[New Post] Blogging 101. Start Personalizing

Whoever came up with this topic must have been reading our minds. Our, being Olivia, Oscar, and me. I guess I owe a big thanks to two blogs, one is Michelle at The Daily Post for posting this topic. I also owe Michelle much gratitude in guiding me along, showing me the avenues in which to follow, to make my widget happen.  If you would like to be an orple-keeper, please click the drawing to copy and create your own widget on your blog. The more the merrier, Olivia, Oscar, and I always say.  I am leaving it up to you guys to let me know if my widget works. If it doesn’t please tell me, so I can try to fix my problem. LOL. Links and I don’t always link up, if you know what I mean. 🙂     The second person I’d like to thank is Dolly at allaboutlemon, an old acquaintance who I have re-linked with. My links are messed up, from having changed my e-mail way back when, so if we used to be linked and we aren’t now, that is probably why. I’m working on fixing that situation. In the meantime, Dolly blessed me with a ‘You Are Loved’ badge, and if you knew Dolly, I’m sure you would love her, and her blog. You should check her out and if you’re browsing my blog, take note of the  lovely badge she presented to me, in my margin. Come join the fun and claim your badge. We do love an audience.

[New Post] Photography 101 . Landmarks

Okay, so the orples and I cheated to fulfill today’s post. But really, this is Orpleville, and not all landmarks are captured by photography. Take the Treasure Tree, a place sometimes referred into in our blog posts. Then, I thought, hmm, maybe my followers aren’t familiar with ‘our’ landmarks. So to keep you people in the loop, here is what we’re talking about.  Before the orples were orples, they were oranges, then through miraculous transformations, and big dreams coming true, the orples were freed from their tree. My book, “How Orples Came To Be” tells their story, while including the story of Jack, and how they accidentally helped their human friend rekindle his relationship with his father, after his mother died. If you want to know more, I’ve included links on my home page leading to various areas of my blog.

The Treasure Tree in Orpleville

Once the orples were no longer oranges, their needs changed, so they transformed their orange tree into the Treasure Tree, shown above. And then, in book 3 of their trilogy, Olivia learned to read. She has so many books, Jack had to bring her a cooler to serve as a  library so her books won’t get wet when it rains. Olivia loves to learn. And she loves to travel. If you would like for us to travel through YOUR blog, let us know. If you’d like to stroll down memory lane with us and some of our friends before you decide to join us, please feel free to check us out by ‘Visiting the Neighbors‘.

[New Post] Daily Post. No Time to Waste

“Life’s too short to …. take it away orples …

These two appear to be eager orples. They are ready to see the world.

Silly Orples. I think they are right. Follow along. Join the fun. If you want to be added to our adventures, please leave a comment, and verbally invite us along. I may gather these blog entries and combine them for a book, down the road. Keyword—might.  If I do, you may include whatever credit info you like, linked to your contribution(s). For now, I link back to the source of my material, and would appreciate a ping-back. What a way to make new friends! So come join the orples and I, as we travel the world in Orpleland. 🙂 To follow our adventures so far, click here, and see where we’ve been already.

Michelle’s Weekly Pet Challenge: Fun in Blogland with The Orples

Michelle’s Weekly Pet Challenge: Fun in Blogland with The Orples.

Check out Sonel …. Olivia, Oscar, and I were thrilled. Thank you, Sophia!

[New Post] Blogging 101 . Your Dream Reader . Part 2 … Orples

Olivia is loving yesterday’s Blogging 101, writing assignment, which is why we’ve circled back to it, in spite of being a day late. If you read Part 1 of this post set, you’ll understand why this post was divided into two parts, this one being Part 2. Olivia is getting ready to garner some attention, and she can’t wait.

Olivia and Oscar discussing the purpose of today’s posting.

My ‘Dream Audience’? Hmmm, let me see, now… An orple audience would be fun loving people with open minds, opened to the playful side of life. Strategic Publishing has pegged ‘How Orples Came To Be‘ as a children’s book, but I disagree. I think all of my ‘kiddie’ books, and especially my first book, explaining how orples evolved from oranges, are appropriate for any kid, of any age, right up through, and including one-hundred and two! My dream audience would appreciate the lessons to be learned though Olivia’s wisdom and loyalty. The orples help, Jack, their human friend indirectly rekindle his relationship with his father, after his mother’s passing away.  This book starts out sad, but ends on a happy note, with the door having been left opened for sequels. My dream audience would be writing to me, again, begging for more. They would appreciate the encouragement book 2 — ‘The Orples Make A Tree Home‘ gives children to think outside of the box in coming up for solutions as the orples turn their orange tree into an orple environment. And after my dream audience has read books 1 & 2, they would be eager to find out all about Olivia’s schooling in the book, ‘The Orples Learn To Read‘,—book 3 in the series, encouraging children to want to read and learn, in general.Olivia has a lot of spunk, while Oscar is laid back and lazy. I dream that my dream audience will, one day, wake up and realize—orples rule—especially Olivia!  And then they’ll rush out, buy orple books, and start telling their friends, and movie producers, and they will make me as popular as J.K. Rowling. Geeze, I think I need to go take a Valium. Olivia really is beginning to rub off on me, you know. Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, I wanted to mention that all of my books are self-published through CreateSspace  at Amazon, with the exception of my first book, which is printed by Strategic Printing, for the time being. Maybe you cared, maybe you didn’t, but now you know. Blessings to all who have stuck with me and read to the end. .) Olivia, Oscar, and I truly thank you.

Lava Spill in Hawaii

This is such a cool video. If I’m breaking copyright infringements,someone please tell me since this is a Flicker share.  Watch it full screen, in motion.  Enjoy!

Olivia and Oscar discussing the cool ‘Lava Flow’ slide show they just watched via Flicker.

Olivia To The Rescue

Being the helpful little orple that she is, Olivia is hanging posters for me to announce my new Brides Series. Even though only two of the three books in the trilogy are complete at this writing, she insists I should be getting the word out. In the meantime, Oscar is the one drooling over the pages of what’s about to happen next. Who’d have thought Oscar would even open a book? Hmm, these books must be pretty good to attract Oscar’s attention. He’d usually rather be out running around, exploring the physical world, or sleeping. Then again, Oscar likes to eat, too. The Orples books tell you all about Oscar and Olivia.  Or you can check out the topic in the margins of my blog page to get a glimpse into the world of orples, in general.   Olivia was pretty upset when I told her she had competition.  However, at this point, I’ve convinced her to read my books before she discounts them.  Besides, the way Olivia loves to read, you’d think she would eagerly pounce on the story of the Sanderson family and their adventures. She snooped a little,  and decided to give my ‘other’ books a try. I think she was a little shocked at some of the language, since orples are not accustomed to such colorful words as Roger sometimes uses, especially if Yvonne has been pushing his buttons again.  Plus, Olivia and Oscar both like horses, which are abundant throughout the Brides books.  The orples have even been horseback riding themselves, and have a picture to prove it!

Sunday Photo Challenge . Stairs

Circling back to a prototype page from my first book “How Orples Came To Be“, these I hope will one day be ‘famous’ stairs.  I’ve edited the page shown here, and fixed a mistake or two in my text (I’m sure you’ll see what I’m talking about if you read the page).  I altered the font before having the book printed for sale, but basically, the jest here, and in the actual book are the same. The illustration really hasn’t changed at all.

The stair leading from the basement (lab) to the kitchen in the Zimp household.

The Orples Learn To Read … coming soon!

I finally sent book 3 (The Orples Learn To Read) off to Createspace to have a prototype made, which is the last step, prior to publication. If there are no changes to be made once I review the first print copy, by this time next week, I should have my third book available for purchase as a softcover book. In a couple of weeks, I hope it will be offered as an e-book, also. That is the plan.

In my efforts to wrap this, my third book, I’ve fallen behind in my blogging. Too, my grandson has been sick on and off this week and I’ve been keeping him since his normal babysitter won’t due to the fact that he is sick, and she doesn’t want to expose other children. Being Grandma trumps all!  Obviously, it has not been a good week for social activities. 😦 . On the bright side, I do hope to get ‘caught up’  on my blogging soon.  Until then, I hope life is being a peach (or maybe, in this case an orple) to you and yours! 😉  I’ll will be dropping in for visits on your posts, so please don’t think I’ve forgotten anyone, if I’ve not dropped by for a visit to your blog recently.

For the time being, I leave you with an inside view.  The excerpt below is page 20.

More Orples

Well, I was rolling right along and my printer tray broke, so I had to get a new printer, which I’ve not managed to hook up yet. Thank God for grown children with patience.  My son will be by tomorrow to get me rolling again, I hope. In the meantime, after fixing my edited manuscript, redrawing, and setting the images as needed, and pasting the corrected manuscript in the drawings with a larger font,  I did manage to get five pages printed and scanned today, before my printer decided it was time to retire.  The rest of the day has been spent shopping and trying to make a wireless printer get along with my computer.   Something just isn’t right?  But, I have faith that my oldest child will save the day…tomorrow!  He’s my hero when it comes to computers.

The beginning of "The Orples Learn To Read" . Book 3 of the orples series.

For now, I will share one of the final pages printed on my old printer. This is page four (page 1 of the actual story) of “The Orples Learn To Read”.  Amazon will add a border on their end.  Enjoy! 🙂