Bowling Alley Blues

There’s a small bowling alley in our town. Twelve lanes. Smoking still allowed. Furnishings from that great decade of design, the seventies. Formica with built in stainless steel cup holders and ashtrays. Molded plastic seats. But my kids wanted to go and on Fridays from 6-10 PM you can bowl two games, get a hot dog and a “pop” and shoes for $5. Now that’s a deal I can afford.

My kids then proceeded to kick my butt in bowling. I haven’t bowled since junior high so I scored in the um, 60s. My son’s unusual method of taking the ball in both hands, heaving it down the lane like a shot put, and then walking away still scored him in the 80s and a strike. My daughter won with a score of 113 and three strikes. Oh, and did I mention we were playing with those bumpers they put up so you don’t get gutter balls? Um, yeah. Obviously bowling is not my sport.

However, I rallied in the second game when I switched to bowling left handed. Never got any strikes but I managed a few spares and scored 110. My son lost interest during the second game and wandered around checking out the video games and pinball (yes, pinball) machines. So Sissy and I took turns playing his frames.

Two hours later we walked out reeking of cigarette smoke, not quite filled by our hot dogs and "pop," but still pretty happy. We’ll do it again, so anyone have any bowling tips for me?

A Meme for Writers

Both Sabrina and Heather tagged me with the latest meme of the blogosphere.

1. What's the one book or writing project you haven't yet written but still hope to?

Lately I’ve been playing with the idea of doing a Russo-esque book on life in a small town. I find I’m loving the little quirks about living here and that I have a ton of fodder for stories.


2. If you had one entire day in which to do nothing but read, what book would you start with?

Man, I have a huge TBR pile. It’s actually two shelves in a bookcase in my bedroom. I’m on a Russo kick right now so I’d finished Nobody’s Fool and then move to Risk Pool. Like I’d ever have a day to just read.


3. What was your first writing "instrument" (besides pen and paper)?

I had a manual typewriter that I remember working on even as far back as kindergarten. I loved the smell of metal and ink and ribbon. The feel of the keys and the thunking sound they make. I want to get another one some day. But the first “real” book I wrote in high school was done on my Apple IIe. In the hallway of my house where the swamp cooler blew across me. I had broken my thumb in gymnastics and couldn’t swim or get it wet or any of the normal things you do in inland California in the summer, so I camped out in front of the computer and swamp cooler and wrote my first 100 page historical transporting all of my classmates back in time. I also taught myself to program in BASIC that summer.

4. What's your best guess as to how many books you read in a month?

Depends on the book and what all’s going on but I read about 6 and listen to about 2 in the car. I don’t read as much as I used to and I’ve been trying to work it into my schedule more. I have a feeling that when winter comes I’ll have more reading time.

5. What's your most favorite writing "machine" you've ever owned?


My current Mac PowerBook G4. Though if I had it to do over, I’d get a smaller laptop and a big screen to hook it into when I’m using it at the desk.


6. Think historical fiction: what's your favorite time period in which to read? (And if you don't read historical fiction--shame on you.)


Well, the time period I transported my classmates to, the American West, 1880s. It was such an amazing period of change, on the cusp of modernity.


7. What's the one book you remember most clearly from your youth (childhood or teens)?


Easily the Little House books. I read them over and over and over. That’s probably where my fascination with the 1880s West comes from.

Sabrina tagged one half of my usual tag-ees and Heather got the other half. So if you haven’t been tagged (or even if you have and want another group of people to read your answers) consider yourself tagged and leave a note in the comments when your answers are up. I’m thinking Jeanne here ;)

Life in a Small Town

It’s been interesting moving to a small Midwest town. Here’s a couple of examples. A week or so ago we drove almost an hour to the nearest Krispy Kreme. Lest you think that’s quite a trip for donuts, the nearest chain grocery store is 35 minutes away, WalMart 30 minutes, so really we’re used to driving to get places. Except the library. It’s only a mile away.

So we’re driving to Krispy Kreme after church on Sunday, and I noticed something I hadn’t seen anywhere else I’d lived. Graveyards everywhere. I must have passed a dozen in that hour drive. Just plopped along the side of the road. Now I happen to like graveyards and one of these days want to go exploring and find out who those people are that are buried there. But it’s such a different thing from the large, gated cemeteries in the West, set on the outskirts of town.

