Doree Anderson

Isn't this pretty. No, it doesn't lean like the Tower of Pisa. The photographer is tilted. Always has been a little to the right :). This is the season for bright colors, carolers, cards, and Christmas Trees. It is also the reason to review what you've done. Who you've helped and maybe those you've hurt who need to be remembered and reassured that you are sorry. I like to put up the decorations. I do not care for the holiday. I have very little memories from Christmas' past except those that involve my daughter, and now my grandchildren. To me, it tends to be a let down and depression sneaks up and I spend the week between Christmas and New Years doing what oodles of other people are doing...mental evaluations. Is That All There Is? This year-I've put a kibosh on Christmas music. I started hearing it before Halloween even had a chance to be thought about, let alone celebrated. Isn't that sad. So, the 'season's songs' are nada at the A

It's day four- after Thanksgiving and I open the door to the refrigerator. What shall we eat. Seriously? Turkey...again. Please...give me food. A nice juicy hamburger. Throw some cheese on that. A fattening order of fries, no more mashed potatoes or yams for another month, I pray. And the pie, oh my. I'll be pulling out the next waist size, I cry. But over it is and another month of NANO is coming to an end. Yeah...I proud to claim, I've accomplished my goal and I've won. Again. December is the month to repair the 'editor in the closet' novellas that I wrote in November. December is the month that I get to wonder just what the heck I was thinking. And who is this character...where did he come from? Why in the world would she do that? And again, I must repeat my all time favorite...What in the world was I thinking about when I wrote that? Welcome Christmas, colors of bright red and greens lights, the snow (we hope) that covers the yards, and the bright deco

Scott and I had been thinking about replacing our French doors from the dinning room to the deck. The outside of the door was looking pretty hammered. I shopped around (Yikes) and finally we decided to go with Pella Windows and Doors. The representative came out and measured the door, we went through pretty pictures and decided to go with a Basic Door and Storm Door. I really wanted to be able to open my door  and still keep the flies, wasps, bees, and other obnoxious pests out. We ordered it, and promptly fell over with shock. Holly Tomorrow, it was very expensive. When I say expensive, I mean kiss a few thousand dollars  adios .  It didn't help that the door we  had was  odd sized and a contractor would need to redo the wall around the door. Charming, yes? Well...at least I got new paneling on the back of the house. I had 'accidentally' melted ours when I moved the barbecue closer to the house. Hey, I know better now. Will it ever happen again? Lets go with...hope not!

You arrive at work, you park your car. Beside your desk, no worries at all. Then, because of an enemy, your life comes to an end, now every 9/11...we'll remember you again. American Airlines flight 11 hit the North Tower of the Worlds Trade Center United Airlines flight 175 hit the South Tower of the Worlds Trade Center American Airlines flight 77 hits the Pentagon United Airlines flight 93 was brought down by American passengers fight against the al-Qaeda terrorist militants that tried to hijack their plane on route to the US Capital. In a few short hours, nearly 3000 innocent citizens of the US died because of al-Qaeda. And now our boys are dying in the War On Terrorism - You Can Run, But You Can't Hide as America shows her pride.  

I've been learning all sorts of things that I did not realize I didn't know lately. Mouthful, qui? Qui. And, isn't it a blessing that I have a grandchild that sees fit to teach me? Sir Teagolicious and I went shopping the other day. What an experience. It is a blessing that he was there. I once believed I could shop, Silly Grandma. My minuscule knowledge was laughable. Now I know... 1st Item: If you don need a lot of stuff, you should use a basket. The carts are for lots of stuff. 2nd, Don't get in the way of the cart. They really hurt the back of your feet. Nodin cried for a long time when Callum run over him. 3rd, You have to check every egg, Grandma. Cause if one's broke, it's no good. and 4th, If you have too much stuff, don't go to this man, he gets real mad and gives you bad looks. Dad does it sometimes and mom yells at him. I'm constantly amazed at the amount of information my grandkids teach me. How I ever thought I could get through m

