National Tater Day

That's right. Today is National Tater Day, not National Potato Day. I guess country jargon is now recognized nationally. However, potatoes probably deserve some recognition. Do you remember the story of how they got to Ireland?

The potato was first domesticated in Peru, and it was a staple for the Inca Indians. But the Indian nations were great traders, and the potato gradually worked its way along trade routes to get to the native populations of what is now North Carolina (first known as Virginia). They were there when the Roanoke voyages came. When one of the expeditions took a sample back to England, Sir Walter Raleigh (who had sponsored the voyage), presented them to Queen Elizabeth. She ordered them sent to her estate in Ireland to see if they would grow there, and grow there they did. In fact, they eventually became known as the Irish potato. Like the Inca, the Irish began to depend on them. When the potato blight hit in the 1800's, a great famine resulted, and it encouraged immigration. Many Americans have Scotch-Irish ancestry from this bit of history. In addition, Spanish explorers may have also taken potatoes to Spain from South America around the same time period. Sir Francis Drake may have been another source as he returned from sailing about the globe.

When I visited Peru several years ago, I realized how many varieties of potatoes there are. Many sources say there are nearly 4,000 kinds. The markets of Peru certainly displayed many different types. Yet, I could probably count the varieties I was familiar with in the United States on my fingers.

Much like corn, the potato is adaptable to many conditions and climates. There are records of them even being used raw to feed livestock through the winter in regions where crops could be a problem, like the Appalachians in the early years of settlement. In fact, Leah talks of doing this in my upcoming novel set there during the Civil War, because supplies had become so scarce. Potatoes were also easy to store and normally kept over the winter months. They became an important food source in many cultures. How do you like your potatoes best?

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Process of Publication

(This is my blog about writing that I usually do on Saturday, but I am going to posting three times a week instead of daily, after April 1, I'll be posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Therefore, I won't be doing a blog this Saturday, April 2.)

My readers seem interested in the process of publication, and some have asked about it. Of course the process will vary with different publishers. Here is the process I go through with Ambassador International, based in Greenville, SC, and Belfast, Ireland. 

First, I send in the manuscript after they request to see it. I just did this yesterday for Transplanted to Red Clay, the fourth and last novel in my Appalachian Roots series. They will review it and offer me a contract, which I sign and send back. Their contract is very clear and straight-forward. I understand this is not always the case with publishers.

When they get the signed contract, they will assign an editor. I have worked with two different editors in the three books we've already published. Brenda worked with me on Cleared for Planting and Christy edited Sown in Dark Soil and Uprooted by War. I'll have to wait until I get the contract, sign it, and Ambassador gets it back before an editor will be assigned to Transplanted to Red Clay. It takes about a month for the editor to do her first read-through and get back to me. I review her corrections and suggestions, and we normally go back and forth on this about three times before we're both satisfied.

From editorial, it goes to the design department to be formatted and have the cover design. I do another read-through here. I always look forward to working with Ambassador's graphic designer, because she is very good. I've liked all the covers we've finally come up with. Sometimes I'm not too sure when I first see them, but they grow on me until I love them. This was the way it was with Cleared for Planting and Uprooted by War, but those two have become my favorites.

When the design department is through with them and some final scrutiny is given, the book goes to be formatted for ebooks and sent to the printer. The ebook will come out first, and that should happen soon for Uprooted by War. It took nearly eight weeks to get Cleared for Planting back from the printer but only four weeks for Sown in Dark Soil. Ambassador had used a different printer. We'll see how long it takes for Uprooted by War. At least I have Transplanted to Red Clay starting the process before Uprooted by War is back from the printer, so that should help the release time between.

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Coca Cola

March 29, 1886, is usually given as the date John Pemberton invented Coca Cola, although it wasn't introduced until May 8. He originally intended it as a patented medicine. It's name came from its original two key ingredients: kola nuts, which had caffeine, and cocaine leaves. However, Asa Griggs Chandler bought the company and marketed it as a soft drink. 

