What a trip!

The Heartland Flier left the Oklahoma City train stations Thursday, November 18 at 8:22 headed south. The leg to Ft. Worth wasn't a bad trip, not bad at all.

Then I had over two hours to spend at the station in Ft. Worth, waiting for the Texas Eagle bound for San Antonio and stops before. My stop would be Taylor, Texas, just a bit north of Austin but closer to where Randy, Janelle, and the boys live. That part of the trip took forever. We were over an hour late because we would move along and then slow to maybe 20 or 25 miles per hour. We would stop in the middle of nowhere for a rest (I'm assuming since I never saw anything to stop us). I was soooo tired, and my back screamed in agony by the time my feet were on solid ground again, but all that was worth seeing Janelle waiting for me.


Hugs from Randy and all the boys (Ryan, Colby, Shane) waited at their house. Randy was cooking with some help from his sons.


Ryan kindly gave up his bed for me (oh, such a comfortable bed), and his brother Colby gave his room to Ryan. Colby took the sofa. Everyone had a place to sleep, and I did.


A side note: Austin is unbelievably difficult to travel. However, that's another story.


Friday, everyone but Shane left for school. The team wouldn't be released until late since the coaches kept them occupied with food and a movie. During the afternoon, Shane and I visited. He wasn't well, but I'm glad we had our time together. That night, Colby came to visit me after everyone had adjourned for bed. I had a chance to spend one on one time with him, too. With everything going on, and his back giving him fits, Ryan and I didn't get to visit much.

Now to the important event: the football game. The game was set on a neutral field, McGreagor High School, about half way back to Ft. Worth. The opposing team was from Dallas.

Ryan, number 51, played center on offense and defensive tackle, unless his back caused him to take a break. Above he, with the team, prepare to fun through the banner before the game began.


Hyde Park scored first, shocked the other team (so arrogant they thought they had the game won by showing up). For nearly two quarters, HP Panthers stopped the Parish Panthers. Then some dirty playing began. I'm proud of the team Randy helps coach did not return the deliberate battering they received. I also watched some of the most unsportsmanlike conduct by a coach I remember ever seeing. The Parish coach would walk out on the field without calling a timeout. He did the same thing many times with no consequences, action that should be a penalty, action that the officials never penalized until the last 3 seconds of the game.


But, back to the game.

The wind was horrible and the sun in our faces. Taking pictures was difficult, but I did get a few good ones. The photo above is the kickoff.

Ryan prepares to hike the ball. This shot is from a distance. The one below closer.

Colby's injury sidelined him all season, and will keep him from playing any sport this school year. However, he kept up with the action from the sideline.

Ryan, when playing on the defensive side of the ball, made some good plays. One time he tackled the Parish ball carrier and knocked the ball loose, resulting in Hyde Park recovering the fumble. He also took a "beating" many times.

The shot above is blurry, but 75 had a hand on Ryan's face mask.


Hyde Park played hard three quarters, but the one where they didn't, Parish drew ahead. Hyde Park fought back, but the final score was Parish 21 and Hyde Park 12.


Of course in the playoffs, the loser goes home, and the winner goes on. However, I got to watch Ryan play his last high school football game.

I hated to leave Monday morning, and apparently the train didn't want to either. It was 45 minutes behind schedule when we left Taylor going north. We arrived in Ft. Worth about an hour and a half late. Thankfully, I had a three hour layover that was shortened.


Once on the train to Oklahoma City, we sped along. The Heartland Flier pulled into the OKC station nearly fifteen minutes early. No one complained. I entered my house about 10:30 last night after an enjoyable trip, but glad to be home.

Going to Tahlequah -- Author Fest

The Eastern Oklahoma Author Fest is this weekend, October 30, at Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Going with Jacque and me will be many titles published by 4RV Publishing.

Whew, at least 42 titles have been released and more on the way. Therefore, I'm having to limit how many copies I lug with me. Yep, lots of hard work boxing the books, loading them in the van, unloading them at the festival, setting up the display (we have 2 tables this time) and unloading the boxes, and hoping people will buy books. At the end of the day, we have to rebox the books, clean up the display, load the van, and drive home. At home all the boxes go in the house, and the books, back in place.

This festival, 4RV has two new releases that will debut: Little Charley Thornpaws by Caelaach McKinna and illustrated by Ginger Nielson; and Glastonbury by Brian Porter

I'm also, selfishly, taking all my books released so far. Also titles from authors and/or illustrators who have been promoting their books, or helping us promote them, will go with us.

This will be our last festival this year. The next one scheduled is the North Texas Book Festival in Denton, Texas April 14 & 15. We'll have something like five tables there and several authors who will join us. More will be posted about that one later.

If anyone will be anywhere near north east Oklahoma Saturday, please join us at the Tahlequah Community Building, 300 W. 1st Street. I believe the event is open to the public from about 9 AM until something like 4 PM.

Come join us.

Eastern Oklahoma AuthorFest

The Tahlequah Daily Press didn't give but a small article on page 7 two days before the Eastern Oklahoma AuthorFest, but they had a long one on Monday after, starting on the front page.

The article is too long to copy here, but I will repeat some of it since my name appears quite often.

Celebrating the pen

By BETTY RIDGE
Press Special Writer
August 10, 2009 10:12 am

From Tailholt to Tahlequah and beyond, northeastern has produced a bounty of stories, and an abundance of authors with the talent to tell them.

Nearly 30 of these authors gathered Saturday at the Cherokee County Community, bringing books and stories to share. Local residents turned out to meet and visit with the authors, get copies of their books autographed, and perhaps, step a bit closer to their own dreams of becoming a member of the pantheon of published writers.

Marsha Coles of Cherokee County, who has written several books, came up with the idea for the first AuthorFest, which she hopes will become an annual event.

“A fellow author and I wanted to do a double book-signing. I thought, ‘We’re going to do a double signing, why not a triple,’ and then it grew,” she said.

One of her works is a history of the Tailholt community, so a natural question is, how did Tailholt get its name? Coles offers two answers.

“At the store, when it was called Caney Store, they had a little postcard of a little general store that said ‘Tailholt Store.’ Another was that someone had a mule or donkey by the tail,” Coles said.

Among her titles are “The Mystery of Coldstone Manor,” a regency romance mystery, and “Texas Justice,” a romance set south of the Red River. Her “Poetry and Rhythm” collection has a photo of the recently-demolished Caney Bridge on its cover.

Beginning at 10 a.m., authors read from their books and discussed their art.

Vivian Zabel of 4RV Publishing in Edmond brought five of her works, along with other books for young people. She emphasized the importance of thorough editing before submitting a book for publication.

“I don’t mean just editing for grammatical errors, I mean editing to find whether or not it’s well-written,” said Zabel, who retired with 30 years of experience as an English teacher.

She read passages from her books “Prairie Dog Cowboy,” based on her husband’s youthful experiences, and from “Midnight Hours,” a mystery about a detective who uses a scooter to get around. Both depicted suspenseful confrontations.

“Could you see that happening?” she said. “That’s the idea of a good book for the reader, to see it literally as it happens. It’s important when you’re writing action scenes for your sentences to be short, choppy. When it was reading, I kept reading faster and my tongue got tied.” (She had just read a scene in which the main character narrowly escaped death at the hands of an attacker.)

Then later in the article:

Another spectator at AuthorFest is a few years away from reading and isn’t especially verbal with strangers, but he appeared to agree. Jacob Brandon, 2, clutched a $5 bill and pointed at a book on the 4RV table, “Trockle.” The cover depicts a small creature under a bed, and a young girl covered up atop the bed. The back view shows the same characters, from the back. Zabel explained: “This is a story about the little monster under the bed who’s afraid of the big monster on top of the bed.”
And the feeling’s mutual.

Jacob went off with what possibly was his first purchase, and what definitely was his Saturday night bedtime story. The adults with him hope he’ll learn there aren’t really any scary monsters lurking under the bed.

And Zabel’s face beamed with the joy of seeing a youngster learn to love books.

“I want to see this AuthorFest go so they can have it yearly,” she said. “There just aren’t enough opportunities for people to meet authors and for authors to meet the public.”



.