Off-shore drilling must stop!

Waikiki Beach- Now, this is what I call research...

My dad didn't ever say much that I could carry into later life, but he did say one thing I remember: "Girl, sometimes you have to use good old common horse sense."

This is one of those times. We most likely have destroyed the gulf area by the oil spill. Now, don't get all governmental-elitist on me and give me a bunch of crap about how people who know more than I do are in charge. THEY ARE NOT. And don't tell me BP needs and deserves understanding and patience. THEY DO NOT. And don't even bother trying to debate with me about whether or not BP was greedy, negligent, and untruthful. THEY WERE.

Now for the government. They were lazy, incompetent, weak, and possibly guilty of criminal negilgence. THEY WERE.

This gulf area, as other bodies of water, is an important food source for the world. Let's not even go into the economics of the fishing industry. I'm sorry for their lose, but let's stay focused on the main crisis. We cannot allow BP and other oil companies to continue to drill offshore even if they promise not to ever screw up again. THEY WILL.

Stop off-shore oiling. Stop it now. It doesn't take a genius to see what's at risk. All it takes is a little horse sense.

www.JanelleMeraz Hooper.com

I'm back!

Promotional pins, copyright Lithium Love, 2010

I'm back!- When I began converting all of my paperbacks into a format for the electronic readers, I felt like I got sucked into my computer. Now it's all done and my readers can read my books in almost any format they choose.
I am particularly happy about the font-size options in the new devices. Until recently, I was really sight-impaired. So much so that I increased the font size of every blog and website I have. Now that my sight crisis seems to be over, I'm leaving the sites' font sizes as they are. I hope it helps anyone having sight problems.
What are you reading?- Email me and let me know!
Politics- The gulf oil spill situation has made me very sad. And angry. Is greed the biggest cause of all of our problems? Seems so. If we keep it up, we'll not have an oceanic food supply and this planet will be well on its way to extinction. Well, maybe we are already. I think I heard that there are at least five other oil spills in the Earth's oceans. Now is the time for world leadership. Instead of killing each other, why don't our leaders do something to help us live?
On my TV- I've really enjoyed watching Selling New York on HGTV. Architecture has always been one of my interests and the glimpses of high rise real properties in the middle of Manhattan has fascinated me. The giggle bonus is the people in the show--they are so full of themselves! Sometimes it hurts to watch them. I have to shut my eyes...
On my Kindle- Due to the low prices of books on Kindle, I've finished few books this month. I keep buying more. Who could resist Anna Karenina for under two bucks?! But yesterday, I did manage to finish The Angel's Game (literary) by Carlos Ruiz Zaffron. Also, in May, I read Free Prize Inside (marketing), Last Resort: Marriage (romance), Where the Heart Is ( romance), and Whirlpool (romance). I love my romance books. Years ago, there used to be a commercial whose tag line was: Calgon, take me away...That's the way I feel about romance books. If the situation in the gulf and Wall Street doesn't improve, I'm going to be reading a lot more of them!
Bernie Madoff- I haven't forgotten you, Bernie. What's for lunch over in the big house today?
Health care- Now that we have a health care bill I'm hoping to relax some. I had to withdraw from participation in the discussion because it literally made me sick. I know the bill we got isn't perfect, but we had to start somewhere. Yesterday, in the doctor's office, I read in a magazine that an acress had lung scans for years to keep tabs on a possible cancerous growth. It finally did become cancerous and she had an immediate operation to remove it. That's nice. I'm happy for her. But what about all of the people who don't have the luxury of such expensive, preventative care? Hopefully, we're on the road to making good health care assessable to everyone.
Quote du jour:
"The quality of our expectations determines the quality of our actions." Andre Goden

Bears in the Hibiscus, a humorous romance, now available in paperback on online bookstores like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Read about my books:

http://www.janellemerazhooper.com/

Glory's biological clock is pounding like a powwow drum...

Order from http://www.amazon.com/ , http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ and others

(6x9, 206 pages, $15.95 USD, iUniverse)

Psst! Looking for a Christmas Kindle book?

Paperback, $9.99

Amazon Kindle (and others) $5.96 USD

My Bears in the Hibiscus romance has a great Christmas chapter...try it! You'll like it, I promise! If you need a paperback, check out my Custer and His Naked Ladies below!)

