Kathryn Magendie's Blog: Lonely Woman's Guide to the Galaxy, page 24

BDCWB Sweetie Give-Away; Moonshine & Santy; music and movies and cold cold cold!

Hi Y'all!
I've been having a good time watching Christmas Specials and doing things around the little log house. It's collllld here and we've been having this artic blast for long enough that I'm feeling a little bit cabin fever. Yesterday I woke up to 1 degrees; this morning 5 degrees. It's now a balmy 8. Lawd! Not even winter yet! We've broken or near-broken a few records here.
Are you staying warm I hope?
I have a few links today.

First, Best Damn Creative Writing Blog ever re-posted the Sweetie Review and along with it a Swag bag give-away. From their blog/review site: 3 AUTOGRAPHED COPIES OF SWEETIE ARE GOING INTO OUR BDCWB HOLIDAY SWAG BAGS! BE SURE TO ENTER EACH DAY FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN


Then, it's that time a year again where I post a link to the little story  Moonshine & Santy Claus(e) - Vagabondage Press/Battered Suitcase published it a few Christmases ago; thank you VP/BS!


And I wanted to embed this You Tube but it wouldn't let me, but I think this part in ELF movie is so cute; Click Here to watch/listen. I really thought I wasn't going to like this movie, but it's sweet and warm feeling after all.



Right now I'm listening to the cd that we all associate with "Charlie Brown Christmas" by Vince Guaraldi.

Psycho Cute Dog and Not Quite Fat Dog are snuggled in their beds. I'm still in my jammies. The cove is quiet. All my Christmas shopping is done.

And, I finally found Christmas List on TV - it came on at 7AM this morning. Why oh why won't they release this DVD? It's one of my favorites . . .

What's one, or some, of your favorite Christmas movies/shows?


(bird photos were taken from my living room window)

Random Photos, Random Videos . . .

Well, folks - its 11 degrees, snow and ice on the ground, and more snow coming. Wind chills below zero. Wind gusts expected up to 40 mph. It's lightly snowing again now. I'm all snuggled in. Enjoy the photos and video! I've decided I'm going to take another day of watching Christmas Specials. Later, y'all!

My Walk in the cove before the "snow storm" came yesterday. Some of the photos are where I took my camera and put it inside a hole in a tree trunk to see what was inside -in one, you can barely see a nest! There is a shot of the only blooming flower I saw. And others of ice, bark, Not Quite Fat Dog's back full of fuzz, and et cetera. To see it larger, just click on it.



From my porch yesterday:




This made me laugh!




And this is kind of cute, but a bit . . . strange . . . and slightly gross at times (cat's where food goes -ewwwww!~ *laugh*)

Random Photos of Ice While in the Woods & Pumpkin Bread Morning & Toys for Tots!

I took a walk in the woods along the creek yesterday morning. The temps were in the 20's and it seemed rather nice--when compared to the teens and single digits we've had! Little Cutie Psycho Girl and Not Quite Fat Dog were with me, sniffing away. I snapped photos of "ice sculptures" and roots of trees, mostly. Click on individual photos to make larger if you like.


look at the bent over trees -they're not dead but alive -nature finds a way









trunk looks like it has legs and walking across the forest floor :)

Ah, this is a secret sacred place I won't tell anyone where it is and only a few may know if it. It made it into the Sweetie Novel.

These are of my pumpkin bread morning (from post below). Ah, it turned out lovely. In the recipe, I added pecans, and I also added orange zest, just a touch of lemon zest, and used orange juice in place of the water, and I also added more spices--used fresh nutmeg, and a little cloves and a teeny bit of allspice. This recipe is well-loved and well-used, for years I've had it and it always turns out delicious. I made two batches, and this year I put some Kentucky honey bourbon in one of the batches - ohhhhhh! Thank you to dear Kimmi, author of Unbreakable Child, for that lovely smooth sweet bourbon from her state.







