Meri's Musings

If things were different,  this would be a day for celebration. A 30th anniversary.  But it's just another day in a string of days since things are just the way they are. I've constructed the narrative,  can tell you the little "why" that explains what caused me to  draw the line,  the story behind  his choices. I've even concocted a plausible answer to "How could I  have been so stupid?" I still don't grasp the cosmic Why. Did I need to emerge from his shadow for my creativity to flourish and find its full  expression? Did I need to cease being, in his words, "the perfect wife" in order to be perfectly myself? Or is the Cosmic Why, like our marriage, about him and making him happy? Letting him be the star. . .  Perhaps cosmic answers create themselves by the choices we make. Perhaps there ARE no cosmic answers. As for me, I'll be making Mango Margaritas for book club tonight. Let's raise a glass to loving ...

Don't you just love afternoons when the sun is peeking out  from behind cloud curtains  like  the watchful neighbor  who knows everyone's business and you're meeting a friend at a local unbranded coffee place for a hot cup of something, a few minutes of intelligent conversation (because she is, after all, a friend and you only have really smart friends) and to give her a stack of books you've finished reading? A vanilla chai latte, please. As skinny as you can make it. I brought my own cup.   

Since you couldn't come to my book club, I thought I would share some of my interview with Kat Magendie about her writing process.  (from Kat's website -- her fancy "author" photo) So here are her answers to questions I posed. Meri:  How did Virginia Kate and the other characters come to you? Kat:  I knew I wanted to write about a girl or woman whose mother had given up her children, in which the girl and her siblings would have to leave their home and live elsewhere, but I wasn't sure of the details. As with all my characters, I just had a wavery image of a girl or woman who was entreating me with her dark sad eyes. As for the name Virginia Kate, it is a combination of both of my mothers' names (Ruth Virginia and Katherine Sue), not because they are like the characters Rebekha and Katie Ivene, but because I wanted to honor the sacrifices of both of my mothers. As to the rest, one day I was staring at a print of Chambered Nautilus by Andrew Wyeth. Th...

My book club met last night to discuss Kathryn Magendie 's novel Tender Graces . It's a novel about the events and people that shape our lives, that touch us for good or ill. Virginia Kate, the book's central character, is born in the mountains of West Virginia to two parents who fell into an unlikely love and tumultuous relationship, neither having the capacity to adequately parent their daughter or her brothers. Pushed and pulled between battling parents, forced to endure trauma children should be spared, Virginia Kate is a survivor who has to deal with the hurts of the past, the lure of connection, and the difficult task of forgiveness. And for those of us who loved Virginia Kate, Kathryn has written a sequel. It's coming out soon and will be called Secret Graces. Here's the trailer. I would have posted a photo of my book club, but I couldn't find one where everyone looked great. If you have a book club, Tender Graces makes a great read. Every...

My book club met last night at Monica's house on Raft Island. As usual, there was great discussion about the current selection (Russo's Empire Falls ) and we made our choice of new selections for August and September and we had just the teensiest bit of conversation about marriages falling apart after years and years and how disorienting it is and how the wives keep hoping against hope it's just a phase he'll grow out of, that he'll see the error of his ways. But the most spectacular part of the evening (besides touring Monica's garden and viewing Miriam's husband's pottery yard art via the web) was the view from Monica's deck toward the west as the sun was setting a few minutes after nine. I just had to capture the color to share with you. The back of Monica and Pete's house faces west toward the Olympic Mountains. The body of water, for those of you not from around here, is Puget Sound. It's salt water ...