Taking a Week Or so Off

Due to a family emergency, I will be offline and not doing my regular blog posts for a while. Carry on without me.

If you are in the mood to pick up some bargain books, my publisher is putting two of my titles on sale the rest of this week and into next.

My short story collection, The Wisdom of Ages, is on sale for only $.99 for three more days for Kindle and Kindle apps. My novel for young teens, Friends Forever will be going on sale March 27 - April 3. The books are available for Kindle worldwide and the sale prices are
effective in the UK, too.
 

Monday Morning Musings

A frat without alcohol? That was a question posed and answered by Caitlin Flanagan in a column in The Dallas Morning News on Sunday. Flanagan is a journalist who spent a year investigating fraternities for a story she did for Atlantic "The Dark Power of Fraternities."

For some students the "Greek Life" is a major component of their college experience, and partying and drinking are usually synonymous with being a member of a fraternity. Unfortunately the drinking, partying, and hazing has led to assault, rape, and accidental deaths, negative consequences that take away from the goal and purpose of a fraternity.

A few fraternities have taken bold steps to solve those problems, but none as bold as Phi Delta Theta, which in 2000 mandated that all 165 chapter houses become alcohol-free. According to the article by Ms. Flanagan, some people thought it would be the death of the fraternity, but it has proven to be a boon.

Who would possibly want to join a frat without beer? Huge numbers of young men, as it turns out. In the years since the policy was introduced, Phi Delt’s membership has increased 25 percent. The number of men willing to join its alumni boards — to lead and advise undergraduate members — has increased more than 300 percent.

Most dramatically, the number of insurance claims against the fraternity has dropped 64 percent, and the financial severity of those claims has declined an astounding 94 percent. In addition to being one of the safest frats in the country, its reduced insurance liability has made Phi Delt the most affordable.

Kudos to Phi Delta Theta, and here's hoping more fraternities and sororities follow suit. After all, those organizations are supposed to be about helping to foster leadership. True leadership risks taking an unpopular stance for a more positive outcome.

In reading the newspaper yesterday, I also found this interesting tidbit in a  review of Walter Kirn's new book, Blood Will Out, The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery and a Masquerade. The book is about a serial liar and murderer known as "Clark Rockerfeller" who was also a friend of Kirn. In the book Kirn reflects on what Clark did, inventing new personas and pulling from real life events to flesh them out. "A writer is someone who tells you one thing so someday he can tell his readers another thing," Kirn writes. "A writer turns his life into material, and if you are in his life, he uses yours, too."

People often ask how much of ourselves and our life experiences are in our books, and I think Kirn gave the definitive answer.

What a wonderful way to start off the week and celebrate an amazing talent, I want to share this video of a nine-year-old girl in Holland, Amira Willinghagen, who wowed the judges on Holland Has Talent. Her voice and her choice of music will wow you, too.

Book Review - The Holy Mark by Gregory Alexander

The Holy Mark

Gregory Alexander
File Size: 457 KB
Print Length: 247 pages
Publisher: Publish Green (January 19, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00HYN2N9C


 The path from the beginning of the story when Joe Miggliore, later to become Father Tony, is born and his immigrant Italian grandmother sees a odd mark on his head and declares it to be a sign from God—a “segno sacro”, to the ultimate downfall of Father Tony doesn't always go in a straight line. This I found to be a bit of a problem. When the author stopped and took the reader off on a tangent, I wanted him to stay a bit more on track. It seemed to take too long to get from that beginning to the heart of the story.

However, that is the only quibble I have with The Holy Mark. Despite those tangents, I kept getting pulled back into the story as Father Tony relates it on the occasion of his 25th anniversary as a priest.

The Miggliore family has money, lots of money due to their ties to the New Orleans mob and the clever way Father Tony's grandfather stashed the family fortunes. Unfortunately, as is so common in families with lots of money, greed and avarice raise their ugly heads and create conflict. Tony's uncle vows to destroy his nephew, and the uncle has enough connections to the hierarchy of the church in New Orleans to make good on that vow.

In some ways this is a coming-of-age story as we follow Joe from his childhood and his first introduction to sexual acts between young boys to his eventual fall as a priest. This happens when he is in charge of a home for boys, and thankfully, nothing is written in graphic scenes.

As a Catholic who was very aware of, and incensed by, the sex scandals in the Roman Catholic Church over the past thirty years, I was pleased on one hand that Father Tony had to pay a price for what he had done. But I also found it very hard to dislike him. I think that was in part because of the calm narrative voice the author used to tell the story and the careful wording of sections that people would find distasteful. It wasn't right what Father Tony did, but the "why" was carefully laid out in this well-written book. It is also important to note that the author does not defend the priest, he simply presents a story. Granted, a difficult story to read at times, but maybe one that should be read.

About the Author:
Greg Alexander grew up in New Orleans, and after graduating from a Catholic high school for boys, he went on to the University of New Orleans where he earned an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Masters in English with a concentration on American Literature. He taught for twelve years, predominantly at Cabrini and Jesuit, two prominent New Orleans Catholic high schools.

While teaching, Greg began writing short fiction and submitting his stories to literary magazines across the country. After 168 rejections (“Yes, I counted them,” Greg laughs today), his first acceptance came for “The First Lady Barber in New Orleans,” a fine sketch of Greg’s grandmother Josephine, who was actually the second lady barber in the city.  (Family lore claims that her cousin was the first!)  The story appeared in the fall 1995 issue of ELM (Eureka Literary Magazine), Ronald Reagan’s alma mater in Illinois.

