Happy Thanksgiving

Welcome autumn.

This reminds me of the Heber Creeper when I was much younger.

Hello autumn!

This is off the web, but so pretty!

Happy Halloween

Snoopy does it so well.

I watched the great pumpkin with the gang last night.

How does MS Affect Your Sleep?

original Calie Wyatt

Fatigue is one of the most common and frustrating symptoms that comes along with multiple sclerosis. In MS there is both fatigue and what is known as lassitude. While fatigue can itself feel debilitating, lassitude is the more severe type of MS fatigue. Lassitude is defined as, “A state of physical or mental weariness; lack of energy.” Nationalmssociety.org gives several examples of lassitude and how it is different from the type of fatigue experienced by people without MS. Here are the examples of lassitude and how it affects us that they have listed:

• Generally occurs on a daily basis
• May occur in the morning, even after a restful night’s sleep
• Tends to worsen as the day progresses
• Is often aggravated by heat or humidity
• Comes on easily and suddenly
• Is generally more severe than common fatigue
• Is more likely to interfere with daily responsibilities

Fatigue, lassitude, insomnia

My biggest symptom and largest hurdle with MS is my fatigue, and sometimes lassitude. It has always baffled me how I can be so incredibly tired all day long, and as soon as I climb into bed my mind won’t shut off enough to let my body rest. I have had trouble sleeping for as long as I can remember. Cue the counting sheep-in fact, many nights I have to count as high as I can until I finally drift off. Many things can affect your ability to sleep, but side effects from medication and stress were once my biggest issues. I no longer have issues sleeping because of those things, but it is still extremely difficult for me to close my eyes and fall asleep like any other person. I often have to take an over the counter sleep medication just to fall asleep, otherwise it will take me hours trying to do it on my own. I have heard from several doctors that MS and insomnia are not directly related. However many MS symptoms, such as spasticity, frequent trips to the bathroom, temperature dysregulation (hello, hot flashes) and medications can most certainly disturb your sleep. It is also noted that damage to our key neurological functions can disrupt our basic physiological processes, including maintenance of regular sleep-wake cycles.

Needing sleep to function

Sleep is crucial in order for me to function daily. In college I tried the staying up late and surviving on as little sleep as possible, but honestly that just wasn’t for me. Today, I make sure to get in bed at a decent hour so that I can get at least a good eight hours in. But, it seems that no matter how much good sleep I do get, some mornings I wake up and feel as though I have not slept at all. Some days it seems that no matter how much actual sleep and rest I do get, that my body and mind are just never fully rested. This can be so frustrating, because you feel as if you need to get up and start the day, get things done, etc. but your body is so tired it won’t let you. Sometimes, when I wake up feeling so fatigued I feel as though I just wasted time sleeping, while I could have gotten things done–because when I do wake up it feels like the sleep didn’t do me any good after all. And, then on the days I am unable to get adequate sleep I can become so tired that I almost feel hung-over. My body will feel sick and my head will ache as if I’ve spent the entire night on a drinking binge, when in all actuality I haven’t. Oh, and then there are the times that I do get adequate sleep, but because of my bizarre dreams I wake up feeling spent.

I can tell you one thing; life with MS is anything but boring…especially if your sleeping issues are anything like mine. So, tag you’re it! Please, tell me how does MS effect your sleep?

Gallop...

He's here to take your head...

We all have a different 100%

We all have a different 100%. We each have different emotional and physical limitations. This means that the 100% you can give because you have a chronic illness will look much different than the 100% another woman can give whose challenge is not chronic illness. Every scenario in life has both a negative side and a positive side. We progress faster when we focus on the positive and minimize the negative. So, please remember that whatever you can contribute is still valuable. All contributions are never equal but they are all equally important.

We often forget that the temple's purpose is to also serve the needs of the living. We tend to focus on work for the dead after we have done our own endowments. But, there are times when we, the living need to communicate more closely with the Lord -- then it is totally appropriate to dress in our temple clothing, forgo any work for the dead and sit in the Celestial Room read the scriptures, pray, ponder and listen for the Lord's answers. In doing this I have been able to heal from a deep emotional hurt and truly move forward unencumbered.

