Rose Anderson's Blog, page 4

Help Wanted: elves

I could use a few elves right about now! This last month feels like I did when I was 15. Back then, simple things like walking and brushing my hair hurt me like I had carpet tacks and broken glass stuck between my joints. I’ve had Rheumatoid Arthritis so long I have a relatively high pain threshold, but what I’m experiencing lately has put me beyond my tolerance. The writing is on the wall– all fingers point to my rheumatoid arthritis remission being over. Twenty-two years with just tolerable aches and pains was a good run as far as this thief of a disease goes. 2016 will be all about breaking the relapse if I can.

Blah. Or rather, blah humbug.

Anyway, about those elves…

I grew up with an old 1930’s set of My Bookhouse books by Olive Beaupre Miller. I loved those stories and beautiful lithograph illustrations. One of my favorites was a story by the Brothers Grimm — The Elves and the Shoemaker. Because elves play such a helpful role this time of year, I thought it a fitting post for an extremely busy day. I could really use an elf or two around here right now. Here’s the full translation done in 1884. Enjoy!

A shoemaker, by no fault of his own, had become so poor that at last he had nothing left but leather for one pair of shoes. So in the evening, he cut out the shoes which he wished to begin to make the next morning, and as he had a good conscience, he lay down quietly in his bed, commended himself to God, and fell asleep. In the morning, after he had said his prayers, and was just going to sit down to work, the two shoes stood quite finished on his table. He was astounded, and knew not what to say to it. He took the shoes in his hands to observe them closer, and they were so neatly made that there was not one bad stitch in them, just as if they were intended as a masterpiece.

Soon after, a buyer came in, and as the shoes pleased him so well, he paid more for them than was customary, and, with the money, the shoemaker was able to purchase leather for two pairs of shoes. He cut them out at night, and next morning was about to set to work with fresh courage; but he had no need to do so, for, when he got up, they were already made, and buyers also were not wanting, who gave him money enough to buy leather for four pairs of shoes. The following morning, too, he found the four pairs made; and so it went on constantly — what he cut out in the evening was finished by the morning, so that he soon had his honest independence again, and at last became a wealthy man.

Now it befell that one evening not long before Christmas, when the man had been cutting out, he said to his wife, before going to bed, “What think you if we were to stay up to-night to see who it is that lends us this helping hand?” The woman liked the idea, and lighted a candle, and then they hid themselves in a corner of the room, behind some clothes which were hanging up there, and watched. When it was midnight, two pretty little naked men came, sat down by the shoemaker’s table, took all the work which was cut out before them and began to stitch, and sew, and hammer so skilfully and so quickly with their little fingers that the shoemaker could not turn away his eyes for astonishment. They did not stop until all was done, and stood finished on the table; and then they ran quickly away.

Next morning the woman said, “The little men have made us rich, and we really must show that we are grateful for it. They run about so, and have nothing on, and must be cold. I’ll tell thee what I’ll do: I will make them little shirts, and coats, and vests, and trousers, and knit both of them a pair of stockings, and do thou, too, make them two little pairs of shoes.” The man said, “I shall be very glad to do it;” and one night, when everything was ready, they laid their presents all together on the table instead of the cut-out work, and then concealed themselves to see how the little men would behave. At midnight they came bounding in, and wanted to get to work at once, but as they did not find any leather cut out, but only the pretty little articles of clothing, they were at first astonished, and then they showed intense delight. They dressed themselves with the greatest rapidity, putting the pretty clothes on, and singing,

“Now we are boys so fine to see,

Why should we longer cobblers be?”

Then they danced and skipped and leapt over chairs and benches. At last they danced out of doors. From that time forth they came no more, but as long as the shoemaker lived all went well with him, and all his undertakings prospered.

*To read the fairytales and fables I enjoyed as a child with an adult eyes is a very interesting endeavor, one I recommend. It’s obvious they weren’t really written for kids.

I recall toy elves being given as a premium with Joy dish soap back in the 1960s. Ugly things. lol My sister-in-law has a sizable collection of these dolls, thanks to her mother going through all that soap to acquire them for her. A few years ago, my husband found one on his gift quest and gave it to me. Did I say ugly? I have it sitting inside the Christmas tree.

