Gone With The Wind Anniversary

Scarlett and Pa on the hill overlooking Tara

Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for a blockbuster 1939 movie, is published on this day in 1936. (June 30th). This quote was taken from the following website: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gone-with-the-wind-published 

Many years ago, before there was make your own cross stitch pattern complex software like we have today, I somehow created and stitched two Gone With The Wind themed pictures. 

* see info about the above quote

 
I actually came up with the idea of Gone With The Wind cross stitch kits, complete with cloth, pattern and floss.  My intention was to make my fortune by selling the kits. I was certain there were millions of cross-stitching Windies out there.  So, I sent a sample kit to Ted Turner in Atlanta, Georgia, the owner of Gone With The Wind rights.  Happily, his people loved it.  Unhappily, they required I ship them a particular quantity of kits, oh, something like 10,000, that they might distribute them worldwide.  So much for that particular dream.  

Well, I can still share the results with you.  Sharing is the best part of anything anyway.  

* “There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind...” - written by Ben Hecht.  Mr. Hecht was paid $10,000 by producer David O Selznick for a fast doctoring of the Gone With The Wind (1939) script, for which he received no credit and for which  Sidney Howard won an Oscar, beating out Hecht and MacArthur's Wuthering Heights (1939) script.- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372942/bio

Trailer for Amelia Island's Mark of a Man

Here is the trailer/video for Amelia Island's Mark of a Man.  Turn up the sound and click on the lower right  corner, to the right of YouTube, to enlarge the screen.  Then click the arrow in the center of the video to start. To watch again, click on the arrow circle on the lower left of the video. Enjoy!

Click on the link below for more about Amelia Island's Mark of a Man and the other titles in Amelia Island's Goodbye Lie series. Available in e-book and paperback at book sources everywhere. Amelia Island's Mark of a Man

What a Guy!

Leo Harkins center

My father, Leo Harkins, was a wonderful guy.  He was quite a character, a prankster, an album collector, an educator, an athlete, a husband and my fabulous Dad.  Everyday is Father's Day for me whenever I think of him.  I am blessed.

May all the fathers, past and present, forever feel the love of their children.  

Happy Father's Day

Reading Between the Wines Book Club Comes to Amelia

Reading Between the Wines Book Club visits Amelia Island -left to right members are: Katharine Symons, Debby Hays, Lynn Holmes, De An Winton, Susan Hawkins, Susan Grossberg, Sue Munn, Jane Crews, author Jane Marie Malcolm

A recent foray by the Ponte Vedra, Florida Reading Between the Wines Book Club brought eight of its ten members to Amelia Island, Florida to meet author Jane Marie Malcolm.  A Google search for local authors by the ten-year-old club resulted in Malcolm's Goodbye Lie historical romance series, with the tagline, where Little House on the Prairie meets Gone With The Wind.  Set on Amelia Island in the late 1800s, the primary genre they sought was historical fiction.

"Our meeting place had to be changed last minute," said Malcolm, "and The Crab Trap at 31 North 2^nd Street in our historic downtown could not have been more accommodating.  On a busy Saturday at noon, they placed us in a second floor private area where we lunched on local seafood while discussing the novels and the island's history.  Built in 1876, the restaurant's original brick walls surrounded us and we went so far as to count the number of horizontal rows between brick courses. We love history and everything about it."

 After three-plus hours and the exchange of a chocolate-filled hand painted glass from the book club to Malcolm, and her gifts to each of them, a list to tasteful Romantic Remedies and a Sugar and Spice Nuts recipe, a treat served at the fictional Fort Clinch Christmas Dance in The Goodbye Lie, a walking tour ensued. The author pointed out buildings on Centre Street and side streets that play a part in the series. Amidst fond farewells, Malcolm pronounced each of her new friends was now a Goodbye Lie-R.

The Goodbye Lie Trilogy is available in e-book and paperback at book sources everywhere. For more information, visit Jane Marie Malcolm's blog at www.GraciousJaneMarie.com or www.GraciousJaneMarie.blogspot.com. 

For signed copies, contact the author at graciousjanemarie@yahoo.com.   

Little Things- Goodbye Lie Diaries- Breelan

Those Victorians didn't miss too many spots when it came to turning the plain into the ornate.  I love this hinge.  Don't ask me where I took the photo because I just recently found it in my computer, but it was from some wonderful old home we visited.


Look closely at the detail.  I can see eight round circles with slots for a screwdriver hidden among the stamped metal flowers.  Those folks back then didn't want their doors to fall off any time soon and it worked because we're enjoying their beauty today.  - Jane Marie

*********

The Goodbye Lie Diaries
1880s
Fernandina on Amelia Island, Florida

Breelan Dunnigan

Breelan writes - You know, Jane Marie, I used to live in a rented house on South 3rd Street in Fernandina and I never once thought to look at the hinges.  I was too busy worrying about me and my wants and my desires back then...  You are right about little things.  It is those little things that add beauty where no one expects it.  I'm pretty certain there are no fancy hinges as you have pictured here in my little house out back of Dunnigan Manor, but I will check.  Now that I am aware of such, I will personally examine all the hinges in the manor. Better yet, the little ones and I will make a game of it since I cannot imagine how many doors there are in our huge family home. I could ask Daddy, since he is the architect. No, it will be more fun for us to go on the hunt for them. Thank you for pointing out this very special pretty.  I will look about for other extra pretties.

