Marilyn Celeste Morris Remains True to Her Military Brat Heritage

Although she was raised as a Military Brat, Marilyn Celeste Morris was born in her grandfather’s house in Toronto, Texas, a small Southern Pacific Railroad Section six miles west of Alpine.  Perhaps as an omen of what would be the next twenty years of her life, the railroad’s abandonment of this settlement shortly afterward left her with no “permanent” home. Schooling consisted of Dependents’ Schools while overseas, in Seoul Korea, 1946-47 and Linz, Austria (1949-1952) and various schools stateside.  A rarity for a Military Brat, she was fortunate enough to have attended all three high school years and graduated at Lawton Senior High School, Lawton OK.  Further education was attained at Cameron University, Lawton OK, Tarrant County College, Fort Worth TX, and North Texas State University. She received an AAS Degree in Mental Health in 1995. Morris began her writing career as a guest columnist in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and for ten years Wrote a weekly humor/human interest column for a weekly newspaper in the Fort Worth TX area.  She has taught creative writing at Tarrant County College, Fort Worth TX, survived numerous book signings and speaking engagements; and is experienced in interviewing on both radio and television. When not writing or editing emerging writers’ manuscripts, Morris enjoys searching for former classmates and true to her Brat heritage, she has a suitcase packed under the bed, ready to travel at a moment’s notice.

I'm an eclectic author of eight published works who is finally settling down to focus on historical novels. Someone asked me why I chose that genre, and instead of the "same ol, same ol," "Because I like it."  I answered,"Because I've lived most of it."  Marilyn Celeste Morris' Family, Mother's Day, 2012 Marilyn Tells Us About Herself: I'm an old Army Brat, or Military Brat, who followed my army officer father all over the world, post- WWII, and lived to tell about it.And write about it. Once a Brat, Always a Brat is the second of two non-fiction books I have published.  My most recent novel is The Unexplored Heart, and I am working on a sequel, After Camelot: Esther's Quest. This sequel focuses on the intrepid wife of an archaeologist who researches the history of the sites her husband Charles Wooster, is considering as his next dig. After I typed "The End" to The Unexplored Heart, Esther Wooster snorted and said, "You just think you're finished with me. I want my own book, now." And so she shall have it.  My other novels and non-fiction works are listed on the "Free reads of the first four chapters of all my books" status line and I invite you to check them out.  It occurred to me that I am Esther Wooster, and that is NOT a bad thing. She and I are having a marvelous time returning to the Himalayas on an entirely different search.  Marilyn Celeste Morris, Author, Editor, Speaker WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/RIqtQ4;  BLOG: AuthorMarilynCMorris.wordpress.com AMAZON: http://amzn.to/KSq5Ya; PUBLISHER'S SITE: http://bit.ly/LIq9iy  And now, free reads: First four chapters of all my books: http://bit.ly/JZM0j4 Please leave a comment to welcome Marilyn Celeste Morris to Spunky Senior Authors and Talents.

Phyllis Zimbler Miller Says Seniors Get a Bum Rap on Technology

I Am Tired of Seniors Getting a Bum Rap About Technology

How many times have you read an article that insists that young people “get” social media and older people do not?  Or that it is amazing that an older person uses new technology?

If you are like me, you have had your fill of such articles.

To start with, just because young people have grown up with Facebook or other social media sites does not automatically translate into using these sites effectively for business purposes.

Using something for business purposes requires understanding business, which in turn means understanding – among other distinctions – the difference between selling and making connections.  Many young people “sell” on social media while many people of whatever age use social media to create relationships that may then lead to selling goods and services.

Second, older people learn new things all the time.  The assumption, for example, that utilizing Twitter effectively is beyond us is plain wrong.

And I am equally weary of older people telling me they are too old to learn new technological things.  This is a fear mentality mindset of not being good at the task and it can be overcome.

I know from personal experience that technology can be learned at an older age – if one is willing to be frustrated and then move ahead as one overcomes the obstacles.

