wordsfromanneli

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Category Archives: Writing


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Annie and the Honeydew Man

I posted this about five years ago and came across it again. I thought it was a sweet picture and couldn’t resist reposting it.

When my sisters and brother and I were little, we lived in a newly built, but unfinished house on the edge of town. The streets weren’t even put in place yet. Our road was just a track through a field of yellow grass. But it was perfect for us to play cowboys and gallop our pretend horses around the trails and up and down the hills of dirt that were not yet backfilled to the new house. We pretended to be characters from the western movies of the day — Annie Oakley, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Dale Evans.  But Annie was my favourite.  My sister, maybe almost three years old, was really too little to keep up with us as we tore around on the hills of dirt, so she played Annie Oakley with a toy shotgun and guarded the house while the rest of us were out on the range.

I don’t know what is wrapped around her right hand, and I just noticed for the first time in decades that there is a doll peeking out from behind her left shoulder.

Fast forward to more modern times. When the Captain and I were on one of our trips to Baja California, we stopped to do some shopping in Ensenada. I found a puppet-style doll that I couldn’t live without. She was the Mexican version of Annie Oakley.

What made me even happier, was buying the doll that had to be her partner.  He is pictured here.

The store proprietor told me that this doll represents the hen-pecked husband, the Honeydew man (Honey, do this and Honey, do that), but in Spanish they called this fellow a “mandilon,”  because he is ordered about, and, in the original version of the word, probably wore an apron (a mandil). What woman would not want a mandilon to do things for her? I had to have this doll!

*****

In my novel Orion’s Gift,  Sylvia is all alone in the world. It seems that her life has taken a sudden turn and everything has been going wrong for her. Her husband is all about himself, and would not understand the news she just received in a letter.

She is trying to outrun her problems by escaping what she once thought was a perfect life near San Diego. She leaves everything behind to “run away” to Baja California where she plans to live in her VW van.

Baja seems to be a place for runaways. She meets Kevin at one of the campsites, and although there is an immediate attraction, Kevin has problems of his own.

Sylvia really needs moral support, so I gave her a mascot to lend her strength. Below is a short excerpt from Orion’s Gift, telling about how Sylvia came to adopt Annie.

Excerpt:

In one shop, handmade puppets on strings hung from the ceiling. Each doll had a unique character and, like orphans hoping to be adopted, seemed to call, “Take me with you.” I fell in love with a Mexican Annie Oakley. She held a mini six-gun in each hand and radiated confidence and self-reliance. I paid for her and happily carried her home to my van. I rigged up a spot on the curtain rod behind the seat for Annie to watch over me at night. She’d be my mascot, a reminder that I was strong and could take care of myself.

You can read Sylvia’s story in my novel “Orion’s Gift.”  She’s going to need Annie’s strength to face some of the challenges of being a woman travelling alone in Baja.

The e-book version is marked down to only 99 cents on amazon.com for the next few weeks. 


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Did Neanderthals Have Language?

It is my honour and great pleasure to introduce you to Jacqui Murray and her novel, Endangered Species, the first in her latest trilogy in the series called Man vs. Nature. Summaries of the novels in this trilogy may be found near the end of this post.

Who is Jacqui Murray?

Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular prehistoric fiction saga, Man vs. Nature which explores seminal events in man’s evolution one trilogy at a time. She is also author of the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers and Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. Her non-fiction accomplishments include 100+ books on tech into education, as well as reviews as an Amazon Vine Voice , and articles as a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.

*****

While reading about the Neanderthal tribes in this trilogy, it is natural to wonder about some things regarding how these primitive people lived. Here is a question many readers have about the people of those long ago times. Jacqui Murray explains the answers based on her extensive research of the topic.

Did Neanderthals Have a Language?

Language, like so much about Neanderthal culture and lifestyle, didn’t preserve over the four-hundred thousand years of their existence. The best we can do is extrapolate what might be based on what we do find.

Three questions dominate the discussion of whether Neanderthals had a language:

  • Could they speak?
  • Did they speak?
  • Could they write a language?

