Marsha R. West's Blog

Whenever you celebrated,I hope you had a great Thanksgiving . We did. Family, good food, games, football, and lots of laughter. You can’t tell that from this picture. Everyone was focused on eating the meal. LOL Bob supervised Kathryn again on making the turkey, and she took notes this time. At any rate, it was the traditionally wonderfully moist Bob-Kathryn turkey. My plate is more full than I intended, but oh my goodness, it was all yummy. Sadly, Wednesday, I took down the Fall decorations, which are my favorite, and I’ve begun putting up some of the Christmas decorations. A tad earlier than usual, but it’s just how the calendar worked out. And you have to pay attention to the weather, too. We’ve had a couple of really mild days with little wind (kind of unusual but appreciated.) The tree is up but not decorated. Bob smartly wrote on the box that we got this tree in 2022. Easy to forget those things. I move my violets from this table where they get great morning light. My snow people are on the dining room table. The lights aren’t up outside yet, but hopefully I’ll get to them this weekend. Many of my neighbors are already lighting up our nights. It’s like a fairy land.If you’re looking for gifts this season, books are perfect. You can find a slew of options at NN Lights Book Heavan. My COMPROMISE is there, https://books2read.com/u/b5weW1 but lots of others, too. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas or Hanukkah. Being together is so important.This is my last Blog Post for a while. Just busy times, and I need to take a break. If you’ve never signed up for my newsletter, you better do so now. That’s how we’ll keep in touch for the foreseeable future.  Here’s that link. MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)

Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…

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Sending this out a day early because I figure most of us will be busy with family, friends, and eating on Thursday.

But I don’t want you to miss a chance to get COMPROMISE for 99 Cents during the BLACK FRIDAY/CYBERMONDAY Sale. It runs November 24-November 26. This is the Hallmarkish Christmas type book with the murder on p. 2. LOL Here’s the link for when the sale will be live

https://bookds2read.com/u/b5weW1

On a somber note. Today is the 60th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. If you are old enough you remember where you were on that day. It was a troubling time for our country. But we survived it and while we are again in troubling times, I have hope we will come through this one, too.

Have a wonderful time with your family and friends.

Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | GoodreadsMarsha R. West Books – BookBub

 

