WEARINESS

Weariness

There are times in life when we feel burdened and overwhelmed by hurt, pain, loss and grief.  No human can avoid or escape this reality.

      Our hearts tend to want to hide our pain away, avoid it, push it down and try not to feel it.  After all, where do you go with your pain?  What can you do when your soul aches?

      There is, and always has been, a place where the weary soul can go to find rest and comfort.  This place is found in the presence of God, where His Everlasting Arms can hold you and compassionately feel your pain with you, as His comfort soothes your soul.

‘FOR I HAVE SATIATED THE WEARY SOUL’ Jeremiah 31:25

                                            *    *    *    *    *

HER BODY

She trudged up the hill,

her knees stabbing with pain.

Her shopping was getting heavier with every step she took,

and her neck ached with her load.

She sighed.

She looked behind.  “I’ve come a long way.

Oh, that is so steep!  How did I make it to here?”

She looked ahead.  “Not that far!”

and heaved her weary body forward,

determined to make it to the top.

‘COME TO ME ALL YOU WHO ARE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST’ Matthew 11: 28

                               *    *    *    *    *    *

HER HEART

She paced the floor,

tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Not again!  Why, God, why?”

She was still shaking from the phone call.

She wanted to scream.  Her head pounded.

Hammers inside it were beating fast.

At last, she sank into her armchair,

exhausted.  “When’s it going to end!”

‘HE IS YOUR REFUGE IN TIMES OF TROUBLE’ Psalm 46:1

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

          The author, Madeleine Calcutt, has always loved writing and her teaching background led to a career as a children’s librarian in schools and public libraries.

          This writing passion was further fired up after completing several writing courses, teaching creative writing in community centers and forming several writing groups.

          Madeleine has written picture books and short stories for children, plays and short stories for adults about women.  An historical novel for older children called ‘All Aboard!: Jenny’s Story of the Mayflower Voyage’ and an adult novel called ‘Step of Faith’ have been published.

          Madeleine is, at present, working on an historical series for teens and has branched out into freelance journalism with a travel magazine.

http://madeleinecalcutt.wordpress.com/

                               

SUNDAY MORNING COMING DOWN

When the alarm woke me on a recent Sunday morning, I stumbled to the kitchen for a few quick gulps of caffeine--a daily essential to kick-start my brain and energize my limbs. I had “furs and feathers” to feed, and I couldn’t tarry because the hungry yard cats might go to the birdfeeders and feast on my feathered friends.

I hurried to the patio kitchen counter with canned cat food and encountered a dead cockroach lying feet up on the tile at the end of a long, snaky strip of his nasty, liquid calling card. He’d encountered the chemical the pest control man had recently sprayed. Grumbling, I mopped the tile. I reached for the dry cat food from the refrigerator under the counter and promptly spilled it all over the floor. Great! Another clean-up job!

After taking the food to the workshop carport for the cats, I returned to fill a small container with bird seeds that I also kept in the refrigerator. Somehow, I dumped tiny safflower, millet, wheat, and milo seeds everywhere, even inside the frig. What the heck? I’d never had a morning like that—not that I could remember. Thinking about my waiting, much-needed coffee and getting grumpier by the minute, I again cleaned.

I headed out the screen door toward the bird feeders on the opposite side of the house and couldn’t believe my eyes. A snake slithered toward me on the sidewalk! I don’t mind mice that much, don’t hate spiders like some people, but I believe I loathe snakes more than most anybody. I freaked!

Running to the den door, I hollered, “Bruce, come get this snake!” Obviously, he hadn’t had enough of his coffee yet, either. Even grouchier, he indicated he wasn’t going to bother, so I stomped back—but to the screen door on the opposite side of the lanai.

Bruce apparently had second thoughts about his decision because he removed the snake, not that he helped matters much. He tenderly carried it a few feet into the woods bordering the yard, and released it!

“What kind was it?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh! Great!”

I’d worried that the deadly viper would return. Well, okay…it was a baby snake, but it was at least eight inches long—and probably had fangs. I borrowed a slight variation of the two Siamese cats’ theory from my favorite Disney cartoon, “Lady and the Tramp.”

