It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
I am still reading Clueless At The Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield (really enjoying it) and Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour.
Renee by Sandra Ardoin
A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl (An Amish Inn Mystery)
World Traveler by Anthony Bourdain
Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett
The Author’s Guide To Murder by Lauren Willig, Beatriz Williams, and Karen White
Gardner’s Plot by Deborah Benoit
The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashi
What We watched/are Watching
The Husband and I watched a Magnum P.I./Murder She Wrote crossover yesterday. I expected more from it, but then I learned there is a second part so we will be watching that tomorrow after he gets off work.
I started a Hayley Mills movie – Summer Magic — that I planned to replace one of the movies in my Summer Movie Marathon series since Having A Wonderful Time isn’t streaming anywhere and I don’t really want to order a DVD of it. I’m really not liking the movie very much so I don’t know if I will stick it out or not or watch something else for the marathon.
This morning I watched Just A Few Acres Farm after we watched the sermon from Elevation Church together. This is a Sunday tradition.
The sermon was excellent this week.
Just A Few Acres was interesting as he worked on fixing up an old truck with his son.
Last week he was spray painting a tractor and I know I’m old now because that was simply fascinating to me. Fascinating and very relaxing.
My book Cassie came out last week on Amazon. You can learn more about it here:
It’s part of a series but can be read as a stand alone.
I made quite a bit of progress on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree which I hope to have out by early November.
What I’m Listening To
I listened a little more to The Cross Country Quilters by Jennifer Chaverini and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.
Photos from Last Week
Now it’s your turn
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Welcome to a Saturday Afternoon Chat. I’m sipping lactose-free milk with maple syrup mixed in today and snacking on chocolate chips (just a few). Healthy snack? Not exactly, but also not the worst. What are you snacking on today? Or sipping? And what are you doing? I hope to get some reading time in myself after a fairly busy week.
Today I thought I’d write my post like a “week in the life” type post – so here is my week in “diary form.”
Monday I’m one of those women who sometimes says things to herself like, “I don’t need a man to make it through life.”
And I don’t need a man.
I want one, which is why I have my husband.
I do, however, enjoy acting like I just don’t know enough about home repairs because I’m just a dumb housewife when a window replacement guy comes and tries to talk me into a “free assessment of your windows because we were in the neighborhood.”
I was in the middle of creating content for my Instagram today when a man knocked on our side door. He was holding a clipboard and wearing a uniform. I don’t trust people holding a clipboard and wearing a uniform after some bad experiences.
I went to the side door and discovered our collection of Daddy Long Legs are back. One of them was hanging out on the handle. About a month ago we had like ten of them hanging out in that entryway because we rarely use it – normally only to bring groceries in and sometimes we just use the back door instead. My husband cleared them out with the broom while I watched from the hallway and said things like, “Ew! Oh my gosh! Is that one climbing in here?!” and he said things like, “They’re Daddy Long Legs! They’re harmless!”
Anyhow, on this day there was a baby one right on the door handle. Right on it. No room for my hand to open the door without touching it.
“Just open it!” my son cried from behind me while he held the barking dog back. “It’s just a Daddy Long Leg!”
“But it is still a spider!” I cried.
I finally pushed the thing aside and opened the door. Standing outside was the man with the clipboard, a beard, and some sweat beaded across his ruddy face from the sun beating down on him.
“Hello, ma’am I was in the neighborhood and happened to notice your windows are bowed out because …” blah-de-blah-de-blah seller talk blah. “Can you see how that window reflects oddly there like a funhouse window? Well that’s because Argon gas is getting in between the panes there and blah-blah.”
“We don’t have any money,” I interrupted.
Go away I wanted to say.
“Oh that’s okay, ma’am because we can send an evaluator out for no cost to you and –”
I was already looking bored and rolling my eyes but he wasn’t taking the hint. I have to admit he was very smooth.
Cue “dumb housewife who can’t do anything without her husband’s permission mode.”
“You know….is there anyway you can stop by another time when my husband is home. He’s the one who handles all the house stuff.”
And then I stepped back into my house and pulled my spider-covered door closed in his face.
I was so proud of me because the last time one of those guys came, I talked to him way too long and was way too polite. This is what my teenage son said when I finally took the guy’s card and went back in the house that first time, but this time when I got inside my son said he was very proud of me too.
