Honoring Ukrainian Courage, Culture, Devotion, and Life By Connie Vines

All of the world is focused on current events at the moment. Therefore, my blog post will feature my 'Slovic' background, to honor the courage and devotion to democracy by the Ukrainian people.

Like many whose ancestors were able to immigrate before the time of the Iron Curtain, I also came to not all of their extended family members chose/or were able to make the journey.

My maternal grandmother's family traveled from Bohemia/Czechoslovica via a ship and settled in Chicago. Many of my childhood memories are of the Slovic culture, foods, nursery rhymes, fairytales, music, dance, and the drive to succeed.  Hard work, Family, Faith, and honoring those who came before them, was part of daily life.

Where did Ukraine originate from?

The history of Ukrainian nationality can be traced back to the kingdom of Kievan Rus' of the 9th to 12th centuries. It was the predecessor state to what would eventually become the Eastern Slavic nations of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

Famous Ukraine Story

"The Mitten” is a story of a little boy that lost his mitten in the snow. Soon after, an animal finds its way into the glove to seek warmth and shelter. It doesn't take long until many more animals have the same idea. The mitten becomes stretched out and cramped for space.

Traditional Crafts

Posted on Pinterest

Petrykivka painting (or simply "Petrykivka") is a traditional Ukrainian decorative painting style, originating from the village of Petrykivka in Dnipropetrovsk oblast of Ukraine, where it was traditionally used to decorate house walls and everyday household items. The earliest known examples of this style date from the 18th century, but it continues to thrive and develop as a modern art form.

The distinctive features of this folk art style are its flower patterns, distinctive brush techniques, and its traditionally white background (contemporary painters, however, often work on black, green, red, or blue backgrounds. (Wikipedia)

Traditional Clothes

Pinterest: Traditional Clothing and Embroidery 

Traditional Food

(Ukrainian hostesses cook this dish with sweet potatoes as a dessert.)

 Pinterest photo

Potato Pancakes

Ingredients:

6 potatoes

1 egg

3 tablespoons of flour

1 onion

sunflower oil

1 package of sour cream

Instructions:

Peel potatoes and onion and grate them. Beat an egg and combine it with potato. Add salt, flour and mix everything properly. 

Heat the sunflower oil in the pan and pour the potato mixture in the form of round pancakes. Fry until one side of the pancake until golden, then and then turn over.

Serve a dab of sour cream.

I will close with a Ukrainian Proverb: 

Take care, my dear friends and readers,

Connie

XOXO

Remember:  All of my books are on sale at Smashwords this month!!

https://bookswelove.net/vines-connie/

https://books2read.com/Lynx

https://books2read.com/Gumbo-Ya-Ya

https://books2read.com/Brede

https://books2read.com/Here-Today-Zombie-Tomorrow

https://books2read.com/Tanayia

Colors of Autumn/Writing Colors by S. L. Carlson

I am S. L. Carlson, a proud and grateful BWL Publishing Inc. author. My books can be viewed and purchased by visiting https://www.bookswelove.net/carlson-s-l

 

(Autumn in Wisconsin)

I read a recent meme online: “A friend asked me how I was preparing for the fall, and it took me a while to I realized she meant autumn, not the fall of civilization.” This especially cracked me up because I once wrote a dystopia novel, and could easily see from where that thinking had come.

Because of my busy past couple months, I am grateful that this year fall (autumn colors) have come later so I could enjoy them. Some chalk the delay up to climate change. The change in foliage color certainly does have to do with climate and the coming cold. I don’t really care when it arrives, I look forward to hiking and dancing each fall among the crispy colors.

Colors are very much a part of writing description. It helps the reader see what and where we write.

For War Unicorn: The Ring, I’d paid a NY editor to look over the novel before subbing it to BWL. I vividly remember her comment that by the end of the book our hero had no physical description. Yes, it came through that he was an innocent, strong-but-bumbling, country boy, but he had no eye nor hair color. I defended that, thinking that with no description, anyone could relate to him. Wrong. Readers need colors, even if it’s not their own.

And depending on the culture and time, would depend on what a color is. Red River, in the afore-mentioned book, came as a result of blood flowing down the river after a battle. It was named such considering the peasants who lived in the area, and a way to remember their history. There are many other more sophisticated words for red, e.g., cherry, vermillion, crimson, wine, cerise, to name a few. For outdoorsy, tree-loving me, sugar-maple red (especially on a sunny day) is quite spectacular.

