Ink Is Art

2012-01-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Diva, Divot, Duke, andJB welcome the New Year with a Pacific Northwest stroll, and

behind them arethe snow covered Cascade Mountains.

Since I am still “actively”movement challenged, I felt lucky to hobble out to the post box and snap thephoto as the bouncy excited group panted and snorted their way along thestreet. Pugs are either full of energy or zonked out in their beds ;o}

The same goes for myfinishing this manuscript. Lots of energy editing in the wee hours of themorning and bang, the days I go to physical therapy the rest of the day is a painfilled drag. Everyone promises this gets better. Soooo my New Year promise tomyself and my family is to work diligently on exercises and regaining mobility.Sounds like a good plan.

Oh yes, and to write, write, write, and edit :D

2011-12-20T14:13:00.000-08:00

Holiday Hello

This is a short post.

I wish Joy, Peace, and Compassion to fill your life with happiness.

2011-11-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Gratitude

This is the month where I normally count the positive events in my life and take special note on family and friends. This is the first time the month signals a personal and significant event I can only refer to as a pain filled process of recovery from total knee replacement surgery.

Ugh. What was I thinking?? On the one hand I am grateful it is a success; however, the invasiveness of the process is beyond anything I imagined. Two weeks since surgery and my mind has come back on line enough to contemplate the event as only a writer can. At first the writer in me wants to concentrate on the dynamics of grit my teeth, razor sharp pain, my body is coping with.

Weird. Positively weird. My writer’s mind is imagining fictional characters in scenes where the main protagonist is wounded from a maniac wielding villain hacking into the hero’s leg with a sixteenth century Claymore blade. Good lord I really have gone over the edge into the dark fringe.

After a while I actually got bored creating scenes involving physical mayhem. Instead my attention has been drawn to the support network of professionals who come to my home to assist in my recovery. Here is where the true value of motive and action meet up in the generosity and uplifting nature of kindness.

Each of these dedicated people are worthy of being cast as the main protagonist in one of my fiction stories. Each have their own lives and families, and have also chosen a path towards helping those in need of healing.

And so, I come back to November being the month about counting my blessings and being grateful for the support network of family and friends. Healing hands move me towards recovery.

2011-10-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Autumn is here

I blinked and summer vanished. Time for brrrrr –cold and dark skies. Time to cut, prune, rip out annuals, and head indoors.

Time to take the –no going back –total knee replacement surgery next week and be house bound for a month. Yes a whole month! Talk about pruning away the old dead limbs. Gads I’ve gone over the edge into the blackness of scary.

An opportunity to go over the latest manuscript The Sons of Cain with a magnifying glass and edit like a mad woman. At the very least a grumpy recovering fiction writer.

Here’s to a good surgeon who understands gardening :–}

2011-09-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

Summer colors

Nasturtiums

Ready for that Pug Party comin' up!

Things are a cookin’

Finally we have some semblance of summer! Lovely warm, and in some cases record breaking, heat. Enough of the kind which cooks a garden if the gardener isn’t mindful, and waters liberally. Twice a day for plants in pots!

The Pugs are staying cool in the house and the shade on the back porch. Heat and pets can be a deadly combination and I have two water bowls, one inside and one next to the huge spearmint bush on the north side of the house next to the water spigot.

My annual Pug party in the garden is next week and the weather should cool significantly to make the day fun and entertaining. Lots of pugs, parents, and party food….human and doggy.

I am almost half way to a second revision on the Sons of Cain manuscript and have begun the task of developing my marketing strategy. The main focus for this will be on the web. It is important for any writer to develop and maintain a good working relationship with a media designer.

I was fortunate to find someone who has helped me with my website and book trailers. They understood my needs, worked with me on my design and their rates were amazing. Highly recommend them.http://yoyostringmedia.com/ or reach them here -http://www.thumbtack.com/wa/seattle/video-production/affordable-video-production

2011-08-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Sweet Smell of Success

August 2011

These beautiful lilies echo a major event for me as an aspiring writer. My manuscript The Sons of Cain took first place in the Sci-fi/fantasy/ category in the annual Pacific Northwest Writers Association on Aug. 6^th !!!

The awards banquet/dinner was held at the Bellevue Hyatt and I estimate at least five hundred writers attended. My family was with me and I am ever grateful for their encouragement and support especially when I received my award and turned towards the audience and heard a familiar voice shout “Way to go mom!” Everyone laughed and applauded. Sweet.

Why enter this contest a friend asked? Because it is a serious endeavor and the PNWA are professional volunteers whose readers and judges work hard to give useful reviews to those who present their work. (Each entry receives 2 detailed reviews.) Those who final attend the banquet which offers opportunities to meet with agents and editors in the publishing business. I encourage any aspiring writer to enter the annual contest. It is a great way to test your skill and see where you need to improve.

At the moment I am digging in and making the second revision on this manuscript. I expect to query several agents after this second revision. Any manuscript worth its salt has to go through a number of revisions. I love revising, making changes and usually think of additional elements to add to scenes.

Meanwhile my garden in sprouting weeds .>.>.> But, hey weeding is like revising…yanking out words to get to sweet smelling lilies.

2011-07-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

Digitatis purpurea or foxglove

Meconopsis betonicifolia or Himalayan poppy

Diva, Daisy, Divot, Dino, and Duke is in the garden!

What big yellow thing????

JULY 2011

Getting a late start on this entry . . . way, too many exceptionally wonderful distractions keeping me busy. Long ago grade school and high school classmates drop back into my life! Long ago memory files tucked away in my brain cells are brought up into present time. And not so long ago gardening tasks are in high gear. Six inches of evergreen mulch has been distributed far and wide on all the beds. All the glass towers are in place and sparkle when the sun shines on them. Notice I said ‘when’ the sun shines . . . not much of it around this summer so far.

My special garden purchase this year is a Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Golden Dawn’ redwood. I placed it at the far back of the garden as a long distance focal point. It looks like a large golden feather shivering slightly when a breeze hits the branches. This infant tree has the potential to become fifty feet tall and twenty feet wide. Oh my, wouldn’t this light up the horizon.

Speaking of lighting up horizons. My latest dystopian urban fantasy is one of nine finalists in the PNWA Writer’s Contest and the awards ceremony is the first weekend of August. I am definitely looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new acquaintances. Three of my previous romances made the finals and one placed first. I think this is the year to hone in on an agent.

This week I have five, yes five, Pugs running around my garden. All but one are litter mates. I am babysitting two of the silly and always loveable little dogs. Feeding time is a real cafeteria style process. Good thing they each have different colored collars on because they look so similar.

Happy Summer !!!

2011-06-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

Olympic National Forest

The Sol Duc River

Log Jam from spring thaws

Sol Duc Falls

Forest

Violets

Trillium

June 2011

Goodby May. Record cold, record rainfall, record days with no sun! Hope moves forward into June. The garden is responding to the rain with lush growth, but the wisteria are barely flowering and the birds congregate around feeders in hungry clusters. The bright goldfinches gobble up Niger seed, and everyone else empties the black sunflower feeders daily. The weather is conducting its own form of control on certain food products.

Geography and environment do dictate behavior. I am working on a scene set in the Olympic National Forest near the Sol Duc Hot Springs. I wrote the first draft and since I’ve never been to the hot springs I took the time to visit. Good thing I did. I had to revise parts of the scene because of small details which were important, like geological facts concerning terrain and distances which I’d guessed at from looking at the maps I had.

Because of these realities my characters behavior needed a rewrite. And I was also lucky to discover nuances in the forest which I will add to the scene. And I will draw on my own memory which continues to be affected by the geography and environment. These feelings still resonate through my senses of touch, sight, hearing, taste, and smell.

I appreciate my garden and my writing in a different way after being surrounded by giant cedars, Trillium flowers, sword ferns, and raging rivers cascading over basalt precipices. The living bio-mass of the forest and my garden is startling, as much for their differences, as for their similarities. The earth is always eager to retake a domesticated garden.

