Tag Archive for: Moving

Toilet Paper Origami and Absolutely No Wastepaper Baskets Allowed!

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My Curated Bookcases

By Lois Winston 

Last month I blogged about how my husband and I were getting ready to move from New Jersey to Nashville to be closer to family. We’ve since taken another step toward that goal—our home for the last twenty-three years is now on the market.

 

In the course of my married life I’ve lived in four different houses. However, the last time we moved HGTV wasn’t part of the American consciousness. No flippers, renovators, or stagers brainwashed the public about the necessity of open-concept, tray ceilings, and hardscaped yards with outdoor kitchens. Hardwood floors aren’t enough. They have to be wide-planked hardwood. And of course, the cardinal sin these days is the dreaded popcorn ceiling. Buyers have been conditioned to take one look and immediately do an about-face, as if a popcorn ceiling is in the same category as termites and radon.

 

We’ve always lived in older homes. We love the charm of Victorian and Craftsman architecture. The oldest house we’ve lived in was built in 1891, the youngest in 1939. Our current house is a 1935 Craftsman Bungalow. It isn’t open-concept with twelve-foot ceilings. It doesn’t have a Carrera marble waterfall island in the kitchen.

 

There are forty-four photos online along with floor plans and room sizes. Any interested buyer has the ability to see the house from top to bottom and inside out from the comfort of their own home before deciding whether they want to see it in person. No one looking for a new home with an open concept plan, spa bathrooms, and huge walk-in closets would even consider an in person trip to our house. Or so you would think. Yet by some of the feedback we’ve received, that’s exactly what is happening. I would imagine the realtors are not happy with having their time wasted in this manner.

 

Nor am I happy, because each time a tour is scheduled, I have to race through my house, hiding wastepaper baskets, toiletries, bathroom floormats, and dishtowels. I have to make sure there are full rolls of toilet paper in each bathroom dispenser and that the top sheet is folded into a point a la upscale hotels. Nothing can be left on kitchen and bathroom countertops. No shampoo bottles and soap in the showers.

 

All of this and more was on orders of the house stager hired by the realtor. She walked through our home before it went on the market and handed us a homework list. Then she returned to make sure we had complied. Now, I’m all in favor of making my house as presentable as possible to secure a sale. A cluttered house doesn’t show well, but I don’t like clutter. So my house was not in need of lots of work prior to going on the market. 

 

Not according to the stager, though. She insisted I buy lemons to float in a clear pitcher of water to be put on the picnic table on the deck. She insisted the flowers I had planned to place on the dining room and kitchen tables were only white and in clear vases. She even insisted I curate my bookcases, getting rid of ninety percent of my books. I’m an author. I have a lot of bookcases throughout my house, and they hold a lot of books, most of which are now squirreled away in cartons hidden in the back of closets—along with the wastepaper baskets. (It’s spring allergy season. Do you know what a pain it is to dig through the back of a closet for a wastepaper basket every time you need to discard a tissue?)

 

I’m wondering if buyers are that gullible. Will they not make an offer on a house because there are too many books in the bookcases? Or because I forgot to fold the toilet paper into a point for one showing? Time will tell. Meanwhile, I now have all sorts of plots rolling around in my head for future mysteries. Want to guess the identity of the victim in many of those plots? So maybe all that work is worth it, whether it increases the price someone is willing to pay for our house or not. At least I now have ideas for future books.

~*~

USA Today and Amazon bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a former literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

 

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Where to Live? A Guest Post by Lena Gregory

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I’ve lived most of my life in a small town on the south shore of Eastern Long Island, along with four generations of my family. My grandfather owned a deli in town, where I started working stocking shelves and sweeping floors when I was twelve years old. When I was a little older, I started working the breakfast shift, the inspiration for the All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series.

I’ve always loved the small-town feel, the way everyone knows everyone, especially the families who have lived here for generation after generation as mine has. When I married a man from the neighboring town, it seemed natural to settle down where we’d grown up and start our family.

Then my husband got a job offer in Florida, and he accepted. We moved down right after my daughter finished kindergarten. I had only ever been to Florida once, when my daughter was three and we spent three days in Disney World, so I had no clue what to expect. 