Could they speak?

Yes. They had the physical ability to speak.

First: The Neanderthal hyoid was indistinguishable from ours so there is no reason to think it wasn’t used exactly in the same way as ours. Their voice box was higher in the throat than ours, which could mean their voices were higher pitched, but it would have no impact on their ability to speak.

Second: Their chests were large. They could control their breath in the same way we do, which is a requirement of speaking.

Third: Their ears were attuned to human speech, as are ours, which meant vocal sounds were important. I won’t try to explain the physiological details of that, but it is documented scientifically by paleoanthropologists. You can dig into that topic if you like–it’s pretty interesting.

Because of all this, there is every reason to believe Neanderthals could speak.

Did they speak?

So, physiologically, they could speak, but did they? Two details to consider with this question:

First: The types of tasks Neanderthals accomplished were complex–turning bark or pitch into glue, hardening spear tips in fire and not burning them, hunting in a group. These were accomplished best by talking to each other and planning. Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of the acclaimed Kindred: Neanderthal, Life, Love, Death, and Art goes so far as to assume these sophisticated tasks couldn’t be accomplished without talking:

“Some kind of vocal communication was a really important everyday part of Neanderthal life.” 

Second: Speaking is noisy. Neanderthals were more likely to want to melt into their environs rather than stand out. Speaking might have been less common outside their homebases and more common inside.

Could they write a language?

I’ll stipulate that writing as we know it was well beyond their cerebral toolkit, but they were playing with its elements. Shapes and geometric figures that have no basis in nature are found throughout Neanderthal habitats. To take this a step further, the same 32 geometric designs–lines, rectangles, ovals, dots, triangles, circles–occur in caves and on rock walls throughout Europe over tens of thousands of years, many at a time when only Neanderthals inhabited the caves.

Called art by some experts, but “graphic symbols with meaning” by others, these predate common cave art that includes animals and spears and human activities. These symbols (handprint aside) appear nowhere except in the mind of the creators. Whether they were for writing or art or something else, we don’t know, but they are curious. In my trilogy, Savage Land, I propose that they were used by Neanderthal tribes to share information with other tribes about the area. Because Neanderthals were nomadic by nature and shared their caves with whoever was passing through, this could make sense.

*****

Savage Land is the third prehistoric man trilogy in the series, Man vs. Nature. Written in the spirit of Jean Auel, Savage Land explores how two bands of humans survived one of the worst natural disasters in Earth’s history, when volcanic eruptions darkened the sky, massive tsunamis crossed the ocean in crushing waves, and raging fires burned the land. Each tribe starring in the story considered themselves apex predators. Neither was. That crown belonged to Nature and she was intent on washing the blight of man from her face.

 

In Endangered Species, Book One of the trilogy, Yu’ung’s Neanderthal tribe must join with Fierce’s Tall Ones—a Homo sapiens tribe–on a cross-continent journey that starts in the Siberian Mountains. The goal: a new homeland far from the devastation caused by the worst volcanic eruption ever experienced by Man. How they collaborate despite their instinctive distrust could end the journey before it starts or forge new relationships that will serve both well in the future.

 

In Badlands, Book Two, the tribes must split up, each independently crossing what nature has turned into a wasteland. They struggle against starvation, thirst, and desperate enemies more feral than human. If they quit — or worse, lose — they will never reunite with their groups or escape the most deadly natural disaster ever faced by our kind.

 Join me in this three-book fictional exploration of Neanderthals. Be ready for a world nothing like what you thought it would be, filled with clever minds, brilliant acts, and innovative solutions to potentially life-ending problems, all based on real events. At the end of this trilogy, you’ll be proud to call Neanderthals family.

