Things I want my girls to know – Mandatory Reading Time

by | Mar 13, 2013


Image courtesy of [nuttakit] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Why I require you to have Mandatory Reading Time:
I read to you while you were ensconced in my womb. In Kiki’s case she went to school with me during college for the first seven months of gestation. I’ve been fortunate you two have always loved being read to, and with a few false starts have loved to read.
However it seems that computers and the TV’s have begun to compete with reading, and that my dear children is unacceptable. (Yes, we own several and I have a Nook)   Why?  Because words are the foundation of our language. If you can’t read them or sit long enough to truly appreciate them then I’ve done a piss poor job of educating you.
Some would gasp at the way I’ve never filtered language from you. I’ve wanted you to see our language in all its glory and its shame. Why you ask? Because I want you to be able to express yourself in anyway. I want you to see what is effective and what is simply horrendous to listen to. 
Why reading ? Because when you read, you immerse yourself in words in a way that isn’t easy to do in movies . You have the words on the page and your brain turning those words into stories, into images, that transport you to other worlds. That spark you interest in other topics, other countries, other worlds, other people. (You know I love watching movies, so this isn’t a knock against them)
It does what I cannot do. By simply demanding you be interested in the world around you, I cannot make you interested, you have to be interested on your own. It also helps to give you a break from the stimulation overload of your video games (and ours). Your generation needs to know how to shut off for a while and a book is the perfect way to do it.
Then there is the fact that it gives you a conversation starter. A common ground with someone else out there. The ability to connect over something as simple as an idea. It gives you a source for lively debate and shared enjoyment. So when I ask you to turn off the electronics. I’m not torturing you. I’m asking you to do something for yourself.

Went Camping!

by | Mar 6, 2013

We went camping last weekend and as I mentioned in my sunday post , I was expecting my over active imagination to get the better of me. It did, but not in the I’m to scared to walk to the Port o potty at night thing. Before you girls or guys start making choking sounds this one is clean. (Otherwise I’d be digging my own hole) Yeah. Yeah. I know gross.
The weekend started off on Friday, I dropped the man off at work for a half day and headed home only to realize that I couldn’t bask in having the day off just yet. I had to shower and head back out to the DMV to renew my drivers License. I hear the groans already.
The Tag office I went to used to be this quiet sleepy little thing with not to many people in it. Obviously I hadn’t been there in a while because when I stepped in the doors, low and behold, there was better lighting, more counter space and yep people. Wall to wall people.
So I did what eveyone else did I took a number. Cringed when I saw I was number 316 and found a seat. My father used to say that I was like a vagrant in the town named Pipiry ( no idea how to actually spell it) Because  Pipiry always had a multitude of bags. I only had one.
My bag was filled with my electronics; ie laptop, nook, cell phone. My favorite blue suede notebook, sharpies and pens and of course snacks. Plus things like my mini umbrella. As you can see I was set, waiting wasn’t a problem for me. Untill, they finally called my number and told me it would only be a 15 minute wait. It turned into an hour, at which point they told me that they were having trouble printing my license ( I started imagining what I coud do with super powers at that point) I did get my license not to long after that.
Which meant I left, picked up the hubby and kids with all of our acamping gear. Drop the kids and the dog off and headed out to the park. (Did I mention this was an adults weekend. Ps I love the grandparents and aunt for baby sitting) Things were fine. The camp site was beautiful. Until:
We forgot the rain slick. It wasn’t in the bag with the rest of the tent. It was…. at home on the pool table, in the garage covered by the clothes I’m donating to charity. (yes vietnam vets are going to pick them up soon) So off the hubby went leaving me with his half drunk Guiness and all of our stuff to go get our rain slick. Before you ask. It was neccessary. Our tent is mainly mesh without it.
So I figured I’d set the tent up myself. Afterall I’d done it before (forgot that I’d had a second person). After much conversation with the tent, some sore fingers, and the duct tape being used because one of the poles decided that it might be a good idea to split. I got it up and realized that I had nothing else to do.

I ended up laying on top of the pinic table. Through the canopy of the trees I watched the clouds go by. Bit by bit my body relaxed into a half doze and my mind began to wander. I had the fleeting thought that perhaps most women would be afraid being out in the woods alone by themselves. Honestly for the first time in months, laying on the wooden table, alongside a lizard who decided to sun himself as well, I couldn’t find it in me to be afraid. I felt like myself.

It’s March Already!

by | Mar 1, 2013

Okay! I blinked, and February was gone. That being said I’ve achieved some of my goals. Some goals will take longer than I expected. Some goals have been changed. What will definetely happen this month? I will write. I will summit my work. I will run a 10K and it’s my birthday month, so I will also party! Life is good and determination is my middle name. I just updated this page from my cellphone.

Guest Blog- Christopher Beats – I am not an Engineer.

by | Feb 21, 2013

Hi everybody, meet my friend Christopher Beats author, family man and historian by trade:

From his blog, The Quantum Rumba

I am not an engineer. I know several and what’s more, they tend to read my stories. None of them are soft spoken, either, creating a kind of pressure–amplifying the pressure that’s already there really–to get my science right. They are the gearhead angels on my shoulder. Or demons, if you’re a Luddite.

I’m also not a Luddite. In fact I try to be a very science-minded person. Though my background is in liberal arts, I enjoy reading Astronomy and Discover and that magazine the Smithsonian Institute puts out. When a friend sends me an article about photosynthesizing salamanders, I pounce on it like a hungry jaguar.

So there is a certain lingering guilt in me when, while writing, I violate the laws of physics, biology or good sense. But as an author (not to mention a reader), I know that sometimes science can get in the way of a good story. People enjoy learning but that isn’t why they buy novels. This isn’t a new dilemma, of course. It’s not even unique to fiction. When Gordon Lightfoot was composing his masterpiece “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald,” he had problems getting his lyrics to jive with reality. He was only able to finish his song after a friend of his told him to drop the history and let his creativity guide him.

Steampunk is a thorny genre, even more so than other speculative fiction. We’re looking at what could have been instead of what will be or even what was. That means we have lots of sources to look at for inspiration, from the actual technology to the speculations of 19th century authors. The problem arises in combining those two sources to create a coherent system.

I posed the question of Science vs. Steampunk on several forums and not surprisingly, most people answered that the most important thing, by far, was a system that was coherent and consistent. The best works have a rational system, a system that the readers get to know well enough that they feel they can predict what will happen next. The best outcome, of course, is to make the reader feel so entrenched in your system that they can make predictions…but then sideswipe them with a logical but wholly unexpected surprise.

I’d like to thank Christopher for stopping by His newest book Vacant Graves is out now. You can also find Facebook.

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