AuthorPalooza and Journey Into Time Book Launch!

It’s here! It’s here! Call the neighbors and wake the kids! It is finally time for the AuthorPalooza Conference! It will begin on Friday, October 4th and run through Sunday, October 6th. The excitement begins Friday evening at Brazos Bookstore, located at 2421 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX 77005. There will be a presentation by Houston Poet Laureate, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton. She will lead us in an activity for performance poetry. Ms. Mouton will also be the Keynote speaker Saturday morning.

Then there will be a book launch for the  Journey Into Time anthology. Both the Houston Writers Guild and Women in the Visual and Literary Arts collaborated on this project. It will be great to congratulate the writers who were chosen to be included in this year’s edition. The three winning writers will be announced as well as those who are receiving Honorable Mention.

On Saturday and Sunday all of the fun moves from the bookstore to the Student Center at Rice University. After hearing the Keynote Speech by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, there will be break out sessions with conference presentations. Also, on Saturday, there will be a few agents as well as acquisition editors available for pitch sessions. Please check the conference registration information for details on scheduling.

Sunday the conference will close out with a presentation and then a craft workshop led by Fern Brady. She will lead us in a Renga competition.

For more information about this exciting conference, please check out the Houston Writers Guild at https://www.houstonwritersguild.org/writersroom. You will also be able to register for the conference there.

I look forward to seeing everyone this weekend!

Until next time.….

Entangled 2024

Are you ready to see some beautiful art work and hear some good literature? It’s all happening this Friday night, September 20th, at the opening Reception highlighting some of the best collaborative works from the wonderful women of Women In The Visual and Literary Arts (WiVLA). This event will take place at the Sabine Street Studios located at 1907 Sabine Street, Houston, TX 77007. The Theme for this current collaboration is Entangled.

Every other year a theme is picked and both visual and literary artists team up to provide the art going public with some more amazing combinations. I personally teamed up with artist Deborah Ellington. For this piece she created a glass sculpture. On the one side you will see a Raven that is looking directly at you. Can you hear what he is saying? The other side is a trail that leads to a haunted house. The piece that I have written is called Arabella’s Story. Yes, of course there are ravens, ghosts and graveyards.

As you can see in the picture above on the left is artist, Deborah Ellington. Between the two pictures you can see both sides of her wonderful glass sculpture. On the wall hangs the story that I will read at the opening reception this Friday. If you want to see more of Deborah’s work, check out her website at https://www.dellingtonartstudio.com/.

In addition to Deborah and me, there are there are over 20 teams of creative WiVLA members. The visual works include paintings, fiber arts, sculpture, etc. The literary works range from poems to literary essays. I am so proud to be a part of this biennial collaboration.

You will be able to purchase a book with all of the works at the event or you can purchase a copy through Amazon. The collaboration will be hosted at Sabine Street Studios beginning on September 12 through November 2.

Until next week.….

Is Summer Ending?

It’s the end of August. Yes, I know that summer doesn’t officially end until the autumnal equinox on September 22nd. However, now I am having to pay attention to road signs like this. I have to go around the long line of cars filled with parents waiting to pick up their bundles of joy from school and I have to be careful not to run over any of the bundles of joy that might be crossing the same street that I am driving down. Even when I was one of those bundles of joy going to school back in my hometown, I always felt that the beginning of school was the “real” end of summer.

Of course, I went to schools without any air conditioning. Beginning in Kindergarten through my senior year in high school, I sweated through the beginning and ending of every year. And that was before global warming! Egad! This is what everyone is dealing with now. Even riding around in a car that has air conditioning, I am reminded that I will melt quicker than the Wicked Witch of the West if I step outside. You may notice that the outside temperature in my car reads 102 degrees. That was after parking in the shade for a couple of hours. Soon we all run the risk of turning into lizard people where we sun ourselves on rocks and lick our eyeballs. Why yes, I do read a good bit of science fiction these days. Why do you ask?

