AUTHOR, ANIMAL COMMUNICATOR, AND HEALER NANCY KAISER ANSWERS THE DAMES’ DOZEN

1. Nancy, how did you become an animal communicator? Was there a certain moment when you realized you had this ability or was it something you worked at?

In 1993, one of my husband’s patients, Because of Love, helped me discover my life’s purpose. Although Love only lived four months, this special filly’s lessons live on every day in my work.

I was watching an animal communicator teach a workshop at a friend’s farm. The communicator had “talked” with Love the day before and what the filly told her resonated with me. While watching a workshop participant communicate with a horse, I experienced my epiphany – this could be learned! I knew I was supposed to communicate with animals! Once I committed to this path, animals came from all directions to help me uncover abilities I never knew I possessed.

My intense desire to talk to animals motivated me to pursue my goal. I contacted a clairvoyant counselor in New York, who I’d met nine months earlier. Thus began, our weekly sessions in the city. My greatest challenge was learning to quiet my mind, which is crucial to telepathic communication. I diligently practiced meditation to reawaken my right brain, which had been neglected from years of academics. By using both hemispheres of the brain, we truly realize our full potential as human beings.

I was blessed with fabulous animal teachers and incredible experiences that guided me along my learning path quite rapidly. When something is involved with our soul’s purpose, things are facilitated. It required dedication and perseverance, but mostly my unwavering desire to finally be able to talk with animals. 

2. When did you start communicating with animals?

Shortly after I began working with the clairvoyant counselor, I had my first conscious telepathic communication. The police called about a deer in someone’s yard with a fawn partially born. They were calling my husband, the horse vet, for help. We rushed over, but the fawn was dead.    

The doe was covered with a blanket and stayed very calm while my husband removed the fawn. He gave her an antibiotic injection and tetanus vaccination. She never moved a muscle. She knew we were helping her.

A discussion ensued about what to do with her. One officer had a friend that kept deer in a pen. I wanted her to remain free. My husband suggested we give her time to return to the woods. We would check back in an hour. The officer wanted to call his friend, but agreed to wait.

Before leaving I lifted the blanket, so I could see her. Her huge, beautiful brown eyes reflected such sadness and gratitude. It was an amazing exchange – soul to soul. It was the most rewarding experience. It was priceless….

We came back, but she and the blanket were gone. I was so worried that the officer had taken her. He said he hadn’t, but I didn’t believe him. Where was the blanket?

I discussed the situation with my psychic teacher. She said, “Ask the doe.” I looked stunned, since I’d only recently started my studies. I closed my eyes, “asked” the doe and heard, “I ran into the woods, and the blanket fell off after a mile.” I was so happy and proud. I can do this!

Three years earlier, I had experienced my first telepathic communication, although I was totally unaware of it. Luckily, my dog knew about my hidden ability.

Shortly after I was married I got my first Yellow Lab, Gentle Ben. For the next 13-plus years Ben worked on our farm with me. He had an uncanny ability to tell sick horses from healthy ones. Ben helped with every foaling. As soon as I’d let him, Ben would be in the stall cleaning the foal. Every mare allowed him access, which was astonishing.

When he was 13 1/2 years old Ben got sick. It was digestive and didn’t seem that serious. I slept downstairs with him, so I could be close if he needed help. After two days of intense care I thought he was improving. The next morning he stood over his breakfast dish, looked at me and slumped to the floor. “I can’t do this anymore.”

I turned cold with the realization that he was dying. I told my husband through uncontrollable tears, “I think I’m being selfish. It’s time for Ben to go Home.” Our dear friend and small animal vet quickly came to the farm. Gentle Ben’s wish was granted. I was crushed.

At the time I thought I’d had a knowing; that my imagination had created the words I needed to hear. Three years later I realized they were Ben’s words not mine. I was an animal communicator whether I was aware of it or not. Ben was showing me this with his last lesson for me.

I have been communicating with animals all of my life even though I had no awareness of it. The fantasies I thought I was creating with my imagination were actual conversations between me and many different animals. In the perfect timing, the Universe sent Love to me to say, “Wake up! It’s time to get to work.” I was 42 years old at the time and felt so thankful to have discovered what my purpose involved. I’m grateful every day that I was ready to listen to her.

3.  How do you communicate with animals – telepathically, through kinesics, or…?

I communicate by telepathy. I hear and I feel. My sense of feeling is as acute as seeing. If I feel more information is needed in order to help an animal and its person, I can channel what I call “insights and guidance” from spiritual beings that help me with the healing work I do for the animals.

I am an empathetic healer, so I have the ability to feel what an animal is feeling much like a medical intuitive. I feel what they are experiencing, emotionally and physically. It can be a headache, nausea, liver pain or fear, anger, etc. I can usually differentiate between skeletal, muscular, or neurological pain. I think my pharmacy education helps me in some respect as well as 27 years of nursing sick and dying horses.

4. What valuable lessons have you learned from animals?

 Wow! There are so many; enough that my next book is the first in a series of books about my animal experiences. Here are a few major lessons:

Not fearing death is probably the biggest one and will be answered in your question #8.

To live in the present moment is a lesson of every species, domestic or wild. Humans have lost the ability to stay present. We’re so focused on our past and future that we miss our lives, which only happen right Now. Working with horses taught me to stay present to avoid being injured. Animals are creatures of the moment. They really have no concept of time. They will remember events from the past if they were traumatic enough. Animals know nothing of the future.

Dogs are master teachers of unconditional love, which is another lesson humans have yet to master, myself included. My Labs remind me when I’ve been at the computer too long. They tell me, “Enough! Get down here and play with us.” After a few minutes on the floor with them, they retreat and let me get back to my work. Everything is a game to them. They remind me to unlock my inner child and have fun.

Each animal that comes to me brings with it something that I need to learn or remember. Their gifts are needed by all humans, which is why I’m choosing to write about them. I’ve recently discovered that my soul’s purpose isn’t just about being an animal communicator, but it also involves being a human communicator. I’m supposed to share through my gift for writing what I’ve been privileged to learn from the animals. Humanity dearly needs their lessons.

5.  Are certain species of animals (such as dogs or horses) easier to communicate with than other species?

I think domestics are more willing to communicate with me. They’ve chosen to live in close proximity to people. I’ve had a few abused animals that wouldn’t talk initially, but I can usually coerce them to talk with me. They think if they stay silent and “hide” I’ll go away, but I can feel the connection and keep talking till I get a response. I have had a couple that only talked after I’d done some healing work for them. 

I’ve talked with a few wild ones. I’ve gotten many messages from hawks, a couple from owls, some deer, etc. A few years ago, I spent a couple of hours with a herd of mustangs at the Wild Horse Sanctuary in Redding, California. I had several interesting conversations with them. The experience is retold in my book Letting Go.

Years ago, I swam with a pod of spinner dolphins off Oahu. It was so spiritual for me that I didn’t communicate per se. I was so overwhelmed by my acceptance within the pod of 40+ spinners that I didn’t want to break such a spiritual experience with conversation; even telepathic conversation. It was a phenomenal dream come true.

6. You offer your services to pet owners who want to communicate better with their own animals. Where can those interested find you?

People can find everything about me, my services, and my book, Letting Go, on my Website, www.NancyKaiserAnimalCommunicator.com. There are testimonials, readers’ reviews, links to previous radio interviews & published articles and the first chapter of Letting Go is available to read. They can order personalized, print copies of Letting Go or find links to download as an ebook if they prefer to read digitally. I can be contacted at nancy@nancykaiseranimalcommunicator.com

7. Most of us have had animals that in some way influenced or impacted our lives, emotionally as well as mentally and physically. Was there any one (or more) special animal in your life and how were you affected?

Again, I could go on for pages with an answer to this one. I have been blessed with so many exceptional teachers. Given what I do, I come in contact with hundreds of special souls. Those that have chosen to live with me are obviously the most significant.

I am privileged to currently live with a soul that is in his forth incarnation with me. He is my 3-year-old Yellow Lab, Hana. He first entered my life as my first Yellow Lab, Gentle Ben, who I mentioned earlier. Next, he returned as Rainbow, a kitten I found at the same farm that Love, the filly who taught me that I could communicate, came from. In 01, he reappeared in a very special teacher, my colt Randy, who I tragically put down in 04. Randy’s sad story is captured in the pages of Letting Go.

To know that a soul has chosen to spend so many incarnations with you is truly beyond words. We have been through so much together and in three different species. We, obviously, have a unique bond that continually brings him back to me. I tease him that I’m either a pretty bad teacher or really fun to live with. I like to think it’s the latter.

In 86, the Universe gifted me with one of my true Master Teachers, a beautiful Thoroughbred filly, who we named Squiggles due to the marking on her face. Squiggles stayed for 17 years and taught me more than any other being. She almost died three times and taught us innumerable lessons each time.

I wasn’t the only one that recognized how exceptional she was. Friends and clients, who’d been to our farm and met our horses, always asked about Squiggles. Everyone remembered Squiggles. She had such a presence about her.

Squiggles gave me three beautiful colts, Dash, Randy and Stormy. Each foaling was fraught with problems with both the mare and the foals. With each problem came more lessons. Through the struggles, I learned that Squiggles had come into this lifetime to break the cycle of never having any offspring survive.

Through her willingness and strength, my husband’s veterinary expertise and my communication and healing skills, all three foals lived, which allowed Squiggles to achieve her soul’s purpose. To assist another being in achieving its soul’s purpose is deeply gratifying. I am honored, humbled and blessed to have been chosen by Squiggles to help her accomplish her goal. She was truly Squiggles, the Special.

8. You talk a great deal about how animals can teach us not to fear death. Can you expand on that a bit?

Gladly. Prior to my learning to communicate with animals, I didn’t really have an opinion regarding death or reincarnation. I never thought that much about it. I wasn’t raised in a religious or even spiritual family. My parents didn’t believe in God, so religion had no part in my upbringing, which was actually beneficial to my awakening to my communication and healing work.

The number one thing that confounds animals most about humans is our inability to let go. Their lessons about death and reincarnation have eliminated any questions I may have had about dying.

Animals don’t understand our anguish as they approach the end of their journey with us. They look at death as the beginning of a new cycle, merely a change of form. For them it’s a time of joy; something to look forward to with happiness, not tears and grief.

While connected with horses that my husband was euthanizing, I’d feel when the soul left the body. Our language is too inadequate to describe what I sensed as each transitioned. Pure joy, total freedom and boundless exhilaration are the best I can come up with; yet, they don’t come close to the sensations.

Even though I’ve counseled hundreds of animals as they’ve transitioned, I’ve never been able to experience those glorious feeling when my own animals go Home. I am simply too grief-stricken. Despite the wisdom I’ve gained from them regarding death, my pain clouds their joy.

