VOTE

I love being an American. I love this country as the founding fathers envisioned it. Yes, I'm a woman and I couldn't originally vote, but the founding fathers made provision for that with amendments. They were good men--divinely inspired by Providence to create a seventeen page document that would stand the test of time--and it has for over 200 years. But now? Now I'm nervous about the direction this very progressive President and Congress full of Democrats are taking this country.

I've always been a conservative because I don't like Big Government. I truly do believe that when men (or women) get too much power they become prideful. They begin to feel that they have the answers for everything and that the voice of the riff-raff is unimportant. Add to this arrogance a seemingly never-ending stream of money, and you've got trouble.

In their wisdom, the founding fathers integrated checks and balances into the power structure. This is a very good thing. But, when the Executive branch and the majority of Congress are in lock step with one ideology...it is a very bad thing.

November 2, with mid-term elections, we have the opportunity to bring balance back into the system. The voice and vote of the people need to be heard and counted.

Please vote on November 2.

Book Signings

Recently I came across a subject of discussion on one of the writers lines I belong to. While I didn’t participate in the subject but was merely a lurker, It was interesting to me to read all the comments being said on this particular subject.

Apparently what started the discussion was a new author was about to embark on their first book signing and was asking for any helpful hints and suggestions to make their first book signing a success.

Many people wrote in with ideas – some of which I will share—but the topic of discussion got me thinking a bit.

It doesn’t seem like all that long ago I was asking the very same question of my friend Kerry Blair. I was about to do my first book signing and I had no idea what I was up against.

As always, Kerry gave me some helpful hints that have stuck with me and with time I have learned a few things along the way.

I know that if I were to ask each author on this blog, I believe that each of us would agree that with our book signings, we have all had those signings that gave us experiences that we will never forget, that we have met people along the way that have changed our lives in one way or another, and that there are times that we would look back at now and just plain laugh at or cherish the memory.

It’s a few of those that I want to share.

For starters… I remember at one particular book signing I walked into the store. They were obviously unprepared for me to arrive as there was no table set up for me, no poster to announce I’d be there, etc.

I walked to the desk where the girl at the counter was helping a long line of customers. I had my hands full. I had brought a basket of flowers, (my main character was into landscaping- a small flower was given to each person who had me sign a book and to each sales clerk upon my leaving) I also had a jar of candy to help decorate my table, and a book of mint brownies for the store staff with a saying “I mint to tell you thank you for allowing me to come to your store today!”

As I stood there ready to drop everything, I overheard the girl at the counter going on and on about the wonderful author coming to the store to do a signing. She was EXTREMELY complimentary about the incredible writing talent of this mystery writer, how she can never figure out who the bad guy is, etc.

In the meantime, I was thrilled with the way she was gushing on and on about me. The customers kept looking over at me as they waited in line and my heart soared with this girl’s admiration of my talent.

Finally, one customer asked the author’s name. I was puffed up in pride by this time. The clerk looked up and said, “Betsy Brannon Green—she’ll be here next week and you just have to come back and meet her!” she squealed with excitement.

Lesson learned- Stay humble. I look back at that time and it certainly keeps me grounded. They had forgotten I was even coming that day.

Book signing hint- It’s the staff that sells your book. You want to leave them with a good impression. I have always tried to remember that. You are only there for a short time, but they are there every day. Letting them know you appreciate what they do in your behalf is beneficial to you. It’s them that gets your book into the hands of the readers. That being said, of course there are those that have made a name for themselves because of their talent alone. Me? I need all the help I can get!

At another book signing I had a gentleman come up and ask me all about my book. He acted genuinely interested in the plot and the background of how I came up with the storyline. I also noticed he went through the entire jar of candy as we talked, leaving all the wrappers from the candy crumbled all over the table. At the end of the candy he said, “Yeah well, I don’t read that kind of stuff anyway.” He acted disgusted by my book. I know he liked the candy though—

As for meeting people along the way—there are those signings that we get to meet people who want to meet us. Those are the ones who will buy the book and then write to you and tell you to keep at it. They keep you going. They keep you from getting discouraged and keep you from giving up.

Lesson learned—as writers we are our own worst critic. Life gets in our way and takes up our time. We write for the love of it, for the challenges it brings. There are those who lift you up and encourage you to never give up. They make it all worth it.

