Saturday, June 13, 2015

My Self Defense Class



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PURCHASE FROM AMAZON



My friend, Crystal takes Ju Jutsu and she said that her instructor, Warren, lets people come out for a free class before deciding if they want to take lessons. She asked me if I want to try a free class. I had been thinking of learning some sort of self-defense so I accepted her invitation.

     On the Monday evening I wore leggings and a t-shirt fully expecting to watch from the sidelines and maybe try a couple of moves. Crystal told me to remove my shoes before walking on the mats and then took me to a room where she found a white canvas gi jacket that fit. I donned it over my t-shirt and wrapped the left side over the right. Crystal showed me the proper way to tie the obi or belt.

     Everyone in the class did their own stretching and then Warren had us run around the room, first forward, then backwards, then sideways. Once that was done he said. "Line up senior to junior." I knew I was the oldest one there so I headed to the beginning of the line. Everyone looked askance at me and grinned.

     "I'm the most senior person here," I said. But, apparently, the line up isn't by age. I headed to the last of the line. The person at the end gave me a warm welcome.

     "At least now I'm not the newest member," he said.

     The instructor then told us to do forward rolls. The others immediately took turns rolling their way across the room. Warren stood beside me and showed me how to put the back on my left hand on the mat, tuck my head and shoulder down, and push off with my back leg. Talk about being disoriented and dizzy when I sat up. Definitely not like the summersaults I used to do as a child.

     "Do it again," he encouraged.

     I knelt, put the back of my hand down, tucked and, after a deep breath, pushed off. Same result only this time I also felt a bit queasy. I guess I shouldn't have eaten before coming. After the third time I quit and watched the others. Warren called out for backward rolls. He looked at me with his eyebrow raised. I shook my head.

     When everyone had practiced their rolls, Warren ran through a demonstration on how to get out from under an attacker when he has you pinned on the ground and is sitting on top of you. I watched others do it then tried it myself. So long as my attacker gives me lots of time and offers me a few helpful hints, I will be able to break his hold.

     Warren did tell me that I should not waste my energy struggling against an attacker. It will just weaken me, he said. He showed me a choke hold to use that is easy and effective.

     Ju means gentle, pliable or yielding and jutsu means technique and is the manipulating of your opponent's force against himself. It was developed to fight the armed samurai of feudal Japan in close combat by using throws, pins, or joint locks. Over the centuries ju jutsu evolved into different types of martial arts around the world, some of students practicing potentially fatal moves and also learning break falling skills so they can practice dangerous throws.

     Since the beginning, students of ju jutsu trained in formal kimonos. In 1907, the founder of Judo introduced a uniform called the judogi. The gi consists of three parts: a heavy jacket called a uwagi, light canvas pants, shitabaki, and the cotton belt, obi.

     At the end of the class Warren said I could come back for two more free lessons. I must have really impressed him. However, while I was glad to have had the opportunity to try a ju jutsu class I didn't return for my other two free lessons. I decided I didn't like throwing myself or other people around on a mat.

     Since I was a teenager, I have practiced my own techniques to prevent being attacked that have served me well. I try not to be on the streets after dark but if I am walking at night I stride confidently with my head up and shoulders back. Attackers are cowards and they look for someone weak whom they can overpower. I carry my car keys spaced between my fingers to use for stabbing or slashing. I wear pants which are harder for an attacker to get into and low shoes or running shoes so I can get away easier. New technology has given us panic buttons on our key fobs which can be pressed to start our vehicle's horn blaring. I keep mine handy.

     And I've noticed in books and on television shows that the women who are attacked and even killed are always wearing matching panties and bra. Just to be on the safe side, I never do.







