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THE BOY IN THE HEMLOCK TREE——THE END

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I’ve penned those cherished words that every author rejoices in putting onto paper: “THE END.” Remarkably, this marks the fourth time I’ve declared it! However, as of today at 6:00 PM, I can truly proclaim that I’ve meticulously refined, added, subtracted, and skillfully woven both moments of elation and sorrow into the lives of my characters. This, my friends, is indeed THE END. Tomorrow, The Boy in the Hemlock Tree embarks on its journey to literary agents, and I hold out hope that one of them will embrace this work and usher it into the world of publication. It’s been a daily odyssey, spanning three and a half years, spent hunched over my computer for up to fifteen hours a day, with only about thirty days of respite scattered within that timeframe. Regrettably, I’m unable to share complete chapters to avoid the appearance of self-publishing. Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to offer a few tantalizing teasers until the stories of Mackey McGillacutty, Dink Westergaard, and David Holcombe step into the light for all to witness. (Fingers crossed!) …

WHY DID I WRITE THE BOY IN THE HEMLOCK TREE?

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I spent twelve years as the most often booked, highest-paid makeup artist worldwide. A pretty bold statement, yes? You may ask why I am not famous outside the fashion industry. Easy. Those who became famous, Kevin Aucoin, Garren, Way Bandy, Orbe, Frédéric Fekkai, and others you may have read about, worked for high fashion magazines for covers and inside editorial features for fame but little money. The American magazines thought me too clean, not artistic looking—too preppy! I once worked for The Fashion of The Times, the fashion periodical of The New York Times, with famous editor Carrie Donovan. The service (story in lay terms) was to shoot the five most famous women in fashion alongside their daughters. Polly Mellen, then editor at American Vogue, sat before me, extolling my talent as I painted her face. “You don’t know me, and you don’t know if I am telling the truth, but you are one of the best makeup artists I have met. (All in a fake, throaty, mid-Atlantic patrician accent.) “Come see me at Vogue—I will …

Arts, Food, Travel, home and manners…

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Theatre and dance… I have long been a supporter of the arts in every city where I have lived and I can tell you that number is not small! It all began when I was six years old in Louisville, Kentucky at a time I was courting a favorite Aunt. I was enrolled in a tiny dance school for tiny people. There was simple tap, Shuffle ball tap, shuffle ball tap only with a teddy bear to the strains of “Me and my Teddy Bear”. Sweet, right? Amy Grimes was my mother’s just older sister who was not able to bear children and married a highly successful business executive with the L M Berry Company. They were the sole advertisers for the Yellow Pages at the time. Having no children and plenty of disposable income the couple was the height of glamour to all of the nieces and nephews. It was my goal to squeeze in and become her surrogate child. As soon as I thought I had my dancing and singing role down pat …

Changing horses!

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It has been a while since I have posted to my beauty blog, but changes have taken place and now I am writing novels fifteen hours a day and loving every minute! My first novel, “The Boy in the Hemlock Tree,” stems from my makeup career and is a natural segue on this blog for you to enjoy. The Boy in the Hemlock Tree is a gripping suspense novel of love, loss, and the pursuit of the truth about an abortion, and a father on a mission to destroy a young man with an irrepressible spirit searching for twenty-five years to find a child he believes to be alive.  Stay tuned for more…………….

Laundry, Lunch and a Show

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Dad offered multiple times to purchase a brand new Hotpoint Automatic Clothes Washer and Dryer for my mother. I remember the commercials on our black and white television. A very sincere looking man in a gray gabardine suit who had pomaded short hair looked directly at us from the television screen. “Just drop dirty clothes in the open top and all the work is done for you. Your clothes get much cleaner too because Hotpoint’s famous agitator action and over flow rinse combine to remove all the dirt. You can set Hotpoint’s exclusive wonder dialfor your heavy things and you can turn it to low for Orlon, Nylon and Dacron. And when you are finished with the miracle wash simply place the damp clothes in the Hotpoint dryer for a few minutes and they come out dry, fluffy and sweet smelling. What a work saver this dryer is!” I could not understand why Mother never reacted positively to Dad’s offer.   Of Mother’s three sisters she was the only one of them who did her …

A little less TU TU……

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At long last star power returned the stage at Cobb energy Center last Saturday night! It was untypically dark in the cavernous theatre as a mellow hush came across the small Saturday night crowd. Without fanfare a wash of light quietly skimmed across the floor and dancers appeared from inside long slits in far distant opaque curtains dressed in skin-tight white, as pure as the work would turn out to be. It has been two years since Atlanta Ballet made a swift reversal in direction, back to clumsy staid ballet that has no place in the wallets of young professionals and hipsters, as the case was until then. The company began to fire people right and left until the last few long-term stars defected, having no desire to step so far into the past.  They had seen the excitement of The Indigo Girls on stage, Big Boi and Outcast with Janelle Monae swinging high above the stage in full voice sporting her then-signature front puff of dark hair. Gone for the most part are the …