tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18008015363591855652024-03-13T02:29:45.408-07:00 ....Phoebe's Blog Page UrbanFantasyLitePhoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-28841558753202102382020-05-23T07:33:00.000-07:002020-05-23T07:33:52.242-07:00Cricket Summer<span style="font-size: x-large;">For those readers of mine who like to ask me where I get the ideas for stories, here's the truth about <i>Summer of the Cricket.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Years ago when I was a young newly wed and my husband was stationed in Texas, we lived in the apartment building described in this story.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Winnie and Joe were real people, although not with those names. And the events that followed did indeed happen.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">I fictionalized our jobs and layoffs. Obviously we were in no danger of being unemployed. Nobody gets laid off from the military. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Soon after this story happened my guy was transferred, which happens frequently in the military, and then his enlistment ended and we moved on with our lives. I never knew what became of </span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Winnie and Joe</span> but I also never forgot them. Years later when I started writing I remembered every scene, everything that was ever said.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Yup, that's where I got the idea.</span>Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-78172145110178305022020-05-08T20:32:00.000-07:002020-05-14T10:38:46.127-07:00Little Egypt Bean Salad 15<span style="font-size: x-large;">Looking for a salad to make ahead for the Fourth of July? This one tastes better if made the day before.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">The name comes from Cairo, Illinois (pronounced Kay - roe), in an area known as Little Egypt, near the junction of the Wabash and Mississippi rivers. My first introduction to the salad was at a picnic near the docks where catfish were sold from the boats and cooked in a park with picnic tables.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">If the name Cairo sounds familiar, you must be a Huckleberry Finn fan. Huck and his friend Jim were trying to raft across the Mississippi River from Missouri, a slave state, to Illinois, a free state. Cairo was the closest destination.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">LITTLE EGYPT BEAN SALAD</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Determine amounts by the number of people and your personal taste preferences. I was told, find a potato salad recipe and replace the potatoes with kidney beans. Or try my favorite variation --</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Mix:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">canned kidney beans</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">chopped onion, yellow or sweet</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">sweet pickle relish</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">chopped celery</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">favorite creamy salad dressing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">MIX and put in a Tupperwear type container, and store in the refrigerator overnight.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Optional ingredients include chopped hard boiled eggs and parsley.</span>Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-2607907959137071332019-06-06T12:27:00.000-07:002020-04-18T17:19:06.808-07:00Smashed 13<br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 22.0pt;">A kind reader wrote to thank me for the
short story <i>Smashed</i>. I replied by giving the reader the true
source of the story. So here it is.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 22.0pt;">"<span style="color: black;">Thanks
so much! The story happened to my sister. She went to her car in the grocery
lot and the steering wheel was bent down and the seat cushion twisted. She
never could figure out how it happened so I made up an explanation. She had to
get a repairman out and he repaired but like her, he couldn’t guess the
cause."</span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 22.0pt;">I must admit that most of my story ideas
grow out of things that happen to me and to my relatives and friends. Yes, I