“Bruce, you know where there’s babies, there’s mamas nearby! I’m never going out that door again!” I stomped away, thinking…God, you truly must have a sense of humor; otherwise, you wouldn’t have paired a snake-lover and a snake-hater and let us both survive the union!

But did I let a stressful start spoil my worship that Sunday morning? Not in the least. That snake never crossed my mind again. Well, okay…not until the next morning when I again exited the opposite door to feed my birds.

Author Bio: Linda Robinson is the author of two novels: When Love Abounds, published in December, 2010, and Rails of Freedom, which was released December 4, 2012. Her Christian heartwarming Fictional, Family/Historical novels depict the people, lifestyles, and music of the 1940s through 1970 in the deep south, with an underlying message of "that little word that makes the world go 'round--love." Linda's hobbies include reading, writing, and flower gardening. She resides in Alabama with her husband and spoiled Maltese dog, Joy. She is a member of her local Writers' Forum, as well as ACFW, GoodReads, LibraryThings, FaithWriters, and others. Linda is currently writing her third manuscript in addition to writing fiction and non-fiction humorous short stories for blogs, magazines, and contests. She can be found on FaceBook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Find out more about Linda by visiting her website at http://lindarobinson.tateauthor.com 

THE CYCLE OF LIFE

By Alan Zendell

As we get older we all live with certain realities.  Our ranks will thin, we’ll lose friends and loved ones, and eventually it will be our turn.  We all know it’s true, but we generally don’t think about it unless we have to.

I lost my brother in October.  I wasn’t supposed to − he was only sixty-five, four years younger than I am – but one night, without warning, he died in his sleep.  I’m the calm collected one, or so everyone thinks.  My baby sister (I always think of her that way) was beside herself with grief.  But neither of us realized how difficult it would be.  The next night, one of our favorite aunts died in Fort Lauderdale.

My sister, in New York, and I, in Maryland, had to arrange a funeral in Orlando by telephone and the funeral home lived up to its industry’s reputation for vulturism.  They took full advantage of us to the tune of $13,500, and then conducted the funeral with no respect for the family and friends.  My seventeen-year-old nephew was devastated by the cold insensitivity with which his father’s memory was treated.

It was an awful time.  Hurricane Sandy howled, and we felt overwhelmed by our brother’s death and the total disarray he left behind.  We plagued ourselves with questions: was there anything we could have done to avert this tragedy, any way we could have saved him?  And then the final straw, the crushing responsibility for a nephew we barely knew and a niece we knew not at all who looked to us for solace. 

Drowning in self-pity, I looked around and found myself surrounded by people who’d flown from all over the country to be there with us − spouses, sons, daughters, and cousins all rallying around us.  I really have the most incredible family!  They buoyed and sustained us like a warm, amniotic fluid.  Se we embraced our new nephew and niece, and saw the beginning of rebirth in their eyes.  Out of the ashes of tragedy rose the beginning of renewal.

We all flew home through Sandy and she caught up with us again on her way north.  Through all her grief my sister lived without power for a week while I gradually got in touch with the enormity of my own.  I slept badly, and I was listless and edgy, all symptoms of deep depression.  But Thanksgiving was coming, and everyone who’d been in Orlando was going to be together again, including others who couldn’t attend the funeral.  I’m not usually very good at asking for help, but I stood to tell them all how much their presence had restored me.

Fate wasn’t done with me yet, however, and in December, I lost another person, a wonderful woman who’d been like a surrogate parent to my wife and me for more than forty years.  But though we’ll miss her, by the time of her passing we’d learned about the cycle of life.

On December 5^th, my first grandchild entered the world.  This beautiful, sweet boy has been the healing balm we all needed.  Life is good. 

I’d like to introduce you all to Nathaniel Zendell, aged one month.  Say, “Hi,” Nate

Alan spent more than thirty years as a scientist, aerospace engineer, software consultant, database developer, and government analyst, writing really boring stuff like proposals, technical papers, reports, business letters, and policy memoranda.  But trapped inside him all that time were stories that needed telling and ideas that needed expression, so with encouragement and cajoling from a loving baby sister he plunged into fiction.

Since then, he has written mostly science and extrapolative fiction, the genre he loved since he was nine.  But his stories are about more than aliens and technical marvels.  He creates strong, three-dimensional characters a reader can care about, because it’s people and the way they live and love that are important.  It’s the things they believe in and how much they’re willing to invest to preserve them that make a story worth telling.  It’s convincing interactions and well-researched credible plots that make a story worth reading.

