Peace Makers in a Nutshell

As I mentioned a few days ago, I'm writing a blurb about the first installment of Peace Makers (Coming Home). Here is the current iteration:

AMERICA 2042CE: A down-and-out disaster specialist finds she’s the last of a long line of magical Druid priestesses carrying the bloodline of William the Conqueror. To make matters worse, she is expected to fill the shoes of her new father, the erstwhile Grand Druid whose coma is likely the result of foul play. Taught to run from adversity by a mother who carried the secret of her powers and heritage to an alcoholic grave, and faced with a foe known only as “The Darkness”, she must race the clock, cramming twenty-six years’ of training in to the short time left.

On the opposite coast her nemesis, a sorceress-turned-holy-woman, is targeted and tagged by the invisible foe: a race of Reptilian aliens residing in Earth’s interior. Placed there millennia ago and kept secret and apart from the Humans by a forgetfulness curse enforced by dragon guards, the Reptilians are determined to take control of the planet. Led by a nasty Draco general, they will use the evangelist and others like her to pit the humans against one another, leaving Earth ripe for the picking. 

It's a bit wordy still, weighing in at 183 words, but this is the story in a nutshell. What do you think? Are you intrigued enough to buy an advance copy of the book?

~ That Rebel, Olivia J. Herrell

The Truth Revealed

Hi Y'all! My cousin has a 17" HP laptop but they haven't set up the wireless yet. I wanted to check in and let you know that EACH of the seven holds a kernel of truth. Six are exaggerated.

1) I DO love cemeteries, but sorry Wally, not so much at night. Probably has something to do with all those scary movies I watched as a child.

2) To Stephen and The Words Crafter: I currently only hold a chiropractic license (in both GA and CA), but have held each of these licenses at different times in the past.

3) I have moved 19 times in the last twelve years (one shy of 20!), plus I've moved my office four times in that same time period. Kobico, you were close! The link is a post I did a while back about being a vagabond.

4) Until Bugsy, my current companion, all of my cats have been either black or some derivation. Bugsy, however, is white with black spots and tail and a tiger head. I never had cat hair all over everything until him, either!

5) I worked for Yancey Bros. Co., the Georgia Caterpillar Dealer, for eight years doing special accounting projects, then as Accounting Manager/Asst Controller, then as the Advertising Mgr. I would have LOVED to sell tractors but in the south at that time there were NO female sales people. (There probably still aren't.) Kathy, I was in Peoria a couple of times and still love Cats.

6) Jemi, Melanie and Angela all guessed this one. And YES, I am a direct descendent of William whether you call him Conqueror, the Great, the Bastard or the Redeemer on my paternal grandmother Willoughby's side. Melanie, I'm actually at a reunion on my mom's side. Not sure who all is up this ladder. :)

7)  Ed Tuleja of King Harvest was the cousin of one of my best friends. They played at Six Flags and stayed with her family for several days while there. We all did hang out, including Sherman, who actually wrote their hit song "Dancing in the Moodlight". They were much older, though, so though I had a bit of a crush, I never had a date with him.

I'm having a wonderful time in Rochester. Today we have blue skies and low humidity, temps in the 70's, ahhhhh. Tomorrow is the reunion/all day party for my cousins' 30th anniversary/vow renewal. Another cousin is performing the ceremony.


Thank you for guessing which was what. I'll see you guys in a few days. Till then, have a great weekend wherever you are. And, for your listening pleasure, here is a youtube.com recording of "Dancing in the Moonlight".

Moving Again aka Ode to the Vagabond

Yep. You read that right. I'm moving again.

This makes 14 moves since January 1999. Fourteen! And that's not counting the four office moves. Three of the fourteen have been in the last few months, since arriving in North Georgia in December.

If I throw in the cross-country move from Georgia to California in '99, that's fifteen, and the four places I lived in the seven-month period before THAT move, we're up to nineteen since June of 1998. So 19 moves (plus four office) in 12 years. Phew.

This moving mania has been a part of my life since I first left home...before the age of 18.

Several moves in to my stint in Southern California, I decided I must be part gypsy. Or maybe I am descended from a long-lost tribe of nomads. I do know that I am descended from William the Conquerer (aka William the Great, William the Deliverer, William the Bastard) on my Grandmother Willoughby's side. Gypsies roamed freely back then.

Whatever the case, it occurs to me that I should probably invest in a nice motor home. At least that way when I move I can just hop in and drive to my next destination, and pay lot rent rather than having to box up my belongings and tote heavy stuff around every time.

It also occurs to me that it may be time to take a closer look at why I am blown from place to place like a dandelion seed in the wind. It has seemed that each move has been the next right thing in front of me, and that there is a deeper driving force. But is that just me justifying being a vagabond?

As is my wont, I stopped to google vagabond. And found the following passage in Wikipedia:

By the 19th century the vagabond was associated more closely with Bohemianism...The critic Arthur Compton-Rickett compiled a review of the type, in which he defined it as men "with a vagrant strain in the blood, a natural inquisitiveness about the world beyond their doors." Examples included Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Leo Tolstoy, William Hazlitt, and Thomas de Quincey...

I like the more upbeat connotation of the Bohemian moniker. And now, knowing I'm in the good company of these glorious authors, I feel better. See. Blogging IS good for the soul. I always learn something new. And I usually learn something new about myself in the process.



Wikipedia also included a list of songs that mention vagabond. The most notable (for me) are Little Feat's Roll Um Easy, Frank Sinatra's New York, New York and Joan Baez's Diamonds and Rust. Strangely, they left out my favorite, Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin. Vagabond, a delightful song by Bethany Dillon, an artist I'd never heard of, was on that list. I'm not sure, but it sounds like this song is about the Son of God. Most excellent company to be in.

Whether I'm a gypsy, nomad, vagabond, or bohemian, or just a woman following the call of Divine, my wanderings today have led me to an unexpected conclusion. It's okay. Nay. It's inspired.

Guess it's time to start saving for that motor home.

Pictures from top: Our new home on the outskirts of Dahlonega, we'll be moving some time in the next two weeks; our new back yard (yes, folks, those are newly leafing-out woods, complete with dogwoods, wild azaleas and sweet shrub!)