Just like Gia Morelli in Scone Cold Killer, I was in for a few surprises.


I was used to deer crossing signs, since Long Island is home to a large deer population, but the first time I drove my daughter to school and saw a bear crossing sign, I actually turned around and went back to see it again. I thought I was mistaken, but nope, it was a bear crossing sign. Until that moment, I had no clue there were bears in Florida. 

Then there were the love bugs, and they were everywhere. And lizards, which I’d never even seen in real life before I moved, and snakes, sometimes venomous ones. 

In the All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery series, Gia suffers more than one run-in with Florida wildlife. As the series progresses, she gets more used to some of the creatures native to her new home, but others continue to terrify her. 

Aside from the critters, Florida’s weather brought a few surprises for me as well. On the rare occasions Long Island gets tornadoes, they are small F-1s that do very little damage. One night, about six months after we moved to Florida, I had just gotten into bed and turned on the TV, and the weather report came on. A line of damaging storms was coming through. The reporter said if you live on my road, “take cover now,” and I freaked out, to put it mildly, woke my daughter and stuffed her and my dog into the tub, even tried to wrestle a mattress into the tiny bathroom. (That was so not happening.) 

When a line of damaging storms tears through Boggy Creek, Gia is forced to deal with yet another new downfall. Fortunately, she learns a few lessons about living in a small town and how the people pull together in times of need.

Gia moves from Manhattan to a rural area just south of Florida’s Ocala National Forest. The enormity of the forest frightens her at first, especially when she thinks about everything that’s probably living in there, and she has a terrible time trying to fall sleep in all the quiet. Eventually, she comes up with an inventive way that reminds her of home to help her sleep. 

Like Gia, whenever I got homesick, I spent a lot of time checking off the positives and negatives of living in Florida and New York. 

Because there were also amazing things about living in Florida. The natural springs, with their crystal-clear water, gorgeous blue skies—even in the winter when the skies in New York are permanently gray. And who could complain when everyone in New York was shoveling out from under a foot of snow, and I was lying by the pool?

In the end, my decision was made for me when my husband and I both got job opportunities in New York. We ended up moving back to New York and visiting Florida every year because we missed it so much. Until last year, when I retired from my day job and we returned to Florida, this time to a bit more rural area, and I absolutely love everything about it. 

Gia is still weighing her options and missing fall in New York. But when Savannah talks her into participating in the local Haunted Town Festival in A Waffle Lot of Murder, she can’t help but realize Boggy Creek is going to be her permanent home, and she wouldn’t change it for the world. 

What about you? Have you ever had a hard time deciding where you wanted to live? 

 

 

 

 

She’s Leaving Home–Bye, Bye

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Readers of a certain age will recognize the title of this blog as the chorus to a Beatles song. Nostalgia is my mood at the moment, so I’m playing and singing all the oldies.


In this particular case, the “she” who’s leaving home is me. I’m about to leave my home of the past 42 years with its marble fireplace with walnut mantel, walnut crown moldings, multiple built-in cupboards (including a corner glass-doored china cupboard), wood floors, tall ceilings, big windows, spacious rooms –and outdated plumbing and wiring. My husband and I are in the last throes of decluttering and packing for our move to a much smaller house without the great storage and space of this one but without its problems, as well. As we pack up and pile boxes and bins, I know we’ve made the right decision, but I’m reminded constantly of the many great years I had in this house while raising my family. So, yeah, nostalgia.

I decided I wanted to take photos of the rooms before they were turned into stacks of boxes and stripped of their furniture. Of course, my tablet’s excellent camera suddenly wouldn’t work, and my cell phone’s too old to have a camera. I refused to be thwarted, however, and took the interior shots with my laptop webcam (which is why they’re blurry enough to pass as Impressionist paintings). For the record, though, I now have photos of my living room and dining room. (My arms tired quickly–it’s awkward taking regular photos with a webcam–so my ambition to snap pictures of all the rooms quickly faded.)