Being a writer, I of course pay more attention to language than most people. Some of the differences I expected, like calling soda “pop.” It’s even printed on the grocery store aisles that way.

The other is more unexpected. I’ve had a few people say I wasn’t from around here because of my accent. Um, what accent? I’m from California. We don’t have accents. It’s the rest of y’all that do.

One Sunday at church I told Michelle I’d go get the kids and meet her back in the foyer. A lady turned to me and said, “You’re not from around here, are you?”

I said no, why? She told me it was because I said ‘foy-yay’ not ‘foy-yer’ and she has a friend from California that says it that way too. Obviously, her friend from California says it right.

I think I need to go take some pics in the graveyard. I’m sure my kids and the locals will think I’m nuts.

Wordless Wednesday

Things we rescued from our pond. Heather, don't look.

Check Me Out

I'm posting over at the Misfits blog today on creativity if you're interested.

I'm a Rockin' Girl Blogger!

Both Dineen and Sabrina nominated me for this award, which I think is really cool. Thanks girls! It's hard to find people who haven't been nominated but I'll pass the award on to the Misfit chicks: Michelle, Heather, Angie, and Jenny. Sorry, Chris and Mike.

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Storm Over Indiana

The Next Stage of the Journey

About time I updated my blog, huh?

I’ve been trying to get settled and everything (I know, it’s taken me long enough) so updating my blog hasn’t been my top priority. But one day during church I had an epiphany on my blog name. So of course I wrote it all down on the bulletin. And, also of course, now I can’t find it. Sigh. But I do remember the gist of it.

But before that, here are all the wonderful suggestions I got for my new blog name. Some are serious, some are laugh-out-loud funny.

Hoosier Mama
Hoosier Horizons
Coast to Toast to Wheat
Desert to Deluge
Heat to Humid
Jordan to Jericho
Desert to Dairy
East of Jericho
Camping at Gilgal
Cows and Bees
Cheese and Pollen
Dairy and Apiary
Lait et miel
Beginning of Months
Indiana Initiative
Jen at Work
Côte à griller au blé
Hot to Humid
Chaud a Humide
Out of the frying pan and into the cornfield
Out of the frying pan... into the corn
Out of the frying pan... into the snow
Out of the frying pan... into my thermal underwear

Both Jenny’s Phil and Jeanne Damoff deserve credit for their terrific suggestions.

Back to my epiphany. One of my on-line devotionals was on 2 Samuel 22:20. “He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me” (NIV). This was exactly one week after I’d been in Indiana. Something about the passage was familiar. I was thinking one of my Beth Moore Bible studies had included that verse. But I didn’t think too much about it.

A few days later I was sitting in church and we opened that same passage. So, I know God is trying to tell me something. Then I look at what verse it cross references. Psalm 18:19. Now I know for sure God is telling me something. I studied Chapter 18 in depth the first summer I moved to Arizona. I spent weeks in that one psalm, looking up Hebrew words. It was there that I learned the word ‘rock’—used so often in that psalm—can mean a fortress, a refuge, a place of safety. Or it can mean a sharp edge, like a cliff or a flint used for circumcision.

For about a year before God brought us out of Arizona, I had a feeling our time there was ending. Our desert years had been very real desert years for us, a time of testing and trial, a time of digging our roots down deep and drawing only on Living Water, a time to trust God and God alone. Those lessons were for a purpose I don’t fully understand yet.

So when I read that verse, the one that so eloquently bookended my desert years, I knew I had a title for my blog for the next stage of this journey. Thank you all for joining on it with me.

Yet Another Group Author Blog

Just wanted to let you all know that the Misfits have started their own group blog. We did kind of a spoof on the Declaration of Independence and hope that it becomes a place for some great discussion on the intersection of writing, life, and faith. We argue and disagree among ourselves (nicely, of course) so we're hoping to spark some good discussion on our blog.

Come check us out.

A New Critique Service

Good friend Ronie Kendig has started a critique service. I'm a little behind the ball announcing this, but better late than never I guess. Anyhow, if you're in need of a good critique, check out Ronie. Here's the press release.

