Writing a new chapter in my life as I take on new responsibilities in 2024. Yoga, treadmill, and meditation help me stay focused and move forward. And of course friends, most of them are far away, some live on the continent, others in Europe, and I have a friend in Adelaide, Australia. But, just the thought that they exist helps.
After the first major snowstorm of the season, we have received a total of 21 inches as of Sunday morning at 9:20 a.m. The lake snow effect has kicked in and we’re getting more snow, as Mom and I get ready for a trip to Florida. It is also my annual writing retreat.
Read your free Taurus Daily Horoscope to discover how the stars will align for you today! Reveal the hidden opportunities coming your way and any obstacles to be prepared for.
— Read on www.tarot.com/daily-horoscope/taurus/2024-01-14
Not a big writing day today, mainly because I had to catch up on social media posts with all the upcoming holiday events. I made the NaNoWriMo winners’ circle for the second year since it started in 2022. Check out the winners above.
Dec. 13 or 14 Books & Spirits special at The Book Nook & Java Shop in Montague
Dec. 22 Author Kenneth Harmon
Tasting events of Moravian Sons Distillery spirits
I will make this Czech eggnog for the upcoming holiday tastings of Moravian Sons Distillery with our apple spirit. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to experience Czech culture at its best. Our next tastings are on Dec. 7 at @Bricks at Campau Corner from 4 to 6 p.m., Dec. 8 at @HomeRun Liquor Beer & Wine, and Dec. 16 at The Book Nook & Java Shop in Montague from 3 to 7 p.m. Books & Spirits. Happy Holidays.
We will have real Czech eggnog made with our @Moravian Sons Distillery apple spirit. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to experience Czech culture at its best.
Ok, I am back at it pounding the keys on a wintery afternoon embarking on an adventure to finish the first draft of the new novel. I logged in 1,246 words. We got a mixture of rain and snow for a soggy day and a muddy gravel road with potholes. I ended up jumping on the treadmill instead of going on the trail.
I reaped the winner goodies this morning and entered the Winner’s Circle with other writers and authors. Sometimes, I feel like a kid back in school or a college student. I have to get all these rewards to continue on.
Rewards, badges
My badges and more, once I locate it all. The first one on the left is the winning badge for writing 50,000 words on or before Nov. 30, the second one is for writing daily, and the third one is for participating in this year’s challenge.
Copyright (c) 2023. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
I am indulging in the sounds of the beach: Russian to the right, laughter to the right, kids straight up front and the crashing waves as far as I can see. The sun is warming my legs while my feet dig deep into the hot sand. It’s 82F and the sun is high above my head.
Lemonade Razzonade Bait Bucket Margarita
My backpack has everything I need: notepad and pens, suntan lotion, water, cash for a Blue Bait Margarita and magazines about living in Paradise.
I cannot omit the price this Paradise had to pay during hurricane Ian in September. Crews are still fixing the roofs and some signs have not been replaced. Otherwise you would not believe a hurricane blew through; just south of town.
Dad Vaclav and mom Ella
We spent a great morning on the town starting with yoga with Elin on the beach to the sounds of Ukulele Thursdays. We took a walk on Miami Street in search of the Greek restaurant Bromdon. We browsed through the Island View Boutique with beautiful blings and resort wear. Hasta La Vista.
Mom Ella is doing much better today after her surgery. With strength she’s also getting back her attitude, just a tad.
I have to pick up on chapter Mara and the Revelation of the Great Singapore secret in the sequel to The Lost Town. More later.
I am meeting with Maple later today and mixing up some cocktail recipes.
Well, the meeting with Maple didn’t happen, but I met Pat, the board secretary instead. YAY!
To top off this incredible productive day, I managed to pop into Pages Promotions Winter Book Festival. I am still clueless as to who murdered author Andrew Allen Smith who stole the Sardonic Manuscript, but did he really or was he just framed?
To be continued…,
Copyright (c) 2023. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
I finished the NaNoWriMo 50k word challenge in November this morning at 6:38 am right before the start of Christmas Through Lowell. This was my third time participating. I can’t say that the novel writing challenge gets any easier with more experience or with more books published. However, I better understand my inner workings as a writer and an author. I know what is my most productive time, and how many words I need to log in per day, (2, 675) and how to push through a writing block.
Each year, I learn something new. This year, it was the buddy system and that it actually works.
