He is a very talented artist!
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Here is the seventh installment of Ten Top Lists of What Not To Do by John W. Howell of Fiction Favorites at http://johnwhowell.com and Marie Ann Bailey of 1WriteWay at http://1writeway.com. These lists are simu-published on our blogs each Monday. We hope you enjoy.
10. If you bring a host or hostess gift, do not take it home with you even though the evening stunk.
9. If you are seated next to someone you don’t know, do not start the conversation with “so how’s your sex life going?” even if you really want to know.
8. If the host or hostess seats you next to someone clearly older or younger than you, do not ask any questions that have the word “age” in them.
7. If you are asked a question while eating and you don’t have a ready answer, do not continue to stuff mashed potatoes into your mouth even if it is the only way you can think to stall.
6. If you are asked what you would like to drink, do not say “whatever you got,” since you might end up with tap water or worse.
5. If your host or hostess tells you to make yourself at home, do not sit down on the couch and put your feet up on the coffee table.
4. If you need to use the bathroom, do not take the occasion to open any drawers, cabinets or closets even if you are dying to check out the medication and birth control being used.
3. If you are asked to choose either red or white wine, do not say both even if you normally mix the two.
2. If you see that there aren’t enough chairs for everyone at the table do not bump the oldest person to secure one for you.
1. If you find that you have somehow been over served, do not offer to fistfight the host or hostess if they ask for your keys.
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Childhood memories. Today’s writing prompt at The Community Storyboard.
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Yes, indeed! I’ve been honored with two awards. First, Patty at http://petitemagique.wordpress.com/ nominated me for the 5 in 1 Award.
The rules for the 5 in 1 Award:
1. Display the award logos on your blog.
The Sunshine Award 2. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.
If you don’t already know Patty at http://petitemagique.wordpress.com/, then visit her blog right now. She is a truly gifted artist, blending song lyrics, her own poetry, and photography/artwork into her blog posts. Patty is a woman of tremendous feeling and she has experienced too many tragedies in her young life. Her poetry reflects her struggles … perhaps I should say, “our” struggles, for I believe Patty speaks for many of us who have suffered great loss. I find her poetry to be always beautiful and often cathartic. I am always in awe of her creativity. In spite of all she has gone through, her generosity and love know no bounds.
3. Nominate as many bloggers as you like.
If you are a follower of my blog, then you will know that I tend to “cheat” at this part. I hate to say “this blogger will get this award and this blogger will get the other award.” So at this end of this email, I will list as many bloggers as I can. I have at least several dozen favorites so I will try to pick those who may not have already received any or some of these awards.
4. Let your nominees know via a comment on their post.
Will do ;)
Second, I’ve been nominated by three amazing bloggers for the WordPress Family Award! The rules are the same as above, except that the list of nominees is limited to 10.
1. Here’s the award :)
2. Let me give a big thanks to:
Running to Her Dreams at http://runningtoherdreams.com/
Running to Her Dreams is about much more than training for a marathon. She’s also a mother, a dreamer, and a doer. She finds hearts in nature, takes photos of them and posts them to her blog. In her own words, she is a “smartassic woman running to her dreams, who follows her heart and occasionally drops the f-bomb.” Her motto: “always be true to yourself and think like a boss!”
Gwen Bristol at http://gwenbristol.com/
Gwen is a wonderful blogger, sharing her insights, her writing, and lots of great marketing tips on her blog. Hers is the kind of blog that you could spend days on, clicking from one informative tab to another, drinking up her knowledge, suggestions, and encouragement. She is a writer’s writer: someone who lives and breathes writing and who shares everything she learns.
S.K. Nicholls at http://redclayandroses1.wordpress.com/
S.K. Nicholls is a woman of many talents: she is an author, poet, lover of history, a Registered Nurse with a 30-year career spanning “everything from ER and CCU, pediatrics, geriatrics, hospice to psychiatry.” She grew up on a farm but now lives in a big city. She is a wife, mother, and grandmother. She most recently published Red Clay and Roses, a fictional account of a true story about life in the deep South during Jim Crow and before Roe vs. Wade. I reviewed her book here, and highly recommend it. It is an important work, a story that needed to be told and that needs to be read.
