That was the first time I met one of those splendid faceless devotees of their job.  The man (and it always has been a man so far) sat at the other end of the email trail with helpful, patient advice. How their hearts must sink after the first million e-mails for assistance, view my signature with dread.  Do they show it? Utter a sharp word? No never. If these fellows are as nice in real life as they are in cyberspace then they are the kind all right minded mothers would wish their daughters to bring home to afternoon tea!

Do they ever sleep? I ask them and can feel them smiling gently as they assure me they do. When? This first one was UK based so I can’t even see the international time zones confusing me.  When I struggle with internet thingies, I am often there in the small hours.  Maybe at 2.30 a.m I’ll stretch my aching back, rub my red rimmed eyes and call it a day – sending an e-mail plea as I do.  When I struggle to the machine a few hours later I find the answer waiting, having been sent at some silly o’clock like 3.00 a.m. He would be there at 11.00a.m and 11.00 p.m. Early morning and early evening.  Monday through Sunday.  Did he ever have a day off I asked once?  Oh yes, was the gentle smile.

Friends suggested he wasn’t a real person but I do not think machines have been made to answer the personal questions, quips and joking references I sent him – no he was a real person.  He was amazing and holding on to his metaphorical hand I finally managed to – ta da – unveil a sparkly website.  Somewhere along the way I learnt about parent, child pages, I learnt about royalty free photographs, I found my way around widgets and Paypal buttons.

There was a man over in USA Pacific Time who ran a site one could put up one’s books and ask folk to post their reviews and comments.  It was a great idea and I thought it would be a good place to be.  It was for the year it stayed but, although one book delighted in its new home the second fought shy and would not, despite my best efforts, even try it.

Yet another person who never slept or took time off – a fellow indeed who would email from his mobile as well as from his base.  If he travelled to another zone he was still picking up the distress calls.  Once, for interest I translated the times and sure enough he also seemed to work the clock around. There have others in this long process of trying to get to grips with cyberspace. I have a fondness for them all.

This year I decided to move my website to another place – still keeping my original platform and when I inevitably came across a hitch and called for help – that original, gentle, kind man answered my call and helped me out.

I am a bit of a dimbo I realise but I also know I am not the only one yelling for help.  So, are these fellows

a) working impossible hours or have they,

b) as I suspect, been cloned!

Where oh where has this week gone? Vanished like sun melted snow. I was buoyant and sure on Monday, uncertain on Wednesday and downright indignant today. Gone!

Well it’s not as if they were wasted days, much was achieved here at home with an extra parcel of training being unwrapped for my sister – pre- guide dog arrival – which has been moved forward three days and will now happen at the end of this week.  Another weekend gone:)  Visits from the local blind association with a few new gadgets.

A visit from the pensions fellow – I am now the official carer for my sister.  I never got around to applying after Mum died, so it was long overdue.  Then my Living History Group which had already been moved twice this month convened and because two of the stalwarts failed to turn up I contacted them afterwards to find he had been rushed of to hospital with a heart attack.  He’s going to okay we think but his wife is no driver, nearly 80 and frail so the rest of the weekend has been taken up with ferrying and reassuring.  Life is what came and stole the days away.

Life also brought my friend from forever/editor and her husband to help me finish the dog pen for new guide dog and rescue my sanity!  So alls well that ends well.  This week will bring more of the same and the new dog arrives on Friday morning.

The sun has been shining the skies blue and really there’s nothing much to whinge about! On the writing front progress has been okay.

1:  Blue Moons had another 3000 words added, a great deal of thought on the part where the body has to vanish and 1/2 slightly knotty problems of faith and ethics resolved ‘ish.

2: Three blogs have gone up –on this site you can read

a) A fine Romance- my contribution to Valentines Day and again                              b) on this site a continuation of my blog on reading                                                          c)  Over on Alberta reads I put up a short blog on reading groups, recommendations and rereads and
d) On kiss afrog -the first part of my spider phobia . Also                                               e) on Sefuty Chronicles another peice on diminishing resources .                                         So a good week on the blogging.

3:  Have re-registered for NaNoEdMo for March where hopefully Blue Moon will be licked into shape!

4: Managed after a lot of whinging and help to get connected to ROW80 tribe

5: Networking on FB, Twitter, Novel Publicity, Rachael Harrie Campaign and Goodreads quite a lot achieved there in the odd moments of the days

6: Have made a great start on A-Z  challenge ideas, research and pictures

7: Exercise? well I am exhausted – all you who work out every day, who do hot gyms and long runs will fall on the floor laughing at my attempts – take care you do not pull any muscles with the humour:) I have walked 7 miles this week!! 7 miles.  I will have you know this is probably the most I have walked for years.  It is amazing, and worthy of comment.  I did not enjoy any moment of it but am I proud of myself. Well up on exercise goals

This coming week I am leaving the novel alone, getting ahead on blogs, and networking. Hours available for writing will be limited and bitty so going to be realistic.

How did everyone else get on? – good I hope.  All the best for coming week.

 I am a book lover, it’s in my DNA, from a long line of book readers. Complain, if one dared, of boredom in my childhood home and we would be firmly led to the overflowing bookshelves. We had no ‘out of bounds’ or ‘censored’ books, as far as I am aware, of course Mum and Dad may well have kept any such from view!

 I always had one or two books at the very least on the go, a book for every mood. Indeed I still have the trio of books I read only when feeling ill: Black Beauty, Smokey and Beautiful Joe, all absolutely guaranteed to make me sob my heart out – just right when tucked up in bed feeling sad! Maybe I will re-read them one day. In my adulthood it was Georgette Heyer I turned to when ill; her historical romances could make me smile, even laugh, she had a wit that made even the most stubborn of colds feel better.

 My distrust of film to narrate books was learnt very early on, apart from a couple of exceptions it appeared to me the medium ruined a good book. Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird and the Fellowship of the Rings spring to mind as exceptions. Of course, film cannot deal well with the physiologies, insights, complicated emotions or slow thoughtful pacing and indeed that is not what film is about, film is a visual experience.

 So is film like a play? I am not so keen on plays either, so maybe for me, brought up so solidly on reading, my receptiveness to a tale will always struggle with the visual.

 Thinking around this aspect I examined what childhood books I had still left in my possession 6 decades later. They were, in comparison with children’s books of the past 50 years, fairly devoid of pictorial content.

 Our family were also quite late in acquiring a television set, so that I was well into my teens before I could ‘watch’ stories on a regular basis. Most of my early theatre experience had involved comedy or music of some kind The Whitehall Farces, Operetta and musical. So my synapses are obviously underdeveloped in the visual storytelling department!

 I did enjoy going to the cinema, saving my pocket money, walking to places to save the bus fares towards entrance tickets. My friend from forever/editor and I would spend most Friday and Saturday nights in the dark watching the silver screen. These were tales I never read, such as westerns (I have never had any desire to ‘read’ this genre ever, they are to be watched) and musicals.

 I was introduced to audio books in my 40s when I was exploring this possibility for my sister whose sight was vanishing like burnt away mists. She was also a bookworm and we needed to find a way. It took her a long time to switch, to accept she could no longer ‘read’ her stories. It took me even longer to even try them.

 When I nursed my mother, over the years, I listened to many audios because, as another of the family bookworms laid low, we had persuaded her to try them and once hooked she would listen for hours with great pleasure to old favourites and new delights. I had perforce to listen as that’s where my life was, in her room. I discovered the most curious thing. I heard the stories, some very familiar, to me on a whole new plane of experience.

 If I ‘listen’ to a book, forced to wander through the pages at the speed of the reader, there are layers upon layers of new experience to discover. I have more than enough time to listen to the ‘words’, the construction of the sentences. Time, especially with the classics such as Dickens and Thackeray, to enjoy the descriptions.  It is worth the time. I know that realms of purple prose are not fashionable these days but those Greats could summon up whole environments, listen to the words – glorious. I found I was enjoying the experience.

 However film, apart from a brief foray in my teens, is a medium I know little about. If there is a choice between seeing a ‘drama/film’ or ‘almost anything else’, I will usually choose ‘almost anything else’.

I now have books on my e-reader as well as on my shelves and Audio books waiting patiently for the day I will need them, but always at heart I’m a ‘reading’ girl. Still addictively buying print.

Filed under: Reading and Writing Tagged: audio books, cinema, drama, ebooks, film, listening, plays, print, reading, television, watching ]]> http://albertaross.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/still-addictively-buying-print/feed/ 9 albertar http://albertaross.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/a-fine-romance/ http://albertaross.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/a-fine-romance/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:14:27 +0000 alberta http://albertaross.wordpress.com/?p=307 Continue reading →]]>

Romance

I shall be truthful and upfront about this – I am the most unromantic person I have ever met! True – I don’t do romance, well not modern day romance – I don’t understand it or trust it.  In fact I am totally rubbish at Valentine’s Day type romance.(I may be a little odd but quite harmless!)

This modern day ‘romance’, chained, confined and stripped of most of its glory is, to my mind, a trifling shabby thing.  In the same way as its cousin ‘love’ has been shorn and straitjacketed into a shadow of itself, romance now has to be content with being a pink heart, bedecked with ribbons, sugar coated and marshmallow soft.

