Lifescapes

In bloom this week: Evening Primroses

The pink blooms cascading down our creek bank belong to the evening primrose (Oenothera biennis). It's not just pretty, thought. It's an all-around useful plant.

I've read that the leaves can be cooked like greens--maybe I'll add them to the next batch of kale. The roots can be boiled like potatoes and are said to taste like parsnips (if anybody remembers what those taste like). I've used the flowers in salads and as a garnish, and steamed the young seedpods like peas. Some have roasted the seeds (15 min. at 350°) for use on bread or in salads. It's been used by native herbalists to treat asthma, eczema, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and circulatory problems; and by modern herbalists,to treat premenstrual stress. This year, it's everywhere in large pink colonies, and beautiful. We love to see it in our meadows and pastures, but it might be too much of a good thing if this were in my garden.

A teaching weekend coming up: looking forward to leading a women-only writing workshop in Fredericksburg, a pretty Texas Hill Country town northwest of San Antonio. I'm looking forward to seeing fields of bluebonnets, paintbrush, and winecups on the drive down--oh, and more primroses. The forecast is for rain, but I'm sure that won't dampen our spirits.

Book report. Lots of things happening right now. If you're a NetGalley reviewer, you can download a review copy of A Plain Vanilla Murder (launch: June 4). The e-galley will 

If you're a friend of Ruby Wilcox, you can preorder her first solo adventure, NoBODY (an ebook novella, the first in a trilogy) on these platforms: Kindle, iBook, and Nook. The launch date for the book is April 15. Books 2 and 3 in the trilogy (SomeBODY Else and Out of BODY) will launch May 15 and June 15.

In reply to a couple of questions: yes, all three of these books are finished, formatted, and ready to launch. Each one is about half the size of your usual mystery (about 135 pages). Each is a standalone but all three are linked, with a strong character arc connecting all three books. I love the covers, which look pretty simple but took a lot of tinkering.

This is my first experiment in this form, and I'm glad for the digital technology that makes it possible. It's so much easier to publish digitally, and while I'm planning to continue the two print series (China Bayles and the Dahlias), I want to do more fiction in this short form. It requires some discipline from me, since I'm used to letting the story go where it wants to and take whatever time it needs to tell (which is why some of the China Bayles books are 90,000 words long--very long for a mystery). 

These novellas aren't "cozy," either, although the characters come from a series that has been labeled "cozy." But not by me. China Bayles is lots of things--but she isn't cozy.

Reading note. I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction.--Katherine Anne Porter

 

Hummers are here, and a book report

We're celebrating the arrival of the first hummingbirds, as the winds shifted to strong, warm southerlies and brought the birds up from Mexico, where they spend their winters. We put up the feeder around the middle of the month, expecting the early birds in the migration around the 15th. Our first birds are ruby-throats, on their way north to their breeding grounds. Here's a map of recent migration sightings. They're particularly interested in the paintbrush, salvia, and crossvine, all coming into bloom. The sugar water we feed is only a supplement. (And yes, the grass really is that green!)

Celebrating new books. It's a busy spring for me, with several new writing/publishing projects. The Crystal Cave novella trilogy (NoBODY, SomeBODY Else, and Out of BODY) has three launch dates: April 15, May 13, June 17. NoBODY is available for preorder now.

And there's a new China mystery coming in June: A Plain Vanilla Murder. I loved doing the research on vanilla--so much to learn, from the folk legends that surrounded the vanilla orchid to its fascinating botanical life and the history of its migration around the planet, as well as the commercial production of the flavoring we can't get enough of. It was fun to find the mystery at the heart of all this. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Celebrating a new honor. I had to miss the award ceremony, but I was recently inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame by the Friends of the Fort Worth Library. The award "honors authors whose work significantly contributes to Texas' literary heritage; is original; was first published in this country; and has been previously recognized for its literary significance." I'm delighted to be included among such outstanding Texas writers as J. Frank Dobie, John Graves, Elmer Kelton, Katherine Anne Porter. and Horton Foote. It is an enormous honor, and I'm grateful.

Reading note. I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction. ― Katherine Anne Porter

Redbuds--and Ruby's First Novella!

Lots of things in bloom here at Meadow Knoll this week!

When we moved here nearly 30 years ago, there were no redbuds, and we didn't have the money to buy nursery plants. Happily, a wild redbud lived beside the lane, not far away. So for several years, we harvested her seedlings and replanted them in our woods. This is one of those seedlings, all grown up and stunning in her springtime purple finery.

But the redbud isn't just another pretty tree. Native Americans made a tea of the bark to treat fever, diarrhea, dysentery--and threw broken branches into a pool to stun fish. The purple flowers are edible and taste a little like pecans. Add to a salad or pancake batter. When the seed pods are green and tender, you can cook them like edible-pod peas and serve with butter. There's also redbud relish. Interesting, fun to try. Experiment. Use your imagination.

