the dog, who for his part seemed perfectly content with the situation. He set the animal on the bed and stepped away. “Coffee sounds like a good idea and we do need to talk. I’ll go get some started. Will you join me in the main room as soon as you’re finished?”

“We’ll be there shortly.”

James nodded and left the room.

Recent reads

2011-07-20T10:27:00.006-04:00

I should really start posting these as I finish them.

Changes-Jim Butcher

This installment of the Dresden Files certainly is about Changes. Most of what you think you know about Harry changes, including what Harry is willing to do. It was well written and is in the same tongue in cheek style of all Dresden books, only much darker. That being said, I had to give it a four instead of a five because of the mixed feelings I have over what happens in the book, these "Changes".

Harry does a couple of things out of character in the book that I think unsettled some of the other reviewers who perhaps don't have children. If you did, you'd realize that push come to shove, they aren't out of line for a parent, though granted, Harry embraces his parenthood rather quickly.

There is a lot more here on the structure of the Red Court which is fascinating and the Fellowship of St. Giles. Harry calls in all his markers on this one and it is quite a mess that he will be left with. I can't say I like the changes that Butcher has made, many of the things we think of automatically when we think of Harry Dresden are gone and there is one "Luke, I am Your Father" moment that doesn't seem to be as impactful for anyone involved as it should have been.

Still, it is a solid book in the series and better than one or two of the previous ones that have really stretched the readers ability to suspend disbelief.

Steam and Sorcery-Cindy Spencer Pape

This was an engaging and fun story to read. I'm very glad I picked it up. While it may be "steam punk light" it is still a good solid story in the genre and blends the elements of science fiction, fantasy and romance together into a tightly plotted and entertaining read. The characters are well developed and likable. The children in particular were endearing and fascinating and made this a charming and heartwarming tale. I highly recommend this book and others by Cindy Spencer Pape. She has the ability to cross genres and still delight her readers.

Photographs and Phantoms-Cindy Spencer Pape

Pape's writing style is wonderful and enjoyable. The dialogue between her characters is authentic and sounds real. I do understand how some readers who hadn't read the first book in the series may have had trouble with the world building in this, it's because she did so much of it in the first book, Steam and Sorcery, which is an awesome book and if you haven't read it, I'd start with it.

The only reason I didn't give this five stars was because I was left wanting more. I wanted more growth and development between these characters. I want to know more about Lord Lake and Amy, I'd have loved a bit more of a peek at the characters from the previous book as well.

This comes from the fact that the characters were so well developed and likable. This author can be counted on for excellent quality books. I've read many of her books and all have well drawn characters readers can connect with.

13 Little Blue Envelopes-Maureen Johnson

Couldn't get past the first 50 pages this was so bad. The premise sounded interesting, a bit like P.S. I Love You except you find out the girl is seventeen. The whole set up is unbelievable. Her aunt, who her mother said was crazy and unreliable and couldn't be trusted to manage anything-the same aunt her mother repeatedly told her she was never to grow up to be like sends her an envelope with $1000 and tells her to go to New York they're going to have an adventure but she can't bring a cell phone, or anything other than what will fit in her backpack with her?

First of all, the author needs to do some fact checking. $1000 will not get the girl a passport and a ticket to London and fare to New York

Secondly, the mother described in this story is not going to give her seventeen year old daughter permission to chase around Europe on the whim of the unreliable and dead aunt with no way to contact her and no way of knowing if she has been stranded there because her sister's hair-brained scheme failed or wasn’t completely finished before she died.

Tailor Made Bride-Kate Witemeyer

First of all, this is a Christian Romance. I'm annoyed at the people who left one star reviews, all of them complaining about the Christian element. Do your homework people! You wouldn't walk into a dress store and buy something cause you liked the color. You'd check to see if it fit you. The story is published by Bethany House. Bethany House is an inspirational/Christian publisher.

That aside, the story itself does leave room for criticism. Pacing is painfully slow and there is very little happening in the story. Even the moments meant to inspire tension are sadly lacking. Look, we know the heroine isn't going to die two thirds of the way through the book. And the "bad guy", well, the author goes out of her way to make excuses for him and to try to paint him as young, misunderstood and confused. She even makes a silly attempt to redeem him at the end which doesn't work.

The characters are fairly uninspiring on the whole. The hero is a sanctimonious twit most of the book worried that a few bits of lace will make women go mad with temptation cause his mother ran out on his pa for a rich man who could buy her more things. Really? Dude needs to see his prairie shrink to get over his momma issues.

There is a message in this book that shouldn't be in a book period, but definitely not in a romance novel. The story carries a message that a woman needs to pretty herself up and loose those nagging 10 lbs. for a man to like her, or she'll end up with the sociopath down the street cause he's the only one who could like her. I get the heroine is fitness obsessed, and yes we are talking about a historical novel here. She spends half the book exercising. But to have her take the hero's sister who is described as a bit plump and make her do these exercises and starve herself to lose weight so the guy she likes will like her back is ridiculous and a bad message. Of course there is a lot of lip service to the "oh, he like her just as she was," nonsense, but the kicker here is the hero's sister doesn't get the guy until the heroine puts her through prairie boot-camp.

Heaven is For Real-Todd Burpo

As the mother of a toddler who will soon be having surgery, I found the images of Jesus holding little Colton on his lap and talking gently to him as the doctors worked to save his life to be wonderfully reassuring. And his meeting and being comforted by relatives that had passed on felt very right. The story is well written and is a lovely little story

However, while I find it fully believable that this extraordinary child had a near death experience that is inspiring, I found the latter portions of this story that developed or were "revealed" several years after the experience to be less authentic sounding and believable. The story stopped sounding authentic and more like a little boy reciting back or giving the grown-ups answers they wanted based on what he’s been taught.

Still, it was an enjoyable read.

Hybrid- Bryan O’Grady

The story concept is quite good as is most of the execution. This is very much hard science fiction and there are times when the writer's need to prove he understands the very technical aspects, or to at least get in all the science he's researched is cumbersome and simply bores the reader. You want good science supporting the science fiction, but whole sections are unreadable. Characterization is excellent as is plotting and pacing.

However the editor for this book needs to rethink their career choice. There are grammatical mistakes so jarring they pull the reader out of the story. Wrong word forms are used such as one location where it states "[It will] ultimate lead to our extinction." In other places to is used for too, there for their and other errors you might expect in a middle school essay, but not a published novel. I actually expect a few formatting errors with Kindle, but the punctuation and formatting in this book were horrific.

Overall, story good-book bad.

Journey to the Well-Diana Wallis Taylor

I'd actually have liked to give this a 4.5 stars. The story is wonderful. John 4 tells of the story of a Samaritan woman that Jesus meets at the Well of Jacob. Jesus reveals that the woman has had five husbands and is currently living with a man who is not her husband. Most jump to the conclusion that the woman is immoral and that she has been divorced or set aside by her husbands for bad behavior or barrenness. This author presents a story that paints the lead character as more of an unlucky or unfortunate woman, a victim of the realities of life as a woman in this time period, who has nearly lived the life of Job. The characters are well developed and the story imagined for this woman is warm and her meeting with Jesus could easily bring you tears when seen through her eyes.

My only consideration is that the writer's vocabulary seems very limited and her writing is a bit amateurish. In one section of the book (each section named for the man in her life at that time) someone's expression or face is described as "unreadable" at least twice per page. There are other ways to describe this. Many words, expressions, and descriptions are repeated to the point it becomes painfully obvious.

I'm interested to read other books by this author. I'd like to see her writing develop and she definitiely has a talent for telling an engaging and endearing story.

Hiss of Death-Rita Mae Brown

Remember when this was a great series? Not so much any more. This used to be my favorite series. It used to have exciting plots and wonderful, charming characters. Not so much any more. Now the plots are thin and boring. Now the characters are trite and flat.

The last two books have killed this series for me. Brown no longer seems to care about her stories or her readers. She spends most of her time, every third page or so, boring us and pulling the reader out of the story by beating us over the head with her political agenda. I don't buy these books to read pages of diatribes about how evil the government is, Rep. or Dem. You're a Libertarian-All govt. bad. We get it already.

Harry has become boring, preachy and I expect her next adventure will be in a survivalist training camp learning to spot black helicopters. Maybe she needs to be single again cause since she remarried Fair she's become totally unlikable.

Oh, and the ending/motive of this was ridiculous. Brown pulled the wrap-up for this out of her...er...out of thin air.

Guardian Bride-Lauri Robinson

This is the fourth installment in the Quinter Brides series and it is quite enjoyable. The series is a sweet romance line about five brothers and their shot gun toting Ma who tends to marry them off, not always with their consent. Luckily it all works out in the end. This series is satisfying if a bit predictable. If you're looking for realism, keep looking.

This is the story of Scott "Snake" Quinter and the bride he wins in a poker game...sort of. Summer Austin's father throws her into the kitty at a poker game. Appalled but holding the winning hand, Snake folds thinking this will solve the problem. However, another man claims the win and the girl, a man who has a reputation for selling young girls to the highest bidder south of the Mexican-American border. To save Summer and her younger sister, Snake holds up his end of the bargain and claims the win not knowing the slaver has no intention of giving up his prize.

This is a collection of silly, sometimes kitschy characters who are charming and delightful. The plot is not unpredictable, but in a homey, comfortable way that makes for good brain candy reading.

Quality Matters

2011-07-04T15:54:00.004-04:00

When you are a new or little known/unknown author one of the most important things is that the work you put out there for your readers is top quality. When you are trying to introduce people to yourself and your work, you have to make sure that what you put out there is the best that you can make it. This goes for every writer, whether you are publishing with a large publishing house, a small independent publishing house or are self publishing. Putting out shoddy work, will not endear you to readers.

I’ve been reading a lot of small house and self published books of late and have been disappointed at the quality. Not necessarily with the quality of the stories, some have been quite well plotted and well written stories that I’ve enjoyed. The problem I’ve noticed repeatedly has been with the quality of the editing and formatting of the books. Now this says either something about the Amazon Kindle formatting, or about the lack of editing being done on the books.

Formatting errors are excusable as long as they don’t proliferate the text and make it difficult to read. However poor editing isn’t the same thing as formatting. When it is grammatical mistakes and incorrect spelling or word choice, that is another thing altogether. For example, “It will ultimate lead to our extinction,” is not a formatting error but poor editing and grammar. Then there is the use of “to” when “too” is meant, or “there” when “their” is meant. These are mistakes I correct in the papers of middle school students and should not be appearing in published works of literature.

If you want to be a writer and be taken seriously, you have to behave professionally and put forth professional quality work. Beta readers and professional editors are not dispensable. Your readers deserve it.

Cousins, Identical Cousins...

2011-06-13T11:35:00.001-04:00

Well, not really. But I have been struck over the last couple of years at how much my son, Z, is like two of my cousins, Ben and Kevin. (There surnames are not Roth so I’m pretty safe using their first names.) They are the sons of my only maternal aunt who I grew up calling DeeDee. Her name is nothing like DeeDee. She became DeeDee in a convoluted set of circumstances that involved both my mother’s and my own in ability to pronounce her name correctly. My mom distorted it, it sort of stuck, and then my toddler speak distorted it even more.

The older of my aunts boys are is about eight years younger than me. I was ring-bearer at her wedding since we had no boys in the family at that time. Yes, my grandfather was thrilled by this fact. His infamous, “Baby dolls again,” remark upon the birth of my cousin Lisa—granddaughter number four—is family legend. The farm set he had purchased for his grandson, complete with barn, plastic animals and real metal John Deer tractors waited for nearly 10 years under the bed in the spare room. Of course after Lisa it was 13 or 14 years before another girl would be born in our family. Again, I digress. Because of the age difference, I felt very much the grown up around the babies that were my cousins. I helped change diapers and even babysat them when I was a bit older and they were too. Funny how perceptions change. If you ask Ben and Kevin, they’ll tell you I was a mean babysitter. If you ask my uncle’s kids, Lisa and Jeff, I was fun. Hmmmm…does that say something about me, or them?

(Yes, by the way, I am ADD and I do tend to ping.)

Now that I have a young son of my own, I’m watching him grow and am amazed at how much he is like Ben and Kevin. The comparison to Kevin is easy. Kevin was the child who gave my aunt every gray hair she dyes. By the time he reached middle school he’d broken bones, poisoned himself twice, nearly hung himself (literally and accidentally) and risked getting squashed by actually playing in the road. (If you wanted to drive that street, be prepared to pay the toll.) Kevin stories filled the conversation in family gatherings and are retold again and again despite the fact he’s now reached middle age, has a child of his own and wishes we’d all stop. Not likely buddy.

From early on I made comparisons between Z and Kevin, most recently when Z went running naked through the yard after swimming in his pool. Yes, that’s another Kevin story. But yesterday, for the first time, I noticed similarities to Ben. Ben was the quiet, thoughtful, gentle boy who knew exactly what he wanted and who he wanted to be. Then he went out and did it. I adore Ben. He’s always been very special to me because he was a bit like me in that we could both argue our way through life and would stubbornly defend our beliefs, and they were usually on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Our cocker spaniel has been very ill the last two days. So ill we weren’t sure she was going to make it. She’s been sleeping quietly in a crate we moved into the front room so she could be with us. Now, Z and Shiloh are not the best of friends. They’ve knocked heads since he first started lying on the floor for tummy time. As a toddler, it can seem like all out war. He harasses her, she harasses him. He tugs and pushes her; she knocks him down and steals his snack. Yet I only began to see that there is a bond between them this weekend. With her crate uncovered in my bedroom so I could watch her at night, I noticed her lumber to her feet and pace whenever he made a sound during the night. He keeps track of her, he’s wanted to know why she was in her house instead of chasing him around stealing his graham crackers or Cheerios. We explained she was sick, she had an owie in her tummy. After thinking about this for a few moments, Z announced, “I sick, too,” and has maintained his infirmity for the past two days.

Here in comes the comparison to Ben. My aunt took us three older girls when my mom had to have surgery when I was about 8 or 9. Within days we all three broke out in chickenpox. Here is a young, new mother with a toddler who suddenly has three older girls who were supposed to be “helpful” to her during their stay and now she’s taking care of them too. And she did. We took oatmeal baths several times a day, she coated our ichies with Calamine, we read books, curled up on the couch under blanket and had ice cream. Little Ben saw all this and began to demand that he get “spots” too. Two weeks later we were back home and the chickenpox gone. We get a phone call and my aunt puts Ben on the phone. He proclaims we need to take our spots back, he doesn’t want them any more.

Were things better when we were kids?

2011-06-10T12:38:00.017-04:00

If you live in the world of Facebook, tweets or even chain emails you’ve seen something like this before:

“Agree w/ this post? -My curfew was the lightning bugs, my mom didn't call my cell, she called my name, I played outside with friends, not online. If I didn't eat what mom cooked, I didn't eat. Sanitizer didn't exist, but you COULD get your mouth washed out w/ soap. I rode a bike w/out a helmet, getting dirty was okay & neighbors cared as much as your parents. Re-post if you drank water from a garden hose & survived."

This popped up on my Facebook page today because I “liked” a local radio personality named Jenn Hobby from the Bert Show. It’s off topic, but if you live in the metro Atlanta area, Nashville or near Indianapolis you should check them out. Most days they are an entertaining crew during the morning commute. I’m missing Melissa Carter, who left them recently, but…well, I digress.

One of the people who commented on this post called foul. He said it was garbage and that we were just trying to make ourselves feel better about having lived through an inferior time. My knee-jerk reaction was to call him a jerk and argue. And I did—argue, not call him a jerk. But I thought about it. Why do we feel that the time we grew up in was better? Is it just nostalgia?

I do think that nostalgia plays a big part in it. No one likes to get older and see the world change. Change can be exciting and stimulating, but I think there is a piece of most all people that fears change and longs for things to be the way they were. Even children removed from terribly abusive situations will cry for their missed parents though what they are going to may be a million times better. We all feel sad when a love affair ends even though we know it was for the best. Why?

I think there is something other than nostalgia at play. When you read these posts and you read people’s responses, most mention something about things seeming simpler then, seeming safer, less stressful or confusing. I don’t think this is nostalgia, nor do I think it is self-delusion or wishful thinking. I think it is all about filters.

We see the world through a filter. All of us. There are no exceptions, we all see what is around us through a filter that is unique to us. No two filters are exactly the same. Impressionism understood this as it tried to capture the world as the filter of the artist saw it, still recognizable to the rest of us, but changed by the individual through whose eyes and mind we were now seeing it. I could go on to add that we were seeing their filtered view through out filters, but that’s a big metaphorical merry-go-round that I don’t even want to get started on.

Our filters are more than just unique to us, they are changing, shifting at every moment. When we are a child, our filter is stronger and tends to weed out those things we don’t understand or can’t connect with. We may hear our parents talk about struggling to make ends meet, we may go without or know we are poor and that things are not all sunshine and roses. But the filter we see things through is a child’s filter. It allows in the simple and the easy to understand. Because they aren’t relevant to us as a child, we filter out the things we didn’t really understand. I think these memories we create are the strongest our filters will ever be. We see our childhood through the eyes of the child we were. We see the world as being delight at chasing and collecting lightening bugs or other insects and small animals, or riding out bikes with reckless abandon, peddling as fast as we could down the steep hill and then jumping off right before we would crash. We see the world as playing outside, sitting in a secret hiding place with a favorite book while eating apples. We see the times we slept in sleeping bags in the backyard, giggling with our friends and telling ghost stories.

We didn’t see the dead bugs or think about their extinguished lives as a result of our childish selfishness. We didn’t see or hear the stories our parents heard about a friend of a friend’s child who ended up permanently injured, or worse, because they didn’t get clear of the tree or curb in time. We didn’t hear the stories about that girl down the road who was sitting in her special place, reading her book when she was attacked. We didn’t see our parents sitting up all night by the backdoor or the upstairs window, watching us as we played at having an adventure.

As we got older, we became the parents who are living in fear for our own children. We are the generation who has pushed helmets and pads, panicked when our toddler got out of sight for just a moment so we created backpacks with leashes on them, cringed when our kids climbed that tree and got too high. Why do things seems so different now? Because we are different. Because we now see things through the filter of adulthood, parenthood and fear. The filter of childhood has gone for us and when we look back on the memories we made through that filter, it all seems so much easier, simpler and safer.

But it wasn’t. The thing that worries me the most about how the world has “changed” is the fear that we aren’t as good as our parents were at helping our kids keep their filters of childhood in place as long as possible. I worry that we’ve become a society that doesn’t allow them to see things through those same rosy lenses we were allowed to use. In our quest to make the world safer we’ve taught them stranger danger, don’t trust people you meet on the street. And we wonder why they prefer to text, tweet and Facebook. We’ve taught them to fear being isolated and vulnerable. And we wonder why they prefer to be joined to their cell phones at all times. We’ve taught them our fear.

