Don’t you be forgettin’ our guest tomorrow. Miss Donna Alward will talk some on the subject of writing westerns. Ah do know how you like that subject. Come by and have some tea and cookies. Sit down and stay a spell. You never know what you’ll miss!
Month: April 2008
New Stetson and Spurs Contest Coming Soon!
Oh, I forgot to mention in my blog today to keep a look out for our brand spanking new contest.
It’ll be here soon and you won’t want to miss it!
Willpower is a Four Letter Word
I have to admit that I’m hooked on the Biggest Loser reality show. When I first heard of it, I thought, “No way, I’m watching that.” I had preconceived notions I must admit. And then I watched one episode.
And boy, what a powerful, inspiring, heartwrenching 2 hours a night it is. I’m amazed that I haven’t missed an episode this season, thanks to the invention of the DVR. It’s reality TV sure – with all the drama, but once I got past all that, I learned a lot.
I can honestly say that I don’t consider myself overweight. But are any of us truly happy with our weight? I’ve had those extra pounds of “pregnancy” weight now for years. And when my doctor confirmed that for every decade you live, you usually gain 10 pounds, I cringed. Why on earth have I struggled with losing 10 silly pounds? Losing 10 would make me happy, 15 would put an eternal smile on my face. I think my body has “settled” and likes me right where I am. It’s a constant battle and let’s face it, as we age, gravity works against us.
So, I watch The Biggest Loser and I see these incredible people drop 5, 7, 10 pounds a week and I’m in awe. They workout hard, for six hours a day. They have drive, willpower, macho and moxie. And when that fails them, they have Bob or Jillian, the personal trainers, with an emphasis on PERSONAL. I have grown to love these two people, whose style of workouts and philosopy are sooo different. They really bond with the contestants. They become family.
Since watching this show, I have never felt better in my life. No, I don’t have a personal trainer, but I have an in
ternal voice that yells at me and tells me to get up off my butt and get on the threadmill. When I’m relaxed on the couch, watching the boob tube, that same voice pushes me up. I work my weights and do pilates and think of Kelly, who is, I’ve decided my favorite on the show. She’s one of the two women remaining and clearly the underdog. I remember how she couldn’t make a walk up the mountain when the show first began. And now, since being on the show 15 weeks, she’s completed a triatholon- swimming, biking and running.
I have willpower when it comes to writing. I sit my butt in the chair and write, because it’s my passion, my job and my life. But I was never one to enjoy exercise. NEVER. It was always a chore. And my willpower waned and waned. I came to think of willpower as a four letter word – something I never wanted to face when it came to exercise. I made up excuses and rationalized why I couldn’t exercise that day. And I’d get an occasional walk in with my husband at night and feel justified that I’d gotten my dose in that day.
Not!
So now, I’m inspired. I move every day. I find time, though that’s my biggest obstacle. When I’m on a tight deadline (like now) it’s hard to leave the computer when the words are flowing to walk into the next room and climb onto that threadmill. Most days I do it – I find the time, but when I don’t – I work out at night, if even just for 20 or 30 minutes. I do pilates, lift my hand weights, do my squats and keep moving.
Willpower is much easier attained with motivation. The winner of the Biggest Loser gets $250,000. 00 Now that’s what I call incentive. But these once overweight, unhealthy, unmotivated people’s lives have changed forever. They all say, even if they don’t win the money, they have gained years on their lives. Priceless.
Willpower comes into play not only with exercise but with healthy lifestyle eating. I’ve learned that food isn’t the most important part of my day. I’ve also learned that I can eat as much as I want, but I need to put the right things into my body. That’s basic. We eat lots of chicken and shrimp and salmon. I eat fruit every day. I’ve learned to love salads. Not the boring, lettuce and tomato salads, but ones that include healthy things that I love. Sundried tomatoes, artichokes, olives, almonds and veggies. Put a few squirts of spray salad dressing on, add a slice of pita bread and I’m good to go.
Normally, people only eat 7 or 8 grams of fiber per day. To stay healthy and lose weight you need 30 or more grams.
Here’s a list of snack foods I’ve found that help me make it through the day . I never feel deprived. They’re delicious and nutritious:
Vitalicious muffin tops (high
in fiber, delicious, sold online )
100 Calories Packs (the ones high in fiber, low in sugar – gotta watch out for frauds)
100 Calorie Popcorn (only the high fiber ones)
Weight Watchers 1 point cakes (carrot and chocolate)
Weight Watchers candy (1 point only- I love the chocolate mints)
Quaker “Take Heart” instant oatmeal (Omega 3’s and many flavors)
So for me Willpower used to be like a four letter word, but thanks to one television show, I know I’ll always be on the track. I’ve lost weight and feel great. There’s the reward.
