Guest Post

HAVE A BOOK TO PROMOTE? Lyrical Pens welcomes guest posts. Answer a questionnaire or create your own post. FYI, up front: This site is a definite PG-13. For details, contact cjpetterson@gmail.com cj

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Winding down

cj Sez:  I’m winding down as quickly as 2017 is…except there are still decorations to put up and presents to wrap in preparation for my beloved family gathering.

This is one of the few years I haven’t had my inside decorations up on December 1st, so I need to take a deep breath and get at it.

Lyrical Pens is taking the rest of the year off, but please know, I am grateful for my readers and thank you from the bottom of my heart . . .

I pray your celebrations are filled to the brim with the love of family and friends.

 
Jesus is the reason for the season.


The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

                                                                                                            Numbers 6:24-26



Marilyn Johnston
(aka cj petterson)


Qrtly newsletter sign-up at cjpetterson@gmail.com


Dancing with Daddy,” one of my personal childhood memories, is in

CHRISTMAS THROUGH A CHILD'S EYES 
Available on Amazon 



Sunday, December 10, 2017

GUEST KATHY KREVAT and the 5 Stages of Deadlines

cj Sez: Are you on a deadline? How’s that going? 

Today’s Lyrical Pens guest, author KATHY KREVAT, shares her experiences with her 5 Stages of Deadlines. Kathy’s latest book, THE TROUBLE WITH MURDER, is scheduled to launch December 12 so all of these deadline stages are fresh in her mind.

5 Stages of Deadlines
Kathy Krevat

I just finished writing my fifth book for publication and realized that I continue to be bad at the whole planning for a deadline thing.  I know that other authors have their word count scheduled out and, listen to this, they actually stick to their plan! I don’t how they make that miracle happen.

I have tried that. I start off with a detailed spreadsheet for how many words I have to write in order to complete and edit my manuscript before my deadline. I prepare an outline. Some of it is quite specific and some is rather loosey-goosey. Okay, more of it is loosey-goosey than it should be. But that doesn’t matter, because then I start writing and ignore that silly outline thing anyway. Which works out fine because I usually come up with a better story.

The problem is that I ignore that word count spreadsheet. For far too long. (Just ask my poor critique partners.)

I ignore it until I figure out, usually by accident or when my critique partners ask, how much time I have left until the deadline. Then I update the spreadsheet with my new, much larger daily word count, and it still seems reasonable for me to finish on time. So I ignore it some more, until it becomes almost impossible. Then I kick into high gear and work many, many hours of the day for the months running up to the deadline in order to finish on time.

Someone who knows about these things said it was because I’m a Sagittarius. I’ll take whatever excuse I can get.

Like a lot of authors, with each book, I worry intensely about readers liking it. Even Harlan Coben just posted this to Twitter:


(Please say you love it, please say you love it, please say you love it)
"I LOVE IT!"
(I don't believe you.)

And every time I forget that the only way for me to fight that anxiety is to write. It works every time. And walking. Walking helps me too. I come up with a lot of ideas that solve the problems in my stories. I use the voice memo app on my phone to talk to myself. Later, I’ll listen to and write down story ideas mixed in with reminders to call the plumber, mail a birthday present, and schedule my mammogram.

While walking this week, I realized that my deadline protocol kind of follows the stages of grief. I came up with my own tongue-in-cheek attempt at explaining my coming up to deadline process:

DenialLa-di-dah. No deadline in sight. It’s totally okay for me to spend hours looking at cat videos and reading the latest political news on Twitter. I’ll write this afternoon.

AngerHow can anyone expect me to write a whole book this fast?

BargainingSo if I go to my moms’ night out tonight, I’ll wake up super early tomorrow morning and get all of my word count in before sunrise.

DepressionI’m NEVER going to finish this book. My publisher is totally going to fire me.
                              
AcceptanceAuthors do this all the time. I can do it! All I have to do is eat junk food, mainline coffee, not shower and I will finish this book!

Then I send the book to my wonderful editor who sends back an email with a bunch of smiley face emojis and I start all over again. 