More at his Website * Connect on Facebook

Friday's Odds and Ends

I'm so excited. I received my first ever written review for a performance for my role as Big Mama in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." The entire review is by Terry Mathews, the Arts Editor of the Sulphur Springs News-Telegram, has some wonderful things to say about the entire cast, especially the actress who played Maggie the Cat and the man who played Big Daddy.

The headline read: Cast brings life to ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ - Leah Conner and John D’Avignon lead with brilliant performances

And the section about me:  Maryann Miller as “Big Mama” is to be commended, too, as the wife of a rich and powerful man. The play was written in the mid-1950s, so Big Mama is drawn as a woman who ran the house and her family with little concern for the rest of the world. She fusses, stews and frets about Big Daddy's health and fawns over Brick, to the dismay of Gooper and “Sister Woman,” who have their eyes set on the future – when they'll be running things, along with their six children. Miller brought just the right balance of confusion, devotion and denial to the part.

This is the scene in which I get the "news" about Big Daddy

I know I'm supposed to be humble and all that, but I just love reading the last line of the review, especially since Mathews, who rumor has it is very hard to impress, came to last Sunday's performance when I did the last two acts so sick I wasn't sure I was going to make it through the play. 

This  wouldn't be Friday without a bit of a rant, so.... I'm wondering if the rising gas prices are a result of the oil companies pressuring President Obama to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline. "Of course not," the spokesman for EXXON Mobil might say, but we all know the power of the oil industry.

Since I am still sick, I will keep this post short and end with a joke, courtesy of Funniest Clean Jokes :

One evening I went to visit my elderly grandparents. When it started getting late I asked my grandfather if he had the time, as I didn’t have my watch with me. “I don’t have a watch or clock around here he tells me.”

“Then how do you tell the time?” I asked.

“You see that trumpet in the corner? That’s how!” He picks it up, and thirty seconds later an angry neighbor shouts, “2:30 in the morning and your playing the trumpet!”

Finally, I'm pleased to announce that Doubletake, the first mystery I wrote years ago with a collaborator, Margaret Sutton, has been updated and re-released. It is now available in paperback and as an e-book. It was first released by a small publisher who did no marketing and the book languished until I got the rights back.

What Theatre Can Teach About Writing

Please help me welcome J. David Core as my Wednesday's guest. We both share a love of theatre, so I was pleased to have him tell us some of the ways he has learned more about writing by being active on stage. I am still sick, but I have sprayed the blog with sanitizer, so there are no germs to share. Unfortunately, there are no goodies to share, either. Thank goodness J.D. sent me the article well enough in advance that all I had to do was write this little introduction and publish the post. Enjoy....I'm going back to bed.

I began my love affair with writing at almost the same moment that I began my love affair with theater. In high school my friends were all theater and band geeks, but I had no musical talent, so if I wanted to hang with them I had to audition for plays. Now that I am writing fiction, I always remember the lessons I learned as an actor reading scripts and following stage direction.

Remember my blocking. Dramatists continue to tweak their scripts through early rehearsals for several reasons. One of the most common is blocking problems. When several characters are on stage, it becomes difficult to recall where the main character is in relation to the character he/she is addressing, and whether having the character turn might cause that actor to be upstaged by a tertiary player. The same can happen when wiring a story, particularly in a fight scene of even an erotic interlude.

A character cannot throw a punch if both hands are choking an assailant. A man cannot kiss a woman’s lips if she’s chewing a piece of cherry he just fed her; or, if he does, the half-masticated berry should be noted.

Be aware of the fourth wall. Sometimes a character will find himself spotlighted while the other characters either freeze in tableau or continue milling about in semi-darkness silently mouthing words. An occasional exception is when a playwright intentionally employs the trope of breaking the fourth wall; the imaginary plane at the footlights – the wall on which the audience is a fly.

Sometimes, however, an accident (or bad scripting) will result in breaking that fourth wall. This can also happen in writing a novel or short story if the author suddenly steps out of narrator-mode and addresses the reader directly. It can be done effectively, or it can ruin a reading experience if done clumsily. Ask how you would feel as a reader or audience member if this happened while you were engrossed in the experience. Would you easily fall back into the world of the story, or would you be too aware of the writer’s conceit to easily go-with-the-flow?

Keep it simple. In comedy-of-error or farce there’s often a lot of sub-plotting an audience has to keep track of. Oscar Wilde and Gilbert &Sullivan were experts at keeping various discordant mis-communications between characters in play. Alistair Foot & Anthony Marriott and Neil Simon are modern experts at the technique. However, it’s a tricky thing to accomplish.

Intricate story arcs can have this same drawback. A good rule-of-thumb is to write a separate character side for each major player in the story and track his or her POV at each stage in the plot. Odds are if their motivations and actions stop making sense to you, they won’t gel for a reader either.

