Well, I’m coming back after a rather cold winter here in New Mexico. My yard is ready for summer. My writing career has taken a new turn. I’ll be publishing a children’s book in 2009 by the name of ‘Belle’s Star,’ so I’ve been busy editing that. I also went to Albuquerque for the annual New Mexico Press Women’s Communications Conference. I had the experience of riding on the Duke City’s new commuter train, the Railrunner. Kind of a roadrunner on wheels, I guess. Well it was an Albuquerque adventure, let me tell you. I was settling in my seat when the conductor announced into the PA system: “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to have to back up because there’s a bus trying to crosss the tracks so it can meet us and the people need to get aboard on the correct side of the train.”

The engineer gave the mandatory long blast on the whistle to signal backing up. Then the train started going beep-beep, beep-beep, just like the silly roadrunner cartoon. We rolled a few feet and stopped. The doors opened and two or three folks climed aboard. The conductor picked up his microphone. (You understand this conductor was dressed in a baseball cap, University of New Mexico Lobo’s Tee-shirt, and khaki dockers. He had a tag that read ‘conductor,’ so I guess that made him official.) Anyhow you’d expect a good ‘Allllll aaaaaaaboooooorrrrd’ from a conductor, right? The kind that when he shouts it in New York, you hear him in San Francisco without difficulty, because it’s come from the bottom of his toes, supported by gigantic lungs. Well, I guess conductors who wear baseball caps and Lobos Tee-shirts are different. He said, “Okay folks, we’re outta here. Next stop downtown.”

And it was. That’s a real New Mexico story, and I think Shelby McCoy from my DLSIJ book, ‘Snap Me a Future’ will have to have such an encounter. She’ll certainly have to be swimming in the beautiful heated pool at the Albuquerque Courtyard by Marriot, climb out and while drying herself, discover a jackrabbit staring at her through the glass wall of the pool house. That adventure also happened this time in Albuquerque. He and I must have looked at each other for a good three minutes. Jackrabbits have very big brown eyes and very long ears. They sort of have playful smirks on their faces.

My next book about Shelby is in rewrite phase. Doesn’t have a title yet, but for this one, I stole a bit of Taos history and planted it in her town of Mesa Vista in the Four Corners. Mesa Vista is a lot like Farmington up here in the Four Corners, except on a north-south axis. Taos had a number of -ahem-houses, shall we say in the early part of last century? Business men wandered in to have monkey business. They didn’t want to be seen. Taos is a small town, so in 1900 it was even smaller.

Anyway the business men had tunnels built from their offices to the houses of monkey business. In the new story, the tunnels land in Mesa Vista under the arts mall, and Sam and Shelby end up in one. Sam is her Lab/Setter, you remember who’s always running around wagging his huge tail and knocking down the houses, trees, knicknacks, and whatever else he makes contact with. He’s the sort of dog that makes a person feel like a mouse.

By the way if you like books about the southwest, check out conniegotsch.blogspot.com That’s the blog for my radio show Write On Four Corners. There’s lots about southewst authors, literature, workshops, etc.

This winter was extremely cold in New Mexico, as I mentioned to start this ramble. We actually had snow on the ground for a couple of months. That gave everybody something to talk about. I hung out in the dark room subjecting innocent little pieces of paper to nasty chemistry. Most of them turned into nice black and white photos. I’ve had a solo show and gotten into several other shows. One week I found out I got the award for Best Two Dimensional Piece of art, and got rejected from a different show. As Shelby McCoy would say ‘go figure.”

I assure you in this new story she’s still using black and white film and paper. No digital for her except at the Mesa Vista Times.

Well, that’s about all I can think of to say right now. I hope spring is finally here and quiet–all over the country.

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by Connie Gotsch
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As I sit here at my computer, it’s late April and it’s snowing. I’m not a big fan of winter in the best of years, but this last cold season lasted way too long for me. Over the last few months I’ve had to deal with both my mother’s death and my father’s debilitating illness so my writing career was the last thing on my mind for quite some time. But my Muse finally returned with the first tulips that struggled up through the snow and I recently found myself absently googling Sisters Odd, my strange little collection of dark fairy tales. I was surprised to find that reviews for the book had been posted while I was on hiatus. I guess my Muse was doing her own work while I was distracted! So I thought I’d celebrate both Spring (if it ever really comes!) and my Muse’s welcome return by shamelessly sharing my reviews. Then I have to start brainstorming a new project to keep me busy for the rest of the year!  EJ McFall

Douglas Cobb, Curled Up With a Good Book:“My favorite story in Sisters Odd is “Families and Other Tragedies.” Lizzie Borden relates her story about the infamous murders of her parents by axe to a reporter when Lizzie is old and close to the end of her life. McFall manages to tie in the career of Jack the Ripper with the death of Borden’s stepmother and father, and it’s a fascinating look at both Borden and the Ripper. If you’re a fan of the offbeat and sf/f, you’ll enjoy Sisters Odd a lot.“ http://www.curledup.com/sistrodd.htm               

