Jody Summers's Blog, page 3

Oklahoma Gazette-Books in OKC?

A little publicity never hurts and this was a nice one that came out in the Oklahoma Gazette, an extremely popular weekly publication in Oklahoma City. If you want to read it here is the link:

 

http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/art...

But where can you get copies of Dark Canvas and The Mask Maker in OKC? Well if you’re looking online you can get them and www.jodysummersbooks.com or Amazon or about a 100 other places but if you’re looking for a brick and mortar store you can pick up a copy at either of the Barnes & Noble stores, the independent books store Full Circle Books or at the Hastings Entertainment Center in Norman.

 

Summers Sizzles? Oh Yeah! : )

Fortune Cookie Cogitations

I read a fortune cookie the other day and it said, “A single kind word can keep someone warm for years.” and I started thinking how true that statement is. I for one have had several of those occasions. A person told me once years ago that I have had a wonderful positive influence on their lives and the phrase has resurfaced in my mind over and over again through the years, especially when I am down. An ex-girlfriend whispered to a guy friend of hers that I was strong and I overheard it and that simple comment has stayed with me. I had a friend tell me once of a saying from her grandmother, “If you can look at yourself in the mirror and say that one person’s life has been improved today by you being there, then you have had a good day…”   Truly, these are words to live by.

Wine bottle sizes

Do you know the names of the larger bottles of wine? There are several more than I would have expected and we see virtually none of them in the retail market beyond the “Magnum.” But here they are:

Magnum(2),Jeroboam(4),Methuselah(8),Salmanazar(12),Balthazar(16),Nebuchadnezzar(20)

The numbers beside the names represent how many 750ml bottles are contained in that one container. And just in case you were wondering, that largest bottle, the “20″ bottle container is equal to about 4 gallons of wine and would weigh about 34lbs WITHOUT the container….. just sayin

Wine tasting/Book Signing

This Saturday at Full Circle Books in Oklahoma City I’m trying a new concept and combining two of my favorite things: Writing and Wine! Come on out and join me!  It’s from 5-7:30 and full details are on my EVENTS pages.

Ronald Reagan Quotes

One of my favorite politicians and one of the most quotable. Oh how they laughed when an actor ran for President…..

I don’t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving subsidize it.

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, ore we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.

 

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

A world of rue

 

Alone at night on a Valentine’s Day

Seems love and youth are so far away

Contentment resides in my tenacious dreams

Hope refuses to give up, it seems

How do I do it, my friends all say,

How can you go on and live this way

Well my life’s been so full, no regrets

I think in my heart it’s as good as it gets

Forty years I just chased love

Now my calling is sent from above

Things rest heavy in my heart to say

And I’m hoping my words help in some way

To bring joy, perspective, or a little insight

I pray my words bring a little more light.

Love is gone and youth as well

So maybe my lessons can help others dwell

Not on their problems but just on hope

It’s a tonic for lives that just need to cope

It’s a gift for my daughters and others too

To find their path in this world of rue.

J.K. Rowling

For all of you out there who have loved Harry Potter and even for the ones who have barely heard of the story(if that’s still even possible) I offer you this clip from TED talks, one of my favorite websites, a commencement speech by the author J. K. Rowling to the 2008 graduating class of Harvard University. Her speech is pregnant with humor, humility, and sage wisdom from a person who has lived to see both phenomenal success and abject failure. Someone who has seen the best and worst of the human condition. This 20 minutes speech is on the fringe benefits of failure and it is extraordinarily moving. Enjoy!

http://www.ted.com/talks/jk_rowling_t...

Dean Koontz

I have mentioned in any number of places how I was inspired by Dean Koontz. The man has written over 80 novels. I have read most of them and uncounted books by other authors. Thousands I would guess, by myriads of authors and many many that I have greatly enjoyed.  But none have tickled my writer’s bone like Dean Koontz. I have always found his incredible intertwining of imagination, description and wit to be a fertile source of inspiration to me as an author, and it is a fond wish of mine to get to meet him someday.

Thanks again, Dean.

Self Publishing roots

Self-publishing has been around for years. There are even a number of big name authors such as John Grisham who got themselves started that way. But when I started writing in 2004 it was still a boutique industry and severely frowned upon by the traditional publishing people. A few companies were beginning to delve into the niche, however. The biggest new one was probably iUniverse who touted themselves to be the be-all end-all for the aspiring self-publisher, for a fee. They could offer all the services an author would need from book covers, to editing to printing the books on demand. POD it was called and the introduction of it was the beginning of an avalanche of self published books. You no longer had to be willing or able to shell out thousands of dollars for a short run of a traditionally printed book. Now you could order one at a time if you wanted. When I started, my 325 page novel which would retail for 16.95 was available to me from iUniverse at a bit over ten bucks. That was after paying for them to set up the book and any other services I required to get going. I believed I shelled out well over a thousand dollars to get my first try with Dark Canvas ready to print. Still kind of costly for a neophyte author with high aspirations and no expertise. I had a lot to learn and a lot of mistakes to make before I got it right…..

FLYING

I am a pilot and have been since 1977. I have a love of anything that gets off the ground and have tried most of them. One of the highlights of my flying career was when I got to fly-in to the Experimental Aircraft Association air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin back in the mid 80′s. It was absolutely amazing. You park on the airfield and camp right there by your plane and watch the show for days…. Here are a photo.