Focused on Story--Reading, Writing, Teaching, Listening by J.Q. Rose #BWLpublishing

Arranging a Dream: A Memoir by J.Q.Rose
Click here to find romantic suspense novels by J. Q. Rose from BWL Publishing

Reading, writing and listening to stories.

The title of my author blog is Focused on Story. I chose the title because I love stories!! Reading them. Writing them. Listening to them. Teaching how to write or record them. 

JQ presenting a life storytelling workshop

I broke into the writing business after we sold our flower shop and greenhouse operation in 1995. (uh-oh..that may be a spoiler if you're reading my memoir, Arranging a Dream!) 

Pumpkins growing in our garden. 

I had written stories and poems all my life. My dream was to write those stories and share them with readers, hoping to enrich their lives with my words. After selling the shop in 1995 and being an empty nester, I had the time to make this dream come true.

 I collected all of my courage to ask the regional newspaper editor, Rich Wheater if he would be interested in having some features on people and businesses in our local area. He asked me to submit an article, so I did. In October, I wrote about a local farm family who raised pumpkins and sold the plump beauties displayed in long lines in the front yard of their farmhouse. Rich accepted the story and many more that I penned about West Michigan. 

I learned a lot about reporting for a newspaper and about writing crisp, to-the-point articles. I did not like it when Rich had to shorten the story to make way for advertisements! That's when I learned all the essentials, such as location, people or business names, time and dates for events, had to be at the beginning of the article. I always appreciated his editing the articles to improve their readability. 

When we decided to make our fifth-wheel camper our home full-time in 1998, I wrote about the RV industry for magazines and newspapers as we meandered across the country. I also wrote for e-zines, now known as online magazines, as a garden editor. The internet became my go-to for research on my articles and for publication.

After a while, I tired of writing non-fiction stories and turned to penning fictional stories, a love of mine since I was in second grade. The result, so far, are three mystery novels and a memoir published by BWL Publishing, as well as self-published non-fiction books and lots of short stories. Making up stories reminds me of the joy of writing and sharing when I was 7 years old. Still a kid at heart.

I am a Life Storytelling Evangelist!

Several years ago, a member of our writers' critique group brought in her grandfather's journal he had written when he lived in London during the 1850s. I was enthralled with his account of life in that era. At that moment, I decided I wanted to record my life story for our kids and for their kids and so on.

5 Reasons to Tell Your Story

That grew from my desire to tell my story to presenting workshops on writing and life storytelling. The biggest hurdle to overcome for many new storytellers is the idea their life story is not worth telling. That is not true.

Our lives are filled with extraordinarily ordinary moments.  Our souls are illuminated by them.  Sharing them around the hearths of our hearts, we become tellers of sacred tales, artists of our lives.         --Dr. Susan Wittig Alberta, Writing from Life

Taking the advice I give to my workshop participants to sit down and write their stories, I combined my experience in non-fiction reporting and my storytelling skills in fiction, to write my memoir. 

Arranging a Dream: A Memoir, the award-winning best-seller, published by BWL Publishing, is a feel-good story about the first year my husband and I purchased and operated a floral shop and greenhouse business in 1975-76. We had no experience in the floral business (or any business for that matter), no friends or family in the town. We gave up our two check income with no guarantee of success, and I had no idea how to design a flower arrangement!!

Reviewers described the memoir as "inspiring, fascinating, and heart-warming."  The book was truly my "heart-work."

Listening to Stories

 Do you remember listening to your teacher read a story to your class? Mrs. Beyer, my 8th grade, yes 8th-grade teacher, always read a story after lunch. Even at 13-14 years old, our class loved listening to her. I had to read the heart-wrenching ending to Charlotte's Web because Mrs. Beyer was so emotional, she couldn't continue. Have you read Charlotte's Web? You'll understand.

When I taught third grade, I made a point to read to my kids after lunch every day. Every year, I read Charlotte's Web, and we all shared a teary moment. 

