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Published on 4 Comments on Book Cover Art: It’s A Process

I'm getting close to hitting the Publish button on the first book in my YA trilogy. Yes, I realize it's been in the works forever. I completely understand if you consider this the writer version of crying 'wolf'.

However.

Of the four of us in my critique group, three have committed to publishing our books before the end of this summer. The fourth writer, Rachel Knox, has already pushed Publish and is far ahead of us. If you enjoy reading fantasy, check out her books!

Jim and Dan, the other two in the group, have already chosen their cover art. As usual, I am bringing up the rear. Here's where you come in. I've narrowed my search to two designs. I'd like to hear what you think about them.

Once I decide on a design, I'll contract with a cover artist to create the various cover art graphics I'll need in different aspect ratios for e-book, paperback, audio book, thumbnail, etc. Those of you who know me know I am always sorely tempted to DIY stuff. But I learned the hard way that unless you have some graphic design or other similar art skills, which I most certainly do not, if you DIY your cover, it runs the risk of looking like garbage.

These books are a young adult, or YA, trilogy in the action genre. There is no romance subplot. Think young, nerdy Mod Squad. Three teens getting into all sorts of hijinx as they take on some bad guys. So I will need something that lends itself to a series of books, and not just a standalone. The main character is a guy, but an important secondary character is female.

I found this art on Canva and played around with it to add the title info. You may notice the Canva watermark. If I purchase this option, that will go away.

I really love the colors and the splashy, chaotic vibe. But I am not sure if similar art is available for books two and three. And my friend Dan pointed out that without any specific images to communicate what the book is about, the title suggests romance. He's not wrong.

Here's the second image I am considering. I found a group of images on the iStock website that are inspired by the propaganda style of the Cold War era. When I saw the fork, I took that as a sign, since food plays an important role in the plot.

I don't think I'm quite there yet with the font. But I love what I consider the strong action vibe. No mistaking this for a romance. And there are several other similar images available in the same style that I could use for the other two books in the trilogy.

What do you think? Feel free to drop comments, or even some pix of great cover art, in the comments. Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it!

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  • I have several pins of propaganda-style art on my Pinterest board. But this is the one that really grabbed me. It's from an old Taco Bell ad campaign.
  • I must admit I'm addicted to any articles regarding cover art that float my way. Some, especially those from the rarified air of Literature with a capital L, take my breath away.

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Published on Leave a comment on Women Wearing the Pants

I felt I owed it to my Olson forbears to watch the Vikings: Valhalla series on Netflix. It's quite entertaining. There's something for everyone. Blood and guts. Sweaty hot bodies. Cool ships. And facial hair that would put ZZ Top to shame.

Freydis is a force to be reckoned with

The series takes place about a thousand years ago, and boy, does it show. My Viking ancestors live up to their barbaric reputation. Let's just say if you're at a shindig where pretty much everyone is carrying an axe, and a dude rolls in a big wooden chopping block, it's probably time to ghost.

But in other aspects, ancient Scandinavian culture was downright civilized. Take gender equality, for example. Some women were allowed to own property. Some held positions of political power. And we all know about shield maidens and Valkyries.

Here we are a thousand years on, and there's still plenty of cultures where women can't own property, or drive a car. But it's the aspect of military service that really captured my attention. In the Netflix series, both this one and its predecessor, women were often allowed to join the menfolk on the battlefield. In real life, not so much.

So when I unearthed a link to an article about the estimated 400 women who fought in the American Civil War - 900 YEARS LATER - only got away with it because they were disguised as men, that got me thinking. If there were 400 that we know of in that war alone, there had to be more, right?

Of course there were! Throughout the ages. Lots of different times and places.

They tended to fall into a couple of different categories. One I'll call 'Til Death Do Us Part. When their man got called up, they insisted on tagging right along with him. But instead of joining in a more traditional female role as a cook or laundress for their husband's fighting unit, they opted to masquerade as men.

Frances Clayton aka Jack Williams and her husband apparently had one of those marriages that they did everything together. When I say they fought a lot, I don't mean bickering about leaving the toilet seat up. They served during the American Civil War in the Union Army together for nearly two years, until hubby got shot during the Battle of Stones River and died right next to her.

The 'stache just sells it

Loreta Janeta Velaquez really gives off a spoiled brat, Scarlett O'Hara vibe. The whole time I was reading about her, I got the feeling she thought of the entire escapade as a lark - especially when I learned her hero was Joan of Arc. When her husband joined the Confederate cause, she insisted on accompanying him. He refused, of course. So she waited until after he left, then purchased a custom fit uniform and fake facial hair and traveled to Florida as 'Lieutenant Harry T. Buford' looking for him. Her husband was stunned when she showed up. But because she showed up with a regiment of over two hundred volunteers, that somewhat ameliorated his dismay. Cue the happy ending - except the husband died soon after.

