Reblogged from kiralynblue:

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Readers and Blogizens, we here at KLB are proud to present...

The Squirrelies!

What are The Squirrelies? I'm so glad you asked. The Squirrelies are the epic awards of blogging awesomitude where KLB and the Ninja Squirrels take the opportunity to recognize the contributions of our fellow bloggers and thank those who have recognized us.

The Squirrelies are absolutely not in any way, shape, or fashion my cheap attempt to combine seven blogging awards into one post.

Read more… 846 more words

As I continue to try to learn more about the various forms of poetry, I stumbled on the concept of English or maybe more appropriately named pseudo haiku. This term is generally referred to the modern brief English poems. In any case, this form is still thought to be a proper form and should include the following elements:

• Use of  three (or fewer) lines of 17 or fewer syllables;
• Use of a season word that may be a word representing a season. (for example; pumpkin for the fall)
• Use of a  cut (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark, a dash or ellipsis) which implicitly      provides contrast and may compare two events, images, or situations. If used in the middle of the verse it usually means the separation of two subjects. If used at the end it provides a dignified ending.

So with that background (new to me, but old hat to the poem pros),  here is my first ever English Haiku. (I can’t believe how hard this crap is) Well it’s not usually crap but in the wrong hands… I’m just saying.

The title is: Summer Dawn (yeah my seasonal word is a bit direct)

Summer dawn,

Evil dreams ending…

Clean slate, virgin day.

Thanks for reading

A big thank you to Lori Crane for honoring me with the coveted Liebster Award. Check out her blog since it is always filled with some interesting things about her travels and observations. She is from Michigan as am I so I hope this award was not because I know what Petoskey stones are. First rule is to declare in writing  11 unknown facts about me the recipient (me), then answer 11 questions posed by Lori , then I choose my 11 nominees and publish the 11 questions I pose to them.  So here we go:

Eleven Things  UNKNOWN (to the blogging world)  ABOUT ME (Up until now):

1. I’m an Eagle Scout and received the award when I was 14.

2. I played high school football for three years and the only time my name and number was called over the loudspeaker was when I had to loan an all-star safety my jersey because his was ripped.

3. I have not eaten red meat since 1990 but continue to drink red wine (with everything)

4. I love all kinds of music and knocked a twenty something over when I was talking about a Death Cab for Cutie video

5. I do most of the cooking since I have the patience of Job (Not Steve the other one in the Bible)

6. My mother raised my sister and I without a dad since he died when I was ten

7. I used to commute to Germany as part of my work and had 500,000 frequent flyer miles on American airlines

8. I have had three careers and am into my forth (writer).  Each of the first three ended very successfully (even though I was early retired from one)

9. I no longer wear socks since my Ferragamos no longer go well with shorts

10. I get my haircut every time I go to town, which  is about three times a year

11. Caffeine is my drug of choice

Eleven QUESTIONS FORM LORI:

1. If you could do anything right now, what would it be? I would be writing on my next book. I am at 60,000 words and need to finish

2. Why aren’t you doing it? I am fulfilling the responsibilities for the Liebster award for which  you nominated me.

3. What’s your favorite band or favorite song? My favorite band (although I have a lot I like) is Queen. I wrote my last book plugged into their greatest hits and Simply Queen CDs. I think my favorite single song is not part of the Queen collection, but is “He Ain’t Heavy He’s my brother,” by the Hollies. I graduated from Notre Dame with an MBA and somehow the song reminds me of the attitude there. Each morning the flyer on each students desk had in addition to the daily news three phone numbers; one if you needed a tutor, one if you needed spiritual help or were troubled and the final number was if you needed money

4. Are you a people person? Yes. I think I relate to people and they relate to me. Not as well as my Silky Terrier and Boxer, but almost.

5. What was your very first job? I started delivering newspapers for the Detroit News at eleven years old and have worked ever since.

6. Where was the best place you ever visited? I think at the time it has to be the islands of Kawai and Lanai in the Hawaiian Islands. My wife, daughter and I were all ready for a vacation and we had the best time

7. If they offered free trips to the moon, would you go? Sure would. I have been trying to suck up to Richard Branson for years hoping he might need a monkey stand in for the first shot. He doesn’t return my phone calls

8. PB&J or BLT? Give me bacon every time. Don’t care if it has tomato, lettuce as long as the bacon is there. In fact I could take a PBJ&bacon

9. What one thing reminds you of high school? (good or bad)  I am reminded of high school when I hear the National Anthem. I remember how little it meant to me back then and how much it means today.

10. What will you be doing 20 years from now? Since I am seventy-two right now I hope I am still writing (odds are slim but we can hope)

11. What do you hope will be mentioned in your eulogy? I would hope that the person doing the eulogy manages to fit in something like “he was not always the best at everything but he sure tried to do things well.”

Questions for my nominees:

1. What gets you going in the morning?
2. Who had the most profound influence on who you are today?
3. Where do you find inspiration?
4. If you had the time where would you go?
5. What is your favorite movie of all time and why?
6. What teacher taught you the most and where was that?
7. When do you feel the best in a day?
8. Who do you think did the most to help your career?
9. What is your favorite meal?
10. Do you respond to customer surveys and do you ever flame the company?
11. How far have you ever walked and why?