Above, you see my marble fireplace with walnut mantel, as well as my quilt-covered old wicker couch and one of my spinning wheels. This is the middle third of our extremely large living room. The first photo is of the front of our house with part of the front-yard gardens. The next photo is of the front third of our living room with my big floor loom and another spinning wheel partially obscured by the boxes we’ve started piling in the living room. The loom and both spinning wheels will join my Husqvarna sewing machine in our new home.

The final photo is of part of the dining room with its big round wooden table and chairs and one of the two freestanding china cabinets in that room. The built-in one is in the breakfast room next door. Only one of these freestanding cabinets is going with us, but the table and chairs–as old as my time in this house–will accompany us, as well.


I will not miss the extension cord shuffle which all unrenovated-old-house owners do, of necessity. I will not miss the months of the year when it’s simply too cold or too hot to work in my upstairs office/studio, even wrapped in wool shawls and gloves or stripped to underwear. Modern insulation and central HVAC have a lot to recommend them. I will not miss all the stairs. Most of all, I won’t miss the constant sucking sounds as all the money I make goes into household emergencies like storm-damaged gutters or yet another plumbing disaster. (When you own a house, my child, water is not your friend.)

Still, this house has been the site of many holiday feasts for the extended family. It sheltered not only my two husbands and three children but two foster sons, a nephew, and at one time or another, all my brothers and their friends or wives, as well as my sister. We’ve had celebrations and parties. When my oldest kids were young, the teachers went on strike for a year, and this house became a schoolroom for most of the kids in the neighborhood. Every summer, it was kid headquarters as I kept the block’s youngsters out of trouble by teaching them how to make butter, soap, candles, bread, cheese, baskets, and many other projects. That dining room table has seen so many home-cooked meals and craft projects and school homework assignments and science-fair projects and family council meetings that my family’s DNA is embedded deep within the fiber of the wood. It’s been a wonderful home.


Now, the time is right to move on to a more convenient, safer (no stairs for me to break anything more on), lower maintenance, and smaller place. I’m looking forward to it. But yeah, I’ll miss the old girl as we drive off with the moving van. 42 years is a long time, and what warm, lovely years they’ve been!

Linda Rodriguez’s Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel, based on her popular workshop, and The
World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East,
an anthology she co-edited, are her newest books. Every Family
Doubt, her fourth mystery novel featuring Cherokee campus police
chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear January 17, 2018. Her three earlier
Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust,
and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart’s Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as St. Martin’s
Press/Malice Domestic Best First Novel, International
Latino Book Award, Latina Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices
& Visions, Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and
Ragdale and Macondo fellowships. Her short story, “The Good
Neighbor,” published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has
been optioned for film.
Rodriguez is past chair of the AWP
Indigenous Writer’s Caucus, past president of Border Crimes chapter
of Sisters in Crime, founding board member of Latino Writers
Collective and The Writers Place, and a member of International
Thriller Writers, Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and
Storytellers, and Kansas City Cherokee Community. Visit her at
http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com

A Time for Giving… Away

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by Linda Rodriguez
It’s 10 days until Christmas—days
when people are shopping and buying presents to give to people who
don’t really need any more stuff to cram into their overcrowded
homes. I have informed my family that I absolutely forbid them to
give me any stuff this Christmas. It’s not that I’ve turned
into Scrooge or the Grinch this year. It’s just that I’m in the
throes of downsizing out of a big old house with three full stories
plus attics and two-car garage, all packed with the stuff of 42 years
of living and raising kids, plus the inherited belongings of several
generations before us.

I have to keep driving past the small
yellow house where we will move once we have cleared out this big old
money pit and sold it to our oldest son, who wants to make the
repairs we can’t afford and rent it out. Seeing the cheerful little
casita to which we’re eventually moving, which has no stairs and
everything brand-new and working just the way it’s supposed
to—plumbing, wiring, cooling and heating, flooring, windows,
appliances—fortifies my will and sends me back to work on my own
version of the Augean stables.

I have sorted out the too-numerous sets
of fine stemware and china, taking boxes of it to my daughter, my
oldest son and his fiancé,
and my sister. Youngest son has driven up to the city to help me pack
boxes and gone back with his car packed to the gills. He’ll return
this weekend to help and take more back with him. I’m on a first-name
basis with the driver for Big Brothers, Big Sisters, since I’ve been
on his pick-up route every week for the last three and he sees I’m
scheduled for weekly pick-ups well into 2017.

