Lines from Linda

Deadly Tornadoes Strike Close to Home

I signed up for the Blog 365, where we're challenged to blog every day (except leap day) of 2008. So far, I'd had perfect attendance. But I didn't blog yesterday. We lost our Internet connection when a squall line of deadly tornado-producing thunderstorms swept across our state and moved on into Tennessee and Kentucky. I hope I'll get an excused absence from the Blog 365 powers that be.

Thirteen from Arkansas are confirmed dead, with dozens in the hospital. Nearly 30 were killed in our neighboring state of Tennessee. My daughter, a student at Lipscomb University in Nashville, spent several hours (at two different times) in the bowels of the science building while killer storms surrounded the city. After over 50 students at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., were injured, some trapped in their dorms, Lipscomb evacuated every dorm room as the storm system approached Nashville.

Our county suffered two losses. The town just west of us, Atkins, had at least three fatalities, and Clinton to our north, had wide-spread damage and at least one loss of life. Please keep all those who suffered loss of friends, family, and/or property in your prayers.

Phil’s Forecast

Phil's official forecast as read 2/2/08 at sunrise at Gobbler's Knob:

Here Ye! Here Ye! Here Ye!

On Gobbler's Knob on this fabolous Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2008
Punxsutawney Phil, the Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators,
Rose to the call of President Bill Cooper and greeted his handlers, Ben Hughes and John Griffiths.

After casting a weathered eye toward thousands of his faithful followers,
Phil consulted with President Cooper and directed him to the appropriate scroll, which proclaimed:

"As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me.
Six more weeks of winter it will be!"

‘Tis the Season to Resolve - Or Not

Is it just me, or does anyone else dislike the term "resolution"? The word stems from “resolute,” which describes an army’s firm stance against an enemy, and has a host of synonyms, including “unyielding”; “starched”; "inflexible”; “determined”; and, my personal favorite, “stubborn.” All characteristics my parents discouraged during my growing-up days.

Maybe my aversion to the word stems from my unsuccessful history with resolutions of the New Year’s variety. It’s not that I’m against self-examination, evaluation, and improvement, but the task of writing down a laundry list of things I must either repeat unfailingly or fail repeatedly for the next 365 days seems a little daunting to me.

Besides, for the past I-can't-remember-how-many years, my list has consisted of the same two items:

1. Lost Weight
2. Get Organized

The fact that these two items grace the Top Ten Most Popular New Year’s Resolutions List is encouraging. It either means (1) I’m fairly normal (questionable); or (2) others have failed to succeed in their past resolution attempts as well. I’m voting for the latter option.

Since "resolve" means a firm stance, if we yield to temptation even one time, we have already failed. That’s why many choose the term “Goal” over “Resolution.” A goal, simply defined, is a place toward which something moves. And, as in football, one can expect obstacles and setbacks along the route toward a goal. Those setbacks and lost yardage don't necessarily dictate failure; they merely offer an opportunity to get up and try again -- sometimes using a different method.

Setting goals and/or resolutions at New Year’s is a long-standing tradition that dates back to ancient Babylon days. When the Roman Senate chose to change the calendar, January was selected because the god Janus has two faces: one to look backward and another to watch the future, representing a time of reflection and change.

After reflecting back, I’ve decided to watch my future from a different perspective in 2008, and, hopefully, increase my odds of success. Instead of referring to my I-wish-I-were-this list as “resolutions," conjuring up all the negative connotations contained within that term, I’ve chosen to dub my list, “The Impossible Dream.”

No matter which term you prefer, take some time today to pause and reflect on the past and evaluate what changes could be made for the future.

You’d Better Watch Out!

I've stayed calm during most of the politically "correct" comments, but now they're messing with Santa Claus. Come on, people. First, he quit smoking his pipe. I'm sure with the stress in his life, an aromatic pipe and glass of sherry by the fire helped him relax, but no more. Next, he can't hold children on his lap in case someone thinks that's perverted. What-ever! Oh, and he can't say "Ho! Ho! Ho!" anymore because some underprivileged child might mistake that phrase for a slur against women. (Who comes up with this stuff, anyway?)

The last straw for me came from acting Surgeon General Rear Adm. Steve K. Galson during an interview after a presentation on obesity at the Boston Children’s Museum. “It is really important that the people who kids look up to as role models are in good shape, eating well and getting exercise. It is absolutely critical.” Apparently, the acting Surgeon General believes Santa is a poor role model and children should aid him in becoming fit by offering carrots or fruit instead of milk and cookies. Pu-leeze!!!

