Hannah Rae's Blog, page 24

Trivia Recap: 2/9 (Sleeping with the Enemy)

Hello, Hannah’s Readers! This is Darren, who you might know best as Math Professor/Educated Friend/Guy Who Knows Way Too Much TV Trivia. Hannah and Mary went to a concert tonight and Ben is in Colorado and Phil is doing Important Lake Things and I am not sure about anyone else but none of them could come to trivia tonight. I was going to bail too, but as you might recall we won last week and we chose Algebraic Geometry as our first round category and I couldn’t skip that. So I called up my friends on the Street Sharks, who are normally our rivals, and they had space for me to join them tonight. Hannah asked me to write about it for all of you, who have been on the edge of your seat. She asked me to get a team photo but I didn’t because I wasn’t sure I should call attention to the fact that I would be blogging this.

The Players: Darren (Math Professor), Kevin (Librarian), Austin (Artist), Josh (Also an artist), Matt (Writer), Lauren (Editor), and Sarah (Conservation Coordinator)

Hint of the Day: VW Beetle, which I was 100% sure would be tied to the fact that today is the anniversary of the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Opening Category: Algebraic Geometry

Round One:

So when I joined the team I promised I would have an inside track on the opening question, and dear readers I am ashamed to say that I got it wrong. In fact, I have never even heard of a Cassini Oval and actually had to look up what it meant. This wouldn’t have been a big deal but they made us choose it as our bonus category since, you know, I have a PhD in Algebraic Geometry so it was a sure thing. Sigh. Things were ok after that, as we knew some stock symbols (although we did not know that KO is Coca Cola because that’s just dumb), we knew what state Mount Rushmore was in (and its largest city!) and there was a question about The Beatles but it had nothing to do with Ed Sullivan so I get partial credit on my guess.

Round Two:

We knew the sins that showed up in song and movie titles for the audio clue, and we knew about alopecia. On the other hand, we did not know enough about our golf history to know who had the nickname “Golden Bear,” let alone what college they went to, even with the hint that it was NOT Berkeley. We also knew the two Central PA towns that are named after the cities that fought in the War of the Roses, although admittedly I only know that because of the baseball games between the York Revolution and the Lancaster Barnstormers.

The halftime round had us name countries by their flags and we got them all even though we didn’t see the hint that the countries all had six letters in their names. As a strange coincidence, one of the flags was Cyprus and Austin just got shortlisted for a Fulbright to go there, so we took this as a good omen for him. The bottom half had us matching comedy albums to the comedians who recorded them. We ended up only getting 8 out of 10 because we thought there was no possible way that Ellen DeGeneres released an album called "Taste This” in the same year that she came out as a lesbian. But it turns out that she did. Oops.

After halftime we were in third place, seven points below a pair of other teams.

Third Round:

We aced this one, due to Kevin’s knowledge of World War II, Lauren’s knowledge of Hilary Duff, and a collective knowledge of terms related to opera and Egyptian mythology. The hardest question of the round was also the one we chose as our bonus and asked about the flap of cartilage that helps food go down the esophagus. We all were naming words feeling like we would know it when we heard it and finally at the last possible second Kevin realized that the answer was epiglottis and not axylotyl or flange or uvula or any of the other ideas we had.

6-4-2:

We didn’t know that Kansas was the largest state that was part of the Louisiana Purchase but we did know they were the band that released “Dust in the Wind” so we got four points. We knew we had done well but were still surprised that we had made up the seven points and were now tied for first.

Fourth Round:

One of the categories was “World Oceans,” which made several members of the team start debating how many oceans there even are, and to be honest debating this distracted them for most of the third and fourth rounds. At one point I thought they were drawing a map but I have to say it was a sad excuse for a map compared to what Ben does for The Educated Friends each week. When the question came it was about which is the shallowest ocean. We voted 4-3 to put Indian instead of Arctic and the answer was Arctic. It also turns out that there are five Oceans, including one called the Southern Ocean. Otherwise in this round, we knew that the novel based on THE FIREMAN was Fahrenheit 451 but we didn’t know the protagonists name and we knew that the band that sung “Baby Love” was The Supremes but didn’t know their original name. We did not know who Buddy Love was but we did know that the Eagle was the first lunar module.

Final Round:

We were down by one point but we decided not to play it safe and wagered all 12 even though the category was NFL Geography and History. The question was something like “Miami residents who grew up in the 1950’s were often fans of an NFL team that was closest to them geographically. What is the current name of this team?” The question implied the team had changed its name since then so we went with the Commanders, although as soon as we turned it in we thought that Houston was closer so the answer should be the Oilers/Titans/Texans and we started kicking ourselved. But guess what? The Oilers didn’t start until 1960 so we were right! Which means we won!

(Note the lack of color or graphic design)

I guess this means that I am on a four-game win streak, but next week I will rejoin my Educated Friends and the opening category that Lauren & Matt chose is “Murder, She Wrote.” But actually, before that is this Saturday when the playoffs begin! And some of the Educated Friends will be going to the first round, where we will face off against 27 other teams. One of which is the Street Sharks, and after my evening embedded with them I have discovered all of their weaknesses. Bwah ha ha.

Today's Mail!

Many many good things happened today, but the goodest of the good needs a blog of its own... so that's what I'm writing about.

I pulled into my driveway this afternoon and noticed a padded envelope poking out of my mailbox. It's true that I order things from Amazon all the time, but I haven't ordered anything recently, so I was quite stumped as to what I might be receiving. Needless to say, the curiosity resulted in me checking the mail immediately.

I could feel through the packaging that whatever was inside was a book. "Hmm..." I pondered. "Did I order something from Amazon?" Because sometimes, if one of my favorite authors is scheduled to release a new book, I will preorder it and forget that I've preordered it. When it arrives, I'm then very excited!

Actually, here's a side story about just that: Sarah Addison Allen had a new book come out this past summer, Other Birds, and I obviously preordered it because I love most of Sarah Addison Allen's books. I completely forgot about ordering that book though.

