Marilyn Levinson’s Blog

January 9, 2008

This past fall my husband and I, along with our good friends, Jack and Elsbeth, spent two weeks cruising the Rhine River from Basel, Switzerland, to Antwerp, Belgium. We flew to Basel, where Elsbeth was born and Jack went to medical school, and enjoyed a sightseeing walk with Elsbeth’s childhood friend and his wife. The next day we boarded the Viking Star and sailed north, our first stop the Black Forest in Germany.

While my husband, Bernie, and I have cruised on large ships in Europe and South America, this was our first river cruise and we loved it.  The ship was small – about 168 passengers – and the crew friendly. The atmosphere was informal. No specified seating in the dining room (though we made sure to sit at our favorite waiter’s table) and no formal dress up nights. From the windows of the lounge above the dining room, we viewed the countryside on both sides of the river. The Rhine has an active life of its own. We passed barges transporting goods up and down the river, and occasionally had to wait our turn to go through the many locks, which was a fascinating experience. Every day we set out early – on foot or by bus — to visit a new town or city. Our excursions were included in the price of the cruise and extremely well run.

We stopped in towns and cities in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Bernie and I enjoyed revisiting Amsterdam and Bruges. We bought very little because the dollar was (and still is) very weak, making everything very expensive. But I did buy a small tapestry of a scene in Bruges in the airport.

It was a wonderful trip, though I would recommend anyone considering taking it to go earlier in the season. The weather’s nippy in late October, early November. Our ship had a top deck, but I only went up there once – to take photos. I’m looking forward to going on another river cruise. Now to convince my husband to fly to China.

April 5, 2007

My husband, Bernie, and I spent a week in Tucson, Arizona. We’d been there ten or twelve years ago, and I’d been wanting to return for the longest time. This was impossible, as for the past few years we had to fly down to Florida every few months to look after my dad until he passed away in August.

We stayed at the same hotel – the Windmill Suites – in St. Philip’s Plaza, which proved to be as comfortable and hospitable as we’d found it to be years ago. The one surprise was the weather, which was a broiling 96 to 98 during the day. Freakish weather for March, we were told repeatedly, which didn’t help me endure it any better as I don’t do well in hot weather. However, it was lovely to know we’d missed a snow and ice storm in New York.

Tucson is growing in leaps and bounds. We stopped by new galleries and restaurants, and returned to old favorite sites. Revisiting Tubac was at the top of my list. Though we arrived there as soon as the shops opened and only took time out for lunch, when four o’clock rolled around I was too pooped to enter one more doorway. To my dismay, Bernie informed me we’d covered only half the village. But we bought gifts, a nice variety of salsas for our sons, and I acquired a beautiful needlepoint Zuni bracelet.

We enjoyed visits to the Desert Museum and the art museum downtown, both of which have been largely expanded since our last visit,. We took pleasure driving around the foothills and the Saguaro National Parks, where I took several photos of cacti. The size and shapes of the cacti fascinated us.

Coming out to the Sunday outdoor market right in St. Philip’s Plaza was a pleasant surprise. We didn’t buy any of the delicious fruit, but we did get some homemade soap. Later that day, we drove almost an hour to visit the La Casa Grande, the Hohokam Indian ruins, near Coolidge. Fascinating to realize this advanced civilization disappeared suddenly and no one has discovered why. We flew home the following day. As much as I enjoy getting away, seeing new sites, flora and fauna, I love coming back to my routine, ready to resume my everyday life and writing.

March 1, 2007

I’m addicted to Sudoku. There! I’ve admitted it before all the world. When I’m tired or need to relax, I start a puzzle. When I’ve written a few pages and can’t decide how to continue just then, I lie back in my lounger and reach for a puzzle. They’re in my newspaper seven days a week. There are hundreds in the several books I’ve bought – all at arm’s reach with a pen at the ready.

What is so engrossing about filling in numbers from 1 - 9 across, down, and in each of the 9 boxes so that there are no repeats? I’m not a mathematically-minded person, but I derive great satisfaction from dovetailing the numbers so that each occupies its appropriate space. Why, I’ve even given up doing crossword puzzles, though I admit to buying a book of Kaduro puzzles, which I’ve quickly mastered.

