Friday Five

1. I blogged at TRS Blue about Women's History Month and the right of women to vote.

2. Is anyone else watching Dollhouse? I had been intrigued but not wowed. Last night, I watched last Friday's DVRed episode. Now...I'm wowed. Holy cow what a good episode. It had several twists that while I may have seen them coming, they were executed in a way that left me breathless. Yes, Joss Whedon still rocks.

3. I either have allergies or a code. I'm leaning toward allergies because the youngest had a bad bout and because my eyes are leaking. One eye wants to cry all the time *sigh*. I took allergy medicine and it made me so sleepy I could barely function. Course sniffling and tearing all the time isn't doing much for action either.

4. Have you ever heard Jeanne Robertson's comedy? I've heard a couple of routines by her on the radio comedy channel and wound up hearing one this week about her trip to Hawaii with her husband. He didn't want to pay a cab and took the city bus LOL to the hotel with all their luggage. It had me cracking up!

5. I'm in the home strectches of the new story. I hope to finish it early next week. It's not a long one, definitely a novella. It will probably be around 25 K. I'm over 18 K in.

May the muses have weekends
Mechele

Thursday Thirteen

I blogged at Loose Ends on Women in History, too. "Well-behaved women rarely make history."--Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Thirteen women I admire and/or am fascinated by.

1. Mary Magdalene I once took a Women in Religion class in college that said if Jesus had wanted to be believed, he couldn't have found less believable witnesses to his resurrection. I seem to remember it took two women to equal the word of one man. Mary Magdalene was the first person to see the resurrected Jesus. She fascinates me for many reasons. I've read a couple of books on the little we know of her life and I've also ready her gospel (part of the gnostic gospels and not part of the Bible).

2. Virginia Dare The first English child born on American soil, she disappeared with the rest of the Roanoke colony. That whole mystery has intrigued me since I first heard about it.

3. Harriet Tubman A woman who escaped slavery in the South and continued to go back and bring others to freedom on the Underground Railroad. She never lost a passenger, despite blackouts/seizures that plagued her, probably caused by a blow to the head by an overseer.

4. Juliette Gordon Lowe Yes, I owe a debt to this woman. I was a Girl Scout for my entire childhood. Now my girls are beginning on that path. Lowe started Girl Scouts. She was good friends with Lord Baton Powell who started Boy Scouts. Lowe also started the Girl Scouts selling cookies...LOL. I took a tour of her house when I was in Savannah.

5. Susan B. Anthony She's one of the more famous suffragettes, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and more. She fought for a woman's right to vote, finally achieved with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. But Anthony was never able to excercise that right legally. She died before the Amendment was passed. She stood up for what she believed in and fought for it, despite criticism.

6. Amelia Earhart She's one of the more famous aviators, who broke new ground for women pilots. It's also a great mystery as to what happened to her when she disappeared flying over the Pacific.

7. Marie Curie A woman scientist who was ahead of her time. She overcame barriers placed against her because she was a woman. She discovered polonium and radium. Worked with radiactivity. Won the Nobel Prize twice. Ultimately her research killed her because at that time, they didn't know the dangers of radiation.

8. Elizabeth the 1st The whole Tudor family is quite fascinating. Imagine your father had six wives in the search for the elusive boy. Alas, the only boy is sickly and dies. Your sister comes to the throne and comes after you. She also divides the country, persecuting people on a religious basis. She's known as Bloody Mary. You come to the throne after her death. Elizabeth the 1st ruled for over 50 years. And her time on the throne is remembered well.

9. Emily Dickinson Only 10 of her poems were published in her lifetime. The rest were either bound into small volumes or written in her letters. The only reason her poems came to light was because her sister and two long time friends brought them to the public eye after her death. What a hidden talent.

10. Irena Sendler This woman formed a group of other women to help and saved some 2500 children from the Nazis. She wrote their true names on scraps of paper and buried them in a jar in the hopes of one day reuniting children with their families. She was captured and tortured but refused to tell them anything. In one torture session, her feet and legs were broken. She still refused to talk. After that, she managed to escape but she continued to help people escape the Nazis, as many as 500 more. After the Nazis had been brought down, she unearthed her jars of names and tried to help reunite what families were left.

