Author: Becky

What? Me Worry?

If you are of a certain age or have ever been a fan of Mad magazine, you probably recognize my title as the motto of Alfred E. Neuman, the magazine’s mascot so far back even I wasn’t born yet. =)

Last weekend, Tom and I ran a few errands because the weather was clear, and I needed to drive. It had been a while since I’d driven because of health issues, and I’m not quite ready NOT to drive. All went well, and one of our stops was to Body Mind and Soul. Among gift items we picked up, I chose a tumbled black tourmaline for myself, and Tom found this chakra worry stone for me.

The indentation provides a nicely smooth surface for a thumb to rub away worry and stress.

Here’s the rounded side of the worry stone next to that black tourmaline. Black tourmaline provides protection and assists with anxiety.

After doctor visits this past week, I’m feeling better. Probably one of the best things affecting my mood is that I’m finally near the end of the Book 7 section of the Neverending Saga that I’ve been grappling with for months. It’s even possible I’ll finish the section today (fingers crossed!) and be able to get it to my two reader-advisors this weekend. I’m looking forward to writing the next section, and after that, the rest of the book may be a little less taxing.

Every day, I’m grateful for the friends and family who uplift me in a variety of ways. The calls, unexpected texts, emails, messages through social media, and the rare but meaningful visits–each one of them matters. Never doubt it.

Photo Friday, No. 919

Current Photo Friday theme: Dad


Christmas, 1983, I set the timer to shoot a family photo with my Canon AE-1. Ordered everyone to smile, look at the camera, and remain still. Darted into the picture, whereupon my brother slapped a bow on his forehead, grabbed me, bumped my sister, and made my mother crack up and shift a little. Daddy, Army vet, knew how to follow an order and remain in focus. One of my favorite photos of us forever.

Complete! and sort of Circular


As noted previously, during the Beryl power outage, I began rereading romantic suspense novels by Mary Stewart that I’ve been reading since the dawn of time when I was a teenager. After I finished the lot of them, I wondered how many I might be missing, so I looked up her complete list of works. There are the King Arthur books I’ve never read, and some children’s books, but turns out I actually own all of her romantic suspense novels. I shared photos of all the covers in previous posts, up to these two. Even though I’d reread both since 2020, I read them again.


They have two of my favorite male characters, and many of their qualities inspired male characters I’ve written (humor, sensitivity, kindness, strength, intelligence).

I did find in my search a novella and a short story that were published under the guidance of Mary Stewart’s niece, Jennifer Ogden. I’d read neither of these and ordered this edition immediately, which I’ve finished reading today (after an eye exam and a long nap so my eyes could return to their undilated state).

The Wind Off the Small Isles and “The Lost One.” In The Wind Off the Small Isles, Stewart included an Easter egg via a reference to a character in her novel This Rough Magic, an actor named Sir Julian Gale. There’s also an excerpt from that novel at the end of the collection.

This Rough Magic ranks in my top-favorite Stewart novels because it draws from Shakespeare’s The Tempest in its plot. Thanks to the play and Stewart’s novel, my interest was piqued by the 1982 film Tempest. Like Mary Stewart’s novel, the film borrows a lot from Shakespeare’s play. The film is unseen by most people I know–unless I’ve made them watch it with me. (Of course, I own the DVD–do you know me?) Tim and Jim still quote from it.

Tempest was directed by Paul Mazursky and stars the late John Cassavetes (who has long served as a physical model, along with a few of his qualities as a film director/producer of independent films, for one of my secondary characters in the Neverending Saga); Cassavetes’s wife Gena Rowlands; and introducing the young Sam Robards (son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall) and future brat-packer Molly Ringwald. This was also the film in which I was introduced to the brilliant actor Raul Julia.

My Muses and inspirations can be found among many people, novels, films, music, and art.

ETA: Beautiful Gena Rowlands died on August 14, age 94. I will think of her reunited with her husband, the two of them making beautifully crafted films together for always. Thank you, John and Gena, for being muses to me.

In the box


Yesterday, I finished reading Louisa Morgan’s The Great Witch of Brittany, recommended to me by my friend Princess Patti. It’s the most recently written (2022) of a series that includes:
A Secret History of Witches (2017)
The Witch’s Kind (2019)
The Age of Witches (2020)

I haven’t read the others (yet), but I don’t think reading out of order will be a problem because this one provides a lot of context for the others. I always enjoy an author who has a compelling gift for world building and story telling. The Great Witch of the title is Ursule, a member of a Romani family that includes a line of witches. From childhood to matriarchy, the many-layered Ursule is an “outsider,” which is both curse and blessing–it puts her in danger, but it also leads her to discover her gifts.

