K.C. Kendricks's Blog, page 83

U is for Unicorn

April 24, 2014
2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge A Rural LifeDay 21
U is for Unicorn
We’ve reached the last full week of this year’s blogging challenge with only five days to go! It’s been fun sharing little tidbits of my life and world. They’re all part of me but the sum doesn’t create the whole – I’m more complex than all this. 

And as I enjoy this yearly test of personal resolve, I’m at the point where I’m looking forward to Z and taking a little blogging break (that’ll never happen!).
Thanks for visiting my corner of the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge.
_*_*_*_*_

It all started at a summer carnival. My mother won the very first unicorn I owned. Dad tried but…..
My parents had a lot of fun together. We - my parents, myself and an old boyfriend - went to the carnival for dinner since the church had a food booth and we wanted to support the effort. When we got to the ring toss, the old boyfriend tried to win a stuffed animal for me. He failed. So my father took up the challenge and he didn’t do so well, either. Mom and I were laughing at the men folk and so Dad bought her ten rings and challenged her to do better. She did and I got a stuffed unicorn the size of a border collie.
My unicorn collection grew from there. Not to be outdone, my father would get a unicorn every time my parents went shopping and came across one. I believe it bugged him he couldn’t win a stuffed animal for his little girl. Yes, he was a sweet man.  The last unicorns he got me before he died were a set of four small wall plaques depicting the unicorn in his glade in spring, summer, autumn and winter. They’ve hung on the wall in my bedroom since I was twenty-six and they will always hold their place of honor
Of all the gifts I’ve received in my life, those little plaques are some of the most meaningful. They weren’t expensive. They aren’t fancy or big. What they are is a gift from the heart from a father to his daughter and there’s nothing more special in the world.   _*_*_*_*_
You didn’t really think you’d get away without one more brief book promo, did you?  U is for…………well, you DO get to skate on the promo today because for U, I got nothing! 

KC Kendricks
website: www.kckendricks.com

T is for Tea Time - 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge

April 23, 2014
2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge A Rural LifeDay 20
T is for Tea Time
We’ve reached the last full week of this year’s blogging challenge – and only a week to go! As much as I enjoy this yearly test of personal resolve, I’m at the point where I’m eager to get to Z and take a little blogging break (as if such a thing were possible!).
Thanks for visiting my corner of the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge.
 _*_*_*_*_
If there’s anything I envy about the Brits, it’s concept of afternoon tea. I love the idea of slowing down for a few minutes in the afternoon and taking a break. It would be a pure indulgence to have a place in the town where I work where I could go after work and before I go home to unwind with a friend and have a cup, or glass, of tea.
It feels a little un-American to say that. After work I should exercise. I should do volunteer work. I should have a second job. I should participate in a sport. I should write a letter to Congress and lobby for my special interest group. We Americans don’t have time to waste on something as inconsequential as TEA.
The hell I don’t.
Between my responsibilities on the job and those at home I SHOULD take a few moments to relax every day. Maybe it should involve tea and scones or maybe, in the summer, the occasional Dairy Queen Blizzard. Maybe I could even go for iced tea and an apple. It doesn’t matter what the snack is, what matters is that I take the time to relax and collect my thoughts.
Does the notion feel like a guilty indulgence? On the surface it sure does. But I think it’s a small thing that could benefit my life in big ways. So here’s to Tea Time done my way. A few minutes of relaxation and quiet that is a gift - from me to me. I feel better already.
KC Kendrickswebsite: www.kckendricks.comblog: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com http://twitter.com/kckendricks
  _*_*_*_*_
You didn’t really think you’d get away without one more brief book promo, did you?
T is also for TAMING TRITON, the second book in the Southern Cross series. For more information please visit my website at http://www.kckendricks.com/TamingTriton.html

S is for Seasons

April 22, 2014 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge A Rural LifeDay 19
S is for Seasons
We’ve reached the last full week of this year’s blogging challenge and as much as I enjoy this yearly test of personal resolve, I’m at the point where I’m eager to get to Z and take a little blogging break. Thanks for visiting my corner of the 2014 A to Z Blogging.
_*_*_*_*_
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NRSV)
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
**

