A Little Visual Refreshment…


I’m back from Maine with two photos to refresh everyone:

What is lovelier than a schooner on a sparkling sea in late afternoon?

And then, along the seaside walk, this view:

Seaside Rock Sculptures

 Note the rock sculpture in the middle left of this photo.  They appeared all along this stretch.  I found myself wondering how they were anchored – a re-bar down through the center, maybe?   Who knows?














I have scads more to go through.  It will take a while, though, since I put my camera’s shutter on ‘automatic’ while photographing the surf against the rocks.  I suspect I’ll be doing a lot of deleting…

Celebrations, September 13, 2013


This is a simple blog hop started by Viklit.  Every Friday we stop and take note of the things we sometimes overlook, which make our lives so enjoyable.

Today I am celebrating the first honest to goodness vacation I have taken since before my father died in August of last year.  The past year has been filled with a number of things and involved a great deal of travel and worry and fatigue.  

Today, however, I am celebrating the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend, at which time I will insert myself into my (rental) car, check the level of gasoline in the tank, grin at my sister, who is coming with me (it was her idea, actually, and head up north to the pretty harbor of Boothbay, Maine.


Boothbay Harbor at Sunset













This is the sun-filled piece of heaven with which I fell in love back in 1999.

Over the next three days we will be driving around, visiting yarn shops, I’ll be taking photos, and we may even go on a whale watch cruise.  Whether we see a whale or not, we will certainly be seeing the sea, the rocky coast, feel the breeze in our faces.

And who knows?  We may very well see a whale!


How about yourselves?  Come join this blog hop and share the little things that make you celebrate!  Or just hop about and see what everyone’s celebrating – and thank VikLit for starting it!

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Humorous Poetry


I have posted poetry from time to time.   Today, I am posting three of my favorite humorous poems.  We can all use a chuckle, I’m sure.  Especially remembering twelve years ago today.

I recite this one regularly, sometimes even in company.  Some of us may remember memorizing poetry for school. The nuns in the school I attended in 8th grade – I was 13 years old – had us memorize poems.  This was not one of them, but thanks to our reading I can identify eight poems whose fragments appear in Robert’s recital. 

They don’t teach elocution any more, but you must imagine someone speaking these lines with extravagant, stylized gestures to show anger, courage, grief, hope, yearning…

.

“An Overworked Elocutionist.”



Elocution guide

Once there was a little boy whose name was Robert Reese,
And every Friday afternoon he had to speak a piece.
So many poems thus he learned, that soon he had a store
Of recitations in his head and still kept learning more.

And so this is what happened! He was called upon one week,
And totally forgot the piece he was about to speak.
His brain he cudgeled, not a word remained within his head
And so he spoke at random, and this is what he said!

My beautiful, my beautiful, who standeth proudly by…
It was the schooner Hesperus and the breaking waves dashed high?
Why is this forum crowded? What means this stir in Rome?
Under the spreading chestnut tree, there is no place like home.

When freedom from her mountain heights cried “Twinkle little star!
Shoot if you must this old gray head, King Henry of Navarre!
Roll on, thou deep and dark blue-chasmed crag at Drachenfels –
My name is Norwald – On the Grampian hills Ring out Wild Bells!”

If you’re waking call me early.  To be or not to be?
The curfew shall not ring tonight! O woodman spare that tree!
Charge Chester, Charge!  On Stanley, On! And let who will be clever.
The boy stood on the burning deck, but I go on forever!

His elocution was superb, his voice and gestures fine;
His schoolmates all applauded as he finished the last line.
“I see it doesn’t matter,” Robert thought, “what words I say,
So long as I declaim with oratorical display.” 

–          by Carolyn Wells 

This gem is said to have been written during pioneer days, perhaps because it referred to preserved (dried) fruit.  Until the advent of refrigeration, many things were preserved in such a way, and that method was not limited to those crossing the Great American Plains in covered wagons.  In any event, it’s a favorite of mine. 

Dried Apple Pies

 

I loathe, abhor, detest, despise

Abominate dried apple pies!
I like good food, I like good meat –
Or anything that’s fit to eat! –
But of all poor grub beneath the skies,
The poorest is Dried Apple Pies! 