And, of course, like any writer, Alan loves having an audience.

Stampede Your Scribbles in 2013

Have you established your 2013 writing goals? If not, take some tips from bison. Yes, I admit the homely bovines probably don’t have goals, other than finding juicy clumps of grass; however, I believe they can help us with our New Year objectives.

• First tip: Focus on your work. Bison eat and rest, eat and rest, with an occasional mud wallow or scratch against a tree trunk. All that eating and sleeping grows and sustains their bodies.
• Things to do this year to grow and sustain your writing: Read, write, attend writing classes, workshops and conferences, read, write, study how-to-write books, blogs and magazines, read, write, join a critique group, read, write, find a mentor, read, write, rewrite, and write some more.

I was surprised to learn that North America’s largest land mammal is not a buffalo. According to the American Bison Association (Bison Breeder’s Handbook), “the genus bison has certain traits and characteristics that separate it from other bovines,” including Asian and African buffalo.

• Tip two: Celebrate the fact that you’re a writer and, therefore, different. Authors may fall into the genus homo (species sapien), but certain characteristics separate us from other humans. You’re in good company when you:

§Eavesdrop on conversations to catch the cadence and colloquialisms;

§  Sneak a cellphone picture of your mailman, the perfect protagonist for your next book;

§  Snap to attention when someone says, “What if…?” or “I remember when…”

Another tidbit from the ABA: “Estimates of the pre-European herd size vary from 30,000,000 to 70,000,000 animals.” In the late 1800s, bison were slaughtered almost to extinction. From millions upon millions dotting the Great Plains, their numbers were reduced to 1500 (or fewer) lonely critters. Not only is writing a lonely vocation, it’s one that requires tenacity. Hang on! Better times are ahead. Thanks to efforts to preserve genus bison, approximately 500,000 such bovines exist in America today.

• Tip three: Keep on writing and marketing your work.We may not write millions of words, but we can peck out thousands of good, publishable, enduring words—with the help of others.
• Tip four: Seek input from critique partners as well as professional editors.

Bison “can weather storms and help their newborn calves survive in blizzards that would kill entire herds of cattle.” Writing is a stormy business. Tip five: Be a survivor. We’re capable of preserving our newborn stories amid publishing perils, even when others give up.

A few more fun bison facts, and I’ll stop:

o   Bison are interesting, wild, and unpredictable (“Never turn your back on a bison”). Tip six: Create interesting, unpredictable prose and poetry in 2013—maybe even something a bit wild.

o   Bison are smart, fast and agile. They might look dumb and cumbersome, but they can pivot on their hind feet as well as their front feet, zip from zero to 40 mph in an instant, and out-sprint most horses. If we leave our computers for a few minutes each day to stretch and strengthen our muscles, we’ll become faster, more agile—and smarter. Tip seven: Exercise your body as well as your brain.

o    “Bison are curious, intelligent, territorial, dignified, playful and tremendously strong.” Need I say more?

 About the Author

Becky’s debut novel, “Winds of Wyoming,” features a bison herd (surprise, surprise!) along with several homo sapien characters. The sequel, “Winds of Freedom,” is scheduled for publication next spring. She’s also written two nonfiction books, “It’s a God Thing: Inspiring Stories of Life-Changing Friendships” and "On a Wing and a Prayer–Stories from Freedom Fellowship, a Prison Ministry." She and her husband, Steve, live in beautiful Boise, Idaho.

Links

http://www.beckylyles.com

beckylyles@beckylyles.com

Twitter: @BeckyLyles

Facebook: Rebecca Carey Lyles or Becky Carey Lyles

The Great Santa Sedition

It was a hot day in July, 1951. Christmas seemed a lifetime away. Harry Truman occupied the White House. Peace talks floundered and the Korean War ground to a stalemate. But another war raged, a war without peace talks, and I desperately sought a way to end it.

I'd just celebrated my fifth birthday. My Aunt Barbara and Uncle Benny, four and five years older than me, respectively, were more like a big brother and sister. This pseudo-sibling relationship came complete with their occasional desire to torment a little brother for entertainment.

