BES August Challenge - Day 12 - Writing Communities

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Today's Question:  

How has having a website and being involved with an online community (like BE) helped your blog?

Well, right now, 'my blog' and 'my website' are one and the same.  Being involved with several online blogging and writing communities, I can say that my writing has improved in both quality and quantity.  It's nice to have people to share ideas back and forth. Also, when there is a challenge, such as this one, with prompts and everything, it helps me a lot to write everyday.  

Other communities of note in which I am or have been involved include:

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - A group of a couple thousand people pledge, not only to write a post every day in April, but to visit other bloggers on the list and to encourage and provide feedback.  This year was my second year participating in the challenge, and was proud to be a co-host's 'minion'.  I 'met' a LOT of people, and still interact with many of the bloggers from this year's group.

#ISWG (Insecure Writer's Support Group) - Every writer is insecure at some point in the process.  Is it good enough?  Will people like it?  Will it sell?  What about editing?  Finding a publisher?  The first Wednesday of each month, we get together and air our insecurities about our WIP's, and receive encouragement and support from our writer friends!

BE Society August Challenge - Day 11

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Today's Question:  

What would it take for you to consider yourself a 'successful blogger'?  Is that something you strive for?

If I can help someone to smile...

If I can help someone see a different side of things...

If I can help someone see that life is worth living... (RIP Robin Williams)

If I can help someone see through a block they are experiencing...

If I can raise someone's spirits...

All these things spell success to me and are all things for which I strive.

Making money from blogging?  Well, yes, that would be nice.  But not to the point that I would tout products or services which I would not recommend.  That would take enough away from the good I would like to do to make the money not worth it.

BES - Day 10 - You'uns C'mon Up and Set a Spell

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Today's Topic:  

Write about whatever you'd like, but write using regional slang, your dialect, or in your accent.

Ugh.  It's the end of a long day and I just don't feel like doing this.  (Isn't that awful?)

One of the more common Kentucky-isms I've heard since moving here is "you'uns" - 2nd person plural pronoun.  As in:

Are you'uns going up to the fair this weekend?  Better get more air in that left rear tar (tire).  It's a-lookin' a little low.

Of course, there is always:

Ah'm tarred after pickin' backer all day.

The rest of the world may or may not recognize that as:  I'm tired after picking tobacco all day.

~~~oOo~~~

So, what are some of your -isms?m

BE Society August Challenge - Day 9

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Today's Question:  

How important are clothes to you?  Describe your style, if you have one, and tell us how appearance impacts how you feel about yourself.

Clothes are not extremely important to me.  I'm a functional dresser.  If it's winter and cold, I don't worry if I have to wear paisley and loud island colors, as long as it keeps me warm.  Mostly I'm in jeans and a tee shirt.  I do know how to dress 'up' for things like church and occasions (weddings, etc).

When I hear about the latest celebrity 'in' designer purse at $3,500 a whack, I think, "Gee...I could pay the mortgage, home and car insurance, food and clothing for a family of 5 (hey, there are five people in MY family!) for a month or two on that much!  I'm not judging people who like designer clothing and accessories.  If their bills are paid and that's what they like, more power to them.  I'm just saying I come from a different mindset and different set of circumstances.

Sometimes, though, when it has been (or I know it's going to be a rough day), I will purposely dress in something bright or 'pretty' to lift my mood.  It doesn't change the situation, but it helps keep my spirits up!

So what's your 'style'?

BE Society August Challenge - Day 8

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Today's Question:  

What inspired you to create your blog, what continues to inspire you?

I started Back Porchervations as an outlet, a way to express myself.  I was, at the time, working at a residential/teaching facility for adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.  It was an extremely stressful and rewarding job and my choices of stress-relief was:

1. blogging
2. taking up smoking
3. putting my fist through a wall.

Now, I am not a physically violent person, so the 3rd option never happened.  Both the others did, however.  Of the two, I would say blogging has been the most beneficial.

BE Society August Challenge - Day 7

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Today's Question:  

When you first log onto the computer, what do you normally do (sites you visit, etc.)?

1. Gmail
2. Blogger
3. Facebook
4. GoodReads

The first two is a social / business kind of thing.  Facebook is for games (I know).  GoodReads is for information about books and to keep up with my reading buddies and challenges.

BES - #ISWG - Write Tribe

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Today's Question:  

What's the one luxury you can't live without?

Being either both students or living on one income for so long, I've learned that there is nothing money can buy that I can't live without.  Having said that, there are some things I'd rather not live without unless I had to.  But then, I wouldn't necessarily call them luxuries (tp, microwaveable food).

Probably the closest I could come on this would be these little dark chocolate sea salt caramel candies hubby brings home every once in a while from the store.  I used to get them all to myself, but now my oldest son, 17, has developed a 'taste' for them.  Rats!

I'd like to be like my mother-in-law who raised h-e-double-toothpicks at the airport once because the car rental place did not have the Cadillac she had reserved.  She didn't want the Oldsmobile.  She said she could only drive a Cadillac.  Must be nice, eh?

