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Adventures in England-Long overdue!
The weather here in New Jersey has been so British (i.e., cold, gray, and rainy), I feel as though I’m still in England. Which may account for why it’s taken me so long to post a few of my photos from my fabulous trip to visit my Darling Daughter.
First, London and the view from our hotel room. If I must put up with raw chilliness and rain, I want to do it in London!
Here I am, hanging with the literary crowd. As you can see, I didn’t get into Samuel Johnson’s house because it was nighttime by the time I found it, but I felt his vibes nonetheless.
I went to the Victoria and Albert Museum for the first time ever. I don’t know how I missed it on my previous trips. The collections are marvelously quirky, and the building is quite spectacular. This was one of my favorite artifacts there. I think you’ll understand why.
The London School of Economics was near our hotel. Since we are trying to persuade our son to get good enough grades to spend his junior year there, we paid a visit to their souvenir store. I loved the superior arrogance of their tee shirts.
On to Exeter where my Darling Daughter is attending university for her junior year. It’s a delightful town with a gorgeous cathedral (no photos of churches in this blog; I figure you all know what fan vaulting looks like). I enjoyed the bird life. I titled this shot “Pigeons on St. Pancras”:
In England there’s a swan on every pond ( possible campaign slogan?). In this case, the swan was on the River Exe. What a very graceful and romantic bird!
These quayside shops are in storage caves, originally built for wool and other goods shipped along the river when Exeter was a thriving port town. We had alovely tea here.
This blog is getting far too lengthy so I am going to stop here and promise you the next installment soon. However, I will tantalize you by saying that it’s of a city near and dear to the heart of at least two of my favorite authors.
Snow-less Bliss
Yes, these are my feet in Paradise, a.k.a. Anguilla, British West Indies.
I can understand if you hate me, but I currently have a tan. Yes, I just spent five blissful days in the sun, drinking pina coladas on the beach, swimming in turquoise blue water, and walking on a beach where the white sand felt like velvet under my feet. Not a snowflake in sight. Ahhhhhhhhh!
Truth is, my husband and I booked this trip back in the fall because we were facing Empty Nest Syndrome for the first time. We figured we would need something to cheer us up when our children had left us again after the holidays. Little did we know that this winter would make this trip seem even better than we expected.
That’s our hotel’s beach above. Glorious, isn’t it?
For entertainment, we had what I dubbed the Kamikaze birds, like the one below. They would hover over the surf, then fold their wings and plunge head-first into the water. I worried they’d break their necks every time they did it, but there were no casualties, at least while I watched.
I went snorkeling and found this giant conch shell beneath the waves. (Being a good Girl Scout, I returned it to the sea before we left.)
I was very impressed with myself until we went to Scilly Cay for lunch, and I saw this wall.
Evidently, conch shells are pretty common in Anguilla. By the way, this was what we had for lunch there:
Another snorkeling sight, this one pretty exciting: an eagle ray swimming leisurely along the bottom of the Caribbean.
One evening we came back to our room after dinner and found our bed decorated. Maybe they thought we were on our honeymoon? A lovely idea after twenty-five years of marriage!
Just a final photo for your enjoyment. The hills in the distance are the island of St. Maarten, where our plane landed. We came to Anguilla by speed boat, a very cool way to make an entrance.
As my daughter says, the colors are so intense they look fake, but they are absolutely accurate. This is the view from our hotel room terrace. Every morning when I woke up and threw up the French doors, the beauty would knock me breathless.
Just to make you feel better, it was snowing when we landed in New Jersey on our return. But I still have my tan…
A Nod from Nancy: Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Instead of repeating myself, here’s a link to my review of this fabulous book on the New York Journal of Books’ website:
http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/call-me-irresistible
Run, do not walk to buy it!
What’s your favorite Christmas ornament?
Every year as we decorate the tree, we remind each other of the signifcance of each ornament.
“Here’s the skating moose from our trip to Banff!” or “That’s the Santa starfish your old girlfriend painted for you,” or “Oh yes, the Mardi Gras mask from New Orleans–pre-Katrina.”
Of course, we all have our favorites. Mine is the sugar plum fairy. 
Why? Because I love ballet and took lessons into my young adulthood. Because I took my children to the Nutcracker when they were young. Because the music is marvelous and evokes Christmas every time I hear it.
I also love the ornaments my children created when they were wee little things. Some were constructed in school, like the famous double Dixie cup dangle:
Some were spontaneous outbursts of creativity, albeit not necessarily talent, such as the blue sticker star:
My children are always trying to persuade me to throw such priceless artifacts in the garbage. However, I continue to treasure them and hang each one with misty eyes.
Another ornament no one understands my attachment to is this plain blue ball:
I cling to it because my roommates and I bought a box of them to decorate our suite’s Christmas tree in my sophomore year at college. Seeing it brings back wonderful memories of stringing popcorn and cranberries until our fingers were bloody, while we sang carols off-key. We were all so young then.
This little reindeer was the first ornament I bought with my own paycheck from my first job, a major milestone.