Thanks to the animals I’ve learned that death is nothing more than a change of form. We merely shed the physical body and return to the energy of Spirit that we came from; nothing more and certainly nothing to be fearful of. We become the beautiful orb of energy that I once saw during a Sweat Lodge Ceremony.

9. You also are a columnist for two e-zines, and I am an avid follower. Can you provide the urls to each?

Well, thank you for following my writing. It’s helpful to receive comments and feedback from readers. It guides me in choosing topics to write about. I write a weekly column, Animal Insights, on Thursdays for Wendy Garrett’s blog, “Petsense,” which can be found at http://petsense.blogspot.com/.

Recently, I was thrilled to be invited to be a regular contributor to a wonderful, new magazine called “Dogs…Naturally!” The first issue is available as a complementary download at http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/. Plans are for it to be available in print by spring. My first appearance will be in the next issue in March.

I haven’t announced this next news yet, but I’ll be joining “The Infinite Field Magazine” as well. February’s issue will contain my article, Because of Love, which tells the story of how I discovered my communication abilities. TIFM is a print magazine as well as an e-zine at http://theinfinitefieldmagazine.com/.

10.  You provide healing services for humans and animals. Can you list those and share a little about each?

Ninety percent of what I do is with animals, but after some clients see the positive changes in their pets they ask if I can do the same thing for them. After I got comfortable with communicating, the Universe sent animals who taught me that I possessed more than simply abilities in telepathy. I work with several healing modalities that allow me to offer my clients solutions to the problems that their animal friends are dealing with.

Spiritual Response Therapy (SRT) is a truly unique form of healing occurring at the soul level. With the SRT process, I work in agreement with the client’s soul to identify the emotional pro­grams running at the cellular level. Many of these are past life influ­ences. The soul then begins a spiritual educa­tion process to recognize the pur­pose of these emotional programs, release the negative emotions, and replace them with harmonious en­ergy. It is a powerful process that was developed for humans, but works just as effectively with animals. I’ve used SRT with great success eliminating thunderstorm and fireworks fears in many animals. The results are simply quite amazing.

While SRT deals with past life issues, Spiritual Brain Repatterning (SBR) focuses on the present life. SBR reviews an animal’s or person’s present-life (womb to age 5) cellular programming, which identifies the major negative-statements embraced at the cellular level which have created discordant emotional themes in one’s life. Positive reinforcing counter-statements are defined, and then programmed-in at the cellular level resulting in the release of those discordant emotional themes giving us the freedom to move forward in a whole new manner. The resultant effect is that core attitudes towards life noticeably change.

Sometimes I don’t find the answers to animals’ issues through mere communication. In such cases, I have the ability to connect to a much higher source of Universal Knowledge to access needed information sur­rounding each chal­lenge facing an animal and its person. This information is channeled as an automatic writing.

I work with various types of vibrational healing when it’s appropriate. Flower essences and gem elixirs work to bring the body and subtle energy bodies back into alignment. This allows the needed flow of life force energy through the electrical and circulatory systems resulting in perfect health. I connect with the individual’s soul and ask which of my 150+ flower essences and gem elixirs are required for healing. These are very specific to the challenge(s) that the animal or person is facing.

Another form of vibrational healing I use is color therapy. Color therapy uses the same principle of healing: returning the vibrational pattern within the body to a state of perfect balance. When balance is returned individuals realize much improved health, both emotionally and physically. Using the same concept, I connect with the animal or person and “ask” for the appropriate colors needed to heal specific issues. I then apply the colors using long-distance healing techniques.

Last but definitely not least, I may be guided to obtain healing using my skills as a modern-day shaman. Being guided to the appropriate “world,” I’m given suitable healing for the client. I follow the instructions of my otherworld contact, and apply the healing to the individual, either in person or long-distance.

When I first began this type of journeying, my pharmacist upbringing was truly challenged. Several of my own horses taught me the true power of this form of healing. Both my vet husband and I were astounded by the complete and immediate physical healing that was achieved in several of my horses, who’d created oft-times fatal “dis-eases.”

While qualifying as a form of vibrational healing, the journey is unique for each client. The world visited, the teacher/healer I’m brought to, and the specific items gifted for the healing are different each time. I’ve learned through the process of this powerful form of healing that the only real requirement is belief!

11. Nancy, you are a published author, columnist, animal communicator, and healer. Which field do you feel you get the most benefit from and do you have a preference for any one field?

Gosh, I got tired reading all that. No wonder I never have enough time to get the next book started. It’s happening soon though.

Writing is fairly new to me. I didn’t grow up dreaming to be a writer and only discovered my talent for it about five years ago. I enjoy expressing myself through my writing and sharing with my readers the fabulous life experiences I’ve been privileged to lead. Writing allowed me to heal from my many painful losses, so in that respect, it has been tremendously beneficial to me.

My life has been centered on animals from the getgo. Animals have always been there for me no matter what. I wouldn’t be who I am today without the many animals that have shared their lives with me and those who’ve sought me out to be their voices. Helping animals live happily within the human world is a way to pay back the love and support I’ve received from them over the last 58 years.

As all healers know, when we work with our clients, we are healed as well. Before I do any SRT clearings, I have to be cleared first. Before I test a client for remedies, I have to take whatever remedies I need first. So, I benefit enormously from the healing work I do for others.

My goal has always been to help people and animals enhance their relationships through better understanding. My communication and healing work allows me to accomplish that. I’m also committed to helping bridge the rift that has developed between all animal species and humans. People need to understand the importance of animals to our lives. I truly believe animals are our brothers and sisters, and we need to respect and treat them as such.

I believe it will be through my writing that I’ll have the most influence on this “big picture” goal. I’ve learned over the past two years, since Letting Go was published, how much farther my reach is through my writing. By sharing all I’ve learned from the animals in an upcoming series of books, I hope to accomplish another of my soul’s purposes.  

12.  And I can’t leave this interview without touching upon your book: Letting Go, An Ordinary Woman’s Extraordinary Journey of Healing and Transformation. This is a powerful book and I’m sure your feedback from readers is prolific and gratifying. Have you received any one response from a reader that stands out? Also, where can readers find the book?

Thanks again for your kind words. Each time I hear from a reader how my words have helped, my heart warms and I smile. I wrote Letting Go to understand the most difficult period of my life and to heal myself. I published Letting Go to help others. If I could help one person recognize their life lessons more quickly, thereby shortening their own traumatic journey then I’d be satisfied. Based on the responses back from my readers, I’ve helped more than one person, and I am humbled by that. I can’t choose just one, so here are a few comments from my gracious readers:

The most inspirational book I’ve read since The Power of Now! I found this book to be so eloquently written and inspirational that I had a hard time putting it down. I could not believe all the heart breaks one person could take and still come through it all with flying colors. I am awestruck by Nancy’s communica­tion skills and challenge anyone who reads this book not to agree with me. Letting Go is also so much easier to read and comprehend than other inspirational books… her writing makes you feel so at ease, like you are feeling her pain and learning these lessons right by her side. I congratulate Nancy for finding her calling, committing to it and bringing so much happiness and serenity to people and animals in need. It probably made a huge impact on her recovering from such sadness. Kudos Nancy!

I found Nancy’s story compelling and meaningful and she captured my attention from the start. Vividly written in the heat of swirling emotions, her writing reflects the turmoil she is experiencing in her life after a stunning betrayal and turn of events. Through it, she reveals a Truth for anyone who reads this book – that from the most traumatic and heart wrenching moments in life can come healing and repair but it takes extremely hard internal work, brutal honesty about one’s self (“how did I/my psyche or soul contribute to this situation?”), the fortitude to not run away from challenges, and an openness to receiving insight from unexpected – and maybe unseen – sources. Nancy has done all that, and reading her book, I found that I could experience her metamorphosis from a traumatized, agitated, and deeply saddened girl into a peaceful, joyful, and calm adult. It’s a good read!

I found this book the most empowering story I have ever read. For anyone that is struggling with trying to get out from under, this is a gift. Nancy has a way of being able to put feelings on the written page so that you can identify and use them to help you along the way. Her story may not be your story, but the insight gained from her struggles will definitely give you many “light bulb moments.”

Personalized, print copies of Letting Go can be ordered securely through my Website; www.NancyKaiserAnimalCommunicator.com. Non-personalized, print copies can be ordered via BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and numerous other online booksellers.

Letting Go is available as an ebook from Smashwords.com where the buyer receives nine types of files. Go to: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2738. It is also available at Amazon’s Kindle Store. Go to: www.amazon.com/dp/B002NGO550

As I said earlier, I live for feedback and comments from readers and clients whether positive or negative. Thankfully, I don’t get much negative feedback. Please send any comments or questions to nancy@nancykaiseranimalcommunicator.com.          

First, I want to thank Christy Tillery French for her insightful questions. I don’t think she missed anything. Secondly, thank you to “Dames of Dialogue” for this opportunity to reach out to your readers and share about my work, my writing and the generous animals that I’ve lived with and lent my voice to.

Nancy A. Kaiser lives in the healing Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina surrounded by her family of dogs and a horse. She is the author of Letting Go: An Ordinary Woman’s Extraordinary Journey of Healing & Transformation, about her recovery from trauma with the help of animals and nature. Nancy operates Just Ask Communications, a practice devoted to healing the human-animal bond through enhanced communication and understanding. Nancy offers animal communication and healing consults via phone, in-person and on Skype. Visit her at: www.NancyKaiserAnimalCommunicator.com

Critiquing Checklist by High Country Writers

CRITIQUER

These pointers are designed for a group session.

1. SAY SOMETHING NICE FIRST. Remember what an accomplishment it is to get something in a form you can show anyone.

2. Take a few minutes to arrange your ideas into a tactful, organized critique that includes the positive as well as the negative. Consider these questions:

What is the main idea of the piece? Try to state it for the writer in one sentence.

Are the characters believable and consistent? Is their dialogue believable?

Is there a recognizable, meaningful conflict? Is enough at stake for us to care about the outcome?

Is there a good balance between showing and telling (action and explanation)?

Is the point of view established early and maintained consistently?

Are the details specific enough? Would you prefer more or less description?

How is the piece organized? Are there flashbacks or is it told chronologically? Is the organization effective?

How’s the opening: slow, too quick, confusing, dull? Does it grab you?

Is the title working? Can you suggest a better one?

What is the tone of the piece: comic, serious, tragic, formal, informal, satairic? Does it appear to be logical and true to the writer’s intent?

Is the style clear and easy to read or does it come between you and the content? Is it free of major grammatical errors?

3. Phrase your responses to the above questions provisionally: “I think,”"It seems to me,”"In my opinion….” It is more valuable to the writer to hear observations than evaluations.

4. Don’t argue. State and write down your points clearly and briefly but don’t try to rewrite the story. Be specific, pinpoint problems, offer suggestions, if possible. Don’t show your superiority. Edit in colored ink to be easily noticed.