The stealth and tenacity of nature reminds me of the unsuspecting protagonist in my scene when he underestimates the unpredictable side of natural forces which are about to change his perceptions of reality.

A tip of my rain hat to the majestic Olympic National Forest!

2011-05-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

A cluster of plum blossoms

A cluster of Pugs

May 2011

Sooo . . . April showers are supposed to bring May flowers. Okay, I keep looking for them and all I see are daffodils, a few tulips, and a scattering of blossoms on the fruit trees. The truth is we have had the coldest April on record, and boy the garden knows it. This is not looking good for a bountiful spring. I have hardly seen any honey bees and the little wild canaries haven’t shown up. In fact the bird population is staying away. I can’t blame them.

The earth is in a delaying pattern, or more to the point, a change of pattern. Unexpected events. Writing is often a series of unexpected events and changes in patterns.

The manuscript I am working on is like the weather. Unexpected characters keep turning up and unusual plot patterns emerge. I gave myself permission with this story to follow my intuition and work with the changes. I know how the story ends and getting there is much like the unexpected weather; a series of delays and twisting turns. Two new characters have shown up and I am fascinated trying to discover what roles and motivations they encompass.

Like the unusual weather these characters are a bit edgy, sinister, causing my protagonist to question what he is involved in and what risks are at stake. It appears there may be more opposing sides than at the beginning of the story. But hey, complexity is what makes for an intriguing story. I’m game. I’ll follow these two characters “into the woods.” Into the Sol Duc rainforest to be exact.

PS The Pugs stay cuddled together indoors until the weather gets warmer. :D

2011-04-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Delicate crocus and Daffodils

Hardy Pug braving the raindrops !

Hurrah for Spring !

First day to mow the lawn, get out and clean up the garden and take in all the beautiful daffodils, crocus, tulips and budding trees. It’s so wonderful to reconnect with nature. All the frogs in the ponds are awake and tentatively sing to each other. In a few weeks ear plugs at night . . . their badass bass goes on all night ;)

Pugs love the warm days, chasing away any birds daring to swoop into their territory. Heard a few quail out in the mass of blackberry bushes. The pair of Canadian geese have arrived six houses down ready to start a new nest and hatch little fuzzy goslings in the stream which runs between houses.

This is the time of year I have to begin to balance writing with the siren call to get outside. All winter long I can hunker down and either read research stuff or write without feeling guilty. Spring demands attention. Writing demands attention. So I try balancing . . . like walking with a glass of water on my head. Slowy, slowly. Get the hours of the day into a schedule I feel happy with. Spills not allowed :}

Spring, lovely spring!!!!

2011-03-07T09:41:00.000-08:00

First Signs of Spring

Pug Hopes for Spring Too!

March Winds Blow in Change

Withdrawal is mentally and physically painful. “Lack of computer” withdrawal, is the worst type of pain. My five year old laptop died several weeks ago and the jolt was inconvenient to say the least. My daily schedule for writing was thrown into a deep pit and lack of easy access to online research made me feel as if I’d been locked in a padded room. Add to the misery I had to start a search for the “best lap top” within my price range.

On the bright side all my writing is kept on a “fob” and I didn’t lose any work. My computer genius helped me make a wise decision to buy a 17” Toshiba and set it all up for me!!! I am back in business. The time I was without the computer forced me to finish a number of housekeeping chores I’d been avoiding. The biggest was organizing all the research books, magazines, and articles I’d accumulated for this manuscript I’m working on. I tend to build a nest around me of sticky notes pasted to articles in magazines, books stacked three and four deep on whatever flat surface is within easy reach.

Yes, I know writers who are neat freaks, who have organizational skills they could market and sell to those of us less inclined; however, I find a type of warm comfort building a bower surrounded by words, literally surrounded by them. Makes me wonder what family of birds I come from. :D

And here is a little advice for serious writers out there. If by chance I couldn’t easily purchase a computer I have an emergency plan in place. Years ago I purchased a brand new portable * manual typewriter. Yep, the old fashioned machine which uses an ink ribbon and plain white sheets of paper. It’s tucked away “in case.”

Of course the last failsafe plan is to regress to pen and paper. However, my keyboard skills have taken over the neural connections between my brain and my fingertips. This makes physically writing pages and pages of words a challenge of eye hand coordination, not to mention it’s a pain (literally). Funny how that used to be just the reverse!

Hurray for a new beginning with this portable electronic tablet. Even the birds have returned to the Northwest and are singing out their expectations of a new spring. And the little Pugs are glad the cold white stuff on the ground is gone!

2011-01-08T12:34:00.000-08:00

New Year Bromelaid

My New Year’s Rant

December was the bug push to cajole, entice, and lure the public into the frenzied world of buying. To hand over whatever cash you had left at the end of the year. Not to mention the siren lure for us to overeat and overindulge.

January is all about tossing out accumulated “things,”and melting unwanted weight. Retail stores offer plastic storage containers, storage shelving, exercise equipment, and anorexic looking self-help experts spew out their mantras on TV.

The weight loss meme is an absurd contradiction focused towards Valentine’s Day (a month away) with shelves already jammed full of candy and chocolates. Beware, chocolates aren’t what they used to be. Check the label and you will find corn syrup and “chocolate flavored” ingredients. Nary a mention of the real stuff –coco butter.

Personally, I feel as if I am walking onto a theatrical stage where the props department work at a feverish pitch behind the scenes to redecorate the space with the next scheduled items. This literally happens overnight! Poof. All the garish red and green blinking lights of Christmas are gone. Poof. Here comes Valentines. Poof. On to the next scheduled marketing ploy.

All this activity brought to us by corporate gangsters determined to frame our reality to their goals and agendas. Frankly, I find it all boring and worse than banal. It is disgustingly predictable. And it’s become a shrill cheap process which so many of us (I suspect) see through to what’s really behind the curtain. It’s a fraud, a willful engineered trick, which leaves us feeling frustrated and bored. I also suspect many of us make a conscious decision to ignore and stay away from the lure to consume things.

It should be no surprise why people want to hibernate with a good book and ignore the predictable world of commercial blandness. I don’t know of any mall or grocery store which can offer me a trip to an imaginary world where I get an adrenaline rush caused by a riveting adventure with great characters; and at the same time cuddle up with warm loveable Pugs.

Cheers towards a Happy New Year!

2010-12-07T16:22:00.000-08:00

Oh please, not this stuff again!!!

All these lovely snowflakes!!

Time to cuddle up, get out the wool lap throws, and read! Yes, I have stacks of research material in neat piles sitting on the coffee table, bedside table, library shelves, anywhere a book or magazine can linger. All of them waiting for me.

Sort of like the garden is waiting for me to finish the winter clean up. Ha.

Did I mention I adopted another little Pug? Duke is recovering well from hip dysplasia surgery and hops about on his three good legs. Only 18 months old and he is a sweet little guy who loves to snuggle next to me under the woolen lap throws watching me on the computer. He and Diva and Divot are good pals and sleep together in their large dog crate at night.

This month is moving way too fast and it seems there are not enough hours to accomplish all I’ve set up for myself.

I am reading Philip Kerr’s fictional mysteries set in Nazi Germany. He does a great job of capturing the cultural nuances of living in an authoritarian state.

I am also reading professor Bob Altemeyer’s book on line (free) called The Authoritarians. http://members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob/TheAuthoritarians.pdf

Yes I am interested in human behavior and how to capture the essence of certain personality traits for some of my characters.

Like I said it is time to get in some much neglected research.

Cheers, stay warm and enjoy your family and friends, both your two legged and four legged types! :D

2010-11-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Change of Colors

Arizona Blue Ice loaded w/pine cones

Soaking up a sun-break

Thanksgiving with the Blue Heron

For the past few years a large blue/grey bird stops by my fish pond just after dawn. This stately heron is an expert fisherman and only shows up in November. He is hoping to spear breakfast. I have mixed feelings about his arrival. It’s getting cold, rains are increasing and wherever he came from its obvious the food supply is dwindling.

