Edward Middleton A True Member of The Greatest Generation

20131210-155410.jpgI’ve decided to honor a WWII vet who is truly an amazing man. First let me say that I know this man personally. I have volunteered with him at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville North Carolina.

Ed was born in Baltimore Maryland in 1919. He grew up during the Great Depression. Ed was forced into the role of breadwinner at age 12. He took odd jobs delivering groceries and newspapers. He then went to work in a glass factory. He was drafted in 1940 at the age of 20. He was stationed at Logan Airport in Boston in an Air defense capacity.  He then went to Ordinance school and received his commission as an officer in 1943. He was then assigned to the 30th infantry division known as “Old Hickory” and took part in the D-Day invasion. He then went on to Normandy, and the Battle of the Bulge, Mortain and St Lo. His part of the Battle of the Bulge took place in Ardennes-Alsace Offensive, near Malmedy, Belgium.

Upon returning from WWII he went to work for the Coast Guard as a civil service employee working under two Admirals. He worked for the coast guard for thirty plus years. He finally retired early late 1970’s or early 1980’s.

He and his wife ran a Bed & Breakfast in Luray VA, then moved to Thomasville GA setting up yet another Bed and Breakfast. After suffering some medical setbacks he and his wife moved to Fayetteville NC to be near his son Kirk in 2005. His son Kirk was working for the US Army as a contractor.

Ed is currently still active in his community. He is a member of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry and volunteers his time at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum. Where he can be found in uniform most Fridays in the WWII section near the glider.

I had the honor of meeting this amazing man during my time as a volunteer at the museum. So this is one amazing man, who is still serving his country in his own way. I’d like to present him with a book of postcards thanking him for his service.

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When to offer help

Okay as many of you know I’ve been stuck using a wheelchair for some time now. I won’t pretend it hasn’t had its challenges, but I’ve learned a lot in that time as well. I can go to the store on my own, in fact I can do most things for myself unless I’m just plain exhausted. While the chair is a necessity at least until my ankle gets fixed, I don’t want it to define me.

There are times I need help, not many but they do occur. Well I’m a well documented loud mouth (my husband and friends can attest to this), in short if I want or need your help you’ll know. I try to keep the fact that I’m in a wheelchair as out of the way as possible.

When do I ask for help?

  • Grocery shopping (trying to reach an item on a high shelf)
  • when I’m near exhaustion and climbing a ramp or going through a rough parking lot
  • When there is no ramp for me to use
  • Pumping gas

Other than times like this I do just fine.

What bugs me is seeing people run across parking lots or stores to open doors for me. Another really annoying thing is when someone just starts pushing me without asking, I mean really that’s just rude. Some people just see the chair, they don’t seem to think I have a brain or any ability to do things for myself. Well this is just not the case.

If I want or need something moved and you are around trust me I’ll make it known. There are times I just prefer to sit off to the side until there’s an opportune moment to do something else, no sense drawing attention to the chair or me. I get enough crazy looks, especially when I have a cat riding point on my lap. (Yes I can and have walked the cats from time to time.)

Now I’m more capable of handling things in the chair than on crutches (how do you carry a cup of hot coffee on crutches?) so I use the chair. I do not have nor do I intend at this time to get a handicapped parking permit, I can use the exercise.

In short don’t talk down to me, don’t ignore me, and rest assured if I want or need your help you’ll know it. My husband is the only one allowed to just start pushing my chair without permission so don’t even think about pushing me around.

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How a Cuties Clementine made me laugh

It was a normal Wednesday David was already out the door, I was sitting eating some food with my coffee. I won’t call it breakfast, since it was leftovers from dinner the other night. (I’m not a huge fan of breakfast foods, at least not first thing in the day.) After my turkey sausage and mac n cheese I grabbed a cuties clementine.

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Well as the box says they as supposed to be seedless. Well this one was far from seedless. At first I was annoyed at the seeds, then it soon became so ridiculous I was laughing. I snapped this photo and tweeted it out to @cutiescitrus. I never expected a response.

Well shortly after I tweeted it, the company responded. I was shocked, fewer companies seem to know the meaning of customer service, let alone how to give a timely response. Not only did they explain this seedy exception, they asked me to send them my address so they could send me a coupon for more cuties. First thanks Cuties, I love these things, other brands just aren’t the same.

Thanks also for restoring my faith in companies, I’ve had a few bad experiences of late and things always seem to be worse around the holidays.

Now where did I put my mug time for more coffee. Oh and for you fans who come here for my writing here’s an excerpt. (Jaye is on the phone)

“Go for Jaye. Are you safe?” she stated, she sat listening as she squeezed a tennis ball in her left hand.

