CELIACS OF THE WORLD UNITE!

Right about now most of you are wondering who are the Celiacs? Some strange political group? A fancy new club? Well, there are an estimated three million Celiacs in the United States alone and half of them don’t even know it! They go about their lives, dealing with Celiac issues, all the while they are oblivious to what is going on in their own bodies.
Celiac Disease is an auto immune disease that causes a person to react to gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley. (Okay sometimes oats too-especially in the USA, but that’s controversial so I won’t go there.) If you have Celiac Disease and eat wheat, rye or barley your immune system goes haywire and the villi in your intestines is destroyed. Flattened! Squashed! (FYI- Villi are the little hair-like fibers in your intestine that move the food along and grab up all your vitamins and good things to feed you and make you healthy.) Now, without these little villi just try to absorb those nutrients!
Symptoms are mostly digestive include bloating, the big D, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and some not so subtle symptoms like anemia, bone pain, headaches, and a wonderful little rash called dermatitis herpetiformis. From “failure to thrive” in infants to any problem associated with vitamin deficiencies Celiac Disease can present it self in many ways. So, how do you diagnose something that hides under so many hats? Celiac disease was once thought to be extremely rare but the times they are a changin’. It starts with a blood test and is confirmed with a biopsy (so they can see those squashed and flattened villi).
When diagnosed Celiac Disease is like this giant monster living in your house. It sits on your shoulder where ever you go and hangs around your neck like a ball and chain. Gone from your life are the cookies, cakes, breads, cereals and pasta you love. No more beer! You go to parties and have to refuse just about everything on the menu because wheat is the cheapest filler known to man. It’s in most of the gravies, soups and sauces (thickened with flour-and yes, four is made from wheat too). Clean out your cupboards and get ready for a change of lifestyle.
Then we learn of cross contamination. Yeesh! Enough already! So, the chef is in the kitchen making your lunch. Cheese burger, no roll please and you think you’re doing good. But the chef is busy and he takes the spatula—YOUR SPATUAL—and leans over and flips a piece of French toast, then he flips your burger. POOF! You’ve been contaminated! Tiny flecks of gluten from the toast have found their way onto your burger and your plate and will work their way into your gut, throw your immune system into chaos and hammer down your villi. All from one careless flip of the spatula. So, beware when you belly up to the buffet because you have to wonder if the people before you moved the spoon from the croutons (wheat) into the olives. Oh, the joy of Celiac!
Now relax. Push the panic aside and know there is hope. It takes time to tame this Celiac beast, but it is possible. You do your research, check out the Celiac organizations for more information and you learn it’s not so bad. Most health food stores now carry every kind of gluten free food you could imagine. Even your mainstream grocers are starting to stock the stuff. So you’ll buy one of the gluten free pastas turn the first few pots in to glue (cooking was never one of my better talents!) and learn to manage this life. Experiment, find the brands you like and maybe even learn to bake a few of your favorites. You either eat before you go to the party or bring a little gluten free dish with you. If you do find food you can eat just serve yourself first so those cross contaminators don’t get you! Day by day it gets easier, you know at a glance what you can and can’t eat and you stock your home with good food again. The beast shrinks in size and now fits in your pocket. He’s still there, but can’t scare you anymore.
Then comes the payoff: you FEEL GOOD! The nausea that’s followed you from sun up to sun down is gone, bloated tummy, aching joints and headaches GONE! The beast has given you back your health.
And I found the best tasting bread up at Whole Foods so I’m going to take some cold cuts, cheese, mayo and chopped up olives and make the best Dagwood you ever saw! Life goes on, it gets better. (There are about four or five kinds of gluten free beer on the market, too.)
-Jeanne -Gluten free since 2003
http://www.celiac.com/
http://www.celiac.org/
Local Celiac support group: http://www.geocities.com/seashoreceliacs/

THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK

I have to recommend THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK written by Mark Terry. This fast paced drama will keep you turning pages. (I was actually late for work one day because I had to find out how it ended) The main character, Derek Stillwater, is a hero everyone will love.

What if a bunch of scientists created a super virus with no known cure? And what if it fell into the hands of a crazy man?

Read THE DEVIL'S PITCHFORK!

http://www.markterrybooks.com/books.php

Recommending KISS HER GOODBYE

Find KISS HER GOODBYE at your local book store. You won't regret it. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat and takes you places you could never imagine.

I just finished it and still can't get it out of my mind. Robert Gregory Browne is definately an author I'll buy again ...and again, and again, and again!

Couldn't resist....

RWA totally worth it!

The RWA meeting was wonderfully inspiring! The people were an amazing wealth of knowledge of publishing and the writing process. It was like being among kindred souls! These peeps understood me and I probably could have stayed all day.
The speaker of the day was Marcela Landres, a book doctor. She was an editor at for 7 years and now helps others get published. http://www.marcelalandres.com/
The information she shared with us gave me new perspective on what the agents and publishers look for when a book comes thier way. She gave some great suggestions for shaping the dreaded query letter, too.
Aside from the speakers and other things at the meeting I met the greatest people. Not having a large contingent of fiction writers here in my little burg, it was inspiring to talk to other writers who are in the same boat as me; prepublished, looking for representation and wondering where I'm gonna get the time to write!
I would definately recommend the RWA. I only wish I had joined sooner!

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! Its off to RWA I go!

Tomorrow I'm investigating my first meeting of the Romance Writers of America local NJ chapter. I've been vacilating about attending one of these meetings for a while. Mostly I wonder how much I can get from it. I do write some romantic suspense but I also write sci-fi and paranormal stuff. (With a few serial killers thrown in for good measure) It all kinda depends what falls out of my head. However, after talking with a few people who are members I'm thinking this might be a place to learn a lot of stuff. They have editors, agents and other writer's talking about every aspect of writing.
I'm excited!
But I'm a little nervous about the drive. They discribe it as 20 minutes up the Parkway...but I get lost so often I could end up anywhere. I think some cruel Parkway employee wandered around New Jersey and just stuck Parkway signs all over the place. You could follow those things for miles and never actually see the Parkway. Its kinda like the Jersey Devil. You know it's out there...but no one ever admits to seeing it.
If I actually get there I'll let you know how it goes....

Better to light a single candle....

Better to light a single candle then to sit and curse at the dark, lost pages of my manuscript.
I had an absolutely great time at the critique group. There was an agent there (whose name I missed because I got lost-yes, thats typical, I'm always lost) who gave us sooo much great information on query letters (which are an art by themselves) and the writing process in general. Caridad Pineiro,http://www.caridad.com/ a wonderfully prolific writer, also gave great insight on what builds a great story and how to hook your readers from the start.
When they took my pages in hand and started to read there was a feeling of diving off a cliff. Laying open my soul and letting them peek inside. But most of what they said hit upon things I already had questions about. They gave real good suggestions and I came away with more of a focus on where the story should go.
I also submitted to Cabbages and Kings. A wonderful blog everyone should check out. It belongs to the writing team know as P.J.Parrish. http://www.pjparrish.com/index.html (Thank you, P.J.Parrish!!) Everything said there echoed the words of the other critique group.
I would definately recommend every writer find a great critique group and lay open your soul. Its kinda like raising a child...sooner or later you have to give them wings.