My neighbor has an elegant statue of a white heron near her fountain (no fish in hers.), and I have wondered if the “big blue” is first attracted by the decoy and maybe he uses it as a sort of local landmark when he flies over. “Oh yeah, I remember there’s a decent fish pond in that other yard. Think I’ll stop by for breakfast!”

Mind you the first two years he ate up all my little goldfish. I realized this pattern was going to probably become an annual event. Thanksgiving serves up sashimi. Not. It won’t be served again. I was ready the next year and the first morning he arrived I shoed him off and draped bird netting over the pond. The heron keeps returning. My new fish are large and fat and beautiful and he can’t eat them!!!

I wait till he shows up before laying out the netting. The bird sets the time. It is wonderful to watch such a large creature land in the garden. And more spectacular to watch him launch himself into the air on those beautiful wings, and somehow get his gangly body airborne. He just can’t have thanksgiving in my yard anymore J

This is the month to be thankful, thankful “big blue” will go elsewhere for his snacks; and as far as writing goes, thankful I am over half way to the finish line. In my constant search for information relating to my science themes I have figured out what “net” to cast around my characters and plot. It has all finally taken form and I am thankful, thankful, for this breakthrough!

2010-10-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

A Pug Party

Pups in the shade

October necessities

Before the serious Pacific Northwest rains, and general nasty weather, kick into high gear I have several unfinished projects which need attention.

Like a basket filled with large fuzzy yellow/green quince ready to be cooked up for jam.

All the glass towers in the garden need disassembling and stored on their special shelf in the barn.

Thirty allilum bulbs must find a dark welcoming place six inches under the ground.

The vast hanging tapestry of hops which cover the side of the barn must be cut at ground level. To think I started this experiment with tiny starts, only three years ago . . . wow, it is more of a success than I ever imagined. I don’t pull down the dead vines as I want them to act as a scaffolding to cover the barn side. The hops smell and taste like beer. Maybe next year it’s time to try making real brew!

My writing is on hold until I finish the two research books I am simultaneously reading. The challenge will come when I finish them and have to decide which scientific elements in my plot I want to focus on. Select a theme and do a rewrite. My story is an urban fantasy; however I have focused on elements of science and nature and need to be accurate in most situations, and let my imagination run rampant in other situations. I ask myself how far I want to push the boundaries between genuine science and fantasy. The fascinating truth is developments in science are now presenting the world with scenarios which could only be thought of as science fiction . . . yet are reality.

Anyone for toast with homemade quince jam???

Oh yes, I am fostering a young Pug. He escaped from his yard, ran three miles in a rain storm and ended up at my home. His owner gave him to me as he was left home alone with little attention. He is a sweetie and needs an FHO operation (femoral head ostectomy) on his left leg. He is only 15 months old and already has hip dysplasia. Tomorrow I will schedule the surgery for him. I think he has found his forever home right here with my other two Pugs. Sometimes synchronicity strikes and you have to do the right thing. How amazing he ran to a place where two other Pugs live!!!

I hosted a Pug luncheon and he got to meet ten other Pugs who were one big family with their humans in tow. It was lovely and a perfect day in the garden.

Pugs forever !!!!

2010-09-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

Lavender and a glass tower

Brothers and sisters

September 2010

A friend recently asked me how I write. Over the years I have tried several methods from specific times of day to meeting specific daily word counts. And of course I promptly set out to sabotage the rules and time sheets.

It all seems to get down to how I feel. Grumpy from waking up at three am thinking about a plot twist, I may only write a grumpy scene. Cheerful because the sun is shining I may write an uplifting scene. The main task is to write something, anything, because the act itself is a process which helps me feel centered and whole. It is what I love doing.

I do try to have some type of icon or object relating to my story nearby. Two little metal statues from India are currently within reach and whenever I look up I see them. Figures which remind me of the world I am trying to create.

Gardening is also within reach! This year it has been a sad, sad year for fruit trees and some vegetables. The weather has not cooperated at all. On the other hand the slugs are running amok. And they come out at night by the hundreds and clean up debris in the garden. Yes, I have learned to not tempt them with plants they love unless it is vegetables then I use slug bait which is safe to use around pets.

Speaking of pets . . . I took care of my daughter’s two Pugs for ten days. This meant I had four Pugs and two Papillons. Meal times were interesting! Six bowls spaced apart and I had to stand patiently by to make sure the “kids” behaved and sure enough I had to banish my seven year old six pound Papillon from the eating circle because he tried to sneak around and grab tidbits which fell out of other dog’s dishes. Two of the Pugs took him to task over this and I made sure the trouble maker ate by himself in another room. Reminded me of teaching grade school kids!

Back to writing. I always have two Pugs within reach ;)

2010-08-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

Shallot spires

Shallot blooms

Moving Things Around

Old time, experienced gardeners, have told me that at some point I will start to, yank out and move plants and trees around. Nah, I thought to myself, won’t happen. Once I dig a hole and plop something into it, it’s going to stay in place forever. Period.

Hmmmm. I need to eat a whole plate of humble pie on this subject. This summer II have dug up not one plant, but hundreds, in the process of redoing two large beds. The iris have taken over and run amuck. Gorgeous bearded flowers have multiplied beyond reason. Time for the shovel. After a few days of diligent work they are neatly cut and mounded in separately labeled boxes ready to find a new beginning at a professional landscaper’s home.

The joy for me is to know they will grace another gardener’s yard and I will keep a few special iris to accent corners and odd places.

A writer also has move things around. Like whole chapters to get the story line to flow in a more cohesive manner. I held my breath while doing this and set the newly rearranged manuscript aside for several days before going back to read it through. Phew, it worked! Scary moments when doing the rearranging, but the results are great.

The new garden beds and my paragraphs will be the better for the move.

2010-07-05T09:01:00.000-07:00

Beauty

Beasties

Dogs and butterflies are excellent companions in my garden. I treasure and welcome both with laughter and surprise. Laughter for the dogs when they run and chase imaginary intruders under the bushes and around the trees. Surprise pounces when I turn a corner to find a spectacular winged creature alight on one of my favorite plants. Talk about an artistic color splash!

My writing is directly connected to the world surrounding me. Dogs meander into my story lines and the tendrils of nature and biology creep and plant roots in my scenes. They keep me mindful of how immediate change is and how much of the natural world I tune out when writing.

The dogs insist on my accompanying them in the garden. No lazy opening the door and shooing them to take care of doggie business is allowed. They stand and wait for me on the porch, as if I were holding up the tour group about to embark on a safari into the green and leafy terrain just a few steps away. I'm often glad they drag me away from my computer and the word wrangling process.

The dogs consider me family and we are in this adventure together.

2010-06-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

The scary intruder!!!

Into our garden he leaps!!!

Peacocks, Pugs, and the Police

The first inkling the neighborhood was under attack was the ear shattering wake- everybody-up screech, at five am. The dogs didn’t know what the heck the sound was and went on hyper alert barking and yodeling like crazy. By the time I got dressed and opened the back door the screech had blared across the tree line two more times and the dogs hightailed it outside ready to defend their turf.

Of course no villain could be found and an eerie silence descended like something awful was waiting to pounce. I recognized the sound immediately from my childhood. My mother had guinea hens and peacocks. They are a great deterrent to strangers coming on rural property. Sort of like feathered burglar alarms. But our neighborhood has no peacocks, only little birds like finches and robins, geese, mallards, and hummingbirds. Quiet, little sounding birds.

I had forgotten how loud a mature peacock’s call is. It made me think of a science article I recently read where paleontologists have used CT –scanning on the crested part of the skeletal head of a Duck-Billed dinosaur, and have a pretty good idea it would sound like a horn blowing. Sort of like a peacock on steroids. You could say the peacock’s blaring, shattering, screech was a modern day dinosaur invading the neighborhood.

