Six Sentence Sunday

I've decided to participate in Six Sentence Sunday and I'm posting some sentences from my soon to be released book from MuseItUp Publishing, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor:

Wow, I almost fainted. How will I get through lunch without losing consciousness? I'm glad this week is over, but thinking about next week is causing me even more stress. My lies have lies. Don't want to think about eating with Brad. I pray I won't do something stupid in front of him.

This is just a small post, but I will be back. Hope you are all having a great Sunday.:)

What Do You Know About Your Thyroid?

Many people go through their lives without once thinking about their thyroid. I was one of those people. So it was a shock to me last summer when my doctor referred me to an endocrinologist to be seen. He told me I had metabolic syndrome: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated thyroid levels. Who knew?? I was put on pills for my thyroid, Synthroid and pills for my high blood pressure and high cholesterol. All of a sudden I was taking four different pills. Then I found out I had diabetes to round it all out. So my doctor added a fifth pill!!!

Why am I telling you all this? It happens that today on my monthly Blog Talk Radio show I have as my guest a man who lived almost his entire life with symptoms of thyroid disease without doing anything about them. When he almost died that is when he decided to take care of himself. Not only did he turn his life around, but he founded a foundation, The National Thyroid Foundation and he wrote a book, Why Am I Anxious? His name is Clay Ballentine and I learned of him through my good friend and amazing author, Fran Lewis. So it is right that Fran Lewis, author of children's books: My Name is Bertha, Bertha Speaks Out, and Bertha Fights Back. In addition, Fran has written two non-fiction books: Memories Are Precious: Alzheimer's Journey:Ruth's Story and Sharp As A Tack or Scrambled Eggs:Which Describes Your Brain?

Please listen in and it would be wonderful to have some callers for this show. You can also participate in the chat room during the show. Be sure you are signed into Blog Talk Radio. Here is the show's page and the call in number:

http://tinyurl.com/4pyqqbj

Call in number:

(646) 595-4478

I'm looking forward to speaking with both Clay Ballentine and Fran Lewis. You can learn more about Clay on his blog, Why Am I Anxious?

Until the next time, thank you to my new followers. I apologize to anyone who left a comment and had to wait to see it. For some reason I didn't get the comments to moderate so I didn't see them until much later. You will see they are now published and I left you a comment too.:) As always thank you to the loyal readers who continue to enjoy my meanderings. This Monday my character blogged on The MuseItUp Publishing blog. You might want to see what she says about why she is in her mess. She calls it: I'm In Such a Mess!!!!

Did you choose to write or did writing choose you?

How do you feel about writing? Was writing a conscious choice for you or was it as it was for me, something that chose you?

Danica Davidson examines this idea in her article as a guest on Guide to Literary Agents:

"For many writers, writing isn't a choice. It's what we do and what we have to do. I've been writing since a young age and these days I'm working hard as a professional writer. I'm successfully working as a freelancer, but since my real goal is to become a novelist, I'm doing what I can to make that happen. I was honored to be able to write a guest column for the very popular site Guide to Literary Agents about seven things I've learned about writing. I hope what I wrote is helpful for anyone else on the writing path. Carry on, fellow writers!"

or you can click on this link:
http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/7+Things+Ive+Learned+So+Far+By+Danica+

Davidson.aspx

Thank you to anyone who read about me on The MuseItUp Publishing blog on Monday and left comments on Facebook. I hope you got to read some of the other authors who also talked about themselves and their writing. Many of the Muse authors are continuing the discussion on The MusePub_Readers group. It's on Yahoo and anyone who loves to read may join. Here you can join the discussion with other readers and the authors of Muse. Think of it as an online reading group where you don't have to read the books to join, but it's a lot more fun. Also, MuseItUp Publishing has a new logo and I am proudly displaying it on the side of this blog. Click on the banner and you will be at our bookstore. There you will be able to browse through the many selections of books we have. Here you can reserve your copy of upcoming books. My book, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, is coming in September. When I have a cover you will be some of the first to see it. I can't wait until April.:)

Next week is my show for January on RRWL Tales from the Pages. My guests will be Fran Lewis, who is a repeat guest on the show and Clay Ballentine, who has written a book called Why Am I Anxious. The book examines the possibility that if you have various symptoms you might have undiagnosed thyroid disease. Written in semi-autobiographical style the author relates his own experiences and tries to make sense of all of them. Clay Ballentine is the Chairman of the National Thyroid Foundation which he and his wife founded after his own near death experience. Please join us on Thursday, January 27th at 3PM Central, 4PM EST for a show which promises to be extremely lively.

Until the next time welcome to the new people who are now reading this and of course thanks to all my readers who continue to enjoy reading these meanderings.:)

Gabrielle Giffords Tries Democracy and Gets Shot!

