The winner of the Father Hugh of Paddington adventure collection is Sosarahsew from Illinois. I have sent her two booklets, Father Hugh Investigates and The Ordeal of Father Hugh, each with two stories in it. She may notice when she gets them that two of the stories begin almost exactly the same way. That’s because one of them was rejected when I tried to sell it so when I wrote another I used the same beginning because I liked it. It sold.
I have noticed before that I will use a turn of phrase more than once, often unconsciously. That sort of feeds into my theory of invisible antennae writers are born with, so they can tune into stories circling the earth in an invisible Van Allen belt. (Anyone else remember the Van Allen belt that was discovered a little before we ventured into space? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Allen_radiation_belt) That’s why now and again I will write something into a story and exclaim, amazed, “I didn’t know that!”
We had a very violent thunderstorm Monday afternoon. The wind was making the trees thrash and the rain came down in buckets, a real old-fashioned frog strangler, as the country folk used to say. Maybe they still do, I haven’t been to visit my cousins down in east central Illinois in a long while. One of our cats went into hiding and the other came to sit near me, ears twitching nervously. It’s been very hot and humid around here and I have been grateful that both our apartment and our cars have air conditioning. But I’m trying not to complain; in four or five months there will be bitter cold to complain about – the consequence of living inland, well away from the moderating effect of an ocean. Things balance out. It’s been a wild summer, which I hope doesn’t portend a wild winter. But I confess I’m looking forward to autumn.
A friend of mine from Mexico City is going to visit us up here this autumn; I have written so passionately about the brilliant colors the leaves turn that she wants to see them for herself. I’m not sure how we’ll arrange the visit so she sees the colors at their peak; very often that “peak” is just a few days long, and it arrives on different weekends in different years. I guess she’ll just have to pack a bag and leave it by the door to grab as she hastens to the airport when she gets my call.
I know a great many of you find autumn your favorite season. What do you like best about it?
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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6 comments:
Those crisp October days when the air is finally not humid, and the sky is impossibly blue behind multicolored leaves. I have a memory of an afternoon exactly like that my freshman year of college, walking across the beautiful Indiana University campus. One of my favorite mental snapshots.
Fall brings the crisp cool air at night, and Halloween, my favorite holiday. Also it brings the state and county fairs which are enjoyable to go to for a day trip.
I used to love autumn best of all the seasons as I was growing up, Monica, because I lived in Pittsburgh and fall meant that the weather became cool and beautiful and the leaves changed color. In Los Angeles, there's really no autumn but I enjoy visiting other parts of the country to experience the fall again.
Linda, I lived in San Francisco Bay area for about three years and have found my memories of specific events hard to place in time because there was not much of a change between seasons. (But I loved San Francisco!) (But I love seasonal changes, too!)
Hearing about your storm makes me glad I flew out of Minneapolis on Sunday.
I'm glad I'm not leaving Chicago until tomorrow as they're predicting a storm similar to yours later this afternoon into this evening.
Thanks again for choosing me to receive your Father Hugh stories. I'm looking forward to reading them! Sarah
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