The Travelling Detective Series boxed set:

Illegally Dead

The Only Shadow In The House

Whistler's Murder



Thursday, June 11, 2015



BUY FROM AMAZON


FAN FLIRTING by Karla Stover 
                 
The morning after her coming-out ball, a young debutant sits in the family drawing room pretending to read while her mother writes letters and a parlor maid feeds the fire. When the doorbell rings, the debutant looks up, hope written on her face.  After a few long moments, a  footman appears carrying a silver tray on which rests a nosegay of deep red carnations tied with a piece of blue plaid wool.  “Who are they from?” asks the mother. “There’s no note,” says the girl. But she caresses the ribbon and smiles.  Surely this is the Napier plaid, she thinks, remembering the Scotsman with whom she’d danced the previous night. And surely he knows red carnations mean, ‘Alas for my poor heart’ in the language of flowers. And so she plans her fan flirting for the next dance.
The fan’s subtle language is now dead, but in the days when women were less bold, knowing that looking at a man while carrying an open fan in the left hand meant, “Come talk to me.”  And that perhaps later, after seeing her mother frown, the girl is smart enough to twirl the fan in her left hand, letting the man know, “We are being watched.” The Victorian woman carried on entire conversations with her fan.
At the next ball, the debutant sees the Scotsman and holds her fan in her right hand in front of her face, “Follow me,” and then, oh so subtly, touches it with the tip of her finger, “I wish to speak with you.”
But wait! What is her would-be suitor doing? In agitation, the deb passes her fan from hand to hand—“I see that you are looking at another woman.” The Scotsman half-smiles and nods in her direction, but in vain. The slow-moving fan cooling the girl’s flushed cheeks speaks as loudly as words: “Don’t waste your time. I don’t care about you.”  He appears at her side but she uses the fan to tap her ear, “I wish to get rid of you.”
The hour grows late; the debutant’s mother beckons but the young man refuses to leave her side. She rests the fan on her lips for a moment with her little finger extended: “I don’t trust you. Goodbye.”
And then, at the door, she half-turns, and uses the fan to move a wisp of hair off her forehead: “Don’t forget me.”
In 1923, Agnes Miller wrote Linger-nots and the Mystery House, a young adult mystery. In the book, the Linger-nots discover a secret room containing war artifacts by interpreting clues left in the flowers a young seamstress used when making her sampler—the language of flowers. In the animated opening of Mystery on PBS’s “Masterpiece Theatre”, a lady is seen holding a fan in front of her face—fan language.
You never know what will pop up and where.

                                                
                                                        


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Wedding Card by Cheryl Wright



As you can probably imagine, I've made quite a few wedding cards over the years.  It's not always easy because I try to make my cards fairly unique.


I recently found a website with a lovely wedding card that was totally different to what I'd seen in the past, so I had to try it. This one uses a paper doily. It looks as though it would be quite complicated, and even time-consuming, but really it's not. (If I can do it, anyone can!)



The background was done with an embossing folder (from Stampin' Up!), and the greeting is from a very old duo set from Gina K Designs. If you are interested in learning how to do the fold, click here.

(It looks like the dress is just one piece, but it's two pieces joined together.)

Sometimes the simplest of designs are the most appealing.

I hope you've enjoyed this card. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!













Links:

My website:  www.cheryl-wright.com 
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cherylwrightauthor 
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/writercheryl
BWL website: http://bookswelove.net/authors/wright-cheryl/

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Hey, Dad! It's Your Day by Tia Dani



                                                                         http://amzn.com/B00EVXABV0

When we decided to write about Father's Day, a friend, father of two and a non-romance writer, asked, "How can Father's Day have anything to do with writing a romance novel?"

"Au contraire," Tia replied. "Fatherhood could have much to do with it." She mentioned books where the beloved heroes were raising a child or children...and how it only took a heroine's arrival to sweeten the mix. And, of course, men, who weren't fathers, but became one under unusual circumstances. She proceeded to inform him about Secret Baby books.

He shook his head. "Secret babies? You're kidding, right?"

"Nope." She grinned. "There are even stories where the heroine (the mother) doesn't know when or how her baby was conceived."

"Oh." He walked away totally befuddled.

We loved it. Befuddling men is fun.

Let's take a look at the special day that venerates those proud, paternal-driven papas. Fathers have been around since Adam first fertilized Eve, but, it wasn't until the early1900's ministers and women's magazines seriously touted the righteousness of fatherhood. Whatever for we have no idea. We decided to go look into the reason.

It began with Mr. William Jackson Smart. His daughter, Sonora Smart (a neat first name, isn't it?), aka Mrs. John Bruce Dodd of Spokane Washington, came up with the idea in 1909 while listening to a Mother's Day sermon (a holiday which originated two years earlier.)

