Lifescapes

Cicadas: The Sound of Summer

Photo copyright 2012 Peggy Fountain Moody

Summer has many sounds here in the Texas Hill Country. Occasionally, during the day, I hear the throaty, strumming call of the secretive yellow-billed cuckoo--my mother called it a rain crow and believed that it signaled rain (I wish oh I wish). At night, there's the plaintive quank quank of the tree frogs. And all through the long afternoons, through the hottest hours of the day, the incessant, metalic buzzing of the cicadas.

A researcher at the University of Texas--someone with very good ears--identified five species of Cicadidae at a field laboratory some 50 miles east of us. Another researcher, in 1933, wrote this memorable report from an area 100 miles to our east:

"East central Texas is a veritable cicada paradise. I have never visited a region where so many species are as abundant as occur in, for instance, the Madison County region. They are numerous in many parts of the post oak woods, but are most plentiful in the alluvial forests and groves in the lower grounds along the Navasota and Trinity Rivers. Here in June and July, the air is vibrant with the songs of Tibicen superba, T. pruinosa, T. resh, T. marginalis, T. chloromera, T. lyricen and Diceroprocta vitripennis. The chorus becomes most intense late in the afternoon, when pruinosa may predominate. The songs of the species mentioned differ considerably and are quite easily recognizable. Tibicen resh is often found in great numbers in some large detached oak or other tree standing in the open, the trunk of which may bear scores of the cast skins of this species. Resh may be silent for long intervals, when suddenly the whole population may burst into song simultaneously, resulting in an ear-splitting din which subsides as suddenly as it arose.

I can't claim to make these fine distinctions of cicada song, but I know one when I hear it. I recognize the round, thumb-sized holes from which the nymphs emerge after their long, secret life underground--three years for some species, seventeen years for others. (Think what has happened in the past seventeen years and then imagine sleeping through it!)

And I can see their empty exoskeletons clinging to twigs and tree trunks, where the nymphs have hung themselves out to dry for a few hours after their emergence, then abandoned their shells for wings and the wide world--and sex. The male sings for his mate and dies. The mated female lays her eggs on a tree branch and dies. And the eggs hatch into nymphs, drop to the ground, and burrow deep, a foot or more, to sleep through dark, silent, songless summers.

Photo from Wikipedia, Creative Commons

And then to emerge, and sing all the summer afternoon.

Reading note: In summer, the song sings itself.  ~William Carlos Williams

E-books and the Backlist

I get a lot of mail from people who would like to read the first three books of the China Bayles series (Thyme of Death, Witches' Bane, Hangman's Root) on their ebook reader. "You ought to put those books out there," one reader chided me last week.

Another threatened: "I only read e-books now, and if I can't start the series at the beginning, I don't bother to read the rest."

"Why don't you just upload Thyme of Death to Kindle?" another one wanted to know. "If you don't know how, I'll be glad to help," she added. "It's really easy."

No, my dears, it isn't. Really easy, I mean. And here's why.

The first three books in the China Bayles series were published (in 1992, 1993, and 1994) by Scribner's. Back in those days, selling electronic books was not on anyone's horizon, but the Scribner's contract was fairly inclusive, giving the publisher the right to reproduce the books in all manner and by all means now known and henceforth to be imagined--something like that. Very broad.

We didn't stay with Scribner's, though. We had sold the paperback rights for Books 1-3 to Berkley Books (Prime Crime), and when it was time to do another contract (for Book 4, Rosemary Remembered, and beyond) we moved the series to Berkley, where we have been--happily--ever since. 

When ebooks became a practical reality, we executed an amendment to our contracts which permitted Berkley to digitize all our books: the Robin Paige Victorian/Edwardian mysteries; the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter; and The Darling Dahlias, and of course, China Bayles. When they worked on the China Bayles' series, they started with the new books (good idea) and moved backward through the backlist--until they got to those first three Scribner's books.They didn't have the e-rights to those books, so they couldn't digitize them. They asked Scribner's (now owned by Simon & Schuster) to digitize them. The answer: When we get around to it.

And that's where it stands. We may attempt some more energetic action to pry the books loose, but in the meantime, it's a waiting game. Thanks for your patience.

Reading note, paraphrased from Groucho Marx: Outside of a dog, an eBook is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read--unless the screen is backlit.--Susan Wittig Albert

 

Works-in-progress: August

The current needlepoint project is nearly done--just the left border to finish and a few loose ends to tie up. This has been the perfect companion in the evenings, while I enjoy the Olympic games. I need to start thinking about a mat/frame for this, something very simple, since the pattern is so busy and vivid.

The fall garden is underway: tomato seedlings (Porter again) and sweet peppers are just sprouting under lights. In another week, I'll plant cucumbers, summer squash, and beans in the garden. The grasshoppers are bad this year, and the squash bugs, so while the weather may cooperate, the pests may be a challenge. But you never know until you try, right?

On the writing desk: Wild Rose, my novel about Rose Wilder Lane and the writing of the Little House books. I've finally settled on a structure and voice (two important choices) and am working on the manuscript every days now. I've had this project in mind since 1992, when I received a pre-publication copy of William Holtz's excellent book, The Ghost in the Little House: The Life of Rose Wilder Lane. I began doing research for the novel then, but life (and many mysteries) got in the way. It feels very good to be working on it in earnest now, aiming to finish by the end of the year.

Fans of the Little House books will be pleased by the publication (by the South Dakota State Historical Society Press) of "Pioneer Girl," the story of Laura's life which served as the source manuscript from which the eight books of the series are derived. Pamela Smith Hill is annotating it with references to Rose's various typed versions of the text, as well with the books themselves. I've read and studied "Pioneer Girl," so the annotations will be the most interesting part of the project. If you've enjoyed the books, you'll likely recognize the "story kernals" that were expanded to create them. But you may be surprised when you get a look at Laura's "native" style, which is nothing like the polished style of the books. That, as we know now, was Rose's work--that, and the fine narrative shaping of her mother's material that turned the raw stories into memorable literature.

If you're not acquainted with Rose, here's a little taste of her, from a letter she wrote to her dear friend Dorothy Thompson (recently married to Sinclair Lewis) in August, 1929. She is describing the house she is building (you may know it as the Rock House) for her parents, at Rocky Ridge Farm:

I am building a house. Houses are my vice; without houses, who knows? I might have been a writer. I am my own worst enemy. I can't take houses, or leave 'ema lone. This house is a five-room English cottage (anyway, rather English) which shall--Inshallah!--be all that both my father and my mother have wanted in houses. It's building on another part of this farm, and when, if ever, it's done, they shall live in it. I then inherit this house which will no doubt be remodeled from foundation to ridge, and as soon as that's done, Allah be merciful, I'll depart for Cashmere, Samarkand, California, and the mountains of the Meddite.

All of Rose's life was a conflict between staying put and reaching for the far horizon. In that, she was a very modern woman.