Isn't it pretty. It's fire- exploding - In the air. 25, 50 feet above your head. And, as we've been taught, what goes up, will come down, in a rain of...fire. And what does fire do? Burn. Interesting. The Higher Ups in Utah, have extended our laws regarding the shooting off of fireworks. Instead of only permitting the discharge of fireworks 3 days before and 3 days after the Summer Holidays (July 4th and July 24th) we have extended those dates to June 26 through July 26th because those 7 days in a row of consent concern for aggressive and long burning fires to break out due to fireworks isn't heart squeezing enough. We want 30 days during the hottest and driest days on the desert to stir up the making of mountain and valley fires. Yes, when you add fire to dry desert tundra, it burns. Go figure. Heaven forbid should we wait until the Fourth of July to evacuate families from their homes because the hills are alive with burning sage brush. No, lets do it at the end

A little early for Thanksgiving, but yesterday, the Mohacs stopped by for dinner. Not all were happy. (Ya think!)

I think that it should be said that there are certain things that make a 'father' and making a child isn't one of them. That being said; let me say; Happy Father's Day to: The father who holds his child's hand as they walk across the street. The father who sits for hours at a time and watches the child on the play ground, each and every time that his son/daughter shouts out, "watch me, daddy," and he does with a gentle, caring smile on his face. The father who rocks his sniffling child and assures him/her that the pain will go away. The father that hugs his son/daughter and promises he'll keep them safe, no matter what. The father that carries his son/daughter across the puddle of water or through the mud. The queasy father who holds his son/daughter as the doctor stitches up the wound. The athletic father who pushes his son/daughter's wheelchair across the field, proudly. The father who carries his son on his shoulders, hold his daughter&

This is what a visit with my grandson Callum looks like... That's right, real conversationalist. I picked him up from his house because, and here's the selling point, he would love to visit with his grandparents over the weekend. He says he enjoys doing stuff with us. What a little tease. He gets in the car and immediately changes my radio stations. According to him, mine are lame. I will admit to enjoying the Gold-n oldies every now and then. Elvis has been gone so long that this child's mother was born the year the gyrating pelvis was laid to rest. He thinks my music is long gone and over with. Really? Well...FYI - I've seen more movement in "The one foot in the grave" Keith Richard and Mick Jagger, than I have in this child at times. We then proceed to discuss the problems with the world. ie, a specific u-tube commercial that is the greatest. "You have to see this, grandma. It is brilliant." I suffer as a cat head with a pop tart body an

Boogerbutt, scrud, and dag-na-bit. Those are words, right? Yet, they lighten right up with 'spell check.' Even shows up with one of those, vicious little pointer fingers going back and forth...no, no, no. But when I type in the most horrendous, nastiest, scum at the bottom of the pond, word in the world, query - nothing. No lights, not bright red lines, nothing. Good to Go, wouldn't you know?  But, in my heart, that diminutive word causes pauses in my pumper. Terror in my ticker. Why am I whining about it? Cause I have to write one. Yep, I forgot all about slapping one of those puppies together for good'old Ante Up. And now, I have to. Yet, nowhere in this house is there a crash cart available. My nucleus is critical and there isn't a flippin' thing I can do about it. Well...except write one. At critique today, Krissee wears this sweet little smile and says "GMC, Doree.  GMC." So, I think okay... I'll get my crowbar. No? Okay, Gobble more cho

Our fourth grandchild is four today? This sweet little redhead is anything but docile. He can wrestle with the best of them and almost always wins. Of course, being the fourth means that if he cries, others are in a bucket load of trouble. "don't mess with the baby" is his title words. Unfortunately - this darling little man has a heart-stopping addiction: fruit snacks. This child begins his daily whine for them promptly upon waking and continues until his eyes are closed at night. It's quite the heroin fix for this action-filled, constant in motion cu-tie who celebrates his fourth big boy birthday today.  Happy Birthday, Nodin.  

When will I join the world and learn?  Right after you've lost not 100, 200 or even 1,000 words. But, after a whole chapter has been lost, gone bye bye, is now floating out into the wide world of never to be seen again land. While I was visiting with my sister, I decided to spend a few precious hours writing the next chapter to my YA. After I was done I decided to copy it and paste it into a composed e-mail that I sent to myself. (No, I did not save it. Why? Because I was being so smart and using the brain I was sitting on.) The next morning, I was locked out of my e-mail account because it was hacked. So, what becomes of the e-mail I sent to myself? Good question. I should have taken the time to send it to my drop-box and then back it up on a flash drive. But, I didn't. (Why? because that would have been the non-butt thinking thing to do). So, I have finally learned my lesson. And what is that? That it is hard to remember the words that you wrote in the chapter yeste

OMG, IMHO, I wish that we could speak in the old fashion, everyone knows what the #@%^& you are talking about, English language. I am old, therefore, I have been taught how to spell out, add vowels and pronounced everyone letter as I read. This new age of get your point across in five lets or less is wigged out. Yes, that's right, I said wigged out. It's like taking a head sweating, nauseating test every time I try and decipher it. Acronyms are hard enough. Let's evaluate what I mean. NCIS: Navel Criminal Investigation Services or No, Can't. Infant sleeping.  CSI: Crime Scene Investigations or  Career Suicide Idiot, FLA, Family Leave Act or Four Letter Acronym, FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigations or F***ing Brilliant Idea. FNG Federal Networking Group or Freaking Nice Guy, and IMHO: International Medical Health Organization or In My Humble Opinion. The list goes on and on and on and.... You get the idea. When I receive a text, I almost need some sort of a

The Grammar Divas graciously treated us to a 'Grammar' workshop on the 5th of February. The all day workshop at the SLC Library was awesome. And not just enjoyed by URWA members, we had several writers from the Utah League of Writers join us as well. Yeah! The audience questions seemed to be about what the editor wanted and what the writer wrote. Do you follow each 'suggestion' because the editor said to, or do you 'the writer' get to decide. Its our voice, right? This is our story and we should be able to write it our way. Sometimes it is a Grammar problem that needs fixed and sometimes it is simply the editors preference. So, as a writer, we need to weigh our options. If it fixes the line or paragraph, then you take it and say, 'whew, thanks, sounds a bucket load better.' But, if it changes the 'author's voice' then the author has to decide. There are so many ways to repair a sentence that doesn't touch the voice at all. And

Does anyone ever say to you, "Huh? I don't get it? Maybe you see confusion printed across their faces as well!   I hear you, I just don't get it. I've read it, but....   Kids love to have their parents read to them. Why, because they might use different voices for all the characters, even act out a incident or two. This way, children could comprehend what the writer was saying. As a writer, we should make it self-explanatory. I'm an adult, I don't want my kid to have to tell me what I just read. So...Plotting your story becomes essential to your audience. Each event should show progression. Like in Science class, if you do this, this follows. If I read this happening, then.... MaryAnne shivered as her toe made initial contact with the icy water. Each step was excruciating but she would make it. The last thing she wanted Lane to think was that she was a wimp. The idea of a hot shower weaved in and out of her thoughts. Standing below the pulsing spr

Does your character have Character? When you read a story, do you walk away with the feeling that you know the character? Is she the little girl next door, or the high school Cheerleader that you envy? I finished reading a book yesterday (YA, As You Wish) and came away from it remembering a friend of mine from when I lived in Missouri as a Junior High Student. It was such a great feeling to take a walk though my memories. I applaud the author. She did what I, as a writer, strive for; that character that you can relate to or remember. My grandson (pictured here in his grandfathers glasses and baseball cap) is a little character. His teachers tell his mother that this little four year-old is cute. He always has a funny story or says something funny that makes his teachers laugh. He gives them a reason to 'remember him.' Your characters should do the same. From the DunMiller's Mansion series, I introduce a teen (fifteen) that has been pulled away from her childhood fri