If you run into a bad link, or you want to chat, email me at fruitshirt@juno.com.
Don't get your hopes up! I don't do personal stuff with strangers. Okay, fine, I'll be more accurate: I no longer do personal stuff with strangers.
Well, when I'm not telling people to get a life, I read a lot. Favorite authors include: mystery authors Ellis Peters, Elizabeth Peters, Martha Grimes and Elizabeth George; science fiction and fantasy authors too numerous to mention, but let me try anyway: Julian May, Tom Deitz, Gael Baudino, Mercedes Lackey, Stephen R. Donaldson.... Okay, forget it, exercise in futility!
I have an absolute fascination with Christopher Marlowe and with Vita Sackville-West (oohh, look, a hint of something personal!)
Current projects: Promoting my novel, Stages. Hard copies are available from iUniverse.com. You're welcome to read the first chapter. I've gotten Backyard Wildlife Habitat certification! I'm #32264. If yer curious about the world behind my house, have a look. You can read about my efforts thus far at eNature's Backyard Wildlife website. I'm #2581.
Music. Here's a good word for your vocabularies: eclectic. I refuse to listen to twangy, whiny country, rap, or anything that makes me want to throw the artist over a cliff. Faves include: John Whelan, Maire Brennan, Todd Snyder, The Refreshments, almost anything by Vivaldi and (strange bedfellows!) Prokofiev, The Hollies, and Jimmy Buffett. All my favorite CDs were stolen from my car in summer 2005, and somehow I haven't gotten around to replacing them. Always somewhere else to spend the money, eh?
Right about now, you're probably saying to yourself, hey, Clara's a pretty visual person. Check out that great background! (Okay, I'm not an idiot, you're saying nothing of the kind, but it's a hell of a segue....) So, Clara, what do you watch on television? Not much. I used to watch "Futurama," for no really good reason. Had a brief fling with "The Lone Gunmen," a pretty good show that naturally vanished from Fox's plathetic excuse for a lineup. How in hell a ridiculous travesty like "The X Files" hung on year after year, yet some really interesting shows get deep-sixed, I shall never understand. Of course I still watch "The Antiques Roadshow," and some British comedies that follow on Saturday night. I don't seem to have much time to watch tv, and certainly don't have much interest in it. And yes, Kate, I've cut down my viewings of "Jurassic Park" to about twice a month. It's hard, beastly hard, but I am trying! [and you know very well, my dear tomahto, I'm cheating, cuz I've gotten the "extra" version, with "the making of" kinda stuff....]
Since we're on the subject of visual, I'll take this opportunity to mention my favorite actor, Sir Derek Jacobi. So many of the Jacobi-related websites I used to visit have vanished without a trace. As of this writing, 23 May 2006, Linn's Domain is still alive, but isn't being updated at all. She's looking for someone to take it over, as well.
It's funny how people react to their favorites stars sometimes, isn't it? For example, Donna Flood Kenton, who'd built a wonderful page, took it down: seems she happened to meet Derek Jacobi, and she happened to mention she'd created a web page honoring him.... And he apparently was "appalled" that anyone would find him interesting enough to do that, and according to the story I heard, he became rather agitated at the very idea that someone had put up a website about him, so she took the site down out of deference to his tender sensibilities.
So sorry, my lad. I refuse to pretend I don't find you fascinating. And I intend to cling to the hopelessly-insane notion that if ever you were to meet me, you would find me interesting, too. You're a helluvan actor, in my opinion. And you looked damned good in brocade.... Tell Richard hello, won't you? There's a good fellow.
Let me think. What else.... (Doncha just love people who think online...?) Family. Yes, I have one. Got some very interesting and very weird people swinging from branches in my family tree. They warrant their own page, indeed they do. Keep watching, because it'll surely turn up!
In fact, a drastic change occurred in my family. My mother died. Click here to learn a little about her.
A second drastic change occurred in my family on 22 May 1999. Don't expect a page on this one. I'm still having nightmares. One of my brothers wrecked his Ford Escort. Broke his neck. His passenger and best friend eventually died of his injuries. My brother has to live with his. We nearly threw a damned party the day he was able to move some toes on his right foot, if that gives you any indication of the severity of his condition. Being able to move one finger on his left hand, one finger, warranted a dozen phone calls. If I can ever muster the calm to deal with it without resorting to rampant screaming, I'm going to write a rant about drinking and driving and paying attention to the damned road. I feel so helpless. When we were kids, centuries ago, I could keep him safe. I could help him if he got hurt. And there's nothing I can do now except try not to cry.
13 August 2001: my brother's doing better than I hoped. He's now able to use a computer, to some extent, though I doubt he'd ever bother to look at this page. Still, it's a great stride.
23 May 2006: Well, my brother's house was totaly destroyed in a tornado in March of this year. Lucy, their little chihuahua, wouldn't follow them downstairs and flew with the house, across the gravel parking area and smashed into the huge equipment shed of the property's owner. Lucy not only lived, she hadn't a cut or bruise on her tiny flying body! Nobody in the family was injured. I say it's entirely luck: if my niece's boyfriend hadn't been visiting, my brother would probably have been creamed, because he couldn't have gotten himself down the basement stairs, and my sister-in-law couldn't have gotten him down the stairs in time. Thank you forever, Nick.
Me? What do I look like? Ha. Good try. I'm human, but you probably guessed that. Female. One would hope nobody would be cruel enough to name their son "Clara." The rest, as Anne McCaffrey says, is subject to change without notice....
Feel compelled to try to develop some image of me? I finally made up a page about one of my hobbies, photography. Pop over there, and have a look.
As a courtesy, I'm providing the following link to the source of my meta tags:
