As 2023 winds down . . .

cj Sez:  In the midst of the angst of world-wide wars and civil disruptions, it is with great joy that I celebrate the birth of Christ—a figure of love and hope.

 

Merry Christmas

and

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

I pray your holiday celebrations at this sacred time of year

are filled to the brim with God’s peace and joy

and the love of family and friends. May love,

health, peace, and happiness

follow you through all

the days of 2024.

 

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.

                                                                                                           Numbers 6:24-26

 §§

   Lyrical Pens is taking the rest of the year off, but please know, I am profoundly grateful for each friend/fan/reader who visited this page during 2023 (and before). 

 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

   I hope to see all y’all in 2024. Please join Lyrical Pens on January 7, 2024, for part 2 of “Contronyms” and etc.

cj

(PS:  If you’re still wondering what to give someone, give them an adventure…give them a book! Books are non-fattening, easy to wrap, and lasts all year long and then some.)

Here are two great anthologies for your shopping list:

Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

  This anthology has 70 stories written by adults recounting their extraordinary childhood Christmas memories. My story, written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein, is titled “Dancing with Daddy,” and relates how six-year-old me reconnected with my Swedish father after a major upheaval in our lives.  

  The anthology is free on Kindle Unlimited    Buy Now   

  FINALLY HOME brings you eight Christmas stories all about our four-legged friends and the special people who rescue them. From funny, to sad, to romantic, there’s something here to tug at everyone’s heart strings. 

  My short story, Puppy Love, is included.

Buy Button::  

 

Price Increase Alert: My novels, THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA will be going up in price on Jan 1, 2024. Right now, they are priced at only $2.99.

  The novels are fast-paced, thriller/suspense stories with sassy banter and a smidgen of romance. They are available on Amazon or through your favorite eTailer and bookstore. Got a library card? You can read the ebooks free from Hoopla. The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my paperback books in stock and will ship. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us 

➜ Follow me on . . .  

➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

 

Do you know what a contronym is? (Part 1 of 3)

cj Sez: Here’s a fascinating article on contronyms, explaining word usages by Judith Herman. Did I ever mention that English is hard? The article started out as 25 words and in January 2023 became: “40 Words and Phrases That Are Their Own Opposites.” The article is a bit too long for a single Lyrical Pens post, so today’s post will include thirteen of the words. Watch for the rest of the words in January 2024. Can you believe that? 2024!  

  Stumble into the looking-glass world of contronyms — Judith Herman 

  Here’s an ambiguous sentence for you: “Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” Does that mean, “Because the agency oversaw the company’s behavior, they imposed a penalty for some transgression,” or does it mean, “Because the agency was inattentive, they overlooked the misbehavior and gave it their approval by default”? We’ve stumbled into the looking-glass world of contronyms—words that are their own antonyms. 

  The contronym (also spelled “contranym”) goes by many names, including auto-antonym, antagonym, enantiodrome, self-antonym, antilogy, and Janus word (from the Roman god of beginnings and endings, often depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions). 

Here are a few of them.

1. Sanction—which came to English via French, from Latin sanctio(n-) and sancire, “to ratify,”—can mean “give official permission or approval for (an action)” or conversely, “impose a penalty on.”

2. Oversight is the noun form of two verbs with contrary meanings: “oversee” and “overlook.” Oversee, from Old English ofersēon (“look at from above”) means “supervise” (medieval Latin for the same thing: super-, “over” plus videre, “to see”). Overlook usually means the opposite: “to fail to see or observe; to pass over without noticing; to disregard, ignore,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

3. Left can mean either remaining or departed. If the gentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’s left? (The gentlemen have left and the ladies are left.)

4. Dust, along with the next two words, is a noun turned into a verb meaning either to add or to remove the thing in question. Only the context will tell you which it is. When you dust are you applying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops or the furniture.

5. Seed can also go either way. If you seed the lawn you add seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.

6. Stone is another verb to use with caution. You can stone some peaches, but please don’t stone your neighbor (even if he says he likes to get stoned).

