I’ve been de-cluttering lately. I’ve gotten rid of things I never used — like the Turkish coffee demitasse set with little gold plates & spoons (a gift) and clothes I haven’t worn in years. I managed to find a good home for two pairs of hardly worn Tango shoes and I know the earrings that are too big and brand new travel coffee mugs will finally give pleasure to someone. This is a good feeling. The books, on the other hand, have been giving me agita. Apparently, I have no simple keep/lose criteria for books and so I’ve been chipping
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Talking Animals
I will admit it right here — I talk to my cat. The day he says anything more than “meow” or “purrrrrrr” in response, I will get myself some help. But for now, I think I’m safe in the assumption that, although he communicates quiet well — scratch behind my ears, I’m lonely, I’m in pain, I want to sit on the newspaper, where’s the cat food, tickle me under the chin, etc. — he does not speak. His plaintive yowl when he was having digestive problems was VERY articulate, but it did not include any of the words a
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The Shadow Knows
The most benign objects and places take on mysterious new meanings in shadow. I’m sure there’s something in our deep, dark pre-history that sends a shiver through the reptilian vestige in our brains. Fables, fairy tales, myths and thousands of years of storytelling give names to the fears and help us form pictures in the fluctuating gradations of darkness. What lurks in the shadows? We all have an answer or we did when we were kids. Mystery (horror, suspense and speculative fiction) writers must hang onto this shadow language from childhood and cultivate the uncomfortable feelings that accompany shadows. I’m
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
Some of my characters are grammarians, but most of them are not. I don’t write fiction that is top-loaded with slang dialog or over-the-top New York-ese accents — with their accompanying eccentric sentence constructions. I do, however, try to reflect the way real people speak. This means misusing certain words and often leaving unfinished sentences. WHO and WHOM are floating in a foggy territory between people that believe proper grammar is important and the rest of the world. “Whom” — to whom, from whom, with whom — is almost completely absent from common conversation, and I know a more than
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Agatha Christie Day
On September 15, 1890 Agatha Christie was born. I don’t think I need to list her novels, short stories and plays. Everyone is familiar with one, two, three or dozens of her mysteries. My mom is, and always was, a mystery fan so I grew up with Patricia Wentworth, Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey and, most of all, Agatha Christie. Mom’s top authors were the Pantheon of British ladies of mystery. I remember reading “Death Comes as the End” when I was in elementary school. It was my first Christie and I’m pretty sure my obsession with
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Prescience, Dreams & Déjà Vu — All Over Again
The character telling the story in my novel-in-progress is recalling events that happened 15 years ago. Early in the novel she admits that some of her initial observations about the principal characters might be enhanced by what happened later in the story. She acknowledges the phenomenon of feeling prescient, of the common, self-deluding, itchy feeling that “we knew it all along.” I think it’s related to déjà vu and the vague memory, or false memory, telling you “I dreamt that last night.” It’s pretty much impossible to study déjà vu in a laboratory, but studies on memory and recognition have
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The Sunshine Award
Fellow blogger and author Jeri Walker-Bickett has given me with The Sunshine Blogger Award. I would like to thank her for this award, as all of us in the blogging world know how far a little recognition can go. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Jeri over the last couple of years and, having read her marvelous collection of short stories “Such is Life,” I can’t wait to read her novel-in-progress “Lost Girl Road.” The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The recipients are “Bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.”
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Enchanted Objects & Scary Things
From a distance, it looked like a dismembered hand. Well, not exactly. But the lone work glove abandoned on the sidewalk crept into my imagination on stealthy fingertips, reminding of me of too many horror stories from my childhood. There was one in particular about an artist who loses his dominant (drawing) hand in an accident and the hand comes back to haunt him, drawing evil cartoons and strangling various people. The hand goes on a killing spree and the man is helpless. In fiction there are all sorts of enchanted objects — some with scary, evil powers and others
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Happy Labor Day
It’s Labor Day! This summer has flown by on gigantic dragon-sized wings. I read a great deal; wrote quite a bit; traveled to some of my favorite destinations in Europe; saw some extraordinary theater (including John Lithgow as King Lear); enjoyed some inspiring art exhibits, in New York, Berlin & Amsterdam; danced at outdoor Milongas and spent some time on my roof just being. I didn’t manage to finish the novel-in-progress, put together a collection of short stories, do a complete clean out of the closet or launch a new business venture. Labor Day, for Monster followers outside the U.S.,
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