Comfy Cozy Cinema: Arsenic and Old Lace

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Comfy Cozy Cinema12 Comments

For the next two months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy or comfy movies and some of them will have a little mystery or adventure added in.

This week we watched Arsenic and Old Lace which was based on a 1941 play by Joseph Kesselring. The play, in fact, was still on Broadway when the movie was filmed in 1942. The play’s producers stipulated in the contract for the rights to the play that the movie would not be released until after the play finished its Broadway run. The play was so popular, though, that it ran for three years so the film didn’t hit theaters until 1944.

The movie was directed by Frank Capra.

This movie is completely crazy and off the wall in the start and then gets a bit dark and creepy in the middle and then it goes back to goofy again.

I prefer the goofy and eccentric portions of the movie to the creepy parts because the one actor in the creepy parts – Raymond Massey — well, he’s good at his job, that’s all I’ll say about that.

I am a huge Cary Grant fan, which you might know if you’ve been following this blog for very long. Erin and I even did a Spring of Cary feature this past spring.

My husband commented while we were watching this movie that he thinks he likes Cary in comedies more than his dramas and I have to agree. Cary makes the best faces when he’s acting in a comedy and pulls off the comedic element so flawlessly that I’m often left laughing so hard during his comedies that my sides hurt.

There are several hilarious parts of this movie but one of the most hilarious aspects is how everyone acts like death and murder and attempted murder are everyday things. Everyone except Cary’s character, except when it comes to the attempted murder of his new wife, which he seems to shrug off because he has a one-track mind and wants to get his uncle committed to an insane asylum and protect his murderous aunts from being arrested.

Let me back up a bit here to explain some things.

Cary’s aunts are brutal killers but they are also sweet and wholesome and no one would know they are murderers until Cary (who portrays Mortimer Brewster in this movie) finds a dead man in their window seat.

Cary’s uncle thinks he’s President Theodore Roosevelt, which has worked well for the aunts who are having him pretend he’s digging the Panama Canal in their basement.

While Mortimer is trying to figure out what to do with his murderous aunts and his crazy uncle, his new wife – who he just married at the beginning of the movie — keeps trying to get his attention so they can run off together for their honeymoon to Niagara Falls.

Mortimer is way too distracted with shock and horror over his new discovery about his aunts to pay attention to his wife, who, by the way, is the daughter of the pastor who lives across the street. Then, as if things couldn’t get any crazier, Mortimer’s brother Jonathan returns home from his travels around the world where he’s been killing people. He returns with his partner in crime, a doctor played by Peter Lorre, who has botched Jonathan’s facelift, making him look like Boris Karloff, which is ironic because Karloff played Jonathan Brewster on Broadway. Karloff stayed on as the character in the play to appease the producers because they were concerned that losing all of the main actors for the movie would kill ticket sales.

According to Wikipedia: “Josephine Hull and Jean Adair portray the Brewster sisters, Abby and Martha, respectively. Hull and Adair, as well as John Alexander (who played Teddy Brewster), reprised their roles from the 1941 stage production.[4]Hull and Adair both received an eight-week leave of absence from the stage production, which was still running, but Karloff did not, as he was an investor in the stage production and its main draw. The entire film was shot within those eight weeks. The film cost just over $1.2 million of a $2 million budget to produce.”

The movie is absolutely hilarious and eccentric and I’m glad I stuck it out this time because the first time I watched it, my husband and I bailed in the middle when the creepy brother came back. The entire tone of the film switched from goofy to dark and creepy, but now that I’ve watched it all the way through, I understand the reason for the creepiness. It is to lay the groundwork for the silliness and off the wall behavior to return. At one point the brother is terribly creepy and then a bit later his reactions to discovering secrets about his aunts are so funny because he’s supposed to be the tough, scary guy.

You just have to see the film to understand.

Incidentally, Raymond Massey was nominated for an Oscar in 1940 for playing Abraham Lincoln in Abraham Lincoln in Illinois.

Massey played Lincoln several times in film, television and on stage. Someone, though articles online don’t say who, once said that Massey would keep perfecting his role as Abraham Lincoln until someone assassinated him too.

One thing I want to make sure I mention about this film is the cinematography. There are some really amazingly lit and positioned scenes from the film, including one where Jonathan’s shadow is towering over the doctor who is sitting on the stairs.

As I was preparing this blog post and sharing about the movie on Instagram this week, a very interesting story popped up about how the play was possibly based on a true story about a woman in Connecticut who ran a nursing home and was charged in 1917 with the murder of five people between the years of 1907 to 1917.

Amy Duggan “Sister” Archer-Gilligan poisoned five people, including her second husband Michael Gilligan. The others were residents in the nursing home. Some reports say up to 60 people died in the nursing home that was called The Archer Home for the Elderly and Infirm but Gilligan was only charged in five deaths. She may have killed her first husband, John Archer, in 1910 but the official cause of death was listed as Bright’s disease. Oddly, though, Gilligan had taken an insurance policy out on her husband a few weeks before his death. The payment from it allowed her to keep the home open.

She married Michael Gillian in 1913 and he mysteriously died of “indigestion” three months later. He was a wealthy man and despite the short length of their marriage, Michael had left his estate to her, not his four adult sons. It was later determined that Amy had forged Michael’s signature and that the will was a fake.

To make a long story short, the family member of a deceased resident tried to get the district attorney in the county to investigate Gilligan but he blew her off. Finally, the woman contacted a journalist who ran a story about the home and from there everything unraveled. The bodies of five people were exhumed and all had been poisoned with either arsenic or strychnine.

Kesselring never said if Gilligan’s story inspired the play, but it is interesting to note the similarities.

If you want to read more about her case you can see it here, but remember Wikipedia might not always be totally accurate.

In one article I read that Capra had considered both Jack Benny and Bob Hope for the role of Mortimer. No offense to either of those men (I love listening to old Jack Benny radio shows as I fall asleep at night), but I can’t see the film with anyone other than Cary.

One site – Movies! Reel Variety – said that Cary doubted his performance later. He felt he overplayed the character and that Jimmy Stewart would have played the part better.

This was the only film he made with Capra, whom he called “a dear man.”

Criterion.com (https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7952-arsenic-and-old-lace-madness-in-the-family) states that while Capra worried that delaying the film would cause it to miss out on the box office war boom or make the subject, or actors stale, but instead Cary was just coming into his own and was one of the hottest actors in Hollywood by 1944.

Cary said he wanted to do the film because he “just wanted to have fun” after being in so many films in the 1930s that were social commentaries.

After playing the part, though, he complained about it, but, according to the Criterion article, he complained about many of his performances and worried over them even when the audience loved them.

Arsenic and Old Lace is one of these films.

I enjoyed this paragraph in the Criterion article: “In his book on Grant, Richard Schickel defends Grant’s and Capra’s bold choices, asking, “What’s a man supposed to do when he finds bodies buried all over his maiden aunts’ house? Arch an ironic eyebrow?” The playing is entirely appropriate to a character in such circumstances in a farce, even if, as Schickel concedes, it is “not Grant’s most urbane performance.”

Shooting of the film was finished five days after Pearl Harbor was bombed. Frank Capra joined the Signal Corps, but luckily was given some time to first finish what proved to be his only black comedy, or the world might have had to wait even longer to see it.

To read Erin’s impressions of the film, you can visit her blog here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/09/28/comfy-cozy-cinema-arsenic-and-old-lace/

Next week we are taking a break from watching movies to give time for any of you to catch up on the films yourself and write about them, if you want to.

If you’ve watched any of the movies and would like to take part in our Comfy, Cozy Cinema, you can sign up on the link below.

When we return to the feature on Oct. 13 we will be writing about The Lady Vanishes.

After that, we will be watching the following movies:

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

A break for Thanksgiving

And

Sense and Sensibility (November 30th)

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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September Newsletter: Cooler weather, writing book two of the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries, and a giveaway!