7. Trim as a verb predates the noun, but it can also mean either adding or taking away. Arising from an Old English word meaning “to make firm or strong; to settle, arrange,” according to the OED, trim came to mean “to prepare, make ready.” Depending on whom or what was being readied, it could mean either of two contradictory things: “to decorate [something] with ribbons, laces, or the like ... to give it a finished appearance” or “to cut off the [outgrowths] or irregularities of.” And the context doesn’t always make it clear. If you’re trimming the tree are you using tinsel or a chain saw?

8. Cleave can be cleaved into two homographs, words with different origins that end up spelled the same. Cleave, meaning “to cling to or adhere,” comes from an Old English word that took the forms cleofian, clifian, or clīfan. Cleave, with the contrary meaning “to split or sever (something)”—as you might do with a cleaver—comes from a different Old English word, clēofan. The past participle has taken various forms: cloven, which survives in the phrase “cloven hoof,” “cleft,” as in a “cleft palate” or “cleaved.”

9. Fast can mean “moving rapidly,” as in running fast, or “fixed, unmoving,” as in holding fast. If colors are fast they will not run. The meaning “firm, steadfast” came first; the adverb took on the sense “strongly, vigorously,” which evolved into “quickly,” a meaning that spread to the adjective.

10. Off means “deactivated,” as in to turn off, but also “activated,” as in the alarm went off.

11. Weather can mean “to withstand or come safely through” (as in the company weathered the recession) or it can mean “to be worn away” (the rock was weathered).

12. You'd screen a movie on this screen. Screen can mean “to show” (a movie) or “to hide” (an unsightly view).

13. Help means “assist,” unless you can’t help doing something, when it means “prevent. 

§§

   Google search info: The first night of Hanukkah 2023 started at nightfall on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023, and the first candle is lit. The final candles are lit on Thursday evening, Dec. 14, and the holiday concludes the following day, Dec. 15.

 

§§

  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.

cj

 Here are two anthologies to put on your shopping list:

Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes  

  Written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein, my short story is titled “Dancing with Daddy,” and relates how, after a major upheaval in our lives, six-year-old me reconnected with the Swedish father I could no longer understand.  The anthology is free on Kindle.

Buy Now   

FINALLY HOME brings you eight Christmas stories all about our four-legged friends and the special people who rescue them. From funny, to sad, to romantic, there’s something here to tug at everyone’s heart strings. My short story, Puppy Love, is included.

Buy Button::  

  Price Increase Alert: My novels, THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA will be going up in price on Jan 1, 2024. Right now, they are priced at only $2.99.

 

  The novels are fast-paced, thriller/suspense stories with sassy banter and a smidgen of romance. The books are available on Amazon or through your favorite eTailer and bookstore. Got a library card? You can read the ebooks free from Hoopla.

  Little note: Angela Trigg, the RITA Award-winning author and owner of The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my paperback books in stock. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us 

➜ Follow me on . . .  

➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6 

Let's talk villains and heroes

cj Sez: Let’s talk about how to write a “real” villain. The antagonist, like the protagonist, needs a yen and a yang to be a whole person—i.e., a personality where seemingly opposite forces may be complementary, where, together, the dual personalities make the whole.

The yin yang symbol is often referred to as "taijitu"
 —a Chinese symbol that represents the interconnection of two opposites.

  Captivating stories require that both protagonist and antagonist need some kind of flaw to make the characters interesting. Perhaps the villain’s flaw is that s/he is not thoroughly evil but hides some spark of sympathetic “good” inside. Maybe s/he sends money to an animal rescue shelter because of the memory of a cherished childhood pet. Or the antagonist supports an invalid mother with the money earned from doing evil deeds. 

  Like the protagonist, the antagonist needs motivation, a goal, and some psychological reason for that motivation. A perfect villain is the same thing as a perfect hero, a cartoon of a character. You have to ask the same questions of the antagonist that you do of the protagonist; the questions that lead to the plot and theme: What does s/he want, why, and what will s/he do to reach the goal?

