Mah Jong Solitaire and Winds #MondayBlogs

It’s Mah Jong Monday again, a day I like to spend talking about aspects of the game.

First – Let’s Consider a Pool Party

I love this photo of four women playing Mah Jong in 1924. I found in Elaine Sandberg’s book, Winning American Mah Jong Strategies. Doesn’t it look like fun?

 

Solitaire

There are many apps and on-line games for solitaire Mah Jong, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about a solitaire-way of playing the game Mah Jong with the classic tiles.

I’ve just started playing it, to practice hands and hopefully improve my strategy (which shouldn’t be hard, as I don’t have any yet – lol).

I twitter (i.e., mix up) the tiles and draw thirteen. I pick up and discard tiles and work towards a hand for Mah Jong.

This game shoud work with all versions of the game, though you might want to add a Charleston by randomly selecting three tiles and passing three seven times, if you are playing the American Version.

Winds

Winds are honor tiles. There are four of each: East wind, South wind, West wind and North wind.

I looked up the meaning of the tiles, and while each has symbolism associated with it, it didn’t really enhance the game for me. All I really need to know at this point is that they are honor tiles and honor tiles play an important role in hands.

What’s Next?

Next Monday I’ll look at the three suits in Mah Jong.

If you found this post interesting, check out the rest of my Mah Jong mini-series.

Sources:

Sandberg Elaine, A Beginner’s Guide to American Mah Jongg How to Play the Game & Win, Tuttle Publishing, North Claredon, 2007

Sandberg Elaine, Winning American Mah Jong Strategies, Tuttle Publishing, NOrth Claredon, 2012

Confucius

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” ~ Confucius

Too Many Women in the Room Release Day!

I love Joanne Guidoccio’s mysteries. They pull me right in. Here’s her latest. I can’t wait to read it.

Joanne Guidoccio

TOO MANY WOMEN IN THE ROOM

Gilda Greco Mystery Series, Book 2
by Joanne Guidoccio

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3 Reasons I Write Ghostly Tales

It’s WIP (i.e., work in progress) Wednesday …

I’m a quiet, serious sort of person, so why do I choose to write lighthearted, ghost stories, or what I call paranormal light, or gothic with a wink?

One – My Muse has Peculiar Taste

I backed-up and fell into this genre.

I thought I would enjoy writing post- apocalyptic stories as they are great back-drops for strong characters.

Boy was I wrong! I have a draft of a story about life after bio-warfare. The virus is carried in weaponized mosquitoes and my tag line was: It only takes one bite. IMHO the bones of the story are pretty good, but it will never see the light of day, because it needs at least six weeks of editing and I can’t stand the thought of spending even one more day with my mind in the ugly darkness of that world. It’s unbelievably hard. Sort of like swimming through mud.

When I read post-apoc, I’m only in that world for a few hours, but when I write it, I need to put my whole mind and heart into it for days on end. [shiver, shiver] It’s just not my cup of letters.

Anyway … as I wrote the postapoc story, my muse would do its best to escape from the harshness of the world I was creating. First, I began writing Haiku, and imagined that my heroine would be writing it, to escape her surroundings. That helped and it was fun, but as I neared the end of the first draft I found I needed more diversion, so I started writing a silly ghost story and fell in love with it.

click for link

It made me laugh and the writing was easy and fun. That story became A Highland Ghost for Christmas, my most popular story.

What I’ve learned from this experience is life is easier when I listen to my muse.

 

 

 

Two – Ghosts are Intriguing

Writing humorous ghost scenes, speculating about their lives after death and playing with horror is a lot of fun.

Once I had created the world of Sunset Cove, stories flowed through my head and I couldn’t stop writing them. The next three novellas came easily: A Viking Ghost for Valentine’s Day, Confessions of a Pirate Ghost and The Biker Ghost Meets his Match (launching in June).

Currently I’m working on a spin-off novel, tentatively called Midnight Magic: A Ghost and Abby Mystery, which I’ll publish in the fall.

Three – The Horror/Comedy Seesaw

Ghosts, even when they are funny at times, are dead and scary. I like the push and pull of the emotions they invoke in people (myself included). They create conflict in a story by their mere existence.

