Sally Ember's Blog, page 120
April 14, 2014
18th Serialized Excerpt: Vol. II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, The Spanners Series, by Sally Ember, Ed.D.
Vol. II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, The Spanners Series, by Sally Ember, Ed.D.
Cover and logo art by Willowraven.
18th Serialized Excerpt, 4/12/14
CHAPTER SNAPSHOT #2
Snapshots of Clara’s Daily Life: Fourteen Octobers, 1963 – 2017
October, 1968
Age and Living Circumstances/Location:
9th-grader in Roanne Junior High School, Missouri; living in Bayonne, suburb of large city in family home with her: father, Isaac; mother, Rose; older brother, Thomas; and, two younger sisters, Cassie, 8, and Violet, 3; and, a dog.
One boyfriend, ongoing since beginning of 8th grade, and many local friends from school, Camp Cedar and same Sunday School as earlier.
Writing:
stories, articles, songs, poetry (poem selected as winner and published in Missouri’s Youth Writes).
Books:
Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke; More than Human, Theodore Sturgeon; Pilgrimmage: The Book of the People, Zenna Henderson; Sword of Aldones, Marion Zimmer Bradley; The Time Machine, Jules Verne.
Music on the Radio:
“Hey, Jude,” The Beatles; “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” Otis Redding; “Bend Me, Shape Me,” The American Breed; “Born to be Wild,” Steppenworlf; “Build Ne Up, Buttercup,” The Foundation; “Can’t Take My Eyes off You,” Andy Williams; “Chain of Fools,” Aretha Franklin; “Do You Know the Way to San José,” Dionne Warwick; “Hello, I Love You,” The Doors; “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” Iron Butterfly; “MacArthur Park,” Richard Harris; “Mrs. Robinson,” and the Bookends album, Simon & Garfunkle; Piece of My Heart,” Big Brother & The Holding Company (Janis Joplin); “Stoned Soul Picnic,” The Fifth Dimension; “Sunshine of Your Love,” Cream (Eric Clapton); “The Weight,” The Band (Bob Dylan); “Young Girl,” Gary Puckett and The Union Gap; Bonnie Raitt; Linda Rondstadt; Bob Dylan; Peter, Paul & Mary; Little Stevie Wonder.
Popular Songs in Sheet Music:
“I’ve Gotta Be Me,” (sung by Sammy Davis, Jr.); “The Look of Love,” Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66; “Eli’s Coming,” Laura Nyro; “For The Good Times,” Kris Kristofferson (sung by Rita Coolidge); “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” Burt Bacharach & Hal David (sung by Dionne Warwick)’ music from Cabaret (Kander & Ebb), Hair! (Jerome Ragni, James Rado), Man of La Mancha ( Joel Darion, Dale Wasserman); Yellow Submarine (The Beatles).
Activities:
► Taking Honors classes, including Spanish
► Cheerleader
► Member of chorus and selected for performance ensemble
► Taking weekly piano lessons; wins 2nd place at regional classical piano competition for ages 12 – 14.
► Attending Jewish religious classes every Sunday morning (Sunday School) (under duress); wins engraved Bible in essay competition
► Playing outdoors, tennis, softball, soccer, field hockey
► Indoors, competing on balance beam/gymnastics
► In summers, bike riding; waterskiing, canoeing, Israeli folk dancing, swimming at Camp Cedar (Jewish residential camp, Lake of the Ozarks) and local outdoor pool
ESPE: For junior high school, Clara tells me, her 7th-grade year is pretty awful. She has braces on her teeth, her hair is curly when having straight hair is fashionable, she is slightly overweight, she has no boyfriend, she is in all Honors classes with almost none of her former friends. This school serves students from five other elementary schools, so it is quite large and most of the people and the entire set up are unfamiliar to Clara.
