Thursday, April 30, 2015

May Day: flowers on the door, or a distress signal?


                                     
                                          May is a very interesting month. 



For Catholics, 
it's the month to honor the Virgin Mary.

For Pagans, it's the month of the Goddess, and the holiday Beltane
It is also the month for May baskets, 
                                                                     
Maypoles, 





                                             Mother's Day, 


              And Saving the whales.

                            But amidst all those happy inferences, 
                                 Mayday is also a distress signal!


Mayday, mayday, mayday
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me".




It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by mariners and aviators but in some countries local organizations such as police forces, firefighters, and transportation organizations may also use the term. The call is always given three times in a row ("Mayday Mayday Mayday") to prevent mistaking it for some similar-sounding phrase under noisy conditions, and to distinguish an actual Mayday call from a message about a Mayday call.

The Mayday call sign was originated in 1923 by Frederick Stanley Mockford (1897–1962). A senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London, Mockford was asked to think of a word that would indicate distress and would easily be understood by all pilots and ground staff in an emergency. Since much of the traffic at the time was between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris, he proposed the word "Mayday" from the French m’aider, as mentioned above, which means "come help me." 


     Making a hoax mayday call is a criminal act in many countries because of the danger to the rescuers' lives that a search-and-rescue operation can create, the potential for real emergencies elsewhere, as well as the very high costs of such rescue efforts. 



For example, making a false distress call in the United States is a federal crime carrying sanctions of up to six years imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000. The coast guard can be contacted in situations that are not emergencies (out of fuel, etc.) by calling "Coastguard, Coastguard, Coastguard, this is (name of vessel)", on VHF channel 16. In many countries special training and a license are required to use a mobile radio transmitter legally, although anyone may legally use one to summon help in a real emergency.

That's all for now...
                             Wishing you baskets of flowers, 
             and never having to use Mayday,Mayday, Mayday.

Visit me at my website

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Longmont Library Festival 2015


"Where's Mom? She's not in there."
"I think she's at the Longmont Library Festival"
"Hope she gets home in time to feed us supper"



     Indeed, that's where I was.What a fun day. 
                 Thank you Longmont Library for including me.



                                My sister, Kathy, and I had a great time. 






Lots of nice and interesting folks stopped by to chat. The library volunteers made sure we found our tables, received a goody bag, (thank you), and they kept us supplied with plenty of bottled water and smiling faces.  



After the book signing, there was a meet and greet, with the best punch I've had in a long time, and a gorgeous yummy cake. 




 I reconnected with authors I'd met the year before, and chatted with new authors learning about their genres, and discovering a few new local author groups. 

                                    It was a memorable day.

www.ginirifkin.com

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

25% sale #AReBlast

    


    All WILD ROSE PRESS BOOKS 25% off 
                at All Romance Ebooks.com 




Sunday, April 12, 2015

Longmont Colorado Library Festival 2015



CELEBRATING READERS AND WRITERS



A full week of fun. 
Hope to see you on Saturday 4/18 at the author book signing. 
1pm to 3pm



                                     All events will happen at the 
Longmont Public Library, 409 Fourth Ave.
Saturday, April 11, 6 to 9 p.m.: Teen Second Saturday with the Boulder County Bombers. Featuring pizza, games and demonstrations from the roller derby team
Sunday, April 12, 2 to 3 p.m.: Spanish dance program featuring guitarist Steve Mullins, percussionist Brett Bowen, and Flamenco dancer Maria Vazquez
Monday, April 13, 6 to 8:30 p.m.: Library anthology reading and signing
Tuesday, April 14, 1 p.m.: Illustration
demonstration with illustrator Dorothy Donahue
Wednesday, April 15, 11 a.m.:OneBook4Colorado Storytime Celebration with book giveaways and a magic show
Thursday April 16, 7p.m.: TaraShea Nesbit will read and discuss her new book, "The Wives of Los Alamos"
Saturday, April 18, 1 to 3 p.m.: Authors' Open House featuring Colorado authorsMore information:http://tinyurl.com/libraryfest
                               visit me at



