Reporting from Vero Beach Florida

Finally.. I’m Baaaack !

But I have to tell you all.. I am one exhausted and tired old lady ..so this post will not be real long .

You know you’re tired when:  you haven’t picked up your book you began in over a week..and still have no intention on picking it up!

The trip down went well.  We lucked in and somehow missed most of the rain up and down the east coast.  We hit 2 downpours but got thru those in about 15 minutes or so each. 

Poor Booboo kitty was so stressed out he didn’t eat or drink or “do his thing” in two days!  Then on the last night at a hotel he decides to start meowing and he carried on until 3 am (and I got up at 6).  But he finally began eating some that day.  My son and I stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat and it was so late I wasn’t really hungry and so I ordered a child’s portion of chicken fingers (3 teriyaki chicken fingers) and fried apples.  Considering I wasn’t hungry I ate one chicken finger (which was delicious!) and loved the fried apples.  The other two chicken fingers I brought back to see if I could get Booboo to eat and he did eat them, teriyaki and all lol.

Before I left New Jersey, at 4 am the morning I was to leave “the gang” decided to give me a “farewell party”  …. 5 shots rang out, and yes there were police all over the place and this time an ambulance came and they carted someone off.  Needless to say I didn’t get back to sleep.. Now when I wake up the view is a bit different..

Yup, I am glad to be away from “the gang”…and the view is really quite pretty…  but I will never be a Florida girl at heart.. and I’m glad I brought my jar of NJ Dirt with me !

Ok that’s it for now.. I am falling asleep at the keyboard! and I’m not near finished unpacking!

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Until We Meet Again

It’s down to the wire for the move now so it’s highly doubtful that I will post anymore until I am in Florida and back on dsl… and then of course it will be more sporadic as Florida has thunderstorms nearly every day with the exception of a very few months in late winter.. such as it is in Florida. 

I hear some of you saying that you wouldn’t mind moving to Florida because you could do without winter …but it’s not as easy as you would think if you grew up in a 4 season state as I have.  I did spend 13 yrs in Florida when I was married and nearly 10 more in southern California where there is no real winter or seasons either.

I would not lie and say that you would miss shoveling snow because no one loves it unless you are really young and “want the exercise”..heh that wouldn’t be me!  But I do love Spring and Fall as most everyone does when you see new life all around you and the falling of the leaves (yeah yeah ya have to rake) to usher the winter in.  But then again.. if you are young enough to still have kids living at home (even college kids)..there’s nothing like a “cool” Thanksgiving and a “white Christmas”…  85 degrees and sweating as you decorate the Christmas Tree just doesn’t cut it lol… ah well.. I’m alone and it doesn’t matter anymore.

If you know me at all you know that I’m not a sand and beach person.. I do love mountains and trees and rocks and dirt. Real dirt!  Brown dirt!  Dirt with earthworms in it!… *sigh* there ain’t no dirt in Florida.. and oh yeah, I will miss it.  Even the smell of real dirt.    sheesh, how pathetic is that?!!  I’d better go dig up a jar of dirt and take it with me!!

I do not know  how long or how short it will be before I get back on line.  I already ordered my at&t dsl and hoping the modem will by in my Florida mail box when I get there… but my luck is not going that way right now. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that the old saying “If it weren’t for Bad Luck , I’d have no luck at all”  is very true.  I wonder who the poor soul was that first wrote it?   Anyway.. here’s why I say that:

The Weather Report says that it’s going to rain the entire day we have to pack the truck and it’s looking like we will be driving for 2 days in the rain.. I don’t need this!

Also the news says that Florida is flooded and at the 10 day “weather.com” the forecast shows storms everyday without let up.  I now have to make some calls and hope I hear better news about flooded areas.. this could take longer than 2 days to get there if I-95 has flooded areas .  Yep.. I have no luck at all!

All month I have only read 3 books.. I am on book 4 now but due to the move if I finish it before the end of the month it will be a miracle!   Packing and last minute lists (what to do before I leave/ what to do when I first arrive down in fla) have taken over my life.  (yes .. I am bitching!)

