It's Not Downtime by Helen Henderson

 

Windmaster Legacy by Helen Henderson
Click the title for purchase information

Recently, while scanning the local paper, a particular piece caught my eye. The author had some great advice. During the holidays, he suggested creating a home inventory by videoing each room and closet, and reviewing life insurance beneficiaries and automobile policies. As a historian, I especially appreciated the recommendation to label black and white photographs. (I would add any other family-heritage images.) I have to admit that I am guilty of not following the advice myself. The article was correct when he stated that while you may know the people in the image, not everyone else in your family does. Which can lead to information being lost and images tossed away.

In the same vein, making a video recounting family events, your childhood, thoughts on the year past, or inspirational hopes for the future makes a special present for future generations.

There was one thing in the article that I disagree with. The implication that the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day is "downtime." True, there might be a day or two off from work or attendance at a football game, but that "extra" time away from the office is not spent on the couch eating bonbons.

Decorating the tree and the house, shopping for meaningful presents, and maybe a party or two eat into the time away from the office. The holidays no longer mean cooking for a crowd of twenty or thirty. I have to admit reaching the age when I am not the invited elder expected to do nothing but show up, however there are still special dishes to be prepared.

Whatever your holiday traditions, may your holidays be full of peace and joy. And from Lady Ellspeth, Lord Dal, and the rest of the characters from the Windmaster Novels, a Turn's End Wish.

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

~Until next month, stay safe and read.  Helen

 

Helen Henderson lives in western Tennessee with her husband. While she doesn’t have any pets in residence at the moment, she often visits a husky who have adopted her as one the pack. Find out more about her and her novels on her BWL author page.

The Things We No Longer Do by Nancy M Bell

 

To learn more about Nancy's books please click on the cover.

I was contemplating the wintry weather outside my window while snuggled under a blanket and somehow started to think about how things have changed. There are so many things that as a society we don't do anymore. These changes have happened in my own lifetime. But when you think about how much has changed in just the last hundred years, it is mind boggling.

In the 1920's, only the rich had cars, horses still pulled plows and wagons. Tractors and farm equipment was starting to evolve, but when compared to the giant machines that can now plow, manage and harvest millions of acres complete with air conditioned cabs, wifi and satalite radio it is hard to comprehend how things have changed so much in so short a time.  

In just the average household, washing machines and dryers spin and whirl on their own. I remember using a wringer washer to wash cloth diapers when my kids were young in the 1980's, I still hang my laundry out on the line in the warm weather, but also remember bringing in frozen clothes off the line in my younger days. Central heat is a wonder in our cold Canadian winters, I love the smell of a wood stove but the chore of keeping it stoked and minded can be overwhelming when it is the only heat source. 

Even our clothing has changed. There are not many people who make their own anymore. I used to work for a company called Reader Mail. They were a mail order company dealing solely in dress and embroidery patterns. A huge warehouse lined with banks of shelves filled with patterns. The centre part held tables for sorting the envelopes which were then put on trolley and wheeled between the shelves while we picked the correct patterns that were ordered. Another part was taken up by the desks of the women who opened the mail, and in those days women still sent money including coin in the envelopes. Labels were stuck on the aforementioned envelopes by two girls using an antiquated machine and if you had long hair you had to be careful it didn't get caught in the mechanism that drove the glue wheel. The company went out of business in the 1990's as the demand for dress and embroidery patterns dried up. 

Now we buy items made in far away countries by underpaid, often underage workers. The world is much smaller now with the advent of the world wide web as we used to call it in the early days. Now internet or wifi is used. Now we have 5G speed, but how many of us remember the squeal of the dial up connections? It was not so long ago. Makes a person wonder where we are headed as a society and a species.

Anyway, enough of that. Just food for thought. 

Wishing everyone Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy/Merry whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year.

Until next month, stay well, stay happy    

Christmas and Memories #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Christmas #Memories #Grandfather #Goose #Nutcracker

 

When December arrives, two things echoe in my thoughts. One is the music from the Nutcracker. The strains of the lovely music are always in the back of my mind and sometimes when I'm deep in thought. The second is my grandfather's voice saying "Christmas is coming. The geese are getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man's hat." This was his Christmas greeting to me every day. My grandfather wasn't a tall man but he was strong. He worked on bridges and other high places. He even worked on the Golden Gate Bridge. When I hear him in my thoughts say those words, I hear the touch of England in his voice. I also remember him sitting iwth me on his lap reading to me and moving his finger under the words. My mother says he did this even when I was a few weeks old. "Go and catch a falling star." Those words also bring him to mind. He loved John Donne's poems and read them all to me. Maybe even the sermong. "No man is an Island," where other words I recall.

Grandfather loved Christmas and was like a child. He also loved circuses and amusement parks. Most of all he loved books and he taught me to love them as well. He took me to the library on my third Birthday to get my won library card. What a thrill that day was. So my Christmas memories are filled with lots of things and also of the coal he always managed to fit into my stocking, as a warnng to be good. Though I only had him in my life until I was six, he's still there in my memories. "Christmas is coming."

