When the Heart Speaks

After a two-month lay-off due to the automobile accident and its aftermath, Fio is almost frightened by how well Phillipa's story is coming together.  Here's a sample:

     He led her off the dirt path and spread the quilt on a spot under a stand of trees, then squatted down and opened the picnic hamper.
     Phillipa's conscience rang loud and clear. She couldn't let him feed her.  It would be better to get everything out in the open before he went any further.  She put a retraining hand on his arm, the first time she'd touched him all day.  "Don't take anything more out of the basket. I've got something to tell you, and if you want to drive off and leave me  to walk back to Kinkaid House, I'll understand."
     His eyebrows went up.  "This sounds serious."
   

Belle of the Ball

Fiorella's sweet blood is irresistible to mosquitoes.  She is roast beef, fried chicken, baby back ribs, and fried shrimp combined into one.  Her legs are especially juicy, and her arms are also in demand, but discriminating diners have also been known to feast on her neck and face.

Try explaining away what looks like a hickey by saying "a mosquito kissed me."

Trump Factoids

The GOP is trying to control Trump's spasmodic outbursts by harnessing him to a teleprompter, which he has long been critical of Hillary for using, but Fio predicts that won't last long.  The Donald's ego will break through.
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Trump is all about appearances. In his mind, no woman is worth holding office unless she's won a beauty pageant.  In fact, Fio suspects he judges all women by that same standard.
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Trump doesn't want a good, solid VP.  He wants a lackey. Maybe that Corey guy would do.

Howard and Heyer

Fiorella has been concentrating so much on her writing lately that she hasn't done much reading, which she decided was as a mistake, so she revisited at couple of her old favorites--Linda Howard and Georgette Heyer.  Linda Howard wrote contemporary and Georgette Heyer wrote historical--in fact, she was the mother of the historical romance genre. But Fio digresses.  What she wants to tell you is that, now that she reads more analytically, she realized how much her own writing style has been influenced by Howard's use of inner dialogue and Heyer's subtle humor.

For a a good read, pick up a copy of these ladies' romances.  They've stood the test of time.

The Piano Man

Fiorella is emotionally eviscerated: the keyboard repairman visited. The piano itself ended up being condemned, but that's beside the point.  Whenever Eli Corral sat down to play, he made Fiorella dance, laugh, or cry. Yes, he was that good. Fio never knew how being in the same room with the artist could make the music more real, could send it straight to her heart, to her soul.

As is her wont, Fio hung over Eli's shoulder the whole time he was in the house and elicited his story. The piano is his life.. His family was musical, and he'd been a child prodigy, but repairing pianos gives him a steady income, keeps him in contact with his passion, and allows him the freedom to play whatever he wants to, whenever he wants to, and wherever he wants to.

Thank you, Eli, for sharing two hours of your life with us. It was like stepping into another universe.

Opportunity

Fiorella has long lamented her lack of opportunity to practice her fast-fading language skills, but today she struck oil. Bangaladesh called.

It rolled right off her tongue, the Russian she'd learned lo these many years ago.  Nothing complicated--"Speak in Russian, please;  I don't understand you; I don't speak English.  Do you speak Russian?"  But before she could start reciting Pushkin, her caller hung up.

Fio hopes she wasn't marked off the list.  She still has bits and pieces of about ten other languages to go.  Immo vero in senatum venit!

Hillary

New Mexico was not only a victory for Hillary. but for women and for the nation.  Too bad Bernie is such a poor loser, but it's hard to step out of the limelight
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