Vicki Lane's Blog, page 536

Forsythia - re-post

Shawled in morning fog,
The distant mountain sleeps -- no
Shout disturbs its peace.

The shoots of the forsythia, thick with yellow flowers, are like fireworks exploding, spiralling outwards in joyous abandon.
It seems to me that the sight of all that golden glory should rightfully be accompanied by glad shouts -- something like the verse from Job --"The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."

Un Bel Di

Sunday was a beautiful day.

The U Word

Georgia O'Keefe's "Blue Flower" (1918)
Did you read about the Florida legislator who was admonished for using the word "uterus" on the floor of the Florida House?  There's a great opinion piece HERE.
Would he have been called down for mentioning a kidney? A liver? Bile duct? And what about those controversial Isles of Langerhans?
It's because of growing up amidst a mindset like this that I still call the chicken breast the "white meat," the leg  the "drumstick," and the thigh, the "second joint," causing my friends from more enlightened parts of the world to look at me strangely.
Were you brought up to use 'polite' circumlocutions of this sort?

Another April Fool's Joke?

 We awoke yesterday to a light skift of snow ... on  the lilacs 
and on the Kousa dogwood ... The flowering quince was frosted ...l
But the snow disappeared with the morning sun, leaving no damage to any of the blossoms.

Apparently, Mother Nature was just fooling with us. 
 

We Have Pictures!

As some of you know, Herself, my esteemed editor, and I have been going round and round about what book I should write next. Of course, I could write anything I felt like and then hope that Ann, my esteemed agent, could sell it. But I keep hoping to tantalize Herself into offering me a contract. 
I want to write a kind of multi-generational story, set in Marshall County and beginning around the time of the Civil War --which was especially uncivil in these parts. Think Gone With the Wind    meets Cold Mountain.
Lots of romance, lots of lush scenery and period dialog, lots of fascinating characters.... I think it could be really good.
But in today's skittish publishing climate, They want something more, something that would really get people's attention. So... What if I make some of the main characters vampires?
   
We could call it The Wind on Blood Mountain . . . What day is it? Oh, yes, April 1.

Alas...

BLOGGER! 
You're breakin' my heart!
You're shakin' my confidence daily!

Oh, Blogger,
I'm down on my knees;
I'm beggin' you, please

LOAD MY PICTURES!


(Apologies to Simon amd Garfunkel and their "Cecelia")

Still not loading.

I've switched to Google Chrome per one suggestion and checked to see that I still have plenty of storage space and still this...nada.


Frustrating . . . 

At a Loss

Yikes! Blogger is not loading my pictures!

 Is it just me (sniffing armpits) or is it a more general disruption in The Force?
Ah, well, you can always check out some older posts (below) or some of the many blogs in my sidebar. Or perhaps you have other things to do...
In any event, I'll be back tomorrow --  with pictures, I hope. Just now, words fail me.

One Was A Soldier

 I've just read an amazing book.  Julia Spencer-Fleming's One Was a Soldier is one of the most enthralling novels I've read in quite some time. And as most of you know, I perused about five hundred mysteries last year.
Spencer-Fleming's award-winning series, set in a small town in Maine tells the story of the tangled relationship between  Clare Fergusson, an Episcopal priest, and Russ Van Alstyne, the town's police chief.  One Was a Soldier, though the seventh in the series, could be a standalone, so seamlessly does Spencer-Fleming weave in the back story. 
I was particularly interested in this book because it deals with the long awaited marriage of the two main characters -- the same premise  as in my forthcoming Under the Skin.  It seems as though everything is set for happily ever after and then . . . complications ensue.
Yes, there's a mystery -- a well-plotted conundrum with a satisfying resolution -- but this book is so much more than a simple whodunnit. It's an finely rendered examination of the heart-breaking and timely topic of America's wounded warriors -- the men and women who have been and are still returning from active service, broken in body, mind, and spirit but afraid to ask for help.
And it's the deeply moving and quite passionate story of the love between Russ and Clare -- two flawed but ultimately honorable human beings.  And that's what kept me reading -- stopping only for dinner and abandoning all other intentions till I got to the end. 
Can you tell I love this book? Such real and likable characters, such wonderful, sensitive, intelligent writing! Highly, highly recommended.  
(See below on ordering a free ebook with an excerpt containing a surprisingly hot scene between a priest and a police chief in a rapidly moving vehicle.)
(You don't own an ebook reader? You can go to Amazon and download a free Kindle for your computer.)
One Was a Soldier is so good that I would suggest starting with it rather than going back and reading the series from the beginning. I suspect however, after reading it, you'll want more and be eager to know how it all began ...
The book's not on sale till April 12, though it's available for preorder now.  I asked Julia for an advance copy - and she has offered to send advance copies to 2  winners of  a drawing here on my blog. 
So if you'd like to be entered, just say so when you comment -- or send me an email (vicki_laneATmtnareaDOTnet).  I'll wait a few days before drawing two names. Check back on  April 3.  If you're a winner, I'll need your snail mail address.
If you're not a winner of this little drawing, there are some consolations below.
There is a 2.99 e -book of In The Bleak Midwinter (book 1 in the series) available.
There is a FREE e-book of excerpts, extra content and letters from the war zone, available at Amazon, B&N and Sony.  (This is where the hot scene in the truck is!)
And there's more about the books and the author at www.juliaspencerfleming.com.
Really, I think that a lot of you will thank me for this introduction, if you didn't already know this series.

Spring Blog Cleaning

Time to put, if not my house, at least my blog in order. The critters don't track in so there's no need to sweep but the lists of blogs over in the side bar needed some updating and reorganizing.
I've begun by putting the international blogs into one group. This is a cheap way to travel and I've added a few, including Marilyn (My Magpie Collection) and Joan (Sempiterna Me) in New Zealand, where the leaves are beginning to turn ... And a special welcome to Desiree (Driftwood Ramblings), whose birthday it is, in South Africa!
Closer to home, I've added a collection of links called My Neck of the Woods --over there at the top. You can find out more about the place my fictional Marshall County is based on...  And even about the real life realtor who inspired Elizabeth's friend Sallie Kate!
Oh, I've fiddled and tidied-- the writing, publishing blogs are in one place, the food-related in another, the country/Appalachian in yet another. . .


I think it's time to emulate Miss Suzie and relax.
 

Silent Sunday in Spring