The farmer takes his gnarliest fruit –
T’is wormy, bitter and hard to boot –
He leaves the hulls to make us cough
And don’t take half the peeling off.
Then on a dirty string t’is strung
And in a garret window hung,
Where it serves as roost for flies
Until it’s made up into pies. 

So tread on my corns or tell me lies –
But don’t pass me dried apple pies!

–          Unknown

 

…and then we have Hotspur’s comment (addressed to Owen Glendower in Shakespeare’s Henry IV) on the subject of poetry.  In this speech he is responding to Glendower’s remark that he had set many an English ballad to harp music, a talent that no one had accused Hotspur of having. 

Hotspur replies:
 

Marry,
And I am glad of it with all my heart:
I had rather be a kitten and cry mew
Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers;
I had rather hear a brazen canstick turn’d,

Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree;
And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,

Nothing so much as mincing poetry:
‘Tis like the forced gait of a shuffling nag.

 

 

I hope some of you have enjoyed a chuckle.  I’m going back to jotting notes in notebooks…

Celebrating the Small Things, September 5, 3012


Another Friday morning, kicking back and thinking of the note-worthy (but small) things that we can celebrate.

Cooler weather means that I can break out my fluffy blue bathrobe.  There is much to celebrate in this:

This means the weather is cooler.  Since my idea of a bad time is hot weather, the celebratory nature of this deduction (writing like a Jane Austen heroine) should be obvious.

My cats now can lie on the fluffy thing, knead it, purr over it, and squabble over who gets to lie right smack in the center of the thing.  This makes me laugh, which is always good.

I jotted some chapters, having snuck (sneaked?  the past tense of ‘to sneak’ is not, I know, ‘to snack’…) time from a rather boring passage at work.  Light shed on the flow of the story, an engaging exchange between two brothers…

And I have, finally, found a rather nice Chinese restaurant near my place of employment.  Eight minutes away by car.  I love Chinese food, my family spent several generations in China and Japan (my grandfather is buried in Yokohama, and my great-grandparents spent half WWII interned in a Japanese concentration camp.  We have my grandfather’s journal.  But I digress).  The problem is that I moved to an area of the United States, to the capital of a New England state that is notable for its lack of decent restaurants.  All they seem to understand are hot dogs, faux Italian and MSG.

But this place is charming.  They know me by name after three visits.  Their food, though Cantonese (I prefer Northern Chinese) is delicious.  Some Cantonese is sweet, and this is so, but the ingredients are very good, the food is well prepared, the people are delightful, and I am happy.  Hm.  Maybe some garlic shrimp at lunch?  It will have the added benefit of keeping the vampires away…

What are YOU celebrating today?  Join us! 

(And don’t forget to visit the others on this Blog Hop to  see what they’re celebrating!)



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And the World Ends HOW? Blogfest (A Flock of Ill Omens Part 1)


Nothing lasts forever.  We are not static, we change, adjust, evolve, and blow away…  I read an essay, once, on the subject of immortality.  What if we were immortal just as we are?  What if nothing changed from the way it is now?  It was presented as a horror, and immortality – as we are at this moment – as dreadful beyond imagining.

Perhaps they’re right.

Things seem sweeter in retrospect, and when the moment comes that this blue and white sphere is no longer suspended in the sky, the sky will be the less for it.

How will it happen?  I don’t know, though I could have some fun jotting my impressions of people clinging to a sphere whirled away by solar winds, or huddled and shivering as the earth grows cold because the sun is dead, or watching as the blinding sun draws closer and closer, ready to suck the earth into  its heat…

But I don’t think there will be people alive to see it.  Humanity’s time on earth has been very short, and if you triple its length it is still negligible.  We will have moved on, I do believe…

But that’s just me.

…And there  may just be another apocalypse in the offing:



Deadliest virus in a century, or a social experiment gone awry?

Every year they warned about the flu and more often than not, it amounted to nothing.

Sidney Knight, a young freelance reporter had certainly never written on it. But a trip to Lincoln City, Oregon cut short by a beach full of dead seagulls and a panicked warning from her brother the scientist catch her attention.