Hannah Snell @ The Trustees of the British Museum

Hannah Snell aka James Gray had a little bit different motivation than being separated from her true love. Soon after their daughter was born, her no-good husband dumped her and joined the British military. I guess he figured that's one place she wouldn't come looking for him. He was wrong. Sadly, their daughter didn't survive very long. After she died, Hannah enlisted in the British Army, bent on tracking him down. I don't know about you, but I have zero trouble imagining her towering inferno of rage at this point. When she had a close call being discovered, she switched gears and joined the British Marines instead. She saw plenty of military action, as far away as India, where she got shot multiple times in the lower body. Legend has it that rather than risk having a doctor discover her true gender, she opted to dig the bullet out of her groin area herself. Hannah retired from the military in 1750 after she discovered her ex was literally an ex, having been executed after being convicted of murder. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Not every impersonator was chasing her man. Revolutionary War hero Deborah Sampson fought against the British as 'Robert Shurtleff' for nearly two years before being discovered. Her sole motivation appears to be patriotism, pure and simple.

Some, like Sarah Edmonds and Oronata Rondiani, sorta fell into it. They dressed as men to aid in escaping an unfortunate situation (for Sarah, an arranged marriage; for Oronata, forced to go on the lam for murdering her attacker during a rape), and found their disguise offered many unanticipated benefits. For Margaret Ann Bulkley, dressing as a man may have been the only way she could achieve her dream of becoming a physician. Their new identities led them to stints in the military. Edmonds eventually married, one hopes with a more palatable match, and had a family. Rondiani died in combat; Bulkley spent the rest of her life as Dr. James Barry, a career military surgeon.

Cathay Williams

Former slave Cathay Williams doesn't really fit into either of my two categories. She may have been just an extraordinarily practical sort. She was initially impressed into service in the Union Army as cook/washerwoman. Something about military life must have appealed to her. After the Civil War ended, she enlisted as a man, William Cathay, and served a few more years. She is more famously known as the only female member of the Buffalo Soldiers.

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Anne Bonny

Not all of the hardy masquerade crew I discovered down this rabbit hole served in the military.

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Published on 6 Comments on It’s All About That Tea

When you've been married as long as I have (37 years next month, plus the 3 years we lived in sin prior to tying the knot) you know full well it becomes a challenge to find a unique and satisfactory gift for your significant other when Christmas rolls around. Props to my hubs for scoring major points this year. The surprise hit: a Twinings tea sampler. My Type A self is having a blast methodically working through all the various flavors.

I've been a tea drinker most of my adult life. Growing up in the South, it's part of your DNA. Especially when you grow up in a teetotaler household. There's a reason they call it that!

It's the iced version of tea that Southerners adore. And it's usually so sweet it'll make your teeth ache. My mom brewed a batch of iced tea just about every day. She had this one particular pan that was the only pan used for brewing tea. She brought water to a boil and dropped a couple of tea bags into the boiling water, then turned it off and let them steep while we were away all day at work or school. When we got home, she poured the tea into a two quart pitcher. The tea only filled maybe a third. The rest, she filled with tap water. And of course, at some point she added sugar. I remember one of the dead giveaways my dad was on yet another diet was if Mom intentionally left the sugar out of the tea.

Sounds simple, but try making consistently good iced tea day after day for thirty years, then get back to me. Anyone who's had that gawdawful powder mix 'tea' out of a garish school-bus-yellow tureen at a chain restaurant knows why this is an important skill set.

Somewhere along the way I made the transition from sweet tea, to pink packet tea, to unsweet (with lemon!), and have never looked back. But that's a story for another day. Today, I want to focus on the other kind of tea: the hot stuff.

Photo by Alice Pasqual on Unsplash

For whatever reason, I just never did get on board with drinking coffee. My mom never drank it because she didn't want to stain her teeth. Because of course tea wouldn't stain your teeth . . . Dad drank a cup or two in the morning, but never obsessed over it, and I don't recall him ever drinking it on the weekends. It just wasn't a thing at our house. When I finally got around to having a cup, it was kinda like my first time trying booze: Yuck! How did this stuff ever get so popular? It's like vanilla. How can something that smells so great taste so gross? Unlike booze, my opinion on coffee has remained unchanged.

The only time I recall enjoying a cup of coffee was at a great ski lodge after a fabulous fun day on the slopes. The coffee was doctored up with Kahlua, or maybe Amaretto, and a mountain of whipped cream. That I could stomach. But between the atmosphere and the calories, just not sustainable.