My Nominees:

1. Kitt Crescendo
2. prayingforoneday
3. Olivia Stocum
4. Kira Lyn Blue
5.  Ali Brown
6. Marisa
7. sknicholls
8. Andrew Toynbee
9. coyotero2112
10. Rana
11.  bensbitterblog

Congratulations all. Have a great weekend

Anyway, I have also been sending queries to traditional publishers. I am pleased to let you know I have a signed contract for my book with Martin Sisters Publishing www.martinsisterspublishing.com . I am so very pleased to join the MSP family.

I have no idea right now when the book will be published but do know it is going to the editor this week. I will let you know when I get firmer information.

The first is Shawn at prayingforoneday for nominating me for the Best Moment Award (my second).  If you are not following him, it might be a good idea since his blog discusses a number of issues and Shawn is not reluctant to tell you where he stands on them. He has also been awarded the Best Moment Award 12 times and is now recognized by to http://www.momentmatters.com/awards/ as a veteran. So here are the rules:

RULES:

1-Winners re-post this completely with their acceptance speech which could be written or video recorded.

2-Winners have the privilege of awarding the next awardees! The re-post should include a NEW list of people, blogs worthy of the award, and winners notify them the great news.

MY ACCEPTANCE SPEECH:

Ahem..Thank you Shawn for the nomination. It goes without saying that at my age any moment recognized are truly great ones. It is ironic that I in fact sometimes miss moments while I am concentrating on doing the writer god’s work. It is really nice to receive an award that reminds us all to stop for a moment and try to enjoy our lives and loved ones. Thank you again.

The Blogs I have nominated :

1. Russel Ray Photos

2. Rachel

3. The Story Reading Ape

4. cnmill

5. randalldeanscott

If you have this award already go to this link http://www.momentmatters.com/awards/ and download numbers 2, 3, 4 etc. You can download 10.

Briana Vedsted created a new award and named Marie Ann Bailey at  http://1writeway.com as one of the first recipients . Marie Ann then nominated me. The award is the Always Here if You Need Me and is to recognize the fact that none of us should face any of the trials and tribulation that life hands out alone. The award goes to those who have demonstrated that they are there when you need them. The nice thing about this award it can be given to those who may not even know they were there when it counted. Sometimes a familiar voice or post is all that is necessary to make the difference.

Now for the Rules:
Post a picture of the award somewhere on your blog.
List five things that make you happy.
Choose 5 people to nominate who have been a virtual shoulder to cry on, checked in on you when they knew things were rough, or has always been there for you even if it meant just being themselves.
Comment on their blogs to thank them and let them know you nominated them.

Things that make me happy:

1. Writing
2. Working on restoring my Toyota FJ40
3. Playing with our Boxer and Silky Terrier
3. Walking on the beach with my spouse
4. Sunsets
5. Blogging

My nominees: 

helenvalentina

Katie Sullivan

Phillip McCollum

sophiebowns

penpusherpen

English: Rockport, Texas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For any of you who will be in Rockport Texas this weekend (and why not); The Rockport Writers Group is hosting its 2nd Annual Rockport Writers Roundup, Saturday, June 15, 2013, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Estelle Stair Gallery  at 406 South Austin Street, Rockport Texas.

Ten members of the RWG will read selections of their work, be on hand to sign their books and answer questions. In addition, the Wine of Mine Winery, will be on hand with a selection of wines for guests to sample in between readings.

The selections for the Roundup represent just about every genre: history and mystery, children’s and young adult books, memoir and fantasy. On the program are:

BOOK EXCERPTS

• Pat Chapman, TEA ON THE GREAT WALL, Memoir
• Devorah Fox, THE LOST KING, Fantasy
• John W. Howell, (working title)  My GRL, Thriller
• Heather Miller, LOST IN ALASKA: A TEXAS GIRL AND AN  ALEUT BOY, Children
• Rita Wendell, LADY SLAYER, Crime Thriller

PERSONAL ESSAYS

• Mary Wallace, GOURDS, Non-Fiction
• Herndon Williams, WHAT DIALECT DO YOU SPEAK?, Article

SHORT STORIES

• Woody Davis, WHAT GOES ROUND, Disturbing Fiction
• Roger Larimore, ROUGH & READY, Memoir
• Kathleen Monju, ARE YOU MY BEST FRIEND?, Fiction

We’ll also have music featuring the lyrics of award-winner Pat Chapman.

For more information about the Rockport Writers Group, send an email to kaybutzin@sbcglobal.net or visit the group’s page on Facebook, www.facebook.com/rockportwritersgroup. To learn more about the Wine of Mine call (361) 944-9463. For more information about the Estelle Stair Gallery, call 361 (463-1059). Or just come to the 2nd Annual Rockport Writers Roundup where you can learn about all three as well as meet ten real live authors.

