Kyme vs. Schmidty; or, “Why I left IU’s Kelley School of Business”

Tags

accounting, Bloomington Indiana, California, Delta Tau Delta, Indiana University, Kelley School of Business, linguistics, Memory Lake, navigator, Newton, Perdido Key, ROTC, Wall Street Journal

Ever since my camp friend, (the other Nancy!) turned my maiden name, Schmidt, into Schmidty, over thirty years ago, the name has stuck.  After my last summer at camp, I met a chemistry major, Kyme, at a Delta Tau Delta party in Bloomington, IN.  His black curly hair was shorter than most, (though still long by today’s standards).  His perfect posture placed him a head above the crowd, and his manners made him seem older. His bearing drew me toward him like a port in a storm.  Call it love at first sight, a soul finding its destiny, or the force of angels, but before I could question it, I was introducing myself to him.  Later that evening, I learned he was attending Indiana University on an Air Force ROTC scholarship.

Searching for a firm place to walk….

I have always felt the pull of two warring personalities.  Who hasn’t, at some point or other?  (It’s a common thread running through “Memory Lake“.)  I suspect many of you have settled down by now, but being an ambidextrous Gemini, I still feel the pull.  I thrive on the struggle and Kyme helps me find the middle.

At that Delta Tau Delta party, Kyme was a junior and I was a freshman, a young freshman, since I’d graduated high school at sixteen, (turning seventeen days later).  He lived with three clearly focused, intelligent, and brutally honest roommates.  All of them, Kyme especially, challenged me to find my middle.  Opinions needed to be well articulated and backed by facts because nearly every discussion turned into a debate.  Since facts could not be had at the flick of a finger, some debates never ended.  Others turned on the last, best liar.  Craving gravitas, I left the field of linguistics for the Kelley School of Business, and chose accounting as a major.  I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal.  I began following politics.  When they graduated after my sophomore year, despite the great company of my fun, elegant roommate, (Janet of Newton, MA), I missed them.  I missed Kyme.

Kyme at Perdido Key Florida, waiting for me….

He had headed off to California for navigator training.  My mom said, “He is starting a new life without you.  You can finish your degree anywhere.”  Therefore, at the end of my junior year, after passing both semesters of Intermediate Accounting, the weeding out course which sent many students to finance or marketing, I married Kyme.  He really wanted me to have that degree from IU’s Kelley School of Business, and would have waited, but my warring personalities would have drowned in a large corporation, which is where that degree would have landed me. Besides, California sounded way more fun.

I am frequently amazed by all I have accomplished at Kyme’s side over three decades.  He is that steady beach walker who takes the high ground and steers clear of erratic waves and uneven footing.  He plods parallel to shore, walking on firm sand, aiming unwavering for his navigated target.  I dodge the waves, laughing at every near miss, following a zigzag path, usually running to catch up to him.  If I fall behind, he waits.  If I’m about to walk into a fishing line, his deep voice calls, “Schmidty”.  When I take Kyme’s hand, I can walk in the middle with my eyes on the sparkling water and the great, vast horizon beyond, confident in my footing.

A Second Edition in the Works….

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Amazon, AmazonKindle, Barnes & Noble, First Edition, Ingram, IPad, Next Generation Indie Book Award, Nook, Publishing, Second Edition, Tate Publishing

When a publisher goes out of business, it’s not the end of the world.  It’s tough to know this at first, especially when it’s your publisher.  Initially, I cringed to learn Ingram was telling the world, (well at least Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Amazon, and all the wonderful, resilient Indie book stores out there), that my book is no longer available.  Then, I began hearing from other publishers.  Quite slowly, it dawned on me, I would be releasing a SECOND EDITION!  There will be a new cover, a new release.  And, this time around I can add review quotes, perhaps a sticker from the Next Generation Indie Book Award, and a book group discussion guide.  It’s been quite a month so far!

Sometimes you have to change directions to go with the flow….

