June 9, 2018
12:51 p.m.

Happy birthday to my nephew Nathan! You're getting up there, dude!

Happy Anniversary to my brother and his lovely wife!

I am back in Colorado. 

Chaos has ensued at my house. I am literally 5 people away from having my entire family--children and grandchildren--living with me. It is noisy, it is messy. Whew!

It's also overwhelming after spending two months with my parents. Their house is tidy and quiet. I'm in a bit of a state of shock. 

But it's all okay! We will make it work.

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We buy a lot of products that claim to be easy to open. I call BS. Perforated edges, "tear here" instructions, I don't care. They're not easy to open. Scissors. Scissors open all. 

My tip for the day: Scissors. 

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A writer's group I joined is posting a task a day with the hashtag #WriteAwayJune. It has been really useful to me to answer questions or comment on my main character in my books. It's insightful. 

June posts so far: 

#WriteAwayJune Day 1: Introduce your character.

My main character is Emma Knight-Kramer. She is a young woman from Southwestern Wyoming who discovered at the age of four that she was able to see and communicate with deceased family members.
Emma has curly red hair and blue eyes, which some family members attribute to Irish ancestry. She's short and has a tendency toward chubbiness. Her fair skin burns easily, she has allergies and asthma, and these things make some of her ancestry searches quite a challenge.
She is married to Jacob Kramer, and has active boy&girl twins who keep her busy.
Emma's visits with ancestors have led her to investigate claims so she can solve mysteries, document facts and add to the family tree.
She makes a living as a photographer and part time journalist.
Emma has, through the years, been the subject of skepticism and derision, and has been bullied and challenged by peers and strangers alike.
You can meet Emma and her family and friends in Emma: Ancestors Tales.

#WriteAwayJune Day 2-- Share a recipe your character enjoys. 

Emma married a Jewish man after growing up eating classic American fare--cheese on everything. Her challenge: Kosher food preparation. Latkes are her favorite go-to when she's in no mood to plan. Hand grating potatoes and onions isn't much fun, so she's going to love it when she can get herself a food processor. Here's a great recipe:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/r…/1015533-classic-potato-latkes

#WriteAwayJune Day 3 -- Take the Myers-Briggs test as your character and share the results

According to the test, Emma is ISFP, The Composer. I can mostly agree with this results, but I have to giggle at tests like these, since I tested myself and got an extrovert result. Most people perceive me as outgoing, but that's because I go to great lengths not to let anyone know what a nervous wreck I often am in social situations. lol Anyway, here's a link if you'd like to know more about ISFP personality. http://www.personalityperfect.com/isfp-the-composer-person…/

#WriteAwayJune Day 4 Explore Your Character's World

Emma inhabits the planet Earth. She has spent most of her life in southwestern Wyoming. This is rural desert land, where people mine trona, work in oil fields and spend their leisure time camping, fishing, boating and hunting. Emma suffers from asthma and allergies, sunburns easily and doesn't necessarily exist comfortably in her environment, but she loves her home nonetheless.

Emma also has an unusual insight into a world beyond death, which cannot accurately be called Heaven. It may be the Purgatorial plane, but Emma can't be sure, because the ancestors she communicates with who exist there are unsure themselves. They express faith that at some point they will move on from there.

Emma spends her time balancing her two worlds, exploring history, resolving mysteries and explaining the lives passed, while also loving her family, corralling her active twins and running a photography business.

#WriteAwayJune Day 5 - Your Character Would Sell Their Soul For...? 

Emma is a spiritual person who has more than sufficient evidence that souls go on, so she would never sell her own. 
She does have a great desire for more control over the visitations she encounters, saying "If only I could just call the person to me, have them appear on demand, I could ask questions when I need to." 
Unfortunately for Emma, her visitors come and go as they do, and often at the most inconvenient of times.

#WriteAwayJune Day 6 - Your Character's Greatest Fear

Emma fears losing any family members, even knowing there is every possibility of seeing them again sometime. She also fears running across allergens that could potentially kill her, always carries an inhaler and an epi pen. She would hate leaving her children without their mother.

#WriteAwayJune Day 7- What is a defining moment in your character's life?

When Emma was 4 years old, her great-grandmother died of cancer. On the day of the funeral, the little girl goes into the bathroom and finds her great-grandmother sitting on the edge of the bathtub, dressed in her wedding gown. The old woman informs her she's been given the ability to see and speak with her ancestors and explain their stories. This moment defines Emma's life journey.

#WriteAwayJune Day 8 - Character's reaction to being in a different world -- 
Emma communicates with the dead, who exist on a different plane. Some have assured her that it's not heaven or hell, so Emma's not sure if it's purgatory, a waiting room, a train station or what. It's big. It's vast. It's foggy. It's empty. It's crowded. Depending on the spirit, Emma's heard various versions, and she would love to be able to visit somehow. (You know, without actually having to die to get there) She can't explain what she doesn't understand, so it's frustrating to her not to be able to see into that world. I think she would be amazed, awed and frightened if she could find her way in.

#WriteAwayJune Day 9 - Who is your character's oldest friend?
Emma has always had a difficult time making real friends due

to the fact that her abilities manifested at such a young age that she didn't really know how to deal with visitations that happened in public places, like school. Her classemates found her odd at best, and in worst case scenarios have accused her of being a fake. In Junior High School, two classmates made an aggressive overture of friendship in order to set her up as a Halloween party attraction. Emma met her best friends, Sasha and Martin at that party when things went off the rails. They stood up to their classmates in defense of Emma, and became lifelong friends. Sasha and Martin married after completing their schooling and live in Albuquerque, NM, but the friends are always in touch and visit in person whenever they can. 

If you'd like to read about how they all met, here's a link to an exerpt from my novel, "Emma: Ancestor's Tales".
https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/628298-halloween-treat

I have been having a really good time with this, so for the rest of the month I will post the #WriteAwayJune assignments here. Just for fun.

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Food may be on the agenda. Hungry. 

Hasta manana!