Tag Archives: Dayton

My Town Monday: The Little Things

One of the fun things about writing (and reading) time travel stories is the whole fish-out-of-water aspect, especially when someone goes into the future. There is one scene in Time’s Enemy, my newly-released time-travel novel, where a character from the 1930s comes forward to modern times. When she asks for a drink and is handed a can of Mountain Dew, she’s understandably perplexed at what to do with it (and initially thinks it’s moonshine, LOL).

Anyone remember drinking beer or pop (“soda” for you non-Midwesterners) from a can like this? Younger folks might not, but in the sixties, seventies, and into the early eighties, this is what you got if you bought beer in a can, or got a Coke, Pepsi, etc. from a machine. Of course, I also remember pop in glass bottles – you know, where you bought a six pack at Kroger and paid a deposit of $.05 – .10 per bottle, which they returned when you took the bottles back to the store.

But back to the cans – before they were like this, they required a can opener, like is still used today to open larger cans of juice, although those are now mostly replaced by bottles. The can opener had a sharp point on it, and poked a triangle hole in the edge of the can. A second hole was needed to admit air.

Dayton inventor Ermal Fraze

The pull tab shown on the can to the right came about in the early sixties, after Dayton tool-and-die maker Ermal Fraze went on a picnic, and forgot to bring a can opener for the drinks. According to the stories, he ended up prying cans open on a car bumper (???), then went home and devised a can with a built-in opener – the pull tab.

The pull tab was eventually superceded by the now-familiar push-in top in the eighties, but it was the pull tab that helped push cans to edge out glass bottles in popularity as a beverage container. Fraze’s legacy lives on today in the form of full-top pull tabs that are still commonly used in canned snacks like peanuts. Dayton Reliable Tool (now DRT Mfg.), the machine shop he formed in the 1940s, is also still in business in Dayton today.

Do you know of any cool little details that we take for granted today, that originated in your hometown? Please share!

More at the My Town Monday blog

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage_can
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/fraze.html
http://www.heartlandscience.org/manuf/poptop.htm

Photo of beer can via Wikipedia, public domain
Photo of Ermal Fraze via Heartlandscience.org

Time’s Enemy Now Available!

Time's Enemy CoverOne unwanted gift. One great wrong. One chance to make things right…

When a freak accident leaves Tony Solomon with the ability to travel in time, he becomes an unwilling initiate in the Saturn Society, a secret society of time travelers. Wanted by the Society for a crime he hasn’t yet committed, he seeks help from Charlotte Henderson, the woman whose life he saved decades before he was born. Loyal to the Society, Charlotte faces a terrible choice-condemn the man she loves and to whom she owes her life, or deny her deepest convictions by helping him escape and risk sharing his sentence.

Time’s Enemy is available for Kindle, Nook, and a variety of ebook formats on Smashwords and other retailers.  I’m also going to offer a discount coupon for Smashwords that will only be announced here, so check back soon, or better yet, subscribe!

Buy Time’s Enemy at Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks

Print edition coming soon

book coverOn another note, Sheri McGathy’s short story “Promises” is now available in the Kindle Store as well! Many thanks to Sheri for letting me use her story as a guinea pig to learn Kindle formatting. If you enjoy epic fantasy and are looking for a quick read, give it a try! “Promises” is also available at Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, as well as iBookstore, Kobo, and other digital retailers.

My Town Monday: One of Dayton’s Happenin’ Places

The Dayton area has always been fortunate to have a fantastic library. For two centuries, the library has been a vital part of our community.

The very first officially-recognized public library in Ohio, Dayton’s first library was started in 1805, in the home of Benjamin Van Cleve. Back then, it was a pay service. The library moved several times and was even closed and all its books sold, on at least two occasion.

Photo of The old Dayton libraryThe precursor to today’s Dayton Metro Library was built on the current library’s property in 1888. This building was also home to a museum, which included natural history and Native American artifacts. The museum later became the Dayton Museum of Natural History, and eventually was renamed the Booneshoft Museum of Discovery. The museum was moved into its own location in 1955, and the library continued to serve as such until it was demolished, and the current building built, in 1961.

