Monthly Archives: March 2013

Change is Coming Here.

  By Julia Barrett | March 28, 2013 - 7:00 pm | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
10 Comments

Change is good.

It’s time for a change.

Have I mentioned… change?

As Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman) says: The times they are a-changin’.

Well, time to revamp the old blog, be a little more structured, a little less free form.

Here’s what I’m thinking~

1. Monday Morning Updates - news, links, books I’m reading, movies I’ve seen, interesting weekend activities, plans for the coming week. Might be a discussion about science fiction, fantasy, my latest Indie Writer discovery or an old favorite.

2. Tuesday Treats - some kind of deliciousness. Could be pics of food, a recipe or two, a health tip, maybe even a restaurant review. (Snark-Snark.)

3. Wicked Wednesday - a suggestive or sensual scene from one of my books or one of your books. Maybe from one of my works in progress. Or I might just quote my sexy husband because he comes up with some doozies.

4. Thursdays with Jake - hiking with my Jakie-boy. Birds, balloons, assorted wildlife and crazy tourist sightings.

5. Fun Friday - anything goes. Friday will be my free-for-all.

In the meantime I’ll be helping out with calving in Montana - feeding orphaned babies, tagging, chasing mama cows, getting chased by mama cows, pulling babies out- hopefully that’s the worst I’ll have to do.

This is me 2 years ago feeding a baby in sub-zero temps - wearing layer upon layer upon layer.

She was the cutest little calf!

She was the cutest little calf!

On April 6th I’m hosting Indie Writer A.D. Starrling and I have a few projects in the works with J.W. Manus re: Why Science Fiction is the coolest genre ever.

Laters loves!

 

Dickens Is Better When Brought To Life.

  By Julia Barrett | March 26, 2013 - 7:00 pm | , , ,
4 Comments

I’m sort of middle of the road when it comes to Charles Dickens.

Love A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities. Thought Bleak House and Great Expectations were like slogging through a peat bog. Even David Copperfield bored me to tears while Oliver Twist depressed the hell outta me.

However, dry as I might find his prose, Dickens’ stories come to life on stage. I just watched a production of Hard Times and found it riveting. Maybe it was the actors’ interpretations of the characters but I laughed, I cried, at times I was a little creeped out. The stage production managed to flesh out what I usually see as the Dickensian version of Flatland.

I guess Dickens is kind of like Shakespeare. Better when lived out loud.

I’m a Bastard!

  By Julia Barrett | March 25, 2013 - 7:00 pm | , , , ,
16 Comments

This is so cool! Such color to add to the family mythology.

So the story we always heard was that one day our French great-grandfather went out to buy a pack of cigarettes. He never came back.

My grandfather was five years old, his sister just three. My grandfather spent years searching for his father. Long story…

Anyway, this French great-grandfather, who came to America from France via Argentina, married another Argentinian immigrant who already had American citizenship - my great-grandmother. Thus my great-grandfather got his American citizenship.

We always assumed we were the wronged party… the family abandoned, my grandfather forced to beg on the street for food to feed his mother and sister.

I just now learned the real story.

My French great-grandfather was already married and had a family when he married my great-grandmother. He married her in order to come to America. When he had saved enough money he sent for his real family, and as far as we were concerned, he disappeared. As far as they were concerned we were a means to an end. He brought them to America and returned to them, his legal family.

His real family knew all about us and they didn’t want a thing to do with us, the bastard family. They left my great-grandmother, my grandfather and his sister to starve. They still don’t want a thing to do with us, even after five generations!

I’m from the other side!

Born on the wrong side of the blanket!

Makes me so very happy. I love being part of the bastard family. Life is such a hoot sometimes.

This may go into a book… Wait for it.

 

I Learned A New Word from My Dad.

  By Julia Barrett | March 24, 2013 - 7:00 pm | , ,
2 Comments

Rodomontade- A mass noun meaning boastful behavior.

From author Hannah Arendt in Eichmann In Jerusalem:

“Bragging was the vice that was Eichmann’s undoing. It was sheer rodomontade when he told his men during the last days of the war: ‘I will jump into my grave laughing, because of the fact that I have the death of five million Jews…on my conscience gives me extraordinary satisfaction.’ … (For Eichmann to) claim the death of five million Jews, the approximate total of losses suffered from the combined efforts of all Nazi offices and authorities, was preposterous….”

Well, for all his rodomontade he’s burning in hell.