Apr 15 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

This Sunday’s excerpt is from an SFR WIP set in the same universe as my recently published WRECK of the NEBULA DREAM. Andrianda (Andi) Markriss, a planetary representative for Loxton Galactic Trading, has been spending a lazy summer with her best friend in the highly exclusive summer compound of the planet Zulaire’s ruling nobility, networking. On a day when a number of strange and disturbing things have already happened, Captain Tom Deverane, Sectors Special Forces, unexpectedly shows up with a troop of soldiers and demands she leave with him. Immediately.

Andi doesn’t take this very well….

“I can’t ride off with you on literally a moment’s notice. And why is your Sector Command issuing orders concerning me anyway?”

The captain got up from his chair in one smooth motion, like a great cat uncurling, paced to the fireplace and back, then half sat on the edge of a sturdy table.

I bet he’s a person in constant motion – discussing anything in patient detail doesn’t appear to be his style. Well, I’m not one of his soldiers and I don’t take orders from him, so he had better explain himself.

Standing again, he drew himself up to his full height, at least a foot taller than Andi, and glared at her, “In case you haven’t heard, this entire planet is about to be embroiled in a devastating war.”

Go to http://sixsunday.com/ to find all the other great excerpts!

Apr 12 2012

Women & Children First?

This weekend is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. This tragic disaster is perhaps the best known example of “women and children to the lifeboats first.” That chivalrous code led to approximately 70% of the women and children who had been on board the luxury liner surviving, including a distant relative in my own family, while only 20% of the men escaped alive.

Of course the rule didn’t apply straight across the First Class, Second Class and Steerage. Only 27 of the 79 Steerage children and 76 of the 165 Third class women on board survived. On one side of Titanic the rule was rigidly enforced, even to the point of argument whether a 13 year old was a boy or a man, for purposes of saving his life. On the other side, men were easily allowed in the boats if there was room.

As gallant as the Titanic story may be, apparently it isn’t the norm. A new study from Sweden, reported in the Los Angeles Times, examined 18 different disasters at sea from 1852 thru 2011. According to the researchers, in most shipwrecks, it tends to be “Every man for himself.” Per the study: Men stand a better chance of surviving than women. Captains and crew escape more often than their passengers. And children seem to have the worst survival rates of all.

In three of the shipwrecks studied, all the women died. Less than half of captains went down with their ships.

What made the Titanic stand out, the researchers believe, was that the captain ordered women and children to be saved first – and some of the officers in charge of the lifeboats either threatened to, or did shoot men who disobeyed the order.

In my novel WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, loosely based on the events of Titanic, set in the far future, among the stars, when disaster strikes, the crew is pretty much nowhere to be seen. In the excerpt below, passenger Nick Jameson, Sectors Special Forces, in transit aboard the ship, has to step into the chaos around the nearest lifeboat. You’ll see how he prioritizes things.

Nick tried not to hurt people, but he forced his way through the throng with ruthless intent, stopping short about a yard shy of the door. Exactly as the woman had told him, two men were on the deck, kicking and clawing at each other, fighting over access to the locked LB. No one else could get by.

Reaching down, Nick grabbed one man by the scruff of the neck, hauling him to his feet. He was mildly pleased to find the D’nvannae Brother was right beside him, dragging the second belligerent combatant to the other side of the LB access portal.

Nick sensed the crowd preparing to surge forward in blind panic, now the human obstacles were removed. He wheeled, shoving the man he had grabbed roughly away, knocking down two or three other passengers in the process. People stepped on or over them in an instinctive rush to get closer to the presumed safety of the lifeboat.

“Nobody moves until I say so!” Holding up one hand, he used the tone of voice he would employ on a batch of unruly, raw recruits, awesomely commanding.

“Quiet down now,” he said, watching the people in the front row of the mob, getting eye contact, to personalize his commands, make them feel like responsible individuals, not a mindless, panicking herd.

