Thursday Thoughts ~ August 7, 2025

August 7, 2025August 14, 2025 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ 1 Comment

Happy Sugar Diamonte’s Birthday Eve!

Sugar Diamonte is the main character in my cozy mystery series. Her birth date is 8/8/88, the same day I started the best job I ever had, at The Pennysaver, a weekly print advertising mailer in Southern California. I worked there for 27 years with the finest group of accounting folks that became family, many of them employed there as long or longer than me. It’s my little homage to them and our time together, giving Sugar a birth date so close to my heart.

Sugar looks like Sandra Bullock in While You Were Sleeping and a pivotal scene in the book unfolds at a movie theatre after she and her neighbor, Maybelle, see The Lost City.

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Thursday Thoughts ~ July 17, 2025

July 17, 2025July 24, 2025 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ 2 Comments

Happy Friday Eve!

The VW bus saga ended on a high note last Thursday (In case you missed it, here’s the beginning of the saga). The tow truck driver, Miguel, called to ask if he could come an hour early ~ a definite YES! He turned out to be a really nice guy, who gave us the reaction we hoped for when he realized the bus had an automatic transmission ~ he was excited to see it and understood exactly how special it was. He handled the entire operation himself, backing the bus down our driveway, and using a winch to get it onto the flatbed. We watched it drive down our street to its new adventure at the auction and hopefully, a buyer who will appreciate it as much as we did.

We dream of it being fixed up and cruisin’ around town! It was hard to see it go but it was time. If you missed The Husband’s guest post last week ~ his ode to his VW ~ here it is.

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Holiday Movies in Disguise

December 10, 2022January 1, 2023 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ 1 Comment

So, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) went well. I added over 10,000 words to the 11,611 I started with on my cozy mystery, so I’m happy. Lots more to write, then edit, so still slogging merrily away 😊

But it’s also the holidays! We don’t do a lot of decorating but we do have a lot of favorite holiday movies we watch.

Here are a couple of movies I watch during the holidays that you might not necessarily associate with Christmas.

I’m starting with the movie I’m most conflicted about. I shouldn’t like You’ve Got Mail. It’s about a big box book store moving into a New York City neighborhood that wants to close all the competition, including The Little Shop Around the Corner. Tom Hanks plays Joe Fox, the charming figurehead of the big bad bookstore, Fox Books and Meg Ryan plays Kathleen Kelly, who is desperately trying to keep alive her late mother’s childrens bookstore. Hanks and Ryan are at their peak, playing people who are sworn enemies in real life, not realizing that they’re falling in love via anonymous email (the sound of AOL connecting to the internet! LOL!). Part of the story takes place during December, so there are Christmas trees and gift buying, which makes this a holiday movie to me.

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Chick Flicks for Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2022February 17, 2022 ~ GrayMareWrites ~ Leave a comment

For years, The Husband and I had a movie for every holiday (The Quiet Man for St. Patrick’s Day, Independence Day for the Fourth of July, etc.), which we seem to have let fall by the wayside in the last few years. But our Valentine’s movie was always Roxanne, Steve Martin’s take on Cyrano de Bergerac. It will always have my heart because it’s funny and smart and, ya know, Steve Martin.

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