Tags
Gloria Richard, Humor, Middle Grade Series, Sherry Isaac. Starbucks, Shnorty Isaac, Wildflower, Writes
It’s Saturday! The weekend! A day to kick back with friends, do a little dance, take your Visa for a slide-and-sign at your favorite shop.
For me, it’s quality time with my sometimes friend, Huey P. Ackard, and soon-to-be-famous Michelle “Mitch” Madison, an eleven-year-old star (!) of a middle-grade series.
Mitch snapped my garter and weaseled me into writing two manuscripts during the same time frame. At the moment, Mitch is knicker-deep in things that do not happen in the real world.
I invited two of our friends to take over the column today so Mitch and Huey P. Ackard could continue plotting against me.
First, my new buddy, Squee Key is pitch-walking from our home base at Starbucks in Southlake, TX to Toronto for tea with award-winning author, Sherry Isaac.
Sherry is an awesome, wonderful, supportive friend, a talented writer, and…
She has a secret.
A pink, fluffy, stuffed animal secret. A secret she hasn’t yet exposed on her relaunched Blog, Wildflower.
So…
I snatched the time-saving opportunity to expose Sherry’s secret instead of inventing my own blog topic.
MEET SHNORTY ISAAC
.
Sleep Deprived Shnorty is Worried
Yawn. Erm. Sorry.
Where are my manners? Gone missing with the sleep I am not getting, I suppose.
I may look like a farm animal, but I did not grow up where roosters crack the dawn.
YO! Squee-Key! Are you close yet? I need help up here.
I. Am. Worried. Where are you?
.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS MARIOT
Dude! I’m walking as fast as I can. I walked 51.01 miles but I still have 67 to the Texas/Arkansas state line.
“It’s a big state,” she says.
“We have short legs,” she says.
Here! Take these WILDFLOWERS off my hands, will you? They’re heavy.
It might be illegal to pick them and I don’t want to spend time in the Hoosegow.
Who are you calling a pansy?
Ooooh! The flowers. Pansies.
Phew! I stole borrowed them from the Starbucks in Rockwall–an open blog present for you. So! What’s up with the, “I. AM. WORRIED,” bit?
BACK TO SHNORTY
.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Thanks for the wildflowers, pansy dude.
But, try and keep it down, will you?
See how innocent she looks now? All sleepy-bye and everything?
Trouble is, I don’t know what’s going to happen when she wakes up. Saturdays are Psychological Sizzle day at WILDFLOWER Press.
Sizzle. That word had me worried.
What do you mean, why?”
You know the sound bacon makes when it’s cooking, right? You know where bacon comes from, right?
I survived all the Sizzles she plunked on the net so far.
Aunt Minerva went missing a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t mind that so much. She was one of those aren’t-you-the-cutest thing cheek-pinchers.
All four of them.
Anyhoooo….
Today’s headline is A Zone of my Own.
Sherry. Sizzle. Zone.
I thought I could handle that. I thought I was safe. I thought…
I stopped thinking when I read the first line. “Kill your darlings.”
ACK! I can’t look at the rest of it. You read it for me. Here. If I’m still alive by the end of it. bleep me. Meanwhile, I’m going to hide in the kitchen cabinets.
NO!
Bad plan.
The garage. I’ll hide in the garage.
DO NOT TELL her where I am.
DO let me know if I live to Shnort another day, will you?
Use the handy-dandy comments section to let me know you were here and care. Or, if you’re too lazy pressed for time, click that LIKE button and go on over to find out what happens to me.
Gloria Richard 
Squee-key is too cute.
Yes, readers, we are grown women. Yes, we chat when we should write and we are neighboUrs in our imaginary world and we have miniature mascots that talk to us.
Our characters talk to us, too. I bet Stephen King has many of the same ‘issues’. We are writers. Comes with the territory.
From Squee-Key:
Ruh-roh, Shnorty. She’s awake and she found you.
ACK! Sorry, dude. Build a fort of U’s around your porky pink body.
But, since Sherry lives in the land of the U hogs (sorry — didn’t mean to insult your heritage), I’ll send some of your very own to use.
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
From Gloria:
All writers who write in voice have the same issues. There is ONE teeny, tiny ‘issue’ Stephen King does not share with me.
It’s that annoying ASPIRING word before published.
Off to write. Mitch calls! LOVED your post today, Sherry. So true for all of his. Killing those darlings. Glad Shnorty survived.
So, Gloria, was that a Ping-Back to my site, or a Piggy-back? Snort!
Hey Gloria, now that we have connected through the awesome Ms. Hansen, you’ve introduced me to Sherry right in my hometown! The WANA community does it again! A granddaughter of mine has a cousin of Shnorty’s … I recognized the snuggle-iciousness.
We’re almost related. Sort of. Imaginary world BFF’s mascot’s cousin’s grandmother. I think I got that right. Or, not.
How about Woot!, instead. The celebration reception for Squee Key in Toronto grows exponentially.
I wish I was having a day of slide-and-sign. My day will come soon. For today, I will be creating and editing my book trailer. Yes, you heard that right. I am going to finish my book trailer today. More to come later…
If you do not tweet-it-out when it’s ready for viewing, Brinda, I will make you pay for a treinte when Squee-Key hits the Little Rock area.
Readers, if you want to see Brinda’s trading card for her Whispering Woods series, click here. It’s slobber-with-envy worthy.
