Good Stories Gone Bad? How About Bad Stories Gone Wonderful?

Today, I am supposed to talk about good stories that have gone bad. You know, the ones that start out as a gloriously spectacular idea and end up a big fat mess.

And I have had those. Don't get me wrong. They give me shivers to think about and are under my bed with the hairy spiders, the voracious dust bunnies, and the creepy monster that groans in the night (no, wait, I forgot I figured out that was just me groaning in my sleep when I turn over).

So I could talk about them.

But I won't.

I want to talk about love. Life. And the gloriously beautiful human spirit.

The past few weeks have been loaded with tragedy. All of us feel the heartbreak, the devastation and desperation. Please except my deep, deep sympathies to those who were touched directly by the Boston bombings and the West Texas explosions. I am so sorry.

But I'm here to say that I have seen more generosity and selflessness in the past few weeks than I've seen in a long time. At Beyond the Veil we gathered around one of our own beloved authors, Xakara, in her time of need and asked for your help. Bless you one and all for contributing. You are angels.

I am so thankful for the men and women who risk their lives every single day to save strangers. And the regular folks who rush in to help others. I was brought to tears by the folks in Boston who ran toward the site of the first bombing, not knowing if there was another.

Last year, a friend of mine had a heart attack during a local triathlon. Do you know that people stood in line to administer CPR until the ambulance arrived? One after another kept his heart going and breathed life into his lungs. A doctor was in that group. He saw how bad off my friend was and told the last guy to stop the chest compressions. My friend had died. That young man, I'll never forget this, that wonderful selfless man (who prior to this moment had been a real competitor) screamed at the body lying there in the street. He yelled at him not to give up. He promised he wouldn't quit either and he didn't until the EMT got there.  My friend lived to tell the tale. In fact, he's still running. He absolutely credits those people who came to his aide and saved his life. Especially the young man who didn't give up on him and he hopes to race against again soon.

Saving lives, offering strength, a hand, a gentle word, a small act of kindness...  This is love people. This is who we can choose to be. Please, take the time to love.

Thank you,

Kimberley Troutte
Kimberley's website

Language of Love: Hats?

This month I've been ardently researching the clothing and culture of the 1920s. Two reasons. One, I'm helping costume the actors in my daughter's spring musical theater recital, set in the 20's. Two, I'm presenting a costuming workshop at my RWA chapter's writer's retreat. So I gladly combined my two efforts into one tax-deductible order of vintage costuming books :).

So what does this have to do with the language of love, this month's theme? In one of the books I read that women, supposedly, used to tie the ribbon in their ubiquitous cloche hat hat differently depending on their love relationship. (1) Picture a cloche hat with a stiffened ribbon through the side, sort of like a feather. The wearer left the ribbon straight, like an arrow, if she was single but committed romantically. She tied a simple knot if she was married. And she tied a fancy, frou-frou bow if she was looking for love, hopefully in all the right places...or speakeasies, since this was during the Roaring 20s!

While that doesn't seem to make logical sense -- surely the knotless ribbon should represent the unentangled single gal -- it is a type of love language represented symbolically. General engagement rings and wedding bands, the color of flowers (http://www.teleflora.com/flowercolors.asp) -- though this is more in the meaning of the gift than what it represents about the wearer, or how you wear your claddagh ring (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claddagh_ring) -- these are other various cultural symbols beyond the FaceBook status that quietly whisper the language of love, of a sort, without the wearer having to state it aloud.

I found a couple references to the meaning of circle pins (http://thevintagevillage.com/profiles/blogs/50s-circle-pins-do-they-have) and here for pretty pictures (http://mid2mod.blogspot.com/2011/08/back-in-day-circle-pins.html) but they seem a bit more vague than the aforementioned examples. Here's one about what the color of your cravat supposedly represents: http://academia-cravatica.hr/interesting-facts/speech  which I had not heard before.

Can you think of more examples? I don't write historicals so, while I'm enjoying my foray into vintage fashion research, I'm not well-versed in other "love language" representations that might exist in other times and cultures.

Jody Wallace
Author, Cat Person, Amigurumist
http://www.jodywallace.com * http://www.meankitty.com  

(1) Herald, Jacqueline. Fashions of a Decade: The 1920s. BT Batsford Ltd, London, 1991. Page 30.

My TV Must-Sees

I admit to be a tad-bit addicted to American Idol and X Factor.

What draws me to these shows? The judges? The chance for someone to win multi-million dollar contracts? The melt-downs, arguments and crazy drama?

Nope.

I love these shows because I connect with the contestants. 

I feel their pain when the nerves close their throats.

I feel their joy when they sing better than they believed they could.