My family has their own favorites, of course. My daughter’s beloved ornaments all involve cute puppies, such as this one:
My son has a crush on Emma Watson so this dubious likeness of Hermione Granger is his personal fave (it certainly doesn’t do the glamorous Emma justice):
Finally, my husband’s No. 1 pick:
So decorating the tree becomes a trip down Memory Lane, a catalogue of our passions, and a time to share all of them with each other. Just another reason I love the holiday season.
Transformation of the Tree
The tree is finally finished. Yay! I thought I’d share the stages of decoration since the tree’s transformation from bare naked fir to glitzy Christmas totem took several days.
Stage 1: Nothing but needles. The Fraser fir is a gorgeous shape though.
Stage 2: Lights and the star. I put blinking lights up the inside of the trunk to give it some movement, not that you can see those in a photo.
Stage 3: Add the feather boas. This was a new addition this year. A local designer (chosen to help decorate the White House) was featured in a magazine, which showed her own tree decorated with white feather boas. Since I’m always looking for an excuse to use feathers in my home and personal decor, I jumped right on that bandwagon. It really does look like snow on the needles, don’t you think?
Stage 4: Ornaments, bows, and candy canes are hung on the branches with care. Our tree will never be one of those designer creations because our ornaments are a hodge-podge collection representing our family history (more on that in my next blog). Literally every ornament I hook onto the tree has some significance to me or another member of the the family. I love seeing them all once a year.
I think Santa will approve.
Holiday gift #3: For the golfer in your life
Called “Golf Balls in a Sack”, this gift could go to either a male or female golfer, with slightly different subtexts. Dare them to hang it on their golf bag!
You can get 2 for just $13.50 each at www.lighterside.com .
Holiday gift #2: For all us moms
Do I really need to comment on this? I know I want one!
Gift idea #1: A magic wand
Tis the season for holiday shopping, and as always, I try to be helpful to my readers since I know what a tough job it is to find just the right gift. Here’s my first suggestion. It’s especially perfect for Harry Potter fans, but I think almost everyone has wanted a magic wand at some point in their lives. This one actually works!
It doesn’t zap Voldemort, but it will change the channel on your television with a swirl of your wrist. Here’s how X-treme Geek describes it: “a total of 13 programmable commands are controlled by circular movements, up and down gestures, or back and forth whisps of this vibrating wand. It uses the same accelerometer technology used in Wii remotes.”
Evidently it requires some practice to master, but I think it’s time well-used. Think how impressive it would look to chant “speedio fastus”, wave your wand, and have the DVR zoom into fast forward!
It’s a mere $79.95 on Amazon.
Oh, the irony! I’m posting a recipe.
I’m sure many of my friends will laugh hysterically when they see a recipe on my blog. But all my Facebook pals have asked for my world-famous Carrot and Ginger Soup recipe so I’m happy to oblige. The joke: I hate to cook and I make this soup exactly once a year–at Thanksgiving–to take to the family feast. As you will see, it’s incredibly easy, just a bit time-intensive. However, it is delicious, if I do say so myself.
Carrot and Ginger Soup
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh ginger root
3 cloves garlic, minced
7 cups chicken stock
1 cup dry white wine
1.5 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I use those bags of “baby cut” carrots just as is.)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Pinch curry powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Snipped fresh chives or chopped fresh parsley (garnish)
1. Melt the butter in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add the onion, ginger, and garlic and saute for 15 to 20 minutes.
2. Add stock, wine, and carrots. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered over medium heat until carrots are very tender, about 45 minutes (or a little longer if you’re doing a double batch).
3. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor fitted with a steel blade. Season with lemon juice, curry powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with the chives or parsley. Delicious either hot or chilled.
6 portions (about 200 calories each).
(Sorry about the lack of accents over “saute” and “puree”. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get those with this blog software.)
Here’s wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving, filled with many blessings.
Workshop Report: Plotting the Romantic Suspense Novel
Do you like to kill people in your books? Or at least strew a dead body or two around? Then Annie Solomon’s “Plotting the Romantic Suspense Novel” workshop is for you. Boy, do I wish I had attended this one before I started Music of the Night. It took three tries to get that book right. Annie’s advice would have saved me the first two.
Here’s a sneak peek into the excellent ideas Annie gave her students:
Required characters: Hero, Heroine, Dead person, Villain.
You must define the hero and heroine on a professional level that makes it a requirement that they be involved in the investigation almost all the time. You may choose to have them be: investigator, suspect, witness, lawyer, actual or potential victim, competing investigator, or bodyguard, etc.
Then you must go beyond that. If the heroine is the investigator, WHY is she involved in this case? What are the stakes for her? Possibilities: the victim is a friend/relative; solving the case will earn her a promotion; she’s assigned the case as punishment for a previous screw-up; the case is related to a crime she worked on in the past.
Also, give the victim some attribute(s) which relates to the hero/heroine, so that there is a personal stake in the crime.
In romantic suspense, it is important to keep the hero/heroine together physically. You can have them in a safe house or have one be the bodyguard for the other. If you make one of them the suspect, then the other must find admirable traits in him/her that contradict the suspicious evidence. Events in the romance can bring those out.
The two stories–romance and mystery–merge when trust and commitment enter the relationship.
Annie told us lots more, so I recommend you catch her workshop at another conference, if you can.
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