Another thing that I order from Amazon, and which arrives every however-many months, is this root killer stuff that I need to flush down the toilet to prevent my pipes from getting clogged. My dad tells me it's important, and he's usually right about this kind of thing, so I listen to him and have the root killer stuff arrive on a schedule. I assumed the box on my porch was the root killer stuff and set it on my kitchen counter, thinking I'd get to it eventually.

I forgot to get to it.

Then, weeks later, my mom was talking about how she got Other Birds from the library and asked if I had actually purchased the book because she thought I probably would. I was like, "You know what? I did purchase that book... but it never arrived."

Well folks, it had indeed arrived. In searching through my past Amazon orders, I realized the book had been delivered several weeks earlier -- as documented in the photograph, provided by Amazon, of the box sitting on my porch -- but I had neglected to 1) open the package and thus 2) learn that I had not, after all, received root killer stuff for the pipes.

Back to today's story...

The thing in the envelope was a book and guess what!!! The book was sent to me by MARISA DE LOS SANTOS! My VERY FAVORITE AUTHOR! And she WROTE A NOTE IN IT!

This is what the note says:

For Hannah -

With gratitude and with admiration for your writing! Shine on!

And then she signed it.

Isn't that the coolest?!

She is seriously the coolest. You should read her books. Here's a link to buy them via Amazon: So Many Good Books!

Like A Flipping BOSS!

My novel Like A Flip Turn is currently being turned into an audiobook and I'm super excited about it because the reader, Cassandra Alling, is AMAZING! Legitimately. January Lavoy and Julia Whelan have always been my audio go-to girls, but Cassandra has quickly jumped into first place. Last night, I listened to a 15-minute sample she sent and fell in love with the story! (It wasn't hard to do, seeing as I wrote it, but it sounds so much better when being read by Cassandra!)

Today I played the 15-minute sample for some students and HaHa, who's read Like A Flip Turn, turned to me when the clip ended and said, "That was so good." She agreed that the voices of the characters were pretty much perfect.

At lunch, I played the clip for Mary and Annie too. The first part is a conversation between Ruby Gallagher and Petey Goode, and as she listened to it, Annie said, "Wow. She does a really good job with male voices."

The next section of the 15 minutes involves Lydia Franklin, who's just a kid, and her therapist Ria. At that point, Mary looked up and asked quite seriously, "Is this the same reader?"

Annie immediately added, "She sounds so young!"

Guys... Cassandra makes her voice do crazy-awesome things. I am so very impressed and cannot believe that she's reading MY book! I mean, what are the odds that she'd want to? She's gonna be a star -- just wait. D'you hear me, January and Julia? Cassandra's one to be on the lookout for!

Running Through the Words, 9

Nine.

Bas slides into the passenger seat of his own Jeep and fastens his seatbelt. “You remember Magnolia, right?” he asks Rex. “We’re gonna drive her out to the Brewhaha and drop her off so she can get wasted.”

“At nine in the morning?” the teenager asks. “Dang…”

Magnolia laughs from the backseat. “While it is true that Petey invited me to a tasting party with him and Juli,” she says, swatting at Sebastian and landing a solid hit on his bicep, “that won’t be happening until much later today. This morning, I wanna explore the farmhouse some more and maybe do a little writing.”

“I don’t understand why you wanna write at the Brewhaha,” Bas mumbles. “Wouldn’t there be fewer distractions if you stayed here and wrote? Lucy’s not home and neither am I, obviously.” He shakes his head in bewilderment and monitors Rex’s progress in the side mirror; he’s only been behind the wheel a handful of times and backing up is still pretty slow going. “Good job, buddy. Now cut the wheel to the right and… yep!”

“I’m not totally sure how to get to the Brewhaha,” Rex admits, slowly guiding the vehicle down Sycamore Drive. Lucy’s father is mowing the grass and waves as they drive by, recognizing Sebastian’s blue Jeep.

“We’ll get you there, bud. Don’t worry. Nol, here, could probably navigate the route with her eyes shut. She’s been out there nearly every day this week.”

Nol starts to protest that this is an exaggeration until she realizes it isn’t. With the exception of Sunday, she has managed to pop into the Brewhaha every single day. And when she’s there, what she does is write. Juli’s been around most days and always pops in to see how she’s doing, and Addy checks in on her every now and again, occasionally bringing along some sort of delightful treat from the kitchen, but the majority of her time spent in the farmhouse is spent there alone.

If she’s being honest, she’s not entirely sure what it even is that she’s writing. Only once before has a story seized control of her so thoroughly, and to this day, she believes that story was narrated to her by Amelia Porter.

Sebastian’s mother.

Nol had been twelve at the time… and Amelia had been dead for eighteen years.

There is a part of her that yearns to share with Sebastian the strange draw she feels to the Brewhaha—and she will, she suspects, in time try to put her feelings into words—but for now she’s content to keep the mystery of it to herself.

“You’re sure you don’t need a ride home?” Bas confirms as they bump along the gravel drive to the brewery. Green-to-yellow apples weigh down the trees in the orchard. “I don’t mind running back out here to pick you up after I check on B.”

“But what if Bert needs you to stay with him tonight?” she counters. “And besides, Petey’s wife already said she’d give each of us a ride home: Petey, Juli, and me. I’ll be fine.” She slips out of the Jeep, loops her messenger bag over a shoulder, and waves as she traipses across the shaggy lawn.

Nol climbs the steps to the front porch and is about to knock when a red blur barrels through the entryway, the screen door swinging wide and slamming all the way back against the wood siding of the old farmhouse. “Scarlett!” Juli bellows from somewhere deep inside the house.

Addy’s laugh, when it appears a second later, sounds much closer. “She’s outside!”

“Goddamnit!” Juli swears.

Just as Nol turns to follow the Irish Setter running laps in the yard, a second dog darts out of the house and nearly knocks her over. This one, wiry and primarily brown with a black saddleback, bounds off the porch and races after Scarlett, kicking up dirt with his big feet.

A moment later, Juli, too, barges out the door and manages at the last second to avoid a collision with Magnolia. “Shit!” he exclaims, placing a hand on each of her shoulders and steadying both himself and the newcomer. Then, smiling one of his lopsided grins, he adds more pleasantly, “Hi. Scarlett has my shoe.”

