A blog about writing, being a writer, getting inspired to write, etc. For writers, authors, would-be writers and authors. I only have 2 rules. 1, please keep everything PG rated at most, there are some younger folks who read my blog; and 2, please do not criticize what others have written. I would like this to be a safe haven for folks to explore their writing style and to gain some confidence in their story telling abilities. Nasty comments will be deleted.
Good Afternoon! I had
planned on making this blog post yesterday, but Kieren & Logan wouldn’t let
me, and since you’ve waited for Faerie Tale Queen for so long, I thought it
best to oblige them.
I have two things to tell
you about today. Tonight, on Facebook, we are doing a launch party for AnnieAcorn’s 2015 Spirited Tales. If you haven’t heard, I am one of 8 authors in
this new book of spooky short stories, and tonight, Susan Ricci, Juliette Hill
& I will be hosting an online party to launch its release. There will be chatting
with the authors, games, and give-aways, so if you’re around tonight between 7 –
9 Eastern Daylight Time, then pop on in and have some fun.
The other thing I wanted
to tell you about was, last Saturday, I attended the Princeton Public Library’sAuthors’ Day. The morning started off with two workshops, and since I firmly
believe if I don’t have something nice to say, I should shut up, I will only
tell you about the first workshop. It was hosted by author and motivational
speaker Ed Tseng, and he was FABULOUS!
Ed Tseng
Although I am generally a
positive person – overly so if you ask some folks – there were several points
Ed hit on which resonated with me, and I’d like to share with you.
How many of you have ever
had a bad dream? When you wake up from the dream, is all right with your world
again? Do you realize it was only a dream and not an actual threat to your wellbeing?
Chances are you said “yes” to all of these questions (precognition aside).
Well, thoughts should be handled just like dreams. The little voice which says “you’re
not good enough” or “you can’t” is just a dream, it’s not real. So squash it
and forge on. You ARE good enough, and you CAN!
The next tidbit which
stuck with me is “It’s the start that stops most people”. How many times have
you said, “Someday, I’ll_____” (you fill in the blank). Why does it have to be “someday”?
Why can’t someday be today? If I had a nickel for every person who told me that
someday they’d like to write a book, I’d have a whole lot of shiny nickels. Infallibly
I tell them, “Then just do it.” and ask, “What’s stopping you?” and infallibly
they present me with a list of excuses.
Just this weekend, one “author”
was complaining he wanted to write another book, but he just doesn’t have the
time. I suggested he wake up fifteen minutes earlier to write, but he had a
list of excuses why he couldn’t. I’m sorry, but anyone could find a measly
fifteen minutes in a day. My guess is he really didn’t want to write or he
would find the time, and although I’m probably wrong, it made me question the
quality of what he’s already written. Perhaps I am just bias and tend to be
repelled by negative people.
Pretty much on that same
note, Ed had one piece of advice – “Even if you don’t want to do something,
commit to it for fifteen minutes, then you can stop.” Provided we are not
talking about holding your breath, fifteen minutes isn’t going to kill you, and
you’d be amazed at how much you can actually accomplish in fifteen minutes.
Can I let you in on a
little secret? I’m not the most diligent when it comes to housework. My nose
gets a bit bent out of shape when everyone else in the house expects me to
clean up their messes, so I’ve been known to go on strike – a lot. Just because
I don’t physically leave the house, does not mean I’m not working, and
therefore should be the maid, chef and chauffeur.
Well, for the past few
days, I have been taking Ed’s advice, and committing fifteen minutes. Every
hour or so, when I need to get up and move around or my back will protest, I
tackle one task for fifteen minutes. Guess what? The house is almost clean, and
I’m not grumbling under my breath while I’m doing it. I also have a real sense
of accomplishment. It’s amazing what fifteen minutes can do for your soul.
Okay, I have rambled on
enough for one day. I hope you enjoy the photos from the Princeton Public
Library Author’s Day, and I hope you check out some of the authors I have
featured in this post.
Until next time – I hope
you have a WONDERFUL day & Happy Writing!
