|
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Drollerie Blog Tour: Catherine Schaff-Stump on Sweetest Day
It's the Drollerie Blog Tour for October, on the theme of Sweetest Day!
My guest for today is Catherine Schaff-Stump. While Catherine takes over my blog, I'll be over at Fraser Sherman's. When you've read Catherine's post, carry on to Heather Ingemar's blog for the next stop on the Drollerie Blog Tour.
Sweetest Day
At first, when I heard of Sweetest Day, my thoughts were (cue movie announcer voice here) Valentine’s Day 2! I was prepared to write about why my husband is so special in my life. He certainly is special, but a little research has taught me more about Sweetest Day. This is a case where fact is more interesting than fiction.
Sweetest Day originated in that most romantic of cities, Cleveland, Ohio. Candy mogul Herbert Birch Kingston gave away candy and small gifts to the underprivileged in a philanthropic gesture. Maybe it would have been nicer to give apples or healthy food to the poor, but a candy manufacturer’s got to go with his instincts.
This is striking. What once started as a gesture to give to people who were in need has turned into a holiday to celebrate affection in our lives. In the United States, it really is all about me, sometimes. It’s important to celebrate love and affection, but I’d love to see the holiday carry on with its original focus—doing something nice for others.
Do you remember May Day? No, socialist buddies, not THAT May Day, but the one where anonymous well wishers left you baskets of flowers and sweets on your front doorstep to wish you a happy spring? What about those Christmas occasions when the giving isn’t just about your family? Or those times we dig deep to donate to charity?
There’s a certain something to a holiday organized around charity. If the confectioners of yesteryear were more commercial than altruistic, they certainly are living up to capitalist expectation. Yet, I can imagine for some very poor individuals back then, Sweetest Day candy was a rare and welcome treat.
Now that I know the rest of the story, what will I do for Sweetest Day this year? It’s too late for me to do anything this Friday afternoon, but maybe my students would appreciate a little something during their hard endeavors next week.
Like Mr. Kingston, I probably won’t give them celery.Labels: drollerie press
1 comments. Please post yours!
|
Home again
New experiences in the last week:
Paddling in the Atlantic Ocean.
Finding an overnight hotel in Washington after my flight was delayed and I missed my next connection.
Getting lost at midnight in Savannah, Georgia.
Saving stranded starfish.
Eating a Chicago hotdog in Chicago airport.
Sitting outside Savannah airport in a wooden rocking chair. A wooden rocking chair, outside an airport. That doesn't happen at Heathrow!
Eating: s'mores
American frosted cupcakes
Krispy Kreme donuts
Sasha Knight's seven-layer bean dip
Sasha Knight's enchiladas
Green Fried Tomatoes!
I had a good time, thank you America and thank you Samhain!
1 comments. Please post yours!
| Friday, October 09, 2009
Immi's American Adventure
 I'm writing this from my little box of a Travelodge room. Travelodge rooms, I have to tell you, are probably ideal for writers needing to get serious word count done, because distractions are almost zero, and there's a desk, a bed and a kettle, which is really all you need.
Not that I'm getting serious word count done now. I'm drinking a cup of tea, eating salt and vinegar crisps, and catching up on the emails I last checked seven hours ago. Hey, a lot can happen in seven hours!
I'm wearing the cosiest possible travelling clothes: tracksuit trousers, black hoody, purple Sunnydale High t-shirt. About the closest you can get to pyjamas without having people look at you oddly when you go out in them.
But it's nearly midnight now, and tomorrow I'm going to be travelling until, oh dear, nearly midnight, so I think it's time to change into my real pyjamas and watch a Friends DVD in bed. Or, you know, write something.
1 comments. Please post yours!
|
Packing
This week has mostly been composed of filling these four containers in the most streamlined, easy-to-carry, security-requirements-compliant, and useful way possible. Not as easy as it sounds.
Acknowledgements and thanks are due to Sparkler, who owns the colourful suitcase and is letting me borrow it, Gloworm and Sparkler, who helped me find the decoration for my tiny purse (it used to have Girls Night Out embroidered on it, with a lopsided wine glass, which I found tacky, so I ripped off the embroidery and customised it), Angie James, who sent me the Samhain documents wallet and luggage tags last Christmas, and Abstract, who gave me the bag years and years ago, while I still needed to carry nappies, wipes and anyway-up cups around with me. The zip broke this summer, and has been fixed at an astronomical but still highly worth it price.
Oh, and Samhain Publishing, I guess, for providing a destination for me to fly to so I can use all these useful containers!
I'm travelling down to London tonight, then tomorrow I'm flying out to Washington, then Savannah. So expect some slightly hysterical-sounding (or, alternatively, extremely tired) tweets en route. And maybe blog updates from, like, a whole other continent.
2 comments. Please post yours!
| Thursday, October 01, 2009
And yet more chances to win: Raven Scavenger Hunt and a little catching up
I know, I know, it's all about the promo with me.
I am doing other things, honest. But as one of the other things is trying to manage out the symptoms of the beginning of RSI, anything involving typing (unless, you know, I get paid for it) is falling by the wayside.
Fun stuff includes getting travel money for my trip to the States in (eek!) just over a week, making ratatouille for the first time according to my own variation, and enjoying eating it, also for the first time, and plotting out Telepathic Twins using the Snowflake Method. It's going really really well, although of course I won't know if it's worked until I actually start writing the book. I also experienced the mind-scrambling terror that comes from having the Smart Bitches review your book. They gave Heart of the Volcano a C+ (which puts me in some good company), and a review I'm really happy with. And Smart Bitch Sarah mentioned she'd like to see a sequel, which, as that's what current WIP Blood of the Volcano is, is lucky for me.
Okay, burning feeling in hands signals the end of this post, so I'd better get to the promo part. I'm participating in the Raven Scavenger Hunt, running all of October, with chances to win books, including a copy of the book about which Smart Bitch Sarah said:
"... “Oh, now that’s different.” “Ok, cool.” “Huh. That’s some smart use of rock and fire imagery.” “Ok, now that’s COOL.” “This is really, really different.” I love cool and different..."
Go and enter. And think good thoughts for my hands.
3 comments. Please post yours!
| |
Scented Danger
a Red Riding Hood Anthology story
from Drollerie Press
Within the Darkness
Blood of the Volcano
Shadow-Weaver
A Cloak of Feathers
Linked
|
|