Ah, but where was it lurking? Two hours later the police and animal control were on the scene and the next thing I knew the incredible creature had flown into my back garden and was strutting around the rim of the fountain in all his iridescent splendor!

The dogs were in the house and could see this monster in THEIR yard! The police (with my invitation to enter the garden) were following the wayward villain. The scenario went from amazing to hilarious. The peacock was magnificent, with his tail spreading out behind him and he seemed to delight in teasing the two patrol officers armed only with a large fish net. No way in hell were they going to snare that bird in that puny net, a salmon maybe, but not the descendent of dinosaurs!

The bird led them around the garden and back towards the house and next thing I knew the neon feathered prince casually walked up the steps of the back deck. He got half way up and realized four little dogs were going ballistic behind the sliding glass door and the cops were almost within netting range. Oh, terror, what would the dinosaur do?

He took a giant hop off the deck, left the young officer to lunge in vain with his paltry net, and took flight. Over the fence and into the neighbor’s yard. For the rest of the day the police and the feathered dinosaur kept up a game of hide and seek. The peacock of course won.

The next two mornings the bird welcomed the sun with his ear shattering call. Each morning I could tell how far away he had ventured. On the fourth morning all was quiet with only normal bird calls. Bland calls and trills, nothing exciting, nothing which makes you sit up in bed wondering what the hell just happened outside.

As for writing, it is always a welcome event when an unexpected “feathered dinosaur” invades the storyline and shakes things up! Especially if it is as spangled and iridescent as a male peacock strutting around showing off.

2010-05-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Where the Coyotes are

Where the Pugs are

Unexpected Consequences

Behind our property is a huge meadow which provides food and shelter for small game and wildlife. In the late afternoons a Marsh hawk often glides silently across the hillocks looking for field mice. On warm sunny mornings I have occasionally spotted a coyote napping on a favorite outcropping. Once I saw two coyotes that looked as if they had curled up together to sleep off their “all- nighter”. They are diligent about getting up well before noon to jog into the tree lined gully.

My little Pugs are well attuned to the night sounds of the coyotes raucous howling and chattering when the wild pack heads out on their late night grocery run. The Pugs either bark furiously or try and answer with their domestic version of yodeling. They do a pretty good imitation too boot.

This week the natural history channel had a program on Yellowstone National Park’s coyotes and foxes. The minute the coyotes started vocalizing the Pugs dashed out the dog door sure they were being invaded by their wild cousins. They knew that sound! Not finding anything outside in the garden they came back inside to sit and stare at the TV screen. Sure enough the minute they saw a coyote they charged the screen and/or dashed back outside. It was simply too much excitement for them and such an unexpected distraction I switched to a different channel.

Writers sometimes experience a fictional character whose actions cause unexpected consequences. When this happens to me I usually try to follow the direction the character is going. This means I need to write unexpected bridge scenes and trust the outcome will be okay. And sometimes these bridge scenes lead to substantial unexpected results, and more scenes. Word count adds up quickly!

Canines, (esp. Pugs) and fictional characters provide endless moments of entertainment!

2010-04-02T17:41:00.000-07:00

Hellebore

Vinca minor

*HAPPY SPRING TO EVERYONE *

The Vinca minor in my garden produces bright periwinkle blue flowers, not to mention it is an aggressive ground cover. It has crept into my row of lavender plants. Grrrr. Not what I intended when I planted the Vinca. This means hours of painstaking hand weeding and I foresee this will be a situation I will have to address on a continuous basis.

The Vinca is doing a great job of covering the north side of the berm; however the lavender is planted along the crown of said berm, and I didn’t realize this sweet little vine would spread so fast. It’s trying to take over!

In writing, background information on a character, can creep in like a determined ground cover and take up several scenes before the writer realizes what the heck just happened. Needless to say I am weeding both plants and words this month. Somehow I managed to transform parts of the lengthy back story into a scene with dialogue, and will drop in the rest of the information in upcoming scenes.

This process isn’t easy since I love the back story and have held on to it for months. I have to thank one of my eagle eyed critique partners to reveal the obvious….silly me, I thought I could slip it by her professional eyes. NOT.

This back story is important to the main protagonist. I have ripped it all apart and put it back together as the opening scene which introduces this character. I had to fast forward the motive of the character for the scene and I think it works much better.

Weeding plants and words is never ending ;D

PS. The Hellebore is a well behaved and beautiful plant, flowering in spring's chilly weather.

2010-03-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

Primrose

Crocus

Frog Songs

It’s easy to tell when spring is here. The minute the sun goes down the frogs begin their noisy raucous singing. Thousands of amphibian voices swell and fling their songs across the wet lands and ponds. They begin their informal acapella groups in the irrigation ditches and the reservoir. I expect they will start belting it out in my pond any time.

It takes a little getting used to when they seem to share my pillow at night croaking in my ear! The Pugs aren’t sure what to make of all the racket and they absolutely have it in for the frog croaking under the deck steps. He’s sooo close and yet impossible to get at. Out damn frog! Out we say!

The wonderful mocking bird is back trumpeting out his territory just before dawn. Robin scouts have returned and so have the first of the song birds. Spring flowers splash their colors to the blue sky. What a difference from last years’ horrid cold which took out so many of my garden plants. This is a new season and I look forward to what the garden does.

I am over fifty thousand words into the new manuscript. This amount of words crept up on me faster than I expected. Sort of like spring. One blink and I am half way to finishing the story. I can feel the energy building to finish the first draft. Then comes the weeding and cutting. The hard work.

Writing and gardening have much in common. Frog songs included. ;D

2010-02-01T07:30:00.000-08:00

Contorted Hazelnut Catkins

Crocus

This is the month of hearts and chocolate. Yep, no doubt about it; in the midst of cold weather and rainy days we can smile in anticipation of at least one morsel of the richest, melt on your lips and fingertips, confectionary! I confess to eating at least four pieces in rapid succession J

Anticipation seeps into each day when I walk around the garden. Crocus’ and snowdrops are like tiny jewels scattering their bright colors across a landscape of drabness.
Catkins hang from the contorted Hazelnut like elegant pieces of jewelry. The hundreds of daffodils I planted several months ago are peeking out of the ground. Colors and perfumes are on the way!

Anticipation warms my fingertips when they fly across the keyboard coaxing ideas and thoughts from my imagination and bringing life to my writing. I have recently resolved a huge plot dilemma and now I can’t wait to sit down and move the story forward.
Creative power is a heady perfume, not unlike the tiny white flowers of the sweet Sarcococca casting its joy across the garden.

Got to love February –it points the way to spring!

2010-01-01T10:40:00.000-08:00

Curly Willow

2010 FRESH START and a BLUE MOON

Ah ha, it’s a New Year. And we had a blue moon (a second full moon in a month). This only happens once every twenty eight years on New Year’s Eve. It is also time to take action and shake off the hibernating, eating too much gremlins. Walk the dogs more ;-)

It is time to get out in the garden, prune trees and bushes,(like the Curly Willow shown above), collect debris, and decide if plants need to be moved. I know of four large heather plants which will benefit from a fresh start in a new location.

Two secondary characters in my writing need a fresh start. I realized a favorite pastime of one of my secondary characters may/most likely, is best suited to another character. I have been shuffling these changes around in my brain for days. Secondary characters are important. They serve numerous purposes and their actions affect not only plot movement but elements for the main characters to push up against.

I will most likely write several scenes with the changes and see which feels right. I have promised myself to make the new start for these characters and not feel guilty about taking away something from one character and giving it to the other. As a writer I hold great power in my hands and also feel like a parent wanting to do the right thing by my creations. Dang, but making this fresh start is painful.

Ooh, already this is a New Year angst!

