Challenge 3 Round 4 Winner
Is Captive Nightmare. If your story was in the top 5, please come and claim your entry.
Alice
Travel in the Post-Nine Eleven Era
Although I’ve been flying since I was a little kid, I haven’t been in the air since 911. I had heard so much about how much harder it was to get through security that I was quite concerned. Perhaps it was the time of day we flew, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.
The set up was a little different from I remembered, but not bad. We started off in the line for the courtesy desk to check in. But unlike when I was a kid, they didn’t take our bags, merely affixed tags and gave us boarding passes. We then went through a line that had a machine that looked a lot like a CAT scan machine. The ticket line was of normal length. It took us a little less than half an hour to get through. The CAT scan thing was even shorter. We then went to the security screen in front of the concourse.
From what I’d heard this could be a nightmare. I’ve seen the pictures online of women being touched way too personally and heard about having to take your shoes off and how all kinds of things were being confiscated. The number of turnings in the roped off line were daunting, but only about a quarter of the way had people. Of course it was between 4 am and 5 am at the time.
We were prepared, having not brought anything objectionable, and breezed through. Except my mother who they took to the side and ran a wand over to confirm the metal detector had indeed only picked up her new artificial hip, which we were expecting.
While we were waiting for our first plane we my sister and I went hunting for breakfast, specifically looking for cinnamon rolls. I swear there were nearly as many guards as passengers in the concourse. The one I found most interesting was the one on a bicycle. He peddled past us several times.
We had a two and a half hour layover in the Dallas airport. That was a bit long for two hyper kids. They filled most of the time by riding up and down on the escalators. Then we took the train for the entire loop. That was fun, except none of us remembered to bring a camera. Oh well, I thought. We could get pictures on the way back.
In Belize the customs agents sat behind tall desks and literally rubber-stamped our paperwork in a matter of minutes. No computers anywhere, but very little hassle. They didn’t bother to look in our luggage.
The way back was another matter. We only had an hour layover and in that hour had to collect our luggage, get through USA customs, pass through security again, and change gates.
The plane landed on time, or we wouldn’t have had a chance. I made sure we were among the first in our section to get off the plane. Yes, bulldozer Alice at work. The lines everywhere along the way moved fairly quickly, though the pilots and stewardesses kept butting in ahead of us. However, with the time pressure I didn’t have a chance to transfer some of the stuff from my carry on to my suitcase.
The guy who took the last couple of ounces of my sunscreen looked so gleeful when he pointed at the label at the bottom of the container. It doesn’t matter how much is actually in the container, only how much COULD be in it. I know why they do it that way, but it’s nothing to crow about. They took my applesauce, but left my Del Monty fruit cup. Considering how unnatural those fruit cups look, you’d think they’d be far more suspect. Now I have a lone fruit cup sitting in my refrigerator that I doubt anyone will ever eat because none of us felt like eating it on the plane.
They took my water bottle in the airport in Belize, but it’s easy to buy more both on the planes and in the airports.
We couldn’t get a cart because they said it would be too slow. There’s my mother running through the concourse with a cane. I had no idea she could move so fast so soon after surgery. We took the train. It was too dark out to take pictures and we were all too anxious about getting off at the right stop anyway.
They were already loading the plane when we got there. Only a handful of people were still in line ahead of us, but about a dozen people got on the plane after we sat down. It was very close, but we all made it, and didn’t even lose any luggage.
There was one other change from what I remember from before. Airlines no longer serve those trays of food for lunch or dinner, let alone for free. What they offered was pathetically small and way over priced. For instance $4 for a bagel with cheese and ham. Bring your own. Just don’t include any applesauce.
Alice
Elk Stroganoff
As I’ve said before, I live in Montana. For a long time I lived in Wisconsin. When I moved back to Montana after having lived in Madison Wisconsin I was surprised by a touch of culture shock. This was brought home to me the day I received a copy of the local PTA’s cookbook.
The book is titled Kids’ Favorite Recipes. In it are collected recipes donated by each of the parents to attend after school activities. When I opened the book, this is the first thing I saw:
Elk Stroganoff
elk
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 c hot oil
1/2 c water 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 can mushrooms
1 c sour cream
Cut elk into bite size strips. In a Ziploc bag combine the flour, salt, pepper and dry mustard. Shake elk strips in flour mixture. In a heavy skillet brown elk slowly in hot oil. Combine water and Worcestershire sauce. Add to browned meat and cover skillet. Cook slowly for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. You will need to check this often and add additional water to keep meat from sticking. Beef bouillon may be added with water additions. Stir in 1 can mushrooms and 1 cup sour cream. Serve over rice or noodles.
