Camping Trip: Double Rainbows, Blurb for Mystery, Deadly Undertaking, This Week

Amazing rainbow sighted while camping this week.

Hello from J.Q. Rose. Our family just returned from a camping trip where we were blessed to see a double rainbow after two small showers. A rainbow is pretty exciting, but a double one is amazing. In all my years I don't remember seeing a double rainbow, let alone two in one afternoon! Last night my daughter told me she saw another one after a shower here after we had returned home. What can it mean? Are the leprechauns playing tricks on us? The pot(s) of gold must be somewhere!!

Update on my mystery novel, Deadly Undertaking

I thought it would be easy to get back to writing after returning from a fun break with the kids and grandkids, but it's hard to get settled in and back to work. 

I penned a blurb for the book to get me back into the story and I thought I'd share it with you today. 

A blurb is the information that will get a reader's attention. If it's catchy enough, intriguing, and well-written, the blurb can be a wonderful salesman for your writing. If not, well...you know. Hopefully this one will not make you snooze. Please feel free to offer suggestions for improvement in the comments below. Or if you like it, let me know that too!!! Thank you.

Back of the Book for Deadly Undertaking:

Lauren Staab knew there would be dead bodies around when she returned home. After all, her family is in the funeral business, the Staab and Bloode Funeral Home. Still, finding an extra body on the floor of the garage between the hearse and the flower car shocked her. Lauren’s plan to return to her hometown to help care for her mother with Alzheimer’s disease and to keep the books for the funeral home suddenly turns upside down in a struggle to prove she and her family are not guilty of murdering the man. But will the real killer return to kill her, her dad, her brother? More complications arise when her childhood schoolmate, Gary, now the policeman investigating the murder, awakens feelings of love she never imagined she'd ever experience again. Their new relationship makes her heart thud and her insides mushy. Add to that a pesky shadow man, Henry, who interferes in her life. Could she actually take love advice from a shadow man? Her mother’s illness, a killer, a handsome policeman, and a shadow man muddle up her intention to have a simple life. Welcome home, Lauren!

This Week:

IWSG Support Group Blog Hop on Wednesday

The first Wednesday of the month, August 5, means another Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG) blog hop. That Wednesday truly is hoppin’ every month with blog posts that light up the writing community with support, advice, and just plain fun. Check out all the posts on Wednesday. Each blogger has a link to the over 200 participants and counting. You can join in too. Here’s the skinny on IWSG. Be sure to also take a peek at the IWSG website for lots of resources for writers.

Hope to see you back on Wednesday when I share my insecurity in a video to discuss my insecurity, Making Videos!

Travel the World from Your Desk Chair

Thursday, August 6--This Thursday I asked my guest blogger, Marsha R. West if she could come at another time to share her wonderful trip to New Mexico because I am scheduled to have eye surgery to remove a cataract. I don't schedule a guest blogger when I am not around. I've never had this procedure done, so I don't know what shape I'll be in or if I'll even be allowed to read a computer screen for awhile. After talking with many folks who have had it done, I've learned it is almost as routine as having a cavity in your tooth filled at the dentist. Fingers crossed they are right!

Marsha will be share her trip on September 3. The Travelogue will resume on August 13.

Finishing off the summer Travelogue series are guest authors and their guest blog dates.

August 13	Joselyn Vaughn
20	Stan Hampton
27	Eric Price
Sept.
3	Marsha West

August 13

 Joselyn Vaughn

20

 Stan Hampton

27

 Eric Price

Sept.         

             3

Marsha West

Thank you to all my summer Travelogue authors.

Camping Plans, Your Mobile Friendly Website

Our daughter and family's camper..New last year.

Hey there! The weather s warming up and I'm getting the camping bug. We got our camper (fifth wheel) out of storage last week. Now to find a Michigan State Park campground with availability! Yes, the campgrounds fill up quickly. So take this as a reminder, if you are planning a camping trip, get your reservations in now to be sure you'll have a site!

IS YOUR SITE MOBILE READY?

Mobile devices are the most popular way to access the Internet
Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.com by adamr

Have you heard all the buzz about making sure your website is mobile ready? Do you realize almost 80% of visits on the Internet are made from a mobile device? 

To avoid having your visitors deal with the text being too small, the links too tiny, and scrolling sideways to see all the content, you need to optimize your site for viewing on a mobile phone.You can check if your site is mobile responsive with a mobile friendly test from Google on their webmaster tools page. Just copy the URL of the site you wish to check into the box on the page, and you will receive an answer immediately.

