We All Need a Little Help

By

Sandra Wilkins

          Are you the type of person that doesn’t mind asking for help?  I have to admit, I’m not geared that way.  I feel like I’m bothering someone, or that I should know how to do something, or that it’s easier to do it myself. 

          I’ve learned over the years to weigh each project and then decide if assistance is needed.  Painting the porch posts?  That was an easy one to accomplish on my own when I was ready to do it.  I didn’t have to wait around for someone to help.  Bulldozing untamed land for a house pad?  Better let a professional handle that one.  Spreading newly dumped gravel for a driveway?  That’s a tricky one.  My dad’s tractor wasn’t running, my uncle was out of town, and I hated to ask anyone else.  What a relief it was when my dad was able to repair his old tractor on one of the hottest days this year and spread the gravel.  Maybe any dad would do it for his “baby girl”, but is sure is wonderful to not have to ask for aid sometimes.  It can arrive in unexpected ways—like when a friend listens to you when you’re down, or your child does chores without complaining.  It can be simple things or big things—but we all need help once in a while. 

          Sandra Wilkins is busy writing another series while home educating her two daughters.  Ada’s Heart, Rose’s Hope and Gwen’s Honor are her first three published wholesome historical romances.  Go to www.sandrawilkins.com to find out more about her and her books.  

Beach Craft...Just in Time for Summer!

posted by Jayne Ormerod

This is the view when you come in the back door of our little beach cottage.  So while life is not always a "vacation," at least every time it feels like one!

But this is what it looked like before I got crafty:

Boring, right????  And it screamed "You've got a long list of chores to be done. Go get a load of laundry!" Not the thing you want to think about all the time.


So one day I decided the room need a look with a more positive vibe.  This one-day craft project involved a trip to Michael's for craft supplies and two hours of painting.  It comprised of four east steps:

Clear the clutter.

Stencil the words. (Paint and brushes, Michael's <$10)

Apply the flip-flop stick ons (Michael's, <$15)

Roll up the towels and fill the beach bag.

The project was cheap, required no talent, had was done before it was time to start cooking dinner.  Easy Peasy.  And fun.

But in the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that things got a bit out of hand when I decided I needed a nice piece of furniture to hide the clutter.  Thankfully the furniture store was having a sale and since it was the last one I got the "floor sample discount", so $250 over budget. But you can’t put a price on “perfect” when it comes to decorating, can you?

Isn't that the way that projects usually go? 

Now I'm waiting for the dryer to break down so I can get really nice stainless steel front-loading washer/dryer set.  This brings to mind the Home Depot commercial where a woman takes a sledge hammer to her old machine and informs her husband that it "broke" and she needs a new one.  (Anyone got a sledge hammer handy?)

Happy crafting, beach lovers!

Life on the Dead Chicken Ranch

by Sofie Couch

People often ask about the writer’s life. Some will tell you it’s glamour, glamour, glamour. Hey, who am I to argue? (Excuse me while I mop up the coffee that just got spewed on my computer monitor.)

The other delusion I have to squash is this “homeschool” thing that we do here on the Dead Chicken Ranch while I’m living this glamorous writer life. I begin to see the image others have by the questions they ask. “Do you have a classroom in your home dedicated to homeschooling? How are your children socialized? How do you test them and meet typical standards?” I think they credit me with more than I’m capable of delivering. I would love to paint you a picture of our homeschooling endeavors that resemble a Little House on the Prairie standard, but alas…

It makes perfect sense that folks would expect it to look at least something like typical school. I can assure you, homeschool looks as different in each home as there are homeschoolers. I don’t deserve the accolades that so many have offered. “I don’t know how you do it? I know I could never….” Yeah. I couldn’t do it either.

We don’t call it the Dead Chicken Ranch for nothing. (I guess you could call that a biology project gone full-circle. I’d like to say “no animals were harmed,” but… sigh.

Then there was the ecology project that was launched when my son decided that his 10cent feeder fish needed a larger habitat. Three hundred dollars and a twelve foot, hand-dug pond later, we would call that a success if not for the heron that showed up at the end of the summer and cleaned us out.

Most recently, we’ve been taking a more traditional route. The graphic design certificate program was MY idea. I wanted to take the classes, but DS decided that now, after years of spurning anything that resembled traditional school, he’s crashing my party. So for the past two semesters, my son, my baby, my 6ft. 6in. 16 year old, is taking classes with his mommy at the local community college.

It’s a hoot. We hit the vending machine before class. We share the same text book. And my son can help his old mother with her homework. And THAT is what homeschool looks like here on the Dead Chicken Ranch… and that’s what a writer’s life looks like too. I write. I drink my coffee. Some days, we stay in our jammies and binge on movies, (based on Jane Austen novels, of course). We just finished cleaning the fish pond. (We have three new fishies – Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles.) Now, I make time for graphic design classes in and around writing… and THAT is a writer’s life. I love to hear about yours!

