Latest News in the Indie World - January 27 2014

Let's see a show of hands who is tired of all this winter crap?  I have never seen it this cold.  I would give anything for a day with above freezing temperatures. 

What's the latest news in the world of Indies?

Theresa Ragan, author of Taming the Mad Max, was interviewed at GoodBooksToday.com about how she sold over 800,000 books. What I find interesting about this interview - several things actually - is the fact that she tells us not to put a lot into promotional efforts until you have 3 other books published.  I was on the fence about that until I reread what she said and the key phrase is "a lot" of promotional effort.  I'm not sure what she means by a lot and I figure she means money-wise figuring it'll take three or four books out until you see some decent sales.  What I also find interesting is the reasoning behind this.  If you have more than one book out there, the promotions going into the recent book will help those on the back list so that makes sense.

If you are self-pubbed, do you still need a professional editor?  Let me tell you, I have the best editor ever.  Her name is Cheryl Malandrinos and if ever you are in the market for an editor, let me know and I will put you in touch with her because she is the cream of the crop.  I would send her chapters after I had done my best going over it and over it and still she sent me back a pageful of edits.  And have I learned anything from the experience?  Omg I wish I could count the ways.  Grammar, character development, you name it.  I found a video that explains the value of a professional editor.



Now this last one talks about the illusions of traditional publishing and goes into briefly about hybrid publishing.  Hybrid publishing is where you are not only published traditional, but self-published as well.  Gotta love Bob Mayer.  In this article, he tells it like it is. "Where does all this lead?  To a place in the middle.  With small, agile, hybrid publishers that focus on the content producer (writers) and the content consumers (readers), while working with the distribution channels and focusing on discoverability. Most importantly, where the creator of product and the consumer of the product are placed foremost, not the middle-men."

Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales Come To Life

Playing in the woods behind my grandmother's house was a special treat.  It was a paradise where I made up stories as I played with my cousins, darting from one tree to the other, discovering treasures and escaping.  The woods behind my grandmother's house wasn't very big, but it was the one spot the bulldozers didn't swipe out making way for the new Highway 13 which was going to be built behind us.  The cousins and I played all sorts of games in our forest hideaway, but I imagine nothing could compare to playing in a forest or near a house in a forest like this:

Cologne, Germany-based photographer Kilian Schönberger's work has been showcased today at Huffington Post.  All you have to do is sit and stare at these pictures and stories will pop right into your head.  See them here.

Latest News in the Indie World - January 13 2013

I like to keep updated with the latest trends in self-publishing for two reasons - one it helps me help Indie authors and two - I will become one any day now.  I'm late in joining the self-publishing circus having prior responsibilities to my business, but little do people know I self-published back in the day - before the Kindle store - using ebooks which at the time not too many people were aware of (What's an ebook? How do you read an e-book?).

I published ebooks myself and sold them on my website.  This is just what we trail-blazing entrepreneurs did back then.  Since Amazon came up with the terrific idea of adding the Kindle store to their empire, this has given a whole new meaning to self-publishing, ebooks and what have you as you know.  It's a whole new ball game now making it much easier for Indie authors and publishers as well to sell ebooks which incidentally is selling faster than paperback right now.

So here you go - the latest news in the self-publishing world:

There's an interesting interview with Melissa Foster at Alli, the Self-Publishing Advice blog.  I've seen her around the 'net a lot and I truly admire her.  In this interview, Melissa shares her top self-publishing tips.

Self-Publishing 101: Using the Right Search Words is an interesting article for those who are self-publishing for the first time.  Did you know Amazon asks you for seven search words for their store?  Do you know the right ones to choose?  Do you know the ones to avoid?

And we get a formal apology to self-published authors from Natalie Whipple.  I've seen this around the net lately, haven't really had time to figure out why she needed to apologize so I did so now.  You have to pat her on her back.  She had the courage to admit that self-publishing isn't so darn bad.  Back in the day, she, along with most authors, stayed far far away from being classed into the self-publishing cell block.  Oh no we had too much class for that.  Even if we waited until the sun don't shine or hell froze over.  We forgive you, Natalie, because we're all doing the same darn thing.

I feel downright special

Little snow before weekend deluge !! MT @hoffmanrich Picture of snow this morning in Bronx from TJ Mcgurk pic.twitter.com/kHl8Ot4vxq #NYC
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) January 10, 2014

RT @JimCantore Is snow coming again for the east coast, Jim?
— Dorothy Thompson (@pumpupyourbook) January 10, 2014

@pumpupyourbook Maybe a little next Wednesday VA/MD/Jersey
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) January 10, 2014

RT @JimCantore How about the Eastern Shore (Chincoteague) of Virginia?
— Dorothy Thompson (@pumpupyourbook) January 10, 2014

@pumpupyourbook yes maybe
— Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) January 10, 2014

My favorite Christmas memories

I'm back.  I had loads of work to catch up on, not that I'm ever caught up but I made a huge dent in it.  I'm determined I'm not going to be working Christmas Eve or Christmas!  Yeah right we'll see if that happens, but I was talking to a long lost cousin of mine who I found on Facebook a few weeks ago and we were talking about Christmas and I asked him what was his favorite Christmas memory and I told him mine.  And in the spirit of Christmas and ho ho ho and all that's glistening and white, here's mine.

