Dixie Dawn Miller Goode's Blog, page 12

Thinking, and Giving Away Books in Paper and in Kindle

  I think a lot, as I face the fact that this stage of my life has to change, and I really don't want it too, I had spent so long trying to get pregnant, and to adopt, and I loved being a mom to little kids, but when I adopted and found out I was pregnant too, it meant that they both were grown together, and after graduation in June, my husband and I will find ourselves rattling around in a much emptier house.   It has been as a stay at home mom/writer/1/2 time substitute teacher that I defined myself, but suddenly the stay at home part is me alone while the husband and boys are out and about. At first that was a rare treat, but now it's a rut. I think I'm trying to test out my thoughts on getting back into full time teaching after 13 years away, or full time in a different job. The writing is fun, but not a money maker, some months I make as much as one day subbing, but not usually. You know, I'm depressed because the one choice I'd make in a heartbeat is to rewind time and relive the last 18, wonderful years, and I feel like I've fulfilled my goals but don't have new ones yet.  Remember your blessings, and I'll remember mine. Hey, if you are interested in something to read, there is a free book giveaway on St. Patricks day that you can sign up for anytime before that, and one of the choices is mine.http://writersparty.com/contests/ So Breathe, remember it is a beautiful world.  Have a Happy Sunday,Yesterday was my day of rest so except the normal firewood hauling, I did not work out. But then there was Jonathan's message this morning, if you took Saturday off, make sure you get in a work out today. I swear he knows my mind 







Last night was bitterly cold, so the wood stove didn't really keep the house warm, and I woke up at 4:30 with my nose feeling frozen from being out from under the covers, fortunately my grandma's old quilt had the rest of me toasty warm.I have leftover roast beef and potatoes, carrots and onion, and leftover marinara sauce and more veggies and that is my favorite way to start a big kettle of minestrone soup, and this is sure soup weather. At work, I have my books on kindle on sale so For the next 5 days, my second book, Duffy Barkley: Seek Well will be free on the kindle athttp://www.amazon.com/Duffy-Barkley-Tales-Uhrlin-ebook/dp/B005CQ5Z8Eand the first book on kindle is always only 99 cents
http://www.amazon.com/Duffy-Barkley-Tales-Uhrlin-ebook/dp/B004478F5M and at school we had the funnest time on friday, there had been a contest in a k-8 school to see which class could log the most minutes reading. The second grade won, so the principal gave each second grader a can of silly string, then he climbed on the stage in front of them and allowed them to spray him, they were good aims and his whole face was covered and the fumes were thick but the laughter was thicker.So Good to hear kids laugh.

Perceptions of Time

When I look around the world it is easy to see that I am not the only one with problems, But I found a great quote "Understand that most problems are a good sign. Problems indicate that progress is being made, wheels are turning, you are moving toward your goals. Beware when you have no problems. Then you've really got a problem... Problems are like landmarks of progress."
Scott AlexanderI can see the truth in that. If I didn't have a home I was living in and food to eat, I wouldn't worry about house payments, broken water heaters and dirty dishes.

Here we are at Friday, and my school is facing a three day weekend. Jonathan Roche, the incredible personal fitness Guru at NoExcusesWorkouts is always going on about perception and how it changes everything. I started thinking about my perception of time. A three day weekend sounds long and luxurious, but when we have two weeks at Christmas, those last three days seem depressingly short, and when we have no school from mid June until Labor day, those last two weeks feel like I am already out of time! Summer has a lot of problems built is for teachers and children, too much time sometimes, but no money to make it through on, yet when I am working, then often there are 16 hour days, doing things before and after school, and even with money there is no time to do the things I want. So yes, I am healthier now, and yes, the 25 secrets Jonathan talks about played a big role in that - but the biggest, most important change is to be able to see the gifts in with the stress. I may be either harried or broke, but I can now appreciate the gift of each day, because his group has trained me to look for the bright side first.



Two months or three days? Irrelevant, I always only have today, and that is enough to get the important things accomplished. Love my family, help a child, read a book, write a book. Be ME.

