I’m not even sure if I spelled that word pantser correctly. After three or four attempts WordPress is still redlining it, so somebody, please correct me if you know what it should be. I tried dictionary.com and the closest I came to it was the word “depantsing,” which I’m sure you can guess means “to remove the trousers from, as a joke or punishment.” I do remember as a child hearing about boys being “depantsed” by teachers and then flogged, but I never witnessed it. Anyway, for you readers, “pantser” or “pantsing” is one of those strange, new words authors use and has nothing to do with removing someone’s pants either as a joke or for punishment.

So, what does it mean? It means something I’m guilty of – writing by the seat of my pants. Not making an outline -as I was taught in college – but just writing free-form, spontaneously. And I believe it worked quite well for my first four books. So why did I decide to change? With my latest WIP – I haven’t settled on a title yet- I find myself stalling at times, unlike when I wrote all the Egypt books and the words just poured out of me like a Florida rainstorm. It’s not that I have the dreaded writer’s block. It’s simply that I had abandoned the project for a time to work on other things, and when I picked it up again, I was lost.

Then it dawned on me that if I had plotted – made an outline – I would have simply taken up where I’d left off and would have saved myself a lot of time and a lot of angst trying to figure what to write next. So now I’ve decided to spend a little time outlining or timelining as another author called it instead of pantsing. If you are an author, you might want to use this idea for NANOWRIMO to help you complete your novel in one month.

However, there are some authors who believe in pantsing a novel and those who believe in outlining your novel I think both methods have merit. In the final analysis, I’ll use what works best for me depending on the project. Leave a comment below and let me know which method you prefer and why.

If you’ve read this far, I have an offer for you. In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’m giving away these lovely bangles on my health blog, but since they may have meaning for some of you, I’ve decided to make the offer available to you as well. Simply sign up in the form below and I’ll choose two lovely ladies to send the bangles to FREE and postage paid.

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Polio and Me, written by Ken Dalton, is a memoir that provides a view of the past, present, and future—the saga of one boy’s pain, fear, and loneliness—the long struggle to develop a vaccine and effective treatments—the world-wide goal to eradicate the polio virus, and in some twenty-first century cancer research trials, the polio virus eliminated cancerous tumors.

Ken Dalton was born in Los Angeles in 1938. In 1943 he contracted polio and spent the next eleven years of his childhood in and out of hospitals.

Fifty-nine years ago he married his childhood sweetheart and is a father of three, a grandfather of four, and the great-grandfather of nine.

After a thirty-eight year management career with Pacific Telephone Company, Ken retired to write golf and travel articles for Golf Digest, Golf Illustrated, Fairways and Greens, and Golf.com.

During two NBC-TV Celebrity Golf Tournaments at Lake Tahoe, he interviewed Olympic Decathlon Champion, Bruce Jenner when he was Bruce, not Caitlyn, the mischievous Chicago Bears quarterback, Jim McMahon, the iconic Vice-President Dan Quail, and NBC Today show anchor, Matt Lauer.

Ken has published six mystery novels. Polio and Me marks his initial foray into the world of non-fiction.

Presently, Ken is working on his seventh mystery, The Heretics Hymnal, and a comedy of manners novel, Casper Potts and the Ladies Casserole club.

Contact Information

Website: www.kendaltom.com

Facebook: KenDalton MysteryWriter

Purchase Links

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Polio-Me-Ken-Dalton-ebook/dp/B01M697TDW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503876702&sr=8-1&keywords=polio+and+me

Excerpt

Today, seventy-two years later, as a father of three, a grandfather, and great-grandfather, the idea that an ambulance team could walk into my doctor’s office and rip my son or daughter from my arms is an appalling notion. But this was 1943, decades ago, when polio epidemics killed and paralyzed an average of 12,000 children and adults each year.
I understand that having your child taken from your arms sounds draconian, but in Los Angeles, during the summer months of the annual polio epidemics, as many as one hundred patients a day were admitted to Los Angeles County Hospital. Once the patient’s illness was confirmed as polio, those patients were moved to the Communicable Disease Building where they would remain isolated until all possibility of passing on the polio virus to a non-infected person had ended.
And Los Angeles was not alone. Public health professionals throughout the country had learned to act swiftly because when it came to a polio pandemic, the end justified the means. So the abrupt actions of the Los Angeles ambulance crew may have seemed cruel, but the fear of polio, both real and exaggerated, caused even rational professionals to overreact. The moment any patient’s illness was thought to be polio, that patient would be rushed to an isolation facility where he or she would remain for weeks if not months.
One of the major reasons a diagnosis of polio was so frightening for my parents and the medical professionals alike, was that no one could predict the eventual outcome of a polio infection for an agonizingly long period of time. While I was in the Communicable Disease Building at the Los Angeles County Hospital, my parents struggled with a list of frightening questions without a way to learn the answers.
Would their son lose his ability to breathe and die in isolation?
Would their son spend the rest of his days living in an iron lung?
Would their son remain paralyzed?
Would their son recover some use of his limbs?
Looking back, those weeks apart were among the most traumatic days of my life. But during that summer of 1943, as the summers before, and the summers that followed, children with polio, and their parents, learned to endure.