He also told me that the gas the guy said was getting in between our windows is the third largest quantity of gas in our atmosphere and the guy was a scammer.
Tuesday
Tuesday was a weird day in some ways but it got better. I woke up super groggy after some weird dreams and it took me most of the day to snap out of it.
Some family friends we haven’t seen in like, well, thirty years or more, came to visit my parents so Little Miss, The Boy, and I headed over there for the afternoon. Well, honestly, The Boy went over earlier to help clean the house and mow the lawn. Little Miss and I went over later and visited with everyone for a little bit before they left and we jumped into the pool.
We didn’t last long because the water was extremely cold which wasn’t a surprise since it was only 70 degrees (F) out.
Wednesday
Little Miss and I tried swimming again on this day. It was warmer outside but absolutely freezing in the pool. We lasted maybe an hour. I kept hoping she’d break first so I wouldn’t have to be the bad guy and I was thrilled when she finally she said, “I think we need to get out. My teeth won’t stop chattering.”
Whew. I was free to jump out and take a warm shower.
“Let’s stay in our clothes in case we warm up and want to get back in though,” she said.
I did not want to do that. Not one little, itty-bitty bit but I said, “Okay.”
While drying off after the shower I heard what I thought was a fan blowing but there isn’t a fan in my parents’ bathroom. I looked out the window to see if the wind was blowing. It was not.
Finally I thought, “Wait. Is that rain?”
So I looked out the bathroom door and indeed it was pouring – I mean totally down pouring outside. We had seen nothing on our weather app about rain.
And not only was it outright pouring but I could see from looking through the bathroom door and the outside door window that two of our car windows were down.
Sadly, I was naked, my 9-year-old doesn’t know how to turn the car on and my parents both have mobility issues so I had to let the car get soaked until I could finish getting dressed and get out there.
Little Miss helped me with rolling up the windows – well, she walked out with me and we both got soaked in the cold rain but she didn’t help roll the windows up in the end. The cold rain made her decide it was going to be much too cold to try go back into the pool so she changed and then helped Grandma make tuna melts for dinner, which I didn’t eat of because I am still a picky eater at my advanced age and don’t eat tuna melts. Thankfully I had picked up some fried chicken from the only supermarket in a 15-mile radius so that’s what I ate instead of tuna melts.
While at my parents I called The Boy and asked him to kill a spider that’s been running around on our ceiling for two days but Little Miss and I are too short to kill or chase off.
It’s a black one. Somewhat big but not huge. So, yes, on this day while we were at my parents and he was still at home I called and asked him to kill the spider on the ceiling.
He said, “What spider?”
I said, “The one on the ceiling.”
He said, “I don’t see a spider.”
I said, “He comes and goes.”
So he said, “This is the dumbest call you’ve ever made to me. You want to me to kill a spider but you don’t know where it is?”
So I said, “Yes, exactly. Do it before we get home so it doesn’t fall on our head. Bye.”
The end of this story is that the kids have named the spider Timothy and have decided to leave him alone on the ceiling. The problem with this ending is that I can’t find Timothy as I am writing this and if I find Timothy on me, I’m going to have to kill Timothy.
On this night I found an episode of Classic Mary Berry that I hadn’t seen yet and I was so excited. Mary Berry feels like comfy, cozy watching and Little Miss and I watch her especially in fall and winter.
I also found out there is a more recent series of hers on The Roku Channel so I will be starting that series later this week.
I felt like a total dork for getting so excited when I saw that I could access new episodes of her shows. You would have thought I found a bunch of money in my couch or something with the way I was clapping my hands and telling the children.
Little Miss was excited.
The Boy was less excited but that’s okay.
He politely listened to me, nodding and smiling like you would with a patient at an insane asylum.
Thursday
Update on Timothy: Today he moved to the part of the ceiling over where I sit to do my writing and then over Little Miss. I moved myself to somewhere else in the house when he was over my sitting space.
Little Miss, on the other hand, decided to whip him away when he came to her part of the room by whipping at him with a cat toy. He moved some but then decided to hang out on the wall instead of the ceiling. Little Miss decided he was getting too close for comfort so she was going to kill him.