Breelan Dunnigan is the heroine in The Goodbye Lie, the first novel set in 1882 on Amelia Island, Florida, in Amelia Island's Goodbye Lie series.   The Goodbye Lie series e-books and paperbacks available here

Another Peeperism- Goodbye Lie Diaries

Peeper

1880s
Amelia Island, Florida

Peeper writes - 

Miss Jane,
     Did I tell ya this one?  If'n ya butter your biscuit with the other hand, you'll only have half the weeds in your vegabull garden.  Should ya not be atrustin' me, try it. Aunt Noreen is always sayin' I'm full of gizzards and fool, but she don't know her ear from her elbow, that one. You have always give the respect due me and yur readin' friends, likewise.  It's good ta be 'preciated. I think the one who 'preciates me most in this world is my Bird a the Earth, Pat.  He's growed up ta be a fine looking man, 'ceptin' when he gets ta scrapping. Then I have ta tell him if'n he gets hit in the face another time, he'll get ta bein' so homely, the chickens will hide.  He don't take me serious much.  But I'll keep atryin'.  Time ta fetch my mendin' basket. Got ta see if'n I can stitch the ripped sleeve back on ta the Sunday shirt I finished makin' him two weeks prior.  He was acomin' outta church and I'll be a de-feathered horny owl if'n some out-a-town slick attacked my perfect Pat as he was -ahelpin' his mother inta the buggy.  I saw the whole thing.  The way that scalawag jumped on my boy's back-- Well, had it not been fer me, just a beatin' that mean man with my umbreller, Pat might a had ta land four punches 'stead a two, ta get that weasel off a him.

That's the news from our time.  This magic letter writin' is pretty slick, I have ta say.  Aunt Noreen likes it a great deal, which is not good.  Should it prove ta be anything like her talking, it will be constant and foul.  You and yur friends won't be likin' it much and stop reading what we nice Dunnigan folks have ta tell ya from our time. My advice, as a good Christian woman, is ta allow Noreena ta communicate, ya like that big word, do ya? It means ta talk back and forth some way, if'n ya ain't sure.  Allow her to communicate once in a while, sos, when she does, she won't be all that much more bitter than her normal hateful self.  That's just me, but this is your magic so you best decide who can and cannot write words for everybody ta read.  I'm asendin' ya plenty  a love from my century, Jane Marie.  This is plum fun!

Peeper is the beloved grandmother in Amelia Island's Goodbye Lie Trilogy, set on Amelia Island, Florida in the 1880s. Aunt Noreen is her less than pleasant next-door rival.  The words, cold and comical, fly betwixt and between them. 

Click here to get your copies of Amelia Island's Goodbye Lie series in e-book and paperback

Future Plans - Author's Digest Interview Concludes

The following questions and my answers were taken from Author's Digest posted by M. Burns on March 29, 2015. - jmm

Jane Marie, are you working on your next book?

I have several completed manuscripts that are in need of editing. One is set in Hong Kong, one is about our Martha Bear (“spokesbear” for our blog), and one is about the ravings of a nine-year-old girl, complete with my cartoon sketches. The next story, though, will the continuation of Amelia Island’s Goodbye Lie Trilogy Plus One. It’s called Amelia Island’s Sand and Sin. It’s about the Dunnigan family, their Aqua Verde Passenger Line, and the same Dunnigan Manor on Amelia Island, but is set in modern times!

Do you have any events or promotions planned for your books?

A driving tour around our historic Amelia Island of places/scenes from The Goodbye Lie is in the works. I’m also gathering ideas for a companion piece to go along with the series. I continue to give talks to different groups who enjoy reading about the Dunnigan family. I call the talks “Random Ricochets Off the Backsplash of My Mind” because I’m never quite sure what I’ll tell them, since I have so much to share. And I can’t forget my blog that features all kinds of tie-ins to the series, including The Goodbye Lie Diaries (written by the characters themselves).

Jane Marie Malcolm/author

Is there anything else you’d like to add before we wrap things up?

Island living has given rise to my writing. I’m blessed to find my stories in the ocean’s wind as I walk the beach along the edge of the world. Characters bombard my thoughts with their ridiculous banter, which leaves me laughing. Other times, their words are so tender, I feel tears in my eyes, literally. Often they surprise me with their deeds and misdeeds, which can turn the story’s direction after just a few syllables. My fictional friends joined my family and, through my novels, may they become part of your family, too.

And remember, no matter your circumstances, if you’re ever stuck, with regard to writing, look around you and inspiration will show itself. Write for the love of the sport.