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 finished Secrets of the Amish Letter by Rachael Phillips last week, staying up until 1 a.m. so I could take it back to the library the next morning when we went there for the Summer reading program. In the end, we didn’t actually go to the library that morning but I was able to return the book later in the day.
I enjoyed the book overall, but actually enjoyed book two in the series – Murder Simply Played — more.
I am still reading The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz and also started Elementary She Read by Vicki Delaney.
I shared the description of The Word is Murder last week, but I thought I’d share the plot of Elementary She Read today:
When murder pays a visit to Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, Gemma Doyle must use the powers of deduction to find the killer—and clear her own name.
Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop—located at 222 Baker Street—specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also home to Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.
Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman’s suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it’s a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.
From what I’ve seen on her social media sites, Vicki is also Eva Gates, if you have ever read any of her books. That seems to be a common theme in cozy mysteries – authors who write under a few different names.
Little Miss and are reading the second book in the Boxcar Children series and Paddington Abroad right now and we have a stack of picture books from the library to read this week as well.
The Husband is reading Patriot Games by Tom Clancy.
What’s Been Occurring
Little Miss and I went swimming at my parents yesterday and I may have overdone it a bit. I was in so much pain last night from actually using my arms to do something other than writing that I had trouble sleeping. It didn’t help that we were in the pool for almost two and a half hours. It felt good to exercise and to have fun with Little Miss, though, so it was sort of a good pain. I don’t know how to explain that. My muscles might suffer after I go swimming (thanks to whatever auto-immune ridiculousness I have going on) but my brain is more alert an hour or so after I get out and after I’ve had some food.
My mom, who will be 79 August 3, made us bacon for dinner and we added that to lettuce and tomato for me and bread, lettuce, tomato, and dressing for everyone else. When we came home, The Husband had also made us steaks so we had two meals, which was totally fine after all those calories we burned.
I wrote about our activities last week in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post yesterday. Bottom line? It was a busy week in many ways and there is another busy week coming up. You can read all about our busy summer so far HERE.
What We watched/are Watching
This past week we watched Newhart, which is a comfort watch for me, and I watched The Seven Year Itch with Marilyn Monroe, which I will be writing more about later in the week.
I didn’t watch as much as some weeks because I messed around with social media and how to promote my books and also with the new job stuff.
Yesterday and today I am watching some of my favorite YouTubers, including Just A Few Acres and Forgotten Way Farms.
What I’m Writing
I’m working on book two of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series and this week I will also be writing more blog posts. In September I will be working on Cassie from the Apron Strings book series. That book comes out in August of 2024. If you are interested in knowing more about this series, you can join our readers group on Facebook, which you can find HERE.
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.
I didn’t take the time I should have last week to sit and read blog posts but I am going to make up for that this week.
I miss finding out what is going on with all of you.
What can I get you today for our Saturday afternoon chat? A cup of tea? A glass of lemonade?
The lemonade or something else cold might be in order, especially as I see how high the temperatures are going to be this upcoming week in our area.
I hate that it is going to be so hot this next week because there is an all-day church camp that I might take Little Miss to next week and neither of us do very well in the heat.
I definitely needed tea as I wrote this post. I thought summer was supposed to be nice and relaxing.
In some ways, it has been but last week it felt like I was in constant motion – if not physically then mentally. Last night The Husband put Newhart on the TV and my cortisol started to drop as soon as I heard the music. I needed that down time.
There was a two-hour church camp at a church in town in the afternoons this past week, which I took Little Miss to. She turned out to be the only child who showed up. I don’t think the organization that hosted the camps will be trying a camp again in this town because this is the second year they’ve only had one or two children. Two years ago, Little Miss and one of her friends attended four days. Last year they didn’t hold it.
I’m beginning to think there are no other children in this town at this point.
Little Miss had a lot of fun playing with the young people who lead the Bible lessons and they will be the same young people helping at the camp next week. The difference with next week’s camp is it will be for six and a half hours. I don’t think Little Miss will want to stay that long but we will go for at least part of the day.
We didn’t attend the summer reading events at the library this week, but we did visit the library and Little Miss chose a stack of books to read. She enjoys picking out books more than interacting with the other children anyhow so it worked out well.
Our last summer reading events will be this upcoming week, which is another reason we won’t be attending the other camp every day.
I want to say that August will be less busy, but I’m afraid to say that and jinx it.
I felt very overwhelmed this week because I was offered the sales job I interviewed for on Monday and had to fill out paperwork in the following days and then begin to watch the training manuals. This will be a job that I will do from home for a small amount of hours each week, but I am nervous. I’ve never worked in sales. Still, this seems like it will be a good opportunity for me to earn some new experiences and hopefully some income down the road.