I love it when their hearts and emotions, raw and deep, float out with the notes through the camera all the way to the me sitting at home on the couch.

In a small way, I am them and they are me.
Authors, singers, performers are all artists struggling, growing, learning, improving our craft in the public eye. We stand on that stage before the world doing our very best to get people to love us. Oh, that sounds a little overly dramatic, but it's true isn't it?

It's all about giving love-- the desire to reach out and touch someone, anyone, with our gifts.
And receiving love--the viewer, or reader, experiencing the gifts in a way that touches their hearts.

Can't wait.

Kimberley Troutte
www.kimberleytroutte

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Visit from My 100-Year-Old Self

Since we are talking about the future, I borrowed the idea from Brad Paisley’s song, “Letter to Me” and had my 100-year-old self visit present-day me.

First off, Kimberley, don’t get freaked out. This really is what you are going to look like in the year 2065. Smokin’ hot, right?

And no, I am not visiting you from the Great Beyond. I’m still alive, thank you very much. Time travel is not such a big deal from my side of things.

So…why have I travelled sixty odd years to see you? Well Kimbo, you need a little guidance on this journey of ours. That email you keep staring at like it's a death sentence is liable to create stress that could sabotage our full life. Trust me, you don’t get to be this smokin’ hot by carrying stress baggage day-in-day-out.

My first piece of advice?

Dump the baggage. It’s heavy, ugly, outdated and gives you wrinkles. Let it go. Find your bliss instead. Work at being happy and you will, well, be happy. And so will I.

On that note, it is awesome to be wealthy and famous (more on that later) but you can’t place a value on love. Make sure your family and friends know how much you care. Nothing is more important than love. Not one thing. Especially not that email. Stop looking at it!

From this side of the journey, time is measured in days, not years. Each day is a gift and I’ll slap you silly if you squander your gifts! Get up each morning, put your big girl panties on, and face the day with a smile. Smiling works wonders.

But don’t keep things bottled up, either. Biting your tongue only gives you a sore tongue and a future full of trouble. Remember the melt-down at Targas Eight? Um, sorry. No you wouldn’t remember that since it will happen in 2045. The point is: Arm yourself with love, flood your heart with compassion, and speak your mind. Always.

Be strong. Living for over a century is not for the weak of heart. Hell will come at you when you least expect it, but know that God will be there too. He’ll send angels on earth to comfort you. He always has. And you will survive. Even hell has its limits.

Keep your faith strong. Do you think God would have given us this crazy butt-kicking writing dream slash talent if He didn’t expect us to use it? Would I have made it on the list of Intergalactic Wordsmith Masters if I didn’t believe I could? Believe, woman. Don’t let the fools convince you that you won’t make it. I may be gritty and sassy, but I assure you, I am no fool.

Which leads us to today. Stop fretting over that rejection. Sweet Heaven, you’re going to get at least a thousand of them, might as well make some peace with those bad boys. Each rejection moves you closer to becoming the writer you always wanted to be. Listen to the naysayers, but don’t let them wallop you. Shield our dream in a safe place so that we can succeed.

And believe me, we DO succeed. Gotta run. My broadcast interview is on Mars today and afterwards I’m taking the great-grandbabies for triple-decker chocolate sundaes. Great things, like dark chocolate, never go out of style.

Kisses.

Readers: What would 100-Year-Old YOU tell yourself?

http://kimberleytroutte.com/

I'm in Love...with my manuscript

I'm writing a new book. No surprise there, I'm always writing a book. What's thrilling is that I find myself head-over-heels in love with it.

Okay, I know that sounds, well, weird.

But here's the thing, writing a book is hard. Pretty much everyone agrees with me on that point. It's logging endless butt hours at the computer, researching, plotting, planning, organizing, cutting, scouring baby books for that perfect sounding hero name, looking up words that mean the same thing as "look" without saying "look" a million times, thinking hard, burning a few meals, not answering the phone, not shaving your legs, cutting the papertowels into teensy squares so that the kids have napkins in their lunches because oh my gosh who has time to go to the store for napkins, dreaming dialogue, pulling hair out, whining, whining, whining...

And then...a miracle happens.

The scenes come together, nearly effortlessly, as if I'm not writing them at all but simply documenting the events as they happen. Bits and pieces of research pop onto the scene at the exact right moment adding flavor, smells, dialect, sounds, shadows, and colors.

All good, right? There's more.

The super-miracle is when my characters do something so extraordinary, so endearing, so lovingly pure that it takes my breath away. I'm not bragging here. I'm admitting that my characters do stuff that I couldn't possibly have planned for them. Not in a million years. I'm simply not that good of a plotter. But it happens. Thank God.

This, my friends, is where I fall in love. My story takes on a life of its own. It no longer is scene A, B, C with two-dimensional characters from Kimberley's head. No. It's real. It's alive.

Ahhh, happy sigh.

Here's to many miracles in 2011. May you find love in all the right places.

Kimberley Troutte
www.kimberleytroutte.com

Unconditional Love

Hey, everyone. With Easter on the horizon, my blog title is quite appropriate, but I'm not talking religion here. Instead, I am talking about the unconditional love from our pets...specifically man's best friend - canines.

Recently, I was sidelined for over a week with a kidney stone. Wow, how could something tiny cause so much pain? I mean, really. I was praying for someone to hit me in the head with a two-by-four for a week while two different emergency centers claimed I had a UTI, gave me a prescription and sent me home. Finally, after a note from my GYN, a different ER did what the first one should have done...a scan. And yep, just as I thought, a kidney stone.

I spent two and a half days in the hospital to clear up the infection and had a stint put in while I await outpatient surgery to remove the lodged stone. Upon release, I drove myself home. When I walked through the door, I had stupidly expected a banner or a note..."Welcome Home!" No such luck, but what I did receive quickly doused my disappointment. My two doggies - Sadie and little Choco were so glad to see me, I was overwhelmed by their enthusiasm. Choco, in particular, had been with me nonstop during the entire week I lay in bed, and once I got home from the hospital, it took him days to allow me out of his sight.

Choco was so funny. While I lay in bed and slept, he kept himself entertained by carrying his toys into the bedroom and onto the bed. In fact, one morning I rolled over one.

So, that's my short message today. It's no wonder we get so attached to our pets and they become such an important part of our family. It's easy to love them as they show their love for us every day...or at least I hope that's the same for you, lol.

Unconditional love. Hmmm....perhaps that is why vampire romance has become such a hit these days (shameless segway into the April 6th print release of the third novel of The Watchers series - Midnight Revelations). The intense emotion from an alpha male who can rip a man apart with his bare hands, but will also give his last breath for his love's happiness. He can sense when his love needs a slow dance between the sheets or rock her world into the next universe.

Ahhh...love. Whether two legs or four, warms your heart, doesn't it?



D. McEntire www.dmcentire.com www.mybookstoreandmore.com keyword: D. McEntire

Three things I've learned about the holidays

It's Christmas Eve Eve in our house, and my daughter is busy counting down the minutes until it is officially Christmas Eve, followed by Christmas, and Christmas Road Trip. There's anticipation and excitement, giggles and glee, all flavored with a dash of greed (Mom, come look at this! I wanted to ask for this to!) every time A Scooby Doo Christmas is interupted by commercials for something she hadn't yet asked for. (Sorry kiddo, it's too late for me to go looking for Aqua Sand. And Pillow Pets have been out of stock for weeks now.)

Some of the presents are wrapped and under the tree, while a few others are in boxes waiting for a moment when little eyes won't see what is in them before the swaddling of shiny paper surrounds them. The cookies have been baked and handed out, and the holiday playlist has been on auto-shuffle for weeks. The days are short, the nights are cold (even in Florida - we almost got down to freezing last night!), and there are less days left in 2009 than there are fingers on my hands.

So now that I've set the mood (busy, cold, and happy) let me share a few things about the holidays :

1 - You can tell a lot about a person by the way they approach gift giving, and receiving a gift. Specifically : What is the perfect gift? My answer - anything, and everything, as long as it is given with loving thoughts and good meaning. If someone gifts a gift card or even smooth foldable cash, and they do it because they want the receiver to be able to get exactly what they want, that gift is every bit as thoughtful and well intentioned as a hand-knit sweater or a shiny flat panel plasma screen that was given with the same spirit.

2 - You can learn a lot about yourself by how you handle the holidays. Are you stressed because you don't have everything finished when you wanted it to be? You may need to stop and smell the pine wreaths. Had your presents wrapped since before Thanksgiving and the cookies in crush-proof boxes in the freezer since the first of the month? You might could use a bit of excitement in your holiday - try substituting Rumplemintz for the rum in your holiday nog. Wishing it was all over and you could forget about the holidays completely? Drop a box of canned goods off at a local food shelter, and you'll have done something good whether it was holiday related or not.

3 - It's about the love. And if it isn't about the love, you're doing it wrong. It doesn't matter whether you are celebrating Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Boxing Day, or Bill of Rights Day. Celebrate it with love and sincere wishes for the happiness and well being of those around you, and you can't go wrong.

I hope your days are filled with laughter and your nights filled with love as we approach the end of the year. And wherever you spend the holidays, whatever you celebrate, may the peace and spirit of the season fill your hearts with joy.

Happy holidays!