Lifescapes

eBook News & Sweet Peas

eBook News first! I'm delighted (believe me) to tell you that Amazon and Penguin (my publisher) have finally buried the hatchet in their long and ongoing agree-to-disagree negotiations on Kindle ebook publication. HOLLY BLUES is now available for download. I'm sorry that the book got caught in the two-month death grip of this argument but relieved that it's finally been released at last.

There are so many things going on in eBooks, reading online, and so on. I'm interested in hearing from you what you think about this medium, what kind of devices you use to read, and how your reading habits and preferences have changed over the past few years--if they have. Some of us are print people, and that's all there is to it! But online publication opens up so many interesting new possibilities and potentials, and I've been thinking about experimenting, once my current writing obligations have been met. I'll welcome your comments. So please, weigh in.

Books aren't the only thing blooming around here. I always plant sweet peas in the fall, but most years, they don't make much of a show. This El Nino year was different, with plenty of rain and cool temperatures for most of the spring. I've been enjoying a spectacular display of sweet peas, and their fragrance has perfumed that corner of the garden.

The spring garden is just about finished, though. I've dug the potatoes (reds and whites), picked the last of the peas for the freezer, and harvested the carrots, beets, and spring onions. The green beans and zucchini are coming on now, fast and furious, and the tomatoes are beginning to ripen. What's on the vines will be the last until fall, though, because the daytime temps are already in the 90s, too hot to set fruit. I'm filling in the empty spaces, as usual, with sweet potatoes, squash, and melons.

Writing report. This is the year of the back-to-back book deadlines, because of the new series. I'm writing the second Dahlias book now: THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE NAKED LADIES, due at the end of June. After that (due at the end of October), the final book in the Cottage Tales series. So I've had to be seriously focused on writing. My challenge, as it always is, is writing a book that is both realistic and a "mystery." Not that there aren't mysteries in all our lives--there are, and often far too many of them! But the conventions of "the mystery" are fairly . . . well, conventional. It's hard to lay out a "mystery plot" that engages complex characters in a realistic, serious, and complex way--without seeming silly, contrived, and artificial. And given the time period of the Dahlias books (this one is set in late 1930), there's also the challenge of writing about a difficult period in American life. Lots to think about here.

Knitting, reading. Writing all day (with occasional sidetrips to Facebook and Twitter) means that I'm pretty much brain-dead by the end of the day and not fit for much besides knitting and reading. Mostly socks, easy with self-striping yarn. Here's one of the projects. Reading right now: Bill McKibben's EAARTH and Eudora Welty's novel LOSING BATTLES. Listening to the audiobook edition of SUPREME POWER: FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT VS THE SUPREME COURT, by Jeff Shesol--an enlightening study of the problems a progressive president confronts when faced by the power of a conservative court, the legacy of presidents past.

And of course I am saddened by the situation in the Gulf. You may not agree with me on this, but I believe that we're all implicated in this disaster. We're the ones who demand so much of this toxic fossil fuel that we have to reach to the ends of the earth and deep under the sea to get it. And now that the easy oil is all but gone (yes, Virginia, there is a Peak Oil), and unless we can find some other sources to satisfy our enormous appetite for energy, we will see many more of these ecological, economic, and social disasters. Not a cheerful thought, especially with a hyperactive hurricane season on the horizon. It's going to be a challenging summer, a time for learning what we're made of, all of us.

Reading note. That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.-- Doris Lessing

Wildflower Wonders

This is an incredible season for wildflowers. In the two decades plus that we've lived here at Meadow Knoll, I've never seen anything like it. I don't usually bring flowers into the house: I can look out the windows and walk through the gardens and enjoy them where they live. But I brought in a few the other day--Englemann daisies, blue mealy sage, Indian paintbrush, cow parsley--and put them in the vase that Bill made for me. (You can see a gallery of his work on his website.)

Sweet peas don't usually do well here, because it gets too hot too quickly. (Last year, we had 90-degree days in February.) This El Nino spring has been cooler, and the sweet peas are flourishing along the garden fence.

The gaillardia is breathtaking. Firewheel, it's often called, or Indian blanket, and it's spread all across our front yard. We never mow until the end of June, so that the spring flowers and grasses can bloom and go to seed. No near neighbors to complain, and we don't have to worry about what the homeowners' association has to say. All we have to do is enjoy. 

  About ten years ago, I planted several fairy roses on the other side of our little creek. They're blooming right now, and beautifully, sprays of bright red flowers cascading down the creek banks. The creek is running bank-full right now. I miss the little sunfish and bluegills and the crawdads that used to be so plentiful: the drought did them in. Haven't seen many turtles, either, which is sad. And because there are no fish or crawdads, there aren't many herons. I miss seeing the great blue heron wading in the shallow pools just at sunset, fishing for his dinner. Since the lake dried up as well, it's hard to see where the fish will come from. I hope the herons are finding something to eat, somewhere.