She pulled out a broom but the end of our broom was missing so it was just a hollow tube. This meant Timothy might be able to climb inside and come out to get us later so we added some duct tape to the end. Then she slapped at him and he avoided every hit somehow by scurrying up and down the wall away from her. She finally hit him enough that he fell down behind the bookcase. I figured he would be on the floor crawling toward us, so suggested she spray flea spray behind and under the bookcase.
We hoped he was gone but later in the day we looked up and he was back, crawling across the ceiling again.
I’m now starting to wonder if he is a CIA spy, something I’ve been worried about happening ever since I found out our neighbor’s son has CIA clearance.
Friday
Today was a lovely day and I thought it might not be. I knew it was going to be a long day and it was, but somehow, I had energy to get everything done I needed to.
I drove 40 minutes to pick up a friend of Little Miss’s.
Little Miss had to go in and visit their kittens and I needed a potty break.
Then we left but not even a few yards down the road, Little Miss said her friend needed her teddy bear dressed in a frog outfit so I offered to turn around.
That was a dumb, rookie mistake because after the bear was retrieved we headed out again, only to be stopped by a construction worker who had set up between the time we turned around and came back.
Before we left the first time I noticed a helicopter hovering over the field in front of our friend’s house. There was something hanging down from the helicopter, which was near some power lines that have those large red balls or round thingees as I call them on them. The ones they put on power lines in spaces like that to let airplanes know that there are powerlines there. I thought the helicopter was replacing those and watched for a few moments.
When we got stopped I was grumpy and got even grumpier as the minutes ticked by. Twenty minutes later we were finally allowed to move forward on a road where we couldn’t turn around and there was no cell service.
That’s when I was able to see the helicopter moving up the hill to my left in a large space cut into the hillside where the powerlines go up and realized that the thingee hanging down from the helicopter that I had seen before (I use thingee a lot. I’m a writer, yes, but I’m old so that’s the word I use when I don’t want to try to think of the real word or look it up) was a type of saw and the helicopter was actually trimming the tree line.
I wish I had had time to take a photo or a video but by then there were a line of cars behind me and I just wanted to keep going forward to get our groceries, which we drove another half an hour to pick up.
After driving up and down hills and around bends in the road and admiring the views along the way, we grabbed our pick-up order and then drove another half an hour to get home – or to my parents anyhow.
I made these videos for Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs because she thinks I live in a super remote area … and she is right.
Once I got to my parents, I dropped off some groceries for them, picked up The Boy and left the girls with my parents and my brother who was visiting. The Boy and I took all the groceries in and then headed back to my parents to briefly say hello to my brother and take the girls for a 90-minute swim.
After that, it was back home for some pizza and Bluey and Minecraft and then Little Miss’s friend went home.
We weren’t sure we’d be able to swim again before summer was over for a variety of reasons – cold weather, algae, high chlorine, and rain, but today the weather was perfect and the pool was fairly warm until right before we decided to leave. It was nice we were able to get the swim in today because it is supposed to rain a lot on Saturday (today) and Sunday.
Little Miss wanted a sleepover tonight but I was strong this time and told her ‘no.’ It worked out well because she was overstimulated and glad for the ddowntimewhen her friend left and quickly fell asleep and we both were able to get up today and simply take our time waking up.
We do have one last summer sleepover planned for two weeks from now after The Husband takes Little Miss and her friend to the county fair.
School starts for The Boy this Thursday and for Little Miss on August 28.
Saturday (today)
Today the weather is gloomy but I don’t mind. I’m inside writing this blog post, my Sunday Bookends blog post for tomorrow, working on Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, watching old movies, and planning to read a bit later on.
Little Miss and I are decompressing from the day’s events while The Husband covers some events for the newspaper throughout the day.
The Boy is enjoying sleeping in and lounging about for his final weekend before school starts. Timothy is still on the ceiling and has been enjoying the edges of the room more where I think he’s realized we can’t reach him easily.
So that is my very long post about my week.
How was your week? I’d love to know. Let me know in the comments by linking to a weekly round up post or just by letting me know.
Marsha, our leader, is on vacation right now so we will be sharing only our highlights for the week and when Marsha comes back we will share a round-up of all the most clicked from the three weeks she is gone. The hosts are excited for Marsha – well, not to speak for Sue or Melynda, but I think they are too – to go on this trip that she has been looking forward to and are looking forward to hearing all about it when she gets back.
