Dear Life:

I've made it through another year on Planet Earth. Well, good for me. Unfortunately, I must inform you that the mid-life crisis that I hear I should be having must be rescheduled.

I know I can't deny my age, but I don't have to be bound by it. I know 36 isn't a spring chicken, but it's not fried either. I'm not even sure if mid-30's qualify as "middle age" anymore.

Yes, I feel time creeping up on me. I don't recover from illness as quickly as I used to I can't run at 110% all the time without crashing. Injuries creep up on me every now and then. And yet, my life is more full and active now than it's ever been. My energy levels might not be what they used to be, but my activity level is at it's highest ever, at least in my adulthood years. I'd say the substance of my life has increased and abounded beyond my expectations.

No, I'm not old. I'm not middle aged. I'm alive. I've been greatly blessed, and I intend to enjoy those blessings and make the most of them in this life that the Lord has gifted me with. Age is nothing more than a mile marker on the journey of life, and I see a lot of potential on the horizon. I intend to make that potential my reality.

As such, I've determined that I don't have the time, patience, or desire for a crisis right now. The journey continues and I have a lot of living to do. And so, I must be gone because, well, I have stuff to do.

Sherri

I can suspend my disbelief for a lot of things. I can believe that science fiction could be showing us a possible future, no matter how far fetched or unrealistic it may seem. After all, never say never. We thought the 21st century would look like The Jetsons and, well, it's turned out quite differently.

I can believe that fantasy is showing us possible alternate realities. Sure, I know there's no such thing, but I can suspend my disbelief to consider that these are possible ways the world could have been.

I can even suspend my disbelief for urban fantasy. I know it's unlikely that quirks in reality would result in superheros or creatures walking the world as we know it, but I can consider "what if."

What I can't suspend my disbelief for, however, is romance. I thought this was a personal taste issue, but after giving two romances a chance this summer - no. That's just too far out there.

First, let me open my arguement by giving you two facts that are surly coloring my perception: First, I've been married for over 13 years, so I know the reality of relationships. That dopamine rush that takes you to the altar eventually leads to home, family, in-laws, job stress, financial strains, good days, bad days, joy and tears, and a partridge in a pear tree - if you're lucky. Second, I've always had a lot of men in my life. To say there's been a heavy male influence on the way I was raised and continue to live would be an understatement. So please bear these in mind as I make my arguement.

For the sake of preserving dignity, I won't say what I read or who wrote them because they might have fans out there that devoured them and think it's the best thing since chocolate. I'll be fair. I will say this, though: Both stories had several elements in common that I just couldn't seem to get past. They were way out of left field. For example:
1. Men don't instantly fall in love after one encounter. Sorry ladies, it doesn't happen that way.
2. Men don't propose a week after meeting the lady of their dreams. In the best case scenario, it will take longer and completely freak them out to the point that they withdraw for a while before deciding to commit.
3. Men aren't the ones that are talking about having children on date #2. Sorry ladies - again, that doesn't happen in real life. Barring "surprises," this consideration usually comes at least a year or two after marriage, which in itself takes a year or two to come about.
4. Men aren't emotional and they don't like having "heart to heart" talks. My own husband has confirmed this. So has my brother, my father, and while they were alive both grandfathers. Sure they may feel it (they aren't robots), but the likelihood of them talking about it willingly and openly is roughly equivalent to aliens landing in my driveway right now.
5. In both stories, it was the woman that was long single and fearing committment. Really? They fell in bed quick enough for somebody not looking for love. Now I'm not saying there aren't women that are afraid of commitment. I'm just saying the stereotype exist for a reason. It's more likely that the woman is the one wanting an exclusive relationship before the man. See point #2 above.
6. Vampires and werewolves - really? Ok, I'll be a sport. They may be prowling the night, but they aren't looking for love. They're looking for a quick and tasty meal.