This recipe might well have ended up in a cookbook in Wisconsin in one of the rural communities where hunting is as big a deal as it is out here. But not in Madison.
Bon Apatite
Alice
The Maya Breeze Inn
May Breeze Beach is on the peninsula leading to Placencia. It’s a little community of half a dozen resorts stretched out over a couple of miles. Except for right in front of the Maya Breeze Inn itself, it’s dirt road. In front of the Inn, it’s packed gravel. I suspected each segment of the road is paid for by the people fronting it. Although there was a heck of a lot of construction going on all up and down the peninsula, don’t expect the road to be paved the whole way any time soon.
White sand, palm trees, ocean breezes, the place is paradise. We had both a “cabin”
And a room in the hotel.
Besides a nice stretch of beach, which we spent many hours on, they offered the free use of their sea kayaks.
They said if we wanted to kayak out to a caye visible from the beach you could go snorkeling, but we never made it that far. Not with so many hammocks hanging around.
They helped us book the snorkeling trip, and the trip up the Monkey River. They had a dry erase board up in the office that offered different excursions for each day of the week and would set up whatever you wanted. They even set up an intimate dinner for two on their dock, which we watched with interest. 😀
We had a kitchenette complete with hot plate, toaster, mini-frig, and sink, but only cooked for ourselves a couple of times. There is a restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel, but they only served breakfast. Almost every resort on the peninsula had a restaurant, so we spent a lot of time roaming around checking out May Breeze’s competition. There are a lot of very nice places along the peninsula, but I think we got the best.
Alice
Suzie's House – Where Next?
Most of the time I have only a vague idea what I’m going to do with Suzie’s House until I sit down to write it, which I frequently get around to on Thursday. This week I don’t even have a glimmer.
So, what would you like to see next? Anyone’s Point of View of particular interest to you? Any particular relationship you’d like to see explored? Any issue on your mind? Let me know.
Alice
FanLit Forever Challenge 4
Round Four of Challenge 3 closes today. The ranking votes are nearly in. The winner will be chosen in the next three days. And we are all getting heartily sick of Ben and Tara. It’s like David Damien and Patience all over again!
Unlike Avon, we have some latitude, and we are taking advantage of it. We are going to take a break from Challenge 3 to do a quick, one-chapter round. Challenge 4. And it is a blast!
We have decided to base the chapter on a photograph. Some of the suggestions have been, shall we say, a bit risque. All right, these guys are hot! Since Mr. Al has not been making a strong showing I suppose it’s to be expected that all the suggestions are male.
This is one round I can’t wait to write!
Alice
Suzie’s House 16: Crying Over Nothing
Drew marched down the hospital hall, as angry with himself as he was with Miranda. Of course Miranda would make a play for him. She hadn’t been facing the length of the hall, so wouldn’t know Suzie could see her kiss him. More to the point, she probably didn’t realize it would hurt Suzie. Miranda struck him as the kind of girl who didn’t see much beyond the end of her nose.
He felt a mild twinge of conscience for having shoved Miranda away, but he hadn’t shoved the drama queen hard enough to send her toppling. If she had grabbed at the frame around the doorway into Vin’s hospital room it was because she’d lost her balance, not because he was some kind of jerk.
Except he HAD been a bit rougher than he intended. Forget Miranda, it was Suzie he needed to worry about!
He took the stairs two at a time, though he only guessed she’d headed for her car when she ran off in tears. The echo of his own hard-soled shoes almost covered the quieter scuffing sound of someone below him.
He sped up. At the base of the stairwell a woman in jeans and a cotton blouse leaned her head against the glass with imbedded chicken wire set into the steel door. Suzie. He’d know that lithe body anywhere, even with her brown ponytail facing him.
“Suzie,” he said gently. “It wasn’t what you think.”
She stiffened, sucking in a hard breath though not quite a gasp, as she turned to face him. She nodded as if about to greet him like she would an acquaintance, then pulled the teddy bear in her arms tight against her middle and said, “What do you think I think?”
The teddy bear must have been what she went to the gift shop for, what she was bringing to Vin when she saw Miranda kiss him. It made her look vulnerable.
“It’s none of my business if you and Miranda were kissing.” Suzie tried to make it sound off-handed, but she said it before he could answer her question, which only confirmed all his suspicions.
“Oh come off it, Suzie. I know you’re upset about it.” He reached out and gently touched her glistening cheek.
“No, no. I’m just worried about Vin.” She smiled bravely, though her eyes still shimmered.