People hold a vigil in Arizona for the victims

This afternoon a story hit me so hard I felt like I was punched in the stomach. The amazing thing about this story is the news media was so awful in telling it. By now with the advent of Twitter and the mini attention spans of most people this is no longer new news. However, earlier this afternoon nothing was clear about this story. Following it on Twitter with my friend's updates I couldn't believe all of the discrepancies.

If you were unaware of the news here it is. Gabrielle Giffords, a Blue Dog Democratic Congresswoman from Tucson, Arizona decided to hold a meet and greet for her constituents in front of a local grocery store. A few years ago my own Congresswoman did the same thing at several places in her district. it was an informal thing with the Congresswoman available to answer our questions. Everyone got a chance for some one on one time with her. I didn't see the event for Ms. Giffords, but I imagine it was similar. Here is where the two events part company. At Ms. Giffords' event a crazed shooter decided to shoot her and also he fired at and killed a federal judge and turned his gun on the crowd shooting and killing a nine year old and many more people including several people over seventy.

When I heard the news that an innocent nine year old who had surely accompanied her parent to see democracy in action, had been killed, I lost it. I cried for the fact that this happened in my country! I felt like an intruder had come into my home and attacked me and my family. This shouldn't happen in America. I thought of those other countries where I had heard of political assassinations like Iraq, Afghanistan and India. My country wasn't like that at all. We practiced democracy where you could meet your Congressperson and convey your concerns. Yet here was the possibility that one of our Congresswomen might have been killed in a senseless shooting. I continued crying as I realized my dream had dissolved in a spray of bullets.

The news on the radio and TV was conflicting with some news people saying the Congresswoman had died and others who said the Congresswoman was alive and in surgery. I was horrified at the conflicting stories and prayed for Ms. Giffords to recover. When the press conference told us she was out of surgery and the prognosis was not bad I still felt sad and mourned the loss of the others who were shot and killed. I am still worrying about the people who were shot and praying for Ms. Giffords recovery. I was in an awful funk even after dinner when I caught Keith Olbermann's Special Comment. He said, "We need to put the guns down."

The rest of the comment followed my own thinking and so eloquently. You need to watch and listen to the video to see how very important this comment is.

Rewind back to March and follow the horror of the threats Ms. Giffords received after she voted for the health care bill. Her campaign office had its front door destroyed. She got threats almost constantly through the summer and at the same time several right wing talk show hosts began talking about violence toward political figures. Sarah Palin put up that map with the targets and is it coincidence that Tucson had a mark over it? People like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh continued stirring up the rhetoric until people started bringing guns to political rallies and Ms. Giffords' opponent actually held a campaign event at a shooting range!!!!

What is interesting is that minutes after today's shooting all of these right wing blogs including Sarah Palin's took down their websites and also Sarah Palin scrubbed her tweets alluding to any mention of violence.

Let me say that I hate guns and violence of any kind. I am against war and hunting for the most part. So the first thought that popped into my mind when I heard about the shooting was when will we be able to have some decent gun control??? The shooter was not the only one with a gun at Saturday's event. A few more people toted guns. Why, I have to ask myself, would someone bring a gun to a peaceful meet and greet of your Congresswoman? Also why was the judge there and was this a premeditated shooting? They are still investigating, but it is obvious that the violent rhetoric didn't help.

What do you think about this whole situation? Do you agree with Olbermann and myself that the violent rhetoric contributed to this shooting? Please leave a comment here.

Until the next time, thank you to my new follower and of course to all of my loyal readers who continue to enjoy reading my meanderings. For those who wonder why I haven't posted any poetry it's because I haven't written anything. I've been too busy with my novel and getting involved with my excellent publishing company, MuseItUp Publishing.

My radio show on Blog Talk Radio, RRW Live Tales from the Pages features Fran Lewis an old friend and Clay Ballantine. Please tune in on Thursday, January 27th at 3PM Central Time to join the discussion with these two excellent writers. In the coming weeks more guests are going to pop in here and right now the schedule escapes me.:) Check in to see who is here. I'm hoping to invite as many of my fellow Muse authors as I can.:)

Happy New Year Thoughts!

When I was younger, back in the days when my parents went out for New Years Eve, I wanted to be a grown up and go out for New Year's Eve. I'd watch the people on TV in big venues and see the big bands play. In night clubs people wore funny hats and drank champagne and in Times Square people stood packed like sardines to watch the ball descend. It seemed a magical holiday to me. So when I got old enough to go on dates, having a date for New Year's Eve became my top priority.

Though I was only seventeen my first year in college, I managed to get a blind date for New Year's Eve from two friends at once. I then had not one, but two dates for New Year's. I chose my roommate's date choice and told the other (the man who became my husband) I was busy babysitting my brother. After all, my roommate's choice was at Harvard and the other was in the Army. This was in the early 60's and the Ivy League won out.:) We didn't do any of the glamorous things I thought we would do, but at least I was out for New Year's. Though it was not so exciting when we ran into a snowstorm and my date had to keep stopping every five minutes to wipe off his windshield wipers.

