tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91685420281916432922024-03-14T00:47:31.391-04:00Mystery Lane RamblerNews about my writing, reading and sundry comments and advice about writing.Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-44486391161747615992019-11-19T18:53:00.002-05:002019-11-19T18:53:38.418-05:00Tuesday Chatter-Becoming Real
I managed to skip last Friday's Rambles. Sorry. I was away from home all day at a Christmas Fair, and managing to sell a book or two. I meant to come home and post a Ramble, but was just too tired. I was glad I did set up at the Fair, though. Saw and talked to some people I hadn't seen for a while - a long while for some of them. Saw another vendor who remembered me from several years back at Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-74032152737844745442019-11-12T21:21:00.000-05:002019-11-12T21:21:04.359-05:00Tuesday Chatter-Scars
I enjoy writing about the writers group I've been blessed to be part of for nearly twenty years. As might be expected, to hang around with one group that long, it must be a pretty compatible group. And it is. Many of them have been around longer than I. Because they accepted me as a bona fide author when even I wasn't sure if I qualified, I will forever be grateful. For some unfathomable reason,Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-12108000971378528272019-11-09T14:42:00.001-05:002019-11-09T14:42:40.745-05:00Friday Rambles-Dual CitizenshipThe below column written several years ago is one of my favorites. I suppose because it sort of centers on my beloved Tennessee. I was an adult when I first came to live in Tennessee. But it kind of felt like home from the start. I've written in other places about a family story which I can't verify and which might explain why I feel about it as i do. If you believe that the places our Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-72463070620361510612019-11-05T17:43:00.000-05:002019-11-05T17:43:05.667-05:00Tuesday Chatter-Rambling about Writing
Here it is November and NaNoWriMo again. I wrote the column below after just two or three NaNoWriMos. This will be my sixth or seventh, need to count again. I thought I'd have trouble getting into it this year as I'd be away from home the first weekend. But I'd made some notes, and had some idea about the story I wanted to write. And to my surprise I've written the words I needed to stay on Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-37952265510016044072019-11-01T07:18:00.001-04:002019-11-01T07:18:44.202-04:00Friday Rambles-No Slam Dunk
So here it is November 1. NaNoWriMo time again. National Novel Writing Month. Six or seven years ago I began this crazy thing I'd read about. Write a book in thirty days? Oh? It didn't have to be print ready? Just get 50000 words written down? If you succeeded, you'd be designated a winner. The 'book' could be revised, polished afterward. With my obsessive, compulsive, perfectionist writing Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-2409963826121979502019-10-29T18:31:00.000-04:002019-10-29T18:31:30.690-04:00Tuesday Chatter-New Plot?Yep, still searching for that elusive plot which will catapult my new book (if I get it written) to the top of the best selling heap. Not likely? That's right. Plot alone will not a best seller make. Readers want to find a character they can sympathize with, maybe even identify with. At least so we writers are told. And since that is true for me, I bet it is for many other readers. No namby pambySylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-87591641560347217352019-10-25T22:43:00.000-04:002019-10-25T22:43:16.144-04:00Friday Rambles-Writers, Actors and TVTelevision is still as popular as when I wrote the column below, about six years ago. I really can't say that the quality has improved, personally it seems the opposite is true. Be that as it may, my viewing habits are still about the same, though what I watch is received via air channels, not cable or satellite. I do miss the music channels, but the two or three I listened to are not worth the Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-77560019612356034142019-10-22T19:55:00.000-04:002019-10-22T20:58:08.933-04:00Tuesday Chatter-Music and Crayons
I was surfing around on YouTube, listening to some of the musical artists of my youth. Could have been using the time for more productive activities, like finish putting away winter clothes, do a load or two of laundry. But, as they say, where's the fun in that? I realized I hadn't uploaded a blog post yesterday. Since I'd been into music, I thought I'd see if I had an old column with something Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-49435684039667338142019-10-18T19:49:00.003-04:002019-10-18T20:03:13.644-04:00More Than One Dream - Part 3<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-82117190137409452012019-10-09T13:21:00.000-04:002019-10-09T13:21:34.542-04:00More Than One Dream - part 1
This post is the first part of a longer piece I wrote about my life and dreams. It was too long for one of my newspaper columns and I chose not to publish it in three parts at that time. I'm going to do so today and Friday this week and the last part next Tuesday. Just in case someone's interest is strong enough to want to read all of it! Most of the events in it have appeared in one form or Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-58303646860671282722019-08-02T09:00:00.000-04:002019-08-02T09:24:30.424-04:00Frustration - reduxIt's been more than a few years since I wrote the newspaper column below. A few things have changed, more than a few actually, in that time. Now living alone, so I have no one else to blame for many of the frustrations I encounter. Some are the normal aggravations in life that everyone encounters, of course. Some due to changes in the world around us, when we might prefer that things stayed the Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-71233595796876804722019-07-04T11:36:00.000-04:002019-07-04T11:36:24.567-04:00My Country, 'Tis of Thee
