Grammar Check...

SOMETIMES THINGS JUST DON'T GO RIGHT....
It pays to watch your use of language. Since Tuesday was my 66th, this hit home.

On his 66th birthday, a man received a gift certificate from his wife. The certificate paid for a visit to a medicine man living on a nearby reservation who was rumored to have a wonderful cure for Er**tile Dysfunction. After being persuaded, he drove to the reservation, handed his ticket to the Medicine Man and wondered
what would happen next.
The old man slowly, methodically produced a potion, handed it to him, and with a grip
on his shoulder, warned, "This is powerful medicine and it must be respected. You take only
a teaspoonful and then say
'1-2-3.
"When you do that, you will become more manly than you have ever been in your life, and you can perform as long as
you want."
The husband was
encouraged.

As he walked away, he turned to the old Medicine Man and asked, "How do I stop the medicine
from working?"
"Your partner must say '1-2-3-4,' he responded. "But when she does, the medicine will not
work again until the next
full moon."

The husband was very eager to see if it worked, so he went home, showered, shaved, took a
spoonful of the medicine, and then invited his wife to join him in the bedroom.
When she came in, he took off his clothes and said, "1-2-3!" Immediately, he was the manliest of men.
His wife was so excited that she began preparing herself for the reception, and then she asked, "What was the 1-2-3 for?"
And that, boys and girls, is
why we should never end our sentences with a
preposition! One could end up with a ''dangling pariciple.''

Life Theories

It's Saturday morning and for some reason I'm thinking about the world. I was reading Erica Orloff's blog about not being able to find a non-white doll in Walmart. Okay, the post was about a lot more than that but that's what triggered this train of thought. Incomprehensible how the mind works sometimes.
So that brings me to my theory on world peace.
Most of the bad feelings that initiate hate crimes, wars and other attacks on people or countries come from one side thinking the other side is wrong or different for some reason.
I believe world peace will come when all of the nationalities and races of the world are totally mixed.
A person who is half white and half black wouldn't hate either of those races. Now what if the person was black, Hispanic and Caucasian? Would they feel animosity towards any one in those groups?
I think when the world is truly mixed then we will find peace.
And that's my thoughts for today...

The Last Five Years....

Five years is a long time. In some ways it can be a life time. And in Elliot's case it was...his lifetime.
He was adopted as a puppy and spent five years with a family. Then one day the family woke up and decided they had no time for him and sent this eight pound little fluff ball out into the world to find his own way.
So, he was taken into rescue and that's how Elliot ended up at my house. He's only been here a few hours, but so far he seems to be house trained, likes Halston and thinks the cat needs to be chased. But that's okay, we're explaining Gizzmo's right to pursue happiness and not to be pursued by dogs.
Right now he's pacing back and forth between rooms. A lot of the foster dogs that come through here do that. It's as if they're looking for their family and for those familiar things that used to be home. When we had Frieda the Basset Hound she would pace and whine for hours. I'd offer her food, water, a walk, but she wouldn't want anything but to pace and cry.
It breaks my heart but all we can give them is space and time.
After a day or so the dogs usually come around and start looking for some affection. A little rub behind the ears or a warm place to lay down near you.
It's kind of hard to watch them go through this process and then know that they're going to have to do it again when they go to their for-ever family. When Frieda went to her for-ever family she had some adjustment issues, but she's doing better now. She's starting to trust and her little personality is coming out more and more every day.
And now it's Elliot's turn to find a for-ever. Please wish him luck!


Five years....

When to hop heads...tell me how you do it???

Since my writing has been lagging lately I've been reading a lot. Right now I'm reading Under the Dome by Stephen King, Sins of the Flesh by Caridad Pinero (interesting romance about genetic testing) and something by Jennifer Cruise about a basset hound. (someone who knew we were hosting Frieda the Basset gave me that book the other day.)
So since I was once called a head hopper by a wonderful editor I've been worrying about this issue a lot. Some writers do this so smoothly you don't even feel it. The shift of POV is barely felt by the reader. Then there's others that I can see it clearly but for some reason it seems to work. Then there are writers who hop heads so often I have to back up and say...where was I?
So my question is how do you change POV's in a story? Do you have any rules on how you hop heads? Have you ever written a book totally in one POV?
Help!
I'm obsessing and I can't stop!

Write on...

One of the most popular pieces of advice that writer's get is to write everyday. Something I haven't been doing. Something I've felt that I can't do.
Usually when I have ...gulp!...writer's block I just keep writing stories. Some bad, some terrible, occasionally a diamond in the rough surfaces, but I could always keep writing.
Now?
eh

I've even failed my blogs. It's like I've crawled into a dark hole with no desire to come out.
I spend my time trying to fix everything around me. Even things I have no control over. Maybe it's the Virgo in me. Maybe it's a place to hide.
So now I'm ready to write every day again. It's going to be hard. I'm not sure there's anything in my head to write about.
Ideas used to be easy. I always believed ideas were everywhere. Wherever you go there's something there to build a story on.
Grocery store? Hmmm, see the lady in the black coat? What if she has a gun in her pocket? What is she going to do with it? And what would bring her to the grocery store before going on a mission to kill?
Doctor's office? ...What if that person sitting across from you in the waiting room is being poisoned? Who's trying to get rid of her and why? Will the doc figure it out and then be a target also?
Walking the dog? ...As you walk through the wooded area next to your house your dog goes crazy barking at a clump of bushes and flushes out a creature you've never seen before. Do you take it home and make it a pet? Do you discover a new species? Or is it not of this world?
Work? ...If the next person who walks through that door brings a check for 10 million dollars and you've suddenly won the big lottery how does your life change? Who becomes your friend? Who becomes an enemy?
Ideas flow...
Wait! I think I'm starting to get the spark back...