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Blog a Flag…
The Fourth of July is coming up, the first official summer holiday. Memorial Day kicks off the spirit of summer but the Fourth is the main event. Both holidays mark our country’s heroes; one honors those who fought to keep us free and the other honors independence.
The American Flag is the symbol of our great country, we unfurl it proudly most often during the summer months. Streets and town halls are decorated with the Stars and Stripes along with flag poles and schools. Many folk here in New England hang the flag outside their homes as way to show pride for the United States.
Up the street from my home is a small church, it sits on the intersection of two routes, one to New York the other to the Connecticut coast. The main street of my town is quite picturesque, a perfect Main Street that invites people of all ages to stroll, jog or power walk its sidewalk. Up and back it is a generous two miles, first one side and then the other taking in stately old homes, community center, storefronts, and the town’s favorite fountain.
For the past several weeks, walkers, joggers and the like slow to a stop in front of the small church on the corner. Planted across the expanse of the church’s lawn are close to 5000 American Flags, a field of flags. This small church appears to be one of several that have erected the flags. The image is startling and powerful.
Each time I pass the display of flags I offer a prayer to all the fallen soldiers that each flag represents. I am proud to be an American and I am most grateful to all the men and women that serve in our armed forces and with each prayer said, I wish God’s speed home to those still serving and a heroes welcome in heaven for those who gave their lives so that I can walk Main Street on a beautiful summer day.
Blog what you see, hear and feel…
Linda Merlino, author, Belly of the Whale
Go to Linda’s Virtual Book Tour on Author Day Wednesday July 25th for a chance to win a free book.
Blog Fiction Radio
Nothing would please me more than to go on the radio; to be heard through those invisible waves that connect voices and music to billions of people in their cars.
I imagine a radio talk show host introducing me: Linda Merlino thanks for coming today and then the two of us would discuss Belly of the Whale. Where did the idea for your book come from? How difficult was it to be mainstreamed published? What do you want your readers to remember when they are done reading Belly of the Whale?
My answers would be honest and sprinkled with humor. Since I am fond of talking, there will be no concern about my being shy. If you get me on a passionate subject, like writing, it may take some prompting to keep me quiet.
In the meantime, while I am waiting for my big radio break, I will blog you an excerpt from a fictitous interview with Jack Emerald, husband of Hudson Catalina. WRSB in Gloucester is doing the interview. The full post can be seen on my Virtual Book Tour next Monday and Tuesday, the 16th and 17th of June.
WRSB: We here at WRSB are pleased that you stayed in Gloucester and would like you to share with our listeners some of what you speak of regarding the last several years and your family. You were a caregiver to a wife with breast cancer, is that correct?
Jack Emerald: Yes, our youngest child was four years old when Hudson was diagnosed with breast cancer. My wife’s mother died of breast cancer when she was fourteen and for all the years that followed Hudson carried the fear of also dying of this disease.
WRSB: What kind of an impact did this double tragedy have on your family?
Jack Emerald: I for one never thought my wife would die young or from breast cancer. When she was diagnosed I made a plan, the same way I make a plan or outline for my marine research. I was sure we, and I emphasize the we, could beat breast cancer. Hudson’s mother died at a time when the treatment of the disease was in its infancy. Her chances were slim to none of recovery. I did not feel that those odds applied to Hudson.
WRSB: Your wife felt differently about her breast cancer, about her survival, correct?
Jack Emerald: She tried for many months to be hopeful. Hudson endured multiple surgeries, experimental drug therapy and chemotherapy, but one day, the day before our daughter turned five, she lost hope.
WRSB: What does a caregiver do when this happens?
Jack Emerald: Being a caregiver is a role you assume without thinking of yourself. Cancer was not about me and I tried everyday not to personalize its presence. I loved my wife and I always thought of myself as a good husband, not perfect, but for the most part a good guy. After she was diagnosed I became a better husband, I loved her more than I thought I ever could. I wanted her to have quality of life, no matter what happened. I thought about the times I wasted on small stuff, on insignificant complaints and I made an effort, no, a vow, that I would not do that again. When Hudson gave up, I didn’t know it. She was a pro at hiding her emotions from everyone. I just kept on doing what I was doing, pushing her to survive. Telling her, Hudson Catalina I love you.