-Cathy Duigiud

Ode de' Tiki Torch

I get a call the other night from my friend & she tells me that her neighbors had been complaining that her dogs keep been barking non-stop. We already had the conversation about how we hate the electric zapping bark collars, so I suggested her purchasing a humane citronella collar, that way when the dogs barked, it shot out a blast of citronella under their nose and they don't like it. This morning she calls and asks me to come over & help her figure this crazy thing out. So I get dressed & walk over there. I was getting the collars ready and filled them with their stuff. And that's where my morning should have ended. But no, it's me, and I begin to become curious as to how said collars work. 


Now I'm standing on her back porch "barking" at the dog's collar. Nothing happens. I make sure it's turned on, check the fill level, and go through the "getting started" checklist one more time. Again, I bark. Nothing happens. She’s getting worried that they are defective and can’t take them back because we opened & filled them. 

Now I'm not quite sure, why I had this next thought, but I did; I put on the collar. I seriously extended the band and fit the growl box against my throat and barked. Apparently, the collar only works if it feels vibrations because I immediately received a blast of citronella to the face. 


I began coughing, which only caused the collar to continue to squirt bug spray over and over into my nasal cavity.I'm now on my hands and knees in my backyard, trying to breathe, and to make matters worse, the dogs are now barking. So between coughing and yelling at her & the dogs to shut up, I've emptied over a dozen blasts of citronella to my face. During all of this ruckus, I'm trying to undo the clasp of the collar, which has somehow managed to weld shut during this whole fiasco. She’s of no help! Trying to get the dogs inside & get scissors to cut the damn thing off me before I die. 


I finally get the collar off and threw, yes I threw that crazy (inhumane) thing across the yard, and lay in the gravel sucking in the cool morning air. In the middle of thinking this probably the dumbest thing I've done in a while, I hear laughter. HER NEIGHBOR SAW THE WHOLE THING! He was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe. Between gasps, he tells me,"I was gonna come help, but every time I started to climb over the fence, you'd set it off again and then I would start laughing and couldn't make it" So now, not only are my eyes red, but my face and ears are too. After checking to make sure I was ok, we parted ways and I went in to wash my face so I wouldn't be smelling like ode de' Tiki Torch.


So lesson learned: next time (yes, there will always be a next time with me) make sure that 1. Don't fill the collar before trying to set it off and B. Remember your neighbor is not a good source of help in a comedy crisis situation. On the plus side, I didn't have a mosquito problem for a few days!.....and now that even though this does sound like something I'd do I hate to break the news that it's a copied story.

2017 ANWA Conference Class by Julie Berry “Authentic Emotion: How Writing from Inside the Body Pulls the Reader into your Character’s Wants, Needs, and Suffering”

Readers want to have a body experience more than a brain experience. Dramatize intellectual processes through character action. Describing your body shows its connection to the setting.

Imagine that your body is underwater. Describe what each part of your body feels from your toes to the top of your head. Note how your body interacts with the water. Don’t use the word “feel.”

GOALS of Writing from Inside the Body: 1) Develop a mindful awareness of how your body is feeling in every situation. Motion/emotion; Action/reaction. 2) Lookout for fresh new ways of describing how your body moves and feels. 3) Break the habit of analytical telling how your character feels.

Sharpen your reactions. For instance, smell is the most overlooked sense in writing. Smells are wrapped up in mood, memory, and emotions. She said of all of the senses, smell has the shortest path to the brain. Pay attention to what you smell and how it affects you.

Exercise: Imagine sharpening pencils. What does it smell like? What does it remind you of? You might begin to question: How are pencils made? Who came up with them?

Her emphasis was on tuning into sensory details so we can create better moods and settings for our stories. We want to write in such a way that our readers empathize with our characters.

