Fay Risner's Blog, page 13

Why Do Critters Like Living Under Our Front Porch

Over the last few years, I have been friended on Facebook by people that buy my books. They comment on my posts and seem to enjoy what I write. Some of the posts are experiences that wind up in my Nurse Hal Among The Amish series like the problems with my front porch.



https://www.amazon.com/Amish-Country-Arson-Nurse-Among/dp/0982459580/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474041376&sr=1-1&keywords=Amish+Country+Arson

Nothing happened when we had the old porch that was as old as the house. I liked the ornate carved porch posts and didn’t mind that the porch floor sloped down slightly. Building a new floor became a necessity when the black Lab we had decided the best route to getting a rabbit he saw run under the porch was by tearing up the floor. Harold changed his mind when he realized what the noise was, but too late we had to sidestep the hole or fall through to the ground.

My front porch

We like the heavy board floor. I’m not so crazy about the large square posts that hold the roof up. The carved originals were much nicer. Harold must have liked them, too. He saved them in the barn loft.

First winter, a flock of doves roosted on the porch. I like doves, but not so much sweeping away the droppings. Most of the time that was impossible to do in the frigid temperatures. Each morning I’d open the door and yell at the doves. That not only woke them up but startled them into flying away. Finally, the birds decided they should go back to roosting in the three Colorado Blue Spruces down by the garden. The neighbors weren’t so noisy down there.

After that, it was cats that wanted to hide from the rest in the barn. They were welcome. Lately, the visitor over night had been an old beat up Tom Cat that needed to get away from the younger competitive Toms. When that old white cat started using one of the porch posts to sharpen his claws, I wasn’t too happy about seeing the splinters sticking out. I sandpapered the spot down and tied a plastic sack around the post. The wind blew it off or the cat took it off. I’m not sure which so I mixed up a bottle of red pepper spray and sprayed the post. The cat must have sniffed the post and got a nose full of hot peppers. He stopped scratching. Lately, I find a few of the half grown kittens have joined him on the porch. They all scattered when I go out early to greet the day except the last few days they haven’t been on the porch. I noticed, but first thing I do is patrol the porch foundation to see if my barricade is in place. It has been all summer.

You see the last two years skunks came and went, digging holes and tearing up my flower bed. I kept posting my problem on Facebook. In 2014, the visitors were a mother skunk and two young ones. I wouldn’t have known they were around except one of us goes out at dusk to shut the chicken house door. Just my luck it was my turn. I was walking back from that task and noticed three skunks racing toward the house. I wasn’t sure where they were headed. All I knew was I wanted in the back door before they beat me to it. I raced across the yard and succeeded. Curious about what happened to the stinky trio, I looked around the house. The skunks turned along the side of the house and ended up under the front porch. I realized that the next morning when I found the hole and dirt covering my flowers. Those skunks lived there all summer with only one incident. I guess one of the cats tried to join them and got turned down. Four in the morning, we woke to the most choking horrible smell. That aroma lasted for days.

In 2015, I found my flower bed a mess that spring. Again dug up and a hole under the porch. Turned out the two young skunks came back again. I worked at barricading the bottom of the porch and had no hope of ever having flowers. One of the friends on Facebook said moth balls work in the south. They keep skunks from denning in the wood piles. So I got a box and threw both sacks under the porch. By the next morning, the skunks had pushed the sacks back out. My mistake. I had to make the moth balls more work for them. I opened the sacks and scattered the balls. Some of them came back out but not all. When the wind is from the south, our basement smells like moth balls. I’m pretty sure there aren’t any moths down there. I even set a live trap in front of the hole. The skunks dug a new hole to by pass it. Finally, fall came and the skunks moved on.

Yesterday morning, I stepped out to see what the day was like, but I didn’t check the foundation. After all, nothing had happened all summer. By mid afternoon, I changed my mind. I looked out to find a ground hog grazing in the lawn. I whispered to Harold to come see. He opened the squeaky screen door. The ground hog raced for the porch and disappeared.

Harold found a hole dug under the porch in my flower bed. Here we go again, and I’m think this critter is almost worse than the skunks. Now I understand why the cats haven’t been sleeping on the porch. I take a careful look around before I step out on the porch now to greet the day or any other time. That ground hog looks mean.

Crafting More Defined Characters In Books

I signed up a two months writing course at Future Learn early this year. It was on how to get started writing. It was good to have a refresher lesson. I enjoyed the course and appreciated the feed back from the other students in the course.

Now I’ve been alerted of the upcoming classes on how to read the mind of characters. I’ve never stopped to be analytical where characters are concerned when I’m writing a story. Nurse Hal in my Amish series and Gracie Evans in my Amazing Gracie Mystery series have time from one book to the next to evolve. From the readers feedback, I think those two ladies and the supporting cast in each series come over quite clear.

