Author Week

Good Saturday morning!  My, how the weeks fly by.  In two weeks. I shall be doing my packing for The Walk Cruise with my dear friend and favorite bibliophile Viv and, of course, Richard Paul Evans.

Viv is an avid reader.  I would say that I am as well, but since I still work full time, I cannot match her rate of about four to eight books per week.  I read when I can, work because I must, clean when the dust bunnies start to take over and write because I am guided to do so.  So, at least for now, I don’t read as much as I would like, because there are other things demanding my attention.

Viv and I have our favorite authors.  Everyone has their favorites, I’m sure!  There are many, but two of those that must have special mention are Richard Paul Evans and Diana Gabaldon.

Richard has written many books that have touched my heart, so much so that I have bought them for family members and most specifically, I bought ten copies of ‘The Four Doors’ and gave them as Christmas gifts.

Diana has written two series of books, the most well know I suspect is the Outlander series.  Viv and I just purchased the 20^th anniversary edition of the very first one called ‘Outlander’ of course!  The eighth in the series comes out in about a week and a half—already on order, of course!

So, why would I mention the two authors in the same blog?  Their books are very different, although all well worth the read.  Well, I’m mentioning both of them because I get to meet both authors in the same week!

Viv and I booked the Richard Paul Evans cruise over a year ago and just discovered last week that the very day we land back in Toronto, Diana Gabaldon will also be in Toronto!  What an amazing coincidence!

Viv has actually managed to have her son not only drive us to the airport to fly out for our cruise at the crack of stupid, but also pick us up and drop us near where Diana will be, when we land back in Toronto.

Life is good!

Book One Story One

This is a bit unusual, but this blog is going to be the first story of my first book.  I own the copyright, but I thought I would share it to see what folks think about it.

A very long time ago, in fact it was well over 2000 years ago; there lived a lovely little white dove named Miriam.

Miriam lived in the beautiful olive tree behind the home of Noah and his wife Emzara.  Every day Noah or Emzara would set out seeds to feed Miriam and often, they would chat with Miriam.  They spoke of how disappointed they were with everyone they met.  Everyone was so very wicked and did not pray to God every day, like they did.

Both Noah and Emzara were very kind people and would even pray in their garden when the weather was good.  Miriam liked to hear their prayers and knew how kind and wonderful God was. 

One day, Noah told Miriam of a flood that God was sending and that he had been asked by God to build a huge ship called an ark. God had told Noah that the ark must be big enough for all of his family and two of every kind of animal in the world.  Noah asked if Miriam would help him to gather the animals when it was time to load the ark.

Miriam knew that this was a very important job and now, Miriam had Ezra, who was a mate for her.  Ezra was also very kind and gentle and Noah told Miriam how happy he was to have Ezra helping Miriam to gather the animals, when the ark was ready.

Miriam had also met the three strong sons of Noah and Emzara.  Ham, Shem and Japheth were going to help with the building of the huge ark.  Miriam knew how very happy God would be to have all of them building the ark.  Ham, Shem and Japheth and their wives would also be on the ark with Noah and Emzara as well as Miriam and Ezra.

It was a lot of work to build something so big, but all of them worked very hard every day except Sunday, while Miriam and Ezra flew overhead and watched.  Just as Noah and his sons were finishing the ark, Miriam heard God tell Noah that the rain would start very soon and would not stop for forty days and forty nights. God told them that they would all be safe and dry on the ark.

While Noah and his family were gathering food and water, Miriam and Ezra began to gather the animals.  All the animals were very happy to be chosen to be on the ark and were all very kind to each other.  From the largest elephant to the tiniest ant, Miriam and Ezra brought animals from every corner of the earth.  The animals walked, flew, hopped or slithered their way onto the ark, just as the rain began to fall.

When Miriam and Ezra made sure that Noah and his family, all the food and water and all the pairs of animals were aboard the ark, there was a mighty crash, as God himself closed the ark door, ready for the flood.  That was when the rain got very heavy. 

Just as God had told Noah, it rained for forty days and forty nights and all of the land disappeared, even the tallest mountains.  Every creature, large and small, was warm and dry in the ark.  Even when God sent the strong winds to dry up the earth, all of God’s creatures were safe aboard the ark.

One day, the ark finally stopped floating and everyone knew that soon, there would be land and that everyone would be able to leave the ark.  It was soon after that that Noah called on Miriam again for help.  He asked her to fly out and see if it was safe to leave the ark yet.  Miriam brought back an olive branch and Noah knew that very soon it would be time to leave the ark.

Sometime later, Noah sent Miriam out again, but this time asked Ezra to go with her and when they did not return, Noah knew that they had found somewhere to land and build a nest.  It was time for everyone to leave the ark and find a new home!

The same as the animals came onto the ark, they left, two by two, walking, crawling, flying and slithering. The sun shone down brightly and everyone was happy to see the bright new world that was clean and fresh.

Noah and his family built an altar and as they all knelt down and thanked God for keeping them safe and dry on the ark, Miriam and Ezra flew down to pray with them.  They all thanked God for bringing them through the rain to this beautiful new world. 