I was seven years old.  It was my first Christmas in Burbank, California.  My mother had married someone in the Army and he was stationed at Fort Ord, California, so away to southern California we went.  So it was Christmas Eve and we finally got our tree up.  Back in the day, it was customary to put the tree up on Christmas Eve.  This was before artificial trees.  After we got the tree up, we discovered we didn't have enough lights and here it was nighttime, Christmas Eve, and everything was about to shut down.  So my mother told me to go with her to get some lights at the store across some field.  I have no idea why we didn't take the car.  Maybe we killed it driving from Virginia to California who knows, lol.  My step-father stayed home with my little sister and my Mother trekked across the road, behind the houses and into this field toward where the store was.

So I remember walking across this field with tumbleweed everywhere which was actually quite common in California and I remember looking up at the sky, at the stars and it was Christmas Eve and it was something really magical about it.  But you have to understand the situation.  My step-father wasn't exactly a really nice person to my mom if you catch my drift, but this one time walking with my mom in the dark across this field with the stars overhead and tomorrow was Christmas was when life was good. 

I have another one.  I was living with my grandmother years later back in Virginia.  We couldn't afford a Christmas tree.  Bless her heart, she was the only one taking care of my sister and I and she did the best she could.  I went out back and cut down a pine tree from the woods in the back and that was our Christmas tree that year.  And you know, I know it's not done, but that was the prettiest Charlie Brown tree you ever saw.  Not a whole lot of presents underneath, but it was something really special about that tree.

One more and I'll call it a day.  We were back in California and I got this really neat metal 2 story doll house for Christmas.

It had a magic wand that you put underneath the floors of the house and you could make the figures move all over the house.  Anyone remember that?   I would die to have one again just to relive the memory. 

Here's another memory.  I remember telling my daughter about this Tammy doll I used to have.  A Tammy doll was much like a Barbie doll.  See pic below.

So the story went, my aunt told me I could pack one toy only for we were going to live with my grandmother in Virginia (another long story) and that's all the room we had.  I chose this Tammy doll out of everything I owned because it was really special to me I guess.  When I got to Virginia, you know how kids are, I lost it.  Do you know my daughter found an exact replica of that very same doll on eBay and gave it to me one Christmas?  Now that was something special.

The holidays are a great time for remembering Christmas pasts.  What's your favorite memory or favorite gift you received?

Does your child love books? Start'em a book blog!

I think sometimes I want grandkids all for the wrong reasons.  I was talking to a book blogger today.  She had emailed me, letting me know she received the book an author had sent her but mentioned that she would review it as soon as she can get it out of the hands of her 4 year old.  Don't worry - it was a children's book.

I told her I knew of a book blogger who started a book blog for their child and she reviewed books in her own words.  I thought it was adorable.  We would use the mama's review as the stop but throw in the child's review.  The authors thought it was the coolest thing.  I mean, you write for children, right.

So here's how it would go:

Mama (writing everything down for her 3 year old): Maddie, what can you tell me about this book?

Maddie holds the book lovingly in her arms.  "I don't know."

Mama changes questions.  "What did you like about this book?"

"It was pretty."

"What else can you tell me about this book?"

"I don't know."

The thing about kids that young is that they'll say the darndest things as long as you can get them to open up.  I was just joking above because kids even as young as two or three as long as you can decipher what they're saying will give you the most honest review anyone can give.

Here's an example:

"Michael, what did you like about the book?"

"I liked it.  But I wish the dog was blue not pink.  Pink is for girls."

See what I mean?  They look beyond what we can see.

Do you have a child who has a book blog?  Share the link.  I'd love to see it!



Meanwhile, here's a cute child book blogger at YouTube:

Amazon drone?

O.m.g.  I have never seen the likes of it would be what my grandmother would say if she saw this coming her way with her Amazon goods:

Is. That. The. Coolest. Thing. Or. What. 

Can you imagine seeing this coming toward your house?  Would it make noise?  Would the dogs bark?  Would the stray cats run away (God only help us)?  Would my elderly neighbors a few doors down think the world was being invaded by aliens? 

I love it.

What's your idea of an ideal writer's retreat?

I'm sitting here in the eat in kitchen.  The laptop is on the table and papers spread out all over it. That's if the rescue cat doesn't jump up and send the papers, pens, highlighters flying to the floor. If you could only see it. This is my work station. In all the chaos, I have sunlight streaming in and if I'm lucky, complete silence except for the hum of the refrigerator.

I have a work station upstairs.  It houses my old desktop, many many books, plants and a dog who insists on sitting in my lap the whole time I'm trying to work.  God love lap dogs but they're a pain in the backside when your legs start to go numb.  This desktop is so slow, it's faster on my laptop, that's why I'm in the kitchen.

I have a book that needs finishing.  That's the cover in the left hand sidebar.  It REALLY needs finishing.  It's just a couple more chapters of edits and I'm good to go, but getting to it means stopping what I'm doing (yeah like that's going to happen) and going upstairs to work on it.