~~~oOo~~~

Do you write?  Are you insecure about it?  Click the button above and get more encouragement that you can shake a pen and some looseleaf paper at!

Someone just needs to tie me to the chair and not let me eat, drink or smoke (yeah, I know it's a bad habit) until I've written something.  I don't know if it's more my fear or my tendency to procrastinate.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

~~~oOo~~~

I lost my early childhood friends when we moved from Cumberland, MD, to Salt Lake City, UT, when I was 9.

I lost my best friend in college because of some crazy people I thought might try to harm me and my family and friends.  So I stopped contacting my friends and family.  I know, not incredibly bright.

I lost my theatre friends when I moved to Fort Worth, TX, with my husband and then 9 month old son (he's now 17 years old).

Now my step-mother-in-law (my father-in-law's second wife), thinks I'm strange because I don't have one or more female friends with whom to pal around.  I'm a mother with three growing children, a beginning farmer and a writer.  What the heck is 'time' anyway?  Let alone time to run around.

I will be a better friend than I have been.

BE Society August Challenge - Day 5

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Today's Question:  

Share a story about the furthest you've ever traveled from home.

Probably the farthest I've ever been from home is my mother's hometown of Davos, Switzerland.  The distance is:  4,563 miles (or 7,342 kilometres, or 3965 nautical miles).  

I've been there twice.

Once in 1971 with my mother, father and brother.  We were visiting mom's relatives.  Mom, my brother and I stayed with "Tante Betti" (actually my mother's cousin) and Dad stayed with Tante Erna (Betti's mother, I believe).  Apparently it is or was a custom there to shake your housemates' hands in the morning (as opposed to hugging?).  That was where I learned to have a firm handshake.  Tante Erna was convinced that all Americans had to have a meat and eggs breakfast every morning, so that is what my Dad got.  We did a lot of sightseeing and hiking and stopped in at (I want to say) the Heimatmuseum.  There were a lot of centuries-old furniture, works of art, suits of armor, etc.  Most interesting was the "Stammbaum", or family tree.  It went, with increasing numbers of gaps back to around 1365, where one of our ancestors was a standard-bearer for a French king.  My mother and uncle were listed in the book, as well as my aunt and cousins, but not us.  I felt a little slighted (hey, I was 9  years old!) ... but that's the way records were kept then.

I also went there in 1984 on vacation at Easter.  I had been working in the capital city of Bern as an au-pair.  I went to see Tante Betti and we had a mineralwasser at a restaurant.  She said that some waitstaff did not care for Americans because they would order tap water (which was free).  But I had developed a taste for the bubble water.  I also went to Schaffausen where Tante Pauli (Betti's sister) lived, which was in the north near the border with Germany.  She told me about a picture in an old album of two American soldiers sitting outside a hotel.  They had been confined to quarters for ripping the flag down off the Nazi HQ in town.  (They had everybody in Davos, during WWII, Allied and Axis powers.)  They were smiling, though, because even though they could not go off the porch, people would bring them drinks and pastries and a wink or two.

I also went back to the Heimatmuseum and saw the stammbaum again.  I explained that I had come there years ago with my family.  They lady said she remembered me.  All these years, I have believed that she had incredible powers of memory.  The thought came to me earlier that she might have just said that to make a visitor happy.  Maybe she did remember; maybe she didn't.  I'm staying with my first belief. ;)

Sunday Post/BE Society Challenge - Day 3

LAST WEEK

• WeWriWa-D is for Dedication
• To Hold the Sun by Chas Watkins (Review)
• Write Tribe-What if We Were Not Afraid
• Lies Told in Silence by M.K. Tod  (Book Blast)
• Murder at Cold Creek College by Christa Nardi (Review)
• BE Society August Challenge - 10 Years into the Past
• BESAC Day 2 - What was Your First Website?
• BESAC Day 3 / Write Tribe - 100 Words on Saturday

THIS WEEK

• Sunday Post/BESAC Day 4-Week in Review/What was the last thing you searched for online?
• BESAC Day 5 - Share a story about the farthest you've traveled from home.
• BESAC Day 6 - What's the one luxury you can't live without?
• BESAC Day 7 - What sites do you visit first when you get on the computer?
• "Well Read, Then Dead" by Terrie Farley Moran (Review)
• BESAC Day 8 - What inspired you to create your blog?
• BESAC Day 9 - How important are clothes to you?  Do you have a 'style'?

