Magical Moments

Our bluebirds seem to have vacated the premises for the summer, BUT to our delight, the butterflies have come around. Not just any butterflies, either, these are huge tiger swallowtail butterflies. They look like monarchs in that they have the same coloring, yellow with black stripes, but these have a small tail at the bottom of each wing; hence, swallowtails. From wingtip to wingtip they are about four inches long and close to that from top to bottom.

We have a bush with small pink flowers outside the kitchen window and it’s a favorite spot for these beauties. They perform a ballet for us fluttering up and down and around the bush while we watch entranced from inside.

The other morning I looked out and saw what I later learned were a male  and a female swallowtail. The male is bright with black and yellow and the female is more a blue-grey. They danced around the bush and each other for hours. I’ve not seen the female since, but those hours when they were together were magical.

The next day I looked out and saw three males on the bush at the same time. Talk about enchantment! That little bush was alive with flying tigers. One flew off but the other two stayed around for a long time.

I miss my blue birds but I do believe the butterflies were sent to make up for their absence.

On a far different note, I submitted a humorous story to Chicken Soup for the Soul two and a half years ago and received word this month that it was accepted and will be in the November issue of CSFS, Age is Just a Number. The moral is: Never give up!

My story is called High Flying and is about me sky diving. At age sixty. In tandem. With an instructor attached to my back. From three miles up.

There are so many people in our writing group that have been accepted for various issues of CSFS, that they’re called the Chicken Coop. Well, I just gained admittance into the Coop along with another member who was accepted for the first time. I didn’t think I cared that I wasn’t in the Coop, but as soon as CSFS accepted my story, I found out just how much I did care.

So, wings are where it’s at right now—butterfly wings and chicken wings.

Quote of the Day: Wings are not only for birds; they are also for minds. Toller Cranston

It's About Time--For A New Look

Did you notice anything different? 

I decided to take this opportunity to show off my new blog page and remind y'all of my books--what I write and why I write them. I wanted my blog to reflect the style of my writing, hence the new title and picture. I don't, actually I can't, write heavy tomes or complicated stories. What I do write are books that are fairly quick and easy to read yet packed with morals and people who live their faith but don't shout it. Each novel is set in a specific time in history and brings in the flavor of that particular time.

My five historical novels are all connected to each other in one way or another. The first, Willard Manor, is about a fictional home built in Connecticut in 1840 by John Willard and occupied by all the generations of his family for one hundred seventy years. From the Civil War to the Woodstock Festival and everything in between. From an outhouse to indoor plumbing and television. A young couple, Shelley and Tony, buy the aging house in 2010 and in the course of renovating it, find clues to the home's former occupants. Shelley's father from whom she seeks advice is Mark Fortier.

Leaving Mark is about Shelley's dad when he was a young boy. All is well until his father is killed in a random shooting in 1957 when Mark is nine. Mark has a tough time learning how to be a man and whether or not life holds any meaning for him. His best friend Gary Haywood helps him find the answers.

Finding Gary is Gary's story. As a thirteen-year-old, Gary tries to run away from home to get away from his drunken and abusive father. When he's caught and brought back to the house, he devises a new plan of escape, but isn't successful at suicide either. Maybe his social worker can help him. As a teenager, Gary works for a time at Lou's Motorcycle Shop for a middle-aged man named Lou.

Saving Lou is about Lou's childhood. His twin brother died three days after birth, leaving Lou to think his brother Larry would have been a better son for his folks. Lou thinks he can't do anything right and if Larry had lived, he'd never do anything wrong. Lou turns eighteen in July 1941 so when Pearl Harbor is attacked in December, Lou joins the Navy. A kamakazi pilot slams his plane into the USS Enterprise where Lou is stationed and Lou quickly and without thought of his own safety, shoves his friend, Danny Epstein, out of harm's way.

Remaking Danny is about Danny's life, thirty years later in the mid-1970s. Danny, a firefighter in Buffalo, New York has to battle residential flames while at the same time battling his Jewish faith that he thought he'd lost following his bar mitzvah.  

My current work-in-progress reverts back to a character in Willard Manor. I'm looking for a title; it'll be (something) Robby. Robby is a pastor who has a dark secret that he's not anxious for his church members to discover. 

Basically, what I'm doing is fictionally populating the City of New Haven, except for Danny who lives in Buffalo. You'll just have to assume that when he retires, he moves to New Haven to be closer to Lou.

These are my novels. Not lengthy, each only about fifty thousand words. I figure why use ten words when you can get your meaning across in two. That's why I think they're perfect for sitting in a beach chair, a cold drink in one hand and my book in the other.

And by the way, I do have nonfiction books as well. Stop Procrastinating--Get Published! is a guide for beginner writers. Bumps Along the Way is a humorous memoir about a six-week car trip across the country by two cranky seniors including everything from ecstatic sights to trips to the hospital. If You Don't Like Worms, Keep Your Mouth Shut, is a lighthearted memoir about growing up in a small town in Vermont in the 1940s. Open Your Eyes to God's Beauty is a collection of poems by four generations of the same family--my dad, my sister and me, our children, and my grandson.        

So happy summer reading!

Quote of the Day: One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter. Henry David Thoreau