TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Dreaming On…

March 9, 2020March 9, 2020Donna L

band

Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mother was a true, hard-core country music lover. I mean shows like The Grand Ole Opry, and Hee Haw was ALWAYS on at our house. The radio only played classic country artists like Dolly Parton, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette. I didn’t even know there was any other kind of music until I was a teenager.

The summer I turned 14, my mother allow me to start working part time at a cafe downtown that served true Cajun food as well as hamburgers and french fries. There was a small jukebox and dance floor in one corner of the building. I really enjoyed my job because I got the chance to work with my sister.

One day while I was serving a customer, someone decided to drop a dime in the jukebox and selected a song that would change my life forever. Aerosmith’s “Dream On” started playing and it literally stopped me in my tracks.

That voice.

That guitar.

Those drums.

The lyrics were hypnotic to me, and I spent the remaining time I worked at that cafe spending half of my paycheck each week on that jukebox. I was never told anything but you would think the owners would have gotten tired of hearing that song. Maybe they thought some other customer was dropping all those coins in the machine. Or maybe they loved the song as much as I did.

Either way, more than forty years have passed since I first heard that song, but even now, when I hear the first chords of that tune, I’m transported back to that little cafe, dropping nickels in the jukebox and dreaming on…

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HM Hunting Gris-Gris Epub cover

HISTORY’S MYSTERIES: Hunting Gris-Gris

Eleven-year-old Emma misses her father who’s serving in Europe during World War II. He left behind a treasure box with six secret compartments to be opened during her birthday week. He also told her to watch out for the gris-gris while he was gone. Looking out for swamp creatures and dealing with wartime rationing was hard enough, but now there’s a British refugee coming to stay at the house! How will Emma enjoy her birthday and keep her decision to hunt for the gris-gris a secret with a stranger hanging around?

Coming to a bookstore near you in the spring of 2020!

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donna - Copy

Best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest chapter book series is called HISTORY’S MYSTERIES. Book three, Hunting Gris-Gris, is scheduled to be released later this spring!

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Mud Puddles & Mud Pies

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020Donna L

Rainy days like today remind me of my childhood back in the swamps of Louisiana. I was raised to be a country girl while living in a small town on the edge of the bayou. We weren’t the poorest family in town but came pretty darn close.

I had a few toys to my name, but had to use my imagination just as much to entertain myself on a rainy day.

If it was really storming outside, Mother would let my sister and me take over the dining room and turn it into our own private fortress. We would take covers off the beds and drape them over the table top to create an instant cave to hide in. Dining room chairs could be turned over to make walls to protect us from the monsters waiting in the other room. Flashlights for reading in the semi-darkness, and if we were lucky, some of mother’s cookies and Koolaid to tide us over til lunch time.

If it was a light, summer rain, I would hang out in our garage. There was a large pool table there where I would challenge Janet to a game, but most of the time I just sat on the hard, dirt floor and played house with my dolls. Mud and grass mixed together made some fine mud pies and all my stuffed animals would always ask for more!

It didn’t take much during those kind of days to keep me occupied.

Just a little bit of rain and some mud…

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HISTORY’S MYSTERIES: Hunting Gris-Gris
Eleven-year-old Emma misses her father who’s serving in Europe during World War II. He left behind a treasure box with six secret compartments to be opened during her birthday week. He also told her to watch out for the gris-gris while he was gone. Looking out for swamp creatures and dealing with wartime rationing was hard enough, but now there’s a British refugee coming to stay at the house! How will Emma enjoy her birthday and keep her decision to hunt for the gris-gris a secret with a stranger hanging around?
Coming to a bookstore near you in the spring of 2020!

