Djelem Djelem, Song of a People without a Nation--Romani

Djelem Djelem (Gelem Gelem) Translation: I went, I went.

Go to YouTube for the Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra performance. Click on the above link.

“After experiencing firsthand the incarceration of Roma during the Porajmos (the Romani Holocaust of World War II), [Žarko] Jovanović later composed the lyrics of "Gelem, Gelem" and set them to a traditional melody in 1949. The song was first adopted by delegates of the first World Romani Congress held in 1971.” Quoted from Wikipedia

The lyrics of Djelem Djelem:

Gelem, gelem, lungone dromensa Maladilem bakhtale Romensa A Romale, katar tumen aven, E tsarensa bakhtale dromensa? A Romale, A Chavale Sas vi man yekh bari familiya, Mundardyas la e Kali Legiya Aven mansa sa lumnyake Roma, Kai putardile e Romane droma Ake vriama, usti Rom akana, Amen khutasa misto kai kerasa A Romale, A Chavale Puter Devla le parne vudara Te shai dikhav kai si me manusha Pale ka zhav lungone dromendar Thai ka phirav bakhtale Romensa A Romalen, A chavalen Opre Rroma, si bakht akana Aven mansa sa lumnyake Roma O kalo mui thai e kale yakha Kamav len sar e kale drakha A Romalen, A chavalen.

Translation I went, I went on long roads I met happy Roma O Roma, where do you come from, With tents happy on the road? O Roma, O Romani youths! I once had a great family, The Black Legion murdered them Come with me, Roma from all the world For the Roma, roads have opened Now is the time, rise up Roma now, We will rise high if we act O Roma, O Romani youths! Open, God, White doors So I can see where are my people. Come back to tour the roads And walk with happy Roma O Roma, O Romani youths! Up, Romani people! Now is the time Come with me, Roma from all the world Dark face and dark eyes, I want them like dark grapes O Roma, O Romani youths! (from Wikipedia)

(Mary Lou Cheatham, along with Sarah Walker Gorrell, authored a novel depicting life of the Romanies in Mississippi in the early 1900's:  Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek.)

                                                                                                                                                                                              

OUR NOVEL ABOUT GYPSIES

I googled Books about Gypsies, Gypsies in Romance, and Novels about Gypsies.  The results: I didn’t find a single reference to our book, Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek. But...I found quite a few books, some looked good, others not too.

We didn’t place the word Gypsy in our title. We chose Travelers instead because Gypsy has an unpleasant connotation for many people, especially the Romani people. We wanted to be kind, and we feel that we wrote a book that is kind, objective, and at the same time humorous.
Readers are not finding our book as often as we’d hoped. Therefore, this blog entry is to tell you part of what our novel is about: Gypsies. We wrote about some wonderful people who are invisible in the United States. We told about what their lives were like a century ago; in many ways, as their lives were the same a millennium ago; and their lives, which have not changed much over the last one hundred years.

Despite their intelligence, gentle ways, and loyalty to their own people, these beautiful ones go unnoticed. Those who are Gypsies seldom call attention to themselves. Did you know a recent President of the United States descended from the Romani people? Did you know that more than a few famous entertainers have come from the Gypsy heritage?

People’s attitudes toward Gypsies have been unkind. According to Dictionary.com a Gypsy is, “a member of a nomadic, Caucasoid people of generally swarthy complexion, who migrated originally from India, settling in various parts of Asia, Europe, and, most recently, North America.”

Or a Gypsy could be “a person held to resemble a gypsy, especially in physical characteristics or in a traditionally ascribed freedom or inclination to move from place to place.”

Scrolling down the definitions of Dictionary.com we find that a Gypsy may be “an independent, usually nonunion trucker, hauler, operator, etc.” or “a chorus dancer, especially in the Broadway theater.”

When we decided to tell our story about the Gypsies, which we call Romanies or Travelers, we learned about the beautiful humanity of these people. We haven’t glorified them. We’ve merely tried to present a true-to-life picture. Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek is full of brilliant characters, stooges, noble people, and criminals. Good and evil exist universally.

(Mary Lou Cheatham and Sarah Walker Gorrell have co-authored Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek, a book of fiction. Much of the novel reflects stories told to them by their parents and grandparents.)