I sent you the secret link. lol
Squee-key is adorable. And you girls are crazy-adorable too. Slide-and-sign is a figment of my imagination today. It’s gardening for me. Will send you any of Squee-key’s friends I find there.
DiAne Gates
DiAnne, when you finish with your gardening, can you pop by and help me?
I recently listed “gardening is a spectator sport” in a list of 100 things that describe me.
Thanks for popping in to visit. I hope you made it over to Sherry’s site. Her post today is great.
SPOILER ALERT: Shnorty was not one of the “darlings” she had to kill. Phew!
Okay, you two cracked nuts … the pink piggy … another Squee-key friend is adorable. I cannot do slide and sign. Instead I will be knickers-deep in storage boxes I am sorting with my good buddy, main pal, swim partner and best BETA reader. Then I’ll spend the rest of the w/e reading and editing. My writing companion is also a piggy. She is a pink and white ceramic piggy with a doofey smile and crossed eyes. She looks down at me from a shelf above the computer and smiles in her doofey way. She tells me everything is gonna be all right and since she is a pure soul, I believe her. Sorry no pics. I am still technologically challenged 🙂
HOW did you know I was going to ask for a pic?
She’s right–in her doofey way (which, IMHO, is a wonderful ‘way’ to be) — everything is gonna be all right.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy day with your main pal to comment, Florence.
Gloria,
Your posts never cease to be amusing, entertaining, and chock full of encouragement for others — namely, your wonderful friend Sherry. What a blessing you are to her, and vice-versa, I would presume 🙂
The pictures are adorable! I love that each of you have writing companions; does my Bella count?
11, seriously?!? Wow.
Of course your Bella counts! I shall pop over to your site and sneak a copy of the picture.
Sherry didn’t know I intended to nab these pictures for a link to her post.
You never know when I might surprise you with a ping on the back–to your blog, that is.
Shnort! Love the pig, very cute! I am mascotless, unless you count my Lab Molly! And as for sleeping, well, I definitely need my zzz’s. Unlike Sherry though I can’t sleep on my keyboard. ( too cute!) I have to get my blog for Gloria finished ASAP, she’s probably panicking about now even though I won’t be on here till the 12th. Yes, it’s nearly finished! (ok, not started yet, but I will start today!) Have fun sliding away!
Shnort, indeed, Jessica!
Yes, you get to pick your mascot. I’ll bet I’d get to Toronto sooner if I had MY yellow lab Molly taking me for the walk up there.
Molly has many speeds. Amble is not one of those speeds.
Origins was the happy recipient of my slide and sign (that I was NOT supposed to indulge in) yesterday. It’s NOT MY FAULT I ran out of make-up.
I’m not worried about your responses to my questions being here on time. The only person on this post who has ever been late is moi.
Better yet, if I don’t get your answers, I’ll make some up for you. You’re welcome.
Slide and sign … very funny. I shan’t be letting my wife see your blog … 🙂
Killing darlings can feel like we’re doing horrible things to small fluffy animals, but it has to be done 😉
Cheers
PS tell Shorty he’s got nothing to fear from me – I’m a veggie!
Ruh-roh, Nigel. Shnorty was last seen with packed bags headed south. Perhaps he’ll show up at you door seeking Pork-itical Asylum. Please let us know. It was a joke! A joke!
How cute are you, Gloria?
Thanks, Jenny! The cute-credits in the pics belong to Sherry’s Shnorty, My Squee-Key, and Sherry snoozing on her laptop.
But, I’ll pretend you meant me. I love my imaginary world.
I admire your taste in artificial creatures. I’m the proud owner of a giant, brightly-colored fish and a devil-snail myself 🙂
And what a great-looking blog you have. The color scheme and background image work well together and are pretty awesome.
Mike! Thanks for visiting and commenting. Send pics of your giant fish and devil-snail. Squee Key needs company on his trek. I have to tally the miles again, but I think we’re about to cross the state line into Arkansas. Geesh! Texas is a big state.
I will do that. I was actually thinking of featuring them in a blog post sometime, but wasn’t real sure there was an audience for it. But it sounds like maybe there is 🙂
I grew up in Texas and am well-acquainted with what a massive place it really is. When I moved to another state, it took me about 6 hours just to drive out of there, and I didn’t even go through the thickest part of it.
I am thrilled your creatures will make their debut appearance over here, Mike. Let me know if you want to tie it into a Q/A guest blog on how you came to adopt them (or, any other topic that hits you).
I’m not sure where you live, so I don’t know if we’ll pass near you on our virtual trek.
Okay, so we’re talking about my doing a guest post on your blog? If so, that would be fun 🙂
Oops…I forgot to add that I’m in Wisconsin.
In re: Wisconsin, I’ll drag out my atlas to see if we can make that stop on the way back. Failing that, Squee Key, Giant Fish and Devil Snail can be pen pals.
Yes, I’m talking about a guest post on my blog. I think it would be hoot to give your pets a stage over here. You can email me off blog at gloria(dot)r6254(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Let me know what your thoughts are. Anything goes — at least anything PG13 rated goes. I LOVE off-the-wall or serious. Question/answer. Squee Key races giant snail and flying fish.
Or, you can take the stage and tell us where you met your buddies and what role they play in your life.
FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS GET AWAY with anything — Part Deux
Okay…I’ll see what I can come up with 🙂
Just wanted to let you know I haven’t forgotten about this. I’ll probably have something later this week.