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Yeehaw! My home state got its own stamp!
I walked into the post office this morning and saw my home state of West Virginia on the new stamp display (so of course I bought a sheet). It’s our 150th birthday of statehood! How pretty is this mountain sunrise?!
Here’s what the U.S.P.S. has to say about the mountain state’s commemorative stamp:
With this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service celebrates 150 years of West Virginia statehood. Admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, West Virginia is one of only two new states created during the war and the only one created by separation from a Confederate state. Located entirely within the Appalachian Highlands, West Virginia is now known as the Mountain State. Its official motto reflects the realities of topography as well as its individualistic spirit: montani semper liberi, “mountaineers are always free.”
The stamp features a photograph by West Virginia photographer Roger Spencer showing an early morning view looking east from the Highland Scenic Highway (Route 150) in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, within Monongahela National Forest.
Today, nearly 1.9 million people call West Virginia home. With coal as the state’s most abundant natural resource, around 30,000 West Virginians work in the coal-mining industry, helping to produce more than one-tenth of the country’s supply, and the natural gas and oil industries, while less visible, are essential. In keeping with the current state slogan, “Wild and Wonderful,” tourism is also vital to the West Virginia economy, with mountains and rugged wilderness drawing visitors from across the country and around the world for hunting, fishing, skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing, and whitewater rafting.
Yup, it’s almost heaven.
What is it about horses?
Why did I create the idea of a “whisper horse”, a special horse who helps my characters deal with their problems?
In this article about a therapeutic riding program, Octavia Brown, the director puts it very well:
“A horse never judges and it never thinks you’re different.”
Isn’t that the kind of confidant we all would like to have?
via Equine therapy: N.J. program has helped the disabled ride horses for 10 years | NJ.com.
Good luck using your cell phone here!
Did you know the United States enforces strict limits on the placement and broadcast power of cell phone towers and other transmitters in over 13,000 square miles in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia? It’s true!
Why this National Radio Quiet Zone? It’s to assist the Green Bank Telescope that searches the radio universe for targets like star-forming clumps of gas. Being fascinated by all things having to do with outer space, I went to visit once and was thrilled when one of the giant telescope dishes actually began to move, slowly and majestically, as I watched. I don’t know what they were aiming it at, but I felt as though I was part of the exploration.
Evidently the Naval Information Operations Command is nearby and is used by the N.S.A. to intercept international communications, so they also need peace and quiet.
Interestingly, people who believe they suffer from sensitivity to electromagnetic fields like living there as well.
I’ll bet their cell phone signal is really weak though!
Poets CAN make money!
As a former poet (in college), I was happy to see this article in the Wall Street Journal, explaining that some poets have figured out how to make money from their writing:
Some writers now in the poetry business are capitalizing on the demand for custom stanzas. Carolyn Schwartz was working as an organizational psychologist when she began writing poetry for friends and family. In 2006, she decided to try making money from it. She started an online business called Poems by Carolyn which she operates out of her home in Woodbury, Long Island, and today receives eight to 10 orders a month. Most of the requests, she said, come in the form of pleas.
“I’m part-ghostwriter, part-poet, part-therapist,” she said. “People feel a lot of pressure to find the right words, so they’ll write in and say, ‘Please, help me!'”
A standard poem for a candle-lighting ceremony or birthday costs $550, which includes a visit, unlimited changes, a laminated copy of the poem and even speech rehearsals. Clients outside of driving distance are charged $100 less.
via Festival Celebrates Poetry at Governors Island – WSJ.com.
Most of the poems are composed for happy occasions but there are some sad stories too:
The custom poets say it’s hard not to befriend clients after sharing poignant moments in the poems they order up. Ms. Alcivar said that in 2010, she was hired to compose poetry for a wedding by friends of the bride. A year later, they called her again, this time to write for a funeral—the former bride had died of pancreatic cancer.”
