Happy Listening.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
My New Audiobook Is Out
Happy Listening.
Monday, March 20, 2023
Slow and Easy by Liz Flaherty
One of the things that has happened to me as I've gone along is that everything has slowed down. I used to write so fast--it wasn't always good, but it was fast--and now I'm thrilled with 500-word days. No, actually, I'm thrilled with 300-word days. Sigh.
Reading has slowed just as much. I've gone from reading several books a week to finishing a couple a month. I may start more than a couple, but I don't always finish them. With slowness comes lack of focus. I skim a lot. I don't do justice to the people who put their hearts and souls into their work. Be assured it's me, not them.
But every now and then...
My friend Margie Senechal, one of the charter members of the Word Wranglers blog, has a recently finished manuscript called Suitcases. She honored me by asking me to be a beta reader of the story. I'd read pieces of it during the writing of it, but sometimes...sometimes you need the whole thing.I don't use the word honored lightly.
Suitcases isn't what I normally read, but, you know, I can--for a friend. There is the indisputable fact that a part of me wanted to love this book simply because I love Margie, but it went well beyond that. Analisa and Danny grabbed hold of me and didn't let go until I'd read the last words of their story.
It made me happy not just because it's Margie's story or because, voila, I finished a book, but because even though the reading was slow, the pleasure was as intense as it's always been.
It made me think about writing--doesn't everything? I realized that even though I don't write fast anymore, that particular pleasure...the one that comes with creation and spending quality time with friends no one but you knows yet...is just as intense as it always was. Just as exciting.
Thanks, Margie, for the honor and for making me remember how much I love both reading and writing. And being slow is just fine.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
How to Make a Woman Love You by Joan Reeves #SMartGirlsReadRomance
My grandfather would say that and chuckle. I wondered if he was remembering the day he realized he was in love with my grandmother, a woman he'd known since they were children.
They had a long and happy life together. After my grandmother passed, my grandfather lived almost 20 more years. He missed her every day.
Love is such a complex emotion, and it's the great equalizer because it's the one thing we all seek whether we realize it or not.
Men, if you've ever wondered what women want, i.e., so they will want you—love you—here are a few tips for you.
How to Make a Woman Love You
The following actions are what a woman looks for in a man. Give a woman these 11 things, and that's the best shot at getting her to give you her love.1. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Give her Respect
2. Unconditional Love.
3. Listen to her.
4. Don't be a jerk
5. Don't take her for granted.
6. Be a man not her child.
7. Be loyal and faithful.
8. Pay attention to what she says and what she doesn't say but exhibits by actions and moods.
9. Be her partner, not her parent or boss.
10. Be yourself and don't put on a fake persona.
11. Learn her sexual rhythm because a woman's sexuality is not like a man's.
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Life Lessons from Grandma by Cathy Shouse
Friday, March 10, 2023
What's Bugging You? by Bea Tifton
When I was three, I was fascinated
with what we called roly polies. Some people call them pill bugs, but they’re
actual name is woodlouse. Not really insects, but crustaceans, these harmless
little creatures roll up into a ball when threatened. I loved riding on merry
go rounds, so I thought, why wouldn’t my little friends? I carefully placed three roly
polies on my record turntable, and turned it on.
Whizzzzzz. Those poor little things went whizzing across the room. You can bet they rolled up into balls after that.
My favorite place to live as a kid was beside a lake. A little creek pushed its way up alongside our backyard. I loved ladybugs, and they were everywhere. One day when I was about five or six, I gathered what must have been dozens of ladybugs into a jar. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, but I took the jar to my bedroom to watch the brightly colored little ladybugs do their thing. I put the jar down on my bed and after a few minutes I noticed a ladybug flitting past me. Then two. Then three. Then dozens. The lid from the jar had come loose and the Great Ladybug Escape had begun. I ran around frantically trying to recapture all of them before my mother walked in. Days after I emptied the jar back onto the willow trees by our creek; I still found the odd ladybug or two flying cheerfully around my room.
In the evenings by that same lake, the
neighborhood kids would play outside as darkness fell, watching the scores of
lightning bugs who twinkled by the water. We would make lanterns by
intercepting lightning bugs and dropping them in our jars. I couldn’t bear to
keep them captive, though, so I would hold my jar up high and watch each
lightning bug wend its way to the lip of the jar, then fly into the summer sky like
a star. Magical.
Are you squeamish around bugs?
Unsplash: Izzy Park "A Girl Holding a Roly-poly on Her Hand"
Pexels: "Vinyl Record Playing"
Pexels: Susanne Jutzeler, sukiyaki-foto "Close-Up Photo of Ladybug on Camomile Flower"
Pixabay: Willgard "Lightning Bugs"
Sunday, March 5, 2023
The Stars at Night~ Sherri Easley
After three years, I finally got her published.
I honestly feel like I gave birth.
On a bright
fall day in 1942, Emma Daniels was singing with her friends on the steps of the
county courthouse, as they did every Saturday. When the group broke for lunch,
Emma stepped into the general store for a soda and overheard a long-held family
secret that shattered her world. Feeling humiliated and ashamed, she impulsively
left her small east Texas town with only a borrowed bag, her guitar case, and
her big dreams.
After a
series of setbacks, Emma finds herself stranded in Memphis until Reese Grafton
comes to her rescue and invites her to stay at his horse ranch with him and his
father. With no other options, Emma accepts and sets out on an adventure that
takes her to Nashville and into the home of Boots Grafton, the king of the
Grand Ole Opry.
While living
with the singing legend and his son, Emma realizes that even when your dreams
come true, there's still more to life than chasing success.
Hope you have a great month!
Sherri
Saturday, March 4, 2023
New Beginnings by @JacquieRogers #springtime #family
March 3 is a special day for me because that's my mom's birthday. She would've been 91 this year, and it's very hard to picture her as an elderly lady since she passed away at the too young age of 38. She loved lilacs and tomatoes and I grow both now.
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Lilac buds. I can hardly wait for them to bloom! |
No greenery yet, but it'll happen. Mr R reports that the apricot trees are budding, also, but that's no good at all because early buds will be frozen and there goes our crop. We still have BBQ sauce from last year, and maybe some jam.
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Tillie the Tank Photo taken last fall because I didn't feel like wading out there in the snow today. |
Thursday, March 2, 2023
SPRING FLOWERS
By Caroline Clemmons
Mary
Poppins insisted one should never explain, but I’m going to anyway. I’m late
because I’ve been having some eyesight issues. Better this afternoon, so here I
am. Mother Nature is playing ping pong with our weather: spring, winter,
spring, winter…. Our poor plants are so confused. The television weather
forecaster keeps cautioning people that there will be an “Easter cold snap.”
Sunny,
warm weather creates an urge to rush to the landscape nursery and buy flats of
bedding plants. Listening to the weather forecaster restrains us. We’re eager
for our yard to be as near glorious as we can make it. Hero has already made
himself stiff and sore digging and planting rose bushes. No bedding plants,
though, as cautioned.
Beth
Trissel is my example of a wonderful gardener. She has such beautiful flowers,
and shares them with us occasionally. I took her herb class and have her book
she and her daughter published. I love it. In addition, she uses heirloom
seeds. I am praying that Beth recovers her ability to garden and write this spring!
After "the Easter cold snap" Hero plans to plant butterfly bushes to attract bees and butterflies. We are looking forward to seeing flocks of butterflies and hearing the buzzing of bees this summer.
Do
you like to garden?