The blaring sirens and recorded emergency warnings cut out, resumed briefly and then died away in a slowly fading gibberish. The lights in the corridor flickered, causing gasps here and there in the crowd.

“Are there any SMT officers or crew here?” Nick said.

Desperation, fear, and puzzlement on the faces in front of him. Many sidelong glances, mute head shakes.

Silence.

“All right, then. I’m Captain Jameson, Sectors Special Forces. I’m taking charge of this LB portal. I need four volunteers besides this man,” nodding at the D’nvannae, “to help me keep order here. You can’t all get into this LB. No one’s going to make it off unless you keep your heads and we go about this calmly and quickly.” He pointed at some likely candidates. “You, you, you and you.”

He’d picked out a quartet of fairly good-sized men, who seemed calmer than some of the others ringing him. Pointing at the Brother, he said, “What’s your name?”

“Khevan.”

“Fine, Khevan, you and these four gentlemen form a ring. No one gets by until I say so. Watch my back while I open this damn portal.”

Nodding, the D’nvannae and the four men linked arms and established a perimeter. Nick gave his attention to the locked access. Damn, there should have been at least one SMT crew person at each LB by now, with the unlock code, getting the civilians safely off the ship as fast as possible. Nick spared a second and a small part of his mind to swear at the inefficiencies and lax discipline of this ship’s captain. Lucky for all these nice people I know how to open the thing.

Nick scanned the portal info display as he keyed in a code on the access panel. “Capacity 100 sentients,” the label declared in Basic and the other five languages. Okay, Jameson, quick, calculate what the limit really means, what the margin of design safety probably was. How many extra oxygen-breathers can I shove onto the thing without killing them all?

As the door cycled open, Nick assessed the waiting throng. The crowd, even larger now, probably in excess of two hundred men, women and children, pressed forward. They were pushing his ring of volunteers closer to him before the men dug in and shoved resolutely back.

“This LB can only support 125,” Nick announced to the assembled passengers, pitching his voice to carry to the edge of the crowd. “I’m not allowing one more person to board beyond the limit. I’m taking children and their caretakers first, followed by as many other adults as possible. Anyone with children, come forward now. We’ve got no time to lose. No luggage! No pets!” Nick pointed to the stout woman, who had followed in his wake through the crowd. “You, what’s your name?”

She stepped forward. “Maud Panula.”

“All right, Maud, come stand right here next to me and keep count. Shout it out for me every ten heads, then every five as we get closer to capacity.”

“Who appointed you Lord of Space?” shouted a red faced man in the middle of the crowd, as the first nervous children and their relatives came forward, passing through Nick’s cordon. The complainer found a few kindred sentients who appeared to agree with him. An undercurrent of ominous murmuring increased in volume.

“There’s only a few of them–”

“No weapons- let’s rush them!”

“The officer and I can kill with our bare hands,” Khevan said softly from his place in the center of the cordon guarding the LB access, his voice carrying as easily as Nick’s had. “You won’t gain entry to this LB by challenging his order, I guarantee you.”

Nick listened to the count rapidly climbing, as more and more children and adults streamed past him. Where the hell had they all come from? “We’re at eighty already,” he announced to the crowd, “If you don’t like your chances here, better go find the next LB.”

“Where?” screamed several despairing voices.

Nick cursed the SMT Line again for their lack of preparation. “There are LB portals every few hundred yards, going both directions, all three passenger decks and on the Casino Deck.”

Khevan broke link with his fellows, to keep a burly man from getting past them without permission. There was a rapid flurry of blows and the other passenger sank to the carpeted deck, unconscious or dead. Khevan meant what he’d said, and was obviously prepared to act on the threat. A large portion of the crowd melted away, running frantically in both directions, in search of another LB where the odds might be better, where no one was in charge. Nick felt sorry for them.