My view of romance is an altogether grander, wilder, rip roaring affair.  Sweeping epic narratives – of lands filled with heroism and quests.  Dangers sweeping in from all sides against those who would dare and fight to their last breath, to defend the good, the poor, bringers of justice to those voiceless victims.

The mighty heroes of my romances would grapple with dragons, demons, with giants and ogres.  Romance narratives born out of mythology, folk tales and legends.  Beowulf, the Green Knight and Arthur.

 Loyalty, honour and truthfulness (hilarious that last, as the whole point of the tales was untruthfulness!!) Allegiance to codes of behaviour and character I still try to emulate today, decades later. Love was not only pure but also not restrained to one person of the opposite sex.  Love encompassed your brothers in arms and sisters in adversity, your country, your cause.  It seemed to me that a human could endow fierce, faithful and to the death love on everyone and anyone.  I do do love, in it’s wide context, a great fan of it. (not alltogether odd then!:)

Love was huge, extravagant, in those old tales and even when I grew into Tolkien I was not let down.  Now there was a romance worthy of the old epic narratives.  Lands filled with  other-worldness and fantasy.

I was a romancer myself – a loner for various reasons I lived in a fantastical world of untruths and half truths, populated by quests and courage beyond all human endurance. I was always the hero, because they appeared to have more fun than a heroine whose only role it seemed was to sit at home and weep – not for me:)

When I set out to explore the exotic lands of my old narratives I took my exaggerating imagination with me. Free from those who knew me I could be anyone and I often was.  I invented wonderful other lives for myself, according to my audience. If they wanted me to be intrepid I was, if they fancied me to be downtrodden I could be.  I lived in my own romances.

I could distort the truth and play my games, the latent author struggling to find an outlet I suspect now. How many of us I wonder exaggerate and/or distort the truth when relating an incident – to make it/us more interesting, more amusing.  As writers, inventors of exaggerated fictions, we seek to persuade, we are in fact fantastical liars – the  clue being in the name of course, we write fictions.  Sometimes we write romantic fiction (old style) and don’t even know it!

Definitions of Romance from The Shorter Oxford Dictionary in no particular order

 To exaggerate or distort the truth esp. fantastically – talk hyperbolically

To have romantic or fantastic ideas

To use romantic or extravagant language

To have a romance or love affair

To seek to persuade (a rival or client etc.) esp. by attentiveness or flattery, court the favour

A writer of romances (esp. Medieval) – inventor of extravagant fictions – fantastic liar.

Filed under: Fellow Writers ]]> http://albertaross.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/a-fine-romance/feed/ 11 albertar fellowwritersbloghopPEG_001-1-1 http://albertaross.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/new-website-nearly-there-row80/ http://albertaross.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/new-website-nearly-there-row80/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:10:42 +0000 alberta http://albertaross.wordpress.com/?p=305 Continue reading →]]> This is a short one this week! Do we believe that I wonder?:)

Horrid cold cold week – many of you hardier folk will think I winge at nothing but here in the UK we do not get temps of minus 15 usually!  We have done and I do not appreciate it: (

1) So my exercise goals well met by shovelling snow and trying to walk over snow and ice to the village and back – do not wish to play this game.

2) Because of snow shovelling I managed to write 5000 words on Blue Moon – bursts of mental energy after the exercise in the cold! I know, I know,  you are all going to point out this is one of the reasons why exercise is good for one!

3) Have spent many hours this week on completing new web site – today am struggling with SQL databases and cPanel hosts! To uplift it in all its glory in cyberspace (it’s not that good don’t book seats or anything:) if I get it up today will report on FB page

4) On the same subject I have linked web site to all my blogs and social sites and also created a special blog just for the website where I am collecting all my posts on self pub. Inspiration, writing of publications – this site is working independently so if you’d like to pop over and check out going it alone  – it is a very pretty colour

5) Managed a blog on sefutychronicles on how we might/not manage without electricity in our lives

6) Networking – joined Rachael Harrie campaign and have been busy saying hi to fellow campaigners – not there yet!

Have been participating in Novel Publicity (see FB) hops on Goodreads and Facebook – meeting new authors and flashing myself around a bit!!! Had to update my Goodread page to an Author page.  Have twittered and followed and managed to read over 30 posts.

7) Have completed 2 more books for my challenges (mostly for my pleasure)  Ruby’s spoon which is a great book and Rachaels Holiday which I have mixed feelings about I will be posting on them both on albertareads hopefully next week – if the website gets there!!!

Failed in

Doing trailer, finding people to read and review books (must get down to that) I also have left an empty Red Carpet so if any wishes a spot just say it’s free for a while.

Next week – more of the same (well I hope not the website:) need to do a lot of Blue Moon to get to editing by March.  Am behind on blogging so must get those sorted as well.