(where he can’t be seen!)

There’s a trend regarding those spindly-legged elves. Someone wrote a book and then a toy followed. Now there’s the meme of The Elf on the Shelf. The idea is to take pictures of the elf in compromising poses. Very cute ideas for scenarios your elf gets into while you’re sleeping. My children are all grown up now, but I might have tried this. We all have interesting imaginations. That elf might have turned up anywhere.

For my sister-in-law who very well may read this post today, just imagine your elf collection carrying on when everyone is asleep…
;)

http://www.pinterest.com/mudpiestudio/elf-on-the-shelf-ideas/

If you’re here for the first time, we’re building a vintage holiday postcard scrapbook one card at a time. I’ve been posting one or two each day and plan to keep it up from now until January.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“Pleasure is spread through the earth

In stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find.”

~William Wordsworth (1806)

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http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is ending! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

Krampus & Many Links!

Did you ever wonder about this warning to misbehaving children? “You’d better be good or Santa will put coal in your stocking.”

Many many years ago I worked at a historical society and we were expected to site three original sources for any information we passed on. I’m a research hound. I love hunting facts. Believe me, one original source isn’t easy to come by sometimes. And sometimes finding three is next to impossible.

So here in the vastness of the internet we have the ability to hone searches to get exactly what we’re looking for. Let me just say the internet too small. The thing is, much of of the truth turning up on searches originates with Ask.com or Wiki and is used over and over again. I don’t know who writes for Ask.com but Wiki is user written but not necessarily by experts in the given topic. Wiki can be useful if you know how to use it, especially if the author gave citations to the facts presented. Other times you just get a repeat of the same junk. An example is that ridiculous email of historical facts buzzing around the web for the last 15 years. You know the one I refer to– the one that explains the history of babies literally being thrown out with the dirty bath water.

Anyway…the best I can determine is the concept of coal for bad kids comes from the Dutch in the 1600’s. One fact turning up online says children were happy to have coal in their stocking because it would keep their cold and starving family warm. Really? A single chunk of coal would do that? Nonsense. It’s obvious the whole coal issue is a what would you rather have scenario — toys and candy in your stocking or a lump of coal?

I find the following links interesting:

http://www.history.com/topics/christmas-traditions-worldwide



http://www.historyextra.com/feature/christmas-controversy



http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2037505,00.html

The last two pose an either or question too. Would you rather have coal in your stocking or go off with the Krampus? Yikes.  Who or what is the Krampus? Check these out:

VERY interesting Podcast

history-of-krampus-the-christmas-demon

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/10/143485735/naughty-or-nice-krampus-horror-for-the-holidays

So be good for goodness sake.
:D

More~

A video collection of old postcards with the darker Santas and Krampus’

A cute Krampus exposé

The Life and Times of Krampus (more vintage Krampus postcards in this one)

Speaking of Krampus postcards…

If you’re here for the first time, we’re building a vintage holiday postcard scrapbook one card at a time. I’ve been posting one or two each day and plan to keep it up from now until January.

Most assume Santa just handed out coal to naughty kids. It turns out he has other helpers. I haven’t found a Black Peter yet, but I did find a few Krampus cards!

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“Ideas can no more flow backward than can a river.”

~Victor Hugo

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is ending! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

 

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The Gift of the Magi

I’m uber busy today, too busy for much writing here. I’d like to share a beautiful love story written in 1905 by William Porter. You might know him by his pen name O. Henry.

I give you…

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James Dillingham Young.”

The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called “Jim” and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling–something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pierglass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: “Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the “Sofronie.”

“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.

“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”

Down rippled the brown cascade.

“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

“Give it to me quick,” said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation–as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value–the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends–a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do–oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?”

At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think I am still pretty.”

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two–and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

“Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It’ll grow out again–you won’t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice– what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.”

“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?”

Jim looked about the room curiously.

“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you–sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year–what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first.”

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs–the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshiped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jeweled rims–just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.”

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”

The magi, as you know, were wise men–wonderfully wise men–who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share some.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.”

~Ruth Ann Schabacker

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is ending! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

On a lone winter evening, when the frost has wrought a silence

On a lone winter evening, when the frost has wrought a silence.

