Thirteen Kisses

Today I was sitting next to an extraordinarily loud woman who claimed total disgust at some hi-definition screen kiss. Truly, the actors' lips were the size of baseballs, affording us ample lip-real estate to evaluate the smooch.

"It looks like they're eating each other!" said loud woman.

"We don't know the context. It's just a preview," I said.

"Maybe it's about cannibalism."

"Maybe."

Mostly this just made me think of the Seven Midnights of Kisses we celebrated here at the Vortex two years back. Seven days for each of us to find the type of kiss that makes our toes curl. Some of them were sweet, some funny, most iconic in their own way. If you weren't with us then, or wish to relive the fun for New Years Eve, here they are:

Midnight 1 Midnight 2 Midnight 3 Midnight 4
Midnight 5 Midnight 6 Midnight 7

Two years is a long time. We've covered so much kissing ground since! Who can forget

the hairy-chested Christopher Plummer kiss?
the world's thirstiest gerbil kiss?
my first kiss-ugh.
Robert Doisneau's The Kiss?
Elvis's Wild kiss?

With all this kissing, you'd think we barely had time to squeeze in Fabio, time travel and nineteen MacGyver references. (You know you want to follow the Fabio link again. What's better than a laaaaahve attack on New Year's Eve? You're welcome.)

My favorite kisses, though, are the ones you have yet to read. It is my fervent hope we'll add at least one to next year's list: the published kiss.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Two Kings and a Tardis

I hope everyone is in the throes of their favorite way to celebrate the holidays. Around here there is entirely too much Wii Boggle and dinking with my shiny Nook. I've already read a free, happy little short about two serial killers. Merry Christmas to me! Maybe I should have opted for the Harlequin. I had to listen to Burl Ives afterward to counteract my holiday mojo.

Oh, and the magic eight ball in my stocking, when asked about novel publication this year, replied: it is certain. Superstitious bugger, aren't I? Writers refuel our tank of dreams from every passing station, it seems.

For me, breaking in the new pjs and reorganizing my writing space seems to be the way of it each year. I'm juggling two novels, so the inspiration chotchkes are a muddled signal to my subconscious. More often, they shout "clutter!" than "write me!" And thanks to one of my sweet crit partners, this phone booth of awesomeness will not be relegated to the ornament box come January.The tule beneath it is my feeble attempt to capture the white Christmases of my childhood. Sure, it makes the tree look like a cheap bridesmaid, but at night, when I squint just so, it could pass for snow.

Both kings seem to think so, too.

I wish everyone a fruitful start to the new year, filled with certain 8-ball messages, happy memories and a comfy pair of pjs.

Motivational Posters

I have stumbled upon, quite possibly, the coolest posters ever. Ever. Cooler than these I had when I was fifteen:

Postertext.com offers posters that celebrate classic works of literature. Each graphic represents an idea or scene from the book. Look closer and you'll discover the graphic is comprised of the entire novel's text. Of course, I'll steer you to H.G. Well's The Time Machine, but there is truly something here for every classic lover. If I were Oprah, it would be on my favorite things list. Posters for everyone! LOOOOOVE it!

If that wasn't cool enough for you, how about this sneak-peek photo of John Cusack in The Raven, a psychological thriller in production. The film is fiction, but based largely on rumors that Poe spent his mysterious last days chasing a serial killer inspired by his tales.

What's the latest poster you owned?

For the Twenty-Fifth Hour of the Day

Who knew there was an X-box 360 game labeled "psychological thriller"? I'm only beginning to grasp this label as it pertains to my own writing (and if I'm not mistaken, the game should really be labeled "psychological action suspense", but maybe thriller sells to more middle-aged gamers.) That's certainly its sales demographic.

The game is Alan Wake. Released in May 2010, the storyline follows the main character, a bestselling thriller writer who has lost his muse. In an attempt to restore his mojo, he and his wife vacation in Norman-Rockwell-esque Bright Falls where the small, idyllic town slips into six ways of creepy. Characters from Alan's books haunt him and soon he can't distinguish fantasy from reality. It's television-quality, episodic, and the first of many chapters to come.

The trailer looks amazing. Too bad I have my own manuscript pages to uncover instead of the ones hiding clues in Alan's world.

Last virtual-reality game played: X-files (I know! So last decade)

What computerized games make you lose track of time?

Lady Mitchell Visits the Castle

One trip to Medieval Times was, apparently, not enough for one lifetime. No doubt, I missed the horsey aromas whilst eating, the chicken flesh under my fingernails sans utensils and the gold-bullion-priced lager.

It had been three years. The storyline had changed. The princess was no longer fair-haired. The dryers in the restroom were like sticking your hands in a vacuum with no time travel perks. There was still the guy in your section who took booing the green knight to an entirely different level, but this time he had far more blinking chotchkies to highlight his asshatery. And the knights, well, let's just say for the three hundred women in the round the fantasy brought to mind only flashbacks of our brother's pock-marked friend hanging out in the garage playing D&D. Yay, though you sport the longest locks in the land, the guy at the ticket booth was more fair than thee. Less ego, too.

