Nan McCarthy

author of Since You Went Away, Chat, Connect, Crash, & Live ’Til I Die

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#neighborhoodwalk #awalkinthepark #awalkwithmylove #myhappyplace #loosepark #kcneighborhood #snowstorm2019 #kcsnowstorm #winterwonderland #kansascity #kcmo #nofilter #igkc #igkansascity #instakc
Stay safe out there. #snowstorm2019 #snowstormkc #kcmo #kansascity
I loved Richard Lloyd Parry’s People Who Eat Darkness (it’s one of my favorite true-crime books), and his latest work captured my interest in much the same way. In March 2011 a 120-ft tsunami hit northeast Japan, killing more than 18,000 people. One of the worst aspects of the tragedy were the unnecessary deaths of 74 children at Okawa Elementary School, who could have escaped the tsunami were it not for the negligence and poor decisions of the teachers and administrators in charge at the time. Parry focuses on a few of the families whose children either perished or escaped the tsunami, making the story extremely personal and gripping. My husband and I lived in Japan for three years so I found the up-close insights into Japanese culture and how the families dealt with the tragedy especially engrossing. Most Westerners think “sayonara” is what Japanese people use for “goodbye,” but in most cases “sayonara” is too formal & final for everyday leave-taking. Instead, the schoolchildren who left their homes for school that morning used the more informal and intimate “itte kimasu” to say goodbye to their parents—“Having gone, I will come back.” And in response, their parents, who had no idea they’d never see their children again, replied with the usual “itte rasshai”—“Having gone, be back.” #GhostsOfTheTsunami #RichardLloydParry #tsunami2011 #nonfiction #JapaneseCulture #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #lovetoread
A few of my favorite things. #comfychair #cozyblanket #sleepydog #goodbook
When you lose (win?) the office holiday gift exchange. 😂 #Christmasgrabbag #giftexchange #whiteelephantgifts #HowToTalkToYourCatAboutGunSafety #catsofinstagram #booksofinstagram #bookstagram
Color me predictable but I don’t care—I’ve been an Elvis fan since I was a little girl listening to my parents play his records on the hi-fi. Number one on my Christmas Countdown is the 1994 compendium of every Christmas song ever recorded by Elvis, If Every Day Was Like Christmas. This is the album I like to crank to 11 when my hubs and I are making Christmas cookies together. Top favorites are Blue Christmas and Elvis’s gritty growling on Santa Claus is Back in Town. But the best Christmas song of all is the title track, If Every Day Was Like Christmas. When I hear it—like the lyrics say—a glow fills my heart and I’m at peace with the world. #ElvisPresley #IfEveryDayWasLikeChristmas #ElvisChristmas #BlueChristmas #SantaClausIsBackInTown #ChristmasMusic #ChristmasCountdown #NansChristmasFaves
Number two on my Christmas Countdown is the sentimental favorite Holiday Sing Along With Mitch Miller and the Gang. Released the year I was born (1961), this is the album my parents played on the hi-fi every Christmas when I was little. We had some rough Christmases back then, but this album reminds me of happier times. When I hear Mitch and the Gang sing I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, it brings me back to that brief period of childhood innocence. • I know every damn word to every damn song on this entire damn album, which is so damn cheerful you either love it or you hate it. I happen to love it. Merry Christmas everyone! #MitchMiller #SingAlongWithMitch #HolidaySingAlong #MitchMillerAndTheGang #ChristmasNostalgia #ChristmasMusic #ChristmasCountdown #NansChristmasFaves
What better way to celebrate Christmas than with gospel music? The founding members of The Blind Boys of Alabama met in 1939 at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind when they were nine years old. They went on to win five Grammies and continue performing today, almost eight decades later. Jimmy Carter is the sole remaining original member. We saw them perform in 2012. Clarence Fountain was still alive then (he died this year) but had stopped doing live performances in 2007. * Last Month of the Year (When Was Jesus Born) starts the album off with a bang. Another of my favorite tracks on my #3 Christmas album is Go Tell It On the Mountain with Tom Waits. But my very favorite song—and I think my favorite Christmas song of all time—is In the Bleak Midwinter with Chrissie Hynde and Richard Thompson. Hynde’s voice is so beautiful and melancholy it makes you want to sit in a chair by the window and just think about all the people you miss at Christmastime. This song was especially meaningful to me when the boys and I celebrated Christmas without Pat in 2008 while he was deployed to Iraq. I wasn’t able to cry about it then, but I do cry now when I hear this song and think of him alone in Iraq with no one but a USO volunteer to hug him on Christmas Day. * #BlindBoysOfAlabama #GoTellItOnTheMountain #ChristmasGospel #ChristmasMusic #ChristmasInIraq #militaryfamilies #militaryChristmas #vetspouse #milkids #thankyouUSO #USOChristmas #ChristmasCountdown #NansChristmasFaves
When Nat King Cole left the L.A. club scene after WWII to perform nationally, a band called Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers took his place, featuring blues singer and pianist Charles Brown. * Charles Brown’s Cool Christmas Blues album was nominated for a Grammy in 1995 for Best Traditional Blues Album of 1994. Brown wrote & recorded Merry Christmas Baby (one of my favorite tracks) in 1947. The song has been covered by the likes of B.B. King and Elvis Presley, but I have to say—as much as I love Elvis & B.B.—I love Brown’s version best. Another one of my favorites from Brown’s prolific career is the 1964 Bringing In A Brand New Year. Way better than Auld Lang Syne, this is the song you want rockin’ on the stereo at midnight. And I know I said the #4 slot is a tie, but now that I’ve relistened to both CDs I’d have to say no one chases those Christmas blues away like Charles Brown. #Charles Brown #CoolChristmasBlues #ChristmasBlues #ChristmasMusic #ChristmasCountdown #NansChristmasFaves

