Weekend With Sis

Good Morning Bloggers,

I spent this past weekend with a friend in Delaware. I met Sue nearly 20 years ago online, she paid me a visit shortly after, and we have been friends ever since.

Sue just loved Cambridge, and she has visited often over the years, helping me over the hard spots, and supporting the artistic endeavours I seem to need to keep my life going smoothly. People think we are sisters, and we don't mind. In fact, it seems like a good thing.

I do have some natural sisters, but they are far away, and we have not been close over the years. That happens sometimes, and I don't know if the situation will ever change. There is an old saying that you can choose your friends, but you can't change your family. Seems to be true.

I have had some truly wonderful friends and some issues with sisters. If you don't take the blood connection too seriously, the bonds of friendship have remained far stronger over my years.

So, let's hear it for friends that are truer than sisters. I know I enjoy my female friends very much and thank the heavens for putting them here where we can enjoy each other during good times and bad. So. I suggest we call today 'sister appreciation days' and think about the friends who are as close as sisters.

Big hug, Sis. Terry

Looking for the Light

Good Friday Morning!

Well, Christmas is over and now that the celebration is has subsided, things get a little quieter. Sure, the stores will be crowded with people looking for post-holiday bargains. Then there are the gifts you need to return for one reason or another. The stores are full and all the shoppers are either impatiently looking for refunds or wandering around with a look of vague lunacy in their eyes.

For myself, I look for light. Winter is the season for hibernation - which should be a legal occupation for those of us with seasonal affective disorder. I can't go to a warmer place for the winter, I think we should be allowed to stay in bed until the weather warms up, but you and I both know that can't happen.

The thing remaining is to look for the light. My friend Sue, who has spent much of the free time in her life volunteering to help those less fortunate, collects lighthouses. Book publicist Nikki Leigh uses a lighthouse as a theme running through her wonderfully hopeful novels. Lighthouses remind us to look for the light in the darkest night, and I think the people who collect them have the right idea.

What brings the light into your life? Good friends? Your spirituality? Little kids playing in the snow? Even the darkest of days have a ray of hope. I got a seed catalog the other day, an arrival that always reminded me that spring always comes. All I can say is if we look for the light, it is always there.

Have a great day folks and stay on the sunny side! Terry

Angels Around Us

Happy Holidays Bloggers!

This morning I am thinking about all the angels in my life - and there have been many. I wish I could seek them out to thank them for the wonderful things they have done for me when I thought hope was gone.

Let me tell you about some of them: There was my childhood friend Janie, who liked me in spite of my differences. There was the English teacher, who encouraged me to write. There was Dorothy, who gave me a job whenever I was between jobs or husbands. There was John, who coached me in shameless self-promotion. There was Arline, who let me sleep in her living room for an entire year until I got my own place. There was Vinnie who helped me see I am a good musician, and Jewel who taught me how to see - period. I guess I could go on, but you get the idea.

Angels don't necessarily float down to decorate my life in clouds of glory. Sometimes, they are just regular people who have common sense solutions to my seemingly insurmountable problems: like Nikki Leigh, who found a way to help me promote my books; Vernon who fixed my roof and painted, and Dawn Tarr, who does my book covers (see today's art). I can't thank any of these folks enough, and I hope they all have a wonderful holiday season - no matter how stressed their lives seem.

So, count your angels and have a happy holiday season. Terry

An Early Gift

Good Grief Bloggers, it is cold out there!

Winter has arrived on the Eastern Shore, and lots of hardy souls are going to come out tonight to attend the Cambridge-Dorchester Christmas Parade. I'm staying in where it is nice and warm and shop for books at the new gift guide from Promo 101 Virtual Tours. You can check it out and download a copy at: www.nikkileigh.com/gift_guide_2008.htm.

My gift came yesterday when my friend and book publicist Nikki Leigh sent me my own copy of the gift guide. I was surprised and delighted to be included as her Roving Reporter and featured author! Looks like she got every one of my print and e-books included in the guide and I am feeling hopeful that holiday shoppers will find my books for gifts. Maybe Santa will put some copies under your tree?

I really love to write, and the characters in my books are my sisters - women who prevail through hard circumstances and never stop believing that life is good and love is possible. Maybe one of my heroines will remind you of someone you know? I hope so.

Keep on the sunny side! Terry

What's Up With Wreaths?