Linking to Myself :)

Several Times lately, I have had people ask me for links to the connections where my books and I can be found, So I decided that I need to do a post with some find Dixie Goode and her books links.  As usual I wanted to sprinkle my blog with pictures, because I am a Words & Pictures kind of person.  I wonder, if my major role in life isn't to observe how beautiful things seem to me, and then record those observations in my writing, my photographs and my paintings.  I love being alive in this wonderful world, even though I have to play around in fantasy and try to create a world of my own, at the same time I am loving this one.
Soon it will be Valentine's Day
and this looks like a Valentine being traced in the sky
Dixie GoodeAmazon Author Page link:  http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004458ES2Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/dashboard Twitter link: http://twitter.com/#!/pandorasechoTwitter # 2;  http://twitter.com/#!/DuffyBarkleyFB Fan Page 1:  none  Author Blog:  http://duffybarkley.blogspot.com/Blog # 2:      http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/Book Genre:  Fantasy/Young AdultBook Trailer:  none365 Project (pictures) http://365project.org/pandorasecho/profileRedgage (pictures and links)  http://www.redgage.com/#rf:/profile:innercontainer:dashboard.usercreatespace Duffy Barkley Paperback book 1  https://www.createspace.com/3450238"             "    " "            "        "            book 2  https://www.createspace.com/3649425
View From Crescent City's pebble Beach Drive
Welcome To Pt. St. George
 So we have had a lot of grey, windy, stormy days, and been so cold that even with the wood stove going full tilt, the house is chilly.  Then we had last weekend, windless, blue skied and lovely.  The old Road to the beach was still saturated as we walked down it.


But the birds, and the people came out to play in the sun




The tide uses small stones to drill holes in larger ones 
Pt. St. george Reef Lighthouse When there is no way to get to the beach, and the storm is slashing down, then I have ways to find serenity in my home too, and the gold and black goldfish are there to bring soothing calmness.
Gazing down at my aquarium
Mt. McLaughlin by Medford, Or

Press Release: Every Child is Entitled to Innocence

The following post was not written by me, but is reposted because the message is important and the book and stories are highly recommended by me
Special Post / Press Release:      Every Child is Entitled to Innocence

Press Release
Every Child is Entitled to Innocence will be the first publication of the newly- formed Orangeberry Publishing Group. Due to release on February 14th, profits from the sales of this e-book will be donated to Child Helpline International.
Says initiator of the project, Dr. Niamh Clune, "I met many writers through the Internet that experienced difficult childhoods yet have overcome their brutal beginnings. I wanted to make the first Orangeberry publication a celebration of creative imagination. This powerful friend of damaged children plays an essential role in an abused child's recovery. Gathering this series of stories was a joy. Orangeberry Books has developed special, vibrant relationships with contributors and has forged many lasting friendships.
We encouraged happy stories that reflected the innocence of childhood when infants feel wrapped in the warmth of loving arms. We wanted to contrast these with the sad ones, making them stand out in relief against a bright backdrop. We felt this comparison would demonstrate, without explanation, what happens when innocence is stolen.
In this book, the reader will find many wonderful, heart-warming stories; whilst the sad ones demonstrate the magnificence of the human spirit as it triumphs against all the odds."
Executive Editor, Karen S. Elliott stated, "While I looked at all the stories in the Every Child anthology, I edited only a few. I thought it was important, for this tome, that the writers be able to express the heartbreak and joy of childhoods past without censorship."
Spokesperson for Orangeberry Books, Niamh Clune, explained how The Orangeberry Group is at the vanguard of a new wave of Internet publishing companies. Orangeberry aims to put quality first and bring exciting, exceptionally talented authors to the reader's attention. Its focus is not on commercialism, but on quality, beautifully written, well-told stories. Orangeberry will also publish poetry. A further aim of the publishing company is to bring a collection of exceptional artists from across many different art disciplines to collaborate on projects in a personal, hands-on, mutually supportive manner.
The motto of the company is, 'Paying it Forward.' The company relies on a well-developed social network, the dedication of the core team members, their talent and enthusiasm coupled with a socially entrepreneurial spirit. Supporters and members of this group will also benefit from on-line mentoring, a book-club, the Youth Tube Channel, and the OBBlog.
For further information visit: www.orangeberrybooks.com and/or www.theobblog.com 
Join the FB group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/orangeberrygroup/ 
@CHIamsterdam  http://www.childhelplineinternational.org

