5/25/14 WEWRIWA

 

 

 

Hi Kids. Memorial Day has a special meaning for all of us, many personal. I recall vividly the Korean Conflict, life as a pilot’s wife Strategic Air Command, 301st Air Refueling Squadron. We lost friends who were shot down  or captured or damaged in physical and mental ways too dreadful to speak of. My husband returned mission after mission unscathed, thank God, and when he opted out of service after giving his time and effort, two years later we wanted to go back to the life only to find our time had expired. We were civilians forever more.

This week will be my last eight of She Never Said Yes. Thank you all for your support and generous comments. I’m so close to finishing and hope some of you will read the story when it’s released in June.

Last week my hero Danny Wilson redeemed himself by calling Joy to apologize. A tornado brought the lines down and his telegram was delayed. By the time she received the telegram, his unit had moved from the barracks to another Air Force Base. He phones her several times. Each time her father answers to say Joy isn’t there, don’t call. So he writes a letter.

excerpt in eight:

Mr. Davison answered the phone and before Danny even said hello, Joy’s father’s voice resonated across the line, “She’s not here,” the message loud and clear, call no more.
One more go at reaching the love of his life, Danny wrote a letter.
My Dearest Joy, I hope, in the future, we’ll laugh about the tornado that caused us to delay our wedding. I’ve called a bunch of times but your father keeps saying you’re not home and just now he said I shouldn’t call anymore so here I am writing a quick letter short and sweet like you, my love.
Anyway, I can’t wait to hold you in my arms. Your loving, Danny.
He found a clean envelope, licked stamps, pressed them down hard and ran out to post the letter in the closest mailbox.
The young Lieutenant wondered if a heart breaks all at once or does it splinter in little pieces over time. A good student, he settled in to read the assignment and lost in the information about flying the big bird, he absorbed what he’d need to know in case of emergency.

for more snippets from talented writers:                                 

http://wewriwa.com

 

 

http://chellecordero.blogspot.com/2014/05/summer-any-time-reads.html and add one of your books. Read the post for full details. And please, spread the word.

5/18/14 WEWRIWA

TEAM WEWRIWA, I love you. Thanks for saving me last week with helpful comments and understanding.

She Never Said Yes has a few important changes going on thanks to you, so here’s a quick preface before the eight.

Danny listens to fellow cadets opinions on sex, fidelity, and marriage and decides he is way off base thinking his views should change and he and Joy are on the right track. After the phone call that ends with him slamming the phone down saying she should keep the ring, he realizes he’s gone wrong.

excerpt in eight:

Danny stared at the black phone, his lifeline to Joy cut forever thinking, Oh God, what did I do? and called the operator, giving her the number and dropped in a bunch of quarters.
After holding on, he heard, “No one is answering at that number, Sir although I’ve tried several times and let it ring.”
Desperate to reach her as fast as possible, Danny called information for Western Union knowing telegrams got there fast, same day or even overnight.
“Operator, this is an emergency; I’m a pilot in the Air Force stationed in San Antonio, Texas. Can Western Union help me?”
“Your message, please and remember to say Stop after every sentence, the shorter the less expensive.”
He looked at the dwindling stack of coins and began, Please forgive me STOP; Will wait for you. STOP; Love forever Danny STOP

Excited he’d taken action no matter what his pals said and did, Danny rattled off the delivery information, listened to the ping in the coin box and  suddenly the operator came back on the line saying, “Sorry to say there’s a tornado watch and heavy winds across Kansas and all the way through the Midwest have caused lines to go down.”
So that’s why he couldn’t connect with her; the storm in his heart had reached out to the weather God and cursed him just like in the Shakespeare tragedies he’d loved in high school.

for more snippets from talented writers:                                     

http://wewriwa.com

5/11/14 WEWRIWA

Mother’s Day. A Hallmark Card Moment or do you make your own cards, have a special feast to honor Mom, precious one and only Mom. I prefer the personal touch, a goofy cockeyed heart from my grandest, eye cream from daughter, a call from fave son from Denmark and a sleep-over with daughter while grandest isn’t home. Movie night! Oh yes. Whatever you do, savor the day, my friends.

I continue with She Never Said Yes. Last week, Joy Davison was called away with a terse phone call. “Come home, Mother is very ill..” Fiancee Danny Wilson is a few weeks from graduating from Air Force Academy and being awarded his wings where he becomes Second Lieutenant. They had intended to marry right after the ceremony like all the other cadets and their fiancees.  Head pounding, Danny stretched out on the closest bunk bare of sheets and blankets. Just a battered pillow to rest his screwed up head. Pieces of the puzzle were missing. Nothing made sense and here he is in hot Texas and she’s in cold Chicago.

excerpt in eight:
Alone in the barracks, Danny had to answer the communal phone that rang nearby.
Joy sobbed, “Danny, forgive me if you can, we can get married as soon as there’s a diagnosis for Mother and a plan; Danny, are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here and you’re not.”
“I’ll give the engagement ring back to you if, um, if you don’t want to wait.”
“Keep it,” and he hung up thinking what a waste of time he’d spent two years loving her and saving for the ring all for nothing.

As soon as the wings were pinned on each cadet and cheers subsided, Major John Leftwich approached the newly appointed Second Lieutenant.
“Lieutenant, disappointment happens but with your excellent record, take my advice and move on because a career officer needs a proper wife, one who fits into the protocol of the life we’ve chosen.”

A week later when Joy called to ask for him, she was informed no such cadet lived there.

 

for more snippets from talented authors:                                                      

http://wewriwa.com

 

5/4/14 WEWRIWA

May Day, May Day. A signal for help in the military. Often writers call May Day searching for constructive criticism as we write and that’s exactly what we receive here at WEWRIWA.  

