Swamp Folk

Just got back from Pierre Part, Louisiana visiting my brother and his wife. Ran into Troy Landry, from the Swamp People series on History Channel, at the local gas station. CHOOT EM!!!

Amazing Grace sung in Cajun French

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cDRoKY6QEaI

St. Mary Parish, Louisiana video with song by Aaron Neville

Photos from St. Mary Parish, Louisiana. Mostly from Morgan City. Home of Nikki Landry in the Legend of Ghost Dog Island.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyDJZNq6Mh4&feature=player_embedded

Ellabug by Gregory Turner-Rahman



Bayou Ellabug and her cousin, Gerard the Gator

I am please to welcome Ellabug to Tales from the Bayou.  She visits us today riding on the back of her cousin, Gerard the Gator. Hello Ellabug!!!!

Don't you just love the picture her creator, Gregory Turner-Rahman did especially for her visit to my blog? I am so honored.

Ahem.  So, now what she came here for...a stop on her blog tour.

About Ellabug:  Ellabug is a delightful picture book story of a very lovable young ladybug, Ellabug, who lives with a diverse family—VERY diverse. Her dad’s a rat and her mother’s a chipmunk. All of her relatives seem to be of a different species from her.

 As Ellabug wonders about other families and wanders off to explore them, she finds a colony of ants. They are all alike. But being alike isn’t all there is to being in a happy family. Ellabug realizes that she wants to go back home, but where is she? Will Ellabug find her way home?

Gregory Turner-Rahman has done a wonderful job of both writing in rhyme and creating the beautiful illustrations for this book.

See Ellabug's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-U48dm2Zt4-Rahman

About Gregory: Gregory Turner-Rahman is currently a professor at the University of Idaho and teaches history, how to create art on a computer, and how to think and communicate visually.

Hello Greg and welcome to my blog. I have a few questions for you that our visitors might like to know.

Where did you come up with the idea for Ellabug, especially her unusual family?

I made up Ellabug when my eldest daughter was very young. We’d read together every night. Actually, we still do – it’s always the best part of my day! She's a teenager now so she probably won't admit to this but when she was small she too loved that time together and wouldn’t want to go to bed. She would try to delay the inevitable by asking me to tell her a story. Ellabug was one of the more polished creations.

This story resonated because my daughter had entered daycare and we began to worry that she saw herself as different from the other kids. We are a multi-racial and multi-cultural family and she started to notice this at very early age. I thought the multi-animal family would be a fun way to talk about the issue to younger kids.

The story revolves around Ellabug’s family and its uniqueness so there is not a lot of action for a big part of the book – it’s a protracted introduction to the characters that surround her. Subsequently, I worked to make it interesting and all the animals truly individuals. Each one is meant to be scruffy and loveable like a well-loved stuffed animal.

I had so much fun creating the family I wanted to use the sketches from initial versions of family members in the final book. I thought about having the pictures of the extended family on the walls of Ellabug's house or as the endpapers (see below). In the end, it seemed like overkill. Although, I must say, I really love the duck with the combover.

Do you have any other books out that we might be able to check out?

Not just yet. Ellabug was my first publication. I do have several new stories in the works. I am starting the drawings for a story called Mike? that also addresses the issue of identity but in a very different way. Keep an eye out for it.

I see you did the art as well as the story. Which came first?

The story really did come first. For me it has to. It gives direction for the artwork. If I get too far along without having resolved the story then both sides of my brain claim dominion over the project. If the story is done, the left brain can relax and feel chuffed while the right brain struts its stuff.

Why did you decide to write Ellabug as a rhyming picture book?

Ok, so you know I created these stories for my daughter - what I am not telling you is that I was really awful at doing it. I couldn’t conjure them up on the spot. So, I’d often squirrel myself away and think up a quick little synopsis for the next night’s story. Ellabug was probably one of the first and it rhymes so that I could remember it. It worked so well that some 7 years later I was able to put it on paper.

