See that red dot? That’s right about where I want to be this minute.
We made that drive at least three times a year from 1981 to 1999, and I get just as homesick for the Vicksburg, Mississippi Welcome Center as I do for that house on Collins Drive. They have good Cokes!
That red dot is about where the Alabama stretch of the trip gets interesting to me, and about where Mom and I always got punchy from driving all night without stopping. We’ve certainly had some unforgettable happenings. Not the least of which being the time a tire blew out and sent us careening into a ravine outside of Jackson, Mississippi.
Our car flipped three times before wrapping around a tree. I had been asleep, and woke up upside down with Mom calling my name from the backseat. We walked away from that one, and Grandma and Boom came to pick us up. We rode the rest of the way to Georgia in their Crown Vic, Boom driving, holding Mom’s hand, me in the backseat with my head on Grandma’s lap.
Every trip after that, we’d watch for the spot where we had skinned the shoulder and taken down a few trees, and we always stopped at a gas station just above the hotel where we had waited for Grandma and Boom to arrive.
I really miss making that trip, but there’s no one Home now. All my grandparents are gone, the houses are sold, and other people are building memories in the backyards where I grew up. That’s good. But, I still miss Home.
Are you tired of product recommendations yet? Sorry! I have a new one.
I dislike a lot of foundation because, first, it is hard for me to find a good match, and I am extremely picky about how products feel on my face. I want a nice, smooth look, but I don’t want it to feel like I’m wearing a mask. In general, I stick to powder foundations that just even out color and oil, but now and then I want a real foundation.
On a whim, I bought the lightest shade available of the Maybelline Dream Nude Airfoam foundation, and I really like it! It goes on like a mousse, wears light and dry, but is heavy enough that I get real coverage. The color wears pretty true to what is advertised, my skin feels soft without being tacky, or gritty to the touch. I’m going to give it 4.75 out of 5 stars. I’d still like it to be a shade lighter!
It’s acting awards season, and I worked at the SAG Awards viewing party in Dallas, last night. So many pretty dresses. You know what I like? A really good acceptance speech. Jennifer Lawrence is racking up points in that arena for me. I want someone else to write Anne Hathaway’s for her, though.
Of course the focus on Hollywood is timely to the book I am reading. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright is turning out to be equal parts interesting, uncomfortable, and horrifying. Interesting because most religions are, and certainly a religion so recently founded that we have megatons of historic evidence both for and against makes this one, and its followers fascinting. Uncomfortable because I recognize so much of my ease into indoctrinated zealotry in how so many of the subjects became Scientologists. Horrifying because of the abuses heaped on the followers, especially the children of congregants.
There isn’t any such thing as a logical religion, so I do my best not to knock beliefs, whether they have to do with giant space clams, invisible patriarchs, or wood elves, and remind myself that people choose religions based on what is a salve to their souls. What bothers me is when people are so cowed by indoctrination that they accept abuse as an integral part of the culture, and are willing to participate in it because it is what their god wants for them to teach them a lesson.
I have a lot of issues with the idea of gods using pain to teach lessons. God is not Chris Brown, though a lot of faithful men and women seem to have battered wife syndrome.
I am very excited to have Lyndee Walker back on The Outside Lane, with another great interview for the launch of her fantastic mystery, Front Page Fatality. I am so excited for you all to read the first of the trilogy!
LynDee’s first novel! See below for buying links.
LW: Thank you so much for having me back on TOL, Lane! It’s always such fun to visit with you.
TOL: We’re always glad to have you here, LynDee! Let’s start with a hardball question: We’ve seen a lot of horrific True Crime in the U.S. since you last visited the TOL, and I know you were in process of completing the second Nichelle novel. How does reality affect the world you are creating for your characters?
LW: Reality and headlines do affect Nichelle’s world, because her stories are intended to be a fun escape, and exploring topics that are too close to a big recent story makes them … not a fun escape. Of course there’s crime, because they’re mysteries centered on a crime reporter, but there’s also romance, friendship, and humor. One of the things I love about writing fiction is that I can control the headlines and the happy endings (most of the time. Sometimes my imaginary friends go off on their own merry way and I’m left following suit and taking notes).
The Headlines in Heels mysteries are not serious literary reads: they’re light, easy and fun, because that’s what I like to read. There’s enough serious, depressing stuff in real life. At the very least, when Nichelle has serious problems, I get to throw in something funny to help the reader out.
TOL: Nichelle’s problems are even a little funny. How “alive” are your characters to you?
LW: I sometimes forget they’re not actual people when I’m talking about them. I have lived with these same characters in my head for so long, that they are, indeed, just short of living and breathing to me. And as such, they are imperfect and complex, but (most of them) have good hearts and try to be better people each day, just like you and I.
TOL: You’ve lived with these characters in your head, demanding to be introduced to the world. Writers write because they have to–it’s a force of nature. What do you hope to accomplish through your writing?
