Author name: Sayling@@Away

We lost one of the world’s folk-rock legends last week when Canadian-born Gordon Lightfoot died, so I am taking a break from the music Monday’s rock to pay tribute to him. The lives of many of us played to the background of his easily recognizable and melodic baritone voice and his twelve-string acoustic guitar. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s and is considered Canada’s greatest songwriter. His songs have been recorded by some of the world’s most renowned musical artists. Lightfoot’s biographer Nicholas Jennings said, “His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness.”  Bob Dylan is one of Lightfoot’s many fans, saying, “I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like. Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever…. Lightfoot became a mentor for a long time.” Lightfoot was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadian Country Hall of Fame in 2001. On June 24, 2012, Lightfoot was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in a New York City ceremony, along with Bob Segar., Play any of these that you please… One of his earliest hits is Early Morning Rain. Another I must have listened to a million times is If You Could Read My Mind And Sundown Many of Lightfoot’s songs about Canadian wildlife, streets and weather doubled as cultural elegies — like his 1976 hit “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” a dramatic retelling of a real-life maritime disaster. I blogged about this a few years ago (see https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/2019/11/20/the-wreck-of-the-edmund-fitzgerald/). Here he is in concert just a few years ago singing this haunting song. I hope he is entertaining the masses in heaven, and how lucky we are that he passed our way. 0 0

I’ve already been dinged about avoiding the Beatles, the group heading the British Invasion of the rock and roll scene here in the USA. Formerly called the Quarrymen or the Silver Beatles, with the byname of the Fab Four, this British musical quartet became the global lodestar for the hopes and dreams of a generation that came of age in the 1960s. Of the four, only Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney still survive, but Beatlemania will live forever. They are widely considered the most influential band of all time, producing twenty number-one hits, and have sold over 188 million records just in the US. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, with each principal member inducted individually between 1994 and 2015. ‘Nuff said. Dionne Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest U.S. hit makers between 1955 and 1999, based on her chart history on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop singles chart. She is the second-most charted female vocalist during the rock era (1955–1999). Many of Warwick’s family were members of the Drinkard Singers, a family gospel group and RCA recording artists who frequently performed throughout the New York metropolitan area. The group morphed into the Gospelaires and then the Sweet Inspirations, who had some chart success, but were much sought-after as studio background singers. While she was performing background on a Drifters’ recording, Warwick’s voice and star presence were noticed by the song’s composer, Burt Bacharach, who signed her to his company. Thus was formed one of the most successful partnerships in musical history. She (and Bacharach) had won innumerable awards for their music and she was still producing hits in the 80s and 90s. Her music is the background to my life and probably for many of you, too:  (There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me, I’ll Say a Little Prayer, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, That’s What Friends Are For, I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,  and this one, Walk On By. In the late 1950s and early 60s, one style of music that began to dominate the American music charts and youth culture of that day came from the ‘girl groups.’ Comprised mostly of three-to-four young females, typically teenagers themselves, these groups were mostly African American, named The Crystals, The Shirelles, The Ronettes, The Dixie Cups, The Marvelettes, and of course, The Supremes. Martha and the Vandellas (known from 1967 to 1972 as Martha Reeves & The Vandellas) were an American vocal girl group formed in Detroit in 1957. The group achieved fame in the 1960s with Motown. The group signed with and eventually recorded all of their singles for Motown’s Gordy imprint. The group’s string of hits included Heat Wave, Quicksand, Nowhere to Run, Jimmy Mack, I’m Read for Love, and Dancing in the Street,  the latter song becoming their signature single. Dancing in the Street was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. During their nine-year run on the charts from 1963 to 1972, Martha and the Vandellas charted over twenty-six hits and recorded in the styles of doo-wop, R&B, pop, rock and roll, and soul.Ten Vandellas songs reached the top ten of the Billboard R&B singles chart and six top ten pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Selected members of the group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995   0 0

