It’s another rainy day here in Arkansas. I swear, this has to be one of the wettest years ever. Because of all the rain, pool time didn’t begin until mid-May (usually, we dare dipping our toes mid-April!). With quarantine ongoing here on the farm (that’s an exaggeration, we have 10 acres), we really love it when the kids can be outside. Instead, we have to be very creative to keep them from getting stir-crazy.
This is the last day of the current storm system, so we’re hoping the pool will warm right back up and we’ll be out there enjoying the sunshine, but in the meantime, the dogs, the cats, the kids, are all underfoot constantly. Gah. It wreaks havoc on my work schedule, but what can you do?
Any suggestions? Comment for a chance to win a copy of one of my short stories! I’ll choose 3 winners!
The illustrator Norman Rockwell has been lauded and lambasted for projecting an image of America that was too mom and apple pie and White. If that’s your image of Rockwell, I’d like to give you a different one. One that confronted and encouraged through his works The Golden Rule (1961), The Problem We All Live With (1964), Murder in Mississippi (1965) and New Kids in the Neighborhood (1967). These works were created by a conscience rooted in the aspiration that “all men are created equal.”
Though never fully realized by the founding fathers, Rockwell imbued their aspirations in his Saturday Evening Postcovers, especially in his illustrations of FDR’s Four Freedoms. I can’t look at that series and not hear the words to songs of equality like “The House I Live In” or “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught.” Innocent as those covers seem, Rockwell was saying here’s how the world should be for everybody. Ironically, the Post’s policy wouldn’t extend that equality and respect to black people. Blacks on their covers had to be depicted in subservient positions. Rockwell left the Post in 1963 and accepted commissions from Look magazine where he could portray the flipside of the Post’s America. But sometimes Look found his work too controversial to publish, too. Fortunately, that didn’t happen often.
Criticized for his choice of subject and called a hypocrite and a lying propagandist, Rockwell painted the truth being shown nightly on TV news and revealed daily in newspaper stories about the Civil Rights struggle. I was a kid in the 60’s watching Americans of all races and creeds and religions marching in the streets, being doused by fire hoses and having police dogs turned on them because they believed all people are created equal and deserved to be treated that way.
The Norman Rockwell Museum has a virtual exhibit of Rockwell’s 1960’s works. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/37H3TCr where you can also hear from Ruby Bridges, the little girl in The Problem We All Live With.
Rockwell’s 1960s work asked Americans, “Which side are you on?” in the same way Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley and Gil Noble did in their network broadcasts. Sixty years later, these works are asking us the same question. Sixty years later, I hear us answering it in peaceful demonstrations being held all over the world, in paintings on the plywood of boarded-up Manhattan storefronts, in legislation passed to combat police brutality, in court decisions upholding LGBTQ rights. People are answering, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you must become the law of the land.” Despite authorities and administrations trying to divide us, people are answering and choosing to be on the right side of history because “the time is always right to do what is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In the 1960s, Rockwell used his work to confront and encourage. May we use our resources to do the same today.
Haunted Serenade
All the women in Anora Madison’s family have lived as “Poor Butterflies”: women still longing for but deserted by the men they loved. Determined to be the first to escape a life of abandonment, Anora fled Harlem for Brooklyn, severing her ties with her mother Angela and with the man who broke her heart, Winston Emerson, the father of her child.
Six years later, she comes back to Harlem to make peace, but a malignant spirit manifests itself during the homecoming, targeting her mother, her aunt, Winston and their little girl. Determined to stop the evil now trying to destroy all she loves, Anora must finally turn to Winston for help. But will their efforts be too little too late?
He nodded thoughtfully. “Why not? Self-hate has bedeviled people of color all over the world for hundreds of years. Being looked down upon because you’re not White, accepting you’re incapable of self-determination because you’re dark and not light is being confronted everywhere. The independence movements in Africa. The Civil Rights movement here. Why wouldn’t it be challenged in your mother’s house?”
I’d listened to sermons about the devil, sung hymns and praise songs to put him in his place. But I’d intellectualized all that. Those were metaphors for the evil humans did. But what if that metaphor represented real energy, energy that had agency, agency that needed to be combatted?
“Come on.” Winston picked up a tray. “Let’s put the pumpkins in the windows. I need some physical activity to balance all this intellectual speculating.”
I took the other tray and followed him into the parlor. We placed a pumpkin on each sill of the bay window then lit the candle inside.
Cammie was right. They weren’t at all scary. Their grins glowed with welcome.
We ascended to the second floor and repeated our pumpkin placement and lighting ritual in each window.
“Winston, if Diana’s spirit is trying to help us, why did she attack you, Elizabeth and my mother?”
“When were they attacked?”
I shared with him my mother’s lame excuses for her broken wrist and the bandage on Elizabeth’s forehead.
He pursed his lips then firmed them. “I don’t think Diana’s spirit attacked them or me.”
“But you said the cold—”
“Is Diana shielding us from another presence, a presence that made the shutters close in her bedroom, that made the cabinet door hit me.” He tucked his empty tray beneath his arm. “What if the cold is Diana’s love, but the energy that attacks has its source in someone else?”
Here’s me wishing all dads a Happy Father’s Day! This is the second year I don’t have one to spoil with a gift or a card, so cherish yours! I can smell breakfast. I’m guessing my dd is going all-out for Father’s Day today. And the little ones are up—I can hear their voices and their feet, so they must be “decorating”. 🙂
I’ll be writing and editing today. Plenty to keep busy with. Enjoy your day!
The Puzzle-Contest
Solve the puzzle, and then tell me what story you see for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
My dd was in the midst of cleaning out the goat pen and got a little unwanted help from Lil…
Tending the goats is one of the highlights of our days because they are as playful as puppies. Just had to share her picture. We have two goats, two horses, ten dogs (I think, last count anyway), four cats. A menagerie. The 6-year-old wants a bunny, but we all get a glazed look on our faces and quickly change the subject. We’d like to get a cow or steer to raise for the freezer, but that’s maybe next year. Next year will also be the garden we’ll plant. So many things to do! Who has time to be bored in COVID-time?!
Now, onto some good news…
See the little orange flag on the picture above?
Thank you to everyone who’s ordered their copy! It releases on June 30th and is chock full of fun stories. Something for everyone’s tastes, so long as you like a sexy story…
Over at the anthology website, we have contests still open! Prizes include books, and more books, Amazon gift cards! Be sure to head over there to enter!
This was me with the fam yesterday (dd is taking the pic; the guy second from the left is my grandaughter’s boyfriend). While we have plenty to do to keep us busy around the old homestead to combat boredom, we really needed a break. Since we had our own innertubes, we loaded up and headed out early yesterday to avoid any crowds on the river. Other than some kayakers, we had the river to ourselves for four hours! Doing it on a weekend would have been out of the question because—too many people, and we’re still self-isolating as best we can.
Yes, self-isolation is still a thing here with numbers in Arkansas on the rise. We have way too many people who still think COVID is no worse than the flu, and who refuse to mask or keep their distance. Our schools are trying to figure out what next year will look like—whether they will offer at-home options to folks who’d rather not let their kids mingle and bring home the virus. We’re praying we’ll have a choice, or we might have to go the official homeschool route, which we really don’t want to do.
So, back to our tubing day… We brought water and snacks and plenty of sunscreen. The river is shallow in a lot of places, so we floated, hit the shallows, and picked up our tubes to walk to the deeper waters and floated again. I’m not as nimble getting in and out of a tube onto sifting, silty riverbed, but my SIL is a big guy and strong, so he helped me when I needed it. We laughed and paddled and lazed. The little ones had their tubes tied to the adults’ tubes. We’re all swimmers, so no vests. All in all, it was a lovely morning.
We’re already trying to map out our schedules to see when we can do it again. The kids are ready for more adventures. We’ve been trying to think out of the box. We’re lucky we live in the country, so there’s plenty of outdoor area for them to play. We have a pool—another huge plus. Still, we all get cabin fever.
We bought an outdoor projector to watch movies, but with mosquitoes already out in force, we can’t do an outside movie night until Fall.
Do you have any suggestions for things a family can do “out in the world” and still be safe? Answer for a chance to win your choice of a download of one of my books!
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It’s been a stressful year and many of us will be staying closer to home this summer. If you expect to be spending more time in the backyard this season, here’s a cool and refreshing adult beverage you can make ahead of time and enjoy whenever you like.
Summer Slush
Ingredients:
1 – 12 oz can of frozen orange juice
1 – 12 oz can of frozen lemonade
¾ cup of sugar
5 cups of water
2 cups of vodka
In large freezer proof container, mix in order given and freeze.
Serve ½ glass of slush with 7 up or ginger ale.
Things you can do at home!
Now that you have your drink, here’s some things you can do at home this summer.
1. Throw an indoor picnic. On a rainy day, spread a blanket on the living room floor, thrown down some pillows and enjoy picnic foods—fruit, cheese, crackers, fried chicken, pasta salad, or whatever you desire. If it’s an adult picnic, you can throw in a bottle of wine, light a candle and make it romantic.
2. Have one night a week where you try a new recipe. Get your family involved and all of you take turns choosing. They don’t have to be complex recipes—unless you’re so inclined. Keep it simple and fun. Fire up the grill if you have one.
