I had just crawled out of my Fergie and Jake’s leather chair where I’d parked myself after sleeping for ten hours the night before–delicious!–with what seemed like a pissant little cold, but hey, maybe it had bigger ambitions. Anyway, feeling manageable, I carried a couple of flagstones over to my “job site” ahem, a small oblong of dirt where my scruffy lawn used to be. I’m laying flagstones, but there was no puzzling out how to do it yesterday. I was definitely not up to snuff.

But then I checked Facebook and got a most delightful surprise. Instant cure for what ailed me. Nikki Frank-Hamilton, whose blog View From In Here I truly enjoy, nominated me for The Shine On Award–for blogs that shine, make you feel good and are inspiring to the reader.  How wonderful is that? I love the logo. And that’s what life is all about, isn’t it, each one of us shining forth in our own unique way?

The rules of this award are:

Link back to the person (or people) who nominated you.
Add the award logo to your blog.
Share seven things about yourself.
Nominate 10 – 15 bloggers, and link to them, and tell them about their nomination.

SEVEN things about myself….

1.  I have a hard time deciding whether or not I’m sick enough to just stop.

2. Stop me if I’ve told you this before. I worked as a waitress at Robert Burns restaurant in Fashion Island, Newport Beach. For one week. Told them I’d waitressed before. Not true. The place was pretty upscale (no longer in business) with rich snotty old-timers who expected me to deliver their food in order: drinks first then salad, etc. I knew I was really in trouble the third day when the cooks started giving me a hard time. Must’ve been the orders I had to return because I got them wrong. Anyway.  My nerves couldn’t take it. I quit.

3.  I love Fergie’s breath. She’s my three-year-old Staffie. I like Jake’s too, but Fergie’s is best.

4. I can whistle through my tongue, sounds like an owl. You’ll have to read my memoir, Loveyoubye, to find out who taught me. Gawd, that’s a bad plug. But it’s the best I have so far. Oh, forgot to add that said memoir is coming out in August. I have to do this people. That’s what one does when one has a book coming out. I’ll get better at it. Probably not.

5. I can interpret handwriting, took a graphology course with the goal of working for the courts, but didn’t quite finish. Can’t remember why.

6. According to my dad, Archie McCartney, his uncle was tutor to Woodrow Wilson’s children. Out of three Scottish brothers, this was the one who emigrated to America, my grandfather to South Africa, and the third to New Zealand. One of these days I’m going to check this out.

7. When my dad found out I intended emigrating to the States, he told me, just don’t be eating bacon with your pancakes and putting syrup on them. Funny. I wouldn’t dream of it. I eat my pancakes like I always did, folded over with butter, which I dip in the syrup. It’s best with homemade jam, however. To me they will always be “flapjacks.” In Africa our pancakes are actually crepes with cinnamon and sugar. My eldest son, Darin, makes the best.

Here are the blogs I really like. That I feel Shine On.

No preference in the order and a couple don’t even have blogs, but they’re on Facebook.

Jayne Martin

Deborah Batterman

Lyra Halprin

Cate Russell-Cole

Norine Dworkin-Mcdaniel

Becky Green-Aronson

Jessica Winters Mireles

Elizabeth Cassidy

Elisabeth Kinsey

Marcy of (Don’t Be) Too Timid and Squeamish

The post Shine On!! appeared first on Rossandra White.

This year I realized just how much I’ve learned through blogging. My writing experience, nigh these twenty years, has been the long form: books, three of them. (Yes. It took me twenty years, hey, I had a full time job and kids to raise.) I’ve written a few essays, but I’ve never had to wing it every day, or at least a couple of times a week.  It’s been tough. The A-Z Challenge was a godsend. It gave me a target. Through doing the challenge I gained confidence and honed my writing chops. I also made connections.

Cheers to the A-Z Challenge creators! Thank you.

The post Reflection on The A-Z Challenge appeared first on Rossandra White.

Pronounced ziz-e-va, it is a yellowish snouted beetle, no longer than an ant. It was first discovered in 1922 in Brazil, and named by an Irishman Thomas Lincoln Casey, Jr.  An entomologist at New York’s Museum of Natural History thought that, because there was not a Latin name or Brazilian name associated with this weevil, it was probably named Zyzzyva as a practical joke to place it in a prominent ending position in many guides and manuals, where the word itself is found in many English-language dictionaries.

Zyzzyva is also the name of a literary magazine–”The Last Word: West Coast Writers and Artists”–first published in 1985.  At a Writer’s Conference in San Diego in 2000, I found myself sitting next to the editor of the magazine, which would be great today, I could pitch some of my stories to him, but in those days I was finishing up my YA novel, Monkey’s Wedding. Not his cup of tea.

Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post Z is For Zyzzyva appeared first on Rossandra White.