5. If something offends you, remember that taste is subjective. We do not set moral standards. Free expression is the right of a writer.

6. Don’t monopolize the conversation. Add only additional points or agreements/disagreements on points already made. Simply pass if you have nothing to add. Commend the writer on good points. Write down your positive or negative reaction to certain scenes or dramatic moments.

7. Don’t interrupt another critiquer. Write down the points you want to make and save them until your turn or until all others have had a turn.

8. Sum up overall affect of the story: did you like the characters? Were all the scenes important to the story? Did the plot continue to move at an acceptable pace? Is the conflict evident? Close with something encouraging.

9. Write down line edits, don’t verbalize them.To indicate:

lower case, use a slash (/) over the capital letter

upper case, draw 3 lines under lower case letter

leave as it was, use “stet”

insert a comma, use ^ with a comma under it

insert a word or letter, use ^ with the new word or letter above it

insert a period, put a circle around a period

possible spelling error, use <sp>

insert a space, use #

transpose words, use a sideways “S” under the first word and over the second word

delete a word, draw line through it trailing into a written letter “e”

begin new paragraph, use a capital “P” with a parallel line before the “P”

no new paragraph, use a sideways “S” to connect the end of the first paragraph with the beginning of the next one

schuyler kaufman answers the Dames Dozen

1. Tell us about your latest published book and your current writing project.

My latest book is my first–-Dear Mouse … with a subtitle that’s wordy but not very descriptive.

My protag, Matt Logan is a has-been movie actor, working on a low-budget horror film in the NC mountains. He keeps a journal in the form of letters to “Mouse,” the 10-year-old daughter he has lost. A local beauty, hoping to get “discovered,” steals the latest journal pages. They end up in the tabloids; the beauty ends up in Matt’s dressing-room closet, strangled with Matt’s tie, and dressed for the shower scene.  

2.  Why do you write about a washed-up movie actor?

As a failed actor myself, I know and love that world. I’ve worked as walk-ons and extras in movies produced around the Boone/Blowing Rock area. As a recovering alcoholic, I know that world, too. When I began thinking about this story, Matt coalesced pretty quickly. It’s important to like your main character at least, if you want readers to like your book.

3.  What’s your favorite personal story of your own acting?

For 3 years, I played Tom Thumb in Annapolis MD’s annual The Tom Thumb Christma Show, in which we all wore big, Disney-style heads. The first year I played Tom Thumb, the head was great, but the costume was a tad tight The first time I wore both head and costume was our only dress-rehearsal, the morning of the opening show, in a movie theater. The stage was 4 feet high, 10 feet deep, and slippery. And I wore tap shoes.

At the climax of the show, Tom Thumb grabs the “Magic Wand” from the villain and holds it high. In rehearsal, my tap-shoes slipped around a bit, but the rehearsal went well.

Over 1,000 school kids filled the theater. When I grabbed the Wand, I brandished it high and took a little hop. When I landed, all I felt between me and empty space was about an inch of heel-tap, which then slipped off the edge of the stage. As I fell, I thought, “Okay, if I break an ankle, I can still stand on one foot and finish the show.” But I landed on my heet, with only the pants of my costume injured. Well—the pants were ripped stem-to-stern, and I still had to lead the whole cast up the middle aisle of that movie theater.

Fortunately, I wore black tights under the pants. I kept my knees pressed together and led the procession up the aisle, until one kid, below my line of sight, grabbed at my pants, finishing the job of ripping the pants into two separate and independent parts.

I leave the rest to the reader’s imagination.

4.  How did your character, Matt Logan, come to you?

I was in a deep depression after splitting from my son’s father. I’d wake up at inappropriate hours of the night, telling myself pointless horror stories until dawn.

One night, as I got madder and sadder, I suddenly thought, “I can’t control waking up, but I can control what I think about.” So I cranked up my brain and thought up a silly fantasy—I meet and befriend the celebrity of my choice—until I drifted off. The next night, I built on the scene I’d started the night before. Soon I had a full scene, and decided to write it down. Of course, the Depression-Demons jeered that it wouldn’t be any good—but: “So what if it’s bad? Who’s going to die?”

Well, the bimbo died, actually; Matt lived, and the book got written.

5.  What’s involved in editing the biblical thingy?

Ah, “The biblical thingy.” As good a description as any!

Dr. Alan Hauser is Senior Editor of: Currents in Biblical Research, an international scholarly journal of which I am Assistant Editor; the 5-volume A History of Biblical Interpretation (volumes 1 and 2 are out now) and a series, Recent Research on the Old Testament, for both of which I am the Associate Editor.

We edit articles sent (by invitation) by proven scholars in various biblical fields. We send queries (trust me, there are always queries!) regarding details that only an editor could love. The authors send their corrections, which we incorporate into the MSs. We send the results to the publishers—Sage Press; Phoenix Press in Sheffield, England; and Eerdmans, in Grand Rapids, respectively..

For A History of Biblical Interpretation, I also construct each volume’s index. In the second volume, I also translated the chapter on the Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation—the author, while fluent in English, prefers to write in French.

6.  Describe your writing work space and habits.

My work space is the same for all my work—my grandfather’s library table, barricaded on three sides with piles of books, paper, reference works, and an antique sugar-bowl filled with pens, lip-balm, pairs of glasses, and other stuff. Within reach are my phone, the tv remote, nail-files, writing pads, and an undefined “etc.” Depending on how routine the work is—bibliographies are very routine—I’ll have the tv on for cheerful noise. For more complex work, I prefer silence.

When I write fiction, I first need a scene. As the characters move around in my head, I  just watch, until I know what the characters want, and what they fear. The story takes shape from there, so I grab whatever scraps of time I can find to type that scene out. I don’t think I’ve ever written a first paragraph first. I write chunks, then move them around until the story makes sense. That’s when the real work begins.

For non-fiction (articles in Carolina Mountain Life, for instance), I interview the people involved in the story, taking notes by hand. I prefer to interview people in person, where I can see them do what they do. With those visuals, I can get a nuanced, complex story. I type the notes, with visuals, verbatim into my computer. I’ll lift chunks from one position to another, connect some ideas, separate others, until I figure out the nucleus of it—what readers need to take away from  the article. Then I get to work.

When I edit, I keep the tv off, and try to keep the decibel level down when I cuss. Scholars, even—especially—the eminent ones, have wildly diverse writing styles and documentation methods. Sometimes it takes serious effort to figure out what they want to convey. At such times, I do not welcome visitors.

7.  How and why did you begin writing book reviews?

An early review of my book appeared in one magazine. As I read it, I saw, in effect, that I had written it! The reviewer had simply lifted bits from the materials I’d created for the publicity materials and cobbled it together into a review. I doubt the reviewer had even opened my book.

When I mentioned this to the publisher of Carolina Mountain Living (now Carolina Mountain Life), she offered me the job of reviewing books. That soon expanded to writing articles. I couldn’t ask for a better gig.

8.  What’s your favorite part about publishing the monthly High Country Writers Journal?

Wow. There’s so much.

Let’s take the December issue this year. In November, I made a lavish Christmas issue, and went off to bed. The next morning I opened it up, and saw that I’d only thought of Christmas, when so many great holidays happen around the Winter Solstice! So I made a Chanukkah template, a Kwanzaa template, and a separate template for the article I wrote about all the other Winter Solstice holidays I could lay my hands on. It was difficult and tetchy, and I loved doing it. The writing, the editing, the art work, finagling it all together to make it work, the thought that goes into putting it all together—I really love it all.

9.  What advice do you have for making the most of attending a writing conference?

Comfortable shoes. Trust me on this: Wear the comfy shoes.

If you have a published book, bring copies, even if copies are supposed to be there. Tzatzkes reminding people of your book can be fun.

Once you’re at the conference,

First, find the dining room.

Use your schedule of events to figure out what you want to attend, and where it will happen.

Walk around and locate places where your chosen events will take place. Add about 5 minutes to the time it takes you to walk to each place, so you won’t get there late.

As important as the shoes, go around making friends. Seek out people you know are attending; seek out people you met on the ’Net; seek out people you don’t know. The more friends you make, the more fun you’ll have.

10. What do you do when you aren’t writing?

I read, a lot. Some of it is research; some recreational. I sometimes work on biblical Hebrew before going to sleep.

I love to cook, even if it’s only for myself. I improvise and experiment a lot, not always successfully.

I exercise while watching marathons on tv. The Ovation channel is now running a Nutcracker marathon. It makes for great background sound as I peddle away on my exercise bike.

I also have my guilty pleasures—soap operas, British-style crossword puzzles, odd magazines …

11. Chat about your pets – we love those.

I have a Burmese (I think) cat–-all black and square-built, with gold eyes and a soft, thick coat. Jumper’s clever, with a strange sense of humor. She keeps her long, sharp claws in when she plays with humans, but hunts savagely, but rarely kills. I’ve rescued all sorts of small critters, until I decided she doesn’t come in the house with carry-ons. I’ve never been a fan of decorating pets, but Jumper actually enjoys getting new collars. She lifts her chin and arches her neck to facilitate adjustment, then sits still, all but saying, “…and…?” until I wax poetic about her beauty. I got Jumper from Friends for Life, a rescue organization, so I have no idea of where or how she came to have such nice manners and such unabashed vanity.

12. Who is your favorite Southern actor(s)?

I really enjoy the work of both Reba McEntire and Tommy Lee Jones.

Fine Art of Humor by Leslie Brunetsky

Hardly anyone doubts the value of laughter in our lives. It’s good for relieving stress, keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously and according to current research, keeps us healthy. If those aren’t good enough reasons to include humor in your writing, consider the fact that it can be a handy tool for breaking up long-winded narrative. I would never suggest any of us are guilty of that, mind you, but if you know somebody who is, pass that along.

Humor is everywhere if you have a keen sense to recognize it. Not all of it is pretty, however. Consider how much popular humor relates to some pretty painful situations. Conjure up Don Rickles or Rodney Dangerfield and you’ll know what I mean. The late Jim Henson of Muppet fame used a hilarious scene in one of his films. He showed Kermit and Miss Piggy approaching a French restaurant. As they got near the door, they saw a parade of frogs with no legs on crutches hobbling out of the eatery. We often joke about illness, disability, marital discord and problems rearing children, to name a few.

Our families are often the subject of humor. If you think yours has a good sense of humor, watch it go out the window if you write about some family flaws. There’s hardly a memoir writer out there who hasn’t discovered that truth.

There are some caveats when writing humor. It’s generally accepted that the more universal an incident is, the funnier it will be to more readers. Avoid the very unique situation that might have occurred that sent you into fits of laughter if the circumstances are not something the typical reader will have experienced or understand.

Try to avoid writing anything about a real person that they might consider slanderous. No one laughs when they get sued.

There are a number of tricks you can use in your writing to add humor. Play around with some of these and see if you can insert humor into your fiction or non-fiction manuscripts.

Try surprising your readers. Many humorous instances carry a large element of surprise. The reader is being led along toward a logical conclusion and then you shift gears and throw them out of their comfort zone. An example:  Rebecca is dreading going home after an aggravating day at the office. The thought of having to nag her kids to do their homework and hear her husband gripe because she forgot to take something out of the freezer for dinner for the third time this week, makes her consider not going home at all. She pushes herself and reaches her driveway. Dragging her briefcase like a ball and chain, she fumbles for her key. Just as she’s about to dump her purse on the ground to find it, her husband opens the door wrapped in nothing but Saran Wrap. “I sent the kids to my mother’s,” he announces with a twinkle in his eye.

Another tool is exaggeration. Talking about the effects of gravity on our aging bodies seems to be a sure winner. We all know support garments can do just so much. Descriptions of men and women who have observed various body parts around their knees seem to strike a universal funny bone. I recently heard a stand-up comic who in a nine-minute routine made fun of sexual dysfunction, Alzheimer’s, other types of dementia and Parkinson’s disease. The last one got the biggest laugh, by the way.

Perhaps that’s because we like to see a writer neutralize our demons with humor. Poking fun at things we fear makes them seem ridiculous and thereby less scary.

Some people use funny words. Don’t ask me why, but rhubarb is considered a funny word. Supposedly, words with a “k” sound are funny. Body parts are often funny, depending on the context. Some consider these words funny: aardvark; floppy; honk; tutu; and the old standby, weenie.

If you’re too worried about offending someone, you will probably not try to use humor. One needs to kill off a hefty herd of sacred cows in order to gain the freedom to be funny. There is probably no subject that somebody won’t find funny if it’s put in the proper context. Sometimes you can inject humor by putting something in the wrong context. Example: the football player in a tutu.

If you have a character that is inclined to be self-deprecating, that’s an ideal way to insert humor into your work. Most of us have just enough self-doubt to be able to identify with such characters.

Writers often ask how they can write humor if they’re not funny. The short answer is you don’t have to be funny to make your characters do or say funny things. If you don’t think you can find funny material, spend some time observing people. Just fade into the landscape and watch people for a couple of hours. You can choose almost any venue to do this. People really do and say some funny things.

I have seen humor in books about the Holocaust, child abuse, Alzheimer’s and every tragic theme you can name. If done well, it adds to any story or non-fiction topic. And remember, you’re making a contribution to the health of your readers when you use it. That might keep them alive longer to buy more of your books.

Real Country by Leslie Brunetsky:  Two middle-aged city gals bring their northern urban ways to a southern Appalachian holler. They build a log cabin while tripping over the customs, language, religion and politics of their new Appalachian neighbors. Relocation to a new culture is not for the faint of heart, but Leslie and Hope succeed in making the transition thanks to a large dose of humor and a willingness to adapt. Visit her website www.lesliesrealcountry.com

BOOKS — TREASURES THAT NEVER LEAVE US

My love of children’s books began, of course, in my own childhood.  First came the picture books; my brother’s reading books, in which I followed along as he read aloud; and then my own reading books in school with titles like “Dick and Jane” and phrases like “See Spot run.”

The books improved, however, and by the time I was eight years old, I checked out my first library books.  I can still remember the first one, and how I loved reading it, after which I acted out the various parts.  That book was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Other books that claimed my attention included Anne of Green Gables , Alice in Wonderland, and the  Nancy Drew collections.  Even The Hardy Boys earned my adoration.

Other childhood books included Heidi, Little Women, The Boxcar Children, and the Five Little Peppers series.

In between high school and college, I had a job in a library.  There I discovered many books that I “befriended,” and also met an author who came to speak to us.  His name was  Leo Politi, and his book was The Butterflies Come. Beautifully illustrated, I was so impressed that he autographed the book, adding some colorful drawings next to his signature.  This book is apparently no longer in print.

Song of the Swallows, one of his other books is still available, however, and is representational of his unique illustrations.

Alas, I do not know what became of my autographed book.  I suspect that one or another of my younger siblings “befriended” it as their own!

My mother had two books (currently out of print!) that she received as gifts in 1921.  Amazing!  As a child, I read them over and over again…they were true treasures to me.  While I was working in that library, I took them down and repaired the bindings.  Sadly, they could use it again.  A few years ago, my mother gave them to me.   One was called Cornelli, by the author of Heidi (Johanna Spyri), and the other was Elsie Dinsmore, by Martha Finley.

In college, I took a course in Children’s Literature and first became acquainted with Caldecott and Newberry winners.   During the semester’s course, the Caldecott winner was “Where the Wild Things Are,” which has recently won some attention as a feature film.

One of the legacies I gave to my children, I believe, was a love of books.  My younger two enjoyed the books I read, but oddly enough, did not go on to become avid readers.  My older two are more inclined to read for pleasure.  During the time that my younger children were growing up, a barrage of other activities seemed to claim them, like TV, video games, etc.  In my own childhood, books were my friends.  We didn’t have a TV until I was ten or so, and by then, books had already won my heart and my attention.

Some of the books my own children and grandchildren have adored are the many Caldecott and Newberry winners, and a book by Judith Viorst, to which they could relate:  Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Oddly enough, as adults, some of us could relate to that one!  I recall taking it to work one day and photocopying pages and posting them on the bulletin board.  Coworkers enjoyed them too!

Nowadays, reading occupies a lot of my time, in addition to my own writing.  And I blog about reading…another obsession of mine lately.

But all of this sums up the value that books have given to me.  They are treasures that never leave us.

How Knitters Connect by Linda Bulger

A classic beginner’s exercise in public speaking is the speech about something you know how to do well. Whether it’s hanging wallpaper, training a dog to heel, or planning a cruise, the activity you are passionate about is the subject you can speak of with confidence and interest.

Knitting for Victory pattern booklet, 1943

The same applies to writing; an informative, well-written article always finds its audience, and the knitting world is a great example. Though hand knitting never disappeared entirely from the American scene, a new generation picked up the needles to knit for victory during WWII and went on to use some of their new leisure in the 1950s to knit for family and home.  

Over the next three decades the craft was enriched by comprehensive publications on technique as well as no-nonsense guides for expressing personal creativity in knitting. This legacy of empowerment was exemplified by the British-born Elizabeth Zimmermann, who wrote with her tongue firmly in her cheek, “Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence.” (Knitting Without Tears, 1971)  

Elizabeth Zimmermann, the “Godmother of American knitting”

In our modern age of the wiki, Elizabeth Zimmermann would have been right at home. Her vision of ordinary knitters in charge of their own knitting has never been more real than it is today. Any knitter with an internet connection can offer a pattern for sale, buy yarn and tools from anywhere in the world, and claim solidarity with the latest “viral” pattern or technique. Books proliferate, but it’s the amount of internet participation that fascinates me. 

It’s the nature of the internet that we can’t know exactly how many knitting blogs exist, but a search on Bloglines feed reader shows nearly 1,000 RSS feeds with “Knitting” in the title, and another 900 containing the words “Knit,” “Knitter” or “Yarn.” Technorati returns 2,660 blogs on a search for “knitting.” In 2009, knit-blogger and self-proclaimed blog stat junkie Knittsings posted the Top 100 knitting blogs with public traffic stats, showing that the top five had a combined 19,000 hits a day on average. What do those five bloggers have to say that fascinates us to that extent?  What is their influence?

Knit-blogger Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot

Top of the “hit list” is Canadian blogger Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot. McPhee has been blogging for six years and is the author of six popular books on what it is to be a knitter; in December 2004 she founded Tricoteuses sans Frontières/Knitters without Borders to raise funds for Doctors without Borders, challenging knitters to give what they can. The total just rolled above one million dollars. Her eager readers have watched her daughters grow up, shared her family’s joys and troubles, and celebrated the joys of knitting love into every stitch.

Gold medal from the 2006 Knitting Olympics

In 2006 McPhee “got an idea” and launched the Knitting Olympics, inviting knitters to begin a project during the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies and finish in the sixteen days of the Games. Four thousand knitters signed on for the fun. Now that’s influence!  

You may be surprised to know that men knit too, and two of the top five bloggers on Knittsing’s list are men. Designer Jared Flood, blogging as Brooklyn Tweed, published photos of a very simple scarf he made from a popular yarn. The scarf design had been floating around on Flickr for a long time and Flood was clear that this was just how HE made it, but the pattern “went viral” and any internet-savvy knitter would recognize it “from a galloping horse,” the knitter’s test for whether to rip out a mistake and re-knit. The Noro Striped Scarf returns 175,000 hits on a Google search, and much of that popularity is attributed to Flood and the other bloggers who buzzed about the design for months.

Noro Striped Scarf from Jared Flood, aka Brooklyn Tweed

Knitters can search Youtube for instructional videos on knitting (41,800 hits); download podcasts; read free online knitting magazines; buy yarn from mega-sites or home-based processers and dyers; and search Flickr for photos tagged “knitting” (881,000 pictures). But the modern mecca for knitters (and crocheters) is a social networking website called Ravelry. Established in 2007 by husband-and-wife team Casey and Jessica Forbes, the site recently went out of beta and has over 600,000 members from around the world. As I’m writing this, there are over 3,000 Ravelers from 40 countries logged in to the site. 

The outpouring of user content into the Ravelry database is phenomenal. Members upload details of their projects and their yarn stash; there are databases of pattern books and magazines, hundreds of thousands of links to patterns (free or for purchase), discussion forums for any subject of interest, and incredible searching functionality. No knitter needs to work in isolation and all knitters have something to offer the site. 

 

The “reach” of all this user content is worldwide. The most popular pattern on Ravelry, fingerless mitts called “Fetching,” has been made or queued 14,000 times. The second most popular pattern is a baby jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Two of Jared Flood’s patterns are in the top 10. Knitters all over the world would recognize those top ten patterns, and their importance wasn’t decided by editors or other experts–knitters have decided for themselves what to knit, what to value. It’s the new way.

“Slither” gloves, pattern from online mag Knitty.com, currently on my needles

My generation has the best of both worlds. My grandmother first put needles and yarn in my hands; her English was minimal but the language of knitting doesn’t require words. Yet words and pictures, flashing to my screen, now connect me with the worldwide community of crafters who love knitting and love to write about it. The challenge is there for designers, just as it is for writers: how to catch that wave, how to be THE ONE that everyone’s talking about? It helps to be good and to work hard, but there’s an intangible something else…we may never be able to define that “something else” but when it comes our way, we need to grab its tail and hang on for the ride.