Sorry for the delay, I couldn't get the event photos to load, but as promised, below
are the responses and pictures from last Friday night’s SheTalks event. Everything is EXACTLY the way the writer wrote it – I did not edit
anything. With the exception of a few adults who were at the event and
participated in the exercise, all of the authors range from 8 – 14 years old. I
think they did an AMAZING job, and I think you’ll be able to find a few
budding authors in the group. REMEMBER, they only had 10 minutes to complete
this assignment.
Without further ado …
Yugi
L. – ?? Grade
This is the picture Yugi drew to go
along with her story.
Once a tiger escaped from the
zoo at Tennessee. On 10-23-2001, the tiger stole a
ball! He tossed the ball
about. He threw it back to the zoo. Then he got caught. He just wanted a ball.
THE END
Our Hostess Tara with her friend, and fellow
Girl Scout, Shefali
Ami
G. – 4th Grade
Once I went to Tennesse and
saw a giant tiger than ever. Tossing it some food he ate a lot of food. We were
just going on a hike. We had plenty of food so I didn’t care how much it ate.
By the way, he or she was really fat. After a little while it was getting dark
so we gave the tiger some more food and when it went to sleep we started home.
When we got home I dreamed that the tiger was my pet. The next morning, I saw
the same tiger wandering around. It ran over to me at first I thought it was
going to bite me but instead she tried hugging me. So she became my pet
forever. The End
The girls fought a crazy thunderstorm to get to the event.
Charlotte
M. – 4th Grade
One sunny day, I was at a zoo
in Tennessee. First, we looked at the monkeys.
“Oooh, Oooh, Aahh, Ahh” they
went. They were so loud, we had to cover our ears. Next, we visited the tiger.
He was so beautiful, with black and orange fur. I looked like like he was
playing basket ball, because he kept tossing the the ball in one direction.
Tara started off by explaining what SheTalks was all about.
Hailey B. – 4th
Grade (Birthday Girl - Tennessee)
I’m in Tennessee and I am
going to the zoo. My favorite animal is the tiger. I love when they roar. But
today I am not going to see the tigers I am going to be tossing fish to feed
the pangwins. My dad works there so I get to go every day from now on to feed
the pangwins. I really can’t wait! The End
Isabella
J. – 4th Grade
I started with a PowerPoint explaining who I was.
The slide in the background is "I'm a Wife"
Once there was a family going
to Tennessee. They landed and went to there very new house. There was a zoo
right around the corner so the family decided to go to the zoo. “I want to see
the tigers” a little girl said to her mom. They walked down to tiger village. “I
want a cookie!” demanded the little girl. They got a cookie and the little girl
saw this really pretty tiger and went close to it the tiger tossed her cookie
and poof! Split it into pieces. “Waaaaaa.” The little girl went. Suddenly the
family went back to there new home.
There were two SheTalks events, and each of the 4 speakers
had a topic she was to theme her speech around.
Olivia
A. – 4th Grade
One day my family said “Lets
all go to the Tennessee Zoo!” I was as happy as a monkey with a banana! So my
family and I paked up and got ready to go. On the way to Tennessee I got a
little bored so I pulled out my ipod and listened to some music. After what
seemed forever we pulled into the zoo parking lot. All of a sudden I saw a
tiger roaming the parking lot! I was amazed. Then some circus men came into the
parking lot tossing balls of fire! It turned out we did not have to go to the
zoo after all, we already had it in the parking lot!
My topic was "Courage". I told the girls my birthday was April Fools Day, then I asked whose birthday was coming up.
Ella
H. – 5th Grade
Ted the Tiger was in Tennessee
tossing Turtle into his mouth.
Elom
A. – 5th Grade
One day I went outside and saw
a massive tiger on my front lawn! “What are you doing”? The boy asked the
tiger. “Oh hi, I’m just picking up my babies from Tennessee, and just tossing a
pickup truck from one side to another.” The tiger said. “Wait you can talk.” “Well
yes.” So the tiger went to make some new friends.
3 girls' birthdays were coming up. This is Katie, my victim.
I had her stand, face the girls, and then I asked her to sing
Happy Birthday to them in front of the whole room.
