K.B. Pellegrino's Blog, page 23

Remembering Fats Domino

I listened last night to an oldie, the song “I’m Walkin'” and my feet did just that; they walked, they jumped, they danced, and I thought of the man whose music I can never forget. I thought how meaningful it is to have music and not just letters in my life. I write and I love writing. I invent characters based on my experiences; at least I think I do??? Maybe I base my characters on a reenactment of how I think the people I have met in life were really thinking and not just remembering what...

People Question why?

At a luncheon today, my friend was disconsolable. She asked me, “Why do friends say hurtful things to me when I would never say the same to them?” I had no answer. I’d had the same question in my mind for many years, but knew that I could pull out from my brain no easy answer; I could just respond that the cause could lay in the horrors of jealousy, anger, revenge, unkindness, disrespect and the list goes on.

I am a writer of murder mysteries. I look for motives in the actions and reactions o...

One Day Off

Just what are your plans for the three day weekend coming soon? It’s Presidents Day; but for all of us it is a respite, albeit for one extra day, from the doldrums of the season. I particularly like this quote below which pays attention to the concept of a ‘one’ day off.

“I do not really like vacations. I much prefer an occasional day off when I do not feel like working. When I am confronted with a whole week in which I have nothing to do but enjoy myself I do not know where to begin. To me,...

Synergy

I write about solving serial murder mysteries. I write about the police procedural processes used in solving muder mysteries. Let's think for a minute about these procedures and their use by detectives. It behooves detectives to use scientifical and mathematical and psychological methods to achieve their goal in pursuit of guilty perpetrators.

They must examine evidence; each piece is a building block. They must collect physical evidence and then witness statements, even gossip. They then systematize the evidence and put it into a format allowing for analysis. Where is the math? Well, as the detective connects dots and makes lists and adds, then synergy takes place. That's when the detective adds the human attribute of instinct, strickly personal, as inference is used often in interviewing, to make 2 and 2 equal 5. Voila - Synergy. Such fun.

Snow, Snow, Snow!?!?!?

Snow, Snow, Snow! What to think, just what am I to think? Punxsutawney Phil, the cute groundhog, did not see his shadow. So I’m reveling in the possibility that Phil may know what he’s doing and that Spring is around the corner.

How wonderful is his effect on me. He’s presented a possibility of light emerging that allows me to welcome today’s snow storm. It is so pretty, such a lovely scene for me when I look up from my desk. White snow everywhere covering the grey and browns of winter. I hav...

Anticipation of Monday

Sunday is rest day. Sunday is often family day. Sunday, today, is sunny, but what about tonight?

When seven o’clock in the evening arrives, do you start getting those stomach flurries? Many of us have felt them. From our day of rest, we start transitioning to thoughts about our work, school, volunteer efforts, and other obligations. For me, it has never been a dislike of my work, or when applicable school, or other endeavors, but my brain triggers my body to ram up its energy for tomorrow, Mo...

Who Reads says What's Read!

No two persons ever read the same book.
–Edmund Wilson
Discussions at various book clubs about my books and other authors' books have often confounded me. A reader may make an observation about a character or the plot of a book that I have read, that is a surprise; well, to be truthful, often the observation astonishes me. I did not see that trait in the character, or that was not the important part of the plot!

Even when my own books are discussed by members of any group, I listen to the reader speaking and perhaps stating firmly what I must have been thinking about when I wrote a chapter. Better yet, my characters are often compared to people who exist in my personal life, when that comparison never entered my brain as I was writing.

I am not complaining nor am I criticizing. That is the prerogative of the reader of fiction. Not even the author may take offense. The story is the story not just the author's story. The story, once published, now belongs to the interpretation of every reader.

I forward my blessings to all fiction readers and my wishes that they read more, interpret more, and share their ideas.

K. B. Pellegrino

Agatha of Scicily Reminds Me of Yesterday!

I was reminded this morning by a childhood school friend, that today is the feast of Saint Agatha of Scilily, who for many catholics today is noted as a patron for those suffering from breast cancer. My friend’s mother had succumbed to the disease many years ago. This may be the impetus that allowed her to think about the disease and its patron. It wouldn’t take much for her to look to the Saint of the Day calendar that hangs in her kitchen and be reminded of a portion of our pasts that we sh...

CONFESSIONS OF A FOOTBALL WIMP—

Brady, Brady, Brady fever is alive in New England today and the game is just a couple hours off. Some of my family is in Atlanta for the game as much to get away from the cold as to see their beloved Patriots play. In preparation for attending a party at Kim and Neil’s today, I went to the Italian pastry shop and it was packed with happy folks drinking their espresso and predicting the game outcome.

For sure some of the gorgeous and perfect sweets I purchased will be swallowed whole if a bite...

Thursday

If I were to write a book with Thursday in its title, don't you think the theme may be about our lives where we often feel that, "We have far to go." After all there is the old nursery rhyme about the days of the week and their connection to the day of the week on which a child is born.

I'm thinking of the Origins of this rhyme as found in : "...first recorded in A. E. Bray's Traditions of Devonshire (Volume II, pp. 287–288)[2] in 1838 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century.[1][not in citation given] The tradition of fortune telling by days of birth is much older. Thomas Nashe recalled stories told to "yong folks" in Suffolk in the 1570s which included "tell[ing] what luck eurie one should have by the day of the weeke he was borne on...".

Imagine if you will, that fortune telling by any system could be taken seriously. Imagine the society that predicts what you or I could be or would face by linking us to some arbitrary idea of our worth. Imagine our history in science when what we learned in the 1950's is now debunked. Imagine if you will, that much that we are learning today will someday be the laughable subject of cartoons.

Despite all that, I was a Saturday's child and the rhyme says, "Saturday's child has to work for a living." And it is true. I have worked for a living, but does that have any meaning. Others born on other days of the week also had to work for a living.

Now much of the above is said in fun; after all I am a writer of fiction. However, keeping an open mind and not wallowing in the excitement of new extraordinary discoveries without some hard core evidence are a must even for this writer of mystery fiction.

K. B. Pellegrino