Before you say that I must have just gotten a  hold of some bad examples, I did try romance while I was in college and found myself having the same problems with the same issues I saw in those novels. Well, with the exception of the vampires and werewolves. That wasn't popular back in the mid 90's.

So go ahead and call me an improper lady if you must but I'm sorry. I'm more likely to believe that Frodo Baggins destroyed the ring of power, the Jedi order is rebuilding somewhere out there, dragons are hiding under the Smoky Mountains, Superman will save the day, Batman is on a rooftop downtown, and Thor is beating someone down every time I hear thunder than I am to take any bit of the two things I recently read seriously. Sorry.

That's all the fun I have for today. Here's hoping you're off to a great start to the new week.

Bye!

Hi everybody; I hope you're having a great weekend. Today is kind of a slow going day for me, which is refreshing. It's nice to not be rushing around all day!

My wrist is feeling better, and I'm glad it healed quickly because I've had a lot of writing ideas lately. Over the past couple of weeks, I've done some flash fiction, some non-fiction, and now I have ideas for two more pieces. One will be fiction and the other is non-fiction/inspirational. I'm glad that I'm inspired to write things in different genres. One thing I don't want is to be a one-trick wonder. I like writing in a variety of genres and styles. Although fiction is my favorite, I'm pleased that my inspiration for the non-fiction work that got me started seems to be returning. I'm probably rusty in that area, but I'll brush up. I do believe it's time to make my muse evolve and to embrace both fiction and non-fiction as fully as possible!

Tomorrow is Rick's birthday, and my birthday is next Friday (August 26th). I think Rick is a bit down about getting another year older - you know, the whole magic of birthdays is kind of lost after you turn 21. But honestly, my age isn't bothering me too much. I know mid-30's bother a lot of people, and from time to time I do ask myself how the hell I got to turning 36 in a week. But by and large, I have to say that I don't feel old. Wiser, definitely, and extremely grateful for that. More life experience to draw on, which is a good thing. Wishing I looked more like I did 10 years ago but Rick still compliments me so I guess I'm still in "average" range with the looks, which isn't bad. But not old. No, I'm not feeling the mid-life crisis right now. Guess I'll have to have it later.

But I would like to take this opportunity to publiclly wish Rick a Happy Birthday tomorrow.

It hasn't been as hot lately, and I'm grateful. A lot of people are saying they're ready for summer to be over so this hot weather will pass. Yes, it's been brutally hot, but truthfully I'm not eager to see summer go. Why? What would we be wishing away. Extreme heat for what - extreme cold? No thanks. Actually, I hate the cold, so I'll cope with the heat. And as I said, it's been more seasonable lately, so it hasn't been bad. So no, I don't want to see summer go. I still like it. I like the sunshine and long days, the green plants and blue sky, and the fact that the world is still alive. And there's something almost charming about a summer storm. In fact, I believe one is brewing now. I hear wind and thunder.

Well, that's all today. Just some random musings. I hope you're having a good weekend. Take care. More later.

Bye!

I had an interesting revelation today. It seems that as my life progresses, I'm continually asked to rise to new levels. This is normal, I suppose. We're supposed to grow and learn so we become better people. That is, after all, the purpose in life, isn't it? To continue to grow into a better person?

I think it is, if we take these steps forward in an effort to rise to new levels; in essence to come closer to the creation God wants us to be. However, I believe there are also times when we're asked to rise to a new level for mere convenience - that is, because where we are isn't convenient to somebody else and our "moving up" or "moving on" is nothing more than putting us in a place that's convenient for someone else.

I suppose I find myself pondering this question because there's been a lot of talk recently on "change" and "responsibility" and what needs to be done to make things better in this tough economy. I even heard something about it on BBN's newscast today. Politicians are still bickering on what's the right way to get America back on track. The problem is, all of them have political agendas and they're scared of making the people funding their campaigns mad - so they dance around the special interest that keep them where they want to be, oftentimes at the expense of lower and middle class Americans.

