Life in General and a Commercial (Ain't that life?)

I've been noticing life around me lately. 

That's a change, because I've been doing the old nose at the grind stone thing  lately, trying to get this book ready for the publisher. 

It's done except having my picture struck, which I reckon I will do Monday.

Ugh.

You  may be like all these other people who are taking selfies all the time and think it's a grand thing to see their mug plastered all over Facebook, texts, twitter, snapchat and whatever the heck else there is.

Not I, friend. Nope, nope, nope. I hates it, my precious.

You may have noticed it's rained here enough to float the ark. But today the sun is out and our tomatoes are turning red. I picked a few beans to go with the other handful I picked a few days ago. There might be enough that  maybe Husband and I won't have to fight over them.

On another note, I saw on the news the other day that a fella asked his mother to play the lottery for him. He carefully gave her the numbers he wanted played. She wrote them down.  

She wrote them down wrong.

She proceeded to go to the store and buy a ticket for him. Using numbers unknown to him. 

She won $100,000.00.

I bet he ain't mad at his mama.

So, commercial time!

Wait! Come back! It won't take long.

My new book coming out: "Poetry, Prose and Music: Life of an Appalachian Woman" is a whopper. No wonder I'm tired.

It's over 400 pages long filled with the funny and some sad, some light hearted mess and some introspection. Some of it rhymes, some of it doesn't, just like life. There are fifteen short stories, a few not very short. A few of these blogs you've read over the years are in there, as well as some "essays" that have been published elsewhere. A few short stories have won contests and been published. I even got money, people! And there's a great deal of photography included. Some of it quite good. Those are probably the photos I didn't take. 

And at the back, a musical CD. Three of the songs are written by yours truly. Some are contemporary Christian, a few old hymns. Daughter sings a solo and two duets with her dear old mama. Daughter also did the artwork on the CD. Show off.

I'll keep you posted (you were afraid of that) as to the progress and when it's done and when book signings will commence.

Commercial over.

So, have you read any good books lately?





















fifteen short stories

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

You know how some pictures you see  bring back a flood of memories, while others do not?

I remember seeing a video (reel to reel, honey. We are talking the old days). It was taken at the tag end of some of my first wedding, which took place in 1972. In 1973 we went on a cross country trip with those same people, and he just continued the reel.

About a dozen years later, I got to see the "movie" for the first time. I remembered after the wedding film. But when it switched to the next year and we are all walking around a fish hatchery, I was astounded.

Why?

Because I had no memory whatsoever of being at a fish hatchery.

Still gives me the creeps.

Was I so bored I just blanked it out?

I guess I'll never know.

But then there are pictures that take you right back to the moment.

Like wedding pictures, baby pictures of my one and only chick, that kind of thing.

But I ran across a photo the other day, which is a pretty ordinary picture:

It is late winter. I am thirty-two years old. I have worked all day and grabbed up our then-delivered-to-the-door Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

I'm sitting at a desk we had just purchased to go in our being-built house.

I knew after we moved in and had a house payment, we wouldn't be able to afford furniture, so I was buying  up pieces I knew I wanted. And I knew exactly where I wanted each piece. Husband would say, "But how do you know it will fit?" or "How do you know that's the right color?"


I just knew.

And I was right!

Everything fit perfectly, everything was the right color.

Picture this: my Victorian Cottage may be small but it is a gift from God. He allows me to live in a home I was privileged to design, decorate and reside in.

Now, that's a pretty picture for you.