• One on One with Phil Robertson • Hannity • 5/29/14 •

This is charming! ;-D Happy! Happy! Happy!

Why is CAIR trying to silence film about abuse of women?

This is very grim, but the world needs to know.

Do you hear? 100 MILLION WOMEN MUTILATED since 1989?! Many of the victims were "little" girls when their genitals were cut out. Most of the rest were lovely young women when a relative killed or disfigured them. Nothing says Romance like a face without a nose! This is the true face of Islam. Mothers and Fathers will you not guard your sons and daughters? Warn them if youlove them!

Springtime in "My Secret Garden"

That's what my art students used to call my yard. It was their "Secret Garden" too. This is my absolute favorite time of the year, and I want to share it. My brother took this picture of a Japanese Magnolia in New Orleans last month.

Spring has finally come to my garden, and I am waxing eloquent. We still have chilly days mixed in with our warmer days, and rainy days always come between the sunny days, but you get the picture. Since January, we’ve had days that were warm enough to open the house and turn on the attic fan. The next night we are sleeping under quilts. Nothing is dependable. Go figure.

The songbirds have returned, and have been singing their fool heads off (under my window) since before daylight. The tree tops have turned bright chartreuse green, forming a lacy background to the drifts of white and pink dogwoods, magenta redbuds, and purple wisteria floating beneath their cathedral-like canopy. How do you like that for a run-on sentence? I warned you that I was waxing eloquent. Help me find some more adjectives, or just deal with it. I love this time of the year and it’s my blog so you can just suffer through my euphoric purple prose. Be glad that it’s about horticulture, not... errrah, those birds are singing awfully loudly...

Because my camera cord is misplaced, I snagged a few pictures from Google Images to show how things look. These pictures are from all over, but it really does look like this.

Here are a list of the things presently blooming in my yard: Rome Hyacinths (blue, pink and white); more Narcissus (yellow and white); Snowflakes (white); Redbud (magenta); Dogwood (pink and white); Wisteria (lavender); Carolina jasmine (yellow); late Forsythia (yellow); early Azaleas (read and white); early Iris (white, yellow and purple); Bridal Wreath Spirea(white); Woodland Phlox (blue and lavender); Homestead Verbena (purple). Every one of these, except for the dogwood, is very fragrant.

It’s lovely here. Wish you could share it.

Frances

Writing Science Fiction Romance

Real Love in a Real Future

P.S. This evening when I went out for the last time with His Highness, the Supreme Poodle Pasha Zackery, the fireflies were having a party in my trees. How much better can it get? Stars and fireflies. May spring come soon for everyone, and may you have plenty of fireflies to light your evenings.

Life Gets in the Way, An Apology, Kudos for Me, and a Rant...

Did my title to this post say enough?

What can I say, life happened! I got food poisoning this past week and have had a hard time keeping up with anything. In addition to that, I am attacking "the black hole of long standing." This is not a one day, or even one week job. UGH! Sorry that it has been so long since my last post. I missed Father's Day, and really wanted to say something about that. I guess that I will just have to choose another day to honor Dad. I'll surprise you.

On the other hand, the last few days have been extremely productive, writing-wise. I have been writing a short story to post on my website once I activate it. It will be a prequel to the novel that I am currently working on. I hope to have the first draft of the short story finished by tomorrow. Can I crow? I have taken some of the techniques that I have been learning in my writing classes and applied them... I think successfully. You may judge for yourselves after I post it. But, I am so proud of myself. Day before yesterday, I knocked out almost 2,000 words (really something for me), and yesterday I added 1,600 more. About 2,000 more, and I think that I will have this baby ready to age in its own special oak barrel. CAUTION: Although my novel is a Science Fiction Romance with Adventure overtones, this short story is all Futuristic Adventure. It isn't a Romance because the Hero must wait to meet his Lady in their novel. *G* I'll post more later.

Now for my RANT! (aren't RANT's fun?) Yesterday, MSNBC posted a poll online about "Do You Like Romance Novels?":

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25195786/

If you go to the site, you will immediately notice the weasel wording of the questions to be rather manipulative. Being the unreconstructed REBEL that I am, and not liking to be manipulated... I had to comment. I think that they may have opened a rather larger can of worms than they expected. Notice the sum of the first with the last question. If you would like to read the comments, this is the URL: (they're very entertaining *G*)

http://krisharding.newsvine.com/_news/2008/06/18/1589197-vote-do-you-read-romance-novels?threadId=293187&cmt=2003476#c2003476

If you don't have the time, this is what I had to say:

I, like the posters above, also found the term "bodice rippers" to be offensive... even though at first amusing. The writers that I know have amazing intellects. They have to be astute psychologists as well as master craftsmen/women.

