#COVID19 – My Son Got It!

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COVID-19.

One virus brought the world to its knees (and hopefully everyone is praying). My only living son, only living child, lives in Los Angeles, half a country away from me. He’s never been this far away for this long – he moved out there in August 2019. Even with precautions in place, he had to work due to his specific job at an aerospace company I shall not name. My son picked up the COVID-19 virus and was sick, quite, but on the mend now. His age is mid 30’s. As a mother who lost her first born to cord strangulation, and youngest to effects and damage of chemo due to cancer, I prayed my son would be spared. Eight days post initial knowing he had it, he told me about it. Per his own words, he said that if I’d known, I’d be too worried and anxious and that is true, but I should have known… I’m his mom… I’m a ex-registered nurse. I know infectious disease. Since my son has recovered well, I’m over being upset with him not telling me. His work falls in two of the must work sectors drawn up by the USA, and it’s not a work from home job. He must be onsite, segregated, so he can make the calculations and program a machining center for parts used by the military. I’m rambling now… but my point is, no one is immune to COVID-19. Stay home if at all possible, be safe, let’s stop the spread of this contagion. Can we pray for the entire world?

GeneMaryColor-1

My son and I, fall of 2018.

Infographic: Selling your Business with Ebooks — Nicholas C. Rossis

Did you know that a great way to promote a business is through an ebook? As regular readers of this blog know, I have been focusing on freelance writing this past couple of years. So, this is a tip that may be of particular interest to non-fiction writers and anyone else who is looking to […]

via Infographic: Selling your Business with Ebooks — Nicholas C. Rossis

6 Ways to Help Anxious Children during Coronavirus — Behaviour101

Mar23

Do you have an anxious child right now? Will they benefit from direct strategies to combat this feeling or will a subtle approach work better? This article provides both.

via 6 Ways to Help Anxious Children during Coronavirus — Behaviour101

Much Needed Poetry

Mar20

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Break the Silence: An Anthology Against Domestic Violence is a wonderful book on poetry dealing with domestic abuse of women, and men. While reading through the poems contained herein, one realizes the true travesty of domestic violence and how that violence spreads past the home life and into the community and world. Instead of Silence, time has long come for speak up, and write out about this world wide issue. Each poem is special and unique, stressing real life, and what happens to both men and women, as well as even the worst part of being murdered. I am honored to be the first reviewer on Amazon for this Five Star read. My contribution below:

While He Lay Passed Out

There he lay in a heap on the couch,

Speaking in a slurred voice slouch;

Earlier, her head smashed through plaster,

The kitchen wall left in disaster;

Both her boys bore wide eyewitness,

While her broken body lay listless;

“Mom, please wake up! He is asleep”,

She struggled as her blood did seep;

And hugged her boys close to her side,

Mustering strength, her eyes she dried;

She packed boxes with clothes and toys,

While telling her sons to not make noise;

Quietly they helped load the old car,

As she drove away, she saw the house from afar;

Never again would she allow this abuse,

It was time now for no disuse;

They fled during the night,

Safe from the monster’s bite;

Arriving safely to their new house,

She locked the door from her spouse;

The law officers kept them safe,

No longer was she just a waif;

A happy home she did make,

She was strong and did not break. © Mary Schmidt 22 Feb 2020

Mary L Schmidt aka S. Jackson is a retired registered nurse noted for nursing academic excellence, community involvement, graduating with high honors and inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She has written 18 plus books from memoirs, children’s books, and part of several anthologies. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

#Abuse #domesticabuse #murder #rape #fear #hopeless #lost #angermanagement

Prom and Graduation Amid COVID-19

Mar18

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PROM: I have a solution for prom in a small town and it can be lots of fun.

1. Promenade: can be done out of doors (if no rain), in a city park, one couple at a time walking using Social Distancing. No parents or family present! TWO adults present to take videos and pictures for all prom goers to share with family and friends. This CAN be done safely. ONE adult present to make sure Social Distancing is practiced!

2. Dance and Food: parents can host four couples each in their home providing music for dancing and food to eat. Finger foods and disposable utensils, plates, sanitizer wipes for all present. This is a 10 (TEN) person, or less, event in the host home. Cozy but can be lots of fun and a memorable prom.

3. Decorating: teenagers can be quite creative in designing fun decorations in host home. Make a fun and snazzy spot for couples to have pictures taken.

4. I think you get the idea and can come up with wonderful ways to make Prom 2020 a huge success. © Mary L. Schmidt 18 March 2020

High School/College Graduation: in a small town this is easy to have a solution that works. Kids – be creative.

1. The Valedictorian and Salutatorian can record their speech and comments for each class member to have.

2. Pictures can be taken in homes or outdoors with groups of 10 or less. Use sanitizer. Decorate your caps and create!

3. No stage walking, no shaking hands, have diplomas mailed out. Even with sanitizer wipes, walking a stage and shaking hands is a bad idea. Even walking a stage with Social Distancing is a bad idea.

4. Plan graduation parties of 10 or less people in parents homes. Have fun, eat food, just be careful. This is doable and fun. You make it fun. Honestly, this can be fun and memorable. Play Pomp and Circumstance in the pre-selected homes for groups of 10 or less. Create an area for graduation pictures with diplomas to be taken. Share the pictures with family and friends.

