Thursday, June 18: Femme Fatale
Personal note: I missed you guys! Many thanks to the wonderful writers who filled in the Thursday time slot while I was away: alisa dollar, Travis Erwin, Sunny Frazier, Lissa Merriman and James Lincoln Warren – I love you all for sharing your talents so generously.
THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE
by Deborah Elliott-Upton
If there are any words that have been repeated more often than LAST CHANCE, I don’t know what they are. My mailbox regularly receives LAST CHANCE catalogs. Subscriptions to magazines are marked LAST CHANCE to renew before they expire. A really cute guy once told me if we were to be together, that night was our LAST CHANCE because he was being shipped off to war and besides, he might have leukemia.
None of those turned out to be true. The catalogs and subscriptions have given me yet one more chance, and the guy? I turned to him, placed a finger on his cheek, kissed him deeply and said, “I think I want to talk to your mother about your treatment and why the army would take such a sick individual into the service.”
Thank goodness with books, there is never a last chance. I didn’t live during the time of Edgar Allan Poe, Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, but I can still read and enjoy their writing.
This past weekend, I experienced rare time alone. When my daughter lived in New York and my son was stationed in Italy, I had a lot of alone time. Now that my home is once more a bit empty, my husband and I spend more time together, but find time alone is valuable, too. I am sometimes off to a writer’s conference and he spends time with Cowboy Action Shooting. Time to spend catching up on reading is at the top of my list.
Perhaps I own too many books, but I don’t care if someone thinks I have too many. I love the look of a crowded bookshelf, the scent of leather-bound books and yes, even those a bit musty paperbacks. Each carries a memory of the time I acquired and then read the words inside. I don’t open a Louis L’Amour without thinking of my time on Okinawa sharing the worn paperbacks with my husband’s fellow soldiers. My stacks of Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock magazines regularly travel next door to my elderly neighbor who devours them as quickly as I do, then we pass them along to the Veteran’s Hospital. The rest I tend to keep. I regularly reread short story collections just because I love them so. I will never part with my Alfred Hitchcock anthologies, Nine Stories by J. D. Salinger or Ernest Hemingway’s The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories.
By the way, that cute guy who gave me one last chance? He lied. He wasn’t a member of the military at that time, didn’t have any illness to keep him from enlisting and six months later, after he realized I had a brain, too, I gave him one last chance, then married him.
I agree with every word, but that last paragraph sure was sneaky. As for his story, I give your husband an “A” for originality.
Great to have you back. I’m glad you are distributing the old AH and EQMMs.
Good to have you back. Hope you find time to do some writing in all the peace and quiet.
Glad you’re back!! You were missed!!
I don’t think one can ever have too many books!! :]] Great article!!
So glad you are back!
I love books and so does husband. However, when you’ve been transferred into almost every part of Texas (some I’d not heard of til we moved there) I’ve had to learn the words “choices”—“cull”—-
the only thing wrong with that is my husband only applied to MY boxes and boxes and boxes of books—not his.
Great article.
Enjoyed this, Debbie –
We get those same notices on sales catalogs -“Hurry – Order Today – Last Chance” If only they meant it! Sigh…
My favorite book is Catherine Marshall’s Christy. My mom and I both read it once a year for several years. After she died, I decided others in my family might enjoy it, too, so now when we go on our “antiquing” trips, I look for that book. I found it in one of the Clovis antique shops a few weeks ago. I have shared several copies and will continue to do that as long as I can find the book.
Thanks for your article and for reminding us that there usually is at least one more chance before the last chance.
I am glad you are back.
I have been checking the site every week so I wouldn’t miss your return. I wont say I was worried about a reprisal, but I wasn’t going to chance it either. ;-p
I love those last chance today offers. I get them all the time. Usually I am thankful that I will have one less thing to throw away soon.
Great article!
Thanks! Great article! So that means that I always can have a last chance… Thanks is a great offer!
I think we make our own luck, and therefore the chances/risks/adventures — whatever you want to call them — are available to us to take or not…the road less traveled has been my path. I’m pleased to be back at the CB Corp. I did notice no one had boarded up my office or switched my nameplate yet, so guess there’s still room for me. C’mon in, we’re having a Welcome Back party. Drinks are on JLW!
Drinks are on JLW!
Uh … no, they aren’t. I’m nothing if not cheap.
Note to JLW: Virtual drinks cost nada. This is one time you can splurge.
Note to JLW: Virtual drinks cost nada. This is one time you can splurge.
In that case I’ll take a diet coke straight up.
“Last Chance?!?” I’ve been getting robocalls using that phrase for at least a couple of years now!
Nice having you back!