WE NEED YOU TO INTERACT.

As I’ve walked on the treadmill, I've listened to the text-to-speech version of The Transformational Consumer by Tara-Nicholle Nelson. Although the book is nonfiction, I have enjoyed it as much as a novel.

It is designed to help men and women working in businesses obtain more customers.  The subtitle says it all: “Fuel a love affair with your customers by helping them get healthier, wealthier, and wiser.”

I suppose one reason I’ve gained so much from this book is that it hits a problem my friend, Sarah Walker Gorrell, and I are facing. It hits the problem right in the bull’s eye.

As co-authors of a novel, Sarah and I believe we have something to give people. I have needed the advice and teaching Ms. Nelson provides. She’s talking about companies; on an informal level, Sarah and I are a kind of company. We have written a novel that is based on our love for our readers and all those who will be our future readers. We wrote it to entertain, but also to love those who open the pages and become acquainted with the characters presented therein. We want our readers to go along with us as we show how our characters lived in their situations.

(We hope the words we have placed in the Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek will bring health, wealth, and wisdom. We want to give renewed hope and tolerance of the downtrodden...wisdom. Although making money isn’t the main theme, we show how our characters earn money in unlikely ways—sometimes amusing, sometimes whacky—and how they squander or manage money...wealth.  We show wisely functional families and dysfunctional families, we present caretakers, an abusive parent, the results of unfortunate love affairs...health. I don’t want to get too much into this discussion. Instead, I just want you to read the book and think about it.)

One principal I have grasped from Tara-Nicholle’s writing is the importance of working with others. In any endeavor, promoting a novel included, no man is an island. Yes, we do want to promote this book. We didn’t write it just to have it sit on the shelf. We want to share the joys and struggles found here.

Tara-Nicholle, who is Black, tells of growing up in a Black Baptist Church. Every church service was interactive—not with a mere occasional Amen but in active participation by the congregation.  On p. 130, she makes me laugh and teaches something important.

It reminds me of some of my experiences. In the early 1970’s the Black students gave up their school and joined us.  As a high school English teacher in a large public school in Mississippi, I was shocked at what happened when I put away the literature book one day and pulled out the grammar textbook. “We like grammar,” the Black eleventh graders told me.  

(Do you remember the grammar exercises in the English books?)

In previous years,  I’d always discussed the grammar rules for the day. Then we’d gone over some of the drills. It had been my habit to call on students one sentence at a time.

Suddenly everything was different. When I started explaining the rules, the whole class talked with me. It was as though a bright light had been turned on. Then when we hit the exercises, they all chimed in. It was an electric moment.

I said something to them about being orderly. At the end of the lesson, although I'd enjoyed the class, I felt the need to correct our behavior.  I thought they were rebelling somehow.

“No, Mrs. Cheatham. We love this. We’re helping you.”

Now, Sarah and I need you to help us that same way. We need help from all of you who have read Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek. Please go to Amazon or  Goodreads and give us a few words to show us you care about what happens to us as writers.  Please give us some good word-of-mouth participation so others will find our novel and read it.

Another Step from Fat to Fit

Fighting the good fight, running the good race...

This afternoon, my sweet husband and I bought bathing suits. The suit I wore last year was too tight three years ago. Looking in a full-length mirror at myself in a bathing suit challenges me. I’m trying not to let it defeat me.

At the new YMCA in Shreveport, we can go to water aerobics. I loved the water aerobics classes at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, and I’ve missed them since I moved away.  After leaving that class and the cardiac rehab program at North Louisiana Medical Center, I’ve gradually increased my girth. My sweetheart has been kind.

It would help to hear from my friends who are going through these struggles.  I believe most of you are doing a better job traveling along the road toward fitness then I am.  Drop me a note on Facebook Messenger.

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(Mary Lou Cheatham worked with Sarah Walker Gorrell to write  Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek.)

Living in the Land of the Fat

In  "These Are the Fattest Cities in America"  Joanna Fantozzi calls attention to the obesity epidemic. What she means by the fattest cities is unclear. I assume she is talking about the percentage of people who are fat.

I am walking down the sidewalk of a city in the top five listed as the fattest cities. I am fat. In my opinion, I could afford to lose forty pound (I’m being kind to myself.) At 73 I feel healthy—young and vibrant. People tell me I look young, but I think my adipose tissue deceives their eyes.

Grandma is on my mind. She always ate well and often walked long distances. She ate a simple high-fiber diet mostly consisting of vegetables. She was never overweight.  Despite her simple life, she died when she was 74.  

I’m trying to improve. Today I have walked 12, 000 steps. As I walk the loop my husband and I have mapped out for ourselves, I smell hamburgers and French fry grease from two fast food restaurants. Around the corner, I see people flocking into a fried fish restaurant. The smell of frying fish drifts through the neighborhood.

I don’t like being fat, and I’m sad that the beautiful city I live in is one of the fattest cities in the United States. I’m trying to change—trying to lose weight—and yet I know being overweight is only one of the unhealthy habits that hurt people.

Back at home I grill tilapia.

(Mary Lou Cheatham and Sarah Walker Gorrell are the authors of   Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek.)

Taking Care of Mama

Jeremy stayed with Mathilda, his mother, while his father, Caleb Smitherlin, went to town to buy groceries and take handcrafted leather goods to the Mercantile. Someone needed to be with Mama all the time. Her illness had consumed her strength. Jeremy tried to do his best taking care of Mama, but the challenge of the job surpassed his capabilities.

Jeremy, a young teen, tells about his efforts to take care of Mathilda:

I stayed all day with Mama. Papa made me do it. He even went to town and left me there, nobody but the two of us.

Mama wasn’t good that day. Every time I went into their bedroom, she was wailing and crying. The spit pan on her table had globs of blood in it. The smell—oh how I hated it, but she was my mama. I loved her.

I found something else for her to spit in and took the other one to rinse it out.

“Go away, Spike.” I cleaned the blood out with an old rag and tossed the mess into the trash-burning barrel. Back at the well, I rinsed out the pan.

As fast as I could, I went back to Mama’s room. I brushed her stringy, dishwater blonde hair back with my hand. What thin hair she had was tangled in caked blood. Pale and splotched, she reached for me with her limp hands.

In her weak, whiny voice, Mama cried out to me, “Why, Jeremy? Why is God letting this happen to me? Why do I hurt so much? Help me, son, please help me! Oh, God.”

I was only a kid. I didn’t know what to do. I got cold washrags and wiped her face and pushed her hair back. It didn’t help. Nothing helped. Mama was dying and there wasn’t nothing I could do to stop it.

She choked on clots of blood as she spat them from her throat.

