That Rebel with a Blog

A Night of Snipping, Hacking and Honing

2013-05-18T01:47:00.003-04:00

Hallelujah, I got some writing in. Finally! And now, because it's 1:30 in the morning and I'm in the mood to share: a snippet. Just because. "The temperature had plummeted, carried on a north wind that beat against the house and whined of snow, waking Emily from a fitful sleep. She blinked in the dark, curled in a tight ball on the wrong side of bed. Beside her Ralph and Hope slept

A Date with Destiny

2013-04-29T11:27:00.001-04:00

"She had a date with destiny. And this time she was ready. Unlocking the door, she opened it to the druids, standing back with a smile to let them pass." ~ Blessed Are The Peace Makers May 1st approaches. May Day. Beltane. The beginning of the Summer season. For me it is timely, heralding the beginning of The End: the end of rewrites and first revisions of Blessed Are The Peace Makers. Soon it

He Told Me To (Part II)

2013-04-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

Back to Brian and our session. (If you missed Part I, find it here.) We talked. I shared about my trip to the ER. And about the screaming fit two days later. Oh yeah, that. It began when an empty coat hanger had the audacity to fall out of the closet. I bent to retrieve it and something snapped inside me. I grabbed that hanger and beat it mercilessly against the closet door, screaming at the

He Told Me To (Part I)

2013-04-17T00:08:00.001-04:00

Today I saw Brian, my ubertherapist. Somewhere toward the end of the session he said, "You should blog about this." Eyebrows raised, I asked, "Really?" "Yes," he said, "Some of our sessions are phenomenal." And they are. Today was one such example. Problem is, without a recording, I recall less than half of what went on in an hour session. Yes, I can nutshell it, but the process is as

Thank You Stephen King

2013-02-17T05:19:00.001-05:00

Years ago I read his book On Writing. If you're a writer, and you haven't read it, do. It changed my life. But on to my story. At 1:30 a.m. I woke, then tossed and turned for another hour. Finally, with sleep far away and Hemingway's saw in my head, I rose. "Write one true sentence." Water on to boil, I chopped fresh ginger for a warming brew, then settled in to my chair to do just that. What

A Little Monday Madness

2013-01-28T20:51:00.000-05:00

Just a quick check-in with a little Monday madness: a snippet from the Peace Makers chapter I'm working on. This one is written from the POV (point of view) of one of the main characters, a fourteen year-old boy named Brian. "Within nanoseconds, the fissure trembled and ruptured, ripping the gorilla enclosure and the path in two. The facing side settled and sank, belching dust and sand in to

Dragon Dreams

2013-01-19T09:25:00.002-05:00

Each morning I wake, scenes of Peace Makers* dancing through my dreams. Today it was dragons. They arrived on scene, playing in and out, siren song calling, cajoling. I knew they would. What I didn't know (but should have suspected) is that they want top billing. Or as close as possible. What I did know (and had forgotten) is that the story was part theirs all along. Welcome dragons,

Literary Blockbuster Challenge

2013-01-14T23:48:00.000-05:00

Hi Y'all, Just popping in for a quick update on Peace Makers. The first draft is complete 171 (of 407) pages are edited I am entering it in the Literary Blockbuster Challenge (JOIN ME!) It must be completed and uploaded to Inkubator.com by March 31st Shake and Bake!! Olivia J. Herrell Okay. I have no idea why I signed Shake and Bake. But it popped in my head so I did. That prompted a

Hail the Pajama Queen (aka Coming Up for Air)

2013-01-08T20:35:00.000-05:00

No seriously. It is now 8:30 pm and I am still in my pj's. I woke at 4:32 to dreams of Peace Maker plot sorties. Unable to go back to sleep, I got up around 5:30 and at 7:01 a.m. sat down to read my book from cover to finish. I edit as I go, jotting down notes for larger issues to be addressed such as: cut and pastes; POV breaks; need for names that don't start with S or M (so far I have six S

Letting Go of 2012 (And So Much More)

2012-12-31T23:56:00.004-05:00

Last night I woke around 1:30 after going to bed at 9:00. This is not an unusual occurrence. Usually I get up, go to the bathroom, climb back in bed and fall asleep until morning. But not last night. Last night I tossed and turned, kept awake by a throb in the leg that I had not experienced in a long time. Around 3:30 I got up, grabbed my journal and started writing. One of the things I wrote

Taking It Up a Notch

2012-12-16T23:51:00.001-05:00

I spent more hours researching today than I did writing. The threads under study are for Books Two and Three of Peace Makers, but the roots have to be planted in Book One. So I'm now going back and adding a third level of "bad guys" to the story. No, I haven't written the last chapter. Things will happen there that result from what I'm working on now, so I'm waiting. Plus, today was a bad-guy

I'm Baaack

2012-12-14T01:04:00.000-05:00

Yes. That's right. I couldn't stand it any longer. I missed you guys. It's lonely over in Wordpress Land. So starting tonight, oh wait, it's tomorrow. Starting now, I'm back. First, a little update on Blessed Are The Peace Makers, which will heretoafterevermore be referred to as Peace Makers. The current word count is 86K. The heroine and critical players are in place for the final scene which

Angels Among Us

2012-11-06T13:17:00.005-05:00

I was up at 5:30 this morning for an 8:30 appointment in Midtown Atlanta in the dark and pouring rain. Thank you to (my BFF) Ginny for driving me and for being there. Dr Wray said the tumor looks well-contained. 99.9% of this type are nonmalignant, but it's of a size that it needs to come out. It arises from the nerve root between T3 and T4, but because it is outside of the spine (thank God!)