5. COVID-19 won’t change but senior students can make this a fun and great event if they choose to do so.

6. I have more suggestions, but I think the students should have input.

7. For all high schools and colleges do a Facebook live speech. Get the interactions from classmates, friends, and family and the comments. We are digital age. © Mary L Schmidt 187 March 2020

#Prom #Graduation #parties #covid19 #coronovirus #becreative

18 Common Word To Leave Out of Your Writing — Shirley McLain

Mar18

It’s a familiar scene: you’re slumped over your keyboard or notebook, obsessing over your character. While we tend to agonize over everything from structure to backstory, it’s important to weigh how you write something too. A perfectly constructed world is flat on the page if you use feeble, common words. When you’re finished constructing your […]

via 18 Common Word To Leave Out of Your Writing — Shirley McLain

Worth the Read

Mar13

Serious business and certainly worth the read. Link below.

http://gwenmplano.com/could-it-be/

4 Reasons to Spend Time with “Bad” Books – by Susann Cokal… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Mar12

On Jane Friedman site: We’re all so judgy. We peer at storylines and dialogue lines and individual words, and we snort when a writer makes a choice we wouldn’t have made. We snort even more loudly at ourselves, those times when we just absolutely hate what we’ve written and think the author (Me! I’m the […]

via 4 Reasons to Spend Time with “Bad” Books – by Susann Cokal… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

The One Thing Self-Publishers Overlook When Publishing Print Books — The PBS Blog

Mar11

I am getting book one in The Stella Trilogy ready for its March 24th release. Preparing this book led me to notice the one thing about my books I had neglected and the one thing Self-Publishers overlook when publishing print books. Not all Self-Published books look mediocre because of poor cover design and editing. Lots […]

via The One Thing Self-Publishers Overlook When Publishing Print Books — The PBS Blog

Blog Tour Day 8 #RRBC

Mar9

Geez Float Tour 2nd leg Placard DAY 8

Salutations!

Greetings, and welcome to Day 8 of this extended tour! Unfettered thanks go to my generous host for sharing some blog space today. I hope to interest you reader-types in trying my first book in something like a decade, this my only collection of short fiction: Comes this Time to Float: 19 Short Stories by Stephen Geez. You could add another “by Stephen Geez” to that, as I put the moniker in the subtitle, too. I’d be forcing it to find a theme, except maybe that all my stories try to look at something I think is important but told in a decorative sort of way. Written here and there among novels over two decades, they show a variety of genres and styles, as I get restless. Now they’re tucked between jacketed hard covers and soft, or in e-however-you-likes.

The Enticement

Each tour stop will offer the opening paragraphs of a story from the book, then link to the full story online. A few will also link to audio-shorts narrated by me. An RRBC-specific promo video will be foisted on you every day. Using a narrator didn’t seem right for my own trailer, so yeah, it’s me. Be sure to post reviews in your favorite places, most helpfully if Amazon. RRBC members, be sure to report the Amazon link to your Reviews Coordinator for quarterly credit.

And you, I thank, too.

A Geez Author Blurb

Stephen Geez grew up in the Detroit suburbs during the American-auto domination. He earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Michigan—Ann Arbor. He retired from scripting/producing television and composing/producing television music, then expanded his small literary management firm into indie-publisher and multi-media company Fresh Ink Group. Now he works from a deck overlooking the lake in north Alabama, helping other writers share their compelling narratives with the world.

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The Book Blurb

Prepare to think as you explore these wildly disparate literary short stories by author, composer, and producer Stephen Geez. Avoiding any single genre, this collection showcases Geez’s storytelling from southern gothic to contemporary drama to coming-of-age, humor, sci-fi, and fantasy—all finessed to say something about who we are and what we seek. Some of these have been passed around enough to need a shot of penicillin, others so virgin they have never known the seductive gaze of a reader’s eyes. So when life’s currents get to pulling too hard, don’t fight it, just open the book and discover nineteen new ways of going with the flow, because NOW more than ever Comes this Time to Float.

The Promo Video

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Today’s Sample: “Attention Pay”

A smart young man who knows the words but struggles to pay attention sits on his boardwalk bench, salty sea breeze swirling around him, the ice cream of his sugar-cone melting in the warm Florida sunlight.

And he cries.

His routine etching deep grooves through simple days, Jimmy has learned to find near-contentment in the markers of predictable moments reliably reminding him what must come next. A beeping alarm always means bedspread toilet shower clothing door-lock bike boardwalk donut-stand work. Tourists at the bike-rental counter mean half-day or whole-day ID credit card sign here. Owner Willie reminds him when it’s time to pick up their lunch at Chick-On-Stick, then at 6:00 time to quit for the day. “Don’t forget to stop for ice cream,” adds the skinny old bike-rental owner, his face a totem of ridges and wrinkles tanned to the color of finger-burnished pennies. Willie never says much more than that, preferring to sit on his stool and pay attention to everyone and everything happening on the boardwalk.

An evening ice cream from Maureen’s stand, then a seat on his favorite bench with plenty of time to eat it—that used to be the best part of Jimmy’s day, certainly nothing to cry about. Then two months and three days ago Lila came to work for Maureen, and that complicated everything.

	Mary L. Schmidt aka… on Fool
	Mary Lawrence on Fool
	Cathie Dunn on Fool
	coffeeandink on The Last Fatal Hour
	Cathie Dunn on The Last Fatal Hour

	Mary L. Schmidt aka… on Fool
	Mary Lawrence on Fool
	Cathie Dunn on Fool
	coffeeandink on The Last Fatal Hour
	Cathie Dunn on The Last Fatal Hour