And I get to imagining....what I need is an ideal writer's retreat where there's no dogs, no rescue anything, no interruptions, no saving plants from flying to the floor, no saving dog from rescue cat, no saving cat from being strangled...it is crazy.

So if I were to choose an ideal writer's retreat, it would be a treehouse in the middle of the woods completely safe from predators of course, a coffee pot, microwave, toilet and a nice comfy bed.  I would get up in the morning and make myself a cup of coffee.  No dogs to walk.  I would take a stroll through the woods to get my daily exercise, then climb up to my treehouse and get to work. Can you imagine how fast I would get this book done?

If you could escape to a writer's retreat of any kind - whether it's in the woods, on a lake, on a beach, on a houseboat, in the city, anywhere, where would it be?

Let's dream together.

Networking isn't all about talking to people. It's about learning from them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I know I did.  My stomach is three dress sizes up since Thursday.

Last Wednesday I posted a nice little blog piece about social media (What Would It Mean to You if Social Media Stopped Existing Altogether) and how it had morphed over the years.  I mentioned in the blog post how I did miss the way it used to be - more social interaction via blogging before social networks came on the scene. I do want to make a point that the social media we have today far surpasses what we had in yesteryear but it was the fact that I could personally relate to others via blogging more so than I could say through Twitter for example.  They would comment on my silly postings and I'd do the same for them.  I met so many nice people that way - whether they were struggling writers and we were holding each others' shoulders up or it was simply to read about life traveling in an RV.  Man I really miss that blogger.  But like everything, life changes and we either roll with the punches and make it work for us or give up altogether like this writer blogger friend of mine has done.

I hope she doesn't mind me sharing her blog post with all of you as she is a dear friend of mine, but she was one of those mentioned in my previous article about this (chick lit'ers).  Here's her blog piece titled "Writers, Social Media, and Other Lies."  I wanted to comment on her post but I couldn't find a place to do that so I'm taking it on over here.  First, let me say this wonderful writer friend and I go way back and I'll tell you how far back - back when there was no chick lit and it was starting to get really huge much like YA is doing today.  She joined a chick lit group online before I did and in fact that's how I met her.  I LOVED this group, not only because it sounded like a fun genre to write and something I would love to do but almost all these writers who had gotten "deals" got these "deals" from *gasp* a NY publishing house.  Joining the group meant you were getting inside info and that it might help you achieve what they achieved.  She and I hit it off right off the bat and I became friends with lots of other talented authors as well.

Over the years, chick lit died down but not before a new genre popped up called hen lit.  About the time that emerged onto the scene, I had a storyline and a whole book written just waiting to revise and I'd be ready to go seek agents as that was the thing to do back then.  Self-pubbers still were scorned upon mainly because they were choosing vanity houses and it was those vanity houses that gave us all a bad taste in our mouths - you pay them and they publish all right, but they didn't do any editing whatsoever.  If you self-published, it meant your work wasn't worthy enough of a contract from one of the Big Six (or it was Big Six back then, I think it's the Big Five now?).  Later, we learned to do everything a publishing house could do and ended up selling thousands of copies (thank you Amanda Hocking, etc.) and the game plan changed.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog post.  If you have already read my friend's post, you'll see where I'm going with this but if you haven't, go back and read about her frustrations.  I don't know if I can help at all, but I felt I needed to say something  because she's not just someone off the street that I don't know and I wanted to give her my opinion, from my own perspective as social media has been a big part of the way I promote my authors and will promote my own books.

Before I say anything, it's more effective to have someone else promote you than you.  Think street teams.  Word of mouth.  However, that's not to say an author can't pull out all the stops and promote him or herself using the same tactics someone else would.  What I'm thinking is this writer friend has probably been promoting via social media and wasn't getting feedback or results enough to satisfy her before she threw her hands and deleted her Twitter account.  Man. I just wish she had said something prior to this and I could have talked her out of it.  I'm not really sure why someone would give up on Twitter except maybe they started getting followers who she felt weren't interested in her book.  You have to remember, she and I are from the old school where interaction meant actual comments.  That was the only way we knew if someone liked what we wrote or not.

My opinion on Twitter is that it's not a fantastic way to connect like blogging can but it's a great venue to get the word out about your book. However, you need as many followers as you can get but...the kind of followers who would buy your book or at least want to retweet what you have to say.  How do you find these kind of followers?  Well.  It's not easy.  People sign up and you have no idea why.  Are they following you for the sole purpose of getting you to follow them, then they unfollow you?  You just never know, but I am not a big fan at all of the services where they will guarantee you followers.  I believe that your followers must be those interested in what you do, what you write or who you are.  The services who get you more followers - if you took a notice of someone who gets over 100,000 followers in a very very short time, take a peek at who followed them.  Most don't even speak English and I have no idea where these services find these people but it's not the kind of people I would want to have follow me.  The best way to get the right kind of followers is to search for those authors who write and read your genre, those book bloggers who review your genre and anyone else you think would be of value to you, the author - industry professionals, agents, social marketing experts (although this last one you gotta watch as there are a million of these so called experts out there who are only on Twitter to sell their product).

