#Editor is bouncing on the ceiling! @MaryMarvellaEdits

This project involved 10 entrepreneurs and took 1 1/2 years to make happen. I’ll share more SOON!

Cornbread and Brooms by Tim Hammond

This post was a delightful Facebook find. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

My friend’s mother, Miss Sylvia, is making cornbread. Her house is alive with the smell. The eighty-two-year old woman cooks cornbread the old-fashioned way. An iron skillet in the oven. Lots of butter.

Sylvia tests the hot bread by poking it with a broom bristle. If the bristle is gummy, she licks the bristle then returns the skillet to the oven. If not, it’s Cornbread-Thirty.

I watch this bristle maneuver. She breaks a piece of straw from her broom. And I don’t want to ask, but I have to.

“Is that broom clean?” I say.

“Relax,” Sylvia says. “It’s just one bristle.”

“But is it clean?”

“Define clean.”

“Has it been used to sweep your floor?”

“This particular broom? Yes.”

“Your dusty, residential, hepatitis-C floor?”

“Yes.”

So this cornbread is contaminated and will probably kill me. But then, I’m a dinner guest, I HAVE to eat it even though the old woman’s floors are frequently used by a family dog who is nicknamed “Egypt” because wherever he goes he makes little pyramids.

Still, I love cornbread. I was raised on the stuff, just like everyone else in America.

My mother used to make cornbread a few times per week. Sometimes more. Primarily because it was cheap, and my family ate cheap food.

You always knew when it was cornbread night because my mother would make a fresh pot of boiling bacon grease with a few navy beans floating in it. She called it bean and ham soup, but I call it cardiac arrest stew.

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Remember the Days of Driving around and Enjoying Christmas Lights? @MaryMarvella

As a single adult, I don’t head out with the purpose of seeing Christmas lights. HOWEVER, I will stop and take photos when there is legal parking near the lights I really like.

These lights are in Suwanee, GA. Downtown Suwanee is now more than a stop sign on a highway. Our neck of the woods is quickly losing its rural or country look. City Hall is now in a collection of stores, apartments, and condos. I love the convenience of having shops and restaurants, but I don’t love the traffic and less homey look!

I spotted these lights and made a u-turn and pulled into a parking lot to grab this shot! Duluth, Georgia has also lost much of it’s small town look. This parking lot is behind the building that once housed Joan Glancy, Duluth’s only hospital. It’s still there but has been replaced by a huge, mega medical center.

These lights are in a person’s yard! My inner child insisted we stop and take a photo! It was old, but… Down the street are lovely old homes that make up an historical area! I really need to find some places I can safely pull over to take photos!

This is in the old town square which is now a park. I really need to go back and look for more lights. A shopping area across the street replaced the old stores. It’s pretty but sooo commercial!

It’s on sale now!

This collection contains four stories about Christmas and giving. “Christmas’ Best Bet” is about three lawyers who learn about giving. “Matt’s Christmas Angel” tells about friends who find their relationship changing at Christmas time as they follow their version of the twelve days of good deeds. “The Christmas Promise” shows how a woman and her children deal with domestic violence at Christmas. “A Very Bella Thanksgiving” starts at Thanksgiving when a mother takes her small daughter to see her grandparents. The small daughter gets the best Christmas gift ever. Each story is different and each has a positive message.

I am in a magazine! Pretty cool!

Do You Dread Editing Your Work?

Consider this. Artists often fine-tune their work. Yep, most artists I know let their work set or rest and then go back to view the project with a critical eye. Some have shown paintings in stages or sculptures evolving as the artist adds or chips away. Grabbing a polishing cloth or adding a few strokes makes a lot of difference.

Writing is best done in drafts! I repeat. WRITING IS BEST DONE IN DRAFTS!

Editing is best done in stages. Yes, EDITING IS BEST DONE IN STAGES!!!

Plotters MIGHT NOT need to work on story or characterization in drafts. Thorough plotters probably don’t edit or add needed details. On the other hand, characters can evolve as a story unfolds. One part of the editing process is about changing details or adding them.

There is always the grammar part. Grammar and punctuation can change a reader’s perception. The second or third draft gives a writer chances to involve readers by adding sensory details and replacing lackluster words with stronger ones. With these drafts, writers can delete or move material readers don’t need to know.