It's not just an issue at the national level, but at a personal level as well. I've known people that were subjected to job transfers not because of their skills or abilities, but because they ticked the wrong person off and they had to be shuffled because they were the lower person on the totem poll. And they didn't benefit from the change at all. In fact, it was usually a source of anger and frustration, with no personal development whatsoever.

I suppose the real issue here is that we need to explore our motives for why we do what we do. Is it right? Is it for the greater good? Is it for a purpose? And most importantly, is there an honest and pure motive for it? That last question is key, because if your motives are wrong then there's no way things can work out right.

Personally, I want to rise to the level of my best self - not the level where others find it convenient for me to be for their own selfish purposes.

See, this is what happens when I start paying attention to the news again - these entries get deep!

That's all tonight. I hope you're having a good week and that it wraps up well for you. Take care and stay well.

Bye!

Hi everybody; I hope you're having a good weekend. I apologize for not blogging sooner, but I had an unexpected surprise: My right wrist and hand started hurting terribly Thursday. Heavy computer use between work and the recently released book were no doubt to blame, and I'm sure the fact that I wrote 3 flash fiction pieces didn't help. I limited my computer use to what was necessary Thursday and Friday, and took yesterday off (thank goodness for my iPod touch, so I could check Facebook and Twitter without too much pain and suffering). It's better today, but still aching a bit - so this will probably be a short entry.

I know a lot of my entries and social media posts of late have revolved around my writing, so I thought I'd give you an update on what's going on in the rest of this corner of the world. Unfortunately, that would be not much. My work is in a (very) rare steady phase. I have a lot of meetings, it seems, but it's routine stuff and not major board meetings. I know exactly why this is: The legislature isn't in session, and with several items pending review in 2012 I'm sure we'll be off and running again when they reconvene in January. So I intended to enjoy this.

I've been lucky in that the church stuff has been pretty level. The evangelism committee is meeting tonight for the first time since May - summer is a slow time for them, and the chairwoman has been working out of state a lot lately, so she's petitioning to keep it simple. Rick has a church council meeting tonight. He was hoping it would be simple, but one of the Pastor's told him this morning that it will probably be a doozy. The July meeting was cancelled because of Bible School, so they have 2 months of work and updates to catch up on. So we both have to go back to church for meetings tonight. 

The birds are doing well. Healthy and happy. They all got a bath yesterday and none of them were happy about it. We learned to bathe them before we go out for the day on Saturday so we don't have to get the evil glares until they dry off. It works out pretty good, and by the time we get home they forget how mad they are and are happy to see us again.

It's rained a lot the past few days, which is good because I just fertilized the roses, probably for the last time this season. I hope the rain will result in good late summer and fall blooms. They've done well this summer, which is good. I was worried about how the extreme heat would affect them, but they've done alright and kept right on blooming.

Yes, I'm still loving the new laptop!

That's really all - things have been kind of slow, and I'm grateful for that. Everybody needs that from time to time. I hope all is well in your world. Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Bye!

Howdy ho, folks, and I hope this entry finds you in the middle of a good and productive week. I’d like to open by welcoming many new people that I’ve connected with in recent days: Friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter, and anybody that graces my Author Page on Amazon.com, where this blog has a feed. Some are old friends from days gone by and some are fellow writers or connections with writers. I welcome and thank each and every one of you. Thanks to all of you for the connection, friendship and support!

In honor of my recent book release and new connections, I’d like to dedicate this blog post by sharing a bit more about myself with you. Here we go!

Want to know what inspired Blurry? Nightmares. That’s right, the novel came about based on dreams I had about being in high school in college while Rick (my husband) and I built our house in 2007. Some say that dreams of school days represents a subconscious desire to return to a simpler time in life. Maybe, but I weaved a heck of a tale from those
dreams!

I’ve actually been writing for over 10 years. I started out as an inspirational writer and published a Christian book titled Battleground Earth – Living by Faith in a Pagan World in 2004. It’s still for sale on www.publishamerica.com and on Amazon.com . Unfortunately, my muse for the inspirational work went dry so I switched to fiction. I read an article on CNN about the rise of E-publishing last summer and decided that perhaps that would be more appropriate for my fiction work, so I dusted off a few manuscripts and now, here we are.

I’m publishing another novel titled Anywhere But Here in April 2012 and I have another novel in progress. It’s a sci-fi apocalyptic thriller titled Splinter and I do hope to publish it. 

The birds outnumber the people in my house. To you new folks, Rick and I have three birds: Two sun conures named Zack and Chloe and a budgie named Oliver. We lovingly adopted Zack and Chloe and rescued Ollie – the principal at one of the schools Rick works at found him in the school yard. And of course, being bird people, well, we wound out with Bird #3. Hmm. Do you think Ollie was really a rescue, or part of Zack and Chloe’s clever plan to shift the balance of power in our home from human to avian?

By the way, the birds have their own website. Rick started a test site when he was designing the church website. When he was done with it, he told me to do what I wished with it. So many people ask me about the birds that I decided to redo the website as theirs. You can check it out at http://conurecorner.weebly.com . It also includes some silly stories I wrote inspired by each bird.

I don’t have one kind of music I listen to, as it depends on my mood. But you absolutely cannot borrow one CD. It’s Cold’s “13 Ways to Bleed On Stage” from 2000. I know,  that dark stuff isn’t like me at all, but it’s catchy and I love it! My favorite songs:“Just Got Wicked,” “End of the World,” and “Bleed” (truly a ballad appreciated by all bleeding artists).

Movie that came out of left field and smacked me thissummer: Thor. That movie was awesome.

Movie that was better than I expected: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. Folks, it was a bloodbath! And about time that people started whopping up on one another! That was too long in coming. 

Movie that wasn’t what I hoped: The Green Lantern. I hoped for less personal angst and more intergalactic warfare from my favorite childhood superhero.

What was as good as I expected: The series finale of Smallville. 

In case you didn’t notice, I really like science fiction and fantasy. Suspense is also high on my list. Romance is near the bottom. I’ve given it a chance and frankly, it’s unrealistic. I’ve been married for 13 years, folks, and I know the reality of romantic relationships. 
 
I don’t watch much TV, but I will make time to watch one TV show, and that’s Supernatural. I sure hope Bobby, Sam and Dean find a way to reign Castielle in, or at least beat the crap out of him in Season 7. After that finale, Cas could use a good whopping.

I don’t like having my picture taken. That’s why I don’t have many pictures posted. I don’t think they look like me. And I don’t own a video camera either. 

Pink is my favorite color. My laptop, my iPod Touch cover, several of my purses, and most of my clothes are pink. Yellow is my second favorite color, with purple as close third. I don’t care for brown or orange.

I like purple nail polish, strappy sandals in the summer, and hiking boots in the winter. 

I think Walmart is the fifth level of Dante’s Inferno and that everybody needs to get off the cell phone while they’re in there. It doesn’t help and that line to the outside world is a false sense of security. If you’re in Walmart, you’re still in Hell. I feel like I pay for those low prices with a piece of my soul every time I go there. 

I don’t have kids, but my first job was working in a 2 year old room for a daycare. So whine at your own risk because I know how to deal with tantrums “professionally.” 

I don’t lead or follow. I just go along my own way. And that drives some people absolutely batty!

We built in the woods and truthfully, I feel safer there than I did in a neighborhood. If I hear a noise outside at night, it’s likely wildlife doing what wildlife does and that’s normal. If I heard a noise outside at night in a neighborhood, that was nothing but people creeping around – and why were they creeping around at a late hour when they thought nobody was aware of it?

Speaking of living in the woods, we’ve disproved a few old wives tales in the nearly 4 years since we moved out there. Snakes don’t writhe until sundown if you kill them, especially if they’re hacked into 4 pieces. An owl hooting doesn’t always mean death is coming, and they won’t stop hooting if you turn your pillow over (they don’t know or care that you did it). You can’t overwater anything in sandy soil. And a yard light out doesn’t scare much of anything.

