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“Two dreams and a cup of coffee later…..”
F.K. PrestonKopi Time
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Change your thoughts – change your world
Angel Oak, the oldest tree east of the Mississippe. 1,500 years old!
Photo taken from the Angel Oak site.
Life keeps getting in the way of writing time. One catastrophe after another. One new responsibility after another. And then there’s the day job!
Becca asked a challenging question this week on Write on Wednesday. What fresh new ideas do you have for your writing? I don’t have any fresh ideas, I guess. Any more fresh than usual. I have so many projects started right now, I don’t dare start anything else. I do, however, enjoy change and challenge, so I would have to say I am constantly in a state of fresh ideas. Norman Vincent Peale said:
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
While Peale is rather controversial, albeit long famous, he has said some pretty brilliant things. I have, since the new year began, been reading some books outside of my range of normal. Peale, Flannery O’Connor, William Ellery Channing, and Wayne Dyer. Do you sense a theme here? I will write about this later in the month, after I have gathered my thoughts.
Back to fresh ideas. Peale also said,
Those who are fired with an enthusiastic idea and who allow it to take hold and dominate their thoughts find that new worlds open for them. As long as enthusiasm holds out, so will new opportunities.
This goes back to my father telling me, “you can do anything you want.” I am fortunate to live in the time and place I find my self, with the health and resources available to me, to have this be true. So I am willing to take risks, assuming that everything will work out, and so far, so good.
On a slightly less than fresh note, I continue to search for that agent who is going to fall in love with my work. I use Query Tracker to keep track of what I have mailed out. It is also an excellent site to research agents from. All the links you could possibly need are right there, and it is free. I have five queries out there, with one partial requested. Cross fingers, etc.
I received a pleasant comment this week, from the author of the second or third book I ever reviewed on this blog. Bonnie Trenga, author of The Curious Case of the Misplaced Modifier, also has her own very cool blog, The Sentence Sleuth, which is worth a regular visit. Check it out.
I am prattling today. I haven’t written a real post in so long, I think I have forgotten how. I do have a couple book reviews to write and post, so I will leave you here and move on to that.
Methuselah, oldest tree in the world, located in Northwestern United States. It is 4,800 years old!
Photo taken from the Waymark site.
P.S. If you are wondering “what’s with the trees?” I will just give you a little clue: think tree house.
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The Last Three Books
There have not been many book reviews on this blog lately. Time for a few quick reviews before December. I have decided to use the month of December as my own personal advent calendar. Every year, since my children were babies, we have opened the doors of an advent calendar. This year my girls will have the kind of calendar that they prefer – the kind with a piece of chocolate behind the door. What a great way to start the day!
So before December 1st arrives, I will post these four little reviews.
The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith
This book is the fifth in the series about Scottish philosopher and sleuth, Isabel Dalhousie. This would not be my favorite in the series, but if nothing else, I would recommend it to you for the beauty of its protagonist’s determination to treat others without judgment and the little peeks we are allowed into her soul. I certainly recommend the first four in this series. Isable is another strong woman, by the author of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency. That series stars Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier sleuth. If you have not read Smith, you are in for a huge treat with any of his books.
Ritual by Mo Hayder
In 2000, Mo Hayder entered the crime fiction scene, introducing detective Jack Caffery in the compelling and controversial novel, Birdman. Jack returned in 2001 in The Treatment. With a few (shocking) books in between, Jack is back in Ritual.
Hayder is known for exploring the deepest, darkest, recesses of the human mind, and this book definitely does that. It is also a social commentary on its times – everyone in this story has one form of trouble or another – and they are all real concerns. The sad lives of drug addicts, the pressures of the underworld, vendetta killing, lives of displaced Africans living in the UK, and male prostitution. Caffery is a character that is painfully real, and the reader comes to care about his bruised and bleeding psyche. This is a powerful novel that is difficult to put down.
The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
This mystery features a very unusual police officer: 61-year-old Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef of Rural Port Dundas, Ontario. A murderer is traveling across the county, apparently making appointments for “mercy” killings. Gradually Micallef sees a pattern emerging. She is small town police officer, however, and has no support from her superiors. On her own, she puts together a team and an investigative network, gathering details about the ‘agent of death’ who, almost magically, evades authorities. Micallef also has to deal with debilitating back pain that may soon require surgery, and for which she medicates herself. To further complicate her life, her eighty-something mother organizes the diet of her daughter with strict, iron control, and Micallef continues to mourn the demise of her forty year marriage.
