Another Late Bulletin

Late last night I had an e-mail that said my contest submissions would be here either Friday or Saturday. The lady had put them in a big envelope and then had forgotten them. She also wrote that I had won a second and a third place, and she thought a first place. But I don’t know which ones placed where yet. ♥

Late Bulletin

Well, Jake, the packet with my submissions has not yet arrived in the mail. No explanations, but I suppose the lady must be busy with more important stuff. Maybe she hates to show me I did not win anything. However, I keep busy, working on next year’s stories.

But I haven’t given up all hope, of course. Tomorrow I should be out all day and if it comes then, I will not know about it until about 6:00, for I have an appointment at 4:00 with my eye doctor, and then grocery shopping last. But, Jake, thanks for being interested in this project. I’ll let you know a.s.a.p. ♥

The Latest

Word has come that my contest submissions will arrive in the mail, tomorrow presumably. But the e-mail had an interesting additional point. The secretary/editor of the chapter says she will be coming to visit me in a dew weeks and will bring another member with her, one I have not yet met. (Gosh, that means I will have to clean the house! And have some goodies ready. I knew there would be a nice side to this. Feed your guests and perhaps they will forget you do not make sense.)

But I want to tell those of you who missed it yesterday, David McCullough spoke at the Charlotte, N. C., book fair, about his new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. As always, McCullough was a delight to listen to. His whole speech delighted many, of course, but some of it was especially good for writers to hear, if not all of it. When someone in the Q&A period asked him if he spent more time in research or in actual writing, he answered we must not forget a third step in the process—thinking. How timely! I had recently discovered the benefit of being dressed for bed and sitting a while in almost darkness, in say, the living room, a room you do not sleep in, or a garden room, or even just outside if no one disturbs you, and letting all the thinking of the day flush out of your mind BEFORE you try to sleep. Settle there, without slouching, and hash out the next thing for the latest plot, if you must, and then clear your mind of it completely. I sit with my back to a dimly lit lamp and study the geometric designs it makes on the ceiling and walls, the identical design every night. That helps me to rid myself of plot intrigues, and all the day’s activities, and sleep comes more easily.

I certainly plan to buy McCullough’s new book for my Nook. ♥

Herman Cain

Herman Cain has today won the Republican Straw Vote in Florida. I am delighted. He is a brilliant man and as far as I can tell, has always had an excellent, even a perfect, answer to his questioners. With his background in business, he would be like a fresh breeze in the White House. He would also get the black vote, as well as many white votes. He has a good chance to win the nomination. ♥

An Exciting Day

Today is my birthday. I am only twelve years from being 100. I do not usually list gifts for any occasion, but I will this time. They included the Nook I’ve already mentioned, a gift certificate for a “case” to hold the Nook (I think it has another name, but I haven’t learned that yet), two kinds of Russell Stover sugar-free chocolates, pictures of some of my grandchildren, two lovely inspirational books, and I was treated to lunch a few days earlier.

Another one I hope to receive is some award from the Idaho Writers Conference that ends tonight in Pocatello. That is not a birthday present, of course, but it occurs today. What better time? I have already promised to let you know about that when I know.

As a child, I was not much on the receiving end of the gift line. I was the middle child and never indulged. Many are like this, and some never get over it. I did get over it. In fact, I hardly realized it happened at the time. I saw through all that sort of thing only as a married woman. I realized it, understood why, and proceeded to forget it. It was not going to rule my life and it hasn’t. But perhaps one good result of it is that I love to give presents. I think one does that when one has gotten over the middle-child-syndrome.

And to top off the day, C-SPAN 2 is doing its usual weekend of authors’ talking about their new books with some brief interviews. I often want to buy the new book in review, but no longer. Nook will get it, if anything. I’ll buy it that way and that’s not the same thing. How I love the feel and look of real books, and the smell of leather-backed ones. If two generations of my family would remain stateside, they would get most of those gems from my shelves, but they keep moving from continent to continent, or from state to state.

But some special volumes I will not let go, even if I cannot read them again. I can hold them in my hands and relive the story from memory. Think of the millions of people who cannot do that. ♥

Catching Up

What a wonderful day! I slept till 9:00 this morning, having gone to sleep last night at11:00. That is 10 hours! But it had been a long and tiring day out yesterday. The extra chores included getting a flu shot at a supermarket, and verifying that the book I most wanted to read on my new Nook, Barnes and Nobel doesn’t offer in its millions of books available to a Nooker. It is The Lantern-Bearers, essays, by Robert Louis Stevenson. I own the actual book, which I bought from B&N, but it’s one I haven’t read. I would hate to pay to read all the books I own but haven’t read yet That would be double jeopardy.

