Friday, August 26, 2011
IN THE GAP
I expect today to be a busy one without much opportunity for writing anything, but I do want to add to the current topic a bit more. When there is time, I hope to copy a few paragraphs giving details of Robert de Launay’s actual homecoming, but at this time, a bit more about Rose-Helene’s growing up.
She learned and spoke both English and French from hearing her parents use them. We do not know about her schooling, but at some point, she picked up a third language. It might have been Italian, for we know it was not German or Russian. She wanted to work as an interpreter at the United Nations, but when she applied for such a position, learned she had to master a fourth language for the job. Vail hinted at no great desire of Rose-Helene’s studying Russian. I do not know if she ever did take up a fourth language or if she actually worked for the UN, but she did land in New York, as the above letter from Vail verifies.
I have often wondered if Rose-Helene inherited the family estate, known as L’Ormeau in the book, but really Chateau de Launay. She seems to have been Robert and Margaret’s only child. According to the Internet, some of the chateaus became hotels. Margaret sent me a snapshot of the four-story L’Ormeau set back from the camera position with a vast lawn.
Time now for breakfast.
♥
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
ONE LETTER FROM MARGARET VAIL
The following letter is exactly as MV wrote it. As it is my property, I am free to make such a copy. I could not scan it. I hunted and pecked. I do not know how I can get the chapter into this blog. Perhaps my computer tech can show me how. I have not found the letters she wrote to me before this one, but found her last one. It is in almost indecipherable longhand. Enjoy!
Chateau de Launay
Sigournais
Vendee
France
March 23, 1960
My dear Mrs. Rinard,
I have not forgotten, I never have forgotten that I promised to send you the enclosed excerpt from my book. And, as I said in the article. “Margot usually finds a way to keep her promises.” I have been rather long in keeping this one, but I always intended to do so.
First, I was so very ill, having been stricken with a vascular cerebral hemorrhage which could have been much more serious than it finally proved to be. However, it kept me on a chaise longue for months, unable to use my typewriter, obliged to rest, rest, rest.
Then, in May, (after an unexpected and unnecessary bout with pneumonia) I went to America to spend a few months with Rose Helene, to consult doctors there. I was in New York City, did almost no traveling – only to Baltimore and to Washington to visit friends there; I lived quietly and peacefully with Rose-Helene in an apartment loaned us by friends who went away for the entire summer.
Before I returned to France, in November, I agreed to write a novel for Doubleday’s, not under contract, but at their request. That is to say, they asked me to try my hand at writing a novel for them but they are not obligated to accept it. I have worked very hard ever since my return, spending eight hours every day at my typewriter and I have finished about 300 pages which are now in Doubleday’s hands. It is not certain, it is not at all certain, that they will accept the ms., even with re-writing provisions. They may reject it, and I am prepared for a rejection. I shall finish the book, nevertheless – it is about two thirds done – and my agent will submit the ms., probably, to Lippincott [publisher of YITE] before trying other editors.
That is why I have written no letters this winter, but most of my friends know what I’m doing, and understand that one cannot write letters and a book as well. However, the enclosed chapter will be fitted into my book somewhere so I thought I would get it written, send a copy to you – thus keeping my promise to you while not wasting precious time doing it.
I wonder how you and your nice little family are, what new and absorbing occupations you have found. You sound such an interesting family, so typically American, nice American, and I am very glad you wrote me and gave me a glimpse of your life.
You do forgive me, don’t you, for having taken so long to send you this piece? And for not making this letter any longer? I must get back to work. With kindest thoughts and very best wishes, for you, your husband and babies, I am
Very sincerely yours,
G. [undistinguishable] de Launay
The following letter is exactly as MV wrote it. As it is my property, I am free to make such a copy. I could not scan it. I hunted and pecked. I do not know how I can get the chapter into this blog. Perhaps my computer tech can show me how. I have not found the letters she wrote to me before this one, but found her last one. It is in almost indecipherable longhand. Enjoy!
Chateau de Launay
Sigournais
Vendee
France
March 23, 1960
My dear Mrs. Rinard,
I have not forgotten, I never have forgotten that I promised to send you the enclosed excerpt from my book. And, as I said in the article. “Margot usually finds a way to keep her promises.” I have been rather long in keeping this one, but I always intended to do so.
First, I was so very ill, having been stricken with a vascular cerebral hemorrhage which could have been much more serious than it finally proved to be. However, it kept me on a chaise longue for months, unable to use my typewriter, obliged to rest, rest, rest.
Then, in May, (after an unexpected and unnecessary bout with pneumonia) I went to America to spend a few months with Rose Helene, to consult doctors there. I was in New York City, did almost no traveling – only to Baltimore and to Washington to visit friends there; I lived quietly and peacefully with Rose-Helene in an apartment loaned us by friends who went away for the entire summer.
