I Know It Was Just A TV Show, But....!

I was fifteen years old when the Bewitched episode, "I Don't Want To Be A Toad, I Want To Be A Butterfly," aired for the first time.

Remember that episode?   Tabitha goes to nursery school, and during a forest game, Mrs. Burch, the teacher, tells a girl named Amy that she will be the toad.
Amy wants to be the butterfly, but the teacher says that anyone who spills her juice at snack time can't be the butterfly.  Amy must be the toad.

Really?  A little kid has an accident that could just as easily happen to an adult, and this teacher shames her for it?

I thought back then that if I were the teacher, Amy would have been the butterfly, just to make her feel better about spilling her juice.  I still feel the same way.  Amy didn't just want to be the butterfly; she needed to be the butterfly.

Yes, it was just a tv show, but there really are teachers like that Mrs. Burch.

Teachers who have no business working with little kids.

Books Read In The Past Week

Books read for the first time are marked with a #

Books are listed by author (or series creator),

and not necessarily in the order read.

"My Daily Spiritual Companion"

by Marci Alborghetti

daily devotional reading for 2017

I liked the book I used last year better

"The Home Has A Heart"

[non-fiction; Christian (Protestant) themes, recipes, 
anecdotes]
(July chapter only)

"Mama's Way"
[nonfiction, Protestant]
by Thyra Ferre Bjorn

"A Room Made Of Windows"
"The Private Worlds of Julia Redfern"

by Eleanor Cameron  
[children's fiction]
(openlibrary.org loans)
I have never yet read the Julia Redfern series
without wanting to THROTTLE Aunt  Alex

"Schoolhouse in the Woods"
by Rebecca Caudill
[children's fiction, historical, 1870s]
(Kindle book)

"The Books You Read: Devotional Edition

edited by Charles E.T. Jones
[nonfiction]

"The Small Rain"
by Madeleine L'Engle
[fiction]

"The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ" #

by St. Alphonsus Liguori

[Catholic spirituality]

(Kindle book)

"There's A Rainbow In My Closet"
by Patti Stren
[children's fiction]

"All The Time You Need, The Greatest Gift In The World"

by Robert R. Updegraff
[nonfiction]
(The author also wrote "Try
Giving Yourself Away" under
the pen-name David Dunn. )
This book has some good advice, and interesting anecdotes.

This Week's Fan Fiction

  A new story was posted.

Boca Lynda
A three-part AU Another World fic.

Chapters were added to the following stories:

23rd Precinct

An on-going Another World fic.

To go directly to the latest chapter, click here.

Lydia
a slightly AW Another World fic.

Chloe, My Love
An AU Bonanza fic.
To go directly to the new chapters, click here.

Dante's Troubles
An Another World fic, set about four years after the show went off the air.
To go directly to the new chapter, click here.

Revealed Relationships
A partly AU Another World fic.
To go directly to the new chapter, click here.

Avatar

For a long time, now, I've wanted an avatar on fanfiction.net, but I didn't want to use a character... person, animal, or fantastic creature.

The other day, I finally chose my avatar, and I made sure that it was available for public use.

Books Read In The Past Week

Books read for the first time are marked with a #

Books are listed by author (or series creator),

and not necessarily in the order read.

"My Daily Spiritual Companion"

by Marci Alborghetti

daily devotional reading for 2017

I liked the book I used last year better

Chapter 3 of

"Minutes From The Great Women's Coffee Club
Timeless Wisdom From Remarkable Women" #

by Angela Beasley

[nonfiction]

there are 12 chapters, and I'm reading one a month.

I've given my reason in this post

"Mama's Way"
by Thyra Ferre Bjorn
[nonfiction, Protestant]

"That Julia Redfern"

(physical copy)

"Julia And The Hand Of God"
"A Room Made Of Windows"

(openlibrary.org loans)
by Eleanor Cameron  
[children's fiction]
I have never yet read the Julia Redfern series
without wanting to THROTTLE Aunt Alex

"Try Giving Yourself Away"
by David Dunn
[nonfiction]
a great favorite of mine,
with some wonderful anecdotes 

"The Books You Read: Devotional Edition
edited by Charles E.T. Jones
[nonnfiction]

"The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ" #

by St. Alphonsus Liguori

[Catholic spirituality]

(Kindle book)

"Pilgrim Cat" # 

by Carol Antoinette Peacock

[picture book, historical fiction, 1620s]

(Kindle Unlimited loan)

"Thy Friend, Obadiah"

by Brinton Turkle

[picture book]

(openlibrary.org loan)

"All The Time You Need, The Greatest Gift In The World"

by Robert R. Updegraff
[nonfiction]
(The author also wrote "Try
Giving Yourself Away" under
the pen-name David Dunn. )
This book has some good advice, and interesting anecdotes.

This Week's Fan Fiction

Chapters were added to the following stories: 

The Poem

an AU prequel to The Waltons

To go directly to the new chapters, click here.

Dante's Troubles
An Another World fic, set about four years
after the show went off the air.
To go directly to the new chapter, click here.

Unsuited To Each Other 
An AU Katie Rose and Stacy Belford fic.
To go directly to the new chapter, click here.

Chloe, My Love
An AU Bonanza fic.
To go directly to the new chapter, click here.

Going Backwards, Moving Forward

Lately, I've been moving forward by going backwards.
What do I mean by that?

Years ago, before there was an Internet, before I had a computer, I wrote something every day.  Sometimes it was
a poem, (although I don't write much poetry these days; the poem I used in my AU Waltons prequel is one I had written
a long time ago.) sometimes a story, or part of a story, and sometimes just an idea for something to write later.

But for some time now, I was just writing on and off, and, unfortunately, mostly off.

But then I decided to quit being lazy... yes, LAZY... as a writer,

and get back to work.

Now, I work on my fan fiction every day.  Some days, it's a new story, a new chapter in an in-progress story, or just a few lines in a fic I'm working.  Some days, it's just a few new ideas to be developed in the future.  Some days, it's a few changes to an already published fic.  And quite often, I do several of these things... new story, new chapter, several lines, new idea, changes... in one day.

"Not a day without a line."

I feel most like me when I write.