So I have decided that I need to get out of my safe comfortable box and make a run for it buck naked. (not a pretty picture believe me) Here is a poem I call Coffee. This is for humor and there is no deep meaning other than the human capacity to mess with what is already pretty good. Also I don’t know the meter but I did make it rhyme.

Coffee

by John W. Howell © 2013

Coffee sitting hot and black;

First sip, way too strong.

Creamer in, bring it back;

Small crutch, how’s that wrong?

Splenda in, makes it round;

Another sip, still not right.

Vanilla syrup, good and sound;

Just a splash, very tight.

Ice cream smooth’s it out;

Chocolate fudge pulls it in.

The blender with open spout;

Dump concoction for a spin.

Add a banana, berry too;

Some yogurt for a binder.

Granola in, the diet’s blew;

Tops on, pulse switch finder.

Up and down rhythmic beat;

Magic thickness begins to form.

Ice brings down rising heat;

Start to question why perform.

Pour mixture in a glass;

Sit and watch, waiting hopeful.

The conclusion comes to pass;

Smell and sight resemble awful.

Back again hot and black;

I now feel most serene.

Swear on many bibles stack;

I’ll drink uncut, dear caffeine.

I have been doing a bit of retro-reading lately. I have been going back to books that I may have read when I was a youth or that I was required to read as a student. The reason is I am attempting to cover some of the outstanding books of their day to analyze the writing content and plot development. Call me crazy, but this seems to me to be a good way to hone my own skills  and either embrace the techniques of the masters or figure out a way to avoid some of the treatments.

I am reading Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead right now.  in getting away from retro and returning to contemporary, I will be turning to http://legendsofwindemere.com  Beginning of a Hero as soon as I am finished.  Now, I am not a book reviewer and would prefer to leave that to an expert like Ionia Martin at http://readfulthingsblog.com, but I have discovered some interesting things about this book.

The first interesting thing is in the Introduction section of the Kindle version, Norman Mailer looks back fifty years after publication and apologizes to the reader for his lack of craft. He explains that he was passionate about writing but was naïve in style. Although the Naked and the Dead was his best-selling novel, he also points out that he feels it was sloppily written and burdened with adjectives. He does indicate that he still likes the book and sees in a Tolstoyan compassion in the story. Norman Mailer was an avid fan of Tolstoy.

The second interesting thing is that normal conversation between soldiers was influenced by the literary standards of the time. This in itself is not so interesting or uncommon, but as a result of the book being written about three years after World War II, classic words were changed to fit what was a more restrictive society. Looking at the book today the censorship that was no doubt self-imposed by Norman Mailer all but rendered some of the dialog to a childish and ineffective position. I have purposely not written the actual work in this post  so you will get a taste of what I mean.

It is well know that all soldiers on earth and even those involved in the World conflict that ended in 1945 used some form of the word signifying sexual intercourse in normal conversation. In the Naked and the Dead the word and its verb, noun and adjective forms has been changed to “fug.” As a result while reading a piece of dialog between two solders (who are a long way away from their mother) the reader has to stop and mentally convert the derivation to the actual word. The end result is annoying and makes for clumsy reading so eventually the mind simply skips over that piece of dialog which at times is a mistake. I believe that Norman Mailer needed to write his book for the convention of the time and was not too keen on seeing it go unpublished because it contain some “naughty words.” All in all he probably made the right decision, since one of the first uses of the F word was in 1928 in Lady Chatterley’s Lover but the book had been banned for a number of years. In 1951 (three years after The Naked and the Dead was published) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger contained the first printed F words that were considered derogatory insults. (Think Fug You)   It should be noted that The Catcher in the Rye was number thirteen on the banned book list between 1990 and 2000 according to the American Library Association.

The final interesting thing is the story is very good and the situations encountered are described in finite detail. I had not expected the precision and depth of the writing. I do understand what Norman Mailer meant when he described the fact that “there was hardly a noun in any sentence that was not holding hands with the nearest and most commonly available adjective.” The story did have its elements of overwriting but a very engaging piece. It does underscore one tenant in good writing; less is more.

Reblogged from A Frank Angle:

My first goal was to find a publisher for my book. To do this I was in query hell for three months. I have finally received word on Thursday May 30th that my contract is in the mail (One of the seven famous lies in the universe). I think I am going to wait to reveal the publisher until the contract is signed. Once signed it will be a while before the book hits the streets so to speak. I am going to hold this goal as not accomplished until after I get the signed agreement.

My second goal was to finish my next book in draft format by the end of June. Gosh I have 58,000 words done now and think it will go about 100,000. I’ll try hard (honest) but I don’t know if I’m going to make it. This book has taken more research time than the first and I am also spending more blog reading and commenting time (You guys are so interesting I can’t help myself).

So there you are short and sweet. One goal almost accomplished and one goal on the iffy side. I must say though I would not trade anything for the enjoyment of keeping up with all your blogs. There are a few tears to share but a lot of laughs as well. So if I don’t make the draft by the end of June because I am taking time to stay in touch TOUGH POOP!