Audiobooks take the place of my beloved teacher reading the story. Instead, I can listen to amazing stories anytime I wish. I have discovered Libby, an app connected to your local library so you can download audiobooks on your device. I always wonder if I can say I "read" a book when I have actually listened to the audiobook. It makes no difference how I discover a story, just as long as I can read or listen to it.

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Click here to connect online with JQ Rose through her author blog, Focused on Story.

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Celebrate Earth Day on April 22, 2022

Earth Day April 22, 2022
Quote by Rachel Carson

Starting Over by Helen Henderson

Fire and Amulet by Helen Henderson
Click the cover for purchase information

Spring is traditionally a time for renewal and starting over. Gardens are turned over. Seedlings are  lovingly cared for until the ground warms enough for planting. Even the trees shed the last of the puff balls that stubbornly clung to the branches through ice and snow storm. In a way, this post represents a transition much as the warming temperatures of spring replace the more frigid ones of winter. The fantasy series, the Windmaster Novels, is now complete and a new tale is begun. The parting of ways with Ellspeth, Dal, and the other mages is replaced by the welcoming of new friends, Deneas and Trelleir.

Fire and Amulet is a twist on a dragon shifter tale. Trelleir is the last dragon. Desperate for companionship, he uses his magic to take on human form. Deneas is his best friend. There is just one problem. She is a slayer, sworn to kill all dragons.

New projects can take on different forms. Some reveal themselves in a sequence of scenes, rolling through your mind like a movie. Others fight every step of the way, refusing to divulge what comes next.Then just when you think you're done, the characters refuse to leave. Whether there will be more adventures of slayer and dragon remains to be seen. Until the decision is made, learn about her world as Deneas explores it.

To help celebrate the release of Fire and Amulet, my participation in the 2022 AtoZ Challenge is dedicated to the people, land and creatures that inhabit the world of Fire and Amulet. Hope you'll visit my blog to check it out.  

What might be the best part of having a new release is the cover. I love it. If you look closely, you can see the dragon's tear. Having a slayer as a friend is dangerous when you’re a dragon

To purchase Fire and Amulet: BWL

~Until next month, stay safe and read.

Find out more about me and my novels at Journey to Worlds of Imagination.
Follow me online at Facebook, Goodreads or Twitter.

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. 

April is Poetry Month by Nancy M Bell

 

For more information about Nancy's books click on the cover.

BREAKING NEWS

HIS BROTHER'S BRIDE IS NOW AVAILABLE IN AUDIO FORMAT

Since April is National Poetry Month I thought I'd share some different poetry formats with you.

Poetic form is the physical structure of the work. It consists of the length of the lines, the rhythms and repetitions. Poetic forms are applied to works that are shaped into a pattern. Free verse is not constricted by poetic form and is indeed a type of form in its own right.

The Idyll. This is a short poem describing rustic life and is usually written in the style of Theocritus’ short pastoral poem ‘Idylls.  Lord Alfred Tennyson’s Idylls of the King is an example.

Blank Verse - written in a precise metre - usually Iambic Pentametre 

Sonnet- which Shakespeare liked  A sonnet consists of 14 lines and was made popular in the 14^th century and the Italian Renaissance. Sir Thomas Wyatt is credited with introducing the sonnet into English literature in the 16^th century. The rhyming theme in a Petrachan sonnet is abba abba cdecde, the Shakespearean sonnet follows the rhyming pattern of abab cdcd efef gg

Ode  The word Ode is from the Greek aeidein which means to chant or sing and belongs to the tradition of lyric poetry. This form in it’s earliest incarnation was accompanied by music and dance, but later evolved when used by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest thoughts and emotions. William Wordsworth for example. It is generally a formal address to an person, thing or event that is not present.

Haiku. This is a short poem which conveys the essence of an experience of nature. Written in English in the Japanese haiku style

Ballad  This is often a narrative set to music. The word Ballad comes from the Latin ballare which translates to dancing song. A Ballad is a form meant for singing, connected to its origin of communal dance and a product of oral traditions among peoples who cling to oral histories as opposed to written.