The numbers/letters are worn from this stove already! It's only about 5ish years old! The other side is worse *laugh*
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Yesterday I did the Toys for Tots drive, mailed some packages, and did a little last minute christmas shopping for GMR (shhhhhh!). We just do a few little things for each other and that makes it more fun.

I hope you will remember those in need, especially at Christmas time. If you know of a family in need (and sometimes they are too proud to ask), then reach out to them, or maybe there's a charity in your area that you trust. Toys for Tots is one of my favorites. I'd planned on picking up only a couple of toys, but by time I went to the cash register, well, there were more than a couple in my basket *laughing* -- I had dolls, and trucks, and a musical book, and Play Doh, and games, and a thing that makes art from clay, and I bought an Easy Bake Oven because I never had one so some girl or boy will -teeheehee, and, . . . well, I felt like a big ole kid, I did. Only about twoish weeks until Christmas - can you believe it?



Y'all are the best - thank you for all your comments and support-my Blog Friends are WONDERFUL!
Today, I am going to listen to Christmas music while tidying up the little log house. What's your day look like?

Dogs in Clothes, Danged Cold, and Pumpkin Bread (& Bobby Flay's Throwdown Pumpkin Bread Pudding)

It's 7 degrees out there; well, I think it's soared up to 9 degrees. Lawd! Unseasonably cold. I usually am pretty tough and will go out to walk the dogs in all kinds of weather, but this morning, I declined . . . because, just because!

GMR is taking Maggie and Jake (Psycho Dog and Fat Boy) to Lake Junaluska. Lawd! I broke a rule - I never dress my animals in clothes, but this morning we actually put one of GMR's sweatshirts on Jake; and one of my fleece jackets on Maggie. Laughing! But, when the temps are in the teens or below, and when wind chills are lower, drastic measures are called for. GMR had to bundle up, too, in layers. But Maggie Psycho Cutie is about to go nuts with cabin fever, the shorter walks around the cove are not enough for her. Oh the sacrifices we make for our animals - or should I say the sacrifices GMR is making, since he's taking them and I'm here in the little log house: teeheehee.

Instead, I'm going to turn on some Christmas music and bake some pumpkin bread, and maybe do some online Christmas Window Shopping . . . too cold to go Real Store Window Shopping. Lawd!

Soon the little log house in the cove will fill with the sounds of Christmas music and the aroma of spice. Ahhhhhhhh!

Then, I will settle in front of the fire to work on Rose & Thorn - our new issue is out January 15.

Soon, I will have to really sequester myself to work on VK III - do you know I'm getting mail from readers asking me not to stop writing about Virginia Kate? To stop saying "the final Graces book" ...? Makes me smile, but, dang, far as I know this is the final Graces book. Of course, I guess I can't predict if something else will happen in the future with VK writings - just don't know.


What's happening in your world? What are you up to today? And did you put down your Christmas wishes in the post below? I'm having so much fun reading those :-D


Okay, time to put on the Christmas Music, and to gather my ingredients for Pumpkin Bread.





Oh! And for those of you who like Bread Pudding (which I admit I do not), GMR is going to prepare Bobby Flay's "Pumpkin Bread Bread Pudding" out of some of the bread I make . . . I found the recipe on someone's blog out there in blogland, so click up there, or find it on Food Network.

The Blogger's pumpkin bread recipe is a bit different from mine, but you can find all kinds of recipes for pumpkin bread. In my recipe it calls for water, I use orange juice instead of water, and I put in lemon and orange zest and I add walnuts or pecans to mine.... no raisins since GMR hates them.

My recipe doesn't call for butter, either, as hers does, but instead oil. Whatever recipe you use, it'll taste good!

Y'all have a great day  . . . Happy Day!

If you could have anything for christmas . . . bend time, fold space . . . eat cheesecake for a week

 Today I have a question:



If you could have anything you wanted for Christmas, what would it be?

