Meet Me at the Music Room!

 

Join me at The Music Room
Saturday, May 30th 
 2:00 - 4:00

 for a book signing! 

I'll be reading from 
Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge 

and signing copies, 
and celebrating the newly issued

 2nd edition. 

Come join the fun! 

The Music Room 

1501 9th St.
Leeds, AL 35094

CBC Bookclub Reads "The Shining, Shining Path"

Today was BOOK CLUB DAY for my reading group which technically has no name. But some of us refer to it as the CBC Book Club. Today our group of enthusiastic readers met at my sister Susan's house for a lively discussion of Carroll Dale Short's fascinating novel, The Shining, Shining Path. The discussion was intense, filled with comments, questions, applause, and exclamations of wonderment. Individual responses went from speechless with awe, to gleeful, to respectful, to horrified, to delighted. Everyone gave this book a thumbs up and five stars.

"I once interviewed an elderly blues musician who told me, "Some people play the blues for love. Some play for money. I play because I can't help myself." Same goes for me and writing." - Carroll Dale Short

Carroll Dale Short is one of our own, an Alabama writer of truly startling talent. And a really nice guy! Take my word for it, and the word of all the CBC book clubbers, you need to read this book!

In Dale Short's amazing book, The Shining, Shining Path, the main character, Turner, a rock promoter and Vietnam vet, is improbably chosen by a sect of Buddhist monks as a spiritual warrior, picked to battle the forces of darkness and evil. In Alabama. Dale's writing is impressive, humorous, spiritual, metaphysical, mathematical, endearing, sad, scary, thought-provoking, and filled with joy.

Dale has written numerous other books, and you can learn more about him at  www.carrolldaleshort.com 

Here are a few snapshots of some of our book club ladies, cats, and dogs, today at Susan's house. We drank mimosas, ate chicken salad, pasta salad, and sweet potato pie!

Going to a Book Store

Yesterday was a fun day of Southern culinary delights and old book shopping. My sister, Joanne, and I ate a scrumptious lunch at The Irondale Cafe, famously known as The Whistle Stop Cafe in Fannie Flagg's book, "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe."



My sister ordered fried green tomatoes with her lunch, and I ordered green tomatoes parmesan, which I have to tell you, is one of the tastiest foods on earth. I need that recipe.

After finishing our delicious lunch, we walked down to Doggone Books, a treasure trove if you like browsing through thousands of old books. My sister bought a copy of Walker Percy's "Lancelot," and I bought a vintage copy of "Sunlight on the Lawn" by Beverley Nichols.

After reading "Down the Garden Path," the first book in the Merry Hall trilogy, I became a devoted  Beverley Nichols fan. "Sunlight on the Lawn" is the third book in the series; a hilarious series of books written by a "proper" British gentleman about the trials and tribulations of finding, remodelling and decorating his home and garden. These books are witty, hilarious, and more fun than a barrel of monkeys. For a delightful day out, I highly recommend good southern food and a good English novel.

Frank Lloyd Wright and the Tragedy of Taliesen

I've just finished reading a really good, superbly informative and astonishing book, Loving Frank, written by Nancy Horan. Loving Frank is historical fiction based on the romantic relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and one of his clients, the beautiful Mamah (pronounced May-muh) Borthwick (June 19, 1869 - August 15, 1914)

The depth and emotional impact of this book are remarkable. This is definitely a "can't-put-it-down" read, packed with details regarding Frank Lloyd Wright's family life, creativity, and perplexing personality. 

.

   

But the star of this book is the remarkable Martha "Mamah" Borthwick. Her story is truly a case of fact being just as sensational as fiction.

Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick met when Wright designed and built a house for Mamah and her husband Edwin Cheney in Oak Park, Illinois.
When Wright and Borthwick impulsively fled Oak Park for Europe in 1909, they left behind Wright's tenacious wife, Mamah's baffled husband, nine aggrieved children (including a daughter of Mamah’s dead sister) and a rabidly interested American press.