Epic  This is a long narrative in verse form telling of a heroic person, persons or journey. Homer’s Illiad and the Odyssey for example.

Elegy   This is a funeral song. It is a melancholy, nostalgic poem created to mourn the death of someone close to your heart. The first elegies were in Roman and Greek.

Lyric  Lyric is a form of poetry sung and/or accompanied by a musical instrument or a poem that expresses intense emotions on a personal level in a way that is suggestive of a song or singing. A Lyric makes the poet vulnerable by showing their thoughts and feelings and often evokes those emotions in the listener.

Poetic form is the physical structure of the work. It consists of the length of the lines, the rhythms and repetitions. Poetic forms are applied to works that are shaped into a pattern. Free verse is not constricted by poetic form and is indeed a type of form in its own right.

My favourite is a Sestina.

A complex French verse form, usually unrhymed, consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and a three-line envoy (The brief stanza that ends French poetic forms) The end words of the first stanza are repeated in a different order as end words in each of the subsequent five stanzas; the closing envoy contains all six words, two per line, placed in the middle and at the end of the three lines. The patterns of word repetition are as follows, with each number representing the final word of a line, and each row of numbers representing a stanza:

          1 2 3 4 5 6
          6 1 5 2 4 3
          3 6 4 1 2 5
          5 3 2 6 1 4
          4 5 1 3 6 2
          2 4 6 5 3 1

          (6 2) (1 4) (5 3)  

Below is my humble attempt at a sestina.

Seasonal Sestina

 

Why is it that the first flowers of Spring

Are so special and the green of new leaves

Wakes a wild joy in my heart

Is it because they signal the end of Winter

Filled with the promise of long summer days

And the lazy hum of honey bees among the flowers

 

The tiny white snowdrops are among the first flowers

Along with the purple crocus of Spring

Courageously piercing the snow with their leaves

Small purple clusters to gladden my heart

Throwing a gauntlet in the face of Winter

Shining brightly through the short Spring days

 

The snow retreats with the lengthening of days

The garden paths are strewn with clots of flowers

The sweet bouquet of flower scented Spring

Bright daffodils dance above their pointed leaves

The tulips glowing red as the sun’s heart

They chase from the path the last of snowy Winter

 

Now only under the brambles lies the evidence of Winter

Soon that too will retreat from the sunny days

The lilacs burst into a froth of fragrant purple flowers

The scent mingling with the sun warmed air of Spring

Slow awakening summer flowers break the soil with their leaves

Heralding the coming of Summer’s heart

 

Spring passes softly into summer; the pulsing green heart

That rules the year opposite the white of Winter

The long halcyon green and gold days

Forged by the fire of the sun and the glory of flowers

There is just the faintest memory now of Spring

The full heady bounty of Summer canopied by trees of leaves

 

In due course fiery autumn will colour the leaves

And the flames of October will quicken the heart

The winds of snow will welcome the Winter

The frosty silver and blue of early winter days

Will make us forget the summer of flowers

Too new and beautiful yet to make us wish for Spring

 

By January we will be wishing for green leaves and Spring

Our heart will have hardened against the silver beauty of Winter

And we will hunger after the days of Summer and flowers 

Til next month, stay well, stay happy.

Memories Raised by a new bio by Janet Lane Walters. #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Imagination #Apology #New Bio #Old Memories

 

 

Since I have a new book coming, I decided a new bio would be nice. The one I've been using for years was bit tired and out of date. I began the bio in a different manner, since people oftenremark on y imagination. I began to look at the way this imagination was honed. Among other things such as reading at an early age and wanting to read everything that had been published, one memory became vivid.