One thing I find hard is marketing my books. I think a lot of my followers who write would say the same. But needs must, and I do want you to take a look at my newest book in the Rhe Brewster series, Death at the Asylum. This one has more twists than ever, so many that I actually lost one thread, which was luckily grabbed by my editor, Alison Williams. I think maybe I’ll send the gray cells that kept adding threads on vacation next time. And here is an excerpt from the first chapter, to whet your interest. ****** The sniper had been in the attic of the empty house across the river for nearly a day, lying on a table pushed up to a window, with his gun resting on the window sill. The view was perfect. Habit kept him there, virtually unmoving, diapered to take care of his needs, and stoked on coffee until earlier this morning. Now he needed steady hands. Gravity, wind speed and direction, altitude, barometric pressure and humidity could all affect the bullet trajectory, and he’d taken each one of those factors into account. He slowed his breathing, slowed his heart rate, stilled every muscle except for those in his trigger finger, and focused on the grinning head now in the crosshairs of the telescopic lens. He heard his former spotter’s voice whispering quietly, ‘Now.” He gently, slowly, squeezed the trigger, felt the solid push back against his shoulder. And waited. It takes time for a bullet to get to its target from that far away. ****** I have had a couple of fantastic reviews from authors I admire. Here is the very first, which came from Diana Peach, author (not recently) of The Necromancer’s Daughter and The Ferryman and the Sea Witch. ****** “I’ve read all the Rhe Brewster mysteries and looked forward to this one. It didn’t disappoint, and for those new to the series, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. The story begins with the attempted murder of Maine’s governor. Rhe, an ER nurse, and her husband Sam, the police chief of Pequod, Maine, save the governor’s life and become part of a task force to identify the assailant, a sniper. But that isn’t the only plot line twisting through this book. Someone has stolen Rhe’s identity and is trying to ruin her. At the hospital where she works, drugs are routinely disappearing, and her boss is after her job. Someone sabotages Sam’s car and attempts to steal their home. A serial rapist is on the loose, and a cult leader is expected of abuse. Never mind the bullets. While she and Sam pursue leads, she also must worry about protecting her young son and unborn child. The book doesn’t have much to do with the titular asylum, unless you consider that the multiple plots and challenges create a version of bedlam in Rhe’s life. They contributed to a speedy pace, making the book hard to put down, and I enjoyed the puzzle as to whether and how the pieces were connected. Highly recommended to readers who enjoy cozy mysteries with minimal violence, a fast-paced plot, and characters worth rooting for.” ****** I have a book signing scheduled in Damariscotta, Maine, in August. More on that later. In the meantime, if you are so inclined to host me and my new book, I’d be honored. 0 0

 This is a re-posting of a blog from 2020 about Christmas in Prague, where my husband and I lived for a year. We spent Christmas in Prague and were introduced to its customs by the Czech couple, Vladimir and Milada Reznick, who shared their apartment with us. The first tradition we encountered was a visit from Svaty Mikuláš. Svaty Mikuláš (Czech for Saint Nicholas) descends from heaven on a golden cord held by angels, as he returns to earth for his gift-giving rounds each year. In the European advent calendar, St. Nicholas pays a visit to children during the first week of December, bearing gifts of sweets to the well-behaved. He is traditionally accompanied by a devil (Čert) and an angel (Anděl ). Some friends of mine arranged for me to be visited, and luckily St. Nick gave me a present. The devil is sometimes portrayed as Krampas in a scary costume, usually in the public square along with St. Nick and the angel. Vladimir and Milada purchased a Christmas tree – it appeared one evening – and it was lit with real candles! We lived in fear that it would catch fire. but Milada assured us it rarely happened. Right. Good that I couldn’t read the Prague newspaper! The traditional Christmas Eve meal is carp soup. The Czechs love polévka, or soup, and Milada was a wonderful soup maker – especially gulašova polévka (gulash soup) and dršťková polévka (tripe soup). Every family would buy a huge carp from enormous tanks found on the streets around the city. They were filled with icy water (it was December after all) and huge carp slowly swimming around in them. The men who sold the fish were in their shirt sleeves with the sleeves rolled up and their forearms were blue from fishing in the tanks and pulling out a fish for you! Once purchased, the carp was taken home and placed in water in the bathtub and kept until Christmas Eve. (Caveat: Never let your children name the carp) At that point, it would be dispatched, some of the meat saved for the next day, and the rest made into carp soup. Which is, by the way, delicious. The traditional Christmas dinner was carp (kapr) schnitzel, made with the fresh carp fillets, along with potato salad. This might seem strange – potato salad at Christmas – but I swear the Czechs make the absolutely best potato salad in the world. And of course the fish was yummy and delightfully fresh (no wonder there). And the sweets. Each Czech is born with a sweet tooth. There is a Christmas bread called Vánočka, which gets its name from the Czech word for Christmas, Vánoce. It’s a braided cake made with raisins and almonds. There are also cookies, lots and lots of cookies, Vánoční cukroví / Christmas cookies. We ended our Christmas meal with a variety of those, along with fruit dumplings that Milada made to perfection. These are usually made with plums (if available) and sprinkled with sugar and poppy seeds. In the Czech tradition, I wish you  Veselé Vánoce a Šťastný Nový Rok  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Wenceslas Square in Prague at Christmas time. Named for good King Wenceslas! 0 0

