Thanksgiving Now and Then

So Thanksgiving dinner is over. It took a beautiful ride through Topanga Canyon to get to the beach and the restaurant that has become our regular spot. It is part of a chain that is connected to Hawaii, so the dishes have interesting touches like taro creamed spinach. The yams were flavored with pineapple and they offered something called poke which is a Hawaiian dish of marinated raw fish.

Since I’m a vegetarian, I didn’t eat the poke, but my family all raved about it. Of course there was the traditional turkey and I think roast beef. There was a wonderful selection of vegetables and side dishes that worked for me. They even had a vegetarian version of the stuffing.

We got there around 3 and stayed until almost 6. Our table was next to the window and I had a perfect view of the sunset, watching until the water had turned a dark blue and the sky had lost it last bits of pink.

It was very different from the Thanksgivings I had growing up in Chicago. While I was sitting there looking across the water to Catalina, I thought back to the first Thanksgiving my family had in a new apartment. We had moved just a block away because they were tearing down our old building in an urban renewal plan.

I loved the new apartment because it had a front balcony, a back porch and a little room off my bedroom that had a marble sink, which I have since learned is called a shaving closet.

Somehow my mother had managed to unpack all the boxes of books that lined the long hall and put them away and get the whole place settled for that first dinner. It snowed on that Thanksgiving, which seemed magical. The light reflected off the white and made the inside almost sparkle.

In those years I was in a children’s choir at the Unitarian Church. Every Thanksgiving there was a service at Rockefeller Chapel which is part of the University of Chicago. All the churches and synagogues in the neighborhood took part in it and sent their choirs. The day before there was always a big rehearsal and I remember walking home afterwards as it was getting dark.

My mother was too busy cooking to come to the service, but I loved being part of it. We wore bright red robes and marched in with the other choirs. There was such a good feeling that all these different beliefs got together to give thanks.

Then it was home with a stop. Everything was closed except for a small deli-grocery storey called Friedman’s. I remember seeing some U. of C. students ahead of me in line. They were buying egg nog and stuff to make spaghetti for their Thanksgiving dinner and seemed to be excited about having the non traditional meal.

At home, the apartment was warm and fragrant with cooking smells. My mother made everything from scratch. Thinking back I am amazed how much she got together for dinner. And since she worked, that meant she had to do it all the night before and the day of.

We always had company, though I don’t remember who came that year. At that time nobody thought about shopping. It was only years later when I worked at Marshall Fields during Christmas in the toy department did that Friday become a big deal to me. Nobody got that day off and it was the kickoff of the Christmas season.

That first Thanksgiving in our new apartment was also the last one when my whole family was together. By the next year my brother had gone off to college in Boston and it was too pricey for him to come home for the holiday.

Next week I’ll be going back to that apartment. I still love the front porch and the back porch and the shaving closet. I love that I can sit in the living room and it is as if the moments from the past have left some kind of imprint and I can see them replaying in my minds eye.

Revisions, bloody Revisions

This week is my monthly posting for Inkspot, the blog for authors of Midnight Ink.  The article is a reprint of a recent piece I wrote for the Sisters in Crime Guppies First Draft Newsletter.  In it, I share my process of writing (aka revising) from the first draft to the thirtieth!  Enjoy!

http://midnightwriters.blogspot.com/2015/11/revisions-bloody-revisions.html

Namaste

Tracy Weber

And if you want to show me some love, you can preorder my newest mystery, KARMA'S A KILLER, now at Amazon Barnes and Noble.
Yee haw, yippee, and yahooey!

Check out Tracy Weber’s author page for information about the Downward Dog Mysteries series.  A KILLER RETREAT and MURDER STRIKES A POSE are available at book sellers everywhere

Happy Thanksgiving

Yep, it's that time again.  Tomorrow is the big day. 

I mentioned last year that my Thanksgiving then would be a small event.  This year it's even smaller.  The neighbor who'd joined us last year has moved away, so this year it will just be my husband, younger son and I together on Thanksgiving.  Well, the dogs, too, but they don't sit at the table with us.  They stay on the floor and beg.  No human food for them, though, since both have health issues that mostly relegate them to doggy food and treats. 

