My two legged is sick and isn’t spending a lot of time in front of the black and white thing at the end of the hall. Woo hoo! I have a chance to write something about me. I am funny and beautiful, you know. I’ve just spent the morning doing my exercises – running up and down the stairs, running from one end of the house to the other, and following the birds at their feeders. It’s downright exhausting, it is. My two legged gave me a good brushing (for those incipient mats, she says) and now that she’s sitting down resting, or so she says, I can put my front paws on her knees and get picked up for a good cuddle. There’s more to do today. My favorite mouse is up here under her desk. I love to play with it and rip it apart, and I can carry it in my mouth anywhere. Another one appeared last week and I’m not sure how they are related but they look exactly alike, except for where she sewed up the first one with string. She sort of yelled one morning when she opened her eyes, rolled over and found my mouse in her face. I like to play with it in the shower, too. Oops, I can hear her calling me. Time to go entertain her. I can take the mouse. 0 0
Apologies for this take off on several post by my blogging friend, Hugh Roberts. 10. You have a chest cold with some serious coughing. You take zinc pills in the hopes of containing it and wait to get better. You watch a series on Netflix. The title is enticing, your friends recommended it, so lying on the couch, you begin episode one of the first of four seasons. After 30 minutes, you doze off, and wake up just as the episode ends. Your husband tells you what happened, and you start episode two. Same thing. After the third episode, you give up, completely confused about what’s happening. 9. You decide the reason why you’re feeling so exhausted is that you’re not getting enough exercise (cough, cough). So you get the pillow on the seat of your recumbent bike and pump away madly while watching the news…for five minutes. You return to bed. 8. You ignore your daughter’s insistence that you see your MD. It’s only a chest cold, and in two days you’ll be back at it. 7. Despite spraying Lysol wherever you go, your husband now starts coughing. The house smells like a rest stop bathroom. 6. You decide, after several days in a bathrobe, you should take a shower. Your husband is also sick and even he is avoiding you. You take a shower, are too tired to dry your hair, and go back to bed. 5. At your daughter’s continued insistence, you and your husband see your MD. You’re blood pressure is 80/60, which explains why doing anything involving moving is exhausting, and you both have the flu. You get a prescription for Tamiflu, but your MD says it will be four days until you start to feel better. 4. You watch TV with the cat in your lap. You have a coughing fit. The cat startles and leaves claw tracks on your legs as he runs away. 3.You crave some really good comfort food, but all you have in the freezer is a few diet dinners, all made with quinoa and kale. Your husband hates both. There’s always the store, but that means you would have to get out of your pajamas and into real clothes. You give up and eat dry cereal. 2. Your husband, stronger than you, finds some noodles and makes spaghetti the next night. You eat two bowls of it and go to bed with an upset stomach. You manage not to fall asleep during an evening of the Olympics. An American one tenth your age and the size of a peanut wins a gold medal. You finally have a solid night’s sleep. Several thousand neurons gave their lives in the creation of this post. I am certain of it because of the number of typos and other idiocies I discovered on re-reading it. I am having difficulty braining today. 0 0
This movie won the Golden Globe for Best Picture and stars Frances McDormand, the Oscar winner for Fargo a number of years ago. I had to see it, if only to enjoy another great performance from her. She didn’t disappoint, and there were incredibly strong performances from Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. There’s also a funny cameo from Peter Dinklage – you might know him from Game of Thrones. The movie is dark, very dark, but it also has moments of humor, deriving from the foibles of the characters. Seven months have passed since Mildred Hayes’ teenage daughter was raped and burned to death. There has been no movement in the case, so Mildred decides to light a fire under the Chief of Police and buys advertising on three billboards on a road outside of town. Her message asked why Chief Willoughby hasn’t made any progress on the case. The citizens of Ebbing don’t take kindly to her message – Willoughby is beloved in the town and he is also dying of pancreatic cancer. Harrelson makes Willoughby a teddy bear, the voice of moderation and encouragement to his deputies and a loving, if foul-mouthed husband and father. He inhabits this role like an old slipper, and he patiently and sympathetically explains to Mildred why the case has stymied his department. When his second-in-command, Officer Dixon, played