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It’s that time of year … Last December I wrote about the felted sweater monsters I made for my grown up children. They were a great success! This year, alas, there is not a sweater monster to be seen. Rather than monsters, I decided last minute to attempt the Norwegian felted slipper pattern I found and keep my families’ feet cozy and warm in a handmade way. I was hoping to have a colorful array of these slippers to photograph by the fireplace as a lovely holiday illustration.
Here is my first pair. The next step involves an origami-like process of folding and sewing together before felting. I’ve watched the instructional video four times and almost have the courage to attempt. Maybe just one or two more viewings and I’ll give it a shot. Bottom line? There will not be a perky, cheerful, elfin-like row of six pairs of colorful felted slippers adorning this page anytime soon. One person may or may not end up with felted slippers. One person may or may not end up with a piece of my woolery (knitted, then felted loopy scarves). I’ve managed to finish a few of these. Or perhaps one of these felted Christmas trees from four years ago— I guess what I’m trying to say is that my heart might be in the handmade process, but, as always, the finished product is all about the finishing. Whether it’s the final chapter of a novel or the revision of a manuscript or sewing together slippers for my children, it comes down to the hard work of finishing. Anyone with a vision can start a project – but who among us can always cross that finish line? Here’s one satisfying “finish.” A few years ago in this very space I wrote about finding great vintage holiday cards at a house sale, but I had lost them in the clutter of my office. Well, this year I finally found them! And the great thing about vintage? It never goes out of style. If I can’t limp acrossthe finish line in the great holiday race wearing Norwegian felted slippers this year, I will buy books for my loved ones. I will put on a coat and go outside and enter a real store and buy books at an independently owned bookstore. And if I need a virtual stocking stuffer for my Kindle-loving friends, I will purchase this as a gift –Home For The Holidays, Farnsworth? which is a collection written by the writers who attend the Wesley Writing Workshop that Steve and I moderate weekly. We edited the collection, so, yes, it’s shameless promotion – but the modest royalties that accrue will go to the writers and offset the cost of formatting their work. It’s a lovely holiday collection I can recommend without reservation. So, after you finish your holiday shopping and cooking and traveling and whatever else you do – however you celebrate the winter solstice – I hope you can sit back, take a deep breath and allow yourself to take great pleasure in all you’ve accomplished this year, in every act of kindness, in every new thought and idea you’ve pursued, in every relationship you’ve nurtured.
I wish you a long and happy process – and an occasional satisfying finish! I will be at home working on a pair of slippers. Health and Joy – P.S. Lucky Stuff, Jane Wheel’s eighth adventure will be in bookstores next summer. Summer. Dec. 7 update: Apparently I can follow directions! So now I can cross the Norwegian finish line in felted slippers – and perhaps make just a few more pairs by Christmas! Hey everyone, I love Halloween because of its trappings – the pumpkins and gourds, the costumes, the delicious dare to be out after dark – oh who am I kidding? It's the candy! It always comes down to the candy. I wrote the following piece about my (and Jane Wheel's) early greedy days and offer it here as a treat ... or a trick. It's not as good as an old fashioned Chunky, but it beats candy corn! My Jane Wheel update? Lucky Stuff (#8) is finished! It will be out in the spring – and in the meantime, in the spirit of Halloween, hand out a copy of Scary Stuff and increase the circle of Jane Wheel readers!
