Author Archives: Deb Gorman

About Deb Gorman

Deb Gorman is an author, blogger, and speaker who escaped from a 9-5 job in the medical field to pursue what she really loves—words, words, and more words. A lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, she writes fiction and non-fiction in between long walks through orchard country with her husband, Alan, and playing with Kimber, their German Shepherd/Malinois mix. You can catch up with Deb on her website, debggorman.com, and email her at debster145@gmail.com

Reader Friday-The Bard (and other cool words)

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I was trolling on Facebook the other day, and ran across this meme posted by our friend, Chip MacGregor.

I hope the words are clear enough for you to read.

Shakespeare didn’t just entertain us with poems, stories, hilarity, and villains–he added to our everyday language we’re familiar with today. On one website I found, it states the Bard supplied us with over 1700 words still in use today.

One I discovered is “addiction” from Henry V. The meaning as it was used then was “inclination” or “tendency”. Sound familiar?

I was wondering…can you add to this list? Let’s put our wordy heads together and come up with a few more, shall we?

The Bard . . . 4/23/1564-4/23/1616

 

 

He’s waiting . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reader Friday-When Did The Music Stop?

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This post is taken from one I wrote a couple of years ago on my own website. Thought it fit nicely in today’s world. You can read the original here.

When Did The Music Stop?

I get up every morning at about the same time, drink water and coffee, talk to my husband, pet my dog. Then drink more coffee.

Then what do I do? Usually the biggest mistake of the day.

Open the news media sites.

Then say to myself, “When did the music stop?”

Yeah, you too?

 

 

Those media sites are cluttered with other kinds of people. The ones who yell at each other, redefine life on planet earth in their own image, put God on a paper airplane and throw him to the wind, then sit in his chair.

The planet they live on is not the one I want to live on.

Where have all the real people gone? You know, the ones who go to work, take care of themselves and their families, mow their lawns, fill up their tanks, and shop for groceries? And, dare I say, go to church on Saturdays or Sundays?

Kids on tricycles and bicycles and skates—the kind with keys—zooming up and down the sidewalks, playing kick the can and hide-and-go-seek, with parents and grandparents and neighbors cheer-leading from their front porches is the planet I’m from and want to get back to. Back to where some things were just not confusing . . . ya know what I mean?

Back to when homework was the first thing you did after school . . . after the peanut butter, mayo, and bologna sandwich, of course.

When talking to someone happened without a screen between you.

And people cared. About each other, about animals, and a smile didn’t hide an agenda and didn’t need a mask. A smile was just a smile, the way God intended it to be. A handshake meant something and we weren’t afraid to touch someone else’s fingers.

Back to when we watched the TV–not the other way around.

Where did that world go? It slid away from us a long time ago and maybe hit a few snags along the way, like when Woodward and Bernstein were on it BlueBonnet . . . but now here we are. And we don’t even know where here is.

 Again, when did the music stop? Okay, take a breath, Deb.

I think it’s still there. We just have to listen with better ears.

 

 

After I get some more coffee, I’m going outside to see if I can hear it.

See ya out there!

 

 

 

 

 

Reader Friday-Food For Thought

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Saw this in cyberspace:

Somewhere there’s an Aunt Betty roaming the grocery aisles looking for the ingredients to make her famous Thanksgiving dish that no one in the family likes.

Is there an Aunt Betty in your family?     🙂

 

Ahem…

What is your least favorite Thanksgiving food?

I know, I know—we usually talk about our favorites, right? But today is different.

My least favorite Thanksgiving food is—wow! I really hate to admit it, but it’s pumpkin pie. Especially store-bought pumpkin pie. I’ve just never been a fan of pumpkin anything.

I had to keep it a secret for a long time because my mother and both grandmothers were so proud of their pumpkin creations . . . and I didn’t want to hurt their feelings. So I would take some and make sure no one was watching when—well, you get it.

How about you?

Is there a Thanksgiving food you’ve always hated? And maybe had to hide it like I did? It’s okay, go ahead and spill those hated beans. You’re safe in these halls.

 

 

Reader Friday-Digging Deep

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If you had to choose, which amongst the range of human senses is the one most likely to dredge up memories (good or bad) in that RAM called your brain?

 

 

There are five basic senses: sound, smell, touch, sight, and taste. 

Here’s my example of a good memory, evoked by music:

Hearing CCR on the radio transports me right back to my carefree college days in southern California when I didn’t have a worry in the world. When the studying was done, my friends and I would pile into a light blue ‘60s-something VW bug–it’s amazing how many teenagers you can stuff into one of those–and head for the beach for a little body surfing.

The character-building skill of using the five senses to tell a story is an important one to develop, and is much-discussed here at TKZ.

When I wrote No Tomorrows, I had to dig deep into my fear of losing a child. My parents lost two, my younger brother to a traffic accident and my younger sister, five years later, to suicide. There are sights and sounds in my world today that bring those dreadful memories careening back into my consciousness.

In No Tomorrows, Annie faces that same fear when she loses track of her small daughter in the park. As I wrote the scene, I put her shoes on my feet as she raced around the park, frantically calling Nora’s name. It was a difficult section for me to write. But as I relived my memories and looked my own fear of the death of a child square in its ugly face, Annie became flesh and blood, and in a way her fear took the teeth out of my own monsters.

Your turn! Which of the five senses takes you back in time, or causes you to remember a person from your past, or evokes a feeling of comfort?

 

 

How deep will you go into your own RAM to create a character who will resonate with your reader?

As a reader, which sense/emotion connects you to the story/character the quickest?

 

 

 

 

Reader Friday-The Last Novel

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Noooooo!

 

Sorry if I skeered ya…the last novel hasn’t actually been written yet. (I think…)

Whew!

 

 

Here’s what today is about.

Please share with us the last novel (or novella) you read. Include the title, author, and publish date, and maybe your critique. Would you recommend it to readers?

 

Here’s mine:  Finished “Out of the Far North” by Amir Tsarfati and Steve Yohn—the 3rd of 4 in a series, published in 2023. Just started the 4th, “The Sick Man’s Rage”, and I’m hoping there’s going to be a 5th! Middle East, spies, heroes, cool weapons, and a teensy bit of romance. Right up my reader’s alley.

Okay, your turn!

 

Reader Friday-Wordsmarts

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How were you at spelling when you were a tyke?

I was an okay speller, but throw a number at me and I’d run like a bat out of . . . well, you get the idea.

I ran across a website the other day (when I was fleeing a number thrown at me) that turned out to be quite entertaining. I think you, as voracious readers and writers, will find it equally entertaining.

It’s all about words . . . words with the same definition, but that have more than one acceptable spelling. Now why didn’t they have those words in the third grade? We coulda had a choice and all have gotten an A on every spelling test, right?

Here’s the link:  https://wordsmarts.com/multiple-spellings/

Below is a sample of what you’ll see. And please note: Spell-check red-lined a few of these as I typed the list.   🙂

  • Grey/Gray
  • Duffel/Duffle
  • Adviser/Advisor

And my all-time favorite:

  • Donut/Doughnut

Here’s what I’ve been wondering. Is it just the English language that enjoys multiple spellings for the same words?

Any of you speak French or Russian or Latvian and could clue us in?

 

Two part assignment for TKZers today: Check out the website, then come up with your own words that could have given you first place in spelling bees!

 

 

Reader Friday-Boo!

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This is your Halloween post… 🙂 Sorrynotsorry-couldn’t resist.

Moving on–

Tell us about Halloween. Your Halloween.

Meaning, did you participate when growing up (if you have grown up, that is…)?

 

 

What was your favorite costume that you wore? Elvis? Casper, the Friendly Ghost?

And do you still celebrate Halloween?

 

 

Hmm… “Celebrate” seems like an odd word to use with “Halloween”, doesn’t it? Perhaps we should say “Observe” instead.

And how about saying, “Happy Halloween” to folks? Isn’t that kind of an oxymoron? Who can be happy when surrounded by ghouls, goblins, and ghosts?

Or am I making something out of nothing? (I’m kinda famous for that in my little circle…)

TKZers–please tell us your Halloweeny stories!

“Back in the day, when I was just a wee owlet…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reader Friday-Distracted Writing

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You’ve heard of distracted driving, right? Cell phones, road signs, ankle-biters bug-tussling in the back seat, other distracted drivers distracting your driving—we’ve all experienced it—but hopefully not on the wrong side of a citation or accident.

Today, keeping in mind all of the above, consider the distractions that keep you from deep-diving into your current WIP, that germ of a story that grabbed your attention awhile back, but now is drowning in . . . life, real life.

What are the top five distractions affecting your writing productivity? Those pesky things that require your attention, but in the process of “attending”, dilute your enthusiasm for the project and cut into your in-the-zone time?

For me, at this time, it’s caring for my elderly father. It’s an honor for me, and I wouldn’t have it any other way, but it usually takes me awhile to shift from the Dad gear to the story gear.

How about you? How do you handle the “life stuff” that’s part of your story, but not part of the story you’re writing?

Are you good at setting it aside? Compartmentalizing? (Both of which I am seriously not good at . . .)

TKZers, jump right in with your tips and tricks!

 

Reader Friday-School Daze

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What was your absolute favorite subject in school? Can be grade, middle, high school or college.

Mine was history.

When I was a junior and senior in high school, I had the same history teacher both years. He was a great teacher and made us work hard. We had to keep a “journal” of the things we learned that were most interesting to us.

I tried to make stories out of them. Go figure!

No…not that one! 🙂

 

 

Over to you, TKZ readers and writers. What was your favorite, how old were you, and are you still fascinated by the same subject?

 

 

 

 

 

Reader Friday-Curiouser and Curiouser

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Authors are a curious species. By that, I mean we’re curious about the world around us, not that we’re weird! Ahem!

This is a link to a really cool site that will make you curiouser and curiouser. https://www.rd.com/list/weird-facts/

Image by LeeoMax from Pixabay

 

 

 

Did you know that Donald Duck’s legal name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck? True story. (From Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

And Walt Disney was the first voice of Mickey Mouse? And Mickey was the first non-human Oscar winner.

Or, how about this—Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz was originally a blonde, but the powers that were thought it made her look not so much like a Kansas farm girl.

All true.

But, here’s the one I really like, because I’m one of those height-challenged folks.

People are taller in the morning than they are at night. Really!

Courtesy of https://ar.inspiredpencil.com

“When you wake up in the morning, you’re about one centimeter taller. That’s because at night when you’re lying down, the spine stretches and decompresses. But throughout the day, the soft cartilage between your bones gets squashed and compressed…”

 

So, at least in the mornings I can claim to be tall . . . cool!

TKZers . . . what weird, random fact can you share with us this morning? And how will you write it into the story you’re working on?