Book signing hint—I always try to give some sort of give away at my book signings that go with the plot of the book as a thank you for buying the book. While this certainly isn’t necessary, It’s just a fun thing that I like to do. I didn’t do it with my first book, my second book was the flowers, the third, Kerry Blair helped me come up with the idea and we gave away troll dolls—which had to do with the storyline.

I have seen other authors do this as well. I loved Kerry’s book party when she gave party bags away with her Samantha Shade series – they had puzzles and pencils and treats in them.

Michele bell gave away butterfly boxes when she began her Butterfly series. I loove my little box from Michele.

While doing things is a personal choice, I do think it’s nice to have a little candy dish out or something to decorate your table with. Sometimes the candy only brings people over to meet you, but hey, it’s a nice way to meet people too. :)

Other hints that authors suggested was checking to spell names correctly—even common names can be spelled differently.

Some use a matching pen that matches the cover art.

Some authors will sign with clever saying that have to do with the plot or series, while others will sign a personal message to family and friends.

I could go on and on about this topic. Not because of my vast knowledge—I’m afraid I lack there—but more because I have had some really fun experiences and I have some very choice memories of book signings—like the Clinton signing when I was in awe while doing a signing with so many of my favorite authors. It was such a wonderful experience for me to be among them.

The last experience I want to touch on is the signing that changes your life in one way or another. For me that would be when I went to a book signing. Not of my own, but to have one of my favorite authors sign one of my favorite books.

It was a Saturday morning I had gone to the Seagull store on 5400 So. And Redwood Road I had gone there to buy the next book in the Heart series by Kerry Blair. I had read them out of order but loved them so much I wanted them all. A saleslady told me Kerry would be in later that day to sign if I wanted to come back. I debated it back and forth but finally decided, as scared as I was to meet her, I wanted to tell her I loved her books and had always wanted to be a writer.

Long story short, I went back and from that book signing, Kerry Blair has changed my life for the good.

Not only has she taught me most of what I know about the world of writing, for without her I would have never gotten a book on the shelves, but my life is so much better because she is in it.

She has introduced me to some of my very best friends that I now have—each of whom I consider a blessing in my life—and has opened a whole new world for me.

Lesson learned—There are angels in this world that come and touch our lives for good and no matter how you try, no matter what you say, there are just no words to express your love and gratitude for what they mean to you.

Book signing hint-I decided a long time ago that it doesn’t matter how many books I sell at a book signing. I need to be in it for the experience. There are times that I have done a signing where people refuse to make eye contact. They’ll walk past me as if they can’t move away from me fast enough. Then there are times where I have signed one book right after another. Either way, I have met some wonderful people that I’ll never forget, I have some choice memories, but most of all, I have enjoyed the journey.

Barmy Britannia

I made a new friend recently. She’s American, and has recently married a member of our ward and moved here. She’s lovely, and I feel so much sympathy with her as she struggles to get used to the new culture. She misses grape juice, hasn’t dared drive yet, and she told me that cooking is presenting a challenge. (She held a Pampered Chef party recently and there I discovered that this is because she doesn’t have a set of cooking scales. I bought her some.)

I’m a patriot. I am proud to be British, and English. But I thought I would blog about some of the more interesting, eccentric and downright daft things about this cramped little land of mine.

• Apart from English, the United Kingdom has a number of other historic languages. Half a million people speak Welsh, a few thousand Scots are fluent in Gaelic, about 400 people speak Cornish, while about 100 on the Isle of Man speak Manx.
• I am English, but also British and a UK citizen. England is the country I live in, Britain is the island I live on, and the UK is the nation I belong to. Confused?
• Fee-paying (i.e. private) schools in Britain are called Public Schools. Someone identified (often disparagingly in the press) as being a “public schoolboy” is probably from a wealthy, possibly aristocratic, background.
• All UK schools are required to have a daily act of collective worship.
• Ever wondered why British currency is called pounds, or pounds sterling? It’s because originally the banknote (now a coin) represented a pound in weight of sterling silver in the bank’s vault. In theory you could take your £ to the bank and demand to exchange it for a pound of silver. (£1 is currently worth about $1.50. 1lb of silver, considerably more.)
• Britain is the only country in the world not to put its name on its stamps.
• The Queen faces left on stamps and notes, but right on coins.
• On any given day in Britain there is a 50% chance that the sky will be overcast and a 35% chance of rain. Humidity is generally between 70 and 90%. The highest temperature recorded was in Faversham in Kent in 1993 when it reached 101 degrees farenheit, but August temperatures rarely rise over 80 degrees.
• Britain is the 49th most densely populated country in the world, with 246 people per square kilometre of land. The United States is 175th with 30 people per square kilometre.
• If you want to own a TV in Britain, you must have a licence. It currently costs £142.50 per year ($214) There is a jail term for watching TV without a licence.

