Author: admin

I discovered home when I was eighteen years old.

Sounds like a line from a romance novel, doesn’t it? But what I fell in love with was the mountains.

Growing up in northwestern Pennsylvania, I was surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains. I spent hours as a teenager walking and bicycling in the hills that surrounded my childhood home. The forests and meadows were part of my nature. I studies the plants and knew which ones were food and those that had other uses. I even knew where a few rare plants were sheltered.

But after high school, I took a Greyhound bus west to a college.far from my familiar surroundings. It was an exciting transition—new surroundings, new friends, new educational challenges. It was wonderful, and I was on a continuous high.

And then it happened. For one of the classes I was taking, we took a weekend field trip. In a college-owned bus, we piled in our sleeping bags and luggage and took off to study local flora. The road we took was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Hairpin turns, sharp inclines, cliffs that dropped hundreds of feet from the side of the road.

Finally we got to the top. And I never wanted to go down again. I’d found my place on this earth.

After that I could not be content with rolling hills. I needed sharp peaks and deep valleys. I joke that I must have been a mountain man in a previous life. Some days, I’m not sure it’s a joke. The mountains are where I feel the most like myself. From the lower reaches where you have to have to lift your eyes to see the snow-covered peaks to the upper heights where you can see for miles and beyond that’s where I want to be. When I’m among them, I feel fulfilled.

Life’s journey hasn’t always allowed me to make my home among the mountains. Bit even when I lived in what other people considered paradise, I wanted to leave and return to my personal heaven or as close to it as I can get while I’m still alive.

Soon after the trip, I met a wonderful man and fell in love again. He loves the mountains too, so he doesn’t mind sharing me with them. Most of the time, anyway.

To find out what other people are sharing, see the links below. And if you want to share something, you can o it in the comments. Thanks for reading!

July 25, 2016
Personal Experience Post – Let your guard down. Form a connection with your readers by sharing a deeply personal experience.
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Welcome to this week’s edition of the Open Book Blog Hop, where a group of authors share their ideas on random topics. This week we’re making predictions about how changes in technology will
affect us as writers.

I’m going to start with one easy prediction, then move on to something that’s more in the out-on-a-limb realm.

Smart watches are the upcoming technology. And they’re useful for many things, like tracking the weather and stock market, but can you imagine reading a book on that little screen? So my prediction is that someone will develop an app that will read the books in your e-book library to you—without needing it to be in an audio book format. And then tie that same technology into Amazon’s Echo Alex speaker system (and similar products.)

Alternatively, there will be a way to project the display onto a wall or whiteboard to make it easier to read. The technology already exists for laptops, so why not for smart watches?

As writers, the new technology may present formatting issues. We’ll need to adapt our existing books into a new setup so the watches can read them correctly, and format our new offerings for yet another market. Same goes for our blogs and websites. As always, the early adapters will get the lion’s share of the initial market.

Now onto a prediction that’s a long shot.

Remember in Star Trek how everyone could talk to everyone (almost) and understand what everyone was saying? Even though they were from different countries and planets and solar systems? The universal translator (that came in various forms in different shows and movies) searched for similar patterns that occur in many spoken languages and, over a series of words, and interpreted them for the hearer.

That translator only works for the spoken word. I predict someone will develop a translator to interpret the written word. Maybe that’s not such a long shot, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that capability already exists in super computer form. But how about in a hand-held device for the masses? Sure, you can go on line and find translations for specific languages, but what about a device that you can run over the page of a book and it will read the text to you in whatever language you select? Think of the possibilities that would open up to us as writers!

We’d immediately have our books available to a world-wide audience without paying for translators for every language. How great would that be? Of course, we’d need to change up our writing style or subject matter to fit more of the international audience. I’m not sure how wolf shifters would translate into a Hindi marketplace. Would readers from all over the world read our blogs if we didn’t write them to include topics of interest to a broad audience? We as writers would have to work a lot harder to make ourselves “attractive” to the new market.

So those are my predictions. What are your predictions? Feel free to share in the comments below. And to find out what other writers on the loop have to say, follow the links below.

Predictions Post – How changes in the industry, in technology or in the tools (social media, blogging, etc.) will affect your ability to earn a living or make your mark as a writer.
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No, you didn’t miss a post from me last week. I was out of town and had no internet access. It was great, but now it’s time to come back to real life.

This week we’re talking about things that matter to us. As my title indicates, I picked the broad topic of human rights. I considered narrowing the topic, but back in high school, when I was first being introduced to the politics of women’s rights, I decided that the rights of all people were important, and I haven’t changed my philosophy. If anything, my areas of interest have grown broader over the years.

