Banned Book Week

Sept 30th to Oct 6th is the 30th anniversary of Banned Book Week. All over the world, including places in the US, books in all genres are banned for various reasons. Do you read Books that have been denied to people somewhere? Do a Search, choose a book, and read!

Kissing a lady's hand

He took the hand she offered. Her cool fingers warmed in his hand. The small contact, not to his surprise, warmed his own blood. She’d caught his interest earlier that day when he witnessed her fiery exchange with the captain. Seeing her here, tonight, made the evening take on a whole new agenda. He smoothed his thumb over the skin he’d soon kiss. Her hand felt soft and delicate, and trembled slightly. Her small tremor skittered through his body. He inhaled her fragrance as he bowed and lowered his head. It awoke a need to taste her. This chaste greeting definitely heated his desire for something more intimate. She tensed in his grasp as his lips pressed to the back of her hand. His chest and other areas of his body clenched. She made a small sound as he exhaled and his breath warmed her flesh. He recognized a sound he wanted to hear again. He straightened. He noted the soft pink that tinted her neck and heated her cheeks. Her lips parted in surprise, or as he’d like to hope, anticipation, is where his next kiss would be. All of her reactions, along with his own, pleased him. The corners of his mouth twitched. He stopped it before the full smile formed. Yes, he had no problem kissing a lady’s hand, after all one had to start somewhere. From Civil War Americana WIP (unedited)

a happy birthday day

Happy Birthday to my co-writer, Melissa Lopez! And also, Happy Hobbit Day!

On With the Dance

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined; No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet To chase the glowing hours with flying feet. ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage

Thought for a Thursday

“There is a great deal of noise on the stairs but nobody comes into the room.” – John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy was referencing a Chinese proverb when he said that, making the point that it was easy to talk about problems, but much more difficult to fix them.

 Can you relate?

Discovery

“The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.”~Jiddu Krishnamurti

 Transform your world,
 Mari

Never Forget

Remembering friends and all those who heroically lost their lives in this tragedy. Keeping the family and friends who ere left behind to heroically move forward in my thoughts and prayers.

intimacy

“Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable. We cannot know at the outset how the relationship will affect us. Like a chemical mixture, if one of us is changed, both of us will be. Will we grow in self-actualization, or will it destroy us? The one thing we can be certain of is that if we let ourselves fully into the relationship we will not come out unaffected.”~unknown

 Hope you find the courage to take the risk,
 Mari

Weekend Whimsy

Not only is today the first day in September, but it's also the first Saturday in September. You know what that means, don't you? It's International Bacon Day! Oh is my tummy anticipating the celebration! It is the world's most favorite meat and ranks up there in popularity with Chocolate as a desired taste-bud treat. I couldn't let the day go by without sharing one or two tidbits about Bacon in language and in the pan...

  Bring home the bacon: To triumphantly achieve some plan or object, perhaps by winning a prize or race. This phrase has two possible origins.
      1. The first goes back several hundred years to the village of Dunmow in Essex where, it is said, in AD 1111 a noble woman offered a prize of a side of bacon, known locally as a flitch, to any man from anywhere in England who could honestly say that he had had complete marital harmony for the preceding year and a day. In over 500 years there were only eight winners. The prize was re-established in the mid 19th century (1858) but ceased to be offered with the closure of the local bacon factory in the 1980s.
      2. The second is probably the most known explanation. It comes from the ancient sport of catching a greased pig at country fairs - the winner kept the pig.

  Saved My Bacon :Escape from injury; avoid harm, especially to one's body. Bacon, even in Medieval times, was a prime prized piece of meat. Actually, during that era the word Bacon related to the entire pig. So if you had the cured meat hanging by your hearth and the house caught fire or a thief broke in it was lucky to escape with your bacon! So much so that bacon was once slang for the human body and escaping any type of bad even came to mean you saved your bacon!

 Suite 101 has a great Bacon glossary and several bacon recipes. Take a look if you are tempted to indulge in the more creative culinary uses of the meat during the Labor Day Weekend. Anyway you enjoy bacon, I know it will have you going Weee weeee weeee all the way home!


 Enjoy your weekend!