Random Thoughts While Driving Myself Nowhere

Today, the 29th of October, is the birthday of the Statue of Liberty. It's 128 years old! Can you name anyone (anything) that has made so many people from all over the world smile as much as the Grand Lady who has done nothing but welcome the poor and huddled masses to our incredible country? She is a national symbol for us; a symbol recognized the world over as the beacon of hope in a crazy world. Tip your hat or raise a glass to her today; she deserves it!

And speaking of people from foreign lands, here's  a quick one I heard that should make you smile for a minute.

           Two English businessmen in London were sitting down for a break in their soon-to-be new store. As yet, the store wasn't ready, with only a few shelves set up. One said to the other, 'I bet any minute now some idiot tourist is going to walk by, put his face to the window, and ask what we're selling.'
           No sooner were the words out of his mouth when, sure enough, a curious Irishman walked to the window, had a peek, and in a thick Irish accent asked 'What might ye be sellin' here?'
           One of the men answered sarcastically, 'We're selling assholes.'
           Without skipping a beat, the Irishman replied 'You’re doing well ... only two left!'

Forgive me my sins! It's Halloween in a couple of days and I still haven't decided what to get dressed up as. Right now I'm leaning towards the "Casual Florida Tourist." I've got everything I need; I'll just have to wear black socks with my sandals.

Seriously (or not), I haven't even heard of a good Halloween party anywhere around me. I do live in a "55+"community, so the streets will be filled with the living dead just going back and forth to their mailboxes.And that will all be happening before it gets dark. As Laurence J. Peter once said "In spite of the cost of living, it's still popular." That's even more true here in the Sunshine State.


I saw a report today that said New England is going to get some snow this weekend. I know I'm repeating myself, but I do love watching it snow (on TV). Throw another fake log on the fake fireplace, dear!


With elections just around the corner, we all know in our hearts that nothing much is going to change. Whoever wins will blame everything bad on "THEM," and will claim to somehow be responsible for anything good that's happened while they were gone. Unfortunately, it will be business (oh thank you very much, BIG Business for the millions!) as usual, I'm afraid.


I just saw a funny meme on Facebook; it showed the Wicked Witch of the North (from the Wizard of Oz) and it proclaimed the movie as:


               The Ultimate Chick Flick - Two Women Fighting Over a Pair of Shoes


It's amazing how you can see a movie fifty times but never see the irony!


Let's not forget the World Series! Oh, you already have? Yeah, me too; I have to admit I haven't watched much more than ten minutes of any game so far. I love baseball, but is anyone I know actively going crazy over this one?


A fine segue to a baseball joke. "If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base." This courtesy of Dave Barry.

My 11th generation great-grandmother, Mary Perkins Bradbury, was arrested, tried and convicted of witchcraft in the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692. She was never executed and died of natural causes a few years later. She was pretty pissed off about it, though, and still flies around every Halloween looking for Puritans. Don't dress up as a Pilgrim, whatever you do!

So let's wrap this up! At this point I've managed to offend Englishmen, Florida Tourists, Florida Retirees, New Englanders, Women Shoppers (or maybe all women), Baseball Purists, and Pilgrims. Sheesh! That's probably enough for now; I'd like to make it to the weekend to see the New England Patriots kick the Denver Broncos butts! Oh damn; now I have to add The Denver fans (and everyone else in America who hates the Patriots) to my list! I think I'm done!


Here's a little something for your Halloween bag. If you haven't had a chance to check out my book, Serpent's Curse, follow this link to a FREE sample.

                 
                         https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

                                             

 

See you next week!

Mark

Tell Us Your Story

Have you ever thought about sitting down at your computer to write a story that's bouncing around in your head? Maybe you have, but convinced yourself that you'd be the only one who would ever be interested in it. You may have saved what you wrote for another time, but never actually went back to it, leaving it in the dust pile of your memories.

If this applies to you, then you are probably one of millions who share the same dream. People who, just like you, have a story to tell, but remain silent because they lack the confidence to put their ideas on paper. I was one of those people; I moved to Sebastian, Florida, almost twenty years ago and started formulating a story in my head based upon hidden treasure and adventure. I published Serpent's Curse, my first book, last October, because of a couple of friends who liked my idea. It just took me eighteen years to make the jump.

I went to Grammar School and High School in the 50's and 60's. Most of the history we learned back then has since been rewritten. Why is that? It's simple; men and women of the time wrote and recorded their version of the story and it became history. What we took as fact became nothing more than someone's biased opinion. But if people who came before us didn't take the time to tell their stories, we'd have no clue whatsoever what really happened before we burst upon the scene.

Tom Clancy has been one of my favorite authors for many years. He has an interesting quote that I'd like to share. "The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." And so it does! The history of mankind is full of people just like us who had a story. The difference is simple: they took the time to tell theirs! All your story has to do is make sense to the reader. If someone can read your work and enjoy it, you've crossed over into being a storyteller,.and everyone loves a good story!

