Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you! The above video has ben posted before, but I have so many new readers that some of you may have missed it. Don’t miss the finale!
Art Santa: Linda Studebaker
Video: Late Bloomer Video, my little video “company”.
Voice-over: Janelle Meraz Hooper
Music: JewelBeat
Please VOTE!
Time is getting short!
Galoshes and IKE
(A comment about growing up in Oklahoma)
Janelle Meraz Hooper
I woke up this morning thinking about the first election I can remember. I was about twelve and we had moved into a new development outside the gates of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where there was an Indian reservation. The Kiowas weren’t happy because the developers had cut a road through the new houses that went straight through the middle of the clay deposit they used for their pots. I walked that road to school every morning and didn’t see any difference between that unpaved road than any other except that the clay was a deep red. Then the rains came and I saw that clay with a new perspective. Before I went out the door that morning, my mother made me put on my new red galoshes. She’d bought them several sizes too big so they’d last a long time. Everything I wore was too big, even the hand-me-downs from my cousins. The boots looked dumb and I knew the kids would laugh at me. I was glad I had that I LIKE IKE button someone had given me to balance things out. I was the only one in my class who had one and it made me the subject of envy among all my classmates. I wore it every day. On my way to school the new road looked fine but, when I stepped on it, I sank into thick red clay that was deeper than the tops of my galoshes. About halfway to school I noticed that one of my galoshes was missing and the sock on the bootless foot was as red as the road and was half off. I clomped into school with one cold, wet and muddy bootless foot that stayed that way all day. I was sure glad I hadn’t lost my new sock (not realizing that it would never be white again) and I still had my I LIKE IKE button, so I thought I was in good shape. And I was–until I got home and mom noticed I’d lost a brand new boot and one of my socks. Not even IKE could help me then.
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The author, Janelle Meraz Hooper, grew up in Oklahoma and is the author of The Turtle Trilogy (A Three-Turtle Summer, As Brown As I Want, and Custer & His Naked Ladies). See all of my books on Amazon. PB & Kindle.
Note: Geronimo, Life on the Reservation, is a one-man show I wrote for Rudy Ramos (Now on Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone (Paramount Channel).
My Newest novel
Buy now on Amazon
Thanks for stopping by! Janelle
SOS for FREEDOM
Janelle Meraz Hooper
I have so many global subscribers who could be confused by this plea. But then, maybe not. No matter where you are, surely you’ve heard of our wacko president with hate spewing out of his orange head?
Here’s the deal: In the United States, we have a primary vote coming up on November 6th. We have a lot at stake and the greedy, immoral Republican party is pulling out all the stops to stifle the votes of the Democrats.
I am not an expert in politics. I am a novelist! But it doesn’t take an expert to identify Hate. Greed. And liars…leading thousands of gullible voters who don’t understand what Trump’s rhetoric really means. They believe the lie: That their wages will increase. That steel and coal will return to their glory days. That farmers will benefit from the tariffs. That giving all of the money we make to the rich will somehow make our lives better. That they can take away our health care but, somehow, they will not lose theirs. That a clean environment isn’t critical to the people of our nation. That we will build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. That Make America Great Again is only for the whites. That things will go back to the way they used to be.
Perhaps worse, they believe that the man in the White House will “Jerk a knot in the tail” of other world leaders and they’ll all bow down to us. That we are smarter than the rest of the world. Stronger. Entitled by the white of our skin and the heel of our boot.
The whole world will feel the pinch of this immoral president and the Republican party if we do not vote all of them out this November 6th. Please, if you have any influence with voting Americans where you are, explain this to them. God Bless America, the land of the free.
Graphic courtesy of Pinterest.
“Trust your instincts, then follow them.”
Suspense/Romance, New Adult (19-29), Kindle
Buy now on Amazon
Chapter 11- Here, or in Africa? (Excerpt)
Jean was filled with rage. “What were you doing over there?” she yelled at Njab. As she yelled she hit him over and over with her fists until Njab rolled into a protective ball in the corner of Jean’s bedroom.
“What were you after?”
Njab didn’t answer. He didn’t dare say; Jean would kill him for sure. Furiously, she beat on the man until she was exhausted. She was so angry she considered killing him, but she didn’t know how she could get rid of the body. And, then, she’d have to clean up a lot of blood. What if the girl came home early and brought her friends with her like she had before?? She took a breath and tried to calm down. Everything would be okay, she told herself over and over with every pounding heartbeat. Soon, Anney would be sleeping on her couch and Jean would have everything under control again.
When Jean told a battered Njab to get into the car, he whined he was hungry. He wanted a burger and some fries. She made him a peanut butter sandwich on stale bread with no jam to eat in the car on the way back to the yacht. What he held in his hand was far, far from what he was hoping for. Even if she hadn’t just given him the beating of his life, there was no way she was going to risk some burger joint’s security camera picking up the two going through a drive-through. What was the man thinking? She’d just beat the crap out of him and he had the nerve to ask for a burger and fries? He was lucky he still had a throat to swallow with. Jean could barely keep her hands off the knife drawer. She’d become very adept with a knife while she was in Africa. She had a gun—that would be less messy, but it was also noisier. This was a quiet neighborhood; someone might hear the gunfire. Njab ate the sandwich in tiny bites to keep his bruised stomach from throwing it back up. He had no doubt there would be no food on the yacht. Whatever they’d had was scarce and they wouldn’t have saved him any. They would have assumed that Jean had fed him.
