A line from my upcoming novel:
Miles planned to have some very hot fun with Abby, then end their relationship in a way she’d never forget.
Category: Uncategorized
Blogging and Appropriateness
Do you ever have a qualm about a blog post you want to make? Is there ever anything you really want to write but you are unsure if it is appropriate for your audience here or if it will possibly be offensive to some or most of them? That certainly happens to me.
If I write about subjects considered controversial – politics, erotica – to name just two, it always worries me about offending people. It even worries me about whether this is the appropriate forum. These days, I write mostly fiction, but I do throw in some non-fiction essays. I’m interested in a wide range of topics. I could offend any number of people.
Then again, this is my blog. People can read it or not. Within reason, I should be able to write what I want. Isn’t this all about creativity? However, if I am writing for a particular challenge and the administrator of the challenge asks that the stories be, for example, PG rated or below, I should respect that or not write for that challenge.
Having a qualm about particular blog posts happens to me often. Am I being too sensitive or is this a legitimate concern. What say you?
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Mother’s Day: Founded in Appalachia
*This post was first published on Mother’s Day, 2016. I thought I would post it again.
Mother’s Day, an important holiday to many of us, originated in Appalachia. It was founded in 1858 by Ann Jarvis. The founding of Mother’s Day was in response to the need for sanitation for new mothers since the infant mortality rate at that time was so high. Infection spread easily through mining camps and the small communities. Diseases that were prevalent were small pox, tuberculosis, whooping cough, measles, typhoid, and diptheria, to name a few.
After the Civil War in 1865, a woman named Julia Ward Howe who was both an author and an activist, wrote the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic and her husband was responsible for trying to clean up the unsanitary conditions that existed during and after the Civil War in the army camps. More men died in the camps from unsanitary conditions than were killed in the war. Howe wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation which urged all mother’s to leave their homes for one day in June and work for peace in their communities. There existed two versions of Mother’s Day.
In May 1908, Anna Jarvis, the daughter of Anne Jarvis who established the initial version of Mother’s Day, worked tirelessly to see her mother’s vision fulfilled. She enlisted the help of others to get an official day established honoring mothers. In 1912, West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother’s Day. Finally, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation declaring the second Sunday in May a national holiday — Mother’s Day. Its symbol became the carnation.
By the 1940s, Anna had soured on Mother’s Day as it was celebrated in modern society, particularly its commercialization. She passed away without ever becoming a mother.
Mother’s Day lives on and we celebrate our mother’s, or their memory, every year…..all thanks to a woman from Appalachia. #mothers day #appalachia
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The Train
“Do you think you can meet me at the town square,” Albert asked quietly.
Juliet replied, “I will have the driver ready to take me to town as soon as he leaves. He is my friend and sometimes my confidant.”
“We will just run away, darling! It doesn’t matter if we’re married,” Albert said.
“Can we go far away? I’m afraid he’ll find me?”
Albert said, “Yes. I will keep you safe.”
Juliet and Albert met in town to leave her abusive husband. When they tried to catch the train, there he stood. Albert knocked him down with one blow.
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Happy Birthday!
WordPress sent me a little note this morning wishing this site a Happy Birthday! I can hardly believe I have been blogging here for one year, but I guess it has been a year. It has been a most enjoyable year and I have learned a lot and honed my writing skills.
I want to thank all my followers and readers! Without you, I wouldn’t be here. So, in honor of you, here is a gift!
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The Sanatorium
Mabel and Anne sat at Table 19, waiting for their families, in their long, white, day gowns. It was visiting day and the two twenty-something girls were anxious to see their parents and others who would perhaps come with them. They were residents of the East Lake Tuberculosis Sanatorium in a town in Virginia. It was 1906.
Both girls had been diagnosed with a medium level tuberculosis. They expected to die in the sanatorium.
Visits from family were allowed only one day per month. The first Wednesday of every month and were limited to 15 minutes. Family members had to wear some sort of gauze over their mouths as tuberculosis was thought to be quite contagious.
There they were! They couldn’t hug and it was so hard, but at least they could talk for a few minutes.
Being a tuberculosis patient in the early 1900s was like being an inmate in a prison. Mabel and Anne were lucky. They got better and got out. Most patients did not.
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New Zealand and the Clown
Casey was finally able to visit New Zealand when she graduated from college. Her mother was a native New Zealander, but she died when Casey was only seven years old.
There was a tour she wanted to take in Christchurch. The sights she would see were the result of the earthquakes Christchurch had experienced. It was called the graffiti tour. Christchurch graffiti was special. It was beautiful paintings, painted on the backs of buildings, that were the way Christchurch residents dealt with the pain and devastation of the recent earthquakes.
The tour was fascinating. The graffiti artists had poured all the city’s pain into their work. They rounded the corner of the last building on the tour and Casey turned toward it and screamed. It was a painting of a clown. She had been holding her toy clown when she found out her mother had died.
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Burned
Russ and Mary stood looking at the smoldering ruin of their home. The fire had started last night in the chimney. There wasn’t much left. It had just been a small frame house. They were in shock and didn’t quite know what to do.
They heard a vehicle on the road and turned around. It was the wood man pulling a cart full of wood. He stopped in front of the burned house and walked up to them.
Russ asked him where he got his wood and he told him. He asked him if he could get better wood to help him rebuild his house. The wood man said that he could.
The wood man asked, “Do you need help rebuilding?” The man whose house burned answered that he did.
The wood man haltingly said that he used to be in construction but there had been no jobs recently and he would be glad to help.
Russ and Mary looked at him and each other. Everything would be fine.
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Song Lyric Sunday: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In
Time
The theme for today’s Song Lyric Sunday is time. I immediately thought of this song, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In,” an old song from 1969, sung by The Fifth Dimension. It is about a the Age of Aquarius, a time of peace and love, the theme of the upcoming decade of peace and love. I thought of it for two reasons. I think we need to think of peace in this time of upheaval in the U.S. I also thought of it because it was part of the music of a time in my own life when I was trying to get past a painful event. This is one of my favorite all-time songs. Down deep, I’m still that hippie girl that loved everything about this time in America.
To Helen: I wish peace and love to you in this time in your life.
Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In
The 5th Dimension
Lyrics
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
Aquarius
Aquarius
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind’s true liberation
Aquarius
Aquarius
When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
Aquarius
Aquarius
Aquarius
Aquarius
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in
Let the… Full lyrics on Google Play Music
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Read Posts on Facebook
Hi Everyone!
If it’s more convenient for you to read my blog posts on Facebook, I have an author page there. Here is the address:
https://m.facebook.com/RCarlsonAuthor52/
Thanks!
Rosemary
The Write Scribe 