April Showering Me With Kindness & ISWG

 

IWSG

Our "X" Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG

Please visit our co-hosts this lovely month of April: 

Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, AND  Pat Garcia!

I'm starting out my post this month with the IWSG information because I love how important it is for me to be a part of this blogging community. I don't post as much as I should, but I love being here and how it keeps me humble, and keeps me tuned in to the "writing internet crowd." And even though I've been sent to the back of the line twice (!), I'm still hanging in here. My answer to this month's question is...

How long have I been blogging (Or Twitter, Instagram or Facebook)? What do I like about it and what has changed? 

I've been blogging since at least 2011. SOOOOO much has changed since I started and I find it a mixed bag. I gave up on Wordpress, because it wasn't the right fit for my brain. If I had someone else blogging for me I'd us it, but it was too much of a pain back then and I haven't tried it again in a very long time. I'm no longer on X/Twitter at all. I just can't do it. Instagram and FB are where I usually spend my time when doing social media. Even they are getting on my nerves. Not so much FB because I really keep up there with the special people in my life that I can't see every day. I pay no attention to anything else. Instagram never lets me just see the people I follow. If it did that, however, I'd be on it toooo much so maybe that's a good thing! Once I get back into marketing my novels I'll do a lot more on those platforms, and possibly TicToc but for now, I'm happy doing what I'm doing. How about you?

We recently got our little furbaby groomed for the first time. Not just bathed, but a whole new haircut and he looks like a new dog! Never seen him this way before and I like it. I liked the way he was with his long hair as well, but it was getting to be a real mess to deal with. What do you think? Like the new cut? The old? I like them both!

I have decided to enter one of my unpublished (but edited professionally) novels in a contest. Wish me luck? I'm very nervous about this because it's the first in a trilogy and if it doesn't go well...? I'm terrified!

Before...

After! We didn't want his face changed much, so I think she did a good job.

March Is Marching On Without Me On IWSG So On To April!

 

IWSG

I had planned to post last week for IWSG, but somehow I didn't. So I'm posting this week (for April evidently!). Life has taken off in such a good way (mostly), that I would forget my head if it weren't permanently attached. This is good and bad. Because I'm not writing it's bad. Because life is so full right now it's good. I am reading like I haven't read since before Covid. I've read over 18 books in the last two months which feels amazing. I also feel it is the beginning of loving writing again. 

I am working on fixing some issues in my family, going to therapy and this is good. I can still learn. I love that part of "issues". Yes it can be painful, but the joy that comes from fixing the issues is not to be underestimated. The work is greatly appreciated and makes me feel like a better human being, not to mention mother and wife.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Wednesday last week during the usual posting time, and I hope you continue to have a wonderful spring. 

Please visit the wonderful co-hosts for April...

Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, Pat Garcia!

I also went to Puerto Rico and it was fabulous!!!

With my sister and my sister from another mother! Loved Puerto Rico with Cat and Alma!

Puerto Rico

Swimming with sea turtles!! With a disposable camera so not great quality photos... But still!

January & The Beginning Of A New Year IWSG

 

IWSG

Happy New Year! I hope you all had wonderful beginnings. Mine have been calm, low key and full of time with family. Lovely. The rest of the year looks to have a lot of travel, and more time with friends and family. This is all good. I hope the world decides to calm down and carry on...

In honor of new beginnings I'm sharing a poet's words...

The Good Morrow 

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,

Which watch not one another out of fear;

For love, all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.

Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,

Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,

Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one …. 

John Donne(1572-1631)

It is a wish for all of us on this planet, because like it or not, this planet right now, with all of us here, is what we have, what we share, where we are.

PLEASE go and visit our first amazing co-hosts of the year! 

Joylene Nowell Butler, Olga Godim, Diedre Knight, Natalie Aguirre!

Also, the optional question of the month is:

January 3 question: Do you follow back your readers on BookBub or do you only follow back other authors?

I will say only that I haven't been on BookBub that much and will check it out! So, I don't know the answer to this question! LOL

Also, sorry for the glitches on the post today. Don't know why I can't make the text do what I want! Great way to start the new year...again, lol...

Happiest of new years to you all...