-17-
Ray gets lucky

... Of the three, Ray was having the best Christmas. In Anthony, he had definitely found a keeper. His new friend seemed to have an open loft 24/7 during the holidays and he often invited Roxanne and Mary. They almost always accepted. His friends topped the list of Seattle’s elite, and his parties kept Roxanne and Mary scrambling for something new to wear to each affair. It was fun. Ray didn’t have to tell them that not all of his new friends were gay. That was obvious. Roxanne even found a few possibilities for Captain Marvelous. Mary was the only one in the small office who lacked Christmas cheer. The men she met at the parties in Anthony’s loft swam around her like salmon that swam around a piece of driftwood. One look at her face and men knew she was more interested in what was on their appetizer plate than she was in them. Ray said that he had someone picked out for Mary, but he had gone to his cabin in Idaho for Christmas. Or was it Montana? He didn’t mention a name, and Mary didn’t think much about it. She was almost certain that Ray was just trying to cheer her up.
Kate went to her dad’s as soon as school was out, leaving Mary with way too much time on her hands. She worked so hard on her stories that she was issues ahead. Most evenings, Roxanne was out interviewing men to be Captain Marvelous, so Mary had the cleanest oven, refrigerator, and closets in the neighborhood. Stubbornly, she put up a small tree. Each holiday, she bought a few ornaments to remember the year’s events. This year, she had mixed feelings about her purchases; she’d purchased a decoration made from a seashell, a tiny computer to represent her job, and a little forest ranger she’d bought from a Nisqually Jack’s Christmas catalog Ray had at the office. The last ornament tugged at her heart, so she hung it near the bottom of the tree, so it wouldn’t be at eye level whenever she came into the room.
She was looking at paint samples for her bedroom when the phone rang. Distracted by color swatches, she didn’t look at the caller ID before she answered the phone.
“Mary? It’s Mark. Merry Christmas!”
Mary opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She didn’t even know what she wanted it to say. Get lost? Don’t get lost? What?
“Mary, you’re not going to hang up on me, are you?”
“Merry Christmas, Mark,” Mary said coolly.
Mark was ill at ease. Tentatively, he said, “Hey, look, Mary. The reason I’m calling is that all of the rangers that you met on the beach in Hawaii are coming for Christmas, and I was hoping you’d come too.”
Silence.
“They’d love to see you.” Mark’s voice took on a tone of despair and remorse, “I’d love to see you too.”
More silence.
“Mary? Mary, I’m sorry. Please come. You don’t even have to worry about getting a ticket. You can ride on the flight that’s bringing the rangers over.”
“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Mary finally said. “Kate and I have plans.”
“Kate is with her father. I just talked to him. Look, I understand that you’re hurt. Maybe we can work this thing out if you come over.”
“Mark, I have to go. Merry Christmas.” After Mary hung up the phone, she collapsed on the couch and pulled a woolen comforter over her head and sobbed. She cried herself to sleep and hours went by.
When she awoke, it was getting dark outside, and snowflakes were beginning to float past her window. Her tiny Christmas tree was gaily blinking; the reflection from its little white lights bounced off the living room walls and landed on the frosty front yard outside the window. While a fresh pot of coffee perked, she fixed her face, did her hair, and pretended she had someplace to go. She was going for her second cup of coffee when there was a tentative knock on the door. The beat-up old pick-up in her driveway didn’t look familiar, but Mary went to the door anyway. Normally, to be safe, she talked to strangers through the living room window that was eight feet off the ground, but how could things get any worse? The way Mary was feeling, she could give any mugger the fight of his life.
“Hi, my name is Jackson,” the friendly face with a Santa hat on his head said. “We haven’t met, but Mark sent me to pick up his rangers at the airport.”
Mary looked at the small truck. There was no way the beach party could fit in that small cab. But who else could know about Mark’s Christmas plans? She opened the storm door and Jackson explained.
“Oh, I don’t have them,” he said, looking at the truck. “All of their planes got snowed in. The whole west coast is shutting down.”
Jackson took out his cell phone and dialed a number. “Mark, she’s here.” He handed the phone to Mary just as she figured out who Jackson was. His cartoon face was on the cover of the Nisqually catalog. That Jackson.
“Mark? What have you done?”
“Mary, pack a few things and fly back with Jackson, will you, please?”
All of a sudden Mary looked at a freezing Jackson, still on her porch, with the first snowflakes of the coming storm sticking to his eyelashes. Quickly, she pulled the man upstairs and pointed him to the big rocking chair by the tree. While she talked to Mark, she pointed to the coffeepot, and Jackson eagerly filled a cup.
Confused, she asked, “How? There are no flights available this close to Christmas.”
“He’s my friend who has his own plane, and he’s a good pilot.”
Jackson interrupted. “Mary, I hate to rush you, but our window for takeoff may not be there much longer. We really need to leave now.”
Jackson brushed against the Christmas tree and Mary saw the little forest ranger ornament dance up and down. The next thing she knew, she had given the phone back to her new friend and was running down the hall. “Ten minutes. Just give me ten minutes!”
“I’ll unplug the tree and coffeepot,” Jackson called down the hall. “Should I leave some food out for the cat?”
“No cat,” Mary called back. “No dog and no bird, but can you make sure the backdoor is locked?”
“Will do.”
Before Mary tore out the door, she went by the tree and grabbed the little forest ranger...

http://www.janellemerazhooper.com/

Need a stocking stuffer?

Custer and His Naked Ladies, by Janelle Meraz Hooper, available on www.Amazon.com,paperback $15.95 USD, Kindle $7.96 USD.

