C.D. Verhoff's Blog, page 8

Fun Trivia

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year!   

Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!

The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other's shoulders!

When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second!
A Boeing 747 airliner holds 57,285 gallons of fuel!

A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile!A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface!
A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood!It is estimated that 4 million "junk" telephone calls, phone solicitations by persons or programmed machine are made every day in the United States!

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill!


Almost half the newspapers in the world are published in the United States and Canada!

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"Glory Alley isn't a wizard, she doesn't slay vampires or zombies, but she kicks butt in her very own way. Her weapon is never giving up. Glory rocks!" ~Nicole, CO
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Suitable for Tweens, Teens and Adults

The Path of Imagination

Eons ago, before the written word, stories entered the world by mouth and not by hand. Tales of the great hunt were shared orally and passed down the same way. Eventually language was converted into symbols and some of these tales were chiseled into stone or painted onto papyrus. With the advent of voice technology software, we have come full circle. Stories can enter the world via the voice before they're converted into symbolic language. Voice activation software still has a few bugs, but it keeps getting better and better. It won't be long until it's darned near perfect. When it gets to that point would I stop writing novels and convert to talking them instead? Probably not.

Intuition tells me that typing words activates a different part of my brain than speaking them out loud. I write more elegantly than I speak. Call me crazy, but I feel like the pathway from my imagination to mouth colors my words differently than the pathway from my imagination to my fingers. A story begins in the author's imagination, but surely, how it's filtered into the world affects the end product. Or does it? 

Unlike my talented ancestors who didn't have the luxury of computers, typewriters or even paper, my brain isn't wired for long verbal feats of memory, organization and story creation. It's just not. 

  

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The Very First King Size Bed

Away in a Manger 
First published in 1885 in a Lutheran Sunday school book, the poem is often mistakenly attributed to  Martin Luther himself, but in actuality the author is unknown. In 1895 William J. Kirkpatrick put the words to music:

Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus, lay down his sweet head. The stars in the sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

Simple and sweet, this song takes me back to my own childhood Christmases. My parents didn't have a lot of money, but I felt rich and full of joyful anticipation. On Christmas Eve night, during the car trip home from my Great Aunt Josie's cozy little Cape Cod, my four sisters and I would sing carols. We knew a ton of them, but Away in a Manger was probably on our list of top ten favorites. Ahh, the memories.

Writes From Readers

As a relatively unknown author, fan mail is a rare treat, so I thought I'd share:

Dear Ms. Verhoff, I enjoy reading about teen girls who have interests outside of dating and clothes. Glory isn't a wizard, she doesn't fight vampires or zombies, but kicks butt in her very own way. Her weapon is never giving up. Glory rocks! ~ Nicole* from Boulder, CO (12-4-2012)
Hello Nicole:

You are right about Glory Alley. While she's not immune from fantasizing about nice clothes and dating, most of her energy is focused elsewhere. As you know, her dream is to become a geologist, but her first priority is simply surviving her dysfunctional family. Like all teens, Glory Alley is a rich and complex individual, stubborn to a fault, yet insecure about her place in the world, a sinner and a saint at the same time. She's also a daughter, grand daughter, sister, friend, rock collector, student, budding geologist, spelunker and a dreamer.

Some readers have come away from the book calling her selfish and labeling her as the bad guy of the story. Others have seen her as a selfless hero. I find the range of reactions interesting, but not surprising. I love the way you defined Glory's weapon as never giving up. If you don't mind, I'm going to borrow some of your comments. Your email made my day. I really appreciate the time you took to contact me. 
*I removed last name to protect the reader's identity

Quirky Quotes

1.   If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.
2.   The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
3.   How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
4.   A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work    station.
5.   I’ve gotta stop saying “how stupid can you be?”. Too many people are taking it as a challenge.
6.   Scientists say the universe is made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. They forgot to mention morons.
7.   I’ve lost my mind and I’m pretty sure the kids took it.
8.   The best way to a man’s heart is to saw his breast plate open.
9.   My car doubles in value when I fill up my gas tank.
10. A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Hoo yah!
11. The fly that doesn’t want to be swatted is most secure when it’s sitting on the fly swatter.
12. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
13. Always remember you're unique, just like everybody else. 
14. Those who criticize our generation seem to forget to who raised it.
15. Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver. 

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Suitable for Tweens, Teens and Adults

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Suitable for Tweens, Teens and Adults

Weird Stuff You Might Not Know

Weird Stuff You Might Not Know
Knowing my love of useless information, a friend of mine sent me a list of strange facts. Just so ya know--I have not verified their authenticity.

1.    Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.2.     The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.3.     A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and             down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.4.     A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.5.     Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.6.     A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".7.     During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen              in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).8.    On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
(Perhaps this explains a few things!)9.    Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson." (Tell me this ain't true!)10.  Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.11.  The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.12.  There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple and silver. (You mean to tell me that "nurple" isn't a real word?)13.  Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them. (I'm not sure I believe this one. Surely, beans or not, astronauts fart too?)14.  The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.16.  If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will
instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who wants to test this out?)17.  Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down
so you could see his moves. 18.  The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in
the USA."19.  The original name for butterfly was flutterby.20.  The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.