Stories

Hi kids! It’s been a minute… or two… Life, as it will, keeps intruding. I’ve been working on my first cozy mystery after putting the romance novella on hold. Currently working on my third revision and almost ready for my beta reader to take a first whack at it.

I just looked back at the blog and realized I only posted twice in the last 12 months! Truly, this year wasn’t the creative blockbuster I’d hoped for but a year ago, I declared my word for 2024 to be Onward and onward I went, through medical woes, both human and feline, writing challenges and political disappointments.

Now, I want to focus on what I’m reading, writing, and entertaining myself with. Words and stories have been my most constant source of pleasure, wonder and staver offer of boredom. And I want to share it all—the good, the bad and the utterly enchanting.

Starting with A Man on the Inside.

I’m not a Ted Danson fan. But! In A Man on the Inside, he portrays his character, Charles, with such sweetness, poignancy, and general adorableness, that I may have to upgrade my opinion to admiration. I’m not surprised that he earned a Goldgen Globe nomination for the role.

Charles, a recent widower, stumbles into a job infiltrating a swanky senior living facility to investigate a jewelry theft. As much as he treats being a spy as a lark, he begins to form attachments to some of the residents while forming new bonds with his daughter. The theft(s) are just a device to tell the story of how Charles begins to heal from his wife’s death from Alzheimer’s.

At this point in my life, I’m naturally interested in stories about older people but nine times out of ten, I’m disappointed. Mostly, because they’re so depressing. But the secret sauce to A Man on the Inside is that we experience the story though the lens of Charles, who, even through his grief, sees the world in a kaleidoscope of positivity, possibility, and affection. There are plenty of tears to be shed but they’re uplifting tears, joyful and hopeful. Life goes on and these characters celebrate their lives as they’re living them, not wasting today by yearning for yesterday.

Sally Struthers and Margaret Avery welcome Ted Danson to Pacific View

Sally Struthers gives a dazzling, deeply emotional performance as Virginia. Disappointed she didn’t get a Golden Globe nod because she richly deserved it.  Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Charles’ daughter, Emily, Margaret Avery as Flo-Jo, a resident who helps Charles navigate his grief, Susan Ruttan as Gladys, a woman destined to be overtaken by dementia, and Stephen McKinley as Cal, who gifts his friendship to Charles and who may be the most vulnerable character in the show, are all outstanding in a cast of beautifully rendered humans.

PS-It was refreshing and validating to see so many older actresses who are aging gracefully—i.e., not Barbie-izing themselves with plastic surgery!

Just when I was ready to jettison Netflix, it comes up with this gem of a series, based on the documentary, The Mole Agent, also on Netflix. They’ve left it open for a second season and I’m hoping they jump on it right away. I have a feeling we’re going to need as much feel-good entertainment as we can get in the coming few years!