Zora Neale Hurston Quote

Folklorist, anthropologist, novelist, and short story writer Zora Neale Hurston was born in Alabama on this date in 1891. 

One of her quotes:

"If writers were too wise, perhaps no books would get written at all. It might be better to ask yourself "Why?" afterwards than before. Anyway, the force from somewhere in Space which commands you to write in the first place, gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you." 

Zora passed away from heart disease on January 28, 1960, and was buried in Fort Pierce, Florida, in an unmarked grave. In 1973, novelist Alice Walker and literary scholar Charlotte Hunt found the unmarked grave and marked it as hers. 

The 2012 Academy Awards

I'm thrilled that Woody Allen won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for Midnight in Paris. I blogged about my admiration for the film on Women of Mystery in January.

How wonderful that Christopher Plummer finally gets to take home the Oscar. I loved his acceptance speech the most. Such class!

I'm glad I got to see The Artist, the Best Picture winner. I took my teenage daughter to see it ~ we absolutely loved it. After it ended, I asked her, "Well ~ what do you think for Best Picture? Midnight in Paris, Hugo, or The Artist?" since we had seen and loved all of them, and we knew it would be a tough decision. We were stumped.

A theatre patron on the way in as we were heading out asked if we liked it. Her hesitation, as I've heard from so many others, was that it was a "silent" film. We reassured her that she would enjoy it thoroughly. When you think about it, there is no other way to honor the silent film era but to make a silent film, and in black and white.

During the Oscar telecast, my husband keenly noticed a cameo of Jim Parsons, the extremely talented, multi-award-winning actor who portrays Dr. Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory, during an extremely brief video clip of the winning Best Original Song, "Man or Muppet." If you're a fan of the show, you'll love the video -- it's awesome.

Available for a limited time, you can watch the Oscar-winning "Best Animated Short Film," The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. 

For a complete list of winners, click here.

Did you watch the Oscars? Did any of your favorites win? Didn't Angelina Jolie look ridiculous as she awkwardly stood with her right leg sticking out of the slit in her dress while presenting? It didn't take long for @AngiesRightLeg to pop up on Twitter (which currently has more than 13,000 followers).

Jerry Seinfeld Personal Archives

Seinfeld fans, rejoice!

Visit www.JerrySeinfeld.com to view three video "bits," chosen from Jerry's 30 years of comedy. The clips will only be available for 24 hours before Jerry chooses three new clips. Check Jerry's tour dates to see if he's coming to a city near you.

In 1989, my brother asked if I had seen The Seinfeld Chronicles; I hadn't. When the show later became simply known as Seinfeld, he'd ask, "Are you watching Seinfeld yet?" and I'd say, "No...I haven't gotten around to it yet," because of my alternating shifts. He'd insist, "You have to watch it!" I'd say, "Yeah, yeah...one of these days."

I finally caught my first episode in late 1992, and it turned out to be "The Contest," which later won an Emmy.  I immediately knew what my brother had been talking about. I called him and went on about how much I loved Seinfeld. I've been watching it ever since.

I lost my brother ten years ago this month. He was 37 years old when he was killed in a motorcycle accident on May 20, 2001. He is missed dearly.

When I watch Seinfeld, I feel like my brother's laughing right alongside me. It's a great comfort.

Follow the official Seinfeld page on Facebook. You can catch re-runs on TBS.

Tuesday Twosome

It's time for "Tuesday Twosome" at Women of Mystery.

If you're game, post two sentences you've read recently, and two that you've written, and notify Clare, my blogmate at Women of Mystery. She'll update her post to include a link to yours -- or you can join in here, if you like!

Or, simply add it in the comments.

Two from "The Story of the Stabbing" by Joyce Carol Oates, from The Dark End of the Street: New Stories of Sex and Crime by Today's Top Authors, edited by Jonathan Santlofer and S. J. Rozan:

Rhonda knew better than to draw attention to herself, however -- though Daddy loved his sweet little pretty girl Daddy could be harsh and hurtful if Daddy was displeased with his sweet little pretty girl so Rhonda fixed for herself a very thick sandwich of Swedish rye crisp crackers and French goat cheese to devour in a corner of the room looking out onto a bleak rain-streaked street not wanting to think how Daddy knew, yes Daddy knew but did not care.

That was the terrible fact about Daddy -- he knew, and did not care.

***

Two from my WIP, a true crime memoir:

When I tell the Reach to Recovery volunteer from the American Cancer Society that we intend to talk with our children about my breast cancer, she suggests discussing the subject of death, for this particular reason: if a child tells a classmate that his or her mom has breast cancer, the classmate may reply: "My mom had it, too, but she died."

Her point is well-taken; one of my son's first-grade classmates had already lost her mother to breast cancer -- and three years from now, the disease will claim yet another classmate's mother.

***

Two Sentence Tuesday

Today is Two Sentence Tuesday at Women of Mystery -- if you're unfamiliar with this weekly event, here's how it works: Either on your own blog or in the comment section at WoM, post two sentences you've read, and two sentences you've written. It's that easy!

Two from the 2010 Best Mystery Novel Macavity Award winner, TOWER by Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman:

Grayness burned away by the sun like a match through dark acetate. Still cold as an icehouse, but to feel the sun on my face was redemption, if only temporary.

Two from my true crime memoir, A Perfect Night for Murder -- still a W-I-P!

Throughout dozens of interviews, a single thread pierced the fabric of every conversation concerning communication between family members, spouses, children, friends, and neighbors of the historic harbor enclave in the 1950s: residents simply avoided talking about unpleasant or uncomfortable things — as if they didn’t exist.

I also learned that infidelity, spousal and child abuse, and alcoholism was rampant; these painful experiences created silent suffering for its victims.

Join us ~ share 2 + 2, this and every Tuesday. If you've been been meaning to write, this gives you a great excuse to get to it -- at the very least, two sentences -- and you never know where that might lead!

Two Sentence Tuesday

I also blog at Women of Mystery, where every Tuesday is "Two Sentence Tuesday." We invite you to participate by posting two sentences you read, along with two you wrote, by either including them in the comments section or providing a link where they can be found.

Here are two that I read, in The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer by Sandra Scofield:

Sometimes writing is exploring in the dark, the gathering of evidence of a story yet unseen, the story that is in you where you can't yet touch it. There are instances when you fly blind and trust your characters to tell you what they want to do.

Here are two I've written during revisions of my true-crime memoir:

The police rounded up several "characters" and questioned them at the Commack barracks.

A clammer, "Rheingold" Jarvis (so named for buying a six-pack of Rheingold the minute he earned enough to buy one), was asked, "Where were you on Saturday night?" to which Rheingold replied with a puzzled look on his face, "What day is it today?"

For more "Two Sentence Tuesday," visit Women of Mystery.