When her husband unexpectedly dumps her, Glory boards an Oklahoma-bound plane at the Sea-Tac Airport. On her way to the ticket counter, she takes the framed photo of her husband out of her gym bag and dumps it into the nearest trash bin—frame and all. She has wasted too many years on a man who doesn’t want her, and her biological clock is beginning to pound like a powwow drum.

Part Hispanic, part Anglo, and raised on the reservation, Glory hopes that by going back to her roots she’ll discover who she is, but her greedy stepmother who tried to poison her when she was a child stirs up a lot of childhood trauma. Worse, a group of dysfunctional mobsters is trying to get her mother’s land on the Indian reservation to build a casino. An environmental disaster and a surprising death on the reservation keep things moving. But her biggest problem of all may be Soap, a sexy Comanche lawyer who wants to do something about that powwow drum in her head…

Sprinkled with Spanish phrases and Comanche words, Custer and His Naked Ladies is full of Southwest flavor.


Author bio
Janelle Meraz Hooper is a part Hispanic writer who was born in the Southwest but now lives in Washington State.

Her other books are: A Three-Turtle Summer, As Brown As I Want, and Free Pecan Pie and Other Chick Stories (a mixed genre collection), and Bears in the Hibiscus, a humorous romance.
In 2004, her novel As Brown As I Want, The Indianhead Diaries, was a finalist in the Oklahoma Book Awards.

www.JanelleMerazHooper.com

Lost messages

Dear Reader, I now have 5 messages that I have been unable to open--therefore, I could not reply. I am so sorry. Rather than a Google problem, I think it is an author problem. I have had major surgery and think I'm still foggy. Urgent matters or comments can be sent directly to my JanelleMHooper@comcast.net email account.
I apologize for this inconvenience. Janelle

Note to Republicans: When it's over, it won't be over...

I may never recover from the disappointment I've felt in the GOP these last few months since President Obama has been in office. It's hard to believe these people are Americans. One of the traits, they say, of real elephants is their ability to never forget. I'm like an elephant that way. I'll never forget, and I'll never shut up about it. As for that red, white, and blue elephant the GOPs put on their campaign signs, well...they know where they can stick it.

Don't forget to send in your Boot buck (see below).

Introducing Boot Bucks for Republicans

© 2009 Janelle Meraz Hooper

I've had it with the greedy wackos. I used to be polite about the opposition, but these guys are just NUTS. After the news every night, I'll be sending out Boot Bucks to the Democratic party. With the Boot Buck, I'll enclose a real dollar. Feel free to copy it and send out your own.

Two Windows on Ground Zero

Dear friends, today, I'm reprinting a newpaper article I did for The Northwest Guardian after 9-11. God bless America and its people.

Two Windows on Ground Zero
Janelle Meraz Hooper

September 11th found me stuck at home alone with only a 38-inch screen TV, and a large living room window.
I could have done without the big screen TV. This was one time a one-inch screen would have been too big—too painful to watch. Over and over and over I watched the planes hit the WTC towers in New York City.
A feeling of being trapped overcame me as I looked out the living room window. No sign of the tragedy was visible in the surrounding homes. Not a person was in sight. Maybe it was a nightmare—but no—there it was on CNN. On ABC. On CBS. On Fox. On CBUT, the Canadian channel. I turned to Univision, the Spanish-speaking channel, and saw a blazing banner: Bajo (Low) Attack!
I must have paced between the TV and the window thirty or forty times. Looking at the TV, looking out the window. Still no sign of life in my neighborhood. Where could everybody be? At the time, I couldn’t leave my home, but they were all fully mobile. I can’t explain the intense need I felt to see a human—especially an American human.
Suddenly, A little dark blue import, driven by an elderly gentleman, raced up my neighbor’s long driveway. Attached to the back window of the car was an American flag. A message was painted against the dark glass in white paint: GOD BLESS AMERICA!
While I was waiting for him to come by again, I heard cars honking down the hill. Soon, a car full of hollering teenagers flew by my house. The car was painted all over with patriotic messages, and a young man was fully reclined on the hood holding up an American flag. He was wearing a shirt with an all-over pattern in red, white, and blue stars and stripes. Suddenly, I felt connected.
Dragging my bandaged body along with me, I hastened downstairs to get our flag. When I got to our front porch, I was disappointed to discover that my husband had removed the flag holder from the front of the house. Or had it just rusted off? Anxious to communicate with passersby, I stuck the flag in a huge flowerpot by my front door and went back to my television and my window. The window was a lot easier to watch.

Dump the Republicans

© 2009, Janelle Meraz Hooper

What’s up? We’ve been rebuilding our sundeck. The white spots are water--it rained. Well...this is the Northwest!