“It didn’t mean anything.” As soon as he said it he could tell he’d said he wrong thing. Suzie’s brows drew together in a thunderous scowl, her eyes narrowed and her jaw flexed. For a moment he thought she’d hit him.
“It better have meant something. Miranda is pretty serious about you.”
“I doubt Miranda has ever been serious about any man.” Another wrong thing to say.
“You haven’t known her long.”
Drew did not want to go down that conversational road. He didn’t really care about Miranda’s love life, so long as he didn’t get sucked into it. He took a deep breath, trying to keep his temper in check.
“Regardless, I have given her no reason to think I’m interested in her.” Before Suzie could do more than open her mouth, he talked over her protest. “She kissed me, not the other way around.”
“Didn’t you kiss her back, even a little?” She arched an eyebrow.
“No! I did not. I was comforting her, patting her on the back while she cried on my shoulder. The next thing I knew she turned into a succubus and latched on!”
“Well that’s a fine way to think of her,” Suzie chastised. “Don’t you think there’s a chance you two might have gotten involve?”
“I hope not.” He didn’t make enough effort to keep the repugnance from his voice. Suzie looked at him a bit closely, but he didn’t try to explain.
It didn’t matter how hot Miranda was, he didn’t need that kind of drama in his life. Not up close and personal the way it always got with lovers.
“The point is I’m not fooling around with anyone.” He tried to get the conversation back on track. “I’m not married, and I don’t have any girlfriends, and I’m not going to let anything happen with Miranda. I’m not even going to let her cry on my shoulder again.”
“Why are you telling me all this? It isn’t like we were an item.”
“But maybe we could be.”
Suzie took two large steps back, an expression of horror on her face. One hand went to the knob on the door between the stairwell and the ground-floor hall leading to the hospital’s entrance. “No, I don’t think so. One philandering husband is enough in a lifetime.”
“I am not a philanderer!”
“The point is,” she threw the words back at him. “I’m not in the market for another husband. It isn’t you. It’s me. I don’t want another man in my life. Not like that.”
With decisive firmness she opened the door and headed down the hall. She looked far more determined in her stride than the situation called for, as if she could walk away from him and not have him turn up minutes later in her house.
“You aren’t interested in me?” Drew muttered to himself. “Could have fooled me.”
The previous was Suzie’s House 15: Resusitation
This is Suzie’s House 16: Crying Over Nothing
Next is Suzie’s House 17: Visitors
Three Men and a Tudor.
Mr. Al has written a very long piece of Tudor history. I asked him to slice off a piece for me, and this was the result:
***
In November of 1529, Henry was still in love with Anne. But the strain to her of keeping a guy like Henry at arms length for five years was taking its toll. Although she didn’t seem to mind making enemies among those who were outside her family faction, her increasingly short temper and vindictive nature drove away people who’s support she needed. Although only time would make clear just how badly she would need them. For the moment it was stiff upper lip and soldier on. And then three old school mates had dinner together in Essex.
.
Thomas Cranmer was not the sort of fellow one would expect to fill a position of power. His career as a theologian was, seemingly, permanently derailed when he married a barmaid. He lost both wife and child when she died in childbirth. He returned to Cambridge, picked up where he left off; graduated and settled down to a quite life of an academic. Then he bumped into his old chums, Fox and Gardenier. These gentlemen were just returning from Rome as Henry’s ambassadors to the Vatican. Naturally, they had no good news to deliver.
After discussing the Great Matter over dinner, Cranmer brought up a point that no one had considered before. If his majesty was seeking an annulment, rather than a divorce, why bother with the Pope at all? A royal divorce requires the Pope because it involves Canon Law. An annulment, on the other hand, based as it is on Scriptural interpretation, should require only the agreement of Biblical scholars. Heck, one needn’t even leave the country to get that! Call a big conference of England’s leading theologians, have ’em kick it around and whatever they decide settles the matter! Cranmer did have the presence of mind to point out that Henry would have to abide by whatever decision was reached, favorable or not, otherwise the whole proceeding would be a farce. As he told his old schoolmates, “You might this way have made an end to the matter long since.”
.
One can imagine Gardenier and Fox looking at one another and thinking the same thought. “It can’t be that easy.” It wasn’t, but it sure beat waiting on a decision from Pope Clement! It also meant that they were not returning to Henry empty handed after all. Henry was very receptive to this new thinking for any number of self-serving reasons. So happy were the Boleyns, father and daughter, at the news about the New Idea that Pere Boleyn, at Henry’s suggestion, gave Cranmer a roof over his head in London while he was working out the details of his plan.
.