The
biggest problems are the books and papers. This is the house of a
writer/editor/teacher and a publisher/editor/scholar. We are drowning
in thousands of books and pounds of papers. My solution, as I try to
move methodically through the house one room at a time, one floor at
a time, has been to start with the books and papers and carry on that
sorting and discarding process every day on a continuous basis while
packing up the things in each room which must go. Ideally, by the
time I’ve finished all rooms on all floors, plus the finished
basement, two attics, and the garage, I will also have finished the
books and papers. (Please don’t laugh at me like that. Allow me my
illusions. They’re all I have to keep me going.)

I
have tried to make lists of what to keep and what to give to family
and what to give away or discard, but I keep finding new things that
are not on any of those lists and having to make decisions all over
again. This leads to odd philosophical questions, such as, How can I
never have anything appropriate to wear when I have so many clothes?,
or What kind of misspent life results in three huge boxes of cups
with the insignia of universities, conferences, and bookstores?, or
How is it that we have four of those huge scholarly collections of
Shakespeare’s plays and poems with essays and footnotes that are
designed for 300-level university Shakespeare classes?, or Where did
all of these old shoes come from?

I am determined to make it easy on us.
I’m doing a first pass through each of the downstairs and upstairs
rooms, packing up and moving out everything that we know we won’t
take with us, thus, no hard emotional decisions right off the bat,
just hard labor. Then, we will have to tackle the difficult
choices—Which of these wedding gifts from dear friends, many of
whom are now gone, will we give away? and Which of the teapots, many
hand-painted or handmade, that my youngest son started giving me
every year from the age of six will I part with? and Which pieces of
furniture from my husband’s grandparents and great-grandparents will
we give up, surely not the china cabinet and rocking chairs that his
great-grandfather made himself?

Surprisingly, I have found that each
box I move out of the house leaves me feeling more positive and
energetic about this massive undertaking. I realize that may change
when the time comes to make those tougher decisions, on teapots, for
example, but right now, I’m feeling great satisfaction every time I
close and tape a box and set it to go to one of the kids or my sister
or to set out for my pal, the Big Brothers, Big Sisters driver. So
wish me luck.

Linda Rodriguez’s book, Plotting the
Character-Driven Novel is based on her popular workshop. Every
Family Doubt, her fourth mystery featuring Cherokee campus police
chief, Skeet Bannion, will appear in June, 2017. Her three earlier
Skeet novels—Every Hidden Fear, Every Broken Trust,
and Every Last Secret—and
her books of poetry—Skin Hunger
and Heart’s Migration—have
received critical recognition and awards, such as Malice
Domestic Best First Novel, International Latino Book Award, Latina
Book Club Best Book of 2014, Midwest Voices & Visions, Elvira
Cordero Cisneros Award, Thorpe Menn Award, and Ragdale and Macondo
fellowships. Her short story, “The Good Neighbor,”
published in the anthology, Kansas City Noir, has been
optioned for film. Visit her at http://lindarodriguezwrites.blogspot.com.

Change Ain’t Easy

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by Evelyn David

 
For the past six months I’ve kvetched, whined, worried, and conversely
delighted in and even laughed at all the changes in my life. All were for the
good in the long run, but that’s not to say, that most didn’t involve serious
hard work.

To recap the last six months:

We prepped, put on the market, and sold our home of 24 years

We bought another home, after a ragged month of haggling
over minor details (them, not us)

We moved on a day that topped 95 degrees

We had the house painted and a few minor repairs completed while we
lived in this new house

Then:
Son number two announced that he’d gotten a fantastic job
opportunity. Only downside, at least for this devoted grandma, is that no
longer will adorable grandkids be 45 minutes away. Instead they were moving to…wait
for it…Paris.
Yes, I know, I shouldn’t whine about Paris, but
do you know how far away Paris
is and how much I loathe flying? They move after the first of the year.

Son number three also announced that he had gotten a
fantastic job opportunity, only downside is that instead of living 25 minutes
away, he would now be living in Seattle.
See objections above.

Then there were the glorious moments:

In May, adorable grandson was born. He is the child of son
number one and his wonderful wife.

