In Praise of Spring

Hello Bloggers,

I don't know about you, but I am so glad it is spring. I am tired of layers, heaters roaring and the grey, sad landscapes of winter. I know winter can't be helped because the land needs a rest, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I mean, hey! Look around out there. There are all sorts of green things poking their heads in yards and flour beds. I love daffodils and tulips and I adore iris. My back yard must have been planted eons ago because the enormous pecan tree is surrounded by lilies that bloom shortly after spring comes to call.

I never did find these particular lilies in the seed catalogs, but a book about colonial gardens tells me the beautiful blooms, that come in pink, blue and white, are called squill. Odd name, but the yard looks like a Thomas Kincaid painting when they bloom! I can't wait for the squill to bloom.

Another clue my garden survives from another time is the unruly hedge composed of yew and boxwood, neither of which bloom. The hedge, however, located on the west side of the house, keeps the building cool on the hottest summer days and provides habitat for all sorts of birds - from the raucus jays to finches and wrens.

Don't mention the squirrels. They breed like the rodents they are and chew holes in my eaves and raise their young in my attic. Don't like them. Period.

Other than that, I love spring, even if it does keep me busy picking up branches, cutting back bushes and shrubs and mowing my bit of lawn. What a gift I have been given to have custody of this beautiful old yard for a while. It sure makes me want to keep on the sunny side. Terry

PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

Books, book, Who Has the Book?

I sure wish I could understand what happens with books. I have an idea they multiply on the shelves, and while I have purged the shelves faithfully year after year, there always seems to be a few more books than I ever remember acquiring. There are always a few I am sure I had never seen before!

Don't get me wrong, I adore books and have never been able to own all of the books I want. Sometimes, fate surprises me, though.

When I was a junior in high school, my English teacher has us read Stephen Benet's John Brown's Body, a book-length novel in verse about the Civil War. So graphic were Benet's descriptions of the slave ship, the Southern plantation and the Northern girl's plight that I fell quite in love with poetry - something I could take or leave before that time. Perhaps it had something to do with the teacher's aide in the form of phonograph recordings of famous actors reading the various tales in the poem.

I guess you could say John Brown's Body marked me and I looked for a volume ever after - and recently found a copy on the 'free' shelf of books being given away at the Friends of the Library booksale. This was a clear case of the Universe giving me what I wanted - and taking its time with the project.

I have done my own level best to add to the number of volumes extant in the world, and I am sorry to say I purchase many of my current books in thrift shops because I can't really afford to purchase new books. I wish I could support all of the great writers I have discovered on the thrift shop shelves. Favorites are Ahab's Wife, Geek Love, Love Me, The Other Boylen Girl, and Pillars of the Earth (among othrs). I read and re-read these books over and over, they are so complicated and interesting I always find something new in their pages.

It looks like I am keeping too many of these books, but spring is coming. I will bag up some books for the library sale, and buy a few new ones to make sure I have something to read when I can't think of something better to do - a rare condition, to be sure. I just want to be prepared.

So, here's to books and owning books, they sure keep me on the sunny side. Terry


PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

The End of the Road?

One of the 'headlines' on the Sunday Morning show had to do with the end of newspaper as we know them. Newspapers are going belly-up all over the country. What is to blame? Many a newspaperman and woman say it is the Internet.

The irony is that there was a time in the not so distant past when the Internet offered a great enhancement to our work. We could do research on the Internet, the Net allowed us to use news from other cities the same day, without waiting for information to reach us via subscription of papers born from a printing press.

Don't get me wrong, I had a marvelous experience as a newspaperwoman. I came into a community, met everyone and learned about the place from the ground up. People were, for the most part, anxious to contribute and enthusiastic about the opportunity to tell their story. If a hometown boy made it in baseball's major league, I got to go out and snap a photo (we all carried cameras back then) of him flipping pancakes to support local T-ball. If a cheerleader contracted brain cancer, I got to cover the fund-raiser born to help the poor kid's parents cope with the medical bills. I got to photograph the athletes at the local Eagle Man Triathlon. I called the cop shop every day to find out what the bad guys were up to and to witness how much money the local garden club raised to help take care of folks over at the old folks home. I got to cover the fun dog show that helped the Humane Society do their job. If there was a need in Dorchester County, someone organized a fund-raiser and people came out to put down their money to fix what needed to be fixed.