Back to my friend's blog post, she was online a few years before me so anyone who was online at that time grew into this new computer Internet thing a whole 'nuther way.  But you know how technology grows at the speed of light.  When Twitter just came out, I joined but I didn't think it was all that. I was used to networking via blogging.  How can I get out what I wanted to say in 140 letters?  I tried it, went away from it, tried it again and voila this time it stuck and grew to love it.  I love coming up with different hashtags to get the word out.  I love to see just which of my tweets result in better clicks. I am growing and learning and that's another thing I want to point out. Networking isn't about talking to people.  Networking is about learning from people.  If your tweet has just the right wording - something that people can learn from - they'll click on it.

Back to my friend who also cancelled Facebook.  I know there are a lot of authors out there who are having success at creating a Facebook family.  I have found that when I promote on my wall, it doesn't have the same effect as if I posted my every day life and that's cool.  I try now to use my company page and my company group page for promo stuff and post on my wall things about me.  I have found, though, that the stuff from my company page leaks onto my wall so I'm finding that I'm using my group page instead which doesn't or at least I don't think it does.  I had an author on tour a few years ago who created quite a following and he ended up hitting the Amazon bestseller lists. I studied his online travels and what he was doing was using Facebook (and blogging) to rub elbows with book bloggers who were his devoted fans.  So you can't say that Facebook has no value if done right and you aren't pushing your stuff up people's noses.

In my friend's blog post, she writes, "I’m not even sure about blogging anymore. I really enjoy it but the blogging world isn’t what it used to be when you had so many more visitors who would actually interact with you and you’d support each other and link to each other and offer blog tours for each other, etc. It’s morphed into 2 different directions: people hang out on Facebook and Twitter instead and the professional book marketers have taken over the friendly blog tours."

She's right on one thing.  Back in the day, blogging was more popular because that was the only way we knew how to reach an audience.  And it was fun.  Really fun. When I went on my first blog tour back oh wow I'm forgetting when - hmm - maybe oh gosh it was before Pump Up so...2006.  Whew.  Brain fart.  Sorry.  Back in 2006, the followers to my blog were the ones I approached first to host me when I was promoting a how to sell a self-published book book.  And I'm seeing this same thing still happening.  Not all authors can afford someone to stage a blog tour for them, so natch they're going to go with friends to help out.  And, yes, she's right - there are a lot of of professional book marketers (or really to be honest bloggers who want a piece of the pie) - out there now.  When I first started out, there were only two - one who stopped doing them and one who was charging thousands of dollars which I could do for a few hundred to help save costs.  Authors aren't rich. 

It's a shame my blogging friend pulled the cord on social media, but you have to understand where she's coming from.  And I do.  Maybe it's a personal thing but I so know why she did it.  Too much of a time waste and no sales as a result.  Or not many.  And I know this sounds cliche, but you can't give up.  In time, it does happen.  It's like my daughter when she gets frustrated that the tests are so hard (she's going for her RN).  If everything were easy, everyone would be doing it.  Those who have stuck it out on social media are the ones who understand how the game is played.  You can't just tweet something once and sell thousands of books.  It's back to what I said about networking.  It's not just about talking to people and it's not just about selling your stuff.  It's about learning from people.  If I didn't have Twitter and Facebook, I don't know what I'd do.  Twitter, for example, is a time saver not a time waster for me.  Skip over the unimportant stuff and find those gems that will help you in whatever you are pursuing.

What would it mean to you if social media stopped existing altogether?

I'm forgetting when Twitter and Facebook started, but I do remember being online doing my social networking thing before they were even born.  Okay I looked it up.  Twitter began in March 2006 and Facebook began in February 2004.  I joined Twitter and Facebook, but didn't know what in the heck I was doing (you too?).

Years down the road, I discovered how EASY it was to advertise certain things on both (as well as other social networks including LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, etc.).  Click a button and it was there.  How easy is that?  Now we have social sharing buttons on almost any blog or website.  We don't even have to log into our accounts to promote, just click and voila, there it was for all our followers to see.

What happened in the transition from what I was doing before the social media boom and what I'm doing now is that what I did before which had meaning and realizing my tweets and facebook posts have little meaning if that makes sense.  They're just out there.  Not that it doesn't sell books or help my authors make bestselling lists because it does, but just the fact that it seems like whoever I am sending my info to, I really only have a name to go by.  I don't know much about them except what I see in their profile and that's if I'm not too busy to look.  What are their frustrations?  What are their joys?  How are they spending their day to day lives?  We don't know unless they send that info out and usually most anyone on any of the social networks is out there to try to sell you something.  Oh excuse me, it's called sharing.

There is an interesting conversation in one of my social networking groups on LinkedIn about this. One of the members brought up the subject of what if social media stopped existing?  What would it mean to you if social media stopped existing altogether?

Before social media, I was out there blogging.  Blogging was relatively new.  Most authors had websites.  Few had blogs.  But over the years blogging increased tenfold.  So what did we do before social media came onto the scene?  We blogged, but the thing was, we wanted people to read what we blogged. What's the point if you're the only one reading?

