Z, Y, X...C, B, A and Further Signs of Spring

The count-down is underway! The third A to Z Challenge begins Sunday and YOU still have time to join. Click HERE to learn everything about it. Arlee Bird, is the originator of the challenge, and this year he has a host of team members to help him out. Way to go Arlee!

At last count over 1200 bloggers had signed up! YEAH!

This is my third year. The first year I jumped in late,  not really knowing what I was doing. Even so I got her done. Last year I had more of a theme. For every word chosen I somehow managed to relate it back to writing.

This year my theme is all about books. For every letter I've picked a character or mythological figure, an author or a book, that influenced my life, both as a writer and as a person.

Hope to you'll join me!

And remember, HAVE FUN!

And now, a little eye candy as I share further signs of Spring in our back yard.

Blue bonnets as we see them from our porch.

 Up close

Blue-eyed grass, a volunteer.

 Up close

Columbine.

From the side. 

From underneath. Look at that blue sky!

 Cactus

Up close.

 Straw flower

 Happy Spring!

She Sells Sea Shells

My mother wasn't big on giving my sister, Erva and I allowances, at least not for doing regular everyday chores. The way she explained it is that these were chores we'd always have to do to make our lives more comfortable.  We all know those everyday chores: washing the dishes, sweeping, making the bed, doing laundry and putting the clean clothes away. If we wanted to earn money we had to do something that wasn't so tied to daily living. Like deep cleaning the kitchen cupboards, weeding in the yard, polishing the silver, or sweeping the driveway.

There were other ways I earned money as well. Besides having the monopoly on baby-sitting, I made things from seeds, beads and shells and sold my handy-work in several local shops. I made necklaces and earrings and glued shells to the ends of plastic hor d'oeuvres picks bundling them into lots of a dozen.

I used shells to make pictures, like this one which I made with a ten-year-old girl whom I was teaching to make the flowers.

I think for a first attempt she did a wonderful job. Can you tell my flowers from hers?

I also made shell dolls, like these. 

The skirt is made from sea urchin skeletons. The body is a dove shell, the head a small cowry called a coffee bean. Her hat is a limpet. Her arms are made with the skeletal remains of a sea plant called a sea whip. She has bits of coral to represent a ruffled cape with a rose at her waist.

This one is made entirely of cockles. She has the same kind of arms as the one above and she carries a bouquet. The coral growing on the shells of her skirt add a nice lacy touch.
















She's kind of plain from the back.






















Now, to give you an idea of their size.

Do you make things, have any hobbies?

It's Elemental and The Lucky Seven Meme

Here it is...the book trailer for Emily White's book, ELEMENTAL due out on May 1st. Pre-order HERE.

Official Fanpage is HERE.





I've seen this on several blogs, Misha at My First Book, and Colene Murphy at The Journey, to name two.... Both simply passed it on. So I thought I'd give it try.


The rules are simple.
1) Go to page 77 of your current MS.
2) Got to line seven.
3) Copy the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating!
4) Tag 7 authors. 



I'm not tagging, but I am passing it on.


The following is from my MG, called The Bowl and the Stone: A West Indian Ghost Story

   We are building elaborate card houses in Nick’s living room. We use several decks of cards to construct mansions a couple of feet long and two or three stories high. Nick is too quiet.

            “Okay, give,” I say.

            “What?”

            “What’s bothering you?”

            “Nothing,” he says carefully adding a card.
I don't do many memes. Do you? 

RAIN! And A Little Happy Music

I know, I don't usually post on Tuesdays.

BUT

It's a Happy Tuesday.  We had a three and half inches of rain last night! With lots of lightening and thunder. YEAH! The trees and wild flowers will LOVE it. The river and creeks are UP.

Here are some before and after pictures of the creek near our house.



 This past summer, 2011. Looking northwest.



















After last night's rain. Water is actually flowing over the little dam.



















This past summer, 2011. Looking southeast. The bald cypress on the left is high and dry.

















After last night's rain.


It's amazing what a few inches will do.
We need more, but we'll surely take what we've been given.












It's makes me so happy I decided to share this video with you. The music is by Jamsie and the Happy Seven playing traditional music from the Virgin Islands. The pictures are of St. Thomas, probably during the 1940's and 50s, around the time when I was a kid growing up there. In the pictures the people appear to be poor, but we were all RICH with family, friends and culture. No one went without.

Enjoy!