Nol glances down. Sure enough, a black Converse occupies his left foot and a lonesome sock occupies his right. “I had a stone in my shoe so I took it off. And then Rhett swiped it out of my hand because he’s an asshole. And then Scarlett stole it from Rhett because that’s what she does. And now…” He holds out both arms, thus indicating the dogs running circles in the grass, and sighs in frustration. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” Nol sympathizes. “How’re you gonna get it back?”

“Well, I think I’m going to patiently sit here,” he says, taking a seat on the top step, “and wait for them to run out of steam.”

“How long will that take?”

“Oh, anywhere from three minutes to half an hour, I imagine.” He rolls his eyes. “Dogs.”

Magnolia sits down beside him and rests her elbows on her knees. “I’ve never had a dog,” she confides. “Only a cat, and he was technically Bas’s. Cooper McFadden. I liked him just fine; he was very in tune with people’s emotions. Are Rhett and Scarlett both yours?”

“They sure are,” Juli says with a definite lack of enthusiasm in his tone. “Most days I’m happy to claim ‘em… but not today.”

Nol watches the pups for a while longer before noting, “I wouldn’t’ve pegged you for a big fan of Gone With the Wind.”

“I’m not. Scarlett’s named for her coloring, but I’m not responsible for Rhett’s name. He came with that one. Pretty coincidental, huh? He was, uh… He belonged to Charley. When she passed away, I adopted him, and if I’m being honest? He’s a handful. I’m too old for a terrier, I think. That boy has all the energy.”

“You’re only forty. That’s not old.”

Juli turns to face her. “And you’re… what? Thirty?”

“I’ll be thirty-five in February,” she says, thinking a five-year age difference sounds better than six. It doesn’t occur to her that February is still nine months away and that her answer will sound rather foolish.

“So what you’re telling me,” Juli says with a bemused grin, “is that you’re thirty-four.”

The way he says it lets Nol know he continues to view her as that chatty child who talked his ear off each time her mother hired him to do work at the house. In the eyes of Juli Singer, she will probably always be twelve years old. Her cheeks warm as an embarrassed flush rosies their coloring. “I guess so, yeah,” she grudgingly acknowledges. “I suppose we’ll always be six years apart.”

“Funny how math works like that,” he muses, hoisting himself to his feet and traversing the porch steps. The dogs have finally tuckered themselves out and are now sprawled beneath the cherry tree, biting each other’s faces and no longer expressing interest in the abandoned sneaker that lies several yards away. “You should probably squeeze in some writing before Petey summons us for sampling. He mentioned something about a late lunch followed by beer. How ‘bout I come find you when he’s ready?”

“Sounds good,” Nol agrees, trying not to feel as though she’s just been dismissed. But, as Juli slips his foot into his Converse and then proceeds to walk farther away, heading toward the barn, she can’t deny that’s exactly how she feels.

Her initial thought is to set up camp in the office and utilize the beautiful mahogany desk that resides there, but as she weaves her way through the kitchen and down the hall to reach it, she notices a doorway she hadn’t before. The cramped room is located directly across from the study and contains little more than an oriental rug, a smallish round table, and three wooden chairs. The walls have been painted a deep eggplant and the only light is provided by the sun, spilling in through three narrow windows overlooking the vegetable garden. The middle window, sandwiched between two thick panes of clear glass, is anything but ordinary. It is a web of color, pieced together with intricately cut fragments of stained glass, the various hues cool and calming. The image depicted is that of a large, whiskered fish swimming amongst the reedy stems of cattails. Nol studies it for several minutes, captivated by the glistening blues and shimmery greens, and then she pulls out a chair and sets up camp at the table, unearthing her laptop and opening the Word document she’s been adding to all week.

The story will come if it’s meant to be told; it’s not as if she really has a say in the matter. Sometimes she’ll sit for hours, waiting for inspiration to present itself, and other times her fingers start dancing across the keys almost immediately.

Today is one of the latter experiences.

As soon as Nol opens her file entitled “519 Copper,” the house’s words spill out of her, detailing the story of a young man called Spencer Henry and how he came to make his home in the tiny Pennsylvania town known as Lake Caywood. It’s an interesting tale, and as she’s recording it, Nol’s vaguely aware of the fact that this is likely where her story begins. The house, despite its willingness to communicate with her, has little regard for chronology. It will be up to Magnolia to conduct further research and put her notes in order. It will be up to her to make sense of the story.

She is still typing away when Juli comes to fetch her a little after one o’clock. By this point, her focus is on rereading and editing silly typos and she’s more than ready to focus her eyes on something other than a computer screen. She glances up when he appears in the doorway, knocking lightly on the jamb. His eyes dart to the stained glass window, then to the intricately swirled rug on the floor. “Hey,” he says softly. “Are you at a good stopping point? Addy made us some grilled cheese sandwiches.”

Magnolia’s stomach growls at the mention of food. “Give me one minute,” she requests. “Let me finish tweaking this paragraph and then I’ll be ready.”

“Alright. Meet me in the barn, okay? Petey’s pouring the beer as we speak. The one he’s most excited about sounds pretty disgusting… some sort of strawberry-chocolate wheat concoction.” He makes a face and adds, “I’ll try it, but I doubt I’ll like it. Anyway, I’m responsible for bringing lunch and you, so don’t take too long.”

“I won’t.”

Nol’s eyes flit back to her screen, considering the last lines of her document—“I guess it weren’t ‘til after my death that folks start wonderin’ ‘bout the ol’ farmhouse. It weren’t ‘til I ain’t around to ask no more that folks start formulatin’ tricky questions.”—and then she closes her laptop and hurries after Juli.

They consume enough that Nol’s glad to have a designated driver, but she doesn’t feel sloppily drunk or at risk of a hangover. She just feels happy to have been included in the afternoon sampling session.

The chocolate-strawberry wheat beer hadn’t been horrible, but it was by no means Nol’s favorite. She found herself drawn to the IPAs and the lagers; one being crisp and bity, the other rich and smooth. The best one, in her opinion, was a session pale ale with a hint of raspberry. “I’m thinking about calling it ‘Jam Session’,” Petey had informed them, smiling in such a way as to create long dimples that seemed to hug his mouth like parentheses. Both Nol and Juli had laughed.

