Helen Mathey-Horn's Blog, page 38

To get better

I found this on someone’s post and thought, ‘Yeah, that says it all.  Practice makes perfect.’

Full offense but your writing style is for you and nobody else. Use the words you want to use; play with language, experiment, use said, use adverbs, use “unrealistic” writing patterns, slap words you don’t even know are words on the page. Language is a sandbox and you, as the author, are at liberty to shape it however you wish. Build castles. Build a hovel. Build a mountain on a mountain or make a tiny cottage on a hill. Whatever it is you want to do. Write.

(via thetolkiengeek)

Publishing Journey?

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

August 1 question – What pitfalls would you warn other writers to avoid on their publication journey?

The awesome co-hosts for the August 1 posting of the IWSG are Erika Beebe, Sandra Hoover, Susan Gourley, and Lee Lowery!

I’m pretty new to this publication journey and I’ve only self-published through Amazon so not too sure what help I can give.  I would say having someone read over your manuscript would be a major thing.

There are a couple of things this does, the least thrilling is all the stupid grammar errors you make and do not see no matter how many times you’ve reread your work.  Fresh readers can find the mistakes like a poke in the eye.  Second thing is the flow and ‘sense’ of what you’ve written.  Are there hiccups where the reader is left hanging, wondering what just happened?  If this was your intent fine, but if not…a fresh reader can give you the feed back because they don’t know where you are going with it.  Their mind doesn’t fill in the missing thoughts like yours would.  And finally…is it interesting/entertaining?  Of course you love it…it’s your child, but does it hold someone else’s attention.

With the first book I finished writing I went over my work a few times on my own, then I gave it to my mother to read.  Science fiction was not her favorite genre, but she loved her daughter and her grammar skills were excellent.  Although I intended for her to be my grammar checker one of the best compliments I have ever received was when she told me she had stopped checking the grammar and began reading just for the story itself.  Made my day.  She did go back and reread for corrections…I have the manuscript to show it.

Finda competent proof reader.

End of July – Name that Flower

What’s blooming in my garden?

 

 

 

 

Row A

Row B

Row C

Row D

Row E

Weather is cool today and with the rains we’ve had everything is looking pretty fresh in the garden.

 

Row A – Ironweed, Phlox, Naked ladies (also known as Surprise Lilies)

Row B – Hibiscus, Lantana, Monarda (Bee balm)

Row C – Hibiscus, Fern, Mullein (close up)

Row D – Black-Eyed Susan, Hydrangea (Lime Light), Joe Pye Weed

Row E – Some composite daisy, Rose with ? Dang forgot what this is!  Guess I shouldn’t quiz you on what I don’t remember.

Somehow I’ve arranged them on a diagonal from Purple, Pink, Red, Green, White to Yellow (if you ignore the last picture).  Totally an accident.

 

 

Dark Queen

The Dark Queen – I wrote a short bit about this book in May.  The story revolves around blind Cassandra Wyndleigh’s marriage to Matthew Rowell, which starts off horribly due to several misunderstandings.  It seems to only get worse from there.  Her husband is obviously involved in something and is using Cassandra, for what she is uncertain.  Is he a French agent?  The only person he seems to confide in is his French friend, Mr. Thierry, and with England and France not on the best of terms under Napoleon this seems almost a certainty.

It turns out the answer might be in the tarot cards as Cassandra ‘reads’ one disastrous future after another for her friends and family.  As those futures begin coming true Cassandra is no long certain what to believe.  Is she the ‘Dark Queen’, the queen of spades often associated with death?  And whom do the other cards that frequently appear represent; The Fool, The Hermit, The Magician, The Devil and Death?

It was fun to write this story as I decided to go with a first person point-of-view, using a blind protagonist. How do you go about explaining the ‘action’ when you cannot see it? Hearing and scent play a large part in her world and several pivotal parts in the book depend on her interpretation of what is going on around her which you only know from what she is sensing. Part murder mystery, part political intrigue, part romance, part occult influence? Is Cassandra’s happily-ever-after with the mercurial Matthew Rowell, or the mysterious Alexander Herschell who pledges his help in freeing her from her husband?

