Who are We?

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Who are We?

Nothing was more tedious for me as a student than the requirement to memorize dates and events of the past. What’s so important about the past, anyway? As an avid reader of science fiction, I was much more interested in the future.

No one has been more surprised than I, here in the latter part of my life, that I have written two history books.

Events of the past, I have decided, are important, but they are the surface of history. Depth of understanding what happened comes with examining the people of the time, the decisions they made, the actions they took or didn’t take, and the situations/beliefs that formed them.

Events are sterile. We are hard wired to care about people.

The people of our past are stories that we can identify with and connect to even across time. We need to understand what made them who they were. Hearing their experiences, their wisdom, and even their mistakes teach us what is important and possible.

Women’s stories are particularly valuable because women seem to slide through the cracks of history. A circle of women in Birmingham’s 1960s braved their fears and the intense pressures of society to break through racial barriers and effect real change. They were not the power players in their world. It was (and to some extent, still is) a man’s world. Learning how they created leadership roles inspired me. Today, women are again being constrained. It is especially important that young girls, struggling to understand who they are and who they could be, hear these stories.

Both of my history books are about civil rights days in Birmingham, Alabama. Writing and researching them has changed me in profound ways I can’t articulate yet.



But it has become too clear that I am living days that will be studied by future historians. Already, many books have been written. But the historical events and the people influencing them are still in play. And we have no idea what will happen.

Too many people have not heeded the warning that ignoring history dooms us to repeat it. That we are repeating it seems very clear.

The past is echoing.

Loudly.

Heartbreakingly.

Right now.

Deciding who we are in this moment is difficult because things are (as usual) complicated.

But we will be called on to decide anyway. This moment is tenuous (or exploding if you live in Ukraine or the Middle East), but even here in the US, the place that is supposed to be safe and a refuge for all, we must decide who we are and who the terrorists are.

Our president recently said, “You can’t give up what makes you who you are. If you give that up, then the terrorists win. And we can never let them win.” –

So, who are you? Who are we?

Writing Workshops for Chicanx by Juliana Aragón Fatula

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Dear Reader,

This month I’m zoom zoom zooming online with Palabras del Pueblo sponsored by Somos en Escrito and am enjoying the experience. It spans two weekends and one weeknight with a panel.

I’ve learned how to avoid signing up for every workshop I am emailed or Facebooked about. I’ve had some terrible Zoom writing workshops and some great ones. This workshop has been educational, and emotional, and it evoked something inside me, the desire to tell my story. There are so many stories inside me I hardly know where to start. At the beginning, stupid! So I’m beginning today. A new path that I’ve never been on before. A path to the truth.

This sounds so dramatic, but honestly, I’ve had a revelation. I need to get busy and write those stories dying to be told because I’m not getting younger. I turned sixty-six this year and lost another tooth, had to buy stronger reading glasses, and need a hearing aid desperately! What did you say? I hear words but not the right words.

I’m sitting in my Love Shack, my office on wheels, taking notes and listening to the icon, Luis J. Rodriguez. If you’ve never read one of his many novels, shame on you. You’re missing a wonderful opportunity to hear from a man who is a legend. I felt impressed after meeting him on Zoom. He’s real. A path to the truth. He encouraged me with just one sentence and I knew he meant what he said because he’s genuine.

He wrote a book that changed the lives of many Chicanos. Always Running. Check it out if you are brave and ready for the truth. He points out that he never graduated from college. He comes from the streets in East L.A. and he’s seen lives destroyed and lives saved.

There are a total of 15 participants in the workshop and they are fascinating. They tell their stories to total strangers and open up about the darkest and brightest times of their lives. It feels like group therapy but also like some vatos and vatas got together, had tea, and chatted and chilled. It felt easy.

The assignment for next weekend was not easy but we had the choice to do the work or read something we’ve written. One page.  After 15 participants read their work, their one page, we will have another writing prompt and we will not judge each other’s writing. This sounds cool to me. I’m not interested in everyone’s opinion of my writing but anxious for Luis J. Rodriguez’s feedback.

