IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING

I’d not been writing on my blog recently, because I’d been busy elsewhere.

I really thought I’d informed my readers that I had decided to write a book. But when I went onto my blog, I discovered that I haven’t told you about my plans. Except for my family, I have not told any of the people I associate with either. Now I’m ready.

Last week, I finished it. This was a tremendous experience for me, I’d never thought about doing a book of fiction or any other book at all.

In writing a book, you must decide what type of book it’s to be. Then you need a plot and a main character.

That’s not what I did, I saw a somewhat unusual person on a sidewalk as I was driving   by on my way to the Dollar Store. I thought that would be a great title for a book. I was laughing as I continued on my way, but the title kept nagging me.

I could not stop thinking about her and decided I was going to write a comedy/mystery about her. I first told my plan to my husband of almost sixty-three years, and empathized that the woman I was writing about was not me and any man in it would not be him.

I know you should only write about what you know, so I planned that the lady would be in her eighties. I quickly changed that, thinking who wants to read about an old lady? So she’s in her late fifties.

I read the first two pages to my husband and we both thought them funny. However, what I had plotted in my head, did not translate to my keyboard. I started to realize that the story became very dark and in spite of the light beginning, it turned into something tragic. The story was writing itself, nothing of what I’d planned took hold.

My evil character, who would die and get his just reward, suddenly gave me a new prospective of himself. I have no idea why.

  

Then more characters popped up, and suddenly they all meshed in. Now I was writing every day and gained more insight into these people I had created and began to understand things about them, I’d not thought possible to explain.

Then my people started speaking in the first person about themselves and also carried the plot along. My own kids upon reading some of the book said not to create any more characters. They felt it would be difficult to keep them straight. I felt a little different, but I tried to keep it simple.

I became very excited about my first love scene, I cried when I finished it.  When I asked my daughter how she felt about it, she said “what love scene? It’s so subtle, she’d missed the point. I still kept it in.

In a later chapter, I started writing very brazenly about an affair.  Of all who have read it, no one has said “tone it down” so I got away with it. But will my young grandchildren be allowed to read it?

At this point, I discovered I was writing about very romantic people, whom I loved. I knew I’d have to kill someone and picked out that person and how his death would create more drama. When I wrote that scene, none of what I planned happened. It took a twist somehow, and the scene itself became very dramatic for every one of my cast.

Most of what I’d done could actually be a play reading, the thing I’m totally familiar with. 

When I was trying to get back to the prequel of the first section, everything I had planned went totally out the window and once again the novel became a comedy. That part became my favorite and the ending came with tears in my eyes again.

I feel that way because the people I created are my children and I love them all.

My book is about 70,000 words in case you wondered, just enough for a novel.

Does anyone know of an agent for me to contact, or know someone in publishing?

A WALGREEN INCIDENT

I’d just entered Walgreen’s when a man started to berate the cashier for not giving him an instant refund on some little things in his hands. To me it looked like some candy bars. She was trying to explain to him that the manager would have to handle it for some reason.

He started by calling her stupid for not being able to give him the refund and he had his wife waiting for him in the car and wanted his money this minute because he had no time for such nonsense from such an inept person. Just then a male employee approached him and asked him to please calm down. He started yelling at him, too, so the employee said either he was quiet or he would call the police, as he escorted him to a door near the rear of the store where a woman came out to talk to him. She must have been the store manager.

I was getting things from the cooler in the area right next to where the woman was still listening to him shouting. The male employee said he would get him the money as I headed for the checkout counter.

As I got there, I looked back and heard the man talking loudly to a woman standing in front of the photo department. Then he started to scream at her, too when she told him to pipe down and he walked quickly away from her and told her to go f---- herself. As he stomped out of the store, he yelled at the cashier whose line I was in, saying he was reporting her to headquarters for her stupidity and he would remember what she looked like. One of the other clerks went out and said he had left with the woman by the photo department, who was his wife.

The people standing in line all said that he was a terrible person to act like did. When it was my turn to pay, the clerk told me she was still shaking because she had never been so scared. That’s when it dawned on me that this is Florida where all kinds of crazy people are able to buy guns and have concealed weapon permits and for the first time I felt vulnerable and realized what might have happened if he came back into the store and I was standing by that clerk.

That’s when I really got scared.

THE ART OF USING TEA AS AN AGING PROCESS OR HOW I ALMOST BURNED DOWN THE HOUSE

Using brewed tea to age fabric is a very old process similar to using onion skins to dye eggs brown for Easter, in case you didn’t know about such things? It’s a very practical way to use common household ingredients.