For my 60^th birthday I decided to self-publish my 20-year-in-the-writing women’s friendship novel MRS. LIEUTENANT, based on my own experiences almost 40 years before.  I said yes to this new publishing experience because POD (print on demand) had eliminated the need to stack hundreds of self-published books in one’s garage.

At the same time I entered MRS. LIEUTENANT in the 2008 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award competition, and MRS.  LIEUTENANT was named a semifinalist.

Each semifinalist was given a page on Amazon, and this led to my discovering that one author had something called a blog.

Now while I was an early adopter of computers and email, I will admit in the spring of 2008 I did not know what a blog was.  But when I found out – it was like Alice falling through the rabbit hole.

I started out in my adult life as a newspaper journalist, and I knew what it was to wait for someone to say yes to something I had written.  Here was a free opportunity to write whatever I wanted without waiting for anyone’s okay.  And suddenly the ability to write well for purposes of information sharing had again become handy.

The more I learned, the more I wanted to know.  I took free and paid webinars, bought online courses, and threw myself into online relationship building.

At the same time my younger daughter, Yael K. Miller, was finishing an internship in the corporate communications department of a major Hollywood agency.  Instead of looking for a job, she agreed when I asked her to form an online marketing company with me.  I then introduced her to what I had been learning.

Now for the purposes of full disclosure, it is true that some things come easier to her than to me.  But then other things might come easier to me.  Thus the combination of two different age mindsets works well.

In the meantime, back to my book writing.  When I self-published MRS. LIEUTENANT, Kindle had just been introduced.  I found someone to convert the novel for Kindle almost as soon as the physical book was available on Amazon.

Five years ago not that many people had a Kindle reader, let along other electronic devices that run free Kindle apps.  But as ebooks have become more and more popular, I have expanded my book writing into nonfiction titles as well as more fiction titles.  And I have just encouraged Yael to publish her first Kindle ebook – the Middle Grade novel JACK STROM AND NEW ORLEANS HOODOO. 

Lo and behold, those old copyediting skills of mine honed going to the printer to okay a newspaper edition before it went to press have also become handy.

These days hand coding a Kindle ebook can ensure the best possible formatting.  But due to the addition of Kindle Fire, this type of coding has become quite complicated.

Yael did the research of what I needed to do, and now I use my old copyediting skills when I code my books.  I actually enjoy the coding – formatting my books exactly as I want them.  (I hand coded Yael’s book too.)

Before I did the coding myself, I accidentally lost control of one of my ebooks when a company I paid to do the coding uploaded my ebook to the company’s Kindle account instead of my own.  I immediately negotiated to get the rights back, recoded the book myself, and now completely control all my ebooks – see www.ZimblerMillerbooks.com.

And perhaps the best part of all this utilization of online technology is that I have made marvelous online friends throughout the world (as long as they speak English).  These are people with whom I share many common interests. 

In fact, I have created a triad of former military spouses who have written novels inspired by their experiences.  You can read a Digital Book Today article about our triad at http://budurl.com/whoserve.

Phyllis with Hubby, Mitchell, Coronation
Ball, at Michigan St. Univ, 11/18/67, sponsored
by Cadet Officers Club & Arnold Air Society

Phyllis with hubby, Mitchell at USS Midway
aircraft carrier in San Diego, 2/1/07, after
US Naval Institute Conference

In conclusion, as spunky seniors we need to disabuse people of the notion that we cannot use new technology the way younger people can.  With our years of experience, we have a lot of valuable wisdom to share online – and we can do this via utilizing new technology!

Phyllis and her hubby twrote
Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders

Connect with me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller or visit my author website at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com to find my other social media info.  And let’s show the world that older people using online technology is not an anomaly – it is the norm!

Phyllis Zimbler Miller has a B.A. in journalism from Michigan State University and an M.B.A. in finance from The Wharton School.  Her fiction and nonfiction books include TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO PUBLISH AND MARKET YOUR BOOK IN THE AGE OF AMAZON and she is also the co-founder of www.MillerMosaicLLC.com

Please leave a comment to welcome Phyllis Zimbler Miller to
Spunky Senior Authors and Talents.

