Wishing all my family, friends and readers a Happy New Year. May our year be filled with laughter, love, good health and kindness.
I am working on Middle Seat Passenger, the sequel to Morningside Drive. I appreciate the support from family, friends and readers that I have receive when publishing my first novel. Thank you.
Happy New Year. . . just saying, Claudia
The Blue Ridge Mountains
Readers frequently ask where my ideas come from and how I come up with the descriptions. Don’t get nervous. I watch strangers and wonder about their lives.
Here’s an example. A nurse in my doctor’s office was always nasty. I thought she might be overworked or I had done something wrong. However her coworkers were pleasant. At times overly so. I concluded it was her style. Some people are difficult. That’s a fact!
My short story Acerbic (published in Florida Writer Association Let’s Talk.) captured that experience.
The story references a character’s pink eyebrows.
On a previous day, I had inadvertently applied a lip-liner to my brows and never discovered the faux-pa until I returned home. The detail fit the story.
Recently, I was in another doctor’s waiting room and thumbed through a current issue of Southern Living to discovered an article on must see places. Floyd in the Blue Ridge Mountains got a top billing.
My husband and I had stayed in Floyd and I used that visit describing a group of men having breakfast at the Early Birds Café in my novel Morningside Drive.
Their conversation was unforgettable and still makes me laugh. I hope you’ll enjoy it, because you can’t make this stuff up.
Chapter 2
Groundhog Day 2014
(page nine)
Jake, a robust man with a white beard and railroad cap made manly noises. I imagined him scratching his head and passing gas. It was not pretty. Luther wore suspenders. His thin curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Several other men’s stomachs lay beneath the tabletop, threatening to tear their pants. They discuss Obama Care and then moved on to love.
Luther cleared his throat and said, “What negative feelings do you bring to the relationship?”
A bell chimed when a patron opened the restaurant door preventing me from hearing his response.
“Are you talking about me throwing the remote at the television or Jane catching it?” Jake chuckled.
“You could’ve cracked the flat screen,” Lorie commented, refilling glasses with a water pitcher. “Jane catching it,” Luther scratched his stomach, “that would have pissed me off.”
. . .just saying,
I’ve done a lot of wondering about Luther, Jake, and Jane.
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*This cozy/mystery book is an easy read, without violence and the romance is behind closed doors.
*Please consider commenting after reading Morningside Drive. I’d love to hear from you and even one word will let me know your thoughts.
Book Summary Following the sudden death of her husband, a grieving Joy Webb Garner leaves her Fifth Avenue apartment in NYC and returns home to Daytona Beach, FL to confront her past. She fled her beachside community as an 18-year-old college freshman who just found out she was pregnant and believed her father was a murderer. Thirty years later, Joy finds a lot of resentment and slammed doors on her way to uncovering the truth.
. . . Claudia just saying. . . Thank you!
Today I rolled the Metaphor Dice. The words; wonder, memory and unspoken spoke to me. If you would like to use the words in a poem or short story in a post please do. After you post, copy its link in my comment section.
Memory is an unspoken wonder
Disappearing quickly over time
Delete the past to make space for the present . . . or vice verse.
We cling to the passage of time.
Fond memories become fonder, an unspoken wonder of days gone bye.
. . . Claudia just saying
The temperature is forty-five degrees this morning in Ormond Beach and I am sitting outside with blankets and a hot cup of coffee. My nose is cold and occasionally I slip my hands into my robe pockets to keep them warm.
I feel optimistic about the new year, and don’t know why. Certainly world affairs and political agendas paint a dismal picture at best. Perhaps it is the realization of how little power or influence I have. Frequently I have offers, from other seniors, to help me load my groceries into the car. I accept their help gracefully.
As I look back on 2023, the highlights are trumped by health events and staying alive. Please don’t be nervous. My husband and I are well, however, it is a time consuming effort.
Moving forward into the new year, call them resolutions if you like, I’ve decided to stop worrying about; recycling, global warming, the wars in Israel and Ukraine, and how to get people to delete stored emails, or if a semicolon or comma should be used after about in this sentence.
Good health and publishing my novel, Morningside Drive, will be my focus. I planned to publish in February, because Roxanne Hart marries on Valentine’s Day. However, staying healthy got in the way. You’ll be hearing more about Joy Webb, the main character, and her return to Daytona Beach after missing thirty years, to confront her father about the past.
Thank you for supporting my writing.
I wish each of you good health and happiness in the year ahead.
. . . Claudia just saying
claudiajustsaying 