I’ll share who I’ll be working with once I complete the training and begin the actual job. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to say it yet. I can say it is not Young Living, Amway, DoTerra, or Tupperware *wink*.
I can say it is related to homeschooling.
Speaking of homeschooling, I can’t believe how fast summer is going by. Before I know it I will be planning out homeschooling days again. I’m excited and nervous for this year, mainly because The Boy is going to be a junior and I know we need to start planning for his life after high school.
We have or had an opportunity for him to attend a local trade school for at least his junior year, if not both, but at the last minute the state made some changes to the homeschool law and now it sounds as if that won’t be a possibility. I find this very frustrating since this is a taxpayer-funded school and we pay taxes but even more frustrating has been the lack of communication from our local school district which seems clueless about how to go about the new law change. That’s what is “great” (sarcasm alert) about our state: they like to make law changes and not explain what they really mean and then feel proud of themselves for making rather stupid changes.
Today Little Miss and I plan to head to the pool at my parents’ and then tomorrow we will probably go there again, since I don’t know if we will be there again next week or not with all the events we have going on.
I have to be honest; I don’t like going to a bunch of events in the summer. I like my days to be chilled and relaxed so I don’t feel like summer has rushed me by. That’s why this month hasn’t seemed as fun to me, but we still have August to save it luckily. The ideal summer for me is hanging out at home with a few trips to the pool and evenings in the AC with a good book. For the most part that has happened for us this summer but not last week.
Last weekend Little Miss and I went to the pool and my dad even joined in with us. That’s something he doesn’t do very often so it was a lot of fun for Little Miss to be able to play Marco Polo with Grandpa and show him all her jumps and funny moves.
So as I mentioned above, this upcoming week will be full of events, including a church camp, summer reading, and gymnastics and I’m really hoping for a couple of days of doing nothing, but it doesn’t look like that will happen until maybe Saturday of next week.
How about you? How has your summer been? Super busy? Super relaxed? A mix of both? Let me know in the comments and also let me know what you’re drinking today as you go about your business!
Note: This is my monthly author newsletter because Substack kept freezing my posts and not letting me edit them after I had them completely written and ready to go. I am not sure what I am going to do for a newsletter right now, but for now I’ll place my updates on my blog. If you don’t care a bit about my writing, interviews with other authors or book and bookish things giveaways, please just ignore this post and return for my other mundane ramblings *wink*
I almost died on the Fourth of July.
This might not be completely true, but it’s how it felt to me. My family and I went to a local fireworks display, put on by professionals, but not a public show. It was fantastic but toward the end, my 16-year-old son and I realized we were way too close as several explosions and flash bangs went off while they lit the fireworks for the finale. My daughter and husband had already gone back to our van, but the problem was, I never heard them say that because the explosions at the end were so loud.
As the flashing and explosions continued, I looked for them frantically.
I started to worry that pieces of fireworks were going to fall on me and my family so I tried to stand, but now there was a strobe effect going on and the ground was moving and shaking for me. I tried to stand up, but couldn’t tell where the ground was part of the time so I kept falling back down to a kneeling position, all the while yelling at my son to stop looking at the lights because I was certain it was going to blind him.
Looking over my shoulder I caught him laughing at me but the lights were still moving all over and I was sure something was going to fall on us so I just sat and put my hands over my head and prayed. We finally managed to stand and make our way back to our van and later my son said he was watching me and wondering if I was eventually going to stop trying to stand up after the second time I fell over.
By the time we were walking to the van I was laughing pretty hard and even harder when he told me how silly I had looked trying to stand up over and over. For your amusement, I am attaching the video where you can hear me telling him not to look at the lights.
Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing Released
Luckily, I survived our fireworks display because last week, July 11th to be exact, I released Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing a week early. This is the first book in my Gladwynn Grant Mysteries series, which is a series of cozy mysteries.
Not sure what a cozy mystery is? Read on.
Cozy mysteries are usually fun reads with an amateur sleuth as the main character. That sleuth usually has no connection to law enforcement other than trying to tell the police about what she (or he, but it is often she) has discovered about a crime.
Cozy mysteries are not hard-hitting thrillers or mysteries. They are free of graphic descriptions of murder or death or sex. There is almost never sex, but if there is, it is always “closed door”, which means there may be suggestions that sex happened, but the reader doesn’t see it. My books won’t even discuss main characters having sex, just an FYI.
These types of mysteries usually take place in a small town or village, have lots of quirky characters, and are sometimes slowly-paced and sometimes fast-paced. It all depends on the author.