Finally, Stay true to the character. During a community theater performance of the musical "Grease" where I played Eugene, the school nerd, there was a scene where the director had us all on stage miming behavior in the background as the focus was on Danny and Sandy, the hero and heroine of the story. Somehow I wound up seated next to the Rizzo character, and the director brilliantly instructed the actress to remove my glasses and tease me with them by trying them on herself, but then clean them with her nylon scarf before returning them to me. None of this was in the script, yet by having the actress taunt the nerd, she remained true to character; but by cleaning the specs before returning them, she remained sympathetic for any audience members who allowed the background to distract their attention from where it ought to have been, on Danny and Sandy.

The fact that our interplay in no way advanced the story was immaterial. We had to remain in character. Had we, for example, suddenly embraced and had an impromptu make-out session, any audience members who noted it would be unable to enjoy the rest of the play. Why was Rizzo necking with the class geek? That would be the only thing they’d be asking and the only story resolution they’d be seeking for the remainder of the play.

What it all comes down to in the end is that a writer is directing a play in his or her head as the story comes to life. Ultimately it will be a play presented in the imaginations of a hopefully massive audience, one performance at a time for a one seat theater with no final curtain call. Each performance will be a little different, but the script has to have the bugs worked out so that the imaginary actors are not tripping on each other or confusing the occupant of that lone seat, and I have my time on stage to thank for helping me hone that skill.

Amazon paperback    **  Amazon Kindle  **  Nook  **  iBookstore  ** Smashwords
 With a profound interest in religion, liberal politics and humor, Dave began writing in High School and has not given up on it since. His first professional writing jobs came while attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh when he was hired to create political cartoons for the Pitt News and to write humor pieces for Smile Magazine.

Dave has worked in the newspaper industry as a photographer, in the online publishing industry as a weekly contributor to Streetmail.com, and was a contributing writer to the Buzz On series of informational books and to the Western online anthology, Elbow Creek. His science fiction novel, Synthetic Blood and Mixed Emotions, is available from writewordsinc.com.

Dave currently resides in his childhood home in Toronto, OH with his beautiful girlfriend and his teenage daughter. He enjoys participating in local community events and visiting with his two adult children and his grandson.

Monday Morning Musings

I won't be doing much celebrating today as I am really sick. A cold that I managed to keep at bay so I could finish the last weekend of our play has burst through the levee, so I am down for the count.

Here is a picture from one of our last performances. I think I was sick in this one, too, as I started getting sick on Friday, but the show must go on. This is from the scene where the doctor is giving Big Mama the real news about the report from the Oshner Clinic about Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." What a terrific run we had, and other than the fact that I can crash for a couple of days and not have to drive 60 miles for rehearsal or performances, I am sad it is over.

I will take care of two important pieces of business this morning, then find my green afghan and crash on the sofa.

Have fun partying everyone.

Book Review - Common Sense by J. David Core

Common Sense: A Lupa Schwartz Mystery
J. David Core
Series: The Lupa Schwartz Mysteries
Paperback: 186 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (February 26, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1494392194
ISBN-13: 978-1494392192


The mystery revolves around a dead body that was found in a lake, and the victim is an investigative reporter. His ex-wife, Cattleya Hoskin does not believe that her ex-husband wouldn't have gone out night-fishing by himself in the middle of an investigation. To the local authorities it looks like a simple case of accidental drowning. Cattleya knows that her ex was investigating theft from the power grid in a small Ohio town, so she asks her friend Schwartz to help her in the investigation.

They discover some crooked contractors and wonder about the white van that seems to be following them at times. But Cattleya is determined to find out what happened. 

This is a cute story and the mystery is a good one. I did not guess the killer. I thought some of the antics of Schwartz were a bit over the top and too much time was spent with information related to those antics. For instance his deciding to pretend he was Muslim. The book is not quite a cozy, but has a bit of a cozy feel.

J. David will be my guest on Wednesday, so I do hope you can come back and find out how his experience with theatre has influenced his writing. I was interested in getting his input on that, as I have found my theatre experience very beneficial for writing.


Amazon paperback    **  Amazon Kindle  **  Nook  **  iBookstore  ** Smashwords

 With a profound interest in religion, liberal politics and humor, Dave began writing in High School and has not given up on it since. His first professional writing jobs came while attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh when he was hired to create political cartoons for the Pitt News and to write humor pieces for Smile Magazine.

Dave has worked in the newspaper industry as a photographer, in the online publishing industry as a weekly contributor to Streetmail.com, and was a contributing writer to the Buzz On series of informational books and to the Western online anthology, Elbow Creek. His science fiction novel, Synthetic Blood and Mixed Emotions, is available from writewordsinc.com.

Dave currently resides in his childhood home in Toronto, OH with his beautiful girlfriend and his teenage daughter. He enjoys participating in local community events and visiting with his two adult children and his grandson.

Friday's Odds and Ends

This one will be really short today. I have lots of company and a really busy day ahead. This is the last weekend of the play I am in, and we will be playing to sold-out houses this weekend. So excited, especially since some of my kids have come to see the show.

One of my sons is also going to help me fix some fencing. The other day I found my horse on his side with his back legs tangled in the fence. Either he tried to jump it or had kicked at the horses next door and got a hind leg caught high on the fence. I thought he'd broken his leg, but miraculously he did not. He has some lacerations on both hind legs and was very stiff in his hind quarters for 24 hours, but seems to be walking better today.  

This is a pre-accident picture of Banjo

I couldn't believe this small horse, only 14 hands high, would try to jump a fence that is 4 and a half feet high, but he does not get along well with the horses next door. We are going to get some cattle panels and attach them to the existing fence poles, making a higher barrier. Hopefully, that will keep him in and the other horses out.

