( continues...) should be stronger than fear and hate.

And, yes, I’m still working on the finer points of faith and spirituality. A benign Creator would understand my questing nature and give me space to satisfy it when I’m prepared to. Because life challenges us all and some of us were not born to a nourishing faith,and this is sad but true.If you are fortunate enough to be secure in your faith you’ll feel no need to change mine.
Somehow the American concepts of diversity and reinvention, once fundamental, have gotten a bad rap, but America used to be where people came to get a new start and leave behind repressive rules. This is very much part of our Western legacy, and we should respect and honor it.

My values say if people don’t like abortions, they ought not to have one, but it is a different thing to torment somebody else for, and restrict her from, the hardest decision she has to make, and I guarantee that most people , whatever their views on abortion, know somebody who had one, whether they talked about it or not. She’s not “those women”. She’s a mom, a friend, the checker at Target.My personal count is four women I know. And I’m not freakish and wild, and neither are they. They are just average American women nobody could pick out of a crowd who did what they thought was best at a difficult time in their lives. It’s hard to make a sound bite out of that.

As a nation right now, even though election season has passed, we still have decisions to make about what kind of country we want to be. I suggest we pull together and pledge not to sacrifice the many for the few, that we listen instead of shushing each other; that we endeavor to move beyond lip-service tolerance to a stronger acceptance. It’s the moral thing to do.
ETA: Author's Note OK, that's it, you can say it now. "Thank ya, Jesus!" The sad part is, I could do all the revisions and it could vanish anyway, but I tried, I suppose.

Challenge #31 "Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise." -- Margaret Atwood

Another conference. Our thirteen-year-old’s five teachers stare at Stephen and me across the battered table.

Seventh-graders aren’t supposed to need conferences. But Jake has merited one, again. “Not working up to his potential.” “Bright, but so unfocused.” “A smart kid, but a little immature.”

I hear it all, nodding, my cheeks hot with the need to deny, explain, apologize, insult, beg, words that will explode like shrapnel if I open my mouth.

They must know what I am, underneath. The bewildered child who still wonders how she can be responsible for a boy in middle school, already taller than her.

I hear it all, nodding, my cheeks hot with the need to deny, explain, apologize, insult, beg, words that will explode like shrapnel if I open my mouth.

They must know what I am, underneath. The bewildered child who still wonders how she can be responsible for a boy in middle school, already taller than her.

Oh, AmyLiz, I love that. It captures so beautifully that bewilderment so many of us feel about "adulthood" sometimes.

I especially love that last image, of the son taller than the mother.

(Also, I am so writing a companion piece to yours, if you don't mind! I'd love to do the other side.)

(Also, I am so writing a companion piece to yours, if you don't mind! I'd love to do the other side.)

Ooh, do! That would be very cool. (And he is taller, by an inch. Not that I'm not short, of course, but still. And his feet are like small canoes.)

The bewildered child who still wonders how she can be responsible for a boy in middle school, already taller than her.

I especially like how it makes the mother look even younger than her son, with "bewildered child". It creates a picture in my mind's eye, of a girl sitting in a chair too big for her, so her feet can't reach the ground, dressed up in grown-ups clothes and high-heeled shoes, looking all lost and out-of-place, holding her purse and nodding to the teacher. All that long sentence.

And his feet are like small canoes.

Scary visual place.

deb, backsent from both addresses, as we posted about (sorry I didn't get back to you sooner - we had a network problem here yesterday, no computer agreed to talk with the outside world. But they're behaving now).

Just wanted to thank everyone for the great feedback on the last story. Confirmed many of my own suspicions and made it easier for me to fix some problems.

There's a book "The Encyclopedia of Tanks and Armored Fighting Vehicles - The Comprehensive Guide to Over 900 Armored Fighting Vehicles From 1915 to the Present Day", General Editor: Christopher F. Foss, 2002

The only reference I can find is of the "Crusader Dozer and Crane (ROF): Used by Royal Ordnance Factory in bomb disposal."

There's a picture of a truck being used for bomb removal here: [link]

And here are the handwritten notes of a Cpl. Duckworth who did bomb removal/disposal along with pictures of bombs and such. [link]

I found a mention of armored car use in England (rather than being shipped elsewhere) during the war, but no definite word that they were used specifically for bomb removal or disposal. Armored cars were used in other countries (specific mention Africa) for bomb removal/disposal as they were thought to be superior to tanks, but the implication is that the idea of their superiority was later disproved.

And, AHAH! A land rover! [link]

Heh. Deena, the problem has been not so much finding out the vehicles used during the war itself, but rather what would have been considered appropriate usage in peacetime, in central London. Plus, it turns out that the UXB units in, say, the Home Counties, had entirely different vehicles than the London units.

I sent an email to the Royal Engineers Museum and Archive at Chatham. Hoping they get back to me soon, since I really want to start this damned thing; my editor's assistant, Toni Plummer, asked for a synopsis. Which I was able to send her, but I feel like a fraud.

The infuriating thing - Susan will understand this - is that all this is needed for one damned scene, in the prologue. The next thing that's going to require extensive looking-up and downloading are sources on the materials used in 16th century architecture.

Deb, do you find that organizations like that are generally receptive to writer inquiries?

Yeah, I hate how a tiny thing can get in the way of getting on with it. I may try again later.

eta: assuming,that is, that nothing comes of your inquiry or it takes too long.