Author Kathy Krevat

Kathy Krevat is the author of the GOURMET CAT MYSTERY series featuring cat food chef Colbie Summers and her demanding cat Trouble, the culinary muse behind her recipes. Kathy also writes the bestselling CHOCOLATE COVERED MYSTERY series under the pen name, Kathy Aarons.

Kathy lives in San Diego with her husband of twenty-five years in the perfect location – close to Philz Coffee and the beach, and within visiting distance of her two grown daughters. When she’s not writing, she’s an advocate for youth arts education and president of Partners in Crime, the San Diego Chapter of Sisters in Crime.

You can follow Kathy on Facebook or Twitter or visit her at: www.kathyaarons.com

****

THE TROUBLE WITH MURDER

Single mom and gourmet cat food entrepreneur Colbie Summers thought she’d escaped her tiny California hometown forever. But when her father needs her, she packs up her adolescent son, their finicky feline, Trouble, and her budding business. She knows change is tough—but she doesn’t expect it to be murder . . .

Between dealing with her newly rural life, her grumpy, sports-obsessed father, and preparing to showcase her products in the local Sunnyside Power Mom’s trade show, Colbie has more on her plate than she bargained for. Luckily, she has her official taste-tester, Trouble, by her side to vet her Meowio Batali Gourmet Cat Food line. Things look promising—until one of the Power Moms is found dead—with an engraved Meowio specialty knife buried in her chest.

As the prime suspect, Colbie needs paws on the ground to smoke out who had means, motive, and opportunity among the networking mothers—including a husband-stealing Sofia Vergara lookalike. And the cat’s still not out of the bag when a second violent death rocks the bucolic community. Trouble may have nine lives, but Colbie’s only got one to clear her name and stop a killer from pulling off the purr-fect crime . . .

Available on Amazon at http://amzn.to/2nKvFL4
****
cj Sez: Junk food and coffee! So true, so true. Thank you, Kathy. I am now encouraged to set my derriere back down at the computer because I can expect it to all work out if I just keep working at it.  Congratulations on the upcoming launch of THE TROUBLE WITH MURDER. Best wishes for great sales and raving reviews. And most of all, I pray the fires in California miss your home in San Diego. 

Okay, Lyrical Pens reader-writers, did you find a been-there kind of nugget in this post? Leave Kathy a comment and let us hear how you meet your deadlines.

cj
“Bad Day at Round Rock” short story in The Posse anthology
Qrtly newsletter sign-up at cjpetterson@gmail.com
Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook
Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo
California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)
The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)

Sunday, December 3, 2017

Feel the tug?

cj Sez: I did some research for your next fantasy story . . .

Far out. (Reuters/Jason Reed
The last full moon of 2017 is going to appear a little bigger (14 percent) and brighter (30 percent) when a supermoon rises on December 3.

Not only will this be the only full supermoon of 2017, it’s also going to begin a series of three, back-to-back, full supermoons in a row. And there’s a bonus. Full moons numbers two and three on Jan. 2 and Jan. 31 not only will be supermoons, they’ll also be blue supermoons—a “blue moon” meaning the second full moon in a single month. How extraordinary is that? Think about the saying, “It only happens once in a blue moon.”

Supermoon status is a rare event that occurs when the lunar orb will be near or at its closest elliptical-orbit point to the Earth…its perigee. High tides will be a little higher, male deer will begin to grow velvety antler nubs.  

Native American tribes that settled in the United States created nicknames for each month's full moon to help them keep track of the seasons. For December, the tribes referred to the full moon as the cold moon. It's the month when "the winter cold fastens its grip and the nights become long and dark," says the Old Farmer's Almanac.

According to some, when 
supermoons rise, lunatics let loose on the streets and werewolves howl their loudest.

The word lunacy comes from the Latin “lunaticus,” meaning, in modern language, moonstruck. Everyone knows that when the moon is full, the crazies come out, right? Not so says science of the myth that spawned werewolves.  In the 1800’s, it was feared that those affected by lycanthropy would grow extra-long canines and feast on human flesh when the moon was full.

The myth remained so popular that, in 1985, a team of scientists did a study on the concept that a full moon (full harvest moon or full wolf moon, or full snow moon, or full buck moon, et al.) could affect human behavior as it does the tides.