When I first started online, there was a site called Themestream (this is all that's left of it - everything else has been stripped) and this existed before blogging became popular.  Themestream was where you would post just like you would do a blog and people would comment and the more comments you got, the more pennies you would make.  Anyone remember them?  They jumped ship on us taking our pennies with them, but it was on Themestream where I learned how to communicate through networking.  You comment on my post, I comment on yours and we make money. 

It became a game.  Every night when I got off of work, I would go to my chart I would keep and check off how many posts I had commented on.  I wouldn't stop until I got to at least 20.  This would hopefully mean those 20 writers would come over and comment on mine and we would all make money.

After Themestream ditched us and taking our pennies with them, I came away from the experience knowing lots of writers and the value of networking and that's the most valuable thing I could take away from that.  I started this blog in 2005 (posts are in draft until I release them) and most of the writers who I had befriended followed me over here.  We continued to comment on each other's stuff but over the years, some bloggers stopped blogging and started using social media like Facebook to communicate.

But just think about it.  If you took away the social media, what would you do?  Go back to blogging and commenting and that's what you should be doing anyway for that is where the real  conversation is.  I really miss one blogger's daily escapades as he, his wife and cat traveled the U.S. in their RV (they stopped blogging).  I really miss one guy whose name escapes me keeping me laughing every single time I read his latest blog post (he stopped blogging).  I really miss the chick lit'ers I used to visit and they visit me and we talk about the joys and frustrations of being published (they stopped blogging).  I just miss the whole blogging thing and this is the reason why I'm back.  Doing the networking thing the old fashioned way perhaps but I don't know of a better way to bring back networking that means more than just a tweet.

What's your take?  Do you blog?  What would you do if social media stopped existing altogether? 

There's a plus side and a negative side to the madness...

I just had a long time blogger friend ask me about Romancing the Million $$$ Ghost as she was supposed to review it the middle of December.  Here's what's going on.  Between work and edits, it's taken longer to get the book out than I thought it would.  My editor, Cheryl Malandrinos, told me back in the day to delay the blog tour I had set up because we want the put our best foot out there and at the time I thought I could do it all but discovered it was really hard.  And I balked at first thinking I could do it all, but she was right.  I want this book the best it can be so we're stalling the publication date to the first of December if all goes right.

Now there's a plus side and a negative side to the madness.  I'll start with the negative side first.  I set up a blog tour knowing full well I wanted the book since it was a paranormal to be out (gasp) in September.  September rolled around and it wasn't ready.  October rolled around. The blog tour was in place but the book still wasn't ready.  I've had to move bloggers so many times it's a wonder they still like me.  Maybe they don't.

Now for the positive side.  The book is being totally revamped.  The characters are stronger, the writing is tighter.  The beginning took a major revamp as well as the ending and what I learned along the way through all these edits is that now I know the characters like they were real.  Well, they are real, aren't they?  Henri especially has taken off with a new blog even.  All in all, I think it makes for a better book.

So, we're not in bad shape, I just want the book to be done and out there.  We have a trailer, a book blog and a tour set up so we're good to go for marketing, just have to get the book finished and up on Amazon.

Old blog with a fresh look

It's so nice to be back!  I took a hiatus and completely forgot about this blog.  I know, I know, what a waste.  I was in my blogger dashboard and lo and behold I had an author blog!  The first time I posted at this blog was in 2005 and whoa the memories.  Since I've revamped the blog, I had to put all of it in draft until I can go in and release the posts again.  They mainly had to do with the release of my other book, Romancing the Soul, and it was fun to re-experience the joys, thrills and frustrations and soon I'll be releasing those posts so you can read all about it.

The thing with me is I have too many blogs.  I get an idea for a new one, buy a domain for it and everything and a few years down the road forget all about it.  Do you do that?  Actually, this was the very first blog I ever had, then I moved on over to Boomer Chick which I still love, just have to find the time to post on it. So what am I doing revamping this one when I don't even have time to post at Boomer Chick?  Well.  Each blog will serve a purpose.  I just have to be regimented. 

Then there's The Soul Mate Triangle.  I started this one figuring I wanted to go ahead and get a blog going to talk about a new book that was about to be published.  What happened there was I decided to self-publish that book and I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  And there the blog sits.  Oh wait, this was started after I had already started a blog about soul mates.  Let me see if I can find that.  Okay, Are You My Soul Mate?  Then there's Island Chick Travels.  Then there's Romancing the Million $$$ Ghost book blog.  And then Henri the Ghost, he just had to have a blog.  Oh, it goes on and on.  I've left out a lot. 

So, I'm consolidating and getting rid of those I don't need.  But this one...I'm going to love. I will be talking about a new book that will be coming out hopefully in December - not sure of the exact date - but I'm pretty darn excited about it.  It's called Romancing the Million $$$ Ghost. It's a paranormal mystery romance or a paranormal romance mystery whatever you want to call it, but it's a book I co-wrote with Heide AW Kaminski and Pam Ryan.  There's an interesting story behind the madness which I'll blog about soon but I at least wanted to say howdy and that I'm back and real excited about it. ;o)

Pardon the Mess...