Though the theatrics make it seem like horsy WWE, I have the utmost respect for the hours of training required to put on this type of show. I salute you creepy-falconeer-Dio-look-alike, who dodges talons to put food on the table. I salute you, King, for holding off on the JD long enough to remember your lines and smile through the tourists wanting to share your throne. I salute you, Mr.-Cod-Piece-in-the-Name-of-Sales-Souvenir-Guy. No one has ever looked better hawking wares in tights. And I salute my yellow knight, not because he looked like this

because he, sadly, didn't, but because he threaded the ring with his sword each pass, had his horse prancing River Dance style, brought it in the joust and didn't look like a gomer dying.

And because today is Monday and a spoonful of Jim Carrey as a Medieval Times knight makes the day's medicine go down in the most delightful way, I give you this scene from The Cable Guy.

What's the campiest tourist attraction you've ever been to?

The Shape of Fresh Similes

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I take immense pleasure in learning the recipients of both the Bulwer-Lytton and the Bad Sex in Fiction award each year. I also blame Stephen King for these misappropriated metaphors. Nothing but beauty can come from his hard, fast and well-publicized rule about cliches. To paraphrase: a cliche is anything you've ever heard or read before. Don't do it.

Ever? That's a ten ton elephant in a writer's already crowded mind.

However, this tenet of fiction encourages deliciously fresh similes like this:

For the first month of Ricardo and Felicity's affair, they greeted one another at every stolen rendezvous with a kiss--a lengthy, ravenous kiss, Ricardo lapping and sucking at Felicity's mouth as if she were a giant cage-mounted water bottle and he were the world's thirstiest gerbil.

--Molly Ringle, Seattle, Washington (2010 Bulwer-Lytton Winner)

Like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her.

--Rowan Somerville, The Shape of Her (2010 Bad Sex in Fiction Award)

Gawd, can't you just picture these moments? This is creativity at its purest. And while it's a mixed mess of distinction to actually win one of these-the publicity alone could vault an author into the stratosphere of sales-in an author's quietest moments, I'm positive he feels hurt. It's hard, bloody hard, to reveal so much of oneself and attempt to boldly go where no writer has gone before. To have even one line end up as the butt of a joke must feel akin to walking naked through Times Square.

Right on, Mr. Somerville. Write on!

More of Mr. Somerville's naughty bits...

Mr. Somerville's reaction to the "honor"

Have a cliche-free weekend, everyone!

Bless Me Father, For I Am Scattered

It's one of those scattered days where I could toss a dozen cohesive blog topics at the wall and none would stick. A symptom, I suppose, of several things: a recent jaunt through the Vortex's keyword analysis (always an amusing past time); a wayward false start this morning on the subject of hot priests (don't ask) but YUM; and a restlessness to accomplish something this time of year (as in clearing out my brower's bookmarks so I can actually find something useful). So much to share, so little time.

Thankyouverymuch, email inbox announcement, but I really don't think I need to take the author branding course in January. From the keyword analysis, people in the past three months have googled seeking

Lincoln's love letters, Jason O'Mara, the writer's fork, Romancelandia, timeslips, Vortex traveler, Concord Vortex Massachusetts (Holy Revolution, I missed a vortex in Concord???), Joaquin Phoenix, jaho, native american word, the sixth sense unreliable narrator, lederhosen physics, burlesque painting, red velvet hot cocoa salem ma, doppelgangers, haunted swing, a wrinkle in time, weird barbie dolls, mysterious man in a phone booth, 37 separate inquiries referring to time travel or time traveler in photo

and come here. If author branding is essentially the collective sum of all things out there, I'd say these sum it up nicely. With a few exceptions, of course. My heroes never wear lederhosen.

Lest you think I'd let a primo link go to waste, I offer up the 2011 calendario romano. Twelve months of holy-cow-what-a-waste! priests of Rome. Oh, and a teaser for 2012.

Speaking of calendars, graphic designer Alex Griendling created a 2011 Time Travel Calendar filled with 95 references to time travel in pop culture in one timeline. From Back to the Future to Lost, he covered it all. I'd wish him success with sales, but he's almost sold out his third printing. Find it at alexlikesdesigns.

When we look up at the night sky, we are essentially traveling in time because of the years it takes for a star's light to reach us on Earth, right? The new Google Sky Map application takes it one step further. Download it and you can find out what the night sky looked like on the day you were born, or-say-the day Fabio was bitch-slapped by a goose on a roller coaster, or even a year from now when NBC will replace some great time travel drama with Shotputting With the Stars.

And for the bibliophile whose space is at a premium, Levitate Architects of London offers this solution

complete with a skylight in the loft bedroom above so each step is a reading nook. Awesome.

Scattered, yes, but my favorites condensed to a manageable list, so all was worth it.