Here is what readers are saying about Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing:
“If you like mysteries with a slower pace, you’ll enjoy the small-town adventures awaiting Gladwynn, amateur journalist-sleuth.” – Alicia G.
“The characters are rich and full, just like in her other series. The small-town antics reminded me of the several small towns I’ve lived in. And her plot line kept me guessing all the way to the very end.” – Bettie G.
“Intrigue, mystery, cold case, attempted murder all with a side of humor, new relationships and letting go of the past…..this author has a way with words, literally!! I love her style, her creativity in not just writing an incredible story but in the depiction of each wonderfully devised character so easily brought to life! A treasure for the TBR list for any and every reader!” – Evelyn F.
In case you’d like to know what you can expect from Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, here is a small list:
A slightly introverted, sometimes extroverted main character
For a little change of pace for this newsletter, I’m featuring an interview with an author I am familiar with and whose work I have read and enjoyed.
An interview with Danielle Grandinetti, Christian Historical Romance Author
Read on to learn more about Danielle and for a chance to win a copy of her latest book!
1. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
I wrote my first story in third grade and never looked back. I love telling stories as much as I love reading them, and it is a delight to share mine with such amazing readers.
2. Tell us a little about your already completed/published projects.
Refuge for the Archaeologist is my fifth historical romance, second in the Harbored in Crow’s Nest series. My first series, Strike to the Heart, centers around the 1930 Wisconsin Dairy strikes. In August, my debut Love Inspired contemporary sweet romance releases. I’m thrilled!
3. What are the main themes of your novels or stories?
I love telling stories about finding home in hard times. Whether historical or contemporary, with or without suspense, life can be hard … but there is hope and home to be found.
4. What advice would you give to other writers who hope to someday write and publish a book?
Keep reading in your genre, especially new releases. Learn all you can from those who’ve been there. Keep learning by studying books on writing to find the system that works for you. And most of all, keep writing. The more you apply what you read and learn, the better your writing will become.
5. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
Read! But I also love to tinker in my veggie/herb garden or take nature pictures, especially of Lake Michigan. Being a mom of young boys, I don’t have all that much free time, but I love the opportunity to introduce my boys to the joys of creativity – whether through my writing, reading, or God’s creation.
6. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
Surprised isn’t quite the right word, but I’m not sure I was fully prepared for how blessed I’d feel by my readers. Their encouragement, kindness, and excitement over my books is both humbling and inestimable.
7. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I wanted to be a missionary, or a better way to say it was that I wanted to share the story of hope with those who desired to hear it. And guess what? I may not travel to other countries anymore to do so, but I still get to share that hope within the pages of my stories. And I pray they are a blessing to those who read them.
8. For fun, what’s your favorite snack when you’re writing?
There’s nothing like writing beside a big teapot filled with Chai.
9. Share a little more about yourself outside of your writing.
Though originally from the Chicagoland area, I now live along Lake Michigan’s Wisconsin shoreline with my husband and our two young sons (and Penny our Labrador). I have a Master of Arts degree in Communication and Culture, and spent twenty years in various educational fields, including as a middle school writing coach and an adjunct professor, teaching intercultural communication. I love learning about other people and their cultures and am privileged to have visited a handful of countries on four different continents.
10. Where can people learn more about your work and connect with you?
I’d love to keep in touch! The best way is to join my Fireside News email community. I send out weekly emails with all sorts of bookish fun. New subscribers receive a complimentary ebook. Sign up here.
Thank you for visiting with me today!
Giveaways
Danielle has graciously agreed to give one commenter here one paperback copy of her latest book, Refuge for the Archaeologist. Simply subscribe to my newsletter and leave a comment about one thing you remember about Danielle’s answers above and you’re entered.
Here is a description of the book:
Will uncovering the truth set them free or destroy what they hold most dear?
Wisconsin, 1930—With her health in shambles and her archaeological career on the line, Cora Davis retreats to Crow’s Nest and the home of her great aunt to heal. She doesn’t think much of the missing memories from between the earthquake that caused her dizzy spells and her trip home. Until she begins remembering the danger that sent her fleeing her last dig and the person responsible.
After a decade as a ranch hand, Silas Ward returned to Crow’s Nest to provide for the women in his life. That same protective instinct propels him to Cora’s aid. But when finances dwindle, the lies and greed of others threaten to ruin his family. Unless Silas can walk the thin line of compromise. A choice that might cost him Cora’s affection.
As winter’s chill threatens, will Crow’s Nest prove a refuge, or will both Cora and Silas have no choice but to sacrifice their chance at happiness to save those they love?