Sunny With a Chance of Showers

How often have we heard weather forecasters predict that we will experience a sunny day with a chance of showers? Probably too many times to count. ;) Today was one of those kind of days. It dawned bright and cheery, the sun peeking out over the mountain tops. "Aha," I though to myself as I prepared to face the day's events, "the weatherman lied last night." Last night's prediction was for rain . . . rain . . . and more rain with a chance of snow in the higher elevations. There was no mention of sun . . . and yet it has burst through the clouds off and on all day.

I went about my list of errands this morning, believing the storm fairies were having fun with the local weatherman, when all of a sudden, it began to sprinkle . . . and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It sprinkled all the same. It did this for quite some time . . . and then the sky grew dark with menacing clouds. "Ah, here it comes," I commented . . . and it did indeed . . . for nearly two solid hours. It rained, poured, and provided an impressive gulley-washer as we call it around these parts.

Then the sun came out and warmed things up nicely . . . before the next storm descended. The battle between clouds and sun took place most of the day. Currently, the sun is shining but I can see a glimmer of darkened clouds on the horizon, indicating that the storms aren't quite finished for the day.

It's like that with life; storms and sunshine seem intermixed. On one of the most beautiful fall days imaginable a darkened storm surfaced into my life 27 years ago. On that day my father chose to end his life. I remember walking outside later that morning after receiving the news, and wondering how anyone could do such a thing on a day that was so gorgeous. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and yet it rained steadily inside my heart for several weeks.

Storms come into our lives for important reasons, like the need for new growth. Sometimes they spring out in a surprising manner, clouding our lives without warning, due in part to the fault of others. However they descend, I know that eventually, the Son will reappear, drying our tears, warming our hearts, and reminding us there is always hope, no matter how dark the skies may appear on the horizon.

Events That Shape Our Lives by Michele Ashman Bell

The other evening my daughter and I were watching TV and as I scrolled through the channels I came across an old episode of "I Love Lucy." I felt as though old friends had entered my family room. There was Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred, caught up in one of Lucy's crazy schemes, and I felt as though all the years melted away and I was a young girl again. My daughter, 11 years old, enjoyed the show with me and I told her how I had seen every episode at least a dozen times. Lucy was part of my childhood.

As I pondered this fact, I began to think of many of the events and moments throughout my life that have shaped me and had some sort of impact on who I am and what I store in my memory bank. Many of them are moments that are important enough that I want to make sure my children know about them.

I remember watching the Beattles on the "Ed Sullivan Show" and feeling special that they had a song with my name, "Michelle, my Belle..." and thinking Paul was as dreamy as they come.

I remember in 1969 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I stood in awe and watched the news footage and heard the famous words, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

I remember the Vietnam War and how scary and confusing it was to me. I never fully understood that war and why our soldiers were treated so despicably until I did research for my Vietnam War series, "Timeless Moments" and "Forget Me Not." There have been other conflicts that have had a profound effect upon me and my family. As upsetting as some are to remember, there are things about them I hope I never forget and want to make sure my children remember.

I remember when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, an event I thought would never happen in my lifetime. Truly a miracle.

And more recently, I remember 9-11 and the horror I felt as I watched the twin towers engulfed in flames.

Events like these and others, contribute to who we are and what we become. Even though it shocks my children that I grew up with 5 channels on a black and white TV, no dishwasher, no microwave and no cell phones, it's all part of who I am. These memorable moments, good and bad, define us and help us grow.

What are moments and events in your life that stand out?

Favorite Quote for Today

Here's a quote from A.W. Tozer I came across recently and I share it in hopes that it will comfort those who are feeling the pain of loss today:

If God sets out to make you an unusual Christian He is not likely to be as gentle as He is usually pictured by the popular teachers. A sculptor does not use a manicure set to reduce the rude, unshapely marble to a thing of beauty. The saw, the hammer and the chisel are cruel tools, but without them the rough stone must remain forever formless and unbeautiful.

To do His supreme work of grace within you He will take from your heart everything you love most. Everything you trust in will go from you. Piles of ashes will lie where your most precious treasures used to be.