by Sam Rockwell, takes up Willoughby’s cause, the battle between Mildred and the town is only exacerbated. Dixon is racist with a penchant for violence and is an immature mother’s boy, His mother, played by Sandy Martin, is a loving but bitter, evil-minded spider. McDormand plays Mildred with single-minded, mirthless, laser focused determination to find her daughter’s killer. Her life would crush any other woman; her husband has left her for a brainless but beautiful 19-year-old and she works long hours in a tiny gift shop, where she makes just enough money to support her teenage son and herself. He husband was a violent abuser, she was happy to see him go, but he’s not out of her life and returns to berate her about the billboards. Mildred never smiles, never reacts to ill will except with a sharp tongue. Her grief has set her in stone, made her ugly, and the viewer wonders if she qualifies as a human being. The writer-director, Martin McDonagh, plays comedy against violence and wrings laughter out of unthinkable situations. He paints the characters in uncompromising colors, but gives you a sense, in the end, of what they might become. The only jarring note for me was the actor playing Willoughby’s wife – Abby Cornish. She’s two decades younger, glaringly glam and has an Australian accent. Her casting is thought to be a reason why McDonagh was snubbed for an Oscar nomination. There are some intense moments of violence, such that I would not recommend this movie to anyone under the age of 18. For everyone else, I think this is a must-see. 0 0
The Likeness is a sequel to the enormously popular book by this author: The Figurehead. In that book, the readers were introduced the port city of Aberdeen in the mid-19th century and to three of its citizens: the woodcarver John Grant; William Anderson, a rich merchant; and his headstrong daughter Elizabeth. The story begins with the discovery of the battered body of a young woman in the muck near the wharves where the Aberdeen fishermen bring in their catches. The body is painfully thin and is clothed in the rich garb of someone not normally found in that area. Grant is doubtful that the town’s constable – who is short-sighted, lacks intelligence, and has a nasty personality — will ever discover what happened to her, and decides to take on the task of finding her killer. At the same time, he accepts a commission to create a figurehead to feature onstage in the melodramas of a newly-arrived theatre group, a commission paid for by a demanding patron. The love that developed between John Grant and Helen Anderson in the previous book grows stronger and more evident in this one. Helen wishes to become an integral part of her father’s shipping business, an unheard-of thing in those times, and eventually her father acquiesces. This puts her in direct conflict with a merchant wishing to do business with her father — the patron who paid Grant’s commission and an insulting character. The story weaves in and out of Helen’s challenges in a male-dominated society, Grant’s investigations, and their love story. It proceeds at a leisurely pace, as befits the times, and is filled with historic details of the theater and actors, the city, and most especially Aberdeen’s busy port. The descriptions of waterfront and the wharves, the ships, and the workers there were compelling, and I read some of them twice for enjoyment. The author has captured the sights, the smells, the city and the societal norms in vivid detail. Helen as a character is quite unique to her age. I wonder if such women – running businesses and rejecting the restrictions of conventional courtship and marriage, especially the idea that a woman is the property of her husband –actually existed at that time. Certainly, her role is one that will appeal to feminists of all ages. I was particularly drawn to the description of her three-day journey on one of her father’s ships, designed to carry passengers to Canada. It gave further insight into Helen’s intelligence and the plight and strength of those immigrating to North America. John Grant is kind, thoughtful, intelligent, and certainly amenable to all of Elizabeth’s modern ideas. As a man of his time, I would have liked him to be more resistant. The only tension between them is just a misunderstanding. The mystery of the woman’s death is far more complex than at first view, and the twists and turns of Grant’s investigation left me puzzled to the very end. All in all, a successful meshing of historical romance and mystery, with rich detail of a bygone era, by an author who knows how to weave a good story. About the author: Bill Kirton was born in England but has lived in Aberdeen, Scotland, for most of his life. He was a university lecturer in French before taking early retirement to become a full-time writer. He’s won two 2011 Forward National Literature Awards. The Figurehead, the book that led up to The Likeness, was long-listed for the 2012 Rubery Book Awards. He’s produced material in many different media. His radio plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. His stage plays have been performed in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and the USA and he’s been the visiting artist to the Theatre Department of the University of Rhode Island on four separate occasions. Material from his Edinburgh Festival revues was broadcast on the BBC, ITV and French television. You can find Bill Kirton On twitter: @carver22 On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bill.kirton/ and at: http://www.billkirton.com/ You can find his books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bill-Kirton/e/B001KDNSLY 0 0
