The Storyteller | Mary Vee

Once upon a time.... Most stories with this beginning take place in a setting from long, long ago.  Dragons. Knights. Castle. Secret passages. Quest Today's rules of writing prevents authors from using this fabulous opener. This doesn't mean these stories can't be written, they just can't start with those words. And so I would like you to meet my new fantasy novel very much about a once upon a time but without the opening words. Fire and Thorn is scheduled to release sometime between April 4 and 10. Perfect for an Easter gift especially for young adult readers. Available in paperback and ebook. Here is what the story is about: The day the king of Aerlis heroically dies and his lovely queen is viciously carried off to the dark north, dragons invade the land. Crops and homes near the border burn to the ground. Prince, Gilbert must give up what he wants most to save his father’s kingdom and himself.  The Keeper of the Kingdom advises Gilbert ...

There are times when storms throw us off course.  I joined the gang of fallen hikers.  Not in the woods, or on the backroads. It happened 1/3 mile from home. The paved road portion. Where the black ice hides. Black ice forms when snow mostly melts followed by a freeze. Often snow will fall after the freeze, hiding the thin layer of very slippery ice. Boom. Naturally, I did the wrong thing by bracing for impact with my arm. My hands stretched out and took the force, breaking the distal radial bone. Smashed would be a better word. The surgeon was impressed. He put in plates and screws forming the letter "T" on the Xray. Look for a character in a future story of mine with a broken arm. I know now how to paint it realistically. :) When these storms come, though, I have found it very helpful to think of what is true, what is honest, what is just, what is pure, what is lovely, what is of good report, those things that have virtue and praise. Then I remembe...

Marksburg Castle, Rhine River Photo by Mary Vee Last week, a friend of mine mourned on the anniversary her brother took his life. He was in pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain. And chose to solve the problem.  He was young. A teen. So much yet for him to live. So much to look forward to. But he didn't see it. Or Feel It. What he felt was pain. If only he truly understood how much his family loved him. How much they would sacrifice to help him...if they had only known his thoughts, the moment before the decision. A very different story happened this weekend, A weight lifter heard a crash outside his gym as.he turned off the lights for the night. He opened the door. Two cars had collided near his business. One man lay trapped against a signpost and under the weight of his car. Four people pushed, endeavoring to lift the vehicle and free the man, but the SUV weighed too much.  The weight lifter rushed to the scene wanting to help. He reached through the broke...

Photo by Mary Vee Community on an international scale has proven it doesn't matter which side of politics one stands. When people need help, the community steps up. TSA workers currently are in the forefront when it comes to those needing help during the government shutdown. Their salary is not very high, but the workers make a living doing their job.  In one family, both parents are TSA employees. They work opposite shifts so one parent can be home with their young children throughout the day and night. The community in their city are helping by providing an important staple for them: diapers. According to recent articles in USA and other wires, locals drive to the airport and drop off trunkloads of food for needy TSA workers. Vendors in the airport provide free lunches and transportation assistance to the airport. Canadian air traffic controllers buy pizzas for their American counterparts. Banks offer discounted or no interest loans to tide the workers o...

Perhaps you have been asked the usual New Year Question, What is your resolution? Perhaps you asked yourself before anyone else did. Usually, I play the game and answer with one of the standards that everyone else says then find myself failing by February. This year I chose to make annual goals. That way I have the whole year to complete the tasks instead of expecting to fulfill one resolution every day. How about you? What is your resolution for this year? ## I'm one of those who enjoys sending snail mail Christmas cards. I do it because I want to receive Christmas cards. There is a doorway in my home where I tape the cards. When the tree comes down, I take down the cards.  Some of the cards include Christmas letters.  Traditionally, Christmas letters serve as a year in focus. A friend tells what happened in their family's life over the course of the previous year. One friend had an interesting closing paragraph. She described for me what she chose to...

Photo by Mary Vee Probably my favorite of the year. No, I didn't forget you.  I kinda hoped you would be busy with family, new Christmas gifts, cookies, etc. I hope you are. Let's meet again next week...are you thinking about your resolution for this year? I am. Will I keep it? Probably not...but I most likely will for the first few weeks...or at least days.

