Swept by History by Margot Justes

I spent a long weekend in Alexandria, Virginia visiting my daughter. I took my granddaughter with me, and I must say she was incredible. I  plan to make this an annual event with her. She said she loved it, even though she got a work out.

It was hot and humid and the little munchkin didn't complain. A few stops at Starbucks along the way helped, bottles of water and hats were required at all times.

We walked all along King Street, took a boat ride to Mt. Vernon and visited Washington's home. My granddaughter is interested in American History and she certainly got quite a glimpse.

We spent a day in DC and visited the Vietnam Memorial. It is one of the most poignant and profound memorials I have ever seen. 


The Lincoln Memorial is nearby and we climbed up and paid a visit, and the view of the Washington Memorial is quite amazing from that site. We walked by the White House, and she took many pictures through the fence.

The Smithsonian was not left out, we stopped at the National Gallery and daughter Dina introduced me to an amazing portrait done by Chuck Close. A marvelous, huge portrait of a remarkable, worn, feisty and spirited face. Truly an astounding piece. Finger painting at its best. I will have to visit again. I'm making plans to go back end of September. After all, I have to visit my daughter.

To round out our history lesson, we stopped at the American History Museum.  

Cheers,
Margot  Justes
Hearts & Daggers
A Hotel in Paris
Hot Crimes Cool Chicks
www.mjustes.com

Play Time, by DL Larson

  Yes, this is a silly picture full of people not afraid to have fun!  My family gave me one of the best presents I have ever received, a good old fashion Birthday Party!  The picture above is the result of a Scavenger Hunt around the farm.  Not one person sat out, or thought they were too cool to participate.  But then that's my family, a great group of "doers!"  The youngest member is my nine month old grandson, Van, on the far left in the back row.  The oldest is my dad, 88years old, standing in the back with the purple boa.  I'm wearing the Dolly Parton wig in the front row.  The rest is my beloved FAMILY!

My only regret is not having a video of everyone undressing!  We could have made some money.  Running around searching for our treasures was funny enough, but when the menfolk tried to remove their costumes, they were awkened to the woes of women fashions that may slide on, but refuse to slide off.  Tugging and pulling and going around in circles wasn't nearly as productive as they had hoped. 

Getting in touch with our childish impulses can be a great way to create new characters, new plots and new ventures in our writing.  Taking time to do the unusual opens up all kinds of avenues and ideas.  Since my birthday party, I've been tossing ideas around and realize I have another "book" forming in my head.  Playtime dreaming with new ideas can be dangerous, but oh, so exciting.

So, come on, share with us here at Acme Authors ... what are some of the silly or different things you have done for fun? 

Til next time ~

DL Larson

In the NorthWoods

I'm up in the NorthWoods where I have a love/hate relationship going with nature. I'm a bug magnet, and they follow me everywhere, even indoors.

And the skies - they've been really blue most days, today, especially, but in the low 80's, a little too hot for me. Fortunately, it cools off nicely at night; and fortunately, I'm not home in Illinois, where it's in the 90's.



First Time For Dinner at PJ's Burger Barn -
We Will Return!

 Out to dinner almost every night, and too much ice cream. Not to worry, everyone knows vacation ice cream calories don't count.

Two trips to Lake of the Torches Casino. Lots of fun playing penny slots, but enjoy myself too much! My friend, Jeanne, and I spend hours when we go. We don't stop whether we're winning or losing, because we are what you call "players." Anyway, I only went twice and the damages weren't too bad this time.

In my spare time, I've been working on a new romantic comedy, which I forgot I had on my laptop computer. A while back, I had hit a roadblock, but this week inspiration came and now I know which direction I'm going, so I'm forging ahead.

Signing off now. Places to go and things to see.

If you like mysteries, thrillers, romantic suspense, or fun, romantic comedy, check out the
Excerpts and Links to All My Full Length Novels at http://morgansbooklinks.blogspot.com/

Summer Writing Journal - Entry #2

I have to say, I've had a very productive writing week. In the morning, my first task is to check e-mail and blogs I participate in. I've made an effort to keep this time to a half hour or less, and it seems to be working well.

This week my main task for blogging was to put together a guest's blog post at Heroines with Hearts, another of my blogs. (If you'd like a peek, Nancy Jardine's post on cover art is fabulous!)

