Fiction and life . . . from the desk of Gwen M. Plano
  • Home
  • Blog Reflections
  • REDEMPTION THRILLER
  • THE CONTRACT Series
  • My Memoir
  • Poetry
  • About

The Nature of Lightning

9/27/2022

33 Comments

 
Dear blog friends,

I've been traveling for the last week or so, and because of that, I've missed many of your posts. I hope to catch up over these next few days, but if I miss yours, please know I'll be on track soon. 😊

My recent trip took me to Southern California, where I spent time with two of my sisters. I had not seen them for several years because of Covid, so our time together was particularly precious. We enjoyed the beautiful Self Realization meditation garden and the Botanical Garden, both in Encinitas. We also spent time at Balboa Park in San Diego. The days were perfect, and we celebrated the sunshine by walking the beach. 

Coming home brought rest and also a sense of loss. I miss my family, as I suspect all of you do. May you get to visit with them soon! ❤️
                                                                 
                                                                      ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  
I opened my email this morning to find a new poetry challenge from writer Colleen Chesebro. She invites us to respond to the theme: The Nature of Lightning. My Tanka tries to capture the energy of that phenomenon. I hope you enjoy it.​


Picture

Have a wonderful week! 
33 Comments

A #TankaTuesday poem: The Photograph

9/14/2022

41 Comments

 
This week poet Colleen Chesebro invites writers to use the Shadorma form. It has a syllabic pattern of 3-5-3-3-7-5 syllables and otherwise, it is freestyle. 

My poem is a playful attempt to capture a mom's longings, and I've entitled it:
​ 
THE PHOTOGRAPH
There are days

a mom longs to hear

from her child,

all is well.

A photo can say it best
​
with laughter and smiles.
Picture
My three sons, two grandsons, and a son-in-law (blue cap).

Have a wonderful rest of the week, and I hope a photo or phone call come your way soon. 😊
41 Comments

A #NewRelease by authors Mae Clair and Staci Troilo

9/13/2022

52 Comments

 



​Hello blog friends,

We've much to celebrate!

​Writers Mae Clair and Staci Troilo worked together this year to co-write a new mystery entitled, The Haunting of Chatham Hollow. 

It was released two weeks ago, and it has already earned fantastic reviews. I've purchased my copy, and I'm flying through the chapters. It is a must-read. 

Today Mae and Staci will share a bit of the back story with us.

​Welcome, Mae and Staci! 

​❤️
Picture

​Gwen, thank you so much for hosting me today. I’m delighted to be here with you and your readers to share The Haunting of Chatham Hollow. I co-authored this novel with Staci Troilo, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was amazing to work with a co-author, especially someone as talented as Staci. She and I found we work great together, so who knows—maybe another down the road.
​
For now, we hope others will enjoy our supernatural mystery which includes dual timelines, ghostly happenings, a town curse, murder, and rumors of buried gold.  During our short promo tour, you’ll meet several characters who populate the book. Today, I’d like to introduce sisters Elayne and Shelley Orrman from the 1888 timeline. Spiritualism is a key thread in the book, so Staci and I thought we’d have each character sit down with a medium as a way of introduction.
Let’s listen in.
Picture


SPIRTUALIST: Welcome ladies. It’s a pleasure to meet you both. I’ve already met your mother, Dorinda, and your aunt, Irene Chatham.

ELAYNE:  Mother suggested we come.

SPIRTUALIST: Why is that?

ELAYNE: Who can say? It’s often her way—to meddle.

SHELLEY: (lightly touching her sister’s arm) You know she means well, Elayne. You’re just upset about the way she handled the problem in New York.

SPIRTUALIST: Mrs. Orrman did mention an embarrassing situation prompting her visit to Chatham Hollow, though she didn’t elaborate.

ELAYNE: Thank heavens. But then she wouldn’t for fear the matter should reflect unfavorably on her. Never mind I was the aggrieved party.

SPIRTUALIST: You have me curious, but I would never pry.

ELAYNE: Thank you for that. It’s best left in the past. Initially, I dreaded coming here, but Chatham Hollow has been an unexpected pleasure.

SHELLEY: (giggling) I think a certain spiritualist has something to do with that. Namely, Victor Rowe.

