Guest Post from Christoph Fischer

Christoph Fischer was here last week with an interview and excerpt from his new novel, Time to Let Go, a book that deals with the issue of Alzheimer's disease. I'm glad to have him back today with a guest post in which he talks about the real woman who inspired his novel; Alzheimer's disease; the airlines industry (another subject of the book); and memory. As I mentioned in Christoph's previous post, my mother had Vascular dementia, a sister to Alzheimer's, and I can say firsthand that Christoph's observances are spot on. I'm happy to have Christoph here today to shed some light on the issue of dementia and to talk more about his book.

About the book:

Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.

Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer's disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.

The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

Guest Post by Christoph Fischer

“The Real Biddy Korhonen”

I grew up with only a few friends and with two older siblings who were miles ahead of me in their lives. My mother was a busy woman, and so I spent a lot of time at my aunt’s house. She had always wanted to have four children but lost one child at birth. Her other three children were much older and didn’t need her much anymore, so my visits to her house filled a gap for her, in the same way as her attention to me filled a need in me. A match made in heaven. 
Philomena, or Minna, as we called her, remained a source of happiness and encouragement throughout my life. I was always welcome and treated like a precious gift. She smoked, but she outlived both of her sisters (taken in their 40s by cancer). 


In her late 70s,  Minna was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Well, I thought, at least she lives, belittling her misfortune without much awareness.


The next time I saw her, her trademark happiness, however, seemed far away. She was crying bitterly because she had lost her hearing aid, a very expensive one, too. Suddenly her life seemed to revolve around retrieving things. She was spared the physical pain of her sisters, but she suffered severe mental torture.


She fortunately reached a happier stage as medication and care helped reduce the misery in her life, but the attention she needed was a huge toll to the family. Despite her memory loss, she seemed to vaguely recognise me; me, the ‘child’ that lived abroad and who rarely came to visit. She had not lost her warmth and happiness, or maybe she had just regained it after the bad patch I mentioned earlier.


Very recently I saw her again, almost unrecognisable: withdrawn, very unresponsive and almost reduced to basic functioning. Surprisingly, she could still read, and when I came to see her for a second time, her eyes shone as if she did recognise me. I spoke an emotional goodbye to her and her hand was shaky and excited as she listened to my speech. She even responded by talking, using words that didn’t fit exactly but which expressed an emotion similar to what one would expect from a loving aunt in such a situation.


With her loving kindness in mind I created Biddy, the mother in Time to let Go, a selfless, giving woman, who even in her illness manages to show her innate kindness. I know it would be wrong to praise her for a gift that many other patients do not have, through no fault of their own. Losing one’s memory and control of one’s life is a terrible thing that you can only understand when it happens to you.

Time to Let Go is partly meant as a tribute to my brave aunt and to the wonderful people who help make her life dignified and as happy as is possible.

***

Alzheimer's

My book is inspired by personal experiences with sufferers from the disease. Nowadays, almost everyone knows someone who has relatives with Alzheimer's and gradually stories and anecdotes about these patients have entered the social dinner party circuit and become common knowledge.

Alzheimer's is a dreadful disease that cannot be easily understood in its gravity and the complex, frustrating and far reaching consequences for the victims and their families. There are different stages of the disease as it progresses and patients can move through them at different paces and in varying intensity. My book does not attempt to be a complete representation or a manual of how to deal with the disease. The illness affects every patient differently and there are many stories to tell and many aspects to cover. I hope that I can bring some of those issues to the surface and help to make the gravity of the disease more prominent. I did, however, decide to stay firmly in fiction and family drama territory, and not to write a dramatized documentary on the subject.

I have witnessed several different approaches to handling the disease by both individuals and entire families, and I have learned that the people involved in every case need to work out what is best for them. In my book, a family work out their particular approach, which is right for them. They have different ideas about it and need to battle it out. These clashes fascinated me and I felt they were worth exploring.

Issues of caring at home, mobile care assistance or institutionalising patients are personal and, depending on where in the world you are, every family has very different options or limitations. The ending in my book must be seen in that context: as an individual ‘best’ solution that uniquely fits the Korhonen family.



As point of first reference and for a more comprehensive and scientific overview of information and help available, I recommend: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/ in the UK, and http://www.alz.org/ in the US. 
There are support groups, helplines, and many other sources available in most countries. These will be able to advise specifically for each  individual situation.
(Note from Amy: I found www.alz.org to be extremely helpful. I highly recommend it.)