When I saw the daily word log ins by buddies and fellow authors Andrew Smith, Diana Plopa, Marianne Wieland, Brenda Hasse and Jean Davis, I just had to keep up with them.
Near the summit, more insights other than metrics came in, and I will be posting quotes.
. Copyright (c) 2021. Emma Blogs LLC. All rights reserved.
“When I am writing, I am trying to find out who I am, who we are, what we’re capable of, what we feel, how we lose and stand up, and go from darkness into darkness.”
Maya Angelou
Lowell, MI- Together we can accomplish anything. We will get through this together. Each one of us has a part to play.
How many times do we get to chat simultaneously with people from Florida, Oklahoma , Minnesota and Michigan?
I did for the first time earlier in the day via video chat Zoo room app. I connected with familiar faces, and I am so grateful for technology with all its whims.
Plan your fall touring of Pure Michigan. Visit the 1850s Fallasburg Pioneer Village which is on the National Register of Historic Places in MIchigan. The village nestles in the northeast corner of Kent County.
Just cross the Covered Bridge into the village and step back in time.
One of the best times to visit this area is in its autumn glory with all the harvest festivals , farmers’ markets and local produce abundance.
Explore local history, sample local food and craft beers and breweries, chat with local authors. Learn how to can pickles or how to make salsa.
Writer’s Digest Writing Competition deadline is today
By Emma Palova
EW Emma’s Writings
Lowell, MI – My latest news is that I submitted a short story for the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition right on the deadline today, June 1st.
It has many advantages. That’s how I accumulated short stories for my first book “Shifting Sands: Short Stories.” Sure, you have to pay the $35 entry fee, but you have content enough for a book.
There are nine entry categories including: script, stage play or television/movie script.
The poetry fee is $20. I’ve been a subscriber to the Writer’s Digest for at least 20 years. It’s essential for writers.
What I do like about the magazine that it is entertaining and full of advice.
I’ll keep you posted on the results. You still have time to enter.
Copyright (c) 2018. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved
I am supposed to consolidate my position and clarify my goals, according to today’s horoscope for the determined Taurus.
I especially like the quote from Bruce Lee: “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”
That’s a pretty heavy quote that has inspired this entire post. To answer the last part of it; I am refining the content of the Greenwich Meridian memoir about our family immigration saga.
Inspired by Stephen and Owen King’s cooperation on the latest “Sleeping Beauties: A Novel”, I asked my mom Ella to write two chapters for the memoir. I would not be able to write them, because during mom’s second time around in the USA, I wasn’t with her. I was still back in Czechoslovakia.
I wrongfully called Chapter 13, “First years in America.” And surely mom struggled with that, because it was her second time around from 1980 to present. After more than an hour on the phone, we clarified that.
During mom’s writing process, dad discovered a precious document; his bio when he was applying for jobs. It was stored away in old luggage in the basement, where I would have never found it.
This document, probably from the 1970s, and my parents’ involvement will help move the memoir along. For months, I struggled with it. I got stuck halfway through the manuscript.
Here is an example of a manuscript proposal that I have submitted to the Calvin College writing conference in Grand Rapids. As a standard, everything must be submitted electronically via app Submittable by a certain deadline.
Always Explore the option of submitting your manuscript to a writer’s conference. Some conferences accept manuscripts even if you are not a registered participant for a fee.
manuscript proposal for Shifting Sands Short Stories, contemporary fiction with excerpts from “Tonight on Main” and “The Temptation of Martin Duggan.”
A manuscript proposal should include the following: author’s bio, book summary including page length, book’s audience/readership, brief comparison to similar titles on the market, marketing strategies/promotion ideas, possible endorsers and chapter samples.
Biography
Emma Palova (Konecna), born in former Czechoslovakia, is a Lowell-based short story writer, novelist, screenwriter and a journalist.
Emma (Konecna) Palova
Palova wrote for Czechoslovak Newsweek and Prague Reporter in the 1990s. She received bachelor’s degree from the University of Brno in 1986.
She started an eclectic collection of short stories during her studies of creative writing at the International Correspondence Schools in Montreal, and at the Grand Rapids Community College in the early 1990s.
The collection “Shifting Sands Short Stories” is now in its first edition. Palova self-published the book on the Kindle Direct Publishing (kdp) platform on Amazon in the summer of 2017.
“I did not want the stories to get lost,” she said.
The collection continues to grow with new stories in volume II of Shifting Sands: Secrets.
