Friday, December 21, 2012

The First Birthday After

Today is my 54th birthday.

This is my first birthday without my father.

Dad passed away September 19 after a long struggle with esophageal cancer and its assorted complications.

I am enormously thankful that my mother is still alive, as it has been so very difficult facing each day knowing my dad is not a phone call or a few steps away. Since 2008, I had the honor of living with my folks and assisting them in any way that I could.

Dad and I became very close during that time. It had not always been so. For most of my life, I butted heads with him over nearly every decision I made or thought that I had.

We were very much alike, you see. However, in many ways, we were very different. This, of course, led to some misunderstandings, or more aptly, standoffs akin to “High Noon.”

I really started loving my dad about 12 years ago. I mean, really knowing that I loved him, not in that way that a child seems obligated to love a parent, but—to borrow a phrase I often heard at church—in a “know that you know that you know” way.

The reasons are complicated and are better written about when I am able to step back a bit more and observe them, but there it is.

In the meantime, I am at a loss this birthday. Christmas likewise will be difficult. I have trouble dealing with my grief on many days.

Today is one of them.

meanddad_zpsf63d5fa2




Monday, June 18, 2012

Exposing Online Dating for What It Truly Is . . . or Rather, Will Be

At some point in my later years, I am going to write a novella about my experiences with online dating services.
I figure that by the time I get around to doing so, that those particular services will be passé, having gone the way of the way of the mimeograph machine, Pong, and the Dodo bird.
However, there will be those stalwart few who through mega-vitamin therapy, cryogenics, or something new that Estee Lauder is marketing are still alive to read it.
By the time I write my expose’ and tale of woe, or knock-on-simulated-wood tale of success,  couples will be matched from birth to produce the most intelligent and beautiful offspring. Those who have slightly higher intelligence and looks will be relegated to sales and procreation only for the sake of bringing forth more salespeople. Anyone with average intelligence and looks will be servants, since no one looks at them anyway and they will be allowed procreation in order to keep up the supply of Walmart greeters (everyone knows there  are never any available cashiers at Walmart) and Steak-n-Shake waiters/waitresses.
And for all of those whose looks do not pass muster, or whose intelligence is sub-par according to the government agencies, they will be either euthanized or used in experimental procedures—like testing cosmetics or new medicines.
In the meantime, while I await all of the upcoming events, I will just say that online dating is a bit like being a cantaloupe in the fruit aisle. You are sniffed, weighed, squeezed, listened to briefly for some God knows why reason, and then may or may not be added to the cart along with the other hopeful consumables.
If, after a day or two, you are not chosen, the head of the Fruits,either chops you in half and wraps you in cellophane, or scoops you out and mixes you with other melons to make you more attractive.
It’s always about the melons.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Those Famous Lesser-Known Editing Symbols You All Love - The Untold Story

On Monday morning, June 11, 2012, I posted a graphic I had schmooshed together in that old standby - Paint - and posted  it on my Facebook Page under the header of:
New additions to accepted copy editing/proofreading symbols. In case I ever have the privilege of working on one of your books . . .


Since then, it has been shared 6,139 times! That is only the number of legitimate shares, and not the shares from readers who saved the image and posted it without attribution - shame on you!

I am absolutely floored by this! However, I just wanted to make sure that the original authors of these updated copy editing and proofreading symbols were once again lauded and thanked, as I did in my original posting.

Thank you to Brian Klems, whose original post was read by me on Writer's Digest page in August of 2011. Since that date, his symbols have been hanging over my desk.

And thank you to Eve Corbel, whose graphic I found on Monday morning at Angela Cothran's Blog.

I am thrilled to have shared this schmooshy graphic with you, and really happy I can let the whole world know, or at least a few thousand writers and editors, who the original authors are.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Bridge-Logos Foundation releases "Mary Jones and Her Bible" edited andupdated by Hollee J. Chadwick

In the year 1800, a young Welsh girl took a walk.

This was no meandering stroll during which her teenaged mind wandered and she daydreamed of boys, and clothes, and the musicians of the day.

No, young Mary Jones set out from her home at the foot of Cader Idris mountain, in Gwynedd, North Wales, in the early hours of the morning to walk 25 miles to Bala, to purchase a Welsh Bible with money she had been saving up for six years. Being from a poor family, Mary’s journey was undertaken with bare feet.

The Reverend Thomas Charles of Bala, to whose house Mary had journeyed to buy the Bible, was moved by Mary’s love and dedication in this endeavor. He told and retold the story of Mary Jones and her Bible and, in a move that would change the world, he proposed to the Council of the Religious Tract Society that they form a new society to supply Wales with Bibles. And, in 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society was established in London.

This is the story of Mary Jones and her Bible. It is true to the original version—only better.


Through the years, Mary Jones and her Bible, penned by Mary E, Ropes in 1882, and later updated in 1919, has been read and enjoyed by millions of children. Today, the book remains on the Top 100 List of Christian and secular children's books on Amazon.com.

The editor, Hollee J. Chadwick, has taken Ropes' original version and added commentary, footnotes, and definitions for terms not common today. Ropes' prose remains intact because this is the version that has remained on the bestseller list for generations.

Mary Jones and her Bible is included in many home-schooling curriculum, is an excellent read-aloud book, and is suitable for all ages with a reading level of Grades 4 to 8.

Mary Jones and Her Bible by Mary Ropes (edited by Hollee J. Chadwick). ISBN: 978-0-88270-061-8; TPB; 176 pages; $9.99.