Hilary Booth... of course!

Sad news on the internet today.

Barbara Mertz, the writer better known as Elizabeth Peters and Barbara Michaels, dies at 85.

I was more of a fan of her other series with Vicki Bliss and Jacqueline Kirby, but I had accepted that after Laughter of Dead Kings we weren't going to get any more of either of those series. I hadn't realized how many Amelia Peabody books were published!

DC is looking to the skies anxiously tonight. We're supposed to get a ton of snow tomorrow through Saturday. I went ahead and did a grocery run on Thursday for necessaries. Work has shortened my little return assignment sadly with the possibility of coming back sometime next week.

That sums up the bad news. The good news is several fold: The foot doctor says I can switch over to two shoes, if I take it easy and do some calf stretches. I seem to have solved the computer issues last night with Windows Update & Chkdsk utility. One of those things did the trick, because I'm back to my usual browsing and writing and working. Safe mode was going to drive me nuts especially not having sound. Taxes are done and refunds are coming my way.

Curious news (if you know me -- I do not take after my namesake Ms Child): I have attempted boiling red potatoes and haven't killed myself that I can tell...

And the sad news today: Days of Our Lives' great matriarch Frances Reid died at the age of 95. She played the serene Alice Horton, everyone's favorite grandmother. I watched Days back in college. I remember when MacDonald Carey died in 1994 and they took out the second half of the credits. Only he could say "Like sands through the hourglass..." And I was reminded of Douglass Watson's death in 1989. He was already gone by the time I started watching AW so seeing the SoapNet reruns was like a revelation. And I remember what a hammer hearing him toast Thanksgiving in that 1988 rerun saying "I give you life!" knowing he'd be gone all too soon. We joke so often about death in soaps, but this... *cries*

The writing field lost a giant yesterday. Donald Westlake died at 75. He had written over a hundred novels under a variety of pseudonyms and styles. Some were humorous, some were hard edged. I've only recently discovered his works.

NY Times Obit
Collection of Westlake links and tributes

tv_elf died in her sleep today. I only met her at that MediaWest years ago when we were still in Buffy fandom. I knew her initially as one of the SunS/Horsechicks/Apocalypse West crowd. I honestly think I got to know her better through LJ. Safe passages my friend. May shirtless Teal'c be waiting to guide you.

I did my usual guilty glance at the soap mags at the grocery store checkout stand. I expected to see the news on Eileen Herlie, but I didn't expect to see another loss of a great actress: Irene Dailey who died back in September. For me, Irene Dailey would always be best known as the meddling Liz "Aunt Liz" Matthews on Another World. She had a opinion on everything and Bay City's worst gossip and busybody. If there was old laundry that pertained to a storyline, she'd be the first one to tell everyone about it.

They don't make characters like those anymore.

Paul Newman, 83 years old

And the CNN obit.

*wistful sigh* He had a good life, but it's still not fair.

I meant to post about this yesterday.

Jo Stafford died at age 90. She had a long singing career from the Pied Pipers to her own solo work. She was known as "GI Jo" for serenading WWII soldiers with the USO. Her obits are on Washington Post and LA Times but I first heard about in the Thrilling Yesteryear blog.

Trying to remember where I recognized the name (Smithsonian's "You'd be So Nice to Come Home to" collection), I came across a Big Band Serenade podcast episode on her music. There are a whole rafter of OTR podcasts, depending on your preferences. You can fly with the superheroes, fight alongside crime fighters, cry with the soaps, or dance along to the music. To paraphrase Victor Comstock, that is the magic of radio.

Heaven now has one more great dancer...

Cyd Charisse has died at age 86.

*clings to her Band Wagon & Singin' in the Rain dvds*

So first Harvey Korman died.

Then Yves Saint Laurent is dead.

Now we lost Bo Diddley.

My dear friend Anne Fraser lost her fight with breast cancer last night.

I've known her for at least fifteen years, starting with the old vampyres@guvm list. This was in the old Bitnet days before yahoogroups, before AIM or the web. Along with a group of friends, we collaborated together on "A Rip in Time", a story of time travel, Jack Ripper and vampires. Anne and I joined forces later for part of the Joshua Chronicles, adding a few more characters to her already cast of thousands. We'd even found a way to link that dratted actor fellow to one of my characters, but never had a chance to put it into story form. People bandy around the term prolific loosely these days, but Anne was definitely a prolific writer. She was always working some project or story idea. Even when the muses weren't firing, she'd still be tinkering with something. Not many people would be willing to revisit a mammoth saga like hers and revise it. But she did. I just wish she'd lived long enough to see it in print. Or write more adventures of Gideon and Joshua and yes even Adrian. She complained about him mightily, but I think she was rather fond of him all things considered.

Anne and I met on two occasions. Once my parents and I decided to go to the Stratford Festival to see "The Mikado". We needed a stopping point choosing Kitchener by some weird coincidence. Anne and her mother met a couple of complete strangers for dinner. Then another year Anne had the chance to show me around Toronto, mostly disappearing into this bookstore or that one. We snarked over vampires or figure skating or any other random topic that came to mind.

We've written together, we've corresponded, we've exchanged cards and presents, we've traded library stories. She used to send cards filled with glitter or confetti, making opening them without spilling the contents an adventure in themselves. It's hard to believe that won't happen ever again. I just can't imagine her not being there. It seems like she's always been there -- to listen, to kvetch, to offer advice or sympathies.

I can't even begin to describe how I'm feeling right now. I've never really lost anyone I was close to. I feel like part of me has been ripped out. The only good thing is knowing how much she was loved and appreciated in the end, surrounded by all her friends. She had so many people pulling for her, from all over the world. She wanted so much to keep going. To her credit, she fought this illness every step of the way. Most people would get discouraged by the next setback, but she'd take it with humor and grace.

If anyone tells me Internet friends aren't "real", I'll point at the ghouls and the jyg. I've known these women for years now. Some of them I've never met in person, some I've seen maybe once a year, but they're always there for me. Always. How are they any less friends? The most frustrating part about Anne's illness was the distance, not being there. Honestly I wish I'd been a better friend near the end, trying to call or sending that card I always meant to. I hope she knows she was never far from my thoughts.

Please please everyone get those mammograms and physicals, even if it seems like a bother or something that can't happened to you.

sarajlarson has posted her own memories of our longtime friend. She expresses a lot of the things I wish I could find the words for right now.

I will so miss you. You were one of a kind.

Rest in peace Anne. Friend and writer.

Fraser's Fractured Fiction
Centre Stage

"You think it takes courage to do what we do? Face another immortal with a sword knowing only one of you will live? You try being her! You try living one year knowing your time is running out. Knowing that when it comes to the final fight, however much you train, whatever tricks you have, you still lose. That's the way it is for them. So little time for them to see anything or DO anything." -- Methos, "Methuselah's Gift"