The Storyteller | Mary Vee

By Mary Vee The unusual often adds comedy to a mundane day.   I saw a college student hurrying across the diag on the University of Michigan campus wearing a burgundy skirt, burgundy blouse, burgundy stockings, burgundy shoes, and the best part, had her hair dyed burgundy. College campuses often provide great people watching opportunities. I saw the famous Oscar Meyer Weiner car. My favorite "unusual" for today's post is: the sign. After driving several hours on the unknown back roads of Montana, hoping to land in some place on the map, we stopped in a little town called Drummond for lunch.  The Wagon Wheel Cafe, which could easily be missed by travelers, boasted 96 variations of the hamburger.  The waiter handed me a menu and said, "You'll need a few minutes, I reckon." He was right. Half the fun of choosing what to eat was reading the menu.  Let's see, there was the pizza hamburger. Choice beef topped with pizza sauce, moz...

Today on Fabulous Feature Friday: Pepper Basham Come meet my dear friend, Pepper Basham. She is an aspiring writer, native of the Blue Ridge Mountains, mom of five, pastor’s wife, and university instructor in Communicative Disorders. When she’s not sleeping, she’s creating fictional worlds where good defeats evil, laughter reigns, and adventure thrives Inspiration Settings She also has a great sense of humor. (I've translated some interview answers for you...she speaks Appalachian:)) Pepper's mind works at a lightning speed. She always has a good plot with subplots floating i her mind. Recently, I asked her what genre she writes.     Gee whiz, Mary, I can only pick one?!? For now, I’m writing contemporary romance (with humor). I love using family humor and writing fairytale-ish stories in modern day. However, I enjoy writing historical, fantasy, and paranormal (in that order of interest). I’ve even plotted a suspense-adventure along the lin...

By Mary Vee Have you watched the dads in an airport? On one particular day, it seemed many dads travelled with their children. Like other travelers, some of the dads rushed their troops through the airport, no doubt attempting to catch a flight, and others sought to fill long, boring layover hours. It was a day of great people watching. Here are my two favorites: First, the rushed dad :  A dad hurried through the terminal taking long strides. Trailing behind him, yet firmly in his grasp, was his roller bag. The bag was tipped low, at a thirty degree angle or so.  Laying across the bag, like one would an inner tube being pulled through the snow, was a three or four year old boy. The little one's face sparkled and his child-like giggle could be heard through out the terminal. A breeze blew his hair adding to a kodak moment.  The child had fun, and the dad moved them to their gate in time. This man deserves the creativity award .  Second, the long l...

By Mary Vee My husband and I drove around a few farming communities in Ohio last week. We stepped out of the car to take a picture. Humidity soared that day leaving moisture to bead on a landscape of lush green. We climbed back into the car, shut the door, and rolled away. This is the moment I want to share.  Outside my door and attached to the mirror, a brown spider moved it's legs wildly, attempting to hold it's grip.  Oh, I know what you're thinking. Spiders wouldn't struggle like that.  They would if the car was in motion. As the car increased speed the spider fought harder to keep its grip. I fully expected the wind to whisk the creature away to some field. Not this spider. It released one thin strand of silk propelling itself to my door. This, I thought, would never work. Surely more wind blasted past the door than the mirror. The spider attached the silk to the door then maneuvered like a tight rope artist across the single stran...

By Mary Vee This is my opportunity to dedicate a day to the many special people God has made. I don't think I will every run out of people to feature on Friday because everyone has at least one thing special to share. My first guest:  My hubby. My hubby is a diehard nonfiction - documentary - historical - news reader only kind of man. (ewwww) He does not like fiction. (poor guy, I'm working on him) Still, my hubby has supported me with kudos, working out family schedules to find time for me to write, he's done dishes, and has taken on extra hours at work to pay for writer conferences. When I can't figure out the best word for a sentence, I go to him, explain the scenario, and wait for the perfect word to fall from his lips. His boring non fiction arsenal of knowledge has come in handy many times for me to gleam accurate details for a scene. Vacations revolve around many of the places he wants to learn about which includes buying "just one book...

