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Nostalgic Music

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big band

Credit: Blubrry Podcast Community

I took a ride to my hometown, this past weekend, to re-deliver my mother to The Homestead where I grew up after she’d been out of state for several weeks, visiting one of my older sisters.

I took my husband’s vehicle, which has a year’s worth of satellite radio available, and since my iPod wasn’t working, I started to play with the dial and found one of my bittersweet loves: 1940’s music.

This is probably another area where I’m a bit strange, since continue reading…

On Coffee – and my latest book

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coffee framed“As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move…similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle.”

Honore de Balzac (1799-1859)

Oh, how I wish the last sentence of this was true for me. Well, it is some of the times, but not always. Usually, I pour myself a nice cup – like the picture above (I just got that cup this year, when visiting farther north, because of the moose on it…more on that in a minute). I bring it over to my desk. Sometimes, I take a sip, but often I’m waiting for it to cool a little. And then, if I’m writing, like I was this morning, I get so engrossed in what I’m doing that I forget all about the coffee and by the time I look up, it’s stone cold.

So, I guess in that way, de Balzac’s statement is true: I just don’t need the coffee actually in my stomach to make it happen. 🙂

So, I decided to purchase that moose cup because I liked it – and I use visual focal points as inspiration when I’m writing. Coffee cups hold a special place in my heart: when I was working toward publication the first time, way back in the 1990’s when traditional publishing houses were the only way to go, I had a coffee cup of the NYC skyline. I looked at it to set my goal and continually remind myself that I was honing my craft toward signing a contract with a major player in the industry. I did and ended up writing seven books with HarperCollins/Avon. But the publishing landscape has changed and broadened, thankfully, and now there are other wonderful opportunities as well.

But back to this cup;  it plays off the title of my upcoming general fiction/women’s fiction novel Moose Tracks on the Road to Heaven. I’ve just added a book description for it to my page of Contemporary books. You can read by clicking on the title above or the link here.  I’m still working on the release schedule, cover, etc. – but the manuscript is finished, being edited, and should be released into the world by next spring. Exciting times for me as a writer, as I haven’t had a brand new book out since 2007 (BTW, the three historical romance novels out there under the name “Mary McCall” are not by me but by a different writer altogether).

My new book is a complete departure from the medieval historical romance I wrote previously and it’s very personal, as it’s inspired by my own background and some personal events and people. There are still more historical novels in me, I’m sure, and I will likely be adding to my title list in both genres…but for now, I’m going to celebrate this book, which was more than five years in the writing! 🙂

The Difference A Day Makes

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Sunshine outside my window this morning

Yesterday I posted about Rainy Days. Today, the landscape is entirely different, as you can see from the picture above, taken from the same vantage point as yesterday’s photo. The trees, decked in all their autumnal glory, seem almost to glow in the sunlight today, backed by robin egg skies and puffy white clouds.

But the change isn’t only in the outside world.

Today, my spirits are lighter. I’m making a concerted effort to focus on the positive around me and inside me, and to take baby steps toward keeping that balance I spoke of before. I, like many busy people who work full time at fulfilling but demanding careers (in my case two separate careers: teaching and writing), while also trying to be good spouses, parents, children, siblings, and friends, have times of feeling overwhelmed and unable to climb from beneath the pile of responsibilities, pressures, and even sadness or sense of helplessness. Lately, I seem to be having too many of those times.

But just as the world outside my window changes, so can I. Not much around us is truly in our control, but that much is.

My dear late father used to tell all us girls that, while we couldn’t control what happened to or around us, we could control our reaction to it. And therein lies a wealth of wisdom. In the years since his passing, I’ve found myself shifting away from remembering that like I should. I continue to miss his common-sense support, his unconditional love, and his wisdom-filled reminders. Sometimes I let the cares and worries overwhelm my days.

Today is a new day. Each day is a new day: a fresh page to fill with the writings of our own stories. Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery captured the essence of this wonderfully when she said, “Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”

I’ve had a version of that quote posted on the wall of my classroom for 26 years. It is nice. And I’m going to try to remember that whether the rain comes down in torrents, the ice and snow blow and bluster, or the sun shines down…life – and each day in it – is what we decide to make of it. 🙂

Rainy Day

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Misty rain outside my window this morning

“The rain to the wind said,
‘You push and I’ll pelt.’
They so smote the garden bed
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged–though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.