You can rest easy. No evidence of such an effect was forthcoming but the idea does make for great story telling.

So why do we blame the full moon for strange happenings? Probably because we’re expecting the correlation, and we can point to that moon for confirmation.

Okay, that’s settled, and now you can sleep tight . . . no werewolves out with the full moon.

You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj
By the way, do garlic and a silver cross keep werewolves away…or is that for vampires?

“Bad Day at Round Rock” short story in The Posse anthology
Qrtly newsletter sign-up at cjpetterson@gmail.com

Sunday, November 26, 2017

Top of mind musings

cj Sez: Authors’ showcase events are notorious for resulting in few book sales for the authors who participate. The main reason I like to attend these functions is to get my name out to new readers. On November 8-11, the Junior League of Mobile* sponsored a Christmas shopping market, also known as The Christmas Jubilee, held this year at the Mobile Convention Center.

In my time slot, I shared their Author’s Corner with Angela Quarles, whose novel Must Love Chainmail won the 2016 Rita Award. I really did have a good time eating chocolate kisses, and I happily sold a copy of the Christmas through a Child’s Eyes anthology to a new fan (I hope).

*The Junior League of Mobile is an “organization of women committed to promoting volunteerism, developing the potential of women, and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers.” Was the Jubilee a success? Resoundingly so according to their Facebook page: “From start to finish . . . with over 400 volunteers, more than 110 merchants, and nearly 12,000 shoppers, together we raised over $200,000 for children in our community.”
 \\\\
My personal childhood memory (Dancing with Daddy) in the Christmas through a Child’s Eyes anthology and my novels were all published by an imprint of F+W Media in 2008, 2013, and 2015. I’m not sure how that happened. I didn’t submit to F+W media. Those books were submitted either to Adams Media or to Crimson Romance. It seems I have a “voice” (i.e., write in a style) that caught the eye of the editors of both publishers. Finding your voice, your personal style, I think, is one of the keys to good writing. I found mine in San Francisco.

My first interest in creative writing was in screenwriting. In 2001, I flew from Detroit to San Francisco to take a three-day seminar called Story from internationally renowned Robert McKee.

The experience was invaluable because I learned to visualize my story. I saw that I needed to create characters that are archetypes not stereotypes and write action/dialogue scenes that show their stories. I’m a work in progress because I still learn something new every day. How characters react and what they don’t say can speak volumes to readers who enjoy trying to solve the crime or mystery as the story progresses.

I’ve talked with writers who visualize some movie star or other playing a character in their books. Is that something you do?  I can’t do that. I don’t see a specific person, I visualize the whole characterization—I’ll leave it to Stephen Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola (ha ha) to find the best mega-star suited for the role.
\\\\
Most us, and I am very much included in that generalization, have an idea on a theme. A lot of us also know how we want the story to end, so that’s all set. It’s the middle that really gets us. It wants to sag. Like an old married couple, sometimes the excitement fades away. Unless we work at it.  

Shoring up a saggy middle always requires a lot of editing.

To help me out in this process, I read the dialogue aloud as I go along. Does it sound natural? Are the sentences too complete and so full of blah-blah information that they slow the pace of the story?  This can happen anywhere, but it very often happens in the middle part of a story when I’m trying to reach the word count I want/need. Sometimes, I have to change a character’s name, a story thread, a sentence structure, or, as was true for Deadly Star, the whole genre (which went from an action/adventure love story to a romantic suspense). I also might add another challenge or two (read that as “conflict”) for the protagonist in order to bring back the thrill.

What do you do to shore up the saggy middle of your story? And if you don’t ever suffer a saggy middle, don’t tell me. I’d feel so inept.
\\\\
I’m throwing in the towel on NaNoWriMo. I haven’t come anywhere close to achieving the 50K word target, but it was worth the effort because I started a great story idea. Hope you were more successful.

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj
I believe that Christmas is best enjoyed through the eyes of a child, and the anthology, Christmas through a Child’s Eyes, is a collection of 70 true memories that capture the wonder of the season. The book is free today on Kindle Unlimited, and I have a personal stash of a few print copies available for sale at $8. If you drop me a note in the next week or so, I’ll be able to get a book to you before Christmas.

