Mona Karel Author

I’ve seen this song referred to as a “Christian” song, and it certainly gives that impression. In fact I’m fairly sure it was written in that vein. I’ve always thought of it as a tribute to people helping people.

Perhaps some people help people to make themselves feel better. So what? Doesn’t that make everyone a winner..and don’t we all love winning?

THIS ONE

I started using a FitBit recently. Many friends have been using it for over a year, with wonderful, life-saving results. I tried a few knock offs,that only worked a short amount of time, then finally bit the bullet and got an ‘entry level’ version I can clip on anything. (I’ve been known to use my bra strap) and keep track of my activity…or lack thereof. I’ve picked up a few active Fitbit users as on line partners…we can watch each others progress, send words of encouragement, and keep on stepping.

When I receive the pictures from last Saturday, I can tell you about my first BIG day tracking steps. In the meantime, I was following a discussion about step tracking. Someone mentioned they had hit a credible number of steps. Immediately following was a comment: “that’s fine but it’s not aerobic,” as if to say ‘so what, it’s not going to do you that much good.’

Yeah, way to raise us up! I know from experience, it can only take one or two statements like that to stop someone cold. Yes, that’s oversensitive. But it’s also very human. If instead that commenter had said: “Good for you. Once you’re into that great walking routine are you going to add some kind of aerobics or weight work?”

Same concept, different phrasing.

Which one works better for you?

A to Z Challenges wants a blog about my experiences last month. I gained great insights into myself and what I have to share.

I have a fun blog planned for the first Fitbit day I hit 10,000+ steps…another great accomplishment.

But…it’s Sunday. A day to share memories and emotions. For starters, a singer Tom and I enjoyed…one of several story teller singers who eased our minds and inspired our creativity

Gordon Lightfoot

And this one…heartfelt discussion between a wanderer and a home body. How many of you have been one of these people?

And if we didn’t live it, by glory we write it. “California life alone is just too hard to live.” Oh, yes, it is. And not just in California

We’re expecting a couple days of rain. Magical words to we in the in High Plains

This is not a post about Spring and happy times. Yet it is. Nearly 300 women and children have been returned from Boka Haram. Mentally traumatized, physically debilitated they are not well. But they are back, and now they have a chance to recover. The story is not over. Families were torn apart and are not yet reunited. But it is a start.

THE STORY IS HERE, at least as much as has happened so far. There is still so much that needs to be done.

In contrast, HERE IS A STORY of a woman who saw a problem with the Sudan, and has developed assistance for the orphans there, and for the problem of human trafficking. This woman has been attacked, and survived to make a difference. Her goal is to help raise a generation of peace makers.

After the stories of hopelessness, of harm directed at others, of people choosing to go forth and cause trouble, or stay home and drink imported water, these stories are a ray of light.

What have you heard today to give you faith in people?

What we deserve…I came across this clip last month.

THE WHOLE DISCUSSION IS HERE, It’s worth reading.

Since I was working my way through the alphabet, I put this aside, to revisit once I was done. Today being May 1, done with the fun of A to Z, I revisited, and discovered all was not the way it seemed. The owner of that comedy club refuted her claims:

Hmmm, this brings up questions, doesn’t it? Seems Sarah did clarify what she said, and apologized for naming names. I thought I had found that clip, since that was the title of this You Tube which I realized later was from someone called Mark Dice.

I find this the worst sort of ‘journalism’ although calling this journalism insults that profession. The voice alone is enough to send me away, but the poor balance of the report amazes me. Not only does Mr Dice attack the specific Comedy Club story, he also attacks Silverman’s political and personal beliefs, as well as the reaction of her audience. Plus he slides in snide comments about her life.

I know, a lot of people will disagree with me. Maybe they don’t like Sarah Silverman’s form of comedy. Actually I don’t much like it either. That does not take away from her strong beliefs concerning feminism. Ad hominem attacks reduce the validity of any reasoned argument. But Mr Dice’s presentation was anything but reasoned.

We all deserve equal pay for equal work, no matter race, gender, personal preferences. I learned long ago that all too often life WAS made for beauty queens, and I had to just suck it up if I wanted that nice office job. I also got and retained jobs on my own merit. But I think we also all need to approach the issue with a bit more respect than the screaming journalism style.

Don’t you?

Remember when I said there would be a bit of self promotion? Here it is: A Question of Honor showed up for pre-order last night, from FROM AMAZON . Happy days!

Release date 5/9/2015

I wanted to do Xenophobe but that’s an X, and no matter how many alternative dictionaries I checked I couldn’t fake the spelling. So I came close, at least in lack of appeal, with

ZEALOT

Good Old WIKIPEDIA gives this definition: The term “zealot”, in Hebrew kanai (קנאי, frequently used in plural form, קנאים (kana’im)), means one who is zealous on behalf of God. The term derives from Greek ζηλωτής (zelotes), “emulator, zealous admirer or follower”. The Zealots were originally a political movement in 1st century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people of Judaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the First Jewish–Roman War (66-70). Zealotry was the term used by Josephus for a “fourth sect” during this period.

