What I took away from MWSA

Well, home, safe, and no longer on speaking terms with Shelia (the GPS). She decided that I just had to go through Ohio to get home. Yes, it was pretty taking the scenic byway down the Ohio river, but I needed to go faster than the slowest person I was stuck behind on a one lane road. So, after some choice words, I shut her off and managed to get to Charleston WV and then west home. Warp 8.0 or better made me happy, and it took me nearly 8 hours to finally get home.

One thing I noticed when traveling to the conference: my route to get there and back took me on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway, the Korean War Veterans Highway, the Purple Heart Trail, and the Tuskegee Airmans' Memorial Highway. Fascinating. I was reminded going and coming of what this country has gone through to get where we are. I'm just wondering when (or if we already do) have a Gulf War Veterans Highway. If not, there should be one considering what they all went through.

The Military Writers Society of America annual conference was held in Pittsburgh at the Airport Marriott. Hmm, funny, I hardly saw a plane the whole time we were there. And, ouch, the prices to do anything  or even eat were beyond painful. There wasn't much close, you had to drive to go anywhere else. But the folks who put the conference on made sure we had a hospitality room with munchies- a big help, thank you!

I got the opportunity to hang around and learn things from some great authors, poets and speakers. The classes were very relevant to what we were all trying to do, and there was lots of input from everyone. I enjoyed the screenwriting seminar, the PTSD writing lecture, and promoting your books with social media. Probably the one thing that tickled me the most, was catching award winning author Jack London in the lobby, starting up a conversation, and ending up teaching him about Smashwords. He was thrilled! And I somehow ended up in the poetry class with jim greenwald and Mike Mullins, and as you will see below, was inspired to wrote a poem with what I saw on my travels home.

Saturday night was the awards banquet. My first novel, Project: Dragonslayers was up for an award in the fiction-thriller category. Although I didn't place anywhere near the top three, it was a valuable learning experience that found me thanking lead reviewer jim greenwald for his time, effort, and the personal email that he sent me, telling me my book was great, but it needed major editing help. He gave me his editor's email, and she and I have been working together ever since. I thanked him for pushing me to a higher level of writing, and to make me a better writer because of his kind, yet truthful feelings about my first book. I got to see many of my new friends win great awards, and I hope to see them next year a Dayton.-- much closer drive this next time!

I made quite a few new friends and hope I can see them all next year. Betsy Beard touched us all with her stories of her son, and why she is a Gold Star Mom. Dwight Zimmerman and Louis Intres kept us entertained with their costumes and characters; and Dick Hrebic serenaded us at the banquet. But I don't think there was a dry eye in the house when Fr. Ron Camarda read a passage from a book about a dying cancer patient and his nurse. It especially hit home for me, since I lost my mother to cancer back in '98 and really wished she could've been there to see me that night. I know she would be proud.

Next year I hope to be there in Dayton. I've even mentioned to Joyce Faulkner that I could teach a class on Book Cover Pro and maybe an intro to Smashwords. And I hope I can earn enough Buckaroos to have more fun at the auction on Sunday. I'd like to have another book nominated next year, and God willing, I hope I will. Certainly my editing will be much better, so perhaps there is a chance. I've also learned a lot about the craft of writing and hope that will apply.  In closing, I'd like to leave you with a poem that I wrote after I got home.


Raping Mother

She's hot, she's warm, she's cold
From her womb is ripped the blackness

The blackness mankind craves
The blackness keeping him alive

Into her depths man roughly intrudes
Pulling her blackness into the light

He takes it by land, by river, by sea
The blackness burns; mother is hurt

Without remorse he burns and burns
Tears from mother rain down black

She cries for help, but no one hears
Our lives too dependent on her to care

And then one day she will say no more
The blackness of her womb will vanish

She's had enough of our raping
It's just a matter of time before she dies.



Until next time my creatively obsessed friends,

Kathy

The Time Draws Near....

Tomorrow, I hop in the Prius and take a little drive. No, not a little drive, a long F***ing drive to Pittsburgh. Why? You ask? Well, it's not everyday that one of my books gets chosen for a year end award. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm ecstatic. I just hate driving. But, hubby has to stay home with the 4 legged menagerie so I can attend the Military Writer's Society of America conference. I've never been, and I hope I learn a lot.  

Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure why my book was picked amongst all the others out there. Yeah, I think it's a good book with a good story, but am I really that good of a writer? Perhaps, perhaps not. I'm pretty confident there are quite a few good authors in the MWSA, and I feel privileged to have been selected. So, I'll see Saturday night what level of award Project: Dragonslayers will win. Even if it is honorable mention, I still feel proud that my very first novel made it that far. It gives me inspiration to keep writing, and to keep improving my stories. And I was pleased to find that the second book in the series: Mind Games, got selected for the summer reading list--another cool kudo. I was even more proud because that was my very first completely Indie produced book. I only had the help of my copy editor, Joyce, and two artists: Becky and Erika who did custom drawings for me, and one big armed guy who helped be my cover model. Other than that, I did it all on my own. With Mind Games, I'm extremely proud and hope that will get an award next year.

I recently joined a new group on Facebook, and after introducing myself politely, and stating that I was new to writing that particular genre, I had someone slam me and call me a hack since I was hoping to publish my first book in that genre in a couple of months. This person thought I had no clue as to what I was doing. I POLITELY explained that I was not a hack, have 3 books published, and take my writing seriously and have no intention of smearing the Indie author name. I am a professional. Yes, my hackles we up and I was in combat mode- how DARE someone call me a hack without even getting to know me first. Well, after a hearty, yet still polite rebuke, this person backed off, stating that perhaps they were a bit rash in their judgement. Thank you. But perhaps it might not be good to shoot first and ask questions later. All that person did was make themselves look stupid to their peers. I don't wish that on anyone, we're all in this business to create stories and get them out to readers- competition or not, we should play nice.

Farm life has been nothing but MUD. The board fenced paddocks for the horses are either totally bare mud, or the new ones we're trying to grow some nice grass for next year. With that, we needed to find a place to stick 3 horses- and they can't go out together. Well, I had this bright idea of stringing temporary hot wire fences. OK, good idea, except the horses quickly figured out the wire wasn't hot. We went into town and all 3 were in there separate paddocks munching happily away on grass. We got home to find the mare loose, running over to her loverboy gelding, springing him out of the wire, and then they ran over the hill and broke the stallion out. Chaos and mayhem!! Oh Crap!! We got the car in the yard and started running after horses. Thank God we had the whole perimeter around the farm house and barn fenced, so they didn't get far. But they all knew they were in trouble and ran around refusing to get caught. A loose stallion is a very bad thing! Not to mention, the mare was coming into season, and we didn't really want to have a pregnancy at this time of year. After 20 minutes of running and frantically trying to get the horses into some of the bare paddocks, we finally managed to get them. Whew! Not fun! The very next day, we went out and bought fence chargers. Oh, that was a treat seeing them test the fence for the first time. Yeah, they pretty much respect Mr. Zappy now! Unfortunately the puppy, Wellie, decided to go under the wire on the stallions fence- which is plugged into 120v outlet. Poor little guy got one heck of a shock and ran off yelping- right through the other side of the fence and into the house where I found him hiding under the dinner table. Lesson learned for him. The other dog got her lesson a day later. Now I just wish the cats would respect my need for sleep. Do they make anti-meow collars for them?

Until next time my creatively obsessed friends,

Kathy

 

ALMOST as good as it gets

Right, once again I have been amiss about blogging. So, smack me! No, now that all the hay crop is in for the year, I had a little time to set back and really enjoy the quiet life of farming. The other night my neighbor across the street (yes, we do have a couple of neighbors in the valley) came over and wanted to go fishing in our pond. So I decided to go. Hubby is in NJ dealing with a break-in to our house which we have STILL yet to sell. Grabbing my things, we headed down the street. This is the same neighbor we had to rush to hospital in my last blog- so you can see, he's doing better.


Getting the tackle and rods out of the barn, I decided to go with a shiny spinner. No sooner had I made a couple of casts, I hooked a 12" big mouth bass. Nice! Got that one off the hook and made a few more casts. Bam! Hooked a 13" big mouth. By now, my neighbor is still fumbling with his worm, and I've caught two very tasty looking fish. He's not amused. I am! After about 2 hours of fishing, I had another large blue gill, and he had nothing. We decided to take what I had in the freezer from a previous outing and fry everything up for dinner that night.