I'm revamping, hold yer ghosts...

Remembering the Ol' Homestead

It’s these kinds of mornings that take me back to when I was a little girl.  There’s still a nip in the air but the sun is strong and falling like little invisible sunflakes through my window up here in what I call my computer room (aka my office).  I don’t know why I started calling it my computer room but I did and it stuck.  It feels good.  It’s not been a harsh winter this year (thank God) but still, it’s been cold here on Chincoteague with the wind blowing off the channel and the sunshine falling on my back as I type this feels invigorating.

It’s these kinds of mornings when I start reflecting.  I won’t be doing any traveling for a couple of months so I thought I’d do some traveling back in time.

When I was a little girl, my mother and I lived with my aunt (who was only 12 years older than I), my grandmother and my grandfather in a little town called Exmore on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.  The house was handed down to my grandparents from my great-grandparents.  Dingy white clapboard 2 story with a tin roof that gave us rat-tap-tap music when it rained.  I would often sit out on the porch with my grandfather reading the Sunday comics and listen to nature sing its song.  Me and “Daddy” (my own daddy ran away from us but that’s another story for another day) rocking in the old weathered rocker as we listened to the rain hitting the tin roof above our heads.

But the kitchen of the old house bore memories also.  I remember the old stove spitting and coughing what little heat it could but it didn’t even come close to warming that kitchen as much as when the sun was shining through the one window at the back which led to the crumbling back porch.  My grandmother loved to cook us hot thick pancakes (some called them hotcakes back then).  Or French toast with heaping amounts of Karo syrup but it was those pancakes I remember the most.  All was good despite the fact the kitchen was the only warm room in the house; that is, until the sun took a different direction.

When the sun leaned toward the south, it would start pouring into my grandparents’  bedroom which was on the bottom  floor to the right of the living room.  The bed was against the wall with one or two of the windows and another window was off to the back of the room where you could see outside.  Off to the far left of the room, there was a nonworking fireplace, a black piano and an old wooden steep staircase.

While the room didn’t compare to the warmth of the kitchen when the sun was shining in, the bedroom had its own unique story.  I slept with my grandparents, my mother slept in the living room by the old stove and my aunt slept upstairs with no heat but plenty of woolen blankets.  It could get really cold on the Eastern Shore in the winter  time.  I didn’t mind sleeping with my grandparents because the house was really cold at night with no heat  and one warm body on each side of you really helped even though I tried to keep warm by burying my head under the blankets – a habit I still indulge in if the room is a big nippy.

But as it turned out, the house was haunted; only you never heard anything of the ghostly type until the sun went down and you were in bed and of course everyone was asleep but you.  But when you did finally drift off to sleep, you would hear it and that set off the most bloodcurdling screams even from a young girl of four or five.

Stomp, stomp stomp.  The staircase in the room which led to my aunt’s bedroom was cursed. I would wake up my grandfather, sobbing my heart out and say, “Daddy, will you please make the ghost stop walking up and down those stairs?”

Daddy would get up and take a flashlight and show me there was nothing on the stairs every single night but I knew better.  I know I heard what I heard.  I always hoped I would fall asleep before the ghost returned but it was the scariest feeling to hear that stomp, stomp, stomp, up and down the steps of the staircase and I could never figure out why no one else heard it, too.  “It’s just the house settling,” they’d try to say.  But I knew the difference between creaks and stomps. Needless to say, I was glad when morning came.

Battening down the hatches for Hurricane Irene

Still no damn D batteries anywhere.  When am I going to learn to stock this stuff up before an emergency???

The guy in the condo beside us has come for the weekend.  I think he’s from Maryland or somewhere further north.  I don’t know too much about him but we’re all friendly.  He acts like it’s not going to be a big deal but he’s tying down his picnic table and throwing sandbags in front of the condo where it always floods during a storm whether it’s a small one or a large one.  He rents out his condo over the summers to tourists but this was his weekend there.  Some weekend.  There’s two other families who live in these condos, the rest are for tourists.  The one older guy on one side might be still in the hospital but his girlfriend is there at the house.  I see her every now and then, don’t know whether she’s weathering out the storm or not.  Then there’s this real cool guy on the other side.  He is 82 and more fit than I am believe that or not.  I love him to death.  I don’t know whether he’s going to weather it out or not but my hunch is that he is knowing him.  The tourists are still here in a few condos and my hunch on that is that they paid over a thousand bucks to rent these things, they’re staying.  Now this is of course if we don’t have a mandatory evacuation.

If we do, we really have no plan.  Get off the island with as much personal possessions as we can.  They’ll close the causeway at some point.  They have the local police call everyone listed in their directory in case of an emergency and I must call them to put my cell number on that list.

The daughter went out and bought more supplies – she found D batteries!  We’re good there and she bought another flashlight which now we’ve got 3.  Four if I can find the other one.  Candles.  I have a few, but the daughter is allergic to scented candles so we’ll just have to make do with what we have.  I have tea lights if worse gets to worse.

