Violet's Vibes by Violet Carr Moore

Anniversary Shadows

2012-02-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

Time doesn't erase the sorrow from the kidnapping of Juliani Cardenas by Jose Esteban Rodriguez. The first anniversary of this tragedy, an adult suicide and a child murdered, when the vehicle plunged into the Delta-Mendota Canal, is a tragic reminder that Juliani was denied the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I've deleted Amber Alerts posts more than a year old with the click of computer keys. Death of innocents leaves anniversary shadows that haunt family and friends.

Taylor Vo safe - abductor dead

2012-01-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

To the individual San Jose Swat team member who killed Tri Truong Le, although not your first choice of action, your expertise released Taylor Vo from her captor. To the San Jose Swat Team, Police Department and others who assisted in the safe return of Taylor Vo, THANK YOU!

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/01/20/amber-alert-issued-for-missing-11-year-old-san-jose-girl/

Taylor Vo Amber Alert San Jose California

2012-01-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

No matter how often I say this is my last post to blogger, don’t believe me! Something stirs a wave of fear for the endangered child and a near-hated for the abductor with each new local Amber alert. It’s been hours since Tri Le abducted Taylor Vo from her San Jose home. This South Bay city of more than a million people is an easy freeway commute to Nevada, Oregon, Arizona—maybe on to Mexico. Part premonition, part mystery-writer syndrome, I feel an overwhelming fear for this child I’ve never met. The abductor is also a stranger to me, but somehow I visualize him pumping gas at a quick stop with this twelve-year old girl partially hidden or buying fast food from a smiling, unsuspecting drive-through attendant.

Look at the website pictures. If you’re driving, don’t be afraid to report a look-alike driver who’s staying within the posted speed limits when everyone else is speeding. When you gas up this weekend, focus on the vehicles near you. Help find Taylor before it’s too late.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/20/BA4L1MS7KU.DTL&feed=rss.news

Jhessye Shockley, where are you?

2011-11-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

I am saddened that Jhessye Shockley, a five-year old child, has been missing since October 11. To learn that she suffered abuse from her mother who pleaded for her safe return makes me resurrect this blog—at least for one more post.

Jerice Hunter, the mother of Jhessye Shockley, has been arrested for child abuse of her missing five-year old daughter. That’s step one, but Jhessye is still missing. No clues to what happened to her.

Jerice Hunter was incarcerated for four years after pleading no contest to corporal punishment for an October 5, 2005 arrest in California (Hooray for California!). She was released in May 2010 and eventually reunited with her children. Thanks to Glendale Police, a newborn and the older children have been placed in protective care.

Thirty days is a long time for a child to be missing. Authorities have little hope that Jhessye is alive. I offer prayers that she, or her abused body, will be found and the perpetrator(s) brought to justice.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57329009-504083/mother-of-missing-ariz-girl-jhessye-shockley-arrested-on-child-abuse-charges/

http://www.kpho.com/story/16004337/missing-girls-mom-gives-first-sit-down-interview

Deadlines and decisions

2011-10-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

On a “real” job—employer/employee status—the hired worker makes every effort to perform daily chores and take on additional assigned duties. In my writing world, multiple daily deadlines leave the balance decisions to me based on audience, exposure, and followers. For now, I’ve taken a leave of absence from this blog. Please visit my Wordpress writer’s niche, the other Violet’s Vibes and become a follower.

http://violetsvibes.wordpress.com/

Amber Alert canceled for Cristina Ramirez

2011-09-03T14:08:00.000-07:00

GOOD NEWS! Not all Amber Alert cancellation end in death like the search for Madeline Samman Fay, the toddler abducted by her father and Juliani Cardenas kidnapped by his father, Jose Esteban Rodriguez. Original news articles proclaim that Christina Ramirez, 13, abducted from Hollister by her father, Marcelo Ramirez, was found safe when the white Honda van was stopped near San Bernadino, almost 400 miles away. But was she safe? No. She was endangered by her father who allegedly assaulted her four days before the August 30kidnapping.