Last movie seen: Hitchcock's I Confess (thus the beautiful Monty)

What was the latest bookmark you added to your browser?

A Pimped Vortex-mobile

I consciously pimped out the new-to-me car I acquired this week. No, not with frilly leis hanging from the rear view mirror or pink fuzzy seat covers. My pimping was of the writer-ly variety. What does that entail, you ask?

An empty journal

The Vortex-mobile now has enough storage compartments to hide that dead body from chapter three. No more scrawling dialogue on Chick-Fil-a napkins.

Pens
With enough ink to sink a flotilla of bad plot tangents.

A B-Level Book

You know these, right? Not the active A-list novel you're reading. Not the one due at the library in four days you're likely to forget about. These are the any-port-in-a-boredom-storm books. The random biography someone gifted you. The freebie from last year's writing conference. The one that could only rival waiting in a four-car-deep pharmacy drive-thru line.

Tissues

Because these days rejections come via mobile access.

Novel Playlist

Why listen to FM when you can occupy your story world during your commute? Better yet, an audio book to combat that I-don't-have-time-to-read excuse.

Emergency Coffee Shop Rations

Toll booth change? Hardly. Get thee to a java stop! Inspiration struck!

IC Recorder

My mobile voice recorder. I have no idea what IC stands for. Incontinent conflict. Irrational Character. Interruption Combatant.

But lo, there are more compartments. What could I do with them?

Inspiration

No, wait...I'm not writing straight romance anymore.

How about....

Or Stephen King Wooden Nesting Dolls in the drink holder?

Or how about this baby hanging from the rear view mirror? Creepy Ezra the Caretaker Jewelry. I do not want to know what is stuck to his shovel.

Tricked out. Ready to write.

Tell us one bizarre thing you have in your car...

Please, May I Have Another Time Suck

I played a time travel game last week. Played is, perhaps, not the right word. As it happened, it was shameless addiction until I'd completed it. Electronic games of any kind typically do not impress me, but dangle the carrot of time travel out there and I'm neglecting my online class homework, the bills and the dirty socks in the hallway.

Mortimer Beckett and the Time Paradox is filled with intricate hidden object searches, mind-bending puzzles and fantastic graphics of eight eras in time. Only once did I google for a hint. I still have no idea how those notebook clues translated into a five-key turning combination on the treasure chest, but the remainder of the puzzles struck a perfect balance between challenge and WTH?

Bottom line: Don't play this free 60 minute online trial (mwah, ha ha) game if you have a word count to hit or pumpkin mix to purchase at the store or life, in general, to live for the next twenty-four hours.

Time Slips

A time slip is a term used to describe a paranormal phenomenon where an individual or group of people experience a "hiccup" in time that cannot be explained. One of the most famous cases involves the Simpsons and the Gisbys, two English couples traveling to Spain on holiday who stop at a charming, old-fashioned inn for the night, only to discover they cannot locate it on their return trip. The odd things they encountered seem to defy explanation. An ITV's Strange But True episode contains interviews with the couples, along with another alleged case of a time slip in Ireland. A fascinating eleven minutes even if time travel is not your thing. part 1; part 2

Time slips have also been alleged at Bold Street and the Lyceum building in Liverpool.

It's fun to think about. Hell, it's fun to write about. But as I googled time slip, I found something equally amazing. TimeSlips is a creative, storytelling project aimed at cherishing the memories of those suffering from Alzheimer's. Without the pressure to remember things accurately, patients are free to explore wherever their fractured minds take them. It's a way for patients to reconnect with family and friends who may feel distanced by this disease and share their journey and creativity with their community. I could envision this being a community art project similar to Post Secret. A way to blend the lost art of storytelling with the stories of a generation we are close to losing. Inspiring. Truly inspiring.

Romancelandia

I'm a literary defector. The country? Romancelandia. Such a beautiful place, really. Populated by men who have only convenient flaws, nothing like sewage breath and bad gas that make romantic interludes, well, unsavory, and the feisty women who reluctantly love them. It is a place filled with Gothic mansions on the cliff-side of the island, vampires and were-creatures in the interior caves, gypsy cowboys thundering through the open expanses and even a font of inspiration that would put the Jordan River to shame. Its been rumored that there's even a formidable time machine there, but I've never been able to find it.

My heart will always be with my native genre. It's so much a part of who I've become as a writer. But I've long sensed the tide shifting and was reluctant to acknowledge it. Change meant drifting away from author sisters, communing at writing conferences where the topic of conversation at the bar is not is there a tattoo plague infecting cover artists' brains? but perhaps Tolstoy or Vonnegut. Change meant owning that my strength as a writer is not in the intricacies of man-woman relationships or the physical manifestation thereof, ten pages, ad nauseum (never my favorite part to write). Change is foreign and scary and isolating. But it can also mean escaping familiar patterns, freedom from rules that never quite seem to change and the sense that every reader's bite is essentially vanilla, just coated with different colored sprinkles.

