Helen B. Henderson's Blog, page 50

Hooked on Windmaster Legend, Lantern Rising, #MFRWAuthor

A forbidden love. An impossible quest. The accusation of witchcraft. Can love survive?
A snippit from Windmaster Legend

To set the stage, in the spirit of reflection and giving thanks, a scene from the lantern rising festival. Pelra will be helping crew one of the vessels releasing the collected lanterns and using the time to help settle her own feelings for the two men in her life. Bolte is a young ensign who is also working the event and his parents are Analese and Lendar, who came to see him off.

To distract herself from the emotions rising at Iol’s closeness, Pelra read the handwritten notes on the sky lanterns closest to her. Some were thanks for a profitable year, while others were prayers for the one to come. Many were poignant remembrances of loved ones who had passed beyond the veil. The dream listed on one lantern clutched at her heart.

Air and sky together forever,
May our two lives be as joined.
With nothing between but a gentle zephyr.
Air and sky, bless our journey.

Even more than the words, the signatures, one small and neat, the other large and scrawling, had Pelra adding her own prayer that the wishes being sent skyward be granted. The lantern bore the names Analese and Lendar. She looked at Bolte to see if the youth had noticed his parent’s contribution to the festival. However, he was concentrating on arranging things to get all the lanterns in the air as quickly as possible and appeared oblivious to the dreams and hopes he would soon be sending into the air.

Bolte will be the one to launch Analese and Lendar’s lantern, Pelra vowed. And added her own wish for it to rise high. For legend said that wishes on a lantern that caught fire before reaching the clouds would never be fulfilled.

~ * ~
You'll have to read Windmaster Legend to see the release of Analese and Lendar's lantern. And whether or not Pelra's own wishes come true. Ebook on sale at Amazon for the holidays.





Ebook: Amazon  /  Amazon UK / Amazon CA  / / Kobo   /More ebook stores      Paperback: Amazon / Amazon UK 

Holiday Sale

•*¨*★☆ Sale ★☆¸.•*¨* The Windmaster Novels On sale now at Amazon for the holidays for only $2.99 each. It’s the perfect time to stuff those kindles or maybe even do some early holiday shopping. Or, why not splurge with the complete series described as, “A great read by an author with magic in her veins.”

Journey the high seas, and from mountain heights to cavern depths on an epic quest to save the future of magic.

Weekend Writing Warriors, Pirates Sighted, Windmaster #SnippetSunday

​ 
Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the weekly hop for everyone who loves to write! Visit the other participants on the list and read, and comment on their 8sunday posts.


​Today's excerpt is from Windmaster, the first book of the fantasy, romance series, the Windmaster Novels. To set, the scene, Sea Falcon is becalmed and surrounding by a dense fog.  And now the SundaySnippet.

* * * *
 
​    “Masts ho, on the starboard bow.” Before she could act, another yell reached the already edgy crew. “Pirates! She flies a black banner crossed by white lightning.”

“Pirates! All hands to arms!” Ellspeth’s voice, pitched for battle, carried from one end of the ship to the other. “Prepare to repel boarders. No quarter!”

The Sea Falcon’s first officer spun the ship’s wheel in an attempt to avoid the unseen object. The screech of hull on hull pierced the air.

* * * *
Ebook Buy Links
Paperback links here

​I hope you like the snippet I shared for Ellspeth this week. Be sure to read the other Weekend Writing Warriors blogs and the #SnippetSunday authors for more great reads. ~till next time, Helen

Words, the best personal gift #mfrwauthor

It's Friday and time for another topic in the #mfrwauthor challenge. We're supposed to write about gift giving and how to make it personal. A post from an earlier challenge recounted three cases of personal gifts. Then last year several of the characters from my books took over the post and answered the question, "What Gift I Wanted, But Not Very Much."

So, I decided to take a different approach. As a writer, the best personal gift I can receive is a review. Whether the sentiment is about our first book or our last, a line or a short paragraph, they are the reader words. They are personal. And the best gift ever.

Pixabay Image. Used under Creative Commons license.
~till next time, Helen

Thank You For Your Service

As I have in other years, a post to honor of those who wore the uniform as well as those who held the homefront together.