Upon their return from Europe, they settled in Wisconsin, where Frank designed his legendary prairie house Taliesin as their new home.

In the tragic and startling outcome of this true story, Nancy Horan depicts the events as devastating, almost beyond comprehension, and she writes this book vibrantly enough to make her readers agree. For any reader who is unfamiliar with the horrific tragedy at Taliesen, the conclusion is shattering. 

Some Facts About Beans

Mr. Bean is one of my favorite guys.

In his book, Navajos Wear Nikes, A Reservation Life, Jim Kristofic says Navajos eat beans every day. He was talking about school lunches, but I decided this sounded like a good idea for everybody. so I'm eating more beans. It's a good book, by the way.

                                                                   The Pinto Bean

This food is very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Protein, Phosphorus and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber and Folate.

For lunch today I'm having a bean burrito from Taco Bell...

And I'm trying, with minimal success, to keep it out of my lap and off the front of my shirt.

...and some Mexican Rice from Taco Bell.

I love Taco Bell rice!

                                                    

For desert I'm having peanut butter pie from Rusty's Barbecue, a home-town epicurean extablishment serving gourmet barbecue and various scandalous desserts. I don't know for sure if the peanut is a bean...but I think so. A legume, I think.

Oh! This is sooo good!

I don't often blog about food, but because I'm extra hungry today, and haven't blogged at all for a while, and because this lunch is so tasty and delightful, well, I'm blogging about lunch!

Here's a scrumptious recipe I found on the Internet at Scarletta Bakes .

Pinto Bean Blondies

2 c. pinto beans (I used well-drained, rinsed, canned beans.)
1 c. unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/3 c. maple syrup
1/3 c. light agave nectar
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large eggs

1 c. cashews, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place chopped cashews on a rimmed sheet pan and toast for 8-10 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Set aside to cool.

Line a 9″ x 13″ baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, place the beans, melted butter, brown sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup, vanilla extract, salt, and eggs. Process until smooth and remove to a large bowl. (Note that you should process the mixture long enough that the beans’ skins are in small pieces; you’ll still see little bits of skin in the mixture, but you want to get the pieces as small as possible. I processed for approximately 2 minutes.) Stir in the cashew pieces. Pour the mixture into the lined pan and bake for 47-50 minutes. Cooked blondies will be set and dark on top and at the edges, which should be pulling away from the pan.

Allow blondies to cool to room temperature before unmolding.

Bon Appetit, Y'all!



Peter Matthiessen

Here's a marvelous picture of Peter Matthiessen, a fabulous writer, author of many, many books worth reading. Born in New York City in 1927, he was a founder of The Paris Review in 1950.

I first became acquainted with this author when I read his stellar book, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, a look at the events surrounding the arrest and incarceration of American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, and chronicling the tumultuous history between the Sioux and the United States Government.

A lawsuit against the author and Viking Press by Bill Janklow, the former governor of South Dakota, kept the book from being sold to the public for eight years after its publication. The court ruled in favor of the author and the publisher.

Other notable books written by Mr. Matthiessen include At Play in the Fields of the Lord, The Tree Where Man Was Born, The Snow Leopard, Killing Mr. Watson, Indian Country, African Silences, Shadow Country, and many more.

An interview with Peter Matthiessen discussing his book, Shadow Country, can be found at www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9104

New Book Blog

Take a look at the new Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge blog under construction! Soon we'll have a book trailer video, news of upcoming booksignings, and a picture of Lily Claire's own Drunkard's Path quilt, also under construction.




My sister, Joanne, and I have greased our quilting needles, and are sewing as fast as we can, to get the quilt done in time to display at the next booksigning!

www.sweetmusiconmoonlightridge.blogspot.com

Calling All Quilters !

I need a Drunkard's Path quilt.

