New Years Day Tradition - Eating Black-Eyed Peas

 I borrowed the following article to share my family's belief in the good luck given by eating black-eyed peas on the first day of the new year. My family, on my dad's side, was from a little town in Alabama called, Cross Plains, then, named Piedmont, after the Civil War. After great loss, the families of Sherbett and Pike moved to Bosque County, Texas and with them came our black-eyed pea eating tradition.

A SPOONFUL FOR GOOD LUCK IN THE NEW YEAR

Thank Gen. Sherman for our black-eyed pea tradition

By Steve Popp

12.31.09 | 10:04 pm

I gotta feeling: Black-Eyed Peas not only will be playing on the radio, but they’ll be served on a table, too.

My first foray from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the Deep South—Yazoo City, Miss., to be exact—taught me several things.

1. Dress up before you sit down at the dinner table, pleated-front khakis preferred.
2. Pace yourself at the dinner table when a broccoli cheese casserole is served.
3. You can refer to the American Civil War as “the War of Northern Aggression,” if you’d like.
4. Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is an important Southern tradition to bring you good luck in the coming year.

These lessons helped me, a bona fide Yankee carpetbagger of nearly 18 years, acclimatize to my new environs south of the Mason-Dixon line.

Now I still can’t say y'all. You guys will have to wait a few more years for that. Nor will I blame “northern aggression” for the Civil War. Lincoln bashing is where I draw the line.

But I have come to fully embrace the distinct dishes (chile con queso is a newly formed section of my food pyramid) as well as Southern culinary traditions, like eating those black-eyed peas on New Year’s.

I recently took a very non-scientific poll of yay or nay around the dinner table about the reason for the black-eyed pea New Year’s tradition and found nay person to offer a yay response.

Some Northern Aggression Actually Informs the Tradition
Tradition has it that Southerners have been eating black-eyed peas for good luck on the first of the year since the end of the Civil War. They were the only things left for many Southerners to eat after the invading northern army, led by Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, tore through Georgia on his “march to the sea.”

Sherman believed that the actions of his army “hastened what we all fought for, the end of the war."

Sherman’s goal was to bring a quick end to the war. He also wanted to make Georgia “howl.” To do so, Sherman’s army not only took the city of Atlanta, but it cut a path of destruction some 300 miles long and some 60 miles wide through the South. As the army wreaked havoc, it consumed almost everything with which it came into contact. Almost everything except black-eyed peas.

Apparently Northerners thought these cowpeas, as they referred to them, were unfit for human consumption (gasp!). Thus, for Southerners caught in the wake of this destructive army, there was little else that winter of 1864-65 on which they could subsist.

Little did he know it also inaugurated a New Year’s tradition for southerners.

So considering my recently acquired affinity for black-eyed peas runs counter to the apparent long tradition of Yankee disdain for the bean, I’m quite proud of my turnaround in taste.

Thank you, Steve Popp, for sharing your story with us.

 Now, my mother had her own rules for eating, what we as kids called, the dreaded pea. We could eat one spoonful or, if that was too much, at least one pea. I think my brother might have stretched that to one-half. I happen to love the sassy little legume, but, after having children of my own, I understood why she amended the folklore. Mother, who was very superstitious, was going to make sure we ate a pea. She told us if we ever missed eating one on New Years Day, there was a three day grace period. I just want to say that I dearly loved my mom, and tomorrow we will be having a bowl in her honor. Eat up!!

Happy New Year! Carra  

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Happy New Year

Every new year we start out with great expectations of things to come. If we're lucky, there are more good times than bad. I hope this past year of 2011 was good to all of you, and I wish that 2012 will be the best year yet.

Texas Skies Blog is still relatively new, but I hope to have more articles pertaining to writers and the writing process. I am also planning a few interviews with authors to discuss their books and their world of imagination. My first guest will be Lyn Horner, author of action-packed, romantic historical fiction. I hope you will stop by the first week of January to visit with Lyn and me.

Happy New Year, Carra

Christmas Wishes

My wish for you in this time of reflection, family, and Santa Claus is a safe holiday filled with loved ones, good food and a warm home. May you all have a very Merry Christmas!

                                                         Hugs, 
                                                            Carra

Christmas Traditions

We all have family traditions. Some of these are developed with new families, some are carried down through generations.

The history of the modern Christmas tree dates back to Germany in the 16th century. German immigrants brought them to America about 1700 and they became popular with the general U.S. population about 1850. The tree is widely accepted today with Christmas trees gracing homes and office buildings alike.