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Topics

  • Blog (26)
  • Books (23)
    • biography/memoir (5)
      • Live ’Til I Die (5)
    • fiction (14)
      • Chat: book one (3)
      • Connect: book two (3)
      • Crash: book three (3)
      • Since You Went Away (Part One: Winter) (3)
      • Since You Went Away (Part Two: Spring) (1)
    • how-to (1)
  • Excerpts (1)
  • Family (17)
  • Featured (10)
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    • students/academic (1)
  • Military life (4)
  • News (1)
  • Parenting (9)
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  • Publishing (3)
    • self-publishing (2)
  • Recipes (7)
  • Shop (5)
  • Titles (11)
  • Writing (5)

NOW AVAILABLE

Since You Went Away, Part Two: Spring

Since You Went Away, Part Two: Spring Nan McCarthy (Rainwater Press, 2017) 226 pages F I C T I O N…

Recent Posts

  • Since You Went Away, Part Two: Spring
  • Student Interview: Writing & the Writing Life
  • How I Got the Idea for Since You Went Away
  • Buy: Since You Went Away (Part One: Winter)
  • Since You Went Away, Part One: Winter
  • Shit On a Shingle
  • Shot and a Beer
  • Live ’Til I Die: Student Interview
  • Vegetable Soup
  • Gooey Butter Cake
  • A Very Dry Martini
  • Bacon & Eggs
  • The Last Time I Saw My Dad Alive
  • My Favorite Scary Books
  • For Those Who Make Art
  • To My Sons: What I Would Like for Mother’s Day
  • New ebook editions of Chat, Connect, Crash now available
  • Buy: Chat (book 1)
  • Buy: Connect (book 2)
  • Buy: Crash (book 3)
  • Buy: Live ’Til I Die
  • Chat: book one
  • Connect: book two
  • Crash: book three
  • Timeline: a publishing history of Chat, Connect, & Crash
  • A Hero’s Welcome: Parades & Promises
  • Summer Shandies
  • Nan’s Top Secret Extra Special Super Duper 
Philosophy on How to Write A Book
  • excerpt: Live ‘Til I Die: a memoir of my father’s life
  • Gray Hair
  • A Journey to the Center of Time

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