On this hot July day, I sat between them in the backseat of my grandmother's car headed to town. Grandma drove and my mom sat beside her.

Now, I should stop here to explain something. My grandmother went to unbelievably great lengths to preserve her kids' belief in Santa. Gifts mysteriously appeared underneath the Christmas tree. She would talk about reindeer on the roof. She had her kids believing well into their teens … all but my mom, who enlightened me when I was four years old.

Back to the trip to town—the torment earlier that morning from my uncle, and the resulting smirks from my aunt, still smarted. But I'd developed a theory that even in July, the power of Santa was incredible, E equals M C squared. I hypothesized that if I could split Santa, the war with my aunt and uncle would end in a huge mushrooming explosion and their unconditional surrender.

I stood in the middle of the floorboard—no seatbelts back then—and turned to face my aunt and uncle. Sneering at them, I sequentially met their curious gazes, took a deep breath, and opened the bomb bay doors, dumping my whole payload. "There ain't no Santa Claus!" I waited.

A deep guttural sound began as a moan. It turned to wailing. Uncle Benny wailed in tenor while aunt Barbara took the alto part. The wailing soon became words. "Moooother! Make him stop!"

Next, I fired all my rockets. "I know there ain't no Santa Claus!"

"Moooother! He's saying it again!"

The caterwauling, combined with the threat to her well-kept secret, destroyed my grandmother's concentration. She stopped the car to have a conversation with my mom, a conversation drowned out by the continued wailing in two-part harmony.

What a rush! I was finally in control, giving my tormentors their just deserts.

I put my hand on the machine gun and fired a burst. "There really ain't no—"

An iron hand clamped onto my shoulder.

I glanced toward the front seat.

My mom glared back at me and shook her head. "You can't say that anymore." This was her stern voice, a voice I needed to obey.

"Can't we even talk about—"

"Not with your aunt and uncle."

"But, Mom, you told me that—"

"Enough!"

Grandma glared at me too. "The subject of Santa Claus is off limits … forever."

In an instant, my nuclear arsenal had been neutralized, not with the fear of a retaliatory strike, but from the fear of a wooden paddle on my rear end.

Soon my aunt wiped her tears. My uncle Benny sniffed a couple of times, then slowly his confident, annoying smirk returned. So did the torment … for five more years. Oh, he was a good big brother to me—taught me to field hot grounders, throw strikes, shoot a basketball, throw a spiral with a football, and run like the dickens when he was trying to perform tickle torture.

I miss those days with my aunt and uncle, all except the torture. And I'll never forget the adrenaline rush from the power of the Santa sedition.

If there's a moral to this story I guess it's that you shouldn't follow my example. When you have the truth, wield it in love. Using truth as a weapon doesn't persuade anyone of anything except that you're an unpleasant person. A man named Peter said something similar regarding answering people with the truth. We're to do it "with gentleness and respect," not a nuclear attack on their most cherished beliefs.

H. L. (Harry) Wegley served in the USAF as an Intelligence Analyst and a Meteorologist. He worked as a Research Scientist in Atmospheric Physics, then as a large-scale, computer systems developer at Boeing before retiring in the Seattle area where he is involved in a small-group ministry. In 2010 he began another career, writing fiction. His romantic thriller, Hide and Seek, the first book in the Pure Genius Series, is coming in February 2013  from Harbourlight Books, Pelican Book Group. You can contact him through his web site, blog, or the social media:

http://hlwegley.com

https://www.facebook.com/harry.wegley.1

https://www.facebook.com/HLWegley

http://weatherscribe.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/hlw154th

Apple Pie Theory of Life

By Tom Blubaugh

It starts with Thanksgiving. Thanks? Well, that, but not only that. Family? Yes, family for sure, but not only thanks and family? What then?

Food! Yes food—tasty food like fresh baked rolls and candied yams,

Mashed potatoes with thick gravy served with juicy ham,

Brown Butterball turkey, cornbread stuffing and cranberry on the side,

Cheese balls and crackers along with soup – I ate so much I nearly died,

And then we got down to the serious stuff, you know what I mean,

Pumpkin pie and apple cobbler with a few cookies in between.