I couldn’t keep up with the mess.

```

Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek by Mary Lou Cheatham and Sarah Walker Gorrell begins with Jeremy’s efforts as a nurse. He considered himself too young and inexperienced to do the job. Besides, he thought his mother needed a woman to help her with chores that embarrassed him.

Children as Nurses

At times in life, a child may need to nurse his parent. Maybe the child might feel stressed, but so many times the child can come through the difficulties and rise to the occasion. Most of the stories I hear about modern children who have to take on this responsibility are about situations where the child has to take control of an emergency with the help of responders reached by calling 9-1-1.

Year after year—my dad used to say it happened seven years in a row but I don’t know—my mother had pneumonia. Dad stayed with her as much as he could, but he needed help. Even before I reached the age of double digits, I missed school so I could nurse my mom. I was the youngest, the only girl left at home. Mother needed a girl to help her. Sometimes I missed school as much as two weeks at a time. My teachers, who were sweet to me, seemed to understand. They often excused me from the work I missed.

Dad placed a cot in the dining room, where she could be warm. From that location, she supervised my cooking activities when she had lucid moments. I remember how we propped the foot of Mother’s cot up in what I learned later in nursing school was a position known as reverse Trendelenburg...to keep her from fainting. We turned her on her side so she could cough effectively.

The antibiotics she took made her hallucinate, and the strong medication nauseated her.  We made a mixture of chicken broth with cornmeal cooked in it. We wrapped her in a quilt and dangled her feet over the side of the bed. One spoonful at a time, we fed her.  

 Daddy went to town and returned with paper bags of supplies. Among these was a little bottle of bootlegged white lightening. “If you’ll take this, Myrtle, it will help your cough, and you’ll get better.”

Mother, who was a teetotaler, protested, but she was too weak to offer effective resistance. We spooned the liquid into her every time she had a coughing fit.  I wasn’t sure whether the medications or the whiskey cured her. I never felt self-pity. Instead, I enjoyed the break from school. My mother was acting so goofy she made me laugh.

I had a special mama, who cheerfully nursed her children through whatever happened. I was not a special kid. I merely did what families had to do before the days of home health care. Every winter, I was glad my mother didn’t die from pneumonia.

And then there were times when my wonderful daughter helped take care of her parents, but that's another story....

(Mary Cooke, whose pen name is Mary Lou Cheatham, has co-authored with Sarah Walker Gorrell a poignant novel, Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek, about a young boy trying to take care of his mother, who suffers with cancer.)

When a loved one needs constant care...

Aunt Haley and Uncle Carl moved often.  Except for the tools in his woodworking shop, along with the whatnots he made, and except for her wheelchair and crutches, they didn’t have many material things.  They rented little houses near Taylorsville, in north Laurel, and close to Ellisville—all within a small loop in south Mississippi.  Uncle Carl was a cabinet maker. My maternal grandmother’s sister, Aunt Haley, suffered. They had no children.

Her rheumatoid arthritis resisted all the treatments the doctors tried.  I can remember when she had gold shots. Sterile saline injections would have helped just as much.  Her neck wouldn’t allow her to move her head, which was stuck turned to the side. When I was a little girl, she’d come and spend a few weeks with us in the summer. Back then, she could walk a few steps.  I remember her corduroy house slippers had holes cut out to accommodate. 

Despite her suffering, Aunt Haley had a witty sense of humor.

When I was a teenager, my aunt and uncle moved to the outskirts of the little Jones County town of Ellisville. Uncle Carl was working somewhere. I think he was building kitchen cabinets.  That summer for two months, my mother drove the twenty-five-mile trip from Taylorsville to Ellisville almost every weekday. Carl left her at home alone. He had to go to work. Back in the 1950’s she didn’t have home health care. I went with my mother most days and helped with her care. Sometimes I shelled beans or peas in the yard. The closest neighbor was a cute boy a year older than I was.

I still have olfactory memories of her. Gangrene developed in her twisted toes. It smelled so bad that the stench pricked our nostrils before we stepped out of our cars.  We didn’t have air conditioning in our car, and in her house she stayed cool with open windows and a large electric fan.  In all my life, I’ve never smelled anything worse than Aunt Haley’s gangrenous infection.

At first her toes were black. Days passed, and the stinky greenish-purplish-blackness climbed up her legs. She went to the doctor, who said he would amputate when the time was right.  My mother bathed her, helped her with all her hygiene needs, cooked lunch, fed Aunt Haley, changed her bed, cleaned her house. My mother did all this work cheerfully. Aunt Haley was Grandma’s youngest sister, and Mother never recovered from the grief of losing Grandma.

Eventually Haley had a bilateral AKA, above-the knees amputation. The wounds didn’t heal, and the surgeon re-operated. After the second operation, Aunt Haley’s legs were so short she couldn’t sit up.

The experience of helping care for Aunt Haley affected the rest of my life. I knew someday I’d do something in health care. Finally, when I was forty, I attended Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, and became a registered nurse.  Later Robert (Bobby) Cheatham, my first husband, now deceased, spent five years paralyzed, but his illness is another story.

(Mary Cooke, whose pen name is Mary Lou Cheatham has co-authored with Sarah Walker Gorrell a poignant novel, Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek, about a young boy trying to take care of his mother, who suffers with cancer.)

It's a Freebie!!!

Today is the last day of our give-away splurge. I took this note about it from Sarah's Front Porch.

Ever so often.....we (Mary Cooke and I) get in a "giving" mood.

Mary - who writes as Mary Lou Cheatham called and asked me....."how do you feel about giving something away?" She caught me on a day when I was in a Benevolent Mood! I asked, "what do you have in mind?"  And she said....."let's create some interest in our book.....let's give away some Kindle downloads of Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek!"

"We really need to get people to write reviews," said Mary Lou "and .....well.....they have to read it first!"

So, it was said and so it was decided.....

We'd do a giveaway.....

People like to get "something for nothing"  ....and when that "something" is a good book,,,,,like Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek........it brings a smile to so many faces.

So, from today through Thursday (3/20 - 3/23)....download to your Kindle. Did you know you can also download a FREE Kindle app to your laptop ....or your iPad.

Download Free Book to your Kindle.....or the App on your Laptop or iPad.

We ask that you leave a review, on Amazon, after reading our book.
You don't have to write much....just "I liked it"...."I didn't like it"  ....or more if you have more to say.

We are judged by the NUMBER of reviews...so please, please, please....after you've read it....write something!!

UPSET

I meant to read a good book, but I turned on the news. I’m too upset to read.

The above statement was in a newsfeed I read recently. I understand. Whether you are using your left wing or your right wing, you may feel grounded.  I totally understand. I’m upset too.

In the meantime, authors are publishing books you may like to read at a bargain...or maybe they are letting you download them without charge.  Why not stock up on some of those great Kindle e-books now?  You could find you enjoy the distraction more than you thought you would.

My co-author, Sarah Walker Gorrell, and I have been giving away our new book, Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek. All we ask in return is an honest review. Amazon allows some authors to give away certain books a few days per year. Today, March 23, 2017, is the last day of our current freebie campaign.

We don’t want you to miss it. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can read it on your computer or your cell phone. Go ahead and download it.

https://www.amazon.com/Travelers-Painted-Wagons-Covington-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B01MF51PHK/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

NEVER TOO LATE TO USE CHOPSTICKS

BLOG TOWARD HEALTH by Mary Cooke.  Using the pen-name, Mary Lou Cheatham,  co-authored  Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek with Sarah Walker Gorrell.

Chinese food—how I love it!  I confess that throughout my life I’ve eaten heavily battered and fried food, which I considered fine Chinese cuisine. Wrong.

My daughter has decided I should learn to use chopsticks.  Lately she’s cooked irresistible meals of Asian-flavored vegetables with fish and insisted we use chopsticks. I’ve lived a long and happy life without acquiring the skills of using chopsticks. I just poke my food with a fork and stuff my mouth. Imagine eating at her house. She serves meals with no silverware on the table.

Now in my seventies I’m learning to eat with two sticks held by arthritic hands. I’m overweight. I've discovered the need to slow down, enjoy conversation over dinner, and eat at a move civilized speed. At least, I need to do so when I’m eating Asian dishes. Obviously, I’m consuming fewer calories and eating more nutritious food.

Practicing this ancient art, which is new to me, I’m learning to use chopsticks to eat stir-fried food. We stir fry chicken with a variety of our favorite vegetables often. We season our stir fry with Chinese Five Spice and a tiny bit of soy sauce, low-sodium formula. I like to add copious amounts of ginger. I'm sloppy with the chopsticks, but my technique is improving.

Mastering the use of chopsticks is one way we are loving our healthy habits without going on a punitive diet.