Endangered Species – Book 1 of the Savage Land trilogy

Endangered Species trailer: https://youtube/AxBlmays3vE?si=1SMtqDJiLYCRZvB6

Badlands – Coming soon – Book 2 of the Savage Land trilogy

Book information:

Endangered Species—Print, digital, audio available: http://a-fwd.com/asin=B0DJ9Y7PQ8

Badlands—digital on presale now: http://a-fwd.com/asin=B0DFCV5YFT

 Genre: Prehistoric fiction

Editor: Anneli Purchase


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A is for Anneli

I thought I would attempt a project that would take me to Christmas. The plan is to focus on the letters of the alphabet in their natural sequence and blab on about something that begins with that letter each day.

I hope the posts won’t be very long, since it means a post every day, and my usual policy is not to post more than once a week, twice at the most. There are too many posts to follow if we all posted every day, so I ask your indulgence for 26 days, once for each letter of the alphabet.

Starting with A, I will introduce myself after about thirteen or so years of blogging.  My name is Anneli, and for those of you who struggle with the pronunciation, it rhymes with Emily.

I’m all about taking care of my best dog, Emma, an English field cocker spaniel who thinks she is human.

Second to that priority, my passions are writing, copy editing, cooking, and taking care of the little birds and animals that live around me.

My novels are pictured on the sidebar of the blog, in case you are interested in checking them out.

My main philosophy in life is to try to do good things to make the world a better place, be creative if possible, and do no harm to others.

So there you are, your letter for today:

A is for Anneli.

 

 

 


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E- book Sale for Bargain Prices

Hello, Readers!
Want a great discount for your e-reading pleasure?
I’m excited to announce that my books will be available as part of a promotion on Smashwords for the month of July as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! This is a chance to get my books, along with books from many other great authors, at a discount so you can get right to reading.
You will find the promo here starting on July 1, so save the link:
https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/
Please share this promo with friends and family.
The promo goes from July 1- July 31 .
Thank you for your help and support!
Happy reading!
*****
You will see the titles and cover images of my books at the sidebars of this post.
Three of the books  are romantic/suspense adventures on the Pacific Northwest Coast:
The Wind Weeps
Reckoning Tide (sequel to The Wind Weeps)
Marlie
*****
A romantic/suspense Baja adventure that will keep you turning pages.
Orion’s Gift
*****
A love triangle set in Europe and Canada, during the times of WWII and beyond. You will love Julia.
Julia’s Violinist
*****
Please visit the link provided above and take advantage of great bargain prices and some enjoyable reading.


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Gettin’ Down and Dirty

Harriet is rooting around for the last of the hidden hazelnuts from last year’s stash. It’s getting harder to find the remaining ones and her fur is a mess every time she surfaces after “diving” under the old tree stump.

If you make the videos full screen you’ll see better as Harriet is quite small.

 

But as you will see from the video below, she did finally have some success. (Apologies for the last couple of blurry seconds when I tried to zoom in. I should know by now that it often doesn’t work for me.) The hazelnut she finds still has the shell on it, but she makes short work of that.

Watching Harriet, Junior (who will soon be named) tries his best to follow suit, but so far he hasn’t figured out where the nuts are buried. After all, he wasn’t even born yet when Harriet hid them.

 

Playing in the dirt is fun,

But those nuts are on the run.

Maybe they have rolled away,

So they live another day.

 

Never mind the mess I’m in,

Or how frustrated I’ve been,

Next time I will find a nut,

And I’ll put it in my gut.


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The Spider and the Fly

Mary Howitt lived from 1799 to 1888. Her poem, The Spider and the Fly, was first published in 1829, almost 200 years ago.

The first line of the poem – “Will you walk into my parlour?” said the spider to the fly – is often misquoted, and you may have heard people say, “‘Come into my parlour,’ said the spider to the fly.” It is used to show that someone is trying to tempt another to do something they probably shouldn’t do.

In her poem, which is about seven stanzas long, the spider tries to lure the fly into coming into her trap. I’ve quoted some parts and paraphrased others.

#1 Spider: Will you walk into my parlour … up a winding stair.

Fly: Oh, no, no … For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.

 

#2 Spider: I’m sure you must be weary, dear. Will you rest upon my little bed?

Fly:  Oh, no, no … They never, never wake again, who sleep upon your bed.

