What do you do at 2 am when you can’t sleep? Tonight, or
should I say this morning, I got up, logged on and caught up on “Words with
Friends,” email, Facebook and Twitter. Found some interesting new ideas for
marketing. Now, since I’m still not sleepy I’m writing. I recently went up to
North Carolina, as I tend to do at least once a month. Before I left I went by the library to get
some books on CD for the trip. I checked out about 11. At least six of these
were a series called “Golden Age of Radio.” Peter Lorre, Vincent Price as “The
Saint”, The Green Hornet, Nero Wolfe, Philip Marlow, Yours Truly Johnny Dollar,
and a host of others all complete with original advertising and/or public
announcements! These were (mostly) so much fun to listen to that I went through
every one of them. I had heard of most of these but never listened to them on
the radio. As I stepped back in time to an age I’d never lived it made me feel
a part of that time like I haven’t felt before. I thought of my parents and
their parents listening to these stories, to these voices and it was somehow
comforting.
The more I travel on the road the more I enjoy books on CD. It
can be distracting at times though so one must pay attention! I’ve missed more
than one exit or turn because I was so ‘into’ the story that I wasn’t paying
attention to where I was. The nice thing about the Golden Age CD’s is that all
the stories are short. On the other hand, the one I’m listening to now,
Eudora Welty’s “Delta Wedding” is a full unabridged novel. I’m enjoying
it very much. I LOVE the woman’s voice who is reading it. Her name is Sally
Darling.
It is now five thirty and I think I might try to sleep
again. I will write more… later.
I attended a Small Business Development Centers symposium on Friday. Wow. What an eye opener. I’ve been stressing about a business
plan, about a marketing plan, about how to get things done in a progressive and
successful manner. Here I found people willing to help me accomplish this. I’m
amazed at the contacts I made. This conference targeted women owned businesses.
She was a great inspiration to me because she
took on a ‘climate’ that was hostile to her to begin with. She learned how to
make it work for her. She didn’t let her ego get in the way of making her way
and becoming a success at her chosen field. I tend to see what I do as an
uphill climb all the way so when I hear stories such as hers, when I meet the
women I met at this conference it makes a huge difference to me. I heard what I
needed to hear. I am not the only one who has taken on a great challenge,
testing myself and my abilities. With so many other women out there doing this,
taking on the world, I feel a little less alone.Think about it for your business. The website
is http://www.georgiasbdc.org/ in
Georgia, but they are everywhere.
Next week I set up my appointment and see where I go from there. I am hopeful now about gaining needed information and
help implementing it. Not to mention I sold eight books and a book store owner Bev Bos http://www.turnthepage.com/servlet/StoreFront wants to carry Evangeline's Miracle! Happy reading folks!
http://www.ncwriters.org/ Check out this news and writer's conference. And, Malaprops has Evangeline's Miracle for sale. Go buy it and make sure you get a "signed by author" copy!
Jill Jones, my wonderful friend, mentor and multi-published
author got the photos she took to me yesterday so I can now write a bit about
how the book signing/reading went! I’m happy again just thinking about the
event and the thirty-odd people who showed up for it. There was a cost because
it was a “tea” as well, and that was quite beyond touching for me to have so
many pay to hear me read, and for those who hadn’t already, to buy the book.
Suzie Painter name coming soon
Sue Miller, names coming soon
Phil Wight, Cat Jennings
My father came. My mother and my other dad, and my sister
and her husband, too. Jill Jones and her family were also in attendance. It was
such a joy to see all the friends of friends, meet new ones, and to see friends
I hadn’t seen in years. Dorothy Handy, a dear friend of my grandmother and
mother, drove up from North Georgia for the event. Please note I will insert names when I have them! Sorry if I've forgotten yours...
Greg Miller
Kay-Cee, Dorothy Handy
Keith Jennings, Don & Kimble
We ate a scrumptious “tea” with champagne to begin with,
then finger sandwiches and sweet goodies, all homemade and catered by the great
staff at the Monte Vista Inn, where the reading was held.
Shannon, Sue Miller
Various attendees and Jill Jones
I thought I would feel jitters, be too nervous
to read well. I’d spent literally the entire morning practicing, and though I still
stumbled a few times, I think I did rather well for a first public reading. To begin, I played
Sarah Brightman’s “The Last Words You Said To Me” (Music: Richard Marx, Lyrics: Janey Clewer), which was a huge
inspiration for me while writing the story. I then began to narrate and read. I
suppose I did so for about 15 minutes standing at the tall table they’d put at
the end of the long table where everyone sat to eat. Standing was a good thing
in that venue. I didn’t worry about if I could be heard or not and it took my
mind off of what I was doing!
the author
I
know what I will do differently next time (which will be November 5th
at the South Georgia Regional Library in Valdosta from 2 to 4 pm!). I learned
this can be a fun experience, and I learned much from the time spent with "my" readers. I thank you all very kindly for participating in my first “major”
event as an author. I thank Sue Conlon at the Monte Vista for a wonderful “tea”
and location; Jill Jones for her faith and belief in me, and my family for
their support of me in this endeavor and their love which is always there. I
feel so blessed!
I’ve
worn them. I have a few pair. But I don’t like them unless I’m small, like as
in not 10 pounds overweight. I went online to get an idea of what’s out there
now. OMG. I can’t believe we’ve come so far as a race and not seen the threat
of Jean multiplication! They are going to take us over if we aren’t careful!
The list is amazing, like a veritable catalog. Some of the names are strange;
People’s Liberation, Black Orchid, Citizens of Humanity, Denim Factoria, Iron
Army, Gridlock, HA-67, Kill City, True Religion, Diesel, Apple Bottoms, Rock
Star, Bleulab, Cohesive, Yanuck, to name a very few. Or we have ordinary or
familiar names too, like Mike Lanes Jeans, Brown Label Jeans, Jordache, Arizona
Jeans, Wrangler, Levi, Lee, Riders, and Rustlers. This is almost irrational.