I have a friend who is an avid angler; he spends so much time fishing I wonder how he gets anything else done. We talked about his yearning to write what he had learned about fishing; he wanted to compile an angler's guidebook from his experiences. Two weeks ago I received a sample of a fictional story that he's decided to write instead. The beginning was strong enough to get my attention, and that of a few others who read it. I encouraged him to continue, and I hope he does. It sounds like a great story!

So, my friends, tell your story! Talk to your friends or family to see if they think the tale is worth the trouble, and if they think it has merit, then you should charge forward and start writing. Don't worry about the spelling and layout; that's why you have spelling and grammar check in your Word program. There are people (I am one) who will take a rough manuscript and polish it until it's all cleaned up. You don't have to be perfect; you just need to have a good story.

In summary, I should say that it's not an easy thing to get a book launched. Selling and marketing a book takes a tremendous amount of time and effort; more work sometimes than writing the book in the first place. But if you're committed to your work, the results might be the most rewarding time of your life. Your story will become your legacy, read by other people who follow us on this beautiful blue marble. And wouldn't that be pretty cool?

Have a great weekend everybody!


Mark


Your "Veggie of the Day:"

Two cows are standing next to each other in a field. Daisy says to Dolly "I was artificially inseminated this morning." "I don't believe you," said Dolly. "It's true, no bull!" For a FREE sample of my book Serpent's Curse, click on the ink below:                            https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

Colors of Nature

I grew up in New England. Unlike Florida, we had seasons there that were sharply defined. It wasn't anything like the Sunshine State, where the seasons roll into each other, with the occasional cold front thrown in, or where the wet weather takes hold for a few days. Hell, no! There were changes you could feel down to your toes.

Fall was always a favorite time of year for me. The incredible colors of Mother Nature's palette never ceased to amaze and delight my senses. Unfortunately, though, the foliage extravaganza was short-lived, being replaced by hours and hours of raking time. When we were kids, getting rid of the leaves was easy. We'd just rake them into piles and light'em up! That was a special time for every young pyromaniac I knew; it almost took the sting out of the blisters you had all over your hands from raking.

But it's all different today. You can't rake and burn, as we did in the old days. We're all Politically Correct and Environmentally Conscious (thanks for that!), so we now have to deal with the drudgery of getting rid of the leaves. I always had a garden, so turning a majority of my leftover leaves into mulch all winter made sense to me.

My friends up north always tell me about how much they love the seasons (until it's 6 degrees and oil is four dollars a gallon), and how I must miss them down here in Florida. Well, I do, sort of. But after twenty years of suffering here in the Tropics, I've learned to appreciate Mother Nature's colors, Southern Style. The best part is that I don't have to rake them up, or wonder what I should do with them. They come and go on a daily basis here, year-round, and every day the cost is the same: zero! Here's some examples of what I love about Florida colors.

               This was taken from my backyard a few years ago on a crisp winter night.

             I took this one evening as I sat on a friend's dock, watching a beautiful sunset.

                                 This was an early morning catch at the beach.

                  This is a sunrise shot taken by a friend. View his work at PureOceanTV.com.

                Another beautiful morning photo, complete with shorebirds, courtesy of                                                         PureOceanTV.com.

You see, I'm a believer when it comes to beauty in all things. It's everywhere, and we can learn to love and appreciate it no matter where we live. It's a wonderful planet out there. Let's take better care of it!.


Have a great day everyone!


Mark

                                        Hell, yeah, we got pumpkins down here!


For a FREE sample of my book, Serpent's Curse, please click on the link below:

             
                       https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

Wild Rides, Anyone?

I don't know about you, but it would be understatement to say that I have a fear of heights. You know; the kind where your legs seem to turn to Jello and your breathing gets a little faster. That sick feeling you get when you envision yourself falling headfirst from an airplane, or dropping twenty stories without a safety net sort of fear. It's called "acrophobia," and it's a very common feeling amongst other people I've met in my life.

On the flip side though, is my love for roller coasters; all kinds. The ones that turn you upside down, around and around, drop you a hundred feet straight down; it doesn't matter. Buy me a ticket!

How to explain it? Why even try? It's an adrenaline rush that flies in the face of my acrophobia. That's enough for me! It all started when I was a teenager. My older cousins goaded me into getting on the roller coaster at Salisbury Beach, in Massachusetts. Fearing for my life and taking the plunge, I instantly discovered a new love after the first ride. I have yet to meet a coaster I didn't like.

Fear, like so many other emotions we encounter, is a funny animal. If you face it and charge blindly into the light, the chances are high that you'll come out on the other side with the satisfying smile of a winner, and we can all use a little of that every chance we get.

Everyone has had experiences in their life that they remember as "moments of change;" those things we do that later define us. I'm a fisherman, or angler, if you will. Earlier in my life, before I owned boats of my own, I was quite wary of the ocean blue; you know, that very deep body of water that surrounds us. Growing up in a part of the country where legendary shipwrecks had occurred, and where swimmers and fishermen had been swept out to sea by their own carelessness, I had a very deep respect for the ocean.

