Irene Onorato's Blog, page 7

The S.E. Louisiana flood of 2016. When disaster strikes.

The flood of 2016 in S.E. Louisiana started with rain and one of the worst electrical storms I’ve ever experienced in the Baton Rouge area. The zaps of lightening sounded like an artillery attack. The Comite and Amite rivers overflowed their banks, and bayous that normally drained into them had nowhere to go, backed up, and also overflowed. Land that was NOT in a FEMA-designated flood zone flooded. People narrowly escaped with their lives and the clothes on their backs.

My husband and I were in a state of shock as we watched the devastation unfolding on TV. The flooding came as a surprise, just as it did with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Only, this flooding wasn’t caused by a hurricane. A deluge of rain caused this catastrophic event. Rain. Lots, and lots of rain.

So—and here’s the whole point to this blog post—what can YOU do to help others when a disaster like this happens? Plenty.

You say you have faith? Put it to practice and ask God to show you what you should do to help.
Realize that you can’t help everyone, but you can help ONE. Or two, or three…
Keep your eyes on the local news. They will tell you where the shelters are and what’s needed at each one. You don’t have to buy a mountain of supplies – just what you can afford. Every bit helps.
Love animals? Find a shelter where lost and found dogs and cats are housed, and volunteer to walk the dogs or sit and sooth a frightened cat.
Volunteer to be a Red Cross worker. If this is your calling, sign up online and be ready when the call for help comes.
Help a friend, or a friend of a friend of a friend, whose house is damaged. Maybe you have zero skills in carpentry, electrical, construction, etc. But you can swing a hammer and help bust out wet drywall, use a flat shovel to scrape up flooring, or help roll up wet carpeting and help kick it to the curb.
Fix sandwiches, pack a cooler with water, and bring them to that friend’s house when you go to help.
Do you have a washer and dryer? You could help by doing your friend’s laundry. Clothes that have been through a flood need to be washed and dried quickly before they become moldy.
My mother-in-law always used to say she felt like everything was in control if she had everything she needed to make spaghetti. Good idea. What do you have in your cabinets that you could use to make a meal for someone? It’ll mean a lot to the recipient.
Here’s my favorite. Perfect the art of the hug. Yes, the hug. Hold that person a couple of seconds longer than you normally would. Let your heart beat next to theirs for a while. Whisper something in their ear – “I’m sorry you’re going through this…” Let them know you care. Let them FEEL it.

Pussycats and Politics

I grew up in an apartment on the top floor of a South Bronx tenement building. The “front” window overlooked 148th street, and the “back” window overlooked an alleyway that was teeming with stray cats. Our much-loved house cat – a black and white beauty that eventually lived to the ripe old age of seventeen – was born in the alley, but enjoyed a safe, healthy, and well-fed life in our house.

As kids, my older brother Tommy and I would often sit out on the fire escape looking down and feeling sorry for the hungry cats that wandered the brick and mortar canyons between buildings. We didn’t want to sit idly and let them starve but weren’t exactly sure how to help them.

After tossing around a few ideas, we decided to form The Pussycat Club of America, an organization dedicated to filling the bellies of hungry alley cats. Tommy claimed the position of President and appointed me his VP. I asked if my best friend could join. But typical of a natural-born politician, Tommy said no because he didn’t want anybody to join the club who could later vote him out of office.

We dumped canned cat food onto a square of Saran Wrap, tied a string to each corner like an inverted parachute, and lowered the food four stories until it came to rest on the ground. We called “here, kitty, kitty, kitty” from our window, and a couple of cats came and gobbled the food we’d provided. A few more cats came for the next batch, and by the time we’d delivered a few loads, we had attracted quite a crowd.

All was going well until we overloaded the Saran Wrap. It tore somewhere around the second floor, and rained mushy food over the faces of twenty or more meowing cats who were looking up, waiting for more. A massive cat-brawl broke out. Windows flew open and tenants stuck their heads out to see what was going on in the alley. The melee of screeches and yowls lasted a good five minutes before tangles of fur disbursed and cats ran or limped away to lick their cat-food flavored wounds.

Discouraged, we tore up the club identification cards we had made and disbanded The Pussycat Club of America.

I often look back on the memory of those two scrawny kids with a bit of pride in my heart. We were visionaries who, armed with nothing but a couple of cans of cat food, Saran Wrap, string, and compassion, tried to make a difference in this world.

I was just thinking… Maybe, in light of our experience as executives in a national organization, Tommy and I should run for President and Vice President of the United States.

Anybody care to nominate us?

Hello? Anybody out there?

 

Meet Author Beatrice Fishback

Bethel Manor, an inspirational romance, takes place during the Victorian era with engaging characters such as the wealthy Fredrick Shaw and his feisty daughter, Clare. Enjoy the rugged countryside as James Winthrop Blackwell travels across England. Revel in the setting, Bethel Manor, a place of magnificence and style where servants know secrets and the owner is a man of propriety and integrity. James Winthrop comes of age and searches for answers after being abandoned as an infant at Alpheton House Orphanage. He must come to terms with the reasons for his abandonment and resolve how God can still use someone whose parents chose to cast them aside. Join James, Fredrick and Clare at Bethel Manor and discover for yourself how others can bring optimism and encouragement when life seems difficult and without hope. Fans of Downton Abbey will enjoy Bethel Manor!

Bio:

Beatrice Fishback, originally from New York, lived in the East Anglian area of Great Britain for over twenty years and traveled extensively in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe. She is the author of Loving Your Military Man by FamilyLife Publishing and, with her husband Jim, is the co-author of Defending the Military Marriage and Defending the Military Family. She has been published in various compilations, magazines and online websites.

She and her husband have spoken to audiences in the USA, Germany, England, Italy, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Korea, and Japan. They have also presented to international audiences in the Czech Republic, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Zimbabwe, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Latvia.

Beatrice and Jim currently reside in North Carolina where scones are called biscuits and are topped with gravy, and tea is served over ice.

Interview with Bea:

What has been the most challenging thing about your new release, Bethel Manor?

This inspirational romance was written about the Victorian era, and although the Internet allows for easier access to information, I still had to double-check certain details to make sure I had the right information for that time period.

Where did you get the title for your book?

We lived in a home in England that was dubbed Bethel Manor by our pastor at the time. Bethel means “house of God,” and our small home had actually been a farmer’s cottage fifty-years prior to us owning it. Because it was so small, our pastor titled it a Manor—a bit tongue-in-cheek.

What is one thing about the book you’d hope to achieve by writing it?

My hope was that this story could be an alternative for people looking for a clean, wholesome romance with a faith-based backdrop.

I understand you have another book release in November. Is this the same genre?

No, I’m excited about the next upcoming book titled Dying to Eat at the Pub. This book is a contemporary, cozy mystery but is also set in Great Britain.

What’s a cozy mystery?

It’s a light-hearted murder-story-line with humor and gregarious characters. It’s intended to be a great read for a relaxing evening or a day at the beach.

When will we expect to see this next book?

Dying to Eat at the Pub will be released November 2016 by eLectio Publishers.

 

Meet Author Dana K. Ray

A PAST SHE CAN’T FORGET . . .

A FUTURE HE REFUSES TO ACCEPT . . .

Raven will do just about anything to forget a horrific event from the past that still haunts her. Forced to attend church because of a promise she made at a party, she is immediately attracted to the young, handsome preacher, but is unconvinced of his promises of a better life.

Matthew has everything planned out until Raven walks into his church and turns his life upside down. Repulsed by her lifestyle, yet fascinated by her beauty and charm, he finds himself drawn to her by a force he can’t explain.

Raven and Mathew’s unlikely friendship leads them through escalating troubled waters that threaten to doom their growing relationship. Will they survive to learn valuable lessons of grace, forgiveness and love?

 

About Dana…

Dana K. Ray has been writing gutsy, true to life stories since she became a teenager. A full-time children’s minister in her church, she and her husband reside in the Midwest with their four children and four dogs. A Second Chance is her first published novel. Absolution, the first in the Luciano series, is set to be released July 2017. Connect with her at danakray.com. Dana has been writing gutsy, true to life stories since she became a teenager. A full-time children’s minister in her church, she and her husband reside in the Midwest with their four children and four dogs. A Second Chance is her first published novel. Absolution, the first in the Luciano series, is set to be released July 2017. Connect with her at danakray.com.

