Notes

         Welcome to another cultural holiday in the United States. Are you ready for it, orndorff?

         What a strange way to begin, Amorella. I think Halloween is a bit overdone, but mostly it’s an excuse for festivity, not that there is anything wrong with it, as Seinfeld might say. People like parties, and much of the U.S. loses its leaves about now, and Winter is close at hand, so along with Thanksgiving and Christmas there are three months of various family and friend gatherings. Then the long wait until March when Winter loses its grip and it is time for Spring rituals and celebrations in this country. I realize my stories are about the returning of the Dead to the setting of the Living – I guess, therefore, that the Merlyn series is a Halloween setting. And, the humor that one day after I am gone from this setting myself anyone who reads my books will be reading a dead man’s tale in six books. Very funny from my perspective. One of the small joys of living. I need a nap and it is not yet ten o’clock.

         Leaning towards mid-afternoon and you are heading out for errands and a treat before getting the front porch ready for Halloweeners this evening six to eight.

         Twenty-ten hours and the Halloweeners are gone for another year and you are warming up as the weather is in the lower fifties. You and Carol watch your television shows but are wearing down on enthusiasm except for “Holmes” which you are going to copy but not watch this evening.

         Mostly it is copy-cat and mix plots, some good writing, but we also watch the PBS Perot, Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis – the writing and acting is consistently better on PBS/BBC productions. Besides, we love the London, Kent, and Oxfordshire regions, probably because we have been there. We both read some of the Sherlock Holmes, Agathia Christie, Mary Stewart and Daphne Du Maurier mysteries growing up, probably sixth through tenth grade, at least for me. We were still reading them when we lived and traveled in Latin America in our late twenties. We love period pieces – books, plays, films and TV productions. Carol still reads at least a mystery a month, mostly British and American authors. I can’t remember the last mystery I read. I don’t read fiction like I used to. Not a good sign I suppose.

         You rarely read for entertainment purposes, old man, ever. Always a personal purpose or interest behind the readings – you wanted to learn something along the way and usually you did.

         That used to surprise some of my students, especially their parents who were avid readers of fiction. I think I am pretty much burned out for tonight. I am not sure why, but I am.

         Post, and that’s it for today. – Amorella.