Would you like to ask our visitors a question?

Is it important for a children’s book to have a message?

Please leave a comment for Greg or just say hello!

Purchase Ellabug or learn more about Ellabug and Gregory Turner-Rahman at:
http://www.amazon.com/Gregory-Turner-Rahman/e/B003I2B71I
Ellabug is published by Diversion Press
http://www.diversionpress.com/home

Pierre Part, Louisiana

Pierre Part is the setting for my children's Middle Grade fiction, The Legend of Ghost Dog Island.

Pierre Part was founded by Acadian French settlers after the Great Upheaval of 1755, during which much of the French population of Acadia was expelled by its British conquerors. The town remained isolated from most of the world since it is surrounded by water and was not accessible by land until the mid twentieth century. Before the Great Depression the inhabitants of Pierre Part were fisherman. After the Great Depression many men of the town were forced to find work in other fields including logging, levee building, and the growing petroleum industry in Louisiana. Fewer people continue the traditional ways of fishing and living off the land with each generation.

The people of Pierre Part are predominantly of French ancestry, of families who either came directly from France or those who came from Canada (Acadia), and before that, France. Until the early- to mid-twentieth century the people almost exclusively spoke Cajun French at home. This caused the people of Pierre Part and the rest of the Cajun community to labeled as "backwards" or "ignorant" by outsiders, and in many cases from the 1910s to the 1970s, students whose first language was French were punished corporally in school for speaking it. By the 1970s onward extremely few children were taught Cajun French as a first language since the previous generations were taught to be ashamed of their heritage. In the 1990s an effort was made to reintroduce French into the school systems. This became somewhat controversial as the French taught in school was not Cajun French. Many of the teachers brought in were Belgian, French, and Canadian who taught their own dialect of French. However, there are still many who contend that the "Standard French" taught in French Immersion classes at Pierre Part Elementary School is the best chance that local Cajuns have at preserving their language and culture, since there is no written standard for teaching the Cajun dialect of the French language. In 2010 the show Swamp People started recording their show here.

Article facts taken from Wikipedia 4/2/11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Part,_Louisiana

Writing a Synopsis

Recently I had to write a synopsis for a critique. I spent three grueling days trying to narrow down a complete novel into one page. I am posting something I found while googling "how to write a synopsis" that I found helpful. Thought I'd share.

A Basic Guide to Writing Synopses

By Theresa Rizzo 2007

A synopsis is a brief summary of the novel that provides key information about the characters, plot and conflict.

Basics:
· It is almost always written in third person, present tense.

· Do not justify the right margin.

· Use 1" margins on all sides.

· It is common to type a character's name in all caps—or to bold it, the first time he or she is introduced.

· In the synopsis tell the whole story, hitting the essential plot points—including the ending.

· Most agents and editors prefer a fiction synopsis about 2-3 pages double-spaced these days.

· The greatest challenge is to write as cleanly and as tightly as possible, using powerful verbs and few adverb and adjectives.

· Contrary to novel writing, in a synopsis you tell rather than show.

· It’s written as one long unified narrative.

· Use no dialogue.

· Do not include subplots in a very short synopsis.

· Move smoothly from one event to another.

· Weave characterization into the action.

· Be sure to include characters' motivations.

· The tone/style of writing in the synopsis should reflect the tone/style of the book.

I typically start with a premise—or log line. A two sentence little blurb to hook the agent/editor, introduce the main plot, key conflict, and characters, then progress by introducing the main character, what her goal is and why she can’t immediately attain it (conflict). Then we move into the action of the story, but while hitting the highlights of the plot, it’s important to remember to tell the motivation and how the protagonist feels about and is affected by the things that happen in the story.

Do you have any synopsis nightmares or helpful stories to share?

Daylight Savings Time

Tomorrow morning at 2 a.m. it’s time again to turn our clocks ahead an hour…or to Spring Ahead. This happens the second Sunday in March every year. But did you ever ask yourself when we started doing this, and why?