“These occasions make sense to me because they’re about things people don’t know how to talk about,” she said. “Love and joy, grief and death. When they can’t find the words, poets become that placeholder.”
Ms. Alcivar understands the true nature of poetry.
Half-price Sale on TAKE ME HOME!
Yeehaw! Amazon is offering Take Me Home for half-price on Kindle and in print.
Book 1 of the Whisper Horse novels
If you’d like to buy it on Kindle for $2.00, click here.
If you’d like a print copy for $6.48, click here.
Enjoy your reading and let me know what you think!
Write-Walking: Notes from my Treadmill Desk
I took my maiden voyage on my DIY treadmill desk last night and thought you might want a report on whether it worked or not.
Statistics:
Time: 78 minutes
Distance: 1.9 miles
Speed: 1.2 – 1.5 mph
Words written: 1,063
Calories burned: 235
Notes:
I got so lost in the story, I forgot I was walking until about 55 minutes had passed, at which point I realized I was actually tired. So I took a short break to watch a snippet of “Mad Men” with Handsome Husband. Then I got back on the treadmill to finish writing the scene.
I started at 1.2 mph, got used to it, decided it was too slow, and upped my pace to 1.5 mph. I hear most folks top out at 2.0 mph, so that’s my goal.
Typing while walking was no problem at all. Mouse-ing was more of a challenge. First, the mouse tends to waltz off the keyboard tray when I start typing. So I have to move it up to the desk when I’m not using it. Second, the cursor requires precise positioning on the screen which is not so easy when you’re in full stride. When I finished typing for the night, I admit to turning the treadmill off so I could do all my document saving procedures from a stationary position. However, I am sure I’ll perfect mobile mouse-ing with practice.
I drank a lot of water while write-walking. Good thing I have a refrigerator in the basement!
My productivity was high while walking. Of course, I was in the middle of a very hot scene between my hero and heroine in THE PLACE I BELONG, so that may have sharpened my focus. Walking has always helped me think though, so I figure the motion itself contributes to brain activity.
The Preliminary Verdict:
The Treadmill Desk looks like it will be good for me both on the exercise and productivity fronts. It’s nice to have another place set up to work too, just for variety’s sake. I use Dropbox to save my documents so it’s easy to pick up where I left off, no matter which computer I’m working on. The wonders of modern technology!
Now if it helps me lose weight, I will be totally in love with it.
My Proud Accomplishment: A DIY Treadmill Desk
I did it! I built myself a treadmill desk for less than $200.00! And half of that cost was in the sturdy keyboard tray I decided was necessary for my ergonomic keyboard (since I can’t type decently on anything else anymore).
This project started when I read an article about how people who sat at desks all day were developing all kinds of health problems. To counteract this, a couple of innovative companies offered the option of a treadmill desk where you can walk and work at the same time. I love to walk and I own a treadmill so I decided this was a no-brainer for me.
Except the treadmill desks you could buy ready-made cost thousands of dollars (and probably wouldn’t fit my treadmill).
Since I’m the daughter of an engineer I decided I would build one myself. In fact, I loved the do-it-yourself projects my father and I used to work on together when I was young. My problem is I don’t have the same array of tools at my disposal as my dad does. Fortunately, there’s Home Depot where they will cut your materials for you.
So I studied my treadmill, measured it from all angles, and came up with a design. Then I trekked off to Home Depot with my list of materials in hand and came home with these:
Four fence posts, a shelf meant for a closet, four rolling castors, and a bunch of screws. (My plan was to do this low-cost to see if I really liked it before I invested in more upscale materials.) The keyboard tray had to be ordered because no one local had one that I thought would hold up to my pounding.
With the help of my Handsome Husband, I got the fence posts attached to the closet shelf. Next I had to put the keyboard tray track on sideways because my closet shelf was so shallow, but voila! I am now the proud owner of a treadmill desk.
Not only will I get lots of exercise while I’m writing, but I will feel the glow of accomplishment only a DIYer gets to bask in. (Another bonus: the treadmill is in the basement which is blissfully cool in this scorching weather.)
99 Cent Sale!
For a limited time, all three of my Red Car Press books are on sale on Kindle for 99 cents each. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your family! A Bridge to Love is also on sale on Barnes and Noble’s Nook.
If you haven’t read one of these books, it’s a great opportunity to pick one up. Or to re-read one. 😉
Jut click on the cover and it will take you to the Amazon page.
Award-winning contemporary romance
Or on Barnes and Noble’s Nook.
Award-winning contemporary romance
Romantic Suspense
Enjoy the reading!
Dual-identity dogs
I love this article from the Star-Ledger about bomb sniffing dogs who transform to family pets at night and on weekends.
As one expert says: “Your dog’s never going to work harder than for the person that he loves,” said Bryan Szostak, treasurer of the Michigan-based National Association of Professional Canine Handlers.
The dog’s handlers are responsible for feeding them too, funded by the TSA, of course. “They’re considered a piece of equipment, so you want to make sure your equipment is well-maintained,” according to Szostak.
One bomb-sniffing dog, Stella, even suffered through evacuation with her family during Hurricane Sandy. She was carried through the flooded streets of their town by a family friend.
Read the full article here:
BOMB SNIFFER BY DAY, FAMILY PET BY NIGHT
TSA canine handlers can’t leave their work at the office. It’s not allowed.
The Transportation Security Administration has had a K-9 program in its cargo screening compliance unit since 2007, when full-time handlers were paired with German shepherds, Belgian Malinois and Labrador retrievers trained to sniff out bombs in cargo shipped in the belly of commercial airliners.
Like their counterparts in other security and law enforcement organizations, TSA K-9 handlers have full responsibility for the care and feeding of their four-legged partners. And that means taking them home overnight and on weekends, where man’s best friend is likely to bond with man’s wife and children as well.
via Dual-purpose dogs: TSA canines are bomb sniffers by day, family pets by night | NJ.com.
The deleted verse
You may have noticed that my book titles are borrowed from the lyrics of John Denver’s famous song about West Virginia “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” What you may not know—I didn’t!—is that there was originally one more verse that the lyricist Taffy Nivert Danoff and John Denver decided to delete before they recorded it.
Before I tell you what it was, I wanted to fill you in on some other background information about my favorite song. Taffy and her then husband Bill were actually in Virginia when the first image of the song struck them. Bill was looking at the spectacular sunset over the distant blue mountains and asked, “What’s over there?” Their guide said, “That’s West Virginia.”
As the couple drove up to Maryland for a family gathering, Bill started strumming his guitar and repeating, “Country roads, country roads.” They drove through West Virginia’s eastern panhandle and found the Shenandoah River. You can start to see how the words began to come together.
Some folks quibble about the Blue Ridge Mountains in the song when, in fact, West Virginia’s mountains are the Appalachians. However, being a former poet myself, I can understand why they chose the shorter moniker to fit their tune. I also discovered that, geologically speaking, the Appalachians are part of the Blue Ridge range anyway.
Taffy and Bill originally wanted to sell the song to Johnny Cash. As it happened, they were performing at the same venue as John Denver one night and he asked to hear any songs they’d written. When he listened to “Country Roads”, he flipped and said, “That’s a hit song! I want it for my next album.”
The rest is history since it reached No. 2 on the Billboard singles chart as a million seller. It’s arguably one of the most recognized songs in the world, and obviously, us West Virginians feel mighty proud of it, agreeing with the label “Almost Heaven”.
So what’s the missing verse? Here you go:
“In the foothills, hiding from the clouds…
Pink and purple, West Virginia farmhouse.
Naked ladies, men who looked like Christ…
And a dog named Pancho, nibbling on the rice.”
Evidently, they were thinking about the hippies who had settled in remote locations in West Virginia in the 60s and 70s.
I think they made the right call on leaving that part out, don’t you?
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