Isabella
J. – 5th Grade
One day I went to the zoo in
Tennessee. There, I saw a tiger tossing potatoes ant turtles up and cout them
in his mouth. Then he ate them. The End!
Katie
B. – 5th Grade
Once upon a time there was a
pink and blue tiger in Tennessee. He was eat fish and cookies with milk. He
went to go shirts the super market. He had to stock up on and hats. Then it
went home and slept on a marshmellow. He called his friend the lion to start
tossing balls and fish. Later they went to the zoo to see the people in the
cages and not the animals. Then they saw a pig eating bacon. So they went home
to have a sleep over with the turtle and the ant. They lived happily ever
after.
These are Charlotte & Mia, two of our birthday girls.
Meilin
F. – 5th Grade
Once upon a time their was a
tiger that lived in Tennessee. He wanted to explore the new world. So he went
to the Tennessee zoo and he saw a penguin and tryed to eat him but he noticed a
kid tossing his cookies so he went up and ate the boys cookies the boy ran away
to the penguin home and flew away with the penguin, as for the tiger he lived
happy with the other penguins at the zoo.
Obviously Katie wasn't going to sing in front of the whole
group (don't worry, I prepped her to what I was going to do),
so then I asked ALL the girls to stand up and help Katie.
Michelle
T. – 5th Grade
I saw a tiger dancing on a
rainbow in Tennessee tossing a cookie.
Preeta
J. – 6th Grade
Once, there was a little girl
that went to the park on her birthday. It was in northern Tennessee. Her
brother saw a tiger in the far corner, and asked his sister if he could go pet
a “cat”!, and went to see the tiger. He saw that the tiger was holding Ritz® Crackers
in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He was also holding a newspaper.
He put the newspaper down and saw my brother looking at him, and tossed his
coffee and Ritz®
all over my brother! My brother came back to me, soaking wet. He said a tiger
was a cat and started crying and turning red
(Preeta
actually put the ® after Ritz on her paper. Love it!)
Bekah
L. – 7th Grade
The moral of the exercise was things aren't so scary when
you have others around you, to support and encourage you.
It's a lot easier to have courage when you know you're
not alone.
One time I was living in
Tennessee. When I was at a baking contest inside of a zoo, I baked cookies
hoping that I would win the prize money. The prize money was $2,000. I got
there and wanted to go look at all of the animals because I arrived early. I
put my cookies inside of a locker so they wouldn’t drop on the ground, plus I
had a container I just didn’t want to have the sun beaming down on them. I
started at the tigers. I started at the tigers. They said there was supposed to
be 3 tigers but there were only 2, apparently one was at a contest. Later in
the day I got my cookies and headed for the cookie competition. When I got
there I saw where the other tiger was, the other tiger was a judge for the
competition! Everyone else got judged for their cookies and then if it didn’t
like them the tiger tossed the cookies in the pond. The tiger came to my plate
and it roared in my face after it tried mine, apparently it met it liked mine!!
I WON THE COMPETITION!!!
I was thrilled with this group of girls. I did not just stand at
the front of the room and talk at them; they interacted with
very little prompting, if any. We all had fun, and I was quite
impressed, and inspired by them.
Charlotte
C. – 7th Grade (Birthday Girl - Toss)
Running down the dark, musty,
hallway, Oz ran for his life. Hearing the shouts behind him, he ducked into a
hidden corner. Oz had been living peacefully in Tennessee until his best friend
returned. Sasha had disappeared five years prior, and no one had heard from her
since. Then, she reappeared, with news about the mysterious gone-missing animals,
including the Sala Tiger, the last of its kind. Seeing an air duct, Oz shimmied
his way up it, soot darkened his golden hair. When he emerged from the
underground, Sasha was waiting for him.
“Took you long enough.” She
called, next to the beat up van, aka the getaway limo. Tossing her the keys, he
got into the passenger seat.
“Where to next?” He was
getting tired of running around the world, hunting down hidden clues, and
hiding from danger.
Grace
M. – 7th Grade
This is Ingrid, Tara's other assistant for the evening.
Monday morning dawned on the
city of Tennessee. Me and my class at school were going to the new zoo.
Apparently there was this amazing new tiger there. The second I walked into our
class there was a change in atmosphere. The class was buzzing with excitement.
We boarded the busses that would take is to and from the zoo. The moment we
pulled in the driveway it was amazing. The first thing that my teacher Ms. Wang
decided that we would see was the new amazing and exotic tiger.
When we were looking at the
exibit, a kid in my class Max had goldfish crackers in an open bag and was eating
them. Then, it happened. The tiger roared so loud that Ma tossed the bag of
goldfish because he was so scared. The crackers flew everywhere. When the tiger
roared Max had also screamed at the top of his lungs. My whole class looked in
his direction. It turned out to be a weird trip because the goldfish flying
everywhere.
This is Thuy An, and her theme was Advocacy. Part of
being a good advocate for a cause is being able to articulate
your passion effectively. Thuy An has held several positions
within our local government.
Julia
H. – 7th Grade
“NO!” I cried. My tiger has
escaped. Last time I saw him we were tossing a football in the front yard. I
bought my tiger in Maine, but now we live in New York. I can’t believe I let
him go. The best tigers are from Maine. So, I went to Grandpa’s vacation home
there and bought one. We stayed at his house because picking a tiger takes a
while to do. That’s what Stan, my friend from Tennesse told me. He is super
wise. Anyway, mom says I get distracted a lot. Did you know dog years count by
7s? Hey, I’m in 7th grade? Does that mean I have 7 lives? Wait what
was I writing about? Hmm, I think I want to buy a tiger. My friend Stan has
one. Maybe I should write a pursuasive paper on why to get a tiger. I will call
grandpa in Maine, he can help me write it.
Kayla
P. – 7th Grade
Thuy An taught the group how to prepare a speech and after
they did, they were encouraged to present their "cause". Out of
over 30 girls, only 2 elected not to speak, however, they did get
up in front of the room to lend support to their friends. See, I
told you I was impressed.
Btw - our 3rd birthday girl is the young lady with the flower
in her hair.
The trouble maker tiger just
earned his wings! He was so excited, the tiger has been waiting his whole life
for his wings to grow in. He knew exactly what to do first. The tiger flew high
into the sky with a water balloon. He looked down at tenessee and waited for
the perfect moment. Then, when the time was right he tossed the balloon down
onto another tiger! The wet tiger was flabbergasted! He had no idea where the
water balloon came from… until he looked up. The trouble maker tiger was
caught! His parents took away his flying privliges for a whole week! But he
learned his lesson, with great power comes great responsibility.
Here's a picture of most of the group. A few had to leave
early, so they do not appear in the photo.
Maura
S. – 7th Grade
It was a sunny day in
Tennessee. The birds were singing and the paperboy was throwing the newspapers.
At the zoo, there was anything but piece and quiet. The lions were roaring, the
monkeys were uh uh and ah ahing. But in the corner of the jungle exhibit, was
just trying to get a nap. Until he heard a loud beep. The door to his cage
swung open. It was feeding time! But Mr. Tiger wasn’t very hungry, so when the
zookeeper gave him his daily breakfast, the tiger picked it up and threw it
right back to the zookeeper. “What did you do that for?” zookeeper said,
covered in chocolate protein pudding. The pudding was surprisingly warm, and
the zookeeper realized, it wasn’t the tigers daily chocolate protein pudding.
The tiger smirked and laughed onto his back. The zookeeper closed the door and
went to the bathroom to clean up.
The Girl Scouts
So much more than just
yummy cookies!
Mia
C. – 7th Grade (Birthday Girl - Tiger)
The waxing moon cast pale
shadows onto the three figures slipping through the trees. Like ninjas they
crept quickly but silently, for their task required utmost skill and
concentration. Simultaneously, the trio leapt at an inhuman speed and
gracefully landed, perching themselves on the branches of an oak tree.
“Ready?” One of the figures
asked the others.