I was a child during the Second World War and this ahd quite an impact. We lived in a town outside Pittsburgh between steelmills and Westinghouse. Union Switch and Signal Company was located across the railroad tracks from the houses. The street I lived on was a short street, starting against a hill and ending a block later. One fascinating place was the concrete stairs leading from out street to the one above. I think there were about fifty steps, at least it seemed that way to me. Wide steps with a handrail great for haging on.

I lived in a row house. Also among my friends were a dozen boys and two girls of around the same age. Since the war was in progress and we were in a rather essential area, there were no street lights at night. We used to sit on the steps to the porch on summer nights and tell stories of round robing. Often these stories featured ghosts, ghouls and other unsavory creatures. Great fun for a summer night.

There were other kinds of stories and great plans we made in case we were invaded. We invented stories of daring-do. Sometimes we put these plans to work. We dug holes in the hillside woods where we played. We wove tin branches and disguised these holes. Imaginations ran wild and sometimes were dangerous. Like the time we found some little snakes. We wanted to know what they were. At my church, there was a man who taught biology. We took out pail of baby snakes to show him. He killed him. Seems they were copperhead, snakes that are born venemous. Lesson learned.

Fromhere we went on to write and produce plays for the neighbors, mostly our families. And that is part of the reason I have this really odd imagination.

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They're everywhere, by J.C. Kavanagh

 

The Twisted Climb - Book 1 of the award-winning series

They're everywhere now. Robins, that is. They made the trip from lands in the southern U.S.A. and Mexico, flying several thousand kilometres in order to eat, nest and mate here in the spring/summer climate of southern Canada. I have about a dozen that come back every year - or their babies do. According to the National Audubon Society, robins live an average of two years, though some have been tagged and tracked for up to 14 years. According to a North American bird-tracking system, in 2019 there were 370,000,000 robins, the highest recorded, followed by red-winged blackbirds, the European starling, mourning doves, then house finches.

The American Robin

You won't find a robin in your bird feeder - their preferred diet is found in the ground - grubs, insects and worms, or berries. They sing and chirp with apparent delight at dawn and dusk. You'll find them 'running' across your lawn, pausing with head inclined as they appear to listen for their next meal. 

Living in a rural area has given me the pleasure of watching many Mama Robins build their nest (males are not invited for this task). Between April and July, robins will lay between three and five eggs, called a 'clutch,' and the eggs are famous for their light blue colouring (Robin Egg Blue). Mama Robin will lay up to three broods per season, building a new nest for each brood. 

At my home - Mama Robin feeding her brood.

According to Wikipedia and the Audubon Society, robin eggs will incubate for about two weeks. Once hatched, Mama Robin devotes herself with food delivery - specialty of worms and crushed insects for the wee ones. Papa Robin assists with the meal prep, and also removing baby-bird-waste. It only takes another 14-18 days for the baby robins to be robust and ready for their first steps and flight. It has been a joy to watch the young robins finally leave the nest, hop around and then fly to the nearest tree. 

I'm hoping that a new brood graces my property again this year. So far, I've counted six hopping robins.

Be kind and loving to one another, especially this Easter weekend 🥰

Until next time, stay safe everyone!

J.C. Kavanagh, author of 
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
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young at heart 
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com 
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www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
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Spring-time Gardening Mohan Ashtakala

 

    Many of us are long-time gardeners. Some, looking at the rising cost of vegetables, have decided, for the first time, to venture into this rewarding pastime. Here are a few tips for first-timers:

 

1.          Know your geography: It is of paramount importance to know your growing season, which varies by altitude and latitude. A growing season is calculated as the date between the last frost in spring till the first frost in fall. Do not plant outside the growing season.

 

2.          Choose a site: The ideal site for a garden should receive at least six hours of sunlight per day, have adequate drainage (as rain is common in the spring) and can be watered easily.

 

3.        Prepare the bed: About a month before planting, clean the garden area of old leaves and dead branches. With a spade, turn the topsoil over. Soil rotation breaks lumps of hard dirt, allows for aeration and brings nutrients deep into the soil.

