Today feels like a good day to give something away. Soon enough, I’ll be able to reveal the cover for my upcoming novel, Lie Lay Lain. Until then, and to say welcome to the new folks following my blog, I’m going to give away two signed copies of my first novel, Last Will.
Let’s make it an easy give away. I’ll do a random drawing for the winners out of anyone who follows my blog and comments on this post, telling me what was the best thing you ever inherited. (Open to your interpretation of “inherit.”)
That’s it. Easy peasy. If you follow my blog and comment on this post, I’ll put you in the drawing. Next Friday, I’ll pull two people randomly to win, and I’ll post about one of my favorite inherited items.
Bryn Greenwood 
I have my copy of Last Will and I think I will start rereading it right away. 🙂
The best thing I ever inherited was my mother’s tolerance for pain. The worst was my father’s capacity for denial.
Unless it was the other way around.
My grandmother used to have this miniature cowbell on her hearth – it had a Tyrolean landscape painted on it. I have no idea where it came from and I don’t recall hearing of any family members who traveled that way. When we went to her little bungalow for lunch it was my job to ring the bell to tell everyone the food was ready. When my grandmother died in her eighties I was away at university – a skint student. She left me a small sum of money which I think probably cleared my overdraft but best of all there was a small box of trinkets for the grandchildren to choose from: of course i took the bell and now my nephew rings it for lunch.
More cowbell! I love those random little gewgaws that get passed down by chance. My sister carries a miniature tire-shaped tape measure in her purse that once belonged to our grandmother. It’s a tiny treasure of memories.
Did I tell you the Library’s call no. for Last Will?
…………………………. PS3607.R4686 L37 2012
Cool! My local library doesn’t carry it so I never knew what my call number was.
I inherited a match safe that belonged to my maternal great-grandfather, whom I never met. He was a ships printer and was supposed to work on the Titanic. Although I don’t have his papers for that particular job (an aunt does), I do have his match safe from the S.S. Almirante, a “banana boat” that sank in 1916.
So was Great-Granda on the banana boat when it sank? And did the match safe keep his matches dry? 😉
I think he was on the boat, but I’m not sure. It keeps my matches dry, so I’m sure it kept his dry 🙂
Hello again. My wanderings seem to have come full circle.
I missed the Fresh Press on “why don’t teach anymore”, but found it on another tangent, by way of another blog.
I am commenting here because I didn’t want to drown in the sea of comments. I was an elementary/music education undergrad student. I don’t know how to succinctly summarize the horrors that ended those years at the university, the ugliness of professorial politics, or realizing I couldn’t do the drudge paperwork. Maybe I just did. But I also failed student teaching. So much darkness to wade through that was not my fault while trying to wade through the darkness that was my fault.
I am on disability these days, and so I pour that knowledge into helping my children with special needs in their schooling. By the way, I wish you the best with the writing– many tell me I supposedly have talent in writing, but I’m still trying to figure out how to channel that.
Making the writing do what you want is always an obstacle, and almost as soon as you’ve figured that out, then you find yourself struggling to do something *with* the writing. Good luck.
I inherited a gun from my grandfather that I sold long ago.
Now, the question is: what did you spend the money on?
(I once sold a gun to pay for my wedding dress…)
All of grandma and grandpa’s stuff got put into my old bedroom when she moved into the nursing home. When she died (grandpa died in ’99), we dispersed it among whoever wanted anything. I got the babushka, and I still use it in winter.
A babushka sounds warm and cozy, and somehow more stylish than, say earmuffs.
My grandmother gave me the jewelry I loved long before she died… so she could see me enjoy it. I wore the rhinestone set my grandfather gave her when they got engaged on my wedding day (not that the wedding day is something I particularly care to remember now…) 😉
I think that’s one of the best kind of inheritances, the kind where you both get to enjoy it together. You wearing it, and her seeing you wear it.
i’m sitting surrounded by my mother’s things, collected from her home after she made her final transition this spring, a clutter of detritus and dross gathered over ninety-three years (i really must got to work on this…). yet i consider my best inheritance is more of an anti-inheritance. my father was cold and argumentative and my mother, though warm and intelligent, was not too quick on the uptake; i, however, have a well-developed sense of humor, more self-deprecating as i advance in age. when someone laughs, the world is a little brighter.
Perhaps you’re a genetic throwback to some better-humored ancestor.
the best thing we inherited was my late mother-in-law’s cat, Pepper. most loving and lovable cat ever. he died ~two weeks ago and I’m still bereft, but so happy to have had him in my life
I am so glad you had Pepper and Pepper had you!
I am so sorry for your pain. Time will help.
I’m so sad that Pepper is gone now, but I think it’s lovely that you had him for the time you did. And that he was a most valued inheritance. 🙂