On the serious side, this is the time of year when the whole country moves into a frenzy of shopping days—Gray Thursday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. I agree, it’s good for the economy, maybe not so good for our budgets. The last sixty days of the year are chaotic.

Let’s take a break from it all and look at life.

Do you like sugar?  How about a cup of it all at once?  Would you like to eat a half cup of all purpose flour?  I like apples but would I like eating six cups of thinly sliced, peeled cooking apples (2 pounds)?  Or 1/4 cup of butter?  I think not!

 

These are all ingredients of apple pie.  When you take these ingredients plus cinnamon, ginger, mace—put them in a pan and place it an oven for about an hour at 375°, you get an apple pie.  Hot!  Yummy!

This is a good illustration of life.  There are some good things but too much of a good thing isn't appetizing or healthy.  Some things are bad and hard to digest.  Unappetizing.  But when God takes them, mixes them together, applies the right temperature for the right amount of time it produces life.  Sweet.  Tasty.  Enjoyable.

Take a look at Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose".  I see apple pie when I read this verse. 

Tom Blubaugh, Author of Night of the Cossack and other works

Night of the Cossack historical fiction ebooks available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble

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Inspiring Close to Home

As writers we hope our words will inspire others to laugh, to think, to change, to review, or to take a chance. But sometimes we inspire in unlikely places. My current book – the first one in quite a while – came out in November and my family and friends have all very excited and supportive.

            When my ten-year-old grandson came to visit he asked to use my ipad and the keyboard so he could write a book too. He plopped himself down at the dining room table and started to peck at the keys.

            “Grandma, how many chapters do I need?”

            “I usually start with twelve.”

            More pecking at the keys.

            “How do I get a publisher?”

            “Don’t worry about that yet, Drew. First you finish the book.”

            Peck. Peck.

            “So is an agent expensive?”

            “Not too bad, but well worth it.”

            Finally the pecking stopped and a big smile spread over his face. “I finished chapter one. You wanna read it?”

            “Sure.”

            “It’s a Spiderman Trilogy with a cross over with the Justice league.”

            I was pleasantly surprised. For a first attempt from a 4^th grader is was pretty good. I understood the plot in the first few sentences and his main character was appealing. Throughout the rest of the day, he worked on his ‘book’, stopping now and then to tell me he’d added a girlfriend and a villain, and later he introduced another girl character to make the girlfriend jealous.

He wrote up to chapter seven and I read it again, my grandmotherly pride swelling. I was amazed to find he had an understanding of story structure and rising and falling action. There were even cliff hangers at the end of each chapter. (The chapters were short –two paragraphs in some places but it had heart.)

            Drew lives in a neighboring State so I’m not sure if ever finished the book. I’ll find out tomorrow when the family comes for Christmas. I hope he did. Maybe he’ll work on it again while he’s here.

He’ll never know what a wonderful gift he gave me—to see firsthand how my feeble efforts at writing inspirational romance had spilled over and inspired my grandson to write his adventure story. What more could an author ask for?

            When he’s completed his trilogy, I plan on sending a sample to my agent just for her input. I know Drew will be thrilled and who knows, she might want to represent him someday.

            Christmas is an inspiring season, I hope you’ll all be inspired to use our words and our actions to inspire everyone around us.

Merry Christmas

Lorraine Beatty

Rekindled Romance – April Love Inspired

Restoring His Heart – June Love Inspired
Plantation Christmas Weddings – Christmas Wreath – novella collection, September Barbour Books

Lorrainebeatty.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/Lorrainebeattyauthor

Lorraine Beatty was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, but has been blessed to live in Germany, Connecticut, and Baton Rouge. She now calls Mississippi home. She and husband Joe have two sons and six grandchildren. Lorraine started writing in Junior High and has written for trade books, newspapers and company newsletters. She is a member of RWA, ACFW and is a charter member, and past president of Magnolia State Romance Writers. In her spare time she likes to work in her garden, travel, and spend time with her family.

 

 

 

Merry Xmas GGGs

Just wanted to let you know I am thinking of you all and wishing you a Merry Xmas!!!

Forgiveness

By Jim Carey                                                                       

Life can be challenging enough without the additional burden of having to carry all the unresolved emotional baggage that we’ve accumulated along the way. These challenges, when faced and promptly dealt with, offer us opportunities to step beyond ourselves and grow. When ignored they become part of the burden that we carry and they often interfere with our ability to deal with life on a daily basis. Carried long enough, they can affect our health, our peace of mind, our relationships and ultimately every aspect of our lives.