  Maybe s/he wants to do something as benign as to cause a little family ruckus in order to get attention. Or maybe s/he wants to kill someone. But why? The answer to that is what helps to give the character dimension as s/he pushes toward their goal.

  Depending on how involved they are in the story, it follows that tertiary characters require a bit of similar development.

  Authors really have to know their characters. I write little bios for all my characters, including the villain. When I’ve created their background worlds, I know what makes them tick, how they will react, and what they will say in the situation I create. Their backgrounds are never inserted as an info dump, though pieces and bits may surface during their dialogues. Knowing my characters inside and out also helps me develop deep point of view scenes.

  As readers, what do you expect from the characters? As writers, how do you get to know your characters?

§§

  In last week’s post, LP wrote about author brands. Mobile author Carrie Dalby has such a signature brand. She writes Southern Gothic stories, incorporating the historic architecture of Mobile, Alabama, in her settings. Her latest effort is ALLIANCE: WASHINGTON SQUARE SECRETS 2, which launches on Tuesday, December 5…it’s available for pre-order through your favorite bookstore/app.

  Carrie says: “ALLIANCE is a fast-paced paranormal Southern Gothic as opposed to the slower pace of my family sagas. There is a new cast of diverse characters, as well as a few familiar faces and locations. I hope you'll find time during this holiday season to read. The main section of the book is set December 1912-January 1913 with Christmas and New Year's scenes.”

§§

  A book signing is in your future should you choose to stop by The Haunted Book Shop on Dec. 8, from 6 p.m.to 8 p.m. during Mobile’s LoDa Art Walk. Local authors, Rebecca Barrett and Carrie Dalby are being featured, so if you’re in the Mobile, AL, area, you are cordially invited to stop by and say “hey!”

§§

  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.

cj

Now some words from my sponsors:

  Christmas is THE gift-giving holiday of the year, and books are always great suggestions for gifts—they don’t require daily watering, they’re not fattening, and they are very easy to wrap, even two or three at a time. 

  I have stories in several anthologies with Christmas as the theme. Here are two to put on your shopping list:

Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

  This anthology has 70 stories written by adults recounting their extraordinary childhood Christmas memories. 

  Written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein, my short story is titled “Dancing with Daddy,” and relates how, after a major upheaval in our lives, six-year-old me reconnected with the Swedish father I could no longer understand.  The anthology is free on Kindle.  Buy Now   

§§

FINALLY HOME brings you eight Christmas stories all about our four-legged friends and the special people who rescue them. From funny, to sad, to romantic, there’s something here to tug at everyone’s heart strings. 

  My short story, "Puppy Love," is included.

  Buy Button:: 

* Price Increase Alert:  My novels, THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA will be going up in price on Jan 1, 2024. Right now, they are priced at only $2.99.

  The novels are fast-paced, thriller/suspense stories with sassy banter and a smidgen of romance. The books are available on Amazon or through your favorite eTailer and bookstore. Got a library card? You can read the ebooks free from Hoopla.

  Little note: Angela Trigg, the RITA Award-winning author and owner of The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my paperback books in stock. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  

  If she happens to be sold out, shoot me an email. I have a small stash (with a discounted price plus shipping).

 

➜ Follow me on . . .  
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page
➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor
➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson
➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

Author brands sell books

cj Sez: If you saw a new book and the author was Stephen King, you’d expect to read a work of horror/psychological fiction from this prolific storyteller. How about if the author was Dame Agatha Christie? You’d expect something 180 degrees from King’s genre: cozy crime mysteries.

  What you’ve just done is recognized these two authors’ unique brands.

  If I said, “Murder on the Orient Express,” you’d automatically think cozy mystery written by Agatha Christie.  If I said, “She’s been nominated for the Agatha Award,” you’d know I meant Agatha Christie and you’d know what kind of story is being considered for the award.