I’ve learned exactly how much Vantage Point Books did for me.  I will always be grateful for their creation of a First Edition, but I am excited about a Second.  Soon, Memory Lake will once again be available for download on Kindle, Nook, iPad, or any other reader you may have.  The files are being processed and should go ‘live’ by the end of the month.  The folks at Tate Publishing have welcomed me quite generously and have taken over production of the second print edition.  Now I can get back to writing, which is what I love most.  I can’t wait to hear from the next round of readers who discover Memory Lake.

Additives to Life; Joy, Citric acid, and Hearing Aids

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additives, allergies, Angioedema, baby shower, Citric acid, Food, food allergy, hearing aids, joy, mold, Phonak, preservatives, Ranch dressing, Rotel, weepy eyes, Will Smith

It could be said both food and joy are essential to life.  We need food to live and we feel most alive when we are full of joy.  No one can eat for us, just as no one can express joy for us, and happiness abounds when the two spring from love and gratefulness.  When something is wrong with our food, or when something interferes with our joy, our bodies suffer.  Ailments occur and offer clues, or so I have always believed.

Citric Acid is added to these foods….

For the past two years I have puzzled symptoms of itchy, watery eyes, so weepy I had cuts and felt like an apricot poodle with permanent eye stains.  At times my eyes burned in a fever.  My friends would plead as they winced at my eyes, “This has gone on too long.  Get to the bottom of it.”  The allergist was stumped, except for telling me to avoid mold and cats.  The dermatologist prescribed cream for the symptoms.  The source remained a mystery.  Then, the answer came on the happiest of days when joy and food crossed paths.  While my sister, Susan, pulled off a baby shower at my house, for KT, my daughter, I drank soda, which I rarely do, and dipped repeatedly into Rotel.  The skin around my eyes grew redder and redder.  The next morning I woke as Will Smith in Hitch with eyes and lips so swollen I could barely talk.  Same as in Memory Lake, Susan and KT took charge.  They quizzed me on all I had eaten.  They rummaged through the recycle bin, reading cans with a magnifying glass.  I searched the internet.  They found citric acid as the common additive.  I found mold as its source and a name for the swollen face, Angioedema.  Turns out, citric acid, is not the kind occurring naturally in fruit.  It is derived from black mold, in a lab, and is added to nearly everything from soda pop to tomato sauce.  Finally, an answer!  Within a week of avoiding citric acid, which remains a real challenge, my eyes returned to normal.  I am careful about everything that goes into my mouth so they stay that way.  I’m grateful for my body telling me, over and over, and for the joyful occasion that brought it all together.  I’m happiest of all for the easy fix, and will gladly live without Rotel, though I will miss Ranch dressing.

The only additives I want in my life are the ones I’m putting in my ears to mask the sound of waterfalls!

The right one receives sound and it sends it to the left via Blue Tooth!

My old hearing aid buzzed when I wore a hat, augmented clinking silverware over conversation, and hurt after a few hours.  These new Phonak are so light, I accidentally showered in them!  The Blue tooth technology has brought me surround sound which I have not heard for 15 years.

A window to the inexplicable

Tags

Eagle Scout, electricity, electronic, Gulf of Mexico, inexplicable, Intracoastal Waterway, Johnson Beach, Perdido Key, Scientific American, Thomas Alva Edison, Thomas Edison, window

Thunder echoed down the Intracoastal Waterway, toward the harbor.  I gazed past my reflection, out the window behind me.  The palm trees held still and the cabin cruisers neither rocked nor swayed.  Like the pounding of a giant wave’s lazy fall, thunder rolled in from the Gulf of Mexico.  “Crack,” a bolt severed the sky.  Sleepy clouds leaked a warm, drizzly rain. I imagined a curtain to the heavens rolling back with each thunder, mimicking the opening vibration of the sliding glass doors, so heavy, to withstand hurricane force winds.  Pat, my mother-in-law, loved her waterfront condo, which is ours now.  She loved storms because they caused beautiful shells to wash ashore Johnson Beach.

A view from the window after the storm….