As a special acknowledgement to one who served on the homefront and the battlefront, proceeds from Hearth and Sand until the end of the year will be donated to a veteran and her family.

Hearth and Sand is twelve tales of duty and honor, love and romance. Set universes apart and separated by decades in time, the stories in Hearth and Sand reflect a continuity of service from the past to the present and into the world of tomorrow. Although the events are fictional, the voices captured within these pages came from historical notes, veterans’ own words, letters left by their ancestors, or contemporary events. Pen was put to paper while watching fighter planes land in the Philippine Islands and in the shaded woods of a stateside farm.

The tales cross genre from contemporary to historical, and science fiction to poetry. More on the tales can be found here.

And on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, thank you for your service and prayers that peace will someday render war unknown. 



Hearth and Sand Available At:   Amazon   Walmart   More Ebook Sellers

Favorite Recipe, Heritage and Food #MFRWauthor

We're at week 45. Where has the year gone? Appropriate for this week, we're asked to share a favorite recipe for the holidays. I flipped through the recipe box and after I eliminated those from the Betty Crocker Cookbook I received as a wedding present several decades ago, I read through the handwritten recipe cards. Various recipes were considered and tossed aside and I settled on a heritage recipe. Lokse is a potato pancake from my Slavic coal-country ancestry. My grandmother cooked it on the top on a cast-iron stove, but adapted the recipe for a cast-iron frying pan. In the old country, Lokse can still be found at holiday festivals with different toppings. Although my favorite and the one most used by my family is just plain butter.


Lokse was also the focus of a post in the 2017 MFRW challenge. So instead of re-posting the recipe, I'll just include a link to the post, Lokse - A Heritage.


Now I'm hungry. Since it has been a while since I had some lokse, this would be a good time to schedule a cooking day with the next generation and start teaching them. Although she never met any of them, I'm sure my grandmother would approve passing on her recipe to her great-great-grand-daughters.


~till next time, Helen

Holidays - Real or Fantasy #MFRWAuthor

We're at week 44 and the official topic is "Holidays - the headaches and joy of family get-togethers." First is the recipe for a happy get together.

• Arrivals timed to allow a few moments greetings
• Each person actually brings what they're supposed to
• Children, especially yours, not only behave, but act as perfect hostess for their cousins
• Everyone is amicably seated around a table in a large room
• The house if filled with laughter and joy

Reality just stuck a pin in the dream. The image of a perfect holiday just splintered into a million tiny pieces.

• It is ten minutes before guests are to arrive, and the house looks like a tornado hit it.
• Everyone who is supposed to help are doing other things. Usually tasks that don't need to be done at that moment.
• The turkey finished cooking an hour early.
• The guests are two hours late. Half of them still haven't arrived.
• YYY just called, he and XXX decided to stay at X's mother's home and won't be coming.
• The younger cousins are arguing from their seats on the picnic table squished into the kitchen for additional seating as to who has more space.
• Mmm brought up an imagined slight from five holidays back. Lll countered with a tale from their childhood of him and his brother using dynamite to clear tree stumps. Despite being adults, they both turned white at their mother's stern look.

There are joys in looking at holiday pictures and seeing the children grow. Then to see their own family's, and in the final picture four generations are captured in the portrait. This is also a sad part of a holiday as the years progress and there are empty places at the table.


Although it doesn't have the tale of the flask full of diet soda and whiskey carried to more than one Christmas that remained unopened or the escape technique to leave uncomfortable conversations by sending the family dog a signal that it was time for a walk, if you're looking for an uplifting offering that holds something for everyone in the family, A Yuletide Wish, fits the bill. Established authors from around the globe bring a rich tapestry of family-friendly stories and poems to enliven your holiday gatherings. My contribution was of how duty required a demotion from the adult table to the children's table, and how the holiday became one of the best the character ever had.

A little more on the holiday that gave rise to the story appeared in a post for another 52-week challenge. https://helenhenderson-author.blogspot.com/2018/07/sitting-at-adult-table-mfrwauthor.html.