This passage from Ecclesiastes is one of the most beautiful in the Bible. In very simplistic terms it assures me that my life is unfolding as it should. But am I truly able to embrace all my seasons and walk through them with confidence?  
When I first sat down to write, I didn’t realize I was beginning a new and long-lasting season. Nor did I know there would be smaller seasons within my time to write, that there would be times the words did not come. I liken it to a winter whose beauty is better experienced from a distance. I’m now in a new spring and find I’m excited about writing again. I needed the rest of winter to prepare. That it corresponds with the meteorological season is pure coincidence.
Today’s picture is a wonderful work called Season of the Wolf by Graeme Stevenson. It’s held a place of honor on the wall in my den for well over twenty years and I never tire of looking at it. Through the layers of many seasons, the wolves do not hesitate to run forward. They don’t worry about what may happen as they leap toward spring even though the winter wolf is always with them. The winter wolf looks as eager, as intent on his journey, as the spring wolf. There is a wild and abiding joy about them.
And then there is the wise-eyed fellow in the corner. He looks at me and challenges me to cast aside doubt and live as fearlessly as they do. I look forward to that season.

KC Kendricks
www.kckendricks.com
http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
www.twitter.com/kckendricks




Brief promo time! S is also for Seducing Light. I've always loved this cover. Learn more about the story at http://www.kckendricks.com/SeducingLight.html

R is for Rain

April 21, 2014
2014 A to Z Blogging ChallengeA Rural LifeDay 18
R is for Rain
We’ve reached the last full week of this year’s blogging challenge and as much as I enjoy this yearly test of personal resolve, I confess I’m looking forward to Z so I can get back to work on a story I want to finish. I like blogging but that story is screaming to be completed. Thanks for visiting my corner of the 2014 A to Z Blogging  2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge.
_*_*_*_*_
“Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain…pitter patter pitter patter…”
Generally speaking, I like rain. There’s something about waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain on the roof that is pleasing. It’s the sound, of course, but it’s also a primitive reaction to being warm and sheltered.
My home is quite modest, as the photo attests, and if we get heavy rains the water puddles in spots. Being on the side of very big hill, which is a small mountain, rain can be a tricky thing. There’s several hundred feet of elevation above me and it all drains my way. You wouldn’t think flooding would be a problem on the side of a mountain, would you? Surprise!  The good news is it runs continues to drain straight through my property and on down a few more hundred feet to the bottom of the hill and into the creeks.
I welcome the rain that nourishes the ground. I watch the deer graze in the back yard seemingly oblivious to their wet coats. They shake every now and again, but it’s the youngsters who give them away. They prance and dance in the rain, kicking up their little hooves, hopping along, looking joyous. If being wet truly bothered them, why do they look so happy?
In the spring, I’ve been known to throw on an old raincoat, grab an umbrella, and head out for a walk through the wet woods. (If the deer can take it, so can I.) The woods take on a different life in the rain. It may look gray and brown but you can almost see and smell the abundant life that surrounds you, poised for action. It’s like the trees are in communion with the earth and for those few moments as you walk by, they include you in their ancient ritual of yearly rebirth.
And just as wonderful as a walk in the rain is arriving home and warming up with a cup of coffee in the small sunroom at the far end of my house - and watching the rain.
 _*_*_*_*_
You didn’t really think you’d get away  without a brief book promo, did you?
R is also for RIVER WALK.  
For more information please visit my website at 
www.kckendricks.com/RiverWalk.html

KC Kendricks
website
blog
twitter
pinterest
facebook

Q is for Quiet

April 19, 2014
2014 A to Z Blog Challenge A Rural LifeDay 17
Q is for Quiet


Winter, spring and summer can have the fog. It’s lovely autumn that claims the mist.
I took this photo one misty Saturday morning in late September. I’d been outside on the patio, wrapped in a light blanket, long enough to drink a cup of coffee. It was QUIET. The birds weren’t even singing as if they, too, enjoyed the silence. No wind rustled the leaves as two deer walked silently through the backyard, wraiths in the mist.
Without a sound to disturb the perfect quiet, the sun rose over the mountain ridge and light streamed through the trees. The birds began to sing and the perfect quiet became a lovely memory to share.

 KC KendricksWebsite: http://www.kckendricks.comTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/kckendricksBlog: http://kckendricks.blogspot.comPinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kckendricksMailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/betweenthekeysFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/kckendricks

P is for Peeper Frogs

April 18, 2014
2014 A to Z Blog Challenge A Rural LifeDay 16
P is for Peeper Frogs
We’re almost through the third week of the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge. Everything is going good on my end. I’m keeping up with the schedule. By now, day sixteen, the blogs are mostly written and I’ve even prescheduled tomorrow’s  post so we can go play, weather permitting.  
So thanks for coming with me this month and joining in the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge.
_*_*_*_*_*_
What do you hear when you step outside after dark?
In the country, the sounds change with the seasons. Summer brings the sounds of noisy insects like cicadas and katydids, and the eerie bark of foxes. Autumn is the time when the little screech owls make their presence known as their calls join the rustling leaves. Winter’s sound is that of the cold wind whipping through the trees. And spring brings the chirping song of the tiny peeper frog.
It’s amazing such a tiny creature can create such a riotous cacophony of sound. They begin to sing as soon as whatever signal brings them out of their winter hibernation. One night, if you’re lucky, you’ll hear one or two crystal voices. Pause to enjoy it because the next time you hear the peepers, the sound will fill the night with such a din that identifying an individual voice is impossible.
In all my years I’ve not seen one of the nocturnal peepers. I don’t guess I ever will since I don’t plan to go out into the woods at night to locate their colony. (I'll leave that to the folks who took the picture.) But every year I step outside and listen because when the peepers sing, I know it is truly spring.

(This year I first heard them on April 11th. Spring is here!)  _*_*_*_*_
You didn’t really think you’d get away without 
a brief book promo, did you?
P is also for POSEIDON’S PLEASURE.  
For more information please visit my website at www.kckendricks.com/PoseidonsPleasure.html .

KC KendricksWebsite: http://www.kckendricks.comTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/kckendricksBlog: http://kckendricks.blogspot.comPinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kckendricksMailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/betweenthekeysFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/kckendricks

O is for the Orange Maple in Fall

April 17, 2014

2014 A to Z Blog Challenge A Rural LifeDay 16
O is for the Orange Maple in Fall


Welcome to my corner of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. This year, 2014, I’ve chosen the theme, “A Rural Life.” I’m so blessed to live in rural America, close to nature. Big cities aren’t that far away by car so I’ve got the best of both worlds. Just like life, this year is turning out to be a mix-up - a wonderful combination of this and that all rolled into one that may seem chaotic on the surface but blends together to create the whole.
*_*_*_*
It’s an old adage we know well - “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Sometimes it’s true. So while it’s barely spring in my corner of the world, I’m giving you a taste of autumn as it has appeared from my front porch for each of the last thirty years.
This beautiful tree is the herald of fall in my yard. It's a little taller and broader now since this picture was taken, but its vivid fall color sets my heart alight with joy every fall.
O is for the Orange Maple that crowns the tiny rise in my front yard.



_*_*_*_
You didn’t really think you’d get away without a brief book promo, did you?  O is also for OPEN ROADS. For more information please visit my website at http://www.kckendricks.com/OpenRoads.html


KC Kendricks website twitter blog

N is for Nostalgia

April 16, 2014
2014 A to Z Blog Challenge Day 15A Rural Life
N is for Nostalgia
_*_*_*_*_ 
I remember a kinder, gentler time, and I feel very blessed to have those memories. When I was very small, the adults in my family loaded all the kids up in a car caravan and drove over four hours to Ocean City, Maryland. 
No, we didn’t stay in a motel. We pitched tents on the beach somewhere north of the boardwalk. Can you imagine doing that now? They’d probably throw you in jail, but remember, this was a different time. No one blinked at eye at our four-tent camp complete with campfire.
My first encounter with the ocean didn’t go well. My mother couldn’t convince me to get in the water. In fact, it wasn’t until my father put his camera away and carried me into the surf that I agreed with the idea of getting wet with water that “smelled funny.” After he went out far enough for the waves to splash on me, I was fine. Well, until he put me down on the beach and went into the deeper water without me. I understand I screamed about that as only a four-year old can. 
Not too many years later our family vacation car caravan headed for the mountains and Dolly Sods. Again, we simply pitched out tents and no one bothered us. A park ranger did stop and remind us to store our food where the bears couldn’t get it, but that was all. The spouse and I visited Dolly Sods a few years back and it was really cool to find the locations to match the old black and white photos. Now there are designated campsites, too.
I’m sorry my younger cousins won’t know those times. Their vacations are planned out on the Internet and motel rooms booked well in advance of travel. And they have to be. The days of pitching a tent on the beach with no rules and regulations are long gone, and while their memories will be different, I’m sure they’ll be just as meaningful to them.
But I think mine of a simpler time are just a little bit better.
_*_*_*_*_