In September, son number three announced his engagement to a
wonderful woman.

And ten days later, adorable granddaughter #2 was born (to
son number 2 and his wonderful wife who are moving to Paris).

Seriously, can you keep up? I can’t.

So, with all this change in my real life, I am now faced
with another move, this time a virtual one, in my mystery writing life. The
Stiletto Gang, of which we are proud founders, is moving to Facebook. It’s an
easier way to connect to readers.

Writing this blog has been a lovely way to memorialize some
special moments in our personal and professional lives, as well as to get off
our chests some issues we feel need addressing. And you know what? We still
plan to do that – just on Facebook. If you haven’t already, please “like”
our new page, The Stiletto Gang. Stop by, chat, and catch up on all that’s
happening with our gang.

All best wishes,

Marian, the Northern, frazzled half of Evelyn David

 

_________________

Evelyn David’s Mysteries 
 
 
Audible    iTunes

Audible    iTunes
 

Brianna Sullivan Mysteries – e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Good Grief in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Summer Lightning in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Lottawatah Fireworks – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

The Ghosts of Lottawatah – trade paperback collection of the Brianna e-books
Book 1 – I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries (includes the first four Brianna e-books)
Book 2 – A Haunting in Lottawatah (includes the 5th, 6th, and 7th Brianna e-books)
Book 3 – Lottawatah Fireworks (includes the 8th, 9th, and 10th Brianna e-books)

Sullivan Investigations Mystery series
Murder Off the Books Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback 
Murder Doubles Back Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Moonlighting at the Mall (short story) – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords


Romances
Love Lessons – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

The Art of the Move

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by Evelyn David

At long last, we moved. I’ve been talking about it, planning
for it, and then going through the process of culling, donating, tossing, and
packing for what seems like eternity, so that the actual move was almost
anti-climatic. No time for sentiment when it’s 100 degrees, 200% humidity, and
the truck is a-waiting. To my old house: See You, it’s been great.

To the New One: um, pardon me, but you looked like you were
pristine and perfect when I bought you; now that I’m living here, you’ve got
more than your fair share of problems.

On the other hand, don’t we all?

I’ve found in life that often what I fear will be the big
problem – isn’t; and what I thought would be a snap is a totally unexpected disaster.
For example, when our oldest son was in kindergarten, at a private school that
was known for its child-centered philosophy and for which we were paying a
fortune which we didn’t have – we got a full-price offer on our house. At last
we could move so that my husband’s commute to his new job, close to 2 hours
each way, would be eliminated.

I obsessed over moving my firstborn during the school year,
convinced that I was about to inflict unfixable psychic damage that would
require years of therapy. (What can I say? I’m a writer, I tend to be overly
dramatic). But sadly, it’s the truth. I was terrified about the short- and
long-term effects on child number one.

So of course, I paid zero attention to the two-year old, who
was a happy-go-lucky, walked at ten months, toilet-trained himself at 20 months,
sprite.

You know the end of the story. Son number one headed off to
public school and announced he’d always hated the fancy-schmancy private
school. Son number two became a 30-pound permanent weight on my leg, regressed
totally, and left me wondering just how dumb I could be to so totally misread
the cues about both kids. OY.

For this move, I had no kids to worry about – but I did have
a very aged dog who is very particular about her toilet habits. (Why does any
move involve me worrying about bathroom habits?). So she spent the first week
of the move with her doctor, to avoid the chaos of the move (and the quick trip
we took to son number two’s graduation from his MFA program – and yes, he did
grow up unscathed from that “traumatic” period of his life). We
brought Clio home on Monday and spent the next 24 hours walking around our
neighborhood trying to entice her to “do her business.” She’s pickier
than Queen Elizabeth about her throne. But finally, she has found a few spots
that suit her – and other than that, she’s eating, sleeping, and begging for
treats like normal. It’s quite possible that she prefers this house to the old
one for the same reason my husband does – no steps. Both suffer from aging
knees.

So I’m moved in and have one zillion boxes, workmen, and
house problems to deal with. But I’m also more than ready to move on to some
murder and mayhem – fictional of course.

Marian, the Northern, unsettled, but getting there, half of
Evelyn David

 

I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries, the first book in our Brianna Sullivan Mysteries series, is now available as an audio book at Amazon through Audible.com and at iTunes.

 

Brianna Sullivan Mysteries – e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Good Grief in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Summer Lightning in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Lottawatah Fireworks – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

The Ghosts of Lottawatah – trade paperback collection of the Brianna e-books
Book 1 – I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries (includes the first four Brianna e-books)
Book 2 – A Haunting in Lottawatah (includes the 5th, 6th, and 7th Brianna e-books)
Book 3 – Lottawatah Fireworks (includes the 8th, 9th, and 10th Brianna e-books)

Sullivan Investigations Mystery series
Murder Off the Books Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback 
Murder Doubles Back Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Moonlighting at the Mall (short story) – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

Zoned for Murder – stand-alone mystery
Kindle
Nook
Smashwords
Trade Paperback

Romances
Love Lessons – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

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By Evelyn David

Ever heard of chaos theory? I know it was discussed in Jurassic Park and it has something to
do with a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil
setting off a tornado in Kansas.

I’m pretty sure I’m simplifying things, but here’s my
definition.

Hubby: If we’re going to sell the house, we should put it on
the market in the spring.

Me: You’re right, it’s time.

That was the butterfly flapping her wings.

The tornado that was spawned has resulted in my home
becoming the equivalent of the flying house that took Dorothy from Kansas to Oz.

UGH.

In my more rational moments, and I confess that they are few
and far between, I know this is the right thing to do. But as anyone who has
ever moved – and anyone who has ever laughed at the George Carlin routine –
life is about stuff. To put that
into perspective, consider there is my stuff,
my husband’s stuff, our collective
married life stuff, our four
children’s stuff – and then there is
the stuff we inherited when we
cleaned out our parents’ homes. We have lived in this house for 24 years, so we
all agree that there is a lot of STUFF.

Now the idea is to downsize, move into a three bedroom home,
preferably with a finished basement so all the toys for adorable granddaughter
visits can be down there!

But before that can happen, we have to sell this house. And add in that this house has desperately needed to be painted
since forever, so we have had a crew in the house, scraping, spackling, peeling
old wallpaper, and then painting for more than two weeks with at least another
week to go. The house is one big ball of neutral, with family photos packed
away. I think the goal is to make this house look so foreign to me that it’s
easier to let it go. But in any case, all that stuff is packed in boxes that need to be sorted, discarded,
donated, and occasionally treasured.

Now in the midst of all this chaos is a couple of more
variables. First is a baby shower for my daughter-in-law who is expecting in
May. Hooray, Hooray! Adorable granddaughter will have an adorable cousin. Plus
we have two mega-seders to host the two days following the baby shower. So
there is the craziness of getting the house ready to sell, while also the
craziness of getting ready for a celebration and a holiday.

Did I mention that I’m a little stressed?

It will be fine. I’ll just escape with a little murder and
mayhem when I can. Because we’re within spitting distance (as my mother would
say) of finishing the third Sullivan Investigations Mystery. It’s a full-length
whodunnit – and it’s going to surprise, scare, and delight you. Hope to have
details soon.

In the meantime, here’s a link to George Carlin’s standup
routine on stuff. Enjoy!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac

Marian, the Northern, frazzled half of Evelyn David
 

 


A Reason to Give Thanks includes: Giving Thanks
in Lottawatah, Bah, Humbug in Lottawatah, Moonlighting at the Mall, The Fortune
Teller’s Face, A Reason to Give Thanks, Sneak Peek – Murder Off the Books,
Sneak Peek – I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries

A Reason to Give Thanks
Kindle
Nook
Smashwords

 

Sullivan Investigations Mystery
Murder Off the Books Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback
Murder Takes the Cake Kindle – Nook – Smashwords – Trade Paperback 
Riley Come Home (short story)- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Moonlighting at the Mall (short story) – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

 

 


Brianna Sullivan Mysteries – e-book series
I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Dog Days of Summer in Lottawatah– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
The Holiday Spirit(s) of Lottawatah– Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Undying Love in Lottawatah- Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
A Haunting in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Lottawatah Twister – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Missing in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Good Grief in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords
Summer Lightning in Lottawatah – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