Yesterday one of David’s nieces came and took the two older cats, Princess and Stinkey, to live with her.  Oh yeah, I cried like a baby.  There are 2 more they are having trouble finding someone to take them and cat sit for about 5 weeks until a person who said they would take them can, since they too are in the process of moving.  (one cat: BooBoo Kitty, will come with me)

There is one bit of good news I heard though….  Susan Boyle moved up to the next part of Idol. I hope we, here in America, get to hear what she sang! (I will go check on Youtube) 

I went and luck that I have there are no new Susan Boyle vids to watch… so, needing, very much, to have something make me feel better I watched the first video (for I don’t know how many times) of Susan singing … and yes, I cried yet again… but it felt good.

Ok, I guess that’s it.. I probably will not be posting for a week or more, but monday and tuesday I will still leave some comments on other blogs.

I will miss you all…. until we meet again…

 

p.s….

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Book Coveting

 

As a part of the overall Dewey’s Books challenge, Debi’s mini-challenge invites everyone to write a book coveting post of their own during the month of May as a tribute to Dewey’s Sunday Book Coveting posts.  I was at Stainless Steel Droppings and saw that Carl did one and thought.. well , duh.. I have nothing else to write about at the moment (to busy packing) so why not? 

Below I’ve listed a few books that I really , really, REALLY want! I believe that’s called Coveting!

The Sorceress  by Michael Scott (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) Release date: May 26

Hardcover: 512 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (May 26, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0385735294

Amazon.com Review
The third book in Michael Scott’s “Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” series, The Sorceress, kicks the action up to a whole new level. Adding to the series’ menagerie of immortal humans (“humani”) and mythological beasts, the book picks up where The Magician left off: the immortal Nicholas Flamel (of The Alchemyst) and the twins, Sophie and Josh, have just arrived at St. Pancras international train station in London. Almost immediately, they’re confronted with a demonic bounty hunter that immortal magician John Dee has sent their way. At the same time, Dee’s occasional cohort, Niccolo Machiavelli, decides to focus his energy on Perenelle Flamel, the Alchemyst’s wife, who has been imprisoned at Alcatraz since the beginning of the series. In this book, Perenelle gets a chance to show off her sorcery and resourcefulness, fighting and forging alliances with ghosts, beasts, and the occasional Elder to try and find a way out of her predicament and back to Flamel. Scott is as playful as ever, introducing new immortals–famous figures from history who (surprise!) are still alive. He also adds to the roster of fantastical beasts, which already includes such intriguing foes as Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess, and the Morrigan, or Crow Goddess. Raising the stakes with each installment, Scott deftly manages multiple story lines and keeps everything moving pretty quickly, making this third book a real page-turner. More than just another piece in the puzzle of the whole series, The Sorceress is an adventure in its own right, and will certainly leave series fans wanting more.

Septimus Heap: The Magykal Papers by Angie Sage

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (June 23, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0061704164

Release date June 23

The Shadow Dragons (Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica) by James A Owen

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing (October 27, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1416958797

Product Description
The Caretakers and the legendary Don Quixote must save the Archipelago in the fourth book in James A Owen’s Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica

To be released in October.  I really enjoyed these books.  Although they are categorized as YA books the protagonists are not 13 yr old orphans, but adults.

Lastly a new book and new author for me:

The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas (this one is released but 4-6 wk delivery!… and I’ve been broke!)