“So when will these new beers be available to the public?” Jenny Goode asks now. She’s behind the wheel of an old Subaru, having retrieved her husband and his friends as promised, and is currently carting them back to their homes. Magnolia is secretly hoping that Juli will be dropped off first. Never before has she wondered about where he might live, but now the mystery has presented itself to her and she’s dying to know the answer.

“In the next week or two, right, Petey?” Juli asks from the backseat. Scarlett and Rhett peek their snouts around the seat’s headrest at the sound of his voice, nuzzling their owner from where they’re riding.

“Definitely no longer than that. If something kicks tonight or tomorrow, Jam Session could actually go on. It’s ready.”

Nol giggles, appreciating how Petey has worded his sentence to make it sound as though the musically named beer is a musical act, but then her enthusiasm dwindles as she realizes that Jenny has veered off Main Street and is guiding her car into her almost-brother’s neighborhood with its streets named for trees. They travel down Oak, cut across Dogwood, and have just pulled onto Sassafras Way when it occurs to her that Jenny must be lost. “Bas and Lucy live over on Sycamore,” she says helpfully. “It’s back that way.”

“Oh, I know,” Jenny replies, smiling into the rearview mirror as she pulls up to a two-story brick home. Number eleven. It has black shutters, white trim, and an “Apartment for Rent” sign in the front window.

“This is my house,” Juli says. “Same neighborhood, different street. If you’re not opposed to walking home from here, you’re welcome to come in for another beer. I’ve got a few bottles of Orange You Glad tucked away.”

“Really?”

He shrugs. “Sure.”

So Nol thanks Jenny for the ride, thanks Petey for the samples, and follows Juli and the dogs as they stride toward the front door. As they step inside, entering first into a tiny foyer and then into a living room that definitely appears to have been decorated by a single man, Nol once again notes the “Apartment for Rent” sign and asks, “Are you looking for a tenant?”

Juli leads the way through the living room and into a small kitchen. It’s cluttered, but tidy. There are no dirty dishes in the sink or on the counter, but there is a toolbox and three bags from Honey-Do Hardware occupying space on the table. Juli tosses his keys down beside them and says, “I am, yeah, but I’m not in a big rush to find one. My buddy Asher used to rent the upstairs apartment, but he moved out a few months ago when he and his fiancé tied the knot. I actually thought about not finding another tenant—I can pay the bills without one—but it’s nice to have the extra money, you know?” He crosses the room, opens a side door, and ushers the dogs into the fenced-in backyard. Then he walks to the refrigerator and squats down, rummaging on the bottom shelf for the promised IPA. Finding two bottles, he uses a magnetic opener to pry off their caps and hands one of the chilled beverages to Nol. “Do you need a glass?”

“No thanks.”

“Should we drink ‘em in here, or take ‘em outside?”

“Either one,” she answers agreeably. “It’s not too hot. Let’s go outside.”

They each claim one of the stackable plastic Adirondack chairs that litter the concrete patio. Nol positions hers so she’s facing Juli at an angle; he drags over a tiny outdoor table to rest their drinks on.

“How long have you lived here?” she asks. “You didn’t grow up in this neighborhood, did you?”

“Nah. I bought this place when I was twenty-nine, I guess. So… eleven years ago? It was a fixer-upper. Still is, really.” He lets a crooked grin linger on his face for a moment and then he admits, “So… I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Oh yeah?” Nol can’t imagine what he’s going to say, but she wants it to be about his feelings for her. She wants him to have feelings for her. As casually as possible, she asks, “What’s up?”

“You probably don’t remember this because you couldn’t’ve been more than twelve or thirteen at the time, but the first day I met you? When I stopped by to install that trapeze for your mom?”

Nol nods. “I remember. It was right before Bas moved home. I’d never met him before and he’d been in that horrible accident and his pelvis was broken. My mom wanted him to be able to lift himself in bed.”

“Right. But do you remember what you were doing when I first got there?”

Magnolia wracks her brain but ultimately comes up empty. She shakes her head.

“You were writing. It was some story about a princess and a knight and—”

“A minstrel,” she cuts in. “And a dragon, too. The dragon was a metaphor.”

Juli uses his tongue to push at his lip ring, causing the silver hoop to glint in the late-afternoon sun. “You said something that day and I’ve never forgotten it. I don’t think of it often, mind you, but it popped into my head today. You said that you wanted the princess and the minstrel to get together, but you weren’t sure if they would. And I was like, ‘Why don’t you have control? You’re the author.’ But you told me that wasn’t how it worked.”

“Because it wasn’t,” Nol says immediately, and then corrects herself, “It isn’t.”

“Why not, though? Why can’t you just write the story you want to write? And…” He cuts himself off, allowing himself a moment to think by taking a long swig of beer. When he’s capable of verbalizing his next question, he asks, “And this is gonna maybe sound crazy but… but is that what’s going on when you write at the farmhouse? Are you picking up on something that’s not exactly yours, but is sort of being shared with you? Because, I mean, you knew about Gramps and Noni. You knew that’s what Charley used to call them. How’d you know that?”

His intuitiveness is astounding to Nol. She hadn’t expected him to comprehend even a fraction of the information he’d just relayed, let alone the entire gist of the situation, and she too finds herself sipping beer in order to buy time and formulate her thoughts.

Juli mistakes her silence as reluctance to talk and he’s apologizing in no time. “I’m sorry. It’s none of my business. There’s probably some writer’s code that I’ve just completely disregarded by asking—”

“No,” Nol interrupts. “Not at all. If there’s a writer’s code, I don’t know about it. I’m just… I’m surprised, that’s all. I’m surprised you were able to observe all of that and, more importantly, believe it. Because when you explain it like that? It sounds pretty far-fetched.”

“No more far-fetched than what I’m about to tell you. But first… how did you know about Noni and Gramps? Did… did Charley tell you? Is she…” He glances at his lap and picks at the masking tape label on his beer, not meeting Magnolia’s eyes when he asks, “Is she there? Is Charley still there?”

