Lifescapes

Win a Free Large-Print Edition of Loving Eleanor for Your Library!

Librarians, here's your chance to win a Thorndike large-print edition of Loving Eleanor for your library. Go here to enter. I have 8 to give away and want them to go where readers can enjoy them. Not a librarian? Let your favorite library know about this opportunity. Drawing is open through 3/31.

In bloom this week

Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora) is our Southern substitute for the lilacs I grew up with as a girl in Illinois. I loved lilacs and can smell them still--but not when this beauty is around. It smells exactly like grape Kool-Aid, buckets and buckets of it.

Sophora secundiflora loves our Edwards Plateau fast-draining limestone soil. It isn't a laurel at all (let alone a "mountain" laurel), but it does have some other interesting names: coral bean, mescal bean, and "big-drunk bean." The Indians of the Southern plains brewed up the leaves and the seeds into an intoxicating ritual drink--the seeds contain the alkaloid cytisine--that was reported to induce hallucinations. They used the large red seeds or beans as currency (the redder the seed, the more valuable) and strung them as protective necklaces to bring good luck and shield the wearer from harm.

This year's bloom is just beginning, but it looks like it will be a pretty one. We have some thirty of them, planted in clusters of three along the creek and behind our house. I grew them from seed I collected from tree-grown containers on Sixth Street in Austin, back in 1987. There's something especially magical about growing a tree (even a small tree) from seed. I sometimes imagine that the trees are grateful to us for giving them root room, finding a safe place for them to reach up to the sky and welcome the birds. But I'm really the grateful one: grateful to this tree for consenting to make its home with me, and grow and bloom where I can breathe in its beauty.

Homestead report. Nearly 5" of rain this week! The lake is full, Pecan Creek is overflowing, and the chicken pen is a muddy mess. (So are the eggs, since the Girls don't remember to wipe their feet before they go into the nest.) The garden is growing fast: potatoes, peas, onions, spinach. I'll plant beans this week. Spring this year has been beautiful.

Book report. The Last Chance Olive Ranch (China Bayles #25!) flew off to New York this week. This book is two stories in one, braided together. I enjoyed working out this structure, as a variation on the usual single first-person point of view. I'm not a fan of formula fiction, and one of my aims with this series has been to make each book different in some important way--and to give myself a new challenge with each book.

Loving Eleanor is on sale this week on several ebook platforms. Go here to pick up the links. The book is doing very well, I'm glad to say (in the top 10 in its categories on Kindle). Over 200 libraries are currently listing it; if your library doesn't have it yet, please ask your librarian to look for it. It's also available on SELF-e, if your library offers that format. The book was recently featured in the article, "12 Heartwarming Novels About Female Friendships." I found a couple of new ones on the list. How many of these have you read?

Story Circle News. Maybe you know that I'm currently serving as the president of the Story Circle Network, an international organization of women writers. We just wrapped up our 2015 Sarton Women's Book Awards, honoring books in three important genres: memoir, contemporary fiction, historical fiction. This program is unique, for it recognizes outstanding books that are author-published or published by an independent press (not one of the major publishing houses). We're also working on next month's women's writing conference: April 15-17, in Austin.  It'll be a great weekend--lots to learn, new friends, new networks. I'm offering a workshop (with authors Debra Winegarten and Connie Spittler) on "paths to publishing," a session on creating dialogue, and the Sunday keynote. Hope you'll consider attending!

Reading note. The way we tell our life story is the way we begin to live our life.—Maureen Murdock

 

LOVING ELEANOR eBook Sale!

 On sale right now for just $1.99! Kindle, Nook, and iBook. My latest historical novel: the true story of the intimate friendship of Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok. Download and begin reading immediately!