 

4.          Indoor germination: Many plants require indoor germination, depending on the species. They need to be germinated indoors, before being transplanted at the appropriate time. To determine which seeds require this treatment, please look on the seed labels, or do an on-line search. Typically, paper-cups, yogurt containers and ice-cube trays make excellent starters.

 

5.          Wait for the soil to dry: One mistake to avoid is the transplanting of seedlings when the garden is too wet. Pick up a large handful of dirt and roll it into a ball. If the ball crumbles when pressed with your fingers, or shatters when dropped a distance of three feet, the soil is dry enough for transplanting.

 

6.      Choose the correct seeds: Here are some of the best vegetables to grow in the springtime: Peas, Spinach, Lettuce, Radish, Beet, Potato, Tomato, Cucumbers, Rhubarb are all planted at this time of the year. The correct seeds to plant depends on the growing season and the site’s properties.

 

 Happy Gardening!

Mohan Ashtakala (www.mohanauthor.com) is the author of The Yoga Zapper, a fantasy, and Karma Nation, a literary romance. he is published by Books We Love (www.bookswelove.com.)

The 25 Mile Accent Rule....by Sheila Claydon

Find my books here

So I got it wrong! My latest book, Many a Moon, Book 3 of my Mapleby Memories trilogy, is not due to be published until June. I said April in my last post. So what to blog about? The April 11 blog by Karla Stover, a Books We Love fellow author, soon gave me a topic.

Karla has written a very entertaining piece about an English TV series, Midsomer Murders. In it she wonders, tongue in cheek, how true to life in the UK it is. As an English person who has lived in a number of different parts of the UK I can assure her that some of it only too true while other bits are vastly exaggerated. I will leave you to read Karla's blog if you haven't already done so, to decide for yourself which is which. All I am prepared to say is that nobody in the UK would dream of moving to the fictional village of Midsomer because of all the murders that take place there. Apart from Oxford in the Inspector Morse series if you have been lucky enough to see that, it must be the most dangerous place in England.

However, her blog made me think about the background of other TV series and remember Ted Lasso, one of the most enjoyable I have watched this year.  It is about an amateur American baseball coach who somehow ends up in England coaching a poorly performing football team. Watching him slowly become an honorary Brit is both engaging and, at times, very touching. Learning to drink English tea for instance! Facing the fans when he visits the local pub after his team has lost! Making friends as he walks to work through narrow cobbled streets...often in the rain! Learning how reserved many English men are emotionally. Accepting the quirks and humour of some of the very English characters.

These are things that are a small part of a much larger story, but for anyone who is interested they certainly highlight the peculiarities of life in a small English town. The characters, who apart from Ted Lasso and his sidekick, are all British, are often larger than life, but only just. There is a kernel of truth in every relationship and behaviour. And Ted himself gives the English viewer a very heartwarming view of an American who wants to fit in and eventually manages to do so. 

Then I thought about other UK TV programmes. Series set in the North East of the country, in Yorkshire, in Shetland, in Dorset, in Wales, Ireland and Scotland, in Liverpool, and London, and how they are all fairly true to their roots. Not just because of the different accents and an occasional word of local dialect but because of the different attitudes, geography and lifestyles. 

Although the UK is geographically small, the ancestors of its modern population arrived around 10,000 years ago and for thousands of years lived scattered across the land. During that time each tribe or group developed its own language and dialect and it was only when people began to travel that a more universal language evolved. Even today people from different parts of the country still have to concentrate hard to really understand someone with another accent and dialect. In the UK accent and dialect changes approximately every 25 miles, which is an almost unbelievable statistic in the modern age. Living where I do, close to Liverpool but in a small seaside town that still likes to think of itself as a village, it's not unusual for me to hear at least 9 different  accents in one day from the visitors who travel from nearby towns and  cities.  And I add to them because I'm a southerner, or a blow-in as I'm known locally, so my accent is very different from those of my northern neighbours!

