Vicki Batman's Blog, page 61

#Handbay Monday - One bag, many styles #fashion #accessories #MFRWorg

Handbag Monday
Several years ago, Handsome and I traveled to Italy. In Florence, I found many bags, but the most fun one of all is this:


I know you're thinking that thing is a flat square. But take a closer look. It's woven with cool leather straps, and turquoise snaps. And therein is the key to this bag--the snaps. 

Just by fastening the snaps, I can make a tote:

Another kind of tote: 


Or a box:

So what do you think? Would you want a handbag that changes shapes? 
  Had a bad day? Car parts stolen & your new car's a/c isn't working? Panty hose are strangling your waist & a cop pulled you over where everyone in town can see you. Yeah, that's just the beginning. Find romantic comedy mystery, Temporarily Employed at: Amazon

Charles Ray, a wide career & author of Frontier Justice #MFRWorg #WROTM #USMarshall

Welcome to Charles Ray!
Charles Ray has been writing fiction since his teens. A native of Texas, he left home and joined the U.S. Army when he was 17. After 20 years in uniform, he joined the U.S. Foreign Service, serving as an American diplomat in Africa and Asia until his retirement in 2012. He now lives in Maryland where he is a fulltime writer/photographer. Ray has worked as a newspaper and magazine journalist and has written more than 50 works of fiction and nonfiction, including a popular series about the famed Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth U.S. Cavalry in the period after the Civil War. He has been a book reviewer for various print publications since the 1970s and does regular book reviews on his writer’s blog, http://charlieray45.wordpress.com (Charles Ray’s Ramblings).
He currently works as a part time lecturer for Johns Hopkins University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and runs a workshop in professional writing for Rangel Scholars at Howard University. 
Frontier Justice:  Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal
When the Civil War ended, runaway slave Bass Reeves returned to Arkansas, married his sweetheart, and started raising a family. Unable to read or write English, but proficient in six Indian languages and an expert with firearms, he was often hired by deputy U.S. Marshals to scout when they sought fugitives in Indian Territory. When President U.S. Grant appointed Isaac Parker federal judge for Arkansas and the Indian Territory, Parker decided to hire African-Americans as deputies because inhabitants of the Indian Territory didn’t trust whites. Reeves was one of several blacks among the 200 deputies Parker deputized, and became the most famous. In a 32-year career, this amazing man captured over 3,000 fugitives and only had to kill 14.

Find Frontier Justice at: Amazon
Find Charles Ray at: Blogsite

Say howdy! to S. I. Hayes and her tales #MFRWorg #WROTM #booklove

Let’s Get to Know...S. I. Hayes Shannon (S. I.) Hayes has been telling tales for so long as she has been able to talk, and began writing them down shortly thereafter. She is the singular author of the In Dreams... Series, and a Paranormal Historical Romance called Centuries of Blood: Becoming. Shannon is the Co-Author to Awakenings: The Wrath Saga, a Paranormal Drama likened to Big Brother meets The Real World of the Preternatural, as well as several blogs and host to her own website. S.I.Hayes.com.  In her own words... I have a mind that is easily distracted and prone to wandering. Tangents are my forte, and if you think my characters are going to fit a cookie cutter shape of any kind, think again. They live, they love, they eat, and sleep. I believe that people are inherently sexual creatures and my characters be they human or something altogether else are no exception.     I don't adhere to a single genre, I toe the line on several and wouldn't presume to be a master of any. So I suppose you could call me jack-of-all-trade paperbacks.     I am a truth seeker, in my life, in my work. I’d apologize for it, but I kinda can't help m’self. It's my best and worst personality trait, well mostly, being Bi-Polar I guess you could say that is the worse. But I believe that the disorder has made me, well... Me.      I have taken this life and twisted, carved, shaped and molded it in to the worlds of my characters. Albeit with a chainsaw, and it has made all the difference. 

Here's some bits from her books!
Epic Fantasy Trilogy Blurbs, and Links In Dreams... The Solitary RoadDumped in a treacherous Arctic land, Amara Dagon must master her spell craft if she is to survive a year in exile, but fear, doubt and the loss of her family threatens to take hold. Can Amara gain control of her magic or will she succumb to it leaving her people in the hands of a dangerous tyrant?
     In Dreams... The Unavoidable Road“You’re going home and I'm coming with you.”Just eight little words will bind their fates forever.Amara is feisty, strong, and alone. She is human, she is a spell caster.Morgan is charming and faithful. He is Meiores-Meiore, a Shape-shifter, and Telepath of dangerous persuasion. He is the trainer of Kings and Queens.Amara is one who sees signs, following them no matter where they lead. When she stops in De Suet, encounters with a cloaked stranger make her question if he has some place in her future.
In Dreams... The Savage RoadAmara Dagon is going home...Will she be able to ascend to High Priestess and give her people the help they so richly deserve or will she crumble to her mother's whims?Take a walk on the shores of the Isle De' Corlen, a beautiful and dangerous land, especially if you're uninvited. Trials and tests await Amara and Morgan and his life hangs in the balance if they fail...


Paranormal Historical Drama Blurb, and Links Centuries of Blood: BecomingThree men, a single heart. What's a girl to do? Especially when one of them has fangs... 

16th Century England. A land at war. It's people fighting, dying for a king who chases skirts and takes heads on a whim. It is a time of reformation, of love, lust, betrayal and secrets. Catharine Morrigan Cecil is but sixteen years old as the tale unfolds, but her soul screams to be free of Glastonbury. Named for a child lost, she is chained to a life she doesn't want. Promised to a man whose ways foretell an unhappy life while still in love with another who will not fight for her. 
Left rejected, in a reach for freedom she runs. Finding a mysterious town with an even more mysterious stranger. Alexandarious (Darious) is young, strong, and Immortal. A Blood Devourer. Knowing his nature, Catharine Morrigan dares to give him her heart. She has pierced him through and through, but his people are warring and her safety is in peril. He wants and needs the beautiful woman "Morrigan" is becoming. But his heart knows better. She deserves a full life, one he cannot give her. 
The marriage bed awaits her as the Ottoman War zone calls him. The pair must separate to save the people to whom they are bound. While Darious fights for his Lord and Lady, Morrigan must fight for her survival at the hands of the man she calls husband. 
Can they beat the odds, find each other once more and prove that love truly is Eternal?


Find S. I. Hayes at: A Writer’s Mind, More or Less  The 131 Preview Review Facebook   Website   Amazon   Twitter 

Patricia Yager Delagrange - writing male pov in Taken Away #MFRWorg #RLFblog #contemporaryromance #booklove

Welcome to Patricia Delagrange. We connected several years ago through an RWA online chapter and have been friends ever since. Recently, Patricia released her indie pubbed book, Taken Away. Let's get some more information:
A quick note of why I wrote Taken Away in a male pov. 
I can't imagine coming home and finding my child gone.  I don't think I'd be able to act like a normal human being. I'm not saying that a man doesn't have deep feelings for his children. Of course he does and that's how I portray Jessee Bradford, a veterinarian from Santa Barbara, California, who returns home one day to find his wife and child missing. He has panic attacks and cries. Of course. But from what I've seen on the television after kids go missing, the fathers are generally less emotionally driven in their actions. I've never seen a father completely "lose it" while they're being interviewed about their missing child. But the mothers?  You definitely see a whole different side when they have the microphone shoved in their faces.  I don't think I could talk, let alone walk or eat or interact with anyone.  I would be the Michelle Pfeiffer in "The Deep End of the Ocean". She can barely function. I see a father as more pragmatic, forming a plan for the next step in finding his child, taking direct action, collaborating with the police, finding a solution to their disappearance. This is how I wrote Jessee Bradford. 
Jessee Bradford, a respected young veterinarian in Santa Barbara, California, comes home to find his wife Serena and baby daughter Sofia missing. Jessee fears they have been kidnapped or worse. The FBI investigators believe his wife, the only daughter of a wealthy philanthropist who never approved of their marriage, simply abandoned Jessee and took their child with no intention of returning.
After months of fruitless searching, Jessee relocates to his grandparents’ home in Iowa, where he takes over his grandpa’s veterinary practice. There he finds the family closeness he’s been missing and falls in love with a female equestrian Laura. When Jessee and Laura attend a gallery opening of an artist named She, the paintings remind Jessee of his wife Serena’s art work. Thus begins Jessee’s search to find She while his future with Laura teeters precariously on the edge until the truth about She is discovered.
Find Take Away at: Amazon ebook      Amazon paperbackFind Patricia Delagrange at: Facebook
Patricia - the male pov had to really speak to you. Congratulations on your book. 

I am so not a gardener #MFRWorg #RLFblog #gardening #cozymystery

But wish I was!

I love flowers, especially when traveling. I take pictures of pretty ones and usually, share them on Facebook. 

But I don't foray much further than that into gardening. Since where I live can run hot enough to burn down a plant or cold enough to freeze them, I try for ones that will live from year to year with minimal maintenance. This was especially true when my boys were little and every spare moment was spent raising them. I did get out my weeding utensil and work on the front yard while they played with their bikes and trikes. I swear to this day, there isn't a weed in that yard and I've not lived there for nearly twenty years. 

Once, I read about a plant that was great for people like me--lantana. It would grow if a car ran over it. With an offering from a friend, I have a giant one by my kitchen door and three more in other areas of my beds. Daylillies are good too. I have crape myrtles that bloom in late July. Lots of lirope.

So when I see beautiful specimens elsewhere, I go ga-ga. Here's a few from this year. BTW, if you know their names, let me know.









So Mary, Mary, how does your garden grow? What is your favorite plant?

C. S. Martin with a #handbag to treasure #contemporaryromance #fashion #accessories #shoes #MFRWorg

Handbag MondayI was the successful bidder in an auction to aid in a kidney transplant. The handbag was donated by Lizzie Lee's boutique in Roanoke, Texas. I called them and found out it was hand-made and is one of a kind. 


















Pure West and Pure Vintage is a small company owned by Cheryl Long. She has been making vintage bags and wearable art for 25 years. She collects fabrics from all over the world. Some as far back as 1890. She cleans the fabric and carefully constructs the bag. There are no patterns for her work. She allows the material to speak to her on the design. She says many celebrities collect her work. Her web site is: www.purewest.net.  
The fabric on the body of the bag is French circa 1920s cut velvet. The inlay pocket is around the same time. It has the original gold metallic trim that is quite rare now. The trim on the top of the bag is hand dyed handmade silky ribbon trim to add to the vintage feel. The edging is antique netting made into trim. The netting edging is made from a vintage petticoat.
    This is the story of Texas Cowboy Garrett Loving and city girl Emily Parker. When Emily Parker escapes an abusive boyfriend and becomes the new resident and owner of Miss Rose's house in Cedar Valley, Texas,  she gets more than she bargained for as she discovers the spirit of Miss Rose Loving is still in the house and doesn't want to leave her son behind. Is she a loving spirit who wants her son to find true love or is she an evil spirit who wants to keep Garrett and Emily apart.


Find Miss Rose's House at:  Amazon
Find C S Martin at: 

Each day is special #MFRWorg #cats #pets

Every year is special

Twenty-two years ago, my family visited my husband's family and while we were chatting, a mama cat showed with her two babies, a silver and a mottled brown tabbies. Instantly, my sons were enthralled. Our big cat of twelve years, Snuffer, had just passed two months prior. They begged, "Can we keep 'em? Can we?"

Handsome looked at me. I'd had a hard time of letting go of Snuffer. He was our first baby, the one we adopted after we married. I still missed him deeply. 

As a mom, we all know that pleading look on our child's face. It melted my heart. I said, "Yes."

We bought a crate and drove nine hours home with the stinkin' things screaming constantly. We would open the crate door and they'd hiss. I wasn't sure the adoption would work out. 

Once home, we would pull them from the crate, show them a potty box, feed, and shove them back in the crate several times a day. About three days later, I opened the door and heard...a purr. 

Romper, the silver one, became a favorite because she was "pretty." When I heard that, my heart melted a second time for Scooter, the brown one. Scoo was sweet. And I whispered in her ear "you're mine."

As the Fourth of July comes near, I celebrate my kitties. Romper has gone on, but we still have Scoo. She is now twenty-two. 