2009-12-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

December 2009

All Things Frozen

Somewhere in the bottom of the pond a dozen goldfish huddle close to the pump seeking warmth. Tiny hummingbirds perch on the sugar feeders sucking up liquid energy. The feeders have to be brought in at night to keep them from turning into solid ice! Suet is disappearing like snack food.

The Pugs (who are now a year old), are shocked to find their warm lush garden has turned into a frigid alien landscape of uncomfortable pain which is no fun to play in. They run outside wrapped in warm coats, take care of business and race back inside. Full of youthful energy they chase each other up and down the long hallways and the elderly Papillions’ stay out of the way.

The one element which isn’t frozen is my imagination and my writing. ‘Tis the season to let inspiration and “what if’s”, turn into heated sparks of plot, character, motivation, and getting it all down on cyber paper.

My wish is for the spirit of Peace to warm your heart and those around you.

2009-10-30T15:06:00.000-07:00

DIVA @ DIVOT

November 2009

This is the month of whatever was I thinking. Two hundred daffodil bulbs need planting. The weather has turned cold and rainy and my image of a spring garden filled with beauty is battling with reality. Darn, and oh gee, this is not going to be easy. I keep telling myself it is all an engineering challenge. Take it one bulb at a time. My knees are already screaming.

My writing mind is also screaming. What have you done? I have a habit of creating secondary characters I think are interesting. No matter they may not have a part in the story. The crux is the “may not,” part. I keep the character in the story until I am sure they won’t fit. This drives my logical mind nuts. Right now I have a character I love and don’t want to delete her to the maybe in another story, file. In a case like this I turn to writer’s intuition, stick with this character for a while longer, and hope she has a reason for showing up.

Much like the two little fawn Pugs who showed up, totally unexpected, in my life at five weeks old. Here they are eleven months later racing and bouncing through the garden with a puppy’s curiosity and silliness every time they go out. When I write, Diva and Divot cuddle next to me, like hip to hip Imperial Fu dog guardians, offering their warmth, protecting me with their dreamy snorting. I can’t imagine the story- line of my life without them.

2009-10-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

Finches and bees love sunflowers!

Fountain @ glass sculpture

October 2009

First rains and cold temperatures herald the beginning of fall. A time to look over the garden and wonder how in the heck I will get all the last minute tasks finished. I still haven’t cut the iris leaves, and there are hundreds of them! However, all the plums have been harvested and I put up 32 pints of luscious ruby red jam. Yum. The house smells like a sugar plum factory :D

Time to stop feeding the handsome orange and white goldfish so they will begin the process of dormancy. Last year I selected over a dozen of them from the pet store and made sure their patterns of color were as close to Koi as I could get. They are triple in size and beautiful watch while they cruise just below the watery surface between the lily pads and plants.

Writing is mostly done in my head these days. While I trimmed the spent blossoms from the lamb’s ears I resolved an important plot element. Planting winter beets I found an answer to one of my character’s family background. While making space in the barn for the glass sculptures to be stored I went through a major conflict scene in my mind. And out of no where while picking cherry tomatoes I found the reason the antagonist wears a certain ring.

I know I have developed a symbiotic relationship with the garden. It is a living space in which I physically work and mentally let my imagination and creativity grow and develop. Now to get the mental work down on paper!

2009-09-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Garden Fountain and glass sculptures

My Garden

Ed, Sherry, and Gabi at the Garden Writer’s Weekend July 2009

Summer is coming to an end . . . big sigh! It never seems to last long enough for my many projects to get finished.

In July I held the annual weekend writer’s critique group and due to unforeseen road blocks, like conflicting scheduling and ferry nightmares, I was thrilled to have several long time writing friends brave the hazards and make it.

I always appreciate their supportive critiquing and encouragement in my own writing projects. This year they were insistent I get up off my tush, get busy, and finish up the first draft of the current project and submit it to agents. We had a great weekend, got in lots of serious critiquing time and the great food and wine kept our energy and brains moving right along! :D

I look forward to next summer and sharing the garden with a great group of writing friends.

I highly recommend visiting Gabi’s website and ordering her funny, witty, murder mysteries.

2009-07-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

July 2009

Summer. Much anticipated, sought after and adored, has arrived. Or so we hope. So much heat and glaring sun cause those of us in the Northwest to scramble and find our sun block and darkest UV-glasses. We toss our layers of clothing into the corner of the closet and hunt under the bed for our sandals.

Mother Nature beckons us to late sunsets dipping into the glittering Puget Sound, along with BBQ’s of salmon cooked on cedar planks accompanied by a nice chilled Washington white wine. If only we could hold and keep weeks of these heavenly perfect temperatures . . . if only. The truth shatters our hopes with maybe five consecutive days of bliss until an offshore front moves in and rolls over us with clouds and rain. But ever the optimists we look forward to the next few days of bliss.

My writing takes great effort in the summer because there are too many distractions in the garden. So many beautiful colors and every time I turn a corner on the pebbled pathway something makes me catch my breath. Dawn in the garden is my favorite time. Sunlight makes everything sparkle and glitter. The little goldfinches sit on the edge of the fountain like yellow gems. And the sky is like a busy freeway with birds zooming in and around the trees and hedges.

The air is filled with heady cinnamon perfume from the Ragusa rose. No fussy unscented hybrids in this garden. Peonies’ scent is delicate, Honeysuckle is sweet, and clematis mixes it up with golden hops on the side of the barn. The bearded irises were wonderful, and the lavender spikes are filling out. Germander is almost blooming and fleabane is just starting to take off as are Styrex trees. Petunias on a hot day smell just like warm horse flesh. Yes they do. The vegetable garden is poking along. It has been cold at night!

It is hard to write scenes with violent antagonists when peace and beauty lies just outside the door. Sigh, I have been substituting writing for reading and research. I will save antagonists for a rainy day.

The Pugs are sleeping through the heat of the day after chasing away the noisy woodpeckers and Stellar jays this morning. The puppies have decided they don’t like the sound these birds make . . .too funny. The elderly Papillons only react if quail are in the yard. They take off like white fluff balls thinking they will catch a fat bird too heavy to take off. Furry optimists.

2009-06-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

June 2009

When I walk down the garden path, plants are on a fast track of growth and productivity. So are the weeds. Just when the first round of removing the unwanted guests from the flower beds is completed it’s time to start all over again.

Sometimes the task seems never ending, and that’s when I start thinking about landscaping fabric and three inches of cedar bark. Nice and tidy, everything in place. Cut down on physical labor. Solve the problem presto, fasto.

And that’s the exact time I start laughing. Just what the heck did I think gardening was all about –if not physical labor? Getting out there every day and tackling all those wiggling, growing, green, organic “things”.

And this is the seasonal time in my writing when discipline is a challenge. So many other “things” tempt me away from the labor of tending to words. Of course when I am in the midst of forming those words I am deliciously enthralled and entertained.

Human behavior is ever entertaining, mine included ;)

Time to get out and plant the vegetable garden. Time to work on my newest character in my manuscript. I think she will own a small wire-haired Dachshund named Wally.

Did I mention I have two six month old Pugs? They are my bookends and snuggle hip-to-hip next to me, when I write. This is inspiration!

2009-04-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

May 2009

With over fifty mature Tuscan rosemary bushes and numerous other beautiful plants like New Zeeland Flaxs’ and rock roses lost to the cold winter; I asked a friend who is a professional horticulturist to stop by, survey the damage, and make some suggestions.

While I followed him around with a pen and notebook he made this pithy and blunt assessment. “No matter how much we want to believe we mimic a Mediterranean climate, it only takes one winter like this to yank us into reality.”

Well, hell. He is right of course, and I have taken his advice and replaced the rosemary with boxwood, and Pieris. No more handsome flax plants. I can’t bare the thought of losing them again. Thank god, I didn’t plant any Palms.

I figure I have two ways to deal with the unexpected. Wrap myself in a cloak of morose pouting or use the debacle as an opportunity. It does help to have an expert critique the situation and make suggestions on how to move ahead. When things aren’t working with my writing, I step away from it for a moment and try to think of the obstacle as a chance to make changes.

