- Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh, one of my favorite actors passed away at the age of 66. She always selected such wonderful scripts and portraited her characters with grace and realism.
My favorite role of Jill’s was in Griffin and Phoenix opposite Peter Falk. This 1976 TV movie was authored by John Hill of Las Vegas. I’ve met John many times, heard him speak, and taken a creative writing class from him at UNLV. Griffin and Phoenix is a tearjerker in which both of the main characters die. So it ends for Jill.
Emmy winning screenwriter, John Hill, will be speaking on Saturday, November 20 at 10:30 at the Las Vegas Romance Writers Group. I wonder if he’ll have anything to say about this wonderful actress who brought one of his most famous writings to the screen. I know for a fact this was his favorite version of Griffin and Phoenix.
Yes, I’ll miss seeing Jill Clayburgh in new films but we’ll lucky to have had this wonderful lady for a while.
Moby Dick
Call me Surprised.
Agree or not, these are the top ten, best first lines in novels.
See what YOU think!
1. Call me Ishmael. —Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851)
2. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
3. A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
4. Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)
5. Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. —Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955)
6. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877; trans. Constance Garnett)
7. riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. —James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)
8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
9. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
10. I am an invisible man. —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
My short quip, “A Calm” is in the current issue of ADVANCE for Speech-Language Pathologists, Humor in Therapy. It’s also online. Be sure to read this very “Billy” story and smile all the way. It will make your day.
Bouquet of Weeds
My story, a “Bouquet of Weeds” comes out tomorrow, October 5, 2010 from the publishers of Chicken Soup for the Soul ~ Devotional Stories for Mothers. Out of thousands of submissions, this story and one-hundred others were selected to be part of this new and exciting anthology. Catch it online, at the book store, and be sure to gift it to your best friend. Devotional Stories is full of 101 inspirational messages from women just like YOU. Enjoy.
“Bouquet of Weeds” was inspired by my son, Doug, who is always a flower in my life.
- Kathie’s Speech Books/Programs
These are Kathie’s speech/ language therapy books and programs that she has written over the years. They range from autism to bulletin boards, forms, and even a children’s book about a little cow who couldn’t get his “moo on.”
Kathie is published by:
Pro Ed, LinguiSystems, AliMed, Communication Skill Builders, Interstate Printers and Publishers, White Rose Press, Vanilla Heart Press, Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, Simon & Schuster, Mystic Publishers, numerous periodicals, on-line continuing education units, & self published
Front page of Iowa Falls Times Citizen by Eric Mandel, September 11, 2010
(double click on the papers to magnify)
Front page of the Iowa Falls Times Citizen, by Eric Mandel, September 8, 2010
Be sure to visit On the Road with Humpty Dumpty
"A Firefly for Thanksgiving"
My newest, romantic short story, “A Firefly for Thanksgiving,” is included in Passionate Hearts from Vanilla Heart Publishing. You can take a sneak peak by following the link and turning the pages. This will be published in a variety of formats: hardback, Kindle, IPad, Sony, Nook, PDF at OmniLit and All Romance as well as a possible audio edition.
“A Firefly for Thanksgiving” is a modern story of love that is delayed by the war in Afghanistan. You don’t want to miss it. It is timely and fit for the coming holiday.
- Temple at the Emmy’s
Autism has its night! Thank you Temple Grandin and the lights of Hollywood/HBO for giving autism a face, a name, a night to shine. “Temple Grandin” won eight Emmy Awards - Oh what a night it was!
Temple Grandin stood and waved from the audience as actors from the movie of her life won awards, then took the stage herself as the biopic Temple Grandin won the Emmy for best TV movie at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on Sunday night.
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The Red Rooster today
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The Red Rooster in the 1950′s
I posted this 1950′s picture of the Red Rooster Grill on Facebook, History of Iowa Falls page with the following message: Does this look familiar to anyone? My parents, Kep and Mary Kepler opened the Red Rooster. Dad, painted the windows ~ freehand every week or so. He also did the windows on the Super Value next door ~ owned by my grandparents. 1950′s.
The next post from fellow Iowa Fallsian, Richard L. Gaulke is so sweet, I wanted to share it on my blog. Here is what he had to say.
Familiar? I guess so!! When I cruised the streets of Iowa Falls late at night in 1955 driving my 1951 really cool baby-blue Pontiac convertible tricked out with white-wall tires, white mud-flaps dotted with ruby reflectors, and a squirel …tail afixed to the radio antenna, I stopped at the “Rooster” to check out the action. A really cute girl and her girl friend were in a booth. Not knowing either girl I, and my male friend, struck up a conversation with the girls and I offered them a “ride home” which they accepted. I and this girl spent hours that night talking as if we had known each other for years. We married in 1956 and will celebrate our 54th anniversary is this June. The Rooster is the place where my happiness started so it will always be special to me. Great image. Thanks.
I replied with: Who was this really cute girl, Richard? I’m sure she still is just as cute.
Richard finished the Iowa Falls, Red Rooster, sweet romance story with: She is my wife, Sharon. We are great-grandparents now and our “cute” has mellowed down into just plain “good looking.”