But this Thanksgiving is a harbinger of things to come.  Lots of relatives will be with us soon, starting right around Christmas and continuing into January.  They include in-laws and our older son and his family--our d-i-l and two grandkids.  Plus, our d-i-l's delightful parents will be visiting for a short while, too!  It helps that we live in California while they all live in the Midwest.  No big El Nino presence here yet, but even if it arrives it's hopefully easier to live with than lots of cold and snow. 

So, there are lots of things to be thankful for tomorrow and beyond.  Meantime, I'm also thankful for a fun and fruitful writing year--three books published plus one e-published so far in 2015:  BITE THE BISCUIT, my first Barkery & Biscuits Mystery, CANADIAN WOLF, my seventh Alpha Force paranormal romance for Harlequin Nocturne, and KNOCK ON WOOD, my second Superstition Mystery, plus the Kindle version of ONCE A CAVALIER, a time travel romance. 

I'm working on my next book under deadline, a Harlequin Romantic Suspense, and will then head into the next Barkery book.  Next year is likely to be busy, too--another year to be thankful for. 

And you?  What are you up to this Thanksgiving?

Aunt Velva's Bean Salad

Aunt Velva’s Bean Salad

Two cans dark red kidney beans, drained & rinsed

Three hard-boiled eggs, peeled & chopped coarsely

Half a sweet onion, peeled & chopped

At least three sweet pickles, chopped

  Mix these ingredients gently in a large bowl

Dressing:

One quarter cup cider vinegar

One half cup sugar

One cup sour cream

  Mix the dressing well, pour over bean mixture, stir

This is especially good if prepared the day before and left to marinate in the refrigerator overnight.  If expecting a large crowd, use three cans of kidney beans.  To make it fancy, reserve one of the eggs, then slice it and layer it over the top of the prepared salad.

Aunt Velva wasn’t really my aunt, she was my great-aunt Ina’s son Glen’s wife.  Which makes her, I think, my first cousin once removed, by marriage.  In any case, she was country folk, kind and funny, and I adored her all my life, and made sure to leave a pebble on her gravestone when I was “down home” for the reunion a couple of weeks ago.  She taught my mother, a newly-wed, how to make this salad and my mother taught it to me.  The salad is delectable, and a very excellent heritage.

I hope you all have great plans for Thanksgiving, and that the day proves spectacular.  We’re going to spend it with friends at their house.  I’m bringing the bean salad.  And I’m going to roast a turkey on Friday, because I think leftover turkey is about the best part of the feast.  I’m going to have it spatchcocked in the meat department of the grocery store where I bought it frozen last week.  Spatchcocking is the removal or splitting of the spine of a dressed bird and then spreading it out to roast breast side up.  You can find directions on how to spatchcock it on the Internet, but I wouldn’t try it for a hundred dollar bill.  A turkey will roast in about a third (or less) of the time an intact bird takes.  And it’s jucier.  But it looks weird, and it takes up a lot of room on a platter.

Also on Friday a friend and I are going to my church to set up the Fontanini Christmas Crèche – this Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent.  Actually, it’s not just the Creche – Mary, Joseph, the Babe, a few shepherds and the Three Kings – it’s Bethlehem.  The baker, the rug seller, street musicians, the Temple, the carpenter, the blacksmith, a little vineyard, a green grocer, a sheepfold with shepherds staring upwards at “a multitude of the heavenly host” hanging on fishline from a circular wire frame.  I’ve been collecting the pieces for many years and when we moved into an apartment there was no room to display them so I donated them to St. George’s, which loves them and asked me to set them out every year.   Funny, I was never much for dolls as a child, but I love telling myself stories as I arrange the people and buildings a little differently every Advent.  This year, like last year, I’m keeping a couple of figures aside and inviting the youngest Sunday School children to “help” me find places for them.  I hope when I get too frail to do this, someone will take over for me.

The Week Before Thanksgiving

It is hard to relate to the date here. Today the sky was pure blue and the temperature was in the 80s. The only hints that it was a week before Thanksgiving were the golden leaves on a tree next door and the the short hours of daylight.

I am busy plotting the next Crochet Mystery and hope to have the synopsis done by Monday. I just found out the cover copy meeting is already scheduled for December 9. I can't wait to start writing the actual book. Actually even as I'm working on the synopsis, I am already writing the beginning of the book in my head.

