Today we welcome back to our blog, Diana Rubino with Thursday Thoughts & Why She Loves Spring so you're getting double entertainment in one post! Therefore, without further ado, please welcome Diana....
Why I Like Spring by Diana
Rubino
I live in New England—need I
say more?
It takes longer for spring to
arrive here than to most places. Right now, April 1, already over a week into
spring, the ground is still half covered with snow and it’s barely in the 40s.
But I heard a mourning dove the other day, which is a sure sign that spring is
on the way.
In this area, we get a lot of
spring days that are downright dreary, with overcast leaden skies, a fine mist
falling, and that raw chill that goes right through you. But a day like that
brings promise. It’s no longer the bitter cold with the arctic blasts. The wind
carries a promising fragrance, and you can almost smell the grass struggling to
peek through the patches of snow. Hearty New Englanders are out wearing shorts
and T-shirts, even though it’s still in the high 40s or low 50s. We wear our
Red Sox caps. All those signs point to that magical day when we can wear those
T-shirts without shivering, sit in the ballpark munching peanuts, and inhale a
lungful of lilac-scented breeze on a jog.
It takes a while to get here,
but when it does, we appreciate it all the more.
Contact Diana at the following places....
The
End of Camelot by Diana Rubino
November
22, 1963, a day that changed America forever. Who killed President Kennedy?
I've been a HUGE
JFK assassination buff since that very day. Everyone who was alive on November
22, 1963 knew exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard
the news. I was in my first grade classroom. The teacher got a call on the
classroom phone and told us ‘the president was shot.’ A collective gasp went
around the room. I was 6 years old and in first grade. It was ten years
before I saw the footage of Ruby shooting Oswald, on an anniversary
documentary.
But it was my grandmother who got me interested in the biggest mystery since 'who killed the princes in the Tower?' (I'm a Ricardian; that's for another post). She got me embroiled right along with her.
She listened to all the radio talk shows (those who lived in the New York area might remember Long John Nebel, on WOR, WNBC, and WMCA, all on AM radio (FM was really 'out there' at that time).
She recorded all the radio talk shows. She bought whatever books came out over the years, along with the Warren Commission Report, which I couldn't lift at the time, it was so heavy. But my interest never waned in the 51 years that followed.
In 2000, I began the third book of my New York Saga, set in 1963. The heroine is Vikki McGlory Ward, daughter of Billy McGlory, hero of the second book, BOOTLEG BROADWAY, set during Prohibition. This was my opportunity to write a novel showcasing all my current theories, and continue the saga. It took a minimum of research, since I remember all the 60's brands, (Bosco, Yum Berry, Mr. Bubble...), the fashions, the songs, and I even included a scene set on that unforgettable night when the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964.
But it was my grandmother who got me interested in the biggest mystery since 'who killed the princes in the Tower?' (I'm a Ricardian; that's for another post). She got me embroiled right along with her.
She listened to all the radio talk shows (those who lived in the New York area might remember Long John Nebel, on WOR, WNBC, and WMCA, all on AM radio (FM was really 'out there' at that time).
She recorded all the radio talk shows. She bought whatever books came out over the years, along with the Warren Commission Report, which I couldn't lift at the time, it was so heavy. But my interest never waned in the 51 years that followed.
In 2000, I began the third book of my New York Saga, set in 1963. The heroine is Vikki McGlory Ward, daughter of Billy McGlory, hero of the second book, BOOTLEG BROADWAY, set during Prohibition. This was my opportunity to write a novel showcasing all my current theories, and continue the saga. It took a minimum of research, since I remember all the 60's brands, (Bosco, Yum Berry, Mr. Bubble...), the fashions, the songs, and I even included a scene set on that unforgettable night when the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, February 9, 1964.
About THE END OF CAMELOT
The third in the New York Saga, The End of Camelot centers on Billy McGlory’s daughter Vikki,
whose husband is murdered trying to prevent the assassination of John F.
Kennedy. Vikki uses her detective skills to trace the conspiracy, from New York
to New Orleans to Dallas, and at the same time, tricks her husband’s murderer
into a confession. A romance with her bodyguard makes her life complete.
November 22, 1963: The assassination
of a president devastates America. But a phone call brings even more tragic
news to Vikki Ward—her TV reporter husband was found dead in his Dallas hotel
room that morning.
Finding his notes, Vikki realizes
her husband was embroiled in the plot to kill JFK—but his mission was to
prevent it. When the Dallas police rule his death accidental, Vikki vows to
find out who was behind the murders of JFK and her husband. With the help of
her father and godfather, she sets out to uncover the truth.
Aldobrandi Po , the bodyguard hired
to protect Vikki, falls in love with her almost as soon as he sets eyes on her.
But he's engaged to be married, and she’s still mourning her husband. Can they
ever hope to find happiness in the wake of all this tragedy?
Excerpt
It was New
Year’s Eve, they were alone, and he was harmless. So far. So she took the
necessary two paces over to him and placed the honey ball between his
custom-made choppers.
He closed his
eyes, and she watched him savoring the sweetness. She didn’t dare say another
word as she ran her index finger over a glob of cream on the cannoli plate,
raised it to her lips and licked. “Mmmm,” she voiced, wishing she hadn’t.
Their eyes met
and locked. Faster than lightning, they came together like magnets. Their lips
met, sweet and sticky and hot. She didn’t want him to stop, but her inner voice
screamed how wrong it was—It’s forbidden!—echoing
the nuns in Saint Gustina’s. She shooed it away like an annoying fly. Leave me alone, I’m not a kid anymore.
Her arms circled his neck, and his hands slid down to the curve of her back.
Dare she move in closer, pelvis to pelvis, an unthinkable act three seconds
ago? Her body was betraying her, betraying Jack, taking on a will of its own as
she crushed herself to him. The kiss intensified. She tasted cannoli, and her
fogged mind told her he’d been sampling them all day. She breathed in his
cologne, so foreign it repelled her, so new it aroused her even further. Her
tiara slipped off her head. She caught it just as he pulled away.
He held her at
arm’s length as in a tango. “Oh, cara mia,”
he growled—and if he said another word in Italian, she knew she’d explode. A
passion long dormant stirred inside her.
Diana's favorite
passage from the book:
Billy came down
the stairs for a nightcap and glanced into the living room. He noticed the glow
in the fireplace, Vikki’s eyeglasses and the anisette bottle on the table. The
couch faced the other way, but nobody was sitting on it. “Where’d they go?” Then
he realized they hadn’t gone anywhere—and they were on the couch, but not
sitting. Before he got out of their way, he placed a long-playing record on the
phonograph. Jackie Gleason’s “For Lovers Only.”
Well Friends, hope you enjoyed this double shot of entertainment on Thursday Thoughts! Until next time...take care & God Bless!
PamT
1 comment:
Your book sounds fascinating, Diana. I've long been interested in the Kennedy assassination, too. So much of the official story just doesn't make sense.
Hope spring comes to New England soon. I love lilacs, too.
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