This is the heartwarming and remarkable story of Aleen Isabel Cust, England’s first female veterinary surgeon, and a book I thoroughly enjoyed. The author explains that while the main character is real and many of the events in her life are recorded, this is not a biography. But what she’s created is completely believable. Aleen Cust’s first memories are of her life in Ireland with her aristocratic family. She loves their animals, especially the horses, and delights in racing and hunting on horseback with her brothers. She is also unusually educated for the time because she gets to share her brother’s tutor. But she also knows that many of the opportunities given to her brothers she can’t share because she is a girl. Nevertheless, when she first meets a veterinary surgeon, she is struck with the idea that this is what she wants to be. When her father dies, the family has to leave Ireland for England because he had been an overseer of land owned by someone else. Leaving their beloved horses and dogs behind, Aleen vows to return once she achieves her dream.  When she tells her mother of her plans for her future, and the family, especially her mother, is appalled by the idea and emphatically forbids it, citing the shame it would bring on them. When she meets and is drawn into a family that is friends with her own, she finds their daughter shares the same passion for her own life and career. This young woman is allowed to go hunting and will train as a nurse, and Aleen’s dream is reignited. But the only thing her overbearing mother will allow her to do is train as a nurse, which she soon finds is stultifying and stifling. Working in the city instead of the country and the patriarchal relationship between physicians and nurses make her resentful. She quits. After some years, the heavens align (I can’t reveal how!) and she finds a way to attend the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh, which sets her on the path to her dream but which alienates her from her family forever. The trials of school and her training thereafter make a wonderful read, but what she does with the rest of her life is nothing short of amazing. Using available research, the author has crafted a wondrous story of Aleen’s ambition, determination against all odds, and battle for equality that is won with courage, passion and friendship. The storytelling is riveting and filled with tension. The reader is left wondering How could she have done this?  when reading about Aleen’s daily challenges and obstacles and the years it took her to accomplish her goal. Each of the characters comes alive and the reader becomes invested in their lives as well, and one can’t help feeling the same about the dogs and horses that run through Aleen’s life. The complexity of Aleen’s relations with various members of her family, especially her mother and older brother, is both frustrating and difficult to absorb, so different from the present day, and the reader can feel the conflict between Aleen’s loyalty and love for them and her absolute certainty that the family’s plans for her future are not something she can accept. The historical background of England and Ireland from the late 1800s through WWI is meticulously presented and I learned a great deal about the treatment of the horses that were central to the war. The author did considerable research on veterinary surgery of the time – I am very impressed. In short, this is a terrific read about a woman in the trenches of the war against historical patriarchy and appallingly unequal societal norms. It is also colorful, personal, and filled with warmth and passion. I reviewed the author’s previous book, The Wilderness Between Us, and gave it five stars. The same for The Invincible Miss Cust. About the author: Penny Haw is also the author of The Wilderness Between Us, winner of the WFWA 2022 Star Award in the general category; and a children’s book called Nicko, The Tale of a Vervet Monkey on an African Farm. She worked as a journalist and columnist for more than three decades, with bylines in many of South Africa’s leading newspapers and magazines before yielding to a lifelong yearning to create fiction.  Her stories feature remarkable women, illustrate her love for nature, and explore the interconnectedness of all living things. Writing is her profession and lifelong passion. She lives near Cape Town. The author can be found On twitter: @Penny Haw And online at two sites: https://pennyhaw.com/news  and https://pennyhaw.com 0 0