The Difficulty of Thinking Short

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

One of the first things I hear when people learn that I’m a novelist is “Where do you get your ideas?” Well, duh! The world is full of ideas. I’ve said that many times. Also that a book takes many ideas, but the good thing is that ideas feed off each other. There’s another thing I hear a lot – “How do you write so many words?” That one doesn’t even deserve an answer. Also, “How do you know how many words you’ll need?” Easy answer : As many as it takes to tell the story. (Unless you’re writing for a publisher with strict word-count requirements; I don’t, so that doesn’t enter into my equation.) One of the best analogies of short story vs novel is a short story is drawing a tiny miniature; a novel is painting a mural on the side of a building.

Back to the subject of this blog. I really believe the world is brimming with ideas for books. Where I have trouble – and this is a difficult admission for me to make – is with the short stuff. I had sold two novels to major publishers before I sold a short story. (I am exempting short, factual, business pieces done for my various jobs – they are another animal entirely!) I still am uncomfortable with the short story format, and can generally write half a novel in the same time it takes to get a short story (1) short enough and (2) in a decent enough shape to submit. Some of us just can’t do small! One time a nice lady who was letting me guest blog said in an effort to be reassuring, “Don’t worry – all you’ll need is 350 words or so.” I told her that there were some days I couldn’t say ‘good morning’ in just 350 words! My trip diary from our time in Egypt this March is creeping towards 30,000 words.

A memory – years ago, when I was editor in chief of a multi-magazine publishing house, we were running a special feature for Mother’s Day. Local celebrities were invited to write 250 words or so about their mothers. The idea took hold so that everyone answered, including a few who hadn’t been asked but had heard about it and wanted their mothers included. We decided to use them all (the ones that were marginally literate, that is) but that sent our page count up. In magazines you have to go up four pages at a time, and we had enough to fill three. The ad manager said she’d send the salesmen out again to see if she could drum up some sales. I said I’d write something about my mother – who, incidentally, threatened me with disinheritance if I wrote a word about her. I said we had at least a quarter page to fill, which is a fairly large amount. (All our magazines were tabloid-sized.) She suggested I write about my great-grandmother who came with her husband to the US as a bond servant, and after their time was served were early pioneers of Texas. She lost her husband not long after they came to Texas and was left with a farm and six children under 10. Mother gave me the facts and dates, but said she didn’t know how I would expand that to fill a quarter page.

Well, I started to write and before you know it, I had a full page of copy. One entire page! (Told you I couldn’t write short!) I called the publisher and the ad manager and told them to call off the salesmen. The publisher wasn’t quite sure about this until she read the piece, then she called the layout artist and had this story put on page 3 – the prime spot in the magazines. That story won an award, and that issue was the only one in the magazine’s history that I knew about which sold out entirely. So much for short…

The worst part of short for me, however, is blogging, especially when you blog regularly. My great fear is boring people. I honestly don’t know how people who have their own blogs do it. Unless you’re publicizing a new release, it’s hard to come up with things to say on a regular basis. If you do have a new book out, it’s easy – just talk about it, about how you wrote it, about how it ties in with your other books, about how you came up with the characters, and so on and so on and so on. The only thing is, you can only do that so long before people get bored with a continuing commercial and might start skipping your blog, so why bother having one? Last year, when I was releasing a spate of backlist books (one every two weeks from June 1 to October 31) I was in hog heaven – readymade copy fodder, all different books with different backstories, just waiting for me. Now, though…

I can always do a fluff piece like this one, but don’t know how interesting it is to others. I don’t like to blog about my personal life outside the writing sphere. I probably could, but would be very hesitant about doing a craft or a how-to piece – after all, I’m neither rich nor famous in the writing field. Heck, I’m not even middlin’ or infamous! My books don’t grace the bestseller lists. My royalties have a pathetic lack of multiple zeroes in the final amount. How could I be so arrogant as to try to teach others?

So I will just keep writing novels, putting one word after another, and searching desperately for blog fodder that won’t drive people away. I do warn you, though – whatever they’re about, they won’t be short!

A Memorial Day to Remember

Golden Gate National Cemetary, Memorial Day 2015

Every year, we commemorate the sacrifices of our military heroes on two days, separated by six months. Memorial Day is the most American of the two as it was initiated in 1868 as Decoration Day, following the end of the War Between the States (also known as the Second War of Independence), the American Civil War.

Traditionally, graves of Union soldiers were decorated with flowers. The Confederate soldiers were commemorated similarly, but on a separate day. By the 20th Century, the competing days merged into the one we now know, the last Monday of May, the beginning of summer.

Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day in other countries in Europe) commemorates the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month when the guns went silent at the end of World War I. This holiday evolved from this WWI connection to honor the service of all veterans of the U.S. Armed forces. Memorial Day honors the military personnel who died while serving our country. 

Drought-affected GGNC, Memorial Day 2015

This year, unlike so many in the recent past, the United States is not engaged in any major conflict on foreign soil, a reason to think of this year’s holiday as one to be set apart. 

Along with many of my fellow Americans, I visited the graves of members of my family who served in the U.S. Army during World Wars I and II, and the Vietnam War. To my knowledge, no one in my family died in combat, despite a long history of service in the Armed Forces.