Nol has no idea what sort of relationship existed between Juli and Charley when she was alive, but it’s obvious it was complicated. And it’s also obvious he’s still hurting from the loss. In the gentlest voice she can manage, she confides, “I don’t know. I just… I think it might be her? Some of the time, anyway. But there are other voices. There are so many voices, Juli, and sometimes they talk and sometimes they don’t and sometimes I don’t even know what I’m typing because the story’s presented that fast. And I know I sound crazy right now, I know that, but—”

“You don’t,” Juli assures her. “You don’t sound crazy. You aren’t crazy. And that room you were in today? The one with the stained glass window?”

“Yeah?”

“Nol, I’ve never seen that room before in my life. If you go back and try to find it tomorrow, it won’t be there. I guarantee it. So why did it show up today? And how many people are haunting that property? And… and is Charley okay?”

A shiver runs down the young woman’s spine. Nol wants to offer comfort and solace, but she can’t because she has just as many questions as Juli does. And none of them appear to have simple answers.

Productivity at its Finest

My marketing manager Mary and I got together today and made stuff happen! Let me tell you what we did...

First, we contacted all of the book bloggers who have copies of my novels (both Just Whistle and The Way Back) and asked how the reviews are coming along. I've already heard back from several of them; it sounds as though there will be quite a few reviews coming in this February.

Next, we created discussion questions for a February book club that will be meeting to discuss my favorite novel, Come and Go So Quickly. Eventually, these discussion questions will be published on my website, but it's pointless to do that now seeing as this book isn't scheduled for release until 2024. Who knows, though? Maybe I'll move up the date. It's just that Running and Kick It need to be released first, so there is a timeline involved.

After that, I posted some discussion questions for The Way Back on my website because I'd made discussion questions for The Way Back in January since my monthly book club met to talk about that. Now you have access to those prompts as well!

Around this time, I remembered that I wanted Mary's help in deciphering an email I received from a record label regarding the lyrics to Stephen Stills's song "Love the One You're With." It seems that no one knows how to go about asking for permission to use the lyrics, so Mary and I did some investigating and I contacted some people and now the ball is at least rolling a bit... It's weird, though. I've gotten permission for lyric usage several times before and this one is trickier than the others.

In requesting permission for song lyrics, I remembered that I wanted to rewrite a scene in Running Through the Words because HarperCollins will not get back to me about my request to use a quote from To Kill A Mockingbird. Whatever. I rewrote it and now it's even better than it was before and I won't need to pay HarperCollins to incorporate, "Don't you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs. Dubose!"

We still have coffee to drink and time to kill, so then Mary and I decided to create some discussion questions for Just Whistle. That was fun! And then I posted the prompts on my website so if your book club is thinking of reading Just Whistle (you should), you guys will now have things to talk about.

That was my day. Now I'm going to do some more writing of my new book (new setting, new characters, great plot!) so it can be released in 2025...

Trivia Recap: 2/2 (The night of duplicates)

The Players: Hannah (English teacher), Mary (English teacher), Darren (math professor), Ben (not a potato-chip taster), Danielle (bartender)

Hint of the Day: Almonds

Opening Category: Types of Mustaches

Round One:

Did you know that there's a category of mustache in the mustache championship that is in honor of Salvador Dali? Truth. Also, there were TWO questions about Groundhog Day last night. In the first one, "Groundhog Day" was the answer to Name That Holiday. In the second one, we had to answer three questions about Groundhog Day. Ben and Darren knew all the answers. Mary has never seen Groundhog Day. I have, but I didn't remember all the important details. TV Animation was fine -- we even got the 2-point bonus -- and The World of Beer Brewing was alright too. Danielle confirmed our answer of "Germany." We didn't get the bonus here, so I denoted a 2-point loss using my orange pen... in honor of Phillip, who couldn't be with us because he had Board of Director obligations.

Side note: Phil bought my birthday present yesterday. He and I are going to see Cabinet in April and I'm very excited about it! He's even going to drive!

Round Two:

Geographic Music was kind of fun. Ben and I knew "Miami" (I always like to sing my own made-up lyrics to that song; I sing "Welcome to Miami, corn beef Frito in Miami," even though I know that's not right), Darren knew "El Paso," and Mary knew "Boston." Name That War was known by someone, but I'm not sure who because I was getting a beer. The answer was "War of 1812." Candy Bars was easy: Almond Joy and Mounds. I love both, but wish Mounds came with almonds or Almond Joy was made with dark chocolate. Oh well. We missed the 2-point bonus for that one, so I noted it in orange again... in honor of Phillip. Darren right away knew that "force" was the answer to Science and Math, and Ben knew "Alabama and Oklahoma" were the answers to NFL Players and Their Colleges.

Halftime:

On the top, we had to identify logs with the letter H in them. Obviously, I love the letter H, but I only knew about five of the logos. With our heads combined, we managed to figure 'em all out though. And the bottom was fun because we had to match the first names of TV family members to their last names. We scored 20/20.

Round Three:

One of the answers to the bottom half of the halftime sheet was Ewing, which is the last name of the family in Dallas. The answer to Soap Opera Grab Bag was "Dallas" and the bonus was "Ewing," so that was weird but easy. History Americans was my favorite part of the night because I, Hannah, was the one who knew the answer! Other team members thought the answer was going to be Longfellow or Thoreau or something, but I was like, "I am pretty sure Ben Franklin had thirteen virtues that he lived by" and fortunately Mary backed me up after she thought about it for a few seconds. And we got it right! Because of me! Sometimes I am an asset. Usually the other teammates are the assets, but I know an occasional thing. Three Clues, One Word was fine, even though, as Ben pointed out, "There are a lot of words." And Things in the Sky went okay as well... even though, as Ben pointed out, "There are a lot of things in the sky." Ben also knew MLB Award Winners so we earned a bonus there.

6 - 4 - 2:

The first hint had to do with a logo that incorporates a smile into an O and a P. Pretty much everyone in the room knew the answer was IHOP, so that was a fast category.

Round Four:

I knew the answer to British Authors, but none of us knew the bonus. Sad. Pardon My Spanish was easy enough, and Darren knew the answer to Horror Films right away: "M3GAN." We even got the bonus! Pop Star Families was fine, and Heading North was alright too... even though we missed the bonus.

Final Round:

The category was Logos, we wagered all 12 points, and ended up winning for the second week in a row! Yay! Because Darren chose the opening category for next week, it's something to do with algebra or geometry or both... I can't remember exactly what he decided on. I don't need to know, either, because he'll be the one to answer that question!

Golden Shovel Poetry

Even though Black History Month starts tomorrow, my freshmen and I got a jumpstart on it today when we began learning about Golden Shovel poetry. The definition to this is a little bit confusing, but I'm going to do my best to make it as simple as possible...

In 1963, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem called "We Real Cool." It goes like this:

The Pool Players. Seven at the Golden Shovel.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

Years later, in 2010, Terrance Hayes wrote a poem called "The Golden Shovel" and it goes like this:

after Gwendolyn Brooks

I. 1981

When I am so small Da’s sock covers my arm, we

cruise at twilight until we find the place the real

men lean, bloodshot and translucent with cool.

His smile is a gold-plated incantation as we

drift by women on bar stools, with nothing left

in them but approachlessness. This is a school

I do not know yet. But the cue sticks mean we

are rubbed by light, smooth as wood, the lurk

of smoke thinned to song. We won’t be out late.

Standing in the middle of the street last night we

watched the moonlit lawns and a neighbor strike

his son in the face. A shadow knocked straight

Da promised to leave me everything: the shovel we

used to bury the dog, the words he loved to sing

his rusted pistol, his squeaky Bible, his sin.

The boy’s sneakers were light on the road. We

watched him run to us looking wounded and thin.

He’d been caught lying or drinking his father’s gin.

He’d been defending his ma, trying to be a man. We

stood in the road, and my father talked about jazz,

how sometimes a tune is born of outrage. By June

the boy would be locked upstate. That night we

got down on our knees in my room. If I should die

before I wake . Da said to me, it will be too soon .

In actuality, that is only half of Hayes's poem, but I'm going to let you research the second half on your own. It's definitely worth it, but I only need to first half to prove my point, because if you read only the last word in each line of the longer poem, you will find that it creates Gwendolyn Brooks's original poem. Check it out.

Period three was astounded when this came to light.

Period four was underwhelmed.

Both classes are excited to write their own poems, and in school today, each of my classes worked together to write a sample poem in preparation for tomorrow's real poems. (Mr. Great With Accents and Turnip-Shmurnip have already started... and finished... and will likely write more poems tomorrow!) I didn't take a picture of period three's creation, but here is what period four and I came up with. First we took three lines from Shel Silverstein's poem "Falling Up." Then we used those fourteen words to create a fourteen-line poem.

Here's what period four came up with:

Stepping into the class when

The bell rang, I

Was worried. But then I looked

And saw no one was around.

Feeling alone, I

Went to my seat and got

Out a snack that smelled sick,

Like old fish and my grandma's house too.

Oh my.

I didn't dare to stomach

My words and my emotions and

My pride, so I

Cried and threw

Up, then lay face-down.

There you go, kiddos... I wrote a blog about it!

Life With Arlo: Writer's Edition

I recently started writing a new book. Lately, (and with the exception of The Way Back), the stuff I've written has revolved around my very favorite characters: Sebastian, Bert, and Lucy. However, I've had this idea to write something that takes place during the same time period as Kick It One More Time and The Way Back (meaning it will span five years) and star some new characters. Eventually, the book I'm working on now will have a "sequel" that connects to both The Way Back and Come and Go So Quickly, but that's down the road a bit.

Anyway... I digress.

Over the weekend, I spent a good chunk of time exploring this new town (Callensburg, MD) and these new characters (the Kincaid family). Arlo wanted to "help."

If I'm being completely honest, I prefer when Arlo "helps" from outside. Fortunately, this is his preferred location during the weekends. Generally speaking, when Arlo wishes to go out, he uses his nose to incessantly ring the bell that hangs over the knob of the back door. No matter how quickly I move to accommodate him, it is never fast enough, and when I eventually reach him (a span of what can sometimes be ten grueling seconds after he's rung the bell), he undoubtedly greets me by standing on his hind legs and pawing-but-not-touching the door. The boy yearns to be taller than what he is; I'm honestly surprised he's not bipedal at this point in time.

At night, after spending the majority of the day monitoring the behavior of squirrels in the backyard, Arlo typically announces his desire to return to the indoors by pounding both of his front paws against the door's exterior and barking until someone (e.g., Hannah) invites him inside. Even though he has a dish of water outside, he prefers the ambiance of the kitchen. Here, surrounded by an abundance of artwork and furniture, he fully submerges his snout and unruly beard to thoroughly gobble the water in the same way he might gobble down a Thanksgiving meal. He literally eats the water... and then he drips all over the kitchen, leaving a trail from his bowl all the way to the living room carpet.

An afternoon of squirrel watching has never been enough to tire my most terrible terrier, so it should come as no surprise that his energy level is intense once he ventures into the living room. This past weekend, as I sat on the couch, Arlo found a small Kong and joined me, inching ever closer until he was eventually pawing my laptop and resting his sopping beard on my lap. Feigning an innocence that fooled me not at all, he released his grip on the Kong, allowing it to tumble onto the pillow beside me. Then he "helped" me with my manuscript by typing "as;'fdo" and other insightful phrases until I picked up the Kong and tossed it into the kitchen.

Oh, the joy that a short game of fetch is capable of ensuring!

Joy for Arlo, anyway... Once the game was finished, I deleted my pup's suggestions from my new novel, set my laptop aside, dried both my pants and my keyboard, and then vacuumed the couch for the second time that day.

And that, friends, is how my Airedale assists me in writing my books. To say he's an asset is truly an overstatement... but he does make for some quality blog material.❤️

Running through the Words, 8

Eight.

“I brought muffins from Piping Hot,” Bert states, lifting his hand and acknowledging the white paper bag that it’s holding. “And I wasn’t sure if Rex would be here or not, so I just got a half dozen. You can take the leftovers home to Bas and Nol.”