The Ghosts of Lottawatah – trade paperback collection of the Brianna e-books
Book 1 – I Try Not to Drive Past Cemeteries (includes the first four Brianna e-books)
Book 2 – A Haunting in Lottawatah (includes the 5th, 6th, and 7th Brianna e-books)

Romances
Love Lessons – Kindle – Nook – Smashwords

The Creaky Joint Gets the Grease

/in /by

by Susan McBride

I’ve been helping my parents move this past week, and it hasn’t been easy. I feel bad for my mother who loves her old house (built in 1921 with green tile roof, original stained glass, and character coming out the wazoo). It’s been hardest on her as she told us once, “I want to die in this place.” But my dad’s bum knees and back made it tough for him to go up and down stairs (and that house had plenty of them). So they put Casa McBride up for sale a year ago and looked at ranch houses, finding one they both really liked. Only their house didn’t sell. It was on the market for months and months, and no bites except for a man who looked twice with his fiance, nearly made an offer, and then decided he didn’t really like his fiance anymore. This year, they hired a different realtor, started at a bargain basement price (something Mom was not willing to do a year ago), and they sold within a month. Thankfully, they found their new house just in time. They closed on it last Wednesday. The buyers closed on their old house yesterday.

For the past few weeks, it’s been Crazy City with my mom trying to clear out stuff that she couldn’t take to a house 1,000 square feet smaller than Big Old House. She had my sister come in town from NYC to go through all the crap she’d stored in their basement (and closets and third floor). Molly hardly got rid of it all, but did fill several Goodwill bins. Then my brother (who is married with two kids and has a plenty-big house of his own) finally took everything belonging to him that they’d been keeping for years and years, too. Even still, there was too much to move. So last weekend, they had an estate sale of lovely antiques (and, yes, some junk) that Mom had collected for 30 to 40 years. It went fabulously with about 75% selling on the first day and another 15% selling on Sunday for half-price. (Um, anyone want a 17″ x 21″ rug, a chrome and glass coffee table circa 1972, or a very old French baker’s rack?)

My aunt, uncle, and I helped them load a U-Haul before the real movers came. Mom didn’t want movers doing any packing of boxes. We moved about five or six times when I was growing up (Dad worked for IBM = I’ve Been Moved), so Mom’s an expert packer. Well, she packs by kind of throwing anything within reach into one box and then moving onto the next. Precision-packing it ain’t, but it gets the job done. We filled the rental truck with box after box after box, finally shoving in anything else that wasn’t bolted down that we could lift. We unloaded it all at their new house the next day then went back again for another load. Oy!

I’ll be 45 in October, and I usually feel a decade younger (have to keep up with my husband who’s, er, 35). But after all that bending, lifting, and carrying my right knee and hip felt about 100. I used to pride myself on being so athletic and flexible. I was a gymnast, a cheerleader, a Varsity track star (okay, a really slow star, like one who trips over the finish line after finishing last in the 400 meters). What had happened to me?

I can’t even blame it on the breast cancer. That was 2-1/2 years ago, and I’ve got nearly full range of motion in my left arm/shoulder and darned good strength again. I hired a personal trainer once I was cleared by my surgeon, and Nicole whipped me into great shape before my wedding in February of 2008. I kept to that routine even after I couldn’t afford Nicole anymore (or at least, justify spending $60 an hour on Nicole several times a week), and I felt as good as I’ve ever felt. Until my deadline crunch this year with two books due within five months of each other nearly killed me. My Epstein-Barr flared up again, which is like having mono revisit. Oh, joy! I felt drained, exhausted, tearful. The only way I could write 24/7 and get the books done was to drop everything else I could possibly drop. Yep, I stopped exercising.

Now I’ve got everything turned in, and I’ve started testing the exercise waters again. I went to Nicole’s Pilates class several times to check it out, and I’m hooked. It’s like one of those things where you feel like you’re doing something but you’re not sure how much because you aren’t dripping profusely with sweat…and then the next day you can hardly move. I wish I’d had about a month or two of those classes before The Great Parental Move. I feel like a wimp.