Food.  Well I feel I need more.  I have a few canned products, water, drinks but if electricity goes out, we’re screwed because there’s a lot of food in the refrigerator and freezer.  We’re busy cleaning out the bottom room that acts like a storage room outside and we grabbed a couple of coolers in case we have to stock up on ice.

Dogs.  Problem problem.  Cassie is dying.  She has cancer and we were going to put her down but the daughter said no, let’s do it after the storm that she couldn’t take on anymore stress.  I sent BF out to get some more pain pills for her and explained to the vet that we were going to put her down this week but it’s going to have to be next week.  I just wanted some pills to keep her in not so much pain.  We only got 1/2 bottle this time.

As of right now, it’s noon on Thursday and a little blustery at this point.  There’s supposed to be a cold front that may push Irene further west but we don’t know it’s going to do that.  It’s always windy here so I can’t really tell if this is normal, from the cold front, or from Irene.
Am I scared?  Yes.

Hurricane Irene on its way?

I’m sorry I haven’t updated lately, been so bogged down with work, but I want to let everyone know what’s going on with Hurricane Irene as far as Chincoteague Island is concerned.  Well, I’m now worried.  My daughter has been telling me it’s coming, be prepared and I didn’t want to think about it.  Talk about depressing.  Well now it’s to the point where I’m a little worried.  No, make that a lot worried.

It hasn’t hit the Outer Banks yet, but that’s supposed to be Friday or Saturday morning, or at least that’s when the worse will happen.  We’re not really that far from the Outer Banks – about 3 or 4 hours.  What has happened in the past is that it hits North Carolina and that usually slows the thing down so that we don’t get hurricane force winds.  We don’t know at this point whether it’s going to hit the Outer Banks square on or it’s going to brush it, but it doesn’t matter – the thing is so big, it’s going to do damage.

We slipped out to Walmart earlier to get some water, etc.  No D batteries so I’ll try to hit Family Dollar tomorrow to see if they have any left.  The flashlights work at this point but I don’t know how much life they have in them and better to be safe than sorry.  We bought 2 jugs of drinking water and a big pack of smaller bottles and hope that’s going to do it.
The way this thing is looking – it’s not good.  It’s mean and wide.  And frankly I’m scared.
We have dogs.  If we have a mandatory evacuation, what are we going to do with them?  I don’t know what we’re going to do.

Beachin’ it at Nags Head, North Carolina

We are back.  Actually we’ve been back a couple of weeks now and I’m just now posting the pictures, bad me!  I might have do a part 2 as there are so many pictures but Nags Head was beautiful.  This was before the big heat wave thank goodness, but we did have a blast.  It was the perfect vacation.

So here’s a picture of Cody aka Cooter and I standing on the beautiful shoreline.  I look hunched over for some odd reason.  Must be the heavy dog.   This was taken in the afternoon but the mornings were the best.  Cooter and I would throw on our bathing suits – well he refused to wear his – run out front for him to do his morning thing, run back in the lobby to grab a cup of coffee, then head out to the beach before everyone else got up.

And this is the reason why.  Absolutely beautiful.  Cooter and I walked the beach some and came upon a family playing on the shore line.  The dad was sitting down in the water and the mom was taking a picture and when they weren’t looking, I snapped one myself!  It was just a Normal Rockwell experience if I’ve ever seen one.

And here below is back in the room.  Cooter was thirsty!

LOL, you can’t even see it, but he’s drinking out of a cup.  The hotel was Comfort Inn South Oceanfront.  The staff was super friendly (even gave Cooter a bone at check in!) and I couldn’t have stayed at a better hotel.  The downside was the fact that the rooms were a little small but everything else made up for it.  Super view.  The ocean was right off your balcony.

More pictures later but I’ll end this with a riddle.  What do you get when you take one chicken ****  smart *** dog and make him go swimming?

You get a dog who sticks his tongue out at you!
Until next time,

Beachin’ it at Nags Head, North Carolina

We are back.  Actually we’ve been back a couple of weeks now and I’m just now posting the pictures, bad me!  I might have do a part 2 as there are so many pictures but Nags Head was beautiful.  This was before the big heat wave thank goodness, but we did have a blast.  It was the perfect vacation.

So here’s a picture of Cody aka Cooter and I standing on the beautiful shoreline.  I look hunched over for some odd reason.  Must be the heavy dog.   This was taken in the afternoon but the mornings were the best.  Cooter and I would throw on our bathing suits – well he refused to wear his – run out front for him to do his morning thing, run back in the lobby to grab a cup of coffee, then head out to the beach before everyone else got up.

And this is the reason why.  Absolutely beautiful.  Cooter and I walked the beach some and came upon a family playing on the shore line.  The dad was sitting down in the water and the mom was taking a picture and when they weren’t looking, I snapped one myself!  It was just a Normal Rockwell experience if I’ve ever seen one.

And here below is back in the room.  Cooter was thirsty!

LOL, you can’t even see it, but he’s drinking out of a cup.  The hotel was Comfort Inn South Oceanfront.  The staff was super friendly (even gave Cooter a bone at check in!) and I couldn’t have stayed at a better hotel.  The downside was the fact that the rooms were a little small but everything else made up for it.  Super view.  The ocean was right off your balcony.

