Beth Williamson’s Blog

Y’all know I love to read the news while I eat lunch - it’s a daily ritual of mine. When I came across this news story, I was at once furious and deeply saddened for these children.

11 kids, including family of 9, abandoned

Basically Nebraska has a law that allows parents to drop off children (i.e., abandon them) at hospitals, police stations and firestations. North Carolina has a similar law. However, apparently Nebraska is not limiting it to babies.

Nine of these eleven children that were discarded by their father, were brothers and sisters. The other two were teenagers.

How can people do this?

You don’t become a parent to throw your children away when they get too much to handle. These children are people - can you imagine how they’re feeling? To just be kicked to the curb and left to grow up without parents?

It brought tears to my eyes, y’all, and it’s just absolutely unforgivable. Even if I wasn’t a parent, I would still find this abandonment to be shocking and cruel.

Take a moment to send some good vibes to these poor children. I think they’ll need all the love they can get.

This morning did not start off well - not only did my alarm not go off but my son either slept through his or it didn’t go off either.

So I woke up at 6:15, 25 minutes after he was supposed to be on the bus. *sigh*

Mad scramble, dash, run around like a maniac, take a 3 1/2 minute shower, etc., etc. I got him to school with five minutes to spare (whew) and got to work 1/2 an hour late. Blech.

I hate days when you start off in a tizzy, discombobulated and confused. Routine is what keeps me on track, unlike many of the rest of the world who thrive on the thrill of not knowing what’s coming next. I am a list maker and not a risk taker.

Ha, that would be a funny rhyme if I wasn’t in such a funk. It’s going to be one of those days where I never quite click in the groove of things. Any suggestions on how to get my funk back in the groove?

It caught my eye this morning that I had 902 posts on my blog. 902!! That’s a lot of posts… so this is officially post number 903. :D

It’s Friday and thank every deity you pray to for it. I’m still sick, this virus is morphing into other parts of my body besides my head, and I’m at home. Blech. I’m going to miss my RWA meeting tomorrow - no reason to get all those folks sick, too. I am coughing like a mad woman and would spread my germs far and wide. :(

Other news, my refrigerator died. Dammit it all to hell and back. The thing is less than 4 years old and the compressor went - note this is a VERY expensive part to replace. So, we had to buy a new one - good thing I have money coming in from my books, eh? Everything is in coolers that we could save with two bags of ice. Hopefully the fridge will come early today.

This weekend will be filled with edits, cleaning (this house looks like a bomb exploded) and hopefully lots of naps. In fact, I feel one coming on now… LOL.

For those peeps in Texas, stay safe. You’ve got my thoughts and prayers for safety as Hurricane Ike approaches. Please let us know you’re okay when you can!

Hard to believe it’s been seven years since the September 11th attacks. It puts me in a frame of mind to remember, mourn and reflect.

I had been living in North Carolina for four years at that point, had just returned from a business trip two days earlier. In fact, I was sick at home, alone, when the tragedy struck. I’d never felt so alone in my life - people needed others near them to get through the myriad of emotions. Unfortunately I had no one nearby but the phone.

It was the first tragedy to strike on US soil since the Civil War nearly tore the country into pieces. This tragedy did the opposite - it united people again. We’d become very fractured as a country and I’d like to think the positive outcome was national pride.

Many other nations felt the ripple effects of the event, people from dozens of foreign countries were killed right along with ours. It was as if the world was dealt a bruising blow and nearly everyone felt the pain.

For so long afterwards, people would talk about who they knew in the World Trade Center or the Pentagon who miraculously survived, or who didn’t get on Flight 93, the plane full of heroes who stopped the fourth attack.

I’d like to take a moment to remember all those who fell victim on September 11th, including those who tried to save others, and let them know we haven’t forgotten, will never forget, and always mourn.

I did it again, missed a blog day. It seemed to be that CRS disease people suffer from after the age of forty. I’m going to have to start putting sticky notes everywhere to remember things.

The good news is, I’m meeting my deadlines (yay!) and have just started on two WIPs. It will be a new experience for me - one is a full length novel (The Salvation of Sarah), the other a novella (Audacious). I want to see if I’m able to get them both written by the due date (December 1) and do it well.

Of course, if I fall into a hole of deep, dark crazydom, I’m going to have to push one aside to finish the other. It’ll be an experiment and I’ll keep y’all posted.

I should have a final version of my cover for my first Kensington release, The Education of Madeline, in the next week. I’ve seen the draft and it’s very, very cool. :)

No other news to report except life is returning to normal after my crazy push to get my WIP complete. We survived T.S. Hanna and so far, no other catastrophic events are on the horizon.

Hope y’all have a great Wednesday!