I read somewhere that it takes 10 days to lose the benefits of regular exercise and at least 10 weeks to regain it. That hardly seems fair. I just wish someone could invent WD-40 for humans. “One squirt and you’re silent as a well-oiled door hinge!” It’d make billions.

One of Those “What’s On My Mind?” Blogs

/in /by


What’s on my mind?

Murder Takes the Cake Promotion – A New PowerPoint Presentation on Coal Mining for My Boss – My Office Relocation – Forced Medical Treatments – Dancing With the Stars Winner – Too Much Jay Leno – State Legislators & the Strange Things They Choose to Care About – Nancy Pelosi’s Inability to Prove a Negative – Book Companies Going Out of Business – The Legend of Bigfoot – The Fine Print on the New Credit Card Bills in Congress – Last Chance Harvey

Any wonder why I have a headache?

Last Chance Harvey – I purchased the dvd of Last Chance Harvey and loved it. I watched it late the other night while recovering from food poisoning (I think it was the mushrooms that did me in). Dustin Hoffman is wonderful, if still very short in stature. Emma Thompson was wonderful – never realized how tall she is until she stood next to Dustin. Last Chance Harvey is an adult movie (not because of sex or violence but because of the lack of same.) It’s a simple movie about middle-aged adults dealing with loneliness and starting over with new relationships. It’s quiet and powerful, yet understated. Real acting goes on in this movie! No special effects. No need for stunt doubles.

Pending Credit Card Reform – All the things in the new Credit Card Consumer Bill of Rights, or whatever it’s called this week, sound great. There are just two problems –the Coburn gun legislation amendment that is tacked on to it and the fact that Congress wants to delay the credit card reforms from taking effect for nine months or so. They are basically telling the credit card companies to jack up their interest rates now, because in nine months they’ll only be able to raise them for just “cause.” Hey, I bet they don’t delay the implementation of the gun legislation part of it.

Bigfoot – Trying to convince the northern half of Evelyn David of the merits of “Bigfoot” as a secondary character in our next book. I put my chances at about 50/50.

Bookstore Companies/Suppliers – Tried to buy paperback books in my local (two blocks from my house) Drug Warehouse store. They used to have a good supply and variety of the latest. Now nothing. I asked what the deal was. Manager said their book supplier went out of business. Another sad sign of the times.

Nancy Pelosi – In a way I feel sorry for her, although she’s a big girl and experienced enough at the way Washington politics work to have avoided this trap. She may or may not have attended a briefing where she may or may not have been told about water boarding in the past or in the future. And she may or may not have understood what she was being told, if she was told. Not that she could have done anything with the information at the time – she was sworn to secrecy. She wasn’t being consulted, she was being informed by the CIA what the Bush Administration (torture or non-torture) had already approved and/or maybe already implemented. So how did Nancy Pelosi become the skunk at the D.C. picnic? Or maybe that smell wafting out of the beltway is of fish – a very large red herring.

State Legislatures – Oklahoma, not to be outdone by other states that’ve spent massive amounts of time and money on trying to mix government and religion, has approved a Ten Commandments monument for the state capital grounds. Meanwhile state agencies are going to take at least a 7 percent budget cut. It should be noted that taxpayers aren’t paying for the monument; we’ll just be on the hook for the legal fees from the litigation that is sure to come.

Too Much Jay Leno – Why would NBC shoot itself in the foot by putting The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on at 9 pm Central each weeknight, instead of dramas or comedies? Okay, sure, production costs are cheaper, but what happens when no one tunes in and they can’t give away ad slots? The Peacock really is an endangered species.

Dancing with the Stars – Great show, but it’s troubling that the best dancer rarely wins.

Forced Medical Treatments – I’m on the fence with this one. Should a thirteen year old be forced to endure chemo? Do the parents not get to decide? What do you think?

My Office Relocation – On May 29, my office (my day job) is moving to a newly renovated building. See photo below. Think it will be done in time?

The PowerPoint Presentation for My Boss – I’m working on it! I’m working on it!

Murder Takes the Cake Promotion – My co-author and I are working on something special for librarians. Check out our new website and stay tuned.

Evelyn David