In my novel, Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, the little girl named Lily Claire has a red calico Drunkard's Path quilt, made by her grandmother, Granny Rilla. While writing the book, I always had the intention of making a Drunkard's Path quilt, thinking I would use it as an illustration, maybe on the title page or back of the book.

Well, events went into fast forward mode, my book was published by Chalet Publishers, with the most beautiful cover any book has ever had, and I still want the quilt.

I have wondered if any quilters would be interested in donating one red calico Drunkard's Path block; then I could assemble all the blocks and, at last, have my wonderful representation of Lily Claire's quilt! If, as Mick Jagger says, Time is on my Side, I can do the quilting and binding, or coerce some willing friend or relative to pitch in for an old-fashioned quilting bee.

The quilt would be displayed at booksignings and programs, and might one day be featured in the film version of Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge!

Contact me if you would like to make one Drunkard's Path block, and I'll supply fabric and pattern if needed.

MOONLIGHT!

Celebration time has arrived!

Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge is now available on Amazon!

and Barnes & Noble!

Watch for announcements of upcoming booksignings and throw-down parties!

Did Somebody Grease My Calendar?

Look, now I've missed April Fool's Day. What fool would miss April Fool's Day? Is time really going faster and faster, or is it just me?

So, the time has come to make an announcement! My book, my long-awaited book, Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge, is due to come out around the first of May (of this year!) published by Chalet Publishers. It will be available in paperback, Kindle and ebook format! What a perfect time of year for this story!

It's about POSSUMS:

and OWLS:

and the wild shenanigans of a couple of intrepid children in the woods of Dunnavant, Alabama!

So, stay tuned for further information about upcoming booksignings and appearances, and how to find the book on your Kindle, download it as an ebook, or purchase a paperback copy, signed by the author.

Check out Chalet Publishers at http://members.cox.net/chaletpublishers/index.html

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

Drac' is back!
Bram Stoker's great grand-nephew has published a sequel to the hair-raising classic DRACULA, first published in 1897. That's about when I read it the first time also! My sister and I took turns reading aloud from the book, cover to cover, when I was a pre-teen and she was a young teen.


Dacre Stoker's new book is titled Dracula the Undead. (I don't know how you pronouce the name Dacre; maybe we'll find out later.) Apparently this sequel takes up 25 years after the end of the original story, and looks like Count Dracula wasn't as dead as we all thought. Well, he crumbled into green dust! That looked pretty final to me.

That's Dacre with the bats.

So now we have something new to read, just in time for Halloween!

Who Knows Why I Read This?

I just finished reading The Young Lions by Irwin Shaw, originally published in 1948. The insightful book, written from the viewpoint of three soldiers: Christian Diestl, a German soldier, Noah Ackerman, an American soldier who is a Jew, and Michael Whiteacre, American actor turned soldier, brings to life the harsh reality of war.





I had seen the movie about a hundred years ago, but remembered very little about it. I remembered Marlon Brando as the character Christian Diestl, a German soldier who, in the novel, starts out as a pretty unextraordinary guy and ends up a dreadful and heartless product of the Nazi regime.


While reading the book, I suddenly remembered Montgomery Clift as Noah Ackerman, a shy and gentle American Jewish boy from California who joins the army, leaving his just-married wife whom he cherishes. Having Montgomery Clift mooning around as the fine and sensitive discriminated-against Jewish guy, who just wants to do the right thing then get back to his family, is all you need for a truly heart-breaking movie.

The film also stars Dean Martin as the play-boy actor, Michael Whiteacre, who describes himself as "a likable coward," and befriends the intriguing Noah Ackerman.


Now that I've read the book, I think I'd like to see the movie again, since it has been many years and many lifetimes since I first saw it.

This is a very good book, and very long, and very bloody, being about World War II, with shocking details of war, slaughter, and concentration camps. As with many books that I read nowadays, I decided to read it when I happened across it on the library bookshelf. As with most realistic accounts of war, it's very eye-opening, leaving the reader to wonder how anyone survived the battle field.