There are some super blogs in this new group – take a look! Charlie de Luca https://charliedelucablog.wordpress.com works in higher education but was brought up on stud farm and racing yard. He loves horses and racing but sadly grew too tall to be a jockey! He has written three racing mysteries, Rank Outsiders, The Gift Horse and Twelve in the Sixth and is working on a fourth. I know there are a lot of horse lovers and riders out there in the blogosphere, so check his blog and books out! Shreyasukrity at https://readnewweb.wordpress.com is a person who is positive about every aspect of her life. She likes to read, I like to write, to think, to dream. A well-trained dancer. A talkative one, and a good listener. In her blog posts she writes about the real world through creative writing, motivational stories, certain photograph, and short stories. I loved a recent post called My Success was Just Postponed. Mackenzie Flohr at https://mackenzieflohrblog.wordpress.com She is an award-winning author who posts author Interviews, book spotlights, writing advice, and book reviews and just landed a five book publishing agreement! Her own books are fantasy. Check her out! https://theflowersofart.wordpress.com is a blog rich with words – poetry, descriptions – and visuals. Magnificent free verse – this blog is for everyone, not just poets. Christianna Mony at https://christiannamony.com/ is by a lovely young lady who likes to travel, posts inspiration memes for every day life, and blogs about her own life and thoughts. She likes to fly! Julie Davide at https://juliedavide.wordpress.com/ is a married mother of a little boy and lives in a cabin in the woods of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I’m familiar with the area and its beautiful. She likes to read and together with input from her husband, reviews books. She loves reading and music –psychological thrillers and mysteries are her genre of choice. She also loves chocolate, wine, coffee and cheese – a woman after my own heart. Check her out! Top Ten Blogger at http://www.top-10-food.com/ is a foodie with recipes for food and drink, recommendations for restaurants and gadgets. I’m still salivating over the Yorkshire pudding, gumbo and pheasant recipes – all unique and wonderful. Check this one out! I think I have dinner for tonight… Chef Kevin Ashton at https://wannabetvchefblog.wordpress.com THIS is a blog for cooks. The first post I saw was how to find a ripe melon – what useful information! He posts recipes, advice, reviews, travelogues and news – he even has cheap and easy recipes for students, which is perfect for the busy woman with a limited income! Do check him out – you’ll have recipes for weeks! Emily Raper at https://authorscanvas.blog/, Author’s Canvas. Emily is an undergraduate student pursuing a bachelor’s degree Paralegal Studies and Technical and Professional Applied Writing. She created her blog as a project to practice various types of writing, publishing, and marketing. She posts short stories and advice such as 5 Ways To Organize Your Blogging Life, A Tribute To Arthur Conan Doyle, Outside Writing: “Dos and Don’ts Resumes and Job Applications-What I know now that I’m 30+. She writes really well! Delphi Resort at https://www.delphiadventureresort.com It is located in the scenically breath-taking Delphi Valley, near Leenane, Connemara, Co. Galway, Ireland. It does look fabulous and has all sorts of activities for travelers and tourists and families plus a 4 star restaurant. While we are saving our shekels for a trip to Ireland next year, I will put this on our list of possible places to stay. Jeannette and Dylan at https://ourbucketlisttravels.wordpress.com have a wonderful travel blog. Two of their recent posts are Floating Lanterns in Fiesole, Italy and Climb the Duomo in Florence. They also give advice on the best back packs and what to bring and how to pack. Perfect. Rum and Cakes at https://rashmilittleworld.wordpress.com is an upbeat blogger with a sunny view of life, who posts on random thoughts about life, general issues and love. Who doesn’t need some beautiful readings? Vinayak Gupta at https://soulspeaksbettersite.wordpress.com/ All the posts in his blog are real life events, real life situations, and real life lessons experienced by the author, who tries to explain his feelings of these special moments in his own words. https://historyofkingpanwars.wordpress.com is a very colorful blog about all things Indian: royal palaces, rajputana jewelry, weddings, all accompanied by videos and music. This blog takes you on a journey and out of your everyday life! Sandeep and Maya at https://artzinus.wordpress.com have a blog showcasing inner creativities, their passion for innovative and creative things because they believe that art is not all about beautiful oil paintings. Their blog is full of gorgeous sketches, stone painting and photography and is definitely worth a look! For the following, all I have are email addresses: avishprdavidexh@outlook.com acerojymoraleslkt@outlook.com urrutiazkdavidgu@outlook.com mascaraqueoyastridirr@outlook.com 0 0