Thus you will learn what faith is; you will find out the hard way, but the only way open to you, that true faith lies in the will, that the joy unspeakable of which the apostle speaks is not itself faith but a slow-ripening fruit of faith.You will learn, too, that present spiritual joys may come and go as they will without altering your spiritual status or in any way affecting your position as a true child of the heavenly Father.

Then you will also learn, probably to your astonishment, that it is possible to live in all good conscience before God and men and still feel nothing of the "peace and joy" you hear talked about...

My Duty to God

Life can be so hectic that you can feel like you are swimming in circles accomplishing nothing.

It’s pretty much how I was feeling when my husband came to me and said, “Bryan needs to catch up on his goals if he’s going to earn his Duty to God award. Why don’t we start working on that this Monday night during Family Home Evening?”

I glared at him.

What I heard him say was, “What you are doing in a twenty four hour period of time that you actually need thirty six hours to accomplish isn’t enough and you need to do more.”

Okay, I admit I needed an attitude adjustment and at that precise moment, I was having a few issues.

So I smiled, not very sincerely I admit. I gritted my teeth and said, “Sure, honey, let’s do that,” and I walked away.

Come that Monday night, we all sat together as a family. My husband opened my son’s “Duty to God” hand book. As we reviewed the program, memories came flooding back to me of a couple of months ago when we sat as parents with our son’s at our Church house learning about the new program that has been set forth for the young men of the church to help them fulfill their Duty to God. I was touched by the program then, just as I was this past Monday night while my husband reviewed it for us again.

You may wonder why I would pick this topic to blog about since maybe most of the readers are perhaps women. There is indeed a program set forth for the young women as well, but since I have boys, I just wanted to mention how impressed I am that there is a program that gives the youth of today such high standards and morals to live by and if these boys will do these things, then as they fulfill their responsibilities, they will “greatly bless the lives of those around them” --that would be ALL those around them.

(I do plan to wrap up this blog with how this applies to women as well. So hang in there with me.)

The idea of the Duty to God program is to learn, act, and share. They young men learn about their duties, make plans how to fulfill them by setting goals that can be challenging but fun and of service, and share with others about the growth they have gained from it. Sounds simple? The idea is, the goals are not. These young men are setting goals that will help to shape them for their future. They are setting goals now that will help them develop lifelong habits.

They have interviews with their progress, their goals and duties must reflect them taking the initiative to be responsible and hardworking, being of service to others. They must be spiritually minded, and keep themselves morally and physically clean, young men. They must do their duty with diligence.

A book of standards that helps them set their goals is the book, “For the strength of Youth”

This is a very brief summary about the new program. For more information you can read more at www.lds.org

Back to Monday night—as we sat as a family—we turned to the first section in the handbook. We did the required reading and slowly my issues of the day before started to fade away. A renewed hope began to set in as we talked about goals that Bryan wanted to set for himself. I asked him if I could join him with the goal setting and he thought it would be good for all of us to work on goals at the same time. We all agreed.

I set my goals. The first goal is my relationship with family and friends. To break that down a little, I wrote: I need to be more pleasant and have a better “attitude."

Now, I don’t think we can gain a better attitude just because we say, “I’m going to have a better attitude.” At least for me, it’s not that easy. I had to have a plan in motion to achieve that goal so, I wrote down how I intended to do a few things so that I can work towards achieving a better attitude and so on.

After we worked on a couple of areas in my son’s book, it was time to call an end to that part of our Family Home Evening. It had been a good night for all of us, but especially for me. I needed a change of attitude and I could feel within my heart a desire to make that happen.

Life can be overwhelming. There are some days you reach the end of the day feeling completely exhausted and wonder about all you have not yet finished. You wonder if all you have done is ever enough. Surely we know within our hearts that it is, but I think we tend to be hard on ourselves and there are times we feel like we are bearly treading water.

There is so much I want to do and I feel there is hardly enough hours in a day to accomplish that which I need to do.

Maybe it begins with attitude.

We all have a "Duty to God." The young men of the Church have a formal program set up to give them direction. The young women do as well. We as adults have the Gospel Plan to give us direction. We all have a loving Father in Heaven to turn to. He will help us fulfill all of our duties if we will put forth our best effort and then have faith and trust in him. He’ll help us stay afloat. With that in mind, what’s not to have a good attitude about?