Rose Anderson's Blog, page 25

Two tin cans and a string

I’ve been trying to use the internet since 5 am. No dice. It’s been offline for hours but seems to have offered a sliver of opportunity just now. As it is, I’ve disconnected twice in writing this small bit. Annoying.

A call in to my service provider tells me  they’ll be atop the barn this afternoon to adjust the new doodad up there and pointing it at another tower in the distance will make things much better.  Ah rural internet connections. Since the new barn antennae went up we have reasonable service, but it’s been dicey for the past few days. I used to have the equivalent of two tin cans and a string.

So, I have no time for a longer post today because of this adjusting. Gaa! It just fell off and on again. Time for me to go. If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to scroll down and read yesterday’s post on banned books. It’s Banned Books Week. What an eye-opener.

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 31 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

At wits’ end

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Today is Author Sam Cheever’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Watch for the October contest.

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

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My recent projects~

Tasteful Murders

http://www.amazon.com/Tasteful-Murders-Paul-R-Lancey-ebook/dp/B00NG86P02/

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

In paperback and ebook. The e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄. See My Other Projects page above for links to various formats.

I’m also participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog:

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

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The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

 

Paper burns at 451°

I consider myself a free-thinking human. In my half-plus century I have lived enough, experienced enough, to draw my own conclusions from the knowledge at hand. I also know my rights as an American citizen. Unlike so many exponents bandying the little blue book in front of media, I understand both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  As a woman of opinion, I must say it irks me how quickly people rise to defend a single Amendment or Constitutional passage at the same time they completely discard the rest. Today I choose liberty. Here’s a bit of dictionary definition:

freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice.

It is with this in mind that I mention this week is Banned Book Week. Since 1990, the Office for Intellectual Freedom reports more than 18,000 attempts to remove materials in schools and libraries because people consider their content inappropriate, controversial or dangerous. Given the books on this ever-growing list, I have to say mine is a nation of imbeciles.

Examples:

A well-known story taken from French folklore sometime in the 1600s can’t make it in California of today.  I know you’re stunned reading that. Why is this book banned? Because Red visits grandma and brings her wine and cake. At the end of the tale, grandma has a glass of wine and cleans up her cottage.  The story I’m referring to is Little Red Riding Hood. (Banned for inappropriate substance)

A litter of piglets is born on a farm. Experience tells the farmer the small runt will suffer and fail to thrive. He grabs his axe to do the humane thing as any farmer would in the early middle of the last century. His daughter asked her mother, “where is papa going with that axe?” The story I’m referring to is Charlotte’s Web. (Banned for intended violence and parental treachery)

Two Victorian children born into a family of means share a nursery as children did back then. The brother mentions to his sister that he misses their nanny tucking him in. She does it for him and says, “You have it for tonight, darling.” To the sexually repressed imbeciles I mention above, this innocent exchange is suspect. Why ever would a sister call her brother “darling” if their relationship didn’t have seedy undertones? And why don’t they have their own separate bedrooms? The story I’m referring to is Mary Poppins. (Banned for sexual undertone)

Two southern boys and their adventures along the Mississippi River two years before the Civil War began. True to the time it was written about, the n_ word is in there. The story I am referring to is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (Banned for racial insensitivity)

An orphan boy has a chance to live the life his parents meant him to live. A classic hero’s quest where good triumphs over evil. The only problem is, his is a world of witchcraft and wizardry. The story I am referring to is Harry Potter. And it was banned for the same reason the Wizard of Oz and A Wrinkle in Time were banned — witches. (Banned for religious views)

A girl of mixed Christian and Jewish faith is dealing with issues of interfaith and going through puberty at the same time. Seeing other young women fully fleshed out all around her, she asks God to give her breasts. The story is Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. (Banned for amoral content)

Two books of poems and whimsical sketches. The books I am referring to are The Cat in the Hat and A Light in the Attic. (Banned because they encourage messiness and disobedience)

The Diary of Anne Frank (Banned for homosexual undertones)

The Old Man and the Sea (Banned for being an affront to Christian values)

Fahrenheit 451 (Banned as obscene)

Bridge to Terabithia (Banned for its death theme)

Moby Dick (Banned as obscene and sacrilegious)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Banned for profanity and adult themes)

The Grapes of Wrath (Banned as socialist propaganda)

I could add more, many more. The list of banned and challenged books this year is huge. Unfortunately.