I mean, if space, time, money, good sense (laugh!), age, reality, et cetera, were not an issue, what would you want? Like "I'd want the planet Saturn in my living room!" or "I want George Clooney for just one hour - ONE measly hour is all I ask!" (teehee), or "The teddy bear I had as a child that was missing one eye and had the fur loved off - I can't find it anywhere and it means the world to me - wish I had it back (I really do)." Or, "To be able to eat as much cheesecake as I want for an entire week and not have any side effects, like weight gain or sugar coma." or "I want a new car/new wardrobe/new shoes/newshirt." Or "I just want a good christmas for my kids - I just need enough money to make it through until I find a job - I just want my mom/dad/sis/brother/friend to be okay . . ." or, I just want my stuff published/my book to be a best seller/my poetry/art/music to be appreciated . . ." -- Et Cetera!


What is your desire? Nothing is too frivolous and nothing too grand.


I could say I want my book(s) to be reviewed favorably by the New York Times and become a NYT bestseller - but really, right now, what I honestly would love is where I was last year at this time:


This is what I want . . . me, my son, lil boop last year at ChristmasBut, since I said we could be frivolous - I'd also love to have lunch with Steve Martin and talk about writing and art. Or, be on the Oprah or Ellen show wearing a boa and black boots. Or, ride on Saturn's rings until I SEE - and what I SEE I can't know now because I'm not on Saturn's rings. There's so much more, but I could do this all day. Oh! To be able to be "magical" like they are on Christmas Specials and do something(s) wonderful for someone(s)!


PS....

Earlier in the year I'd wanted to do a writer's calendar and some of you sent me photos. It was part of a "challenge" I had - a contest Angie Gumbo Writer and I were doing. I'd said I'd do any challenge as long as I could take it to fruition, etc etc (that's how the Nekkid Book Reading came about, and Titus won the contest for that suggestion!). I want to let you writers know that I didn't just toss your photos and forget it, but, I never received twelve photos, and then time ran away from me and the idea never came to fruition. However, I am going to re-visit this - I think it'll be a fun idea to have a "Writer's Calendar" - or maybe a "blogger's calendar" or some kind of calendar--the idea was to make it to where any proceeds went to charity, and from there it all was just ideas. So, I'd like to keep this in mind-just wanted to post about it before I forgot again!


  
 

Knit skulls, streetlit nights, and You, and Me and a bunch of ground corn

I want to thank you all for your comments below – you are all lovely and beautiful, and to Anonymous: I hope you will please please reach out if things become dark again; if nothing else there is an entire blog community who cares, okay; and not a fake care, but a real Human Care—a loving sincere care; okay? All, thank you sincerely and kindly and with love—your comments of love and loss and tragedy tore into me—we are all of One more than we often realize.

Humans have a need to find the why's when sometimes there simply isn't an answer to the why; but when we don't find that answer, we think we can't find peace—finding peace has to come from within us, not from without, for if we look for the peace from without we may have to continue searching searching to no ending. Find your peace and then let it settle in—it's a letting go and a holding onto balance.



Now . . .

The two photos you see are the ONLY photos I took while in Texas. Um, er . . . okay, Kat, you didn't take ANY photos of humans? Only the scene outside your mom's house while you were looking out the window, and the skull of a deer your uncle has had in his shop for fifty years? OOOOO-Kaaaayyy. Teehee. But both of these images compelled and called to me. Look at the lit-night scene—what does it bring to your imagination and thoughts and innards?

And as for the skull: look at the intricate and beautiful knitting of the skull. This is art. This is beauty. This is magical! Why is it knit like this? (& some science/medical person may know the answer). I couldn't quit studying it. Off where you cannot see is my mom and my uncle, and me, and we of course are not in the photo. Sometimes I am bad about not taking photos of people and only of things. dang.

I want to tell you all about grinding the corn. The corn was my uncle's who lives in Arkansas. These are my adoptive family. I can't tell you how much I hugged my adoptive mother while in Texas. Without her, I do not know what would have happened to my brothers and to me. I've been with her since I was about 3 and a half. She is Mother. My mom. She's the best. HERE'S TO ADOPTIVE MOTHERS/PARENTS!

