What’s Happ’nin’?

If you’re wondering about the ever-changing appearance of my site, no, it’s not you. It’s me. Or rather, it’s me attempting to find a WordPress theme I like. Actually, I like a lot of them. It’s finding one that best suits this site that is the challenge. So, I’ve been changing them around a bit. Okay, quite a bit. And I’ve found yet another one I like, however, it needs some code work before it’ll be “just right.” So, please bear with me. Thanks for your patience!

Now that I’ve explained that little issue, here’s what else is happening. In June, I’ll be reviving my old “Wednesday is Friends’ Day” topic. Some great guest bloggers are scheduled: Jill Elizabeth Nelson, Tricia Goyer, Cyndy Salzmann, and Linda Windsor–all outstanding authors with new books you’ll want to read!

Using Dialogue to Show Character Emotion

For someone who started talking at the age of 15 months and hasn’t stopped yet, I’ve had a lot of difficultly creating speech on the page. In fact, while revising one Work in Progress, I found one page with ELEVEN euphemisms for the word “said.” My characters interjected, deduced, screamed, hissed, muttered, and spat words at each other. The big problem here is that using a word such as hissed “tells” the reader what’s going on instead of “showing” the character in action.

(Read more at Fiction Fundamaentals…)

Birth of a Hobby Farm

It all started one April day when my husband found a mallard nest near our pond. Eight perfectly formed eggs, waiting to hatch, while their parents enjoyed an early morning swim. The next day, we were horrified to discover the count had dwindled to five. Turtles, possums–anything could be the egg-stealing culprit. The missing eggs prompted…

(Read more at the Fulkerson Farms blog…)

Save Me, O God!

Have you ever watched a fly struggle to break free of a spider’s web? The more the fly struggles, the more entangled it becomes. Unless something more powerful than the fly intervenes, it will perish.

When we become entangled in sin, we’re just like the fly. Without help, intervention, we are doomed. We all need help from time to time. And, even though we can help each other through times of trials, sometimes only God can help us.

The Prodigal Son came to a point where he was beyond human help. He could either reach for his Father, or die. David reached that point, too, and he cried out, “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God” (Psalm 69:1-3).

I, too, have been overwhelmed with mire, and waited on God to help me.

Does God really listen to our cries for help? Yes! He cares for us and wants the best for us.

One of the most encouraging passages in the Bible for me is found in 2 Kings. Remember King Hezekiah? Hezekiah was deep in the mire, too. The king of Assyria taunted him, and Hezekiah was sick to the point of death. The prophet Isaiah came to him and said, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live” (2 Kings 20:1). Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly, begging for his life. A few verses later we read God’s answer, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you” (verse 5).

God heard Hezekiah. He saw his tears. He hears us. He sees our tears. And He cares.

30th Anniversary–The Human Fly

On May 26, 1977, George Willig (a.k.a. “The Human Fly”) scaled the outside of what was then the world’s tallest building, World Trade Center Tower 2. It took him three and a half hours to reach the top.

Yes, he was arrested when he reached the top. And, yes, he paid a fine. In a court-trial-turned-media-stunt, Willig bargained with the New York City mayor and settled on a whopping 1 cent per story fine–totalling $1.10.

Memorial Day–History of Taps

Thanks to my friend Fran, for sending me the following story. After spending nine years in the Marine Corps, this song means much to me. It was interesting to hear about its roots.

The 24-note melancholy bugle call known as “taps” is thought to be a revision of a French bugle signal, called “tattoo,” that notified soldiers to cease an evening’s drinking and return to their garrisons. It was sounded an hour before the final bugle call to end the day by extinguishing fires and lights. The last five measures of the tattoo resemble taps.

The word “taps” is an alteration of the obsolete word “taptoo,” derived from the Dutch “taptoe.” Taptoe was the command – “Tap toe!” – to shut (“toe to”) the “tap” of a keg.