Palova’s passion for writing dates back to grade school in Stipa near Zlin in the region of Moravia.
“I’ve always had a knack for languages and adventure,” she said. “Our family immigration saga has been a tremendous inspiration for all my writings.”
The short story “The Temptation of Martin Duggan” captures some immigration details embodied by math professor Martin Duggan.
Palova’s work at a major Midwest retailer has enabled the core of the Shifting Sands stories. While working on the second shift at the women’s department, Palova wrote in the morning emulating Ernest Hemingway’s writing habits, short story form and journalistic career.
During her journalistic years, Palova continued to write fiction inspired by real life happenings as in “Iron Horse” and “Foxy.”
Palova became an American citizen in 1999 in a naturalization ceremony at Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids.
In 2012, she diversified again with the digital platform WordPress. Palova founded Emma Blogs, LLC, a portfolio of blogs for marketing in 2014. She combined her passion for history and writing by working with history clients such as the Fallasburg Historical Society.
Palova wrote the screenplay “Riddleyville Clowns” in 2009. It is registered with The Writers Guild of America.
Shifting Sands: Short Stories book summary
Book complete self-published on kdp platform
Pages 148
The book is a collection of 13 short stories where the heroes and heroines shift their destinies like grains of sand in an hour-glass, quite to the surprise of the reader.
Sometimes the characters like the grains have to pass through the narrow part, only to emerge in a new form, that is transformed into stronger human beings. They’re packed in the crowd with others, suffering or loose by themselves, either stranded or pushed to the wall. The shifting shows that everything changes and is like a fluid energy in life.
The stories are divided into three circles. The first circle comprises stories from the early years of immigration spent between the USA and Montreal, Canada until 1993.
These would include: The Temptation of Martin Duggan, Danillo and Honey Azrael.
The second circle draws on retail experience from a Midwest store. These are: Tonight on Main, Therese’s Mind, Boxcutter Amy, Orange Nights and the Death Song.
The third circle of stories was inspired by journalistic career in the regional print newspaper and magazine media through 2012. These include: In the Shadows, Iron Horse, Foxy, Riddleyville Clowns and Chatamal.
Most of the setting is in fictive Midwest Riddleyville. The stories are a tribute to hometown characters and their hardiness to survive.
Book’s audience/readership
Adults 18 and up
Brief title comparison on the market
Much like in Anjali Sachdeva’s “All the Name They Used for God,” the characters in Shifting Sands Short Stories attempt to escape their fate. However, in a lesser fantasy world.
As in Neil Gaiman’s “Fragile Things,” the stories came into existence under different circumstances, and kept changing. Time molded these stories into unconventional shapes, as the hour-glass on the cover suggests.
As in Jeffrey Archer’s “Tell Tale” some stories are closely tied to travel like the story “In the Shadows” based on Milwaukee meetings.
And Earnest Hemingway’s classics based on reshaping different experiences: “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio” will be reflected in the works “The Writer, the Nun, and the Gardener.
The book is available throughout the Kent District Library (KDL) system in Grand Rapids, in Hastings and in Big Rapids.
Blog tours, author tours, book signings, libraries
Possible endorsers
Book stores, print companies,
Book excerpt with samples from two stories not to exceed 3,000 words
Tonight on Main Excerpt
Cards with red hearts and hearts again land on the table covered with a lace doily in the old house located at 534 E. Main Street in Riddleyville. Waiting for his ace, young Willy stretched back into a dilapidated arm-chair that squeaked under his light weight. He took a long look around.
Old clothes and empty boxes were laying on the floor and on the couch. An open can of cat food sat on the dining table. Yellow and red drapes with a green and blue hydrangea pattern were drawn down to further dim the dark room. They looked like hanging rags with holes in them.
An antique lamp cast dim light in the living room. The house was filled with old smells combined with the aroma of rum. Willy admired the vintage Coca-Cola collection in the corner. He also peaked through a hole in the drapes to get a good look at the porch and the Main drag through sleepy Riddleyville.
The Midwest town of Riddleyville breathed past with old-fashioned lamp posts, an old Opera House under reconstruction, two rivers crossing paths downstream from the dam, and the remnants of the defunct railroad.
Furniture was piled up on the porch and flowers of the summer were wilting in the cracked pots. Willy recognized millionaire Roby pedaling on his bike. Roby waved as if he knew someone was peaking. Maybe, he just saw the three old women moving the card table on to the porch to play a game of poker.