Or maybe I’m wrong about this last part. Maybe they don’t see our fears. Maybe they will also grow up remembering the past through their own filter of childhood.

**The pictures used here are available as free wallpaper from wallcoo.com and are by the artist Donald Zolan.*

IMHO-In my humble opinion

2011-06-08T11:48:00.006-04:00

Rather than do full reviews one at a time, I started doing group reviews. The opinions here are just that, my opinions. I have no intention of insulting an author or trying to persuade or dissuade a reader from reading these books. That's the great thing about books. There are enough out there that everyone can find something they like.

Shelter’s of Stone- Jean Auel

I loved the Earth’s Children series right up to The Plains of Passage. It was arguably a filler book, but in my humble opinion, it wasn’t needed. We didn’t need to retrace Jondalar’s footsteps after we’d read about his journey in detail during Valley of Horses. Shelters of was the long awaited next edition, written after Auel walked away from her writing due to a personal tragedy. That in and of itself makes me loath to point out that while her writing is still excellent, her editors and betas failed at their jobs. The book is overly long and repetitive. The song the clan sings about the origins of the earth and it’s people (and it’s one long epic poem) is repeated in near entirety at least four times. Every blade of grass and piece of rock are needlessly described in minute detail. While I loved the first three books in this series and would recommend them to anyone, I’m not sure I’ll be continuing to read it.

Turn Coat- Jim Butcher

This was Butcher's usual good solid writing, but I only gave it three stars instead of four on Shelfari for a couple of reasons. First, the story took a long time to set up and drug a bit even with rapid fire events. They were there, quick and bloody, but just not that interesting. Secondly, Laura Raith is becoming a caricature of herself, especially in the early part of the book where we hear her tired old "ooh, I'm going to seduce you if I want to," crap. And the "I can give you want you want...freedom from the pain and responsibility," wasn't compelling, just ridiculously reminiscent of Star Trek V as Spock's brother encourages everyone to share their pain.

Finally, I would have preferred if the resolution hadn't been so damned predictable. Sticking with the Star Trek analogy, we all know it's the new guy who shows up who will be the bad guy. The "villain" was easily identifiable from the moment he showed up and Anastacia's part in what happened was also predictable. Still, the Harry Dresden series is one of my favorites period and is definitely tops in urban fantasy. If you haven’t read it, go pick up Storm Front, the first, and you won’t regret it.

Proven Guilty- Jim Butcher

Yep, it was a two Harry Dresden sort of time the past couple of months, mostly because I have a horrible commute and the series is now on audio book read by the lovely and luscious James Marsters. Damn! I love me some Spike.

In this installment Harry is faced with the task of reconciling his role as a Warden after once being target number 1 of same group and with finding a black magic practitioner, a warlock, who is preying on people’s fears and causing psychic damage. Mix in a good deal of Unseelie and Seelie intrigue and meddling, one teenage daughter of Harry’s best friend, Michael (uber arch-angelesque good-guy who slays evil), tensions with Harry’s half brother and poor Wizard Dresden is having a really rotten couple of days.

The end did seemed to drag on for just a bit too long. The whole icky final scenes with Harry and Molly were just...well, icky. It doesn't matter what did or didn't happen, the truth is Butcher just didn't need to go there. It was more of a pandering to forbidden desires while letting Harry keep the high road. It just plain didn't need to be done. And can we stop with the final, let's all sit down and remind the reader of all the bad things still out there at the end so we can justify the need for the next installment? We love Harry. We want more stories about Harry. But we don't need the recap at the end of every novel.

Born of Night-Sherrilyn Kenyon

When Nykyrian decides the League of Assassins that has been his whole purpose for existence has finally asked too much of him, to kill a child, he rebels and quits. Only, no one quits the League. One may commit ritual suicide, but no one walks away. Now, hiding from the League with his own band of for pay assassins, Nykyrian takes the contract to protect a dancer whose father’s political connections have plagued her life.

While I'm a fan of the author, this book was just okay. I suppose if I'd read it in its true chronological order (first, before I'd read any other Kenyon books) I'd have liked it better. It is clearly an early book from and author who had not reached her potential. The series was published many years ago and held hostage to a failing publishing house until the rights reverted back to Kenyon a couple of years ago. Polished up and reprinted, the League series was eagerly awaited by her fans, though some of us wondered if she really needed another series.

As a fan of her Dark-Hunter books, it was fun to play "spot the character". She has recycled charactesr from this series and names for her Dark Hunters: Nykyrian is a mix of Acheron and Kyrian, names such as Julien and Syn make appearances. Though they have different names, even Nick, Liza, and Styxx make appearances. It is fun for fans and will give you a Kenyon fix as you wait for the next DH book, but it is really only okay.

A Brush With Love- Jo Barrett

This is a nice little book if you don't want to think too much. This is the second book I've read by this author and it has the same weaknesses and strengths. The characters are likable and fairly well drawn. However the plot is so trite and "convenient" that it is irritating. Why was it necessary to make the heroine's paralysis the result of PTSD? And curing it with a little tantrum and her declaring she wasn't a loser after everything else she'd endured ruined the entire story. Why can't the hero love her and have happily ever after with her still in a wheelchair? Why do we need a completely laughable and ridiculous recovery to end this book? As with her other book I read, the author writes herself into a storyline then uses a silly, hackneyed, and trite plot development to end her story.

Invincible: The Chronicles of Nick- Sherrilyn Kenyon

Yeah, it was also a two Kenyon sort of month. This book isn't great literature, but let's face it-- we don't read Kenyon for great literature. Be honest, how often do most of us really sit down to read "great literature"? It is good solid YA. The story is interesting, and the characters are well drawn and likable when they are supposed to be likable and not when they're not. There was a good deal less action in this particular installment of the series but it's still a good story.

I like this series for one main reason. It gave the fans of Kenyon's adult series back the Nick we knew and loved before she turned him dark and totally unlikable. I have become a bit worried about the effect of introducing this series on younger readers. My students are reading it too and have begun asking about the "Dark-Hunter books". Those are not appropriate for the middle school and up that this series is targeted at. Let's all just hope none of them pick up "Acheron".

As a long time fan of SK's adult Dark-Hunter series there are things about this alternate universe, or rather the universe as it exists according the the "original" Nick now known as Ambrose, that really irritate me with their cryptic nature and what it implies about well loved characters like Acheron. For example, Savitar shows up in this book and taunts Ambrose with something to the effect of Well let's ask Acheron... oh wait that's right we can't because of you. What exactly is he implying Nick/Ambrose has done to Acheron? Personally, I'd really like to smack Ambrose, but then I've wanted to slap him since Dark Side of the Moon. Kenyon has taken Ambrose/Nick's gigantic self pity party way too far and has turned him from dark, brooding and misunderstood hero to a sniveling little brat. Thank goodness this new Nick is a charming and lovable as the old Nick was.

She Walks in Beauty- Siri Mitchell

A nice little story of the late Victorian period in New York and it's society with rules that would out do even the strictures of London's Regency period. It was an entertaining read full of the silly "misunderstandings" that often are used in the place of detailed plot development. This is an inspirational/Christian fiction that seems to be minus the Christian fiction and inspiration except toward the end when it becomes a very heavy handed addition to the plot, almost as if the writer had written a nice little historical fiction story with a character who goes to church on Sunday and was told she needed to strengthen the inspirational elements, so she tossed them all in at the end.

Not to mention the over sudsy soapbox about corsets that gets dumped on the reader. Okay, corsets bad. But the broader message that one should love and accept one’s appearance does come through well, not with the horrors of the corset being slammed about the reader’s ears, but in the simple act of Clare’s taking off the corset, curling up in her dressing gown and reading her book toward the end and her shocking declaration that she would need to be remeasured because she was not wearing the corset ever again.

Somewhere to Belong- Judith Miller

Johanna and Berta are two very different young women. Johanna is a life long resident of the Amana colony and a model of young womanly behavior. For this reason she is chosen to help newcomer, Berta, to adjust to the communal, collective, God-centered life of the Amana colony after having lived her life as the daughter of a prominent Chicago physician. And to say the spoiled and selfish Berta is not happy about her new living arrangements would be a gross understatement.

Set just a few years after the Great Fire of Chicago, this historical novel is an example of a good inspirational book. Spirituality is present, woven through the fabric of the story without seeming overbearing or in your face. The only problem I had with this story, why I didn't give it 5 stars, is that the character of Berta was thoroughly unlikable for far too long in the story. More than half-way through and I still wanted to put aside the pacifistic, loving world of Amana and slap that girl silly. Even reminding myself she was very young didn't help. Miller handled Berta's transformation well. Often in such a book there is a lightening bolt moment when the character changes radically and conveniently. Berta's transformation was slower and had it's moments of backsliding. Her world was shaken a part and then a serious event occurs that is believable as the catalyst for her change.

This is an excellent departure from the usual Amish setting of the Bonnet novel.

You Don’t Even Know Me- Sharon G. Flake

This is a bit different than the books I usually read and review but I am such a fan of Sharon Flake that I couldn’t wait to pick it up. It's a good companion to What Am I With Out Him, which tells the stories of teenage girls and their relationships to boys in their lives. The problem is this book, despite it's cover, is not really one that can be sold to boys. As a middle school teacher, I can tell you that I may be able to convince a boy to take this book, but they would never finish it. Instead it will be read by girls.

The short stories in the anthology are really character sketches, portraits of young urban boys trying to find themselves and their path in the increasingly confusing and dangerous streets of major US cities. One shows us a boy whose obese adoptive father loves him like no one ever has, yet is a source of worry, fear and embarrassment for the youngster, We see a young man helping a new girl move into his building and discovers that she has a similar problem to him…a hot young mom. Both teens are faced with mothers who are still young and sexy and want to flaunt it, but the problem comes when the new mom on the block sets her sights on flaunting it with him. How does a young man say no to that, even when he knows it will hurt the woman’s daughter and his own mother. A unique look at what some would call a lucky break and others would call child abuse. A third young man struggles with the restrictions put on him by his police officer stepfather when he really just wants to get out on the street and hang with the other boys. But if he does, who will watch his two younger sisters? Where does his responsibility lie? To his family or to his own right to be young and have fun while he’s young.

This might be a great book for a boy’s literature circle, but you want to be prepared for the conversations to get uncomfortable.

Exposing the Exposition

2011-06-07T13:08:00.002-04:00

As a writer I can tell you I’m definitely not an expert. But as a reading and ELA teacher I can tell you that there is a bit of science to writing a story. For example, a story has five basic sections and all must be present and must transition, one to the other, fluidly. I'm not speaking of the elements of plot, the characters, setting, conflict, complications, climax and resolution. I'm speaking of the way a story is laid out, a line to follow in fitting it together. It is the first of these elements that I'd like to address as it is often the most abused.

One of the most vital parts of a story, and one that is often botched by authors for reasons ranging from lack of skill to rushing to lack of adequate editing is the very first part. The Exposition.

The Exposition:

The exposition is the hook of a story. This is the beginning portion of a book that is supposed to allow the reader to become invested in the story. A solid exposition will pull in a reader who must know more about what will happen. The exposition is the Who, Where, When and What. The Why and the How come later.

Who

A good exposition should introduce the protagonist, antagonist and the primary characters who will act upon the story. This doesn't have to be done as a big, simplistic meet and greet and the antagonists name doesn't even have to be mentioned. But he and any characters who will be central to the plot must be present. The shadow of their presence, their power, their affect, must be present. This can be through foreshadowing, through a revelation of actions or even a hint of their involvement even if they are never identified for the reader.

Where and When

Where does this story take place? Even if your settings will change or the main characters will be transported to another place and time, there must be the over-arching image of where and when this story is going to take place. Some time travel books include a prequel that occurs in the time the character is going to or hint at the future time by something the character is interested in, an object he or she handles or sees or by the discussion of an important event or person from that time period.

What

The what is critical. We don’t need to know what and how, but your reader should have a vague notion of what the basic conflict is of your story by the time the move from the exposition to the rising action portion of the story. The writer doesn’t even have to tell the reader the truth. Misdirection can lead the reader down one path they think the writer is following only to have the true path revealed later. But the hints of the truth must be there.

Remember the Sixth Sense? Ninety-nine percent of people watched that movie with no idea what the real “problem” was that Bruce Willis’ character had to solve. Yet when this was revealed, we could all look back and go, “Duh!” There was this hint, that hint, and several more along the way. We were surprised and even blindsided. That’s good, the truth was there all the time and the writer used misdirection to fool us. However, he didn’t pull the real “problem” out of his backside at the end.

As I said, I’m not an expert and the truth about rules of writing is that the best and brightest among us break them…or seem to break them all the time. But as I tell my students, you can’t break the rules until you fully understand what they are and why they are there. Then you will understand the difference between breaking them and twisting them in a way that delights and engages your reader.

Characters who drive you crazy.

2011-06-06T22:47:00.003-04:00

I'm reading a book right now set in the Amana Colonies. (They in themselves make for a unique and interesting setting for those tired of the usual Amish bonnet stories.) One of the two lead characters, Berta, is driving me mad. She is such a spoiled, deceitful, disrespectful girl that I want to slap her...hard. On one hand, when you are meant to dislike a character, this can be a stellar achievement for a writer. Creating a character that people so connect with and personalize that they hate them is difficult to do. More so, I think, than creating a character that people love.

Back when we were writing fanfiction together, one of my favorite authors--Jennifer Hudock--wrote a character called Perpetua who I grew to loathe. So much that when a friend issued a challenge in a writers group both Jenn and I belong to to write a story about a character you disliked, I chose not one of the usual fanfiction characters, but her Perpetua. In my story I took all my frustration out on the woman, leaving her alone and miserable while flaunting the happy ever afters of the men she had manipulated and hurt right under her nose. I think Jenn got a kick out of the fact that she'd written a character that could elicit such strong feeling from someone... at least that's what she said.

Does this mean I'm praising the author's wretched little wench, Berta? No. I'm pretty sure at some point I'm supposed to like her or sympathize with her but personally I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to stand the little brat long enough to finish the book.

Recent Reads

2011-03-24T16:52:00.003-04:00

I’ve finished several new books lately ranging from new releases to older books. Many of these were either books I listened to on tape because of my huge commute or Kindle downoads. Some I’ve liked, some I haven’t.

Always the Baker, Never the Bride

The story did have a fluffy little plot about a diabetic baker who meets a widower who hires her to bake at his new wedding business/hotel. Very fluffy, little development of characters and not a lot of chemistry, honestly. The book was free, you can't complain too much. But I wouldn't recommend it. There were a few significant problems that I saw. First, the editing of this book was horrible. The main character shakes her "hand" not her "head". There are repeated words, missing words and the punctuation needs some tending to. Whoever edited this did a poor job.

Secondly, the constant use of exaggerated dialect when the hero's sisters spoke was distracting and as a resident of Metro Atlanta, I can tell you even the folks born here don't speak in such a caricatured fashion. Finally, I don't mind inspirational stories, I like them in fact. But this story didn't read like an inspirational story. I more got the idea that it was a light romance the author couldn't sell anywhere else so she added in a bunch of heavy handed over the top preaching and moralizing and sold it off as an inspirational book. The minister in the story came across as not quite fitting in the story, he almost seemed pasted in. Further he was self-righteous and pushy; not the kind of character to truly reach out to people. He's constantly grabbing their hands and praying over them. Seriously. He grabs the heroine's hand at a hiking trail and starts praying over her. He corners the hero at a family dinner and starts praying over him. Not inspirational at all. No wonder the hero spends half the book trying to hide from him.

Fools Rush In

Even for the freebie it was, this book was not worth it. I have read some weak stories in the name of free, but I couldn't finish this mess. It has too many hastily introduced characters who were flat. If only this book were about Aunt Rosa. Now there is a character. But Bella is just plain dull and so is the mealy mouthed, one-dimensional "hero" who just seems to stand around and look cute. And the horrible "misunderstanding" that brings them together? She is looking for a deejay. Calls and says she is looking for a deejay to work a wedding. His response? Sure, he'll take the job. But it turns out he's not a deejay, he's a carpenter but he thought she meant a D.J....as in his name is D.J. This doesn't say much about the author's respect for the intelligence of her readers. The writing is repetitive. She beats her readers over the head with her “cute” little twists.

Hide in Plain Sight

I'm not an evangelical Christian. I'm probably high on their list of people going to hell, so I'm rather stunned at finding myself having to defend this book's Christian slant. But those who left the one star negative reviews over on Amazon.com seemed to have failed to read the product description that clearly identified this as one of the Amish Country/inspirational stories. I found most of the reviews were knee-jerk reactions to being upset at the book being Christian based and basically just Christian-Fiction bashing. No, the grandmother falling asleep reading the Bible wasn't "random". She was clearly established as a woman of faith. Incorporating a character's faith into the story isn't nonsense. And there was nothing sexist about it. The main character was seeking security her whole life and realized that for her that didn't mean the big corporate job. She didn't give up her career, she just decid

ed to change gears and open her own small firm in a place where she could be close to her family. How is that sexist?

That said, this doesn't have the strongest plot nor is it a great work of literature, the same can be said of 99% of books published. Most people don't read because they want to explore the themes, structures and intricacies of literature. Most people read for information or to be entertained. There were some loose ends that were never tied up. A big deal was made about the gazebo, but it never went anywhere. The ledgers

being found in the oddest places being blamed on the sister just sticking them wherever, seemed a bit lame and I expected it to go somewhere but it didn't. Still it's a nice little story and as a free read it was worth the few hours of mind candy entertainment it was.

The Constant Princess

Historical fiction aside, Gregory plays fast and loose with the accepted facts about Katherine of Aragon. Taking an icon of determination, dedication, honesty and faith and turning her into a lying, scheming creature who is dedicated and faithful not to her God, but to the memory of her dead first husband she barely knew, destroys that which is honorable about this well loved and respected historical figure. Making things up to fill in the gaps is one thing, but damaging the reputation of Queen Katherine is not what historical fiction is.

Daughters of Joy

I enjoy reading Christian fiction, but this story doesn't read like Christian fiction, it reads like a sermon. Instead of the religion being a part of the character development and the plotting, the author seems to be hell bent, pardon the pun, on beating the reader over the head with heavy-handed sermonizing that drags down the story and makes it hard to wade through. I finished this from sheer stubbornness, but it wasn't an enjoyable book.

The book had the most laughable collection of plot elements I've ever seen. It was almost as if the writer wrote a list of all the possible elements of a prairie Christian fiction story and tried desperately to work them all in. We have the grieving widow, the grieving widower, the grieving mother who has lost her only child, the misunderstood and badly behaved little child who just needs love, the reformed alcoholic, the man abused by his father, desperate not to repeat the cycle, the reformed prostitute, the wayward wife who comes home, the cross-cultural relationship between a White man and a Native American woman, the biracial child it produces and the resulting bigotry of the community, there is the rogue who threatens the virtue of our heroine, we have the prodigal son who errs and then returns home, and the woman who the doctors have told she will die if she gets pregnant but who puts her faith in God and gets pregnant again because it was her fault her husband had an affair with the reformed prostitute (who becomes pregnant as a result) when she asked him to abstain from sex. (Anyone not clear on what the sequel that focuses on the reformed prostitute will incorporate? I hear the death bells tolling now.)