Good Friday Morning,

Last night I attended the gala for the 9th annual Festival of Wreaths at Pleasant Day Medical Adult Day Care Center. It was a glittering affair complete with four musical presentations, and more than 125 wreaths hung in the halls of the facility -all of them ready for sale by silent auction. The event was catered by just about every restaurant in the county. What a party.

I was there nine years ago when the boss, Jackie Vickers, told me she wanted a fund-raiser to help keep indigent clients in day care. Back then, it cost something under $70 for the services: transportation, two meals and a snack, medical supervision,activities, shopping, and social worker services. Last night proved the festival was pure gold. The sale of all those wreaths, a couple of raffles and a live auction of wonderful donated items generated thousands of dollars to keep our elders in the program.

I retired from Pleasant Day several years ago, but every Christmas I take time to make some wreaths - for myself, and for others. It is a lot of fun, and I always use up some of the tons of materials that seem to find their way into my craft shelves. Each year, I help decorate one of the 18 trees that decorate the center, and this year a couple of friends from the Wednesday Morning Artists helped. We made a wreath too - with dozens of little paintings by the members.

The gala was so much fun. I collected hugs and reconnected with friends I made during a career as fund-raiser for two non-profits and as a news reporter - one of the reasons I adore Cambridge. People are great here, and they aren't afraid to tell you they love you!

You can't beat a night like that. I hope you take time to do something for others less fortunate this holiday season. It sure keeps you on the sunny side. Love, Terry

Calling All Angels

November 14, 2008

Good Friday Morning,

Angels have been on my mind lately, so I have posted a photo of the angel my friend Dawn Tarr painted for me last Christmas. I hung the canvas over my desk in my work room so that she can overlook my efforts as a writer, musician and craftsperson. I was a bit taken aback when I saw my sexy guardian, but she has become an inspiration and I have seen signs that she is a big influence on my life. I have lost a little weight! Thank God for angels in lingerie.

Dawn is a very talented painter, selling in the worldwide market on ebay and in Maryland galleries. She did the cover for my youth book Glinda's Crystal Garden and the covers for my Maryland Heritage series, novels set in colonial days. So, Dawn is one of the angels in my life.

My publisher Arline Chase of www.ebooksont.net and Cambridge Books has been my angel for years. She took me in when I was homeless and helped me find my first employment here on the Eastern Shore. She always has helpful advice and guidance when I run out of literary steam.

Dorothy Morford was an angel earlier in my life. Dorothy inherited her family's antique business and a carpenter gothic hall stuffed with vintage clothing. She employed me all through the years, including those difficult and exciting times while I earned degrees from Fulton-Montgomery Community College and Skidmore College. You can't imagine how much I learned while working for her!

Lately I have been car-less and Jeanne Pinault has been my angel to get me to meetings and places where the trolley doesn't run. She introduced me to the Wednesday Morning Artist where I have learned lots about art and the benefits of having a network of like-minded and creative individuals.

There have been dozens of angels in my life. The latest is Nikki Leigh, creator of Promo 101 Virtual Blog Tours. I contacted Nikki to ask if I could help with those tours as a stop for authors, and she asked me to post a daily blog, thus giving my work a lot more promotion than I ever dreamed of.

Today, whenever I start to feel down, I think of the angels who have blessed my life. Now, Dawn Tarr's angel overlooks my work and I know I can't fail.

Have a blessed day,

Terry

Sunday Dinner and Belief

Greetings Bloggers,

I like Sunday, it was always a special day when I was a child and I have fond memories of both Sunday School and the happy Sunday dinners and picnics that followed. My father was big on parties and he could make an occasion out of barbequeing a can of government surplus meat or making candy out of hot syrup poured on a pan of snow.

Times were hard when I was growing up, but I know Dad believed in me because shortly before he died, he got me James Mitchner's book on writing. Back then I only had a couple of self-published chapbooks, but he showed them off to his cronies and bragged on his daughter the writer. He helped me believe and I know that wherever he is now in the great beyond there is a party and he is bragging about his daughter the writer.

My point is that we have to believe what we want will happen. Every one of the authors I write about on the new blog I write for Nikki Leigh had a dream and hung on until those dreams came true. (http://authorsontourblog@blogspot.com)

I once heard a speaker say, "I would hate to think I would give up five minutes before my dream came true." and that really made an impact on me. Being a writer is a very lonely business. You do all the work alone, and it is not until the book is in print that you go out and meet bookstore owners and readers. Then the work has to speak for itself.