When did it all start?

It seems Benjamin Franklin proposed the idea, while minister of France, when he wrote an essay in 1784 entitled “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.” It would be during World War I when the United States would adopt it—but then repeal it when the war ended. It was reinstated again during World War II. But the states couldn’t agree on whether they wanted it, and when to start and end it. It was in 1966, when Congress finally enacted the Uniform Time Act, which decreed that if a state chose to opt in for daylight saving, it had to be the same time as everyone else. Currently in the U.S., Hawaii, most of Arizona, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Island opt out on daylight savings.

But why should we have it?

The hope is to save energy and use more natural light, although it not proven that the results have been substantial.

Why does it start at 2 a.m. on a Sunday?

It turns out that studies have shown that it is the least disruptive time and day to make the change—when most people are asleep and do not have to get up early Sunday morning for work.

When does the time change back?

This year, the clocks will return to normal, causing us to gain an extra hour, on Sunday, November 6, and you guessed it, at 2 a.m.

Whether you like daylight savings or hate it, get out there and enjoy the extra hour of light…according to your clock that is.

For me, the extra daylight makes me want to be out working in my garden until all hours, forgetting that I need to work on my manuscript.

How does daylight savings time affect you? Do you hate it or love it?

Fat Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras.

Call it what you will, but it all means one thing: PARTY! This annual event marks the last day before Lent begins, when Catholics traditionally "give up" a habit or vice.

In New Orleans, as well as a few other cities in the south, Mardi Gras is a full-out celebration, with a huge parade, parties, and more food than you could ever imagine. “Throw me something, mister!!!” But, whether you plan to give anything up for Lent or not, for most people in Louisiana, Mardi Gras is an excuse to just live it up!

How do you plan to celebrate this Fat Tuesday?

The Hurricane

When a hurricane comes into your life and leaves with all you own but the clothes on your back, you remember her name…for the rest of your life.

Mine was Audrey. She came to Cameron, Louisiana in June of 1957 and left with over 500 souls. Luckily, she left mine and my family’s intact to live to face another storm. But none would match the scars she left on my young life. She took my home. She took my toys. But worst of all, she took all of our family photos and keepsakes. My father, who was a fisherman, had to get a job in New Orleans; my mother had to go to work. Our family got spit up, me staying with my grandmother, my brothers and sister gone to different relatives…for months until our family could reunite again in a small one room shack my dad built. For years after, and even today, folks that lived in Southwest Louisiana during 1957, measure time by using the terms before or after “the hurricane.” They all remember Audrey.

I know the children that lived through Katrina will remember her name as long as they live, and remember what she took away from them. Those that survived her wrath, will always measure time with before or after THE hurricane.

Has there been an event in your life that has left a permanent impression?

Paying it Forward

Following the lead of fellow writer, Shelli Johannes-Wells, I am paying forward the opportunity Shelli has offered on her blog.

http://faeriality.blogspot.com/2011/01/need-agent-pay-it-forward-contest.html

I would like to thank my fellow crittters for all their help with my manuscript, including KC Frantzen, author of May on the Way.  See her web site at: http://www.maythek9spy.com/

I have a Dream

As I watch the “I have a dream” speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, I wonder what I could say to enhance his dream.

"All God's Children." There is no way to say that better than he did.

But, I have a dream that people will no longer be classified by race.

We have come a long, long way, but equality will never happen until we can see that we all are more alike than we are different.

  It is human nature to want to belong to a certain group, a culture, that one can identify with.  But, when all that is seen is “differences,” racism will fester.
We clung together as Americans—and nothing more—during and after the attack of 9/11. That should be the norm, not the exception.

My ancestors (Acadians) were forced here by the British after their property and land in Nova Scotia was taken. They were abused, raped, separated from their families, and many sent to the American colonies to work as indentured servants (slaves that had to work for years to obtain their freedom). We lovingly call ourselves Cajuns and embrace that culture, but we are Americans! Our ancestors forceably left their homelands, but became part of the new land that they helped build.