Politics- Have the Republicans in DC gone nuts? We elected them to govern, not wage a fear war full of lies and misconceptions. Their actions are unconscionable. Unbelievable. UNFORGIVABLE. To say they have gone over the top is an understatement. Maybe we do need a two-party system: Democrats and Independents. Our country doesn’t have time to put up with the baggage (lies, cheating, sexual scandals, Christian jihads, etc.) they bring with them. We’ve got serious problems in this country. Their actions on the healthcare issue are nothing short of scandalous. Dump them, dump them all!

What are you reading? Write and let me know! JanelleMHooper@comcast.net
I plan to have more guest authors this winter. I hope you enjoy them and their excerpts.

On my TV- I’m loving the Anthony Bourdain show, No Reservations, on the Travel Channel. What a wonderful glimpse into other people’s lives. Check it out, you’ll like it!

On my Kindle- A Drummer’s Life: Forty years In Rock and Roll by Karla Stover. A nice piece of rock and roll history. Readers will love it, historians will call it a valuable insight into the life and times of Rock and Roll. Shorter than book length…

Bernie (Madoff) – what’s for lunch today, Bernie, over in the big house?

Quote du jour- “Life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward.” Unknown. Courtesy of Alexander Vassilieff

Recession buster!
Bears in the Hibiscus, a humorous romance
…Mary thinks the last person she wants to see on her Hawaiian vacation is Mark, her ex-brother-in-law, a Montana park Ranger…
Offered in eBook format on my site for $3.00 (PayPal Only). Available on Kindle for $7.96.www.JanelleMerazHooper.com

No time to edit. I'll do better when I get my bangs cut!

Irretrievably Broken, Irma Fritz

©2009, Irma Fritz

My guest author this week is Irma Fritz, author of Irretrievably Broken. Irma's characters are a delight. I hope you enjoy this excerpt of her first novel.

Note: Irma and I will both be at Adventures in Literature, August 8th & 9th, in the Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Avenue all day (9-5). Come see us! (A part of Auburn Good Ol' Days)

AT THE CUMMER: How Nora Met Max

(On a cross-country road-road trip from Seattle to Washington, D.C., the matriarch of the Adler Family, Ruth; her daughter Nora, her granddaughter Bettina, and Bettina’s godmother Mary stop off at Aunt Ada’s in Jacksonville, FL. This scene takes place while they walk in the Italian Garden at the Cummer Museum.)

Excerpt From Irretrievably Broken, a novel by Irma Fritz
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMDDZ4

At the museum, Bettina was fidgety and impatient. She didn’t much care for the porcelain or the paintings. Her interest perked up when they looked at Japanese woodprints. She wanted to talk about Lucky, but Ruth made her be quiet, and the girl sulked until they were finally outdoors again.
Walking in the Italian Garden, Bettina said dreamily, “That Lucky is a lucky girl.”
“Who’s lucky?” asked Ada.
“You missed a good one.” Ruth opened the umbrella the driver had given them against the sun, and Ada got under its circle of shade. “Mrs. Nobel’s son met his fiancée in Japan.”
“I’m so sorry I missed it,” Ada craned her neck at the taller Ruth. “I always like a romantic story, don’t you?”
“You would have loved this one,” Ruth laughed. “The prodigal son meets Jezebel.”
“You hit that nail square on the head,” Mary covered her head with an elegant wide-brimmed hat in the same blue hue as her sundress. “You know he’ll be living off of her soon enough.”
“I wonder what job skills she has?” Nora wondered.
“Girls in Japan can make money selling their thongs,” said Bettina, stopping to tie a shoelace.
Ruth glared at her. “You are not talking about those skimpy underpants?”
“Do they sell them before or after they wear them?” Mary wondered.
“Duh. Men buy them in vending machines.”
“Please? Let’s not make up such awful stories,” Nora admonished.
“Mel told me,” Bettina protested. “Her friend knows. He’s an exchange student from Japan.”
“And to think she came highly recommended by Pastor Lars,” muttered Nora.
“It was wonderful how they met,” Bettina sighed.
“He certainly thought so,” agreed Mary, quick to change the subject to remove the furrow of furor from Nora’s forehead.
“You see,” Ruth explained to Ada, “he was convinced that their meeting was providential.”
“Then it’s not for us to say it wasn’t,” Ada, who looked like a bumblebee in a yellow striped dress, suggested. “I love to hear how couples get together. I wonder how Goldie will do with her new beau?”
“How did you and John meet?” Ruth inquired.
“It was very romantic, I’m sure.” Ada stopped to rest on a bench next to a pond. “Just now I don’t recall exactly how it went.” She fanned her face with the museum program, and then asked Nora, “How did you meet Maximilian?”
“The usual way, I guess.” Nora dipped her fingers in the pond and brought the moisture back to her temples.
“Hardly,” her mother objected.
“I met him at a dance,” protested Nora.
“You make it sound like it was the Seafair Ball.”
Nora shrugged.
“I remember now,” Ada‘s long-term memory kicked in. “He saw you in a dream and . . .”
“. . . when we met he recognized me.”
“I’m intrigued,” Mary joined the conversation. “You better tell all, girl.”
“Yes Tante,” Bettina pleaded, “tell all, girl.”
Nora regarded the expectant faces. “If you really want to know.”
“Well,” gasped Ruth, “this has been a long time coming. I better sit down for this,” and she took out her hankie and dusted off a spot on the bench next to Ada.
From another part of the garden came the clink of laughter like wind chimes, then a girl’s voice, clear as the cloudless day, singing a ballad.
“This is going to be so romantic,” Ada flapped her hands in anticipation of Nora’s romantic account of true love.
“Actually, when I met Max he was drunk.“
“I can believe that,” Ruth retorted, but a weary look from her daughter caused her to smooth her mint-green linen dress under her behind, sit on the bench, and be still.
“When my train reached Lost Mine it was dark,” Nora began. “The stationmaster threw all the luggage on the platform, turned off the lights in the station house, locked the door, jumped in his car, and drove off. There were three surveyors, a Native family of six, and I. A man in a pick-up came to get the surveyors. They loaded their tripods and boxes, hopped on the back of the truck and were gone. The family took their bundles and walked off into the night. There were no houses, no people, just the dark, locked station. This was the end of the line, and the empty train was going nowhere until the day after tomorrow when it would head south again. I stared at the place where the rails ended, and I felt very much alone.”
“Oh Nora,” her mother lamented, “how could you get yourself into such a fix. Whatever did you do?”
“The only thing I could do. I put my pack on my back and walked as fast as I could to catch up with the people in front of me.”
“The Indians?”