This batch is different. Deadlier. And the vaccine doesn’t seem to be helping. It almost looks like it’s making it worse…

A Flock of Ill Omens: Part I is the first episode of A Shot in the Light, an Apocalypse Conspiracy Tale about what happens when people play God for fun and profit.

 There will be approximately ten episodes, each the equivalent of about 100 pages. Good Reads has a sneak peak posted. You can find the purchase link and more information about the book here. And if you want it FOR FREE, I will be offering it free on the release dates of at least the next two in the serial: September 19 and October 10.

Hart Johnson writes books from her bathtub and can be found at Confessions of a Watery Tart, though be warned. She is likely to lead you into shenanigans http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=208331

IWSG – September, 2013 (second anniversary!)


This was started two years ago by Alex J. Cavanaugh, who runs a tight ship and thinks of good things.  I benefited from it for over a year after I discovered it, and then I jumped in.  Thank you, Alex… 
 

Months do fly past quickly, don’t they?  I remember thinking “June is coming, and the hot weather will be starting…” and now it’s September and this is my second post in this blog hop.  There’s always so much to read and nod at, to say ‘Hm…  I know where he’s coming from…”

It’s so enjoyable, you (or, at least, I) learn a lot just reading what everyone has to say, and stacking it up against your own conclusions, to see if they still stand. 

A wonderful exercise, valuable both for the insights you have reading others’ work and for the insights you have writing about your own issues…


And yes, I admit it: I’m hedging.  Beating around the bush, delaying the inevitable…

It’s funny: I have had this niggling thought for a long time, but I have never mentioned it to anyone, in all the years I’ve been writing, until two days ago when I confided this reservation to my best friend.  I’m not sure what I thought she’d say, but her pause and then, ‘Well, I could see why that would trouble you,’ somehow made things easier.  In fact.

Ah, heck.  I AM hedging.  I’ll spit it out:

BRING IT ON…

I am afraid that if I show other writers what exactly it is that I produce, if I admit my genre, my way of getting into writing in the first place, my process and my aims with writing now, they will know that I am not a ‘real’ writer. (Well, I said it.  Let’s see if I post it…)

Looking at things dispassionately, I see that what has me buffaloed (or hesitant /shy /nervous /feeling inadequate) is a list of ‘nots’.

I did not:

  •  Major in Fine Arts.  They didn’t have the program for writing at my Alma mater. I wouldn’t have majored in it anyhow.  I majored in Ancient and Medieval History.  (Only ‘real’ writers have a degree in creative writing.  I actually heard someone say that.)
  • Ever attend a writer’s conference (too expensive for me, but ‘real’ writers attend them all the time, don’t they?  I plan to, does that count?)
  • Feel a tremendous, irresistible call to be a writer (I just wrote.  It felt right.  It was me)

Procedures I do not follow:

  • Have a mission.  (I am not seeking to trumpet about a cause, to make people search their inner hearts, to ‘Send a Message’ or expose something urgent.  I write because I tell stories.  Some of the other stuff trickles in, but the storytelling is my primary aim.  It’s what I do.)
  • Start out with a formed plot and a plan of attack.  (I see a picture in my mind.  Most recently, a random act of incredible violence, seen through the eyes of the perpetrator.  I see him turning, seeing a man before him, carrying a big, composite bow, drop to one knee, draw an arrow from a quiver, nock the arrow, draw the bow…Who is the perp?  Who is the archer?  Why is it happening?  And why is the setting what it appears to be in my mental pictures?  I have ideas, and each one, written down and considered within the framework of the story’s perceived setting, reveals the plot.)
  • Have a science. (I do what ‘feels’ right.  If it doesn’t stack up against my inner ‘feeling’ it is wrong and it is adjusted or discarded.  I can explain the ‘feel’ now in terms that jive with ‘science’.  But it was there before the ‘science’ was ever expounded.)
  • Share my writing for beta-reads or critiques.  (There is a reason for this, which I will address in the next section.  It is truly amusing.  I am, actually, working on this, but the next section will explain why I am very slow at it.  I do hire editors.  Now that I have some money.)

