Books We Love's Tantalizing Talent ~ Author Karla Stover

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Karla Stover. I have lived in Tacoma, WA all my life as did my parents.  My paternal grandparents were the first homesteaders in Oregon’s Warner Valley, owned the water rights, and had a cattle ranch. My maternal grandparents left Johnstown, PA around 1915 and settled in Tacoma. They passed their love of books and reading to my mother who passed it on to me. The maternal grandparents were survivors of the 1889 Johnstown, PA flood, lived very long lives, and often talked about it. I also spent time on the cattle ranch which had few modern conveniences. I love history. Until the last financial crash, I wrote a monthly article on some aspect of local history for a local newspaper. I also talk about Tacoma’s amazing past weekly on KLAY 1180 am, and, if I did it right, that love shows in my second murder mystery, Murder, When One Isn’t Enough. It revolves around the book, Madame of the House, San Francisco madam, Sally Stanford’s autobiography.

My first book was nonfiction, Let’s Go Walk About in Tacoma.

 

Next was a murder mystery, Murder on the Line.

Then, another nonfiction, Hidden History of Tacoma: Little-known Tales of the City of Destiny.

Murder, When One Isn’t Enough was also a murder mystery, a sequel to the first one.

A Feather for a Fan, followed—fiction set in a nonfiction environment.

A third, nonfiction Tacoma history book is currently being edited AND

For BWL I’m writing a historical-romance-mystery called Wynters Way. The cover is great.

I am a slow writer which means no time to tweet or keep up a website or blog, but I write because I have to. Don’t all authors?

EXCEPT FROM Murder, When One isn’t Enough

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     After dinner, I read more letters, learned more about the many properties Sally owned, but especially about the house at 1144 Pine Street, which had a fountain in the drawing room. Supposedly, delegates from various countries convened in the house’s living room and formed the United Nations there. In addition to Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra liked to drop in, and she entertained shahs, princes, national dignitaries, and California state and local government officials. On quiet nights, her girls made fudge. Sally also read obituaries and often paid the funeral expenses of Depression homeless.

However, it wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops. Patsy developed a drinking problem. Two men broke in one night and beat Sally up. She kept a seldom-seen photograph of a seldom-seen son who was tucked away in boarding school.

I finished the last letter, bundled them up, and turned out the lights. Outside, the natives were restless. Two peacocks wandered down from the hill and took refuge on the garage roof next door. A raccoon walked up and down under the bedroom window, making crunchy noises on the gravel, and occasionally standing up to try and look in. Porch Cat’s tail twitched back and forth as he kept track of the movements. After a while I took a sleeping pill. The moon lit up the room and I dozed in its light until around midnight when the phone rang. I stumbled into the living room, picked it up and heard someone humming.

“You again. Well, you little pervert, buzz off because, frankly, I don’t give a damn.” I slammed the receiver in its cradle.

Back in the bedroom, a mosquito hummed. “Bite me and you’ll be sorry.” It did, and it was. I turned on my stomach and fell asleep.

http://bookswelove.net/authors/stover-karla/

Writers Are About Words (and That Makes Me Think) by Karla Stover

    

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Every once in a while I give pause over something—generally something trite, for example, the word, “nonplussed.”  Its original Latin definition was “no more or no further.” The meaning then changed to, a state of bewilderment and now means unimpressed. That change isn’t what bothers me, though. What really gets me is that the “non” implies that a person can be “plussed” which they can’t because there’s no such word—or condition.

     Inchoate is another puzzler, though less so because it is possible to be “choate.” Oliver Wendell Holmes used the word, “choate” in 1878 but I wonder if anyone has used it since then.  Anyway, inchoate means either the beginning of something, or to begin something, and choate means whatever was begun is complete.  Mostly the word is used by lawyers.

     Which brings me to “short-shrift.” A “shrift” is a confession to a priest, a penance imposed, or absolution of sins after a confession; “short-shrift” means, little or no attention was given. I’ve never seen or heard the word, “shrift” used.

     The use of “real people” on some (dare I say) reality commercials insults me. “Real” as opposed to what? Is there such a thing as an unreal person? Is that what zombies, vampires or werewolves are? Of course, I know the advertisers mean the unreal people are those who are stars in their fields—athletes, actors, etc. The implication being they’re so far above the rest of us that they aren’t “real?” What are they, then? Inhabitants of Mount Olympus, home to the Gods? I have a hard enough time with male actors, as it is. Actor Paul Giamatti said it best. “Acting can be a really silly thing. It's like playing dress-up.” No “like” about it; acting is dressing up and pretending to be someone else.

     And one last interesting thing. When I belonged to Toast Masters, we counted the number of fillers people used in their talks—such as, er, um, and erm. A synonym to these is, “you know.” “You know” has invaded the English language. All four of them are mimetics—sounds of hesitation.

     Please, someone, make them go away.

http://bookswelove.net/authors/stover-karla/

Karla Stover Takes On Movies vs. Books

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS MADE INTO MOVIES—with commentary

Ghost Stories:

The Uninvited, based on Dorothy Macardle’s book, Uneasy Freehold. Both are really good. TCM likes the movie, too. I prefer the book, but only because it’s longer.

            The Haunting, based on Shirley Jackson’s book, The Haunting of Hill House. Again, prefer the book.

The Woman in Black, based on the same named book by Susan Hill. The book had a better ending.

Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer’s book of the same name. Neither encouraged me to read or watch beyond the first one.

Love Stories:

Doctor Zhivago, based on Boris Pasternak’s book of the same name. I struggled with the book but love the movie.

 

Gone With the Wind, based on Margaret Mitchel’s book of the same name. Love them equally.

Musicales and Comedies:

Meet Me in St. Louis, based on by Sally Benson’s book of the same name. I love the book but the movie has a joyousness the book lacks, not that it’s gloomy, just different.

            Our Hearts Were Young and Gay based on Cornelia Otis Skinner’s book of the same name. Both are delightful.

            Cheaper By the Dozen, based on Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey’s book of the same name. The book is a hoot but the movie skimped on everything that happened to the family in this combination biography/memoir.

            The Egg and I, by Betty MacDonald’s book of the same name. I regularly reread this just for the laughs. This is where Ma and Pa Kettle came from. They were real people. The movie was a big hit but I thought it was so-so.

Dramas:

            The Jewel in the Crown, based on Paul Scott’s book, The Raj Quartet. The movie was on Masterpiece Theater and I loved it so much I bought a copy. I started the book once, but got bogged down, will have to try again.

            Rebecca, based on Daphne duMaurier’s book of the same name. Really like them both.

            Nicholas and Alexandra based on Robert K. Massie’s book of the same name. I’m a nut about Russian history and loved the book, but there was too much history in the book to be covered in a movie.

            Winter’s Bone, based on Daniel Woodrell’s book of the same name. I really liked them both, but the movie had Marideth Sisco singing—what a plus.

Obviously, this is a very incomplete list and, just as obviously, most of the books are older. I don’t read anything that might appear on the Hallmark channel or the list would be longer, and so many current movies are all about special effects or are from young adult books. Producers aren’t looking for what I read. Nevertheless, I always stay through the credits, just in case.

           

   Find Karla Stover here: http://bookswelove.net/stover.php     

  

           

           

           

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