I can also recommend Because We Care by Fran Lewis. This fantastic book has a comprehensive appendix with more or less everything you need to know about the disease: its stages, personal advice on caring, information, tools and help available in the US.

For consistency, I exclusively used material relating to a medium-advanced stage of the disease. To protect the privacy and dignity of the patients that inspired the story I have altered all of the events and used both first and secondhand experiences and anecdotes. Nothing in this book has actually happened in that way. Apart from some outer parallels between my characters and patients I witnessed, any similarities with real people, alive or dead, are coincidental and unintended.

*****

Airlines

The airline plot is not based on any real incident but is inspired by my own imagination. I used to work for an airline and so naturally, much of Hanna’s life is based on my own experience of 15 years flying. I lived with the awareness that every time a call bell goes off on a plane this could be a matter of life and death. What happens to Hanna in the book has never happened to me or anyone close to me. My flying life was not that extraordinary. Fortunately. 
But every year airline crew are retrained in emergency procedures and aviation medicine, and at least during those intense yearly re-training sessions, your mind cannot help considering the possibilities of such events.


The modern trend of the ‘suing- and compensation-culture’ and the extent of it in some cases worries me a little, which is why some of that concern found its way into the book.


The lifestyle of cabin crew and pilots is often falsely glorified as a glamorous string of free holidays and leisure. A recent crew strike in the UK has brought the profession into disrepute in the media as fat cats and lazy bones. My book aims to shed a bit of light on the realities of flying. I enjoyed the life and would not want to miss the experience, but it is a tough life that demands huge personal sacrifices and flexibility, sleep deprivation on a massive scale, and exposure to aggressive and abusive behaviour by a consumerist clientele. In the global trend of cost cutting, salaries are going down and what used to be a career is at risk of becoming a minimum wage job handed to people who have no experience and who have no incentive to give it their all.


My book is a tribute to my former colleagues in the airline industry, who, in my opinion, are unsung heroes and a bunch of wonderful, hard-working and very caring people.

*****

Memory 



What makes Alzheimer's so terrible? What is it that makes a memory so important to one’s life that people compare its horrors to pain-inflicting diseases like cancer? You are alive and physically well, you eat and function as a human, but as an Alzheimer patient you are bound to be suffering, frustrated, depressed and unhappy.


Of course it is ridiculous to compare the two diseases, but while a cancer patient has still their awareness and choices, the Alzheimer sufferer is losing the core of their being, everything they ever were. 


How can you define yourself if you cannot remember? You have had children, but you won’t recognise them. You won awards, had a successful career, made people happy, but you don’t know any of it. Who are you and what are you doing on the planet? Who are the people around you? As the disease progresses, these things become more intense and you can live in a mental prison of fear and disorientation. Your brain won’t do as you want it to. The fear of losing ‘it’ altogether, for some is impossible to bear. You are about to lose everything that was ever precious to you.


That thought is frightening to all of us. It can happen to all of us. The worst stage seems to be when patients still notice that something is wrong. We all know how annoying it is when we just put something down and don’t remember where. Imagine that happening to you all the time, every day, and you get an idea of how it might feel. The carers see their loved ones slowly drift away into a stranger.

Biddy’s husband Walter in my novel becomes obsessed with preserving memories – his own and others. He begins to write a family chronicle as a constructive outlet for his fears. He is an important character with his musings about preserving knowledge, memories and facts, and he allowed me to bring in thoughts about the disease on a different and more reflective level.

I hope that I have managed to write about more than just the clinical side of the disease. I stuck to the early stages of Alzheimer's in the story because it gave me the best opportunities to work these thoughts into the story. It allows me to look back at Biddy’s past but with still a lot of hope.


About the author:

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border. After a few years in Hamburg he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small hamlet, not far from Bath.  He and his partner have three Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in libraries, museums and for a major airline. He completed the historical Three Nations Trilogy last year, which included: The Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn.

Connect with Christoph:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | 
Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon

Did you know?
In addition to writing, Christoph and I have something else in common: we both own

Labradoodles. In fact, Wilma, one of Christoph's three Labradoodles, just had puppies (go to his Facebook page or his blog for adorable pictures!). This little nugget of trivia really isn't relevant to this blog, but the picture Christoph sent me is just too darn cute not to post. Congratulations, Papa Christoph!

And Christoph asked, and I delivered... here's an up close and personal  picture (left) of my Cooper.

