C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

Winners, Monday Meme, Hats Off Corner Welcomes Anna Simpson and #InkRipples Whew!

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Winners

Thanks to everyone who took the time to visit on IWSG Wednesday and asked for an eBook of Double Negative. I put your names in the hat and drew Alexa Winters and Bish Denham. They’ll have their eBook ASAP.



Monday Meme

Don’t forget to join Tara Tyler, Christine Rains, and me on this easy-peasy HOP. Post a MEME during the week (use your own pic or an easy meme maker app) - and if you can’t think of anything, pass on encouraging words from one of your reviews, or an inspiring quote!

Visit others. That’s it!

Then the awesome hostesses will hop around and Ooo and Ahh and choose one entry each to win an ebook. AND two lucky random participants will win a $20 GC. Enter and spread some warmth!

Hats Off Corner Welcomes Anna Simpson

About the Mystery: 

Emma never dreamed of being a super-sleuth. In her mind, she’s more Scooby Doo than Nancy Drew and when her nosy neighbor, Mrs. Perkins, drags her to an anniversary party to solve a mystery, she rolls her eyes, buys a box of chocolates and hops in the car.
What’s a party without an attack on its host—or more accurately on the host’s grandson, sparking an allergic reaction and moving the party to the hospital waiting room. Suddenly, everyone is a suspect. Emma and Mrs. Perkins, along with Great Aunt Alice (a spirit with boundary issues who keeps stepping into Emma’s body like a new dress and playing matchmaker), dive into an investigation that almost gets Emma killed along with the man they are trying to protect. With so many reasons to kill him and so much to be gained if he died, Emma and Mrs. Perkins must unravel the tenuous ties that point to every member of his family as potential killers.
Even if it means going back to the psych ward, Emma will protect her friend and this innocent man. What good is freedom if it’s haunted with guilt?

What Some Are Saying:

Sherry from fundinmental says:
“I love writing that can pull emotions from me and White Light does that.”
Laura from Laura’s Ramblins and Reveiws says:
“There’s lots to laugh at and some serious business to draw you deeper into the story.”
Mary from Goodreads says:
“This is a great beach read with mystical elements. Simpson creates colorful characters, intriguing plot, and with her use of dialogue keeps the story moving along.”

About Anna: 

Anna Simpson lives near the Canadian-US border with her family. Even though she’s lived in several places in British Columbia, her free spirit wasn’t able to settle down until she moved back to her hometown.
She is easy to find though, if you know the magic word — emaginette. Do an internet search using it and you’ll see what I mean. 🙂
 You can connect with Anna here: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads

Want to see for yourself? Here’s an Excerpt: 
In a half acre of green sits one flowerbed, brimming with Lily of the Valley. I remember the first time I saw them over fifteen years ago. The delicate white bells could only be fairy hats. Today, the round base of cemented river stone is still full of waxy green spear tips. I don’t see fairy hats anymore. No, now I enjoy the effects of nature—its simple perfection.

Mrs. Perkins does it best. In fact, everything around Mrs. Perkins is perfectly cared for—her home, her yard, her car—all perfect.

But not today. A dark line sits between the jamb and the edge of the door.
A few inches of shadow drives my calm away and prickles the long blonde hairs at the nape of my neck. Butterflies in my stomach tell, no scratch that, demand I find my phone and go next door.

Available Now

Amazon, Chapters/Indigo, B&N, iTunes, Google Play or Goodreads

Hope you’ll check out Anna’s book. 

And because I’m now MEME-CRAZED (Thank you Tara and Christine), I’ve joined these three other lovely peeps in #InkRipples. It’s a monthly meme created by Kai Strand, Mary Waibel, and Katie L. Carroll. They post on the first Monday of every month (I know I’m late. Don’t nag me, okay?) with a new topic. They’re all authors, but you don’t have to be to participate.