The house is old, the lady of the house is old, and her daughter Irma is old. The daughter’s cat is old. Aunt Bertha who came to play cards is old. The old has settled in. The porch is half rotted as it leans into the ground. The construction studs are crooked.
The sun is setting down on Main. The three old women are sitting in the late afternoon sun on the half-rotted porch joined by the little angel Willy, the godson of Aunt Bertha. A black fat cat with the French revolutionary name, J. M. Robespierre snuck under the table ever so silently in the deafening noise of the passing by cars.
The noise is unbearable, but the women cannot hear. The pervasive smell of rum has invaded the porch.
“I can’t hear you, mom,” yelled Irma.
“Well, unplug your ears or wash them,” yells back old mom Goldie who will turn 97 in the fall.
Goldie can’t see or hear anymore, but she can still smell. She can smell what the neighbors had for dinner last night.
“I said, isn’t your rum cake burning? I can smell the rum in it burning,” the old lady rocked back and forth as her voice dies in the noise of the street.
“Did you say to get another deck out?” Irma shouted at the top of her lungs.
The street talks at night. It whispers its secrets.
End of excerpt
The Temptation of Martin Duggan Excerpt
The professor’s bald head was shining in the bright morning sunlight. He was bouncing in front of the blackboard explaining triple integers. He was now on his fourth board, all scribbled with numbers and strange symbols.
Martin was wearing a perfectly ironed white shirt with long sleeves from J.C. Penney. Rose made sure that the shirts had a pocket on the left side when buying shirts. He still favored light pastel colors, mostly blue, that matched his grey blue eyes so well.
But, Martin always bought his own pencils. They had to be pencils no. 2, not too soft, not too hard. He found them the most comfortable somewhere in the middle of the scale on the hardness of graphite. The pockets of all his shirts were full of pencils and pens. Martin took great care not to have any smears from his writing tools on his clothes. He diligently put the caps back on pens; black had to match black, blue had to match blue. That way he wouldn’t confuse the color of his ink. Martin never used red.
To match the white shirt, he wore his favorite gray striped pants from his striped suit reserved for special occasions. There was something about lines that had always comforted him. Lines commanded respect.
They could be lines vertical, horizontal, or curves. And then came symbols, and Martin’s love for them; like pi or the toppled 8 symbolizing infinity. He traced the origin of his love for numbers and symbols to his childhood and later growing up in the strict austere atmosphere of the seminary in Brest. He had no intentions of becoming a priest. But parents lodged him in the seminary with his older brother Peter, so they could both receive good education.
In the cold walls of the seminary, Martin found warmth in numbers.
He felt free unleashing his power in numbers and their swift magic. Numbers and ellipses on curves were stories to Martin. His own story was a rollercoaster upside down racing on a fast track starting with a jerk at the faculty in Brno, former Czechoslovakia, which perched him to new heights at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, Africa. This was part of a socialist program to help the Third World countries in the late sixties.
Fresh with a new title, a wife that had just turned 30 and the Prague Spring 1968 movement tearing the old country apart, Martin was ready to climb higher into different unknown spheres.
At 34, he had a receding hairline, an impeccable command of English and an expertise of an old professor. He made decent money in English pounds and bought Rose a set of pearls for her 30th birthday, that she would later hate. She blamed the pearls for her destiny.
According to an old legend, pearls bring tears and bad luck to their owners.
“Do not return home,” letters from the occupied Czech homeland by the Russians kept arriving at the “Pink Palace” apartment complex in the arid desert city on the Blue Nile.
Rose wearing a yellow headband and a lime colored dress, suitable for the late 60s, shed more tears than the Nile had water in it, as the two fought over immigration. She faithfully followed her husband on his career trek that flourished to serve both the developing Sudan and the tossed Czechoslovakia in the heart of Europe.
However, a new house, sick parents and a jealous sister were awaiting back at home, along with a good pharmacy job in the apothecary.
One hot night in the late summer, right around her birthday, Martin kept fidgeting nervously around the kitchen holding a piece of paper. The kids were outside with friends.
“I got accepted to a post doctorate program in Canada,” he said calmly suppressing fear..
End of excerpt & proposal
Copyright (c) 2018. Emma Blogs, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read your free Taurus Daily Horoscope to discover how the stars will align for you today! Reveal the hidden opportunities coming your way and any obstacles to be prepared for.
I’ll keep you posted on the results. You still have time to enter.
authoremmapalova 