Eagles Nesting

Good Day Bloggers,

I thought that I would mention Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge today because Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is the home of one of the largest populations of nestin pairs of American Bald Eagles in the country.

It is hard to believe, but February is the time or year when our national bird lay their eggs and wait for the chicks to emerge. It is not terribly cold her in Maryland, for the temperatures rarely fall below zero, but I wouldn't want to be sitting on a bunch of broken twigs waiting for my babies to be born. Here is a link if you would like to watch the eagles and their chicks. I find it fasciating to check in there from time to time to see how the babies are doing:
http://www.friendsofblackwater.org/camhtm2.html

The bald eagle is a big bird, and I was amazed when I went in the Visitor's Center at Blackwater and saw one of these magnificient birds that had been taxidermied to illustrate the size of this bird and its nest, which was more than six feet across! Eagles feed on small animals and fish found in the marshy environment at Blackwater and I have the opportunity to see these huge birds feeding as I drove on the roads that ride the dryest portions of marshland on my way to the islands of Dorchester County.

What a privilege it is to see these beautiful birds in the wild. If you like eagles, pay a visit to the refuge, you won't be disappointed.

I hope you have a wonderful day you'll. 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/

How Do They Do That?

Good Day Bloggers,

I happened across today's photo while looking for interesting art I can post here to keep my blog fresh and timely. I have always had a lively curiousity about ancient Egypt, in fact, one of my early novels Ancient Memories takes place in part in that mysterious place.

Ancient Memories is about reincarnation, and I think that at least part of me went there to try to find out how they did it. I can't help but wonder how the Sphinx, the pyramids and all the imposing statues and architecture were achieved without the use of power tools and fossil fuels.

I have always suspected that the ancient Egyptians had some sorts of knowledge we can only aspire to learn. I mean, look at all of those enormous rocks, shaped and shifted into awe-inspiring monuments that have stood silent in the deserts of Egypt for thousands of years. How did they do it?

It is just this sort of wonder that keeps me plugging at my own impossible dream. Lord knows, I would love to have a couple of best-sellers and to find that I have readers for my stories in every corner of the globe. Maybe then folks will look at the girl from Appalachia who dared to have a big dream and succeeded. Wouldn't that be sweet?

I sure like looking at the results of impossible dreams that came true, don't you? I bet President Obama does!

Ponder on it pligrim - 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/

Pin Your Dreams on a Star

Dear Blogger;

This is for all my readers who have a dream, which probably makes it for just everyone I know. Who dosen't have a dream?

When I was a kid, my dream was to be a novelist because I loved to read so much. Reading took me to places I might never see, and it taught me things I might never have learned. Getting there was quite a struggle, but the good thing about a long journey is all the material one is given to use in one's books!

I got to visit to Mistic Connecticut about 25 years ago and when I came home from that trip, which was originally a visit with my brother who was mustering out after 20 years in the Navy. I wrote my novel, Mystick Moon after visiting the reproduction of that famous seaport.

Mystick Moon is the story of a young girl who finds herself in New England shortly after settlement. Elizabeth grows up fast. She is one of those abused kids who take care of their parents and grow up way too soon. Elizabeth wants someone to love her, and in time she finds a family and her true love, even though some people think she is a witch. They even go so far is to try and hang her, but love comes riding up to save her - just like in the fairy tales. Well, come on. How can you have a romantic novel without a happy ending?

I think that when we pin our dreams on a star, true love is one of the things we seek. The stars give us a goal, a place to go to visit the dream until it comes true. I know that is the way it works for me.

How many dreams have you pinned on the stars? How many of those dreams came true? I sure would like to know I am not alone over here. Maybe you will tell me one of these days - in the meantime, keep warm and stay on the sunny side! Terry

Bluebird of Happiness?

Good Monday Morning!

Every time I hear a commotion outside my kitchen window, I have only to look outside to see my favorite bluebird - the common jay!