Tonight we have a Zoom scheduled to hear from publishers from Chicanx Presses. I’m looking forward to hearing from the panel on what they are looking for in their writers. I have a goal to be published by a Chicanx Press. I’ve published poems and essays in anthologies but never with a specific publisher who shares my heritage.

Wish me luck. I’m off to Zoom and will have more to report next month. Remember to be kind to one another.

Juliana Aragón Fatula, a 2022 Corn Mother, women who have earned accolades for community activism and creative endeavors is the author of Crazy Chicana in Catholic City, Red Canyon Falling on Churches, winner of the High Plains Book Award for Poetry 2016, and a chapbook: The Road I Ride Bleeds, and a member of Colorado Alliance of Latino Mentors and Authors, and Macondo, “a community of accomplished writers…whose bonds reflect the care and generosity of its membership.” She mentors for Bridging Borders, a Teen Leadership Program for girls. No justice no peace.

 

 

Stop! You’re Hurting My Eyes!

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By Lois Winston

One day when my oldest son was two years old, I was singing to him in the car when he covered his ears with his hands and cried, “Stop singing, Mommy. You’re hurting my ears.”

It turns out he was born with perfect pitch, while I was saddled with two tin ears. Ever since I failed to make the cut when I auditioned for the elementary school talent show, I’ve known my singing leaves quite a lot to be desired. I’m no Taylor Swift or Beyonce. Never was and never will be. I wouldn’t even qualify as a backup singer for a third-rate tribute band. However, I never realized until that moment just how off-key I was.

Lately, I’ve felt the urge to rant at car manufacturers for hurting my eyes the way my singing had hurt my son’s ears. Have you noticed the garish colors of so many new cars? Some are the equivalent of chalk on a blackboard, shrieking and shrill, while others can only be described as homages to the scatological. What were they thinking? We’re living in a world that bombards us 24/7, causing us to yearn for anything soothing, whether it’s soft clothing, comfort foods, or escapist fiction.

The psychology of color is big business. Color experts get paid big bucks to determine which colors should be used in everything from clothing to home décor to appliances to automobiles. If you’re old enough to remember the sixties (or have a penchant for anything mid-century modern), you know that harvest gold and avocado green were the two colors that reigned supreme back then. Do you think it was a coincidence that your mother’s appliances matched your father’s station wagon? Those color choices were dictated by people deemed authorities in the field.

Has psychology done an about-face? If the screaming oranges, greens, and yellows aren’t bad enough, the other group is awful in another way. I really don’t want to drive around in a vehicle that reminds me of the last time I changed a diaper or hovered over the porcelain throne with stomach flu.

I wish some knowledgeable person would tell me what in the world were these so-called experts thinking. I’m flummoxed.

How about you? What do you think about the colors of automobiles you see on the roads lately? Post a comment for a chance to win a promo code for a free download of the audiobook version of Drop Dead Ornaments, the seventh Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery.

 

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Learn more about Lois and her books at her website www.loiswinston.com where you can also sign up for her newsletter and follow her on various social media sites.

I Am A Published Author by Dru Ann Love

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This is a short post while I recover from my recent surgery. It’s hard to sit at a desk when you can’t bend your knee or if you do “ouch.”

Read more

Judy L. Murray’s award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series

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It’s my day to blog, and as I’m all tied up, I would like to welcome my special guest Judy L. Murray this month. Judy writes the award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series, and may I say, having met Judy and read her fabulous books, I think I detect an uncanny resemblance between this author and her heroine, Helen Morrisey! Her latest book in the series has just launched. Peril in the Pool House, welcome Judy…  Joyce Woollcott

Author Judy. L. Murray

Real Estate Rule #3: It’s the rare buyer who wants to buy a haunted house. – Peril in the Pool House

Hello and thank you for the warm welcome! I am excited to announce the release of my third book in the award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery series, Peril in the Pool House. If you are familiar with the series, you know my protagonist, Helen Morrisey, is a mid-fifties widow with a quick tongue and sharp brain; a long-time real estate agent with a get it done attitude toward life. She doesn’t like to cook, likes her wine, stashes Twizzlers everywhere, lives on a Chesapeake cliff and is willing to rehab anything she comes across, especially houses and clients’ lives. She consults her own Detection Club of famous amateur sleuths to help her seek justice. As Jane Marple would declare, “It’s important that wickedness shouldn’t triumph.”