Cranmer suddenly found himself in the middle of the Henry marriage drama. Henry was waking up to the fact that his marriage problem had wider implications indeed. Many men around the king saw that also. This could be the “wedge issue” they needed to push church reform to the head of the agenda.
.
Personal ambition aside, the Boleyns were committed to church reform. It was an issue both felt very strongly about. Although how Sir Thomas squared his hatred of church corruption with the fact that he was, personally, crooked as a dogs hind leg and ready to pimp his daughters to further himself is a bit of a mystery. Nevertheless, with the solution to the Great Matter seemingly in hand, Henry moved to make Anne queen in all but name. She moved into Whitehall Palace and was given all the attendants a queen would expect. Dad was elevated to an Earldom, of Wiltshire, which automatically made Anne, Lady Anne Boleyn. Her brother George became Viscount Rochford.
.
To celebrate, Henry threw a feast in dad’s honor. Anne took precedence over all the ladies of the court. She sat at Henry’s right hand, on the Queens throne. That was okay because Katherine hadn’t been invited. Something that caused tongues to wag. If Anne wasn’t worried about the opinions of others, Henry was. Henry was king and he knew he could not ignore The People entirely, if, for no other reason, than they made life unpleasant for the Great Families, who, in turn, let Henry know he was stirring up a hornets nest and they were the ones who would most likely get stung first. Those nobles not directly connected with the Boleyn faction at court were getting restless. Those nobles, and there were more than a few, who supported the Queen were getting downright hostile.
.
Christmastime at court was always an occasion for grand banquets, masques and general merrymaking. Usually, the Queen would be much in evidence at this time. The Christmas of 1529 would be different. The Queen had not been invited to participate in any fashion. This caused a great deal hostile comment. The hostility was spreading to Europe. The Emperor Charles was actively trying to convince Katherine that an invasion was the only solution to her problems. Having temporarily settled affairs with France, he was ready, willing and able to tackle England. Katharine wouldn’t hear of it. She pointed out, quite rightly, that it would be a public relations disaster for a Queen of England to invite a foreign power to invade her own realm. Women! They just don’t get it! Was Charles’s take on her attitude.
.
Because of the Emperor, and a number of other reasons, Henry decided he was being a bit hasty. One big stumbling block was Archbishop of Canterbury Warham, a very vocal opponent of Henry’s annulment plans. Not an easy fellow to get rid of without causing an ungodly fuss. It wasn’t until his death, in the summer of 1532, that Henry felt he could safely put Katherine aside for good. Warham’s body wasn’t even cold when Henry appointed Cranmer to take his place. By this time Cranmer was about as close to Anne as a guy could get without being a lover. He was ready to pronounce Henry’s marriage to Katherine annulled, Pope or no Pope. So confidant was Anne that all would soon be right with the world that she went ahead and slept with Henry.
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The change in Henry was noticeable at once.
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If Anne’s enemies hoped Henry would lose interest once he got what he wanted, and they had good reason to believe this would be so, they were quickly disabused of that notion. Henry was more in love than ever. If it was love. Henry’s behavior seems, to the modern eye, more like sexual obsession than love. After finally bedding Anne, Henry couldn’t stand to have her out of his sight for long. A very bad sign for Anne. She apparently didn’t catch it. Fat lot of good it would have done her even if she had.
She also had a little surprise for Henry on their Big Night.
***
Yep, he left us hanging again! Hopefully he’ll have another section ready for us next week.
Alice
Truth in Critique
Probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my writing career is critique other people’s writing.
You may have noticed I’m a big fan of balance. I seriously believe everything in life comes down to it. Critique is no exception. In critique the balance is between truth and encouragement.
It’s easy to critique someone who doesn’t need it. Then truth and encouragement come together for form one big “Wonderful! Excellent! Send it out!” That leaves the other 80 percent of us who are struggling to achieve some level of excellence in our work and NEED feedback to help get us there.
The more the writer needs the feedback, the harder it is to come up with a critique that is both truthful and encouraging. Sometimes simply being truthful is a burden because there are so many things wrong with a piece. Then encouragement might come in the form of simply not listing everything.
On the other hand, without truth there can be no improvement. I, for one, would much prefer a highly discouraging but insightfully critique to one that glosses over everything to make it look like I’m doing well when I’m not. Nothing ticks me off more than contest results with low numbers and nothing but praise. If it deserved all the praise, where are the high scores?
As Mona Risk has said many times, “I’d rather hear it from you <her critique partners> than from an editor.” More to the point, if she didn’t have truthful critique partners, all she would be hearing from an editor is, “This does not meet our needs at this time.”
The result is that I have become a nasty critique partner. I seriously apologize to everyone I’ve critiqued in the last five years – particularly you, Nancy. I’ve always been inclined to be a bit brusque. Now that my patience with critiquing has settled to nearly zero my comments have leaned toward the harsh. I simply am not willing to be encouraging at the expense of truth.
Likewise, I don’t want to hear platitudes regarding my writing. Yes, it hurt to hear my baby maligned, but it hurts worse to think I’ve got something good and send it out to a slew of form letter rejections.
Alice
Tagged
Just so you know, Bev, I DID notice that you tagged me, and I WILL be making a response here, but it could take me a while to wrap my mind around it.
Alice
Belize City
All the pictures shown here were taken on Easter Monday, which apparently is a major holiday in Belize. The entire city felt as deserted as a ghost town. I only saw a few other tourists, and some police whose job it is to protect the tourists while wandering around all day long. When we found the natives, they were all desperately trying to catch a ferry out to the cayes.
I wish I’d been less prudish about taking pictures of strangers. The city simply doesn’t have the same ambiance without the crowds. Try to imagine these places all filled with pedestrians, bicycles, and cars.
First, notice that the highway is four lanes here. It only has four lanes until we leave the city. Then it’s back to two. This is one of the biggest, widest, smoothest streets in the nation.
Then the streets get smaller.
And smaller.
These last two are actually important thoroughfares. We couldn’t get around town without them.
We went all over the place from well-to-do neighborhoods.
To less well to do neighborhoods.
We bought a case of water, Smuckers peanut butter and jelly in a jar, plastic “spones”, and some Fanta soda at a local grocery store. The lady behind the counter was busy with customers when I realized the caps on bottles of soda in Belize don’t twist off. I needed a bottle opener. One of the other customers very helpfully pointed out an opener attached to the wall, with a trash can under it for the lid. I could tell because it was full of lids.
I wish I could show them to you, because the people of Belize are cool.
Alice
Alien From the Backyard
My kids constantly ask what’s for supper, then when I tell them they try to change the menu. For instance I might tell them roast beef two hours after I put the roast in the oven and they will suggest spaghetti. Suggest? Insist! I got so annoyed with it that I started answering, “food. We are eating food.” And nothing more.
One day my son got so annoyed with me that he yelled “You’re going to feed us something horrible, I know it. You’re going to feed us alien!”
“What alien?” I asked, knowing full well he was only venting his frustrating but still willing to egg him on.
“The one from the backyard.”
We went back and forth like this, with him insisting I was going to feed them something horrible for way too long. So, in retaliation I fed them “Alien From The Backyard.”
2 cups applesauce
several droplets of green food dye
one marshmallow for each person
chocolate sauce.
Mix the green food dye into the applesauce. Place the marshmallows on top. Put a dollop of chocolate sauce in the center of each marshmallow to make it look like an eye.
Bon Appetite.
Alice
Linky Linky
Here are a couple more you might find interesting, though not the same way.
http://jauntyquills.com/2007/04/27/fun-vacation-things/
http://wordflirts.blogspot.com/
Alice
Have you all been over to see CM’s blog for today?
It’s about property law in Regency England. Check it out:
http://www.courtneymilan.com/ramblings/2007/04/28/correcting-some-legal-misapprehensions/
Alice
Chateau Caribbean
I mention them so often that I think I should show you a bit more of the places where we stayed. First, as my mother planned the entire trip with the help of the Internet, you can find out about both Maya Breeze and Banana Bank through their web sites. I’ll be blogging on them separately.
The first place we stayed was the Chateau Caribbean in Belize City. It’s a good thing we decided to stay in Belize City the first night because we got completely turned around and didn’t find the hotel for hours. Not that Belize City is all that big. It was because of traffic, which I already mentioned, and one way streets. I’ll show you some pictures of that on Tuesday.
When we arrived it was to find a grand old mansion of a hotel. I’m not sure if you can see it in the picture above, but the whole thing was on stilts. Our rooms were in the attic. Standing out on the enclosed porch at night with the wind making the windows and floor shake was a toe-tingling experience, but the rooms themselves were very solid. They were also quite large. I’d love to show you the pictures, but all of them are full of scattered clothing and wrinkled sheets. Yes, we took to it quickly.
The Chatteau is on the ocean. Here’s a view from the parking lot.
Across the street the beech is made up of tumbled stone. Not much fun for walking on, but I could swear the first night there that I saw the fossil of a trilobite in one of them. Later I could find nothing more than embedded seashells.
We ate several meals in their restaurant, which was on the floor right below us. I never spent much time in the rooms below that, but they were lovely with hardwood and ceiling fans.
It was a nice way to start the trip.
.
Alice