Wasn’t too displeased with this week – I knew the website would gobble all my time – it always does I just take so long to figure everything and this time I was re-doing the entire site onto WordPress every page is new as well as updating content – one day I’ll be able to do stuff like that in my sleep – actually I probably am already- its been keeping me up in the far small hours:)

I hope everyone has had a good week and is content keep smiling everyone:)

It’s that time of year again – Rachael Harrie runs these platform building campaigns twice a year – and this years starts today.

I joined my first, this time last year, with no great expectations – I was a newbie – knew no-one except friends from down here on earth! It was a truely amazing experience.  I have met so many new ‘cyberspace friends’ – learnt so much – been led down other paths of delight.  I was there for the next one and am there for this one.

There are hundreds of names of people- one can be overwhelmed – a steady head is needed-dip a toe – it’s fun in there.

There are new folk to meet in your own genre (or try another genre) – people who you can discuss, exchange or just hang out with.  There are Challenges, prizes, notice boards with even more on from others on the campaign.

It’s easy to hop on the campaign wagon just go and see at Rachaels  site

Well the prospective new guide dog came and checked us out – we seem to meet with her approval:) she will be arriving to stay with us on the 27^th of this month at which point my sister’s currant dog retires.  She will enjoy that. They are ready to be dogs again after 8 years of work.

While they work they have 1 day off a week when they are allowed to just ‘be’,  just ‘do’ what dogs do.  Run, play, sniff and roll in un-believably horrid smells! Do any of you have a dog who’s a ‘roller’? Yes? You know then!  Now she can have a ‘free’ run every day – her reward for years of behaving and being responsible.  Fortunately as I’m prepared to walk her every day (and you know how much I’m looking forward to that! Not.) she can stay with us so my sister doesn’t have to say farewell.

My sister had a trial run with new dog and thought the going was fast but I suspect the real pace will be faster!!  This dog is 20 months old the old dog is 10yrs and has been slowing down for a year or so now.  Advised my sister to get on my step machine- start training!

This week has been all about getting life straight in time for the end of the month and March when training begins.  It will be a difficult time for my sister and the dogs so I have been clearing the decks as fast as I can.  A dump of snow isn’t helping but there you go. It will be so good to have this new dog, the old one was beginning to get unreliable and I worry enough at my sister going out there as it is! Old worry-guts that’s me.  I would never try to stop her but. . .  when she’s not back in the time I expect I begin to imagine – then I find she’s been gossiping in the village! well!:)

My goals now have become more fluid down to ‘’What I can’ for the rest of the round.

This week:

1)     Blue Moon goes well have managed a healthy 4000 – had a complete rethink on the problem of the body disposal and come up with a pretty satisfactory solution – it does mean that at least 3 scenes have to be changed – not doing that till editing time – have just noted where. I think I will still make NaNaEdMo in March.

2)     Managed 3 blogs this week including this one,  part 1 of Childhood Gardens and a book reveiw.  Not perfect but okay

3)     Have stopped The Ancestors Tale until next round because of new dog- that’s fine will start again in May after the A-Z

4)     Almost finished Ellen’s Tale trailer, just fiddling with music now.

5)     Almost finished the new website.

6)     Finished a short story -ready for friend from forever/editor.

7)     Made more progress clearing mail box – but really this automatic organizer Yahoo has is hopeless!

8)     Have organized my Goodreads page merging ordinary page with Author page – still can’t figure how I get a ‘fan’ button on the page – have sent out help messages to all and sundry – anyone here know how?

I also had a return visit from Terri Morgan on the Red Carpet  which was great.

Next Week

Maybe uplift new web site – fingers crossed – this is the difficult bit

Finish trailer – fingers crossed

Find my ‘fan’ button

Start the A-Z blogs (have at last decided what to do!)

More Blue Moon (body disposal!)

Two more book reviews

How did everyone else do – satisfactorily I hope – all the best for the coming week

Terri Morgan

author of

Playing the Genetic Lottery

Terri Morgan is a freelance journalist who’s work has appeared in dozens of different magazines and newspapers. She is the author of four sports biographies for young adults, and the co-author of two others. She is the co-author of two books on photography: Photography, Take Your Best Shot, and Capturing Childhood Memories, The Complete Photography Guide for Parents. Playing the Genetic Lottery is her first novel. She lives in Soquel, California.

Guest Post

When people first discover my novel, Playing the Genetic Lottery, is about a 32-year-old wife and mother who grew up with two schizophrenic parents, one of the first questions they have for me “is this autobiographical?” The answer is no.

I’m much older than Caitlin, my protagonist, I don’t have any children, and both my parents were quite sane when I was growing up. In fact, my mother still is the picture of mental health, while my father is deceased. The next question is generally “How did you come to write about schizophrenia?” That answer takes a little longer to share.