No wonder this book was such a mess.

Cowboy Trouble

Couldn't even finish this and I can stubborn my way through a lot of bad fiction. This one creeped me out. In the first half of this book, all of the male characters can best be described as creepers and potential serial killers. Who walks up to a complete stranger while wearing chaps and starts carrying her stuff in to her new house? What big-city, single woman living alone doesn't call 911 the minute cowboy dude starts touching her stuff? What hero is in his 30's and still lives with mom and dad? Then there is the town character: a guy everyone says is crazy who dresses up dead animals in tutus and baseball uniforms?

I know this was also a suspense/murder mystery, but seriously, by half way through a romance novel I shouldn't still be wondering if the hero is going to pull out a knife and slice and dice the heroine or if he has the missing girl locked in his basement. The writer makes way too much of the heroines physical attraction to the sheriff who isn't the hero. I mean a casual notice is one thing, drooling is another. On top of it all the editing and formatting are terrible. Don't bother with this one.

The Boleyn Inheritance

This is the story of three women who found their lives dramatically affected by the death of Anne Boleyn. Ann of Cleves, sent by her family to marry a man who had buried all three of his previous wives, including one he beheaded. Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law to the former Queen whose testimony sent doomed Queen Anne and Jane’s husband George Boleyn to the scaffold. And young Katherine Howard, unprepared for the position her greedy family thrust her into and who find her self the heir to Anne Boleyn’s most horrible legacy.

Gregory sticks closer to history without her usual playing fast and loose with facts. All three women are portrayed with all their faults and with their more intriguing qualities as well. Ann is the clever woman who was forged in the fire of one tyrant only to be married to another. The most clever of Henry’s wives, she is the only one to survive with Henry’s good will and brotherly affection. Katherine Howard is strangely sympathetic as Gregory reminds us she was only a child of 15 married to an old man, grossly obese and stinking of the rotting flesh of a wound that wouldn’t heal. She was full of her own self with few thoughts in her head beyond dresses and jewels. A malleable girl, not just for a King, but for those who sought to manipulate her.

Dancing in the Moonlight

This was a nice little story. I almost didn't get it after reading some of the Amazon reviews, but I've concluded those who left the nasty one star reviews are either people who don't really like this genre, have no real clue about the effects of a serious trauma on a person or people who look for some reason to leave nasty reviews. There was good character development, the author took time to show us in flashbacks how the relationship between the H/h developed over the many years of their acquaintance. The h is moody and annoying with huge chips on her shoulders but the first chip is an understandable thorn in her side from the loss of a beloved father and the need to blame someone. The second chip is perfectly understandable as well as she tries to deal with the complex emotions and trials of dealing with a physical trauma that changes her life forever. She's only five months out of the horrors of war and the devastation of losing a limb and some reviewers think it would be realistic for her to be eager to believe someone could love her and all happy sweet and nice? That's not how it works. Some people carry those wounds their entire lives.

Ignore the negative reviews at Amazon and definitely go for this one. The characters are strong and will provoke a reaction from you. Even the secondary characters are well developed and the plot is well formulated. The only reason I rate this higher was that the plot did spend a bit too much time with them actually working on the ranch jobs...then they did more ranch jobs...then they did more ranch jobs...and neither is a rancher.

Recent Reads

2011-02-20T10:58:00.004-05:00

I’ve finished several new books lately ranging from new releases to older books, from young adult to adult. Some I’ve liked, some I haven’t.

Goblin Market

Jennifer Hudock

I had the pleasure of reading this book as it was being written and it was one of those you looked forward to the next chapter being completed because the characters were so engaging. The story is strong, but characterization is one of this author’s strongest skills. In the years I’ve been reading Jennifer Hudock’s work she has made me love characters, ache for them, cry for them and absolutely loathe them. One of her prior characters actually led me to have an overwhelming urge to slap the woman. The characters in Goblin Market are full, rich, relatable, and connectable. This one is highly recommended and is available from amazon.com for the Kindle and from Smashwords.com for other ereaders.

Blue Paradise

Anny Cook

Another trip to Mystic Valley is always a good thing. The heroine’s name was a bit unsettling at first, it almost seemed as if it would fit better with Cook’s Carnal Camelot series of stories which are absolutely hilarious and very irreverent. This is the story of one of the invaders to Mystic Valley that appear in the prior book finds herself in the sites as a potential mate of two of Mystic Valley’s handsome blue warriors.

White Nights

Jim Butcher

Another in the Dresden Files series of books, this one pits Harry Dresden against someone who is slowly picking off all of the magic practitioners in Chicago. Not full-fledged Wizards, the practitioners don’t have the protective skills needed to fight off the darker elements of the magical world. Worst of all for Harry, all signs point to the killer being his half-brother Thomas, the White Court vampire/incubus. This is much better than Blood Rites and Dead Beat before it. Butcher's hero has a whip snap sharp sense of humor and a tendency to make things around him explode, burst into flames

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

This is an insanely popular YA book at the moment but after reading it I have serious concerns about the audience I often see with it. This book is not for the younger end of YA. Middle schoolers and tweens are not an appropriate audience for this book. The premise and the message are more complex than students that age can understand. The irony of using a book with horrific, and no I’m not over stating that, violence to try to show the dangers of desensitization to violence is not a subtlety that a 12-13 year old is going to get. The violence is truly extreme. A group of teenagers (ages 12-17) are pitted against each other in a gladiator type situation and must fight until only one remains alive. These children hack and slice and bludgeon each other, killing is brutal, up-close and personal and most take pleasure in the destruction they are inflicting. One girl plans to cut up the heroine slowly with a knife. The last opponent the “heroine” faces is slowly eaten alive over several hours by a group of wolf like creatures with the eyes and features of the children that have already been killed until the girl finally shoots him through the head with an arrow to put him out of his misery.

I Am Number Four

Pittacus Lore

The author’s name is a pseudonym to stage the book as if it is being written by one of the elders of the long dead planet of Lorien. The story has nine elite children who will grow up to have special gifts and talents, each with a guardian (not a parent) who are sent to Earth as the evil Mogadorians attack and destroy all life on their planet. Charmed to protect them, as long as they remain apart from one another, they can only be killed in a predetermined number. As the book opens, 1-3 are dead and the hunt for 4 is underway. Not a great story, but not bad. Slow moving for the most of the first portion of the book, the real problem is that the main characters, #4—or John as he’s now known, is what romance writers refer to as TSTL. Too Stupid To Live. Time after time he does things that guarantee he, and everyone els around him, will die.

The Other Queen

Philippa Gregory

This was an interesting take on the story of Mary, Queen of Scots. For once, she’s not shown as the inane innocent who is victimized by those around her, but as a woman very much fighting to control her life, even when her actions will eventually lead to her death. It also tells the story of Elizabeth of Hardwick, herself a force of nature and a survivor who was able to navigate the treachery of Elizabethan England and the power of William Cecil. Gregory shows a Mary who wasn’t innocent. Claiming evidence from documents she’d examined, Gregory claims that Mary was an active participant in the attempts to free her and the plots against Elizabeth I.

Winter Driving Lessons

2011-01-10T14:15:00.004-05:00

(This intrepid driver could have used a few lessons in winter driving. So could the guy at this link. He managed to set his car on fire trying to get unstuck.)

There are many reasons I’m thankful for my stepdad, Danny. I wrote a couple of years ago about him making sure there was something from Santa under the tree every year, but today I’m thankful for more practical things he taught me. Having survived Ohio winters as a kid and North Dakota winters as a member of the K9 guard at an Air Force base, he knew a little something about surviving winters. These are some of the things he taught me.

1. Shovel early, shovel often. Don’t wait until the full several inches has accumulated in your driveway and walkways. Begin shoveling while it’s still falling and you’ll easily scoop away those half inches bit by bit. (I wish I’d listened to this last night.) If you wait, shovel in increments, a few feet at a time. It’s easier on the back and heart, and the snow isn’t going anywhere. Heart attacks are a big danger for even seemingly healthy people because snow shoveling is more work on the ticker than you’d think.

2. Driving in snow takes skill, driving on ice is stupid. Living in the south I often hear transplanted Northerners like me say they can drive on snow. Yep, they probably can. But when I hear them say they can drive on ice, I start deducting IQ points. No one can drive safely on ice. But there are some things that make it easier. Go slow. Wherever you’re going will be there when you get there, the important thing is to make sure you and those who ride with you are still okay when you get there. Leave a lot of room between you and the car in front of you. Turn into the skid—works for ice, snow or hydroplaning. You’re increasing the natural friction and it helps to stop the car. Try to stay in the groves of the car ahead of you. If it found traction there, you probably will too. Think ahead of where you are; ask yourself, "What will I do if..."

3. Be prepared for the worst. Have a safety kit with you. It’s actually very easy and can be put together from things at home. Start with a metal coffee can and poke holes in the sides. In the can put a candle, matches or a lighter, an extra pair of gloves, granola bars or a couple of chocolate bars, a small cup like a 1cp. measuring cup, a red rag and an unwound and folded up piece of a coat hanger. Keep this in the car, but way from heat sources like the floorboard of the front seat. Always carry a blanket with you and a small shovel/hand spade and a bag of deice, kitty litter or sand in the trunk of your car.

The de-ice, litter or sand can help you get traction after you dig out a bit of the slush and ice under your tires. If you can’t get out, make sure your tail pipe is clear so carbon monoxide doesn’t build up in and under the car. Now get back in the car and pullout your can. If your car won’t run and you can’t use the heater, you can hang the can from the rearview mirror with the wire and use the candle for light and warmth. You have a bit of a snack, a blanket, dry gloves and a cup for snatching snow up that you can melt to drink if needed. The red rag was for the days before cellphones. You tied it to your antenna or rolled it up in the window to signal for help.

Well, enough of that. I need to go back out and shovel some more snow.

Cold winter memories

2011-01-08T16:00:00.001-05:00

Another forecast for winter weather and we’re all getting ready. We went to the grocery store and it was packed. Everyone was stocking up just in case. The odd thing was that there were no bananas. Banana? Really? So instead of that French toast igloo (milk, bread and eggs) you’re working on a banana-log house?

As we and everyone else stocked up--and with a forecast for 4-8” of snow in an area where there is maybe one snow plow per county and they’re usually on loan to the northern mountain area of our state it only makes sense, we noticed a lot of people buying fire wood as well. Our area is notorious for losing power to homes during winter weather or severe storms. All of this reminded me of winters back home in east-central Illinois. December, early January and March were known for ice storms while massive snow was usually in late January and February. And those winters are why I always want a fireplace or wood burning stove in my home…and a gas stove/oven.

When I was a kid, we had very little money. Not that I have much money now, but we make ends meet most months. Back then there was no cushion and the reality was that the money sometimes didn’t stretch. Cupboards sometimes ran bare. Bills were paid when they came on pink paper, cars were sometimes held together with coat hangers and duct tape, coaxed and nudged and rebuilt with hope and parts from a salvage yard. I’ve written before about how some Christmases, Santa found it all but impossible to get to our house.

I remember times when winter storms knocked out our power. Our furnace may have been gas, but without the electric powered blower, a gas furnace is all but useless. We didn’t have a fireplace in our trailers or in any of the houses we rented or the one my parents tired to buy with my step dad’s VA loan. So many winters’ days found us with blankets hung over the windows and doorways of the kitchen, blankets and pillows (or even couch cushions) scattered on the floor as we all used the heat from the oven trapped by the blankets to keep the room warm enough we didn’t freeze. Hot water bottles tucked in with us also helped to cut the chill.

Cold winters also meant frozen pipes. I remember a lot of winters where there was no running water and where one of my uncles or grandfather was under our trailer or in crawl space trying to unthaw water pipes with a propane torch or (later) a hair dryer. Heat tape is electric and not useful when there is not electricity. While we waited for a thaw, we hauled water from the Laundromat across the street or used the gas station bathroom. During one particular long spell, our toilet for number one was a Styrofoam ice chest that was poured into the toilet with a bit of precious water when it was full. Not exactly a happy healthy memory, but hey…it happened.

I look at a lot of my students these days, some the same age I was when much of this was part of my life, and wonder how they would handle adversity. I do think this current generation will have a better understanding of scraping, saving and self-denial than any generation has for a while. But I worry about the messages they are getting about what’s important. I know one 13 year old girl who still has her designer clothes and smart phone but told me how her family has lost their house. Another tells me how her dad is out of work, they have lost their house and she can’t afford to go on the field trip, but mom still drives a Hummer. I wonder if this will skew their priorities or if this generation will grow up rejecting the “me” status symbols of their parents. I sort of hope it will be the latter.

Mom's last Christmas Gift

2010-12-25T20:21:00.006-05:00

As of 7:30pm tonight we’d had 2.7” of snow. Why is this a big deal? We live just outside of Atlanta. Georgia. In the Deep South. According to a local news source, Atlanta hasn’t had snow that stuck since the 1880s. This winter we had a trackable snow on the 12^th and now a full scale snow fall on Christmas Day. The first white Christmas in over 100 years. My son has been excited all day and nearly vibrating with interest in the cold white stuff.

Growing up in Illinois, you would think that white Christmases were the norm. They aren’t. Central Illinois doesn’t normally see more than a faint trackable snow in December. Trackable refers to the fact that if a rabbit ran through it, it would leave tracks you could follow. Our real snows don’t generally fall until January and especially February. So white Christmases were special for us, especially for my mother.

My mom loved all things Christmas. The weeks from Halloween to New Years were her favorite time of the year, culminating in Christmas. As a family, we women went shopping on Black Friday and it kicked things off for us. Christmas was very much about family and all things traditional Christmas. The tree went up on the Friday after Thanksgiving and came down New Years. Lights bedecked the house, indoors and out. Old movies such as Miracle on 34^th Street were playing in the background on a continuous loop. And snowmen were everywhere. She loved and collected Frosty in all his incarnations.

My mom loved snow. She always dreamed of taking a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the falling snow. Each year she watched for all the folksy indicators and focused on the nightly weather report waiting to see if we would have a white Christmas. When I moved south she would call every time they had snow to ask if we were coming up any time soon. Once my son was born she was especially interested to know if we were planning on coming up for the holidays and even more vigilant about the weather to see if he would have snow for our visits.

My mom passed away a few weeks ago. It snowed heavily the day she died and we had five inches of snow in Illinois for her funeral. The flowers that were sent by those who knew her all shared the Christmas theme in honor of her love of the season. The topiary we picked out from the grandchildren was adorned with a stuffed snowman. I didn’t take my son. He’d just turned two and we felt he was too young for the 9 hour trip plus he was too young to sit through the funeral and all the planning we would have to do.

Today is Christmas and I honestly believe we all received her last Christmas gift. All of her children and grand children (except the ones who live in Florida) have had a white Christmas. My son played in more snow than he’s ever seen and there will be even more on the ground for him in the morning. So tomorrow, along with all his other Christmas gifts, my son will get to play again with his grandma’s last Christmas present—something that will make all future white Christmases, rare or not, even more precious.

***Update Even the grandkids in Florida saw flurries. Mom must have been working hard.

Saddness among beauty

2010-11-13T19:28:00.004-05:00

We recently took our son, Z, up to north Georgia to the lovely area around Helen. Helen is a tourist trap, but it’s a clean, nice place to be a tourist trap. We head up each year more to visit the stands that pop up along the roadside. They sell ciders of all types, apple, peach, muscadine, blackberry and many, many others. There are homemade apple fritters, apple butter, hand crafts and boiled peanuts K loves these, I detest them, even the smell makes me nauseous. Z watched the horses in the fields, the farm cats and dogs running about with wide eyes while we shopped and tasted.

Helen itself is a picturesque little Alpine style village in the North Georgia mountains. There are shops selling every little whatnot you can imagine, shirts, “old-time” pictures, real estate (buy or rent your own mountain cabin) and homespun art. One of our favorite places is Hansel and Gretel’s Candy Kitchen. They make the best goodies –salt water taffy, turtles, caramels, candied apples and more flavors of fudge than you could begin to imagine. The alpine feeling is enhanced by the horse drawn carriages that give rides to visitors. Z got to ride in his first carriage and feed the horse, Nelly, carrots.

While up there, we stopped at a place that purported to be a bear nature center, The Black Forest Bear Park. We expected to see one or two black bears (Georgia’s native species) in a nice tended area. We were horrified by what we saw. In this small building set off of Main Street, there are 16 adult bears in an enclosure that is smaller than half a football field. There are eight cement enclosures where half the bears are allowed out at a time. They look like the bottom of an empty swimming pool. We heard the guy on duty tell someone that the rest of the bears were in “dens” under the floor of the walkway that we were on. The walk way couldn’t have been 30 feet across.

Z was fascinated, but we couldn’t help look at each other in horror of how these bears were being treated. It was horribly sad to see these beautiful creatures humbled and humiliated into begging food from the visitors who tossed apples and slices of French bread. Sadly, the place isn’t breaking any laws. I can’t help but think that one day humanity will pay for it’s arrogance.

Creativity

2010-09-26T12:30:00.005-04:00

A friend of mine made a statement on her blog that got me thinking. She said there is very little room for practicality in a creative person’s life. Now there’s not a lot that Jenn and I disagree on, oh a few things here and there that make each of us roll our eyes and shake our heads at the other, but this one stood out for me today in a big way.

I just finished my first “paper” for the class I’m taking to get my master’s degree. It has been a struggle this week to find the time to do homework and work and family and me. I’m not sure I managed all of it with any kind of finesse, but it all has gotten done…almost, we won’t look at the big pile of laundry or the stack of tests I still need to grade.

So did I do anything creative? Yes. I planned out the performance tasks and lesson sequences for the next section my students will be working on. I squeezed in some reading for leisure around the edges. My mind has been making changes to a manuscript I have in the works, nothing written, but it’s in my head. I took my son to a football game that required a car ride of 45 minutes.

What? These don’t seem creative to you? They are, I assure you. Let’s start with the first. I had to develop and outline the real-life task my students will perform to show that they understand and can utilize the information in the upcoming expository and persuasive units of study. Go on, try it. What is the goal, the role the student will fill, the audience, the real life situation the student will be experiencing and what is the actual performance task outline? Got one for understanding expository texts? Okay, now do it again for persuasive texts. Now figure out how to maintain the attention of 150 7^th and 8^th graders while you present the information. See what I mean yet?

No? Try the next one. Reading for leisure. This is an easy one, right? The story fills your head and you transport yourself into the situation and you live, breath and move with the characters in the story. You feel as they feel, you experience what they experience…no? Then you don’t really know how to read.