Pemberton had been a Confederate colonel in the Civil War. He was wounded and became addicted to morphine but wanted to find an alternative for the dangerous opiate. He developed the recipe for Coca Cola in his drugstore in Columbus, Georgia. To start with, he called it a coca wine. When Fulton County adopted prohibition laws, he took the alcoholic content out. Pemberton's first sale for the new drink took place at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta on May, 1886. It cost five cents a glass at the soda fountain. His first ad ran in the Atlanta Journal on May 29,

Today Coca Cola is sold around the world. The current ingredients of the product remain a trade secret. The company markets over 500 brands in 200 countries. Because of its high volume of sales, it can still claim to have the most popular soft-drink in the world.

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Removing Trees in Early America

One of the daunting tasks facing farmers in colonial America was the removal of trees to make fields. New World forests were often lush wildernesses. Trees had been growing a long time in these virgin forests. Vines, briers, brush, and other vegetation sometimes entangled underneath. 

Using the Indian method of girding around the trunks of trees so they would either die of have reduced foliage wasn't quite as labor-intensive and time-consuming. To gird a tree, the farmer cut a notch around the tree about the width of his hand. If the tree-growth had grown too dense, some of them would have to be cut down. The farmer removed the stumps and roots if he had a team of oxen. If not, he left them to rot and worked around them until they did.

Because this was such slow, hard work, the farmer cleared the land a little at a time, claiming a little more each year. By the end of his life, he would not have cleared a hundred acres. Even after several generations, farms and plantations rarely had more than 250 acres. In a good year, it took 7 farmers to grown enough food for 10 people who didn't farm.

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Happy Endings

I've published three Christian novels, the fourth is almost ready to go to the printer, and the fifth is ready to be sent to the publisher. I see writing as a gift from God, and I want to use it to glorify Him. Each of the books has a happy ending. Real life on earth doesn't always have happy endings, so I want my make-believe worlds to have them, and I think my readers deserve that.





(All my profits go to a scholarship fund for missionary children.)

When Jesus went through the mockery or a trial and the horrendous treatment afterwards, it didn't look good. In fact, his followers were horrified as they saw him crucified. Many of them were so sure that was the end and He was dead that they didn't even recognize Him when He appeared to them.

However, the crucifixion wasn't the end of the story. He arose! He is alive so that we can have eternal life with Him and the Father. That's the happiest ending of all, and it will be our happy ending when we accept Him as our Savior and follow Him in faith.

The angel said to the women at Jesus' empty Tomb: "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen" (Luke 24"5b - 6a).

                Happy Easter!

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March Madness

March has already been a wild month for me, and I'm not talking about March winds and storms or basketball. I've juggled church activities with being a writer, and both have gotten even more hectic than usual. All the things have been positive, but even those can overfill available time.

The first weekend in March, my association hosted "On Missions Connection," where missionaries were brought in to share their experiences. My church participated, and Jim and I hosted a missionary in our home. We also attended the association meals on Friday evening, Saturday noon, and Saturday evening, as well as the mission fair Saturday afternoon. It was a good weekend but busy. The time around Easter always gets busy for pastors and their spouses.

The following weekend I attended the Carolina Christian Writers Conference in Spartanburg, SC. Besides attending sessions, I was able to meet with Sam and Tim Lowery, the heads of Ambassador International (my publisher) and three other editors. I also met with a social media and blogging expert who looked at my blog. She loved the layout and design of it but said I was probably blogging too much to post a daily blog. She suggested that I only blog three times a week. I plan to try that, posting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

The three editors I met with agreed to consider some of my manuscripts for publication. I love Ambassador and hope to remain with them, but it takes a long time to bring a book out. We've been working on Uprooted by War for months and it hasn't gone to the printers yet. If I can find another publisher for some of the manuscripts in other genres, it will help speed up things, since I still have a backlog of unpublished books.  