The Growth of a Story

When I began to tell my sons stories about Duffy Barkley and the fantasy world of Uhrlin, it was only natural to incorporate the things I knew with the things we imagined.  So I told them short stories and the stories grew longer as my children asked questions which had to develop answers.  My love of dolphins and merpeople is one of my first memories, and as a small town, Wyoming, land locked child, I remember fighting with my mother when I was barely a toddler, angry that she hadn't named me "flipper."  I also had an intense love of Keiko, the free-willie whale who lived for a few years just north of us when my own children were toddlers, and the killer whales markings influenced the coloring I chose for my own mer-people and their Princess SeaBee.
 The lovely water of the Smith River in summer always reminded bye of living, liquid jade, and provided the first inspiration for flowstone.  Flowstone, is a colony of microscopic creatures who form a group which can be solid or liquid based on how fast they vibrate and which lives symbiotically with a tamarin like creature, forming the clothing and homes of the city of Oohline.  From a distance Oohline looks like a cluster of green grapes or a pile of glass fishing floats.  Well, finding one of those floats washed up on the beaches where  we live now is a goal like a treasure hunt.  Then one day, building sand castles with my youngest son, the castle kept crumbling and he'd scoop up and re-use the sand, and the idea of a city, where the rooms could detach and move around was born.  And the boys loved trampolines, and we thought how much fun it would be to live where the land was like a trampoline, and then we wondered if you would even walk if the land was that springy, so the tamarin, monkey like creatures began to roll up like a ball and bounce, and so did their flowstone bubble homes.
 I started sketching and painting images from the story which made me think of even more details.



I was a teacher of young children with severe handicaps, a role I grew into after being blessed with a brother with Down's Syndrome.  Most of my students had been amazingly strong, loving people who thrived with teaching and attention, and the ones I found able to express themselves had very strong opinions, so I made my main character a very opinionated 9 year old with Cerebral Palsy who hated being told "No"
 I wrote out our stories and drew a map and edited and re-edited the book, and still thought of it as a simple thing that I could share with the two boys I loved so much.  And then I printed it, and a sequel and now I find myself in the curious, wonderful position of not being the only one who knows and loves Duffy.







 I grew up by Yellowstone, so part of my fantasy land had strong ties to that amazing landscape
 but I live in the redwoods by the sea so towering first and ocean found a place there too.

 And my best friend as a child, was this chimp, named Judy after the one on Daktari, and many of the characters in Uhrlin have something of Judy in them, and something of the toddlers my children were.
Now, I am delighted to look on line and discover other people talking about my characters, and reading my books and leaving wonderful reviews on the kindle and paperback sites on Amazon.  I always wanted to be a storyteller, but i had never realized how much of myself would show up in my stories, or how much fantasy is shaped by my life.

The 2 pairs of Pants Deal

I had to take a month off line because the hard drive in my computer died, and then I found out what a gift that was as I spent a great family winter break, talking and going for walls and being with family and friends. I barely missed the on-line addictions but I am back now and eager to look for JOY in 2012, I have decided that my focus word for the year has to be "Joy" as that is the one thing I have been struggling with my whole life, I tend to look for the problems first instead of seeing all the great things around me.



















So, life is mostly great, even though money, not so much.

Sometimes I am joking, but always half serious when I say that I think I made an agreement before I was born.  I think the deal was what I call the "2 pairs of pants" deal.  I only ever manage to have 2 good pairs of pants at once, then if I buy more, one tears or I spill paint on it.  Same with every necessary thing, If I get extra money, my water heater dies or my tires need replaced and it and costs that exact amount.  But also, I never seem to go without what I need, so if the rent is due and I am broke there will be an unexpected gift, or job,
 or tax return and the exact amount will be there.  I do feel like the Lily in the field who might as well not worry because the worrying changes nothing
except how I view my world and whether I notice the Joy in it.

The great thing is, there is abundance in my life, and it is in the things way more important than money.  I have lived my life surrounded by those who love me and by beauty and by opportunities to be with great people in wonderful parts of the world



so this year, while I strive to move that scale, and to add to the bank balance, or at least to pay the bills, I am going to Trust that Joy will be there.

Every Day.

Greeting 2012 with JOY

 It has been far too long since I have written a post, but I had an interesting December.  Mainly, it was interesting because my computer died and I was forced to revise my daily routines and interact more with the people in my home and my city, and less with the on-line community I normally surround myself with.
View of Castle Rock at Sunset I found my husband and I were talking more, and actually drug out the board games when I could not be on facebook or the 365 project and he could not play World Of Warcraft.

Granted, Christmas usually throws us into a different schedule anyway, and this year it was quite different.  It was my first year with my oldest son, old enough that he did not spend the holiday with me, and the family we have visited every ear for 6 years had a child away at college, a new house and a divorce under way, so it was a change, but still a great holiday, wonderful time with people I love, a lot.

