How's That Again?

I just read an amusing blog post by Erica Vetsch telling the funny things people say to her as a writer. It reminded me of a couple of my show stoppers from people.

#1 Are you still writing?

#2 The best of all. At a church meeting a woman said, "I admire Pat's perserverence. She just keeps writing whether anyone buys it or not." At the time I was a published writer and working at a college, assisting the PR director. A little bit of writing involved there, and most of it published.

In another vein, since I'm stealing from other blogs: Writer's Digest blog suggested a blogger only blog if they have something to say. Don't waste the readers time. Say something the reader can take away. And here's the one that punched me in the gut. Blog at least twice a week. As you can see from the dates on my blog, I'm waaaaay behind.

October? What happened to September?

Yep, it's October. Jack-O-Lanterns, Pumpkins, ghosts, skeletons, colored leaves inhabit store shelves along with Christmas decorations. South Missouri must be the most colorful place in the US in the fall. Leaves are already turning. Have you noticed?

Back to what happened to September. For me September was a whirl of bridal showers, wedding preparation, house guests and finally a beautiful wedding. My granddaughter Kristin Harbin married Michael Highfil on Sept. 19. It was a beautiful wedding and she was a beautiful bride.

It rained the whole day but family and friend inside the beautiful Harmony Baptist Church in Rogersville made is a warm and pleasant day.

All my grandchildren, except one-year-old Nathan, were in the wedding party. Nathan was an attention getter with everyone who saw him in his brown corduroy pants, striped shirt and vest. Just beginning to walk, the church was a great place to explore. Uncle Greg was happy to walk around behind him, introducing him to everyone.

My beautiful granddaughter, Jessica, was candlelighter. Her brother, Jared, was a handsome usher. Granddaughter Kim assisted her sister as Maid of Honor. Kristin declared she was the worst Maid of Honor ever, but I don't think she meant it.

Mother of the bride Dayna was busy in the dressing room with attendants dresses, along with Kristin's Aunt Jeana. Aunt Kyla and Aunt Aleta were responsible for Jessica and Olivia's hair-do's. Aunt Kyla proved helpful in keeping track of flower girl Olivia, who had not had a nap, went to bed late the night before, and was full of sugar. Aunt Kyla caught her 2 seconds before she locked herself in the bathroom.
As you can see it was a family wedding. And I have not mentioned the great members of Harmony Baptist Church and other friends who tirelessly helped with decorations and food.

The wedding went off without a hitch (that isn't a pun). Aforementioned flower girl put on a show for everyone but it is expected with the little ones isn't it?

Wedding pictures will be Facebook soon. I know I've mentioned the word beautiful too many times, but... she is my first granddaughter to get married and she was beautiful and everything was beautiful. OK, I'll shut up about beautiful.
We had a huge family breakfast on Sunday morning at the Golden Corral. All my family was there except Kristin and Mike. They had something else to do ... Oh yes, a honeymoon.

Now all the visitors have gone home. Fall is in the air and it is time for this writer to get back to work. Someone please tell me which of my projects I should start on.

Honest Scrap Award

Shirley McCann passed the Honest Scrap Award to me. To earn this reward I must pass the ward to worthy bloggers who post from the heart and list ten honest things about myself.

1. I love God and thank him for all he does for me
2. I love my family - all of them - in laws too
3. I love my friends -
4. I love writing
5. I love reading
6. I love finding relatives through genealogy.
7. I love getting published
8. I love chocolate
9. I love babies
10. I love personal emails - don't like forwards.

I pass this award on to Becky Cummings, Kaye Calkins and Barbara Huddleston

Shaping your Characters

I attended ORA on Saturday. Brenda Minton was the speaker. Her presentation was great. She is a charismatic speaker. She reminded us of many things we already knew and gave new information about markets. No matter how many conferences and meetings you attend, you always come away with something new. Brenda's comment about characters was my 'something new'.

She said your characters have a backstory. Their experiences in the past shape their view of present experiences. What a difference that makes in shaping characters in your stories. Everyone looks at things differently. Your hero or heroine will look at things differently, your minor characters will look at things differently than your hero and heroine. Forget that your characters are 'just like you'! They are not. Their backstory causes them to see and think and act differently.

The statement came to me again on Sunday morning as I began teaching a Bible Study Class of ladies my own age and older. Everyone of us had difference lives. Some were married, some widowed, some never married. Some had been seriously ill. Some had a background of Bible study. Others did not. Each person had a different view point of the Scripture I was about to teach. If I can remember that as I prepare to teach again, hopefully my teaching will be more meaningful to all.

Family Vacation II

Every experience should teach something to the participants and I want to share my learning experiences while on vacation with my family.


1. Any daughter who takes her mother on a family vacation is very brave. Add a husband and two daughters, ages 21 and 23 plus one daughter’s fiancé and I’d say she is VERRRRRY BRAVE. But my daughter handled it with ease and grace. Thanks D.

