American Legion Oratorical Competition

 by Paula Gail Benson

A few years ago, a friend in the leadership of a local American Legion Post asked if I would be a judge for its oratorical contest. I hadn’t previously heard about this competition.

I knew about the Boys State and Girls State programs the American Legion operated each year, giving high school students a chance to learn about the branches of government by becoming part of the process. In the past, these summer events have taken place at our Statehouse where I work. I’ve found it inspiring to see the young participants walking through the halls, making plans about proposed legislation, and offering for mock elective positions. Hopefully, their experience will encourage them to consider future participation in federal or state government. Remember how President Clinton’s campaign proudly used his Boys State photo visiting the White House and shaking President Kennedy’s hand?

Similarly, since 1938, the American Legion’s oratorical contest has offered high school students the opportunity to learn about the United States Constitution by studying and preparing to speak about its provisions. Each year, the American Legion website lists the selected subject matters for the competition’s focus. Students must present one timed prepared speech without help aids. In the second round, they draw a topic from a container and make an extemporaneous talk.

By participating in the contest and placing in local, state, regional, and national levels, students win scholarships. The year I participated as a judge, we had only one student. We listened to her presentations so we could offer suggestions for improvements as she moved on to the next levels in the competition. She was phenomenal in the information she had compiled and her poise in delivery. I was delighted to get to know her.

Since I served as a judge, Heidi Schrek wrote and performed in a Broadway production called What the Constitution Means to Me. The show was based on Heidi’s own experiences going from one American Legion oratorical contest to another, winning sufficient scholarships to pay her way through college. It ran both off and on Broadway, winning the Obie award, being nominated for the Tony award, and being a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

In the show, Heidi channeled her teenaged-self participating in the oratorical contest. She dynamically expressed constitutional principles by making analogies to her own life. Midway through, she stepped away from the structure of the contest to provide more detail about her personal and family situation, giving additional insight into how the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Constitution influenced the quality of her life. The show’s final portion had Heidi debate a high school student on the question: "Should the Constitution be Abolished?" Each night, the debate was staged anew with the audience encouraged to express its opinion (cheers or boos) about what it heard and, in the end, vote which side won.

One of the Broadway performances was recorded for a wider audience viewing. In addition, the written play will be released on December 1, 2020. It’s particularly fitting for this time of year as we consider and are thankful for our history and all that has offers us.

In the performance, Heidi mentions the book she used to prepare her oratorical presentations: Your Rugged Constitution by Bruce Allyn Findlay and Esther Blair Findlay (Stanford University Press, 1952). I found a used copy of the volume and ordered it. While it does not contain the most recent amendments, it remains a strong statement about the “living” document that is the basis for our laws.

It's Deception - Not Anticipation

It’s Deception-Not Anticipation by Debra H. Goldstein

Deception.

It’s a word that rolls around my tongue and brain with ease. Different dictionaries shade its definition:

a: the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid 

b: the fact or condition of being deceived

c: something that deceives (Merriam-Webster)

The act of hiding the truth, especially to get an advantage – Cambridge Dictionary

A misleading falsehood. misrepresentation, deceit. bill of goods - communication (written or spoken) that persuades someone to accept something untrue or undesirable – The Free Dictionary

As a mystery writer, my writings incorporate deception to engage and challenge readers. If in my everyday life, I tell a little white lie, I am using deception to make my point or shield someone from the truth.

Lately, I’ve found deception in my writing and my life are combining against me. I say I’m writing my fifth Sarah Blair mystery and technically I am. I write 3000 words and then delete them; I write another 3000 words and then I move them to another place in the book or into my discard bin. What I’ve finally realized, after two weeks of this is that I’m not challenged by covid brain or anything except – deception. I’ve been deceiving myself into thinking the book is working, the prose is smooth, and that the public will like it. They won’t. Why? Because I don’t like it. The book isn’t moving fast enough, and after much thought, I’ve realized why. I’m laying out too much backstory rather than tweaking moments of deception into my tale.

It sounds like a simple fix. But that would be deceiving myself. I’ve got to rethink and rewrite from scratch. That’s the truth. That’s the fact. Oh, how I wish it were merely a moment of deception. I anticipate otherwise.

  

 

 

Thanksgiving - Past and Present - with recipes!

Thanksgiving is coming up and I’m having some issues with the tradition of the friendly pilgrims inviting Native Americans to a community meal as a new light on the subject shows that’s false news. So, this year we will search for heritage-based foods that the Native Americans would have eaten, which includes wild rice and cranberries. I’m not talking about Uncle Ben’s version of wild rice or the cranberry sauce that you pop out of the can, though I’ve enjoyed both of these in the past! If you're feeling the same, I've linked here a Native American wild rice company.

https://redlakenationfoods.com/product-category/wild-rice-products/

 

The author and her best
friend from second grade.