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Gollancz (March 19, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0575083743

(4-6 wk delivery!)Product Description
The Adamantine Palace lies at the centre of an empire that grew out of ashes. Once dragons ruled the world and man was little more than prey. Then a way of subduing the dragons alchemicly was discovered and now the dragons are bred to be little more than mounts for knights and highly valued tokens in the diplomatic power-players that underpin the rule of the competing aristocratic houses. The Empire has grown fat. And now one man wants it for himself. A man prepared to poison the king just as he has poisoned his own father. A man prepared to murder his lover and bed her daughter. A man fit to be king? But known to him there are flames on the way. A single dragon has gone missing. And even one dragon on the loose, unsubdued, returned to its full intelligence, its full fury, could spell disaster for the Empire. But because of the actions of one unscrupulous mercenary the rivals for the throne could soon be facing hundreds of dragons …Stephen Deas has written a fast moving and action-fueled fantasy laced with irony, a razor sharp way with characters, dialogue to die for and dragons to die by.

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Dragon Strike

Dragon Strike by E. E. Knight

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Roc Trade (December 2, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0451462351

From Publishers Weekly
The entertaining fourth Age of Fire novel (after 2007’s Dragon Outcast) reunites three dragon siblings in a land at the threshold of major change. When scaleless AuRon the Gray hears rumors of his long-lost sister, Wistala, he leaves his family on the Isle of Ice to search for her. Their paths cross in Lavadome, where their outcast brother, RuGaard, now rules. Although some blame RuGaard for a recent food blight, the more likely source is Ghioz’s masked Red Queen, who wants to make Lavadome part of her empire. Brought together by chance, the siblings must overcome their differences and persuade rival nations to stand together against the Red Queen’s forces. Knight turns the familiar features of epic fantasy upside down in this unique world of medieval politics and ancient magic seen through the eyes of dragons.

I read the first three books by E E Knight some time ago.  I put off purchasing this last book thinking I’d never remember the other books and that they gave enough of an ending that I need not read this.  But something made me order it anyway. (after I tried to win it a few times from various blogs)

I was surprised that it drew me in as quickly as it did.  The protagonists in all the books are the dragons.  The other books tells of their beginning and near death experiences as they fought to survive in the outside world.  This book, as Publishers Weekly states so correctly, brings the sister and two brother dragons back together after years apart.

E E Knight has built quite a world full of humans and dwarfs and fairies, but mostly dragons.  It was equally interesting to read a story from the view point of the dragon, how they lived and what they thought.  He gives voice to many dragons giving them identities of their own.  Just as sibling children differ, so do the  young dragons.

These books were quite a unique reading experience.  I don’t think they are for everyone, but if you like dragon books and want something quite unique you might try these books.

This series begins with Dragon Champion,  book 2 is: Dragon Avenger, book 3 is: Dragon Outcast, and book 4 is this one, Dragon Strike.

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Looking Glass Wars

 

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

 

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Dial; First Edition edition (September 26, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0803731531

From Booklist
Alyss Heart, heir to the Wonderland throne, is forced to flee when her vicious aunt Redd murders her parents, the King and Queen of Hearts. She escapes through the Pool of Tears to Victorian London, but she finds she has no way home. Adopted by the Liddells, who christen her Alice Liddell and disapprove of her wild stories about Wonderland, Alyss begs Charles Dodgson to tell her real story. Even though he writes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, she knows no one believes her. Years go by, with Alice repressing her memories. Then royal bodyguard Hatter Madigan, determined to start a war for Wonderland’s throne, crashes her wedding. Beddor offers some intriguing reimaginings of Dodgson’s concepts (such as looking-glass travel) and characters (the cat is an assassin with nine lives), but his transformation of Wonderland’s lunacy into a workable world sometimes leads to stilted exposition on history, geography, and government. Even so, his attention has, happily, put Wonderland back on the map again.

   I wanted you to see the beautiful cover of the book “after” the paper cover is taken off!!  I was shocked to see this cover !!  Quite a nice touch!   The excellent artwork is  by Brian Flora.

I’m afraid that due to all that is  happening to me right now, with packing and readying to move and my over all depression, that I didn’t do justice to this book.   Admittedly it didn’t sweep me off my feet and make it so I couldn’t put it down, but then I am not sure any book could.

It is a very dark version of what “really happened to Alice in Wonderland”.