~~~

Through March 23, 2017, my newest novel, which I co-authored with Sarah Walker Gorrell, is free as a Kindle e-book.  Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek shows what happens when Travelers (Gypsies) moved near south Mississippi pioneering families in the early twentieth century. Please download a copy and give us a review on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be long, although we like long. Sarah and I will be happy with “I liked it because....”

Ivor, an Ancient Hero

Travelers in Painted Wagons--free as a Kindle e-book through March 23, 2017. Available for free as an Audible book as long as supplies last. (Contact Mary Cooke at Facebook Messenger for details.)

No strings attached, but we crave a review from you.

 Link to Free Kindle Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek

Within the pages of Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek are mysterious tales about Gypsies. Here's the beginning of one of the stories. ("Ancient" as used in the title of this blog refers to the nineteenth century, and it's an exaggeration here.)

Wallachia, 1844

Ivor—

In the Balkan province of Wallachia, a young man named Ivor served in the mansion of an affluent master. The overseer of the serving staff couldn’t find enough chores for the multitude of slaves assigned to the household.

By the great room of the master, Ivor stood in the hall with the other servants in a row. Looking around without moving his head enough to attract attention, he saw the men’s eyes turned toward Ginger, the most beautiful slave in the master’s harem. Every feature of her face related to the others in perfect proportions.