All about C. Robert Lee, Esteemed Photojournalist, Author of “Circles of Destiny” Trilogy

by Betty Dravis

Betty Dravis: Welcome to Dames of Dialogue, Bob. It’s a pleasure to have such a distinguished photojournalist with us today. I’d like to make it clear upfront that I know you personally, having been friends back in the day…waaaaay back in Hamilton High School (Ohio) when we were classmates. You just happened to be my first movie date, but that has nothing to do with why I am interviewing you, of course. I selected you because you are a Dream Reacher of the first caliber and have been very successful in your chosen career. That said, I’m curious about how you got started; did the photography come before the writing or vice-versa? And which do you enjoy doing the most?

Bob Lee at home in Idyllwild with his lovely wife Ileana... Christmas 2009

Bob Lee: Well, Betty, I think I could be described as an “in the moment kind of guy.”  Whatever I’m doing gets my full attention. When I was in junior high school, after seeing me hunt-and-pecking on her old, black Underwood typewriter, my mother predicted that when I grew up I would be a writer. (Incidentally, she was timed in a typing competition at one hundred ten words a minute. She was so fast the keys often stuck together…)

In my first year of high school I built a small darkroom in the basement and taught myself how to process film and print photographs. The best of my prints of classmates ended up taped to the inside of my school locker door—especially the shots of two pretty classmates wrapped in white towels over their swim suits. At graduation ceremonies I was chosen as the student most likely to become a Hollywood photographer. Both predictions were to come true before I was twenty-nine. Whatever I’m doing, I like best.  To discover a truth from a chain of words that tumbles from your mind that you didn’t know was there that literally sings to your heart and brings tears is the most satisfying gift of all.

Bob's photo of famous, glamorous actress Zsa Zsa Gabor for a segment of TV's popular Burke's Law, produced by the iconic Aaron Spelling

A few years after graduating from Hamilton High School, I decided to move to California, but detoured in Denver, Colorado—planning to work my way to California. (More details of that below…) My first break in photography actually came through the US Air Force. In Denver in November of 1951, I enlisted in the Air Force and was assigned to the 307th Bomber Wing stationed on the island of Okinawa where I ended up in a photographic unit processing aerial photos of bombing raids by B-29s on North Korea’s ammunition factories and dumps. Magnesium flares were dropped to light up the ground and the photos were used to evaluate the success of the mission.

The airfield had great photo processing facilities that we photographers were encouraged to use to expand our photographic skills in our free time. I bought an expensive German Rollaflex camera. On weekends and holidays I toured around the island going into many of the small, out-of-the-way villages and beaches on a bicycle I bought for ten dollars. I took hundreds of pictures of local scenes and people. Then I used the base labs to process film and make prints when the labs were not in use. Later, I took 8×10 prints to some of the people I had photographed. My commanding officer really liked my work and suggested that I had a natural talent for composition and “timing the moment with people.” He encouraged me to consider becoming a photojournalist when my tour of duty was over. The CO gave me a third stripe and placed me in charge of the copy lab which was a smaller darkroom with a workroom set up for making copies. “As long as you can keep up with your work flow for me, you can do your own work anytime you feel like it,” he said. That was the luckiest break in the world for someone who wanted to be a first-class photographer and had two more years to serve in the Air Force. The CO saw something in me that was planted and shaped by my hard-working, Christian parents.

When you’re given a job to do, do it beyond what is expected and it will be noticed and rewarded. It turned out that I had this darkroom all to myself for the rest of my tour on the island and I didn’t have to pay for any supplies but my film. I was the only one of the photographers who worked in the labs who wanted to be a photojournalist.

Gene Barry, handsome, debonair star of "Burke's Law," is pictured above left with legendary actress Gloria Swanson. Barry passed away on December 11, 2009.

Betty Dravis: I can tell you’re proud of your parents, Bob. They set a good example and now you’re setting one for your children. I relate to our high school class predicting you would be a photographer. Coincidentally, the Class Prophecy, as we called it back then, also predicted I would be a writer. And it’s also a coincidence that we both ended up in California–at opposite ends–after taking different paths to get where we are.

As I noted above, I have known you since my youth, but failed to state that we were not in contact during the majority of that time. I hope you don’t mind if I share the unusual story of how we renewed our friendship after many years.  When my first novel, Millennium Babe: The Prophecy, was published in December 2000, as part of a public relations campaign I bought a copy of a Hamilton High School Directory that listed my classmates with last-known addresses. You were one of the ones who received the letter I composed and you immediately wrote to me (snail-mail). Later we started emailing, exchanging “war stories” about our careers and families. Since then I have met your lovely wife, Ileana, and you two have been up North to visit me several times. Crossing paths again more than fifty years after graduation is mind-boggling, but I am grateful it happened. We have shared a lot of laughs since then and learned new writing skills from each other…not to mention life lessons.

The late, great producer Aaron Spelling is pictured in his home library (in chair), brainstorming for scenes of "Burke's Law."

Bob Lee: You’re right, Betty. Whenever I relate that story, my friends are astonished. But to tell more of what happened after graduating from high school in 1947, I worked for a wholesale automotive parts store for two years. It became boring and repetitive and I yearned for something new and exciting and one day at the local library I found it: skiing! I decided to put dreams of California on hold, move to Denver, Colorado and learn how to ski.

The store I worked for was the Savage Auto Supply Company, owned and operated by three brothers and their aging father. One day I asked Bob Savage, the oldest brother and general manager, if he knew anybody in Denver in the auto parts business. He had met some men at a national convention several years earlier who owned ten stores throughout Colorado and he volunteered to write a letter of recommendation and introduction. Bob also phoned his friend and he offered me a job over the phone. I accepted and within a week I was on my way in my 1942 Buick Roadmaster convertible–with everything I owned in the trunk and back seat.

By 1951 we were in a war with North Korea, so I enlisted in the Air Force for four years. When I returned from Okinawa I was stationed at Travis Air Force Base, a few hours’ drive north of San Francisco. I was assigned to the base photo lab along with forty other photographers and only enough work for two. Most of us were free to wander about the base at our leisure. It was obvious after a few weeks that we were not going to get an early discharge, except three months early was granted to those who enrolled in college. I enrolled, but that still left me with a year of service. When I started gaining weight I began going to the base gym to workout with pick-up games of basketball.

Then one day in the Special Services Lounge my ace-in-the-hole jumped up and hit me right in the eyes. Goosebumps ran down my back and arms. There it was again: skiing, my salvation from boredom. The Air Force owned a recreational ski lodge on top of Donner Summit. The notice of its existence was on a small sheet of paper on a bulletin board. The details of using it were pitiful.

I asked around and finally got in touch with the CO of Special Services, Colonel Rhodes. To make a long story much shorter, I got my CO to transfer me with Colonel Rhodes’s approval to Special Services and assignment as the ski instructor to replace the one being discharged in three weeks. The photographs of my ski trips to the Japanese Alps from Okinawa are what convinced the Colonel to request my transfer. I put together photojournalistic posters that were displayed around the base with the visual and written details that made the lodge desirable. This chapter of my life is a novel in the making. I spent that winter on the mountains of the Sierra Nevada making friends with all the ski resort owners, photographing ski races, dating female Olympic racers and photographing them. All these contacts were going to serve me well after I graduated from college and began my career as a freelance photojournalist. There is more, but I need to follow a chronological line of thought.

Montage of photos Bob shot for a LASSIE spread in TV Life

Betty Dravis: That sounds good to me, Bob…whatever works for you, works for me. But before you continue, I’m glad you mentioned playing basketball in the service; that reminds me that you were captain of our school basketball team back in the day too.

It’s interesting that your career got started in Colorado and really took off when you hit California. The photos and stories you wrote are intriguing and published in prestigious magazines, and I’m impressed by some of your interview subjects, especially the late, great, iconic producer Aaron Spelling. I really enjoyed all of his famous TV productions; the list is too long to place here but it includes Charlie’s Angels, Dynasty, Burke’s Law, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place, all phenomenal hits.

Bob Lee: I didn’t publish or write anything until after I was discharged from the AF in September of 1955 and had graduated from The Art Center School in Los Angeles with a degree in Photojournalism. Students in their last year at the Art Center are required to create the equivalent of a Thesis for a Doctorate, except there is no tolerance for sky gazing with wooly-muffle prose that has no chance of being published. I decided to shoot for the stars by writing and photographing  a couple who had unsuccessful first marriages and in their second marriage they were living on Donner Summit year round, raising Husky sled dogs and small children and experiencing some of the largest snow storms of the twentieth century. My project was patterned after The Saturday Evening Post’s “How America Lives” series.

After Will Connell, my PJ professor gave me an A+, I sent New Love—New Life in the High Sierras to the photo editor at The SEP. She rejected it, but her letter was very encouraging. She wrote, “This story is the finest, most complete free-lance submission I have ever received. We plan our stories a year ahead of time and we already have our winter stories set for this winter. It would be wrong of me to ask to hold it for a year; it’s too good. Please send it to another magazine.”

This rejection was a disappointment, but I have always believed that I have a powerful guardian angel. I would be graduating two months later and I had other work to do for other classes. Within a week, I was called into the Dean’s office to meet a widely published PJ from New York and Florida named Carroll Seghers, lll. Carroll was looking to hire an assistant photographer with knowledge of the city, a good car and a good eye for “people” photography. He had three assignments for New York magazines. The Dean had recommended me, if I was interested. Fifty dollars a day and all expenses! Would I turn that down? Not on your life! Carroll was to become my most influential mentor. He was living the life I wanted to copy. The next four months of my life changed so fast that only a grace-bestowing God could bring all these elements to fruition in such a short period of time.

Famous Fashion Designer Don Loper with his high-fashion gowns

Betty Dravis: Wow, that’s exciting, Bob. I’ll never forget my first big break in journalism when I was a free-lancer and invited to interview the popular actor Clint Eastwood and shortly after that, the sexy movie star of the 50s, Jane Russell! Those were heady days for both of us, it seems.

Your list of credits and the big names that you photographed and wrote of are very impressive: producer Aaron Spelling, actors Zsa Zsa Gabor, Gloria Swanson, Vivian Leigh, June Allyson and Gene Barry (during Aaron’s TV production of Burke’s Law)…not to mention the 1960 Winter Olympics. And it must have been fun to photograph Bob Hope with Jon Provost, the new (at the time) boy in the popular Lassie TV series. And the list of magazines who published you reads like a Who’s Who of magazines: Time, West, Cosmopolitan, TV Life, Saturday Evening Post. You even had assignments for the Encyclopedia Britannica; the list of credits goes on and on…

Bob Lee: Thanks, Betty, it was the most exciting and rewarding period of my life at that point and I’d like to share more: In the last four months of 1958 I graduated from the Art Center School with “distinction.” Carroll Seghers read New Love—New Life in the High Sierras and loved it. He phoned Robert Atherton, the executive editor of Cosmopolitan magazine and praised my story. Robert said, “Send it overnight express.” Within three days the story was sold for $750. Carroll’s first assignment was to photograph Frank Sinatra while acting in a new movie. That went well. Next, was a story about a complete cast change in one episode of Lassie for Life Magazine. The PR rep for the show asked Carroll to take some pictures of the new boy, Jon Provost, that would make a nice cover for TV Life magazine. Carroll suggested that I do it. I think it paid three hundred dollars and Carroll told me to keep it all.

