Some Pennies for My Thoughts

Hello my lovelies.  Summer, though technically a week away, is in full swing in firespark's realm.  It's too hot outside; the garden, as usual, is overgrown and under-utilized (though there are a few green tomatoes on the plants, which means they're faring better than last summer's tomatoes); and the day job still takes up too much of my time and brain space (which has nothing to do with summer--it's just one more thing to complain about, and I like things in threes).  The writing life is limping along, but I did just receive my first writing paycheck for a couple of articles I did last month.  Like the tomatoes, this is a definite improvement over last year, when my total writing wages were exactly zilch.  They were little things, these paid-for articles, and not the fiction I long to wrap my days with, but it's still money and it's still writing.  I'm a happy spark. 

Here's a bit of randomness I'd like to share with you.  If you like random, read ahead.  If not, I bid you adieu until my next maybe-random-maybe-not post.

Best Fortune Cookie Fortune Ever:

Well, maybe the 2nd best.  My now-deceased grandmother once told me she'd found a fortune at a Chinese restaurant that said, "Help!  I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory!"  I never saw this notorious fortune with my own eyes, but if she was telling the truth, THAT would be the best fortune cookie fortune ever.  If she was pulling young firespark's leg, however, then this is the best fortune cookie fortune ever, which was found by a friend and promptly handed over to me, seeing as how I'd be able to fully appreciate it:

~ Book lovers never go to bed alone. ~

Oh, you know you chuckled.  ;)

Wait...

THIS JUST IN
Mittensmorgul is going through a writing crisis.  It's related to... RESEARCH!  (full horror movie scream... key up scary reeeeeee-reeeeee-reeeeee hacker music)

Her story is set in a city where she doesn't live, and, as my friend Sarah would say, her google-fu powers are failing her.

She writes:

"I just need to know what the first possible exit street from the lower deck of the bridge is. My MC needs to be waiting there to pick up her surveillance on the bad guy's car. AND I CAN'T FIGURE THIS OUT!!! GAH!!!"

This is the sort of crisis which strikes fear in the hearts of writers everywhere (and if it doesn't, it should).  Why?  Greg Rucka said it best in his article, Why I Write "Strong Female Characters"

"The reader is smarter than you. The reader is always smarter than you. And the reader knows when you've taken a shortcut, or phoned it in, or are trying to pull a fast one. And the reader don't like it one bit."

Oh mittens... I feel your pain.  And your fear.  Stay strong.  I've been informed that help, via red-headed carrier pigeon, has just landed.  The exit has been found.  It's going to be okay.  

Stay tuned for our next episode of Writing Life Beyond 'What You Know.'  

Over and out.

Update

Petre is pondering research, too.  Is there something in the air?  Weeeeiiiiiiirrrrd...

http://petrepan.blogspot.com/2012/05/late-at-night-and-fiction-research.html?showComment=1339639035255#c3898597279907800707 

All Apologies and A Little Catch-up

Well... I thought I had blog guilt before, but now of course I've gone way past tardy and right into neglect.  What do I have to say for myself?  Um... I'm still alive?  :}  I'm feeling a bit like Ron Weasley, showing back up at Harry & Hermione's camp after running out on them for weeks.  *Gulp*  So, yeah, sorry, but I have been terribly busy and things have... gotten in the way, and... 

Oh, never mind.  You know how it is.  But, honestly, with everything that's been going on, I have missed my little blog here.  I randomly check in on all the other blogs I follow and it's like peeking into a room full of friends, but you can't join the party 'cause you're supposed to be studying. 

All work and no play

I've got a minute now, though, (the barest minute) to stop and chat, so lets commence with the general catch-up we always have to do, shall we?

In the land of make-believe, yes I saw Deathly Hallows Part II, and yes, it was fantastic.  Well... I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in the final Harry/Voldemort showdown... I mean... where WAS everybody?  But the rest was superb.  And Snape... no words.  Alan Rickman was perfect.  But, you knew that, didn't you?  I mean, you have seen it by now... right?