The only hard part about working as a newspaperwoman was that the daily news was not longer enough for a world that was rapidly becoming a global village. I could hardly live on my weekly pay, and overtime was forbidden - even though I could have spent every waking moment bringing one story or another to the public's eye. Eventually, I had to move on, but I remember my days at the newspaper with fondness and hate to see the daily paper I once helped write become a semi-weekly tabloid that is mostly a social calendar. There aren't even any want ads worth speaking of. Want ads are the blood and bones of a newspaper, and this lack puts the handwriting on the wall. Newspapers will soon be a thing of the past. Ain't it a shame?

Let's hope the Internet can weave the community together the way the Daily Banner did for more than a hundred years. It kept us on the sunny side, can an blackberry do that? Terry

PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!


Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

Wonder Woman: The Later Years

Hello Friends,

If you remember, I spent the afternoon yesterday with a few friends who gather each month to celebrate a member's birthday. This is a pretty loose-knit organization and has no ties to anything, except member to member. Anyone can bring a friend, anyone can be absent. No rules.

Yesterday one of the gals regaled us with tales of her adventures in Halloween costumery. She loves to dress up and to don the ego represented by the costume du jour. She is alternately Sammy the Plumber, Sissy Moon the folksinger, and Wonder Woman. This gal constructs her own costumes and really makes the rounds on Halloween, visiting friends, social agencies and local businesses without prejudice.

She even took Wonder Woman to Maui a couple of years ago where she won a prize in an enormous Oriental Mardi Gras celebration. The costume, entitled Wonder Woman: The Later Years, featured drooping ninnies encased in funnels and a super-sized Depends to prevent social embarassment. The folks loved it.

I wish I had the nerve to be Wonder Woman - at any phase in the bitch's life! You might think anyone can do it, but it just isn't so. It takes a very special person to carry such a strong personna into one's golden years. I couldn't do it.

So, if anyone out there has the nerve to be Wonder Woman (at any life moment) or any other superhero, please let me know! I want to see the photos. Stuff like that keeps me on the sunny side and often finds new life in one of my novels. Have a good one! Terry

PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!


Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

It's Not For Sissies

Hello All,

Today I will join a number of friends in what has evolved into a monthly birthday party for the appropriate persons. It will not be an especially serious gathering, but it does give us an excuse to eat out and visit with others of like mind.

It is true that each of us is growing older, and that some of us are struggling with the everlasting problems of old age: unfamiiar bodies, thinning hair, and shrinking resources. Old age ain't for sissies.

One thing this monthly meeting allows is the opportunity to be silly, a very important skill each of us misplaced during long and useful lives. I have an idea it is a good thing to get out of the house, to eat food we did not cook, and to laugh at things that are more ironic than funny.

Getting older allows you to do that, and I am glad that I have the opportunity to see my friends each month and let it all hang out. It makes it a lot easier to stay on the sunny side! Terry

PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!


Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

What is Your Inspiration?

Hello Bloggers,

A while back I lived near a man-made lake used to generate power for a rural area of upstate New York. I happened to learn something about the power project and found that dozens of families - and at least one graveyard - had been relocated when the dam was complete and the valley was flooded.

Now a flood is a sad thing, scary in fact, and some areas along the Hudson river flooded each spring as a result of snow melt from the huge snowstorms that rendered the area a veritable ice box each winter. But that sort of thing is natural. Dams are not.

A man-made flood was something I could hardly fathom, and eventually I decided to write Cheryl Mae's story - a story about a woman who knew the folk ways of healing, a woman who found herself in an entirely new world when her home ended up far beneath the waters of the new lake.

I am not much for mysteries, but Stephen King reminds us in his Colorado Kid that a mystery is not necessarily a whodonit, but rather a story to be unraveled. I think that is what I did. Maybe you can tell me? My book Hell or High Water is available at many of the ebook sites, including Amazon's Kindle.

Happy Reading and keep on the sunny side. Terry

PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

The Last Priestess

Hola Bloggers!

Today I want to tell you about my Bride of the Condor e-book series. Set in the ancient Andes, long before colonization, this is the story of a woman who was selected to serve in the house of the Moon Goddess. Unfortunately, Qwana is the last priestess selected because the population has been swayed to the worship of Sun God, a vengeful diety that demands blood sacrifices.

I never seem to have a great deal of choice when one of these stories find me, and The Last Priestess was no exception. Before I knew it, I had written more than 150,000 words about Qwana and her flight to safety. (That is three normal books!)