I am finishing with a strong magnifying glass, one book started before the latest attack on my eyesight. It was past halfway read and I can handle only a couple of pages at a time, for something more important beckons, like last night’s presidential debate. I don’t intend to review that now, but I do want to point out a great speech Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu gave before the United Nations. I hope to make a copy of it. Its key sentence, in my opinion, was that the UN is “a theatre of the absurd.” What a perfect description of it! He illustrated how it was that. It will probably rerun tonight on some news channel. I hope none of you will miss this important speech. ♥

Maugham and French Literature

Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), British playwright, novelist, essayist, and short story writer, opted to live in France, in fact, on the French Riviera. In his nonfiction Points of View, the last book he wrote (1958) he praises the French for their eloquent literature and suggests a possible reason for it: the French do not have many children. I wonder if Maugham checked out the number of children the great Russian writers of the 19th century had.

Well, I checked, and learned the Russian quiver did not contain many arrows. Some of those great writers did not marry; one had a child by a serf. But Tolstoy had 13 children, 10 of whom survived infancy. And it’s Tolstoy whom the world credits for writing the best novel ever written, War and Peace. Most of these writers had dreadful childhoods and wrote about that subject in their fiction.

Therefore, Maugham might have been right in praising the French for their eloquent prose. But I proffer this question: Can’t a low population of a civilized country get too low, for, as an example, in time of war? ♥

The Candidates

I am talking about the Republican candidates for the presidency. What a large group of them are currently campaigning. If the Democrats are so unhappy with the man they put into the White House, why don’t they come up with a new candidate among their party? What is wrong with the man in the first place that he has become so unpopular? Let’s see.

He promised change. He never explained what changes he would make. So, the gullible public concluded they would be changes for the better. However, I can’t be the only one who saw through him. I knew his changes would be for the worse. Many people now say that everything he has done was just the opposite of what he should have done. The latest straw seems to be his decision to leave only 3,000 of our troops in Afghanistan after the end of this year, not only against the advice of the military leaders involved, but also against the wish and hope of the Afghans. Of course, he never consults Congress in matters of war. Or anything else, as a matter of fact. So, with this problem and the sick economy, which Republican candidate can possibly make it better?

Many of them have baggage they could do without. I won’t go into that. But who looks good at this point? The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, looks much like Ronald Reagan. As I watch him, I think he uses that resemblance to the hilt. That is a bad habit. He is not Reagan. This candidate has difficulty holding his face still so that one can study it. Character and more should appear there. Substance wise, he has not proved himself yet. He may be spending too much time before mirrors. He might have accomplished great things for Texas, but the country is different territory.

John Bolton talks well and I agree with what he says, but he was once Ambassador to the United Nations. Perhaps he was there to make it a better organization but it will go against him with millions of voters.

The smartest one in the line-up is Newt Gingrich. There probably is nothing in American history that he does not know and can expound on at length, if asked. (He knows much about other countries as well.) But intellectuals do not always make good politicians. Many are saying he does not have a chance, but at least he can continue writing good books that the winner can learn from.

Some voters are afraid of Mitt Romney’s religion, as if he would turn us all into Mormons. Remember when the first Catholic got into office, how many thought he would go by the church’s edicts instead of America’s. He did not, so far as I was aware. He was very busy doing other things.

Rick Santorum has many plusses for office, most notably strong patriotism, a two-term senate experience, his timely book It Takes a Family, a White House-quality family of his own, and I have heard nothing against him.

I just looked at the list of candidates and found several I had not heard of. I think for the day the above is enough to talk about. I may continue this.♥

Why and How

One last blog about Margaret Vail (until I think of another one). In case anyone is curious about my reason for contacting Vail in the first place and how I did so, you can find out by reading my blog for February 17, 2010. It received five comments from unknown readers that pleased me greatly. I recall another came later in the year but I have not had time to locate it yet. I offer this suggestion for you, for the comments were quite touching. ♥

TURNING THE NEXT CORNER

What a beautiful day! The air is perfect and it’s great to be outside. I’ve not blogged for a few days, taking a long holiday weekend. Now I have much to catch up on. If I owe you a letter, I’ll get to it soon. However, I must take time to thank all the viewers from Canada, Australia, France, and a few ether countries, but these mentioned here really stacked up the hits for me. Some days, Canada outdid the United States, and I’m talking about like nearly 70, day after day! What a boost to my morale. And Australia topped the list yesterday. I can’t imagine only my family there did all those hits.

Now perhaps it’s time to get to anther subject. The state’s writers’ conference is just 18 days away and I won’t be there. But a couple or so days afterwards, my submissions will come back to me and I can read what the judges wrote about them. I am anticipating placing in some contest or other. One might interest those readers who showed spectacular interest in the Margaret Vail blogs, for the setting of my story is the Loire Valley and the time is D-Day, 1944. My young heroine doesn’t know it’s called D-Day, for it began the night before and she has no access to the news. She rather misguidedly seems to think the war is about over, though she will find it goes on a while longer. I suppose I should add that story to my blog. It’s over 3,200 words long, and if that’s too much reading for you, I’ll understand. I wrote it several years ago, but have reworked it. Now it’s better for that. ♥