Since then I've been waiting on tenterhooks (thanks for adding that phrase to my vocabulary, Ms. Rowling) for the release of the newest installment in the Dresden Files series: Ghost Story.  I've listened to every book in the series so far w/ my son on audiobook (I've edited some parts here and there, for his young ears... which are growing older by the day), and now we've gone back to listening to the last one again (Changes) just to keep us from freaking out in anticipation.  We should have the new one soon.  Very, very soon... (that last one left us on the world's largest cliffhanger, so I feel like we've been holding our breath ever since).  

And then, of course, I've been reading (with my eyes this time, on actual paper) The Passage by Justin Cronin every little down moment I get (which is usually fleeting - a moment in the car if my husband's driving, a few minutes between bites on my lunch break...).  I originally became aware of this tome's existence when I saw it on a Borders book shelf ages ago (ok... so about a year ago) and was completely captured by the storyline, but was too broke at the time to buy it.  Then, a few months ago, Mr. Cronin happened to come through my town for a book signing.  I heard the announcement on NPR, which prompted me to go out, buy the book finally, and get it signed.  I did, and he did, with the mysterious message, "All eyes."  I didn't know what it meant at the time (not having actually read it yet... seems odd to have a book signed that you haven't read, but I had faith it would be good... sometimes you just know), but I do now.  And I'm about halfway through.  If you've read this one, don't tell me how it ends.  I'm currently under it's spell, and hope to give a report once I'm done.  

In the really real world, my garden is growing and overgrown.  The child is now a teenager, and my husband and I are taking full responsibility for his corruption. (He's graduated to watching old Beavis & Butthead episodes which we happen to have on DVD... who says we don't have class.)

I am still writing. I've finished a short story but haven't gotten it published yet.  Still working on the "big" story and toying w/ the idea of expanding the short story idea into more stories.  All of which, of course, have been recently placed on the back burner as I deal with the demands of a working summer.  Autumn can't come soon enough.

In the virtual world (a sort of fiction/reality hybrid), Molly, my favorite blogger (yes, she is... the rest of you can get in line... there's nothing I can do about it, it's done.) is back in business, spinning off craziness and pure brilliance in a way only she can execute.  This is part of what brought me back here, so if you're at all glad I'm posting again, you can mostly thank her.

And then, in a virtual/really real world collision, my dear friend, GingerGirl, has been going through all kinds of adventures in Foodie Hell.  Go read.  She'll explain.  But I will say this:  it's interesting, when one of your closest friends is diagnosed with more food allergies than you ever before thought possible, how you start scrutinizing all of your own food... too see if you can still share it, or if you must keep it a safe distance, because you've seen first hand what a slip-up can do.  It sort of pulls your heart in uncomfortably odd directions, like being drawn and quartered. 

I will be back soon.  I hope some of you are still around, that you see this, and that you know how much more I want to be here than I actually am. 

Life: The Adventure Continues

(This artfully done photo of summer corn can be found on Flicker here.)

Here we are.  It’s July.  And what do I have to say about it?  So far in my recent adventures in seasonal, local eating, I have found that there is no more broccoli (it “bolts” in the summer heat) and very little lettuce (went the same way as the broccoli).  I am assured that they will be back in autumn.  For now we have tons and tons of zucchini, other summer squashes (keep meaning to try those cute little pattypan squashes) and tomatoes.  I can find onions and potatoes and those precious jewels, blackberries, in abundance.  Raspberries are present, but still maddeningly expensive.  I think they must be considered a delicacy, whether they’re in season or not.  Maybe the plants aren’t quite as productive as blackberry bushes… or maybe just not many people grow them here.  Hmm… another on the list of “Things to Find Out”.  Then there are deliciously dripping, juicy peaches, and corn!  Fresh corn on the cob, grilled right in their husks (do remember to soak them, first!), is one of my favorite things about summer.  And that I can get it grown locally, and it hasn’t been scientifically spliced and modified and turned into some kind of herbicide-pest-resistant uber-corn?  The thought makes me positively giddy!  All in all, not a bad way to try to save the world.