My family of three spends Thanksgiving Day with my best friend from second grade and her family. I can’t remember how many years this has been a tradition. Maybe seven? This year will be the first year without her mother and she will be missed. We’ll be a small party of six to eight adults, now that my son is eighteen, and we enjoy sitting on her enclosed back porch and talking. Sometimes there’s even a real fire in the fireplace, if the weather in the South Carolina Lowcountry is chilly, which is rare.  

 

The day after Thanksgiving a few years ago at
Santee Canal State Park in Moncks Corner, SC 

I take a Winter Fruit Salad and another side dish. I found this recipe online years ago. It’s super easy to fix, light, refreshing, and full of a lovely assortment of fruit.

 

Winter Fruit Salad

I “think” this is for six people, so if you are having fewer than that, adjust as needed.

Dressing                                                                      

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 Tbsp honey

2 tsp poppy seeds

Salad

              8 Mandarine oranges, peeled and segmented

              4 apples (preferably 2 gala and 2 golden delicious)

            4 ripe kiwis peeled and diced

              4 pears, peeled and diced                  

1 1/2 cup pomegranate arils (from about 1 large fruit)

 

Getting together with my friend and her family reminds me of when my parents and their friends would meet up in a cabin on a mountain lake for a weekend. 

My daddy would make his Country Breakfast. It included; fried quail, fried fish, fried chicken, grits, breakfast shrimp gravy, biscuits, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, fruit, and more. Quite a Southern feast. 

 

Here’s a photo of one of those weekends where the majority of the attendees (not me) went to a Clemson football game. I’m the blond in the front row holding hands with one of my bonus dads who loved Clemson. Bless his heart. I set the camera and had to run to my place for the photo. 

 

Another bonus dad is standing on the far right. There's a couple of bonus moms in the photo too! My daddy is in the brown shirt and my mom is directly below him in the blue jacket. My younger (but bigger) brother is standing in the grey shirt behind the lady in the orange sweatshirt. 

 

I just realized my brother and I had the same haircut. Oh my.

 

I also did the math and I’m now older than the age of the majority of the people when this photo was taken. Gracious, time does fly.

 

This group is a mixture of neighbors and SLED family friends of my parents. Did you have large gatherings in your past? And hopefully future? Reminiscing is making me want to plan a weekend away with friends.

 

Here’s my daddy’s recipe for Breakfast Shrimp Gravy. You may have heard of shrimp and grits, this is the origination of that famous dish. He probably got it from the Junior League of Charleston Receipts cookbook. My dad used bacon instead of Liquid Smoke but I don’t eat land meat, so I substitute.

 

         Bob’s Breakfast Shrimp Gravy with a Robin (pescatarian) Twist 

          

         Ingredients: 

         Grapeseed Oil 

         Liquid Smoke 

         1 sweet onion chopped fine 

         1 cup Bella mushrooms thinly sliced 

         2 tablespoons wheat flour 

         salt and pepper 

         1 cup almond milk  

         ½ pound raw shrimp (8-10 ct) 

          

         Instructions: 

         Chop each shrimp into three pieces. Set aside. 

         Sauté the onion and mushrooms in the grapeseed oil in a large pan. 

         Add a couple of drops of Liquid Smoke. 

         Move onion and mushrooms to a bowl. 

         Brown the flour in the sauté pan. Add salt and black pepper (the more pepper the better!). 

         Stir in almond milk and scrape the pan to make your gravy. 

         If too thick add some water or more almond milk. 

         Add shrimp and cook until done. It does not take long. 

         Add onion and mushrooms. 

         Serve over grits. 

          

         You can pre-cook the shrimp if you like. You can “popcorn” it by putting a very small amount of water in a saucepan and adding the shrimp. Cover and cook over high heat and “popcorn” it by shaking the pan until shrimp are cooked. Again, it only takes a short time to cook shrimp! 

 

How do you spend your Thanksgiving? Will it be different this year?

 

Did you have bonus parents growing up? Do you keep in touch with them?

 

 

----

 

Robin Hillyer Miles is an alumnus and avid fan of the University of South Carolina and their Fighting Gamecocks. She lives in the Lowcountry of South Carolina with her husband and son and three dogs. She’s currently published with a short story in an anthology. She has finished the first draft of a new novel and it is with the editor. Hopefully, it will be published in the new year. Keep an eye out for "Cathy's Corner!"

 

You can find her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/RobinHillyerMilesAuthorTourGuideYoga

Introducing Lois Winston!

by Bethany Maines

Bethany Maines

  

Lois Winston

As many of you know, I'm a mom with a full time job as well as an author. And while all of that is challenging enough, the pandemic has brought many fresh and special new problems. To free up some of my time I'm relinquishing one of my Stiletto Gang posting days to the fantastic Lois Winston. Lois is a USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author who writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Lois will be posting on the second Wednesday of the month and I thought I'd sit down and find out a little more about her as she comes on board.

Q: What do you write?

I started out writing romance and romantic suspense and was first published in chick lit with Talk Gertie to Me in 2006. However, back in 2003, while waiting for that first sale, my agent suggested I try writing a crafting mystery. She knew an editor looking for one. With my background as a crafts designer, my agent thought I’d be the perfect person to write such a series, even though I’d never written a mystery. I gave it a try, and in the process discovered my true literary calling. My Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery Series sold in 2009. Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, came out in 2011. I’ve since published nine books and three novellas in the series, plus two books in my Empty Nest Mystery Series.

Q: What got you excited and started you on your writing journey?

I’m not someone who always knew she wanted to be an author. In the mid-90’s I was going through an extremely stressful period, taking on as much freelance design work as I could because my husband was out of work for an extended period of time. One night I fell into an exhaustive sleep and had a very strange dream—strange for me because I usually don’t remember my dreams. Also, the people in the dream were all strangers. Weirdly, the dream kept unfolding night after night like chapters in a book. Finally, I decided to write it down. When I finished, I had a 50,000 word romance that spanned thirty-five years!

The writing bug had bitten me. Long story short, I joined some writing organizations, learned what I was doing wrong, honed my craft, and signed with an agent. After many years of rewrites, that totally unpublishable romance transformed into a 90,000 word romantic suspense and became Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, the second book I sold.

Q: Do you solve the mysteries in novels & movies or do you sit back and enjoy the ride?

I should have had an inkling that I’d eventually wind up writing mysteries because I have an uncanny knack for figuring out whodunit early into most books, movies, or TV episodes. I love when I’m wrong and fall for a red herring, but it doesn’t happen often. My grandfather was the captain of a large county police force and responsible for the apprehension of many gangsters and other bad actors back in the day. I figure I inherited a large dose of his detecting DNA.

Q: And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't ask... what are your favorite shoes?

At this point, any that are comfortable! I’m afraid my sexy heels days are over, thanks to foot surgery a few years ago after an injury and arthritis that developed in that foot as a result. So now my shoe closet contains mostly Sketchers with cushioning inner soles.

Connect with Lois!

• Website: www.loiswinston.com
• Newsletter sign-up: https://app.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/z1z1u5
• Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com
• Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston
• Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lois-winston

Connect with Bethany!

• Website: https://www.bethanymaines.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBethanyMaines
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorbethanymaines/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BethanyMaines
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002FYCS40
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3044976.Bethany_Maines
• BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/bethany-maines

Gay Yellen: A Writer's Thanksgiving

The twining path...

Like a double helix, a writer's journey can follow a twisty trail. One strand—the rational, professional one—involves studying the works of others, honing your own craft, unlocking a door to publishing, and eventually (hopefully) connecting with readers.

The second strand can be an emotional mind-trip filled with unsettling questions. Is my work good enough? Why is that writer so successful? How can I be successful, too?

This emotional trip is the tricky one. It's easy to find lists of writers deemed better or more successful by certain measures. What should matter to a writer is how they respond to such information. With admiration... or envy? 

Author-envy can eat a writer alive and stifle creativity. On the other hand, clear-eyed respect for another's success may lead to the discovery of what it takes to improve. Heartfelt admiration—and gratitude—can move us closer to our own dreams.

What makes writers so special?

When I became a full-time author, I was overjoyed to find the camaraderie and the willingness to help one another that thrives in abundance in the writing community. It feels like family here.

Successful writers form personal bonds, share professional tips, read and critique each other's books, and genuinely root for one another. The Stiletto Gang is an example.

Here, authors come together to trade insights, bits of book news, and offer glimpses into our personal lives, as well as our professional wins and woes. And we introduce our own followers to the rest of authors in the Gang. Countless other bloggers do the same in other spaces.

It's hard to find a profession that embodies such an open and welcoming ethos. Can you name another enterprise whose members so willingly share their secret sauce with the competition?

Gratitude.

I deeply appreciate my writing community, from the veterans who teach to the newbies who are eager to learn. I'm grateful to the people who manage our writers' groups and who continue to support their members.

This year, when Thanksgiving celebrations may not be like those we know, there's all the more reason to appreciate the things that continue to sustain us. So, here's a huge thank-you to writers everywhere who generously share their knowledge and platforms and public spaces with colleagues.

And special thanks to readers...

Dear readers, please know that you are the most important part of our community. Thank you for reading our books, for leaving your reviews on our book sales sites, and for recommending them to your friends. We could not keep our writing spirits up without you. You brighten our lives.

What about you? What are you thankful for this year?

Gay Yellen was a magazine and book editor before she began the award-winning Samantha Newman Mystery Series, which includes The Body Business and The Body Next Door. Book #3 in the series is slated for release in 2021.

Gay would love to hear from you, here, on Facebook, or at her website, GayYellen.com.