SPACEHIVE will be ON SALE MAY 3-10 Inclusive

Get the eBook from Amazon for 99 cents!!

You heard it first here, party on Facebook, great prizes to be won...

An Excerpt 

Chapter Two

Fierce wasp

"You don't have enough honey in your system, General Vard," the old bee queen said and heaved her body to a more comfortable position. "Do the War Games really say our migrations will end?"

Honey from a jar

Tongue in Cheek, a review of a neighborhood battling change

• They post every entry so it's no success to be posted, and I have 2 likes including my own. 

•  I am not an editor's pick nor am I a popular post.

The Glenora Skyline condominium project, standing tall on Stony Plain Road and 142nd Street in the City of Edmonton, as viewed by a Glenora matron, was so undesirable. Residents of the popular and prestigious neighborhood objected in vain to the development. 

The west arm of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) is scheduled to take in the Glenora Skyline project and incorporate it into a nice little commuter ghetto in Glenora. It's touted as a "neighborhood within itself," complete with three residential towers, offices and commercial spaces, scenic walkways and access to buses and LRT, and within walking distance of the lovely river valley. 

Great for the apartment dwellers. With an "acre of exclusive green space" to themselves, the condo residents will bask in their proximity to the LRT planned for the area, only minutes from downtown, and their own community in the midst of an opulent neighborhood.  

How did the society matrons and gentlemen lose their clout?  Surely they won't put up with these developments without an expensive opposition, they in their stately houses and perhaps with disdain for us denizens of the high rise? The ever shifting skyline as viewed from the top of the economic ladder, beautiful Edmonton viewed from a luxury one bedroom suite or through glass walls from a penthouse, oh, the uproar were it rental property!

Riff-Raff

They have a lovely view of a lovely neighborhood. At a premium price for the privilege of changing the ambience of Glenora, there won't be any riff-raff in this community. To me this means progress and a secret snigger at the discomfiture of an exclusive area of Edmonton. 

Neon colored silouhette of a young anarchist

My inner child is about twelve years old and still a rebel, still hostile toward authority and the presence of history and refinement of manners, still aching to throw a china teacup across a perfectly pristine room and spatter a snowy wall with stains. 

Is that all this means, the contemporary room with the grand piano and the orchids, threatened by 21st century advancements and a subculture of hipsters? Surely there's more to the story than this. 

 "Experience a new level of living" the Glenora Skyline condominium's  on-line ads promote. The convenience of an apartment community within a neighborhood known for its quaint cul-de-sacs, understated and opulent living style, and quiet Saturday afternoons; refinement cluttered only by the low rise, renovated apartments on the northwest corner of the neighborhood, close to Coronation Park and Westmount Shopping Centre, not really in Glenora at all. 

What changed the society matron's point of view? Little but a whimper is now heard. 

Society child kissing a frog prince

The upward thrusting face of change has made its way into historic Glenora, and I'm saddened but elated, too, that one of cultured society's last bulwarks is finally threatened.    

Memorable Characters

Writer's Workshop

Map of Canada

Developing a Memorable Character in a Story

Author hard at work old style

• Use a static character as foil to show off protagonist's characteristics
• Teens - show them there are ways out of bad situations
• Character reveals who they are, revelation in life, not necessarily a change, e.g. find out you're obsessing, or learn something about yourself in a situation. Discover new depths.
• Make character distinct, someone you can identify with. Talent or character trait such as autism
• Character - what do they want? Driving the story. Make choices. Driven by choice.
• Develop back story. Character makes choices depending on his/her own characteristics. 
• What is your character's greatest fear? e.g. for someone brought up in the 1930s it may be fear of banks.
• Perfect characters are annoying.
• They should behave differently in different situations, e.g. introvert author doesn't like parties but gets high on writers' conferences.
• Not too many characters, can have composite characters.
• Actions - character revealed through actions, such as anger shown by chopping onions savagely.
• In first scene main character does something sympathetic.."save the cat."

My son's Fuzzy Kitty with his favorite meal

• Always need to know your character's motives. Motive was good e.g. take someone to park and have fun together. Motives drive decisions.
• Self-awareness in character at some time.
• An example of motive would be Gladiator - his motive was to get home. Motive is deepest desire, what is driving you to act, e.g. need to help poor. Self-aware teen or maybe adult, what they really want. Driving need, motive, back story, e.g. desire for more money might spring from a poor background.
• Reputation - what other characters think of your character. Give clues to reader.
• Habits can drive stories, e.g. addicted, revelation needs to change. Or shyness.
• Names of characters shouldn't be too similar.
• Are characters stereotypes? e.g. look like thug but acts opposite. Way to catch reader's attention.
• Face their fears to get where they're going, e.g. Indiana Jones fear of snakes, has to go into pit of snakes at the end.
• If there is no problem there is no story.