Sullen in a way men found alluring, she played her violin. Never making eye contact with the royalty adoring her music, she danced around in a trance. Her dresses were elegant, but she owned no shoes.

“You should be proud,” a nearby slave whispered to him.

Ivor felt regret instead of pride, remorse instead of joy, compassion for his mother, who brought him forth into the world from her womb in 1830.

Fourteen years passed. He seldom had a chance to speak to his mother, even though they lived inside the same mansion. Since he was intelligent and handsome, he received what he needed. From efficient staff members, he received essential affection and instruction about the ways of aristocracy in his master’s household. Because his mother displayed magnificent musicianship, he received violin lessons, with the hope that he inherited her talent.

Ivor and Ginger passed in the corridors and spent stolen moments. How he wished they could escape.

“Who is my father?” Ivor deserved an answer. He hoped she’d answer him.

Easy and Delicious Collard Greens

1.       Collards! Hardly any vegetable is more nutritious than collard greens, the Cinderella of vegetables.  And they are delicious when prepared well.

2.       Buy two bunches of fresh collards at the grocery story. These are usually prewashed.

3.       Select a big deep pot. A four-quart stainless steel sauce pan would be perfect. Chop one large onion and sauté it in two teaspoons coconut oil and one teaspoon olive oil. Turn off the heat and let the onion rest while you prepare the collards.

4.       On a cutting board, use a large sharp knife to remove the thick stalky collard stems. With the point of the knife trace along either side of each stem. Stack the leaves on the board.

5.       Roll two or three leaves like a cigar and hack down the middle of each roll while you hole the roll tight. With the knife cut the greens into chiffonades (slivers).  As you work, place the chopped greens into a colander.

6.       Wash the greens and dump them into the cooking pan, which should be full. If you have more collards than space in the pan, don’t worry. They will cook down and you can add the others.  

7.       Don’t add water at this stage. Cover the collard greens and cook them at high heat for five minutes. Check them every minute, stir, and return the lid to its position.

8.       Chop or crumble a pound of sausage and add it to the mixture. (Turkey is the healthy choice.) Cook at high heat five more minutes.

9.       Meanwhile peel and slice three large carrots, which will provide natural sweetness, interesting color, and a variation in texture. Add the carrots.

10.   Add a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Or you may want to shake in some Cajun seasoning. Sprinkle some garlic powder in there too. Pour an entire can of tomatoes with green chilies into the mix.

11.   If you wish, you may include some other vegetables and fruits, such as spinach, finely chopped cabbage, a chopped apple, some large chunks of potatoes, or a few raisins.

12.   Add one half cup water, lower the heat, and simmer until tender. Don’t cook them too long—thirty minutes at the most. Collards are much tastier if they are not mushy.

