Whoooooshhh - that's me passing by in a blur . . .

Hi Y'all - just a quick stop in to say hello, happy Friday, and that the Rose & Thorn fall issue is now Live! Hope you will go by and take a look at the prose, poetry, and our artist.

We have company at the little log house, so I need to get back in there to be sociable.

What are your plans for the weekend? Do you have changing leaves and a nice chill in the air as we do?

Next week, on Wednesday, I'll be leaving GMR, the cove, the dogs, the ghost dog, and the little log house, my mountains, for Oregon to see my son, daughter in law, and my little Norah Kathryn --so excited. Anyone have any trips coming up?

Later y'all . . .

Random Photos Random Links, Random Video

Well, the leaves are changing. Some are already knocked off by rain and by tomorrow we'll have high winds that will knock off even more. It's beautiful, but this won't be one of the more vivid years due to this and that and the other. Still, what a lovely place to live in. The other photos are of a storm that was moving out one morning.

You know, before I came here to blogger, I had a blog through MSN. I stopped using it because it was a pain to work with. But, they've just changed everything to WordPress and I have to say I'm impressed with it. I don't know if I'll leave blogger and go back to the "old" site - I've hardly posted there in the time I've been here-- but I am tempted. It was my old "Howling from my Mountain" blog and I've already upgraded it to WordPress. I'll have to think on this a while!

We're working on the fall issue of Rose & Thorn Journal. The summer issue will be sent to the new Archives Page, so we hope you'll stop by and give a last look at this issue before the fall issue goes live. If you haven't signed up for the newsletter, we hope you will. Tell us what you think. Also, our R&T blog has new posts every Wednesday -we hope you'll stop there, too, and read, subscribe. R&T is on Facebook, and on Twitter.

I'm on Facebook and Twitter too. I don't do the "like" "fan" thing- and in fact I don't like to call reader's "fans" - I think I've said this before, but instead people are friends, colleagues, readers, etc. Besides, I like to interact and use my facebook as a casual place to talk and connect and say hello.

My good friend "Reduce Footprints" always has a great post about making our earth a cleaner and more sustainable and environmentally friendly place. I was going to link her today anyway, and then I saw she had linked me *laugh* - Anyway - go by and visit her site!

And last, I think on my regular wednesday "random photos/links/videos" I'm going to google whatever comes first to my mind and then whatever link(s) comes up first, that's what I'll post here. Today I googled "Peanut Butter and Jelly" and the very first link was to this video: Peanut Butter and Jelly. Lawd.

Then I went to the second link that read: "How to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich" - and they proceeded to show a video on how to do that *laughing* - huhn.

That's all for today folks. See you Friday!

Somewhere, over the mountains, there's a Book Fair....

Blue Ridge Book & Author Showcase

I'm looking forward to this. My only regret is that I didn't know about this in time to become involved as an author! However, I am going to support the other authors and those who support them.

This teaches me, however, that I need to find out what book fairs are out there for me to see about being a part of, or writers' conferences that perhaps I can be on a panel or whatevers - with in reason, of course; for, the best thing I can do now is to get the second book all ready for print for winter 2010! I am looking forward to the Louisiana Book Festival, where I will be involved in some capacity - yay!

I'll be seeing Carol from The Writer's Porch there! And fellow author/friend Susan Reinhardt - who we only meet face to face at these kinds of things and that's a shame, and Glenda will be there, and etcetera.

So, ta ta for now, and I will see you all later. Authors! Books! People who love books! And beautiful mountain surroundings.

Presenting: Children's/YA Book Author Kerry Madden

There are so many of you who have taken the time to write up a praise blurb, or post about Tender Graces, or write up a review, or email me your thoughts, et-cetera. I am overwhelmed with gratitude. So, I'm going to spend some time bragging and talking up all of you!

Someone, after reading a draft of Tender Graces before it went to print, said I should contact Kerry Madden, since she'd written childrens/YA books called "The Maggie Valley Trilogy" about a mountain family here in the Smoky Mountains where I live. I emailed Kerry and we talked about our books, writing, the mountains. I offered to review her MV Trilogy, and she offered to read and write up a blurb for Tender Graces. So began a friendship between two authors who love the mountains, love writing, love our characters, love language.

I read all three of her books: Gentle's Holler, Louisiana's Song, and Jessie's Mountain. The word that surfaced more often than any other is: Charming. Folks, if you have girls aged 10 and up, consider purchasing these three books for them. They are gentle, sweetly written, and Livy Two, the narrator of all three books, will steal their heart. Though they are for a younger audience, I was engaged enough to read all three with a happy heart. Their innocence, charm, and family-oriented theme will delight audiences young and "old."

About Kerry: I grew up the daughter of a football coach in football towns across the South and Midwest. I was the oldest of four children, so I spent a lot of time babysitting and making up stories for my younger brothers and sister to perform. I wrote my first novel, Offsides, about growing up in the world of football. I was also told to clean the kitchen a lot when I was a kid, and so I made up stories to escape in my head. My sister became an orphan scrubbing a stove or I became a nun, chopping vegetables—a train conductor, a sickly mother, an evil school matron— anything to escape the drudgery of my own life. ... for more about Kerry, go to her website About Kerry page.

What Kerry wrote about Tender Graces: Kathryn Magendie's TENDER GRACES leaves a ghostly trail of broken hearts from by-God West Virginia to Texas to the shimmering seasons of Louisiana where real love and an unexpected home is found for a lost child. Reminiscent of early Lee Smith and Silas House, Magendie's Virginia Kate Carey is the steady beating pulse of this beautiful narrative that sweeps through a lifetime of loss, grief, and ultimately redemption and what it means to go home again.

