And, as they say in Mexico

Próspero año nuevo! 

The Twelve Grapes (Sp. Las doce uvas de la suerte, “The twelve grapes of luck”) is a Spanish tradition that dates back from at least 1895, but became established in 1909. In December of that year, when vine growers popularized this custom to better sell huge amounts of grapes from an excellent harvest.

The tradition consists of eating a grape with each strike of the bell at midnight of December 31.

According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity. In some areas, it is believed that the tradition wards away witches and general evil, although this “magic” is treated like an old heritage, and in modern days it’s viewed as a cultural tradition to welcome the new year.

There are two main places where people gather to take the grapes. With family after dinner, or in the main squares around the country..

Liverpool - not England, but Mexico

Liverpool, first called The Cloth Case, was founded in 1847 by Jean Baptiste Ebrard, a Frenchman who sold clothes from cases in downtown Mexico City.

In 1872, he began importing products from Europe. Much of the merchandise was shipped via Liverpool, England, prompting Ebrard to adopt the name Liverpool for his store.

In 1862 he opened a second store and since then it has not stopped growing. Now, Liverpool is a mid-to-high end retailer and the largest chain of department stores in Mexico, operating 17 shopping and 73 stores under the Liverpool name, 22 stores under the Fábricas de Francia name, 6 Duty Free stores, and 27 specialized boutiques.

Re-reading my own books

An author spends hours writing the first draft of a novel and then many more hours editing, proofing, and rewriting. We agonize over plot lines, character development, and word usage. We keep an eye out for proper grammar and punctuation. We have beta readers and writing partners and critiquing groups to guide us along the way to publication.

We set up our books on Amazon and Smashwords and Createspace. Copies of our books sit on our bookshelves and our ereaders, but we don’t open them. We’re too busy marketing and writing the next book and reading whatever we can get our hands on, because writers are above all readers.

It came as a surprise to me one day a few months ago when I had an urge to reread my own work. After four years, I expected to see them in a new light—and I did.

I found myself enthralled once again in the story I knew so intimately. With the fresh perspective of time away: there was much that I loved, a few typos, and a few bits that made me wince. How could I have repeated myself like that?

Back to work it was for yet more editing.

Perhaps in four years’ time I’ll read them again, but for now, I’m very happy with my work and it’s on to the next novel:

 When the Sun was Mine  - now available in all formats. www.emandyves.com

Create a productive working group

At the office, on the job site, in informal settings, a critiquing group—getting a number of employees or strangers to work productively together can be a challenge.

Often the group leader has participants engage in “warm-up” activities. You know the kind of thing—adult games to learn names, to get the group thinking about the task, etc.

Most, if not all, of these are a waste of time.

Two simple things work much better for team building.

The first is to have each person “check in.” As a newly appointed principal, I tried this at the first staff meeting of the school year with a mix of the old gang and newly hired teachers, aides and custodians. Each was to tell us their name and something about their summer break and then say, “I’m checked in.” Or, they had the option of saying their name and passing. The teachers talked about their trips or funny things that happened. All of the support and custodial staff passed, but many came to me after and said, “I’ve never felt so much a part of the school before. Thank you for the checking in.”

The second strategy is even simpler. Working on a shared goal brings a group together faster than any games or checking in. I joined a newly formed critiquing group some years ago. We were strangers determined to write and write well. We introduced ourselves, decided on a procedure for sharing our writing and critiquing and got to work. By the end of that first meeting, we were a “team”—one that went on to hold writing retreats, one that many years later finds the members keeping in touch.

Double your reading pleasure

Double your reading pleasure. Get books 1 and 2 of the Em and Yves series FREE.   

EMBATTLED FREE emandyves.com 

BLURB My face is on every television, in every newspaper. They say I’m saving the world. I know better. I’m a school principal not a superhero.

Of course that doesn’t explain the blood on my hands. Or the strange languages coming out of my mouth. Or the feel of swinging a machete. Or the sensation of lifting off the ground before I lose all memory.

Someone or something has hijacked my life. How do I get it back?

Alien contact leads to adventure and love as the characters involve themselves in world affairs in this science fiction novel series. But are humans given second chances after our superhero fights war or will the gods decide our fate?

Subscribe and get book 2 EMPOWERED FREE   emandyves.com

BLURB I do what I do to make the world a better place because of these visions I had when I was a kid. I’m sort of invincible too. Crazy, huh? And I’ve found my promised soulmate. Victor doesn’t believe he’s the one. Not yet, anyway.

Damn, damn, damn. I’ve been kidnapped. Victor will find me. He has to. Doesn’t he? The visions can’t be wrong.

With her bodyguards in the hospital it’s up to her watcher, the ex-cons, her dad, and friends to save her. Will they and her soulmate come to the rescue in time or will her delusions be her ruin?

EMPOWERED EXCERPT

“Okay, Unc, I’m dying of curiosity. What do you need?”

“Anything and everything you can find on Brian Berdin.” Maria’s eyebrows rose.