The men’s rights movement was the breakthrough  that led me to explore beyond women’s rights. The concept that women were automatically considered better parents than men floored me because my own father was a wonderful and caring parent. Besides, if we were talking about women being equal, shouldn’t that extend to equality both good and bad? I couldn’t find the fairness in being considered automatically “superior” in any field based on sex alone. Isn’t that what the women’s rights movement was fighting against?

Gradually, my world perspective grew larger. The Civil Rights Movement was only the tip of the iceberg. The issues of Native Americans began making the news. Remember the occupation of Alcatraz?  The American Indian Movement and Russell Means? I don’t know too many people who do. Fascinating US history that I suspect doesn’t make it into history textbooks. 

Somewhere along the way, my interests became international. So many issues, so many causes. Women not being allowed to drive or vote or have any rights under the laws of many countries. Children being forced in prostitution or slavery or used to fight in territorial wars. Men and women not being able to have opinions that are in opposition to the “official” position of their government. The struggles of the LGBT community all over the globe. Usable food being wasted or deliberately destroyed while people go hungry.

What can one person do about all the many issues? Admittedly, not much, other than pay attention and educate themselves  about what is going on in the world. Sign a petition or two or three. Pick one or two causes to donate money to. And when the opportunity arises, share your knowledge with other people. If we work together, we can make a difference.

To find out what other authors care about, follow the links below.

July 11 Why ____________ matters to me. Share what you’re passionate about. Strong opinion pieces allowed.
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Carlos:
“I’d have to say cars. I can fix almost anything wrong with them.
I’ve been hanging around my Uncle Jose’s garage since I was a
teenager, and I’ve worked for him full time for over ten years.
He’s the best mechanic there is, and he’s taught me everything he
knows. So if it’s broke, I can figure out how to fix it.”

I
currently reside in a rural area of the mid-west. After living in
various parts of the U.S. and traveling abroad, I recently moved into
the very same home where I grew up. I enjoy country living: ours is a
small community, and everyone knows everybody. The culture of the
city also draws me: the shopping, dining, and the opera and ballet. 

The Art of Getting Away is part of the Stories of Sun, Sand and Sea collection, currently available at the links below:

Today I’m welcoming PJ Fiala to my blog. She’s going to interview Dot McKenzie-Lapahie, a wolf shifter, from my Free Wolves series. Dot is currently the CEO of Lapahie Enterprises, and mate to Gavin Fairwood of the Fairwood pack. So glad you could drop by, Patti, and glad to see you again, Dot. Now on to the interview.

1. Where were you when you heard about 911 and how has it changed you?


    I was waitressing at a little diner off the interstate in the middle of nowhere, North Carolina. What passed for breakfast rush was over, but we still had some truckers getting their morning caffeine fix. One of the truckers got a call from his manager to warn about the possibility of delays along his route and that was the first we heard about it. Hank, the boss, kept a small TV in his office and we all huddled around it to watch the news. I cried, I admit it. Up until that point, I’d never paid much attention to politics because I was too busy trying to stay ahead of whoever was chasing me, but that event changed everything. Now I understand how what goes on in the world around us impacts all of us for good or bad.

 2. How do you approach tough decisions?

   I’ve had to act on impulse too many times in my life, so I rely on instinct, Now that I’m running a business, I’m slowly learning to take the advice of people who have more expertise than I do in their specialties, but when it comes down to the final decision, I still rely on my gut.

3. Are you organized? If so, what do you do to keep yourself organized?

    It’s not hard to stay organized when you own next to nothing. Now that I’m running a company, it’s a lot different. Thank heavens I have an excellent assistant who keeps me in line. Still, all those lessons I learned from living minimally come in handy to help me stay organized even though I have more things to keep track off.

4.When was the last time you saw your family?

  It depends on your definition of family. My mother and stepfather are dead, and it’s been six months since I’ve seen my aunt, but the Fairwood pack is my family now, as well as the kids at the school and the staff at the business. I’m with the pack almost every day and at the school at least once a week and it’s an amazing how much support I get from everyone involved.

5. How do you spend your time in the summer months?

  Same way I spend the winter months. Working But at least in the summer I get to ride my motorcycle more often and that really helps me relieve stress.

6. What’s your favorite vacation spot and why?


   I haven’t had a real vacation in forever. Even when I was working in Florida, i rarely took time off to explore the state. Don’t tell Gavin because he’d want to drop everything and take me somewhere immediately, and I can’t leave right now.  But when I was a kid, my mother and stepfather took me to some caverns in the Smoky Mountains and they were really cool. I’d like to go back some day.