First you boil a pot of water, then add tea bags depending on the amount of cloth you're aging. I put six in about two quarts of water and left it with the lid on until it cooled. If you have too much material, you may need to do it a second time with more tea bags, which is what I was doing the second time. I was really trying to change a white table cloth into an antique white one. (I did this in the bathroom sink)

But it was time to pick up a friend we had invited to lunch at a cafe nearby, so I put the second batch of bags in water and left it on the stove and intending to turn on the burner when we returned.

We had a delightful lunch. The waiters and waitresses, who are unpaid volunteers, were friends of all three of us. We chatted with them, some whom we haven’t seen for a while. Our guest, who is moving, was glad for the chance to say goodbye to old friends.

We finally returned home to a horrific smell in the kitchen. I did not intentionally turn on the burner, but it was truly my own fault. Black sooty stuff from the pan was all over the top of the stove and the pan itself was ashen colored and stuck to the glass top.  I thought I wouldn’t be able to pry the pan off the glass without breaking something, but I tugged, it come off and I was able to take it outside to cool. I went out later to put it in the trash and I saw there were big balls of charcoal inside which used to be teabags.

We had opened the windows and patio doors, turned on the fans and the smell went away. We cleaned the glass stove top and it’s working just fine. It wasn't possible get out some of the burnt on stain, but it works fine.

I think God was looking over us.

Turning back the tide of bigotry

(My letter to the editor of the Tampa Times)

The letter writer who praised Arizona governor Jan Brewer totally missed the point of her rejection of the bill which allowed businesses to discriminate on religious grounds. 

Brewer should not be praised for rejecting it. The State of Arizona was under attack from numerous large organizations and national businesses which threatened to boycott the state if the bill was signed by the governor. She saw the handwriting on the wall and vetoed the bill, but not because she was against it.

I personally think there is never a reason to praise Jan Brewer on anything after having read many times about her passion for trampling on the human rights of lawful citizens in her state, the same as the trampling’s rightly attributed to Sheriff Arpaio.

The above is my response to another letter to the editor of our newspaper. The writer praised the governor for the wrong thing. The rest of his letter showed his feelings about blatant trampling on civil rights. I especially like his quote from Sinclair Lewis "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped a flag and waving a cross"

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?

How in the world can a jury not convict a man for killing an unarmed young black man? How in the world can an armed man with a history of violence toward two ex-wives get away with murder?

After George Zimmerman got away with the murder of Treyvon Martin which he justified by saying he was in fear for his life, although the teenager was only holding a bag of skittles, you would have thought another jury would see through the lies told by another defense attorney on behalf of his client. Another young black man had no gun, but it took them four days and they still couldn’t convict this murderer, either.

Soon, a seventy year old retired police officer will be on trial for killing an unarmed man, the loving father of a young child. He too felt threatened by a man who was only holding a cell phone and a bag of popcorn.

All three of these brave men had a concealed license permit because this is a cruel world and they have every right to shoot their gun on a whim and call it self-defense.

Wouldn’t it for once be nice to hear one, two or three of these men just for once say they made a grave mistake and beg for mercy from a judge after pleading “Guilty”?

Most responsible parents try to teach their children to own up to their mistakes! It would be a better world if all parents taught their children to respect others by setting a good example themselves.

FLORIDA ONCE AGAIN

You all know I live in Florida the home of “Stand Your Ground Laws” which means you can murder anyone you want and because of the NRA backed Republican Party, you can get away with it.

Today, we’re awaiting the verdict in the latest trial where a white man killed an unarmed black teenager because loud music disturbed him. After firing many bullets into the car, his fiancée came out of the convenience store where both cars were parked.

The two drove away from the scene of the bullet riddled car, which contained the body of the unarmed black boy and the unharmed ones still in the car. Did they call the police?

No, they did not.  They drove away and spent the night in a motel where they ordered pizza, drank wine and watched a movie.

And the jury is now in their third day of deliberations. That’s Florida for yah!

DON’T BOTHER ME I’M ON THE ICE

In the days of the Winter Olympics when everyone knew Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill and Scott Hamilton, I sat mesmerized watching every spin, jump and spiral they did. I would say to the children “don’t bother me I’m on the ice”.

No one could ever compare with the sensational skating team of Torvill and Dean as far as I’m concerned. I became disillusioned with what had happened to the beautiful, lyrical skating done by our past Olympic champions.

Skaters now had to compete with other countries who introduced triple and quadruple jumps which scored higher points. Now every skater had to work to get the new jumps into their repertoire and the true beauty of figure skating became lost. If you watched the last few years of competitions, you’d see skater’s spending all their time getting ready for the next jump and there was not much beauty involved.

Last month I discovered our own USA Ice dancers, Davis and White by accident. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Something of supreme beauty happened when they performed. I fell in love with figure skating again when I saw them skating in virtual unison to their chosen music and making continuous beautiful moves.

These two are considered favorites for the gold metal. Our other skaters are not far behind, so try to see them if you can and don’t bother me because I’ll be on the ice again.