Photo credit: Pixaby I typically don't see anything good about drones. Many articles have reported them used for invasive reasons. Some have even been used to look in apartment windows. So, I tend to not have a high opinion of them. EXCEPT. I recently read about a remote mountain people group on an island called Erromango, one of a chain of islands making up Vanuatu. See map to the left. As you can see the island is far away from a large land mass. According to Google maps, Vanuatu is a South Pacific Ocean nation made up of roughly eighty islands that stretch a little more than 807 miles and has a Melanesian culture. Tourists can enjoy scuba diving at coral reefs, underwater caverns, and shipwrecks. I tried to imagine myself growing up on this remote island of lush greens. Where vibrant palm trees reach the sky and thick jungle plants fill the land. Where mountains keep the people isolated from the world, and I wouldn't know what a skyscraper looked like, but ...

Scam artists are getting better at their craft. Photo by Mary Vee- A real phone booth - Luzern, Switzerland My heart breaks when I read about a person conned by these people, especially the elderly. I know several personally.  It is so easy to say, "How can they be duped? Don't they know..." The answer is, scam artists are very good at deception. For every word we say to them, they have a prepared script to keep us on the phone. The longer we are on the phone, the better their chances are to reel us in. Like a fisherman dangling bait for fish.  I asked a friend who knows how to deal with these situations, "How can you know for sure if the vendor whom you've dealt with for years is really the one calling or writing an email or sending a snail mail letter?" He said, "The bottom line is you can't. Hang up. Never say the word "yes" or the word "no" to the caller. They can record your response and use it to say you ...

PHOTO CREDIT: en.wikipedia.org They said it couldn't be done.  Who "they" are is undefined, but it wasn't the scientists at NASA. NASA has taken on a Never Give Up attitude since its beginning. You know their successes and failures. The agency has lived through great criticism and threats to defund. Thankfully Thomas Edison didn't have to deal with the same worldwide critical audience or we might not have light bulbs!  Well, actually I think we would. Someone else would have invented the mechanism between 1879 and today. Most likely the Brits whose research resulted in the arc lamp would have designed a commercial lightbulb or another group of scientists. I'm glad Edison's success gave an avenue to his quotes: "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." So, NASA can boast a succe...

Friends - Photo by Mary Vee Island of Bolero, Venice, Italy Thanksgiving week blessings. Hubby walks out to his car dressed for work and lunch in hand. He happens to look down at the front tire, something I wouldn't do, and walks back to the house. The tire is flat. This morning, he fills the tire with air and nurses it up to the tire store. Across the street is one of those hometown restaurants with basic food, servers with pads of paper and pencils, and unlimited gut rot coffee. "So, yah wanna get breakfast?" He asks me. How could I refuse? Two hours later the car disappears into the shop. Although Hubby devoured southern style biscuits and gravy et all the trimmings, he is nervous he won't have the car in time to leave for work. We walk across the road, yes we paid the bill plus tip, and walk inside the tire store. Before hubby can ask, the tire guy grabs keys off his counter walks them to my hubby and says, "Everything is taken care of."...

Photo by Mary Vee Bakery in Germany Amazing, but true.  John Chhan opened his shop in California at 4:30 a.m. then had to close the doors at 8:30 a.m. because of the community. What had the community done? The story started when a woman brought her daughter into Chhan's bakery. His wife had been there all the years the woman stopped in the shop in the past, but she wasn't that day. The woman discovered John's wife had an aneurysm and was home recovering from surgery. After the woman returned home, she thought about Mrs. Chhan. The couple came to the U.S. as refugees from Cambodia many years before and set up this bakery. Every day the couple arrived at the shop at 2 a.m. to make the donuts then opened the doors at 4:30 a.m. to sell the treats. When all the donuts were sold, the workday ended. They closed the doors and went home. The woman told neighbors and wrote a blog post about the Chhan's saying, if everyone went to the bakery early and bought in the...

Photo Courtesy: Pixabay.com A bookstore in Southhampton, England, called October Books, could no longer afford to pay the rent for it's building. No big deal, you might say. Most people buy online anyway. But this is a different and unique, and basically a Never Give Up Story because the community formed a human chain to save this bookstore. October Books is an independent bookstore that also offers organic foods and hosts events for the community. Their interest in the locals impacted the people, stirring men and women, boys and girls to come to their aid.   After having been in their original location for 25 years and facing rising rent, the owners knew they had to leave. They searched for another building and found an abandoned bank.  Several problems rose for a timely move down the street. A stockroom filled with books had to be transported. Painting. Setting up the new store. Creative genus struck when the owner called for help from the community.  So,...