7. What’s your favorite drink and why?

    A glass of ice cold water. Nothing beats water fresh out of mountain stream during spring, when the snow is melting.

 8. If you could pick one person from history to share a meal with, who would it be and why?


      Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokees. She was an inspiration to her tribe as well as women everywhere. I’d love to talk to her and pick her brain for ways I expand the school and help even more shifters find a place in the modern world. Maybe she could help me figure out how meld the competing sides of my background—Native American, wolf shifter and a little bit of Irish heritage.


9. When you need a creative fix, what do you do?


   I’m not what you would call creative in an artsy kind of way. I never advanced much beyond the  gluing macaroni on paper stage. One of these days I’d like to learn how to crochet. It seems like such a relaxing activity and heaven knows, I’ve had more stress in my life than I like to think about.


10. Do you like to cook and if so, what’s your favorite dish? Care to share the recipe?

Despite all the time I spent working in diners, I’m not much of a cook. The places I worked didn’t serve haute cuisine. But I don’t have to be because Gavin is a meat eater and he cooks the perfect steak. I do make a mean tossed salad, but he only eats enough of his to make me happy.

But one of the favorite things I remember my mother making was chicken and dumplings. It was a pretty simple recipe. Cut up and wash a whole chicken and put it in a large pot. Add enough water to cover it, and bring it to a boil. Lower the temperature of the burner to keep in cooking but not boiling. Cook for a couple of hours, then remove the chicken and set aside. Add two cans of cream of chicken soup to the pot and continue cooking the mixture.

While that’s happening, cut up the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add back to the pot. Now make dumplings dough according to your favorite recipe or from biscuit mix. Bring the mixture in the pot to a boil, and add wide egg noodles. The more you add the thicker the end product will be. Next drop spoonfuls of the dumpling dough on top and finish according to the dumpling directions. (It will probably be about twenty minutes for the dumplings to cook.) It’s as easy as that!

To find out what other characters reveal about themselves, follow the links below.

And don’t forget, tomorrow Stories of Sun, Sand and Sea goes live! Get your copy now!

June 27 Interview a character. Imagine you could step into the world of your novel and interview the characters like they were real people. What would you ask them? What would they say? (Alternative – if your novel were made into a movie, what famous actors would you have play the main roles?)
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This week I’ve got an interview with Fawke DeSantos from the story Dead End Beach. It’s one of the 11 stories in the collection Stories of Sun, Sand and Sea. I’ve got more information about our pre-order giveaway at the end of the post.

Now, here’s Cherime MacFarlane and her interview with Fawke.

Fawke:
I get a huge belly laugh from the man and his dark eyes sparkle.
“Riding is an interesting concept. A person can ride a lot of
things; just saying. After all, isn’t life the wildest ride of all?
As to my staying in Homer, the end of the season party on the beach
may be when I get my answer. I’ll be sure to let you know. Are you
going to be there?”

Just FYI—I may go deep into the rabbit hole for this one.

When I was eight or nine, the neighbor, who worked for the county, did some road work near the edge of my parent’s property. During the work, a large rock was deposited along the side of the road, and was turned into a playground by my siblings and me. Somewhere, there used to be a picture of three of us sitting on the rock having a picnic.

So what does this have to do with anything, you ask. Don’t worry, I’ll get back to it later.

Current US politics offers many choices of what is true or not. I’m not going down that path today, but consider the many possibilities. Each side believes so strongly in the truth of their claims that they aren’t willing to consider an opposing viewpoint even when given facts that indicate otherwise. Those who are willing to consider both sides of the political argument are, to some extent, scorned.

And how do we know if what we see on TV or on the internet is true? Photoshopping is everywhere and it’s easy for even am amateur  to “fix” photos and videos. It’s become a game to find the worst possible examples of bad jobs. We can spot the ones that aren’t done well, but how can we trust anything that we see on line?

So maybe we can only trust what we see with our own eyes. We all know that the sky is blue and grass is green, right? Except there is new theory floating around that our ancestors couldn’t see blue. Homer, in the Odyssey, never described anything as “blue.” If you do an search on the internet, you’ll find many interesting articles on this topic. Here’s one, Business Insider I consider it flawed, but it’s an interesting place to start. The claim is if a culture doesn’t have a word for a color, then the people of that culture can’t “see” that color. They did an interesting experiment with the green squares below, and came to the conclusion that some cultures can distinguish between different colors of green better than we in the US can because they have more words to describe green, It’s a fascinating read, even if you don’t accept the premise.