Because I've lived here for a long time, however, I have adopted quite a number of local customs, words and phrases. Some, however, are impossible. For example, I cannot conceive eating chips (fries) with gravy, or having what is known as a chip butty, which is thick fries in a  heavily buttered bun (also known as a chip barm, chip sandwich, chip cob or chip roll depending of which part of the country is selling it) Why? Because although in recent years it has started to travel, it is not a southern thing so I never had it when I was growing up. To me chips (fries) must be dry and salty.  On the other hand I have learned to abandon my southern reticence and, like most northerners, talk to anyone and everyone, and what a joy that has proved to be.

Many of the series on UK TV portray just how different every part of our small country is which has made me realise how much we unconsciously learn from fiction, not only as viewers but as readers and writers too, because most of those series are an adaptation of different books. 

That got me thinking about my own books and how amazing it would be if someone discovered them and decided to televise one of my stories or, even better, all of a series. Pie in the sky of course but it does no harm to dream. To know too that all the best writers work hard at making the background to their stories authentic even if, at times, the story is fantastical...unless, of course, you believe in all those murders.  In which case, keep well away from anywhere in the UK that resembles Midsomer.

Sneak Peek

New novel!
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As the song goes...I'm so excited and I just can't hide it! Come June the second of my YA mystery series, The Linda Tassel Mysteries will launch with this glorious cover, brought to us by BWL publishing. I think it captures the sprit of this missing person mystery. Who is missing? Linda's friend and Fancy Shawl dancing partner, Rising Fawn. Linda and Tad will have their hands full with this one.

This series was born in my own young adult years when I was a BIG fan of Nancy Drew, but I sure could have used a heroine who looked more like me. Then I formed a wonderful friendship in Georgia with another Linda, who welcomed me among her Cherokee relatives and culture. I hope this series honors them and their hospitality.

Great news about Book 1 of this series, Death at Little Mound... it has achieved finalist status in two international awards: The Mystery and Mayhem Award and the Dante Rossetti Award for Young Adult fiction. I'll be finding out in June the results of both competitions. Stay tuned!

 

 

When Your Novel Takes a Wrong Turn

 

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I'm a believer in plowing through a novel's first draft without pausing to revise along the way. When I start writing a book, reaching 'the end' is a daunting prospect. Since reworking existing material is easier than tackling a blank page, it can become an avoidance tactic. It might also be a waste of time if I discover I have to delete or radically rewrite a scene after I know what the whole story is about. 'Write and revise later' worked for my first four books. It didn't for my current novel-in-progress.

My first problem with the process occurred when a scene I wrote fell flat and I felt a need to revise it before moving forward in the story. This happened again a few scenes down the road. In one case, my point of view detective narrator needed a partner for the scene. I threw in a random police officer, but found he added nothing to the story. I went back and made him a 'she.' To my surprise, sparks flew between her and my detective, who is at a crossroads in his life. Their romance has become a subplot in the novel and a key aspect of his personal story arc. 

I tell myself that modifying my usual approach and following my instinct to jump in and revise comes from having a few novels under my belt; that I now know earlier in the process what a story needs to avoid more complicated revision later. How's that for self-justification? 

Around the manuscript's 3/4 point, I realized that a number of scenes in the third quarter would work better if they were set in different locations. This time I stuck with my usual approach since most of the other material would remain the same. Instead of revising the scenes, I made an outline for the changes I plan to make. They will move a critical plot point earlier in the story, but I think the outline can deal with this change. Revising the wayward scenes would have benefits, but I really want to finish the first draft this spring.   

Then, a few chapters later, a long scene fell completely flat, when the story should be building to a thrilling climax. I puzzled over what to do and decided I'd taken a wrong turn at the 3/4 mark. I had shifted the story focus to a character who is much talked about but hadn't made a personal appearance in the novel. I assumed that since my main characters cared deeply about him, readers would too. But I think readers only engage with the characters they meet in the literary flesh. This might be one reason they tend to be less interested than the writer in characters' backstories. 