Grateful thanks to the unnamed witness who spotted the van after she had read the Amber Alert sign in San Bernadino, San Benito County, four hundred miles south of Hollister. Keep your eyes open. You could save a child’s life.

http://www.kcra.com/news/29034812/detail.html

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8336429

Madeline Samaan Fay Autopsy

2011-08-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Autopsy results for Madeline Samaan Fay, two-year old toddler abducted by her father, Mourad Samaan, gives mixed cause of death as two gunshot wounds to her head and carbon monoxide poisoning.

What causes a man described as a “loving father” to become an executioner? Rage? Revenge? Retaliation? We’ll never know. All we know is that he killed his innocent daughter near Grizzly Flats, California after her mother received full custody.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8314798&rss=rss-kgo-article-8314798

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8309526

Madeline Samaan Fay and father found dead in 4Runner

2011-08-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

Madeline Samaan Fay, a two-year old, and her father who abducted her were found dead as I knew they would be. Chalk it up to instinct from following Amber Alerts or from reading too many mystery novels. No matter how I knew, the results are the same. The FBI hasn’t released the cause of death, but common sense says this was a murder-suicide event.

Someday I’ll write about the dark side of this crime. For now, it’s better to go on with life and hope we don’t see a copycat performance by others struggling with custody battles.

AMBER ALERT for Madeline Samaan-Fay

2011-08-13T00:02:00.000-07:00

I can’t shake the thought that I’ve seen this abductor—the shaved clean-cut version—walking alone through an East Bay Wal-Mart parking lot several weeks ago. I hope I’m mistaken.

Click the link below to see his picture. Maybe you’ve seen Madline or her father, Mourad "Moni" Samaan or his green Toyota 4Runner, California license plate No. 3XRM111.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/state&id=8303972

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/12/BAJJ1KN2AT.DTL

Fremont Teen found safe

2011-08-09T10:05:00.000-07:00

No details, but good news! ABC KGO reports that Meloshi Mehta, 15-year old girl missing from Fremont, is home safe.

Next step: When will California become the leader in adding endangered runaways to the highway alert system?

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/south_bay&id=8296949

Missing Fremont Teen-Where’s the Amber Alert?

2011-08-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Miloshi Mehta, 15-year old Mission San Jose high school junior went missing on Sunday, August 7, 2011. She was last seen about 8:30 p.m. when she went for a walk around Lake Elizabeth.

Miloshi’s family said they suspected she may have walked away to meet a man whom she had corresponded with on the internet. If they had lied, feigned ignorance, or shrugged their shoulders to questions about circumstances surrounding her absence, hinting that she could have been abducted while walking, perhaps an Amber Alert would be flashing on nearby freeway signs. You might be scanning faces of every dark-haired, black eyed teen on the BART, looking for Miloshi, worrying, maybe praying that she would be found unharmed. Since her family told the truth—that she could have been lured away by an internet sexual predator—Amber Alert does not apply.

I hope she’s found unharmed. If not, will a California lawmaker propose a Miloshi Alert to assist in locating teens lured away by internet sexual predators?

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_18639474?source=rss

http://www.chp.ca.gov/amber/index.html

False Amber Alert kidnapped teen from Antioch, California

2011-08-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

Did you notice that I didn’t post this Amber Alert as I have others? Why? Because my sleuthing skills whirled a clue in front of my eyes that the fictional crime-solving Jessica Fletcher would have noticed immediately.

“The robber [Eric Lerone Walker] ordered him [16-year old] at gunpoint to drive the Yukon, police and Holmes said.” You say, so what? Lots of 16-year olds drive. Here’s a second look. Robber takes car keys from barbershop owner, then points sawed-off shotgun at a young man entering the shop and demands the youth drive the owner’s 1996 Yukon as a get-away vehicle. Duh? The Jessica Fletcher question: How did the robber know the young man he “abducted” could drive? As sure as 1+1=two, I knew Jessica Fletcher would spot this pair as friends who partnered this robbery.

I could have posted this blog within minutes of the Amber Alert, but then the police might suspect I knew something about the robbery instead of being an avid mystery fan. Even though I like to think I’m a super sleuth, this was a faked kidnapping so clear that even Jessica Fletcher’s nephew could have figured it out while she was off in Cabot Cove writing another mystery book.