Blog what you think, see hear, feel and imagine.
Linda Merlino
Blog about Love
Where to begin? What is love? The question has been asked through the centuries, in poetry and sonnet, in music and in long soliloquies. To blog about love is to get in line with those that came before, the men and women in love, out-of-love, desiring love and unsure of love.
In Belly of the Whale, the main character asks her captor, Buddy Baker, about love. Hudson Catalina remembers that she did not say “I love you” to her husband Jack that morning and reprimands herself for being preoccupied. Buddy Baker answers Hudson. “There’s no such thing as love like in the movies. The kind of love that someone is supposed to have for another, the kind that says no matter what or who you are I still love you.”
There are people who feel that way, the ones who never had the love and support of family. Love is lost on folk like Buddy Baker who take love and twist it into hate and violence.
The bible says that love is patient and that love is kind. It also says to love thy enemy. Now that isn’t easy. We strive our whole life to be loved, we search out that person or persons who will love us with our faults and failings. But then what? How do we keep love alive?
Perhaps love is blind; perhaps it is really a fairy tale, or a fantasy. Love can be elusive, like a butterfly. Maybe love is not in the places we are looking, maybe love is in front of our nose and we have to pay attention.
Hudson Catalina from Belly of the Whale tells us something about love. When Buddy Baker tells her that he never told anyone he loved them. She says. “Too bad, it feels good to tell people you love them.”
Love advice from a blog.
Blog what you hear, read, see and write.
Linda Merlino, author, Belly of the Whale
Buy Belly of the Whale, today.
Blog an Excerpt
Blog an Excerpt
Excerpts often require ten minutes of reading out loud, that’s probably two minutes over the normal attention span; but you go over anyway, because you need to finish your thought…
The Dark Phantom Review posted an excerpt from Belly of the Whale. This is day five of my Virtual Book Tour and the cyberspace train keeps chugging along inviting passengers aboard to browse, discover, read, buy and win prizes.
Chapter One of Belly of the Whale is the excerpt. No better place to begin then at the beginning. The reader meets Hudson Catalina, finds out who she is, where she came from and begins to understand that the story unfolding is not an ordinary tale.
Hudson is named after a car, the Hudson Jet, one of the last of its kind to roll off the line in 1955. To be named after such a unique automobile carries a timeless honor. I recently attended a Memorial Weekend Car Show. There were lots of Muscle Cars and 50’s Drive-in classics along with Flat Heads and 65’ Corvettes, but the one that stopped me, the one that put a smile on my face from earlobe to earlobe, was an ocean blue Hudson Jet.
As you read the first chapter excerpt you will get caught up in the turbulent twenty-four hours that surround Hudson Catalina’s story. She is a thirty-eight year old woman, wife and mother with breast cancer. As she narrates the story from a gurney in Whales market you recognize that the Hudson Jet of so many years ago and this young woman will both, stop you in your tracks. She will pull you into her story, page after page, until you reach the end, and then Hudson Catalina will stay in your head long after you finish Belly of the Whale.
Blog what you think, see, hear, feel and write…
Linda Merlino, author, Belly of the Whale
Blog an Interview
“Who are you?” This classic line from Alice in Wonderland is what I think of when I think: interview. My Virtual Book Tour is entering day three and an interview with BCBooks by Mayra Calvani is posted for those stopping by.
Interviews allow a writer to squirt about him or herself. To reveal childhood dreams and paths less traveled. The inspiration for titles and characters all come alive when questioned. Once a solitary figure stooped over the computer keys this writer gleefully answers questions that probe sacred space and writer’s block.
What scares me to death and what propels me to continue as a writer; my preferences when reading, my heroes, my favorites. Is there another book in the works? So many questions and so much food for the train of thought.
Thank you Blogcritics, for the perfect opportunity to talk about me. Me and my passion for writing and how fortunate I am to be a published author, and not only published but published by the Best Independent Publisher of 2008, Kunati, Inc.