Before I returned to France, in November, I agreed to write a novel for Doubleday’s, not under contract, but at their request. That is to say, they asked me to try my hand at writing a novel for them but they are not obligated to accept it. I have worked very hard ever since my return, spending eight hours every day at my typewriter and I have finished about 300 pages which are now in Doubleday’s hands. It is not certain, it is not at all certain, that they will accept the ms., even with re-writing provisions. They may reject it, and I am prepared for a rejection. I shall finish the book, nevertheless – it is about two thirds done – and my agent will submit the ms., probably, to Lippincott [publisher of YITE] before trying other editors.
That is why I have written no letters this winter, but most of my friends know what I’m doing, and understand that one cannot write letters and a book as well. However, the enclosed chapter will be fitted into my book somewhere so I thought I would get it written, send a copy to you – thus keeping my promise to you while not wasting precious time doing it.
I wonder how you and your nice little family are, what new and absorbing occupations you have found. You sound such an interesting family, so typically American, nice American, and I am very glad you wrote me and gave me a glimpse of your life.
You do forgive me, don’t you, for having taken so long to send you this piece? And for not making this letter any longer? I must get back to work. With kindest thoughts and very best wishes, for you, your husband and babies, I am
Very sincerely yours,
G. [undistinguishable] de Launay
RETURN TO Yours Is the Earth
For all of you who enjoyed Margaret Vail’s story about her life in occupied France, I have good news. I have located two letters from her and a copy of the chapter about Robert’s homecoming in the unpublished sequel. It will take me awhile to get these items ready for onblog posting. Be patient and it will happen.
♥
For all of you who enjoyed Margaret Vail’s story about her life in occupied France, I have good news. I have located two letters from her and a copy of the chapter about Robert’s homecoming in the unpublished sequel. It will take me awhile to get these items ready for onblog posting. Be patient and it will happen.
♥
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
SOMEONE ASKED ME
My doctor’s nurse tells me I’m still 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weigh 129 pounds. Therefore, the pants I’ve been wearing for a while must have gotten too long because of the weight lost, not height lost. Someone asked me recently how I did it. I’m not really on a diet, but I eat wisely. For example, I eat only one starchy food per meal.
If every over-weight person in this country ate by only this rule for reducing weight, what a lot of tonnage we would rid ourselves of. Here’s a partial list of foods not to mix in the same meal: bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, green peas, dried beans (as in chili), oatmeal. There are others, but these are foods we eat regularly. Skip the “rice and beans” and “peas and potatoes” dishes and try turkey bacon with your oatmeal.
As exercise, I ride a stationary bike in two 15-minute segments a day. In addition, I’m always reaching for something on the top shelf. I mean often. And then I keep two 3-pound weights beside the chair I watch television from and “work out” with them on the commercials. I exercise my legs and arms before I get out of bed in the morning, and occasionally when doing kitchen work. Now I need a whole new wardrobe.
♥
My doctor’s nurse tells me I’m still 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weigh 129 pounds. Therefore, the pants I’ve been wearing for a while must have gotten too long because of the weight lost, not height lost. Someone asked me recently how I did it. I’m not really on a diet, but I eat wisely. For example, I eat only one starchy food per meal.
If every over-weight person in this country ate by only this rule for reducing weight, what a lot of tonnage we would rid ourselves of. Here’s a partial list of foods not to mix in the same meal: bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, green peas, dried beans (as in chili), oatmeal. There are others, but these are foods we eat regularly. Skip the “rice and beans” and “peas and potatoes” dishes and try turkey bacon with your oatmeal.
As exercise, I ride a stationary bike in two 15-minute segments a day. In addition, I’m always reaching for something on the top shelf. I mean often. And then I keep two 3-pound weights beside the chair I watch television from and “work out” with them on the commercials. I exercise my legs and arms before I get out of bed in the morning, and occasionally when doing kitchen work. Now I need a whole new wardrobe.
♥
CONFIRMATION OF A GUESS
A few days ago, I began writing a story that I assumed would be book-length eventually. But it got hardly more than a difficult first paragraph on paper when I sacrificed it to delete control. It took another day for me to remember when I experienced writing from the point of view of an anticipated murderer once before that it too did not work. How did Dostoevsky accomplish it?
The whole book was not to be from such a point of view, only just the first chapter. It was a device to keep the reader guessing whodunit. I suppose it’s a good sign when an author cannot think just the way a would-be murderer thinks. However, since other innocent souls have managed it, no one knows when or in what given work I might succeed. (It was not to be a story about murder, but about betrayal, repentance, and forgiveness. The murder was the vehicle to lead to the three more important elements. Remember this is fiction.)
