Ruth Harris's Blog, page 7
April 19, 2016
Blake Weston is a strong, savvy, no BS New Yorker. H...
Blake Weston is a strong, savvy, no BS New Yorker. Her husband, Ralph Marino, is a très James Bond ex-cop and head of security for a large international corporation. When Blake and Ralph, facing sixty, are forced by Ralph’s über-neurotic billionaire boss to work together to solve a murder—and save Ralph’s job—their partnership doesn’t always go so well. When one minor skirmish turns into a battle…well, let Blake tell you what happens next:
I left the apartment—with a slammed door for emphasis—and made my way to Julia’s. She’d been spending most of her time in her new fling’s downtown loft so I knew her apartment was empty. I let myself in with the key she had given me years before.I flipped on the TV. Flipped it off. Wandered into the kitchen, opened the fridge, inventoried the lo-cal, no cholesterol, zero trans-fat, gluten-free offerings and realized I wasn’t hungry. Considered breaking into Julia’s Ketel One but concluded that in my agitated state booze was the last thing I needed.I went to the bedroom, thought about getting into bed but I was too angry with Ralph to sleep. If I were feeling generous (which I wasn’t) I suppose I could blame his NYPD training but being kept out of the loop and being treated on a “need to know” basis was getting old—and getting old was something I already knew too much about.I was old enough for night sweats and morning stiffness. For Metamucil and Centrum Silver. For colonoscopies and cholesterol counts. For junk mail offering estate planning advice and good deals on burial plots.I was old enough to remember the Pan Am Building, Bendel’s when it was at 10 West 57th Street, cash registers, getting up and crossing the room to change the channel, Princess phones, floppy disks, carbon paper and typewriters.I could even remember when “latte” was Italian for milk—not American for coffee.I had survived blizzards and blackouts, subway series and subway strikes, Ronald Perelman and Ronald Reagan. I had reached the stage when I forgot names and phone numbers, book and movie titles, where I’d left my glasses, why I’d entered a room and what I was going to say next.But I wasn’t that old.I had kept up enough to know I was living in an age of e*trade and eharmony, podcasts and tweets, fuel cells, stem cells, sleeper cells and fat cells. I still had my marbles, my eyesight and my determination. I could conduct a conversation without drooling and get into the bathtub without a LifeAlert.I also knew enough to ask for input when I needed it so I called Julia.“Working with Ralph is not going well,” I told her.
So, my Boomer buddies, do you remember what Blake remembers? What do you remember that she's left out? And what do you forget? Do tell! :-)
If you relate to this, you'll relate to The Chanel Caper. New dimensions in the cozy mystery!
KindleRead FREE at KU!
I left the apartment—with a slammed door for emphasis—and made my way to Julia’s. She’d been spending most of her time in her new fling’s downtown loft so I knew her apartment was empty. I let myself in with the key she had given me years before.I flipped on the TV. Flipped it off. Wandered into the kitchen, opened the fridge, inventoried the lo-cal, no cholesterol, zero trans-fat, gluten-free offerings and realized I wasn’t hungry. Considered breaking into Julia’s Ketel One but concluded that in my agitated state booze was the last thing I needed.I went to the bedroom, thought about getting into bed but I was too angry with Ralph to sleep. If I were feeling generous (which I wasn’t) I suppose I could blame his NYPD training but being kept out of the loop and being treated on a “need to know” basis was getting old—and getting old was something I already knew too much about.I was old enough for night sweats and morning stiffness. For Metamucil and Centrum Silver. For colonoscopies and cholesterol counts. For junk mail offering estate planning advice and good deals on burial plots.I was old enough to remember the Pan Am Building, Bendel’s when it was at 10 West 57th Street, cash registers, getting up and crossing the room to change the channel, Princess phones, floppy disks, carbon paper and typewriters.I could even remember when “latte” was Italian for milk—not American for coffee.I had survived blizzards and blackouts, subway series and subway strikes, Ronald Perelman and Ronald Reagan. I had reached the stage when I forgot names and phone numbers, book and movie titles, where I’d left my glasses, why I’d entered a room and what I was going to say next.But I wasn’t that old.I had kept up enough to know I was living in an age of e*trade and eharmony, podcasts and tweets, fuel cells, stem cells, sleeper cells and fat cells. I still had my marbles, my eyesight and my determination. I could conduct a conversation without drooling and get into the bathtub without a LifeAlert.I also knew enough to ask for input when I needed it so I called Julia.“Working with Ralph is not going well,” I told her.
So, my Boomer buddies, do you remember what Blake remembers? What do you remember that she's left out? And what do you forget? Do tell! :-)
If you relate to this, you'll relate to The Chanel Caper. New dimensions in the cozy mystery!
KindleRead FREE at KU!
April 11, 2016
FREE! April 14 and 15 ONLY!A KISS AT KIHALI Kindle and Ki...
FREE! April 14 and 15 ONLY!A KISS AT KIHALI Kindle and Kindle UKNow. back to our regular programming. :-)Flirty After Fifty. Sexy After Sixty.We remember the Fonz and Archie Bunker.
We remember when LBJ meant the President (Lyndon B Johnson) and not a basketball player (LeBron James).
We remember the California Raisins, Louis the Lizard and the Budweiser Frogs.
We remember Polaroids and Suzy Chapstick. We remember pin curls and garter belts, answering machines and floppy disks.
We remember Dick & Pat, Jack & Jackie, Ronnie & Nancy, Jimmy & Roslyn, Bonnie & Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Ken & Barbie.
We remember when you had to get up & cross the room to change the channel.
We remember gas station attendants.
We remember when Amazon was a river in South America, not a store on the internet.We remember streakers, est and transcendental meditation.
We remember consciousness raising, encounter groups and the Manson Family.
We remember Bullitt, The Godfather, and The French Connection.
We remember Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and Marvin Gaye.
We remember Sergeant Pepper, Tricky Dick and Flower Power.
We remember the Bouffant, the Beehive, the Shag, the D.A, The Wet Look, The Dry Look and Greasy Kid Stuff.
We remember Joy, "the most expensive perfume in the world" and "Modess...because"
We remember the Atkins Diet, the Scarsdale diet and the Beverly Hills diet.
We remember Pan Am and TWA.
We remember disco and Donna Summer, hula hoops and Rubik's cubes.
Me, too.
I remember lots but I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, where I put my glasses, why I went into the kitchen and what I meant to do there.
So, my Boomer buddies, do you remember what I remember? What do you remember that I've left out? And what do you forget? Do tell! :-)
If you relate to this, you'll relate to The Chanel Caper.
Kindle
James Bond meets Nora Ephron. Or is it the other way around? A savvy female sleuth solves the crime and answers two of the most important questions of our time: 1) Is sixty the new forty? 2) Is there sex after marriage? “A totally fabulous, LMAO adventure with some of the best one-liners I've ever read!!!”
We remember when LBJ meant the President (Lyndon B Johnson) and not a basketball player (LeBron James).
We remember the California Raisins, Louis the Lizard and the Budweiser Frogs.
We remember Polaroids and Suzy Chapstick. We remember pin curls and garter belts, answering machines and floppy disks.
We remember Dick & Pat, Jack & Jackie, Ronnie & Nancy, Jimmy & Roslyn, Bonnie & Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Ken & Barbie.
We remember when you had to get up & cross the room to change the channel.
We remember gas station attendants.
We remember when Amazon was a river in South America, not a store on the internet.We remember streakers, est and transcendental meditation.
We remember consciousness raising, encounter groups and the Manson Family.
We remember Bullitt, The Godfather, and The French Connection.