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TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Killer Cures

February 24, 2020February 23, 2020Donna L

My mother was a strong willed woman who had little to no tolerance for sickness in her house. With four children to raise pretty much on her own because my father was away from home so much, she always seemed to approach sickness with one of two approaches…

TOUGH LOVE

Unless there was some evidence of a fever or body parts falling off, Mother presumed one was healthy enough to carry on. Sniffles, coughing, or a slightly scratchy throat would be ignored and the child in question would be bundled up and sent off to school with the usual determination. A good education rated high on my mother’s list of life’s accomplishments, and the barometer of the day if one didn’t have a fever was, “Can you make it through school?” If I hadn’t contracted the plague, I knew my butt would be sent to school whether I wanted to stay home that particular day or not.

KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS

I was by no means a sickly child growing up, but there was one thing I could always count on during the fall and winter months. At least 4-5 times a year I would develop tonsillitis or strep throat. The doctor told my mother I needed my tonsils removed, but with our family being so poor, she knew there was never any chance of that happening. She barely had the money for antibiotics so when they were purchased, I was never given the full dose…just enough to make me feel better because the rest would be saved for the next round the next month to help stretch the money.

There were three things I could always count on if I truly got sick. An alcohol rub down to help break the fever. Tepid, strong tea with little sugar. And poached eggs on dry toast. While I hated the constant battle with tonsillitis and strep throat, I hated even more my mother’s “home remedies” for trying to cure what ailed me.

To this day, I like my toast heavily buttered, my eggs fried, with my weak tea boiling hot and sweet! Don’t even think about trying to serve me one of Mother’s “killer cures” the next time I get sick…

egg

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Leaving A Mark

February 18, 2020February 18, 2020Donna L

I want to warn everyone that this week’s tale might be disturbing for some people. It won’t hurt my feelings if you choose to skip this week and come back next time. If you choose to read on, remember…I warned you.

Growing up when I did, I knew each school year where I would sit in the classroom and even who I would sit behind. Teachers always arranged their classrooms by alphabetical order and since my hometown was small, there weren’t any new faces at the beginning of the new school year to disrupt the order of things.

Every year I sat behind the same boy. I don’t know if he had an issue with me because I was a girl, because I was poor, or maybe he was just a jerk and it had nothing to do with me. But one particular year when I was in fifth grade, there was two incidents that literally left their mark on me and changed my life forever.

I don’t even remember what caused our argument. Bickering between school mates over something dumb I’m sure. Before I knew what was happening, the boy turned around in his chair and stabbed his pencil in my arm.

I was surprised, to put it mildly.

The teacher was more excited than anything and proceeded to drag me to all the classrooms in our building where she showed off the pencil still sticking out of my arm. She hadn’t bothered to pull it out before creating the pathetic circus performance I became a part of. I”m pretty sure nothing ever happened to make that boy accountable.

Then came the next pencil encounter.

Later that same school year, again there was some disagreement between this boy and myself. I don’t know why, because I liked his older brother very much. Anyway, the bickering escalated until the boy swung at me again with another pencil.

This time, it wasn’t my arm that was his target.

The pencil was stuck in my eye!

It landed in my left eye near my tear duct and luckily this time, it wasn’t left in place while I was paraded around like some monkey in a cage. I really don’t remember if there was ever any repercussions for him, but by the sixth grade I was forced to wear glasses and now years later, I have issues with that eye which might eventually lead to blindness down the line.

Either way, that boy left his mark on me and I will never forget him. I hold no ill will. Kids can be dumb sometimes and lash out in anger or stupidity. But no matter his reason, when it comes to being blessed enough to see the cover of my eleventh book being released later this spring, I’m seeing just fine!

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HM Hunting Gris-Gris HB cover

HISTORY’S MYSTERIES: Hunting Gris-Gris

Coming to a bookstore near you in the spring of 2020!

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donna - Copy

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Slip Sliding Away

February 10, 2020Donna L

Rain, Boots, Umbrella, Wet, Rain Falling

I’ve always loved rainy days. Especially when I could just hang out and listen to it or watch it fall. I especially liked when it would hit one of the metal awnings around my childhood home…pinging and slapping the metal in a rhythmic sound that always had a calming affect on me.

