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Showing posts from October, 2013

My First Rejection

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  Rejections.   Ugh!   No one likes them.   They are hard, they make you second guess your abilities, and they leave you with a question.   Do I quit or do I keep on going?   My first rejection came at a very bad time.   It couldn’t have been any worse if I had penned it into one of my novels. My mother had died the day before in a tragic car accident. I stood in my kitchen when my husband came in holding the day’s mail, which included the self-addressed envelope I recognized as the manuscript I’d sent to a publisher. I opened it and read the short letter telling me my manuscript was not what they were looking for. As I look back on that day, maybe it was perfect timing.   I set the rejection letter aside and didn’t go back to it until several days later.   By then the disappointment had rolled off my shoulders like water off a ducks back in comparison to losing my mother. When I finally returned my attention back to my manuscript, I had decided that I’ll keep on tryi

Gardening

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  As some of you may know I am an avid gardener.   When I lived in Ohio I had ten very large, very prolific, perennial beds, the biggest being over 700 square feet in size.   I grew Daisies, Black-eyed Susan, Lilies, Monarda, and much, much more. Yes, I lost plants, but for the most part, being blessed with my father’s green thumb, if I stuck it in the ground—it grew.  (Shown above.) Now that I live in Nevada, gardening has changed dramatically.     Along with the obvious—the lack of water, I now deal with creatures that eat my plants from the roots up!   I have pine trees that resemble trees from Christmases past. I put them in the ground and not even two weeks later they were void of their needles.   I have tried traps, repellents, and even throwing a few choice words at them.   But they keep coming back.   Voles and moles have gnawed the roots of my trees away, leaving them no roots from which to drink the water I give them. I have a feeling this will not be the

The Best Laid Plans

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  I work for a very large corporation which takes safety and training as seriously as they do their bottom line. Everyone receives yearly training on possible safety hazards, we have fire drills just like everyone else.   We even had a terrorist drill which included bringing in the swat team to search for wounded employees...and yes, we had volunteers that got to act out the part of the wounded or dead.   Just recently, because we are located in an earthquake-prone area, we had a drill scheduled for that too.   The safety team has been planning it for months.   They coordinated the drill with local officials on all levels. Fire trucks were lined up on the main road ready to come to our aide. The drill was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Then suddenly ALL the lights went out.   Something made the power go out and the generators didn't kick in as they were supposed to.   Although, in case of an earthquake, it could occur, this was NOT part of the planned drill. It made me think of ho

The View from My Window - Lake Tahoe and Mark Twain

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The view from my office window is spectacular.  (No this is not it.) But, t o the west, beyond the hills in my small valley, I can see the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Just over their craggy peaks and out of my sight is Lake Tahoe (shown here).   It is a beautiful lake so blue and clear you can see over sixty feet into the water to the lake’s bottom.   Mountains surround the lake covered with a dense pine forest.   The view is absolutely breathtaking. Tahoe was originally named Lake Bigler after the third governor of California.   It is also one of the few inland lakes that can trigger Tsunami warnings during an earthquake.   It was also the location of the Ponderosa ranch used in the TV series Bonanza—now a private residence. But there is one little-known fact that I found amazing.   While reading Mark Twain’s adventure “Roughing It”, I learned that Mark Twain and his colleague decided to make the eleven mile hike from Carson City to Lake Bigler on foot.   Many hours later

Live Your Dreams

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The rest of the story—as promised.   At my first writer’s conference, my brain whirled at the enormity of writing community and the excitement that flowed between writers.   It was new and exhilarating and left me wanting to continue in my writing adventure.   But, was it for me?   Was it something I should pursue?   Those questions dogged my steps, leaving me unsure of myself.   In one of the many workshops, the instructor passed around a bag of Dove chocolates, you know the ones with the words of encouragement emblazoned inside the foil wrapper.   I’m not normally a chocolate eater, unless it’s coating nuts of any type, but I still shoved my hand into the bag and pulled out two pieces.   One I dropped into my purse and the other I unwrapped.   The inside of the wrapper read, “Live your dreams.”   Wow!   What great encouragement for someone who felt like a young bird, sitting atop a safe nesting place preparing to fly. Me.   I straightened out the foil wrapper and sl

A Little Bit of Encouragement

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     Here's a bit of encouragement for you, stay tuned to my next post for the story behind this promise message!        

Weird City Names - just for fun

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Have you ever wondered how cities were named?   I have and their reasons leave me scratching my head. Unalaska, Alaska – Apparently they didn’t want to be part of Alaska. Why, Arizona – Why not?   Oh, yeah.    That's in Mississippi. Turkey Scratch, Arkansas   - Happy turkeys? Zzyxz, California – They learned the alphabet backwards. Bonanza, Colorado – I thought the Ponderosa was in Nevada? Moosup, Connecticut – Is there a Moosdown? Hill and Dale, Florida – Apparently they couldn’t decide between one or the other name. Hopeulikit, Georgia – Hope you do. Zaza, Idaho -   Hmmmm? Normal, Illinois – Is anywhere normal? Crab Town, Iowa – When I think of crabs, I picture the ocean, not an inland state. Kickapoo, Kansas – Watch where you step. Spider, Kentucky – I won’t go there – I don’t like spiders. Frogmore, Louisiana – Is there a Frogless? Deadman’s Corner, Maine – Stay away from there, bodies are pilling up on the street corners. Unicorn, Maryland – I

When is Your Best Time To Write

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As with many writers trying to squeak in a little writing time along with the stress of their dreaded day job, family and other responsibilities, I figured the only way to make my writing time l-o-n-g-e-r was to figure out how to write faster.   I read a book called  2K to 10K: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Write More of What You Love  by Rachel Aaron hoping for some golden nugget to improve my craft.   What I found was a confirmation of what I’d already started to figure out.  Along with a few other nuggets I'll share along the way in upcoming posts. Today, I am going to focus on when is the best time to write.   We each have our own personal “prime time”.   Some of us are morning people, who can write better when the day is fresh and so is the brain. Others are slow movers and need at least three cups of coffee before even chancing a glance at the computer.   Some are night owls able to plug away at the keyboard until those of us who are morning people (me) are

Pet Peeves and My Morning Commute

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  This morning on my way to work I was considering a possible subject for this upcoming blog.   My commute is an easy one where the last ten miles is a four lane highway with the speed limit of 65.   It can be a pleasant trip with views of the mountains on one side and cattle ranches on the other, their fields dotted with cows and horses. However, my usually peaceful drive was being hindered by someone in the passing lane matching the speed of the person in the right hand lane.   The two cars running along parallel with each other created a line of cars jockeying for position behind them.   The cars in back bunched closer, leaving no room for error by anyone. It made my morning commute resemble that of the Indy 500 race. The cars finally moved, but not without a few shouts their direction by others…including me, I’m ashamed to say. What is your pet peeve?