Rosepoint Publishing

I Love Beta Readers!

This article says it all–and quite succinctly. I’ve greatly enjoyed being a beta reader. And I have no problem volunteering for new authors willing to share their manuscripts. I hope that I’ve contributed to their work, and helped them along to completion and publication. The two-way street here is that it always teaches me something as well. Read on!

Joynell Schultz, Author

I mean it so much, that I’m going to be redundant: I love beta readers!

Wow. My three beta readers have completely IMPRESSED me!

I write so people find enjoyment in what I’ve written. I write to share ideas and thoughts with others. I write because it’s fun. Well, it is fun, until I find myself in an endless sea of a single task. Here is how my novel has gone so far.

I’m so frustrated with my OUTLINE. I wish I could just figure out the climax.
I have so much more to do on my FIRST DRAFT, when will I be finished?
REVISING is so tedious. How did I write this piece of crap anyway?
Who truly knows how to EDIT? Grammar? I must have slept through that class.
But BETA READERS? I LOVE THEM! I LOVE THIS PROCESS!!!! I’M IN NO HURRY TO FINISH THIS STEP (for once). BETA READERS…

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Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit–St Patrick’s Day Disaster

A St Patrick’s Day Revisited

“I was thinking we could get a corned beef and make a big pot of corned beef and cabbage,” my son enthused. His green eyes sparkled at the thought of it.

He waxed poetic about the ole days when we would celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with corned beef and cabbage. A toast to my grandfather, the author of those manuscripts I’d struggled with a number of years, and to our alleged Irish ancestors–but then everyone claims to be Irish for that one day–an entirely excused and actually obligatory Guinness celebration.

So it was that my hubby and he went to the local grocery and proudly came home with the largest corned beef the store was selling this time of year. He produced the red potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions, and cabbage he’d remembered with the shared help of dear hubby (DH–remember?). But soon as he opened the package, I wondered if something wasn’t majorly wrong. It smelled bad. Not. Just. Bad.

Terrible!

When I questioned the date on the package, he pointed out that it wasn’t due to expire until the end of July and doggedly proceeded with preparation in the crock pot.

“What stinks?” queried DH.

“I wonder if we shouldn’t just be taking it back right now,” I pondered out loud.

“Nah,” answered Mark, “I don’t want to take it back. It’ll be okay.”

But it wasn’t. And as I prepped vegetables and shared the juice with another crock pot (the first was too small to hold everything), the liquid didn’t look all that healthy either and continued to create a very odiferous house.

Well, rats, they had forgotten the horse radish! Everyone knows you can’t have corned beef without horse radish. Back to the store and home with horse radish that they now determined had, by several months, an expired date.

Then my daughter-in-law got home from work.

“Holy cow! What is that smell?!!” she cried. “And who is living here now? Did we exchange family members?” Declaring she wouldn’t touch that stuff, we wondered again, “Did we get used to the smell? Is it that bad? Maybe we should have a taste of it.” Three of us did–it tasted okay–but then why that smell?

Discussing it further, DH made the executive decision: it was going back along with the horse radish. “I’m afraid of it!” he declared. The lady at the customer service counter pleaded, “Take it off the counter–you’re making me gag!” No problem getting a refund.

Okay, what to do for dinner then–it was getting late. Producing a gift card from our 50th wedding anniversary years ago, the boys went to Outback and came back with quesadillas and dinner for four; dry, tasteless, so bad three of us gave up on it half-way through.

Looking at the awful food the restaurant had prepared, we couldn’t help but compare it to the corned beef. Still, the corned beef won out for most obnoxious. Discussing it further, DH nodded and ventured, “The corned beef was worst than an old cat box. Okay, who is ready for ice cream?” My son burst out laughing. So did I. beans

Next morning, venturing into the kitchen, my son grinned at me and waved a big frozen ham bone in the air. “Look what I found in the freezer! I thought we could use this and make a big pot of beans today.”

