summer begins by one system, but remains Midsummer by the other wherein May Day, August 2, and Halloween initiate the change of seasons and Christmas then falls in the middle right up to the vernal equinox or well beyond as far as sunlight falling on the Earth is concerned winter’s over on Depression-era linoleum encircled by tuxedos and stovepipe hats
Tag: Relationships
Her own colorful swirl
At one point in my novel What’s Left, Cassia’s aunt Pia returns to tradition by adapting a head scarf, just like the women in her Greek ancestry.
She’s always had her own distinctive style, no matter how radical or conservative she turns.
And she’s gone from being the wild child into becoming the family matriarch.
Who in your life has done a 180-degree turn and remained essentially the same?
Welcome, Quinn
remember after two months racing highway construction crew deadlines your Indian dig crew unearthed an infant’s grave that justified the stall but nightfall forced departure and returning the next morning, you discovered the skull smashed, bones scattered across drunken greed, ignorance, or hatred that strikes repeatedly, yes, the repeated sound, as you relay it Take care
Regarding the influence of parents
As she looks for her father’s imprint in my novel What’s Left, Cassia discovers a lot about her mother as well.
Does one of your parents make a bigger impression on you than the other?
How do you adjust for their differences in your heart and mind?
Aloha, Wade
here we go again, vantage point, take stock and calibrate to relate general pleasures, though not of the dramatic variety, this insight is this what being adult is about, this always being behind at least never ahead of the pile of things to do, chores, goals, activities? responsible, even, for what we haven’t done? all this ecological preservation yielding dividends tying knots in the air, so how’s the fishing?
Snap! Snap! Snap!
Cassia inherits her father’s archive of photographic negatives and prints. Organizing them becomes a daunting enterprise.
How do you file your digital photos for easy retrieval or reference?
Having moved away from your heart’s true home
more than a leap draws me through limbs of imperfect distortion when ducking under its timeless shadow how you freely interrogate berries and dark-skinned nuts as if it matters where we land under countless utility lines and trees apart from the shoreline of slurping defiance
When it comes to upholding tradition
In your circles, who’s most passionate about the Old Ways?
Would you call them conservative?
How radiant the blood
a once-removed cousin and new husband came for the 1812 Overture with puffs from cannons spotted before the booms a time delay with the musical score and then, the Esplanade Fourth fireworks about as close as you can get to the five barges, their computer- programmed pyrotechnics in the Charles just upstream, across from the Clam Shell with everyone listening to the live broadcast
Their names are a way of remembering, too
One challenge in a large multi-generational story like What’s Left comes in managing first names. Many families customarily name babies in honor of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, even the parents, but even with nicknames, that’s bound to create additional confusion for readers.
I skirt the issue by introducing names independent of any mention of family connection, perhaps justified with the break from the old country at the outset of their arrival in America and perhaps as a reflection of adapting new customs as well.
Pressed on the point I might respond that Stavros’ three sisters, who remain unnamed in the text, repeated earlier names. And then I wondered about Nicky, a generation later.
Does your family have naming traditions? What’s the pattern? Which names are most popular?