13.   Serve with a pan of cornbread and some vinegar of hot pepper sauce if you like. If you live in Georgia or you are from there, serve pinto beans as a side dish. If you are from Mississippi, serve field peas or black-eyed peas instead. Baked sweet potatoes go well with collards.

~~~

A good book to read while your collards are cooking is Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek by Mary Lou Cheatham and Sarah Walker Gorrell. It’s free through March 23, 2017, as a Kindle e-book. Download the book here: Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek

And leave us a review. Okay, Cher?

Tools to Help You Win

John and I go to the YMCA several times a week.  We’ve noticed earphones in most exercisers’ ears, and we decided to try it. John grew tired of listening to the news. He does enough of that at home, and he’d like to take a break from it.

I’ve been listening to my Kindle Fire. Today I walked thirty minutes on the treadmill while I listened to a robotic reading of a book.  (By the way, the robotic readings have changed. They’re much better than they used to be.) The thirty minutes flew by, and I can’t wait to get back to my talking book.

We have a plan to improve our health by slimming our bodies with sensible exercise.

Did you know that many Kindle books allow test-to-speech? For example, Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek allows you to click a little icon on the bottom right-hand corner of your Kindle Fire so you can listen to the text through the earphones. This week, Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek is free as a Kindle book.

Also, many books have recordings on Audible. Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek is free with a trial membership. You can listen to an audible book on your I-pad or on your phone. Amazing.

So, what’s this all about? Sarah and I are offering you our novel at a bargain to help you exercise. Sarah and her guy are exercising almost every day, and so our John and I. Let’s get healthier.

ONCE UPON A TIME

A few years ago, Jack, a brilliant high school student made A’s and B’s. He graduated with honors. Throughout high school, middle school, and elementary school, he completed the homework assignments meted out by his teachers. 

Whatever the teacher required, Jack did. He polished off his assignments faster than his classmates could. He was a little smarter and quite a bit more dedicated than most of his friends. If he was studying algebra, he contemplated equations. He memorized all the principles of geometry. An excellent speller, he won the district spelling bee. He played trombone in the band until he became starting quarterback of the football team.  When he was a senior, his friends voted him “Most Likely to Succeed.”

What did he like? It never mattered. He excelled in English class. He wrote themes and essays, even a few short stories. Book reports—they were a snap. It never occurred to him to have an opinion about the quality of the novels the teachers required him to read. He simply did as he was told.

College was easy because he had a good background and because he continued to apply his good study habits. Then he went to work in an office job that required less than he knew he could do. Years passed, and he was passed over for promotions.  He started having Sunday night jitters, the kind of anxiety that came earlier each weekend until it backed up to Friday.

Jack realized he had some problems.  He asked himself, “What’s going on?”

Instead of focusing entirely on the mundane issues of his daily grind, he started paying attention to the water-cooler and coffee break chats. Friends of his talked about concepts he’d never considered, and their vocabularies amazed him.  At home, he noticed his wife had peppy enthusiasm about everything. She seemed to enjoy talking to her friends over dinner parties about ideas he didn’t comprehend.  “But I’m a smart guy,” he told himself.

In Sunday School, he was always the one who collected the offering and planned the class parties.  One Sunday he realized he knew nothing of what the lesson was about. He’d been sitting and concentrating on the routine management details of the class, as well as what he needed to do at work the following week.

He exercised and ate well. In the den of his house, the television was always on, his eyes closed, his head kicked back, and his mouth opened slack-jawed.

“When’s the last time you read a good book?” Karen, his wife, asked him over dinner.

“I read.”

“I mean when is the last time you read a good novel?”

Jack laughed. “The last time I read a novel was when I was a sophomore.”

Karen said, “You’re missing out.”

~~~ 
Free as a Kindle e-book: March 19-23, 2017: Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek

It’s a book that looks at some of the most mistreated people ever—the Gypsies. It also paints vivid pictures of caretaker’s syndrome, adultery, panthers roaming near houses in south Mississippi, parental abuse.... Sarah Walker Gorrell and Mary Lou Cheatham would like to share it with you...and with Jack.  (And we hope you’ll give it an honest review.)

A Life That Mattered

Once upon a time about a century ago, almost half a century after the end of slavery, a young African girl named Manuela lived with her sickly grandmother and her alcoholic grandfather. The girl wanted a better life. She wanted to learn to read and write. She planned to go away to a boarding school and learn a trade so she could make a living.

Every day she looked for an opportunity to learn and improve. She wasn’t the kind of girl who settled for conditions as they were. She hoped to do better, and she knew she could. 

Times were hard for her. White people told her she was uppity, and some of them knocked her down. Black people expected her to accept her life the way it was, and some of them tried to break her spirit.

 No matter what came her way, she always found the good. Some terrible things happened to her, but I don’t want to spoil the story for you. I want you to read it or listen to it and discover how she claimed a victory, an everlasting victory.  Lives like hers mattered.  I’d like for you to see how her spirit lives on and on and on, even today.  

Manuela Blayne  

10 Ways the Story of The Dream Bucket Shows How to Increase Wealth

Heed what you read in The Dream Bucket to grow your wealth
It's more than a romance, and yet having what  you need is romantic.

Realize wealth is more than money, but the book shows how to grow your money. (Nobody said these methods would be easy.) The methods have no certain order because they overlap. For maximum results, follow all 10 all the time.
1.       Develop love and trust with your loved ones. Try to trust them enough to be able to share financial information with them. 
2.       Enjoy what you have. Plan what you spend and stay within the budgeted amount, if possible.
3.      Look around and use wisdom. Don’t get so caught up in the daily that you lose sight of the overall picture.
4.       Work hard for what you need.
5.       Be imaginative. Try to find creative ways to use your resources.
6.       Share. Be generous.
7.       Keep your obligations.
8.       Don’t brag. Avoid flaunting your wealth.
9.       Tithe on a regular basis.
10.   Save a designated amount on a regular basis. Use good judgment about investing and saving the money.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. May the snakes stay out of your path.