All of the Kunati authors applaud the genius of Derek Armstrong and the Kunati Three. We are proud to be a part of the celebration. Look for more information about my publisher in today’s interview with BCBooks.
The Virtual Book Tour Train is chugging into the cyber station, hope you can come aboard today and everyday through the month of June. http://www.blogcritics.org
Blog what you think, see, hear and write…
Linda Merlino, author, Belly of the Whale
Blog a Reader's Review
You write and you write and some days you think, who will read this, and why? Writing is private and solitary, often not meant for others to view. But when a writer makes the leap, when a writer makes the move into public, then the writer expects someone, anyone to give a nod of approval.
Belly of the Whale is making the rounds with readers. There have been reviews and most are very positive, and encouraging. Today is the second day of my Virtual Book Tour and Review Your Book has given Belly a five star review.
What struck me upon reading Debra Gaynor’s review was that she got it; she absorbed the story and found the core, the heart beat. There are readers that will like Belly of the Whale and to them I will always be grateful, but there are those readers who will understand with a pure heart what is being said.
Debra Gaynor is one of these folk. “Everyone can relate to this novel”, she states, “For we have all faced the belly of the whale in some manner.”
Blogging a reader review is humbling. My head is out, my neck too. Thanks to all my reviewers and especially to Debra Gaynor for joining me with such kind words on Day Two.
Blog what you think, feel, see and write.
Linda Merlino, author Belly of the Whale
Blog Out-of-the-Blue
Stuff happens. Thomas Carlyle once called it “the lightening bolt that comes out of a clear blue sky.” Everyday we wake up and have no knowledge of how our day will transpire, or how it will end. Most days it is the same old routine, get up, go to work, take care of the kids, read the paper, take the train, traffic, on and on…a routine, a boring predictable routine called daily life.
But some times we get side swiped, something or someone comes “out-of-the-blue” to turn our ordinary life on its head. People we love can suddenly be taken from us. Our homes and all our possessions can be lost. Cyclones. Hurricanes. Our car gets totaled in an accident and we never make it to work. Instead we are in an ambulance praying that we won’t die, not like this, not today.
Hudson Catalina is the protagonist in my new novel, Belly of the Whale, she decides that breast cancer will be her executioner. The beast will claim victory and Hudson gives up hope of surviving. But the story that continues unfolds in twenty-four hours and is about out-of-the-blue situations, it is about lightening bolts and thinking you know what is going to happen, but it doesn’t.
Blogging out-of-the-blue days, resonates in me. I had a recent bolt come out of the sky that rocked my world and it is still sending shock waves. There is a lesson here, a life-lesson. Do not take anything or anyone for granted. Every day is a gift.
Blog what you think, hear, see and feel.
Linda Merlino
http://kunati.com/linda-merlino
Belly of the Whale is available on amazon.com
Blog a Whoville Review in the NY Times
The truth, the entire truth…I am a New York Times Book Review junkie. I pay for delivery of the Times so I can get the Review on Saturday. The other sections often remain untouched, recycled eventually at the end of the week. The point of being a subscriber is simple: to read the fiction reviews, and of particular note are the debut authors. First novel writers who somehow rose to the top of the new fiction pile to be given a nod in the New York Times.
My big question is how? How does one unknown author with the good fortune of being published get into the Book Review? Being an author with a newly released novel of fiction, my curiosity is heightened. I think it has to do with the publisher, one of the big five. No. In this week’s Review there were three debut novelists and their publishers are all obscure. What is the formula? I don’t know who to ask, there is no call in number, no Help line indicated.
Considering all this, there are days that I feel like I live in Whoville, that place where the inhabitants fit on the head of a pin and go about life unseen, unnoticed and unheard by all the bigger folk. Having written a book and achieved mainstream published status has not given me bus fare out of Whoville.
Book store managers and librarians for the most part are kind, but they need to be convinced about my book. Some are warm and supportive and others avert their eyes when they speak to me, acting hurried and late for some previous appointment just remembered. Frequent return trips to skulk the new fiction aisle often turns up nothing and requires another request to the higher powers.
