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 their German Shepherd, Hoka. You can catch up with Deb on her website, debggorman.com, and email her at debster145@gmail.com

Reader Friday-Let’s Talk Coverups…

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Awhile ago, I picked some of your brains (such as they were…#sorrynotsorry) to get some ideas for Friday posts. Just kidding… 🙂

This gem of an idea came from our own Elaine Viets.

Book covers are important.

To the author because after toiling for months or years on a book, getting to the point of actually hating the sight of the manuscript, then voila! Seeing the cover energizes like nothing else. I know you know what I mean.

To the reader because it’s like an appetizer for what comes next. Like a doorway into another world that the reader wants to step through, but is kind of scared to…should I leap through the door or sneak through? I know you know what I mean (again).

The questions to follow are from Elaine, and I thank you for them, friend!

How much does the cover of an author you don’t know influence whether you buy the book?

If you like cozies, does it help if you see a dog or cat on the cover?

For hard-boiled, do you prefer weapons, cars and other symbols of action?

(Please share your favorite covers in the comments if you want, either yours or your favorite author’s.)

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Here are two of mine. And I might be biased, but I love them!   🙂

 

Reader Friday-Skeletons in the Closet

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Yep, we’ve all got ’em! Care to share? Not that we have to drag out anything we don’t want to, but I think it’s safe to say that some of our skeletons have morphed into comedians over the years.

Let’s share some of the funny stuff and not get too Grim Reaperish, okay?

I’ll start. Maybe you’ll get a kick out of this.

Once when I was a kid, about so tall, we were visiting my grandparents along with our four cousins. That makes six adults and eight kids. The grown-ups chased us outside so they could play pinochle.

We went down the hillside, stretched out in a line holding hands-with my little sister at the end. And my eldest cousin touching the hot wire on the electric fence.

Of course, she snitched on us and boy, howdy, did the 7 of us get in trouble for that! At the time I felt guilty, sort of, but now it’s just a funny story of growing up in a small town.

Okay…your turn, TKZers…let’s hear those bones rattle a bit! And, do tell if one of your characters has a delicious skeleton in the closet…

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You think Annie Lee, happily married mother of four, has no skeletons in her closet? Think again . . .

 

 

Reader Friday-Let’s Pet Our Peeves!

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Everyone born on planet earth develops peeves, right? And the *older* we get, the more peeves we’ve got IMHO. At least it seems to be true with me. I don’t want it to be true . . . it seems like the older we get, we should let loose of some, right? Hmm…

So, without further ado, let’s share some of ours . . .

Because I live in apple and cherry farm country, one of my pet peeves is orchard guns. What are those, ask the uninitiated?

Orchard farmers have to deal with birds, birds, and more birds snacking on developing fruit. Some orchardists use mechanical predator bird noises; some use fluttering ribbons and flags; some use netting over the entire orchard, both to keep birds out and to control how much sun the fruit receives.

Others use . . . you guessed it . . . gun noises. Big gun noises! Like cannons and high-powered rifle big noises.

Mom, make it stop…!

 

The problem isn’t with us, though. It’s our German shepherd, Hoka. See those ears? Not much gets by them…

She’s deathly afraid of any gunshots out here in red-neck country. And for 6-8 weeks, she tries to hide from the orchard guns. She won’t go outside by herself, she tries to hide in the bathtub (picture that!), or crawl under our bed.

At least there is an end in sight, though, come harvest time…

 

 

So, now that I’ve shared one of my pet peeves, it’s your turn, TKZers! What’s one of yours, and do any of your characters pet a peeve once in awhile?

 

Reader Friday-Words From Down Under

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I ran across this on social media and was fascinated. (Guess it’s good for something, right?)

Perhaps you’ve heard of this, but I hadn’t.

A Kangaroo Word is a word/synonym within a word (my definition). For instance, the word chicken. Chicken contains a synonym for itself-cHickEN. That’s part of the definition, as you can see from the graphic taken from the website I explored. I might add also that the letters of the synonym within the word must be in order, but they need not be grouped together.

Other kangaroo words are:  MAscuLinE, BLOssOM, and hoNOuraBLE.

Fun, huh? Go here to find more:

List of kangaroo words

I tried to come up with my own, and so far, I’ve come up with PUPpy.

TKZers, maybe you can jazz us with a few of your own! Let’s have some fun…

Reader Friday-Dine In or Dine Out?

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Simple question(s) today, TKZers! I’m liking simple more and more these days . . . you too?

Here goes.

1) Do you prefer dining in or dining out?

2) If you’re dining in, please share with us your favorite home-cooked meal.

3) If you’re dining out, please tell us what your favorite place is, and your go-to fave food to eat there.

4) AND, please tell us about a character you’ve written who has any foodie quirks.

 

Hungry yet?

