The Velvet Bridge
by
Anita Stubbs
This true-to-life rags to riches tale, my first novel, is set during WWII and could have actually happened if not for one thing: Mattie Featherstone never existed, other than between the covers of this 381-page book. But the lifestyles, the culture of the time, and some of the places ring so true, you'll wonder. It's classic 1940's, Dallas, Texas, in and around Oak Cliff.
Too young to be
widowed and too pretty to be alone, Mattie Featherstone is both. Suddenly
impoverished, this confused, tormented woman abandons her children and seeks
refuge in an encampment for vagrants situated near the Trinity River on the
west side of Dallas during World War II.
When a twist-of-fate encounter eases Mattie out of destitution into the
genteel world of her paper doll dreams, she manages to conceal the truth
about her past from her benefactors. She even justifies - in her own mind -
the abandonment of her daughters.
However, everything changes when yet another unforeseen event turns her life
into sensational headline news, revealing more than even she could imagine.
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September 2007
In The Spotlight
GUY VERBAL
Man or Myth?
Guy Verbal, mysterious local talk show host and probing investigative reporter suddenly vanished from the media landscape twenty years ago when he appeared to be on the verge of regional, if not national, stardom. He left a multitude of devoted fans, as well as a cast of eclectic personalities who were his frequent guests, puzzled and bewildered by his unexplained disappearance. This raspy-voiced, earthy, shrouded in disguise, quick-witted character had truly been a man of the people, of local folk everywhere. His departure, as spontaneous and strange as his first time appearance, left a unique void in the lives of all who knew him. But, for GV fans everywhere, we have good news! There's been a sighting. Click Here
Spotlight Archives
August. 2007 Patsy and Jim Hilton
July, 2007 Taylor Hodgkins
June, 2007 Charlie Stubbs
My Pondering
Place. . .
When A Parent Dies
In Edward Klein’s book, Farewell, Jackie (Viking Penguin, 2004, page
191), he quotes JFK, Jr. upon the death of his mother. The son remarked to a
writer at George Magazine, "There is something liberating, as weird as that
sounds, to being parentless. With that loss comes an odd sense of liberty. You
find yourself making decisions. While your parents are alive, there is always
unconditional support, but you always feel the need to please them."
That statement causes me to consider the death of my own parents and that
next-in-line final ordeal of life, my own demise. And about this need we all
have to please our parents, can there be complete freedom from the expectations?
Does death really liberate us from the child-parent relationship in the way JFK,
Jr. expressed? Click
Yet Unspoken
Hannibal said,
We'll find a way or make one,
and he forged his way over the mountain.
Emerson said,
Things have a way of righting themselves,
and Tony said,
Ralph's words are comforting.
Martin, like Moses, made it to the mountaintop and saw tomorrow shining in the
sun.
Both said many things,
all worth reading.
But I sit here pondering things never said, wondering about word or words
unuttered, thoughts unrevealed, embryonic—
and anticipate the power
of the yet unspoken.