“Rex’ll be here in about forty-five minutes,” Lucy says, “so it’s good you brought extra. That boy can eat.” She clears a box of merchandise off the round table she uses when meeting with customers and mapping out commissions. “Sit down,” she instructs. “I’ll make some coffee and we can start brainstorming.”

Halloween is still months away, but the prospect of the Pink Pumpkin Plunge has been a positive distraction for Bert. He likes having a goal to work toward and an event to organize, so rather than push off the mascot-making until closer to October, he asked Lucy if she’d mind getting a headstart. “Are you kidding?” had been her answer. “Depending upon what we come up with, I might need a headstart!”

Since business is generally slow on Tuesdays, and since Bert usually feels well the day right before chemo, they’ve agreed to meet at Lucy’s pottery shop to start mapping out some ideas. “I’ll be honest,” she says now, scooping ground coffee into the machine behind the register. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot. The mascot, I mean. I have some thoughts.”

Bert takes a seat at the table and allows his eyes to travel around the eclectic studio. It’s been quite some time since he last visited Lucy in her shop. Several of the walls host tall shelving units that reach almost to the ceiling. Bowls and pots and pitchers are artistically displayed here, their glazes crackled and glossy. Plates and platters have been mounted to the limited available wallspace and large flower pots, a few of them currently housing actual plants, cluster on the floor right inside the door. As fall approaches, the inventory will begin to incorporate ceramic jack-o-lanterns that can be lit with a candle and placed on a porch in lieu of messier, more traditional pumpkins, but for now, the focus is spring. Bert opens the bakery bag and selects a raspberry-cream muffin, popping a chunk of its crispy, sugar-glistened top into his mouth. “What’re your thoughts?” he asks through the crumbly half-chewed bite. “Because I was sorta leaning toward a clown.”

“Were you really?” Lucy glances over at him, a smile toying with her lips.

“I really was, yeah.”

“That’s weird because I had the same thought.” She grabs a pad of paper from the counter and walks over to join Bert, taking a seat across from him and pulling a pencil from behind her ear. “Are you leaning toward a male clown or a female clown?”

“Okay, so that’s an interesting question because I originally wanted to use this fundraiser as a way to bring awareness to breast cancer in men… but men only make up, like, one percent of breast cancer diagnoses. So I think our clown should be female. And I’d like to name her Penelope.”

“All of that sounds good to me,” Lucy says as she opens her sketchbook and jots down a few notes. “How do you envision her? Tall and thin?”

“Pink, plump, and pigtailed,” Bert says immediately.

“I’m noticing a lot of alliteration…”

“Yeah, I noticed that too. But it works, right? I mean, can’t you just see her? With some fuckin’ polka-dot bloomers, a bunch of pink petticoats, and a ruffled patchwork dress? And clown shoes. I definitely want her to wear clown shoes.”

Lucy laughs as she frantically scribbles all of these details onto the page. “You have put some thought into this!” And then she begins to sketch. “I’m thinking we might need a fat suit,” she muses, having drawn Penelope to be a rather roly-poly little thing. “I’ve always wanted to attempt sewing a fat suit, so that might be fun.”

“I’ve never worn a fat suit before, so that will definitely be fun.”

“How ‘bout we make her dress pink and orange to sort of embrace—”

“Breast cancer awareness and the pumpkin plunge?” Bert guesses. “I like that.”

“Maybe some striped knee highs?”

“For sure! Pink ones.”

“And about these pigtails…”

The coffee maker has stopped gurgling so Bert hops up to retrieve a mug for himself and one for Lucy. He dumps a hearty splash of cream into hers before carrying it back to the table. “Have you seen those yarn wigs?” he asks. “I feel like that’s the kind of hair Penelope would have. Real thick yarn, all different shades of pink, pulled into sloppy pigtail-bun-thingies on her head. With a big bow.”

“A pink bow?”

Bert blushes. “Oh… probably.”

Lucy glances up at him, her eyes twinkly and alive with creativity. “Bert,” she says seriously. “This is going to be so much fun.” And just as she says it, the door to the studio swings open and Rex Edwards steps inside.

“What’s going to be so much fun?” he wonders, having heard this last sentence. “Are you guys planning something?”

“We are,” Lucy informs him. “We’re planning a Pink Pumpkin Plunge for Halloween morning.”

“To fight cancer?” Rex confirms, and when Bert nods, the teenager says simply, “I’m in.” He smiles boyishly and walks over to place his backpack behind the register. The younger son of Lucy’s good friend Kathryn Emerson, the sixteen-year-old works part time in the shop during the summer and generally squeezes in a day or two each week during the school year as well. He’s a sweet kid who enjoys talking to customers and can be counted on to properly package large orders for shipping. That’s what Lucy wants him to do today, but first she offers him a muffin and asks about his weekend. “Did you do anything fun?”

“Teddy and I went camping. It was great until it poured down rain on Saturday night and we realized our tent had a leak, but…” He pauses in his story and raises his shoulders in a shrug. “We survived.”

Four years older than Rex, Teddy is somewhat unique in that he actually enjoys spending time with his younger brother. The two frequently camp, canoe, and hike together, and Lucy knows how much Rex misses his sibling each fall when Teddy once again travels north to attend classes at the University of New Hampshire. When one considers the brothers’ parents, it’s rather surprising that both of them turned out as kind and personable as they did, because as much as Lucy adores her dear friend, Kathryn is neither warm nor fuzzy. Her husband, Will, is an absolute jerk.

“Hey, Rex?” Lucy says now, recapturing the boy’s attention before he disappears to package up pottery and address boxes for shipping. “Bas told me to let you know he’s free Thursday morning if you wanna squeeze in a driving lesson before work. Just text him if you’re interested.”

“Really? That’d be great! I’ll get in touch with him during my lunch break.”

Bert’s eyes find Lucy’s and he arches his invisible brows, asking a silent question that she waits to answer until Rex has slipped away to the shed in search of boxes. “Bas is teaching him how to drive,” she explains. “Will’s never around and Kathryn is not the person you want riding shotgun while learning to navigate the highway and parallel park… so Bas offered and Rex accepted and they usually get together once a week.”