When I fill out a form that wants my race, I simply choose "other."  Because no form can accurately account for the multitude of races that have come together to make me who I am today.

Let’s realize the great Martin Luther King’s dream fully, by making us all simply Americans!

Another New Year

A Fresh Start

The resolution. A promise to yourself that you will give up or do something better than you did last year. Everyone does it--every year. But, how many of us break most of our resolutions by the end of January?

I found that once I break that resolution, I give it up--until next year, when I start the process all over again. Therefore, I don’t make resolutions.

 The Trick

Instead of resolutions, I trick myself by making goals instead. You see, if I make a goal, I give myself until the end of the year to complete, or come close to completing it. It has worked for me for the past ten years or so. I write them down in my planner under “goals,” and every few months I check on my progress. That gives me extra chances to give myself a kick in the butt.

For instance, if I make a goal to get or keep my weight under a certain number, and I find myself slipping, I can get myself back on track. But, if I make a “resolution” to stop eating chocolate, by February I am throwing in the towel—for good. I know I will never give up chocolate anyway, so that’s just ridiculous. I need that chocolate to get over my rejection letters!

Keeping it Real

Don’t make a goal that you know you can’t possibly reach, Keep it real. Then break it down into smaller goals.

Like the weight thing. Virtually everyone makes a goal to lose weight, yet we are the same weight or fatter at the end of the year. To keep it real, you can make the goal to get your weight under a certain mark, but beneath that goal, you need smaller goals to help you stay on track. For instance:

#1. I will walk 20 minutes every day.

#2. I will eat chocolate only after I have completed a week of goal #1.

By completing the smaller goals, you will find the larger goal takes care of itself.

Know Your Values

Your goals should be in sync with your values. For instance, if you value family, one of your goals could be to set aside more time to spend with them. You can make it a point to schedule vacations with family, or take the grandchildren to a movie once a month. If you have creative values, don’t put them aside to take care of everyone else’s needs.

Include a goal that sets aside time for things that make you smile. Then your other goals will become easier.

Results

Every year, I make about five main goals, and usually complete at least four of them by the end of the year. And that’s a whole lot better than when I used to make resolutions.

The Legend of the Bottle Tree

Have you ever been driving through Louisiana, or some other southern state,  and noticed a tree with colored bottles either hanging from it or stuck onto their branches? More than likely they were blue bottles. No, they are not a poor man’s stained glass display.

It is said that this traditional practice was brought here by the Africans during the slave trade. In the Congo, Natives have hung hand-blown glass on huts and trees to ward off evil spirits since the ninth century, and perhaps earlier.

The Legend is told that the spirits are attracted to the sparkling color of the bottles, blue ones seemingly more enticing. The moaning sound made by the wind as it passes over the bottle openings are said to be proof that a spirit is trapped within.

Whether you believe the legend or not, the trees are a sight to behold, displayed in various shapes, sizes, and forms, as beautiful yard and garden decorations.










An excerpt from Eudora Welty’s short story Livvie, describes one such tree:

“…Then coming around up the path from the deep cut of the Natchez Trace below was a line of bare crape-myrtle trees with every branch of them ending in a colored bottle of green or blue.

There was no word that fell from Solomon’s lips to say what they were for, but Livvie knew that there could be a spell put in the trees, and she was familiar from the time she was born with the way bottle trees kept evil spirits from coming into the house – by luring them inside the colored bottles, where they cannot get out again.”

A bottle tree is featured in the movie, Ray, a Ray Charles biopic. And again in the Princess and the Frog, a cartoon movie set in New Orleans, where bottle trees hang in the bayou.