Each mystery presents a new real estate rule. Rule #1 in Murder in the Master is “A dead body creates buzz. A dead body in a house for sale is never the buzz you want.” Killer in the Kitchen Rule #2 is “How to sell a house. Offer a drop-dead kitchen”.

Two much appreciated recent reviews give you a taste of Peril in the Pool House: “The grand opening of Captain’s Watch Bed and Breakfast in one of Chesapeake Bay’s historic mansions, is ruined when the body of Kerry Lightner, a high-powered political campaign manager, is found in the pool house with fishing shears in her back. Is the killer a rival politician, an ex-lover, a jealous co-worker, or the ghost of missing harbor pilot Isaac Hollowell? When state senate candidate and B&B owner Eliot Davies becomes the prime suspect, his friend real estate agent-turned-amateur-investigator Helen Morrisey and her Detection Club of fictional women sleuths vow to solve the case—even if it means the end of Helen’s romance with Detective Joe McAlister. Peril in the Pool House, the third in Judy L. Murray’s award-winning Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series is smart, fast-paced, beautifully written, and utterly charming. Five stars!”Connie Berry, USA Today Best-Selling Author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries

 

“Cozy mystery fans will delight in following Maryland realtor Helen Morrisey as she solves a double murder with the assistance of the vintage detectives populating her imagination.” Lucy Burdette, USA Today Best-Selling Author Key West Food Critics Mysteries.

As colder weather starts to kick up white crusted waves across the bay, I’m setting in to writing my next book. But my mysteries must have a title before I’m sure of their direction. It’s the way my brain works. I’ve had a lot of interesting suggestions from readers. Since I use alliteration, I’m throwing down the gauntlet – if you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Some of them are very funny or very gruesome. Here’s just a few to help you meet the challenge – Slayed in the Study, Bludgeoned in the Basement (ew!), Evil in the Entry, Death on the Docks, Sunk in the Sauna, Poisoned in the Pantry. Hope you have fun with this and enjoy jumping into my title conversation!

If you would like to learn more, find me at www.judylmurraymysteries.com  All my mysteries are available in print, e-format, audible and audio.

Happy reading and writing, Judy.

There you have it, readers. Using alliteration, any suggestions for Judy for her upcoming book title? Thanks for joining us, Judy! ~ Joyce

 

Sunrise, Sunset

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By Barbara J. Eikmeier

I once read that for health and prosperity a person should strive to watch two sunrises a year. I know there are some people who see two or three hundred sunrises a year. I’m not one of them. As for sunsets, I’m well-rehearsed on the shift of colors, time of day across all four seasons, and I know if the back yard is glowing pink in autumn (which means I have my back to the sun) it’s my cue to go out the front door for a “red sky at night” sunset viewing.

When I do see a sunrise (at least two per year) I’m amazed at how much more aware I am of the changing sky. Maybe light emerging from the darkness is more dramatic than fading daylight, but I think it’s the rarity of my sunrise viewing that causes me to notice the fine details.

One August morning I was leaving home early with a three-hour drive ahead of me. As I backed out of the garage, I caught the morning sun filtering through the trees creating a starburst of long sunbeams. 50 feet away, one of those rays cast light on a spider web, outlining it in perfect detail. It was far from me, yet, thanks to the sunrise spotlight, I could see the sparkle of dew drops on the silken web.

August sunrise

When my dad became ill a few years ago, I went to California regularly to help take care of him. Over the next year and half, while there, one of my duties was fixing breakfast. My dad liked his breakfast at 7 AM, and we weren’t talking about a bowl of cold cereal with milk. On the farm breakfast was a full meal and my elderly parents, as much out of habit as preference, still liked yogurt and fruit with eggs and bacon, or pancakes and sausage, or hot oatmeal every day. To have it ready and served on time I was up early and therefore saw far more than the requisite two sunrises a year.