We have no seminars this week, so I was finally able to get back to the gym and go to my knit and crochet group. We used to meet in the classroom of an organization called H2U. We lost the use of it due to a string of events that reminds me of a line of dominoes falling. The nearby hospital which was somehow connected to H2U was doing some remodeling and they needed a place to give their nurses classes and took over the room we'd been using. We were offered the hospital cafeteria, but then it turned out they'd given the time to someone else. Then we were offered a couple of hours at a nursing home with no parking.

Our group of yarn crafters turned down the offer and we were left to try to find someplace to meet on our own. We finally found the almost deserted food court near the movie theaters in a shopping mall in transition. There is a group of canasta players that meets there, too. We have claimed a spot in the mezzanine above the food places. It is really all about the people, so the place doesn't much matter.

We will be spending Thanksgiving as we have for the past number of years at a restaurant at the beach. The food is always good and the view fantastic. Sometimes we see dolphins swimming by and always the sunset. I don't know if there will be a repeat of last year afterwards. My son talked me into going to the mall with him at midnight. It was all very surreal to be there so late and have it so full of people. If he asks, I'll go. I'm always up to do something offbeat.

I am very grateful to have a life rich with variety.

TILING TABLE TOPS: A SATISFYING HOBBY WITH PERMANENT RESULTS

Hi all!  Please help me welcome the talented Nancy West to Killer Hobbies today. Doesn't this table she made look FABULOUS?

Hobbies keep our creative juices primed while we rest our writer brains. I tile wrought-iron table tops because the results last forever.

To try it, pick a small table 2 or 3 feet square. Select tiles from Home Depot. Lowe's, tile shops (they have other materials you'll need), bathroom accessory shops or stores that carry artisan and imported tiles.
 

Tiles come in various shapes and sizes. For now, select tiles the same size in either 2,3, 4 or 6-inch squares. They must be the same thickness and should fit within the dimensions of your table top, allowing for 1/4-inch grout lines between tiles.
 

Supplies:

 

·         Grout, the adhesive between your table top and tiles. If your table is for outside use, use sanded grout. Buy a 5-10 pound sack or bucket of Polyblend grout, which has latex in it, in a basic color to compliment your tiles: antique white, gray, or terra cotta. Dark-colored grouts are messy and hard to clean. 

·         Two empty plastic buckets, with double the capacity of the amount of grout you purchased, for mixing dry grout with water.

·         Dust mask

·         Well-fitting rubber gloves

·         Garden trowel

·         Grout float

·         Flat metal spatula or several throw-a-way plastic ones

·         Metal comb for spreading grout on table surface

·         WellBond tile adhesive

·         Clean sponges

·         Green plastic package wrap for your fingers

·         Grout sealer

·         A stiff 1/4-inch brush

·         Throw-away plastic drop cloth to put under work area.

 

The project can be messy. It's best to work outside and wear old clothes. Set up the work space with your table in the center and tools nearby. Lay out your tiles on the table top to make sure your design fits, leaving room for grout, then lay them aside.

 

Note: To use your table outdoors, the top must be made of wrought iron, cement, or Hardibacker cut to fit. Hardibacker is 3/8-1/2-inch water-proof backer board found at home-improvement stores. Not all stores will cut it to fit. Check beforehand. Don't use plywood: even womanized plywood eventually warps under tiles, causing grout and tiles to crack.

 

To mix grout, put on your dust mask and pour 6 cups of dry grout into your empty bucket. Add 1 cup water. This mixture produces enough grout to tile a 20-inch round stone. You can double/triple the amounts, but keep the same proportions of dry grout to water.   

 

Use the garden trowel to stir the grout mixture as though you were mixing cookie dough.  The grout gets stiffer. Stir hard. You're trying to get it to the consistency of stiff peanut butter. Grout that is too wet will crack between tiles. Let the grout "set" for ten minutes and stir it again.    

 

Using your metal comb, spread the table surface with grout mixture 1/4- 3/8 inch thick. Spread horizontally, then vertically, making a criss-cross pattern. This gives you a sticky surface in which to press your tiles. When you've spread about half the table, "butter" the back of each tile with a thin layer of grout and press it into the grouted surface of your table. Continue adding grout to the surface, buttering tiles and positioning them until all are in place with about 1/4-inch space between them. Some grout will ooze into the spaces.

 

Use the grout float or spatula to press more grout down between tiles. Press hard and force it in. You can fool with the grout for an hour.

