Now I'm wallowing in nostalgia about that old house. I put up some pictures here.

dcp, you totally did not have too much hair for 1974. For 1974, you practically had a crew cut. Where was the swoop of hair over one eye, I ask ya?

Signed,
I was 7 Then

Thanks everyone. I'm going to ponder.

Man, I don't even remember haircuts in 1974, except on male rockers.

Off to take daughter to airport (there aint enough coffee on earth), but I wanted to post a nice review from the Chicago Tribune. This was Dick Adler, their mystery and thriller reviewer:

A nice review, by Dick Adler (the Chicago Trib's reviwer of mysteries and thrillers):

The Famous Flower of Serving Men

By Deborah Grabien

Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Minotaur, $22.95

The thing I like best about Deborah Grabien's interesting, beautifully researched and detailed books featuring house restorer and folk musician Ringan Laine and his life partner, theatrical producer Penny Wintercraft-Hawkes, is the way they make old British ballads so important a part of the story. As she did in "The Weaver and the Factory Maid," Grabien shows us how the songs crept into people's lives and souls, affecting them in ways that today's music, for all its variety and volume, just can't match.

Even the ghost-story aspect of the narrative--the presence of the spirit of a rather spiteful actress in the London theater Wintercraft-Hawkes has inherited and Laine is about to turn into a new home for her company--isn't as intrusive as it was in Grabien's first book. As Laine and Wintercraft-Hawkes try to solve the crime that is keeping the ghost's presence active, most readers will be so caught up in the wonderful sights and sounds that they won't be spooked.

Also, Bev, not sure about using the word "inspired" in there; Kristin has no way of knowing that most of them were inspired. Besides, it's really difficult to inspire a class full of teenagers; inspiration is a bolt from the blue. "Intrigued" might be a better word.

Oh, Liese. How powerful. How painful. I love that drabble.

One of the items on today's to-do list is sending out a thank-you to that agent who sent me the, ahem, rather negative rejection letter. Masochistic, perhaps, but I'm trying to get in the habit of sending thank-yous to anyone who takes the trouble to look at my stuff or otherwise do anything for me in the writing world, no matter how I feel about their feedback! Of course, this is a hard thanks to write, since I can't thank her for her encouraging feedback or say that I hope we can work together in the future or anything like that. How does this sound?

Dear Ms. Agent:

Thank you for taking the time to review the partial for my Regency historical, TITLE, and the synopsis for my work-in-progress, TITLE'S SEQUEL. I enjoyed meeting you at PLACE WE MET and hearing your perspective on the state of the industry. Thanks again, and best wishes for a wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely,

MY NAME

Sounds nice and formal and distant.

Liese:

Wrapping in words is a complex image that I adore. In the case of your drabble it's kind of chilling, and desperate. Inadequate (edit: I mean in the sense of communicating feelings of inadequacy and not your use of the image.)

The syntax of human interaction as a concept is fascinating. In Meatless Days by Sara Suleri, there is a part where the author describes her grandmothers bent back as making her a question mark, and that character is in many ways unreadable.

Your drabble called this to mind for me.

Cool. I'll run with it, then.

Sidenote to the thread in general: *GUSHINESS DISCLAIMER*(edit)

Thank you all for being so welcoming (again). I've really been at a sticky place since April with me and my writing... Becoming an editor seems to have stillted my natural writing groove. Even papers this year are like swimming the English channel. So, I did this thing where I avoided all things writing because I felt embarassed at not being able to commit anything to paper and also, kind of like a phony since people (in my personal/academic life) associate me so much with writing.

Also, the absense of a creative writing class in my schedule (I've taken them all) is hitting me hard. Learning discipline when struggling with intense feelings of inferiority is also hard. I don't know if any of you have been in this place...