Is this ZEAL or what?

MERRIAM WEBSTER modernizes it a bit: a person who has very strong feelings about something (such as religion or politics) and who wants other people to have those feelings : a zealous person

It’s kind of a shame Zealot has such a negative connotation. Certainly ZEAL, the root word, brings a much happier reaction: : a strong feeling of interest and enthusiasm that makes someone very eager or determined to do something Thanks again, MERRIAM! And don’t forget Zealous, basically filled with zeal, enthusiasm that can be applied to so many projects

There are some mornings I’d love to be filled with zeal, instead of feeling like I need more ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZs. It might help if I went to bed a little sooner, what do you think?This is the final day of the A to Z Challenge. It’s been great fun. I hope you stick around for more insane inanities, occasional recipes and (a few) book promos. And pictures. LOTS of pictures

Here we have Y, upright, arms raised to the sky. The unfortunate tendency to truncate words has Y doing duty for a longer word, at least in text speech. Being of a certain age I’m far more prone to actually writing out words and using punctuation when I do text. Or is it txt? I’m not so likely to text much since my fingers just can’t get the right letter the first time out, or the second.

But texting is a choice of our younger generation…and I do remember when I was the younger generation. I remember a song from then, it went something like this: “If I eat too much jam, mother look how young I am”  and “Isn’t it true, one day you were like that too” It was fun and bouncy. When I went strolling through You Tube looking for that version, I found this…something I’d not heard before but it really is nice.

So much silly around about being younger, and older. About “When I was a kid…” It takes a short stroll through history to find out none of the younger generation has ever amounted to much, nor will they:

“Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt”. Horace

Pretty harsh but I’ve heard such things recently. Problem is, this is from 60 BC…yeah, a while back. It seems every generation uses that look back to heap scorn on the current generation. A kind of a fun exercise even if after a while it does tend to wear on conversation. There are more interesting observations ABOUT YOUTH HERE

What’s not fun, what will never be fun, is sending youth out to fight the wars of old men. You’d think with all of history behind us and all the brains we collectively possess, we could get past that practice. Maybe,one day, we won’t read about young bodies piled up like cord wood. No, it’s not a pretty turn of phrase nor is it a pretty sight. If we don’t study history we are doomed to repeat it…yet so many who do study history just can’t seem to avoid repeating.

For a more pleasant ending, here’s a favorite song about love and youth.

X…joined in the middle, holding itself up with feet braced. Not a lot of words start with X and most of them do not have an English origin. We have Xerxes, King of Kings, who both won and lost at Thermopylae. Xenophon, the father of horsemanship. There’s even a dog breed starting with X: Xoloitzcuintle, Xolo for short…one of those hairless breeds, I’m told quite fun to live with.

There are at least 2000 writers involved in this Challenge. I see some of them are using creative solutions to a difficult letter (well, we are writers after all) And some of them, I’ve discovered, had their posts all written in advance, scheduled to post on the correct day. That’s a level of organization I can only admire, doubt I could emulate it. I’ve been blogging as the day approaches, and thinking on what I’ll write often the day before. Which led to trawling though words starting with X. And also led to the obvious…for me…subject.

Let’s take a trip in the wayback machine (who remembers that?) to the day I discovered  ANDRE NORTON and Girl Power. Not that all her books featured girls, nor did she make a point of writing about dominant female characters. But when she did, it was with the obvious lesson: girls can do whatever needs to be done. And they can succeed.

Quite a heady lesson for a shy, plump teenager. Especially in the sixties, in a school loaded with sleek, good looking young women. Oh the stories…well, I won’t bore you. I will, however, close that link or I’ll never get this blog finished…WOW

How in the world is this leading to the letter X. Well, some of Ms Norton’s books were Fantasy and some were Science Fiction. And some of the Science Fiction had to do with exploring strange new worlds (sound familiar? Is my geek showing?) To explore those worlds, and meet those new people, you need the knowledge gained from studying life forms other than your own. You need XENOBIOLOGY. And wouldn’t it be SO COOL to study aliens? I mean without the dissection and stuff. Did you ever think about those aliens that (supposedly) visited Earth? How many of them were goofy geeks who could not WAIT to get their hands on a ‘good specimen’ Earthling?

The beauty of Norton’s writing was that she gave us the minimum information necessary to describe her characters (human or alien) her settings, her technology (future or magic) and let us fill in the blanks. It seems she knew to the point how much info we would need. And, yes, it was magic.

Who are your magic writers?

Now we have W…did you ever wonder why it’s called double U when actually it’s V joined together in good times and bad. No? Well, okay, maybe I am weird.

W begins some interesting words. Wisteria…love it, can’t grow it here. Wand, Wizard, Witch…Why do so many fantasy/magic words start with W? Wisconsin, where my father was born. Wikipedia, the resource we love to hate. Winsome, woeful…long list!