Micallef is a complicated character; near the end accused of “pride masquerading as justice.” The tension builds, until everything comes together in perfect symmetry in the end. Sense of place is strongly evoked, the diverse cast of characters are interesting, and the murderer is one of the strangest antagonists I have ever come across.
Wolfe is a pseudynom for a “well known North American writer of literary fiction.” I hope this is not the only book she writes about Micallef.
Phantom Prey by John Sandford
This is the 18th book in the series of Minneapolis detective for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Lucas Davenport. John Sandford is an incredible writer. He has also written a series about Kidd, who is a pretty good painter, a serious tarot reader, and a genius with computers. There are two books starring Virgil Flowers, who is an agent brought into the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension by Lucas Davenport, and there are five other miscellaneous novels.
I have read them all, and definitely recommend any and all to you, but I am especially fond of the Prey series. Be sure to start at the beginning of the list. You will learn that Davenport is very rich from the computer games he invented and sold, he drives a Porsche to work, and the women he attracts are of a certain, very fine and intelligent, quality. He is also single-minded in his pursuit of justice. It is hard to keep up a series of this length and maintain staying power, along with realistic growth and change of a character. Sandford does this magnificently.
Excellent authors. One brand new, the other three with many good books to offer. Enjoy!
And on Monday, the first day for the advent calendar. Don’t forget to open a door every day.
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As Mother Nature Rocks Her Children to Sleep
The month of November is skittering past so quickly I dare not close my eyes.
I remembered to place the turkey in the refrigerator, reclaimed from the depths of the freezer where he has rested for a year. I bought two turkeys last year, planning to have a Thanksgiving feast revisited in February as part of my birthday celebration, but never quite had the energy to follow through. So this November I did not have to lug the 25 pound frozen block of fowl home from the grocery store. The picture created doesn’t sound too appetizing, does it? Sorry. I adore turkey, and although I have given up meat, I most certainly will indulge next Thursday. Everything in moderation.
Speaking of variety at the table, today is a buffet, full of a range of topics. Because I have pared down to writing once a week, it must be so. I first would like to share a photograph from my childhood that was just given to me by my aunt, whom I had not seen in some time. I have to back up and tell a bit of a story. Many years ago, there was a misunderstanding, and a group of siblings grew apart, never to speak again. These siblings had children, and the children grew to be adults. The children were not privy to the finer points of the misunderstanding, and actually didn’t give a rip. One of those children came all the way around the world, back home, for medical treatment. She spent time with me, with the aunt and her children with whom she was staying, and she communicated with my brother and sister. Then she began tracking down all of the other children of our generation. The cousins. There are fourteen of us, plus spouses, children and significant others! We all either had or acquired a Facebook page, and then created a group page: The Clan. We have been talking, posting photos, comparing life experience, for the past couple months.
There have been a few small meetings. We have found ourselves able to sit for hours and hours and hours and talk and not run out of things to talk about, and without the discomfort of being with someone new. In two weeks there will be a grand gathering of nine of us. The rest of the group lives on opposite shores of this wide country.
I am so looking forward to this gathering. We have been madly scribbling back and forth,
“What are you bringing to eat?”
“Do you want me to bring a game?”
“Are you allergic to dogs?”It turns out that half of the group are sci fi fantasy aficionados, and someone suggested we have a marathon watching of the complete trilogy of Lord of the Rings. Half of us are game players, half are not, most of us love to read, many of us are creative, we all love animals, and we all like to eat!
Back to the photograph. We all have photos of us together in different groupings at various functions, when we were little – before the great divide. My aunt gave me a set of photos of myself. This is my favorite, of which I still have a vague recollection, because I loved that first pair of cowboy boots. I have owned some form of cowboy boots ever since this first pair. For a time, I even had the horse that went with the boots.
Next up on the buffet, Becca’s question for Write on Wednesday.
So tell me, what are the areas closest to your heart? What aspects of your life in general do you find yourself sharing in writing? Do you enjoy reading/writing personal essays?
Looking back on my blog, I find I have shifted from writing book reviews to including some posts that are more personal. Are they essays? Maybe. In many respects, I am a very private person, so when I write about something in my life, I find myself depicting a thin sliver of my reality.
Becca quoted Julie Cameron in her post on The Essay,Writing is an act of self-cherishing. We often write most deeply and happily on those areas closest to our heart.