In the summer of 1968 a friend invited me to go striper fishing on Cape Cod, at the National Seashores there. Anxious to catch a big striped bass, I made the trip. On our first morning we launched his sixteen-foot aluminum boat from the beach directly into the waves. It was, at that time, a very harrowing experience.

We fished for most of the day, until we decided it was time to head in. Here's an excerpt from my newest book, Fish Tails - Bones Not Included, about what happened next. It was definitely a "defining" moment for me!



          The tide had changed, and the waves crashing on the beach were much bigger than when we launched that morning. I was about to ask Bob how he was going to handle this when he screamed over the motor noise “Hold on to your seat! We’re going in and it’s not going to be easy!”

His words rang in my ears. I looked towards the beach; it was coming up very fast. Bob increased the motor’s speed and flew hell-bent towards it with a completely wild look on his face. I knew then that this was going to be what I really remembered about the day, because the launch this morning seemed like a cakewalk compared to what was coming.

We seemed to be going faster; Bob had the boat up on the crest of a wave, and we were actually surfing with a 16-foot aluminum boat! It was scaring the hell out of me, but I didn’t have a lot of time to do much more than hold on for dear life; the beachhead was in my face. The wave started its break and thrust the tiny boat at the beach like a leaf on the wind; and then we hit!

I remember thinking that every tooth in my head seemed to explode, and my entire body screamed at me. I realized that we had stopped, very abruptly, but we were now sitting up on the high-water mark, and we were both still alive. I couldn’t believe it! Bob told me later that I was screaming my ass off, and I still don’t remember if that’s true or not; it’s not that far-fetched to be looked upon as a fabrication. I probably was!

There was a crowd of our fellow campers standing together on the beach, and as I somehow managed to crawl out of the boat, a cheer went up from all of them. I was a rookie, and I had just made my first “crash landing,” a feat that had them all yelling and clapping. My initiation complete, I was being welcomed into the ranks of the wild-eyed, crazy anglers of Truro, Massachusetts.

Fish Tails - Bones Not Included is an anthology of humorous fishing and boating adventures I've enjoyed over the years. There's a story for everyone in there someplace, and I'm quite certain you'll crack a few smiles before you finish it. If you'd like to read more, the book is available as an eBook on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and iTunes.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Mark

What Makes You Tick?

As the Beatles so eloquently put it so many years ago, "All You Need Is Love." It was a quirky song, certainly not one of their best, but its message was simple. Life is so much easier for us all if we have love sprinkled in and throughout every moment of our lives.

I'm not talking about wild, passionate romance, although that's not a bad thing to have. I spend a lot of time each day reading the Facebook posts of friends around the country. It doesn't take long to find out what each person loves in their life. It's there for all of us to see and share if we choose.

Family, especially kids and grandkids, plays a major role for many of us. Our pets, no matter what type they are, are an integral part of our joy and inner peace. There is something very special about a young puppy licking your fingers, or your cat curled up in your lap, purring like a finely-tuned engine. The sound of your parrot saying "good morning" or your aquarium fish staring at you, eyes wide open, waiting for their breakfast; it's not important what gets you feeling better, it's the fact that there's something that does.

I see people who love surfing, motorcycling, traveling, beachcombing, hiking, art, music and reading. Others are into photography, bicycling, boating, fishing, hunting and so many other things it boggles the mind. But no matter what it is that ignites your passion, we all share a common thread. 

We love all of these things and we all like to share our enjoyment with each other. Social Media provides us with an outlet to do just that. Not everybody is going to "like" what we do, but it's almost a certainty that you'll find others who will. We develop a camaraderie with these like-minded people every day, and we're all better for it.

After being in Sales and Management positions throughout most of my life, I found out a few years ago that I loved to write. I began writing articles for a magazine I was involved in, and I gradually became enamored with writing. Anything; it didn't matter. I was happy if I was composing.

Now I'm writing books, and I've never been more satisfied with a vocation in my life. I can sit down at my computer and write all day, and I'm blessed to be able to translate stories that float through my mind and put them to paper, as they say. I do my research, outline my story and start writing, and like cooking a wonderful meal, if my work comes together it's a beautiful feeling.

How about you? What makes you happy every day? I know that each of you reading this has a plethora of experiences to call on, but what is your passion? The thing that makes you tick? Tell us about it in the Comments section below. Let's have some fun! "Love is all you need."

Have a great weekend and spend some time with your love!


Mark


P.S.: Here's a gift from a friend in Ireland. Check this video out; it's beautiful and fun. It may ignite a new passion in your life. 

             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrFVRXKCvdk&feature=youtu.be


For a FREE sample of my book, Serpent's Curse, please click on the link below:

             
             https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1456c9f6ce6cc2b2

                                                    My grandson Bradley