I’m so glad you are here and taking part in our weekly link-up of family-friendly, fun, educational, interesting, crafty, fashionable, and whatever else posts. I hope you’ll tell your followers about our post (feel free to copy and paste the graphic) and visit the blogs in the link-up.
Now it is your turn to link up your favorite posts. They can be fashion, lifestyle, DIY, food, etc. All we ask is that they be family-friendly. You can link up posts from last week or even from years ago. We are always looking for additional hosts so let us know if you want to help out and we are also looking for more links from fashion bloggers so let your fashion bloggers know!
Also, please take the time to visit the other blogs on the link-up and meet some new bloggers!
Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation (1962) is probably a movie I should have watched at the beginning of summer to catch the feeling of the season ahead of time, but, really, this movie is one that can be watched any time someone needs a laugh. I think we can all agree that we all need a good laugh these days.
The movie, a mix of comedy and a bit of drama, stars Jimmy Stewart (as Roger Hobbs) and Maureen O’Hara (as Peggy Hobbs). There were moments that I think the writers meant to be comedic but I didn’t find some of those monies super funny, but instead found them a bit sad or serious.
In this movie, like others I’ve watched from this era (the early 60s), I can see that life wasn’t that much different than today. While we seem to look back at the 50s and 60s as a more innocent time, this is one of those movies that shows there were some hard parts of life even then – arguing married couples, potentially cheating spouses, fathers struggling to be good fathers, children addicted to television, and young women struggling through the teenage years.
Those topics could bring a person down but there is a lot of humor and light-hearted moments thrown into the movie to make sure it doesn’t go too far down the hole of depression.
We start the movie with Mr. Hobbs looking quite drained as he drives through the city – which I believe is L.A. Once he gets past trucks kicking out exhaust at him and cars pinning him on every side on the highway, he arrives at the office asks his secretary to take down a letter where he plans to tell his wife that he doesn’t want to go on vacation ever again.
From there the movie is a flashback to the crazy beach vacation Mr. Hobbs didn’t want.
He planned to take the family to a ranch in Montana for a month, but his wife (Maureen) has had the wonderful opportunity to rent a beach house and she wants to bring the entire family there – her teenage daughter, young son (who is maybe 12?), and grown-up daughters who are both married with children.
Mr. Hobbs isn’t so sure about this idea but he finally agrees.
Danny, their young son isn’t too thrilled either if it means he won’t get to watch his TV, which he is completely addicted to (not much different than kids today). When the family arrives at the home, it looks like not only will Danny not get to watch TV but no one is going to have too much fun because the place looks like it is about to fall over.
Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs decide to make the best of it, though, even bringing their cook with them. She doesn’t stay around long, though, because the house is a disaster and when the two older daughters come with their spouses things get crazy.
One daughter and her husband argue about how to raise their children. The other daughter’s husband is a stuck up professor who we later learn also likes to flirt with attractive women.
Mr. Hobbs decides to take a break from it all one morning by going out on the beach to read.
An attractive, woman who is – shall we say – well-endowed in the upper body is sunbathing but he’s more interested in his book – War and Peace.
It turns out she is more interested in chatting with him and decides to interrupt his reading, all while leaning over in her bathing suit and pouting. She has a French or Norwegian or something accent, which, I think, is supposed to make her that much more appealing.
Mr. Hobbs eventually excuses himself, after stumbling over a few words with her, but she will show up again later in the movie – this time to flirt with Mr. Hobbs’ son-in-law.
This movie grew on me. I watched it twice in the span of a few days and during the first watch, I didn’t like it that much, but didn’t hate it. During the second time I watched it with The Husband I started to like it more. I began to like the characters and storyline more, even though there were times I was, once again, disturbed by how the father wanted his daughter to hurry up and grow up already and start dating boys.
What was about that era when every parent thought their kids should be dating constantly at the age of 14? Also, there is no way that girl was 14 in this movie. She had to be at least 20.
Fabian was in this movie and was her love interest and I’d say he was about 25. Hold on, though, I’ll look this up and come back….
The girl who played the daughter (Katey Hobbs) was Lauri Peters and she was 19 when the movie released, so probably about 17 or 18 when it filmed.