Two of the editors want book proposals. The proposal for the one who agreed to look at Promise, a Christian, contemporary that could fit the young adult market, was fairly simple. I managed to get it off a few days after I got home. The other proposal for From the Top of the Mountain to the Bottom of the Sea: Lessons from Elijah and Jonah, was long and involved. It had 17 components and ended up being 41 pages long. I feel good about it, however. I think it fits this publisher well. We'll see what happens. The one considering Promise said it would be 12 weeks before she could get to it. It will be about a month before the non-fiction proposal can be read.

While all this was happening, I had two book promotions, a presentation and signing at the Ahoskie Women's Club and a book signing at the Flanagan House Bed & Breakfast in Murfreesboro, NC. Both went well. Despite the busyness, I consider all these things as blessings and opportunities that make the life of a writer better. 

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Tolkien Reading Day

Today is National Tolkien Reading Day. J.R.R. Tolkein was born January 3, 1892 in South Africa, where his family had settled. Although Tolkien was mainly of German ancestry, his family had immigrated to England over a century before he was born, and it had become thoroughly British. Most of them had been clock makers or made and sold pianos. Tolkien's father was a banker, however. 

When Jon Ronald Reuel was three, his mother took him and his younger brother back to England to visit family, but his father died of rheumatic fever before he could join them. They lived with family members for a while. His aunt's farm was called "Bag End," a name he would later use in his books. His mother died of diabetes when Tolkien was twelve. His mother had converted to Catholicism and noted Father Francis as her boys' guardian.

Tolkien became fascinated with language while in school. After he started college, he met Edith Mary Bratt, who became the love of his life. But Father Francis forbid him to see her, because he hadn't done well on exams after meeting her, and she was a Protestant. From his respect for the father, Tolkien complied until he reached 21. Then, Mary converted to Catholicism and the couple married.

In June of 1916, Tolkien was called to serve in World War I. He wrote that parting from Edith seemed like death itself. He was assigned to lead a group of enlisted men and became know as a leader that inspired love and loyalty from his men. In October, he contracted trench fever, a disease carried by lice, and was sent home to recover. His battalion was almost completely wiped out after he left. Tolkien spent the rest of the war alternating between hospitals and active duty. 

He left the army in November 1920 and began gradually preparing to become a writer, although he probably didn't realize it at first. He became a professor at the University of Leeds. He wrote The Hobbit and the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings while a professor at Pembroke College. He also wrote some shorter pieces. When World War II broke out, Tolkien became a codebreaker and then a cryptographer. In 1945, he took the position of Professor of English Language and Literature at Merton College, where he stayed until he retired in 1959. He died September 2, 1973, leaving behind a legacy of literature.

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Elvis Presley Joins the Army

Elvis Presley joined the army on this day in 1958. He served from March 1958 until March 1960. He was given the offer of enlisting in special services to entertain the troops, where he would have lived in better housing. However, Presley made the decision to serve as a regular soldier and live in the barracks. This earned him the respect of many of his fellow soldiers, as well as the some of the people back home who hadn't looked on him kindly before.

Elvis & parents on the day he joined

Presley didn't mind serving, but he had some troubles hit him during the time. The main one was when his mother, Gladys, died of a heart attack brought on by acute hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver. This hit Elvis hard, because he and his mother were close. He also may have developed a dependency on barbiturates and stimulants around this time. These would later contribute to his early death at the age of forty-two.

It was also while he was serving in West Germany that he met his future wife, Priscilla Beauilieu. After being released from the army, Presley found a broader fan-base with more age groups, especially after he started adding ballads to his repertoire. His gospel songs brought in others. Despite these added categories, however, he has remained "The King of Rock 'N Roll."

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"Give Me Liberty"

Patrick Henry

Today in 1775, Patrick Henry made his famous declaration, "Give me liberty or give me death." He made the speech to the 1775 Virginia Convention at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia. Men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson sat listening. Henry's passionate speech is credited with swinging the balance to convince the convention to gather a Virginia militia for the Revolutionary War.

