Many thanks to Beaverdale Books in Des Moines and to Julie and Alice for making Kathy Daugherty and me so welcome last Sunday afternoon.

We had a delightful afternoon with friends and family, talking about and reading from our books and signing a few.

Those of you in Des Moines can stop in to Beaverdale Books and purchase our books or many others. They have an entire wall of books from Iowa authors.

You will enjoy your visit there, as we certainly did.

Daniel Varnum Collins

November 3, 1996

WE MISS YOU

With the presidential election only a few days away, Dan Collins, retired professor, retired Presbyterian minister, active Democratic Party volunteer, was concentrating on what needed to be done to assure the reelection of President Bill Clinton. In his wheelchair by the phone he was preparing lists of people to call to remind them of their roles on Tuesday. Some would be poll watchers; some would provide transportation for people who could not otherwise get to the polls; others would make phone calls reminding supporters who hadn't yet voted to do so.

Dan and Barb and I had already voted early: for President Clinton, of course. Dan was on peritoneal dialysis for his kidneys, had lost his leg to a diabetic infection nearly ten years before. He had heart complications diagnosed just the summer before. That Sunday morning, November 3, 1996, his heart was bothering him. Barb and I drove him to the local emergency room where the doctors decided he should go by ambulance to Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. We reassured my son, Russ, that Dad would probably be back in a day or so. Such trips to the hospital were part of our life in those days.

Dan and I talked, before they took him in for some surgery to relieve the heart congestion, about who to call to be sure the Tuesday Election Day responsibilities were covered, in case he had to remain in the hospital. It was the last thing we talked about.

Barb and I waited that evening in the empty waiting room at Methodist. Close to midnight the chaplain came out to tell us Dan had died on the operating table.

So unexpected, yet not a surprise with all the health problems he had suffered over the years.

Norm Schouten led a beautiful memorial service the next Saturday. We scattered Dan's ashes at Isle Royale National Park the next summer, Barb and I, my daughter Becky, and my son Ben.

Bill Clinton was reelected.

Book Signing at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines coming up

Come to Beaverdale Books in Des Moines

on Sunday, November 17 from 2:00 to 4:00

 for a joint book signing



Kathryn Daugherty and I will both be there to read and sign our novels.

 

We'd love to see you.

Belated Happy Forty-ninth Birthday, Ben

These two cuties were born exactly 3 1/2 years apart--April 5, 1961 and October 5, 1964. Last Saturday Ben Collins celebrated his forty-ninth birthday. One of his friends asked for some insights into the child-Ben. I thought of this picture to share. I think Ben was about a year old, and Russ would have been four-and-a-half.

 

A very happy birthday to Benjamin Varnum Clifford Collins.

 



Russell Grant Collins and Benjamin Varnum Clifford Collins
Love from your Mom



2013 Montezuma All-Iowa Writers' Conference

Thanks a million to J.O. and Debbie Parker and Our Front Porch Books for once again today hosting an outstanding conference for writers.

They put in so much effort to present an awe inspiring program of writers and editors from a wide range of experience. 

Always more to learn, but by the end of a day listening to success stories and aspirations, we all went home filled with new determination to persevere.

Children's picture book author Maribeth Boelts shared the inspiration for her stories.

 

Kevin Hansen's popular blog www.SecretRegrets.com has morphed into two books he called a sort of Chicken Soup for the Troubled Soul. His persistence and PR resulted in astounding success in bringing interest in his project from Dr. Phil and numerous other national media.

 

And these were only the first two hours of a day-long event. Watch my blog for more to come.

This is your lucky day

Friday the thirteenth.

When I was a teen, our wonderful youth leaders at Edgewater Presbyterian Church in Chicago taught us a lesson to live by.

Something that others might consider "unlucky" can just as easily be "lucky."  

Gene and Francis Blackwell taught senior high Sunday School and led our Sunday evening fellowship group. Once a month we would have a "social", a party, with games and food and lots of fun.

• It became a tradition that whenever the second Friday fell on  the thirteenth the party was themed "This is Your Lucky Night."
• One of our favorite games was quick drawing of mystery phrases, a game that was later marketed as Pictionary.

Over the years, Friday the thirteenth became one of my favorite days of the month. Pogo and other characters from the comic strip by Walt Kelly would often make a point of telling each other what day the thirteenth fell on: "Friday the thirteenth fell on a Tuesday this month," they would point out, or words to this effect.

But today,

Friday the thirteenth falls on A FRIDAY,

and for that reason, I will tell you,

"This is your lucky day."

 

 

By the way: seventeen month ago, on Friday the thirteenth of April, 2012, I posted a similar post. Goes to show you that I really do like to celebrate this day.

 

Any superstitions you like to "celebrate"? Any that you carefully follow? 

Rising From the Shadow of the Sun--a review

World War Two

I finished Ronny Herman de Jong's book RISING FROM THE SHADOW OF THE SUN.  I recommend it to readers who want to know more about the Second World War. As someone who recognizes that we need to understand our history is order to avoid repeating it, I was intrigued with Ms. de Jong's book.
The first half is her translation and edit of her mother's diary and recollections written during World War Two in the Dutch East Indies. Netty was raising two small daughters as part of the Dutch colonial community of the Indies. Her daily routines were described in letters back to the Netherlands. When Hitler's army occupied the Netherlands, it was impossible to contact them, so she wrote her letters in a diary. Soon the life in Java deteriorated under Japanese rule as the men left or were imprisoned and the women and children were moved into smaller and more crowded housing. Before the war ended, Netty and her two daughters were interned in conditions that almost ended in their death. Others around them were dying daily, and Netty's one consolation was that each day's passing might bring them closer to release.
The second part of the book describes Ronny's life after the war, becoming an American citizen and a writer.