Last week I got a call from a friend from church who happens to also be a TCU librarian. She told me she’d given my name to a Keller Public Library librarian who’d called her looking for suggestions for an author event. They’d had a couple of people get sick and back out of their Saturday event honor Indie Author Day. My friend kindly supplied the Keller Librarian with my name. Yes, I had to take this pic from my computer. For some reason, I couldn’t upload the pict from the downloads. I worked on it for a good thirty minutes. This was the best I could figure out.Now I really wanted to do this because I hadn’t done a live event in a couple of months and celebrating Indie Author Day is really cool. But Bob and I had plans to attend a dance performance at TCU Saturday afternoon. I called my daughter who was a rehearsal choreographer for one of the numbers to see if we could switch to Friday night. We were able to do that, which made it okay for me to say yes to the Keller Public Library. Keller is a small town north and a bit east of Fort Worth about forty minutes from where we live. Not a bad drive since there is an expressway north until the turn off. I asked Bob to go with me because he hadn’t gone in a while, and I thought it would be nice to get feedback from him on how he thought it went. And…he could help haul in all the books. I only took 4 of each title, but I have 10 books out. Forty books weigh a lot. As soon as I entered the beatiful libraryI, I met Joshua Cade, the librarian who was very appreciative of me coming at the last minute. We were set up in a side room before you enter the main library. He’d provided tables for the authors to set up our books. I was glad I brought my turquoise sheet I use to cover tables. I wasn’t sure what the situation would be. Three other authors attended. Monical Flores who has two young adult fantasy books out. Angelicque York who published a memoir about her experiences with her husband’s struggle with Alsheimer’s. She also wrote articles for newspapers. The third person was in a different category. Amanda Churchill has a book releasing in February 2024 published by Random House. She tells stories her Japanese grandmother shared with her growing up about coming to this country and losing everything she knew before. And she couldn’t even go back because it was no longer the way it had been. Amanda is definitely not an Indie Author. However hearing her experiences made an interesting contrast to the rest of us. Josh asked questions, and we all took turns answering, and then the audience had their turn. We had a good turnout, twenty to twenty five people. It was really a great time. I didn’t sell any print books but picked up a few new newsletter followers, and people asked where they could get e-copies. Several people have reached out to me with follow up questions about the business. Giving back is part of being an author because so many folks gave to me when I was first starting. Josh asked me to send him a blurb to use. I didn’t realize the size. I should have cut this way back. (But then I’ve been writing a long time with 10 books out.) Here’s where you can see the other athors. https://twitter.com/kellertxlibrary I hope you will take a minute and check out the other authors. The blurb look better because there is more white space. So thank you, Robyn Reid for giving Josh my name. Thanks, Josh for the invite. And thanks to the lovely people who came to the Keller Public Library. Oh, and Bob said I did really well. Could be he’s a bit biased. But it was lots of fun.My newsletter will go out next week and I’ll share a bit of this again for those people who don’t follow my blog. (Of course, I wish they did. )Also, next week I have two cool things happening. I will be a guest of my friend JQ. Rose. She’s an author I met when we were both with Muse It Up Publishing quite a few years ago. JQ’s writing crosses genres from suspense to mystery to thriller. All really interesting reads. And you should check out her memoir about the time she and her husband made the jump to move and start a new business. She also has a book telling you how to write your own memoir and a great book for young girls spotlighting women doing amazing things. Here’s the link to her blog.  https://www.jqrose.com/  I’ll share the specific link to my post next week on Facebook.And then from November 1-December 31 NN Light Book Heaven has her Gift Guide. I’m spotlighted on November 15 with COMPROMISE. I’ll share that link on Facebook, too.Hope you’re experiencing great fall weather. Love to hear from you.Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | Goodreads Marsha R. West Books – BookBub

Boy this year is flying by and is almost gone. How is that possible?!?I’m posting some random pics of Fall trips. Downtown Stowe, VT.I’ve been a bit under the weather lately. Allergies are winning it seems. It will pass, but they leave me tired. This post my be a bit disjointed and shorter than usual.. One of my favorite pics of a lake in VT.How about them Rangers?! I’m not a huge sports fan but I do follow the Texas Rangers. They came to Fort Worth the year before we did in the early 70s. As a young couple we went to a number of baseball games. It wasn’t until 2011 that they won the American Leage and played in the World Series for the first time. I hesitate to mention this event because it was such a sad disappointment to the fans. I swiped this pic from my friend Karen Landon on Facebook.This year they beat the Houston Astros to win the American League, and they’ve been playing the Arizona Rattlers. Neither team had been expected to make it this far, so that’s really cool. The Rangers have a 3-1 lead over Arizona… OMG! The Rangers won the World Series. It was the most exciting thing to watch. A real nailbiter right down to the end. They beat Arizona 5-0. GO RANGERS! WhoHoo!!! House in historic Deerfield, Massachusetts. I used this as the prototype for the rent house for the heronine in VERMONT ESCAPE. We’ve had an early freeze. I had to cover up most of the flowers and brought in two pots. The wind was gusting to 30 mph when I struggled to cover them up. It’s alwyas that way. I’ll get to uncover them tomorrow when we warm up to more normal temps for us this time of the year roughly 50s to 70s.