It is a quirky story. Qwana finds a baby in the wilderness. She meets a man from another planet on the Nazca Plain. She and her companions survive a climb into the highest Andes peaks before they discover a pocket of civilization where the residents still believe in the Goddess. She keeps on keeping on.

It is a strange experience to write books like The Last Priestess, Nazca Star and Bride of the Condor. I found part of me wanted to stay in that other time and place, and the part left behind sat down and took dictation. Laugh if you will. . .

And keep on the sunny side, Terry


PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

March 23, 2009

Good Monday Morning,

I was just thinking about my first experience with e-books. I had been writing for years, and while I believed I had whatever it might take to be a writer of note, for the most part all I had amassed was a large stack of rejection letters. I had to think a while when a friend suggested I try e-publishing, but eventually I did decide to try the new path to immortality the vendue offered.

One of the first novels I submitted for e-publication was Ancient Memories, a tale of reincarnation beginning in Egypt and wending its way through the ages to present time. I truly believe we get to come back and are able to work out karma from previous lives so writing a novel about soul mates seemed like a great idea.

So I did it.

Ancient Memories was an ebook for a while and then it went on to be paper published. I was absolutely thrilled when I held the first copy of Ancient Memories! Writing a book is one thing. Seeing your book as a manuscript is something else. Seeing, however, one's book in print is one of the true thrills of a lifetime. I had all the hope in the world when I opened that book with my name on the cover!

I believed that the world would notice me at that day and time. Want to know something? I still believe it. Someone is going to notice my work. It just has to happen. All I have to do is to keep writing and keep believing.

Right now, I am glad my first book was e-published and I have that same deep well of hope that my work will eventually be noticed. So. I have made my blog for the day and maybe someone will read it. In the meantime, I am in the middle of writing a novel. number 16 or 17, I have lost track. The thing, I am told, is to just do it.

On that note, I will wish you a great day and remind you to keep on the sunny side. Cheers! Terry

PS: Look for my books at www.writewordsinc.com, www.ebooksonthe.net, Kindle, Amazon.com, Booksurge, Fictionwise, All Romance E-books and more. Happy reading!

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

To Blog or Not to Blog

Good Saturday Morning,

The thing is, we all want to be loved and blogging is a good way to put our philosophy out there. For myself, blogging makes it feel like I am doing something about my writing career.

As you may recall, I spent a number of years as a newspaperwoman, a time in my life when I had my finger on the pulse of the community - and the community had my number. It was a rare day when I did not get a call to come out and take a photo of an individual or group who wanted publicity for his, her or their big thing. I guess you could call me a midwife for the news.

Now that I am retired, it seems to be a bit harder to come up with even one article a day - when I used to turn out two or three or even more stories every weekday morning.

I have, however, vowed to work on my writing every single day, which leaves me with a great dilemma. Should I blog first - or write another word, page or chapter in the latest novel?

There is, I have learned, only so much energy available for any one task in a day. I can add to the book, or write something clever on my blog and hope someone reads it. I am interested, you know, in who might read these blogs, but in six months I have only had a couple of comments, so I am not at all sure what happens to my faithful commentary.

Back in the day, a friend reminded me that no matter how dramatic the news, the reader wrapped dead fish guts in them the next day. Keeps you humble.

Well, I guess I will go to my day job and write a few more words on the fourth and final volume in the Chesapeake Heritage series. I hope you can access your bliss via a blog, a story, or a cheesecake - it doesn't matter as long as you do it and keep on the sunny side. Terry

Sneak Preview: Chesapeake Destiny

Hello Bloggers,

Today's art is Dawn Tarr's newest painting for the cover of my novel Chesapeake Destiny. The third in a series of historicals following the women in one family who lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland during Maryland's formative times.

I love history, and this series offered an opportunity to illuminate the hard work and struggle it took to turn the marshy wetlands of the Delmarva Peninsula into an agricultural paradise. I give full credit to our founding fathers, but don't think our founding mothers get half enough attention for their roles in the formation of the American mosaic.

Each of my heroines copes with a specific probem - the sorts of problems we all have experienced in our lives. These women survive and prevail, just like the women in the novels I read when I was a kid growing up in the Appalachain Mountains of Pennsylvania. If Scarlett and Amber could do it, so could I!