Book burning Nazi-style

“We all know that books burn, yet we have the greater knowledge that books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die. No man and no force can put thought in a concentration camp forever. No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody man’s eternal fight against tyranny of every kind.”

~President Franklin D. Roosevelt

More~

The Virtual Read-Out. Hear passages from the banned books list.

https://www.youtube.com/user/BannedBooksWeek

Exercise your liberty. You have the right to read what you want to read. Learn more here.

http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

We’re I an author of greater consequence, I too would be banned (sacrilegious, sexual undertones, profanity, adult themes, and obscenity, with a touch of all of the rest of the above thrown in for good measure)  My fiction brings harm to none. Haters would do better looking in the mirror and assessing there, for behind those eyes lurks the true affront to the Great Mystery.

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 32 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Knowledge is power

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Today is guest Author Em Petrova

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Watch for our upcoming October contest. http://www.romancebooks4us.com

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My recent projects~

Tasteful Murders

http://www.amazon.com/Tasteful-Murders-Paul-R-Lancey-ebook/dp/B00NG86P02/

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

In paperback and ebook. The e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄. See My Other Projects page above for links to various formats.

I’m also participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog:

http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Colors coming on

While out walking the little dog today I couldn’t help but notice the leaves are changing. I love the visual magic that does a now you see it, now you don’t transformation on the trees. Especially when they slip into their autumn finery overnight.  It’s a gift to the eye.

Would you believe only the basic mechanics of this wonder are known to science? There’s a lot to this process. 

We know a variety of factors figure in to the leaf life of trees, namely environmental influences like temperature, rainfall, and variables of soil nutrients, etc. One major factor in the summer/fall changeover has to do with the steady increase of night. In the northern hemisphere, our days grow shorter and nights grow longer and colder this time of year. Less sunlight inspires certain chemical processes to get involved. All through the growing season, a tree makes chlorophyll for photosynthesis and this chemical makes leaves appear green. In the long cold nights of autumn, the chlorophyll production slows then eventually stops altogether for winter. Once the chlorophyll is no longer a factor, the other chemicals present in the leaves all along can finally be seen. These are the carotenoids (yellows and oranges).

To get those vibrant red colors we love this time of year, the tree needs a perfect blend of circumstances. The most brilliant colors are tied to this favorable mix of a warm wet spring, a moderate summer, and cool and crisp autumn nights followed by warm and sunny days. 

During the fall, leaf veins close and food production begins to shut down for the winter. Deciduous trees need to pump their sap to the roots where freezing winter temperatures can’t harm their delicate vascular system.  Warm sunny days inspire the leaves to produce sugars, but with closing veins there’s no way to send it all to the roots. The anthocyanin pigments come into play when lots of sugars are present in the leaves. This chemical makes the vibrant reds, crimsons, purples, and browns that take your breath away.

The seasons change from south to north and from east to west, and that means the east coast of the United States gets the colors first. My husband is speaking in Washington DC in October and we’re driving there to take it all in.

I hope the colors of Appalachia wait for me.  They did last time.  :D



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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 33 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

As beautiful as the day is long

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Today is Author Cara Marsi’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ Watch for our October contest!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞
My recent projects~

Tasteful Murders

Tasteful Murders

All things being equal

Happy Efnniht! Or should I say Happy Alban Elfed? No? Ok, then happy Autumnal Equinox! Today’s celestially auspicious event comes with roughly 12 hours of day and night. The name, from the Latin æquus and nox, literally means equal night. In the wheel of the year, the spring and autumn equinoxes fall between the summer and winter solstices.



For as long as mankind has watched the heavens and kept track of celestial constants, these four events were considered important because they marked the cross quarters and the turning of the seasons. To beings dependent on animal migrations and eventually on the particulars of agriculture, knowing when to hunt and when to plant/harvest was a matter of survival.

Before long, their importance as time-keepers inspired rituals and customs to spring up across cultures around the world. Two off the top of my head –dousing fires and symbolically relighting them on the winter solstice, and running cattle through the Beltane fires.

