A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

  “Ever True to Thee” This past week, Mike and I returned to our roots. Our high school roots: George D. Chamberlain High School in Tampa, Florida. Chamberlain (CHS) celebrated its seventieth anniversary. And did it right. We were a bit wary before the event. A few years ago, in the pressure to be “politically correct,” our school changed its mascot. What had been the Chamberlain Chiefs with a Native American Indian Chief as the mascot, became The Storm.  Now I ask you, how do you dress as a storm? That was our question from the start. What could ever serve as your mascot? Still… celebrating seventy years of being a positive part of the educational landscape in this Florida city is pretty cool. We bought our tickets and made our plans.  Parking was where it always was when we were kids. The stadium, though updated, was in the right place. We headed to the gym for our dinner and gathering. Wow. First, let me say the gym, though likely the same size, appeared to be a bit sm...

  The Launch I grew up in the “Space Age”… but this post is about a different kind of launch.  One week from today, on October 21, 2026, I will officially launch my latest novel,  Corners and Straight Edges . It feels like Christmas.  The book is already available on Amazon and through my publisher, Mt. Ziion Ridge Press. So why launch? A book launch is a celebration.  Crafting a novel requires intense labor. Some may be able to crank out eighty thousand words or more in short order. I’m not one of them.  I spend months researching, crafting the story, revising some, more, or most of it until I get it to a place I like. Then I spend intense amounts of time editing, rewriting, and editing some more. I DO NOT USE AI .  This is my story. My craft. My words.  So, when a publisher reads it, likes it, and offers me a contract, it is a pretty big deal. You can ask Mike. I squeal and dance around and giggle like a schoolgirl. Then I wait. The publisher ha...

  Vette Fest Year 2 My second Vette Fest was great. (If you missed the first one, I’ll put a link at the bottom.) Mike and I enjoy our little red corvette. Mike is a “car guy” and I guess I’m becoming a “car girl.” Of sorts.  I know how to drive a stick shift. Of course I’ve been doing that a long time. My dad had a rule. I couldn’t start dating until I knew how to drive a standard transmission.  Of course that doesn’t matter with our Vette. It’s an automatic. I know a few cars by their appearance…you know, body style, lights, special features. Of course, Mike knows much more than I do. So, although I have a smattering of knowledge, I also know I have a lot to learn.  Not a Vette, But Fun! And although it was “Vette Fest” featuring Corvettes, there were other cars there, too. Some of the “oldies” celebrated their glory days. The picture here is of 1955 Chevy with a tray of food on the side. Drive-in restaurants were great places to eat and meet up with friends “...

  Doing a RE-Think Re-imagine When I received the email showing me the cover for my latest novel,  Corners and Straight Edges , I was happy. It captured a caring teacher working with a group of first graders.  Perfect.  Teaching is not for the faint of heart. It goes well beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic. In the story, first grade teacher, Katharine Gilmore balances teaching with the needs of her husband and teenaged son as well as caring for her aging mother, Mimi. It is her mother’s advice that guides her through tough situations. “Life is like a puzzle,” Mimi tells her. “Find the corners and straight edges first and everything else will fall into place.” Hence the title of the book. And the next project. I took the picture of the book cover and ordered a jigsaw puzzle made of it. Five hundred…yes… 5-0-0 pieces…later, I had the book cover taking up a third of our dining room table. Now I had to figure out what to do with it.  I decided to use a puz...

  Ten Questions Ten Questions to Ask (and answer) when you don’t know what to write about. 1)     How’s the weather? The heat is on….it may be looking like autumn somewhere with mornings starting to cool and kids standing at bus stops. But here? In Florida? It is hot! H-O-T.    2)     What’s for dinner? Leftovers or “make-overs.” It’s simply too hot to cook. See number one.   3)     What’s on television? Uh... the same thing that was on yesterday. Lots of political ads and old westerns. I think I’ll take the old westerns. At least in the westerns I can tell who the bad guys are…most of the time.   4)     What’s the cat up to? At the moment, Tilisthtyeing to he[pme tutoppe. Translation: Tiki is trying to help me type. She jumped down off my lap now… neotjw sheh ois bck.   5)     Have you seen today’s news? Yep. Pretty much an illustration of my morning Bible reading in Exodus 20 on wh...

  Times of conflict, Times of Peace So, you want to play some Football? Ever feel conflicted? You know…you wish you could have everything turn out right for all sides? But of course, that can’t always happen. When I’m reading a book or writing one, I can become so invested in my characters, I want the story to end “happily ever after” for everyone. For all the “good guys” anyway. And I secretly harbor the notion that the villains in my stories learn from their mistakes and change their evil ways. Of course that’s not always true to life. After church this past Sunday, Mike I and tuned into an NFL game. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Ohio playing against the Cincinnati Bengals. I remember going door to door in my college years at the University of South Florida gaining signatures for Tampa to get an NFL team. I remember living through those first few years of losing game after game. It was tough.  When Tom and I moved to Cincinnati, we were still Buccaneer fans. At least for the f...