My Places

   https://twitter.com/JanetL717

 https://www.facebook.com/janet.l.walters.3?v=wall&story_f

bid=113639528680724

 http://bookswelove.net/

 http://wwweclecticwriter.blogspot.com

https://www.pinterest.com/shadyl717/

 

Buy Mark

https://bookswelove.net/walters-janet-lane/

 

Kids make the future bright, by J.C. Kavanagh

A Bright Darkness, Book 3 of the award-winning Twisted Climb series

I was invited to speak to the Grade 9, 10 and 12 English-class students at a local high school. What a fantastic and invigorating experience. I say 'invigorating' because it revived my heart and soul for the future of human-kind. These teens were engaged and curious. Life for them as young adults was just beginning and from what I observed, they were embracing the future whole-heartedly.

Yes, these teens were also inquisitive about all aspects of creative writing and quite receptive to my own tips on writing - factually through research, and creatively using 'the playground of the mind' as I like to call it. Or "Word Movie." The kids loved that phrase. 

I think it's the combination of true and accurate facts weaved into the fiction that keeps the reader in tune with the author.

There were approximately 30 students per class, with the exception of the final class. That class was a combination of grades 10 and 12, a huge, double class of 50 teens. Judging by the amount of questions in the Q&A segment the kids enjoyed hearing about my writing experiences as well as my reading a few excerpts from The Twisted Climb series. 

I ended each 75-minute session with a creative writing segment. I provided five key words and the class was then divided into five or more groups. Each group had to write a story based on those five words. What a hoot!

Examples 

Class 2, Grade 9 group: key words - picture frame, thunder, stopwatch, puppy, museum 

Story: Caribou

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Powell. Powell was takimg a stroll and went into the museum because he heard thunder. When he stepped into the building, he heard the thunder getting louder and louder, like a roaring lion. BOOM - lightning struck him and he was transported into a different world. He noticed that all the objects that were painted in the museum's picture frames had somehow been transported. He was in a special place. And lying dog with a stopwatch pulled up to Powell. "Hey," the dog said, "you're in a different dimension.  It's called 'Caribou.'"

* * * 

Class 4, Grade 12 group. Key words - lightning, scissors,  cedar tree, bookcase, mosquito 

Story: Stressed Steven

It's a day before final exams. Stress is lingering in the air. It's late at night, with the full moon gleaming through the library windows. Steven frantically searches for the source of noise from the cedar wood bookcases cluttered together in the back of the library. Suddenly, the lights begin to flicker and a shadow emerges onto the wall on front of the bookcases. Steven jerks his head back, but is presented with a large mosquito gliding through the air. He lets out a sigh of relief. The sky, which was clear just moments ago, produced a purple strike of lightning, which mirrored the shape of scissors. It momentarily lit up the sky.

Steven jumped in shock. "It's a sign," he muttered. "I'm going to fail my exam tomorrow."

* * * 

That's just two of the 30 stories! The encouragement of creativity in this school is most impressive.  Bravo to the high school teachers! 

It's only days from Christmas and I would like to wish you and yours a safe and blessed season.

J.C. Kavanagh

Author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh

Instagram @authorjckavanagh

TEN IDEAS FOR FAMILY HOLIDAY TRADITIONS By BC Deeks, Paranormal Mystery Fiction Author

 

 

Visit B.C. Deeks' BWL Author Page for Book and Purchase Information

http://bookswelove.net/deeks-bc/

The holidays are just around the corner, and it’s got me thinking about family and traditions. Growing up, we had all kinds of rituals around this time of year. We decorated our tree on Christmas Eve and took it down on ‘Old Christmas Day’, or January 6^th, every year. We were allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve so that we would go to bed without a fuss while ‘Santa’ made final preparations for the Big Day. We were always given a new pair of pajamas, so that we looked particularly cute for the annual family photo in front of the fireplace.

Our Christmas dinner always included the same items... turkey, of course, stuffed with my grandfather’s dressing made with Newfoundland summer savory... and English style trifle for dessert. Mom also made a dark fruit pudding that only the adult ate because it had a rum sauce that was liberally poured over the top.

As I hit my teens, some of the family traditions were a bit irritating, like having to be home on Christmas Eve for that family photo, when I really wanted to be out with my friends. But by the time I was an adult, I found myself replicating those traditions in my own home. I’m a domestic disaster in the kitchen when it comes to cooking, but I make our cranberry sauce from scratch and the trifle for the annual Christmas dinner.

Here are TEN IDEAS FOR FAMILY TRADITIONS that you could add to your seasonal celebration.

1. Get in your cozy pajamas with a cup of hot chocolate and READ The Night Before Christmas out loud on Christmas Eve.
2. Download a Christmas audiobook to listen to over the holidays.
3. Surprise your best friend or family member with a new book in their stocking. My mother put a romantic mystery paperback in my stocking every year to encourage me to read!
4. Get the family together to play “I spy” with the ornaments on your tree. Do you remember  where the ornament came from? Is it one from your childhood? A family heirloom?
5. Gift your child an ornament every year. Make it a memento of a big moment or achievement from the last year.
6. Prepare a special meal for Christmas Eve, like a fondu.
7. Give each family member a book on Christmas Eve and spend the rest of the night reading curled up in a comfy chair.
8. Pick a special holiday-themed movie to watch together as a family on Christmas Day.
9. Find a holiday craft to do together on the lead-up to the holidays, like making cookies or ornaments.
10. Look for an opportunity to volunteer together or provide some other type of community service, like a gift donation as a family, during the holiday season.

Traditions signify the continuity of life from one generation to the next. They bring with them the warmth of family, even when you can’t be together during those special times of the year. The best thing about traditions is that it’s never too late to start a new one. Do you have any holiday traditions that are passed down through your family?