Descriptive words related to the body: Skin: soft, wrinkles, veiny hands, calloused Temperature: sticky clothes, breeze tickling our arms Fluids: sweat, tears, blood Sickness: fever, queasiness

Physical/Emotional Pain: throbbing, drumming, cramping. Both types are managed in the same place in the brain—prolonged emotional pain brings actual physical pain. Manifest emotional pain with bodily symptoms.

Picture a character in your WIP. Observe her body language. Act out her actions. Avoid thoughts about thoughts. Don’t label emotions. Stop talking and show blood! Don’t diagnose your characters.

OOOOooooo...

Haapppyyy Hhhaaalloooweeen

4 Good Reasons to Hit a Woman.

4 Good Reasons For A Man To Hit A Woman

Lately, there has been much discussion about violence against women by the men in their life. Many have said there is never a good reason for a man to strike a woman but I disagree and today I am speaking out! I have six sons and I have taught them what my father taught my brothers and I: there are four good reasons for a man to hit the woman he loves;
1. Fire. If you look over at the woman you love and discover flames have overtaken your girl, you should absolutely knock her to the ground and start rolling her around.
2. Spider. If your princess discovers a spider wandering across her shoulder and with sheer terror in her voice says “GET. IT. Off! You should smack that 8 legged sucker right off of her.
3. Choking. If over dinner she begins to laugh at another one of your amazingly funny stories and in the process, lodges a bit of her steak in her throat, you have my full support to yank her out of her chair, spin her around and start squeezing her beneath her rib-cage until she spits up!
4. Train. If, while enjoying a peaceful, after dinner walk with your lover, you notice she has wandered into the path of a quickly approaching oncoming train, by all means, grab her by her arm and like the strong man you are, yank her backwards aggressively.

Absent the presence of fire, spiders, choking or trains, dad taught us boys there is never, ever, ever, ever, ever a justifiable reason for a man to strike a woman. Period. He said real men don’t do it. He then added this important definition about being a ‘real man’ which I want to share with all men today;

“Real men don’t allow other men to hit women either.”

I call upon my brothers-in-manhood everywhere to join with me in ZERO TOLERANCE for violence against women. Don’t hit and don’t tolerate hitting. That woman you see getting abused by her “man”, at the club or in the parking lot or even, oh let’s say, an elevator; intervene. Put yourself between the abuser and the victim. Is that dangerous? Could be. But it’s what a real man would do. Always remind yourself when you witness violence on a woman- that is somebody’s mother, daughter or sister.
Just for the record, it IS your business if you decide to make it your business. In the Dunn household, my sons know we consider the safety of other women, our personal business, whether the abuser likes it or not.
Lastly, a note to the abused women of the world- do not take one more punch, slap or kick from any man. There is NOTHING that makes it okay. Stop making excuses for him. He is a broken man and needs to be repaired before he is worthy of spending another second in your presence. Insist on it.

5 Bad Reasons Women Let Men Hit Them;
1. “He was drunk”. So what? He will be drunk again. And although I have personally never been drunk, I know many people who do occasionally get intoxicated- NONE of them hit their women. Your husband or boyfriend is not NORMAL. Stop trying to convince yourself he is.
2. “He’s under a lot of stress”. Real men deal with stress by hitting the gym, hitting a golf ball or even hitting the buffet. They do NOT hit women. Stress is not a gateway emotion to violence for healthy, normal men.
3. “I deserved it”. What???? No. There is nothing you or any woman can do to validate violence against you. Maybe you have done something so bad he leaves you, but violence is not on the list of options for him to choose from when he is upset. NEVER AN OPTION.
4. “His dad abused his mom. It’s all he knows.” When I hear that statement, it makes me throw up a little in my mouth. So what if he witnessed abuse as a child?? If anything, he knows better than others the hurt and pain that comes from abuse. In life we witness lots of things that are bad but we don’t then go integrate them into our own lives. If your man abuses you because he witness abuse, let him go witness therapy. Let him go witness a support group. Let him go witness life alone without you and the children.
5. “It was only once. He apologized.” Statistics say that where there is a “first time”, there is a second time. Your response to the “first time” needs to send an incredibly clear message to your “man” that there will be no second time. Send that message so clearly it haunts him. Make a bold statement with action attached. It is the ‘action’ that will signal the level of your seriousness. That might be calling the police, it might be moving out for a week or two, it might be telling him to leave for a week or require immediate counseling. Your words to him after being hit MUST be followed up with immediate action to reinforce the true level of intolerance you have for violence against yourself.