Today the libaray continues to be a happening place, with 20 branches located throughout Montgomery County. It’s unusual to drive past the two branches near me and not see the parking lots nearly full. In addition to traditional books and periodicals, the library began carrying music on tape in the seventies, which eventually expanded to VHS videos and audiobooks on tape, then Music CDs, DVDs, and audiobooks on CDs.  Dowloadable ebooks and audiobooks were added via Overdrive in the early 2000s – more on that in a future blog post. Programs for kids, teens and adults – on book-related subjects and otherwise – are popular.

Dayton Metro Library The library is once more outgrowing its downtown location, and has proposed an ambitious expansion plan in an effort to stay relevant and serve the community. Changes in technology – especially in book publishing – are creating a shift in how consumers patronize the library, and the usage of services has shifted to a lot more computer use, more online checkouts of e- and audiobooks, and more demand for meeting space, as opposed to shelf space for paper books. Studies have focused on cities like Fort Wayne, Indiana, where a new, expanded library has played a key role in revitalizing a stagnant downtown.

But the best part of the library remains the same – whatever book or written material you’re looking for, the library probably has it – and if they don’t, they have partnerships with a public libraries all over Ohio, and chances are, you’ll find it there. As has been the case for as long as I can remember, there’s no charge to have a book you’re looking for, transferred to your local branch if they don’t have a copy there. Loans for (and transfer of) materials from participating Ohio libraries are also free.

I got my first library card around age 6 or 7. Having lived in the area all my life, I’ve often taken the library for granted. But I’ve had friends who’ve moved out of the area to larger cities, who tell me their libraries don’t have near the selection Dayton’s library has.

What about you? Does your hometown have a great library? Do you use its service, or are you even aware of all your library offers?  (I admit that if I were to try to list them, I’d probably miss a few.)

Historic photo via Dayton Metro Library www.daytonmetrolibrary.org
1960’s photo – unknown

My Town Monday: Guilty or Innocent, 115-year old case – could you decide?

Dayton, Ohio is no stranger to murder – just watch the news, and it seems there’s one almost every day. But a hundred years ago, murder was a novelty, and a trial for such, a spectacle people came to see from miles away. Yesterday afternoon, Dayton History reenacted such a case in the original Old Courthouse, that still stands at Third and Main today, giving us a chance to see what it might have been like, and even participate in the trial, over a hundred years later.

Dayton's Old Courthouse in the early 20th century

Dayton's Old Courthouse in the early 20th century

Upon entering the courthouse, Dayton History staffers gave the audience a sheet of the text of actual newspaper articles printed at the time. They were printed on yellow photocopy paper, which was amusing considering some of the yellow journalism within. 🙂

In September of 1896, 20-year-old Albert Frantz was accused of murdering Bessie Little, the 23-year-old woman he’d been seeing, whose body was found in the Stillwater River. There were a lot of suspicious circumstances leading up to the verdict of whether Miss Little had committed suicide, as was initially thought, or if she died by another’s hand. Witnesses described how Bessie was caught “in a compromising position” with Mr. Frantz in her parents’ barn, which led to him putting her up in a hotel soon after (there were few living options for single women in those days). It also came to light that she’d seen a doctor, and had been declared pregnant, and Mr. Frantz supposedly wanted to marry her, but was unable due to being underage – and his parents refused to give consent.

At the hotel, they found a letter from Bessie, addressed to Mr. Frantz’s parents, begging them to let their son marry her. But the most telling evidence was found on a newly-constructed bridge, that crossed the Stillwater into what was then a lightly-populated part of town: blood on the bridge itself, and a track mark from it that looked like a buggy had been driven through it.

Reenactment of murder trial in Dayton

Last weekend's reenactment

Mr. Frantz had been planning to take his sweetheart for a ride the last evening she was seen alive.

