Tag: women

Review: Future Imperfect

Posted in Books

This review was written by Paul Dellinger, Yellow30SciFiReview, in 2010, right after Future Imperfect came out. It appears on Amazon as a 5-star review and I thank the writer for posting his thoughts. Reviews are important to writers and greatly appreciated, even when they’re not what we want to hear. Please buy, read and review my books, which may be found at amazon.com, or by contacting me directly at sharon@oneroofpublish.com.

Future ImperfectThe planet has been devastated by something called the Plague War. The ozone layer is failing. Life as we know it is threatened.

And then things get worse.

In F. S. (Sharon) Vander Meer’s science-fiction novel, Future Imperfect, the title is a perfect description of the setting. A scientist has developed a fast-growing type of tree to multiply and put out enough oxygen for an environmental fix. Unfortunately, the trees prove to have a side effect: vines that produce toxic effects on human beings, every bit as awful as the Plague War. The result is that those who have escaped the disease isolate themselves underground, while top-siders must deal with barbaric and diseased conditions.

And then we meet Hannah.

Hannah Evans does not even remember her own name, when she awakes as a naked prisoner in an unknown place. But she begins to recall bits and pieces of her life, despite a tiny implant by her captor which strikes her down with massive headaches when she tries to mentally reconstruct any part of her life. It is easy for the reader to come to admire Hannah, who starts out basically at zero and overcomes one bad situation after another by sheer personal character and resolve. She won’t give up. And we don’t want her to.

Gradually, we learn that she was taken from topside at some point and made a prisoner of an isolationist scientist. The more she remembers, the less she trusts anyone — even one of the underground military commanders to whom she feels an attraction. She does achieve more freedom in the underground civilization, and several times becomes a pivotal figure in the political intrigues going on around her. People tend to underestimate her, but soon come to respect her courage and quick thinking.

Each chapter opens with a Bible verse which proves applicable to what happens in that part of the story. The ending reveals what is behind all the mysteries, but does not wrap up everything in one neat package. Perhaps that means a sequel, but enough is resolved to make this work as a stand-alone novel as well. F. S. Vander Meer has created a realistic future world and peopled it with interesting characters, especially Hannah. This book will appeal not only to science-fiction readers but to anyone concerned about just how imperfect our future may turn out to be. – Paul Dellinger

About author Sharon (F.S.) Vander Meer: Sharon has spent much of her career as a freelance writer, reporter and editor. She has been a storyteller since childhood and finds inspiration in everyday life. In addition to her latest novel, Blind Curve, she has written three other novels: Finding Family, Future Imperfect and the Ballad of Bawdy McClure. She has also written a book of inspirational readings, Not Just Another Day and two chap books of poetry. Her books are available at amazon.com or by contacting her directly at sharon@oneroofpublish.com. She lives in northern New Mexico with her husband Bob.

Scholarships for women through P.E.O.

Posted in Books

Jumping for joy

P.E.O. Chapter H Cottey College chair, Ruth Mares, announced recently that the school, located in Nevada, Mo., has risen in the 2018 U.S. News and World Report ranking of Best Regional Colleges. “We were notified the school we support ranked seventh, up from twenty-third last year. The school also ranked second for best value and third for proportion of international students,” Mares said.

“Not many people know about Cottey. It’s a small women’s college founded by our organization in 1884. The school’s 2017 enrollment was 288. One of those students was Christina Litherland who graduated last spring with a degree in English with an Emphasis in Women Writers and two minors: Writing Studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is now attending New Mexico Highlands University for her master’s degree in English with an Emphasis in Linguistics, Literacy, and Composition.

P.E.O., a philanthropic educational organization founded in 1869, has two local chapters, which contribute to Cottey, and to funding projects for women at the national and state level.

“Both local P.E.O. chapters have sponsored women for scholarships through the years, and been able to collectively award thousands of dollars to qualifying recipients. Our goal this year is to promote the projects more actively so more women may take advantage of the opportunity this funding affords,” Mares said.

Recipients of scholarships are not required to attend Cottey. “They may attend any school of their choice. Scholarships are competitive and awarded based on criteria outlined on the international and state websites,” Mares said. “Each year we contact counselors at the high schools to keep them informed about what is available. This year we plan to contact financial aid offices at Highlands and Luna Community College as we have scholarships available for nontraditional and international students as well.”

P.E.O. has provided more than $304 million in financial assistance to more than 102,000 recipients through the Educational Loan Fund, International Peace Scholarship, Program for Continuing Education, Scholar Award and STAR projects.

For more information about P.E.O. scholarships go to www.nmpeo.org. Locally contact Chapter H at fsharon@msn.com, or Chapter AC at rayjoyl1957@gmail.com.
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Image: P.E.O. website

Are We There Yet?

Posted in Books2 Comments

Mona Peralta ConkleRecognition of women’s contributions to the past and the present began in 1978 as Women’s History Week in Sonoma County, Calif. The week including March 8, International Women’s Day, was selected. In 1981, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) co-sponsored a joint Congressional resolution proclaiming a national Women’s History Week. In 1987, Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and March was declared Women’s History Month. After more than 200 years of American history and eons of world history, it was about time.