Each student is assigned a 9th-grader as a “Big Sister/Brother” for the first month or so. Clara gets one of the cheerleaders as her Big Sister. One Friday, which are “game days” for football in the fall, Clara immediately timults herself as a cheerleader: she sees herself walking down the hall, laughing and talking with her friends while wearing her uniform, just as she sees her Big Sister, Cindy, doing on that Friday between classes. It is the first time Clara is aware of timulting something about her “future” which turns out to occur.
After losing the extra weight during 7th grade and having a very successful summer at Camp Cedar, Clara is set for a change. At the beginning of 8th grade, Clara gets the braces off, she learns to straighten her hair, makes some new friends. Her social life changes to the point that she becomes “popular” and a leader, again.
Clara says she gets a “great” boyfriend with whom she “goes steady” through all of 8th and half of 9th grade, when they break up amicably because they’re “both tired of each other,” she tells me.
Near the end of 8th grade, Clara practices for months so that she and nineteen other girls are nominated by adults (from “try-outs” of over fifty girls) to be voted on as cheerleaders in the election for class officers and other positions.
Clara, with seven others, is elected to be a cheerleader. As one of the leaders of her class, Clara also ran for “Pep Club” President. Clara cultivates many friends in order to get selected by the committee to be a finalist and elected by the students.
Her popularity ensures that she is elected to both positions. However, the Principal makes her choose between these rather than allowing her to be both.
Viewing being a cheerleader as the pinnacle of female achievement for that era and since she already timults that outcome two years before this, Clara chooses to be a 9th-grade cheerleader. Bonus: one of her friends, her “opponent,” becomes Pep Club President.
However, Clara tells me, “After learning all the cheers and being so excited to be elected, turns out that being a cheerleader is usually quite boring for me because I don’t actually like or care about team sports. Joke is on me.”
“I continue to want the status and there are not many routes to status for girls in 1968 in Missouri public schools. We aren’t allowed to run for President of the Student Council or our Class. Secretary; for ‘higher office,’ is the top slot we can run for, and only Pep Club is considered appropriate for a girl to lead. But, Pep Club is hardly the same thing as those other two, which actually have governing functions. Plus, sitting around in meetings seems much less interesting than going on buses with the team and being the center of attention as a cheerleader. I am a Leo, after all! These experiences help build up the feminist in me, as they do for Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan and many other second-wave feminists, all cheerleaders!”
What happens when Clara gets to high school?
Clara explains: “Although the entire squad of us tries out for the sophomore squad, which is to be at the high school in which we will be combined with the other junior high school for tenth, eleventh and twelfth grades, only one of our school’s squad (not I) along with seven out of the eight cheerleaders of the other junior high school’s squad become the cheerleaders selected by the panel of adults. There is no election since the two 9th-grades’ students don’t know each other, yet.”
“Patently unfair,” Clara says to me, “but, not being selected to continue being a cheerleader is the best thing that ever happens to my personal development. I become more involved in debate, chess, theater, music, books and writing. These are much better choices for me. I become a ‘hippie-intellectual’ instead of a ‘jockette.’ Since I am very good in school, this is a more comfortable role. I can get excellent grades and make a better, more suitable group of friends in my honors classes than I can ‘on the field,’ so that is what I do in high school.”
Here is a poem Clara writes (after studying Julius Caesar in English class) about her feelings and experiences during and after this social transition. Clara goes from occupying the “popular” slot due to being a cheerleader to becoming involved in “cool stuff” due to her other (forced) choices. The “insider” becomes a different kind of “insider,” almost an “outsider,” but this time, mostly by choice.
Clara wants me to remind everyone that she makes no claims to being a great poet. However, it is significant to note that this and another poem she writes in 10th grade are submitted by her English teacher to a state contest. The other poem wins the Missouri’s Youth Writes competition and is published in the state students’ literary magazine in 1970, which is Clara’s first publishing credit.
Clara says: “It’s quite funny to me that I am first published as a poet, since I think my poetry is mostly mediocre to horrible.”
The poem is written on blue, lined spiral notebook paper (the left edge where it is removed from the notebook is ripped in spots) in cursive writing.
