Friday, March 1, 2024

Ideas and where do they come from?


    When I first taught special education in McIntosh, MN, I carpooled with two other people. In the morning, driving northwest on highway 2, we never saw the peacocks. As we drove home at the end of the school day, peacocks strut their stuff at the edge of the long driveway. The landowners were farmers. I always thought it a bit odd to see peacocks in basically the middle of nowhere, but didn't think much of it.

    As a child, we had a green parakeet for a short time. It didn't take my mom long before it drove her nuts and my brother and I had to find another home for it. Someone gave my mom a bird just like it many years later but she didn't keep it long.

    Growing up, my parents took us fishing. We lived in Minneapolis so it was a treat to go north to Red Lake to fish. We also had relatives who lived on lakes. Dad loved fishing and so did Mom. I always did and so have my brothers and now my children and grandchildren.

    One day it hit me--why not write a book that will include fishing, writing and birds? Seriously, why not?

     My first book in the series, THE FORGER.  An Experienced Goods Detective Squad Mystery.  I'm sure that you'll love it and if you do, please leave a review.  



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Friday, February 2, 2024

Secondary Characters




The secondary characters need also to feel emotions and are a vital part of your story or novel.  I had trouble with that.  I had trouble following my seconds and writing back stories about them.  I had few integral scenes in my books.  One of my editors made me add ‘fun’ times for my characters.  I had them staying at home and watching I Love Lucy reruns, which is ridiculous for young folks.  She challenged me to be more and do more so I added ice hockey tournaments since it was winter.  In another White House Dollhouse book, I began with National Park Exposition in St. Paul. CLUED to DEATH has many secondary characters.  Do your books?  Each character has a personality. Do you like or dislike them? Here’s a challenge for you—write about your most important secondary character or else try this example:  1) Choose a city—New York City for an example. 2) a taxi driver or transit worker and a teacher or a salesman. 3) a disagreement between two. 
        Set your timer for fifteen minutes and write.  Let’s see what happens and who comes out on top!  After, take a count of your five senses and emotions. Angry? Mad? Happy?

       Let me know with a comment and I’ll get back to you.  Take care and happy writing!


    Barb

Friday, December 1, 2023

Settings and emotions.

 

Since the holiday season is upon us, I wondered how to fit fishing into my work in progress. I’ve already decided that I would have my characters fly fish in Minnehaha Creek, I assume that it’s not possible to go fishing in mid-winter. I know it’s possible, but seriously, I wouldn’t want to just stand out in the cold for several hours to fly fish and the line would catch on ice. I figure that ice fishing is the way to handle the cold. The girls could easily have their own camper and drive out on the ice. We now can purchase fish houses for just that purpose.

 

The question to ask, is how on earth is it possible for me to live up Dylan Thomas and his amazing description of his setting. Read it once for fun, and afterwards, record the way that you feel. Next, read it for the many emotions which you feel. When finished, read it the third time and write down all the descriptive words used. Here it is, straight out of: 

 

 

A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES by Dylan Thomas.  Copyright 1954

    

      For dinner we had turkey and blazing pudding, and after dinner the Uncles sat in front of the fire, loosened all buttons, put their large moist hands over their watch chains, groaned a little and slept. Mothers, aunts and sister scuttled to and fro, bearing tureens. Auntie Bessie, who had already been frightened, twice, by a clock-worked mouse, whimpered at the sideboard and had some elderberry. The dog was sick. Auntie Dosie had to have three aspirins, but Auntie Hannah, who liked port, stood in the middle of the snowbound back yard, singing like a big-bosomed thrush.



Wasn’t it wonderful? I love it and a movie was made of the book. I rent it through Amazon.

 

Happy writing!

 

Barb 


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Thursday, November 2, 2023

Sticking with what you know.

 


Minnesota’s turkeys or not?




 

November is a month to celebrate since it’s my birth month, however, as I continue with my novel about fly-fishing, an idea comes to mind. The turkeys!

 

Is it possible to have the missing person from my book be snatched while looking out the window and watching turkeys’ gaggle along the busy street? Probably not, so that idea is dead in the water, but, if my two protagonists go fishing in northern Minnesota, they easily could stop and look for turkeys and other wildlife.

 

It’s the time of the year for two Minnesota turkeys to head to Washington DC where they will be pardoned. First, they’ll walk off from the private coach and walk the red carpet into the Willard Hotel where they’ll spend a private night in this beautiful hotel. The following day, President Biden will pardon them both.

 

President Truman was the first president to pardon a turkey in 1947.