PS:  Pray for peace; pray that our leaders.
PPS: Simon & Schuster acquired the Crimson Romance imprint in November 2016.

Qrtly newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com
“Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents
Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook
Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo
California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)
The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Note: On the bundles, the “look inside” invitation gives you a taste of only the first book.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Helpful grammar hints

cj Sez: Because I'm "trying" to do NaNoWriMo, today's post is a repeat of a popular one done in 2015. The English language is littered with obscure quirks and twists, and writers seem to find a way to encounter every one of them. A few of my favorites follow.
The Christmas Grinch notwithstanding, here are proper usages for Stink, Stank, Stunk . . .
… Stink is the present or future form.
… Stank is the past form, use it when you refer to some time that has already happened, such as last night, yesterday, or last week.
… Stunk is the participle form, it means you must use have, has, or had with it).

… What is that stink I smell?
… Frying that fish will stink up the whole house.
… She sure stank up the kitchen last night with that burned milk!
… I'm sorry, but the baby's diaper really stank on the way home yesterday!
… The house hasn't stunk this badly since the day we found that rat behind the dryer.
… If you hadn't stunk up the bathroom, I wouldn't have opened the window and let your orchids freeze in the snow.

Then there’s this tricky usage/spelling: Pick up, Pick-up, Pickup

… Will you pick up my dry cleaning?
… “Have we met” is such a stale pick-up line.
… My pickup truck is red.
 \\
(Following are excerpts of a blog by a fellow Sisters-in-Crime member:)
IN DEFENSE OF THE MALIGNED “WAS”
By Lois Winston

Editors like action verbs. “Was,” along with its brothers and sisters (is, am, are, been, were) is passive and a surefire way to a rejection letter.

Wrong!

Passive voice is when an action is acted upon the subject, rather than the subject acting.

The car was driven by Anna is a passive sentence. Anna drove the car is an active sentence. However, Anna was happy to drive the car is not a passive sentence. Anna is expressing emotion. She is acting, rather than being acted upon. Of course, there are more interesting ways to write the sentence to show Anna’s emotions, but that’s a separate discussion.

One of the easiest ways to tell whether your sentence is active or passive is to analyze the position of the subject, verb, and direct object.


In active voice, the subject (the one performing the action) will come before the verb (the action), and the verb will come before the direct object (that which is being acted upon.)

There are instances, though, when passive voice is necessary to the unfolding of a story or better suited to the realism of the dialogue. When we speak, we don’t first think whether our sentences are active or passive before uttering them. We just speak them.

Manipulate a sentence to avoid passive voice in conversation, and you often transform snappy dialogue into stilted dialogue.

For example: Billy ran into the house and cried, “Mom! Come quick. Snoopy was hit by a car!” This passage accurately illustrates the way a child might respond to a car hitting his dog. Snoopy was hit by a car is a passive sentence because Snoopy is being acted upon by the car, but the child mentions Snoopy first because the dog’s welfare is uppermost in his mind. Also, by placing the last sentence in passive voice, the author is actually ratcheting up the tension. We don’t know until the very end exactly what hit Snoopy. A stray baseball? A nasty neighbor? A falling tree limb? Although “A car hit Snoopy” is active voice, using it actually lessens the impact of the sentence.

Still squeamish about the use of “was”? After you have finished your manuscript, do a search of the word. Check each sentence to see if you can rewrite it to avoid using “was.” If you can, and it doesn’t detract from the pace, dialogue, or meaning of the passage, do so. If not, leave it. Some “was” were meant to be.

Except . . . the subjunctive:
The what, you ask? Subjunctive case or mood is one of the most misunderstood rules in the English language -- and virtually unknown to most contest judges who will circle a “were” and write in a “was” because the subject is singular.

The subjunctive applies to cases of “wishfulness” or “what if” situations. In these cases, “was” becomes “were,” as in, I wish I were taller. “Were” is also used when a sentence or clause uses “if,” “as if,” or “as though,” but only in instances where the statement is contrary to fact.