Thanks... An Offer... and... Clockwise

Yes, these pretty flowers are for all of you who follow my blog.

Thank you.

If you haven't noticed, I have added a page to my header. Take a look, scroll  up... just a little bit more. There. See it? It's called Books by Bloggers.

As a measure of my appreciation, as a small way of giving back to this marvelous writerly and bloggerly community, I have begun a list of those of you who have published books.

The list includes a link to your blog and link(s) to your book(s). It is by no means a complete list. If you don't see your name and would like to be added, let me know. Don't be shy, it's another place to list your book, linked to where it can be purchased. It's a little free advertising and something I'm pleased to do. If you would like to include the genre you write, please do.

All I ask in return is, if you want your book listed, that you be a follower. That isn't so hard is it? I also have to reserve the right to refuse to list a book if I feel it is inappropriate for my blog.

Thanks everyone! And spread the word. Got a book? Let me know!

Speaking of books, check out CLOCKWISE by Elle Strauss!

It has a new cover!

Praise for Clockwise: 

 "Readers who 'trip' back in time with Casey will wish they could stay longer in her strangely relatable place." - Kirkus Review

 "I loved Clockwise! A great read, and I love your Casey/Cassandra. Congratulations."
 - Wendy Orr, author of Nim's Island


Tagline: A teenage time traveler accidentally takes her secret crush back in time. Awkward.

Casey Donovan has issues: hair, height and uncontrollable trips to the 19th century! And now this --she’s accidentally taken Nate Mackenzie, the cutest boy in the school, back in time. Awkward.

Protocol pressures her to tell their 1860 hosts that he is her brother and when Casey finds she has a handsome, wealthy (and unwanted) suitor, something changes in Nate. Are those romantic sparks or is it just “brotherly” protectiveness?

When they return to the present, things go back to the way they were before: Casey parked on the bottom of the rung of the social ladder and Nate perched high on the very the top. Except this time her heart is broken. Plus, her best friend is mad, her parents are split up, and her younger brother gets escorted home by the police. The only thing that could make life worse is if, by some strange twist of fate, she took Nate back to the past again.
Which of course, she does.

 Buy for Kindle. And to read the first chapter, click HERE.

Last but certainly not least, Happy Birthday, Erva!

Murder in Missouri

In researching our family genealogy a cousin of mine found this interesting and shocking story.

Whitfield and Boen Denham Brothers - by Marie Moody Foster and Erma Melton Smith

Whitfield and Boen Denham, Jr., sons of Boen, Sr., and Elizabeth Jane (Moody) Denham, were born in Madison County, Kentucky, on the Old State Road, formerly Boone's Trace. Whitfield, called "Whit" was born on January 7, 1850. Boen, Jr. was born in the fall of 1852. They became known as the "Denham Brothers." 


Whitfield Denham left Madison, County in the fall of 1871 with other kinsmen who were migrating to Missouri. He settled in Ellenorah and went into the merchandising business. He remained there until 1875. He moved to Maryville, Missouri, where he owned and operated a hotel.


Whit's brother Boen Denham, Jr., left Kentucky, following his brother to Missouri in 1872. The Denham brothers were never too far away from each other, as they were very fond of one another.


Boen Denham, Jr., became involved in trouble when he had to shoot some dogs that belonged to his neighbor. He would ride his nice "driving horses" to and from the pioneer town of Denver, Worth Country, Missouri, which was about two and a half miles away. He had to pass his neighbor's farm. The neighbor's dogs would run out onto the path and nip at the horses noses, which without a doubt caused the horses to "act up." Boen had to draw his weapon to protect himself and his horses and shot the dogs.


Afterwards, the neighbor swore out a warrant for Boen Denham's arrest. Immediately Whit came to his brother's rescue. It must be remembered that in 1876, the Denham brothers were "newcomers" in the Denver, Missouri area. The neighbors were "old timers" in the pioneer town, and all "old timers" thought a dog's life was more valuable than fine horses.


Records show that a constable of the area could not arrest the Denham brothers, or claimed he could not. But while the brothers were in town (Denver, MO) on August 25, 1876, and in the "Youngman's Drug Store," a posse of five men came in to arrest the Denham brothers. Then and there, both the Denhams were shot down in cold blood!


It was written up in the Annals of Worth County, Missouri, years later, defending the act of the so called posse, but the conclusions of many, many, "old timers" of Denver, MO, differed; they too, claimed the shooting of the Denham brothers was in cold blood.