Most of the time, when I catch fish, I kinda leave them out to die without having to "dispatch" them myself. Well, couldn't do that this time, so he gave me a pair of pliers and I had to whack the fish on the noggin. I don't like killing things- honestly. But, I had to remind myself I'm also a farmer, and there WILL be a time in my life I'll have to kill something larger than a mouse. So I dispatched my fish and began the process of learning how to cut filets off it. It wasn't difficult, and after maybe an hour we had enough to feed us all.

In the kitchen, it was washing, dipping in egg, then flour, and frying. When it finally arrived on my plate and I took that first bite, I realized just how nice it was to have my own pond. Fish so fresh it was swimming less than two hours ago- you can't get any better than that- or can you?

Yesterday, after all the barn chores were done, I had a little time to myself. The lawn around the farm house needed mowing, and I really didn't feel like dragging the noisy riding lawn mower inside the gates to mow. So, as I stood looking at my poor stallion, Galveston, who was begging me for some grazing time, I decided to take a chance and let him mow the lawn. I took him out of his rather bare paddock and brought him into the yard. I stayed right with him for a little bit, just to make sure he wouldn't do anything moronic. When satisfied that he was mowing happily away. I went inside, grabbed my laptop and brought it out onto the porch. Plugging in, I went to work, happily watching my 1,400 pound lawn mower chewing his way through the grass. The sounds of birds and crickets, the occasional passing car, and the munch, munch of a horse was all the noise I had.

In the few hours that I let him mow, he did a reasonable job. He's a rather environmentally friendly lawn mower- he fertilizes as he goes. Unfortunately, all the fertilizer ends up in big piles! But that's okay. He was happy, and I was happy to get another chapter done in a book I'm working on.

Sitting there, with my laptop, looking out over my farm, I realized it was almost as good as it gets. I've attained a goal in my life, but there's still so much to do. More farm chores, more books to write, and more marketing to do- blah! But all in all, life isn't too bad being a farmer/writer. I've met some nice, and interesting folks in our new world, folks who if you need help, they are there for you. Such a rarity in society these days. Dinner last night was with a bunch of my new friends as they were getting ready to head out on a trail ride. The chili was great, and so was the fellowship. Country life does indeed take a special breed to survive. I hope I can do it.

Until next time, my creatively obsessed friends.

Cheers,
Kathy

                                                                                  

Retired or not, duty calls

Yeah, this must be a record for me posting- 2 blogs in 2 days. But I figure this one was worth telling. It just goes to show that you may be retired from your chosen career, but you never know when you'll be called back into action. Case in point: last night.

Last night was a full moon (I think). And having worked in the medical field for 20 years, full moons mean crazy stuff is going to happen. Yup, it sure did last night. Amidst a wicked thunderstorm, our neighbor across the street called. It was after 8 pm and we were all in line getting showers for the night. Hubby answered the phone and told me our friend got home from a long trip, took some pills for back pain and was now having a rather serious allergic reaction- anaplylactic shock- a very BAD thing when you live a long ways from medical help. Calling 911 in a rural area like we live in usually means help is 30+ minutes away. All the EMS are volunteer and have to be called in to get the ambulance. 30 minutes is life or death (usually death) when it comes to a reaction like that.

So, hubby grabbed his medical bag and dashed out into the storm. He jumped in our Gator and went across the street (they live up a pretty steep hill). He worked on our friend for maybe fifteen minutes, giving him what antihistamines he had in his bag, and wasn't having any success getting him to come around. He came back home and informed me that he needed my help. It would be up to us to get him the almost 40 mins to the local hospital. Needless to say, the Prius became an emergency vehicle.

I was in the back seat with our patient, my job was to monitor him and relay info to hubby, who was trying to make a land-speed record to the hospital through some of the most twisty, dangerous roads in eastern KY. I kept our friend coherent and made sure he didn't pass out and stop breathing. Mind you, each minute that ticks by with someone in shock just reduces their chance of survival. Even calling for Life Flight probably would have taken longer. Tick, tick, tick...