This week I continue with She Never Said Yes. Danny and Joy are engaged and plan to be married right after he finishes pilot training and receives his Air Force wings at a formal ceremony in San Antonio, TX. Joy’s father pays for them to meet in Oklahoma City for a weekend one month prior to the ceremony. At Chicago’s bustling airport, Joy’s father says, “Be a good girl.’

Excerpt in eight:

Adjoining rooms with my sweetheart, temptation was almost more than we could bear. So we kissed, bodies pressed together straining against the blanket I’d wrapped around him to remind us to stop. In the corner of my mind were Father’s words trusting, “Be a good girl, Joy” and mother’s warning not to allow ‘privileges.’
Over and over, I stopped him with, “Wait honey, it’s the right thing to do and I’ve already picked out a virginal white lace wedding gown.”
Laughing, fighting desire, kissing, two wonderful days had passed and I just started to pack when the phone rang.
Father’s voice demanded, “Joy, come home right now, Mother is very ill.”
Panic set in, my hands trembled remembering all the times Mother needed to rest and how she stumbled so often.
We kissed good bye and I left my sweetheart shaking his head, looking bewildered as I hurried to American Airlines where I boarded the plane to Chicago to cry on the long flight home.                      

for more snippets from talented authors:

http://wewriwa.com

 

I suggest you pamper both your Mom and yourself with a copy of my very first book To Be Continued. It’s the one that begins with “It’s not you, it’s me.” Not the kind of love letter you want to read left by your husband or lover. A story of survive and thrive, To Be Continued is optioned for a television movie. This proves with some good dialogue and a storyline that resonates with readers, great things can happen.

PRINT – http://www.amazon.com/To-Be-Continued-Charmaine-Gordon/dp/1935407430

Kindle – http://www.amazon.com/To-Be-Continued-ebook/dp/B0030IM65G

AllRomance Ebooks – https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-tobecontinued-395548-149.html

Smashwords for All Ereaders – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7283

Free Book Club Discussion Packet – http://store.payloadz.com/go?id=912108

4/27/14 WEWRIWA

Hi gang and welcome to our terrific Sunday’s where we get to read and leave comments on eight sentences written by talented writers.

To catch you up on my WIP, She Never Said Yes, this eight is when Joy and Danny go to her club dinner dance. Kid brother, Gary snaps away with the Brownie camera until they escape; Joy in a red taffeta off-the-shoulder dress, Danny wearing a dark blue suit. He’s given her an orchid wristlet corsage.

Eight with a possibility of creative punctuation. Hmm.

“Nice of your Dad to loan you his Studebaker,” I touched his hand and he almost shifted into the wrong gear by mistake probably because I talked too much.
Excitement grew when Danny helped me out of the car, my taffeta dress making a swishing sound when we walked holding hands

On the dance floor, we fit together as I followed Danny’s lead jitterbugging all over, the big senior so confident who didn’t know anyone there except for me, a fifteen and a half year old sophomore.

Hours later in the car I wondered if he expected to neck or do stuff like privileges when all of a sudden Danny hummed the music from a popular song, “It’s Magic,” we sang together our voices blending, “You sigh, a song begins; you speak and I hear violins, It’s Magic.”

He pulled up behind Father’s fancy black Chrysler and as soon as he shut off the motor, I jumped out of the car before he came around to open the door.

“Don’t be nervous, I really want to kiss you goodnight and I promise not to bite,” he touched my lips and shook his head, “nope, you’ve got them pressed so tight together not even a crow bar could pry them apart so loosen up, Bearhugger, I won’t hurt you.”

Just for an instant, when he called me that funny name, my lips did soften and Danny moved in fast to plant a soft kiss; then dazed by a strange feeling, I drifted up the steps to the front door with his arm around my waist, I heard him say, “Goodnight, my girl, I’ll wait until I hear the lock click and you’re safe inside.”

Holding onto the railing all the way to my room, I had a belly ache way down low and thought, If this is what a kiss does, I won’t kiss anyone again. Ever.

 

Try out for new pic. Comments, anyone?

for more snippets from talented writers:

http://www.wewriwa.com

3/30/14 WEWRIWA

Hi, my friends. Thanks for the perfect critique last week of my WIP. Just what I needed to move along on this end of March. YIKES! Purple crocus abound in the front near the house where it’s warm. So sweet and pretty.

She Never Said Yes continues. Last week, Joy made a plan to ask the most popular boy, a senior in high school, to her club dance. She’s 15, a sophomore. He’s eighteen, a senior. The year is 1948. The Korean War is two years away from drafting young Americans into the conflict.

“Okay,”he said, and just like that I had a date with Danny Wilson for my club’s dinner dance in two weeks. Handing him an invitation with my name, phone number and address, I said, “Pick me up at seven.” Our hands touched just for second; his hazel eyes locked on mine and I had a thought that maybe we were meant to be together. Heart pounding with excitement, I said ‘bye and raced downstairs to the third floor gym just before the bell rang.

My good friend Liz shared a locker with me and as we changed into the ugly green gym suits, she asked why my face was red and how come I almost missed the bell. Jumping up and down I squeezed her hand and shouted, “I have a date for the dance with Danny Wilson.”

Her jaw dropped and she almost shrieked his name but Miss Clemens blew a whistle and calisthenics began so we followed her commands to her commands and I worked off some of the excitement, not all, just a little bit.

If I knew how to do cartwheels I’d be doing them all over the gym but just wait ’til the dance, Danny Wilson, ’cause that’s where this jitterbuggin’ girl could show off her stuff.

for more snippets from talented writers:

http://wewriwa.com