If their personalities are written well in the course of the story the reader gets a feel for each character. Then again, I feel it never hurts to take time to listen to an expert’s approach on the subject and perhaps learn what it might take to make my characters stand out better than they do now.

The online college is in England, and these courses are free. A grade and certificate can be purchased, but I didn’t do it last time. Just taking the course to see how I could do was enough satisfaction for me.

This is the email reminder I received since I already signed up for this two week course.

Our short course How to Read a Mind: an Introduction to Understanding Literary Characters begins in a few weeks’ time. I’m looking forward to welcoming you on Monday 3 October.

As you know, the course will take place online and will run for two weeks. There are short units of explanation, consisting of text, images, and several short video sequences. Each unit ends by inviting you to share your own thinking and experience with other learners.

We expect this course will take you about three hours each week. However, we have also included further reading and suggestions that you can follow if you are particularly interested in certain ideas. The level of engagement is entirely up to you.

The area of study that we will be following is quite new, and many of even the key ideas are not yet fully settled. It is an exciting time to be involved, and – as you will see – the journey from new student to advanced study is really very short. Over two weeks, you will become fairly expert in cognitive poetics. You will understand in quite a profound way what it is to read and model the minds of other people, both real and fictional. You don’t need any preparation other than your curiosity and your own experience of reading literary fiction or viewing film and television drama.

How to Read a Mind is proving to be very popular, and we already have many thousands of people from all over the world ready to study with us.

There is still time to invite friends and colleagues to enroll on the course and take part alongside you. The course page where they can enroll can be found at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/how-to-read-a-mind

Feel free to pass this on through your own emails, tweets, Facebook pages, and so on: you can use the tag #FLread if you like. Or link to my Twitter account: @PeterJStockwell

Fun Research for Historical books

For the historical stories I write it helps me to enhance a scene if I take a peek into the past. A while back I wrote about going to two Power Shows and experiencing a look back in time as we watched the steam engines work, and when we walked through the antique tractor lines. My relatives talked about waiting with anticipation for the steam engine to show up when they were children. They could hear the beast chug and thump a mile away while smoke plumbs sailed above the trees on the country roads.

With the sun bearing down on hot and humid summer days, they watched the men bale hay or combine oats and corn. What they left out were the extra details that brings the scene to life. The arid smell of black smoke surrounding the steam engine and workers, permeating the workers and spectators clothes, skin and hair. The bits of ash that floated in the air and landed anywhere the smoke did then smeared a black streak with each sweaty wipe of a chambray shirt sleeve. In the air, along with the ashes was chaff off the dry oat or corn plants that stuck on sweaty skin causing an itchy feel. The billowing dust from dry hay as it went through the baler turned workers faces grimy black as working in a coal mine would. At least that is the way one of my aunts explained my mother’s father looking when he came home at night from the coal mine. Insects like deer flies buzzed around sweaty ears sending cold chills down the men’s spines. Horse flies, house flies and sweat bees insisted on biting when the men were busy.

Looking for details that can be written into a story is one of the reasons I like to go to museums. We went through the museum at Marengo, Iowa recently. Sightseers aren’t always allowed to take pictures, but where I could I did so I could remember the details of items that interested me for my Amazing Gracie Mystery series. I set those stories in a small town in Benton County Iowa back in 1903 and have written nine books. I love reading historical books, but that was an era before I was born. If I want to write vivid details, I need to do research.

Book one in Amazing Gracie Mystery series titled Neighbor Watchers. Found at Amazon, B & N and Smashwords.

We got a guided tour of the buildings on the property which was great. The tour guide could give us information about each building’s history. The fact that exhibits in the museum are local makes the stories and items even more interesting to me if there’s a place in one of my Gracie stories I can use them.

This cabin was built by a bachelor that until he married had lived in a one room house that looked more like the wood shed. The cabin was just a little bigger than that.

The wash tub with scrub board and the rinse tub with wringer set on the porch ready for use.

In the back yard was the family cemetery.

Across the street was a Phillips 66 gas station. Along side the museum was a row of horse pulled farming equipment.

In side, this little gem was one of the exhibits. It’s a dried lemon from the 1850’s under glass and sitting on cotton. A newly wed couple was given the lemon before they left in a wagon train from Ohio to Iowa to homestead. The lemon was thought to have medical properties. The couple must have stayed well during the trip. The lemon wasn’t used and the bride kept it for a keepsake. The story of the lemon was passed down through the years and the descendants of the newly weds gave the lemon to the Marengo museum.

Of all the things that hung on the walls, these ice tongs reminded me of a time in my childhood when we had an ice box. When the block of ice melted, we bought another one, and the owner of the ice house would carry it to our Model T car with ice tongs.