Welcome to Crow’s Nest, where danger and romance meet at the water’s edge.
Bookmark Giveaway
This month I am also giving away a bookmark designed by Sara The Book Lady who is @her.novel.opinion on Instagram.
She offers up very honest, but polite book reviews on Instagram, and, obviously, also designs bookmarks.
To win a bookmark comment that you are interested in the bookmark and please subscribe to my blog for more writing updates (or just sometimes silly posts!).
Learn about a contemporary author’s new book series and get a free novella.
I recently read a book by author Maryanne Landers that I will be endorsing. Maryanne has a Kickstarter for the book that you can learn about HERE.
Here is a quick description of the book:
“She’s detached in a stormy marriage because of both of their unfaithfulness. Now she faces the aftermath of her compromise with an unwanted pregnancy. Will fleeing bring her the freedom she yearns for?
Emily Corentin wants to escape the jagged edges of her brokenness. She believes the only option she has is to take her young daughter, leave her husband, and end the unintended pregnancy with an abortion. But her plans take an unexpected turn when the homeless shelter she finds is not the type of help she wanted. She’d buried religion years ago with the death of her Gran. Any God-fearing place will only confirm how much God abandoned her.
An offer from a shelter volunteer may be the lifeline she and her daughter need, but Emily only sees it as a means to an end. The unlikely friendship that follows, draws her closer to the answers she may have carried with her all along. But rash decisions bring new challenges that drag her further into a sea of helplessness.
When all hope is lost in despair will she be washed away by the patterns of her past? Or will she answer the call to embrace the mercy of the cross and in turn bring reconciliation to her marriage?”
If you would like to receive a free short story that kicks off the series you can scroll down to the bottom of the above linked page.
And finally, Thank You!
Thank you to all of you who keep up with my writing adventures and for anyone who subscribed to my newsletter on substack. I hope you will look around my blog and hang out and then subscribe so you will receive my monthly writing updates here.
You can also find me on the following social media sites:
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 very late in posting today because I simply ran out of brain power after a busy week last week of running around a lot. I spent the day resting, vegging, and reading some.
What I/we’ve been Reading
I did not have a lot of time for reading last week so I am still reading the same books from last week:
Secrets of the Amish Diary by Rachael Phillips and The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz.
These books could not be more different from each other and I like that because if I am not in the mood for one, I pick up the other.
I don’t remember if I offered descriptions for the books last week but I will do so today.
When Liz Eckardt leaves behind her hectic life as a Boston lawyer to become an innkeeper in charming Pleasant Creek, Indiana, she hopes to find solace – and answers – as she mourns the loss of her mother, Abigail. Along with her mother’s diary and an antique heirloom quilt, Liz inherited a family secret: Abigail cut ties with her Amish family years ago – a family Liz never knew existed – and Liz yearns to unravel the mystery of her mother’s past.
Liz settles into her new life at the Olde Mansion Inn with the help of the town’s quirky quilting group, the Material Girls, and several members of the Amish community. She bonds instantly with her new Amish friend, Miriam Borkholder, and enjoys the success of her burgeoning bed and breakfast.
That is, until one of her guests, the unpopular Clarence Peabody, is found dead in the lake behind her inn . . . and Miriam’s son is the prime suspect!
Convinced of the Amish boy’s innocence, Liz begins to piece together the evidence, learning quickly that the killer will stop at nothing to hide the truth. When Liz receives a cryptic letter written in the local Amish dialect, the message is clear: Stay out of this . . . or else. Who sent the letter? And is Clarence’s murder somehow tied to her family’s secret past?
Join Liz and her lively team of crafty investigators as they stitch together clues and uncover the cause of the unusual events happening in Pleasant Creek. Will they discover the truth about Liz’s family before someone else is silenced?
The Word is Murder has one of the most unique plots I’ve ever seen:
A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home.
Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric man as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. And Hawthorne has a partner, the celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz, curious about the case and looking for new material. As brusque, impatient, and annoying as Hawthorne can be, Horowitz—a seasoned hand when it comes to crime stories—suspects the detective may be on to something, and is irresistibly drawn into the mystery.
But as the case unfolds, Horowitz realizes that he’s at the center of a story he can’t control, and his brilliant partner may be hiding dark and mysterious secrets of his own.
The Husband is reading a Walter Mosely book called The Man In My Basement.
Little Miss and I are reading a variety of things right now, including re-reading Paddington one night when she felt frightened and sad about something (Paddington cheers her up) and listening to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on Audible.
The Boy is on a reading break because it is summer break and he’s been working a lot, either with my dad or at his job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant.