What about you? Do you have willpower or not? What’s your biggest obstacle, not just for weight loss or exercise, but in life? What inspires you to keep going?
Games of Chance
Folks in the Old West didn’t have movies, radio or TV. Music and theatrical performances had to be enjoyed on the spot. Even books were rare treasures in many parts of the country. So what was the most popular form of amusement? Bet you can’t guess (that’s a hint).
Right! It was gambling!
Gambling was a Western mania. And it started long before the arrival of so-called “civilization.” The Native Americans were avid gamblers, wagering beads, horses, tipis, weapons and (according to some stories) even their wives, on the toss of a carved bone, the flight of an arrow or the speed of a runner. Early mountain men played against them—and probably lost.
The whites who came west tended to be risk takers, with gambling in their blood. Men, women, even children gambled—on the trail, in their homes, at work, at celebrations, even in jail. When a new town sprang up, one of the first businesses was likely to be a gambling hall, even if it had to be set up in a tent.
People gambled to get money or property from others. They gambled for the thrill of risk-taking. But mostly they gambled just to pass the time and be sociable. Gambling took many forms. Here are just a few of them.
Wagering. Anything with an uncertain outcome was fair game. A horse race, a fight, a shooting match, the toss of a coin, even the weather. Spinner games like roulette and wheels of fortune could be counted on to draw a crowd.
Dice games—these could be played almost anywhere, and dice were easy to carry. Fortunes were won and lost on a single roll of the dice. One tricky game called Hazard involved a set of three dice and a numbered board.
Faro—this was the most played casino card game. A faro table could be found in almost every saloon in the Old West. The game involved a board with pictures of cards on it. Players laid chips on the pictures to bet on which number would be drawn from a deck of cards. An abacus kept track of the numbers drawn.
Card Games—these were probably the most popular of all, and poker was king. The game Wild Bill Hickock was playing when he was shot is legendary. The cards in his hand, aces and eights, are known to this day as the “dead man’s hand.” Hearts and Blackjack had their fans, too.
Gambling machines came along late in the 19th Century. These could be set up anywhere, even some places where gambling was prohibited, and they didn’t require an operator to run them. The first automatic three-reel slot machine was invented in the early 1900s. It became wildly popular and is to this day.
Where there was gambling, there was cheating. There were countless ways to cheat; and the consequences of getting caught could be grim. But that’s a story for another time.
I’m not a gambler myself unless you count an occasional board game with the grandkids (try beating a little guy who cheats at Candy Land). But we all enjoy reading and writing about the ultimate gamble….Love. How about you? Who’s your favorite Old West gambler? Are you a game player? A risk-taker? Do you have favorite game?
Donna Alward on Saturday!
For heaven’s sake! Our Saturday guest is coming from quite a distance! Miss Donna Alward, a Canadian and our neighbor to the north, will be arriving in Wildflower Junction to talk about one of our favorite subjects – writing westerns. Ah do hope you sweet darlings will mosey by to join in the discussion. The Fillies would surely love that!
How Do I Reload This !@#*! Thing
A Marriage of Convenience—a classic device in romance writing because you need to stick your hero and heroine together, then find a way to give them a conflict big enough to keep them apart, while they’re stuck together. So, a marriage between two people who aren’t in love (yet) works perfectly. My novel Petticoat Ranch contains a marriage of convenience. The sequel, Calico Canyon has a forced marriage and that’s a different and also time honored 
device. My characters in Calico Canyon have to marry for reasons of propriety. They spent the night together, in perfect innocence, now, if they don’t marry, the heroine’s reputation is ruined.
We think of a marriage of convenience as wholly fictional. They don’t really happen. But my grandparents had a real life marriage of convenience. My grandfather’s first wife died giving birth to their second child, that child died, too. As his wife lay there, knowing she was dying, she told my grandfather she wanted him to marry her old college roommate, Latta Snyder. She wanted Latta to raise their older child. Well, trying to imagine that scene is pretty horrifying, especially to a writer, being blessed with both an extremely vivid imagination and an ability to fictionalize almost anything and make it even more angst laden. Grandpa obeyed. He married my grandmother.