Yes, Christmas Christmas here is not usually white, but it is also not usually as warm as it was this year.  it was delightfully sunny and New Years Day actually got to almost 70*
Watching historical slide show at town fountain and Christmas tree We went on the first history walk through our little Crescent City, CA and 200 people showed up.  It was hard to hear at times but everyone was in a great mood and it was fascinating to hear about the good and the horrible parts of the town history.  Yes, there was an Opera House but after it was thrice destroyed, by Water spout, fire and tsunami, it is no more.  Yes there was a China Town of 700 that overnight turned into 1 chinese man left in the county, yes there was a holocaust of the Native Americans, yes it is still a town of great beauty and tragedy.
All these are for me, and the ornaments too!
 Medford, Oregon has some large homes along a few streets where everyone decorates and then decorates some more, and they collect canned food and toys from the crowds that come to drive through.



The street looks different through fireworks glasses.
My youngest son is graduating with the class of 2012
 Then my return home after Christmas brought my brother-in-law and his wife to our coastal redwoods and gave us an excuse to get out and enjoy the area we live in.
two way road through Redwoods

My husband and I
So I did not get much done in the way of writing, but I did get my first novel, Duffy Barkley is Not a Dog,  into a free promotion on Kindle and that resulted in 230 downloads from Amazon and 40 more from Amazon UK and then I sold another few copies of the second Duffy Barkley book, Duffy Barkley: Seek Well, and I have reason to hope that at least a few of those copies will result in reviews and recommendation and good word of mouth.

I also found my book listed on a site as a 5-star recommendation for Tweens and older.  That made me smile.

So now, my sister-in-law warns me that the world will change a lot this year.  It can certainly change in many ways for the better, but I am greeting 2012 with joy, life is not easy, but it is worth it.

On Books, Kindles, And Writing for NaNoWriMo

 NaNoWriMo Challenge day 23, and I am still doing ok in my life, Mt. Washmore has not taken over the house thanks to my Flylady routines and I even took a day to drive down the coast with my family and enjoy such lovely views as this lagoon.

After the rain, the school garden roses were lit by a beam that also created a rainbow. clipping from Del Norte Triplicate

Teaching as a substitute is an off and on position, and I have been pretty busy this month at the schools but I have managed to luck into being there for some of the most wonderful activities,  as you can see in the newspaper clipping from the Del Norte triplicate, the middle school kids lay down or knelt on the grass in assigned colors of clothing and the photographer went up to the top of the fire truck ladder to create a living mosaic of an elk and to teach the kids about how sometimes you need distance to see the big picture and realize how important each person is in the long run.
And I was at the grade school when the Native American drumming, flute and hoop dancing assembly held the children enthralled.   I, as the teacher was equally fascinated by this display of talent from Minneapolis. I had never realized how much energy and playfulness and imagination went into the hoop dancing.


Along with writing, teaching, being a wife and Mom (and I am not even going to go into the energy needed to parent a 17 year old high school senior and an 18 year old with 2 dogs and a live in girlfriend)

I also worked on compiling a sampler of book snippets and blog posts and cover art from 15 authors, hoping that we could sell it on kindle and capture some attention for our individual writings while also raising a bit of money for the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Project.
Book Snippets and Cover Art www.amazon.comThe contents of this collection are a group of book snippets, cover art and a couple blog posts, shared in the hopes that you will find books and stories that catch your eye and encourage you to try the longer books or other work by the same authors. Many of us share our writingThe weather has been stormy and the wind and rain at least have made me OK about spending every minute I can, at the keyboard, writing a book that the world may not know it needs, but does!


 and I have seen my books  on the new Kindle Fire now, which is really fun and thrilling and I am hoping some of you will agree and want to upload them to your own new toy, or your old Kindle is fine, I'm not picky that way.  :)
http://www.amazon.com/Duffy-Barkley-Tales-Uhrlin-ebook/dp/B004478F5M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1322065271&sr=1-1 Duffy Barkley has  # cerebralpalsy  and needs crutches but don't tell him "No" he can't do something
In book 2, Duffy goes to Guatemala to help a child, but gets pulled back into Uhrlin to seek a friend http://www.amazon.com/Duffy-Barkley-Tales-Uhrlin-ebook/dp/B005CQ5Z8E/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Happy Thanksgiving