I’m not a huge fan of lightening though. Storms in southern Louisiana can get pretty intense and the lightening was almost always followed by the crashing, booming rolls of thunder that would drive me under the covers when it happened in the middle of the night.

But then there were those times when there would be a light rainfall and my mother would let me go outside to play in it. Donning galoshes and a raincoat, I would dance in the rain…not a care in the world…and create streams in the mud where leaves with stick sails would travel to another world in my mind.

If I was really lucky, the water would collect in the deep ditch in our front yard. My sister and I would then take a thrown away refrigerator size cardboard box confiscated from the local hardware store dumpster and cut it open to create a homemade slippy slide leading from our front yard into the pond created in that ditch.

It didn’t matter we were poor and didn’t have a real pool. It didn’t matter that the water wasn’t crystal clear surrounded by white, sandy beaches.

In my mind, I was diving into a blue lagoon on some deserted tropical island and having the time of my life! My mother didn’t choose the life of poverty her children were born into, but she did allow us the freedom to use our creativity to have a little fun on a rainy day…

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COMING MARCH 20, 2020!

Book three of the HISTORY’S MYSTERIES series, Hunting Gris-Gris, is scheduled to be released this spring, just in time for Easter!

Amelia Earmouse travels back through time to uncover little known events. You may THINK you know your history, but wait until you see what Amelia uncovers in book three of HISTORY’S MYSTERIES.

Eleven-year-old Emma misses her father who’s serving in Europe during World War II. He leaves behind a treasure box with six compartments to be opened during her birthday week. He also tells her to watch for the gris-gris while he is gone. Looking out for swamp creatures and dealing with wartime rationing is hard enough, but now there’s a British refugee staying at the house! How will Emma enjoy her birthday and keep her decision to hunt the gris-gris a secret with a stranger following her around?

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TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Back To My Not So Italian Roots…

January 27, 2020January 27, 2020Donna L

pasta

Life on the bayou wasn’t always all about crawfish and gumbo.

There were other times when my mother threw together other ingredients in her attempt to put food on the table. Sometimes it worked.

Sometimes it didn’t.

I lived for Sunday afternoons because I could identify what was on my plate. I loved mother’s fried chicken and mashed potatoes. I wasn’t so lucky the other days of the week. Sometimes I would come home from school to fish head soup. Yes, you heard me right. NOT fish soup…fish HEAD soup. Do you know how freaky it is to look into a pot and have your meal LOOKING BACK AT YOU?

Then there were the rooster COMB and chicken FEET meals placed in front of me. Just in case you’re wondering…no, there is NO meat on chicken FEET, but you can have lots of fun playing with the tendons like a theater puppet to make the claws clinch up!

Occasionally, mother would try to make a traditional Italian meal of spaghetti and meatballs. Most of the time we didn’t have the ground meat for meatballs so she would substitute diced chicken. Then there was the fact she usually didn’t have enough spaghetti to feed six people so she would substitute rice on the bottom of the dish. Being raised in the middle of rice country had it’s advantages. Seasoned tomato paste topped off the dish instead of homemade spaghetti sauce, and I imagine the “cheese” that was sprinkled on top came from the government subsidized cheese handouts we would travel to the next town each month to receive.

Any true Italian would have been horrified to have that concoction placed in front of them, but in our house, it was WAY BETTER than the grease dripping pancakes or turnip rice dishes I had to choke down to avoid being hungry.

Luckily, pasta dishes are much easier to make these days…

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Donna's Books

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, it’s easy to pick up a quick read to share with a loved one! Check out my author page on Amazon…http://www.amazon.com/Donna-L-Martin/e/B00KA7DS02…

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donna - Copy

Best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest chapter book series is called HISTORY’S MYSTERIES. Book One, Ship of Dreams, is available in eBook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers. Also, coming to the Titanic Museums in Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Book Two, A Chocolate Train Wreck, was released in November.