Other evidence was produced throughout the trial, which in reality, reconvened throughout the next three months. One item was the woman’s skull! It had been kept in a jar of alcohol at the police office, after her body had been exhumed from her resting place in the potter’s field in Woodland Cemetery, when her manner of death was first called into question. When the skull was brought in, the “bailiff” opened the courtroom’s windows, due to the undoubtedly-horrendous smell! The reason the skull was unearthed was probably the biggest factor in the ultimate determination of the court: Miss Little had been shot in the head through the ear, twice.

The prosecution and defense both presented their closing statements – both waxing rather melodramatic at times – then the jury (which were picked from the audience) went to deliberate. As in a modern, Ohio court proceeding, the jury was instructed to issue a guilty verdict only if the prosecution was able to “remove all reasonable doubt.” I was guessing they’d say “Not Guilty,” because despite the evidence, the state hadn’t removed all doubt. When they issued their verdict, the jury agreed, and the “judge” told the defendant he was free to leave.

The Dayton History staffers handed us another sheet of newspaper articles on the way out, containing the results of the trial: Guilty of First Degree Murder! It turns out that, after a series of failed appeals, Mr. Frantz became the fourth person in Ohio to die by electric chair, almost a year later.

Can you imagine that quick of an appeals process now? Or presenting the actual corpse as evidence in a trial? (Thank goodness for modern photography and videography!) And interestingly enough, do you think the modern-day jury was more compassionate, more discerning of the evidence, or maybe just more hard of hearing? (There was a lot of echo in the courtroom, and yes, it was hard to hear sometimes.) Anything fun like this reenactment in your home town? Please share!

Note: This program will be presented three times next weekend, August 5, 6, and 7 –  Details at DaytonHistory.org.
Want to learn more about this case? Check out Spilt Blood, by Curt Dalton (one of the researchers for the reenactment)

More at the My Town Monday blog

Historic photo via Dayton History

Updated Books: Cool, or Fail?

I’m currently working on revising Time’s Fugitive, my second time travel romance, and sequel to my upcoming release, Time’s Enemy. Like Enemy, the first draft of this book was written a few years ago. What’s surprising is how many things in the world around us have changed since then – things that now need to be changed. For example, I have a scene where a character’s car breaks down, and the young driver and her passenger need to walk for help. Yes, they have cell phones – it wasn’t written that long ago – but what I now need to account for is the fact that many late-model cars (including the one they have) now come with some kind of navigation system, which also includes a way to call for help. This needs to be revised so that there’s a good reason they can’t just press the red button on the rearview mirror and get help from OnStar. Another book of mine features computer technology – including national security-sensitive software that goes missing. In the original book, written over ten years ago, the software was on a removable disk cartridge, like a Zip Disk. (Anyone remember those?) In a recent revision, this needed to be changed to be on a USB flash drive.

This reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand – which I first read in the late 90’s, after it had been updated from the original version published in 1976. Definitely a book I enjoyed, despite a few details where not enough attention was given to updating. In the original version, characters drove across a post-apocalyptic U.S., preferably in the largest vehicles practical – in most cases, station wagons.

In the 90’s version, these characters were still taking station wagons.

Huh? In the 90’s I remember, there were a heck of a lot more minivans and SUVs than station wagons. Not to mention, a 4WD SUV would be much more practical than a station wagon, especially for driving off road. And cell phones? I don’t remember if they were mentioned – they might’ve been, and there was no power, hence no operable cell networks. But the characters used CB radios to communicate – which hit their heyday in the mid-70’s.

So think about those updates when you’re revising an old novel – I still enjoyed The Stand, but little details like this did take me out of the story, and remind me I was reading. So if the contemporary American heroine in the book you’re reading is in trouble and she’s not using her cell phone, you might flip to the copyright page, and see if you’re reading an old book. Otherwise, there’d better be a good reason that heroine can’t just call for help, or you might have an Update Fail on your hands.

Does it bother you to read books where the details are outdated? I’m willing to forgive it if it’s an old book, but otherwise, it might just be sloppy writing. What do you think?

