Musings, Mother's Day, and the Morning After the Party...

By Nancy Northcott and Jeanne Adams

(A Blog Post in which we let our thoughts range far and wide in honor of the after-effects from yesterday's party, which have led to what one might call lack of focus. *g*)

So, Nancy, the party in the Lair yesterday was of legendary proportions. Tough act to follow.

Yes. I'm propping my eyelids open today. But it was fun.

I know. Me too. Ye Olde Mother's Day Breakfast in bed helped with the wake-up call after all that partying (thanks dears!) but...oooh...the morning after!

BTW, that picture on the right there? That's the only Lair trash can that isn't filled to overflowing today. I think it got used for something else *wiggles eyebrows, looks innocent*, then replaced on the grounds, otherwise it would be full too. Y'know, it's those kind of celebrations that leave you in need of a break with a great book, a cup of tea - or whatever your sovereign hangover remedy is - and some quiet.

Breakfast in bed. *sigh* I love breakfast in bed, or even breakfast out if it can be more like brunch, but quiet isn't on our agenda today. My guys are taking me to Iron Man 2, which doesn't appear to be your basic quiet movie. Then I have papers to grade, with exams coming up this week. But I have plenty of reading and videos to catch up on once I turn in my grades. I plan to veg for a couple of days before kicking back into high gear on my ms. What're you doing today?

*Wince* Jeez Nancy. You are a stronger woman than I am, I tell ya'. Your "veg plan" is on target though. I did that after I turned in my latest book - which I had unaffectionately dubbed the "book that would not end" - I loved the freedom to just READ! Of course, I'm now enjoying an exploration of research books for the next manuscript I'm writing. I always want books, both to read for fun and to read for info, don't you? As for today, I'm going to work in the yard! In amongst that, I'm going to pop in here and talk about books and stuff, which is just a lovely way to spend the day!

No matter how many books I have, I can always find more I want. The dh is going to London without me and the boy--couldn't make the family trip thing work--and I'm giving him a list of books and other things to bring back. The research geek in me loves the Osprey publishing company's fabulous military history lines, so the dh will have a list of those titles to obtain if he can. Foyle's bookstore on Charing Cross Road (or should I say "in" Charing Cross Road, for Vrai Anna?) used to have an entire wall of Osprey, so I have hopes.

Oh, I am so jealous! Okay, I'm jealous on several counts, that you might have gone to England, and that despite not going, you'll still get books. And Osprey books at that! (We Boom Girls love our Janes and Osprey books!) What other things is he looking for, for you?

Janes does books? Really? Like what? There's a new book about Georgette Heyer's Regency world that looks interesting. There's also a new book out--I forget the title, of course, will need to find that before he leaves--about leisure and recreation in London. Looks great but a bit on the pricey side. And I have a weakness for Lilliput Lane cottages, which used to be easier to find over here than they now are. So I want him to bring me one, the kind with a thatched roof and an old feel to it.

Ooh, I'll bet that's fun. *looking up Lilliput Lane Cottages* (see picture for an example - pretty cool!) As to books, I'm looking at a fabulous book on swords, but it too is pricey. Wish we'd though of posting this BEFORE Mother's Day! Hahaha! Then there's the one on dragons, the other one on caves and rock formations in New England and another absolutely gorgeous book on Byzantine art. Food for the soul, I tell you! And yes, Janes does books - military history, planes, tanks, etc.

Do you use maps? I've gotten into using maps for plotting stories. Historical maps are harder to find, but they're out there. Meanwhile, Ordnance Survey or USGS maps can help my brain slot into a contemporary setting.

I do use maps and I adore them. There's an ADC Map store in downtown DC that I just love to go into. They have old maps, new maps, maps of bizarre locations - Mayan temple structures, anyone? - and even maps of walking paths in England. There's also a fabulous old bookstore around this area that has out of print books, including gazetteers for a lot of the US and the UK.

You have these fabulous stores near you, and you didn't take me there when we were in DC last year? Bummer! We'll have to rectify that sometime.

Absolutely! You must come visit and we'll say to heck with the monuments, let's go book shopping! Grins. You know, so many books and bookstores, so little time! Maybe this summer?

I'd love that! One of the best simpatico moments the dh and I had early on was when we were having champagne brunch at the top of the San Francisco Hilton on the first morning after our wedding, looked down to the street, and saw a bookstore! Yes! Went directly there after.

At the end of the month, we celebrate the boy's last day of school for this year. We'll go to his favorite restaurant, and then I guess it'll be his turn to veg out for a few days. It's hard for me to accept that he's almost through high school and looking at colleges. It doesn't seem so long ago that the doctor laid him in his daddy's arms for the first time, and this tiny hand stretched up toward the dh's face--with fingers just like his father's. Now his voice is in the bass range, he plays a guitar, and we're doing the driving thing. And I get to be the honoree on Mothers Day (with boom, of course, in the form of Iron Man).

Isn't that funny, the voice change thing? And no surprise he's a book lover too. My boys are fortunately turning out to be book lovers as well. Now, we're still in the Star Wars Readers stage, combined with books on baseball and lizards. It's hard enough to believe mine are 5 and 10, so don't scare me with the high school/college thing, okay? It flies fast enough as it is.

Believe me, looking back from the far end, it flies faster than you know. Do your guys have the Dorling Kindersley Star Wars books? The boy had a bunch of them, big pictures, schematics, lots of detail. D-K has such great basic references on a variety of subjects.
We love, love, love the DK books. They are outstanding. Just enough facts without being overwhelming. Lots of photos for us visual stimulus readers. Wonderful stuff. Did you have a favorite parenting book? We did, it was called On Becoming Babywise, by Ezzo. I give it to every new mother I know, and some I don't! Ha! My other favorite is for the age I have now, and it's called The Way they Learn by Cynthia Tobias. Fabulous book on helping your kids learn.
The parenting book we used was a medical guide for infants and young children, which also had developmental milestones in it. We didn't have a general advice one except I think we had What to Expect the First Year, or something like that. Very helpful. But y'know, Mothers Day is about US.

So true, oh wise one. Grins.

The kids, well, they're just the vehicles that got us here on Mother's day, so to speak, so let's talk our reading for a few minutes. I love discovering new authors, and I recently finished Kathleen Nance's Dragon Unmasked, a paranormal with mages. I liked it a lot, and there's an earlier one. Got to go find that.

Cool! I just found a new one that I'd thought would never come out. It's Elizabeth Moon's continuation of her trilogy, The Deed of Paksenarrion. It's called Oath of Fealty and so far, it's fab-u-lous!

So what about you, gentle readers, are you also feeling the effects of the major PAR-TAY!?

Got a sovereign hangover remedy?

If your brain is compos mentis enough, riddle us this....What do you like in research material? Where do you go for those books? the library, the archives, the map store?

And if you got breakfast in bed - or are going to, like me - what did you have?

What's hot on your to-read-right-NOW list?

Have you seen Iron Man 2 and what did you think?

For those of you with kids, Happy Mothers Day! For those with Fur Children, let us say, for them (and I quote) BARK! BARK! MEOW! PURRRRRR! Which translated is, thank you and happy fur-mother's day. Grins.

For those of you without either, how about that sovereign hangover rememdy?