I’ve always been fascinated with people, human behavior, and trying to figure out what makes people behave the way they do. One day my friend Kathy, who is also fascinated with the same thing, called to tell me about a woman she’d met. The woman, who was the oldest of seven children essentially raised her six younger siblings because both their parents had schizophrenia. Knowing that I’d written 8 non-fiction books during my career as a freelance journalist, Kathy suggested I work with this woman on a book. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head. Even though I hadn’t written anything but non-fiction for the past three decades I said “no, I want to write a novel.”

The words came out of my mouth before I even realized what I was saying. But once they were out I was obsessed with the idea. I started reading everything I could get my hands on about schizophrenia, and had lots of conversations with friends who had schizophrenic relatives. The one person I didn’t talk to, however, was Kathy’s friend. I was so worried about inadvertently stealing her story that I wouldn’t even let Kathy tell me her name. Once I had enough material I sat down and started creating Caitlin and her world.

 The book seemed to have a mind of its own. I had a general idea of the story I wanted to tell when I started, but the novel kept evolving as I finished more and more chapters.

 The topic of schizophrenia wasn’t completely new to me; as a journalist I had encountered a number of mentally ill people while covering the courts and crime beat, and writing general news stories about the homeless in our community. I have also known several people who are schizophrenic, and, being interested in human psychology, had done a little research over the years just to satisfy my own curiosity. But working on the novel taught me so much more about the disease and the impact it has on families. It also reinforced the fact people who are unfortunate enough to develop this devastating mental illness are individuals, people who have families and friends who love them, and should be respected like all the other people we share this planet with.

Terri Morgem -Author of Playing the Genetic Lottery.Read excerpts from my novel at www.terrimorgan.net. Now available as an ebook at smashwords  www.smashwords.com/books/view/104186 and at amazon

Excerpt from Playing the Genetic Lottery

Caitlin Kane knows more about the impact of schizophrenia than most people could imagine. Both her parents were afflicted with the devastating mental illness, a disease that tends to run in families, and Caitlin and her brother grew up trying to navigate the chaos of living with two schizophrenics. Her  tumultuous childhood left Caitlin determined to forge a peaceful and serene life for herself. Now 32, she is living her dream. Married to her best friend, she and her husband are raising two bright young children in the suburbs of Seattle. While her unusual upbringing has left Caitlin with emotional scars, she enjoys the love and support of her extended family and her challenging career as a pediatric nurse. But no matter how hard she tries, she can’t shake the obsessive fear that the family illness will strike again, robbing her of her mind or stealing away the sanity of one or both of her children.

Chapter Five

             School started up again, and Jon and I were at our third elementary school. I was in second grade, and Jon was in fifth. A month or so after classes started, Dad stopped going to work at the hardware store again and started spending more and more time pacing through the apartment, talking to someone neither Jon nor I could see or hear. The discussions grew more heated as the days passed, and Dad would frighten us as he argued with his demons, repeatedly, and loudly, insisting that they leave him alone.

Mom, on the other hand, was actually doing pretty well. Her doctor had her on a new medication, and although it made her gain some weight, it seemed to leave her healthier than she’d been for a long time. She was painting steadily, and she started picking up dinner shifts at a Mexican restaurant nearby. She was bringing home money again, along with left over chips and burritos that Jon and I would take to school for lunch.

Mom was at work, and Jon and I were in our bedroom, trying to do homework while Dad was stomping around the apartment yelling that we had to hide. Suddenly, the door to our bedroom was thrown open, and Dad barged in. “Come on,” he shouted. “Come quick.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me off my bed, my schoolbook and papers flying off my lap. “We have to get out of here. They’re after us.”

Jon’s eyes widened.  “Dad, calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” Dad shouted. “This is an emergency. We have to get out of here. NOW!”

Dad was dragging me out of the room. My feet went out from under me, and I slid on my side as he pulled me towards the living room.

“Help me Jon,” I screamed. Jon rushed over and tried to knock Dad’s arm away from me to loosen his grip on my forearm. Dad lashed out with his other arm and knocked Jon away. Jon’s legs went out from under him, and he crashed onto the floor. By the time Jon got back on his feet, Dad and I were out the front door. Jon ran after us.

“Get in, get in,” Dad screamed as he pulled me to the car. I was screaming too, and Jon was yelling “Stop it,” at the top of his lungs. “Both of you get in. They’re coming to get us. We have to get out of here now.”

Jon could have made a run for it while Dad was struggling to shove me into the back seat. I would have, if I had been him. I would have run as fast and as far as I could have from Dad’s maniacal delusions. But my loyal, protective, older brother didn’t abandon me. He climbed in the back seat behind me and pulled me close.