Now I will leave you with a couple of jokes brought to you by good clean jokes:


Student: Could I get in trouble if I didn't do something?
Teacher: Well, I don't suppose so.
Student: In that case, I didn't do my homework.

Jim: What's white, steep, and has ears?
Tara: I don't know.
Jim: A snow-covered mountain.
Tara: What about the ears?
Jim: Haven't you ever heard of mountaineers?

Novelist in the Making - Kathryn Craft

Please help me welcome Kathryn Craft as today's Wednesday's guest. She has a different kind of post for us today, a charming story from her childhood she calls, "Novelist in the Making". So grab your beverage of choice, and a donut, and enjoy the story. When you are finished here, you might want to hop over to The Blood Red Pencil where I've shared a little fun from the comic strips.

In memory of my father, who did not live long enough to see me complete my journey to publication.

Sandy sits at the kitchen table with an impressive array of art supplies in front of her. I pull out a chair and sit down to watch.

“Whatcha doing?”

“A long-range project. All the sixth graders have to do one.”

The way she says this burns me up. I am in fourth grade, and whatever she’s doing I could do too, I bet, but I have no idea what a long-range project is. So I say, “What is the objective?” (One of my spelling words, used in a sentence.)

She tells me she has to research a country and write a report about it. Here’s the best part: she must glue pictures onto construction paper and make the whole thing into a book. She has already colored in a map of Africa using Dad’s forbidden Prismacolor pencils.

 

Sandy picks up the scissors and starts to cut a picture from National Geographic.

“Dad is going to kill you for cutting that up.” National Geographic is a keeper. Ripping pictures from it would be like tearing a page from the dictionary. Even worse, she has torn off the covers.

 “These aren’t Dad’s.”

So Sandy has her own source for National Geographics and gets to do a big project to impress her teacher and make a book and get attention from Dad?

I want in.

My father is not the type to leave love lying around the house where you might trip over it; you must rise to where he keeps it. I want to make that climb, so at dinner I always make sure I have something to report. “Daddy, I got the fastest time in the obstacle course.” I always scramble as fast as I can, as if he were cheering me on, and it hurts that he doesn’t acknowledge this achievement.

But Sandy has my father’s attention; she is talking about her long-range project. Jacquie is jiggling her leg until the whole table shakes because she wants more mashed potatoes and my mother is telling her she can’t have more until she eats her vegetables and Nancy is saying Jacquie can have her mashed potatoes. I don’t know it will suddenly get quiet as Sandy takes a bite of her meat, my mother wipes mashed potatoes out of Nancy’s hair, and Jacquie spits chewed vegetables into her napkin and I say, “DADDY, I GOT A 104% ON MY MATH TEST.”

“You don’t need to speak so loud, Kathy. I’m sitting right next to you.”

My cheeks burn. This is not how I hoped this would go.

So I have to do it.

“Guess what, Daddy?” I look at Sandy out of the corner of my eye. “Mrs. Arnold gave us a long-range project today. We have to research an African country and write about it and make a book.”

“But that’s the same assignment Sandy has. You’re only in fourth grade.”

“I know,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Can you believe how hard she makes us work?”

“Well, pick the Congo. You can use the same magazines I bought for Sandy.”

Sandy is looking at me as if she was the queen of the Congo, and I just invaded it.

“I already signed up for Tanzania.”

The next night Dad comes home from work with a stack of National Geographics—this time, for me. I savor every moment of this project. My father leans in close to show me how to make bar charts and I love that he shares his art supplies with me. When the magazines don’t have enough pictures of Tanzania for the scale of my project (I interpret “long-range” to mean I will be working on this a very long time, since, strictly speaking, I have no turn-in date), he goes out looking for more.

Finally he’s had enough and calls Mrs. Arnold to complain about the amount of work she’s asking me to do.

Busted.

My long-range project came to an abrupt termination date. But he couldn’t exactly punish me for wanting to work too hard, could he?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathryn Craft applied this tenacity to the writing of her debut novel, The Art of Falling, (Sourcebooks) and a second novel, due out Spring 2015, based on true events of the standoff that resulted in her first husband’s suicide. Her work as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com follows a nineteen-year career as a dance critic. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, she now serves as book club liaison for the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. She hosts lakeside writing retreats for women in northern New York State, leads writing workshops, and is a member of the Philly Liars Club.

See my review of The Art of Falling

Monday Morning Musings

Anyone who has ever been involved in theatre, either professionally or in community theatre, knows how that run down to opening weekend can consume every thought and every moment of your day. That is what it was like for me last week as we prepared for the production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

Celebrating Big Daddy's Birthday

In addition to learning lines and blocking and figuring out how to portray a character, all of us in the cast were responsible for finding costumes and many of the props. Small community theatre troupes are, well, small. Sometimes there is not someone who can step up to be a stage manager. In professional, and large community theatre groups, a stage manager is the one who handles costumes and props and set dressing, as well as helping cast remember their cues for entrances.

Large theatre groups also have tech crews who do light and sound designs.

So with each production that I do at the the theatre in my small town, or the larger city of Sulphur Springs, Texas,  it is a bit of a gamble whether there will be people to help the cast and the director pull a show together. That we can do it is a testament to how dedicated we are to the stage and how much we love to bring a story to life for the enjoyment of the audience.

The story of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" has many layers, but it is primarily a story of redemption. Redemption between Maggie and Brick and redemption between Big Daddy and Big Momma. I thought of that when I saw this video on Saturday.



On another note. I read an article in The Dallas Morning News by Neil Gershenfeld and JP Vasseur about the Internet of Things. Some of the geek-speak was beyond my comprehension, but the bottom line is that the geeks have made it possible to have a small Web server that can do amazing things.

When embedded in everyday objects, these small computers can send and receive information through the Internet so that a coffeemaker can turn on when a person gets out of bed and turn off when a cup is loaded into a dishwasher, a stoplight can communicate with roads to route cars around traffic, a building can operate more efficiently by knowing where people are and what they’re doing, and even the health of the whole planet can be monitored in real time by aggregating the data from all such devices.

When I read that article, I couldn't help but think of my short story SAHM I Am. When my husband first told me about a computer that could be a Self Activated Household Manager, (SAHM) that was back in the 70's and I couldn't imagine what that would be like.

Did you know there is a real problem with people taking the wrong medications with really dire consequences? Ruth Marcus wrote about that in a column Sunday in The Dallas Morning News. The column was titled Look-Alike Pills Endanger Everyone and was focused on Kerry Kennedy, who was just acquitted of “drugged driving”. You may recall the new reports when Kennedy was charged after she mistook a sleeping pill for her thyroid medication and had an accident. Marcus also mentioned other cases in which people, including Tom Brokow, took the wrong medication because the pill and the container looked so much like the pill the person was supposed to take. A simple fix, according to Marcus, would be for pharmacies to put different colored cap on bottles containing sleep aids.

This step could be required, or smart pharmacies could do it on their own. After all, the manufacturer of my contact-lens cleaner knows enough to put a red top on that bottle so I don’t mistake it for the wetting solution.

 That's a great idea. I hope the pharmacies pick up on it. 

Book Review - The Art of Falling by Kathryn Craft

 The Art of Falling

Kathryn Craft
File Size: 1184 KB
Print Length: 368 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1402285191
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark (January 28, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00F3D8KKQ

What a wonderful story of celebrating life. To really appreciate the joy of living, one must first have pain, and Penelope Sparrow has plenty of pain, physical and emotional and spiritual. The journey Penny takes from the darkest moment of despair to the light of joy is not an easy one, for her or for the reader at times. The author did not pull back from the agony one feels while watching someone she loves slowly kill herself and the internal conflicts that creates.

Penny is a dancer, struggling with her self-image, struggling with her obese mother, and struggling with life in general, when she takes a fall from her 14th floor apartment window and somehow survives. But can she go on, especially since she cannot remember how she fell or what happened just prior to it?

She does, however, remember dance. She remembers taking the stage and her last dance with Dmitri, the man she has given herself to body and soul.

With the help of Marty, the baker, and Angela, a young woman who is suffering from cystic fibrosis, Penny champions her way through all the challenges of the physical and emotional trauma. The relationships with these new friends helps Penny focus on what is important, and the way those friendships grow is a wonderful layer to the story. Except for the fact that Marty in the classic screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky was a butcher, there are some subtle similarities in the characterizations. I often thought of the movie Marty when Marty the baker was in a scene in The Art of Falling. I don't know if Kathryn made the same association, but it was a nice one.

Using the themes of dance and letting the reader feel what it is like to be one with the air and the music really helped propel the story and connect the reader to Penny in an innovative way. This is a thoughtful book that one should read with plenty of time to savor the subtleties of the writing. Everything about this book is top notch from the characters, to the pacing, to the story structure, to the magical, lyrical prose.

Kathryn Craft has certainly mastered the craft of writing, and she will be my guest this coming Wednesday, sharing a charming story from her childhood. I do hope you can come back on Wednesday and meet the child who grew up to be a novelist.

Friday's Odds and Ends

This has been a very busy, hectic week getting ready for the opening of the play I am in at a local community theatre, The Main Street Theatre in Sulphur Springs, Texas. We are doing "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", and I play the role of Big Mama. We opened last night and will perform again tonight, tomorrow night, and next week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I am working with an amazing cast and the players doing the two lead roles, Maggie and Brick, are terrific. So is Big Daddy. When he goes on his tirade against me, I can feel all his anger and his frustration.

This picture is from one of our rehearsals where Big Daddy is yelling at me to leave him and Brick alone. The scene is from act two where Brick and Big Daddy are having their "come to Jesus" talk. Very intense scene, and it upsets me to hear them shouting at each other.

On opening night, Thursday, the audience could feel all that emotion, too, and it is that connection we always want to make with an audience or with readers.  I love being reminded of that while playing on stage.

 

Maggie "The Cat" played by Leah Conner. Image Courtesy of The Front Porch News where you can read a review and see more cast pictures.You can also get information on tickets, etc, if you happen to be in the East Texas area and would like to see this classic show.

Today I am the Friday's Featured Author at J.M. Kelley's blog and we had fun talking about high school days, favorite books, and the ultimate hamburger. Come on by if you have a chance. Like so many other authors who are generous with their time and their little corner of cyberspace to support other writers, J.M is helping me spread the word about the recent release of Stalking Season as an e-book. 

I just love the cover that artist, Dany Russell did, so I have to share it again. For those of you who may have ever been in Reunion Arena in Dallas, you may recognize the view, minus the police badge of course.

Now just a couple of groaner jokes, thanks to Jokes4Us.com

Q: What did the baby corn say to the mama corn? A: "Where’s Popcorn?"

Q: What do you call sad coffee?" A: Despresso.

Today's Literary Lesson comes from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." In act one Maggie says, "When something is festering your your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work. It's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant."

The play is filled with such wonderful insights, which is part of the reason it has been such a joy to experience. Every rehearsal we found a new nuance of human behavior and philosophy to ponder.

What have you learned from plays or books that made you stop and really think about how it applies to your life?

Fun at The Opera

Please welcome humorist, Slim Randles, back as today's Wednesday's Guest. I don't think I want to follow his advice about the proper way in which to enjoy the opera, but it may work for Three-Chord Cortez. I'm not sure what is served in the way of refreshments at an opera, but probably something fancy like a petit four. We can have those, and maybe some biscuits and gravy for the guys down at the Mule Barn Truck Stop. I doubt they know what a petit four is.

Image Courtesy of Diana's Desserts

Image Courtesty of Jenn's Food Journey Where You can Get a Recipe or Two

Our resident cowboy, Steve, brought us the shocking news: cowpuncher Three-Chord Cortez, that bunkhouse balladeer, plans to study opera, in hopes an aria or three will make him even more attractive to girls during a serenade. Apparently, singing "La Donna Mobile" might be more effective than “You don’t know what lonesome is ‘til you start herding co-o-o-ows” … especially if she doesn’t speak European.

I thought I’d jot down a few opera truths for ol’ T.C. just to help him out.

1. Take off your hat. You can keep Jujubes in it if you want.

2. If you like a particular aria, you can yell Bravo! if it’s a man; Brava!  if it’s a woman; or Bravisimo! if it’s an isimo. It’s considered poor form to yell “Eeeee-HAAA!” or “You get ‘em, Hon!”

3. One of the strangest operatic devices is called recitative – pronounced rest-a-TEEF – (don’t ask), and is a combination of singing and speaking that is used when the composer wants to hurry through a song because he wasn’t too fond of it in the first place but it was in the contract and he wants it out of the way quickly. Feel free to mention recitative to a woman at half time. Operas have two half times.

The speaking part of the recitative is done like a machine gun, and then you break into song when you get tired of that, and it can happen in the same sentence. For example:

“Don’t make me come down there, don’t make me come down there, don’t make me come down there and k-i-i-i-I-I-I-I-i-i-ck your bu-u-u-u-u-tt.”

4. That bit of music they play before the curtain goes up is called the overture, and not foreplay. It’s to give you a hint of what’s to come, in case you decide to leave early. You might listen to the overture and say, “That allegretto tickles my fancy, but if that tenor duet goes on for more than two minutes, I’ll get the scours.”

This makes a guy a connoisseur, you see. Connoisseur is European for smart aleck.

And finally, 5. Don’t forget to clean your boots.

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If you like what Slim shares here, you will enjoy his books. Check out his author page on Amazon if you have a moment. His books are a delight, and they make perfect gifts for any occasion.

In order to provide these columns for free and still buy groceries, Slim has sponsors, and the current sponsor is Beltone Hearing Aids,  so we do have to do this little ad:

A free hearing test will ease the grief if you can’t hear the recitative. Beltone 1-866-867-8700.

Monday Morning Musings

As I saw the clock winding down to noon, I thought of the song, "Monday Morning Coming Down." That was a classic from Johnny Cash, so I thought I would share that video with you.



I was gone over the weekend to the art fair in Killeen, Texas, and came home to an ice storm in North Texas. It is really, really cold here, and I spent most of the morning deicing water and feed pans for my outside animals and getting them hay and feed.

While I was freezing my tush off, my dog, Poppy didn't mind the cold at all. She still wanted me to throw the ball and she didn't even mind it when she slid across the ice.

Can you see the ball by her front paw?

When I finished all the outside work, I was happy to come back into the house and get a hot cup of coffee. Then it was time to catch up with e-mails that had piled up over the weekend, which left little time for writing a new blog.

So enjoy the music, and I will see you on Wednesday. Hopefully, by then I will be back on schedule.

Something Different This Sunday

Since I have no review for today, I thought I would share a couple videos with songs that have spoken to my heart of late. This first one is from Amanda Marshall, a Candadian pop-rock singer with her amazing song "Believe in You." I think all the strong women I celebrate here had someone in their lives who told them that often. The video is as touching as the lyrics as we watch this man from infancy on as he runs the race of life.



This next one is from another Canadian singer, Michelle Wright, and it is a sad song, especially for those of us who are grieving a loss. I've had her CD "Everything and More" for a while and just popped it in when I was driving the other day. I'd forgotten about this song, and when I heard it again that day, I thought, "Yes, this is for me today. I Don't Wanna be That Strong."

I think we all have days like that, and we just need to be there for that day. Maybe the next day we will feel strong again, but for one day we can just say we don't want to do this today. Michelle's song is about love that ended in divorce, but it has a message for love that ended for any reason.




Ironically, Michelle's latest album is titled "Strong." Maybe it's time for a new CD.

Friday's Odds and Ends

As the political race heats up in Texas most of the candidates are waging war on Obama or fighting to stop his war on Texas. Ahem... I will repeat what I said a few weeks ago. Tell me what you are for, not what you are against, be respectful of the office of the president, and, please, could we make this a campaign, not a war?

I am proud of my home state of Texas for many things, but ugly rhetoric is not one of them.

While you are reading this, I will be heading to Killeen, Texas for the Take 190 West Art Festival, one thing in Texas of which I am very proud. This is the fourth year I will take part, and it is always such a great opportunity to be immersed in creativity for a whole day. The annual event is part of the Killeen Salutes the Arts program and it is all about the art of painting, sculpting, writing, firing, molding, and many other artistic expressions.

Take 190 West is Killeen’s week-long salute to the arts and is a partnership between the Killeen Convention and Visitors Bureau, the City of Killeen, and the Killeen Independent School District.
Planned events for 2014 include:

• The Artists’ Preview Party - On Friday Evening
• Book signings by local, state and nationally-known authors - On Saturday, March 1
• A sculpture contest featuring professional sculptors from Texas and beyond - March 1
• The KISD student Art Show. An invitation-only preview party will be held on Friday, February 28,2014 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The Saturday event will be open to the public free of charge.

This photo is from last year's KISD student Art Show, which is one of the best things about the fair. There are some incredibly talented young folks in the district and the work is fantastic.

One half of the exhibit hall is dedicated to the students, and the professional artists have booths set up in the other half. I am always glad that my daughter comes with me to take care of my book table, so I can go see all the wonderful art.

The Killeen Convention Center is a beautiful venue for the festival, and the authors are set up in the entry hall. There will be lots of writers there with a great variety of books for young readers, and not so young readers.

If you live close enough to Killeen to come by on Saturday, I know you would enjoy this festival, and I would love to meet you.

My other big news is that the e-book for Stalking Season, the second book in the Seasons Mystery Series is now live at Amazon. As soon as I have time, when I am not busy rehearsing for a play, I will get it up for all reading devices. I will have the good folks at Untreed Reads do that, but I have to do some formatting before sending it on to them. Meanwhile Stalking Season is available for Kindle and all Kindle apps. Thanks to Dany Russell for another wonderful cover.

Now to end on some fun. The following was taken from Great Clean Jokes. Please do click on the link to see a picture of Mildred and her friend. They are a delight.

“My memory is gone Mildred, so I changed my password to 'Incorrect.' That way when I log in with the wrong password, the computer will tell me… 'Your password is incorrect.'"

We Love Our Dogs

Please welcome our friend, Slim Randles, back as today's Wednesday's Guest. He brought his dog, so maybe we can share a treat with her, while the rest of us have a cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee. I've got the rolls, if you've got the coffee.

Image Courtesy of "Riches to Rags" Blog Where You can Find the Recipe

 

Image Courtesy of Apartments.com, the last site you would think would have a recipe for homemade dog treats.

One of the great pleasures of hanging around down at the livestock auction barn each Saturday morning is being able to take your dog along.

Why do we go to the sale barn? We love agriculture, and it’s part of living here to see who buys what and rejoice in their good fortune, even if our own grass is stressed to the limit by whatever varmint we’re currently feeding. Or, it could be that we figure we’ve already lived too long, and if the right horse or cow comes through there, and we buy it, our wives will see to it that we don’t suffer in agony for untold years.

This weekly auction is a treasure house for our dogs. It’s a dog’s day out, a chance to scrounge under the bleachers for dropped hot dog portions and the occasional sweet bun crust. It’s a chance for them to get reacquainted with dog buddies and to check out any new pickups in the parking lot whose tires have not yet been properly baptized.

My coonhound loves it. She had done her munching, scrounging and socializing and was curled up under my truck, waiting for me, as we were getting ready to leave. Dud’s blue heeler was flitting around in the bed of his pickup truck, guarding against anything that might deign to trespass. And Doc had a new dog, of non-obvious parentage, on a leash, which meant he was not yet broken in to sales barn etiquette. Once he got used to it, and had been introduced to the other dogs, he’d fit right in and the leash would be history.

“What kind of dog is that, Doc?” we asked.

“Why, he’s an Egyptian shepherd.”

“I never heard of an Egyptian shepherd. Does he work cattle?”

“Nope.”

“What’s he do?”

Doc grinned, “He makes pyramids in the back yard.”
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Have you seen “Home Country Minute” on television? Hop on over for a visit to see what Slim has to say. It's always interetsing and quite a bit of fun.

If you like what Slim shares here, you will enjoy his books. Check out his author page on Amazon if you have a moment. His books are a delight, and they make perfect gifts for any occasion,

Monday Morning Musings

Or maybe I should say Monday Afternoon Musings. I took pain pills and a nap this morning, so I got to my office a bit late today, which threw everything off schedule. I snagged some cookies from The Pastry Chef's Baking website since I didn't have time to make anything to share with readers. Grab one if you'd like.

First off I've got to say that the closing ceremonies of the 2014 Olympic Games was a spectacular show. I especially liked the way the dancers formed the Olympic Rings with the fifth one forming a few moments later than the others. To some viewers it might have seemed like the dancers had missed a sound cue like they did in the opening ceremonies, but it was just a little whimsey that fit so well with other bits of whimsey throughout the show. The bear was also another highlight for me. What a sweet expression he had on his face.

