Saturday visits

Blogging in two places today:

It's Saturday so I'm over at HealthyWriter.com. Today's post shares a really delicious and healthy pumpkin soup recipe.

I'm also honored to be guest posting at the Yankee-Belle Cafe today. I'm sharing a family Thanksgiving tradition.

Please drop on by.

Veterans Day commercials

The New York Times had an article on Tuesday about the increase in commercials for Veterans Day.

Acknowledging the Veterans on Their Day in the Limelight.

Read it if you have a chance. This is the opening paragraph.

FOR Veterans Day 2011, Madison Avenue will seem redder, whiter and bluer than it has in a long time.
Advertisers had for many years marked the holiday in prosaic, almost formulaic ways, primarily by offering consumers Veterans Day sales on merchandise like cars, clothing and furniture. But more recently, with Americans at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, campaigns have become more creative and heartfelt — echoing the patriotic ads that showed support for the troops during World War II.

I've also seen a number of ads linked on Facebook and Twitter in the past few days.

This one from Boeing was filmed with real veterans from our armed forces.



This one for Walmart gets me every time.



Or Applebee's ad to the tune Stand Up by Sugarland.


Applebee's actually has an entire site devoted to this - Thankyoumovement.com

Budweiser has Coming Home with the slogan Proudly Serving those who Serve

note: Budweiser has a disclaimer that you need to be old enough to drink to watch this video
 


I've got to admit, I have mixed feelings reading the article and watching the videos.

Several days ago I read an interesting blog post by a veteran asking that people not just say thank you, but that they do something more meaningful to help veterans in need - something like helping a homeless vet or offering a job to a veteran.


According to the article, some of these companies are doing just that.

Many of the new campaigns for Veterans Day, which will be observed on Friday, have cause-marketing components, helping to raise money for organizations like the USO and the Wounded Warrior Project. In other instances, companies are pledging to add jobless veterans to their payrolls. 

So what do you think?

I'm curious for everyone's opinions, but I'm especially interested to hear from veterans. Does this feel more like appreciation or commercialization to you?

The more I research my current book, the more aware I am of the depth of the sacrifices veterans have made for our county.  So, if you are a veteran, please accept my heartfelt thanks today and everyday for the service you have given and the sacrifices you have made.

Cinnamon Bread

This one's for Ruthy (and anyone who loves to bake).

My Genesis Thank You!

Last night at the ACFW Conference in St. Louis, I won the Contemporary Romance category of the Genesis Contest. I wasn't able to be there, but I wanted to thank everyone involved - so here is my humble attempt at VBlogging.
I never ever expected to win because I had two extremely talented co-finalists - Jessica and Pepper. Thank you to you both for sharing this night with me.

ETA - I have no idea what those knocking noises are!
Have no idea why that horrid picture shows up 1st either.

Just another manic Monday

I'd been saving this one for later in the year when things get hectic, but given that today my day begins at 7 and I won't get home til 10ish, I think it suits.

How's your Monday?

Chia - the Seeds not the Pets

Today is my weekly vegetable post over at Healthy Writers.

I'm totally fascinated by the topic today - health benefits of chia seeds. I'd never even heard of them before last week.

Come check it out.

Chia - the Seeds not the Pets

Music Monday - "For Good"

I unexpectedly had a chance to see WICKED on Broadway this past week and it set me to thinking about a lot of writing-related things.

~ the delightful cleverness of lines that play to our memory of The Wizard of Oz.
~ the brilliance of the story line that completely changes our minds about The Wicked Witch of the West
~ the appeal of the underdog in stories
~ how everything comes together in the end (and the power of the surprise ending).

Something else made me think of writing too - When Glinda and Elpheba sang For Good, I couldn't help but thing how the lines apply to the friends we share in this writing community.

So sing along - and if you have the chance, thank a writer friend today.