My characters will visit Romancelandia from time to time. Heck, they may even winter there (the beaches are very nice). It's one of the best places in the world, filled with stories that are important to understanding our human experience. It's a place of hope and love and enough hot heroes to sink it into the ocean.

So when you notice small changes in the evolution of my website, the blog (though I will always speak of Fabio with reverence), my tag line; and, perhaps, even my retreat into more androgynous content (L.A.= Lawrence of Arabia, Lester Andrew, Lennard Aaron) you'll understand why. I'm out seeking the time machine on other lands.

Anyone have directions to Thriller Island?

The Marketplatz of Awesome, Part Deux

I ran across a great tip for anticipating holiday shopping: put your list in your cell phone. Be a good listener when you're around your to-buy-for peeps. When they mention something, get it on the phone. Be sure to check it often when you're already out running errands. Then, the gift is memorable for them, ultra-convenient for you.

But what about that hard-to-shop for blog reader who seems to have everything? Specifically, Vortexers, who are pleased only by the rarest gems of pop culture and WTH-ery? Fear not, dear followers. Our second Etsy installment is here!

1. The Naughty Bits brooch

Spice up that next scrapbook gathering! Cri-cut machines go perfectly with such progressive jewelry. Or how about sending a special message to that grocery sacker at Kroger? I may be buying unleavened pita bread, but Puritan waters run deep. Extra points to the seller for marketing them from "trashy romance novels."

2. Tardis Plush Toy

Enough said, right? Oh, the joy!

3. Vaccuum Tube Cuff Links

Men don't wear cuff links often enough. What could be sexier than being dressed up and ready for time travel?

4. Ghost Hunters Ink Drawing

So Jason looks like Curly and has a tumor growing out of his left cranium. Art, like writing, is so subjective. I have a pen and ink rendering of how the water pipes run under my house from the water heater repair guy. $30. Free shipping!

5. Elvis Presley Make-Out Blanket

What caught my eye here is the model's pose. Show me a fan who hasn't longed to do this in an open meadow and I'll show you a hot liar.

6. Stephen Hawking Paper Person

Marrying a paper doll to a physics genius makes my heart sing. I would adorn him with colorful post-its, make him my muse and love him forever.

7. Johnny Cash F*you laptop decal

Would this prevent creepy hairy guy from speaking to me at Starbucks about his Camaro?

8. Holy Crap, That Never Happened in the X-files Art

I would have distinctly remembered the lick. Artistic Liberty Schmiberty. On some fan fiction planet, this has inspired X-rated, I-want-to-believe fodder for Naughty Brooches.

Still, you say, I cannot add you to that gift list in my phone? Perhaps Etsy part one will have something that speaks to you. Or try the 15 Weirdest Etsy Finds.

Forty-five shopping days left, Vortexers. It takes time to find the crazy.

Next: The evolution of a brand

On Dinosaurs and Lederhosen

Remember back in March when I mentioned Steven Spielberg's new family/adventure drama, Terra Nova, about a family who journeys to the distant past (think dinosaurs) to become part of a second-chance society? Holy Life on Mars, Batman! If it isn't my favorite time-travel-lovin'-Irish-cup-filleth-over-with-yum Jason O'Mara cast as the patriarch of the Shannon family. Fox sets the premiere date in May 2011 with a rumored budget for the pilot episode at $20 million.

Speaking of Irish love of the Jason O'Mara variety, life (and Vortexers...thank you) handed me this festive gift of awesome to coincide with the tinsel and holiday trappings already hitting store shelves. Surprisingly, someone else married the beauty that is Richard Dean Anderson and Jason O'Mara, among others, into one angelic salute to men in suits. A twin separated at birth? Perhaps. Do not mutter WTH, Vortexers. Sing!

Oh! And isn't YouTube THE BEST? Who wouldn't want to see Richard Dean Anderson in almost-lederhosen disco attire jamming on a guitar on the Dinah show in the 70's? That was a treat you didn't expect, wasn't it?

I aim to please.

Notorious Time Travelers Caught in Photos

Long before an old lady with a hearing device walked through Charlie Chaplain's movie, there have been buzz-worthy sightings of unexplained, modern-esque people appearing in old photos. Remember the 1940's South Fork Bridge post we went all Vortex on back in April? If that one whet your appetite to fantasize about time travel, try these:

From Bucknell University's history department. Check out the boy near the middle of this photo labeled Young Boys in Gettysburg. Some believe his clothes look a little too modern.

What about the guy sporting a Mohawk at left center in this undated photo? He does look a little lost.

With more photoshop savvy than I possess, even I could become a time traveler. Anyone who wants to volunteer for such a task would be full of such awesomeness, I'd have to reward the effort with a gift card of equal awesomeness. Even if it's bad, it would be oh, so good.

What's your take on the boy and the Mohawk guy?