Fabian was the same age, so okay, they looked older but they weren’t that much older. For those who don’t know, Fabian was a famous singer back in the day and, yes, he does sing one song in this movie, but, no, the movie is not a musical.
There was one line in the movie that made me think that maybe Playboy wasn’t the same back then as it is today. Roger Hobbs says, in the beginning of the movie, that his children really don’t need him anymore.
“Danny only needs me to pick him up a copy of Playboy once a month.”
The kid was like 12. What are they doing getting him a Playboy anyhow? I’m guessing that Playboy wasn’t as dirty as it became and is now.
As I mentioned above, while this was marketed as a comedy there were a lot of heartwarming moments and a couple of serious issues brought up – not serious enough to bring the mood down, though.
There were a lot of silly or funny moments. The most hilarious scene in the movie involves Mr. Hobbs getting stuck in the shower with the wife of the man who his son-in-law hopes will be his boss. This is all after Roger says that he and his wife should let the kids figure out life on their own.
“We’re going to buzz off before we are told to buzz off.”
So they spend part of the movie doing their best not fixing their children’s mistakes and do fairly well…but you’ll have to watch to see what happens.
Jimmy Stewart was 54 in this movie. Maureen was 40. Their chemistry was amazing. They had so many passionate kiss scenes that made my toes curl. I think their respective spouses might have been a bit jealous.
Some interesting trivia I found online:
The portrait at the bottom of the staircase in the beach house is of Captain Daniel Gregg, played by Rex Harrison in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which was filmed in 1947, and which I watched last year with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.
This was one of three family comedies directed by Henry Koster from the early to mid-60s and each one featured Jimmy. The other two were Take Her, She’s Mine with Sandra Dee and Dear Brigitte.
The script was adapted from a novel by Edward Streeter.
Fabian was also in Dear Brigitte with Jimmy and said of him: “If anybody’s ever blessed, you have to be blessed to work with Jimmy Stewart. He was the most congenial, helpful person I ever worked with.”
I liked this review from imbd.com and think that I could have just shared this here and it would have summed it up well:
“Pleasant nostalgia, no modern sophomoric gags
This pleasant comedy may seem a bit on the dull side to modern audiences conditioned by R-rated gross-out fests (at least it’s in color, for those so spoiled they lack the ability to get into a black and white story), but a nice nostalgia trip for those longing for the “simpler, more innocent” times of the mid-twentieth century. (I’m not an old fuddy-duddy chronologically, just in spirit.) Stewart is your average Dad, taking an average Mom (Maureen O’Hara) and family to spend the summer in a rustic Victorian house at the beach.
They encounter the usual problems with antiquated plumbing and teenage romance, with a few interesting plot developments. If you know character actor Johm McGiver, he has one of his funniest roles as a bird-watching executive. Definitely recommended for Stewart fans or those interested in ’50 & ’60s nostalgia; but not for those who can only laugh at the stuff in Austin Powers or Team America (I like all these movies, incidentally).”
Title: Tracking Tilly: Book 1 In The Little Red Truck Mysteries
Author: Janice Thompson
Description:
Who Stole Tilly from the Auction Block? Breathe in the nostalgia of everything old red truck in book one of a new cozy mystery series. The Hadley family ranch is struggling, so RaeLyn, her parents, and brothers decide to turn the old barn into an antique store. The only thing missing to go with the marketing of the store is Grandpa’s old red truck, Tilly, that was sold several years ago. Now coming back up on the auction block, Tilly would need a lot of work, but RaeLyn is sure it will be worth it—if only she can beat out other bidders and find out who stole Tilly after the auction ends. Hadley finds herself in the role of amateur sleuth, and the outcome could make or break the new family venture.
My impressions: When I first started this book it felt like it might be morphing from a cozy mystery to a romance – like it wasn’t sure of its identity but once I accepted this was more of a romance-mystery, I just settled in for the ride and discovered it was a well-balanced mix.
The characters in this book were very likable, other than the occasional bad apple who wasn’t supposed to be liked. My favorite character was Bessie Mae, main character RaeLyn’s great aunt. She was hilarious and sweet and I absolutely loved what a huge John Wayne fan she was since I am as well.