Copyright 2013

Friday Morning

Not a full blog, but it’s a quiet Friday morning and I am now working a 9/80 pattern at work, so I have the day off. I work 80 hours over 9 days (9 hours a day Monday to Thursday and 8 hours the first Friday of the two weeks and 0 hours of the second).
Next year will be my last full year of work before I retire, so I’m going to take the day off on my 8 hour Friday, which means I only work 4 day weeks next year!
We also get SDOs (Scheduled Days Off). One per month and you can’t carry it forward. You use it, or you lose it! So, with 6 weeks vacation (30 days) and 12 SDOs, I still have about four weeks vacation, even with all my Fridays off!
Well, I had better make good use of my days off. More time for writing and trying to reach the best audience for my books!
God bless and good reading!

Time for Change

Sometimes, single moms have difficulty letting their kids get out on their own.  My kids have been living on their own for about two years now.  They live in their own places and have each moved once, to be closer to downtown Toronto.

I can’t say that I don’t miss them, but I am very proud of both of them.

My oldest is a very talented hairstylist.  Alysse has already worked at a few different places since she graduated college.  Her greatest talent is the styling and she is happiest when she is dong the hair for a wedding.  Alysse has worked on several weddings and is now making the connections to be able to transition to doing weddings full time.  She is amazing and I say that not just because I am her mother, but because I have seen her work and heard the praise for it.

So, the change for Alysse will be getting into the Toronto wedding scene.  I wish her well.  Her talent will help her, so she just needs to make the connections to enable it support her.

My youngest is just finishing her Bachelor of Commerce at Ryerson University.  She is one very smart cookie.  Kaitlyn has struggled with dyslexia all her life, so studying is hard for her, but she is actually borderline gifted, so she always manages to find a way to do what she needs to do.  It’s harder for her than for students that are not dyslexic but dyslexia is actually a gift and will serve her well in life.  Those who are dyslexic think differently from the rest of us folks and it gives them an advantage in the working world, just not in education.

Kaitlyn’s change this year was her move earlier this month and she is also interviewing for another job at Holt Renfrew.  She already works there, but because she wants to be a buyer, she needs to experience as much in the retail world as she can.

I wish them both well and pray for their success!  They both deserve it and have earned it.

Spring has Sprung!

Okay, I am over my little funk.  I am so glad, because it just wasn’t me.  Spring is in the air and it was a beautiful day yesterday and again today.  I have always been counting my blessings and I finding more every day.

I have three books published, although I really need to get moving on marketing.  I know that I have chosen a really small audience, but I really feel that the books will touch children, the way traditional Bible stories haven’t quite been able to do.

Book four, I have promised myself to get to the publisher by the end of this weekend and then there will be a full set of four, when it comes out.

Those of you who have seen snippets on Twitter and Facebook probably know, but to summarize:  Each book has six stories.  Books one and three are from the Old Testament and books two and four are from the New Testament.  So, all in all (if you are counting), there are 24 stories (12 Old Testament and 12 New Testament). 

So far, I have not needed to repeat an animal!  Mind you, there are a couple of different birds (a dove and a raven) and kind of two goats (one referred to as just goat and one a ram), but the rest are all totally unique.

I have decided to leave it at four books, although I will plan out two more and just see what the demand is.  I would like to see children enjoy them and understand the Bible stories they represent, better than children have in the past.  I know several mothers personally, who read them to their kids and the kids just love them.

Here is my little pitch.  The first three are available on the Amazon sites, notably amazon.com and amazon.ca, but also .co.uk, .fr, .de, .jp and several other non-Amazon sites.  Please purchase the books and read them to your little ones.  You and the little ones will enjoy the stories, I promise!

My Little Funk

Firstly, let me say that I am a firm believer of everyone getting the challenges in their life that they need to learn from and that some of us are just not worthy of some things.  I am at peace with that, at least most of the time.  I know that God has my best interests in mind.

May first, I could have retired.  I have the age and years of service, so I reached that magic number.  Why am I still working?  Well, as I’m sure I have mentioned in more than one blog, I can’t retire until my youngest daughter is finished university. 

Yesterday I woke up realizing that if my life partner was actually paying the bills, I could retire anyway.  Don’t get me wrong, I do love the guy, and I also know that in a day or two, I’ll get over it, but for now, I am in quite a funk about it.  I should also point out that Cavan and I have been together for over eleven years. 

Let me tell you my Cavan story.  We met in 1985.  He was obviously smitten, and we became good friends, but I ended up marrying his roommate, which, having been left as a single parent, was the wrong thing to do.

I ran into Cavan several times for the next 17 years and then I finally ran into him at a Chamber of Commerce meeting and found that he and his wife had been separated for a couple of years.  So we finally got together. I love Cavan and I know he loves me.  You would think that would be good enough but, he contributes very little monetarily to the household and he is still married to his wife.

How does that make me feel?  It makes me feel like I’m not good enough, that I am not entitled to better.  Is that the challenge that I’m supposed to have in this life?  I guess so. 

As I said, I believe that God gives us what we need, including the challenges we have.  Because I believe that, I will get over my little funk, but give me a day or two.