 

If a tile comes up later, you can butter the back with WellBond, position it, then grout around it with fresh grout. 

 

When tiles seem secure, and there's a level amount of grout between them, remove excess grout with your fingers. Wind package tape around your fingers to help you remove excess without getting your fingers sore.   

 

Wait 30 minutes. You've done the hard part.

 

Using a very wet sponge, rub grout off your tiles, avoiding grout lines. Your tiles shine like diamonds rising from coal. Where grout gets stuck on the tiles, scrape it off with the trowel. Brush left-over grout into the trash.

 

Take a deep breath. You did it! Allow the grout to "cure" for 48 hours.

 

Keep an extra water bucket nearby to soak and rinse your implements and gloves before grout dries on them. Remember not to get water on grout lines.

 

Protect the grout with sealer against dirt settling into it. After your 48-hour wait, brush Aqua Mix Penetrating Grout Sealer into grout lines. Try not to get sealer on the tiles: it makes them hazy. You can stick tape to either side of grout lines to protect tiles while applying sealer. If you do get sealer on the tiles, you can buy tile cleaner to remove it.

 

Store your unused grout in a dry place. It lasts a long time.

 

Your beautifully-tiled table will last forever!

When Nancy was writing her suspense novel, NINE DAYS TO EVIL, supporting character Aggie Mundeen popped up  and demanded that Nancy write a book about her. Or maybe a series.  FIT TO BE DEAD, #1 (starring Aggie) was Lefty Award Finalist for Best Humorous Mystery. DANG NEAR DEAD, #2 was named a “Must Read” by Southern Writers Magazine. In SMART, BUT DEAD, #3, Aggie learns genetic secrets of staying young and critical lessons about love and about staying alive.

Amazon:  http://tinyurl.com/Smart-But-Dead

B&N: http://tinyurl.com/BNSmart-But-Dead

iTunes:  http://tinyurl.com/iTunesSmart-But-Dead

 

Writing A Manuscript With No Dogs

I'm currently well ensconced in writing the next manuscript for which I'm under deadline.  It's a Harlequin Romantic Suspense novel in my miniseries about the Identity Division--an organization that provides non-witness protection for people in danger who can't provide the testimony or hard evidence needed to convict the bad guy who's threatening them, and that also sends someone in undercover to find that evidence.  The first in the series was COVERT ATTRACTION, and this one is CLANDESTINE ATTRACTION. 

I enjoy writing it--a lot--but I miss writing about dogs or other animals in this story!  The background and plot don't lend themselves to adding pets for any of the characters.  Oh, well. 

That's not the case with the other miniseries I write for Harlequin, my Alpha Force paranormal miniseries for Harlequin Nocturne, where I feature shapeshifters and their cover animals. And of course all of my mysteries feature pets, primarily dogs. 

Not writing about dogs doesn't mean I'm not thinking about them, especially since I'm always at the bark and call of my two Cavaliers!  In fact, Lexie is barking right now... time to go. 

And as I've always said here at Killer Hobbies: Pets aren't hobbies, they're family!  Even in books.

Cough-cough

Over the river and through the woods,

O how the wind does blow!

It stings the toes and bites the nose,

As over the snow we go.

It’s been raining for two days.  At this time of year, we often get snow, and if this were a more typical year, we’d be up to the windowsills in the cold fluffy stuff.

My cold has come back; did too much running around yesterday.  It was almost gone and I had a lot to do.  But I woke up early this morning feeling very ill  I’m glad I’m not immersed in writing a story, I couldn’t follow a plotline right now with a map and a flashlight.

That business of the ancestors is still with me.  In church on Sunday, when we prayed for the departed, I felt a tingle begin down in my ankles that ran up to my ears.  It was like a big chorus, gentle but persistent, asking for my attention.  So I prayed for all of them, may they rest in peace, amen.  I really ought to get to work on a plot involving ancestors and a Big Deadly Secret.  But I'll need a title about genealogy that has a needlework term in it.  And – see above – I’m in no condition to think of one.

I think I’ll take a big dose of cough medicine and go back to bed.

A Long Day

I feel like have computer and assorted other electronics, will travel. My son has meetings in our South Bay office and we are doing a seminar tonight. So packed up everything in my bag on wheels. I have my computer, Ipad, assorted cords, my card that gives me WiFi, two crochet projects, bookmarks for KNOT GUILTY,a book and layers of clothes.