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Newsletter3 Comments

One week during the winter of 1993 snow covered everything until the world was a white wonderland, but also a dangerous situation. Snow hung heavy on tree limbs and electric lines, both ready to break under the weight of it. An icy sheen of snow hid the highway that traveled in front, and slightly above our house. Electricity was on in most of our tiny village, split into two different electric companies by the creek behind our house.

My grandmother’s electricity was off so Dad started the truck, warmed it up, and headed out through three feet of snow – over the river (creek) and through the woods to Grandmother’s house he went.

He brought back my 84-year-old grandmother so she could wait until the power came back on. I don’t remember much about her visit other than her wearing a warm coat and looking out the window with us at all the insane amount of snow. I think that might have also been the year the neighbor’s teenage son was hit with a snowplow. He wasn’t killed, thankfully, but it was a nerve-wracking moment.

Here we are 20 years later and outside the air is brisk and we are piling wood up behind our garage to prepare for the cold weather we are sure to get this year. I am hearing that this could be quite a nasty winter when it comes to snowfall.

So far the trees haven’t changed color much but are just starting to and we know before long the hillsides will be ablaze with brilliant reds, orange, and yellows.

I am looking forward to the beauty, to the chilly weather, to the chance to sit under a blanket and read a book without the urgency that seems to come with summer – an urgency to soak up all the warm weather and sunshine, I suppose.

While I wait for autumn to hit us in full force, I am writing Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, which is set to release in late November or early December. My original release date was November 21 but I may need to push it off a couple of weeks to make sure the story flows the way I want it to.

I’ve considered no longer offering pre-orders simply because they can be so stressful, but there will be a pre-order for Cassie, the book I am writing as part of the Apron Strings Book Series because that is part of our agreement in being part of the project. Cassie will be released in mid-August of 2024. I’m very excited to be part of this project, which books will start releasing in January.

If you’d like to learn more about this series and the authors who are writing the books (there will be a book focused on each decade from 1920 to 2020), you can join us in our Facebook group here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/511319271100448

We share memories, talk about the decades our books are in, share silly and fun posts, and offer sneak peeks of the books. We’d love to have you join in the fun.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reception of my latest book, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, and have really been excited to see reviews coming in from people I have never met or interacted with in my life. This happened with my other books as well, but reviews for those books sometimes came from people I had at least “met” somewhere online (and sometimes from people I never met). This time around I have people coming out of the woodwork who have read the book and reviewed it.

There is a large group of readers who think reviews on an indie author’s books come from family and friends. This isn’t the case with mine because most of my family doesn’t read my book and if they do, they aren’t really the rating or reviewing kind.

I don’t know of many real-life friends who have read my books – at least not close friends – and they certainly aren’t leaving ratings or reviews if they have.

This past week I received a review on Bookbub that I didn’t expect at all.

“This is a fun cozy mystery about a woman named Gladwynn Grant. Gladwynn moves in with her granny who isn’t the knitting parlor, baking cookies type of sweet old granny. She’s got spice. Gladwynn takes a job at the town newspaper thinking her new home in Brookstone will be a quiet life. She’s dead wrong. Her granny is also trying to set her up with the pastor in town, Luke. It had some fast moments but is easy going and the characters were fun. Very entertaining.”

I don’t know who you are Ryan, but thank you!

If you haven’t had a chance to read Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing yet, you can pick up a paperback copy on Amazon (soon to be available on Barnes and Noble too), read the ebook through Kindle Unlimited or buy it on Amazon, or you can order a paperback copy from my personal stash.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

My Books page: https://lisahoweler.com/order-my-books/

The Spencer Valley Chronicles – all four books and a novella – are back up on Kindle Unlimited, which, if you don’t know, is a subscription book service offered by Amazon. The one drawback to having my books on KU is that I can’t share them digitally anywhere while they are enrolled in KU. Amazon likes its exclusivity.

I can, however, sell paperback versions of the book in other places so this coming year I will be offering the Spencer Valley Chronicles in paperback at Barnes and Noble as well. And, as I mentioned above, you can order autographed copies of the book at the link above.

I have had people ask before if I make more money with my books in KU or with people buying them.

The answer is that I make more money when a person outright buys the book since Amazon pays less than four cents a page read now (as of this autumn) and also determines what is and isn’t a page. For example, I sell my Spencer Valley Chronicles ebooks for $2.99 and if someone buys it I receive about $2.05. If someone reads it in KU, I receive maybe $1.50.

Why stay in KU then? One, Kindle Unlimited helps my books to be seen by people they might not have been seen by because Amazon will sometimes recommend them when a person reads a book in KU that is similar to mine. Two, many readers don’t want to buy a book by an author they don’t know so KU is a way they can try an author by essentially borrowing a book, deciding if they like the author, and then returning the book without filling up their Kindle with books by authors they don’t really know or maybe even like.

I’m not a well-known author so most people wouldn’t even try my book if it wasn’t for the convenience of KU. In other words, I wouldn’t make any money at all, most likely, if it wasn’t for KU because one, no one would see my books, and two, very few would want to take a chance on my book if they had to buy it outright, even if my prices are low.

I understand number two because that’s how I am as well. I don’t want to spend money on a book by an author I don’t know until I’ve tested that author out.

Someday I would love to have enough clout in the book-writing world to release my books on any platform and know they will sell, but I’m not there yet. Hopefully a few years down the road.

That closes my writing update for now.
If you would like to read about other updates you can catch up on my Sunday Bookends post from this week or simply follow my blog by subscribing below:

You can also sign up for a paid subscription where you will be able to get exclusive content, such as sneak peeks of my next book, giveaways, author interviews, etc. Paid subscriptions are $3 a month.

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I post 2 to 5 times a week depending on the week and what I have going on and occasionally I’ll even post seven days a week, but this is a rarity. In other words, I hopefully won’t fill your inbox up too much with blog post notifications.

My friend Erin and I are watching comfy and cozy (and sometimes a little creepy) movies for the months of October and November and then blogging about them if you want to participate in that feature in any way. She and I often do movie-watching features, which you can find by going to my search bar at the right and typing in Classic Movie Impressions, the Spring of Cary, or Comfy Cozy Cinema.

This week she and I are writing about Arsenic and Old Lace. We will be offering a link-up opportunity this week for anyone who might want to join in and write about their impressions of the movies as well.

I snuck this September “newsletter” or writing update right in under the wire, didn’t I?

Hopefully, I will get better about offering my newsletter updates earlier in the month from now on.

Photos and blog posts of the month:

I thought I would share some photos taken in September and also a link to some of my more popular blog posts from August and September for anyone who is interested:

Celebrating 60 years

Comfy Cozy Cinema: The African Queen

Saturday Afternoon Chat

Why Do You Blog?

She Was Ready for Heaven

Book Giveaway:

In my Sunday Bookends posts, I share what I am reading and right now I am reading a book called A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo. For this month’s giveaway, I am offering one reader of my blog and newsletter a chance to win an ebook of this book, which releases October 1. I can only gift this to someone who reads on a Kindle so let me know in the comments if you are interested.

I hope you will also let me know in the comments how you have been doing, what you’ve been up to, and, of course, what you’ve been reading lately.

Celebrating 60 years

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings11 Comments

My dad tells the story this way:

One night in 1961 or so my dad’s roommate in the Air Force came into the room and said, “there’s someone I want you to meet…Hey, I’m going on a date but my date has a niece with her so we’re going to go on a double date.”

The niece was a year younger than the aunt, incidentally, so she was about 17.

“Hurry up,” the roommate said. “Iron your pants and let’s go.”

This was in North Carolina. Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.

So my dad headed out with them and met my mom (the 17-year-old) in the backseat of a 1948 Ford coup (not meant to be as suggestive as it sounds..)

“Pontiac engine and three deuces,” he told me when I double-checked the make and year of the car.