LW: First, to keep my sanity. You are absolutely right—when I’m not working on something, I get grouchy and miserable to be around. I write because I have such a passion for it. I’m so glad I’ve found such an amazing publishing house to work with in sharing Nichelle’s stories with the world, but they’d pile up in my hard drive if I hadn’t, because I love Nichelle and her friends and her world.
What I hope to accomplish for my readers is to give them a fun, entertaining escape from their real world for a few hours at a time, and to make them laugh. My very favorite books are the ones where I can fall in love with the characters, get so engrossed in the story I forget to eat, and laugh with them along the way. So if I can do that for my readers, I have accomplished my goal.
TOL: What do you want for Nichelle in the future of her story, and what do you want for Nichelle in YOUR future?
LW: I want for Nichelle what any of us wants for a good friend: for her to find true happiness, whatever that looks like for her. This minute, I’m not sure what that will be. She thinks she wants to go to D.C. and work at the Post, and maybe she really does, but I think we’ve all had goals that we wanted for so long we failed to account for the idea that we might already have something better. She wants to fall in love, and in book two, her possibilities for that are getting more interesting, but I’m not sure which guy she’s going to choose.
For my future? I hope people like Nichelle enough for me to get to keep writing about her for years to come. I have so many stories already in my head, and I’d love to have the chance to share them with her fans.
TOL: Play favorites for a moment. Who are your three favorite characters in Front Page Fatality, and what is it that makes them so dear to you?
LW: Oh, it’s like asking me to choose a favorite child! Well, except for Shelby. I really don’t like her. And there is one that I can’t mention because it’s a spoiler for folks who haven’t read the book. Only three? Okay, here goes:
Nichelle, of course, because she’s smart, funny, and had a heart as big as a spring Texas sky. She loves her job, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t parts of it that are uncomfortable for her. She’s a good person, but that doesn’t mean she can’t make mistakes. Plus, she has a fantastic shoe collection, and she can run in Louboutins. Who can resist a girl who can run in Louboutins?
Bob, because he’s everything a newspaper editor should be. He’s loyal to his staff, but hard on them. He demands excellence and accuracy. He stands between his reporters and the number crunchers to the best of his ability, in an age when those lines are getting more and more blurred because newspapers are struggling. He’s an old-school journalist who believes reporting is a noble profession that can serve the community, and knows that sometimes, some things are best kept quiet.
Lila, because she’s a lot like my mom. Spunky, funny, and still just a bit overprotective of her grown-up daughter.
TOL: Thank you so much, LynDee! Now, tell us where we can buy the books.
LW: Front Page Fatality goes on sale at midnight (1/28/13), and the ebooks are specially priced through February 28, for only $2.99!
And if you have an apple device, you can find it in the iBookstore.
You can find me online at http://www.lyndeewalker.com (sign up for the quarterly newsletter in the right margin to stay up-to-date on news about me and Nichelle).
LynDee Walker
I also hang out a lot on Facebook (www.facebook.com/lyndeewalkerbooks) and twitter (@LynDeeWalker).
Thanks so much, again, for having me, Lane! I had a blast, as always!
I hate when my hair gets brassy. On a whim, while getting Thor’s hair cut the other day, I picked up a value set of Joico products. This set contained the Color Endure Violet shampoo and conditioner, and two deep conditioning therapy products. I used it for the first time yesterday, and thought nothing of it until after Thor grabbed a handful of my hair and said, “Did you make your hair lighter?” I said no, and he said, “It looks white instead of yellow.” Um, yay!
And he was right. My hair did look a lot less brassy. The product wore well on my scalp. I was sweating all day and my scalp still wasn’t greasy tonight (but I washed it anyway.) I tried one of the deep repair products tonight, and I’ll let you know how that wears tomorrow. Conditioners tend to turn me into a greaseball if I’m not careful.
This is what it looks like. Click the picture to find out more about Joico products and where to buy them.
One of the things I learned from my father is that if I want something, I can probably make it. And, I can probably make it out of something I have lying around the house.
I have wanted a laundry hanging rack for a long time, possibly since childhood as I was riveted by an illustration of a little girl hanging her doll’s clothes on a mini rack in one of my Little Golden Books. I have never had one. I did buy a couple of different kinds of clothes racks, but those never fit into my little laundry areas, and they broke down easily. I hadn’t given up on the idea, but it’s been on the back burner.
Today, when I was cleaning out the garage, I found some of the shower rods I had brought from the old house. I had taken the door off my closet in that house (because it opened into the closet and took away 1/2 of my space), and I had used a shower rod to hang a curtain across the doorway. I had also made another closet in the master bath in an alcove that I think was meant to be a shower stall, and used another shower rod to hang a curtain to partition that off. You can do a lot with a shower rod. Having found those, I got to work.
I used lightweight chain meant for planters, and screwed it in to the bottom of the shelving units, then hung my shower rods. I put one over the washer, specifically for holding the empty hangers, and one off to the side of the dryer, where I will hang clothes as they come out it.
Not bad for someone who is just working with a little pink toolkit! Maybe I should ask for a tablesaw for Christmas?
The Outside Lane 