~~~oOo~~~

Click the button above to be taken to the main challenge site, to sign up, and/or to visit the other participants!

Today's Question:  

What was the last thing you searched for online?  Why were you looking for it?

The last thing I searched for online was yesterday.  I looked up "word counters" as I wanted to stay under 100 words for "100 Words on Saturday"

BES August Challenge - Day 3/100 Words on Saturday

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Today's Question:  

What would you say to the first person who broke your heart?

Now...who are you again? :p

~~~oOo~~~

I first came across the Write Tribe during this year's Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  They are an active, amazing, caring bunch of bloggers.  You've probably seen the "Write Tribe Pro Blogger" button in my sidebar.  "100 Words on Saturday" is one of their initiatives and a chance to flex your creative and conciseness muscles.  Click the button above to join in!

This week's prompt is:  

"My grandmother/grandfather said..."

Sadly, I barely remember my 'blood' grandparents.  My maternal grandfather died before I was born.  I saw my maternal grandmother once, when she came to visit us from Switzerland.  I only remember seeing my paternal grandmother once, in passing on the road.  I knew my paternal grandfather best.  What I remember most about him was him comforting me one night he was babysitting and I had a bad dream.  I also remember my mother sending him $500 to travel out to my high school graduation (after my father had died) and him buying gasoline for the tank in his yard.

BE Society August Challenge - Day 2

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Today's Question:  

 What was your first website...(what was it about, etc.)?

Like I can remember back that far!  *LOL*  It was on an early free hosting site, which I think is now out of operation.

I even missed my own blogiversary for Back Porchervations.  (Ba-a-a-ad blog mom.) *sigh*  On July 22, 2007, I posted for the first time on this blog.  I talked about how the name of the blog came to be and how the word "wicked" could mean different things depending on the context in which it was used.

BE Society August Challenge - Day 1

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Today's Question:  

If you could go back in time 10 years would you change anything/warn yourself of things to come?

There are a lot of things in my life I wish I had done differently.  But would I go back and time and change things so that my life now could be 'better'?

I hadn't intended for this post to have religious overtones, but in Matthew 8:36 of the KJV, it reads:  "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Yes, it would be nice to drive a car that was younger than my oldest child.  Yes, it would be nice to fly to Scotland for vacation (yes, I am obsessed).  Yes, it would be nice to have been able to buy a house before I was 50.

But what if I had all those things, but did not have my family?  NO THANK YOU.

Five Things That Make Me Happy Right Now

Today's prompt:  What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?

1.  My faith

One week after my last pregnancy test came back positive, I started bleeding at work.  The ER doctor refused to believe I was pregnant, even though I had had a confirmation from my ob/gyn the day before.  So while they were doing a blood test, I lay there thinking, "What am I supposed to hope for?"  That I wasn't pregnant after all?  That I was and may be having a miscarriage?  What happens if they baby has problems?  I had used the 23rd Psalm countless times in the dentist's chair to calm myself and tried it again for this situation.  Then I prayed.  I made the decision to accept whatever happened, knowing that I could get through it with God's help.  The moment that thought passed, I felt the sweetest peace I have ever known in my life.

2.  My husband.

We originally met online in a role-playing game.  He was a shaman; I was a vampire.  We decided he would come out to Salt Lake City to visit for a week.  He never really left. :O)  We've had our ups and downs, but I believe we were made for each other.  

3.  My older son.

Even though he crawled across the phone (which was on the floor) at 7 months of age and somehow dialed 911; even though he deleted Windows from our computer when he was 1-1/2 years old ... yes, he's my evil genius.  He's smart as a whip and has never really given us serious grief about doing his share around the house.  He even goes up on his Papaw's roof to keep the gutters clean.  And he will still hug his old Mom in public.  He is 17 years old.  When his sister was born, he got mad at the NICU nurses because they wouldn't let him take her home so he could take care of her.

4.  My younger son.

Also very intelligent, he processes things differently from most people.  He never showed much interest in reading until his Grammy got him a Kindle for Christmas one year.  Now we can hardly get him to stop!  And he has one of the biggest hearts I've ever known in a human.  He makes sure everyone gets a fair share, even if it means giving up some of what is his.  And I wish I could speed up my hearing because he could give the world's fastest talker a run for his money.  If someone in the family is having a rough time, he'll come and tell his father or me, saying that he is worried.  And he just turned 16 so, "WOOHOO!  We have four drivers now when we make the trip to Texas every year!"

5.  My daughter.

She is my miracle baby...my "HARBOR CHICK"!  (The term is taken from Ghostbusters II when they are walking through NYC inside the Statue of Liberty.  Egon is worried that the stress will cause the statue to crack and Bill Murray's character says, "Don't worry.  She's tough.  She's a HARBOR CHICK!")  DD came into the world 2 months early.  They told us to expect her to be in the NICU for 2 months (or her original due date).  We had two gentlemen from our church come into the NICU when she was 2-3 days old and give her a blessing.  She wound up getting to come home when she was 22 days old (just over 3 weeks), and she was still slightly under 4 pounds.  The doctors said she was "just too healthy and they needed the space".  I was thrilled because having to go home from the hospital and leave her there has been, BAR NONE, the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