  Small boy reading to friends

  
  

  

  
  

Cinnamon

CINNAMON STICKS Courtesy Michelle Meiklejohn freedigitalphotos.net

WebMD's site and what it says about cinnamon

Two kinds of cinnamon

• Ceylon cinnamon or "true" cinnamon, which is lighter colored than the more usual cassia cinnamon.
  
• Cassia cinnamon may lower blood sugar in people with diabetes, but studies are inconclusive and not all studies have found a benefit.

Cinnamon used as medicine throughout the world?

• Cinnamon is an extract from the bark of the cinnamon tree and traditionally has been used as medicine "throughout the world."

• WebMD says that cinnamon may reduce inflammation, have antioxidant and antibacterial properties, but again, other studies have not found a benefit, so it's "unclear what role cinnamon may play in improving health." 

Cinnamon delicious as a spice

• As a spice, sprinkled on toast and lattes, it's delicious and mixed with honey especially. 

Here we have a cute little grandma making cinnamon rolls, complete with recipe. What would be a post about cinnamon without cinnamon rolls, America's favorite sweet bun?

Side Effects and Risks of Cinnamon

• Very high doses may be toxic.
• There is no established dose.
• Some studies have used between 1 - 6 grams of cinnamon or 1/2 - 1 tsp.
• It may lower blood sugar so should be used with caution if you are diabetic.
• It usually causes no side effects, but heavy use may cause sores in your mouth and lips due to irritation, and applied to the skin may cause redness and irritation.
• People who have cancer like breast cancer, affected by hormone levels, should not take cinnamon.
• Coumarin, an ingredient in some cinnamon products, may cause liver problems.
• There is lack of information about its safety, thus is not recommended for children or pregnant or breastfeeding women.
• Talk to your doctor before taking cinnamon supplements if you take medications regularly. Cinnamon supplements could "interact with antibiotics, diabetes drugs, blood thinners, heart medicines, and others."

• I continue to enjoy a bit of cinnamon sprinkled on toast and honey, or on a latte.

• Any more cinnamon recipes out there?

• Any comments about the use or abuse of cinnamon or any other food product?

Girl eating cinnamon roll

Homemade Cooking with Honey Recipes

Prequel to my 99 cent book sale 3 - 10 May, 2013.

Delicious liquid honey from a jar

• I often cook with liquid honey or use liquid honey to sweeten cereals or tea, to avoid using white sugar or artificial sweeteners.

• Creamed honey is available as well, which is delicious on toast or biscuits, or with PB, and spreads well.

• I like raw, unpasteurized honey but note it can compromise an immune system and should not be fed to children below the age of three years due to microbes and bacteria present in unpasteurized honey.

• Doctors used to carry honey in their bags to treat wounds. It is said to heal wounds as well as antibiotics or better.

• Honey also is said to reach a satiety point where we will stop eating something sweet that's made with honey, whereas sugar will actually increase our appetite for sweeteners.

• Honeycomb is a treat.

A little story about honeycomb. I lived on a farm as a child and my father one day in the autumn brought home a tub of honeycomb. It was very cold that day and the bees were inactive. However, he placed the tub of honeycomb in the kitchen near the stove and the bees all became active and started to crawl and fly about the house.

My father? He was the man who fired his rifle in the living room at a weasel who had entered the house.     

He kept knives in a knife block near the front door and rifles hanging on the wall.

Explains a lot about me and my upbringing, and why it took me 60 years to become less of a wild woman and more civilized.

Now a couple honey recipes

Enjoy!

Honey Chicken youtube.

Pumpkin Honey Bread

• 1 cup - honey
• 1/2 cup - butter or margarine, softened
• 1 can (16 oz.) - solid-pack pumpkin
• 4 - eggs
• 4 cups - flour
• 4 teaspoons - baking powder
• 2 teaspoons - ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons - ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon - baking soda
• 1 teaspoon - salt
• 1 teaspoon - ground nutmeg

Directions

Peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich

Directions

• Do you have any favorite honey recipes?

  Honey and lemon juice in hot water or hot tea makes a very nice "hot toddy" for a sore throat or to relieve cold symptoms. I used to give this to my family when they were down with a cold or the flu.

I have a story for Katie Jenning's friend. I just wrote it for her now because she may be young and not knowing love is sometimes a faery tale and sometimes Persephone finds it in Hades and comes back.

I don’t expect it to be in the eBook as her good friends have already collaborated but I will send it to you now.

It’s about a Pirate Duke.....................................

.............and a Princess, whom I court for 39 years.

• I published this same faery tale a few days ago. 

• I want it to have a new twist and so I invite my readers to make their own ending. I will give you three alternative endings. You may choose one or write your own. Your choice. Or neither or none.

• Do you think it was wise for the Duke to wait so long before rolling the gold dust into a ring?

• Should the violent Princess accept it?

• What do you think of the new ending(s)?

• What's your favorite? Traditional, baroque, postmodern, or insane?

• I wait for your own stories of love unrequited for 39 years and its conclusion, successful or otherwise.