Well, I think that’s enough for this time. I hope you’ve enjoyed this silly list of trivia and that you’ll visit this site often to keep up with my continuing adventures in publishing and in life. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Bye!

I’ve heard many interpretations of Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds. This is the one about the farmer
that planted wheat, an enemy planted weeds amongst the wheat, and the farmer told the slaves to let them grow together and at harvest they’d gather both, separate the wheat from the weeds, and burn the weeds. Most center on evil being uprooted and dealt with in the end days, but about a year ago, our pastor gave this parable a new ring. He said another way to look at it would be to consider the annoyances and irritations that the devil puts in your life to divert you from your purpose in God. If you live by faith and try to walk in the will of the Lord, the devil is going to attack you. The attacks are the weeds that trip you up, annoy you, and cause you to stumble. 
 
I think this is interesting. What’s more interesting is that it seems these weeds are variations on the same  things, over and over again. For example, we all have annoying people in our lives, but have you noticed that the annoying people around you seem to share the exact same problem? I’m a magnet for jealous, petty people, and always have been. I remember Mom having to sit me down and explain what jealousy was when I
was 7 years old – that’s right, when I was a mere kid in grammar school – because a girl got mad at me because she thought my dress was prettier than hers. And so it has gone, right up until now, and probably will until the day I die. It seems there’s always at least one person trying to get up in my business, then getting mad because they feel I’m “not staying in my place.” One goes away, and two more just like them will come along. I even had an episode where the next petty person was firmly entrenching themselves BEFORE the last
one was gone for good. 

It’s not just me. Rick (my husband) is a magnet for selfish, mean people. I have truly seen Satan in some of the people he’s had to deal with. There have even been cases where third parties told me “that person is mentally ill or demonically possessed. I’ve never seen such meanness in a single human being.” Oh, but Rick has, over and over. 

I’ve seen it in others too. Mom is a magnet for insecure, needy people. I had a friend that could draw the most
arrogant people you’ve ever seen – oh, how much they thought of themselves! I had another friend that was a glue trap for users and abusers. She got stabbed in the back so many times that I thought she must have a massive knife collection, and that was just in the few years we worked together. Another friend is a jerk magnet. Igits just flock to her.
 
Now what’s the common denominator here? Simple – it’s that the weeds in each of these lives are the exact opposite of what they are. I’m a live and let live type. I don’t nose in peoples’ business or get jealous because I’m usually too busy with my own life.
  
Rick is the kindest, most  helpful person around. 
 
Mom is extremely independent. 
  
The arrogance magnet is a humble person with a strong faith that all works out in the end. 
  
The one stabbed in the back is one of the most giving people I’ve ever known.
 
The jerk magnet is a sincere, level headed woman. 
 
You know, it reminds me of what Lex Luthor said to Clark Kent in the series finale of Smallville: “A man is defined by his enemies.” That might sound dramatic, but it’s also true. Look at the thorns you attract and I’ll bet you’ll see in inverse image of yourself.
 
Yes, those weeds are there and always will be. This is one of the many challenges we face in life on this rock   called Earth. Some have said it’s the sandpaper that rubs off our rough edges. If so, then we are also the sandpaper that rubs off their rough edges. So scratch, scratch folks. 
 
Just remember that you aren’t alone. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by nonsense designed to divert. We
 all have those weeds. The secret is to learn what you can and stay on course. If you keep moving, they can’t stifle you. And after all, it’s hard to wrap weed roots around a moving target!

Happy Friday everybody! I'm proud to announce that my young adult fiction novel, Blurry, is now available for sale! See the Home page for links to where you can buy it.

Don't suffer through another vampire romance! You know you want something different and I have delivered. Go get it folks!

I'm so excited I could pop. I'm a published writer again!

I hope you have a happy weekend.

Bye!