Did the Admiral consider that by making that remark, he put down about half the parents in the country, too? So, am I a bad parent and poor role model for my kids because I don't run marathons? As a former Marine, I spent a lot of time hanging around Naval bases, and trust me, the Navy is not one to preach healthy habits to the rest of the world!

No one has considered how many hundreds of years Santa has thrived eating milk and cookies. Besides, this is a "snack," mind you, not his total nutritional intake. I'm sure Mrs. Santa, being the great helper she is to Saint Nick, makes sure he gets his veggies, whole grains, and vitamins. It's not a child's job to ensure adults make healthy decisions, anyway. Santa Claus has been around a lot longer than Admiral Galson, the Surgeon General's office, or even the United States Navy for that matter. He's fit enough to climb in and out of millions of chimneys in one night. I'd like to see the politically "correct" hacks try that! I think Santa knows what he's doing.

The next thing you know, the PC Police will have Mrs. Santa dying Santa's suit a different color. I mean, red doesn't always have the best connotation -- Red Light District, the Woman in Red, and even the little man holding a pitch fork is red. I'd rather not have a blue Christmas, thank you very much! How far are we willing to let the PC hacks go with this outrage? They're so afraid of hurting some unnamed, unknown person's feelings that they haven't even taken consideration of the feelings of Santa Claus himself!

Well, I'm not going to risk insulting Santa by leaving a plateful of celery. Santa, if you want milk & cookies, come over to my house. I'll leave the chimney vent open for you!

World Kindness Day

Today is World Kindness Day. Born in Japan in 1996, this day represents the pledge of numerous countries to join together in building a kinder, more compassionate world. Individuals and communities are encouraged to join in the kindness movement by performing random acts of kindness toward others.

The web site of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has a variety of ways to participate. You can interact on the forums, build a free community web site, read inspirational quotes, and learn what you can do to promote kindness throughout your personal world, which can in turn, spread globally.

National Blog Posting Month

For those who may not wish to embark upon the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) journey, where one sets out to write a novel during the month of November, someone has come up with an alternative challenge: National Blog Posting Month.

The blog posting rules are simple--post something on your blog every day, no cheating by using the time/date stamp in case you missed a day. To be eligible for the various prizes and drawings, register at the official site and follow the instructions for submitting your blog. If you've been a blog slacker like I have lately, it might be a good thing to get into the routine of posting regularly.

And for the really insane, I suppose you could commit to both programs! I'm considering it. I mean, for the blog post, I could simply write, "I did not meet my NaNo word count goal today" for 30 days straight!

Actually, I plan to take NaNoWriMo seriously this year. I have a novel plotted and ready to roll, just waiting for November 1.

How about you? Which challenge do you plan to attempt? Both? If nothing else, it can make us more aware of being consistent and work on that word that gives me more goosebumps than a Brandilyn Collins novel: discipline.

Stranger than Fiction

As fiction writers, we're taught to make every premise, every scene, every character plausible. None of this "it could happen" stuff, like the little boy in "Angels in the Outfield" stated throughout the film. We have to remember, though, that child was talking about a sporting event where, literally, anything can happen. But even if something really does happen, that doesn't mean it's plausible for fiction.

For instance, you could write a story and make the protagonist be a football team. A professional football team. An undefeated team whose quarterback throws five interceptions, two of which are brought in for touchdowns. Not likely.

Or have your team face an injury-riddled team, located so far off the beaten path that they haven't been featured on Monday Night Football in 13 years, and have that "has-been" team beat the undefeated team to a pulp during the first three and a half-quarters of the game. Sideline the quarterback of the opposing team with an early season knee injury and start a rookie QB. Have him toss passes against your team with 75 percent accuracy if you want, but no one will believe it. Readers are shaking their heads now. That is, if they're still reading.

Go ahead and let your team score a few times. In fact, let them bring the point-spread within a touchdown, but then have one of the opponents run back the kick-off 103 yards into the opposite end zone, just to make things exciting. Tell your readers that not one ticket holder will leave the stadium before the final buzzer. Not one. Yeah, you may publish this story, but don't quit your day job.

You could write that your shaken quarterback suddenly gains his poise and leads his team to a sustained 80-yard drive in the final minutes of the game by completing 9 of 11 passes. That touchdown brings the score within 2 points of the opponent. A 2-point conversion would tie the game. No one would believe that either. Pro teams rarely attempt conversions, and even so, the odds are only 50-50. You've lost reader trust. Your career as a novelist is iffy at best.