Today, March 17, 2017, you can get The Dream Bucket free as a Kindle book.  In addition to the snakes, bears, and bobcats, I’ve poured quite a bit of love into this book, which involves children but it is not for children to read alone. It’s a family story about love, grief, pregnancy, nightmares, and broken dreams hungering to be restored.

St. Patrick Never Went to Dream Bucket Country.

           Mississippi is full of snakes, and so is The Dream Bucket.  I don’t like snakes, but I find them fascinating to write about.

Sometimes they are harmless. The six-year-old twins lie on a pallet underneath a tree.  Buddy, the boy, looks up at branch of the tree.

 “See that little green snake?”

“I see him,” Bailey said.

“He won’t bother us if we leave him alone.”

Other times the snakes are so dreadful I tremble.

Elvin, an intruder in a territory not claimed by human beings, slithered deeper into the thick water until he met a serpent face-to-face. A fat green-gray snake on a limb turned to face Elvin. Quick as a blaze, the creature stuck out his needle-thin tongue, retreated it, and opened his white mouth. Fangs aimed for Elvin as the moccasin slapped his jaws shut.

How he dodged the snake he wasn’t sure. “Lord! I’m calling out to you . . .  like I never have before. Save me. Oh, please save me. Deliver me from this snake. I’ll be good to my wife and children. I’ll stop cussing and stealing.”

The moccasin didn’t move again.

“I’ll head back home right now, dear God. Just send this snake somewheres else.”

Elvin is so bad we don’t care if the snake bites him, but I can’t help being upset when a rattlesnake as long as a hoe handle attacks the Camerons’ lovable dog.

Too bad, isn’t it, that St. Patrick didn’t run away the snakes of Mississippi? Oh, how I'm hoping  you won't miss my free gift to you from Dream Bucket Country!

Another blog entry about snakes

Recipes are other people's creations.

The Story of With

A great book recommended by Terry Whalin in his newsletter is The Story of With. It can be applied to anybody’s life in its unique but universal message.

Mia, the main character, is trying to find her way to the place she needs to go in her life. One station along her route is a perfect kitchen filled with pleasant and skilled chefs. Some of them take her under their wings and help her. She has always wanted to be a chef. She’s a great cook, but she has always cooked exactly by recipes.

A chef in charge of helping her encourages her to choose seven ingredients and create a dish. As he and the others in her group assist her, he asks a question. What if other people don’t like your dish?  

She said she’d toss it out and start over. She’d try a new recipe. But he’d already explained to her that recipes are merely other people’s creations.  I digress a moment. The author had already shown that Mia and the chefs were following the recognized methods of cooking. They weren’t breaking the established rules; instead ,the established rules and the kind chef gave her the freedom to use the skill of cooking to create her own dish.

Back to the question—

“Do not change for the critic! We are responsible to create with the Creator and then serve it to the hungry. If others don’t like it, that doesn’t invalidate the dish.” (quoted from The Story of With) He went on to explain that “we cook to satisfy body and soul rather than on order.”

I love the next thing he said. “If someone prefers another dish, let them learn to cook that rather than simply critique what another has been called to do.”

Chains fell from Mia’s heart...and from mine.

As a writer, I try to follow the rules and study to become a better writer than I was the day before. Yet I cannot follow the recipes. I can’t seem to fit my books into the current acceptable genres. Attending the Early Bird Workshop of ACFW featuring Donald Maas, as I studied at the feet of the master, and reading his books about the way to become a better writer, I realized my style of writing is okay, even though I’m not a genre writer. Writing in a certain genre is just not my blessing. It is a gift to others, but I have other gifts.

The book I’m giving away this week The Dream Bucket, is listed as an inspirational romance because it needs to be included somewhere. It is a romance, but it’s also the journey a young girl and her mother take to the place they need to go.