~John Keats

If you pay attention to your circadian rhythm, you’ll notice something tonight. The sun will set a bit early and morning will come a bit late tomorrow and the long night will feel still. Tonight marks the great stillness — the darkest day and the longest night of the year– the Winter Solstice. The word solstice comes from the Latin and literally means sun set still.

People have marked this moment for tens of thousands of years.  Every morning the sun rises on a slightly different trajectory than it did the morning before, and at this point it appears not to move at all. That must have really rattled our ancestors. Winter brings scarcity and hardship. You’d want to know when the season would change and plenty would return. The Winter Solstice was a time for celebration and joy and many early cultures held solstice ceremonies to coax the return of the warming sun. Some still do.

So… turn off your electric lights and immerse yourself in the long dark tonight. Light candles and reflect. It’s time to count your blessings and contemplate a new year. The return of sun is as good a time as any to take stock– a time to be thankful the sun will rise in the morning and you’ll live to see another day. Share the stories of your lives with your loved ones. Tell them how thankful you are that they are in your life. The winter solstice is a time to mend relationships and renew your hope and goodwill. And come tomorrow, you’ll find the day just a little bit longer, a little bit brighter. Spring is around the corner.

May 2016 be blessed for you.

Whatever you dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Begin it now.

~Goethe

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.

~Joseph Campbell

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

~Albert Camus

More~

Here’s a great explanation of the hows and whys of the Winter Solstice from the US Navy.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/rs_solstices.php

Solstices and Lunar Standstills? Ancient megaliths around the world mark both celestial events. Here’s a clip of one famous spot:

And here’s an extra bit of trivia for you. A Roman Saturnalia greeting in ancient times was io! That i is pronounced like an H. The next Ho Ho Ho you hear, you’ll know exactly where it comes from. That Santa is a tricksie fellow.
:)

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share vintage holiday postcards for you to enjoy.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.”

~Alfred North Whitehead

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is ending! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

Creepy Clockworks

Mention cuckoo clock and our mind immediately goes to a wall clock with a small door through which a little bird pops out on the hour and says cuckoo. This clockwork movement consists of a precise array of gears and trip hammers. We see this in action in wind-up toys and music boxes too. My first real exposure to clockwork gadgets outside of toys and cuckoo clocks, came from a trip to a Wisconsin tourist attraction many years ago. It’s called The House on the Rock and has to be one of the creepiest collections in the world. I mean, who collects a room full of steam boilers and covers a ceiling with dead-eyed mannequins wearing angel wings? And these are just the tip of the iceberg. The place is filled with vintage live-action mannequins — creepy, follow-you-with-their-eyes, automatons.

What are automatons? To put it simply, they’re clockwork mechanisms like cuckoo clocks, but more. Like music boxes, these fanciful and intricate machines are built with wheels and cogs and generally wind up with a key or with weights. Once wound, they will continue to animate their gears, trip hammers, and other articulated components until their inner springs fully unwind. I should add that the word automaton means to act under one’s own will.  And now House on the Rock is even creepier…

Throughout history, imaginative inventors devised all manner of animated creations. In my research I’ve come across many different kinds and from simple to complex. Some are adorable and others are nightmares in the making. The ancient world knew such mechanical devices too. Automatons have a long history and even older mythology. In Judaism the Golem was an automaton made of stone and mud. In Ancient Greece, smithy to the gods Hephaestus built Talos — a mechanical man of bronze who patrolled the island of Crete. And who hasn’t heard of the wooden boy Pinocchio and The Wizard of Oz’ tin man? I came across this interesting reference taken from Joseph Needham’s Science and Civilization in China. Sometime during the Zhou Dynasty (around 1000BCE), Yan Shi, a mechanical engineer aka artificer presented King Mu with a life-size human automaton.