Mom and Dad were the best man and maid of honor when the roommate (Johnny) and the aunt (Peggy) were married. Two years later, Johnny and Peggy would have been their best man and matron of honor but Peggy was eight months pregnant and living in Mississippi at the time. My parents were married in the home of a minister someone or other knew and had a small celebration at her parents in Kinston, N.C. afterward.

Six years later my brother was born and three years later my sister was born early and passed away only two days later. I came along eight years after my brother.

(As an aside to this story, my son and daughter are also eight years apart and I had a miscarriage in between. Mine was very early.)

Two weeks ago we celebrated my parents and their 60 years of marriage.

We held a small celebration at a renovated drug store (circa early 1900s building) down the street from our house.

Friends and family came out to congratulate them on a long marriage, which is often unheard of these days.

Our local state representative came and honored them with a proclamation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and then she also recognized my dad for his service in the United States Air Force.

“What’s the key to a long marriage?” Rep. Tina Pickett asked my parents.

My dad said it helps to have a sweet wife. My mom said that having God in their marriage had been incredibly important and necessary and helped them through the tough times.

And there were tough times – maybe not with the marriage itself but in our family with finances and loss and times of emotional hurt that we all worked through like any family.

I never had what I would call trauma in my childhood and for that I’m thankful.

I’ve always looked at my parents’ marriage as a perfect example of what marriage should really be. There was give and take, communication, and a lot of affection – sometimes more affection than I cared to see as a teenager and young adult.

Now, don’t get me wrong, my parents were never crude in front of us but they didn’t shy away from a kiss, a hug, or a mildly suggestive comment about their romantic life.

No marriage is perfect but my parents’ marriage has been close.

There were times they snapped at each other.

Times they both may have held a grudge.

Times they were both stubborn (though Dad is more stubborn than Mom).

My mom cared for the home for most of their marriage while Dad worked 40 years for a local block and cement delivery company.

Mom was always there when I needed her but Dad was there for me and my brother, Bryan, as well when he was home from work.

Through my parents showing each other love, Bryan and I learned how to treat our spouses.  

Several years ago Dad planted a rose bush in the backyard for Mom. He gives her cards and special meaningful gifts on her birthday and their anniversary, and even for no reason at all. Now that they are older and she has a hard time getting around he cares for her by pushing her in the wheelchair or helping to make the meals.

About five years ago he helped her track her calories so she could lose over 100 pounds.

It’s been hard to watch them grow older in some ways. Watching them both struggle to do what they used to be able to do makes my heart ache. There are days I would give anything for them to not have to go through the trials and pains of growing older. I’m sure they would do the same for me and my brother.

Watching them hold hands and exchange sweet looks with each other during their anniversary party and during other times throughout the years though helps dull that ache.

I don’t know what the future holds but in the present, there is love that has grown and blossomed. That love has broken through darkness. It has spread light not only because of my parents love for each other but also because of their love for Christ.

My parents have shown what it is to be a Christian and they are a hundred times better than me at following the example of Jesus.

In the days before it was dangerous to pick up hitchhikers (or as dangerous) Dad would bring home someone he picked up off the streets to give them a warm meal and a place to sleep.

There were many trips somewhere that were delayed because he and Mom saw a car along the road and wanted to stop and make sure the person was okay. Just last week Dad and I were on our way back from his physical therapy when we saw a vehicle pulled off in a very strange and dangerous spot in the road. I felt that urge to check on the person because it was how I was raised. I said, “That’s a weird place to park.”

Dad said, “They didn’t even have their flashers on.”

We both knew I was going to find a place to turn around. When we went back the car was gone and we were late getting home but we did what Jesus would have wanted us to do  – check on another person and make sure they aren’t hurting somehow.

My parents have become friends over the years with several people who struggle with mental illness. While I often feel frustrated with these individuals, my parents see them through the eyes of Jesus. They want to help them, save them, offer them some respite from their emotional struggles.

This has left my parents open to being taken advantage of and maybe even opened them up to dangerous situations. I have asked them to stop reaching out to and befriending so many who struggle with mental illness, but their response is always, “There is that verse in the Bible  ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:40)

Not too long ago someone asked Dad, “Where do you find all these broken people you seem to know?”

Dad responded, “All you have to do is look around. They’re all around you.”

He’s right. Our world is full of broken and lost people. This is not a fact that was lost on Jesus and it also hasn’t been lost on my parents.

They’ve reached out when I turned away.

They’ve comforted when I have condemned.

They’ve given when I would have withheld

They’ve loved like Jesus loves.

They have instilled in me the potential to love as unconditionally as they do.

Through their dedication to each other, to the broken and the lost, they have shown me, my brother, my husband, their grandchildren, and countless other people the heart of Jesus.

No one is perfect and they have not been perfect throughout their lives (though they have been fairly close at times).

Whatever faults they have had, however, have been overshadowed by their love for each other, for their family, friends, the lost, the brokenhearted, the downtrodden, the bruised, the mentally disturbed, the physically frail, the outcasts, the rejected, the people the world pushes asides and shuns, and anyone else who Jesus told us to love.

God knew what he was doing when he brought these two together.

He knew that through their marriage hundreds, if not thousands, would be touched, would be changed and in many cases would be saved.

Their lives, joined together in marriage, have had a ripple effect that we have not seen the end of.

For every couple they encouraged there is a family who is thankful their family is still intact.

For every child they encouraged there is an adult who has found fulfilment in life and has gone on to have families of their own.

For every dollar they spent to support a Christian message, there are souls thirsting after God and ready to be in heaven one day.

More importantly, their marriage has created a legacy for their children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews – something to strive for and a goal to reach.

May we all be able to love our spouses like they have loved each other, but even more importantly may we all endeavor to emulate Christ the way they have for the past 60 years.

Sunday Bookends: Fall arrives officially, fall book list, and watch Arsenic and Old Lace with Us

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends8 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

Welcome to autumn. Yes, it’s officially autumn now and our Pennsylvania weather cooperated and is chilly outside which means we are cozy inside under blankets.

This past week we focused mainly on schoolwork instead of other activities. I also tried to focus on taking breaks for reading, but didn’t do as well at that as I would have liked to so I hope to make up for that this week.

My birthday was on Tuesday but we celebrated on Sunday so Tuesday was mainly a regular day for me. I grilled some chicken and we hung out and watched a little Anne of Green Gables.

Wednesday night was Kid’s Club at our former church and Thursday Little Miss and I rode with my dad to his physical therapy 45 minutes away. That night Little Miss had gymnastics. Friday was errand day, yesterday I hid in the house all day and today it was lunch at my parents with our former pastor, his wife and children.


What I/we’ve been Reading

This week I am reading A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo and The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Cat Who book is a cozy mystery and I thought A New Leash on Life was as well but so far it’s a romance and a slow one at that. Hopefully it picks up because it is well written otherwise.

I put together a list of books I plan to read this autumn and shared it on my Instagram yesterday.

I always struggle a bit with a planned reading list – mainly because I am a mood reader. I might be in the mood for one book when I make my list and totally not in the mood for it during the time frame I said I’d read it in. Still, I like the idea of having a list of planned reads, even if the plan changes.

I moved some of my books I had posted about last week or the week before to a winter list but for now my “planned” autumn reading list is a mix of adult books and kid books since I will be reading a couple with my daughter or just for myself. I most likely will not get to all these books.

Reading right now:

🐈‍⬛The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun

🐕New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo

“Planned” Reading for October and November:

📚Bake Until Golden by Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson

📚The Ghost and Mrs. Mewer by Krista Davis

📚Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other by Bethany Turner

📚The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun

📚The Hidden Staircase (Nancy Drew book two) by Carolyn Keene

📚When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr (part way through this but the library book smelled like mildew so I found a used copy on Thriftbooks and it’s on its way. I hope it doesn’t smell!)

📚Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright (reading this already with Little Miss)

📚The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

📚The Wind in The Willows by Kenneth Graham

Do you make planned reading lists for the different seasons? If so, did you make one this year for autumn?