“Hello?” Nora shouted into the night, “hello?” When one of the men turned, she called out for him to tell her which way the town was.
He pointed up ahead, the way they were going. There were no lights, no sounds, just the dark road, and Nora followed them doggedly, afraid to lose her way in the night before she reached the town. The gravel road turned and wound its way uphill. Her backpack cut into her shoulders and she put her thumbs under the straps, set her feet firmly so as not to slip and fall. The Natives didn’t turn back, didn’t offer to help. They walked silently, steadily. They crested the hill, then disappeared into whatever lay beyond. She followed, huffing, forcing herself to catch up. When she reached the top of the hill, she saw them below, six comforting, shapeless lumps in the night. She ran, slid, caught herself, closed the distance between them, then lost them again to another turn in the road.
For a while, Nora stumbled on blindly, and then stopped. She’d spent her reserve, knew there was no push left in her. Defeated, she released her pack, set it down to rub her aching shoulders, and massage her neck where the bedroll had chafed her. Now she was truly alone.
From what she could tell in the dark, the road was narrow and had been carved through thick brush and the dense pine forest with trees no taller than she was. Nora listened for the bone-chilling howl of the wolf, for the sound of a bear hefting his bulk through the undergrowth. She opened her pack, groped for the rifle she’d taken apart and hidden in her clothes. Would she be able to assemble it in the dark? Even if she could, Klaus’s .22 caliber was meant for birds and small game. Surely, it would be no defense against a seven-hundred-pound black bear.
Then, suddenly, a light appeared in the night. Nora gazed up at the moonless horizon where a celestial artist painted the sky. Although she’d never seen it before, she knew it was the aurora borealis, and she took it as a personal salutation, her own greeting card written across the heavens. She laughed aloud, clapped her hands, and danced in a circle until she felt dizzy. She had arrived at her destination and her arrival had been noted. No longer afraid, she shouldered her backpack and walked along the road singing.

Quote du jour: “It’s always day 1.” Jeff Bezos 7-22-09

www.JanelleMerazHooper.com

I have a new Amazon Author's Page!

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BM23QO

Technorati

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Is the bottom of your canoe dry?

© 2009, Janelle Meraz Hooper, canoe

If it's the middle of the summer (and it is) and the bottom of your canoe is dry, you're doing something wrong...

What’s up?

What are you reading? Write and let me know!

Around the house- My husband and other family members are rebuilding our deck. Our grandson says it's so big he wants to paint it green and make a golf course out of it...

Favorite movie lines- “…real peace is not just the absence of conflict, it is the presence of justice…” Harrison Ford as the president in Air Force One.

On my laptop- a new website by children’s writer, Ginger Foglesong Gibson: ReadGinger.com. Ginger writes spectacular bilingual (English-Spanish) books for children. Check it out!

Tech news- The price of Kindle has come down to $299.00 (from $359.00). Woo-hoo! Ya’ll run out and buy two!

In my emails- video from my friends, David and Maddie of a Montana bear pole-dancing. Where was he when I needed him?

On my bed table- Kleenex.

On my Kindle- The Angel’s Game—looking good so far, & Adios Havana, I just got this one, and I’m anxious to read it.

On my Facebook- Two friends who can give me first-hand info on having iguanas for pets. No, I'm not getting one, it's research!

Politics- Is there no end to Cheney’s unlawful mischief? Geez, Louise, he’s like a scientist gone mad.