Doris Anne Roop-Benner, Story Circle:“Sisters Odd gives us seventeen different stories, each of which brings new thoughts about the environment, depression, visions, death, enigmas, fairies, faith, surrogate mothers, the power of the universe, and much more. There’s something for everyone… It made for interesting reading, something out of the ordinary. A treat for those of us who are, or want to be, nonconformists. “

http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org/reviews/sistersodd.shtml

Posted on April 28th, 2008 by EJ McFall
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I can’t believe another winter has come and gone. Time flies! Julia has just turned 4, and Luke is 15 months. I’m looking out of my office window right now, taking in the bright magenta blossoms on my flowering crabapple I planted when we built our house. It smells like heaven. Something about this time of year makes me want to create. I don’t know what it is. When I was a child, I would spend hours concocting melodramatic plays that I would coerce my younger brothers to star in. We’d put on our extravaganzas in the front yard, our bare feet dug into the fresh green grass.

Now, twenty-something years later, I’m still finding creative inspiration in spring. I have been booking portrait sessions up through July. I find great pleasure in capturing the essence of a child’s personality with my camera. My studio is opening this month, and I couldn’t be more excited. I find that photography is a great parallel to my writing. After a long session, I find myself coming home to my keyboard and typing away.

I am going to post some of my portraits below. These are just a few of my favorites. They highlight some of the beautiful local scenery that inspired Finding Lilies and The Rock Dwellers.

Kelly Clark Baugher is the author of Finding Lilies. To find out more visit www.dlsijpress.com and www.kellyclarkbaugher.com

Posted on April 9th, 2008 by Kelly Clark Baugher
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Exclusive Cocktails : from the recipes of Usher’s Hotel. Sydney, 1933.

Many readers and writers love collecting books, both old and new. It’s something I enjoy doing in my spare time. I search the Internet, and browse in bookshops. More often than not I stumble across something interesting. Ephemeral items from the past can have some delightfully surprising content. Even when they look quite bland on the outside some unusual treat may be found between the covers. As well as the absorbing content, they can be a window to a bygone era. We often learn something about our own cities or towns that we hadn’t known before.

Recently when fossicking in one of the second-hand stores, a small booklet caught my eye. The cover had a caricature of a waiter holding a drinks tray. On closer inspection I found that this little gem had been published in 1933 by Usher’s Hotel in Sydney to promote its famous cocktails. The recipes were accompanied by colorful illustrations by celebrated Australian cartoonist, Jimmy Bancks, the creator of the Ginger Meggs comics. (See below for ‘Koala’ recipe)

Not only did I acquire a wonderful new item for my collection, I also gleaned some knowledge of where Sydneysiders went to enjoy some truly ‘exclusive’ cocktails. It reminds me that landscape which is featured in today’s fiction may one day give readers a picture of our own time and place. It has the power to bring out subtleties that movies and television programs are usually unable to do. Some of the titles listed in the DLSIJ Press catalog are great examples of how landscape can be weaved so successfully into a story.

Recipe: To one-sixth of a measure of brandy, add two-sixths of a measure of apricot brandy, two-sixths of a measure of orange juice, and one-sixth of a measure of French vermouth. Ice and shake well. Serve a small slice of orange on the edge of the glass.

Posted on April 5th, 2008 by Pat Turner
Filed under: General | 1 Comment »

Bohemian Heart, the story I contributed to the free ebook anthology Stomping Ground, is set in both current day Sydney and the Sydney of the 1930s. Rowe Street, which began life in the mid 1800s, features in the storyline because of its colorful history. Little more than a narrow lane hidden behind grand edifices, it became a vibrant part of the city’s life almost from the very beginning and a haven for artists, writers, theatre folk, craftsmen and women, and free-thinkers. Its tiny shops were at the forefront of fashion, jewelry, decorating and art. There were no ‘off-the-rack’ items in its precinct. Its wares were unique. According to those who remember it, avant-garde Rowe Street would have rivaled some of the celebrated streets of Paris. Sadly the little laneway was all but obliterated in the early 1970s to make way for a shop and office complex.

 

Somehow, the beautiful and talented African-American actress, Nina Mae McKinney, who came to Sydney in 1939 to star in the Tivoli theatre’s hit stage play Hello Harlem, seemed to fit into Bohemian Heart’s storyline as well. I could just picture the exotic actress being drawn to Rowe Street where gifted people like her gathered. It was as though the pair were made for each other and it wasn’t too hard to imagine how the charms of both would have lit up the city.

