Although this did not make the news this week...I guess the weather people were more determined to get their teeth around the two bigger bones, the earthquake on Tuesday and the Hurricane eerily bearing the name of my
former mother-in-law...definitely a precursor for what that blowhard was going to dump on us...the brief...very brief snowstorm, about five minutes total, of fluffy flurries swirling in the air, didn't warrant attention.
I can see many of you saying, "No Way!"...she's a writer weaving a story because snow doesn't happen in 90 degree weather. I used to think that way, until a few years back, can't remember exactly how many, five, eight, right in the middle of the Dog Days of Summer, snow swirls danced outside making the summer day a lacy panorama of winter's white.
Guess what? Earthquake on Tuesday, Hurricane on Friday and Lake Effects snow on Wednesday.
How can I possibly know it was Lake Effects snow...well, unless someone popped open a lot of goose-down pillows, the fluttery stuff could not be anything but snow. It was a clear day...no snow clouds, the sun beaming...if my eyes were not deceiving me, and as ancient as I am, I do admit that MIGHT be the case...(not really)...cloudless snow is an anomaly created by the lakes. Back in the day...five, eight years ago, the snow from our Great Lakes all the way out there, found its way here on another August day.
Earthquake on Tuesday...we don't live on a fault line, but felt the radiating temper of a liquefying ground that rose, fell, shook, made the birds go nutsy, and some of us actually felt nauseous before it hit and for days after it's last thrust. (I'll explain why later.)
Lake Effects Snow on Wednesday...okay unusual, but not unheard of, and because we associate snow with COLD, psychologically it gave us a minute respite from the sweltering sauna preceding Hurricane MIL heading for us too.
I've always loved watching snow race or eddy towards the ground...having it fall in August is no less breathtakingly beautiful than it is in December when we all press our noses to the window panes on the twenty fourth, pleading with the powers that be, for a White Christmas.
Friday...the hurricane's promise is such the eastern seaboard declares disaster conditions hours...MANY hours before the MIL storm begins trekking its way towards us.
Weatherpersons in bow ties of raw silk, designer jackets that cost more than I have ever spent in my entire life, animatedly regale that unblinking red camera eye with the deadly destruction we are about to be served on a Doppler platter.
Governors, Mayors, Aldermen call for mandatory evacuations...people run believing the doomsday hype now coming at them minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day...again, long before the first fat drop of MIL's moisture touches the highest of treetops.
We are going to die...if we do not rush to the store, purchase the last of their generators, the last "C" and "D" battery, the last lantern, flashlight, bottle of lamp oil, candles, milk, eggs, bread, and incredibly enough,
Rice Krispie Treats. I kid you not!
The earthquake survived, the Lake Effects Snow hardly noticed, but Hurricane MIL is coming. How can anything sharing the same name as my former MIL be anything but, catastrophic?
Hurricane bands tease us with torrents one moment and mist the next. Winds gust between a scarcely noteworthy twenty miles an hour to a pretty impressive eighty mile an hour wind spurts.
Hurricane MIL has arrived. On the TV our courageous, high paid news people brace themselves out there so we will not for a moment discount it is as serious, as deadly, and as costly as they've been saying since they had to stop the non-stop hurricane hype to hype the earthquake on Tuesday. (Unlike Lake Effects Snow, you can't really miss the ground dipping and rising and shaking all about...Do you think Mother Nature knows the
Hokey Pokey?)
Those of us who felt the pressure of the earthquake's power, were now having that nausea escalated by the approaching demon Hurricane MIL.
Equilibrium...most the time we don't give it a second thought, but with the altering ions preceding MIL, balance comes into play. (Those of us who feel these changes sort of understand why birds go wonky before Nature's fist comes down...because we go wonky too.)
Saturday the storm begins to show us how right, or not, the weather prognosticators have been during this long week of ratcheting descriptions of the hell about to befall.
Generators...fortunes spent to buy up every one from Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Walmart, and every other supplier of such things. "AA" and "AAA" batteries remain in abundance while shelves for the "C", "D" and those bigger ones that look like they belong in cars, stare back at you from their stark emptiness.
