Happy Friday before Halloween!  Since we're so close to Trick or Treat time, this week's Flashback Friday is all about spiders because they're creepy and crawly and perfectly spooky for this time of year. Plus this blog post from November 2, 2010 is about how my aunt and uncle sent my children SPIDERS in their annual Halloween package. True story. You can read all about it here...
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November 2, 2010

How To Grow A Spider

​I was hoping to have this blog post coincide with Halloween – but you know how spiders can be. In the midst of putting together Halloween costumes, working on novel #2, a sick child, and planning a Bar Mitzvah, the number one thing on my mind these days has been spiders..it's true!

Now I admit, I am not normally a huge fan of spiders, although I have gotten better. After all, they do keep other bugs from getting into the house. But generally speaking, the thought of spiders does not excite me.

So when I opened the annual Halloween package from my aunt and uncle to find three rubber spiders, my first response was “yuk”.
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Hello friends! It's Friday and I remembered to post a flashback post from my old blog! This one was written May 17, 2011 when my oldest son (now 21) was 13 and my youngest son (now 12) was 4. And because I don't want to leave her out even though she isn't mentioned in this specific post, that would make my now 18 year old daughter, 10. Okay - enough math, it's Friday after all! Let's get right to it:

May 17, 2011​
​Where is That Teen Manual?

The request to my 13 year old was simple: “clean your room.” Let me back up for a moment, as this actually happened last week (and the week before and the week before….) 

My son used to keep his room relatively neat. Clothes were generally picked up. True, they did not always make it to a hanger, but half-folded in a drawer was pretty darned close. Books were either at or near where they belonged on the bookshelves; and toys, while completely unorganized, were at least tossed in bins. Miraculously, he even managed to pull the comforter over his bed on most days.

But something happened as my son passed into this great unknown I call “teendom.” He suddenly forgot where everything belonged. He seemed to believe that his closet permanently relocated to the middle of his floor. He also seemed to have forgotten the location of the clothes hamper or that his comforter even belonged on the bed. He certainly seemed to have no recollection of ever having storage bins or shelves for of all his 'stuff.' 

So after my request, my son went upstairs to get to work. I could hear him walking around from above, making sounds that one could (loosely) translate as picking things up off the floor. Thirty minutes passed before he greeted me in the kitchen with an, “I’m done.” At this point, any parent of a teen out there is no doubt shaking their head. You know what I was about to find as I entered the abyss. 

Happy Monday! My Monday Mind is going at full blast today, so I'm going to try to reign it in a little. There's so much going on. First - THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! Okay, here's what's on my Monday Mind:

​Did you have a good weekend? I had relatives visiting from out of town. They are not only awesome people, but they are awesome houseguests ... aka, they bring food like this Nutella birthday cake ... I KNOW! It wasn't just an awesome Saturday night desert, it was also a fabulous Sunday night dinner, a speculator Monday morning breakfast, and may possibly be the glorious main course for my  lunch.
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Here's the funny thing about starting a new blog: for the first time in ever, I went back into my old blog … way back … and re-read some of my earliest blog posts. Some of them were cringe-worthy, some of them made me laugh, some were still relevant, but mostly they made me nostalgic. I'm sappy that way and not ready to have all of my old words sink away into the blackhole blogosphere or wherever old archived blogposts disappear to when their mean old author decides they want to move to a shiny new blog (Oh wait, that's me...)

Never fear old blog posts, I'm here to rescue you! At least some of you … and only on Fridays … when I remember. Sounds fun, right? Yes! This week, the post that caught my eye is ARE YOU A LIST MAKER? Not only did I write it exactly 8 years ago (total coincidence), but I STILL have a 7th grader (not the same child), I'm STILL planning a Bar Mitzvah (not the same child), and I'm STILL a major list maker.   ... Here it is, from October 12, 2010:
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​Are You A List Maker?

From Wikpedia: A checklist is a type of informational job aid used to reduce failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory and attention.

I am a list maker. Some people prefer sticky notes, some leave messages for themselves on their voice mail, some email themselves, and some people can keep it all in their heads (I hate you by the way.) Not me, I need a list – and not just any list, I need separate lists - there can be no commingling.

So how exactly did I turn into my mother? Well, it turns out that mom’s lives are complicated!

Welcome to Donna Galanti today to show off her AWESOME new covers for her Lightning Road series! My 12 year old LOVES theses books. SO. MUCH. I'm so excited to help reveal her amazing new covers. Plus enter to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card at the end of this post and get the first e-book in Donna’s series, Joshua and the Lightning Road, on sale now through October 15th for just $0.99cents. 

Donna shares what stories affected her childhood and writing plus read an excerpt from Joshua and the Arrow Realm!

What fiction most influenced your childhood, and what effect did those stories have on Joshua and the Arrow Realm? by Donna Galanti

My love for writing and reading went hand in hand right from the beginning. I began writing plays and acting them out with the neighborhood kids when I was seven years old. At the time I lived in England, where I attended a Harry Potter-like castle school.
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​​Progressing from plays to stories, my first short story was about a flying ship, wizards, and Dodo birds. At that same time I vividly recall the first book I fell in love with: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. I read the entire Narnia Chronicles curled up in a nook in my gray and pink woolen school uniform (bowler hat and tie included!). I then gobbled up all of Roald Dahl’s books and especially loved Mr. Fantastic Fox and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
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After England, we moved to rural New Hampshire where my parents owned and operated a campground and along came Laura Ingalls Wilder’s The Little House Books. We had barns and hogs and chickens, and how I loved gathering the rotten apples in the orchards to feed the hogs.