“You get inside when the tally reaches 110,” he said to his human counter. And once I’ve sent them on their way to safety, I can go see about Mara, whether she’s ok, did she get off the ship. He had her cabin number, obtained from the AI the first day, but he was hoping she’d already taken a lifeboat. Even then, I can’t leave until I know every civilian’s been taken care of.

*********************************************************************

WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM is available from Smashwords , Amazon for the kindle and Barnes & Noble for the Nook NOW! Special 99 cent sale!

Apr 12 2012

Veronica Answers the Woman’s Magazine Interview Questions

I was reading the latest issue of a very famous woman’s magazine interview with some celebrity mother or other this morning at breakfast and answering the questions along in my head, for myself – I always do that, don’t you? Then I decided since this magazine will probably never interview me, I’d just answer the darn questions here (added one or two of my own) and invite you to answer your favorite question too!

What’s the best part of your day? I have two actually – first, when I walk out the door at the day job after my eight hours, even though I have an hour+ commute ahead of me. I’m FREE and I can think about my writing. The second time is when I walk through the door at home in the evening, say hello to the family and have a few hours to do stuff until bedtime. (Hmmm, maybe my third best part of the day is a weekend morning when I wake up and don’t have to go to work LOL!)

Is there a parenting rule you never break? When my daughters were younger, it was always homework at 7PM. Now it’s “don’t offer motherly advice unless asked”. Or if I totally can’t bite my tongue!

Is there a rule you always break? I was way too indulgent, I know that. And I still am with my grandson!

What’s your beauty must have? It used to be mascara but now it’s moisturizing cream…

What’s always in your bag? Migraine medicine, which is sad to admit but the headaches are so debilitating, I don’t dare go anywhere without it. Having said that, I also carry my iPod and my kindle – music and books – what else does a person need?

What’s always in your fridge? Nonfat milk! I still love it. Frozen sweet potato fries, berries, melon, carrot sticks…sounds so wholesome, doesn’t it? Unfortunately I know that the grocery store always has my favorite luscious chocolate cake in its fridge!

What book are you reading right now? Rereading A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

What are you reading with your kids? When they were young, we always read at least three books each weekend morning – everybody selected one book and I’d read them out loud. My grandson likes to be read to and prefers anything with sharks!

Three words that describe you as a mom. Loving. Fierce. Softie.

Do you still find time for girls night out? One of my very best friends and I made a pact 20 some years ago that we’d have dinner once a month, and we did, year in, year out – but she just moved several hours away. So no more dinners – I miss you, B! I still have lunch once a week with my other best friend and we’ve been doing that since 1989.

What’s your best housekeeping tip? (Warning => Housework is not my thing) Have a vacuum strong enough to suck up ANYTHING and keep going!

In one word, how do you use your downtime? Reading!

OK, that’s me, now what question are you dying to be asked by a women’s magazine) and what’s your answer?

Apr 10 2012

Five Famous Ladies of Titanic (Other Than Molly)

Dorothy Gibson: Model, Actress

Already famous as a model, singer and dancer before she set sail on the Titanic, Dorothy Gibson was rapidly becoming one of the first “stars” in the fledgling movie industry. Her most famous role was as herself, in herself in Saved From the Titanic, based on her experiences in the disaster. The movie was released 29 days after the sinking, was the first of many films about the sinking.

The Titanic is the best known aspect of Gibson’s life. After a six-week vacation in Italy with her mother, she was returning aboard Titanic to make a new series of pictures. The women had been playing cards with friends in the lounge on the night of the ship’s fatal collision with the iceberg. With two of their game partners they escaped in the first lifeboat launched, Lifeboat #7.

Gibson wrote and starred in the one-reel drama, fictionalizing the plot a bit, to include a nonexistent fiancee. She even appeared in the very same clothing she had worn aboard the Titanic that night –– a white silk evening dress topped with a cardigan and polo coat. The movie was a tremendous success, despite some criticism for sensationalizing the tragedy, but the only known prints were destroyed in a 1914 fire.

