Sunday Selections #381

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  We are still in busy mode.  The roofers were coming on Monday just gone.  They didn't.  Ditto Tuesday.  I finally tracked them down on Wednesay - 'We will be there first thing Monday'.  So naturally they arrived just after I left to go to Lifeline on Thursday.

Poor Jazz.  He has been suffering.  He doesn't like visitors at the best of times.  And noisy visitors are even worse.  Hopefully by the middle of next week it will be largely over.

In the middle of the insanity last week we took a mental health break and headed down to the lake.

After watching the kangaroobies for a while we drove a little further and spent a happy half hour watching people revelling in the breeze.

Heart balm.

Words For Wednesday

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Computer issues led her to bow out for a while.  The meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast. 

Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image.   What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...  We can use some or all of the prompts.

Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog.  I would really like it if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants.  If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.

The prompts will be here again this month but are provided by Margaret Adamson, and her friend Sue Fulton.  They also include photographs taken by Margaret's friend Bill Dodds.

This week's words are:

1. Radiator
2. Football
3. Ballet
4. Electricity
5. Cooking
6. Debonaire

And/or

1. Mambo
2. Wrinkles
3. Transport
4. Suffocating
5. Beanie
6. Patisserie

Have fun.

Huge thanks to Margaret, Sue and Bill for challenging us this month.  Next month Lee will be providing the prompts.

 

Sunday Selections #380

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme.  The week just gone by has been busy.  Our gutters were removed and replaced.  The tradesman arrived about seven each morning and worked late too.  Lifeline and other things filled in the 'spare' time.

Each morning I took photos just after dawn and am going to share some of them.  I do love the early hours.  A soft light.  A gentle light.

There is other colour about just after dawn too.
The leaves on the ornamental cherry in the back yard just about glow...

There have been frost flowers too.  If I get lucky we will soon have mornings which are cold enough to freeze bubbles.

And, at the other end of the day, we have had splashes of more vivid colour.

This coming week is going to be busy too.  A different set of tradies (roof restoration), Lifeline, a medical procedure for himself, and (hopefully) some mulch delivered and spread.

Some Very Messy Medieval Magic

Isn't that a wonderful book title?
Most of you know that I am an unashamed bookaholic.  And read widely, across genres and age groups.
I have been remiss of late.  I owe several blogging friends reviews.  I will get to them.  I promise.
So when C.Lee McKenzie asked for some bloggy support for her latest book I turned a new leaf (a leaf I hope to keep turning).  While I have read the earlier books in this series I haven't read her latest work.  Yet.  I assuredly will and have loved everything of hers I have come across.
So I have asked her to do a Guest Post and tell us a little about her work.  I hope that you will succumb to temptation and buy one (or more) of her books.

Please give Lee a huge welcome.

***

Hi Sue and thanks for hosting me in your paradise today I always leave here with visions of beautiful plants or birds or art.

You asked me a couple of questions that I really love, so here goes.


Do you or your characters call the shots/direct the action?

 I try to be the boss, and in the beginning, I pretty much am. I think. I visualize how they look and sound. I name them. I set them on the path that I want them to travel. This all happens before I write a word, but when I have a solid image, I put my fingers on my keyboard and let ’er rip. The problem is that once the words are on the screen, I often don’t recognize the characters. They come down from my head to my fingertips and in that brief journey, they’ve morphed into people I must deal with. By that I mean, I need to know them better. And I want them to trust that I’ll “get” them right. That’s the best way I have of explaining what happens, and it most likely means they call the shots from the get-go. I just like to think I’m important.



Am I right in thinking they become very, very real to you?

Yes. And they never go away. I still carry on secret conversations with Shawna (Sliding on the Edge). She’ll always be full of sass, but now it serves her because she’s running Kay’s horse ranch and making it profitable.

Carlie (The Princess of Las Pulgas) is all grown up. She and Juan Pacheco are happy together and I see 2.2 kids in their home. I love following Hutch (Double Negative) as he goes through life. In my mind, he’s on his Masters Degree in college and going into social work to help kids. I’m sure he’ll be at the forefront of literacy campaigns. Cleo (Sudden Secrets) is all grown up and out of Morgan Heights. I’m sure she’s in touch with Beleza. Cleo didn’t marry Rudy, but they’re great friends. I have the sense her parents divorced. Odd, isn’t it? I almost feel I should go back to their house on Queensbury Circle and find out for sure.

That was all about my young adult books, but I also write middle-grade novels. I call these my vacation stories. In them I shake off as much of the real world as possible and step through one of those magic portals like the one in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

With Pete and Weasel I get to venture into a dangerous swamp, talk to a few alligators and travel through time. In Alligators Overhead, I got to save a swamp and tweak some politicians’ noses. Yay! In The Great Timelock Disaster, I visited Dickens’s England and saw Queen Victoria crowned. How great is that? With Some Very Messy Medieval Magic the last book in this series, I met Richard The Lion Hearted. What a guy.

 I love Chinese mythology and astrology, so in Sign of the Green Dragon I played with both. I also happen to love anything about the California Gold Rush, so I set the story in an old boom town and explored a bit of that history that the early Chinese were such a large part of.



While my YAs takes on some serious issues that a lot of teen experience, my MGs are wacky fun with the ideas of friendship, honesty, and doing the right thing at their core.



 Well, this has been fun. I loved your questions; they let me go back and do some reminiscing. I haven’t done that in a while.

All my books are available online. 

Some Very Messy Medieval Magic is available at these locations. 

AMAZON . B&N . KOBO  . SMASHWORDS . YABC 

Print ISBN 9781939844460 / EBook ISBN 9781939844477

Order through Ingram, Follett, or from the publisher

EBook available in all formats 

My publisher has created a library request letter that I'm including. If people want to check out the book, rather than buy a copy, this is one way to make that possible.

Words for Wednesday

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Computer issues led her to bow out for a while.  The meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast. 

Essentially the aim is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image.   What we do with those prompts is up to us:  a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore...  We can use some or all of the prompts.

Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog.  I would really like it if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants.  If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.

The prompts will be here again this month but are provided by Margaret Adamson, and her friend Sue Fulton.  They also include photographs taken by Margaret's friend Bill Dodds.

This week's prompts are photographs by the talented Bill:

 
And/or

Have fun.

Sunday Selections #379

Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
 
The meme is now continued by River at Drifting through life.  The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent.  Post some photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to River.  Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen. 
 
Like River I usually run with a theme. We did get to the Museum in our busy week but the PC is behaving badly so I will save those photos for a while.  Instead I am sharing some of the autumnal colour in our neighbourhood.  It has not only been surprisingly warm (until the last couple of days) it has also been very, very dry.  The yellow colours have suffered.  They are not as bright as usual and tend to go brown and fall very quickly.

D

 

I am finishing with a Tree Dahlia.  Despite a couple of cold days we have not yet had a frost, so they are coming into triumphant bloom.

I do enjoy Aboreal Fireworks.  They are definitely a decided plus to living somewhere which gets Autumn.