Yes, the MIL dropped a lot of water, and blew the bejeeburs out of some trees. One million people in my state were evacuated, but by the time MIL got here, she'd been downgraded to a pesky category one hurricane.
Now we are hearing about the billions in damages, even though the promised devastation the weather people, you know those silk clad designer tie wearing people, promised with escalating seriousness did not happen.
Those guys continue to make their high salaries, even though more often than not they're wrong...
Kinda reminds me of politicians who claim God sent both the earthquake and hurricane to Washington, D.C. to let politicians know they need to change...
(Hello! I do NOT live in D.C....nor do any of the residents of Canada...Perhaps politicians need to go back and learn a science other than POLITICAL science...and please explain to me if D.C. is so horrid, why do these politicians spend billions on campaigns to get them there?)
But do you think those hurricane numbers reflect the monies wasted by the average and overly frightened Joe buying generators, candles, water, and weird as it sounds Rice Krispie Treats to counter Mother Nature's destructive wrath? Somehow I doubt it!
I begin to think that maybe we should seriously think about relieving these doomsday prognosticators, whittle our own divining sticks and glean the weather all by ourselves. We certainly can't be any less accurate than they are with all their expensive state-of-the-art tools.
And now, on Monday, the tail end of Hurricane MIL is not even a blip on the weather segments of our news. Now we hear over and over how much this storm cost us...meanwhile deep in the lower oceans another tropical depression system is forming...
I have
wondered how I would do this if I chose to move into this next phase of writing, reading, and commenting.
How could I do the best I can for the authors I will review and how to make it my very own...It dawned on me, I am firmly entrenched in what makes
Muse It Up Publishing, Inc. the growing
family it is. I did not always believe that, but now I do...so I have to come up with a way of doing
reviews and make them uniquely mine.
Five Stars are great....but unless I made those
stars the ones floating around the universe, not me.
Roses? No! And no, don't want to explain that.
Clowns? Yeah that would be appropriate...I can imagine me picking five
fools for my own temerity in thinking I have the
wisdom to do this...but hardly
complimentary to the authors I will bring through my reviewing
heartbeat.
And then it hit me...I AM from
Muse and we are the home of today's
Modern Gods and Goddesses...so what images would be better?
I must confess the idea of splitting the gods apart into
halfsies, doesn't appeal, so I will be giving full numbered Gods and goddesses for my reviews.
So let's get started. Please
forgive the many mistakes I will make in creating a proper presentation...
I just finished reading Ginger Simpson's MASKED LOVE from the
Muse Divaz collection and, wow could I understand Olivia and even Austin.
When your stable world that you believe is your
forever after shatters like the glass in a car upon high speed impact, even though you could swear everything was going just fine, a part of you shrivels inside and dies. That part is your own confidence.
Wallowing in the day-to-day anguish of a life no longer secure, many turn to the comfort of food, and packing on the pounds is so horrifically easy.
Two years can slip by before your body fights back and science, at its weirdest steps in to shake you out of your death spiral.
Confidence hanging on by a fraying thread, a script in your pocket that you know is going to turn you into a freak of nature, who'd expect to find your dream guy behind the counter of the store that is going to fill the script for your worse nightmare?
Life just isn't fair...and yet...Austin with the dreamy blue eyes...could it be he sees beyond the extra pounds, beyond the mire you are about to slip into so filled with abasement of self at a level your heart is weeping over?
Ginger Simpson knows the trials and insecurities life aims at those of us past the first blush of adulthood. This book is a mere 23 pages long, but the punch it packs will stay with you long after the last word has faded from your view screen.
Read more about this book including an excerpt at its Muse Bookstore BUY PAGE for this book and you can learn more about Ginger on her Muse It Up AUTHOR'S PAGE
I guess all that's left is for me to give my rating...This is the serious part right?
Okay Ginger Simpson, after reading MASKED LOVE...
I have no choice but to give you.
