Writers' Group Forming

Writers need writers because writing is a solitary effort. We need contact with other writers to kick up ideas, to reveal a knot that’s been buried deep inside, to seek a fix for a writing problem and to encourage each other.

Writing from prompts nurtures our flowing words and sharpens our thoughts. It’s an exercise to keep our brain as slick as a banana peel on a hot pavement.

I’m forming a writing group beginning on Saturday 6thDec from 10 am till 12 noon in the community meeting room at the new library on Front Street in Warrenton. The plan is to meet once a month. There’s no cost. No experience is necessary, just come join us. Bring paper and pen. For further information email me at: asbice@aol.com with “writers group” in the subject line.

Oakley Hall Antiques in Warrenton NC

About ten days ago I went into Oakley Hall Antiques knowing they’re closing their shop on 3 January for approximately six months. They’ll be re-opening with an entirely new concept. I don’t know what the new concept is, but I know just about everything in their shop is reduced to embarrassing low prices.

I bought a Ruth Russell Williams painting, signed. I’ve long admired her work but never as much as when I saw it hanging on my wall. It just got under my skin so much that I went back today and bought a mate for it and an original by Ernie Fleming that I adore.

This time I looked at each and every painting in the shop including a trip upstairs to ponder over their antique etchings and silhouettes.

What a great time and place to buy a Christmas gift for yourself or someone who would love a special something to keep forever and maybe even increase in value as years pass.

Missing Someone During the Holidays

I receive a brief note via email from Kristy Robinette, a paranormal with a radio show who also publishes with Schiffer Publishing Co. In reading her words I found a message for those of you who had an empty chair at your Thanksgiving Dinner table and will notice it during the coming holidays too.

She reminds us that those who have crossed over show us signs, letting us know that they’re still in touch with us even though we can’t see them. We only have to look. Kristy said while she was shopping for a butter dish in a super large store, she encountered a sparrow-inside the store. The sparrow flew from the shelf up to her shoulder. (How many times has that happened to you?) No fear. Not just any bird. Kristy said, “Hi, Mom” with her eyes tearing up knowing what this sign was all about. The sparrow flew away gracefully.

Have you thought of someone from hearing a song or smelling a certain fragrance that’s unexplainable? The signs are all around. Look for them. If you want to receive email newsletters (brief ones) you can contact Kristy at: kristyrobinett@yahoo.com

Books, People

In reading Bob Kelly’s Newsletter tribute to his friend Charlie “Tremendous” Jones, I came across this quote. You're the same today as you'll be five years from now except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read. At first I thought he meant going from romance/adventure books to more scholarly books. And he does stress reading biographies and history for healthy growth of mind. Then I realized that wasn’t the intention. How many books do we re-read? Well, all of Jane Austen’s. But other than those only a handful, yet I have a thousand sitting on my bookshelves. Each one cherished but not re-read. As for the people, I’m certain that we meet the exact people we need to meet; some to stay in our lives forever and some in passing, but indelible. Some, like the books, are “re-read” over and over never leaving the shelf or the hugs exchanged.

"The quote was taken from the November 2008 issue of THE
KELLYGRAM, and is used with permission." http://www.wordcrafters.info/newsletters.html

The Witch's Grave by Phillip DePoy

I’ve just finished The Witch’s Grave by Phillip DePoy. I began backwards, finding the author and reading his third book first. After liking it so much, I found his first and second Fever Devilin books in the series.

A wise choice. I love a mystery and when there is a good personal story within the mystery, I love it even better. DePoy takes it even deeper, having suspense and mystery in the back story. Then he takes it even further than that. He’s poetic in his descriptions as i.e. voice like an iris petal. Can’t you just hear that soft, draping voice? He also writes of his friend Andrews sitting on a tree limb as: the branch complained but held. I’ve heard that sound growing up in the woods of my youth. But I never put a handle on it.

He also mentions Monet and Van Gogh in reference. I wonder if he paints? Write poetry?

Helloing a House

I’ve finished reading Devil’s Hearth, the first in a series of Phillip De Poy’s mysteries set in the Georgia Appalachians. He mentions their habit of helloing the house that probably isn’t used anymore. This was the custom of standing out in front of the house, or back, depending on where you arrive at the house and calling out the person’s name. Inside the house, the person would call back to come on in. Or not.

This is what we did when I was a kid. We always went to the back door of our friends’ houses and called their name. We never knocked on the door or rang a doorbell until we became teenagers too sophisticated for such ways. I never gave a thought to where the idea came from or why kids don’t do it today.

Apparently the custom goes back to the early Scottish Celtic time and possibly other cultures, too. I imagine it would’ve let the folks know it was a friendly caller not an invader.

Iron Jawed Angels

Last night I watched Iron Jawed Angels with Hilary Swank, Frances O’Connor, Angelica Huston, Julia Ormond and Patrick Dempsey. A great line-up of talent and a movie every student should be required to watch. The girls, so they know the battles fought for their right to vote and the boys, so they can see what damage ignorance and male ego can do.

But it’s so typical of American movies that a love interest must be inserted. I think Dempsey was tossed onto the scene because the producers don’t believe women will watch a movie without a hunk in it. I’m sure they’ll comment with the usual “the movie is for entertainment” to cover the fiction part of the story, including the music. Great music but so wrong for the period and so candying of such a serious subject.

It’s also amazing that Alice Paul lived to be 92. Maybe it’s because she didn’t marry. J

A Trillion Dollars

Yesterday in the News & Observer newspaper of North Carolina, there was an article on our country hitting a ONE TRILLION DOLLARS tab for the war in Iraq! What would you do with a trillion dollars? Can you even imagine that amount of money or anything? Why aren’t Americans outraged?

Rob Simpson hired some assistants and spent a year in research resulting in the slim book What We Could Have Done With the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We’ve Spent on Iraq.

A few ideas from him: Pave the entire U.S. interstate highway system with 23.5 karat gold leaf; give every high school student in the U.S. a free college education; it could buy a Buick for every senior citizen still driving in the USA; it could double the 663,000 cops on the beat for 32 years; it could build 75 million solar-powered homes (eliminating the need for oil and war in Iraq.)

More? Check it out, google: What we could have done with the money.

All Souls' Day

All Souls Day

Today is the day (or Monday when November 2nd falls on a Sunday) to honor those that have lived before and do so no longer. Light your candle today even if you have on All Hallow’s Eve. Remember the dead. Talk about them to someone. As long as they are spoken of, they will remain alive, at least in the minds of those who knew and loved them.

It’s fallen out of fashion to visit gravesites. Body boxes returning from the Iraqi War are not allowed to be shown (in this country of freedom) on TV or newspapers. But cemeteries were once gathering places to have picnics and family get-togethers. They were landscaped with beautiful trees and bushes for all to enjoy. The cemetery was also an open space for the city person to visit for peace and serenity.

Now if you see someone at the cemetery, they’re probably genealogists seeking information for the family archives. It’s a great place for learning. Tombstones reveal facts and sometimes fancies about the dearly departed buried there. And about the person who paid to honor them.

Light a candle today. Honor someone in hope that someday you will be honored for the time and good you gave to the world.