Happy Mother's Day!

English: jkklglh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I'd like to wish all of you mothers out there the happiest of Mother's Days!

If your own mother is still living, thank her for all that she has done for you and tell her that you love her.

I've composed a very special Mother's Day message on my blog A Few Words.   I hope you will pay a visit.  Please share so that it reaches as many as possible.   It's an important message that many need to read. 

Thank you for reading and thank you to all mothers everywhere.

Arlee Bird
A Few Words







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Today's Guest: jenn griffin: Survivor of Tina's Terrific Team #atozchallenge

Today please welcome my friend,  Jenn, who was brave enough to be my minion.  She survived working on Tina's Terrific Team!  This is an excerpt from her first novel, let it be, which is written but not yet published. Enjoy. 

She didn’t bother with make-up. The boy knew what she looked like. He must like her face well enough. She didn’t see the point in painting it. She didn’t possess that talent in normal situations. With her nerves, she would’ve wrecked her cosmetics in seconds.

In all the times she’d imagined dating him, she’d never considered it a possibility. Still, as she made her way across town to his apartment, she couldn’t tamp down the excitement she felt. Nor could she loosen the huge knot that had formed in her gut from worry that she’d screw things up before they’d even had a chance to begin.

You’ve known him for years, Isabel. You want to know him better. Yall are just talking.

Not my forte.

She sucked in a breath, then another as she turned into his complex, sat in the lot with the engine running. Waited for Christina Perri’s “Arms” to conclude. She shut her eyes, rolled her neck, her shoulders.

It’ll be fine. You can do this. “Yall are just talking,” she muttered as she shoved the door open, slid out and slammed the door.

Turned to find him waiting for her outside, seated at the base of the stairs that lead to his apartment. Smiling.

The knot in her stomach—the one that magically appeared every time she thought of him, saw him—tightened. She swallowed, tried a smile. Searched for something intelligent to say as she meandered over to him, but the damned knot had risen to her throat. “Hi.”

“Howdy.”

She sat next to him, folded her hands in her lap. “What’d you do that for?”

“What?”

Isabel glanced at him, then down and out, toward the parking lot. Took a breath. “You kissed me. I wanna know why.”

“I’d think that’d be obvious.”

“I’m not your type.”

“I have a type?”

“Everyone does.”

“No. Not everyone,” he said. “Take Matt, for example.”

Her lips curved into a sneer. “I’d rather not.”

“Isabel.” He sighed. “I’m curious. That a good enough reason?”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“We can date or whatever.” Irritation flickered across her face. “I don’t know what I’m doing, though.”

“Doing?”

She frowned. What the hell did I say that for? And how can I sound so ignorant and afraid?

Gray eyes peered into black. “Isa?”

“Nothing. Never mind. I’m hungry.”

He waited a beat, kept his gaze steady on hers, even as he rose and held out a hand to take hers and pull her up. But he didn’t take a step, didn’t make room for her. For the longest moment, they stood there, facing each other, eyes intent, her hand held lightly in his.

She lifted her other hand, placed it on his chest, near his shoulder, her thumb at the base of his throat. She felt his pulse, the warmth of his skin near the collar of his t-shirt.

But he didn’t try to kiss her. Instead he reached up, fingered the strands that fell near her temple, tucked them behind her ear, then stroked her cheek as he lowered his hand. Smiled and asked, “Who’s driving? Me or you?”

Isabel drew in a breath. Then another. Lowered her hand and pressed it to her stomach. Focus. “Mine’s a mess, and you know I’m a crap driver.”

“Me, then,” he said and stepped onto the parking lot, pulling her behind him. “We could grab some food then catch a movie,” he suggested as they crossed over to his truck. “How’s that sound?”

“What?”

He turned to grin at her, then lead her to the passenger door, opened it. Finally released her hand when she’d gotten settled.

The contact had unnerved her. But she found she missed it when he’d let go.

Jenn blogs at quirky pickings, a must read.  She's smart, serious and snarky.  She's also incredibly honest and generous, and just a lot of fun to know. I love jenn's writing, and am always eager to hear what she has to say next. Pay her a visit!  I'm proud to count jenn as one of my friends, not just a blogging buddy.

~Tina

So... what exactly is a Storyteller?

Did you know that a total of ten professional storytellers participated in the A to Z Challenge this year? That's like, nine more than last year. I know, because I am one of them. Also, I compiled a list of their blogs so you can go and check them out for yourself.
The A to Z challenge is all about stories. Written stories. Musical stories. Old stories. New stories. Fantasy stories. Romantic stories. Stories in pictures. Histories. As people of the word, we are all too familiar with the idea of story.
So, what am I doing here exactly with a title like that?

Let me introduce myself first. I am your friendly neighborhood A to Z minion, one of the Seven Ladies of #TeamDamyanti. My name is Csenge, I am originally from Hungary, and I am a professional storyteller. I go to schools, libraries, festivals, museums and other interesting places, and I tell stories for a living. On stage. By heart. From memory. I travel around the world, I collect new tales wherever I go, and I bring them home to my audiences.
(Okay, so maybe I hoard them like a squirrel. So what? Squirrels are cute.)
 I mostly work with folktales, fairy tales, myths, legends and epics (lots of epics). I am crazy about old stories, long stories, heroes, adventures, and imaginary places. I also tell and translate a lot of Hungarian folktales into English for international audiences.
I decided to use my time in the A to Z spotlight to talk about some of these tales, what we can do with them as storytellers, and why they are important. I am going to post every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month, and talk about a special topic within storytelling. Today's post was only meant to be an introduction, so without any further ado, I'll announce the next theme right now:

Ladies and Gentlemen, mark your calendars and check your blog feeds, because on Wednesday, May 21st, the A to Z Blog will be taken over by...
TRICKSTERS!!!
from all around the world.

In the meantime, if you are interested in stories, you can check out my latest book, Tales of Superhuman Powers. It is a collection of 55 folktales and legends with superpowers in them - everything from telekinesis to laser eye beams (yeah, really). It started out as a bet to see if I could find at least one traditional story for every superpower on my list. The book includes four categories (physical, mental, elemental, and transitional), and 61 individual powers. It was the most fun I have ever had with research (I mentioned some of the tales in my A to Z posts both this year and last year).
If you ever wanted to be the coolest person in a room full of teenagers, I strongly suggest take a look at some of these stories.

Also, feel free to visit either one of my two blogs:

The Multicolored Diary - Adventures in storytelling. This April I filled it with folktales and fairy tales about colors, from the Azure Lion to Zaffre and Alchemy.

MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians... On this blog I post weird and amusing things from Hungarian culture and history. This year's A to Z ran from the Aggressive Piglet all the way to Zanzibar music. Also, the blog features a lot of gifs about puli dogs. You have been warned.

You can follow me on Twitter under the handle @TarkabarkaHolgy