Hello from the Beach Cold!

The sun may be setting on summer (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere), but we've got the Cold coming in, my friends! As usual, I promise you thousands upon thousands of words and images that will take you through the gloomier months, i.e., my favorite time of the year, with plenty of fictional worlds, fanciful thoughts, artistic impulses, philosophical segues, and even a few bone-chilling twists and turns.

As I plop back into my desk chair and nestle into my red-walled office once again, after a month of wisdom teeth extractions, back to school brouhaha, and even a glorious, fun-filled week at the beach, I'll be continuing with some of last year's projects - writing a nine "episode" Cold War noir detective series set in 1959 Bombay, recording the Cold podcast, writing essays, and researching new worlds. But I'll also be embarking on some new projects, which I'll be sharing with you the coming months. Whatever we do, I can promise it won't be boring.

Since this is pretty much my first official day back in the saddle, I would like to share with you a few pictures and anecdotes from my recent August adventures. I should preface all of this by saying (writing), that taking time off has been both wonderful and weird. While I loved the spontaneity that came with my open days, I also love what I do, and my routine gives me a sense of structure and purpose. The fact is, I missed our fortnightly dispatches and am excited to be stepping back into the cloak and dagger world of dashing spies, deadly assassins, exotic locales, cursed lovers, ancient prophecies, and even a ghost or two. I'm funny that way.

That's not to say that family life in the "real" world isn't equally spirited and dynamic. My son took a course on Dracula this summer (apple doesn't fall far from the tree), which resulted in some epic conversations about vampirism, Victorian mores, and whether Bram Stoker's "Dracula" truly is the greatest Gothic novel ever written, or merely the genesis of one of the most compelling fictional villains of all time.

Personally, I love the story for its sheer balls-out originality, but I can't deny that Stoker's title character has well overshadowed the novel that bears his name. Whichever way we look at it, Bram Stoker brought to life a character who is so genuinely terrifying, yet erudite and manly in the classical sense, that I challenge anyone out there to find a more interesting anti-hero. For that alone, Dracula belongs in the canon of classical literature, and I'm sticking to that, even if my son's professor isn't fully on board.

As I was re-immersing myself in Dracula and revisiting some of my favorite vampire movies this past month, I was also nursing a grumpy sixteen-year-old after her fangs wisdom teeth were removed by a woman who was quite possibly the funniest and prettiest oral surgeon I've ever encountered or ever thought possible. She was right out of a Grey's Anatomy episode.

"I speak two languages: English and hillbilly," she said in a southern twang that made me want to make up an extra sweet pitcher of lemonade and serve it to everyone in her office. She giggled, cracked jokes, yet never once gave the impression that she was anything but a very serious person. That's not easy to pull off.

Her sixteen-year-old patient, who has been through at least a dozen surgical procedures that make tooth extractions look like a day at the spa, was an uncharacteristically bad sport about the whole thing. This made her older sister - who is usually the bad sport when it comes to any kind of medical intervention - downright giddy. Big sis even commemorated the occasion with a sketch.

Last, but not least, our whole family drove down to the Charleston beaches in South Carolina for a magnificent week on Folly Island. Folly's a fun, quirky surfing town only a few miles from downtown Charleston, so we got the best of both worlds.

By day, we body surfed some intense waves in an ocean almost as warm as bathwater, picked shells, and read piles of actual books (Madeline Miller's Circe, S.A. Chakraborty's City of Brass).

By night, we mixed cocktails, cooked up a storm, or drove into Charleston for great low country cuisine. For those of you scratching your heads as to what exactly that means, think shrimp & grits, she-crab soup (soup made from a pregnant crab), and roasted oysters.

We even got caught in a Charleston flood and had to make our way to the parking garage with our pants and skirts help up to our knees as we waded through shin-deep water. The restaurant kept on keeping on and the locals just shrugged. Apparently, this happens after heavy rains all the time - especially as high tide comes in.

On our last night, we just walked the beach, ate shrimp in a basket, and talked about online dating, the pros and cons of the sexual revolution, the daunting task of searching for true love as the world seems to be shifting beneath our feet, and the fact that all of us were nervous, but ready for the coming year. It'll be one of new stories and new schools, study abroad programs and first times (our youngest is getting her driver's license). We've even got one epic launch into adulthood on the horizon, as our oldest prepares to graduate from university next May.

Deep breath. Deep gratitude. Deep dive into our next chapters.

And a profound appreciation for what is and the everyday surprises that come our way.

Cold Podcast

This week on Cold, we talk about absorbing and interpreting our very own surroundings as part of our stories. We delve into my experience as a northerner who has now lived most of her adult life in the south, and what it's like to view a place as an outsider, but eventually blend in and become something resembling a local. Mix yourself a Mint Julep and have a listen.

The Cold is heading into warmer territory!

Larry's Music Box

I've got a motley crew of local for you in the Music Box this week! I'm taking you back to my first sense of "local" - my identity as a daughter of Czech immigrants. The band Mňága a Žďorp formed in 1983, during the last, sputtering years of the Soviet Union, and went on to become what I call "the Czech Jimmy Buffet experience." They've got a southern (as in American southern) vacation vibe that's hard not to sway along to. One of their most popular songs, "Nejlip Jim Bylo," which translates roughly to "When They Felt Best," is a great example of the sort of laid-back music that they popularized in The Czech Republic during the 90s.

Czech out these lyrics (see what I did there?), again, roughly translated:

"They felt best when they didn't know what they were doing.

They just met and it didn't sound half bad.

So, they tried and really enjoyed themselves. They just were and the time went by just fine."

Like Jimmy Buffet, Mňága a Žďorp remains popular to this day and has a legion of passionate fans. Although unlike Parrotheads, the self-named superfans of Buffet's music, they haven't named themselves...yet :)

Oh, and to add one more layer of local, my daughter actually introduced me to this song!

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Promo Season!

Yes, I know, Promo Season has been winding down, but I've still got some good ones for you. This one focuses on female leads in fantasy, which is obviously close to my heart. These women wield swords, shoot bows and arrows, fly through space, travel through time, and break hearts!

Female Leads in Fantasy!

Happy to be back,

Victoria