Some people say they don't like jays because they are so loud and pushy, shoving other birds away from their feeders. Well, from what I understand, it is not such a virtuous thing to feed birds unless one takes pleasure in watching them feed because they come to depend on the un-natural supply of food. My privit hedge, more than 50 years old, provides loads of food for my feathered friends, and there is always a lot of activity there in the winter.

The jay was considered to be the messenger to the Native Americans, a bird that warned of approaching danger. They are also clowns, doing birdy acrobatics as they play among the branches.

I love to see a blue jay, they are truly one of the most colorful and beautiful birds in God's rainbow. The jay's feathers reflect the beautiful blue of the sky and his raucus voice reminds us to communicate. They drop their jewel-like feathers for me to find and treasure. I can't think of a better omen for my day than to see a jay first thing in the morning.

Perhaps this would not be a popular choice among bird lovers who favor the more elusive bluebird, but bluebirds are not terrible social creatures, preferring instead to live in hollow trees at the edges of fields and forests. One can spot a bluebird and consider oneself blessed, but the humbler jay doesn't mind crowds. For me, they are my own personal blue bird of happiness.

A Native American person might say jays are one of my totems. What a nice thought. I like the idea of having a chatty, handsome bird for a totem since words are my business. Think about it 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/

In Celebration of Rejection

Good Sunday Morning,

Sunday is a good day for both reflection and thanksgiving, and when I ran across this book excerpt this morning, I thought it was very appropriate to my work. The thing is, no matter what people may have to say about a writer's work, it is always a good idea not to give up.

Like many writers of my generation, I submitted my work for years, and reaped a huge stack of rejection letters - the darned thing was over three inches tall - that represented hundreds of submissions that me told my writing did not please the editor of the day.

As happened, I was invited to a bonfire one evening, and the hosts of the party suggested that attendees bring items that stood for a condition they wanted to get rid of in their life. I looked around my place and decided that I really did not need to keep all the rejection letters I had collecte during the preceding twenty years. They were negativity made reality, after all!

I took that stack of paper and flung it into the fire, I even drank a toast to a new day. It wasn't long after that my work started to be accepted in the new field of e-book publishing. Believe me, I didn't know what a long road that would turn out to be, but I was glad that somewhere, somehow people would have the opportunity to read my work. My career in publishing is still evolving, but I do have some books out there and that means a lot.

Check out what some of these other well-known writers went through as they collected rejection slips. You might be surprised:

CELEBRATION OF REJECTION
From the pages of How to Get a Literary Agent by Michael Larsen

1. 112 Books by Louis L’Amour, even though he received 200 rejections before he sold his first novel. During the last forty years Bantam has shipped nearly three hundred million of his one hundred twelve books, making him their biggest-selling author.

2. 600+ rejection slips wall paper Jack London’s home.

3. 774 rejection slips for John Creasy who went on to publish under 13 pseudonyms 564 books

4. 14 rejected Pearl S Buck finally published The Good Earth

5. 20 rejections didn’t stop Jonathan Livingston Seagull’s publication and you know how famous it became, written by Richard Bach

6. 40 rejections before she sold her first book didn’t stop Mary Higgins Clark

7. 200 rejections Roots by Alex Haley was published.

8. 15 publishers and 30 agents rejected John Grisham’s A Time to Kill before it was finally published.

9. 375 publishers rejected Naked in Deccan over seven years before the Baltimore Sun deemed it a classic.

10. Dr Seuss – 24 in his file of rejections before his first books was published

11. 8 years after the novel Steps won the National Book Award, Jerzy Kosinski
allowed it to be send out again with a name change to 13 agents and 14 publishers – all of them rejected it, including Random House, which originally published it.