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Hope you're having a marvelous start to the beginning of this week. My DH and I are installing a laminate floor in our kitchen--together. He gave me some time off so I am writing this blog post on the fly. Can't wait to see the floor all done, but getting there may cause a few aches and pains. I'm sure it will be so worth it.

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Enjoy the springy weather!! J.Q.

Connect with J.Q. Rose online at

J.Q. Rose blog http://www.jqrose.com/

Girls Succeed blog http://girlssucceed.blogspot.com/

Facebook http://facebook.com/jqroseauthor

Google+ google.com/+JQRose

J. Q.  Rose Amazon Author Page http://tinyurl.com/aeuv4m4

Goodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/jqrose

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/janetglaser/

Mackinac Island Michigan Travelogue

Welcome to the J.Q. Rose blog travelogue today! Come and sail away with me to the majestic Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, one of the five Great Lakes. (Can you name all five lakes?) 

Our entire family spent a few days in upper Michigan. We camped at the Tee Pee Campground in Mackinaw City, Michigan. (I loved the name of the bath house--WeeWee TeePee) Weather was perfect, but then again, I have visited Mackinac Island several times and the weather has always been perfect.

You probably noticed the two spellings of the city and the island are different, but both are pronounced Mackin AW--the ac is a French spelling as I understand it.

 We boarded the ferry filled with tourists to cross the Straits to the island in about thirteen minutes on the catamaran beauty. We took the early morning Star Line cruise because they make a detour to sail visitors under the Mackinac bridge, a five mile bridge connecting the lower peninsula of Michigan to the upper peninsula.

 The  bridge was constructed in 1954 and completed in 1957. It has certainly changed the economics of the area for the good.

The underside of the bridge is a work of art as well as of engineering.  How strong this must be to hold all the traffic going along it. On windy days, the bridge will close to traffic. I'm glad we camped on the south side so we didn't have to drive our camper across this monstrosity.

You can see the Grand Hotel, a famous landmark from the ferry. If you saw the movie, Somewhere in Time, you saw the Grand Hotel. It was filmed here with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour as the main characters. So romantic.

Arch rock is another famous landmark about a mile's ride from the commercial area. Oh yes, I forgot to mention there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island (except emergency vehicles like a fire truck.) So we rode our bikes around the eight mile perimeter of the lovely island. Enjoyed taking our time to see amazing views of water and skies and wild flowers.

These draft horses are huge! They have to be strong to haul 24 passengers in their specially built Jayco carriages (drays?) Yes, Jayco is a well-known name in the camper industry. When you set foot on the island, there is no gasoline smell from motorized vehicles, but a distinct odor of horses. 

The front entrance to the Grand Hotel.  I wish we had more time to take in the hotel, but with young boys and a five year old granddaughter, it's probably best not to get too close to the elegant surroundings.

I wish my photos could do justice to the landscapes and sea surrounding the island. Breathtaking. We are standing in the old fort looking out over Father Marquette park. 

Hope you enjoyed the tour. If you ever get a chance to go to Mackinac Island, do it! And take me with you to my most favorite place on earth.

What is your favorite place to visit? 

Camping Trip to Mackinac Island, This Week

Hi Readers,

At this writing I am anticipating our camping trip to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island. Watch this video to find out about one of my most favorite places on earth!

Come back on Thursday for the fifth and final post on How to Begin Recording Your Life Story. Oh, yes, I'll be here! See you then!

When Your Writing Plans Go Awry, Doughboys and Camping

Hi Writers and Readers,

Glad you stopped in today. I'm a bit late in posting. In fact most of my writing plans are going awry. I gave myself a deadline to finish my WIP, but that deadline has passed and so has another, and now I am looking in the face of a failed deadline yet again.

I am working on a mystery/romance/paranormal. (Do you think that's enough genres for one book??? LOL) I don't even have a title for it and I am on Chapter 31. No name has even begun to swirl in my head, but then, I don't usually title my stories or books till I'm done writing THE END on the last page.

I really really wanted to give you a hint of the story, even the first scene, but as I write, I see I have to make some changes to the beginning chapters. Heck, I'm going to have to add and take away quite a few places in this book. It's one of the most complicated stories I have ever written. Too complex can be a bad thing. Readers don't want to have to stop and sort out every piece in the plot or make notes to read the tale! (I know this because I am a reader too.)

The Reason Why My Writing Went Awry

 This past weekend I had huge plans of writing while we were on a camping trip with the family. There is no WiFi in the Muskegon State Park, Muskegon, Michigan, so I knew I wouldn't have emails and Facebook and reading blogs to distract me. However, I didn't anticipate having such a good time with the gang. Yes, I am blaming my lack of progress on my WIP on the fishing, the delicious cookouts over the campfire, and great conversations. Plus it doesn't get dark until after 10:00 pm EDT in this area, so we were out and about late. 

I didn't even open my laptop or take out my notebook while camping. Do I feel guilty? Not at all!! My characters Lauren, Gary, Chip, and Randy will just have to wait for me. I'm feeling the sand between my toes, the warm sunshine, the sweet hugs and kisses from my grandkids instead.

Take a Peek at my Weekend

We enjoyed S'mores and Doughboys over this campfire
as well as burgers, hot dogs, and chicken.

Doughboys are dough of crescent rolls wrapped around the end of a large dowel rod. It takes patience to "bake" it over a campfire, but oh so yummy when filled with pie filling, apple butter, or pizza toppings.

Kids are ready to go fishin' in the channel
that connects Muskegon Lake to Lake Michigan.

We found out there weren't many fish in the channel. :-(
 Ethan was lucky to catch a 15 inch rock bass.

What a gorgeous day for a boat ride. No, not our boats.

All shapes and sizes of boats use the channel to reach the big lake.

This is our home sweet home when camping.

 Hope you had a delightful weekend. Now tell me, if you are a writer, when do you have a title for your stories? If you are a camper, share one of your camping experiences with us. Please leave a comment below.

Camping Trip to Shipshewana, Indiana and What's Coming UP

Beautiful flower-filled wagon at the Essen Haus shops in Middlebury, IN

Happy Monday Morning! What a delight to finally have some relief from the HOT weather. Talk about hot. We were in Shipshewana, Indiana last week camping in the campground next to the enormous flea market there. Yes, the campground is just an alley way away from this 900 booth monstrosity of a market. Makes it convenient to take a break from the crowd and shopping and enjoy all those delicious bakery goods at our camper with a cup of fresh-brewed coffee.

It was truly too hot to stay at the flea market which is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays every week from May until mid October. We were there right at 8 a.m. and left at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday...too hot to stay any longer. Also a shortened visit on Wednesday morning. We came back at 9:15 a.m. Evidently the vendors were too hot on Tuesday so most of them weren't even open on Wednesday.

I thought I would share a few of the photos from the summer trip. This area in Indiana is famous for its Amish influence from farms to food to hand-crafted items. We enjoy just driving through the country and seeing the Amish farmsteads, the folks and the precious children dressed in their Amish attire, and the old-fashioned ways of farming with horses and wagons and old machinery. 

If you are into quilting, you need to experience ALL the quilt shops in the area. Fantastic works of art for you to purchase as well as a variety of fabrics to make your own keepsake pieces.

 Yoder is an Amish name and there are a LOT of Yoder stores. We especially enjoy shopping at the hardware and clothing store located in the Yoder Department Store in downtown Shipshewana. (The Air Conditioning in the store was a big draw too!)

 I wish I could drive you through the rich farmland, but these pictures will have to suffice until you can go yourself.

I get a kick out of seeing the children.

This horse and buggy are passing a phone booth. Yes, the little white structure houses a telephone shared by the neighbors. The Amish church does not believe in being connected to the outside world (hence, no electricity from the power company) so phones are not allowed in homes. Residents told me the young people are now carrying cell phones.

Traveling through the area, we had to be careful of buggy traffic.
See the cute kids looking at us from the back of their vehicle?

Wheatfield put up in shocks.

It was interesting to watch the farmers rake their hay fields with the horse pulling the rake
and to see the shocks of wheat put up this way. 

We had a good time in Indiana. We visited with friends who live in the area and ate too many bakery goods, ice cream, cheese, and bread. If you want to escape into the past, go to Shipshewana!

We were grateful for our air-conditioned truck and camper as we traversed the roads between Michigan and Indiana. Can you imagine driving across the entire United States in 1909 in the hot summer time with no air, no radio, no fast food, and only 152 miles of paved road in the 3800 mile trip? Alice Ramsey was the first woman to do it. Read about her summer road trip on the Girls Succeed blog.

Join us on Thursday when Author Stuart West shares his passion for Bad Movies. That should be interesting!! Yee-haw!!