Grab Bag

At this house the grab bags are filled with a multitude of candy from trick-or-treating. Too much around to be good for anybody. So I’ll offer a literary grab bag, which is much healthier.

Another wonderful author has gone to the great writer’s retreat in the sky. Michael Crichton has left us at the young age of sixty-six. His books range in theme, but always are heavy on science, and the havoc it can wreak. From his first, The Andromeda Strain, to Airframe, to Jurassic Park, his books were interesting, provocative, and sometimes even controversial. Each of his large and best-selling list is well-written and a joy to read. I can’t help but think that he and Tony Hillerman, not to mention mystery’s own Elaine Flinn, who left us last week, are finding a whole new world of things to observe and tell stories about. Perhaps C.R. has met up with them. We all know he would be able to hold his own in any conversation, and is probably making God laugh as we speak.

This weekend I will be in Wisconsin at the lovely Murder and Mayhem in Muskego conference. The wonderful Jon and Ruth Jordan of Crimespree Magazine put this on annually with the Muskego Public Library, and it’s a weekend jammed full of fun. I’m honored to have been invited to appear this year, and will be interviewing Caroline and Charles Todd, who write the Ian Rutledge series, which takes place just after WWI.

If any of you have young boys who are into reading and athletics, I just found a fabulous new series called the Winning Season series, by Rich Wallace. The books feature all different sports, and are heavy on the details of the game. My nine-year-old loves them. Even though they don’t have pictures.

Wherever you are, I hope you’ve been having the same gorgeous weather and fall colors as we’re enjoying here in NW Ohio. I feel blessed to be surrounded by so much beauty, which includes the trees, the harvested fields, and the huge sky — day and night.

Well, that’s it for the grab bag. Hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as chocolate. (as if) Have a great day!

7 Responses to “Grab Bag”

1. Weather here in Cleveland has been wonderful. And we will enjoy it for as long as it keeps coming our way. Because we all know what is just around the corner……Thanksgiving! Just 3 weeks from today!

   Zz

   by Zorro on November 6th, 2008 at 7:58 am
   
   

2. We had not one bit of candy around here for Halloween–no sidewalks, no streetlights, so no Trick or Treaters. No candy is probably a good thing, but I still wish your grab bag included one Snicker’s bar, Judy!

   by Casey on November 6th, 2008 at 9:04 am
   
   

3. So how did you celebrate Halloween, Casey? I know it’s one of your favorite holidays…

   by Judy on November 6th, 2008 at 9:19 am
   
   

4. Halloween is THE holiday around here! The house is decorated to the max. I don’t work that day. Usually, we spend the day playing. Last year we went to a winery. This year, I had the talk at Rocky River Sernior Center. Then Zorro and I went to lunch at a great place in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood called Lucky’s (if you’re ever in the area, stop in!). Then I came home and cleaned up a storm because the people from across the street came over for pizza and munchies. Quiet, low key, and a very nice way to spend the holiday.

   What do your kids do, Judy, for Trick or Treat? I can’t imagine they can go house to house in your area! What was it CR used to say? Sod huts!!!

   by Casey on November 6th, 2008 at 9:30 am
   
   

5. We celebrated the usual way. Our home is built on a 1760 graveyard and there are still two tombstones that lay in the backyard. They are worn and fragile and the grass around them never grows. Over the years we’ve dug up most of the graves and we scatter the bones around the house. Linda puts on the jewelry that we’ve taken from the graves and we put on sack cloths and howl at the moon until 2a.m.

   We were arrested a couple of years ago, but that didn’t stop us.

   I’m sorry, Casey, I don’t get into Halloween. But I could write a good story about it.

   by Don on November 6th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
   
   

6. You already did, Don!

   by Casey on November 6th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
   
   

7. Judy;
   I used to work for a costume designer in Idaho. We made the mascot costumes for Burger King, MacDonalds, Wendy’s, Red Lobster etc. My kids got some first rate costumes every Halloween.

   by Orroz on November 6th, 2008 at 7:44 pm