I loved how the author tied in Bessie Mae’s love of John Wayne by having her offer up quotes in stressful or crossroad moments in the book. Like:
“And you know what Duke would say…”
“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
Or,
“This is quite the conundrum,” Bessie Mae chimed in. “But you know what the Duke would’ve said.”
“What’s that?” Mom asked.
“Life s just a bowl of cherries, and you happen to be in the pits.”
I also loved how RaeLyn took Bessie Mae along on some of her sleuthing.
I was glad that the romance between RaeLyn and …well, someone (I’ll keep that a secret until you read it) is very natural and sweet and doesn’t overshadow the mystery. It’s in the background and moves forward in a couple of chapters but not to the point of making this book a true romance book. I like a mix of romance and mystery but when the romance takes over a book, I find myself rolling my eyes and wondering where the mystery is already.
This one did take a bit to get to the mystery but once it did it was the main focus and the vehicle for the readers to meet all of RaeLyn’s friends and family including her mom, dad, three brothers, best friend and her mom’s best friend.
The subtitle says this is the first in the Little Red Truck Mysteries so I am already looking forward to more installments in this series.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
We had a threat of flash flooding Friday thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Debby but in the end the pattern moved to our west and Westfield, Pa., which is a couple hours from us, was hit extremely hard. Some areas around us had some issues but nothing like Westfield.
Temperatures have cooled way down and now that we are moving toward Autumn (which I wanted) I am feeling somewhat melancholy, knowing that our days of swimming are coming to an end. Little Miss and I haven’t been swimming in two weeks due to either algae in the pool that had to be treated, a leak that was found and fixed, or chlorine that was too high. We are going to try again today but with temps only supposed to get in the low 70s I have a feeling we won’t be in long.
The days are already getting shorter – I’ve noticed that it is dark by 8:30 now. The cats are looking for more snuggles than before and we are now preparing for the start of the school year.
I have almost all the curriculum we need for the year but I do need a couple of things still for The Boy, who is a senior this year and will be attending a local trade school again this year.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Trouble Shooter by Louis L’Amour
Renee by Sandra Ardoin
Clueless At the Coffee Station by Bee Littlefield
Tracking Tilly by Janice Thompson
The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes by Carolyn Keene
A Simple Deduction by Kristi Holl
The Gardner’s Plot by Deborah Benoit
The Author’s Guide to Murder by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig
An Assassination On the Agenda by T.E. Kinsey
Little Miss and I are listening to The Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson
The Boy is listening to The Witcher, book one.
The Husband is reading The Donut Legion by Joe R. Lansdale
What We watched/are Watching
Since I last posted a Sunday Bookends I have watched a lot but I didn’t write it all down so I might not remember everything.
I know I watched a couple of summer movies – Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation and Summertime.
I have started Somewhere in Time but I haven’t finished it yet.
I watched Ladies in Lavender and a couple marathons of Murder She Wrote as well as an episode of Yes, Minister with my mom.
What I’m Writing
I am writing the third book in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series: Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Did you know that I am having a huge discount on the paid subscriptions for my Substack and that when you are a paid subscriber you will receive sneak peeks to upcoming books (like Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree, which will come out this autumn), behind the scenes looks, discounts, author interviews, giveaways, and many other perks?
No?
Well, now you know. You can find my substack, which is updated a few times a month, at www.lisarhowler.substack.com
Today for Fiction Friday I am interviewing Sandra Ardoin who has a new book out. Renee is the seventh book in the Apron Strings Book Series, a multi-author series of which I am also a part.
Each book can be read as a standalone with the only connecting factor being an old-fashioned cookery (recipe) book called Mrs. Canfield’s Cookery Book. Each book takes place in a decade from 1920 to 2020.
Sandra’s book takes place in the 1980s.
First, a little about the book:
Renee Burnette, a widow living in the North Carolina mountains, has longed for two things she never had growing up—a permanent home and a lasting friendship like the one she has with Val from her cooking club. In the summer of 1986, the local apple growers sponsor a bake-off with a monetary prize that would bring Renee closer to her housing goal. But after Renee and Val each enter, their relationship goes from best friends to bitter rivals.
When Renee learns of the opportunity for a promotion at work, she’s determined to prove her qualifications to her handsome, single boss. The closer they draw to one another, though, the more Renee fears that an office romance will jeopardize her job and her housing dream.
