P is for People Watching by Helen Henderson

Windmaster Golem
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As an introvert, I don't like to be in the center of things. I prefer to people watch. I don't usually go looking for a specific piece of data, the Internet is more suitable for that. However, by observing real life, you can pick up a name here or a snippitt of background there.

But what can people watching do for an author looking for inspiration?

Denim jacket, felt, brimmed hat,
farmer or author on an autumn day?

The first level is physical characteristics. Condition of clothing and hair style can be outward extensions of a character's personality. 

A level down is how they walk or particular expressions. These can be cues to to their background while scarred knuckles or a red neck can be transformed into indicators of the persons work and life. Another outward manifestation is what he calls his lunch. Terms of a sub (submarine,) hero, grinder, hoagie, or po'boy indicate a regional heritage. It an author uses one, they have to ensure that people outside the area can understand the context and what is being described.

Same person, decades earlier

 

 

 

Even a fantasy world can benefit from a little real-world viewing. The energy of small children racing around a yard while adults watch from a comfortable chair in the kitchen. Or, it could be the elderly woman stoically wiping away a tear as she explains she was alone again for her birthday. No phone calls, no drop-by visits, or even a note. "It is okay," she said. "Maybe next year. The great-grandchildren are still small and their parents have busy lives." Change birthday to naming day, and year to turn, and the story is transformed from this world to another.

If you didn't notice the theme, May is a special month in my family with one birthday and many (did I say many?) anniversaries. The month begins with several of the anniversaries on what is known as "Mothers' Day."

Wishing you the energy of the small children and the happiness that escaped the woman.

~Until next month, stay safe and read.   Helen

To purchase the Windmaster Novels: BWL

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.

Changes ~ Old Dog New Trickls

 

To find out more about Nancy's work click on the cover above.

So changes. I have to say I don't particularly like changes. But right now I'm going through a huge one. The place I've lived in for 30 years has been sold and we're packing up lock stock and barrel and moving to small town Alberta. Castor Alberta to be exact. It will be a big change from living rural with my nearest neighbor being the local coyotes, badgers and gophers. Not to mention the ravens who nest across the road.

We took possession of the small house on April 30th of this year and have been painting and cleaning. It's an older  house, built in 1932, but then I like older  houses. The one I'm leaving is a 1920s vintage. The moving and packing has  put a dent in my writing time but I'll have to get back to it pretty quick once we finally get moved in. Movers are coming on the 14th of May to take the bigger stuff, like my beloved oak antique bookcase, up to the house.

Below are some memories from the house I'm leaving but also leaving behind a piece of my heart. Until next month, be well, be happy.

 

 

 

 

New Books and Complications by Janet Lane Walters #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Writing #complications

 My next book now has five hundred words completed Plus all the words from the directions. I keep hoping I'll follow all perfectly. But we all know there are no books that are perfect                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        The Horror Writer" Demise is a mystery. The heroine trips over the body and falls on the porch. As his identity is unknown. Talk about what you know.  The Horror Writer's demise has mystery after mystery and in discovery he finally becomes more complex.  The publisher has his social security number and The detectives wonder if the dead man is in Witness Protection. With luck, they find at least the SS no is but not the man. Finding out what happened becomes a real puzzle. The heroine using her researching skills and a program aides a hand. What will they fine when they reach the end?

Figuring how to follow the clues that aren't overt was a fun trip. Will the killer be unmasked? What trouble will Val and Kyle encounter? While this is a mystery series, there will also be a romance. During the stories left to tell, the hero and heroine will journey from attraction to love.

The heroine Valentina Hartley goes to the Writer's House to attend a seminar. With a name like hers, she should write a romance.

The glorious Aurora Borealis, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

The award-winning Twisted Climb series
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https://www.bookswelove.net/kavanagh-j-c/

Did you have eyes-to-the-skies last weekend? If yes, you may have been one of the fortunate ones to observe a celestial phenomenon known as the Northern Lights aka the Aurora Borealis. And what a beaut it was!

Photo by J.M. Graham, Samish Island, Washington, U.S.A.

This incredible 'art-in-the-night-sky' as I like to call it, has been occurring for millions (possibly billions?) of years. It happens when a powerful geomagnetic solar storm takes place, causing a burst, or in last weekend's case, multiple bursts of energy. These intense bursts of energy become solar flares and produce so much power that they erupt into a coronal mass ejection (CME). CMEs are formed by billions of tons of plasma launched into space but surrounded by its magnetic field. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated the CMEs erupting from the sun between May 8 and May 12 took two days to reach the earth's outer atmosphere. Travelling in a solar wind speed of 750-800 km per second (470-500 miles per second), the geomagnetic storm was given a G-5 class rating, the highest for such an event. 

Based on historical research, scientists have determined that our sun has an 11-year cycle. This year, 2024, is the end of the cycle, resulting in increased sunspot activities, potentially more CMEs and, to our visual delight, potentially many more auroras.  

So how does a CME become an aurora borealis? I'll try my best to interpret the scientific explanation for this art-in-the-night-sky: depending on the speed of the solar wind projecting the CME, when this hot blast of high-speed, energized plasma hits the earth's magnetic field, the charged particles are deflected, resulting in a variety of auroras. Last weekend, all five of the types of auroras were visible - glows, patches, arcs, rays and coronas.

Photo by J.M. Graham, Samish Island, Washington USA

Photo by J.M. Graham, Samish Island, Washington, U.S.A.

Photo by A. Huff,
captured between Bayfield and Goderich, Ontario, Canada

A wee bit of trivia

The term 'aurora borealis' was first introduced by Galileo, back in 1619. 'Aurora' stems from the Roman goddess of the dawn, and 'boreas' is the the Greek translation for the northern wind.

Photo by J.M. Graham, Samish Island, Washington, U.S.A.

Photo by K. Lunansky, Goderich, Ontario, Canada

The aurora borealis event in May 2024 was seen across the world, including North America, Japan, northern India, China, Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands, the Bahamas, Hawaii and even southern parts of the globe: Chile, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

The sun's hot spots on May 8, 2024,
as pictured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

Special thanks for the above event photos goes to my cousin's daughter, J.M. Graham, and my friends K. Lunansky and A. Huff! My view of the celestial event was nowhere near as dramatic and I'm grateful for their photography skills.

Though we don't often see the Northern Lights (unless you live waaay north), I will suggest you get a purview of another worldly dimension. Where is that you ask? It's in the dream world and the Un-World, found only in the award-winning Twisted Climb series. You won't be disappointed.

Until next time, stay safe and make sure you tell the ones you love, that you love them!

J.C. Kavanagh, author of
The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3) Best YA Book FINALIST at Critters Readers Poll 2022
and
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb,
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2021
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Twitter @JCKavanagh1 (Author J.C. Kavanagh)
Instagram @authorjckavanagh

War & Tulips

 

                                       Please click this link for author and book information

Last month I visited the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. The museum portrays the impact of war on Canadians from pre-contact to the present day. Before the Europeans arrived, indigenous settlements had warrior training areas, where youths learned skills with bows and arrows and clubs for the tribes' battles with their enemies. French explorers heightened these conflicts by introducing guns to the weaponry and forming alliances with tribes to aid France's quest for control of fur trading territories.  

In 1759 Britain defeated France on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City and took over the land that eventually became Canada. Seventeen years later the American Revolutionary War brought an estimated 45,000 US colonists to Canada, where they could continue to live under the British crown. The United States invaded Canada during the War of 1812 in an attempt to drive the British from the continent, but the loyalists held them back. 

At the turn of the century, Canadians moved to fighting overseas. Over 7,000 volunteers rallied to the British cause in the South African War (Boer War). World War One was the first foreign war that engaged the entire country of Canada and affected every aspect of daily life.   

My journey through the war museum's WW1 galleries began with panels that displayed images of eager young Canadian men leaving for war. 

        Who knew married men needed a wife's permission?

When the men arrived on the battlefields, life in the trenches quickly lost its glamour. Mud, rats, and disease prevailed. During long hours of boredom, some creative souls made trench art from discarded materials like shell casings, brass bullet cartridges, and chalk. 

A viewer in the museum provided a visual of a chlorine gas -- eerie and strangely alluring. The Germans first released the poison gas cloud during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, taking the Allied soldiers unawares. Troops fled in all directions. Thousands suffered burnt lungs or suffocated. The Allies later responded by developing increasingly effective gas masks for future battles and retaliating with their own poison gases.   

A cloud of poison gas in Ypres. Photos from Collier's New Photographic History of the World War (New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1918) 

Most touching was the museum's display of the dreaded telegram, which could arrive any minute with news of a loved one's serious injury, missing-in-action report, or death.   

Outside the museum, the tulips were starting to bloom in Ottawa, earlier than usual this year due to the winter's low snow cover and mild weather in March. Each year, Ottawa hosts a tulip festival that goes back to World War II. Following the Nazi invasion, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands took refuge in Ottawa with her two children. Her third daughter, Princess Margriet, was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. A section of the hospital was declared Dutch soil so that the baby would hold Dutch nationality exclusively. Two years later, Canadian troops played a large role in the liberation of the Netherlands. After Princess Juliana and her children returned to their homeland, she sent Ottawa and the Canadian people a thank you gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs. Since then, the Dutch royal family has sent tulip bulbs to Canada's capital every year and Ottawa celebrates each May with a tulip festival. This year's event takes place May 10-20th. 

During my Ottawa stay, my high school friend and I walked to a park near Dow's Lake to enjoy the beds of colourful tulips.