Polishing a manuscript is as important as polishing the jewel in a ring or other piece of jewelry. A diamond in the rough might be overlooked, but that same diamond polished will spark desire! Most women think nothing about adding lipstick and fluffing or curling their hair. I absolutely want my grey hidden and my red lipstick for photos!

Polishing your Manuscript

I Don’t Need an Editor!

What is a Media Kit?

Linda Nightingale has posted a must read blog for authors with books to promote. This western romance is a book you will read more than once! She knows British aristocracy and horses.

Pink Fuzzy Slippers Authors

If you’re appearing with your book on someone’s blog, likely they will ask you for a media kit. Here’s an example of my Media Kit for The Texas Cowboy. The high points are a blurb, excerpt, author information and Social Media Links. Be sure to include the BUY LINK!.

MEDIA KIT

THE TEXAS COWBOY

Title: The Texas Cowboy

Book One, Return to Folly Series

Author: Linda Nightingale

Publisher: Magnolia Blossom Publishing

Length: 247 pages

Release Date: January 19, 2022

Tag Line: A British raised Texan returns to take over the ranch he inherited. What could possibly go wrong? Maybe a pretty, sassy cowgirl with her own agenda?

Keywords: Cowboys, cowgirls, Texas, ranching, contemporary western romance, horses, Quarter horses, horse breeding, Quarter horse racing, AQHA

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QP4C5NZ

BLURB:

When Ash Colter was twelve, his mother divorced his cattle baron father and whisked him away to raise in her native England…

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HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

I’LL MAKE THIS SHORT AND SWEET! HAPPY FEBRUARY AND HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

I’m working on lessons for a course on using sensory details to connect with our readers in a lasting way.

 This is a VERY NEW rough draft. Some details might change as I know where the story is going.

Alana awoke to silence and pitch darkness. What the …?  Has the power gone out?  Anger that someone had forgotten to pay the power bill tightened her jaw until the thought that someone had cut her power sent burning bile into her throat.  She couldn’t stay where she was, but what could she do?
She reached out with her right hand to feel around her side. The barely rough fabric under her palm couldn’t be her smooth satin coverlet, could it? At least there was something on that side instead of nothingness. With her left hand, she swept as far as her arm would permit and smiled.

Though her eyes should have adjusted to the dark, she made out no shapes or even a pinpoint of light or dark that hid even a speck of light. Nothing.

Straining, she distinguished a sound, actually more than one sound. Her uneven breathing reminded her she needed to slow it down and calm down. One tremulous breath followed another one and then an even louder one. Since when was breathing so loud?

What do you think has happened? Share your reactions and thoughts!

For sensory overload, listen to this! “The Sound of Silence!”   https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=The+Sound+http://“The Sound of Silence!” https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=The+Sound+of+Silence

Author/Standup Comedienne?

I can’t believe I’m going to do a comedy routine! Saturday will be my first attempt to wow an audience with my humor. I can’t decide which jokes to do.

Short jokes? Shall I tell about being the angel on top of a singing Christmas tree? What about me as the person every other kid had to pick up to show strength? NOT MY FAVE GAME UNTIL GRADE 6. REALLY?!

Writer jokes? Jokes about girdles, panty hose, control top panty hose and men who think they are still in shape if they can old their breath for seconds and claim they can still wear the same size they wore 20 years ago?

I’m still working on my routine!

I did manage to edit almost 300 words in 4 days so now I can be free to rehearse my routine, once I decide which one to use!

Conflict, Conflict, Conflict! Reposting 12/30/22

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

We make decisions every day. Some decisions are easy. We know what we need to do and why, and we do what we must. Other decisions are not easy to make. Those cause internal conflict.

What if your pet is jealous of your baby? Do you get rid of the pet immediately, or do you search for solutions to help the beloved pet accept your baby, or do you give the pet away?

What if your child is dangerously jealous of your new baby? You can’t favor one child over another one, but babies can’t defend themselves, and parents can’t be with either child all the time.  How much internal conflict can build with the external conflict of jealousy?

Maybe your story characters don’t have this kind of conflict, but they need some small conflicts to keep them interesting and keep readers involved.

Check my workshop schedule and join us!

Small Conflicts that Keep Your Story Moving

A Class about Using Small Conflicts on the Way in January, 2022 !

Love Perfect Characters with Perfect Lives? Not!