RUBICON SURPRISE
by Clara Ackerman, 11/11/69, age 15
Walking on my road
the way is easily seen.
Around the bend, the light
dims
and is gone.
Continue to walk, though
the way grows steep and feels
unfamiliar,
yet exciting.
Forge on through the dark,
stumbling over rocks and into
gullies
and potholes; what
is that swaying sensation?
Ah! The light returns,
only to show the way
already traveled to have been a
bridge,
smoking to ashes as I watch.
The light again dims,
but remains a dusk-glow,
enough to show me the
mockery
free will and decisive action
really are.
What else about your junior high years do you want people to know?
“I experience more misogyny, more restrictions, more unfairness due to gender than in grade school. I have two years of male science teachers and all three years of male math teachers who despise girls, even or especially those of us in Honors classes,” Clara complains.
“Furthermore,” Clara remembers, getting somewhat agitated in the remembering, “our 9th-grade biology teacher is so mean to the only three girls in a class of twenty-four boys that we generate ‘solidarity,’ which is great. We stick together even though we’re not previously close friends. Those girls and I create an informal support group, my first one.”
Also, Clara reminds me, there are more clothing issues; again, only for girls.
*********************************
Stay tuned on Sally’s blogs on WordPress (which has all links) and Tumblr, and on The Spanners Series‘ pages on Facebook and Google+, for each of the upcoming Excerpts from Volume II from March 16 – April 18, about one/day.
4/18/14, Volume II becomes available for Pre-orders via Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks and nook for half-price: @$1.99, through June 8, 2014.
On 6/9/14, Vol. II goes LIVE everywhere ebooks are sold for $3.99.
#THESPANNERSSERIES #THISCHANGESMYFAMILYANDMYLIFEFOREVER #THISCHANGESEVERYTHING
Filed under: Serialized Excerpts, Serialized Excerpts, The Spanners, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume II of The Spanners Tagged: Clara Branon, ebook, Esperanza Enlaces, paranormal, Psi, Sally Ember, sci-fi, The Spanners Series, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever
April 13, 2014
Contests, indie projects, news and more…
Something here for almost everyone!
Originally posted on Smart Girls love SciFi:
Hi everyone! Seems like a good time for a potpourri post. Here is a bit of what’s happening here, there, and yonder.
Mark your calendars!The dates for the 2015 Coastal Magic Convention have been confirmed. It will be February 5-8, 2015 at the Daytona Beach Hilton.
DON’T FORGET about our Avengers giveaway! Win a Blu-Ray/DVD copy of AVENGERS CONFIDENTIAL: BLACK WIDOW & PUNISHER. See the giveaway post for details on how to enter.
For another chance to win, visit SF Signal.
SFR in the news. Did you see this great post about SFR on the USA Today’s HEA blog? Kudos to Veronica Scott for getting SFR out to the HEA audience.
Here is a fun new project: Imaginapped. According to filmmaker Stian Hafstad, it’s a fun sci-fi/fantasy adventure film. Set in a world where imaginary friends are real, and every kid has a superhero or monster following them around as an…
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Must see Documentary!!!~Tenzin Palmo | Tsem Rinpoche
#AniTenzinPalmo I read both of her books and truly admire this trail-blazing, Western (UK) Tibetan Buddhist nun. Watch this when you have an hour and be inspired! http://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/videos/tenzin-palmo-cave-in-the-snow.html
Originally posted on The Only Buddhist in Town:
I read her book a few years ago and I find her documentary even more impressive. She is truly an inspiraton.
Must see Documentary!!!~Tenzin Palmo | Tsem Rinpoche.
Filed under: Writing
April 12, 2014
Novel Writing Competitions 2014
Worth keeping, but take note: several competitions listed are already closed for 2014, so save for next year! Good luck, everyone!
Originally posted on Jessica Davidson:
Welcome to my list of competitions for novelists. Entering a writing competition is a great way to get your novel noticed, but not all competitions are worth entering. It pays to spend time searching out the best. The ones I’ve chosen to feature here are a small selection of some of the most prestigious or interesting I’ve come across. I haven’t entered them all so I can’t vouch for them personally, but if you have experience of any of these comps I’d love to hear from you.