~~~oOo~~~

Also sharing at:  

     

BE Society Day 4 and IWSG

Today's prompt:  List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self if you could.


1.  If you ever drive after drinking, or get into a vehicle where the driver is not sober, I will come back through time and slap you upside the head.

2.  Brush your teeth.

3.  Spend more time with your Dad.  He's not going to be around much longer.

4.  Your mother knows more than you think she does.

5.  You are better at acting on stage than you think you are.

6.  Don't be in a rush on tile floors when you've just come in from the rain.  Your tailbone with thank you.

7.  Don't walk down hills in flip flops.  Take the stairs that are 10 feet away.

8.  You are a daughter of God and He only makes the best.

9.  The family you and I have without changes to the timeline are a pretty cool bunch.

10.  Take more time to pray.

~~~oOo~~~

I think a lot of my issues here come down to time management.

The blog is coming along nicely.  I had plenty of book reviews/tours last month to keep things hopping.  Maybe a few too many.  I put time and effort into the reviews and too much of a good thing...is not a good thing.  It is also not doing the author/tour companies any favors if I am overbooked.  And last, but definitely not least, I don't want to wear my readers out!

I'm involved in the BE  Society June Challenge, where a prompt has been provided for each day.  Thank goodness for the prompts.  I'm also doing Writing 101 from Blogging University.  In my first post, "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly", I confused the term free-writing with stream-of-consciousness writing.  (I don't think I used (any or many) swear words in it, but be warned, it is not my usual 'style'.)

In May, I stated my intention to turn my 2014 A to Z posts (about Proverbs 31) into an e-book.  I was using the "Weekend Writing Warriors" for some accountability, but totally spaced last week.  Now I'm wondering if I have been adding all these challenges and activities with the blog to crowd out having to face the e-book issue.  What am I afraid of? *sigh*

Well, at least I seem to have the insecurity part down pat! *lol*

BE Society June Challenge - Days 2 and 3

I only found out about the challenge yesterday, so I started out a day behind.  Going to take care of that today by combining days 2 and 3.

~~~oOo~~~

Prompt for June 2:  Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.

1.  Falling / especially backwards.

When I was little, I fell down our basement steps.  The steps were bare wood and did not have a railing.  The basement floor was bare cement (or is that concrete).  I can never remember which is which.  I can't even be sitting in a rocking chair and have someone come put their hand on the back of it.

2.  Something bad happening to one of my children in some sort of traumatic event or illness.

Just call me Mama Bear.  If someone can be pin-pointed as the cause of my child's injury or illness?  Even if it was unintentional, they should probably run and hide and give me a chance to cool down.  If it was intentional?  They should run and HIDE.  Or just go straight to the police and turn themselves in.  Get some locked iron bars between us ... for a good long while.

Sometimes fears make you crumble.  Sometimes they provide a platform for you to grow in strength of character.  Obviously this is something on which I am still working, because I chose "door #3" - letting fear fuel anger.