If you can’t ramble into the fall woods, and are in need of more descriptive reds, check out paint colors in a store which explodes with the naming of reds, or whites, or greens, or yellows, etc. Post the color swab near your computer to help you visualize the color you are writing about. Also, when you, the author, make up the name of a place (or river), keep in mind the people and culture who would name it.

What colors have you, an author, described? What colors do you, the reader, remember from books, leaving a vivid memory?

S. L. Carlson Blog & Website: https://authorslcarlson.wordpress.com

BWL Inc. Publisher Author Page: https://www.bookswelove.net/carlson-s-l

What Makes a Romance or Any Novel Memorable? By Connie Vines #BWLAuthor, #Rodeo, #Cowboy, #MarriageProposal, #ConnieVines

 What makes a novel memorable? 

The best stories connect with readers on a visceral level. They transport us to another time and place and put us in a different “skin,” where we face challenges we may never know in life. And yet, the commonality of the story problem draws us onward and, in solving it vicariously through the protagonist, changes us.

Another feature of a memorable story is characters that live off the page. One of the highest compliments I’ve received for my novel “Lynx”, Rodeo Romance, Book 1was from a reader who attended a book signing. She said, "I think about that story constantly.  Lynx and Rachel's story seems so real, so heart-wrenching, and their love so enduring.  She shared that she was going through a difficult time in her life and my story gave her hope. 

Hope.  

Hope for someone going through a desperate time in her life.

I felt blessed that she shared her story with me. I was also very humbled. 

We, as writers, are so focused on the mechanics of writing, plotting, and meeting deadlines, that we forget/ or do not realize how truly powerful our story is to a reader.  

While I never sit down at the keyboard and say, “I think I will write a powerful, life-changing story today.”  What I do, by nature, is select a social issue for the core of my stories.  Since my stories are character-driven and often told in the first person, the emotion has a natural flow.

How do you create this type of engagement with your story?

Go beyond the five senses.  Your reader must feel your character’s emotions.  Your reader must forget there is a world outside of your story.

Hints:

Embrace idiosyncrasies.  As teenagers, everyone wanted to fit in, be one of the crowd.  Your character isn’t like anyone else.  Give him an unexpected, but a believable trait.  In “Here Today, Zombie Tomorrow”,  my heroine, a Zombie has a pet. Not a zombie pet. Not a dog, or a cat.  She has a teddy bear hamster named Gertie.

Make them laugh. It doesn’t need to be a slap-stick.  Just a little comic relief when the reader least expects it to happen.

Make them cry.  Remember the scene in the movie classic, Romancing the Stone, where Joan Wilder is crying when she writes the final scene in her novel?  I find this is the key.  If you are crying, your reader will be crying too.

If you are writing a romance, make them fall in love.  Make the magic last.  The first meeting, first kiss, the moment of falling in love.  These are the memories our readers savor, wait for in our stories.  Don’t disappoint them.

As Emily Dickinson, said so well: 

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot

That bears a human soul!

Excerpt:

Lynx

Her friend was right--she did need to get on with her life. She couldn't keep expecting shadows to cover her world. Rachel had never been close to her parents, but her father's death had left a deep hole in her life. Perhaps attending the rodeo would be a good first step to her letting go of the past. 

"You're right, Charlene. I can't avoid my past forever. And a promise is a promise. What time does the bull riding start?"

Charlene let out a whoop of delight. "If we get move on it, we'll see the first series of rides."

Excerpt: 

Brede

Thunder rumbled across the remote New Mexico sky as an unforgiving wind shoved somber gray clouds against a craggy mountaintop. Brede Kristensen tugged the brim of his Stetson lower his forehead. The threat of a storm didn't faze him; nothing fazed him anymore. The worst had already happened.

Excerpt:

Tanayia --Whisper Upon the Water

1868

The Governor of New Mexico decreed that all Indian children over six to be educated in the ways of the white man.

Indian Commissioner, Thomas Morgan, said, "It is cheaper to educate the Indians than to kill them."

1880, Apacheria, Season of Ripened Berries

Isolated bands of colored clay on white limestone remained where the sagebrush is tripped from Mother Earth by sudden storms and surface waters. Desolate. Bleak. A land made of barren rocks and twisted paths that reach out into the silence.

A world of hunger and hardship. This is my world. I am Tanayia. I was born thirteen winters ago. We call ourselves N'dee. The People. The white man calls us Apache.

I hope you enjoyed my blog post.

Happy Reading,

Connie

BWL Author page

Connie's Website

Dishn' It Out, Connie's Blog