When I was in school, we used to sing this song the beginning of our school day. And recite the Pledge of Allegiance with our hands over our hearts, turned toward the U. S. Stars and Stripes flag. Without these things, America might not have produced what is now called The Greatest Generation. Hundreds of thousands of young men and officers who were willing to lay down their very lives so that Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-32516344251918833852019-05-26T16:54:00.000-04:002019-05-26T16:54:18.396-04:00Honor to Whom Honor Is DueI'm old enough to remember May 30 as being called Decoration Day. People went to the cemetery, cleared off graves, placed flowers/wreaths near the markers (tombstones) in memory of the people they were honoring. This was done particularly to honor those who had fallen in battle in defense of their homeland. Later when the designatiion of many holidays was changed to the nearest Monday, providing Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-76918188758663182912019-04-03T12:41:00.001-04:002019-04-03T12:42:09.351-04:00Cyber Millionaires My phones, some would say Luddite that I am, landline and cell, ring so often I'm tempted to turn ringers off. Most are telemarketers and I am loath to be really rude to them in hopes they will take me off their list. After all, they are working in an almost universally disliked job to earn a living and to me that's commendable. So many, in present times, are not willing. So I don't answer Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-60111335368021605902018-08-10T12:09:00.000-04:002018-08-10T12:09:41.986-04:00Friday Rambles - Favorite subject, I guess.Still here, still writing, perhaps not as diligently as I should, but can't seem to put it down. What would I do? Much as I love, love, love to read, eyes and mind do get tired after a steady diet of just reading. At least mine do. Of course, some time must be devoted to keeping one's living and writing space habitable. I don't enjoy seeing a sink full of dirty dishes for days. Or even just two Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-59393310788784907352018-08-04T11:08:00.000-04:002018-08-04T11:08:08.346-04:00Friday Rambles-Rememberies
This post speaks for itself pretty much. It might be titled 'Path of a Writer.' I'm certainly not a famous writer, but I am a writer. Not a young, or even younger, writer and sometimes I think about giving it up but the feeling passes. My writing gives me a focus, a beacon, to follow along my mystery lane rambles. Before I began to try seriously to write I was a voracious reader, I'd read any Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-13749252662620258142018-07-24T15:31:00.000-04:002018-07-24T15:31:21.831-04:00Tuesday Chatter-What's in a Name?<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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I'll be taking the rest of this week and most of next off,
so my grand plan to post to my blogs at least twice a week is already
stumbling. But I'll pick up it again. This Tuesday Chatter is a
rumination on names. My own journey to the proper name for my writing endeavors
is ongoing. Currently, I'm Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-31921345581071487382018-07-20T12:30:00.004-04:002018-07-20T12:30:49.062-04:00Friday Ramble - Free StuffThe telephone rang before I was ready to get up this morning. Unknown caller. I rolled over and in a few minutes it rang again. Another unknown caller. I didn't answer either one, but I did get up. I don't answer calls from numbers I don't know. Sure, I might miss out on something good, but at least I've saved some aggravation. This may partly explain the popularity of texting. Even telemarkets Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-38712089598139600882018-07-17T18:15:00.000-04:002018-07-21T19:39:34.307-04:00Tuesday Chatter-NotionsLong ago, maybe twenty-five years, maybe even thirty-five years ago, the writing bug bit me. Probably around February's Valentine Day, a print magazine, I think it was Redbook, ran a love story contest. I called mine Romantic Notions and with high hopes mailed it in. I don't remember what the prize was, maybe publication, maybe a few dollars and as I recall there was no entry fee. I do remember Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-32167361416465258352018-07-16T14:50:00.001-04:002018-07-16T14:50:29.711-04:00New DesignThought I'd put time to some use while waiting for approvals on new book and new editions of two earlier books. In between making corrections! Both blogs, this one and Post Oak Chronicles, had become stale, not just in content but layout also. Even I was getting tired of it! I'd just not bestirred myself to do anything about it. Then about a month ago maybe, I suddenly became eager to get back toSylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-61944193704547802782018-03-08T11:57:00.000-05:002018-03-08T11:57:00.683-05:00Springing to life!Well, as the title says, I feel as though the soon appearance of spring will help my somewhat sluggish spirit to liven up. I've done little more than write emails and post to Facebook all winter, it seems. I managed to finish NaNoWriMo in November, more of a struggle than it has been for me. You'd think for the 5th time it would not have been so. Now that novel is waiting to be fleshed out. It's Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-67175865712262712102017-10-31T21:48:00.001-04:002017-10-31T21:48:43.245-04:00Halloween - next?Not too many kids this year, as usual. Some wore really cute costumes. Lot of temporary pink, purple temp hair colors! I was happy to see adults, sometimes both parents, with them. All were very polite and thanked me for the candy. There were no smirky attitudes as I've seen sometimes in years past. Very refreshing.
The next few weeks will probably fly by, as usual. The time between Halloween, Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-49700927625673115022017-04-27T13:21:00.000-04:002017-04-27T13:33:16.448-04:00Lamb to the rescue!Two posts in April! Wow, I'm on a roll. Still a little euphoric about
the new book contract. Am anxious to begin working with editor on edits.
Will be that much closer to publication of the new edition of Disguise for Death.
Am also working on my third book in my Cam Lock, PI series. Title still up in the air. It will come. But I hit kind of a roadblock and have avoided working on the Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9168542028191643292.post-90701970163293885152017-04-03T13:15:00.001-04:002017-04-03T13:17:21.229-04:00April Happy News!I didn't get a new post in for March, but hey, good news is worth waiting for, right?
(cue drum roll) I have a new publisher! Just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press to publish a brand new edition of my novel, Disguise for Death. The book features Royce Thorne, widowed writer who turns amateur sleuth to clear her husband's son, accused of murder.
I'll be working with my assigned editor Sylviahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06377949181442969295noreply@blogger.com0