Friday, January 27, 2017

Commas, Why Do I Love You So? #BlogChallenge #MFRWauthor #Writing

I happen to love commas. I love to put them in wherever I pause while talking.

Now, where the grammar people pause and where I pause seem to be in different places.

Here is where the problem starts. How we talk and how we write are different.

I am reminded of this every time I start editing my manuscripts.
To remind myself of the common mistakes when using commas I take some reminder tests like this one. http://englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/Commas%20Practice%20Quiz.pdf

Test like this can help remind me where I should and shouldn't put a comma.

So even though, I love you comma.  You can't be in every sentence.

Hope you enjoy the blog challenge and visit some of the other sites listed.

Tina
tinagayle.net

Thursday, January 26, 2017

A Brand New Address by @RowlandKathleen #Bookfriends #NewAdult #futuristic





Today Author Kathleen Rowland is here to tell us about

A Brand New Address (Intervenus Series), a Mainstream New Adult, SciFi/Futuristic Suspense.



Yardley is reserved, Marchand has communication issues, and despite their initial mutual crush, it
looks like they are never going to work things out.



Taking place during 22nd Century Earth’s second ice age, A BRAND NEW ADDRESS follows childhood friends, Yardley Van Dyke and Marchand LaFond, who trick and tease each other.  Robin-hooding thief Marchand sails his ice-boat across the frozen tundra to deliver fuel and food to the needy.  Subsistence gardener Yardley gives away home-cooked meals.  Just when their attraction sizzles, he enters a space race to Venus.



Yardley promised her dying mother she’d care for the family by growing food in their greenhouse.  Clashing with Dad’s fiancé puts her on the outs at home.  After winning a prize for an intergalactic garden project, she wants to prove her prototype works on Venus.



Groomed for the mission and calling the shots, Marchand can’t let emotions to get in the way.  Maneuvering through sun spikes and space junk is dangerous enough.  Evil competitor Vito Savage plans to annihilate competing shuttles. Will Savage’s darkest sins come to light? If Yardley goes, will she tolerate Marchand’s brazen exterior?  Will Venus be their brand new address where life will find them?

A REVIEW
"This is a good choice for teens or young adults suffering from Divergent or Hunger Games withdrawal. Ms. Rowland has created a very detailed futuristic world where the Earth is in the throes of a second Ice Age. Her heroine, Yardley Van Dyke is a capable young girl, much like Katniss. Yardley's talents lie in botany and gardening which makes her valuable in a desolate world where growing your own food means life." goodreads reviewer

EXCERPT
From the living room Dad's voice charged its way to the front porch swing.  He and his fiancé were at it again.  Just terrific.   
Hunkered under a fur-lined quilt, Yardley Van Dyke's head pounded, worsened by the frigid air.   As if trapped in a vise, pain squeezed hard from both temples.  On the swing she faced forward with her back against the house.  Against them.  Between them.  With their fight on its fourth day, they battled over her late mother's greenhouse.  Yardley tended it all day, every day.His fiancé, Pinky Hazelton, wanted to sell it and move into the Biosphere with its profits.  Powerless with her at the top of the pecking order, her mouth strained.  Around Pinky, she forced it into a straight line.  Why did Dad ignore her promise to her dying mother?  
For three years, she'd grown food for the family.  Mom's hodge-podgy structure protected plants against the freeze of Earth's second ice age.  Yardley met the challenge of gardening in the frigid hinterlands, but without a surplus to sell, she had the low pro of a subsistence gardener.  She reined in ideas to maximize sunlight although her latest effort worked. Discarded Mylar balloons reflected light.  

With fifty mounted, she pinched fewer dead leaves.  Under the quilt she balanced a basket of peas on her lap, proof of success from her dirt-candy world. Yardley took a pod, tore down the string, and dumped peas into the basket.  
Inside the cabin Pinky screamed, ""Time is running out.""  
Timeliness, a variation of her hammering technique, arose with every current event.
  ""I'll think on it."" Dad's voice razzed like a trombone.
""Better be quick."" As Pinky squawked about the essence of time, the trombone cranked louder and louder.  
Their bombardment sent Yardley a wakeup call. Her hands shook, and she stopped shelling for one reason.  She predicted their routine.  
Dad blew a gasket before giving in.  After that, Pinky won.  
He yelled, ""Stop needling me, Pinky."

 Hearing a smash, Yardley jerked upright.  A crashed dish against the wall?  She had no idea what would come next.  
A flipping of a table? 
His fiancé screamed, ""Yeah?  Put this in your data bucket. An ice cap moves south.""  
She imagined Dad's face turning beet red as he fumed just short of a gasket-blow.Rubbing one side of her head, she faced the frigid combination of family tension and the twenty-second century ice age.