3.  Reaching 300 lbs. (a fear that no longer exists).

I have been within the same 10-20 pound range for at least a decade.  The last time I had a large increase in weight was when I was pregnant with my daughter.  If I kept going the way I started out, I would have topped 300 lbs.  When I took the 1-hour test for gestational diabetes, I did not have to go back for the 3 hr test; they sent me straight to the diabetes nutritionist.  The more I weighed, the worse it would have been for my daughter.  I gained (and lost) the same 8 pounds for the length of the pregnancy.

~~~oOo~~~

Prompt for June 3:  Describe your relationship with your spouse.

Chris (my husband of 17 years as of May 9th, 2014) and I complement each other - as in where one of us is weak, the other is usually strong.  IMO (in my opinion), that is why couples who are both celebrities, or doctors or politicians have a rough go.  There's too much ego and competition involved.

We support each other when one of us is struggling.  We celebrate each other's successes.

We are not perfect.  Far from it.  Take education for instance.  I have a degree.  I have a B.S. in Finance from Westminster College in Salt Lake City.  I graduated with honors - magna cum laude.  My husband went to college for a semester or two after graduating high school, then stopped.  He had been given the idea that he could not hack it.  I believed in him.  And I believe in him now.

He started back to college 2 years ago.  For the first year, he maintained a 4.0 GPA.  I think he got a "B" or something this last year, but he has been invited to be a T.A. for one of his 1st year professors.  And when he transfers to UK, he will have a similar opportunity.  I couldn't be prouder of him.

But I also admit to a 'little twinge of envy'.  You see, I started back to college, with an eye towards getting my Master's Degree.  I thought since it's been 20 years since I got my degree, I should take some undergraduate courses to dust of the skills.  This time it's me that's struggling.  I bit off more than I could chew, and it's costing me. *sigh*

But that is my problem.  And I'm certainly not going to allow it to become an issue in our marriage.

Both Chris and I have the opinion that marriage is not a destination vacation.  We don't arrive and live in paradise for the rest of our days.  Marriage is more like driving cross-country in the middle of the night, over roads you we have not travelled before.  It's kids saying "I gotta go", even though you just stopped 10 miles ago.  But it's also being able to look back and see what you have accomplished together.  It's kids running to you when you come home from work and giving you a big hug.

Our relationship is the type where we still come together to embrace and dance every time our song comes on the radio ... the song that (in a sense) brought us together more than 17 years ago.

June Be Society Challenge and Monday What Are You Reading

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Today's topic is "20 Random Things About Me"

1.  My mother was born in Switzerland.  My father was born in West Virginia.  I guess that makes me an alpine hillbilly.

2.  I thought if I didn't find "the one" with whom to have children by the time I was 35, I would investigate artificial insemination.  I found out I was pregnant about 4 months before my 35th birthday.

3.  I had my first child when I was 35.

4.  I had my second child when I was 36.

5.  I had my third child when I was 41.

6.  My favorite color is purple.

7.  I have been to three popular contemporary music concerts in my life:  The Osmond Brothers (back in the day, y'all), Terence Trent D'Arby and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers.

8.  Last year, we bought my husband's paternal grandparents' home from his Dad and Uncles.  We are thrilled to be able to keep it in the family.

9.  I once spent 2 weeks in the Orlando area and did not go to Disney World.  (Isn't that just sad?)

10.  I met my FIL (father-in-law) face to face for the first time when he drove from Kentucky to Wheatley, AR, to rescue us after our vehicle died.  (DH and I were already married with 2 children.)

11.  I have a bug bite on my left hand right now that is driving me NUTS!

12.  I recently started my own business as an Independent Mary Kay Consultant!

13.  The first time I studied the Russian language, the class was taught in German.

14.  I was once told I spoke French with a Spanish accent.  (I think I'm culturally confused.)

15.  I once completed a 30K (18 mile) walk-a-thon.  Later than night I went to a BBQ and had to ask people sitting in a hallway to move, because I could not lift my feet to step over them.

16.  When my oldest child was about 6 months old, I broke my arm at a local park (I was alone) and had to drive myself to the hospital.

17.  I LOVE acting on stage!

18.  "To visit Scotland" is one of the things on my bucket list.

19.  I'm working an an Appalachian cozy-mystery series of books.

20.  I am compiling my posts from this year's Blogging From A to Z Challenge into an e-book!

~~~oOo~~~

(It's Monday! What are You Reading is a weekly bookish link-up where you can share your reads, reviews, and other book-related shenanigans.  It is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

Most of the books I read in May were ARCs, or Advance Reader Copies.  When you accept an ARC, you make an agreement to post a review.  I just did a monthly wrap-up/sneak peak post yesterday, so I'm going to do this post a little differently.

One of the books I reviewed last month was:

On the actual release day, I 'attended' an FB party at their event page and won print copies of Lethal Lily and:

With a couple days' break in reviews, yesterday I decided to start reading this book 'just for fun', which hasn't happened in quite a while.  I finished "A Thyme to Die" around noon today and enjoyed it immensely.

Which leads me to a new bookish goal ... to read the rest of the Peggy lee Garden Mystery series.  In their correct order would be nice, but I'll read them however I can. :O)  So far, I have been going in reverse order, which is more than a little odd at times, but Peggy, her 2nd husband Steve, Peggy's son Paul and his wife Mai are such regular folks that reading about them ... in any order ... is a wonderful experience.

~~~oOo~~~

I'm also sharing at one of my favorite link-ups on the planet: