Writers Write
Get Out of That Tree!
I am honored to be speaking at LitFest in Oklahoma City on Sunday, August 28, 2022, at 4:00 pm. through 5:00 p.m. LitFest is an annual event hosted by the OKC Metro Library system, designed to celebrate reading and writing.
Please feel free to join me if you are able. The title of my speech is “Murders Follow Me Around.” You can click the link for more information about the content of the speech.
In short, my speech is about the intersection between murder and my life, from being threatened by a serial killer to the sadness of my niece’s murder. I will also talk about my book, Mental States of Murderesses.
Mental States of Murderers is available on Amazon, and only 99 cents on Kindle. http://tinyurl.com/4b7zp6yc. Yes, that was shameless self-promotion.
The speech title for my LitFest event, Murder Follows Me Around, was inspired by words from my daughter, Jamie, words which had nothing to do whatsoever with murder. When she was a preteen, she was incredibly shy. One day, my best friend (Mardi, Pittsburgh category), her son (Alex, only three days older than my daughter), Jamie, and I were visiting the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
As we were leaving, just outside the actual Alamo building, we saw this humongous tree with branches that created low V-shapes. The lowest V-shaped branch appeared to be perfect for sitting. Mardi and I suggested that Alex and Jamie climb into the tree and sit on that branch so that we could take a photo of them.
What we were unaware of is that the tree is known as The Heritage Tree, the Live Oak at the Alamo. The tree, transplanted to the grounds of the Alamo in 1912 by Walther Whall, is part of the entire Alamo shrine.
The moment that Alex and Jamie sat on the tree limb, a white-haired, elderly docent rushed over at a break-neck speed which belied her age and ordered Alex and Jamie to get out of the tree. She then schooled us (the two parents) on the inappropriateness of planning to take a photo of our children in the not-for-posing-for-pics tree. Needless to say, we apologized profusely, and the photo never was taken.
I immediately felt like there was a gigantic neon sign over my head which blinked off and on, “Dumb Tourist Mistake.” I think I might have even seen some other nearby tourists shaking their heads in disgust at our ignorant attempt for an Alamo tree photo memory, although the shame I felt could have tipped my imagination in that direction.
As humiliated as I was, Jamie felt it a hundred times more. Being the age where everything becomes big drama and is seen only through the eyes of how any particular event affects you, Jamie was exceedingly embarrassed, far more than any of the rest of us. This humiliation resulted in her developing an intense dislike for the Alamo.
This dislike has nothing to do with the historical significance of the Alamo. The dislike was 100 percent related to the docent’s words, “Get Out of That Tree!”
Thereafter, a series of events seen by Jamie that featured the Alamo caused her to state, over and over again, “The Alamo is following me around.” First of all, for the rest of the San Antonio trip, there were photographs and postcards of the Alamo on display and/or for sale no matter where you went, including the El Mercado, the River Walk, Market Square, and at incredible restaurants (including my two favorites, La Margarita Mexican Restaurant & Oyster Bar and Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia). Actually, if you can avoid being chastised for sitting in a tree, San Antonio is an incredible place to visit.
Throughout the years, numerous references to San Antonio have arisen, including on the television game show Jeopardy! Maybe, one of the Jeopardy! writers is as entranced by the Alamo as my daughter is haunted by it. Every time one of these Alamo questions pop up when we are watching Jeopardy!, Jamie shouts, “The Alamo is following me around!”
Now, just for fun, if Jamie is not watching Jeopardy! when Alamo-related questions occur, I make sure to take a screenshot and text it to her. I’m not sure she finds this as amusing as I do. Feel free to rate me on goodmomornot.com.
The Alamo continued to follow Jamie around during her college years. When I took her to NYC to attend The New School, we went to a riverside mall for fun. At that time, one of the stores in that mall, for no discernible reason, was called The Alamo. If I recall correctly, that particular Alamo store in Manhattan was a shoe store. My daughter’s feelings about the actual Alamo displaced her usual extreme love of shoes in this situation. She refusd to even go in the store.
Then, on the NYC subway walls and in the actual train, there were large posters by a travel agency. The agency’s campaign slogan, seen on every one of their posters, was, “Cheat on NYC!” In addition to the slogan, individual posters had a photo of a famous place with words following the slogan, including “See the Eiffel Tower,” or “See Big Ben,” or “See Trevi Fountain.”
One of the posters, that we saw on all of our subway rides, said, “Cheat on NYC! See the Alamo.” What do you think my daughter said? Of course, she said, yet again, “The Alamo is following me around.”
Even when we took a taxi, no matter when or where, the same adverstising campaign was running on the taxi’s back-screen television. “Cheat on NYC! See the Alamo.” Jamie would push the button to turn off the television.
As I was finally leaving my daughter in her dorm room, her next-door dorm neighbor knocked on her door. When Jamie answered, a young man invited her to a party later that evening. The fact that he was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of the Alamo and 18-inch letters stating, “The Alamo" (just in case you couldn’t identify the photo?) was a pure coincidence. If you cannot escape the Alamo in NYC, where can you?
The point is that we writers can find inspiration anywhere for titles. My daughter’s frequent observations that “The Alamo is following me around” served as inspiration for me choosing “Murder Follows Me Around” as the title for my speech.
Naturally, this isn’t the only story I have about inspiration (for titles) from different sources. I imagine that you, too, have sources of inspiration, whether that be something you or someone you know experienced, the Good Book, Shakespeare, a poem, ad nauseum. I would love to hear in the comments about something that may have inspired you for a title for a book, an article, a poem, or a speech (or anything else you write that has a title).
Psalm 45:1 states, “My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.” We can all always be ready if we are vigilant and willing to be inspired by various sources.
In closing, I hope you enjoy the 4th of July, and have a wonderful holiday weekend!
My titles come from the names of places that sound exotic, or a peculiar things that I hear a person say.
Hi Lisbeth, I'm currently working on a women's weekly devotion and the title is: What's in Your Purse? The title does have a story behind it. More than 45 years ago, upon my mother's death, I was going through her purse in a very sad state of mind. But my fingers surprisingly touched a 5x7 spiral notebook that I'd never seen before. When I thumbed through it, I discovered that over a period of time, my mother had been writing Bible verses and quotes that she would hear in sermons and ladies Bible classes. This discovery was such a treasure. It was as if my mother was speaking to me after her death. I've looked in the notebook periodically through the years. A few months ago, I decided to use her collection to bless others in the way of a devotion book. So, all this to say, not only was I inspired by this notebook to get a writing project going with it, I was inspired by finding this in her purse to use this as the title.
I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I'd love to listen to you speak at LitFest. I'm going to add it to my calendar as a reminder and I wouldn't mind at all if you wanted to send me a ping reminder!! :)