But let’s try again. Come up with a way to entertain a 21 month old in the backseat of a car while you drive in the front seat of a car for 45 minutes…each way. No, videos aren’t an option. Getting it yet?

It is my belief that we need to learn to see our creativity differently. I know this isn’t the point that Jenn was making, but it got me thinking. Instead of bemoaning the unfinished painting, manuscript, sculpture, composition, etc. that you have, begin celebrating and recognizing all the ways you do exercise your creativity on a daily basis. By doing that, and adding a bit of creative time management, you just may find yourself motivated to finish that project that has you feeling like a creative failure.

The beauty of candles

2010-08-09T19:35:00.002-04:00

My sister-in-law has started a small home business making candles. You see, my sister-in-law was diagnosed some years ago with MS. She's a young mother with four small children and over the past few years the MS has eroded her ability to work at any structured job to help her husband support the family. So with her fledgling home business, she can work at her own time and pace.

I encourage you to drop by the facebook page or blog to see what they have to offer.

Cliches and Contrivances

2010-07-29T21:25:00.005-04:00

Cliches are cliches because they are fall backs because they were good ideas and fit with the genre they appear in. Cliches are not bad in and of themselves, they are only bad when they are a substitute for creativity and become trite and boring. A clever writer can take what appears to be a cliche on the surface and turn it around with a clever dealing.

One book I recall included every cliche in the sub-genre and none handled very creatively. I found the most interesting part of the book waiting to see just how many cliche's the author could squeeze in. Of course, contrivances are just as fun as cliches. Oh, don't worry, none of the negative aspects of the life the heroine has been cast into will ever come to pass because then it wouldn't be romantic. To avoid this the author creates a contrived and convenient set of circumstances that simply defy the ability of the reader to suspend disbelief.

Recent Reads

The Heart's Warrior by Leigh Bale "A heart broken~ Known for her healing skills, Kerstin, the Witch of Moere, is torn from the arms of her betrothed and forced into marriage with Jonas, The Beast of Hawkscliffe, her family's mortal enemy. Believing herself in love with another man, Kerstin cannot deny the fierce passion Jonas ignites within her nor the awakening of feelings she has never known before. A heart tormented ~ A warrior of duty, to ensure peace, Jonas will honor the kin's demand and wed the woman accused of murdering his elder brother. As Jonas faces Kerstin's wrath, the golden warrior longs for serenity and love, but doubts these yearnings will ever come true. Yet when he weds Kerstin, he finds his carefully guarded heart is overcome by desire and she alone can heal his damaged soul." ***

Loose Lips by Rita Mae Brown This is the story of Julia Ellen and Louise Hunsenmeir, two sisters navigating aging, married life and motherhood in a small town during the years of World War II. This is the third book in the series that follows the outrageous women who specialize in sibling rivalry and behaving badly. **

Bought for the Harem by Anne Herries "Thrown into a frightening and unfamiliar world after her capture by corsairs, Lady Harriet Sefton-Jones thinks help has arrived in the form of dashing Lord Kasim. But its out of the frying pan and into the fire... Kasim may once have been a n English nobleman, but there is nothing noble about his intentions to purchase Harriet for his master the caliph's pleasure. Harriet must resign herself to a life of enslavement. But Kasim has a plan of his own: charmed by Harriet's spirit and beauty, he's determined to claim her for himself!" **

Release Day

2010-07-09T12:14:00.005-04:00

Today is the release day for From the Dark Side (see the trailer on the right). While it may not have cookies, it has some seriously terrific short stories and poem from a group of exceptionally talent authors. (No I'm still not sure how I ended up in it.) The anthology is a charity project with all proceeds going to the Offices of Letters and Light. This is the non-profit group who sponsors the Youth Writing Project and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)--an amazing and supportive event that encourages writers and those who want to be writers to complete a novel (for good or bad) in one month. The point of it is to get the thing down and as a writer I can tell you that sometimes that's the hardest part.

So for tales from the dark side, scary creep tales that will make you sleep with the lights on, check out From the Dark Side at Amazon.com or Smashwords.com

Oh, and it's not one of the stories this anthology but if you're looking for one of the best shorts I've ever read, while your on these sites check out Black Velveteen by Jennifer Hudock. Not only is Jenn the one who has worked so hard editing the charity anthology, but she's one of the best writers out there--especially when it comes to stories that will stick with you for a while. While looking for the link to the anthology, I found a link to Black Velveteen. I had the privilege to read this story in its infancy when Jenn was crafting it and it is an absolute must read. Smashwords or Amazon I promise this is the best 99 cents you'll spend on a story.

Recent Reads

2010-07-06T20:49:00.004-04:00

Finished two sweet little romances the last few days. Nothing earth shattering that will have me craving to read it again or that I will probably remember, but nice little reads. Both are fairly chaste.

Shot Gun Bride by Lauri Robinson- Like most girls, Jessie Johnson will never forget the first time she met her mother-in-law. After all who can forget a shotgun pointed at them? Bartered for a dead horse at gun point, she either agrees to marry one of the Quinter boys or her brother will hang for horse theft. Jessie knows nothing about being a wife- other than the wedding will likely put her new husband in grave danger. After being knocked unconscious by his brothers, Kid Quinter finds himself surrounded by his uncouth family, the sheriff, a preacher, and an adorable young woman. Tied to a chair, he's given no choice but to marry Jessie Johnson. And that’s just the beginning of his troubles- it appears his pretty little wife has quite a past, including a notorious gunslinger looking for retribution.

Mother of the Bride by Caroline Anderson- (This is the first Harlequin I've read in many years. Many people will turn up their noses at the books by this publisher and they have a semi-deserved reputation for being cookie cutter and somewhat ridiculous. But with increasing competition in low cost romance novels, Harlequin is stepping it up.) Mother of the bride catches the bouquet! With just a few months until her daughter's wedding, Maisie feels butterflies at the prospect of seeing Jenni's dad, Rob, again after so many years. As parents of the bride they'll be hosting the wedding party at his stunning Scottish ancestral estate, and watching as their daughter says "I do." Whether it's nostalgia or wedding planning fever, Maisie's beginning to wonder, can she convince Rob that they have another chance at their own happily-ever-after?

2010-07-04T12:32:00.002-04:00

I've always wondered why we celebrate the 4th of July and not the 2nd of July.

For those who aren't history geeks like me, in June of 1776 Richard Henry Lee, a delegate to the Second Continental Congress from Virginia, proposed the legal separation of the Colonies from England. The proposal was accepted by the Congress on July 2nd of 1776. That was the date of the legal separation of the American Colonies from the British Empire. That was the day we became a separate and independent nation. July 4th is the day the delegates approved the language draft of the written document that notified the world we were free.

Rules of Toddlerhood

2010-07-02T15:05:00.005-04:00

To my Momma:

Now that I have become a full-fledged toddler there are some rules than need to change around here. According to the laws of toddlerhood the following are now in effect:

1. If I want it, it’s mine.

2. If I can reach it, it’s not my fault if I play with it.

3. If you forget to lock the water and ice dispenser on the refrigerator, it is not my fault if I flood the kitchen.

4. What’s good for the dogs is good for me. This includes playing in the water bowl, crawling under the desk and chewing on things.

5. Those mashed vegetables you fed me that I gobbled down happily? Yeah, those days are gone.

6. Just because I ate it yesterday does not mean I will ever eat it again.

7. Meal time just became a much longer ordeal. I will eat with my fingers, my spoon and take my sweet time doing it. Have the drop cloth and the hose ready.

8. Remember how excited you were by each sound I made? The volume and pitch just went way up.

9. I reserve the right to express my feelings freely regardless of where we are or who is watching.

10. In toddlerhood, no means not right this second. It does not apply to the same action thirty seconds later.

11. If the television is on, it is my choice what we watch. Thomas and Friends and Curious George come before Law and Order marathons.

12. Safety gates are not there to protect me but are instruments of imprisonment meant to foil my plans. Be warned this means I have the right to try anything possible to over come them including shaking them, climbing them, biting them or throwing myself at them while I scream.

13. Any direction prefaced with the words “Do not” will immediately become my priority, only without the “Do not” part.

14. I have two speeds, full and stop. Have your running shoes ready.

15. All offenses are immediately forgiven with a hug and smile.

Coming Soon...A Trip to the Dark Side

2010-06-28T13:37:00.005-04:00

July 9th is the release date for a charity anthology that I'm thrilled to be a part of. From the Dark Side will benefit the Office of Letters and Light. You may not recognize the name, but most writers will recognize the events hosted by this non-profit organization.

The Office of Letters and Light sponsors National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and Script Frenzy, along with the adult and youth writing programs that go with them. The Young Writer's Program encourages writing for teens and children by providing support to educators, home school families and youth librarians with lesson plans, curriculum materials and exciting community activities to promote writing. Many writers have completed their first novels as a result of the support and encouragement of NaNoWriMo.

The anthology includes short fiction and poetry by twenty contributing writers each taking a look at life on the dark side. The ebook will go on sale July 9th through Amazon and SmashWords.

The anthology includes one of my short fiction pieces entitled Shadow's Embrace.

Life is often painful and unkind, but just when she feels she can't go on, he is always there. He is perfect in every way and he adores her as no one else has ever done. If only his world were the real world.

An Historical tabloid?

2010-06-25T11:34:00.004-04:00

(Let me just say I know current style uses "a" before "h" but I just can't do it. Too many years of drilling into me that "an" comes before "h".)

I love historical novels, and especially those set in the age of the Tudors and have for many years. I love stories of highland heroes and English noblemen. Historical or Regency, I adore them whether they are based on completely fictional characters or real, historical, ones.

It's interesting to image the lives of those who lived before us and especially those whose actions changed the world around us as many of the royals and royal hangers-on did during the Tudor time period. The varied points of view on individuals is interesting to see as well. Sometimes we see Anne Boleyn as the evil seductress out to ruin everything to get what she wanted. Sometimes she's an innocent girl who is manipulated by her father, uncle and brother to earn the king's favor and then betrayed by the same family. Or sometimes, and probably closer to the truth, we see her as a clever young woman whose family gave her all the encouragement and rope she needed to see to it that she finally hung herself.

But I do wonder at the fairness of taking real historical figures, people who actually lived and taking them too far. For example, Sir Thomas Seymour, Uncle to Edward VI. Now Tom Seymour has been portrayed as a light-hearted everyman and as a calculating scoundrel. He's gone from the long suffering man, in love with Catherine Parr and denied her love by King Henry VIII who took her as his sixth and final wife. He's been portrayed as the roque who, when he couldn't get close enough to Edward VI, being held back by his brother; sought to seduce his way into a better position first with Princess Mary, then the Princess Elizabeth and finally the Dowager Queen Catherine with whom he was successful, and back to Princess Elizabeth. Again the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

But a novel I recently read portrayed Sir Thomas Seymour as more than a grasping climber. It portrayed him as the lowest of men, as a rapist. It's my opinion that goes too far. As writers we can play with motives, play with intentions and even play with actions and words of those who are long dead. But I think we do have a responsibility to remember these are real people we are talking about. Now if history has concluded that Richard III was responsible for the deaths of his nephews, and we write a story including that, it's one thing. But to take a real person from history and make that person guilty of an act they have never been accused of committing, let alone seem in history responsible for, is simply wrong.

I wonder if it's the distance between the years that makes us feel better about this.

Zombies...really?

2010-06-22T10:08:00.003-04:00

Zombies. I just don't get zombies.

From the myriad of zombie movies to the increasing number of zombie themed books it seems as if Zombies are the next vampires. Classics like Pride and Prejudice have been reworked to include zombie themes. Young Adult books with zombie themes are exploding including a series by Daniel Waters called Generation Dead. Suddenly teens who die start coming back as zombies. No one knows why, but the politically correct police are on the case. The living-impaired go to school, play football on the team and even date the cool Goth chick.

I've read one at the recommendation of one of my students and I still don't get it. Zombies are reanimated dead bodies. They are decaying, smelly and gooey. They eat you alive. Ewww.

I just don't get it.

Old standbys can grow stale.

2010-06-17T20:04:00.005-04:00

We all have our go-to authors, the ones whose books we wait for and pick up regularly because we've come to love the characters in their series or just the writing style that makes opening the book feel like falling into a comfortable old chair with a warm cuppa. But when does that familiarity start to breed disconent if not contempt? I recently picked up books by two of my go-tos with mixed results. I'd been avoiding them recently because I was starting become a bit impatient with them.

Rita Mae Brown:

While this is the same Rita Mae Brown who wrote Rubyfruit Jungle and caused a good deal of gasping and fainting among the old Southern elite, I've always been drawn to the mysteries that are "co-authored" by her tabby cat, SneakyPie. The first several books were awesome. I enjoyed reading every moment of them even if she sometimes left me rolling my eyes over her handling of gay men. (Yes, I am aware of her sexual orientation.) In the early years they were generally the villains, though she did back away from this later.

Her main character, Harry, lost interest for me when Brown stopped playing about with her sexual ambiguity and singleness. In the end Brown reunited Harry with her errant husband who had learned his lesson. Once Harry became the happy little homemaker again, the series went flat. She wrote out or minimized characters that added pizzaz and sparkle like Miranda and Boom-Boom.

I recently picked up Cat of the Century. I wouldn't say my love has returned, but I definitely would say that this book redeemed Harry a great deal in my eyes and I'm once again likely to pick up a Mrs. Murphy mystery.

Sherrilyn Kenyon:

I guess it might be surprising that the most awaited Kenyon book, Acheron, was responsible for making me back away. It was overblown and not pleasant to read. The first two thirds that told of Acheron's history were a stark abandonment of the style that made Kenyon, Kenyon. The final third, the Acheron gets his girl part, was the only part of this book that held any redemption and is the only part I will ever read again.

I picked up Bad Moon Rising simply because No Mercy is coming out soon and I had been avoiding the Fang-Aimee book. Just not interested in it, but I was looking forward to the story of Dev and Samia. The book wasn't as bad as I feared. It was exactly that comfortable Kenyon feeling that I'd missed in Acheron. I'm glad that's back and my passsion for her Dark-Hunter world has returned.

I also had a pleasant surprise when I picked up Kenyon's YA offering The Chronicles of Nick: Infinity. I'd been wary since Nick was the character I was most disappointed in through the series. He began as this indearing smart-ass kid and ended up in the adult version of the series as a whiny idiot who just needs to be b-slapped and told to man-up. But this series has brought the adult readers back to the Nick we loved and introduces YA readers to a a cast of very cool characters they will come to identify with and enjoy.

I've often credited Kenyon with reminding me that after years of required reading in school that reading was supposed to be fun. I really think the Chronicles of Nick will bring that home to a new generation of readers.

Up next for me is a little non-fiction. American Conspiracies by Jesse Ventura. I anticipate a few good giggles and eye rolls.

The World-Cup: Who knew?

2010-06-12T12:19:00.006-04:00

During the last World-Cup a friend of mine who lives in England, but who would be the first to explain to you that he is not English but Irish, tutored me on the finer points of football. I actually followed lightly but didn't take it too seriously. Since then we have started a soccer program at our school and our girls have dominated the district since with a string of championships. I also have a sister-in-law who is rather enthusiastic about the sport and especially the Mexican team. (Since she was born in Mexico, I'm assuming that's part of her passion.)

Flipping through channels today I came upon the Argentina vs Nigeria game. I suddenly realized part of the appeal. I mean, have you seen these guys? The Argentine team looks like a collection of romance cover models. I know a lot of women discovered football/soccer with the arrival of David Beckham, but frankly, I never got it. He wasn't my cup of tea. He always seemed a bit crunchy-like someone needed to introduce him to soap and deodorant. Not that clean sweat of a man who's worked hard and played hard, but the icky dirty of a man who forgot to shower after the last game or two or three or four or... ewww.

But these guys? Very nice. Need proof? (Argentina is on the left.)

I think soccer...er...football just became a lot more interesting. Of course, being an American I have to admit that the US team (below) isn't to be overlooked.

It looks like soccer/football just found a new spectator.

Summer Reading

2010-06-07T18:16:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite parts of summer vacation is more reading time. I’ve had the opportunity to finish two books over the weekend and today. My “to read” list had been getting very big. There are a lot of them I’ve been meaning to get to that I just haven’t had time to.

I’ve been enjoying the more and more books from Wild Rose Press. I just finished Nothing to Commend Her by Jo Barrett. "The Earl of Pensby lost his wife in a fire, one tht left him scarred in more ways than one. He's surly, brooding, and acoording to half the ton, a monster. Except to Agatha Trumwell, she sees so much more than his scars. But with a pitiful dowry, unfavorable looks, and a tendency to speak her mind, she h as nothing to commend her, or so she believes. Can these two lonely souls find love amid the gossiping beau monde while someone plots to tear their fragile world apart?"

The premise of the book isn't entirely original, the too old bluestocking who earns the love of the scarred nobleman, each thinking their looks prevent the other from loving them, isn't exactly untried in the Regency world. The "someone" trying to tear them apart is fairly obvious, but the why is definitely a new twist.

Yet, it's a good read because the characters are so wonderfully drawn.

Babies in the Bargain by Mona Risk: "With only one year left to complete her training in Neonatology, Dr. Holly Collier vows not to let anyone mess up her sacrosanct schedule. Especially not the drop-dead gorgeous Dr. Marc Suarez who broke her heart seven years ago. When a tragic accident transforms the carefree playboy into a dedicated novice father to his nephew, Holly gives in to her maternal instincts and turns her structured life upside down for the orphaned preemie. But can she learn to trust in Marc again and believe in true love?"

This was a delightful book. The characters were engaging and endearing, though at one point the reader does want to smack their heads together and tell them to stop. Risk does pull you into the world of her doctors and this is guaranteed to charm readers.

Memorial Day

2010-05-30T20:43:00.005-04:00

Memorial Day began in the late 1800's when General John Logan declared a nation wide holiday, then known as Decoration Day. Logan was the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Republic and wanted to honor the soldiers who had died during the Civil War. Most southern states refused to recognize it.

It wasn't until the Federal govt. created Memorial Day in 1967 that it became an official holiday to honor all the veterans.

Oh, that handsome guy in his sailor suit is my grandfather, Harry B. Edwards, Jr. He served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. His tour was in the Pacific and he experienced the hospitality of a Japanese POW camp. And the cool dude below is my stepdad, Danny M. Neubig, who served in the Air Force's K9 Corps.

Bad Mouthing Romance

2010-05-18T18:36:00.003-04:00

I was surprised again recently when I heard writer Anny Cook describe the reaction she got at a writer's convention to the fact that she writes romance. I don't know why I was surprised, it's not new. It's the same old elitist nonsense that continues to rear it's ugly head again and again among writers. But it also reflects an opinion held by many in the general public.

I guess what continues to surprise me is how the attitude flies in the face of the data and statistics from the publishing world. According the data from RWA (Romance Writers of America), romance fiction generated $1.37 billion in sales in 2008. The genre was the top performing category on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best-seller lists. Recent surveys show that 74.8 million people read at least one romance novel in 2008.