Halloween was always my favorite holiday. No pressure to make or buy just-right gifts for parents or brother. No obligatory visits to grandma wearing a stiff scratchy dress with pinchy shoes. No unrealistic expectations of ponies grazing under a decorated tree. Just comfortable wacky clothes, an empty pillowcase, a walk through crunchy leaves after dark – and candy, candy, candy all for me, me, me. Half magic, half greed – isn't that what childhood should be? I must have been six years old when I heard the whispering campaign at St. Pat’s. "Did you hear? Sanborns are going back to making taffy apples this year!" Taffy Apples? Crunchy, sticky, juicy and sweet – my four favorite food groups all rolled into one treat – so exotic, yet so homely! The humble apple dressed for company! My mouth watered when I heard the news. The best part? The Sanborns – an ancient couple whose children were grown and gone – lived on my corner! Right at the end of my block of Cobb Boulevard. I didn't even have to cross a street or risk cutting through the park where Kankakee Junior High eighth graders lay in wait with cartons of eggs. What's better than one taffy apple? Two taffy apples! My friend and I decided we would go to the Sanborns first and get one apple, round two blocks of speed trick-or-treating (sort of like speed dating, but better – you got chocolate!) then return for another apple. We would then follow our planned route, the map of which we had worked on for weeks. We had drawn in the houses where we expected giant chocolate bars and starred homes where we remembered the homemade popcorn balls of yesteryear. Proust and his little cookies had nothing on us and our memories of Chunkys and Bit-O-Honeys. It was a good plan and a smart one for a first grader. But a six year old is no match for a couple of sixty-somethings who had spent the day over a steaming vat of caramel trying to do something nice for the neighborhood. We were greedy and we were tricky and we were deceitful but we weren’t liars. Lying, after all, was a sin. When presented with the “sign-in book” by Mr. Sanborn where we had to write our names, first and last, and our addresses, we dutifully did as asked. Not one kid I knew – and I knew some pretty rotten kids – had the guts to out and out lie or make up a name and address so they could later return – or had the foresight to be Jane Doe on the first round and reclaim true identity for taffy apple #2. So we made do with one taffy apple … and 4 popcorn balls, 8 Chunkys, 3 Mounds bars, 12 tootsie roll pops, dozens of caramels, snickers, bags of candy corn and more … all for us, all kept in our rooms, unchecked for foreign objects by our benignly neglectful parents whom I’m sure knew that evil existed, but just didn’t believe that it had come to our neighborhood … and who were blissfully ignorant of the dangers of sugar, red dye #2 or high fructose corn syrup. Half greed, half magic — just what childhood should be!
Much, much too soon. Despite my need to be writing away, I needed to say two things. First, I want to remind everyone who visits here who is also attending Bouchercon in St. Louis next week to please find me and say hello. I’ll be at the Librarian’s Breakfast on Friday morning and will be on a panel Friday afternoon – this panel:
Friday, September 16 – 2:30-3:30 p.m. I couldn’t be more pleased. I have been taking a few chances with Jane Wheel lately and I couldn’t be happier with how Jane is deepening and growing in the books. This panel gives me a chance to talk about it with readers – and you can’t beat that.
Well maybe there is one thing that beats that which brings me to the second thing I have to tell you. If you know Sharon Fiffer and/or you know Jane Wheel, you know we are cheap, cheap, cheap. It’s not that we don’t want to spend money, it’s just that treasure hunting is all the better when you stick to the limits you set. EXCEPT when you find a complete set of dishes plus serving pieces from Heath Ceramics. I was working at a sale and when I saw all of these beautiful plates and bowls and cups and casseroles, etc. in a cabinet, I put in an offer then and there. It meant that everything I got paid for working the sale went back to my boss plus a little extra – but you know what? Finding something you’ve drooled over for years and finding it at a more than fair price is sometimes worth the money. My photos don’t do these dishes justice. I know I’ve never really been a mid-century modern type, but these dishes just might be a game changer. I am suddenly having dreams of Finnish glassware surrounding a Dansk ice bucket against a background of Marimekko fabric Not sure whether this is a temporary condition. I will keep you posted. In the meantime – tell me – what would make you raise/explode your shopping budget? If you spotted it, what item would make you throw caution to the wind, knowing that you might never find it again? And please, visit the Jane Wheel page on Facebook and push “like.” It won’t put you on any weird list – it will just give me a warm feeling – and I will toast you with one of my Heath “Sea and Sand” coffee cups See you for another update when the book is done – and I can give you a little teaser. Actually, here’s a teaser now – what would happen if Jane Wheel lost all of her “stuff?” Yes, I said, all of her stuff. Stay tuned.