The cabin we usually rent  on the beach
My Husband, two sons and I last Thanksgiving     November brings a reminder that we should be counting us the things that we have in this life instead of thinking about the lack or the future lack of things we don't even need.  I know that there are a lot of political issues around the pilgrim and the "indian" thanksgiving stories which I was taught in grade school.  In fact, I was 10 before I met any of my Native American side of the family, at my great grandmother's funeral, when her Sioux relatives came to visit the branch of the family which had been mainly out of touch since she married a stage driver and left the Sioux people when she was only 17 (and she lived to be 98).  I know the divisiveness between the stories of friendship and neighborly harvest festivities, and the reality of war and genocide.  I had ancestors at Plymouth plantation as part of the Mayflower bunch and I had ancestors who would have been better off if the white people never set foot on this continent.  Yet I would not be here and who I am, proud to be an American, where in spite of the differences and the hatreds, there has been an amazing amount of support and connectiveness.  We are the land of mixed marriage and acceptance just as surely as we are the land of stubborn pride and the opinion that anyone else who is different is wrong because we are the best.
 So I choose to face the future that we will be giving to our children with optimism.  I choose to look at the stack of dirty dishes and give thanks because we have food.  I choose to admit that we have a history full of darkness but also to believe in a future filled with light.
 Most Thanksgivings I have rented a cabin on the beach and cooked a turkey with my family and any friends who chanced along.  This year we can't afford the cabin because our insurance wasn't sufficient to keep us from having some huge medical bills.  Still, we are healthy now, and together, and the turkey will taste just as good around the table we eat at on a daily basis.
 Life is hard many times, but worth celebrating and giving thanks for all the same.  There is a light in the darkness and warm hands to hold when it seems there is nothing else there to fill those hand,

Happy Thanksgiving, and may you find yourself surrounded by love and sheltered from some of the storms that come your way.

Writing Untamed in November. Why I love NaNoWriMo!

 I do many things, but I AM a writer.  In spite of the oft repeated advice that tells us that if we work at what we love, we will never feel like we have worked a day in our life, I know that to be false.  When people I know, commit to working at doing what they love, myself included - that very act of commitment turns a passionately loved hobby, into a responsibility and hence, a chore.  We may love it no less, in theory, but in reality there are many days when having to get up and put the nose to the grindstone only makes us feel overwhelmed and inadequate.

I married a college student who sang in school groups and acted in plays and had music playing over the stereo every minute that he was home. More than 20 years teaching music and drama has turned him into a man who values silence, rarely turns on music except for work and hasn't auditioned for a play in years.  He still loves music and drama but it is work.

The father of one of our son's friends, loved his hobby of woodworking, and turned his garage into a cabinet making shop.  Now he is in high demand, and under a deadline, and making what the person writing the check decides he will make.  He makes wine on the side and has fun gathering wild berries and apples from abandoned orchards.  I overheard someone suggest that he could sell his wines.  He cussed the very idea!  "I already turned one hobby into a job!  This I do for me!"

 Getting up every day and making myself write, and re-read and edit.  Making sure I am seen on facebook and twitter and Amazon.  Talking up not only my novels but those of other author's.  Trying to get in a few blogs to comment on and a few that I have written.  Making sure I have copies of my books on hand everywhere I go. All of those things are necessary and therefore not always a choice, or fun.
 I combat the monotony of daily plodding when November rolls around.  November is crazy already.  School is in full swing and Holidays require travel and family commitments beyond the norm.  Fall turns rainy here and I used to get depressed with the return of the rain.  Then I realized that the secret to combatting the dreariness and sense of overwhelmedness, was to do more.
 I signed up for National Novel Writing Month and agreed to write, A LOT, and edit not at all.  I agreed to play at what I poured onto the page and not care if it was good at all.  For NaNoWriMo, I agreed to unfreeze the mental blocks on my creativity and summon the muse and let the words gush forth unimpeded or censored and do a quick, and unedited rough draft and let the characters take me wherever they wanted to go.
 The words spring from the part of my unconscious mind that I barely sense just before drifting off to sleep.  This is the spring where flows all those wonderful ideas I sense just as I start to doze but can never remember in the morning.  Writing nearly 1700 words a day means you accept them all - well, except the contractions.  It means you don't take the time to reject anything, or question it, or think it all the way up to your conscious brain.
Then when December comes, I lock it away and forget it, sick of it by then.  I wash the mountain of Dishes by the computer and let my family back on the computer.  I go back to life, refreshed and happy with my commitment to writing.  I celebrate the holidays and know that before summer arrives I will be ready to pull out the manuscript and edit and keep or toss it - but right now, not one of these words is counting and it is still 40,000 words before I reach my Nov. 30th goal.

Take care!

Dixie