The word “yellow” comes from the Old English geolu, geolwe, meaning “yellow, yellowish”, derived from the Proto-Germanic word gelwaz.  It is commonly associated with gold, sunshine, reason, optimism, pleasure, happiness and energy.

Yellow makes me think of my dad. The time we were on the train from Nkana, about to pull into Johannesburg station where my uncle would be picking us up for a visit with all the relatives. I was six and my mom had just scrubbed off all the soot and dirt from the three day train journey and dressed me in one her latest creations, an apricot-colored voile-like dress with puff sleeves. My hair was brushed into a golden cap and I wore a yellow ribbon tied on top in a bow.

“Yellow’s your color,” my dad said.

Funny, I would remember that, but it stuck, like it was yesterday.

Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post Y is For Yellow appeared first on Rossandra White.

 The former definition, not the latter. Not for this particular blog anyway.

It’s about the book cover for my soon to be released memoir, Loveyoubye. I haven’t said much about what’s been happening on the road to publication with She Writes Press. That’s because there hasn’t been that much to report because I’m only on the first step: the book cover. A biggie, I realized from all my sleepless nights wondering how it would turn out. So here’s how the process works: they make a suggestion–a woman walking on the beach, memoir-like, they said–NO. NO. NO. So not what my book is about. Please God, don’t let me have to settle for that. And then they get my input and then a rough rendering of my ideas. Yow! I don’t know people, but I’m cautiously eXcited about the final product.

Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post X is For eXcited appeared first on Rossandra White.

I use this word a lot, in my head for the most part, because I’m worried about sounding like an emoting dipshit, also as a writer I need to be precise in choosing my words. Between the two I manage. But I must tell you, the feeling of delight or marvelousness or extremely good, spills right out of me sometimes and I have to hug someone. With dogs, no explanation needed and with people, well, so far I haven’t had any cringing or WTF looks. And sometimes the hugee will provide a reason for me, like my Jazzercise instructor yesterday, when after class I grabbed and hugged her tight, filled with gratitude for her instruction and for my life.

“Good day, huh?” she said.

Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post W is For Wonderful appeared first on Rossandra White.

Now, everyone I know hates jury duty. I don’t. Well, I did while I was working full-time and trying to write and trying to deal with delinquent children and a delinquent husband and two dogs. And then I found myself for the first time at the courthouse in Santa Ana anxious to get the hell out of there, I didn’t have time for this. But then the judge spoke to us like we really mattered. I looked into the face of the accused. Here was a man fighting for his life. I had to make the right decision. And I did. I know that because I couldn’t be impartial. It was a murder, which involved mutilation, something I’d witnessed first hand in the Mau-Mau rebellion. I found myself speaking up, something I’m not very good at–my upbringing and all that–but I did. My decision mattered.

Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post V is For Venireman appeared first on Rossandra White.

Despite the negative connotations of this word, I like saying it.

My favourite unctuous cartoon character is Snidely Whiplash, archenemy of Dudley Do Right, a spinoff of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  Whiplash is the stereotypical villain in the style of stock characters found in silent movies and earlier stage melodrama, wearing black clothing, cape, and a top hat, and twirling his long handlebar moustache. In the cartoon’s opening segments, Snidely is seen tying Nell Fenwick to a railroad track.

“Nyah, ha-ha,” he’d cry, twirling his moustache.  “I love a woman with spirit.”

Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post U is For Unctuous appeared first on Rossandra White.

It’s French. Of course.

I wrote about apron-wearing rickshaw “boys” in my memoir, Loveyoubye, but I think the word tablier is more apt, except how many people will know what I’m talking about?

“Wearing layers of intricately beaded and tasseled aprons, tabliers, quills and feather boas, along with animal hair leggings, the men tow customers in garish large-wheeled rickshaw carts up and down Marine Parade. Their outrageous headdresses are vast beaded displays worthy of Rio carnival.”
Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post T is For Tablier appeared first on Rossandra White.

Finding this word (another one I’d never heard of) has allowed me to revisit the trip I made to England in April of last year where I reconnected with my two old chums, Donna and Joan, from Nkana, Zambia. That was my first experience with the A-Z Challenge and being the terrific planner I am, I didn’t have all the blogs already written, which had me scrambling to compose during my visit. Oh, and did I mention I’m a Taurus, so there was no way I was going to give it up. I think Joan got a kick out of being my sounding board for the posts. Here’s a photo of me sitting on the floor of her lounge (American translation=living room) composing into the night.

So back to scrumpy. I didn’t know that’s what we drank that night in the pub Joan and her ex used to own. The place looked like Inspector Morse or even the footman in the ragingly popular TV series Downton Abbey might have frequented. You can read all about it here.

Click here to read others’ A-Z blogs or to enter your link to join in the fun for the month of April.

The post S is For Scrumpy appeared first on Rossandra White.