SPIRTUALIST: Naturally, I’ve heard of him. (allows his gaze to linger on Elayne) Perhaps I speak out of turn, but I’m led to believe Mr. Rowe is a man in his early forties. You appear much younger.

ELAYNE: Perhaps you should stick to your earlier conviction and not pry in matters that don’t concern you.

SPIRTUALIST: Pardon. My observation was inappropriate.

SHELLEY: Well, I certainly have no qualms admitting I find Mr. Rowe’s rival, Benedict Fletcher a charismatic and intriguing man.

ELAYNE: (frowning slightly) He certainly fawns over you at every opportunity. You need to be on your guard, Shelley. I’m not certain Mr. fletcher is all he presents himself to be.

SPIRTUALIST: I sense protective concern in that statement.

ELAYNE: Shelley is the younger sister, and somewhat still impressionable.

SHELLEY: (shifting to face her sister) And you are not, simply because…

ELAYNE:  What happened in New York has left me with a jaded outlook on life.

SHELLEY: But not Victor Rowe?

ELAYNE: (standing) I think perhaps we should go.

SPIRTUALIST: I’m sorry if you’ve soured on the discussion, Miss Orrman. You are welcome to remain for a reading.

ELAYNE: No thank you. I prefer to discover the future for myself—but if I was to consult a medium, I know just the man for the task.
​
SHELLEY: (grins broadly) Mr. Fletcher?
Elayne rolls her eyes and heads for the door.
​
Picture
BLURB:

One founding father.
One deathbed curse.
A town haunted for generations.
 
Ward Chatham, founder of Chatham Hollow, is infamous for two things—hidden treasure and a curse upon anyone bold enough to seek it. Since his passing in 1793, no one has discovered his riches, though his legend has only grown stronger.

In 1888, charlatan Benedict Fletcher holds a séance to determine the location of Chatham’s fortune. It’s all a hoax so he can search for the gold, but he doesn’t count on two things—Victor Rowe, a true spiritualist who sees through his ruse, and Chatham’s ghost wreaking havoc on the town.

More than a century later, the citizens of the Hollow gather for the annual Founder’s Day celebration. A paranormal research team intends to film a special at Chatham Manor, where the original séance will be re-enacted Reporter and skeptic Aiden Hale resents being assigned the story, but even he can’t deny the sudden outbreak of strange happenings. When he sets out to discover who or what is threatening the Hollow—supernatural or not— his investigation uncovers decades-old conflicts, bitter rivalries, and ruthless murders.

This time, solving the mystery isn’t about meeting his deadline. It’s about not ending up dead.

Thanks again for hosting me today, Gwen. It was a pleasure to drop by—along with my unnamed spiritualist and Elayne and Dorinda. (The sisters usually agree on topics, but not when it comes to Chatham Hollow’s two mediums). I invite your readers to pick up a copy of The Haunting of Chatham Hollow at the link below. Staci and I both appreciate the support and wish everyone happy reading!
​
PURCHASE LINK

Connect with Mae Clair at BOOKBUB and the following haunts:
Amazon| BookBub| Newsletter Sign-Up
Website | Blog| Twitter| Goodreads| All Social Media

Picture
Connect with Staci Troilo at the following haunts:
Website | Blog | Social Media | Newsletter
Amazon ​| BookBub ​| Goodreads
Picture
52 Comments

Thank you, Billy Ray Chitwood . . .

9/11/2022

36 Comments

 
Picture
Dear blog friends, 

Yesterday I learned that a writer friend is not doing well. I've never met Billy Ray Chitwood in person, but I think of him as a close friend because of his books and blog. Isn't that how most of us know each other?

Through our writing, we give of ourselves. We share tidbits of our life, our dreams, and our sorrows through our characters. One way or another, these fictional people come to life because of our personal journey. Sometimes we even sell a book. 

Today I honor my friend and all writers, who in silence pound away at a keyboard and create different worlds. I'm grateful for each of you. At times you have brought me to tears, other times to a dreamy world, and always to a place in time that I've not visited before.  

I invite you to enjoy some glimpses into one writer's life -- Billy Ray Chitwood.
​​
IN HIS OWN WORDS:

​Wish I could put a 'smiley face' on my life and struggles, but I must be truthful. I came into the world as a 'blue baby', born in a clapboard house up a muddy lane in a sawdust hamlet of rural Tennessee. It was the aftermath of a big depression. Poverty was everywhere, as were malaria and broken homes.

I'm rather fond of a phrase I used in my memoir: I ate a lot of emotional soup as a kid and have been trying all my life to digest it. The broken home, family, the times, the world were vague message carriers at the time. There were emotional and physical abuses by an itinerant father. There was a strong and hard-working mother who tried to keep the family together, working as a telephone operator by day, in war assembly plants at night, and as a boarding house cook. She was a wonderful mother.

Picture
HIS THOUGHTS ON WRITING:
  • Writing is my therapy. I find pieces of me on and between the lines of what I write. Writing for me is as much about finding those loose ends of my life smack in the middle of a sentence or paragraph as it is writing a polished piece of prose that readers will enjoy reading. Nothing gives me more pleasure than grabbing a word or phrase that says exactly what I want it to say. It's difficult for me to imagine good writing coming without passion.
  • As a kid I played around with words, writing silly poetry, mimicking the famous singers of the day - loved to sing. After a ten-year marriage came to an end, I played with the 'lotus eaters' for a number of years – booze, gin mills, piano bars, pretty ladies, and lonely motel rooms...wrote my maudlin poetry on bar counter napkins and motel stationery...my 'self-pity period'... In college the English Romantic poets – Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Shelley, Keats, Coleridge - appealed to my emotional hunger, as did the group known as the 'Naturalists': Emile Zola, Thomas Hardy, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Jack London, et al.
  • ​About his first book: A dear actress friend of mine was brutally murdered in Phoenix, AZ. She was twenty-six years old, a mother of two small children, and had her entire life in front of her. Her body was found in the desert six weeks after her disappearance and savage murder, ravaged by the summer heat and denizens of the desert. My first book, PROBABLE CAUSE, was published and went out of print. That book became the first 'mystery' book out of six of the 'Bailey Crane Mystery Series' (Books 1-6) – AN ARIZONA TRAGEDY – A BAILEY CRANE MYSTERY (Book 1 of 6). The book was my way to say goodbye to a lovely lady whose life was cut short by an evil predator...the killer has never been caught, so far as I know, and the case remains a 'cold case' for the Phoenix Police Department.
​~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~
Have a wonderful week, dear blog friends... 
​❤️
36 Comments

At the river's edge...

9/6/2022

34 Comments

 
Picture
Hello blog friends!

It's time for another poem. Colleen Chesebro posted the rainbow picture at the right and asked each participant to choose a color and feature it in a syllabic poem.

In my area of the United States, the season is beginning to shift. I've chosen to write a Tanka poem focused on that movement -- at the river's edge.

How about your area? Are you beginning to see the approach of Autumn?

Picture
Have a wonderful week, hopefully with abundant sightings of rainbows. ❤️
34 Comments
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    For blog updates, please subscribe below. 
    * indicates required

    RSS Feed


    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    June 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. ―Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning


Plano Enterprises, LLC
Photos used under Creative Commons from Kevin M. Gill, Joel Bedford, qthomasbower, crosescribe, Juho Holmi, diana_robinson, W Presley & B Kunce Photography......WI. USA, U.S. Geological Survey, Ian Sane, florianric, NikoMC, van Van Es, Yen Chao 趙彥, MissMessie, Yuriy Kuzin, Ben Zvan, Bichuas (E. Carton), Nina Matthews Photography, hehaden, alexdecarvalho, Tim RT, Kurdistan Photo كوردستان, Candida.Performa, peddhapati (Thanks for 1M Views!!!), Jhong Dizon | Photography, Waheed Akhtar Photography, lawmurray, USFWS Pacific, JalilArfaoui, SurFeRGiRL30, Lauren Finkel Photography, maf04, SantaRosa OLD SKOOL, Dakiny, vauvau, Zanastardust, Monica's Dad, timpeartrice, marumeganechan, Rafael Acorsi, seyed mostafa zamani, Jorge Franganillo, Irene Grassi (sun sand & sea), The National Guard, D.Fletcher, nada abdalla, Ted LaBar, alison.mckellar, Infomastern, Elvert Barnes, m01229, theglobalpanorama