Liz Flaherty's Blog, page 165

Songs About Rain

It's been a really, really long winter here. Like just about every where north of, oh, Missouri or so. So when the temperature gauge left 60 behind a week ago I rejoiced. Put all the coats and long pants in Rubbermaid storage boxes and sent them up to the attic. BRING ON SUMMER, I say!

But a funny thing happened late last night and early this morning: it started to rain. I think the Earth actually sighed when it started because it's been a soft, gentle rain and not a monsoon. And there's not...

What 4-H Taught Me

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I pledge my head to clearer thinking,my heart to greater loyalty,my hands to larger service, andmy health to better living,for my club, my community, my country and my world.


For sixteen years, I was a proud 4-H leader. My sister and I started a horse club for our five kids. They brought friends, then strangers joined, and before we knew it, we ran one of the biggest clubs in our county.
I loved every moment of 4-H. I couldn't participate when I was a kid. We moved every six-seven months and 4-...

When memories are gifts

           Before I say anything else, thanks to all who have served. Let us not forget.
***       
 I thought today of a book I read in 1973. I don’t remember its title or the names of the protagonists, but the heroine’s baby was stillborn and her little boy, named Chris just as mine was, was killed in an accident. I had nightmares about her Chris and mine, and I knew then that I’d never have a child die in a book. Children die, I know th...

THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER

Bet that got all you Seinfeldees interested. What's she writing about today??

Sorry to disappoint, but it's just my periodical hodge-podge of thoughts.

Jordan, my youngest daughter, likes to ask me questions. I think mostly so she can give me her answers. But one she asks every few months is, "What is your favorite season?"



It's spring here--and wherever you are--in the Pacific Northwest. And it's just the perfect part of spring. The part where the birds are coming out, bees are buzzing, and flo...

You Can't Edit A Blank Page...

Sometimes I feel like there hasn't been a time I haven't been editing. In journalism school we edited and edited to get our news articles just so and once they were perfect on the page we printed them out and pasted up the paper. When I moved into TV news I learned that kind of editing was simple. In television they send you out in the big, wide world, tell you to shoot good pictures and get good interviews...and them come back and make the hour of footage you just shot into a story of a minu...

Famous? Not In My Book!

By now the whole world knows how I have HUGE crush on Kid Rock. I talked about it last week on here if you care to read how something so weird happened to me. Ha!


What my oh-so-silly crush have to do with anything, you ask?


Well, all this crushing on Kid Rock has made me want to write a book about a rock star from Detroit who meets up with a small town farm girl...!


Well, partially.


I'm not foolish enough to base my book on anything Kid Rock does, or has done. Please, no...

Farewell to a master storyteller.

        I remember taking My Brother Michaelout of the library. My mother didn’t like it much—I was twelve or so and she’d really have preferred I stay with Beverly Cleary and Betty Cavanna and Janet Lambert. I read them, too, at the first of the week, but I was a 10-book-a-week reader and the adolescent section wasn’t big enough for me. So, shelf-by-shelf, I made my way into adult fiction.
          These shelves are where...

What the Hell Happened?

I have a routine I go through during the week. I wake up and force myself out of bed. Go to work and after coffee and a few deep breaths, start my day with a little more energy. I even come up with new ideas and plot twists for stories as the day progresses. I get hyped up. A good plot twist does that to me. During lunch time I do one of two things. Take a nap because I stayed p way too late the night before. or add some words to my rough draft on my iPad. If I add word to the rough draft, I'...

Obsessive Distraction

Have you ever had a confrontation that you obsess about later? Why didn’t I say this? Why didn’t I do that? Why did I let that comment slide? Why did I get defensive about that?
For the last two—going on three, if you consider what I woke up thinking about—days, I’ve had a situation at work with another assistant manager. It finally came to the point where I had to speak to the store manager. In all the years I’ve been a manager—eight—I’ve never had to go to a store manager about a problem lik...

Guest Post: Grace Teague on Asian Leads!

Hey, WordWrangler Readers! I've got Grace Teague in the round corral today and she's going to tell us all about her (hot) Asian hero from Lucky Star. Take it away, Grace!

Asian Leading Men by Grace Teague

My contribution to One Lucky Night , is a story called “Lucky Star,” which features a leading man of Chinese and Scottish descent.  My inspiration for the character came from a couple sources, including a forward a friend sent me of beautiful, up-and-coming,  Asian actors.

I know it so...