Monthly Archives: September 2015
I’m addicted to the Great Courses on DVD. During one of the classes I am taking, I heard this statement: “The greatest deterrent to learning is procrastination.” It has stuck with me and I am aware of the time I waste that could be used for the better. Of course, I rationalize it to my advantage by saying, “I am retired. I am entitled to do what I want anytime I want. I am too tired. I need to rest……
“Kameron, that tooth is hanging by a thread,” my daughter, Brooke, told her six-year-old son. “You’d better let me pull it, or you’ll lose it.”
Kaden, older by three years, ran through the living room and out the door with a football tucked under his arm. Kameron ran after him and called to his Mom. “I’ll pull it…..
Some writers start with a title or a theme and expand upon, or explain, or trace the process that led to the title. Other writers craft the piece, or even an entire book, before deliberating for hours or days or weeks on the choice of a perfect title.
Many writers do both, only to have an editor or publisher change the title to something that doesn’t necessarily reflect the theme of the piece, but is a catchy word or…..
This past month I took the on-line class, James Patterson’s Master Class on Writing, where I learned a new name for contemporary fiction—”Commercial Fiction.” That’s what James Patterson calls his style of writing, and he’s very successful at it. I was watching a re-run of Castle recently, in which his girlfriend, Detective Beckett, asks him, “Are you rich?”
Castle replied, “Not James Patterson rich, but I do okay.”
So, writing Commercial Fiction will make you…if not rich, at least…..
While driving to my hairdresser’s this morning, I turned on the car radio and tuned into Sirius XM satellite radio and my favorite station––Siriusly Sinatra. There’s nothing like a big-band-era Frank Sinatra recording to put a girl in a mellow mood. “Put Your Dreams Away For Another Day” always does that for me.
Nancy Sinatra, Frank’s daughter, was hosting a segment she called, “Frank’s Capitol Years,” which included songs he had recorded under the Capitol Records label. She proclaimed the…..
(Note: The following is a very moving excerpt from “Bathtubs and Warm Water: The Genesis of Faith,” by Dorothy Dettmering, also known as GrammaDottie.)
When (the children and I) arrived home, I went immediately to the bedroom with the mail. The door was almost shut. When I pushed it open, the card table that we always kept behind the door blocked my entrance. It had unfolded with the two bottom legs extended, holding the table upright on its side. On…..
(An excerpt from my book, D Is For Dysfunctional…and Doo Wop!) Each house in our little mountain community of Brownsville, California, boasted a hangar instead of a garage enclosing at least one, sometimes two, private airplanes, ranging from hand-built vintage mini-planes to sleek twin-engine aircraft.
George had three planes: a Smith mini-plane, a V-tail Beechcraft Bonanza, and part ownership of a high-wing Cessna 150. All the husbands were pilots, either private or retired military, and had kept their certifications…..
I went to the post office in Sun City today to mail a copy of my book to a friend in Wisconsin. There was a long line of people, most of them elderly, waiting for their turn to approach one of the two employees at the windows so they could get their packages and letters weighed, stamped, and mailed.
A perky little old lady, who might have been in her late seventies or early eighties, walked in, looked at the…..
(Note: The following is an excerpt from Bathtubs and Warm Water: The Genesis of Faith, by Dorothy Dettmering, also known as Gramma Dottie)
I attended Sunday School all through my childhood, and was the recipient of a black leather-bound Bible for perfect attendance. I sang in the choir and sometimes played the piano in duets with the organist. I usually attended two Bible classes in the summer––one at my home church and another at my step-grandmother’s church, where we…..
Several weeks ago, I received a phone call from an old Sweet Adeline friend––let’s call her Edna––whom I hadn’t seen in four years, since her 80th birthday party. We made arrangements to meet for lunch on the first day I was free, which was about two weeks later. (At 75, I have a schedule that would cripple a 30-year-old.) She said she wanted to eat at her favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel.
I called her house the day before our luncheon…..
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