Little Miss and I will hopefully finish Gone Away Lake next week or the week after. We are enjoying it and I’m already planning to buy it’s sequel, Return to Gone Away Lake.

The Boy and I are listening to Red Badge of Courage for our unit on English lit and American History.

The Husband is reading The Deserter by Nelson DeMille.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched The Dick VanDyke Show and Newhart. I also watched The African Queen as part of the Comfy, Cozy Cinema feature with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

This week we are watching Arsenic and Old Lace. If you are interested in watching the movie with us and blogging about it we will be posting our impressions of the movie on Thursday and will have a link on our posts where you can sign up.

Last night Little Miss and I had a girl’s night and watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. We didn’t like it as much as the original My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but it was okay.

What I’m Writing

I am furiously working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage and while I’ve hit some snags, I’m still having fun writing it.

After it’s finished and edited and revisions are made, I’ll be working more on Cassie, which will come out in August of 2024 as part of a multi author book series.

What I’m Listening To

This week I enjoyed listening to Matthew West, Brooke Ligertwood, Brandon Lake, and TobyMac. I was also excited to find a Klove radio station in the town where my dad’s physical therapy is. I was able to listen to wonderful Christian music almost all the way home from his appointment and it was such a comfort because I tend to think a lot and worry about him on the way home from those appointments.


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.

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The African Queen

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn classic movie impressions, Comfy Cozy Cinema, everyday musings6 Comments

For the next three months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy, mysterious, or comfy movies. Erin made these awesome graphics detailing what we are doing and what movies we will be watching.

This week we watched The African Queen, which I am not sure was really a comfy, cozy movie but I forgot some of the details when I suggested it. I’m not sure why I picked it for this feature, but it’s still a good movie and we did find some cozy(ish) moments in it as a romance began to blossom in the middle of a very stressful situation.

The movie, released in 1951, stars Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. It was directed by John Huston.

It is both an adventure movie and a romance.

Katherine plays Rose Sayer, a missionary in Africa, and Humphrey portrays Charlie Allnut (which Katherine pronounces as Ulna throughout the movie).

Rose had stationed been in African villages with her brother for a decade and meets Charlie when he travels up the river in his small, rickety steamboat to deliver mail and other supplies. The steamboat was dubbed The African Queen by Charlie.

On one visit Charlie tells Rose and her brother Sam that he probably won’t be there for two months because war has broken out. The movie starts in 1914 so this is the beginning of World War I.

He leaves and within a matter of hours or days, or I’m not sure which, the Germans march through with an army made up of Africans and begin to burn down the village. This leaves Rose’s brother in a state of shock and also affects his physical health and he passes away a couple months or so later.

Rose is now alone in the village but luckily not for long as Charlie finds her and she asks him to take her with him up the river.

Rose and Charlie are very different. She is very prim and proper and British and he is very “uncouth” one might say. My husband said that the movie is based on a 1935 novel and that the main characters in the novel are both British. Charlie has a cockney accent.  Humphrey refused to try to pull that accent off so he was made Canadian for the sake of this movie.

The chemistry between the two is great with them bouncing quips off each other throughout the film.

When Rose finds out they are upriver from a German ship that will be used to launch an offensive against the British, and that Charlie has potential weapons on The African Queen, she decides they will travel this very dangerous river with rapids, crocodiles, and a German fort, and blow up the German ship.

Charlie, for his part, thinks she’s nuts but agrees to help her – that is until things get more and more dangerous and he’s certain they are going to die in the rapids.

When he tells her in the beginning that it isn’t possible to take the steamboat down the river she says, “How would you know? You’ve never tried.”
He scoffs. “I’ve never tried shooting myself in the head either.”

In another scene, Charlie gets drunk on the gin that’s on the boat and Rose is not happy about it.

“Oh come on,” Charlie says. “It was just human nature.”

Rose raises her chin and says, “Human nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put on this world to rise above.”

There are several comments or lines like that throughout the film which turns romantic somewhat by accident when Charlie celebrates one of their accomplishments and kisses Rose on impulse.

Kissing and being romantic was most likely a huge challenge for Katherine because she, like most of the cast and staff, caught dysentery and malaria and was very sick for the time in Africa.

Huston wanted the film to be as realistic as possible so he shot on location in Uganda and the Congo for part of the film with the rest being shot in London, outside and on a sound stage. Scenes where the actors were in the water were deemed to be too dangerous in Africa.

It was so realistic that Katherine and others got sick, as I mentioned, and during one scene when she’s playing the piano, she actually had a puke bucket off-scene just in case and I guess there were a few “cases.” Poor woman.

Boggie later joked that he and Huston didn’t get sick because they drank whiskey instead of the local water.

As a bit of trivia, the only Oscar Boggie ever won was for this film. Katherine was nominated for best actress but did not win. Huston was also nominated for best director but didn’t win.

Katherine won four Oscars and was nominated 12 times over the years. She also won an Emmy and two Tony Awards.

This comment came from my husband who always has a cheery note about when or how one of the actors died as we watch a movie: “To think he (Boggie) would only have five more years after this.”

At one point, when Charlie apologizes for getting drunk Rose says that is not upset about that.

“You think it was your nasty drunkenness I minded? You promised me you’d go down the river.”

“Well, I’m taking my promise back,” Charlie says.

Little Miss looked at me and said, “Fun fact. You can’t take back a promise.”

So there you go. Some wisdom for your day.

When this movie came out, both Boggie and Hepburn were older and some critics said moviegoers wouldn’t want to see two old actors fall in love.

According to movie critic Roger Ebert, though, that wasn’t true. Many people wanted to see the movie and loved it despite it being released at the same time as A Streetcar Named Desire with Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh.

The novel was much darker but Huston credited Boggie and Hepburn with making the movie have some humor in it.

“They were just naturally funny when they worked together.” Miss Hepburn, on the other hand, gives the credit to Huston. “The humor didn’t just grow, it was planted. The picture wasn’t going well until Huston came up with the inspiration that Rosie, my role, should be played as Eleanor Roosevelt.”

Ebert said of Bogart’s role: “Whatever the case, the many scenes Bogie and Kate play together are superb. Bogart, as the gin-swilling proprietor of a banged-up riverboat, created a strange little laugh for his role. He was shy, amused and intimidated by this Bible-reading missionary lady who washed out her unmentionables each and every night. And the laugh, meant to conceal his unease, also serves to display the thoughts of a taciturn man. He does not often laugh at the things Rosie finds funny.”

There was one scene with leeches and I wanted to know if they were really on Boggie. A quick search online brought me to a site full of trivia which let me know that: “While filming the scene where Charlie finds his body covered with leeches, Humphrey Bogart insisted on using rubber leeches. John Huston refused, and brought a leech-breeder to the London studio with a tank full of them. It made Bogart queasy and nervous, qualities Huston wanted for his close-ups. Ultimately, rubber leeches were placed on Bogart, and a close-up of a real leech was shot on the breeder’s chest.”

It is an interesting site and I was going to leave a link here to it but it says the site is not secure so I won’t do that – just in case.

The bottom line was that I did like this film but it wasn’t necessarily comfy, cozy or creepy. I guess it was a mix of comfy and adventure.

To read about Erin’s take on the movie, hop on over to her blog: https://crackercrumblife.com/

If you would like to join in on our Comfy, Cozy Cinema you can print out our watch/post schedule here:



Arsenic and Old Lace (Sept. 28)

Oct. 5 (break for us or you to catch up!)

The Lady Vanishes (October 13)

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

Sunday Bookends: Mystery books, a planned autumn reading list, and still writing book two in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends15 Comments



It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese Friday. Finally. No, the book is not bad. It is very good, in fact. I just kept putting it aside so I could finish books for other authors or library books.

I’m going to try to not add any more library books to my TBR list right now . . . other than the one I just added: A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales. Ahem.

