Nan McCarthy

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

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When one of your BFFs (@insta_graan, who happens to be a fabulous cook) says to buy this issue of Food & Wine, you buy it—even if you don’t buy magazines anymore. Thanks Carolyn for recommending this. I can’t wait to try the whole-roasted cauliflower, tomatoes w/ herbs & almond vinaigrette, Baltimore crab cakes, and that chocolate cake looks pretty good too. #friendswhocook #cooksofinstagram #foodandwine

I loved the archy and mehitabel poems as a kid so when I came across this 2006 annotated edition which contains the complete archy and mehitabel poems by Don Marquis I had to snag it. • “archy” was a free verse poet in a former life who’s been reincarnated as a cockroach. He types his poems on an old typewriter in the newspaper office (where columnist Don Marquis works) when everyone in the building has gone home. The poems are left in the typewriter for Marquis to “find” when he comes to work in the morning, and are then published in the newspaper each day. As a cockroach, archy has trouble operating the shift key; hence his poems are all in lowercase and have no punctuation. His poems are a satiric commentary on life in the city in the early 1900s. I can’t remember how I first came across the archy and mehitabel (mehitabel is an alley cat) poems. Maybe they were syndicated in the Chicago Tribune in the ‘60s and ‘70s? At any rate my next goal would be to snag some illustrated versions (by cartoonist George Herriman, author of the Krazy Kat cartoons from the 1st half of the 20th century). • Marquis has been compared to Mark Twain, and E.B. White said that Marquis’ satire helped inspire Charlotte’s Web. My favorite archy poems are “at the zoo,” “be beautiful,” and “the lesson of the moth.” • #DonMarquis #archyandmehitabel #poetry #satire #lovetoread

Happy Birthday to one of my favorite actresses, Claudette Colbert. She was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin in France in 1903 and came to the U.S. with her family in 1906. She went by “Lily” growing up and started using her middle name Claudette in high school. For her stage name she added her maternal grandmother’s maiden name Colbert. • I love this actress for her comedic timing, wit, intelligence, style, and tongue-in-cheek vivacity. She stars in one of my favorite films, David O. Selznick’s 1944 Since You Went Away (based on the 1943 novel of the same name by Margaret Buell Wilder). For you eagle-eyed observers, I named the main character in my four-part novel (also called Since You Went Away) after her. • In the film, Colbert plays the mother of two teenage daughters whose husband / father is serving overseas during WWII. The novel & film focus entirely on what’s going on back at home in their small Midwestern town as they deal with the effects of war on ordinary people. (My 2017 novel is an updated version of this story, focusing on a modern-day family whose service member is deployed to Iraq.) • Another of my favorite films of hers is the 1934 Imitation of Life, based on Fannie Hurst’s 1933 novel of the same name. Colbert plays a widowed single mother who co-founds a successful pancake business with her housekeeper (played by Louise Beavers). It was named one of the “25 Most Important Films on Race” by Time magazine in 2007. • #claudettecolbert #happybirthdayclaudettecolbert #sinceyouwentaway #booktofilm

Only took us 5 months to settle on some new bookcases. 😂 No more stacks of books covering the floor! Next task: 1 more bookcase for my office (or maybe 2?) #gottaloveIKEA #downsizing #lovetoread

rainy morning in kc 🌧📖☕️ #yesimstillreadingthisbook #slowreader #summerreading #elenaferrante #mybrilliantfriend #neapolitannovels #lovetoread #countrysidekc #kcmo #kansascity #citylivin #porchtime

I’ve been a Spike Lee fan since I saw his first film She’s Gotta Have It back in 1986 at an art film house in Virginia, one of the movies that marked the beginning of the U.S. independent film movement. His latest film BlackkKlansman, set in the 1970s, is even more relevant today. Go see it. #BlackkKlansman #SpikeLee #basedonatruestory

One nice thing about sorting through your book collection is when you come across an old favorite like this well-worn copy of James Clavell’s Shogun. Published in 1975 and the first in Clavell’s Asian Saga, Shogun was made into a TV mini-series in 1980 and has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. Everything you’d ever want to know about Japan’s history, customs, and culture is wrapped into the engrossing story of British adventurer John Blackthorne who becomes shipwrecked in 17th century Japan and tangles with Japanese lord Toranaga. • I read Shogun almost 40 years ago when I was in high school and I remember watching the 1980 TV series when I was in college. (Pictured here is my original 1978 mass-market paperback with the front cover about to fall off.) Little did I know that only a few years later, as a 21-year old newlywed, my husband (a 2nd lieutenant in the Marine Corps at the time) and I would be shipped out to the island of Okinawa for 3 years. We both fell in love with the island and the Okinawan people during our time there (1983-1986). • Weighing in at more than 1200 pages, Shogun draws you in from the first page. Clavell himself was a WWII veteran and prisoner of war (who was tortured by the Japanese) and his intimate knowledge of the country makes you feel like you’re living in medieval Japan right along with Capt. Blackthorne. FX recently announced a new TV series based on the novel. It’ll have to be pretty damn good to live up to Richard Chamberlain’s 1980 performance. • #JamesClavell #Shogun #historicalfiction #lovetoread #booktofilm #FXtvminiseries

When you have 2 dogs + 2 cats and your vet brings the clinic to you. #NoMorePetWrangling #KCMobileVet #thanksdrsarah #kcpetlife #countrysidekc

Still culling our book collection since we moved to the new house (and awaiting delivery of our IKEA bookcases). Should I keep or get rid of my John Grisham collection? I was a huge fan back in the day but most likely won’t ever re-read them. I’d be saving them for purely sentimental reasons. Tell me what you think: Yes = keep; No= get rid of. (And by “get rid of” I would donate to Goodwill or Red Racks.) #JohnGrisham #legalthrillers #downsizing #bookcollection #lovetoread #bookstagram

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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)
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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…

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