How Tweet It Is!

I’m doing my best at my age to keep up with the fast-moving Internet technology in today’s modern world, but sometimes I’m blown away by the power it wields.

 

As a writer who has published more than 30 print books, I was intrigued by the new trend for e-books. They are simple to publish and readers can download each one in a matter of seconds—no shipping (and waiting) required. Instant entertainment! I began converting my print books immediately, and writing new books using this electronic format.

 

To cap off my initiation into the high-tech, on-line world, I started several blogs and joined FaceBook and Twitter so I could share my bucket list adventures and books with—well, just about everybody!

 

But the most amazing benefit I’ve discovered from using Internet technology is its lightning speed for spreading the word about the free book download promotions I’m allowed to offer on Amazon.com. 

 

After announcing that my new e-book, Curl Up & Die: A 1950s Vintage Murder Mystery, would be available for free for five days, someone out there in Cyberspace posted a “tweet” on Twitter about the promotion. Throughout the next couple of days, I received numerous e-mails, letting me know that this “tweet” had been “re-tweeted”—over and over again.

 

The end result was a mind-boggling 5, 909 downloads for my book! I set a new record, thanks to Twitter and the power of the Internet. 

 

How Tweet It Is!!!

 

More e-books on the way!

 

 

Zero G's

After nearly two weeks of being grounded from flying because of rain or high winds, the weather finally cleared, and I took off with my instructor, Jeff Kling, in his Cessna 150 for an early evening flight.

 

I guess he wanted to make up for lost time, because it turned out to be a daredevil trip—one of my most challenging but definitely most fun lessons so far.

 

I practiced 360º turns at a 45º bank—my steepest yet. Then we worked on those dreaded stalls, where we force the plane to its breaking point and it refuses to fly, then tips over into a dive. Scary stuff!

 

But the best was yet to come, and it was all about gravity—or the lack thereof. Here on Earth, the constant tug of gravity we feel is measured at “1 g”. Sometimes when flying at a steep angle while climbing, those “g’s” increase to 2 or more, depending on the speed of the aircraft and the angle of ascent.

 

A different type of flight maneuver, however, called “parabolic flight”, creates a weightless environment (“zero g’s”), similar to floating in outer space, although the feeling of weightlessness is actually caused by “free falling”. Parabolic flight, used for training astronauts, involves flying up a 45º incline, then down into a dive, over and over again, as shown in the illustration above right. During the highest point of the climb, just before you begin the descent, the pilot and all passengers on board the plane are literally lifted out of their seats, floating on thin air!

 

For one of my bucket list activities, I had checked into the possibility of taking a ride on a Boeing 727 that offers “zero g” flights to groups of passengers, with 12-15 weightless segments of about 30 seconds each. Unfortunately, the price tag of $5,000.00 stopped me in my tracks.

 

I had no idea that Jeff’s plane could perform such maneuvers, even though it’s for a much shorter period of time, so you can imagine my surprise when he asked if I would like to try it. He’s been flying this pattern for years, and keeps a small bean bag in the plane, which he places on the dashboard during the maneuver to see how high he can make it float. How cool is that?

 

All I have to say about my “zero g” flight experience is, “POSITIVELY AMAZING!!!” It was my most thrilling flying lesson ever. While the feeling of free-falling makes some people feel queasy, I found it exhilarating and can’t wait to try it again!

 

I plan to be a model student in the future and work hard at practicing my lessons in the hope of being rewarded again with the thrill of floating on air!

 

Thank you, Jeff, for super fun day of flying!

 

Coming soon—S-P-I-N-S!!!

Curl Up & Die: A 1950s Vintage Murder Mystery

Writing is always on my bucket list of fun activities, and with the help of my fiction writing buddies, Larry Watts and Tom Rizzo, and my eagle-eye editors, Coral Beach and Rene Armstrong, I recently finished my second cozy murder mystery. It's an e-book novella (That's the term for a short novel, the kind I need to write these days because I just can't find the time to get to 50,000 words!) called Curl Up & Die: A 1950s Vintage Murder Mystery.

Here's the description in case you like reading cozy murder mysteries:

 

When Sarah Jane Martin’s crazy Aunt Earline decides to take in beauty shop business from the dearly departed at the local funeral home, she winds up scaring one of her living patrons to death—literally. After Mabel Thompson runs screaming in fright from a surprise encounter with one of Earline’s new clients at the Curl Up & Dye Beauty Parlor in Grandby, Texas, circa 1957, she’s found floating in a nearby lake with a bullet hole in the center of her forehead. Soon bodies start piling up, and an elusive, backwoods wild woman is their only witness. Newspaper reporter, Sarah Jane, is on the hunt for her first big story and a quest to solve the murder. Join the fun in this vintage and mostly humorous tale of murder, mafia, counterfeiting, Secret Service Agents, local lawmen, psychics, and a touch of romance. In the words of Aunt Earline, “It’s a beauty experience to die for!”

Curl Up & Die: A 1950s Vintage Murder Mystery is available as an e-book on Amazon.com for $2.99. You can download it to your computer or your e-tablet to read.

 

Even better, I will be offering this e-book for FREE on Amazon.com during a special promotion from April 5 through April 9.

 

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

 

More mysteries on the way!

 

Rolling on the River!

As part of my recent East Texas vacation tour, my friend, Coral Beach, and I moseyed on up from the excitement of the zip-line in Nacogdoches to Jefferson, a small town with a quaint, downtown historic area.

 

We stayed in a magnificent bed and breakfast called The Delta Street Inn, shown in the photo at right.  My room was cozy and beautifully decorated, and came with the added bonus of a sunny balcony. The inn keepers, Pam and Bob Thomas, were gracious hosts and the breakfasts they served were scrumptious.

 

While in Jefferson, we visited many of the downtown stores, took in the “Shakespeare under the Stars” play, checked out the historical ghost walk tour (thankfully the ghosts were otherwise occupied), and did our best to sample as many of the local restaurants as possible.

 

But my favorite adventure was our ride along Caddo Lake’s Big Cypress Bayou on The Graceful Ghost, a replica of an 1800's era steamboat and is the last known wood-burning, steam powered, paddle-wheel touring vessel in the world. 

 

Coral and I posed for this photo at the back of the boat, while it glided gently down the bayou, with the piercing sound of the steam whistle occasionally alerting the neighbors of our approach.

 

Boat owner and Captain Ron Gibbs kept us entertained during our trip with a bit of history about steamboats on the bayou, along with a few tall tales about alligator sightings and shenanigans.

 

Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any alligators, but the captain let me steer the boat for a short while. It’s not as easy as it looks, and, like the rudders on an airplane during taxiing, the lag time for turning the boat is considerable. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but we didn’t run aground a single time. Whew!!!

 

Thanks, Captain Ron, for a great adventure on the bayou!

Zippity Doo-Da!

When several friends told me about their recent zip-line trips, I decided to add this thrilling activity to my bucket list. I checked out the available options and invited my frequent traveling buddy, Coral Beach, to join me for a fun-filled adventure on the Zip-Nac zip-line in Nacogdoches. It’s billed as “the newest thrill in the oldest town in Texas”.

 

Since we were headed for the oldest town in Texas, we couldn’t resist booking two rooms at The Brick House Inn Bed and Breakfast for the night. It’s the oldest brick building there. The photo at left shows us standing out in front of this quaint B&B.

 

 

 After a hearty breakfast at the inn the next morning, we took off for the Zip-Nac to be “zippers” (persons enjoying the excitement of riding on an elevated pathway of cables) for a day. The Zip-Nac is a “canopy tour”, which means that once you start the course, your feet won’t touch the ground until you slide across all four lines. There’s no turning back!!!

 

We bravely donned our zipping attire (harness, helmet and gloves) and posed for a photo before the fun began.

 

Next we headed outside for “ground school” training, where we practiced control techniques for steering and braking on a low cable.
 

 Here I am dangling from the practice line, anxious to get started. 

 

After a couple of tries, our instructors declared us to be cable-ready, so we climbed the six-story platform to the first line. It was 50-feet high and 285-feet long.

 

  

 

In the photo at right, our guide hooks my harness to the cable for my very first zip. 

 

 

Three people in our group of zippers chickened out at this point, but Coral and I pressed onward for an afternoon of high-flying thrills.

 

 

 

This photo shows me zipping across the third line, which was 400-feet long. From there, we climbed another three flights of stairs for our final zip, which turned out to be two, side-by-side cables, 900-feet long, where we raced each other back to the starting point.

 

I won’t tell you who won because, if you know anything about gravity, you know that the heavier you are, the faster you fall!!! (Maybe I should have skipped that extra piece of bacon at breakfast!)

 

It was an incredible day of high-flying adventures on the zip-line!

 

More zipping to come!

Rip-Roaring Good Time at the Rodeo!

My flying instructor, Jeff Kling, and his wife, Nancy, were sponsors for the “calf scramble” in this year’s Houston Rodeo. The scramble is a scholarship event where patrons make a donation to a youth who manages to snag an animal during this fast and furious race, so they can purchase their own calf to raise and then sell at a future rodeo auction. There were 30 participants and only 15 calves. Those are pretty steep odds, but these scrappy kids gave it their best shot. You can get the general idea from the photo above right.

 

The Klings also purchased extra rodeo tickets for the evening and invited me and Jason Helms, another of Jeff’s students, along with our guests, to join them for a rip-roaring good time at the rodeo! Shown at left is our group (left to right): my friend and former neighbor, Carolyn Gandara, me, Nancy, Jeff, Jason, and his girlfriend, Debbie Klein.

 

While Jeff and Nancy attended their “calf scramble-sponsor pre-event meeting” Carolyn and I roamed the animal exhibit hall, checking out the goats, sheep, cows, bulls and chickens. Here I am standing next to one of the largest, and downright scary-looking, bulls. Thankfully, he was contained securely behind bars, and that’s about as close as I ever want to get to one of those critters.

 

Carolyn and I settled into our seats in the arena, and waited for the rest of our party to join us for the rodeo events.

 

 

 

 

It was an action-packed line-up, with bronco riders, bull riders, barrel racers, and chuck wagon races.

 

 

 

 

My favorite—the cutest event of all—was the “mutton busters.” These are 5 and 6 year-olds who are draped over a sheep twice their size, and hang on as tight as they can for as long as they can. 

 

 

Our rowdy little group cheered and clapped for all the contestants. We were hoarse by the time the main event began.

 

 

What a great show! We were treated to an amazing performance by Marroon 5, with Adam Levine singing many of his hit (and my favorite) songs.

 

It turned out to be a fabulous evening for everyone!

 

Thank you Jeff and Nancy for a wonderful time at the rodeo!

 

High-Flying Adventures!

The most thrilling of all my Cancer Journey bucket list activities is flying. I started taking lessons nearly a year ago, and I’m now addicted to soaring through the air. So far, I’ve had the pleasure of flying in quite a few different airplane models, including a Light Sport Aircraft, Cessna 150, 152 and 182, a Piper Arrow, a Grumman Cheetah, and a Glassair 1. It’s my latest quest—searching for new high-flying adventures.

 

When I learned about the Warbird rides offered at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, I decided to check out their options. They have a B-17 and a B-25 (bombers), a T-6 Texan and a T-41 Mescalero (Trainers). But it didn’t take long for me to decide on the PT-17 Stearman Bi-Plane and schedule a flight.

 

This model was built during the early 1940s for the U.S. Army and Navy and was used as a primary trainer (PT) to train military pilots. I was attracted, not only by its age and history, but the fact that it has an open cockpit—a totally new experience for me.

 

The photo above shows me standing with my pilot, Carlos, in front of the plane. Like me, he learned to fly at the Pearland Regional Airport, but he started flying there more than 20 years ago when the airport was known as Clover Field. And, like my current instructor, Jeff Kling, he owns a couple of planes that he keeps in a hangar there.

 

 

 

Here we are at left all buckled in and ready to go. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I donned my official headset so I could communicate with the pilot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We flew out over the ocean, high above the Pleasure Pier in Galveston, shown at left.

 

Carlos was aware that I’m a student pilot, and graciously allowed me to control the airplane for a few minutes, making a few turns. The power of the engine and responsiveness of the aircraft were both amazing. Bi-planes are commonly used in aerobatic maneuvers. I HAVE to fly one of these again soon!

 

During the flight, I noticed a small mirror installed in the wing above my seat, apparently intended for the pilot to gauge his passenger’s fear. In this case, I snapped a photo of myself. My hair whipping around wildly in the wind was the only scary part of our entire flight!

 

After landing, it took me ten minutes to comb out all the tangles, but it was well worth the effort. Flying in a bi-plane was a thrill I'll never forget!!!

 

Thank you, Carlos, for an incredible flight!

It was a gorgeous day for a high-flying adventure!