Almost forgot to add, one of my favorite things about the book is a song that pops up from time to time, sometimes in a happy way and sometimes very poignant. The song is Are You Making Any Money? written by Herman Hupfield.

You make time, and you make love dandy

You make swell molasses candy

But, honey, are you making any money?

That's all I want to know.

Books I Have Read & Recommend

Oil! by Upton Sinclair

Anyone who enjoys reading a vivid, first-hand account of Southern California life in the 1920's will love this novel. This is historical fiction at its finest.

Written in 1927, the plot follows the idealogical clash between an oil developer and his son.

Typical of Sinclair, there are undertones here of socialism and sympathy for the common worker. The novel basically shows how a self-made California oil baron, James Arnold Ross, and his son Bunny Ross are up against insurmountable odds in the oil business, with corruption all around, in the era of the Warren G. Harding/ Teapot Dome scandal. Sinclair's solution was dramatic: for him socialism was the answer; capitalism was too corrupt.

A film very loosely based on the novel was released under the title There Will Be Blood, starring Daniel Day Lewis. I found the movie to be perplexing, mostly boring and thoroughly dreary, although beautifully filmed. There is a visual clarity that would have been wonderful if the screen play had just followed the book. There is very little similarity between the characters in the movie and those in the novel.

Here's Upton Sinclair, writer, politician, journalistic crusader.

Oil! is a truly enjoyable, interesting and worthwhile novel.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, there was a moocow coming down along the road, and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named Baby Tuckoo...
His father told him that story.

So begins the story of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, written by James Joyce, first published as a serial in The Egoist in 1914 - 1915. This strongly autobiographical novel chronicles the life of young Stephen Dedalus, the oldest of ten children in an Irish Catholic family at the turn of the century. The book opens with a stream of consciousness narrative written from a child's perspective, with sensual imagery and words approximating baby talk.

Throughout the novel, the Dedalus family makes a series of moves into increasingly dilapidated homes as their finances dwindle. As a very young boy, Stephen enters boarding school at Clongowes, but soon is forced to withdraw because of his family's poverty. The family moves to Blackrock, where Stephen takes long walks with his Uncle Charles and goes on imaginary adventures with boys from around the neighbourhood. When Stephen is a bit older, the family moves to Dublin, once again because of financial difficulties. There he meets a girl named Emma Clere, who is to be the object of his adoration right up until the end of the book.

As Stephen matures, he struggles with feelings of isolation, sexual fantasies, association with prostitutes, spiritual confession, then religious fanaticism. As this period of religious obsession passes, he becomes increasingly frustrated with Catholicism. Influenced by works of Aquinas and Aristotle on the subject of beauty, the young man develops his own theory of aesthetics concerning beauty and art.

He has come to regard Ireland as a trap, and realizes that he must escape the constraints of nation, family, and religion. Stephen imagines his escape as something parallel to the flight of Daedalus in Greek mythology, who escaped from his prison with wings crafted by his own genius. The book ends with Stephen leaving Ireland to pursue the life of a writer.

I first read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a sophomore in high school, and have returned to it many times, feeling the mixed emotions associated with a return to a childhood home.




A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Maniac


Here's me, not in Ireland but in euphoria!
I'm wearing a pale yellow dress with white collar and brown smocking, made by my mother. The expression on my face pretty much reflects my general state of baffled happiness, then and now! This is my first grade picture, and even then, as now, my motto was "Smoke 'em if you got'em."











This blog is dedicated to the memory of the artist and young man, James Thomas Owens, who introduced me to James Joyce.

What do Custer, The Flu Epidemic of 1918, and Dumb Asses have in common?

I'm in the throes of extreme incredulity over a thoughtless statement in a non-fiction book I've started reading. It's titled "The Great Influenza", about the 1918 flu epidemic.

