Who's That Knocking at the Door? - Flash Fiction Challenge Answered

Okay, here's my response to my own self-imposed Flash Fiction Challenge inspired by my current blog banner, an illustration by the great Mario Cooper. I hope you enjoy it. There might be a  couple of other posts whose links I'll add below. If you've written something, please let me know and I'll add the link. Don't let's hide your light under a bushel.In the meantime, you can luxuriate in mine. (Then link over to Dorian's and John's)I really...

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Friday's Forgotten (or Overlooked) Books: EMMA WATSON Jane Austen's Unfinished Novel Completed by Joan Aiken (1996)

Jane Austen left behind two unfinished manuscripts: THE WATSONS and SANDITON. Both works have been finished and published over the years, other authors taking up the stories and continuing them ala Austen with varying degrees of success. After all, who can replace or replicate a genius? Especially such a finely tuned one.I hadn't read any of the Austen 'continuations' until the name of Joan Aiken entered the mix and knowing of Aiken's finesse with...

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Ideas are easy...

...writing is hard. But I persevere. Flash Fiction Challenge deadline is only a week away.KEEP CALM AND WRITE SOMETH...

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FAN-FICTION CHALLENGE ALERT!! Second Notice!

Some of you may have missed this alert the first time around. (Maybe I should have added a trumpet blast!?) I'm posting it again in the hopes that a couple more brave souls might join the challenge. Right now it looks as if there will only be two of us. No matter what, though, I'll still be writing mine up.Original Post:Yes, it's time for another of our infrequent fan-fiction debacles...uh, delights. (I really ought to have more than one a year,...

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Tuesday's Overlooked (or Forgotten) Film: CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM (1940) starring Sidney Toler and Victor Sen Yung

Though Warner Oland is my preferred Charlie Chan of choice, I still harbor a not-so-secret liking for Sidney Toler in the part. Toler plays Chan in a several of my favorite movies in the series so it's hard for me to discount him (as some do), so I won't. But Keye Luke will always be my very favorite son of Chan. Okay, okay, Victor Sen Yung is a close second.CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM (1940) is a film directed by Lynn Shores and written by John...

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Sunday Salon: Happy Father's Day to all you Poppas out there.

Stephan Hansen - sourceSophie Blackwell - sourceBo Bartlett - sourceVicky Wade - sourceStephanie Frostad - sourcePhobe Wahl - sourceartist unknownSusan Mitchell - sourceDame Laura Knight - sourceAudrey Ang - sou...

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Restless Reading: Two Disappointments

At heart I am always this little girl always wanting  to be astonished, always wanting to love what I'm reading. But...For those of you - like me - who keep track of this sort of thing, it probably doesn't seem as if I'm reading a lot of books this year but the bitter truth is that lots of what I'm reading, I'm not finishing. If I don't finish a book I can't list it as read - right? So round and round I go.Either I'm getting more particular...

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Overlooked (or Forgotten) Film Tuesday: GARGOLYLES (1972) starring Cornell Wilde, Bernie Casey, Jennifer Salt and Scott Glenn

Don't know why I suddenly had the urge to see this low-budget TV movie once again (after not having seen it in many years), actually I don't even know how or why I remember it at all, but I did and quick as a wink found it available for streaming on youtube. That's the problem with the Internet, there's just too much instant gratification. It would have helped my character a little if I'd had to spend some time looking. Well, at least, the quality...

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Some Personal News

These past couple of weeks have been harrowing but I couldn't talk about what was happening in my family until now. My beautiful new grandson Tyler was born with a congenital heart defect (undetected at first) and when one week old had to be rushed into open heart surgery. Luckily he was treated at one of the best hospitals in the world: Columbia Presbyterian in Manhattan.Thankfully Tyler came through like the little champ he is (I call him Superboy)...

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Tuesday's Overlooked (or Forgotten) Film: THAT TOUCH OF MINK (1962) starring Cary Grant, Doris Day and Gig Young

THAT TOUCH OF MINK (1962) is a film directed by Delbert Mann, starring Cary Grant, Doris Day, Gig Young and Audrey Meadows. I consider it one of Day's 'perpetual virgin' entries and as such, should be viewed through that prism.That this movie was made a little over fifty years ago (yegads that reads like ancient history) is obvious from the fashions, the Pan American Airways planes, the Greyhound bus logo and most of all, the Horn and Hardart Automat...

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Sunday Salon: Outside with Flowers

French painter Henri Martin (1860 - 1943)American painter Kate Freeman (Clark) 1875 - 1922)French painter Ernest Quost (1842 - 1931)Cornish painter Harold Harvey (1874 - 1941)German painter August Macke (1884 - 1914) Killed in action, WWI.American painter Childe Hassam (1859 - 1935)German illustrator Fritz Baumgarten (1883 - 1966)American contemporary painter Timothy EastonRussian painter Boris Kustodiev (1878 - 1927)Hungarian painter Andor...

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