She grows corn herself, and herbs, tomatoes, squash, peppers, beans—and more—in her beautiful back yard. We had a big bag of corn from the farm and an old-fashioned grinder. I'd pour a bit of corn into the receptacle, balance my self on the table to keep it steady, and then with the other hand/arm I turned the crank, over and over and over until it was ground—then I'd do it again, and again and again, until all the corn we needed, plus a bit more, was ground.

I ground that corn by hand and while doing so, I thought how difficult life used to be, and still is, on farms and old homesteads and before "modernizations," but how those doing the living didn't perceive things as "difficult" necessarily, but only as living their lives; it was and is their Normal, just as we live our Normal.

It took us a couple of hours to get the corn completely ground, to sift it, and then to grind the courser parts and sift that. Every time I looked into the bowl of ground corn, I felt a sense of satisfaction of a job well-done, of how good that danged cornbread was going to taste. And taste good it did. It tasted like Farm, like Work, like Sweat, like Old Times, like my granny. The cornbread dressing I made from it was a masterpiece of our work, especially after I added in the fresh herbs Mom grows.

I wished for more time with Mom. The older I become, the more I want to learn from her—her canning, her garden, her knowledge she gained from her own mother growing up on that farm.


We run from our mothers only to find that we've gone in a circle to meet them again.


Lastly . . .

I was emailed that The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog did a great review of Sweetie—you all know how I don't look for reviews or my rankings/reviews on Amazon, so I have to be told if someone sees a good one. And Asheville Citizen Times put Sweetie on their list of "What Books are Good as Gifts?"! They wrote: "The strong, "quare" voice and supernatural elements also infuse Kathryn Magendie's novel, "Sweetie," in which a bullied schoolgirl finds a friend in a wild spirit." So far, I'm hearing good things about Sweetie. Like at Missy's Book Nook where my publicist sent me the link to her review of Sweetie. And! Angie at Gumbo Writer is doing a great contest for Sweetie giveaways and some other gifts!

Suicide is not "Painless" as the song says . . .

My thoughts were to come here today to tell you all about my Texas trip to be with my family—the first Thanksgiving I've had with them since I was a teenager.


I wanted to tell you all about how I spent a morning hand grinding the corn my uncles grew on their Arkansas farm and how mom and I made cornbread out of it for the dressing – and how we used mom's home-grown herbs to help season it.

How I actually really did UnPlug for the entire trip—about ten days—and it was wonderful, even though I am so behind now in emails and comments and blogs and facebooks and twitters; however, it was worth it to spend all this time with family. I'll do this more often but for shorter spurts.

I wanted I tell you about the thousands of grackles I saw while my brother and I were out and about--all over the trees, carpeting a field--thousands! I wanted to talk about the cooking. The laughing. The land of Texas. Family.

And I was going to keep the tragic to myself and not share it with all of you.


But I find I can't write about all those things above without writing about the tragic. The way will not open up clearly for me to do this. So I suppose I must clear the way by telling you about it.

Many of you know that I have biological family in West Virginia. I didn't grow up with my biological mother, but instead was adopted by my stepmother—who became my mother, my mom—With her and my biological dad, I grew up with four brothers--we lost our David to a heart attack in 1994, and my three remaining brothers and I have grown even closer.

But, in West Virginia, I had a half-sister and a half-brother for whom I didn't know well--they were doing their growing up with my biological mother and her husband--we have the same mother but different fathers. Whole other lives I didn't know much about.


Kim is my half sister. Steve is my half-brother and I remember him as a freckled-faced dark-haired sweet boy that I saw a few times when I was a teenager. Steve grew into a man without me having seen him for many years. Then, a few years ago, I visited West Virginia and we re-connected. We talked, laughed, compared our similar ways that we couldn't believe were similar since we hadn't grown up together. He once pointed to me and said, "OMG! I didn't know anyone else did that but me . . ." and I could tell he needed the tie to this person, this big sister he never was able to know very well.


Just a day after I arrived in Texas, I received a call. Dear Steve had shot himself. Gone. He's forever gone from the earth. A moment's decision and he's left behind a wife and child and all the others who loved him. I can't quite fathom it. Can't quite wrap my brain around it to take it in to believe it.
Suicide is not painless as the song says. It leaves behind in its terrible claws confusion and heartache and questions and wonderings. Bewilderment.