I’m now situated in the Ebar Café at Nordstrom’s in the Del Amo Shopping Center. There is a plug for my cords, a table the right height for typing, coffee and a bagel (well, there was a bagel. It was very tasty).

I already made a stop at the Barnes & Noble in this shopping center and saw KNOT GUILTY in a bookstore for the first time. I’m always happy when it’s on the bestseller tower. I signed their stock. There is another Barnes & Noble near where we’re doing our seminar, so I’ll be making another stop.

Between now and then I’m planning to give a last look to the copy edit of SEAMS LIKE MURDER. It is nice to be able to take my work on the road. It is nice to be out in the world rather than shut in my usual work room.

The only trouble is that I am enjoying looking around at all the activity instead of focusing on my work. There is music playing and I find myself typing in time to it. And as people come into the café, I respond to the movement and look up.

As soon as I turn in the copy edit or SEAMS LIKE MURDER, I will be working on the next Crochet Mystery. It’s funny how what’s going on around me seeps into my writing. The property behind us used to have a small house that was almost invisible to us both because of the size and position of it. But a developer bought the property and not only raised the ground, but is building a 5000 square foot, two story monstrosity that looms over our yard like a big white box. Luckily, we have some redwood trees that block a lot of the view.

I started thinking about who might buy the house when it’s finished. Since Molly basically lives at my house and I started thinking about what might happen between her and who ever lives there. I think there is definitely going to be trouble and maybe a dead body. It’s kind of good feeling that I am going to get some value out of having that monster house behind us.

It always tickles me when I see the real thing that I based something in my books on. The house where the murder in HOOKED ON MURDER is down the street from me. I don’t know the people who live there, but I always laugh to myself when I see them pull out of their driveway, thinking they don’t know they live in the murder house.

I use real people, too. Or at least their physical appearance. There is a man I used to see all the time who had an odd hair line that to me looked like he was wearing a hat. He became Logan Belmont in one of my books. I haven’t seen the real man in years, but just saw him the other night in a restaurant. Logan is a real estate agent and I think he will be making an appearance in the next book, involved with selling the monster house that is behind Molly’s house. I wonder what Mr. Hat Hair would think if he knew.
I wonder what I’ll pick up from sitting in the Ebar. Maybe the guy behind the counter will end up in a book. He has a slight build, multi colored hair with a swirl in the front and a nose ring.

The seminar was a success. I checked everyone in and set up lots of appointments. I went to another Barnes & Noble and signed books. We stopped to eat at an all night coffee shop in Manhattan Beach. And now 15 hours after we left this morning, we’re home. After I post this, I’m going to send the copy edit of SEAMS LIKE MURDER hurling through cyberspace to arrive by its deadline. Then a nice cup of tea and sleep. And it’s off to indoor cycling in the morning.

The Fun of Collectibles

Please join me in welcoming Sally Carpenter to Killer Hobbies today!  A Monkees collection.  Sounds fabulous!

What makes a person want to build a collection? For me, I enjoy the chase of finding that  elusive item, having nice things to admire, and putting my hands on a song or book whenever I want.

I began collecting records in the mid-1970s, long before CDs or MP3. A friend gave me a “Sgt. Pepper’s” picture disc (the picture is embedded in the vinyl). As long as I had one record, I may as well collect the entire Beatles catalog, which eventually included some solo works and all of George Harrison. My college town had a great record store (now gone) that I frequented. To save costs I purchased used records, but never ones that were heavily scratched. But even new records were inexpensive, making a low-cost hobby.

My collection expanded to over 300 records including Dylan, Clapton, Donovan, British and American comedy, and other artists. I switched to CDs only because vinyl was no longer produced and the local record stores closed. By then I already had most of the music I wanted anyway.

A crate of records is heavy to pick up and the cardboard sleeves are developing that musty old paper smell. But all of my records are still playable and I still listen to them. Some of the used records have minor scratches and popping but overall the sound quality is good. I keep my albums in plastic sleeves and store them upright to help preserve them.

My next collecting binge started in the late 1990s when Nickelodeon reran “The Monkees” TV show and I got hooked. I collected records, books, bubblegum cards, fanzines and the complete video boxed set of the TV episodes.

This photo is from a previous home where I had set up my collectibles for viewing.

