Lifescapes

Blog Tour 7: Crafty Gardener

I'm revisiting a previous favorite post at Crafty Gardener today, where I'm discussing Books 10, 11, and 12 in the China Bayles series: Bloodroot, Indigo Dying, and A Dilly of a Death. These three books are the nearest to "stand-alones" that I've written, I think--primarily because I wasn't very sure where China's story was headed. As a result, these three books can be read by themselves more satisfactorily than any of the others in the series. (In my opinion, anyway--for what that's worth.)

While you're there, don't forget to enter the drawing. I have ten advance reading copies to give away, and I want each one of them to find a happy home. Well, seven. I sent three copies off to their winners yesterday. Maybe I can send one to you?

Oh, and before you leave Crafty, please be sure to check out the main page of her blog, where Linda has posted some truly beautiful photos. Yum-yum! Thanks so much, Linda, for hosting me for this "revisit."

Tomorrow--that's Wednesday, if I'm counting right--I'll be here again, with Post #8. Hope to see you!

UPDATE: Congratulations to J. Scogin of Austin TX, another winner!

Good Monday morning, all! Hope your week is getting off to a good start. Today, I'm blogging here at Lifescapes, revisiting a post about the "middle" books in the series, Chile Death, Lavender Lies, and Mistletoe Man. If you're reading the books in order, these are important, because they take China's life in a new direction.

Chile Death
In China’s seventh mystery, Pecan Springs is rattled by the news that somebody has put peanuts into an entry in the chili cookoff. Peanuts in Texas chili? All by itself, that’s a crime (Texans never put peanuts in chili)—but it gets worse when a cookoff judge dies. Was it a culinary error (bad enough) or premeditated murder (worse)? The investigation takes China into a couple of hot spots and nearly costs her life. But the good news is that lover Mike McQuaid (shot in the previous book) is on the mend. Are those wedding bells we hear, or the crackle of chiles roasting over an open flame?
 
The signature herb? Chiles, of course! Chile peppers are not only super in your salsa, but good for what ails you: poor circulation, headaches, stomach distress, and ulcers, maybe even as an alternative to Viagra. (Chiles have long had a reputation as an aphrodisiac.) While the heat of capsaicin (the chief chemical compound in this herb) can burn, it also takes the pain out of shingles, rheumatism, and arthritis.
 
There’s lots more about this hot herb—a member of the nightshade family—at Wikipedia. If you’d like to try one of China’s favorite recipes, add some jalepeno peppers to cornbread. Or put some chile powder in your hot chocolate for an exotic (and seductive) drink.


Lavender Lies
I always think of this book as the “wedding” book—although between a murder investigation (a local real estate broker is shot to death in his garage) and a surprise guest named Hurricane Josephine, China’s wedding almost doesn’t happen. But it does, and of course it’s an herbal wedding, with rosemary for remembrance, thyme for courage, sage for long life and happiness, and lavender for devotion.
 
If you’re devoted to lavender, you're not alone. The clean, refreshing scent of its delicate flowers was cherished by the Egyptians (who used it, with other herbs and spices, to make mummies), the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans (who called it lavender, from their verb lavere, to wash), and by gardeners everywhere. Lavender is used to scent soaps, cosmetics, potpourris, and sachets. You can also use it in your bath, or put a few drops of essential oil on your hair brush. To help you sleep, put a few drops on your pillow. You can even use lavender flowers to flavor cookies and cakes, make tangy vinegars and punches, and brew fragrant teas.
 
For recipes from China’s and Ruby’s tea room (newly-opened in Lavender Lies) and ideas for a lavender tea party of your own, check out this page. And for a very good review of lavender’s medicinal properties, read this article from the University of Maryland.
 
Mistletoe Man
It's Christmas, and China has opened her home for the annual Pecan Springs Holiday Home Tour. But she's also worrying about her friend and partner Ruby Wilcox, who hasn't been herself lately. To further complicate matters, China has to round up a supply of mistletoe, the season's most popular herb. It seems an easy enough task—until her chief mistletoe supplier turns up dead.
 
Mistletoe is rich in lore, mostly due to the unusual growth habit of this parasitic herb. (In fact, some linguists trace its name to the Old English word mistil, meaning different.) Mistletoe grows on host trees, from seeds planted in the bark by the birds who feast on the white berries that ripen during the winter. The plant has been a part of Yule or winter solstice celebrations since the Druids, and the "kiss of peace" that was once exchanged under this plant by warring North Country clans has now evolved into the Christmas kiss. In folk cultures, mistletoe has been used to enhance fertility and to treat epilepsy; medicinally, European mistletoe is used as a sedative and to slow a rapid heartbeat. Recent research suggests that it may also slow the growth of cancerous tumors, and it is employed in Germany to supplement chemotherapy. Mistletoe is not a culinary herb, but the berries are not deadly, as is popularly believed. Please note that European and American mistletoe are not the same species. Many traditions link the two, but they are very different.
 