Getting Old Ain’t For Sissies

You’ve heard that old saying, “Getting Old Ain’t For Sissies.” I’m learning it’s true.

I wrote recently about our impending move from Goodyear, Arizona to Indiana to stay temporarily with our son until we could find a home and my husband employment. The move itself went very smoothly; two guys to help efficiently load, cooperative weather gods, and quick exit walk-through of the apartment. The adventure began quietly enough with my driving our little car following DH (in RV vernacular–“dear husband”) in the Budget truck. Then we reached Kansas. budget-truck

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Freaky Friday Features

He Guest Hosted (Just) Once on SNL!

Known to millions of early television viewers as “Uncle Miltie,” Milton Berle was among the American TV pioneer stars during “the Golden Age” of TV. Born in 1908, he was credited with a number of witty quotes, several (including the one above) were the most popular: “Laughter is an instant vacation,” “If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands.” But I think my favorite is also a poem:

“I’d rather be a ‘could-be’ if I cannot be an ‘are’ because a ‘could-be’ is a ‘maybe’ who is reaching for a star. I’d rather be a ‘has-been’ than a ‘might-have-been’ by far; for a ‘might-have-been’ has never been, but a ‘has’ was once an ‘are.”
― Milton Berle

Dishing the Dirt on Reviews

This is the age of instant. We want it now. Whether food, internet, or books, it must move–quickly! I’m older. I can wait. I can give Burger King up to 5 minutes. I can give a book several chapters. I’m usually pretty careful regarding the book I choose to begin next–sometimes looking up Amazon reviews to see if the little descriptive blurb really tells the story. I’ve written before regarding Amazon Reviews. You generally want to read the good and the bad reviews. Somewhere therein lies the truth.

Having read a great book, I really enjoy creating a lively and honest review. Unfortunately, I’ve read a few lately that have not been so inspiring as depressing. The last I began was “The Hostage,” Book Four of the Sarah Roberts Thrillers by Jonas Saul. Having read one of his previous books, “The Warning,” Book Two, I noted the foul language, but apparently enjoyed the plot enough to award five stars. This time I couldn’t get past Chapter 3 with the description of a scene by the perp that turned my stomach. Yes, I know–it’s a thriller/horror novel. (I don’t like Freddy either.) Not usually one to abandon a book–I freed The Hostage. (Yuck) Continue reading “Dishing the Dirt on Reviews”

Freaky Friday Features

Goodyear–Where Did the Name Come From?

Goodyear, a smaller suburb of the Phoenix Metropolitan area with a population of approximately 65,000 is coming into summer with a cooler than average spring. Normally experiencing the highest average July temperatures of any U.S. metropolitan area, our days in the 70’s are coming to an end. We don’t experience too many cloudy or rainy days. Obviously, it must be time to leave.

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Another Reisig Winner

“Down the Road to Key West” is another Reisig winner! Those rascally Caribbean adventurers Kansas Stamps and Will Bell go in hot pursuit of the legendary lost treasure of Pancho Villa. It’s no secret that Villa loved his gold and was a vigorous Robin Hood/political activist. In this fifth book of the wildly successful Key West series, Michael Reisig sends his popular but reluctant protagonists to Villa stomping grounds after a visit from that old Rastaman, Rufus, as they follow an antiquities specialist in possession of an authentic Villa cipher with his knowledgeable and beautiful daughter, Max. Of course Maxine is that wonderful combination of smart, pretty, strong, and independent. Continue reading “Another Reisig Winner”

Freaky Friday Features

Wacky But True Sayings

Seems the last few months have brought an onslaught of emails bearing those witty little sayings that we are all subjected to on a fairly consistent basis through the internet. Many are fairly common and have been seen more than once. Every now and then, there is a new one that resonates. Woefully behind in my posts, I hoped for this week’s Freaky Friday Feature, I’d include several along with some equally witty quotes. judge-a-book Continue reading “Freaky Friday Features”