C.D. Hersh's Blog, page 74
December 14, 2020
Tell Again Tuesday #writer pets needed
A blog series where we shamelessly share posts from others that we have enjoyed.
A JOB DESCRIPTION FOR THE WRITER’S PET
By Lucy Mitchell
Sometimes, the best part about writing is that my dog is always snoring nearby, offering sleepy moral support as I sit at my desk, agonizing over my latest fictional romance.
Lots of well known writers have had pet sidekicks; Charles Dickens’ cherished animal companion was a raven named Grip, Edgar Allan Poe was a cat-person and his pet feline was named Catterina, John Steinbeck had a dog named Charley and Virginia Woolf had a dog who was called Pinka.
So, I have been thinking about what sort of qualities are . . .
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December 10, 2020
Fridays Feature Preparing for Christmas is like writing a book
We think writing and Christmas have a lot in common.
Preparing for Christmas is like writing a book—not that anyone gets much writing done in the weeks before the holiday. The concept, however, is the same; start early and stay on target.
For an easy Christmas holiday:
Shop all year long, especially on vacation where you can get one-of-a-kind items, and avoid the mall rush.
Plan in advance. Knowing your menu weeks in advance and looking for recipes you can prepare ahead, freeze, or have on hand reduces stress in the kitchen and lets you enjoy the holiday too. Don’t want to cook ahead? Then remodel the kitchen (not before the holidays, of course) and get that second oven you’ve been wanting so all those green bean casseroles will fit in. Better yet, let someone else host.
Get familiar with your Christmas dishes. Start using your Christmas dishes at the beginning of December so you don’t have to get them out of storage at the last minute. That 24 piece place setting of hollies and Christmas trees needs to be used more than once at Christmas dinner!
Get next year’s Christmas cards as soon as they go on sale. After all, you have a pretty good idea how many you will need for next year, and they never go out of style.
Begin next year’s Christmas letter now. Start in January and keep a running tally of the important things you want to include. If you bind the letters in a notebook you have a ready-made life journal. One stone, two birds.
Make a goal list. Shopping done before Christmas, house cleaned thoroughly by the first weekend in December, trim the tree the day after Thanksgiving (since you don’t have to shop on Black Friday), Christmas cookies baked by the second weekend (or cheat and just buy them), the guest room readied right before your guests arrive, and so on. Tweak the list to fit your needs.
For easy book writing:
Write all year long, every day. Then when you take all that time off in December to get ready for the holidays, you won’t feel so guilty.
Plan your book in advance. Some seat-of-the-pants writers claim too much planning takes the fun out of writing. We’ve done it both ways, and have found thorough planning and plotting keeps us out of those pesky writer’s blocks. You just have to be willing to let your characters speak to you even if they don’t want to go where you’ve planned.
Get familiar with your book and characters. Let the novel and your characters live with you daily. When you are thinking about the book all the time, the words come easily to the page and your characters’ voices sound more real.
Get your ideas as soon as they come to you. Carry a notebook, or use your phone, to jot down everything that comes to mind about your current WIP or ideas for new books. Even if you don’t use the ideas now, they may work, with some tweaking, for something in the future. Writers are always writing and we need to capture those ideas when they come.
Begin your next book now. Writers who don’t think about future projects while they are still working on the current one run the risk of writer’s block for their next book. A running log of ideas, thoughts, characters, or anything related to the next books will make coming up with the stories easier. We brainstorm when we drive places, capturing all our ideas, good or bad, in a composition notebook. In a single composition book we have at least 10 new ideas waiting to be developed. Will we write them all? Maybe not, but we have ready-made journal filled with possibilities.
Make a goal list. Set writing goals for yourself. Whether it’s 100 words a day, or 20 pages a day doesn’t matter. It’s the goal that counts. Tweak your goal list to fit your needs and you’ll be surprised how quickly those 100 words will turn into pages, and pages into chapters, and chapters into a book.