12. The New Yorker rejected a short story by Saul Bellow after he won the Nobel
Prize for Literature.

Looks to me like rejection is part of the journey so don't let it get you down and keep on the sunny side! Terry

Winter From My Window

Good Morning Bloggers,

I used to like winter a lot more than I do now, but I have noticed that I take great pleasure in looking out the window to see what is going on in my world. A window can provide great insight, even when it seems as if nothing much is happening.

Yesterday I looked out across the back yard and saw a huge squirrel sitting on a stump. The squirrels in my yard are enormous due to a grandfather of a pecan tree that provides them with nourishment all year long. They are so bold in the summertime in fact, they chew on the green nuts and then pitch them at me. Needless to say, I am not very fond of the pesky little critters.

The west side of my house is sheltered by a huge overgrown hedge composed of yew, boxwood and some really shaggy privit trees. Yes, if left to their own devices, privit will grow up to be unruly trees. I don't much like them either, but this fantastic hedge keeps my house cooler in the summer and provides habitat and food for a large variety of birds that dine on the pepper-like berries of the privit. I understand a previous neighbor hated the hedge, but I like it. I like it way more than the danged squirrels!

Windows are great focal points for my imagination, giving me a screen on which to paint my next opus. (I can only stay at the computer for so long, and am in the throes of writing a four-book series based in rural Maryland.) A psychic once told me that the spirits come to talk with me, and that may be so. I certainly find my characters in odd places, and when they arrive, they always have stories to tell. I fancy they may even find me by looking in my windows!

One window in my house is still a source of fascination since it is the home of a small bat. Last week the weather was frigid and the little fella wound itself up into a tiny package and did not move for days. Yesterday was warmer, and Bert (I had to give him/her a name) had stretched out the little arms and legs to soak up any heat it could gather from the atmosphere. I can't figure out what the tiny thing eats, and I worry, but I do feel special to be singled out by a creature I surely would never have encountered otherwise.

As you can see, winter windows are the source of endless entertainment. I hope yours do the same for you. Who knows, you may even find yourself on the sunny side. Terry

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

National Book Week

Good Morning Bloggers,

This week is National Book week. I think it is interesting that such an observance is placed in the dead of winter. Certainly, I am in favor of grabbing a good book and a favorite fuzzy blanket to spend an afternoon or evening deep in the adventure of a great book.


I was the eldest of eight children, and there was no money for college, so I went to work right out of high school. I had some adventures that make my own writing richer, and left more than one thing behind in my journey. One of the things I did manage to hold on to was a reading list a favorite teacher gave me in his English class. You have to know I looked for those books - classics - that gave me new ideas about the possibilities of life.

I even got the idea I might write a book or two!

Eventually, I managed to sidestep the toxic relationships in my life and journeyed to the local community college. I sold my kitchen table to pay the application fees, worked afternoon and evenings, and eventually graduated from both the community college and Skidmore College. I told everyone I wanted to be a writer and I worked at the craft, turning out several books while I went through the process of earning a degree. I even found time to read a few good books - and some that are representative of the spiritual underground of the time. Yep! I read Castenanza and Shirley McLaine; Ruth Montgomery and Richard Bach - authors who offered a new way to process information and to manifest the reality of my dreams.

Today I have several books in print and more pubished as ebooks. I write every day and I believe that one day my work will make a difference. Now that difference may affect only one person, and that is all right. I have walked in the footsteps of Poe and Dickens and Wittman and found the journey glorious.

I ask you, bloggers, to think about books when you are looking for entertainment, information or inspiration. Books - in paper or even electronic editions contain the path to freedom and greatness. I am blessed to be part of the endless army of writers who put down their thoughts and made the world a better place to be.

Think about it, and keep on the sunny side! Terry

Author of Ancient Memories, Mystick Moon, Runaway Hearts, The Picker, Hang Your Head Over, Hell or High Water, Imagine, Chesapeake Harvest, Chesapeake Destiny and more. Find her books at Amazon.com, www.writewordsinc.com, Fictionwise, Kindle, All Romance Ebooks, etc.