An Entirely Random Collection of Fascinating Things and People

There are some subjects guaranteed to stop me in my tracks and grab me, no matter what I'm doing. I could be in the middle of washing the dishes, and if a story comes on about Bettie Page, next thing I know I'm standing in the middle of the kitchen, dish soap dripping from my sponge.

So, let's start with her:

1. Bettie Page - Known as the dark version of Marilyn Monroe, Bettie was an extremely bright student in Tennessee. She moved to New York as a secretary, but she soon discovered she could earn a lot more money from modeling - particularly in the nude. 

Her pictures fascinate me because she just has that certain alluring something - her stills stand out, with that signature hairdo and the lovely smile. Bunny Yeager, one of Bettie's most famous photographers, described her as a beauty tanned from head to toe, who used to walk on her tippy toes to the beach for shots. 

She also fascinates me because of her disappearance from public. Years later she reemerged, to describe her shock at having become an iconic sex symbol.

She's known for the pin-ups, but just look at this breath-taking, innocent shot.

2. Space - Could never become an astronaut, thanks to my complete inability to understand calculus or chemistry, but fire up Apollo 13 and I'm hooked for the next 120 minutes. The space program of the 50's and 60's, as well as continued work on the space station and Hubbell are amazing - our reach towards a new stage, one I hope we'll continue to make.

courtesy of alanbeangallery.com
 and I just love the fact that  Alan Bean paints space pictures.

3. Old pocket watches: A friend once described them as "mysterious," and she was right. Old watches hold mysteries, ones you unlock with a tiny, golden key. Often there is a forgotten inscription inside, often with three letters, sometimes a quote or motto.

from 1900, showing my favorite part: the innards.

4. King Henry the Eighth - He was a fat old dork with a stinky leg, but I find his reign mesmerizing. Philippa probably has a lot to answer for there. Her, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (and I'm still trying to reconcile him with the grossly huge, smelly monarch in her final book on his wives.)

Looks quite different in his portraits.

5. Bathyspheres. I researched them for The South Sea Bubble, and I discovered what a fascinating history they had. Not only that, but the inventors were incredibly brave: at the depths they achieved, if there had been a breach in the machine water would have shot straight through their bodies, vaporizing them.

courtesy of taminglight.com

6. Lord Byron - I'm not a fan of his poetry one little bit, no I'm not. Still, anyone who was seduced by his governess, was killed by too much leeching by his doctor, wrote about vampires, and had so much influence in Greece that he was publicly mourned there after his death is fascinating. 

And what is up with those little curls? Yuck!

7. Huge medieval letters, decorated with animals, flowers, and weird little men. I realize I'm probably alone in this.

from The Book of Kells

8. Chocolate - truly fascinating. Probably not alone in this one.

Success - BlogFlash 2012

This is a tough one to write, since I haven't really attained full success.

Except for that time, eight years ago, when I looked across a hospital room into the largest brown eyes I'd ever seen.

Or when my cousin and I won Most Creative and the smallest trophy ever in the sandcastle competition. We built a cake out of sand. I was ten. That was cool.

Not the sandcastle we built.

Or when I was nearly an hour late for my own wedding because traffic was so backed up on I95 that the limo was super late. And my girls and I all packed into my mini Toyota - with the flowers, and the dress all bunched up around me like an inside out cupcake. And I called the church in a panic and got a clueless altar boy.Yet my guy still waited at the altar for me, so : WINNING.

Or when I found jeans that fit really well on the clearance rack with a further 30% discount. Major, major score.

Or that one night, in the summer of 2000, when I typed the words The End and realized I had just finished an entire novel. It was pure drivel and will never see the light of day, but still - I had just proved to myself that I could sit and write an entire book.

Or when we went trick-or-treating and the Mostellers were handing out large size Hershey Bars. YESSSSS.

More Sustaining Than Meat. 

So maybe success isn't one blinding flash of change-your-life balloons from the ceiling get on the news difference engine. Perhaps it's just a series of small things that add up, in retrospect, to a pretty damn good life.

London

Yesterday my daughter got the best thing in the world - a huge, brown paper package from London, covered with overseas stamps. You can't tie packages up with string anymore, alas. They get caught in the newfangled Post Office machinery.

The box came from her aunt in London. There is a lot going on in the city these days. It's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (did you watch the flotilla? And the parades? And did you see Catherine's red dress?) and of course the Olympics are coming up over the summer.


We were in London this year to visit. Of course my daughter wanted to visit Harrod's, that was destination number one, and Buckingham Palace. Sorry, Your Majesty, but shopping rates over your house. As we walked past the palace two things happened:


The flag was up, meaning that the Queen was At Home.
A helicopter flew in and landed. And I just know it was Prince Harry, aka Charming, Handsome, Heroic Prince.

And here's what happened in Harrods:


Shopping, duh.
Tea in the children's tea room, complete with chalkboards and a treehouse and yummy organic food.