Romancing the End, or Thank Heavens She'll Talk About Something Else Soon

No trip would be complete without someone to share it with. Celebrating fifteen of anything is special. Celebrating it with your best friend, even better.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tuesday: Notorious Time Travelers Caught in Photos

Romancing Lighthouses, or If Fabio Were With Me, It'd Be No Problem Getting In

I'm literally writing a lighthouse scene as you're reading this. Okay, I'm writing this, but this morning, I was writing that. For me, lighthouses in New England weren't just a great photo, but all-essential to getting this scene right.

By day seven, I was anxious. I'd seen this one (I swear it's there if you zoom in)

and this oneand this one but couldn't go inside any of them. Was there some sort of secret handshake to access? Did I have to calibrate my visit to the precise twenty minutes of the month when a caretaker returned to make sure it hadn't collapsed into the Atlantic? Was my only lighthouse thrill this trip to be the mysterious stranger captured in this ill-angled photograph?

Zoom if you must, ladies, but he was a refugee from a nearby tour bus. Where are the semi-naked lighthouse keepers?

By the way, feather girl here would have had to be in a coma to have endured the icy spray of the Atlantic and felt nothing but the lightkeeper's rapture. My toes could barely stand it.

So there was no keeper, no peek inside, not even any rapture, really. I suppose it was for the best. The best tours are of the mind. They are perfectly crafted, unsoiled by reality and always accessible.

Tomorrow: Romancing The End, or Thank Heavens She'll Talk About Something Else Soon

Romancing Plymouth: How the Mayflower Compact Did Not Negotiate Restrooms in the Promised Land

I was warned that Plymouth, heretofore referred to as the Land of the One-Finger Salute, was tourist-y, but who can resist stepping aboard a not-the-Mayflower-not-even-close reproduction of this maiden voyage in our nation's history? Apparently, not the geriatric tour bus lines.

At the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, I had stood my ground against these most formidable opponents in camel-colored housecoats and waterproof babushkas. I claimed victory over the two-stall woman's restroom line long before I began popping Metamucil and discussing gout with perfect strangers. Bladder be damned!

But the perfect storm brewed over Land of the One-Finger Salute Harbor: Five Coach-Line Buses, T-shirt shops with signs lauding "No Public Restroom," the witching hour of post-lunch bladder capacity. Our forefathers could not have predicted the injustice of women outnumbering men eighty to one. Did men not give a hang about the Mayflower? Was there a poker tourney with free lager on one of the private yachts out to Provincetown? Oh, wait. Here's one.

Were these sparse loos meant to evoke the true trans-Atlantic experience? If so, then ballyhoo! If it was merely an oversight by The Mayflower Society, then I urge you to take but a pittance from my admission fee for a restroom attendant with a bullhorn directing traffic. "Bwoop! Bwoop! Time's Up, Bea Arthur!" "Step Away From the Mirror, Ma'am. The Mayflower smelled more like what you left behind than the fru juice you're spritzing on now. We're going for authentic here, people!"

Alas, relief was finally mine. Freedom from the tyranny of pre-paid tour lines. Freedom from the stench of a thousand modern-day Pilgrims hoarding toilet paper. Freedom from the woman on the pier below grousing into her cell phone about how steep the plank was. This isn't a Celebrity Fun Ship and there's no Canasta on the poop deck.

Though I'd have given anything to find out how to catch that party yacht.

Romancing the Hawthorne Hotel, or That Was Not a Cat!

Mayhap, Vortexers grow weary of New England tales. Too bad for thee. We have far more oysters to fry.

The Hawthorne Hotel was not my first choice for accommodations when planning a trip to Salem, even though it had been on my radar since the Ghost Hunters episode that featured it, but the planned B&B did not work out. Sure, my bathroom rug at home was larger than the entire room and the shower was half the size of an airplane lavatory, but I would not have traded the experience for the world.

Around three am, I stumbled to the restroom (far, far too much beer) which was simply a hop from the bed's foot. Upon settling back under the covers, as tucked as Kate Gosslin after free surgery, I felt pressure on my feet. Like Gary Coleman had sat on them. Not a tremendous weight, but enough that it drug me out of my quasi-alert state. Gary didn't stay for long, just a quick pause. After a scientific assessment of the room that Jason and Grant would have been proud of (and no, the air wasn't blowing on my feet as they'd determined in the eppy), I settled back under the covers and waited. To be honest, I'm not the most skeptical person you've ever met regarding the paranormal, and I do fully understand the power of suggestion, but damned if Gary Coleman returned and brought his cat and an aluminum baseball bat with him.

And this cat would not do a donut and settle. For almost ten minutes, little pressure points disregarded my feet's willingness to drift back to sleep. Then Gary joined us and laid a heavy aluminum bat alongside my leg. This was no air current, Mr. Ghost Hunter. This was an entirely different kind of stroke.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Lest you think I'm nuts and there is no self-respecting ghost who would want to rub the putrid feet of weary travelers, I invite you to visit the Hawthorne yourself. Room 323. Just don't drop the soap. Really. You won't be able to bend over and pick it up.