We remember Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and Marvin Gaye.
We remember Sergeant Pepper, Tricky Dick and Flower Power.
We remember the Bouffant, the Beehive, the Shag, the D.A, The Wet Look, The Dry Look and Greasy Kid Stuff.
We remember Joy, "the most expensive perfume in the world" and "Modess...because"
We remember the Atkins Diet, the Scarsdale diet and the Beverly Hills diet.
We remember Pan Am and TWA.
We remember disco and Donna Summer, hula hoops and Rubik's cubes.
Me, too.
I remember lots but I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, where I put my glasses, why I went into the kitchen and what I meant to do there.
So, my Boomer buddies, do you remember what I remember? What do you remember that I've left out? And what do you forget? Do tell! :-)
If you relate to this, you'll relate to The Chanel Caper.
KindleJames Bond meets Nora Ephron. Or is it the other way around? A savvy female sleuth solves the crime and answers two of the most important questions of our time: 1) Is sixty the new forty? 2) Is there sex after marriage? “A totally fabulous, LMAO adventure with some of the best one-liners I've ever read!!!”
Flirty After Fifty. Sexy After Sixty.We remember the Fonz...
Flirty After Fifty. Sexy After Sixty.We remember the Fonz and Archie Bunker.
We remember when LBJ meant the President (Lyndon B Johnson) and not a basketball player (LeBron James).
We remember the California Raisins, Louis the Lizard and the Budweiser Frogs.
We remember Polaroids and Suzy Chapstick. We remember pin curls and garter belts, answering machines and floppy disks.
We remember Dick & Pat, Jack & Jackie, Ronnie & Nancy, Jimmy & Roslyn, Bonnie & Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Ken & Barbie.
We remember when you had to get up & cross the room to change the channel.
We remember gas station attendants.
We remember when Amazon was a river in South America, not a store on the internet.We remember streakers, est and transcendental meditation.
We remember consciousness raising, encounter groups and the Manson Family.
We remember Bullitt, The Godfather, and The French Connection.
We remember Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd and Marvin Gaye.
We remember Sergeant Pepper, Tricky Dick and Flower Power.
We remember the Bouffant, the Beehive, the Shag, the D.A, The Wet Look, The Dry Look and Greasy Kid Stuff.
We remember Joy, "the most expensive perfume in the world" and "Modess...because"
We remember the Atkins Diet, the Scarsdale diet and the Beverly Hills diet.
We remember Pan Am and TWA.
We remember disco and Donna Summer, hula hoops and Rubik's cubes.
Me, too.
I remember lots but I can't remember what I had for dinner last night, where I put my glasses, why I went into the kitchen and what I meant to do there.
So, my Boomer buddies, do you remember what I remember? What do you remember that I've left out? And what do you forget? Do tell! :-)
If you relate to this, you'll relate to The Chanel Caper.
KindleJames Bond meets Nora Ephron. Or is it the other way around? A savvy female sleuth solves the crime and answers two of the most important questions of our time: 1) Is sixty the new forty? 2) Is there sex after marriage? “A totally fabulous, LMAO adventure with some of the best one-liners I've ever read!!!”
March 16, 2016
11 Tips For The Care And Feeding Of Your Muse:A Guide For...
11 Tips For The Care And Feeding Of Your Muse:
A Guide For Writers And Everyone Who Wants To Be More Creative
The muse (also referred to as intuition, instinct, the subconscious, a superpower, the Spidey sense) is generally a friendly and cooperative breed. By nature, the muse tends to be bright eyed, curious and energetic. However, ignored or poorly-treated the muse can be become depressed and mopey and will not function effectively.The rules for its care and feeding are simple. Obeying them will keep your muse—and you—creative, productive and in top operating condition.
1) Do offer your muse a lavish buffet of experiences. Muses have adventuresome palates and perk up at the opportunity to try something new and/or different. Be sure to share all the interesting, offbeat, repellent, lurid, provocative and enlightening content that rushes past in a torrent every day.Your muse will love you for your everyday reading habits. Reading in your genre and out, fiction and non-fiction, newspapers and magazines — will keep your muse happy and healthy. Nourished on a solid stream of input, your muse will be able to connect unrelated ideas into dazzling new plots and twists.
2) Don’t put your muse on a diet. Paleo? No way. Low carb? Uh-uh. Muses get cranky when they’re hungry and behave badly. All they can think about is food and their next meal. They are too preoccupied with thoughts of pasta, chocolate and a good, thick steak to pay attention to you and your book. Deprived of regular feeding, your muse will have no energy for the heavy lifting needed for creative work.Besides, diets don’t work. Not for people. Not for muses.
3) Don’t bore your muse. Muses hate getting stuck in a rut. For optimum health, your muse needs to be challenged and stimulated. Gallery hopping and channel surfing, brushing up your high school Spanish and learning to lindy, roller skate and enjoy hot dogs and a beer in bleacher seats at the ballgame—each offers your muse new and different experience.A summer vacation at the shore might inspire the next Jaws.A visit to a natural history museum might result in Jurassic Park.An hour or two with the food channel might trigger a new cozy set in a bakery or restaurant. Or what about a new horror novel starring a demented, knife-wielding chef, TV cooking-show host or obnoxious restaurant-owner?Even the supermarket can inspire your muse—think of The Stepford Wives. Visit Whole Foods for the organic, more upscale version.Binge viewing The Sopranos or House of Cards could lead you to create the next Godfather or All The President’s Men.
4) Do learn to interpret communiqués from your muse .Muses, although generally reliable, communicate in unpredictable ways. Sometimes they shout. Sometimes they whisper.The story you can’t get out of your mind, the one that wakes you up at night and intrudes when you’re otherwise occupied? That’s a shout. Your muse is giving you no option except to pay attention.The chapter you’re bogged down on and hate writing? Your muse might be telling you you’re on the wrong track and need to figure out where you’ve made your mistake.The balky character that lays there like a herring and won’t come to life? Your muse is telling you you need to shape up and do a better job.The idea that flashes through your mind so fast it almost disappears the moment it becomes conscious? That’s a whisper. Whispers are gold and must be gathered and protected, ergo, the notebook.
5) Do keep a notebook—or several. Whether digital or paper, the notebook is indispensable. Any writer who doesn’t have a note book—paper or electronic—should have his or her computer impounded.Evernote, Microsoft OneNote and WorkFlowy all work as excellent electronic note keepers.Paper notebooks should be everywhere you are. There are notebooks on my night table, in the kitchen, on the dining room table, in the living room, next to my desk (obviously!) and in my purse. There is even a notebook in the bathroom for those nights I wake up with a "brilliant" idea I absolutely have to write down. In the dark. So as not to disturb my DH who already knows all too much about what it's like to live with a writer.Here are 6) Do obey the golden rule and treat your muse as you would want to be treated. Muses tend to be patient and understanding but they don’t like to be hurried, harried or harassed. They respond better to the kiss than the whip and will go MIA if you are feeling overwhelmed, out of control and stressed out.If your muse has gone AWOL, look for him/her at your nearest yoga class. In fact, it might be a good idea to pull up a mat and join your muse in a tree pose and downward dog.A well-chosen yoga tape or some time out for meditation and/or deep breathing calm you and help get you and your muse back in primo working condition.Yoga for beginners to get you started (or restarted).Kundalini yoga.Ashtanga.Over 200 free yoga classes on line.Time out for meditation.Controlled breathing.
7) Don’t ignore your muse’s bio-rhythms. Your muse will not react well when tired, sleepy or barely-awake. Some muses work better in the morning, others perform at their best later in the day or at night. Synch your work habits with those of your muse and you will find your work goes smoother and inspiration comes more easily.Don’t expect your night owl muse to be perky and creative early in the AM.Don’t ask your crack-of-dawn muse to come to your rescue at midnight.
8) Do give your free-range muse room to roam.Stilettos or clogs? Polos or Tees? Grunge or business casual? Black tie or white shoe? Fashion magazines, style blogs and catalogs are filled with photos and descriptions of clothing. Check them out and your muse will find new ways for you to describe your character’s clothing and wardrobe in ways that brings them alive and makes them real to the reader.Good hair day or bad plastic surgery? Muffin top or too rich and too thin? Beauty and grooming sites are filled with photos and comment, some of it snarky, some of it sincere, about exactly one subject: how people look. With their help, you and your muse can turn your descriptions from insipid to inspired.The business pages are a source for occupations and careers: your characters have to make a living, don’t they? The tabs are an endless wellspring of sex and scandal and niche magazines or blogs—bass fishing, ice climbing, stamp collecting, arctic biology—will open new dictionaries for the alert writer and his or her muse.Success and failure, triumph and tragedy. Go to the sports pages. Seriously. Almost every story is basically about how an athlete, talented or otherwise, overcomes—or doesn’t—golden-boy good looks, a reputation for dogging it, a lousy attitude in the clubhouse, jail time, drugs, booze, injury, scandal, depression, poor parenting, mean and/or incompetent coaching.Besides, it’s not just the drama and the schmaltz, it’s also about the language: sports are all about action and sports writers are great with verbs.
9) Do treat your muse to input from experts like choreographer, Twyla Tharp.Her guidebook, The Creative Habit, is practical, down to earth and inspiring. Using a wide-ranging set of examples ranging from Homer to Proust, from Ulysses S Grand to Ludwig Wittgenstein and Pope LeoX, from Merce Cunningham and George Balanchine to Ansel Adams, Raymond Chandler, Mozart and Yogi Berra, she offers a detailed road map to defining your creative identity based on her own experience.Ms. Tharp explains the importance of routine, ritual and setting goals, how to know the difference between a good idea and a bad idea, how to recognize ruts when you’re in one and she offers explicit guidelines about how to get out of them.
10) Don’t ignore your gut feelings and learn how to train your muse.Susan Kaye Quinn is a scientist—a rocket scientist, to be exact—and author of the bestselling Mindjack series. Susan refers to her muse as a superpower and in this must-read article she tells how to tap your subconscious, how to train your muse and why you should pay attention to your gut feelings.You will find more from Susan about increasing your productivity and amping up your creativity in her post at David Gaughran’s blog.
11) Do learn to trust your muse—even when you don’t know exactly why.
Your intuition aka your muse is that sense of knowing without knowing and Steve Jobs called it “ more powerful than intellect.” From dealing with negative thoughts, to paying attention to your dreams, and making time for solitude Carolyn Gregoire lists 10 Things Highly Intuitive People Do Differently.
"First class entertainment!" —NYTimes
Originally published in hard cover by Random House!
New on KU!
Read for free!
The muse (also referred to as intuition, instinct, the subconscious, a superpower, the Spidey sense) is generally a friendly and cooperative breed. By nature, the muse tends to be bright eyed, curious and energetic. However, ignored or poorly-treated the muse can be become depressed and mopey and will not function effectively.The rules for its care and feeding are simple. Obeying them will keep your muse—and you—creative, productive and in top operating condition.
1) Do offer your muse a lavish buffet of experiences. Muses have adventuresome palates and perk up at the opportunity to try something new and/or different. Be sure to share all the interesting, offbeat, repellent, lurid, provocative and enlightening content that rushes past in a torrent every day.Your muse will love you for your everyday reading habits. Reading in your genre and out, fiction and non-fiction, newspapers and magazines — will keep your muse happy and healthy. Nourished on a solid stream of input, your muse will be able to connect unrelated ideas into dazzling new plots and twists.
2) Don’t put your muse on a diet. Paleo? No way. Low carb? Uh-uh. Muses get cranky when they’re hungry and behave badly. All they can think about is food and their next meal. They are too preoccupied with thoughts of pasta, chocolate and a good, thick steak to pay attention to you and your book. Deprived of regular feeding, your muse will have no energy for the heavy lifting needed for creative work.Besides, diets don’t work. Not for people. Not for muses.
3) Don’t bore your muse. Muses hate getting stuck in a rut. For optimum health, your muse needs to be challenged and stimulated. Gallery hopping and channel surfing, brushing up your high school Spanish and learning to lindy, roller skate and enjoy hot dogs and a beer in bleacher seats at the ballgame—each offers your muse new and different experience.A summer vacation at the shore might inspire the next Jaws.A visit to a natural history museum might result in Jurassic Park.An hour or two with the food channel might trigger a new cozy set in a bakery or restaurant. Or what about a new horror novel starring a demented, knife-wielding chef, TV cooking-show host or obnoxious restaurant-owner?Even the supermarket can inspire your muse—think of The Stepford Wives. Visit Whole Foods for the organic, more upscale version.Binge viewing The Sopranos or House of Cards could lead you to create the next Godfather or All The President’s Men.
4) Do learn to interpret communiqués from your muse .Muses, although generally reliable, communicate in unpredictable ways. Sometimes they shout. Sometimes they whisper.The story you can’t get out of your mind, the one that wakes you up at night and intrudes when you’re otherwise occupied? That’s a shout. Your muse is giving you no option except to pay attention.The chapter you’re bogged down on and hate writing? Your muse might be telling you you’re on the wrong track and need to figure out where you’ve made your mistake.The balky character that lays there like a herring and won’t come to life? Your muse is telling you you need to shape up and do a better job.The idea that flashes through your mind so fast it almost disappears the moment it becomes conscious? That’s a whisper. Whispers are gold and must be gathered and protected, ergo, the notebook.
5) Do keep a notebook—or several. Whether digital or paper, the notebook is indispensable. Any writer who doesn’t have a note book—paper or electronic—should have his or her computer impounded.Evernote, Microsoft OneNote and WorkFlowy all work as excellent electronic note keepers.Paper notebooks should be everywhere you are. There are notebooks on my night table, in the kitchen, on the dining room table, in the living room, next to my desk (obviously!) and in my purse. There is even a notebook in the bathroom for those nights I wake up with a "brilliant" idea I absolutely have to write down. In the dark. So as not to disturb my DH who already knows all too much about what it's like to live with a writer.Here are 6) Do obey the golden rule and treat your muse as you would want to be treated. Muses tend to be patient and understanding but they don’t like to be hurried, harried or harassed. They respond better to the kiss than the whip and will go MIA if you are feeling overwhelmed, out of control and stressed out.If your muse has gone AWOL, look for him/her at your nearest yoga class. In fact, it might be a good idea to pull up a mat and join your muse in a tree pose and downward dog.A well-chosen yoga tape or some time out for meditation and/or deep breathing calm you and help get you and your muse back in primo working condition.Yoga for beginners to get you started (or restarted).Kundalini yoga.Ashtanga.Over 200 free yoga classes on line.Time out for meditation.Controlled breathing.
7) Don’t ignore your muse’s bio-rhythms. Your muse will not react well when tired, sleepy or barely-awake. Some muses work better in the morning, others perform at their best later in the day or at night. Synch your work habits with those of your muse and you will find your work goes smoother and inspiration comes more easily.Don’t expect your night owl muse to be perky and creative early in the AM.Don’t ask your crack-of-dawn muse to come to your rescue at midnight.