Here’s the deal though, and where this coincides with Petticoat Ranch. Grandma and Grandpa had their first child about 15 months after they got married. So let’s face it, it was a real marriage in all ways. This picture is of my mother and her siblings. The oldest child is the first born, the others are stairsteps, four kids in less than eight years. My mom is the littlest one, on the far right. IF you click on the picture it’ll get bigger. My grandparents got married, they knew what that meant. In Petticoat Ranch, I didn’t dwell on the wedding night at all. So later, when she’s pregnant, I had a lot of letters asking, ‘When did this happen?’
My answer? The first night, people. They were married. They knew what that meant.
Which got me thinking about modern marriages of convenience. Don’t you think 
these qualify? Bill and Hillary Clinton in their now famous, “Stand By Your Man” 60 Minutes interview that saved Clinton’s candidacy in 1992.
Gov. James McGreevey, with his wife at his side as he confesses to the people of New Jersey that he was having an affair with his male employee.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, with his very frazzled wife, talking about his Call Girl compulsion.
Sen. Larry Craig, with his wife, who has got to be hiding behind those sunglasses, explaining how he was arrested in a restroom while trying to ‘arrange’ a tryst with a man.
My favorite line on this type of very public mess was from Texas Congressman Dick Armey during the Monica Lewinsky flap.
He said, “If I were in the President’s place I would not have gotten a chance to resign. I would be lying in a pool of my own blood, hearing Mrs. Armey standing over me saying, ‘How do I reload this !@#! thing?'”
Would you Stand By Your Man?
Do these woman even care about these men, or are they political animals like their husbands and their only emotion is humiliation, not a broken heart?
Do these count as modern day marriages of convenience?
Do you know anyone with a marriage of convenience?
And isn’t that picture with my mom and her big brother and sisters a beautiful marriage of convenience, so much better than these others?
Mary Connealy, proud granddaughter of a very successful and happy Marriage of Convenience and author of Petticoat Ranch and soon to be released Calico Canyon.
Beverly Long’s Drawing Winners!
The reader who will be getting autographed copies of Stay With Me and Stay With Me is…..
Jeanne Sheats!
Yee haw! Jeanne, please send your address to Beverly at: BEVERLY434@aol.com
The Child & Native America!
Hope you are all having a fabulous April. Did anyone get caught with some good ole April Fools jokes this year? I’m afraid that I’m away from home and so missed the usual fun of April Fools this year. And how are y’all doing on your taxes? This is also Tax month. Anyone planning to go to Washington DC this April 15th to join the protest against the IRS and the Federal Reserve? That 16th Amendment, which was radified — or so it’s said — in 1913, after heavy lobbying by Rockefeller, seems to be more and more a burden on the average American citizen (thee and me). There are some who are determined to shine the light of day on the IRS, which I think is very brave considering that the IRS has been known to treat objectors ofttimes with a bit of a rough hand. So if you’re going to the rally, I wish you well.
All right, so I thought we might spend the day talking about Native America and the child. How was the child valued in Native America, how were they disciplined? What would it have been like to grow up in Native America?
It is said that a culture that doesn’t value the child and the parents who raise that child, is a culture that will not exist for long. And it’s probably true. Children are our future and without a system of raising the child, so that he retains his natural dignity and curosity, is a culture that is most likely on its way out. In Native America, before the advent of the Amero-European culture spreading around it, the child was adored. From the moment a woman knew she was pregnant, she would eat certain foods, take long walks, sing, think happy thoughts and do little things that would encourage good growth of the child within her. A child was born into the family, and that included the extended family — grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. In fact, in Native America, the child often called his aunts “mother” and his uncles, “father.”
A child was also welcomed by every member of the tribe. The work-a-day world of Native America included the fact that every household — be that a tepee or a longhouse or other form of home — would have food (usually soup) cooking all day long. A child, any child, was always welcome in any home. He was always welcome to come in and eat, sit and talk, and literally be at home anywhere within the tribe. Children were never hit or struck in Native America. Sometimes, in the Iroquois Confederation, if a child continued to be naughty, someone might throw water on him, but most usually the form of discipline for the child was in the form of an elder who would tell the child a story, one that had a moral do to with whatever the child was doing that was naughty.
In fact the Blackfeet had an interesting way of disciplining their children so that a child’s natural dignity was never destroyed, and yet he was brought into the tribe and its moral codes in a very natural way. It went like this: let’s say that a child was being naughty. He’d picked up a stick with the intention of hitting his brother or something of that sort. Some elder of the tribe might have seen him with the stick and the dialogue might have gone like this:
The elder: “Aa, I see that you a good stick there.”
