Inkpen Belle 2015

If I've been MIA on the blog this week, there is sort of a reason why. And it has to do with Valentine's Day. Now for heaven's sake, don't be ridiculous. I did not get engaged or anything of the sort. I did, however, get to spend what turned out to be Friday through Monday morning with Meghan Gorecki, author of sweet historical-romance, God's Will! Meghan, who many of you will know as my "Watson," flew down from the lovely city of Pittsburgh to spend Valentine's Day weekend with me. I dragged her to Williamsburg a'course, and showed her round my favorite small towns, dragged her to my dream farm which I discovered on Wednesday, hosted a no-couples Valentine's Day party, ate obscene amounts of cheesecake, chocolate, and wonderfulness, went to see Mockingjay (again) and braved the beastly cold. Virginia is never this cold. Virginia has seen wind-chill temps below zero over the weekend. Though we never got to sit down at that coffee shop and write (I blame too much other fun), we had delightful time friends-wise. I am blessed to have gotten to meet with several bloggings friends over the years, and this "reunion" of the Inkpen Authoress and the Northern Belle was just as sweet as I had hoped. Meghan is delightful, and I'm going to be a brat now and tell you to off and buy a copy of God's Will to oblige me. All kidding aside, if you ever get a chance to meet a blogging friend in real life, please do. It is a precious thing to be able to attach real life experiences to someone who was only a profile picture. <3

The Utterly Baffled Tag

All right! No blog party is complete without a tag that you can take back with you to your own blogs, so I've concocted a tag for you with quite a lot of intriguing questions! The rules are simple: Fill out the questions of your own blog and come back here and comment to tell me you've done your post so the rest of us can run over and check it out! Also, thanks a million to all those who have entered Chatterbox! We have 13 entries to this blog event in its first month of life so I think it's been a rousing success! Now, on to the questions. I have answered them below as well!

1.) You are writing a mystery novel and decide to base the detective off of one of your writing friends: who do you choose?
2.) If you and the best of your writing-blog friends were living out a mystery, which of you would be most likely to end up as the victim?
3.) If you decided to write a mystery (or if, on the other hand, you do write mysteries) would your style fall under thriller, terror, literary, historical or cozy?
4.) Who is your favorite mystery-author?
5.) What is the best mystery you've ever read?
6.) If you were going to be in charge of solving a mystery, where would you want it to be set and what would the circumstances be?
7.) You walk into a library and find a body on the floor. Your first reaction:
8.) Your second reaction:
9.) What do you say when the policeman tells you that you are the prime suspect in the murder?
10.) How does your answer effect the powers that be?
11.) Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle walk into one of those Solve the Murder Dinner Theatres and sit down and start to spoil the fun by solving all the mysteries before anyone else and shouting the answers to the crowd: do you retaliate and if so, how?
12.) Post a quote from your favorite mystery//mystery author:

1.) You are writing a mystery novel and decide to base the detective off of one of your writing friends: who do you choose? This is actually an uber-easy question. I would choose Mirriam Neal because come to think of it, she would be a truly original personality for a sleuth. Actually, she'd make an awesome detective - one everybody would love to read about because she's just a mixture of Too Darn Cute & Impossibly Clever. Abigail Hartman would be a close runner-up because she's methodical and observant and rational which (as far as the method and perhaps rationality goes) Mirriam is not.
2.) If you and the best of your writing-blog friends were living out a mystery, which of you would be most likely to end up as the victim? Oh! Let me think for a sec....hummm....there would probably be an attempt on Jenny's life first, but I think that she'd surprise the villain by being rather unkillable. Thus, I think the first victim would be Katelyn Sebelko (poor darling!!) because there is no reason anyone would want to harm her, and that would make the mystery so complex.
3.) If you decided to write a mystery (I am) would your style fall under thriller, terror, literary, historical, or cozy? Cozy, definitely. Also loosely historical. I doubt it will ever become strictly historical albeit the mystery happens in the 1930's, but it will likely deal loosely with historical events as they pop up in the natural timeline of my character's Life & Times.
4.) Who is your favorite mystery author? Oh gee. I have really enjoyed what of Dorothy Sayers's Lord Peter Wimsey stories I've read and then again, the little of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels, but as far as being able to speak authoritatively on a broad scale, I'll have to stick with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
5.) What is the best mystery you've ever read? Hmmmm. I would have to say The Five Orange Pips by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because I kinda have a thing for unsolved mysteries. And as far as being somewhat of a mystery, though not really qualifying, I adore The Scarlet Pimpernel and I didn't know the YOU KNOW WHAT was YOU KNOW HIM in the final scenes. So it qualifies in my book.
6.) If you were going to be in charge of solving a mystery, where would it be set and what would the circumstances be? Oodalolly. It would be set in...in...the Lake District of England/Scotland and the circumstances would be that a body was found in broad daylight sitting upright in a rowboat moored in the middle of the lake. It would seem easy to solve except for the fact that there was a fishing competition that day and not a single person of all 50 competitors saw the boat moved into place. Furthermore, news footage of the event doesn't show it either.
7.) You walk into the library and find a body on the floor. Your first reaction: I would freeze on the threshold of the room and get very quiet. My heart would sink and I'd tip-toe over and probably prod the body with my foot (assuming it was facedown) to try to see who the heck it was and whether he was really dead or simply in a swoon.
8.) Your second reaction: I would perch on the edge of the desk, heart pounding, trying to sort out who to tell and how on earth the murder was committed. Then I realize the murderer might still be in the room and I scuttle off to phone the police.
9.) What do you say when the policeman tells you that you are the prime suspect in the murder? "Murder I might write, but I would never commit murder. I'm a christian, first of all, and secondly, I'd never be brave enough. Besides--I don't hate him; I don't even know him!" (Notice I would be flustered and not thinking coherently or cleverly."
10.) How does your answer effect the powers that be? Oh, they'd think I was sassing them and lob me off toward the station. Abigail Taylor would bail me out because she always does bail me out of everything else, and eventually my name would be cleared even though evidence of my shoe had been found on the body. (Note to self: never prod a prostrate form with your foot, okay?)
11.) Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle walk into one of those Solve the Murder Dinner Theatres and sit down and start to spoil the fun by solving all the mysteries before anyone else and shouting the answers to the crowd: do you retaliate and if so, how? I would at first be annoyed, but upon recognizing who it was, I'd probably sit there laughing helplessly and thinking what a fine blog post it would make, and then I'd edge closer and strike up an acquaintance and possibly go out for icecream with them afterward.
12.) Post a quote from your favorite mystery author:(AH! So many from which to choose!)
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts."