“On three,” the closest one
replied, and within those three seconds, the figures tossed themselves into the
dark Tennessee sky. What landed on the dry, prickly grass was not the human
forms that had taken to the trees, though. There, huge against the distant
moon, stood three massive tigers.
Sophia
N. - 7th Grade
The graceful Persion tiger
strutted across the walkway behind the gate. Anastasia the tiger was familiar
to all of the attention. At the Nashville Zoo, in Tennessee, Anastasia was the
main attraction. She was advertised all over Tennessee, as new admirers piled
in, hoping to catch a glimpse of the mysterious beauty. Her snow white fur
shone brighter than the sun as customers filed in. Next to the fluttering
flamingos, one could find savory cookies to toss to Anastasia. She gulped the
delacacies, mouth full, as more cookies flew her way. A scraney girl came her
way, tears rolling down her cheeks, fright in her eyes. Anastasia purred,
trying to calm the nervous girl down.
As I said, this was a two day event. Here's some shots from
the first SheTalks...
Taylor
W. – 7th Grade
I
never ending adventar
One day in tennessee a little
girl and her family decied to go out And explore. But only her two brothers
came. So they just started to walk into the middle of no wear. Soon her
brothers wanted to go home beacuse in the dark the tigers and wolf and ciyodes
start to come out. She said to her brothers Im not ready yet so she kept on
walk and soon her brothers stoped standing around and walked. Soon after that
all they heared was a loud roar. Then they saw a tiger walking out from behind
a rock with a dead anial in his teeth her brothers both tossed there mothers
home made pizza. So they ran all the way back home. By the time they got home
it was dark and their mother yelled so much that South decoda could hear her.
So they all got sent to there rooms the end.
Jayne spoke about passion, and how if you are passionate
about what you do, it will never feel like "work". Jayne is
the owner of our local ice cream shop & the creator of
absolutely beautiful ice cream cakes.
Gabriella
D. – 8th Grade
Once upon a time, there was a
tiger named Lily. She lived with her trainer, John Murray, in Tennessee. She
felt like a princess, for she was always the center of attention at her
training center. Although she was only a year old, Lily felt like a know it
all.
One day, John came in her cage
to see her. A smile was plastered on his face and his eyes had crinkles on the
corners.
“What’s happening?” Lily asked
after giving him a big tiger hug?
“You’re going to be with your
mother for the first time.” Lily didn’t even know she had a mom. She leapt with
joy as John pulled her collar to meet her mother, who was in the zoo.
When she got there, she saw an
old tiger who was tossing her other cubs in the air, and instantly joined them.
Lily was finally reunited with her mom and they lived happily ever after.
Courtney spoke on Community. Courtney is active with
several charities in our area - I'm pretty sure she has even
started a few charities on her own.
Gracie
C. – 8th Grade
From
The Eyes Of A Red Panda
There’s a tiger here now. His
eyes are a sickly yellow and have daggers in them. I watch him daily from my
lonely habitat.
There’s other red pandas here
with me, of course. But they don’t really do anything, or share my obsession
about the tiger.
I wonder about him, his story.
How did he get all the way here to this run-down zoo in Tennessee? I worry
about him slightly. He always tosses and turns in his sleep. I’m sure that’s
normal for tigers, but once the moon reveals itself, and the pale light shines
upon him, I can’t help but let my curiosity get the best of me.
Things are rather dull here,
in the Zoo of Tennessee, but this creature has brought some interest here.
I wonder.
Several of the girls who attended the 1st event came to the 2nd
Graciela
C. – 8th Grade
They was the greatest
specticle in Tennessee. Lots of people were angry that the many sleepless
nights, and billions of dollars that went into the project was being used by a
circus. The more reasonable among them acknowledged the fact that this was a
test run to see if this technology could work for the better. They chose the
state and town at random. That’s where they got Tennessee. Then they chose an
animal. Something endangered so if the species died during the experiment they
would have gone out with a bang and left the earth doing something that was
supposed to better the human race. They started training them in these labs.
This made the animal activists nearly mad because of the cold, steril, and
unstimulating nature of the small rooms. And a short amount of time there they
were tossing bowling pins in a circus for all the world to see. What was the
intention you ask. They manipulated the genetics of these tigers to have apposable
thumbs.
