Science – My Corner

A Memorable Eruption #SixSentenceStoryThursdayLinkUp #WritingPrompts #Inspiration

I remember that day in 1980 when Mt. St. Helens volcano in Oregon erupted. Miles away in Sheridan, Wyoming, during my senior year of high school, when I woke up that morning, it was the first bit of news I heard on my clock radio. As I got ready for my day, the announcer advised residents to close their windows because volcanic ash was in the air.

My younger brother’s elementary school class had an outdoor field trip, which was canceled. Infuriated, my mother proclaimed that it was just a little ash that wouldn’t hurt us. That was nothing compared to destruction in the vicinity of the eruption.

Thanks to Girlie on the Edge for inspiring the above with her six-sentence story prompt for this week, in which the given word is “eruption.” You can click here to participate in this week’s hop and read other bloggers’ six-sentence creations.

New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

Sixteen-year-old Natalie’s grandmother, suffering from dementia and confined to a wheelchair, lives in a nursing home and rarely recognizes Natalie. But one Halloween night, she tells her a shocking secret that only she and Natalie’s mother know. Natalie is the product of a one-night stand between her mother, who is a college English teacher, and another professor.

After some research, Natalie learns that people with dementia often have vivid memories of past events. Still not wanting to believe what her grandmother has told her, she finds her biological father online. The resemblance between them is undeniable. Not knowing what else to do, she shows his photo and website to her parents.

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

Her younger sister, Sarah, senses their parents’ marital difficulties. At Thanksgiving, when she has an opportunity to see Santa Claus, she asks him to bring them together again. Can the jolly old elf grant her request?

***

Facebook

Website

No More Lighter Fluid? #SixSentenceStoryThursdayLinkUp #Inspiration #WritingPrompts

I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth mentioning again. My brother Andy, who was seven years my junior, developed a scientific interest in flame when he was five years old. He set fire to his basement bedroom, but my mother was able to put that out before much damage was done.

Once, he was playing with matches near an abandoned shack when it caught fire. Another time, while we were in his room, he held a lighter to my face and flicked it, but it only hissed. He insisted it was out of fluid, but I ran away, not about to take any chances.

***

Thanks to Girlie on the Edge for inspiring the above true story with her six-sentence prompt for this week, in which the given word is “fluid.” You can click here to participate and read other bloggers’ six-sentence creations.

New! Why Grandma Doesn’t Know Me

Independently published with the help of DLD Books.

Natalie realizes she has some growing up to do. Scared and confused, she reaches out to her biological father, and they start corresponding.

***

Facebook

Website

The Ones and Twos of Going Number 1 and Number 2

Good morning. When you were a kid, you probably wondered why you had to learn math. Well, maybe this post from Common Place Fun Facts will enlighten you. It should definitely give you some food for thought while you’re picking up your pet’s droppings. Enjoy, and have a wonderful Wednesday!

Commonplace Fun Facts

Did you ever complain while doing your math homework and ask, “Why do I need to learn this?” Probably someone responded by telling you that no matter what you choose to do with your life, you’re going to have to use math in some way.

It turns out this is true, even if you plan to spend your life cleaning up after animals. Scientists have applied their finely-tuned brains to unlock the mysteries of what happens on the other end of an animal’s body. To put it a bit more bluntly, thanks to a bit of math, we now know just how long it takes for animals to poop and pee.

View original post 933 more words

Stories I’ll Never Write #Open Book Blog Hop #Wednesday Words

I don’t know why I didn’t aspire to be a writer much earlier in life. Even as a kid, I had stories in my head that I never wrote down.

While reading Nancy Drew mysteries, I imagined that Nancy and her boyfriend Ned were married, and they adopted me. Nancy’s friends, George and Bess, married their boyfriends, Burt and Dave, and each couple adopted a girl my age. Being in junior high, we weren’t into boys yet. So, the three of us solved mysteries together.

When I was in high school, I fantasized that I was the bionic woman, leaving Nancy Drew’s hometown of River Heights behind and solving more serious crimes. In my fantasy, I married a bionic man at the age of sixteen, and by the time I was eighteen or nineteen, I had two kids who were not bionic.

In college, I replaced this story with another, inspired by Star Trek. My brother was the captain of the U.S.S Enterprise, and this ship’s transporter beam rescued me from certain death on a planet with a dystopian society similar to that of George Orwell’s 1984. After that, I became a famous singer, touring the galaxy on my own starship. I also created, in my head, a soap opera about the lives of people on different planets in this galaxy.

During the earlier part of this century, after I finally became serious about writing, I developed an idea for a science fiction novel. At the time, my brother was working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. In my story, a visually impaired young woman, while visiting relatives in Los Alamos, is approached by a historian from the future, who is working at the lab on a project that involves bringing in people from the past. She agrees to be transported to the future, where she learns a lot about what life will be like. But upon returning to the present, she doesn’t remember anything about her adventure, and life goes on as if nothing happened.

When I was younger, I enjoyed detective and science fiction stories, but they’re not for me anymore. So, I doubt this or any of my fantasies will end up on paper. But it was fun to dream, no matter how unrealistic the fantasies. In my opinion, they served as exercises to limber my creative muscles.

***

Thanks to this week’s prompt on Stevie Turner’s Open Book Blog Hop for inspiring the above. If you’d like to participate, click here.

***

By the way, for those of you who use the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, The Red Dress is available for download from their site here. No matter how you read it, please be sure to review it wherever you can. That goes for all my books. Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe, happy, and healthy.

New! The Red Dress

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

***

My Books

My Amazon Author Page

Facebook

Website

How a Melted Candy Bar Revolutionized Everyday Life #Friday Fun Reads #Reblog

Have you ever wondered how the microwave was invented? Well, according to this post from Commonplace Fun Facts, it started with a melted candy bar. Who knew?

Via How a Melted Candy Bar Revolutionized Everyday Life

By the way, for those of you who use the National Library Services for the Blind and Print Disabled, The Red Dress is available for download from their site here. No matter how you read it, please be sure to review it wherever you can. That goes for all my books. Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe, happy, and healthy.