Not an early riser by nature, I was grumpy in the morning and didn’t have much patience for cooking eggs and oatmeal before I was fully awake (I once reversed the amount of water with the amount of oats and ended up with inedible paste). My reward for getting up and making breakfast became watching the sunrise from my mother’s kitchen window.

As the seasons passed, while logging away the months of my dad’s declining health, I monitored the shift of seasons by the position of the sun coming up behind the barn. The bright orange orb of summer rose far on the northern edge of the distant Sierra Nevada Mountains out of my view. By 7 AM the summer heat was already a conversation for the day. By late summer, the sunrise had started its slide south, rising along the edge of the barn. In autumn and again in the spring, from that kitchen window, I had a straight-on view of the sunrise, the coral horizon accented with great Vs of migrating geese. During winter, I’d already be clearing the table before the sun, often shrouded with dense fog or streaked with scattered clouds, showed her face on the southern edge of my view.

 

Some mornings I stepped outside in my apron and bare feet to take in the wonder of the new day while snapping a picture. But most of the time I stood at that window and thought, isn’t that sunrise worth getting up for?

Are you a sunrise or sunset person? Do you make notes of dawn and dusk skies you’ve observed and use them to inform time of day in your writing?

Barbara J. Eikmeier is a quilter, writer, student of quilt history, and lover of small-town America. Raised on a dairy farm in California, she enjoys placing her characters in rural communities.

 

Writing a Series—It’s All in the Protagonist by Saralyn Richard

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Writing a Series—It’s All in the Protagonist

by Saralyn Richard

 

A man wearing a hat photo – Free On Image on Unsplash

 

I never planned to write a series. My first mystery novel, MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT, set in the lush landscape of Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania, centered around a birthday party where old college buddies were reunited for a weekend retreat. Old flames, old rivalries, old resentments resurfaced, and one of the party-goers ended up dead.

Enter Detective Oliver Parrott, young, ambitious, and Black, an outsider in this ritzy community—the better to see through the closed ranks and subterfuge. Undazzled by materialism, Parrott keeps a dogged focus on the people who have had it in for the victim, and readers have responded to Parrott’s character in ways that surprised me.

“We want more Parrott,” I kept hearing, and I found myself wanting to stay with the well-grounded detective, as well. Since that time, I have written a three more Detective Parrott books. I’ve seen Parrott mature and marry. He’s made a name for himself in Brandywine and beyond. He’s tackled challenging cases, faced dangers, stood up for the innocent, and hounded the guilty.

Parrott and Tonya, his fiancée and then wife, make a remarkable duo. Their relationship isn’t perfect (whose ever is?), but whenever one of them needs support and a listening ear, the other is there to give them.

One of my readers leaned over the space between her seat and mine at the theater and said, “Please, please don’t ever let Parrott and Tonya divorce.” Remarks like that let me know that others are invested in my series characters as much as I am. I love spending time with Parrott and his family, as well as the recurring characters in Brandywine Valley and in the West Brandywine police department. It’s like visiting old friends and catching up on their lives.

I’m pretty sure I’ll never run out of things for them to say or do, experiences they need to have, lessons they need to learn. As in real life, there are always surprises, secrets, challenges, and joys. There are always new issues to be confronted, new insights to be gained.

In the next few months, the fourth Detective Parrott book, MURDER OUTSIDE THE BOX, will launch. Parrott is sharper than ever as he deals with an abandoned baby and the murder of a postpartum woman. Parrott’s relationship with Tonya spills over into his case, and vice versa, until the two bits of life are woven into a single fabric.

After more than seven years and twelve hundred pages spent with Parrott and his wife, I’m not sure what path their lives will take next, but one thing I am sure of—they’ll never be bored. And with so much trouble going on in the world, it’s good to have good people like Detective Parrott around to find the truth and right the wrongs.

Who is your favorite fictional protagonist?

Award-winning author and educator, Saralyn Richard writes about people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools. She loves beaches, reading, sheepdogs, the arts, libraries, parties, nature, cooking, and connecting with readers. Look for her latest Detective Parrott mystery, MURDER OUTSIDE THE BOX, coming soon.

