Author: Ann Sargent

Kippy, title character in my memoir, The Girl Who Talked Too Much, often wore an expression I thought of as ‘attentive curiosity’ with her eyebrows shot up into her bangs. Here, in an unusual silent moment, she was watching a Christmas program on TV. Just in case she had something to say, her right hand was ready to reflect the sound back to her ears by covering her mouth.

If she was answering a question, she didn’t usually do it, but when talking aloud to herself, Kippy always held her hand in front of her mouth as here, sharing a bench with Linda in Clearwater.

I couldn’t figure it out until I tried it myself. It has the effect of reflecting your voice back to your ears. You hear your own voice more clearly. Since she was compelled by her Tourette”s Syndrome to talk most of the time, in my strongest memories of Kippy, I see her holding her hand like this, talking incessantly, eyebrows raised, smiling and gazing abstractedly off into the distance.

I’ve heard that people of various Mediterranean extractions “can’t talk without their hands,”. This was true for Kippy but in a different way. Read Kippy’s story in The Girl Who Talked Too Much, now out on Amazon. Go to the memoir section to order.

One of my sons, Adriaan, is coming today with Christina, his wife. Since they live near Nashville, we don’t manage to get together very often. This weekend happens to be his 40th high school reunion, but it’s also very close to the birthday that he shares with my husband, Bill, and we’re also marking the publication of my second book.

The Girl Who Talked Too Much is a memoir of what it was like to grow up with my sister Kippy, who had an intellectual disability, and whose Tourette’s syndrome made it possible to listen in on her thoughts. Adj remembers her very well, since we saw a lot of her during his childhood.

We had lived in Melbourne Beach, only three houses from the ocean and a half-hour south of Cape Kennedy. He was only six when we moved back to this area when the space program ended, and his dad got a job as an engineer for one of the phosphate-mining companies.

When he called to tell me he was coming, he said he wanted to buy both my books, the one about Kippy and American Governess, about my year in a Bavarian castle. “Can I get them from you?” he asked, on October 17.

“Well, I just ordered author copies of both of them, but I’m not sure when they’ll get here. Let me check and I’ll get back to you”

So…..that was how I learned that my copies wouldn’t be delivered until November 10. Rats! Probably the reason is that the publisher doesn’t take as large a cut, since the author gets a discount. So why would they hustle?

He ordered a copy of each one on October 20, and had them shipped to me so I can sign them.

They arrived yesterday, October 24.

Regarding yesterday’s post with the photo of the hawk I saw on my walk; I found two species that looked like it. Both migrate through Florida in spring & fall on their way to Central of South America, and both prefer wooded areas. It looked the most like a Broad-winged Hawk to me, (particularly in the wing and tail stripes) but the Sharp-shinned Hawk is similar. If migrating, it wasn’t in any group of other hawks. It had yellow legs, apparently the sign of an adult. It was nowhere to be seen this morning.

since I made one of these. Now that it’s getting cooler, my thoughts are turning more & more to bread baking. It’s amazing what you can do with a ball of yeast dough, a bit of cinnamon-sugar, and a pair of scissors. And an oven.

I’ve been too busy finishing my book, but now it’s done, and i’m posting every day, but I think I’ll get back to baking. And doing a little housework….oh, but I don’t want to get entirely carried away.

As i took my morning walk, I saw a man pointing his camera toward the branches of an oak beside the path. He pointed this beauty out to me, only about five feet above us. It flew to the next tree, higher, but I was still able to capture it. It had lovely black-and-white barred tail and wings, which we saw as it flew, but I don’t know what kind it is. It looked all fluffed up, but since the air was about 75 degrees, it wasn’t trying to stay warm. It was still in the same place when I passed, returning home.

My grandmother was Head Operating Room Nurse at Brooklyn Hospital. Here, at far right, she assists at a surgery. This was the best restoration I could make. Her real name was Matilda, but we called her Towa, and she’s a major character in my new book, The Girl Who Talked Too Much.

I still marvel at Kippy’s ability to sketch such a complex shape as this rocking chair at our aunt’s house. The perspective and foreshortening are accurate. She always drew in permanent marker, very quickly, and made no changes, so she had to get it right the first time. This drawing is in my just-released book, The Girl Who Talked Too Much, though it’s not in the original color.

I’ve been posting about myself, but I wanted to show what my quirky and talented husband gets up to….so here I am, modelling one of the plague masks he makes out of leather and brass fittings. The eye holes have brass screening. My academic robes plus a head-drape, and voila! the perfect costume! Of course, in olden times, they stuffed the ‘beak’ with scented herbs, to combat the “mal aria” (bad air), which they thought spread the plague. He also makes these in copper, but they’re not very comfortable to wear!