Amber Alert: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2011/08/amber-alert-act.html

Amber Alert Canceled: http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktxl-an-amber-alert-has-been-issued-for-a-16yearold-boy-from-antioch-20110801,0,5387657.story?track=rss

Teen charged in holdup: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/03/BA5Q1KIT2Q.DTL#ixzz1U29bvYtu

Chowchilla schoolbus kidnap 35th anniversary 1976-2011

2011-07-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

Two weeks after twenty-six summer school children and their bus driver from my hometown of Chowchilla, California had celebrated Independence day, they lost that freedom. The terrifying July 15, 1976 event was not a random act, but a premeditated crime. Three affluent young men, James "Jim" Schoenfeld, Richard Schoenfeld and Fred Woods had planned the kidnapping for eighteen months. They executed it when they drove their captives to Livermore after wandering for hours to conceal the 100-mile journey to imprisonment in a moving van in a rock quarry. Like a heavy San Joaquin valley fog that refuses to allow sunshine, this event hovers over the survivors. A few made their way toward a measure of normalcy. For others, the trauma became an impenetrable barrier that altered their destinies. Thirty-five years after that indelible day, I applaud those who’ve soared above the struggles. I offer prayers for those whose happily-ever-after dreams have turned to endless nightmares.

Chowchilla children 1976 bus kidnappers seek parole

2011-02-23T17:30:00.000-08:00

A bus full of summer school children from Dairyland, near Chowchilla, California were abducted in 1976 by three men who planned the detailed hijack kidnap for eighteen months. They drove their captives to Livermore, first wandering for hours, then sealed them in a moving van buried in a cave at a rock quarry. All three men were sentenced to life in prison. Today, more than thirty years later, they want to be set free.

News archives confirm that Richard (Rick) Schoenfeld and his brother James (Jim) were sons of a wealthy Atherton podiatrist. The third abductor, Fred Woods, was from a wealthy Woodside family. These three men, all in their twenties, planned the imprisonment of twenty-six innocent children and an adult bus driver for the purpose of demanding five million dollars ransom for safe exchange. Case files mention the bravery of bus driver Ed Ray who helped students escape.

Would there have been fatalities without that escape? We don’t know. We do know that July 15, 1976 is indelibly stamped in the minds of these children, their parents, guardians and other relatives, school mates and staff, and the community. The sentencing judge and Dale Fore, former chief investigator, say these prisoners should be released after serving more than thirty years of a life-time sentence. Thirty years confinement is a long time, but is it long enough to compensate for emotional damage to the children? Yes, say the imprisoned men and supporters. For the children and their families, what do they say?

No! No! No! A thousand times NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Good news – Amber Alert victim Elijah Rivas found safe

2011-02-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

With all the sadness related to the Rodriguez-Cardinas kidnapping and murder-suicide near Patterson, California, here’s today’s good news for a baby kidnapped by an estranged father in Fresno County, California.

The abduction of Elijah Rivas, a nine-month old baby boy, occurred Saturday during a visit by his father, nineteen-year old Edgar Ramos. Elijah has been found, safe and in good condition, near the father's home about an hour’s drive south of the Wasco abduction site.

Click HERE for CBS report details.

Nancy Grace enters search for Juliani Cardenas

2011-01-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

Nancy Grace, noted television crime commentator, enters the hunt for missing Juliani Cardenas, 4, allegedly kidnapped from his grandmother’s arms by Jose Esteban Rodriguez, 27, near Patterson, California. Nancy Grace’s tenacity and fervor equals a southern hunting dog following a scent and brings global attention to this missing boy.

Mr. Rodriguez, authorities are searching the Delta-Mendota canal for your Toyota Corolla. If you’re alive, somewhere far away from this canal, please listen to Tabitha, Juliani’s mother, and drop him off at the nearest fire station. If you want the world to know your side of this story, call Nancy Grace.

UPDATE: Friday, January 21, 2011

Authorities say a third car has been pulled from Delta-Mendota canal, but it's red. This canal is beginning to look like a repository for stolen vehicles.