The next story was a photo study of the life of teen-agers in California for Cosmopolitan. The editor chose to use two of my shots. By the time Carroll was ready to return home, we were bonded friends and I had learned so much from him that I integrated over the next several years. His parting advice was, “Get some ideas together for stories you want to do and take them to New York and contact as many editors as you can. Bob Atherton told me that he thinks you have a bright future and wants to meet you. Your story is going to run ten pages and he’s not changing one word. I don’t suppose you’re aware that he has edited Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald.”

Unique shot of fashion designer Don Loper with mannequins of his famous clientele: Peggy Lee, June Allyson, Ella Fitzgerald, Esther Williams, etc.

I was delighted, to say the least, so I followed Carroll’s advice and went to New York where I bunked down at the Manhattan YMCA near Grand Central Station for three dollars a night. On the flight I considered that maybe I should try to get an agent. In the yellow pages I found the literary agency listings. I didn’t recognize any names until I reached the s’s and saw Ad Schulberg. I remembered reading a book called What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Schulberg and decided to give this Schulberg a call. After I told her that I had sold a story to Cosmo that was going to run ten pages in the December issue, she invited me to her home that was a beautiful apartment on Fifth Avenue in the heart of Manhattan. She was a small, elegant-looking lady with a friendly, engaging smile and demeanor. After a few minutes of conversation, I learned she was Budd’s mother and for years had been a talent agent for some of the most famous movie stars in Hollywood. Her husband was the president of RKO and later, Paramount. In one book I read later she was referred to as “The Queen of Hollywood.” She preferred the less stressful agenting of writers. She agreed to represent me and asked me to have dinner with her that night. She had two tickets to a classy supper club where a new singer named Barbara Streisand was performing. It was a grand evening.

The following day, Bob Atherton took me to lunch. I told him about my experience as a ski instructor during my last year in the Air Force and that I wanted to do a story about the Alexander Cushings of Squaw Valley and the coming 1960 Winter Olympics. He said he would think about it and let me know. After a week in Manhattan, I had four pre-sold assignments and had met ten editors that I could approach by phone later with ideas. I was on my way…

Back in California I decided to make the rounds of the LA advertising agencies with my portfolio of children’s photographs. I sold two to a young account executive named Angela Fox Dunn. She asked me where I had taken the pictures. The answer necessitated telling her about New Love-New Life. She wanted to read it; she was a frustrated writer and after reading it, she invited me to a picnic on the beach where we discussed writing. I learned that she was in love with an Italian man whose sister had recently returned from Spain after two years of working in Madrid for an American contractor as an interpreter. “Her name is Ileana and she speaks four languages, lived in Milan, Italy through WWII. You two would really like each other. She’s from a good family and she graduated from Scripps College in 1956. She will make someone a fantastic wife. You’re both the same age.”

Angela’s uncle is William Fox of Twentieth Century Fox Studios. Her mother is the story editor at Fox Studios. Angela has published several hundred movie star profiles in the LA Times, but most important to me, as it turned out, Angela was a born matchmaker! She hosted a Christmas Eve dinner party for Ileana and I to meet and invited another couple that she had brought together. The Fox family in LA is sizable and some of them take turns hosting holiday parties between Christmas and New Year’s Eve every year and Angela took us to every one of them. After the fifth night-party at a beach house north of Malibu Beach and under a full moon I proposed to Ileana and she accepted. We stopped at Coffee Dan’s in Santa Monica to drink a toast to each other and plan how to break the news to our families.

As timing would have it, the following morning I had a call from Bob Atherton in New York. “Good news, Robert. We’ve decided to go ahead with the Cushing Squaw Valley Olympics piece, but you’ll have to be in Squaw Valley early morning New Year’s Day to get the pictures we need. Okay?”

“Why the rush, Bob, I’m planning to get married in a few days.”

“I apologize for the short notice, but the three Cushing daughters are attending a private school in Virginia and are home for the holidays, but they are returning to Virginia by train at 3 pm on January 1st. We need pictures of the entire family on the mountain showing the valley below.”

I hesitated for long moments before Bob interrupted my thoughts by saying, “I appreciate your dilemma. Let me sweeten the pot to present to your fiancée. We will pay all your honeymoon expenses by giving you a second assignment of “How and Where Californians Have Fun” and you can take all the time you need—within reason, of course.”

“Okay, Bob, it’s a daunting task, but I’ll try. I’ve got to schedule a preacher, get a blood test, a license, buy a ring, put my ski gear together, organize my camera gear, then notify all the family on both sides. I’ll ask Ileana and get back to you shortly.”

I phoned Ileana and she said, “Let’s do it.” And we did! That turned out to be the most important and luckiest day of my life.

Betty Dravis: Sounds like your guardian angel was working overtime that day, Bob–fantastic photography deals and a lovely wife in one fell swoop! Your life was taking off to stratospheric heights… But time flies, and you and Ileana now have a grown daughter and son and reside in Idyllwild, California, with a second home near Palm Springs. Both locations are among the most beautiful places on earth. I’d like to ask a simpler question about photography and then move on to your novel. We love talking “books” here at Dames of Dialogue, but since I know you also photograph breathtaking landscapes and seascapes, I would like you to share your favorite one with us.

Bob Lee: That may be a simpler question, Betty, but since I love nature in all its manifestations, I can’t choose a favorite. Is it okay if I e-mail you a selection of my best nature shots and you choose your favorite?

Later Bob chose his favorite landscape, and I agree. It's a breathtaking shot of California's last glacier, Palisades Glacier, at Big Pond Canyon.

Betty Dravis: That’s a deal, Bob! I’m the winner in this situation because I get to see a number of your lovely works. I won’t name the one I select now because the story is finished before I select the photos; instead I’ll post my favorite here. It will be hard to choose between a mountain mirrored in a lake and a glorious sunset or sunrise, for example, but I’ll do my best. Thanks for the opportunity.

And now on to your adventures in Peru and a bit of book talk: I know that you have some connection with Peru and a trilogy you are creating is set in that country. Bob, I have read your unpublished manuscript and it’s a powerful, dynamic accomplishment with unforgettable characters. I hope it gets published soon because you’ve worked on it for over twenty years and it’s a remarkable story. I think the world is ready for something so well-written and original. I think it would make a blockbuster of an action movie with a strong love story.

Please tell us about your adventures in Peru and whether that inspired Circles of Destiny. Feel free to name the books that form the trilogy, capturing the essence of each in one line…which is the hard task that publishers ask us authors to do…

Bob Lee: My daughter’s Godmother, LiLita Fraser Mellon was born and raised in Peru. A close friend of hers was in the San Pedro area looking to buy five used tuna boats to take back to Peru because the local boat builders had lost too many unseaworthy new boats and there were millions of tons of anchovies running just a few miles off the Peruvian coast. We entertained this wealthy young man at our Lake Sherwood home. I traveled to Peru with his fleet of five tuna boats and was welcomed into the Fraser household as a family member by LiLita’s physician father and her mother, brother and sister-in-law. All of them had been guests at our Lake Sherwood home. I was also welcomed into the homes of all of LiLita’s friends that she had written letters to. Her brother was a very well-connected businessman. The eldest daughter of the vice-president of Peru taught me much about Peruvian society. I had many adventures in Peru and they did inspire the writing of the novels, but at the time I wasn’t conscious of gathering research.

As you know, Betty, it’s almost impossible to put a story concept in one line, so I hope it’s okay if I give a portion of an overview that I use with my submission letters:

In 1968, the year of the assassins, an angst-driven priest, Father Doug Ryan, is sent to Peru from Los Angeles to investigate an Andean padre accused of using mission funds to buy guns for Communist guerrillas. He is mistakenly identified by a dictator-in-the-making as the source of the Andean padre’s gun money and is marked for torture and death. Choosing to take a dying street urchin to a hospital, rather than meeting with the Cardinal-Archbishop of Lima, saves the priests’ life. The death of the street urchin creates an unbreakable bond between the priest and the doctor who tries to save the boy. Several hours later, the doctor chooses to risk his own life to help save the wounded priest who is being chased through downtown Lima by two squads of counter–revolutionary soldiers. The doctor hides the priest in his nieces’ bookstore with her help. The realization that the dying boy as well as the doctor and his niece, Chabuca Barcea, has saved his life compels the priest to follow a treacherous path to fulfill his spiritual mission.

By helping to save Father Ryan’s life, Chabuca is forced onto an unknown path to preserve her life and her father’s manuscript. She volunteers to be Ryan’s guide and Quechua interpreter by going into the Andean wilderness with him to find the renegade priest. Their journey turns into a quest for spiritual peace, an epic blend of fiction , history and personal experience.

The narrative continues in the second book of the Circles of Destiny trilogy, Heart of a Warrior – Soul of a Saint, and comes full circle with a satisfying, dramatic ending in the third book. It’s titled Spirit of the H.A.R.P; it’s a work in progress and is almost finished. Chabuca and Doug continue the search for her father’s assassins until she is kidnapped by a communist guerilla leader, Pactimbo, the Russian. The ransom is that her uncle, a senator, write and persuade the legislature to pass a land reform. After the dictator’s attempt to assassinate the president fails, a coup d’état succeeds, and the secret policy of genocide continues against the landless Indian population.

"Roller Coaster Joy" was chosen to be in a world tour and later the editors of the TIME-LIFE Encyclopedia of Photography chose it to represent JOY in the series.

Betty Dravis: I know you are not a man of few words, Bob, so am not surprised that you didn’t wish to condense your ambitious, exciting trilogy into one sentence per book. Whenever an agent or a publisher asks me to do that, I often think how unrealistic it is…but I try to go with the flow. I’m happy you gave this more lengthy description. It’s very well presented here and will surely intrigue all who read it.  Since you’re retired now and have always believed in following your dreams to fulfillment, I assume that getting your trilogy published is your next big dream. Is it out to submission currently and what do you hope for your writing career in the next few years?

Bob Lee: Yes, Betty, I’m very excited by the prospect of getting these books in print. The first book of the trilogy is with one of Hollywood’s leading literary agents, Joel Gotler in Beverly Hills. I’m awaiting some news, but have learned to be patient when dealing with agents and publishers.

Betty Dravis: You already mentioned the influence of Carroll Seghers, lll on your life, but who are others you look up to? I, myself, have had a lot of mentors and mine are as different as the sun and the moon: Clint Eastwood influenced me when he went on after I interviewed him to reach astronomical heights. He taught me to dream big and not let anything stop me; Eleanor Roosevelt was a font of wisdom; and my parents taught me all about honesty, kindness, the importance of dreaming and to follow Biblical teachings. And like many writers, my favorite authors inspire me: from famous ones like Pat Conroy, Joseph Finder and Maya Angelou to soon-to-be-famous writers like my friends Christy Tillery French, Chris Platt, Chase Von, Laurel Rain Snow, Caitlyn Hunter and Maggie Bishop. I’m wondering who your favorite authors are and which one inspired you most.

Bob Lee: Pearl Buck, The Good Earth; John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath; Graham Green, The Power and The Glory: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo; all the books of Thomas Merton; all the books of Carl Jung; Soul Mates by Thomas Moore; The Life of Saint Francis by Nikolas Kazantkazakis; The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone; Lust for Life by Irving Stone; Scene and Summary by Leon Surmallion. I also spent twelve weeks with Lajos Egri , a Hollywood script doctor and renowned Hungarian playwright who wrote the quintessential The ART of Dramatic Writing and several others.

I’ve learned much from each one of these men and women, but the most inspiration comes from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Betty Dravis: I can see His influence on you, Bob, and find that admirable. If you had the influence to change anything in the history of the world, or the present or the future, what would you choose to change and why?

Bob Lee: The Bible tells us that “God hates a Liar.” President Abraham Lincoln said, “No man (or woman) has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” I would vote for a law that says, “Every politician that lies to those who have put their trust in them shall be subject to jail time at hard labor based on the severity of their lies and the damage their lies have done to innocent lives.” Just being voted out of office into a cushy retirement income for the rest of their lives is cultural suicide and unjust to those who have to work harder to pay the increased taxes to keep these lying thieves in the luxurious lifestyles they’ve become accustomed to.

Betty Dravis: That might sound harsh to some readers, Bob, but most Americans have political savvy and would agree with you; politicians have gone too far and have caused catastrophic damage to too many people, to the detriment of our great nation.  Now for another question: If you could spend the day with one person (someone in history, a favorite author, a public figure, a character in a book, etc.), who would you choose and why?

Bob Lee: Jesus Christ, because He gave me mercy, grace and love, cleaned up my life and offered me the gift of eternal life. I’ve accepted that gift with gratitude.

Betty Dravis: Bob, I too am a believer and I admire your faith. Now this question is really two in one… and I think I know how you will respond: Next to your faith, writing and photography, what is your passion and what is your pet peeve?

Bob Lee: You probably guessed right, Betty. My passion is to honor each day and thank God for one more day of life on this beautiful earth and to revel in the miracles of life all around me. My pet peeve is a liar who lies about his lies.

Magnificent sunset that Bob Lee captured from the deck of his Idyllwild home. All rights to photos in this story are retained by C. Robert Lee.

Betty Dravis: Thanks for sharing so openly with us about your life, Bob.  It has been a delight learning more about you. I’m sure our readers will want to know even more about C. Robert Lee, so do you have any websites or links you would like to share with us?

Bob Lee: Not at this time, but people can reach me on FaceBook.com.

Betty Dravis: I’m on FaceBook, too, Bob, as are all the authors I know, many Amazon reviewer friends and many members of my extended family, including grand nieces and nephews. It’s a great place for quick, easy communication.

In closing, I would like to add: I know Circles of Destiny has received pre-reviews from a cross-section of people with well-developed critical faculties and impressive credentials. I don’t have room to share them all, but I would like to leave this one for our readers to digest because it’s the opinion of Norman Corwin, a writer-producer-director who holds visiting lectureship chairs at five major universities; chairs two Motion Picture Academy Award committees; has won twenty-two major awards in media and the humanities and has published seventeen books. A documentary film, The Golden Age of Norman Corwin was awarded an Oscar in March of 2006. After reading parts of Circles of Destiny to his advanced writing class at USC, he told the students: “The scenes of the dying street urchin, the feeling of impotence, compassion and loneliness on the part of Father Ryan, and how he and the good Doctor Tomas tasted the boy’s death in their souls haunted me to the point of tears. It was only my long professional training that got me through.” After lengthy discussion, Norman ended the session by saying, “As you have seen and felt, this writing achieves great power.”

Corwin’s evaluation is a perfect way to end this interview, Bob. Thanks again for sharing with us, and best of luck with Circles of Destiny. Check back with us and let us know when it’s published.

History of Political Correctness by Bart Bare

Pejorative is one of those interesting Latin-based words that have been Anglicized into our vocabulary.  In ancient Rome it meant to worsen.  However, in our modern vernacular it has strayed into darker waters.  My Rodale Synonym Finder lists some thirty words that connote things pejorative.  Unpleasant words like disparaging, deprecatory, contemptuous, mocking, and ridiculing.  None of the words are positive in any way, and oddly enough, fifteen of the thirty begin with the letter “d.”  Go figure.

I find this word “pejorative” interesting within the context of an article on political correctness because there are almost no non-pejorative uses of the term or the concept of political correctness.

Those who use and embrace the term do so in order to isolate, pigeon-hole, derogate those who don’t think like they do.  The non-users of the term seem to show unfailing contempt for the users.  There is nothing warm and fuzzy here.  It does not nurture, embrace, or support our basic humanity.

Nowhere is our antagonism with each other more evident than in the history of the notion, and eventually the term political correctness.  Humans have for millennia demonstrated an ability and desire to identify and reject those who differ from themselves – that is a given.  But let’s go to the more modern political systems for purposes of this work.  Many political writers like to use the French Revolution as a jumping off point, or as an underlying base for modern political ideas and methods.  That works well also for the concept of political correctness, if not the term itself.

The first modern use of the term is found in a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court (1793) in which an idea was deem not “politically correct.”  However, in this instance, the usage was intended to be literal – they could just have well used the words “not accurate.”

It was during and following the French Revolution that political correctness reared what amounted a remarkably ugly head – or perhaps guillotine blade – resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people who were deemed outside of the political pale of the day.  However, the term political correctness didn’t come into use until the mid-1800s – again it was in America.  Still, it was a rarely used esoteric term until the WWI British Ministry of Information used the expression in vetting language for “appropriateness.”  Even so, the term was not placed in the hands of the people until the communists latched onto it – and latch they did.  Firing squads were not uncommon for abusers in the Chinese communist movement of the 1920s.  The Russian communists following World War I used the term in the heavy-handed manner at which they – then and now – seem so adept.

American Progressive/Liberals had a short love affair with the term in the 1920s and 30s but when the Progressive/Liberal Icon, Mussolini, fell out of favor, so too did that movement in America – along with its vocabulary.  Americans, until recently, had a strong sense of the ridiculous, and the term political correctness was given a home by those with that sensibility.  It became a term of mirthful scorn.

And then came the Sixties. Race relations, gender issues, minority strivings, handicapped issues, and so on – the reader knows the drill.  Inherent to the “Issue Throng” was the desire to eliminate the pejorative labels that seemed to be affixed to almost all issue-worthy elements of our culture.  Nowhere does the statement “If I hadn’t believed it I wouldn’t have seen it” seem more powerfully universal than in those seeking to right the ills of the world through the royal roads of linguistics and semantics.  While the Issues People rarely used the term political correctness it was apparent to all that what they were about, and the term was thrust upon them by the infidels.

The battle was joined – with the conservatives calling the liberals politically correct at every turn of an issue – rather than bothering to argue the merits of the issues.  Finally, the liberals turned the tables and began doing the same to the conservatives – or at least trying to.  It has become one large ad hominem slugfest.  All one has to do is to be more successful than one’s opponent in placing the politically correct tail on the donkey – or elephant as it were.

As a term, politically correct has out-pejoratived all comers.  Why think when you can label?

Bart Bare’s next novel, Girl, will be released by Canterbury House Publishing in May 2010.   After her mother dies, a precocious teen of 14, Loren Creek, flees the foster care system in Tennessee by moving to North Carolina.  With the help of a curmudgeonly mountain man she manages to evade detection by assuming the identity of a boy. Having cared for her mother since the age of 11 and having studied dance and gymnastics at her mother’s insistence, Loren becomes a strong-willed, responsible, and physically capable girl, mature for her age. Lauren enters high school and her lean muscular appearance makes it easy to be accepted as a boy. She reluctantly, becomes the kicker on the school football team, and becomes popular with boys and girls alike, causing some stressful and confusing, even dangerous situations. Aldrich Herms, Loren’s foster care guardian takes her disappearance personally. He won’t give up until he finds her and places her with a good family according to his rules.

Joyce Scarbrough, an author for the rest of us chicks (the ones who “own more books than shoes”)!

 1.  Tell us about your latest book, Symmetry.

It’s humorous women’s fiction, but I like to call it “chick lit for women who own more books than shoes.” However, that’s not what makes it so different from other books of its kind. Like 8 million people in the U.S. and 40 million worldwide—including actor Colin Farrell—both the heroine of SYMMETRY and its author have trichotillomania (TTM), a compulsive hair-pulling disorder, and neither of them are ashamed to admit it. I always knew there had to be a good reason God gave me enough hair for three people–so I could pull it out and write about it! And I decided to put the issue into a novel rather than doing a non-fiction book about it because I hope to raise awareness of TTM in the general public and the woefully uninformed medical community. I’m tired of people with this disorder being told by their doctors that they’re crazy or defective when they simply have a nervous system disorder that is no more shameful than diabetes or high blood pressure.

 2.  Can you share a little bit about how you came up with the idea for your heroine, Jessica Cassady?  Why did you decide to give her trichotillomania, a condition most people know nothing about?

Jess is a lot like me in that she has TTM only to the degree that I have it. Because of behavior management techniques I’ve learned and because I have so much hair, no one would ever know I had TTM if I didn’t tell them. The same is true for Jess. Although the main storyline in SYMMETRY is about how Jess deals with her marriage issues and her relationship with her mother, I gave her TTM because there has never been a protagonist in a novel with TTM. I hope to present both myself and Jess as positive role models for the millions of people with this common physical disorder, many of whom don’t even know that what they do has a name. Contrary to what a lot of people think, I don’t consider TTM a mental illness, and it’s also not caused by abuse or trauma–I wouldn’t have it if it was. These points are illustrated in SYMMETRY.

 3.  Where do you find inspiration for your writing?

All my books are love stories at heart, and that comes from my lifelong love for other books of this kind. Like the epic loves in FOREVER AMBER and GONE WITH THE WIND, all my books feature couples whose love will never die, despite all the obstacles they encounter. I’m also immensely influenced by music, and my tastes in that are firmly rooted in love themes as well: songs like “Unchained Melody” and ”God Bless the Broken Road” are examples that express the kind of love my characters have for each other. I have a playlist on my computer called “Songs to Write By” that I listen to whenever I write.

