But first . . .
GALLERY
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| Sunset, Venice FL - Wellen Park |
(no attribution given)
Only a few miles to the north - Storm off Siesta Key . . .
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| Photo by Daniel & Deedee Dyer |
And on the opposite coast of Florida . . .
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| Night Launch |
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| Night Launch from farther away |
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| Swinging Kitty |
THE TALE OF THE WHITE HAT
With the Florida Primary out of the way and undoubtedly a lot of mid-term drama to come, this seemed like a good moment for a light tale about something as supposedly inconsequential as a white hat. Except I've had this hat a long time, it has great sentimental value, and may have had more compliments than any other hat in the history of the world! So, I'll see if I can spin this very special hat into an interesting tale . . .
Sometime in the first year or two I lived in Longwood, I was walking through the second floor of Macy's in the Altamonte Mall (Altamonte Springs, FL). I was "looking," hats the farthest thing from my mind. But an item on a rack of hats stopped me dead. It did not occur to me that I never wore ball caps—perhaps I saw only the rhinestones—but I had to have it. Out came my Macy's card, and it was mine.
And thus began the amazing saga of the White Hat. If I had a dollar for every time a passing stranger complimented me on my hat, I would be RICH. It seems everyone else loves this hat as much as I do. One of the most memorable encounters: I was pushing a cart through Publix when a woman exclaimed, "You look like the Queen!" Resulting in yet another lovely moment chatting with a perfect stranger while out doing errands.
White Hat has been lost twice. Great consternation both times. The first time was a number of years ago when my daughter was still driving a Honda SUV and the grandgirls were still fairly young. The hat disappeared for weeks. I had to accept it was lost. EXCEPT, it suddenly turned up in the back of the Honda, where it had been lost amidst the debris created by three young girls. (And Mom.) Huzzah! As I recall, that was one of the times I had to take White Hat to the cleaners. It was the cleaner who pointed out the missing rhinestone. No hope for finding that - likely down in one the Honda's crevices, or who knows . . .
Most recently, it went missing once again, this time all my fault. When I sat down in the waiting room at Advent Health's Imaging Center on Rinehart Road, I put it in the bag on my walker. Except, in pulling out a sweater to deal with really cold AC, I evidently dislodged the hat and it ended up being left behind when I went in for my appointment. Nor did I miss it until later that afternoon. At which point I spent a teeth-gnashing 45 minutes trying to claw my way through the Advent Health phone system, whose Menu was definitely not set to accommodate such an odd request as Lost and Found. I don't know how many times I was transferred, getting everything from an abrupt, "You have a wrong number!" to dead silence followed by a dial tone.
By some miracle—I was likely transferred the lady who handles the "kook" calls—I found a sympathetic ear. She told me she could "message" someone who would know the answer to my problem. (Even she couldn't call the Front Desk at the Imaging Center? Wow.) We had a nice little chat while we waited, and suddenly she told me, "They have it!" I asked her to assure them I would be by the next day to pick it up. And so I did, and at that time I was told about it being found in the seat where I had been sitting.
So, yes, I developed a true horror of Advent Health's phone system, but person-to-person, the people involved could not have been nicer. I have White Hat back and have learned a strong lesson about keeping better track of it. LOVE THAT HAT!
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Book of the Week
Somewhere around 2010-2011, a wave of erotica swept the Romance market, totally revolutionizing the industry. Signet (Penguin Putnam) and Kensington said bye-bye to their squeaky clean Romance authors—and there we were, looking around, wide-eyed, asking, "What now?"
The answer: E-books—those published by newly established e-book companies and those self-published to Amazon Kindle and a company called Smashwords. A whole new world. Wow! And those of us in on the ground floor did very well, I'm happy to say. I not only published new works to these online vendors, but as I got my rights back from Signet and Kensington, I self-published those at well.
Because I didn't want to pay for more than a cover artist, in all the time since 2011 I have created just one paperback (ordered for family Christmas presents a few years ago). THE SECRETS OF STONEBRIDGE CASTLE is a shiny, oversize Print-on-Demand, chosen because it is my personal favorite Regency Gothic. I am featuring it this week because I just lowered the price to $9.99. (The e-book price remains $3.99.) If you like ghosts, intrigue and rocky romance , this is the book for you.
When bullies threaten Aurelia Lacey and her five-year-old daughter Nell, they are rescued by an old friend, Jason Durand, younger brother of an earl. Jason, once a daring spy, has fallen into depression and drunkenness since the war, but he rallies long enough to offer the outcasts the shelter of his brother's country seat, Stonebridge Castle. But the ancient castle is not the quiet refuge they expected. Aurelia and Jason—both lost souls from the war against Napoleon—must deal with a bevy of hedonistic house guests, seven hundred years of ghosts, multiple murders, and a chance—a very slim chance—that love will triumph over all.
Author's Note: Although ghosts are prominent in The Secrets of Stonebridge Castle, they appear as characters, not creatures of horror. And there is more emphasis on romance than in my previous Gothic novels.
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