If you are interested in finding out Cassandra’s future you can purchase an ebook or paperback here on Kindle.   Hope you enjoy.

 

More than 3 on Thursday

Answering questions:

*Have you ever written or designed a pattern?

*How does your family cook their corn on the cob?

*Are you embarrassed to purchase anything at a store?

*Have you ever “kept” a goldfish (indoors…..not counting ponds here) ? How long did it live? Did you name it?

*Does your significant other have a super power?

*What is the longest your hair has ever been grown to ?

*Name one way you helped the world yesterday….

*What season is most difficult for you to keep your weight down? (I’m assuming none of us has trouble gaining…or rather, no prima ballerinas out there reading my blog)

*Tell us something your father always said….

*What one knit/crochet technique would you wish you could wake up and already know that’s new to you ?

I have never written or designed a pattern (question refers to knitting), but I’ve knit patterned socks without a printed pattern and made up what I wanted to do as I went.  Does not count as I didn’t deliberately design it and didn’t record it.

My family husks the corn and  boils it about 7 minutes in salty water.

Embarrassed to purchase?  Probably but I can’t think of any at the moment and too late in life to be embarrassed…really!

We had a pet goldfish when I was young…until my youngest brother wanted to ‘feed’ it.  Unfortunately, he used Comet.  The snail managed to pull through.

My other has super patience.

I think the longest my hair ever got to was about 18 inches, maybe.  Shortest about 1 inch.

Helping the world yesterday?  Took a four hour drive to have lunch with my dil and her mother who is moving back to Texas.

Winter is hardest on weight loss, easiest on gain (lol).  In the fall my head starts thinking…casseroles and baked goods.  It must be a throwback to putting on the carbs for the long dark winter.

“Where’s the pie, Norine?”   Meaning he was ready for dessert.  He had many other ‘sayings’ that the family has used over the years.

Instant technique?  Fairisle knitting without ‘puckers’.

Those are my answers and I’m sticking to them.

July Flowers

There is more flowering but you’ve seen most of them before…Crinium lily amazingly going for one more stalk of flowers.  The monarda is on last florets-all though the bumblebees still find some nectar and are busy mining them.

Below are slightly ‘newer’ openings.

The first is the Oklahoma plant I find the most amusing…”Naked Ladies.”  They are of the amaryllis family.  They send up strapping leaves first thing in the spring and the leaves disappear…then they send up the flowers in July.  The time between these two events is just long enough for the gardener to forget where they are and accidently dig them up when planting something new…  They have several names but the ‘naked ladies’ name comes from the fact when they show up to flower in late July they don’t put out any leaves only the ‘naked’ flower stalk is evident.  And they are beautiful, so they are ladies.  For a hardy plant for the dry, plains they can’t be beat.  These two stalks are the first up this year.  I have them in several places around the yard, but don’t see evidence of them else where.  It might be that this spot got ‘watered’ as I took care of plants on the porch making them the advanced guard.

The picture next to it is the newest birdbath.  I bought one like it one of the first summers here and darned if the bowl didn’t get broken by a falling limb.  I’ve repurposed the base of that for my sun dial.  Also in this picture is a rose called Ebb Tide.  It is a purplish red.  It merits a picture because there was a hummingbird at it when I walked out this morning.  Second hummingbird in two days, so they are around.  The other was at the feeder by the kitchen window.  If I can get so lucky, I hope for a picture of a ‘hummer’ sometime.

   

Then we have another new comer for the summer flowering.  Native to the Oklahoma plains is Ironweed, Vernonia.  Looking it up, it should be a ‘butterfly magnet’ but no attraction as yet.  It is a nice stand and has goldenrod as a companion plant, but no flowers open on that yet.  The last picture is the miscellaneous ‘sunflower’ type which I photographed earlier this summer, but it is taking over the back yard.  I think this will get a ‘hard’ pruning when it looks like the flowers are done, although I suppose its seeds might be food for someone.  I do know that I’ll not let it get much bigger next year as it is thuggish.  It is a vigorous plants, but!  I did cut a few stems of this ‘daisy’ for a vase in the kitchen and they are holding up well, so perhaps I should just whack away at it for house flowers.  It is nice to have something you can cut freely.