To everyone who responded to my post: Help Me Choose My Cover Design – it’s done! I’ve been working with Kristin Designs, located on the west coast, and have a final of my cover, both front and back. Kristin submitted some options through 99 Designs, which I’ve now used for two covers. It’s a lot of fun and not outrageously expensive, and what I particularly like is that you get submissions from lots of different graphic designers and artists. Kristin did the cover for Death by Pumpkin. She gets my vision pretty darn well. I’m going to keep you in the dark just a wee while more, but will show you the new cover in a post next week. Stay tuned…. 0 0
This is a repost of something I wrote for my very first A-Z Challenge in 2013! It was on smells or odors and for P, I chose the warm and yeasty smell of prune doughnuts made by my grandmother. My grandmother, whom we called Memmere, came from Poland with her mother, arriving at Ellis Island in the 1890s, when she was about 5. She was the oldest of ten children and was not educated beyond second grade because her mother got tuberculosis and she became responsible for raising her siblings. Memmere married a French Canuck, as she liked to tell to me – my grandfather Peno, whose ancestors were French and came from Canada. Peno was a carpenter. There was a period of several years, when I was probably between the ages of 2 and 5, when my mother and I lived with Memmere and Peno. My father’s job selling insurance didn’t pay him enough to support us. Which brings me, at last, to the prune doughnuts. Memmere loved to cook, and one of the things she cooked often for us were pączki (pronounced pohnch’ kee), fried rounds of yeast dough filled with a variety of things – strawberry, apricot, raspberry, but most a traditional prune puree. She didn’t leave my mother her recipe but here is a good source: https://www.thespruce.com/polish-paczki-doughnuts-recipe-1136411 I remember sitting in the kitchen while Memmere dropped the doughnuts in hot oil, my grandfather at the kitchen table, singing to her in French. He was very romantic and frequently sang her love songs. They were married for well over 50 years. Maybe this is why I relate prune doughnuts and love songs. 0 0
Barb Taub is one of the funniest writers I am privileged to read. I invariably snort some coffee if I happen to be drinking it while reading one of her posts. Barb has a new book out Thursday, February 1st, and this time she’s written about something so many of us can relate to. And if you can’t, you will soon – living with children, parenting, and what happens after the kids leave home…and maybe the dog dies. Here is the blurb: Chapter 1. Once upon a time a California girl named Barb met her prince of a guy, He was tall, dark and handsome. (Actually he was a Republican. But he was definitely tall. Chapter 2. They fell in love and got married. He brought her to his castle in England and they lived happily ever after. THE END. Luckily, 35+ years of living happened between Chapters 1 and 2, giving Barb plenty of material for this collection (no particular chronological order) for her newspaper columns, articles, blog posts and that time she killed Mom. And that’s before Chapter 3 even starts. **** Here is an excerpt from Chapter 13, as a teaser: I went to a socially-impaired university. It was a time of revolution and experimentation with sex, drugs, music among kids: in other words, it was just like today. But the University of Chicago’s claim to “The Life of the Mind” reassured parents. Fathers of teenage daughters thought the mind was a lot safer place to live than where they remembered spending their college years, “The Life of the Party”. We had friends from other colleges who had social lives and arrest records, so we knew what we were missing. And it wasn’t as though we didn’t try. We’d stay up all night or even close out the college’s only bar, Jimmy’s, discussing the eternal questions. Is there a God? How do you get rid of roaches? Who’s got the $10 for the muggers on the way home? How can I make the world more fair? Why am I here? I was lucky. I didn’t get mugged (that often); the stitches didn’t scar (much); I did graduate (eventually). And, after all these years, I’ve answered all the questions: There is a God and She has a sense of humor. It’s the only possible explanation for Chicago politics and for two-year-olds. The only way to get