Along with this let me throw in the daily internet marketing, the emails and the requests to Amazon reviewers and other such cyber spaced acquaintances. This still leaves me pondering the how of getting to the almighty New York Times. In Whoville it is difficult to be heard through the din of A-list authors of churned out thrillers and romance.
Perhaps if I blog about a Whoville Review someone might notice. Some random editor navigating Blogger might stumble upon my Whoville Blog and find it delicious, really dig it and gather all of his or her friends into one Space…put them face-to-face and then they would all say: This is a review blog from WHO?
Blog what you think, hear, and feel.
Linda Merlino, author
http://www.kunait.com/linda-merlino
Go to amazon.com to order: Belly of the Whale
Blog to Believe
Even if you do not believe in God, you must admit there is a higher power. Where else would creativity come from, if not from a more evolved being? We don’t go around saying: “Thank, God” for nothing. How about “God bless you” when someone sneezes? These few examples demonstrate that people, even those reluctant ones, believe in something they can’t explain. Someone they have never seen.
I have a sign that goes up over the front door at Christmas. It is one word: Believe.
What specifically does that mean? I see it as believing in life and believing in the power of giving, the power of family, the power of a story that happened thousands of years ago in a little town far, far away. The birth of a baby is a miracle, and perhaps the humanizing of believing began with the little boy in the manger, just a way of bringing us to a level of understanding.
It is not so much that one needs to embrace this concept, but more the symbolism of what the miracle of the birth of believing is about, that which is inside each of us. Because inside each of us, is where God resides. We were made in His image and likeness, again words to humanize believing.
We are all blessed in some way and we all have talents that no human being could give to us, no amount of genetics could pass on. There is a knowing that some things we must simply believe exist without reason, like prayer working, and no one knows why.
So to blog about believing is to blog about what we can not see, hear, smell, or touch.
Believing is not tangible. Believing is a gift from God.
Blog what you feel.
Linda Merlino, author, Belly of the Whale
Angel Blog
I met an angel the other day. She did not have wings, or a long flowing gown. Encountering an angel isn’t always apparent in the first few minutes. There is a brief introduction where his or her identity is hidden from view. I’ve probably missed dozens of opportunities because I was too busy or distracted to pay attention, to listen, or to be aware.
There are all kinds of angel activity swirling around us, so much in fact that we can often mistake it for coincidence or accident. But there is no such thing as coincidence, nothing happens outside the master plan; which means we have so much to believe, and even more to chalk up to blind faith.
The interjecting of angel wisdom has no pattern of whys and when’s. Sometimes it is just to help find a missing shoe or our keys. We get flack from non-believers when we talk out-loud about such things, in all honesty I simply say thank you and keep it to my self.
How about the other morning when I was wondering where I could get single dollar bills at four thirty a.m. to tip my baggage handlers at the airport. I’d thought of everything for my trip except that, and then getting dressed I put my hand in my jeans and in the pocket was a freshly washed and dried bundle of one’s. Huh, you say…see what I mean I reply.
I am deep into the marketing and selling of my new book, Belly of the Whale. There is little time for much else except going to work and occasional sleep. My next manuscript has few pages written, most of the story is still in my head. I continue to collect data and research and sometimes put words on a page, but mostly I blog for writing and compose new emails and have abandoned my usual morning book-writing-routine.
A random connection to a woman I met in my travels proved to be this writer’s gem, or more correct another angel. We were discussing the past and present of places we’d been and lived. She revealed a snippet of her past and I had to stop and sit down. Here was the key to unlock the door to my next book. This woman had been to where I was going in my story. Although fiction, her experience was not, I had to tell her, about the angel thing I mean.
Do you believe in angels? I asked. She said, yes. You are my angel today, I said. She smiled and said thank you. No, it is me that needs to say thanks, we need to talk more, I said. Anytime, she offered.
Do not dismiss happenstance, say a prayer or mouth a thank you to those no-entities that offer guidance and good humor everyday. Perhaps, like me, your questions will be answered.
Blog what you hear, see, think and feel.
Linda Merlino, author, Belly of the Whale