So now the sky isn’t blue (maybe) and the grass isn’t green. So what else do we know to be true?

Even our memories of an event can be wrong. Law enforcement knows all too well that eyewitness accounts can’t always be trusted. Scientific American. Here’s a quote that best sums up the article. “On the contrary, psychologists have found that memories are reconstructed rather than played back each time we recall them. The act of remembering, says eminent memory researcher and psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, is “more akin to putting puzzle pieces together than retrieving a video recording.” Even questioning by a lawyer can alter the witness’s testimony because fragments of the memory may unknowingly be combined with information provided by the questioner, leading to inaccurate recall.”

Have you ever seen the video that tests your powers of observation? I admit that I counted wrong the first time.

So what do I know to be true? Remember that large rock I talked about at the beginning? The one that we used as a picnic table as well as a rock climbing wall? I revisited that rock as an adult, and at first I thought that part of it had been broken off and hauled away. It was so small! Maybe two of my siblings could fit on it now, but there wasn’t any room for a picnic. Of course the rock hadn’t gotten smaller, I’d just gotten bigger.

So what do I know to be true? I know that I’ve experienced both love and hate. That I’ve felt joy and pain—sometimes at the same time. That I’m only one person, but if I can help one other person, I’ve made the world a better place. And I know that I wish more people felt the same way.

June 20 Prompt – “What I know to be true”. No rules here, just run with it. If you’re deeply honest and open, the beauty of what you write may surprise you.
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In this week’s character interview, we meet Kat Benson from Beach Blanket Murders: The Ocean Can be Deadly

As I looked at the pretty young dark-headed young woman sitting across from me I noticed she’d checked her watch twice since she’d come into the room for her interview. As Associate Dean for the Graduate School at UNC, Chapel Hill, I planned to interview her for several reasons and wondered if she was in a great hurry.

“Good morning Kat. I’m Dr. Judith Lucci. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the University newspaper. As you know, we’re doing student interviews as part of resume building so that when you get your graduate degree next semester, you’ll already have experience with interview techniques. Does that sound okay to you?”

“Yes, yes, that sounds great I’m excited about the interview.” Her voice was young, her eye eager and I had her total attention.

“Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, where did you go to undergraduate and a little bit about your family. I watched as Kat formulated her response. I could see the wheels turning in her head. She was so pretty, tiny and petite, with her emerald green eyes and her perfect smile. Truly a lovely girl.

Kat took a breath and began. “Well, I’m sorta from everywhere. My dad is retired military, Navy actually, so I’ve lived all over the world. I’ve got two older brothers. It’s been a great experience for me to have been so many places, all over the world, at such a young age. My dad retired my high school senior year, and we moved to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. I went to undergraduate school at the University of New Orleans and became intrigued with the art, history and culture of the Big Easy so deciding to get a graduate degree in art history was a no-brainer.”

I nodded. “What made you pick the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for graduate school? Of course, were delighted to have you,” I added.

“Oh, it was definitely the reputation of the school and my brother went here and loved it.” She hesitated a minute and added, “I wanted to put a little distance between my boyfriend and I just so I could figure out whether it was a serious relationship, you know, the real deal,” she added with a serious smile.

I grinned at Kat and said “That’s the first time I’ve heard that response but I appreciate your honesty.”
Kat blushed a little bit and said, “I guess that wasn’t the best answer.”

“I think it was a very honest answer and its fine. I’ve noticed you’ve checked your watch three times in the last 10 minutes. Are you in a hurry?

Kat blushed even more, the red flush spreading from her neck to her face. “Yes, I sort of. I’m going to meet my old college friends from the University of New Orleans and my boyfriend, Liam… who lives in New York… for a long weekend at the beach. I’m so excited and I’ve been waiting for this for what seems like forever. Please forgive me if I’m acting rude.”

I really liked this girl. “No problem, I just hope your weekend is everything you’ve been looking forward to.”

“Oh, I’m positive it will be. Nothing could possibly go wrong. All my best friends are coming and who knows, if I get my wish, maybe I’ll get a marriage proposal!”

I smiled again at the eager young woman and hope everything went according to her plan. “Kat, I want everything you want. Now tell me, what are you planning to do with your graduate degree? Where are you planning to work?”

Kat’s smile was direct. “Well, I’m a little on the obsessive-compulsive side so I started researching where I might want to work last year.”
I smiled at her. She was so young and eager. I remembered when I been young and idealistic. Anyone would be lucky to get her. “And, what’s the verdict? What’s your ideal job?”