3. & 4. OK, when it’s awards time, it’s cheatin’ time for me. I’m combining my nominees and invite them to choose any (or none) of the awards here.
Without further ado, let me just share the love among:
Robynn Gabel’s Common Sense Experience at http://dupler.org/
According to Dave at http://davidpagan.wordpress.com/
Adventures and Misfortunes of Hector the Aimless at http://adventuresandmisfortunesofhectortheaimless.wordpress.com/
Araneus1 at http://araneus1.wordpress.com/
Ben’s Bitter Blog at http://bensbitterblog.wordpress.com/
Englishman in Italy at http://englishmaninitaly.org/
Expat Eye on Latvia at http://expateyeonlatvia.wordpress.com/
Dawn of Thoughts at http://moossama88.wordpress.com/
ericjohnbaker at http://ericjohnbaker.wordpress.com/
Helen Midgley at http://helenmidgley.wordpress.com/
howanxious at http://howanxious.wordpress.com/
Jill Weatherholt at http://jillweatherholt.wordpress.com/
Julie Green at http://juliegreenart.com/
Katie Cross at http://kcrosswriting.com/
What the Hell … at http://kevinbrennanbooks.wordpress.com/
Shannon Raelynn at http://shannonraelynn.com/
Now, stop reading this post and start following these bloggers :)
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Check out the new header for The Community Storyboard where our rowdy band of editors have been immortalized as superheroes by the very talented Dean at Dean’z Doodlez!
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This is an important book! Get your copy of Red Clay and Roses now :)
The paperback print on demand is just around the corner, stay tuned!!!
Excited to share with you that “Red Clay and Roses” is live now, and ready to read/purchase on Amazon and smashwords. Smashwords has epub, mobi and sony, so just about any reader is supported if you don’t have a kindle for Amazon. They also have a pdf version for your computer if you don’t have a reader.
I was getting great reviews but I knew something was not quite right, especially with regards to the first chapter of the book. So I had a copy editor take a look and we worked together for a couple of weeks and got the flow more smooth and the transitions between book sections better adjusted. Line editing was also rechecked and minor corrections made. There is nothing that changes dramatically, but I feel it is a better product now.
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Wendy adapting to her new home. We were on our way back home after a two-day business meeting in another state. We still had about 200 miles to go when we decided to stop at a Wendy’s off I-75 and break for dinner. I was tired and hungry and sat facing away from the windows when one of my coworkers pointed past my shoulder and said “Look!” I turned and my heart sank. A thin cat was slinking along the ledge of a window, rubbing against the concrete dividers, and begging for food. I sighed and looked away, telling myself that she was likely a stray, probably feral, and I should ignore her because I was 200 miles from home and I already have three cats.
And I keep telling my husband that we cannot have any more cats. Even in the best possible environment, they grow old, they get sick, they die. We’ve had to put down four cats in the 20+ years we’ve lived here. Luisa is almost twenty years old, and I dread the day when she’ll start to fail and we’ll have to make “the decision” yet again. Junior and Maxine are not so old, but I can’t imagine life without them.
So I turned away, but this cat continued to walk along all three windowed sides of the fast food place, catching my attention. Finally, I bought a hamburger and my coworker gave me a tray to put it on. I went outside and couldn’t find her. I circled the place twice and was ready to give up. The three of us consulted and I put the tray of cooked meat down around some bushes. We moved toward our van when a car started and the thin, now obviously young, cat came shooting out from under it. She followed me to the tray, rubbing against my legs as we went.
I was able to pick her up. She let me pet her. She wasn’t feral, not at all. She was a young cat, perhaps younger than one year old, and all I could think was that she was lost. I don’t remember what I said next, but whatever it was, it prompted my coworkers to suddenly start brainstorming about how we could get her to my home.
One coworker brought the van around to where the cat was eating; the other went into Wendy’s and got a bunch of paper napkins to line the recycle bin that we had used to transport documents. There was a department store in the next lot, so we drove there and they insisted on looking for a pet taxi. Aside from our luggage, we didn’t have a closed container to put her in, and it was too dangerous to let her roam loose in the van.