“I found Ulceridge’s body, and you’re not going to like it.  It doesn’t appear he was interrogated, but you really wont like the cause of death.” Said the clipped tone of the man on the other end of the line. “He was poisoned, it looks like VX the nerve agent, the final results wont be in for a few hours, but the lab is already on it.

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Interview with Author Joshua Johnson

After allowing Joshua Johnson to write a few guest blog posts I finally got him to scribble out answers to a few questions. His second book Soulless just came out.

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1a) How do you handle writers block?

To be honest, I don’t get writers block very much during the actual writing of the book. That’s because I outline beforehand, and so I can usually solve any problems out there. I find it’s much easier to delete a few sentences rather than a few chapters if something doesn’t work. However, if I do suffer from writers block during the actual writing, I find it’s best to let the project ‘simmer’— watch something on the television, read another book, or even work on something else. Nine times out of ten, the answer to your problem comes to you when you’re least thinking about it.

1b) Are there days when you can’t stop writing because the words are just flowing so well?

Yep! I try and write everyday— for example, for my current project, my minimum is 1k a day— but some days it all seems to just come from nowhere. I think the most I’ve written in a day was about 7k words, and I was actually really happy with them. If only days like that happened everyday!

2) How do you handle a friend or family member that interrupts your writing just because they are done with their work or task?

Whereas some people like to write as they listen to music or watch television, I prefer writing in silence at home or in a library, or in a cafe. However, if somebody walks in as I’m writing they usually get a ‘Just give me a minute to finish this sentence!’ said to them. I do most of my writing in the evening— although I do write in the day, too, just not as much— and I don’t get very many distractions from anybody then, whether on or offline.

3a) What is your favorite type of tea?

PG Tips! I’m not sure if they’re sold in the US, but they’re quite popular in the UK. In fact, after hearing me mention them on Twitter, a follower told me they were going to ship some over to the US so they could try some, which is quite cool! I like my tea quite strong and not too hot. Sometimes I let myself have a spoonful of sugar in it, but only as a treat!

(Yes PG Tips is here in the USA, for the record I have some)

3b) Do you make your own milkshakes?

I am quite known for my love of milkshakes! In the past, I have made my own milkshake— it was a chocolate flavor made with Twix chocolate bars and ice cream. Although most of the time my milkshake is just bought from the store. However, in my town we do have a shop dedicated purely to milkshakes— it’s all made right in front of your eyes, and you can choose from hundreds of combinations of chocolates and sweets. Some are a bit odd, though— cereal and/or sherbet lemons, for example!

4) Do you snack whilst you write? (I.E. @BJSheldonAuthor  and her gummy bears)

Gummy bears are a favorite of mine, too! Just a few weeks ago I was in the line at a store when I spotted two bags of them. I might have shouted out-loud about them in excitement a little bit too loudly, because the entire line began laughing at me as soon as the words left my mouth. *blushes* Usually a cup of tea and some biscuits can be seen next to me when I sit down to write.

5) How thorough are your outlines? Can you give me a small sample of your outlines, maybe a scene (Not spoiler) from SOULLESS?

My outlines are quite thorough, but they tend to grow. When I have an idea for a book, I’ll jot it down and leave it. Over time, I’ll add a few more notes to it here and there, before eventually sitting down and really working with it. It’s at this point I’ll write down the major scenes in the book I want to happen, and then I break those down into chapters and fill in the blank chapters. By this point, I have a sentence for each chapter of the book. I’ll then expand these sentences into a list of events for each chapter. After this, I’ll have what happens in every chapter from the beginning to the end. SOULLESS had quite a detailed outline, but that grew as I wrote it.

6) Publishing.

I thought I would put these four questions (are you self-published or with a publisher?, who does your editing?, cover art?, and why did you go the self-publishing route?) together and answer the question in one go.

I’m not really down one route, so to speak. For example, for one project I worked with a small press publisher and their team and we chose on who would do/what would be the cover, whereas another didn’t involve a publisher but did involve proofreaders and a beta reader team and group-editing sessions along with the rest of the original writing/editing/revising.

I’m continuing to spread across the different routes right as we speak, as I’m currently on submission with three sample chapters of a secret project with an agent/larger publishers, although nothing has happened so far, and probably won’t until 2014 now. In the future, I hope to be working on books across the different routes, or— as I believe they’re called— an ‘hybrid’ author, although that sounds like a different species!

7a) Did you participate in NaNoWriMo this year?

I did. I didn’t win, though. It was really exciting this year because many of my friends decided to have a go at NaNoWriMo, which made it different for me, because—being an author— everyday of the year is like a smaller version of NaNoWriMo. As I said, though, I didn’t win because I had SOULLESS release, this blog tour to prep for, three books to read and write reviews for, and do some work on another project!