I'm fairly certain that our family traditions, including the decorated tree, started, at least, as far back as the late 1700's to early 1800's. The trees through the years have come in all shapes and sizes. Growing up we had short ones, tall ones, fir, white plastic and a cedar that my dad cut for us one night. It was such an adventure having daddy cut down our own tree, that is, until we saw the sign saying we were on land belonging to a state park!



My husband and I started our family's tree tradition with a Lionel train set and a town consisting of a farm, train station and Santa with reindeer. While the placement and additions have changed throughout the last 40 years, it's content remains circa 1955. The following shots are from our tree this year.

I would love to hear from you if you'd like to share your family traditions. Merry Christmas!

Christmas - Memories and Magic

I love Christmas, from religious services to Santa Claus, Nativity scenes to Christmas trees. I love it all. We start decorating our tree the Friday after Thanksgiving, hang the outside lights, and set up the train board under the tree. There's the shopping, driving around the neighborhoods looking at all the homes decorated with lights and the baking...yum! This year I've taken  to woolgathering, more than in recent years, and I thought I would share a couple of my memories.


The earliest Christmas I remember was at age five. It turned out to be the one that made my mother cry. Why you ask? Well, you see, Santa had always left a doll under the tree for me, and, apparently, after seeing the doll, I would play with nothing else. This particular year, the jolly old guy also brought a buggy.When relating the story to me many years later, Mother said she knew, if I had seen the doll first, the morning was over. She told me how she quickly hid the doll behind the tree, then waited to see what I would do. Upon finding the buggy parked there in all its beauty, I promptly took it to my room, found my favorite doll, Janie, and began to play. Mother said she felt so bad that she never hid another thing from us.


Another memory I'd like to share with you, circa 1952, is of the decorated store windows of Neiman-Marcus, Sanger Bros, and A. Harris in downtown Dallas, Texas. We would bundle up in heavy coats, hats and gloves and walk along Elm, Main and Commerce Streets looking at the scenes depicting Santa's workshop, outdoor scenes with elves and furry animals, and cozy living rooms on Christmas morning. One I remember, in particular, depicted Clement Moore's, Twas the Night Before Christmas. The animated mannequins portrayed every aspect of the classic poem, including the dad in his cap, smoking a pipe and watching Santa about to rise up the chimney. It was so magical seen through a child's eyes. I can't help thinking my own children missed something wonderful.

This week I began planning a Christmas time-travel romance. The possibilities are endless; my memories are calling out to me. What could be more fun than creating my favorite kind of romance occurring at my favorite time of year?



I'm wishing wonderful Christmas memories for everyone. Enjoy the season!

Introspection (interior dialogue,interior monologue,self-talk)

Wikipedia says Introspection is the self-observation and reporting of conscious inner thoughts, desires and sensations. It is a conscious and purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one's own thoughts, feelings, and, in more spiritual cases, one's soul. It can also be called contemplation of one's self, and is contrasted with extrospection, the observation of things external to one's self.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introspection

Whew!! Very nicely explained and yet I have so much trouble with it. How much is enough and how much is too much?

I think I'm actually a minimalist, therefore it's difficult for me to go too far into a character's thoughts. Hence the "how much is enough" question. At this last statement, my husband would protest loudly and longly as he prefers a "yes" or "no" answer, but perhaps I'm confusing introspection with embellishment. Aha! she thinks to herself(introspection). Perhaps this is this my problem. I confuse introspection with embellishment. So, when I'm giving the character's thoughts, it's OK to "embellish" a little more to encompass all that character is feeling; to allow those inner thoughts to deepen characterization and, therefore, to enhance the story.

This is the challenge with which I currently struggle. I want my readers to understand and commiserate with the reason Jack has come home surrounded by lies and, to struggle with Maggie as she faces the difficulty of learning to trust again.

Rule of Three

Most of you have heard of the "Rule of Three", but some of you have not. More of us use it in our writing without even thinking about it.
While Googling for info the other night and watching a rerun of NCIS, Tony DiNozzo mentioned it while explaining the developement of a crime the team was investigating about a serial killer. He said, "Do something once it's a tragedy, twice it's a coincidence, three times it's a pattern." Just what I was looking for.
Further searching turned up a great blog by Brian Clark. He talks how the rule of three has been used throughout history in nursery rhymes, comedy, and diverse areas of life. Stop by and check out Brian's blog at: 

http://www.copyblogger.com/rule-of-three/

Writers in the Storm Blog

Writers in the Storm Blog was founded by Laura Drake, Jenny Hansen, Sharla Rae, Fae Rowen and D.A. Watt a talented group of authors who share their knowledge and expertise in many areas of writing. Subjects covered are editing, proofreading, copyrights, ISBN, royalties, contest judges, keyboard shortcuts, writing links, word menus, research and many other facets of writing not mentioned here.