My solution to this problem will be to go back three chapters, to the point where I veered off track. I'll revise most of the scenes and cut the 2,000 word flat scene. Ouch. But I need to know what happens in these chapters to figure out my characters' paths to the climax and denouement.  

Each novel has its own journey. This work-in-progress has gone in directions I didn't expect, in terms of character development, subject matter, and writing process. I've found it a challenge to adapt, without steering off course.

 

               

Things I Learned From Midsomer Murders, by Karla Stover

 

To purchase books by Karla Stover click this link

We pay over $200 a month for cable and can't find anything to watch. We don't care for the assorted amateur hours, a.k.a  The Real Housewives of. . . (who do they think they're kidding?) ; America, Britain and every place else Has Got Talent, Dancing With the Stars, etc. ( In 2006 Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars Ukraine ). The comedies aren't funny, and every show seems to want to tout a message. So, for about the 4th time, we are watching Midsomer Murders (M.M.)

It's been a longtime since we visited Great Britain and then most of the time we were in Cornwall from where my family hails. So M.M. is my source of all things English. Here are a few things I take to be true because would M.M. lie?

1.  Everyone has a local (favorite pub.) Even Price Willian and Duchess Katherine (she doesn't like "Kate")When we were first married we lived in an apartment three blocks from a pub. It started as a private home in the 1880s and became a pub in 1935. Being poor meant we lacked the funds to go there. I just checked and there are no quiz nights.

2.  No one watches TV. Maybe it's because they're always at their local but apparently no one in England watches TV.  Here I am, so eager to get BritBox and the Brits don't seem to care about their wonderful programs.

3.  Everyone walks around outside at night and often through the woods. Well, it's pretty hard to own a gun there so it should be safe. Watch the show, though, and you'll know it's not.

4.  I found this on reddit.com: "So what the hell is up with all the fetes? It's like these villages have a freakin' fete ever weekend or something. And the COCONUTS? Everybody goes to the damn fete hoping to win a coconut. I mean, Gavin Troy dropped like forty pounds trying to win a stinky, rotten, misshapen coconut." Real fêtes in Midsomer have games, cake stalls, cream teas, Pimms,(?)  raffles, baby shows, dog shows and the biggest homegrown onion, or any other allotment-grown vegetable, competitions. Typical games include skittles, hoopla, quoits, knur and spell (one game not two) and Aunt Sally,  tombolas and home produce such as jams and pickles. Now, here's something weird: the cakes and cookies are never covered up. Apparently drying out, attracting bugs or people breathing on them isn't an issue. I tried to find out how many episodes had a festival or fete but apparently no one has counted because google didn't know.

5. The second Mrs. Barnaby (Joyce) wife of the main man ergo British wives in general have plenty of time for hobbies because they never do housework. The things I can remember her doing are taking a water color class, doing tombstone rubbings, acting in a play and in two movies, being part of a book club, helping judge an orchid contest and taking a cooking class. Sadly, that didn't take as her husband makes a lot of references to her bad cooking. I'm a bad cook, too, so I guess I fit in with that one.

6. Every garden is amazing. Among all the fetes there are "best-garden-in-the-village" contests. I like to garden but here on the foot hills of Mt. Rainier we have rocky and very poor soil.

7. There are a lot of bad marriages with plenty of affairs. How sad.

I'm sure there is more but if we ever relocate to England following this list will keep me plenty busy.

Easter by Barbara Baldwin

Find all my books at www.bookswelove.com

Easter

Did I miss it?

Daylight savings time has started. And the spring equinox occurred back in March. What happened to Easter?

In the United States, our holidays seem to fall in two ways. First, we have those that fall on the same numeric day every year – January 1, February 14, July 4, and December 25, among others. Then we have those holidays that fall on the same day of the month – Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May and Father’s day is on the third Sunday of June; Indigenous People’s Day and Labor day on the first Monday of their respective months; Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. Even USA elections are set on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.