Since the 1950s, the Golden Gate National Cemetery has been the resting place of uncles, aunts, my parents and siblings. My father and uncle, both U.S. Army officers, are buried with their wives. My sister-in-law passed away a year before my brother and they were interred together in my parent's grave. 

These vast rows of white tombstones and flags are, at once, a majestic and a sorrowful sight.

This post is in Memory of

• Moses F Verrill, Infantryman, US Army, 20th Maine, War Between the States
• Hiram W Verrill, PFC, US Army, WWI
• Thomas A Verrill, Sr. Captain, US Army, WWII
• Charles A. Adams, Sargent, US Army, WWII
• Owen K Nichols, US Navy, Korean War
• Thomas A Verrill, Jr. 1st Lt, US Army, Vietnam War

And in Honor of

• Maxine M Dillahunty nee Verrill, 1st Lt, US Army, Korean War,
• William D. Dillahunty, Airman 2nd Cl, US Air Force, Korean War

And with especial thanks to every one of the veterans and serving personnel who volunteer and are prepared to give their lives to protect and preserve our liberty. 

To Those We Honor by Fran McNabb

My blog date always falls on Memorial Day, and I wanted to do something different for this year. On this special day, we honor those who gave their lives during war, but we also include those men and women who are no longer with us but who served in the Armed Forces, especially during wartime. Below are some of those soldiers we remember today.

Fran's Dad: Lewis V. Langlinais
SSgt Army Air Corps. WWII
Died 2007

Noble P. Smith, Jr.
Army Air Corps, WWII
Pacific, Died 1997 

Milton A. Wallis, Jr.
U.S. Coast Guard, Gunner's Mate
WWII, Died March 1976

Robert S. Diamond, Jr."Jack"
 Chief Master Sgt.
WWII, Korea, Vietnam
USAF, died 1984

 

John Alden Turner, Lt Col, USAF
Pacific, Korea, died 1981
Wife Mariam
Army Nurse Corps, died 1956
Both are buried in Arlington Cemetery

James Edward Burns
PFC - E2 Marine Corps
Vietnam
Killed Dec 7, 1967
Brother to Raymond McKee

 




Raymond Scott McKee
CPO - Coast Guard
2 tours Operation Desert Storm
Died 2014

 

Not pictured:  Herb Chelikowsky, U.S. Army, WWII. Died 2005 

                                                                             

Robert Earl Gieger
Chief Master Sgt, WWII
Korea, Vietnam
Died 2012

Ronnie Rhodes, Sgt
US Army, 173rd Airborne
Killed in Vietnam 1968


 

Warren E. Jordan, Pvt, WWII
US Army, Guarded German prisoners
Sturgeon Bay, WI
Died 1980



Authur Springer
Army Air Corps, WWII
PFC, Gunner, New Guinea
Died 1986

Brothers Forrest and Shirley McNabb
Forrest: Army Air Corps/USAF
TSgt, WWII, Korea, Died 1970
Shirley: US Army, PFC, WWII
Died, 1983



Alton LeBlanc
WWII Navy,  Pacific
Ship Servicman 3rd Class
Died 2014
Wife Belva

Donald A. Winnney
TSgt USAF, Korea, Died 1985
Wife Oleta

 

Fran McNabb lives about thirty minutes from the National Cemetery       

on the Gulf Coast where both of her parents are buried. The cemetery,
like others across the nation on Memorial Day, honor the veterans buried there by placing a flag on each grave. It's a small gesture, but a reminder that we should never forget those who served to keep our nation free.
Visit Fran at www.FranMcNabb.com or contact her at
 mcnabbf@bellsouth.net.


 

MY FACEBOOK DREAM DATE

by Sierra Donovan
 

I had to email my husband (on his own computer, in the next room) with the bad news: it's over between us.

Don't judge me. You'll understand when you read this powerful, compelling message of seduction from a new, male Facebook friend.

Thanks so very much for accepting my friend request .actually, I was browsing through my profile when I came across your beautiful profile page, Anyway there was no way I could just flip pass your page when I saw how astonishing beautiful you look, I must say Your beauty beats the imagination of almost all men in their fantasy world Lol. .Well I'm here to make friends or something more, and I think you're cool with your profile .. I'm a widowed man with a lonely heart, I will like to get to know you more if you don't mind ..may the good lord bless you and your family hope to hear from you soon

All grammar and punctuation have been preserved to capture the message in its simple beauty. Finally, a man who “gets it.”

My husband, on the other hand, was disturbingly cavalier. His response to me, minutes later:

If he's a banker from Nigeria, GO FOR IT!

Surely now you know why I'd chuck it all for this last chance at true happiness.

In fact, my husband's flippant remark got my wheels turning. What if my new dream date IS a rich banker from Nigeria in disguise? For all his eloquence, his English is a bit flawed. Maybe this is a test. He wants to make sure I love him for who he is, not what he has, before he whips out his big bank book.

Of course, if I want to take him up on his offer, I'd better act quick. There's no telling how many other potential true loves he's already contacted -- or how many of them will leap to respond!