Unresolved emotions such as anger, resentment, jealousy and guilt can be powerful disruptions in our lives. The negative influence of these emotions can cause us to be reactive to life rather than having the ability to consciously choose our responses. The best way I have found to reduce the impact of these emotions is to actively work to identify them and then work to release them and let them go. Through the experiences I had with this work I became aware of the power of forgiveness, or the letting go of the hold that a situation or a person had on my life in order to claim back my own personal power. That piece of myself that was tied up with the negative emotions is then returned to me.

In the beginning I had to “unlearn” and let go of my old definitions and beliefs about forgiveness. Forgiveness, I learned, is a process that is very much about the “forgive -er” and often has very little to do with the “forgive-ee”. Forgiveness has nothing to do with passing judgment. I came to understand that forgiveness is ultimately about gaining more personal freedom. It is definitely not about blaming others or judging right from wrong. In my life, forgiveness has become my way of proclaiming that I am no longer willing to carry that part of my burden forward and that I am no longer willing to live with the effects of those negative emotions.

The process of forgiving others is a very person experience and can be, and often is, done without the participation of the other person. It is not really the person or the event that matters, it is letting go of the personal attachment and resulting effects that is important. By deciding that the event will no longer affect you, everything changes. The act of forgiveness is done for you and the others involved are responsible for their own process. When the person or event no longer holds an emotional charge then your energy is freed and we are then better able to make conscious choices regarding our actions and reactions to life. It is very important to remember that the act of forgiveness is non-judgmental. It is not deciding if a person or event was right or wrong, good or bad. Rather, it is a statement that you are no longer willing to carry the emotions tied to the person, event, or experience forward into your life.

It is also important to realize that forgiveness is not just for others. At times we will find that we also need to forgive ourselves for some harm (real or perceived) that we caused. This can be a very powerful experience that frees up life energy. Sometimes we are our own harshest critics and letting go of self-judgment is an essential step in personal growth. It has been my experience that the more I work with this concept of forgiveness, even to the point of seeking out events from the past that still need attention, the more it allows me to be flexible and adaptable in my daily life. I no longer feel a slave to patterned responses and behaviors from my past, but rather am free to bring more of myself into the experience of life in the present moment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Echoes from Home is the first novel published by author Jim Carey. A social worker, then a chiropractor by training, writing has been a passion for Jim for the past twenty years. Jim describes himself as a story teller.  His interest in the Civil War started early. After seeing Jimmy Stewart’s movie Shenandoah at the age of six, Jim became fascinated with the Civil War. As the years passed, playing with toy soldiers became part of his past, but his interest with the Civil War continued. For years Jim planned to one day write a book that would be a typical civil war story filled with names and places, battles, dates and divisions, but shortly after the writing began, the character of Joshua Miller started to fully develop and he began to realize that the Civil War was to be the backdrop for the life story of this young man and his friends as they journeyed through these powerful events in American history. Jim’s next project will be a collection of short stories based on the Civil War, tentatively entitled The High Price of Freedom.

THE KIDS MOVE OUT, THE HORMONES MOVE IN

By Kathryn Bain

            I think God might have done it backward. We should be able to enjoy getting old more than we’re able to. After all the kids are grown and gone. There’s a strange sense of peace and a clean house for the first time in years. Too bad peace of mind doesn’t last long.

            Last night I woke in a pool of perspiration, and it was only forty degrees out. After breakfast the next morning heat engulfed my body. Welcome to my world of night sweats and hot flashes. This should be the time in my life when I do what I want. All I want to do is stay home and sleep.

            If menopause isn’t bad enough, my body now makes strange noises and no longer works properly. I find myself standing in line to use the lady’s bathroom so I don’t “leak” in my car.

            It’s not a choice anymore as to whether I can wait until I get home to use the bathroom. When I have to go, I have to go. If the line is too long, I’ll use the men’s. But men, there’s no worry. What’s that old saying? If they have something I haven’t seen before, I’ll just shoot it. Of course, it’s been so long since I’ve seen anything, there might be additions I’m not aware of.

