November Monthly Blog
November Monthly Blog
Halloween is over, over, over! Welcome to November and the holiday season! Last year our neighborhood was surprisingly without front yard decorations. We noted it and wondered at the collective hesitation to openly celebrate whatever holiday the season brought. Diana and I came up with several reasons for the reluctance to “do it up” as in past years, but none of our wild reasons were satisfactory. Since this is the very beginning of the season we don’t yet know how people will want to share. The general mood doesn’t feel joyous yet. I hope that changes. I enjoy the sense of carefree joy the houselights show.
Barnaby’s dog walker came back from Italy this week. His comedic horror movie premiered in Torino. He said that it got splendid reviews. We’re proud of him. I had to look up Torino to see where it is in Italy. It’s on the western side of Italy and basically on the French border. Oh my, how exquisite that area is. At any rate, when Aaron, the dog walker, walked in Barnaby had an emotional breakdown and jumped up so high it looked like he was flying. He accompanied his show of love with high pitched wailing cries. Barnaby is not shy about sharing his emotions.
Barnaby in his Halloween regalia!
On another note entirely, this is the Sisters in Crime November Write In Marathon time. I’ve promised myself to write g’zillion words during the month so that I can finish my first draft of Spell Death: A Three Teachers’ Mystery. Obviously, g’zillion is too high a number to even imagine, but I’ve been stuck on chapter 11 for so long that I’m truly in a state of despair over it. I’ve brought the latest iteration to my Critique Group and got a whole page of criticisms and suggestions. Oh alas, alack! I insist on fixing it so that I will feel comfortably able to move onto chapter 12. I know some writers work on chapters out of order, but I simply can’t. I’ve tried. I like the feeling of flowing with my characters, almost as if I’m a fly on the wall of the whole story. I’ve got a sort of outline; it’s in the form of “lucky labels” with a title or phrase on each. That way I know where I’m going. I might redo it, however. It visually looks too jumbled for me and that may be why chapter 11 has been such a bear. Well, here’s to the Marathon and g’zillion words!!
My visual and peculiar story outline!
I’ve been looking at portable electric wheelchairs for me. I think that I’d get to go out more if the chair is lighter in weight and easier to put in the trunk of a car. I have a really heavy one that has to rest on a blanket to pull into the trunk of Diana’s car and then push it to get it into a good resting position. It’s very, very comfortable, but so, so heavy. Anyway, the portables seem to go from 29 pounds to 40 pounds. The 29 pound one that I’ve seen looks ok to me and is on a “Halloween sale” but it’s a bit suspicious that it would be half price. I think I’ll ask Chat to compare the chairs so that I’ll have a better idea of the different makes.
I don’t often go to Chat GPT, but I do have a friend who has a subscription to it and calls hers George. She’s changed the voice to make it sound British as well as instructing it to say “you’re welcome” and “thank you” to her. I have not used mine that much that I want to name it. However, I rather fancy an exotic or romantic sounding name. What would you name your AI companion? It’s truly a whole new world than when I was a youngster. Speaking of changes…
Do any of you remember the Dick Tracy comics? He talked into his watch to be in contact with his police department. Everyone thought that was such a novelty and you could buy fake imitation Dick Tracy watches for little kids to play. Dick Tracy appeared each day in the newspaper, generally along with Li’l Abner. Li’l Abner was the funny comic strip and had Daisy Mae as the female love interest. There aren’t the same kind of comics anymore today and so many of us get the newspaper online so that it’s not quite as much fun as opening the newspaper to the back to pour over the comic strips. Before I could read the comics my father read them to me at breakfast. I was lucky. It caused me to want to read.This brings me to the book reviews for the month! Enjoy November!!!
Karin’s Book Reviews
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz is my new favorite mystery. The author actually is part of the mystery which causes the reader to travel on the author’s journey as he writes the novel. It’s a clever writing device which makes the reader have to think about crime versus detective. Which is more important? Then one thinks, perhaps the plot itself is more important. Nope, one tends to go back to the crime. Isn’t that how we’re all brought up--crime is bad thus it must be solved. But what about the detectives? What’s his story one asks. It’s a puzzle. The actual story that brings the detective and author together is that a woman goes into a mortuary and asks to speak with someone about planning her own funeral. Six hours later, she’s dead. Did she know that she was going to die that day? What happened to her cat? And, of course, who killed her and why? It’s all quite a conundrum for both the detective and the writer. I loved it.
Great books!
I also enjoyed Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia. It had originally been serialized in the Saturday Evening Post here in the United States with an abridged version serialized in Women’s Pictorial in the UK. The story takes place on an archeological dig in what is now Iraq. It’s a Hercule Poirot detective novel. The plot hinges on the identity of some of the main characters. Louise Leidner is a beautiful American woman who is married to an archaeologist, Dr. Eric Leidner of Sweden. There’s a monk, Father Lavigny on the dig, as well as a couple, Mr. and Mrs. Mercado, Bill Coleman, David Emmott, Carl Reiter, Ann Johnson, and several Iraqi helpers. There’s a doctor Reilly and a daughter, Sheila who live in the town nearby the dig. Each of the characters has a back story and all are connected in some way. The story is narrated by still another character who is a nurse. Of course Mrs. Leidner is murdered and there’s a closed room element to the murder. It’s quite good and hard to guess the culprit.
I’m in the middle of reading Richard Osman’s newest publication, The Impossible Fortune, another of his Thursday Murder Club books.His books always make me feel as if my age is no impediment, instead it’s a number. The four friends are in over their heads, but trying hard to work through their suspicions about Nick and his friend. Elizabeth is energized by the puzzle much to the relief of the other three friends. She had been shaken by her husband’s death during the past year and Joyce had despaired that Elizabeth was heading for a deep depression. The novel opens with Joyce reflecting about her daughter’s upcoming wedding and all of the things that she, Joyce, had said wrong that caused the beginnings of little spats. Weddings have a way of doing that between mothers and daughters. It doesn’t take long for Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim to be in the middle of Nick’s issues. What a ride and a hoot!
Fun books to read…
I’m also reading Lady Rampole Spies a Clue by Shea Maccleod. This is one of those ever so light mysteries that take place in the 1930’s, have a house party during the summer in the English countryside, spies, and beautifully dressed and coiffed women and men. It reminds me of Miss Fisher books, but it’s only 205 pages long. It’s good for a couple of hours reading on a Sunday while the pie is baking or the laundry is going, or someone’s watching the game and is totally absorbed in it. I pick it up while I’m waiting for Barnaby to get back from his short walk with Aaron, the screenplay writer and dog walker.
Enjoy your reading!! See you on the 23rd for our next meeting on Zoom. We’re reading The Examiner by Joyce Hallett. It’s quite clever. Let me know if you guessed the culprit before the reveal.