An apple festival we stumbled onto in New Hampshire when we were looking for covered bridges.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my pics. They make me smile as I remember these wonderful trips. Are you a sports fan? What teams do you route for? Love to hear from you. Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | GoodreadsMarsha R. West Books – BookBub

I know that’s a lot. But a lot is going on. And I didn’t even mention health issues. Bob has been quite sick (though now thankfully is much improved). I’ve had major allergy issues which put me out of commission for a couple of days. (Which is why I didn’t have a blog post last week.) But like Bob, and thankfully, I’m better, too. You know you just take good health for granted until it’s not there, and then your life is upended! Getting my steps in has fallen off the radar. I will get back to them, but…. Though I thought I had Gym pics, I couldn’ t find any, but in searching I came across this pic I took from our calendar of these prescious pups. The little guy in the front really reminds me of our Simon who we lost in 2013. Now, let’s talk Stupid Consumer. That stupid consumer is me. I really should’ve known better, but I got suckered. Here’s the deal. Last June I signed up at LA Fitness to work with a trainer. I wanted to be checked out on the equipment and pick up a few new things to do. I never intended to do more than one month’s of work with a trainer. It was just more money than I was comfortable with, and I like to work on my own. So the employee at LA Fitness told me: “You can sign this contract for a year, and after the first month if you want to quit, you can. We’ll just stop billing you.” I thought that sounds great. I signed.I did my 4 trainings that first month. And continued to go to the gym (which my health insurance covers) but didn’t schedule any more trainings. And then ultimately, I stopped going to the gym. Life happens and it became just a hassle when I can do a lot of stuff at home and walk at the mall or neighborhood depending on the weather. Picture goes with text farther below.Several weeks ago, Bob asked me if I’m still going to the gym. I tell him no. He points out the charge on our Credit Card bill. Dadgum if they haven’t continued to charge me for personal trainings I’m not taking.I called the gym, they said they’d check on the issue, and oh, by the way, that employee no longer works there. Ultimately, I called back, and they said they couldn’t do anything about it because I signed the contract. I pushed and got sent to Customer Services and talked with two people there, ending the call by saying I’d be talking with a lawyer.Now of course, the lawyer is Bob who informed me Texas Law is pretty clear. You sign a contract, and it’s binding, no matter how unfair. The best I’ve been able to do is work a deal to pay off half of what’s left on the yearly contract. It’s a good chunk but way better than sticking with the monthly charge. I’m sure you must be thinking, well, why don’t you just do the trainings? Simple. I don’t like personal trainings. (Except for Pilates) I got into the gym hoping to encourage Bob to go (who of course hasn’t gone.) LOLSo here’s my message to all consumers. Do Not Believe what an employee tells you if it’s different than what is in the printed contract. Period . Here comes some really fun stuff. I’m inviting you to join me this coming Saturday, October 28, at the Never Too Late to Fall in Love Facebook Event. Lots of authors (all of seasoned romances), lots of giveaways including e & print books, Gift Cards, and other fun stuff. All you have to do is to join https://www.facebook.com/groups/worththewaitseasonedromancereaders/This is the simplest event. You join the group, and on Saturday, go to the group and you’ll see posts from the authors. You comment, and that gives you a chance to win. The more you comment the more you increase your chances of winning. The characters in the books are all over thirty. (You know I personally think seasoned characters need to be at least 40—the youngest age of any of my characters.) All the posts will tell you the age of the H & H. I do hope you will sign up. I’d love to see you. I’ll give away one e-copy of VERMONT ESCAPE, and one e-copy of TRUTH Be TOLD, both great Fall reads, and a $10 Amazon Gift Card. Three lucky winners. That’s just me, there are lots of authors. Lastly, for those of you in Texas, on November 7th, we vote on 14 Constitutional Amendments. (Other states have other kinds of elections taking place that day. Please make sure to educate yourself about the ballot and to make plans to vote.!) One Texas ammendment is particularly important to me and other retired teachers. It would provide a cost of living increase for the first time since 2004. This ammendment is supported by the Governor, House & Senate. So if you know anyone in Texas please share. If you’d like an explanation of each of those amendments, click here. Guide to the Nov. 7 Texas Constitutional Amendment Election – Texas Freedom Network (tfn.org) Hope I get to see many of you Saturday on Facebook. Have you ever been really stupid the way I was? Love to hear from you. Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | GoodreadsMarsha R. West Books – BookBub