 

Q & A with Dana K. Ray

 

When did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Always. I felt odd because I always had movies playing in my head. I was so concerned with it that in college I wrote a paper on “fantasy thoughts” because I wasn’t sure if it was normal. I was a stay-at-home mom which gave me the chance to write my books down. Now, I am a full-time children’s minister at my church, which I love, and a writer in the evenings and weekends.

What do the “movies in your head” look like?

Very vivid. I see the characters in color but the fun of it, is I can change things. I can watch a scene and if I don’t like it, I mix it up. I do this until I love the scene then I go write it down.

When did you first start putting your stories on paper?

I won my first poetry contest when I was in 5th grade, 1976. A very basic, five-line poem. (you can go to danakray.com to read it) I’m not a poetry writer so I find it funny that that’s what I wrote, entered and won first place. In college I’d write thoughts, short stories but when computers came out in 1994, I wrote the book, Absolution.

So A Second Chance wasn’t the first book you wrote?

No. A Second Chance was the second book I wrote but the first one to be published. Funny how that worked out. I’ve had a couple articles on the Internet published that I got paid for.

Were any of the characters based on real people or your own experiences?

All the characters are purely fictional. I did draw from my own experiences. I’ve been touched by one friend and two family members that have fought Leukemia. I’ve also experienced the effects of suicide four times in my life, from a close friend’s attempt to three friends/relatives that accomplished it. Although fiction, some of Raven’s feelings were therapeutic for me to write about. Suicide is never the answer and I’d plead with anyone thinking about it to please, please, please reach out for help. Your life is SO important and you are loved more than you can even imagine, even if you don’t feel like it.

Have you met people like Raven and Matthew?

Oh yes, and I have been Raven and Matthew. I’ve felt people were too judgmental of my past actions and I’ve been too judgment towards other people. That’s the awesomeness of our God. With repentance, He’s forgiving of everything. And as we grow closer to Him, we become more forgiving of other people.

Where can I buy A Second Chance or contact you?

I love to connect with my readers and aspiring authors. You can go to my website danakray.com, amazon.com or eLectiopublishing.com to purchase my book. If you buy from my website, I’d be happy to send you a signed copy. While at my website, you can signup on my email list so you can receive news, updates, blog posts and new releases. I’d also love to hear from you

What’s next?

Absolution is the first book in the Luciano series and comes out in July of 2017. It’s about two brothers, one woman, and one bullet. Absolution is a fast read with mystery, love, devotion, fun and you might find a murder or two.

 

 

Interview with author Elizabeth Rose

Synopsis:

“For her fifteenth birthday, Anoira White’s step-mother bought her a boyfriend.”

So begins the coming-of-age tale of Ann, a young girl with undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome growing up under the thumb of her high maintenance step-mother, Hilde. When Hilde forces Ann to enter a beauty pageant in order to continue to be with her friends, Ann will put everything on the line in order to stand up for them- and for herself. But will her hard work be enough to overcome the monumental hurdle of an undiagnosed mental disorder? Or will Ann discover a new way in which to accept the way she was made?

The third installment of the ‘Once Upon a Reality’ series, The Thing About Apples is a modern re-telling of Snow White that re-defines what it means to be ‘fairest in the land’.

 

Author Bio:

Elizabeth Rose is the fiction alias of a twenty-something Colorado native with a double major in Religious Studies and English. Till the Last Petal Falls, her first full-length novel, was published in 2013. It is the beginning of the Once Upon a Reality series. She has also had several short works published through eLectio publishing, Hirschworth magazine and Crack the Spine.

 

Mini-Interview:

1. Why a teenage heroine for this one, when the first two books have older women in them?

The goal of the series as a whole has always been to use fairy-tales as a framework within which to talk about the experience of being a woman in the here and now. I don’t think you can really have a well-rounded discussion about that without throwing in the coming-of-age experience- puberty is a tough time for everyone, and Ann has some specific challenges that both make her experience unique, and also make her relatable to readers of any age.

2. If you could spend time with a character from The Thing About Apples, who would it be?

Hunter. He’s a really good guy, and I think he’d be an amazing friend. Though I’d probably want him to have gotten a little bit older.

3. Pen, Typewriter, or Computer?

I write my first drafts all my hand, and then I type them up on my laptop. Then I print them off, hand-edit them, and type them up again. From then on it’s all via computer.

4. Who is your favorite author?

Even though I write nothing like him, my favorite will always be Sir. Terry Pratchett.