I knew from the start W would offer an opportunity to talk about

WATER.

And the lack thereof in way too many parts of the world. We worry about our bottled water imported from secret springs halfway around the world while those in other places walk. Bottled water in general…really? Major corporations decide they can blithely bottle up the water from California aquifers and sell it, adding to pollution (how many people actually bother to recycle those bottles?) and destroying that aquifer.

Around 2010 our well, always delicate, decided not to bring any  more water to the surface..put simply it went dry. We were able to cobbage together a solution: put one of the smaller collection barrels on a small trailer, and use that to haul water from one of the local ranches. They do a rousing business selling water, I only hope their well stays good. And yes, we collect every possible drop of rain/snow/frost water that hits any of our roofs. It’s why I don’t worry quite so much about the micro climate I’m trying to develop

In 2013 I joined an International group of authors contributing to an anthology about…water. The book is free, with a request for donations to a fund for clean water around the world. OF WORDS AND WATER was written to benefit Water Aid (click on the book cover for that link…I learned how to do this recently and wanted to show off!) My contribution is a tip of the hat to Star Trek…Prime Directive.

If you look through that website you’ll see pictures that are not so pretty of people struggling to survive, making an incredible effort to obtain at least the minimum needed water, hopefully clean.

They are in IN NEPAL NOW and are sharing statistics we need to understand about the situation there concerning Water and Sanitation, so critical to life and health. Even as the aftershocks continue, some things can’t wait.

I don’t mean this to be a downer story but if it takes some depression to wake us up to this critical issue, then I’ll stash the humor for a while.

Take care. And while you think about Water, think about our Wounded Warriors. I do pretty much constantly

When I heard Jami and Amber were planning to start an Author help/editing business I knew I had to grab them for a post. What better way to pay it forward? Didn’t hurt that they’d chosen Dragon for their name. I mean…dragons??? How could I not ask them to come visit?

What Comes After “THE END”?
By Jami Gray & Amber Kallyn, Editors for Wicked Dragon Writing Solutions

You’ve finally typed the two most important words: “THE END”, but your precious treasure of words needs one final polish before you usher it out on to the cruel world. During your writing journey you’ve discovered editors abound. So have we. Not because of our crystal balls, but because Amber and I have traversed the same paths, trying to find the magical editing fit for our written treasures.

Between the two of us, we have garnered thirteen years of continuous editing and writing experience in various genres. Enough so, when given an opportunity we decided to open our editing doors to our friends in the writing community, and, Wicked Dragon Writer Solutions was born.

Each written gem is a unique collection of voice, plot, and characters. The right editor will not only be experienced and educated, but will understand each story contains facets of creations unique to their genre. As with any master craftsman, an editor will devour written gems by the armful, regardless of genre. No one goes after a treasure without a map, and editors will arm themselves with industry knowledge to ensure a successful epic quest.

We know how vital editors are to Creators of the Written Word, and what’s better than one editor? How about two editors putting their eyes to the jewelers loop to examine your precious treasure, and you’ll only be out the gold for the price of one. Think of it as an Editorial BOGO (buy-one-get-one-free).

Feel free to come on over and check us over at Wicked Dragon Writer Solutions (WICKED DRAGON WRITER SOLUTIONS!

In celebration of our grand opening, if you book your adventure during the month of April, we are offering 10% off your hoard of gold, just note code: WDWSOPEN when booking your spot!

If you’re anxious to start your epic journey, feel free to reach out to mailto:wickeddragonsolutions@gmail.com and we’ll get you set for your editing adventure.

V…sharp and straight, waiting to be a Vessel, to establish Value. V also represents our Voice, the unique way we put words together in speech, in writing, or in song.

We have another use for our Voice, one we sometimes neglect. Our Voice can and should speak out against Violence. So much Violence, so much of it against women and children. While we worry about our first world problems…hell, we whine about them, don’t we…in other places Violence is used to subjugate, to prove a point, to establish superiority. All too often Violence is used when Voice is either not heard or not well expressed.

But…But what can I, a single Voice, do to resist this Violence?

Funny you should ask. THIS NUN IN UGANDA has learned to use her Voice to stand against the Violence in her country. And as she says, ‘If you want to save women, start with one woman at a time. If you want to save children, attempt to save one child at a time.’

Too many first world countries have their own sort of Violence. I can not pretend to understand all the reasons, nor do I know enough to take sides. I do know Violence as a first choice solves nothing. Education is the key here, or communication…using our Voice to discuss and create solutions. A dream? Or a necessity?

I thought I’d be going back to my younger days (LONG ago) for this song to share with you. Until I found this rendition which seemed more appropriate

And before I leave you, we need to discuss another critical V…our Veterans. Again we need to use our Voice to speak out for Veterans. For their safety, for their future. In thanks for their efforts that made it possible for us to feel at peace. I think this deserves a post of its own, or two or three. Don’t  you?