 

My special items: Original London cast album of Harry Nilsson’s musical “The Point” signed by both Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz who were in the show; a signed black-and-white poster of Peter Tork; Michael Nesmith’s autograph in his novel “The Long Sandy Hair of Neftoon Zamore”; a 14-inch Monkeemobile model in a psychedelic display box, and a set of “Rare Bears,” little plush teddy bears dressed in red Monkee shirts with hairstyles to represent each guy.

What do these collections have to do with mysteries? My first novel, “The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper,” is set at a Beatles fan convention, based on conventions I’ve attended. I used Beatle-ly clues to solve the murder.

“TBBC” one of three books in the Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol series. Sandy is a 38-year-old former teen idol making a comeback. He was inspired by The Monkees and the up-down-and-up careers of real teen idols.

Next year I’ll have a new Sandy mystery, “The Quirky Quiz Show Caper.” Sandy has to find a murderer to clear his brother’s name, appear on a fixed TV game show, help save his father’s orchestra from bankruptcy, and woo his girlfriend.

 

Sally Carpenter is native Hoosier now living in Moorpark, Calif.  She has a master’s degree in theater from Indiana State University. Her plays “Star Collector” and “Common Ground” were finalists in the American College Theater Festival One-Act Playwrighting Competition.  She also has a master’s degree in theology and a black belt in tae kwon do. She’s worked as an actress, college writing instructor, jail chaplain and tour guide/page for Paramount Pictures. She’s now employed at a community newspaper.

The Sandy Fairfax Teen Idol series: “The Baffled Beatlemaniac Caper” (2012 Eureka! Award finalist), “The Sinister Sitcom Caper” and “The Cunning Cruise Ship Caper.”

Short stories in anthologies: “Dark Nights at the Deluxe Drive-in” in “Last Exit to Murder” and “Faster Than a Speeding Bullet” in “Plan B: Omnibus.”

Blogs: http://sandyfairfaxauthor.com and monthly at ladiesofmystery.com and The Cozy Cat Chronicles. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles. Reach her at Facebook or scwriter@earthlink.net.

 

Travel, Physical Therapy and Mystery

First, let me start by saying I was traveling last week.  My husband and I went to visit our grandkids, then headed to New York for an annual event where we get to see some really great entertainment.  This year we saw Steve Martin and Martin Short doing standup comedy together and separately at lunchtime, and then were entertained by Alicia Keys in the afternoon.  Even better for me was that I got to spend some time with my Harlequin editor the day before. 

Now to the other thing on my mind: PT and mystery. 

I have a pinched nerve under my left shoulder.  It's improved significantly now, but initially it was painful.  I've gone to several doctors as well as a chiropractor, and I'm still attending physical therapy.   

One of its symptoms was the limitation of movement in the fingers in my left hand.  The physical therapist worked with my left side, including my shoulder and my arm, as well as providing exercises so I could work on the problems at home. She also gave me other exercises to improve the mobility in my left hand. 

While I was there the last time, she had me exercise those fingers by pinching edges into some putty, then pick up some pennies from a table and turn them over and over. 

Okay, I'm a mystery writer.  For my hand issue, I laughed when I was done with the exercise, saying it's a good thing she's honest (I hope) since she could potentially get some of my fingerprints from the putty.   

 

And then there were those pennies.  I write Superstition Mysteries and seed the floor at venues where I speak with some lucky heads-up pennies!  But turning them over and over, including heads down, seemed potentially unlucky to me. 

Yes, I told the therapist all this.  Perhaps she thinks me nuts.  But I'm heading there this afternoon, so we'll see.

By the way, the entertainment at the other lunch venues for the event I attended included Lady Gaga with Tony Bennett, and Michael Bublé.  I couldn't have gone wrong!

Mysterious Reunion

A coffin, sheat and grave’s my earthly store,

Tis all I want and kings can have no more.