Next Section (the ‘Do Nots’)

So… (I think) I can just imagine sending something off for a beta-read and having the person cringe, sigh, skim it and send back a two page somethingorother and voice, later, the comment that people are more willing to purchase and read something that is not unpronounceable and confusing. (With that cycle, I actually tailor the names…)

Just yesterday I was talking with my mother, who was astonished that my Civil War story was selling one tenth as well as those in my Egyptian cycle.  “It just doesn’t make any sense!” (Thank you, Mom.  I still love you.)

None of this interferes with me writing the stories and publishing them and having them edited (not quite in that order) and, perhaps, showing them to understanding friends and, certainly, putting them on my website, advertising and promoting them.  And checking the sales.

…But if I show them to ‘real’ writers, they will look at me funny and I will know that I am not a ‘real’ writer.

I did write this humorously, but like a 300 pound gorilla (or, using a child’s story I’m working on, a Twenty Cubit Crocodile) the Insecurity is right there, right in front of me, and finally admitted.  Just today, responding to a call by a blogger (and a very nice guy) for excerpts he can ‘boil down’ , I sent this email:

There is a problem, though.  I don’t write anything cool like horror, YA, dystopia, apocalyptic, paranormal romance or heroic fantasy, but seem to put out historical fiction.  Sometimes with a mystery in it.  

This is not bad – except that people tend to go glassy-eyed when they learn that one of mine, a series, is set in Egypt.  Just sayin’.  If that sort of thing makes you gag, then I withdraw the query.

  

 They say once you’re aware of a problem, it’s 2/3 of the way solved.  I hope so.


 
 
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Snapshots…


I’m back from Labor Day weekend.  It is my mother’s first time back in the cottage since my father died.  I think she faced memories, some very good, some difficult (he had his stroke there).  It was reassuring to know that life does move on, and the memories that remain, left by a very good man, turned out to be happy ones.

I brought my phone with me, of course, and sitting in the living room and looking out over the lake as a flotilla of Canada geese moved across the water in the early morning light, I realized that I had watched that sight thousands of times over the years. 

I switched on my phone, went quietly out to the balcony, and took the photo.

Labor Day Sunrise at Keuka Lake, New York

It needs a splash from the large lake trout or largemouth bass that jumps in the morning, but it will do.  The line of geese in the dawn, the reflection of the breaking clouds on the water…   (The sun is rising beyond the right edge of the photo.)

I am going to do more of this, and take mental snapshots, as well.

Ah, lunch…


Henry David Thoreau said:

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

A friend of mine said:


…Yes, and some of us lead lives of noisy desperation!




Well, I don’t know if ‘desperation’ has that much to do with it, exactly, but I thought I’d share an account of yesterday’s lunch.  I don’t know if ‘desperation’  fits quite as well as ‘a fit of the giggles’.  You be the judge.

I had a rather interesting lunch.
Went to (high end local) market and bought:

a. about 2 hard boiled eggs (imprecise because they were sliced) and some olives.  Never have I seen eggs with such small yolks.  Made Egg and Olive salad with that.  It was *okay*.



b. Tried their ‘fresh’ sushi.  California roll.  It was *okay* but might have been better with *ripe* cukes in the mix (did you know unripe cukes are chewy?  Or… Hm.  Maybe I ended up eating rubber made to look like cucumbers.  From the Sushi demo models, perhaps.)  and more than a quarter teaspoon of wasabi.  Sturdiest rice I’ve ever seen, too, and they won’t go bankrupt with the amount of sesame seeds they use.  It is supposedly made fresh today.  My guess was that it was assembled in western France at 12:01 AM their time and then flown over here.

c. ½ cup cottage cheese.   If there is ever a concern about the ocean losing its salinity, the nations of the world can find out who made this stuff and dump several shiploads in the water.

d. I am currently eating some ‘original salted’ potato chips.  I salted them.  I may have to stop eating them because they are so crunchy, it sounds like a string of explosions when I chew.  They have just been consigned to the Circular File.

e. I have a container of strawberry banana Greek yogurt waiting for me.  I have high hopes…







(As you can see, I did survive…)

Small Celebrations – August 23, 2013


Another Friday is here, and thanks to VikLit, we pause to think of the sometimes unnoticed things in our lives that should be noticed and celebrated.
I am sitting here, drinking my morning tea (hot, with milk), with my old duffer of a cat on my lap making typing difficult.  But he does provide me with a challenge.  He is also a champion purr-er.