And
so darn confusing! They’re all made of denim of one sort or another, stretch,
heavy, thin, dark blue, light blue, washed out blue, stonewashed blue and
that’s not even starting on colors such as green, red, yellow or orange or
brown, black and purple, even pink! They are bleached, holes are purposely cut
into them and frayed or they’re wrinkled on purpose in different areas or ways.
There are jeans with elastic at the waist for ‘grannies’, there are jeans for
boys, girls, women, men, cowboys; dress jeans and studded jeans, jeans for
carpenters, jeans for hunters. There are low cut, waist cut, hip cut, boot cut,
flared or not, skinny or not, regular and oversized as well. Its mind numbing,
mind bending, totally irrational.
To
think we, or I should say “society” tries to make us all fit in a box, go to
school and learn the same way, go to work and work the same way. Go to church,
but remember, only the right one counts. Don’t be different (unless you’re a
child then you are told you can be anything you want), fit in, do what is
expected of you, and yet, look at all the emphasis we place on choice, on
having not just one or two choices, but millions, at the grocery store: look
for canned beans, how many types are there on the shelves? Salted, unsalted,
all natural, additive heavy, green beans, French cut, regular cut, and yet ten
(if you’re lucky only 10) different
brands all offer exactly the same thing, but different of course. Try milk, try
cheese, try drugs, try books, try light bulbs, try patio furniture or cars,
try… Jeans!
I
think we are not rational creatures even though we like to tell ourselves we
are. Rational does not have the place in our lives we think it does. We
are all as different as we are the same. We have so much that IS the same that
we forget the differences and condemn those who choose to flaunt theirs, unless
of course, we like the “difference” ourselves.
When asked why God painted him in
the movie “Prince of Thieves” Morgan Freeman responds, “Because he likes
diversity.” We are diverse. God made us that way. We deserve choice because of
that. So, rational or not, bring on the jeans!
Each fall something strange happens. No matter where I live when that
first feathery breeze, breathing a taste of cool, washes over me, moves the
strands of hair framing my face with a gentle preview, I feel the change and
breathe deep. Then I race to whatever music-playing machine I have at the moment
and put on the one and only song which captures and expresses what goes on in
my heart. The Indigo Girls’ voices flow on out on that cool breeze and sing
while I close my eyes and follow…
And there's something 'bout the Southland in
the springtime
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason
Though I miss her when I'm gone it won't ever be too long
Till I'm home again to spend my favorite season
When God made me born a yankee he was teasin'
There's no place like home and none more pleasin'
Than the Southland in the springtime
I wasn’t born a yankee but I might as well have been for all the denial
I’ve run into in my life about whether or not I’m southern. I don’t talk like
one (most of the time). I don’t seem to act like one (though I can when I want
to) and so people tell me that just cause I was born and raised in NORTH Florida,
I’m not southern. Even in Texas I got that, though I lived there eighteen
years.
Maybe we'll make Texas by the
morning
Light the bayou with our tail lights in the night
800 miles to el paso from the state line
And we never have the money for the flight
I'm in the back seat sleepy from the travel
Played our hearts out all night long in New Orleans
I'm dirty from the diesel fumes, drinking coffee black
When the first breath of Texas comes in clean
My father was born in Ocala, Florida, my mother in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Now wasn’t Virginia part of the south way back when, and even now? Not that it
really matters. This song sings to me, to my soul because it doesn’t matter
where I was born. What matters is me and who I am. I’ve been reading “The Help”
by Kathryn Sockett . She writes of the south, of traditions, ways of thinking,
of how things were awhile ago and I’ve lived some of that life, but not all of
it. For me the south is not as it is for some but that doesn’t mean I’m not
southern. I may not be ‘traditionally’ southern but I claim the south none the
less. And now I live in south Georgia, again. Yes, for the second time in my
life. I’ve been here longer this time and the fact I’m watchin’ a lot of Andy
Griffith and reading “The Help” is really influencin’ my language these days.
I’m soundin’ a bit more southern and my husband is teasin’ me about it. I just
tease right back and keep dropin’ my “g’s”, especially when that tell-tale
breeze flounces in through the window I can now keep open for awhile and announces
yet again the coolness of harvesting time, the magical change upon the land, in
the air. I can’t help but close my eyes and float away on the emotion the words
and music evoke…
In Georgia nights are softer than a whisper
Beneath a quilt somebody's mother made by hand
With the farmland like a tapestry passed down through generations
And the peach trees stitched across the land
There'll be cider up near Helen off the roadside
And boiled peanuts in a bag to warm your fingers
And the smoke from the chimneys meets its maker in the sky
With a song that winter wrote whose melody lingers
I know it sounds strange to feel this way in the fall. I feel the same
way in the springtime when the airs starts to murmur with warmth. It sounds
backwards but it isn’t. The song evokes the feeling of springtime, of fall, of
change; of awareness of the earth and its rhythms no matter if it’s that first
blush of warmth or first tendril of coolness, the song speaks to it all for me,
takes me home, takes me where I want to be, in the southland…
The more I travel on the road the more I enjoy books on CD. It
can be distracting at times though so one must pay attention! I’ve missed more
than one exit or turn because I was so ‘into’ the story that I wasn’t paying
attention to where I was. The nice thing about the Golden Age CD’s is that all
the stories are short. On the other hand, the one I’m listening to now,
Eudora Welty’s “Delta Wedding” is a full unabridged novel. I’m enjoying
it very much. I LOVE the woman’s voice who is reading it. Her name is Sally
Darling.
It is now five thirty and I think I might try to sleep
again. I will write more… later. 
