Thanksgiving in three days. Are you ready? We’re having a small turkey with all the trimmings, which means oyster dressing, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, green beans, salad, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie! Then we will be stuffed and probably take a nap or watch a movie and then nap. 

We’re very blessed and we are filled with gratitude.

Gratitude. That’s my subject for today. A much tossed-around word and I wonder if you give the word the thought it deserves. According to Dictionary.com, the word means “a quality of feeling grateful or thankful.” Merriam Webster adds, “a sense of appreciation.”

This time of year we are “told” it is customary to count one’s blessings. I hear so many people online and in person who toss around how grateful they are yet in the second breath, their words are all about complaints and disappointments, illness and sorrow, anger and even, hatred. Kinda hard to mention gratitude when you are busy denigrating people or wallowing in problems.

Wrong. One of the most important times to be grateful and to share that gratitude is during troubled or angry times. Why? Because gratitude is about remembering what you have that is good, happy, intrinsically valuable and enriching. There is always something to be grateful for, something or someone to whom you can give appreciation. And no, you don’t have to be openly gushing with gratitude because sometimes appreciating is by moments and those are private. But we do have to realize there is always something uplifting for which we can celebrate and be thankful even in the darkest moments.

Let’s start with the light. 

First, I am pleased to tell you that my recent release, Time and Blood, reached the #1 Bestseller status on Friday November 17, 2017. That happens when you reach #1 in your book categories. I did in one of three and reached #2 in the other two. I am so grateful to the people who bought the book and therefore elevated me to that #1 status. A truly amazing moment.

Next, National Novel Writing Month is into it’s last 10 days. I’m happy to announce that I’m over 46K and expect to finish prior to Thanksgiving. I had my ups and downs with this one. My outline and I turned on each other but I never let it stop me and I just wrote whatever felt fun and kept going. There is the secret. Have fun and keep going!

     I want to add an aside here. While working on NaNo, I listened to a great many complaints. No time, too hard, too tired, too many other things to do, I’m sick…you get the idea. This is where it’s important to latch on to gratitude and hold on tight. I’m with you. I hear you. I’ve had awful things happen during my NaNo’s too. And I remembered what was good while in the dark. I had family and health, warmth and food, friends, family, home, love. Yes, it’s important to grab all the good, positive things and be grateful for them. They sustain and support you. And gratitude can propel you to succeed if you allow it.

Finally, with Thanksgiving coming this week, I want to encourage you to pause and reflect on gratitude. Take nothing for granted, no matter how small.  Whether you have a feast with family or a sandwich on the run, stop and think of the tiny blessings. You live and eat when so many struggle. Be grateful. Make no assumptions. Surrounded by people who like and love you? Please be deeply appreciative for them. Have a new book or even a bestseller? Did you finish NaNo? Did you get a chance to try? Have a Job? Pay your bills? Every small thing is worth reflecting on your blessings.

Okay so what about when things are bad? You burned the turkey? Laugh and be grateful of having a bird, an oven, the ability to cook. Cake fell? Eat a twinkie and be happy. Dishwasher leaking? Turn it off and wash those lovely dishes by hand. You have hands! Some people don’t. You are alone? Don’t be. Go out, call someone. Car broken? Friends WILL come to you. No friends? You still have you and you are your best friend. There are lights in the dark, if you just stop to look.

Gratitude. I am thankful every single day and not just on Thanksgiving. But this holiday of giving and appreciation reminds me to take stock of my life and stand tall amid strife and chaos, and help others who aren’t standing quite as steady as I am. 

Which leads me to you, reader. Thank you. For supporting me, following me, helping me and believing in me. This Thanksgiving and every day I am deeply appreciative and I count my many blessings that come from being a writer.

Writer. Author. Two books this year. A pocket of awards and now a “best seller” moniker.  Add to those wonders:  a Personal Assistant who gives generously and has been my right hand and sanity. Plus friends who whisper in my ear and keep me on the right track. Radio interviews by Off the Chain and Hangin’ With Web Show, and publicity in magazines like Turning The Pages and Southern Writer’s Magazine. Bloggers who supported me and other Authors who advised me. Friends who uplifted me. And most of all, a husband who loves me.

Gratitude. Remember yours. The smallest things matter the most. Happy Thanksgiving!

As always, I remain
Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

Happy Labor Day! From what I’ve read on numerous social platforms, those born from about 1975 and forward don’t really have any idea what Labor Day is all about. If you are like me and born in the mid ’50s through the ’60s, you learned about the events leading to the holiday and why it matters.

To most people either the day is one for activity (read, activism), or a day of rest. Both are correct and both are wrong.

In a very small nutshell, Labor Day was created as a Federal Holiday in 1894 by President Cleveland because of a strike in the Pullman Company, in Pullman Chicago. The strike which culminated in bringing unions to the forefront of the country, cost $80 in damage and the death of 30 people. The strike by the Pullman Company (who made luxury rail cars) was supported by the American Railroad Union (ARU). Workers lived in Pullman housing. And when the great depression of 1890 struck, Mr. Pullman tried to keep the company afloat first by dropping wages by 30%. But when he refused to drop his housing costs to meet the reduced wages, trouble erupted. Everyone had two cents to offer and nothing much helped. So the workers struck in 1894. The ARU said they would no longer work on Chicago rail cars and the Chicago rail system broke down. Rather than defy the strike boycott, 125,000 workers over 29 companies quit their jobs. Non-union strikers caused the problem, violence broke out, federal troops were called in. The president’s making of a federal day off was only a part of the appeasement to union workers and brought about the end of the ARU but an increase in a desire for union assistance.

So we take Monday off to remember those who died in support of hard working men, men who desired a fair wage to meet their responsibilities in housing provided by the company. Reduce the wage and reduce the rent. Pay me what I need, was all they asked. As a result, if you sit at home and away from school or your job, you do it in the shadow of men who died for that honor.

Yes, it’s not the same as men who died for our country. But it should be remembered with respect, whether or not you support unions today.  Today’s union climate is a whole ‘nother issue for another day. On this day, we sit in gratitude for time off to rest with our family and celebrate the social and economic achievements of our American workers. (Here’s a cover from 1946).

As writers, we want to know the history. Historical fiction is very popular right now. But fiction rooted in truth means understanding the truth of what happened so you can write fiction about it. Or understanding lessons from it so you can write alternate realities built on real incidents. Better, how about some science fiction where the union lost that day? Writers need to know truth no matter what you write. The truth makes our fictions, our tales, have muscle and grip us more surely than making up what we think happened.

For those who see this day as the “official” end to summer, then stop wearing white! And get shopping those sales. Remember not to work too hard.

I hope you celebrate the day and do it in reflection. However you remember and celebrate the day, write about it. The day is part of a social consciousness that must be remembered. Who better to remember than the writer?

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In other news – I am pleased to announce that my memoir, Breaking the Glass Slipper, is a 2017 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist! I am completely blown away and humbled. This is the fourth award for this novel, a book I am very proud to share.

Also, Slipper is nominated in Metamorph Publishing Summer Indie Book Awards, Biography category. Voting is open to all for free. Vote once a day through Sept 11. There are oodles of other fabulous authors who crave your vote too. Please have a look here and don’t forget to vote for me in the Biography group! Thank you.

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 I promised you some information about the oral read-through on my current WIP (work in progress) and I will write about it. I’m going to wait one more week because Terri and I have one more meeting and then I’ll have some words of wisdom for you. So I didn’t forget, ok?__________________________________________________

Finally, here’s my Monday #pinyourpen. I’ll have this on my Facebook page and Twitter. Hope you’ll come out to Facebook and share yours too.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope your Labor Day is safe and shared with family and friends.

Until next time, I remain,
Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

Hello and surprise! I’m here and it’s not a Monday!  I wanted to come back and do just a small bit of bragging. Remember when I told you to take advantage of award season? And I told you of The Book of Now’s win of the IPA award in May.

I am pleased to announce a few more kudos!

The 2017 National Indie Excellence Awards presented

THE BOOK OF NOW

with TWO Finalists Awards

INTERIOR DESIGN, Non-Fiction   and   POETRY! 

***AND***

Reader’s Favorite Book Awards just reviewed Breaking the Glass Slipper AND The Book of Now.

Both received 5 STARS Ratings!

I’m very happy and proud. I don’t take much time to bask or brag, so I wanted to share and then get back to work.

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Stay tuned for a LIVE Facebook moment coming soon! Check in here for when or keep an eye on my author Facebook page.

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Site updates will happen over the next month. Updating the book pages, the press info and the Street Team. 

PLUS! The Infamous and Mysterious Newsletter WILL be going out before the end of the month!  Be sure you are signed up. There will be exclusive information for newletter followers.

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That’s it for now. Stay tuned because more is coming!

Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry