I just read and want to share an article concerning the estimated 580,000 homeless people living in the United States. Scott Carrier reports on,  "The shockingly simple, surprisingly cost-effective solution that won over a bunch of conservatives in Utah" It is a way to, clean up cities, give the homeless a place to live and save money too. His report, "Room for Improvement" can be found in Mother Jones March + April 2015 magazine.

Housing First began in Utah and spread to California and Colorado. A graph on page 35 compares the cost of caring for people living on the streets and those participating in Housing First. Comparing cost in Detox, Incarceration, Emergency room care, Outpatient care, and Inpatient care in Denver, the research shows the city saved $17,858 per person over 2 years in these costs alone.

Scott Carrier ends his article with: "It's not a matter of whether we know how to fix the problem.  Homelessness is not a disease like cancer or Alzheimer's where we don't yet have a cure.  We have the cure for homelessness-it's housing.  What we lack is political will."

I urge you to read the article and think how we as a society can do something about this curable problem.  "Nearly 1/3 of all homeless live in just 10 cities."  Could the churches in those cities band together and provide that housing? Could the chuches in smaller cities band together and take care of the homeless in their area? There are many challenges in this tangled ball of twine, but it can be solved if we, the people, really want to cure the problem of the homeless.

Read more about the details in Mother Jones March + April 2015 issue  Room for Improvement by Scott Carrier

I've been side tracked for a few months with family illnesses, but now I'm back writing. Now Where Did That Come From? is a collection of some of my favorite tales. I added a paragraph or two after each story explaining where the seed idea originated. Some came from Christmas cards, others from newspaper articles or a story told by a friend.  In any case, children and adults often ask about the source of ideas to write about.

Now Where Did That Come From? is fiction. Family stories, however, are just as interesting and preserve the history of the family. People, young and not so young, enjoy telling stories  as well as listening to them. Writing them down is the next natural step. Written stories can then be shared with family and friends. The funny, heroic, and sometimes embarrassing stories found in every family should be recorded and published if only for the family and its future generations. These unique stories are told, laughed at, and retold over the years for everyone's enjoyment. But some of that history is lost with each passing generation unless it is recorded and published.  More on writing your family history later.

Now Where Did That Come From? can be purchased in paper back or kindle format from Amazon. Keep reading and consider recording those family stories for your children and grandchildren.

Undertaker Tales

Finished my last radiation treatment and have been reading books like crazy the last few weeks.
Wayne Bethard, a pharmacist, has a book of funny, thought provoking, stirring short stories with the startling and sometimes off-putting title, Undertaker Tales. I once asked a friend why anyone would choose to be a mortician. I still don't know the answer, but the Undertaker Tales sheds a whole new light on this group of men and women. Far from being the doleful, gloomy, stiff necked men and women living at the local funeral home ss sometimes pictured, Bethard portrays them and their families as people of unusual empathy for those hurting members of our communities. Undertaker Tales include stories submitted by morticians from around the world. One section includes tales of dogs and cats involved in the mortician's life and in the deceased's life.
Undertaker Tales can be purchased at Amazon in book form or downloaded to your kindle.

Fantastic Texas

We went to our monthly NETWO meeting Thursday night and heard an interesting speaker, Lou Antonelli. Lou is editor of our local paper, the Daily Tribune. In addition to his writing for the paper, Lou has begun writing short stories. He shared his source of ideas for various stories and his adventures in getting them published.
Naturally, Mr. Antonelli had copies of his books with him. Two found a home with us. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, he was out of his latest book. Fantastic Texas, a science fiction anthology, is a collection Texas tall tales made up of a mix of pure fantasy and 'it might happen' science fiction. The stories are short, making the novel ideal for those times we find ourselves waiting in a doctor's office, for children to come out of school, or for someone to return to the line after assuring you, "Your call is important to us."
Fantastic Texas can be purchased at most book stores or from Amazon. Mr. Antonelli, like most authors, usually has several with him and is willing to autograph those you buy from him.

Fall activities

Fall is always exciting with the return to school in September, and family get-together near Hot Springs, plus author fest in Tahlequah, Ok in October. I'm looking forward to visiting Winfield ISD September 14 with my mini writing workshop for 4th through 7th grade students. I hope they will enjoy the program as much as I enjoy sharing my writing experiences with them.

NETWO, the writing organization I belong to, is planning a free workshop October 22, 2011. It will be at the Pizza Inn in Pittsburg, Texas. There will be several interesting speakers and information dealing with publishing and promoting our work through internet. Check out details www.netwo.org Everyone is invited.

I'm busy rewriting parts of sequel to Second Chance. Not sure what the title will be, but it takes place in Kilgore 1931 when the big oil boom filled the town to overflowing with all sorts of characters. Some were honest, some were anything but honest. Hope to have it published by 4RV Publishing in Spring of 2012 if I can just get this rewrite up to par. This will be the best book I've written so far. I'm so excited.

Until next time. Take care of each other.

July - A Busy Month

July was a busy Fun Month

Had a fun time with Mary Robertson and her class July 14th. I read and she and the kids acted out the squirrel scene in Dragons for Kris. The students enjoyed Charlie, my pet dragon.
Habitat for Humanity had a huge Garage Sale in Mt. Vernon, Texas. We cleared over a $1000. Lots of work but it will help build a house for a family willing to work with us.
The following weekend Mt. Pleasant Habitat For Humanity held their annual Mayor's Cup Golf Tournament. I got to watch the hole-in-one green where everyone was trying to win a pickup truck
Our Habitat group is fortunate to have so many
supporters from the community.
A real delight was our First Saturday NETWO gathering of writers at Pizza Inn in Pittsburg, Texas. This last Saturday Fredna Stuckey, an English teacher at Le Tourneau University, talked about revising and editing, two different things. She titled it Editing, Revising, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. She was very informative and an entertaining speaker. We all had a great time.
While watching for the hole-in-one shot, I had a furry companion to keep me company.

Voices From The Heart

Voices From the Heart by Jonikay Pace is a riveting story after the reader gets past the nasty backgrounds of the main players. Ms. Pace has excelled at setting the scene for a young girl to be hoodwinked by a manipulative, self centered man bent on using her to reach his own goals. In spite of human guardian angles attempting to guide and help Clara, she allows herself to be deceived and heads down a long road of believeing lies and experiencing physical and emotional abuse.

Ms Pace ties up all the loose ends in a neat package that caused this reader to smile and murmer, "That'll teach you, you scumbag."

Voices From The Heart was published by Comfort Publishing, LLC

Copyright 2008

ISBN 978 0 9802051 6 9