If there’s one thing Southern gals know how to do, it’s gab. Silly or serious, all it takes is a glass of iced tea and time. Pull up a chair, kick off your shoes, and make yourself comfy…get ready to dish!
RWA National: RWA-WF Mini-Conference
Wow! I started off this year’s RWA National Conference with the first-ever mini-conference hosted by the Women’s Fiction chapter of RWA. RWA-WF is an amazing chapter in itself, and the mini-con did not disappoint. We opened with a two-hour session from Michael Hauge (no details here; you’ll need to visit his website for those since the material is copyrighted). Hauge has melded the inner psychological journey of the characters with the outer plot in a way that made several of us scribble notes frantically so we wouldn’t miss the “Aha!” moment...
read moreRoad Warrior
Today, mimi flies home after two full weeks on the road. The days have been a blur of essay reading and presentation, first as a reader for the AP English Language and Comp exam, then as a trainer for AVID. Now, 1,981 essays (yes, you read that right) and four days of workshops later, I am packing my trusty sapphire Lands’ End lighthouse rolly suitcase for the last time.At first, the travel was quite the adventure. Teachers rarely go anywhere–even less so these days, with school budgets in the shape they are–so initially, all this...
read moreColor Him Father
This photo is courtesy of the Wayback Machine–Christmas, 1982 to be exact. I made my social debut at the Chester Assembly in the small South Carolina town where my Daddy grew up. That’s me with the handmade silk dress (thanks, Mama!), my graduation pearls, and my grandmother’s kid gloves. The handsome man on my arm is my father, John N. Gaston, III.There’s no denying I’m my father’s daughter–check out that hair and the facial structure! But I’m much more like him in ways you can’t spot right off. I learned to love baseball,...
read moreFixin’ the World
Tonight at dinner, mimi and her companions got an ugly reminder that there are some folks out there who just don’t get it. The three of us were enjoying some gorgeous Kentucky weather at a sidewalk table of a Louisville pub. Next to us were two nicely-dressed women about our age doing the same. Later in the evening, our server, a darling law student at the U of L, came to us with a puzzled face, pointed to the now-empty table next to us, and asked if we’d seen the other women leave. We hadn’t. Wish we had, since they stiffed him.I don’t know...
read moreWar and Remembrance
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. —John McCrae, 1919God bless those soldiers who...
read moreDugout Wisdom
Nothing like a rain delay to get you to daydreaming. While infosnacking on the Interwebs today (okay, while avoiding writing a synopsis!), I came across this nugget from Hall of Fame pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige:“Never let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.”Timely advice, considering I was letting odds and everything else keep me from pursuing this particular book idea. This is the fourth book in a series I need to pitch to Dream Agent, and it’s bolloxing up the whole works.Satchel Paige is...
read moreMother Lode
There she is–Miss Carolyn, new mother of the first grandchild on both sides of the family. And there I am, all hair and bright eyes, bushy tail carefully concealed in a blanket. I posted this picture on Facebook and was astonished at how many people swore I looked just like my mother. The joke in our family is how much of a carbon copy of my Daddy I happen to be, so hearing from a fairly diverse group that I take after Mama was a surprise. My mother never finished college–she left after two years at Queens to marry Daddy....
read moreMending Wall
One problem of living in the Sunshine State is the hellacious thunderstorms (go figure). We had a doozy last month–50 to 70 mph winds, crazy sideways rain, bend-over-and-kiss-your-butt-goodbye alarmist weather reports–and the long story short is that a tree between our house and the neighbor’s fell. Yep, creamed her new pool enclosure but good. It didn’t hit the main house, thank goodness, but it was a mess. Boy howdy. And then the trouble started. We called our insurance company, gave her the information, and waited. In between...
read moreThe Bed List
There’s a clip in the opening credits for Castle where Nathan Fillion catches a glimpse of himself in a store window and exclaims, “I really am ruggedly handsome, aren’t I?” Why, yes, Mr. Fillion, you are. I may have come late to the party–never having watched Firefly and only picking up Castle recently, but I play a mean game of catchup thanks to streaming Netflix. If Nathan Fillion is anything like either Captain Mal Reynolds (a confident risk-taker) or Rick Castle (a clever rogue), then his ruggedly handsome self is welcome wherever,...
read moreStop the Insanity
It’s FCAT week in Florida, which means several things:A)vomiting elementary school studentsB)stressed-out high schoolersC)overtaxed teachersD)all of the aboveIf you answered D, go to the head of the class. You see, when it’s standardized test week in the state of Florida, time slows (if not stops altogether), kids bail, and normally sane teachers kinda lose it a little. There’s just something fundamentally wrong with all learning grinding to a halt so we can genuflect at the altar of Scantrons and #2 pencils.But frankly, as long as we have...
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