Lucy Noël Martha Leslie, The Right Honourable The Countess of Rothes:

She was 24 at the time she sailed with a cousin on the Titanic. The Countess, her cousin and maid were rescued in lifeboat 8. Thomas William Jones, the able seaman in charge of their lifeboat, later said Rothes “had a lot to say, so I put her to steering the boat,” by which he apparently meant to compliment her leadership abilities. She took the tiller for a while, then went to sit with a young Spanish woman whose husband had remained behind. The Countess rowed all night and continued to try to keep the morale up in the lifeboat. As a token of his esteem, Seaman Jones later presented her with the brass number plate from their lifeboat. She wrote to him every Christmas, and the two maintained correspondence until her death.

Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff Gordon:

Although married to Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon, she was a leading fashion designer, working under the professional name “Lucile”. She is credited with staging the first fashion show, and designed slit skirts, plunging necklines and what was considered naughty lingerie at the time. Her house of fashion had branches in New York City, Paris and Chicago. She dressed nobility, the rich and famous actresses of the day such as Mary Pickford; licensed clothing to Sears and wrote columns for Harper’s Bazaar and Good Housekeeping.

In 1912, Lucile was traveling aboard Titanic on business. The Duff Gordons and “Franks”, her secretary, escaped in Lifeboat 1. Although the boat was built to hold forty people, it was lowered with just twelve – most of them crewmen. This famous underutilization of a lifeboat almost always gets portrayed in any movie about the sinking.

After the ship sank, while still in the lifeboat, Lucile reportedly commented to her secretary, “There is your beautiful nightdress gone.” One of the stokers told her that while the couple could replace their property, he and the other crew members had lost everything in the sinking. Her husband offered the men some funds to assist them until they received new assignments, giving them checks once they were safe on the Carpathia. Later this action fueled the rumors that the Duff Gordons bribed the crew in their boat not to return to save swimmers out of fear it would be swamped.

Dressed in black, with a large, veiled hat, Lucile had to testify at the hearings about the Titanic sinking and told the court she remembered very little about what happened in the lifeboat on the night of the sinking, and could not recall specific conversations. The final report by the inquiry determined that the Duff Gordons did not deter the crew from making rescue attempts.

Taken shortly after the sinking, with her ‘lucky pig’

Edith Louise Rosenbaum Russell

Age 44 at the time of the Titanic’s sinking, Ms. Russell was a woman of many trades in the fashion industry, from writer to consultant to stylist, buying and selling clothing. She even created sketches for the Butterick Pattern Service and was the chief foreign correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily. By 1912 Rosenbaum Russell was also designing her own line of clothes, called ”Elrose,” for Lord & Taylor in New York. She worked as a fashion stylist for showgirls, opera divas and Broadway stars.

She became famous for her “lucky pig,” a music box that she took with her into Lifeboat 11. The pig was covered in white fur and played the song “Maxixe” when the tail was wound. She later filed two of the largest damage claims, for financial loss of her merchandise and for personal injury. Ms. Russell was particularly upset that she had been unable to insure her merchandise prior to sailing because the insurance firm told her the ship was unsinkable!

Here’s an eerie fragment from a letter she wrote her secretary before the Titanic left Queenstown:

To say that (the Titanic) is wonderful, is unquestionable, but not the cozy ship-board feeling of former years. …Am going to take my very much needed rest on this trip, but I cannot get over my feeling of depression and premonition of trouble.

How I wish it were over!

And finally, Rhoda Abbott, Steerage Passenger, the only woman rescued from the water:

A seamstress, separated from her middleweight boxing champion husband, Mrs. Abbott had taken her two sons to England to live but the boys were unhappy there, so she booked a passage for three back to America on the Titanic. After the collision, she and the boys made their way to the after deck just as the second lifeboat was lowered away but were unable to get into any of the remaining lifeboats. She later claimed that she, her sons and seven other women were passed over while men were allowed to escape in various lifeboats. When the ship sank, she and her sons jumped from the deck but the boys never resurfaced. She herself went under a second time but was blown out of the water by an exploding boiler, suffering burns. She persuaded the people aboard Collapsible Lifeboat A to take her aboard and she was the only woman rescued from the water. She had high praise for Officer Lowe for saving her life that night.