Each week guest bloggers are featured such as Lyn Horner, Linda O. Johnston and, most recently, Karen White. Their topics include publishing with Amazon, embedding your bookcover and getting your ebook noticed. They even offer fun contests to get us all involved in writing!

Please stop by Writers in the Storm and get to know this great group of writers and their contributers at:
http://writersinthestorm.wordpress.com

Lyn Horner, Author

Since I started this site to support and promote writing and writers, I'd like to take a few lines to do just that.

Lyn Horner, a good friend of mine, is an up and coming author who writes historical western romance with Irish magic and paranormal elements added for good measure. The first installment in her Texas Druids series, Darlin' Druid, is a wonderful blend of adventure, stormy, steamy romance and Druid magic.
She has also penned a lively, touching memoir, Six Cats in My Kitchen.

These books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Please stop by her blog site to get to know Lyn and to get the scoop on how to purchase her wonderful stories. You'll be glad you did!

http://texasdruids.blogspot.com

Cleaning House

My husband and I decided in May of this year to stay in the home we've shared for forty of the forty-four years we've been married. Great. Wonderful, in fact, except that we also decided to remodel and update. Ah, wonderful again, you say. Downstairs, yes, I agree and that has gone well with the exception of putting the kitchen on the backburner until after Christmas. So, next we hone in on the upstairs. Now this, too, sounds great on the surface...except no one has occupied that space since our daughter moved to her own apartment in 1993! My husband says I'm the only woman he knows that needs 1,000 square feet of space for storage. Ha! While I feel he should appreciate the fact that I saved him storage building fees for all those years, I gathered myself up and started cleaning out all the "stuff".

Now, I've said all that to say this: How in the world did I collect the number of books that are sitting up there gathering dust?

I love books. All sizes, shapes, condition, subject; you name it, I've bought it. I love the feel and the smell of them, and, for a long time, it was important for me to see all of the ones I'd read. Used bookstores are the best for getting one's fix and for a few years, I knew where all of them were for several counties. I own collections from Sandra Brown and Jayne Ann Krentz(every book they've ever written, including all their pseudonyms), Lynda Lael Miller, Nora Roberts, J.D. Robb, Mary Higgins Clark, Carol Higgins Clark, Jennifer Cruisie, Linda Howard, Merline Lovelace, Cindy Dees, and on and on. There are research books out somebody's wazoo, obviously not mine since they've been buried up there for who knows how long.

So, this week, I decided to get over myself. I've taken bags and bags of my good friends to Half-Price Books accepting the pittance offered. You'll be so proud of me, though, for I only kept the books that are autographed...three book shelves, three rows deep, plus a few hardbacks and a few research books. You are proud of me, aren't you? Hello??

Thank You

Well, I still have a lot to learn. I've tried to respond to the comments left by my good friend and author, Lyn Horner, and find I'm unable to leave a comment on my own site! So it's back to the drawing board.

While I'm here, though, I'll respond to Lyn's comments. Thank you for your welcome comments and continued support. You are fearless and continue to inspire me.

Follow this link to Lyn's informative and entertaining blog:  http://texasdruids.blogspot.com

My name is Carra Copelin an aspiring romance writer/author. I've toyed with the idea of starting a blog for quite some time but something always held me back. How on earth would anything I write ever be of interest to anyone? I started writing back in 1994 to fill my mind with something other than the state of my life at the time. It's nothing to go into here, but suffice it to say I was bordering on going a little crazy.
I was reading about ten books a week when I realized there were people in my head who wanted their stories told. So...I started writing. After a year, I swallowed my fear and actually said to a total stranger, "I'm a writer." Until that moment, I hadn't even said that to my husband! Now, I'm not very brave. I kind of stand in the background and wait to see how I can contribute without being noticed. It's a pattern repeated throughout my life.
In 1995, my husband showed me an article in the newspaper that highlighted the romance writing industry and listed local writers groups. It was at his suggestion that I attended my first meeting, thus propelling me toward a new goal and two of the best friends anyone could hope for. My goal was to be published in three to five years. I promised my husband if nothing happened in that time frame, I would stop writing and rejoin our marriage.
Well, I didn't get published with that first submission(duh!), but I had made a promise. Little did I know that, just because I made that declaration, those people were never leaving my head until their stories were told. They are still there, Maggie, Jack, Wyatt, Britie, Andy, Andrew, Nic, Marisol, Miranda, Tomas... You get the picture.
So, I've started a blog. I hope it will eventually become more than an outlet. I would like it to become a place where I can develope and promote my characters, my writing career, myself.