Ice and Warmth

We had freezing rain last night. Not a storm, thank goodness, but enough to coat everything and make the ground and porch slick and the trees shiny. Here is a picture of my favorite tree, a corkscrew willow or something, out front. This tree is beautiful all the time, in any condition.

I tried to take a video of the dog skating up the drive, but he got camera shy and ducked behind some trees. He was like, “Why don’t YOU come try to walk on this stuff and I’LL take YOUR picture and put it up on YouTube.” His mama didn’t raise no dumb puppies.

Talking dogs reminds me: I just finished Merrill Markoe WALKING IN CIRCLES BEFORE LYING DOWN <–click this link and go to her web site–it is the most awesomest website EVAR!!! I totally loved this book. Yes, I’ve heard of THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN. I read half of it. I’m the only person on the face of the planet who loathed it. In fact, my reaction was so totally opposite to that of everybody else in the known universe that I think I need to give it another go. If you hated the book, too, and you’re reading this blog, here’s a hearty handshake from a fellow traveler. If you adored it, feel free to share what you loved about it, so I can reread it with your perspective helping me see what I missed before.

Why did I love WALKING etc.? Great narrative point of view, the characters were absurd in the way real people are absurd, the dog dialog felt absolutely true, and the writing flowed effortlessly.

Now for the warmth: My dear friend Nancy Williams–N.R. Williams, the science fiction writer–gave me a blog award the other day. THANK YOU, NANCY! Nancy also is hosting me on her beautiful blog tomorrow, to help spread the news about my donating the ebook royalties for EEL’S REVERENCE through Christmas to a fund for my pal Dave Anderson, who is in the hospital. Check her blog tomorrow, 12/17/2010, to see what we have to say.

Here is the award, and here are the obligations that go with it:

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
List seven things about yourself.
Give the award to seven friends.

I already did the first bit, so here goes with the second.

  1. I started “writing” before I started school. My hold on reality has always been tenuous at best. I remember being impressed with those paragraphs in the spelling/vocabulary books in elementary school, in which the vocabulary words were used in such a way as to construct a narrative, and I remember the first time I did the same thing. My teacher noticed and had me read all my sentences aloud. My fellow students were impressed. I was a writer.
  2. I started cooking for my mother and myself when I was about 13. She was a single (divorced) mother and I was an only child. I would get home from school and do my homework and she would come home from work and throw a couple of frozen dinners in the oven. My twin aunts, Ruth and Rose, with whom I’d stayed at various times before I was old enough to stay alone, were home cooks, so I knew about cooking from observation. So I broke out Mom’s two-volume META GIVEN’S MODERN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COOKING (copyright 1947) and had at it. Made some ghastly stuff, but Mom soldiered through it and now I’m not half bad, I must say.
  3. My best friend has been my friend since the summer between junior and senior high schools. That’s over forty years, people.
  4. My family and my husband’s family have been connected since before I was born; he babysat me when I was four and he was home from the Army, although we didn’t know any of this when we started dating. His mother recognized me from when I was little.
  5. The best part of being a grown-up is never having to sled down any hill if you damn well don’t want to.
  6. My favorite drink is a boilermaker: a shot of bourbon and a beer chaser. Some people will tell you to pour the bourbon into the beer, but that kills the blast. Some people will tell you to literally, physically sink the shot glass of bourbon into the glass of beer. That’s just crazy talk from people who already have lost their front teeth.
  7. I could probably drink a hunnert cups of coffee a day. Not just the day after a night of boilermakers–any day.

Now, seven blogger friends:

  1. Ann Littlewood
  2. Audrey Lintner
  3. Carol Preflatish
  4. Christine Verstraete
  5. Karen Brees
  6. Heidi M. Thomas
  7. Bodie Parkhurst

Now if you’ll excuse me, my oven has a date with a couple pans of Springerle and I’m the transportation.

WRITING PROMPT: One character or animal slides into another on an icy surface (pond, driveway, sidewalk, busy street).

MA

About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

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One thought on “Ice and Warmth

  1. Bodie P

    December 16, 2010 at 11:30am

    Why thank you, Marian! I love getting these things (and you reminded me that I had gotten one from N.R.. I’m going to take a break from all the recipe giving and say “thank you” for the next couple days. (And fulfill the terms of the bequest.)

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  2. chris v

    December 16, 2010 at 11:33am

    Thanks Marian! I still am friends with a bff from high school too. Old friends are forever! (no that doesn’t mean we’re old. haa!) thanks for the award! Just got over flu so I wasn’t blogging at all.

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