3. Dessert night! I’m sure you’re seeing a theme here. Spend a day baking some tasty treats and enjoy. Or recreate a traditional English tea, complete with scones and cream.
4. Have a movie marathon day. Pick a movie series, load up on snacks, and watch them back to back. Lord of the Rings, Die Hard, Bourne Identity, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Mummy. There are plenty to choose from. Or have a theme movie day—Disney, horror, comedy.
5. Take a walk or a drive somewhere different. Doesn’t have to be far. We all tend to be creatures of habit and take the same routes or go to the same places.
6. Read a book. Take yourself out to the backyard, the balcony, or walk to a park (maintaining social distancing) and enjoy a few hours.
And if you’re looking for something to read, you might want to check out ARCTIC BITE, the second book in my Forgotten Brotherhood series, out now.
Arctic Bite
Forgotten Brotherhood, Book Two
Being immortal doesn’t mean you can’t die. It just means you’re damn hard to kill.
When Alexei Medvedev joined the Forgotten Brotherhood—paranormals hired to assassinate other paranormals—he knew it wouldn’t be a cake walk. But his next target is one of Death’s own Reapers gone rogue. For the first time since he started this gig, “damn hard to kill” feels more like “damn near impossible.”
Tracking Cassie Dobbs brings him to a remote bar in small-town Alaska, where this hot-as-hell Reaper is casually serving drinks, as if she doesn’t have a bounty on her head from Death himself. Alexei is dangerously intrigued. Everyone in the Brotherhood knows the first rule: don’t fall for your target.
But Alexei soon has bigger problems to face than an unexpected attraction. They only send assassins after those who deserve to die…or so he’s been made to believe. Now that he’s met Cassie, though, he’s not so sure.
What if everything he’s been told is a lie, and the person he’s been sent to kill is the only one who knows the truth?
N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.
Project Runway. Face Off. Skin Wars. Top Chef. Hell’s Kitchen (only while I’m editing). Bar Rescue.
Okay, I could go on, but I won’t. Because this episode of Binge Watch Confessions is about Bar Rescue.
It started at first because, apparently, my muse likes the soothing background music of men screaming. I’m sure there’s a lot for a therapist to unpack there, but that’s for another day.
But I was flipping channels, and there was Jon Taffer yelling at a beleaguered bar owner who is too stuck in his own way to get out of his own way.
That part wasn’t all that interesting, but then he brought in his bar experts. A mixologist for the drinks and a chef for the kitchen. Now, I get my fill of foodie stuff in other places, but the drinks.
Oh, that was interesting. Drink programs tailored to the bar, either by theme or location. Or both. It was fascinating and I ate it up. I watched as they explained why stirring a drink or shaking it made a difference. As they used fresh ingredients and explained the reason it made drinks better. For a person who got a degree in the background tech of theater, it spoke to me.
I like to craft. To make. I guess it’s not all that off base that I became an author. Crafting stories.
Well, in XAVIER, the heroine is True Sinclair, and she is a mixologist hired to craft a drink program for “The Majestic” a bar at a resort that caters to shapeshifters. It’s a resort that is being brought back to its heyday after years of being dormant.
The idea is to create a place where shapeshifters can just “be” and not worry that they have to protect themselves from humans or people who are curious. The entire town is a place where shifters have been open about their lives since its foundation.
So, when I was researching drinks to “transform” into shifter-themed drinks, I was shocked to find out that somehow I’d tied a plot point into a neat little bow. Without realizing it.
My hero, Xavier, is a panther shifter. He crafts his own moonshine for himself and his friends. During my research, I discovered that a slang name for moonshine is PANTHER’S BREATH.
Well, goodness…wasn’t that…odd.
Xavier releases next Tuesday and is on a preorder sale that will continue for a short time after release.
Xavier
He thought he wanted his freedom and his solitude more than anything else in the world… until he met her.
Xavier Salazar lives the life that he wants. He has his friends and his home carved into Mystic Mountain. It’s his retreat, his refuge. When a gorgeous woman shows up in town to help make the resort’s bar a brilliant success, he’s torn. Xavier is determined to drive her away, but his panther wants to touch her all over, hide her away in their den, and add to the family that he was slowly creating around himself.
Oh, he was going to fight… hard. And yet, even he knew he was probably fighting a losing battle.
True Sinclair is at the top of her profession. Being a world-class mixologist means she knows how to blend all kinds of things together. She just can’t fathom why Xavier treats her like he’s oil and she’s water. There was no doubt that he was combustible around her.
At first, he can’t seem to force himself to be civil or even make an effort to share the same town, but she finds herself drawn to the dichotomy warring inside of him.
True knows what he is and she knows what she wants, but she won’t wait around forever if the man who makes her blind with love and drunk with passion won’t even meet her halfway.