Are you wondering what was in the package? My daughter had it ripped open by this time. Inside were loads of "pressies," including:


A teddy bear commemorating the Diamond jubilee
Chocolates shaped like crowns, ditto
An eggcup, ditto
A mug and a spoon, ditto
A tin of shortbread
T shirt with a sequin dog that says "We Are Not Amused" (our new favorite shirt)
A book of puzzles about the Olympic Games
Olympic chocolates
ANOTHER T shirt for the Olympic Games in London


Isn't that just beyond thrilling? Doesn't she have the best auntie ever? How on earth will we convey our thanks to London for all the gorgeous things?


If you have any ideas, leave them here.

Reality Hits

Last  night's homework centered on the difference between Fantasy and Reality. Can't you just picture that worksheet, and what a welcome  break it was from preparing for the Terra Nova tests?

It got me thinking, though, about how many times I've pictured something in my mind and, of course, the reality is  far different. For example:

The trip to St. Thomas should have been spent on the beach, not in the hotel room with "stomach upsets."

Pregnancy should make you smarter and slimmer, not more vacant and with larger feet.

Chocolate should leach calories from the system, not grapefruit.

A trip to the night club should not end with the discovery of footprints on the back of my shirt the following morning.

Christmas morning should never begin at 4:30 in the A.M.

******

I suppose nowhere is  this more obvious than in being an author. A writer starts with a fabulous idea. Hey! A book about brain-sucking taxi drivers! It'll be huge! You sashay off to the computer, secure in the knowledge that the words  will simply roll off the fingertips.

But, wait! What do you know about taxis, anyway? Where do they start their days? How do they get paid? What  kind of slang do they use? Why do they use those seat covers with large wooden beads?

After some research, back you go to the  computer. Now you're ready. You have seen the future, and it is You!

You begin to type, but your characters  start to quarrel with each other in ways you didn't foresee. You don't like your love interest anymore. You villain now seems kind of cute.

It should have been easy. But in reality, fantasy is pretty hard.

PS - How do footprints get on the back of one's shirt, anyhow?

Cool Stuff About Being a Writer

I get to imagine stuff and have it come to "life" on my desktop.

Other writers send me their books and ask me to read them. That means I get amazing books for free, and better than that, I am allowed to watch the evolution of those cool books.

I have a fantastic cover artist who rocks my Kindle world.

I'm in a group of talented, dedicated people who help me out every single day.

Nightmares are cool now, because when I wake up in a sweat, I just think, "Hey! New novel idea!"

If my husband comments on my disheveled, pajamas-in-the-afternoon attire, I can silence him with my Novelist At Work stare.

My little Alternet universe is fueled with tea, wine, and chocolate.

I am never, ever bored. Seriously, I don't know what boredom is  like. I've got movies in my head to watch, and I mean that in a very non-psycho killer way.

As I tap stuff out in the keyboard, I become one with a long line of writers. Maybe not Hemingway or Colette, but Edgar Rice Burroughs and Enid Blyton? Those are my peeps.

This just screams pulp fiction. Love it!!!!!!

See, I have to go and watch The Housewives of Beverly Hills. It's rich bitch research, dammit.

Ditto reading pulp fiction. All part of my job. Now, hand me my bon bons.

Christmas Cookies part 1: Chocolate Covered Oreos

On Saturday we had a party to go to. A real party, not the kind with bouncy castles and face paint.  Like, get a babysitter and put on heels and drink vodka deal.

My Italian mother in law, God rest her soul, instilled in me the idea that one  can never show up without a hostess gift. So I knew  I had to make cookies to bring along. But I also knew I had  zero time to make said cookies.

Enter the super fast, speedy, it's-not-quite-cheating recipes. Which I shall share with you, since I love my readers so. Today, chocolate covered oreos; tomorrow, Marzipan Macaroons.

Chocolate Covered Oreos

(For some reason, these make everyone gasp and stretch their eyes. I can slave over rolled out sugar cookies for hours, but it is the oreos that get everyone all riled up.)

Ingredients:
1 bag of Oreos
1  bag of  Ghirardelli 60% Cacao chocolate chips
Crisco
1 cup of white chocolate chips

******

Line a baking tray with wax paper.

Pour the bag of dark chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl. Add a tablespoon or so of Crisco. Nuke for a minute, stir, then nuke at 30 second intervals alternating with stirring  until the chocolate is smooth and  melted. Don't nuke it too much, or it will burn and turn into a yucky clumpy ball of gunk.

With a fork, dunk the oreos one at a time in the chocolate mixture, tapping to release extra. Put on the prepared, lined tray and shove them in the fridge.

While they set, fit a disposable piping bag with a small tip icing nozzle. Fill the bag with the cup of white chocolate chips and  another Tbl of Crisco. (If you don't have any of that icing stuff, you can use a fork to drizzle white chocolate over the tops of the oreos. It's just as impressive, and people will eat them just as happily.)

When the cookies are set in the fridge (about 10 - 20 minutes) nuke the piping bag or bowl of white chocolate for 1 minute and then 30 secoond intervals. Stir the bowl or squish the bag to stir.

Either pipe desings on the dark chocolate with the bag. Spirals make people go, "Oooooooh." Or drizzle, as I've said before. If you add some drague´es, that's impressive too. (Drague´es = fancy word for those little silver balls that chefs use to decorate cakes and cookies and truffles and stuff.)

Pop back in the fridge for another twenty minutes.

Throw flour on your face to make them think you've been breaking your back in the kitchen, and serve.