So this holiday season, when you are laying your gifts beside the nativity, under your Christmas tree, give a gift to yourself. Promise to start writing early in the New Year and stay on target. Who knows, with perseverance and a little luck, you could be tucking your brand new book under next year’s tree as a gift to someone else.
Happy Writing and Merry Christmas!
C.D. Hersh
December 8, 2020
Wednesday Special Spotlight Pizza from Tina Ruiz
Shines On
Tina Ruiz
Nothing goes to waste in my kitchen. If I have leftover Italian or French bread it becomes the base for a dinner. And what a dinner it is – easy – quick – delicious. Can’t beat that if you’re on a busy schedule or tight budget.
Pizza Bread
½ loaf Italian or French bread
1½ cups spaghetti sauce, possibly more
½ lb. Genoa salami or pepperoni, sliced thin
3 – 4 slices fresh tomatoes
1½ cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 350° F.
Split the bread in half lengthwise. Smear spaghetti sauce on the white part of the bread. Lay meat slices on top. Scatter on mozzarella and then Parmesan.
Place the bread on a cookie sheet then pop them into the oven until the cheese melts, and VIOLA, dinner is ready!
A nice treat after the pizza bread is a dish of vanilla ice cream topped with Kahlua or your favorite coffee liqueur. No whip topping, just the ice cream and liqueur. It is sooooo good and really hits the spot.
Here’s a brief intro to my children’s Christmas book your little ones will enjoy.
Blitzen was born at the North Pole, but he is unable to fly. Because of that, he is taunted and called names by the other reindeers. Rudy saw what was happening, and he decided to teach Blitzen how to gain some confidence. And with a little magic powder from Santa, Blitzen is not only able to fly, but he becomes part of Santa’s famous team.
Amazon Buy Links
E-Book – Paperback
Tina Ruiz was born in Germany, but her family moved to Canada when she was in grammar school. She began writing children’s stories when her own were little. Through the years Ruiz wrote twenty-seven books. Most of those stories went into readers for the Canada Board of Education. Two did not. Mayor Shadoe Markley is a story about a ten-year-old girl who becomes Mayor for a Day through a contest at school.
Little did Ruiz know that story would “change the world.” The book came out at early January 1988. By the end of that same month, everyone was calling the mayor’s office at City Hall, trying to get the forms to fill out so their children could participate in the contest. Thirty years later that same contest is still runs at full speed. And not only in Calgary, but all across Canada. The Mayor’s Youth Council is now in charge of the celebrated contest and invites Ruiz to attend and meet the lucky winner. It’s usually followed by a hand-written thank you card from the mayor himself. Recently Ruiz was invited to be part of the Grand Opening of Calgary’s New Library where the mayor shook her hand and introduced her to the attendees.
Tina has worked in television and radio as well as being a professional clown at the Children’s Hospital. She lives in Calgary with her husband who encourages her to write her passion be it high-quality children’s books or intriguing romance.
Stay connected with Tina Ruiz on her Facebook group Tina Speaks Out.
December 7, 2020
Tell Again Tuesday Success is an iceberg.
A blog series where we shamelessly share posts from others that we have enjoyed.
35 THINGS YOU DON’T SEE WHEN YOU BUY A BOOK
By Lucy Mitchell
The idea for this post came to me after I was reading an article on Medium about the phrase overnight success.
I have always been intrigued by the term and the notion that success JUST happens to authors. Surely there is more to overnight literary fame than meets the eye? Once you type this myth into Google you can expect to see an array of interesting articles and blog posts on the subject.
The article on Medium talks about how ‘in reality, overnight success exists, but only as the tip of an iceberg.’
So, I got excited and thought . . .
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December 3, 2020
Friday Feature What’s your narrative?
Guest talks about
A Child’s narrative
by
Elliott Baker
I do not have an advanced degree in psychology. I am the proud owner of a BA in history which was chosen as the least onerous way I could spend four years. I figured it would involve mostly reading and I liked to read, even then. So, if you need an expert to entertain someone’s thoughts, you may need to stop here.