Amber Alert

2011-01-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

Praying for Juliani

My blog is informative or humorous, or both. Not today. The sign on I-580 between Livermore Boulevard and First Street exits, usually dark, is bright yellow with an AMBER ALERT. I’d read about the abduction yesterday, but reading the sign sent cold chills down my spine on this sunny 60-degree day.

Jose Esteban Rodriguez, 27, allegedly kidnapped Juliani Cardenas, 4, from his home near Patterson. Snatched him from his grandmother’s arms, the news said. Rodriguez was last seen driving a silver Toyota Corolla with license plate number 6HBW445. The vehicle had oversized wheels and a "donut" spare tire on the front passenger side. So how many cars fit this description? Maybe none. Perhaps the plates have been switched. Perhaps the tire has been repaired. Perhaps the car is hidden in a garage. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. All I know is that the Amber Alert sign sends the chilling message that a little boy who should be home with his mother and grandmother is missing.

Unbelievable Plot

2011-01-11T13:56:00.000-08:00

Writing nonfiction requires impeccable research. A fiction novel should mimic truth. The plot needs a beginning, middle and end. Conflict and offshoots of that conflict should be woven around the protagonist (good guy) and the antagonist (bad guy). These two main characters will interact with other lesser characters to advance the story to an arc that brings a resolution or conclusion. These hard facts and requirements pummeled me like an ancient stoning and stifled my imagination. I read online news to ignite fresh ideas. That’s when I stumbled upon this local story.

A quick arrest followed a mid-afternoon bank robbery after the “alleged” (who forced us to use that word?) robber, the antagonist, ran away with an undisclosed amount of cash. A trained canine becomes the hero, the protagonist, by following the scent from the bank to a nearby apartment where the missing cash was stashed. Witnesses and video surveillance identified the alleged robber. So far, a humdrum story. Bank robbery. Quick catch. Cash recovered. Alleged perpetrator apprehended and in custody. All mundane facts; nothing to hold the reader’s interest.

Suppose this were a novel synopsis, not a news article. At this point, the agent would drop the pages onto a desk-high slush pile and sip a caramel latte before moving to the next submission. I imagine hearing, “Hey, wait a minute,” as her read-ahead abilities recalled an incredible twist in the next line. The robber, make that alleged robber, was a bank customer with account records available at that branch! Now that’s an unbelievable plot, a fact from the news article, that could generate a blunder-book detective series contract. A book series could prompt a comedy movie and make me famous.

Bookmarkers

2010-09-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

I have a handful of bookmarkers. Tall, thin, wide, fat, half-fold with magnets. Famous names burst from the magazine-finish markers. Debbie Macomber from Mira Books http://www.debbiemacomber.com/. Or, Dana Mentink published by Barbour in mass marketing http://www.heartsongmysteries.com/. Silver Rush Historical Mysteries Series by Ann Parker http://www.annparker.net/ published by Poison Pen Press is an inch or two taller than the others. All are magazine slick finish, mixed color schemes from deep browns sprinkled with azure to buttercup with pastel flowers. Annette Langer, a local writer, http://www.annettelanger.com/, hands out matte-finish bookmarks for both her books self-published through WingSpan Press.

See that holly and pinecone bookmarker to the upper right? A gift from Lani Longshore http://lanilongshore.wordpress.com/, it’s crafted from holiday cloth, backed with green plaid and bound with machine stitched edges. It lays flat in large books, and the top button and beads guide me to my place. Lani isn’t famous yet, but she will be! Her unnamed sci-fi novel whets the skills of our California Writers Club http://www.trivalleywriters.org/ novel critique group. If an agent doesn’t pick up Lani’s manuscript, I have permission to borrow her name for one of the good-guys in my mystery novel. My bookmarkers? I’ll link them to one of my characters, an avid reader who is a craftsperson when not solving crimes.

Sullenberger, Peanut Butter and Me

2010-07-16T23:34:00.000-07:00

I’m an avid reader and an infrequent flyer. These two facts meshed together not long after I flipped up the footrest on my Lazy Boy chair and buried my head in HIGHEST DUTY, My Search for What Really Matters by Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III (Harper Collins Publishers, 2009). I read slowly and savored every moment of his childhood quest to fly. I marveled that he had been licensed as a private pilot at an age when I didn’t have a learner’s permit to drive a car.
Still, we had a lot in common like respect for older people at an early age and obedience to rules. Each of us had taken pay cuts and lost pensions funds in mature years. And, perhaps related to those losses, we both had white hair by our mid-fifties.

