Weekend Ephemera

First things first:  There’s a new contest up on my website and you should definitely check it out.  You don’t need to be familiar with my books to enter — all you need to do is read a story I recently posted there and tell me who should play the lead roles if it’s ever made into a movie.  Easy, right?  And if I choose your response as the winner, you’ll receive an autographed, hardcover edition of The Sorcerers’ Plague, book I of Blood of the Southlands.  So visit the site and check it out!

Remember the owl who showed up at our place a few nights ago and sat on the swing set?   Well, he came back last night, and he brought his brother.  The two of them were sitting together on the play set, looking around, making their little rasping call, waiting for Mama to bring them something to eat.  They hung around the house all night, actually, calling to each other, and fluttering from perch to perch.  They’re newly fledged and not very accomplished flyers.  One of them flew off the swing set last night without first deciding where he was going to land next.  He wheeled and turned and finally tried to grasp the trunk of a tree.  That didn’t work for long and eventually he had no choice but to drop to the ground in a most undignified manner.  He was fine and a moment later he flew back into the woods.  But he and his brother were back a short time later, ready to try it all again.  They’re very cool.

And now it’s the weekend.  Nancy is taking my older daughter and some of her friends out camping tonight.  So my younger daughter and I are having what we call a Daddy-Daughter-Day.  Not sure yet what we’re going to do.  A water park if these clouds clear and the temperature rises; otherwise a movie and sushi dinner (we’re both nuts for sushi).  Should be fun.

Hope all of you are enjoying your weekend.

Hello from the Carolinas!

Greetings from the road!  I’m currently at the home of my good friend and fellow Magical Words blogger, Faith Hunter.  She and her husband, Rod, have been wonderful hosts.  Last night we had a signing with another fellow MW blogger, Misty Massey, and also author Gail Z Martin.  It was not the best attended signing I’ve ever had, but it might well have been the most fun.  Italian dinner afterwards, also great fun.  All in all, a good start to the trip.  Today we’ll be heading up to Charlotte, NC for ConCarolinas.  Hope to see some of you there.

Today at Magical Words, we have a special guest blogger.  Author Mindy Klasky has posted a piece on her career path and is now answering questions and responding to comments.  Stop by the site and say hello!

Fun Evening in Nashville

Nancy and I had a real treat yesterday.  We went up to Nashville to see the live radio broadcast of Garrison Keillor’s  A Prairie Home Companionat the historic Ryman Auditorium.  It was a terrific show.  Garrison’s musical guests were country music’s biggest star, Brad Paisley, and bluegrass giant Sam Bush and his band.  They did all the normal classic skits — “Guy Noire, Private Eye”; “The News From Lake Wobegone”; “The Ketchup Advisory Board”; plus a few others we hadn’t heard before.  They played some great songs, and generally put on a great show.

Keillor himself makes it clear that he owes a debt to old radio show hosts like Fred Allen, and Bob and Ray, but the fact remains that he is a unique talent in American culture.  He has a wonderful sense of humor; he’s not a great singer, but he’s good; he’s a decent writer; and his “News From Lake Wobegone” is a brilliant monologue that he does without any notes or visual cues.  I know that he doesn’t make it up on the spot.  I mean, he couldn’t, right?  But it’s all in his head, and that’s pretty stunning given how well each week’s installment of the “News” holds together.  Anyway, it was all great fun and I have no doubt that we’ll go again the next time he and his crew are in town.

After the show, we went to a restaurant called Horn of Africa, where we had a marvelous Ethiopian meal.  Truly excellent.  If you haven’t had Ethiopian cuisine, you should.  It’s spicy and delicious, and you eat it with your hands, using a special spongy bread called injera to pick up the curries and stews and lentils.  Wonderful!

A Good Trip, But….