And she loved her neighbors, especially Kendra who called her Miss Pat.  It’s been almost three summers since she passed.  Also gone is my husband’s only sibling, a pre-med Eagle Scout who barely reached his twentieth year, and their father who died when his sailboat capsized during a fast, violent storm, quite opposite from the mellow one which unfolded before my eyes.  Pictures of them surrounded me as I sat at Pat’s dressing table writing on my laptop.  She smiled at me in every decade.  Another streak of electricity severed the sky, wildly untamed, yet kin to the source illuminating my screen’s white light.  I sensed a communication as if multiple flows of electrical energy had synched. Pat seemed to say, “I’m happy you love all I loved.  Tell my son he is not alone.”  Her email account and cell numbers have long since been deleted from all our electronic devices.  And, my hands were not even on the keys or mouse when a ‘Compose Mail’ filled the screen, eclipsing my work.  Pat’s email address appeared on the ‘To’ line, autofilled, I can only imagine, by the motherboard.  I blinked, disbelieving.  It confirmed our communication and invited me to reply.  “Thank you.  I will tell him,” I wrote, then, whispered, “I love you,” and hit ‘send’.

Johnson Beach…

“If our personality survives, then it is strictly logical and
scientific to assume that it retains memory, intellect and other faculties and
knowledge that we acquire on this Earth. Therefore, if personality exists after
 what we call death, it is reasonable to conclude that those who leave this Earth
would like to communicate with those they have left here… I am inclined to
 believe that our personality hereafter will be able to affect matter. If this
reasoning be correct, then, if we can evolve an instrument so delicate as to be
affected or moved or manipulated… by our personality as it survives in the next
life, such an instrument, when made available, ought to record something”.

Thomas Alva Edison, Scientific American, 30 October, 1920.

Sacrifices of Joy

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God, Grand Canyon, joy, Lightning Source, Mary Baker Eddy, Memory, North Rim, Psalm 27, Sacrifice, tabernacle, vampires, Vantage Point Books, witches

Many of you already know, the original title of Memory Lake was Sacrifices of Joy.   To me, this does not mean we need to give up joy to be closer to God.  It means, the mere act of expressing joy when we least feel like it places us in God’s presence.  Whenever life’s difficulties leave me alone on a jagged rock in the middle of a crashing surf, with no way off, I think of Psalm 27.  I smile and close my eyes, and feel the sun on my face, whether it is there or not, and say,  “…Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea I will sing praises unto the LORD.”  Instantly, I feel elevated off that rock to a high mountain, surrounded by a clear blue sky, hearing joyful laughter bouncing and echoing off white, marble walls and pillars.

Aim for the tabernacle… (view of journey from South Rim to North Rim of Grand Canyon, USA)

It is a lesson I need to learn over and over, and a practice I need to repeat quite often.  And, it is a prevalent theme in Memory Lake.  I would have liked Sacrifices of Joy to be its title, but as my publisher of the First Edition, Vantage Point Books, sagely advised, “Sacrifices are for witches and vampires, and Joy is for cooking and sex.”

“The understanding of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual understanding is better than all burnt offerings.”  Science & Health, 286-6, by Mary Baker Eddy

The Eye of the Needle

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Around the Year, Bible lesson, Camel, Emmet Fox, God, Jesus, Needle's Eye, Old San Juan, possessions, Sewing needle, Sunday School

Imagine a camel trying to fit through the eye of a sewing needle!  It is impossible. Or, so I always thought as a kid in Sunday School whenever this lesson rolled around.  Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” (Mark 10:25).  I usually told my parents on the drive home from church, “We need to give up all our possessions.”

A Needle’s Eye, Old San Juan, 2010, (KT’s sis-n-law and I)

One day,my mom shared Emmet Fox’s little sermon on the subject.  It’s not impossible, she explained.  It’s just a lot of work.  “…Every important city was surrounded by a wall for defense.  When a laden camel arrived after sunset,” after the large gate had closed, “…the only way it could get in was to be unloaded of all merchandise, whereupon it would squirm on its knees through…” a low wicket gate known as the needle’s eye.  (Around the Year with Emmet Fox, p.133)

As a newlywed in the 1980s, I was very interested in gaining possessions to furnish our new home and to keep up with our peers.  I devoted a lot of time, energy, and thought toward this.  I began having a reoccurring dream.  I was always waiting in line to board a lovely aircraft for an exciting journey to a new destination, where I really wanted to go, from which I would never return.  As my turn approached, I worried about where I’d left my purse, my keys, my suitcase, that new vase, the little oriental rug I loved.  An overwhelming need to bring these items along always sent me running from the line, hollering, “Please wait! I’ll be right back!”  I always missed the plane.  I always woke up very perplexed.