Tomorrow: Romancing Plymouth: How the Mayflower Compact Left No Room for Negotiating Restrooms in the Promised Land

Romancing the Post-Consumer Recycled Paper Drink Cup

I can sum up the number of times I've posted a recipe here at the Vortex with no hands. As in never have I ever. But this one has to do with my continuing love affair with New England, so hang in there.

While in Salem, I had red velvet hot chocolate (I know!) at Jaho Coffee & Tea on Derby Street. Not only could I have written an entire novel in its atmosphere, but that cup was truly the flavor of my love affair with Salem. The perfect strolling partner on the one mile jaunt out to the Salem Harbor lighthouse. The most memorable cup of hot chocolate. Evah.

When I returned home, I found recipes for red velvet hot chocolate that encouraged me to add red food coloring to my mix. Really? Red velvet is SO much more than just its color. It took me some time, but I toiled and crafted in my kitchen until I had triumphed over this most delicious concoction. I hope it is Fall-like where you are this week and you consider trying it. Here, the butt-sweat level is still much too high for hot drinks. New England, I miss you!

Red Vortex Hot Chocolate
(you didn't think the first recipe here would go without Vortex did you?)

2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa
2 tbsp. red velvet cake mix
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Dash of salt

Mix sugar, cocoa, cake mix and salt in a large Fabio mug. Heat milk in the microwave until hot. Add milk to powder mixture. Add vanilla. Top with whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings.

Enjoy!

Romancing Hawthorne, or How to Gag Your Non-Writer Companion on All Things Writerly

I had a plan in Salem, Massachusetts. All history, no freak shows. I suppose the "most visited museum in Salem" might have been good for a laugh; and I'm truly happy for the people of this once-dying farming town that they can, albeit unfortunately, now carve a living from tourists seeking that kind of experience. But I found myself strolling past everything that had anything to do with witches or Wiccan gifts or dudes dressed like wizards (and trust me, someone opened the Harry Potter flood gates on this little town). I'd found my history in all things Hawthorne.

Hawthorne has been on our radars since school, right? He's the most-read author in high school curriculums. I knew he'd changed the spelling of his surname to disassociate himself from his grandfather, Judge John Hathorne, who presided over the Salem Witch Trials and is buried along with most of his family in the Burying Point Cemetery in Salem. I knew his contempt with the town resonated in the themes of his writing, but beyond that and a few lesser-known stories I'd read in a college lit class, I didn't really know much about Nathaniel Hawthorne at all.

Just down the road from the now-infamous Bunghole Liquors, is the House of Seven Gables. The people preserving history and literature here do an amazing job. From the engaging tour guides who make climbing the secret staircase the best treat since that tree house when you were ten, to the gift shop that sells an amazing collection of writing craft books alongside classics from famous authors all over this historically-fertile region, the biggest draw has to be the view of Salem Harbor from the waters. Who wouldn't get inspired here?

The romancing part came when I stumbled upon tiny little pieces of him that resonated far beyond the writer-reader relationship: examples of early drafts, scratched through as many times as my own; how a particularly harsh rejection caused him to burn his manuscript; how he made his mother and sister swear to tell no one of his dream to be published and endured the gossip of the townspeople who all thought he should do something instead of wasting away in the house all day and taking isolated strolls along the harbor at dark; the purple sofa where he wrote his most famous work, The Scarlet Letter. Sure, mine isn't nearly as grand, but neither of us feel a desk is where the magic happens. From the moment I knew him as only another writer can, he seemed to follow me all around New England:

Bowdoin College, the house he lived in and raised his children in Concord (left), his grave at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. And now, on my keychain: "Easy Reading is Damned Hard Writing."

I skipped Walden Pond. Even writers tire of other writers after a time. I'd had my fill, and there were other less-weighty ways to spend an afternoon in Boston. Ben and Jerry's anyone?

Romancing the Inns, or How Bedbug Inspection Kills the Mood

Maybe it was the NPR segment I listened to in New Hampshire detailing a poor woman's year-long struggle with bedbugs. How she would squeeze them and blood would erupt from their little bodies. How she isolated them in a glass jar for months and still they survived. How she would lie awake in the dark and feel sensations on her skin and knew they were eating her.

Maybe it's because I'm female and females tend to worry about these "details" more than men. My first year teaching, I had long hair and lice. Twice. Enough said, right? No amount of this,

or this,

would be worth it if I picked up a few of these.

So, armed with my trusty Eveready flashlight, I would Nancy Drew it through my accomodations before any item of anything vacated the rental car. And not just the mattress and box springs. We're talking full-on combat mode on computer chairs, sofas, drapes, carpets. So where, you might ask, was the romance of rushing the window to feast my eyes upon breathtaking views of the rugged Atlantic coast or the splendor of the leaves I managed to nail at peak-change? Where was the romance of taking in antiques from an 18th century attic room and feeling, for that first moment, like I've stepped back in time?