“The king stared at the figure in astonishment. It walked with rapid strides, moving its head up and down, so that anyone would have taken it for a live human being. The artificer touched its chin, and it began singing, perfectly in tune. He touched its hand, and it began posturing, keeping perfect time… As the performance was drawing to an end, the robot winked its eye and made advances to the ladies in attendance, whereupon the king became incensed and would have had Yan Shi executed on the spot had not the latter, in mortal fear, instantly taken the robot to pieces to let him see what it really was. And, indeed, it turned out to be only a construction of leather, wood, adhesive and lacquer, variously coloured white, black, red and blue. Examining it closely, the king found all the internal organs complete—liver, gall, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, stomach and intestines; and over these again, muscles, bones and limbs with their joints, skin, teeth and hair, all of them artificial… The king tried the effect of taking away the heart, and found that the mouth could no longer speak; he took away the liver and the eyes could no longer see; he took away the kidneys and the legs lost their power of locomotion. The king was delighted.”

I’ll bet.

More~

https://youtu.be/C7oSFNKIlaM

https://youtu.be/T1x3GrJFoyA

https://youtu.be/P6gZVrpPsXU?list=PL0F1707B0995EB1E4

Fun to watch, but still, I wouldn’t want to be locked in with them overnight. lol

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share vintage holiday postcards for you to enjoy.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

~T.S. Eliot

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is ending! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

Going through a Phase

My mind has always been inquisitive. I’m an informational reader mostly, though I do fiction binge on occasion. I’ve read upwards of 20 novels during one of these month-long fiction feasts. When I’ve had my fill, I won’t pick up another novel until the urge to binge strikes again a year or so later. Along those lines, I enjoy documentaries far more than entertainment TV. (Inquiring minds want to know!) A great documentary is how I stumbled across the Antikythera Mechanism. Named for the island off which it was found, the Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated machine known from the ancient world.

In 1900, a group of Greek sponge divers diving off the Greek island of Antikythera found a major discovery in an ancient wreck. Among the near-perfect artworks, they also discovered a lump of corroded bronze. Archaeologists and other experts in the field of ancient studies were astonished by it, for under all that corrosion was an analog computer more than 2000 years old. Modern computed tomography imagery (CT scan)  revealed a complex machine of small precise gears and fine inscriptions written on the parts. We now know the device was made to track astronomical phenomena and their phases, specifically the cycles of the Solar System.

From this small and complex gadget to the humongous stone walls of Sacsayhuaman, Peru,  the know-how these ancient peoples possessed never ceases to amaze. Just imagine what the world would be like today had the ancient libraries, those amazing repositories of knowledge, never been destroyed. It’s said more than 1000 years of knowledge was in the Library at Alexandria alone. As a person who loves to learn things, I grieve that loss.

Here’s a very nice BBC documentary on the Antikythera Mechanism

More~

http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/

This clip gives an exploded view. No wonder the experts were astonished!

https://youtu.be/MqhuAnySPZ0

A historian explains the model he recreated:

https://youtu.be/4eUibFQKJqI

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share vintage holiday postcards for you to enjoy.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire.”

~Arnold H. Glasow

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Today is Author Jean Hart Stewart’s blog day

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is coming to a close! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

A Marvelous Night for a Moon Dance

I’ve mentioned here before that I am a drummer. My husband and friends gather regularly to make music together. We have all sorts of percussion instruments and unusual rhythm makers from all over the world. Sometimes we make music indoors, other times we drum and dance in the moonlight.  More times than not we entrain when we really get going — that is, our brainwaves synchronize. In some future post I’ll explain the science behind that.  For a mental place holder, compare it to a room full of ticking pendulum clocks. All the clocks will eventually tick in sync. Though non-zero forces are the likely culprit, one knows exactly why they do. They just do. Hmm..that’ll be a post for another day too.

Anyway… One of the strange things about entrainment is the ability to all stop together without any lead-in or hint letting you know the music is coming to the end. It also leaves you feeling rather high to have your brainwaves mingling with other brainwaves. Gotta love science. But this post is not about drumming or even brainwave entrainment. It’s about something that came after such a brain bonding. On one wild drumming night, the full moon was huge and extremely bright. So bright, in fact, that at 2:30 in the morning you could hear birds making little chirping sounds as they tried to determine if dawn had come early. That’s when I saw something on the moon I had never seen before.

People often see things on the moon, images like the rabbit, the man in the moon, the sitting woman. Depending what image your culture says is there, that’s what you’ll see. This flight of fancy is called pareidolia– humans hard-wired to look for faces. I suspect it has to do with bonding as in baby and mother bonding. But I digress. Back to the moon…

So I looked up at that full moon and was seized with an overwhelming case of surety that told me that sometime in the past, an aboriginal storyteller in North America looked up and saw what I saw. It wasn’t the rabbit, the woman, or the man in the moon face. It was Kokopelli the dancing flute player.