Now is the time to begin talking about my favorite holiday. I’ve been waiting since the 4th of July to start talking about it. With the arrival of fall, I start planning for, dreaming of, and pining away for Halloween!  Actually, I have been planning and dreaming and pining about October 31st ever since November 1st But now it is close to the time when my skeleton friends can sit outside on the balcony and walkways of my home. They can watch all of the neighbors and interact with all of the other Halloween decorations. Here is a picture of some of my friends as they sit at home deciding what the theme should be this year. Skeleton Barbie joined us last year. I’m wondering if she is too passe’ for this year. There are many decisions to be made and finalized very soon. It would be nice if the temperature dropped below 100 degrees before we start decorating.

Also, when I get together with my skeleton friends, we come up with new ideas for spooky stories. Haunted Holidays, the annual reading event, is coming up on November 9th this year at Brazos Bookstore. I am telling all of my writer and poet friends to get ready to scare us again this year. But before that I will enjoy Authorpalooza, WiVLA’s 30th anniversary special, and the biannual WiVLA collaboration between visual and literary artists. Fall is definitely going to be busy again this year. However, it is always the most fun with all of my Halloween decorations sitting outside my home and helping me with story ideas. I will share all of the details on all of the above-mentioned celebrations in the next few weeks. You can check out the websites for both WiVLA and the HWG if you want details right now.

Until next time.….….

Multi-Tasking Flashbacks

Yes, I am multi-tasking this month. More so than usual. Also, it never fails that when I have the greatest number of projects to work on, that is when I will have technical troubles. For starters this blog has no pictures. I took pictures and prepared them for publication. However, I have a new phone and cannot send pictures from my new phone to my old computer. I know what needs to be done, but I have not managed to do it yet. Last week it was my zoom connectivity that was acting up. My trusty friend and computer consultant was able to help out with that chore. I hope he doesn’t mind coming back over to my place to fix this picture situation. Until then, please use your imagination!

When I decided to become a full-time writer, I envisioned myself sitting alone by myself day after day cranking out fantastical fiction, essays, or memoir. Now, I know that writing is a team sport. Oh, there’s plenty of chances for procrastination, dawdling and falderal. Can you tell one of my favorite time wasters is finding interesting and exciting words to use in my blogs?

Okay, back to being a full-time writer. As I type this missive, I am involved in serving as a beta reader for one of Fern’s novellas. It is a really good story and am enjoying spending lots of time reading and reviewing it. Also, I am reviewing fiction pieces for the upcoming publication of the Journey Into Time Anthology so that I can assist with the process of developing the cover art. The launch for this annual collection of brilliance is scheduled for October 3rd at the Brazos Bookstore. More details on that to come later.

I also am printing out more than a decade’s worth of short stories that I have written. Are there enough for a publishable collection? I have a plethora of stories about ghosts, skeletons, grim reapers, etc. Some are geared around different holidays and others are just fun stories. Like my other reading, these stories are fun to revisit and review, so it is taking me a while to collect these.

Next, I have the yet to be published great American novel. More ghosts and skeletons, but with a much longer plot. I still haven’t decided if the villain is going to live or die. Everyone else including the paranormal characters continue to live. Or maybe I should say they will continue to exist. Anyway, they will go back into my creative imagination to await my second great American novel.

I have three dates coming up for public readings. I am preparing short works to share. I have a short story coming up in the WiVLA (Women in the Visual and Literary Arts) collaboration. I paired up with a visual artist and developed the piece of fiction. All visual and literary art will be published in a program catalog. Yes, this is another event that I will tell you more about between now and October.

In November, I am writing an essay on the topic of Pearl. WiVLA is celebrating its 30th anniversary. During the member meeting in November many of the writers and poets of this organization will share their reflections on Pearl. I will contribute to that evening; however, I haven’t started my essay or short story yet.

