The Never Ending Published Authors Thread (NEPAT)

Carol,

What would you do with these parents? Why was that all right then?

Abe is 9 years my senior and I wlll verify the fact that parents were routinely exhorted to whip their children and told that God wanted them to do this. Preachers got up and preached entire sermons about it--I didn't like those sermons.

It was never all right. The only indication to anyone outside would have probably been the bruises, and if a teacher saw those today, they would need to be reported. What I think would have happened would be the parents being sent for counseling, which would have included some ideas for more effective punishment. They made it an issue of control rather than safety or the importance of being in school.

I just hate stuff like that. It makes me sad. One guy in our house got the old fraternity paddle a few times and I hated that as well. (It wasn't me who used it, and nothing like that.

If that little boy came to my door after hours of worry, the tears would have flowed. I spent a few sleepless nights for teens who arrived home late, imagining them dead in a ditch some where. I'd be angry at their making me worry, but relieved they were all right. They wouldn't get the car and would be grounded for the rest of their lives or at least the next few weeks, as well as doing their own laundry.

Next subject. A happier one I hope. I'm just relating to all that frantic worry of missing kids.

Carol

I hate it too.

Next subject--what is the most fun thing you have ever done? Other than post on ths forum of course?

My fun thing was going to Bora Bora.
We snorkled off a private dock which was attached to our overwater bungalow and it was heavenly.

I dreaded the interview on radio and expected to fall flat on my face. I was so busy getting my husband off to his first physio session since he came out of hospital, I was too tired and preoccupied to worry about it. I picked up the phone and went straight into the interview without a thought in my head. It was a lot of fun and even my mother said I did okay (praise doesn't come much higher than that!). They want another interview and another book! I must have done something right! Astonishing!

On another thread I told the best running away story of all. I'll repeat it here. In the late 19th century a 12-year-old cousin of my grandfather, J.T. Lynch, wanted to wear his good suit to the circus. He was told no, so he said, "If I can't wear it you'll never see me again."
No one took him seriously, but the kid wasn't kidding. They never saw him again.
I used it as part of the story "Jack the Tripper" in the June issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

Shelagh,

Congratuations! I hope your hubby is doing well too.

Thanks Alice! Progress is slow but he's getting there!

Dick,

He was very wise--he stayed away.

Shelagh wrote:

I dreaded the interview on radio and expected to fall flat on my face. I was so busy getting my husband off to his first physio session since he came out of hospital, I was too tired and preoccupied to worry about it. I picked up the phone and went straight into the interview without a thought in my head. It was a lot of fun and even my mother said I did okay (praise doesn't come much higher than that!). They want another interview and another book! I must have done something right! Astonishing!

Congratulations, Shelagh!! Take a bow! And a mother's praise is worth a king's ransom. (Or should I say a queen's? )

Why was your husband in the hospital? I must have missed that somewhere along the road.

Now to get the next book out, Shelagh--it sounds like there is already interest in it!

Yes, they are keen to do another serialisation. Today's excerpt was episode thirteen. By the end of this week, the first five chapters will have been broadcast (thirteen more chapters to go!). I may not be around much over the coming months -- much of my time will be taken up writing the sequel.

My husband was in a motorcycle accident at the age of twent-three. The left femur was smashed when he was forced off the road by an overtaking car and collided with a concrete bollard at the side of the road. The neck of the femur exploded on impact and was severely shortened. It was only a matter of time before he would need a hip replacement op. He had resurfacing fourteen weeks ago but recouperation is slow because of the damage to the femur head (the surgeon could not perform total hip replacement because the bone regrowth was solid after the accident and there is no inner cavity to insert a long pin). When he attended the first check-up the surgeon was pleased to see him -- apparently, they had expected to see him much sooner with a catastrophic failure. So far so good, he is making slow progress but the outlook looks bright.

Shelagh,

I hope your husband does well. My husband is doing well with his new hip, but it was not as bad as your husband's. And I cannot believe I can walk and go upstairs. Amazing help is out there!

Congratulations and good writing!

Carol

Sending healing vibes to your hubby.

It sounds like a horrible accident he was in, Shelagh. Hopefully they will be able to fix the problem as well as they can. How old is he? I understand that recuperation takes longer as we get on in age.

Shelagh,
congratulations on your interview. I can imagine the strain/pressure you were under especially with concern for your husband. Hip replacement can be easy for some, however for others it is not so straight forward as you mentioned. Just hope they can find a solution.

Hope all goes well with your husband, Shelagh. Also hope he no longer goes near motorcycles.

Dick Stodghill wrote:

Hope all goes well with your husband, Shelagh. Also hope he no longer goes near motorcycles.

I will second that!

Thanks everyone; I'll pass on the good wishes. The only bike my husband goes near these days is a stationary bike.

Me too.

Add my good wishes to the list, Shelagh, for your husband and for that sequel, too.

Ann

I was going to add the off topic smilie but this is the off topic thread! It's raining.

This would have been off topic on Dick's Rotten Kid thread, but Carol's post there reminded me of something. it's sometimes surprising to realize the impact of very early childhood, but I got a call last night from my daughter. She had been having an annoyance at work over a task that was supposed to be shared, but nobody was willing to help, so she always ended up doing it herself. Yesterday she had an "aha" moment, remembering that when she was very little, we would read the book, The Little Red Hen to her. Whenever the hen would ask, "who will help me (whatever) the wheat," and the rest of the animals would respond, "Not I," she would get very upset, and insist that we change the story so that the response was always, "I will," so that the story ended with everyone sitting down together to eat the bread. She said last night that she never really believed her ending was the real one, so she has gone through life doing everything by herself, believing it's the only way things will get done. Looking back, I can see examples of her making such choices, but I never connected it back to that particular story.

You see, we all thought it was adorable that she wanted to rewrite the book, but we would smile in such a way that we discounted her version as being real.

Just an example of how we create reality, not only for ourselves, but for those in our care.

Ann

I agree Ann. We want happy endings. We want our children to be happy. We want them to grow up to be responsible and use their talents. But how we accomplish that is a question I have never found answers to.

Sometimes I am satisfied with my job as parent. After all, I fed my children healthy food, kept an orderly home, and gave them a happy childhood. If I was preparing them for life I knew as an adult, that was a waste of time as their lives are nothing like mine was at the ages they are now. Times are different. They are different.

The stories: the Little Red Hen, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears and little pigs, and then Cinderella and Snow White. Did they all have influences on children or were they only stories told to them?

We have an adorable video of my granddaughter watching Snow White. She watched it over and over. She sang along with the songs, and then it got to what she said "was a scary part."

My husband asked her, "But you know how it turns out, that Snow White is safe."

Her answer, "It is still scary."

I am not sure where I am going here, but I have been thinking a lot lately about the journeys we take with children in our lives, journeys to old stories and journeys to times in lives that turned out all right but were still "scary."

Carol

Did this thread end?