The revision that gave us present-day taps was made during America’s Civil War by Union Gen. Daniel Adams Butterfield, heading a brigade camped at Harrison Landing, Va., near Richmond. Up to that time, the U.S. Army’s infantry call to end the day was the French final call, “L’Extinction des feux.” Gen. Butterfield decided the “lights out” music was too formal to signal the day’s end. One day in July 1862 he recalled the tattoo music and hummed a version of it to an aide, who wrote it down in music. Butterfield then asked the brigade bugler, Oliver W. Norton, to play the notes and, after listening, lengthened and shortened them while keeping his original melody.

He ordered Norton to play this new call at the end of each day thereafter, instead of the regulation call. The music was heard and appreciated by other brigades, who asked for copies and adopted this bugle call. It was even adopted by Confederate buglers.

This music was made the official Army bugle call after the war, but not given the name “taps” until 1874.

The first time taps was played at a military funeral may also have been in Virginia soon after Butterfield composed it. Union Capt. John Tidball, head of an artillery battery, ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Not wanting to reveal the battery’s position in the woods to the enemy nearby, Tidball substituted taps for the traditional three rifle volleys fired over the grave. Taps was played at the funeral of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson 10 months after it was composed. Army infantry regulations by 1891 required taps to be played at military funeral ceremonies.

Taps now is played by the military at burial and memorial services, to accompany the lowering of the flag and to signal the “lights out” command at day’s end.

As soon as “Taps” was first sounded in July 1862, words were put with the music. The first were, “Go To Sleep, Go to Sleep.” Over the years, other versions have been created. There are no official words to the music but here are some of the more popular verses:

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep, peaceful sleep,
May the soldier or sailor,
God keep.
On the land or the deep,
Safe in sleep.

Love, good night, Must thou go,
When the day, And the night
Need thee so?
All is well. Speedeth all
To their rest.

Fades the light; And afar
Goeth day, And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well; Day has gone,
Night is on.

Thanks and praise, For our days,
‘Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
‘Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh.

Setting the Scene

The word “set” simply means “to put (something or someone) in a particular place.” The key word in this definition is “particular.” What if Bram Stoke had set Dracula in a gingerbread cottage?

(read more at Fiction Fundamentals…)

8 Simple Rules for the Overweight & Underorganized

1. Never give birth to a psychology major or you’ll wind up with “behavioral modification” contracts posted on the bulletin board of your home. Something else to ignore.

(Read more at Overweight & Underorganized…)

Ready…Set…Action!

There’s been a lively discussion this week on one of the writers’ e-mail loops I receive about the “was” word. Today’s novelists hear “avoid passive voice” repeatedly from critique partners, editors, friends, and probably even strangers on the streets. Is passive voice evil? Is the “was” word a sin?

(Read more at Fiction Fundamentals…)

New Arrivals!

Don’t you love little baby noises? I went to bed last night with two eggs in the incubator and woke up to chirps of two baby goslings. Babies are the best part of living on a hobby farm. These two little darlings will grow up to become beautiful African geese. If you click on the picture, the link will take you to a site with lots of African geese pics, including a number of gosling photos. (You can also click on my Flickr feed in the sidebar for more pics from our pond.)

Just over a month ago, my son’s friend (pictured with him here) was visiting, along with her best friend & sister. While wandering around our wildlife preserve (we have two acres fenced around our pond), the girls found two abandoned goose eggs. It’s hard to know if such left-behinds are fertile, rotten, or healthy, so we placed them in the incubator and waited.

The girls named the eggs (and I suppose now, the geese!) “Felipe” and “Snuggles.” The one who selected “Snuggles” has likely never been too close to an adult goose, but I’ll honor their choice of names and let her form her own opinion in a few months when she gets chased around the pond. Geese are hilarious, but are very territorial.

To incubate eggs, make sure you keep a bit of water in the troughs so the humidity level will be high. And turn the eggs several times each day. That’s about it. You can look up the temperature for specific breeds, but it’s usually around 99.5 F.

I’d begun to wonder about our little geese, as a month had passed. But yesterday afternoon, I heard little geesey noises coming from the incubator, and the eggs were rocking back and forth. By bedtime, one egg had a slight crack.

New birth is a blessing we’re allowed to witness often on the farm. God shows His presence often and in many ways. Even in the form of a baby goose.