  Stephen King + Misery (Or Cujo or Carrie or The Shining, et al.) = Stephen King Brand: horror/psychological fiction.

  When readers recognize your name, they’ve recognized your brand.

  Building your author brand needs to be one of the first things you do, even if you are yet to be published. Start with a Facebook page. It’s free. 

  Set up a blog site, and make sure the theme, style and author voice of the two are consistent. Use similar colors and fonts in signage, swag, banners for book signings, and business cards. You want your readers to identify you and your name by your ideas and concepts.

  Now you can develop a brand summary by defining who “you” are or what your books are about.

  Although I write in multiple genres, my “writer’s voice” and pacing are pretty much the same. 

  To reinforce my author image, I wear my squash blossom necklace to every writerly event I attend (some social events as well). 

§§

  Tomorrow’s full moon (Monday, Nov. 27 at 4:16 a.m. EST) is known as the Beaver Moon. According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, which lists monthly full moon names from Native American, Colonial American and European folklore, the Beaver Moon's name refers to the time of the year in which beavers take shelter in their lodges to prepare for winter, and also the time in which beaver fur traps would be historically set up in North America.

§§

Writer Tips (cj sez: Good stuff.)

  Benjamin Franklin once wrote to the Royal Society of London: “I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter.”  Jane Friedman’s guest post by author Amy L. Bernstein is a keeper. 

 https://janefriedman.com/writing-short-book-description/

§§

  Author/editor/professor Brenda Copeland has a guest post on Career Authors site identifying POV and goes into wonderful examples of close third person POV. Extremely illustrative. I’m keeping a copy of this teaching moment for future reference. 

https://careerauthors.com/third-person-close-pov/

§§

  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.

cj

Now some words from my sponsors:

  Books are always great suggestions for gifts. They don't need water, they're not fattening; and they're easy to wrap. And Christmas is THE gift-giving holiday of the year. 

  I have stories in several anthologies with Christmas as the theme. Here are two to put on your shopping list:

FINALLY HOME brings you eight Christmas stories all about our four-legged friends and the special people who rescue them. From funny, to sad, to romantic, there’s something here to tug at everyone’s heart strings. My short story, "Puppy Love," is included.

     Buy Button::  

Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

  This anthology has 70 stories written by adults recounting their extraordinary childhood Christmas memories. 

  My story, written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein, is titled “Dancing with Daddy,” and relates how six-year-old me reconnected with my Swedish father after a major upheaval in our lives.

  The anthology is free on Kindle.  Buy Now   

  My novels THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA are fast-paced, thriller/suspense stories with sassy banter and a smidgen of romance. The books are available on Amazon or through your favorite eTailer and bookstore. Got a library card? You can read the ebooks free from Hoopla.

  Little note: Angela Trigg, the RITA Award-winning author and owner of The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  If she happens to be sold out, shoot me an email. I have a small stash (with a discounted price plus shipping).

➜ Follow me on . . .  

➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

 

Avoid Clichés Like the Plague? Or are they useful?

cj Sez:  I was reviewing some notes I have and the following paragraphs jumped out at me for today’s blog. I think we can agree that novels need a theme, a premise on which to hang the action and plot points. An overall theme continues as a thread through the novel. It lets a writer connect the dots of subplots to the main plot.

  Caveat:  A cliché is, by definition, a trite and overused expression, a figure of speech that has become tiresome.

  One way to get a handle on finding your theme/premise might be to describe your novel in one sentence, as with a cliché.

  The neat thing is, once you’ve discovered that one true sentence for your novel, you can polish it into a marketing blurb.

   Consider this theme/premise/cliché for a romance story: “Love will find a way.” Then every time you put an obstacle in a character’s path on the way to happily ever after, that obstacle can be overcome with some kind of act of love . . . even self-love (conceit, egotism) is fair game. 

   In the premise/cliché, “All’s fair in love and war,” the character is free to do whatever s/he can in order to capture the heart of a lover. 

