Endless Summer Creations

This is the post I wrote on Facebook in early September 2015 when I realized we needed to return to Florida.  I wrote these words with a very heavy heart because in coming north, I had just wanted to come home.  But I had to eventually face the reality that the places which had always been home to me no longer were.  I came to realize that home is wherever Jim, Carl and I may be.  Even if it's in a hotel room.  Or an RV.  We learned to cling hard to each other.  Like hikers lost in a snowstorm, we kept each other warm to survive. There's a part of me that wishes I could just wash my hands of my old home.  It is no longer the source of comfort, companionship and merriment that it once was. However, I would not take back our time up north.  There was so much beauty there.  I saw it when the heavy snowfalls descended outside our motel room window, and Carl looked out to sights he had never seen in his life.  I saw it when Ca...

© Jennifer Corbett, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal Today I read the news about the disheartening end result of a trial in my native Delaware: "A 17-year-old Delaware girl will not serve prison time for last year's fatal attack of a classmate in a high school bathroom." This is a good example of "incomplete justice" as described in The Reptile by Don Keenan and David Ball. To get justice we must arouse the Reptile. The Reptile does not care about lost causes. The Reptile will not dispense justice if she feels it will do no good. From the comments made by the presiding judge, it seems like his Reptile had thrown true justice out the window because according to him, it would benefit nobody: "It is a case in which no one is looking to determine who wins and who loses because everyone has lost," said Family Court Judge Robert Coonin. "The community has lost, the defendants and their families have lost, and most importantly, Amy...

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack And you may find yourself in another part of the world And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife And you may ask yourself – Well, How did I get here? “Once In a Lifetime,” Talking Heads And you may find yourself living in a 1978 Champion motorhome in an RV park in the Washington forest.  And you may find that the family you thought would always be there was gone.  And you may find yourself in a life which makes no sense, in which the train jumped the track long ago and continues to hurtle helter-skelter through the wilderness heading to destinations unknown, leaving behind a family that once was.   Carla used to wish so badly that train could be stopped, turned around and returned to the life that made sense, in which Carla knew who she was and didn’t have to keep adapting herself anew just to survive.. ...

”You can’t just invite yourself over,” came the words over the phone. “It’s not 1980 – you’re not five years old anymore.” It didn’t even seem real.  This couldn’t be happening.  Granpop wouldn’t let this happen.  It wasn’t that Carla was so shocked to hear those words coming from Stan.  He had always been strange.  Carla had just come to take it as a fact of life that he was a bit off.  Most of the time he just sat there with the gravest of tones and expressions, and skulked in and out of rooms with a strange frailty which contradicted his fine-tuned physical condition.  He was a superb runner and had actually fueled Carla’s inspiration to start running herself when she was only 12. Stan had other good points too – he could tell maniacally funny jokes.  Jokes that would have everyone around the table roaring with laughter.  But these jokes were in stark contrast to Stan’s usual grim demeanor.  It was a startling sense of hu...

By Girdi (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons These days spelling and grammar often seem to fall by the wayside.  Oftentimes we're aware of the grammatical lapses but let them slide in the name of convenience - as with texting lingo, voice dictation, crazy auto prompts, and so on.  But when your job relies on the craft of writing, grammar is still king. How likely do you think a publisher, editor or writing agent is to take your submissions seriously when they are peppered with grammatical and spelling mistakes?  Of course, we're all human and bound to make mistakes.  But to put your best writing foot forward, you need to proof your work and make sure it's as error-free as possible.  If you have someone who can serve as a fresh pair of eyes and give your work a second or even third read-through, that's even better.  We often become blind to mistakes in our own work, despite how much time we spend poring over it. Is English you...

This is the query letter that got me a book deal with the American Bar Association.  All it takes is one yes.  Never give up! July 7, 2010 ___________________ Director of Book Publishing American Bar Association Publishing 321 N. Clark Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 Re: Proposal to Publish Foreclosure Defense Articles and Guides Dear Ms. _________ : I am a Florida attorney and have been practicing law for almost six years. Most recently I worked with one of the largest foreclosure firms in Florida, representing lenders and servicers. However, in May I left this firm to begin my own private practice focusing instead on foreclosure defense. I have been posting a number of instructional guides on Avvo.com, explaining to foreclosure defendants in plain English various defenses to foreclosure they may have. I have posted eleven articles in the last month alone. The foreclosure crisis in Florida is so severe that I have been willing to put my work ou...

Today was the celebration of the signing of the Constitution for the People!  It was a rainy but happy day.  At Independence Hall more than 10,000 people were gathered to watch the parade with people dressed up as colonial soldiers, some riding on Tyler Quarter horses.  And there were lots of colonial floats, and Ronald Reagan came out in front of Independence Hall and made a long speech, as usual.  After the day's festivities at Independence Hall were over, everybody went to the Civic Center.

Sometimes the question is not "Why do I want to accomplish this goal"?  Sometimes it's more like "Why shouldn't I just do whatever I feel like doing? Why do I want to bother myself with goals when I could just be relaxing instead?" You might then ask yourself, if I forget the goal what do I miss out on?  Am I ok with that?  Will I have regrets one day?  Which will cause me more stress - abandoning the goal or following through on it? What will my life look like next week, next month, next year if I do/don't accomplish the goal?  Sometimes when it's the desire for accomplishment that falters, it's the fear of loss that keeps you going.