The romance genre continues to hold the lion's share of the consumer market in 2008. The $1.37 billion out earned all other genres with Religion/inspirational and mystery coming in distant second and third with $800 million and $668 million in earnings repectively. (And most of those have romantic subplots.)

The truth is the romance genre with all it's subgenres out sell all the others and surveys show that romance novel readers are among the most prolific readers. Romances are part of what's being published for most age groups. JK Rowling, as her readers aged, flirted with some innocent romances. Young adult writers Riordan, Meyer, Patterson, McDaniel, Cooney, etc. all touch on the romantic. Adult authors like Dan Brown even build their tension and suspense with romantic subplots. Romance, the tendency of humans to form close and caring relationships, is everywhere.

Maybe the problem is that people don't understand when they're reading romance. I mean, after all, romances can't even begin to compare with literary classics. Or can they? A wide spectrum of what we consider "classic literature" have a their heart romance. Don't believe me? There would have been no Iliad without Paris and Helen. Wuthering Heights? Yeah, a sick little love story but for Heathcliff and Kathy a love story nonetheless. And would the illustrious Masterpiece Theater waste their reputation on tawdry, raunchy romances? Well, they have done versions of almost all of Jane Austen's works not to mention the Brontes. Even Brahm Stoker knew the importance of a romantic element in his work.

So should I be ashamed that I write stories about men and women who meet, fall in love and struggle to make the relationship work out with some hope of a happy future? Why would I?

Motherhood...

2010-05-09T12:44:00.009-04:00

...never boring.

It's amazing how one small human being can make you feel both 100 feet tall and totally incompetent at the same time.

Creeped Out by 14 year old boys

2010-05-06T22:05:00.007-04:00

Threats against my family, my livelihood and my reputation are taken seriously.

This original post was removed due to a threat received in the comments section . The post, the comments and the IP addresses of those who commented (and all are saved whether you call yourself anonymous or not) have been forwarded to my attorney for review.

Thank you.

Shadow of the wind

2010-04-26T12:55:00.003-04:00

I just finished Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind. This is a much touted literary "masterpiece".

I will agree that technically it was beautiful. The prose, the language, the style was carefully and skillfully crafted. One could easily lose themselves in the beauty of the prose. However, I found that that seems to be what happened to the story. The story line was not compelling and seemed to play second fiddle to the prose--to the "crafting" of the words.

Maybe I'm just a simple person with simple tastes, but I have to find the storyline the number one draw to the book.

I was reading the remarks from a friend who attended a writer's conference and she remarked on how romance writing still isn't really accepted as "real" writing. I blame this on the transition that happens to people about middle school to high school where we start to put emphasis on "classic literature". In doing so we tend to suck the fun right out of reading.

In middle school and high school I remember the guilty pleasure of sneaking a Harlequin romance. They were fun to read. So were comic books. But these were looked down upon as not real reading by those who are in the position I hold now, a reading/ELA teacher. We read Animal Farm, The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, etc. in the seventh grade and I used to think that was an awesome thing.

It is in some respects. There is a certain body of literature that everyone should have a passing knowledge of and the three works above are among them. In the WIP I have going, which may turn out to be a YA novel, the protagonist is bemoaning her third trip to the land of Chaucer. Yes, we all need to have a passing acquaintance with The Canterbury Tales, but by focusing entirely on those kinds of works we are at deep risk of sucking the fun out of reading. I mean, come on, how many of you who have read Chaucer, enjoyed it? Not many. We may admire it, we may appreciate it, but enjoy it?

Classic works are a must. We need to know, understand and be familiar with great works of literature. But thank goodness for writers who know how to keep reading fun. I'd lost the fun in reading until I picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to figure out what the hype was all about. I devoured it in a few hours and went back for more.

Yet still, it seemed that fun and adult literature were forever to be separated until I attended my first DragonCon (the SciFi-Fantasy-Horror convention in Atlanta). I saw a panel with Sherrilyn Kenyon-dressed in pigtails with bright red yarn fluffed through them and horns. (I had no idea at the time she was dressed like the demon Simi from her books.) I'd never heard of her before that day, but was drawn by the vampire-goth theme of the panel. She was hilarious and fun.

A check of my local library showed they had her novels and I, again, discovered the fun in reading. Now I embrace my romance reader side. It took longer for me to embrace the romance writer side of me. My first novel, Access Denied, was written without a clue on my part that it was a romance until one of my friends gave me a reality check. It had been declined by a couple of publishers when Courtney said, "Duh, you're sending it out wrong, you don't have a sci-fi novel on your hands, kiddo, you have a romance."

I was shocked. I'd written a romance? Yes I had. The story of James and Leah was definitely a romance. Not your typical one, he's a difficult kinda guy to warm up to, but it was definitely a romance.

I don't have aspirations as a writer to write the great American novel. Like Leah, who reminds me a great deal of Lizzy in The Rainmaker, my dreams are much more simple. I just want people to have fun.

A little bit of exercise feels good.

2010-04-11T20:34:00.004-04:00

I don't mean the type of exercise that makes you sweat and makes your physical muscles ache. I mean the type of exercise that you do with your mind, your imagination and creativity.

I've been writing fairly steadily the last couple of days. A mere 4,200+ words at the moment, but it may just be a good start that leads to a good finish. Writers will tell you, we all have stories we started that we never finished. We all have stories we finished but which just sit there and don't ever find a home and often for good reason. Some are just never ready to be out their on their own.

This little story I've started recently has been brewing in my head for a while. It seems to be coming fairly easily and most promisingly the hero is very demanding. That is generally a good sign. When my hero is uncooperative, pushy and demanding it usually means the story will at least get finished. He won't let me not finish it.

How is he pushy? Well I had decided after a great deal of research just what name I was going to give him. You know that look someone gives you that says, "You have got to be out of your f'ing mind?" Yeah, that's the look I got. No, seriously. That's how he looked at me. Then he informed me that if I wanted to know his name I should have asked. It's Gideon by the way. And this is what he looks like.

An Exercise in Randomness

2010-04-09T15:22:00.005-04:00

Caution: Today's blog is an exercise in randomness.

Television used to be a rarity in our house, but I confess that is changing, mostly since we got cable. We got the cable as a bundle with the high-speed internet and because we did want Z to have access to Discovery, the History Channel, Animal Planet and PBS.

Oops…tangent. Can you have a tangent in randomness?

The much touted 100^th episode of the Fox television show Bones aired last night. I’ve seen a few episodes, but sometimes it can be a bit ripe for me. Ditto CSI. But as I’ve watched the commercials it occurred to me that all of these folks owe their success to one man. Jack Klugman.

Yes, Jack Klugman. Klugman (and yes, he's still alive) has portrayed several iconic characters over the years including Oscar Madison --who while he didn't inspire Oscar the Grouch was later given a nod by Henson and pals. Sesame Street paid homage to the other famous Oscar by giving their trashcan residing grouch a best friend named Felix the neat Grouch.

After his time on The Odd Couple (which came after years of impressive parts in movies including 12 Angry Men), in 1976, Jack Klugman gave life to the original forensic scientist/crime fighter--Dr. R. Quincy, ME.

Originally conceived as part of the rotating NBC Sunday night mystery theater that included McCloud, McMillan and Wife and Columbo, Klugman's Quincy was so popular that he was quickly given his own weekly show. Using the skills of a medical examiner Quincy used 1970's forensics to solve mysteries. The seven year run of this show opened the door for shows like Diagnosis Murder (1993-2001); Crossing Jordan (2001-2007); CSI and all it's spin-offs (2003-present) and Bones (2005-present).

I remember watching Quincy, and not just because my grandmother liked it. I liked it. I found the way Quincy used medical science to solve crimes fascinating. I found the secondary characters interesting and enjoyable. It was a terrific show. Or maybe it was just that in 1976 I was 11 years old and found it the mark of being a grown up to watch the 9:00pm (CST) grownup show. It was the same with M*A*S*H*. I didn't actually understand many of the jokes, but being able to stay up late to watch was a mark of adulthood.

**************

I find myself writing again recently. I thought for awhile this was going to turn into a YA story. I'm not sure of that now. The heroine is young, just how young I'm not sure yet. Somewhere between 16-20 so I guess that is YA. And it's paranormal. Part of my world, but an aspect I've only ever touched on. It will be interesting to see how and if it develops.

Death of the Road Trip

2010-04-08T19:54:00.003-04:00

I just returned from a trip to Florida for our spring break. We drove down to my mother-in-law's house so that she could see Z. She'd not seen him since last October because he came down with bronchitis around Christmas. No slight meant to my mother-in-law, but I was actually relieved. I have this thing about wanting to keep the major holidays for just our little family. But that's not what this blog is about. It's about the fact that the days of taking road trips are over for me, and though there is some denial involved here, for my SO as well.

The trip to Ft. Myers is between 11 and 13 hours long depending on road construction. It was a hop in the car, drive and keep going until we arrived. Now, things are different. The trip is a two day event, an event marked with frequent stops and a great deal of Barney and Elmo. Yep, such is the reality of driving with a toddler.

We prepared for the event as much as possible including breaking down and buying a portable DVD player for the car. Though we try to avoid television in our house, my son has gotten hooked on the purple dino and the little red whatsit. This I could deal with, even after hours of "I love you, you love me, ...etc." The glitch is the fact that evidently a toddler has a much more limited tolerance for sitting still. *insert eye roll here*

We'd been taking breaks, snacks, drinks and diaper changes. However, as bedtime approached, Z decided he was done, punctuated by projectile vomiting brought on by crying and refusing to be comforted until he'd worked himself to a sick. And like the two highly educated adults we are with five university degrees between us, we caved. And I must say the trip back home was much more enjoyable. We stopped at a hotel, had dinner, watched television and then slept.

Now why does this prompted a mournful blog about the death of road trips? Because as nice as it was, there is a loss of freedom here. There is a destruction of the youthful dream of being able to just hop in the car and go. This is gone.

So dear, dear road trip...RIP.

SisterWife

2010-03-17T21:16:00.002-04:00

I just finished reading a YA novel called SisterWife by Shelley Hrdlitschka. It's the story of a three young women linked to an extremely conservative Christian community that practices polygamy. In Unity, men are assigned multiple celestial wives by The Prophet. The group believes in eternal marriage that puts a whole new spin on the idea of forever. Girls, upon reaching the age of 15 are given in marriage.

Of the three young women, two are born and raised in Unity. One, Nannette, is steadfast and almost militant in her faith--her youth and immaturity making it hard for her to accept frailty or questioning in others. Especially the questioning of her sister Celeste who, a few days from 15, is wondering if there isn't much more to the world than being a plural wife and having children. In the mix is Taviana, a young street girl who was rescued by a member of the community and has found a way to reinvent herself and become more than she ever was in the "real" world.

The ending has proven to be controversial among others I know who've read the book. I admit to being undecided as to how I feel about it, but it was worth the read.

Computer returns!

2010-03-03T19:43:00.003-05:00

Yeah!

We got our computer back tonight. It was a faulty power unit and we were able to save all our information. The guy who worked on it was wonderful and the cost was reasonable. Hurray!

Computer Woes

2010-02-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

Our desktop computer has decided to take a vacation of undetermined length. It seems to be stuck in hybernation mode. The little green power light keeps flickering, it won't respond to any attempts to wake it up. Even turning it off and on just results in it continuing to flicker once turned back on.

Our old Dell is a few years old, ancient in computer years. The sad part is that even if we replace it, if the repair guys can't pull the data off this one, we could loose a lot. Stupidly we didn't have a backup. We didn't think we needed one on the family computer. We did. All of Z's pics, my writing, lots of things of import are on that hard drive.

I have my flash drive with what I'm working on now, but it would be horrible to loose copies of my published books, the original manuscripts, etc. Worst of all, the pics of Z since he was born. We've kept up his baby book, but not kept up with hard copies of pics in photo albums.

All I can say folks is cross your fingers we can fix this puppy and spring for a backup.

Movies

2010-02-16T16:57:00.003-05:00

Second day of catch up with the movies and I went to see Avatar. I saw the 3D IMAX version and I have to admit it didn’t live up to the hype. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. The effects, the technology was definitely awe inspiring. The story however, wasn’t. Oh it was a nice plot, but the action—not explosions or fighting, but plot action—was a bit thin on the ground during the first two thirds of the movie. And even worse, it was not all that inspiring from a science fiction/fantasy point of view..

This isn’t a story I will remember as long as I remember the movie. It was predictable and preachy. Colonialism is bad. The rape of the natural world is bad. It’s more of a matter of someone turning the art department loose with an unlimited budget while skimping on the writing. Yes, I know Cameron was at least partially wrote the screenplay. But the result is an A+ visual with a C+ script.

Snow

2010-02-12T19:22:00.005-05:00

While those along the mid-Atlantic are probably so over the snow, but here in Georgia we finally got a real snow fall. Our front yard ranked up 1.5-2" Z was having a blast in the snow until he stepped off the driveway into the real snow. It was cold, wet and up over his shoes. After falling in it he decided he did not like it.

Apple, yet again.

2010-01-27T19:27:00.001-05:00

Once more Apple reinvents the wheel and takes credit for it.

On January 16, 2008 Steve Jobs of Apple declared that Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader would fail. In the New York Times he was quoted as saying:

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

Now two years later Apple has jumped into the ereader market with both feet. The new Ipad announced today will do more than just play games, surf the net and show movies. Apple is touting it as an e reader and is developing aps that will include subscriptions to newspapers and magazines.

So I guess what Steve Jobs meant to say was ‘If I didn’t think of it, it won’t work. But when I release my version of the technology, it will be the most brilliant and insightful advance in the world.’

Steve Jobs. Yet again proves he talks out both sides of his face and is essentially an egomaniacal tool.

Broken Resolutions

2010-01-23T16:10:00.002-05:00

According to some sources as many as 50% of all adult Americans make New Year's resolutions. But we aren't so good at keeping them. Nearly one quarter of those resolutions will not last out the week. Fifty percent won't make it beyond the first month. I'm not criticizing, mind you, my resolution didn't even make it out of the starting gate as you can see by the last date I posted on my blog. I had wanted to set a goal to blog on a regular basis. Yeah, that worked really well.

So I'm curious. How are your resolutions going?

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T19:48:00.002-05:00

As I scrolled through all the excited Happy New Year wishes on blogs and facebook. I spend each year at this time wondering what the fuss is all about. I've just honestly never understood the big deal. The calendar turns over. So what?

Now, I'm not stupid despite what you might have heard. I understand it's the symbolic idea of casting off the past and looking forward with hope to the future that looms before us. It's renewal, rebirth. We have shifted the celebration of life renewed to the New year as opposed to the arrival of Spring which many of our ancestors used to serve just this same purpose.

So if this time of year is special to you, then I wish you a Happy New Year.

Spam Posts

2009-12-28T14:22:00.002-05:00

Lately the number of spammer comments being posted to this blog are increasing at an alarming rate. It seams every day or two I have to delete a comment from a past or current blog from some spambot or another. I mean, I hope these are coming from spambots and not people who are somehow "earning money at home on the internet" by spamming nonsense all over people's blogs and forums. If it's the latter, you should be ashamed of yourself.

I discovered from someone that this is exactly the "earn money at home" nonsense with which some people are getting involved. It seems that they earn cyber dollars for each time they post this "advertising". Interesting concept. How about we all drop by your house and scatter leaflets over your yard and house like a flipping blizzard? Every day.

I wonder if there is an option to eliminate anonymous posters? Otherwise I'm going to be forced to moderate all comments. I know some who do.

Santa Baby

2009-12-25T00:34:00.011-05:00

The past few years I've counted down the days to Christmas with a new sexy Santa pic every day. Well this year I decided to do something different. Instead of sexy, how about a whole different kind of warm fuzzy feelings?

It's Z's second Christmas, and his first one that he can actually participate in. He still doesn't know what's going on, but hey, half the fun is for us at this point. This first pic is of Z with Santa last year. He was only a couple of weeks old. Below it is this years, he's grown just a bit.

That's "Brown Bear" Santa is holding. Z doesn't go anywhere without Brown Bear except to sleep. Then it's all about Heffelump the musical elephant.

So to you from us, Merry Christmas.

I hate publishing

2009-12-13T20:41:00.002-05:00

In the last month or so I’ve come to a realization that shocked me. I have recently discovered that while I love writing, I hate publishing. With a passion.

I had dreamed of being a writer as a little girl and when I got older I re-embraced that dream. I began writing again and enjoyed the creative process. I grew close to many of the people I met as I honed my skills and shared with other writers. Then one day, what I thought I wanted came true. I received an offer to publish my manuscript. I was going to be a real writer. A published author.

What I didn’t realize was all the shit that comes along with publishing. Like most people, I guess I had been under the impression that the bulk of the pr for a book would be handled, or at least orchestrated, by the publisher. I assumed there would be some support from the publisher related to marketing of the product they were publishing. What I discovered was that, at least in my experience, the bulk of the pr has been left to me. This is a recipe for disaster for someone like me. I know zip about pr. I’m not a “people person” who knows how to chat people up. I have no business experience and was left with little to no concept of how to promote the books that were being published.

Talking to other authors from other publishers, I’ve learned that it’s not just my experience. According to what I’ve been told even authors who are known find themselves responsible for orchestrating some of their pr, often handled by either a professional firm or by an agent; two things I have no involvement with and don’t think I want to.

During the few years I've been involved in publishing my work, I've heard again and again about writers being mistreated and cheated by their publishers. I can't say that's been my experience, but I can't argue with their experiences.

So while I’ll probably always write, I don’t see myself publishing again for a long time. If I do, it won’t be in the erotic romance genre. But that’s a whole other moment of confession.

Mystery Writers of America delists Harlequin

2009-12-08T20:24:00.002-05:00

Harlequin Romance finds itself in more trouble as MWA follows the lead of RWA and removes Harlequin from it's approved publishers list. Read the full posting below.

Mystery Writer's of America delists Harlequin

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'Tis the TV season

2009-12-07T20:42:00.008-05:00

It is the season for holiday specials. I love holiday special and movies, especially the older ones. When compiling my list of favorites I found that I had to separate them into two categories, specials and movies. So here are mine, and I’d like to know yours.

Specials:
1. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
-This is my favorite and I wait for it every year. I loveFred Astair and Micky Rooney.

2. Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
-This is a lesser known one, but it is sweet and charming. It's based on Frank L. Baum's book.

3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
-a classic, of course I'm talking about the animated version.

4. Charlie Brown Christmas

5. Year Without a Santa Claus
-"I'm Mr. Heat Miser, I'm Mr. Sun."

Movies:
1. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
-You can't beat Natalie Wood and Maureen O'Hara.

2. A Christmas Carol (1938)
-This one is a tradition with my stepdad and me. We watch it every year on Christmas Eve, even when we aren't in the same city.