The weeping cherry that I planted outside the front window is not only growing, it is proving to be a favorite perching-place for songbirds.

My elderly mother, who is completing her first year of widowhood, has concluded that she does need a pet, and she will be looking for a dog.  My siblings and I have been pushing for that for months now.  When their old dog died, Mom and Dad did not get another because dad was unsteady on his legs and there was some fear that a dog (Dad loved Labs) might knock him over.  So…  We’re looking for something smaller, equally sweet and older.

The edits on my one book came back and it’s looking good.  The sequel, under way, is at 69K words and it might actually be in final draft by November.  I am not holding my breath, but the possibility is definitely worth celebrating.

Enjoy your weekends, all, celebrate your lives – you’re more fabulous than you think!  (And don’t forget to visit the others on this Blog Hop to  see what they’re celebrating!)



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Catching up on Awards – Sunshine from Sharon Himsl


This is the second installment on my reparations for my (unwitting) rudeness in not responding to blog awards in a timely fashion.  In this case, Sharon Himsl of Shells, Tails and Snails awarded me the Sunshine award and in her usual kindly fashion said no one had to reply.

Sharon writes a fascinating blog with her own experiences and impressions (and nice photographs, such as those in her recent post about riding a combine).  She also features posts about the progress of the Hospital Ship The Africa Mercy.  She was kind enough to give me a Sunshine on May 23, 2013.  She said there was no rush, but I hadn’t meant to be quite so leisurely.  Now I have a breather and, with an apology to her, I am posting my response.

 
You really should visit her blog.  I liked it when I stumbled across it.  I really enjoyed her participation in the A to Z blogfest.  Her theme was Stereopticon photos, and she had quite a collection.  Each entry in the hop was enjoyable and smile-making. 
Do check her out.  She is enjoyable, eloquent, fun and beautiful.

 So here are the rules:

–Feature a picture of this award in a post on your blog.
–Answer 10 random questions about yourself.
–Nominate 10 other bloggers. Be sure to link to their blogs and let them know. 

Ten Questions:

1. What inspired you to start blogging?

I saw some blogs, thought it would be fun, and, being at loose ends, jumped in.  It was mostly for myself, since I had no idea how to network.  It is, to me, rather like jotting in a journal – except that you have the charming feel of someone you like reading over your shoulder and smiling.

2. How did you come up with the name of your blog?
Desperation?  No, too flippant.  Not sure what to name it, but needed a name.  It occurred to me that I was just chattering on about things, so I chose the name. 

3. What is your favorite blog to read?
Hm.  Maybe it would be easier to say what is my favorite TYPE of blog.  I like the ones where it’s as though I’m sitting with someone and chatting or, perhaps, sitting back, watching and smiling as they talk about whatever interests them.  No posturing, just enjoyment. 

4. Tell us about your dream job:
I would love some sort of job where I did a lot of traveling (on a train or a ship, say) observing things and jotting things down and then writing a sort of travelogue.  The job would take up perhaps four hours a day, leaving me plenty of time to write. 

5. Is your glass half-full or half-empty?
Half full.   It’s so much more satisfying to see things that way. 

6. If you could go anywhere for a week’s vacation, where would you go?
Just a week? Hm.  Boothbay Harbor, Maine.  It would be in June.  My first view of the Maine seacoast – my first REAL view – was there.  I was running an errand for my mother that took me there, to a gift shop to pick up a present.  It was about 1PM, I was hungry, and I went into the little town in search of food.  A restaurant there – the Seagull, perhaps? – was before me.  I went in.  Did I want to sit on the terrace?  Certainly – such a lovely day.  I was escorted to my table on the breezy terrace, disposed my various bags, straightened, took a sip of iced tea, lifted my head – 

It was 1:30 on a June day.  A light breeze was pushing my hair across my face.  I pushed it aside, turned into the wind – and stopped, my breath frozen in my throat, as I gazed upon a rocky coast with small outcroppings of islands sitting in a sea of diamonds.  A three-masted schooner was heeling over; a cloud of smaller boats were beyond it.  I had never seen anything so beautiful.  I gazed and gazed until it seemed as though my sight was full of sun-sparkles on green water.

