Yard progress

The front yard is completely done, including planting. I tell you, the landscaping/building arts are a dark, mysterious magic to me. I try to prune or plant something and it ends in tears. These people do things with tools, rock, gravel, and wood, and then PRESTO!

It's amazing.

See?

The stone path that replaced the lawn.
 

When the whole project is done, it will be the Edna Green Memorial Garden, in honor of my
maternal grandmother.















And of course, don't forget:
Dracula's Secret, Blood Wings #1
Dracula's Desires, Blood Wings #2
Dracula Unleashed, Blood Wings #3, to be released March 21, 2013

In memoriam

Today, I attended the funeral of my dear friend and fellow author Sloan Addams. She contracted polio when she was a very young girl and survived into her 70s with the harrowing reality of post-polio syndrome and resulting complications.

Despite her gimp status (her words, not mine), she was a world traveler, a mother, a teacher, and a writer of warm, cozy mysteries. She supported my crazy, sexy vampires, and would occasionally complain that I gave her yummy things to read at the times she was not allowed *ahem* intimate conversation. What a compliment!

In memory of Sloan, I am reposting my essay about going to a Turkish bath, dated October 18, 2010.

The hammam is one of the few things in the world that I experienced, but she did not.

Cheers, Sloan.

*** 

Photo from www.istanbul-turismo.com

When I was in Istanbul, the one place I knew I had to visit was a hammam. I went to one of the most famous Hamams in the world - Cagaloglu Hamami.

This is the description I sent my fellow author, Sloan Addams. She calls me Wonder Woman. I call her Power Girl.

***

Power Girl! I have come to the conclusion that the hamam is the cure for all the world's ills.

First, some nice lady pours hot water all over you as you sit on a heated marble floor. Then you get to lay there in wet, fabulous bliss. She comes in with soap and a exfoliating mitt and scrubs you all over, front and back, so that your skin is incredibly smooth and clean. This is not fast, either. It's complete relaxation.

You get rinsed by more hot, clean water splashed over you. This feels like heaven.

Then you realize that heaven is even cooler than you thought, because you get a massage with the soap suds. The soap and water is so thick and bubbly that your massage is slick and relaxes every damn part of yourself.

Finally, she washes your hair.

At the end, you ooze your boneless way back to your little room and try to remember how to put on clothes.

I bought some of the soap and one of the mitts there, so I can give myself a cheater's hamam here at home. No heated marble floors, you know. ;)

***
Her response?



Wonder Woman - I just turned green.