What’s Been Occurring
I rambled a lot about what we’ve been up to in my post yesterday if you would like to catch up.
Today we stayed home and rested. I have a job interview in the morning for a job that would be from home and around 15 hours a week. I’m nervous but hopeful it works out. Our family could use the financial help like a lot of other families.
What We watched/are Watching
Last week I watched a lot of Just A Few Acres Farm on YouTube. The farmer, Pete’s voice is very soothing to me because he’s so calm and cheerful about life. He seems to stay positive a lot and I really need that in my life. On Friday when I had to drive 45 minutes up and 45 minutes back from somewhere, after doing the same thing the day before, I told myself I would channel Pete to make it through the day. I purposely focused on slowing my thoughts and speech down throughout the day and just being like Pete. “I am Pete,” I said each time I became stressed. It helped a lot and I have a feeling I’ll have to do more of that this week.
I also watched an episode of Miss Scarlet and The Duke and a few episodes of Newhart, as well as an episode of Poirot with The Husband.
I watched Some Like It Hot last week and wrote about it on the blog (link below).
This week I’ll be watching The Seven Year Itch.
What I’m Writing
Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing came out this week! You can snatch a copy, or read it on Kindle Unlimited, HERE.
I am working on book two of the series now. It’s called Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.
I am listening to a mystery on audible: Death Beside the Seaside by T.E Kinsey.
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.
Can I interest you in a slice of cake? A cookie? A cup of tea?
Honestly, I don’t have the cake or cookies so you will just have to have the tea, but I do have some fresh raspberries if you’d like some of those.
Let’s kick our Saturday afternoon chat off with a weird question:
Did you hear of the man who stabbed his colleague at a science lab in Antarctica in 2018 because the colleague kept telling him the end of the books he was reading?
Do you think you’d ever go that far?
I hope I wouldn’t but I would guess that there was a lot more to that man’s stress than simply being told the end of books. The man who was stabbed lived, by the way.
Anyhow, I somehow made it through this week without stabbing anyone despite all the running around and mental gymnastics my brain kept doing.
This summer has been very busy for us in some ways, but usually we’ve only had one thing to do a day. That one thing has often been in the middle or end of the day so it has thrown some things off but that’s okay. We’ve adjusted.
I am looking forward to autumn and winter this year simply for the fact that I will have an excuse to say I can’t attend something.
“Oh, so sorry but we’re supposed to get bad weather and … yeah. I’d love to, but you know. The roads could be dangerous.”
I have that excuse practiced pretty well but, alas, I can’t use that one in the summer. Unless we get flash flooding, and I’d prefer that didn’t happen.
So, Monday I volunteered to pull weeds in my dad’s garden. I forgot how uncomfortable a person’s muscles can get after pulling weeds so the next morning I was hurting quite a bit.
I couldn’t mope around too long, though, because Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing came out on Tuesday and I worked on marketing for that most of the morning. In the afternoon Little Miss and I went swimming at my parents’. She talked me into a couple of swimming competitions which were easier for her because she was in an inflated inner tube and I was using my actual muscles to swim. Using muscles I don’t use enough other times of the year two days in a row left me in a lot of pain later that night and into Wednesday.
Working those muscles, in other words, was both good and bad for me. I had a hard time walking and sleeping this week but I was glad I got out and did things and I was proud of myself for whining less than I normally do when I am in pain.
On Wednesday I drove Little Miss about 15 minutes away to a park for the county library’s Summer Reading program. That’s one thing I don’t think I have ever mentioned on here – our county is so small population wise, we only have one library. It isn’t our town library – it’s the county library and it’s where everyone in the county goes for books and activities, etc. Since it is the county library, they try to hold events in places other than the most populated town in the county, which is my town.
The children at Wednesday’s event painted rocks, played on the playground, and participated in a rock relay race where they had to race to place rocks in the shapes that they belonged to on a large piece of cardboard.
Little Miss had fun but was ready to go home fairly quickly because there were new episodes of Bluey on Disney Plus. These episodes have been withheld for some reason for the last year or so and they were much anticipated in our house. I was glad we didn’t have anywhere else to go the rest of that day.
On Thursday, The Husband took the day off so we could one, take his car 45 minutes north to be worked on and two, go out to dinner for our anniversary.
Our view while we drove. My lunch.
After we dropped the car off, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant we enjoy near us. The Husband took Little Miss to gymnastics that evening and I stayed home and watched an episode of Miss Scarlet and the Duke while turning the air conditioning up full blast to make the house feel like fall. I made myself a cup of peppermint tea with honey and sipped that while I watched the show and designed journals. I know I should live in the present and not wish for it to be another season, but I do have to say, yet again, how much I miss the cooler months where I can snuggle under a blanket with a good book.
