Facebook Anyone?

I joined MySpace a year ago after my publisher created a page for me. My MySpace page is for book promotion. About four weeks ago I gave in and joined Facebook. My kids had all left MySpace. I kept receiving requests to be friends with Facebook people. My reluctance to join was because I didn’t want to take the time to figure it out. After all, Facebook was just one more thing to do in an already busy day.

I decided early on only to “friend” real friends or book people that I actually know. I decided NOT to use Facebook for book promotion. A week ago I talked my husband into joining. He spent the first night “friending” all sorts of cousins and friends from around the country.

It’s funny what I learn from Facebook that I don’t learn any other place. My adult children will post one-liners about what they are doing. For example, the oven in my son’s kitchen at work caught fire yesterday. Yesterday his wife took my granddaughter to meet my daughter and grandson at a museum. They didn’t tell me that!

I know more about my pen-pal from California because of Facebook posts than I have learned in all the years I’ve known her. We began exchanging old-fashioned, handwritten letters when we were 15 years old. Today I can find out when she’s going to lunch with her Red Hatter girlfriends. We can chat about shoes.

Speaking of shoes, a multi-published author’s comments about wearing comfortable shoes sparked several replies by women, who like me, don’t care about fashion. I’m not the only one with heal spurs or who likes Dansko clogs and shoes.

On July 6, 2009, iStrategyLabs reported that “There has been a staggering increase in the number of 55+ users - with total growth of 513.7% in the last six months alone.”

iStrategyLabs sees a trend by high school and college age users away from using Facebook. Why? “There have been rumors that these younger user groups are being alienated by their parents joining the service.”

Baby Boomers have adopted Facebook as a good way to keep in touch. As my husband was heard to say, “This is addicting!”

I'm at peace with it

It's been an interesting few weeks, both in my writing life and in my real life. Lots of change thrust upon me. Surprisingly, I'm okay with that.

Never have dealt with change very well, unless the change was my idea. But lately I think I'm a little better at accepting what's inevitable and moving on. (Not great, mind you...and sometimes my attitude stinks for a couple of days. But I'm doing better.)

So I'm busy trying to make lemonade instead of dumping the whole load of lemons into the compost.

Yes, the living room ceiling leaks, and we have to pay for a new roof. But our tall, blond contractor will be a great model for a future hero. And yes, we'll have plaster dust throughout the house for months since the ceiling has to be ripped out. But--no more old-fashioned ceiling paper! No more boring wallpaper! The room really did need a change.

I got edits a few weeks ago and sighed a great big sigh. Then I got into the process and the resulting product was so much better than before. This is why I changed the dedication of Where Her Heart Is.

I'm reinventing myself, of course, and maybe that's part of the reason for the attitude change. I feel healthy and reasonably fit, have as much energy as I did twenty years ago, and am working at what I love. What could I possibly complain about?

Magdalena

Older...

I turned fifty this past Sunday. Something that I am having a hard time coming to grips with. Not because I am old, though by some standards that is reality, but because it has made me take stock of what has happened in the world during my lifetime to this point. So with deliberate purpose, I have listed some interesting facts I thought I'd share about the year I was born. There aren't enough cyber pages to cover the entire fifty years. Geez, I guess I am old!

I was born July 5, 1959, a year that:
- Fidel Castro took over as the official leader of the Cuban government.
- Walt Disney released Sleeping Beauty.
- Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500.
- The Barbie Doll made its debut.
- Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. State.
- Hawaii became the 50th state.
- NASA announced its selection of 7 military pilots to become the first U.S. astronauts.
- The two monkeys, Able and Miss Baker were the first living beings to successfully return to Earth from space aboard the flight Jupiter AM-18.
- The USS George Washington was launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
- Charles Ovnand and Dale Buis became the first Americans killed in action in Vietnam.
- The U. S. launched the Explorer 6 which sent back the first picture of Earth from space.
- A flood in Taiwan killed 2,000 people.
- The Luna 2 became the first man-made object to crash on the Moon.
- Rod Serling's classic series The Twilight Zone premiered on CBS.
- The U.S.S.R. probe Luna 3 sent back the first ever photos of the far side of the Moon.
- MGM version of Ben-Hur, starring Charlton Heston, was released and became the studio's greatest hit up to that time. It won 11 Academy Awards and held the record until 1998, when 1997's Titanic became the first film to equal the record.
- Pantyhose were introduced by Glen Raven Mills.
- The first known human with HIV died in the Congo.
- The Caspian Tiger became extinct in Iran.