Take your same scenario, and, if readers haven't already thrown your book, go ahead and have the officials take some time off the clock due to a discrepancy. And now, with 17 seconds to go, have your team, which just scored on their long drive, recover an onside kick. Have your now confident quarterback throw a pass and allow the receiver to get out of bounds and stop the clock because your team used its last time out on the long drive. Twice. Between those plays would be a great time to have the officials put a few seconds back on the clock. The second completion leaves two seconds to play.

Your team is at mid-field and your reader is thinking, "No one can kick a field goal that far under that much pressure." You're right. So, just for fun, make the kicker a rookie with a career high upright-splitter of 47 yards. Make this attempt be, say, 53 yards, just to make the scene exciting. Make the kick perfect--equal distance on either side with ample room on the other side of the post.

So, the clock now shows 0:00. The game is over, right? Your team won! No. That would be too easy for your team. Have something happen off-stage, that no one noticed except the head official. Your opponent's coach called a time-out before the snap. What? He can do that? Yep. It's a cheesy rule, but it's legal. And in this case, good strategy on the part of your opponent, don't you think? Bring out your rookie kicker again. See if he can pump another one just like the first. Your reader is thinking, "Surely not." But your reader is wrong. The rookie pops another one through.

Half of the crowd is cheering. The other half is stunned. Show their faces. Show their disbelief. Maybe if you do an outstanding job of describing the crowd's doubt, your reader will be more sympathetic about your next release.

Yes, this game was real. Yes, the Cowboys beat the Bills. Yes, you've heard me say many times I'm not a pro-sports fan, but yes, I watched the game. I figure Dallas will likely recruit the Razorbacks' D-Mac (the number one running back in the NCAA and this year's Heisman Trophy favorite), and I decided I might as well watch a game or two to familiarize myself with the team. I may have to watch them again, because I'm still not believing that game. Neither are the folks in Buffalo.

National Newspaper Week

Our family has always been populated with word people. Book people. Newspaper people. But until this morning, I didn't realize the exact impact of those words, books, and newspapers on my life. And in my writing.

It's National Newspaper Week. I don't really know the significance of that proclamation, but newspapers have played a significant role in my life. I sat near the feet of my grandfather during our visits there, and the crinkling of pages backdropped whatever activity I was engaged in as he read daily the now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

A few years later, after we moved to Arkansas, I worked a newspaper route, collecting dozens of dimes from the weekly readers of Grit. The day my bundle of papers arrived highlighted my week, and I anxiously flipped through my copy to see what wonders the newest issue contained.

One of my first jobs was at a newspaper. A small-town publishing man owned papers in five communities. I sold ads. Well, at least I tried. I moved across the state and once again worked for a paper. Only this time I worked in the office in the midst of clicking typewriters, ringing phones, blaring police scanners, and the faint smell of chemicals seeping from the dark room. I was the "classified girl" at a small-town weekly and learned everything from typesetting to paste-up and layout.

When that paper went belly-up, my career path ventured through a number of other vocations, including a nine-year stint in the USMC. But the lure of newspaper work lurked in my mind, and I soon found myself once again setting type and editing copy, pasting up pages, and writing headlines at 3 a.m. so we could make our press appointment.

My relationship with newspapers changed the day I made the leap across the desk into the writer's chair. After months of typing words written by others, it struck me--I could do this. I could write. The editor let me give it a shot. Soon I was covering a few stories. Nothing frontpage, mind you, and no bylines. Yet. That evolved into sports writing and eventually, a column. Short news pieces paved the way to magazine articles, which in turn led me to believe I could write a book.

And I did.

During the book marketing phase of my life, my writing world expanded exponentially when a friend introduced me to a realm of the written word I'd never dreamed of entering: fiction. Soon I crossed the threshold into the land of make-believe and began chasing my next writing dream--novelist. That dream is a work in progress, but thanks to my friends at American Christian Fiction Writers, I hope and pray that it will soon become a reality.

Life and Death

Slipped in among a few dozen headlines on the front page of most nationwide news sites this morning is the simple sentence "S.D. carries out first execution in 60 years." It would have been easy to miss or even ignore this piece, with so many other articles vying for my mouse click, such as the passing of Lady Bird Johnson, the discovery of a frozen baby mammoth, and a woman who nearly died from a bikini wax. (Diabetics be warned!) However, I'd been following this story ever since my husband and I fell in love with the Black Hills last month and I ran across it while daydreaming about returning to the Coyote State.

I don't normally post about political things or current events and rarely even watch the news. I figure if it gets bad enough, someone will let me know. But this story haunted me, and I found myself reading more about it, including opinion columns as well as blogs from both friends of the accused and the deceased. In March of 2000, a trio of teenagers decided it would be fun to rob their "friend" of a Chevy Blazer and other miscellaneous items. Influenced by drugs and alcohol, at some point they feared the theft victim would rat them out, so the decision was made to kill him. They apparently had no set method of carrying out their sentence, so, while Chester Allan Poage (19) begged for his life, they hauled him to a gulch, forced him into a near-frozen stream, and proceeded to beat, stab, stone, kick, and torture him for several hours until he finally succumbed. Ironic, since the state's governor stayed this execution last August so the legislature could deliberate the most humane method of killing one of Poage's killers, Elijah Page (pictured).

I am not ecstatic that Elijah Page, who was 18 at the time of Poage's attack, has joined his victim in death. Although I do believe his crime is an appropriate chapter to reopen South Dakota's capital punishment book, which has lain dormant for six decades. Page expressed remorse for his actions, requested to die, and ceased all appeals. One of Page's accomplices waits on death row and the third has received a sentence of life without parole. I'm not opposed to the death penalty, but to me, this entire situation is just very sad due to the ages of those involved.

Why did this story haunt me? I'm not sure. But perhaps it's because I'm the mother of both an 18- and a 19-year-old.

Around the House, Around the Town

Around the House

We have another graduate in the family. My son Val, (pictured at left with his friend Lyndal), received an Honor Diploma last night at our local high school graduation. He has grown into a fine young man. He plans to attend Harding University, my alma mater, and major in Bible with an emphasis in Missions. He also plans to use his elective hours to fulfill the prerequisites for optometry school. Once he becomes an optometrist, he hopes to work 10 or 11 months per year and spend 1-2 months each year doing mission work. Yeah, I'm VERY proud of him!

Around the Town

Look at the picture to your right. See the girl right in the middle? The one with a charcoal-colored headband? Her name is Shekinna Stricklen. You'll likely hear it again, if you're a basketball fan. She just finished her junior year at our local high school and has already made All-State three years in a row. This year, she was named a Parade All-American, and in many recruiting polls, is the top recruit for high school girls, class of 2008.

The big news this week is that Shekinna has been invited to the USA Women's Basketball Olympic Team trials in Colorado Springs next month. The school hosted a fund-raiser yesterday with hopes of covering the costs for Shekinna and her parents to fly to Colorado Springs, their motel expenses, and a rental car. The community really came through for this cause, raising over twice the goal amount. We're all very proud of Shekinna and the entire Morrilton Lady Devil Dog basketball team (2006 State Champions--pictured above; 2007 State Runners-Up).

Oh, and yes, my daughter, "Miss I'm a Big College Girl Now," is in that pic, too--just a little to the right and down from Shekinna. (You can see her star shining!)

And, as if we didn't have enough things to worry about...

I bumped into an article this week that said many blogs are judged by the (since I forgot the writer's exact word, I'll paraphrase) "coolness" of their RSS Feed Icon. Blogs are apparently judged by numerous criteria: Technorati rankings; Platform (WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, etc.); theme or template; Google placement; how geeky the blogger is; and...I'm sure the list goes on. Well, not to be outdone by the blogsperts out there, I inserted a new feed icon into my blog this week. I even went into the code file and changed the color to match. (Pretty geeky of me, huh?)

I've been wondering about blogs lately. I mean, does anyone really read them? We all have blogrolls, but who reads all those blogs? There are probably millions of them out there, swarming around cyberspace.

It's kind of like Amway. Does anyone use the soap? If you've never been suckered into joining a multi-level marketing organization, it works like this: The company manufactures a product. Some supposed-millionaire buys the product and sells it to their "downline," which is, in actuality, your "upline" (unless, of course, you're the supposed-millionaire). Okay, so the box of soap makes its way through the ranks--backwards, mind you. After all the uplines sell the box to their respective downlines, the soap box finally reaches your home, and what do you do? You sell it to your downline. And so, I ask again, does anyone ever use the soap?

Until next time...

Update: I found yet another template I like better, so gone is my fancy RSS feed icon. Such is life!