Our Son

Our son, Micael, has been visiting us lately so that we can watch certain films he deems to be classics of the cinematic world. We started with "Django Unchained." Actually, I thought I'd seen that one before, but in watching it, I realized that I had not seen the entire film. It was difficult to watch. However, that the director, Quinton Tarantino, posited a story where a black man is able to exact revenge for the wrongs done not only against himself on the woman he loves, is a refreshing change. So many films and books assign victim roles to people of African descent that it is difficult to watch them. Also, so many series fail to cast African American men and women as capable of solving problems. I'm thinking of a certain mystery show set in the Carribean where a white male is always the person who solves the mysterious death of a character. It's as if the black people who live on the island have no intelligence to solve the mystery themselves. We know this is not true, but hungry for any representation of African Americans in films and television, we watch anyway. We're always hopeful that there will be someone brave enough to cast a woman or man of African descent in a leading detective role. So when I watched the film, "Django Unchained," I was pleased to see that the director and writer was so ahead of his time. It was written by Terantino in 2012. I remember it coming out and thought I had watched some of it. I could not bear to watch certain parts. It was just too violent. At the time, I was unable to stomach it. However, we see that the director and writer made some important statements about the abilities of African Americans at the time. I'm pleased that lately, there have been women of African descent featured in leading detetive roles. I watched two seasons of a series featuring a woman of African descent who has family on the island where she works as the lead detective. She is paired with a saucy, short woman who gives the bad guys hell and who has a randy appetite for men. After I watched to two seasons, the streaming service insisted I buy the episondes through a streaming service that I did not have, so I gave up on watching it. But if there is anyone out there listeing or reading, that show is really good. It's called "Deadly Tropics," and is produced by the French. I'm so sorry that the distributors are making it difficult for people in the states to watch. It's a great show. I love both the female characters played by Sonia Rolland and Beatrice de la Boulaye. The directors and writers do a good job of casting them in postive roles. The supporting male character, played by Julien Baramis, is excellent as well. Sonia Rolland's character, does a good job at playing a woman with a complicated family life but a compassionate nature.

Trip to Indian Springs State Park

We went to Indian Springs State Park to celebrate the birthday of my husband, who I call, "Mr. Science." He was more excited about the Piedmont Wildlife Refuge than the natural springs at Indian Springs State Park. There were people there filling up bottles of water at a little hut that I suppose was a source for the natural springs. I suppose the trip was also a celebration of our 33rd wedding anniversary. I'm almost finished with the ficitional novel based partly on the life of my great grandmother, Minnie. I'm calling it "For the Love of Minnie." After it's published, it will be one of three novels I've written that are based on partly on patriarchal family memebers. I'll get back to Edward after I finish Minnie's story.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese speaks to the human condition. Its description is deceiving and off putting. Many people would skip a book that describes itself as having a plot involving a 12-year-old married to a 40-year-old. However, the setting is early 1900s Travancore, India, and the facts as laid out by this fiction writer is that there is no consummation until the girl is 16. By today’s standards, many people would find that offensive. Yet, there is so much more to this story than that shallow description. Like many family stories, we learn of tragedies, superstitions, births, deaths, romances, weddings, personal and relationship failures. But, we also see a community of people struggling to survive during war, famine and the confusion of quickly changing exterior worlds. Among it all, the family matriarch hopes for a family member who can shed light on a curious medical condition. For Verghese, one must be patient. He begins the story in India, near Kerala. Then, he jumps to Glasgow, Scotland. There, Digby experiences his own family tragedy. Digby finally arrives in India and we wait to find out what his connection is to the Parambil family. Sadly, Digby and Philipose, two of the major male protagonists, never seem to find happiness with the women in their lives. One of the confusing aspects is character naming. Big Apachen is the family patriarch; Shamuel is his friend and farm manager. It seems the author isn’t making a clear distinction between the two. Perhaps this is intentional as Philipose sees Shamuel as a father figure. Female characters seem to find solace in the company of one another, in work and art. The challenging portion of the story occurs as the author uses a family character named Lenin to explain the volatile political changes of the 1960s and 70s. If you are a discerning reader, you might appreciate the author’s attempt to get his audience to consider how false caste and class structures are. He returns to this theme repeatedly. We see those with land and resources dependent on those who serve them but unable to understand their colleagues. Jabbon’s refusal to take a generous offer of farm management and part ownership from Philipose further demonstrates how little privileged groups understand their relationship to those living and serving in close proximity. Verghese doesn’t challenge the position of serving women. However, he thwarts upper class women who seek an outlet other than servitude. Women are damned in any class they inhabit, he suggests. Still, the book is an engaging read. I was unable to put it down even though I often speed read through other texts. His settings are genuine; his characters are imbued with hubris as well as selflessness. You’ll enjoy the elephant Damodoran, who makes his presence known early in the book. One might consider him symbolic of the spirit of India itself. If you pick up the book, the lushness, the humidity, the monsoons, the diseases, the hopes and dreams of the characters will drive you to read the novel to the end. Dale Marie Taylor daletaylorbooks.com