Some of the more remarkable ways man has paid homage to the cross quarters have been through stone and wood structures built in such a way as to capture a moment in time. We know about the great monoliths of the ancients such as Stonehenge and Brittany’s Carnac, but there were other important timepieces too. Again, off the top of my head, there’s a spiral cut in stone that is pierced by a shaft of light in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon. Ireland’s New Grange is a tunnel built into an earthwork that captures the rising or setting sunlight on one day a year. There are also astronomical observatories subtly positioned as avenues, such as the Temple of Karnac in Egypt or the solar alignment of New York’s Manhattan.

Here’s one of my favorites for marking the spring equinox. This is the ancient step pyramid of El Castillo in Chichen Itza. The sun casts a moving body of light on the stone serpent head at the bottom of the pyramid. Amazing.

More~

http://www.archaeoastronomy.com/seasons.html

What an interesting day to contemplate a life in balance– A good day to accept we are at once both light and shadow. Take writing. By the very nature of what it is, writing fiction is a very introspective craft. Other writers reading my blog today will understand what it is I am saying. Our craft pulls from every imaginable corner of our psyche. Every once in a while a wisp of darkness curls into my light and when I’m done composing it, I’ll sit back from my keyboard fairly stunned by what just poured out of my imagination.

On a theme, my latest tiptoe into the shadows is now in print. This will be my third  murder anthology with authors Paul DeLancey and Candace Bowen.  If you click on the Look Inside feature on the cover of each on Amazon, you see my stories come after the fun introductions.

Tasteful Murders

http://www.amazon.com/Tasteful-Murders-Paul-R-Lancey-ebook/dp/B00NG86P02/

More darkness in past anthologies~ Look Inside to read mine





The Darwin Murders

http://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Murders-Candace-C-Bowen-ebook/dp/B00ENQBI7Q/

 

Bump Of Your Enemies. I came late to this one and didn’t quite understand the theme, but they took my bit anyway.

http://www.amazon.com/Bump-Your-Enemies-Candace-Bowen-ebook/dp/B00CJWAVAQ/

 

Perhaps not in equal measure for the equinox, but I’m also in these lighter collections…

The free Exquisite Quills Holiday Anthology Vol 1. My offering is based upon the true history of rural electrification in the house next door to me.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/374815

 

And then there’s Bake, Love, Write  ~ a light-hearted recipe collection where authors shared a dessert recipe and their perspectives on love and the writing craft. (more info below) Author Kaye Spencer made this little book trailer for our cookbook. Very cute!

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Today is my day!  Stop by and play my Q&A.

I’m participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 34 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

All things being equal

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Today is guest Author Sherry Ewing

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ The September contest is almost over. SO many prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

The e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄.

Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NO2DPTY/

iTunes Store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bake-love-write/id920146098?mt=11

The Nook Store

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bake-love-write-lois-winston/1120365873?ean=2940150401860

Kobo

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/bake-love-write

And we have Paperback on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Bake-Love-Write-Authors-Dessert/dp/1940795133/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Mighty pen

Today in 1862, Abraham Lincoln made one of the most important presidential proclamations of American history. By executive proclamation, he freed the slaves in the rebelling states. History would know this strike of the pen as the Emancipation Proclamation. Because this was a presidential order and not a law yet passed by Congress, Lincoln had to lobby for an antislavery amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Three years after his proclamation, the 13th Amendment was passed in 1865 and slavery was eliminated throughout America.

But…it was not as cut and dried as history books would have us believe. As with any major social change it came with shades of opposition and support.

This proclamation freed the slaves in the rebelling states only. The US had border states dividing southern sentiments from the north and in these states were slaveholders loyal to the Union. Because of this proverbial sticky wicket, Lincoln’s cabinet urged that he not  announce his proclamation until after a Union victory. Early on, Union victories were few. That reversal of fortune came at the Battle of Antietam on September 17 that same year. The following January in1863, Lincoln issued his final Emancipation Proclamation, declaring “…all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free.”

Here’s a little-known tidbit~

Because Lincoln was considered a favorite son of Illinois, a lot of his papers are there. The original draft of his proclamation was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. I’ll blog that bit of history in October.  :)

The handwritten draft (photographed copy)

This is a nice, albeit short, clip from Michigan’s Henry Ford Museum. If you’ve never been there, I highly recommend a visit.