Angela
Z – Adult
Story: One night I heard a
tiger roaring in my backyard. I was scared to death. I tried to toss a stone
toward it through my window on the second floor to scare it away but it was not
moving at all. So I called the police and told them about the tiger. So I
called the police and told them about the tiger. I said I live in the urban
area tiger shouldn’t appear it at all! The police told me that there’s a tiger
escaped from a zoo in Tennessee! Is it the tiger that has made all the way to
NJ? That’s unbelievable!
Hum, it must be my garden that
attracts it to stay!
I have no idea what this activity was, but it sure looks like
the girls were having a blast.
Anonymous
– Adult
It was a dark and stormy
Friday evening. The wind was blowing all of the freshly fallen autumn leaves
all over the town of Hillsborough. A courageous girl scout was working on a project
called “She Talks.” As she stood in front of a group of engaged girl scouts,
she gave them a list of words and an activity. The words were, “tiger,” “Tennessee,”
and “tossing,” and the girls had to include these words in a story…
Anonymous
– Adult
The turn out for the 1st event was impressive as well.
Tricia the terrific tiger took
the slow train to Nashville Tennessee. She was on her way to try her talents to
the country music stage. On her way the train was tossing and swaying with a
rhymthic click, clonk & clang along the rails. On the way there was Leo the
Lion, George the giraffe, and Ollie the Otter. With the rhyms of the rails they
each found their own group song.
Cristen
H. – Adult
“Tiger”! I yelled when I
spotted those eyes in the bush. My first trip out of Tennessee and I’m going to
be eaten by a tiger! I knew I had mere seconds to decide what to do. I tossed
ideas through my head, every episode of national geographic flashed in front of
me. Thoughts races, those eyes got lower, lower: this is it, that tiger is
going to pounce! Ugh! – I am not cat food, I can do this! I told myself. I
looked up, down, left, then right… Nothing, no options – what do I do? How do I
escape? I close my eyes, breathe in deep and exhale. Tossing the biggest rock I
could find, to my left, I ran to my right as fast as I could. I heard a fierce
sound come from that tiger and the wind lifted me to speeds I’ve never felt
before. All of a sudden – BAM! Oh, it hurts. What happened?
Kathy
G. – Adult
We crept quietly along the
bank of the darkest river I ever drifted down. Deep in the hills of Back Water,
Tennessee you find the best places to go frogging. At first it sounds like
folks are tossing rocks in the water, but, after closer examination and a
really bright spot light, you realize that the frogs are plopping themselves
into the murkey waters. This may sound scary to you but, alot happens after you
catch them all is more frightening than being chased by a wild tiger. “Dinner”
calls the cook master and right there on your plate are the biggest, freshest, tastiest
frog legs you will ever eat!
See, didn’t I tell you
they did a great job? There was quite a bit of imagination flying around the
room on Friday. Perhaps it was from the raging thunderstorm going on outside at
the time. Who knows, I’m just pleased as punch they did such a superb job and
seemed to have fun doing it.
Until next time – I hope
you have a WONDERFUL day & Happy Writing!
Good Afternoon! No, I haven’t
fallen off the edge of the Earth, there just hasn’t been anything I felt
warranted an entire blog post. Today I will get you updated on everything since
my last post in June, and then either tomorrow or Thursday, I’ll make the post
I will be talking about in a second.
Doing what I love in my happy place.
Let’s see, over the
summer, DaniRose got to spend two weeks in Florida at her boyfriend’s grandparents’
house. Even though she’d never been away from home for that long, and other
than getting attacked by fire ants, she did just fine.
Liz teased that these were our accommodations.
Lys and I took a couple
of day trips to the beach while she was gone. Both Lys & Dani had summer
jobs, but unfortunately for my writing, they worked the same days I did, and
were off the same days as I was, so I did not write a single word all summer. (I
elected to put writing on hold as opposed to burying the girls in the back yard
because they kept disturbing me while I was trying to write.)
She took me to Big Lots!