I’ve scoured the web looking for a comparable moon to show here and gave up after so many pages of images. Online images don’t show a clear Kokopelli. This is a rough attempt to show what I saw. It takes skill to draw with a computer’s mouse and that’s a skill I just don’t possess.

Kokopelli

It’s said Kokopelli is a Kachina, a spirit being in the pantheon of Southwest Native American deities known for music, dance, and mischief. The ancient Anasazi considered him a god but his origins are thought to be older still. Ancient rock carvings and paintings, a.k.a. petroglyphs, date him at 3,000 or so years.

Depending on which peoples you ask, the humpbacked dancing flute player has different meanings attributed to him. Generally, this kachina is thought to carry a sack on his back like a traveler or trader. In legends, the sack carries everything from unborn babies to seeds to other gifts. His flute is said to be a nose flute (yes there really are such things). The melody on his flute would bring rain, melt snow, and the change the seasons.

In keeping with those babies on his back, he’s also associated with replenishment and fertility. Some of the petroglyphs show him dancing with a substantial erection. Legend says when Kokopelli played his nose flute everyone would sing and dance all through the night. Come morning every maiden in the village would be with child. There have been no such surprises for my drummer friends.

:D

To some, the last full December moon is known as the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon. The last time a full moon appeared on Christmas was in 1977. Though it isn’t common in our lifetimes, celestially speaking, it’s no big deal. For us however, full moons appear on the same day an average of twice in any 59-year period. According to NASA, the next full Christmas moon won’t occur until 2034. Take a good look at the moon next week. Kokopelli will be dancing there.

Here’s an example of the nose flute Kokopelli plays. Notice the headdress.

Yes this lobster riding mouse is a holiday postcard. A little beat up but bizarrely cute.

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share vintage holiday postcards for you to enjoy.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.”

~Luciano de Crescenzo

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Today’s guest is Author Vicki Batman

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is coming to a close! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

Using the Force

“Everything in Life is Vibration”

– Albert Einstein

I had a marvelous physics teacher once who so captured my imagination, he set the ground work for my interest in Reiki as well as for my magnum opus (scroll back to previous posts to learn more.) I remember he held a glass of water and told us there was very little difference between the glass and the water it help. Of course there are differences. One is mostly made of silica (SiO2) the other (H2O) comprised of hydrogen and oxygen. But that’s simple chemistry and not at all what he was getting at.

To physicists, the big difference between the two is how the molecules move. The molecules of the glass vibrate slowly, and because of that, the glass is hard. The water molecules are in high-speed motion and because of that, the water is fluid. (If he had somehow held a cup of steam, they’d be faster still.) This movement at a molecular, atomic, and sub-atomic level is known as molecular vibration. Living things also vibrate.

To those who study it, this vibration is referred to as life energy. Hippocrates, the well-known physician of Ancient Greece, called it the healing power of nature. The 16th-century alchemist Paracelsus called it Archaeus – the luminous, radiating healing energy that surrounds and permeates the body.

The concept of a life force has been around for thousands of years and spans the globe.

The Lakota refer to this force as ni.

The Navajo call it nilch’i.

In Africa it’s known as Ashe.

Hawaiians call it Mana.

To the Egyptians, this was Sekem.

The Hindus refer to this life force as Prana.

The Ancient Greeks called it Pneuma or Thymos.



In China this is Chi, the life force strengthened by such focused activities as Tai Chi and Qigong. In Japan, it’s called Qi. Qi is life-force which animates the living forms of the world. What is it exactly? I suppose the best way to describe it is, it’s the vibratory phenomena that flows from, and surrounds all, living things.

To Yoda, this is the Force.

:D

Here’s an interesting clip from Bill Moyers.

It’s clear he doesn’t know what to think of Qi.

Here’s an interesting albeit simple explanation of Reiki

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share vintage holiday postcards for you to enjoy.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“Be curious always. For knowledge will not acquire you; you must acquire it.”

