Tag Archive for '1980s'

25 Years Ago Today: Suspense/Thriller Author Mary Deal

Published on August 4, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 20 Comments Tags: 1980s, child abduction, child psychologists, death row, Eric Hoffer Book Award, gifted children, Hawaii, Hawaii authors, lethal injection, Mary Deal, Pushcart Prize, suspense novels, thrillers.

I’d like to extend a warm Aloha to Mary Deal, author of four suspense/thriller novels. Mary is an Eric Hoffer Book Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee. She also writes short stories and poetry from her island home in Kapa`a, Hawaii. Her website, writeanygenre.com, is a valuable resource for writers.

Mary’s character, Abigail (Abi) Fisher from her thriller Down to the Needle is answering the question “What were you doing 25 years ago?” In Down to the Needle, a woman’s long search for her abducted child leads to a young woman on death row facing lethal injection for a crime she didn’t commit.

ABIGAIL: In the mid-1980s, my daughter Becky Ann was three years old and loved crayons. She could draw! So young and she was able to match colors, too. She stayed inside the lines of a picture, even chose which picture to color and passed on others. It was difficult keeping her in crayons and coloring books. Then one day I noticed her drawing household objects with regular lead pencils.

My husband, Preston, had been going through some serious personal problems. He wanted a boy. I kept telling him we could have another child. He would have his boy.

Against my husband’s wishes, I took Becky Ann to a child psychologist. She told me that it seemed my daughter was gifted! I was both ecstatic and humbled at the same time. We set up a battery of tests. Preston wasn’t impressed. He said if he had his boy, he’d train him to work. I can’t pinpoint when Preston began to change. Mom always said he would turn me into misfortune’s daughter.

Becky was abducted only two years later, after we confirmed she was truly gifted. I never got to see her grow up and watch her creative abilities develop; never got to hear her say “I love you, Mommy.” Becky’s abductor kept her in hiding and changed her face so I couldn’t find her. A result of the life she was forced to live, she languished nine years on death row facing lethal injection for a crime she claimed she didn’t do.

To learn more about Mary’s work, visit her web site. Read more about Down to the Needle on Amazon and check out Mary’s other books on Amazon.

25 Years Ago Today: Historical Fiction, Young Adult and Suspense Author Beth Kanell

Published on June 24, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 10 Comments Tags: 1920s, 1980s, 1984, Abenaki, American history, Beth Kanell, eugenics, fires, genetic code, Historical fiction, New England, Stacy Juba, suspense novels, The Darkness Under the Water, Vermont, Vermont fiction, young adult fiction, young adult novels.

I’d like to welcome Beth Kanell, author of historical fiction, suspense, and young adult novels. I recently finished Beth’s compelling young adult book The Darkness Under the Water, about a teenage girl and her Abenaki family living in the 1920s who get caught up in a government eugenics project set to rid Vermont of “weak links” in the genetic code. I was so mesmerized by her vivid writing and unique storyline, based on a true period in American history, that I had to invite her to my blog.

Beth believes that our stories matter – and her novels dig for the haunting dangers and rewards of the past, especially for teens in Vermont. Beth lives and writes in Vermont, with a mountain at her back and a river at her feet. The fire scene in The Darkness Under the Water is all too real to her, and she never plays with matches. The Darkness Under the Water will be followed by The Long Shadow, and I’m sure her readers will be looking forward to another novel by this talented author.

Beth, you have an especially poignant 25 years ago moment to share with us. Please tell us about it.

BETH: Summer 1984: I think of it as my last innocent summer, while the pieces of my life looked like ordinary photographs in a family album. The kids and I packed happily for two weeks in a rustic cottage on a mud-bottomed pond, so secluded that the frogs sang around the clock and crayfish squirmed fearlessly around our feet as we waded between lily pads.

In the evenings we all read stories: picture books for the toddler, “chapter books” for the one going into first grade, a stack of novels by my own bed. Supper could be as simple as scrambled eggs, but mostly it was something grilled over a woodfire. And going home at last to our nearby house, ah, that too was languid and lovely and rich with love.

I can’t enjoy the aroma of a woodfire now, the way I did during that tender summer. The mountain of maple logs that I cut and split in the fall, stacked so neatly in the cellar for the long snowy winter ahead: They blazed first, and longest, when the house burned down on the coldest night at the end of 1984. I’ll never forget the scent of that fire: the scent of lives changed forever.

It was 25 years ago. The past vanished in smoke and ash. Let me tell you the long sweet worth of life that remained, after the old life burned.

Read more about Beth’s work on her web site and blog. Check out The Darkness Under the Water on Amazon.

25 Years Ago Today: Friendship Pins, the Silly Bandz of the 1980s

Published on June 16, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 3 Comments Tags: 1980s, 1980s fads, 1980s trends, 25 Years Ago Today, banned Silly Bandz, BCP Imports, bracelets, Cabbage Patch Kids, fashion accessories, friendship pins, kids bracelets, LikeTotally80s.com, silicone rubber bands, Silly Bandz, Silly Bandz bracelets, Stacy Juba.

Twenty-five years ago, friendship pins adorned kids’ tennis shoes across America. When I was in elementary school back in the mid-1980s, I proudly displayed the safety pins, decorated with small colorful beads, attached to my shoe laces.

Today the hot trend is Silly Bandz, a brand of silicone rubber bands with shapes including animals, objects, and letters. They are distributed by BCP Imports and are generally worn as bracelets by middle school, high school, and elementary students.

If you know a school-age child, chances are they can eagerly tell you all about how Silly Bandz bracelets look like regular bracelets on the wrist, however when taken off, they revert to the original shape. The bracelets are often worn many at a time and are traded. Silly Bandz have even inspired controversy as schools in several states have banned the stretchy, bright bracelets for being a distraction.

