My Two Blessings

Josephine Walls Thank you to every one for your good thoughts, vibes and prayers for my mom and dad.  As soon as she had the kyphoplasty, the majority of her pain went away and every thing was up hill from there.   She was pretty weak after the procedure but started gaining strength after a couple days of rest.  Once the major pain issue was taken care, then she started noticing the aches and pains of having been bed ridden for so long.     I don't see how anyone gets rest in a hospital when they wake you up several times a night to take blood, check blood pressure, take xrays or do breathing therapy.  She hadn't been eating much because the hospital food was just horrible.  However, we managed to get her taste buds going with some chicken noodle soup, creamy peanut butter and bagels. My dad hadn't been sleeping too well, so when I arrived, took the night shift and sent him home to sleep in the evenings. After a couple days he was ...

15 Seconds by Andrew Gross Synopsis:   15 seconds can tear your life apart . . . Henry Steadman didn’t know what was about to hit him when he pulled up to a red light. A successful Florida plastic surgeon, he is in town to deliver a keynote address at a conference when suddenly his life becomes an unrelenting chase to stay alive. Stopped by the police for a minor traffic violation, the situation escalates and he is pulled from his vehicle, handcuffed and told he is under arrest. Several other police cars arrive and the questioning turns scary, but just as Henry is released and about to move on, a blue sedan pulls up and the officer is suddenly killed. As the car speeds away, there is only one suspect left behind–Henry. In that moment, his idyllic life becomes a free fall into hell as he becomes the target of a police manhunt, as well as being pursued by a cunning, unnamed perpetrator bent on some kind of vengeance. When Henry turns to a close friend for...

Fragile Leaf - National Geographic I'm unplugging for a few days and heading out to Arizona.  My mom fractured the L1 vertebrae in her spine and will be having surgery today.   She's been going through some really difficult times and  the issue is complicated by high blood pressure and pneumonia.  So prayers, good thoughts and good vibes would be appreciated for her and the whole family, particularly my dad who is having a hard time with all this as well.

House of Shadows by Rachel Neumeier Back cover:  "Orphaned, two sister are left to find their own way.  Sweet and proper, Karah's future seems secure at a glamorous Flower House. She could be pampered for the rest of her life...if she agrees to play their game.  Nemienne, neither sweet nor proper, has fewer choices. Left with no alternative, she accepts a mysterious mage's offer of an apprenticeship.  Agreeing means a home and survival, but can Nemienne trust the mage?  With the arrival of a foreign bard in the city, dangerous secrets are unearthed, and both sisters find themselves at the center of a plot that threatens not only to upset their newly found lives, but also to destroy their kingdom."  House of Shadows is an intriguing fantasy novel set in the fictional city of Lonne, where the men rule and women are treasured.  The story is very much character driven and follows 4 characters:  Karah, Nemienne, traveling bardic mage Taudde an...

From Inkybites Recharge Your Creative Batteries in 31 Days  If you want to be a successful writer too, you need to do these 3 things at the very least: Give Up Any and All Excuses —hard to do, yes, but worth it. Excuses hold you back from achieving things in your life. They keep you from fulfilling all the dreams you have for your writing. You only have so much time on this Earth, why waste it making excuses? I know you’re scared, we all are. But successful writers push through the fear because that’s what it takes. Nothing worthwhile is ever going to be easy. Get Into A Writing Routine and Never Stop —Stephen King writes every single day of his life (don’t believe me? Read On Writing ). He shows up to the page. He does the work. Everything he writes may not be best-seller quality at first, but he knows that’s what revisions are for. He doesn’t let the possibility of writing something awful stop him from writing. First drafts are shit, that’s just how it is. But yo...

;   This has been a fun week with having a holiday in the middle.   Hubby picked up a big pack of safe and sane fireworks for us to put off on Wednesday.  Unfortunately our new neighbors had the insane kind which they had been putting off all week and culminated in a noisy show on Wednesday.  It unfortunately was too loud for James and frankly for me too because we ended up going back inside without setting off any of our fireworks.   We told James we could do ours over the weekend. James and I went to the nursery on Friday and picked up a few things, including some marigold and salvia for hubby which he gets to plant.  Saturday evening we had our own little fireworks show and it was nice, relaxing and unstressful. All except for the cleaning up part. James decided as soon as the fireworks were over that he had to go to bed.  Due to the resulting argument he got in big trouble and lost his technology privileges.  Unless...