You might be shocked to learn that someone in your life is an abuser, which means somebody in your life is a victim. Rather than guessing who it might be, just share this article with everyone so it reaches the ones who need to hear it most.
Abusers, be on notice- I’m watching. My sons are watching. And millions of other real men are watching. We WILL defend and protect your wife, your mother and your sister….even from you.

Troy Dunn
www.fb.com/troythelocator
@thelocator

Tooot Toot

It is my turn to toot my own horn, or in this case, that of my son.

Please notice who the  young man is...Sean Gonzales! that's my boy and he is gunning for a state championship and looking for a scholarship to pay for his education after serving for two years for our church.

Oh I wish that this was clear enough for you to read. It asks him what his favorite class is. His answer: Choir.

Let me scare you.

Come with me my pretties...

When is it correct to use "one's"?

One can only wonder how: It can be difficult to follow in the footsteps of one’s predecessors even if that is one’s greatest desire. 
OR
It can be difficult to follow in the footsteps of your predecessors even if that is your greatest desire.

The question here in the use of "one's".

It is my understanding that the use of 'one's' is used when writing to a more formal group. So the question is: "Who are you writing to?" Are you writing to a professor or are you writing to a group of generally educated to the eighth grade level of readership? If the former is who you are writing to and presumably a higher class of readership, than the use of 'one's' in your writing is correct. but if you are writing to the general readership, the second without the use of 'ones' would be correct.

It's FORMAL analytical essay for my instructor - so the use of 'one's' is correct.

Thus my question of the use of 'one's' is concluded.

Let me share a little Halloween with you.

 Okay, as you venture into my house.

Meet someone with PTSD.

I recently saw this on Facebook and had to share it here.

More Tidbits

"Writer's block is really writer's fear...the fear never goes away, but work puts it in its place."

~#JulieBerry

Hemingway.... Write the one perfect sentence. I love that advice. I can write one...

What I'm gleaning from the conferencer

"Don't try to write *the* book. Just write *a* book." ~Julie Berry

This statement in her key note speech last night spoke to me. I've allowed the pressure and expectation of *the* book--the one book that will change everything, the special book. . . the perfect book--to actually paralyze my writing. When she said this I realized what I had been doing, and I suddenly felt a wave of freedom. And, for the first time in months, I wanted to start working on my book again.

Maybe that was the difference. It went from being *the* book to *my* book last night, and I am filled with a newfound enthusiasm and joy! - Michelle Wilson

I love the way this was expressed. and I can't agree more. I know Michelle has several books released. they are good books in their own rights. One of them sits here on my desk, half-read. Don't worry, I'll get to it. I never before realized that other authors have the same struggles I do;. It has been a couple of weeks since I truly delved into my book. I know where it is going and how it will get there, I just haven't written it and this is why--I've been thinking about it all wrong.

Thank you Julie Berry for putting words to my feelings.#Julie Berry.

Her Halfback Hero

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Her+Halfback+Hero

Freebie

Yes, its true--I'm giving away one copy of your choice (See the Rafflecopter insert on the side.) This is to promote my most recent book. The Talisman - Cross Over. I'm quite proud of my latest "baby" with its ins and outs in timer travel.

Away for Awhile.

So I've been away for awhile but now I'm back. I just created a slideshow over on YouTube. You can see it on  https://youtu.be/GuLGBkHWqUc I haven't seen it yet and I'm going there now to do so. Come on with me and we will both be surprised! Okay, I've seen it and it is quite short. You need to be aware that the three titles: In Harm's Way, In Her Hands, and His Choice are part of Live, Love, Repeat.