Bernie- What was for lunch today over in the big house, Bernie? Boston baked beans again? Yum-yum!

Quote du jour- "Whoever said 'nothings impossible' never tried to nail jell-o to a tree" - Lisa Bryant

www.JanelleMerazHooper.com
eBook offer: Recession buster! Read my new humorous romance, Bears in the Hibiscus, for only $3.00! This same book sells for $7.96 on Amazon’s Kindle.

If it's summer it's soccer...

© 2009, Janelle Meraz Hooper, our daughter, soccer season

What’s up?

What are you reading? Write and let me know!

Photo- Where have I been? It’s summer, and summer means soccer around here. The photo is of our daughter waiting for a game of a family member to start. We were in a tournament in Yakima, east of the mountains—where they have sun. How clever those Yakimites (?) are. They have soccer tournaments every summer, and everyone from the rainy side of the mountains races over—whether they play or not. Of course, more than a few of us go for the pork chop breakfasts. Not me, of course. I’m as pure as the driven yogurt. NOT!

On my laptop-online Speed Spanish- I’m about to wrap up my online Speed Spanish course. What a bugger it turned out to be for me. I’m about to throw in the toalla. How come it was so easy for my mother? Oh, yeah…she was Hispanic. When I was growing up they didn’t want us to learn Spanish because they feared we wouldn’t do well in school. Translation: they thought we were too dumb to learn two languages, lol!

Around the house- We haven’t used our pasture (originally a raspberry field) for years, but we got good use out of it on the 4th. We drove right out to the middle and watched the neighborhood fireworks, and there were a lot of them. I wanted to watch 1776, the movie musical, a favorite of mine, but the fireworks were so beautiful with the moon in the background that I forgot to go in on time. I’m going to buy that movie. I see it about three times a year and never tire of it.

Green writer- Discovering Kindle—all of my books are now on Kindle, and I’ve become a real Kindle user because of it. I’m reading books I never got around to reading, new books I’d never get to otherwise, and books just for the heck of it. I hear Jeff Bezos is working on a Kindle that I can take in the shower…

On my TV-
Favorite movie lines: “Somebody has to go to prison…” Sadusky (Harvey Keitel) to Ben Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) in National Treasure.

In my emails- According to MyLife, a 63-year-old woman in Istanbul looked at my web page. Really?

On my Kindle- I’m a reada, and I’m a reada, but I’m still only halfway through Wuthering Heights. Isn’t this author (Bronte) dead? Can she be adding to the book as I’m reading it?

On my Facebook- Irma Fritz’s announcement that her novel, Irretrievably Broken was #1 in Kindle sales on Sunday. Irma’s characters are so entertaining. What a good read!

Bernie- A 150 years, Bernie? You should only live so long!

Quote du jour- “A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested." Tom Wolfe

Out of time—no time to edit—I’ll do better after the Spanish final!www.JanelleMerazHooper.com

What are you reading?

© about 1984, Janelle Meraz Hooper, George "Woogie" Wachetaker

What’s up?

Photo- This photo of Woogie, a friend of my mother's, was misplaced, and just recently found. It was taken at a Comanche powwow in the Wichita Mountains. Woogie was a famous Comanche fancy dancer.

What are you reading?- Write and let me know! JanelleMHooper@comcast.net I'll post replies on this site, but won't use your full name unless you say it's okay.

On my TV- Whale Wars, History Channel. If these guys are the only ones waging a war against illegal whale hunting by the Japanese, the whales are in trouble. I’m not impressed by their lack of common sense that results in risk of human life. It’s kind of like Evel Knievel goes to sea in an ice storm.

On my laptop-the beginnings of a short movie, thanks to an online class I took in video.

In my emails- Someone sent me a video of a small lizard changing colors. The little guy was unbelievably cute to start with, but when he crawled past sunglasses with different color fames and changed to match each frame, I was enchanted. Love that lizard!

On my bed table-This week, I read Plug Your Book! by Steve Weber. It has a lot of insight into how Amazon sells books. If you have a book on Amazon, you should read it.

Green writer- I like to save paper, but one thing I don’t do is use scraps of paper to jot down notes. Bits and pieces are just too easily lost. I use a notebook to jot down notes, and never tear the pages out. When the book is full, I start a new one. I can go back years and find a name or title if I need to.

On my Kindle- Custer and His Naked Ladies, newly formatted and looking beautiful.

Favorite movie quotes- “I’ll have what she’s having.” Customer to waitress after Sally fakes an orgasm in a restaurant. When Harry Met Sally.

Techie news- Dear Amazon.com Customer,
Our customers have told us that they love being able to add highlights and notes to their Kindle books. We want to make it possible for you to access your highlights and notes directly from a Web browser too. So we've released http://kindle.amazon.com, an online tool that enables you to do just that.
To try it out, go to http://kindle.amazon.com, sign in with your Amazon account, and simply select one of your books where you have added highlights or notes.
We hope you enjoy this new feature. If you have feedback please send it to us at amazonkindle-feedback@amazon.com. How cool is this? And it works!