Wednesday, April 8, 2015

TCRW Romancing the 8 April 2015

                   


     Welcome to TCRW Romancing the 8   
 blog hop for April 2015 

                        Today my eight sentences are from 
                              The Dragon and The Rose, 
    my adventurous romance set in the Medieval era, a time when magic still existed, and love could conquer a reluctant knight's heart.
****
  A monstrous wave tossed the tiny ship about with disinterested ease, and the windblown sea-spray added another layer of freezing mist to all that it touched. With a hand pale as death, Martanzia Verheire drew her sodden cloak closer about her shivering body. Now she was cold as well as afraid.

  Another breaker of grotesque proportions swept the listing craft upward, and for one breathless moment, the boat clung to the frothy
crest. Then the unseen pelagic hand relinquished its grip, and the floundering craft careened downward at a riotous angle.

 Clawing at the slippery surface, Martanzia fought to remain seated on the heaving deck. Her senses reeled and her stomach rebelled. 
   
   Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined sailing from Flanders to England would be such a dreadful ordeal.



 ****
Visit these authors today for more sneak peeks at great stories.


****



                               The Dragon and The Rose
England 1100 A.D.
A Norman warrior—seeking land rather than love.
A Saxon good-faith hostage—seeking freedom and restitution.

     Sir Branoc Valtaigne, ordered to Northumbria By King William II, fights to keep peace along the Scottish border. A formidable battle-tested warrior, he honors his vows to God, king, and country, but a young woman’s smile may prove to be his undoing.

     Martanzia Verheire, tricked into standing as good faith hostage for Flanders, seeks freedom from castle Bamburgh and love from Sir Branoc. As she clings to the Celtic dragon statue given to her by her mother, she leads them all to the brink of an era where true magic will be gone forever, but where dreams can still come true.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Long and Short Review Spring Fling 2015


                                                       long and short reviews spring fling                                        


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Bunnies, and Springtime, 
and Colored eggs, oh my.

   Spring, the very word means jump, and that is what is happening all around us. The Johnny Jump-up flowers are poking their heads up out of the earth, robin redbreasts are hopping about, and cottontail rabbits are leaping in the air—now Mad as a March hare is beginning to make sense. And speaking of rabbits, how did they come to deliver those brightly colored eggs?

   According to the Venerable Bede, Eostre was the Saxon version of the Germanic Goddess Ostara. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the Vernal Equinox—almost the identical calculation as for the Christian Easter in the west. 
 
  One popular legend is that the Goddess found a bird, wounded on the ground late in winter. To save its life, she transformed it into a hare. But the transformation was not complete. The bird took the appearance of a hare, but retained the ability to lay eggs...the hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Ostara."



   Another myth states that one day, while sitting in a garden with her young entourage, a lovely songbird fluttered down to sit on Ostara’s hand.  She whispered a few words, and the bird was transformed into her favorite animal, the rabbit. 
   

      This delighted the children, until they noticed that the rabbit was trembling with fear and anguish. That's when everyone realized how unhappy the rabbit was at this transformation as it could no longer sing nor soar into the sky. 


   The children begged Ostera to reverse the spell, but having broken the "as ye harm none, do as ye will" rule, she found her power diminished to a point where she was no longer able to do so. The former bird must remain a rabbit for most of the year except at the onset of spring, when the power of the Goddess is at its height. 



   Then the rabbit can return to its bird-form for a short while and lay its eggs. In celebration of its brief freedom and to reward the children who asked Ostara to undo the spell, the rabbit carries its eggs to children throughout the world.
 
   To honor the creature she had wronged, Ostara etched the outline of a rabbit into the full moon, where you can see it facing left. Thus it soars safely against the sky, far removed from the perils that threaten it down here on Earth.

  Wherever you are when you look up, may you find magic in the Moon, and new beginnings in the Spring.


             Thanks for joining in the
      Long and Short Reviews Spring Fling!
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