DOUBLE CRIT EDITORIAL SERVICES
www.doublecrit.com
PRESS RELEASE

Double Crit Editorial Services

~specializes in polishing fiction book proposals~

NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Double Crit is a unique freelance editing service that offers high-level critiques of fiction book proposals from two experienced editors. Whether a writer is preparing for a conference or getting ready to submit their manuscript to editors and agents, Double Crit can help.

Double Crit is here to help with book proposal formatting, query letters, synopses and story structure as well as the first thirty pages of the manuscript. They can assist with the opening hook, back-cover copy, active and passive voice, showing vs. telling, character development, spiritual threads, and point of view.

Double Crit sharpens proposals to double your edge in the publishing world.

Double Crit Editorial Services is the brain-child of Ronie Kendig and Sara Mills. Ronie and Sara were brought together as friends and critique partners because they are both represented by agent.

Through networking with other writers, Sara & Ronie saw a gaping need for high-level editing services for writers who want to attend writers conferences with proposals that are polished and ready to impress. Thus, Double Crit was born.

A great book proposal can open publishing house doors for a writer, and Double Crit can to help you to tighten your proposal to sharpen your edge in the publishing world.



Contact Double Crit: submissions@doublecrit.com

Wow

This is a great article on Storytellers Unplugged about the Artist's Soul. I'm going to have to read it several times for it to really sink in. Amazing.

Lightning Bugs

http://flickr.com/photos/56412930@N00/23522284/


Can you believe I'd never seen them before? But last night we were driving home and the fields were just shimmering with them. We pulled over to the side of the road to watch.

I have found something Calvin is afraid of since we've moved here. He doesn't like bugs. So he wasn't too happy when we rolled down the window to see them better and several of them came near the car. But I was entranced.

By the time we got home is was dark and there were only a few in the backyard. But I'm hoping we see more tonight.

Yay!

I have Internet!

I don't think I've ever been without it this long since I've had Internet back in, um, 1993? Wow. Anyhow, glad to have one of my permanently-attached appendages back.

On another note, fellow Misfit Elaina has a short story of hers posted at her blog. Go check it out.

Route 66 in Reverse

Hey, I made it to Indiana safely with kids, animals, and stuff mostly intact. Three 17-hour days in a moving truck with Michelle, a 75-pound black Lab, and a 16-year-old cat. No Internet service yet. I'm at the library using theirs. So, this is a short post.

I found it interesting that we basically did Route 66 backwards. Or at least backwards according to the song. I have pictures to post later when I figure out where my camera dock is.

I'll post more when I can.

The Caffeinated Cat

Seems like a good title for something, doesn’t it? I don’t know for what, but you’re welcome to use it as long as you give me credit.





This is my cat Duchess. She’s 16. And apparently has developed an iced tea habit in her old age. I had brought my tea and my computer upstairs to get all comfy on my bed and get some work done. I set the tea on my nightstand, but when I went to reach for it, um, someone had beat me to it. Some cat. Duchess had her whole head buried in the glass.

I thought she’d take a drink, taste it and realize it wasn’t water and stop drinking. Of course she’d ruined the whole glass for me. But no, she kept drinking. Then she stopped. But came back a few minutes later. She drank half of a 24 oz glass. Which made me wonder what caffeine would do to a cat. I mean, would it keep her up? She tends to be nocturnal anyway.

I guess it made her chase flies. Out here, the flies seem to sense the cool air inside the houses and they wait in ambush by the door. Soon as one opens, wham!, they sneak in. And with two kids, they get lots of those opportunities. So I have flies in my house. But Duchess managed to kill at least three the other night while I was watching. So guess she can have all the iced tea she wants. Just not out of my glass.

Should be interesting to see how she stands sharing the cab of a moving truck with me, Michelle and the dog. The adventure starts Tuesday. Stay tuned.

The Final Bell

Yesterday was the last day of school for my kids. Well, since they are homeschooled, it was the last day of their enrichment program where they went two days a week for dance, music, Spanish, chess, and other fun kinds of things.

The kids had great teachers, so Sissy wrote thank you notes to her teacher and I wrote "Calvin's" for him. I spent a lot of time telling her how much I appreciated her understanding my son and instilling in him a love of learning. Those were the important things for me this year.