This quilt was on exhibit at the Iowa County, Iowa fair that same day. It reminded me that patterns have been passed down through the ages.

A doctor’s office from the past with a nurse on duty.

This was a selection of night clothes. A vast wardrobe of the period hung in other areas. We were told the local theater borrows the clothes for their plays.

This is a tree trunk that a family donated with the family story. The blade of a long handled scythe is sticking out of the tree and the handle is laying behind it. At the beginning of the Civil War farmers were parking their plows and leaving for duty in the Union Army. One farmer had always been taught that if he axed his scythe in the tree and it stayed there, he would come home from war all in one piece. The scythe stayed put which was a problem. The tree grew around the blade and the handle rotted off. The farmer came back safely four years later and went back to farming. He gave instructions to never cut the tree as the farm was handed down. Eventually, the tree died and the farm was to be sold in recent years so they cut the tree and gave it to the museum along with the story.

This is the kitchen of a farm house a 100 years ago. After an elderly woman passed away her family donated all the furnishes to be set up in rooms just like in the house. Voice buttons with the son of this owners describes what it was like to sit in the cozy kitchen on cold winter days, warming up in between doing chores.

The fainting couch in the living room with keepsakes of the family. with a book case behind the couch.

This table, with a crocheted doily, reminds me of one I have. Only mine have the claw feet holding glass balls.

This oddity was a small ironing press that probably was used by a woman that did laundry for others.

Often called a Sad Iron, this iron was placed on the wood cookstove to heat. The handle comes off and was placed on another iron that was hot. This was one my mother used.

This was like one my mother used after the wood cook stove was gone and we had a gas cook stove.

I enjoy looking through antiques and seeing items that jog my memory. Hopefully, I’m helping my writing at the same time.

Until next time,

Fay Risner

Booksbyfay

Powerful Steam Engines

We’ve been to two power shows in our area in the last two weeks. Since the steam engine was invented I don’t think the feeling of awe at their size and the amazement at how fast they did the work they were invented for changes from one generation to the next. Only now the demonstrations are just for fun. In my grandparents day, everyone was excited to see the steam engine chugging down the road.



I’ll bet the farmers saw the steam engine coming long before it arrived. Depending on the direction of the wind, the area around the steam engine is a black smoky cloud. The acrid smell carries on the wind, and I could smell it on my clothes and in my hair after we left the grounds. I don’t think I’ve been in such a smoky haze since I was a kid. Dad loved to smoke his pipe in the model T car while he drove us to Nevada, Mo. to shop on Saturday mornings. My two brothers and I were surrounded by a smoky haze all the way to town and back.



Up wind of the steam engine, we could see it clearly. My grandparents lived at one the corners of a square mile in a spot called Olive Branch Mo. in Vernon County. My mother and her sisters helped Grandma and the neighbor women fix meals. The boys carried water to the men and helped the men in the field throw the dried oats on hay wagons to pull up along side the thrashing machine. Others pitched the straw off the wagon and the thrashing machine separated the straw into a pile and the oats into a wagon. The days were long and hot, and the men were sweaty and itchy from the chaff.

The oats were winter feed for the milk cow, pigs and horses. I suppose a certain amount of oats were set aside to plant the next spring. The pile of straw was used in the mattresses to plump them up. In a year’s time, all the use had deflated the mattresses.

There is always so many items to see. Something this 1931 washing machine and the butter churns had in common. Both was run with a Magtag gas engine.



There’s always lines of old tractors. This one caught my eye. Wonder what it would have been like to see pink machinery in the fields instead of red and green.



Near a museum was this old pickup with the bed full of marigolds. It was so colorful.

My husband carefully looked in the peek hole cut in this cardboard box. The sign said careful not to bother the baby rattler. Harold was expecting to see a baby snake. What he found was a baby toy rattler.

This backward tractor was interesting. We’d never seen one like it.

This one man machine was used to brush hog sprouts and cut trees. It had the ominous name widow maker.

One man used his chair saw to cut out animals and birds. This is the Grant Wood Gothic painting in life size wood and the faces missing so people can stand behind it and get their pictures taken. I didn’t think Harold could climb the steps and kneel down if I asked him so I copied and pasted our faces in the picture.

A hundred years has seen many changes in the farming. For those of us that heard stories from our elders, it fun to see what the machinery of their day looked like and watch the demonstrations.

Power shows have changed to attract the interest of women and children so the whole family will enjoy the day.



There’s always the craft shows and flea markets. I had to laugh at the sign on top one van. It gave fair warning the merchandise on that table was for men. There is much more for the whole family. Venders have good food to eat and various drinks. People talk about the old days with others. Cameras are flashing all the time to save memories of yester years. The saying he/she has never seen a stranger tends to be right for everyone that attends the Power Shows.