♥
A few days ago, I began writing a story that I assumed would be book-length eventually. But it got hardly more than a difficult first paragraph on paper when I sacrificed it to delete control. It took another day for me to remember when I experienced writing from the point of view of an anticipated murderer once before that it too did not work. How did Dostoevsky accomplish it?
The whole book was not to be from such a point of view, only just the first chapter. It was a device to keep the reader guessing whodunit. I suppose it’s a good sign when an author cannot think just the way a would-be murderer thinks. However, since other innocent souls have managed it, no one knows when or in what given work I might succeed. (It was not to be a story about murder, but about betrayal, repentance, and forgiveness. The murder was the vehicle to lead to the three more important elements. Remember this is fiction.)
♥
THIS CAME AS AN E-MAIL TODAY
Disgusted with NBC
On the Today Show, Matt Lauer interviewed one of the wives of one of the Navy Seals killed in the recent helicopter tragedy. He asked her what she would say to her children about their dad and how she would want them to remember him. She said, (and I quote) "His love for Christ," and then continued with a few other things. Throughout the day and on the MSN homepage, when the story was replayed, they had edited the "Love of Christ" part out.
Why? Because using the word “Christ” might offend someone? Well, I am a Christian and I am offended. Offended that they would edit it out. Offended that we as Christians are asked to tread lightly so as not to offend someone of another religion!
I think anyone who missed the original broadcast should know what NBC has done. This man loved his country and loved his God and gave his life for both, just as Christ gave His life for him.
Please feel free to copy this and forward it to everyone on your e-mail list. There are e-mails that go around saying "If you believe in God," then forward this. Well, I am starting one right here, right now. I am not ashamed of God but I am becoming more ashamed of my country. It is time to take a stand.
The will of GOD will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.
"Our task everyday is to learn how to love better."
IMAGINE THREE HEARTS HERE.
Disgusted with NBC
On the Today Show, Matt Lauer interviewed one of the wives of one of the Navy Seals killed in the recent helicopter tragedy. He asked her what she would say to her children about their dad and how she would want them to remember him. She said, (and I quote) "His love for Christ," and then continued with a few other things. Throughout the day and on the MSN homepage, when the story was replayed, they had edited the "Love of Christ" part out.
Why? Because using the word “Christ” might offend someone? Well, I am a Christian and I am offended. Offended that they would edit it out. Offended that we as Christians are asked to tread lightly so as not to offend someone of another religion!
I think anyone who missed the original broadcast should know what NBC has done. This man loved his country and loved his God and gave his life for both, just as Christ gave His life for him.
Please feel free to copy this and forward it to everyone on your e-mail list. There are e-mails that go around saying "If you believe in God," then forward this. Well, I am starting one right here, right now. I am not ashamed of God but I am becoming more ashamed of my country. It is time to take a stand.
The will of GOD will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you.
"Our task everyday is to learn how to love better."
IMAGINE THREE HEARTS HERE.
PINK and YELLOW
In just a few days, I am going to have a birthday, my 30th again, I think. Unusual for me to hint for a gift, I am going to hint or even beg for one now from my readers, especially some of my best friends. I know you are reading me, but hey, why not do me the favor and sign up for my blog. You know, you can use any sort of picture—or even just a head—and any name you wish. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Now something you may find surprising and quite unimportant to you: my study is branching out, taking up two rooms instead of one. However, it will take some weeks for the job to be completed. When it’s time to read a manuscript, I will leave the yellow room and go into the pink room to read in a more comfortable chair with an ottoman. Yellow and pink, someone might question. Yes, historically, these colors together, from every shade of true pale pink to true red, with true yellow have been the most popular combination in interior design. I do not care about current trends in decorating a room or a house. And neither room has television capability. Isn’t that wonderful?
♥
In just a few days, I am going to have a birthday, my 30th again, I think. Unusual for me to hint for a gift, I am going to hint or even beg for one now from my readers, especially some of my best friends. I know you are reading me, but hey, why not do me the favor and sign up for my blog. You know, you can use any sort of picture—or even just a head—and any name you wish. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Now something you may find surprising and quite unimportant to you: my study is branching out, taking up two rooms instead of one. However, it will take some weeks for the job to be completed. When it’s time to read a manuscript, I will leave the yellow room and go into the pink room to read in a more comfortable chair with an ottoman. Yellow and pink, someone might question. Yes, historically, these colors together, from every shade of true pale pink to true red, with true yellow have been the most popular combination in interior design. I do not care about current trends in decorating a room or a house. And neither room has television capability. Isn’t that wonderful?
♥
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