hope

How the Literary Journal Landscape Is and Isn’t Changing — Jane Friedman

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An excellent, insightful, helpful article. A Must share. — For the Love of Books

Today’s guest post is a Q&A by Andrea A. Firth (@AndreaAFirth), a writer, editor, and teacher and cofounder of Diablo Writers’ Workshop. Getting published in literary journals is hard—still. Editors routinely say that they often have to turn down good writing. The submission cycle takes months, and months. But some things have changed. No more…

How the Literary Journal Landscape Is and Isn’t Changing — Jane Friedman

Free books April 23, 2022

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Grace Livingston Hill was one of my favorite authors in my twenties. She was a prolific author, I was a prolific reader, and I still have fond memories of those days. Most of the books came from the library, the main source of reading material back then. I can’t remember who but someone loaned me a whole grocery bag full once and I was in heaven.

Here is a short bio:

Grace Livingston Hill (April 16, 1865 – 1947) was an early 20th-century novelist and wrote both under her real name and the pseudonym Marcia Macdonald. She wrote over 100 novels and numerous short stories. Her characters were most often young female Christian women or those who become so within the confines of the story.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Two free books appeared for us this morning and further investigation has revealed a lot more. Also, there are a boatload of bargain books available too. You will find them if you select the author’s name, it will make all of her books come up.

The Witness

“The Witness” deals with the fate of Paul Courtland, a successful student, star athlete, and fraternity president.

After he witness a tragedy when his classmate dies Paul starts seeking for a solace. Ultimately, Paul meets a girl who is going to get him into trouble and he will be put in a position to choose between his emotions and faith.

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Here is the next one

Bright Arrows

Eden’s life turns upside down when her beloved father dies. She feels completely lost and broken. The only comfort in Eden’s life are the letters written by her mother when she was just a child, that her father gave to her prior to his death.

Eden’s faith is being restored when she meets a handsome lawyer who comes to execute her father’s will.

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An Unwilling Guest

Evelyn Rutherford, a New York society beauty, decides to visits her aunt, who lives in the country, for the summer. When her aunt falls ill, Evelyn becomes the unwilling guest of a neighbouring family.

What Evelyn thought will be a boring summer turned up to be a spiritual journey where she discovered the truth about herself and God.

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Crimson Roses 

Alone in the city without money and friends. Mother and father gone, her home sold over her head, deserted by her only brother – for Marion Warren the world seemed to stop. But her long years of nursing an uncomplaining father had taught her a great lesson.

And she stepped bravely into a new life. Things seemed pretty black until the roses came…

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Astra

Astra Everson, travels alone on a train thinking of everything that went wrong in her life. What Astra is not aware is that a Christmas miracle is about to happen when she meets a handsome Charles…

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I’ve added links this time. Often one word titles are not easy to successfully search and links will help.

This will be nostalgic, a blast from the past for me. I’m anxious to see if these stories hold as much interest now as they did decades ago. The fact they are still around more than seventy years after her death is a positive indicator of their present day appeal.

Check out the rest of the books not mentioned too. The more popular stories may have prices on them.

Enjoy…

and Happy Reading

Reminiscing here: I think the appeal for me back then was the strong woman role model. Hard times fell on these characters and somehow they stiffened their spines and looked for ways to live through their tough circumstances. It was a message I needed to hear back then. Not that I was consciously aware of it. I remember thinking – if they can suck-it-up and keep on going then I can too. It’s an influence I’ve never forgotten. I’ve always wanted to be that woman. I still do.

This and that March 22, 2022

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I almost forgot! My daily post to keep the numbers rising for days in a row. Story of my life. Forgetting.

The reason I wasn’t paying attention is from wanting to know what is going on in the world. Podcasts. Some encouraging and some not so much. My favorites are the live streamers who film what is going on without adding commentary or opinion.

I think You Tube and their rules on content actually do us a favor. Actions speak louder than words. Simply watching is enlightening.

Peaceful, in the truest sense of the word, has more effect than any of us realized. We have been able to watch it happen.

More to say but must go. It’s almost tomorrow.

This and that March 18, 2022

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This is one of those days when I have nothing on my mind to say so I’ll just start talking and see what happens.

I know I mentioned this yesterday but I can’t get over how quickly the snow melts when the temperature rises to zero and the hot sun shines brightly. The sun really is hot here. It’s crazy. It can be freezing and short sleeves still work when you are standing in the sun.