                                                        ~Robert Frost

While poetry is not my usual choice of writing form (I tend to write too “long” to craft any good poems, LOL), I enjoy reading it…especially poems that evoke images, both sensory and emotional. Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets because he combines that with another of my great loves: Nature.

This poem seemed fitting to me today. I, too, know how the flowers felt, and yet there is something beautiful in that.

Without the more violent “pushing and pelting” in life, we would never fully appreciate our moments of sun-dappled peace.

Without the bitter we would never taste the sweet.

Ruby Port Wine

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Glass of port wine in a 1950’s glass, backed by a 19th century “carved lion-head” writing desk, passed down to me from my German Grandma, Mary Sinderman Reed

Even the name “Ruby Port Wine” makes me happy.

This one is from the oldest winery in America, Brotherhood Winery, established in 1839; ruby port wine is rich, jewel-toned, and sweet on the tongue (the words and wine, both).

Sometimes a nice glass of it is the only civilized way to end the day…

From The Mist in the Mirror, by Susan Hill: “The day’s newspapers and some journals were set out upon the desk, some decanters of sherry and port stood on a table. I unpacked, bathed and, comfortable in robe and slippers, warmed myself with a glass, beside the fire.”

Such a soothing image and one of the elements I like best about Susan Hill’s writing…the comforting imagery and “hominess” (heightened by the fact that this small excerpt is taken from a ghost story) 🙂

Wishing everyone a pleasant evening!

Shades of the USSR Night Train

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Waiting for a night train in Upstate NY

I live in a pretty suburban area (well, it’s a small city, surrounded by rural areas). We drive everywhere in cars, and the nearest (tiny) train station is about 20 minutes away.

Hence, it’s been a couple years since I’ve been on a train…and much longer since I took one at night. In fact the last time I rode a train at night was when I was 21 and an American student, living and studying in the former USSR.

Just this past weekend, I found it necessary to take a train at night again (long story involving some other travel and a death in the family, necessitating my attendance at the wake in another city). It was only an hour long train ride, from point A to point B, but waiting in the old station  – pretty much every train station in Upstate New York is “old” – and then standing at trackside, for the train to come in, brought to mind that other time and place from two and a half decades earlier.

I got used to riding the night train during the months I lived in the Soviet Union. It was the most common form of travel in and around the cities (primarily Leningrad and Moscow for me), and my “free” time after classes, which I used to explore palaces, museums, and the countryside around, usually brought me back into the home station during darker hours.

But I always felt and was “safe” because there was virtually no crime on public transportation or on the streets at that time (the citizens were too fearful to step out of line, and there were soldiers with big guns wandering all over the place)…but the atmosphere was oppressive to say the least.

My latest night train experience, I’m happy to say, was a little different (and the seats were more comfortable too). 🙂

The Persistence of Love

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Artwork from Teresa Medeiros’s Charming the Prince

My Lief is Faren in Londe                                 

 My lief is faren in londe                         (My love has gone away)

 Allas, why is she so

And I am so sore bonde                        (strictly bound)

I may nat come her to

She hath myn herte in holde                 (she has possession of my heart)

Wherever she ride or go

With trewe love a thousand fold.

                                                               ~Anonymous, 14th century

So, here is my thought for the night: Society, fashions, expectations, hobbies, habits, food preferences, occupations, geography, social statuses, and even life expectancies change from age to age, but love, is love, is love…has been since human beings uttered the first love poem or song, and will be beyond the future we can see. This is in part, at least, why I enjoy writing – and reading – medieval romances, and why they’ve never seemed “too long ago” or “too strange and far removed” for my sensibilities as they are for some.

Love, with all of its sweet tension, its yearning, its agony and its glory, is always new and intoxicating for those who first taste of it, though centuries may come and go.

Now, isn’t that a beautiful thought? 🙂

Vintage Cookbooks

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cookbook frontI love cookbooks. I must have upwards of 50 of them, tucked in my “cookbook cupboard” or lined on my little “cookbook shelf” under the slot in the kitchen cabinetry where the microwave oven is.

I collect them and enjoy trying recipes from them.

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Women’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery cookbook set

But my all-time favorite is a set my parents gave me about 15 years ago.

It’s the same exact set my mother often used when I was growing up (and my mother, I have to say, is a consummate cook…she can do fancy and five-course, or simple and filling. We had the simple and filling most often when I was growing up because, well, there were nine of us to feed every day, and only one salary).