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.

~Abraham Lincoln

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 35 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Actions speak louder than words

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Today is Desiree Holt’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ The September contest is almost over. SO many prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞


And speaking of prizes…

I’m participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

The e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄.

Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NO2DPTY/

iTunes Store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bake-love-write/id920146098?mt=11

The Nook Store

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bake-love-write-lois-winston/1120365873?ean=2940150401860

Kobo

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/bake-love-write

And we have Paperback on Amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/Bake-Love-Write-Authors-Dessert/dp/1940795133/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Fun Day Sunday

If you’ve been here before then you know Sundays on my blog are all about wonder and smiles. In honor of mentally kicking back once in a while, Sundays are Fun Days! Each Sunday, visitors will find a fun, interesting, or unusual something here. I’m a nerd with a complex sense of humor and absurd wit. It could literally be anything.

If you’ve stopped by my blog before, you know I’m a world drummer. That is to say, I gather with other world drummers and play all manner of percussion instruments from around the world. I love music of all kinds and in all forms, especially percussion. A while back I posted a clip of making music on ice in Siberia. Today it’s playing a little Bach in the forest in Japanese concept art style. Amazing the effort that went into this.

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 36 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Drop the ball.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Today is Author Renee Vincent’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ The September contest is almost over. SO many prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞


And speaking of prizes…

I’m participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

The e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄.

Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NO2DPTY/

iTunes Store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bake-love-write/id920146098?mt=11

The Nook Store

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bake-love-write-lois-winston/1120365873?ean=2940150401860

Kobo

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/bake-love-write

And we have Paperback on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Bake-Love-Write-Authors-Dessert/dp/1940795133/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Follow that toad

Today I’d like to share a story before it slips away. A few weeks back, before my washing machine got zapped and knocked out of commission, I was taking care of laundry in the basement and there discovered a meadow jumping mouse trapped in the window well along the stairs. There were also a small toad and frog trapped with the mouse. The amphibians I planned to rescue by hand. I went to the yard for a long stick and put it in there so the mouse could get out.

In case you’ve never heard of these adorable little creatures, essentially balls of fur with whiskers and a tail, they’re somewhat rare. Most native grasslands have been converted to agriculture in my state, but as I am surrounded by prairie, there’s still habitat for these nocturnal mice. They get their name from the fact they hop.  Some people call them kangaroo mice.

I sat on the stairs waiting on this little guy to find the stick and escape. Being a jumping mouse he jumped– boing boing boing. He jumped in the corners, boing boing, he jumped at the window glass, boing boing boing. He jumped all around the stick. boing boing. At one point he jumped on the stick and off again. boing boing boing. This activity was only broken by the occasional nibble on the millipedes trapped in there with him.

My son was here that day and asked me what I was doing. When I explained, he came and sat beside me. The leopard frog watched the frenzy with his head poking out from under a leaf. The toad did too. And the whole while the mouse jumped up and down ineffectually. boing boing boing. It was looking like I’d have to find gloves and take him out of there by hand.

Suddenly, the little inch-long toad starts walking. I laughed and told my son the toad had had enough of the mouse and was going to climb out to get away from the insanity. I was joking. In all the years we’ve been here, with all the critters trapped in the window wells in that time, I have never seen anything but mice, chipmunks, squirrels, snakes, and possums use sticks for their exit. Everything else must be rescued by hand.

Unbelievably, the toad walks over to the stick and starts to climb! And the mouse went boing boing boing. So this tiny toad on this monumental climb hauls himself to freedom while the mouse bounced off the glass and sidewalls. boing boing boing. A minute or so later, the leopard frog leaves his leaf behind and hops over to the stick.

My son said, No way! and commented on the simple amphibian brain versus the evolved mammalian brain. Like I said, never, not once in nearly 30 years living here, did we ever see an amphibian leave the window well via a stick. Well the leopard frog did. Following the toad’s lead, he climbed up the stick and rested half-way. In the meantime the mouse did his thing. boing boing boing.

Minutes passed watching this unbelievable theater. One determined toad. One fed-up frog. And one lunatic mouse who nibbled millipedes and went boing boing boing against the glass. Then the mouse had a moment of clarity. He boinged his way over to the stick and went up where he bounced off the frog blocking his way. It sent him back to the bottom where his hopping continued. boing boing boing. It was exhausting just to watch him! A few minutes later, he tried again, and again boinked off the frog in the way. boing boing boing.