Fay Risner’s Author Chat at Elberon Public Library

My husband, Harold, and I arrived in time to set out my books before the audience arrived. Before we carried the boxes in I had Harold take a picture of me at the door. I picked up a box of books f…

Source: Fay Risner’s Author Chat at Elberon Public Library

Fay Risner’s Author Chat at Elberon Public Library

My husband, Harold, and I arrived in time to set out my books before the audience arrived. Before we carried the boxes in I had Harold take a picture of me at the door. I picked up a box of books from the back seat, and Harold followed me with another box.



This was where we were headed the evening of June 16, 2016.



This was the sign that welcomed me to the library placed behind a large table covered with a linen tablecloth and the books the library has already brought from me. On one back end was a bouquet of flowers.



Chairs were placed in rows ready to hold my audience.



Soon all those containers of homemade cookies were emptied onto plates and pitchers of cold pink lemonade and lemonade tea were arranged for after the presentation.



The librarian and the board of directors met me at the door, welcomed me in, and in a few minutes, I was ready to begin. I was aware before hand that the library’s patrons were fans of my Nurse Hal Among The Amish books and my Amazing Gracie Mystery series. After I talked about what gave me the ideas to write several of my 47 published books and how I came to use the cover art I picked for each I visited with the audience while we ate cookies. One thing that was brought out and makes it clear to me why it is so important to connect with prospective book buyers in person is one woman said my books sounded so much more interesting after she listened to me talk about them.

The evening was a success all the way around, and mostly that was due to how hard the library workers prepared for the event. They had every detail planned. I was very appreciative and turned down the offer to pay me for coming to speak to the patrons. The librarian picked out seven of my books to add to the collection already on the shelf and asked me to sign them.

Wow! The whole evening made me feel as if all my efforts to be an author have paid off.

Book Event For Author Fay Risner Coming UP

This is book 9 in my Amish series Nurse Hal Among The Amish. It’s seems I have quite a few fans near where I live that wait for the latest book to be released and their town library to purchase the book. Then they have to wait their turn to read the book.I’ve been invited by the Librarian of the Elberon Public Library in Elberon, Iowa to come to meet her patrons and speak to them about my books on the evening of June 16th. I am excited to hear from readers about what they think of my Amish books. While I’m there I will show them some of the other books I’ve written that they don’t know about yet.It sounds like a fun evening. I’ll take plenty of pictures to share on this blog.Enjoy reading library books. No better entertainment than reading.Author Fay Risner

Source: Book Event For Author Fay Risner Coming UP

The Coffin With A Window

just published a novella titled The Coffin With A Window. The story was proposed to me by a cousin that likes books that are spooky. I took her up on it and wrote the novella. I dedicated the novel…

Source: The Coffin With A Window

The Coffin With A Window

https://www.amazon.com/Coffin-Window-Fay-Risner-ebook/dp/B01FZRS5R2?ie=UTF8&keywords=The%20coffin%20with%20a%20window&qid=1463867522&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1I’ve just published a novella titled The Coffin With A Window. The story was proposed to me by a cousin that likes books that are spooky. I took her up on it and wrote the novella. I dedicated the novella to my cousin for giving the idea and meant to give her a copy of the book. Sadly, a couple weeks before I could finish the book my cousin passed away suddenly.

Synopsis for book

1895 was the year life as a grownup began for Lilly Baker Elliot when she took notice of Tom Elliot, a handsome bachelor farmer. He began to spend time in her parents general store, not knowing what he wanted to buy. It became very clear to Lilly that he just wanted to spend time with her. Lilly was a bright fifteen year old, and Tom was twenty three. For Lilly’s mother, Bernice, this was a match she had been working toward for years by showering Lilly with fashionable clothes to catch the eye of all the Ford Crossing, Iowa’s single men. Tom Elliot wasn’t just single, he owned a farm. He knew how to make his farm pay and give Bernice’s daughter a good home. For a few years after the town’s most lavish wedding, life for the Elliots was ideal. Tom and Lilly were deeply in love. They had three children and one on the way. But then tragedy struck. Circumstances changed for Lilly to make her life unbearable.

The novella will be on Smashwords.com, Barnes and Noble and Amazon in paperback and kindle.

link to Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Coffin-Window-Fay-Risner-ebook/dp/B01FZRS5R2?ie=UTF8&keywords=The%20coffin%20with%20a%20window&qid=1463867522&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Enjoy reading the novella if you choose to and be sure and leave a review

Fay Risner

Second Hand Goods Nurse Hal Among The Amish series Book 9

Latest Amish series book is now published on Amazon in paperback, Smashwords.com, Kindle and Barnes and Noble in ebook form. All of the sites will have the book available in 48 hours. back of book …

Source: Second Hand Goods Nurse Hal Among The Amish series Book 9