Well, we’re back from Savannah, and I have to say that it is truly a marvelous city.  For those of you who don’t know, the city is laid out as a grid, with each section of the grid built around a square of green space.  Most of the squares have a statue or a fountain or a monument at their center, and all of them are filled with magnificent Live Oak trees, their branches covered with Spanish Moss.  Stately old homes and churches surround the squares; some of the homes have been converted to museums; others remain privately owned (I can’t even begin to imagine what one of them might sell for).  Most of them date from the early 19th century; all of them are beautifully maintained.   We walked all over the city, stopping in to view some of the museums, shopping in antique shops, and eating lots of great food.  During the three days we were in the city, we didn’t once use our car — we were able to walk everywhere, and the girls didn’t even complain.  Of course, we kept them well plied with ice cream and salt-water taffy, which helped a lot….

My one complaint:  Any of you know what no-see-ums are?  They’re also referred to as biting midges.  Look in your dictionary at the letter “l” in any entry — that’s how big they are.  Don’t let their size fool you, though.  They’re vicious.  You can’t see them until you feel the sting of a bite, which, in and of itself, isn’t too painful.  But then the fun begins.  A small welt rises where the little bugger bit you.  It itches like mad, so you scratch it a bit.  A moment or two later the welt is the size of a penny and the itch is driving you nuts.  But you’re having trouble focusing on that one because you’ve just felt that same like sting in about eighteen other places:  your forearm, your scalp, your leg, in between two knuckles, on your wrist, on your neck . . .  You get the idea.

Worst of all, the bites are as persistent as flea bites.  I’m still covered with welts several days after the worst of the no-see-um swarms, and all of them still itch.

So, yeah, I had a great time in Savannah.  But I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the bugs made this trip a bit harder to enjoy.  I need to remember that the Southeast coast in mid-March, while lovely in terms of the weather, is also prime no-see-um country.  I had this problem at Cumberland Island two years ago and at Hilton Head six years ago, but I thought that being in a city would make this trip different.  I was wrong.  And I have the welts to prove it.

My Many Hats, Vol. 4 (I think)

If ever there was a day of hats, this was it.  I wrote my 2000 words in the WIP (Writer Hat).  I took care of my younger daughter , who stayed home from school with a bad cold (Daddy Hat).  I had some work to do for our local organic food buying club, of which I am Big Boss Man (Co-op-Coordinator-Guy Hat).  I wrote up an alumni interview that I did for my alma mater — Brown Class of ‘85, Baby!  Woot-woot!  (Brown-Interviewer-Guy Hat)  In my capacity as 8th Grade Parent Council Representative at my older daughter’s school, I wrote a tribute to the teachers and staff for Faculty-Staff Appreciation Week (School-Parents’-Council-Guy Hat).  I did some laundry and the after-dinner dishes (Husband Hat).  And now I am about to dun the weirdest hat of all.  Nancy and I are part of a little, VERY informal wine club here in town (we get 5 bottles of relatively cheap wine — $10-20 range — gather at someone’s house for munchies, and taste the wines to see which are worth getting again and which suck).  Well, this week Nancy and I put together the program, which means that we chose and bought the wines that all of us will be tasting.  Our theme was Shirazes from Five continents (Africa, Australia, Europe, North and South America).  And I now have to write up the tasting notes for the tasting.  So I get to put on my Pretentious-Wine-Guy Hat! 

“It’s an ambitious little red, but I think you’ll admire its presumption….”

Finally, today I’ve also had on my Son-Hat, which is one I don’t get to wear very often anymore.  My Mom would have turned 87 today had we not lost her to cancer way too early (1995).  She was a brilliant, kind, sensitive woman who taught me to love the written word, to believe in myself and follow my passion, and to value family and friendship above all else.  There isn’t a day that goes by without me wishing that I could call her or visit her, tell her about her granddaughters or ask her for some parenting advice. 

I love you, Mom.  Happy Birthday.