Having enough of this whole scenario and obviously fed up with all the rude mouse-shoving, the frog began his ascent. The mouse, on the other hand, continued his poor showing on behalf of mammals everywhere. boing boing boing. In the midst of all his jumping, the mouse apparently saw the way was now frog-free. He climbed back up the stick. At the top he had a moment of whoa where he almost fell inside the window well again. I’m happy to say he got out.

My son and I had a very entertaining 20 minutes of the wild kingdom on a small scale. Later we both lamented not capturing the whole scene and loading it to youtube.  I’ve decided this adventure shall be one of my upcoming children’s books.  :D

Tomorrow~ Fun Day Sunday!

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 37 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

A hop, skip, and a jump

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Today’s guest ~ Author Michele Zurlo

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ The September contest is on — so many prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞


And speaking of prizes…

I’m participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

The e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄.

Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NO2DPTY/

iTunes Store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bake-love-write/id920146098?mt=11

The Nook Store

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bake-love-write-lois-winston/1120365873?ean=2940150401860

Kobo

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/bake-love-write

And we have Paperback on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Bake-Love-Write-Authors-Dessert/dp/1940795133/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Now you see it, now you don’t

The other day I mentioned parallel universes and how the topic was inspired by a comment I’d read. In the cascade that is my morning thought process – a.k.a. the engine behind my blog topics here, I revisited all I’ve read over the years on quantum mechanics. In that branch of physics, many opinions on the topic of existence can be found.

Picture this one — nothing exists unless you walk into it. How can that be? If you look at that statement with the fork in the road in mind, it’s easier to understand. The potential for this or that comes from making the choice to go this way or that way. Our lives are dictated by the millions upon millions of choices we make, and our existence is dictated by our being present in it.

Here’s a visual– Imagine you have a handful of tiny pebbles and are standing before a pond as still and smooth as glass. Throw the pebbles in and each one creates its own wave to spread and bisect with the others.  Consider those pebbles and the points where the waves overlap and change course to be your life of choices. Each has an outcome all its own. Had you made another choice, that wave would go off in another direction and effect everything else it touches, including the choices made by others sharing the same existence. Heavy thought for morning coffee, no? lol

I’m no physicist. I’ve only a smidgeon of understanding of the intricacies and the mathematics behind this science discipline, but I had an outstanding honors-level physics teacher once who should have been working in some scientific brain-trust somewhere instead of a Chicago high school.  Back when String Theory and Quantum Mechanics belonged to the likes of Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Niels Bohr, my teacher was explaining other dimensions –specifically layers of space and time.

To continue where that thought took me the other day,  I’d like to start off with this philosophical question that brilliant teacher put to my class forty years ago:

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?

~George Berkeley, Anglican bishop and philosopher, 1685 -1753

I was the odd student in that class that day for I seemed to understand the nuance of what our teacher was getting at. We had just discussed a study unit on waves the week before. Everyone said yes. And I said no.  He asked me to explain. I said if there were no ears present to hear the waves made by the falling tree, then no. Oh the glee on that man’s face at my answer! Sound is only heard if the mechanism to hear it exists. If nothing detects the sound waves, then no. There is no sound. That’s a curious question because it has both a yes and no answer. Yes, I was a super nerdy girl.  :D

So the mind-bender I spoke of the other day also involves being present. Not present to hear. Present to see. The following video clip explains it perfectly:

Two different outcomes and it all comes down to whether or not someone is looking. Talk about being present. So does this mean our existence is what it is because we look? What if we all closed our eyes, imagined a better existence, then opened them again?

:D

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For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 38 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Now you see it, now you don’t.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Today is Author Sharon Hamilton’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ The September is winding down. So many prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞


And speaking of prizes…

I’m participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

The e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄.

Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NO2DPTY/

iTunes Store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bake-love-write/id920146098?mt=11

The Nook Store

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bake-love-write-lois-winston/1120365873?ean=2940150401860

Kobo

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/bake-love-write

And we have Paperback on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Bake-Love-Write-Authors-Dessert/dp/1940795133/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.  Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Somethin’s cookin’

I had a completely different post planned for today, but I have news so I’m bumping that idea to tomorrow. 