Each day is special!

Movie Mom - this time, the film is done right: Far From the Maddening Crowd #historicalfilm #England #MFRWorg

Movie Mom on
Far From the Madding Crowd

In Victorian England, a headstrong Bathsheba Everdene inherits a farm and attracts three suitors: a sheep farmer, a reckless Sergeant; and a prosperous and mature bachelor.
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaert, Michael Sheen, and Tom Sturridge, the film is a romantic drama directed by Thomas Vinterberg, and adapted from the 1874 novel  by Thomas Hardy. 
My thoughts: I really liked this pretty film. It's been interesting to see Ms. Mulligan mature in her roles from a sister in Pride and Prejudice to this one. Mr. Schoenaerts really caught my eye. I'd seen him in The Drop and Rust and Bone. He plays the rejected suitor we root for well. I had watched the 1967 version was turned off by how slowly it moved. This remake is worth viewing. I especially liked the rapport between Ms. Everdene and the sheep owner and the ending.
FMI: Wikipedia

@VickiBatman - The Top Ten, er, Two Top Tens!!! #movieaddict #MFRWorg #warfilms

The Top Ten, er...Two Top Tens!!!
On Facebook, someone is always posting something about movies or great lines from movies, and I often respond to these topics as I LOVE movies. So when someone mentioned their top ten movie list, I wondered what my top ten are.I thought about what would make my list. I decided the Number One factor is if the movie is on TV, would I automatically tune in? Would I watch because I love it and every single time I see it, I get the same what a wonderful film feeling?I found I have a Top Twenty or Two Top Tens. In no specific order:
Mr. Roberts – the making scotch scene is hilarious and William Powell’s last       It’s a Wonderful Life
Stalag 17 – William Holden is brilliant.




Sixteen CandlesBreakfast ClubPhiladelphia Story – “C K Dexter Haaavvveeen” scene and Cary Grant
White Christmas – great songsRaiders of the Lost Ark –Did you see it FOUR times when it was released?Casablanca



Bridget Jones’s Diary

Love ActuallyHis Girl Friday – the snappiest dialogue ever and irresistible Cary Grant
Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – there’s a real conundrum in this one



SilveradoM*A*S*H*Rebecca –I often pontificate on this gothic mystery.Rear Window – a peeping photographer sees a murderThe Quiet Man – John Wayne should have won an Oscar for this one.The Thin Man Millions




So what did I discover about my list?6 Christmas-ish movies4 War films2 by director John Hughes3 by director John Ford2 by director Alfred Hitchcock2 featuring Cary Grant2 featuring William Powell – yup, big fanSome are funny.Some are mysterious.Some are adventurous.
Please share your top three!



Vicki Batman left off Star Wars and James Bond; however, which to take out? Find her funny romantic comedy mystery, Temporarily Employed at: Amazon

Nothing like a summer action thriller - Mad Max #actionadventuremovie #MFRWorg #lovemovies

Movie Mom on Mad Max: Fury Road 
Post-apocalyptic is not my cup of tea. I didn't even see the other three Mad Max films with Mel Gibson (he will always be the best in The Year of Living Dangerously). I wanted to see this film because of...Tom Hardy. 
Ever since I saw Locke and The Drop, Mr. Hardy has caught my eye. Since seeing Mad Max, I've seen him in Lawless and several others.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a post-apocalyptic action film by George Miller, the fourth in his Mad Max franchise. Fury Road stars Tom Hardy as "Mad" Max Rockatansky and Charlize Theron.
In a desert wasteland where gasoline and water are scarce, Max joins forces with Imperator Furiosa to flee the cult leader Immortan Joe and his army.
My thoughts: I liked the movie and Mr. Hardy and Charlize Theron were good. It was never boring. In fact, it took off and never stopped, not even for a good rest. The neat thing about post-apocalyptic films is the creativity in the costuming and scenery. Someone had a good time, especially with the vehicles. And I'll never look at chrome in the same way. I decided I'm not a 3D person. My son, who went with me, saw it again not in 3D and enjoyed it much more. Definitely not for youngsters.
FMI: Wikipedia
Are there specific film genres you prefer to watch?