I mentally practiced walking away from these things.  I got the house where I wanted it, then moved on.  I went back to school.  I stopped comparing our home to others.  I started caring more for friends and family.  The reoccurring dream remained a constant warning.  Then, one night I boarded the plane.  I have no memory of what happened after that, except I awoke with the most peaceful feeling.  I never had the dream again. I’d like to think I’ve found the way through that needle, by devoting more thought and energy to friends and family, than possessions.  Thank goodness I have not yet reached the other side!

A special thanks to one of my favorite blogs for reminding me of this lesson.  Yes, life is simpler in the wilderness, (another lesson from Memory Lake).  http://malcolmscorner.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/how-many-things-dont-you-want/

Yes, it is all true.

Tags

authentic, Great Lakes, Lake Michigan, memoir, Michigan, petoskeys, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Tori, Lori, Nancy, Susie, Cindy, Christie, Sarah, Me, and Mary (1976)

When I have the privilege of meeting readers of Memory Lake, they are surprised to learn how much of the novel is true.  “In real life there is another Nancy, a Christie, Lori, Tori, Susie, Cindy, Sarah, and Mary?”, they ask.  Yes, I reply, supposing they are an e-reader, because it is easy to miss the picture on page 3.

“My daughter’s name is KT, her best friends are Angela and Katie, my sister’s name is Susan, and the camp really exists though I changed its name,” I say with a genuine smile, because the honor of writing about them still lingers.  “Water spouts often form over Lake Michigan and the Sleeping Bear Dunes are huge.”  Few readers question the validity of the rest of the novel because its coming-of-age conflict and character interactions speak to the human experience.  We all need to overcome fear.  We all need to learn that putting on a smile, especially when we least feel like it, leads to real joy.

KT, Katie, Angela, and Lake Michigan (2004)

Whether you devour Memory Lake over a week-end, *”like an irresistible box of candy”, or deliberately spread it out, because like camp, *”you don’t want it to end”, please know it is 99% true.  The 1% is to keep the story flowing and to protect the sanctity of locations.

Petoskeys; Michigan’s state rock (fossils of prehistoric coral) also mentioned in “Memory Lake”.

* Quotes from reviews.

The Sound of Waterfalls

Tags

brain tumor, Columbia River Gorge, Eagle Creek Wilderness Area, Hearing loss, Magnetic resonance imaging, Michigan in Pictures, Michigan waterfalls, MRI, Porcupine Mountains, waterfalls, wind chime

Eagle Creek Wilderness Area, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon…

“Who spends Friday night having an MRI of their brain?” I wondered while sitting in the waiting room at 10pm this past Friday.  Turns out, I’m not the only one having magnetic resonance imaging in lieu of celebrating the end of another work week.  Mine, however, requires the staff to change the machine’s magnet, since those fine little passages of the ear are tough to capture, so I am the last customer of the day.  My husband is so sweet to spend this time with me.  He even delivered to the technician my old MRI from 1994.  Large as a cook top, and weighing nearly as much, these antiquated images wrapped in brown paper caused the staff to wax nostalgic.  Nowadays, results are delivered on a sleek disk.

Hiding behind a waterfall is quite exciting…

I am confident the new images will not reveal a brain tumor any more than the old ones did.  However, because sudden hearing loss at my age is rare, even though it has happened before, tumors must be ruled out.  I am sad for all the tones I’ve lost, especially since my mind remembers the way ELO and Super Tramp are supposed to sound.  On the flip side, I am delighted by the new sounds I hear.  Tinkling wind chimes and rushing waterfalls have filled the void and keep me company when people are talking about things I cannot hear.  The wind chimes are occasional phenomenon, same as the real thing.  However, I hear a waterfall in my right ear all the time.  It is soothing and comforting, and allows me to picture the most beautiful ones I’ve ever seen. My favorite will always be the one in “Memory Lake”.  “The waterfall reflected a silvery sheen from the sun except mid-center where a faint, dark shape loomed behind the torrential curtain.”  We dared to cross a cliff and “…catapulted sideways. The water bent into a million fragmented rainbows,” as we disappeared into the falls.  “The walls shimmered in a coppery glow. We howled and shouted, but the thundering fall would not allow our voices to be heard.  Its jealous volume dominated.”