I started it last night and we will see if I like it. So far I do. The last Regency cozy mystery I picked up from Libby I did NOT enjoy. Hopefully, this one will be better the whole way through this time.

I’ve also started another cozy mystery for a book tour: A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo. It comes out on October 1. I was going to read it slowly since I don’t have to review it until October 30th but I was hooked right away and have been enjoying it. I read another of her books in this series and I did enjoy it but I did not enjoy the ending. It sort of fell apart so I am hoping this one doesn’t. This book is different because it is somewhat like a romance with it being from two points of view – one from the woman and the other from the man – but it is also a mystery.

I am not a huge fan of those types of switches in books when it is first person but it’s not so bad in this book. After writing two or more POVs in all of my books in the Spencer Valley Chronicles, I have now decided I am not a huge fan of more than two of POVs and I really don’t like the back-and-forth POVs in romances as much anymore. I don’t know if I will ever write two POVs again or not, but I definitely don’t plan to write more than two POVs in one book.

Anyhow, back to the books I’m planning to read after the two I just mentioned.

For fall I have a stack of books I’d love to get through:

  • Trouble Shooter by Louise L’Amour
  • The Cat Who Blew The Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun
    The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun
    A Case of Bad Taste by Lori Copeland
    Sydney Chambers and the Perils of the Night by Jamie Runcie
    Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

I’d also like to add a Longmire book to that list because I don’t think I’ve read any Longmire this year so far.

The Boy and I are reading Red Badge of Courage for school so I’ll have to add that to my planned reading list too.

Little Miss and I are reading Gone Away Lake for school and sometimes we are reading it at night too. We are really enjoying it and I’m so glad that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs sent it to us!

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote a bit about what’s been going on in my post yesterday. You can catch up there but the bottom line is: fleas, sick animals recovering, fall weather, and homeschool. There. You’re caught up. *wink*

Photos from Last Week

I didn’t take a ton of photos last week but here are a few and a few from my parents’ anniversary party last week.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched two movies with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema: Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty.

The Husband and I watched Song of the Thin Man yesterday after he cooked me dinner for my birthday. My birthday isn’t until Tuesday but he has to attend a meeting that night. It was the last movie in the Thin Man series with William Powell and Myrna Loy.

We also watched a few episodes of Newhart this week.

 By myself I watched part of a documentary about what the Victorian royals wore.

My brother also sent these hilarious videos of real letters being read by celebrities. I was warned that some of them are crude so to be careful.

What I’m Writing

I am working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage for a November release and, in case you don’t know, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, the first book, is out already on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. It will leave Kindle Unlimited on October 8 as I hope to be able to offer it on additional sites for sale. This a cozy mystery series and I really am having fun writing it, even though this week I was almost in tears trying to decide who my murderer is because I didn’t like who I had originally decided it to be.

Yes, I am writing other blog posts but, no, I haven’t finished them because I keep getting distracted by life. Sigh.

What I’m Listening To

This past week we took some time to turn off the TV (where cartoons are mainly played) and listen to some music, including Frank Sinatra and Tim McGraw. I know. What a mix right?!

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.

Saturday Evening Chat: Autumn weather arrives, recovery time, and recovering pets

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Saturday Afternoon Tea6 Comments

As I write this, I am sitting in bed under covers because the temps have hit autumn temps and I am chilly.

I spent most of this past week trying to recover from the week before when our family was sick and then we had my parents’ 60th-anniversary party. That’s something I still hope to blog about on here soon. I was so tired this past week and it didn’t help that I was still dealing with the cough from the previous week’s cold a little.

Yesterday Little Miss made a type of cozy fort at the bottom of our stairs and into our foyer. She made it last week as well but this week it worked out well because of the autumn weather. She filled the set up with pillows and blankets and an electric candle and stacked some of her books on the windowsill. It became a little reading corner for us while I read a book about Johnny Appleseed to her and she read a book called Saving Winslow on her own.

I also finished a book I’ve been reading for a few months (while getting interrupted by other books I agreed to read for authors, etc.). It was a very nice cozy day, made even cozier by Little Miss making us cups of hot cocoa sweetened with maple syrup throughout the day.

At the end of the day all three of our pets made themselves comfortable on a pillow or comforter, curled up, and fell asleep. The cat I call “fat cat” (real name Pixel), stole my seat after I got up to charge my phone and while I was a bit annoyed, it was nice to see her able to rest after she had been suffering with fleas most of the week thanks to an inferior flea medicine we picked up last month.

We applied the better medicine on Monday but it took a few days for all the fleas to get off the animals. I was still finding fleas on Zooma the Wonder Dog who not only had flea treatment, but also a flea bath, yesterday. We picked up a flea spray to spray in the house and hopefully we can kill them off before it gets too bad in the house.

Zooma the Wonder Dog took an emergency trip to the vet 45 minutes away last Sunday because of severe stomach issues. Her breathing was very fast and we found out that she was in severe pain due to a return of the colitis she had in April. She was also (TMI alert) constipated.

We are discovering that there are certain foods that set off her condition and I fed her a tiny bit of one of those foods and I guess, but am not sure, that’s what triggered things. She also gets into our trash from time to time so we now sit heavy things on top of it or will be putting the trash can in a place she can’t reach it.

We have food that is supposed to be for digestive issues and that’s all she will be eating from now on. She’s been on an antibiotic and a steroid all week to help bring the inflammation down and heal her colon. It looks like this will be a reoccurring issue for her and us from now on, unfortunately.

Our previous dog had colitis a lot as well. He was 14 when he passed away in 2017 and I am surprised he lived that long with all the weird things he ate – including aluminum foil and ear plugs. We seem to have the luck of having dogs that have sensitive stomachs and I don’t know if that is bad or good luck but right now it seems like bad luck.

Last week there was a lot of staying at home and doing homeschool work and keeping an eye on the dog.

Yesterday Dad and The Boy cut up wood from trees that Dad had to have cut down behind his house. They loaded it into the back of Dad’s truck and brought it to our house to fill up the woodpile behind the garage. We are hoping that this will be enough wood to get us through the winter and keep our heating oil costs down.

Heating oil is so expensive right now that we are filling our tank with off-road diesel fuel to push us closer to the winter months to reduce how often we have to get a delivery of actual heating oil during the coldest months. We do this because we can never afford to pay off the full delivery because of how high the cost is. We always make payments and we can’t receive another delivery until the first bill is paid off.

A lot of people I know are struggling financially right now. It’s very frustrating for me to watch politicians debate if inflation is bad enough to say we are in a recession or not. It’s even more frustrating when they go on news shows and say that Americans aren’t struggling to pay their bills or put food on their tables and that “the other side” is making it all up.

My family are among those struggling. We’ve asked for help and have been denied or given $19 a month to help. Meanwhile we have people who cross the border illegally and they are receiving the help they need in many (though not all) cases and it’s very aggravating. I am, however, glad that people can come here legally and find a better life so it’s a very conflicting issue for me.

There are days I feel like my husband working and us living in this country our whole lives means we are second class citizens. It feels like you have to have a sob story or an angle of some kind to get ahead of even get help. We’re drowning under bills and grocery prices and every week I feel like we are just fighting to keep our heads above water. Then to turn on a news show or visit a site and see an economist say it isn’t as bad as we think it is and we just need to go back to college and get a better degree then we’d be able to get a higher paying job and be fine. It makes me want to scream and throw things most days.

God has always provided for us even at the hardest moments so I do my best to remember that when things get very tough.

This upcoming week there will be more homeschool lessons, gymnastics, a church kid’s club, and maybe a visit to the library.

The Boy will go to the career center and probably work with his grandfather and I will work on finishing the second book in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series.

I also hope to read a lot more because I am somewhat depressed with my book count for the year so far. I am not a fast reader but I could be reading a little more than I have been.

How about you? How was your week last week? Did you do anything exciting or read anything good? Let me know in the comments.