While my coworkers were in the store, I called my husband, just to warn him. I’m bringing home a cat. My coworkers are enablers. They want me to call her Wendy.
They came back with a pan of cat litter, a large fleece blanket, a bag of kitty treats, a bottle of water, and a double-bowl dish. As soon as the van started again, she made for the floor. I tried to get her to settle in the recycle bin but she would have none of it. Finally, I loosely wrapped the blanket around her and pulled her to my lap. She laid there, purring, sleeping and stretching for three-and-a-half hours.
So we have a new cat. Her name is Wendy (although my husband likes to call her Wendyz). She had been spayed (yea!) but she had not been chipped. Well, she wasn’t then, but she is now. To her original caretakers: I am sorry you lost your cat. I don’t know of any way to find you since she was found at a fast-food restaurant off a major interstate and she didn’t have a chip. Your loss is our gain. She is beautiful and she is sweet and she is safe and we will do everything to give her a long, happy life.
I know The Association’s song is “Windy” but it still kept popping into my head on that long drive home.
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Interesting post on author Ernest J. Gaines from Lillie Anne Brown at Interesting Literature!
By Lillie Anne Brown, Florida A&M University
The literary work of Ernest J. Gaines intersects history and culture with universal themes of self-respect, human dignity and personal integrity. His novels pay homage to ordinary black citizens who not only deserve respect in their everyday lives but crave it as a matter of order and sensibility. His obsession with the speech, cultural traditions, and mores specific to the Point Coupeé Plantation in Oscar, Louisiana, is notable in each of his seven works of fiction. When Gaines left the plantation in 1948, at age 15, to join his mother and stepfather in Vallejo, California, he had become so enamored with the land and its people that he was unable to extract himself psychologically and emotionally from the region of his birth.
While his experiences on the plantation helped shape him, the memories did not dissipate with his subsequent move to the West…
View original post 1,398 more words
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Melissa set the tray of coffee mugs, sugar bowl and creamer on the table, and quickly began to pour the coffee. Her hands shook a bit and she missed Maggie’s cup by a hair. Maggie cocked an eyebrow in wonder. Mary was fixing plates of mini-scones and cookies for them to nibble on, oblivious to her cousin’s anxiety. This was their first book club meeting, although Melissa wondered if a book club could have as few as three people and still be a club. She told herself it didn’t matter. Now that she and Maggie were living in town, it would be a way for the three cousins to see each other regularly.
“Well, I can’t wait to talk about the book we read for tonight.” Mary put the plates of goodies on the table and sat down. Both Melissa and Maggie paused in mid-sip of their coffee. They didn’t think Mary was that much of a reader. She hadn’t even seemed that interested in reading the book Maggie had suggested: Red Clay and Roses by S.K. Nicholls.
“I loved this book,” Mary went on, while adding two teaspoons of sugar and some cream to her coffee. “I mean the story of Moses and Althea, Sybil and Nathan. It was all so sad, so tragic, and it all happened.”
Maggie had planned to start the meeting with a brief overview of the book, and she had even prepared questions in case her cousins failed for words. But Mary was charging ahead.
“And the detail in the book. I felt like I could go back to that time and know exactly how to find the old house, the beauty salon, the juke joint, the swamp.”
“Ah … ” Maggie wanted to interject. Mary had a tendency to rule over discussions, but the book club was her idea. “I agree. I was impressed by the detail of her journey in the Introduction, almost like she was recording the trip as she traveled.”
“I didn’t read the Introduction.” Mary took a bite out of a vanilla creme scone. “I didn’t read the Conclusion either.”
Maggie’s mouth fell open and then shut it when Melissa gave her a sideways glance.
“Well, I read the whole book,” Melissa said, placing emphasis on the word “whole” and narrowing her eyes at Mary. “The point of a book club is to read the book.”
Mary shrugged. “I started to read those parts, but they were kind of slow-going. I wanted to get to the meat of the book. I had read some reviews online so I knew there was a diamond in the rough there.”