Book report. I'm working on the next Darling Dahlias book right now: THE DARLING DAHLIAS AND THE NAKED LADIES. The first book got a great review from Publishers Weekly--that's always a sign of good things to come. A trade publication, PW is read by libraries and chain book buyers. I'm about halfway through the book and enjoying it, particularly the period details.

Also read galleys for AN EXTRAORDINARY YEAR OF ORDINARY DAYS. We've had some problems setting the quotations in the book, and quite a few of the pages needed work. I have my fingers crossed on this one. I do like the cover, though, which also went through quite a few iterations before everybody was satisfied. One of the things I very much like about working with UT Press is their hands-on, let's-make-it-work approach to every book. This one has presented several challenges, and it's such a departure from the rest of my work that I'm a little concerned that it won't reach many readers. But we'll see....

Garden stuff. I've dug about half of the spring potatoes, picked all the peas (and pulled up the vines) and am beginning to pick green beans. What we don't eat right away goes into the freezer. The zukes are blooming, but so far all the blooms are male: the ladies will be along shortly, I'm sure. We've had a cool week and the tomatoes are blooming and setting fruit, so maybe I'll have enough to make sauce (which I also freeze). I've been growing sweet potato slips in the kitchen window: put a half dozen in the garden earlier this week, another half dozen are coming. I'll interplant those with the pole beans, which will mature a month before the sweet potatoes.

Reading right now: Richard Clarke's CYBER WAR (scary!), Bill McKibben's EAARTH (thanks to friend Dani Greer for this recommendation), and one of Steven Havill's Posada mysteries (such a strong writer). Also re-reading Nancy Horan's LOVING FRANK for our Story Circle Reading Circle next month. And dipping into several of Mary Oliver's lovely books.

Reading note. What does it mean . . . that the earth is so beautiful? And what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring to the world? What is the life that I should live?--Mary Oliver

Not Always Blue

Did you think bluebonnets were always blue? Now you know: they're not. We have several swaths of pink ones, and an occasional white one, as well. There's some Texas lore about this (of course!). But I suspect that the pink-blooming plants are descended from a packet of 25 seeds of maroon "Aggie bluebonnets" that I planted about 15 years ago. (Do check out the link: the story of the maroon bluebonnet is told with the usual Aggie panache.)

The A&M seeds came beautifully true for a couple of generations, then (because the plant is a hybrid) gradually got pinker and pinker, reverting to its natural parentage. This year, we have an astonishing number of bluebonnets, and a much larger than usual number of pink ones. I'll soon be gathering seed to scatter in areas where the bluebonnets have died out. Used to do this selectively: this year, there are so many that I'll just pull the plants (when the seed is mature and the pods ready to split), pile them in the wheelbarrow, and scatter them in the areas where we'd like to see more bluebonnets. In addition to the flowers, the big bonus this year, thanks to El Nino, is a huge crop of seeds that will flower in years to come. This is a comforting thought, this weekend of the Gulf oil spill and the Times Square bomb.

Book Report. After another book trip (Sherman TX, to talk to the Hospice Auxiliary--a great audience!) I'm back at work, happily, on the next Darling Dahlias book. There have been a couple of interesting Facebook conversations (sorry: I don't know how to link to FB threads--if any of you know, please tell me) about political element in mysteries, particularly in Holly Blues, and about non-plot elements in the book.

In books I read (and write) I'm always far more interested in character than in plot, and I'm glad to see that mysteries have moved away from narrow, simplistic, "just-the-plot-ma'am" narratives toward books that are fully novelistic: that is, books in which the characters are as large and as fully human as possible, with all their faults, flaws, and foibles--as well as strengths, cleverness, versatility, and so forth. In the China Bayles books, this isn't "padding" or "fluff," and readers who think it is are missing (sadly) an important element of the novel.

And for readers who are inclined to think that China sometimes isn't clever enough, please do remember that (in Holly Blues) I have given you far more information than she has access to. You know some things she doesn't. That doesn't mean that she's less clever than you are: it means that you get to watch her learn some things you are already privileged to know.

Garden Report. Whew. It's been Hornworm Invasion Week in my garden. Since I got back from Sherman late Thursday, I've picked about 12 dozen (a gross!) of very gross tomato hornworms off the potatoes. So far, they haven't shown up on the tomatoes (on the other side of the garden). I'm hoping that the potatoes, which are almost ready for digging anyway, are a good "catchment" crop for these critters. We've been eating carrots and peas from the garden. The beans are beginning to bloom, so those will be along shortly. I'll be planting sweet potatoes in another week or two, from slips I've been growing in the kitchen window.

Bill's woodwright art. Peggy has posted Bill's website, where you can see photos of his vases and bowls. He plans to keep it updated as he adds more to the collection shown there. I've loved seeing the evolution of his art over the past couple of decades. I often think that artists who work with natural materials (wood, clay, stone) must spend a very great deal of time learning the resources and limitations of the media and their tools before they can begin to play and experiment. There's been a great deal written about pottery and stone sculpture--less about wood, except as cabinetry. Much to learn here.

Reading note. The moment comes when a character does or says something you hadn't thought about. At that moment he's alive and you leave it to him.--Graham Greene