Dawn Tarr, a wonderful artist from Snow Hill, Maryland is painting the covers for this series and it amazes me how well she grasps my ideas and brings them to life. It has been wonderful working with Dawn, who is struggling to keep her head above water in this depressed economy. Kudos, Dawn! You are the best.

I will be sending the book and cover art to my publisher by the end of the week and she tells me it will be in print by autumn of this year. Now, if I can finish the fourth book, the series will be complete. I hope you take time to read the novels and come back to me with your comments. In the meantime, keep on the sunny side! Terry

A Word in Hand

Good Day,

I am trying the old writer's trick of getting up each morning and actually writing something. To all intents, my aim is to add a few more words to the last of four novels set here on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but some days I don't do a heck of a lot more done than to answer my emails.

Do you recall a time without emails? I do, sort of. I got on the Internet while I was still writing for the local newspaper. I got up early each morning to write the news. It was always an adventure - one that required a deal of artistic ability when nothing much was happening. Nothing much required making calls to various individuals in the community to see what was shaking - were the eagles hatching at the refuge; had the city rejected liquor licenses for the new restaurant on Main Street; what new requirements had been added to the building code; and which local cheerleaders were headed for the nationals? I won some awards for my excellence in community journalism, so the proof was in the putting.

A word in hand is worth two at the water cooler.

I had a tough time working on novels after a day without news, but I always kept an ear out for stories, let them perculate, and dredged them up one day later in life when I had time to really write.

Today, I try to do my blogs - this one and authorsontour.blogspot.com where I post blog stops for award-winning author and publicist Nikki Leigh first thing in the morning. Then, I try, and don't always succeed in adding a few words to the book.

I am not sure a series is a good idea. Four books is a lot, but I believe I will prevail and one day look back at the finished project as a study in discipline.

At any rate, if you are a writer, keep going no matter what else might come first. You and your readers will be glad you did. Terry

A Waterview Home

Howdy Bloggers,

Five years ago I stepped off the edge of the real estate cliff and purchased a home of my own. This might not feel like such a big deal to some people, but it was really important for me. I found my waterview home after only a year and a half of searching.

It was on a different side of the same block as my apartment, and offered at a price people can't believe. I slid under the gate as the boom arrived and the rest of the neighborhood was bought up by speculators. As a single woman, I had no idea what the heck I was doing. Whew!

To date, I have had most of the interior painted twice and accessed a grant program that helped me deal with the leaky windows and the holes in the floor. The siding has been repaired and the trim painted so that the house looks crisp and clean. There are still a lot of things I would like to do, but I am glad I took a friend's advice and didn't do anything at all for a year.

We learn to live with some of the flaws in our home sweet homes. And we learn to appreciate the good things: like the deep, shaded back yard that offers habitat to many species of birds and an enormous population of squirrels who eat everything I plant - and my porch with a water view.

The house is only four blocks from the Choptank River. The river, nearly two miles wide at Cambridge, sets the tone for the city where out-of-towners moor their boats and dream of retirement homes. That makes it a waterview home. I love it for it is surely on the sunny side, despite all its flaws. Terry

Blowing Bubbles

Hello Bloggers,

I worked for a medical adult day care center a few years back and one of my most successful activities for people with alzheimer's disease was to take them out to the porch and give them bottles of detergent so that they could blow bubbles. It was absolutely enchanting to watch their faces when the smiles emerged out of their foggy confusion.

Sometimes when I get stuck on a story I wish I had a magic wand to blow some of the fog out of my own brain. Fact is, I usually keep some of those little bottles of bubble stuff in the house and don't hesitate to go out on the porch to blow bubbles when I get stuck. Yes, it does draw some puzzled looks from my neighbors, but their opinion is their problem. They ought to try it.

Sometimes the simplest things can offer the solutions to the stickiest problems. If you look closely at a bubble you will see that it is composed of a rainbow wrapped around a wish. I have an idea that when the wish is freed, some of the block that held up my work disappears.

So, if you are having trouble finding the sunny side, why not try blowing a few bubbles? You will be glad you did. Terry

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 6, 2009

Good Day,

Promo 101 Virtual Blog Tours offers a full line of author services coordinated by award-winning author and publicist Nikki Leigh.

Today, join author Phyllis Schieber and Marta's Meanderings who shares a review of her new book Willing Sprits at http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com/

Look forward to mid-month when Darryl Hagar, author of The Man Overboard, will share his story of being a merchant marine and working on 900' tankers and the extra curricular activities that led his life for over 25 years.