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In the spotlight this week is Web of Lies, a Romantic suspense thriller by J. G . Sumner. Web of Lies is on tour with RABT Book Tours from Oct. 16th – Oct. 27th.

J.G. is a Registered Nurse who went rogue. As good as she was at starting IV’s, she enjoys writing the down the stories in her head even more. Most of the time the characters won’t stop pestering her until she has them down on paper.  J.G. can often be found with a glass of red wine or prosecco in front of her computer. She has a very dry sense of humor, and should never be taken too seriously. She loves to hear from her fans, and even those who aren’t especially fond of her work.  J.G. writes romantic suspense/thrillers including: A Shot in the Dark, Into the Light, The Surrender Trilogy including Surrender, Shattered, and Saved, Web of Lies and Wrecked.

My perfect life is falling apart.  My wife is leaving me, and I’m fighting for our marriage, our kids—for her. Then she walks through the door, and everything changes. Beautiful, sweet Beth. She’s much too young, but I can’t stay away.  Despite our secrecy, someone knows. They’re using the information to destroy me. It’s not a matter of if my marriage will survive, or if I’ll be able to find happiness with my new love…it’s a matter surviving at all. I have to unravel this web of lies before it’s too late.

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If you are a book lover, you love the idea of getting free and/or discounted books. So here’s a chance to grab dozens of high quality books in your favorite genres to jumpstart your reading weekend. You will also be supporting a number of independent Goodreads authors.

I will be offering Coming Out of Egypt, the first book in the Egypt series FREE on Friday only. So don’t miss out. If you have not yet got your hands on a copy of this suspenseful drama, now is the perfect time.

Here’s a little blurb about the story:

When Marva accidentally kills her father while trying to protect her younger sister June from him, she anticipates a new beginning far from “Egypt” where they once lived. But her new life is not what she envisioned. The strain of trying to elude the detective , cope with her rebellious younger sister while holding down her job in a man’s domain drives her to drink. When Cicely, her former teacher, intervenes and leads the girls to Christ, Marva finds some measure of peace, but her fate still hangs in the balance. Will she find the love and understanding she craves, or will she get the judgement she deserves?

After reading Coming Out of Egypt, you would naturally want to know what happens to Marva and June next. The second book, In the Wilderness, will be discounted to 99c. tomorrow. Here’s the blurb:

Tortured by guilt over her secret crime and unable to confide in anyone, Marva contemplates suicide. But before she can carry out her well-laid plans, a horrible accident leaves her groping in the wilderness of amnesia. She later emerges to find that she must now face trial for murder.

 Written from a Christian perspective, In the Wilderness is not just about suicide. Like its prequel, Coming Out of Egypt, the dark matter covered in this book is offset by the exotic setting of Trinidad and Tobago, the one-sided romance between Marva and Jason – he loves her, she sees him only as a friend – crazy, giddy teenage love affairs and the transforming power of redemption.

My third offering for this Friday the 13th promo is my first book Women For All Seasons. This is a Christian non-fiction book based on women of the Bible and is also discounted to .99c. If you love Bible stories, you would want to add this book to your bookshelf.

Please spread the word to all your friends and come out and support us tomorrow for this great event.

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I’m happy to announce that In the Wilderness, Book 2 of the Egypt trilogy, is on tour this week, starting today Oct. 2 until Friday Oct. 6. This is a virtual book tour that will make stops at other book blogs in order to garner exposure and reviews. This is a great opportunity for those of you who have not yet purchased the book to learn more about it and hear what others think. At the end of the tour, I will be giving away a signed copy of the first book, Coming Out of Egypt.

Don’t miss out.

You can follow the tour at the sites listed below where you’ll have a chance to participate in the giveaway.

On A Reading Bender – Oct. 2

The Indie Express   – Oct. 3

Texas Book Nook   – Oct. 4

Momma and Her Stories  – Oct 5

All Things Bookaholic – Oct 6

RABT Book Tours Reviews – wrap up

For those of you who still don’t know what In the Wilderness is all about, here’s a short blurb to whet your appetite:

In The Wilderness – Book 2

Tortured by guilt over killing her father, a crime for which she was never punished, Marva Garcia longs to confide in someone.  But who? Cicely, her former teacher-turned-surrogate – mother, is soon to marry the detective who suspects Marva of murdering her father, and she is too ashamed to confide in her friend Jason who has a romantic interest in her. The only person who knows what she did is her younger sister June whom she was trying to protect when the crime occurred. But June insists they keep quiet about it to avoid Marva being thrown into prison.

Certain that the police will one day arrest her, Marva sees suicide as her only option. But before she can carry out her carefully-laid plans, something terrible happens – something that uncovers her closely guarded secret and leaves her groping in the wilderness. Will Marva now be punished for her crime, or will she receive forgiveness and understanding?

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