My Favorite Season Is Fall

I love fall for so many reasons, but most of all because of the colors.  Red, yellow,  orange, wine and greens are just gorgeous mixed together in the trees and on ground bushes.  Their beauty is wonderful to see. 

It's fantastic to ride the trails on horseback, or on the road by car, truck and motorcycle while enjoying the sight of the fall colors around you.  The air is brisk and to me it's energizing.  Even a nice long walk along the river can be invigorating, and a enjoyable way to get your exercise.  Wink!

The anticipation of hot apple cider, hay rides, cooking hot dogs and marshmallows over bon fires is high for  kids and adults.  Going to pumpkin patches to pick out pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving is a thrilling treat for everyone.

Pumpkin Patch in Weston, Missouri



The Ozarks

Just to give you an idea of how beautiful it is here in Missouri in the fall look at the photos below.  Even the photos don't do the season justice.

Along the Missouri River



Park College in Parkville, MO

 

The only drawbacks to fall is the ragweed and the coming of winter.  I don't even mind the coming of winter because all seasons are beautiful, and as long as I can stay inside when it's freezing out I can still enjoy the beauty.

Now you know my favorite season, what is yours?

Have a great week, and I'll see you next Sunday.

Sandra K. Marshall, Author

@ Eirelander Publishing
http://www.eirelanderpublishing.com
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.marshall.98
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sandy-marshall/1a/851/a04
U-Tube - - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jvpp21_WME
and http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=e684nldayz0
Twitter - @AuthSKMarshall 

Authors Who Make Mistakes Always Get Caught

Hi Everyone,

When writing a story even though it's fiction you need to be accurate.  In my short story, All Bets Are Off, I made a mistake. This is the first time I made a serious mistake and was caught.  It could be I've made others, and I didn't get caught.  I hope not. 

One thing I noticed is that the person who reviewed All Bets Are Off talks about the story as if she read it in print, but she really listened to an audio copy. 

This review was not horrible, but it was embarrassing.  After all I'm seventy years old and I should know my anatomy, but I failed and was told about it in a public review.  The below review is only a partial. 

The set up was good, the story OK. Contemporary romance isn’t my favorite genre, but because of the addiction angle I wanted to give it a try. Then there is the sex. I enjoy sex scenes in my stories and this book has 2 such scenes. The first is the better of the two. I was thoroughly getting into it but then the man stuck his tongue in her uterus. Yep. Uterus. Briefly, I hoped the story was going to take on some mutant scifi elements, but alas, it did not. To get to the uterus, you have to travel the entire vaginal canal and then get past the cervix. The cervix doesn’t let just any old object enter the uterus, being perhaps 1/8 inch opening nearly all the time (common exception is when a baby is headed out). So either the man had a very long and narrow tongue, or the woman had some mutant uterus that sat in the vaginal canal with the wide open cervix. Anyway, here is the Wikipedia article - and yes, it is safe for work. So I was totally into this sex scene – there was heat between the characters, great descriptors, etc. and then he sticks his tongue in her uterus. I giggled, totally taken out of the moment. At best, this is a big typo. At worst, the author is not well informed on the female genitals/reproductive organs. But, other than this one typo (I will be generous in my thoughts), the story flowed smoothly and was fun. 



If you would like to read more go to this URL: 
http://dabofdarkness.com/2014/09/15/all-bets-are-off-by-sandra-k-marshall/

Many authors get ridiculed and torn apart for mistakes they make in their stories, so most of us work very hard to try to be accurate.  This means we do our research.  Unfortunately, I didn't this time.  The reviewer was honest about All Bets Are Off not being her usual genre. 

You can bet, I will do my research in the future. 

Have a great week and I'll see you again next Sunday.

Sandra K. Marshall, Author

@ Eirelander Publishing
http://www.skaymarshall.com

 

Where Were You On 9-11-2001?

Twin Towers

On 9-11-2001, I was listening to CNN news at home when the breaking news came on about the first tower being hit.  I was stunned and sat in shock watching the plane hit the tower.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  It seemed so unreal, and I just sat there and stared at the television.  I felt like I was in a stupor. Finally, I ran into the bedroom where my husband was watching television and told him to watch the news. 

I went back to my television on the big screen and kept watching; still shocked. Then, a short time later, I saw the second tower hit.  It finally hit me when the towers came down; this is really happening.  A short while later, there was news of the pentagon being hit, and then a plane in rural Pennsylvania was prevented from reaching its' destination by heroic passengers and crew members.

Pentagon

Flight 93 in rural Pennsylvania

As I sat and watched these events I was so sad and full of disbelief.  How could anyone hate so much?  What is wrong?  We try to help so many and look what it gets us.  I couldn't take my eyes off the television all and for several days after.

By the third day, I was becoming angry.  I paced up and down in front of the TV ranting and marched into the bedroom to rant some more to my husband.  I was so pissed that this had happened in our country.  I wanted to reciprocate what they did to us even though it doesn't make sense to lower ourselves to their level.  Yes, I was that mad. 

Today, I'm still angry, especially, as I see Americans being beheaded by these fanatics.  Religious wars go thousands of years back, and they have always been barbaric.  I hope we can get through this period in history and still retain our humanity.

Here are a couple of sites to visit if you want to know more about 9/11.  http://time.com/3304315/september-11-articles/ and http://www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks

Leave me a comment about how you heard the news of 9/11 and how it made you feel.  Have a great week, and I'll see you next Sunday. 

Sandra K. Marshall, Author

@Eirelander Publishing
http://www.skaymarshall.com
http://www.google.com/+SandraKMarshall
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.marshall.98
http://www.amazon.com/author/sandramarshall
Twitter - @AuthSKMarshall 

Stand Up 2 Cancer

Hello Everyone,

How many of you watched Stand Up 2 Cancer on television Friday night?  I bet many of you saw it because it was on nearly every channel.  Some of you missed it because of all the sports activities revving up for the fall season.

 

Stand Up 2 Cancer is an organization raising money for research to eradicate all kinds of cancer.  Their research does not just take place in this country, but around the world.  The countries involved in Stand Up 2 Cancer Friday night were the United States, Canada, Great Britain and The Netherlands. 

Anyone who would like to donate to research can go to https://www.standup2cancer.org/ and for Canada residents go to https//www.standup2cancer.ca/. 

All of us have been touched by cancer in some way by either family or friends.  My mother died of ovarian cancer April 4, 1998.  It was a day I'll never forget.  Other members of my family have died of other types of cancer as well.  This month is ovarian cancer month, so lets figure out how to stop cancer.

To learn more about cancer go to the American Cancer Society website at http://www.cancer.org/.

Have a great week everyone, and I'll see you next Sunday.

Sandra K. Marshall, Author

http://www.skaymarshall.com
https://www.facebook.com/sandra.marshall.98
http://www.amazon.com/author/sandramarshall