Lunch Shaming

My intention for today's blog was to write something that had to do with writing, however as I was watching the news this morning, I became so enraged that I knew what I had to write about today.

There was a story about a child who's mother ran out of fruits and vegetable so she packed a few Oreo cookies in her lunch. "Yay!" the little four yr. old probably thought

as she opened her lunch box. But to that child's surprise, she was not allowed to eat them. Instead, her lunch box was returned to her parents with the cookies in it and a note that preached healthy eating.

So I guess it's better to have your child attend school hungry than to put a "poisonous" cookie in their mouth! I am not a parent, however if I was the parent of that child I would be livid. When has a few Oreos ever killed a kid? And are we saying now that parents don't even have any say so in what goes in their own child's lunch? Some parents can't afford all the healthy snacks all the time. Or they don't have time to run to the story every time they run out! And by tomorrow, a study will come out saying that "supposed" health snack is no longer healthy anyway!!

I do believe parents should try including a healthy snack whenever possible but I know that when I was a child, that healthy snack is the one thing that would've gone straight into the trash. My mother always packed a sandwich, a fruit or vegetable and probably either a bag of chips or a dessert. I always ate it all, except most times that fruit or vegetable didn't get eaten. And guess what? I'm still alive! And I was never 1 lb. overweight growing up.

What I'd really like to know is, who knew those cookies were in that box? Does the school have "lunch" cops watching every thing that goes into every kids lunch box? Or are the teachers snooping in all the kids lunch boxes while they are out on recess? Who has time for that? Why can't we trust the child's parents to know what's best for their own kid?

This world is going too far. Parents aren't even allowed to discipline their children anymore without fear that their child will be taken from them or they'll wind up in jail for child abuse. And we wonder why so many children are in trouble today?

Don't get me wrong, I think there are many parents out there that should not be raising kids. I'm thankful when an abusive, neglective parent is caught and the child is taken from them. But I strongly disagree that in today's world it doesn't seem like a parent is allowed to raise their own children in the way they see fit as long as it's a safe environment. Giving a child an Oreo cookie once in awhile is not abusive!

We have so many children in the world that are out there starving to death and might live one day longer if they had one of those cookies to eat. But our 'warped' society chooses to throw that cookie away because it has a little sugar in it. Why oh why can't we let kids be kids while they still can!!





I for one would love to go eat a few Oreos right this minute but I'm an adult, therefore I know that I can't afford those extra pounds it will put on me. But a four yr. old child should be allowed to eat one and enjoy it for the rest of us!!





Here's the article if anyone is interested. I'm curious what you other parents are thinking about this.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mom-lunch-shamed-school-packing-oreos-daughter/story?id=30674158

Believability in Fiction

Are you confused by what believability means when writing fiction? I for one, don't fully get it.

Why does fiction have to be believable? It's untrue. It's our imaginations and who's to say what we or others think is believable?

How can you write a story about talking animals and make any of it believable? And yet, there are millions of books out there with talking animals. I recently saw an article that said when writing with talking animals you must make sure what happens in the story is something that kids can relate to. To me, that is contradictory. A kid can relate to an animal talking but can't relate to a story about an animal who is running a newspaper office. Why? Because that animal is an adult. I was informed by an instructor in a class I took, that the main character should never be an adult.

But so many of the great fairy tales from long ago were written with the main protagonist as an adult. For instance, Beauty and the Beast, The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Dragon Painter and the Emperors New Clothes just to name a few.

In another class, I wrote a story about a talking dog. The teacher had no problems with that but then told me the way the dog interracted with the cat, wasn't believable. Huh? 

I know that publishers don't like it when animals talk to people so I stay away from that as much as possible. However, I recently had a story published Kailee Finds Magic IN Words where a chipmunk is talking to the little girl. However, I explained in the book that the chipmunk could only talk because he was inside the book and the author wrote it that way. The publisher accepted that reasoning.

But one thing I have learned is whenever I have talking animals in a story, I write them so they can only talk to other animals. When they talk to humans, it's in animal verbage.

This to me falls in the lines with believability as well. It's ok to have a person turn into a monkey, but not to have that monkey talk to a person?? I'm really confused with this.

So, I've just learned to write as I see it. If someone questions it, then it probably is an indication that others will too and especially a publisher, so I normally change it.

That's why it's so important to have your work edited by someone who is an expert in the genre you're writing for and to also be a member of a critique group. It's amazing the things they can help you with. They sometimes catch things you yourself would have never caught. Therefore, that's one more step closer to getting the story right and finding a publisher.

But...I'm still confused about what's believable when writing fiction and what isn't. So if any of you have some words of wisdom that can help clear it up for me, please speak up or forever hold your peace!

The Zodiac Killer's Son

Over the weekend, I attended an Authors Row Event at our local library. If you're an author and have done library book signings, you're aware that they aren't very profitable. People come to the library to get free books, not to spend money. Those events are mainly just to get your face out there. The best thing about those are that I've never attended one yet where I didn't leave without meeting a great contact of some kind. Sometimes it was just new authors to talk to or connect with on facebook or a teacher who is interested in me coming to their school.

This latest book event was probably the most fascinating for me because I got to meet the actual son of the Zodiac Killer. He has written a book about his life as the son of a murderer and what he has gone through to try and prove that the Zodiac Killer is indeed his father.

Although five murders were proven to be committed by the Zodiac Killer in 1968-69 in northern California, it has never fully been proven who the Zodiac Killer is. This is a note the Zodiac Killer left for the police.