~till next time, Helen

Friend, Foe, or Both? #MFRWauthor

The topic for week 43 of the 2019 #MFRWAuthor 52-weekChallenge ties to other posts that deal with social media in the 2017 and 2018 challenges: I'm Not Social and Social Media Hangouts.

FOE - I don't know if it is a personality thing or a result of my rural upbringing, but I don't have a smart phone permanently attached to my ear. I don't enjoy hanging out on social media just for the sake of it. Especially not on social media where many of the contacts are not between living, breathing friends you've met in person.

FRIEND - There are writers who I do enjoy visiting with in cyberspace. And, of course, there is always the online notes and pictures passed between family members. There are the memes and cute kitten pictures.


To find me at the social media site of your choice, click on the icons on the sidebar or the links below.
Facebook   Twitter  Goodreads


~till next time, Helen

https://mfrw52week.blogspot.com/

Craziness and Tired Fingers #mfrwauthor

We're at week 42. Where has the year gone? Appropriate for this week, the topic deals with NanoWriMo. For those who have not heard of the craziness that is NanoWriMo, writers attempt to write a novel during the month of November. That is 50,000 words within the space of thirty days. The prompt asked if NanoWriMo is productive, stressful or fun. The answer is three simple letters - YES!

There is stress as you try to accomplish the goal. Writers have been known to turn themselves into hermits, to hang "Do Not Disturb" signs on the door and lock themselves into writing caves in order to reach the daily word count. Some stock up on snacks--and caffeine. The stress is even worse if you are one of those writers who can't turn off the internal editor. But to meet the daily word count needed to reach 50K, you have to keep writing.


There is fun involved. There is a sense of achievement as you earn badges for things such as backing up your work or supporting other authors. Then there are the writing badges. They start with creating a novel, and more for updating word counts. And of course the ultimate award, your winner certificate

The last part of the question is whether NanoWriMo is productive. There are manuscripts written during NanoWriMo that get tossed into the bottom of the drawer because they are not much more than a stream of consciousness dump. At the other end is the story that at the end of the month is a fully-developed draft ready for editing. And I'm sure a lot of manuscripts fall in between the two ranges.


 
I admit to doing NanoWriMo 2018. As to how I did? I earned fifteen badges. Slightly over 50,000 words were written. However, since the other novels in the series run to 90,000 words, the story was not finished. More updates to come as writing continues. Of course, in the interim I celebrated the release of Windmaster Legend and all the accompanying activity that comes with a launch, did the A to Z in April Challenge, and tried to be a regular participant in the weekly MFRW book hook and 52-week challenges.

~till next time, Helen

Ritual or A Routine, It works #mfrwauthor

Welcome to the 2019 MFRW 52-week challenge where authors reveal insights into their lives, their pasts, the writing life, and on other topics. Since I wrote about what passes for my writing rituals in the 2018 challenge post, Music, a Porch Swing, and a Pen, this one will concentrate on the second part of the prompt, the truth behind writing rituals.

You can’t just write when you’re inspired, you have to write consistently, regardless of if you in the groove or not. Finding success as a writer requires you to be intentional about your writing. To do things with purpose. Or to describe it in another way, to be disciplined.


A study by the National Writing Project revealed that rituals built around the elements of environment, time, and behavior seem to foster conditions that reduce writing anxiety, promote a sense of power and control, and enhance linguistic fluency. 

Image by Solarus from PixabayStarting off a project or a writing session with a specific series of actions seems to work for several reasons. The National Writing Project states the reasons rituals are effective are because rituals are familiar and automatic, and often productive of a hypnogogic—that is, a dreamlike—state. Rituals can create a muscle memory for the mind. Much as a tune or scent can trigger a memory, surrounding yourself with familiar items or being in a given place associated with writing can put the mind in the tenor to work.

As far as the dreamlike state mentioned? Daydreaming or staring out a window releases control and allows the writer to disengage from the everyday work so that the subconscious mind can emerge and creativity begin. Rituals can accomplish the same thing.

Do you need a complex ritual every time you sit down to write? Or a specific color of ink or a special pen? If so, you are not alone. Leave a comment on the ritual that gets you into the state of mind to write.

It's a hop. Be sure to read the other posts in the challenge. ~till next time, Helen