If you don't drink coffee, that leaves your choice of hot morning beverage somewhat restricted. Hence the tea. I used to just heat up a cup of iced tea, like a savage. Then I progressed to dunking a tea bag into some hot water (didn't even have to be boiling). I'm ashamed to admit that actually passed for 'brewing tea' in my youth. And yes, I was that girl walking around with a tea bag dangling out of my cup. Mea culpa.

But something happened along the way. I have a sort of ADD, 'ooh, shiny' thing going on. I'm a sampler. I love to try new things and learn all about them. Get into the weeds. Down the rabbit hole. Years ago, it was about wine. I wanted to go all Sideways, but I just didn't have the nose for it. Then when the craft beer craze came along, yep, I am that girl who loved perusing the menu at my favorite watering hole to see what crazy new concoction was on tap. Those hobbies went by the wayside when I gave up booze.

One day as I was watching Jean Luc Picard order an "Earl Grey, hot", I decided right then and there I needed to branch out from the generic store brand bulk tea bags and see what else was on offer in the wide world of tea.

People, I have barely begun to scratch the surface.

Sure, we did the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. But you know I had to pop in to a tea shop, too.

There are so many options! You've got the bagged and the loose. Caff and decaf. The black and the green and the white. The oolong and the assam and the lapsang souchong. The chai. The matcha. The big name producers and the mom-and-pop artisinals. And that doesn't even begin to touch the teas that are made from something other than the camellia sinensis plant. It's glorious.

It's also easy to get overwhelmed. I've come up with a system. I have a specific tea assigned for each morning of the week. Then I hold a tasting competition; a Tea Olympics, if you will. I sample various teas. On whims, on recommendations, on throwing a dart. No Tea Day is guaranteed. Any tea can lose their spot at any time. If I find a tea that I love love LOVE more than one of those on my schedule, the gold medal winner gets the spot, and the silver/bronze/loser is relegated to the Wild West of my afternoon rotation, where anything goes.

My daily morning menu:

  • Monday: Earl Grey (EG is sorta grandfathered/Picarded in)
  • Tuesday: Darjeeling (a relative newcomer)
  • Wednesday: Ceylon Orange Pekoe (recently ousted H-E-B's Chocolate Rooibos)
  • Thursday: Yorkshire Gold (I learned of this winner via Jane Friedman's blog - see below)
  • Friday: Assam (I don't remember where I heard about assam, but it is AMAZING)
  • Saturday: Yerba Mate, but it's definitely on the bubble
  • Sunday: a Free Day so I can keep trying new flavors

As you can see, I'm up to my eyeballs in tea. I drink it pretty much all day long. And yes, I intersperse with plain old H2O, in case you are worried about my hydration status. I would love to hear your recommendations. Competition helps keep these teas on their tea toes, so to speak. Any and all newcomers welcome. Let's hear those recs!

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No affiliate links here. Just stuff I've enjoyed learning about.

  • Camellia sinensis is the scientific name of the plant most teas are made from. And yes, it is related to the camellia plant we think of mainly for its flowers. The Camellia part is meant to honor a botanist by the name of Kamel; and the sinensis indicates it is from what is now China. You can make tea out of just about any plant, though. And you can use the other parts of the plant, not just the leaves. As an experiment a few years ago, I let the Texas dandelions grow wild in my back yard. I harvested them for salad, and brewed up a little tea with them as well. It wasn't terrible. But way too much work and too unsightly. The dandlions are now relegated to the back back yard. And no, that is not a typo. We have the back yard, the part inside the fence. Then we have the back back yard, which stretches from the back fence to the river. We let that grow wild until early summer to nourish the pollinators. Then the hubs mows it until winter arrives. But I digress.
  • I mentioned I learned about Yorkshire Gold via Jane Friedman's blog, which is kinda weird, because Jane's blog is first and foremost about writing. But recently she has started polling her followers about all kinds of interesting topics. Here's the full article with lots of other tea recs. This is probably where I heard about assam, and I have tried a couple of the Harney's here also. How could I resist a tea named Victorian London Fog?
  • There are so many wonderful craft/artisinal tea companies out there. I really enjoyed sampling the teas from August Uncommon, especially their Silencio. My writer friend Dan alerted me to a shop he recommends in Pittsburgh called Prestogeorge. They are known for their coffee, but they have tea also. Haven't had a chance to try them yet. Stay tuned!

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Published on 3 Comments on You, Too, Can Be The Steph Curry of Writing

I was watching a Warriors NBA game recently. You probably know the one.