Ursule is strong, brave, and almost always compassionate (and experiences a lot of heartbreak). For most of her life, she has one solid and trusted friend, a raven named Drom. Of course that appealed to me, corvid admirer that I am. Drom has his own way of communicating (though he actually does speak a two-word phrase, he’s not a talking animal). He’s guide, friend, protector, and supporter, and he has a sense of humor.

After I finished the book, I kept thinking about Drom, which led me to get out the box that holds my various animal decks and flip through them to admire the ravens and crows. The crow and raven cards pictured here are from Animal Spirits.

I either have to stop collecting animal decks, or I’ll need a bigger box.

Tiny Tuesday!

I just finished reading this novel from Ann Patchett, Tom Lake (which was really good and made me cry at the end), and in the process of reading, I discovered a small bookmark I’d forgotten (to add to the Sunday Sundries bookmarks I’ve already shared).

Lisa in Iowa (aka “Nurse Lisa”)’s two dogs (gone years ago to the Rainbow Bridge), featured front and back, from a holiday photo shoot. They were such good girls and provided a lot of stories and photos back in the day on LiveJournal.

Sophie

 

Phoebe

Sunday Sundries

On the first Sunday Sundries post, when I asked for suggestions for future entries, this, from A Blue Sky Boy: Open your box of Crayola crayons and pick a colour at random (without replacement so you can’t repeat it). Discuss the color!

First, I want to share the joy of a 1991 Crayola™ tin which “features some of the most famous colors in crayon history.”

The moment you open the tin, you’re greeted by that waxy smell that’ll take you right back to your first days holding your first fat crayon in your little kid fingers.

This tin has a bonus box of eight crayons.


The back of the box explains how colors in this box were retired to make way for new colors.

(The new colors were dandelion, wild strawberry, vivid tangerine, fuchsia, teal blue, royal purple, jungle green, and cerulean.)

Here is the full array of the 64 colors in the 1991 box.

This is the crayon I chose from them all.

Green is, always has been, my favorite color. The color of mountain hillsides. The color of the woods I walked in as a child. Green was the grass beneath my bare feet when I ran through the sprinkler. Green was Mr. Green Jeans, Dino the dinosaur, and Kermit. Green was the color of my first love’s eyes. Green is ocean water. Green is new, fresh, rebirth, spring. Green is limes and sour apples and many of my favorite vegetables. Green is a last name. A movement. Green is so many of my favorite stones and crystals. Green is grasshoppers, caterpillars, toads and frogs, nearly transparent insect wings. Green is my first two cars that came to me through my first marriage. Green put the initial in the rainbow’s name, Roy G. Biv.

Green is life.

This and that…


Here’s a new-to-me deck that I’m very much looking forward to exploring: Colette Baron-Reid’s The Spirit Animal Oracle. The illustrations by Jena DellaGrottaglia are superb, so you may see a lot of these on here for the art alone. I like oracle decks in general a little more than tarot. The guidebook for this one is detailed but without giving overlong explanations.

I was eager to pull a card at random. Then I had to laugh.

I write a character who often reminds others, “Two things can be true at once,” (as related to things that may seem to be in opposition). He’s just about to get a taste of his own medicine in that regard in the scene I’ve been working on. I guess Dolphin is letting me know I’m supposed to be writing–but hey, Dolphin, this AND that are true: I need to be writing, and I needed you to remind me.

What, after all, is friendlier than a nudge from a dolphin? Sometimes, it even saves lives.

Photo Friday, No. 918

Current Photo Friday theme: Coffee Shop

When I checked my photo archives and found this one, I was confused because I couldn’t find it on my website (which, back then, was LiveJournal). I dug deeper and found it in comments to what became a regular Wednesday feature called Hump Day Happy. My LJ friends gave me a page number and a second number, and I found the “answer” for them in the book 14,000 Things To Be Happy About.

On this date, I told them I’d take what was then my spankin’ new Nikon D40 and leave The Compound to shoot photos to go with the “answers” they were given from the book. Pretty sure I grabbed this iced coffee from Seattle’s Best before visiting my mother in the care home–her last Houston residence before hospice. I probably grabbed one of her crossword puzzle collections and completed a puzzle while we talked or she slept. While this photo wasn’t shot in the coffee shop, I’m glad I visited one on my way to visit Mother because it packs a lot of fun and bittersweet memories.