Yes, yes, you might say. Marilyn’s found a way to waste time and avoid writing pages.

There might be some truth to that, though I always write my best and my fastest in the late afternoon, when I should be starting dinner, as my husband often tells me. But solving these number puzzles IS something like writing mysteries. Every piece must fit or the whole doesn’t hold. When writing a mystery novel, all clues must be offered, every suspect’s motivation plausible’ everyone’s time frame in sync with the time and location of the murders so that in the end and ONLY at the end, the reader thinks: Aha! It was obvious from the start.

Signing copies of RUFUS AND MAGIC RUN AMOK and NO BOYS ALLOWED! on Saturday afternoon at the Huntington Barnes & Noble was a lot of fun. There were six of us, all members of the Long Island Romance Writers. We each read an excerpt from one of our books then talked about how we sold our first novel. Then people (some of them friends and family) came up for us to autograph the books they were buying. I’m an active member of the LIRW, even though I’ve been writing mainly mysteries and the occasional romantic suspense. That’s because the LIRW is a wonderful group of women. I’ve many friends among my fellow members on whom I can count for support, honest critiquing, and laughs. I’m delighted that more and more LIRW members are selling books these days.

I’ve been working hard to finish my Work In Progress, MURDER IN THE AIR – a Lydia Krause/Twin Lakes mystery. Lydia’s relationship with Lieutenant Detective Sol Molina is heating up, bringing her both joy and a handful of problems, among them the fact that he doesn’t like her interfering in his cases. But Lydia’s driven to find solutions, and while questioning suspects, exposes a tragic secret she feels obligated to keep from Sol. Both strong-willed and used to being in charge, Lydia and Sol often clash as they fall in love amid mayhem and murder.

Happy New Year, Everyone.

Welcome to my new blog, Living and Musing. I’ll talk about aspects of life, about my life, about books I’m writing and books I’m reading. Whatever catches my interest, and yours, I hope.

Last month my husband and I spent 22 days in South America. Of course, two of those days – or should I say nights – were spent high above the clouds in flight. Not a very pleasant method of traveling, but the only one available to us mortals.

We landed in Santiago, Chile, December 4th, where we spent a day and a half traipsing around the city. Santiago’s a lovely city, its inhabitants friendly. As a former Spanish teacher, I took pleasure chatting with various people in their native tongue. My favorite stop was a visit to the house Pablo Neruda had built for his lover. Such an interesting, eclectic house, with stairs running up here and down there, and all sorts of memorabilia.

We boarded the cruise ship in Valparaiso and proceeded to travel southward. The fact that this was the start of South America’s summer season and that heading south meant for colder weather took some mental adjustment. We made a few stops, and my husband went on excursions that enabled us to see lots of magellan penguins. The magellans are smaller than the emperor penguins in “March of the Penguins” and don’t seem to require very cold weather. Also, the adults have an additional stripe across their chests.

We rounded Tierra del Fuego, headed north, and stopped at Buenos Aires , where we saw a tango show and shopped. Then on to Montevideo, and, after a few days at sea, disembarked at Rio de Janeiro. Rio is an amazing place with extraordinary scenery. Beaches like Cocacabana and Ipanema stretch for miles and miles, with two renown mountains – Sugarloaf and Corcovado – in the distance. We took a jeep excursion up the Corcovado to see the Christ the Redeemer, but the fog prevented us from seeing more than the base of this world-famous monument. We drove through the rain forest where we caught sight of a monkey. One evening we saw a vibrant samba show.

And home again, where I suffered through a cold which morphed into a stomach virus. I never seem to escape traveling large distances without getting sick. But that’s another subject.

It was wonderful being away, with nothing to do but see new sights and relax. For twenty-two days, I never turned on a computer, sent an email or wrote one word. The days at sea I read and freely indulged in my one obsession –sudoku puzzles– and ate desserts twice a day. But coming home is the best part of being away. I’m back at work on my work in progress, a mystery involving my sleuth, Lydia Krause. But more about Lydia another day.

Marilyn