Featured Author: Christoph Fischer

Christoph Fischer's fourth book, Time To Let Go, is a family drama that deals with the issue of Alzheimer's Disease. My mother, who recently passed away, had dementia, a sister to Alzheimer's, so I'm anxious to read this book. This is Christoph's fourth visit to A Blue Million Books. He's been here previously to talk about his Three Nations Trilogy, specifically, The Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn. Check out those features, and then check out the books. But first, read my most recent interview with Christoph and an excerpt from Time To Let Go.

About the book:

Following a traumatic incident at work, Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.

The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

Interview with Christoph Fischer

Christoph, what inspired you to write Time to Let Go?

I thought I knew a lot about Alzheimer’s and dementia until I finally got to witness the disease first-hand, about five years ago. I have seen some very different approaches as to how to best look after the victims. Caring at home or using professional help? That issue played a prominent part in my life. At the time of writing the book, I was working for an airline, which should explain the other parts of the story.

Who is your target audience?

Fans of family dramas will probably enjoy it the most. People who are unfamiliar with Alzheimer’s or the life of cabin crew may get some ideas of what is involved, whereas those already in the know hopefully might find it re-assuring and enjoyable.

How long did it take you to write this book?

I wrote the first draft within two months, in 2011. It was actually the third book I wrote, but I got carried away with the historical novels, and revisited Time To Let Go only when I needed a break from my war stories. Since November 2013, I have rewritten it about five times before giving it to the editors in March.

What do you hope readers will get from Time to Let Go?

I hope the book provides entertainment for its readers with some informative parts and a little food for thought. Understanding Alzheimer’s and what the sufferers and their families go through is only one aspect of the story. The life of flight attendants is something that many people have misconceptions about. 
Primarily however, the book remains a family drama. We all come to crossroads in our lives and need to make tough decisions. We hold on to things that we need to let go of, only we need to know what they are and when is the right time to do so.

Why did you decide to write Time To Let Go? Have you had any personal experience with Alzheimer’s patients?

Yes, my aunt, who played a very central role in my life, was diagnosed with it several years ago. I see her once or twice a year and have witnessed the progress of the disease and the way she is cared for over the course of time. I have also come in contact with a few other sufferers, although much more superficially.

Did you do much research for this book?

I read several books about the disease when my aunt was diagnosed, long before I thought about writing this book. A lot of the information was also collected from real life – first and second hand. In my life for the airline, I met many people and exchanged stories with them on long sleepless night flights: there was no shortage of material. I took a deliberate decision though, not to make a fictionalized documentary.
 The most difficult parts to research were police procedures and other details that play actually a very minor role in the book.

What was the most difficult scene or chapter to write?


The scene I am including as an excerpt. At a certain stage of Alzheimer’s, patients can get very repetitive, yet obsessive in their interactions. At that point, conversations with them can be very taxing. It was very hard to write that scene at the Korhonen kitchen table. I wanted to show the problem without losing the attention of my readers, I wanted to show Hanna and Walter’s different ways of handling it, while making sure that Biddy still remained a likeable character. 
I have witnessed many such moments in my life but needed to come up with something new and fictitious to protect the dignity and privacy of the people who inspired my story.

What’s your routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

I work best very early in the mornings, before the Internet wakes up and keeps me busy. I do need to take the dogs for a walk first though, or Molly will push my hands off the keyboard with her nose, Wilma will drop the ball in front of my feet every two seconds, and Greta will give me her most evil look.

You're a devoted dad! Where do you prefer to do your writing?

Anywhere quiet and secluded really. I have a small office which is away from everything else in the house.

Where’s home for you?

Home is wherever my partner and my dogs are. I have moved so many times in my life that I feel quite ungrounded, to be honest. I missed over twenty-four years in my hometown in Germany. It has changed so much, it feels somewhat strange to me now: the people and the culture (the language even) have evolved, leaving me confused in otherwise familiar surroundings. I spent nine years in London and will always feel home there to some degree, but not entirely. Where we live now, the deep West English countryside, is beautiful and very familiar, too, after 5 years, but there is not much of a community, so we could easily move somewhere else.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?

"He is not the Messiah, he is a very naughty boy." From Life of Brian, Monty Python.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Currently, I am binge-watching Dexter, a very gory TV series about a mass murderer and some more lighthearted comedy programs, such as Modern Family and Brooklyn 9-9. I love running, walking the dogs and lifting weights to balance the hours in front of the computer; I still have the addiction of reading books, and I enjoy just being completely silly with my friends.