Examples include: If I were taller, I could see the stage better, Her twelve year old son acts as if he were in kindergarten, or The maid behaved as though she were queen. Because I cannot grow taller, the twelve-year-old is not in kindergarten, and the maid is not a queen, all the statements are contrary to fact, and “was” becomes “were” even though the subjects are all singular.

Keep in mind, though, that the key statement here is “contrary to fact.” “If” statements that are not contrary to fact retain the singular form of the verb. “If I was at Starbucks that day, I don’t remember” is a correct sentence because the statement is not contrary to fact whether or not I can recall the event.

cj Sez: I keep a list of the quirks and twists that I run across, like the stink, stank, stunk,  and Lois’s blog above. Do you keep a list, or do you run to Google? 

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. In the meantime, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.


cj
PS:  Thank you for your prayers for my sister. The stroke slowed her down but didn’t cripple her. She is recuperating at home and moving forward with the necessary changes in her life.
PPS:  Pray for peace in this crazy world.

Qrtly newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com
Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents
Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook
Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo
California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)
The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Note: On the bundles, the “look inside” invitation gives you a taste of only the first book.


Sunday, November 12, 2017

Mid NaNoWriMo

cj Sez: Since I’ve committed to writing as many words as possible for the NaNoWriMo challenge, today’s post will again be brief. 


Click on over to Facebook and log in to view the perfect symbolism for a successful NaNoWriMo...


Wishing all the strivers SUCCESS!

FYE…Here’s the opening paragraph of my NaNoWriMo story:

The young man sitting opposite her did not appear unfriendly, though not a word had passed between them during the previous eight hours. Handsome, she thought, but soft. Definitely not a Westerner. Despite the semitransparent mix of brown dust and coal soot coating the train window, his dark hair, parted in the middle and curling against the collar of his suit coat, shone with a red highlight glint in the late afternoon sun. streaming in train’s window. His eyes were as blue as the clear Texas skies. She’d been sitting silently, facing him, since leaving the depot in Indian Territory at seven that morning. She took notice of his shy glances and the occasional, deep dimple that dented his one smooth-shaven cheek when he seemed to reflect on some pleasant thought. Silent long enough, she decided to be a little forward and venture the start of a conversation. ///

As you can see by the red, crossed-through places, I can’t stop editing, so I have little hope of reaching 50,000 words. How-some-ever, I will have a good start on a new historical western romance.

From my publisher, Crimson Romance, a new release coming November 27th, the perfect holiday gift for a romance reader near you: 


CHRISTMAS KISSES: 4 HOLIDAY ROMANCES by USA Today bestselling authors Alicia Hunter Pace and T.F. Walsh, with Dana Volney and Casey Dawes.

Grab your eggnog and curl up by the fireplace with these magical holiday romances sure to warm your heart and your spirits!

Okay, you-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj
Warning, warning! Santa’s arrival on Christmas eve is only six weeks away. Here are some wonderful (and cheap) suggestions for holiday gifts for your favorite romance readers. Helpful hint: The bundles are so cheap, you can buy them for white elephant gifts also and look like a big spender.
Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents
Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook
Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo
California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)
The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Note: On the bundles, the “look inside” invitation gives you a taste of only the first book.
Qrtly newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Remembrances of Elmore Leonard


cj Sez: When NYT best-selling author Elmore Leonard first suffered a stroke in August 2013, writer and poet Fenton Ludtke, a dear friend of mine and one of Mr. Leonard’s former work-a-day colleagues, shared some of his personal memories of his former colleague. 

Following is an excerpt of Fenton's note:

“When I left the AP (Associated Press) in 1963 and joined Campbell Ewald, Elmore Leonard also was a anew copywriter. He wrote copy on the Chevrolet account. He was quiet, and almost shy. We talked and drank (a few) at home parties, where he came out of his shell a bit. We named him “Dutch” after Dutch Leonard, then a major league baseball pitcher with a tipsy knuckle ball, as I recall.

Back then, Elmore would rise around 6 a.m. and write for an hour. He disciplined himself. His venue, westerns. Then he’d shower and dress and make it to the agency in the GM building on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. After a while he was doing so well, his westerns were selling in paperbacks, and later one as a movie, “3:10 to Yuma,” that he left the agency to go on his own. 