The overall big task for the week was doing a full read-through of my mss. I've been editing, revising, rewriting, deleting and now it was time to see if all of those changes flowed. Turns out, they do. There are still a few things I need to tweek here and there...my mind is totally involved in the story at this point, so even when I'm doing other things, Jake and Amber are speaking to me. (I love that!)

After the read through, I once again got out the e-mail I'd gotten from the editor asking for rewrites and some changes. One of the things I dearly love about The Wild Rose Press is their personal approach. Back when this particular editor asked for some revisions, it was in the form of a very extensive and detailed e-mail, highlighting what worked well in the story and what wasn't working so well and why. By now I've read the missive so many times you'd think I'd have it memorized, but I keep going back to it, to make sure I'm on the right track. These editors know their stuff...and any suggestions they make definitely fall into the category of valuable advice.

This week I'm working on finishing one final scene and then going back and checking a few parts that still might be a little repetitive. My goal is to have the mss back to the editor before we leave for vacation on Thursday.

All in all, things are going swimmingly in my summer writing world! Best of all, with a plan in mind, I'm able to enjoy lots of other summer delights as well.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

A visit to the Doctor! by DL Larson

My computer took a road trip.  It underwent surgery and I'm glad to share all is well.  It doesn't look any different and it weighs in about the same as before.  But I've been assured it will be faster and more compatible with other engines it meets when I'm out browsing the web.  The problem, from what I can decipher, is the "carbonite" would not rest, it would not stop backing things up into the clouds and thereby slowing e v e r y t h i n g   do w n  and making my life a living hell.  I'm all about back up and saving things so as not to lose them ~ especially since I've already been down that road and am still paying the price of going unprotected or whatever one calls it when they forget to back up before a storm.  But I'm also impatient and I am glad my hubby intervened and took my computer away before I did something stupid, like send it flying through the window.

So my computer and I are re-united once again and I'm feeling pretty good after a few forced days of abstinence.  I no longer harbor ill feelings toward it.  I haven't thought about tossing it out since it's been home.  So far it's behaving quite nicely.  Surgery saved my sanity.  And my window!

Til next time ~

DL Larson
http://www.dllarson.co/

The Power of the Written Word

I recently watched the movie The Help and just in case you don’t know the story line, it revolves around a young southern woman, recently graduated from college who returns to her home in Jackson, Mississippi and proceeds to turn everyone’s world upside down with the use of a pen, paper and her typewriter.

As the Civil Rights Era is brewing, so is her desire to be a serious journalist and writer and thus begins her quest to write a book from the point of view of The Help.  The movie is well acted and the dialogue well written.  There were many things that were emotionally touching and engaging about this movie but many of the most poignant ones to me were centered on the power of the written word.  I don’t want to spoil the movie for you if you haven’t seen it but just the act of changing the word coat to commode in a newsletter gave the movie one of it’s more powerful and memorable moments.

The book and the movie both have been criticized as watered-down attempts to render this story of civil rights injustice more palatable to the masses.  There is truth in that because this period in our history just wasn’t palatable on any level – BUT, telling a story like this and in this way does get the conversation going, and it’s a conversation that often becomes silenced as we all move on with our lives, grow older and leave the past behind.

I grew up in Southern California with a father who had grown up in Georgia in the early 1900’s and who was taught all the ways to torture and hate people of any color.  I know first hand just how much damage is done by teaching our children to hate other human beings because of the color of their skin.  However, his hatred and rage didn’t stop there.  He extended that hatred and rage to his daughters because not only were people of color inferior in his mind, but so were females.

While it is true that I came to watch The Help with an existing understanding of the horrors of our country’s racial past, I still learned information that was not present in my conscious mind such as the blatantly ironic (I’m being nice here) fact that the white women eagerly handed their children over to these black maids but were appalled at the idea of sharing the same toilet with them.  This point alone speaks loudly to so many things if one just stops and thinks about it for a moment or two.

Sometimes we have to make stories palatable just to get the truth across and to get the conversation going - and getting the conversation going is the first step to enlightenment.  At a minimum, this story brought focus back to the horribleness of that time and we need to be reminded of these events so that we don’t slip back into this type of behavior.  We need to study history to better understand ourselves and those around us, and hopefully to keep from repeating it, although human beings of all walks of life seem to be determined to repeat past behaviors that are not in the best interest of the masses or even themselves.