Recently, I decided on introducing a secondary character who has an unusual lifestyle. However, something just didn’t ring true to the situation the character was in. It dawned on me to change the character from male to female and it was a perfect solution. Simple and right on target.

The moment I realized this, it was as if this woman stepped out of a swirling mist and began to take form in my imagination. All sorts of ideas tumbled into place. Her voice, her age, and her personal history. She is the right fit for the story and plot, and just like replacing the Rosemary in the garden, I have replaced my male character for a female.

Time to move on and get busy, things are warming up!!

2009-03-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

April 2009

This winter has been extremely dry and cold for the Pacific Northwest. This combination has been devastating on my garden and I have lost all my Tuscan rosemary and most of my Flax plants. GRRRR. There is a major lack of vegetation around the pergola leaving me more than a little irritated with the whole gardening experience.

On the other hand this offers a new perspective in the overall design and I will make new and different plant choices based on possible upcoming weather patterns. Opportunity beckons.

Writing can often suffer from a devastating crisis as I have often discovered. I am at a point in my new manuscript, 36K words into it, and I don’t like the way the plot is developing. I am doing a fair amount of ‘story-boarding’ to come up with new possibilities. This, like my garden situation, is frustrating and at the same time it offers me opportunities.

I do however; feel guilty my story isn’t moving forward as fast as I’d like it to. This is where patience and trust in the creative system come into play. I am waiting for synchronicity to kick in this month of April and bring wonderful solutions for both my garden and my writing.

2009-02-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

February 2009

This month in my garden is all about heavy lifting. The daytime temperatures hover in the high forty’s and fifty’s, so working outside is pleasant –if you keep moving.

Heavy lifting is about moving rocks, building berms, planting bare root trees, pruning and spraying dormant fruit trees, and ordering and spreading mulch.

Heavy lifting for a writer means getting the “crappy” first draft on paper, and finding creative ways to get it done. For example just write the scenes in dialogue and later going back to fill in emotions and surroundings.

The daily progress you make towards the first draft will surprise you. Try for a thousand words a day, and make a goal to have the complete draft done in three months time, set a date. You will pat yourself on the back when your heavy lifting pays off!

2009-01-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

New Years 2009

I am always amused at the marketing media’s take of New Year. Diets, resolutions, exercise, and organizing your office or home, are a few of the items on the annual and “to do lists”. All these activities take energy and action. The get up off your couch and do something mantras.

And of course there is another way. The wait and see mantras. Wait for the snow to melt enough so I can get out of the driveway. Wait till the used newspaper pile is high enough before carting it out to the far away recycling bin, over by the gate, buried in snow. Certainly wait to think about dieting . . . and wait until the last of the holiday sweets are no longer lurking in the house. Geese, I can’t wait to finish them off ;-)

However; there is no waiting around for writing. This is the best action to usher in the New Year. The lure of creating words on a page is sweet magic and creating imaginary worlds for a new year is rich and rewarding. Better than holiday candy . . . well maybe not chocolates. You get my drift (pun intended).

I wish all of you an abundance of words and creativity in this New Year and hope your stories inspire those fortunate enough to read them.

2008-12-07T18:23:00.001-08:00

December 2008

My paternal grandfather was one of the first school teachers in the Oklahoma Territory. I have a collection of sepia prints showing the tiny clapboard house they lived in with nary a plant or tree in sight. There was only bare ground surrounding the newly constructed “wooden box,” which served as home and a place of security.

There is also a picture of him standing behind his ten students who range from first grade to high school. In the image only one child is wearing shoes and he appears to be around fifteen. The over worn, ankle-high boots, look like they are hand me downs from someone with larger feet; and the teen wears them without socks. It is also obvious many of the student’s clothes are hand made. One little boy wears a shirt which looks like it was worn by an older sister.

The group is staggered on the steps of the modest wooden school house with the youngest in front; and it is obvious from their demeanor and clothing that life in the late 1900’s was harsh. I think the children look worn out before their lives have even begun. Yet one little girl has ribbons in her braids and the boys have slicked back their hair to show they care about their looks.

They are a vignette of an extended family. Farmers who lived hand to mouth and battled the elements. Families who wanted their children to do better than themselves. They were people who pulled together in harsh times, and because they persevered against nature and a great depression, my family are here today.

In looking back at these images I am reminded how important it is to keep the network of communication between family and friends open in these difficult times.

I also want to remind writers that their characters, yes even the antagonist, have lived through some type of conflict. Dig deep into the times we live in and use these experiences to enrich your characters lives.

Did I mention giving books as gifts this year to support your local writer????? I want to recommend two friends who have books out. Here is the information and how to get their books!

*Heidi Thomas has her debut novel Cowgirl Dreams available through: http://www.heidimthomas.com/

*Gabriella Herkert has her witty second mystery novel Doggone available through bookstores, or you can reach her at:
gabriellaherkert.com

See you all in 2009

November 2008

2008-11-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

A tall spindle-legged blue heron stops by the pond about every other day, hoping to snag a goldfish for an early morning breakfast.

I watch his stealthy, hunter’s progress. He moves in minute jerks and starts, like a skipping CD or a frame by frame stuttering movie. Go-stop-go, go-stop-tilt head-stop-lift neck high-tilt head- and stand frozen in this posture to scan the depths of the pond, all the while hoping a fish will appear.

He’s out of luck. The fish are hunkered down under the water pump where it’s warm and they aren’t about to swim out into the colder water.

After about a half hour of this, the posturing heron gives up and takes flight. It always fascinates me how such a long legged creature can launch itself into the air. For a moment just after the bird is aloft its form truly mirrors something ancient-something close to its pterodactyl ancestor.

I am in the midst of moving bookcases and their contents from one room to another. To house my collection of mostly research books, I use the commercial shelving called Gorilla racks. These shelves allow for stacking books two or three deep and the metal framework will take heavy loads. I buy one extra set to use the frames and boards for extra shelves. To make the bookcase look cool I buy strips of wainscoting, cut and glue it, to the front and sides. This makes the whole framework look like an elegant custom made bookcase.

For the record, whenever I swear I don’t need to buy another research book, I find myself acting just like the blue heron . . . hunting for another tasty morsel. Bon appetite and happy reading!

October 2008

2008-09-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

Fall is a busy time in my garden. It is all about taking stock of what worked and what needs changing. All the Tuscan Rosemary plants are mature and larger in scale than I imagined they would be. I have to decide if the dwarf boxwoods planted between each rosemary plant will need a new home. Since I am a beginning gardener and this is the fourth year for the garden many of the plants are reaching their stride, and need space to spread out. Big sigh, first time gardeners learn from experience.

And yes, when something works it is spectacular! The four year old Italian plum tree has, for the first time, produced a bumper crop of luscious purple fruit. And this is because of pruning and three series of dormant spraying at just the right time.

Writing is also about taking stock of what works and what needs to be edited. Self editing is a necessary task for any writer. Learning to cut out whole scenes takes courage; especially if the scene is well written but simply not working for the plot line. I have a “cut’s file” for each manuscript and this is where anything I edit out, ends up. Do not, repeat, do not, edit and throw away scenes. You may surprise yourself and find a use for that scene, or a variation of it, later on; or you may need the idea for an entirely different manuscript. Good ideas, well written are gems to be saved.

Not unlike the plants in my garden. Beautiful plants may need to be moved, need to be saved. And given a new place to thrive they will give back their beauty.

2008-09-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

Summer may officially be over, but please don’t tell my garden this! Finally, and I do mean finally, we have decent temperatures. The vegetable garden is on a roll to make up for lost sunshine. This is a catch twenty two for me.

Early morning is the best time to get out and tackle the garden chores while temperatures are cool. Early mornings are my best time to write. Mmmmmm. So I compromise and get up earlier like 5 am and either read for research purposes, or tackle a new scene. At 8 am I head outside and trim, pull weeds, dig up iris bulbs, and a myriad of other tasks.