   For a love story, that beautiful, angst-filled drama which doesn’t always end happily ever after, a perfect cliché might be, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.” 

   Or this tired, old saw for a YA or memoir: “A coming of age story.” That keeps the threads of the story tied to some agonizing affliction and growth of young people over a longer time span.

 

   Find your cliché and tape it to your desk. It’ll keep you focused on the theme of your story, despite all those wonderful obstacles you throw in the path of the protagonist.

  NOTE: Several writer coaches/experts advise against the use of any clichés in the story’s narrative. That said, I think there are ways to use them—for example, you might have one particular character who loves to rattle off clichés.

§§

Writerly info:

  On Jane Friedman’s blog: “One Well-Chosen Detail: Write Juicy Descriptions Without Overwhelming Your Reader,” by author and writing coach April Dávila. 

https://janefriedman.com/one-well-chosen-detail-write-juicy-descriptions-without-overwhelming-your-reader/

§§

  Did you know that the first “general day of thanksgiving and prayer” was established by Presidential Proclamation in 1789?

And since we won’t be together on the holiday . . .

§§

  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you and yours.

cj

Now some words from my sponsors:

  Books are always great suggestions for gifts, and Christmas is THE gift-giving holiday of the year. I have stories in several anthologies with Christmas as the theme. Here are two to put on your shopping list:

  FINALLY HOME brings you eight Christmas stories all about our four-legged friends and the special people who rescue them.

  From funny, to sad, to romantic, there’s something here to tug at everyone’s heart strings. My short story, Puppy Love, is included. Buy Button::    

Christmas Through a Child’s Eyes

  This anthology has 70 stories written by adults recounting their extraordinary childhood Christmas memories. 

  My story, written under my maiden name of Marilyn Olsein, is titled “Dancing with Daddy,” and relates how six-year-old me reconnected with my Swedish father after a major upheaval in our lives.

The anthology is free on Kindle.  Buy Now   

  My novels THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA are fast-paced, thriller/suspense stories with sassy banter and a smidgen of romance.

 The books are available on Amazon or through your favorite eTailer and bookstore. Got a library card? You can read the ebooks free from Hoopla.

  Little note: Angela Trigg, the RITA Award-winning author and owner of The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  If she happens to be sold out, shoot me an email. I have a small stash (with a discounted price plus shipping).

 
➜ Follow me on . . .  
➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page
➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor
➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson
➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

 

Word Warriors

cj Sez:  Hey, all you word warriors: You still have more than half a month to reach your NaNoWriMo goal of 50,000 words. Keep up the good work…you got this!

  As for my story: After years (true) of pecking away at it every time I think of a different direction, I’m re-editing, again, a story that will probably end at about 70 words. Obviously, I am not a candidate for the NaNoWriMo challenge, but I’ve got my fingers crossed that all you writing warriors will carry through to the finish!

§§

Writerly info

  Stephen King has published 65 novels/novellas, including seven under the pen name Richard Bachman, and five nonfiction books, as well as more than 200 short stories. All told, he has sold more than 400 million books, and many of them have been adapted into feature films, miniseries, and television series. Even some comic books. How does he do it? He has strategies for creating a story that people love to read. One of those is to write the truth.

“Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want. Anything at all... as long as you tell the truth... Write what you like, then imbue it with life and make it unique by blending in your own personal knowledge of life, friendship, relationships, sex, and work...What you know makes you unique in some other way. Be brave.”

§§

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. — Jack London

§§

   On Jane Friedman’s blog: “A Writer’s Guide to Fair Use and Permissions” . . .     https://www.janefriedman.com/sample-permission-letter/

§§

Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you.

cj

Now a note from my sponsors:

  My novels THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA are fast-paced, thriller/suspense stories with sassy banter and a smidgen of romance. (Perfect diversions for a quick weekend getaway.) The books are available on Amazon or through your favorite eTailer and bookstore. Got a library card? You can read the ebooks free from Hoopla.