On my Facebook- Susan G. Komen for the Cure SOMETHING DIFFERENT: Did you know that you can “donate” your birthday to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® right here on Facebook? You can make a Birthday Wish and ask friends to donate money to help end breast cancer forever. To learn more, just follow the instructions on the link below...
www.causes.com
Source: www.

Politics- President Obama’s plan might not be perfect in every area, but it’s a start. We’ve messed around for years looking for the perfect plan. Time’s awaistin’. Let’s get on it!

Bernie- What’s for lunch today over in the big house, Bernie?

Quote du jour-
"When a man steals your wife there is no better revenge than to let him keep her." - Sacha Guitry.

Read my new eBook- Bears in the Hibiscus, for $3.00! Sent by email. Pay by PayPal. Info on my homepage: www.JanelleMerazHooper.com (book also available on Kindle for regular price)

What's an eBook?

© 2009 New, revised cover of As Brown As I Want: The Indianhead Diaries

(Kindle version)

What’s up?
Photo- My new Kindle cover! The book has been reformatted for easier reading.

Around the house- I dropped my digital camera last week. As I saw it tumble from it’s resting spot about 3 feet from the floor; I didn’t even try to catch it (not that I could have!). I knew it would land on my Asian rug, that is at least an inch thick with its pad. I was sure it would be okay. I was not prepared for it to bounce off the rug and bounce onto the hardwood floor. It’s a Pentax and they're great, so it still works, but I have to hold it together with rubber bands. How tacky is that? I’d better go shopping!

On my radio- Country music: I won’t quote the lyrics because of NASCAP*, but what outrageous lyrics! They make me laugh! *It’s really too bad they’re so snarky—I could give the song a free plug.

On my TV- Animal Planet. Their underwater film of the ocean has me talking to God: “Hey, God! Have you seen what you’ve made? You better get down there and take a look! It’s incredible!” I talk to him all the time like that after my prayers. I think he’s about had it with me. The other night, I’m pretty sure I heard him answer, “Duh!”

On my Warrior (laptop)- Still my Speed Spanish class. I was born without the language gene. I have enough time in this 12-week course to have written half of my next novel. I’ve decided I can be a writer, or I can speak Spanish. I don’t have enough time left in my life to do both. It’s a shame. It’s a dynamite course, and I highly recommend it to the rest of you. It’s just me. I stink at languages.

In my emails- I had two emails asking, “What’s an eBook?” when I posted my eBook sale ad for Bears in the Hibiscus. An eBook is a book that is read on a computer (or laptop) screen like a Word document. It can be printed out. New technologies by Adobe have added features, like a list of chapters on the left and a voice option. The voice itself is a hoot and is worth the $3.00 alone. It’s the Microsoft voice, and it sounds like a man whose mouth is full of dog biscuits. What a hoot!

On my bed table- Still Wuthering Heights and The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

On my Facebook- More good advice from Walt Shiel, Five Rainbows Services.

Bernie- What’s for lunch today over in the big house, Bernie?

On my Kindle- My new, reformatted version of As Brown As I Want: The Indianhead Diaries. Brown is a black comedy about my father trying to kill me for the insurance money when I was eight. It's a good read, and was a finalist in the 2004 Oklahoma book Awards. It's a fictional autobiography.

Quote du jour-
"My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher." - Socrates.

www.JanelleMerazHooper.com
Recession buster:
$3.00, eBook
Bears in the Hibiscus, my latest humorous romance
Kindle version available at regular price

No time to edit! Send your complaints to my email address!

Chinese Muslims being sent to Bermuda?

© 2009 Janelle Meraz Hooper, comfrey

What's up?

In my yard- comfrey. I actually saw this stuff for sale in a nursery last weekend. If you see it in your yard, call 911. The stuff spreads like crazy, is impossible to get rid of, and even earned me a visit from the drug police who flew over it in their helicopter when it took over my pasture--they gave it a good look until they determined it wasn't marijuana or anything in that category. That kind of excitement doesn't thrill me. It chills me! Yikes! drug enforcement, in my pasture! Gramma would frown.

On my bed table- Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), oh, my! I wish this man were still alive. I have so many questions!

Gregory Orr- The Book That Is the Body of the Beloved, I have treated myself to this poetry book from Copper Canyon Press because one of the lines, … "If we’re not supposed to dance, why all this music?” has been a favorite quote for years. It'll be here soon.

In my emails- Email pirates! They are driving me crazy. I had two this week that were blocked by my Comcast and MSN. Good work, guys!

Politics- what’s this? Chinese Muslims are being sent to live in Bermuda? Where do we Catholics get to go? Probably Newark…

Bernie- What’s for lunch today over in the big house?

Quote du jour: "The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans are suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you."

http://www.janellemerazhooper.com/

Get the eBook version of my latest novel, Bears in the Hibiscus for $3.00 on my www website...Kindle version at regular price.