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage Chapter 5

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Fiction Friday5 Comments

Welcome to the fifth chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.

As always this is a work in progress and there could be (will be) typos, plot holes, and other errors but those will be fixed before the book is published a couple of months from now.

If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you don’t want to read this story in chapters on a blog, you can pre-order it HERE.

If you want to learn more about my other books you can find links to them HERE.

Chapter 5

Gladwynn didn’t have a municipal meeting to cover Monday night so she found herself on her way to Willowbrook theater group’s meeting to discuss what to do about the play in light of Samantha’s death. Tanner had left her a message on her phone the day before during her and Lucinda’s Sunday afternoon nap after church, so now they were playing phone tag.

He caught up to her as she pulled into the parking lot of the community center, his voice stern when she answered with a cheerful ‘hello’. “Miss Grant, I’ve told you before that I’m not free to discuss the case.”

“Wow. That was a nice greeting.”

“I just know you.”

“I called you because I remembered something I forgot to tell you Saturday. Something that might be important to the case. You told me to call you if I remembered something.”

“In that case, go ahead.”

Gladwynn slid the car into park. “I saw Samantha at the lake on Saturday afternoon. She was talking on the phone to someone and definitely looked agitated.”

“Okay. I’ll write that down.”

“Do you think it’s important?”

“It might be. What time was it?”

“Around 11 a.m. She looked very angry and seemed to be yelling.”

“Did you see anything else?”

Yes, she’d seen Samantha talking to Luke in the parking lot, but doubted that was important. Still, she should probably say something. “I saw her talking to Pastor Luke in the parking lot of the swimming area a couple hours later.”

She could hear the scratch of a pen against paper. “Pastor Luke. Right. I’ll add him to my list of people to talk to. Anything else?”

“Not that I can think of. Do you have her cellphone? Maybe you could see who she was talking –”

“Are you a police officer, Miss Grant?”

“No, but I –”

“We will handle the investigation on our end. Patience is a virtue. Remember?”

Gladwynn flipped open a small makeup mirror and checked her foundation, smoothing down a bumpy area along her cheekbones. “It just seems so odd that a woman who seemed so healthy is dead. I mean, I guess it could be a medical reason but something about the way she was lying there tells me it wasn’t.”

The click of keys on a keyboard on the other end of the phone filled a brief silence. “Young people die for unclear medical reasons all the time. Many people seem healthy. It doesn’t mean they are.”

“Right, but she wasn’t very old really. What, like 29? Maybe 30? So, it just seems to me that –”

“Actually, she was 36, but you don’t need to be seeming anything, Gladwynn. What you need to do is go on with your life and let me handle this. Go to work or to your little coffee shop or shopping or whatever you do all day long. You are not part of this investigation.”

Gladwynn paused briefly, thinking how much younger Samantha had looked than 36. A few seconds later, though, it registered what Tanner had said. “My little coffee shop? Shopping?” Gladwynn raised her eyebrows. “Excuse me, but that was a bit of a sexist comment. As if women just go to coffee shops and shop all day long.”

Tanner cleared his throat. “I apologize. It was just a way of saying that you can return to whatever it was you were doing before I called you. I’m sure you were busy at work.”

Gladwynn smirked. “Actually, I just left Penny’s on Main Street looking for shoes, but that is beside the point. I don’t like the idea that you think all women do is shop and go to coffee shops.”

Tanner sighed and she could imagine him with his hand pressed against his forehead. “I suggested you go back to work, first, so calm yourself.”

Gladwynn laughed softly. “Okay. Fine. I’ll go. I have important things to do anyhow. If you find out who called her, you’ll tell me, though, right?”

The line went dead.

Inside the theater, the mood was considerably subdued compared to the gathering on Saturday evening. No one was trying on costumes or arguing about who was playing what parts. Everyone except Emerald was sitting in a seat at the front of the theater.

Emerald stood in front of the seats, wearing a flowing green dress covered in dark green leaves. Her hair was held back from her face with a pair of monarch butterfly barrettes. It was clear she planned to take the lead in the conversation, directing it until a decision was made about whether to continue with the play or not.

“Personally, I think the show must go on,” she declared, clasping her hand at chest level in front of her. The movement made the sheer fabric of her sleeves slide down and Gladwynn caught sight of the edge of an ace bandage around her wrist. “Samantha would have wanted it that way.”

There were a few nods of heads in the group.

“It might be better to postpone it,” Louise said softly. “I mean, is it disrespectful to carry on as if nothing happened?”

She looked at Lucinda. “What do you think, Lucinda?”

Lucinda frowned and rubbed her chin with her hand. “It will be hard for us to continue without Samantha. She was such an important part of this group and our driving force. I don’t find it disrespectful, though, to continue with the performance. Emerald is right. Samantha would have wanted us to carry on. If anything, we would be honoring her creative and encouraging spirit by continuing.”

Gladwynn knew her grandmother’s opinion carried a lot of weight in her own family but the way everyone looked at Lucinda with clear respect as she talked reminded Gladwynn that her opinion carried a lot of weight in the community as well.

“Lucinda is right,” Floyd said. “I say we carry on. I don’t know why she said anything about Samantha and a driving fort but I’m guessing it was metaphorical.”

Gladwynn stifled a giggle behind her hand. Clearly, Floyd’s hearing aid wasn’t working again. Guilt poked at her for feeling like laughing during such a serious conversation. Samantha, a friend of most of the people in this theater, had died possibly under suspicious circumstances. Wanting to laugh about anything right now simply felt wrong.

Emerald drew in a quick breath. “Okay, then. I think we’re all in agreement. The show will go on. Rehearsals start tomorrow night.”

A sharp-toned voice spoke up. “Do we have the extra scripts that Samantha had at her house, though? And her notes?”

Gladwynn glanced down her row and saw the question had come from Martha.

Emerald’s face fell. “No, we don’t actually. Thank you for reminding me. Samantha had all those.”

The group, which had seemed to have gathered new life and excitement a moment before returned to their downcast state.  Gladwynn couldn’t imagine that any of them wanted to go to Samantha’s to retrieve them and Eileen didn’t seem like the most pleasant person to deal with, but — .

“I’ll ask Eileen if she’s seen them or if I can go get them,” she said quickly.

The entire group looked at her, relief on many of their faces. Lucinda looked at her with a grateful expression, reached over and squeezed her hand.

Gladwynn didn’t relish the idea of returning to Samantha’s apartment but she also couldn’t imagine someone who had known her as well as most of the people in the group had having to go in there after what had happened. She’d go to the retirement community manager’s office the next day and see if Eileen could help her.

She wouldn’t mind getting another look at the place anyhow. There might be a clue that she, or the police, had missed. A clue that would prove that Samantha died either from an accident or from foul play.

The meeting lasted another fifteen minutes and then the members split apart to different parts of the theater — either to discuss the set, costumes, or the script itself. Gladwynn, still not ready to commit to playing a part, avoided the actors and followed Lucinda to the prop closet down behind the stage and down the hall.

The closet was a walk-in and larger than Gladwynn had expected. It also featured some old musical instruments, what looked like old marching band uniforms, various decorations, art supplies, and rolls of fabric.

Lucinda began unfurling fabric. “Floyd and his wife have offered again this year to help with the set. Their grandson owns a construction company and Martha — you remember that’s his wife’s name. So not the other Martha. Well, anyhow, his Martha was an art teacher for 25 years so she’s going to paint some beautiful scenery for us. You weren’t here last summer but she painted this gorgeous sunset we used for our performance of Oklahoma.” She unfurled a roll of fabric with pink roses all over it. “This one might work for Anne’s dress. The one with the puffed sleeves.” She reached out to touch a blue fabric with a silkier look to it. “Or maybe this one. I’m grateful for Doris’ sewing skills. I can sew, but not as well as I can knit.”