I LIKE KILLING PEOPLE BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN IT IS MORE FUN THAN KILLING WILD GAME IN THE FORREST BECAUSE MAN IS THE MOST DANGEROUE ANAMAL OF ALL TO KILL SOMETHING GIVES ME THE MOST THRILLING EXPERENCE IT IS EVEN BETTER THAN GETTING YOUR ROCKS OFF WITH A GIRL THE BEST PART OF IT IS THAE WHEN I DIE I WILL BE REBORN IN PARADICE AND ALL THEI HAVE KILLED WILL BECOME MY SLAVES I WILL NOT GIVE YOU MY NAME BECAUSE YOU WILL TRY TO SLOI DOWN OR ATOP MY COLLECTIOG OF SLAVES FOR MY AFTERLIFE. EBEORIETEMETHHPITI

His son, Gary Stewart is convinced the Zodiac Killer was his father, Earl Van Best, Jr., who died in 1984. It's his life's missiion to prove this 100%. The picture below is a mug shot of Earl Van Best, Jr. when he was arrested for raping Gary's mother. The photo on the right is an artist sketch of the Zodiac Killer from one of his surviving victims.

As I was listening to Gary telling me a little bit about his story, I found myself mesmerized. What would it be like to have a father that was a serial killer? And why was I so fascinated with this? I wondered if there was something wrong with me because I was so honored to be speaking with him.

At the same time, I realized I was a little terrified. What if Gary inherited some of his fathers desire to kill and he was right here talking to me! 

Then I felt guilty that I felt so honored and excited to be talking to a New York Times Best Selling author who was in the works of having the movie made. Would the families of the victims be ashamed that I was feeling this way?

All kinds of emotions were going through me. Even those of jealousy. Here was a man who never wanted to write a book and has no desire to write anything else, and yet he's sold thousands of books and is having a movie made. So many of us writers who practice our craft everyday dream of having just a little taste of this fame that fell into his lap.

However, I would rather be an unknown author than go through what Gary has gone through by having the biological parents that he did. Thankfully, Gary was adopted by wonderful parents and never even met his biological father. Unless you count the 4 wks after he was born and then abandoned on a stairwell of a Baton Rouge apartment building.

Finally, I came to the conclusion that I'm a writer and other writers fascinate me no matter their story. So I bought his book and had a picture of me taken with him. He really was a nice man who was brave enough to take the bad situation of his life and turn it into something good by getting his story out there and not hiding in shame or pity. I do admire him for that! And I can't wait to finish his book.

Easter In Different Countries

Can you believe it's already time for Easter? It has definitely thrown me for a loop and just sort of jumped on board! I've had so much going on the first quarter of 2015 that I must say, my mind just wasn't prepared for it.

However, when I used to go into the office everyday, I would have been counting the days until the holiday because I usually got Good Friday off. I know that's terrible but when you don't get many days off, that's on top of your list of things to look forward to.

But now that I work from home, it's more difficult to keep up with the holidays. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to see what other countries do to celebrate Easter. So I found an interesting article from Woman's Day that I thought I'd share with you.

Kids in the U.S. grow up expecting a delivery of eggs and candy from the Easter bunny each year, but it may seem odd to an outsider. Brought to this country by German immigrants in the 1700s, the practice is rooted in the belief that rabbits and eggs symbolize fertility and rebirth. While this may be the norm in America, however, other cultures have their their own, unique Easter celebrations. Whether it's drenching one another with water in Poland or reading crime novels in Norway, check out 10 Easter traditions from around the globe and the history behind them.

Children in this Scandinavian country go begging in the streets with sooty faces and scarves around their heads, carrying broomsticks, coffeepots and bunches of willow twigs. In some parts of Western Finland, people burn bonfires on Easter Sunday, a Nordic tradition stemming from the belief that the flames ward off witches who fly around on brooms between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Pouring water on one another is a Polish Easter tradition called Smingus-Dyngus. On Easter Monday, boys try to drench other people with buckets of water, squirt guns or anything they can get their hands on. Legend says girls who get soaked will marry within the year. The refreshing tradition has its origins in the baptism of Polish Prince Mieszko on Easter Monday in 966 AD.

Don't forget a fork if you're in the southern French town of Haux, France on Easter Monday. Each year a giant omelet is served up in the town's main square. And when we say giant, we mean giant: The omelet uses more than 4,500 eggs and feeds up to 1,000 people. The story goes, when Napoleon and his army were traveling through the south of France, they stopped in a small town and ate omelets. Napoleon liked his so much that he ordered the townspeople to gather their eggs and make a giant omelet for his army the next day. 

Easter is such a popular time for Norwegians to read crime novels that publishers actually come out with special "Easter Thrillers" known as Paaskekrimmen. The tradition is said to have started in 1923 when a book publisher promoted its new crime novel on the front pages of newspapers. The ads resembled news so much that people didn't know it was a publicity stunt.

Traveling to these Eastern European countries over Easter? If so, you'd better watch your back! There's an Easter Monday tradition in which men spank women with handmade whips made of willow and decorated with ribbons. According to legend, the willow is the first tree to bloom in the spring, so the branches are supposed to transfer the tree's vitality and fertility to the women. This playful spanking is all in good fun and isn't meant to cause pain.

That's just a few ways that different countries celebrate Easter. Who would of "thunk", right?

So, how do you plan to celebrate?