You’re self-publishing this book. How has that process been for you?

The process has been amazing. I was lucky to have met helpful people who gave me good advice very early on in the process. In particular, I attended a self-publishing seminar in London and realized that the publishing industry has changed dramatically over the last decade. You are expected to do a lot of your marketing and social media platform work yourself. What some publishers offer may not be in your best interests; for example giving up the rights and control over your work and how it is promoted. I was lucky to have had the right help, the time to learn and to do it. 
It is a bit of an acquired taste, but now I absolutely enjoy doing it all by myself – of course with the help of wonderful friends I made on the way.

What have been the most effective marketing tools in promoting your books?

Book blogs and Twitter. I found that the second I stop tweeting, my sales drop. Via HootSuite, I have learned to catch the people who like or respond to my tweets, and I have made more helpful contacts that way than I would have dreamed. Many reviews and messages about my books suggest that readers found my books on other blogs, which is encouraging.

I noticed you have 18.5K Twitter followers. I know you’re a great guy with a charming personality, but seriously...how on earth does one get that many followers?

Weeks’ worth of continued hard labor on Twitter and HootSuite. Making your tweets interesting and not just hard sales of your own books but also about other books and issues I believe will keep you the followers that you gained. I interact with other twitter users and re-tweet their interesting tweets, which helps both parties to get attention from the other user’s followers.  Following the followers of similar authors can lead to reciprocation, and having my dogs in the profile picture helps, too. There are automated tools to take some of the workload off you, but since twitter has floated on the stock market and offers to ‘promote your account’ for cash, they are a little restrictive about this.

What are you working on now?

I am currently working on several projects. An epic historical novel set in Scandinavia, mainly Finland, from 1918 - 1950, currently with the working title In Search of a Revolution. It tells the story of two friends on opposing political sides and how their lives change during the various wars being fought in Europe during that era. I also just started writing a psychological thriller, currently called The Healer, which my partner had the idea for last week. I have not been able to stop writing it.

Other books by Christoph Fischer

Excerpt from Time To Let Go

Hanna looked around the room for inspiration, but all she could think of was the tried and trusted: “Is there anything interesting in the newspaper?”

“Yes. Let me have a look,” her mother said, as she folded the newspaper back to the front page and scanned the article in front of her with intense concentration.

“Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg...” Biddy began, and read the entire article remarkably well, without any errors.

After finishing Biddy asked: “What is the Taliban?”

Walter shot his daughter a warning look and shook his head.

“Oh, they are politicians,” Hanna said vaguely. “A lot of people do not like them.”

“Ah, politics,” she replied. She hesitated for a moment then she went back to the paper.
“Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg...”

“Is everything ok with you?” Walter asked his daughter whispering so as not to disturb his wife’s reading.

“Oh yes, all good,” she nodded enthusiastically.

Walter turned away from the stove and looked at her intently.

“There’s something you’re not telling me. I’m not stupid!”

“There is nothing going on that you should be concerned about,” Hanna said, shifting in her seat. “You are doing a fantastic job looking after mother. Stick to that as your family duty. I can manage my life. I am 40 years old, for crying out loud.”

“Who is the Taliban?” Biddy interrupted.

“They are politicians,” Hanna repeated.

“What kind of politicians?”

“Not very nice ones,” Hanna replied. “A lot of people don’t like them.”

“Ah,” Biddy nodded, looking at the paper. Then she turned back to Hanna and asked “Who is it that the people don’t like?”

“The Taliban, Biddy.”

“Who is the Taliban?”

“They are politicians.”

“Hanna save yourself the effort, you are hardly going to teach her about world politics now,” Walter said, but Hanna ignored him.

“What kind of politicians?” Biddy asked again.

“You don’t need to worry about them,” Hanna put her comforting hand on her mother’s shoulder. “The government is dealing with them. They have no relevance to you or me.”

“Are you sure?” Biddy was shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

Hanna pressed harder on her mother’s shoulder.

“Quite sure.”

“Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg...”

“I admire your endurance,” Walter said, blatantly talking over his wife now from the stove. “If I were you I would just steer the conversation to something else. Why should she concern herself with the Taliban?”

“Why should she concern herself with anything these days?” Hanna shot back. “It doesn’t really matter what she engages with. As long as she interacts and asks questions I am glad for her.”

“You can only confuse her by talking about abstract things like that. Keep it simple.”

“I am not going to discourage her if she shows interest in something. I just want her to feel valued, surely that is worth a few repetitive moments.”

