I spent last weekend in San Francisco, visiting my eldest son and his wife in their new home. Well, it's new to them. It was actually built in 1906 - right after the big earthquake. They purchased the home right around Christmas of last year. Stay with me here...
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| Max and Sophie enjoyed the view from the front porch, but were dismayed when they found out that they would have to spend the weekend sitting on the floor. |
Both my son and his wife are hard working computer-y types and are able to afford to live in a nice neighborhood in an expensive city.
Dr. van der Stevejinck and I loaded up our great socking Bentley minivan with our two youngest sons (ages 18 and 22) plus air mattresses and bedding for the entire crew. Because my eldest and his wife are new to home ownership, I didn't mind bringing our own sleeping arrangements. My son did mention we should bring chairs. "Chairs?" I said to my husband, "I refuse to haul chairs 800+ miles. Each way."
Yeah.
Had I known that my son and his wife only have TWO pieces of furniture in their house, I would definitely have tossed a couple of camping chairs in.
One of the things that I really love about books like Fate Takes a Hand, is the housekeeping details. Even the most destitute of orphans can manage to have a table and chair or two. Sure the chairs might be wobbly (especially when sat upon by vast RDDs), but they have them.
The Heir's home does share something in common with Lally's - the historical angle - no exterior improvements without the planning commission's go ahead. Lucky for him he already has bathrooms.
-Betty Debbie
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| We had to shoot a pack mule. |
Working title: The Doctor and the Hot Flower Girl (Call agent and demand Harlequin stop slapping my novels with bland and taupe-y titles!)
Heroine:
Debits:
Assets: Built like a brick-house,
Hero:
Debits: Short, Skinny, Bad Career (He's a junior executive at a greetings card firm...), Small-minded and bony-chested fiancee (Sarah (Much too nice-sounding. I want something that says, 'I lop the tops off daffodils in the springtime because they look happy.') Ursula)
Assets: Deeply romantic nature, enduring honesty, willingness to lie like a trooper, a libido, likes children, has cash
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| Eulalia, flower shop girl by day, Goddess of Spring by night |
Set-Up: Simple (and
Conflict: When Eulalia delivers the flowers to Ursula (I'm thinking of an anorexic version of that hard-eyed villainess in the Disney picture...but less smiley and more willing to slap the parlor maids.) a minor row ensues. Fenno visits the shop again and again (he's never said it with flowers before) so that he can observe her artfully arranged...er...arrangements (Too explicit?). Eulalia twits him about what a fractious man he must be to need so many flowers and never guesses that his motives are inclining to wickedness. Peter
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| 50,000 Pounds! |
Beam-Ends: Eulalia gets a promotion and a medal fired. Fenno, nursing a terrific sense of guilt (and passion--but tastefully!), throws Ursula over and proposes a MOC to our heroine buys her a house! (Note to self: Remind my publishers of my substantial fan base and remind them, too, that this isn't the part where the RDD buys himself a mistress. Leave that to the Harlequin Blaze stable of tarty writers...)
Beam-Ends x2: Eulalia entrenches herself happily in her home town, swallowing the solicitor's lie about a deceased great-uncle and the one thousand ten thousand fifty thousand pounds! She gets a rabbit and a cat for Peter and plans a flower shop with cautious optimism.
But all is not well in Eden. Victor, a local lad lately returned fromthe outer reaches of hell America, tries his arm with the fair heiress. Trottie breaks her leg. Fenno fixes both Trottie's leg and Victor's wagon.
But all is not well in Eden. Victor, a local lad lately returned from
Muddy Waters: Eulalia
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| He sends your girl flowers, you send his diamonds. He buys your girl a house, you get his in a clinch. THAT'S the Chicago way! |
Filler: Fenno invites Peter to Holland where Eulalia meets his
Resolution: Home once more. Fenno waits until Dodge takes Trottie off for
Page Count Neither Exceeded or Skimped: The End
Rating: The biggest issue I take with this book are the names. Miss Lally (which I kept intentionally mis-reading as LAY-lee instead of LAL-lee so that it wouldn't seem quite so bad) and Trottie (which any way you slice it sounds like a mix-breed Labrador with a case of the runs) are difficult pills to swallow. Still, they're just names and I found the rest of the book really charming. Though written in the last few years of her career, La Neels hardly seems like she's flagging (would that I could be a tenth as awesome).
This is a Boeuf en Croute or maybe even higher--I read this when my husband was out of town and it's all I can do in those circumstances to keep the kids from sharpening sticks and circling helpless neighbors with tribal cries of 'Kill the Pig!' Anyway, just when I'd get going on the book I'd be interrupted with all manner of Lilliputian catastrophes. ( I know it's a great book when I'm more than usually annoyed that I have to put it down and know it's a Beans on Toast if I'd rather deep clean the oven than pick it up.)
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| But in blue... |
Food: Banana sandwiches and Marmite and orange squash are her meals with Peter. Trottie doesn't trust fish on Mondays. They make cheese sandwiches, Madeira cake, and when Fenno does his spot of Good Samaritanism he has a ploughman's lunch of bread cheese and beer. More refined meals include lobster bisque, chocolate pudding, and chicken a la king. Adorably, Trottie and Dodge court while making cucumber sandwiches and scones.
Fashion: She wears a navy dress in the flower shop. Fenno changes from country tweeds to sober grey suiting after popping out to the country to BUY A HOUSE. Eulalia owns a small-brimmed velvet hat and Ursula unwisely dons a bright blue dress cut very low 'which was a mistake, for her figure was what she described as boyish and the dress did nothing for her flat chest.' Cough.