 

#3 Spider: I have within my pantry good store of all that’s nice;
I’m sure you’re very welcome; will you please to take a slice?

Fly: I’ve heard what’s in your pantry, and I do not wish to see.

 

#4 Spider: I have a little looking-glass upon my parlor shelf,
If you’ll step in one moment, dear, you shall behold yourself.

Fly: I thank you, gentle sir,” she said, “for what you’re pleased to say,
And bidding you good-morning now, I’ll call another day.”

 

#5 Spider: He wove a subtle web, in a little corner sly,
And set his table ready to dine upon the fly.

(Then he said all kinds of flattering things to the fly, until the fly couldn’t resist).

Fly: She came nearer and nearer, listening to the flattery, thinking of how pretty she was.

 

And then: Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her fast.
He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,
Within his little parlor; but she ne’er came out again!

 

The lesson is basically, “Don’t fall for flattery,” or you might end up like this fly that was caught by a spider on my living room window yesterday.

Epilogue: (Apologies for no proper poetic meter.)

The fly was sucked dry.

The spider had her inside ‘er.

She was dropped on the sill, my dog ate her at will.

The spider returned to the scene of the crime, and Anneli smashed her and turned her to slime.

Some regret did I feel, but it had one last meal.


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Cranberry Upside Down Cake

Just in time for Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law sent me this recipe. As it happens, it’s a great recipe for any time of the year and any occasion. It was my first time making this cake, but it wasn’t that hard to do, and because it tasted SO GOOD, I have to share it.

I used my Kitchen Aid mixer but it occurred to me that it might have been even easier with a regular handheld mixer because you can just stick the beaters into a different bowl rather than wash the bowl and reuse it to do the two steps of mixing (you’ll see what I mean).

Step One

Take an 8″ square cake pan and put two tbsp. melted butter in the bottom of the pan. Then spread 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom of the pan.

Set this aside to put in the oven at 350 degrees for a couple of minutes just before it’s time to add the batter. (You need to have time to make the batter before heating the butter/sugar mixture).

The recipe says to add about a cup and a half of fresh cranberries (or even two cups) to this butter and brown sugar mixture. I always have frozen cranberries for my baking so I put them into a big measuring cup and add hot water to thaw them, draining and replacing the hot water a couple of times to thaw the cranberries. These will be added later to the heated up sugar/butter combination.

About 1/4 cup of pecans will also be sprinkled onto the bottom of the pan after the cranberries are added.

** I heated the oven and put the pan in to melt the brown sugar into the butter when I was finished making the batter in the next step.

Step Two

Now let’s make the batter.

Put these ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix after each addition:

3 tbsp. softened butter

1/4 cup white sugar

2 egg yolks (save the whites in a little bowl for mixing later)

1 tsp. vanilla

Step Three

In a separate bowl, put the rest of the dry ingredients together:

1  1/3 cup flour

1  1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp.

Step Four

Add the flour mixture to the batter, alternately with 1/2 cup of milk, ending with the flour mixture. If the resulting batter seems a bit too stiff, add a couple more tbsp. milk.

The second time I tried baking this cake I did add a bit more milk (say, almost 3/4 cup altogether) and it was better.

Step Five

This is about the time when I put the pan into the preheated oven, because the next step takes about the right time while the brown sugar is melting into the sugar.

In a clean bowl, put the two egg whites you have saved from when you put the egg yolks into the batter. Beat the egg whites until they are stiff.

Fold the egg white mixture into the batter. (Don’t stir it in. Gently fold it in.) The batter should look slightly foamy.

Step Six

Take out the pan with the heated butter and brown sugar, sprinkle the warmed up cranberries evenly over the brown sugar. Then sprinkle a few pecans over the cranberries. If you have a nut allergy you can easily skip this step.

Pour the batter over the cranberries in the pan and spread it evenly.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

When it is done, let the cake sit for a few minutes; then loosen the sides by running a knife along the sides of the pan. Put a plate over the pan upside down and invert the cake onto the plate.