As the bake-off competition intensifies, Renee’s office relationships are strained, her sweet son becomes unruly, and the rift with Val widens. Can a decades-old cookbook help Renee restore the bonds every woman needs?
Now, an interview with Sandra:
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
For me, writing is a business, but it’s also a ministry, so the faith aspect is important. I write Christian romance and began with historicals set in the late 19th century. For the past couple of years, though, I’ve written contemporary romances. Honestly, I’m eager to get back to the past and alternate with a mix of time periods.
My writing career began in 1986 (the same year in which Renee takes place) with greeting cards and posters, then I moved on to children’s short stories for Sunday School take-home papers. I’m a big believer in God’s timing, and His timing, when it came to writing novels, was not until 2009. That’s been my focus since, with my first (a novella) traditionally published in 2014 and the follow-up novel in 2016—the Barnes Brothers series. In 2019, I went independent and have published ten additional novels and novellas.
In my real life, I’m a wife, mom, and occasional granddog-sitter living in North Carolina.
2. What is your latest book about? Who are the main characters and when and where does it take place?
My latest book is Renee, Book Seven in the Apron Strings series. In this series of books that takes place in different decades, I was blessed to be given the 1980s, a decade I know well. I set the book in western North Carolina near Asheville and gave the story a young widow (Renee) with a six-year-old boy. She had a somewhat vagabond childhood and yearns for a sense of belonging and lifelong friendships.
Renee believes a house, rather than the small apartment she and her son now occupy, will offer that permanency she’s lacked in life. Hoping the prize money will complete the funds she needs to buy a house, she enters a baking contest, only to discover she’s competing against her best friend.
3. What is the overarching message of your latest book?
Renee is a story about relationships . . . with a little romance thrown in. Her go-to verses are Ecclesiastes 4:9-10. I chose those scriptures, because they are so because they are so apropos to Renee’s spiritual growth.
4. Did you learn anything about writing or yourself as you were writing the book?
I’m accustomed to writing romance from two points of view—the hero and heroine. This book is only in Renee’s point of view and light on the romance. When it came to her interactions with Greg, I so wanted to write his POV, too, which made the romance a little more challenging for me.
5. Where can readers find out more about you and your projects?
Readers can visit my website and find my complete book list at http://www.sandraardoin.com/books. I’m also on BookBub, Facebook, X , and Goodreads.
The best way to keep up with what’s new, discover what’s upcoming, and learn of sales and specials is to subscribe to my newsletter. I send it out once a month or when something special is happening, like a sale or new release.
Check out Renee or any of the books in the Apron Strings series on Amazon and read them through Kindle Unlimited.
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I know that summer is winding down for most of us already, with kids already heading back to school in some places, but around here we don’t say summer is over until the first of September so I am watching summer movies for the month of August.
This week I am writing about Beach Blanket Bingo from 1963.
I started this movie and immediately decided I might not be able to make it through it. Ultimately I decided to push through it so my readers never have to.
And so I’d have some funny material for my blog.
I suffer for my blog readers. What can I say?
So here is the plot of the film – um….there isn’t one. I don’t think so anyhow.
There is just Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon jumping out of an airplane for whatever reason, kids (who actually look anywhere from 30 to 40 years old) dancing half-dressed on the beach, a lot of singing for no apparent reason, perverted old men chasing young girls, and some bumbling bad guy in a “motorcycle gang” who’s goal is to – er – I am truly not sure. Kidnap a pop singer I think.
Oh and a mermaid. There is a mermaid.
There is also a singer who is in love with Frankie’s character and Annette is jealous of.
I watched the movie and still had to go search online for a summary so I know what in the world happened.
Online it said this: “Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and the gang are hitting the beach for some good old-fashioned shenanigans. To get the party underway, the manager (Paul Lynde) of pop singer Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) decides a skydiving publicity stunt will really do the trick. As Frankie and the others are pulled into the plan, things get out of control. Throw in Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falling in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen) and a kidnapping biker (Harvey Lembeck), and the party’s just getting started.”
Do the trick of what? I have no idea.
This movie was the fourth one in an eight-movie series with the first one released in 1963 and the last one being released in 1987 (yikes). From what I can see each movie had the actors playing different characters with unique plots. (Or what were supposed to be plots).