8) Do give your free-range muse room to roam.Stilettos or clogs? Polos or Tees? Grunge or business casual? Black tie or white shoe? Fashion magazines, style blogs and catalogs are filled with photos and descriptions of clothing. Check them out and your muse will find new ways for you to describe your character’s clothing and wardrobe in ways that brings them alive and makes them real to the reader.Good hair day or bad plastic surgery? Muffin top or too rich and too thin? Beauty and grooming sites are filled with photos and comment, some of it snarky, some of it sincere, about exactly one subject: how people look. With their help, you and your muse can turn your descriptions from insipid to inspired.The business pages are a source for occupations and careers: your characters have to make a living, don’t they? The tabs are an endless wellspring of sex and scandal and niche magazines or blogs—bass fishing, ice climbing, stamp collecting, arctic biology—will open new dictionaries for the alert writer and his or her muse.Success and failure, triumph and tragedy. Go to the sports pages. Seriously. Almost every story is basically about how an athlete, talented or otherwise, overcomes—or doesn’t—golden-boy good looks, a reputation for dogging it, a lousy attitude in the clubhouse, jail time, drugs, booze, injury, scandal, depression, poor parenting, mean and/or incompetent coaching.Besides, it’s not just the drama and the schmaltz, it’s also about the language: sports are all about action and sports writers are great with verbs.
9) Do treat your muse to input from experts like choreographer, Twyla Tharp.Her guidebook, The Creative Habit, is practical, down to earth and inspiring. Using a wide-ranging set of examples ranging from Homer to Proust, from Ulysses S Grand to Ludwig Wittgenstein and Pope LeoX, from Merce Cunningham and George Balanchine to Ansel Adams, Raymond Chandler, Mozart and Yogi Berra, she offers a detailed road map to defining your creative identity based on her own experience.Ms. Tharp explains the importance of routine, ritual and setting goals, how to know the difference between a good idea and a bad idea, how to recognize ruts when you’re in one and she offers explicit guidelines about how to get out of them.
10) Don’t ignore your gut feelings and learn how to train your muse.Susan Kaye Quinn is a scientist—a rocket scientist, to be exact—and author of the bestselling Mindjack series. Susan refers to her muse as a superpower and in this must-read article she tells how to tap your subconscious, how to train your muse and why you should pay attention to your gut feelings.You will find more from Susan about increasing your productivity and amping up your creativity in her post at David Gaughran’s blog.
11) Do learn to trust your muse—even when you don’t know exactly why.
Your intuition aka your muse is that sense of knowing without knowing and Steve Jobs called it “ more powerful than intellect.” From dealing with negative thoughts, to paying attention to your dreams, and making time for solitude Carolyn Gregoire lists 10 Things Highly Intuitive People Do Differently.
"First class entertainment!" —NYTimesOriginally published in hard cover by Random House!
New on KU!
Read for free!
March 9, 2016
FROM MIKE TYSON TO ALBERT EINSTEIN: Why Writers Need...
FROM MIKE TYSON TO ALBERT EINSTEIN: Why Writers Need To Goof Off And Space Out
“Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth,” observed philosopher-pugilist, Mike Tyson.
Not just boxers, Mike. Ditto for writers.
Whether you’re a plotter or pantser, you start out with some kind of plan. That plan might be a theme, an idea, a concept, an image, a main character, a villain, a plot or plot twist, a setting, an outline or beat sheet. Then you begin to write and at some point you realize you’re on the receiving end of a punch in the mouth, because—
The book about which you had such dazzling fantasies is a disorganized mess.Your brilliant insights are drowning in a sea of ugly clutter.The first chapter is a dingy cellar dweller.The inciting incident is fat, flabby and forgettable (even by you).Those annoying dust bunnies lurking around the corners of the plot/theme/outline are triggering an allergy attack.The plot is MIA somewhere in the jungles of remotest Borneo.The characters have all the verve and come-hither appeal of your ex’s sweaty socks the dog just unearthed from under the bed.The verbs are passive, the nouns meh and the adjectives are rusting in the front yard.You’d rather wait for your cable company to show up than drag yourself to your computer and face the beast.
So then what? How do you punch back and rediscover the joy of writing?
The first thing to understand is that creative work by definition is “disorganized and non-linear” and that the writer’s job is to make order out of chaos—a process that happens in the conscious and the subconscious. Both must be given time—and the proper conditions—to perform at their peak.
The second thing is to remind yourself that, despite your fits of insecurity and self-doubt, you’re a creative person. Research in cognitive psychology and the personal experiences of other highly creative people point the way to some of most effective, time-tested behaviors that will help tame the process and allow you to experience the joy of writing.
Goof off. Seriously. When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap. Or a shower. Try that new recipe you’ve been thinking about. Build a model airplane. Weed the garden. Go to a party, an art gallery, a museum. Watch a movie, catch up with the news, phone a friend. Go to a concert or the ballet or a baseball game.
Or, God forbid, do the dishes, take out the garbage or get out the vacuum cleaner because when, you’re feeling uninspired, housework is more appealing than writing. At least for a while.
The reason is that sometimes you get ahead of yourself and need a little time (aka “goofing off”) to catch up. A Stanford psychologist explains why spacing out is good for you and your work and suggests three ways to disengage.
Bottom line: when you’re feeling stuck/blah/blocked/burned out, get away from your desk. Stop beating up on yourself and go do something else. I’ve told my DH at least a million times that a body in motion is a mind in motion. (Who says living with a writer isn’t one thrill after another?)
Best of all? Take a walk. A Stanford study shows that walking improve creativity.
Don’t forget: Albert Einstein was known for the theory of relativity—and for taking walks around the Princeton campus.
Change speeds . If you write on a computer, switch to a pad and pen. Slowing down can make a difference and there seems to be a more direct connection to the brain when writing by hand than via a keyboard.
Blogger and short story writer, Lee Bourke, tells why creative writing is better with a pen.
According to psychologists, writing by hand can make you smarter.
Caffeine . A Starbucks run provides the kick start magic for many and it’s no surprise that writers plant themselves at a coffee shop with their laptops or notebooks—the kinds with keyboards or the old fashioned pen and paper variety.
Balzac was known to indulge in fifty cups a day but new research questions the effect of caffeine on creativity. Another approach disagrees and points out that caffeine is effective if you use it correctly.
For me, a cup of freshly brewed Darjeeling, Assam, Keemun or Green Jasmine does the job. However, it might not be the mild dose of caffeine that helps. Instead, leaving my desk, going into the kitchen, warming the teapot, boiling the water, measuring the tea, and waiting for it to brew breaks the hyper-focused oh-shit-now-what?-cycle and allows the idea I need to bubble up from my subconscious.
Brainstorming . Turning to a reliable brainstorming partner, a parent, sibling, cubicle mate can rescue you from a glitch. In my case, my DH (lucky man). Very often, it’s not what he says. It’s what I say. Turns out I had the solution all along; I just didn’t know it until I started talking about my current problem/dilemma.
Other brainstorming techniques include mind mapping, listing, and cubing. Those approaches and others are described in a Writing Center article. If one technique doesn’t work, try another. And the another until you get where you want to be.
Want to write a book in thirty days? Here’s a guide to brainstorming methods that will get you going and keep you on track.
Wanna really go for it? Influential English author, Michael Moorcock, explains how to write a book in three days.
To help you get started (or keep you going), here’s a list of 24 of the best, most popular brainstorming and mind mapping apps.
Read. Science shows that extensive practice in reading or writing is related to high creative performance. Duh. So read widely and often.
The sports pages because sports writers are great at describing action. Good verbs and lots of drama—doping! gambling! violence on the field and off! heroes and villains!—on the sports page.Fashion magazines, style blogs and catalogs are filled with detailed descriptions of clothing that will give you loads of ideas about describing your characters’ wardrobes.Beauty and grooming sites focus on hair, makeup and all the other details of personal grooming and presentation that will sharpen your perspective—and vocabulary—when it comes to describing appearance.The business pages are a great source of ideas for occupations and careers, and are brimming with stories of failure and success that make great drama for fiction. The Big Short, The Wolf of Wall Street and Billions are examples that will inspire you.The tabs are an endless wellspring of secrets, sex and scandal, luridly written and lasciviously described. From Dallas to Scandal, Valley Of The Dolls To Fifty Shades Of Grey, the sordid doings of the rich and famous never go out of style.Filmed documentaries, special-interest magazines or blogs on a vast range of subjects—urban hydrology, big wave surfing, Elvis costumes, arctic biology—can jar you out of your impasse and give you ideas for new and different kinds of characters and settings.
Nail The Blurb . Sometimes I get lost in the trees and need to step back and see the forest again. You, too? Writing the blurb is a way to regain the perspective you’ve (temporarily) lost. Besides, after your cover, blurbs are the second most important selling tool you have for your book.
Here’s advice on how to write a brilliant blurb and the difference between a blurb and a synopsis.
Joanna Penn reminds us that a blurb is basically a sales pitch and offers advice about how to make your blurb shine—and sell.
I’m a long time cover copy writer, so here’s my take on how to write a killer blurb.
Indulge. Booze, wine, chocolate have been tried and found guilty of putting that inner scold/second-guesser in its place and unleashing the imagination. Just don’t get so loaded you can’t read your notes the next day or so fat you can’t waddle to your computer. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Go back to work and give it another try. It’s gonna be fun. Really. After all, Albert Einstein, who figured out the inner secrets of the universe, also figured out the inner secrets of creativity: “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
___________
Note from Ruth: This post originally appeared on the blog I share with the wondrous Anne R. Allen. For more of our wit and wisdom, be sure to check out Anne's blog. This week Anne explains why “SHOW DON’T TELL” CAN BE TERRIBLE ADVICE FOR NEW WRITERS
___________
Kindle ebook
MILLION-COPY NYT BESTSELLER! READ FREE! FIRST TIME AVAILABLE ON KU.
“Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth,” observed philosopher-pugilist, Mike Tyson.
Not just boxers, Mike. Ditto for writers.
Whether you’re a plotter or pantser, you start out with some kind of plan. That plan might be a theme, an idea, a concept, an image, a main character, a villain, a plot or plot twist, a setting, an outline or beat sheet. Then you begin to write and at some point you realize you’re on the receiving end of a punch in the mouth, because—
The book about which you had such dazzling fantasies is a disorganized mess.Your brilliant insights are drowning in a sea of ugly clutter.The first chapter is a dingy cellar dweller.The inciting incident is fat, flabby and forgettable (even by you).Those annoying dust bunnies lurking around the corners of the plot/theme/outline are triggering an allergy attack.The plot is MIA somewhere in the jungles of remotest Borneo.The characters have all the verve and come-hither appeal of your ex’s sweaty socks the dog just unearthed from under the bed.The verbs are passive, the nouns meh and the adjectives are rusting in the front yard.You’d rather wait for your cable company to show up than drag yourself to your computer and face the beast.
So then what? How do you punch back and rediscover the joy of writing?
The first thing to understand is that creative work by definition is “disorganized and non-linear” and that the writer’s job is to make order out of chaos—a process that happens in the conscious and the subconscious. Both must be given time—and the proper conditions—to perform at their peak.
The second thing is to remind yourself that, despite your fits of insecurity and self-doubt, you’re a creative person. Research in cognitive psychology and the personal experiences of other highly creative people point the way to some of most effective, time-tested behaviors that will help tame the process and allow you to experience the joy of writing.
Goof off. Seriously. When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap. Or a shower. Try that new recipe you’ve been thinking about. Build a model airplane. Weed the garden. Go to a party, an art gallery, a museum. Watch a movie, catch up with the news, phone a friend. Go to a concert or the ballet or a baseball game.
Or, God forbid, do the dishes, take out the garbage or get out the vacuum cleaner because when, you’re feeling uninspired, housework is more appealing than writing. At least for a while.
The reason is that sometimes you get ahead of yourself and need a little time (aka “goofing off”) to catch up. A Stanford psychologist explains why spacing out is good for you and your work and suggests three ways to disengage.
Bottom line: when you’re feeling stuck/blah/blocked/burned out, get away from your desk. Stop beating up on yourself and go do something else. I’ve told my DH at least a million times that a body in motion is a mind in motion. (Who says living with a writer isn’t one thrill after another?)
Best of all? Take a walk. A Stanford study shows that walking improve creativity.
Don’t forget: Albert Einstein was known for the theory of relativity—and for taking walks around the Princeton campus.
Change speeds . If you write on a computer, switch to a pad and pen. Slowing down can make a difference and there seems to be a more direct connection to the brain when writing by hand than via a keyboard.
Blogger and short story writer, Lee Bourke, tells why creative writing is better with a pen.
According to psychologists, writing by hand can make you smarter.
Caffeine . A Starbucks run provides the kick start magic for many and it’s no surprise that writers plant themselves at a coffee shop with their laptops or notebooks—the kinds with keyboards or the old fashioned pen and paper variety.
Balzac was known to indulge in fifty cups a day but new research questions the effect of caffeine on creativity. Another approach disagrees and points out that caffeine is effective if you use it correctly.
For me, a cup of freshly brewed Darjeeling, Assam, Keemun or Green Jasmine does the job. However, it might not be the mild dose of caffeine that helps. Instead, leaving my desk, going into the kitchen, warming the teapot, boiling the water, measuring the tea, and waiting for it to brew breaks the hyper-focused oh-shit-now-what?-cycle and allows the idea I need to bubble up from my subconscious.
Brainstorming . Turning to a reliable brainstorming partner, a parent, sibling, cubicle mate can rescue you from a glitch. In my case, my DH (lucky man). Very often, it’s not what he says. It’s what I say. Turns out I had the solution all along; I just didn’t know it until I started talking about my current problem/dilemma.
Other brainstorming techniques include mind mapping, listing, and cubing. Those approaches and others are described in a Writing Center article. If one technique doesn’t work, try another. And the another until you get where you want to be.
Want to write a book in thirty days? Here’s a guide to brainstorming methods that will get you going and keep you on track.
Wanna really go for it? Influential English author, Michael Moorcock, explains how to write a book in three days.
To help you get started (or keep you going), here’s a list of 24 of the best, most popular brainstorming and mind mapping apps.
Read. Science shows that extensive practice in reading or writing is related to high creative performance. Duh. So read widely and often.
The sports pages because sports writers are great at describing action. Good verbs and lots of drama—doping! gambling! violence on the field and off! heroes and villains!—on the sports page.Fashion magazines, style blogs and catalogs are filled with detailed descriptions of clothing that will give you loads of ideas about describing your characters’ wardrobes.Beauty and grooming sites focus on hair, makeup and all the other details of personal grooming and presentation that will sharpen your perspective—and vocabulary—when it comes to describing appearance.The business pages are a great source of ideas for occupations and careers, and are brimming with stories of failure and success that make great drama for fiction. The Big Short, The Wolf of Wall Street and Billions are examples that will inspire you.The tabs are an endless wellspring of secrets, sex and scandal, luridly written and lasciviously described. From Dallas to Scandal, Valley Of The Dolls To Fifty Shades Of Grey, the sordid doings of the rich and famous never go out of style.Filmed documentaries, special-interest magazines or blogs on a vast range of subjects—urban hydrology, big wave surfing, Elvis costumes, arctic biology—can jar you out of your impasse and give you ideas for new and different kinds of characters and settings.
