Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

Sensual western romance. Heartwarming stories. Strong family ties.
Mary J. McCoy-Dressel
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    • Week 21: UGH, Allergies! #MFRWauthor #WritersLife

      Posted at 1:00 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on May 24, 2019
      colorful heart rhythm with a decorative heart for blog post 52 week blog challenge blog hop week 21 2019

      #MFRWauthor Week 21: Allergies:

      How to endure them without suffering overmuch?

      Here we are with week twenty-one of the 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop, and the perfect time to talk about allergies, er, well, if you have seasonal allergies. I wrote about allergies in a previous post similar to this one. Sorry, blog followers and friends for the similar topic, but this one asks us how we endure without suffering overmuch.

      With tons of food or products to be allergic to, everyone on this earth must be allergic to something. Me? Seasonal allergies among a few others like *Kapok, a filler in comforters, pillows, and some furniture, for example. Trees, and duck feathers too.

      I can control the filler and duck feather allergies by reading labels. Oh, and by staying away from ducks. bada bing

      Spring and fall is an awful time for me and out of my control other than to take medication. The other day my maintenance man had to come into my apartment. He sniffled and coughed a lot. I asked if he had pneumonia again because he had it this winter. He said, “No, seasonal allergies.” We both said UGH.  I told him I used a prescription allergy nasal spray, and it worked wonders.

      Years ago after allergy tests, I’d get allergy shots, but I didn’t keep them up. For the past three or four years, I’ve endured seasonal allergies by using prescription medication. I see no reason to suffer needlessly when there are medications. This, after suffering most of my life with non-prescription remedies.

      However, I have a life-threatening allergy too. It’s an allergy to a contrast dye used for heart tests. Sometimes we don’t know we are allergic until a product is given to us. I thought I had died seconds after the contrast entered my body. I broke out in a rash almost immediately, beginning with intense itching all over my body. Even my tongue and inside my mouth! Try scratching the inside of your mouth with an itchy tongue.

      Mary J McCoy-Dressel Blog Post 52 week blog challenge about allergies 2019, heart monitor with a decorative heart in multiple colors, pink,

      I remember asking if itching was a side effect. The tech who administered the contrast, said, “No. Why?” I showed her my hands which had become one big red rash. They gave me Benadryl. Then I had an anaphylactic reaction and remember nothing from that point on. I came to, hearing the tech say ‘her blood pressure is up to 40/20.’ UP TO? The good thing is, I didn’t have a heart problem.

      Since I went through this experience, I’m afraid to take a new medication. What if I’m home alone and have the same thing happen? Am I going to die from anaphylactic shock? To endure this, I try to have someone with me if I take a new drug, but it’s frightening, and I can’t always have someone with me.

      The way I endure the allergy to contrast dye is by NOT using it again. This allergy is in my medical records now and in the Emergency section of my phone.

      Does your phone have an Emergency Info section to list medical issues? Mine is under Contacts. My family all know, but can they help when they live thousands of miles away? (Hey, crime writers, there’s an idea for your next plot.)

      Will a cop or Emergency Medical Technician look at my phone? Chances are, the first thing they’d want to do in the ER is run heart tests. My best bet is to keep my heart healthy. I don’t know what else they use this contrast for. It isn’t the same as the contrast they use for a CAT Scan because I’ve had them before.

      Mary J McCoy-Dressel, western romance author, blog post #MFRWauthor Week 1 2019What about you guys and gals? How do you endure allergies without suffering too much?

      Blog readers, you can find out how others endure their allergies at this LINK. We might find a new cure, but always check with your doctor before trying anything new.

       

       

      Thanks for your visit today. Enjoy your weekend!

       

      It’s Memorial Day Weekend in the US. Please be safe.

      Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering and honoring people who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. The holiday, which is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May. ~Wikipedia

      American Flag, red, white, and blue, stars and stripes, Mary J McCoy-Dressel

       

      *Kapok– A mass of silky fibers that surrounds the seeds of the kapok tree and are used especially as a filling for mattresses, pillows, life preservers, and sleeping bags and as insulation. Merriam Webster.

      Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, 52-week blog challenge | 6 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge, blog hop, enduring allergies, Marketing for Romance Writers org, mary j mccoy dressel, Seasonal Allergies, ugh allergies, Western Romance Author
    • #MFRWauthor Week 2~Childhood Memories #WritersLife

      Posted at 8:01 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on January 11, 2019
      Brother Sister Blog Post Week 2, Mary J McCoy-Dressel, author western romance #MFRWauthor

      2019 Week 2: Childhood Memories – A Walk Back in Time.

      Most of us have childhood memories. Some good. Some bad. Some make us laugh. Some make us cry, but we have them. This week’s Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge topic gives us a chance to talk about them. #MFRWauthor Link to 2017 Childhood Memory post.

      I’m walking back in time today with a bittersweet memory of my oldest brother, Bob. I’m a middle child between two brothers with a nine-year span between me and the oldest. A brother born between us passed away as an infant, and I have a brother three years younger than me. I don’t mention my bad-to-the-bone troublemaking older brother often, but that isn’t why I don’t talk about him. I didn’t know him. My dad sent him away when I was only five or six.

      My dad wanted to get him out of Detroit and away from the gang-like life he wanted to live. Instead of dealing with him, he let my stern grandma straighten him out in her little village where she lived on a lake in Northern Michigan. The last thing my brother needed was a small town to control, and a grandmother who couldn’t handle him. Via hearsay, he’d found the bad of the bad to hang with while living there until he joined the Army.

      My memory isn’t about the bad in him. It’s about him being my big brother, my protector, and the day Dad sent him away. I can’t remember the goings-on before we piled out the door to go to Michigan Central Station. It’s possible they never told me this would be forever, but I figured it out.

      My memory is about saying good-bye to my brother and walking through the train station holding his hand. He got on the train. Just like that, we left, but I kept pulling my mom or dad’s hand, lagging back, and yelling that we had to wait for Bob. Then we left. If one of them hadn’t had my hand, I might’ve run back to grab him off the train or get on and go with him.

      Brian W. Schaller [FAL], from Wikimedia Commons

      I kept looking back, looking back, looking back, and crying for him. Later, when we got home, I closed the kitchen door and sat on the basement step and cried and cried, which was unusual for me because I’d never go to the basement at night alone, let alone close the door and sit in the dark. I wouldn’t eat. I missed him so. My heart had broken over losing my big brother.

      I grew up without my oldest brother, but I’ll cut it off by saying we stayed in contact throughout my teen and adult life. He’d had a rough life and lived to be a senior adult though died at a young age by today’s standards. I’m the one who has his ashes. Oddly, he had made his home in Northern Michigan near to where he’d been sent to live with our grandma.


      This old train station has quite a history. Are you interested in knowing if this magnificent building is still standing? You’ll find updated information at the link below.

      From Dan Austin at Historic Detroit.Org:

      For 75 years, the depot shipped Detroiters off to war, brought them home, took them on vacation and sent them off to visit Grandma.

      Oh, if they only knew…

      Thank you for reading.


      This is a blog hop, baby. We have new participants this year! What happens when they walk back in time to share a childhood memory? Let’s find out HERE.

      Mary J McCoy-Dressel, western romance author, blog post #MFRWauthor Week 1 2019

       

      Michigan Central Station, Detroit, Michigan, U.S. Credit: Brian W. Schaller

      Brother and sister Credit: Pixaba

      Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, 52-week blog challenge | 14 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge, brother and sister, childhood memories, Detroit, family issues, Marketing for Romance Writers org, Michigan Central Station, Northern Michigan
    • #AmWriting Bucket List? Not This Time #MFRWauthor

      Posted at 3:45 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on February 16, 2018
      Mary J McCoy-Dressel Books, 52 Week Blog Challenge Blog Post Week 24 Don't Take it Away,

      This week I’m not adhering to the topic for Week Seven in the 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop. Last year we had a topic about our Bucket List and this week’s topic is Top Five Things on my Bucket List. Here’s the link to last year’s Bucket List post if you’re new to my blog and want to check it out. Instead, this week I’m going back to our 2018 Week Three topic, which is a week I missed this year.

      Week 3 How Much of Myself is in my Writing?