Time Management: How’s That Working Out for You?

A couple weeks ago, we discussed how we want to use our time… and how we actually do use that time. For those of us who work a full-time job, have a family, and have a writing “job” on the side, it can be especially challenging.

So how’s it going two weeks in? For me, it’s gone quite well… at least during the week. I’ve managed to get an hour of time working on my current book in revision each weeknight, just as I’d planned. In addition, I also got a workout in every night, something I haven’t done regularly for some time, so that’s significant.

The above is not to say my schedule never got disrupted, but that’s OK because I outlined it to allow for that.

For example: On Tuesday night, DH suggested going out to dinner. The Schedule allows for an hour for dinner, which includes spending time with and feeding the critters. It also allows an hour for chores. However, going out to dinner took two hours, as we met friends and had a couple beers too. So that night, something had to be sacrificed from the schedule: chore time. (Hint: any time something disrupts the schedule and something’s gotta go, chores wins, hands-down, unless there’s something there that can’t be put off, i.e. paperwork/bill paying when the bills are due within a few days.) On another day, I ended up doing unplanned mom-taxiing (and I think that was a day the paperwork couldn’t be put off), so writing business got left off. No problem there – I have it on the schedule every night, but honestly, there isn’t business stuff that needs to be done every night.

Where time management might continue to be a challenge is on the weekend. When we have Two Whole Days stretched out before us, it’s easy to put off whatever’s on the To-Do list, until next thing we know, it’s 10:30 PM Sunday night, and we haven’t written Monday’s blog yet <cough>. We also have the tendency to see that big block of time and fill it too full, without leaving any time for what the weekend’s supposed to be for: going somewhere, doing fun things with family and friends, or just relaxing – which are all sooo important, to avoid burnout.

So that’s my next challenge – get caught up on the stuff I didn’t get done this weekend, and figure out how to manage that time, so I don’t run into this next weekend.

Especially since I have some family fun planned.

What about you? Have you seen a difference since taking a harder look at how you spend your time? Any suggestions or insights to share?

Illustration via Microsoft Office Images

Thursday Thoughts: An Alternative to Microsoft Word?

Last summer when I got a new computer, my 10-year-old CD of Microsoft Office 2000 finally bit the dust. The disk had become corrupted; the files would no longer copy from it to install.

So I investigated alternatives. I ruled out the new version of Office immediately: we have Office 2007 at work, and I hate it. Most people who, like me, have been using Office for many years hate it too, or at least did until they resigned themselves to its new interface. Come on, the “ribbon” takes up way too much screen space, even on a big monitor. And I have to re-learn where everything is? Just give me back my damn menus!

Microsoft Office ribbon

Oh, Office Ribbon - how do I hate thee?

Of course, there are older versions of Office for sale, unopened, on Ebay, some at great prices. But none were certified to run on Windows 7, which came with my new computer (and I’m quite happy with). Luckily, there’s also another alternative, for an even better price: OpenOffice. And it’s free – honest-to-goodness, legally, free. Just go to www.openoffice.org and download it.

It includes an alternative to each of the major components of Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Access. It also comes with a drawing program.

The only part I’ve used enough to really evaluate is Writer, the Word-alternative. I’ve dabbled a bit with the spreadsheet, and so far, it seems like a decent facsimile of Office 2000’s Excel.

Open Office menus

Yay! Menus!

Which makes me happy, because I don’t need all the whiz-bang features Microsoft’s added to the later versions of Office. OpenOffice has most of them, but best of all, it has menus, not that silly ribbon interface.

Granted, not everything’s in the same place. For example, Word’s Track Changes feature is on the Revisions ribbon. In older versions, it was in the Tools menu. In OpenOffice, it’s in the Edit menu, and it’s simply called Changes. But if I have to hunt around for features, hey, I’d rather do it in a free program! (They do take donations, if you’re so inclined.)