Sharon made a guest appearance at the Kankakee Farmers’ Market June 11, signing copies of Backstage Stuff and distributing recipes of “Nellie’s EZ Way Inn Vegetable Soup” to Market shoppers. Market Manager Bill Yohnka presented her with a key to the Farmers’ Market and just generally made a big fuss over one of their own. Her gifts included a bouquet of rhubarb, a Jane Wheel/no make that a Jane Wedge of cheese – many fresh veggies, pickled beets, flowers, and this beautiful plaque pictured belowwith an antique key to an unknown Kankakee barn donated by a local locksmith – plus many other treats and surprises. It was terrific. Bill Yohnka, pictured holding the mic, declared June 11, Bittersleuth Day at the market when he presented the rhubarb! And in anticipation of the big day, Sharon was intereviewed on local radio. Click here and here to listen to the interview in two parts, and click on each photo below to see a larger image. And click here for your own copy of Nellie's EZ Way Inn Vegetable soup! 
This is a Hermes 3000 portable typewriter – the iPad of the fifties and sixties. You know how some lust after a Porsche? Or a big fancy house? Or, for that matter, a Hermes scarf? Well I have wanted a Hermes 3000 portable typewriter ever since I saw a picture several years ago. Oh yes, I want a Hermes Rocket model and a Baby Rocket, too – those are other sleek models from the Paillard Company – but a 3000 was the place I wanted to start. You can read more about these machines here – http://mytypewriter.com/hermes3000of1958.aspx
So this beauty is now mine. It is in impeccable condition and it was sitting on the shelf at my new favorite thrift store – Lake Forest Thrift Store in Lake Forest, Illinois. I attended the grand opening on Saturday and came home with this sleek machine, the current object of my affection. Why a vintage typewriter, since I am now quite comfortably typing away on my laptop and will continue to write my books on my trusty MacBook? Is it the satisfying sound of the keys striking, the freedom of true wireless technology, the romance of using a machine whose relatives were used by Hemingway and Kerouac? Or is it because actual writing is so different from the idea of being a writer? I write. It’s my job and my passion and I know – no matter how much I complain about how little my writing pays or the lack of respect for my job – “Gee, must be swell to sit around all day in your pajamas and write!” (And let’s get this straight right now, I only stay in my pajamas half the day. I am almost always dressed by dinner) I will continue to write because it’s what I do and I am damn lucky to be able to do it.
That said, I also love the idea of being a writer. Always have. While some played with dolls, I instead played office in the back room of the EZ Way Inn, punching numbers into my dad’s Victor adding machine – probably planting the seeds of one of my later loves as my fingers struck those gorgeous bakelite keys. I loved sharpening yellow pencils and sorting and arranging the minutia of a desk top—the real wooden scarred and warm oak desk top, not the virtual one on which I file my chapters of Jane Wheel’s adventures. Which is probably why I have this shrine dedicated to vintage office supplies hung above my current desk. Getting to do and be what I always wanted to do and be is a privilege. Looking at the Hermes 3000 makes me remember that. And makes me so grateful.
It’s rummage sale season too! Another reason to be grateful. Despite the rainiest, gloomiest spring ever, hope springs eternal for treasure hunters. Even those who are waiting in line in the rain – do you think this shopper will be looking for a used umbrella? Please check the calendar page. I will be at Printer’s Row in Chicago the first weekend in June although I don’t have the exact time yet. The second weekend in June? Big doings. On Friday afternoon, June 10, I’m stopping in at the Kankakee History Museum to sign some copies of my books in the gift shop. I am thrilled that they are going to carry all of the Jane Wheel titles! Then I proceed down to The Heartland in Gilman Illinois, where I will be the weekend guest speaker at the Heartland Spa. It is an incredible place – filled with good vibes and a talented staff and I am a lucky writer since I get to go down and talk about my books and the creative process and get a massage! On Saturday morning, June, 11, I will leave the Heartland Bliss behind for just an hour or so while I drive into Kankakee and visit the Farmer’s Market where I will be signing books in the Letterman-gifted Gazebo (see several of my books!) and handing out recipes for Nellie’s EZ Way Inn vegetable soup. There’s a rumor that a carrot will be named after Jane Wheel, too. Let’s face it, Hermes 3000 or no Hermes 3000, when a vegetable is named after you at your hometown farmer’s market? You have arrived. Happy Spring – if you have that season where you live. Around here, we, apparently, do not.
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