Step Seven

Make a pot of tea or coffee and cut the cake. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just have it plain. It’s really good all by itself.

The photo below is from my second try, where I added a tiny bit more milk and used 2 cups of cranberries rather than 1 and 1/2 cups. Better, I think.

 

I want to add that my five novels are now available on Amazon for Kindle for only 99 cents in time for the holiday season. Just click on the cover images on the side of the blog post.

If you have another kind of e-reader, you can visit smashwords.com where you can download my books for the same price of 99 cents for your type of e-reader.

 


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Dolphins of Baja

Cindy Knoke’s blog post (link to Cindy’s blog at the end of this post) about viewing dolphins reminded me that I had a scene in my novel, “Orion’s Gift,” that was very similar to her adventure.  I wrote that scene after the Captain and I had this very experience in a 12-ft. aluminum skiff many years ago. It is based almost completely on our own dolphin trip from when we were dry camping in Baja and the dolphins came into the Bay of Conception.

The excerpt is a bit long, but I hope you will bear with me and enjoy the ride.

 

In the novel, my character, Sylvia, has run away from her unraveling life in southern California. Without much planning she has bought a camper van and thinks she can escape her problems by dry camping on the beaches of the Baja peninsula on the Mexican side of the border.

She meets Kevin, another runaway from a bad marriage, and the two discover an unexpected attraction to each other.

 

Here is the dolphin scene from “Orion’s Gift.” (Notice the whitecaps in the photo above.)

Moments later, I pointed. “There!” Kevin started the motor and, at a slower, quieter speed, angled the boat towards the school’s probable destination, so that eventually our paths would cross.

Hundreds of sleek bodies broke the surface only to curve and dive down immediately and reappear a few yards farther on. Kevin cut the motor again and we drifted, a mere speck in the middle of the huge Bay of Conception, closer than we had hoped to a huge school of dolphins, all aiming for the head of the bay.

“Listen to them!” I whisper-shouted to Kevin. The mewling, whistling, singing, and crying, as they repeatedly broke the surface of the water, was an eerie choir piece. Hauntingly beautiful, it gave me goosebumps in spite of the warm day. Kevin’s face mirrored my feelings exactly—somewhere between awe and ecstasy. My mind was suddenly in turmoil, balancing this rare and precious moment with the realization that I probably had few of them left. Peaks of happiness and bottomless pits of misery played havoc with my emotions.

My eyes filled with tears. “Thank you for bringing me out here. That was so beautiful.” I lowered my head. Just needed a moment.

“It would have been a shame to have to enjoy this all alone,” he said.

Still trying to come to terms with the amazing spectacle we had just experienced, we sat a moment longer watching the last of the dolphins disappear in the distance.

“Uh-oh!” Kevin pointed towards the open end of the bay. “Whitecaps.” He started the motor and turned the skiff towards home. Within minutes, the breaking waves had moved much closer and the glassy smooth surface changed to ripples that grew into an uncomfortable lump. I’d heard San Diego fishermen talk about the lump in the sea. Now I knew what they were talking about.

“Hang on,” he said. “It could get bumpy. I’ll take us to the nearest point of land and then we’ll work our way home along the beach.”

I gripped the gunwales of the boat where they began to curve towards the bow. We bucked into the choppy whitecaps that had now overtaken us. In no time, the sleeves of my blue cotton shirt were soaked from the spray. Two-foot waves didn’t seem like much but they followed one after the other so briskly that the small skiff took a pounding. My stomach clenched into a knot of fear as we were tossed in every direction. I tightened my grip against the bouncing of the boat. More waves splashed over the bow, soaking the front of my shirt. I was glad the water was warm. It would have been an ordeal to be splashed with icy water every few seconds. The finer spray wet my face so the drops were running off my chin. I glanced at Kevin in the stern of the boat. He was completely dry except for a bit of salt spray in his hair. He looked so good and I could only imagine what I looked like. Drowned rats came to mind.

“We’re almost out of it,” Kevin yelled above the engine noise. He saw that I was bearing the brunt of the beating at the front of the boat. I could only nod as I looked over my shoulder at him.

