Tuesday's Treasured & Tipsy Timeslip: This Weeks Traveller is Frederick Crook

Travel and make-believe go hand in hand. Whether we're in the present or the past, in a haunted castle, an enchanted forest or a broken down building, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and traveling the world can bring the imagination to life.

Time to jump into the Treasured & Tipsy Timeslip with this week's traveller Solstice Publishing Author Frederick Crook. We're headed down the I-94t o 1970's Michigan and from there we're jumping to a dystopian future to take a look at Frederick's version of the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. Is it midnight yet becuase if so then it's time to take a tour into Savannah's Garden of Good and Evil and then we're onto a very dangerous Japan. P.s - Keanu Reeves is my movie star crush.

#Michigan #Savannah #Gardenofgoodandevil #Travel #AuthorInterview #TreasuredTipsyTimeslip #RachaelStapleton #CurseofthePurpleDelhiSapphire #FrederickCrook #Japa #Ronin #1970 #MercerWilliamsHouse #SolsticePublishing

5 Places I’d Like to Visit

So, Rachael Stapleton put this question to me and I have to say the first place on my list is New Buffalo, Michigan in the late 1970’s. It’s the first Michigan exit when driving through Indiana from Chicago along . That’s right, it’s Exit 1.

My mother grew up in that town as the adopted daughter of Frederick and Pauline Schrader back in the ‘40’s. I spent a LOT of time over many summers there with my grandmother, Pauline in the 1980’s. Fred, a WWII veteran, passed away in 1958, so I never met him. The Schraders were kind of a big deal in Post-War New Buffalo. They had a very large lumber mill right off the lake. After Fred Schrader passed away, the brother sold it and the new owner ruined it. The location is currently a parking lot for the cheesy cookie-cutter condos that overlook private beaches.

What I remember of the town was this rural feel that was very different from the City of Cicero where I was living at the time. My grandmother’s home was nestled within a neighborhood of rolling plains enshrouded by great big trees which cast their shadows upon the narrow, curb-less streets and unfenced yards. The homes were vastly different from one another and no one minded if their neighbor’s kids ran over their grass or cut through their yards to get home.

My grandmother passed away in October of 2000 after a few years in a nursing home. I’ve been back a few times and the house looks completely different, though it seems very well cared for. This little stretch of Main St. shows many of the commercial buildings I remember as a kid. They’ve gone through many changes over the years, but they’re still there. You can’t see it, but the beach and Lake Michigan are off in this direction.



Where’s the TARDIS when ya need it? I wanna go back! I need the Docta!

Well, moving on, I have to say that I’d really like to see Corpus Christi, Texas. My first novel, The Dregs of Exodus took place there and, since the story happens in a dystopian future, I needed only cursory research to write the story. I did downsize and modernize the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, but I left it in the same location. I would like to actually take a road trip out there one day. It would be a blast to see the U.S.S. Lexington Museum. I do make a reference to it in the book as having been dismantled to repurpose the metal.

In my second novel, The Pirates of Exodus, I visited Cape Canaveral, Florida. I researched it using Google Earth and I used the real streets and neighborhoods in it. I was especially enthralled with the Kennedy Space Center, where I imagined the nation’s last Spaceport would be located. In my book, the entire facility including the adjoining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was in the control of pirates, a mixture of humanity including former members of the military and criminals. To the south of this is the City of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, where the civilians gathered and lived until their turn to head to space and the colony planet, Alethea.

I would love to head there at some point and experience the place, it sure looks like fun. This part of Florida is divided by several rivers and dotted with palm trees, making it a very appealing tropical paradise.

Another place I’d like to visit is Savannah, Georgia. 

Ever since the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil” came out, I’ve wanted to go there, meet some nice people and carry a “traveler”. Any of you that have read the book or watched the movie know what I’m talking about. 

Bloghost Insert: Check out the Mercer Williams House Museum, the magnificent mansion on Monterey Square once occupied by Midnight’s central character: Savannah socialite Jim Williams. 

The house features furniture and artwork from Williams’ private collection, including 18th- and 19th-century portraits and furniture, Chinese porcelain and more. If you want a small replica of the Mercer Williams House to take home, then stop by the museum’s gift shop, which also sells Midnight memorabilia such as Bird Girl statues, audio recordings and copies of the book.

Oh, well…two tears in a bucket…

If I ever get over my fear of flying, I’d like to go to Japan. I’d like to see any part of it, really. I’ve been a fan of Japanese cinema for a number of years. I seem to love anything that Toshiro Mifune (Mif-ooo-nay) starred in. There’s nothing like a vintage samurai film.

Of course, my all-time favorite out of Japan is Shintaro Katsu’s portrayal of the blind swordsman, Zatoichi. Now, he’s not samurai, he’s yakuza, that is, Japanese mob. Yes, they had yakuza during the feudal times. Organized crime is not exclusive to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Anyway, to see the land where these fine action actors lived and worked would be a real thrill. It’s beautiful even in black & white films and they didn’t need Keanu Reeves to tell the true story of the “47 Ronin”.