Catching up, Thinking Blogger torch gets passed...

I've been a bit out of the loop the last few days. I've been lurking, making a quick comment or two, but my heart hasn't been in blogland lately.
Let's catch up, shall we? (cue dramatic music...)

Thanks for all your comments and prayers for my friend's son. Good news - latest cat scan indicates that Owen's brain tumor was excised in its entirety. Bad news - still no clue what caused it as the biopsy results are still pending.

My Sweetness (aka almost-three-year old son) had to undergo a horrible test at the hospital last Friday which I still have trouble thinking about. The poor little munchkin had to be catheterized while me and two nurses held him down. It was awful!! He was crying hysterically, I was fighting tears and the whole thing went on too long. They pumped dye into his little bladder for a series of x-rays, then... I can't even go on.
Emotionally, I'm just all beat up. Poor kiddo is back in diapers cause he's so afraid his 'willy' will hurt. I'm very mad at our doctor for not preparing us for this ordeal. We thought it was an ultrasound, as in No Pain. Had I know it was such an invasive procedure, I would have exhausted all other avenues of diagnosis first. Totally unnecessary...

It get's happier from here, I promise...

It's MAY!! My book, Destiny by Design comes out in 17 days. Yes, I'm counting! Wouldn't you? :) I'm going to be posting the blurb, a few hook lines and an excerpt over the next few weeks and have already decided on a Destiny-themed Thursday Thirteen.

I finished book 24 in the 50 Book Challenge: Margaret Moore's The Duke's Desire.
Yipee! Almost 1/2 way to my goal and I'm slightly ahead of schedule. I've got a Jennifer Crusie to tackle next. This is my first Crusie, so it better be good!

And speaking of books, I just received another installment of Notes & Reflections from Uncle Mike, which I shall post tomorrow.

My wonderful darling husband is creating a new website for me. It's AWESOME! I scrutinized every author website out there looking for components I liked in terms of tone, color, headers, content, rollovers, you name it. Yes, if you have a website, I've examined it thoroughly!
There are some AMAZING examples out there -- author's truly are a creative bunch! The hardest part was capturing the essence of 'me'. It's great to say that Daisy Dexter Dobbs has a fun site, or KJ Howe's is da bomb, but I needed an image, a look, a design that screams WYLIE! And because I haven't really put myself in a tidy little 'niche' box just yet, it was difficult to pinpoint the feel. Having said that, I'm tickled red white and pink with what my DH has come up with. We've still got quite a bit of content to upload, but I hope to debut it within the next 2 weeks.

Finally, I've been terrible to ignore the fact that Susan Helene Gottfried honored me with the Thinking Blogger Award over a week ago and I haven't passed the torch. So here goes, in no particular order:
Thomma Lyn - her writing quotes always stir interesting discussion and make me look at particular aspects of my writing that may not have come front-of-mind unless provoked.

Candy Minx - I don't even know where to begin. This woman is smart, and talented, and creative and inspiring. Her eclectic posts - art, music, television, movies, books, issues - are so thought provoking that I often have to go back and reread them a second time just to absorb it all.

Here are the rules, for you newly tagged folk...
How participation works: If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

(I know I'm supposed to tag five, but I'll start with these two and give some more thought to the others. There are just so many great blogs out there!)

Finally, finally,... If you haven't yet voted in the The Blogger Awards, don't forget I'm up for a Blogitzer and would greatly appreciate your vote. Just click the link and do your thing - THANKS!

Guest Blogger - Uncle Mike's Reflections

I'm pleased to present the second installment of Uncle Michael's Reflections. He chose a novel 'close to home' rather than a standard best-seller, and I think he found a treasure. Once you read his report, I'm sure you'll agree that it's not the number of copies a book sells, but how it speaks to you, how it reflects the thoughts and emotions of a particular time in our lives.
What that says about me and uber-alpha vampires, I just don't know...

(remember... British accent! You can even imagine a smoking jacket and crystal tumbler of Brandy if that helps)
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Reflection Notes & Review

Date: 15th February 2007

Subject: The Listeners by Monica Dickens, First published 1970

Exactly what happened and why in that way?

I discovered this novel on a shelf in the local Samaritans branch where I am listening volunteer. It is a somewhat scruffy, dark blue hardback without a dust jacket. A good 30 years old, it was a slightly foxed, probably ex-library, edition. As well as being well thumbed it had been used more than once as a coaster for coffee and tea mugs. I immediately noticed that it was dedicated to Chad Varah. He was the man who inspired and founded the Samaritan movement in 1953, that now provides a 24/7 emotional support helpline service to around 5 million callers in distress and despair in the UK every year. There are now 170 branches and just short of 20,000 volunteers. Our own branch has 120 volunteers taking around 2,000 calls and e-mails each month. So much for the context, so back to my reflection. I couldn’t resist taking the book home. It will be returned, trust me. It has some 300 pages, based around a fictional Samaritans branch, its callers, its visitors, and almost equally, the lives of the Centre’s volunteers. I eagerly consumed the book in three or four sittings and wrote this reflection note around a week after I finished it.

How did I behave, think and feel?

The novel traces the lives of the collection of callers, face to face and by phone, to the Samaritans centre. These included Jackie, a young man with learning difficulties and the, oh so vulnerable Tim, whose mental health problems led via a rescued suicide bid through hospitalisation to semi-independent living and the touchingly naïve loving relationship to a tragic ending. Another was a debt-ridden housewife, weighed down with the guilt of an opportunistically stolen wallet with a pathetically small sum of bills. Equally detailed and sensitive treatment was given to the listening Samaritan volunteers—an assortment of male and female, young and old and their interesting and somewhat tortured lives. The mechanics of listening are so well described, including the pulse quickening jangle of the phone, the desperation of the despairing callers, the volunteers desire to really help, and the bonds between volunteers who choose to spend all night together listening to and offering unconditional emotional support to their anonymous callers. And of course the volunteers own lives were by no means immune to the pains of the human condition that they heard described so painfully every hour.

One paragraph spoke straight to my heart, and captured uncannily accurately, the experience of a busy shared nightshift. “You know why you were there. Could even sometimes begin to grow towards an idea of who you were, as the pretence and defences fell away before the urgent truth of human contact”

Of course, there are seismic differences between the work of Samaritans and the social mores of the late Sixties and those of the early 21st century. That said much more was the same. I found myself frequently nodding in agreement and aching for the callers and the volunteers and recognising the emotional pain so deftly described.

What were the main Learning points?

I am conscious that this reflection says as much about me as it does about the book.

• What were my motivations in reading this book? What was I looking for? Why would anyone do this work? Why do the volunteers in the novel put themselves through the challenges and disappointments of their chosen voluntary activity? Do I really know why I do it? When thinking about what I’ve taken from this book, I have ended up with many more questions than answers.

So what will I do differently, (is that a SMART goal)?

Now this is difficult. If all I’ve gained from the reading is questions, what to do next is really taxing me. I guess what this book has given to me is reinforcement of the enduring and priceless value of one human being, giving totally non-judgemental listening to another.

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Thanks, Unc!

My own follow-up: Monica Dickens, the great granddaughter of Charles Dickens, was born in 1915 in London and died in 1992. A prolific author, she wrote for both adults and children. Check out the Wikipedia link to learn more about her humanitarian efforts.