  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you any book(s) by any author of your choice.

  Little note: The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my books. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  If she happens to be sold out, shoot me an email. I have a small stash (with a discounted price plus shipping).

➜ Follow me on . . .  

➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6

It's fall, y'all. Did you remember?

cj Sez: Did you remember to turn your clock back an hour? 

  By the by, the answer to why there is a time change twice a year? According to a dot com news article: “The U.S. first implemented daylight saving during World War I as a way to conserve fuel with the Standard Time Act of 1918, also known as the Calder Act.”

  In recent years, people have questioned the need to continue to observe the act. In response, there are sages among the D.C. electorate who decided they needed to save the sunshine. The Sunshine Protection Act that would have eliminated “Fall Back” and “Spring Forward” was approved by the U.S. Senate in 2022, but it never made it past the House of Representatives. The national bill is waiting in the wings, however. 

  According to the Farmers’ Almanac, at least 33 state legislatures have attempted to keep daylight saving time year-round. Currently only Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii do not observe daylight saving time.

Tip:

  The correct term is daylight “saving” (not savings) time. The AP Style Guide says it’s properly all lower case, as does the “writers’ bible”—the Chicago Manual of Style. Initials, however, are all caps: DST.

§§

  The idea of turning back time can be especially appealing when thinking about aging:

  Not me. I want people to know “why” I look this way. I've traveled a long way and a lot of the roads were not paved. Points to remember:

   You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

   Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

  I'm grateful for each day that I’m lucky enough to grow older. I can testify that eventually we reach a point when we stop lying about our age and start bragging about it.

  Here’s a wonderful tongue-in-cheek essay on the younger generation’s perception of "seenagers" (a senior who doesn’t act her/his age). My personal goal is to be one of those. 

  https://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/2023/11/seniors-ageism-and-cozy-mysteries-by.html?spref=fb 

 

  I actually experienced an episode of that perception when I took my granddaughter to lunch last week. The waitress came back with my credit card and the receipt for the tab I had paid, handed it to her, and spent a few minutes suggesting she enter a contest after logging onto the restaurant’s website. I was using Mac and PC computers for reports and graphic presentations before either of them were born. I give Maggie Rose credit . . . she started laughing before I did.

  I believe the following prayer will help keep the peace…if I can remember it in time: 

Lord, keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.  Amen

§§

  This weekend, Saturday, November 11, the U.S. respectfully observes Veterans Day, a day set aside to honor all the veterans whose heroism made and keep this country free.

  “When first celebrated as Armistice Day, the day marked the end of World War I, formally recognized on the ‘11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month’ in 1918. The U.S. continues to honor the original connection to WWI, and Veterans Day is celebrated on the same day every year—November 11—regardless of which day of the week it falls.”  (Source: https://www.military.com/veterans-day )

  Canada honors its veterans on November 11 by celebrating their heroism with “Remembrance Day.”  

§§

  Okay, that’s it for today. You-all guys keep on keeping on, and I’ll try to do the same. Raising prayers for a happy and safe you.

cj

Now a note from my sponsors:

  My novels THE DAWGSTAR and DEATH ON THE YAMPA are fast-paced, thriller/suspense stories with sassy banter and a smidgen of romance. (Perfect diversions for a quick weekend getaway.) The books are available on Amazon or through your favorite eTailer and bookstore. 

  Got a library card? You can read the ebooks free from Hoopla.

  Angela Trigg, the awesome owner and a RITA Award-winning author in her own right (writing as Angela Quarles) will be happy to ship you any book(s) by any author of your choice.

  Little note: The Haunted Book Shop has a few signed copies of my books in stock. TO ORDER, contact: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us  If she happens to be sold out, shoot me an email. I have a small stash (with a discounted price plus shipping).

➜ Follow me on . . .  

➜ Amazon:    Amazon Central Author Page

➜ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/CjPettersonAuthor

➜ BookBub:   https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-petterson

➜ Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3fcN3h6