Lin's Blog: Musings
The Challenge: Seven Things You Don't Know About Me as a Writer
by Lin Waterhouse on 03/20/15
My friend KD McCrite has challenged me to come up with seven things you won't know about my writing. Ok, so here goes:
1. I've been writing as long as I can remember. My earliest efforts were writing letters. I loved corresponding via mail with anyone who would write me back. I had numerous penpals, some in this country and many abroad. I also carried on a long-standing correspondence with my Great Uncle Hugh who wrote me largely-illegible letters until the day he died. Just before he passed, he sent me a pen he used over the decades that he worked for the Frisco Railroad. I was just a young teenager when he died. I kept the pen for many years, but I don't know what eventually happened to it. I'm very sad that I lost it. Sorry, Uncle Hugh.
2. In high school, I wrote a silly tale about an old lady who climbed a tree for some forgotten reason and wouldn't come down. My literature teacher read it in class, and I never could figure out why she thought it was worth reading.
3. My freshman year in high school, I wrote a long, humorous narrative entitled "My Life as a Freshman." I know, really original. It actually became quite notorious because I named names and detailed events. The reaction was quite a learning experience for me; although, I still can't keep my mouth shut.
3. I was editor of my high school newspaper, and in college I worked on the college paper. The college paper printed one of my studies from my statistics class--a great honor for me at the time.
4. In my Mommy years, I let my writing go largely dormant. However, I was in much demand to write skits for an annual talent show. My greatest achievement was a short sketch performed to the song "Teddy Bears' Picnic."
5. While working as Community Service Coordinator for Arizona's Yavapai County Adult Probation, I created brochures and booklets detailing the program. I also put out a newsletter outlining the accomplishments and goals of my little department. My boss told me to stop because the written stuff made it "look like I had nothing else to do."
6. After moving to the Missouri Ozarks where my husband grew up, I launched a serious writing career. I wrote my first novel Bred to the Bone: Deadly Secrets at Hunter's Mill, but couldn't sell it to a publisher until after my non-fiction book West Plains Dance Hall Explosion was picked up by the History Press. Books about local history have a way of making the authors minor celebrities in their small ponds. I spoke at dozens of local organizations' meetings about the explosion that killed 39 people, and I wrote for regional magazines and the local newspaper focusing on Ozark history and curiosities. What fun those years were! Also, I met some dear friends there, especially KD McCrite.
7. Two years ago, I opened a whole new chapter of my life by moving to northern California to be nearer our children. My husband's diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease had made that move a necessity. Bred to the Bone: Deadly Secrets at Hunter's Mill was rereleased in January by a new publisher, and the second book in that "deadly secrets" series, "Ghost of Timmy Wahl," will come out next year. I also edit the occasional manuscript for paying customers. Life is good!
Golden Years in the Poorest County in the Richest State
by Lin Waterhouse on 03/15/15
When History Comes in Tiny Missives
by Lin Waterhouse on 05/15/13
I’m sitting alone in the meticulously-restored
Ozark County Historium with an achingly-beautiful rendition of Ashokan Farewell
playing on my Kindle. (You all know the song from Ken Burns’ Civil War series
on PBS.) In such surroundings, it’s easy to become nostalgic when viewing the
collection of old postcards on display in this museum we are so fortunate to
have on the Gainesville square.
The cards date from the early days of
Ozark County through the 20th Century when thoughtful remembrances
were written on the back of a postcard instead of in an email.
Judy Lyons loaned her series of rare
postcards that show a dramatization of a robbery on Lick Creek c. 1912. Three
disreputable fellows hold up two men in suits and get away with their belongings.
However, the victims track down the robbers who have drunk themselves into
blissful oblivion, and the aggrieved men mete out simple justice. “Ta! Ta! Poor
Devils” is written on the bottom of the last card showing the dead robbers and
the victors mounting their horses to ride away with their restored booty.
A particularly endearing set of cards were sent from early Ozark biographer S. C. Turbo to his niece Stella Upton in
1909 through 1912. Turnbo died in 1925, outliving Stella who died in 1914 at
the age of 17 following the death of her daughter Stella Martin Luna. One photo
shows the diminutive Stella Upton wearing a frilly dress and heels standing on
the porch of the Breeding Store in Locust. I can’t help but wonder what event
she was dressed to attend. I hope her short life was happy.
Another collection of postcards
illustrates an urban view of Gainesville from the early 1900s. A synopsis of
the 1910 census, displayed with the postcards, names 43 heads of households in
the town – a judge, laborers, stock dealers, county officials, a laundress,
barbers, and innkeepers – all part of a
vibrant community at the turn of the 20th century.
