Water, water everywhere - or sometimes the planned blog gets wet, by Marion Ekholm



EMMERGENCY ALERT!

I’ve been seeing this all day on my phone and emails. I had my blog all prepared for today, but I thought I’d include this information. I work at Glendale Community College, and we're closed for the day, dealing with the remnants of Norbert (until I moved here, I never knew the west coast had hurricanes) and one area of the math building where I work is flooded – for the third or fourth time this month. Several of our major highways have turned into lakes. So, as much as we appreciate the rain, we’d prefer if it didn’t come down in 2 – 5 inches an hour!
So on to what I had prepared for today: Am I the only one who totally skips making comments - on a blog that’s devoted to me and my book!
My apologies to Muriel, Marcie, Patricia, Catherine, Pamela, Carol, Melinda, Amy, Dana, Linda, Syndi, Kate and Roz who included their comments when “An Act of Love” was featured. Weeks before I filled out the information for Pam and forgot about it. I work in the Math department, doing all the clerical work to prepare for the beginning of the semester that started on that Monday. So, when it was published on Saturday, I had other things on my mind. Okay, enough excuses.
I’m so happy that those who read the book loved Brant as much as I do. I had such fun with him. He made me laugh with his antics. I was as happy as Marley when he fell in love with her immediately, not because of her looks (he meets a lot of beautiful women in his profession), but because she could play the guitar. If only I could play that well.

Muriel, your comment about me strumming my guitar made me feel so guilty. I’ve hardly touched it since I took those lessons, so it’s not likely I’ll ever play for anyone. But it was such fun giving one of my books to my guitar teacher, Chuck Hulihan, at GCC. He does such wonderful work with the ensembles. They’re on youtube with their award winning acoustical guitar performances.
I also met up with my music history teacher, Dave Thibodeaux. He instilled in me a real thirst for learning about everything to do with the subject. I feel as though I’ve barely scratched the surface. I find more inspiration at our local Glendale libraries where I’m able to take out CD’s. Each week I’m listening to the latest music, usually Rock, but I also like R & B, Jazz and anything with guitars. I’ve taken a real liking for “Broken Bells” and recently bought their two albums.  

I couldn’t have picked a better cover. I love roses, so the bouquets decorating the chairs at the wedding –  in my favorite colors, red and yellow – are perfect. So glad many of you liked the cover, as well.
Recently, while walking through the retirement village where I live, a friend stopped me with a letter from his aunt. The 90 year old woman loved my first book, read it three times, and sent a delightful note asking for my next book. “An Act of Love” is on its way. Getting responses from people who enjoyed my books has been the best part of being published.

Marley and her story of being the only one unmarried in a family of six sisters was an idea I started on a very long time ago. Sometimes an idea has to simmer for a while before it’s fully developed. Names can change as well as locations, but that elementary core refuses to die. Have you had ideas that you couldn’t put aside? Where are they now? Sitting in a drawer forgotten, or still percolating in your brain, waiting for that moment when everything comes together?



 

Comments

  1. Marion, no apologies necessary! Life is so crazy and busy sometimes. I know what you mean about characters and ideas simmering for a while--many of the characters as well as the setting from my Rankins, AK books are more than years old. Some of these characters have been "alive" in my mind for a long time! Sorry about your bad weather...could you send a little rain up our way?

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    1. Usually we're begging for rain. This last storm broke records and we don't want another.

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  2. Marion, I'm glad to hear you survived the back to back hurricanes that gave us a year's worth of rain in a couple of days. I think Phoenix got it worse in some areas than Tucson. Sorry your math building took on water. I don't even write when the thunder rolls. I'm afraid it will knock out my computer Wi Fi and I'll lose all of my work. But when it rains and lightning cracks I can read. Sometimes that's more fun than writing. Oops, did I say that?

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    1. I couldn't believe all the rivers, retention areas and dry gulches had filed with water. Our Math Solution, the largest room for tutoring, is lower than the rest of the building with a lovely slope leading to the building's door and Niagara Falls pouring off the roof onto the slope.

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  3. Oh, Marion! Sounds like a mess. At least it isn't your basement. Yes, I have half-developed concepts, half-finished manuscripts, and roughly sketched characters all over the place. They do live with me. They sit in my office and get in the way of the current project. I guess that's good - Alzheimers will have a tougher time fighting its way through the crowd to get to me! Hope you have a dry, sunny day today.

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    1. It's already rained during the night, but a soft rain, the kind that doesn't drop a month's worth of water in an hour. All the furniture from our Math Solution area is clogging our hallways until the rug dries out.

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  4. Send some rain to California! I recycle ideas all the time. Or - as Jayne Ann Krentz says - I write recurring themes without realizing it.

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    1. We share a drought. Here in Arizona, people run to the windows whenever we get a nice rain just to watch. With more than 300 days of beautiful, sunny weather, rain can be a pleasant distraction – not this time and we may get more tonight.

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  5. I never knew you had hurricanes out your way. I always think of your area as a desert and praying for rain.

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    1. We must have prayed too much. I think people who are from the east coast, like you and me, believe we're the only ones who ever suffered through hurricanes. So far, the few that I've experienced here have only dropped water without the torrential winds that are so destructive. By the time they reach Arizona, they’ve lost all their power.

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  6. Who woulda thunk a hurricane on the West Coast? So glad you are okay! I feel as though my whole life gets wet. lol. Enjoyed the extra tidbits!

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  7. My son and I went to the park which was buried under flash flood waters. A friend of his showed up. Those two little boys thought they were at a raging river. Then, the police came and made them get out. Apparently, it's against the law to be in the waters LOL We were really at the parking lot and they had perimeters of where they could play.

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  8. Glad you're okay, Marion. Floods are scary.

    P.S. I love that cover ;).

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