Monday Musings

  Today is the day to log on to the internet and complete your Christmas shopping. Check the origin of your gifts: if the company is based in China, don’t bet on receiving your packages anytime this year (or maybe next) with the big backlog of cargo ships in limbo on the West Coast. Books are a great gift. If your recipients enjoy poetry, I have two wonderful options to offer. And mine are printed in the USA! Both are available in either paperback or Kindle format. Almanac: The F o ur Seasons  is a small volume of poetry journeying through the year, season by season. It’s nice to sample one or two poems each morning with your coffee or tea. Family Treasons  follows heavier topics: child abuse, sexual abuse and domestic violence. 50% of the author’s royalties are to be donated to Domestic Violence Agencies: 25% to the  Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County  (Pennsylvania) and 25% to  Hubbard House . (Jacksonville, Florida). I had the honor to serve on the Board of Directors of each.

  We will be traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday, so I wanted to take a moment to share a brief message with you. I am thankful for all of you who have journeyed with me on my writing adventure: those who have read and reviewed my books, and those who simply ride along in support and friendship. Happy Thanksgiving and many more! You can follow the Author at her  website  or on  Twitter .

I received notification that I have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry. Roberta Beach Jacobson, Editor of Cold Moon Journal, emailed me this week with  the good news . It is quite an honor to be nominated by  The Pushcart Prize  organization which has been publishing the Best of Small Presses since 1976. The poem which she nominated was written in tribute to “Lonesome George”, who was at the time, the oldest giant tortoise on the Galapagos Islands. We were privileged to meet him. Tragically, the   ancient reptile died a few weeks after our visit. His story lives on in my haiku. You can find out more about the author and her works on her  Website , or on  Twitter .

Veterans Day, November 11th, was initially known as Armistice Day because the major hostilities of WWI formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. In the WWI poem, “In Flanders Fields,” the opening lines refer to poppies as the first blooms to grow in the soil on soldiers’ graves in Flanders, Belgium. As such, the National American Legion adopted poppies as the official symbol of remembrance in 1920. Armistice Day became an  a nnual observance in 1926, by a Congressional resolution, and a legal holiday on May 13, 1938, by a Congressional Act, as a “day dedicated to the cause of world peace.” It was renamed Veterans Day in 1954 in response to the urging of veteran organizations and is a US federal holiday. How is Veterans Day different from Memorial Day or Armed Forces Day? Armed Forces Day honors those currently serving in the US military; Memorial Day honors those who perished while serving; and Veterans Day celebrates the service of all US military vets

Nellie Verne Burt McPherson, then president of the Illinois’ Women’s Club, is the originator of the concept to celebrate a day dedicated to authors. She wrote a letter to her favorite author. In response, he sent her a signed copy of one of his works. Out of appreciation, she promoted the idea of a national author’s day to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. The federation supported a resolution in May 1929 to foster National Author’s Day. Twenty years later, the US Department of Commerce officially recognized the day. What’s it like to be an aspiring author? It isn’t easy to put into words. Why are writers always cold? They’re surrounded by drafts. The way a book is read, which is to say, the qualities a reader brings to a book can have as much to do with its worth as anything the author puts into it. ~ Norman Cousin Here are a  f ew ways you can celebrate National Author’s Day: Offer to be a beta reader. Send a Thank you letter to an author. Buy an indie book [an independently p