~Sudie Back

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Today is Author Suz deMello’s blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is on! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

Splendidly Repetitive #Mondayblogs

With my busy December on at full steam ahead, I’m reposting interesting blog posts I’ve written. It’s a way of taking stock of what I’ve been up to outside of my professional writings.  Today is a video day. My post is full of thought-provoking clips. I invite you to sit back and have your mind bent.

Fractals & Fibonacci

Before I go into the work of mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, I’ll begin with a brief explanation of the Fibonacci Sequence. For brevity’s sake, I’ll skip the fine details of this mathematical creation, but I urge to everyone to delve into it. It all starts with a man of the Middle Ages, a mathematician named Leonardo Fibonacci. Once you understand it, it’s utterly fascinating, especially when you see evidence of it everywhere. In my understanding, the Fibonacci Sequence concerns these integers, or whole numbers, laid out like so:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89….ad infinitum.

See how that works? 0 + 1 = 1. 1+1=2. 1+2=3. 3+2=5 and all the way to 34+55=89 and beyond. If you worked this formula out on graph paper with squares and rectangles, you’d eventually get what’s known as the Divine Proportion or Golden Mean.

Ok, so you have a basic idea of the Fibonacci Sequence. What about Mandelbrot? He’s the modern day mathematician who came up with the mathematical term Fractal, and he’s known for one in particular – the Mandelbrot Set. Suffice to say he used an equation that’s too over my head to explain here, but this is what he did — After entering the math into a computer, he got a computer-generated image that graphically represents the behavior of his  equation. And it had the old Fibonacci Sequence inside of it! To mathematicians via their notions of how the math works, this phenomenon is unexplainable. It’s still unknown as to why the Fibonacci sequence appears in the Mandelbrot Set. Some people see the sitting Buddha in the Mandelbrot Set. It this little image he’s on his side. Mathematics is the language of the universe and the Buddha was all about enlightenment. My active imagination plays with this in my magnum opus (my very large work in progress).

The following video is a long one, but well worth it.

R for Repetition.

Why do patterns repeat? We see this repetition everywhere. Fractals do. So do spirals. It’s said that spirals take the least amount of energy to produce. From the whorl on a baby’s scalp, to the spiral galaxies in the vast universe, to our own DNA strands, spirals are our reminders that we are at once both unique and mundane.

Then we have the tessellations. From the Latin tessellātus, it means mosaic. Off the top of my head I give you a few: honeycombs, fish scales, giraffe spots, turtle shells, pineapples, reptile skin, tidal pools, and Giants Causeway in Ireland.



From here I could go into polygons and pentagons (seen in flower petal arrangements). I could discuss the fact the number 3 and 5 repeat in the natural world. I could also touch upon symmetry and how humans are attracted to it.  No, too much info will make this post too large. I’ll save those for another day.  :)

Here’s a well done and cute explanation in three videos. I love the rapid-fire delivery. It feeds my inner nerd.

And this one is incredible.

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share vintage holiday postcards for you to enjoy.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Words Worth Mentioning for December

“An optimist is the human personification of spring.”

~Susan J. Bissonette

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Today is Author Marianne Stephens’ blog day.

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is on! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/

To Deceive the Eye

My imagination was always active. Even as a child I could entertain myself. I’d draw, sculpt, carve, color, and cut paper for hours. Because that innate desire to create appeared early on in my life, my mother always wished I’d be an artist of some sort. To that end, she supplied me with all sorts of tools and materials and loaded me up with books on famous paintings. On top of that, Chicago’s renown Art Institute was nearby so I spent a lot of time there as a teen. I came very close to a career in the tangible arts, I took another creative direction entirely. I ended up a writer. When I tell a story and describe a scene, an object, or even an emotion, I’m actually painting with words.

Quadratura (And a little Trompe l’oeil, & Forced Perspective)

Since mankind first conceptualized his world on cave walls so many millennia ago, artists continue to convey emotion through artistic expression. It doesn’t matter the size, scope, medium, or subject. Man is driven to create art. I’ve wondered why that is since I was a girl strolling Chicago’s Art Institute. I do have my opinions. I believe it’s our self-awareness that drives us. We tap into something so much bigger than ourselves and art becomes meditation or prayer. I’m sure I’m not alone in making this observation. I’ve seen the divine concord in the brushstrokes of those masterpieces I grew up with. (I share those thoughts in depth in my magnum opus –my enormous non-romance as-yet-unnamed work in progress.)