Their now quiet cabin in Newport Beach, California sat in an Arctic spruce forest with northern Siberian climate suffering an annual drop of five degrees.
""Cold, colder, and about to be coldest."" Pinky filled the vacuum with truth, but was timing immediate?""You know, Pinky.  While I tested you out, you took over.""
Dad's off-topic roar revealed bitterness, but he'd come around to her side.""Good thing I did. Want to sit on a polar ice cap?  It kills everything that's not dead.""
Sick of listening to them, Yardley's gaze shifted to the porch steps.  
With the inclement weather, they'd turn slick.  She'd slip and spill her peas if she stepped down them to walk the path to the greenhouse.  Not quite done shelling, a syrupy voice came through the rough-hewn triple-plank wall.
""I don't want you dead, sweetheart.""  Pinky's wear-down entered its completion stage.An icy gust blew strands of hair across Yardley's face.  
She groaned and let it be.  If she moved her hands, she'd spill the pods.   Her thoughts shot from the greenhouse issue to a parallel problem.  Without the greenhouse, she'd be a non-contributing eighteen-year-old still living at home.  
Pulling the quilt over her head, she preferred the ice-age temperature to hanging out with them.    Using a chipmunk voice on herself cheered her up.  
Yardley, there's no work for you.  Run along, won't you?Inside the cabin Pinky fueled her hissy fit with a nightmare.   ""Oh, Robert,"" she said, ""I had a bad dream.""  
Pinky's premonitions often came in this form.  ""If we stay here, we'll die of full-body frostbite.""
The chipmunk squeaked in her mind.  
Bit of a cold snap.""No one wants that.""  Dad's tone warmed up.Yardley's throat tightened.  
She swallowed a lump of raw emotion but refused to cry or give into defeat. She listened to Dad's steady voice as he brought up hidden expenses at the Biosphere.
""Selling the greenhouse might get us in, Hon. But can we afford it long term?""
 Right on, Dad.  Don't give up.""Sweetheart, we need a contract."" 
 Within the cabin, the drama queen spoke matter-of-factly.  ""I know people at BotGen Incorporated.""  
Yardley cringed, wishing she had the means to incorporate the pink-yappy hour. Since when had Pinky become a member of Botany General's inner circle?  
A few minutes passed, and they stopped talking.  
Was smooch-kissy-face going on?  
Great.
 Somewhere inside, her twin brother wandered about.  
At times like this, Skeeter bugged the crap out of her. Nothing about Pinky bothered him including her obsession to watch century-old movies. 
 A few nights ago he'd shared his crush on a girl who lived at the Biosphere.  
Yardley had nowhere to go.

ABOUT Kathleen Rowland
Kathleen Rowland writes under her real name.  She grew up in Iowa where she caught lightning bugs, ran barefoot, and raced her sailboat on Lake Okoboji.  Now she wears shoes and sails a Harbor20 with her husband, Gerry, but wishes there were more lightning bugs in California.
With an M.S. in Computer Science, she plans out her plots before writing.  Romantic Suspense is Kathleen's genre, from sweet to sensuous. What fun!

www.kathleenrowland.com
www.kathleenrowland.wordpress.com


https://twitter.com/RowlandKathleen


www.facebook.com/kathleen.rowland.50


http://www.pinterest.com/kathyrowl/


Thanks Kathleen for stopping by,


Tina

Friday, January 20, 2017

TV Detectives, Who Can Resist Them? #MFRWauthor #TinaGayle #BlogChallenge

From the first time, I can remember liking a particular TV show. My favorite has always been murder mysteries. I believe the first one that had me hooked was Rockford Files.

I had watched him in Maverick and the romantic comedies with Doris Day.

And tell me, who could resist James Garner?



Shoot you can watch it on hulu now
http://www.hulu.com/the-rockford-files

Maybe, that's why I also enjoyed Castle so much. Maybe he reminded me of a young James Garner.

It doesn't matter. I enjoy the fun of figuring out who done it.

So if you want to know what I binge watch, I'd have to say the Detectives get me every time.

This is part of the MFRWauthor Blog Challenge so check out others authors favorite shows.


Thanks guys for stopping by and feel free to share your favorite TV Detective with me.

Tina

Friday, January 13, 2017

Writing, Family, Housework, oh, My! #MFRWauthor #Writing #TinaGayle



Writing takes quiet time. In house with two boys, this at time takes a place where you can shut the door and lock out the noise.

Luckily, I started writing after my boys started school so I wrote while they were in school. Once they got out then I tried to do other things.

Now, my boys are grown so the house is quiet, except for the dog.  She just likes to be let in or let out.

I believe my writing has survived my kids, but the housework is another story.
Where once I had help with the chores, now more things slid than I'd prefer. Still, life is about choices and not one is going to remember the way my house looks. Hopefully, they will enjoy my books long after I'm gone.

So if you are trying to write, remember to pick the time that is best for you and keep it going.

Tina

Friday, January 6, 2017

What Type of Things Do You Like to Do? #MFRWauthor by @AuthorTinaGayle #hobbies

Everyone on the planet will answer this question differently.

Though, we may find similarities. We each have different reason for enjoying the things we love.

I, personally, love to travel.

Why?

Because it gives me time with my family, exposes me to new places, and feeds my adventurous side to discover new things.


This is on a trip to Dallas to visit my son. We checked out Top Golf.

I fun place where you can practice your golf game and party too.


This is out in the Desert where the sky always appears to be blue. It's also on a golf course.

I believe you may be seeing another activity that I enjoy....golf.

So for my list of a few of my favorite things.


I'd have to say.
1. spend thing with my husband and kids.
2. golfing.
3. Traveling.

Check out other MFRWauthor responses. MFRWauthor-blog-challenge-week1-theme.html

Now, why not tell me a few of your favorite things to do,

Tina