I freely admit I'm usually not a big NBA fan. I prefer watching the highlights rather than the entire game. But the hubs and I had been watching the Warriors recently because Steph Curry was getting close to breaking the 3 point record and we both thought it would be kinda cool to celebrate that with him from afar. We lived in the Charlotte area when he was playing for Davidson and got drafted into the pros, so we had been aware of him and his career for a while. And I mean, even if you're not a basketball fan, how can you not enjoy watching someone who is clearly not of this earth show us mere mortals what it's like to be superhuman?

Couple things I love about this half-dozen seconds of sports history. I love that he hit the shot, then kept moving (running backwards, no less) to the other end of the court like hey we gotta game to play, let's get back on defense, NBD. I love that he made the record-breaker in front of the Knicks home crowd. I didn't realize the Knicks had the pick right after the Warriors when they drafted Curry, and he wanted to play for the Knicks, and they apparently couldn't be bothered to trade up for him. As Doc Holliday says in the Tombstone movie, that's a 'reckoning'.

After Curry made his shot (from somewhere out in the parking lot as per usual), Under Armour ran a very profound tribute to their star. Here's the link to the full spot. I bring it up here for a very specific point (har, har) Curry makes:

To know what a perfect shot feels like . . . you have to earn that. The real work is what people don't see. Hours and hours of reps. Perfecting that craft.

Sure, he's talking about basketball. But it hit me that this philosophy, this grit, applies to anything. Specifically, it made me think of my fellow writers. My critique group. The gang who shows up for Anne Hawley's daily writing sprint Zooms. The writers who wake up at 5 a.m. to squeeze in a half hour of writing because they have kids and a day job and that's the only time they can do it. The writers who keep at it, drafting and editing and submitting because they absolutely, positively, will not give up.

I salute you, my friends. Hang in there. Perfect your craft. I look forward to the day when I celebrate your writing successes, just as I celebrated Mr. Curry's.

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Curry's achievement really got me thinking about the nature of excellence.

  • Secretariat wins the 1973 Belmont, and with it, the Triple Crown, by absolutely DEMOLISHING the small field of only four other competitors, winning by more than 30 lengths. I love that the camera has to keep backing up because the lead grows so big, they can't keep both Big Red and his closest competitors in the frame.

And in case you're thinking running races for a living doesn't take that much extra effort if you're a horse, WRONG. Racehorses spend the the latter two of their first three years training daily, usually from 6-10am. Daily, people. They have to learn other stuff besides how to run fast. The equipment, the jockey, the starting gates, the crowd noise, the other horses, which leg to lead with and when (yes, this is a thing). They work hard for their money.

  • Diana Nyad finally succeeded in her fifth attempt at swimming the 110 miles from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida. She was 64. I'll be 64 soon, and I consider it a win to make it from one end of the pool to the other.
  • I love this domino analogy. Stuff doesn't happen overnight. You gotta chip away at it. So many writer friends have done this without even realizing. Others know full well, and are doing a stellar job as a result.
  • I recently heard a snippet of this podcast and now can't wait to read Omar El Akkad. The piece on the new Kenny G doc was pretty good, too! But this quote from El Akkad really got me thinking. He was joking/not joking:

"The only reason I'm still in this racket is because other people drop out. It's not because I'm any good."

Writer friends: don't be a quitting quitter. Remain in the army of writers breathing down Omar El Akkad's neck. Work your buns off for that moment of 'overnight success'. You too, can be the Steph Curry/Secretariat/Diana Nyad of writing.

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Published on 6 Comments on Eat Like A President

If you were one of the most powerful leaders in the world, what would you eat? The answer is: whatever you want! Serving as President is a tough job, but it does have a few perks. At least you don't have to cook for yourself if you don't want to. Today’s White House staff includes chefs and cooks available pretty much around the clock. They can prepare a meal for just one person, or for hundreds.

Some have identified this pic as George Washington's slave and personal chef, Hercules. But recent research indicates this may not be the case.
Photo from UShistory.org

George Washington often served his guests peanut soup as a first course. He also loved vegetable soup and his wife Martha’s recipe for cream of crab soup.  The creator of some of these favorites may have been Washington's personal chef, an enslaved man called Hercules. Hercules served as chef for the duration of Washington's term. P.S. I've been watching a show on Netflix called High On The Hog about the origins of soul food. Episode 3 focuses on Hercules, if you would like to know more.

Thomas Jefferson also appeared to be obsessed with soup. When he lived in Paris as minister to France, he apprenticed one of his slaves to a French chef to help ensure some of that fabulous continental cooking made its way back to the USA.

Yes, some of our revered founding fathers owned slaves. There's nothing to be gained by ignoring the unsavory parts of our history.

But I digress.