His memorial was this past Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. There is no more freckled-faced dark-haired boy. There is no more Big Man he grew into. There is no more half-brother. There is no more father, son, husband. There is no more Steve.

Now, it is said and done. Much as I didn't want to write or talk about it, I guess I needed to just say/write it so that the reality will set in.

I will be back later and I know I will talk about regular old things. Because that's how life is. Turning Turning Turning goes the world. I don't know why some have the need to jump off the turning world before their time, but I do not judge them.

Kiss your loved ones and live your life and most of all stay with us to the end, please.

Namaste.

Up Up Up & Awaaaayyyyy . . . Again; Unplugging & HAPPY THANKSGIVING WISHES

taken from airplane prev trip
Well, guess what? I'm not here! By time you read this, I'm, again, either thousands of feet in the air inside a metal tube (eeeeek!) hoping I don't have to pee because I hate those teeny little bathrooms; or I'm in a terminal; or already in Arlington, Texas (between Dallas & Ft Worth).

shot from airplaine - rip in the sky!I haven't had Thanksgiving with my family (childhood family - not husband or son family) since I was a teenager many many moons ago, so this will be a good TG reunion type trip.

Don't feel sorry for me leaving poor dear GMR in the little log house in our cove again - he will be surrounded by good good friends who we love and adore. And, I have promised I am not scheduling anything else out of town until the book conference in February ("as far as I know clause" is understood *laughing*).

I will be gone about 10 days. However; I had already planned on taking a break from blogging during the week of Thanksgiving - I want and need this for myself and family *smiling* And I know many of you may be doing this as well. So this will be the last blog post for at least a week. And I don't expect to be twittering or Facebooking either.

My brother Tommy & I in shadow :-D
Check out Wednesday's links if you would like to - and The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog will probably have the Sweetie Review somewhere on this link up today - lawd!- go read it and if it's a good one, then tell me it's good so I can go read it when I have a chance (if I have a chance) while in Tex-arse  - you know I don't like to read reviews unless someone else reads them first and sees if they will make me happy *laughing* -- *bawk bawk bawk* I'm chicken that way . . . *grin*


So, how about you tell me your Thanksgiving menu? And your traditions? In MY house, when I grew up and all through my life, I have had Cornbread Dressing - not that nasty bread stuff - Harumph - GMR makes the nasty bread stuffing and sometimes puts oysters in it -ewwww (he's from New Orleans). My mom always made Cornbread Dressing (and it don't belong in no danged turkey's arse either - it goes in a pan of its own! huhn!) and I continue that Cornbread Dressing tradition. GMR makes his nasty old bread stuff, and I tolerate it by sniffing it and taking about a teaspoon of it ...haw!


This book, Somebody Stole the Cornbread from my Dressing, tells about the dressing/stuffing debate (and many others, too) - love it!


And what are you thankful for right here and now (remember the post from Monday!)?


I will now say So Long until after Thanksgiving, then I will return.  If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, or already have you Canadians!, then you can still feel thankful for many things, right?


GOOD WEEKEND TO YOU AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK TO YOU!

Time for Links!

If you've not been by the The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, go check them out, and not just because they did a "Five Questions" thing with me (no, really! *laugh*), but because they are chock-a-full of gooey goodness. They also are reviewing SWEETIE and that will be up in a few days. They are on Facebook, and twitter, too.

Deborah Riley-Magnus has had a series of posts about "Author Success - A Well-Planned Future" - I need to catch up on them, but I've been reading many of them and find them interesting and informative, even if I don't follow all the advice, there is something for everyone I think.


For those of you doing the Nanowrimo, the beautiful and brilliant Alexandra Sokoloff has some advice: Nanowrimo: Creating Character.