Libri Multus - New to me author edition Sena Jeter Naslund's Ahab's Wife   is an epic historical fiction novel inspired by a brief mention in Moby Dick about a young woman named Una Spenser and follows her from childhood, through her adventures masquerading as a young cabin boy, to her marriage to Captain Ahab. It was a bit difficult to get into at first, but given a chance, the story and the characters bloom detailing life in the 19th century and showcasing the independent spirit of Una. 700 pages long, it is complex and full of references to characters from Moby Dick and real life writers and scientists. Dean Koontz's By the Light of the Moon is more psychological thriller than horror. Three disparate characters, after being injected with an unknown substance, by a mad doctor, that gives them remarkable powers, are forced to rely on one another as they race to find answers before they are killed.   Dylan O'Connor and his autistic brother Shep just hap...

There are books so alive that you're always afraid that while you weren't reading, the book has gone and changed, has shifted like a river; while you went on living, it went on living too, and like a river moved on and moved away.  No one has stepped twice into the same river.  But did anyone ever step twice into the same book?  ~Marina Tsvetaeva

The Inquisitor's Key Synopsis:  Miranda Lovelady, Dr. Bill Brockton's protege, is spending the summer helping excavate a newly discovered chamber beneath the spectacular Palace of the Popes in Avignon, France. There she discovers a stone chest inscribed with a stunning claim: inside lie the bones of none other than Jesus of Nazareth. Faced with a case of unimaginable proportions, Miranda summons Brockton for help proving or refuting the claim. Both scientists are skeptical—after all, fake relics abounded during the Middle Ages—but evidence for authenticity looks strong initially, and soon grows stronger. Brockton and Miranda link the bones to the haunting image on the Shroud of Turin, revered by millions as the burial cloth of Christ, and then a laboratory test finds the bones to be two thousand years old. The finding triggers a deadly tug-of-war between the anthropologists, the Vatican, and a deadly zealot who hopes to use the bones to bring about the...

Bibliophile by the Sea Every Tuesday, Diane of Bibliophile by the Sea posts the opening paragraph (sometimes two) of a book she decided to read based on the opening paragraph. Feel free to grab the banner and play along! This week's pick is Comedy in a minor key "There they are again." the doctor said suddenly, and he stood up.  Unexpectedly, like his words, the noise of the approaching airplane motors slipped into the silence of the death chamber. He tilted his head to one side, squinted his eyes half shut, and listened.  As if a small generator hidden somewhere in the house has started and quickly revved up to full speed, the droning sound of the night squadron flying in grew stronger.  It might also--or so it seemed at first--be coming from the basement, or from the house next door" What do you think?  Would you want to read more?

ROW 80 Today is the beginning of another Round of Words in 80 days hosted by the wonderful Kait Nolan.  The last round - let's just forget about it.  I had thought of dropping out completely, but I need you guys to keep me on my toes, so here goes.   Starting fresh and going to be a bit more organized and specific. And as Kait said Be an Action Verb!  My goal this round will be to complete the 2nd edit of Eyes in the Ashes, because next round I'll be working on a brand new story for Nanowrimo. For Eyes -  I have organized my story bible and printed off pictures off all my characters.  I'm currently working on 1)  finding pictures for my settings which while help me better envision my scenes and 2) establishing character back stories and completing interviews in order to really know them better. 3) editing the remaining scenes. I'll try to be a bit more specific with my weekly goals, get those to do lists going and start checking th...

Josephine Wall's Flights of Wonder Goodbye June, you were very good to me. Hello July, I'm expected excellent things to happen.  I spent part of the morning planting two beautiful blue salvia plants and doing a bit of weeding.   Then enjoyed watching the hummingbirds and butterflies flitting around the butterfly bush sitting on the patio yet to be planted.  I'm thinking of buying a large pot and leaving it on the patio instead of planting it in the front garden.  Kind of neat to commune with the butterflies but I know right behind them will be the bees so...  Our weather compared to the rest of the country was a beautiful balmy 81 so going to enjoy it while we can.   My reading this month was full with mysteries and  urban fantasy with a cozy romance thrown in.  Most of the ebooks are 200-300 pages so easy to read in a day especially when prefer to read rather than watch tv.  The Inquisitor's Key - Jefferson Bass (william morrow...