Our Big Party (Which Is Why I Haven’t Posted In Days)

So, been a few days.  Had to focus on the rest of life for a little while there,  Every year Nancy and I throw a big party — an Australian Christmas Party.  What makes it Australian? you ask.  Well, in Australia, Christmas is a summer holiday.  It’s hot and sunny, and the year we were there we spent Christmas at the beach eating shrimp and fresh strawberries, boogie-boarding in the waves, and playing cricket.  So we get a ton of shrimp, we get Tim-Tams and Mint Slices (our two favorite Aussie cookies), as well as a ton of other food (cheeses, satay chicken, chips, etc.) we have our friends bring plonk, and we light a fire in the fireplace and crank up the heat so that people will come in shorts and t-shirts and be comfortable, despite the 30 degree (Fahrenheit) weather outside.  Great fun.  But also a lot of work.  So I spent the last half of the week shopping for food, as well as for holiday gifts for family.  Then yesterday we were getting the house ready for dozens of guests.  And, well, blogging and work kind of fell by the wayside.

The party was last night, and it was a great success.  And now I can get back to work for a week before traveling for the holidays.

Survived Another Kids Birthday Party…

Survived my soon-to-be-a-teenager’s birthday party last night.  We rented out the swimming pool again and served the usual birthday fare (Pizza, carrots, grapes, soda, cupcakes — not the healthiest, but not the worst either).  The kids seemed to have a great time and once again Nancy and I avoided having the party at our house.  Can’t put a price on that.  Two of the girls slept over, but even that went well.  They were quiet by 11:30; asleep by midnight.  Not bad at all.

Was going to blog about some political stuff today — again.  But it’s gorgeous out and my younger daughter wants to have a catch and really what could I say that hasn’t already been said?

Have a great Sunday all. 

A Writers’ Holiday

Today’s post, “A Holiday for Storytellers,” can be found at http://magicalwords.net.  Enjoy!

Starting My Newest Book

Late post today, which may be a taste of things to come.  I started writing a new book this morning.  (Yay!)  Book three of the Blood of the Southlands trilogy (no title yet).  And I think that rather than blog first and then turn to the book, I need to get my quota done for the book before I allow myself to blog.  We’ll see.

Anyway, this was a good day.  I usually struggle with the first pages of a book.  I can spend a couple of days on the first page or two.  But a scene kind of presented itself to me last night, so this morning I knew pretty much how to start the thing.  I still only a wrote a small bit — about a thousand words.  But for a first day on a first chapter, that’s pretty good.

So I rewarded myself by making a big pot of chili.  It’s cooking now — the whole house smells like chipotle and bell peppers and cumin.  Spring has come to Tennessee, but it’s rainy and just a little raw today.  Good chili weather and probably the last that we’ll have before the warm weather sets in.

A new book.  A pot of chili.  All I need is a beer and I’ll be set.  Think I’ll see to that now.

Today’s music:  Pat Metheny (Day Trip)

My Many Hats

Like so many people, I wear many hats in my life.  I’ve worn many of them while posting to this blog:  parent, husband, writer, businessman, academic, political junkie, sports fan, etc.  This morning I’ve been wearing another of my hats, one that people outside of Sewanee rarely see.  

I’m the coordinator for our local food buying cooperative.  Every month, a group of us orders organic foods, bulk grains and dried goods, and other hard to find items from a place called United Natural Foods, Inc.  The order arrives by truck, and we unload our items, sort them, and make certain everyone’s order is complete.  After the other members give me their checks, they go off to their homes to put their goods away, and I go to the bank to deposit their payments so that the check I just wrote to UNFI’s truck driver won’t bounce.  That’s what I was doing today; this was delivery day.

This is a volunteer position, one that I took on long ago because Nancy and I wanted access to certain foods that we couldn’t get any other way.  Between collating the orders, communicating with my buying club members, taking care of invoicing, and handling the finances on delivery day, I put in maybe five hours or so each month.  I don’t think it comes to much more than that.

This is a small town, and most people know me for my writing, or through Nancy or the girls, or from other volunteer work I’ve done for the youth soccer league and the kid’s summer swim league.  There are a few people who now know me because of my photography, which is kind of cool.  And there are also certain people around here who think of me simply as the Co-op guy.  

I’m fine with that.  It’s just another hat.