I don’t recall friendship pins ever being banned, but I do remember that the pins made school more fun. Kids traded those also or simply shared them with friends as gifts. I remember being the proud recipient of pins given by my friend Joanne. If no one awarded you a friendship pin, though, you created one for yourself…and kept that part quiet. Not being particularly crafty, I just waited for the pins to come to me and I don’t think I gave any to my friends. (Sorry, guys.) I wasn’t that into following fads and felt like the only girl in the world who thought Cabbage Patch Kids were ugly.

I had no clue where everyone was getting the beads to design the pins, but I must admit, I secretly treasured the pins that came my way. The beads even had a color code. My memory is fuzzy on this, but according to an article on a really interesting web site, LikeTotally80s.com, red beads meant strong, vigorous, or sweetheart, while yellow symbolized intelligence and good friends. I don’t remember what colors mine were, but they did make my sneakers look cool.

I’m betting that 25 years from now, today’s kids won’t recall whether they wore stretchy giraffes, sea horses, hearts, or cowboy hats on their arms, but they’ll reflect on the good old days of Silly Bandz with fondness. I wonder what the trend will be then?

If you have any thoughts on Silly Bandz, friendship pins, or other fashion trends, please share them in the comments.

25 Years Ago Today: Novelist and Short Story Writer Maria Savva

Published on June 14, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 4 Comments Tags: 1980s, A Time to Tell, authors, Coincidences, contemporary fiction, literary fiction, London, Maria Savva, Pieces of a Rainbow, short story collection, solicitor.

I’d like to welcome my guest Maria Savva, who has written some truly fascinating works of literary and contemporary fiction. Maria lives in London and is a qualified solicitor, as well as a writer.

Her published novels are Coincidences and A Time to Tell, and she has also published the short story collections Pieces of a Rainbow, and Love and Loyalty (and Other Tales.)

A Time to Tell is a family saga spanning 50 years and three generations of one family. Pieces of a Rainbow is a collection of 7 short stories, each one based on a different color of the rainbow. Love and Loyalty (and Other Tales) is a collection of 15 short stories about life, love, loss, deceit and loneliness among other things. Maria is currently at work on her third and fourth novels and a third collection of short stories.

You can see Maria’s writing talent in her below memory of the absurdity of youth: The Red Man. Maria, tell us about your memory from 25 years ago.

MARIA: In the mid ‘80s, me and my friends would often congregate on a bench for lunch, outside our school. For a brief period of time, perhaps a few weeks, a young man used to walk past us every day. One of my friends pointed him out, and then we always looked out for him.

There was nothing particularly different about this man, as far as I remember, except that he always appeared a bit awkward as he walked past us unruly teens each day. He had red hair, and a flushed face (probably because we were always whispering or giggling when we saw him), so we quickly nicknamed him ‘The Red Man’.

I still laugh when I remember how silly we were, and I feel a bit sorry for the poor ‘Red Man’. I don’t think we ever actually spoke with him; maybe we said ‘hello’ when he walked past, or asked him inane questions that went unanswered. What I do remember was that one day, my friend decided to bring a camera so that we could play a prank on him, to make him think we thought he was famous and wanted a photo of him. We hid behind a car when we saw him approaching, then my friend jumped up and took a picture. He appeared startled.

My friend said she would pin it up on her bedroom wall, (I think she secretly fancied him.) I wonder whether my friend still has that photo, and I wonder what ever happened to The Red Man…

Please visit Maria’s web site for more information on her writing.

Also be sure to check out her books in my Amazon store.

25 Years Ago Today: Susan Whitfield, Author of the Logan Hunter Mysteries

Published on May 24, 2010 in 25 Years Ago Today. 6 Comments Tags: 1980s, 25 Years Ago Today, American Cancer Society, cookbooks, Genesis Beach, Guest Authors, Hell Swamp, high school baseball, high school English teachers, Just North of Luck, Killer Recipes, Logan Hunter Mystery Series, North Carolina, North Carolina State 4444 Baseball Championship, principals, school administrators, Sin Creek, Stacy Juba, Susan Whitfield.

I’d like to welcome Susan Whitfield, author of the intriguing and award-winning Logan Hunter Mystery series. A native North Carolinian, Susan lives in eastern NC with her husband and near their two sons. The fourth and possibly the last in the Logan Hunter series, Sin Creek, will be available in Fall 2010. Susan is currently working on The Goose Parade of Old Dickeywood, not part of the series. She also has plans to write an historical mystery about an ancestor who was a Knight of the Bath under King Henry I.

Susan has compiled recipes from mystery writers across the country into a cookbook called Killer Recipes, due for August release. Proceeds of the recipe book will benefit the American Cancer Society. (Don’t miss my recipes in Susan’s book, including the sinfully delicious Terrormasu!)

Susan, you certainly sound like a busy lady. Tell us, what were you doing 25 years ago?

SUSAN: Twenty-five years ago, I was still teaching high school English and my son, Heath, was a sophomore shortstop on my head coach husband’s AAAA high school baseball team. Between ball games, I graded about 150 student papers nearly every day. I believed in improving their basic writing skills and in giving them quick feedback.

The team went on to win the North Carolina State 4444 Baseball Championship. What a thrilling day that was for all of us! Your question is so timely because we’ve invited all team members, their families, and coaches back to our house for a 25th reunion in June. As you have probably figured out, I was not writing novels at that time. I worked full-time and went to school full-time to earn my Master’s and then my doctorate. I always wanted to write and finally got around to it once I retired from my principalship in 2005. I am loving it!

Be sure to visit Susan’s web site and blog for information on her books.

Check out Susan’s books on Amazon.