Lifescapes

In Bloom This Week: Button Bush

The button bushes (Cephalanthus occidentalis) that grow along our little creek are in full bloom just now, their round, highly symmetrical blossoms delighting the bees, hummingbirds and butterflies--especially . . . Read the rest on my new LifeScapes blog. (You can subscribe over there, too.)

LifeScapes/BookScapes: The Pink Suit

Latest post at LifeScapes/BookScapes, on my new website: https://susanalbert.com/the-pink-suit/ 

 

BookScapes: The Real Lolita

Now that the new website is organized and functioning, I’m planning to add something new: reviews of books I’m reading or (if they’re still worth thinking about), books I’ve read in the past. I’m a voracious reader of all kinds of books: genre fiction, literary fiction, nonfiction, and I’ve been reviewing books for over a decade. I plan to repost some of my older reviews and (of course) add new ones.

A question for you. I’m thinking of keeping the reviews in a separate blog . . . Read the rest on the new website!

Sunflowers: In Bloom This Week

Every year, the sunflowers bloom along our lane, as dependable as the sun itself. This native sunflower is Helianthus annuus–native, that is, to the Americas, although it has now traveled around the planet.

The Americans who were here before us used every part of the sunflower. They roasted the seeds and ate them. They brewed a tea from the flowers to treat pulmonary ailments, malaria, and fevers. They made leaf and flower poultices to treat burns. They chewed the crushed root and applied it to snake and spider bites and blisters. They believed it was a powerful aphrodisiac, as well. No wonder they carried it with them. No wonder . . . Read the rest on the LifeScapes blog, on my new website. (And while you're there, please subscribe. That's where I'm blogging these days.)

A Few Favorite Flubs

There’s only one hard-and-fast rule about writing: No book is ever perfect. A corollary to that rule: once a mistake is in print in a physical book, it stays in print. Books are like buildings: they’re there until (*shudder*) they’re burned or bulldozed in the landfill.

Of course, authors and publishers do whatever they can to avoid bloopers. The writer edits. The editor edits. The copy editor edits. The page designer edits. In the big publishing houses, the managing editor edits. And then some of them do it all over again. And sometimes again. And then (in sections) once (or twice) more because somebody’s paranoid.

But careful as we are, mistakes happen. With. Every. Book.

The latest China Bayles mystery, A Plain Vanilla Murder, contains one of my favorite flubs. Howard Cosell (McQuaid’s elderly basset) crossed the rainbow bridge several books ago, and Winchester is now . . . [You can read the rest on my new blog.]

July All About Thyme

We've just posted the July issue of All About Thyme, over at my new website. The usual thymely calendar, a Fourth of July story, a few recipes, and an odd tale about St. Martha. Check it out. If you'd like to subscribe, scroll down to the bottom of the page. See you over there!