I do not have a photo of that prophetic natural wonder of my youth from the Porcupine Mountains, though I suspect it might be among those captured in Michigan in Pictures.  I plan to study them thoroughly, searching for the spark of a memory, while hearing my own special sound effects.

“The Captain is on the Bridge.” Emmet Fox.

Tags

believe, Captain, civilization, Emmet Fox, God, prayer, President, sunrise

Regardless of news reports, “The world is not going to the dogs.  The human race is not doomed.  Civilization is not going to crash.  The Captain is on the bridge.”

Sunrise or sunset?

The Captain is not President, Congress, Prime Minister, Parliament, or Pope. Emmet Fox reminds us, “God is still in business.”  It may seem incompetent buffoons are in charge, and we have little say in how they govern us; except to vote every so often and write a letter or two.  In truth, when all of us band together and “…realize the Presence of God where trouble seems to be,” we can affect change.  Close your eyes, breath deeply, smile because all is well, and mentally put God in charge.  That’s it.  You have just prayed for your country. Believe it. God is on the Bridge.

Thank you to thousands of readers!

Tags

Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Book, E-book, IPad, Kindle Store, Memory Lake, Nook, sales, Shopping, statistics, Thank you, writing

I am warmed and humbled by readers who have taken a chance on Memory Lake.  Thank you for spreading the word, for purchasing a paperback or e-book, for borrowing it from your library, or lending it to a friend.

Some statistics:  “411,422 books were published in the U.S. in 2007.  1,052,803 books were published in the U.S. 2009.  Approximately 3,000,000 books were published in the U.S. in 2011.*   Titles for 2012 will probably exceed 15 million.  Almost 80% of these titles sold fewer than 100 copies. **

“Books-a-Million” display

Admittedly, promotion has been tough.  But, I’m not in it for the money.  I’m in it for the message.  I believe in Memory Lake.  Thank you for believing in it as well, because paperback sales alone surpassed 1,000 copies at summer’s end, and continue. 

Memory Lake took seven years of my life to write and edit.  Every word was carefully chosen and later verified by Harvard and Notre Dame PhD’s.  The novel’s message was officially stamped ‘Inspirational’ by Next Generation Indie Award judges in June.  Each morning of those seven years of writing, before turning on my computer, I would pray, “Lord, let me do thy will. Let me be a vessel for your message.”  (Yes, I really do use ‘thy’ when praying because I love the classics, and no, I am not a preacher.)  I simply set out to tell an uplifting story, amid so many to the contrary, and to clarify those life lessons which I needed to relearn.  I took a chance that many of you needed to relearn them too, though not through a boring biography, or self-help textbook, but through a novel’s highly descriptive immersion into youth; into a time when we knew these truths most effortlessly.

As one reader wrote, “Certainly overcoming fear is not a new concept, but it bears repeating and you have done so quite beautifully. Thank you for reminding me of this at a time when I need to remember it most.”   No, thank you dear readers for reminding me at a time when I need it most.  Promotion for Memory Lake will continue in 2013 because you have reminded me it is worth promoting.

A lovely sight to see on September 16, 2012 (Memory Lake’s Amazon Kindle ranking):

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,021 Paid in Kindle Store  (See  Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #80 in Kindle  Store > Kindle  eBooks > Nonfiction > Advice & How-to > Parenting & Families > Parenting > Teenagers

Source blogs:

*  http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/how-many-books-are-going-to-be-published-in-2012-prepare-for-a-shock/

**  http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/10/14/amazon-gets-back-to-its-roots.aspx#.UFSqNY1lSuQ