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Find Me A Crawdad Hole…

January 20, 2020January 18, 2020Donna L

crawfish

As a child growing up near the swamps of southern Louisiana, there were a couple of things I was sure of….

Alligators could come to visit us whenever they wanted.

Crawfish were fun to play with.

Growing up poor on the bayou didn’t give me many opportunities to play with the fancier toys other children in my small hometown would, so I would make up my own unique forms of play…like hunting for crawfish.

There was a tiny ditch zig-zagging its way through our back yard at one of many houses I lived at during my childhood. Whenever it rained my siblings and I would get ready for what we knew was going to happen. That little ditch would fill up with water and before you know it, crawfish would be drawn to that mini-bayou in our back yard.

I never knew how they actually got there, but as soon as mother told us we could, we would run barefoot through the squishy backyard to that ditch. My brother David, who was six years older than myself and far braver than I would ever be while living in that house, would calmly tread his way in that water from one side of the yard to the other. He was using his toes as bait for the crawfish we knew were hiding just under the surface. Of course it would hurt like the dickens when one of those mudbugs caught a toe with those front pinchers, but my brother would just scramble out of the water to toss his prize into a nearby bucket we brought for just such an occasion.

You would have to ask my sister, Janet, if she ever followed our brother into the ditch. My memories feel like she did, but I just might be putting her on a bravery pedestal like I did my brother. Scaredy-cat me, I did the next best thing. Stretching out a long piece of string, I dipped one end into the mudholes I would find nearby. Even at six years old I knew crawfish liked to burrow themselves into the mud after a rain and I’d never met a crawfish that didn’t like to grab onto anything that got in its way. Patience eventually paid off and I could pull that string up with one or sometimes two angry crawdads clinging on for dear life.

We never caught more than a handful, but it was just enough to have some crawfish races on the sidewalk. All Cajuns knew crawfish ran backwards when they’re trying to get away from something so the “finish-line” was always placed behind them.

When you’re a kid and dirt poor, there are always ways to have a little fun on the bayou…

crawfish

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Here A Ghost, There A Ghost…

January 13, 2020January 13, 2020Donna L

ghost

I know there are people out in the world who do not believe in ghosts.

I’m not one of them.

While I don’t claim to have been visited by E.T. or little green men from outer space, I HAVE seen evidence of spirits in the house both my parents died in. This week I’ll share the story that happened to me when I was about ten years old.

The house we lived in at the time was actually the oldest house built in Gueydan. At almost 100 years old, the house had a front parlor converted into an extra bedroom. It shared a pass through closet which connected to my bedroom just on the other side of the closet door.

One winter, I woke up in the middle of the night, chilled because I had forgotten to throw another blanket on my bed. Our house had no heating or air conditioning. One space heater sat in the living room and one window unit hung in the dining room window. Throwing back the covers, I sat up and prepared to make a mad dash to my closet for a blanket when I saw the closet slowly open and my winter coat slowly float towards me. It was hovering near the ceiling almost over me when I let out a loud “NO”, and I watched it fly backwards into my closet and the door slam shut.

Chilliness forgotten, I buried myself back under my covers and didn’t come back out until the sun came out and the shadows left my room.

I’ve told this story to my sister before as we shared weird stories of us living in that house. I’ve always hesitated sharing some of these stories with others though. I know I will be looked at differently after the telling of my brush with a ghost.

That wasn’t my only encounter with the supernatural while living in that house, and I began to think someone…or something…was watching over us. Why else would there be a coat floating through the air in an attempt to cover a shivering child?

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Books always make a great gift! There’s everything from inspirational essay journals to picture books…young adult fantasy novels to historical fiction chapter books. Something for everyone on sale now through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other retailers. HISTORY’S MYSTERIES: Ship of Dreams can also be found at the Titanic Museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri.