Of course there were lots of other events, none of which I remember as I was only an infant for half of that year. What I have here is a condensed version of Wikipedia's long list -- some of the things I found most interesting.

I have a complaint about the list. Barbie and I are the same age, actually she is a few months older, but her hair hasn't turned silver (mine is currently strawberry blonde because I can make it that color), the skin around her jaw line and neck are still tight (and mine aren't), she hasn't put on the middle-age spread (and I have), and her breasts don't droop (we aren't even going to go there). That's why fantasy beats the pants off reality.

At least I can pretend to still have that young tight figure when composing a story, when I am in the heroine's heads, seeing what she is seeing, feeling what she is feeling, and remembering what it is to fall in love over and over again. Hey, Barbie doesn't have that does she?

Happy reading to you all!

Janet Eaves

Hey--look! It's Jan!

Check out Jan Scarbrough's guest blog which is featured today at Pop Syndicate.

Looking great, Jan!

:)

Magdalena

Stop and Smell the Roses

We need to remember to do this. At a time where the nightly news makes us want to curl up in bed, pull the covers over our heads and hide, we need to stop once and a while and appreciate the little things.

When you’re a parent of small children, you usually don’t have time to enjoy them, but when you become a grandmother, all that changes. My parents delighted in their retirement years watching my two children grow into adulthood. Now my two children have children and I can totally relate to what my parents experienced.

On Saturday I watched my almost three-year-old granddaughter for her parents. We walked to the park with the dog. She held my hand. I helped her climb the high ladders and watched her slide down slides. On the way home, she held the dog’s leash and then held my hand as we crossed the street.

Later she helped me wash windows in her own unique way. We watched bumble bees on my lavender plants. We sat on the back step when it started to rain, stretching out our legs and letting our feet get wet. There we talked about the birds and the dogs and I don’t remember what else. It was a quiet time. It was just nice.

After lunch I was worn out so I finally did the old TV trick. I stretched out on the sofa, turned on cartoons and tried to keep from falling asleep. My granddaughter finally crawled up on the sofa and stretched out too. She was tired, but fighting it.

I really enjoyed the holiday, doing little things with a little person. The day reminded me how much we take the simple things for granted and that sometimes seeing the world through a child’s eyes is the best way of all.

Jan

Resplendence Publishing e-book sale!

Resplendence Publishing is having a 20% off sale at the website to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday.

Use discount code SHOP20 at checkout to receive 20% off your entire order! Coupon code valid through Monday, July 7th.

Also please check out my new book video that my husband created for me! It is about my Bluegrass Reunion series from Resplendence Publishing.

Two other Sisters have new books on sale now also at Resplendence Publishing. Take a look at Maddie and Magdalena's wonderful new reads!

Did you get the memo?

In case you didn't hear me cheering earlier today... In case you didn't get the email, didn't read the Magdalenaville blog, didn't get the Twitter, see my Facebook status, or receive a MySpace bulletin, here's the deal.


WHERE HER HEART IS IS NOW AVAILABLE IN EBOOK! YAY!

This is a Ladies of Legend story--a follow-up on Betsy McClain, whom you met in my story Midnight in Legend, TN, part of the first anthology, Ladies of Legend: Finding Home.

Here is the blurb:

Two years ago, Betsy McClain gave up on her husband and her hometown. She packed up her baby daughter and moved to the City. Now she’s temporarily back in Legend, Tennessee. But when Betsy agreed to this house-sitting job, she didn’t know her favorite room was being renovated, or that her handsome almost-ex-husband was the carpenter.

After his wife and baby left him, Mike McClain was forced to grow up. Now he considers himself Mr. Responsibility. LizBeth Ann soon falls in love with her big handsome daddy, who takes her for picnics and is her “date” for little girl tea parties. But though Betsy, with her big blue eyes and cascades of golden blonde hair, looks like an angel, she seems determined to treat him like the devil. How can they let go of the past so the little family can have a future?

The ebook can be purchased at Resplendence Publishing. Save a tree, or at least part of a tree--try an ebook. ;) Click here to buy.

And this is just ONE of the SisterWriters titles released at Resplendence today. I think Maddie will drop in and tell you about hers soon. Of course you can take a sneak peek here.

Magdalena