“We’ll see how you feel when you have done this for a week, or a month,” Walter said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love your patience. Just don’t burn yourself out.”

About the author:

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border. After a few years in Hamburg he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small hamlet, not far from Bath.  He and his partner have three Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in libraries, museums and for a major airline. He completed the historical Three Nations Trilogy last year, which included: The Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn.



Connect with Christoph:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | 
Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon 

Talking With Candace George Thompson

 
I'm happy to have Candace George Thompson here today to talk about her new biography, Still Having Fun, A Portrait of the Military Marriage of Rex and Bettie George, 1941 - 2007.

About the book:

This biography of a military marriage which lasted from 1941 until 2007 includes everything from letters written in war zones to photographs that chronicle the lives and romance of Rex and Bettie George. Written after their deaths, Still Having Fun is a moving testament to the character and resilience of American military families, with 55 photos and illustrations.


Welcome, Candace. Tell me how long you've been writing, and how did you start?

I’ve written articles for employee newsletters – or “house organs,” as they were called. (That term always amuses me.) I wrote an e-zine for my clients when I had an executive coaching practice.

Until after my parents died and I was re-reading my mother’s letters from Okinawa, I had never even considered writing a book.

How did you come up with the title of your book?

When Alzheimer’s disease began to steal my mother’s independence, my father became her sole caretaker. He shopped, cooked, cleaned, and did the laundry. He dressed her, fixed her hair, and applied her make-up. He wore himself out. Whenever we expressed concern about how he was holding up, he always replied, “We’re still having fun.” I considered lots of other possible titles, but “Still Having Fun” seemed to be the best description of how my parents chose to live their lives.

That is so beautiful. I know firsthand that being the caretaker of someone with dementia can be brutal. I love the pictures on your cover. Tell me how you came up with the cover art.
On my Facebook author page, I had used a 1950 photo of my parents, taken at the original Knotts Berry Farm in southern California - when it really was a farm, not an amusement park. They are posing behind cardboard old-fashioned wedding clothes. To me, the shot shows that Rex and Bettie had always liked to have fun.

When my publisher asked me what I wanted on the cover, I told her I liked that snapshot, but was concerned because it was black and white. “I’ve got some ideas,” she said, “let me play with it.” She came back with the title in gold script, which fit with the old-fashioned tone of the photo, and she photo-shopped a picture of me into the cameo frame in the background. Very clever, I think. Then she put color photos on the back cover.

I worked with Mary Catharine Nelson at Published by Westview. She was terrific. When I first looked at their website I noted that they had an artist available, with one caveat: She wouldn’t do cows! What a hoot! I was tempted to test that, but never did. No cows in my book. That did help me make my decision about Westview, though. A little sense of humor can go a long way in making a person comfortable.

Are you like your mother and father at all?

I sure am. I inherited my mother’s love of rhyming and singing, and, like her, I pop out of bed in the morning, eagerly anticipating the new day. She taught me to treat all people with respect and kindness, and I hope I’m living up to her standards.

My father ingrained in me the value of self-sufficiency. I can’t say that I even come close to having all the life-skills that he developed, but I can thank him for insisting I learn to type, drive, and cook. Despite his military background and sometimes gruff demeanor, he enjoyed being silly and loved a good joke. When he was deployed to Okinawa right before Mother was due to deliver my sister Jennifer, he sent Mother a photo of himself doing a headstand. He was the first to put on a pig nose for a family portrait. “Silly” is one of my core values.

What song would you pick to go with your book?

Oh, this is a hard one. Songs and song-cues were part of my family’s fiber. I guess I would pick “Far Away Places.” The lyrics personify my parents’ adventuresome spirit and their desire to get to know people from different backgrounds. “I’m going to China or maybe Siam. I wanna see for myself, those far away places with the strange sounding names, calling, calling me.”

Lucky for you, Amy, that this interview isn’t being recorded, because I’m now singing that song. (Written in 1948 by Joan Whiting and Alex Kramer and covered by just about every singer of the period.)

Who are your favorite authors?

Having been a Spanish Lit major in college and lived in Venezuela and Mexico, I try to read everything put out by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julia Alvarez, and Isabel Allende. I used to be able to read them in Spanish, but I’m a bit rusty at this point. Luis Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter is also on my read pile.


What are your favorite books or favorite authors?
I still have one of my very early books, Geraldine Belinda, by Marguerite Henry.  Published in 1942, it was given to me for Christmas in 1947 by my Aunt Annetta when we were stationed in occupied Okinawa Japan.
   