--Yes, it was still raining and lightening all the way there. We had to dodge a few deer and stray dogs, but we made it safely to the ER of St. Josephs's in London. It was the closest hospital we knew of and had the most direct route. BTW- there is NO direct route to anything in the back woods of KY. He was admitted, given some steroids to help with the reaction, and admitted over night. He also has heart problems, so it made it even more scary because he was complaining of chest pains as well. Sorry, the Prius just isn't kitted out to handle cardiac emergencies, so all we could do was cross our fingers and hope he made it. I have no clue how fast hubby was driving, and I probably don't wanna know.

Normally the country life is pretty sedate. But when you live so far out in the middle between nothing and nowhere, and an emergency happens, any and all skills you may possess can and will be used to hopefully rectify the situation. I'm pretty sure if we weren't there to help, our neighbor would've died. EMS probably wouldn't have been able to get there quick enough, and hubby's initial treatment might have been what helped extend our "golden hour" to get him to a hospital.

We finally got home about 2 am. Just as we were finally getting to sleep- one cat decided to start a fight with the other. Needless to say, the perpetrator got tossed out into the dog crate on the porch for the night. Then, promptly at 6 am, the alarm goes off. It means there are horses, dogs and cats all wanting to be cared for. Staggering out of bed, we met their needs and then took a long nap. I hope tonight is not as crazy as last night--although more thunderstorms are expected...

Until next time my creatively obsessed friends.

Kathy

The Country Life

Yes, I know I've been amiss about blogging. But when you RETIRE you think life will get easier. Not so in my case. Moving from a small house in NJ to a 100 ac farm with 2 houses has become an odyssey in life. Every morning (yes, 7 days a week) it's up a 6 a.m. Then I stagger out, feed 3 grumpy horses, stagger back in and eat my breakfast. After doing the dishes, I pull on the muck boots, turn out the horses (weather permitting) and then muck out stalls. Then it's on to farm chores- which could be anything ranging from picking up rocks, doing laundry, pulling weeds, moving hay, mowing grass, cleaning up the pond, catching minnows, and a host of other things. Then, in the afternoon, the horses are brought in, fed, then we eat dinner, and about 8 p.m. they get mucked out again before bed (who wants to sleep in a shitty bed?). Then I get a shower and collapse in bed- just to do it all over again the next day. Yes, the hours are long, but in time I figure it'll be rewarding- especially if we can sell some hay!

No wonder I've barely had time to get the third book in the Dragonslayer's series edited and back to Joyce. I'm hoping to have it out at the MWSA conference the end of Sept. Fingers crossed on that one.

I can't say country life is right for everyone, but I seem to be making a go of it. A trip into town (London, KY) becomes a real treat, especially if we have lunch at the Big Boy. Hmm, the simple things in life matter more now. A nice dinner is a trip to McKee and a catfish platter at Opal's diner. A day of shopping is Super Walmart. And for the farm side of shopping- Tractor Supply. Flea Land and the Livestock Auction provide other outlets of entertainment. I haven't watched TV in over a month, and I really don't miss it. I will say finding a good rock station on the radio is a challenge- you are well reminded that you're living in the Bible Belt with all the country and christian stations, but we have manged to find a couple oldies rock stations that come in pretty good up in the hills.

As far as amenities goes, we got a sturdy roof over our head (the leaks have been fixed), food in our bellies, and 100 acres of beauty to gaze upon. Internet isn't too bad- DSL, and we do have a house phone (no, it's not on a pole outside the house-- but we are looking for one!). We have indoor plumbing, and nice central heat and air. So I don't exactly consider this roughing it.

The end of September, I'll be heading to Pittsburgh for the MWSA convention (Military Writers Society of America) and hopefully will be picking up an award for Project: Dragonslayers. I hope to meet lots of people and do my best to get my name out there. I got lots of great stories wanting to get out of my brain, it's just finding the time in between running the farm to get them down. But I'm sure this change in life will settle down and I'll find time. I'm not really concerned with sales- although I won't argue them! Getting the farm up and running cost us over $71,000 in equipment. Yeah, some book sales would help out.

 Well, until next time my creatively obsessed friends...

Cheers,
Kathy

P.S. if anyone wants to follow me on Twitter: sturgeon3736