However, I wish to add to the posts above that, not only is the term dated, it was consciously meant to be offensive from it's first usage. It was meant to demean women. The very thing that women like about the Romance genre is the Happily Ever After ending. It implies hope for the future, along with commitment and stability within the family. These are the very things that hold a society together. When a man belittles a woman, for any reason, he shows his own deficiencies. When a woman belittles a man, she does the same. Any time one person denigrates another, they are working to destroy the society which gives us all the opportunity to achieve our dreams. Call it what you like, by framing your question as you did, you were trying to influence your poll and, belittling more than half of the population of the Earth. Men like Happily Ever Afters too.

Studies have shown that men whose wives read Romance get their HEAs more often than not.

And that my friends is my RANT. Whew, I feel so much better! Time to go write.

Frances

Writing Science Fiction Romance
Real Love in a Real Future

My Journey to the Stars Begins

Once upon a time, long before the dinosaurs roamed the earth, there was a little girl who wanted to know about the stars. But, even before there was that little girl, there was a little boy who ran away to sea to become a ship’s officer. He was my father, and he had wonderful stories to tell about traveling the world, and navigating by the stars. I liked the idea that you could know where you are, anywhere on Earth, simply by looking at the stars.

“Which stars did you use, Daddy?”
“Why, we used Polaris, and Arcturus, and Betelgeuse, and others.”
“I want to see?”
“Arcturus is that star right up there. See it?”
“Where Daddy? I can’t see it.”

It never occurred to anyone that I needed glasses. I got my glasses; yet, I could never quite get the stars. However, I didn't forget how very much I wanted to know them. I did learn to recognize the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia. Because I had found the Big Dipper, I found Polaris, but that was about it. The rest of the sky was beyond me. I read everything that the Encyclopedia Britannica and the National Geographic offered, but I just couldn’t seem to make sense of those star charts. For years, my secret desire languished. But, my time was coming. I was writing a book! Science Fiction Romance Writer was on the case.

Spring Star Note:

Just after dark, get the darkest location that you can find. Look North by Northwest (Thank you, Mr. Hitchcock), and depending upon your latitude, you will see the Big Dipper. It's a ladle or plough shaped group of stars. In England, it is called the Plough. If you are in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be high in the sky. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere, it will be low, or partially below the horizon.

The Big Dipper is supremely important to navigators, not only because the two stars on the end of the bowl, or of the plow, point directly to Polaris, the North Star, but also because the stars in its handle point to Arcturus. Follow the arc of the handle, and the next bright star is Arcturus. It will be just to the East of the highest point in the sky for those in the mid northern latitudes, or high in the northern sky for those of you south of the equator.

Every civilization in the history of the world has used Polaris and Arcturus to navigate the seas. Our modern astronauts, space station, and telescopes are irrevocably tied to the Argonauts of ancient Greece, as well as the voyagers of ancient Polynesia. Cool, huh?

Happy viewing and writing,

Frances

Writing Science Fiction Romance

Real Love in a Real Future

Blame It On My Brother...

That's right. He's always telling me that he has big shoulders... he can take it. So I can blame it all on him. I love Romance.

This morning I got to thinking about when I read my first romance novel. Just when did my addiction begin? The first instance that I recalled was an acquaintance in college loaning me a copy of Georgette Heyer's "The Devil's Cub." I loved it! Where had these stories been all my life?

But, no. That was not the first instance. As I thought back even further... there was another instance. The seeds of my addiction were sown long before my college years. I had to go back even further. I thought back to the dim, innocence of a bored twelve year old who would do anything to annoy her older brother. To his credit, instead of killing me, he tossed me a book, saying, "Here, I think that you'll have fun with this." It was a copy of Baroness Orczy's "The Scarlet Pimpernel." As, in my mind's eye, I watched Sir Percy and Marguerite fall desperately in love, I was lost. Fifty years later, my heart still goes pitter pat at the thought of a man loving a woman enough to kiss the stones that she has walked upon. Sigh!

So, you see, it really is all his fault. Now, I simply want to write stories that others will sigh over.

Thank you, Brother.
Frances

BTW, I still have that original poor, tattered paperback of "The Scarlet Pimpernel."

Writing Science Fiction Romance
Real Love in a Real Future