    

The hibiscus are still producing a flower or two daily.  I never took a picture of the catmint as it’s kind of ragtag.  Black-eyed Susans are doing well.  I guess they should get a photo op.  I also have volunteer sunflowers under the bird feeders.  Not the gigantic stalked ones my neighbor down the street has (envy), but free, smallish ones which will set seed and the birds may eat, if the squirrels don’t get them first, or the missed seeds can come up next year.

My beds are not the neat, organized House Beautiful kind.  Not ‘prairie’ wild either…yet.  I go for easy care, (including drought resistant, although I will water if needed), but pretty and hopefully a food for native fauna – bees, butterflies and birds.  Entertainment is extra.

 

 

It was a Host Nation Field Trip

In earlier posts I mentioned living in Northern Germany and teaching at a small American school there.  Define small; 40 students K-8th grade.  I taught 5-8th grade…everything.  I still wonder about that as I was a 7-12 grade science/math teacher, but the principal was told he could hire one more teacher if she/he was a local hire.  What that translates to…DoDDS were not going to hire someone from the United States for the position and pay housing etc.  If he wanted that position filled he would have to find someone in the local American community that qualified.

Well, I qualified, enough.  He started working on my taking the position as soon as he got back from summer leave in the early part of August.  I did protest that my background wasn’t exactly elementary level.  But his point was, I was a teacher and it would work.

The school had two classrooms, a library-general office-break room, a small room meant to be the principal’s office (he used the general room) and that was about that.  There were was one woman who worked with the three kindergarteners half a day, she used what was supposed to be the principal’s office.  The principal’s wife has the 1-2 graders in a room.  The principal and I split the last large room.  He taught the 3-4th graders in 2/3rds of the room (he had a bigger group) and I had the 5-12th graders (all eleven of them) on the other side of a divider made up of bookcases and office partitions.  Jim M taught the 3-4th graders in the morning and someone else took them in the afternoon so he could be principal.

So there I am.  Math- no problem, I had just come from a program where I had taught a very individualized class in a variety of maths, so I just created a schedule for the older ones to follow and worked with the younger ones in groups.  Science I am sad to say was not great.  I will never bad mouth elementary teachers for shorting science in their curriculum.  I love science, but something has to give.  We did some projects, and map reading/drawing, but for a science teacher…sigh.  It was the best I could do.

Then there was the case of reading and writing.  I can do both very well, but teach?  I decided we would write a school paper twice a month and the students would rotate through the various jobs so eventually everyone was editor, etc.  The principal loved this enough to dedicate an aide to typing the ‘paper’ up for us and printing it.  We also did a lot of poetry with emphasis on Haikus.  What can I say.

There was reading with about 4 different levels.  We combined the lower levels with some upper levels from the 4th graders and the aid worked with them.  That left me the 6th as a group and the 7-8 as another.  It worked.

Then breaks…we had a small play ground and when the weather was nice the kids could just run/play ball, but being Northern Germany winters are long and cold and snowy so you’re kind of indoors.  I found a couple of square dance records in the library from some one’s ‘great idea’ to send them to every school.  There was also a record player (records alone would be worthless) and we learned to square dance in the hall.  Oh my, it was tight and of course we had to take turns as only eight could dance at a time, but I hope it made some memories.

I need to back up a second and tell you about the community the students came from.  It was literally two high rise buildings across the street from the school.  I walked out of my stairwell in the morning and I could turn left and go around the building, cross the street and be at school.  If I went straight and turned right I was in our small German community of Flensburg Weiche.  One of the things conveniently to hand to the right was the local bakery.  A wonderful place!  So in the morning I would stop there to buy a broechen or two and maybe a pastry and this would be the core of my lunch.

Then there was the winter morning I was running late.  I usually had some other ‘food’ stashed at school in our little ‘kitchen’ area, but that morning I knew there was nothing and I didn’t have time to hit the bakery.  Mid-morning when it was time for our break, I told the kids to bundle up.  It was one of those ever so cold, ever so bright days were the snow is crunchy underfoot.

