Monday, March 24, 2025
Short stuff!
Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.
Daily Diary, Day 1664:
Sunday morning was spent writing the Small Moment of Delight post (and thanks to all of you who have shared what plants you delight in), then doing my usual deeper clean of the downstairs, followed by an almost 2 hour phone call with a close friend who I shared an office with for over a decade in my teaching job. We had a lot to catch up on!
Then lunch, another phone call, and then I sat outside in the sun to read the new book I ordered as research for my short story. The title is Racial Frontiers, African, Chinese, and Mexicans in Western America 1848-1890. While I don’t know if it will give me anything to add to my story, I am enjoying it and will probably spend what down time I have today continuing to read it.
I only got one walk in yesterday, but I hope to get two today. I also have a friend coming over this afternoon, mostly to talk about publishing because she is near to finishing writing her first fiction book.
We watched the last episode of the UKGhosts last night, and we were both sad it was over. Just a lovely sweet story. Then we watched newest Death in Paradise and another episode in the French version of High Potential. There is a dubbed version, as well as a close-captioned version (which we had been watching), and out of curiosity we briefly tried the dubbed version. Hated it. The voices sounded all wrong, and it was strange how flat everything sounded in English. I think it is remarkable how my brain is able to get the meaning of the dialogue reading the captions, while taking in the emotions in the spoken dialogue—even when I don’t understand the French. Anyway, we quickly switched back to the captioned version.
With more walks, further afield, I am finding more flowers to photograph. California poppies are showing up in multiple places.
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I wholeheartedly agree that listening to the original language while reading subtitles makes all the difference. Each language has its own way of using verbal cues and even if we don't speak the language, if we know what is being said we can pick up on these cues. Right now I'm watching the third season of The White Lotus (which I highly recommend) and some of the conversation is in the native language of Thailand. The cadence of Asian languages is so different, but I'm really starting to get it!
Georgetown, Tx Poppy’s are beautigul again this year. The story behind them goes back to WW1 and is wonderful but too long for here but you can read online. I tried to post a picture but it won’t take it here. The Cali Pippys are so pretty.