3. A Christmas Story
-Ralphie brings to life the best and worst of a real family at holidays. We can all identify.

4. The Homecoming
-The original Waltons. This version had a different set of parents, but the kids were the same. It's a great story about what's really important at Christmas.

5. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
-Talk about being able to identify...Every family has a cousin Eddie.

6. The Santa Clause
-Tim Allen is surprisingly great as the man in the red suit.

7. White Christmas
-Danny Kaye was one of my all time favorite song and dance men. He and Bing make this a terrific movie filled with music and laughter.

8. Bells of St. Mary’s
-Bing again with the etherial and amazing Ingrid Bergman. This is on my list of top ten movies period.

9. The Bishop’s Wife
-Cary Grant, Loretta Young and David Niven. It's hard to mess that up.

10. It’s a Wonderful Life
-If you'd asked me a few years ago, I'd not have listed it because Ted Turner nearly ruined it by colorizing it and running it every hour on the blessed hour the whole Christmas season. But through it all, Jimmy Stewart still gave us a classic.

2009-11-25T15:26:00.001-05:00

It seems as if there is no holiday that happens this time of the year that doesn’t come with it’s share of controversy, especially Thanksgiving. The myth of early English/Native American relations at the Plymouth settlement may have wrapped itself around the Thankgiving holiday in the United States, but it isn’t origin of the holiday. If we look deeper we can find more than the cultural conflicts that work to separate us and find those things which draw us together.

Thanksgiving is essentially a harvest festival and those have existed as long as man has been actively cultivating the earth. The Canaanites and Phoenicians celebrated their harvest. The Egyptians celebrated in Spring with sorrowful displays as they wept and moaned while cutting down their corn, believing it necessary to show remorse for taking the “spirits” they believed lived in the corn. The Greeks honored Demeter with their multi-day celebrations. Much of the celebrations within the temples of Demeter were kept secret. Many scholars believe they involved “fertility rights” that may have been shocking even by Greek standards. The Romans thanked Ceres, Demeter’s alter-ego, in the festival of Cerelia in early October.

Native American tribes generally had multiple celebrations throughout the year depending on where they lived. Many Eastern tribes celebrated the Green Corn Festival when the first of the corn was ready to be harvested. The Harvest Moon festival in October rejoiced in the last of the harvest of the Three Sisters (beans, squash and corn)—the spirits of the earth whose gifts kept The People fed. Plains tribes celebrated the harvests, but also the movements of the herd animals.

In Africa, Asia, Europe and the New World we have celebrated the glories of the Earth’s abundance no matter who we thank for that bounty. With the economy the way it is, it is easy for us to lose ourselves in what we do not have and forget to be happy with what we do have. And in these times it is perhaps even more important that we take this time to be grateful for what we have.

Have You Ever Seen Anything So Cute?

2009-11-20T22:00:00.003-05:00

Isn't it precious?

On a totally unrelated note:

Jewels of Ursus is finally available through Amazon.com! Yeah!

2009-11-18T22:25:00.003-05:00

Sorry little dude. I don't have any hotdogs and after today I don't have any money either...sheesh!

My car failed the emissions test that is required before I can renew my car tag. I ended up having to have over $1,000 in repairs to replace my catalytic converter and both O2 sensors.

I'm not complaining about my mechanics. These guys are actually quite awesome. We can trust them and they take good care of our cars. These are the same guys who, when our car broke down the day Z was due, their owner offered to loan us his personal car to use because he didn't want me to not have a car when the baby was that close. They tell us what has to be done and what can wait. One of the things they had said could wait a bit was this particular repair.

What I'm complaining about is the law that requires the emissions check. I'm not sure how helpful this is to clean air when you are forcing people who don't have a lot of money and need their cars to work to pay their bills and feed their kids, to pay for repairs they don't really need yet so they can keep their cars legal. Especially in these economic times. I can tell you it cleared out our savings just so I could keep my car legal.

Poetry

2009-11-16T23:57:00.003-05:00

For the longest time I wrote only poetry. It was just the last five or six years that I've seriously turned my hand to prose. My poetry, like my short prose, always came out of a dark place inside me. If I was happy, I wasn't writing. This poem was previously published in an anthology titled, American Poets: An Anthology. There was a volume number, but I don't remember what it was.

On Becoming Invisible
by Jacqueline Roth

Invisible
The smiling faces
Gazing back
Eyes look through
Glazed and unseeing
Because no one is here

A silent scream
Begging to be recognized
Becomes a murmur
A part of the drone
A whisper unheard
Unimportant, unheeded, unneeded

Laughter surrounds
Oblivious to the torment
Concealed so well
Because no one is seen
No one is noticed
Grey space filled but vacant

A shadow
A movement
From the corner of the eye
Gone in an instant
Unregistered by synapses
Forgotten before known

Invisible
Filler for the background
A shape without form
A blur of grey
Indistinguishable from the crowd
The tree lost in the forest

Breathing stops
Heartbeat stills
Humanity slips away
Fading away in the silence
Lesson taught, lesson learned
On Becoming Invisible

Sometimes You Get What You Deserve

2009-11-09T22:41:00.003-05:00

Excuse the naughty word, but hey' it's true.

End of the Line for Newspapers?

2009-11-03T21:09:00.003-05:00

Today I had an interesting experience that brought center stage how much our world is changing from what it was when we were kids, to what it is for kids today. We can no longer take for granted that our kids know and understand things that we consider basic literacy and I’m not so sure that it is necessarily that much of a tragedy.

For those who don’t know, I teach reading/literature to middle schoolers as my day job. Right now we are working on a unit on expository reading. During this unit I teach my students, 7th and 8th graders, how to get the most out of reading expository and informational texts. Now this can range from better understanding their text books to how to wade through research sources for the right information to just being able to read the daily news and understand what is going on.

It was this last one that caught my attention today. For the first time I’m teaching “gifted” or advanced readers along side my average and struggling readers. It has been interesting. So today when I gave a mini-lesson activity involving reading a newspaper article that I expected to take no more than 10 minutes and wound up spending 30 minutes plus on it, I was dumbfounded.

My average and struggling readers who have been taking “reading” classes all along plunged right in. They took the stack of newspaper I had purchased that morning (and can we talk about the cost of newspapers? Wow…) found an article that interested them, cut it out, answered the basic questions on the worksheet, stapled it together, turned it in and were ready to go on. Average time, 10 minutes. So far so good.

My “gifted” kids floundered. This is the first time that our district has required “reading” be taken by those students who showed a proficient level. Prior to this, they had skipped reading and taken a foreign language. They didn’t know how a newspaper was divided, they couldn’t identify the parts of a newspaper article, couldn’t tell an article from a column from a letter to the editor from an ad. I was floored and frustrated. They’re eighth graders who can’t read a newspaper?

Then, on my long drive home I got to thinking. So what? Other than the fact that our lovely standardized tests will ask them to do such tasks, was it such a big deal that they couldn’t read a newspaper? As one of them said, “Who reads newspapers?” I spent my day teaching these kids a manufactured skill that they will not need except to pass some test. Boy was my day productive.

Our kids are living in a world that will most likely see the demise of the local newspaper and probably the demise of the printed daily newspaper. Magazines continue because they provide background and depth, but the daily newspaper is a dinosaur that is fast becoming extinct.

This makes me sad, on one hand. I know a lot of newspaper folks, people who work for or around newspapers. I myself spent a few months working as a copy editor/paginator. It was an interesting experience. Many of them are the last fish flapping in the drying up pond, trying to convince themselves that the rains will come again. But to be perfectly honest with ourselves, newspapers are out of date. The whole newspaper industry is the Amish cart and horse trotting along the road being whizzed past by the rest of the world-- romantic and nostalgic but not practical.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T19:31:00.005-04:00

Happy Halloween!

We took the hungry dragon to the mall to trick or treat. Okay, he didn't really trick or treat, he just played and watched all the people. Our mall has a kids area and he got to play with several other little kids.

Right now he's sacked out in his pack-n play. I need to wake him up soon to eat and go to bed. But you know the saying, never wake a sleeping dragon.

Ghostly ghosts

2009-10-28T20:35:00.006-04:00

Do you believe in ghosts? In the western world we don’t believe in all the creatures that go bump in the night that we used to. Our ancestors once believed strongly in vampires, werewolves, ghouls zombies, and other dwellers in the darkness. Now of days, though many people do believe in angels and demons, the belief in most other creatures has gone away.

But many still believe in ghosts and that belief has grown more and more a part of pop culture. Several television shows now tout true “ghost hunters” and claim to investigate locations that are believed to be haunted.

I live in the Atlanta, GA area. Almost everywhere in the metro area was at one time the site of a battlefield. The city is very old and many places here are considered to be haunted. We even have our own “ghost hunters” who collect EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena) and recordings of foot steps and other evidence of ghostly activity.

In fact, a local morning radio station, Q100, is planning on spending tomorrow night taping an entire four hour show in an undisclosed location that is supposedly the site of tremendous paranormal activity. They will run that in place of their live show on Friday morning. All this week, they have been featuring “evidence” collected by the Atlanta Ghost Hunters. Scroll down on this page, to listen to some of the EVP’s they’ve collected. Or go here. You have to hear the “He panicked” one. There were no women on their investigation that night.

I have to admit that I do, in some ways believe in ghosts. I’m not sure they are the souls of those people who have died, but I do believe that some people see or hear things that are best described as ghosts. I do tend to take a more science oriented approach. I do wonder if, based on the theories of time put forth by Einstein and Hawking, if we are seeing overlaps in time.

You see science now believes that time isn’t a straight line, but exists in waves like many other forces in our universe. If that’s so, perhaps some of these waves touch, allowing us to peek into another time. To me this explains those hauntings that are called residuals, ghosts are seen doing things they may have done in life. It also makes me wonder if it couldn’t explain UFO sightings as well. After all, if time warps and we can see the past, perhaps we can see the future as well.

Far out, I know. Odd, I know. But it’s one of those weird things that floats through my mind on my hour and a half long commute in the predawn hours of the morning.

And speaking of ghostly things, don't forget to play Sam Cheever and Friends Halloween contest. It's easy, all you have to do is go trick or treating. Click on the link and get started filling your treat bag.

Halloween Contest

2009-10-23T23:24:00.005-04:00

Once again the exceptional Sam Cheever is sponsoring a Halloween contest and I'm thrilled to participate this year. The contest runs the entire last week of October.

In addition to a Kindle ereader, (yes, I said a Kindle ereader) the winner will also get a black, leather Kindle case, a short-sleeved Finn t-shirt and a long sleeved Purple Prose t-shirt. A free download of a Linda Mooney book, a gorgeous scarf, a handmade book thong, and a personal size photo album from Lizzie T. Leaf , a signed copy of Ghost Lover from Christopher Newman, and assorted other goodies!

All you have to do is go trick or treating. Yep, it's that simple. Visit each of the authors' houses on our "street" and select one item from our goodie bags. Email the author with your choice and winners will be drawn from all the entries. Then click on the trick or treat icon on each page and move on to the next house.

You must be 18 to play and only one trip down the lane each.

So get started at the first stop on our street by visiting Sam Cheever's house. Have fun.

Don't Call Me a Gypsy

2009-10-17T22:51:00.005-04:00

Did you realize the term “gypsy” was a pejorative term? In many languages it was synonymous with the term thief, demon, or whore. Millions of people were tortured, enslaved and killed because of the connotations of that word. To many of the Romani, or Roma, it is as offensive as the “n” word is to an African-American.

My great-grandmother immigrated to the United States in 1908. She was 8 years old. Her family came here for two reasons. First was to seek treatment for her older sister who had accidentally ingested a mixture of lye and water thinking it was milk. A bit of the mixture was inhaled as she coughed and gasped. The doctors in Hungary told my great-great-grandfather to take her on a sea voyage and the sea air would help her lungs. (The second reason had to do with the rumors of pogroms spreading across Eastern Europe-a place that had just, within the last 30 years, outlawed slavery for those known as “gypsies”.)

So my grandpa Karl, a widower with six small children, did the only thing he knew. He sold everything they had and booked passage for his family to join family members in America. There were several complications, one of which led to my great-grandmother Anna staying behind for a year with her oldest brother Josef (later Anglicanized to Joseph at Ellis Island) and her grandmother Maria. When Anna arrived in the United States she found her sister healthy and her family living a secret.

No one knew they were Romani. What people call gypsies. But in 1908 the United States and the people of that country weren’t thrilled to welcome “gypsies” into their midst. So they hid who they were. They became simple Hungarians, active in the Hungarian community. I found out later while researching, that this isn’t uncommon. The Romani who entered the country at the previous turn of the century either clung doggedly to their traditions, or shamefully hid them.

My great-grandmother took her secret to her grave. We only found out because her sister did not keep her secret. She told her children. At my great-grandmother’s funeral, her nephew told our branch of the family the truth. They had never spoken of it to any of us out of respect.

What causes someone to be so afraid of who they are that they would hide it for their entire lives?

*Rumors were spread in medieval times that the Roma were
descended from a sexual encounter between a Roma woman and Satan.
*Another belief was that Roma forged the nails used in Christ's
crucifixion.

*The Christian genocide against Witches during the late
Middle Ages and Renaissance was also directed against the Roma. The courts seized and imprisoned them in Witches' prisons, often without even bothering to record their names.

*The Diet of Augsburg ruled that Christians could legally kill Roma. Meanwhile, the courts were closed to Roma who were injured by
Christians

*In 1721, Emperor Karl VI of what is now Germany ordered total
genocide of the Roma. "Gypsy Hunts" were organized to track down and exterminate them.

*Roma were rounded up and imprisoned in Spain during 1749. They
were considered a danger to society.

*In 1792, 45 Roma were tortured and executed for the murder of some Hungarians, who were in fact alive and who observed the executions.

*During the 17th century many gypsies were forced to become slaves in Hungary and Romania, where their final liberation did not take place until 1855. It is believed that as much as half of the Roma in Europe were enslaved, from the 14th century until Romani slavery was abolished in the mid-19th century. In some parts of Europe it took even longer for slavery to be forbidden.

*In many places Christianity closed its doors completely to the Romani. Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches refused to baptize “gypsy” infants.

Though it was after the fact, let us not forget that the oppression didn't end in the 19th century. Two million of the Nazi Holocaust victims were “gypsies” including these child victims. They were considered even lower on the hierarchy of hate than the Jews and the criminally insane.

The Romani or Roma are still considered one of the most oppressed people in the world. With these stories in her ears and fear for her family, a frightened little girl hid the truth of her identity to the day she died.

I ask that you consider this the next time you toss about the term gypsy, incorporate it in a title or use the term to make your heroine or hero seem more mysterious.

Two Books Down

2009-10-16T22:05:00.008-04:00

My To Be Read list has grown smaller by two books over the last two days.

Yesterday evening I finished Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol. (A couple of minor -and cryptic-spoilers follow, so read on at your peril) It was a perfectly respectable read that seemed to take me forever. Not because of it's length or complexity, or even because of quality. I would just set it down and find something else I needed to do and forget to come back to it. Well, I finally finished it, tucked up in bed with my cold medicine and it was good. I still think Angels and Demons was his best effort. The Lost Symbol continues the rather preachy tone that really reved itself in The Da Vinci Code. The lead character in this trilogy, Robert Langdon keeps getting bitch-slapped with Christianity. First he goes along with a church cover-up in A&D, then he ends up kneeling at the tomb of the "Holy Grail" after saving Jesus' great, great, great (on and on great) granddaughter, and now he ends up nearly dead because someone buried a bible in the corner stone of a building in Washington, D.C.

Sorry, but if I were Langdon I'd either become a contemplative monk in the mountains and take a vow of silence, or I'd slap the next person who showed me a Judeo-Christian-Islamic artifact until they begged for mercy and promised to leave me alone.

The second book I read today. I started it this afternoon and read straight through, even as my son used me for a jungle gym. He didn't mind, it seemed my only needed participation in the game was to sit still and not complain too much when he used my hair to pull himself up. This absolute page turner was Cindy Spencer Pape's Crazy for the Cowboy. And quite frankly folks, I enjoyed it a lot more than the above.

I've never been one for cowboys. The clack of cowboy boots and the smell of sweaty horses and dust just doesn't do a thing for me. That having been said, I find myself loving this series by Pape. The Cowboy's Christmas Bride is book one and all three books are available in either electronic or print formats.

The Love at the Crazy H series is filled with all the best parts of romance. Sexy, intelligent, gentle, alpha males who know how to make you swoon; strong, very believable and identifiable heroines who are not too good to be true; and hot, toe-curling, heart melting romance. And this is why I'm up, still coughing my head off, but unable to wait to buy the third book.

Now what to read until it arrives?

Empty Nest?

2009-10-10T11:04:00.002-04:00

I’m suffering from an artificial empty nest syndrome. My SO and Z are visiting Grandma in Florida.

Now I admit the first day it was sort of nice. I came home from work, tended to my dogs and then lay down and took a long nap. It was glorious. But now, several days in on a Saturday I feel sort of lost. And a bit guilty. The SO has come down with a bug while on vacation and Grandma is having to step up and take extra care of Z.

The good part of the visit is that Z is loving Grandma’s swimming pool. The SO and Grandma have been letting him play in it every day. I hear he’s a bit pink, not burned, but getting some nice Florida coloring.

If only Grandma’s doggy was as enthusiastic. She is less than happy about this toddling little fellow who chases her around, sits on Grandma’s lap, plays in her water bowl and tries to take her toys. Lazy’s reaction? Run from the baby, try to push him off Grandma’s lap and take the baby’s toys, too.

Well, I’m off. Today is a busy day. I have an eye appointment and then an appointment with the local movie theater. The SO doesn’t like movies, so I’m planning a film festival. I hope your Saturday is as *cough**cough* productive.

UPDATE: Will NOT be having film festival except in front of own television. Must have new glasses and was floored by how much they will cost. YIKES!

You have to love Aussies

2009-10-08T22:55:00.002-04:00

This video is making the rounds of You Tube and Facebook. But as a teacher, I fully believe it is time someone said these things. I don't know if it's true, but I do know the school it supposedly comes from is a real school in Queensland, Australia.

You see, a new policy making parents responsible for their children's absences and homework has not gone over well in Queensland, according to the story. In fact, the school is supposedly being sued to force teachers to change failing grades for students who missed excessive amounts of school and didn't complete enough course work to pass. If so, I hope this is real and I hope it really pissed off exactly the parents it was aimed at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFTS18uUpgo

Hanging Out

2009-10-03T22:00:00.008-04:00

The last couple of days have been lovely cool down here in Georgia. It feels a lot like autumn, which isn’t usual for this early in the year. K and I were able to enjoy today doing some of the things we did pre Z due to a dear friend, D, who kept him for us today. She and her son kept him today and a good time was had by all. D’s son is 16 and he is a pretty awesome kid. So Z got to have a big kid to play with for the afternoon.

K and I went to one of our favorite places in Atlanta, Little Five Points. This intersection of Euclid, McClendon and Moreland is Atlanta’s mini version of New York’s Village. It’s filled with dozens of fascinating shops and little restaurants and eateries that are amazing. There are several vintage clothing shops, some edgy little boutiques, tattoo parlors, piercing places, used book stores, the oldest feminist book store it the South, new age shops and lots of shops with hand crafted jewelry, vintage and hard to find music, and a farmer’s co-op with organic and hard to find raw and bulk foods.

We started at Savage Pizza. This is without a doubt the best pizza ever. The place itself is fun. Superhero action figures hang over your head and comic book style murals adorn the brightly colored walls. The variety of sauces is terrific and the staff are definitely as interesting as the décor.

After lunch we took a walks around. We stopped at Wax-n-Facts. This little hole in the wall sells records. Yes, records. They have some second hand cd’s as well, but the focus is that you can buy almost any vintage record album you might be searching for by any artist.

Vintage and artist are the key words for Little Five Points. The plaza is filled with musicians and artists displaying their skills. Shops selling vintage clothing line the small piazza along with stores that offer original jewelry. And then there are the more edgy places such as “Le Petite Mort”. Let’s face it, any store named for an orgasm will get your attention.

We spent sometime in Crystal Blue, the new age store. I love to browse the crystals, stones, incense and beautiful jewelry on display. They sell reference books, spell kits, meditation aids and all things relaxing and enlightening. After roaming about we headed to Charis book store, the oldest feminist book store in the South. The lavender colored house has been converted to a book store dedicated to the feminine. Books by women and for women adorn the wall and the Charis Circle community holds workshops and events intended to empower women.

Then back to the car past the Vortex where the smell of grilling burgers teases even a full stomach. The Vortex, whose grinning skull entrance turns heads and whose menu bears the words “If it ain’t on the menu, you can’t have it.”

It was a great day. We haven’t had the opportunity to just hang out there for some time. When Z’s a little older, we’ll have to take him with.

Banned Books and painful ignorance.

2009-09-30T20:21:00.002-04:00

"What you are about to read is a true account of events. Trust me folks, I couldn't make this stuff up. No one is that creative."

This is National Banned Book week. The American Library Association (ALA) sponsors this awareness raising event every year to raise the issue of censorship in American schools and public libraries.

So today I went to school in a t-shirt that proclaimed “I’m with the banned”. First of all, several people tried to tell me I misspelled “band”.

I had a slide show going with the title “Banned Book week” and slide after slide of book titles of the most often challenged books. I thought I would simple raise questions among the students as to what was going on. But being the drama filled kiddies they are, they assumed it meant I was banning those books for the week. They were very upset, which I guess is good.

The most frightening thing was that as we discussed the books, my students displayed the most appalling lack of cultural awareness and simple knowledge about the world, literature, history and art. One of the books on the list is “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”. I explained this was a book by an amazing poet, Maya Angelou and waited. Every year I have at least one student ask if I meant Michelangelo. I explain no, Michelangelo is the Renaissance painter and sculptor and Maya Angelou is a talented African American poet.

What followed however, resulted in my having to step into the hall and take several deep breaths to keep from banging my head against the wall.

Student 1: “The dog from Beethoven was a painter?”

Me: “What?”

Student 1: “Michelangelo is the name of one of the dogs on the movie Beethoven.”

Student 2: “No he’s not, he’s one of the Ninja Turtles”

Me: “No guys, those characters were named for the artist just like the dog Beethoven was named for the famous composer?”

Student 3: “What’s a composer?”

Me: “Someone who writes music. Michelangelo is famous for sculpting The David and painting the Sistine Chapel.”

Student 3: “What’s that sistinn thing?”

Student 4: “Is that like one of the places in Las Vegas where you can get married?”

Me: [groaning] “No, the Sistine Chapel is in Rome…[blank stares]…at the Vatican…[blank stares]…in Italy…[blank stares]…where the Pope lives…anyway, he was a Renaissance artist.

Student 3: “Oh, I know like Paul Revere.

Me: “Huh?”

Student 3: “He rode through the town yelling the Renaissance is coming, the Renaissance is coming.”

Me: [stunned silence]

Other students: [blank looks of confusion]

Me: "Noooo, Paul Revere road through the countryside telling people the British were coming…you know the American Revolution?”

Student 3: “Oh”

Student 5: “So are Michelangelo and Maya Angelou brother and sister?”

At that point I had to step out side or scream.

New video

2009-09-28T23:47:00.003-04:00

I'd kind of expect to show this off at RomantiCon, but it feels nice and cozy to share it with you. This is the trailer for the lastest release, Jewels of Ursus. The book is a compilation of the the three novellas I wrote surrounding the Ursine family, a family of shape-shifters who transform...naturally, into Bears.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I enjoy the process of making these trailers, but it can turn a bit obsessive. I get lost in the amount of time that has passed.

Today was the first day back at school for the kids in the county where I teach. They had been out all last week because of the damage from the floods. We still had no drinkable water in the building and our PTSO provided bottles of water for the students to carry about with them since they can't use the water fountains.

I admit I'm exhausted today. So exhausted that I'm hoping I'm going to be forgiven for falling asleep.

Z and I have routine. His last nap time comes right about the time he and I get home for the day. I give him a bottle and lay him down. Then I get comfortable and take a few minutes to read or just rest. This afternoon I fell asleep and Z slept too right up until K got home. The dear let me sleep and I snoozed until about 11pm and will be going back to bed momentarily.

Problem?

It's our anniversary. I found a card waiting for me on the computer when I woke up. Crapmonkeys.

We have a date weekend this weekend. A friend is keeping Z for the day on Saturday so we can have some couple time. I'll have to make up for it then.

Cancellation

2009-09-27T19:16:00.000-04:00

Because of the recent flooding, regretfully I’m not going to be able to attend the RomantiCon coming up next month. I had registered early on, had my hotel room reserved, had gathered all my goodies for readers and was making my list of authors I wanted to meet and hunt autographs from.

I was so looking forward to it because I can’t attended the RT conventions because they always fall during the state standardized testing week my school has to undergo each year.

So now I have to move to plan B. I’m boxing up some of the goodies and sending them express to Ellora’s Cave. They’ve promised to set them out on the swag table for me. However, that still leaves me trying to figure out what to do with 200 cherry-flavored white rose suckers, 100 old-fashioned candy sticks, and a ceramic bear holding a medium sized fishbowl that I was going to fill with red, white and purple stones and use to hold the candy. (Red for rubies, purple for amethysts and white for opals – the stones in my Jewels of Ursus series.) It would take far too long to individually label each one of the treats to send.

So, I think I’m going to take the bear to school with me and use the bowl for candy or maybe for a small beta fish to liven up my classroom. I’ve always had fish in my room until the last couple of years. I had a group of kids who had no respect for anything or anyone one year. In one 50 minute class period, while I was out and a substitute was supposed to be watching them, the destroyed my stereo, tore posters off the walls, and tried to kiss my fish. In addition to dumping the whole canister of food into the tank, they sprayed it Lysol. The sub of course saw nothing, but you corner a 13 year-old and he’ll rat on his friends so fast you’ll smell the cheese.

Well, Bob the Beta showed them. He lived another 9 months, safe at home in his tank. He finally passed away after a little fishy stroke that left him unable to move his left fins. He hovered at the bottom of the tank and when he swam, swam in circles.

Our school population has changed since then and I can’t see my current kids being so deliberately vicious. Not to mention that sub was banned at our school. When she objected that she hadn’t see anything, she was told that the option was she could pay me for the almost $300 in damage that had been done her watch.

Sorry to digress. I’ll miss seeing all of you and as a way to make up for it, I’ll be holding a give away or two in the upcoming weeks and giving out copies of Jewels of Ursus and some other goodies. I’ll also be sponsoring some giveaways for Bitten By Books’ Halloween anniversary celebration.

Til then, be safe.

Frustrating.

2009-09-27T14:07:00.006-04:00

I've been trying to update my blog for a couple of days now and keep getting an error message. Let's see if this works and then, maybe tomorrow.

Still Here

2009-09-22T17:17:00.006-04:00

It's been very interesting in Atlanta the last few days. Most of us were checking Genesis for the specification on building an ark.

The metro Atlanta, GA area received 15+" of rain in a 24 hour period on top of rain showers that had been off and on for a couple of weeks. Sunday night was bad, but it got worse overnight and Monday. We have hundreds of people without homes right now and at least 8 confirmed fatalities.

(Pictures courtesy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution)

The school I work at closed Monday and will remain closed until at least Thursday. Roads washed out across the area. Major interstates were closed and the Georgia Dept. of Transportation was begging people not to go anywhere. The picture above and to the right is a major convergence of interstates that turned into a river.

One family in our county saw their flooded home burn while the fire trucks got stranded and could not reach them. Below, the road near the school where I teach washed completely away. Several miles down the road it did so again, stranding several families stuck in the middle. Backroads were dangerous and impassible. Fatalities range from 8-10 people, including one toddler, who were swept away by the flood waters.

Near us several subdivisions were flooded and a horse ranch had to have it's four-legged occupants evacuated. Our house sits up on a hill and has three floors. We had to have the roof repaired today because the rains had overloaded seals around the venting pipes on the roof. Our entry way got a bit damp, but other than that we're all home, safe and sound.

Getting Ready for Romanticon

2009-09-20T21:34:00.003-04:00

There are just a couple of weeks left before heading off to RomantiCon. I'm trying to decide what to pack and what to wear. I have a few goodies for readers coming with me and one special stow-away.

No, not a long-hair Chihuahua, but my miniature dachshund. Wendell travels with me most places that I go. He loves to curl up in the passenger's seat and snooze. I foresee a lot ot time curled up in the hotel room for him, but he hates being borded.

At present it seems we're going to need to build an ark in the backyard. It's been raining for over a week now and some parts of Atlanta are flooded. This for an area that had been under severe drought conditions for several years.

The good part, I guess, is that our lakes and resevoirs are almost back up to normal levels...almost.

Who'll Keep Baby Out of the Corner, Now?

2009-09-14T21:14:00.008-04:00

I remember being in high school and watching the movie that opened the door to the "Brat Pack". The Outsiders. That movie introduced so many teen heart-throbs and film legends that looking back it seems startling. Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Emilio Esteves, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell and Leif Garrett. Some of them are now relegated to the has-been list, but at the time, they were it.

But there was one more guy that was part of this pool of amazing young talent. The oldest of the boys, Darry Curtis, was played by the late Patrick Swayze. Long before he became the very face of romance to the tune of Unchained Melody, before he helped Baby out her corner, before he led a rag-tag team of high-schoolers against the invading Communists, and before he was kicking butt in RoadHouse he was the "adult" keeping a lid on and providing some stability for a group of Greasers in The Outsiders.

Swayze was a rarity among the Hollywood scene. He was someone who could do it all. He sang, danced, acted, wrote and directed. His teenage marriage to his wife lasted over 30 years. Caught up in no more scandal over the years than confessing to and getting treatment for a drinking problem, Swayze was never anything but polite and grateful to his fans. His courage as he battled cancer these last two years was inspiring.

He certainly had a great deal to teach some of Hollywoods current crowd, including that bouche-dag Kanye West. But let's not give that moron anymore press than he already gets.

So thank you Mr. Swayze, you will be remembered and missed.

Muses, dragons and reviews

2009-09-05T19:03:00.003-04:00

Received a nice review for Circle of Wolves from Bitten by Books.

"You will be pleasantly surprised at the depth of emotions and the vivid lifelike quality of the characters. I truly enjoyed watching Evan come into contact with his wolf half and seeing him and Kira learn to love and trust one another, despite the completely different ways that they were raised. I was not exactly sure what to expect when I started reading this, but I did not think I would be so drawn into the story! Want to be surprised by the twists and turns that take place right in front of you? Then read Circle of Wolves and sit back for a tale that will surprise and enthrall you." -Nicole (4 tombstones)

Circle of Wolves is one of the books that will be available at the RomantiCon book fair in October.

I received the my order for some of the goodies I'll be giving out at the Author Mania portion of RomantiCon. Unlike the very talented Anny Cook who will no doubt dazzle with some of the goodies she's preparing, I have to resort to buying them. I'm preparing a few items to pass out to readers, and I hope you'll like them.

We did a little shopping today. We bought a new refrigerator. Our old one has been dripping water for some time now and it was just time to retire it. We also bought a costume for Z. He's going to be a dragon for Halloween. We're planning ahead of time so we can get pictures taken of him in his costume.

Writing has been very slow for me lately. It's not just the time constraints of Z. I guess what I'm writing lately doesn't grab me, so I know it won't grab anyone else. I'm looking for something original. I'm tired of the same old. The original appeal to me of the paranormal was that it could be or do anything. Now it just seems like I've said all I have to say in the area. I feel like the things I've written have been very good, but I've said them and I'm done. So, I'm hoping the muses visit me with something new that catches fire.

Bears in Print

2009-08-27T13:21:00.004-04:00

My Bears have been set loose. Jewels of Ursus was released today, in print, from Ellora's Cave.

This is a compilation of the three books in the trilogy by that name:

Mating Stone
Sarah has found the perfect man and best of all, he loves her deeply. Before introducing her to his family he proposes and presents her with an amethyst pendant, a stone she doesn't realize is more than symbolic. When his brother reveals Mark's secret, Sarah must decide if she loves him enough to accept him even if he's not exactly human. And Mark must decide how far he'll go, how much he'll give up to claim Sarah as his mate. Is he willing to abandon his birthright? Is he willing to kill his own brother to keep it and Sarah?

Lovers’ Stone
Luke Ursine is drawn to the most sacred place in his clan’s lore. There he finds a woman who touches him like no other, and his own mating stone. Not a common mating stone, but a lovers’ stone that declares he has only one true mate, one great love who will claim him body and soul. Anna is the most inappropriate of all mates. She’s a hunter and they are sworn to destroy the Weres. Even if they can set aside generations of hate and murder, will their families let them live long enough to enjoy the promised destiny?

Soul Stone
He is physical perfection. He is sex personified. He is an incubus. All his life Tarris has followed the rules that would keep him from transforming into the dark soulless predator who feeds on the sexual energies of women, draining them to madness or to death. But now that he can no longer feed in a safe and controlled way, he faces a choice—hunt or starve.

Callista is quiet and reserved. Her restrained exterior hides an astonishing passion and vivid imagination that have captured him. Who knew that a creature who had no soul could love a woman so deeply? Tarris must now find a way to control the change he feels coming and defeat the hunter who pursues him, obsessed with possessing Callista and destroying the incubus.

Praise for the books in this series:

"...the men in this book are to die for...Elyssa Edwards has done a great job with Mating Stone. She has written a unique shapeshifter story that any paranormal fan will enjoy." -Ashley, Fallen Angel Reviews

"Elyssa Edwards offers a erotic tale of fantasy. Mating Stone is a very dark story. Her approach to shapeshifters is unique." -ReviewYourBook.com

"Mark Ursine and Sarah are well rounded and enjoyable characters and you do find yourself rooting for their seemingly impossible relationship." [Mating Stone] -Simply Romance Reviews

"Mating Stone... is a wonderful story with humor and sensual love play. Elyssa Edwards displays a very creative talent in this surprise saga. Mark is every woman’s dream man, caring, gorgeous and considerate ...This is a remarkable read that I enjoyed." -Literary Nymph Reviews Only[Lovers' Stone]

"This was an intriguing twist on the Were legends, or at least a variety I have never heard before. I really liked the way the author set polar opposites to attract and be mated. I really enjoyed the erotic passages and each of them was well thought out. I love the tenderness and compassion in this story as well as the passion. Each character's take on what was happening was thoughtful as well as thought provoking. I would love it if this story was a little longer, but I guess I'll just have to wait for the next installment of the story." - Dawn Epton, ParaNormal Romance[Lovers' Stone]

"I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of suspense, romance and eroticism, ...I thought the story well-written. The romance and meeting of the main characters was magical, and the conflict needed for a short story such as this was indeed present. The author created a universe I want to read more about, and if you choose to read this installment, do yourself a favor and be sure you have the previous ones as well." -Christine, Simply Romance Reviews

"LOVERS' STONE pairs together two lovers who were supposed to be enemies and at the same time proves that love can help conquer any obstacle. It will provide a sensual treat for paranormal fans." -Lori, The Romance Reader's Connection

What Burglars don't want you to know.

2009-08-24T22:23:00.004-04:00

Has it really been that long since I was on here?

This was reported by a local radio station thismorning and it seems good to pass on. Especially since one of the guys said he'd just had one of these happen to him.

1. Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.

2. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.

3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste … and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.

4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it.

5. If it snows while you’re out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway.

6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don’t let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if it’s set. That makes it too easy.

7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom—and your jewelry. It’s not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too.

8. It’s raining, you’re fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door—understandable. But understand this: I don’t take a day off because of bad weather.

9. I always knock first. If you answer, I’ll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don’t take me up on it.)

10. Do you really think I won’t look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.

11. Here’s a helpful hint: I almost never go into kids’ rooms.

12. You’re right: I won’t have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if it’s not bolted down, I’ll take it with me.

13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If you’re reluctant to leave your TV on while you’re out of town, you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television. (Find it at faketv.com.)

14. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook.

15. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors but...

16. I’ll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he’ll stop what he’s doing and wait to hear it again. If he doesn’t hear it again, he’ll just go back to what he was doing. It’s human nature.

17. I’m not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?

18. I love looking in your windows. I’m looking for signs that you’re home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I’d like. I’ll drive or walk through your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets.

19. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. It’s easier than you think to look up your address.

20. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a way to let in a little fresh air. To me, it’s an invitation.

21. If you don’t answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and walk right in.

Wishing for Winter

2009-08-10T19:12:00.006-04:00

As I sit here in Atlanta, GA with the temperature at 93 degrees at 7pm at night, I envy those who live in the southern hemisphere where they are celebrating the glory of winter. Someone on a writer's loop I belong to posted pictures of winter in their neck of the woods. It made me really miss winters in Illinois where I grew up.

This photograph is of the shore of Lake Vermillion in East Central Illinois. Snow for them comes mostly in late January and February. Christmas is usually not white, but everyone with any sense owns a show shovel, gloves and a pair of jumper-cables.

Looking at the snow is not only refreshing on such a hot and miserable day where my air conditioning is barely making any headway, but there is an aire of innocence about such a scene, an element of purity.

This is me and my younger brother M. He's the little blue smudge on the left side that looks like a snowman, wrapped in a snow suit, scarf and white show boots that were too big and reached almost up to this thighs. He's probably wearing a pair of socks over his mittens to keep his hands extra warm. If you look close you can see the stick he's holding. We taught him to poke the ground with the stick as he walked, sometimes the snow would drift high and freeze over. A few steps in and you'd break through up to your hips in snow. For him that was over his head.

