Whenever I’m asked what’s your favorite food, season, book, quote, whatever, I feel that pressure of “Oh, dear, I need to really think about this and get it right.” (Spoiler alert, or, actually, in the interest of full disclosure: I’m a firstborn child and a Virgo, which means I have double scoops of such unappealing—but ultimately very productive—traits like always feeling compelled to get things as right, as best, as I possibly can.) Then I remember, “Wait a minute, there’s no rule that you must have only one favorite. You can have lots! So just pick the first that comes to mind.”
I hope you all, we all, have lots and lots of favorites of everything. Here’s what I love about taking a look at favorite things: the remembering, and celebrating, why they are such favorites…the emotions, memories, and happiness they evoke.
For example, one of my (many!) favorite ice creams is peppermint candy topped with peanuts or cashews and smothered in chocolate sauce. There’s an obvious reason why I like this. It’s so good. For me, the combination of virtually any nut with any chocolate is a winner. But as I search for what this lovely indulgence evokes, it’s my girlhood memories of family Christmases and, most of all, of how much my mother loved chocolate, nuts, and peppermint, too.
I’ve been asking myself the “and why is it a favorite?” question quite a bit recently and highly recommend it. As, of course, Julie Andrews as Maria Von Trapp encouraged her storm-worried charges in “The Sound of Music” to do.
I’ve been pondering favorite quotes, too. Here are a few.
“Everything works out fine in the end. If it isn’t fine, it isn’t the end.”
“Scatter joy.”
And this one, which I happened upon as I was revisiting Love Songs, tinkering with wording, welcoming the new things my characters had to say (okay, I had no choice), and in general being a firstborn Virgo trying her best to make the new ebook and trade paperback editions as good as they can possibly be:
“Though my soul may set in darkness,
It will rise in perfect light.
I have loved the stars too fondly
To be fearful of the night.”
This is from “The Old Astronomer,” a poem written by English poet Sarah Williams, who lived from 1837 to 1868. She was only thirty-one when she died 143 years ago. That in itself evokes much in me, as does the quotation itself. It was pure happenstance that I came upon it when I did, but I think it so elegantly captures some of the emotional journeys made in Love Songs that I’ve put it at the front of the book.
I hope you’ll drop by my website, www.katherinestone.com. You’ll spot a few canine favorites there, all girls. Wendy and Molly are cocker spaniels and Scout, the baby, is a springer.
I’m giving away a copy of BEL AIR. All you have to do to enter is add a comment with a favorite ice cream or quote. No and whys are required, although please feel free, and no matter what enjoy your own celebration of whatever it is that makes them so treasured by you.
All best wishes,
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