The end of June, I drove
down to Greensboro, NC for a “girls weekend”, my first ever. On Twitter, I have
become friends with several other authors, some of us are even in an anthology
together which comes out later this week (I’ll tell you all about it when I
know an exact date for the release). Well, one was flying in from California to
visit family, another was flying in from Israel for business, and I said, “We
can’t miss this opportunity to get together. Who knows if it will ever happen
again.” Then sweetiepie Lizabeth Scott said, “Well, y’all just come and stay
with me.” So we did!
Not too shabby!
We had the most incredible time, and believe it or not, we
actually got work done – exchanged best practices, taught each other marketing
tips, even did some book formatting. I have no idea when the time will arise
again when we can all get together, but I am fairly sure all of us will make a Herculean
effort to make it happen again.
The "Haul"
The day after PJ's 25th birthday, My hubby & I, my father-in-law, PJ & Alex all went on a fishing trip. My goodness, we had a blast. I didn't catch anything, but everyone else did. Let me tell you, there was some good eating going on that night!
The kid's got a real talent for decorating!
In August, my in-laws
threw us a surprise 25th Anniversary party. It was wonderful. Lys
made a GORGEOUS cake for the event.
Right before we brought
Lys back to college, we went and spent a few days at two different friends’
houses down the shore – I actually had a better time doing that then when we
went on vacation. We brought along the game Cards Against Humanity and played
at both houses. OMG, we laughed so hard, my sides ached.
On the ferry from NY to VT
Lys got off to college
fine. She needed to be there a week early because she was a student ambassador (or
something like that). The one bad thing was UVM’s move in weekend was the same
weekend, so there were no hotel rooms available. I had to sleep on Lys’ floor –
let me tell you, I am entirely too old to be sleeping on a floor!
What a LOVELY night on Church Street
Two weeks ago we went back
up to Vermont for Parents’ Weekend – again there were no hotel rooms available
(for under $200), so we ended up staying an hour away. NBD, it was a lovely
ride and we got to spend almost two days with her. We went apple picking, did
some shopping, and a whole lot of eating. We had a wonderful time.
All throughout the summer,
on weekends, I have been at Canterbury Tales Forever Book Shoppe in Peddlers
Village, in Lahaska, PA doing book signings. I know I’ve said this a million
times, but I really love it there. If you ever have the opportunity to visit,
you should.
My display at ShopRite
I will be there every Saturday & Sunday from now through the
middle of November with the exception of October 24th. On the 24th,
I will be at the Princeton Public Library for their Author’s Day, then on
November 21st, I will be at the Hillsborough Public Library for
their Author’s Day, and that will be my final signing for the year.
I made 2 sets of these, one for each auction
I have also had the
opportunity to do a few charitable events. I did a fundraiser for ShopRite’s
Partners in Caring. I donated baskets to the Hillsborough Woman’s Club Basket
Auction, and well as baskets to help raise money for a young family who
recently lost their mom.
Last Friday, I was asked
to be a speaker at SheTalk. SheTalk is an event Tara Wattal, a high school
junior and Girl Scout going for her Gold Award, started. She had community role
models come in and do inspiration talks to girls roughly in the 8 – 14 year old
range, and she asked me if I would be one of the speakers (this is the event I
was telling you about at the beginning of this blog).
After each speaker, the
girls did an activity based on either the speaker herself or the message. When
I was done yacking, I had the girls do a ten minute writing prompt. When they
finished, I collected all the papers and told them their stories will be
published on my blog. Well, there were a whole lot of girls at the event, and
several of the parents took up the writing challenge as well, so I am currently
transposing all of the submissions. As I said, I’m hoping to have the post up
no later than Thursday. The girls did a wonderful job. I think you’ll enjoy
seeing what they wrote.
Okay, so now you are all
up to speed on what has been going on in my life since the cruise. To be
honest, other than my post later this week, I don’t know when the next post
will be. I don’t think y’all want to hear from me all the time, so I think I
should hold off until I have something interesting to tell you. Now, if I’m
wrong, let me know, and I will reevaluate my thinking.
Until next time – I hope
you have a WONDERFUL day & Happy Writing!