rid of roaches is to move out. Or get a divorce. You still need $10 for the trip home because the child who has refused to eat for the whole trip will announce that she is going to die from hunger if you don’t stop at Chez Mac’s. I don’t care if it’s not fair: I’m the mother and I say so. I am here to embarrass and torture my children. Amateur parents may be concerned about this last requirement. How could you ever embarrass your children? Don’t worry. Not only will you discover just how much fun it is to mess with their little heads, but you won’t have to actually do a thing to achieve it. As soon as your child turns ten, there will be a few things about you which they will find embarrassing, such as your car, your appearance, your clothes, your habit of speaking to them in public, your very existence… **** I personally have read a couple of her Null City series books (great, great), but had a chance to review one of her others, also humorous: Do Not Wash Hands in Plates: Elephant Frenzy, Parathas, Temples. Palaces, Monkets and the Kindness of Indian Strangers. See https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/book-review-do-n…tes-by-barb-taub/ My smile muscles hurt by the time I finished it. Another blogging friend of mine, Sue Vincent, also has trouble with coffee and what Barb writes: “I have learned to put down the coffee and place breakable objects at a safe distance when a post from Barb Taub comes up. It is very hard to drink coffee and laugh at the same time without redecorating the desk…”—author Sue Vincent I should take her advice, but I’d rather wipe up the redecoration than have a coffee nasal lavage! **** About the author: In halcyon days BC (before children), Barb Taub wrote a humor column for several Midwest newspapers. With the arrival of Child #4, she veered toward the dark side (an HR career). Following a daring daytime escape to England, she’s lived in a medieval castle , a hobbit house, and a Scottish isle with her prince-of-a-guy and the World’s Most Spoiled Aussie Dog. Considering all her days are now Saturdays, Barb is amazed that this is her sixth book. I’ve preordered her book, and if you are in need of a smile, a chuckle or just an out loud guffaw, you should, too. You can find the book on Amazon and Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.com/Life-Begins-When-Kids-Leave-ebook/dp/B079428DNQ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Begins-When-Kids-Leave-ebook/dp/B079428DNQ and you can find Barb herself in lots of different places: Her blog: http://barbtaub.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NullCityNovel Twitter: @barbtaub Linked in: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/barbtaub And Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38102265-life-begins-when-the-kids-leave-home-and-the-dog-dies Good luck, Barb, on your newest outing! 0 0
It’s been a long, tough haul so far this winter. With Hubs laid up following his back surgery and a long recovery facing both of us, I’ve had to shoulder the load (literally) both inside and out. This past week, I’ve found time to work on my planned historical novel for the first time, but now must stop to inhale all the comments on the fourth Rhe Brewster mystery from my editors and begin the (hopefully) last serious rewrite. The cover is close to being finalized, but I need a new author picture – Hubs, aka Photo Op Pop – will do the honors. And I need to get the ISBN numbers…you all know the drill. We did have some lovely snow about a week ago. More inches than we’ve had in several years, and it was so wonderful to be out in it, enjoying the total silence except for the falling flakes. It all melted completely in about five days, with much warmer temps, bright sun and then rain. I found myself shoveling for the first day or so, though, and the shoulders and back are not what they used to be. Do any of you wish you had enjoyed your younger, thinner, more fit self at that time? I would love to go back for a day and experience it! Aging is something we seem to think will happen years later, and then suddenly it IS years later! Finding things to take the edge off the drudge work had been difficult. Your blog posts have helped and Garfield has kept me laughing. He now has more toys than my kids did when they were young. We also have a set of DVDs of the Brother Cadfael Mysteries, thanks to a close friend. I enjoyed them many years ago and seeing them again has been a treat. Derek Jacobi is such a good actor. Of course, I’ve read each and every one of the Ellis Peters books on which they are based! I’m back cooking full time again, and of course there are a few pounds that have crept onto my middle. No idea where they came from…maybe at night under the sheets? Anyway, the good thing is that spring comes early here in the South, so I might be able to get back in the pool as early as the end of March. I did last year and the swimming improved my outlook. What do you do to raise your spirits? Well, enough of the blahs. Counting down the days to March! 0 0