“The Mr. Berdin!”

“Yes.”

“Jeez, what’d he do? Rob a bank or something?”

“Nothing like that.” Nick grinned. “If I tell you why, can you keep it a secret?”

“From Mom and Grandma too?” Nick nodded. He could see the wheels turning. Maria loved subterfuge and wanted to be a police detective like him. He was confident she would keep his secret when many adults wouldn’t.

“He offered me a job.”

“What?” she squealed and then clapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry Unc. I better be quiet or the boys will be in here and you know how they blab everything.”

“The chief recommended me for the job and I met with Mr. Berdin yesterday morning.”

“Were you nervous?” Maria asked. “I mean it being Mr. Berdin and all.”

“Yeah,” Nick admitted. “Who the hell wouldn’t be, Kiddo?”

“So when do you start?”

“I’m going to say no.”

“But, a chance to work for Berdin? Are you sure you want to give that up? I know you love being a cop but jeez, couldn’t you take a leave from work or something and try it anyway?”

“It’s tempting but, no.”

“But …” Maria stopped when Nick frowned at her. “Okay, okay, but if you’re not going to take the job, why do you want the info?”

“He made me an offer and I feel that I have to at least do the research to be fair before I give him my answer.” Maria nodded agreement. Nick knew that would make sense to her moral code too. What he didn’t tell her was just how tempting the offer was. He could buy a place for his mother, send her on a holiday to visit family in Italy, and ease the financial strain for Angie, Maria, and the boys. God, to do all that; to have real cash flow, no money worries. Much to his chagrin, he hadn’t been able to put the financial side of it out of his mind. “Also, see what, if anything, you can find on Jasmine Wade.”

“His sleepover?”

“Maria!”

“Give it up Unc. I know all about that stuff.”

“You kids grow up too fast,” he muttered as he studied the little girl become woman. How had that happened? Just yesterday she was a miniature of her mother.

Maria groaned. “I’m almost fifteen for heaven’s sake, not a baby. You sound just like Mom.”

“Okay, okay.” Nick held his hands up in surrender.

“Did you see Miss Wade? What’s she like? What was she wearing? Are her eyes really that green? I mean, in pictures they look brilliant. Is she as beautiful in real life as in her pictures?”

Can war ever be stopped?

Vivid memories of my youth center on the “cold war.” Friends at school talked about their big brothers building and selling bomb shelters. Parents talked about how to provision a shelter. They discussed, in hushed tones, ways to protect their children or, even more frightening, ways to ensure the family died together.  

Coupled with those memories are the ones from the era of UFO mania. We feared alien invasion, or worse—abduction. We speculated endlessly about where they might take us, what experiments they might perform on us.

Back then I was young and naive and a dreamer. I had a notion that war could be stopped if only Earth were to be attacked by an external force. Russia and the US would surely fight side by side against an invasion and who better to invade than aliens.

It was easy to make the aliens the bad guys, fierce beings that wanted Earth for their own nefarious needs. If only they would attack, we would be one happy world, living peacefully side-by-side—of course that would be after we defeated the invading forces.

Now, much older, and perhaps a bit wiser, I know how futile dreams are and I know that there are no easy solutions, but as I watch the news daily, see the horrors of war and refugees, the brutality of racism, the endless dramas that play out around our planet, the proliferation of weapons and fanatics, I dearly wish that my childhood notion wasn’t so far fetched.

In my Em and Yves series, I wrote the “notion” of my youth. I created a magical solution, one where aliens do indeed come to Earth—not as invaders, but as saviors. They work to “fix” our world for us and among the many things they do, they find a way to stop war.

The big question from all of this, of course is: Can war be stopped? If so, how? Or are humans destined to self-destruct?

What do you think?

Evolution of Pop-up books

Howling winter winds pounding the snow into hard packed drifts. Howling summer winds snatching the precious top soil from the fields. Isolated. Lonely. No electricity. No radio. No television. What was a child to do?

Read. No matter that there were less than half a dozen books in the house. They could always be read and reread.

The fuzzy wuzzy Santa lost much of his fuzz from all the touches. The pop-up book barely escaped tears from all the pulling to see what treasures were in those pictures.

And what did that child do when she was an adult? Bought adult versions of pop-up books of course—the most special being Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine series, with their letters to be pulled out, unfolded, read, and tucked back into their envelopes.

And what did that child do when she had children of her own? Bought them books of course, the favorites being pop-ups which they read over and over again. That mother marveled with her children at the magic of the books with their pullout bits, their wheels to turn, their pages that magically grew as they were opened.

And what did that child do when she had a granddaughter? Bought her books of course, the favorites being pop-ups which they read over and over again. That grandmother marveled with her munchkin at the magic of the intricate designs.

We’ve come a long way, baby. A long way.

Pictures: 

Santa Claus and the Little Lost Kitten by Louise W. Meyers 1952

Santa's Christmas Party by Helen Sterling 1951

Mother Goose - Hallmark (no date)

School Bugs by David A. Carter 2000