7b) I know of at least one of your books started as a NaNoWriMo project, which one?

THE SWEET LIFE in 2012, which releases this month (December 14th!), and is a re-telling of Hansel and Gretel as well as the first in a series of companion novels, each of which will re-tell a different fairytale. When I started THE SWEET LIFE for NaNoWriMo I didn’t know my first book— BONES ON THE SURFACE— was going to be released until halfway through the month, and so I had to stop writing SWEET, and work on BONES, but I think I let myself ‘win’ by combining all the words across the two projects I worked on during November. I can’t remember if that’s allowed or not?!

(Yes Josh combining word counts is allowed, a bit rebellious but allowed.)

8) What advice would you give to all those aspiring writers out there that just finished a NaNoWriMo novel?

First of all, when December 1st comes round, don’t send it out to agents/editors/publishers! If you’ve just finished your NaNoWriMo novel, take some time out to rest your mind and re-charge your batteries, before coming back to your novel. Read through it from start to finish, jotting down things that need changing. When you reach the end of the book, go back and change the things you said needed changing. Continue repeating until you’re happy. Then read through it and do smaller edits, and then when you feel you’re done and you’ve made it the best you can, then move onto the publishing part of your book. I wish you all good luck! 🙂

9) How do you get reviews in advance of publication?

You can send out ARCs or eARCs. This stands for Advanced Reader Copy, or Electronic Advanced Reader Copy. These are copies of your book that aren’t final copies— some printing may be wrong, or spellings might be found, or the front cover may not be final, or it might not have a cover at all! You can contact reviewers, host giveaways, ask family/friends, etc., to read these ARCs in exchange for a honest review.

10) How did you develop your fan base?

I’ve been ‘out there’ as an author for over a year now, and all the meanwhile I’ve been trying to build my fan base. I’ve done giveaways of ARCs, posted out signed postcards with letters written on the back of them, done competitions to win bookmarks, LiveShows on YouTube, blogging, guest posts on blogs, cover reveals on different websites, done my own blogging, hosted other people’s writing on my blog as they refer back to you when they share it, and just lately began reviewing books for a marketing company— I’ve found that when I write the reviews, people discover me after reading the review, so promoting other authors can help, too.

During all of this, I’m very active on Twitter. I try my best to reply to every tweet, and I share not only book-related things, but also aspects of my life away from being an author. I think it makes readers feel more personal with the author, and as a reader myself, I love seeing what some of my favorite authors are up to.

(I wish I could be half as active as you are on twitter.)

This week I began a ‘Friday Five’ on my blog. Each Friday I’ll share five things that I did during the week, whether it be author-related or life-related, which is something I’ve never done before and I hope it helps readers connect with me more.
11a) How do you come up with ideas for your novels?

I’m not too sure, to be honest! They all come from different places, and whenever I flick back through my writing I’m all confused as to where it all came from! BONES ON THE SURFACE, my first book, came to me as I was working on another book that will always be unpublished because it wasn’t very good at all. SOULLESS was actually my fourth book to write for publication, although it was my second released, and I wanted to write it because I wanted to try something new that was out of my comfort zone. THE SWEET LIFE (releasing Dec ‘13) is a re-telling of Hansel and Gretel, and so I thought I could add a new twist to the tale. Finally, THEIR TIME TO GO (2014) is the start of a five-book series, and after visiting a care home myself several times, a few ideas merged into one— it’s a book that’s very personal to me.

11b) How many more books can we expect in 2014?

Five!

11c) When and titles?

THEIR TIME TO GO on January 25th, 2014, my contemporary Russian novel of which no details have been revealed yet will be around April, a new young adult book in Summer,and then two more but I’m not saying anything about those yet at all.

Thank you so much for having me! I love the questions and I’ve really enjoyed the interview. 🙂

To follow Joshua on twitter click here.

Josh I must say I write on a daily basis as well, but my first novel hasn’t ventured beyond a few select hands. I will say my 2014 goal is to get it published by mid November 2014.

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Taming the sea of words

Staring at a sea of words that had been written, many in haste others in desperation it was now time to wade through the sea and focus the tide. Editing was painful at first the words had become almost like children, she didn’t want to cut a single one. Yet it must be done.

Slowly one word, then another. Some erased others changed. Soon entire sentences were moved, erased or sculpted to fit the needs of the story. Tears flowed at times as discipline was forced on the children of the page.

It was hard and tedious but the knowledge that it would make the story stronger forced the writer to continue. The writer slogged on forcing the sea to obey. It must obey if the story was going to gain strength.

The story must be strong to withstand the flames of critique. The writer sharpened and strengthened the words until it was herculean. Then it was allowed to be viewed by others and prove its might.

 

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