Throughout the many centuries of human existence it has been the written word that has propelled us forward and the last line of dialogue in the movie, The Help, speaks to that very powerfully.  I don’t want to spoil it for you, but let’s just say it’s about being a writer, and being a writer is what lifted all the women in this story up regardless of social status or skin color.

The Corner Cafe Offers A Tasty Collection of Short Stories for Kindle. Meet Helen Ginger at the Cafe

** Today, Morgan Mandel is talking about The CORNER CAFE at her Double M blog. Be sure to stop in for a cup of coffee and a piece of pie! Her guest is Helen Ginger talking about being a smal town gal, short story writing and her new release, Angel Sometimes.

THE CORNER CAFE: A Tasty Collection of Short Stories is the local place where 15 authors offer their takes on the guests and visitors who come in. The menu includes stories by Marian Allen, Shonell Bacon, Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, W.S. Gager, Helen Ginger, Dani Greer, S.B. Lerner, Audrey Lintner, Morgan Mandel, Maryann Miller, Bodie Parkhurst, Bob Sanchez, Mary Montague Sikes, Red Tash, and Christine Verstraete. (And it's better than a cup of joe - and only 99 cents!!)

Their Corner Cafe stories:

* "Gila Monster" by Helen Ginger: Neree parked her beat-up truck, Gila Monster, in the senior parking lot, hoping it'll still be there at the end of school. Instead, she finds an unexpected possibility...

* "One Last Run" by Helen Ginger: When a couple ski a black diamond run in a blizzard, the truth of what happened is in the blood.

* In "What Nice Blessings" by Morgan Mandel, tragedy strikes a young adult, testing her courage and teaching her the value of friendship.

* "The Closing of the Corner Cafe" by Morgan Mandel describes the rise and fall of a cherished eating establishment.

THE CORNER CAFE STORIES:

* "The Catfish Enchantment" by Marian Allen: Cosmo’s father deserted the family and died unforgiven, his mother is sinking into depression, he’s started cutting himself to relieve the pain, and his boss suggests…a tattoo?

* In "I Wanna Get Off Here," by Shonell Bacon, a bus driver with a dream to write must first unchain herself from a relationship and inner thoughts that keep her hopes from coming to pass.

* In "What's Next" By Karen Casey Fitzjerrell, a young woman who sees herself drifting aimlessly through life, hires a crop dusting pilot to fly her over the Gulf of Mexico in the middle of the night and is enlightened by "What's Next" in her life.

* "The Eyes Have It" by W.S. Gager: Crimebeat reporter Mitch Malone hates going to church, but when he gets rooked into speaking to the Bible-toting ladies, he may be facing the devil himself as he investigates the prayer group's missing purses.

* In "Saturday Night Special" by Dani Greer, a jaded old codger learns it's relationships old and new that make the Corner Cafe a treasure, not just the down-home cooking.

* Also by Dani Greer: When Mick decides to apply for "A New Job," he discover one too many damning things about the Corner Cafe manager.

* Also by Dani Greer: Nell Crisp likes the ambiance and Wi-Fi at the Corner Cafe, but little does she know it will be her "Home Away From Home" when the police pay a visit.

* In "Since You Left" by S.B. Lerner, a young lawyer is unsettled by a phone call from an old boyfriend, and forced to make a decision.

* In "The Consequences of Breaking and Entering" by Audrey Lintner, Goldilocks gets an update and her comeuppance."

* "Over the Threshold" by Maryann Miller mixes a bit of Raymond Chandler noir with "The Twilight Zone."

* "Love Song with Holsteins" by Bodie Parkhurst is about Halloween, magic, Russell the dairy bull, love, and the private memorials we make to it.

* "In A Face in the Window" by Mary Montague Sikes, can Arianna ever forget the tragic loss that changed her life, especially on the 10th anniversary spent in a museum where memories lurk in the art and later among the shadows of the Corner Cafe?

* In "You Can't Be Too Careful" by Bob Sanchez, George prepares for the expected Y2K catastrophe.

* In "Living Well," Red Tash gently pokes fun at the Star Trek fan culture and the ups and downs of long-term love, in the fan-favored setting of This Brilliant Darkness' Corner Cafe.