A photo of her taken in 1911 can be seen on Wikipedia.

She did remarry in later years but never had any other children.

So there you have five very different stories of women who survived the Titanic’s sinking…..is it any wonder the world (including yours truly) remains so fascinated by the events on that cold April night 100 years ago? As James Cameron said Titanic’s story is like a great novel that really happened: “The story could not have been written better . . . the juxtaposition of rich and poor, the gender roles played out unto death (women first), the stoicism and nobility of a bygone age, the magnificence of the great ship matched in scale only by the folly of the men who drove her hell-bent through the darkness. And above all the lesson: that life is uncertain, the future unknowable . . . the unthinkable possible” (James Cameron’s Titanic, 1998, by Ed. W. James. Available used from Amazon and elsewhere.).

Apr 9 2012

Lucky 7 Meme – Tag You’re It!

Have been tagged again in this fun meme, this time by my friend Julie Butcher! Here are the rules:

1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP

2. Go to line 7.

3. Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences, or paragraphs, and post them as they’re written.

After that I’m supposed to tag seven other authors but as most people I know have been tagged (once or thrice), I’ll just invite anyone reading this post who has a WIP or MS to join the fun on their blog! And let me know….

Here are the next seven lines from WARRIOR OF THE NILE, to which I am currently doing major revisions. (I swear they were the next seven lines in the WORD document but they got scrunched up a bit here on the blog and so are more like 8 or 9 lines!):

Khenet brought two plums out of his cloak pocket and offered one to Tiya. “I definitely think you and I are being followed.”

Accepting his gift, she frowned. “By who? Who knew we were coming? Who would want to stop us?”

Biting into the remaining plum, he swallowed and wiped the juice from his lips. “Robbers most likely. We’re a tempting target. I’ve tried to spread the information we’re under the direct protection of the gods but thieves and bandits don’t tend to believe in anyone’s superstitions other than their own. Once we leave the caravan tomorrow we’ll have to drive hard and fast to Viper Nome, to avoid any pursuers.”

Let’s stay with the caravan. Live life as nomads,” she said, gazing at the campfires, listening to the laughter.“If only we could.”

Apr 9 2012

Last Meal on the Titanic 114 Years Ago

Do you suppose any of the 1500 or so doomed passengers on Titanic realized they were eating their last meal, that night of April 14^th, 1912?

No matter what topic you examine regarding Titanic, the facts and figures and tragedy are astounding. Just feeding the passengers and crew required the ship to carry tons of meat, produce, dairy, eggs and drinks, plus well over 100,000 pieces of crockery, pots, pans and glassware to cook and serve the food in. One of the most riveting scenes in any movie version of the sinking involves plates cascading off the shelves as the ship lists, or loaves of freshly baked bread plunging to the deck as the vessel founders by the head.

Just think about cooking breakfast daily for some 2200 people! When the ship sailed, the larder held 7500 lbs of ham and bacon, 40,000 fresh eggs, 6000 lbs of butter, 1120 lbs of marmalade and jam, 13,000 lbs of oranges, 10,000 lbs of cereal, 2200 lbs of coffee, 800 lbs of tea. Well, you get the idea!

The designers of the ship had used the famous Ritz hotel as a benchmark and were consciously trying to create a feeling for the passengers of being in a floating first class hotel rather than on board a ship. The Titanic boasted a number of restaurants, including the A La Carte and the Café Parisien (the best of French cuisine served there) for First Class passengers. The chefs and staff of these restaurants were contractors, not employees of the White Star Line and all were lost in the sinking. There was also a First and a Second Class Dining Saloon on Deck D. The Third Class Dining Saloon was on Deck F. No French cuisine there – the fare has been described as plentiful and hearty.

