Month: July 2024

Penny Prompts #2 – The Quebec Jig

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This quote is from Louise Penny’s twelfth book of her Chief Inspector Gamache series, A Great Reckoning: A Novel.

It was such a great visual, especially for those of us living in the Northeast. Penny’s characters are obsessed with the weather, from spring flooding to blizzards to driving on the ice, to warming up at the bistro next to a warm fire with a chocolat chaud or cafe au lait.

When you read this quote, what comes to mind? What do you want to write about that’s related or adjacent?

“They stomped their feet, brushed wet snow off their coats, and slapped their hats against their legs. It was a singular Québec jig learned in the womb.”

-A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

Penny Prompts #1 – Maps are Magic

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This quotation comes from Louise Penny’s twelfth book in her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, A Great Reckoning: A Novel.

In this twelfth book, we find Gamache as the head of the Surete Academy unraveling the mystery of another death while also investigating a mysterious map from Three Pines. The quoted passage is a conversation between Gamache and one of the professors at the Academy, Hugo Charpentier.

“Oui. It’s because maps are magic.” If he didn’t have the Commander’s full attention before, he did now. Gamache lowered his tea to the table and stared. “Magic?” “Yes. They’ve become so mundane we’ve forgotten that. They transport us from one place to another. They illuminate our universe. The first maps were of the heavens, you know. What the ancients could see. Where their gods lived. All cultures mapped the stars. But then they lowered their sights. To the world around them.”

-A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

Summer Intentions – It’s Never too Late to Start

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I groan when I’m asked what my intentions are at the end of my six-week memoir class. In the spring, they are called summer intentions, and, in the fall, they are winter intentions. I know that the teacher will write it down, and when we return in the next season I’m asked and draw a blank and when she reminds me from her notes I will cringe and say, “Yeah, no, I didn’t do that, but I did…” Every time. It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

I’m a little more focused as this summer began. I’ve set actual deadlines on the calendar.

I’ve focused on my main book while also keeping my eye out for things to pull my prayer book together.

I’ve tried to write every day, and I can almost meet that goal.

So, if things are going so swimmingly, what exactly are my intentions?

  1. Keep my morning routine – do my word puzzles, check my email, balance my checkbook, and check Threads (because I hate myself).
  2. Review my St. Kateri outline and see where my research and writing focus will be that day and week.
  3. I’ve been asked to consider leading a workshop on St. Kateri, and so I’m doing that – considering it. I would plan it for the fall, around Indigenous Peoples Day or Kateri’s canonization anniversary, but we’ll see how that advances.
  4. Read a chapter in each of the books I’m reading – one is about Israel, one is about Democracy, one is about White Poverty, and one is about Indigenous relationships plus a skimming re-read of Louise Penny’s Gamache series (there’s nothing wrong with feeding an obsession, is there?)
  5. Speaking of Louise Penny: as I was reading her books, several things jumped out at me in the way of writing prompts. The first one appears tomorrow, and they will continue weekly through September. I have aptly named them Penny Prompts. So clever 😉 And alliterate.
  6. Plan the blog at least two weeks out, including Instagram and Spotify (please check them out)
  7. And last, but not least, rescue democracy. Sunday was rough; I’ll admit it, but we’ve seen worse, and we can get through this if we remain focused. They won’t be weekly, but I plan to publish more of Election Connection. We all have work to do. I’ll repeat this over and over again: There are NO polls! The only poll that means anything is the one on November 5th. Let’s all work towards that one.

Pardon My English

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As you may know, and as I may have mentioned at least once, I have recently been obsessed by Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache book series. This could be a good as well as a bad thing. I’ve read the series twice now and have taken a few forays into the depths of some plot points. I am immersed. One of the negative things I find in binge reading and re-reading so closely together is noticing things like continuity errors that pop up on occasion, things that would typically slip by the reader if the books were read as they were released rather than all at once, the change of a pet’s name or a grandchild’s nickname; the age of someone when their parents died. There is also the redundancy that follows a book series in order to catch-up new readers with things that series regulars know, like the physical characteristics of the characters (I’ve had some issues with a couple of the women characters’ descriptions), their phobias (heights & closed spaces) and their foibles, their likes and dislikes (like Beauvoir’s love of steak frites – why mayonnaise with fries, someone please, please explain this to me, and his dislike of Anglos), their idiosyncrasies (the poetry), their hidden agendas and pasts that play into how they act and react to others and to situations. One of the things I do love about binge reading and re-reading is discovering the Easter eggs hidden and the foreshadowing that are only visible in hindsight.

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A Personal Word

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On Tuesday, I had intended to begin the campaign season with a new Election Connection, and if I do, it will be links to Act Blue, Vote Save America, and the Kamala Harris campaign. (Any money that continues to go into Joe Biden’s official campaign account can be and will be transferred to Vice President Harris, so don’t stop donating.)

It’s currently Sunday afternoon, and when I first saw the news, I didn’t believe it. I went from room to room to chair to TV remote with my mantra, thisisbullshitthisisbullshitthisisbullshit, and apparently it’s not bullshit. That doesn’t make it okay. That doesn’t make me okay. I thought I might pass out.

I’m still shaking.

It’s 2:40 and the pity party is over. I don’t want to hear about proxies. I don’t want to hear about Republican unity candidates. I don’t want to hear about a contested convention.

THERE WILL BE NONE OF THAT.

Do you hear me? NONE.

Kamala Harris has been the Vice President for four years, she is on the ticket,

and she will make a superb President on January 20, 2025.

We have 103 days to get this right.

Vote like my life depends on it. And my daughter’s.

Because it does.

Celebrating 40 Years of Great Music

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On the way home the other day, I hit a ridiculous amount of traffic on the highway heading home from a doctor’s appointment. I swerved at the last possible exit and created a series of detours that took longer than if I’d just stayed put on the highway and let the traffic die out. I did a couple of errands and photographed some old stomping grounds and was still in the car when the Vermont station I listen to hit noon for their retro lunch beginning with People are People by Depeche Mode.

I dialed it up to glass shattering volume and sand along gustily, and when it ended, I decided it was time for a new Spotify list, this one celebrating the fortieth anniversary of my high school graduation as well as the fortieth anniversary of some of the best music ever. No question.

Friday Food. July.

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Continuing Monday’s theme of Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache mystery series, I thought I’d share some things from the publisher’s related blog.

There is a lovely selection of recipes and gorgeous photos to admire and to choose from for each of the books here.

French Onion Soup from the Gamache Series Website

There is also a PDF download of a short cookbook, The Nature of the Feast which includes a preview excerpt of book #12, The Great Reckoning.

My own Bistro-esque recipe below the cut:

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Tell Me What You Know

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Mont Royal.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
(c)2024

My first introduction to Louise Penny was with State of Terror, the book she co-authored with Hillary Rodham Clinton, which admittedly was what drew me to the book in the first place. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in mysteries and state department/political thrillers. It’s taken me a few years since then to rediscover the author Louise Penny when her Gamache Series was recommended to me recently in a writing class.

I may have mentioned in a previous note, here or on Facebook, that I’ve become obsessed with Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series. I’ve read the entire series and am less than patiently waiting for the next book that will be released in October. I am about halfway through a second read-through – did I mention that I was obsessed?! I had recommended them to a friend of mine and it turned out she was already reading them! It is so hard to talk to her about them and not give her any spoilers. I had planned to write a proper review and recommendation for next week or the week after, however, today is a special day in the books (and in my own life as I’ll explain).

There should not be any spoilers not found in the synopsis on the backs of the books.

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