“Well,” she said with a huge, warm smile. “I want to work at the Smithsonian…I want to live in DeeCee…”

I smiled at her in return. “DeeCee, huh. Lots of opportunity and lots of traffic! Talk to me next spring. I’ve great contacts there who would love to have you,” I said as I stood and offered her my hand. “Have a wonderful time on the Outer Banks. I hope it all goes well with your boyfriend,” I added as I smiled into her happy face.

“Oh, it will,” she assured me. “Nothing could go wrong. We’re perfect for each other. I’ll let you know how it goes.”

“Please do,” I said as she stood to leave. “Keep in touch with me during the next semester. I want to help you reach your dream of living and working in Washington.”

“Promise,” she said as she clasped my hand. She was gone in a flash leaving a scent of violets, a wave of energy and an exceptional impression.”

That young woman is going to go places, I thought as I returned to my computer. Little did I know what the next few days had in store for her.

Alex Destephano Novels
Medical Thrillers that Chill the Heart

Michaela McPherson Mystery
Tough, Gritty Crime Thrillers

JudithLucciwrites@gmail.com
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And don’t forget our preorder giveaway! Details HERE

I’m pleased to present the new cover for Enforcer by Ryleigh Rhodes. Ryleigh and I were working on our first books at the same time, and critiqued each other’s work.

The book is currently in edits again as Ryleigh prepares for it’s re-release sometime near the end of the month. In the meantime, get a load of the new cover!

After surviving Iraq, Claire finally has her life on track. The nightmares have stopped along with her need for physical therapy. She has friends and a husband she wouldn’t trade for the world. Nearing the end of her residency, tragedy strikes with the loss of her husband in Afghanistan. Friends rally around her, but will her heart ever fully recover? Left to pick up the pieces and raise her twins alone, Claire struggles to rebuild herself.

Cover Artist: Rebel Edit & Design
Photog: Kruse Images & Photography: Models & Boudoir
Model: Matthew Hosea

Ryleigh can be reached on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ryleigh.rhodes.author

You can find her other books on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Ryleigh-Rhodes/e/B00LJZOGR8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1465906921&sr=1-1

What tools does it take to write a book? There’s lots of goodies available for the beginner or experienced writer,with varying claims of how they can contribute to success, but what does a writer really need?

Many, many years ago, (I won’t tell you how many,) I made my first attempt at writing a book. I even finished it. There’s a copy of it stored in a box somewhere, but that’s where it will stay. (It’d bad, folks, really bad.) I used the only tools I had available to me at the time- a pen and paper.

I don’t remember how many words that book was, or how long it took me to write it. Or how long it took me to type it out on an old manual typewriter once I’d completed it. But by gosh, I wrote it.

The second book I wrote, many years later, I also wrote by hand. Same with the third. There was something about seeing the words spill out from the end of the pen that made me feel as if I was creating something worthwhile. Somewhere around the fourth book, I switched to typing into a word processing programming on a computer. It was different, looking at the words on a screen instead of on paper, but it was faster.

And editing was so much easier. Instead of scribbling in margins or over top of words on paper, all I had to do was delete a few letters and replace then with better words. Because editing is as much about writing as is writing a first draft.

There are several tools that every writer should have for editing. The first one is a dictionary. Misspelled words and words used incorrectly happen to the best of writers. A dictionary—either the old hard-bound type or one built into the word processing program—will help eradicate typos. Second is a rarely-used Thesaurus. A Thesaurus is great when a writer can’t come up with just the right word, but it can be a crutch as well and should be used as a last resort.

There are various tools a writer can use for editing. There are sites on line that check grammar, word usage and punctuation. There are also pages where writers can post their work for other writers to critique. Two of these are ProWritingAid and CritiqueCircle. If a writer has access to an in-person critique group, that can be even better. Nothing like bouncing ideas off fellow writers to make improvements.

But there are a couple of tools that every writer should use that don’t come in book for web page format. The first of these is perseverance. It takes a lot of work to write a story, no matter how short or long it is. It’s one thing to put a few words down on paper and start writing a book, it’s another to finish it.

And perhaps most important, is an active imagination. Mark Twain may have said that “substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside source” but that doesn’t mean writers have to stop trying to find new ways to express those ideas. Someone had to be first to write a vampire romance novel, And although my idea of a sci-fi time- travel medieval romance may not have worked for me, other writers have done a much better job with it.

So there it is. My list of the tools a writer needs. Pretty darn basic, Now if the topic had been what I wanted it would have been a different story., To find out what tools other authors use, follow the links blow. And feel free to tell me about the tools you use in your writing in the comments.

June 13 Tools every writer needs
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