Story Land Jamboree

Greetings to the Tribe!  I hope everyone has had a terrific week and that your metabolism equals your appetites. Mine? Not so much.  I have become convinced that Satan is real and he wants me to stay tubby. It never, EVER fails ... I will decide to go on a diet Monday and THAT VERY DAY someone who I haven't seen in 1,000 years will bring over one of her world-famous desserts. Everyone knows that if I do not get to have some of that dessert, I will expire immediately from deprivation.  As a result, I decide to start my diet the next day and one of my generous office friends will bring doughnuts to work from the best bakery in town. Happens. Every. Time. My week will go this way until Friday. As EVERYONE knows, you cannot diet on Friday because that's the National Off-Diet Indulgence Day. If you didn't know that, then you're welcome. Mark it on your calendars. Now.  This leaves us with Saturday and everyone knows you never diet on Saturdays. It is too hard to p...

I LOVE making New Year's resolutions. I have oft documented how much I enjoy the idea of a fresh start. So many people I know never make a resolution because they know they never intend to keep it. In fact, I have had people actually get a little hostile toward me whenever I ask them if they are going to make a New Year's resolution. They often provide me with some snarky responses. Forget that crap! I say GO FOR IT! Let's all just take a childlike leap of faith, throw caution to the wind, and just resolve the heck out of 2014!! I saw one of my Facebook friend's posts this morning. It was a cartoon that basically stated if you are going to fail, then fail BIG!  Let's just pull out all the cliches and dust them off. Let's paint 2014 Town red, take no prisoners, let's party like it's 1999, and let's blow 2014's doors off!  I will believe I can do it! Will it last more than 24 hours? Um. Maybe, maybe not. But, until the resolution is broken, t...

Greetings to The Tribe! I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween festivities and have made a smooth transition to November as we journey toward winter. Lately, I have taken up exercising on a regular basis for perhaps the first time in my life since before forced to take physical education in school. I have been told that the best way to ensure that you will adapt exercise regularly to your lifestyle is to make sure it is something you enjoy. That's funny. To me, "exercise" and "enjoyment" are mutually exclusive. Much to my surprise, I found that there is a form of exercise that I actually -- GASP -- enjoy. I have taken up swimming. I have found that, in the pool, I am graceful. In the pool, I am at least 30 years younger and the boundaries aging has forced upon me no longer exist. So, I thought ... well, now I am exercising my body - why not my mind, as well? My little sister, Betty Jo, gave me a book recently called, Do The Work by Steven Pressfield. My ...

She was a just a baby herself. In love, and looking to get away from a domineering mother, she saw her future in marriage at the age of 16. She had her first child -- a daughter (me) -- at the age of 18. Three more daughters followed later. My mother is an extraordinary woman. She is far more extraordinary than she knows. She has always had self-esteem issues. (Sometimes I see a lot of myself in her, in that regard.) She constantly underestimates her value in the eyes of those who love her. She gave up her youth for her girls. However, she did not give up her dreams. She was intelligent and had a love of medicine and science. When I was in high school, she got a grant to go to school to be a nurse. I remember when she got the news of her grant. She stood in our small kitchen area and told us the news with tears in her eyes. It was the fulfillment of a dream and the beginning of a fabulous nursing career. Even though she is now retired, I still run into people who recognize her name...

Good afternoon! I hope all members of The Tribe are enjoying their Labor Day weekend. Well, Dear Readers, I am in the middle of a HUGE lifestyle change and at times it is so hard! I have had a weight problem for a long time -- and it's been worse since I have gotten off steroids for my illness. I am 47 years old. I like to think I eat well ... but I do like too much junk. I have tried different diets. Heck, I've been on a diet most of my adult life. It never really lasts more than a couple days or so before I'm absolutely stark raving mad from hunger and deprivation and then I pretty much eat everything in sight. It is then that I give up and just eat what I want until I feel I have the emotional strength to try another diet. I had given up hope. Until now. I am proud to say that I am on Day 7 of a healthier eating plan -- a plan that is slow carb, gluten free, and a general whole foods approach -- and have begun exercising. I have an illness that is degenerative an...

Okay ... here we go ... we are looking for some funny redneck haiku poems for Bubbaku, Too: He's Bigger, He's Badder, He's Bubba! If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the original Bubbaku which has tickled the funny bones of so many people already, then go to the store online at albanlake.com. Check it out ... then try your hand at penning a few of those hilarious redneck haiku! It pays $2 per poem, if your work is accepted. Allow plenty of time for a response ... I am just getting started going through submissions. The publication date for this collection is still TBA depending on the submission response we get. The original Bubbaku is selling like hotcakes so we thought another collection was warranted! We will also accept haibun and other similar forms as long as it fits the theme. (**A Haibun is a very short story that is punctuated by a haiku. Again, see the original Bubbaku . There are two haibun published in that collection. One is by myself and the ...

So ... I've been hearing all about Stephen King's "Under the Dome." I also had read the ebook on Kindle. I'm excited about his telling of the tale, BUT his idea is not entirely new. I had a short story accepted for publication back in 2003 ... it was published online in Twilight Times. My writing has VASTLY improved (so, if you go read the story, then please accept my humble apologies for errors in grammar) ... but the story was pretty good I think. You can still find the story online (under my old name), it's called "City Limits." Check it out if you're interested: http://www.twilighttimes.com/jan03/la_StoryHoury19.html Just sayin'.  I eventually want to turn my City Limits idea into a novel ...  Have a happy Independence Day!!!  Hugs to you all,  L.A.

So, I struggle every single day with the strong desire to be lazy. Every. Single. Day. I have all these delusions of grandeur in which I am the star in my own Successful Author Nationally Televised Interview fantasy. (It's one of my favorites.) I am interviewed about where I get my ideas and how did I get so brilliant ... and so on. (**Pauses here to indulge in the fantasy because now it's on my mind.)  Where was I? Oh, yeah. Laziness. Okay, to be fair, I am really quite hard-working BUT my hard work is usually motivated by things such as when someone is paying me, when I am being chased by zombies (or rabid political activists - no matter whether they come running at me from the left or the right), when being forced out of guilt, OR by a deadline.  Passive activities are usually my activities of choice if left to my own devices. There are things in which I love the end results, but do not like the work involved to get there. These "things" include exercising and ...