In 2006, when then-President George W. Bush-needed to break from a security meeting to whistle off his dogs, who’d made a run at the two birds. Unfortunately, I couldn’t locate a picture of him chasing turkeys.


President Biden in 2022

 




I decided not to rain on the turkey’s parade and stick to fishing, then I can explore my favorite place on earth, Minnehaha Falls. I’ve picked out the neighborhood where my characters will reside which is near Sanford Middle school and burger joint we’ll frequent is located two blocks from Howe grade school. I’m still going back home, but now I have to set the setting. I must evoke emotions from the setting. Each page of a book should make you want to taste what the character is eating, walk down the block and check out the stores or just plain want to be there. Then ask yourself what emotion do you feel?


Please, enjoy our nation holiday, Thanksgiving Day!  Enjoy your turkey dinner with family and friends.


Barb. 

 

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Sunday, October 1, 2023

Writing what you know.

 Writing what you know.



Recently our local newspaper published historical information about the town which I live in and have for over forty years. I wondered if I’m as attached to my growing-up town as I am to Bemidji. Then, I got to thinking-I never left!

 

The settings for my books are almost completely in Minneapolis and conspicuously near my old grade school. Which brought me to one of the most beautiful places on earth, Minnehaha Falls. There is also a statue of Hiawatha carrying Minnehaha across the creek. It’s so engaging and spiritual.






The setting is flowing through my mind like the creek. I’m starting to consider the water, lakes and trees as a backdrop to new novels.

 

I used to fish an awful lot as a youngster and my husband went fishing when first married and with our boy’s. 

 

Then, I’d sit on the dock with the grandchildren.

 

I began a book about fly-fishing, women’s version. It’s a book about two women who’d known each other since kindergarten who are best friends. They are also best friends with two men of the same age but are still employed as detectives for the Minneapolis Police Department. 

 

The four investigate the disappearance of a grade school classmate who was never found after she’d gone missing from the fourth grade.

 

The search will take the reader to northern Minnesota and around my favorite neighborhoods.

 

So, you see, you can go home!

 

Please feel free to share! 



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Barb.






Friday, September 1, 2023

LABOR DAY





How Labor Day happened







"Labor Day differs in every essential from the other holidays of the year in any country," said Samuel Gompers, founder and longtime president of the American Federation of Labor. "All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day...is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race, or nation."


Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country.


The First Labor Day


The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, l883.


In l884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in l885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.



Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 2l, l887. During the year four more states -- Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York -- created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

A Nationwide Holiday




The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday -- a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.


The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio and television.


The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership -- the American worker.

[Source: United States Department of Labor]

http://usgovinfo.com/bllabor.html






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Tuesday, August 1, 2023

DOLLEY MADISON and her Infamous ICE CREAM!












Dolley Madison

In 1790, the first ice cream parlor opened in New York. In late June 1791, a notice appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette announcing the details of that ear’s July 4th celebration. On the menu that year at Grays Gardens were the confections of Mr. de la Croiz, including “iced creams of a great variety.” Great estates, including Mount Vernon and Monticello, had their own “cream machines for ice.”





Dolley Madison, the first lady of the United States and wife of James Madison, fourth president of America, popularized ice cream in the White House. It was still a very impressive dessert because modern freezers were not introduced yet. To make ice cream, an estate relied on an ice house with large blocks of ice cut from frozen water, packed on straw and held in a cool place.

 

Dolley preferred oyster ice cream. She used small, sweet oysters from the Potomac River near her home to churn up an interesting dessert. In 18th century cookbooks, chefs didn’t stick to the basics. Recipes for parmesan ice cream, asparagus ice cream, chestnut cream and many other flavors that don’t grace our modern day tables were popular.


I couldn’t find her recipe for oyster ice cream, but she’d probably poach oysters in a cream base. The amount of oysters would dictate the intensity of the oyster flavor.
Here is Dolley’s Peppermint Stick Ice Cream.
3/4 c. sugar
2 tbsp. cornstarch
3 c. whole m ilk
3/4 c. light corn syrup
2 whole eggs, beaten lightly
1 c. cream
4 drops natural peppermint extract
2 drops red food coloring
3/4 c. peppermint candy, crushed
Mix the sugar and cornstarch in the top of a double boiler. Stir in the milk, syrup and eggs. Cook over boiling water, stirring all the time for 10 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. Chill. Stir in cream, extract and coloring. Freeze in a 2 quart ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's instructions. When partially frozen, add crushed peppermint and continue frequently. Yields 2 quarts.