Three of the movies were released in 1964 and three in 1965.
So I looked this particular movie up on Wikipedia and it said this (there are spoilers but don’t worry…I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to rush out to watch this one), “A singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans), is unwittingly being used for publicity stunts for her latest album by her agent (Paul Lynde), for example, faking a skydiving stunt, actually performed by Bonnie (Deborah Walley).
Meanwhile, Frankie (Frankie Avalon), duped into thinking he rescued Sugar Kane, takes up skydiving at Bonnie’s prompting; she secretly wants to make her boyfriend Steve (John Ashley) jealous. This prompts Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) to also try free-falling. Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) and his Rat Pack bikers also show up, with Von Zipper falling madly in love with Sugar Kane. Meanwhile, Bonehead (Jody McCrea) falls in love with a mermaid named Lorelei (Marta Kristen).
Eventually, Von Zipper “puts the snatch” on Sugar Kane, and in a Perils of Pauline-like twist, the evil South Dakota Slim (Timothy Carey) kidnaps Sugar and ties her to a buzz-saw.”
So….yeah…ahem. There you go. The scene with the buzz saw? Completely psychopathic material. It got very dark at that point I thought.
I did like at least one exchange between characters.
The manager of the pop singer says, “I didn’t catch your name, boy.”
And Frankie shoots back, “I didn’t throw it.”
When I first started the movie and saw Don Rickles was in it I thought, “The only thing that will save this movie is Don Rickles.”
As I got more into the movie, though, my thought was, “Not even Don Rickles can save this movie.”
But there is one stand-up act he performs in the middle that actually does save the movie…more about that below because is it just me or did Annettee always look like she was 40 even in her late teens?
She was 18 in this movie but seriously looked like 40 to me, or at least 30. Even Frankie looked old(ish) to me but he was 25 in the movie. Did you know he’s still alive? I didn’t. I knew Annette was gone – she passed away from complications of MS several years ago. I remember because my mom and I were talking about her since she was more from my mom’s era than mine.
Of course, I am teasing a bit about how old they looked. Everyone else in the movie probably was in their 30s or 40s, though. Even Rickles noticed. According to information I read online, he even broke character at one point while pretending to be in a nightclub act, teasing Frankie and Annette by asking why they were in the film, because they were so old. I must have missed this when I first watched the movie because I went back to watch it again and cracked up for the first time watching the movie. I absolutely love how you can tell how the cast is actually laughing for real – it’s so authentic.
The movie is supposed to be goofy fun so I tried to cut it some slack, but … oh my ….it was hard to struggle through most of it. The campy sound effects didn’t help anything and then there were these scenes interspliced into the movie of an old man chasing (literally) a young woman in a bikini. Weird.
I thought it was interesting, or unsettling I guess, to read that the pop singer was originally going to be played by Nancy Sinatra but she dropped out because part of the plot of the movie was a kidnapping and her brother, Frank Sinatra Jr., had only recently been released after he was actually kidnapped at the age of 19. A ransom was paid by his father Frank Sinatra to have him released.
John Ashley plays Steve, the husband of the sky-diver, in this movie (and was her actual husband in real-life) but usually played Frankie’s friend in other movies. One reviewer said the movies were about friendship ultimately and it was weird to see Ashley not playing Frankie’s friend in this particular movie.
There is plenty of music in these movies from Frankie and Annette and several other real-life artists including, Donna Loren and the Hondells and I have to admit the music really isn’t that bad.
The pop singer for the movie was portrayed by Linda Evans but she lip synched songs sung by studio vocalist Jackie Ward.
A 12-page comic book was produced by Dell Comics and released at the same time as the movie.
Frankie later said of the movie, “That’s the picture of mine that I think people remember best, and it was just a lot of kids having a lot of fun — a picture about young romance and about the opposition of adults and old people. There’s nothing that young people respond to more than when adults say `These kids are nuts,` and that’s what this movie was about. It was also fun because we got to learn how to fake skydive out of an airplane.
I thought it was also interesting to read that a skit on the Carol Burnett show with the cast and Steve Martin was based on the movie. I recently saw that clip and knew it was based on one of these movies but not which one.
I watched the movie on Amazon Prime. It’s free right now with a Prime subscription.