I told them we were taking a host nation field trip to the bakery.  Do I tell the principal, naw.  Maybe he overheard me telling the kids, I have no idea to this day if he did.  Permission slips from parents, naw.  The moms would probably see us as we traipsed between the two high rises.  I grab my purse and off we go.  All the while I’m thinking, “This is the lamest excuse I have ever used for anything.  These kids live here with the bakery next door.”

At the bakery I told the students they could pick out any pastry they wanted and a cup of hot chocolate; I was buying.  I remember one girl commenting on the hot chocolate not being as sweet as American hot chocolate.  That is when then realization hit that maybe this really was a ‘host nation trip’.  It turned out that even though they lived next door, those kids had not been in a German bakery!  What!?!  So my lame excuse to go there and buy my lunch turned into the real deal.

We’ll talk ‘pumpkins’ another time.

“What a world, what a world.”

Who said that?

I think I joined the world of Facebook at the wrong time.  What happened to the cute kitten and puppy posts everyone talked about?  My husband is ready to move to an other country, any country, that would allow us in.  I’m not going.  Someone has to stay and be the adult in the room, or country.  A few more adults need to stand up please.  I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

Its summer and the news should be slowed down to pictures of dogs plopped down under sprinklers with children running around in the background.  Who has the energy for anything more?

As for the quote above, it was the Wicked Witch of the West and when we are agreeing with the Wicked Witch…well, “What a world, what a world.”

I’ll try for flower pictures next time.

I feel like the Helen in a blog I used to read regularly (I think they’ve slowed down their posting, sigh) who commented on the world around her and finished with “Really, I mean it.”  Really, I mean it.

TC Cannon: At the Edge of America

Current exhibit at the Gilcrease Museum (Tulsa,Ok) that opened last night is on the works of T. C. Cannon.  Like a good exhibit I learned something, or several somethings.  This was someone who I was not familiar with, either his life or his works.  He was not only a visual artist, but a poet and musician also.  The exhibit tapped into all creative aspects of his life.  Last night was the opening to which we had received an invitation.  I think this is going to require another visit to let it all soak in.

It was still light when we left so I took a picture of the Sacred Rain Arrow statue at the front entrance.

I am always amused as I think he is aiming at his doppleganger on the other side of the world.  Below is a sculpture at the entrance to the Hakone Open Air Art Museum in Hakone, Japan.

I could not find the name of this sculpture so just make up your own.  And I apologize for the dark picture not sure why it came out so.  You can find others on line if you want to look at it better.

Art imitates Art.

Well, dry and not so hot.

Summers in Oklahoma can be brutal.  So far…so good.  Probably bringing on the ire of the weather gods by stating these things.  Today was not so humid that sitting on the porch in the shade didn’t feel so bad.  Temperatures are lower than 90 degrees! (F of course)  But we’ve not had a good soaking rain so the sprinkler is on the front lawn.  I’ll judge by the birdbath when an inch of water had been laid down.

Pet peeve…people who set their lawn sprinkler systems to run for maybe fifteen minutes a dozen times a week.  Okay the last part of that sentence was an exaggeration, but you get the idea.  The best way to keep your grass in good shape is to encourage the roots to go deep.  You do that by watering less frequently, but deeper.  The roots will follow the water down.  Shallow roots die easily in the heat.  End of public service message.

The bees of various species are working the monarda in the front bed.  I like to think I’m helping by providing bee friendly plants, but I like monarda on its own and the helping part is a bonus.

I’ve also got volunteer sunflowers blooming.  They volunteered from seeds the birds did not manage to eat.  Since the blooms will set seeds, the birds will have a second chance to eat.  I buy the ‘expensive’ seed.  Mostly sunflower and I’m not sure what else, but no millet.  Never really saw a bird that liked the millet except house sparrows and no one needs to encourage them.

Today the finches and cardinals have been working on the seed in spite of the ‘shower’ provided by the sprinkler.

So a lazy, not too hot, Sunday in Oklahoma.  The kind were sitting in the shade actually feels good, even OK.