Dad fired up the engine and peeled out of the parking lot in reverse. The tires shrieked as he slammed the car into drive while we were still backing onto the road. He floored the gas pedal, and we took off.

“They’re after us, Jon, they’re after us. You have to help us get away.”

Jon must have realized arguing with Dad was futile, so he took the only other option available, and pretended to cooperate. “OK Dad. What do you need me to do?”

“Keep a look out the back window. See if you can spot ‘em while I try to lose ‘em.”

“OK Dad.”

Jon turned and knelt on the back seat, peering over the back dash and out the rear window. “I think it’s clear Dad. There’s no one behind us.”

“They’re too crafty, son. They’re still there. Keep looking.”

I strapped on my seat belt, certain we were going to crash and gripped the armrest on my left hand. I was still crying, but more quietly now, more confident that Jon would be able to reach Dad and get us out of this nightmare. That confidence began leaking away as Dad sped up, blasted through stoplights, took turns without slowing down, while continuing to rant that “They’re after us, they’re trying to catch us.” Jon was gripping the back of the seat, but was unable to hold on when Dad abruptly turned to the left. He fell towards me and landed partially sprawled on my lap. We both yelped in pain, loudly.

The noise distracted Dad for a moment. He looked into the rear-view mirror and began yelling again when he realized Jon wasn’t in position to watch for our tail. “Get back up there, son. You can’t quit. They’ll get us if you do.”

Dad turned his head to see if Jon was complying, and the car began veering to the right. We screamed. “Watch the road,” Jon shouted.

Dad turned his head back and jerked the steering wheel to the left. We were inches away from sideswiping a minivan. Then suddenly we were racing into oncoming traffic. “Look out,” Jon screamed again, as horns blared. The other driver swerved in time, somehow, missing us by inches. Dad corrected and swerved back into his lane. Jon slide down onto the seat beside me and belted himself in.

Flashing blue and red lights filled the car. “Oh shit,” said Dad. “It’s a trick. They’ve got the cops in on it now, too.”

“No Dad,” Jon said. “I can hear them on my radio. They’re here to help us. Pull over.”

“It’s a trick,” Dad repeated and sped up again. “I’ll lose them at the light.”

He raced towards the intersection, where the traffic light signaled red. “They think I’m going to stop,” Dad said and started to laugh. “I’ll show them.”

The last thing I remember was Jon screaming “NOOO.”

Thank you so much for your visit Terri – if anyone missed Terri’s interview she can be found on the last Red Carpet Day

Well have mentioned on the ROW80 page that it looks as if after months of anticipation my sister will be having a new guide dog before Easter.  They will meet tomorrow (Monday) just to check that they click and then four weeks later they will begin training together.

I have posted to kiss a frog about guide dogs in our life but suffice to say here, that I know the training and first few months after will need us to reorganize our nice comfy lives quite a great deal.  Training is very hard work and my sister is my older sister:) then there is the all important bonding and trust issues so I am now having to rethink my goals – but hey the news is so exciting it doesn’t worry me.

I pushed myself ruthlessly last year because we just didn’t know when this dog would come, now we know. I have a month to push ruthlessly and then slooooow way down.

My sister and I live very harmoniously because

1) We like our own company and that of books so we are usually in different rooms.

2) she likes doing things such as :     Washing up/ironing (you really don’t want to watch someone who’s completely blind iron not unless you have nerves of steel!!!!! Scares our fiends rigid) -  Shopping – Washing and hanging up the clothes.  All things I hate doing!! and no you cannot borrow her she’s my secret weapon:)

I like cooking, she doesn’t,  I am happy to keep an eye on our necessaries such as finance, nutrition etc which she isn’t -Drive the car which I enjoy, she can’t:) -And as she can’t see, my lack of zeal in the housework dept goes un-noticed – yay.

During this period I will no longer have the hours at my disposal that I usually have because she will be too busy/worn out to do her normal tasks. Who will do them? Moi.  Gladly.

I still wish to do everything on my original list for the year I just don’t know if the timetable I have mapped out for this end of the year will work – so goals remain overall and the Round 1  goals just what can be done around the more important things in life. So maybe it is time to join that Life Goal thingy that I have read about – new Goals next week?  One goal (my least fav!) that remains intact andwill be enhanced is exercise – from next week I will have to start walking the to be retired dog every day.

We are excited happy and my sister is nervous and stressed as well.  So please fingers crossed everyone for her and the new dog on Monday.

ROW80 this round:   I am ahead on Blue Moon so will make a great push in Feb on that one, ready for the NaEdNoMo in March (might not be a winner this year, but will get some done)

The Ancestor’s Tale may well have to wait ‘till May now to begin in earnest

I think my blogging goals will be ok as they are written in short bursts

and the book trailers can be fiddled with in between times.