But Easter can vary every year as much as a month, coming as early as March 22 or as late as April 25 because it is set according to the moon. Specifically, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full Moon that occurs on or just after the spring equinox.

And if that isn’t enough to confuse you, take a look at Easter treats. Valentine’s Day is all about chocolate. Christmas is fondly highlighted not only with candy canes but with favorite baked goods. But here comes the Easter Bunny with hard boiled eggs, jelly bean eggs, speckled “bird” eggs, chocolate covered marshmallow eggs, peanut butter eggs, Cadbury™ eggs and hard shell cream eggs. EGGS, EGGS, EGGS! And bunnies don’t even lay eggs, so where did that come from? According to some sources, the Easter bunny first arrived in America in the 1700s with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws.” Their children made nests in which this creature could lay its colored eggs. Baskets began to be used later in place of nests. The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has often been associated with pagan festivals celebrating spring.

However you celebrate Easter, I hope it is joyous and full of sunshine and happiness. And in case you don’t care for all the candy that comes along with the holiday (as if), fill your Easter basket with some good books. They’re fulfilling but have no calories!

Barbara Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

https://bookswelove.net/baldwin-barbara/

Amazon.com: Barbara Baldwin: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle

 

 

 

 

TLDR: I Like Writing Strong Damsels in Distress by Vanessa C. Hawkins

 

 Vanessa Hawkins Author Page

  Hoo boy! So this month's blog post may be a tad controversial, as I aim to pick apart the reasons I enjoy writing strong female characters that have a tendancy to get in trouble and need--in some capacity-- a little help getting out of a jam. 

And I'm also a strong, independant woman!

I think the overarching reason I enjoy the much overused trope of a female in requirement of aid, is due to my increasingly larger than life laziness that is only growing exponentially each and every year. Yes. I COULD take out the trash, yes, I COULD take out the kitty litter, but its raining outside, and it's smelly and oh won't you do it for me you big strong hero because I couldn't possibly...

Even though I really, REALLY tried...

But, as my post should HOPEFULLY suggest, I am in favor of strong heroines who may need a little bit of help every now and then. I don't think that's anti-feminist--just in case some of you here are waiting to pounce on me when I'm not looking--it's realistic! We all need help here and there, and I like the idea of a strong woman who can rely on her romantic partner when all else fails. Even the strongest of us need help every now and then, whether it's with taking out the smelly cat litter that we took too long to empty... or if it's help with putting a giant raging dragon in the hurt locker!

Uhh... little help there, honey?

But it is a give and take. I'm all for the dashing champions coming to help out a dame at her lowest hour, but lets face it, we can't--and probably shouldn't--always rely on those hapless yet huggable heroes. A strong woman should be allowed to shine. Help out those big lugs. And just to be clear, though I am calling these nameless characters heros, the heroine is just as much, if not more, a protagonist as her romantic counterpart!

It actually bothers me nowadays how many female characters are infallible. Yes, many are bada$$ bit%^es that look fine as heck in a leather leotard, but c'mon! They must need help every now and then! Don't put the bar so high that I can't even see it, Hollywood! Because I can't even do a chin up now, let alone find the darn bar so I can keep up with the strength of your females. 

I'm still strong and independant, gosh-darnit!

 But yes. I like damsels in distress. I like Princess Peach--who is so often being captured by Bowser that people are beginning to suspect there is a relationship there *AHEM* Koopa Kids *AHEM* I like Princess Leia and Fiona, who were strong women in their own right, and totally kicked some serious a$$, as well as my own character, Scarlet Fortune, who is a vampire detective in the 20's but also quite capable of screwing up and needing a bit of help from her short statured beau. 

Even George R. R. Martin, who has yet to release his long... 

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG awaited book Winds of Winter, has quite a few kickbutt female characters who need a bit of a pick up along the way. Damsels in distress? Yes. But also damsels doing damage!

   

And sometimes damsels doing too much damage... right, Daenerys?