The idea of #InkRipples is to toss a word, idea, image, whatever into the inkwell and see what kind of ripples it makes. They provide the topics and will be blogging about them on the first Monday of the month. You can spread your own ripples by blogging about the topic any day of the month that fits your schedule, just be sure to include links back to Katie, Kai, and Mary.
February-Chocolate (How could I not weigh in on this topic?)
March – Feminism
April – Poetry
May – Memories
June – Movies
July – Inspiration
August – Guilty Pleasures
September – Banned Books
October – Masks
November – Heritage
December – Cookies
Or you can simply share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #InkRipples. You might simply comment on one of their posts to play along. Tag them and they’re always happy to share your posts and thoughts to keep those ripples going and intersecting.
There is no wrong way to do #InkRipples (with the exception of following basic human decency!). It’s about having a conversation, sharing ideas, and connecting. So if this sounds at all interesting, please do participate in whatever way you can. And feel free to use any of the meme’s images (created by the wonderful Mary Waibel).
Today my contribution to the #InkRipples topic is simply this! Babies Wearing Chocolate! How much fun is this? I want to play smash the chocolate cake, too. How about you? Don’t you want to wear your food once in a while like you did when you were a baby? Read the quote of the week and then answer the question. 
SEE MORE BABIES WEARING THEIR FOOD
Quote of the Week: “Normal is just a cycle on the washing machine.” Whoopie Goldberg.

Let’s Shake Off Winter Blahs and Farewell Painted Ladies

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Got the Winter Blahs? We’re here to help. Join us in 


A MEME Blog Hop!
Easy Peasy “rules”

Post a MEME during the week (use your own pic or an easy meme maker app) - and if you can’t think of anything, pass on encouraging words from one of your reviews, or an inspiring quote!
Visit others
That’s it!

Then the awesome hostesses will hop around and Ooo and Ahh and choose one entry each to win an ebook. AND two lucky random participants will win a $20 GC. Enter and spread some warmth!

Woodland, California’s restored 1875 Clapp & Jones Steamer

Excerpt from Farewell Painted Ladies
C. Lee McKenzie
When mechanical engineer Paul Hodge unveiled his steamer for its first public test in 1841, it must have been an incredible sight to see. Imagine a fourteen foot long hot metal cylinder, weighing seven tons, snorting and fuming black smoke in front of New York’s City Hall. 
That day, as the crowd looked on, the stoker tossed more coal into the fire door and steam pressure in the great iron belly soared. Two men aimed the leather fire hose above the roof of City Hall, and the pumps began their powerful tempo, shooting a stream of water at the rate of ten thousand pounds per minute one hundred and sixty-two feet straight over the cupola. The engine noise buried the onlookers’ gasps.
The Hodge steamer had flaws. Men could not pull its bulk to a fire and, although the designer had intended it would propel itself through the streets by steam, it wasn’t dependable. In any case, the Hodge engine’s arrival presaged change. It performed an effective job of delivering a strong, steady stream of water; required fewer men to operate; and, most importantly, it never tired.  
In 1841, the volunteer firemen must have watched from the sidelines, jaws set and arms folded across their chests. They didn’t need to tell each other their thoughts. Their determination to defeat this upstart mechanical freak filled the air as blackly as the engine’s smoke. From then on, these men did whatever they could to make the steamer fail
 on the job. They slashed hoses, diverted coal deliveries and stirred dissent between the engine and hand pumper companies at every opportunity. They’d never been above thrashing it out on the streets, and now they turned their energy to defeat a new rival. The volunteers were proud men not given to walking away from a fight, especially this one which, if lost, meant the end to their way of life. 

By now you know I was deep into antique fire equipment and their history at one time. I even got teary when I read about the last of the Painted Ladies being mothballed. But change comes and those 1841 steam engine interlopers became dinosaurs not too long after they displaced the hand pumpers.

I still have several articles tucked among my TBDWL (To Be Dealt With Later) file, and pulling these posts together have made me think about actually doing something about those articles. 

Quote for the Week: “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10.” Bill Gates

Have you enjoyed reading about the early fire equipment or was it a bore? Will you join the Meme Hop or are you hopped out?