Visit Saralyn at http://saralynrichard.com

The Many Versions of the Addams Family

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by Paula Gail Benson

Mural with Charles Addams from: The Addams Family Secret | The New Yorker

According to Wikipedia, Charles Samuel Addams (January 7, 1912-September 29, 1988) made a career as a cartoonist, first for his high school yearbook, then as a free-lancer for The New Yorker as well as a stint creating animated training films for the Army during World War II. He had a macabre outlook, was drawn to a Presbyterian Cemetery as a child, and, as inspiration for the Addams home, explored mansions in the town where he grew up (one of which he was accused of breaking and entering) and buildings at the colleges he attended.

From the 1964-66 ABC TV series

The cartoon characters with which he is most often identified remained nameless in the New Yorker until they became the basis of a situation comedy, The Addams Family, a television program filmed in black-and-white that initially aired from 1964-66. John Astin played the effusive Gomez Addams who passionately adored his beloved wife Morticia (Carolyn Jones), always moving incrementally in a black, tight-fitting, V-necked gown. Their butler, the deep-voiced, tall, and intimidating Lurch (Ted Cassidy) was originally written to be mute, but when Cassidy ad-libbed “You rang?”, the phrase was immediately adopted as the character’s signature line. Bald Uncle Fester (Jackie Coogan) was identified as Morticia’s uncle and Grandmama Addams (Blossom Rock) as Gomez’ mother. Pugsley (Ken Weatherwax) and Wednesday (Lisa Loring) were the two children. Charles Addams originally wanted to call Pugsley “Pubert,” but that name was rejected as being too sexual. Later, in the film Addams Family Values, the new baby and third child was called Pubert.

Several animated and live action series featured the family in the 1970s and 1990s. One of the animated series had Jodie Foster voicing Pugsley. In 2022, Netflix presented Wednesday, a supernatural coming of age series that had a teen aged Wednesday Addams solving a murder at her school.

From Barry Sonnenfeld’s The Addams Family movie (1991)

A number of films, both live action and animated, have focused on the family’s adventures. In 1991 and 1993, Barry Sonnenfeld directed The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. (Barry Sonnenfeld also appeared in Addams Family Values, as the father of Joel Glicker, Wednesday’s boyfriend at Camp Chippewa.) Raul Julia played Gomez Addams with Anjelica Huston as Morticia. Christopher Lloyd is Fester, who was identified as Gomez’ brother. Morticia referred to Grandmama (Judith Malina in the first film and Carol Kane in the second) as her mother (with a mention in the first film that Gomez’ parents were dead). Interestingly, in the Broadway musical, The Addams Family (2010), when Morticia said Grandmama was Gomez and Fester’s mother, Gomez (played by Nathan Lane) was surprised, saying he thought she was Morticia’s mother. Morticia (played by Bebe Neuwirth) later admitted that Grandmama might not be a member of the family. (Note, Nathan Lane appeared in the movie Addams Family Values, as a beleaguered police officer listening to Gomez demand an investigation of Debbie Jellinsky (played by Joan Cusack), who married Fester and established their home in the suburbs.)

Poster for Broadway musical The Addams Family

In the Sonnenfeld films, while Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) might be older, Wednesday (Christina Ricci) definitely showed greater malevolent initiative. In The Addams Family, when a Girl Scout (Mercedes McNab) asked if their lemonade was made with real lemons, Wednesday inquired if her cookies were made with real Girl Scouts. McNab returned in the role of Amanda Buckman in Addams Family Values, a camper who ridiculed and later was tormented by Wednesday and Joel Glicker (played by David Krumholtz, who went on to star in the TV show Numb3rs).

For the 2010 Broadway musical, The Addams Family, Wednesday (Krysta Rodriguez) is the older of the two siblings, pleading with her parents for “One Normal Night” for the family to meet her boyfriend (Wesley Taylor) and his parents (Terence Mann and Carolee Carmello).