She hooked both rolls of fabric under each arm. “I’ll be right back. I want to show Doris these and see which one she thinks will work. Can you pull out some fake flowers for us? They are in those bins back there. We’re going to need them for the set. Look for some purple and white lilies if you see any.”

Gladwynn set to work pulling out the large, red bins on the bottom shelf in the back of the closet. She knelt and popped open the lid. A musty smell rushed at her and she made a face, leaning back from it.

No lilies in this one. Only some faded flowers that looked like they’d been pulled off a gravestone after six months of laying in the sun.

She closed the lid and slid out another bin.

“She must love finally being in control. She always wanted Samantha’s job and now she has it.”

Gladwynn recognized the voice outside the door as Martha’s.

Someone else, possibly Louise, sighed. “I suppose this means we will have to hear even more stories about all those years she supposedly worked on Broadway.”

Martha scoffed. “I’m sure we will. You know those stories are all garbage. There is no way she worked on Broadway. If she had we would have heard of her.”

“I don’t know,” the other woman said. “Depends on what she did but I don’t think she did anything.

“Didn’t she say she was an assistant to some famous director?” Martha asked.

There was a small laugh. “Yeah, more than once. Can’t remember which one, though.”

“She never said who.” Martha launched into a dramatic impression of Emerald. “’Sharing who would be bragging,’ she said. More like, sharing who would be proof that her stories are completely made up.”

“And she bragged enough even without the name dropping.”

The voices began to fade as the women started to walk back down the hallway. “If any of it is true then it must have drove her crazy that Samantha took over as director,” Martha said.

Gladwynn stood slowly and moved to the doorway, backing against the wall, and straining to hear the rest of the conversation.

“It probably also drove her crazy that Samantha’s personality was a hundred times more appealing,” responded the voice who she could clearly tell was Louise’s now. “That’s what mattered. She encouraged instead of bullied.” Louise sighed. “I hate that we are talking about her in the past tense.”

Martha’s voice fell to a whisper, losing its usual vibrato. “Me too, honey. Me too.”

Gladwynn returned to looking for flowers, deep in thought.

Had Emerald been jealous of Samantha? Jealous enough to hurt her in some way?

She opened another lid and shook her head. No, she wasn’t going to do this again. She wasn’t going to wrap herself up in a mystery that was not hers to solve.

There was no evidence at this point that anything criminal had happened to Samantha. She could have had a heart attack or a stroke or accidentally taken too many pills. Hadn’t there been a pill bottle on the bedside table? Gladwynn closed her eyes briefly and tried to remember. Yes, she thought she could remember one there. A small one that looked like a prescription bottle.

That very well could have been it. Maybe she’d been upset by Derek’s passing and had purposely taken too many pills. It was a horrible thought but suicide, sadly, happened more often than people wanted to admit. She spotted a strand of lilies that could be wrapped around a piece of the set to look like a row of them. Pulling it from the box she laid them aside and dug for more.

As she dug, the image of Samanth’s face in death swirled uninvited in her mind. To Gladwynn her expression had seemed to be one of shock. And the way her body was contorted, her hand reaching out toward the door? Had Samantha been reaching toward someone? Maybe that happened when the contents of too many pills hit a person’s system. Maybe Samantha had regretted what she’d done and was trying to get to a phone to call for help.

Then there was the knocked over lamp and the piece of paper crumpled on the floor. Could Samantha had knocked over the lamp when the drugs started to take effect and as she fell?

 Gladwynn wished now she had picked the paper up and looked at it closer. Had Samantha been writing something when she died? A suicide note? If it had been a note, wouldn’t she have written it before she took the pills?

She piled more flowers next to her as Lucinda walked back into the closet with the fabric.

“Doris says this blue one will work perfectly so I’m going to take this one home. Now we just need to find a pattern to use. I bet I can find one online. Etsy would be a great place to look. Or maybe Pinterest. I saw one on a cottage core account on Instagram the other day too.”

Gladwynn turned her head to hide her smile. She’d never met a 70-year-old woman so up on the internet and social media as her grandmother.

“Oh wonderful!” Lucinda clapped her hands together. “You found some beautiful lilies. They will look so lovely in front of the Green Gables set.” She paused for a moment. “Gladwynn dear, you have that look on your face again.”

Gladwynn glanced at her grandmother as she placed a lid back on one of the bins. “What look?”

“Your eyebrows are all squished down and your lips are pursed and there is a tightness to your jaw.”

Gladwynn had no idea her expressions were so dramatic.

“What are you thinking about? Is it your father’s visit?”

She’d completely forgotten about her father’s visit. Wonderful. Now she would be thinking about it. “No. It’s nothing. It must have just been my searching face. I had no idea you sat there and analyzed my expressions.” She stood and smoothed her shirt down over her slacks. “I have to be honest that I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

Lucinda stepped closer, her eyes boring into Gladwynn’s. “It’s about Samantha isn’t it? Are you still thinking about what you saw?” She set the scissors she’d been holding down and cradled Gladwynn’s face in her hands. “I’m sure it was traumatizing and I know we talked about it some already but if you need to talk more you know I’m here for you, right?”

Gladwynn nodded. “Yes, Grandma, I know. I’m okay, but, yes, I’ve been thinking about her death and what I saw. I’m just processing. That’s all.”

Lucinda kissed her forehead. “I hate that you and Doris had to be the ones to find her.” She tipped her head toward the door and took her hands off Gladwynn’s face “Come on. Let’s get out of here and go grab a sweet treat at Brewed Awakening. It’s just what we all need.”

“Have you seen my hips lately? I’m not really sure sweets are what I need, but I could get a coffee.”

Lucinda frowned. “Honey, I would absolutely love to have those hips. They’re fine. Believe me. But coffee? At this time of the night?”

Gladwynn shrugged her shoulder. “It doesn’t bother me.”

Lucinda sighed as she closed the closet door behind her. “Ah to be young and unafraid of coffee after six again.”

It was obvious that Lucinda hadn’t been the only one who’d thought a sweet treat at Brewed Awakening was a good idea. It was only an hour before closing but the café and bookshop were both packed.

Abbie wasn’t working that night, but Marylou, the owner, was and she had a friendly smile for them despite the apparent hectic appearance of her business.

Gladwynn looked over her shoulder at the crowd. “What’s the occasion? This place is packed tonight.”

Marylou tightened the scrunchie around her ponytail. Her dark brown hair was streaked with gray and Gladwynn also saw a few streaks of purple, which denoted Marylou’s young-at-heart attitude. “It’s a fundraiser for the library. Half of my proceeds are supporting the purchase of new books for the children’s section.”

“Oh, that’s right! I forgot that was tonight!” Lucinda said. “In that case we’ll take an extra pastry each!”

Doris shook her head. “Speak for yourself. I’ll take two extra.” She winked. “I can take one home to the mister.”

With their treats in hand, but the café seats all taken, they decided to find a bench outside. The town of Brookstone featured benches dedicated in the memory of former residents along its Main Street. They chose the one was dedicated in the memory of Gladwynn’s grandfather, Sidney, who had been a minister in town for almost 50 years. The black metal bench sat in front of Rose Buds, a local flower shop.

“It’s nice you had a night off work, Gladwynn,” Doris said opening the bag with her pastry.

Lucinda had already taken out her pastry – a strudel with raspberry — and unwrapped it. “It’s not a usual thing, that’s for sure. This poor girl works almost every night until 9 or 10 p.m. She has no time for a social life.”

Gladwynn sipped her coffee and leaned back on the bench, crossing one leg over the other. “And what kind of social life do you think I should have?”

“I don’t know. Didn’t you have friends you hung out with back in Carter?”

The strudel did look good. Gladwynn wished she had chosen one. “Yes, some, but most of them were getting married and having children so there wasn’t a lot of time to hang out anymore. Savanah is still single and we talk from time to time, but she’s also very busy at the library. After they laid me off, they put a lot more on her.”