A special dinner was hosted for the First Class passengers on the night of April 14, 1912 in the Café Parisien, among the trellises and vines comprising the elegant décor. Little did they know it was their last meal on board the ship, a final dinner for many. Ten courses were served, each with its own special wine. There are books discussing the meals and the menus on Titanic – here’s a list of just the desserts completing that last First Class dinner: Waldorf Pudding, Peaches in Chartreuse Jelly, Chocolate & Vanilla Eclairs or French Ice Cream. Cheeses and fresh fruit were also served.

A few years ago there was an offering of reproduction china and I treated myself to a blue and gold demitasse cup from the Captain’s table; the Second Class tea cup (the lady who was believed to be my grandfather’s distant relative was in Second Class – I like to imagine her sitting and drinking tea from just such a cup before the fateful night), a First Class tea cup and a heavy white coffee mug that would have been used in either Steerage or the officers’ mess.

The cups are grouped around a miniature of the New York Times front page from the day after the sinking, with a tiny piece of coal salvaged from the sea floor at the site.

What would you want on the menu for your last meal? I think I’d go straight to dessert and have something very chocolate-y!

Plates from Author’s own collection Bradford Exchange “Titanic Queen of the Ocean” (2001) by Artist James Griffin Cafe Parisien, the sinking and the main dining salon

Apr 8 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Here’s the last excerpt from my new book Wreck of the Nebula Dream, science fiction with romantic elements, available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Thanks to everyone on the Six Sentence Sunday hop for being so wonderful & supportive!

The situation: Nick Jameson, Sectors Special Forces, has unexpectedly wound up traveling to his next assignment via a new luxury liner. The ship has problems early in the voyage but then suffers a catastrophe of Titanic proportions. The excerpt comes after Nick and Mara and their party have been through a lot (no spoilers so I can’t explain why Nick’s voice is raspy but trust me, the man has endured a harsh ordeal)… but still aren’t safely off the ship.

“This is one weird damn voyage,” Nick said, his voice raspy from the hours of tortured agony.

“I certainly never had any other business trip like it, ” Mara agreed, with a small smile. “Even if we don’t make it out of here, I’m not sorry I took this journey with you.”

He gazed at her, a matching smile spreading itself across his face. Just looking at this woman makes me happy – I don’t care if that sounds hokey. “Neither am I, lady, neither am I.”

Go to http://sixsunday.com/ to find all the other great excerpts!

Apr 6 2012

Read Any Good Fortune Cookies Lately?

When I go to Panda Express (which is way too often for my good health probably – honey walnut shrimp, yum!) I always have to remind the counter guy to give me my fortune cookie. He forgets about 3 times out of 5 and I feel really deprived, not having that single strip of paper with a cryptic one line fortune inside!

Just today I read that for $29.99 I could buy my own fortune cookie maker from Sunbeam and then cook up individualized fortune cookies two at a time for me and my friends. (Or enemies, I guess.) Where’s the fun in that? No, I want the fortune that Fate intended me to have!

Traditionally, the fortunes were Confucian phrases about life. Or, you can go with a legend about a revolutionary named Chu Yuang Chang, who made the first fortune cookies in China during the 14th century Mongolian invasion. He disguised himself as a Taoist priest and entered Mongolian-occupied cities to hand out “moon cakes,” or pastries stuffed with lotus seed paste, which contained hidden instructions for the Chinese uprising. I kind of like that idea – more dramatic!

Others believe that the fortune cookies have Japanese roots in traditional tsujiura senbei (rice cakes with paper fortunes stuffed inside), made at the Hyotanyama Inari shrine in the 19th century. Another group of fortune cookie enthusiasts thinks that the idea started around the same time, but in this instance by Chinese railroad workers in America who would hand out cakes stuffed with holiday wishes.