A LOVE STORY FOR A FAERY PRINCESS AND A DUKE

Her eyes were black and deep like a subterranean pool, her skin olive, her nose aquiline; she said she was Irish. “The black Irish” my mother would have said, and with that came the kiss of the blarney stone, for she was double-tongued and manipulative. I thought she was probably First Nations, Indian dark skinned and salt and pepper hair, and I thought she was bipolar because of her insane mood swings and her long episodes of withdrawal.

She and I shared that secret.

I was forward, dark too, honest and blunt. Persephone loved me for I came from a secret place in the underground, cursed by Hades. I thought I was possessed by the Devil and indeed I was, the devil's spawn this Dark Duke I was, and courted by his demons in Hell. I had escaped only to find the faery Princess more knowledgeable than I. She saw through me to the dark pits of my soul and was frightened, but more shocked than frightened, and more sickened than shocked. So she loved me and tried to help.

In 1974 she broke the hell hound’s spell when she confronted the Beast within me. Since then she fled, fearing the goblins and fiends unleashed as I ran wild over the heather in northern Scotland and the shamrocks in County Cork, wild to the pubs of Canada, the Druid and Kelly’s Bar, unable to imbibe because the whiskey had got the best of me by then. That scared her too, no doubt, I have no means of knowing because I didn’t see her again until 1991.

By that time I was tamed but splashing holy water on the walls of the psychiatric hospital to still the flames that roared from Hades in every crack of the old building. It worked, too, especially when the staff murdered me with a lethal injection.

They didn’t really kill me, of course, any more than they killed the love I had for her and she for me. I was a violent pirate Duke and she was a faery Princess who believed in violence to strip away the evil that lurked in every man's soul. The evil that lurked in my own in particular, although when I looked in a mirror the fierceness vomited back at my image and I was cured through homeopathy.

By 2009 I loved her enough to go to jail for her and say I was guilty of her own offense, her offense of lying and control and holding grudges.

The offense was really love and hope, though, and I pleaded love and hope.
Somewhere over the desire of the mountain to the east, rose a pink blush of moon. Not the sun yet, though that would come after the long silver night had shivered and worn its way down the horizon.

A thousand suns would rise on the morning we awakened, blasting the feeble goblins in Hell to sing anthems, and Hades himself to smile at the triumph of something he could not control, the triumph of her love over mine, and my love over the weakness of my body and mind.

She never liked the pirate or the Duke but bits of them remain to tease and torment her.

They may explain my triumph now, in the 39th year, and the desire of the mountain is gold dust in my hand.

 I won’t forge a chain with it, or a ring. I’ll blow the dust onto the stamens of her orchids and ask for forgiveness and compassion, which once she offered but I did not accept.

If there is a ring it speaks of hope, compassion, forgiveness, forbearance, patience, laughter, and love.

Don’t take yourself too seriously, Duke, the faery princess will not always love you. She will care for you intermittently as you’ll be a Pirate till the day you die, and the lady does not always love an outlaw.

 It’s not so easy to be a lady’s duke and love a lady who loves control, but that, too, can change.

As the dove came back to Noah and the thrush sang Aura Lee, the white bird entwined with roses came back to her and me.

I wrote it today for Katie's friend, thinking she would not get another love story like this one. 

 I may save it for a future novel, of a Black Duke and a violent Faery Princess who are brought together by roses and music after 40 years of wandering…

ALTERNATIVE ENDING I

• It's not so easy to be a lady's duke and know that every lady loves your charms and interesting soul.

• It's not easy to be a lovely Faery Princess and know that your handsome warrior will never be yours for more than a day in 40 years.
  
• As the dove came back to Noah and the thrush sang Aura Lee, the white bird tangled in thorns sang its song for her and me.

ALTERNATIVE ENDING II

•  It's not easy to be a Duke Pirate and love the adventure more than the lady herself.
  
  

• It's not easy to be a violent Princess who controls the destiny of the obsessed man she loves.
  
•  A murder of crows surrounded us in the graveyard where we met and the dove was wet with tears. I took my arrow and killed the dove, and the lady buried it in her garden and wept that a little bit of love should die so soon.

ALTERNATIVE ENDING III

• I presented with army and shield, and a red sun behind me. 

• The Princess romped on the hills of Rome in a toga and sandals. 

• We were one for the history of all dangerous Dukes and careful Faeries. We loved one another like butter loves corn, like the cherry blossoms of spring, like magnolia trees and fountains in spring, like the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen classical Chinese gardens of Vancouver where history and culture intertwine, and we are not Roman nor First Nations nor Irish nor Scottish, we are Canadian lovers who have loved since the first sunrise.

Map of Canada

•  She is a stranger in a strange land and I am a poor wayfaring stranger in my own skin, or was before she stitched up my many wounds with her careful hands.
• Now the dove comes back to Noah and we celebrate, but gently, for the violence has forced us to take care.

Pastel bird on a branch

• The white roses cascade from the sword, which cuts the Gordian knot and frees us.
• We love.

White rose

Man running free

Plane flying into sunrise