5. What’s the next fairy-tale planned for the series?

The next one will be a modern-day Cinderella featuring a girl who was a teen mother trying to get herself through college. I will most likely start drafting on that sometime early in 2017, after all the hoopla of getting married in December passes.

Website: www.thesingingroses.com

 

The Veteran’s Heart Series

 

Here I am, trying to lay out the storyline for my next novel in the Veteran’s Heart Series. In all likelihood I’ll spend seven to nine months on the project with a goal of writing 80,000 words.

For the next few months I will live in a world that is somewhere between reality and something else. My characters will keep me up at night with their problems (sigh... I have to solve them), they’ll make me laugh at their antics, and cry over their heartaches. No, I’m not schizophrenic. I’m just a writer. A totally absorbed writer. And I love it.

Now’s as good a time as any to sing praises for my husband  Jim who, for the duration of the writing of this manuscript, will endure less-than-stellar meals, wonder when his favorite pants/tees/undies will make it through the wash and back into his closet/drawers, and put up with me occasionally calling him Hank, Edward, Dex, Corbin, or other fictional character’s name. I couldn’t have made it through the last three manuscripts without Jim’s loving support.

To all of you who came to visit my blog, thanks for coming along on this journey with me.

 

 

My interview with PUYB Virtual Book Club

Yay! Come check out my author interview on PUYB Virtual Book Club. Click here, or on the picture below to be transported to the book club’s awesome website.

 

Singapore Secrets Blog Tour

Yay! Singapore Secrets, my latest book release, will be going on a blog tour. 

Click on the image to get the tour schedule.

 

The Naked Scanner

I craned my neck to see around the long line of people waiting to go through airport security at Logan Airport in Boston and hoped that when my turn came, I would be waved through the metal detector instead of having to go through the “naked” scanner.

As luck would have it, I was directed into the glass enclosure, instructed to place my feet spread-eagled on the painted shoe prints on the floor, and to raise my hands, stick-’em-up style. Seconds later, I exited the machine on the “sterile” side of the security area, happy for that bit of humiliation to be over.

Immediately, a security guard blocked my path, pressed her earpiece deeper into her ear, like 007, and nodded to the voice, I assumed, of the person who’d just seen me naked.

“Raise your hands, please,” the guard said. “I have to scan your upper arms.”

What? But wait… I was wearing a tank top. What could I possibly have been hiding—on my bare arms?

Resistance was futile. I rolled my eyes, raised my hands and submitted to the nonsensical scan.

After declaring the sagging fat on the underside of my upper arms free of weapons of mass destruction, she told me to have a nice day, and waved me onward.

At that point, I had a choice: Get mad and let it wreck my day, or laugh it off and add it to my arsenal of stories about weird or funny things that have happened to me. I chose the latter. What choice would you have made?

 

 

 

Collector? Who Me?

Today’s blog post comes from my good friend author extraordinaire, Beatrice Fishback.

I have never thought of myself as a collector. In fact, I tend to toss knickknacks away or give to charity rather than clean or dust them. 

But after scanning a few rooms lately, I’ve discovered that—alas—I am a collector after all. There are things I keep that mean the world to me. Things that my children gave me, like this figurine from my daughter. The girl is holding an embroidery hoop with a bee.

 

I also have a set of hedgehogs from my son and daughter-in-law. Our son is practical in nature, so they are also measuring cups (clever, right?).

 

My husband gave me this set of carved wooden children after he came home from a business trip—they reminded him of our two children and I have had them in our home for over thirty-years even though her little arm is broken.

I also collect white jugs. Don’t ask me why. There’s no other reason than I just like them.

 

Plus, I’m a book collector and especially love antique ones.

 

Finally, I love to collect friends.

Not that I want to place them on a shelf to bring down to dust periodically. It’s fun for me to meet new people and get to know others through various connections. There’s nothing quite like having another person to experience joys, laughter, pain and sorrow with. Friends are a precious collection of wonderful memories and anticipation of spending time together again.

How do you make friends? Just by being on the lookout and collecting them one by one.

Makes me wonder. How is it I turned out to be a collector after all?

OUR BOOKS
Beatrice Fishback 

Irene Onorato

Linda Robinson


And…
Coming soon from Dana K. Ray: A Second Chance