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Filed under: Writing
Branding Oneself, by Angelia Vernon Menchan
What do you think, authors and bloggers How do you brand yourself?
Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:
I met Author Angelia Vernon Menchan through the
RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB
, and she has kindly offered to share a guest post here, regarding the all-important brand concept. So, here it is:
“I created a brand once I became an author quite by chance. I was encouraged to start a blog and within a very short period of time I became known as a positive speaker and motivator.
How did that brand tie in to my work?
I always have a theme of overcoming or using mentors in anything I write. I write fiction, non-fiction, women’s fiction and YA fiction, as such it was easy to promote my books with who I had become known as.
Making sure your brand isn’t tarnished.
This is tricky because we all have a tendency to vent, particularly via social media. Be very careful about that because if you are writing books about faith…
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April 11, 2014
RRBC Spotlight Author Angelia Vernon Menchan
Haven’t had a chance to read this, myself, due to a recent accident and intensive writing prior to that, but we do want to support fellow authors! Please share!
Originally posted on Cultural Cocktails:
(Please join me in welcoming this week’s Rave Reviews Book Club SPOTLIGHT AUTHOR Angelia Vernon Menchan!)
*****
SOUL TIES: BE CAREFUL WHO YOU BED AND WED…
by Angelia Vernon Menchan
Chapter One
Two Years Earlier…
Walking into the nightclub, Fletcher Mitchell could feel the pulsing music. He had decided to attend graduate school at USC and was enjoying the left coast. He was an east coast man in his blood but after breaking up with his longtime girlfriend he needed distance. Los Angeles was a long way from North Florida. After graduating from the University of North Florida he had worked for a few years at United Parcel Service because they had paid his tuition. The management training program was good but he wanted more. When USC accepted him and his company provided him with a transfer that paid more, he was all in. The company had found him a…
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What are the Four Major Upsides and Downsides of #Paranormal #Presentiment?
How does someone with no small measure of psychic ability and numerous accurate “previews” of the future incur so many injuries? I’ll tell you, exactly.
After several days of intensive foreboding and weeks of a feeling of impending doom, last Sunday night I walked into a restaurant and tripped over an unseen hazard that partially blocked the entryway. I went flying parallel to the ground, smashing face-first into the wall beneath the ordering/pick-up counter, breaking my nose, injuring my forehead, incurring a concussion and numerous impact injuries, including whiplash.
Many negative results, obviously, which I am still recovering from, but one positive one: the sensations of ominousness that had been hanging around and inside me for weeks were gone.
How does that all work, exactly?
My definition of presentiment includes: prescience, precognition, premonition, which, taken together, translate into vague or specific feelings, knowledge, images, words, or other sensations of the future for oneself and/or others.
Key problem with the kind of presentiment I had been experiencing: VAGUENESS. Meaning, nonspecific: No details, images, words, dates, times, locations, circumstances; not even a list of who’s involved or who’s to be negatively affected.
I developed the following list, the Four Major Upsides and Downsides of #Paranormal #Presentiment, to explain my precise predicament.
UPSIDES
1. Time for advance planning.
For me, this meant I did a lot of cooking/shopping for food, laundry, blog posts, writing/editing and other tasks much more in advance than usual so that when I became mostly incapacitated, “life went on.”
Image from scottsactingtips.blogspot.com
2. Emotional preparation .
Even as I was literally facing disaster, I wasn’t surprised, emotionally shocked or refusing to acknowledge the extent of my injuries. I immediately understood, as soon as I went flying, that “this was it.” Fortunately, I was remained conscious. Because I had been “warned,” I was not in denial. Therefore, I was able to make several key decisions with a clear head that helped me later.
3. Advance warnings for self and others.
See #numbers 1 & 2, above. Also, I had followed my intuition and cleared my schedule for this week without knowing exactly why. Having almost no obligations during the first crucial week of recuperation left me with less stress, aiding recovery.