So, those are my reasons for writing ghost stories, which I hope will entertain you and let you escape from the stresses and confines of our modern world.

This is my latest release:

Amazon.com link    Amazon.ca link

Fun in the Sun Contest – Lots of Prizes

Link

FUN IN THE SUN
MULTI-AUTHOR EVENT
Prizes include:
  2 Kindle Fires
$50 Amazon Gift Card
$25 Amazon Gift Card
3 – $10 Amazon Gift Card

The 3 Dragons of Mah Jong #Mondayblogs

It’s Mah Jong Monday …

Dragons in Chinese Culture

Not all dragons are equal. Here in the west, we depict dragons as fire-breathing, aggressive beasts that need to be conquered, but eastern cultures see things differently.

“Chinese dragons traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it.” Wikipedia

Given their grand position in Chinese culture, it’s no surprise that there are three dragon tiles in the game of Mah Jong.

Dragons in Mah Jong

The three dragon tiles (i.e., red, green and white dragons) are honor tiles. They play important roles in mah jong hands.

Illustration: white, red, and green dragons. In many sets (mine included) the red and green dragons are actual dragons.

White Dragon

  • Chinese Character “Pai”
  • it represents the mysterious unknown
  • a border is drawn around the white to contain it

 

Red Dragon

  • Chinese Character “Chung” (see above)
  • it means middle or center and the character looks like an arrow hitting a target
  • so the larger meaning of this tile is success or achievement

 

Green Dragon

  • Chinese Character “Fa” (see above)
  • means to commence – the stylized version of the character looks like an arrow being drawn back, ready to release
  • to proceed or start

 

 

My 2 Cents

Knowing the meaning of the tiles adds another dimension to the game. Call me cheesy, but it makes it more exotic and fun for me.

 

My Mah Jong

My winning hand this week  was Windvane

Windvane

Windvane: one of each of the winds, and one paired, a pung in each suite. We play it exposed.

Sources

Wikipedia

http://www.mahjongsets.co.uk/symbols-mahjong.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong_tileshttp://

http://www.mahjongg.com/dragons.htm

What’s Next?

Next Monday I’ll look at the other honor tiles (i.e., the winds, ones and nines).

If you found this post interesting, check out the rest of my Mah Jong mini-series.

Confucius

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” ~ Confucius

Gotta Love Archie #fbf #FlashbackFriday

It’s Flashback Friday.

I loved Archie comics as a kid, my daughters loved Archie comics and now my granddaughter loves Archie comics. They are great entertainment. And now there’s the Netflix series, Riverdale, filmed in Vancouver, which is far more mature than the comics, but still features the kids from the original comics.

What memories do Archie comics bring back for me?

  • lazy Sundays and summer holidays
  • stretching out on the back seat for a long car ride to visit relatives
  • imagining stories with my favorite characters.

What I loved most was that the stories always ended happily. Life in Riverdale was perfect.

Your turn. Did you read Archie comics? What memories do they bring back for you?

Name the Sorcerer Contest – finals

As this is WIP (work-in-progress) Wednesday, I thought I would share my semi-final list for the sorcerer’s name. What am I talking about???

In my last newsletter I asked readers to send in names for the sorcerer in a story I’m writing. It’s the first book in the The Ghost and Abby series, which is a spin-off of A Viking for Valentine’s Day, featuring Eric the sexy spirit from Sweden and the widow Abby. Eric is searching for a way to become alive, so that he can spend at least one lifetime with Abby in that form. He finds a sorcerer (who has no name at the moment) who will grant him his wish for a price, but Eric is unwilling to pay that price. This is the subplot btw.

Thanks to everyone who helped me narrow over forty names down to this semi-final list:

Godwin, Kaliber, Declan, Guiden (Swedish for wizard), Severin Segewick the Soothsayer, Grimland the Great, Gavill of Yeoncil, Gavrill the Grey, Eldrax of Eyancor, Wetzel, Daw Thorne of Eyancor, Lionnous

My DH likes Dingus:)

My final two:

Declan

Guiden

Are you in the Declan or Guiden camp?