Nail The Blurb . Sometimes I get lost in the trees and need to step back and see the forest again. You, too? Writing the blurb is a way to regain the perspective you’ve (temporarily) lost. Besides, after your cover, blurbs are the second most important selling tool you have for your book.
Here’s advice on how to write a brilliant blurb and the difference between a blurb and a synopsis.
Joanna Penn reminds us that a blurb is basically a sales pitch and offers advice about how to make your blurb shine—and sell.
I’m a long time cover copy writer, so here’s my take on how to write a killer blurb.
Indulge. Booze, wine, chocolate have been tried and found guilty of putting that inner scold/second-guesser in its place and unleashing the imagination. Just don’t get so loaded you can’t read your notes the next day or so fat you can’t waddle to your computer. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Go back to work and give it another try. It’s gonna be fun. Really. After all, Albert Einstein, who figured out the inner secrets of the universe, also figured out the inner secrets of creativity: “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
___________
Note from Ruth: This post originally appeared on the blog I share with the wondrous Anne R. Allen. For more of our wit and wisdom, be sure to check out Anne's blog. This week Anne explains why “SHOW DON’T TELL” CAN BE TERRIBLE ADVICE FOR NEW WRITERS
___________
Kindle ebookMILLION-COPY NYT BESTSELLER! READ FREE! FIRST TIME AVAILABLE ON KU.
February 22, 2016
Kindle ebookMILLION-COPY NYT BESTSELLER! READ FREE!...
Kindle ebook
MILLION-COPY NYT BESTSELLER! READ FREE! FIRST TIME AVAILABLE ON KU.
IF YOU LOVED SEX AND THE CITY, YOU'LL LOVE MODERN WOMEN.
The intimate lives of three strong, savvy women--and the men in their lives. The right men. The wrong men. The maybe men.
Jane Gresh: She's rich, talented, and famous, but will her delicious revenge on the man who cheated on her really make her happy?
Lincky Desmond: She's smart, beautiful, hard working. She marries Mr. Right but will she really risk everything for Mr. Oh-so-wrong?
Elly McGrath: She is loyal and dedicated, a loving wife and devoted mother, but when confronted with the ultimate betrayal, what will she do to stand up for herself and her children?
Owen Casals: He is handsome, successful, magnetic--and he knows it. He is hungry, horny and ambitious but will the dark side of success be his undoing?
MODERN WOMEN--and the men in their lives. They laugh. They cry. They do their best. But will they live happily ever after?
Modern Women, a million-copy NYT bestseller, was originally published in hard cover and paperback by St. Martin's Press.
"Author Ruth Harris's rapier wit spices up a coming-of-age story. A superb 'rags to riches' novel. You'll love Modern Women."--West Coast Review of Books
"Ruth Harris's breezy prose style, peppery dialogue and irreverent observations make Modern Women fun to read."--Dallas News
"Funny, sad, vivid, and raunchy. Harris seeks to enliven and entertain, and she does it in spades." --Cleveland Plain-Dealer
"Upbeat, sassy. Filled with romantic sparks and fast action."--Booklist
"Sharply and stylishly written. Harris treads a fine line between popular fiction and more substantive women's literature."--Chicago Sun-Times
"Glory be! Excellent, a thoroughly delightful tale of what it was like to be young, ambitious and in love."--Los Angeles Times
"Fiction at its best. Savvily mixes rosy fantasy with truth about women's lives. Open this novel and prepare to be happy."--New Woman magazine
"A sure thing. I greatly enjoyed Modern Women and, actually, I couldn't put it down." --The Washington Times
Ruth Harris is "Brilliant.....trenchant, chic and ultra-sophisticated, a writer who has all the intellect of Mary McCarthy, all the insight of Joan Didion." --Fort Worth Star-Telegram
About the author
Ruth Harris is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels have sold millions of copies in hard cover and paperback editions. Translated into 19 languages and sold in hardcover and paperback editions in more than 30 countries, Ruth's books were Literary Guild, Book-of-the-Month Club and book club selections around the world.
Ruth invites you to join her newsletter for fun, freebies and firsts.http://eepurl.com/CUioz
February 16, 2016
Click to download your free copy.Hi from rainy, soggy, bu...
Click to download your free copy.Hi from rainy, soggy, but always glam (?) NYC.This weekend we enjoyed a polar vortex with temps in minus territory. Yesterday, snow. Today? Rain!It's February so what else do we expect? Besides, there has to be somecheerful news besides Valentine's Day, right? My contribution to the bright side of February is a free copy of my "shocking," "glittering" novel Love And Money.
Beautiful Park Avenue heiress, Deedee Dahlen, is born with a silver spoon. Lana Bantry is an unwanted and abused child who lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Deedee and Lana share a father but not an inheritance, a lover but not a commitment--and they do not know of each other's existence.Until murder--and Slash Steiner, the handsome, dynamic man with the Midas touch--bring the two women, sisters and strangers, enemies and rivals, face to face in a searing confrontation. Love And Money, sweeping in scope yet intimate in detail, is a story of family, secrets, murder, envy, and healing. LOVE AND MONEY was originally published in hard cover by Random House. "A SPECTACULAR, RICHLY PLOTTED NOVEL. Racing to a shocking climax, this glittering novel is first-class entertainment, a story of love and money, and how both are made, lost, and found again." --New York Times
Click to download your free copy of LOVE AND MONEY.
While you're reading, I'll be writing. There's something new, something different on the horizon. As soon as reading copies are available, you'll be first to know!
December 9, 2015
INVITATION TO A SAFARI!First of all, very happy holidays ...
INVITATION TO A SAFARI!
First of all, very happy holidays to one and all! The news this time around is that A Kiss At Kihali , a romance set against the beauty, glamour and danger of Africa, is now FREE to read for subscribers of Kindle Unlimited and is a FREE download today and tomorrow, December 9-10.
I’ve lived in NYC for most of my life, so the logical question is: where did a nice city girl like you get the idea to write a love story set in an animal orphanage in Africa?
The answer is that the initial spark for A Kiss At Kihali was the result of the unplanned convergence of three separate events.
The first was that I had recently seen (again!) one of my favorite movies, Out Of Africa. Set in Kenya in the 1920s and based on the memoirs of the Danish writer, Isaak Dinesen, Out Of Africa is wildly romantic and stars Meryl Streep and Robert Redford at their most gorgeous (and wearing absolutely fabulous clothes).
The second is that my news junkie habits inherited from my Dad alerted me to the very lucrative rewards of poaching. As a result, the elephants and rhinos of Africa now face extinction and animal orphanages have been established to care for the baby animals left alone and traumatized.
The third occurred while I was surfing TV channels one evening and happened on a clip of a baby rhino. I was blown away by the little rhino’s appeal and gracefulness. With that third event, the idea for A Kiss At Kihali took root.
The cover's above, the blurb and the first two chapters are below.
Now go forth, enjoy the holidays, read—and download! ;-)
Ruth
A Kiss At Kihali: Le Blurb
Renny Kudrow, Director of the Kihali animal orphanage in Kenya, and Starlite Higgins, the orphanage's talented wildlife vet, fall in love with a sad and lonely baby rhino named Zuri but not--they think--with each other.
Lanky, dark-haired Renny is a brilliant scientist, a noted television personality, and an expert in animal communication. But human communication?
Not so much, thinks Starlite, the talented young wildlife vet he has hired over the objection of others who think a woman is not up to the job. He is prickly, remote, critical, and Starlite, anxious to please and accustomed to success, is unable to win his approval.
When Renny and Starlite are forced to work together to save the cruelly orphaned and badly wounded baby rhino, they must face the secrets they both hide--and the attraction they can no longer deny.
A Kiss At Kihali: Chapters 1 and 2
CHAPTER 1
That morning, just like every morning, my mother began to stir before the sun rose. Still drowsy, I followed her from the dense bush where we lived to the grassy savannah beyond.
I stayed close to her so she could take care of me. Not that anything bad could happen because my mother was very strong and always knew exactly what to do. Besides, we lived in the protected Nakuru Reserve which the government had set aside especially for us.
Mom and I made our way to the water hole for our morning bath and we splashed around in the water for a while. After, we enjoyed a soothing mud wallow which protected us from the strong African sun and the pesky mites that lodged in our lines and folds and irritated our skin.
Later, when we felt clean and refreshed, I joined the other little rhinos. We ran around and played while Mom settled down to exchange information with the other mothers about places where tender vegetation grew and warnings about hungry lions who might be prowling in the area. Of course, Mom didn’t have to worry about lions—and one day I wouldn’t either. They are so small, slow and pitifully weak compared to us.
I heard the sound of something called an engine, the slam of two doors and a harsh trilling noise I’d never heard before. It was followed by a flash of bright light. Nearsighted like all rhinos, now I was blinded, too. For a while, until my eyes adjusted, I couldn’t see what was happening.
I heard the rustling of wings as flocks of birds flew away. The elephants moved nervously for a moment, then froze. A moment later, the mothers and their calves cantered off. Right after the elephants left, the herds of zebra and eland ran away, too. Something was upsetting them but I didn’t know what it was.
Then a loud, sharp boom broke the normal morning sounds of the savannah and I turned toward my mother and asked her what was happening. Instead of answering, she made a wheezing sound and fell down. She flailed her powerful legs and tried to stand up but she couldn’t.
She made a distress call and I sounded a response but she didn’t answer. I was scared and I nuzzled my mom with my nose (my horn hadn’t grown in yet) but she didn’t nuzzle me back the way she always did. Instead, she huffed but this time she didn’t sound like herself. I didn’t know what was wrong but it made me feel weak and trembly.
A two-legged creature appeared—he looked like one of the ones called tourists but he had a nasty smell and he wasn’t holding the little black thing they use to take our picture. Instead, he walked up to my mom and poked her in the tender spot just behind her neck with the end of his long shiny stick. She huffed in protest but he didn’t stop. Instead, he raised his shiny stick and pointed it right at her and made that loud boom noise again.
This time, my Mom didn’t try to get up and the tourist-creature raised his shiny stick again—the one that made the boom noise. This time he pointed it at me. My heart began to pound. I was scared, more scared than I thought anyone could ever be. My legs began to shake and the awful weak trembly feeling came back worse than before. I was afraid he would make that loud boom noise again.
Instead, another tourist-creature appeared, pulled something out of his belt and waved it around. He talked to the first one who went to the van and came back with something that made a loud buzzing noise. He used it to cut off my mom’s horn and I rushed at him to make him stop but he pointed the buzzing-thing at me and I ran away.
I hated those two and their nasty smell and their loud noises and I wanted to make them go away but I was afraid of them and didn’t know how. I saw the first one put my Mom’s horn into the back of his van. Then he bent over and wiped her blood off his hands on the ground.
The other one came toward me, the one with the scary, straight stick, and, holding it up, he pointed it right at me. I knew he was going to do something bad to me. I wanted to run away but I didn’t want to leave my Mom and I didn't know what to do.
Mommy! Mommy! I signaled but she didn’t answer.
CHAPTER 2
The elephants of the Kihali Animal Orphanage, located in Western Kenya, are the first to know.
Lanky, dark haired Renny Kudrow—he is Director of the Orphanage, an authority on animal communication, and host of popular television specials called Animals Have A Word For It—will be the second.
He is sitting on the veranda of the main cottage of the Orphanage, drinking his first mug of hot, sweet, milky tea and watching as the night’s dark sky gives way to the light of the rising sun and turns the tall, yellow grass of the distant savannah gold. He has just finished a less-fraught-than-usual phone conversation with his wife, Phoebe, who is living an ocean away in the United States.
He has been doing his best to focus on the orphaned animals the Kihali team rescues and then prepares for return to the wild when they are ready. Instead, he is distracted. He is thinking about Phoebe and their lives in Atlanta—the good times and the bad and the moments that pushed them apart. He is wondering if there is a way for them to be together again when the five Kihali elephants in Kihali's courtyard stir restlessly and then freeze.
They silence their usual morning vocalizations and stand motionless in a listening posture, their ears fanned wide. From Maisie, the oldest and the matriarch of the group, to Doris, Kihali’s youngest orphan, rescued after her mother died of Elephant Pox, they are paying attention.
Renny knows they are heeding information being relayed in at least two ways: by infrasonic rumblings too low in frequency for humans to hear and vibro-tactile cues transmitted through the ground and received by their sensitive feet.
They are paying attention to important messages coming from other elephants as far as two miles away.
But what are they saying?
Renny doesn’t know. He knows only that an alarm is being sounded. Somewhere in the 23,000 acres of the protected Nakuru Reserve that adjoins the Orphanage, something has happened. Something that is distressing the Kihali elephants.
“Jomo! Muthengi!” he shouts as he untangles his long legs and jumps up. The two experienced keepers, best friends since childhood, run across the courtyard and scramble onto the open flatbed of the Orphanage’s dinged and battered pick-up.
“Dr. Higgins!” Renny calls as he crosses the courtyard where the elephants, their trunks now extended along the ground, continue to receive messages only they can understand. “Starlite!”
It is the new vet’s first emergency since coming to Kihali. She is already dressed, wearing the same outfit she wears every day—beat-up jeans, a grungy, rumpled tee, a pair of well-worn hiking boots. Her fair skin is freckled and peeling from sunburn and her unruly copper-colored hair is braided into messy pigtails. She picks up her black medical bag with its ointments, syringes, antibiotics and anesthetics and races across the dirt courtyard.
“What’s happening?” she asks, breathlessly tumbling into the front seat of the pick-up as Renny is starting the engine.
“I don’t know yet but the elephants do,” he says, glancing at her, irritated by her disheveled, unprofessional appearance.
Using the direction in which the elephants have turned their heads as a guide, Renny hits the accelerator. He speeds as fast as he dares out of Kihali’s gates and over the rutted dirt roads, traveling deep into the Nakuru Sanctuary.
October 27, 2015
"The songs we sang. The clothes we wore. The way we made love. Perfect!"
The Bestselling Women's Fiction ClassicOriginally published in hard cover by Simon & Schuster, DECADES is now FREE!
Kindle | iBooks | Nook | GoogPlay | Kobo
THREE WOMEN. THREE DECADES. Spanning the years from the optimistic post-War 1940s to the Mad Men 1950s and rule-breaking "Make Love, Not War" 1960s, DECADES is about three generations of women who must confront the dical changes and upended expectations of the turbulent decades in which they lived.
EVELYN, talented but insecure, is a traditional woman of the Forties. She is a loyal and loving wife and mother whose marriage and family mean everything to her.
NICK, handsome and ambitious, a chameleon who changes with the changing times, is her successful but restless husband.
JOY, their daughter, confused and defiant, a child of the Sixties, needs them both but is torn between them.
BARBARA is the other woman, younger than Evelyn, accomplished but alone. She is a transitional woman of the Fifties who wonders if she can have everything--including another woman's husband.
Sweeping in scope yet intimate in detail, DECADES is the emotional, compelling story of family, marriage, crisis, betrayal and healing.
“Ruth Harris has written a novel that will have three generations of American women reliving their love lives and recognizing ruefully and with wry affection just what changes have overtaken them. The characterizations are good and the period atmosphere absolutely perfect — the songs we sang, the clothes we wore, the way we made love.” —Publisher’s Weekly
“Women will be moved and fascinated to see how precisely Ruth Harris evokes the feeling of what it was like to grow up female in the innocence of the 1940’s, the movie-formed dreams of the 1950’s, the anarchy and disillusion of the 1960’s. All the details are here — the songs, the headlines, the national preoccupations, even the underwear, from dropping slip straps to the armor or crinolines to braless T-shirts.” —New York Magazine
“A brilliant book. Three generations of women are succinctly capsuled in this novel by a writer who has all the intellect of Mary McCarthy, all the insight of Joan Didion. Rarely have attitudes been so probingly examined—tough, trenchant, chic and ultra-sophisticated, Ms. Harris recreates the decades in which her heroines lived, from zoot suits and Sammy Kaye, through Eisenhower, Elvis and poodle-cut hairdos to moon walks, Mick Jagger and micro-minis. While some readers may be discomfited by its analysis, few will fail to be entertained and few will be able to forget what it has to say about men and women and the games people play.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“A terrific novel about love between a singular single girl and an older married man.” —Cosmopolitan
“Ruth Harris has re-created both the style and substance of three decades of American life—from the bobby socks and innocence of the Forties, to the crinolines and caution of the Fifties, to the bra-less T-shirts and alienation of the Sixties.” —Book-of-the-Month Club
“Powerful. A gripping novel that depicts the lives and loves of three generations of women.” — Women Today Book Club
“I read DECADES straight through at one sitting and the more I think about that, the more impressive the novel seems.” —Houston Post
Kindle | iBooks | Nook | GoogPlay | KoboTHREE WOMEN. THREE DECADES. Spanning the years from the optimistic post-War 1940s to the Mad Men 1950s and rule-breaking "Make Love, Not War" 1960s, DECADES is about three generations of women who must confront the dical changes and upended expectations of the turbulent decades in which they lived.
EVELYN, talented but insecure, is a traditional woman of the Forties. She is a loyal and loving wife and mother whose marriage and family mean everything to her.
NICK, handsome and ambitious, a chameleon who changes with the changing times, is her successful but restless husband.
JOY, their daughter, confused and defiant, a child of the Sixties, needs them both but is torn between them.
BARBARA is the other woman, younger than Evelyn, accomplished but alone. She is a transitional woman of the Fifties who wonders if she can have everything--including another woman's husband.
Sweeping in scope yet intimate in detail, DECADES is the emotional, compelling story of family, marriage, crisis, betrayal and healing.
“Ruth Harris has written a novel that will have three generations of American women reliving their love lives and recognizing ruefully and with wry affection just what changes have overtaken them. The characterizations are good and the period atmosphere absolutely perfect — the songs we sang, the clothes we wore, the way we made love.” —Publisher’s Weekly
“Women will be moved and fascinated to see how precisely Ruth Harris evokes the feeling of what it was like to grow up female in the innocence of the 1940’s, the movie-formed dreams of the 1950’s, the anarchy and disillusion of the 1960’s. All the details are here — the songs, the headlines, the national preoccupations, even the underwear, from dropping slip straps to the armor or crinolines to braless T-shirts.” —New York Magazine
“A brilliant book. Three generations of women are succinctly capsuled in this novel by a writer who has all the intellect of Mary McCarthy, all the insight of Joan Didion. Rarely have attitudes been so probingly examined—tough, trenchant, chic and ultra-sophisticated, Ms. Harris recreates the decades in which her heroines lived, from zoot suits and Sammy Kaye, through Eisenhower, Elvis and poodle-cut hairdos to moon walks, Mick Jagger and micro-minis. While some readers may be discomfited by its analysis, few will fail to be entertained and few will be able to forget what it has to say about men and women and the games people play.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“A terrific novel about love between a singular single girl and an older married man.” —Cosmopolitan
“Ruth Harris has re-created both the style and substance of three decades of American life—from the bobby socks and innocence of the Forties, to the crinolines and caution of the Fifties, to the bra-less T-shirts and alienation of the Sixties.” —Book-of-the-Month Club
“Powerful. A gripping novel that depicts the lives and loves of three generations of women.” — Women Today Book Club
“I read DECADES straight through at one sitting and the more I think about that, the more impressive the novel seems.” —Houston Post
July 7, 2015
A love story. With animals.
When's the last time you fell in love with a baby rhino?
Kindle
An uplifting and inspiring story of animal rescue that will warm your heart.
Renny Kudrow, Director of the Kihali animal orphanage in Africa, and Starlite Higgins, the orphanage's wildlife vet, fall in love with a beautiful baby rhino named Zuri but not--they think--with each other.
Lanky, dark-haired Renny Kudrow, Director of the Kihali Animal Orphanage in Kenya, is a brilliant scientist, a noted television personality, and an expert in animal communication. But human communication?
Not so much, thinks Starlite Higgins, the talented young vet he has hired over the objection of others. He is remote and critical, and Starlite, anxious to please and accustomed to success, is unable to win his approval.
When Renny and Starlite set out on a dangerous mission, they rescue an injured baby rhino whose mother has been killed by poachers. Upon their return to Kihali, Renny and Starlite must work together to save the irresistible little orphan.
Under their tender and expert care, Zuri recovers physically and psychologically. She becomes a local celebrity adored by her human and animal friends while Renny and Starlite find an unexpected second chance at love.
A KISS AT KIHALI is a "memorable" read that will appeal to readers who enjoy clean romance and who care about the environment and the noble efforts of those who work to guarantee the future of endangered species.
(A KISS AT KIHALI contains no sex or cursing.)
When was the last time you fell in love with a baby rhino?
Awwwww!
So chic in her red blanket!
KindleAn uplifting and inspiring story of animal rescue that will warm your heart.
Renny Kudrow, Director of the Kihali animal orphanage in Africa, and Starlite Higgins, the orphanage's wildlife vet, fall in love with a beautiful baby rhino named Zuri but not--they think--with each other.
Lanky, dark-haired Renny Kudrow, Director of the Kihali Animal Orphanage in Kenya, is a brilliant scientist, a noted television personality, and an expert in animal communication. But human communication?
Not so much, thinks Starlite Higgins, the talented young vet he has hired over the objection of others. He is remote and critical, and Starlite, anxious to please and accustomed to success, is unable to win his approval.
When Renny and Starlite set out on a dangerous mission, they rescue an injured baby rhino whose mother has been killed by poachers. Upon their return to Kihali, Renny and Starlite must work together to save the irresistible little orphan.
Under their tender and expert care, Zuri recovers physically and psychologically. She becomes a local celebrity adored by her human and animal friends while Renny and Starlite find an unexpected second chance at love.
A KISS AT KIHALI is a "memorable" read that will appeal to readers who enjoy clean romance and who care about the environment and the noble efforts of those who work to guarantee the future of endangered species.
(A KISS AT KIHALI contains no sex or cursing.)
When was the last time you fell in love with a baby rhino?
Awwwww!So chic in her red blanket!