On the other end of whipping-up-a-bowl-of-soup-for-a-guy spectrum, we have Feeding The Masses, aka The Inaugural Ball. In earlier times, the general public was often allowed to attend. At James Buchanan’s inauguration in 1857, more than 400 gallons of oysters were served, along with mutton, venison, tongue, ham, and 500 quarts of chicken salad. More than 12,000 people attended Benjamin Harrison’s inaugural ball. The menu included oysters served three different ways, terrapin (turtle), sweetbreads (beef or lamb thymus glands, usually fried), and breast of quail.

Impressive as these parties may be, most of a president’s meals are served to him alone or with just a few people. When a president first takes office, the kitchen staff wants to know right away what sorts of foods he would like to have on a daily basis. Many presidents enjoy foods from wherever they grew up. Theodore Roosevelt was from New York and loved fresh wild mint and other greens that grew there. He had some planted at the White House especially for his use. I don't know about you, but Teddy sure didn't seem like a veg guy to me.

Photo from Recipe Reminiscing

Now this is interesting from a human psychology point of view: during FDR's term, which was during the Great Depression, he and his wife Eleanor decided the White House staff should cook and eat the same types of meals the rest of the country was eating. Rationed foods, simple things, easy to prepare. Let's just set aside the irony that the Roosevelts were very upper crust and probably had never prepared a meal for themselves in their entire pampered lives. The new food strategy may have been great Depression-era optics, but according to many news accounts of the time, made for lousy eating. Roosevelt also caused a fuss when he served hot dogs to the King and Queen of England when they visited America in 1939. The public was shocked that he would serve such a common food to such distinguished guests, but he insisted they were a family favorite.  

Photo from the White House Historical Association

Dwight Eisenhower was one president who enjoyed cooking for himself. Eisenhower enjoyed hunting. He often made soups and stews from the birds he shot. He was known to barbecue on a patio above the South Portico of the White House. Seeing the smoke emanating from the roof of the White House definitely freaked out nearby residents who didn't realize Ike was grillin' like a villain.

The Kennedys had a reputation for enjoying the finer things in life. Their White House chef was French. I envision lots of dinners with three tiny, unidentifiable yet artistically displayed tidbits per plate. They say JFK also loved the thick seafood soup known as chowder. He probably pronounced it 'CHOW duh'.

I must say I enjoyed reading about the food kerfuffle in the Lyndon Baines Johnson era. A Native Texan, LBJ enjoyed simple foods such as burgers and barbecue. Food preference was just one of many areas in which Johnson and his predecessor JFK were diametrically opposed. Let's just say LBJ did not find amuse bouche all that amusing. So LBJ replaced the fancy-schmancy White House French chef with his family cook, Zephyr Wright. A great quote from the linked article: apparently Ms. Wright was such a great cook, her food "made you wish you had two stomachs".

Photo from the Reagan Library website

While researching this post I ran across a rumor that Richard Nixon ate cottage cheese with ketchup. Sweet Mother of Pearl this is too disgusting to even contemplate. Then again, it was Nixon . . .

Ronald Reagan loved macaroni and cheese and any dessert containing coconut. His wife, Nancy, wanted him to eat healthy meals. She told the kitchen staff what to cook for him. But when she was out of town, Reagan would ask the chefs for a nice juicy steak and a double helping of chocolate mousse. Reagan was also fond of jelly beans. He kept a jar of them on his desk in the Oval Office. It is estimated 40 million jelly beans were served during Reagan’s two inaugural parties in the 1980s.

Photo from New York Botanical Garden website

The Obama administration made healthy eating a big part of their message. Specifically, First Lady Michelle Obama spearheaded the Let's Move! program, aimed at combating the obesity epidemic. But I was gratified, and to be honest, not surprised, to learn that the Obamas are only human, and sometimes splurged with a burger and fries. Apparently they were also big fans of the White House chef's pies and red velvet cake.

Photo from . . . everywhere. Dude went viral with those guns.

There's not a tremendous amount of info out there yet about the food preferences of the current Biden administration. The vegetable garden is still going strong. Chef Andre Rush has buff biceps bigger around than my thigh. The President likes vanilla ice cream. The Diet Coke phone panic button, like Biden's predecessor, has been removed from the Oval Office. So far, I'm not hearing anything I don't like.

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Published on Leave a comment on Kitchen Gadgets, Power Tools, and Cooking With Tahini

I'm always on the lookout for new recipes that are simple, healthy, and tasty. It's harder than it sounds. Recipes tend to fall into the 'pick two' category. Simple and healthy, but taste like shoe leather. Healthy and tasty, but take three days and every gadget you own (and some you don't) to prepare them. Simple and tasty, but loaded with all the stuff you're trying to avoid. Yes, sugar, I am looking at you.

So when our local newspaper included a couple of potential candidates in their food section, I was game. Especially when I saw they both featured my old cooking nemesis: tahini. For some strange reason, I was feeling up for a challenge.