Closer to the beach, we zigzagged to avoid rocks. Beaching the boat here would be difficult. We continued along the shoreline until we rounded a point and entered the mini bay where our own sheltered beach lay.

“Whew! That’s better,” I said.

We pulled the boat ashore and secured it with a line to a huge rock far above the high tide mark. Immediately, Kevin started apologizing.

I held up my hand. “Don’t. It was wonderful. Worth the beating we took on the way back.”

“Your beautiful hair.…”

My hands flew to my head. “My hair?”

“It’s such a mess!” Kevin pulled me close and hugged me, kissing my wet tangled hair. “I have a sun shower bag you can use.”

“I have one too. But I think, since I’m wet already, I’ll have a swim first and then rinse off with fresh water.”

“Good idea. I’ll join you.”

“Don’t forget to shuffle your feet in case of stingrays.”

“Stingrays!?”

 

 

Orion’s Gift at amazon.com

For e-readers other than Kindle, go to smashwords.com.

Cindy’s dolphin post: https://cindyknoke.com/2023/06/18/off-the-beaten-path-super-pods/

Thanks for reminding me of this wonderful time, Cindy.


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The Lilac Notebook

You won’t want to miss this one. Carol Balawyder’s latest novel is something unique.

Here is Carol and a little bit about her.

Carol’s academic training is in English Literature and Criminology. She studied criminology so as to bring credibility to the crime novels she wanted to write.

These days Carol is retired from her teaching post of supervising and teaching criminology to college students. She has been busy as a volunteer, visiting Alzheimer’s patients. She brings along her little dog, Bau. One of the patients, Doris, especially loved spending time with Bau. The sweet relationship they developed is reproduced in Carol’s latest novel.

The Lilac Notebook is a study of the decline of a young woman in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

Doris had lost her ability to speak. Ms. Balawyder used this as a focal point of the murder investigation in which her fictional character, Holly is accused, but unable to defend herself.

Her main character Holly, is partly based on Doris and her relationship with Bau.

My Review of The Lilac Notebook.

Carol Balawyder’s novel, The Lilac Notebook, left me thinking of the plight of one of her characters for many days afterwards. Although it is a crime story, it is different from every other one I’ve read, because Holly, the main character, has early onset Alzheimer’s.

Her husband has never loved her, and now that she has this debilitating disease, she knows that he will find her a burden. She makes the decision to leave before it gets too bad, signs up for a college course and makes friends with two women who will entangle her in a murder mystery.

We learn in detail of her challenges as Alzheimer’s symptoms manifest themselves. In some cases, Alzheimer’s patients lose the ability to speak. They can still hear and reason, but find it difficult to respond. Sometimes the right word is hard to find, and increasingly it becomes more difficult to speak.

After a second murder takes place in their part of the city, Holly and her friends fear for their safety. Holly is haunted by clues she tries to put together, and suspects that the killer may be somehow connected to them. Her speech is becoming difficult, so she records as much as she can remember in her lilac notebook.

When one of her friends suggests that possibly it is Holly herself who is doing the killing, she is in turmoil because her memory has been failing her more and more. She wonders if her friend could be right. Perhaps Holly did kill those people and she just doesn’t remember it.

I was particularly impressed by the way Ms. Balawyder weaves in the details of Holly’s advancing Alzheimer’s in such a compassionate way. We are made to feel Holly’s fears, trepidation, confusion, and frustration as “the plot thickens” and her disease becomes more debilitating.

Real life still happens to people with Alzheimer’s, but we rarely have a chance to look inside the heads of people who suffer from it. With the murder mystery entertaining us, we empathize with Holly’s plight as she tries to solve the murders even while she is implicated in the deeds.

A well-researched nail-biter of a story.

 

You can purchase The Lilac Notebook at:

amazon.com

amazon.ca

smashwords.com

While you’re there, check out her “Getting to Mr. Right” series.

Please feel free to reblog this post and help Carol to spread the word about her wonderful new novel.