 

 

As a kid, I loved this set, not only because its publication year was the one in which I was born, but also because it came in encyclopedia form, and I was the kind of kid who read everything. These books are stuffed full of interesting history and information about the various ingredients, foods, and the cultures that inspired them. Plus, the title has Cookery in it. I love that word in and of itself. cookbook closeup

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Luscious pictures of cakes from the “chocolate” section

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Awesome 1960’s illustration from the same “chocolate” section

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and it’s got pictures and illustrations, too, all delightfully vintage. Which means, I guess, that I’m vintage too, since the books are as old as me. 🙂

 

 

I really enjoy looking up recipes (there’s an awesome homemade custard recipe, pies, breads, holiday foods…and of course recipes from just about every culture in the world that you can imagine, since it’s an encyclopedia of cooking).

 

 

corn chowder

Today, I looked in Volume 3 to find a quick recipe for corn chowder, since that’s what my kids really wanted for lunch (and I knew I had the ingredients – or some that were close enough – on hand). A few minor substitutions later (i.e. diced ham instead of salt pork, and regular milk instead of evaporated), and I had lunch ready for them.

Anyone else have a favorite cookbook – or set?

Some Spooky Reading

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It’s the right time of year for a little atmospheric reading material. I’m not much into gore, and “horror” movies are really hit and miss for me, since there is so much of that built into so many of them, so curling up with a good spooky book is more my cup of tea.

In the misty, chilly nights of October, my preferences lean toward novels that are suspenseful, eerie, know how to set the mood with imagery…and preferably feature a ghost (or at least the possibility of a ghost) in them.

Here are three novels that I can recommend. Well, only two, really, because I’m still reading the third. But the writing so far is good, and she’s the author of Book #2, so I’m going to predict it will be a good story as well.

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Classic psychological suspense/ghost story by Henry James

Book #1 – The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James

This has got to be one of the most masterfully written suspense/thriller/psychological studies I’ve read. It’s short – a novella, really. And it’s Victorian in setting and style, so be forewarned that there is a lot of description and long, complex sentences. The author also leaves it to the reader to decide whether there is a ghost or a case of paranoid delusion, brought on by the stifling Victorian societal pressures/a case of sexual hysteria, so if you despise a story that doesn’t leave everything neatly tied up in a bow, then this one may not be for you. There is also a pretty good and faithful-to-the-novella film version put out by PBS and starring Jodhi May, with a smaller role played by Colin Firth.

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The 1983 novel that spawned the 2012 movie with Daniel Radcliffe

Book #2 – The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill

Yes, this is the novel that inspired the recent film starring Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame. However, the novel uses a framing technique (beginning in the “present” for one of the characters and then shifting to the story itself) and ends quite differently from the film. There was also a play made from the story, along with several earlier screen versions. The British television version from 1989, while low budget, has plenty of atmosphere and chills, and I saw it before I read the novel or watched the more recent 2012 film.

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Another Susan Hill ghost story

Book #3 – The Mist in the Mirror, by Susan Hill

This is the one I’m reading now, and so far, so good. I don’t know much about it yet, except that I enjoy the author’s use of description to set the mood and tone. As a writer, I admire the development of atmosphere, along with character and plot, and Susan Hill seems to do this quite well. Stay tuned to hear more about this one….or if you’ve read it, feel free to tell me what you thought of it – or any of these texts – in the comments. If you have other recommendations that would be great too. 🙂  Happy reading!

A Little Cup of Happy…

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Vintage Maxwell House Coffee ad

I’m not sure why ads like these from the 1940’s and 1950’s make me feel happy.

I wasn’t even born until the later half of the ’60’s. My mother, who was in her 20’s during the 1950’s, tells me her memories of the defined gender roles, limitations in career and other options for women etc. – and I have no desire to live in that context, preferring the freedoms and opportunities available to American women in this decade.

But vintage pictures like this coffee ad still make me feel a little nostalgic. Maybe it’s the (likely false) idea of a simpler time. In memory it looks lovely and easier to navigate, but in reality it would probably be stifling. Still, the era – and everything that came after it – are all part of the fabric of who we are here and now…

I don’t have the same affinity for any other decade of the 20th century – not even my heyday decade of the ’80’s.

I guess I’ll just leave off my efforts to figure it out for now, and just enjoy the way it makes me feel…happy. 🙂