Like you, I can look out and see a pretty messed up situation. And like you, I think about it. Since I am a writer, I naturally see things as stories, narratives. It occurred to me that we are acting in a child’s narrative. Sally and I have three children and five grandchildren and I have loved and watched each closely. ADD runs in our family, so I have had more occasion to think about their paths. In my view, children are not immoral, they are amoral. That their actions might hurt someone else, or even themselves in the long run does not occur to them. They mostly don’t say to themselves, “that’s bad, but I’m going to do it anyway.” They say, “I want this. Now.”
Image by akos147 from Pixabay
We are living in a child’s narrative. This narrative’s defining characteristic is ‘Me and not me.’ With rare interruptions, the child sees the world in shades of black and white where the adult has run into blue and red and knows the world to be more complex than that. The fact that we add a year’s chronological age every year doesn’t guarantee that our maturity or awareness grows at the same pace. Many of us get to the end of this particular narrative without gaining much in the way of awareness. If I believed that 80 years is all we have to accumulate greater awareness, I’d be angry, frustrated, and fearful, but since I choose to trust that we have every moment we need to evolve, I don’t entertain fear as often as I might. That is, right up to the point when I buy into the hypnotic, seductive, child’s narrative with all its resentments and anger and sadness. The child within me grabs hold of its ‘Me and not me’ perspective as it leaches all of the colors from the world leaving only black or white. And I am left feeling frustrated and frightened for myself and those I love.
What can I do? Observe first without judgement. Not so easy, but it can be done. Survey the problem and parts of it fall away, but not all. There are action steps to change.
I don’t have to act in this particular play that my ego (child within) is thrilled to produce. Each moment is about choices and the more balanced the mind, the better the choices. Fear is not balance. The child’s narrative (ego) is in business to disconnect you from everyone and everything in order to maintain the illusion of control. Control is the aim of the ego, pure and simple. If the child can control everything, including the adults around him or her, he will be safe. Not true, of course, but that is the child’s underlying motivation. Add in the desire for immediate gratification, and you have the child’s narrative. It’s a story, like any other, but now that I see it, it isn’t the story I want to play in.
So, what can I do? Aren’t I chained to this reality, to this narrative? Not so much. Oh, there are chains all right, but take a good look at them. Do it now. Look at the chains of thought that bind you to anything. Who made those chains? I did, for me. So, can I just make ‘em disappear? Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice. Thing is it took some time to lay down our part in the narrative and it will take some time to dematerialize those chains. Not as much time as our ego wants us to believe, but some. How do I do it?
Not by fighting a war. Every strike at an opponent, while it feels so good in the moment, only solidifies the narrative. Remember, we want to change narratives. At least I do. I’m tired of feeling sad about the chances for my beloved grandchildren to find a satisfying life.
The child’s narrative is a habit we have accepted. Is it possible to change destructive habits? You bet. There are plenty of folks who have beaten horrible addictions. Like the lion in the Wizard of Oz, they aren’t any stronger than you or I, they just decide and do not turn back.
How do I change this habit, this narrative?
When I was in my twenties, I worked as a life guard in a resort in upper state New York. There was one guy there who was so cool. He got all the girls, and was just, for lack of a better description, cool. I aspired to be cool so I watched what he said and did that was so attractive to the opposite sex. He spoke in a very, to me, cool way by adding the word ‘like’ before his sentences. “Like, why don’t we go grab a drink.” Every sentence was preceded by the word ‘like.’ Aha, that’s his secret. As I said, he was cool. So, I added the word into my vocabulary and used it profusely.
My mom had occasion to visit and we went to a Broadway show. Actually, I remember the show, George M with Joel Gray. Great show about George M Cohan. I digress. Afterward we went out to eat. I was talking about something, and she said, “Like what?” I repeated whatever I thought she hadn’t caught or understood. (My mom’s a real smart person and her hearing is fine, so I should have caught on earlier, but it took me a few times.) So, I repeated what I had said, and she again said, “Like what?” I said it again and she echoed “Like what?” Ah. Finally got to me. By that time, I had gotten over how cool this guy was, but my speech hadn’t reflected that awareness.
“I say it a lot, huh?” She just smiled. “Sounds pretty stupid, huh?” Again, she just smiled. (Did I say how smart she is?) Well, I’ll just stop saying the word like. Not so easy. Habit. She helped me. Every time I said “Like,” she’d say, “Like what?” Took me all that night and the next day.
Unfortunately, we don’t have someone saying “Like what?” every time we replay a habit, so they aren’t as easy to change and often take more than a day and a half. Some years later, when I found the less than useful vocal addition, “You know,” had crept into my speech, I decided to delete it. Once again, not so easy. So, I had a choice between listen to the ego, “It’s too hard, you can’t do this. You don’t have anyone to help you.” Or create my own “Like what?” to pry that habit out of there. “I did this once before; I can do it again.” Hah.., (Damn, a semicolon. How pretentious can you get? It was an accident. Windows did it.)
The first few times I actually heard myself saying “You know,” (And there were plenty I didn’t hear.) I was pretty frustrated. I then realized that I wasn’t even hearing it most of the time. So, I began listening for its unwelcome appearance. I decided the first thing was not to get angry at myself as that didn’t seem to speed things up. Just observe. At first, I would hear myself say “You know,” maybe five or six times a day, and each time I would be determined to catch it before I said it and not say it. I managed to ditch the anger and frustration, and I told my ego to go sit on the bench. I was doing this. But it was like that illusive cricket that managed to get into your bedroom. Every time you think about it or move toward it, it quiets down and you can’t find it. Then it starts up and you can’t sleep.
Finally, as I was about to say something to someone, my brain paused for me to act. I chose not to say, “You know.” Victory. I did it. Not so much. Two sentences later, there it was. Crap. Still, what I could do once I could repeat. Took me some time, but I stopped saying, “You know.”
A visual would be if you ran a pencil along a school desk until you’d made a nice trough. Not that you would ever do that. Once the trough (habit) is dug, the pencil goes along easily. Well, yes, but a straight line is boring and I’m, uh, someone, is much more creative than that so let’s make a Y. At first it’s hard to get the pencil out of the rut (habit) I’ve, we’ve dug, but once it jumps the moat, the leg of the Y is created and then with a little application, it’s easier to push the pencil along the new trough (habit) than the old. Will and persistence. And ditch the anger. You might not be able to get to forgiveness, which is way more powerful, but we can just set the anger aside. Remove our attention from it. Not every time at first, but once we get the hang of it, it can be done.
Why should we devote our attention and energy to creating a new narrative, a more adult narrative? The simple answer is it hurts less. And if enough of us refuse to live in the child’s narrative, the script will change. And we and our grandchildren will be in a richer story with greater possibilities to create a more satisfying and happy life.
Award winning, international playwright Elliott B. Baker grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. With four musicals and one play published and done throughout the United States, New Zealand, Portugal, England, and Canada, Elliott is pleased to offer his first novel, Return, book one of The Sun God’s Heir trilogy.
A member of the Authors Guild and the Dramatists Guild, Elliott lives in New Hampshire with his beautiful wife Sally Ann.
Learn more about Elliot Baker on his website. Stay connected on Twitter and Facebook. Like Elliott’s Author Page on Facebook to learn all his latest news.
December 1, 2020
Wednesday Special Spotlight Drink for the Holidays
Shines On
A cocktail drink from Us that you can drink as much as you want and not have a headache in the morning.
Busy shopping, wrapping and socializing?
Ready for some rest and relaxation, but need to get going again soon?
Kick back with a festive cocktail!
Recipe by CD Hersh:[image error]
Cranberry Sangria by the glass mocktail recipe:
For each 8-ounce champagne glass you will need:
1/4 cup brewed Hibiscus Watermelon tea (we use Republic of Tea brand)
1/8 cup brewed Chamomile honey and vanilla tea (we use Twinings brand)
Sparking apple cider
1 rounded TBS jellied cranberry sauce (smooth or whole berry)
Fresh fruits (grapes, whole cranberries, pineapple chunks, peeled sliced star fruit, or peeled kiwi—or fruits of your choice)
Short skewer or sizzle stick
Directions:
Thread fruits on a skewer or swizzle stick and set aside.
Place teas and cranberry sauce in the glass. Mix until sauce is dissolved. Fill glass with sparkling apple cider. Enjoy!
Mock Champagne by the glass (original recipe by C.D. Hersh)
In an 8-ounce champagne flute, place ¼ cup white grape juice and 1/8 cup Chamomile tea. Fill glass with regular or diet ginger ale. To give the drink a holiday flare, add a slice of star fruit and a couple of whole, fresh cranberries to the glass before adding the liquids.
Now kick back, relax with your drink and pick up a good book to read. You might even try one of ours that you can find over on our book page.
ENJOY!
November 30, 2020
Tell Again Tuesday Food in writing.
A blog series where we shamelessly share posts from others that we have enjoyed.
World building: Vegetables
By Cindy Tomamichel
“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” The advice from Michael Pollan, author of ‘The Omnivores Dilemma’ would sound strange to many people not in an affluent first world country. Most people in history and in many places today don’t have a choice, with meat being a much smaller part of their diet. This dichotomy then affects fiction, particularly if you wish to write something . . .
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November 26, 2020
Friday Features Time for Christmas Cards
We talk about
Christmas Cards
If you are sending cards this year it’s time to start working on them as you finish off the rest of the turkey. Do any of you even send Christmas Cards?
Christmas is Catherine’s favorite holiday. For years she changed every knickknack in the house to a Christmas decoration. She has a collection of nativities, a Christmas village, and an abundance of Christmas trees with at least five different themed sets of ornaments she uses to decorate. This year we are going a bit minimal. Not much reason to decorate a lot since it’s only for us.
Christmas cards have been a big deal in our house, too. We have a long-standing tradition of writing Christmas letters, filled with news of the year, and we often create our own Christmas stationary and even create our own Christmas cards. This is another tradition that is going by the wayside this year.
Here’s one of our specially designed cards based on a Christmas window Donald painted at our church several years back. (Yes we have some artistic talent that we use on occasion.)
[image error]
Born Under the Shadow of the Cross, original copyrighted art
For permission to reuse please contact author C.D. Hersh
The original drawing on the window did not have the dark sky and the radiated ribbons of color in the upper right hand corner because we couldn’t totally paint out the window. Those elements were added into the card to give drama. At night, the back sky in the church window had the same effect as painting out the sky in the card, minus the purple lines of color. This was a dramatic window in the evening. Note how the shadow of the cross creates the rooftop of the manger.
Have you created special holiday greetings? Are you going to do any this year? We’d love to hear about them.
November 25, 2020
Wednesday Special Spotlight Thanksgiving
Shines On
The coming holiday.
In honor of the coming day we would like to share a quote we came across:
“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor . . . I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being . . . That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks . . . And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions.”
George Washington, October 3, 1789
November 23, 2020
Tell Again Tuesday Dreading the Edit
A blog series where we shamelessly share posts from others that we have enjoyed.
How to Easily Edit Your First Draft
By Lorraine Ambers
Congratulations, you’ve written your first draft!! There’s no doubt about it, writing a complete manuscript is hard. So I’m here to celebrate with you… woo whoo!
If you’ve stumbled upon this post, you’re probably wondering what’s next? Let’s face it… editing a novel is a daunting task. You’re not alone if you feel overwhelmed and baffled by this next stage. As I embark on editing my fourth novel, I’m feeling . . .
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