Meet the Southern Gospel group, the Patriot Quartet. My husband, Darrell sings bass with them. That’s not him up on the big screen. That’s the lead singer, Joe White. Darrell’s the one on the far right. The shot I took of him up on the screen was fuzzy, fuzzy. I never claimed to be a professional photographer. If I had …
The Week No Planes Flew
There are days in our lives that we will never forget. The 9th day of September 2001was one of those days. We remember exactly where we were when we first heard about the planes flying into the Twin Towers. Some of us were watching the news when that second plane crashed into the second tower. Even more of us were watching when …
Finding the Best Words to Tell the Story
” And that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance and weep and make love and fight and kiss and perform miracles.” (Gertrude Stein) Words – the tools of a writer’s trade. Words tell your story. Words make your characters leap off the page and come to life. Words plunge those characters …
Labor Day and Shakers
Shaker Kitchen tools, etc “Do your work as if you had a thousand years to live, and as if you were to die tomorrow.” (Shaker Saying) The Shakers believed in work. In fact they believed their work, whether it was making chairs, weaving cloth, peeling potatoes, tanning hides, or any of dozens of other tasks, was an act of worship. …
Counting Butterflies and Editing Galleys
The butterfly counts not months, but moments, and has time enough. … Rabindranath Tagore We’ve had a beautiful summer here in Kentucky – the first one in several years where we had enough rain to keep the fields green into August. I took a walk this week through our hayfield before my husband mowed it and counted butterflies. Well, not …
A Week of Encouragement
Lynwood Montell & Ann at a Gathering of Authors “There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.” (Katharine Butler Hathaway) It’s not been my easiest summer with Mom needing so much extra care and with that deadline I had to chase with the Shaker book I was writing that didn’t seem to want to end. I did …
Newsletters – Do You Like Them?
Do you get any newsletters via e-mail on a regular basis? A lot of authors now send out newsletters or news bursts – including me. I do an occasional newsletter that might be a little more occasional now than in the past because I signed up for a newsletter service that makes it easier to send out a newsletter. Before …
Days to Celebrate in August
Did you know August was “Admit You’re Happy” month? And that’s not all. It’s also “National Catfish Month,” “National Picnic Month,” and here’s one for those of us who try to put a little romance into our stories “Romance Awareness Month.” That’s just the things we’re celebrating all month. Then we have the weeks. Week 2 was National Smile Week …
In a Pickle
” In a pickle” – To be in a pickle is to find oneself in a difficult position. It seems that in 1611, Shakespeare was the first to use the actual phrase “in a pickle” in The Tempest, although the references to “ill pickles” and “this pickle” can be traced back to the 1500s or even earlier. Some of the …
The Changing Generations
“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations.” – George Bernard Shaw The photo is of two generations in my family – my mom and my granddaughter. …