In my children’s Novel, The Legend of Ghost Dog Island, a bottle tree adorns the front entrance of a voodoo woman’s shack. Excerpt below:

 

“What y’all want?” The yellow glow from a kerosene lamp cast the shadowy outline of scraggly hair and humped shoulders.

I took my braid and twisted it between my fingers. “I’m looking for my dog, ma’am.”

“What kinda dog?” The face pushed closer to the small window and into view.

Red paint decorated the porch and railing—or was it blood? Some sort of animal skin hung from nails.

She was a witch all right. My hands felt sweaty. “A beagle, ma’am.” My voice cracked. “Do you have a beagle?” I remembered the three quarters, two dimes, and six pennies Patti and I got from her piggy bank in case we needed it to buy Snooper back. “I have money.”

The door creaked open. “Come on in.” A wrinkled eye peered through the crack.

Spikes took a step forward.

I followed close behind him. I didn’t want to go in that creepy shack, but I sure didn’t want to go back through the swamp alone. A slight breeze blew up, triggering a tinkling sound behind me. I turned to see colored bottles hanging from a nearby tree. The moonlight bounced off the deep-blue glass like fireflies dancing in the warm night air.

“Look at that.” I pointed to the display.

“Yeah, it’s a bottle tree. Some folks ’round here make those to trap evil spirits, to keep them away,” Spikes whispered.

“She wants to keep evil away?”

 

Book now available at Musa Publishing, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

 

~~~~~~~

If you choose to read further, see Felder Rushing, of www.felderrushing.net, who has done extensive research on the topic of bottle trees . More information, along with more photos of bottle trees,can also be found at cafemom.com. 

NANO-Bah Humbugggg

Well, National Novel Writing Month has come and gone, and I managed to get my usual word count. Around 20,000 words. I just envy those people that can whip out 50,000 words in a month. I had very good intentions this year. I was going to plug away at the keyboard and GIT R DONE. And even with all those encouraging words from the NANO team, things still seem to come up in the month of November. Like house guests, Thanksgiving, getting the house set up for Christmas, and gift buying. Not to mention, Solitaire, Free Cell, and I can’t ignore my Facebook friends.

Sigh! Which makes congratulations to those that did stick it out even more special.

 As I say each year, I really think NANO would work better in the looooong month of March, when holidays are done, Christmas stuff is put away, house guests are gone, and nothing is happening but getting through the winter.

Spanish Cajuns

Did you know...that the town of New Iberia, Louisiana, in the heart of Cajun country, was founded by Spanish settlers from Malaga, Spain?  Spanish descendants in Louisiana are also known as Cajuns, even though they may not have descended from Acadian settlers.  Most of their names have been changed to French sounding names through the years. Some of my direct ancestors made the long and arduous trip from Malaga to New Iberia in 1778-79.

The following excerpt was taken from: “Historia de Alhaurín de la Torre en la Edad Moderna, 1489-1812”, by José Manuel de Molina Bautista. Alhaurín de la Torre, Published in November 2005. ISBN 84-609-7905-9) and can be found at:

http://www.thecajuns.com/malaguenos%20in%20la.pdf

"At the present time, surnames attributed to the Malagueños, such as Segura, Romero, Viator (a modification of the Spanish name Villatoro) and Gary (a modification of the Spanish name Garrido) can still be found in Louisiana. Still more important is the persistence of the descendants of Malagueños who honor their Spanish heritage, in a territory where the French Acadian descendants are a majority and who mainly promote France and the French culture as a sign of identity of the regional ancestry.

In this part of Louisiana the descendants of the French and the Spanish are called “cajuns", a word that is commonly used to signify anyone from the region of South Louisiana, regardless of whether they are of French Acadian heritage or not. Although, in New Iberia, the families with Spanish surnames still proudly refer to their ancestors as “Malagueños”. As Stanley LeBlanc, who has Malagueños ancestors in his genealogy, told us: "I’ve been trying to educate my readers about the fact that the Spanish in Louisiana are all Cajuns, but they never were Acadians”.