The child, looking around for the elder, cringes because his intention is to hit his brother.
The elder: “Aa, what a good child you are. I see that you have that stick there to help your father mend his arrows. Your father is lucky to have such a good child as you.l”
Now the child knows he intended nothing of the sort, but to save face, the child nods his head in agreement, and goes off to help his father mend his arrows, forgetting all about wanting to hit his brother.
In Native America, a person who would hit a child in discipline was considered crazy and if it happened once too often, that person was often ostracized by the tribe. Is it any wonder then, when met with those from a civilization that considered physical discipline important, that the Native American thought that person more than a little crazy?
Okay, I admit it, I keep cheating with this picture, but I really do like it! What would it have been like to have been a little boy, growing up in Native America? Well, according to those white men who grew up in Native America, there was nothing to compare with it. What freedom! The freedom to come and go whenever you wanted! The freedom to explore anything you wanted! Being coached and groomed by your elders, being told stories when you were acting in a way that wasn’t considered best. Learning to track, to follow trails, to learn the movements of the animals, to be able to go out and stay outside and learn. To watch the stars on a soft, summer night, to make friends with another boy who would remain your friend for life. Indeed, those men who grew up in Native America usually stayed, or if they did have to leave, would often return as soon as they were able. And those men, like George Catlin, who went amongst the natives to paint them, never really ever returned to civilization, except for occasional visits.
Sometimes, when I go to the reservations, I remember the things that I’ve read about the freedom of the Native Americans and I think that if I had a choice, what a pleasure it would have been to grow up in the old days of the Native American.
So what do you think of child rearing? Do you have any special tips that have made raising your children easier? Come on in and let’s talk about our most natural instinct: that of being a parent. Let’s share. And don’t forget, THE LAST WARRIOR, my latest effort, has just been released to bookstores everywhere. Please do pick up a copy.
Big News!!
5 Days of fun!
12 Guest Authors — a lineup like you’ve never seen!
Big Prizes — more than you can shake a stick at!
The telegraph wires are buzzing like a hive of bumble bees with all the list of prizes still coming in. Stay tuned for more information in the weeks to come. You don’t want to miss the excitement! Wildflower Junction is the place to be or I’m not Felicia Filly.
Beverly Long: Rereading Our Favorite Books
Is it just me or does everybody spend valuable time rereading books that they’ve read once, twice, or many times before?
It’s not as if I don’t have anything new to read. My stack of to-be-read books is no longer a stack, it’s more like a large pile that continues to grow at an alarming rate. Something akin to dirty socks, only heavier. If one corner of my bedroom begins to sag into my basement, I’ll have no one to blame but myself.
Yet, still, with limited time to read and many books to choose from, I find myself gravitating towards books that I’ve read before. This past weekend was no exception. I reread Janet Evanovich’s Lean Mean Thirteen and a couple of Suzanne Brockmann’s romantic suspense novels—written back when we were just learning about the world of Navy Seals.
Why do we do this? Is it laziness? Is it an effort to experience the joy of reading without any of the responsibility of paying attention to the fine details of a complex plot? I know that at the end of a long day when I’m reading a few chapters before bed, I find myself more inclined to pick up one of my “favorites”, rather than tackling something new.
Is it that we’re lonely? Are we missing the friends we made or the world we encountered when we first stumbled upon a particular book? As a teenager, I remember reading and rereading the entire series of Trixie Beldon mysteries. Trixie and her best friend Honey and all the rest of the gang had become my friends and every once in a while, I simply needed to revisit all the experiences I’d had with them over the years.
Are we trying to relive the past? Does a particular book remind us of a particular event? Does rereading a book that we read twenty years earlier help us remember what our life was like twenty years ago? Do we suddenly feel twenty years younger? I’m not sure about that but I recently reread Little Women and I could remember very vividly being ten years old, curled up in the big chair in my parent’s living room, with that thick book in my lap.
Or is it as simple as we just fell in love with the writing? My copy of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is looking really worn from the number of times I’ve read it.
As a reader, rereading has given me great joy. As a writer, hearing from readers who’ve read and reread my books is just about the nicest compliment that I’ve ever gotten.
What about you? What books do you reread? Why?
I’d love to hear your stories.
Anyone who comments will be entered into a contest to win signed copies of Stay with Me and the sequel, Here with Me. These are time-travel romances, the first set in 1888 Wyoming Territory, the second in present-day Napa Valley. For more information, visit www.beverlylong.com.