This week:  I stopped Blue Moon word count  at 4,000 , when we heard the news, because I had to get garden and house ready for lively 18mth black Lab !!  (That involved turning part of it into a ‘spending’ pen for it – I needed to dig out and move a couple of very heavy pots 3x3x3 ft not far fortunately, I was exhausted after I had done it!! Getting too old for this lark.  Have had to clip back (with apologies to wildlife who were expecting at least another couple of months of unclipped plants!) and sweep up last of leaves blown around by the many storms we have had this winter.  For a sluggard I was extraordinarily active the last few days! So exercise goals have been met as well. – Roll on Tuesday when we can relax for a month!)

I have hosted two guest authors on the Red Carpet spotlighting their books. Rebecca Emin with New Beginnings and Terri Morgen with Playing the Genetic Lottery

I have put up a review of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet and a piece about guide dogs – blogging goals almost met.

Have had a tremendous clear out of my mail box reduced the backlog to a mere 100 (it was 2000!) And have discovered as I mentioned some wrongly filed mail (it’s an automatic organizer!) and on searching my sent  e-mails and these misplaced emails have discovered that some of those who should have had prizes last year didn’t get them (I think) so have sent new vouchers and apologies out to them  - cringe, grovel, cringe. Memo do not let mail swamp me.

I hit a block on Twitter when I tried to follow – apparently there was too much diff. among followed and follower so have been through all those I follow and found those who are vanished (never posting) those who seem to be very self opinionated and never mention anyone except themselves; eliminated them (so hard) and have been allowed to follow again whew!

With the movie making software I treated myself to I am moving Sefuty Chronicles over – it’s the same pics and music as on Movie Maker but the transitions and timing  better and easier– have been in photo editing (which I’m not good at) to try and turn pics for Ellen’s Tale trailer into something more like I imagine.

Next week apart from beginning to walk dog (wean her away from my sister and prepare her for retirement) a couple of days.  I hope to do more of the usual.

1) Head down fingers flying more on Blue Moons – so near the end now.

2)  Blogs Terri Morgan is returning with a guest post last day of the month.  Will put up a couple more blogs.

3) Try and understand Tibbre and  tweet repeat software.

4) Get mail box down to minimal levels

I hope everyone is well and happy /content/ satisfied and all the best for the coming week

RED CARPET DAY

TERRI MORGAN

PLAYING THE GENETIC LOTTERY

Caitlin Kane knows more about the impact of schizophrenia than most people could imagine. Both her parents were afflicted with the devastating mental illness, a disease that tends to run in families, and Caitlin and her brother grew up trying to navigate the chaos of living with two schizophrenics. Her  tumultuous childhood left Caitlin determined to forge a peaceful and serene life for herself. Now 32, she is living her dream. Married to her best friend, she and her husband are raising two bright young children in the suburbs of Seattle. While her unusual upbringing has left Caitlin with emotional scars, she enjoys the love and support of her extended family and her challenging career as a pediatric nurse. But no matter how hard she tries, she can’t shake the obsessive fear that the family illness will strike again, robbing her of her mind or stealing away the sanity of one or both of her children.

EXCERPT

Prologue

             Every morning when I first wake up I wonder and I worry. Before getting out of bed, before registering my full, aching bladder, before remembering what day it is and what responsibilities await — I assess myself for signs of the disease. I roll my eyes around the room, looking for phantoms that may have appeared while I was sleeping. For odd, moving sights, like my dresser transformed into a rolling automobile or roaring lion. To make sure that the clock radio on my nightstand or the framed photos on the bookshelves haven’t cloned themselves overnight and morphed into twins or even triplets.

Then I listen carefully. I hear Jason snoring lightly beside me. I hear the ticking of the living room clock. I hear the jangle of Rosco’s tags as he rolls over on his bed in the corner of our room. I hold my breath and listen for mysterious voices or alien noises. Then, once I’m sure I’m not hearing any unusual, strange sounds, I ask myself—silently so not to wake my sleeping husband—-a series of questions.

Who am I? What’s my address? Where do I work? How old are my children? What’s my husband’s name? Who’s the president? Only after the correct responses to the first five pop into my mind, and I chuckle to myself after answering “Calvin Coolidge” to the sixth question because I know good and well that Barack Obama currently resides in the White House, do I know I’m safe for another day. If I still have my sense of humor, and apparently my faculties, I’ve still escaped it.

Escaped the mental illness that afflicted and consumed my mother, my father and my brother. Escaped the schizophrenia that robbed them of their minds and me of a childhood.

I know that at 32 my chances of developing schizophrenia are miniscule and keep shrinking with every passing month. Despite that, I’m still obsessively terrified of developing the devastating mental illness that was an ever-present part of my formative years. It’s shaped who I’ve become, and I’ve worked for more than half my life to recover from its impact. My father, mother and brother all lost the genetic lottery, and their misfortune continues to ripple through my life even today.

My name, at least the name I go by now, is Caitlin. That’s the name I chose for myself 18 years ago when I fled my childhood home of horrors. I cast off the name on my birth certificate for the new one in hopes of casting off the madness that was my family.

INTERVIEW WITH TERRI MORGAN

Alberta:   Terri you have written 8 non fiction books yet you chose to tackle this subject as a novel saying you immediately wanted to write the story as fiction.  Since you have done so, do you believe that this form has any advantage in the way of message/information/ or instigating discussion/understanding than straight forward reporting?

Terri:      In this case, definitely! Writing fiction allowed me to pick and choose what  scenarios to include to move the story along and reveal information about mental illness and the impact it has on families. It also allowed me to create the characters that helped Caitlin learn, grow and cope, and to take the readers into her head and understand how she was feeling.

Alberta:    You are a writer of great experience.  Has this transition been more or less difficult than you originally thought?

Terri:      The transition was surprisingly easy. I was expecting it to be a lot more challenging. I did have a little problem, at first, because I wanted to include quite a bit of factual information about schizophrenia before each chapter. Once I realized that it wasn’t wise to try to combine fact and fiction, I didn’t have any problem making the switch to fiction.

Alberta:      You say that you had for your own interest researched mental health problems in the past and that you were able to talk to friends who had had experience of this condition.  Did you find when you came to write the book that you had to research deeper and/or wider than you had already?

Terri:     Yes I did. I actually did quite a bit of research on schizophrenia once I decided to write the novel. I had a vague idea of how I wanted to book to turn out when I started, but found as I began writing the story took on a life of its own. So with some of the chapters I had to do additional research, whether it was on anger management classes, sailing, or the requirements to get a Red Cross babysitting certificate, to make the story realistic.

Alberta:      It reads so well as Caitlin’s autobiography that I suspect, whatever you say, many readers will think it is your life story! How easy was it to find Caitlins ‘voice’?

Terri:    I can’t tell you how many people have asked me if the novel is autobiographical, but it isn’t in any way shape or form. I didn’t have much trouble finding Caitlin’s voice, because I have a very good memory of what it was like to be a kid, a teenager, and a young adult. I had a good idea from the start of what kind of personality Caitlin would have, and that also helped me shape her thoughts, reactions, and voice. For me, it was a lot of fun to change Caitlin’s voice as she aged and matured.

Alberta:      Cailtin enjoys her moments of structured ‘normality’ i.e. school, hospital, grandfathers house.  One’s instinctive reaction is to want her removed from the ‘bizarre and hazardous’, to place her in the ‘normal’. After your research how do you feel about the children’s position should the state intervene more?

Terri:     That’s a very good question Alberta, and one I’ve been struggling with since I started writing the novel. A parent-child bond is tremendously strong, and Caitlin clearly loved and continues to love her parents, despite everything. And her parents not only loved their children, but resisted any suggestions that Caitlin and her brother would be better off with either of their grandparents. I just don’t know, so I’m going to take the easy way out and say each situation should be examined on a case-by-case basis.

Alberta:    Now you have dipped a toe into fiction do you have plans to write more novels?

Terri:    I’d love to, but unfortunately it’s really hard to make money writing novels. I’m going to have to concentrate on non-fiction for a while. But I do have a couple of ideas percolating through my brain.

Alberta:     Finally, your readership. Who have you written this novel for? Do you have a main readership in mind?

Terri: I did have two specific audiences in mind when I wrote this book; people who have a family member or close friend with schizophrenia, and book club readers. In the case of the former, I wanted the novel to validate some of their experiences, and to educate people about how the disease affects families. I also had book club readers in mind because I think the novel brings up a number of questions that could generate great discussions.

Alberta:  Thank you very much for joining us and sharing so much of your work.  I am sure we all wish you all the best with Playing the Genetic Lottery.

Terri: It’s been my pleasure. Thank you for including me on the Red Carpet.

Terri Morgan is a freelance journalist who’s work has appeared in dozens of different magazines and newspapers. She is the author of four sports biographies for young adults, and the co-author of two others. She is the co-author of two books on photography: Photography, Take Your Best Shot, and Capturing Childhood Memories, The Complete Photography Guide for Parents. Playing the Genetic Lottery is her first novel. She lives in Soquel, California.

Author of Playing the Genetic Lottery. Read excerpts from my novel at www.terrimorgan.net. Now available as an ebook at smashwords  www.smashwords.com/books/view/104186 and at amazon

Terri will be a guest here again at the beginning of next week with another excerpt and a guest blog.