Noon it’s lunch, a quick shower and maybe a trip to the grocery store or the garden store. Back home I sit down with a cool glass of tea and review what I wrote in the wee hours of the morning. More reading and time to prepare dinner. After that I usually return to my research and writing.

And of course every writer knows all of the best intentions get submarined by real life. Big sigh here. The main thought to hold on to is this. Each word you put down on paper leads you to another word, and another, and on and on. It’s like gardening. It changes. The best you can do is pay attention and do a little each day.

My favorite nature event for this month- all the pollywogs in the fountain pool hatched and transformed themselves into dozens of tiny iridescent green tree frogs!

2008-08-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Weekend Writers

Standing left to right: Ed, Heidi, Jennifer
Seated left to right: Sherry, Gabi

August 2008

I always enjoy reading the “Digging Into the Past” section of Renaissance Magazine. The fields, farms, and gardens of Britain are constantly yielding artifacts and treasures from the past; while my garden yields treasures from the present. The annual writer’s weekend!

We are a group of working writers intent on a weekend of constructive, developmental critiquing, good food, great wine, with lots of conversation and laughter. Not to mention my (not so well behaved) dogs and a sweet, very well behaved lab, who took to the pond to cool her feet amongst the lily pads and the goldfish. This year there were five writers with five stories in various stages of development. I cannot say enough about the positive support of a serious critique group. Here are highlights of their progress I want to share with you:

Ed Ratcliffe is working on a screenplay and is always the person to give those of us female writers a reality check when we are writing scenes from a male POV. I cannot tell you how many times he has saved me from making a complete idiot of myself with my male characters. Yes, we all chuckle in memory of my characters stumbling around in love scenes :D !

Gabriella Herkert’s second book DOGGONE, An Animal Instinct Mystery, hits the bookstores August 5th. Her first award winning book was CATNAPPED. Treat yourself to a fun read with both mystery novels and visit her website at: http://www.gabriellaherkert.com/

Heidi Thomas hopes to have her book COWGIRL DREAMS published soon and she has a new blog you should check out because she conducts interviews with other writers, Bob Mottram from Skagit Valley is the most recent interview. Heidi’s website is: http://heidiwriter.wordpress.com/

Jennifer Wilke has almost finished “her first novel, CIVILITIES – a tender, humorous, tragic, true love story about an idealistic boy from Ohio who wanted the country to be the way it should be.” Jennifer’s beautiful website is: http://www.jenniferwilke.com/

I would also like to mention two members who were unable to attend but we hope they will make the trek next summer- Kari Diehl and Janet Oakley.

Kari Diehl has a new job writing for The Guide to Scandinavian Food at About.com! I drool every time I read the recipes and see the photos, and I love her witty and funny Icelandic proverbs. Her cooking website is: http://scandinavianfood.about.com/.

Janet Oakley was involved in cooking of a different sort . . . demonstrating 19th century cooking techniques over an open fire at English Camp. She is working on two writing projects JOSSING and MISTSHIMUS, and in her spare time she writes for Historylink. Did I mention this wonderful woman loves her history enough to recreate , experience, and teach it?

Yes, gardens nurture, support, and reveal treasures of the best kind. And human beings have an innate need to make sense of their world through syntax and the narrative interpretation of our reality. Writers keep writing!!!

2008-07-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

July 2008

It’s been said Iris’ are the poor mans orchids. Mmmm. . . let me see . . . I don’t live in a steamy southern part of the country and don’t have exotic wildlife running around, so I guess I definitely don’t have orchids. I do have hundreds and hundreds of glorious Iris. Wow!

This part of WA has ideal temperatures for bulbs of all kinds and this year they put on a spectacular show. I kid you not, the spikes on the “poor man’s orchids” are as almost as tall as me. Certainly they are four feet high.

Three years ago a friend, who is in her eighties, decided she was no longer able to keep up with her Iris garden. She had over an acre of them and most of the stock was at least fifty years in the making. Lillian suggested I make a focal part of my garden with these gorgeous flowers. Soooo, late summer three years ago, I randomly dug up hundreds of her Iris bulbs.

Mind you Lillian was not into neat organized rows of flowers nor categorizing and labeling them. Not at all. Hers was a start close to the back door, and work outward plan. I think she would have gone on forever, expanding her flags of delicate pastel colors.

Plotting a story line is sometimes like starting close to the back door, taking a few steps, writing a few paragraphs, reading the scene aloud, taking another few steps, another verb here, or a better adjective there. It begins to look okay. Soon the writer has moved away from the comfort and safety of the back porch and has truly begun the adventure. There is an organic process taking place and no way of knowing what will take form. This is what a writing adventure is all about!

June 2008

2008-06-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

June is a greedy month. She acts as if she has hurriedly gulped, at the very least, two to three double lattes with extra sugar. Seriously. The garden is on a caffeine high. Forget the cold wet winter; the earth has turned on its axis facing the sun and those jolts of energy zap everything with exuberant, rampant growth.

Iris, tulips, rosemary, azaleas, and wisteria are blooming. The lime green hop vines are scrambling up and over the barn with the clematis vines closing in on them. A handful of bright yellow wild canaries sit on the wet fountain rim like noisy customers at the local sports bar, and a Coopers hawk methodically sweeps across the meadow searching for field mice.

I look on the garden as a fabulous dessert tempting me away from my writing, and I try to maintain a balanced diet so I don’t overindulge too much with one or the other. A taste here, a taste there, and when I have a plot dilemma I pick up my Felco shears and head out to do some pruning. Somewhere in the snipping and cutting my mind solves not only the gardening problem, but the writing problem as well.

But it is not all about dessert. Finding characters for a new story is like visiting my favorite garden/art store in Seattle. Lucca Statuary is an adventure into the world of human creativity and imagination. Their fountains are spectacular and their statuary and carved reliefs to hang on garden walls are wonderful. I have a bias relief of a beautiful Renaissance lady I painted. She is a favorite of mine, and I believe it is of Saint Cecelia.

And on my most recent trip I brought home an 18” high statue of a crow. I had the perfect spot to put it, but since it was rendered in plain grey cement it needed painting. This crow needed a stand out “character attribute.” I painted it red.

Mind you, there is a family of crows who live in the tall pines across the road and they are regular visitors to the garden. They use the fountain like it was a large a-jus dish to dip their morsels of freshly killed baby sparrows or finches in. And you thought hawks were the villains of the bird world – ha!

I feel like a hazmat cleaning service when I put on my long water gloves and high top water boots, to clean up the debris of feathers, and shredded tidbits of bloody bird parts…..Hey, get over it. Gardening is not for the faint of heart. Little crows in their nest have to eat too.

Which comes to villains. As a writer your antagonist must have some redeeming quality, must have one humane quality. You don’t have to like what he does, but he/she can’t be totally evil. I think you understand why I painted my crow bright red . . . Hmmm, I wonder if the red crow will find its way into one of my scenes.

Connections - it’s about reaching out and taking action – using energy to create, and transform an idea into something personal. How I love June!

May 2008

2008-05-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

This month has almost slipped by me, and I realize I haven’t posted anything.

The delay is simply that finally, finally our weather has warmed up and the garden is not only awake; but the weeds, especially the dandelions, have invaded every nook and cranny. I am slaughtering them as fast as I can.

Watching a garden drink up the sunshine and wake up is truly delightful. So is finding needed research information for writing. I am working on a scene which requires certain elements from the long ago past to come together.

As a fiction writer I have lots of wiggle room and could force elements together, but I like to see if I can discover some way for events to possibly occur. It is interesting to me that I have only to be a little bit flexible, and this will happen. Often it requires me to make an adjustment with geographical locations. Sometimes I am surprised when all the historical information is before me how much, or how little, I have to make the adjustments. And this is the wonder and joy of discovery, in writing.

