Deborah J. Martin's Blog, page 7

Where’s Fall?

Doesn’t this look inviting?

Here in the Southeastern US, we’re still sweltering. Usually by this time (second week in September) we’ve cooled off a little but the forecast isn’t looking good. I decided I’d try to find Fall.

*dials 1-800-MAN-ATUR*

“Thank you for calling Mother Nature’s Consortium. If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it at any time. For Winter, press 11. For Spring, press 12, for Summer, press 13. For Fall, press 14. For Rain, press 21. For Wind, press 22…”

*presse...

The USOC’s Safe Sport Program

This post is worlds away from my normal musings but it’s something that’s been bugging me a lot and I need to get it off my chest.

For the first time in nearly twenty years, I am no longer very involved in the sport of fencing. I became a technician after accompanying my then-fiancé to a national-level tournament in November 1996. As an international-grade technician, I met many wonderful people from countless countries, and made a lot of good friends. In 1998, I became the Treasurer of the G...

The 3-Month Project

I love our deck. It’s 50′ x 10′ (spans the length of the house) and looks out on woods … and the garden, if you look down. Now that I’ve figured out how to not be bug lunch, I am thoroughly enjoying the evenings out there. The summer days, however, are another matter altogether. The deck gets over ten hours of direct sun and it gets toasty. I’ve always said that if I win the lottery, I want a retractable awning out there. A girl can dream.

We had to rebuild the floor this year – the stain sim...

Bug Spray

Eureka!

For years (my entire life, actually) I have been bug lunch. I tried everything – even the icky commercial repellents didn’t work. I’ve always known I have a weird physiology but to not have a single one work? I had pretty much resigned myself to not being able to enjoy our deck in the evenings without slapping myself silly then spending the next week scratching bug bites.

Until…a friend from Alaska (where, like Minnesota, the mosquito is the unofficial state bird) suggested a combinat...

Now In Tree Book Format!

Even though the Ogre’s Assistant books have been out in ebook format for three and two years, there’s something about paper that makes it seem more real. They’re real!

Printing costs being what they are, the paperbacks are only available directly from me. These books are quick reads (deliberately so) and to distribute them through Amazon, I would have had to price them at $9.00 or more. I wouldn’t pay that much for a book that’s less than 250 pages and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to, eithe...

Interview with a Witch: Me!

Last fall (my, how time flies) a young Italian friend interviewed me via Skype. His intent was to create a podcast series on traditional witches but, as happens frequently, life got in the way. So, he sent it on to me to publish. Therefore, I present – me:

http://www.authordjmartin.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DJ_interview.mp3

My thanks to G for doing this. It was a lot of fun! (And, unlike you folks who only get to listen, I got to put a face to a name I’d known for a few years.)

(I see i...

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A Familiar’s Tale – Housekeeping

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a plaint. Fudge was getting too wordy in his story to keep putting up 1,000 word posts – the menu to the right would get entirely too long!

After talking with some folks and thinking about it, I’ve decided the menu is going to be a brief glimpse into each of his lives. Once he’s finished telling Amy his full story, I’ll compile it into a book of some sort. All the “printing” decisions will be made after I see what I have.

For those of you who have been followin...

Characters-In Their Own Words :(

As you can see from the sidebar, Fudge has been telling his story to Amy. (No clue who they are? Read about their adventures here.)

I had originally intended it to be a novella, around 20,000 words or about one chapter per life. Fudge, for all his assumed reticence, is wordy! I’m not even through his fourth life (he has several more) and I’m well over the target word count. Do other authors have this problem? You have an idea of what’s supposed to happen, the characters take over the storytel...

A Familiar’s Tale – Part XVI

I awoke to the light of a candle and the smell of cooked meat. I hoped there was rice being served with it – I was hungry! At some point I had been transferred from the traveling tube to my clay jar. Probing Hui’s mind, I discovered that we were at a small inn for the night and the room she was sharing with Tian was larger than the house from which she had just departed. The food being placed before her was more than she was accustomed to eating all day. She was in awe.

The lid to my jar was...

A Familiar’s Tale – Part XV

I next opened my eyes to find a humongous eye staring down at me. “This one will do,” said a voice coming from the direction of that eye. I was unceremoniously picked up and deposited into a dark something with small holes. The eye observed me through one of those holes.

I tested my new body. I was obviously quite small, with large hind legs, smaller front ones, two sets of wings, and feelers jutting from my forehead. As I moved the outer wings to test for flight, I made a noise. Curious, I t...