For the last day of school they had a talent show. And I learned something. I can play the piano as well as the kindergartners. I can play Mary Had a Little Lamb with my left hand just like Calvin's friend.

However, Calvin hasn't quite learned recital etiquette. He was sitting on my lap and when his friend Ethan went up to play the piano, he started yelling, "Do it Ethan, do it!" Then when another little girl went up, they pronounced her name wrong and he corrected them. Other than that, he was pretty good for the hour-long show where his sister danced in two routines.

A couple other interesting observations. This girl in really ripped jeans, a ripped t-shirt, razor-cut hair, and dark eyeliner comes up. And she begins playing classical cello. And was very good. So incongruous. I love it when things like that happen. I can see her as a character in a book.

Then this little kid, maybe 2nd grade, played electric guitar, nearly as big as him, and he was GOOD. I was amazed.

And finally, I noticed that the younger kids would get up and do anything, but the older kids only came up to play if they were really, really good. At what point do we lose that ability to just want to show off and realize we have to be good to display our talents?

Calvin was crying when I picked him up at the end of the day. It was the first time he'd ever experienced this kind of change and loss, knowing we're moving and he won't see his friends again. Made me a little teary too. But thanks to the Internet, the kids will have pen pals via e-mail. I hope that makes the transition just a little bit better.

Genesis Finalists

The finalists in the ACFW Genesis contest were announced yesterday. Congrats to all the winners but specifically fellow Misfits Chris Mikesell, Angie Poole, and Jenny Cary. Also to fellow writer-friends Sabrina Fox and Dineen Miller. Having read all of these guys' writing, I know this was well deserved. Hope it leads to wonderful things for all of you.

A Laugh for Sunday Morning

Found this on Brenda Coulter's blog. It's a hysterical how-to video for men on hugging. Remeniscent of those Goofy cartoons on how to dance.

I tried to get the video to post here, but for some reason YouTube and Blogger aren't talking to each other this morning.

The Big Announcement

I’ve never been much of one for following the crowd. In fact, I rather like swimming upstream. So since a lot of people move to Arizona from the Midwest, I decided to move from Arizona to the Midwest. Besides, last year at the ACFW conference in Dallas, Dave Long of Bethany House Publishers called me a cream puff for never having lived anywhere it snowed. Well, I couldn’t take a challenge like that laying down. So, we’re off to Indiana. Take that, Dave.


(Okay, yeah, I know there's not snow there right now, but I didn't take any more pictures last time I was there when everything was green. The first one is a deer track in the snow.)

Things I’ll miss about Arizona:

The water out of the tap is hot. Probably 95 or so. The pipes get really hot in the summer. And the toilet water is hot. You can lift the lid and have condensation. Kind of like giving your rear end a facial.

Not many mountains in Indiana

Amazing and dramatic views.

Dust devils the size of small tornadoes

Warm (okay, blow-dryer hot) afternoon winds.

Warm nights

Monsoon season with amazing thunderstorms.

Colorful Mediterranean plants


Things I’m looking forward to:

Seasons. I’ve heard rumors there are four but I’ve only seen two.

Snow. Not sure how I’ll survive. But I’ve never seen a real snowflake. That should be fun.

Greenery.

And plants like peonies and lilacs and bulbs. Stuff that doesn’t grow anywhere I lived.

Things that are the same:

Lots of two lane roads through corn fields.

Trains blocking those two lane roads

Bright, starry skies.

Here's where you come in.

The name of this blog is Sonoran Saga. Um, guess that's not going to work anymore. So I'm up for suggestions. I also need to change the little description box up at the top. Right now, the only thing I've come up with is Jen at Work and putting 'Caution:...." in the little description box. But I need more stuff to choose from. So, give me your ideas and if I pick yours you can come over to my house and help me pack. Wait, that doesn't sound like much of an incentive. Um, okay, how about this? I'm getting rid of a bunch of books, so I'll give some of those away.

Check This Out

There's a good discussion about taste going on over at Mick Silva's blog. I like these kind of discussions because there is really no right answer, but everyone's thoughts illuminate a little bit more of the puzzle for me.

And yes, I'll have something else to post this afternoon. ;)