Diana Peach is making a stop here in Chapel Hill on her whirlwind book tour of her latest book, The Necromancer’s Daughter. I decided to take her to the Carolina Coffee Shop, located in the heart of downtown, for breakfast, to give her a taste of this college town. This coffee shop has the proud distinction of being the oldest continually running restaurant in North Carolina, serving Tar Heels for nearly a century. ******* After ordering their signature cornflake French toast for both of us along with coffee, I take the opportunity to find out more about her new book. Noelle: Is there any basis for The Necromancer’s Daughter, which, by the way, I think is fabulous…no kidding! Diana: The Necromancer’s Daughter is based on Chinese mythology and the story of Kwan-yin, which I shared in a post on my blog. For a while, I considered setting the story in a fantastical setting similar to China or Japan, employing relevant names, customs, clothing, foods, plants, and dragons. It’s a part of the world that fascinates me, and I thought it would be very cool for this story. Noelle: So is that the book’s basis? Diana: What I learned very early on is that the old saying “write what you know” applied. Or more accurately, “don’t write what you don’t know at all.” I realized that no amount of research was going to make me sound like I knew what I was talking about, so with the exception of some inconsequential details, I let it go. My fantasy world is simply the world in my head, and I know that one quite well. Noelle: I do know about research, and it can be overwhelming at times… Our French toast arrives, and after adding the usual maple syrup, I ask: Tell me about some of the quirks you’ve developed while writing. Do you have any? Diana: I get up at 4:00 to start writing… every day. Most days, I stay in my flannel snowman pajamas and slippers for the duration. If for some reason I need to weed the garden or go to the post office, I just throw on a sweatshirt and head out. Noelle: I don’t start at 4 AM, but I do my best writing in my robe and nightgown. What if you have to meet someone, like me, for a formal interaction? Diana:  You’re right. Sometimes, I actually need to wear grown-up clothes, so I don’t embarrass my family.  If I dress before my coffee fix, while I’m still a zombie, I invariably end up wearing something inside out or backwards. I’ve left the house in this condition on a number of occasions, the little tag on my shirt flapping below my chin. Noelle: So have you done research for any of your books? Diana: Since you’re amazing at in-depth research, I thought I’d confess that I’m not. Lol. I research, of course, even for fantasy, but not to the depth required by historical fiction. I can tell you how much a year-old pig weighs or how to treat an arrow wound or the sequence of human decomposition, but those are quick internet searches, not REAL research. Noelle: How deeply do you get immersed in your writing? Diana:  I can tell you, I get fully immersed in the world I’m creating and will mirror my characters’ expressions on my face as I write. My husband can tell exactly what type of scene I’m working on just by looking at me, and he frequently asks me if I’m okay. Noelle:  How do you feel about your characters? Do they become part of you? Diana:  I believe that when we create characters, we create real energetic entities who are capable of living beyond our pages and having an impact on the world. They’re the characters we fall in love with and learn from, the ones who change us. Once created, they can’t be uncreated. We set them free to live their lives independently of us, and we never forget them.  In a way, they’re just like “real” people we’ve interacted with but never met. We are all characters crafting our own stories, but if you haven’t met me, how do you know I’m real? And would it matter either way? Hmmm. There’s a premise for a book somewhere in there! We finish our breakfast, drink two more cups of coffee, and chatter on before I let her go! Here is my review of The Necromancer’s Daughter. About the book A healer and dabbler in the dark arts of life and death, Barus is as gnarled as an ancient tree. Forgotten in the chaos of the dying queen’s chamber, he spirits away her stillborn infant and in a hovel at the meadow’s edge, breathes life into the wisp of the dead child. He names her Aster for the lea’s white flowers. Raised as his daughter, she, too, learns to heal death. Denied a living heir, the widowed king spies from a distance. But he heeds the claims of the fiery Vicar of the Red Order—in the eyes of the Blessed One, Aster is an abomination, and to embrace the evil of resurrection will doom his rule. As the king’s life nears its end, he defies the vicar’s warning and summons the necromancer’s daughter. For his boldness, he falls to an assassin’s blade. Armed with righteousness and iron-clad conviction, the Red Order’s brothers ride into the leas to cleanse the land of evil. To save her father’s life, Aster travels beyond Verdane’s wall, where her pursuers must stop, into the Forest of Silvern Cats, a wilderness of dragons and barbarian tribes. She must cross this land to reach the Mountains of Blackrock, where her uncle Atrayal rules. There she hopes to persuade him to help place her on the throne of Verdane. Unprepared for a world rife with danger and unchecked power, a world divided by those who practice magic and those who hunt them, she must choose whether to trust the

To my followers, old and new, I give you the gift of the trees this season. I took these pictures on a recent trip to Chapel Hill and on a walk I took yesterday. There’s a little color on the way into our community, and this is Crooked Creek, where the old, arched stone bridge was removed by the developers. Bah! 0 0