Readers often tell me that they enjoy learning about herbs while they are entertained by the story. But I have to say that China Bayles has taught me so much about herbs. For instance, I don’t think I would ever have taken the time to explore the herb mistletoe, if China’s supplier hadn’t gone and gotten himself killed! 

 Thanks for taking the time to read about these books! Here's your "reward," the link for a free advance reading copy of Wormwood. Good luck! The winner of this drawing will be announced here, after April 1. And if you'll join me here tomorrow, I'll take you to the next stop in this second week of my blog tour, revisiting some of my favorite posts!

Pretty pyracantha

 

Last year's berries, this year's blossoms--and bees! The bees are loving it, and I'm loving the sight of the bees. As you probably know, there's been a big bee die-off in the last couple of years, with many beekeepers losing more than half their hives. But here in Texas, we have over 500 species of native bees, and they're filling in while their domesticated, hive-bound cousins are taking sick leave. Not to make light of it, of course. Many of our food plants (think industrialized agriculture here) require bee pollination, and many beekeepers make a living trucking bees from one bloomin' crop to another. But if it's pollination we're after (and not just propping up the beekeeping business), all of us need to encourage the local, native bees--by not spraying insecticides and by planting plenty of bee-friendly plants (some of these are region-specific) in our gardens.

Blog tour update. Peggy (bless her web talents!) gave up an hour of her Saturday to fix the problems created by the backup server, so we are back in business. To make up to you for the difficulties in entering the drawing, we've extended the deadline for the Nature Woman drawing by 24 hours, to noon tomorrow. So if you haven't entered, hustle on over there. A reminder: this year, I'm revisiting a number of my favorite posts from a previous blog tour. At Nature Woman, I'm discussing Books 4, 5, and 6 in China's series. Tomorrow, I'll be revisiting another blog, where I'll discuss Books 7, 8, and 9--and you'll have another chance to win an advance reading copy.

And speaking of winners, Peggy's random-number generator had given us another name. Tomorrow, I'll be sending a book to Jinni Turkelson of Byron Center MI. Jinni is a regular visitor and commentator here at Lifescapes. Congratulations, Jinni!

I turned in the manuscript of An Extraordinary Year this week, did some more planting in the garden, and read a great memoir, Susan Tweit's Walking Nature Home. You can read my review of it here. A stunning book. (And I don't say things like that lightly.)

And since I'm between books, I actually did some housecleaning. The shelves get a little dusty when I'm writing, and the dog-fur bunnies tend to gather in the corners. I feel cleaner. Bill will be back from New Mexico this evening. Wonder if he'll notice.

Reading note. I and all the other lives on Earth are connected to the stars, held together by gravity, the invisible glue that defines our universe, and bound elementally by a common material: stardust...Like stardust and the other materials of life itself, we are in constant motion, changing shape as we pass through our lives... The stars remind me of where I come from and who I am.--Susan J. Tweit, Walking Nature Home

Breaking news

Sigh....File this under the category of "Can't win for losing." We had problems with one server earlier in the week, so we redirected the drawing links to a secondary server--which appears to be down this morning. No idea how long this outage will last. I'll see if Peggy can extend the drawing deadlines for Cold Climate and Nature Woman, and will let you know about that.

Better news: we have a winner! J. Shaw, of Tonopah AZ has won the Essential Herbal drawing. Congratulations! Your book will go into the mail on Monday.

Blog Tour 5: Nature Woman

   Hey, it's Friday! Last day of the first week of our blog tour, and you're still with us! Good for you. I've appreciated your notes and comments, both here and in your emails to me. For those who wonder when I'm going to get back to the landscape, garden, and all that good green stuff--well, just be patient. I've got a big stack of reading copies to give away (ten of them!), and I can't go back to blogging-as-normal (whatever that is) until all ten winners have been chosen.

So here we go again--today, over to Nature Woman, to a post I wrote last year about Books 4, 5, and 6 in the series. You might be interested to know that it wasn't until Book 4 (Rosemary Remembered) that I could be confident that China was going to continue. I'd had a contract for Books 1-3, but often (VERY often) publishers don't renew that first contract. When I was offered a three-book contract for 4, 5, and 6, I knew that China was going to have a life, as it were--so it behooved me to think seriously about what her future might look like. For one thing, I had to decide whether McQuaid would be a part of that future. Those of you who have read these three books know that McQuaid's role in the series is very much in doubt, right up to the end of Love Lies Bleeding. (If you haven't read them . . . well, hey. You have some catching up to do.