Melissa sighed. “Well, how can we discuss the book if you haven’t read it all?”
Maggie squirmed. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Five minutes into it and they’re already starting to argue. She cleared her throat and braced herself.
“Melissa’s right. I mean, the flow of the Introduction and the Conclusion bothered me too; there was so much detail and I got lost a couple of times.”
Melissa nodded. “It was the same way for me. I don’t even know if those parts of the book are necessary.”
“Oh, they are necessary to the book as a whole.” Maggie grabbed the vanilla creme scone from her plate. Mary had already stolen Melissa’s. “Even though she has a disclaimer at the beginning, making it clear that the book is based on facts, it’s still important to know how she comes upon these facts and then to bring it all into present day. After all that happened to Althea, Moses, Sybil, and Nathan, some resolution was necessary. She couldn’t just end it with … .”
“Sure,” Melissa interrupted. She picked up a shortbread cookie, seemingly unaware that the vanilla creme scones were all gone. “I understand what you are saying. It would have been different if I hadn’t read the Conclusion and found out what happened later.”
Mary’s head jerked up. “What happened later? You mean, it didn’t end with …”
Melissa swerved back to face Mary. “No, if you had read the whole book, Mary, you would know.”
Maggie jumped up and began refilling their coffee mugs. Tensions are rising, she thought to herself. Please God, don’t make me regret this.
“You don’t need to get testy, Melissa. I started to read the Conclusion, but it seemed to me that the author had finished telling the story of Sybil and Nathan, so I just put it down.” Mary’s voice was soft but earnest. She didn’t want to argue. She had actually loved much of Red Clay and Roses. “Does it really matter? I mean, I loved the core of the book. Once Moses started talking, relating the tragedy of his daughter Althea, and then the forbidden love between Sybil and Nathan. It’s an incredibly powerful story in and of itself. And that it was a true story made it so compelling.”
“Did it have to be a true story for you to like it?” Maggie felt intrigued by Mary’s view of the book.
“No, actually, the author’s writing would have swept me into that world of the pre-Civil Rights South if it had been fiction. It was really the level of detail, the sense of place, and the dialogue that made it all come together. Have either of you read An American Tragedy by Dresier?”
Maggie and Melissa put down their coffee and stared at Mary. Maggie wanted to call Randy and ask him if there was a pod with Mary’s body in it somewhere in her house.
“Well, Red Clay and Roses is similar in that both books are based on true events, but both are also fictionalized for the sake of the story. And both have this level of detail that makes the story play out in your mind as if you were really there, with the characters, traveling with them, eavesdropping on them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s fiction, fact, or some hybrid like faction.”
Melissa tried to stop herself but couldn’t help but snort coffee through her nose when Mary said “faction.” She realized that despite all the years they’ve known each other, she actually didn’t know Mary very well. At least, not this side of Mary.
“Ok, well, how you would rate the book?” Maggie pulled over a napkin and took a pen from the counter behind her.
“Five,” said Mary.
“How can you give her a five when you didn’t read the whole book?” Melissa sat back in her chair, arms crossed. “I give it a three because I think the author could have done better with the Introduction and Conclusion.”
“Christ.” Mary scowled and took a sip of coffee. She felt her cousins’ eyes on her. She liked surprising them from time to time. Everyone thought they knew her because she was outspoken and gregarious. But all those nights when Christopher was away. What the hell did they think she was doing? Playing with herself? Well, there was some of that, but for the most part she read. “What’s your rating, Maggie?”
Maggie paused. She was torn. There was much she liked, even loved, about the book. Sure, it had its flaws but so did some bestsellers she had read. “Four.”
Mary nodded. “Then four for me, too. That book is a diamond in the rough.”
Maggie looked over at Melissa and waited. Her cousin picked up another cookie and quietly said, “Four.” Maggie smiled. Maybe this book club would work after all.
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You can purchase your own copy of Red Clay and Roses by S.K. Nicholls at any one of these locations:
Amazon
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble
Marie at 1 Write Way 