                                   Epitaph

Had an extraordinary experience down home last week.  I felt a literally painful connection to the places we visited, old graveyards where seven generations of ancestors are buried, standing on the site of our house that burned down when I was five, driving past the courthouse in Marshall, the little town where I, my brother, and my sister started life.  I kept coming close to tears for almost no reason.  Happy tears, sometimes, others tears of sorrow or regret.  When we all gathered in a church hall for the last dinner Saturday evening, about thirty of us from eleven states, all descended from three sons and a daughter of the man who fought in the Civil War, and who himself was the grandson of a man who fought in the Revolutionary War, and who himself was the grandson of the original Pulver who came to America in 1709, there was a remarkable feeling of wholeness.  These people, most of them strangers to me and one another, were also family.  When I started for home on Sunday morning I felt a chain of something holding onto my shoulders, trailing back and back, to the graveyards, to the land, to the cousins who still live there, a feeling at once good and making me want to cry - confusing and awful and warm and like leaving a sanctuary.  I left there when I was five, for goodness sake, and knew nothing about the ancestors, so how could I feel so viscerally now as if I have roots driven deep back there?

You want to hear something almost as remarkable?  My sister and I stopped by a shabby little shop on the edge of town where a man with a ragged beard sells tombstones.  Outside on the grass was a large assortment of stones, and we both went directly to a big block of granite.  My sister confessed that she had already bought a block of four graves in a little graveyard.  We’re thinking of putting Dad and Mom on one side, me on another, my sister on the third, and my other sister and her husband on the fourth.  It seemed such a brilliant and obvious idea at that moment.  Dad and Mom are both gone – his ashes are already down there, Mom’s in an urn in my sister’s living room.  But none of the rest of us are ill and ready to die, and yet we talked about epitaphs and everything..  Like I said, it was an extraordinary experience.  It’s a nice, big, unusual stone, it’s been there awhile, and the man is anxious to get it sold, so the price isn’t as scary as other stones.  Want a shock?  Price tombstones.

In one cemetery we visited I heard a whole flock of blue jays screaming “thief-thief-thief” (my father told me that’s how their alarm call is translated, though he added that it’s often the jay who is stealing and is trying to blame someone else).  I’ve heard and seen crows “mobbing” an owl, but didn’t know jays do it, too.  I walked over toward the wooded area where they were yelling to see what it was about, and just as I reached the wire fence they shut up.  And I didn’t see a single bird.  Another cemetery was at the far end of a cow pasture and behind some trees, with no road leading to it, just a wide swathe of mowed grass.  Abraham Lincoln’s wife’s sister is buried there.  So are some great-great aunts and uncles of ours.  I don't know how my sister found out about it – have I mentioned she’s a passionate genealogist?  She’s in the DAR and is working on linking us to the Mayflower people.  Here she is with cousin Jeanette, cemetery in the background.

And yes, I’m thinking there’s a mystery to be written in all this, because when you go turning over rocks sooner or later you’ll find something ugly – though so far, we’re pretty clean.  We did come across a distant cousin who was arrested in 1853 and charged with “rescue.”  We’ve only got a fragment of a court report, but we think perhaps he helped a slave brought into the state escape, because in that year there was considerable action in that arena.  (Of course, it might be that he broke a pal out of jail.)  Bail was set at $500, which back then was a considerable sum.  I have no doubt my sister will get all the details.

Safe and Dry

When I wrote my blog last week, the roofers had been working above my head for two days and I was told they would finish on Friday. I looked forward to a peaceful weekend with no more banging, hammering and other assorted loud noises. Of course, it didn’t happen. When does work ever finish when they say it will. They were back on Saturday and they finished just before it was time for the Trick or Treaters to show up.

It seems like every year I end up handing out candy solo. And every year the number of kids seems to grow-- partly because one of our neighbors turns his front yard into something you’d expect at Universal Studios. I just saw it from the outside. There was the shopping cart meant for a giant (really that big) full of baby dolls, an ambulance, people running around in scary costumes and other scary things too numerous to mention.

This year because had a manuscript due on Thursday, I didn’t have three hours to hand out candy. The task fell to my husband. At eight o’clock, he’d had enough and turned off the porch light. Even so, over 300 kids came for candy.

I spent all of Saturday evening at my computer. Sunday there were no roofers. The funny part was I had a hard time adjusting to the quiet. The weather in Southern California has been hot and sunny all of October. So warm I completely forgot what month it was. But then out of nowhere, the weather abruptly changed. The temperature dropped and there was a forecast of rain. Instead of air conditioning, we needed heat.

It spritzed a little on Monday, but on Tuesday, a black cloud settled right over us and it poured. How amazing is that? Literally a couple of days after getting a new roof, we get the first winterish like storm. I was so used to all the leaks, I kept walking around the house waiting to hear that drip, drip, drip sound. I’m glad to say there were none.