Sadly, I suppose, that romance came upon clean inspection. Oh, Holiday Inn Express room 323, how I love thee bleach-white sheets and the fact that you've only just opened a few weeks ago. I will pledge my undying devotion if you tell me you've slept with only me thus far.

I'm not really a TripAdvisor kind of ranter, but one place passed muster only to have me stressed out the entire night. Not sure I slept at all. It simply seemed as though it would have bedbugs. I watched Joaquin Phoenix's Two Lovers twice that night. I found myself wishing I was in Brooklyn only to realize Brooklyn has bedbugs, too. My email inbox begged the question: Would you recommend this hotel? Hell to the no. And beyond.

I did eventually capture romance in my New England accomodations: my happily-ever-after ending when I returned home without any unwanted travelers.

Tomorrow: Romancing Hawthorne, or How to Gag Your Non-Writer Companion on All Things Writerly

Romancing the Yankee Accent: The Language of Seduction

How is it possible that a mere one-word utterance from a cash-lane toll booth operator can make me want to do the Snoopy dance? New England accents are like a strange note from a foreign instrument you want to hear again and again because it just doesn't seem possible. Is it like an Australian accent that vanishes in song? How does upper-sinus congestion affect its tone? How grand its power to penetrate a Bose-caliber noise canceling headset and eighty decibel jet engine noise!


My trusty New England tourist book neglected to mention that Cape Cod rolls up its sidewalks at eight. Trying to find dinner at 9 was no less a feat than erecting the Pilgrim Monument itself. The only flashing neon promised fatty bar fare and an Oktoberfest on draft. Heaven, right? So I bellied up to the dark Mahogany bar, planted a sweet smile on the blond behind the bar, and dropped the Y-bomb. Completely by accident, a casualty of being in the South too long. One might have thought I'd stood on the brass rail and shouted "Yankee's Rule!" for all the stares that ensued. A grizzly guy at the last stool gave me directions to a Chinese restaurant that stayed open until ten. Thank you, sir. You might as well have been speaking Cantonese for all I picked up in that seductive Yankee accent, but it was big of you to aid a woman in digestion distress. I might have pulled up the stool next to you and had beer for dinner had you not scared me so.

Dinner that night was hot fudge sundae at an adorable ice cream stop down the road. That's really how life should be lived, right? Dessert first.

My next kick-ass heroine will hail from New England. With gritty chops and no-nonsense delivery, she could bring the worthiest foe to his knees. As for the language of seduction? My heroes are always the strong, silent type, anyway.

Tomorrow: Romancing the Inns, or How Bedbug Inspection Kills the Mood

Romancing New England's Roads, Or There's No G,P or S in Romance

I wish Garmin gave me options. Why can't my GPS voice seduce me into keeping right or entering roundabouts? Make it a man with a slight accent, like a spy or a butter spokesman, so it feels like an intimate encounter each time he leads me astray. Then I'd be less likely to curse him when he drags me under Boston Harbor and abandons me like a mangy stray or has me making donuts in Providence that would put the fifteen million Dunkin Donut franchises in New England to shame.

He might offer more than "arriving at destination" when I passed the TAPS office in Warwick, Rhode Island, enough times to be categorized as a crazy-stalker fan. He might have said, "Look, over there. The suburbans block it, but it is there. Do you trust me?" He might have praised my ability to parallel park in Boston instead of insisting where I'd gone wrong. He might have understood my complete and total devotion to him at the exemption of all other navigation tools and how a belly full of lobster and butter sedated my most basic situational awareness. The nowhere, Maine streets had no lights, but it wouldn't matter. He would be the Columbus to my Pollyanna in a plastic bib.

He might have pulled me aside and explained to me what the hell a roundabout was and why Plymouth drivers are so quick to shoot the native bird. Was it the New York plates? Did the whole Yankees/Red Sox thing extend to the region's very infrastructure? I'm sure our Pilgrim ancestors would have swelled with pride as I, a mere refugee from the genteel South, showed my bird prowess as well.

Instead, Garmin gives me a pushy pitchwoman with a "recalculating" stutter. There would be more romance in Fantasia's voice, but together we conquered four states in nine days and she did work through the adversity of ancient rock, a NPR show on bedbugs, and Hootie-no-more-a-blowfish, ad nauseum.

Tomorrow: Romancing the Yankee Accent: The Language of Seduction

Romancing Public Transportation, or There's No T in Romance

The "T" in Boston is part rail car, part subway and wholly an experience for someone who has not relied on public transportation since I was knee-deep in snow at the high school bus stop thinking, "Oh, no, you did-ent" as my dad drove by trying everything he could to embarrass me. The T is like that, without the love. Or the deodorant.