I came to the ability of self-cherishing at a point well into my life. I remember what it was like to not cherish myself, so now I find this ability quite special. I am very much aware of it at all times. I am grateful for this, and while I had a lot of help and support getting here, I give myself a lot of credit. I think a part of what I write in these essays that are all elbows and knees, is about my awareness and celebration of self-cherishment.
Another thought on essay writing was shared on The Task at Hand in her post Speaking My Heart – Writing, Vision and Truth,
To put it simply, writing satisfying essays requires clarity of vision – an ability and willingness to see the world as it is, and not as we wish it to be.
That says it perfectly, I think. I am not always successful, but I do try to practice the clarity of vision when I write about personal things.
Instead of sticking to Nanowrimo the past week, I have managed to distract myself in spare minutes with my usual wanderings around the internet. It is a marvelous wealth of information and entertainment at our fingertips, is it not? I came upon a writer named Patti Digh, and her book, Life is a Verb. She writes about the six practices of intentional living: “Say Yes, Be Generous, Speak Up, Love More, Trust Yourself, and Slow Down.” This could be a perfect, first thing in the morning, mantra, don’t you think?
On a more international note, I do not remember where I came upon this video, but I did follow it to its source, Playing for Change.
and found a wonderful concept and a soon to be released film.
It speaks for itself about the power of music and the oneness of humankind.
And lastly, I promise, on a national note, I think this photograph says a lot about the man and his courage, and how alone you, are in many respects, at the top.
I hope you have a wonderful week with a lovely Thanksgiving, and I hope it snows (when you are not on the road)!
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Today is a gift….
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is the present. That’s why they call it a gift.”
Thursday morning I had to leave the house early, but didn’t have to be to work for another hour. No problem guessing where I could be found with that little extra bit of free time… Humboldt Cafe, of course. I stop there every morning, anyway, and pick up my XL, three shot capp to go, but that morning I was gifted the treat of being able to stay.
Someone saw me crossing the street from the parking lot. My drink was already started when I walked in the door. A smile was waiting for me when I stepped up to the cash register, a personal greeting. I felt…. nurtured.
I nurture – support, bolster, watch over, make comfortable – all day. At home with my family, at work with my interns. I surely am loved, but I am rarely taken care of. I don’t see my mom very often!
In that instant, when someone was watching out and taking care of me, I felt freed. I decided that it was time to come out of the wee, cozy, place I had been curled up in. I had been biding my time, preparing myself to emerge into the cold, dark, world again. The previous weeks had been filled with biting my nails and watching the election, cleaning up glass in the nooks and crannies of my kitchen, making lists of things lost in the burglary, and trying to place value on items that were not replaceable. My mind had been in a foggy place and focusing on the really good things in life did not seem possible. The simple pleasures were simply not accessible.
And suddenly, in that magical instant, I was ready to come back.
All sorts of kindnesses fell on me that day: I won a rat from Carl and Stainless Steel Droppings. I received absolution for what I considered a mistake, from my supervisor at work. I had a wonderful conversation with a long lost cousin. So Thursday was the turning point.
Write on Wednesday and Becca’s prompt:
Do you do writing exercises or warm ups? Do you think they could be valuable?
Becca quoted novelist Bret Anthony Johnson from this month’s Poets and Writers Magazine,
Writing exercises purge my mind of everything but a concentrated attention to language. I’ve forgotten about the leaky faucet or the overdue library book, and most importantly, I’ve released my fear about starting the morning’s writing.
Writing the weekly Write on Wednesday prompt has been a kind of warm up exercise for me. There is a subject already set for me to pontificate on, and it always seems to be something incredibly relevant at that very moment in my life.
Another quote by Johnson, …”I’ve forgotten about the leaky faucet or overdue library book…..” really nails it. I can forget about the mundane, which is partly what I have been immersed in the past couple weeks. I move into a different room in my brain’s labyrinth.
When I take a step away from something, I miss it. When I take two steps away, it’s a fond memory. When I take three steps away, I have a vague recollection, but I don’t remember how wonderful it felt. I have to go back in and do it again, and then that light flickers on once more and I think, “Oh my gosh, how could I have stopped writing? It is so satisfying, and it feels extraordinary!”
So I am back in my little writing cubby. And I can’t imagine how I could have left it for so long. And I am back to my weekly writing exercise. It is a good exercise for me because it is different from my other kind of writing. It is non-fiction, it is about me and mine, and it is from my heart. It is easy to take the leap from this to fiction. Sometimes life is stranger than fiction, right? Mine can be that way, anyway.