You didn’t really think you’d get away without one more brief book promo, did you?
N is also for the NETTING NEPTUNE, book one of the Southern Cross series. For more information please visit my website at http://www.kckendricks.com/NettingNeptune.html



KC Kendricks
Website: http://www.kckendricks.comTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/kckendricksBlog: http://kckendricks.blogspot.comPinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kckendricksMailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/betweenthekeysFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/kckendricks

M is for Magnolia in the A -Z Blogging Challenge

April 15, 2014
2014 A to Z Blog Challenge Day 13A Rural Life
M is for Magnolia
We’ve made it to week #3 and the halfway mark of the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge. This is the fourth year I’ve participated in the challenge and this year I’m focusing on A Rural Life. Thanks for coming along for the ride in the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge.
_*_*_*_*_*_
The word magnolia conjures up images of the Deep South. One can easily imagine stately old homes with huge magnolias blooming at the far end of the garden. Nothing says “southern” the way magnolias do.

We had a magnolia tree in the yard where I grew up. The story goes while visiting the southern branch of the family, my grandparents stopped along a country road in Georgia and dug it up. Family in Georgia vowed and declared it wouldn’t grow in the cold winters of western Maryland, but it did. It grew to a majestic seventy feet tall. (Us kids stopping jumping over it and getting our butts smacked when it reached about two feet.)
When I built my house I tried and tried and tried to get a seed from that tree to sprout and grow. Every attempt failed. A dear friend offered to buy me a potted sapling but I explained it wouldn’t be the same.
As with all things, the magnolia died. The strange thing is my grandfather died in March and by July of that same year, without warning, the magnolia died, too. It sort of makes my wonder what magic elixir he used on it to keep it healthy.
I was looking through my photo files and stumbled across a picture of a magnolia bloom. It makes me think history should repeat itself the next time we make a trip to Georgia. I’ll toss a shovel in the trunk, just in case, and see if my stepson can find an empty country road with a very young magnolia tree.
 _*_*_*_*_

 You didn’t really think you’d get away without one more brief book promo, did you?
M is also for the MEN OF MARIONVILLE  series. For more information please visit my website at http://www.kckendricks.com/MarionvilleSeries.html

KC Kendricks

L is for Life! (2014 A -Z Blogging Challenge)

April 14, 2014
 2014 A to Z Blogging ChallengeA Rural LifeDay 12 
L is for Life!


We’ve made it to week #3 of the 2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge and tomorrow marks the halfway point. This is the fourth year I’ve participated in the challenge and this year I’m focusing on A Rural Life. It’s my life and it’s a darn good one! . 
Will I do a little promo along the way? Sure! Writing is a big part of who I am. I can’t blog if I cut out part of my life, now can I?
_*_*_*_*_

How did we get here? Did the building blocks for life come here from another world? Did we spring into being on the sixth day? Did we evolve? All of the above?
I suspect it’s all of the above. On the risk of upsetting folks on both the right and left of the political spectrum, I think God’s hand brought all these things together to create life. As a supernatural power he used what was necessary to create order in a natural realm. It’s easy to imagine him looking over his recipe for life and saying, “Okay. I need some comet dust here….and now some protozoa right there….”
Life is a glorious mystery no matter what you believe as an origin story. Or even if your personal philosophy doesn’t include the myths of origin. Life is still a wondrous event to celebrate. 
Here on this wooded hillside it’s easy to see the order in life. Every spring the tips of the maple trees turn red until the entire forest appears to blush. Then the leaves sprout and a wave of green sweeps up the side of the mountain. The color darkens and holds steadfast until late September. Then in ones and twos, the leaves along the high ridges change until autumn claims the mountain in a march of red, yellow and orange soldiers leaving a trail of brown and gray behind until spring once again seizes power. It's amazing to me how nature is every-changing and yet so constant. 
I think we humans need nature's gentle anchor in our lives, ones that can let us move a bit to avoid harm but not get blown too far off course. I like to celebrate life in my stories, not politics that restrain us or doctrines that cause us distress.
We’re all here in this place and in this time - together. Let’s enjoy our lives and the lives of others. We’re all valuable and we all value our lives. If we truly love one another as we love ourselves, the world will be a finer place.
==================
You didn’t really think you’d get away without a
brief book promo, did you?

L is for LEATHER JACKETS, book six of the Men of Marionville series. For more information please visit my website at kckendricks.com .


KC Kendricks
Website: http://www.kckendricks.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kckendricks
Blog: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/kckendricks
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kckendricks