I smiled as Captain Sullenberger described his routine preflight preparation for departure from San Francisco that culminated days later with Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. I visualized him in the kitchen of his Danville, California home, less than twenty-five miles from my chair, as he made two sandwiches, one turkey and one peanut butter and jelly, and placed them with a banana into a lunch bag. I anticipated a chuckle that would describe that lunch as his good luck charm. No so. His explanation was that United Airways, his employer, discontinued “the perk” of free meals for pilots and flight attendants for economic reasons. Farther down the page he speaks of his gratitude for adventures at thirty thousand feet, followed by this statement. “...I've got to be honest: Eating PB&J while smelling the gourmet beef being distributed with wine in first class—that’s a sure reminder that there are less-than-glamorous aspects of my job.”

On my most recent long flight, I didn’t open the tiny bag of salted treats that couldn’t be conquered with four ounces of free soft drink. An empty stomach served me well when queasiness began during turbulence near Dallas, Texas. If only I had known then that our pilot was also envious of the savory first-class food smell, perhaps starving if he didn’t pack a PB&J sandwich, I would have commended him on an excellent landing with his topsy-turvy stomach. Next time I fly, I’ll remember that the pilot and I have something special in common. An empty stomach.

World of words

2010-06-13T15:42:00.000-07:00

Words are like ice cream. They come in all flavors. Words can caress and console, or harass and intimidate. Words can groan with agony and defeat or shout with exuberance and triumph. Words provoke my imagination and infiltrate my dreams. Words are the pinnacle of my world. Linked together with skill, they tell a story. I have listened to audio books and viewed them on screen, but nothing beats the feel of a printed book. I love the feel of paper, the excitement of turning the next page of a mystery. I feel connected to the author of an inspirational devotional while I touch the page and reflect on what I have read. When I turn the last page and close the cover, the triumph of a book read becomes a trophy.

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." Mark Twain

Fifty-word bio

2010-03-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

A bio, short for biography, is just that – short. It’s a summation of basic facts about the author. It mentions publications, awards or successes, and current works in progress. It begins with your name and ends with web links.

“Never use never or always,” may sound like good advice, but it doesn’t apply to bios. Never, never, never write your bio in the first person bragging tense. Always write your bio in the third person. Use the pronouns “she” and “her” (him/his) to describe your accomplishments.

Be concise. Bios for anthologies are usually limited to 100 words, but only half that for my nonfiction short story, Miracle on a Train, in Christmas Miracles, an anthology by Cecil Murphey (St. Martin’s Press, October 2009). The max limit cut out all the frills, with no space for my seventeen-word final web links sentence. So, I cut my favorite “Visit my website at http://www.carrtwins.com/ for books and my blogs at http://violetsvibes.blogspot.com/ and http://violetsvibes.wordpress.com/for writing tips.” I inserted the website, the most important link, and omitted the blogs.

Violet Moore is the author of In The Right Place and Moments of Meditation and co-creator of Carr Twins & Co. (www.carrtwins.com) publishing. She is an inspirational writer and speaker and a featured contributor to an international women’s ministry website. She is Vice President of California Writer’s Club, Tri-Valley Branch.

That’s my bio in exactly fifty words.

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

I should be writing about Mayor Newsom following the lead of South Carolina Governor Stanford and disappearing, but the National Novel Writer's month contest sponsored by The Office of Letters and Light is much more important to me right now than following Mayor Newsom's supposed stressed jaunt. If you want to know what stress is, you should see me hunched over my notebook, sipping tea or coffee as I write a 50,000-word novel from scratch in the thirty days of November. Why? There's no money involved; just a certificate of accomplishment. But, it's more than that. It's the challenge to join others striving for the same goal; a draft novel in a race against time. It stimulates even the worst procrastinator to write. I was successful last year, hitting the 50,000 verified word count in twenty-one days with “Welcome Home, Naomi,” so I jumped at the challenge again this year. I'm into day seven on “Climbing a Glass Wall, a sequel to last year’s novel, running well ahead of the daily word count, and hoping to reach twenty thousand by Monday. Excuse me, for bowing out so abruptly, but I’ve got to get back to my novel.