I was, of course, teaching him to make snow angels and my stepfather took the picture as I was attempting to get up without ruining my angel. Thanks Dad.

I doubt Z will have much opportunity to make snow angels, snowmen or snow forts. He'll probably barely have the chance to hurl a snowball. Sort of sad, really. My SO would not agree. The Floridian hates to be cold and wet and what is snow but cold and wet? Oh the fun he'll likely miss. Going to a ski resort just isn't the same as walking out your front door into a winter wonderland.

Of course, at present Z's largest concerns at the present time are how to get past the barriers mom has put between him and the entertainment center (CD's are fascinating) and convincing mom that chicken is ucky and should be permenantly removed from his menu. (Yes, that is his Jesus doll, a gift for his baptism. I believe he's taking the chicken issue to a higher authority.)

Friends

2009-08-05T22:57:00.003-04:00

I am so excited I’m actually doing a happy dance. Today is an important day in the lives of myself and a circle of very important people I’ve known for nearly 9 years — people who have had such an impact on me that I can truly say that they’ve not only changed my life, they have played the key role in making me who I am today.

I have in my hand a book. It’s an anthology of Zombie stories published by Living Dead Press called Book of the Dead. Now I don’t write horror, I write primarily paranormal stories. I’m the person who squeezes her eyes shut when she knows the scary part is coming in the horror flick. So why am I so excited about a Zombie anthology?

This book represents so very much. Ten years ago writing was a dirty little secret for me. No one saw my scribblings and I failed to finish anything other than a few angsty poems. Ten years ago my life as I knew it fell into pieces. The most important person in my life, someone who has shared over twelve years with me, loving, living and struggling to find our place in the world, walked out. The words, “I’m not happy,” destroyed my world.

I began picking up the pieces and in the process met the people who would become, not my life or world, but the ingredients that flavored a life that centered on me and not on someone else. If that sounds selfish or vain, you’ve never lost yourself in another—made them your entire reason for being. That is a mistake of youth and one that I sill never make again. Even my son is not my reason for being. He is an individual of his own and will have a life of his own in which I will become a spice that makes his world more palatable.

In that recovery I found my flavorings. My SO, K, has helped me learn so many important life lessons. But this blog isn’t about K, it’s about a group of peoplen who I am proud to call my friends.

One summer, as I was again recovering, this time from a car accident; I came across a website that was dedicated to fanfiction. I had been fascinated with the world that fanfiction was written in and was eager to read more. Much of it was so horrible it could cause nightmares…and has. But the goal of the site was to encourage writing, especially by children. But there was a group of writers, most who worked as staff on the site as I eventually did, who were writing some incredible stories. We found each other and became critique partners, cheerleaders and teachers for one another. Some of us dreamed of being published, others were happy to be readers, others dabbled in writing but —though amazingly talented (yes, Brit, I’m talking about you)—had no interest in being published.

The book I hold in my hand represents a dream come true. My friend, critique partner, cheerleader, teacher and inspiration Jennifer Hudock has seen one of her remarkable stories come into print. She’s worked long and hard for this, and we’ve been there rooting for her all the way. Her achievement is affirmation for all of us.

So, for chills, thrills and some of the spot on best writing you’ve ever seen, check out Book of the Dead: A Zombie Anthology by Living Dead Press and the story Two Weeks by Jennifer Hudock. And while you’re at it, you can enjoy a remarkable poscast novel, Goblin Market, at her website. Six installments are up and I promise you won’t be able to wait for the next chapter.

New Release

2009-07-29T17:44:00.004-04:00

Horror at it’s Best

I’ve mentioned a friend of mine on this blog from time to time by the name of Jennifer Hudock. Jenn is an amazing writer who specializes in the horror genre. She’s currently undertaking a spectacular podcasting project that is not to be missed. Check out her website for more information. The Goblin Market will speak to fans of horror, paranormal and fantasy.

But there is even better news. Jennifer Hudock’s story “Two Weeks” has just been released as part of the anthology Book of the Dead: A Zombie Anthology. Jenn is an incredible new talent that you will be glad to have found.

NCLB: No CLue Bullshit

First day of “Leadership” down.
First migraine of the school year, here.

I had to start back to work today. As the Reading Dept. chairperson, I’m a part of the leadership team. This means I spent seven hours sitting in a meeting trying to decide if we should have a goal for 99% of our eighth graders to meet or exceed standards this year or for 98% of our eighth graders to meet or exceed standards. Oh, and the truly tough question, do we have a goal for 50 or 55% to exceed standards?

Welcome to the world of No Child Left Behind. We were horrified this year to discover our school did not make AYP (adequate yearly progress). Why? Because our special needs population, as a subgroup did not meet the bar. That’s right, students who are diagnosed with learning disabilities, who struggle with standardized tests, timed tests, and learning problems that cause them to be behind their peers, didn’t keep up with their peers. Therefore we are, of course, horrible educators.

But hey, our country is serious about quality education. That’s why they are giving us money to buy materials and supplies, money to hire more teachers to reduce class sizes…what? There is no money for materials? There is a hiring freeze? We’re furloughing teachers? We’re increasing class sizes?

In the words of the unforgettable Gilda Radner….”Never mind.”

Romanticon

If you’re considering making the trip to Romanticon this year, I can’t urge you enough to do it. It’s a convention that is not only for writers, but for readers too. Check out the list of writers who will be attending, appearing on panels and signing. There will be lots of give aways and some amazing baskets to be raffled off. The authors that work with my editor have gotten together to create a Frog Pond basket that is going to be out of this world. There are so many books and goodies included in it, we may need to put it in a suitcase instead of a basket.

Sewing

I’ve not been on the computer much the last few days. I’ve been sewing. I know this seems like an odd thing to talk about but it’s something I wasn’t able to do anymore up until my surgery. I’d be able to work for only a minute or two, then my fingers would be so numb and my hands so weak, I couldn’t continue. Now I can sit on the couch, watch my new favorite show, Warehouse 13, and embroider. I love it. Typing still tires my hand quickly, but sewing is going great. It’s nothing earth-shatteringly spectacular, but it’s the first I’ve been able to do in years.

The Essentials, In My Humble Opinion

2009-07-24T13:00:00.002-04:00

I was confronted a while back by a parent whose child was reading above grade level. The problem is, they wanted their student to read only books on their “reading level”. This creates two problems.

First of all, while a middle school student may be able to read and comprehend books written for an adult audience, they are not ready to read the content in most books written for an adult audience. Then there is the “fun” element. Most adult books are written at a fifth to sixth grade reading level. Want something higher and you’ll be reading books like David Copperfield, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and the like. Not exactly what a 13 year old boy wants to read.

The second issue is that there are certain juvenile and young adult books that form a basis for cultural literacy. These are books that most young people have read and that teachers are likely to reference. And many of them are books that, in my opinion, are books that everyone should have read by the time they hit high school. In no particular order:

1. Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry
2. The Giver
3. Wrinkle In Time
4. The Great Gilly Hopkins
5. Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key
6. Little House in the Big Woods
7. Charlotte’s Web
8. The Outsiders
9. Bridge to Terabithia
10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s) Stone

Many of these are Newberry Prize winners or honor books. All have become part of our cultural literacy in terms of children’s books. Their characters span races, economic situations and ages. The settings are urban, rural, contemporary, historical and the future. They are realistic fiction, fantasy and adventure.

Have you read them?

Heroines

2009-07-20T22:59:00.002-04:00

We’ve arrived home all in one piece, more or less. The visit with my family was nice, mostly. There was mild family drama, but then that’s to be expected since a portion of my family treats drama like a fifth food group. But over all it went well.

In the car home, we listened to almost all of Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Haddix is primarily a YA writer who is probably best known for her Shadow Children series about a future world where population control limits each family to two children. Third children are forbidden. The Shadow Children tells the stories of some of those third children. This new one is about a plane that arrives at an airport from nowhere. There is no record of it and it just appears at the gate. All the seats inside the plane are filled with babies. Now that those babies are adopted out into families and have reached the ripe old age of 13, someone’s sending them letters warning them that someone is coming to get them.

This leads into my title because the girl heroine in this story is the weak link in the story. She is irritating and not very likable. My irritation with her got me to thinking about my relationship with my own female characters. I wondered, did Haddix know that this character was so annoying? Is she as annoying to others as she is to me? Does anyone else want to throttle her and tell her to shut up?

Female characters have always been difficult for me to write. I have an unfinished manuscript that will probably never be finished because the driving voice in the story is the female lead. Whenever that happens, the stories just seem to fizzle out and I lose the line of the story. I’ve had other stories that were a struggle to finish because the female character boxed me into a corner, or she is a secondary voice and she is not cooperating with the telling of the story. I have three of those right now. I was zooming along on them, 12,000 words or even more and then a screeching halt. *Sigh*

I wonder why it is that female characters present a challenge for me? My guys usually drive my stories. I’ve been complimented on how my guys were very real except for all that mushy love stuff. I’ve been told that during the moments leading up to and during intimacy men do not have the lovely romantic thoughts romance writers usually give them running through their brains. But, the stories are targeted toward women and damn it we want to believe that our men are thinking sweet loving thoughts and not just focused on the tactile.

There is an upcoming movie that has made me laugh while watching the previews. It repeats exactly the advice I’ve been giving to my friends for years when they are having trouble with husbands and boyfriends. Men are wired differently. It’s not upbringing, it’s wiring. Men are visual and tactile, women tend to be auditory and cognitive in our arousal. Men are simple, and I don’t mean simple minded. They don’t complicate matters or spend a great deal of time analyzing the nuances of what someone says or does.

Maybe that’s what makes female characters such a struggle. When that female voice is talking to this female writer, we get bogged down in too much analysis and contemplation and ask too many damned questions. My guys are simple. They usually tell me the story and then I have to pull out the details from them. The ladies lose me in the minutia. I've never been a fan of drama.

And, just cause I think this is cute, and I own a Cavalier:

Last Day

2009-07-19T22:24:00.001-04:00

We’re on the last day of our trip to see my family in Illinois. It’s always an adventure. This was the first opportunity most of them have had to meet Z. Of course since we are driving, the trip back tomorrow will be vastly unpleasant. Z did fine for 90% of the trip up, but had two absolute screaming fits. One the last hour of the trip and one, unfortunately, at the exact moment someone from my publisher’s office called me about my reservations for Romanticon. (Again, Valerie, I am so sorry.)

We’re very fortunate with Z. He has a very outgoing personality and doesn’t seem to mind a large number of people passing him about and playing with him. At 7 months old, I was afraid the normal stranger anxiety would make it an unpleasant experience for him to meet all of his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great aunts and uncles, etc. He didn’t mind at all. He found them all very entertaining, even his great aunt Jo. who in typical Jo style got lipstick on his head from kissing him. And the family’s reactions to him were wonderful. Everyone cooed and oooed over him.

My sister and her husband kept him for us for a few hours today so we could have some grownup time. (They also baby-sat Wendell who was much more upset at being left behind with them than Z.) It was the first time we’d been alone without Z since April when Grandma Roth watched him so we could sneak out to a movie. This time we went to see the Harry Potter movie, so-so and very long, and have a bite to eat. It was nice to have a bit of couple time. Of course everyone dropped hints that we would have more such time if we would just move up north to live nearby. I’d seriously think about it, but I do love where I live and it would place us very far from my SO’s family. Not to mention that I married a Floridian who abhors cold weather.

RomantiCon

If you haven’t registered yet for RomantiCon in October, you should do so. Hoards of your favorite romance writers will be there signing and meeting readers. There will be workshops and forums for readers to tell authors what they want and what they like. Authors will be able to meet readers and other authors. (We are all fans too.) So check it out and sign up. Did I mention the cover models will be there too? Oh Yeah!

A trip to Austenland?

2009-07-15T18:10:00.003-04:00

Books

I just finished a nice little book called Austenland by Shannon Hale. I was intrigued by the concept and by the fact that I knew Hale as a YA author and she was now moving into the realm of adult fiction, much as Meg Cabot did. In fact, Hale’s writing reminds of Cabot. It’s sharp, smart and keeps just enough of your funny bone tickled to make the reading from becoming too biting.

Austenland is the story of a young woman, who like many of us, loves Jane Austen. But when she finds herself in a fantasy “theme park” playing the role of a Regency young woman in a house full of Austen-esque characters it becomes hard to remember it’s all an act. Especially hard to remember when faced with the prospect of her own Austen hero stepping out of the pages and fulfilling her deepest fantasy.

Hand

My right hand is doing much better. I’ve been able to take off even the little bandage over the actual incision and it’s drying up quite well. I have a large bruise on my palm that makes shifting gears a bit unpleasant. It looks a bit icky, but in a couple of weeks more you will barely see the mark if it’s anything like my left.

Harry Potter

I am a Potter fan. Or I was up until books 6 and 7. Rowling’s final two books had two essential problems IMHO. First of all, they started to read like fanfiction. In fact, what was scary was that I had seen fanfiction that was better written, more imaginative and thought out, than Rowling’s last two installments. Much of the books read as if she had read the fanfiction and said, “Hmmm…I like that idea. Yes, it’s what I’ve had planned all along.”

Secondly, the last book had elements that were not suitable for the audience to whom the books had always been targeted. The mistaken idea that your audience is growing with your characters supposes that new fans will only read one book per year. That’s not how children read. When kids find a series they like, they will devour it in as short a time as possible. So that cute 9 or 10 year old who is delighted by Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s) Stone will be confronted in book seven by the torturing of a main character and multiple occasions of implied sexual violence. I’m not kidding. What did you think happened to Dumbledore’s sister? And the remarks of Greyback about how “tasty” Hermione is? Yes, he wants to bite her, but the implication goes beyond that.

I will be seeing the sixth movie. I have enjoyed the film series for itself and am curious as to how they will manage all the content of these books. I’m also interested to see how actors that were cast as children have grown to rise to the occasion. Some solid and impressive acting will be required by those playing Draco, Neville and Ginny. Who knows, we may actually get to see Alan Rickman act rather than stand about in camera shot looking grim and intimidating. From the stills released, it looks like the scene between he and Narcissa Malfoy will be in the film. I was certain that would be one of the first things cut.

Oh, and I can’t wait for the final confrontation in the last film between Helena Bonham-Carter and Julie Walters. That short bit will be worth the price of admission.

Yeah!

2009-07-13T14:59:00.005-04:00

Z
What do you get when a librarian and a reading teacher breed? Z is seven months old. No, he's not reading but he loves to look at the bright pictures and play with the book.

Yeah !
No more hunting and pecking. I got my bandages removed today. I still have to be careful, it’s only been 10 days since the surgery and while the stitches were removed, the incision site is still not fully healed and the wrist and hand are still sore and bruised. But it’s nice to be able to type semi-normally again.

Politics

I’m watching the Senate confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sotomayor. I now have no doubt why nothing ever gets done in Washington, DC. The Judicial Committee has been in session since 10:30 this morning and has accomplished nothing except that each member of the committee has given an opening statement. It seems to me we could have significantly cut the time and the cost of this process if the procedures were reviewed briefly and then everyone got down to business. You’re all (Republican and Democrat) going to repeat this nonsense later as you question her so why are we spending so much time hearing about what you’re going to ask her? Just ask it for Pete’s sake.

This is why our country and our economy are in trouble. No one can get past their own bs long enough to do their job. Seems that part of the Oath of Office they keep secret is that you swear to be as full of hot air as is humanly possible.

By the way, does any one else find it flippin’ surreal to see Al Frankin as a Senator? I keep expecting him to blurt out, “And this is Saturday Night Live.”

Books

I just finished reading World Without Winter by Steve Pierce. I’m writing a review for the September 09 eMuse but let’s just say I don’t recommend the book. It has certainly made me appreciate my own editor and the writing seminars I’ve attended. The writing in this novel can be summed up by calling it undisciplined. It fails to follow the important rule of writing that says that what happens in your story should serve the purpose of the plot.

I recently bemoaned the problem of authors who cut too much to keep to a low word count; this book has the opposite problem. It has too much filler, chapters and chapters of irrelevance that do nothing to advance the plot. Pierce obviously felt strongly about global warming and was eager to demonstrate his scientific prowess, but this story just simply was not meant to be a novel.

If you're looking for quality writing I suggest you check out Goblin Market by Jennifer Hudock. This free podcast novel has the first two installments up on Hudock's website, www.jenniferhudock.com . This is fantasy as it should be done. If you like stories of faeries, or contemporary fairytales, you'll love it.

My Right Hand

2009-07-04T20:41:00.001-04:00

I never realized all the things I rely on my right hand to do. I mean, I had thought in advance of the two handed tasks I’d need to make arrangements for like carrying, changing and bathing Z. But there are things I didn’t expect to have trouble with; stupidly forgetting I was abdicating use of my dominant hand. Opening bottles, like the Advil, with a child proof cap has proven interesting.

There has, however, been a certain degree of compensatory entertainment to be had from watching my SO do certain tasks I’ve pretty much taken on full-time. For example, we make Z’s baby food ourselves. Other than the first introduction and a couple of back up jars, just in case, we don’t buy it. I put up quite a bit before my surgery, but due to our limited freezer space some of it had to wait. So now I get to watch someone who literally ended up with the fire dept. intervening in the making of pork chops, baking & pureeing apples. Of course the avocado puree will be even more interesting since K hates avocados.

Okay, this is all the hunting and pecking I can manage for now.

Do You Dare?

2009-07-03T21:09:00.002-04:00

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The very talented author, Jennifer Hudock, has opened the doorway to the land of the fey. Before you feast on that gloriously forbidden fruit, be sure you can pay the price demanded in the

Goblin Market

Surgery day

2009-07-02T05:32:00.005-04:00

As bad as I am about updating it's likely no one will notice, but I may not be able to be post for a week or so. Surgery is set for this morning on my rt. hand. If I update for a bit depends on a.) how this doctor bandages and b.) how frustrated I get with typing one handed. Too bad the dogs can't really type my blog for me. Or one of my characters. I shall, perhaps, have to be satisfied with posting witty pictures stolen from someone else.

I've not been nervous, but I'm up early and have a distinct queasiness and a headache. Of course this could be from not having any liquids since about 9pm last night. Ugh! I chose the kitty picture (*snicker*) because I've been a grump the last few days and his face is just a perfect reflection of my mood.

I'm not the only one. Z and I are having a grumpfest. He's crabby, I'm crabby, so there! Munchkin has allergies. We were pretty sure of this since everytime the SO is runny-eyed and snuffling, so is Z. He's mouth breathing a lot lately which means he's gulping air and getting a gassy upset tummy. Cranky, fussy, no sleep through the night Z means a grumpy mom. The doctor started him on infant zyrtec but it doesn't help his congestion. You can't treat congestion in children under 6 because of the dangers of decongestants, evidently.

I do have a perverse sense of pleasure in knowing that for the next week or so since I can't technically "lift" the baby, K is going to have to take over. Sweet sleep, you shall finally be mine.