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!

Thankful Things

Happy Thanksgiving.

Of course I am thankful for my husband, Stan, and my sister, Erva and for the air I breathe.

But I'm also VERY thankful for washing dishes.

Washing dishes means:
I have food that makes them dirty
I have hands to wash them with
I have running hot and cold water to wash them in
I have money to pay the water and electric bill and buy the soap
I have a sink to wash them in
I have a window to look out of when I wash the dishes
I have a house with a window



Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury,pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

What are you thankful for?

Thank You and Other Randomness

FIRST: A BIG THANK YOU to all of you wonderful bloggers who visited over St. Patrick's Day, left a comment, and/or became a new follower. I really do appreciate it.

SECOND: I'm a VERY excited winner. Sangu at Echoes of a Wayward Mind, offered up a SIGNED copy Talli Roland's book, THE HATING GAME (also available at Amazon Kindle) and and my name was drawn. It's coming all the way from England. Thank you Sangu and Talli!

THIRD: A while back Sherrie Petersen at Write About Now passed on to me the Beautiful Blogger Award. I like that it's lavender, kind of goes with my color scheme. Thanks Sherrie!

I'm supposed to list seven (7) pet peeves. So here goes.

1. That the English language and/or someone clever hasn't come up with a good and proper neuter pronoun so we don't have sentences like this from Ralph Waldo Emerson: No man is quite sane. Each has a vein of folly in his composition. Personally I don't have a problem with using "man, him, he, his" as a collective pronoun for all us huMANs.

But here it is rewritten: No human is quite sane. Each has a vein of folly in his/her composition. Okay, but awkward.

Or: No person is quite sane. Each has a vein of folly in their composition.

2. Which leads right into using "their" with a singular noun. As in, "The sun was shining on their back." GAK. It should be, "The sun was shining on their backs."

3. "This is arguably the best solution to the problem." People (reporters in particular) use "arguably" A LOT! But if it's the BEST solution then it stands to reason that it CAN'T be argued. Therefore what I think people mean to say is that it is INARGUABLE, in other words, that there can be no argument, it's THE BEST. The sentence should read, "This is inarguably the best solution to the problem."

4. Long ago I learned, "that" is for things, "who" is for people. Even the well known are guilty. Tim Robbins said: I love iconoclast. I love individuals. I love people that are true to themselves, whatever the cost. It should have been "I love people WHO..." I read/hear it all the time for example: "The firefighters that went to the house saved the women." To my ear it should be "The firefighters who went..." THAT is for THINGS, WHO is for PEOPLE.

5. How about this: "She's as good of a truck driver as any man." GAK again. It should simply be: "She's as good a truck driver as any man." Get rid of that of!

6. Over used words and cliches. (Of course I'm guilty myself. Forty lashes with a wet noodle.)

7. People who moan and groan and complain. Particularly now. I've had the following anonymous quote stuck to my computer for some time now: Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

And now dear little bloggers who may this blogger read, I pass on to ALL of you, The Beautiful Blogger Award.

Tell those near and dear to you that you love them. Smile at a stranger. Hug up your pet(s). And remember to be thankful for every little thing you have.

On Thankfulness

Mom is 91 years old. No one in her family has lived so long. Her mother died at 76, her father in his mid-fifties. Only her grandfather, Frank Hartwell, lived into his 80’s. Only the youngest of her three brothers is still alive. She has beaten all the odds, and surpassed them.

She is nearly blind and deaf. She has diabetes. She is weak and spends most of her day in bed, but she can still get herself up and use a walker to take herself to the potty. Her short term memory is shot. But memories of the past, of raising my sister and me, of Dad, of growing up in Puerto Rico (she often reverts to speaking Spanish, her first language) and St. John, these things are clear. She knows who people are when they come to visit once you put in her hearing aid and yell into her ear. Yet minutes after they have gone she has forgotten that they came.

But this is not about feeling sorry for her. This is about the constant daily lesson she teaches me.

This is about her thankfulness. She says “Thank you,” for every little thing Erva or I do for her. Because of her diabetes her back itches most all of the time. She is always wanting it scratched. “Scratch my back. Oh boy, does that feels good, thank you,” she says.

“Thank you for sitting with me.”

“Thank you for keeping me here,” she says in reference to keeping her at home. “I’m very grateful. I want you know that. I hope I’m not too much of a burden. I don’t know why I’ve lived so long.”

“I want to let you know that I had fun raising you girls,” she says. “I hope you had fun too.”

“Thank you,” she says as we wheel her up to the table for a meal. She has a wonderful appetite and eats most anything we put in front of her.

“Thank you for taking care of me.”

She thanks us for turning off the light when she asks. She thanks us for giving her a sponge bath. She thanks us for keeping her glass full of water. She thanks us for plucking her chin whiskers.

“I’m cold,” she says. “Thank you,” she says when we help her into a little jacket.

“What’s new and different in the outside world?” she asks. And though she won’t remember I tell here we have a black man running for president. “Well I’ll be darned,” she says. “Is he popular?” Then she answers her own question, “I guess he must be if he’s running for president. Thank you for keeping me informed.”

The lesson she teaches me is clear. I only hope I can be as gracious and thankful should I live as long as she has. I hope from day to day not to take anything for granted, but to remember to be thankful for every little thing that I have, that’s done for me, that’s given to me.

My hope is that everyone have an Aged P as easy to care for as my mother. But I know this is not the case. I know there are Aged Ps out there who are difficult. So this lesson isn’t about them, it’s about us, the care-givers, the children. The lesson is about our remembering to be thankful.

May each of us remember to be thankful.

If we were all thankful for every little thing the world would at be at peace. We’d be so busy saying “Thank you,” to everyone we wouldn’t have time to be jealous or angry. Our differences of opinion, our need to be right, our selfishness would disappear.

Thank you, Mom, for continuing to teach me on a daily basis. Thank you for being my mother. Thank you for all the wonderful memories. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being thankful.

I am humbled and honored to be your daughter.