Time for Change

2009-09-06T23:27:00.001-07:00

BLOG UPDATE. Time to get serious. No more frivolous posts – well, not that many. I've cleaned up my act (deleted old posts). No more personal pics. Okay, maybe a couple. Violet’s Vibes is switching to writing tips and techniques and words of wisdom. (Hey, I can do that. I’m old enough to be considered an oracle.) Maybe I’ll drop in a haiku or two or a community blurb.

So, as soap opera radio announcers used to say, “Tune in tomorrow.”

Take A Hike

2009-06-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford said about his recent absence, "I let them down by creating a fiction with regard to where I was going. I said that was the original possibility. Again, this is my fault in...shrouding this larger trip."

The single word that can be an adjective, adverb or pronoun. In Governor Sanford’s statement, “that” was the pronoun referring to his original location disclosure to his staff that he might hike the Appalachian Trail following a grueling legislative session. Was his disclosure of a private getaway, hiking the Appalachian Trail, a planned destination or a thinking-about-it idea? Or, was it something more momentous – a statement that inflated into a lie? He did not hike the trail as he mentioned. He drove his black Chevy Suburban to the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport for a lover’s rendezvous in Argentina. The governor referred to his statement about hiking the trail as a “fiction.” That fiction was the beginning of his new role as an author.

What does writing have to do with Governor Sanford’s absence? His actions sound like a political gaff. Like a betrayer, living a lie at the expense of others. His staff thought he was out hiking. Indeed, he had taken a hike, as the old saying goes. His wife didn’t know where he was but she didn’t share with the media that a planned separation was in progress. With that separation, Governor Sanford embarked on a new trail. He stepped out of the governor’s box when he took a thread of reality and formed it into a fictional story. Back in South Carolina, he has stepped back into nonfiction reality, at least for a while. His misadventure will be publicized for a few weeks until a decision is made as to whether he should continue as governor.

Meanwhile, the first chapters of his creative nonfiction book are underway. The story begins in the governor’s office with the hiking statement to his staff and fades into a scenic drive to the Atlanta, Georgia airport and his thoughts as he boards a plane. The first chapter ends with an embrace in his lover’s arms in Buenos Aires. Perhaps he will mention in a later chapter that the airline has named his reserved seat numbers Appalachian Trail and upped the price for get-a-way flights to South America. The book cover will be a tough call. Should it be a nature spot along the Appalachian Trail or a split design of Atlanta and Buenos Aires airports? When the book is purchased by a mainstream publisher, Mark Sanford will be in the media spotlight once again, complete with flashbacks to June 2009 when he and Maria Belen Chapur were world-wide news. Whether his published memoir will be true or creative nonfiction, it is sure to be a best seller for others who are planning to take a hike!

Revelation

2009-05-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Merriam Webster Dictionary online defines the word revelation foremost as something divine from God to man. The next down-to-earth definition in Merriam Webster and Encarta Dictionary online is “Information that is newly disclosed, especially surprising, or valuable.” In the California Writers Club, Tri-Valley Branch May Critique Group meeting, there were many revelations, or at least some very surprising and valuable edits. As each of the ten members received printed stories critiqued through an editing program, it was clear that there were different interpretations of capitalization. A recurring question was when to capitalize family titles like father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, nephew, and niece. Professional editors suggest lowercase when a familial title is preceded by a pronoun (my, her, his, our, their). Example: “My uncle George is the oldest person in English 1-A college class.” When the writer omits the pronoun, “The oldest person in English 1-A is Uncle George,” uppercase is preferred. The greatest revelation is that these rules are not permanent. Somewhere, a group is deciding the future rules for familial titles while I write my first mystery novel. I suppose my best choice is to characterize my protanogist as a loner, perhaps an orphaned only child, so there will be less editing for familial titles.