Yesterday a friend came to visit for a couple of hours, and then it was back up to pick up The Husband’s car and then he went grocery shopping, something he does because he is very nice, but also because I think he just doesn’t want to deal with whatever weird calamity befalls me if I go.
If you are new here, you may not know that almost every time I go grocery shopping something weird happens to me and I have some kind of emotional breakdown because I am a bit of a mental case at times (that’s the understatement of the year).
One time I locked the keys in the car and we didn’t have a spare. The last time I lost the key fob to the van and thought we didn’t have another one so I burst into tears. It wouldn’t be so bad except we have to drive 20 minutes away from home to get our groceries and I hate when I have to inconvenience someone to dig me out of whatever trouble I have gotten myself into.
I’m a bit high maintenance, which makes it a surprise to me at times that The Husband hasn’t run away screaming and that we’ve actually made it to 21 years.
He’s really very sweet to do the grocery shopping. It helps so much, especially because, even though I hate admitting it, my chronic health issues often leave me feeling drained and achy for a day after I do something like grocery shopping or anything that leaves me on my feet for quite a while.
He does a lot for our family and we’d be lost without him.
Today I really want to stay home and do absolutely nothing other than catch up on blog posts by other bloggers, write some more in the second Gladwynn Grant Mysteries book, or read a book, but it is supposed to get up to 87 and it would be a good day for Little Miss and I to go swimming. We will see how well I get around. Tomorrow, however, I am drawing the line and staying home all day so I can do some housework and catch up on blog posts, etc., because next week promises to be another long week with a church program at a local church, Summer Reading, and probably visits to the pool again.
The pull off along the scenic bypass we travel down to go home.
How about you? How was your week last week? What have you been sipping while you work, travel, or read this week?
Last week the days got away from me and I completely forgot to watch my Marilyn movie, let alone write about it.
I’m back this week, though, talking about Some Like It Hot with Marilyn, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis.
This was a crazy, hilarious, insane film that had me gasping and laughing through the entire thing. It was released in 1959 and directed by Billy Wilder.
It was something I needed as I’ve felt like my brain has been racing lately with worry and a rushed feeling.
The movie takes place in 1929 with booze being smuggled into a funeral home that is actually a speakeasy.
They are musicians – Jerry and Joe.
The speakeasy gets raided and they don’t get paid
They need money so when they hear that a band needs a couple of replacement girls they decide they need to become women – or well, sort of anyhow. Tony nixes that idea though and says they need to take another job instead but when they go to pick up the car, they witness a mob murder. Now they are forced to dress as women and get as far away from Chicago as they can, which in their case is Florida with the female band.
They buy the clothes and the wig and the makeup and board the train.
That’s when they meet Marilyn, a.k.a. Sugar.
Sugar is a bit of a drinker and they can’t help checking her out, but trying to pretend they aren’t checking her out.
Marilyn sings and dances in this one and shakes a lot which Jack and Tony very much enjoy. Jack, in fact, says he would like to have a cup of that sugar. This is the movie where Marilyn sings, “I Want to be Loved By You” with THAT dress. The one that had to be filmed partially in the dark because it sort of looks like she’s half naked, even though there is fabric there.
It is clear early on that Sugar is an alcoholic who needs her booze. At one point, she sneaks into Jack’s bed looking for booze, which, of course gets him hot under the collar. While it’s Tony that keeps reminding Jack that he is supposed to be a girl, Tony himself gets a bit attached to Sugar himself. When he learns that Sugar dreams of meeting and marrying a millionaire, he decides he’s going to find a way to be that millionaire for her.
While pretending to be a millionaire he does a hilarious impression of Cary Grant, which just cracked me up, especially when he said to Jack later something like, “Of course I’m faking it. No one really talks like that.”
On and on the craziness went on in this movie until my head was spinning with it all and with laughter.
There are a lot of sexual innuendos in the movie, including one where the band leader says, “A reminder to all you boys out there, all my girls are virtuosos and I intend to keep it that way.”
When Tony reminds Jack that he’s a guy and not a girl, he tells him, “Jerry, there is another problem. Like what are you going to do on your honeymoon?”
That questions ends up being a bit rhetorical as Jack’s character says they haven’t decided where they will go on their honeymoon yet.
According to information online, the movie was made for $2.9 million and made $49 million. Overall since the time it was released, it has made $83 million internationally.
My husband said he read that Marilyn could not stand Jack Lemmon so I Googled to see if this was true. According to the site Slashfilm.com, it wasn’t really that she didn’t like Jack, she just didn’t like anyone at that time. She was lashing out at a lot of people and they got caught in the crosshairs. She was abusing medication at the time and dealing with depression. I guess it is fitting that her character was an alcoholic since she was one in real life at times too.
She was also pregnant during the making of the movie and later went on to have a miscarriage after filming ended. I believe she had a few during her career and I’m sure this was part of her issues during the filming.
She and Tony Curtis actually dated in 1949, which I found interesting. It was only for a couple of months, according to Curtis.
Jack said he liked Marilyn, but felt sorry for her because he could tell she was troubled. He had less scenes with her than Curtis and didn’t have to deal with her habitual lateness as much.
Wilder was completely frustrated with Marilyn through most of the filming because she often could only get through a small amount of dialogue part of the time, after showing up late, according to a couple of articles. She cost the production half a million dollars with all her delays and he made it clear to her he was not happy with her when he held a cast party when the filming was done and did not invite her. She decided she didn’t like him either and told his wife to tell him to do something very anatomically impossible for a person to do with himself.
Years later he said that he didn’t have issues with Marilyn as much as she had issues with herself. He also said that her discombobulated and erratic behavior actually led to some adlibbed moments that made the movie a classic. Still, I think he would have preferred they didn’t have to write her lines on the inside of drawers because her brain was so addled from drinking too much and taking pills.
Wilder and Marilyn did make up before she passed away, especially because he still considered her a brilliant actress despite the issues she had during filming.
A bit of trivia from IMBd:
Some people asked why Curtis was so much better at walking like a woman or having female mannerisms than Lemmon and he told an interviewer it was because he tried so hard to be a female he was very tightly wound and overthinking it. Lemmon, on the other hand, “ran out of his dressing room screaming like the Queen of the May,” kept much more of his masculine body language.”
Tony later said that he asked Wilder if he could imitate Cary for his stint as the millionaire in the movie. Wilder liked it and they shot it that way. Apparently, Grant saw the parody of himself and stated, jokingly, “I don’t talk like that.”
Marilyn wanted the movie to be shot in color (her contract stipulated that all her films were to be in color),but Wilder convinced her to let it be shot in black and white when costume tests revealed that the makeup that Tony and Jack wore gave their faces a green tinge.
Marilyn didn’t originally didn’t want to play Sugar. She said, “I don’t want to play someone who can’t tell Daphne and Josephine are really men dressed in drag.”
Another tidbit that I pulled off Wikipedia was that this movie was made without the approval of the Hayes Code, which was a code in the “old days” that determined what could and could not be in movies. It wasn’t long after this movie was released and became a huge success that the Hayes Code was discontinued.
Oh, and I did figure out that the name for the movie comes from the music when Tony asks if Marilyn plays her music hot and she says she does and he says he likes his music slower but “Some Like It Hot.”
Have you seen Some Like It Hot? What did you think of it if you have? Let me know in the comments.
Up next I’ll be watching The Seven Year Itch.
After that I will be watching:
July 20: Monkey Business (because it’s Marilyn and Cary together)
I am excited to announce that Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing is out a week early! It is now available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and in paperback on Amazon. You can order it HERE and pre-order book two, which will be out November 21, for 99 cents for a limited time HERE.
DESCRIPTION:
A little bit of mystery, a dash of romance, and a whole lot of heart
After being laid off from her job as a librarian at a small college, Gladwynn Grant isn’t sure what her next step in life is. When a job as a small-town newspaper reporter opens up in the town her grandmother Lucinda Grant lives in, she decides to take it to get away from a lot of things – Bennett Steele for one.
Lucinda has been living alone since Gladwynn’s grandfather passed away six years ago and she isn’t a take-it-easy, rock-on-your-front-porch kind of grandma. She’s always on the go and lately, she’s been on the go with a man who Gladwynn doesn’t know.
Gladwynn thought Brookstone was a small, quiet town, but within a few days of being there, she has to rethink that notion. Someone has cut the bank loan officer’s brakes, threatening letters are being sent, and memories of a jewelry theft from the 1990s have everyone looking at the cold case again.
What, if anything, will Gladwynn uncover about her new hometown and her grandmother’s new male friend? And what will she do about her grandmother’s attempt to set her up with the handsome Pastor Luke Callahan?
Find out in this modern mystery with a vintage feel.
My husband and I will be accepting manuscripts for editing starting July 24, 2023.
We are offering line editing, copy editing, and proofreading services.
If you are curious about what these three editing services are, keep reading.
Line editing means we will tighten or rearrange sentences to make them sound better or to improve clarity.
Copy editing means we will edit for typos (missing commas, missing words, misspelled words, etc.).
Proofreading means we will do the last look at your manuscript if you have already had all of the other services done.
We will be accepting only those genres under the Christian or clean fiction umbrella at this time. Within those genres, we will accept romance, fantasy, mystery, general, etc. Our services are currently for self-published/ independent or querying authors only.
The style of editing we are offering will be surface level — suggestions of sentence structure changes and fixing typos (proofreading). We are not developmental editors but if we see a huge plot hole, we will certainly let you know and make suggestions that you can accept or ignore.
Both of us have worked in the publishing field for many years – me for 18 years and him for 25 years.
Our definition of clean fiction:
Fiction without graphic violence, without descriptive sex scenes (open-door sex scenes is what some writers/readers call them), and without strong cursing.
If you think that might be a fit for you, then read on for our prices.
Prices are flat fees based on manuscript page counts.
Manuscripts 1 to 250 pages: $250
Manuscripts 251 to 450 pages: $400
We will not take manuscripts over 450 pages at this time.
If a manuscript is only slightly above the upper number, we will consider the lower price. For example, if you have a manuscript that hits 260 we can discuss a price closer to the lower price than the higher one.
Manuscripts must be submitted at least three months before publication. Turnaround times will depend on length.
For more information or questions, please contact us at lisahoweler@gmail.com or via my contact form at the top of the page.
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.
Since last posting, I finished the Nancy Drew book I was reading – The Secret of the Old Clock. I enjoyed it very much, even though it was very simple.
Friday night I finished a book I was ready by an indie author for an endorsement. It was Christian Fiction and I will share more about it when it releases officially.
I am also reading Secrets of the Amish Diary by Rebecca Phillips and hope to jump back into The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz later this week.
I really enjoy the Amish Inn Mystery books by Phillips. They are relaxed and easy-going, but also full of murder and mystery. The characters are so loveable and I don’t mind that the pace is a little slow at times. It isn’t too slow but a little slower than some mysteries. I’m fine with that since that’s what cozy mysteries are too me. The clues for the mystery don’t come out slowly, but the story itself does and I actually enjoy that about cozy mysteries.
What’s Been Occurring
Yesterday we took Little Miss to a birthday party. We weren’t going to stay long because the little girl wasn’t feeling well, but the party was outside so we stayed a little longer. Little Miss and The Husband hiked to a small stream and swimming hole behind the family’s house and Little Miss took a swim with her friend.
This swimming hole and waterfall are actually part of their property. Isn’t that awesome?
After we visited there, the entire family headed to the grocery store for our weekly groceries.
Right before we walked inside, though, The Boy came running to us in a panic because he had looked at the schedule at work wrong and it turns out he was supposed to be at work at that time. We were 30 minutes away so after a quick call to his boss, during which she reassured him he was okay and just to get in as soon as he could, The Husband did a dash through the store and we headed back home. After we unloaded the groceries and took The Boy to work, Little Miss and I headed to my parents for a swim in their pool.
Today, with the area under a flash flood watch, we stayed home to relax and for me to catch up on some work for the book that releases this week instead of next now (you heard it here first). I also have some journals I want to design and upload to our journal store on Amazon. Unfortunately, The Husband could not stay home and relax part of the time because he had to go to a political rally to cover it for work.
At least he was able to enjoy this view while there.
This week we have a couple of summer reading events, gymnastics, and lunch for The Husband and I for our anniversary.
Oh and Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing releases on Tuesday now instead of next Tuesday.
What We watched/are Watching
Last week we were in and out of the house a lot or I was busy with finishing up things for the release of Gladwynn and designing graphics to promote it so I didn’t watch as much as I do some weeks.
I even forgot to watch the Marilyn Monroe movie I had planned to watch to write about on Thursday. I didn’t even remember until Friday that I had not watched the movie. I will be watching it this week instead.
The Husband and I did watch a few episodes of Newhart and I rented Into the West, an Irish movie I really enjoy, but never got back to finishing before the rental ran out.
This week I hope to watch a couple of Marilyn Monroe movies and some documentaries on Ireland. Why Ireland? I have no idea, but I’ve always loved Ireland. This past week I started one and it was being narrated by an American who sounded like he was on an American news show. I just didn’t trust him is all I’m saying. I need a show about Ireland to be narrated by an Irish person. (*wink*)
What I’m Writing
I am working on book two for the Gladwynn Grant Mysteries and have already put it up for pre-order on Amazon. I already mentioned how busy I was last week so I did not have a lot of time to write blog posts. I only posted one yesterday about how busy I was.
What I’m Listening To
While writing this week, I listened to this:
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.