My favorite part of the story was when she was being raised by the Liddlells and tells her story to Charles Dodgson who writes her story under the name Lewis Carroll. (nice touch )

The book is very good, though for reasons I don’t know I can’t say it was a runaway favorite.  It could be because I am not too fond of “retold fairy tales”.  I think that surprises me in some ways.. I mean, I do like many Y A books, so why I wouldn’t be thrilled to death with retold fairy tales is beyond my comprehension.

There have been many glowing reviews of this book, and many parts that I did enjoy, and I am glad I read it.  And more than likely I will eventually read the next book of the series “Redd”….But like the very few other fairy tales I’ve read, this isn’t a book I will probably read again and again. 

Very mixed feelings on the book.. but then… my head is pretty mixed up right now too.

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A.C. and Me..

(web photo)

This is a dear, dear man that I was privileged to meet on several occasions and speak with on the phone as well.  His name.. is A.C. Lyles, and he has a birthday coming up this Sunday May 17th.  His Birth year was 1918.

I met A.C. at a Creation Convention.  They were honoring my friend DeForest Kelley and the person they got to be M.C. for this special event was DeForest’s good friend A.C. Lyles.  (many years later it would be A.C. who honored DeForest at Paramount when De passed away)

My first view of him was on stage making jokes about De.  Right away he made me laugh.. and made De laugh too.  After the show was over and I was mulling around the convention I saw A.C. talking to some people and decided to go and introduce myself.  I mean.. really.. I didn’t know this man was important, past the fact that he was a good friend of De’s.

Boy was I wrong!

This man has worked for Paramount Studios for over 50 years!  He began very lowly and worked his way up until he was a producer to B Westerns.  It was during his Western time that he met DeForest and put him to work in many of his westerns as one of the bad guys.

(over the years De died so many times in those westerns, that when he took the part in Star Trek he figured they hired him because he was going to die off in that too!)

(leave it to me to go on the Paramount lots looking like an idiot.  I often did things like that to make De and Carolyn laugh but not too often going on a movie lot like that!.. but A.C. was worth it!)

Once you meet A.C. Lyles you never forget him.  He is the consummate gentleman, always dressed to the 9’s in suit and tie.   But the very best part of A.C. Lyles is that when you are with him, you become the most important person there is to him… bar none.  He’s incredible.  I was in his office one time and Buddy Ebsen called him.. he talked to him very briefly and then told him that he had some beautiful woman in his office with him and he’d call him back later. 

Hello?

He shrugged off Buddy Ebsen?!! 

But that’s how important you became when you had his attention.  He shared you with no one.

I have to say I’ve heard the same thing told by many people who have met A.C. he has this way about him of making anyone feel very special. 

I’ve lost touch with A.C. over the years when I left California and began taking care of my brother.  But he’s never left my heart or my mind, and so when I ran across a blog called Dear Old Hollywood with a post all about A.C. and then an old Radio show with the complete interview of A.C., well.. the memories came flooding back.

(If you click the Radio Show link know this: it takes a bit to load, but it’s well worth the wait to hear the sort of long interview)

Everything made me a bit melancholy and so I wrote A.C. a Birthday note and mailed it to him, just so he knows he’s far from forgotten.

He’s an absolutely fascinating man and I am so upset he’s never written a book.. this man knows or knew every star there was!  Trust me on this one and if you want to hear about a few of them listen to that radio show!!  On the show he speaks of his very dear friend James Cagney and how he helped A.C. get started as a producer.

If you have an interest in Hollywood.. this is a man you should read about.

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The Iris’s Have It…

Tried my zoom lens yesterday..  I stood on the deck and zoomed down to the Iris’s that are beginning to open…

 

Is that Iris sticking it’s tongue out at me??  Pppllssssttttt.. back atcha!

 

(FYI:  two weeks from tomorrow I will be packing up and moving.. so my computer will be down for a bit until I can get dsl service set up down there..  pray for me being without my computer !!  Just saying it gives me a nervous stomach!!!)

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