Travel

We have made two trips to North Georgia since we moved here. The first time was for our anniversary. The second time was for Heber's birthday. We stayed in a cabin in Sautee Nacochee, which is not for from Helen, Georgia. I always get a little anxious when we go to a tourist town that has restaurants. The first time we went, we tried to go to a restaurant in Helen. There were no dogs allowed posted all over the restaurant walls. I think they wanted people to keep their pets off the property. But since Gunter is a service dog, we ordered our food and stayed on the patio. Young people were floating down the river on large green and pink innertubes, laughing and joking with one another. It was quite a sight. We ate our turkey sandwiches and returned to our sight seeing and hiking. On that first trip, we visited Anna Ruby Falls, which is part of the Chatahoochee National Forest. We asked the gateman if we could get national park service lifetime passes, but he said they were only available at other National Forest locations. So when we returned to the Atlanta Metro area we stopped at the Island Ford Chatahoochee River National Preserve and were able to get lifetime passes. The Anna Ruby Falls hike was one for the record books for me. I get altitude sickness when I get too high in the sky and thus half way through the hike, I sat on my stool that doubles as a hiking stick and rested for a while. The hike was worth it. If we didn't do anything else on that trip, Anna Ruby Falls was worth it.

Narrative Writing

This is advice on how to develop narrative writing. Narrative writing is used in the development of short stories and novels, mostly fictional writing. However, it can be used in other areas as well, such as memoirs and journals.

Writing short stories and novels

 Creative Writing

I'm going to offer a series of writing segments that might help people who want to write not only fiction but non fiction. I will begin by posting some of my fictional material here. If the full PowerPoint does not appear, click on the full screen icon at the lower right. It looks like an enhanced X sign with a circle in the middle.

Georgia, Georgia

 So, I'm reminded of that Ray Charles song, Gerogia, Georgia, The whole day through, Just an old sweet song, Keeps Georgia on my mind. . . Yes, we moved to Georgia from San Antonio. A big change! But Atlanta is the bomb. There have been transitional issues. Unpacking began last year, but it seems ongoing. The old house is for sale and the new house needs attention. The new house gets a little love here and there. Meanwhile, I'm happy to report that I was successful in getting Carrie's Song out at Amazon and draft2digital. It focuses on my great grandmother Carrie, who really did graduate from Fisk University in the late 1800s. She was a teacher and an impressive lady. I'm working on my great grandfather's story next, which will be blended with a later version of Carrie's life. But so many people write about their maternal story without much attention given to the paternal side, so I've decided to do something about that. When last I worked on "Edward's Melody," (Carrie's Love) my working title, he was at the bottom of the Cuban bay. Now, I've got him in the jungle with the rebels. Oh, the stress of moving, household transitions and bills have me mired in mud. I'm hoping to get out of it and get on a regular writing schedule.