Jaye Marie's Blog, page 1902
December 18, 2015
Mermaids Tears…
I think the greatest magic on this earth is to be found in water. Any kind of water, whether it is the powerful oceans or the peacefully slow moving rivers.
I have found magic in mighty waterfalls and simple rock pools, and love nothing better than being close to it. I have spent many happy hours beachcombing, looking for shells and driftwood, and the occasional piece of sea glass.
Sea glass, or mermaids tears, as it is sometimes called, is just ordinary pieces of glass, chemically weathered and tumbled beneath the waves to produce beautifully smooth frosted pebbles.
This process takes a long time, and each piece contains its own mystery of where it came from and how it ended up in the sea. It could be from a shipwreck or a message in a bottle, the possibilities are endless. It can be almost any colour, but black is supposed to be the rarest, although it must be hard to spot among the pebbles on a beach.
Sea glass has been called a reverse gem, for most of the gem stones that we recognise have been made by nature and refined by man. Sea glass is the opposite, but I suspect it is a lot more complicated than that.
One thing has always puzzled me. Why isn’t there more to be found? I have searched for most of my life and only found a few pieces, probably because I am looking in all the wrong places.
Whatever the truth of it all, I think it is magical and I treasure my collection.
Maybe it is because I too am flotsam, thrown up on life’s beach. Waiting to be found and treasured by a fool like me…
Filed under: life as an author, sharing interests Tagged: flotsam, magical, mermaids tears, sea glass, water
Mystery & Me
Blame it on Nancy Drew. She was my first love (but far from my last) in the mystery genre. In the 1960s, as a young girl, I collected her books and began a life long commitment to binge reading. Which led to writing, which led to writing a mystery. My first mystery, Love and Death in Blue Lake, releases worldwide today.
Love and Death in Blue Lake didn’t start out as a mystery. I’d written several romance and women’s fiction titles and I thought for sure this book, about high school sweethearts who reconnect, would be another in the same genre. But no. Stories often take unexpected turns as this one did when I wrote a gun into someone’s purse.
What began as a small subplot came to be an equal plot to the romance story. It constantly threatened to take over the book, but I had my heart set…
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Filed under: life as an author
I Will
I need to write from my heart today.
Last spring, cancer took my grandmother. Last fall, it took my other grandmother. Last night, it took my friend.
I wrote this as I lay awake in the darkness early this morning. I didn’t write it to win sympathy from anyone. I wrote it as a promise to them.
I wrote itfor one and all of them. My wishis that anyone struggling this season will read it and find some comfort.
I Will
I will not remember your pain, because your strength was so much greater.
I will not forget your kindness, even as the world shows how unkind it can be.
I will not worry about someone’s opinion, because it has no bearing on my legacy.
I will not judge, because I don’t know anyone’s whole story.
I will not squander what I’m given, because you showed me what’s important.
I…
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Interview Calls
You’ve been sending out your résumés and wondering when will you be called for interview. While alternating between twiddling your thumbs and trolling for more jobs to submit, your phone suddenly ring! It’s an unfamiliar number, your palms suddenly become sweaty….maybe, just maybe…it might be just one of the companies you send your résumé in.
First of all, don’t panic. Secondly, always try to find a quiet place to answer the call. If you can’t, excuse yourself and quickly pick up the call, let the other person know now is not the convenient time for you and could he or she leave a number for you to call back. Please don’t try to say you are good for the call and suddenly realized that the person on the other line wants to conduct a long conversation hence, it is preferable to schedule a time back when you have at least…
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Today’s Quote
good idea…
Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first.
~ Ernestine Ulmer ~
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Filed under: life as an author
Sharing a dawn
at least their is perfect peace in a sunrise…
It always astonishes me how many people are up at whatever ungodly hour I leave my bed and switch on the computer. That, I suppose, is one of the strangest things we have accepted as part of our daily lives over the past few years… that friends the world over can stay in touch instantly… as long as we are awake enough to electronically cross the International Date Line.
This morning, for example, before dawn paints the sky with light, I will have sent emails to several continents, exchanged comments with the four proverbial corners of the sphere of earth and completely forgotten I should still be in bed.
We think no more of ordering a gift from the night side of the world than we do of nipping to the corner shop and can find out anything about anywhere at the touch of a keyboard.
We hop on a…
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tradition
My friend Jed, whom I met this past year online, asked me if I’d be willing to write a short blog entry to be included on his site, wherein I would talk about one of my favorite holiday traditions. For anyone who knows me at all well, you’ll understand what a challenge it presented, since he asked that the mini-post be between 250 and 350 words. Well, I was inspired, and I do love a good challenge; so I wrote the piece (which, after much work, I was able to whittle to exactly 350 words). I thought I’d share it with you here; and I invite you to pop over there and read some other short posts about Christmas traditions of other bloggers in Jed’s circles.
The post:
I decorated my Christmas tree this past weekend, and the first thing to don the branches after the lights are strung is what remains of…
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December 17, 2015
Something in the Water…
Ben’s new book, Something in the Water, is being released just after Christmas. If we all promote it, even just by re blogging this post, we can help it fly!
Source: Something in the Water…
Filed under: life as an author
REAMS OF CORRESPONDENCE
She wanted to review our email exchanges from our days of courtship but couldn’t find copies of what she’d sent me. Hoped I had printouts.
I’ve been downsizing, so some things weren’t where I expected to find them. Knew I had a loose-leaf binder somewhere.
Nowhere in my studio, though, the one in the attic. No, not the bookshelves or even the remaining filing cabinets or the knee-high closet under the roof. Nor in the first sweep of the loft of the barn. Not in the drawer of surviving correspondence there, either.
Naturally, I was perplexed.
One more round, though, and I came across a crate of binders. Aha! First one had Quaker letters, back before Internet. Second one, other letters. And then, a three-inch thick binder, our nine months of emails. My first emails, actually. How embarrassing … and fascinating! So long ago, it now seems.
Has me reflecting…
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