Another simple pleasure I let go for a little while? Talking with people I don’t know about important things. I had a conversation that morning with a young woman sitting next to me. She was a writer, trying to decide if she should go on to graduate school next year, or take a year off to write. I voted for the year off. She was young, and there’s nothing like life’s experiences to give you fodder!
Oh my, now I am rambling. So I will drift away from WOW and go to a meme. I have never completed a meme before. Bellezza tagged me, and I decided it was a good place to count my blessings and look at plans for the future.
7 Things I Did Before
1. Hitchhiked across England
2. Owned an Irish pub
3. Made a living (of sorts) selling my art
4. Hunted for fossils
5. Spoke in front of a group of adults even though I was afraid
6. Read everything written by Charles Dickens
7. Catered a wedding7 Things I Do Now
1. Write often
2. Avoid eating meat
3. Live in the moment
4. Mentor
5. Try to model patience in all situations
6. Send queries to agents
7. Enjoy time alone7 Things I Want To Do
1. Spend a month in Bali
2. Own land in the middle of a National Forest
3. Get off the grid
4. Be able to run again
5. Quit working (the day job)
6. Stop sleeping
7. Be more graceful7 Things That Attract Me in Others
1. Honesty
2. Generosity
3. Empathy
4. Dry humor
5. Humility
6. Intelligence
7. Creativity7 Favorite Foods
1. coffee
2. pizza
3. chai
4. popcorn
5. coffee
6. pasta
7. coffee7 Things I Say Most Often
1. I love you
2. Drive safe
3. Call or text me
4. This too shall pass
5. I am proud of you
6. Be careful
7. Live in the moment7 people to tag
No assignments today. Take the challenge if you like, and please leave a comment if you do, so I can read your “sevens.”
Following the wonderful celebration of Thanksgiving, is my favorite holiday – The Christmas season. I will have more to say about that, closer to December. But I leave you with this photo of Mary, Queen of Grace, reading of course, and awaiting the birth of her child (The Magdelene Reading, by Rogier van der Weyden).
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Write on Sunday & the past week’s roundup
National Novel Writing Month
November 1st is here and I have yet to decide what I am going to write…. So I am obviously nowhere near writing that first sentence. It will be typed today, however. I have promised myself.
It has been a busy and interesting week. By Monday night I had a post ready for this week. I didn’t even wait for Wednesday’s prompt on WOW. I don’t remember now, all that I talked about, though politics did enter my conversation in a big way. By Monday night, I had my photos ready for the Spooky photo contest on Stainless Steel Droppings. On Tuesday morning my house was broken into and my computer was stolen. Along with a whole lot of other stuff. Stuff, mind you. No one was hurt. The dog stayed out of their way. The mess has been cleaned up. The window is boarded and a new one ordered.
Life goes on pretty much the same, with just a little feeling of discomfort niggling in one small, dark, corner room of my Escher brain. When I come home I drive around the house to see if any windows are broken. I stick my computer under the bed when I leave home. I call my daughters a hundred times a day.
In the post I had ready on Monday night, I wrote about my concerns for the environment. I didn’t write about, although I have had numerous conversations about it, the economy. If I am feeling a pinch, how are people who are unemployed managing? Well, one way is by selling my daughter’s cameras, my Grandma’s rings, my computer….
There have always been people who take from others, of course. But it is going to get worse if we continue on in this manner of selfishness. I was talking to my son yesterday about what time we would go to vote. He told me he wasn’t going to vote. My jaw dropped.
“What? Not going to vote?”
“Why should I? What are they going to do for me?”
s p u t t e r
“Don’t matter who win; they won’t get me a job. They don’t care about me.”
“But that is so selfish. What about the polar bears? What about my great grandchildren and the air we breathe?”
“Why should I care about any of that?”Why should he? When you have to worry about not having bus fare, or you haven’t eaten all day, and you don’t need to set the alarm because there is nowhere to go, why should you care about polar bears? Since I don’t have to worry about those other things, I can afford to worry about the polar bears, but I can’t forget about the people who see no future for themselves.
So please vote wisely on Tuesday. It won’t solve all of our problems, but it is a start. Vote for jobs, the environment, for education, health care for all, freedom of choice. Please don’t vote for oil and people who don’t worry about all of our children and their futures. Vote so my son has something to set his alarm for.
About Me
The sky is not completely dark at night. Were the sky absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky.
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...Kopi Time 
