A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

Fruit From Our Yard Mike and I are blessed to live in Florida. We are doubly blessed to live on the Nature Coast, one of the most beautiful parts of Florida.  We appreciate our home. We enjoy the lake where we live. And of course, the beautiful trees. Yes, the wind can wreak havoc on them, if you remember last week’s post. But our trees and bushes… the flora and fauna of the Nature Coast is a blessing.  This past week I enjoyed a sweet treat from our yard. A pineapple. It was tiny but sweet. It was prickly on the outside, but yellow and juicy on the inside. I planted it shortly after we moved here and another one last year.  It turns out, it is pretty easy to grow a pineapple. You basically cut off the green top, leaving an inch or so of the prickly fruit part and stick it in the ground. One of our neighbors, Gerri, heard of my “harvest” and brought me a small bowl of the pineapple she picked from her yard. She has several of the plants and enjoys the sweet fruit. She als...

The Pruning of Trees  You’ve heard the saying “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” For us this past week we could literally say, “We can’t see the lake for the trees.” We have beautiful large trees in our back yard. Big silver maple trees and magnolias reaching for the sky. We have large hickory trees and “live oak” trees as well. Trees and storms do not always play nicely together. If you read my post a few weeks ago about the large tree near the back of our property still bearing the scars of a lightning strike, you know what I mean. If you didn’t catch that one, you can read about that scarred silver maple HERE . For Reference: This is Our  Normal View  from the House. The hurricane season is technically June through November. We are in July and yet to see a hurricane develop. We will. It is the way of things. But even though we haven’t had to deal with a hurricane yet, we are in the midst of our rainy season. We’ve had some spectacular thunder-boomers and not-so...

Family The word family evokes images of gathering around the table for a meal or heading off in the same vehicle for a vacation. Of course, family also means standing by each other in times of turmoil or standing up for each other when under attack. And it means celebrating a life together. Having my mother living close by is a blessing. This week we had another blessing. Allison, the oldest daughter of our clan and her son, the oldest grandson of our clan came for a short visit. They had been vacationing in South Carolina. While Allison’s husband and younger son headed back to Ohio, Allison and Joshua headed our way. What a treat!  They arrived on Saturday and left in the early hours Tuesday morning. Although their visit was short, it was a blessing to all of us.  My mom, GG, Braided Allison's hair  Just as she did when Allison was a Little Girl! Mike took us on a long boat ride. We explored our lake and adjoining lakes. We took pictures and showed Allison and Joshua the...

  On Blogging… When I began my journey as a writer, I attended a writing conference in Wheaton, Illinois. The advice coming from the podium and in nearly every workshop I attended was simple: “If you want to publish, you must blog.”  That was in 2012. I didn’t even know what a “blog” was…I mean, seriously. To me it sounded like a swamp of words. Maybe it is. The notion behind “blogging” was to practice writing as well as build an audience for your books. Some people are good at it.  Some authors blog… Every. Single. Day. Not me. But I did leave that conference with a plan to blog. I have put my blog out every Wednesday since. I called it “A Novel Creation.” I wrote about …writing. I wrote about crafting my first novel. I started to get a following, but to be honest, those first posts weren’t for everybody.  They were for writers only. No one else would be interested. I AM a Novel Creation When my first book,  Breathing on Her Own , was published in 2014, I share...

  A Stroll Down Memory Lane This week has been a week of friends… A week of memories. Mike’s oldest and closest friend, another Mike, and his wife, Sandee, came to our house for dinner. They live in Tampa. Though we have been able to connect a few times at other venues, this was the first time they have visited us since we moved to Inverness.  My Mike chose the menu. Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. Sandee brought dessert.  Hey, entertaining “decision free” is pretty cool.  I loved hearing the two Mikes talk about times gone by.  ·     There was the time Mike L. wrecked his motorbike on the gravel road and my Mike’s mom patched him up.  ·     Mike L. told me how he walked with my brother-in-law, Ronnie Waters from Adams Junior High to Bob and Ernie’s Bait and Tackle after school. (the Waters family business) ·     Mike L.’s profession was a horse trainer. Stories of training horses with my Mike’s assist...