Celebrants need to pay attention to Nancy Fox's legacy and spirit, her creativity and kindness

The two big celebrations of Nancy Fox's life are done — the warm 'n' fuzzy in-person open house at her daughter's Novato home and the successful Zoom session that drew friends from all over the country (and Portugal), only a few of whom were digitally-challenged.

Now the task for celebrants is to pay attention every day to the fact that Nancy Fox's spirit and legacy will always be here.

She made it easy to remember her creativity, her humor, her intelligence, her musical genius, her lighthearted snarkiness, her kindness, her inner and outer beauty, and the countless anecdotes that illustrate each of those attributes. 

Her physical form will be missed every minute, but if we let it, her soul can envelop each of us and help mold us into a better, more giving person.

Sorry about that gushiness, sweetie, but you deserve it. You epitomize what everyone dreams they'd want in a partner, mom, grandmother, daughter, friend, and neighbor.    

Valentine's Day is just around the corner; new MysteryDates® book can make it zing

Hey, have I got the perfect Valentine's Day gift, one that can make the holiday zing, for you or a loved one.

It's MysteryDates®, my brand new memoir/travel guide that offers hundreds of ways to help you retain, resuscitate, or refresh the sizzle and joy that flared when sparks first sparked between you and your partner.

 

The lighthearted 282-page book — now available in paperback and e-book editions (the hardcover will be coming soon) — provides countless tips on what to do, how to do it, and where to go (locally, nationally, globally). 

 

Its personal anecdotes were culled from 35 years of dates that either I or my wife have concocted; the other tips emerged from endless hours of research.

 

To buy a copy of MysteryDates, just visit https://woodyweingarten.com and push a button for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, or another of your favorite booksellers.

 

My latest book, sprinkled with humor, explains how you can surprise your partner with a spontaneous lunch or a flight to a weeklong visit to a best friend in another state, how to eliminate the expected spasms of Valentine's Day or other special occasions and substitute a non-stressful and loving event, and where to go in your own 'hood — or across the ocean — to easily find delight. 

 

It can delight you just to read about free food or a $30 million gown, about beer-bathing or the International Spy Museum, about the annual testicle festival or the time when Nancy Fox, my three decades-long partner, and I helped turn each other into San Francisco clowns.

 

As the old television food commercial suggests, "Try it — you'll like it."

 

Pre-publication readers agree with that idea.

 

For example, Toby Adelman, PhD, RN, from Mars Hill, Maine, says, "What a delight. This is a book that, using the exciting concepts of creativity, spontaneity, and trust, is destined to be one of the best ‘relationship' books a couple might receive for a wedding present. Not to mention the incredible overview of interesting activities and places available for MysteryDates close to home and around the world. In a category of its own. Love it!" 

 

And Roberta Bienenfeld, an editor and translator from Raat Beit Shemesh, Israel, writes that "Woody Weingarten’s new book, MysteryDates, offers hundreds of ideas — as well as personal anecdotes — to get you out of your house and into a world filled with possibilities. A MysteryDate can be almost anything, from something simple — taking out the time to watch a sunset in your own backyard garden — to boarding a plane to Hawaii to visit a volcano."

 

Remember, all you need to do is click on woodyweingarten.com and then push your favorite "buy" button. You can check out my three other books on that same website, by the way. In fact, for a limited time, Amazon is selling the handover edition of The Roving I, the collection of 70 of my newspaper columns, at a major discount ($5.44) and, similarly, Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, the children’s book I wrote with my granddaughter, is being discounted to $6.95.

Reader of ‘The Roving I’ compares collection of columns to Mark Twain’s pithy humor, seriousness

My latest book, The Roving I, has drawn an endorsement that absolutely blows me away.

Mark Twain

Fiona Quinn of Chicago, after writing that my “collection of essays is brilliant,” has also written that I have “the rare capacity to connect with readers through humor and thoughtful analysis simultaneously. That is no small feat, and this collection can be compared to Mark Twain’s pithy humor, which camouflages the depth and seriousness of his subject matter.”

That amazing comparison, to my way of thinking, is as flattering as any might be.
 
Quinn, whom I thank profusely for her commendation, gives a specific example of why she’s come to her conclusion: “For example, writing about the death of a dear friend named David, the writer says: ‘On his deathbed, my psychologist/consultant pal, still boyishly good-looking despite being sixty-something, and still a pig-headed St. Louis Cardinals fanatic, revisited his spiritual feelings.’
 
“The author’s reference to David’s fanaticism about the Cardinals expresses more about the jokey, intimate nature of their friendship than any narrative could. And it also poignantly clarifies how much David’s absence will be felt.”
 
Quinn closes with a direct appeal for readers who especially enjoy good writing to buy The Roving I: “Every essay in this collection is spiced with jokes, puns, hilarious observations, deep compassion, and eternal truths. Get this book! It’s deeply satisfying on every level.”
 
Anyone who wants to follow her advice, or to check out my two previous books, can do so by clicking on my website, https://woodyweingarten.com.

Blogger cites 'Rollercoaster' chapter on meds

Award-winning Texas writer, blogger calls 'Rollercoaster' honest and 'worth the read'

Maryann Miller 

Maryann Miller is a literate Texan who covers the book/literary universe on her blog, "It's Not All Gravy."

Her website lists her as an award-winning "diverse writer of columns, feature stories, short fiction, novels, screenplays and stage plays."

Among her numerous honors was being a semi-finalist at the Sundance Institute for her screenplay, "A Question of Honor."

"I've been writing all my life," she says, "and plan to die at my computer, hopefully after finishing a book, not in the middle of one."

Still very much alive, she posted a review today (Jan. 25, 2015) that recommends my VintagePress book, "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer."

Here, in full, is what she wrote about "Rollercoaster" and me, Woody Weingarten:

Any person who has had cancer, or cared for someone with cancer, which means a whole lot of us, will find this book engaging and well worth the read. It is not meant as a caregiver’s guide, although one can take wisdom from some of the ways Woody and his wife coped with her cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

The book is an honest chronicle of the experience from day one, to a wonderful conclusion that is sure to make readers smile. With that honesty comes great doses of humor and the harsh reality that dealing with cancer is an all-consuming experience.

Although the book focuses in large part on the author’s reactions to the cancer roller-coaster, there are sections from the point of view of his wife, Nancy, and the reader is privy to some of her emotions, which also seem to careen wildly at times.

The chapter on medications alone is well worth the price of the book. It details the pros and cons of many medications, such as Avastin, which had been touted as a life-saving drug but lost its FDA approval in 2011.

There were so many medications that came and went that Woody wrote, “The drug debates were giving me a mental whiplash not unlike the impact of being rear ended in the middle of a seven-car crash.”

Several chapters cover the results of research over many years, much of it conflicting, as to the causes of breast cancer. In fact, the information is so varied that Woody wrote, "The causes are about as impossible to pinpoint as locating weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was.”

Some of the messages that rang out clearly for me as I read the book were:

• These feelings are normal.

• Even after successful treatment, fear is still always there.

•   While humor can definitely ease stress, anxiety can be malignant.

•   Focus on staying healthy.

•   False information is rampant.

•   Don’t wait. You can never be sure there will be a tomorrow.

I highlighted a lot of the book for future reference, and one of the lines I especially liked was, “Human hope is a wondrous thing to stash in your back pocket.”

I highly recommend this book.