One of the things I love about Pam's blog: her photos. On the main page, scroll down and enjoy her pictures--so many and so varied. I love the one of the crocus, but also the barn with the boat beside it: I love the irony of that. I think you will too.

So I won't keep you. Scoot on over to my post on Prime Thyme Mysteries (Part 2), read the post, enter the drawing (YES, the link is definitely there--you just have to look for it!), and then check out the rest of the blog. Fun.

No blog tour this weekend (I might post, though, if there's anything interesting to talk about). Hope to see you here on Monday for the second (and last) week of the tour. If you haven't entered the drawings for the previous posts, some of them are still open. Check 'em out!

Blog Tour 4: Cold Climate Gardening

Thursday already--my goodness, where has the week gone?

Let's go over to Cold Climate Gardening today, where Kathy has invited us to revisit a post I wrote last year about the first three books in the China Bayles series. I know that some of you are very familiar with the development of this series, but others may not know how it took shape, back in the early 90s. Mysteries were different then: there were fewer "cozies" (domestic mysteries with little violence), fewer regional mysteries, and almost NO mysteries with recipes! And I was a different writer, then, too. China, Ruby, and the Pecan Springs gang have all taught me a lot.

You'll find the link to the drawing for the advance reading copy of Wormwood at the end of the post on CCG. Each drawing is open for three days. Peggy draws the winner (using a random number generator--doesn't that sound high tech?), and emails that person, who then needs to send us her/his mailing address. We'll announce winners here and also on the host blog.

While you're visiting Cold Climate Gardening, be sure to check out Kathy's main page. When I was there last, she was posting about Mud Season, which I remember all too vividly from my years as a young mom in Illinois, with three kids who were devoted Mudders. Oh, the fun of it!

Tomorrow, back here again, where I'll give you the link to a post about Books 4, 5, and 6 in China's series.

Blog Tour 3: Essential Herbal

BREAKING NEWS!
Ann Bevak of Gross Ile MI has won an advance reading copy of Wormwood, in the drawing from Monday's post. Congratulations!

Today, I'm sending you over to Tina Sam's Essential Herbal for the second chapter of the nightshade story--the "nasty" nightshades, the ones that have given the family such a bad rep. I hope you enjoy it. While you're on Tina's blog, look around. Be sure to click back over to her main page, where you'll learn more about the magazine she publishes. It's full of good stuff about herbs: growing, cooking, crafting, lore--everything you want to know. Tina is also a soapmaker, and I understand we're going to be neighbors at the 11th annual Herb Festival in York PA on April 17-18. Her booth is next door to the Rosemary House booth, where I'll be hanging out most of Saturday. If you're in the neighborhood, Tina and I would love to see you.

As you read the nightshade post, you'll find references to last year's blog tour. Just ignore them, please. This is a "revisit." And with luck, our server will manage to stay up all day and you'll all get a chance to enter the drawing. You'll find the link near the end of the post.

Thanks for dropping in today. Hope to see you tomorrow, here, for another link, and another chance to win an advance reading copy of Wormwood.

Blog tour: May Dreams Garden

Thanks for coming back for the second day of the blog tour! (Apologies for yesterday morning's server problem. Just one of those things, I guess...)

Today, I'm sending you over to May Dreams, to a blog post I wrote last year about the nightshades, a notorious family of herbs that has earned a deadly reputation. This is the first of a two-part post. It's about the "nice" nightshades--I'll be discussing the "nasty" ones on Wednesday, in another post, on another blog.

Nightshade, of course, is the title of China's sixteenth mystery--the May Dreams post was written to celebrate the launch of that book. Looks like all the links are working, although a couple are related to last year's post. Toward the end, you'll find a link to--TA-DA!--the May Dreams drawing page, where you're invited to drop your name into the hat for an advance reading copy of Wormwood, China's latest adventure. Please do. You can't win if you don't enter, now, can you?

Special thanks go to Carol, for inviting us back to her blog. Please take a minute to look around--she's an active blogger, and microblogs on Twitter, as well.

Oh, and if you missed out on yesterday's drawing, don't despair! It's open until noon on 3/25, so click on over and enter. See you here tomorrow morning? I hope so!

Welcome to my blog tour!

Welcome to the first post in my two-week blog tour! This tour is a mix of my favorite posts from previous visits, with a few new posts added. I hope you'll join the tour and come back here every weekend for the next two weeks. I hope you're feeling lucky, too--since you'll have ten chances to win an advance reading copy of China's latest mystery, Wormwood.