Okay, so I thought this scene would to take place in Europe and the historical information refutes this. Absolutely. But it could occur in North America. And this is an unexpected twist for me the writer.

It took me two days of weeding in the garden to work out the plot sequence and I have to say digging and hacking my way towards clarity feels wonderful! Weeds and writing. Yea.

April 2008

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April is starting off with temperatures well below normal and so my garden is patiently waiting for change.

My English Grandmother was a master at patience and had the skill of sitting quietly in her garden to coax wild birds to feed from her hand. She explained it was simply a matter of waiting for the birds to make up their minds she could be trusted. The Blue Jays loved her.

She intuitively understood the process of synchronicity –of calmly waiting for information and events to occur. The same process applies to this new writing project of mine. I am waiting for several inter-library loan books to come in. I need the scientific information. No matter my work is fiction, I still need to ground it in accuracy. From that point on I can darn well follow my fancy with what I want to do with it!

And this reminds me of one of my pet peeves. Dialogue must also be grounded to the time period being written about. I recently came across a sentence similar to this. “For the moment he felt her intrusion into his affairs too much of a hassle for him to deal with.”

Fine for a character who lives in today’s world, but jarring for a character living in the early 19th century. This was debut novel and I was constantly being bumped out of the story by historically ill placed words and phrases.

Barnhart’s Dictionary of Etymology should be a standard edition on every writer’s bookshelf. It should be dog-eared, look as if it sat out in the rain overnight, which mine has done, and its pages artistically stained with coffee rings and jam smears. It should be christened with love and familiarity.

This week I bought an Olea Europaea in a six inch pot. This “old world” olive tree will definitely need attention and love.

Writing and gardening need mindfulness and patience.

2008-03-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

March offers promises and surprises.

Last fall I planted hundreds of bulbs and they are beginning to bloom. Yes, I made a detailed sketch to keep track of their placement so not to disturb them later in the season and lost the sketch . . . grrrrr.

The result is I walk around the garden feeling like a visitor, surprised and delighted when I spy clusters of crocuses, tulips, and wide swaths of daffodils. The sweet, clean scent of Hyacinths perfume the air and remind me, no fancy bottle of expensive perfume can compete with nature. All the fruit trees have been pruned and sprayed with a dormant spray and are waiting their turn to bloom.

Eagles, Robins, geese, and Mocking birds are returning. In between the water plants the goldfish in the fountain are coming out of hibernation and slowly investigating their liquid world. This reminds me, I will have to clean out the pump as soon as it warms up a little.

From the hard cold of winter March offers the promise of a new writing project. When I’m outdoors I’m surrounded by nature and indoors I’m collecting, not so neat, stacks of research books from the library.

I am always excited when challenged with a new subject to write about. Yes, I have planted the seed of an idea for a plot in my mind. Researching, along with my intuition, helps form and nourish the emergence of characters and story line.

This new project is like March in my garden – filled with promise, and sure to surprise.

February 2008

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NEWS FLASH: The King’s Map has placed third in the 2008 RWA

Coeur De Louisiane Romancing the Tome Contest!

This news has made my Valentine Day Perfect!

When I was in grade school blustery, snowy, wind whipped, February was my favorite month of the year. All of this was directly connected to Valentine’s Day which meant the teacher let us go all out with the art supplies. And oh, how I loved the colors of red and pink contrasting against crisp white paper doilies! No holding back, no admonitions to be neat and tidy, no scrimping on glue, glitter, colored paper, or over the top color combinations. Not to mention poetry! Words flowed from my child’s brain in patterns of rhyme which sounded like notes in perfect harmony, or words which rhymed in silliness and laughter.

February continues to be a favorite. It is a month to allow the mind to create, to feel excited about the mapped out possibilities which are just around the corner when the earth turns on its axis towards the sun. There are three new bare-root, plum trees planted in my garden. They will bloom with white and pink delicate flowers this spring. They will add to the adventure of the garden.

In my writing journey February is proving to be filled with excitement because my queries are finally getting really, really close. The detailed feedback has been helpful and inspiring. Thank you. Thank you!

Not to leave February undone, I confess to stocking up on, and hoarding, boxes of chocolates under my desk. Come on, admit it. This is the only month serious; quality chocolate, makes its appearance on the shelves!!

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January 2008

January is the month of change. The days are getting longer, sunlight is on the return, and those of us who live in the rainy Pacific Northwest have expectations of warmth, gardens reawakening, and a welcome invasion of birds of all species.

This is the time I make a pest of myself at my favorite garden store. January is the month of bare root plants and trees. I am on the hunt for semi-dwarf plum trees. Green Gage and Satsuma varieties, to be specific. Yea, they are due in the middle of the month and I already have spots ready for them.

This is also the month to get out and prune the fruit trees already in the garden. This is the first time for doing this as the trees are only a few years old and it will be a new experience. I have books galore on the different techniques and my garden gurus have been generous in their advice and suggestions.

January also finds me pruning and editing my writing and gathering together resources for a new manuscript. A time for change and getting everything in order to move forward.

I salute the New Year with a plate of biscotti and glass of chilled Prosecco . . . well, more than one glass!

2008-02-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

November 2007

Recently I attended the Surrey International Writer’s Convention in BC. I have to confess a friend had to needle me to go, as I had never heard of it. I was always focused on writer’s venues in the USA.

Boy was I missing out. They had a great program, award winning authors, and four star agents in attendance. Not to mention it was laid back and offered numerous opportunities for aspiring writers (like myself) to interact with published authors and agents.

Here are a few of my favorite programs. The SiWC Idol Panel. Sort of like the old “Gong” show on TV. You get to anonymously submit 2-3 pages of your work. A presenter reads the submissions one at a time, and the panel of agents can raise their hands at any moment to stop the reading. Then the panel comment on why they rejected the piece. Most entries never got past the first few sentences. When a piece did work, the panel explained why it grabbed their attention. This exercise is brutally honest because it demonstrates in real time, that a writer has to make the opening pitch of their story count. A few entries made it all the way through. The writer, to loud applause, had to stand up, identify themselves, and they were assured an instant appointment with the agents who were interested in their work. On more than one occasion there was good natured haggling between agents as to which one of them got the writer first!

I also loved the Blue Pencil Appointments. You could bring 2-3 pages of your work and sit down with a published author and have them read, make suggestions or edits directly on your paper, or just answer any question you might have. I was lucky to have Joan Johnston . She was wonderfully gracious and gave me useful help.

Another conference highlight was the Genre Lunch. Tables had printed signs designating which genre could sit there. So if you were writing Young Adult or say Murder Mystery, you chose a seat and waited with baited breath to see which author and agent were going to join your table. During lunch you had the opportunity to chat and ask any burning questions you were sitting on. This was a great way to interact with professionals in the industry.

Since this was an International Conference of Writers I was delighted to meet and listen to writers from different countries and cultures. I encourage any aspiring writer to attend this conference.

PS The hotel was reasonably priced and the food was excellent. The dessert bar was yummy . . . needless to say I had seconds.

PSS Did I mention I met with several agents who asked for samples of my work, and have my fingers and toes crossed xixixixixixix

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Front- left to right: Jennifer, Janet, Sherry, with Heidi standing in back.

Plus: Sante and Cello the spoiled Papillions

October 2007

Welcome to my website. I’m so excited to begin this blog. If you have questions or suggestions for topics, please let me know.

Recently I hosted an informal summer-garden, writer’s critique group at my home. My guests were all wonderful authors and we had a great time hanging out, sitting in the garden, working on manuscripts, eating and critiquing. I plan on making this an annual event and will definitely host another gathering next summer!

I hope to make an entry on my blog at least once a month. I will be introducing a contest in the near future so check back for this.

And, on October 19, I will journey to the Surrey International Writer’s Conference in British Columbia. Maybe, just maybe, I will peak the interest of an agent . . . and wouldn’t that be lovely!

Thanks for visiting and going on this adventure with me.