Legs Lyon and Potato Peel Pie

© 2009 Janelle Meraz Hooper

Photo-The old cherry tree in our backyard. It must be over 50 feet--was I supposed to prune it?

What’s up?
On my bed table- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows. You must read this one, it’s a novel about the Nazi occupation of the Isle of Guernsey during the second World War. But it isn’t all sad. The kooky characters are splendid and are the perfect vehicles to tell a story that would be otherwise difficult to read.
(“…Isola doesn’t approve of small talk, and believes in breaking the ice by stomping on it.”)

On my Warrior- (laptop)-Speed Spanish. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Now, I find myself at 65 reduced to making flash cards. What’s next? Poodle skirts and bobby sox?

Bernie- How’s it going, Bernie? What’s for lunch over in the big house?

On my Facebook- Elizabeth Lyon Oregon Writers Colony is soon to unveil a "writer's bare [almost] all calendar for 2010 as a fundraiser for remodeling the writer's haven, Colonyhouse, to become handicap accessible as well to expand to serve more writers. Interested? Contact me and I'll give you the scoop on how to buy the calendar ($19.95 includes shipping). You'll find a lot of author luminaries lending their bods and mugs. Legs Lyon among 'em.

Green writer- I had planned to finish Bears in the Hibiscus and offer it only in eBook format as my green project for the year. After it was finished, I realized I could also publish it on Amazon’s Kindle and stay true to my pledge. Check it out on my website. I’m having an eBook sale this week--$3.00 for the Adobe eBook with voice activation (please see disclaimer on website). Find it on my book site:
www.JanelleMerazHooper.com

quote du jour:
“In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.” Fran Lebowitz

It's all President Obama's fault!

2009 Apple pies, fresh from the oven by Dick

Republicans-They are still not getting it. Right now, they're attacking President Obama's pick for Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor. Their petty attacks have been pathetic and amusing. For instance, the guy (?) who complained about Sotomayor's name being strange. I'm willing to bet he and the other Republicans don't have any trouble with the athletes' names they see on TV every weekend. Names like: Azubuila, Yakhouba, Ignuodala, Llgauskas, Szczerbiak, Oshiomogho, Jakubauskas, and Yuniesky.

Note to GOP: We're not as dumb as we used to be. We check out everything you say and do on the Internet. And forget about side-tracking us. We know what we want, and we want it as soon as possible:

Jobs; an honest, workable foreign policy; health care; education; PEACE; infrastructure; ETC.

No more crap about nothing. These are serious times. Go home and don't come back until you've grown up.

What's up:

Bernie- What's for lunch over in the big house, Bernie?

On my TV- Some dentist who was telling the audience that "They only had to floss the teeth they wanted to keep..."

On my computer- An online Speed Spanish course. It's a wonderful course. Too bad it doesn't have a wonderful student (in me). I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, but with my nonexistent language skills, it has turned into yellowcake (nuclear waste). I blame it all on President Obama. He had to go and make that speech about everyone taking another year of education. It's his fault I'm in the mess I'm in! (;

Around the house- I have a new bird feeder that I have filled with a blend of birdseed for songbirds. They are eating like little flying pigs, but I have yet to hear one song.

This year, my Lady Di rose and my Peace rose look alike. What happened? But they are gorgeous!

On my bed table- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It's wonderful. And Wuthering Heights. I have to confess I've never read this book. I found it for .80 cents in my Amazon Kindle catalog and couldn't resist such a deal. I am really enjoying it. I can't believe I haven't read it sooner.

Quote du jour-"On Wall Street he and a few others - how many? three hundred, four hundred, five hundred? had become precisely that... Masters of the Universe." Tom Wolfe

Visit my website:

www.JanelleMerazHooper.com

I'm having a $3.00 eBook sale on my Bears in the Hibiscus this week...

Pakistan and Three Cups of Tea

© Janelle Meraz Hooper 2009 The unknown gardener

What's up:
On my bed table: If you want a true insight into what is going on in Pakistan right now, read Three Cups of Tea (toward the end) by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Some of you must wonder if I worked on this book somehow, because I mention it so much. I did not. I just really think it is a dynamite book. I’m almost finished, so you’ll hear about different books soon…unless I decide to read it again.

On my TV: Silly stuff. MTV is running some shows of famous cribs…that may even be the name of the show, I didn’t notice. It was fun to see how the richer segment lives, but I think one show was enough. I get the idea. They’re rich. I’m not. But, hey, as long as I have my computer, I’m happy.

Bernie: How’s Ole Bernie doing over in the big house, has anyone heard? What’s for lunch, Bernie?

Quote du jour:
“Be the type of woman who everyday, when you get up, the devil says, ‘Oh, crap. She’s up!’” In an email from my daughter.

***

eBook sale: Bears in the Hibiscus, a humorous romance, $3.00 (short time only)

On my website: http://www.janellemerazhooper.com/ Free chapter samples on site.