The Stomping Ground anthology is published by DLSIJ Press and is available FREE from The Lit Chicks page by clicking on the link in the Blogroll sidebar. It contains 10 stories by DLSIJ Press authors. Come join them as they explore a wide range of literary landscapes, both real and imagined. carte a jouer pokermeilleur poker onlinejouer gratuitement au poker texasjouer au poker texas holdemtélécharger le jeu poker gratuitesjeux poker texas holdem gratuitespoker en ligne patrick brueleverst poker netpoker sur le net,www poker net,poker netpacifique pokerjeu pctelecharger jeu poker holdemtelecharger logiciel poker gratuitestelecharger texas holdemstreep poker gratuitesregles au pokeronline poker roomjeu flash poker texasjouez pokerpoker reseau gratuitesworld poker tourspoker en ligne francejeu video de pokersexy poker onlinegratuites jeux yahoole jeu de poker françaispoker casino gratuitespoker tour reglesjeux poker gratuitementregles officielles pokersexy pokertélécharger gratuitement jeu de poker en ligneworld class pokerpoker gratuites sans inscriptionpoker en ligne argentjeu de poker holdemjuego del poker libreinternet pokerjugar omaha poker gratisjugar 7 card stud gratistorneos pokerel poquerpoquer webparty pokerjuego del poker en lineafive card stud,7 card stud,play 7 card studstrip poker downloadtorneos de pokerdescargar poker gratispoker en linea libre

Posted on February 2nd, 2008 by Pat Turner
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Get your FREE copy of Stomping Ground, an anthology of short stories, poems, and essays by ten authors from DLSIJ Press. Each author has woven her own landscape of a favorite place, or a place that inspires, into a tale—from an eerie pasture in Wisconsin to the heart of Sydney, Australia, to the San Antonio River Walk. Come, traverse with them in their Stomping Ground. It makes great holiday reading!

Includes work from DLSIJ Press authors: Kelly Clark Baugher, AJ Caywood, Ellen M. DuBois, Darlene Duncan, Connie Gotsch, C. D. Ledbetter, Gloria MacKay, E. J. McFall, Ginger Rodgers, Patricia Turner.

Stomping Ground is available in Acrobat Reader PDF format as a FREE download. To get your copy simply go to the Blogroll at the right of the screen and click on Free eBook.

Posted on November 30th, 2007 by Pat Turner
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November is quickly approaching and that means raking leaves, cooking turkeys, and welcoming (or avoiding) relatives. November is also National Novel Writing Month and that means that thousands of writers around the world will be sitting in a dazed frenzy at their keyboards, writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days as part of the NaNoWriMo challenge.

This will be my 4th year to participate. The first two years I reached the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days (Yeah!!!). Last year my brain melted and I only made it to 20,000 words (Alas!). All three years were fun though, because the challenge is  more akin to an online social gathering than to a do-or-die mountain climbing expedition. Each participant has their own page where they can keep track of the number of words they’ve written, post excerpts of their novel and network with their writing buddies. The site also hosts forums, encouragement and souvenir T-shirts.  Living as I do in a small town, I look forward to the opportunity to ‘get together’ with other writers once a year, if only via the forums.

There are precious few rules for NaNoWriMo, but one of them is to gag your internal editor and shove him/her in the closet before you begin. That’s the whole point of the challenge, really, to put writers in an intense situation where they’re too busy tapping on the keyboard to listen to that inner voice that whines that your idea is no good, won’t sell or is beyond your abilities. For thirty days, writers can just concentrate on creating and leave the editing for another day. It’s a gloriously freeing concept!

So if you’re looking for a challenge this year, NaNoWriMo may be for you. If you’re interested, go to www.NaNoWriMo.org to register. Then gather up your favorite songs, comfort food and writing clothes and start plotting!

Posted on October 10th, 2007 by EJ McFall
Filed under: General | 2 Comments »

The National Federation of Press Women announced the winners in its 2007 Communications Contest Sept. 22 in Richmond, Virginia, at its annual conference.

I’m proud to say I received a second place in the Category Radio Special Programming for my documentary ‘Miracle in the Desert: The Story of the Santa Fe Opera.’ I wrote the hour-long work to celebrate the SFO’s 50th Anniversary, for KSJE FM, a public radio station in Farmington, New Mexico.

In addition, I was recognized as the New Mexico Press Woman Communicator of Achievement, and got to stand up with every state’s winner on the podium. I didn’t get National Communicator of Achievement, buit it was a thrill just to be there and honored by New Mexico.

Now you know why Betsy Craig in A Mouthful of Shell is a Press Woman, and why Shelby McCoy in Snap Me a Future is an arts reporter. Both are heroines I created for DLSIJ Press.

To find out more about me, KSJE-FM, and DLSIJ Press, go to www.conniegotsch.com www.ksje.com www.conniegotsch.blogspot.com or www.dlsijpress.com

Posted on September 26th, 2007 by Connie Gotsch
Filed under: News | 3 Comments »