      Photography: Photography is my long-lost hobby. You’ll find many of my characters taking pictures even if it’s one brief shot, or they might say, “I forgot my camera!” One hero will take a picture of his subject and oftentimes paint or draw from the picture.

      Poetry: A recent hero came to me as a poet. In my early years I called myself a poet. It’s been years since I’ve written a poem or had the urge to do so. It seems certain circumstances have to be at play in my life for my muse to write poetry.

      Fear of Heights: The heroine in my current WIP has a fear of heights. Huh, who me?

      Somewhere between here and there.

      Flying: Yes, like me, I do have a couple heroines who do not like flying. They break out into a cold sweat before take-offs and landings. I, on the other hand, do like the take-offs but landings are meh. It’s being in the air that I don’t like.

      Highways. Bridges. Mountains. Don’t judge.  🙂  I don’t like driving on the highway (anymore), over bridges, or in the mountains. I make sure my heroines DO NOT have this issue. I walked across the Mackinac Bridge, and the Blue Water Bridge from Michigan to Canada, but I wouldn’t be able to drive over them.

       

      Reading: Some characters will be shown with a book or an eReader. Even rugged Zach Bryson in Finding Kimber has a stack of books beside his bed, and he’s read one that Kimber mentions.

      Close-knit Family: I’ve strived to have a close relationship with my two boys and their girlfriends and/or wives. Not that they have a girlfriend and wife at the same time. Thought I’d get that straight. The men in my books who have a mother, have a great relationship with her. That doesn’t mean they agree on everything. If you know, Judy, my Double Dutch Ranch matriarch, you know what I mean. One of my heroines doesn’t have a good relationship with her mom, but she does with her mother-in-law.

       

      By looking at what I wrote above, I’d say a lot of me is in my writing. There’s more, but we choose to keep them private on a public blog.   😉


      Thanks for visiting today. Remember this is a BLOG HOP. Let’s visit the #MFRWauthor participating authors who did stick to the topic of the week– Top Five Things on my Bucket List. I’m curious because I know how hard it was to come up with my list last year.

      Enjoy your weekend!

       

      Thanks to Pixabay for the images.

      I’m sure I took the shot of the plane wing.

      Posted in #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge | 10 Comments | Tagged #AmWriting, #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, 52-week blog challenge, Bucket List, Bucket List? Not This Time., close-knit family, cowboys, Fears, Marketing for Romance Writers org, photography, poetry, Reading, romance series, western romance
    • What If I Couldn’t Write for a Living? #MFRWauthor Week 4

      Posted at 10:02 am by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on January 26, 2018
      Mary J McCoy-Dressel, Western Romance

      Welcome to Marketing for Romance Writers 52-Week Blog Challenge Blog Hop 2018. #MFRWauthor

      Week 4: What I would be if I couldn’t be a writer

      Good topic since I’ve considered not being a writer in the last two weeks. I should say I considered not publishing new books. I’d still write. No one is taking that away from me.

       “Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun.” ~George Scialabba

      To adhere to the topic though, I’d say if I couldn’t be a writer, I’d be a photographer. I’d say photo-journalist, but this topic is about “if I couldn’t be a writer.” I like landscape  photography. I’d travel to the landscapes I’ve always wanted to visit, plus whatever amazing landscape I’d come across along the way and capture the moment to keep with me always. I love creative photography, too. A photographer doesn’t have to go far to get creative with a camera. This has been lost to me for a while.

      Mary J McCoy-Dressel, Western Romance, Photography

      My other option would be teaching. However, for years before I had proof of being a writer, other than some foolish love poems and stories scattered here and there, I worked in public schools with elementary and middle school age students. I’ve already done this when I couldn’t be the writer I wanted to be, and I’d do it again. However, I can’t explain my career working in noisy and crowded schools since I’m a loner at heart, but I loved the job enough to stay in it for nearly thirty-years. I was a paraprofessional/ teachers aide working with kids with learning disabilities.

      I always wanted to open a bookstore. Nowadays, I wouldn’t open a store, but I’d work in one.

      Mary J McCoy-Dressel Books, Get Caught Reading

      There was a time I wanted to be a social worker until I took Sociology in college.