After his stroke, Elmore still continues to work on his latest book. (cj Sez: It was Raylan, his 46th novel.)

George Will, the columnist, has called Elmore “America’s greatest mystery writer.” It isn’t a mystery to me. It’s a matter of discipline.” 

cj Sez:  Discipline . . . a necessary ingredient for any NaNoWriMo participant, so I’d better get back to it!

VETERANS' DAY is Saturday...


Veterans Day (November 11) was originally called “Armistice Day,” and the date was chosen to commemorate the signing of the armistice with Germany that ended the hostilities of World War I. It was also once called “Poppy Day,” a name inspired by John McCrae’s poem, Flanders Fields. “In Flanders fields the poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row…”

Not all states observe the official holiday, although all Federal offices will be closed for the holiday on Friday, November 10.

We have the freedom to do and say stupid stuff because of our Armed Forces veterans. Since some of us seem to need a special day to remember to say “thank you,” this is a reminder that you can do that on Saturday…Veterans Day is November 11.

That’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same.

cj
P.S. Please say a prayer or my sister who suffered a stroke last week.

Qrtly newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com
Qrtly newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com
 “Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents
Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook
Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo
California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)
The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Note: On the bundles, the “look inside” invitation gives you a taste of only the first book

Sunday, October 29, 2017

News you can use

cj Sez: We celebrate Halloween by dressing in weird costumes and then go begging for treats.
October 31 - Hallowed Eve, the day before All Saints Day.
  
But since most stores have ALL their end-of-year marketing displayed, here’s an all-encompassing wish:

  
November 1 - National Author Appreciation Day

In 1928, Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, president of the Bement, Illinois Women’s Club had the idea of setting aside a day to celebrate American authors. An avid reader, while recuperating in the hospital during World War I, she wrote a fan letter to fiction writer, Irving Bacheller, telling him how much she enjoyed his story Eben Holden’s Last Day A’ Fishin. Bacheller thanked her by sending her an autographed copy of another story.

To thank him properly, she submitted the idea for a National Author’s Day to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, and they passed a resolution declaring November 1 as a day to honor American writers. The United States Department of Commerce subsequently recognized the day in 1949.

Now that you know…
Got a writer or two in your life? Go out of your way to encourage them. Buy books by your favorite author and then take five or ten minutes to write a review to support them. 

Also on November 1 – NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is a hot-to-trot race to produce 50,000 words in 30 days1,667 words a day will get you there. Authors, if you’re participating, start your writing.

cj Sez: My gift to you…an extra hour of sleep next weekend.

It’s fall-back time. For those of you on Daylight Savings time, before you tumble into bed next Saturday night, remember to turn back your clocks one hour because on Sunday morning at 2 a.m. Nov 5, 2017 - Daylight Saving Time Ends.  (cj Sez: I like the idea that I can reclaim the hour I lost to DST in March.)


Benjamin Franklin takes the honor (or the blame, depending on your view of the time changes) for coming up with the idea to reset clocks in the summer months as a way to conserve energy, according to David Prerau, author of "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time" (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005). 

At the time, Franklin was ambassador to Paris and sowrote a witty letter to the Journal of Paris in 1784, rejoicing over his "discovery" that the sun provides light as soon as it rises.
Even so, DST didn't officially begin until more than a century later. Germany established DST in May 1916 as a way to conserve fuel during World War I. The rest of Europe came onboard shortly thereafter. And in 1918, the United States adopted daylight saving time.

That’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to the same. Hope you have a great week.

cj 
Leaving you with a word from my sponsors: 
Qrtly newsletter sign-up:  cjpetterson@gmail.com
 “Bad Day at Round Rock” in The Posse Western anthology of 8 short stories @99 cents
Choosing Carter  -- Kindle  /  Nook  /  Kobo   /  iTunes/iBook
Deadly Star --  Kindle  / Nook  / Kobo
California Kisses—10 book publisher’s bundle @ 99 cents (includes Deadly Star)
The Great Outdoors  8 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Bodies in Motion — 10 book publisher’s bundle @99 cents (includes Choosing Carter)
Note: On the bundles, the “look inside” invitation gives you a taste of only the first book.