Sonora, along with five brothers, had been raised by their widowed father, a Civil War veteran. Following the death of his wife in childbirth, Smart struggled to work his eastern Washington farm, while keeping his children clothed, fed and properly reared.

Mr. Smart, an admirable man, considering in the early 20th Century men frequently lost their wives to childbirth. The majority remarried quickly so they wouldn't have to care for children, specifically newborn infants, alone.

Widowed men, often farmers, looked for a widow with children. Marrying her, he not only had a woman seeing to his home and children, her offspring were needed help with the never-ending farm chores. Many second marriages turned into genuine love, others didn't, but both ways, more children were born and families often grew as large as 6 to 15 kids living at home at one time. Now, that's what we call being a fertile father.

Sonora Dodd's proposal was met with enthusiasm by local ministers. The date suggested was the fifth of June (William Smart's birthday), but many of the ministers needed more time to write their sermons, so the celebration was moved to the 19th, the third Sunday of the month.

Word spread and newspapers across the country endorsed this new holiday. One notable supporter to Mrs. Dodd's idea was orator and political leader William Jennings Bryan. He wrote "...too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the relation between parent and child." However, even with notable support and the holiday being accepted across the nation, members of the all-male Congress at the time felt to proclaim the day official might be interpreted as a self-congratulatory pat on the back. (Go figure, huh?) So the holiday remained a minor one.

But it didn't remain a silent one. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his family personally observed the holiday, and President Calvin Coolidge wrote in 1924 that states, if they so wished, should do whatever they wanted as far as celebrating the holiday.

In 1937, New York City founded a National Father's Day Committee and decided to choose a theme for each Father's Day and select a Father of the Year.

In 1957, Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote to Congress saying Americans should honor both parents. To single out just one and omit the other was "...the most grievous insult imaginable."

Yet, it wasn’t until 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June to be identified as Father's Day. In April of 1972, President Richard Nixon signed it into Public Law 92-278.

How about that? It took 62 years for fathers to be officially recognized!

Go...Dads!

Here's a bit of trivia for you. Did you know the Romans observed a Father's Day, every February...but...just for dead ones. Think about it. It could be an interesting twist for a Secret Baby story.

Here's some of our family photos. 




Tia's great-grandparents, George and Katharina Meir (later changed to Meyers) because my great-grandfather wanted to sound more American.
Katharina married George after he lost his first wife, leaving him with two children. Katharina too was a widow with three children. All together they had 10 children.  And, yes, they had a large farm. Everyone worked. Including my grandmother, Elizabeth. Despite she was a girl, she worked along side her father out in the fields


Tia with her dad. Note bandage on my chin. Fell off a stone ledge and split open my chin. Had to have stitches. What can I say, I was quite a rough and tumble kid.


 Grandparents JW and Emma Eaton. Emma was also a second wife. However they didn’t live on a farm. My grandfather owned a barbershop and ice cream parlor. Can’t remember if my grandmother had been married before. I don’t think she had been. But between them they had quite a few children. Can’t remember right now what the total was, darn it. What I do remember my dad was the last one born.

                                                                       Dani and her dad.
            Yes, I'm the little baby he's holding. Uncle Hershel sitting on the curb. This is in southern California.
                                                                                                                                           

Dani's grandparents.
Grandpa H.L Christian and his second wife, Mae. Grandpa had 6 kids when she married him and together they had 6 more including my mom. The little girl in picture is my mother. All worked the farm in Arkansas.





To find out more about the writing team Tia Dani and our books visit us at:

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Trapped!

         

 When you live in the country, you get used to certain things. Fact:  trees are going to fall across roads and driveways and power lines.  Now I know that’s going to happen occasionally no matter where you live, but I guarantee you it’s going to happen more often in the country.  Like just this last Wednesday afternoon.  There I was, coming down my country driveway, happy to be home in the big city after a day at work.  I’d even stopped at the grocery store in town for a few things and picked up Chinese for supper.  For the uninitiated, I should explain that my country driveway is a long sucker.  It curves and twists for about three-quarters of a mile.  Tree-lined curves. We’d had some storms that afternoon, though I hadn’t thought they’d been especially strong. Apparently, they’d been stronger than I’d thought in our little town.  Small branches and twiggs were everywhere, so I was on semi-alert, even though I knew we’d had no tree come down on a power line because I knew my husband would have told me during one of the three times he’d called me on my way home to see where I was. Well, not where I was.  Where his Chinese was.  He was hungry.