By Mary Vee With the plethora of cooking shows, specialized cookbooks, and Internet recipes available, anyone could step into the kitchen and try their hand at making a delectable dish. In the movie Julie/Julia, Julie blogged about her cooking through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking . The movie showed that not all dishes turn out tasty the first time and that cooking truly is an art. I was given a cookbook as a wedding present.  Great idea because I was a master hamburger helper/tuna fish sandwich cook. New husbands tend to want more variety in their meals. Each day I flipped open the book to some random page, looked at the ingredients, and if I had them . . . I attempted to make the dish, following every step to the letter. To my surprise, the meals turned out pretty good. After a while, I thought I understood the fine art of substituting ingredients. Saffron is very expensive. Other ingredients didn't last long enough to keep and didn't see...

By Mary Vee Up since 5 am. Checking in a hotel at 7pm. The super softball team enters the lobby. After a long day of traveling and competition, one would think the traveling high school girl's softball team would be ready to hang in the hotel located near the stadium. Oh no. Not! Invisible energy seeps into their bodies from some vast unknown source.  With the strength of Rocky they heft their super-sized gym bags over their shoulders, take a stroll through the lobby to check out the fireplace or mounted TV, and gab, giggle, or guffaw while some weary chaperone or coach checks them into the hotel. The presence of only fifteen to twenty bodies expands to fill every molecular space in the hotel lobby and atrium normally able to contain one hundred people. This was not a Days Inn they stayed at for the night. I watched from a corner, the only space left, and soaked in the most interesting conversation between two of the girls. Girl 1: Giggle . . . ...

By Mary Vee During family travels this last week, we stopped in a small town in the Midwest with time to kill.  I simply had to check out the library.  No disappointment there.  This small town had computers lined up on tables against every walls, and other tables in the middle of the rooms with outlets for the laptop/other techno gadget use. Amazing and well designed. Rows of bookshelves filled in the space in between. Around the corner from the main room, I found the reason for this post. The children's section filled one third of the library. Bright, inviting, easy to find anything. Lots of kid high bookshelves stuffed with books. A banquet length table filled with computers and little people chairs had been placed next to the aisle. In the last seat, a little boy with glasses pointed to a computer screen and giggled. I'm not sure what game he played, but he sure liked it.  He didn't sit there alone. Next to him a man, presumably his ...

By Mary Vee Walk with me on this summer day as we step into Someone else's world. Location: A Remote village in the Mountains of Honduras                  An abandoned Wycliffe Compound There he sat. An unnamed boy about eight years old. At the top of the hill overlooking a Wycliffe compound. Watching  doctors, nurses, child ministry workers, and teen translators on a one week missions trip. According to officials, medical workers rarely came to his village. He probably couldn't discipher the cacophony of Honduran, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, American, and Canadian languages spoken by the blended medical team sent to help his village.  But he watched and appeared to listen. Early each morning, the team sat on benches and chairs arranged in a rectangle on a veranda made of broken cement. My chair leaned against the building affording me the view of a mountain to my right, the hospital center, and the hill w...

We celebrate many births. Babies Animal offspring Nations, and etc. Let's step into the world of those who were here during the birth of the United States. What prompted men and women to come to a new, unsettled land? I can't think of many men or women who would have an opportunity to do that today. The closet example to me would be the missionary who leaves an established home, familiar language, and culture to go to a new land.  Using the missionary example, I can imagine what men and women felt like when they came here.  For employment: men and women had to live off the land, barter services with others who came for help, grow their own food. Survival happened only if they worked. Even then, many died from weather related issues, starvation, diseases. The good side: men and women learned to work with each other, help and ask, share and borrow, laugh and cry.  For conveniences : Only what was brought, grown, or made could be used. Wal-Mart did no...

Welcome to my website.  To launch my site I've created a vlog.  Put on your climbing shoes, we're headed for the Beartooth Pass in the Rocky Mountains. Do you have a real life situation or fictional setting/situation/character you would like us to discuss? I look forward to your comments. Oh, and take a moment to become a follower. Wednesday is the next post. Lets have a blast on 4th of July!