With these bright days the furnace has hardly been on and at one point today the inside temp was 74 F. At the moment (9:45) it is still 71.

Another thing that is crazy? I measure inside temps and fever temps in Fahrenheit and outside temps in Celsius. I measure mileage in kilometers and fuel in litres, fabric and everything else in inches and yards, and food in pounds and ounces – sort of. It seems like I have an identity crisis. I probably do but I’m not planning on resolving it anytime soon. I’m happy just the way I am. Probably because I wasn’t thrilled with the whole change to metric in the first place. This mixed up system is my mini rebellion.

On to another favorite topic – books. I haven’t been doing well with my book a day goal. Two reasons, mainly. I’ve been busier at work as my workload has increased. I’ve very happy about this for multiple reasons. On top of that, I’ve once again been spending time watching live streams of the people’s convoy, this time in Maryland USA.

I’ve been following ZOT You Tube channel, Charlotte is the host and she does an amazing job. Everyone LOVES her. She loves people, and she is fearless. This causes a great deal of anxiety among her viewers, as well as the people she hangs out with on the ground. Everyone is looking out for her and they let her know. They pay attention to where she is, who she’s with, and what she does or doesn’t eat. This probably makes her even safer. Today she streamed for over twelve hours. From the time she left her hotel until she closed her car door to go back.

This beautiful girl is amazing and, she has publicly shared – she is nineteen.

I tune in, leave it on in the back ground all day, and stop by to watch when ever I have a few moments, or hours. They have been doing a peaceful protest for about three weeks. Everyday they drive what is called the beltway, around the capital. That’s it. Drive the route and then back to the speedway in Hagerstown MD. The authorities know the plan every day and they stick to it, no surprises. There are a few counter protesters who try to provoke a fight but it hasn’t worked. Today there were people in a field throwing large bricks of some sort on the road, One of the trucks was hit and suffered radiator damage. The big trucks with him all stopped for support. Live streamers caught it all on video and they were able to identify the perpetrators. These guys couldn’t have gone far (which doesn’t seem all that smart) because the police were able to arrest them easily. Charlotte was in one of the lead trucks so we got to see this happening.

It was a long day.

They arrived back to a noisy speedway. There were time trials going on for the big race coming up next weekend. The guys in her chat were urging her to go see the cars, her welfare in mind-caregivers were saying go eat first. She opted for food first but it was challenging because there are always people at every turn waiting to talk to her. It’s a bad thing and a good thing. She is very gracious to everyone.

Charlotte was a newbie at live streaming when she started taking daily shifts with the convoy in Ottawa Her progress has been amazing. She has a gift for relating to people and drawing out their stories. I can see a future for her in journalism if she ever decides to go that route.

The protests have been peaceful in both places and the amazing thing out of it is – love wins. A soft answer turns away wrath is really true. Hatred is confused by love. We watched this happen in both places and it was encouraging.

The other awesome thing coming out of this is the changing relationship between the US and Canada. On a grass roots level.

On a personal/individual level we’ve had good relationships across the border. As a body/country, in general, we were neighbors with a passing acquaintance. With all of the events over the last four months we are becoming neighbors with a strong friendship. It’s amazing to watch it unfold. To hear people expressing such love and appreciation is a very emotional experience. Watching ZOT for hours we get to see these expressions over and over.

How can you tell I am just a little bit wound up by all of this.

I watched the goings-on in Ottawa til the end (hoping there will be more) and I will watch Hagerstown to the end too. It gives me, and others, hope in this crazy time.

Well, it seems I could go on and on but…

I’ll save some for next time.

There are many live streamers out there, start with ZOT and you will see others pop up too. Check them all out.

Happy reading, and viewing.

This and that … Saturday March 05, 2022

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Click Bait. A skill I have not mastered but really should. It would help draw in unsuspecting new people, or even lure back some I haven’t seen in a while. Click bait has a good reputation for attracting attention. On the other hand, it has a bigger reputation for being a total liar. I have first hand experience so fact checking will not be necessary. All those times I took the bait, listened to the very end only to realize I’d been had. If any attention was given to the person or subject promised, it was but a blink of the eye and I missed it entirely. While I wouldn’t mind grabbing more attention myself, my guilty conscience for lying to make things seem special would be a killer.

So what is taking up thinking space in my head this week? Ukraine is on the minds of the whole world. I like keeping track of what is going on. Click bait stuff has been going on. People in a hurry to put something out when they had nothing were forced to improvise. Oops. Who knew someone would recognize those pictures from another place in another time.

I’m not so sure anyone has really figured out the truth of what is going on with this situation. I’m hearing many voices with as many “expert” opinions but I’m not hearing consensus, even on a small scale. When the truth finally comes out, if it ever does, there will be more than a few people saying the same thing. So far we are not hearing it.

When I ponder this for a while, it seems there are a whole lot of things going on, most of them under the table. I’m sure we would be shocked if we learned who the real players and influencers were in all of this.

It’s easy to worry about where the world is going but when it comes right down to it there is nothing in my power to do that would make any difference to the outcome. Worry will do nothing but destroy my life. We need to care, pay attention, and pray earnestly for the innocent people caught up in the flying debris, but we can’t let worry consume us. What good would we then be if trouble ever did come knocking on our door?

I have to give myself this lecture on a regular basis as I walk away from one more podcast on the whole scenario.

I’m focusing, briefly anyway, on my everyday life and I’m finding it gives me a mental boost in the right direction.

My frig, after many months, is now free of the long haired residents I was loath to deal with. (my grandsons will be impressed.) (procrastination is my middle name) A few closets and shelves have been sorted through and are looking better once I tossed some things I haven’t used in years. (I’ve found expiry dates as old as 2014!)

There is something about accomplishing tasks I have been avoiding forever that makes life suddenly seem good, very good in fact.

Who knew such mundane and inconsequential things could be an outlook changer?

Another of my current fixations. My first time ever growing an amaryllis.

A little beauty is another unexpected game changer.

I’m wishing some unexpected game changers for you too in these turbulent times.

A little This and That, January 26, 2022

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I’m feeling the need to talk. Not sure what about, though.

I had an appointment with a dermatologist yesterday. A few weeks ago I shared about large and longstanding rash on both shins. When my doctor saw it many months ago he referred me to a specialist. When I asked if it would be helpful, he didn’t hold out much hope for clearing it up.

Many times over the course of the year I was tempted to cancel the appointment. My thinking was… what’s the point if all they can do is give me something to keep it manageable.

Yesterday, I was pleased to discover there is hope for getting rid of it. The dermatologist prescribed a cream that should kill the active agent behind the rash. Suddenly I was happy I hadn’t given in to my negative thinking and cancelled the appointment.

There was a downside to the appointment as well, though. As he examined the worst area the dermatologist made the observation that I scratch a lot. It’s true, I do. Unfortunately, this keeps it alive and spreading. The new areas are the itchiest. Then I admitted I scratched sometimes when it wasn’t even itchy. I commented that the pain inflicted is addictive and the doctor nodded his agreement.

That revealing admission has been both haunting and upsetting. The worst of it is that I’m not really sure why. There must be a deep seated wound underneath the need to feel such pain. Admitting it has triggered a large emotional response in me that I don’t understand.

I’m hoping that, like with every other thought eventually making it’s way to the surface of my mind, with reflection some understanding will break through. The needed knowledge is down there somewhere, it just isn’t able to get through to me until I relax enough to give it permission.

Many years were spent with fingers in my ears. I would say that I was yelling lalalalalalala I can’t hear you, but I don’t think I was. I am pretty sure my feet were planted, my arms were crossed and I refused to listen to one word.

Now after many decades I’m finally listening. It has been a freeing experience and I’m loving life more and more all the time. It doesn’t mean I will ever be healthy or normal. The wounds go too deep for that, but I’m embracing every bit of emotional healing that comes my way.

And now I’m looking forward, hopefully, to rash-less legs with no more itch.

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Current read and two new interesting books January 09, 2022

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Last week I mentioned a book written by a psychotherapist interviewed on a podcast I came across. I think I shared it here, I need to check that out to be sure. Anyway, I’m reading her book and it is like taking medicine mixed with delicious honey. The authors aim was to provide help to those of us who might not be inclined (for whatever reason) to visit a therapist but dish it up as a story to make sure we would read it. I have to say she is doing a masterful job. I’m almost finished the first third of the book and it is not easy to put down.

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

Now being developed as a television series with Eva Longoria and ABC!

“Rarely have I read a book that challenged me to see myself in an entirely new light, and was at the same time laugh-out-loud funny and utterly absorbing.”—Katie Couric

“This is a daring, delightful, and transformative book.”—Arianna Huffington, Founder, Huffington Post and Founder & CEO, Thrive Global

“Wise, warm, smart, and funny. You must read this book.”—Susan Cain, New York Times best-selling author of Quiet

From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist’s world—where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).