add a lot of fiction. </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 22.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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-->Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-82640313137139949132017-06-20T07:52:00.002-07:002020-04-18T17:19:44.616-07:00A Small House on Pilings 96.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ77o52AHDJMgFbJNyRq9WbMPqdlW4x7FRRpqx3T-lgDNYxPPMYNVDqIX_bqcu-GyRNM2geHFMPK8UlKbPD-JYgxgqU-af9pjHtgGaIy-63F-I7OmP_mm9AtY_gCz8F_YBt-sfq4W4Fb8/s1600/TALES+OF+LOVERS+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ77o52AHDJMgFbJNyRq9WbMPqdlW4x7FRRpqx3T-lgDNYxPPMYNVDqIX_bqcu-GyRNM2geHFMPK8UlKbPD-JYgxgqU-af9pjHtgGaIy-63F-I7OmP_mm9AtY_gCz8F_YBt-sfq4W4Fb8/s320/TALES+OF+LOVERS+copy.jpg" width="226" /></a>Once upon a time I shared an apartment with two other working women. One of them had, in her recent past, woken up to her wedding day and handled it as described in the story <i>A Small House on Pilings.</i> And then she changed her name and moved to California where we shared an apartment with a third friend, and explained to us why she had changed her name. It was an unforgettable tale and although I have changed names and locations and a few details, most of what happened was exactly as she described it. I am sure you can figure out the reason for her name change. Yeah. He was not amused, and yeah, he had a shotgun.<br />
<br />
This story is included with another short story in a booklet titled <i>Tales of Lovers and Liars.</i><br />
<br />
Maybe I should mention here that the other story is <i>Scent of Nicotiana</i>. It, too, is based on an experience of a friend of mine who worked as an emergency room nurse.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times roman";"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019WT99R4"><span style="color: #000099; font-weight: normal;">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019WT99R4</span></a></span></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times roman"; font-size: 19.0pt;"></span></div>
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-->Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-44393470775820097112017-02-02T09:23:00.000-08:002020-04-18T17:35:33.525-07:00Valentine Vampire 98<br />
My short story Valentine Vampire is a romantic version of the Chicago Valentine’s Day Massacre, result of a rivalry between the gangs of Al Capone and Bugs Moran.<br />
<br />
My connection to the historical event is this. <br />
<br />
My grandmother was on the second floor near a window when the guns went off in what was usually a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. On February 14, 1929, she and everyone else in the area heard
the shotguns and submachine guns in a Clark St. garage two blocks away.
They had to wait for the newspapers to learn the details of what was
soon labeled The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The story was passed
along through the next two generations of her family and eventually
worked its way into my fiction. <br />
<br />
I used it as the
background of Valentine Vampire, a short story about a character in
Vampire Career, the first novel in my Turning Vampire series.<br />
<br />
Also, Charley Royal, a character in the Sunspinner series, claims he was there, but Charley sometimes exaggerates.<br />
Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-63524620188072630912016-05-25T14:21:00.000-07:002020-04-18T17:22:03.468-07:00Dog in highrise 32<span style="font-size: large;">A friend lives in one of those lovely high rise apartments in Seattle, views out every window that she loves, gas fireplace in the living room that her little dog loves, heavenly set up except when her small and aging pet barks and wakes her in the middle of the night to demand a walk outside. Well, she’s had the doggie forever, worries about its creaky joints constantly, and does whatever she can to keep it comfortable.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So last week it woke her at 2 in the morning, woke her from a deep sleep. She stumbled around, managed to pull on her raincoat over her pajamas and stuff her feet into rain boots. Through half closed eyes she did find the leash, clicked it onto the dog’s collar, remembered to grab her keys, and then got them both onto the elevator. And then she leaned back against the elevator wall and got as near to sleep as one can while remaining standing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And a friendly voice from overhead (God? mugger?) said, “Oh, is the little dog sick tonight?” She kept her eyes closed while she thought. She knew there was no one else on the elevator. It might be easier to pretend to herself she was still in bed asleep and having a bad dream. And the voice said, “I hope everything is all right.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At that point she realized the voice was the building’s security man who could see her on the safety monitors. And when the elevator reached the main floor, there he was at the front desk, watching for her and so concerned about her dog she couldn’t tell him that she had spent a couple minutes wondering if he was God or a mugger.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Have you ever had anything like that happen? Sometimes people tell me real events that I am not sure anyone would accept if I put them in a novel. </span>Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-47041847475292676792014-12-15T17:30:00.001-08:002020-04-18T17:23:12.908-07:00UF Who? 5When one of my UF novels ended up in a boxed collection of 8 novels
by 7 authors, a publicist sent out questions for each of us to answer.
And here are mine:<br />
<br />
<b>QUESTIONS</b><br />
<br />
<i>In Urban
Fantasy the location of the story is often more than just a setting;
it’s a character, and influences in what happens in the story. Does the
city in your story have such and impact and how?</i><br />
<br />
<b>The
Sunspinners series is set in a wealthy neighborhood where neighbors
politely ignore the protagonist’s household. Possibly they assume there
is an insane auntie in the upstairs room, complete with a Jane Eyre
nurse. This allows the paranormal family to function without
interruptions. Across town is the neighborhood setting of the Mudflat
Magic series and is the opposite in that all the low income families in
Mudflat know everything about each other. This creates totally different
plot complications.</b><br />
<i><br />Some Urban Fantasy stories have a
divide between the people and creatures who use and know magic and the
normal everyday humans. Do you think this affects how some characters
respond to emergencies?</i><br />
<b><br />Weak magic runs through the
Mudflat families and results in them covering for each other. The
paranormal sunspinners would love to have a little magic. It would make
their lives so much easier. Instead all they have is a normal everyday
human to cover for them and yes, it affects their behavior. They have
added more security devices to their home than ADT ever dreamed of. </b><br />
<b><br /></b><i>While
not every Urban Fantasy story uses classic monsters, there’s a lot of
them in the genre. How has the use of monsters changed over the years
and what makes your monsters unique if you use any of them?</i><br />
<b>There
are earthdemons threatening the sunspinners, and they are a specific
race and unrelated to classic monsters. In Mudflat the monsters usually
look like normal people so are hard to spot. None of my monsters are
based on any I have ever read about. I like to think up my own
creatures. </b><br />
<br />
<i>While Urban Fantasy is popular right now, not
every one enjoys all aspects of the subgenre. To keep the genre going,
what are some of the more unique trends in UF and what would you like to
see more of?</i><br />
<b>Originality. Each book or series has to have new
ideas. That’s why I came up with the heroine of the Turning Vampire
series. She is a sweet teenager who has to learn to survive as a vampire
but works hard at being a good person and never harming anyone. When
all your nourishment has to come from human blood, fresh from the
source, it ain’t easy being sweet.</b><br />
<br />
<i>Most Urban Fantasy
stories center on magical beings or creatures, normal people still have
an important role in the story line. Do normals have much of an impact
in your UF story and in what way?</i><br />
<b>Always. It is the normals who have to solve the problems created by magic and by paranormals. Sorry, no superheroes here. </b><br />
<br />
<i>As
we know, magic in these UF worlds can take many forms. Some are able to
use it and some aren’t. Why do you think magic (of any form) such a
popular concept?</i><br />
<b>Wouldn’t we all love to mumble a few spells
and have our problems solved? But then there would be no story. Instead,
the protagonists have to plod on alone, suffer a lot, and learn to
depend on their wits rather than physical strength. Unlike romances,
urban fantasies do not require ‘happy ever after’ endings. </b><br />
<br />
<i>Monsters
have been around for ages in stories. History is full of them. What
kind of impact has Urban Fantasy had in dispelling some of the myths
associated with some of these creatures from the past and how do you
think it will shape the future?</i><br />
<b>Hmm. Maybe Homer was the first
urban fantasy storyteller, earning his livelihood by entertaining his
audiences with tales of real cities and normal people and scary
monsters. Did he try to shape the future with his tales? I don’t think
so. If I had the smarts to shape a better future for the world, I would
go into politics, I guess. Instead, I write stories to entertain.</b>Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1800801536359185565.post-25125912189327515352012-06-22T03:16:00.000-07:002020-02-21T13:08:18.944-08:00"Poke M for Murder" doesn't have the same ring (pardon the pun) as the famous title "Dial M for Murder." Since the dial phone went out with the trash, I haven't seen a strong verb for placing a phone call using the buttons. Poke? Key? Thumb? Do you have a good suggestion?Phoebehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04961244558652676654noreply@blogger.com