I ran back to the cockpit to throw the engine in gear and get the bow turned off and away from the other vessel. Everything was going smoothly when I suddenly heard a loud "CLANK," and a "SPLASH," followed by a "RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE!!" ...…
As I headed into the no-man's land and pointed my bow at the distant markers, a well known saying in the sailing world that came to mind: "There are two kinds of sailors - those who have run aground ... and those who will.…
In another couple of hours, it seemed that my visual landmarks were gradually shifting further and further upwind. A check of the GPS confirmed my fears. The zig-zag line that marked my boat's pendulum motion on its anchor line was starting to lengthen - looking kind of like an EKG. I was dragging my anchor!…
One woman told us she went outside to look over her balcony after the late night announcement and she saw tons of water shooting out of the side of the building, and pouring onto the balconies below...…
"SNAKES?? Forget the snakes! Look out for the GATORS!!"…
Times like this give one ample opportunity for reflection. You know - all the "ifs" and "hows" and "whys." I try to avoid "wouldas," "couldas," and "shouldas." Those rarely do any good. But, I do like to take a personal inventory, and ask myself if I'm happy and, if not, what I am going to do about it. And, honestly, I realized that, indeed, I'm the happiest I've been in a long, long time. I had a big dream of living on a boat and ...…
I crawled out of my cockpit, stood out on the middle of my deck, lit a cigarette, and stared at that captain and crew with my best peed-off, backwoods Florida-boy look that said, "I'm about to SWIM over there just to slap you around a bit."…
I put it back into forward gear, and tried to shift into reverse again. Nothing. You cannot stop a boat without reverse and I was running out of deep water quickly!…
Once we hit Tampa Bay, however, it got really rough, really fast. Brian got to test out his safety harness. It worked! If he hadn't had it on, he'd have taken a dive while working on the sails...…
"But, my blood pressure was too high from fear and pain! What if they couldn't or wouldn't remove the tooth?! I'm really not the type of person to lose it in public but I was terrified, and in so much pain. I started begging and pleading, and loudly said, "If you don't pull my tooth today, I damn well will!"…
"I'm not so sure I could shoot a gator but I could probably stab one!"…
"I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was twelve years old. My mother wanted my Birthday gift to be a sewing machine, but I asked for a typewriter. She said NO! Pa bought me a Remington portable typewriter anyway..."…
Most writers remember a specific moment in their past when they realized they wanted to be…
We’ve been so busy helping former Tate Publishing authors into our lifeboat, there’s been little time for…
I received one email that was sent at around 5:00 a.m. (our time) by an obviously VERY drunk or high individual. The email, which was FULL of misspelled words and other nonsensical jargon, said...…
I posted a note about this mystery on my Facebook Page the other day so I apologize…
News from the Home Office…
MASON - "I wouldn't be in the mood for sex if I wasn't in love anyway."…
"A drone! Look at the drone!" …
On Christmas Eve, we had our traditional family fondue dinner. It was relaxing, until we pulled…
SATURDAY, January 14, 2017, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Central Time, we’ll be posting the topic for…
Each year on the gulf coast of Florida, around Christmas, we don't get snow but we do get tremendous, creepy, blinding fog. It's really cool! The other morning, we woke up to our first foggy day of the season. …
We thought the pre-Christmas publishing rush had come to an end last week when we had two slow days - the slowest days we'd had since early August. So, we let our guard down...…
Mason was, literally, completely full of sh**.…
For the past 18 years, we have hosted the big family Thanksgiving dinner at our house,…
The rainy season is finally over so the weather is absolutely perfect! We're no longer sheltered indoors, constantly checking the air conditioner to see why it's not keeping up with the heat and humidity.…
After the most contentious presidential contest in my memory, I am SO relieved it’s over. I…
Each year, our daughter and her husband throw a huge, crazy, extreme Halloween party. It's truly a family effort, with everyone pitching in to decorate their house, inside and out, with every imaginable orange twinkly light, blood on the windows, ghouls, ghosties, and much more.…
We've fallen into bed exhausted each night. It'll be nice to get back home so we can rest!…
We left for our annual trek to Tennessee on Saturday. We usually break the drive into…
Each year, we grow weary of the Florida heat, and get homesick for a real fall.…
We’ve already had a tropical storm and a hurricane here this year. Now, Hurricane Matthew is…
Max and Mason, who are homeschooled, joined a new homeschooling co-op. Over the past few years, they've only attended museum classes every other Wednesday, and only during the afternoon on those days. This new co-op meets all day long every Wednesday, and includes five different classes and a lunch. I warned the boys and Richard that they'd be exposed to lots more kiddos with cold and flu symptoms and that we'd all catch more germies this year.…
This is always our busiest time of the year. Everybody wants their book published before the Christmas shopping season so we always get a glut of new manuscript submissions in September and October. We're working 12-16 hours per day right now and we're all exhausted. I haven't been to the gym in three weeks but I did manage a short swim one afternoon last week. We also took a therapeutic evening sail one night last weekend. I miss my afternoon "sun breaks."…
THIS SATURDAY, at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Central Time, is start-time for the WritersWeekly.com Fall, 2016 24-Hour…
We had a super fun time riding out Hurricane Hermine! The morning before it rolled in was overcast, windy, and quite cool. So, we all walked to breakfast, and ate outside. It was heavenly! Later, the sky slowly darkened, the wind increased, and big, fat raindrops began to fall. Then, those big, fat raindrops started flying sideways. It was quite a ride and it was beautiful!…
For the past four years, Max (age 14) and Mason (age 10) have been attending a…
This issue will be a bit abbreviated. I'm running waaaay behind this week because a stomach virus attacked the "home office." We were falling like flies! We're all MUCH better now but I'll be spending all weekend trying to get caught up on email. :)…
There was another story in the news this week about a lifelike doll being left in…
A low pressure system stalled over us last weekend and we've had four straight days of heavy, oppressive skies. Dark gray clouds as far as the horizon and barely a wisp of breeze. Every two or three hours, the wind will quickly pick up and we'll get slammed with a deluge of rain. Then, the clouds will churn again, crawling back into themselves, and hoarding their moisture for just a little while. …
These go-karts ("electric Italian pro-karts") were going SO FAST! I got nervous because Mason is only 10 years old and he'd never ridden one before. I voiced my hesitation and Mason said, "Don't worry, Mom. The kids only get to go 25 mph." 25 MILES PER HOUR?! ACK!!! I looked around and none of the other parents appeared anxious so I pushed my fears aside, and sat down to watch. A couple of races later, they called Mason's name for the kids' race. He listened to the instructions, put on a cloth head covering (I thought, 'Oh good, he wouldn't get lice!') and a huge helmet, and got into his "pro-kart." The employees helped strap the kids in the cars. Of course, I watched to make sure they strapped Mason in really tight!…
I received the following email from a reader last week: Hi Angela, I loved reading about…
Several years ago, our daughter, Ali, an adorable red-head with freckles, was bullied relentlessly in middle…
We'd never seen a sky the likes of this!…
On the 4th of July, we joined our children (except Matt and his wife, Sarah, who…