 4.  What is a typical writing day like for you?

After jump-starting my brain with coffee, I answer e-mail, respond to writing forum posts, check my Facebook account and try to do something promotional every day. Then I work on editing projects for 2-3 hours and break for lunch. Depending on whether or not my sister hijacks me at lunchtime, I work on my own writing projects in the afternoon until it’s time for my husband to come home, at which time all productivity comes to an abrupt halt! However, if it’s basketball or softball season and he has a game, I sometimes get to work at night too. And if I’m in the middle of a book’s climax, I write every chance I get, even if I have to fake an illness to stay home and write.

 5.  You’ve written in several genres; main-stream fiction, romance, and YA to name a few.  Is there a genre you haven’t tried yet, but would like to?

Actually, I consider all my books women’s fiction because they focus on the multiple relationships in the heroine’s lives–love interests, friends, siblings and parents. Since my books are all character driven, I start with the main characters, get to know them and let them tell me their stories. However, I never know what direction they’re going to take me in. One of my current works-in-progress is a YA paranormal I like to describe as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” meets “Dexter.” I have another that includes a murder mystery. I know that writers are advised to pick a genre and “brand” themselves, but I’ve never been one to follow rules. Oh, wait–no, that’s my heroine Jaycee who’s like that. I was always the good girl teacher’s pet. Is there such a thing as writing-induced multiple personality disorder?

 6.  Your body of work includes both full-length novels and short stories.  Do you prefer one over the other and how do you decide the length of a story?

I think I love them both equally. After contracting with L&L Dreamspell for SYMMETRY, I discovered the wonderful anthologies they publish and wanted to be included in them with my fellow “Dream Teamers.” I had a couple of short stories already written that fit in well with a few of the anthology themes, and I’ve also written some new ones. Often, I find myself writing “after-the-fact” short stories about the characters from my novels, so they really do complement each other.

 7.  Self-promotion is a necessity for all authors today, no matter how much most of us hate it.  Can you tell us a little bit about how you promote your work?  Any tips for other authors?

When my first book was published, I was basically flying blind when it came to promotion, and everything I did was the result of Internet searches for ways to promote. Now that I’m on my third book and have been an active member of multiple writing communities and forums, opportunities for promotion literally fall into my lap every time I check my messages because of the great network of writers I know, several of whom have even published reference books about how to promote. My book promotion library is now well-stocked and referred to often.

 8.  You’ve received several outstanding reviews for your books but what is your most cherished reader reaction to your work?

I’d be hard pressed to pick one, because every reader review is like food for my writer’s soul. However, I guess I would have to say all the letters and reviews I got for my first book, TRUE BLUE FOREVER, from teenage girls who told me they stayed up all night to finish reading it, some of whom had never read a book before for pleasure. I can’t tell you how gratifying it is for me to know my book introduced these girls to the wonders of reading, something I’ve cherished for as long as I can remember.

 9.  Who or what has been the biggest influence in your writing career and why?

Without question, I have been influenced most by the books I read and fell in love with when I was growing up. My all-time favorite book is LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott. I wanted to be Jo March from the moment I met her. Since she was a writer, it was almost as if I didn’t have a choice!

10.  In addition to being a published author, you were the senior editor for Champagne Books and you’re active in local writer’s groups.  Have those benefited you in your writing career?

Both have many benefits, the greatest of which I would have to say is the camaraderie of my fellow writers and the contacts I’ve made at writing conferences with other editors and publishers. I also found my critique group partners through my local writers’ guild, and they are invaluable to me.

11.  Can you share a little bit about your family; your husband who you say is the “love of your life” and your three “beautiful, gifted children,” TJ, Tia, and Treasure?

Oh, Lord. Where to begin? I always wanted children who didn’t follow the crowd, and I definitely got them! My kids are non-conformists in so many ways–they’re funny, irreverent, sarcastic, intelligent and opinionated, and I wouldn’t change a thing about any of them. Well, maybe I would make them easier to wake up in the morning, but that’s the only thing! As for my husband Tony, anyone who talks to me for more than five minutes knows that he is my absolute favorite person in the world. We have been hopelessly in love for thirty years and still gross out our kids on a regular basis with our PDAs. (Public Displays of Affection, not Palm Pilots!)

12.  Mark Twain said, “Southerners speak music…”  As a Southerner, do you have a favorite Southern saying or expression?

Here are a few of my favorites that my pappaw and my daddy used to say:

“The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s butt all the time.”
“I’m so hungry I could lick the sweat off a restaurant window.”
“Nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”
“Knee-high to a grasshopper”
“Colder than a well digger’s butt in January.”
“Tell your mama ‘n ‘em I said hey.” (I still use this one myself!)

 And this quote from Robert Penn Warren pretty much sums up my writing research methods: “Storytelling and copulation are the two chief forms of amusement in the South. They’re inexpensive and easy to procure.”

Thanks for having me as a guest on your blog!

Read samples of all Joyce’s work at Author’s Den:  http://tinyurl.com/yb8q2sw

Joyce’s blog “Blue Attitude”: http://joycescarbrough.blogspot.com

Bumpy Ride on Signing Tour by Wendy Dingwall

The essence of the Ride Series by Edie Hand and co-author Jeffery Addison became an example in more ways than one during Edie Hand’s book signing tour to Florida. ”Each novel is built around the image of each of our lives as an adventurous ride,” says Hand. “Along the way we face rough patches, uphill climbs, and bends in the road that reveal unexpected events and barriers that seem insurmountable. However, through faith, friends, and family we are able to overcome those obstacles and continue our wondrous journey through life.”

As a three time cancer survivor, Edie knows what she is talking about. Edie began her signing tour in August promoting the release of The Genuine Elvis, (her first cousin) by Edie, Ronnie McDowell and Joe Meador. In September our Ride books, The Soldier’s Ride, and A Christmas Ride were released. It is a daunting task promoting one book, but three can be overwhelming.

As publisher of the latest of Edie and Jeffery’s Ride Series novellas, I had agreed early on to set up the Florida tour and chauffer Edie on the Florida portion of her extensive tour which encompassed most of the Eastern United States. I had grown up in South Florida and lived most of my adult life in the Ft. Lauderdale area so had enough contacts to do it right. Both the book launch in Ft. Lauderdale at Borders on the Intracoastal Waterway, and the Wine and Cheese Reception following were well attended. Edie inspired her audience with wit and grace and readings from each book. Many books were sold. We had planned ahead for press and Edie was interviewed during prime drive time on the radio the day before. We followed the same course in all the cities she was to sign in by sending out advance press releases and contacting T.V. and radio media.

The signing in Merritt Island went very well. The Books-A-Million located in a mall on Merritt Island Causeway, was very busy. They were having an early Black Friday sale, the weekend before Thanksgiving. In Orlando, we ran into a minor glitch. We arrived to find the Community Relations Manager (CRM) had to move Edie from his regular signing spot because they were making accommodations for Sarah Palin who was signing the next evening. This particular Barnes and Noble on Colonial Drive hosted Glenn Beck 2 days before and Mike Huckabee the week before. The Barnes andNoble CRM, Geoffery Shoffstall, is incredible. He promoted Edie as avidly as all the big name authors, and he gave her a front and center spot in the store which served us well. He told me several times that he was thrilled with the way Edie engaged people during her signings and he asked her to come back in the spring upon the release of her next book Women of True Grit, (co-authored with Tina Savas). I have seen Edie in action on several occasions and agree that she is definitely a people magnet.  

Some bumps in the road were developing that would affect our Florida Tour. They involved some good news and some bad happenings. It all started before Edie arrived in Ft. Lauderdale. She had intended to take a breather at home before starting on the Florida leg. She lost this opportunity when requests came to fly out to Los Angeles to discuss having our Ride books made into Lifetime movies (Good news). (Bad happening) Edie arrived back home with only 5 hours to sleep before departing to Florida on Friday morning, November 20th. It was the day after the Atlanta computer shut down and the airlines were still dealing with flight delays. She was due in at 3:20pm but did not arrive until after 7:30pm. Days of non stop travel had taken their toll and she was not in great shape. She was tired, but hungry, so we whizzed her off to a popular Italian restaurant on E. Sunrise Blvd., Il Mulinos. Our gracious hosts, the Scerbo’s, treated us to dinner then opened their beautiful home on the Intracoastal for our stay in Ft. Lauderdale and to host the Wine and Cheese Reception that followed Edie’s signing at the bookstore.

By Tuesday, we had worked our way to Tampa, and Edie was clearly not feeling well. She made it through the signing at the Barnes and Noble on South Dale Mabry Drive. Edie stayed that evening with a friend, and I with my daughter, who lives just north of Tampa. Early Wednesday morning Edie called to say she had called her doctor and he insisted she fly straight home. Unbeknownst to me she had started on a new heart medication that was slowing her heart rate and making her very tired. The doctor needed to assess the new medicine. I later found that he changed her medication and put her on bed rest for a few days. Edie bounced back quickly and started back on her tour, which ended mid December, and seems to be doing well now.

Edie’s departure was not to be the end of the bumpy ride for me. The Wednesday morning Edie flew home, I called from my daughter’s home to cancel the Naples and Sarasota book signings. The stores were gracious about the cancellations, and offered to host her again in the future. I sent them some signed book plates to use for their books and to encourage their sales of our books for Christmas gifts. On this day we were scheduled to work our way to my mother’s house as a base for the final signing events and to spend the following Thanksgiving-day with my family. In the meantime, I had not been feeling well either. My stomach was hurting. I chalked it up to stress and all the driving (1400 miles by then). After cancelling the subsequent signings, I drove at noon-time to south Tampa to visit my other daughter and later drove myself to Osprey just south of Sarasota to my Mom’s home. I arrived early evening, feeling worse. I made it through the next day at Mom’s, all the family was there for Thanksgiving. I was still having pain and a bit of nausea, but tried to ignore it and enjoy being with family. I managed to eat small amounts of Thanksgiving dinner, but had difficulty enjoying the food. After going to bed, I awoke about 2 in the morning. I was in pain and couldn’t get back to sleep. Finally I woke my Mom and asked her to drive me to the hospital. It turns out I had developed acute appendicitis. I had laparoscopic surgery later that day and was not released until late Saturday evening. I spent a few days recuperating at my Mom’s, thankful I had been there when it happened. My son, Greg, rearranged his busy schedule to make arrangements to drive me in my car as far as the Charlotte, NC airport so he could fly back to Orlando. Friends drove my husband, Walter, two and a half hours to the Charlotte airport so he could drive me home the rest of the way. I arrived home several days later than planned at about 7pm on Thursday evening, one week after Thanksgiving. After 14 days away, I had a ton of unpacking, and lots of publishing work to catch up on, still moving slowly, but soooo. glad to be home.

This trip brought home to me what Edie says about getting through the tough times with the help of family and friends. I have seen it first hand in the actions of my family and the emails of good will and offers of support from friends. To learn more about Edie Hand and the Ride books visit www.canterburyhousepublishing.com

By Wendy Dingwall, PublisherCanterbury House Publishing, Ltd.