So, if you are a writer with a dream, hang. Your miracle could be only five minutes away!

Keep on the sunny side, Terry

Appreciating the Dream

Greetings from the Eastern Shore!

Today I will take time out to visit the Never on Tuesday bookstore here in Cambridge to launch my new novel, Chesapeake Harvest.

Chesapeake Harvest is about my 15th book, I am a bit like the old woman who lived in a shoe... by now I can hardly remember all their names after 40 years of writing. At any rate, Chesapeake Harvest is the first of a series set on the Eastern Shore of Maryland from the earliest colony times. The women in the series are survivors, women who wait for love, and take up the reins of life to make their survival a reality.

Mary Charles is the heroine of Chesapeake Harvest. She starts off gentry and slides down the social ladder to end up in a London jail. The next thing she knows, the universe steps in and she is on a ship bound for the New World. Undaunted, she faces up to her indenture and learns how to survive on the mosquito and disease ridden coast despite all obstacles in her way.

Mary's descendents follow the family in the following stories, Chesapeake Legacy and Chesapeake Destiny. If you like a series, I hope you will check my stories out at Amazon.com and www.ebooksonthe.net.

Many thanks go out to artist Dawn M. Tarr for the series covers! I love the pulp fiction look and the pensive characters who seem to know all the secrets of life and love. Find more of Dawn's work at www.dawntarr.com.

Oh yes, I am working with Nikki Leigh to promote her authors on tour blog at http://authorsontour@blogspot.com. Check it out!

Keep on the sunny side, Terry

TGIF

Hello There,

Boy! Am I glad it is Friday. It isn't that I don't like the other days of the week, but a lifetime of observation has showed me that Friday is that is a day of hope restored. No matter how tired we are at the end of the week, we have a 48 hour day reprieve from the madding crowd and the workplace blues. Then too, Cambridge and Dorchester County are real party places. It is a rare weekend that doesn't have some sort of community event to share with friends and neigbors. That said, I have lit a candle in honor of the weekend. Long may it last.

Tomorrow I am going to go celebrate Second Saturday by going to the Never on Tuesday bookstore here in Cambridge to sign my newest book, Chesapeake Harvest, the first in a series of historical novels set in colonial Maryland. I grew up in a house with no electricty or plumbing and I know how difficult it was to stay clean and to put up enough food to last through the winter -- even with my father's pay to help buy shoes and food from the grocery store. It was not, I imagine, one tenth as hard as it was for the indentured servants and wives who came to an unsettled colony and had to carve out a life in the wilderness. The series is my salute to the founding fathers -- and mothers who made the Eastern Shore a paradise for retirees.

Today I added my first post to Nikki Leigh's Virtual Blog Authors Tour! I will do my best to give her readers a chance to see in a few moments where the day's tours can be found. When we discussed the project I told Nikki I could be a bit quirky, and she said the quirkier the better, so it looks like a good match to me. Check out the new blog at: http://authorsontour.blogspot.com/ for lots of information on authors around the country and across the world.

Well, off to work. Did I happen to mention that a writer's work is never done?

Have a great weekend, Terry

A Student Again

Good Thurday Morning!

It is raining again, a good thing. The last couple of summers have been awfully dry, so I believe it is a good thing - although I find the gray days long - especially now we have entered daylight savings time. I always thought people should have the option to hibernate, but our society says to keep working, working, working. Well, why not? Lots of good things are happening!

If you are following my blog, you will see a new gadget this morning. My friend Nikki Leigh, award winning author, publicist, and blog host, helped me to add the interview I did with her about my latest print novel Chesapeake Harvest. The novel is a historical and embraces the life of Mary Charles, an indentured servant on the Eastern Shore of Maryland during the earliest days of the colony. I loved writing the book and love the cover done by Snow Hill artist Dawn M. Tarr.

Yesterday my Nikki asked me to be a roving reporter to help publicize her blog tours. Blog tours help authors meet readers and get publicity for their books. I not only get to learn as I go, I also have the benefit of publicity for my own books. I will be doing a weekly (and maybe more) column on her authors blog. Check it out at http://authorsontour.blogspot.com/ That said, it looks like I need to go learn my new job so there is actually a post onthat address! Please bookmark the site if you would like to learn more about my work, Nikki Leigh and her books, and virtual blog tours.

Have a good one! Terry