FIVE GODDESSES.
My son called me earlier today and wanted to know what I'd done this month so far. I try to tell him about the busy stuff I do, but he's used to scalding his fanny off searing metal into many designs...
He's a master welder...have I told any of you that?
His talents leave me
breathless...
there's the entry gate at a nearby business I pass every time I have to go to my lung doctor that makes my heart swell with pride because he made it.
So it is difficult for him to grasp what I do. Sometimes it's difficult for me to grasp it as well.
I'm a writer with a Nudge living inside me that directs my actions whether they be to write a four line semi-rhyme or a 375 page masterpiece. Nudge is also pretty much
in control when I come into any of my
blogs and create new posting. In fact Nudge is the one
directing my fingers to type these words here and now.
My son thinks I am lazy. I do not leave the apartment more often than I need to, and when I do I am eager to get back home.
I have those ten
blogs as I stated. A lot of what I post
never gets read, or if it does doesn't instill the readers to place
comments.
![Lin\]()
Recently I started a
blog because my
publisher recommended it. My very first posting is about as
personal as it can get...I describe
me and my author daughter. I describe our
many health wise, yet only
comments made it onto that posting. Did others
view it? I really don't know.
I opened that
back at the end of
Today is
August
14th and there are
231 page views so far. A little more than a month and a half with
postings.
The first one entitled LISTENING TO ONE'S PUBLISHER went up on
28 and received a total of (TWO) comments. Not bad when I check out other people's blogs, but this one tells one and all why Kat sometimes cannot think clearly and I hurt inside. Why her body is not always her friend, and why she is the
light of my life, but only 2 people commented.
Is it because I no longer create SHORT postings? Should I make my blog postings nothing more elaborate than this:
My son called today and thinks I'm lazy. I have thirteen contracts currently, three more in the sub pipeline and another about to be subbed, but I'm lazy? Isn't is a shame authors don't get paid by the hour?
It would certainly be easier on me not to
hunt high and low for photos I can use without stomping on someones copyright to go with my postings.
Perhaps I SHOULD think about becoming
lazy. It would mean I'd offend less people when I present their works in a way that flies in the face of what they assumed it should be.
My second posting on my new Lins Own Author's Platform Blog is entitled
BEYOND YESTERDAY HAS A ROCKING COVER and was posted on June 29th. Okay that was self serving since BEYOND YESTERDAY is my book releasing in
September and it really DOES have a
rocking cover. Once again it received (TWO) comments only.
My third posting was made the very same day, June 29th. Two postings on the same day?
Lazy,
lazy,
lazy. This one is entitled KAT HOLMES AND THE LAURELS SHE DESERVES. Somehow this one completely
escaped notice because it got (ZERO) comments.
Maybe I should
think about not posting more than one thing a day...but I have TEN blogs!
My fourth posting in one I would give anything to have not needed to post. I had
planned two entirely different posts for this incredible woman. One was to have been a
review of her book I'd only just finished and the second was to indoctrinate her into my
Pantheon of Muse Editors.
Karen McGrath...not a day goes by I do not ache for what we shared. I miss your voice. I miss your heart. I miss your courage. I miss your love. I cannot believe how fortunate I was to have had this past year with you. I miss you horribly. My posting was entitled WHEN WAVES CRASH AND YOUR WATER WINGS CANNOT KEEP YOU FROM DROWNING.
I will say this posting rightfully received
comments, but I would give up every hit my pages got to have you back among us, Karen. I hope your family will allow me the honor of creating one of my Stationary Trailers for the book you just received the cover for.
My fifth posting was a round robin. I was not supposed to do anything for
Glenn Kleier because he worries about my health and knew, unlike my son, that I am NOT just sitting here in a mild state of catatonia. But I can be sneaky for a good cause, and Glenn's July release of
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD ANS EVIL was a good cause. The title of this entry is GLENN KLEIER...A PROMISE IS A PROMISE and it got (7) comments.
