A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

  Three Kinds of People? I’m a writer. I appreciate editors.  Don't leave. This post isn't about writing. It's about living. In the world of writing, we have different sorts of editors who look over manuscripts. A developmental editor or content editor makes sure the author is accurate, consistent, and keeps the story moving forward.  We even have editors who help in making sure the language of our text is clear and easy to understand.  Of course, there are those editors who pick at punctuation and spelling. Go figure. I’m working on a novel. I have poured through it several times. I try to polish it as best as I can before  anyone  else reads it. I look forward to getting into the hands of an agent or publisher. But I know that is only the beginning.  Once accepted, a publishing house will assign my work to an editor. This week I was thinking about how editors make my writing better. Stronger.  The thought occurred to me that  everyone...

Finding Your Way Around Town This is a very special week for me. My mother and second oldest grandchild flew in  from Ohio.  My Sweet Mama & My Sweet Grandson, Spencer For Spencer it will be a whirlwind visit, he’s been out on the boat with Mike, is getting in a round or two of golf  (One with his Uncle Ronnie) and spending significant time basking in the Florida sunshine. And…he cooked a wonderful spaghetti dinner for us! It’s February. Enjoy it all, Spencer! It will not be a whirlwind visit for my mother. You could say it is more of a shopping trip.  Mom is planning a move back to the Sunshine state. Although she is welcome to stay with us, her plan is to find a place of her own. A home nearby. She has friends not too far from where we live. That’s a plus. And she has always liked Inverness…at least as she drove through it from her home in Lutz to her house in Dunnellon.  Now it is time for her to get the lay of the land here. It takes a bit. When we lived...

  Choose Wisely This week Mike celebrated his birthday. The man made it tough for me by buying three of his own gifts. I’m serious. He ordered what he wanted, paid for everything, and had the items delivered. He then handed the presents over to me to wrap. What’s the fun in that? I figure he didn’t trust I would get him something he liked.  He was wrong.  Several weeks ago, we watched  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . If you are familiar with the movie, the Nazis are searching for the Holy Grail, purportedly the cup from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper. In the movie (part of which was filmed in Jordon at a place known as Petra, by the way) Jones and the Nazis make it into a room filled with goblets of all shapes and sizes and made of everything from gold, silver, and precious stones to a simple clay cup. A picture of the carved rock temple of El-Khazneh of Petra (No I wasn't there...this is from my Bible) The Last Crusader guarding the Holy Grail warn...

  A Blog Post for Wednesday As I craft this post, it is Tuesday. Tuesday evening. My blog post comes out on Wednesday. Assuming I have it written by then.  I know there are a few people out there who craft a post EVERY DAY. Not me. I often struggle with what to write each Wednesday and frequently wait until the last minute to capture my thoughts on paper.  Why? My once-a -week blog isn’t the focus of my life…or even my writing. Blogging is a tool. For me, it is a pathway to both discipline and discovery as a writer. It is also a social presence to bring potential readers into my world as an author. Being an author is only one facet of who I am. I am so much more. ·        I am my mother’s daughter.  ·        I am Mike’s wife. His partner in life. ·        I am both a mother and mother-in-law. ·        I am a grandmother.  ·    ...

  The Derelict This past week, the Tampa Bay area once again celebrated the landing and invasion of Jose Gaspar. Gaspar is depicted as a pirate purported to loot and ravage the west coast of the peninsula. Though many say he is but a mythical character, others suggest Gaspar was real. It doesn’t matter. Every year hundreds of boats, decorated for the occasion, escort the iconic Spaniard into Tampa Bay where he makes his once-a year-landing and the mayor hands over the keys to the city. May not exactly Jose Gaspar...but thank you Pixabay for the image. When we were in high school, Gasparilla Day meant a day off. We would attend the parade, try to catch the real honest-to-goodness plastic gold coins and candy the pirates threw into the crowd, and cheer for our high school band as they marched by. And a few years later, they threw real plastic beaded necklaces. Sometimes the invasion was only a day or at most a week ahead of the Florida State Fair.  I haven’t been to the Gasparil...

Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows A couple of years ago  I crafted a post called "Agree to Disagree." In it I shared the notion of "perspective." In that previous post I used the illustration of the five blind men and the elephant. Each held a view of what was before them based on his own limited perspective.  In a sense, this post is also about perspective.  Not limited. Informed. It's about the weather. As I craft this week's post, Mike and I have been pretty much housebound. We have been fighting a virus of some sort and the weather has not lent itself to going out and soaking up some much needed sunshine. Sunshine cures many an illness. It's a fact. Sunshine is packed with vitamin D. Vitamin D builds strong bones and helps the immune system fight off those nasty viruses and such.  Even though we live in Florida, the Sunshine State, our weather in Citrus County, as I craft this post, is NOT warm. We do have lots of sun, but at the moment, we are exper...

My Continued  Love/Hate  Relationship with Technology Yes. I both LOVE and HATE technology. When it works, it is a writer's best friend. It not only holds my thoughts in one place, the computer offers advice for spelling and grammar. It can allow me to ramble now and edit with ease later.  When it works. It doesn't always work.   For example, I turned to my go-to word program to compose this week's blog. Everything seemed to be going nicely...until...I no longer have the ability to copy and paste it into my blog? What's that about?  I used all my known strategies to retrieve my blog post.  Nothing worked.   So I abandoned the post about the sweet memory of my early experiences at the University of Cincinnati, and spent the next three hours traveling every rabbit hole I could think of to fix my word processing capabilities.  It is important. I have books I'm working on...stories to tell. I have documents I value. I need my ability to craf...