MY TAKE  ON EDITING I’m working on a new book. I actually have at least four other books outlined and several children’s books I’ve never published, but the one I’m crafting now is moving along. The issue my main character is facing is one of stolen identity. I’ll share more later, but the topic of the day is EDITING.  Editing is a big issue. I broach it for two reasons. First, I’ve met a few people of late who think editing is merely a matter of spelling and punctuation.  AS A FORMER AGENT I MET SAYS, "This is why the world needs editors!" I actually had someone say, “Spell check or something will fix it. That’s what I do. If the word is red or something, I find the right spelling.”  That’s only part of it. Proofreading usually catches those errors if your computer didn’t.  Then…there’s also developmental editing. That’s when you discover there are holes in your plot that need to be addressed.  And there is fact checking. I write fiction, but I am always f...

  Don’t Ask Me! I came to Writer’s Roost to work. (If you missed that story about my new writing getaway, click HERE )  Anyway, I’ve been sitting here looking at the lake and being tempted by the pool as I’m trying to make a “book trailer” for my latest book,  Corners and Straight Edges.  I watched a YouTube video on Canva on how to make a book trailer. I wrote the script. I chose the background and all the elements. I started putting the thing together and for some reason, they came out in a different order. And the background disappeared. Don’t ask me how I did that.  I have no clue. So… I started over. I watched another tutorial and thought I had it nailed.  Nope. The one victory is…  I did not cry. This time.  While I embrace most technology…well,  some  technology, I struggle learning new ways to use it. I don’t dare ask for help. The answer always seems to start with…“All you have to do is…” Still, it is a part of today’s...

  Life is a Puzzle In this case it is an actual puzzle. My third novel,  Corners and Straight Edges , will officially release mid-September. The release of a new book is something akin to the first day of school.  There is this feeling of excitement in the air and the anticipation of meeting new friends. Or in this case, new readers. The timing is perfect. School is starting and the book is about a first-grade teacher named Katharine Gilmore. Every Sunday, Katharine and her husband spend the afternoon with her widowed mother, Mimi. Together they work jigsaw puzzles. As they piece the puzzle together, Mimi shares sage advice on life. “Life is like a puzzle. You have to find the corners and straight edges first. Then everything else will fall into place.” So…I took the cover of the novel and turned it into a jigsaw puzzle. A five-hundred piece puzzle. It sounded like a great idea at the time.  But when you dump five hundred puzzle pieces on the dining room table and th...

  Writer’s Roost… a Newfangled Place to Find Rest…and Words Mike and I started a new venture this past week. We found a place I can call my writer’s retreat. Most of the time. We will likely have snowbirds who would rather wait out the cold here with a beautiful lake and a great pool than to see it through up north.  The house is small, but well appointed. We decided to take the plunge (not in the pool…the financial plunge) and invest in the property.  Yep...the Pool Calls "Take the Plunge!" We thought we were being smart. But… for a minute I thought the house was maybe a bit smarter than us. Mike and I are from a different era. So was our inspector. When he tried to test the stove that is actually new and gorgeous, he couldn’t get it to turn on. Someone said something about it was the newfangled kind …wow I sound old using a word like “newfangled.”  Anyway, the thought was that maybe it had to have a pan on it to turn on. I ran home and brought back a pan....

  The Smell of Fresh Crayons I walked into a local store the other day to a barrage of school supplies. When you’ve been a teacher almost half of your life and a student of some sort all your life, the smell of fresh crayons and the colorful notebooks lining the store shelves feel like something akin to Christmas.  My husband would disagree.  But I loved school. I loved it so much I spent most of my life as either a student, a teacher, or a professor in a college preparing teachers to serve. When each of my daughters started school, I was thrilled. I knew what an exciting adventure was ahead of them.  While I was in college, I taught preschool part-time.  I did my student teaching shortly after my second daughter was born (Thank you Kathie Fuller for being our “nanny” of sorts.) When we moved to Ohio, I signed up to substitute teach. It was the best way to get to know the community and determine where we would purchase a house. One of my first jobs as a substitu...

  Of This and That The Umbrella Factor : Last week I posted about our drought. I shared how old timers often said, “What we need is a good hurricane.” (That is, a hurricane that brings a lot of water without much destruction.) I even posted pictures showing the low water table we’re experiencing. (If you missed that post, you can find it  HERE .)  Mike and I have been praying for rain. I’ve often felt like God’s favorite… but this week? Wow! We’ve had rain! Lots of it. It is beautiful! This is one of those weeks when I can honestly say “When it rains it pours.” Our water table is rising. Slowly, but steadily. The Media Kit : My new novel,  Corners and Straight Edges  will be released September 25 th .  I’m really excited about it, but writing the book is only part of the work. My publishers have a publicist, so now I have been putting my “media kit” together.  I had my new “headshots” taken and chose the ones I’ll need for various uses…like the ba...

  Of Hurricane’s and Waterways Mike and I live in Florida. I want start by asserting there is more to Florida than “the mouse house” in Orlando.  Florida is known for access to wonderful sandy beaches…lots of them. Our state is a peninsula. You can easily witness a sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast and take a leisurely drive over to the west coast to view the sunset over the Gulf later that evening.  But saltwater isn’t the only recreational source of water fun. Florida hosts clear, spring fed, icy cold, and crystal-clear rivers, springs, and chains of freshwater lakes and waterways. I’ve floated in innertubes down some of those spring fed rivers and skied and fished in the freshwater lakes. The Lake in Floral City a few years ago. Of course there is more to the state I call home. Florida is known for the large production of citrus fruit, strawberries, and farm produce. We also host cattle ranches and huge chicken farms. Our economy is far more than touris...