A while back, USA Today Bestselling Author Lois Winston decided to put together a multi-author cookbook. She managed to get contributors on board and compiled dessert recipes from a wide range of authors who write the many genres of fiction and non-fiction — 105 authors, myself included. Along with our scrumptious dessert offerings, we were all asked to answer two questions — one on love, and one on the best advice you’ve ever received as an author.  :)

Lois has been a dynamo in putting it together and ironing out all the details.  This labor of love is called ~ Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

Starting today, the e-version of our cookbook is sold everywhere for 99⊄. It also comes in paperback, and can even be found on iTunes for Mac’s and iOS devices.

Such yummy variety and such a deal for 99⊄!

Check it out.  :D

Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NO2DPTY/

iTunes Store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/bake-love-write/id920146098?mt=11

The Nook Store

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bake-love-write-lois-winston/1120365873?ean=2940150401860

Kobo

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/bake-love-write

Paperback on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Bake-Love-Write-Authors-Dessert/dp/1940795133/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 39 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

Food for the soul

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Today’s guest~ Author J.D.Faver

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ The September contest is on, this time two winners!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞


And speaking of prizes…

I’m participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

What if…?

A comment read this morning sent my mind off on the subject of alternate realities (Yeah, it’s a writer thing). The multiverse vs. the universe is the idea of parallel existences instead of just one. Many keen experts in quantum physics feel there’s enough information out there to believe such a thing is true, including the esteemed Dr. Stephen Hawking. So how does something like this work out on paper? When we come to that fork in the road and must make a decision to go left or right, in these parallel worlds, another choice is made and the outcome of that choice is completely different than ours.

So imagine our world never had the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th. How many sons and daughters would still be alive had no war followed? Would some lunatic fringe be beheading people and posting on social media today? Going with the multiverse concept, on other earths, in other realities, it never occurred. In some odd way I find comfort in that.

Tomorrow I’ll post a bit that will blow your mind. For today, I’m asking two questions. If you feel like adding a few of your own opinions in comments, please do so. Let’s get a conversation going. :)

How many single acts completely changed the world in the last 2500 years?

Here are my two:

I’m not referring to embracing spirituality here when I say, in my opinion, one of the larger impacts was the advent of organized religion. This double-edged sword has done both great good and great harm to the world. Still does.

Ocean travel is another. Coupled with organized religion, it led to conquest and subsequent annihilation of complex societies who didn’t ascribe to the same doctrine.  It also brought us slavery, species extinctions, and plagues.

How many times in the last 100 years alone have single acts changed the course of humanity?

Here are my two:

Henry Ford’s assembly line that put inexpensive cars into the hands of the world. It gave us unprecedented pollution, the dissolution of family units, and wars over oil resources. I could go on…

The  reparations Germany was forced to make after losing WWI. On this side of history I see why it was done. But what this did was cause their economy to be so beaten down, it made possible the rise in power of a madman who gave the world WWII. Absolutely nothing was the same after that war.

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

For 100 days, I’ll post something from my chosen topic: Clichés.

There are 40 entries to come.

Here’s a cliché for today:

At the end of the day…

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Today is Author Jean Hart Stewart’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Romance Books ‘4’ Us ~ The September contest is winding down. Come play, there are more than 20 prizes!

http://www.romancebooks4us.com

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞


And speaking of prizes…

I’m participating in Fall Into Romance — a month-long event hosted by The Romance Reviews. Hundreds of authors and industry people are participating and that means hundreds of prizes. Find my bit on my satellite blog: http://calliopeswritingtablet.blogspot.com/

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

The internet was created to be a free system with access to knowledge and level opportunity for all. Right now several large telecommunications corporations want to make you pay them for the privilege you’ve had for free since the internet began. Learn how you can help stop the pending internet takeover by these heavy-hitting, well-funded Washington lobbyists. The FCC is taking comments now and wants to know what YOU think.

Learn what’s at stake and how you can give your opinion to the FCC.

http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞>>>>۞<<<<۞

Love Waits in Unexpected Places - Scorching Samplings of Unusual Love Stories

Find my novels wherever books are sold.

Sample my love stories for free!

۞>>>>۞<<<<۞