Book report. Ruby Wilcox is blooming, too. The first book in her novella trilogy--NoBODY--is now available for Kindle preorder, with just a little over a month until the April 16th launch date. The second and third (SomeBODY Else and Out of Body) will be along in May and June. The full trilogy will also be available on other platforms.

I'm hearing disappointment from some readers who prefer print to digital formats. Folks, I do understand. There are some books I must read in print (keepers for my bookshelf, research material with lots of notes). And I still love the weight of paper and the heft of a book in my hands.

But the fact of the matter is the bottom line. At 134 pages, it would cost nearly as much to print/bind/distribute NoBODY as it would to print/bind/distribute China's upcoming (June) mystery, A Plain Vanilla Murder (294 pages). You and your local library simply wouldn't want a half-size print book at nearly the full-size price. Luckily, we can price digital books at affordable prices: NoBODY is just $3.99, which makes it accessible to most readers.

There's more. For me, writing is all about imagining. About discovering. About creating something new and interesting--something I haven't done before (and after 30+ years as a professional writer, that's a bit difficult). In a shorter length, I can play with genre, form, characters, settings, and language in ways that are new to me. In digital, I can do some things I can't in print. Photographs, for example. Hyperlinks for another. With hyperlinks, I get to play with the overlapping boundaries of text, and isn't that fun?

If Ruby's novella trilogy is successful, I have other ideas for digital-only projects that I would love to share with you. Yes, I plan to continue publishing in print--there's another China Bayles novel in the works, and I'm already thinking about another Dahlias mystery. Both of those will be in hardcover for libraries and collectors, in digital, and eventually in paperback. But I'm hoping that enough of you will like digital-only enough to make that format viable.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Reading note. When you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while. ― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables 

 

 

Celebrating the Small

Lichen on a deer bone.They may be tiny, but they're beautiful--a landscape in miniature, a tiny garden. And being tiny doesn't mean being unsuccessful. Lichens are among the oldest living things on earth. They inhabit every continent on the planet, thrive in every climate, and number nearly 20,000 known species. (But who knows how many unknown species there are?) They live in crevices, lurk in cracks and crannies, love dead branches, flower on rocks in Antarctica and frozen soil in the Arctic. They are pioneers, survivors. Because they're so small, they're a betwixt-and-between species: they fill in the empty spaces in an ecosystem--some scientists believe that they are their own ecosystem. Their microcommunities flourish where being big would be a disadvantage and fit sweetly into spaces from which other creatures are excluded. And they're incredibly powerful. Once established on a rock, they gradually break it down. Imagine that, for just a moment. Lichens are more powerful than the rocks they live on. They are are capable of making a difference many times their size.

Lichens may not be at the top of today's "most-watched" lists. But they have their admirers. Beatrix Potter, for instance, who was the first person in England to record her speculations that lichen are symbiotic creatures: fungi cohabiting with photosynthesizing algae. She learned this herself, through close observation and down-to-earth study. She even cultivated the spores at her desk and drew them, lovingly. (The drawing is one of her fungi studies.)

Living here in the Texas Hill Country, it's easy to be overwhelmed by big things: tall trees, massive rocks, rolling hills, endless skies, yuuuge egos in small politicians. In a time when some forms of largeness loom over our landscape like a dark cloud, I need to remember the lichens. I need to look closely at the in-between, celebrate small, do the little things that might make a difference. Maybe that would work for you, too.

From the writing desk. Hoping to launch NoBODY, the first book in the Crystal Cave trilogy (Kindle only) this week. Also send the copyedited manuscript of the second book (SomeBODY Else) to the formatter, and the third book (Out of BODY) to the copy editor. The covers are done--big cover reveal, coming soon, I promise. Watch this space.

From the homestead. After a couple of days of spring-like weather, winter is back this weekend, with windchill temps in the 20s forecast for daytime highs. We're down to two chickens (and one has a back problem), so I'm thinking of getting a half-dozen laying-breed chicks in early April. It's always so sad when a flock/herd creature is the last, lonely survivor.

In case you were wondering, no veggie garden for me this year: I have a back problem, too. (Yes, it's possible to sympathize with a chicken.)

Teaching. I'm leading a weekend workshop for Story Circle, in Fredericksburg at the end of the month. There may be a few spaces left. Go here for details. This is the only teaching event I have planned this year. My tricky back situation has required me to cancel a couple of things and turn down other possibilities. I always hate to say no, but travel/speaking/teaching is much more problematic than writing. And I'd rather write.

Reading note. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.--E.F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered