What the Fourth of July Really Celebrates

Today's Wednesday's Guest is my friend, Slim Randles, with some thoughts on the Fourth of July and what the parades and picnics all mean. I think he is on to something here.

The annual Fourth of July picnic was a celebration of time and freedom. We’d all watched the parade, earlier, because that’s what you do on the Fourth, and we believe in it.

Our parade features Scout troops in uniform, the high school band, floats with pretty girls … well, okay, it’s actually Delbert’s convertible with signs on the doors … and little kids proudly leading their dogs down our main street. In other words, pretty much everyone.

Those of us who aren’t marching have been known to say things like, “Hon, isn’t that the O’Brien kid with that German shepherd? My, he’s grown.”

You know.

Hope Slim had some of these cupcakes at his picnic.

 And then we go to the picnic and gorge ourselves and play softball and horseshoes and soak up the sun and laugh a lot. It’s a time for asking mere acquaintances from grocery store sightings just how they’re doing, in hopes of becoming real friends. It’s time to catch up on friends who have been solid bricks in our wall of life forever. It’s also a time to rejoice and see new bundles of babies that have joined us since last year, and feel a bit sad at those who have left us, too.

It’s a time when two guys on opposite sides, politically, can just smile and talk sports and enjoy each other. There’s time enough to disagree on policies later on. No rush.

And we know, deep inside, that this is the real reason we celebrate our Independence Day. Because we can set aside our differences and have fun together. We can be free to have fun together because a long time ago some men in powdered wigs were smart enough to look ahead toward … well, toward this very picnic of ours, actually.

They wanted it to be fun, too.
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Don't forget to leave a comment to be in the drawing for my present to one lucky reader tomorrow.

Monday Morning Musings - The Truth of the Matter

As the trial of George Zimmerman goes into it's second week, I thought about the fact that the outcome largely depends on who you are going to believe. Zimmerman is charged with murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17- year old who was walking home after buying snacks at a convenience store. Witnesses have differing accounts of what happened, so it truly is going to be a case of he-said, she-said. When writing fiction you, the author, can put words into a character's mouth and manipulate the story to take it in the direction you want it to go, but in real life, we aren't supposed to do that.

Unfortunately, people manipulate the truth all the time. Do you like the way I came right out and called anyone a liar?

People manipulate the truth to avoid prosecution, to avoid public scorn, to avoid responsibility, and it seems to be an acceptible mode of behavior. Lie as long as you can get away with it.

Okay, sorry, I couldn't avoid the word any longer.

I don't know who is lying in the Zimmerman case, but someone is. There was only one way this scenereo played out. Either Martin attacked Zimmerman first, or he did not. Since Martin is dead and cannot tell  his side of the story, the jury is going to have to rely on what they are led to believe.

Let's hope it's the truth. Either way, let's hope it's the truth.

Well, I didn't mean to get all heavy and philosophical this early in the morning, but this kept running through my mind as I took my walk this morning. Don't even ask me why. I have not been following the trial at all.

Thursday is my birthday and we will be having company for the Fourth of July and through the weekend, so I will be busy all week getting ready. It is always fun when most of our kids and grandkids come out to Grandma's Ranch to celebrate the birthdays, mine and the good ol' USA, and they do have to suffer through me singing "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" over and over again.

Don't forget to leave a comment if you would like to enter the contest to win copies of my short stories. This is part of the Untreed Reads sale - 4 for the Fourth - in which they are offering four short stories for only a dollar through Thursday. Details and lists of books on my post last Wednesday. I decided that I would gift someone with my four short stories on my birthday, so leave contact information in your comment and I will have the drawing early on Thursday before all the fun starts here.

This picture has nothing to do with anything I wrote about. I just thought you might like to see what our Harry was doing recently. I think he wanted the horse to play with him. What would be a good caption?

Misadventuress of a Garden State Yogi Video Contest

This might be a fun video contest to enter.

Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi Video Contest

 

To celebrate the launch of his new book  Brian Leaf is hosting a video contest with the theme “Insightful Yoga Comedy.” Video entries must be related to yoga, funny, insightful, and one to three minutes long. Each contest entry will be judged according to how well it meets these requirements. The Grand Prize winner will receive $250 and a signed copy of Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi.Two runner-ups will each receive $50 and a signed copy of Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi. Entries are due by 1/15/13 and must be submitted to misadventures.of.a.yogi@gmail.com. Give it a try!

The Basics

Videos must be:

1. One to three minutes in length

2. Generally respectful of others. No videos intended to slander or harm any other person or their public image.

To enter, send a link to your video to misadventures.of.a.yogi@gmail.com along with your name, age, and city of residence. Write “Video Contest” in the email’s subject.

All entries must be received by midnight January 15, 2013.

Videos will be judged by Brian Leaf, author of Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi, according to how well they achieve the contest’s themes (related to yoga, funny, insightful).

Winners will be announced on the Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi facebook page, www.facebook.com/Misadventures.of.a.Yogi, on Wednesday, February 20^th at 3pm ET.

One Grand Prize winner will receive $250 and a signed copy of Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi.

Two Runner-Ups will each receive $50 and a signed copy of Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi.

Must be eighteen years or older to enter. No purchase necessary. Decisions are final.

Good luck!!

 

Welcome Peg Herring

Thanks to Maryann for hosting today’s stop on Peg’s Blog Crawl. Yesterday’s post, “Idioms”, is at http://wwwgeraldineevanscom.blogspot.com

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Eccentric Phrases

If your toaster stopped working, you would probably go out and get a new one. When a phrase stops working, we’re stuck with it. We can’t send out a memo, “Stop using that one, folks.” So we’re left with phrases that confuse rather than explain. Sometimes there just isn’t a good replacement for an expression, and until a better one emerges, we use the old, broken one.

How many times do we actually “roll down” the window of our cars these days? It isn’t a rolling action on modern cars. Should we say, “She lowered the window”? How about “She pressed the lower button”? Neither sounds quite right, even if we admit that rolling doesn’t happen.

Do we “dial” the telephone? No, but what is a good alternative term for what we do? “Punched in the number” sounds rather violent. “Keyed in” might be a better term, but I think there will soon be something else, something more descriptive and creative.

We no longer put words and images “on tape”, either. I suppose “recorded” still works, since the dictionary says it is “to register for reading or future reference”.

Then there are phrases we use that are inconsistent with similar phrases, making ESL speakers confused. We have deer season, bear season, turkey season…and tourist season. We have wheat crackers, saltine crackers, rye crackers…and animal crackers.

Many terms just plain don’t make sense. We have Grape Nuts Cereal, which is neither grapes nor nuts. We have guinea pigs, which are neither pigs nor from Guinea. Your nose runs but your feet smell (not yours, but somebody’s). We park on the driveway and drive on the parkway. You might want to be known as a wise man but certainly not as a wise guy. You fill out a form by filling it in, your house burns us as it burns down. People recite at a play and play at a recital, and they send shipments by truck and cargo by ship.

And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same thing? Fat chance that you can explain that one!

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The Poser: Name 3 books/series where the author shares recipes with readers.

The Prizes-Weekly prizes (your choice of THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY in e- or print format) drawn from the names of those who comment on the blogs as we go. Comment once/day, but the first commenter each day gets entered twice in Saturday’s drawing!

The Pitch: THE DEAD DETECTIVE AGENCY, First in The Dead Detective Mysteries, paranormal mystery. Tori Van Camp wakes in a stateroom on a cruise ship with no memory of booking a cruise, but she does have a vivid recollection of being shot in the chest. Determined to find out what happened and why, Tori enlists the help of an odd detective named Seamus. Together they embark on an investigation like nothing she’s ever experienced. Death is all around her, and unless they act quickly, two people she cares about are prime candidates for murder. Read more about this book and the author at http://pegherring.com or buy the book at http://www.ll-publications.com/deaddetectiveagency.html.

The Perpetrator: Peg Herring writes historical and contemporary mysteries. She loves everything about publishing, even editing (most days). Peg’s historical series, The Simon and Elizabeth Mysteries, debuted in 2010 to great reviews. The second in the series will be available in November from Five Star.

The Pathway: The next entry, “Being Precise” and the answers/comments to the Poser will be at http://crimespace.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=pegfish

Contest- Win books and more

Classic Romance Revival, a site dedicated to the care and feeding of romance novels and romance authors is having a special Scavenger Hunt in honor of Valentine's Day.  The contest runs today and tomorrow, and all are invited to join in the fun and win books or tote bags or more.

Here's what it's about. The following authors have graciously elected to participate in the hunt and offer prizes:

MARION WEB De SISTO
JACQUIE ROGERS
NICOLE ZOLTACK
DANIELLE THORNE
STEPHANIE BURKHART
JAMIE HILL
LINDA BANCHE
ELAINE CANTREL
MARYANN MILLER
JANE TOOMBS
LIANA LAVERENTZ


If you want to play, go to the CRR Web site and visit the BLOG  where you'll see a list of clues which will be related to the authors listed above. Using the clue, "hunt" down the answer and remember to record the URL of where you found the answer to the clue questions and what the answer is.


Details of how to submit your answer are there on the blog along with the clues and a list of prizes. Have fun and good luck.

Contest continuing....

L. J. and I are going to continue the contest for the free books for a few more hours. The drawing will be later this afternoon and announced tomorrow.

Good luck everyone....

And the winner of L.J.'s book is Sabrina Ogden. Congrats, Sabrina.

The winner of my book from the folks who left comments on L.J.s blog for me is Dani Greer. I threw all the names in a hat and had my husband pick one, so Dani did not win just because she said she had never read one of my books. I'm sure none of the other responders had either. LOL

Exciting News

I just received a message informing me that the cover for my book, PLAY IT AGAIN SAM has won the June Classic Cover Contest at the ClassicRomanceRevival Web site.

As the site name implies, it promotes novels of the more classic romance style in varying degrees of "sweet" "sexy" and "sensual." The authors affiliated with that site write the kinds of books that were popular when romances first took publishing by storm.

Winning this is a thrill, and I am glad that the book will get some extra exposure because of the win. It is a special story about love the second time around and was inspired by what happened to a good friend when her husband of 25 years decided he didn't want to be married anymore.

However, I am even more excited for my daughter, Dany Russell, who designed the cover. This win is as much for her as it is for me. Actually, probably more, since it is her work being honored. I am so happy for her.


http://www.classicromancerevival.com/classic-cover.html

Sizzling Summer Sweepstakes

I belong to a promotional site along with a lot of other terrific writers, and lest that sound too boastful, I was trying to find a way to leave myself out of the terrific category, but there was no other way to write that sentence.

Anyway, Books We Love has a great contest every summer with ongoing weekly prizes and a grand prize at the end of the summer. This year we are giving away a Border's Kobo e-Reader as the grand prize. Weekly drawings are for e-books, and a copy of my One Small Victory is on the prize list.

Entry instructions for all prizes are on the Books We Love Web site: To enter the contest simply visit five of the author pages displayed on the Web page index and sign the guest book of the author you choose to visit. Then fill out the entry form on the Web site and click submit.

PRIZES: (1) Every week until July 31 we will draw one winner to receive their choice of an ebook from any one of our Books We love authors. (2) On May 31, June 30 and July 31st we will draw three winners who will each receive an autographed copy of one of the print books displayed on the page. (4) GRAND PRIZE: Borders KOBO EREADERS. On July 31st one lucky winner will receive a Kobo and their choice of any five Books We Love ebooks.

Enter Now: http://www.bookswelove.net http://www.bookswelove.net/>

BWL Scavenger Hunt

Just read on the Books We Love Readers group on Yahoo that the Scavenger Hunt contest has been extended and incorporates a membership drive. I was busy all weekend so I didn't see that things had changed until today.

Books We Love (BWL) is a great place to find new authors and new books to read. On the actual BWL site readers can meet the authors and read excerpts of books. On the new BWL Readers group, people can join in daily discussions about books, read more excerpts, and get to know more about the BWL authors than maybe you want to know. :-)

So, here is the info on how the Scavenger Hunt contest is going to run.


Scavenger Hunt/New Member Drive

From now through the end of April, the BWL Reader's loop is having a grand opening Scavenger Hunt and new member drive. The events promise to be fun. Twenty authors have put up prizes, many of them autographed print copies of their books. The "travel/road map" for the Hunt will be posted daily on the BWL readers list. Answers to the questions are clearly displayed in excerpts, teasers, and descriptions on the designated websites on the travel/road map. Come and play, join the loop, you might get doubly lucky!

Please fell free to pass along the information.

To join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BWL_Readers

Fun Scavenger Hunt

Tomorrow on Books We Love Reader's loop at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BWL_Readers

we'll be hosting a grand opening Scavenger Hunt. It promises to be fun. Twenty authors have put up prizes, many of them autographed print copies of their books, including me. A copy of Play It Again Sam is one of the prizes.

The answers to the questions you'll be given are clearly displayed in excerpts, teasers and descriptions on the designated websites on the travel map. Come and play.

This was organized by Ginger Simpson, who is terrific about promoting fellow authors as well as her own work.

The "road map" will be posted on the loop tomorrow morning and you'll have until Sunday at noon to email your answers to Ginger. Her e-mail is listed on the group.

The winners will be announced Sunday evening there. Hope to see you.

Excerpt Contest

One Touch, One Glance Anthology -- A collection of "sweet " romances

I am so pleased that my story "New Love" is part of this wonderful book and I am sharing space with such terrific writers. The book will release officially on December 9 -- It can be purchased HERE

As part of our release celebration we are having a contest. If you come here as part of the contest, the excerpt you are looking for is below. Have fun and good luck.



BLURB:

Love can be just as sweet the second time around. And there are no age limits.

EXCERPT:

“What am I doing? Acting like a love-sick teenager, that’s what.”

He made the personal indictment aloud while driving slowly down the tree-lined street checking addresses. Ten hours of driving had left him with burning eyes, and the shadows of near dusk were hard to penetrate. It didn’t help that he hadn’t been here in ten years. What if she’d moved since they had last seen each other? What if she didn’t want an eighty-year-old man showing up on her doorstep with courting in mind?

Then he saw it. Her house. A little yellow frame structure nestled between two sprawling brick ranches. It was so unique, he should have remembered the distinction and not bothered with trying to read addresses. He started to stop in front of her home, but panic struck and jangled his nerves. What if she’s married again? Accelerating, he drove past to the end of the street. There, he pulled to the curb and took a couple of deep breaths. Leaves of gold and red scuttled down the sidewalk driven by the evening breeze. God, Patrick, why didn’t you think of this sooner? A simple phone call would have answered that question.

He pulled out his cell phone and looked at it. It was a present from his kids. They had all agreed they would feel better if he had one while he was traveling. His son had programmed all the important numbers into the phone to make it easier for Patrick to call them. But he didn’t need numbers programmed for him. He might forget a lot of things. But not numbers. Even after all these years he still remembered Jean’s number. He could call now, and if a man answered, he’d hang up.

That thought elicited a chuckle. Was his life now a cliché?

A fun Contest

A writer friend came up with this great idea for a new contest. It's called "Blog Train Excursion" and it's a scavenger hunt for words. Contestants will visit a series of blogs to find words to complete a famous quote and the winner will receive a virtual prize basket containing sixteen e-books, one of which is Play It Again, Sam. The contest starts Monday, Sept 8th at: http://mizging.blogspot.com

Have fun.