There's more about where they were buried, etc. but it doesn't say what happened to the posse, although their names are known. The Denham brothers were only 26 and 24 years old when they were murdered. So sad. This is the first piece of truly violent family history that I've found out about.

Do you have any skeletons hanging from your ancestral tree?

Still Dry Despite the Rain

We had a little rain over the week-end. About an inch spread out over the last three days. We still need more than a foot to play catch up from last year's severe drought. And, predictions are that it will be hot and dry again this year. Though it looks like we're going to have some wild flowers this spring, the river that runs through it is still low. This was taken in the fall and it's still the same. You can see, at the bottom of the bridge supports, the normal "high" water mark, though in flood this bridge has been under water.

And that's what people are talking about, that we need a small flood, not only to fill the river, wells and aquifer, but to flush the river of built up debris.

As in this picture of a huge cypress log being carried along.

This is an island in the middle of the river called Tranquility Island. Tranquil isn't it, with the huge bald cypress trees to walk under, and the river placidly drifting by? 

This is just below Tranquility Island, which is under water. See that bridge behind the trees? I've see the water more than half-way up the supports. I've seen refrigerators and small cars in the trees. (No joke!)

Here's a picture of a vehicle that's buried on Tranquility Island.

One time during a flood my husband and I went up to the "big" dam about a mile up stream from where the above pictures were taken. We saw the most extraordinary thing. We saw grackles (You know grackles? They are a large, noisy, gregarious bird) hitching rides on pieces of debris, logs and such, and floating down river. Then, just as the log was about to go thundering over the dam, the birds flew off, veered back up stream and hitched a ride on another log.  They did it over and over. Many of them, not just a few. They were playing. It was like they were at a Disneyland for grackles.

We had only 13 inches of rain last year, when our average is around 34. Since January there's been about 5 inches, for which we are grateful. But we need a flood. Around here they're called frog chokers. At least here, in the Hill Country, most people are safe when the river rises, there's time to get out of the way and few homes are built in flood plains. But it can still be dangerous. People have lost their lives.

Have you ever been in a flood?

Alternatives for Almost

Alternatives is a recurring post in which I give synonyms for an over used word. Click on the tab above for a "complete" list of over used words. 


Depending on how you use it, this list may come in handy for finding another way to say the same thing.


Today's word is: Almost


I bet almost everyone has said, "It's almost time to go." Or, "I'm almost finished." 


It's a handy little word, is almost. And, because it is so handy, it gets over used. Alas, poor Almost, who came so close to finishing first.


Imagine saying, "It's in the neighborhood of the time to go." 
Or
"I'm on the brink of being finished."


Truly, it is a mere nothing. I am approximately near to being well-nigh crazy.


And now, for your further edification, here is a list of possible alternatives. (Don't worry Almost, you'll still get plenty of air time.)

a drop in the bucket, a mere nothing, about, about to, all but, approximately, around, as good as

bordering on

close to, close upon, closely

enough, essentially

faintly, for all practical purposes, for the greatest part

hardly anything

in effect, in the neighborhood of, in the vicinity of

just about

most, much

near the mark, near to, next to nothing, nigh, no more than, not far from, not quite

on the brink of, on the edge of, on the point of, on the verge of

practically, pretty near

relatively, relatively speaking, roughly

scarcely, short of all but, slightly, so near and yet so far, substantially

tantamount to, to all intents

verging on, virtually

well-nigh, within an inch, within sight of

Are we almost done yet? I'm sorry dear, there are a lot more over used words to find alternatives for.

Cheers... and Cigarettes - Part Three

This is Part Three and the final installment of a short series about growing up around alcohol.

Last Monday I posted about the three main bars in Cruz Bay in the late 1950's; Smitty's, Mooie's, and the Ellington's bar at Gallows Point. I also promised to tell you about how my sister Erva and I came to play with cigarettes.

Among the white people who lived on St. John, my parents were in the minority who had kids. Getting a baby-sitter rarely happened. Most every one understood, if the Denhams were invited, the girls were going to come along. My parents felt if Erva and I weren't invited, then it probably wasn't a party they wanted to go to. The consequences of this attitude was that Erva and I were around a lot of adults.

So it was, when my parents were invited to a wedding reception at Gallows Point, the girls went along. I was around ten. Just about everyone was there, including Ivan (John) Jadan who, in a former life, had been a Russian tenor with the Bolshoi Theater.
Whenever he showed up at a party he brought his balalaika and sang Russian folk songs.