Last week I read an article that Jacquielynn Floyd wrote about a man in Dallas who volunteers in the cardiac unit at Baylor University Medical Center. Even though women are more likely to be hospital volunteers, there are more and more men who are responding to that need. What sets Clarence Griffith apart from those other men is that he is the oldest one to regularly spend time with patient families who are in the cardiac waiting room, anxiously awaiting the outcome of tests or surgeries.

Griffith is 101, and he became a volunteer at the request of his cardiac surgeon following a triple by-pass surgery at age 94. That in itself is amazing as most people of that age could not tolerate such a physically and emotionally traumatic surgery, but that is just another indication that Griffith is not like most people.

So today I am celebrating a strong man instead of a strong woman, but I think everyone can agree that Griffith deserves the recognition. From my years of working as a hospital chaplain, I know what the kindness and attentiveness of this kind of volunteer can mean to families during these frightening and stressful times of life and death situations.

Griffith does this because that's what people are supposed to do. In her column, Floyd pointed out that Griffith has a very concise interpretation of Christian theology: "The Bible says we are supposed to help people."

She compared that simple approach to the "...sour political season of candidates using religion to justify extremist rhetoric.

"It's a wonder that they're talking about the same book. In Clarence Griffith's Bible, providing comfort and care and practical assistance to other human beings is the prime directive."

So let's raise a glass, or a cup, of whatever you have handy and toast a truly remarkable man. Kudos to you Mr. Clarence Griffith.

Did you watch the closing ceremonies? What part resonated the most with you? Did you watch the Kerrigan/Harding documentary prior to the closing ceremonies?

Book Review - The 2 Day a Week Diet Cookbook by Ruth Glick and

The 2 Day a Week Diet Cookbook
Nancy Baggett and Ruth Glick
File Size: 6006 KB
Print Length: 251 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Light Street Press (January 11, 2014)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B00HV6RTC8


Even if you don't do the 2 Day A Week diet, this cookbook has great recipes that will help you cut down on calories if you want to take a more traditional approach to weight loss, or just simply want to eat healthier. I found a number of recipes I am eager to try: Baked Apples and Guilt-Free Chile just to name a couple. For those doing the 2 Day diet, the book has menu plans for the dieting days, a helpful list of ingredients to have on hand for meal preparations, and suggestions for how to handle the "snack attack."

The diet plan is to eat normal meals five days out of the week, then on two days, which you can choose and alternate week to week, you eat 500 calories total.  Men can eat 600 calories on the diet days.

Soups, salads, main dishes, sandwiches, desserts and snacks are all covered in separate chapters with enough recipes to keep the weekly menus varied. And that is another bonus to the book. The authors provide menus for the two days of really cutting down on calorie intake. Most of the recipes are gluten-free, so this book will be helpful for those folks abstaining from glutens.

There are 75 quick and easy recipes and 50 beautiful photographs. All of the recipes have clear and  simple-to-follow instructions, and there is plenty of encouragement for sticking to the diet. The authors have done numerous other cookbooks, and that expertise shows in a well-written and lovely new cookbook.

Friday's Odds and Ends

Is anyone else wishing the Olympic coverage was more about the athletes and less about the news crew? It seems like they sometimes blather on and on just to hear the sound of their voices. Then we have the teasers for what is coming up later in the broadcast, and those are all about the announcers getting face time on the screen. One of the teasers last night was about a documentary that will air Sunday night about the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding scandal at the Olympics 20 years ago. 

I thought it was tabloid television at it's worst back then, and I haven't changed my mind since. Yes, it was tragic that Nancy got attacked during the games. It was horrible that Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, and her bodyguard, Shawn Eckhardt, thought the best way to make sure Tonya won the Olympic gold was to break her main competitor's leg. But the media back then turned it into drama, not news, and in my opinion, the drama ended in 1994.

Image Courtesy of Free Figure Skating Clip Art

On a more positive note, the skating in the final event for the ladies' singles last night  was spectacular. Every skater went out on the ice with fire and passion and skated her heart out. I'm glad I was not responsible for judging because I loved all the performances, although it was clear to viewers, as well as judges, that Russia's Adelina Sotnikova deserved the gold. Her reaction when she finished her program was so emotional and so memorable, and we could see what the skate meant to her. Not just because of the possibility that she won. But she clearly rejoiced in what she had been able to do on the ice. There is a wonderful picture of her taken at the very end of her performance that you can see if you click on the link above. Since the picture is copyrighted, I can't borrow it.

To me, that is what the Olympic Games are all about. The athlete rejoicing in what she or he can do.

Now for some Friday Fun. The following one-liners were borrowed from the Clean Jokes Website.

I've just opened a new restaurant called Karma. There's no menu, we just give you what you deserve.

I had a dream I was a muffler and I woke up exhausted.

If you are running next to me on the treadmill, the answer is YES, we are racing.

The past, present and future walk into a bar. It was tense.

What fits your schedule better......Exercising 1 hour a day or being fat 24 hours a day?

Silence is golden, Duct tape is silver

I'm going to stand outside. So if anyone asks, I am outstanding.

That's all folks. Have a great weekend. Are you going to watch the Kerrigan/Harding documentary?