There's a lot of information on the Internet about the many different species of wormwoods, all of which belong to the genus Artemisia, named for the healing goddess, Artemis. Wikipedia has an interesting article, with photos. You can find a recipe for wormwood tea, said to be useful as an insecticide (don't drink it!). Miss Grieve (1929) has her usual fascinating collection of wormwood lore. And if you're intrigued by absinthe, the liqueur that is made from wormwood (said to drive people crazy), you'll find plenty of information here. Of the wormwoods in my garden, my favorites are Powis Castle and southernwood, although I also love sweet Annie (Artemisia annua) for making wreaths. It has a distinctive odor, beautiful, easy-to-work-with foliage, and it dries to a gorgeous silvery color. Both as an herb and as a garden ornamental, wormwood has a lot going for it.

When I began to settle down to writing the seventeenth China Bayles mystery, all these things (and more) were in the back of my mind. In the front of my mind was a story about the bitterness of repentance and the balm of pardon--a story about the Shakers, and about one particular Kentucky Shaker village, a fictional place. The story is set both in our own time and back in 1912, when the village was beginning to come apart. As Miss Grieve points out, wormwood is among the most bitter of herbs, but yet it is--or it was, at one time--among the most useful of medicinal plants. And so I chose his herb to symbolize the bitter pain of loss and the healing that comes, finally, through forgiveness and acceptance.

If you haven't read the first chapter of the book yet, you can find it here, along with other information about the book and the herb.

But wait, there's more! (as those annoying TV commercials say), for you can also enter your name in a drawing for an advance reading copy of the book, which won't be available in bookstores until April 7. The drawing is open through noon on 3/27/09.

And if you'll come back here tomorrow, I'll give you a link to one of my favorite blog posts about the herb nightshade, the signature herb in China's previous mystery. There'll be a drawing for that post, too--and every weekday for the next two weeks. So be sure to join us. And good luck!

Reading note. The name wormwood is said to have derived from the story of the Garden of Eden, where the plant sprang up from the track made by the serpent--that giant worm--as it was driven out of the garden. That's why wormwood has such a bitter taste. When Adam and Eve were expelled as well, the wormwood formed an impenetrable hedge, barring their return and forcing them to live in a cold and unfriendly world outside the garden. This is why wormwood symbolizes the anguished bitterness of repentance and the sad impossibility of ever returning to a state of happy, carefree innocence.--Wormwood, by Susan Wittig Albert

Sweets to the sweet

   

This is one of our native Texas bumblebees, enjoying our native Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora), which is blooming happily along the dry creek, proof that these plants don't need a lot of water. They also like our alkaline soil and tolerate heat. I'm keeping an eye out for "The Worm," which is its most serious predator. When there was water and fish in the creek (sigh..oh, I miss both!), Bill and I used to pick off the worms and throw them into Turtle Pool for the fish. We have some 15-18 of these shrubs growing in the woods and long the creek, some the size of small trees, all daughters of a container plant that was growing (in the mid-80s) in front of a bank on Fifth Street in Austin. I got all kinds of odd looks when I harvested seed pods from that plant, but it was worth it. We nicked the seeds with a file, soaked them, planted, and something like 90% germinated. A lovely, lovely reward for a little bit of work. The bee thinks so, too.

I'll be doing a blog tour for the next couple of weeks. The tour starts here, every morning. Most of the posts will be short, just giving you directions to some of my favorite blog posts from previous tours. And there are prizes, of course! Each of the posts will contain a new link to a drawing page, where you can enter (once each day, only) to win an advance reading copy of Wormwood. So if you want to be the first kid on your block with China's latest adventure, be sure and drop in.

Other news: The 4.2" of rain we got last week was immeasurably, delightfully helpful to the grass, the smaller plants, and the garden, but it didn't do much to alleviate the effects of the drought. Rain is predicted for Tuesday. I have my fingers crossed. It's been warm here (84 several days last week). Skip spring, move right into summer. But the garden is doing well: potatoes, peas (blooming), broccoli, spinach, tomatoes (started from seed under lights, transplanted last week), green onions, carrots, beets--all coming along.

Book work. I'm between books right now, so I'm playing catch up (but already starting to think about the next project, the seventh Cottage Tale). I'll be mailing your pre-ordered copies of Wormwood, as soon as books arrive (about April 6). I'm going to stop taking pre-orders on April 1 (because of the book tour coming up the next week, with so much to be done). Peggy will hold the orders that come in after that date and I'll sign and mail the books when I get back, the first week of May. So if you want your book in April, please get your order in soon. (Thanks, and the Story Circle gang thanks you: they are the booksellers on my website; your purchase benefits their work.)

Have a good Sunday--see you here tomorrow morning!

Reading note. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.--Michael Pollan