There have been some stunning chapters in the sketchbook of mankind. I have a few favorites: The Classical era with its alabaster and marble sculpture so finely detailed you can see veils and curls. The Middle Ages with feats of artistic architecture. The Renaissance gave us light, and with it, keen perspective. The late Victorian era had the Belle Époque and light returned after a long hiatus. Add to this list the bold images of the Art Deco movement. Though there are many defining eras and ages before, after, and in-between, these art movements strike a chord in me.

Outside of specific eras where one or two styles were in vogue and everyone was trying their hand at them, there are some works of art that stood alone even in their time. A few I could get lost in. The nightmarish works of Hieronymus Bosch compel me to look for every demon and grim reaper hidden in the brushstrokes. Salvador Dali pulls at a point just between my eyes. I suppose the individual vignettes both artists fill their canvases with appeal to my ADD brain. lol And I’m sure were I to stare overlong at the works of M. C. Escher I might fall down that rabbit hole. Like I said, I could get lost in them. Some of my favorite artistic expressions have to do with tricking the eye. And that’s what today’s post is all about.

There’s a mode of painting called Quadratura. (When you pronounce it it’s pretty straight forward until you get to the t. The t is pronounced ch.) Say it with me.
:)

Quadratura means to square. This has to do with painting walls and the angles involved. When I say that, I don’t mean painting a wall, I mean murals on the walls and ceilings. Illusions like these tricked the eye by visually extending the room’s actual architecture into an imaginary space beyond. The point was sotto in su which means from below upwards.

Trompe l’oeil, meaning deceive the eye, is less about extending walls than it is about depth. It tricks the eye into seeing flat paintings in 3-D. The Quadratura techniques required an artist to have exceptional spatial skills and mastery of linear perspective. The amazing thing about this grand art style is the full impact of the scene is generally only visible from one vantage point.

One of the more interesting techniques of this visual trickery is Forced Perspective. Example: Were you to lay the Sistine Chapel’s paintings flat rather than going with the curved ceiling vaults it was painted on, you’d see disproportionate and contorted bodies. By painting within the constraints of arcs and keeping the sotto in su in mind, Michelangelo created a stunning masterpiece meant to be seen from below. My small blog doesn’t do the grand images justice. I recommend looking these beauties up online or at the library.



A few examples:

Quadratura~

The Palace of Versailles ceiling

Guercino’s Aurora

Correggio’s The Assumption of the Virgin

Andrea Pozzo’s The Apotheosis of St Ignatius

Trompe l’oeil~

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel

Charles Willson Peale’s The Artist in His Museum

The ceiling in the Royal Palace of Madrid

Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper

More~

The restoration of the Sistine Chapel

Seven things you may not know about the Sistine Chapel

Modern takes on Quadratura and Trompe L’oeil

An example of Forced Perspective in film

There was a time when cards and letters exclusively told friends and family you cared. Vintage holiday postcards and greeting cards were often beautifully done things. That and the sentiment behind them were the reason so many were kept as keepsakes. From now until January, I’ll share vintage holiday postcards for you to enjoy.

Scroll down to see previous vintage postcards and learn how postcards became popular greetings to send, what is cost to send them, and about the big changes made after WWI.

Subscribe to get them in your inbox!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥New!♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Buy on Amazon

It’s a Top 100 pick in Holiday!

♥♥♥ My Other Book News ♥♥♥

Four 5-star reviews of The Changeling!

♥My other recent release has shining stars too!

Entice Me – a multi-author collection. It’s a steal for 99¢. My story is Heart of Stone

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Words Worth Mentioning for December

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” ~Michelangelo

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Today’s guest is Author Stacy Juba

http://romancebooks4us.blogspot.com/

Authors and Industry representatives all month long.

Romance Books ‘4’ Us

The December contest is on! Prizes often include $100 in gift cards for Amazon/B&N, ebooks, print books, audiobooks, additional gift cards, and non-book items. http://www.romancebooks4us.com/