            I had to laugh when I saw the tree, just out of sight of the house, past the third curve going down the driveway or the first one going up the driveway, depending on which direction you were going in.  “There’ll be a short delay,” I advised by phone. “There’s a tree down. Looks like it’s pretty rotten and I think I can shift it myself. But I’m not gonna be able to drive over it, so stand by.”

            I got out and did some country cussin’ as my dress work sandals slid on the mud while I made my way over to the very visible crack in the tree trunk.  Hmmmm.  I bent and tried to lift. Not as rotten as I’d thought.  I was about to pull out my phone again when I heard the front door open and my husband and dogs barreling out.  He shouted up, I shouted back.  “Need you after all.  It’s heavier than I thought!”

            It was a bit heavier than I thought but nothing like some we’ve had. He came up and made short work of shifting it over to the side.  I drove on down, unloaded groceries and we ate Chinese.  This tree’d been just a minor glitch in my afternoon.  But oh, the memories it brought back! Memories of the night--I'm sorry, but I can't resist--the night the lights went out in Georgia…
.
            The grandchildren were with us.  That wasn’t unusual, my husband being already retired was and still is Granddaddy Day Care, and my daughter and son-in-law work unconventional hours and aren’t usually home till around 9:00 p.m.  That particular night my grandson Austin was two months shy of seven and my granddaughter Kinsley’d just hit six months old. A Friday night two summers ago, when one last downpour of winds and thunder and lightning from a Tropical Storm moving from the Gulf up the east coast hit.  It was around 7:00 p.m.   Austin and I lounged on my bed in front of my bedroom tv/DVD watching “The Bee Movie” while he ate his supper, seein’ as how  Kinsley was asleep on her blanket on the floor in the living room. According to Granddaddy, she’d been a bit of a prima donna that day and a little hard to please.  In other words, “Do. Not. Wake. Her. Up.” 

Suddenly the lights went out and the television screen went blank. Well, like I said, that happens when it rains sometimes and it happens quite often in the country. “Grandmama! What’s happened?!” It’s disastrous for the modern American adult when power goes out.  For a six-going-on-seven year old, it was catastrophic. No DVD player, no lights, no computer?! “It won’t be out long, baby. We’re fine.”

So he and I grabbed my “Book” (Austinese for Nook) and retired to the back porch for more light. And more cool.  It’s amazing how quickly a house gets hot when the power goes out.  Even with all windows open.  Especially on a humid Georgia twilight. At six-month-old, Kinsley didn’t really care about power per se one way or the other.  She only cared that it was hot.  This was unacceptable and she made that very clear.

After about thirty, forty-five minutes, hubby decided to take his truck up and check out the rest of our fair little crossroads town to see if power was out all over, or whether we were the only poor souls so affected, which was very possible, depending on where the line was down.

It turned out to be just us. There was a tree down at the top of the driveway.  A tree rude enough to take the power line with it and then lay on top of it. Well, except for the parts of the power line draped across the metal farm gate fence at the top of the drive. The metal one. Live power wires and metal are not a good combination. 

Austin, already disrupted by the power outrage, went into full panic mode.

“Grandmama, my heart’s scared! I’m never goin’ home!!”   

“Baby, you’re fine. Granddaddy’s calling the power company and they have to come shut off the power before we can get the tree out of the way. They’ll be here as soon as they can.”

            “When?

“Soon.”

“Tonight?”

“I hope so, but you’re fine. What’s the matter, you’ve never spent the night with Grandmama and Granddaddy before?”

Kinsley, now both hungry and hot, protested loudly from the background. Coward that I was, I left it to Granddaddy to handle the hot and hungry fury and made myself useful by reporting the situation to the parents.

“I wanta talk to Mimi!” (Austinese for Mama.  To him, my daughter  was, still is, and probably always will be Mimi.  Not Mama or Mommy,  Mimi.  We don’t know why, it’s just a fact.)