I have run into a few problems with OpenOffice Writer, however. Most of these show up when I save a document in a format other than .doc (Microsoft Word 2003 and earlier) or .odf (OpenOffice’s native format). .rtf is the worst. I’ve seen it muck up line spacing, and change fonts – and the latter not consistently. It’s made the first letter of every paragraph – and only the first letter – a different font- sometimes even a Chinese character!

It also corrupted the .doc file of my manuscript for Time’s Enemy. I didn’t find this out until I sent it to my editor, and it crashed her system every time she tried to open it in Word. I thought this might have been due to the fact that she uses a Mac, but when I tried it on my daughter’s computer (which still has Word 2000 installed on it), that blew up, too.

Luckily I could still open it on my computer in OpenOffice, and copy the content, and re-save as an .odt file. I then opened it in Word at work, and resaved as a .docx file, which worked fine for my editor.

So is OpenOffice a true replacement for Microsoft Office? After a year, the jury’s still out. But hey, at least the price is right! Now all I have to do is find a newer version or replacement for Quickbooks, that will read my Quickbooks 2005 data…

Know of any accounting software I should check out? Or do you have a software WTF to share? Feel free to vent here – we feel your pain!

My Town Monday: The Best Potato Chips!

Would you believe they come from Dayton, Ohio? Okay, “best” is subjective, but in my opinion, Mike-sell’s Potato Chips are the best!

Mikesells delivery wagon from 1911They’ve been around since 1910, and claim to be the oldest potato chip company in the U.S. A quick Google search will reveal other claims that go back further, but Mike-sell’s is still a venerable, established brand. If you’ve ever lived in Dayton, or even visited, you’ve probably eaten them. They have several yummy flavored varieties, too. My favorite is the Mesquite Smoked Bacon flavor Groovy style chips. These used to be hard to find, other than in pizza parlors, but now they’re sold in some grocery stores.

I can remember Mike-sell’s Potato Chips being in my house since I was a little kid. Usually, they were the original, in the red package, or the Groovy, in the blue package. When Mom was trying to diet, they weren’t in the house, because if they were, she’d eat them (I am this way to this day). Even now, if my dad wants them, he has to keep them stashed in the car so Mom won’t eat them. This is on her request, although she’s been known to go out to the car and get them! 

Mikesells original potato chipsMike-sell’s original potato and their Groovy chips contain three ingredients: potatoes, oil, and salt. One of Mike-sell’s distinctions is peanut oil. Until recently, the bags read “Made with 100% Peanut Oil… That’s Why They Are Delicious!” The bags still say “They Are Delicious!” but the ingredients now list “vegetable oil” in the ingredients, noting that it can include corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, and peanut oil. Considering how expensive peanut oil is, it’s no surprise – after all, there’s a lot of competition, and Mike-sell’s is not known as a gourmet brand, so a big price hike would kill sales. It’s kind of sad, because I can taste the difference: they’re a little-teeny-bit not quite as good. Still, they’re my number one choice, because yes, They Are Delicious! 

So now you know what to eat if you want snack food in Dayton. Mike-sell’s chips are sold in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan and Tennessee. The national brand that’s probably the closest to Mike-sell’s (the original red bag variety) is Lay’s Original. But Mike-sell’s Groovy is nothing like Ruffles – Groovy is big ripples, and The Best Chip for dips. 

Does your region have its own snack foods I should try, if I visit? Do you have any fun memories of them? Please share!

More at the My Town Monday blog

Thursday Thoughts: A Writer’s Time

One thing many writers find to be challenging is time management. That’s especially true for those of us like me who also have a full-time job, family, perhaps even a small business aside from writing, but I think it’s something just about all writers wrestle with at one time or another. You think you have a whole evening (or – gasp! – a whole day!) so you take your time getting around to the writing, hurp-durp around on the Internet some, check your email 20 times, play a few computer games, then finally sit down to write… and next thing you know, you’re falling asleep at the keyboard. You look up, and it’s midnight. Where has the day gone???

Add Facebook, Twitter, and trying to build an Internet presence into that mix and… well, for me, the scenario above was becoming an all-too-common occurrence.

Chart - how I was spending my timeDaily goals were not being met. Weekly goals – halfway, if that. Yet, I still felt like I’d been busy! So I did something I learned in a time management course, way back when: I analyzed where did my time go… and where did I want it to go each evening?

A few things were immediately apparent: I was spending way too much time goofing off, and way too little writing. And too much time accomplishing too little (that big, light-blue block of “I don’t know”). Also, notice what’s not there: attending to the writing business, and exercise.

Chart - How I want to spend my timeI have five and a half to six hours from the time I get home from work, to the time I need to go to bed. I thought about how I thought my evening should break down, and this is what I came up with:

  • A half-hour for exercise (bonus: I read while on the treadmill)
  • An hour to read/answer email and hit social media
  • An hour and a half for dinner, and spending time with family, feeding the critters, etc.
  • An hour for doing personal/family chorse, like personal paperwork
  • An hour for writing – that’s actual writing, planning on the WIP, or revising
  • A half-hour (average) for writing -business stuff: updating my website, blogs, designing promo materials, etc.
  • A half-hour of downtime (usually playing computer games)

I read before I go to bed, that’s not counted in the above.

I came up with this “schedule” on Monday. So how has it worked so far?

Monday – so far so good, but didn’t get the paperwork done so that went over into Tuesday.

Tuesday – I ended up fighting with OpenOffice for an hour, because my manuscript had somehow become corrupted and my editor couldn’t open it. Sometimes stuff happens. This ate into my writing time. Last week, it would’ve killed it. Tuesday, I still got a half hour in on the WIP.

Wednesday: worked out almost exactly as planned, expect I spent more time on this blog, twiddling with the charts. I’m finding that the exercise is much more likely to get done if I do it right after I get home from work (I’m soooooo not a morning person, so getting up earlier is not happening).

The thing to keep in mind is this is a guideline, not a must-do. But so far it seems to be helping.

How about you? Do you have trouble with time management, whether or not you’re a writer? If you’ve found anything that helps, please share!

My Town Monday: Margarita Madness

Other places might have Monday Margaritas, but only Elsa’s has Bad Juans.

BadJuanElsa’s is a Mexican restaurant and sports bar that’s been a fixture in the Dayton area for decades. There are several locations: the original location on Linden Ave. on the east side of town, the second one on Far Hills Ave. in Centerville, Elsa’s Kettering, Elsa’s on the Border (of Dayton, Kettering, and Oakwood) and new locations are planned. The food is good, but the Bad Juans are what Elsa’s is well-known for.

The Bad Juan is Elsa’s trademark margarita. They come in many flavors – I’m not sure what, because I always order raspberry frozen. Original lime on the rocks is probably the most popular.

The Bad Juan isn’t complicated. It’s basically cheap tequilla and a couple of mixers. For ten years, my husband Don owned a bar across the street from one location (they weren’t really competition – his place specialized in live music). He had his own version of the Bad Juan, called the Bad Don. People said it tasted exactly the same (and had the same effect), but it never quite took off.

Which brings me to the real distinction of a Bad Juan: They will mess you up! So if you go to Elsa’s and plan to drink a couple, plan on walking home, or have a designated driver! One is plenty for me, and that’s with food. So yes, they taste good, too.

A couple years ago, Elsa’s got all of the licensing, suppliers, and distribution set up, enabling them to offer bottled Bad Juans in grocery stores and other retail locations, so now you can have a Bad Juan at home. At 42 proof, the bottled Bad Juan isn’t as potent as the ones in the restaurants, but it’s still worth drinking for the effect. And you don’t need to drive!

Helpful hint from the former bar owner: If you want the bottled Bad Juans to taste just like the Bad Juans served at Elsa’s, chill it really well, so less ice melts.

If you’re from the area or have visited, have you tried Bad Juans? Got any good stories? If you’re not from the Dayton area, does your hometown have any distinctive drinks?