 

 

Here’s my answers: I love salmon. I could eat it seven days a week and never tire of it. And I prefer a home-cooked meal to eating out. (Even if I have to cook it!)

 

 

By the time today is over, Annie Lee is convinced she has no tomorrow.

 

 

 

In my novel, No Tomorrows, the main character is Annie Lee. She’s a married mother of four who for years has served pork chops to her family every Thursday night. Why? She has fear issues, but that’s all I’m sayin’! You’ll just have to read the book…

 

 

 

 

Reader Friday-The Games We Played

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Simple question today:

What was your favorite childhood game, either inside or outside, in school or away from school, with friends or alone? No rules here . . . just your favorite game you played as a child.

Mine? I have two: Kick the can in the middle of our quiet street usually with about 10-15 of the neighborhood kids.

And the board game, Risk, played with my brother and his friend who lived next door to us. We’d set the game up in the neighbor’s basement during the summer, leave it set up, and played every day almost. And let me tell you, the bro and our neighbor were merciless Risk players…never cut me any slack a ‘tall!

I never won, but boy howdy, it was a fun game. Until a few years ago, I had our original game–at least 50 years old–buried in a closet. Once when my brother was visiting, I presented him with it. It was a good moment for both of us.

Over to you, TKZ peeps! What was your go-to game when you were young? And, what games do your characters play?

 

Reader Friday-The “What If?” Zone

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(Title of today’s post courtesy of my husband…a man of few words.)   🙂

Familiar territory, right? I’m betting the farm (if I had one) that all of us have played the “What If?” game with ourselves, and possibly with others. Which brings up a cool idea. “What If” a group of writers got together and designed a game just for folks like us who spend their days dreaming up ways to get in trouble . . . ahem . . . I mean, to get our characters in trouble. Wouldn’t that be fun?

But I digress.

The subject today is a riff off of a recent Randy Ingermanson article. The point of his post was the “What If?” question, but with a good, wrenching twist to it.

He states: “Most novels use a familiar ‘what if?’ question that has been asked and answered many times before. But the really ground-breaking novels ask a ‘what if?’ question that is new.”

He goes on to say that not all “what if?” questions have to be new and shiny, but to up our author game we should “Ask The Question Nobody Is Asking”. Intriguing, yes?

 

He mentions the Wright Brothers, who, back in 1903 asked the one no one else was asking. How do we get a machine to fly that’s heavier than air? And away they went, soaring into the history books!

 

I thought of one as I was writing this post: What if I walked into my house and it wasn’t mine?

So let’s play.

TKZers, will you brainstorm over your coffee, tea, or water this morning and think up a “what if” question that maybe hasn’t been asked yet? And if you’ve already asked that unasked-as-yet question and made a story out of it, that’s okay too.

Do tell…

Reader Friday-Those Olden Golden Days

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“Back in the olden days . . .”

I have a relic of the past in my possession. It was given to me by my mother on the occasion of my wedding day in 1974. I don’t even know if they are made anymore, and if they are, does anyone buy them?

The funny thing is this: I’ve always hated anything to do with sewing, but I hang on to this. It still contains needles and thread lurking in its depths. And I still use it . . . but only if I absolutely have to, because I still hate everything sewing.

But when I do (have to) lift the lid, I see my mother’s beaming smile as I opened her special gift to me fifty years ago. I think that’s the real reason I keep it.   🙂

What do you have in your possession that reminds you of the Olden Golden Days? Has it ever popped up in your   writing? Tell us about it.

 

Reader Friday-Welcome to the Pun Zone!

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To pun, or not to pun . . .

Oh, what the hay, let’s do it! We love words, don’t we? Especially those words that make us laugh . . . an activity we most definitely need more of these days, right?

I ran across (not literally) a fun pun list on Steve Laube’s website the other day. Some were real coffee snorters.

I thought it’d be fun to mess around today and share a few.

Here’s a few from his list (used with permission):

I’m reading a book about antigravity. I can’t put it down.

Energizer bunny arrested. Charged with battery.

I changed my iPhone name to Titanic. It’s syncing now.

 

Okay, it’s your turn. Regale us with your favorite pun(s). But wait, first let me put my coffee down!

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A story of three broken families who are stranded together in a fierce snowstorm, finding healing in crisis.

By the time today is over, Annie Lee is convinced she has no tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reader Friday-Book ’em Danno!

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There have been thousands upon thousands of memorable lines in novels, movies, TV shows, even well-known comedy routines. To wit, sincerity is everything. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made. (George Burns)

Your assignment for today is to share with us, IYHO, the most memorable line(s) in your memory banks. (See how I did that?)  🙂

Here’s a few to get you started.

I’ll be back…

You’re gonna need a bigger boat…

Book ’em Danno!

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“Death doesn’t end life-never has.” ~Mike