Well, this time he not only brought his balalaika, he also brought his son, a handsome young man of about 25 or so.  Even I, at ten, thought he was good looking.

Because, as usual, Erva and I were the only kids at the party, Ivan's son decided to help keep us entertained, with my parent's permission of course.

He anchored a paper napkin across the top of glass with a rubber band. On top of the napkin he placed a dime. Then he lit a cigarette for each of us. The game was to see how many holes we could burn into the napkin before the dime fell into glass. So there we were, the three of us perched on bar stools at on end of the bar, playing with cigarettes.

It never occurred to either Erva or I to take a puff when it was way more fun to burn holes in the napkin! I can clearly remember having a grand time watching the ashes collect in the bottom of glass, trying not to be one to cause the dime to fall.

Those were innocent times. I can't imagine parents these days allowing their kids to hang out at a bar and play with cigarettes.

Would you?

Spring...

...is arriving early this year. She has not crept in quietly either. She's just sort of barged her way in, muscling winter aside. Winter's been puny, not that I mind the mild weather. We've even had a little rain, a couple or three inches. It's not near enough to break the drought (we need over a foot to do that) but it's a start. But with Spring showing up on the doorstep so soon, and already having days reaching 80-82 degrees, one wonders what the summer will bring.

Signs that Spring is in our yard.

For the first time since we planted it, several years ago, the native mountain laurel is blooming. To most people it's sprays of purple blossoms smell just like grape bubblegum. That's Ursa, our dog.

 For the first time, these native blue irises are putting on buds.

And, the agaritas have burst into bloom. The tiny flowers, not much bigger than a pencil eraser put off a heady honey-like aroma that we can smell through-out our yard. Maybe this year I'll try to harvest some berries and make some jelly.

Anything springing up in your yard?

3...2...1...Ignition

WE HAVE LIFT OFF! Go, Alex, go!

This week is Catch Fire Blog Party, celebrating the release of CassaFire by Alex J. Cavanaugh!

The goal is to help CassaFire “catch fire” on the best seller charts and achieve the success of the first book, CassaStar. There’s also a special package of prizes being given away at the author’s blog (copies of CassaFire, CassaStar, tote bag, mug, and bookmarks) as well as book giveaways during his two-week blog tour. See Alex’s site for details: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

CassaFire

by Alex J. Cavanaugh

CassaStar was just the beginning…

The Vindicarn War is a distant memory and Byron’s days of piloting Cosbolt fighters are over. He has kept the promise he made to his fallen mentor and friend - to probe space on an exploration vessel. Shuttle work is dull, but it’s a free and solitary existence. The senior officer is content with his life aboard the Rennather.

The detection of alien ruins sends the exploration ship to the distant planet of Tgren. If their scientists can decipher the language, they can unlock the secrets of this device. Is it a key to the Tgren’s civilization or a weapon of unimaginable power? Tensions mount as their new allies are suspicious of the Cassan’s technology and strange mental abilities. 

To complicate matters, the Tgrens are showing signs of mental powers themselves; the strongest of which belongs to a pilot named Athee, a woman whose skills rival Byron’s unique abilities. Forced to train her mind and further develop her flying aptitude, he finds his patience strained. Add a reluctant friendship with a young scientist, and he feels invaded on every level. All Byron wanted was his privacy…

Available today!

Science fiction - space opera/adventure

Print ISBN 978-0-9827139-4-5, $15.95, 6x9 Trade paperback, 240 pages

EBook ISBN 978-0-9827139-6-9, $4.99, available in all formats

CassaFire is the sequel to Cavanaugh’s first book, CassaStar, an Amazon Top Ten Best Seller:

“…calls to mind the youthful focus of Robert Heinlein’s early military sf, as well as the excitement of space opera epitomized by the many Star Wars novels. Fast-paced military action and a youthful protagonist make this a good choice for both young adult and adult fans of space wars.” - Library Journal

You can visit the author’s site at http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

Book trailer available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa6VINRGtyE.

Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cassafire-alex-j-cavanaugh/1034742568

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/CassaFire-Alex-J-Cavanaugh/dp/0982713940/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1329417150&sr=1-1

Amazon Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/CassaFire-ebook/dp/B007A2TSNG/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1329663355&sr=1-1

Take a look at this trailer!