Spunky Author Duffy Brown Does Mystery Parties

All my life I thought launch was what those really smart rocket science people do to get something into space and never in all those years did I expect to be involved. Yet here I am dong a launch of my very own. Not that I’m putting a rocket in space...though right now that seems like a snap...but I’m launching a book.

What do you mean launch, I asked. The book comes out on a specific day, booksellers, B&N and Amazon put it up for sale, end of story. Done.

To launch my first cozy mystery, Iced Chiffon, I though it would be fun to do something different. I’ll have a mystery party at my house, I decided! I have the house, I like parties. A match made in heaven.

Sixty is a nice number and I can just buy one of those inter-active mystery party things online. Piece of cake.

You can see where this is going, can’t you. Murphy’s Law on steroids.

First off there are no mystery parties online for sixty that has everyone involved all the time. That means I have to write the mystery. And if people are coming to my house I have to feed them and drink them.

Thirty years ago I decided I wanted kids and my husband went along with it. That gave me four waiters and barkeeps for my party. It took me a week to write the party with characters and clues.

A few things I discovered along the way. The most important is the more alcohol, the better the party and my ability to write the mystery. The second is that your friends are there for fun more than finding out who-done-it. And did I mention the alcohol?

The theme was Roaring 20’s and Duffy’s Speakeasy. Lots of decorations online to buy and an easy theme

to dress in costume for and did I mention the alcohol? I divided the guests into families...Manicotti family, Ravioli family...you get the picture. I think I did this at night when hungry. Working in families made everyone pull their info and come up with the killer.

I’ve had three parties now and each time it gets better. If you’re a mystery author it’s a great gig...do it. If you’re a mystery reader get invited to one. If I do party four I’ll let you know. I’d love to have one at the Cincinnati conservatory with a Clue theme. You know, Miss Scarlett in the conservatory with the candlestick. That’s my dream. I’ll let you know when the invites go out.

So…what is the best party you’ve been to? What makes a party special? Got any suggestions if we go to the Conservatory? 

 I'll give away two Killer in Crinoline totes from the answers.

When Reagan Summerside is asked to make an emergency bowtie delivery to Magnolia Plantation for a wedding, she finds the groom face-down in five-tiers of icing and fondant, a cake knife in his back and her good friend and local UPS driver accused of the murder. Can Reagan find the real killer without winding up in the local swamp as alligator meat? Will Walker Boone, pain-in-the ass attorney and once-upon-a-time gang member, help her out or feed her to the alligators himself?

**Facedown in five-tiers of icing and fondant a dead groom leads to wedding chaos for the bride, the bff and the hotshot attorney. 

Duffy Brown

Berkley Prime Crime

Consignment: Murder series

-Iced Chiffon  Oct, '12

-Killer in Crinolines May '13

www.DuffyBrown.com

Spunky Robert Henry - A Pilot Plus a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

About the Author:

Robert Henry, age 56, is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, a Certified Personal Trainer, a Certified Specialist in Fitness Nutrition, and a Certified Wellness Coach. His awareness of fitness and nutrition began at the age of 29. When Robert first started to exercise, it was mostly for the purpose of increasing body weight through the addition of lean muscle mass. However, more than 20 years later, at the age of 52, after years of being lean and enjoying good health, Robert experienced an undesired increase in body fat and his health profile changed in the wrong direction The loss of that body fat and the reversal of new and undesirable trends in his health profile became Robert's new exercise goals. By re-booting his exercise regimen and further "tweaking" his nutrition, he successfully accomplished his new goals and, as he likes to say, discovered his "inner athlete".

Although he had worked out for more than two decades, the journey he experienced in his early fifties ignited something within Robert and he voraciously sought to increase his knowledge and his credentials. It was then that he earned his numerous certifications and set about to share his passion for health and fitness with others.

Robert's background extends beyond fitness. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Southern Methodist University and worked for many years as an attorney. 