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Well that was jolly good fun. I hope you join in, as I'm eager to read your answers to these questions. Toodle-pip and cheers, everyone. I've got to go be useful now since breakfast is almost ready.

A Guessing Game

Would anyone like to guess what this...

...and this graphic I made...

...and this quote..

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, exploit. Immortal horrors or everlasting splendours."-C.S. Lewis.

....have in common?

A star danced...

"There was a star danced, and under that was I born."

-William Shakespeare

(and quite possibly my favorite quote from him. :)

Because it is my birthday, and because I am now 20 years old, and because I can now quote one of my favorite Elizabeth Bennet quotes correctly: ("I am not yet one-and-twenty") and perhaps because I am feeling birthday-ish even if I am in Georgia, here is a birthday post for me and you and the rest of us.


First off, it's my golden-birthday. That means (in Rachelisms) that I turned 20 on the 20th of July. Some one recently tried to tell me that "golden birthday" means "50th," but that is so terribly unromantic that I ignored them and told them that they were probably incorrect, and I was probably right. ;) My family sent me the most amazing package ever. It sat in my hotel room for two days while I tried to forget about it, but I have to say that I bounced awake quite earlyish this morning and tore into it with a right good will.
They'd wrapped everything in gold-hued paper. Different patterns, different shades, all golden. :) And some peacock feathers thrown in for good measure. Nearly everything in the box was gold-themed too. I felt just like Rose in Eight Cousins--there was no end to that amazing package. Gift after little gift I opened till I was quite in danger of being late for breakfast!


"Every little girl cam easily imagine what an extra good time she had diving into a sea of treasures and fishing up one pretty thing after another, till the air was full of the mingled odours of musk and sandalwood, the room gay with bright colours, and Rose in a rapture of delight."

Mama and the girls had sprinkled gold stars in every envelope and box, and by the end of the time my dark little hotel table was quite awash in a sea of glittering splendour. :) Thanks, family-dearest! Among the many delightful things I received were:


- a silver pocket-watch necklace from Felicity--I feel just like Beatrix Potter. :)
- truffles, orange-dark-chocolate, Rollos, and Toblerone
- gold, sparkly eye-shadow from my sister, the Fashionista. :) (And yes, I can carry it off)
- fuschia lipstick, so that I might follow in the summer's fashion trends. ;)
- a little china box with a supercilious cat on it, filled with "golden" buttons
- twenty dollars
- a beautiful, golden, filigree dogwood-flower hairclip
- Bath & Bodyworks white citrus lotion
- eyeshadow especially formulated for hazel eyes (a girl on a campaign needs to feel beautiful, right? :)
- postage stamps
- and more. :)


Truly, it was the most wonderful parcel I've ever received. Most packages come to an end far too quickly, and with many of them you already knew what was coming. No such thing in this deal. And in addition, I had about 6  cards from various family and friends! Thank you everyone who contributed to making my birthday-away-from-home possibly one of the best ones I've ever had! I love you all, and I'll remember it for ever and always. :) <3