Geraldine Belinda Marybel Scott saved her pennies and now has 25. “And what a lot of things twenty-five pennies could buy!” She makes a list and goes shopping at Mr. Tweedle’s notion shop. Feeling quite the grown-up with her purchases wrapped in a brown paper horn, she ignores her friends as she walks home “with her nose in the air.” Her toys fall out of the package as she hurries past them, but her friends find her purchases and return them to her.

The moral of the story – which I remember to this day – is, “Don’t put on airs when you have pennies to spend – for you never can tell how the story will end.”


What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

Much of my reading of late has been works of fellow members of writers groups I belong to. Some are in e-book form, others are paperback. I’m about halfway through the e-book edition of a beautiful story by a fellow Military Writers Society of America member, Bonnie Latino, called Your Gift to Me. And I just finished a delightful paperback mystery you might be familiar with: Murder and Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction.

I have heard of that one! I hear the author is brilliant. How do you handle criticism of your work?

I use it. A couple of my early readers, a history prof and an editor I’ve never met, gave me invaluable feedback that definitely improved and enriched Still Having Fun.

Where’s home for you?

I live in a high-rise in Chicago. I love city living.

I was just in Chicago last summer. It's a fun town. Want to see my vacation pictures? Just kidding. I'll only bore you with one. Tell us one weird thing, one nice thing, and one fact about where you live.

Hmmm. Well, it’s pretty weird to have beavers in the landlocked, man-made pond near us, but somehow they find the place! Usually they are quickly removed before they take down too many trees, but a couple times they’ve stayed, built lodges and had young.

The really nice thing is that we can walk to shops, restaurants and theatres. And, Lincoln Park, which goes along the shoreline of Lake Michigan for several miles north of the city center, is across the street, so I can enjoy birds and squirrels on my morning walks.

Chicago is the best live theatre city in the country.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I’m planning on staying right here in Chicago. It’s an excellent place to age – good public transportation, hospitals, and you can get anything delivered to your door. A few weeks in Mexico during February makes the winter more bearable.

I'm a fan of quotes. What’s one of your favorites?

“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity,” by Horace Mann, first president of my alma mater, Antioch College, in his commencement address to the 1859 graduating class. This is now the college motto and has been repeated to every graduating class since.

What three books have you read recently and would recommend?
   
You mean besides Murder and Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction?

Oh yes, besides GPJ. Which, by the way is still just ninety-nine cents for Kindle. (She says with a cheesy grin.)

Gated Grief - The Daughter of a GI Concentration Camp Liberator Discovers a Legacy of Trauma, by Leila Levinson.

How Can You Mend This Purple Heart, by T.L. Gould, a moving story of severely wounded Vietnam Vets.

Lead Us Not into Temptation, Volume I of The Lord’s Prayer mystery series, by Richard Davidson. I find it amazing how much history one can learn from a good mystery writer. I’ve just purchased the next 3 volumes in the series.

Last question. What are you working on now?

I’m mostly in the marketing mode right now, but I’ve been writing articles and essays hoping to be able to place them in newspapers and magazines. An essay about my father, “Devotion,” is in the recently published Military Writers Society of America’s themed anthology titled, Silent Battlefields, and a piece about the gracious and generous Mexican people, based on my 45+ years of visiting their fair country, was accepted for inclusion in Coast Lines 2, a judged anthology produced by the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group.

Congratulations! And thanks for being here, Candace.



About the author:

I'm the daughter of a 30-year career Air Force officer whose first mission as a B-24 navigator was on D-Day. I was born in Kentucky, as were both my parents and like most service families, ours moved frequently. (My guess is that I “lived” in Kentucky only a week or two.) By the time I started 10th grade, I had changed schools 13 times.
After college graduation with a B.A. in Spanish Lit from Antioch College, I served in Venezuela as a Peace Corps volunteer. My rootless way of life continued upon my return - Vermont, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, and New Jersey.

My husband and I have now lived in Chicago for over 30 years - eight times longer than any other place. I'm happy to have finally found a home. I love Chicago!
My interests include reading, writing, sharing a good meal with friends, laughing, early morning walks, rock and roll, squirrels and penguins, Mexico, weird tidbits of information, and last but not least, my wonderful, supportive husband.

Connect with Candace:

Website (under construction)

Facebook page

Amazon Paperback and Kindle versions, both with 55 photos and illustrations.