In the early ‘90s, when I was an associate editor at the Las Vegas Optic, in celebration of Women’s History Month I wrote a series of articles about area women. The list included a doctor, banker, forester, writer, educator and public servant. Each had quite a unique story to tell and I enjoyed the interviews tremendously.

What I most enjoyed about writing the articles was gaining a better insight into the passion these women had for whatever they did, and leaning how much they had contributed to the community. They were – and continue to be – heroes. Prior to the ‘60s women occupied a stereotypical role in society, at least on the surface, but I grew up around a mother who believed she could do anything, and did. She had her challenges, a special needs daughter among them, but she understood at gut level that the only true obstacles were the ones she created for herself.

She worked in a nurturing field, around people much like my sister, constrained in life by ailments or mental deficiencies beyond their control. She also worked with clients who had committed a crime, who were incarcerated in the state mental facility rather than in prison. Their cases warranted a second look at their ability to know right from wrong and whether they were mentally stable enough to stand trial.

Mom was a fireplug of a woman, short and fiesty, who never hesitated to stand toe-to-toe with men twice her size. She faced them down and lifted them up. Many of her clients kept in touch with her after they left the facility. As a counselor she gave them a sense of their own worth. She helped them see they were more than their circumstances.

Mom did the same for her children, encouraging us to see outside the box long before the phrase became a cliché. She was and is my hero and my role model. She died years ago, but her legacy remains. She will never be written up in a history book but her history with our family shaped who we are today, and I thank her for it.

–Mona’s daughter

Short Fiction

Posted in fiction, Inspiration, Short Fiction4 Comments

Hope Springs Eternal (or) Opportunity Knocks

BoutiqueAllie Edwards went to the mall. She didn’t know why. It’s not like she had money to spend. She couldn’t even pay her rent, much less buy something she didn’t need that would, in the end, make her feel guilty as hell.

No job. No prospects. No skills.

One thing she did have in abundance, was hope. Life had been less than fair to Allie, but as her old grandma would say, “Get used to it Miss Allie, life’s not fair, so get over yourself.”

She figured that meant there was no point in having a pity party.

She couldn’t even be mad at Mr. Hernandez for firing her. Business was down, she was the last waitress to be hired and therefore the first to be fired. Plus, in all honesty, she wasn’t too good at the whole waitressing thing. People who ate in restaurants could be downright demanding and mean. And balancing trays loaded with food, and knowing who was supposed to get what? Harder than she ever imagined.

But the job had allowed her to move out of her grandma’s stuffy apartment and into a place of her own. The thought of losing that bit of independence was enough to make her sad, but what could she do but move back with Grams if she didn’t have money coming in?

The mall’s bright interior lifted her mood. The stores with cheerful window displays made her smile. The air conditioning cooled her skin. Tempted by the food court, she almost bought an ice cream cone, but didn’t.

She stood before the window display of Winsome, a shop that catered to women “of all ages,” a bit optimistic in her opinion. You could not be all things to all people, especially when it came to women’s clothes.

“They should rethink who they want to sell to,” she said.

“I beg your pardon?” said an older woman who was also studying the window display.

Allie didn’t know why she spoke out loud, but that was her nature, saying what she thought, speaking when she shouldn’t.

“Sorry, I was thinking out loud. I do that sometimes.”

“Please, go on. What do you not like about the display?”

“Oh, the display is fine, it’s just that ‘women of all ages’ means any woman of any age would be interested in buying any one of those items, and,” she shrugged, “that’s flat out not the case.”

“Please, go on.”

“Well, take that cardigan for instance. The color is nice; most women look good in teal, but the style, well it screams skinny and young. The pants? Can you really see that cut on any woman under twenty-five? I don’t even know what to say about the dress. If it sags on a human female the way it sags on the mannequin, no girl I know would even want to try it on.”

“My, but you do have strong opinions.”

Allie shrugged. “Gram would agree.”

“What do you do, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Allie’s skin flushed. “Nothing right now. I was a waitress for a while, but to be honest, I wasn’t much good at it.”

“Have you ever done sales?”

Allie laughed.

“Why is that funny?”

“Gram says I’m too cheeky to work with the public.”

“Being a waitress is working with the public.”

“Yeah, and remember that part about me not being good at it.”

“How would you like to work for me?”

“Excuse me?”

The woman pulled a small poster from under her arm and showed it to Allie. It read, Help Wanted, Hiring Immediately.

“This is your store?”

The woman nodded.

Allie scrunched her face in confusion. “But I’ve never worked in, well anything like this.”

“My dear, you have shown more savvy than anyone I’ve hired in the past. Let’s call it a trial run. Ninety-day probationary period. What do you say?”

Allie started to tell her why this couldn’t possibly work, but for a change, kept her mouth shut until she built up the courage to say, “Thank you, I would like that. When do I start?”

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I hope you like this bit of short fiction. There will be more :). The image is from clipart.com, the story is mine.

A blatant pitch for book sales

Posted in Books, Business, fiction, Writer's Block

…from a terrible marketer

Finding Family

My problem with writing has nothing to do with writing; it has to do with selling. Every book I have written is worth reading, the last one perhaps more so than the first three. Not because it is a better book, but because I learned a lot between book one and book four.

What I should have had for all my books is a good editor. Reality check here. As an indie author, I can’t afford an editor. A good editor is worth what he or she charges, no doubt about it, but given that I’m so horrible at selling my work, I’d never recover my costs. The argument in favor of an editor is that grammar and punctuation improve copy so it will sell better.

Uh, “Fifty Shades of Grey” anyone?

Hel-lo-o!

I have not read the books because erotica isn’t my cup of tea, so my statements here are based on reviews and commentary, written by people who write for a living. Many of them are baffled by the success of these books, which by some accounts are poorly constructed, have questionable content, and basic plot problems – as in there isn’t one. And yet, “50” and its sequels have netted author EL James A LOT OF MONEY! She has sold MILLIONS of copies and landed a lucrative deal for movie rights. I don’t know if she had an editor, but if she did, she paid her too much. What James does have is an identified audience looking for cheap thrills. Erotica sells.

So, what does it take to sell books? That is a very complex question. It helps that –

a) You have absolute confidence your book is the best thing that’s ever been written.
b) That you are willing to wring out of every one you know a promise to do a review (POSITIVE ONLY) and post it on Amazon and Good Reads and wherever else they can find to post it on your behalf.
c) Know your audience, or at the very least, have one.

First off, I hesitate to use friends to promote my work. Number one, I’m afraid they will feel obligated to say yes while thinking, “Is she kidding me? This thing is the worst thing I’ve ever read!?”

And second… forget it, I can’t get past number one. It’s the fear of “not being good enough” that plagues even accomplished writers.

The thing is, I believe my books are quite good. Good enough, in fact, to fly magically off the shelves without much help from me. Won’t happen. Like all authors, I must work at promoting my books every single chance I get, something I am totally not good at.

A second and equally important factor is that, “knowing your audience,” thing.

I may not be there yet when it comes to confidence, but identifying my audience is at a whole other level. People who like to read books? Hmmm, yes, but there is so much more to it. The whole genre thing drives me nuts. Plus I haven’t written just one kind of book. I’ve written the books I like to write. One is a book of inspirational reading, two are sci-fi, and the fourth is a contemporary novel about a women of a certain age.

In “Finding Family,” it is clear early on that Lilly Irish has never understood her worth to others. Following the death of her husband she becomes accustomed to living alone. She is stubbornly independent. And then her dead sister’s daughter and her three children arrive with their dog. Calm turns to chaos and along the way Lilly… well, if I said any more I’d be giving the story away.

This story is funny and sad, just like life. You will recognize the characters because they’re like all of us, trying to find their way in life, day-by-day. “Finding Family,” characters aren’t based on any one in particular, or any family in particular; it is grounded in the reality that no one is perfect. How these imperfect people come together makes for an entertaining and satisfying read.

And yes, this is a sales pitch for “Finding Family,” and a request that you buy it, read it, and post a review – brief or long – on Amazon and Good Reads and wherever else you can. I would like for it to be positive, but I would rather it be honest.

Thanks,
Sharon

NOTE: I have Finding Family available for purchase. If you would like to order a book directly from me e-mail me at fsharon@msn.com. Book price is $19.99.

Finding Family is available at Amazon and other online book retailers in soft cover and as an e-book from XLIBRIS

Paperback: 232 pages
Publisher: XLIBRIS
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1499035489
ISBN-13: 978-1499035483

Also look for my latest book:
Thunder Prime Hunter’s Light
Paperback $15
Digital Format $2.99 

 

Guest Post: Kayt C. Peck

Posted in Uncategorized1 Comment

Sheltered Women:  A Fruitful Journey

Sheltered Women Cast
During a lighter moment after a show, the cast of “Sheltered Women” (L to R): Lisa Cisneros, Justina Rivas, Joan Krohn, Sandra Nepstad and (front) Victor Ramirez.

There was joy among “Sheltered Women” cast members, director, other supporters and, yes, me, the playwright, when Gene Irby, co-chairman of the 2015 New Mexico AACTFest, announced that our play would be one of two to represent the state at Region VI competitions.  It was a fruitful end to a long journey.  Added celebration came with announcement that we were honored also for Best Costumes and three of our players – Lisa Cisneros, Justina Rivas, and Sandra Nepstad – were named to the all-star cast.

When I first wrote the play in 2011, it was an act of love, trying to keep alive the stories of Iraqi women suffering under the heavy hand of radical Islamic rule.  In the end it will always be their story and those of us involved in the play are simply the tools for telling that story.

As one adjudicator said when giving us our comments, when she read the script she thought, this could be either really good or really bad.  It will take some incredible actresses to pull this off.

“You did it,” she said, and she was right.

The cast, crew, and director of “Sheltered Women” became a family during the process of bringing an important story to life.  It is a family I will always value.

By Kayt C. Peck, Playwright and actor