Exercise. It’s That Word Again, Isn’t It

June 25, 2015 Rebecca Nolen 3 Comments

It’s back. For someone who loves playing with words, the one word that I dread in my life is “exercise” as in when the doctor says, “with diet and aerobic exercise your numbers should improve.” Ugh. Really? Couldn’t we just fudge a little? See, I used one of my favorite words just then. For those of you new to my blog, a few years ago – okay, six years ago – I had lost that “last 10 pounds”. The ones that are the most difficult to lose. In fact, in all, I lost 20 pounds, and kept them off for two years.

I even bought and wore comfortably two pair of skinny jeans, in which I did not lose the feeling in my lower extremities and then have to spend any time in the hospital. I say that as a word of caution to those who are wearing the skinny jeans without having lost those last ten pounds. Yes, you. You’re in danger. There are health warnings flying about these days, listen up.

When the housing market turned around suddenly. I was hands-on involved in renovating two houses at once to sell, which meant that I was living out of my car all day and eating fast food. Hello my little poundish friends.

All of my “author” pictures were taken when I was thin.

I am not doing author pictures at the moment.

As you can see from the doctor’s note above, I’ve been given my marching orders, marching not leaving. The last time I achieved this I counted calories, and exercised every day at the YMCA. I jogged in the neighborhood (after I’d lost the weight I could jog), I took a kickboxing class, and lifted weights. This time I will try again to diet. I’m walking with a neighbor, building up to greater things. I’ve been reading a book recommended by my insurance company. Yes, that’s right – I am getting counseling because my A1c levels are nearly diabetic. The book is Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. I resisted when first told about this book. I know about what good nutrition is and have gotten along just fine without it, thank you very much. Apparently, I’m good at lying to myself, too. Now I’m learning all about how the myth of the “complete protein”. Remember how your mother told you that beans and rice are a “complete” protein? Wrong. She didn’t know. Don’t blame her. Beans are a complete protein, you don’t need rice. A lot of vegetables have protein in them, peas, beans, kale. Nuts and seeds have protein. Most of our “protein rich” foods like meat, dairy, fish, eggs are also full of fat. This I can believe, but, I’m not becoming a vegan commando. I can give up sugar and processed foods but give me my turkey neck at Thanksgiving!

So this was my once a year or once every three-year blog about my health/diet ups and downs. I’ll report back briefly if this all works again. If not, I’ll see you at the next book signing. I’ll be the one wearing a tent and eating the Klondike bar.

The Writing Life

Pop Shop Houston Adventure

June 14, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

The Houston Writer’s Guild went to Pop Shop Houston. It is held every year around this time in a big warehouse on Edwards Street (off Sawyer) called Silver Street studios. We invite all our authors to participate in these events we attend.

All the events we get involved with are excellent not only for showcasing our wonderful authors but also for promoting who the Houston Writer’s Guild is and what we do. We are an organization that promotes writing and writers. We offer classes, and workshops and conferences to our members throughout the year.

At Pop Shop Houston we did something a bit different. We laid out pads of paper and wrote a sentence at the top of each page. A different sentence for each, as a story starter. We asked every person who passed to write a sentence with their initials at the beginning of each. The results were hilarious.

The others are published on the Houston Writer’s Guild Facebook page. Go there to read the others.

Here is an example from today:

She knew the time had come to start the

()journey for something true and real. (si) To find who took her left arm, and to demand answers. (cs) The woman yodeled her way out of the questioning, (mw) but they persisted to hold her in captivity ()for her crimes in Brighton, England. (cr) But crimes are all in the eye of the beholder, stealing candy was never a crime! The girl flung her remaining arm up and escaped the menacing pair. Down she went, cobble stone clapping against her shoes. Where could she flee? Willie’s, of course!

reviews

Old Wounds of the Heart, a novel by Ken Oder

June 7, 2015 Rebecca Nolen Leave a comment

I want to tell you about a novel I just finished. Reading it was a thrilling experience. Not because it is a thriller, because you know I read a lot of those, but because it is a work of art, or poetry, or beauty and all of the above. To slip it soundly into a specific genre would be doing it a disservice. It is historical – 1960’s. It is romantic, but not a romance. There is some mystery because the reader has to wonder if the main character will survive. I guess this is a literary novel.

Sometimes I’m privileged to be able to receive a novel to read and review before the novel is published. Sometimes I get these from Net Galley and sometimes I get these from author’s or their representatives. I don’t solicit novels for review any longer. I found that I was reading things I didn’t enjoy, not because the work was awful but because it was a genre I don’t normally read.

When Ken Oder’s editor asked if I would read this book I grabbed at the chance. I’ve read his other novel, The Closing, and liked it.

Old Wounds of the Heart is nothing like The Closing but I probably liked it just as much or more. The writing is simply beautiful. For instance, listen to this:

Toby pulled into the dirt lot beside the store. It was a rectangular frame box with peeling paint. Smoke curled from its stovepipe and the morning rain still dripped from rusty gutters that clung desperately to the roof line by scattered nails. The storefront was a concrete porch with a single gas pump in front of it. Two long wooden benches sat on the porch on each side of the door. Four rotting wooden pillars buckled under the weight of the porch’s sagging roof. The old store had already been remodeled and repaired a hundred times, and another facelift was overdue.

The author takes you back in time to a place in a rural Virginia town and gently revealed parts and pieces of its topography and people.

The story is not a gentle one. It is about some old friends who were going to go to their cabin up the mountain, until a few of them declared they are too old to continue to participate. That night one of the old men, Billy, is almost asleep in his bed, is awakened by noises, then confronted by a ski-masked intruder with a gun. What happens next is an edge of your seat read. The conclusions are a complete surprise. The things Billy has done to some of his friends and family produces a lot of regret and worse.

The emotional range portrayed by the characters as they each struggle with memories or consequences of the same events brought me to tears or smiles. I am reminded that all our actions bring consequences even heart wounding ones.

Find it on Amazon now.