I've been reading on Behler Blog, a publisher who gives some advice on querying and et cetera and has a cute little beagle that likes margueritas :-D

Also, Bellebooks exploded with manuscripts after opening their doors to more lit fiction, and they received other submissions as well, of course, for genre fiction, et cetera. They had a great year last year and hope this trend continues. They're even having to close submits until probably March or so. This is a good thing for BB and for their authors, too, (although it means if you were interested in submitting you will have to hold off a little while). Any business, publishing/book business, that is growing right now is doing something right. So, congrats and yayyys to my wonderful Bellebooks!

That's all I have right now. Hope you'll go by Five Questions at the Best Damn Creative Writing Blog - and while there, take a look around.

And remember, two weeks of living Here and Now and Enjoying What We Have Right Now (below).

My challenge to you: the Here and the Now; Right now.

Saturday's event went well. I had a nice turn-out and we raised some money for Share the Warmth/Mountain Projects. My face was red and hot like it gets, and I fidgeted around nervously, like always *laugh* - but people seemed happy and I was happy, so that's all that matters. GMR's jambalaya, cookies, and brownies were gobbled up, and that's a good thing, too. I met and talked to some wonderful people - and again, that's a good thing.

I was thinking about things and my blog and all, and notice where I generally tend to shy away from giving out "writer's advice" even though this is a "writer's blog." But, thing is, there's so much of it out there. So many places giving advice, what else could I tell you? I'm always willing and love to answer questions and help when I can, but, really, all our paths are different, and all our many ways of writing are unique, our journeys varied.

We all just do the best we can do. We all just put our hearts in it and hope that the path we're on is the correct one -- well you know what? There's no way to know whether you are on the correct path until you come to a fork in it and have to make another decision, or you come to the end of it and either there's something you've always wanted there that makes you completely happy, or there's nothing there you want and you have to turn back around and go back the way you came - or, you decide to plunge ahead and make a new path.
I read a blog yesterday where the writer, Cathy West, talked about "is this the fun part?" Because she knows the publishing path isn't all roses and easy strolling along - you can feel as if you are stumbling down some rough road as you are writing your work, then as you query for it that path can be full of thorns and shifting dirt and uphill uphill uphill, but once you are published, the work is not over - unless you are satisfied only with the idea of having a book published, printed, and on a couple of bookshelves. Once you are published, you must decide what your goals are and then take that path. My friends, the writing of the work is the wonderful magical time - unless you are one of the few who hate the process (and there are writers like that - much as I don't understand it, they are there -perhaps they aren't writing what they want but want is wanted from them or what they think is wanted from them?)
If one isn't careful, the frustrations along the paths to and when published can tarnish the joy of the business--the business of books, of words and language, of characters, of stories.

I will tell you, too, that someone will always be more successful than you are, as long as you define success outside of yourself - as long as you look outward to what someone else is doing and what they have and who they are, you may never find joy and contentment in what you have accomplished.

Well, guess I am giving out advice after all, though I didn't mean to! Thanksgiving is round the corner, so maybe this week and next week is a good time for us all to consider what we have instead of what we want, or what we think we want. Maybe this week and next week is a good time to feel Satisfied. To feel Complete. To look around at where we are on our path and actually see what is around us instead of always looking ahead, or trying to find the path another person has taken that has surely led them to Success.

Maybe this week and next week we all need to do the old-fashioned "counting our blessings" - touch the heads of our children/grandchildren, kiss the lips of our partners/spouses, hug our friends, take a walk and NOTICE something in nature, find wonder in this Earth we live on, be in the Here and the Now all  this week.
That's my challenge to you - to be Right Here and Right Now all this and Thanksgiving week (even if you do not celebrate Thanksgiving or live in Canada and already have, you can still do this). To be grateful for something or someone instead of wondering "What comes next?" Here. Now. That's what we have -that's the Sure Thing. Right this moment, there is something or someone in front of you that you haven't given attention to - even if it is your own Self.
Namaste. (I'm laughing because it just dawned upon my pea-head that Thanksgiving is NEXT week, so I added in some "next weeks" to the "this weeks" *laughing!*(all photos are mine except for the cartoon)