More pictures later but I’ll end this with a riddle.  What do you get when you take one chicken ****  smart *** dog and make him go swimming?

You get a dog who sticks his tongue out at you!
Until next time,

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

My mother was a traveler.  In fact, it was she who put the traveling gene in me.  I was seven years old, just celebrated my birthday a few months before, when she, my step-father, sister and aunt, packed up our battered up car and headed for California.  I can’t imagine what my grandmother was going through.  Not only were we all leaving her nest, but halfway across the world, too.

I don’t even remember the day I met my step-father but he was a mean man.  He started off okay, wanted my sister and I to call him daddy, the whole nine yards, but boy was he mean.  He’d take a belt to your bare butt in a heartbeat.  I really don’t think I was that bad of a kid, but I do remember over time, my butt must have toughened up as they didn’t hurt as much as the first few go arounds.
I digress because I wanted you to get a little background of this Beverly Hills family (minus the riches) straight out of the back woods and heading for tinsel town and beyond.  My mother always wanted to be a movie star.  She was a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe (someday I’ll have to scan a picture to show you).  The same sultry looks, the hair, the whole nine yards.  Betty Crocker and Leave it to Beaver’s mom she wasn’t, but I loved her love for travel and excitement.

She hated the Eastern Shore so when she fell in love with a young man from Rhode Island who had joined the Army and got orders to Fort Ord, California, she jumped on it.  How long did it take her to throw her kids and belongings in the car?  Wasn’t long.

The trip to California was long but the memories even as a seven-year-old will remain with me forever.  I’ve often thought about going back to Cali.  Visit the old homestead (house is gone but street is still there), walk the path I walked going back and forth to school each day, visit the library (Buena Vista Library) which used to be the old school (Abraham Lincoln Elementary) (picture below).



But when I think of Cali, I think of my mother and how she had these dreams.  My dreams are happening now, but she was always looking, searching and I really don’t think ever finding.  She wanted to be a movie star as I mentioned earlier and when that didn’t happen, she tried it with me.  I grew up with Shirley Temple curls but no dimples.  Cute as a button but no inclination to memorize words and be in front of an audience.  She was the star, I was the wardrobe person.

When my aunt decided Cali life wasn’t for children, she decided to slip out in the middle of the night and board my sister and I on a train and head back to Virginia leaving my mother behind.  I didn’t find out until about 30 years later exactly what happened but it was something she had to do for us, so she told me.

I missed my mother terribly.  I waited and waited for my precious mother to come get me.  But she never came.  Like I said, she hated the Eastern Shore.

I remember sitting on my grandmother’s front stoop as they called it back then (basically meant a bunch of cinder blocks piled on top of each other to create a landing).  I would stare off into into the quiet street out front, hoping one day she’d be pulling into the driveway.  I felt very alone back then even though I had my sister and my grandmother just loved us to pieces and was so happy we were back.

Eventually my mother did return.  Alone.  No husband anymore, just the clothes on her back and what little else she had were stuffed in an overnight bag.  But she was back.  I never knew the circumstances. I never knew why she let my aunt take us so far away from her.  I never knew why she didn’t come back to get us.  Until thirty years later when my aunt revealed to me our family’s secret.  My step-father got angry and called social services and they were coming for us in the morning.
But today isn’t about me.  It’s about my two beautiful grown kids who see a mother who has found her dreams.  Finding your dreams does not mean riches.  Finding your dreams does not mean it’s the end to finding happiness.  Finding happiness is found within and it is through me my children find strength to beat whatever trials come their way.

To you, Mother, for helping me find my path in a weird kinda way.

Girlfriends Gone Wild: Amish Country Bound!

My first trip of the year!  A couple of girlfriends and I are going back to the Amish country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this Wednesday!  We’ll be staying for 3 nights for some good old fashioned bonding, fun and mingling with the natives.  Last year almost to the day we paid our first visit and loved it.  So we’re going back.

Only this time it’s going to be a little different.  There’s a kid.  And a sister. Seems our girlfriend weekend is going to turn into a family affair.  I’m not so sure I’m too keen on it but I’m going to make the best of it.  Really, it’ll probably be fun.

Last time I blogged about going to Lancaster, I left out lots of neat pictures, so I’m going to include a couple now:


There’s a story behind this picture.  One of the girls, Barbara, is terrified of heights.  This bed and breakfast was sitting waaaaaaaaaay on top of this huge hill with a very steep incline.  Kim, who was driving, and I decided we wanted to see it and poor old Barbara, I know she must have peed her pants.  I didn’t know she  could turn so many colors of white.  But…once we got up there, this is what we saw:



Beautiful farmland.  We decided to ride around a bit and you would see the Amish out in their gardens or whatever.  What an experience.

So this time we’re going to change up on a few things.  We’ll be staying in the same place as it was clean and smelled good (you just never know), but instead of taking the guided tour we took last time, we’re going to take another guided tour but this one involves visiting a working homestead.  And I’d love a buggie ride at some point.

We shall see.  I’ll be blogging all about it when I get back. ;o)