            Advertisements for adult diapers are no longer funny. I consider them informational guides. Have you seen leak-proof pads or diapers for adults? For those unfamiliar, let me describe them for you. The leak proof pad is the size of a bicycle seat. You’re supposed to wear this inside your underwear and walk at the same time. An adult diaper comes in one size, extra plush. No thong styles here. How can you look sexy in a Depends?

            I wish Mattel would come out with a middle-age Barbie. She’d have reading glasses, wrinkle cream that doesn’t work, and cellulite. I have little doubt she’d still have her fake boobs though. Nothing looks better on a fifty-year old body then large round plastic balls hanging down to your belly button.

            Loose bladder, night sweats, hot flashes and irregular periods. What could be next? Gray hair.

            I went from looking and feeling like I was thirty, to looking and feeling eighty within a twenty-four hour period. At least I have one solution for my gray strands. Ms. Clairol. As we get older, we lose friends and find new ones. Ms. Clairol tells me how I can look younger just by using this stuff in a box. This could be the start of a great relationship.

            It’ll be nice when I get past all this mid-life stuff. If God had made it so we could be more like teenagers once we hit our fifties that would have been great. But alas, things do start wearing out over time. And this too shall pass like everything else in life. One day there will be no more menopause. I’ll adjust to all the changes in my body. I did it as a teenager, I can do it again. I just can’t imagine what’s next.

Colonoscopy. What’s a colonoscopy?

Kathryn J. Bain began writing more than ten years ago. Her first release "Breathless" came out January 13, 2012. Her novella “Game of Hearts” was released in March 2012 followed by her inspirational romantic suspense "Catch Your Breath".

She is the former President of Florida Sisters in Crime and is currently the Public Relations Director and Membership Director for Ancient City Romance Authors.

To survive and pay bills, she has been a paralegal for over twenty years and works for an attorney who specializes in elder law.

She has two daughters and a dog named Gretchen.

Kathryn grew up in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. In 1981, she moved to Boise, but it apparently wasn't far enough south, because two years later she headed Jacksonville, Florida and has lived in the sunshine ever since.

Kathryn's website: http://kathrynjbain.com/

Becoming an Author at 64

By Roy Murry

My life was given a new breath at 64, when my first novel The Audubon Caper was published by Black Rose Writing.  

For a number of years, I was just living the life of a bored work-a-day bachelor. Then I decided to read one of Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s books.  To paraphrase one of his quotes, you should not let the song within you die with you.

My song within me was to write a novel.  I decided at the age of 60 to enroll at Long Ride Writers Group, a school that gives one-on-one training in the art of writing.  Needless to say, I completed the course in recorded time and was told I had a talent by my instructor who has written a number of novels.

I had a story to tell.  All I had to do was write it.  It’s a daunting task for a man who was set in his ways, as most sixty year olds are.  But, I was committed to getting the job done.  I believe this strength came from wanting to tell my story before I die – you never know when that will happen.  

I was persistent in my endeavor, putting everything else on the bottom of my to-do list.  Writing was my task.  Golfing, my first love, next to reading, as did dining and drinking out with friends, became the last things I thought of. I wrote several hours a day.

One day I woke up and the novel was done and I was sending it to an editor. Then I sent the manuscript to a hundred or more publishers and agents. With many rejections, it got published.  Happy Days!

Now, I’m promoting that novel on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

And I have combined my new loves - writing with reading, by promoting other authors’ books on my blog.  Golf and other endeavors are always secondary.

POINT: DON’T LET THE SONG WITHIN YOU DIE WITH YOU - WHATEVER THAT MAY BE.

Roy Murry is a father and grandfather, Green Beret Operation & Intelligence Specialist in the Vietnam War, Bronze Star recipient for Meritorious Achievement, BSA Degree from Bentley College, 1974, minor in English, president ofPDE, the Honorary Journalism Society, editor-in-chief of the Yearbook, twenty five years in the Caribbean Hospitality Industry, and presently: semi-retired.

Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Audubon-Caper/113280662134003    

Purchase book at http://www.amazon.com/Audubon-Caper-Untold-American-Treasure/dp/1612960944/ref=sr_1_1  and other distributors.

Blog: http://www.conniesbrother.blogspot.com