2. A man who takes his mother-in-law on a family vacation deserves a medal of honor. Thanks G. for the Gluten Free snacks and for cooking every meal while we were in the cabin. Excuse me, every meal but one. Kristin did the Elliott favorite, Taco Casserole one night.

3. Men don’t need to go the bathroom as often as women. Even after drinking 2 quarts of tea and not making use of the facilities at the previous stop.

4. Above mentioned S-I-L has a messed up sense of timing.
He: “We’ll pick you up at 4:30”
Me: “Are you serious?”
He: “Yep. Serious as a heart attack.”
Me: “I can’t leave without my coffee.”
He: “Take it with you.”
Me: “I haven’t been up that early since - well – I don’t know when.”
He: “If you’re going with me – you will see the sun rise over Kansas.”
His clock didn’t improve while on vacation either.


5. Grandmas don’t know everything. In fact they don’t know anything. They don’t understand the latest music, haven’t seen the latest movie, and don’t watch Youtube.

6. Grandmas tend to embarrass grown grandchildren with stories of when they were younger.

7. Grandmas get the best seat in the van. If she rides in the very back of the van. She’ll get sick and have to barf.

8. Grandma’s short legs are not created to climb into a 12 passenger van.

9. Don’t jump out of the van and run into the t shirt store, planning to catch the van on the next go around. Because you’ll forget your glasses and won’t know what you are buying much less the size.

10. Grandmas get the best bed in the cabin. It is close to the bathroom.

11. Grandmas should not expect to visit cemeteries on vacation, even Boot Heel is off
limits. No one likes to talk about cemeteries while on vacation.

12. Sometimes Grandmas who write get very good material while on vacation.
You will be seeing some on mine soon.

Family Vacation I

I just returned from a long driving vacation with family. My daughter, her husband, their two daughters, one daughter’s fiancé and me. All in a rented van, we survived nearly 4,000 miles to see the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone Nat’l Park, Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands, The Big Horn Mountains and Deadwood. It was a fantastic vacation.

The endless drive across the Nebraska prairie by car made me appreciate the sturdy pioneers who trekked across our great land to settle the west. Then they were confronted with the mountains. Though the mountains are beautiful and greater than anything they had ever seen, they must has thought, “We came this far, how are we to cross these craggy peaks?" But cross them they did, settling along the trails or traveling on toward the great Pacific Ocean.

I would have loved to hear the conversation of the Mountain Men who wandered into the Yellowstone valley of geysers and hot springs. I wish I knew how they made use of the heat. The wild animals there are fabulous even now. Think how abundant they would have been in that far away time.

Herds of antelope along the way made us anticipate what lay before us all the more. The Grand Tetons are truly grand. Snow on the high peaks and cool breezes when we stopped delighted us.

We stayed in a storybook cabin just outside Yellowstone Park. The trek into the park each day was an adventure. Will we see a bear? Will we see a mountain goat? Will we see a buffalo or is it a bison? We saw a species of every animal mentioned in the guide except a mountain goat, a wolf and a black bear. Yes, we saw a grizzly bear and he was close enough you could see him with your naked eye. The bison grazed along the road, Great herds of elk dotted the fields. A nesting eagle along the road attracted motorists who stopped to take pictures in spite of the warning signs not to stop in the road.

Old Faithful is still being faithful and spewing hundreds of feet in the air to the delight of thousands of visitors. Other geysers, waterfalls, the clear rushing rivers and the bubbling mud pots all attracted our cameras eye.

The craggy beauty of the Big Horn Mountains was a wonderful side trip. A quick trip through Deadwood made us wish we could stay and visit Boot Hill, but time was short and there were other things to see. We saw Mt. Rushmore late in the evening, while a group of High School students was getting ready to put on a concert.

It was a beautiful vacation. Stay tuned for Vacation II blog about what I learned on this vacation and if this writer found a story while vacationing.

Notes and Piles

Is there anyone as disorganized as I? Well, I'm really organized, but no one knows it - not even me.

Does anyone leave notes to themselves all over the house? Notes on my desk. Notes on my kitchen table. Notes on the calendar. Notes on the other desk. Notes in my car. If I wrote the subject of all those notes here, the list would be endless.

And piles of paper. Does it never end? I thought computers were supposed to help the paper problem. I have a pile of paper for the computer. A pile of used computer paper to recycle. A basket full of papers and notes about my Jeremiah Bible Lessons. A pile of papers about writing. A pile of papers about geneology. A box of manuscript of the suspense novel I'm working on. Another box of manscript about another novel. Well, there are about three of those.

Don't tell me to file 'em. The file cabinet is full of more papers. I don't know if I want to publish this or not. If I do you all will know how disorganized I am.