Robert Henry at 14

He also discovered a love of aviation early in his life and, while still a teenager, became a Commercial Pilot and a Certified Flight Instructor. 

After law school, he went on to become an Airline Transport Pilot and eventually earned three jet ratings. Now in his fifties, he values his health, fitness, and wellness very highly, and seeks to inform and inspire others.

Robert’s latest book is the health/fitness how to book, Age Re-Defined.

Visit his website at www.RobertHenryFitness.com.

Connect with Robert:

TWITTER | FACEBOOK

What Robert Henry Says About His Book:

Your state of health, how you feel, and how you look are more within your control than you think – even in your forties and fifties (and beyond). This book addresses exercise, fitness, nutrition, wellness, and the mind-body connection. Its purpose is not to promote a particular exercise program or a particular diet plan – although its coverage of exercise, fitness, and nutrition is extensive – but rather to inform, educate, and motivate the reader on the importance of being proactive in one’s own health, fitness, and wellness.

Even if you are already physically active, this book can assist you in evaluating the effectiveness of your current exercise efforts. A foundational background in exercise and fitness concepts is provided. Not only does this book cite to numerous authoritative sources, but it also conveys the author’s own philosophy of exercise and an informative overview of his own exercise and nutrition regimen. 

The author, who is 56, shares his own motivating journey and the positive results he achieved through exercise, nutrition, and the mind-body connection, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced by him in his early fifties and the favorable results he achieved at that age by “re-booting” his commitment to health and fitness.

The importance of nutrition is explained and heavily stressed. A Registered Dietician with a Master’s Degree in Nutrition is a contributor to the nutrition content. One comes away with an awareness of quality nutrition and its role in optimal health, fitness, and wellness, and with a good working knowledge of the kinds of foods and eating habits which are most beneficial.

As stated in the book’s Introduction: This book is about believing in yourself, maintaining inner strength, and understanding exercise, fitness, nutrition, and wellness. This book is also about getting younger instead of getting older, discovering your inner athlete, and becoming and remaining healthy and fit in both body and mind. 

This book is for people who have never exercised but who would like to start; for people who would like to know more about good nutrition; for people who exercise but have not seen results; for people whose fitness level has declined and who want to re-ignite their fitness quest; for people who choose to be proactive about their own health, fitness, and wellness; for people interested in the mind-body connection; and for people who reject negative self-talk and self-limiting stereotypes about life after the age of 50. All ages are welcome.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Check out Robert Henry's Youtube Video:

http://youtu.be/utnwE-DF5j8 

www.pumpupyourbook.com

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Spunky Fearless Author Liz Flaherty Not only Sews and Writes, but Also Parasails!

I'll let Liz Flaherty do the talking today, and she does a fine job of it!

   

Liz Flaherty with her dog, Bandit.

      I’ve been retired for two years and two and a half months. This is hard for me to believe, since I’m sure I just clocked out of the post office for the last time a week ago Friday.

          I worried before I retired, about the things I imagine most of us worry about. Would we have enough money to live how we wanted? Would our health hold up? Would we still like each other when we had more time to spend together? Would I still want to write when I had time for it? What about changes?—I hate changes!

         

But changes were my friends in retirement. I spent more time sewing. I volunteered in fun times at fun places. I decided to stop being afraid of so many things and went parasailing.

Fearless Liz Flaherty Parasails!

          Even my writing changed, although not because I wanted it to. Many, many writers’ voices don’t reflect their age. Nora Roberts writes a 20-some protagonist even better now than she did at the beginning of her career in 1981. So do Mary Balogh, Robyn Carr, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips, to name but a few.

          I, on the other hand, can make a 30-year-old sound like…yes, exactly, like a 62-year-old retiree. A former—and very good—editor and a few contest judges referred to my voice as—shudder—old-fashioned. No one said it was bad, nor that I should just confine myself to helping with the church bulletin, nor that I should quit. I just needed to…well, what? Jazz it up? Oh, good grief, there I go again. No one says “jazz it up” anymore. No one has Early American furniture or decorates with baskets or still has flowery wallpaper in their bathrooms.

         Except maybe me.

          So here I was with Early and Nash McGrath, in their late 40s, divorced after 30 years of marriage. And it was time for another change.

          Although I’d read quite a bit of inspirational romance and some of my favorite people write it (Cheryl St. John, Cheryl Reavis, Diann Hunt, and Janet Dean, again just naming a few), I’d never seriously considered writing it. If for no other reason, I didn’t think of it because my faith is private. I once told my mother, when I was in the process of refusing to go to a revival with her, that I didn’t consider Christianity a spectator sport.

That hasn’t changed much. But inspirational romantic fiction has. More than just change, it has expanded. There are many evangelistic books to be found, but there are also many that are by and about people like me. People who go to church on Sundays and say quiet prayers every day and read a lot of secular fiction but don’t really like a whole bunch of cussing and are bored with sex scenes. Granted, even now most of the heroes and heroines aren’t 62, but Early and Nash fit just fine.

A Soft Place to Fall has already been released by Pelican Book Group in paperback and will be out digitally on April 26. Although I don’t know yet how my segue into inspirational fiction will work out, if it’s like the other changes of the past couple of years, I’m really looking forward to it.

Oh, and ziplining—I’m looking forward to that, too.

          Visit me at http://lizflaherty.com or email me at lizkflaherty@gmail.com —I’d love to hear from you and the coffeepot’s always on!

What A Soft Place to Fall is about:

Early McGrath didn’t want freedom from her thirty-year marriage to Nash, but when it was forced upon her, she did the only thing she knew to do—she went home to the Ridge to reinvent herself. Only what is someone who’s taken care of people her whole life supposed to do when no one needs her anymore? Even as the threads of her life unravel, she finds new ones— reconnecting with the church of her childhood, building the quilt shop that has been a long-time dream, and forging a new friendship with her former husband. The definition of freedom changes when it’s combined with faith. Can Early and Nash find a Soft Place to Fall?

Liz Flaherty

www.lizflaherty.com 

JAR OF DREAMS / Carina Press / Available now!

ONE MORE SUMMER / Carina Press

A SOFT PLACE TO FALL / Harbourlight Books - 4/26

Please welcome Liz Flaherty to Spunky Senior Authors and Talents by leaving a comment.

        

Spunky Senior Author Allison Knight's Life Change

Allison Knight entered this world seventy-eight years ago, on a cold and blustery Christmas night, to the delight of her mother who claimed the baby was all she wanted for Christmas.

As Allison grew up, she discovered she loved to read even if it meant reading late at night under the blankets. She started her writing career in grade school, writing poetry, essays, one of which earned her a monetary reward, then in college as a gossip columnist for the college newspaper.

When she started teaching high school Home Economics, she continued to read and write, even beginning a cookbook. Her husband claims it's a miracle that book was never finished because some of her recipes... (Enough said!) Instead of food, she turned to her love of history and the need to always have a happy ending into writing romantic fiction, and began her career as a romance novelist, selling the first three books she wrote to a NY publisher.

Her only claim to fame is being mentioned by Paul Harvey on his noon radio show, when he explained that a teacher in Michigan taught 'Family Living' during the day and wrote romance novels at night.

Her greatest writing achievement was accidentally exposing one of her male students to the joy of reading. He told her privately that he'd never read a whole book, but loved her story so much he read the book cover to cover. He had discovered the joy of reading novels. A year after he graduated from high school, she ran into him one evening in a local book store. With his arm full of books, he grinned, explaining he ought to blame her because now he spent all his extra money on the newest novel available. If her writing does nothing else, at least she opened the world of literature for one young man.

She is still writing romance novels and with the help of her husband who is quick to offer suggestions, edit each book before it's submitted, and do the promotional work at her request, she waits for the release of book number twenty in May of 2013 with another on her publisher's desk awaiting a decision. 

Allison Knight shares with us Her Late Change of Life - 

How to Change Your Life As You Near Eighty Years Young

The call came at ten o'clock at night. That's always worrisome. Especially with children, even if they are grown. But, at the other end of the phone was a timid, weak, little voice asking if she could please talk to Grandpa. It was one of our granddaughters. And with a poignant plea!

Could we please take her cat? The cat bite her dad and he said the cat had to go. She didn't want to take it to a shelter so if the cat could come live with us, she'd help take care of it. They lived close enough, only a few miles away, so she could come play with him and bathe him, feed him, take care of him, if Grandpa would say he'd take one orange tomcat. Her idea, not ours.

Of course, Grandpa agreed. I mean, who can deny the pleading of one of your grandchildren.

So, after many years of no pets, (the last pet passed away soon after the kids left the nest), and a great retirement, which meant time to travel and explore our country, we were suddenly the new owners of a big, mean, orange cat. Yes, he did bite and we immediately had to change his name. I'll only use the initials, and let you figure out the rest, because that cat was an animal with a mind of his own. He did his own thing in his own time, often going for an arm or leg with his mouth open. So his name became L.S. because that's what we called him when he was being obstinate or mean, which was most of the time.

However, somehow, over the next six years, that big orange ball of fluff grew into a loving cat, constantly needing a reassuring touch, a rub or a pat morning, noon and night.

He even started talking to us when he wanted attention. Of course we couldn't understand a sound he made because we didn't speak 'cat'.

When one of our sons called to say his crew found a tiny black kitten under the shelves in a big box store, I looked at our big guy and said, "Why not?" L.S. probably needed the company. So the kitten came to live with us. Wally, a black tuxedo, wasn't much of a companion for L.S., though. Too much age difference, I guess.

We took a trip to our vet in search of a kitten, one who could be a playmate for Wally, and brought home cat number three, a three year old, part Siamese, with an attitude. At the vet's, Celine jumped into my husband's lap and stayed there. We really had no choice.

Since then, three years ago, we've  discovered those cats are our entertainment, provide company, give us a lot to talk about and definitely lower our blood pressure. All three want attention, even when I'm engrossed on working on my latest novel, or my husband is involved in working on some of my promotional material.

L.S. is particularly fond of settling in on the hard copy of the latest manuscript my husband is editing for me. Celine is especially pleased when I decide to work at my desk, because she takes a giant leap, landing in the middle of my notes, then stretching out, scattering papers all over the floor, so I have room to scratch her back. All three love to jump on chairs, tables, desks, computers, even printers and sing loud and clear. "Time for us!"

And, yes, we do take time out and play with them. Okay, we admit it. It's good for them and good for us. That was one late night phone call we'll never regret taking.

                                       About Allison's Novel, Windsong:

Alwyn ab Brynn Ffrydd wants revenge against a powerful Baron without losing his king's support. What better way to exact revenge than to kidnap the Baron's long time mistress. But she is not what he thinks she is.

Shy, unworldly Milisent Mortimore has been confined for nine years by a brother who now demands she agree to wed a cruel, heartless man. Thanks to her father's will, she has the right to chose her mate or her spouse will lose her inheritance.

When Alwyn kidnaps her desires flares and together they must struggle against the treachery of Alwyn's current mistress, her brother and the man he wants her to marry.

In defying all three, Alwyn places his life at risk. Milisent saves him from certain death and together they celebrate their life of love. 

Buy Link for WINDSONG is:     http://www.amazon.com/Windsong-ebook/dp/B0064XIPIG/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1364241476&sr=8-14&keywords=allison+Knight

Or the tiny URL is:                        http://tinyurl.com/cksavku

My publisher, CBG, www.ChampagneBooks.com  is planning to release BETRAYED BRIDE, a contemporary Romance, May 6, 2013.  

My web page:                www.AllisonKnight.com.  (There are buy links for each of my books, plus reviews and excerpts for each book on the web  page.)

My blog:                        www.AllisonKnight.blogspot.com

My twitter account:         www.twitter.com/HistoricalAllie

PLEASE WELCOME ALLISON KNIGHT BY LEAVING A COMMENT BELOW.