And there’s a third claim by various Japanese-American chefs that they invented the idea in the early 1900s.

Fortune cookies are made from four basic ingredients: sugar, flour, eggs and water. Before the mechanization of fortune cookie baking, the method was simple and painstaking; the batter was mixed and baked in small circles, and bakers folded the still-warm circles into formation by hand, inserting the paper fortune and allowing the cookie to cool and harden. The making of fortune cookies became possible on a massive scale around 1960, when a bakery businessman invented a machine that could easily fold the cookies into their trademark shape. Now fortune cookie machines like the Kitamura FCM-8006W can make up to 8,000 cookies in an hour.

Who writes the fortunes, you may ask? I found a 2005 article from The New Yorker that answered this question for one of the largest companies, Wonton Food, Inc. From the article:

Donald Lau manages the company’s accounts payable and receivable, negotiates with insurers, and, somewhat incidentally, composes the fortunes that go inside the fortune cookies, of which Wonton is the world’s largest manufacturer. Each day, Wonton’s factory churns out four million Golden Bowl-brand cookies, which are sold to several hundred venders, who, in turn, sell them to most of the forty thousand Chinese restaurants across the country…

Lau never expected to become a fortune-cookie writer. After graduating from Columbia with degrees in engineering and business, he joined Bank of America, then ran a company that exported logs from the Pacific Northwest to China. In the early eighties, he was hired by a Chinatown noodle manufacturer, which eventually expanded into fortune cookies. The firm bought the Long Island City plant, and it soon became apparent that its antiquated catalogue of fortunes would have to be updated. “We knew we needed to add new sayings,” Lau said. “I was chosen because my English was the best of the group, not because I’m a poet.”

After all that research, maybe I’m not as opposed to writing my own fortunes after all! I have no idea whether Mr. Lau still writes the fortunes for his company…

Here are some past winners of fortune cookie contests:

– The person next to you was secretly eyeing your food.
– You will not marry someone like your mother in-law.
– Confucius says: If three people are traveling with you, there must be one you can learn from.
– Don’t change with the leaves around you; stay your true color.
– Bad times always pass – just like the passing wind.
– Worrying is like a rocking chair – something to do that gets you nowhere.
– “Give me liberty or give me death”… wouldn’t it be better to just give me food?
– I see lots of Chinese food in your future.
– The lazy man works twice as hard. The cheap man spends twice as much.

What was the best fortune you ever received?

Apr 4 2012

Wednesday Whimsy – to Your Very Good Health!

This week’s quotes and photos have a good health theme because we’ve been having our little medical challenges at my house lately, but things ARE getting better!

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. Mark Twain

(VS sez and don’t do too much internet searching on your symptoms either LOL!)

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning. Thomas Jefferson

I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I’d invented it, because it is very true.

Audrey Hepburn

Take all that is given whether wealth, love or language, nothing comes by mistake and with good digestion all can be turned to health.

George Herbert

Health food may be good for the conscience but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better. Robert Redford

Apr 1 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Here’s one more excerpt from my new book Wreck of the Nebula Dream, science fiction with romantic elements, available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Continuing with introducing some of the other characters my hero Nick will have to risk his life to save.

Prior to all of that, on the shuttle up to the Nebula Dream, Nick casually notices a small family group, not realizing how important the two children are going to become to him when disaster strikes:

The young boy, probably eight or ten, had bumped into Nick once, playing some game in the shuttle’s open aisle. He’d apologized politely. His younger sister stayed in her mother’s lap, sucking on her thumb and clutching a large, old fashioned stuffed animal of some kind. Her big, soft brown eyes, fringed with extravagant lashes, kept closing sleepily. Then some sound would reawaken her with a jerk.

Bothered by his own painful memories, Nick averted his gaze from the cozy family group, sampling the drink again, crunching an ice cube.