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Best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest chapter book series is called HISTORY’S MYSTERIES. Book One, Ship of Dreams, is available in eBook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers. Also, coming to the Titanic Museums in Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Book Two, A Chocolate Train Wreck, was released in November.

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Home Baked Goodness

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020Donna L

homemade

Every morning when I reach for my store bought loaf of bread, I remember how it was when I was a kid. My mother raised four kids on an offshore cook’s paycheck and in the early 70’s that wasn’t much. Try as she might, my poor mother simply couldn’t stretch her pennies to pay for store bought bread, even when the price was less than fifty cents a loaf.

So she baked.

Three or four times a week I would wake up knowing my mother would be in the kitchen kneading the dough, flinging the flour, and filling the house with the heavenly smell of fresh baked bread.

If it was a school day, I knew there would be several loaves sitting on the counter to greet me when I returned home. If it was the weekend, I would sit at the kitchen table to watch my mother’s hands make quick work of mixing the ingredients and filling the greased pans with the shaped dough. Then it was the countdown and eager anticipation to eating a fresh slice of hot, homemade bread smothered with butter. Even the butter was homemade by my diligently shaking a mason jar filled with fresh cream for what seemed like hours.

Bread bought from a store may be convenient in today’s world, but it will never replace the love you could taste in every slice of my mother’s homemade bread…

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Donna's Books

Looking for a way to spend that Christmas cash? Gift cards burning a hole in your pocket? Books always make a great gift! There’s everything from inspirational essay journals to picture books…young adult fantasy novels to historical fiction chapter books. Something for everyone on sale now through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other retailers. HISTORY’S MYSTERIES: Ship of Dreams can also be found at the Titanic Museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Branson, Missouri.

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donna - Copy

Best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest chapter book series is called HISTORY’S MYSTERIES. Book One, Ship of Dreams, is available in eBook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers. Also, coming to the Titanic Museums in Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Book Two, A Chocolate Train Wreck, was released in November.

TALES FROM THE BAYOU: Man’s Best Friend

December 31, 2019January 1, 2020Donna L

TROPHY

The way I love cats as an adult, you would think I was around them all my life.

You would be wrong.

Growing up in the swamps of Louisiana, I guess it just made more sense to have dogs around….to alert us to strangers coming around the house as well as helping to fight off any strange animals that might come out of the bayous surrounding my little hometown.

The first dog I can remember was a beagle named Jackie. I don’t remember much about her other than I know she was a part of the family. I was around 2-3 years old, but I can still remember playing with her. She was my first companion because my siblings were much older than myself and it would be a couple more years before I was old enough to run around with them.

Next came Chi Chi. She was a full blooded chihuahua and there are only two things I remember about her. One, she had a sharp, yippy-yappy kind of bark and used it when she didn’t want me to play with her. Two, she loved eating acorns she would find in our front yard. I never met another dog who ate acorns like Chi Chi did

At the same time I had Chi Chi, we had a mixed chihuahua-mutt named Penny. Oh, how I loved that dog. For most of her life, my mother kept her tied up outside. It broke my heart to see her captive like that, but there was nothing I could do to change things. Penny would patiently let me dress her up or try to teach her tricks, but you know what they say about old dogs…

Animals have always been a large part of my childhood. I was always bringing in some stray critters home or my sister would have a few strange ones of her own. They brought comfort, companionship, warm snuggles, and could soak tears from a heavy heart quicker than a sponge. At one time I even thought I would grow up to be an animal doctor, but instead, now I just write about critters…

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Donna's Books

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donna - Copy

Best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest chapter book series is called HISTORY’S MYSTERIES. Book One, Ship of Dreams, is available in eBook and print form from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, and other online retailers. Also, coming to the Titanic Museums in Branson, Missouri, and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Book Two, A Chocolate Train Wreck, was released in November.

TOUGH LOVE

KILL THEM WITH KINDNESS

***COMING MARCH 20, 2020!***

COMING MARCH 20, 2020!