Finally, I finish up my literary year in November when WiVLA and the Houston Writers Guild team up for a night of Haunted Holidays. That involves spending the evening at Brazos Bookstore listening to writers and poets share scary and spooky stories. The Holidays involved in these pieces include anything from Halloween through New Year. Several of the stories that I have written for this annual event will end up in the collection of short stories I am compiling.

That’s enough for now. Writing is not lonely. It is collaborative, it is a sharing of creative talents with other creatives. Oh, and I forgot to mention the concept of getting together in small writing groups, but I have written enough for now. Must save something for the next blog.

Until next time.…..

Skeletons Are brat!

Extra! Extra! I learned something new. It’s previously something only known by Millennials and GenZs. I seldom get to crack their secrets and communication rules, but this one is very exciting. I have to thank a British singer and song writer, Charli XCX, for introducing both me and the world to this concept. The word I learned is brat. No, I am not referring to the obnoxious child who refuses to behave and sit still. Again, this word is brat. I understand from watching several news accounts on television that the meaning of this word is: Bold, Confident, a Risk Taker and an Icon. Even Tim Kaine has adopted a version of this for his web site and he is older than either the Millennials or GenZs.

If I wanted to use my new found word in a sentence I could say that “The Paris Olympics are so brat.” Since, as of this writing, the USA Women’s Soccer team has already won their first game, they are also brat. The mascot for the Paris Olympics is the Phryges. Don’t ask me how that is pronounced. I hope to learn while watching the sporting events. But I can tell you it is a red triangular hat like the ones that were worn during the French Revolution. The mascot is a plush replica of a red triangular hat with the Olympic seal and a pair of eyes. Too cute, or shall I say the “Phryges is brat?” As you can see my skeletons wanted to get into the Olympic spirit, but were not able to send away for the plush toy. They made their own out of construction paper. Doesn’t my friend look handsome? He is very excited to watch all the games.

The other brat fact that I found out about Paris is that the opening ceremonies will take place along the Seine (that river that flows through Paris). This route is lined on both sides by Bouquinistes. These are literally book stores and stalls. The French are very proud of their books and literacy. I wish we had a river like that where I live. I wonder if all the booksellers have as many books on Halloween and ghost stories as I have? Maybe I need to go over to Paris one day and check that out. But I will wait until after the Olympic crowds have all gone home.

Now, I am going to sit back and enjoy the sports and spectacle that is the Paris Olympics.

Until next time.….

Half a Century

So, on July 9th I celebrated a half a century of life. I prefer to say it that way rather than use the number 50; just feels more significant when you call it a half a century. For a life marker of such powerful importance, it was a very powerless birthday.

The Sunday night before my birthday on Tuesday, Hurricane Beryl came to Houston. My poor Arya spent the whole time in grandma’s closet, hiding out. My dad and mom and I decided to camp out in the living room. We had been binge watching the series Homeland on Hulu.

An aside — if you haven’t seen this series, get Hulu and watch it. Fantastic acting and great writing. The story just gets better and better which is rare in some series.

Anyway, back to the birthday — so there we were watching and enjoying each other and fretting about the violently swaying trees, when the power went out. We waited for the generator to kick in, but it didn’t. After a very short discussion, we decided to see about it in the morning and we just got books to read.

Monday morning, I went out to see about the generator and got it started manually. Let me tell you, I was petrified the whole time. What if the thing explodes? That thought kept running through my mind, and I did a lot of praying while turning it on. So, then my brother and his wife came over, because they were also out of power.

We discovered, much to our dismay, that while the generator gave us electricity, we did not have cable or internet access. We were completely disconnected from the world. Gone was Hulu. Gone was Homeland. We dug up our DVD collection — you remember back when you owned movies and that meant you had a physical copy of them. We even found some VHS tapes and we still have a video player so… we went old school.