Through all of this I kept working on my manuscript. I lost track of the days this week, and lost track of the hours in the day. I think I might have spent 12 hours at my computer on Wednesday, but at ten minutes to midnight, I hit send and GONE WITH THE WOOL went hurling through space to my editor’s desk.

I hadn’t even known that it was already up on Amazon until my friend Linda told me. My editor sent me an email saying she got my manuscript, and she sent me the book’s cover. No, they aren’t mind readers. I had turned in a synopsis so they knew the story line. I love this one, but then I love them all - they come up with the best covers.

I spent today trying to catch up on everything I couldn’t deal with while I was finishing the manuscript. There weren’t enough hours to do everything. But tomorrow it is right back to work on the copy edit of SEAMS LIKE MURDER, the tenth crochet mystery. I will have to overlap that with working on the synopsis for the eleventh crochet mystery. I already have worked out what’s going on with the main characters in it, but I hadn’t thought of the mystery yet. And then out of nowhere, the murder plot appeared.

We have seminars next week, so all my work connected with them starts. I pretty much work all the time. I surprised a client when I answered the business phone at 9:20 p.m. I’ve also surprised clients by answering the business line at 7:45 a.m. It helps that the business line is next to my computer.

I am also hoping to do something to let everyone know that KNOT GUILTY came out in paperback last Tuesday. At least I am never bored.

It's a Goodreads Contest!

Today's blog article will be short, sweet, and to the point.  I'm running a contest on Goodreads to give away three advanced, autographed copies of my most recent Downward Dog Mystery, Karma's a Killer. 

Enter to win at the link below, and good luck!

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/159348-karma-s-a-killer

I hope you read and love it!

 

Tracy Weber

Crosswords

I'm blogging today here at Killer Hobbies about one of my hobbies: crosswords.  Not cross words, although I sometimes feel like spouting nasty statements at some people.  No, crosswords, as in crossword puzzles. 

I've done crosswords for years and sometimes do variations of them, both online and in crossword books or magazines I buy.  I find it especially fun to do them online these days because, although I'm fairly skilled, there are still some that turn out to be too hard for me.  If I do them online, I can choose to have some of the defined words show up on the puzzle grid so I can work from there to finish the puzzle.  It's sort of the same as looking at the answers in the back of the book.  Cheating?  In a way, but educational, too.

 

 

 

 

I probably do crosswords too much online, and yet I find them a good way to move my mind away from a story when I'm at a spot where I need to determine exactly what happens next.  I don't concentrate completely on crosswords, so doing one gives my subconscious mind an opportunity to veer away for a short while and figure out what I'm looking for in my story. 

How about you?  Do you enjoy crosswords?

Magna cum Murder

Well, unsurprisingly, it was a great con.  The setting was beautiful in a “grand old manor” way – marble floors, mullioned windows, carved oak paneling on the walls.  The only problem was in the dining room most in use.  Apparently only one chef showed up, so the wait for a meal was enormously long.  I came late to the first breakfast and so didn’t really notice it the first morning, and a little late to the second (I went next door to church), and on walking in several people sitting at tables with nothing to eat on them said, “Don’t sit down, go somewhere else!” so I went across the street to Starbucks.

The panels were really interesting.  I especially liked the one that discussed the morality and ethics of murder mysteries.  How have values changed over the years?  What is the author’s responsibility to uphold values and/or express his/her own?

Ellen and I are in a holding pattern today – Monday.  My sister is flying in tomorrow and Ellen is flying home.  My sister and I will drive to Illinois for the start of a Pulver family reunion.  Will be interesting, might even be fun.

And now it’s Tuesday.  I found a laundromat but only took half the dirty clothes to it (I’m getting tired already!).  My sister’s plane lands at 1:40 and Ellen’s plane leaves at 4.  We’ll have a couple of hours for the three of us to talk, then Dolores and I will drive to Marshall, IL.

Ellen found the finished but flawed Peter Brichter ms (Die by the Sword) and copied it for me after reformatting it.  Also the unfinished one (Good Intentions).  I took a peek at the finished one, it’s not bad, so I may go back to work on it.  There was a stir of interest at Magna cum Murder when I mentioned them, so maybe . .

Here I am at Magna: