Fire Men

As the wife of a volunteer firefighter, I've heard more than my fair share of stories and gained first hand knowledge of the ruined plans and sleepless nights that are a big part of being a volunteer. But while reading Fire Men: Stories From Three Generations of a Firefighting Family, written by Gary R. Ryman, I gained more insight into the life of a firefighter.

Gary R. Ryam is, in his own words, the creme filling in the middle of an oreo cookie of firefighters. His father started the family tradition and his son followed in his footsteps to make the third generation of firefighters. Mr. Ryman has a way with words, pulling you so far in to the scene of a structure fire that you can almost feel the heat of the flames on your face. The book starts with action on the first page, not leading up in to it like so many authors do. This grabs your attention from the start, and it will keep your attention until you get to the very last page.

While Mr. Ryman does omit any overly gory details, you get the gist of every situation that he writes about as you follow him through life, starting with childhood memories of dreaming of following in his fathers footsteps. The book chronicles calls from his fathers day all the way up to his sons time and it is fascinating to note how procedures and equipment changed over the years.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, but if you have a firefighter in your life, it is a must read. Follow Mr. Ryman on Facebook or on his website.

Review of Stories From A Lifetime

Stories From A Lifetime by Hugh Aaron is a collection of short stories the author wrote over a period of 30 years. All of the stories are based at least loosely on a real event in Hugh Aaron's life and is, in the authors own words, "a disguised autobiography spanning eight decades."

I often find it difficult to read a chapter of any book in one sitting due to the hectic schedule of balancing work, family, home and everything else life throws my way, but this book eliminated that problem. The stories are quite short, often only two pages long and very well written so as to grab your interest quickly. There is a hidden lesson in most of the stories, much like the morals in old fairy tales. Many of the stories taught such a clear lesson in dealing with life that I shared them with my older children so that they could learn from them.

All in all, this book is excellent, and I highly recommend you add it to your list of must read books!

Complete Randomness

Things are going a bit better, I am recovering slower than I would like but I am getting stronger every day. However, I am quite unhappy about this annoying drain that the surgeon left in me. The rest of the pain is pretty bearable but the hole in my abdomen where the drain tube is just stings constantly. Its not serious pain, but it being so constant just drives me nuts! Oh well...hopefully Tuesday he will remove it.

I am really trying to get back into the swing of writing. I am getting a little more done each day but slow review times are really keeping me unmotivated. I don't have a choice but to keep going, this is the only income we have...but I sure do want to curl up somewhere with a good book and just not think about working for a few weeks.

Ok, that is all the whining I am going to do...it's not going to make anything better!

I have decided to start reviewing books on here once in awhile. I love to read so I think that telling others about a good read or warning them about a not so good one would be a great addition to this blog. I won't do this until next month though, somewhere in the middle of the month most likely.

I have also decided that I like branching out a little bit. I find it so hard to concentrate lately that I keep bouncing around on the Internet to various writing sites rather than focusing mainly on Demand Studios like I usually do. I have written a few articles this week for a new private client. The pay was lower than what I am used to, but the work was super simple and the pay was really quick for the first batch. Still waiting on payment for the second batch but I am confident that I will get it. It is the weekend so most people aren't working.

I also wrote an article for textbroker. I have been with them for quite awhile but never really put in an effort. Once again, the pay was lower but the article was easy as pie and was accepting in less than 30 minutes. Demand Studios is still my main squeeze but it is nice to have other places to turn to when I need something simple to do! Maybe it is time to pick up a few more private clients to fall back on when I get into a rut.