Through the years whenever I went out on New Year's Eve I kept hoping for the glitz and glamour I had seen as a girl. One year our first New Year's as a married couple, we went out to a bar/restaurant in Binghamton. At the time we were living in Cortland, NY, so Binghamton was a big city for us. I was dieting so I didn't eat much during the day thinking I was going to have a big meal at night. I had dressed up and wore a little black chiffon dress with a plunging neckline. At twenty-one I must have looked incredible:) When we got to the restaurant after seeing a movie where I hadn't even have any popcorn, I was handed a glass of champagne. There was a buffet, but I was dieting, so I didn't eat very much. Later we sat at the bar and ordered a split of champagne for the two of us. I had two more glasses with no more food. At some point my husband left for a few minutes leaving me alone talking with this other guy. I started to think this guy sounds drunk when the next thing I know I'm on the bar room floor!!! No kidding, there I was on the floor surrounded by strangers. All I wanted to see was the familiar face of my husband and there he was. He found out how I had gotten on the floor. I had passed out on the bar and they put me on the floor. He grabbed me by the hand and after I had dusted myself off he walked me to the door. It was frigid outside and I was in this sleeveless, backless, plunging neckline black chiffon dress that was above my knees. He then opened the door and started walking me down the block. I didn't feel a thing and we continued walking until we had gone halfway around the block. I was still not cold so we walked until I felt the cold, which was when we reached the bar again. That night in the hotel room my husband got when he realized how drunk I was, I couldn't go to sleep. After that night I never drank anything on an empty stomach.:)

After our children were born we got into the habit of staying home. I bought hats and noise makers and every New Year's Eve we celebrated with our children, wore our hats and used our noisemakers. Every year before 12 midnight we had a ritual. I put the glasses in the freezer and my husband got the champagne ready and opened it exactly five minutes before midnight. We had munchies and a special dessert too. At midnight we all watched the ball drop and wished each other Happy New Year. Last year I lost the bag with those New Year novelties when we threw it out after the fire. So this year we didn't have our usual celebration. One daughter was at her own party and the other didn't really have her heart in it this year. With my husband's illness and unfortunately, my own sinus infection and the fact I was taking antibiotics, we didn't have champagne. But we did have sparkling apple cider, though that tastes delicious there is no extra kick!! I missed the champagne and the hazy feeling that it was New Year's Eve. Yet the New Year arrived and we were all here together.

My year has started with less than a bang, but I am very hopeful that this is going to be a better year. At least we are not in a hotel and we don't have to go into a smoke-filled house that was condemned due to fire and sift through years of belongings with frozen hands. And we don't have to pack up our life in two weeks. Last January at this time I was thankful to be in a warm room and have a place to live. Now I am hoping that my husband's hypercalcemia caused by his sarcoidosis is going to be controlled again as the doctor claims. He says it is temporary and my husband will be back to normal as soon as they get the right balance of drugs. It is an unknown. But there is something to look forward to in this new year, my book, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor, is going to be published in September. It's my literary baby so I'm feeling like any pregnant woman would. I am pregnant with book and it will be delivered in nine months!!!! Meanwhile joy is bursting inside me when I think that the New Year's resolution I made six years ago is finally coming true!!!!

Unfortunately, one more part of me needs tending. When I went to the orthopedic doctor he said I had a gastric tear in my calf muscle and I need to go to physical therapy. I need to have my insurance company approve it, and when they do I have to call the rehab place and make appointments. With my tutoring schedule I am going to have to make them during the day. That cuts into my time for writing and there has been too little of that lately:) But I need it, because I am limping on that leg if I don't use it for awhile. So I have to go to rehab.:)

I did make some literary resolutions and here they are:

1. Submit my second novel, When My Life Changed, to publishers.

2. Work on my third YA novel, Footsteps on the Sand, which I wrote for last year's NaNo.

3. Work on my romance/suspense/adventure novel, Tall Poison, in my critique group.

4. Really try to read and critique all subs for my critique group.

5. Write a new blog post more frequently than once a week.

6. Go back to writing at least a poem a week and post on Poetic Asides comment page.

7. Write another short story. Either work on an old one or write a new one. Maybe fill out the story I started last week. (That's another whole blog post.):)

8. Write my articles for Examiner.com.

That's all for now. Until the next time thank you to my new readers and to the loyal followers who continue to read my meanderings. I hope all of you had a good New Year's Eve and I wish all of you a Happy, Healthy, Peaceful and Prosperous New Year. This is our year, can't you feel it????

For some excellent reading please check out MuseItUp Publishing's Book Store where you will find ebooks for everyone at reasonable prices. I didn't get an e-reader, but I am hoping to buy one soon. These books are very high quality and I'm not just saying this because this is my publisher. You know I would never steer you to anything that was not the best! You can click on the banner on the side or click on the link.