Later Gainesville is enlivened by
postcards from the 1930s through the 1950s – a time that many folks still
fondly remember. The old rock jail must have been a proper punishment, a misery
of heat and cold for those who crossed the law back in the day. The pictures of a bustling square recall days
before Walmart and Target.
The lakes, other Ozark communities like
Dora and Zanoni, the mills, and the people star in other groupings of
postcards.
The faces of long ago people
particularly tug at my heart. The parents of the Ferrell triplets born in 1908
near Thornfield proudly dressed their children in frilly lace for a precious photo.
Ike Shaw and Ted Upton stand proud in their World War I uniforms. Groups of
fresh-faced school children, Wanda and Bently Silva with their spotted dog,
ladies in huge hats and men in overalls and suspenders – all evoke people and
places lost to the years.
Life and times, happy and hard, are on
display for thoughtful consideration through May 31.
History Viewed in Real Time
by Lin Waterhouse on 03/10/13
One of my Facebook friends Steve Colyer posted a set of truly beautiful and haunting photos from the old-world Italian cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae, Oplontis and Boscoreale. These Italian communities were lost to the world in late August AD79 when an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius sent a blast of deadly heat and gases into the towns killing the populace as they slept or went about their early-morning duties.
Following their probably (and hopefully) instantaneous deaths, the bodies of those who had lived in those cities were covered with a thick layer of molten lava. Once cooled, that shell of rock preserved the world of these ancient Italians to lie hidden for almost 1800 years, a time capsule of Roman life in the first century AD.
I remember seeing many of these same photos in an edition of Life magazine when I was a child. I was fascinated by the stark beauty of them then. Today, I find them just as compelling.
The people of those Italian cities were enjoying a good life of prosperity and comfort in a time when Roman culture was at its apex. They must not have had warning of the dire state of the volcano with which they lived. Perhaps they were used to its grumbling and spitting nature and never suspected that it would unleash sudden and horrific death and destruction on them.
Surely if they had known, they would have taken their children and their belongings to safer ground. Maybe some people did, and the ones we see turned to stone in these photographs were the doubters and naysayers oblivious to the power and threat of Vesuvius.
We are all voyeurs of a sort as we view these pictures. I'm touched by the spectacular fresco of a man and his wife discovered in what was probably a middle class dwelling in Pompeii. The bodies of an adult male and female were not found in the ruins; however, the bodies of seven children lie preserved for posterity in a room of that house. Did the parents escape? Surely, they would never have left their children behind. Maybe they were incinerated to ash leaving no trace of their presence. Had they gone out for an early morning jog when the cataclysm occurred? We'll never know.
Other bodies lie in the streets. Were they running from the horror spewing from their mountain or were they simply going about their business that morning. We know it was morning from historical reports of the deadly eruption and because so many of the bodies still lay in their beds. Men and women -- and in some cases, children -- cuddled together in sleep (or in fear) where they died. The pets and farm animals of the town were also cast in volcanic rock for our wonder. A long-nosed dog and what appears to be a pig pique our questions about the lifestyles and traditions of that time and place.
If our world suddenly came to a lurching halt and we were preserved for people two thousand years in the future to study, I wonder what pictures of life would we project. Would future voyeurs understand children cuddled in bed with what the citizens of much-advanced societies would surely view as wildly primitive communication devices that we know as ipods, and what would they think of bedside tables and desks in our homes piled with cellphones, laptops, Kindles and chargers -- all ever-present in our modern homes. Would they chuckle or maybe shed a tear over our abrupt passing?
To me, these ancient ruins of even-more ancient cities are part of the fascination of history. As life rolls on, our curious eyes can look back upon people, flesh and blood just like us, who lived, loved, and toiled in a world forever lost to our comprehension. Look at the pictures and see what you think.
2013: 364 Days of Opportunities
by Lin Waterhouse on 01/02/13
Since I'm new at this blogging thing, I'll just start out by wishing all of you many happy days in 2013. I know 2012 wasn't a banner year of success for many of us, but we now have 364 days left in the new year to make it truly a special time in our lives.
My wonderful literary agent Jeanie Pantelakis capped the past year by getting married on December 23 to her best friend (so she tells me) Robert Loiacono. I'm hoping their life is one magic romance novel with only happy endings. Congratulations, Jeanie and Robert.
Good luck to all of you. We'll talk again soon.
