Aspens 2012

This weekend I spent time in the mountains with Hubby where we enjoyed views of beautiful Aspens nestled among green pines. Seeing this exquisite Autumn exhibition is one of my favorite things about living close to the Rockies.

Beautiful Aspens Scattered Among the Pines

Hubby inside of a three-pew chapel we found just off of the road.

Colorful Hillside Display

Yours truly beside the lake at John Wesley Ranch

My New Novel

My next novel will be a Young Adult novel and I’m sure it will become a best seller. Inspiration for this novel was found in an advertisement I received this week via email. This ad promoted “bulletproof strength” nail hardener. Yes, you read that correctly. There is now an apparent need to have bulletproof strength hardener on our nails. (I won’t even try to analyze the implications of this.)

The protagonist in my novel will compete as a pop icon with characters such as Batman, Spiderman, Superwoman, and Superman – maybe even Mighty Mouse and Super Dog.

I can picture it now. The protagonist, “Nailwoman,” will fight evildoers with her long, bulletproof fingernails, thrusting her hands out to deflect bullets coming at her from all sides. Bulletproof hardener on her toenails will also transform her toes into effective digital defenders.

Soon after the publication of this book, screenwriters will stand in line to bid for a film script option. Then, an Oscar winning movie will make Nailwoman every young person’s hero.

Wake up, Vee! You don’t write YA fiction. You don’t even like the fantasy world of superhuman portrayals.

“Sigh.“ Back to work on the sequel to “Child of Desire.”

I Should Run for President

While watching the political conventions during the past two weeks, I decided I might be qualified to run for president. It seems that the more deprived one was during childhood and young adulthood, the more qualified is that person to be president.

So, in light of the apparent new requirements for being an eligible candidate, I put forth my credentials for consideration.

Childhood:

• Born at home in a little Nebraska town
• Outhouse at the end of a path
• No running water except when someone ran to the pump to bring it to the house
• Potbelly stove in the living room for heating
• Wood-burning cook stove that doubled as the hot water heater
• Galvanized wash tub for taking a bath
• Hand-me-down clothes
• Grade school wardrobe: one Sunday dress, one school dress, one play dress (a too short school dress from previous year), one pair of shoes, long brown stockings
• Walked to school in the snow (in the interest of integrity - less than a block)
• Dad grew vegetables in the back yard – Mom canned the veggies for the winter
• Protein in diet was mostly venison – thanks to Dad’s deer hunting ability

Young Adulthood

• Student loans non-existent – worked for college tuition
• Diet during early married years included countless tuna croquettes – consisting of more rice than tuna
• Having friends over meant serving popcorn and Kool-Aid^®
• First car a pre-owned 1948 rusty Buick (with a hole in the floor board for viewing the pavement below)
• Food stamps not yet envisioned by lawmakers
• Going to the doctor meant handing over cash for care – including pre-natal visits
• Well baby care required taking good care of the children and saving to pay for vaccinations
• Meals were cooked at home (including such things as fried bologna sandwiches and mix-n-match leftovers soup)
• Clothes were stitched together on an off-brand portable sewing machine
• Winter coats purchased at resale shops
• Used furniture found in newspaper want ads

I love my husband, and I approve this message.

Surely the above information is sufficient to earn your respect and secure your vote!

VEE FOR PRESIDENT

                                          

Flag from Ace-Clipart.com

Is History Important?

Recently, I was made to wonder if ignorance concerning history is a handicap or if history just doesn’t matter. Should I be annoyed when a young person pretends to understand a period in history based on - well, I’m not sure what?

Case in point:  A college-educated young lady recently informed me that young people in the United States did not attend high school in the 1920’s and 30’s and that it would have been unusual for a young woman to attend college then. She also challenged my assertion that there were school busses during that period in time. 

Facts: In 1930, the year being discussed, 51% of U.S. teenagers, ages 14 – 17, were enrolled in high school and 667,000 of these young people completed high school that year. This same year, 48,869 women graduated from college (as compared to 73,615 men). And what about school busses?  The first school bus was horse-drawn and introduced in 1827. 

So does it matter that someone spouts “facts” that are not facts? Young people can multi-task electronically and beat the socks off of the majority of older people with relationship to technology. So, in my opinion, it does matter that said person did not use the internet and do exhaustive research before arguing opinion as fact.

The aforementioned young lady was challenging things in my book, implying that they were anachronisms. I went into defense mode, quoting my sources. The massive amount of research, done before the first words of my novel were written, made me confident that the fictional things in my story could have happened in fact. 

 “The pleasures of ignorance are as great, in their way, as the pleasures of knowledge.” ~Aldous Huxley

Well, maybe.

1930’s School Bus – from “Old Bus”