Kerry is the fourth in my "Presenting:" series. I've introduced: Deborah Leblanc, Barbara at Serenity Gate, and Diane from OCEAN Magazine. Go by and give them your support and love!

Book Give-away: Day 4, where's Kat?

Major Rivers - Tombigbee River, (name removed!), Tennessee River, Chattahoochee RiverMajor Lakes -Guntersville Lake, Wilson Lake, Martin Lake, West Point Lake, Lewis Smith LakeHighest Point - Cheaha Mountain - 2407 feet, (734 m) above sea level

Bordering States - Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee

Bordering Body of Water - Gulf of Mexico

agriculture (cotton, corn, peanuts, soybeans, poultry, and livestock), hydroelectric power, mining (coal, limestone, iron ore), steel-making

There's a country band with this state's name as the band name!

Where am I?

Day One of book give-away: Where is Kat Magendie

THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE POSTED ABOVE!


...somewhere close by in a neighbor state, Haywood county borders this state!


The three stars on the flag represent the three different land forms in This State. Mountains in the east, highlands in the middle and lowlands in the west. On the flag these regions are bound together in an unbroken circle. The field is crimson with a blue background for the stars. The final blue strip relieves the sameness of the crimson field and prevents the flag from showing too much crimson when it is limp.



Where am I ?
------

next installment of short story The Fishing Day (only one more left!):


A butterfly drifts between them and the father first thinks it is a leaf. For as beautiful and graceful as the creature is, it seems to fly haphazardly, as if the wind lifts the wings in one direction and the next, pushing the light body where it does not want to go. Yet the butterfly gets to its destination despite the breeze. It lands on the father’s head and the daughter laughs, pointing at it, her other hand held over her mouth. She looks the same. But nothing will be the same ever again. He cannot force time to his will. The butterfly leaves the man, glides to a clover, and is still.

“Daddy? Do you want to know now?”

“I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“I’ll wait.”

“Have I told you that I love you more than life itself?”

“Lots of times.”

The father is not sure if she is telling the truth. He remembers her disappointed looks when he came home late from work again and again. Sometimes she had already been sleeping, her face cleared of his mistakes. The man remembers every error, the biggest of them he hides behind the smaller ones.

The father says, “I’m sorry I was so angry when you broke my baseball trophy. That stupid trophy I got in junior high school.” He runs his fingers through his hair and the ends stand up from the fish slime still sticky on his hand. “How could I have become so angry with you over such silly things?” He has difficult time breathing and it feels as if his feet are sinking in the soft soil. He imagines if he stands here long enough, he will simply disappear into the earth.

“You already told me you were sorry, remember?”

The father does not hear her. He stares into the light of the sun, blinking into his blindness.

“You’re a good doctor, Daddy, and good doctors are busy.”

The father becomes agitated, gesturing in the air, reaching towards her and pulling back. He says to himself, “All those hours.” And he does not know if it is the lost ones or the ones to come that he is most sorry about.

“People worry about things that don’t really matter. It’s silly.” She bends down and plucks three clover flowers, smells them, and then puts them in her pocket. “I did stupid stuff. Like when I told you to get out of my room when you were only trying to say hello. It was that day Kelly called me a name and we weren't best friends anymore. I was mad at Kelly, but I yelled at you.” The daughter turns her attention to the shadows lengthening across the pond.

The father follows her gaze, silent a moment before he says, “The day you needed me most I was helping that little boy.” He watches a bird fly into the willow and disappear. “Your mother paged me, and I ignored her.”

“But you came. I smelled your soap when you bent over me and put the stethoscope on my chest. It made me feel safe.”

“Oh god.” The man puts his head in his hands and sobs, wide thin shoulders shaking. He lifts his head. “I’ve wanted to tell you these things for so long.”.... continued to ending tomorrow...

Yes the mountain's high enough, and the valley's low enough...

I'm going to do a quicky for the book give-a-way this morning.

The book for todays give-away is "On Bear Mountain" by Deborah Smith--a signed brand spanking new copy.

About "On Bear Mountain" -

From Publishers Weekly: A hillbilly girl from Georgia and a rebellious Brooklyn boy find out the hard way that some family ties bind tighter than others in this highly readable novel by the author of A Place to Call Home. Ursula Powell lives in the shadow of the Iron Bear, a sculpture commissioned by a distant relative for a local college campus as a tribute to the ursine presence in Bear Creek, Ga. Fashioned by a New York artist from scrap metal donated by local families, the Bear sparks a smoldering feud between the poor, chicken-farming Powells and their wealthier chicken-processing-plant cousins, the Tibers. When the Tibers threaten to trash the Bear, Ursula's father scrapes together money the family can ill afford to install the sculpture in the Powell pasture. Resenting her father for the hardship she believes he has brought on the family, scrappy Ursula grows up fighting class oppression and backwoods superstitions. Meanwhile, Quentin Riconni, son of the artist who created the Bear, also grows up resenting his father. Quentin and his mother live in poverty in Brooklyn, while the senior Riconni devotes himself to his unprofitable art upstate. Not until 20 years after Quentin's father's death are his sculptures applauded, earning millions of dollars for his widow and son. When Quentin discovers that the Bear is owned by the Powells, he sets out on a journey of self-discovery fated to include Ursula.

To win this book - here's all you have to do. I have one signed copy, so the first one to figure it out gets it:

In Tender Graces, Virginia Kate hears Momma's radio - she says: Momma next went to the kitchen and ice rattled cold. Then soft music floated into my room and a woman sang deep and rusty, like summertime.

What song is Virginia Kate (and Momma) listening to? Who is singing it?

First one who guesses right - receives Deborah Smith's "On Bear Mountain."