      I could work with rescue animals, specifically dogs and horses. I love other animals, but I prefer the two mentioned.

      A big office, factory, or department store setting isn’t for me, but I have worked in a big office and factories, and they worked out fine at the time.

      If it came down to this in reality, I’d need a lot of time to consider other options if I couldn’t be a writer. Have you writers out there ever thought of  what kind of job you’d have if you couldn’t be a writer? Tell us in the comments.

      This is a BLOG HOP. Please join in by visiting the participating authors.

      Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy life. Enjoy being a writer.

      Note: Are you aware that you can edit the Tweet or preferred social media that is shared with your post? I publicize to Google +, Facebook, and Twitter.

      In the sidebar in my dashboard, under PUBLISH where my publicized  posts are shared to social media, it has an Edit option. You can add your hashtags and your Twitter name, etc. I’m not sure how Blogger works because I no longer use my blogger blog. Some WordPress templates may be different. WordPress.Org blogs might be different, too.

      However, I’ve removed the sharing option to my Facebook Page. Through my investigations about their new changes, I’ve read that shared posts may not show up due to Facebook’s new algorithms. I’ll add my post link to my author Page manually instead of having it automatically sent there. It’s a slim chance any of our Page posts will show up anyway unless we pay to boost or create an ad. IMO. I don’t know how a shared post will be affected if shared to our regular profile. I’ll have to experiment by sharing to my regular profile instead of my Page.

      Posted in #AmWriting | 15 Comments | Tagged #MFRWauthor 52-Week #BlogChallenge, #WritersLife, author, blog, blog hop, books, camera, landscapes, Marketing for Romance Writers org, Photographer, social work, teacher, western romance, What If I Couldn't Be a Writer? #MFRWauthor Week 4, what would i be if I couldn't be a writer, writer
    • Tuesday Inspiration for the Muse: Friends & Promo, Oh, My! #RLFblog

      Posted at 3:27 pm by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel, on November 29, 2016

      Hi, Folks! Not long ago, Jacquie Biggar shared my book, Christmas at Love House: A Bittersweet Interlude. The other day, she shared my newest release, Whispers of Forever: Mending Christmas. Well, to me, this is Inspiration for my Muse. Thanks again, Jacquie!

       

      Mary J McCoy-Dressel Books

      Hop on over to visit Jacquie and see what she has up on her site today. My book was shared on Thanksgiving Day, but I didn’t want to bother y’all with promo on that day. Jacquie is a U.S.A. Today Best-selling Author. Jacquie has a lot of her own work in book bundles with other fantastic authors, plus, she writes novels. She writes Romantic Suspense with Attitude. You go girl!

      Marketing For Romance Writers.org, Mary J McCoy-Dressel, western romanceI’ve been cyber-traveling! Today I’m over at Romance Lives Forever Blog. This blog was created by Kayelle Allen, who is the founder of Marketing For Romance Writers.org. I think I’ll be here on December 3rd, too, but I’m not sure if that is an error.

      Yep, you got it. Today at #RLFblog I’m showcasing the same book. I wouldn’t mind having you visit. You can see who my favorite book hero is. Not my own, darn it.   🙂 Oooh, but I probably couldn’t choose my own. It was hard enough to choose another one. Guess what? He isn’t a cowboy! But, he probably ended up with a cowboy hat sooner or later.

      I won this award once when I was a guest at Romance Lives Forever. Last month I had a mention as one of the top five bloggers of the month. Goodness, but I’ve done a lot of “tooting” my own horn today. I’m sorry.  I hope I don’t lose y’all for blabbing this much about myself. I embarrassed myself. *grin*

      RLFgemsAward

      Thanks for visiting. Check out the links because Jacquie, and the Romance Lives Forever Blog, share tons of books on their sites.

      Posted in #AmWriting, #WritersLife, Whispers of Forever: Mending Christmas | 8 Comments | Tagged #MFRWauthor, #WritersLife, contemporary western romance, Guest spot, Jacquie Biggar, Marketing for Romance Writers org, New Release, Romance, Romance Lives Forever Blog, series, Whispers of Forever: Mending Christmas
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