I’d go there for a week any time. 

7. What food can you positively not eat?
Tripe.  It looks nasty.  No way would I even try it!  Mopane worms ditto.  Yes, they are a great source of protein – but I’ll stick with bacon and chicken.

8. Dark chocolate or milk chocolate?
Yes.  Please.  Lots.

9. How much time do you spend blogging?
I spend as much as I can.  I’m not sure what that translates to.  I am thinking of reorganizing my blog to say that I am posting, say, on (name a date).  The thing is, I participate in the ‘Small Celebrations’ blog hop that VikLit started, bless her.  Then I’m on the Insecure Writer’s blog hop (which has been a real help to me).  And then, of course, there’s the thing that pops into my head and says ‘You’re gonna love me!’  I’m thinking about it. 

10. Do you watch TV and if so, what are your favorite shows?
Well, I don’t have a TV now.  it’s a long story.  I had one, but got tired of cable – expensive and repetitious.  So I signed up for satellite, which worked beautifully during the winter, but faltered in spring.  The service technician said, “Oh, it’s no problem.  Your neighbor’s full grown, beautiful, mature Norway Maple is leafing out now and interfering with the signal.  Tell him to cut the top off and your reception will be fine.  Uh, no.

When I did have TV, I loved the Star Trek spinoffs, especially those with Patrick Steward.  But I loved all of them.  And cooking shows, and HSN/QVC.  Just to watch.  The history channel had wonderful things to watch, too. 

I am supposed to link to ten other bloggers and pass this on.  As before, I am going to highlight bloggers whose blogs are enjoyable, worth reading (no matter how infrequently they post) and just plain good.  There are so many.  If you are one of those linked to, YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO A THING.  Just smile and take a bow.

(The photo below is my apology for posting the photo of tripe.  Be glad I didn’t post a photo of Mopane worms…)

Recommended blogs (there are many, but here are a few good ones!)  If all goes well, you can go to the blog by clicking on the person’s name or the name of the blog.  I hope it works; Blogger seems to dislike me this morning.

S. K. Anthony   is an enjoyable and lively person with a lot of depth.  She has a wonderful new book coming out (the cover alone is ravishing!) and she is great fun to follow.  Check her out!

Susan Kaye Quinn is self-published, loving it, enjoying it, and happy to share (free) her experiences.  Very enjoyable! (and lots of good information, too…) 

Randy Tatano is enjoyable, on a journey, with a delicious turn of phrase.  I ‘met’ him on a message board for a competition, and I was favorably impressed with him. 

Vivacious, talented, unexpectedly ‘deep’ and a person of substance  and of quality with a lot of (good) things to say, Nancy LaRonda Johnson:   

City Muse Country Muse  I stumbled upon this blog unexpectedly. Varied, enjoyable, kindly-inclined.  It is refreshing and beautiful. (Photos are great!) 

Jill Haugh (I had a Little Nut Tree) provides a potpourri of enjoyable offerings, all served up with a signature blend of kindliness, humor and sharp wit.  I paused once to read a review she had written of a book she had picked up, and I stuck around. 

Hart Johnson has a blog with arguably the oddest title: Confessions of a Watery Tart. 
I saw it and thought ‘huh?’ and looked into it.  As with the others I like, on this list, the personalities shine through, and you stand to gain much enjoyment (and possibly more tangible benefits) by sticking your head in and looking around.  

Lara Lacomb  had an A to Z theme of a Washington DC travelogue.  And she wrote it while in Texas.  She has a book coming out (sounds wonderful!) and is one of those who is always enjoyable and humorous.

Susan Flett Swiderski writes a wonderful, informative, enjoyable and laugh-worthy blog without fail.  She also writes a heck of a great book (which I am getting ready to review):  Well worth reading, and you’ll be chuckling and thinking, both:  HERE’S THE BOOK
 

My Literary Jam and Toast  Is usually quite informative and always interesting.  I did want to throw the animated picture out the window, gut you take the good with the annoying.  Do visit this blog – very enjoyable