“Okay.”

“Mimi, my love?”(My daughter’s called Austin “my love” or “my heart” since birth.  Consequently, it was sometimes a bit unnerving to hear their phone conversations.  The phrase “my love” isn’t part of most six year old’s vocabularies.) “The power’s out and my heart’s scared!! And it’s getting’ scareder by the minute!!”

Reassuring hug from Grandmama. Soothing murmers from Mimi over the other end of the phone.

“So can you tell Daddy to get his friends and come move the tree and come and get me?!”(The little traitor. This was the child who went  anywhere with us for any length of time without protest. With enthusiasm, in fact.  The kid who’d gone through Chicago rush hour traffic  with us on a Thursday afternoon just a few months earlier shouting, “This is awesome! I love this city!”) 

Granddaddy and Kinsley retired to the bedroom to try for a nap. Not terribly successfully from the sound of it. Austin and I played the apps on my “Book” until he tired of them and then sat at the kitchen table with the flashlight building Lincoln Log houses.  Well, he did, anyway.  He’d gotten me hooked on one of those damned apps. And finally, blessed quiet from the bedroom.  There were still non-stop questions at the table , though.

“Are you sure we’re gonna be all right?”

 “Yes, baby.”

 “I’m never going home again!”

 “Yes, you are, baby, it’s fine.”

At this point, I didn’t even care if the power even came back on till morning. I just wanted the tree out of the way so the kids could get home and I’d be happy as a clam.    But Austin’s heart was “gettin’ scareder by the minute!” And what was I gonna do when the “Book” lost its battery charge, for heaven’s sake? Desperate, I texted Mimi (no point in feeding a six year old’s fears any more than I had to) and asked if the Sheriff’s Office could exert some influence with Georgia Power and move us up on the list of priorities.  (My son-in-law’s a K-9 Deputy Sheriff.) She sent back, “Okay, but what can the Sheriff do?  Georgia Power’s gotta handle the live wire!”  I sent back, “I know but maybe they can give us emergency status—deputy’s children stranded with evil grandparents and so scared their hearts hurt!” 

I don’t know if she actually complied with that request or not, but at 9:30 p.m., she called.

“We’re at the top of the drive with Georgia Power.  They’ve been here about half an hour. The wire’s draped all over the gate. They’re hooking it up and pulling it back up in the air now. Shouldn’t be but another few minutes.”

“Mimi?  I wanta talk to Mimi!!”

I handed the phone over and sank back in relief.  “Mimi, they’re never coming!!  My heart’s really gettin’ scared! And it’s gettin’ scareder by the minute!”

“Baby, they’re here! It’ll just be a few minutes and we’ll be down to get you!  Got you a surprise!”

“Surprise?” Perked ears.  “What, what, what?”

“It’s at home. You’ll be home in just a little bit. They’re working.”

“Okaaaaayyyyyy…..”

Loud noise sounded from the driveway.  Headlights!!  A giant Georgia Power truck came down the hill, maneuvered and backed up—and started back up the hill!  Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!  

Don’t leave meeeee…………

“Grandmama, they left, they left!! And the lights aren’t back on!!”

Then I realized, “They’re checking the rest of the lines on the driveway, stupid.” (NO, that was not directed at Austin, I was talking to myself.)

Five minutes later—surge of light. “Let there be light.”  Truly glorious words.  Whirr of overhead ceiling fans.  Yes, yes, yes.  Sound of incoming vehicle as  parents came to collect children.  Oh, glorious reunion! Or not. It seemed to have lost urgency with Austin.

“Grandmama! Now we can watch t.v.!”

Yes.  Priorities here, please.  It only took the sight of incoming headlights to send him flying out the door, though.  And so ended the night when I was Trapped!!  A prisoner of electricity in my own home.  Our children and grandchildren headed up the driveway.  Hubby flipped on the t.v.  Only three innings into the Braves game seein’ as how they were playing on the West Coast.


We settled onto the couch, twisted the top off two bottles of beer and pulled open a bag of pork rinds. That’s how country folks celebrate. And we're nothing if not country.


                              


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