You might be surprised to see this title because if you follow me on FB (and I hope you do), you’ll have read we didn’t go on a Fall trip this year. Over the Indigenous People/Columbus Day weekend, Bob and I both talked about how this time of year usually finds us in New England somewhere. I have already spent several fun hours researching possible places to stay next year. LOL It’s like watching my on HGTV House Hunters episode. Lobster boat seen from balcony of cottage in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. This is my screen saver on my phone.Anyway, I decided to share some of my favorite pictures from various New England trips. I have a ton because for about ten years in a row we went every fall. Originally we’d hit a couple of places on one trip, but later I was able to convince Bob to pick one place to stay and drive to see the others. I hated the packing and unpacking. Here we go.2010 L– Me on the balcony of the cottage in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. YOu might recogize a picture similar to this was used to make the cover of ACT OF TRUST. C–Maine Headlight in Portland. Also seen in my banner. R–Gorgeous tree (one of the reasons we go) in front of cafe where we saw little ladies playing Mah Jongg before I knew what that was. I used them in one of my books. 2011 L–Old house in Deerfield, Massachusetts. I used this as the prototype for the house the heroine in VERMONT ESCAPE rented. Deerfield has a ton a gorgeous old homes still lived in. C–One of many wonderful covered bridges in Vermont, R–Stick art at museum in Connecticutt. We actually saw something similar in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.2016 Top L–View from Blair Hill Inn in Green, Maine looking at Moosehead Lake. Bottom L–View of Moosehead lake from balcony of the Inn. R–Schooner in Bar Harbor we went out on.This was sooo fun. I’m clearly going to have to do this again. I didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all our pictures. And no, I receive no reimbursement from New England Travel. Have you ever traveled to New England? If so, what’s your favorite place? Yeah, I know an impossible question, I couldn’t choose one either. So one of your favorite places?Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | GoodreadsMarsha R. West Books – BookBub

Okay, full confession today’s topic is almost totally First World. But hey, it’s where I am right now.Monday night I had my Matthew 25 Action Team from church come to the house to view a recording from Hulu of The 1619 Project, narrated and created by Nicole Hannah-Jones. (Well that wasn’t the First World stuff. That video is about the history of the first enslaved Africans when they arrived in America, and how their lives are so inexorably tied up with our history and trying to make America live up to its promise. It’s history most of us haven’t heard. It’s surprising, difficult, and inspiring. I hope you can watch it or read the book. We watched episode 1 Democracy and episode 6 Justice.) https://www.hulu.com/series/the-1619-project-7ba3407a-299c-4a10-8310-bbcdd6ab4653Now back to the First World stuff. We haven’t entertained in forever. Bob has had several bouts of Flu B running spring through much of the summer, which left him not feeling like doing much of anything but working. Besides the Monday night gathering, we’re hosting the neighborhood coffee this Saturday. So we get more cleaning for the buck this way. You know how things are rocking along pretty well until you start looking at your place with someone else’s eyes? Then every little pile that wasn’t any big deal becomes a really big deal. Bob and I are both stackers rather than filers. I understand that’s a personality thing kind of like you’re either an introvert or an extrovert. Now just like you can be an introvert and learn to handle an extroverted situation you can be a stacker and make yourself file when it’s a real necessity. LOL Like when people are coming to the house.    I’m super proud of what Bob has done. He really doesn’t have time, and it’s not something he likes to do, but he did it for me and means a lot. Neither desk was visible under the stacks prior to his hard work. My desk needs a bit more work, too, but I always have wood showing. Now, I love how my dining table looks, but it dawned on me, I’ll have to move some of those pumpkins someplace else because all the foods will fill up the entire table and the counter (which I’ve worked really hard to keep cleaned off—mail can collect there and actually multiply. Do you have a spot like that?) The good thing about hosting the neighborhood coffee is the host doesn’t have to provide all the food. Everyone brings something which makes for a lot of food. I think I’m going to have to move the wedding pictures off this table. It opens out to become a serving table, and I can put the coffee, cups, etc. there. That will help move folks out of our rather small kitchen. We only host this group once a year. Sometimes I don’t have my fall decorations up yet, but this year I do. I wanted to find plates and napkins with fall leaves on them. While Halloween stuff is already out and some fall stuff is out, the napkins and plates are nowhere to be found, so I decided to go with surprise, surprise—turquoise. I did already have a bunch of turquoise iced tea cups so that made financial sense. However, I wouldn’t have used them if I’d found the leafy napkins. Maybe we’ll sign up to do this in October next year. But maybe not. Next year we’re going on a Fall trip to someplace in New England. The research has already begun and will be the subject of another post sometime. If you are local, you’ll be especially interested in this last piece. You can see me Sunday, September 24 at Leaves Book and Tea Shop. 120 St. Louis St just south of downtown Fort Worth. It’s a place I’ve been before for book signings and for author events. This is An Afternoon with Authors. Besides me you’ll find Josh Hickman who did this great graphic, Marissa Barthel and Stephanie Harrington. So come see us. We’ll be talking about the writing process. What do you do to get ready to entertain? What’s the hardest part about entertaining for you? Do you go to live book events? What’s your favorite part?Love to hear from you.Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://wordbyword.net/category/blog/https://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | GoodreadsMarsha R. West Books – BookBub

Don’t know what you immediately think reading this word, but I’m talking about electrical power and my dependance on same.Last weekend we were blessed to have a storm blow in. Blessed because we desperately needed the rain. First rain since May sometime. Our draught has been really bad and in some areas even severe. It’s been a bleak summer.So we are all grateful for the rain. But the rain came with storms—sustained winds of 50 gusting to 60 or more. We lost several tree limbs. Some people lost whole trees. A neighbor lost a big chunk of fence unlike us. And we lost power on Friday night around 10:30 pm. It remained off until Saturday afternoon around 2:30. Losing power means our commodes don’t flush, lights are off, AC is off (and it was still a warm day though better than it had been.) and the refrigerator is off. When your AC isn’t working (as ours wasn’t for two weeks the end of May into the first of June), and you have electricity, you can use fans. We have lots of fans in our house. I survived sitting directly under those fans back the end of May. But with no electricity, you don’t have the fans working either. We opened the windows and had a bit of a breeze Friday night. I made plans to go to a hotel because we’d seen a giant tree east of us down across some big power lines. It didn’t look good. We couldn’t check in until after 3 pm. Surprisingly and thankfully, the power came back on before we had to go to the hotel.I always charge my phone and Kindle when I go to bed at night. But that Friday night, I didn’t have power for them. Saturday was a bit iffy and I only used my phone when I had to. At one point I went outside and sat in one of our Adirondack chairs, but I didn’t want to use my phone or my Kindle because they were both giving me low battery signs. I realized how dependent my whole life is on power. After iceageddon back in 2021 I decided we needed to get a generator, but you know they are expensive, and we have a lot going on. We managed to get through this awful summer and the grid held. We did get emergency conservation announcements. But we got through, and I never did anything about a generator.Now, I am going to follow up with a guy who a friend recommended to see what the least we can get to cover our essentials—commodes, refrigerator, a power plug for our electronics. Maybe the AC/Heater. We’ll see what the cost of that is.Unfortunately, everyone hasn’t been as lucky as we have been. A friend was still without power on Sunday. I would be remiss if I didn’t shout out to the great guys and gals who work for ONCORE to get everything up and going again. Also, many thanks to our SIL Kevin Strawser who picked up new boards and fixed our fence amazingly fast.So what’s your experience with losing power? Does it happen often where you live? Do you have a generator?Don’t forget to get an e-copy of ACT OF TRUST, honoring those who lost loved ones and friends on 9/11. It’s Book 2 in The Second Chances Series and is on sale for 99 Cents through Sept. 16. https://books2read.com/u/m0wY97 If you missed my September newsletter, here’s the link: https://mailchi.mp/b0646b3b4de1/september-2023-newsletter-marsha-r-west-author As always I’d love to hear from you.Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://wordbyword.net/category/blog/https://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | Goodreads Marsha R. West Books – BookBub

These are the initials for the Oscar winning movie Everything Everywhere All At Once. Well, that’s kind of how I feel right now as I try to write this blog post. Exactly where do I start? Hamilton the heron was hunting Wednesday morning. The Cost of Poverty Experience I participated in on Saturday with friends from church? My goodness what an experience it was! The presenters basically put the presenters in situations that people who are coping with poverty deal with every day. We roll played real live people. I was a 35-year-old-man who had been laid off with two teenage daughters. I had a $745 unemployment check, but my expenses included housing for $800 and food and utilities and household items, and kid expenses. What do you do? Well because I’ve been involved in a study about people who become homeless, I focused on keeping a roof over our heads. My kids ate breakfast and lunch at school and we all went hungry at supper. There was no money for that. Another participant made sure his kids could eat. For me avoiding eviction and becoming homeless was paramount. It was a stressful situation made more so by the time pressure. In the debrief after, almost everyone commented they would look at folks they were helping with a lot more empathy. If you’re interested in learning more, I’ve got this picture with the web site. Sorry, you’ll need to enlarge this pic to see the website. (Except for this pic, the others are random beautiful sunrises and sunsets to make you feel better. )We just celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Sixty years, and we’re still fighting the same old awful bigotry. White Supremacy has made it into the mainstream instead of staying on the fringes. A few days ago, a white man killed several black people in a Dollar Store just because he hated the color of their skin. He had swastikas on his weapons. No one who is in their right mind can support neo-Nazis. You just can’t. Come on, folks, we have to speak up when we hear racial hate speech coming from people we know, sometimes even our family members. Staying quiet means we agree. Difficult but necessary work. More about this at a later time. This sunrise prefaced an eqaully super hot day of over 105.And then we have the poor folks on the west coast of Florida  and on up into Georgia and South Carolina dealing with Idahlia’s arrival Wednesday morning.  All we can do is hope most citizens evacuated. Support the Red Cross if you of a mind to help. I’d never before caught this exact look with the beams showing behind the clouds. I’ve put off the other topic exploding in my brain until next week. Not enough time to give it the attention it requires. Recent Sunset when we had a delightful “cold” front come through. Got our night time temps into the 70s. It was lovely. And of course, we’re heading into the Labor Day weekend. For our family that is also about our youngest grandchild’s BD. She will be 12 on Sept. 5. The year she was born, that day was actually Labor Day, so she claims two days if it doesn’t fall on the actual day. Not a bad plan. Our grands are in 6, 7th, and 12 grade now. Really amazing.Do you do anything special for Labor Day? As always, I’d love to hear from you.Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER   MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com)Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwesthttps://wordbyword.net/category/blog/https://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwestAmazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, KindleMarsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | GoodreadsMarsha R. West Books – BookBub

 I’m going to try to tie together several threads here. Last week I shared about making videos for a training I was taking. I posted the link for those. I’ll share the last one (I think if I can figure out how!) LOL The technology is such a challenge. (So sorry, I ran out of time for to find the video. Did I mention daughter, SIL, and granddaughter are staying with us because their AC is out?) Hazel, visiting granddog.Crazy how things worked out. Part of what I worked on was getting the timing right on the videos. Some were 30-60 seconds, one was 1-2 minutes, and one 5 -10 minutes. Quite a range. It takes practice to deliver words to fit a time frame. It’s hard if you’re reading though you have much more control over that. But if you’re trying to “talk” it, well, that takes a whole other level of work.So, some of my friends heard that the FWISD had closed it’s school libraries for the first two weeks of school. The State Legislature passed a bill and Gov. Greg Abbot signed the bill that schools needed to purge their libraries of any books deemed “offensive.” Generally, libraries do an inventory every couple of years, looking for books that have become ragged or in disrepair or just aren’t as timely as they once were. (Just like your closet. You can’t keep adding new clothes without weeding out some of the older ones. Well, it’s not a good idea at any rate. I do know folks who will not be named who never weed out.) LOL I don’t have any pics from board meeting, and Charley looks so earnest here.However they idea the school libraries would be closed the first two weeks? Well that sends the message that books and research are not important. And you never want to send that message.  Because of my 8 years on the FWISD Board way back in the late 80s and early 90s (I know some of you may not have been born yet. LOL), I felt compelled to speak out. I don’t want any one person or small group making decisions about what books should be in the library. Each parent can decide for his/her child. They just can’t decide for my child. (Not that I have a child anymore, but you get the idea.)While on the board, I sat through some raucous meetings. I remember one where we had extra police on hand because word was out someone was coming to the meeting with a gun. (This was before Columbine and all the mass shootings which have become all too familiar and is a topic for another post.) I remember being really scared and wondering whether if we dropped behind the large table where we sat if it would stop the bullets. Fortunately, the police presence acted as a deterrent and the guy didn’t show, but it was dicey. Decorations are not up yet, but will be right after Labor Day.And I remember the times when several individuals would appear really ticked off at us about something. But I don’t remember any organized large groups of 25 or 30 with placards. Tuesday night was intimidating. The board sat a quite a distance from the speakers and from each other I guess that’s still left over from Covid. Very different from when I was on the board. People were not more than 10 fifteen feet from us. We must have been 25 or more Tuesday night. Like it was hard to read expressions.A good change is board members don’t respond to speakers unless they want to clarify and total mis-statement. Now that’s got to be really hard, but probably better than before when we’d get into a back and forth with someone who only wanted to hear us agree with them. If we couldn’t or wouldn’t, they just got madder.   I hadn’t spoken before the board in many years and despite speaking being something that I’m pretty comfortable with, my nerves were running high. I practiced at least a dozen times trying to get the time just right. Two min. max and then they cut you off.  And to get the words just right, changing them right up until before I left at 5. I do need to acknowledge my friends who sent me in the right direction to do the reasarch on the topic: Julie MIers, Sue Guthrie, Marcie Fromby, Karen Landon, and of course Lynne Payne. It’s really important to have a wing woman in a situation like that.A group calling themselves Citizens Defending Freedom was there with placards with disparaging terms for our LBGTQ+ friends, It was pretty ghastly. The problem is they just want freedom for themselves and not for others. Bob’s birthday last year or year before. It was cool enough to be outside, which it definitely isn’t this year or last.I did give my 2-minute-on-the-dot speech. Others said I did well. It was a very heartwarming feeling when I turned around to return to my seat to see a group of folks standing and applauding. Now I had stood and applauded for speakers before me, so I wasn’t the first or only, but I didn’t realize how nice it would feel to see all those folks having my back.Will my friend and I go back? I suppose so. You can’t just lie down and let the naysayers have the stage. You may be wondering about the title of this post. Well, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, is one of the many books that has been banned across the country. I haven’t seen the list of the books pulled from the FWISD libraries, but it’s probably there. Remember, no one forces you to read a book. But please, don’t try to keep me from reading one. By the way, several members of my family will go see TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at Bass Hall next month. I’ll let you know how the performance is. Apologies for such a lengthy post, but not for the subject. We are in a battle to keep this country a democracy. Part of that means rule by the majority while protecting the rights of the minority. And while I might not like what you write or say or read, I’ll defend your right to write, say, and read. I would appreciate if you’d do it civily. As always, I’d love to hear from you.

Blurbs for each of my books with links can be found on my website https://authormarsharwest.wordpress.com/ Where you can also sign up for my blog and my  NEWSLETTER  MRW Press LLC (list-manage.com) Contact me at marsha@marsharwest.com , and follow me on…(20+) Marsha Riegert West | Facebook      https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmnhttps://www.twitter.com/Marsharwest  @Marsharwest https://wordbyword.net/category/blog/ https://www.pinterest.com/marsharwest/  https://www.instagram.com/marsharwest Amazon.com: Marsha R. West: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle Marsha R. West (Author of Vermont Escape) | Goodreads Marsha R. West Books – BookBub