Learn to integrate the Law of Attraction at Promo 101 Virtual Blog Tours, not use it by itself. Dyan Garris has built an integrated series of tools, including the award nominated book "Money and Manifesting" to help you overcome your financial shortages.

Other featured tours this month include campaigns for Maria G. Mulvaney, founder of the Women's Millionaire Club and a Dan Fogleberg retrospective at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/

Spring is coming, so keep on the sunny side. Terry

Brrrrrrrrrr, Really?

Hello Bloggers,

I am not used to the cold we are having these days. Brrrrrrrr as it says in my title for the day. The old folks, and native residents, tell me that this sort of cold is not unusual for the Eastern Shore. All of this indicates to me that weather can come in cycles.

I remember the late 60s in the Adirondacks and one winter when the temperature stayed below zero for more than a month, with the thermometer falling as far as 40 degrees below zero. The house I lived in had no plumbing, and I will tell you that morning walk to the privy was a bitch - but the pipes didn't freeze. You learn to count your blessings.

I am not so fond of the cold, it gets in my bones and some days the only warm spot was under the covers. I get up anyway and try to carry on my life under the pile of clothing necessary to maintain a steady body temperature. I sort of wish someone could take the 100 degree days we experience here in mid-summer and moderate the cold, saving some of the cold to temper the heat, but I suppose that is too much to ask!

One good thing about the cold is that it keeps me in the house looking for things to do. That said, I absolutely make myself sit down at the computer to work on the book of at day. I am in final book sag in my Chesapeake Heritage series and I have to thank this recent cold snap for keeping my fingers on the keyboard and breaking the writer's block on this particular tale. Thanks, Jack Frost. Thanks meteorologist. It worked!

So. I need to get to work. I sure appreciate the cold weather when things like that happen. Today I have to get out to attend the Wednesday Morning Artists weekly get together, so I sure hope the sun is shining on all of the ice and snow outside my snug little den. Have a great day folks and keep on the sunny side. Terry


Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com

Oh, Snow

Hello Bloggers,

Well, the weatherman didn't lie. There were a flurry or two last night when I went to bed and this morning we have the cliche 'winter wonderland.' I do not like this, Sam I Am.

Of course, children adore a day off from school and I don't begrudge them their snow day. In fact, I think it is pretty neat. There aren't too many hills here on the Eastern Shore, but today will see the city's kids playing over at the courthouse on what is optimistically called Snow Hill. Children have played on that lawn for years, sliding down the gentle slopes there. We make the most of what we have.

My tall yew hedge is bent nearly to the ground with the weight of the wet snow, and I can see at least one broken branch from my kitchen window. I hope one branch is all I lose. My back yard is fairly secluded thanks to this very tall hedge and I would hate to lose the privacy.

This is, I understand, winter's last gasp and I am tickled right to death. I love the sunny days of spring and I imagine there are lots of other folks on the Eastern Seaboard looking for the sunny side. Have a good one! Terry

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com

Whaddya Mean Snow?

Good Morning Bloggers,

In like a lion! The weatherman says the Eastern Shore stands to get as much as a foot of snow tonight and tomorrow. I say Humbug! February is the worst part of the year for me, and now they are saying we are about to get a huge storm on the first of March.

I could do without it. Really I could. This isn't fair. The yard is alive with robins, whole flocks and herds of them are populating the yard recently. Kinda looks like they have been fibbing too. Whass up with that? I can deal with the darned groundhog. I think his publicist sets up a sun lamp so the poor little rodent sees his shadow and goes back in his burrow for an extended nap.

Hey, I get up in the middle of the night myself for a potty break.

The yard is ready for spring. The squill lilies and daffodils have sprouted and are nearly two inches tall. They are going to wish they stayed in for a while longer.

I know I don't plan to go outside if it snows. I spent way too many years wading in snow up to my ankles, knees and bottom. I shoveled snow and pushed snow and wallowed in snow. Never did like the stuff.

I even moved a few hundred miles south so I wouldn't have to deal with the rotten stuff so often, and it found me! My plan is to stop at the market on the way home from Sunday dinner and to fight the crowds. I need some bread, milk and toilet paper.

I would suggest you all keep on the sunny side, but you can't see the sun through the snow. An alternate suggestion: pray for spring. Terry

Terry L White -Author of the Chesapeake Heritage Series
"Travel Through Time With Terry"
http://www.terrylwhitesblog.blogspot.com