So here's my gripe.

John M. Barry, author of The Great Influenza, published by Viking: 2004 Chapter One, page 11:


"The nation was then ... engaged in different wars simultaneously... In the Dakotas, George Armstrong Custer had just led the Seventh Cavalry to its destruction at the hands of primitive savages resisting encroachment of the white man."



My objection is the casual use of the term "primitive savages" used in the introductory pages of a lengthy book whose subject is the great influenza epidemic of 1918. Did the author and the editor and the publisher never wonder if this particular racial slur and misrepresentation of a culture have any business in this particular book? Did they assume that no Native American persons would EVER read this particular book; no medical doctors, no professors, no high school teachers, no students? I'm not personally suggesting that John M. Barry, his editor, nor his publisher (Viking) should be "politically correct." I'm stating emphatically that the use of this terminology is inaccurate and a blatant misrepresentation of the people who were struggling to protect their homes, culture and families against violent attack.


Let me interject a quote from another book I've just finished reading:


Joseph M. Marshall III, author of The Journey of Crazy Horse, published by Penguin-Viking (same publisher of both books) 2004 Afterword, page 28:

"...the "an Indian is an Indian is an Indian" view of indigenous cultures... They know nothing of the reasons Indians fought so hard to protect their lands and their lives."

The people who "fought so hard to protect their lands and their lives," and their culture, were definitely not primitive; the Lakota were one of many nations on this continent whose entire way of life was based on religion, philosophy and art, and who had, among other myriad attributes, an extensive history of the understanding and use of a pharmacopoeia of medicines and medical practices.

The irony that I happened to be reading these two books concurrently is worth noting. As the Lakota say, "Life moves in a circle." Everything is connected. And if you're planning on using an outdated racial slur, don't slip it into a book published in the 21st century.

Fifteen Books in Fifteen Minutes

My sister tagged me to list 15 books that will always stick with me--but I'm supposed to do it in 15 minutes. I'll give it a try. I'll list them as they come to mind, not in any kind of best-to-worst order.

1. Firmin: the Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife, by Sam Savage
2. A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
3. A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean
4. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, by Peter Matthiessen
5. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah
6. Ghosts of Tsavo, by Philip Caputo
7. Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me, by Richard Farina
8. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
9. Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
10. The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran
11. The Peaceable Kingdom, by Jan de Hartog
12. The Book of the Hopi, by Frank Waters
13. Black Elk Speaks, by John G. Neihardt
14. Ishi, the Last of His Tribe, by Theodora Krober
15. Karla Faye Tucker Set Free: Life and Faith on Death Row, by Linda Strom

I didn't time it. I think this took me more than fifteen minutes. I recommend all of these.

A Delightful Man With a Funny Name

There's a book out there somewhere titled No, I Don't Want to Join a Bookclub. Though I haven't read it, I believe it's written by a middle-aged woman taking a stand against getting involved with all the fun stuff we get involved with as we mature.

Well, I am a member of a book club, I must admit. Called The Bookmarkers, we are twelve-or-so ladies who love to read good books, and we get together every so often to talk about the books we read. Now, doesn't that sound like fun? Everyone should join a bookclub; it's a brain-stretching activity.

The book we'll be reading next is Down the Garden Path by a fellow named Beverley Nichols.

Beverley Nichols was a multitalented British socialite who is apparently best remembered for his garden writings. Handsome, urbane, and possessed of a delightful sense of humor, Nichols has emerged as one of the most enduring garden writers of the previous century. He starred in movies in the 1920s, wrote music and songs for the theater, reported for newspapers, and wrote his own memoirs early on, plus numerous novels, mysteries, cat books, and biographies. Lucky for us, he loved plants, gardens, and the eccentric personalities associated with them.

Here's a wonderful Beverley Nichols website to click and view. Look at the Black Kitties!

http://www.timberpress.com/beverleynichols/index.cfm