Amanda Harris

This is for all those out there who deal with chronic pain. I have had a bug for a while now (going on and off for 4 weeks) that included headaches, body aches, puking, and a very foggy brain. I was running on empty and drained from being in pain. The day after I finally started the antibiotics my symptoms went away and now I am just building my energy back up and hoping my brain will come out of the flu-fog. As I am healing I can't help but think of all the people who can't find complete relief from their pain, who deal with it on a day to day basis and hope for the best each morning when they wake up. My Mom deals with Fibromyalgia. The Mayo Clinic's definition of Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain in your muscles, ligaments and tendons, as well as fatigue and multiple tender points — places on your body where slight pressure causes pain. This pain can be very severe and occurs often. My Mom and a lot of other people, mainly women, li...

So I have been trying to come up something funny to write about. It is a lot easier said than done. Literally. I can't think of a single funny thing to write about to encourage readers to subscribe and want more of me. My husband says I am funny, but I pay him well to say nice things to me so I can't take his word. I have nothing funny myself, so I will share with you something that made me laugh so hard today from someone who does it for a living. Tommy Johnagin is a pretty funny guy and here is what he had to say about marriage; (I am paraphrasing) "If a marriage is successful some one gets to watch the other one die. Eventually that is what happens in all successful marriages. If a marriage fails and ends in divorce you have to have sex with lots of different women...and that would really suck!"  I don't now why in hindsight that joke made me laugh so much. I think because technically it is the truth, all great marriages end in death, there is so much more ...

William Sydney Porter (pen Name O'Henry)is the master of short stories. Hands down. Don't argue with me on this because I will make you very sorry. He twists up a story line perfectly and leaves me wanting more after every single story However, it must be said that he can twist a sentence with as much style, and give deeper meaning to words than they had before. In his story “A Furnished Room” O’Henry uses imagery to bring the reader into the state of mind of the protagonist. The protagonist does not come into the story until after two whole descriptive paragraphs that give the reader a glimpse into the tedious world that the tenants of the red brick district of the lower West Side. After the reader understands the “homeless” shifty state of these renters does O’Henry introduce the protagonist, not giving him a name. After ringing twelve bells the ‘young man’ finds an available rental. The description of the lady who answers the door gives me the creeps and sets a tone for the ...

Photos by Jason Harris.

Okay. So I was a bit hesitant to do a book review because who am I do judge another writer? Well I will tell you, I am the READER. I am not comparing my writing to the reviews, I am writing about my thoughts as I read someone elses work, just an honest opinion. Stephen King's "Under The Dome" was the last book that I picked up so I figured it is the freshest in my mind. Let me tell you about me and Mr. King; when I was 12 I read The Stand... and fell in love. He was edgy and smart, he wrote real people, and ugly honest portrayals. This is how I felt then. So I read Carrie, The Night Shift, Salem's Lot, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordan, Desperation, The Green Mile, and many others.The Dark Tower Series was given to me as a gift from the man who would become my husband. I thought I was hooked for a long life of loving and reading his work. However by the time I got about half way through the Dark Tower Series I was overloaded. I could not read another word. I set the...

Preventative Attention, How To Keep Your Kids From Driving You Crazy. Click link for parenting tips and strategies.

How to Feed Your New Puppy click on link.

Discipline or Punishment A link to something I wrote about a year ago. Check it out if you want.

I have two sons who are in their formative years so maybe this is why I care so much that it seems that it is nothing for them to hear on TV, or even in life, the words: "Men Suck" or "I am so sick of men" or in a pg movie they recently watched; "Men are what's wrong with the world." Really? I think some people do suck, and some men drive their women crazy (mine included at times) but let's not give up on the sex all together. I hope today's boys, who will be men before we know it, can have pride in themselves. If they don't have an example of a Great Man in their own life I hope that they don't hear so many negative comments that they don't even bother to try to be dependable fathers and loving husbands. Let's boost up the good men out there and when we come across a bad apple let's try not to throw out the entire bunch.

Some people kill snakes just for being near them. I think if more people knew that out of the 44 different kinds of snakes in Florida, only 6 kinds are venomous and that some of the non venomous snakes actually eat the venomous kinds, they would be hesitant to kill on sight. Below is an example of a venomous snake and an innocent snake that would likely be killed on site for looking a bit like him. I will post more examples soon. Check out those fangs as he yawns! These are example of a Cotton Mouth snake. Notice the hooded eyes? Beautiful, but deadly. **** I think this is a "Banded Water Snake". I KNOW it is NOT a Cotton Mouth, nor is he venomous. It is terrible to think that this little guy will get his head chopped off if he comes near humans. This guy seemed to like getting his picture taken, not aggressive at all despite the camera lens in his reach. Notice the rounded face and eyes? For more info check out floridabackyardsnakes.c...

If you If you want to be a writer there is a secret I am going to share with you. Are you ready? If you want to be a writer, you have to write. You can't wait until your credentials are better, you can't let fear of people reading your work (or fear of people not reading your work) hold you back. Write. Write everyday, write your life, write someone e lse's life, who cares. Just be honest with your self. Write like no one is ever going to read it. If after you write you discover that you want to share some of it, then Edit. Edit. Edit! The best writers are like the best gardeners; they are willing to cull the weaklings so the best can thrive.

These are some of a group of babies that Jason found when walking in the swamp near our home. He got a few great shots with his camera before the mama encouraged him to move along.

I am finishing up my A.A. in English Education, I would like to be an English Teacher because I think that the earlier people are turned on to great books the better off they will be and I also believe that everyone can be a voracious reader, they just have not met the right book yet. I plan to introduce my students to their right book… even if it is a Comic Book… or Romance…or the increasingly popular Vampire novels… or whatever. I hope each of my students will leave my class as daily readers in the genre they choose. Lofty goals, I know… but hey, right now I am a student and can afford to be idealistic. I live on a small farm in North Florida with my handsome ;) husband and three awesome kids who keep me sane and grounded when they are not driving me insane. Any one with kids knows how that works. When we are not chasing goats, deer, or our horse out of our garden, I am avoiding our pond because another gator has decided to visit on his way between the many swamps and creeks surround...

Hi all! This is a blog to share with my friends the ups and downs that I come across as I try to get a publisher to fall in love with my manuscript and hopefully, one day a place that people who have read the book can come to meet the author. I plan to post my personal views on different routes of publishing, publishers, agents and of course the heart of it all: book reviews, because anyone who wants to be a great writer must first be a hungry reader.