The Penn State Library now displays a mural painted by Charles Addams for a Hamptons hotel. The mural was donated to the college when the hotel property changed hands. Entitled “An Addams Family Holiday,” it features the group at the beach, enjoying the waves that other vacationers are fleeing. Meanwhile, Lurch and Grandmama prepare a picnic lunch of bats and a mixed drink made with poison. All very appropriate for a Halloween celebration!

BTW, did you know that Charles Addams received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America?

Mural from: The Addams Family Secret | The New Yorker

Reflections on the Passing of Time

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Reflections on the Passing of Time by Debra H. Goldstein

Despite the temperatures being in the high 80’s and 90’s for the past few weeks, we’ve had just enough of a temperature drop that the leaves are beginning to change colors. It’s a sign of Autumn. The calendar even says Fall has begun. The big tell is that the grocery stores already are prominently displaying Halloween candies.

Personally, I don’t know where the summer went. It feels like I just pulled my white pants from the back of my closet and now it’s time to push them to the back again.

When I was a child, I remember being sent outside to play (I preferred staying inside and reading) and counting the minutes until I could go in again. Time moved so slowly. Yet, one day I woke up and it started whizzing by. For the first time, as this summer has flown by and I see changes in my husband, me, our children, grandchildren, and friends, I’m beginning to think of time as precious – and maybe going by a little too quickly.

Do you ever have thoughts like that?

It’s a Mystery!

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“We should go back down so Nash doesn’t think I’m involving myself in a police investigation.” “Well, Nash is definitely not going to buy that,” said Tobias, leading the way. “He’s not only met you, he knows you, and has seen you naked.” “I’m not sure what that has to do with anything,” said Tish. “Your grandma always knew when I was up to something,” said Tobias. “That’s because you were always up to something,” objected Tish. Quote from the mystery novel - An Unfinished Storm by Bethany Maines

San Juan Islands Mystery #4

This October 23rd will see the release of An Unfinished Storm—book 4 in the San Juan Island Mystery series. When I started the series I had just started my own business, but I was still spending a few hours a week with my grandmother attempting to clean out her house. The things she thought needed cleaning and what I thought needed cleaning were quite different, but I soldiered on because I knew that even if all cleaned up on was the crossword puzzle she didn’t mind because she liked the company.  My biggest complaint were all of the political solicitations for donations that she wouldn’t let me throw out.  At one point I secretly sent about fifty “please remove me from your list” letters.  I also tried to bring in the mail when she wasn’t looking so that I could pre-recycle a large amount before they got to her. I adored my grandmother, but having her fret about not having opened and read every piece of mail was enough to drive me bonkers.  So that was the state of mind I was in when I started this story about a girl who gets fired and ends up solving mysteries with her grandfather.  It was a lovely chance to reflect on my experience and inject some reality into the book.

Legacies

My grandmother passed away at the age of 96.  She was hilarious and sharp to the end although she did better in a quiet environment because her hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be.  Her collection of Dick Francis and Agatha Christie novels went to good homes, but I know that her legacy can also still be found in my books as Tish and Tobias  putter around, solve murders, and still leave time for afternoon naps and watching Quincy M.D. on VHS.   Not that my grandmother ever solved mysteries, but I like to think that we both would have liked the chance.  We both loved all the murder mystery shows like Perry Mason, Matlock, Quincy M.D., Murder She Wrote and the Rockford Files. I told someone recently that the San Juan series was like if Matlock and Psych had a baby and then threw in some Death in Paradise for island vibes and I stand by that. With Tish and Tobias surrounded by the quirkiness of island life as well as a few murderous villains I hope the books make readers laugh as much as my grandmother would have.  I also hope that readers are inspired to go hug their own grandparent and for goodness sake, throw out the political ads before they make it in the house.  No one needs that much junk mail in their life.

 

If you’re interested in Tish and Tobias Yearlys journey through the San Juan Islands, you can find out more from all the usual book selling suspects.

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Bethany Maines is the award-winning author of action-adventure and fantasy tales that focus on women who know when to apply lipstick and when to apply a foot to someone’s hind end. She participates in many activities including swearing, karate, art, and yelling at the news. She can usually be found chasing after her daughter, or glued to the computer working on her next novel (or screenplay). You can also catch up with her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and BookBub.