I Have a Tumor

2012-11-03T20:10:00.000-04:00

Maybe I should start at the beginning. Almost three months ago, I bought a new car. Two days later I was rear-ended, my head slammed in to the headrest creating jaw, neck and head pain. Fast forward two months and I'm still having bouts of shooting jaw pain, plus now paresthesias in both arms, burny pins and needles in my right one and occasional numbness in my left hand. On a referral, I

Mormon Diaries by Sophia L. Stone

2012-10-16T15:01:00.001-04:00

Last week I posted a review of Sophia L. Stone's Mormon Diaries over at my new site Blessed Are The Peace Makers. Many of you know and love Sophia. She's one of the first people I met when I ventured out in to the blogosphere. I love that her book was birthed from a collection of essays she wrote during the 2012 A to Z Blogging Challenge. Sophia's Mormon Diaries is a testament to what can

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

2012-07-08T01:00:00.004-04:00

Several of you expressed a concern about me closing down That Rebel. It occurred to me that I could post links over here (at least for a while) for my current articles so you can find your way to Blessed Are the Peace Makers. Here is the beginning of today's post and a link to the rest. I got it! This morning while walking by the lake with the geese and ducks, squirrels and assorted insects,

The Time Has Come

2012-06-30T23:28:00.000-04:00

"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--Of cabbages--and kings--And why the sea is boiling hot--And whether pigs have wings." ~ from Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll It is time, my friends, to retire That Rebel, and now that it's here, my heart is heavy. I am saying goodbye to a dear friend. Why today? It's my fifty-fifth birthday. And

That Rebel Retiring

2012-06-27T23:56:00.000-04:00

In a few more days I'll be retiring That Rebel with a Blog. Why? Many reasons. First, and foremost, I have evolved over the last three years. That Rebel changed with me, yes. But I have reached a crossroads. Changing the name and revamping the look won't work. Not for me. Call me a wuss, but with today's political climate and freaky law changes, having a blog with the name 'rebel' in the title

Lightning Crashes, Can You Feel It?

2012-06-05T00:09:00.000-04:00

While researching the smell of lightning, I ran across a great Q & A by lightning expert Joe Dwyer on the NOVA website. Some of it got a little technical, but the article was fascinating and confirmed a few things that I'd been told over the years. Things like: don't wash dishes or take a shower during an electrical storm. Don't swim during one, either. And I now know what physical mechanism

Returning the Cinnamon

2012-05-31T21:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I went to lunch with my cousin/friend Shann. She arrived at the house and waited for me in the car. Bounding out the front door, I greeted her and stepped to her open window. Morning Sun Through Villa Rica Pines We exchanged compliments, each finding something worth a shout-out, the norm between us two. Then she followed hers up with an "I'm so glad you're back here, and that

There Inside My Mind

2012-05-02T21:49:00.001-04:00

For my sister, who's in New York City on vacation and saw Phantom on Broadway last night. Cherry, this is for you! ~ Olivia J. Herrell

Better Left to Chance

2012-04-30T21:05:00.001-04:00

Tonight I mourn. In the relationship game of life, I am batting a thousand. Yes. Yes I am. In the World of Olivia there seem to be two constants. One is change. The other is me on the tail end of a relationship gone awry. You would think a smart girl like moi would figure it out. Get it right. So far, I have not. Dammit. I know what love feels like. I know my heart. I know me. I know in

Welcome to Student Loan Hell

2012-04-18T11:42:00.000-04:00

This blog was birthed in anger: anger at being duped by someone supposedly out to help me. It evolved in to something much more: a place where I could write and share my words, thoughts and feelings with others. My experience, strength and hope, we say in AA. It became a vehicle and evidence of my growth as a writer, as a scribe. Today, I am angry again. Once more, That Rebel becomes a platform

Passing It On: Thanks For Your Time

2012-04-17T13:16:00.000-04:00

My sister forwarded this to me the other day. It is another of those unsigned, anonymous messages that waft around the E-verse. I don't get them often anymore, I guess most people on my mailing list have taken to conversing on Facebook walls. My sister is second to few in my heart and she is slow to forward things. So when she does, I pay attention. This one had me in tears

Another Blackberry Winter

2012-04-06T23:34:00.004-04:00

Last evening on the drive home, I noticed a patch of what looked like blackberries blooming. Being in tune with that sort of thing, I reasoned that they must be wild roses. There was only the one clump, you see. No other blackberries were blooming. And we'd had no cold nights yet, either. No, what we southerners call, blackberry winter. The sighting did prompt me to consult the forecast when