Disturbed

Where did the month of March go ?  I am usually very good at keeping track of time. I like to be as productive as possible. However as I am getting older it seems like I end up wasting time in getting upset over things that I have no control over. I have told people that there is no point in getting stressed out. Some of my friends have remarked that I do not know what real stress is therefore it is easy for me to tell people not to stress out. Three years ago I was going nuts about my husband's open heart surgery but handled the whole line of his tests and procedures pretty good while praying at the same time. Now that he has to go for one more set of stress tests I am upset at my husband and worried about him at the same time. What do you do, when someone does not want to follow doctor's orders. I guess nothing, if that person is an adult and has a mind of his own. On top of my worries, our telephone line was a mess. No incoming calls at all. The telephone company asked us if we had cell phones and I said yes we did. That was a mistake. So, if we are not one hundred percent dependent on the telephone we are put in the end of the list that the repairmen were to be sent. So we lost the telephone service and the Internet for that week. Then someone fixes the phone. That day the phone worked for a couple of hours then again no dial tone. After four days the repairman comes in and tells us that the phone should work and it did. I asked the repairman if they had a lot of work. He said not too much. I then asked him why did the company's rep told us that they were busy. He said that the company likes to play games.

Last week my friend Jean very proudly showed of her Magnolias to me. They were in half bloom. She said that she could not wait until they are in full bloom. This week, one night the sudden drop in temperature killed all her Magnolias. She is however gracious and is praying for the apple blossom to be all right. That reminds me of my friend's job. His daytime job is working in apple orchards and delivering apples to the nearby stores. If apple blossoms die because of wintry weather in spring there will be something for me to really worry about.

An Interview with Barbara Whittington

Hi everyone. One of the biggest fears I have in life is the day when there will be no one to write things for people to read. To me writers have a very big place in my heart and in this world. We should never fail to remember that. Like my father's gardener always said, "We leave our words behind, our deeds and the trees we planted."


I recently had a chance to interview Barbara Whittington about her recently published book, Vada Faith.


It is my utmost pleasure to have known you. Your book Vada Faith seems like it is heart warming and has some very nice reviews. I am glad that I have the opportunity to ask you some questions as I am always very much interested in understanding authors.


1)  How long have you been interested in writing?


FIRST,  let me say thanks to Munir for asking for an interview. My first blog interview - and I'm excited!!! So a big thanks. I've been writing for over 20 years. I started out writing essays and I 
took a creative writing class at the local college. I was thrilled that I sold one of the first essays I wrote  to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper.  The essay was about trying to get a sun tan in cloudy Cleveland. It was a cross between fact and fiction. Or "faction." The newspapers were more accepting of essays and slice of life pieces than they are now in this depressed economy. 
My interest in writing began in high school when I had to write a short story for an assignment for English. It was love at first word. The story was pretty pitiful but I realized then that I loved writing stories.



2) What motivates you to write?


I'm motivated by many things. When I came up with the idea for Vada Faith, at the time I was intrigued by the topic of surrogacy. Who could carry a baby nine months and give it up to another mother. So I started doing research, learning about the issues of surrogacy, the procedures at that time, 10 years ago, and I must say it's changed much in the last few years with surrogacy centers now found in many large cities. When I started this book it wasn't this way. So much was left
to the individuals who wanted to participate in this way of having a child.




3) What has motivated you to write this particular book?


As I said I was interested in the topic of surrogacy and that lead to the story of Vada Faith Waddell and how she got involved with Roy and Dottie Kilgore - small town criminals - and went down the wrong path of being a surrogate mother. With no contract, and flying by the seat of her pants, she got in more trouble than she bargained for. Plus she used her own egg to create this baby, unbeknownst to her family. You'd better believe this caused some battles at home.




4) What other books do you read ? What genre?


I love women's mainstream fiction and read mostly that. Though I have to admit I have several friends who write romantic suspense and I enjoy that as well.


My favorite authors include Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg, Jeanne Ray (Eat Cake), Southern author Lee Smith, and Irish writer Maeve Binchy, who writes beautiful fiction.




5) Can you give us a clue as to what your next book is about?


I have several books in the hopper. I believe I'll to do a book of short stories next because they're ready. Then I have a follow up book about Vada Faith. This one is called SWEET BABY JAMES and returns to Vada Faith's family after the surrogacy story ends. Vada Faith goes on to have a baby boy named James and he is kidnapped from her front porch in Shady Creek, West Virginia. This is not a REAL kidnapping story. The child is taken by mistake by someone who cares for him and only wants to get him home safe.


VADA FAITH is offered for $2.99 at Amazon.com


Paperbacks will be available in the next month or two.


My advice if you want to write is to READ READ READ.


I hope that every one enjoyed this interview. 

Guest Post

Hi every one. I apologize for being technologically challenged. My blog is of a very simple format. As much as I like to reach out to a lot of people and create awareness about what is good for all of us, and how to be on guard when it comes to devastating problems, I am not able to present various issues that might come up in everyday lives of so many of us. I would like to put this button on my blog, but even after trying hard I am not able to copy and paste it on the side of my blog as a lot of bloggers do (I even asked my daughter who is much more advanced than me for help).
I will appreciate if you visit the blog mentioned above. It means a lot to a very special mom, who is able to see her little one grow even after being diagnosed with cancer. Hopefully I might be able to have her as a "Guest Blogger" once I get the technology figured out . Thank You all in advance.

Big Shots?

Sometimes when I write, I feel like I am neglecting my husband. Writing is not his thing and neither is fiction reading. He will read as many non-fiction and informative books as he can in a day. That does not bother me, as I do the same with blog/magazine reading. It is when he is alone, not reading or watching the television I feel guilty about writing. My upbringing always echoed with the instructions to girls about not neglecting their husbands. Why don't I remember boys or men being told to not neglect their wives?  I don't know, maybe men were told just the same way as women were told. Maybe I just don't remember.

Daytime television shows have at least a couple of cases where men cheat on their wives, but also vice versa. I sometimes get disgusted when I see people complaining about their spouses spending too much time in making a living. They just need an excuse to have an affair. Talk about being ungrateful. I don't like being judgmental but I believe in being fair. So when a person marries someone what is the promise? Is conditional cheating included in the lists of things allowed?

In India where (and when) arrange marriages take place parents try to make sure that their daughters go in families where there are enough resources to give their daughters at least the same comfort and material goods as she grew up with, if not more. So if one is to marry a girl from a rich family he better make sure that he is making good money. A lot of times rich father in laws act like big shots in front of their daughters to look better than anyone else and I am sure that it can be hurtful. 

We came back from the movies a couple of hours ago. We saw "The Descendants". Our son in Hawaii said that he saw it three times as it was filmed in Hawaii. It is a very good movie. Now I have to see "The Artist" to compare and see how much better the other actor is. Anyway, I was not shocked about the infidelity nor was offended by the language because of the times that we are in. I was however hurt by the attitude of the father-in-law. He does not even know what kind of a wife his daughter was but he was quick to point his son-in-law that he did not give enough to his daughter. That I think is very unfair.