My beef with tahini has nothing to do with taste and everything to do with texture. It's one of those ingredients I use very rarely. That means it sits in the pantry for months, with nothing better to do than separate. It's like those fancy nut butters, the kind with all the oil sitting on the top; but orders of magnitude worse. Think a layer of oil over the top of a can of concrete. When it's time to use it, by the time I retrieve the drill and the paint stirrer attachment from the tool shed, I've usually lost the desire to futz around with the recipe.

Just kidding. I don't keep the drill in the shed. I keep it in the kitchen, in case of tahini emergency.

Just kidding again. I am able to mix the tahini together again by hand, but I have a Popeye arm when I'm done.

Now, you might be asking yourself: what in the name of Sweet Tap Dancing Lucifer is 'tahini'? Think peanut butter, but made with sesame seeds instead of peanuts. Looks very similar. Smells different, though. Milder. It's an ingredient found in lots of Asian cuisine. It's often found in hummus, and some noodle dishes like pad thai. It used to be a challenge to find it at the grocery store, but not anymore. Just look in the Asian foods aisle. And of course, there's always Amazon to the rescue if you strike out locally.

Once you get the tahini solids and liquids mixed together again, it's smooth sailing incorporating it into the recipe. Both of these are tasty. And they are probably perfect for those of you who have never cooked with or eaten tahini, and don't want to go too crazy with it until you know if you like it or not. Although the article leads with tahini in the title in huge block letters, the tahini plays a much smaller role in the recipes. Just a few ounces. It's in the dressing for both the baked sweet potatoes as well as the lentil bowls.

Click here for the two tahini recipes

This photo is from the newspaper article. I'm not the kind of cook who goes to the trouble of plating the food porn. But I will say both recipes were tasty. I love sweet potatoes and eat them in bowls at least a couple of times a week. And I have been meaning to switch from rice to lentils for my lunch bowls for some time now. This article was just the kick in the pants I needed. Both were very mild. When I make them again, I may add something to give them a little more zing, like my two favorites: sriracha and peri peri. But if you're not into spicy food, these recipes will be just fine for you as-is.

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Bruised banana by artist Anna Chojnicka
  • Speaking of art, there's a new book out about Texas artist Bob Daddy-O Wade. He's the guy behind the giant 40-ft. long iguana that used to perch atop the Lone Star Cafe in New York City.
  • The against-all-odds story of Dr. Kati Kariko, the scientist who lead the charge for using messenger RNA as a tool in vaccines, is very satisfying. A woman in a male-dominated profession, an immigrant escaping oppression in her home country, told many times her idea wouldn't get funded, etc. etc. Gotta love it.
  • Pretty sure vaccine stories are gonna be a thing now. Here's mine: I wasn't in any of the initial early groups eligible for the vaccine. And I'm not one who enjoys waiting. No one does, amirite? I was volunteering on a local phone bank to help folks get registered. But my number literally was not coming up. Then I heard from a dear friend that slots were available in her area. Their website was getting bombarded, but after about ten attempts, I was able to get it to load. One week and an easy 67 mile drive later, I had my first jab of Moderna. Three weeks later, second jab. No after-effects, other than my arm felt like someone punched me. I'm past my two week waiting period now, and let me tell ya, I'm walkin' on sunshine, people! Now, I want to hear yours. What's you're vaccine story? Drop it in the comments. Looking forward to congratulating you.

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Published on Leave a comment on A to Z Blog Challenge: 7 Lessons Learned

A version of this post originally appeared in 2016.

If your writer friends seem unusually giddy with the advent of May, they are probably participating in the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Like many marathon-ish activities, as they say in Texas: "it's like hitting yourself in the head with a hammer - it feels so good when it stops".

I've participated in the A to Z challenge a couple of times. Compared to other blog challenges I've done in the past, A to Z seemed like a lot more work. In the interest of working smarter, not harder, next time, here are a few things I learned.