I know I've been away for a while, but I've been busy, I promise I have been. I guess the old say of 'No news is good news.' applies here. As I check my Smashwords this morning I see that my free book The Talisman Crisscross is nearing a thousand downloads. That's 3 copies a day. And I'm hustling to get my second one in the series,  The Talisman: Cross Over done so that my readers can get it. Wish me luck! I still need to do the cover, or have it done for me. Hoping to have that done by the weeks end. Hum...I wonder how my book is doing over on Amazon...
This next time travel episode (yes, I said episode so hang on to your socks for future installments.) will not be free. I don't know quite what the price will be, but it will be.

Oh, okay so its too late to wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day and too early to wish you happy egg hunting, so I'll wish you a happy time shift as in happy daylight savings day. Right? Okay, not that one either so I'll have to think on it for a while. Oh, how about a happy reading of my new time-travel book (if you haven't read it yet) you will want to 'cause I'm thinking the second one in the series will be out real soon, maybe the end of April or in May. Let's see if I can come up with a good cover for it. Woo who  I'll go a hunting...

PART 2 –INFO DUMPS

Okay, you should now have a feeling about how to run through your existing novel and help blend the line expository with action. Let’s move onto the tougher expository: The huge info dumps that really should be weaved into the story.

Like I said before… these really need to be worked on at the outline stage. There are elements of your character and plot that should be offered to reader slowly throughout the novel, and this should be broken down and planned on during your structure phase. A little bit about her love of dogs here, a funny odor that surrounds her here, the fact that she woofs sometime sin her sleep there… and ¾ through the book, oh right, she’s a werewolf. That makes sense! Not… normal girl, normal girl, normal girl… Grrr, roar, I’m a warewolf! Because: blah blah blah blah.

But there are going to be times when you’re reading your ms, and you realize that you totally info-dumped and it’s a huge, throbbing paragraph of all this info that reads like an encyclopedia. So… what can you do? You break it down… and find numerous places for a little bit at a time.

Example 1

Her hair whipped her face, as she stood upon the cliff’s edge watching the ship slowly approach the harbor. She wore little, just a fringed skirt over her legs and moccasins on her feet… her culture allowed it, being  Powhatan meant staying cool in the hot summers of Virginia. Her face painted with red striped markings and her chest garnished with bone beads, she had taken a break from gathering berries for the stew her tribe would cook all day long, adding to it where they were able. Her people were peaceful, worshiping Ahoe, the creator god through tradition, but would war if forced. The Indian girl standing on the cliff that day felt the darkness of war within the ship’s shadow as it lumbered slowly towards the beach.

Let’s break it down:

1. Can you add certain info elsewhere?  Being Powatan and living in Virginia (I feel) can be offered elsewhere.

2. “Cooking all day long” – I get that it is the traditional way the Powatan’s cooked stew, but maybe this line could be scrubbed with a simple adjective. Ie: she had taken a break from gathering berries for the tribal stew.

3. Could their form of worship be offered as dialogue, in a conversation she has with a friend or family member

4. And could their peacefulness be witnessed instead of told.

Example 2

Jenny was from a broken home. Her mother left when she was 3, and her father had the neighbor babysit her soon after and never came back. She was put into foster care, but proved a difficult child and was shipped from one home to the next, finally winding up permanently in a group home at the ripe old age of 8. Which only hardened her more of course, as nasty fights and group torture were a form of entertainment and even currency at Bellville Home For Girls.  Run by a group of apathetic and borderline-seedy priests, Jenny learned quickly it was her and her alone she had to focus on, to take care of.  She started fighting to win if pounced, fighting dirty, nasty, horribly, and she quickly learned NEVER to regret it. The one time her kind instinct popped up and she held back, stopped hitting for blood, and tried to speak instead, she was almost beaten to death by another 11 year old.

1. Obviously, cut broken home.

2. We can hear that she hopped around, from the kids in the home.

3. See group home at 8 when she arrives, and witness the savageness of it.

4. See kindness, or hear about it.

So basically, if we want to be hardcore about this paragraph, it can be bought down to this:

“Her mother left when she was 3, and her father had the neighbor babysit her soon after and never came back”