Thoughts from a writing mom

This blog post is not a joke.   Seriously.   I’m going to explain the ways my children actually help me with my writing endeavors. Sure, I could write about all of the ways my children hinder the process – my youngest daughter is literally sitting on my lap as I type – but I don’t really need to tell you that, do I? It’s common knowledge that even one child takes up a lot of time.   And I have six.   Free time is a thing of my past. My view while typing today.  I have a shocking revelation, however, that I wish to share now – my children have actually helped me with my writing.   It’s true.   Here’s how: They have taught me (and are teaching me daily) about patience. And let me tell you, writing a book takes a lot of patience. My biggest teacher of patience by far has been parenting.   I’ve found that the wearisome moments of putting a toddler back to bed after she’s gotten out for the ninth time, or watching my kindergartner sp...

Before the release of my next book, I hope to share just a little bit about the characters. I’m quite fond of these fictional people and can’t wait for you to read their story. I began last month with an intro of the two shift supervisors, in case you missed it, here is the link: http://myonedayisnow.blogspot.com/2017/11/meet-supervisors-sergeant-torres-and.html Last time around I told you a bit about the single members of the shift, you can re-acquaint yourself with them here: http://myonedayisnow.blogspot.com/2017/12/meet-single-members-of-bravo-400s.html And now, meet the marrieds: Officer Hayes Corey Hayes is a man who loves his family, loves his job, loves his life. He grew up with law enforcement in his blood.   His father retired after 30 years with the Dallas Police Department.   An excerpt from the book of Corey speaking to a shift-mate about his father: “I always thought growing up that my dad was the coolest dad I knew because he carried a gun...

The Bravo 400’s shift is split evenly between single and married officers.   Today I want for you to get acquainted with the singles: Officer Jacobs Amanda Jacobs, or ‘Mandy’ as her friends call her, is the lone female on the shift.   Mandy’s fondest childhood memories of are those in which she’d curl up on her father’s lap and watch old reruns of “Chips”.   She decided at a young age as she watched Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox that she wanted to be a police officer.   Her father told her she would make a great police officer, and she believed him.   She never lost sight of that as she pursued a criminal justice degree from Texas State University.   One day a recruiter from the Corpus Christi Police Department was on campus and he sold her the city of Corpus Christi.   She has never regretted moving there and loves working for the CCPD. She does have a boyfriend, Ryan, whom she met at Texas State.   She loves him, but he remain...

What you will learn about the Bravo 400’s shift as you read “Final 42” is that they are a close-knit shift. A big contributing factor as to why they’re so tight is because they are led by two men who are not only good leaders, but who respect and genuinely like one another. Sergeant Gabe Torres is the man in charge. Sarge is a retired Navy Gunner’s Mate, ‘an old salty dog’, some may call him. He retired just before 9/11/2001 and joined the Corpus Christi Police Department because he wasn’t finished serving. Sarge is a serious man, an intimidating man, but his kind eyes give hints to the integrity behind them.   He and his wife, Eva, are parents to two adopted daughters – Victoria and Veronica, now college students attending the same university. Sarge leads his shift in the same manner he did as a supervisor in his Navy days, trusting the man below him, never micro-managing or looking over his officer’s shoulders.   Sarge is often quiet and sometimes unreadable,...

It’s already July, 2017. WOW.   I said at the beginning of the year that I’d blog more about what I am grateful for and I haven’t done enough blogging.   Not because I lack things to be grateful for, or the gratitude itself . . . I’m going to remedy my lack of blogging with a post about what I thank God for every day, without fail. My kids, of course.   My offspring.   My crazies.   My half-dozen. Faith Ann, Caroline Mae, Scarlett Clare, Thomas Michael, Barrett Gabriel, Marian Grace. Some reading now are totally thinking, yikes, six is a lot ! And that is correct.   Six is a lot. No doubt about that.   I really couldn’t have guessed that I would have a large family.   My husband and I both hoped for at least four, and were blessed with super fertility.   Now I can’t imagine anything else. I don’t have to tell you that it’s hard.   Everyone knows kids are hard. One kid, twelve kids, whatever your nu...

This particular blogpost requires some backstory.   In September of 2003, I arrived at my first duty station – Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Fifteen (HM-15) which was located at the time onboard Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (it has since moved to Norfolk.) This is when I was a Yeoman Third Class. HM-15 admin office. I would spend a total of three years at this squadron.   The first two, I resided in the barracks on NAS. The last year I spent in an apartment alone off-base. Those three years were the most formative of my life.   I’ll explain. For one, I met my husband while I was there. He was not assigned to HM-15, but to base security there on NAS.   I blogged about our beginning earlier this year. You can find that story here. http://myonedayisnow.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-love-story.html I also joined the Catholic Church while I was there. (Again, I’ve blogged about this experience before too. Link for that one is here. http:...

Once upon a time, a 20-year-old female sailor was almost arrested for violating article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.   What was she doing, you ask?   Well, she was conducting in a nature that would bring discredit to the Navy.   More specifically?   She was drinking under the age of 21.   Even more specifically?   She was drinking a bottle of Bud Light, with approximately 8-10 other young sailors, in a friend’s barracks room. This young girl knew she shouldn’t have been drinking underage.   But she wasn’t very bright, and was not thinking of the consequences of her actions if she were to be caught, so she did it anyway. That evening, a young male sailor on duty (he was a master-at-arms in the Navy, in other words-military police) was patrolling the barracks.   He’ll tell you now, if you ask him, that he was bored and looking for something to do. Well, he found something.   He found the aforementioned girl and her ...