  • Writing the posts is only half the time commitment battle. And this is probably why other challenges I've done seemed like a comparative breeze - I don't recall doing diddly-squat about interacting with other bloggers during that challenge. I published my posts and sat back and waited for the comments to flow in. Which of course sounded vaguely cricket-like. I achieved my goal of writing a post each day, which is obviously the main point of the exercise. But this time I had an aha! moment. Now I know more about Google rankings and engagement and all that stuff. I easily spent as much time per day viewing other blogs and commenting on most. So if you're thinking of doing a blog challenge in future, estimate the time it will require to write the posts, and double that to allow for engagement.
  • I am so thankful for blog designs that make it obvious where and how to leave a comment. If I haven't been able to figure it out within ten seconds or so after I've finished reading your post, I've probably forgotten what I was going to say anyway.
  • Ditto on those of you who make it easy for me to follow you on other social media like Facebook, Twitter, and so forth. I really want to support and follow as many as I can, but I just don't have time to go sifting through the site looking for it - if it's there at all.
  • Opting in to a challenge last-minute just makes more work for me. Kudos to those who had done this particular challenge before and had the foresight to plan a cohesive theme and even prepare some posts ahead of time. Maybe that will be me next time.
  • A great post does not necessarily mean a long post. Save your magnum opus for non-challenge posts. This helps the writer as well as the readers. If they're doing the challenge right, your deathless prose is probably not the only post they'll be reading today.
  • If the words 'random' and 'thoughts' appear together in the blog title or description, my expectations regarding quality of content are very low. I really appreciate the bloggers who have a clearly envisioned niche and stick to it. I know from personal experience how tempting is to work without a theme or niche and just write about whatever pops into your head. Having a niche or narrow focus may seem limiting. But sometimes the niche can help you find a path, rather than obstruct it. 
  • The A to Z Challenge website includes a link to a spreadsheet listing all participants. It really helps me visit as many blogs as possible in a brief amount of time. Before I figured this out, I was bouncing around reciprocating with those who visited my blog or who posted links on various Facebook groups related to the challenge. This worked okay, but in retrospect seems a little haphazard. Plus, I have a feeling those bloggers who cross-post are just the tip of the iceberg of participants.

Thanks to all the organizers and congrats to all the participants of the A to Z Challenge. I enjoyed discovering so many new blogs, including a few that appear to be of my tribe. I made great progress, not only on engagement, but in defining my blog niche and developing some best practices to keep it a productive part of my platform.

The cool letter collage is just one of many amazing things I stumbled across while visiting random blogs. The artist is Mark Kelly and his blog is here. Check out his alternate challenge survivor badge when you visit.

Click-O-Rama

It only seems fitting to feature blogs in this week's Click-O-Rama. Some of my favorites:

  • Author and historian Pamela Toler's blog, History in the Margins. Women's history, in particular, which is why Pam's blog posts and tweets on little known facts, book reviews, and much more are some of my faves.
  • I first learned of Tim Urban when I saw his TED Talk on procrastination. Instant love connection! I can't decide which I enjoy more: his relatable topics, or the adorable stick figures that accompany many posts on his blog, Wait But Why.
  • Benjamin Hardy is my go-to guy for motivational observations. I freely admit, every now and then he gets a little too woo-woo for me. But his argument that willpower is a muscle that can and should be exercised, like a glute or a bicep, has stuck with me for many years. Many of his posts are also available on YouTube if you prefer watching to reading. I really enjoyed this one.
  • If you're a writer, you can't go wrong with Jane Friedman's blog. She has some tremendous content. But TBH, my favorite one of hers lately wasn't a writing topic at all. Well, it was, a little bit tangentially. A bunch of her readers chimed in on her request for black tea recommendations. Yum!
  • I recently stumbled across Introvert, Dear on social media somewhere and am really enjoying it. I never fail to find a couple of shareable posts every time I receive one of their newsletters.

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Published on Leave a comment on Flying Colors
Image from David Martin's article

On March 2, we Native Texans celebrate Texas Independence Day. On this day in 1836, the Lone Star State had our own version of signing a declaration of independence - not from England, but from Mexico. Our nickname comes from the design of the Texas flag, a 'lone star' on a color block field of red, white and blue. 2021 marks the 182nd anniversary of the Texas state flag. David L. Martin has written a well-researched article on its history. The current flag's simple design was influenced by events in Europe and South America in the early 1800s.

Some interesting tidbits from David's article:

The role of maritime commerce and communication was a powerful influence in flag design. In the heydays of piracy and privateering, it was important to be able to identify ships from a distance. Flags were simple and effective ways to communicate this information in the days long before  radio and cell technology.

La Bandera Estrella Solitaria ('lone star' flag),
Chilean flag circa 1817.
Can you spot the difference between this
and the Texas flag?
Image from David's article.

Ever wonder why so many flags look so similar? Lots of color blocks. Lots of simple patterns, like stars juxtaposed with stripes. I just figured the flag designers were lazy (like me), or lacked artistic skills (also like me). But no! Similar-looking flags were the 'Prado' handbags of the maritime world. Crafty mariners knocked off the flag designs of powerful countries such as England and the USA to ward off possible attacks from marauders. Anything appearing similar to the stars and stripes or Union Jack from a distance might be enough to send profiteers in search of a weaker target. At the very least, potential victims could gain some time escaping while the perpetrators stood around peering through their bleary 19th century spyglass, wondering if was worthwhile to attack.

