Tag Archives: diversity

Sequins and Sandals

Settings and Feature Articles on Naked Alliances, , , , , , ,

Second edits were completed on Naked Alliances and the manuscript has been sent to the editor for proofing. I’m excited about this book and also a bit nervous. It’s a break away from the philosophical meanderings of Red Clay and Roses. It was also a world of fun to write.

Naked Alliances is a regional fast paced crime thriller with a humorous edge.

Florida is notorious for its crazy but memorable, and sometimes lovable, fictional characters:

Here’s an A-Z list with some you may recognize:

 A

B

C

D

G

H

I

  • Ike

 

J

K

L

M

P

R

S

T

V

W

As anyone with a Facebook account knows, Florida is filled with the dregs of society, hell bent on wreaking havoc wherever they go. It’s the perfect place to find wacko, colorful criminals, along with odd protagonists whose motives might be less than conventional.

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We have the highest rate of homeless people in the nation due, in part, to our wonderful weather, but also because it is relatively easy to live anonymously here, blending in with all the other wackos and tourists. Nobody really strikes you as unusual, because everybody, to some degree, is unusual. Yet, we also have one of the highest rates of millionaires in the nation perhaps due to the wonderful weather, but also because they, too, find it easy to live anonymously here, blending in with the wackos and tourists.

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“Sequins and Sandals” is a term the locals use when describing Central Florida. We’re a hodgepodge. From the beach bums and bikers, the rednecks and outdoorsmen, to the big time gamblers risking it all in high-end casinos, cruise ships, Jai alai courts, horsetracks and dogtracks, the land developers and profiteers, Floridians are Long Island iced tea poured over rocky road ice cream, a soothing soda that “normal” people drink through a straw for entertainment.

In Naked Alliances, you’ll be introduced to the real Central Florida that Disney World tries so hard to keep from public view.

How diverse are your locals?

What’s your favorite regional novel and why?

 

Old World and New World Florida

Fascinating Florida, History, Settings and Feature Articles on Naked Alliances, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Being a bit of a history buff, I miss being in one of the thirteen original colonies. Our fair city of Orlando in Central Florida is not like the ones you see up north, along the Atlantic seaboard or on the coast. Our history beyond the orange groves, old ranches and fruit, flower, and vegetable farms is practically non-existent. There are only a handful of old buildings near the railroad tracks, Church Street Station. Old World Florida is not far away.

001Florida really didn’t get very well settled until the advent of “refrigerated air” in the fifties. Air-conditioning brought hoards down and there was a boom in resorts being established. It became a vacation spot. The beaches have always been a draw, but the interior took even longer to develop.

 

The cool crystal clear springs, like Silver Springs where the movie and Tarzan series was filmed, all had resort communities established around them. Glass bottom boats were the rage.

The resorts spread from the panhandle to the Keys. Miami exploded into haven for the rich and famous. People from all over the country flocked to Florida and many retired here to avoid the cold winters. Snowbirds continue to winter over here, but millions have made Florida their permanent home.

The Orlando area was backwoods swamp country, cattle range and orange grove before Disney came to town. Much of the area was drained to make way for new development. An agricultural hub, many immigrants settled here after years of nomadic fruit and vegetable picking. The community is vastly culturally diverse.

Mansions sit next door to shacks all over the community.

As Orlando grew, with dozens of theme parks, the metropolitan area covered three counties. Everything is new. All the tall buildings, the condos, banks, towering office complexes, expressways and several hospitals were constructed in the past forty years. New World Florida found a foothold.

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We have traffic issues that resulted from the population explosion and local government’s inability to keep up. But it is still a very pretty town. There are little parks and lakes galore. Florida is like a sponge with ponds and lakes on every corner. The terrain is flat and the only winding you see is when a road meanders around a lake. There are numerous enclaves of diverse populations  with colorful open air markets, festivals and al fresco dining on artsy sidewalks that line the cobblestoned streets.

 

This next image is heading south on Orange Avenue directly through the center of downtown.

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Here are a few photos of my favorite park on Lake Eola. It’s located in the center of town where you can dine overlooking the New World Florida cityscape. Yet, it maintains a tropical feel and enough cypress and palms to recall Old World Florida.

What is the history of your community?

Bloggers: The Real and the Imagined

Social Progress, , , , , , , , ,

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As a nurse, especially when working as a psych nurse, we are taught to read body language, to pick up on subtle biological cues, note changed inflections and tones when listening to words spoken.  You get none of that online. Even when you are acute enough to read between the lines, it’s not the same thing.  You are working off of one sense, and your brain has to assimilate the information from there.  The other four senses are impaired.  We are all reading with impaired senses. There is no real emotion in it, only the sense of sight, you see the words, your mind has to create the rest and none of us think quite alike.  What you write is subject to interpretation by the reader. We are operating like the drunk driver.

When writing novels, we are always writing from our own perceptions, trying to convey a personality through words. Not our own personality, but the character’s personality.  Their mannerism, mood, actions, reactions, language, how they uniquely interact with the world around them. A world that we also created.

Many bloggers, especially anonymous bloggers who have created an online persona of sorts, do the same.  The ones who use a character image to write and respond to comments are really adept at projecting an image they wish you to see; like Mr. and Mrs. Bojangles (Not really characters that I know of, I am making them up for demonstration purposes). She signs her comments Mrs. B and he signs his comments Mr. B.  They take turns posting whatever they wish the world to know about the Bojangles and how the Bojangles receive the world around them.

They might really be Mr. and Mrs. Morgan down the street. He may kick his dog and she may beat her kids, you really don’t know them. Online, they are a sweet little old couple who offer advice to young people on starting a family. Then again, they may be ministers of their church and dutifully assist their parish in all manner of life’s challenges. Again, you don’t know.  You just know their online persona.

ozLike the Wizard of OZ, they are protected by a curtain of anonymity.

Do you ever wonder about the people you meet online? Surely you do.

Then, there are bloggers who write outright, open about themselves and their personal lives, their work, their talents, their writing process, their ambitions, the way they perceive the world around them, signing their writing by their real life name, posting it at the top of their blog as I do.  How well do you really know them? Being online, you don’t see their flaws of character, that they bite their nails, never comb their hair, cross their legs and & arms when seated, and smell like yesterday’s cheese. You also don’t see their strengths of character, the way they shake a hand, their smiles, their infectious laugh, the way they always hold the door for others.  You can only guess, by the words they write, what they must be like in “Real Life”.

Whether it is the “real you” or a persona that you have imaginatively created, I am truly amazed with you all, from the 25 year old unemployed Australian guy sitting in a coffee shop with the brilliant mind looking for his niche that ponders life and its meaning, to the passionate 20 year old writing majestic prose and poetry lamenting lost love, from the quirky 80 yo great-grandma who recalls history with a twist of lime, to the struggling 30-something writer who ambitiously defeats personal odds to develop an entire series of marketable books.  The guy next door, the lady with 9 kids, the satirical comedian, the girl coping with mental illness and drug addiction, you are all why I keep coming back. I love the diversity that is you, real or imagined.

The collective consciousness of the blogosphere is both mystifying and marvelous!