St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Va

The speech was not published until 1815, however, much after the war. Yet, the impact it had on those who heard it is undeniable. Edmund Randolph reported that the convention sat in silence for several minutes afterwards. Thomas Marshall told his son, who would become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the speech was "one of the most bold, vehement, and animated pieces of eloquence that had ever been delivered."

The speech also had its effects. One of the more immediate ones was that the resolution declaring the colonies to be independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain passed. Henry was also appointed chairman of the committee assigned to oversee a militia, because the colonists were bound to have to fight a war to grasp that liberty and independence.

Royal Governor's Palace, Williamsburg, Virginia

Lord Dunmore, the royal governor, reacted by seizing the gunpowder at Williamsburg, what one source explained as the equivalent of the battles of Lexington and Concord. The patriots had set their course on the road to independence, and a new nation would be formed.

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Daffodils

Daffodils are one of the flowers that herald spring. They are known by many other names, such as narcissus, jonquils, and buttercups. I have even heard them misnomered "Easter lilies," because they are usually blooming around the Easter season. They come from the amaryllis family, have a cup-shaped inner bloom, and are usually varying shades of yellow and sometimes white.

These flowers originally came from southwest Europe. They can be propagated by dividing the bulbs as they grow more numerous, but they're also pollinated by insects. They make good edgings and borders, plants for flower gardens, and cut flowers. They appear many times in literature from writers like Wordsworth and Shakespeare.

Historical records suggest they've been grown from the earliest times, but they became especially popular in the 1500's. Some are considered poisonous if eaten, but a substance extracted from them may prove helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's and dementia. Regardless of their uses or history, however, their bright nodding heads are always a welcomed sight as the March winds blow away winter.

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Common Courtesy

Today is National Common Courtesy Day. On one hand, I welcome the day, because I think it's important to show respect for others. On the other hand, it's rather sad to have a day set aside for courtesy, as if it takes many people extra effort to be that way. As a society in general, I do think we get less courteous all the time, and it may stem from self-centeredness.

Road rage or impatient drivers are a good example of this. It's getting more and more common to pull out in front of someone, blow horns the second a light turns green, cut someone off to get ahead, or use cell phones and pay no attention to anyone else. These actions show selfishness and not thinking of others. We never know what another person may be dealing with. If we did, we'd likely treat them differently.

Only a few people open doors for someone anymore, allow another person to go first, take their hats off inside, let someone finish what they're saying before commenting, and all the other little things that used to be second nature. The actions themselves aren't as important as the attitudes they demonstrate. On this, National Common Courtesy Day, let's focus on never losing our respect for others or patience with them. What will you do for National Common Courtesy Day?

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Palm Sunday

The Parable of the Good Samaritan 

Jesus had been on a journey. He'd traveled from Galilee, taking the longer route through Jericho into Jerusalem for the Passover. He knew this would be His last days, and His teachings are especially important along the way. He met the rich young ruler, healed the blind, told the story of the Prodigal Son, gave the parable of the Good Samaritan, met the little tax collector, Zacchaeus, and taught many other crucial lessons.

Jerusalem

To get from Galilee to Jerusalem via Jericho, a traveler followed the Jordan River. This route was only about 23 miles longer than going through Samaria, but it was much more rugged. It required a steep climb in a hot climate. Jericho lies 812 feet below sea level, while Jerusalem sets 2,600 feet above sea level. This steep elevation change takes place in a sharp, fifteen-mile climb that winds through a barren stretch of cliffs, canyons, rocks, robbers, and wild animals.

When Jesus gets to Jerusalem, the crowd there for the Passover welcome Him with praises and shouting. He rides into the city on a borrowed donkey among shouts of "Hosanna" and a carpet of palm branches. In just a few days, some of these same people will shout, "Crucify Him!" Are we like that too? Is our relationship with Jesus on-again, off-again? Are we fair-weather friends who jump ship when the going gets rough? Thankfully, Jesus is never like that. He's always true and faithful. Let us be the same.

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