Olga Ulbrich, 1932-2023

Sometimes things are happening beneath the surface that you don't see until it's too late. We found that out the hard way this month. My mother, Olga Ulbrich, was admitted to the hospital in late October for dehydration. A couple of days later, we found out that she had Stage 4 liver cancer. It had already metastasized from elsewhere in her body, but we never found out where it had started. She was admitted to hospice on November 11th and passed away on November 19th. She was 91. Here's a link to the funeral notice; her obituary hasn't been added as of the time I'm writing this post. Attached is a photo of my mother from when I was a baby. She's on the right; my aunt is on the left, and my great-grandmother is holding me in the center.

Although I'll probably post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group next week, I plan to take the next few weeks off. My final post for 2023 will cover my reading challenge.

An Author's Afterlife

My husband and I have been working on planning our estate. It's relatively easy to find a lawyer to prepare a will, a trust, and other documents; however, these types of documents don't discuss intellectual property like books and copyrights. Honestly, I'm more worried about what's going to happen to the stories I wrote as opposed to what happens to my book collection. Fortunately, there are some resources out there to help authors, particularly indie authors. In particular, when I searched for resources, I found one author referenced repeatedly: Michael L. Ronn. Here are some discussions with him on various websites:

 https://selfpublishingadvice.org/the-ultimate-guide-to-estate-planning-for-authors-part-1-the-author/

https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2022/08/22/estate-planning-for-authors/

https://authorsguild.org/resource/estate-planning-tips-for-authors/

I've also chosen to order two of his books dealing not just with an author settling her estate, but a guide for an author's heirs. I won't get these books until after this post goes live, so it'll be a while before I can determine how helpful they'll be. I have done some initial steps to deal with my intellectual property by making a list of my published works in a spreadsheet. I've also created folders to gather current editions of my self-published work and the associated cover art. 

Ultimately whatever happens to my stories after I die will depend on how much effort my heirs (which will most likely be my husband and/or son) are willing or able to put into maintaining my work. It's hard to tell if there will be any interest in my work in the long term. Nevertheless, if I'm going to spend hours writing, editing, and promoting my work, I would like to give it as much opportunity to connect with readers as possible.

Have you started thinking about your legacy as an author? If so, and if you have any advice, feel free to share it in the comments.

My Take on Barbenheimer

I wasn't into Barbies or most dolls when I was a girl; I preferred books and stuffed animals. I'm also not into military history the way my husband and son are. Nevertheless, I knew we would be seeing Oppenheimer as a family (especially since I'm the one with the AMC app and account). Once I became aware of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, I decided I wanted to be a part of it. Since my husband works on Saturdays, we normally go to the movies Saturday night. I wound up watching Barbie by myself Saturday morning and seeing Oppenheimer with my family that evening. I even wore pink-and-black to mark the occasion, and my manicure was pale pink with black crow nail stickers.

The two movies are so wildly different in tone I don't need to point it out. Barbie was fun to watch, with plenty of pop culture references even I caught. I appreciated the feminism and diversity in it, though you can't fully discuss gender roles without considering non-binary and transgender viewpoints too. I was a little disappointed in the ending, since it didn't commit to gender equality and prioritized body parts over other aspects of being human.

As for Oppenheimer, it's a much longer, more complicated movie, jumping between three storylines (Oppenheimer's life and work, the kangaroo hearing to discredit him, and Strauss's failed Cabinet confirmation hearing.) Of the three, I preferred the main one focusing on Oppenheimer's career and thought the Strauss subplot least relevant, even if it was part of the book the movie is based on. Since the movie is rated R, I expected violence but not the frontal nudity and simulated sex. I'm not sure what my 16-year-old son thought about that. After the movie, my son asked to get the audio version of the book, so he's interested in other parts of the story, at least. We have the paperback too, but I have so many other books to read that I won't be getting to it for a long time, if ever. However, if you want to learn more about women's contributions to the Manhattan Project, I recommend The Girls of Atomic City.

While Barbie is my favorite of the two movies, I'm glad I was able to watch both of them. If you saw either or both movies, what did you think? Feel free to comment below.

Vacation 2023

At the end of June, my family and I took a vacation for the first time in several years. We divided our time between Philadelphia and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. My husband has always wanted to visit Gettysburg, so when we decided to go to Philadelphia, I suggested we add on the side trip. We went on a ghost tour, drove around the battlefield with a licensed guide, and visited several museums in the town. In Philadelphia, our main focus was the historical area, particularly Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Betsy Ross House, and Christ Church, along with the burial ground. We also visited the U.S. Mint, a natural history museum, and Valley Forge. My son will definitely have a leg up for his U.S. History class in the fall! We've already decided our next vacation will be to London, though I also want to fulfill one of my bucket list items and visit Liverpool. Here are a few photos from the trip:

 

A house in Gettysburg that suffered a lot of damage during the battle (the white spots are repairs)

Recreations of some of the cabins used by Washington's guards at Valley Forge.

A statue of George Washington at Valley Forge.

 

  Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge.

Stop and Smell the Lilacs!

One of my favorite spring activities is going to Lilacia Park to view--and more importantly, smell--the lilacs. They also have a lot of lovely tulips and other spring flowers. I wasn't sure we were going to make it there this year, but we did so this Sunday. Here are some of the pictures.