11. Lynn Johnston I'm a "For Better or For Worse" long time fan. I started reading it when it started. I have a collection of books. I cried when Farley died, agonized over Gordon's home life, cheered when Lawrence came out. She was close friends with Charles Schultz, who actually threatened to kill off Snoopy if she carried through with Farley's death.

12. Alice Walker "The Color Purple" is probably one of her most famous works but I enjoyed "In search of our Mother's Gardens Womanist prose" as well. She has done a lot to bring interest to Zora Neale Hurston as well as writing her own works. I may not agree with all of her politics but she's quite a powerhouse in fighting for what she believes in.

13. Sherrilyn Kenyon When I list what authors I admire, Sherri always makes the list. To look ather career is to see a meteor in flight. She once had to come up with change to mail a proposal and had trouble doing it! Now, she's got her own convention and people clamor for her next book or book signing.

I could list so many more woman. Clara Barton. Molly Pitcher. The Bronte Sisters. Jane Austen. George Sand. Margaret Mitchell. Joan of Arc. Cleopatra. Calamity Jane. Annie Oakley. Madeleine L'Engle. Dian Fossey. Jane Goodall. Ella Fitzgerald. Aretha Franklin. Ruby Bridges. Rosa Parks. Wilma Rudolph. Catherine the Great.

The list goes on and on.

Mechele

Friday Five

1. Nearing the half way point on the new story. Hope the last half goes fast.

2. One of the kidlets has a book fair going on at school. I'm so so so dangerous at a book fair. LOL. My oldest bought the first book in the series, 39 Clues. It looks really good. I might have to read that one. My youngest LOVES the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I think she's going to get into comic books or manga or graphic novels. She doesn't want to give up artwork in books.

3. I know I keep posting on RT but I'm so excited! Unfortunately Melissa's not going *sniffle* but Mari is and I'm looking forward to hanging out with her. I have pens and post-its and a new dress and fairy wings. And hopefully *crosses fingers* I'll be signing my own stock at the Wed ebook fair (CD's) plus signing Torc's Salvation as Melany and signing for both Mechele and Melany at the Sat book fair.

4. This is women's history month. Five women from history that I admire or am curious about:

1. Mary Magdalene from the Bible.
2. Juliette Gordon Low
3. Rosa Parks
4. Madame Curie
5. Amelia Earhart

5. Today is the first day of spring! Bring on the warmer weather (though LOL it's not as cold here as in some places).

May the muses have spring
Mechele

Friday Five

1. The new story is plodding along. I can't write fast enough to satisfy myself. Or my noisy characters. The first chapter is done, and I like the direction it's going in.

2. March is Women's History Month. I'm going to have to do some posts on women and well, history. So many women are just utterly fascinating from Amelia Earhart to Madame Curie. I'm also encouraging (read making) my girls earn a Girl Scout patch on Women in History to celebrate the month. We'll see how that goes.

3. On Saturday, my youngest and hubby will be going to their first father/daughter dance together. It shoud be fun. They have to dress up like favorite storybook characters. LOL I'd tell you who but I think my hubby might kill me *G*. Let's just say the youngest gets to be a cat, her favorite animal.

4. I find myself singing "Long Black Train" by Josh Turner. I love his voice *sigh*. I also heard the new John Rich song, "Shutting down Detroit." :( Sad but it's spot on. "Already Gone" by Sugarland is another fave right now. And "Gotta Be Somebody" by Nickelback.

5. I'm really starting to look forward to RT. It always motivates me to want that fabled more. It's fun and I get to meet readers and writers. I get to be a fan and also have a couple of my own (which just makes me sqeal). I'm going to be seeing several friends there and hope to make a few new ones. My editor will be there, along with several other of her authors that I talk to via email a lot. I can't wait!

May the muses have Fridays
Mechele

PS it's snowing again here! Not supposed to amount to anything and only sticking on the grass. LOL it was 80 plus at the beginning of the week.