***
Over at Jeremy and Paul’s, Anney was surprised at how hungry she was. She looked down at the plate Paul set before her that was loaded with grilled pork, pineapple, and zucchini with astonishment. “Paul! You cooked all this? It looks wonderful!”
“Thanks,” Paul said. “Jeremy got me a grill for Christmas and I started using it right away. I even grill when it’s raining,” he grinned.
“It smells so good it sometimes drives the neighbors crazy,” Jeremy said. “We’ve even had people go into the restaurant below us and ask what’s cooking. Now, he’s threatening to take the grill to Hawaii when we go so he can grill on the beach,” as he spoke, he shook his head no.
Paul playfully took Jeremy’s plate away from him but gave it back when Jeremy winked at him.
He listened with great interest to all the details of Anney’s problem. Once in a while, he’d look at Bentley and raise an eyebrow. Quietly, Bentley would nod in agreement. In agreement of what, she wasn’t sure. What’s more, she was too tired to care. It had been a long day and she couldn’t see the end of it. It could be hours before her head hit the pillow and, then, she’d be in someone else’s house. Not that she wasn’t grateful for Jean’s hospitality but, just like Dorothy, Anne felt there was no place like home.
Bentley’s cell phone rang a few times during the meal. Once, it was Jean asking if it was alright for her to let some guy from Anney’s store into her apartment to look for fingerprints. It was obvious that she didn’t believe they were accountants and that she was just playing along. “I could tell she wasn’t happy about it,” Bentley told his friends, “and she didn’t seem at all like the nice matronly lady you guys raved about,” he commented. Something isn’t right. What was she afraid of? He wondered to himself. Did she think that a government man would steal something? Or maybe that the guy would notice some kind of safety infraction? Seattle was hard on safety violations in rentals. That could be it. Some of the older Seattle homes were close together and a fire in one could easily spread to more before it was contained. Jack called Bentley right after that, so there was no time to speculate more about Jean’s reluctance about Anney’s visitors. After he got Anney settled at Jean’s, he’d call Jack back and talk to him about it. Most likely, he’d be in his office; he worked late. There was no one to go home to. Well, Jack did have a big cat he doted on…often, he and the cat visited Bentley’s office in the evenings to have a few beers and shoot some hoops.
At the end of the evening, the fingerprint expert called Bentley to let him know he was leaving the apartment and that he’d lock up. “What took you so long?” Bentley asked.
“Bentley, there were fingerprints everywhere. Especially around her lingerie drawer. It was kind of creepy. I couldn’t figure out what he was looking for but maybe he’s just some kind of sicko. All I know for sure is he didn’t bother to wear gloves!”
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If you liked this excerpt, please share!
Note: This is a scary topic but it is written to inform and entertain ages 19-29 yrs.
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Thanks for stopping by! Janelle
Photo was taken just before a performance of my Geronimo, Life on the Reservation show at Joel McCrea’s Ranch in Thousand Oaks, California. What nice people!
Rudy Ramos as Geronimo
Rudy is now filming Season 2 of Yellowstone with Kevin Costner
and a whole cast of wonderful actors. Written by Taylor Sheridan.
VOTE, WOMEN, VOTE!
EVERYONE is talking about our presidential election in 2020. But if we don’t all turn out and vote THIS NOVEMBER, we will have lost the battle. The Republican party is sharpening its knives to cut our medical, social security, and more. THEN they’ll give the money to the rich in tax cuts and other benefits.
MEANWHILE, the poor get poorer.
Are you in agriculture? Think that big tax cut for farmers is going to help you? Think again. That money will go to the big corporations who are growing food. Not the small farmer.
The same goes for other independent businesses. The rich will get the tax breaks. Our taxes will go up. Even now, when everyone is rejoicing over the increase in pay, inflation is eating up that extra money. Most of you will never see that money in your pocket.
Sure, DUMP TRUMP! But first, get rid of the greedy Republicans who are enabling him. Aren’t you tired of working so hard for so little?
Janelle
P.S. During the Vietnam War, Nixon gave a speech that said, “…the Silent Majority” was with him. I wrote the White House and commented, “The Silent majority isn’t silent because we agree with you. We’re silent because we’re busy praying.”
My husband, who was in Vietnam at the time, was worried. “You didn’t sign it, did you?” he asked. “Of course, I did,” I replied. “This is still a free country, isn’t it?”
So please, forgive me for injecting politics into a literary blog, but free speech is important to a writer. It’s more important to a democracy. Think of it as my test to see if we still have a democracy: THIS IS STILL A FREE COUNTRY, ISN’T IT?
Don’t forget that thing I wrote about voting…don’t wait until 2020. Vote this November. It’s important, or I wouldn’t ask you….(; God bless America.
Janelle (Please share this post!)