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Last week I shared a new book written by a member of our monthly writer’s group. I’m going to share it again along with the new book of a second member of our group. I do own both books and haven’t gotten to them yet but I’m excited about the prospect. We have been exposed regularly to the excellent writings of these gentlemen and they are well worth reading.

They have different styles, unique imaginations and they leave us wanting more.

Fire and Iron: Stories of Fidelity, Infidelity and Daring Commitment

Broken promises, ulterior motives, revenge and deceit; Ten stories detailing relationships some broken, and some redemptive, all recognizing human frailty.

Short stories for adults with stories for men, women, and youth including short love stories that make you cry.

Each story is followed by book club discussion questions to prompt reflection of the story and personal experiences. This short story collection is both suitable for the Christian book club and general adult book clubs.

Inspirational short stories of relationships.
Excerpts from the stories:
She attempted to grasp his hand, their fingers touched, but then his hand was gone. (Fire and Iron)

Emma reached out to collect her books. She hesitated when she saw Keara crouching in front as if to help. To her dismay, Keara only whispered, “You know you’re not my friend anymore.” (The River)

Rand Gavell’s moral fiber is put to the test. His injured wife lies comatose in a care home while an attractive, single real-estate agent suggests an alternative lifestyle. (A Touch of Salt)

The title, Fire and Iron, suggests the stories are of individuals tempered by the fires of hurt, strengthened by the pain and helped by the kindness of another.

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Stealth by Robert Stermscheg

1944. American bomber pilot, Jack Swaggart, has led his squadron countless times into hostile German territory, hit the assigned target, and returned to base none the worse for wear.

Eventually, Jack’s luck runs out. With his B-26 Marauder heavily damaged by flak, Jack is forced to ditch his crippled airplane in the German countryside.

Separated from his crew, Jack trusts an unlikely ally, Hilde Augsburg, a plucky young woman, a decision with icy catapults them into an adventure neither could have envisioned. Coincidentally, they spot a new type of German warplane in flight–a design unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.

In that moment, Jack realizes that the Nazis have developed a formidable new bomber, one that could dramatically alter the course of the war. In the blink of an eye, Jack’s mission shifts from survival to thwarting the Germans, just when the Allies are on the verge of triumph.

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All three of these authors are well worth the read. I think you will enjoy them as much as I do.

Happy Reading!

Why relationships fail and what to do about it. January 04, 2022

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Do you ever wonder if as a traumatized person you could break the dysfunctional cycle and connect with a healthy person. I’ve wondered, many times.

I found this podcast had so much hope and inspiration to share. There was a wealth of helpful information and advice on how to become a healthier person, equipped to recognize old patterns and ways to avoid them.

Pitfalls in partnering with a healthy person were also addressed. We gravitate to the familiar. To the abused and traumatized, dysfunctional is familiar. Healthy is not. It would be easy to reject the unfamiliar to our own detriment.

Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb has written a popular book called Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.

I am teetering on the brink of buying her book.

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose of­fice she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.
 
As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients’ lives — a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can’t stop hooking up with the wrong guys — she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.
 
With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.
 
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is rev­olutionary in its candor, offering a deeply per­sonal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly reveal­ing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.

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For me, another take-away from the podcast was an unexpected point of view on narcissism.

I’ve decided on the book. I’m going to enjoy it if it’s anything like the podcast and I think it will be.

Happy Viewing and Reading

Have you experienced trauma? January 03, 2022

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How can you know? One in four women and one in six men have experienced trauma/abuse with many of them not recognizing that they have. Even more recognize the abuse but have not acknowledged or shared it.

Unaddressed trauma is often the root cause beneath many health issues. Heart disease, auto immune disorders being the most common.

Yesterday I discovered a popular podcast dedicated to helping people live better lives and I enjoyed it enough to subscribe. Today’s interview is with an experienced psychiatrist and author of a new book on the subject of trauma, and it deals with today’s question.

I’m sharing this because helpful resources are so important in our healing journey.

I hope you find this as helpful as I did.

We can never see too many of these podcasts. We need to hear this information over and over again. Partly because we are in a different place with each step forward and we are able to take it in in a way we couldn’t on an earlier step.

And, we need to hear the information again because it reinforces earlier hearings and eventually is able to take dominance over the negative narrative we’ve lived with forever.

Happy Viewing!