From the Porch Swing

memories of our grandparents

Full of It

(a sample of editors’ online conversation)

The Quartet

This is good.
And it has lots of words for me to correct.

I can see you jumping up and down with glee —
clapping your hands together.
Sometimes...I think maybe...
you are far too giddy about corrections.

I think they should both be grownup —
btw, that’s one of those words that gets really weird
when you look at it very long!!

duz thiss sehntance mayk yew crayzee?

far too giddy? hMMM...
seems just about right to me!

crayzee

sticking out your tongue?
Good.
Good place to hang edits.
on to the next POO

is that ‘point of order’ or brown stuff?
which is better OOB or POO?

OOB is almost Boob
brown stuff. Sniff
‘‘‘'uber POO'

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Song of County Roads

by Ginny Greene

Meet Ginny Greene and learn more about Song of County Roads.

Song of County Roads was released in September, 2009. Fans of Ginny Greene's delightful pieces in the three anthologies will find even more of the same in this delightful collection of wisdom, humor, self-deprecating family history, goats, bugs, children, grandchildren, and nature.

Do you have music in you not yet sung? This recombined family took their city tune and rearranged it in a rural setting. To their daily amazement it was no simple melody. Their music composed a symphony of life: Song of County Roads.

Foreword

Enchanting farms hosted my family while we all grew up together. The farms gathered us in and taught us the lyrics of their Song. These stories wag back and forth between the first in Eastern Washington, and the next in West Texas.

The Cast of Characters, besides myself, are the grandkids:

Punkin, the oldest,
Sweet Pea,
Peanut,
and their mother, Puddin'
Smiley Riley and his mother, Precious
and MyKeeper (a pretty good guy – I think I'll keep him)

My clan approves their pet names. They get to claim it or blame it, depending on whether they want to be the star of the story or pin it on their sisters. This doesn't even begin to include all the dogs, the barn cats, my goat buddies, the hawk on the telephone pole surveying his kingdom for food, or Lydia the Lady Mockingbird who comes by to chat.

Count in all the critters crawling, stinging, burrowing, nesting, cheeping, and buzzing, who also call our plot of ground home. Together, we sing the Song.

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This Path

Meet our authors for This Path.

This Path was released in September, 2009. The promise of more to come, made by Silver Boomers, a collection of prose and poetry by and about baby boomers, fulfilled in part in Freckles to Wrinkles reaches its destination with This Path. Somewhere between the dream life predicted in our high school yearbooks and now, lies the Path we actually walked: This Path. These pages mark the trails stamped out and the journey imprinted upon those who write from around the country and a few places beyond.

The tradition continues with the Quartet's final poem:

Let go my bone!

The Quartet

Becky says italics, Ginny says quotes.
I vote resent...er...present.
You do understand it's a typo (or a Freudian slip!), right?
Freudian typo.
Does anyone care that this is a made-up word?
What's that noise?
Old dogs learning new tricks. Woof!
Arf!
Ruh! Roh!
Barbark!
Oh Gawd! people are going to start
questioning our sanity if we add barks
arfs and ruh rohs to a poem!
(You're just going to add this line as well aren't you?)
I think it's woof, because I feel an ARF coming...
Oh, it's stuck. Well, next time.
That's disgusting!

quark quark quark
quack quack quack
You know you have to add Quark to the TM list, yes?

"Freckles to Winkles" – is that with one eye or two?
Only "Hawaii" has two I's.

wink-wink
And yes, I think we're done!
Except for the paranoia bit.
You people scare me

I'd like this one better without the commas.
It goes straight forward with no hitches
to confuse the reader.
Excellent run-on sentence.

That whooshing sound was this whole conversation thread
going right over my head.
I'm going to leave you nuts here on the tree and go to bed.

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Freckles to Wrinkles

Meet our authors for Freckles to Wrinkles.

Freckles to Wrinkles was released in July, 2008. The promise of more to come, made by Silver Boomers, a collection of prose and poetry by and about baby boomers, comes to life in Freckles to Wrinkles. While the wait for F2W, as we affectionately call the volume, wasn't as long or painful as our flinging around the learning curve on Silver Boomers, the result is at least as good – and maybe better!

Freckles to Wrinkles brings you the wit and wisdom of generations. The first book of the series, Silver Boomers – a collection of prose and poetry by and about baby boomers, spotlighted Baby Boomers growing up. Freckles to Wrinkles widens the circle to embrace the span of memories from budding childhood to ripest age. This volume continues the tradition of the Crawl Line and the Quartet's cyber editing challenges.

In these pages, you'll bike through a neighborhood with a former paper boy as he tosses a square-folded newspaper sort of in the direction of a porch; ponder with a poet as she wonders who, really, is wise; wear the ill-fitting cleated football shoes of a loyal young team player.

Take a moment to consider a mother's hands, try to remember the face of your best friend in grade school, sing along with a generation of voices, let juice of plums fresh off the tree dribble from your chin. Chuckle with the one who lifts the receiver of a party-line telephone. Splash in a summer puddle with siblings and into a chilly creek at the end of a thrilling sled ride. Stare down the mountain lion with the boy whose trusty steed left him sitting in the dusty road.