So many men are mentioned in David's article about flags, I suppose because they were the ones involved in the politicking. But who was doing the actual sewing? Who spent hours hunched over a spinning wheel/loom/needle? The women, that's who! Several created a variety of eye-catching designs for their husbands to carry off with them when they joined a military expedition. Sorta reminds me of when folks nowadays hit the Dollar General for poster board and tempera paint before they head off to a political rally.

Jane Wilkerson Long's 1818 design. Image from David's article.

In fact, the infamous 'Come And Take It' flag was made by two women in Gonzales from some leftover wedding dress silk. The image of the cannon, and the defiant message to the Mexican Army, were hand-painted on, rather than sewn. And you thought consignment was your only option for a dress you will never wear again!

Click-O-Rama

Much of this week's Click-O-Rama comes to us from another fabulously informational article via the Atlantic (magazine, not ocean) about the history of flags in general (not just Texan).

Mongolian Peace Banner, made from the tails
of white mares. Image from here.
  • My day is not complete unless I learn a new word. Today I learned there is a word for the study of flags: vexillology; and that my composer seems to think this word needs to be underlined in red. It does not. I checked. It comes from a Latin word, vexillum, that describes a type of banner carried by the Roman military.
  • The same company that made the American flag that was raised by soldiers over Iwo Jima in that iconic World War II image also made the flag that draped Abraham Lincoln's coffin. Annin Flagmakers was founded in 1847 and still going strong today.
  • Red, white and blue came to represent independence and the republican model of government after the Netherlands won their independence from Spain in 1648. You may be thinking, hey, wait a minute - it's the Netherlands. Isn't it supposed to be orange, not red? Yes, it was orange for a time. But the orange morphed into red as the flag's official color hundreds of years ago; some say due to the yellow pigment leaching out of the red it had been blended with to create the orange.

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8

Published on 8 Comments on Chief Dog

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. - Harry S. Truman

Inspired by the return of presidential pets to the White House with the Biden administration, I found this 1920 photo of Anna Roosevelt and her German Shepherd, Chief of the Mohawk. That's her famous father, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, standing beside them. Mr. Mohawk was first in shepherd class at that year's 7th Annual Washington Kennel Club dog show. Mr. Roosevelt was not yet president, but was Assistant Secretary of the Navy serving under Josephus Daniels during Woodrow Wilson's two terms as Commander-in-Chief.

Source: Library of Congress

As you can see, Mr. Roosevelt looks hale and hearty in this shot. Just one year later he would contract polio while on vacation in Canada.

As an adult, Anna Roosevelt was active during her parents' White House years, helping out as a secretary and hostess when needed. She also worked as a writer and journalist. Anna married three times and had three children. She passed away in 1975 at age 69.

Click-O-Rama

The Wiki article about presidential pets is a most delightful way to spend an afternoon. That's my original source for all of this week's Click-O-Rama topics.

The Bidens with their German Shepherds Major (left) and Champ
  • President Biden isn't the first to have German Shepherds as pets. JFK and FDR also had them. Roosevelt's even shares the name Major. Herbert Hoover had a German Shepherd as well as a Malinois, which is a very similar breed.
  • Some of the oddest pets originated as gifts to the presidents from other world leaders. George Washington received an Andalusian donkey from the King of Spain (hence the Andalusian heritage). Zebulon Pike gave Thomas Jefferson a pair of grizzly bear cubs. Gesture of friendship, or assassination attempt? Ditto Marquis de Lafayette's alligator which (allegedly) somehow wound up in the possession of John Quincy Adams.
  • John Adams had some dogs, one of which was named 'Satan'. I found this hilarious because after watching the HBO series about Adams, I had the impression he was very religious.
  • Some sicko thought it wasn't quite enough that President Lincoln was assassinated; he thought it would be cool to assassinate the late President Lincoln's dog Fido as well. That poor pup is also why we consider 'Fido' as a sort of generic name for a dog. I hope that dude got what was coming to him. Side note: one of my favorite southern expressions is from my dearly departed cousin Nan, may she rest in peace. Whenever she wanted to describe something as particularly messy or unattractive, she compared it to 'Fido's tail': "I can't do a thing with my hair today. It looks like Fido's tail."
  • Several presidents, or those in their immediate family, had birds as pets. My favorite bird anecdote is this one about Andrew Jackson's parrot: it had to be escorted away from Jackson's funeral service because of its incessant cursing. Wonder where it learned that?
  • Pet-loving presidents are by far the majority. Of the 40-some-odd presidents we've had, only three have not had pets of any kind. In contrast, some presidents have had so many pets, I was starting to worry about them a little bit while reading the Wiki. Even so, I'd rather have too many pets in the White House than none.

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