Tuesday arrived in this unplugged manner. Roads were not safe as huge swaths of Houston were dark. My favorite eateries were closed. Friends were busy recovering from the aftermath of Beryl. My sister-in-law was cool and went to Whole Foods and got us a cake — from the Fourth of July ones they had.

It was a very patriotic celebration for my half century marker. I don’t know what the beginning of the next half of my life means, but it sure started with high drama and old school entertainment.

The Uninvited Guest

I am about to say something I have never said before. It’s really not like me, here goes: I miss June! I typically spend every summer just waiting and waiting for the fall season to return. I like fall. That time of year is nice. It means that eventually cooler weather will return. Lots of stores sell Halloween decorations (Oh, by the way there is a rumor on Facebook that Joann’s has started putting out some already! )

Last month, for the entire month of June, I was involved in a writing intensive. I met daily with writers from all across the country. Max Regan led the month-long event. I wrote two short stories and started reviewing many of my past tales. I may try to put together a collection of stories. When I started collecting them, I had many more than I thought. I now have a notebook full of ghost stories, grim reapers, essays and many haunted holiday tales.

There is something so inspirational about meeting with other writers around the country. Even though we all write in different genres and styles, it is still such a rich experience. It’s always helpful to know that someone else knows what it’s like to get lost in an idea and sit at a computer or with a notebook for hours getting everything down. And of course, these friends can also relate to the empty feeling of looking at either a piece of paper or a blank computer screen with nothing going through my head. Hot weather did not bother me, because I did not go outside that much. That’s pretty much the way I handle summers these days. I entertain myself indoors and try not to go outside until September or October.

As soon as the calendar flips to July, there is another “friend” to worry about. Hurricane Beryl. This is a big storm that does not appear to play well with others. He also does not stick with his own rules. He all but promised that he would not enter Texas. Now, hurricane warnings are popping up all along the Gulf Coast. I suppose Beryl is proud of himself, because he is breaking all kinds of records like earliest major storm in the Gulf, the biggest storm ever (or so it seems, Category 5 is big). This morning I learned that it is now headed for South Texas and Houston is included in the cone of uncertainty. Egad!

Did I mention that this is projected to be a busy hurricane season? I think I will crawl back into my study with my books, notebooks and laptop. Ghosts and scary monsters will fill my thoughts to keep me distracted from the weather. I won’t talk to anyone but other writers or those few who understand what writers are like. Yes, that is something akin to an ostrich sticking it’s head in the ground, but it sounds like a logical plan to me for the rest of this summer. That is, until the hurricanes show up at my door.

Until next time.……

The Longest Day and Why That Makes Me So Happy!!!!!

For starters, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Summer Solstice! I hope you have plans to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and summer weather. This really is a beautiful day. The only little catch in all of my current happiness is that we here in Houston have just named our first tropical storm for the season. His name is Alberto. Also, there are other weather-related spots moving up on both the Gulf Coast and over by Florida. We may have more tropical storms next week. Usually we don’t see this much activity until August or September, but that was before the days of global warming. Fortunately with this first storm, it struck southwest of us, but was big enough to give a good soaking. I hope our luck holds out for the duration of Hurricane Season. I really don’t think I’m in the mood for a hurricane this year and I hope Mother Nature agrees with my request.

In between tropical storms, there are days like today. Sunny and warm. It may be too hot to exercise outside, but you can still have a nice time walking to your favorite pool or gym. Keep in mind that no matter how hot the weather is this year, it will only get hotter next year. There’s a pleasant thought that should keep you up at night. Still feeling cheerful? In the meantime, enjoy all of the beautiful flowers that cover our landscape this time of year. If you get up early enough, you might be able to walk a little bit before the heat of the day and risking heat stroke. Or maybe a friend can drive around with you to admire the colorful nature blossoms through the window of an air conditioned car. The flowers with their beauty are literally all around us.

Now, here is the most important factor about Summer Solstice and it does not involve flowers or Stonehenge or anything like that. Rather it is now time that we can start an official count down to Halloween. The days now begin to get shorter and shorter. At some point, hopefully before the spookiest day, temperatures will cool down. I don’t mind allowing approximately three months for hot weather; however, in September I start getting very antsy for my collection of witches, skeletons, grim reapers, bats, and other mysterious creatures that scream out “Boo!” In truth I have already started planning my Halloween decorations that will go outside my house. As you can see in this picture, some of my skeleton friends are helping me. I don’t have to worry about decorating the inside of my home, because that remains decorated and haunted all year long.

Bwahaha!

Until next time.….…..

Year 7 Coming Up — What can we do to top the last 6 years?

Wow! How time flies. RoadBroads.com is beginning its seventh year telling the exciting and breath-taking journey of women writers. When it all began, I was heading off to Boulder, Colorado to take part in one of Max Regan’s June Summer Intensives. As you can see, I even bought a new suitcase for the occasion. Of course Hannah the cat assumed she was going to travel with me, but unfortunately she stayed at home. Hannah is now 19 years old and still with me. Neither one of us are as spry as we were 6 years ago, but I’m still writing, and Hannah continues to be Queen of the Universe from her home base here in Houston.

When I arrived in Boulder back in 2018, I remember feeling like one of the  “cool kids”. Most of the classes took place in the Boulder Book Store which means I returned home with more books than I started out with. And since this was before the pandemic, I could run around the bookstore with wild abandon looking at as many examples of the printed word as possible. It was a great trip. Since that summer, I have continued to attend Max Regan’s Exciting Summer Writing Intensives. Zoom is not as exciting as streaking around a bookstore in person, but it works. This summer I will be joining again via computer technology. The good part is that there are other writers here in the Houston area and we plan on meeting together for zoom classes and writing sessions. Don’t worry, if we need a bookstore fix, there is always Brazos Bookstore just a mile or two down the road.

What am I working on for a writing project this summer? Well, yes, I am still crafting the great American novel, but I’m trying something new this year. During the first of the two dynamic intensives, I am going to review all of my short stories. I have written a lot about ghosts, grim reapers, and other creatures that go ‘bump’ in the night. I have published in the anthologies that are created every year by the Houston Writers Guild and Women in the Visual and Literary Arts. I have taken part in various writing projects with WiVLA including several collaborations where Visual and Literary artists join together to tell/show a story. Maybe I will pull all of this together in one collective? Or maybe I will realize how spooky I really am? The possibilities are scary and endless. I don’t think I am as haunting as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman or Alice Hoffman, but that gives me a goal to aim towards.

The best fun of the past six years has been meeting, reading and getting to know some of the finest writers and artists in Houston. When I am around so many creative women, I can’t help but stay inspired. Also, many thanks to Max Regan for the many, many hours he has spent reading, critiquing, and talking to me about my writing craft.

Until next time.……

Awards!!!

One of the things that makes a book stand out is receiving awards. Competition is fierce, especially in the award programs that are the most prestigious. So when I woke up to an email declaring United Vidden the winner of the Science Fiction category in the Independent Author’s Awards by Literary Global I was over-the-moon happy.

The Literary Global awards stand out as the most inclusive international literary competition worldwide. Unpublished manuscripts, micro presses, small presses, academic presses, self-published books, indies from any size publishers, large presses, and even the big 5 are all welcome to enter the LGBAs! By entering a single category, the book or manuscript becomes eligible not only for a category prize but also for the prestigious title of “Book of the Year.”

Now, this is not the first award that United Vidden has won. My debut novel has won a couple silver medals, several five-star reviews from professional reviewers, and an endorsement from the Dr. Who official franchise site. But this is the first time it is the number one winner in its category.

The timing could not be better. War Rising will be releasing this fall. My team and I will be putting together a publicity campaign around the many wins United Vidden has had as a buzz builder for the follow up novel.

Mostly though, this just makes me happy.