You are invited to travel these pages with the human spirit that is ever fresh from the first freckles to the last wrinkles.

Tradition, begun with Silver Boomers, bids us reveal our cyber editing problems, and so here—

I'm Coming Down with Something the Quartet Toboggan… Isn't that a sled? usage these days is common, beanie, skullcap, tam, toboggan so new it's not even in the dictionary though accepted widely maybe substitute another word, a proper dictionary definition is it regional? a Southern expression? our book is for a wider market we could do a starred footnote, you know – a star and a definition like this — * a cap, tam, beanie, skullcap Oh. No. Not finished with this — I can't stop myself, can't let it go yet, till I spill the silly thought — * this toboggan's for your noggin'! What are we going to do with all this candy?! It IS a trademarked product. AUGGHH! (Is that how Charlie Brown spells it?) Maybe AARRGGHH! for ® The inconsistency in capitals and punctuation is making me crazy! What did we do with dates? Dates? I thought they were plums. 1960's, 1950s, '60's, '70s? Oh, those dates – lived them large! Put on your red hat, Mama. Who voted a five for this piece? Not me! I'll trade you — one childhood fantasy for one teen romance. Throw in one Alzheimers essay and it's a deal. Comma, colon, hyphen, dash, dingbats, quotes and other hash — my eyes are crossed, I have a rash — I'm sure it's Editors' Balderdash.

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Silver Boomers

a collection of prose and poetry by and about baby boomers

Meet our authors for Silver Boomers.

The first and lead book of Silver Boomer Books, Silver Boomers appeared March, 2008, to rave reviews. Here's what people are saying:

Belly laughs and tears of nostalgia, April 24, 2008

Every reader will connect with these stories. I laughed out loud, got misty-eyed with memories, and was brought face-to-face with the fact that life still has much more on my agenda. Thanks Silver Boomers!

By Herschel Crawford (Oregon)

My new "Favorite Book Ever", April 23, 2008

Starting off with a capturing cover, simple/abstract picture within a picture of more than a thousand words, those words within the pages of Silver Boomers.

The mixture of story/poem/story kept the pages turning, but not turned before enjoying the marquee ticker tape running along the bottom of each page through the entire book.

Memories reminded and were made throughout this masterfully edited anthology. Kudos to all involved.

By Carl Palmer (University Place, WA)

A wonderful read, April 22, 2008

I purchased this as a gift for my mother but decided to peruse it first. I found it to be a wonderfully reflective look at the past, present, and future...

Of course I was drawn in immediately (It's kind of like giving a box of chocolates but on the way tasting a few to make sure they are ok - however, not arriving with an empty box!) and found myself not in the company of my mother's peers but in the close comfort of a creative group of writers that understand and explore life and the impacts of society. The wonderful part of reading a collection of different writers is the broad range of emotions and intellectual thoughts that are evoked as each page turns.

Yes - I know my mother will like this too as there is a flavor for everyone!

Peter C. Dubro "PeterD." (Boston)

Beautifully pieced poems and stories, April 22, 2008

I read this book, though it reads fast, you want to go back and re-read everything in it. I have officially read through it four times since I got it because you can find a new little tidbit each time that you missed the times before. It is a gem of a read, with flashback like memoirs and shorts, and beautifully timed poems. I get the feeling of a Chicken Soup book, but this is much better because nothing seems to drag on, you can tell each piece was carefully selected, not just thrown in to fill pages. This book is not JUST for baby boomers, but for anyone with a baby boomer in their life, or anyone who enjoys that era. I hope to see more from these authors soon! I will be recommending this to a lot of my family and friends.

S.J.B. "MommyX2NKY" (La Grange, KY, USA)

Crawling the Crawl Line Editing an Anthology in the Electronic Age The Quartet Rubik's cube grassy knoll and an island never cries. What's a crawl line? words across a TV screen a different footer on every page is that hard? don't you hate those jobs that start with "all you have to do is...?" Scarlett. Two T's. Bhurma, Myanmar. Do you mean Burma? No, before it was that wasn't it Bhurma? China/Bhurma/India theater. Daddy roomed in Delhi with pilots who flew the hump, said never play poker with guys who gamble with their lives. Do we need those r's in a circle? type (r). If you don't like it, hit control y immediately. I hope that works on fractions, I like 1/2 not ½. I was able to get into the current draft. And I thank you for the hard copy printout. I finished it. Now what? We really got some good stuff. Here are the nits I've picked. Coco Chenille. Is she the one that designed those fuzzy jackets? ☺ Do we have Well-Travelled Bag twice? or is it just my imagination? Nope. It's moved a lot (well-travelled) but it's just in there once. It IS a well-travelled bag. I'll bet she didn't imagine we'd use it while waiting for a grand-daughter to use it! I think Noriega was Daniel, not Benito if we're still crawling: Weird Al Yankovich, "It's the real thing," Oh, ps - by the way. I'm back on Gmail. Hooray for Larry. "Hats off to Larry" – Del Shannon. "bussing" is kissing. school "busing" will always look misspelled! My misspelling's never deliberate! I wrote home from college and my sister said I spelled chocolate 9 different ways, never right. Spellchecker, Al Gore invented the Internet. On to the crawl line Back to top