“Huh. That’s really nice of B to volunteer his time like that.”

“I thought so too, but he doesn’t seem to mind. I think he likes spending time with Rex.” What she doesn’t add is “I think it also helps him to keep his mind off worrying about you.” Because the truth is, Lucy can see that Sebastian is struggling. Short of that first day home from touring, when he officially learned of his best friend’s diagnosis, Bas hasn’t allowed himself to show even a moment of weakness, but Lucy knows that he’s scared.

“Is he doing too much, d’you think?” Bert asks suddenly, seeming to intuit the thoughts coursing through Lucy’s head. “Teaching Rex to drive… taking me to chemo every Wednesday… staying with me on the nights that I feel like shit… Is he doing too much? Because it hasn’t even been a full month yet and he just never fucking stops.”

“I know.”

“I’m worried he’s gonna stretch himself too thin.”

“Me too, Bert. Me too. But he’s not going to stop taking you to chemo, and he’s not going to stop crashing at your place when you’re sick. You can ask him ‘til you’re blue in the face, but it won’t do any good. I think he needs you right now every bit as much as you need him, so let him help, okay? Let him show up and do his thing.”

Bert bites his bottom lip, considering all that Lucy has said, and then he nods. “Alright.”

Trivia Recap: 1/26

The Players: Ben (not a dog groomer), Darren (math professor), Alex (journalist), Ashley (works for Geisinger), Hannah (English teacher), Mary (English teacher), Danielle (bartender)

Hint of the Day: Iron

Opening Category: Waffle House (check out our text thread from this week... that Darren is a funny guy!)

Before Trivia Started:

No one showed up! Adam, our regular DJ, was on vacation this week, and Fourscore recently changed the start time of trivia from 7:00 to 6:15, so the guy who was filling in for Adam (his name was Andrew), didn't realize he was supposed to be there before 6:00. We started to worry that maybe trivia wasn't going to happen... but then it happened and (spoiler alert) we won!

Round One:

Fittingly, the answer to the opening category was "hashbrowns," which was exactly what Darren was referencing in his text on Wednesday. Because we all knew the capital of Michigan, US States proved to be pretty easy, but it was Ben and Darren who knew the bonus. Then we had Science & TV. The question was about a short-term medical condition that the character of Eleven exhibits in Stranger Things. A lot of the team members were thinking "amnesia," but I suggested "nosebleeds." Ben didn't hear me at first, but I'm soooo thankful he eventually did hear me (I said it a few times because I was not sold on the amnesia answer) because then he said in regards to nosebleeds, "I kind of like that..." It was right. We also did fine with Actors and Their Roles and A Poetic One, even though we didn't know the names of the baseball players who were on bases in "Casey at the Bat."

Round Two:

Our honorary member Danielle saved us on the audio question. Several people knew Hall & Oates, Ashley knew Tegan & Sara, but it was Danielle who came over and let us know the final artist was Tones & I. Lifesaver! We got the two-point bonus as a result! Books About Food was easy, and Olympic Cities wasn't too bad either. All of us knew "Salt Lake City" was one of the answers, but it was Ashley who came up with "Calgary" for the two-point bonus. First Word/Last Word was HARD. I forget how the clue was worded, but we only got the first half ("Miley Cyrus") because none of us remembered that Cyrus the Virus was a character in ConAir. TV Networks was fine; Ben got UPN and the bonus, Griffin, and that was a good thing.

Halftime Sheet:

We aced this. Mary and I really know our crackers (we didn't even need the word bank to identify the different pictures), but we had a tough time on the bottom. Fortunately, everyone else knew a lot of things about "double" (which was a word used in every answer).

Round Three:

Because Darren is a math genius, we chose Time for Math Class! as our bonus category. Not only did we get it right, but we got the bonus and recorded our answers ("mean, medium, mode") in the same order as the DJ! This didn't matter at all, but it made us feel smart. Unfortunately, we did not get Inventors. My gut told me that the answer was "Schick" and not "Gillette," but we went with Gillette and lost three points. We also missed the two-point bonus on 3 Clues/1 Country because we played it safe, but we did get the answer so that was alright. And then we earned seven points for our knowledge of Pulp Fiction. (I missed this question because I ran to the bathroom.) And then Rock Band Origins was fine. I was wishing Phil was there because the answer was Nine Inch Nails and we needed to know one of the band's albums as a bonus and NIN is Biz's favorite band. (Biz is Phil's wife.) Phil wasn't there, though, because it was his mom's birthday.

6 - 4 - 2:

We got this for four points. The question had something to do with blood and pumping hearts and Ben was adamant that it was a big animal. He kept pumping his hands across the table, really emphasizing how the heart would be pumping, and then Mary knew some cartoon animal that's a giraffe and that was the answer and Ben was like, "See? Big animal."

Round Four:

Do You Remember This? required us to remember "Balloon Boy." Unfortunately, we did not remember "Larry King Live." Mary and I were amped for Gilmore Girls Hodgepodge, though, and got the answer right away! It was "The Bangles." Remember when Rory and Loralai saw them in concert? We did. Here's an amazing thing: for Athletic Nicknames (with a theme), we needed to identify the superhero nicknames of three athletes. I don't remember any of the athletes, but the answers were "Ironman, Superman, and Flash." Yours truly figured out Superman. Superman was, after all, one of my three original crushes. As a child I sort of fell in love with Superman (that curl on his forehead was beautiful), Abraham Lincoln (his height and his beard!), and Elvis (when he was young and wiggling that pelvis all over the place!). Darren got the Mythology question ("Amazons") and I think it was Ashley (but possibly Alex) who got "Satay" for Worldly Foods.

Final Round:

The category was TV Sitcoms and the answer was "Everybody Loves Raymond." Ben knew it. Yay, Ben! We ended up winning and chose the category of Types of Mustaches for next week. I've invited my friend Wes to join us, since he has a mustache, but he needs to check with his wife to find out if he's available. Also, next Thursday is Wes's favorite holiday (Groundhog Day), so he may be celebrating by watching some Bill Murray. We'll see!