Tag Archives: Gratitude

Giving Thankfuls

Stories of my Life, ,

Jonathan Carving Turkey 2014When our grandchildren were with us every weekend we began a mealtime tradition we call the Thankfuls. We’d go around the table and each of us would say what we were thankful for that day.

The first thing we’d all mention was how thankful we were to be together. We’ll be together this holiday season and that togetherness will be first among my thankfuls yet again.

Next is the guy in the photo – Jonathan Orr. He’s carving the feast day turkey but I have no idea why he’s peering into the bird’s you-know-what. Jonathan and I have been together for forty-three years and I’m still not certain why he does lots of things. I am certain I’m thankful for us.

My family is another super biggie in the thankful department. As I said – we’ll all be together. I used to cook the holiday dinners every year. One year Jonathan took the turkey out of the roasting pan after it was done and somehow it got loose and slid across the floor.

We plopped it on the platter and said nothing. Years later we discovered the turkey slide as well as our outcries and giggles had been overheard. Maybe that’s why I no longer have to cook holiday dinner. I must admit retirement from that once-beloved duty is among my personal thankfuls.

On the home front. Jonathan and I have found a church we love five blocks away. Jonathan also does work he truly enjoys. We have dear friends across the country. We live in a city we find exciting and stimulating. We are Thankful Thankful Thankful.

What are your Thankfuls? I’d love to hear them and join in your rejoicing. Because I am very much Thankful for you.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

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A Vacancy at the Inn is the first Christmas Novella of my Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series. A holiday bargain for 99 cents at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017RZFGWC.

 

The Tooth of the Matter – Orr What? Wednesday (on Thursday)

Great Read, Storytelling, Writers Life,

My Feet 5-5-15I was aware all of a sudden that I was about to pass into a life-wrenching experience. Let’s refer to this experience as Extreme Dental Modification or EDM for short.

This EDM period would require mass quantities of money or a plethora of plastic accompanied by a crush of credit fees. This was the first life wrench to anticipate and it’s a big one.

The financial threat was scary but – for the sake of honesty – I must confess my true terror. In this world and maybe especially in this culture we are schooled to be vain. I never missed a single one of those classes. EDM would threaten my vanity big time.

My surgeon told me to expect a three to four month window for procedures and healing. Three to four months? That’s not a window – it’s a crater blown out of the wall of my life. Including the entire holiday season. My favorite time of year and full of socializing – face to face.

“Okay, Alice. Calm down,” I told myself. “No need to add angina to the mix.” Still I could feel the quips sprouting about liquefied turkey for Thanksgiving and cookie crumbs for Christmas. I envisioned our blender in burnout mode. I also envisioned myself in the mirror.

That was the true terror. The look of the thing. Alice as desiccated apple doll. Plus no lipstick. Lipstick would call attention. But I love lipstick. Especially in fall when I switch to scarlet. I not only wouldn’t be able to wear scarlet lipstick – I wouldn’t be able to say scarlet lipstick.

I resolved that the only visual anyone would see of me for the next four months is the accompanying one. Note the scarlet toenails. Then the dentist walked in – not the scalpel-toting surgeon – the common sense toting dentist. He said the most amazing thing.

“I think we should consider going another way.” In that instant the story changed. The future was once again bright as the star atop our Christmas tree and the sheen of my toothy grin.

Don’t you just love endings with a twist and a hero dentist and the villain EDM vanquished? Not to mention the scarlet lipstick.

Alice Orr – https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

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A Vacancy at the Inn  – coming soon – is the first Christmas Novella of my Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series featuring the Kalli family – and now the Miller family too – in stories of Romance and Danger. A Wrong Way Home is Book 1 of the series. A Year of Summer Shadows is Book 2. A Villain for Vanessa will be Book 3.

All of my titles are available at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B000APC22E.

 

Off the Road & Onto the Page – Orr What? Wednesday

Great Read, Kindle Bargain, Writers Life,

Country BridgeThirty-three years ago I gave my first writers’ conference presentation at what may have been the first New Jersey Romance Writers Conference. This past weekend I gave what may be my last presentation to the same group.

That long-ago conference took place in either a church basement or a community center. I honestly can’t remember which. Probably because I was a nervous wreck at the time. I do remember the space was divided down the middle by an accordion wall so two speakers could present at once.

At some point in my talk a head peeked around the partition and asked if the people in my audience could please laugh less loudly. It was then I discovered that when I get nervous I get funny. I also discovered that the podium comes as naturally to me as breathing.

In the long laugh-filled time since then I’ve been known to appear at as many as twenty-five writers’ events a year. I traveled the U.S. I did gigs across Canada. I even appeared in Europe to audiences of English-speaking authors.

It is a major understatement to say I had a wonderful time and participants in my workshops seemed to share my joy. Way back in the beginning I mastered the art of being witty without jangled nerves as my motivation. I had found that my true motivator was to teach what I’d learned as a published writer and editor and literary agent.

There are still lessons to be taught as I enter what i think of as my fourth career in this business – as an Indie Author now. That was my subject in Jersey last weekend. We’ve Got the Power! – How Choice Changes Everything About Publishing Today. More lessons remain to be taught indeed – But no longer by me.

My main goal and my enduring dream through all of these years has been to write full-time someday. Now I’ve decided to grant myself the gift of fulfilling that dream. I have loved my years at the podium. I have especially loved the wonderful writers I’ve been blessed and privileged to meet and befriend.

I will be around of course. I still love writers’ gatherings and I won’t stop attending them. I’ll simply be in the audience from now on. And in the hallways and the restaurants and the cocktail lounges too. Wherever my writing sisters and brothers come together – I’ll be there.

But for the most part it is off the road I go and onto the page of the stories I’m so very ready to write. And the blog posts too where I will continue to pass on whatever I may learn to whomever may want to read what I have to say. Maybe that will be you.

In the meantime –  “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.” Henry David Thoreau.

Alice Orr – www.aliceorrbooks.com.

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My eBook A WRONG WAY HOME – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 1 – is FREE  online. My 13th novel   A YEAR OF SUMMER SHADOWS – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book #2 – is available too. Find them both – along with my other titles – at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B000APC22E. I look forward to meeting you on the page.