Mother Nature ordered up a tepid bowl of crazy-downpour my Boston day. I swiped at the condensation gathering on the windows of the rail car and drew vague stares. I suppose if I'd spelled out "tourist" in the fog, it would have been no less obvious, but I did want to see Boston. On the college line, the other passengers were soldiers of rain (whatevah) and how-will-I-ever-repay-my-loan seriousness. I traveled ten stops before I realized I was a stowaway. On the Dart bus in Dallas if you don't pay, you might be spot-checked and asked to leave. On the T if you don't pay, the driver crushes you with bi-fold doors. Good thing Samuel Adams is there to numb the pain and embarrassment.

Free Boston Lager samples at 10 am and the ZZ-Top-ish guy from the commercials? Yes, there is love in Boston, though not for poor Sam Adams. You see, Mr. Adams was just not enough of a hottie for the beer company's logo, so they tapped into Paul Revere's likeness. He was to early twentieth century beer as Fabio was to the non-butter industry.

After a drenching day of Freedom Trails, dark pubs and creepy strolls, I was starting to feel the romance. I was no longer a stowaway to Boston life, but a ticket-carrying commuter who'd mastered the art of seriousness. I no longer met other's eyes or held doors for strangers or smiled at someone for no reason. I was certifiably Bostonian on my last commute out of the city's heart. I had internalized the city, felt its weight and movement on my bosom. I had surmized that the T's "request stop" button was not in fact in the crotch of every male in Boston as I had once believed, but perhaps merely an indication of cotton-blend shrinkage. But Boston had one more lesson for me.

On the green line, near Boston University, the vessel as packed as a telephone booth in a 1950's diner contest, I came to understand the true meaning of "beantown."

And I wept.

The romance was gone.

Tomorrow: Romancing New England's Roads, Or There's No G, P, or S in Romance

Romancing New England

I could begin with a quote, as writers often do:

"New England is quite as large a lump of earth as my heart can really take in."
~Nathaniel Hawthorne

or...

I could write a poem, but I might struggle with finding a word to rhyme with bunghole, as in Bunghole Liquors in Salem, Massachusetts:

Zoom it, Vortexers. It's there. And here. Nothing captures Autumn in New England like koozies that read "Planet Bung Next to Uranus", right?

But mostly, I could just give it the Vortex 10 treatment. This is no moth-ball smelling, photo album-snoozing regurgitation down recent-memory lane. This is Romancing New England, Vortex-style.

Each day for ten days I'll dish out a tiny, meaty portion of my quest to capture that elusive, famed, romantic state-of-mind that eclipses New England this time of year. Did I find it in the portrait of Barbara Bush on river rock? Or in the Mary Poppins-holding-umbrella flight through a downtown Boston alley? Or in the quiet moment of fail when I realized my continental breakfast had to be eaten outside in 40 degree post-dawn Maine? The Vortex 10 list will swell as steady as my stomach on chowdah and lobstah, so pull up a feed and check back often. Maybe you'll find New England, like I did, somewhere between a Hawthorne and a bunghole.

Seriously, what rhymes with hole? Filet of Sole? Hairy mole? Yeasty roll?

Tomorrow: Romancing Public Transportation, or There is No T in Romance

Time Waits for No Hottie (and Other Ponderables)

Really? It's been that long? Huh. Wow, do we have some catching up to do...

Last month, Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design hit bookshelves. A follow-up to his 1998 release entitled A Brief History of Time, his latest embraces new theories about the creation of the universe. In A Brief History of Time, he wrote, "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason--for then we should know the mind of God." In somewhat of a reversal, his newest work indicates, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." Many believe he is simply clearing up the nebulous entity he skirts around in his other works in favor of a more direct approach to what he's believed all along. Truly, does this surprise anyone? Makes for splashy headlines, though.

In other shocking?-not-so-much novel news, Louise Patten, writer and granddaughter of Charles Lightoller, the senior-most officer to have survived the Titanic tragedy, has revealed in an interview that coincides with the release of her new fiction novel, Good as Gold, that a steering error was to blame. According to Patten, her grandfather failed to disclose the error during inquiries on both sides of the Atlantic for fear it would mean financial ruin for the ship's owners and his fellow employees with the parent company, The White Star Line. Patten's version of the disaster plays an important role in the story of an ugly duckling conformist who uncovers secrets behind her family's bank and attempts to right the wrongs of her family's past.

Robert Zemeckis, the movie director who brought us Romancing the Stone and the Back to the Future franchise to name a few, is returning to the time travel genre in Timeless. Warner Brothers is keeping the log line under wraps for now. And speaking of Back to the Future, Christopher "Doc Brown" Lloyd has signed on to play a time traveling scientist in a 3D Imax documentary called Time: The Fourth Dimension.

Oh, and remember the Most Attractive Male Physicist's Vote we stumbled across last week? We now have pictures! And voting bubbles. Two days left to cast your vote. Democracy is such a beautiful thing.

The next two weeks I'll be traveling all over New England in search of moderate temperatures, non-cow scenery and history far beyond "Remember the Alamo!" I promise to return with tales of adventure and vacay pictures, ad nauseum, as they relate to all things Vortex.

Be well until then.