For number six Nudge decided it was time you all got to know her...not it would seem that many of you bothered to comment if you checked her out. This one is entitled NUDGE IS ARISING and got
comments only.
Number seven hasn't been released yet, but is
scheduled for August 19th. It is an interview with PENNY EHRENKRANTZ entitled Here For a Penny, The Riches of Muse Compounded.
Should be
to see how many hits and/or comments this one gets.
My son thinks I am
lazy...
Here's my blogging itinerary for the last two and one half weeks.
On My Lin's Own Blog...Muse It Up Dedicated Blog:
7/29 LJ HOLMES PRESENTS; LOVE DELIVERY by Penny E.
8/3 LJ HOLMES PRESENTS; THE CALLING OF MIKE MALONE by M.L. Archer
8/9 LJ HOLMES PRESENTS; MIDNIGHT FIND by Christine I. Steeves.
scheduled to release on 9/27
LJ HOLMES PRESENTS: TEN YEARS by Jim Hartley
On My Lin's Own Firebrand...Muse It Hot dedicated blog.
7/29 LJ HOLMES PRESENTS; MORE THAN A STUD by Jerry Race
8/9 LJ HOLMES PRESENTS; THIS TIME FOREVER by L.J. Holmes
scheduled to release on 8/29
LJ HOLMES PRESENTS; A TRACE OF LOVE by Danielle Ravencraft
On My Lin's Own Oyster...Dedicated to Authors with Books elsewhere
8/1 PURITY DWELLS WITHIN by Suzannah Safi
On Lin's Own Speculations
7/31 THE HEART OF THE QUEEN: HERA'S BOYS by Kat Holmes
8/5 INTEGRITY, HONOR, AND LOVE: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MUSE PUBLISHING
On Lin's Own Horn Tooting
7/28 HOTTER THAN THE HEAT INDEX-THIS TIME FOREVER by L.J. Holmes
8/13 REVIEWS OF WORKING UNDER COVERS...Book 1 GAW Series by Kat Holmes
Guest Posting on Other Author's Blogs:
FLOWERS ON THE FENCE: Gail Branan
8/10 MUSE WILL CELEBRATE IT'S ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY ONE MONTH FROM TODAY
KAT'S BLOG: Kat Holmes
8/14 THIS TIME FOREVER'S TOWEL SHAKES IT LOOSE
Of course now there's this one on my Gray Matter being placed on August 15th because it is after
midnight.
I also have a blog none of you want to know about, but a girl can't just skim by on her Nudgibility. Once in a while I HAVE to comment on what is going on in the
world as does Kat who I brought in to let her own
steam off from time to time. In fact the recent posting on this blog made on 8/2 is actually Kat's. We lovingly named this blog
A Dumbass Independent Speaks.
Back to the Original issue...should I
cut down on the length of my postings? Should I post
less often...should I REALLY become
lazy and just
stop altogether? Could I even
do that?
My son thinks I'm lazy. I do not produce the beautiful works of creation he suffers spark burns from using his
Migs and
Tigs and other welding
equipment to create. Maybe
he's right. Maybe I am
deluding myself into thinking what I do matters.
Before coming in to do this, I checked the
numbers on my blogs...Page Views for the last two and 1/2 weeks...here's how they rank...and I am
stymied by them to the point I cannot help wondering if Blogger's counter is off.
1.) Lins Own Blog...the Main Muse It Up blog 3,674
2.) Lin's Own Firebrand...the Muse It Hot Blog 1,882
3.) Lin's Own Oyster...Authors elsewhere blog 1,224
4.) Lin's Own Speculations...Just Me thinking 869
5.) Lin's Own Booklounge...Muse YA dedicated 476
6.) Lin's Own Horn Tooting...Toot Tooting 364
7.) Lin's Own Author's Platform...it's new 116
8.) Lin's Own Gray Matter...cerebral-not! 37
9.) Lin's Own Pantheon Of Muse Edit Gods 24
And on Kat's Blog these last 2 1/2 weeks 2,392
So what's your
opinion? Will you leave a
comment for me to see?
Time will tell.