4. Possible avoidance of the worst aspects by being especially cautious and observant.
In the weeks immediately prior to this accident, I had had three near-misses on the road, including having a tree branch fall just in front of my car during a bad storm (but I was able to swerve around it since I was going very slowly) and several other small mishaps that could have been a lot worse had I not been exceedingly cautious already.
DOWNSIDES
1. Vague premonitions of doom and general senses of tension and foreboding cause elevated stress levels for indeterminate periods of time.
Human bodies do not do well with chronic stress. Mine has had way too much from actual stress as well as perceived or anticipated stress: not recommended.
image from http://www.thehealthymind.com
2. Focusing on the negative can cause undue paranoia and suspicion.
When I have this strong sense of impending disaster, I get very jumpy, especially when I have no idea the scope, timing, location, cause or target. Everyone is a bad driver, every rumble of a truck sounds like an earthquake (I live in California on a fault line), every airplane overhead sounds as if it might be flying too low (I live under the flight paths of two major and one minor airport), every passerby might be a mugger… you get the idea. Nischt gut.
3. Intensive self-referentialism and self-absorption to the point of unhealthy obsession does no one any good, ever.
Did you know there is a serious mental illness diagnosis consisting of a person having the unshakable belief that everything is a sign, message or communication meant just for him/her, like the character played by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind? Also, it is antithetical to Buddhism to spend much time focusing on oneself, which is a temporary embodiment of an illusory existence, at best. Try sitting around believing that disaster is about to strike while trying to meditate: bad plan.
4. Once any negative circumstance arises, one may relax prematurely and then lose special cautiousness just when it’s most needed.
Three small mishaps had already occurred, however (stubbed my toe very badly at the pool; cut my finger when a knife slipped; hit my foot on the edge of the shower/tub enclosure). After the third one, I made the mistake of believing I had encountered all the negativity associated with this premonition. I did not see nor did I expect the floor obstacles in the restaurant. Hence, the face-plant.
Image from weirdaustralia.com
Perhaps, next time, I won’t believe the doom warnings have been fully heeded until the presentiment actually passes.
Filed under: Buddhism, Life lessons, Personal stories Tagged: paranormal, Psi, psychic phenomena, Sally Ember
April 10, 2014
Brain ‘15-second delay’ shields us from hallucinogenic experience
Oh, goody. I now have a new excuse for being less than accurate. Please tell my son.
Originally posted on This and That:
……………. “It actually means that what we do see is, in fact, a mixture of past and present. According to the research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, stability is attained at the expense of accuracy.”……….
To read the full article go to
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=29722
Filed under: Writing
April 9, 2014
17th Serialized Excerpt: Vol. II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, The Spanners Series, by Sally Ember, Ed.D.
Vol. II, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, The Spanners Series, by Sally Ember, Ed.D.
Cover and logo art by Willowraven.
17th Serialized Excerpt, 4/10/14
CHAPTER TWO
Leah Iris, 29, Niece of Clara Branon, Ph.D., Chief Communicator
Interview Date: May 26, 2018
10 Questions for Clara Branon’s Niece:
the Transition, 5 Years Later
(continued)
9. How do your friends, family, sig other feel about your aunt as the CC and how does this affect your own relationships?
LEAH: Here’s the story of how I meet Josh. It shows some of the ways things are going during the Transition for my family.
********
Zephyr and Kayla aren’t ever going to get married and then they change their minds. I’m not sure why. They already have Kendall, so it’s not about the parenting-marriagebond. Anyway, we’re all—my giganza family—invited.
At large family events we do several things: eat, play and make music, laugh, talk and play games (all at once, usually). As the cousins all get older, we usually play cards with the older adults, definitely Hearts.
If any of us brings a newbie, like, a new sig other or spouse, they can opt out once, but, after that, they HAVE to play Hearts. It’s required. The Hearts games are a kind of trial-by-fire for joining our clan.
At someone’s Bar/Bat Mitzvah, that’s part of the teen’s new status. You can’t play until you’re about 13; it’s that heavy! It’s a kind of initiation-hazing ritual-inclusion thing. When we play Hearts, many cry. Always from laughter, and sometimes from being freaked out at how mean we all get. Or, being on the losing end of a vicious pass or strategy. Usually, no outsiders are invited to play: no random guests or friends, just family and sigs.
I’m at the wedding weekend in old New Hampshire, where they and Zephyr’s dad live, Zef is born and grows up, Aunt Clara lives while Zef is growing up. Summer there is beautiful and I’m glad to be there.
The wedding is on Sunday, but we do things all weekend since people come from far away. I’m noticing this one guy I don’t know who keeps appearing but doesn’t talk to me. Very appealing, to me, somehow.
During meals, I make sure I sit where I can see him. For “down” time—no scheduled thing happening—I look to see what group he’s hanging with and nonchalantly join on the fringes. Or, if I’m already in a group, I notice he drifts over to it. We’re like non-acquainted, exopod dolphins, swimming closer and closer to one another, playing and eating in the same area, but no direct contact.
Lots of smiles, some eye contact (he has amazing, green eyes), electric charges abound. No words. I find myself wanting to rub against him the way a dolphin would do to signal interest in being friends or starting to play, but I restrain myself. I also have the urge to try whistling and squeaking, just because, but I don’t know he could answer me, so I do not do it.
Josh says later he wishes I do these things! I don’t realize at the time that he is a Cetacean specialist and through my unconscious use of some of my Excellent Skills, I’m tuning into this affinity we share.
I don’t ask anyone who he is. I’m enjoying the “dance,” we’re engaged in, which is pleasantly and intriguingly intensifying from Friday to Saturday. Saturday, late afternoon, when we’re getting together for the third or fourth Hearts game of the weekend, when it peaks.
People are setting up the large outdoor table, counting and shuffling cards, talking, laughing, organizing who’s playing and making sure the cards are set up right, removing 2s, doubling the decks, etc., for however many are playing. We’re about to start. All available and eligible in the family are at the table. That’s about a dozen for this particular game.
We’re watching my brother and my mother share the dealing when this guy I am hyper aware of comes over and asks if he can play. Nice chutzpah [audacity, courage, Yiddish].
Zephyr and Kayla look at him, at each other, then at me and say “Yeah! Sure!”
Aunt Clara gives him the eye and asks, “Josh: are you sure you want to do this, now, today?”
She is deliberately daring him. Why? His name is “Josh.” I like that name.
My mom, still dealing, says: “No way; family only!”
A few others murmur their opinions, mostly “no,” a few “next game, maybe.”
Aunt Clara holds up one hand, looks at me, at me, and says: “It’s up to you, Leah.”
Why me? But I nod. It is up to me. I accept that.
CeeCee, my mom, my aunt Violet, Zephyr smile in a way that makes the butterflies in my stomach wake up and start flying around chaotically.
Oh, oh.
The dealing is over but no one moves to take their cards or push the hands out to us. I count silently: fourteen. There is one extra hand. Shit!
Everything stops, then. No one talks or laughs, which is a minor miracle in my family. I swear, even the breezes stop blowing and the birds stop singing for a couple of seconds. I know that’s not likely, but that’s how it seems to me. Time strrrr-etch-es out and slows down, you know?
Josh looks at me and I look at him.
I know.
And, I can tell, he knows.
Given the way ES run in this family, most of us know.
So I, being somewhat an introvert (I know, not obvious, but I am), and a bit wary, blurt out: “But, who are you?”
Josh comes closer to me, gets down on one knee so that he’s eye-level with me, extends one hand to hold mine, and says, “I’m your sig, Leah. I’m Josh.”
All the breath whooshes out of me as if I am a balloon letting go. Then, I can’t breathe right. I’m hot, I’m shivering, I’m dizzy. I stare at him, at his wonderful, interesting face, at his hand holding mine with his beautifully tapered fingers, at his clear, green eyes.
I can feel everyone staring at us, waiting for me to respond. I reclaim my hand. Why does this look and feel like a marriage proposal? We just spoke for the first time!
I reach across the table and grab my cards, trying to make the game start. I look wildly at everyone, but no one is meeting my eyes. I could ignore him, but I am drawn back, against my will, to stare into his eyes. I’m speechless.
I’m so hot and my face is so red I’m sure I am about to catch fire or something. Then, right after I put them into my hands, my cards explode all over the table. Everyone but I and this guy gasps.
I am sure Zephyr has something to do with that trick. I turn to glare at him. He smiles sweetly at me. The picture of fake innocence. I may have to hurt him.
But, I am paralyzed. I stare at the scattered cards and can’t pick any up.
Josh is able to move easily.
Why is that? What’s wrong with me?
He takes both my hands, since I no longer have any cards in either.
Josh says, “Whenever you’re ready, let me in.”
So, Zephyr, being Zephyr, says: “‘Not by the hair of my chinny, chin, chin!’”
We all burst out laughing which takes the pressure off a lot.
I breathe. Once, twice, three times. I look over at Josh. He’s so patient, so kind, so right for me. Why am I resisting?
This has been coming all weekend. Carpe Diem!
“OK. Fine. You’re in.” I say it fake huffily, as if I object, but no one, including me, is the least bit fooled.
I pat the chair that suddenly snaps into place right beside me (Zef’s work, again) and say, “Deal Josh in.”
Caleb snaps the extra hand over to Josh’s place at the table.
Everyone else puts their cards down and applauds. The silence broken, everyone is now talking, laughing, smiling at or groaning about their cards.
Josh plops into the chair, smiles at me, picks up his cards and starts arranging them as if he’s always been here, at our Hearts game.
Maybe he has. CeeCee winks at me. Sheesh. She hears that.
I lean over to squeeze Josh’s shoulder. “Welcome,” I say, more warmly.
He leans into me but keeps arranging his cards.
Oh. It’s like that, is it? Game on!
And, that’s it. Josh is in. In every way. We play Hearts. We start being together. He’s a great dancer, too.
********
LEAH: The rest is, well, private. [laughs].
10. What else do you want to tell us about your experiences of Clara as the CC or the Transition?
LEAH: I can add one important thing: Aunt Clara is the best choice Earthers could have. I know not everyone understands that, so let me explain.
She is off-the-charts in honesty, courage, integrity up the whazzoo. She is dedicated to benefiting all beings—the Buddhist thing, you know? Those all contribute, but most important, Aunt Clara has a humongous heart. She is fiercely protective and loving when she takes anyone or anything on.
Earthers are lucky she took us on. For sure.
*********************************
Stay tuned on Sally’s blogs on WordPress (which has all links) and Tumblr, and on The Spanners Series‘ pages on Facebook and Google+, for each of the upcoming Excerpts from Volume II from March 16 – April 18, about one/day.
4/18/14, Volume II becomes available for Pre-orders via Smashwords, Kobo, iBooks and nook for half-price: @$1.99, through June 8, 2014.
On 6/9/14, Vol. II goes LIVE everywhere ebooks are sold for $3.99.
#THESPANNERSSERIES #THISCHANGESMYFAMILYANDMYLIFEFOREVER #THISCHANGESEVERYTHING
Filed under: Serialized Excerpts, Serialized Excerpts, The Spanners, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever, Volume II of The Spanners Tagged: Clara Branon, Excellent Skills, family, Leah Iris, paranormal, Psi, speculative fiction, The Spanners Series, This Changes My Family and My Life Forever
April 8, 2014
Spiritual Phenomena Exist in Other Dimensions Says Astronomer
What do we think of this? “Spiritual phenomena” “exist” in “other dimensions.” Hmmmm.
Originally posted on This and That:
To read the article go to
http://redicecreations.com/article.php?id=29696
Filed under: Writing