“It would be nice if Gladwynn had more time to see Pastor Luke,” Doris said breaking off a piece of the pastry. She took a bite, oblivious to Gladwynn looking at her with a confused expression and Lucinda looking at her with a warning expression.

“Why would I want to spend more time with Luke?”

Doris continued to eat. “Because you two hit it off so well that one time he came over for lunch. Then there was the trip down to Sight & Sound and – ouch! Lucinda! You’re digging your elbow into my ribs.”

Gladwynn looked at her grandmother and watched a scowl quickly turn into an innocent smile.

Lucinda nodded at the cup of coffee in Gladwynn’s hand. “How’s your coffee, dear? Enough cream and sugar in there for you?”

“Grandma, I really –”

Lucinda raised her hand in a greeting. “Oh, Eileen! Hello! How nice to see you this evening.”

Eileen stopped walking abruptly, clearly startled. To Gladwynn she looked like a frightened rabbit as she pulled her jacket close around her neck. The night was cooler than some nights but not cool enough for a jacket in Gladwynn’s opinion. The woman’s appearance was a drastic change from the impatient and flustered property manager she’d met at Samantha’s two days before.

“I-I’m fine.” Eileen straightened her hunched shoulders and offered a brief smile. “Lovely to see you too, Lucinda.”

Lucinda seemed oblivious to what Gladwynn saw as Eileen’s discomfort and plowed forward. “Eileen, we noticed this evening that we don’t have some of the scripts and notes we need for the play. We believe Samantha had them. Is there any way we can get to them you think?”

Eileen visibly paled, lowered her gaze to the sidewalk, and coughed softly. “Um, yes. Of course. The police released the scene, um, the condo today. If you come over tomorrow, I’ll take you over there to see if we can find them.” She nodded quickly. “I’m heading home to feed my cats. You ladies have a nice evening.”

She walked quickly past them, avoiding making eye contact and shoving one hand in her jacket pocket while the other kept the top of the jacket closed.

Doris took another bite of her pastry, speaking with her mouth full. “She was a bit squirrely, don’t you think?”

Lucinda shrugged. “Eileen’s always been a bit – well, different.”

Doris snorted a laugh. “You’re always so good at sugar-coating things, Lucinda. She’s always been a bit uptight. Let’s be honest.”

“A bit, yes,” Lucinda conceded. “Anyhow, let’s finish up our treats. I need to get home to bed. I have spin class at 7 a.m., a hair appointment at 9, a library board meeting at 10, a drop off to the loan closet at 11, a trip to the supermarket after that and then lunch with Jacob at noon.”

Gladwynn paused, the coffee cup partway to her mouth, her eyes wide at the extensive list her grandmother had just rattled off. “Don’t you ever slow down?”

Lucinda made a face. “Why would I want to? At my age I’d better keep going or I’ll rust.”

Back in the car, Gladwynn couldn’t help thinking about Eileen’s strange behavior. Or at least it seemed strange to Gladwynn. She’d only met the woman once before. Still, even Doris thought Eileen had been acting a bit, well, squirrely, as Doris had put it. She’d certainly seemed on edge. What Gladwynn wanted to know was if she was on edge because someone she knew had just died or if she was on edge because she was somehow involved with that death.

 

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The Secret World of Arrietty

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Comfy Cozy Cinema, everyday musings, Movie Impresssions2 Comments

For the next three months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy, mysterious, or comfy movies. Erin made these awesome graphics detailing what we are doing and what movies we will be watching.

This week we had a double-feature. Erin chose Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty. I had never watched either of them. I love how Erin pulls me out of my comfort zone and introduces me to knew things.

The Secret World of Arrietty is a Studio Ghibli film.

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio for those of you who are like me and have no idea.

I honestly didn’t understand what Studio Ghibli was until Erin talked about it and then my son wanted me to watch Howel’s Castle with him a couple of months ago. These are animated films made in Japan and later dubbed into English to watch in the United States. Or you can watch the Japanese version and read the subtitles. The movies have become very popular and big-name actors are now being used to voice the American versions.

The movies from Studio Ghibli are often quirky and fantastical, strange but also poignant. They aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and I honestly had no interest in watching one until The Boy suggested it and then Erin said she wanted to watch this one.

I ended up liking Arrietty more than I expected.

As my son said, “I can see why she likes this movie so much. It’s just really creative and cool.”

And it was.

Arrietty and her family members are very tiny people – like two inches high, not like the cast of TLCs Little People, Big World (who are actually called little people and who I am almost as short as).

It is similar to The Borrowers, the book and movie, and is actually the inspiration for the movie.

The movie has a very, cozy feel to it . . . until you realize the stinking ants are bigger than the people and can eat them. Ack!

This isn’t essential to the movie, but I love Arrietty’s outfits…she’s so cute. I want to be cute.

The Boy commented on how he likes how the studio pays such attention to details, including using the wood staples as the ladder.

The movie starts with a human family coming to a new house. We are clued in very quickly that the young boy is sick for some reason – something with his heart.

The young boy sees Arrietty in the bushes when he first arrives but she runs away.

Later that day her father agrees to let her come with him when he goes into the house of the beans (which is what they call humans) to borrow items, such as a sugar cube and a pin, that they can use. This is Arrietty’s first time helping her father borrow and she’s nervous but excited. She’s even more nervous when the boy spots her again and this time, he speaks to her and tells her not to be afraid.

She isn’t afraid but she and her dad quickly leave without speaking to the boy.

The next day the boy leaves the sugar cube Arrietty accidentally dropped in his room to try to get to know her.

Her parents, however, tell her to stay away from the boy, afraid traps will be set for them and that they will be killed.

Of course, Arrietty doesn’t listen to her parents because if she did then there wouldn’t be a movie.

She does go to meet the boy – whose name is Shawn – and is almost killed by a crow. Luckily, Shawn rescues her.

They don’t talk much but later Shawn’s aunt shows him a dollhouse that his mother made with her father for the Borrowers to use. The Borrowers never came, though, and this made the mom sad.  Shawn knows that the little family would love the kitchen so he takes it from the dollhouse, rips up the floor and practically gives them a heart attack by giving them the kitchen.

This traumatizes the family and Arrietty’s father says they have to leave so they won’t be chased out, trapped or killed.

Shawn likes to say uncomfortable and awkward things like the antagonist in any anime film, The Boy says.

He says things like, “There’s less and less of you every year, isn’t there?” and “We can’t all live forever.”

The Boy said, “Bro’s got that unsocial riz, doesn’t he?”

So while Shawn is not a threat to the Borrowers, the housekeeper, voiced by Carol Burnett, totally is. For some reason, she wants to find and destroy The Borrowers. I don’t get what her behavior is about at all but she’s creepy as anything.

This, yet again, isn’t related to the overall plot of the movie but the beds these characters have look so comfortable. There is a lot of cozy feelings to this movie overall.

I won’t give away what happens to the family or the boy but I was so nervous for them throughout the movie.

I will comment on one thing about these movies though – the voice actors don’t emote very well sometimes so the characters end up giving very weird and monotone effects to the line delivery. For example, there are times when they should be alarmed but instead, they respond in a very monotone way and it makes the kids and I giggle. Little Miss does an amazing imitation of those moments when the characters deliver bored sounding responses to otherwise alarming situations.

I am not complaining about the sometimes monotone delivery, but just commenting on how it is just a little odd quirk of the movies when they are dubbed. An odd quirk that makes us giggle.

You can read Erin’s impression here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/09/14/comfy-cozy-cinema-the-secret-world-of-arrietty/

Next up for our movie-watching feature is The African Queen.

Our schedule for the rest of the series (the dates are when we are writing about them):

Arsenic and Old Lace (Sept. 28)

Oct. 5 (break for us or you to catch up!)

The Lady Vanishes (October 13)

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

The Fishermen’s Friends (November 16)

November 23 off for Thanksgiving

November 30th? Wildcard at this point because we shifted things around and are short a movie! Oops! We will update