December Floating In To Carry Us Out...IWSG

 

IWSG

This month I'd like to share a movie preview with you. This film has touched my heart and makes me feel love for the best in humans. We are not a "black & white" race upon this earth. We are such a mix that I don't like to use "gray" to describe us; I prefer mixed. We are a mixed race. Full of wonder and impossible dreams, and, hate and intolerance. I like to think that over the last one hundred years we've made more gains than losses in the proverbial "two steps forward, one step back." So, I will share this clip and you can decide for yourself if you'd like to see the entire movie, which of course, I recommend. It's a super one to see during this season, whatever you practice. This story is from a book, "Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump. Also, this was filmed in New Zealand and has beautiful photography. Neill is an actor that I tend to try and see anything he's in, particularly if I've never heard of it. Like this film. I'll share another "unknown" film of his in another post...

(For some reason I couldn't get the video to work on my post, so have to put the link instead. Sorry!) 

https://youtu.be/dPaU4Gymt3E?si=Hx0lGtWAAH9UhDMO The Hunt For The Wilderpeople

Please go and visit our super IWSG co-hosts this month!

C. Lee McKenzie, JQ Rose  Jennifer Lane  Jacqui Murray!

The (optional) question for December is: 

Book reviews are for the readers. When you review a book, do you review for the reader or the author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?

For me, I leave a review about my reading experience. I try NOT to critique the author, no matter I like it or don't. There, to me, is no reason to "attack" someone who has put themselves out there to be read, to comment on someone who was brave enough to write a whole piece-start to finish. To comment on how I enjoyed or didn't, the read is all I need to put out there. I am not a Troll. I myself prefer to have someone's honest opinion on the read, not their opinion of me as a person.

I wish you all a wonderful December and beginning to the new year. I hope you all have wonderful days and evenings filled with love and being with the ones you hold dear. Blessings to us all...

November Thankfulness & IWSG

 

IWSG WEB PAGE

November is when we're supposed to stop and take a look at our lives and what we are thankful for in those lives. I've been reading my mother's writings lately. She's been keeping a journal since I was a teenager, and, writing anecdotes as the occasions arise. I found something she wrote about my "other" dad which I wanted to share with you. I will let her words speak now as I can't write how I feel better than she did.

Happy Father's Day

By Sue F. Miller

You became a grandfather never even having had children. You were with me.

You held out your hands for your daughter whom you had just met...She was in labor,

feeling most sick. There was no bowl, no container. You searched. There was nothing.

You cupped your hands for her to use...she did not need it but

you were there.

That's a dad.

We moved to our camp school. It was a mess. You went right to work. Suddenly, we had hot water and you  built a kitchen in our house, which was office and living space. When the roof leaked, when the refrigerator died, when the plumbing went on the blink, you fixed, repaired, and scrounged for parts.

You cupped your hands again and made things work.

That's a dad.

More grandkids came and you dived right in to be a part of the birthing teams. 

We drank champagne after the mighty efforts concluded. Wonderful babies. Proud grandparent.

That's a dad.

Now, most of the physical work is done; the kids are older, the grandchildren becoming adults...

You teach them how to deal with their cars. You teach them how to fix bikes, computers, golf, and gardening. You go to court with them for driving violations. You help them learn to pick themselves up when they fall down. You pass on your wisdoms.

That's a super dad.

Happy Father's Day, Dad. You have all our thanks and love.

And you did not know but,

That's a dad.

My mother wrote this in 2013 and I'd never read it before. Now, with that first grandson, my first son, I read it and cried, so incredibly grateful to have had a second dad who has touched my heart with his generosity, ferocity, love and gentleness. My father had Parkinson's while my children were growing up and they didn't get to know him as well as I would have liked, but Greg, my other dad (my sister calls him our "bonus" dad), has filled up the spaces that would have been empty had he not fallen in love with my mother, and us. My mother is right. That's a dad.

Sue and Greg Miller, my parents

The November question for us is: 

November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

I have! I've done it at least three times. I didn't always finish my goals, but did at least twice, so I know it can be done. Anyone who hasn't tried it, you should give it a try. It's so helpful in setting goals and keeping them, and it's fun to do it with so many others.

Please visit our co-hosts this month and thank them for helping us all out!

PJ Colando,

Jean Davis, 

Diedre Knight

and me of course!