In other news, the weather has been balmy, switching from blazing sun to earth-shaking thunderstorms with alarming swiftness.  There is all the energy and hard work that one would expect from a summertime spent focusing on the earth’s bounty, and trying to preserve as much as one can for winter.  But in my heart, I’m all fall.  I’m already yearning for crisp days and the changing of leaves.  I’ve got characters chattering away in my head and am feeling the pull of my manuscript, beckoning me to come and sit awhile, with a hot cup of coffee and a little good music.  I can feel myself drawing inward, wishing to block out the world and dive into my own.  I catch glimpses, more and more frequently, of worlds I’ve created, whispers of woods I need to revisit and fictional friends I need to catch up with.  But there is so much to do, and, as always, so very little time.

The Burden (and Liberation) of Knowledge

Zucchini Blossom... doesn't get more summer than this!

Hello, my friends.  Long time no post!  I know, I know… I really shouldn’t neglect you like this, and I am terribly sorry.  It’s just that I was going about my business, trying to put things in order, getting distracted by this thing and that, when I turned the corner and ran smack into summer!  I can’t believe it’s here, officially, really here.  The Summer Solstice was just this past Monday and the days have been hovering in the mid-90s, with heat indexes soaring high above that.  Welcome, Ra.  Your time has come.

What has been my distraction, you might ask?  What is my excuse for being so absent?  I blame two things – education and Harry Potter.  Because I’m quirky like that (and because it’s the shorter of the two), I’ll start by explaining the latter.   You know, I’m sure, that the first part of the last Harry Potter movie (which you probably also know has been broken up into two movies) comes out this November.  In honor of this bittersweet event, my friends and I have started a little reading group, intent on re-reading the entire series, one book per month, before the movie hits the theaters.  We have just started Goblet of Fire.  But I’m sure that, because of Distraction No. 1, I am behind everyone else.  This seems to be my lot in life right now, consistently behind.

And now, onto Distraction No. 1.  Education.  See my last post and you’ll get an idea of where I’m headed here.  Due to my recent studies, I now know too much about the industrial food industry.  I can hardly stand buying food in grocery stores anymore, because I so vehemently disagree with our society’s food system.  What I knew before as abstract, bigger than me, concepts has now become too personal to ignore.  In a nutshell, this is what I’ve found.

Produce is grown on huge industrial farms, full of pesticides, the soil stripped of nutrients so drastically that these fields are only viable with the addition of massive amounts of chemical fertilizers.  Then the produce is shipped thousands of miles to the “consumer”… i.e., the people who eat it.  Meat, on the other hand, the stuff you get in the supermarket, is raised primarily on feed lots where the animals (mostly cows, pigs and chickens) are confined to pens, standing without being able to turn around or lay down, knee and belly deep in their own feces, eating diets that they were never intended to eat, causing not only a horribly sad diseased existence for these animals, but also causing their meat to be unnaturally unhealthy for us, leading to outbreaks of e. coli, mad cow disease, high cholesterol, etc.  Yes, I’m ranting.  This is only the very vaguest tip of this iceberg. 

On top of that scary picture, farmers, regular farmers, are losing and have lost their livelihoods.  Industrial farming has all but obliterated them.  Small farming is making a comeback, thanks to the local food movement and the slow food movement, but most of these farmers would go out of business if it weren’t for the farmer’s markets.  Am I freaking out?  Yeah, a bit.  Because all of this education has led me to look at myself, to look at all my talk and wonder what it amounts to if I’m still buying genetically modified corn and a hamburger that was once a cow who very likely was so sick at the end of its short life cycle that it could barely walk to the slaughterhouse. 

If we are what we eat, and we’re eating this, than what, as a nation, as a people, as a society, are we?  Are we sick and used and imprisoned?  Are we stripped of our soul like the nutrients of the soil in which our industrially farmed vegetables are grown?  Are we thieves, like the corporate food giants that have stolen a way of life from not only our nation’s farmers, but from farmers in countries (usually the poorest ) all over the world?  Do we have no sense of honor?  Do we have no standards?  This touches on every level of every issue this world currently has.  This is about human rights, animal rights, the economy and the environment.  This is about public health and war and national security.  This is about people dying of starvation in third world countries.  This is about people dying of malnutrition and obesity in the United States of America.  This is bigger and more important than I ever let myself see before.  And this is something that we can change.

I know no one wants to hear about it, and I know I’m supposed to shut up and just buy my groceries at Wal-Mart like everyone else, because who really cares?  It’s food, and buying stuff that’s produced in another way, a more NORMAL way, circa pre-World War II, is more expensive and a hell of a lot less convenient.  But I do care, and I can’t just ignore that fact anymore.  I can’t keep eating the crap they’ve been feeding us, justifying it with “it’s easier” and “it’s cheaper”.  If I was Jewish, and I had to eat kosher, you would understand.  Instead, I’m just another human, trying to recognize where I came from and what that means, with no other reason for my choices than to say that I am trying to take some responsibility, to live up to my own standards.  They say ignorance is bliss, and maybe they’re right.  But once you know a thing, you can’t un-know it.  At least I can’t. 

So now I am working through my current biggest conundrum – how to feed my family without supporting the industrial food industry, without going hungry this winter, and without going broke.  I’m hitting the farmers markets, buying up seasonal produce and anything else I can find and afford.  I’m freezing however much I can, socking away food like a squirrel, preparing for winter.  I’m meeting local farmers and trying to keep track of what’s in season when, so I can plan our next meal.  Food has taken over my life.  And, I have to tell you, it’s one of the happiest “sacrifices” I’ve ever made.

Here are some links, if you want to learn more on this yourself.   

http://www.appropedia.org/Local_food

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_agriculture

http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/

http://www.localharvest.org/

And if you're prone to dig deeper, you might read these books:


(Please note, I have read all of these books but the last.  I am including it here, however, because The Omnivore's Dilemma comes highly recommended by others who share in my quest for a better relationship with food and I do plan to read it very soon.)

Summer's End

It’s the first day of September and, although I know that fall is still a few weeks off, I can already feel it coming. The air has changed, have you noticed? And the light is dimmer now, more like a warming glow, instead of the brash bright heat we’ve been subjected to for the last few months. Summer is finally starting to wind down.

When I turned the page on my calendar today, I was greeted by a gorgeous photo of aspen trees in Colorado showing off their golden autumn dress. Here in the Bible Belt, the time for donning our fall colors isn’t due for a good month or so, but the sight of that photo made me smile and dream of the gilded yawn of summer before it drifts off to sleep.

The air outside is a bit crisper than usual for this time of year, and I suppose that, too, has influenced my change-of-season musings. All the flurry of back-to-school madness has calmed and there’s a little more time to stop and think; and to plan, of course, because to be too idle, even now, is a grave mistake. This is the calm before the storm. This is the time to be meticulous and set things in order. The holidays are right around the corner, and they show no mercy to harried, unprepared humans running amok in their attempts to complete all the promises they’ve made to themselves.

I think this year I will breathe it in. I will make myself slow down and appreciate the change in the light, the subtle drifts of the temperatures from warm to cold. And this month, as I plan and sort and hustle away the summertime goodies and prepare for the colder months like a squirrel, I will say goodbye to summer properly for the first time in ages. I admit, it has never been my favorite season, bringing on bouts of complaining come July and August of too much heat, too many bugs, too much bright light. And, when it’s all said and done, I have always left it so rudely, working right along into fall and winter, with barely a glance at its passing. But summer warms the bones and ripens the fruit and it isn’t right what little appreciation I’ve shown. It’s time to make amends and give this sunny, bountiful season some credit before it’s gone. Perhaps summer and I will be on better terms next year if I do.